GENCON?

[The M.E.T.H.O.D]

I just got back and I have to say that gencon was TRULY a blast.

I'd like to thank everyone who came and congradulate my teammate Roland who pwnd. Its just bad luck we were paired first round of t8!

And for the gemstone mines, the official count is 32 were given out the whole weekend. 8 in the prelim, 8 at champs, 8 at one of the legacy tournies, and 8 at the SUNDAY t1 event. (which got like 13 people).

as for popular decktypes the meta was pretty polarized with cs and stax.  Uba stax didn't perform as well as it did at chicago, but i think with some tech the deck will still be utter ridiculous in months to come.  The main problem is it has trouble in the mirror against 5color stax. The t8 was pretty diverse, and didn't represent the field at all which was interesting.

The tourney was run pretty smoothly but the judge/judging was questionable.

I hope everyone else had as much as a blast as I did and i'll def. see everyone at the SCG's and gencon next year.

[doylehancock]

Decklists for the top 8?

how did meandeck gifts do?

[Disburden]

Decklists for the top 8?

I've been refreshing for the past 6 hours, so what do you think?  :lol:

[The M.E.T.H.O.D]

I think Zvi said he was writing an article and the guy from inquest got a copy of all the decklists.

[Smmenen]

My guess is that the decklists won't be up until Friday when Ted does a review of the tournament.  The decklists are pretty standard.  You can find Rolands list in my article and Ashoks list is just what we threw together the night before but it is pretty close to traditional stax.  Josh Franklin played 3c tog - probably very close to his build in the SCG database.  Mat Endress played Oath with no Drain but Duress, Chalice, and Tinker as well as Akroma/SOTN and CHOKE in his sb.  Purple hat's dragon is 5 color dragon with the changes he discussed in this thread.  Demars Control Slaver is standard with Shamans in SB.  Brassman's SSB list has a white splash for Sacred Ground and balance in the SB with STPs.  He also added Merchant Scrolls to it and cut the Slaver and the Welders. 

[prosbloom225]

Yay, go tangle wire.

[Moxlotus]

And for the gemstone mines, the official count is 32 were given out the whole weekend. 8 in the prelim, 8 at champs, 8 at one of the legacy tournies, and 8 at the SUNDAY t1 event. (which got like 13 people).

8 in the prelim, 16 in the champs, and 8 in the legacy.  None in the sunday.

Glad I put mine up 2 hours after winning it on friday

Mat Endress played Oath with no Drain but Duress, Chalice, and Tinker as well as Akroma/SOTN and CHOKE in his sb.

Tinker is in the board.

[prosbloom225]

I don't know about buying the gemstones now, it just seems like wizards is gonna dump quite a few of them out in the near future.

[Moxlotus]

7. If you're not maindecking four Sphere of Resistance and four Chalice of the Void, you are a fool as I suspected.

Sideboard:
3 Chalice Of The Void

[vroman]

concerning ubastax:
I have learned since Chicago SCG that control slaver is actually a nightmare matchup for my deck. In the beginning I beat everyone just bc they really did not know what to do, and let uba resolve or ignored it when they had welders in play. control slaver players have gotten much better at playing around the uba archetype, even in our local tournaments. ubastax hates most of all welders and drains. a deck with none of those is an easy matchup. a deck w one or the other is challenging but managable. a deck w both is bad news. I would rather face 5c stax every rd, than a single rd of control slaver.
this was my first gencon, and most ppl I talked to predicted goblinsligh and keeper through rd 2. unfortunately I got paired against lots of control slaver piloted by top name players, such as Rich Shay and Nick Trudeau/Vos(?). I got beat bad.
however, Id like to point out that my teammate Ben Allen came in 13th, playing ubastax the first time in his life. his inexperience showed pretty bad when he punted to Roland in rd 6, but still Im very proud.

I came in 2nd in the thursday tournament and made top 8 in the friday prelim tournament. I dont think I faced CS in either of those tournys. I learned a ton at gencon and am definitely reworking the deck to get back against control slaver. I really enjoyed finally playing against Smmennen and Cron and Shay, etc. looking forward to whatevers next.

[Purple Hat]

I think you should add Dragon to the list of decks you lose to.  uba mask really hurts you there cus I can just intuition for dragon/win condition and use bazaar to pitch whatever goes to my hand.  you have to kill me fast enough to prevent me from finding my win with 5 tutors when I only ever have to resolve two spells.  post board it gets better for you but I get some pretty good toys as well.  I played ben in round 5 and he sealed his own fate by resolving an uba mask game one.

Hale

[vroman]

dragon is a squirely deck to nail down. in my experience the matchup plays kind of like gifts, but easier bc there are no drains. concentrate on total mana denial and dont try to stop the combo w uba or chalice@>0, instead stop the mana.
I didnt give Ben any pointers on the dragon matchup and he went into it blind.
good job on the top 8 though w a very unique list!

[knickers]

Good job everyone.

I really hope that the flood of foiled Gemstone Mine's happen soon!
I really want to pick myself up a set!

Props to Moxlotus.
After reading a lot of your comments on SCGs I didn't think you even played T1, let alone played in competitive tournaments ...

And good job to everyone else that made Top 8, and gj Jdizzle for winning Thrusday's event.

[everythingitouchdies]

well steve the most important part is that it was that list that won. But its not just about the list, you have perhaps the best player in vintage right there. You guys should be damn proud.

Congrats Roland.

[Anders Noer]

Congrats to the high finishers and all that. It seems to have been a fun and highly competitive duke-out.

I'm surprised, that no Fish decks made it to the top 8. There always seem to be one Sligh/WtF/FCG/metagame deck pulling it through, but not this time.

Fish usually does great vs. combo and can be tooled to deal with CS, but obviously not enough to encourage people to play it? Were Fish decks absent at this tournament ? Not even Mr. Perez?

[Smmenen]

concerning ubastax:
I have learned since Chicago SCG that control slaver is actually a nightmare matchup for my deck. In the beginning I beat everyone just bc they really did not know what to do, and let uba resolve or ignored it when they had welders in play. control slaver players have gotten much better at playing around the uba archetype, even in our local tournaments. ubastax hates most of all welders and drains. a deck with none of those is an easy matchup. a deck w one or the other is challenging but managable. a deck w both is bad news. I would rather face 5c stax every rd, than a single rd of control slaver.
this was my first gencon, and most ppl I talked to predicted goblinsligh and keeper through rd 2. unfortunately I got paired against lots of control slaver piloted by top name players, such as Rich Shay and Nick Trudeau/Vos(?). I got beat bad.
however, Id like to point out that my teammate Ben Allen came in 13th, playing ubastax the first time in his life. his inexperience showed pretty bad when he punted to Roland in rd 6, but still Im very proud.

I came in 2nd in the thursday tournament and made top 8 in the friday prelim tournament. I dont think I faced CS in either of those tournys. I learned a ton at gencon and am definitely reworking the deck to get back against control slaver. I really enjoyed finally playing against Smmennen and Cron and Shay, etc. looking forward to whatevers next.

I'll stand by my original prediction that this would be a critical learning experience and turning point for you.  With all these matches under your belt you'll be able to go back and re-evaluate your game and come back with top level A-game that can compete nationally. 

[CapitanJon]

congratz to Brian and Josh, sorry about not being able to ride with you guys, it sounds like it would have been a blast... ill see you two monday

[Moxlotus]

Fish usually does great vs. combo and can be tooled to deal with CS, but obviously not enough to encourage people to play it? Were Fish decks absent at this tournament ? Not even Mr. Perez?

I saw very few fish decks and I didn't see a single Goblin deck in the Vintage Champs.

[Purple Hat]

I think there were a few fish players and I know at least one person was playing FCG.  the thing is that the top part of the field was NASTY.  I felt extremely lucky to make it.  there were a ton of really good players with really good decks running around and fish and FCG would both have suffered heavily from being under powered at the top end of that tournament.

Hale

[forests failed you]

I was really surprised that there were not more FCG decks in this tourney.  I know for a fact that my team had decided that playing FCG would have been an absolutely savage meta decsion.  Windfall really wanted to play the deck, but we couldn't find the cards to put it together once we got to Indy.  If I had been able to find the cards I would have played it as well, but I guess playing Slavery worked out okay for me.

[Komatteru]

MAD CONGRATS TO ROLAND!!  He sure had himself a Meeeeeeeeeeaandeck.

I suppose I should also give props to Josh and Brian, even if I have a bit of a personal rivarly with them at the present moment.

[Smmenen]

I want to personally congratulate the Colorado crew.

Meandeck has been looking for a good set of rivals ever since Shortbus imploded.  You guys are great guys and pwned meandeckers on the Friday event.  I hope to see you guys at alot more events. 

[Komatteru]

I want to personally congratulate the Colorado crew.

Meandeck has been looking for a good set of rivals ever since Shortbus imploded.  You guys are great guys and pwned meandeckers on the Friday event.  I hope to see you guys at alot more events. 

Oh geez, how did I forget?  Most definitely.  Props to my former teammates Bob and Scott and personal props to Fuckin' Lou for besting me once again (same match).

[Changster]

Sup Drainers and Workshoppers!

This past weekend was incredible and I'll never forget how much fun I had in each of the four tournies I played.  Thanks to all who supported me at the championships and for all the props on this topic.  I'll be putting together a decent report in my sparetime this week when I don't have to work.  Damn the real world! 

Anyways, the Ancestral Recall alt. art acrylic painting is truly unique and amazing.  I plan on keeping it for a little while  :lol:

the Lucky Fuck,

Roland

[Whatever Works]

I finished 11th in the main event with a meandeck gifts varient. I finished with 5-1-1 with my only loss being to the eventual #1 seed, and then an unfortunate draw vs. a chalice oath deck who I was beating in game 3 (but unable to finish off)...

The tournement was only 7 rounds which hurt anybody who went 5-1-1, because the tournement only alloud 1 of them (brassman) to be able to top 8. This was primarily because the tournement was just a few people short of reaching the ammount needed to make 8 rounds.

I will be writing a report shortly.

Other interesting notes:
-Not alot of meandeck gifts at all... I believe I was the highest gifts finisher (andys deck is ssb not gifts)...Smennen finished 15th due to bad luck, and matchups that cannot be prepared for properly (and rightfully so... Im sure he will elaborate)...
-TONS OF STAX
-TONS OF Control Slaver
-NO FISH AT ALL!!! NONE
-everyone was powered... at least 90% of metagame had fully powered decks... no budget decks had a chance... none!

I want to Congradulate Roland on winning... He played amazing all week (accept for some play errors in the finals which I will blame on nerves), and I also want to congradulate Hale for spending essentially the last full year learning to play dragon (I know he started last gencon with dragon), and never giving up on the deck! I am glad to see his dedication pay off...

Further props to all my roomates throughout the week which include: Andy Probasco, Ray Robilard, Scott Mirtsopolous, StarWarsBoy (well maybe not him after leaving bathroom a mess), Scott Limoges, Bob Yu (your 1 crazy pimp), and Lou Christopher who almost got 3 chicks to randomly chill in are hotel room at 3:00 morning... and come back for 2nds, 3rds, and 4ths...

Kyle L.

[Ivantheterrible]

and Lou Christopher who almost got 3 chicks to randomly chill in are hotel room at 3:00 morning... and come back for 2nds, 3rds, and 4ths...

Wow Kyle you sure are full of almost. Almost got layed. Almost made top 8. Almost won a game agianst oath. If only you could go all the way. While you will never suceed in the first you may just be able to achieve the later two if only you would stop with almost.

Smennen finished 15th due to bad luck, and matchups that cannot be prepared for properly (and rightfully so... Im sure he will elaborate)...

Well i hope thats not how semmen described it because according to him you cant lose a match to bad luck. What are these matchups he cant prepare for. Oh wait did he lose to mono red burn agian.

[Smmenen]

Oh wait did he lose to mono red burn agian.

???

I lost to assymmetrical information and faulty assumptions and Mat Endress kicked my ass as a result.  15th out of 128 isn't horrible...

What's the story with the chicks and Lou?

[Clown of Tresserhorn]

Oh wait did he lose to mono red burn agian.

???

I lost to assymmetrical information and faulty assumptions and Mat Endress kicked my ass as a result. 15th out of 128 isn't horrible...

What's the story with the chicks and Lou?

We stayed w/ Kyle, Andy, Scott and Ray our last night there. Some Cute Tenesse chicks came walking in at like 3 in the morning to make phone calls. Two of them  were pretty cute and I would have DEFINITELY taken the big one for the team. I tried to get them to give us sexual favors for the phone usage, but my soy sauce wasn't flowing that day. It was cool that Lou and I had a groupie at GenCon though.

As for GenCon, it was AMAZING. Everyone we hung out with (which was everyone) were mad cool. I'm just glad that CO is finally getting some recognition for type 1. Special props go out to Meandeck (especially my boy Roland, who I chose to win the whole damn show), BHWC, the NE (Kyle, Andy, Scott, Ray, and anyone else I forgot to mention), and my boy Josh Franklin (onelovemachine). That kid's been playing the same deck for some while and seems to keep getting screwed over. This time, I'm extremely happy to see him T8. Congrats to all the other players in T8, you def. deserved it! Finally, much love to Scott Limoges, Fuckin' Lou, Zach, and Heather for all the support.

I'll hopefully write up a short report soon.

-Bob

EDIT: Oh man, how could I forget GWS? You savagely beat me in the swiss twice, but I had my revenge in top8. I'm just glad to see Endress didn't go 4-0 and not make T8 like he seems to always do...

[Moxlotus]

anyone else I forgot to mention

Eat dick Bob, you lucksack.


jk

[forests failed you]

Yeah Bob, you didn't give me any props either!  I thought we were pals.