Dominating the Waterbury Swiss

I just realized that a bunch of people are crying because lists aren't up, so this will be a quick report/summary about my results at Waterbury

I decided back in early December that if I made a return to the ring, I'd definitely play Rector trix. I didn't want to think that hard, and as I've told people- you only have to play one turn with combo. I figured that was the best way for me to mentally survive 8 rounds. Here's the list:

4 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
2 Scrubland
1 Tundra
1 Tolarian Academy
7 SoLoMoxen
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
4 Dark Ritual
1 Lotus Petal

4 Cabal Therapy
4 Force of Will
1 Rushing River

3 Illusions of Grandeur
2 Donate

4 Academy Rector
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Necropotence
1 Future Sight
1 Timetwister
1 Yawgmoth's Will

4 Brainstorm
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall

SB:
Absolute trash. I do know it had some hurkyll's recalls, serenities, and seal of cleansings

Despite the fact that this deck has several different ways to kill itself, I felt it had a solid matchup vs Slaver, and was part of the reason I wanted to play it.

Rd 1- Younger kid with slaver

He was simply overmatched. A regular player and it's a challenge, I steamrolled this kid though

Rd 2- Guy with Turboland

I won game 1, then kept a kinda slow hand game 2. I've played his deck before, I know how fast it is. He got the nut hand though and won on like turn 2. Game 3 I just combo him out on my 2nd turn. He had a zuran orb, that just made the 1 turn I play last 3 minutes longer though

Rd 3- Kowal with Tog

I continue my unbeaten streak vs him (that wizards FNM still doesn't count.) He kept a no land hand vs me game 2 though. That didn't work out so well for him

Rd 4- Tim? (guy that knocked out Rich Shay in t16) with Workshop.dec

Game 1 he used a jar and I was able to either brainstorm or Vamp to set up the perfect hand for when he passed the turn. Game 2 I was about to win with Form of the Dragon (sb) when he drew 1 of his 3 outs to kill it. Game 3 I think I just combo him out real nice

Rd 5- ELD with Slaver

I'm pretty sure I just played Illusions/donate without rectoring game 1. Game 2 I got out an early Necro, then followed it up with Future sight.

Rd 6- Corey Frazier with Slaver

game 1 I Illusions donate after we both pretty much exhaust our hands. He dies after two turns or so. I think he won game 2, but I don't remember how. Game 3 I go off turn 2 with rector

ID with Rich Shay
ID with Saucemaster

So my tiebreakers were slightly higher then Rich's, so I end the swiss in first place with a 6-0-2 record. I'm quite happy, because I had never beaten ELD or Corey before, and they're both pretty tough opponents. There are 2 matches I don't wanna see in the top16, otherwise I like my chances.

t16- Nate with 5/3 ish (one of the decks I didn't want to play)

I combo out game 1. Game 2 I therapy him for Trinisphere on turn 2 as it's pretty much the only thing that can stop me. He topdecks it, and I can't beat that plus the seal of cleansing he had in his hand. Game 3 he made a sligh play mistake that he described in his report here somewhere, but I think I would have been able to go off anyways. My deck is awesome

t8- Saucemaster with Tendrills (the other deck I didn't want to play)

Game 1 I kept a hand with some good expansion and a timetwister. The twister gave me shit, but it did give me Illusions and Donate. So I sent them over to Saucemaster to see if he could get his storm up to 20 next turn. He didn't, but he sure came close. Game 2 he beat me first turn. I wasn't about to mull to 5 to find a force, esp since my hand of 6 prob could have went off on my first turn. Game 3 I just finally ran into that unfortunate situation combo runs into. I just drew 3 absolutely terrible opening hands. I can't complain though, it took 8 rounds to finally happen, so I'm not too upset. The only thing that I was upset about was the fact I got both matches I didn't want in the top16. I was 3-0 vs Slaver and there was like 8 of them. I hear there was even a 4cc deck floating around! Man I would have destroyed him. Oh well- shit happens

I then played someone to win a mox instead of a library. My head wasn't in it though. I was ready to die since I decided to not sleep the night before (whoops) and I made a slight play error game 3 that cost me the match as he drew exactly what he needed to with his thirst (I knew his hand from therapy)

So yeah- this makes 2 Waterbury tournaments in a row that someone from Hadley has owned the swiss, but failed to even make the top 4. At least I made top8 though, unlike GI last time. I'm happy, seeing as this was my first time playing in months