[report] Waterbury, going Rogue and taking 24th

Introduction & Pre-Tournament Stuff

Since I’m pretty much unknown here, I’ll mesh a brief introduction of myself with the general tournament lead-up. I’ve only been playing type 1 magic seriously for about a year now. I started more with Standard and Limited, then decided to pick up some of the big cards (like drains & power). I found myself using these cards mostly in casual situations, which I think most people I played with started feeling fed up with, so I turned to have a look at competitive type 1. I seemed to be drawn to the deck Keeper at the time, so I got what cards I could for it, took it to a type 1 tournament, and got owned. Really, there’s no other way of saying it. I then started looking at Landstill decks (since that’s what destroyed me the most…) and picking up cards for that deck. I later found Star City Games and started reading about type 1 more. Started going with a friend or two to more type 1 tournaments now and again but never really seemed to do very well. Then Fifth Dawn came out.

Evolution of the deck aside, I’ve ended up pretty much ever since then playing a Salvager’s deck in type one tournaments. After putting the first mix of the deck together, I took it to a tournament to see where I’d need to tune it. Fixed it up, and then started to play it to a couple top 8 finishes while playing against decks such as Dragon, 4CC, Stax, Landstill, Fish, and FCG.

At the latest tournament I was at, Peter O (dicemanx) asked me if I was planning on going to Waterbury. This was the Sunday before Waterbury, and I really hadn’t looked at it or thought about it. I think it was Peter saying something along the lines of “… hoping you would come down and show them how Salvagers is done properly” that pretty much had me hooked. I knew the deck can do well, and I’d never seen anything like it discussed seriously online so I figured it could be a good opportunity to show how effective it can be.

So I decided to tag along to demonstrate just how well Salvagers can do. So I put the deck back together and head down to Waterbury (for more details on that part, you can read dicemanx’s or Razvan’s tournament reports). But to sum up, we leave Friday night, arrive Saturday morning and are able to grab maybe 3 hours of sleep before we wake up for the tournament. I get up, give a bit of advice on someone else’s deck, get a bit of advice from someone else on sideboard options for my deck (Meddling Mages were awesome), fix up my sideboard and register then wait.

Salvagers (Salvaged Control)

1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
4 Volcanic Island
1 Stripmine
4 Wasteland
2 Island
1 Plains
4 Tundra
3 Flooded Strand
1 Plateau

2 Fire/Ice
1 Balance
2 Pyrite Spellbomb
2 Cunning Wish
2 Seal of Cleansing
1 AEther Spellbomb
1 Swords to Plowshares

1 Timetwister
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
3 Brainstorm
1 Fact or Fiction
3 Thirst for Knowledge
3 Trinket Mage

4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain

Combo
=====
3 Auriok Salvagers
(1 Black Lotus)
(2 Pyrite Spellbomb)

Sideboard
=======
2 Meddling Mages (last minute addition)
1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
1 Shattering Pulse
2 Energy Flux
1 Rack and Ruin
1 Swords to Plowshares
2 Misdirection
2 Anti-Oath
1 Allay
2 Stifle

Now for the real test – to see how well it can perform under pressure, and under lack of sleep. (I apologize now for not knowing people’s last names that I played, I just didn’t write it down anywhere).

Round 1: Vs. Derek playing Burninator

Game 1: This is the first time I’m aware that there *is* a deck called Burninator (which I found out afterwards). Game one goes pretty much as I expect for playing against a red deck. He drops a Vise on turn one which deals a total of 2 damage to me. Despite my deck being mostly a control deck, it tends to keep relatively few cards in hand. Since my notes don’t include anything other than damage taken, and the source of the damage, it appears that I combo out on Derek, as his life suddenly drops from a full 20 to 0.

Game 2: Not sure what I sided in (again, my notes consist of life totals and damage sources), possibly nothing as I didn’t see much of his deck at the time. This game goes by with me seeing much more of his deck – unfortunately, it is in the form of an Ankh of Mishra, Scalds, and Price of Progress. I distinctly recall at one point, of having a Bolt aimed at my head and having the option to take the 3, or to Mana Drain it, and take 4 from a couple Scalds. The game quickly goes downhill for me.

Game 3: I side in some MisD’s, as direct damage such as bolts and chain lightning are better when pointed the other way. This game is much closer. A Pyrostatic Pillar does about 8 – 10 damage, mostly to Derek before I get fed up with it and use my seal on it. Towards the late game, I get out a Trinket Mage and start beating down with it and finish him off with a Pyrite Spellbomb.

Matches: 1-0, Games: 2-1

Round 2: Vs. Eric playing Control Slaver

Game 1: We both sac a couple fetch lands, trade some force of wills, and he manages to resolve a slaver and slave me. I look at my hand, see a salvager and a swords, and enough mana to play them both. I really don’t want to lose the salvagers, so I thirst and discard the swords (and a land I think). Thinking that my hand is fairly stable, and not able to wreck myself too much, I take my turn, show my hand, and then draw my card for the turn. Ancestral Recall. So I end up ancestralling him, and then he ancestrals himself as well with his own. In a control matchup, this is just really really bad. Shortly after I’m facing down a 5/5 pentavus and can’t do anything about it.

Game 2: I can remember this game in too much detail for my liking. I open with a “land, sol ring, go.” (after mulliganing twice on the play). Eric opens with a fetchland and a lotus. Sacs the lotus for blue and casts ancestral floating two blue. Thinking he’s leaving the two for a mana drain and not wanting to give him 5 mana from a drained FoW and the sac land in his post-combat, I let it through. Then he Time Walks. No longer having the blue to mana drain, I FoW the walk, and he does the same back. Sac’s the fetch land, brainstorms, and takes his next turn. He plays another fetchland, mana crypt and casts Yawg Will. Now, technically there was more to the game after that, but really, that’s where it ended.

Matches 1-1, Games 2-3

Round 3: Vs. John playing Rector Tendrils

Game 1: Fairly unexciting, I cast a salvagers without any combo pieces, beat on him for 2 for a couple turns. Cast another salvagers and beat for 4 a couple turns until he’s in the negatives. Yup, that’s the whole of the game.

Game 2: I saw enough of his deck to know it was a form of tendrils, so I side in my stifles and meddling mages. A couple turns into the game, I play a meddling mage naming tendrils, but am unable to attack, as he has a rector out and I don’t feel like giving him something stupid like a bargain. IIRC, he eventually therapies the rector away and gets the bargain anyways (yeah, I should’ve seen that coming). With no counters in hand, I feel fairly confidant due to my meddling mage – until he keeps drawing and casting cards to balance away my mage then tendrils for the win. Doh.

Game 3: I get out a meddling mage and a trinket mage and start laying the beats. Combined with his own city of brass, this is going fairly quickly. He gets down a memory jar one turn and lets me swing again bringing him down to 3. His turn, he uses the jar during his upkeep knowing he’s facing lethal damage from the mages on the board. He casts a couple moxes, and I think a lotus and then tries to duress me. Unfortunately for him, I had my mana open (all 3 of it) and drew a mana drain, two cunning wishes, and a force in my jar hand. I drain the duress so he doesn’t see my hand. Feeling he’s good to go, he demonic tutors with one card in hand – and I force it leaving him with just one card in hand, which isn’t enough for him to do anything else significant before I hit him with the mages again.

Matches 2-1, Games 4-4

Round 4: Vs. Joe playing Oath.

Game 1: Not good, Oath is one of my bad matchups. In a nutshell, we trade FoW’s, he resolves oath, and hits me with an akroma, then a spirit of the night (I guess I bounced akroma) twice – but I’m unable to find anything to help me.

Game 2: I side in my other swords, and my ‘tech’ cards for the oath matchup. Now, I must say, Joe was playing very well. He announced his beginning phase well (specifically stating untap, upkeep, draw) and he was playing through the whole match with a deadpan expression the whole time. After he resolves an oath, I cast my anti-oath card. He seems to pause, look at the card, and then break out in a grin fully appreciating the tech I had for oath. Being the cause of that grin was great – reminds me of the reason a lot of us play: to have fun. Unfortunately, he countered my tech card. He oaths up an Akroma and hits me for 6. Ow. Then he oaths up the spirit and hits me for 12. Again, Ow. At this point, I manage to draw what I need, and are able to combo out on him. Too close for comfort. *sweatdrop*

Game 3: He manage to oath up Akroma, which I promptly send farming and then get rid of the oath(?). I resolve a meddling mage (naming Mana Leak I think) and then start hitting him with his own spirit token and my mage. That eventually brings him from 25 down to 4. He takes a point from FoW and then hardcasts the spirit of the night. However, that gives me enough tokens to be able to rush him for the kill anyways. He said he just wanted to hardcast the spirit – I can fully understand that desire at that point.

Matches 3-1, Games 6-5

Round 5: Vs. John playing Oath.

Game 1: My notes indicate some sac lands, some forces, some mana burn. Then an akroma, a swords, then a spirit of the night. Yup, I lost that one. I hate trying to play against oath.

Game 2: I manage to resolve a salvagers, and my anti-oath tech. So I think I let him resolve his oath, because it wasn’t going to bother me at that point. I beat him down with his spirit tokens and my salvagers.

Game 3: I get out a meddling mage calling oath, and start hitting him with it and some spirit tokens. Then he hardcasts a pristine angel. My options at this point are very very slim. He’s got enough instants to keep it protected while still attacking me. I fall to the angel.

Matches 3-2, Games 7-7

Round 6: Vs. Ethan playing TPS

Game 1: I play first, and he mulls down two cards. I get out a trinket mage and hit him a bit. As a desperate play, he tries to tendrils for 12 which I cunning wish and stifle. I proceed to hit him with the mage once more, then I combo out on him.

Game 2: My notes here are pretty thin. He played first, mulled down 1 card, lost a life to a FoW, then died to my combo.

Matches 4-2, Games 9-7

Round 7: Vs. Max playing Cerebral Assassin (?)

Game 1: Max plays first. Gemstone, Mox, Demonic Tutor. Lotus, sac the lotus for blue and tinker the mox into a colossus. Damn it for not having FoW in hand. My stellar response to his first turn play is land, sol ring, go. He swings, I hurt, he says go. I’m looking at my hand, telling myself I need the aether spellbomb to bounce it. I draw … not the aether. So I tell myself, that at this point, I need to thirst, draw a mox and a the aether (so I’d have mana to cast and activate the spellbomb). First card: not a mox. Second card: not a mox (damnit). Third card: swords (ohh yeah!). So I play a land and give him 11 life. Generally with this deck, them gaining life doesn’t matter. 20 life, 31 life, or 500 life, it’s all the same. I then get to play a salvagers, swing for 2, then combo out the next round.

Game 2: Max plays first again, plays a mox, mox, lotus, and says go. I look at it and go “wow – no land, and nothing you want to cast within 5 mana…” I draw and play a land (perhaps a sol ring or a mox, I forget). He plays 2 or 3 turns of “draw, go.” without playing any land at all. I draw into a seal of cleansing, and seal his lotus stealing a large portion of his mana. He sacs it in response for red, and then REB my tundra. Now, in my defense, I had 3 hours sleep, it was 7th round and I was pretty much just running on adrenaline. Oh, and the REB was foreign, so I couldn’t read it right there. So I put the tundra in the yard. On the other hand, I had the win in my hand – so within one or two turns I combo out on him.

Matches 5-2, Games 11-7

Round 8: Vs Nickolas playing 5/3.

Now this is it. I win, get 6-2, and hope to make it in to top 16 on tiebreakers.

Game 1: He gets out a first turn trinisphere off playing 3 moxen and a land. Follows it up with a masticore. I eventually manage to swords it, shortly after kill of a triskellion (taking 3 in the process). Then he puts down a 5/3 and hits me a couple times as I can do nothing.

Now this is annoying. I’ve tested against workshop decks a fair bit, and I know I can beat them, even if they get a trinisphere in the first game.

Game 2: I side in the rack and ruin, the shattering pulse and the fluxes.

I play first, do nothing of note, and watch as he gets another two moxes and a trinisphere. *sigh* Then he plays a 5/3 and hits me before I can drop a flux. He saves his 5/3 (letting his two moxes, and trinisphere go), hits me for 5, REBs my flux and then casts another trinisphere. I manage to swords his 5/3, and then start removing his artifacts one by one with a shattering pulse with buyback. He tinkers out a 7/10 destroying my mana base and stopping my pulse with buyback. I’m forced to just cast the pulse without buyback to get rid of the titan. By that point I had a salvagers out – and on the next turn or two I draw what I need to combo off.

Game 3: Nickolas starts it off by wondering how much time we have left and as we cut each other’s decks, they announce 8 minutes remaining. So we both start off and see how fast we can go. Not much happens, I FoW something, then cast a salvagers with nothing else in hand, and a pyrite spellbomb on the table. He doesn’t do anything on his turn of note and passes the turn. I draw a wasteland – nothing. So I figure, it can’t hurt, and sac the spellbomb for a card – drawing into the lotus for the game.

Matches 6-2, Games 13-8

So I ended up at 6-2, and start hoping for good tiebreakers. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough, and I ended up in 24th place. But I’m happy with that. I took a deck that I created (mostly) on my own, and tuned over a couple tournaments, and was able to compete with the other tier 1 decks in the largest type 1 tournament I’ve ever been to.

After we (the Canadians) found out how well we did, and that none of us made top 16, we went with a bunch of people (Mark Perez and a bunch of Meandeckers) to TGIFs for some food and drink. For the most part, I just sat at the table with the other Canadians and Mark and talked about stuff – mostly type 1 stuff. Then towards the end Stephen Menendian and Kevin Cron joined us around the table as we talked a bit more. While I wasn’t formally introduced to any of them, it was nice meeting them.

Despite the lack of sleep for the weekend (at about 1am after the tournament, we decided to drive home, and I was waking up every once in a while once we got on the major highways) it was quite enjoyable. I certainly look forward to doing it again.