Ongoing Waterbury Results

[Klep]

Im VERY curious as to how JuggyGo (travis) did, considering I've actually been talking and working with him on some stuff.

Sorry, I forgot to mention it. Travis got 17th.

[TehBrassMan]

Travis got 17th place on tiebreakers.

Top 8 was (in finishing order):
Douglas Menger (dragon)
Michael Hitherington (gifts belcher)
Caleb Rozwic (uba stax)
Seth Levy (Drain/AK TPS)
Corey Mann (arti-hate Goblins)
Kent Kolbig (Flame Vault)
Bob Mahannah (Tendrils/Colossus togless Tog)
Brendan Ward (Gifts w/Oath SB)
Jeff Carpenter (Oath)
Jon Smithers (Tog)
Stephen Houdlette (Gifts)
Gary Steffens (UGw Threshold)
Vincent Forino (IGG Mono-B tendrils)
Matt Denham (U/W lions aka Meandeck Fish)
Aaron Lindo ("Hidden Hate" aka rg hate cards.dec)
Josh Meches (GAT)

In the first round, Josh's GAT smashed Doug's Dragon; Brendan's Gifts trumped Jeff's Oath; Corey's goblins crushed Gary's UGw Thresh; Seth's TPS beat Vincent's Mono-B tendrils; Kent's flamevault burned up GI's gifts; Jon's tog owned Bob's togless Tog; and Aaron's hate fell to Mike's Gifts. There were a surprising number of near-mirrors, particularly the Jon/Bob AK match and the Seth/Vincent tendrils match.

The Jon/Bob game took forever, so Josh had time to beat Brendan, Seth beat Corey, and Kent beat Caleb, while Jon now faces off against Mike and Josh against Seth. The Josh/Seth winner advances to the finals, while the Jon/Mike winner will face Kent and the winner of that match will play in the final round.

We'll probably be here at least another 2-3 hours to get it all over with.

[Machinus]

Thanks for the update! I was hoping for more shops : /

[Moxlotus]

Damn-Oath didn't make top 8.  Oh well, 16 is good.

I've played against and seen Forino's IGG deck.  It looks like a complete pile but he seems to do pretty well with it.  Wastelands in monoblack combo?

I am in awe that there is no CS in the top 16.  That is crazy for the NE.  I'm also surprised at the number of decks that aren't recognized as tier 1 that made it that good.  Goblins, threshold, GAT, Tog, R/G Beatz, odd TPS variant, mono black tendrils, and flamevault (assuming its a comboish build with 4 of combo pieces) are not talked about as decks to beat.  That's half of the top 16.

[Evenpence]

And somehow, drains dominate shops in a stereotypical drain dominated field, but with more shops showing up than drains.

That's crazy.

So, if I have it right, the decks in contention are Tog, Gifts Belcher, Flame Vault, TPS with AK/Drain, and GAT?

Wow.  All Mana Drains decks.  That's...cool.  Good old NE, with an amazing amount of unorthodox/old archetypes (goblins, threshold, iggy, gat, rg hate?  Wow.)

EDIT: Moxlotus beat me to it.  That's Waterbury for you, I guess.

Are you going to keep giving us info, Brassman?  Thanks for sending us that, it's very appreciated.  How'd you do?  I heard you were undefeated early, did you lose out on tiebreakers?

[M.Solymossy]

Next question. What did Laplante play?

[TehBrassMan]

Okay, final results:

9-16 won playmats.
5th through 8th played it out. Brendan scooped to go home, while Corey beat Mike and then Caleb.
Brendan and Mike got libraries for being in 7th and 8th place.
Caleb got a twister for 6th.
Corey got a pearl for 5th.
Jon beat Mike, and then Kent, advancing to the finals against Josh, who beat Seth. Kent and Seth split the emerald and jet that were the 3rd/4th prizes, each walking away with $260

A dramatic 3am finals match took place. GAT won game one with Tog unable to find black mana and succumbing to the dryads. Tog came back with Tinker Colossus in game 2. Game 3 was epic, with dryads beating until a deed showed up on the last possible turn. Then, Tog was forced to Drain an Intuition, while at 3 life and with no cards in hand. He ripped Cunning Wish for FOF, though. Finally, GAT got a dryad to stick, and it only took one swing to take the game. Jon walked away with the ancestral, and Josh won the lotus, and the title.

[Machinus]

Amazing! GAT defeats Tog in the finals!

Thanks for the updates Andy.

[Grand Inquisitor]

Amazing! GAT defeats Tog in the finals!

It WAS an amazing finals to watch.  Very entertaining, albeit, probably a little distracting to the players.  Also, oh-so-nostalgic for those of you who remember the spring of 2003.

Since after Ray's hiatus, the Waterbury tournaments keep getting better.  The tourney ran extremely smoothly, attendace was great, side-events were abundant, and the finals was especially intense.


Of course, it's always more enjoyable when you perform well, here's a QnD:

I played a Gifts combo-control list which was largely based off these intiution versions that have been talked about, Ultima's tech, and some personal preference.  I tweaked the MD towards control, since this is Waterbury (proved to be wrong call), and had 4x energy flux in the SB for our workshop wielding friends.

Rnd 1 - Bu tendrils.  G1 I combo him out in short order.  G2 we're both posturing with LoA, and at this point, I think he's playing some wierd black-based fish.  He hits me with a few therapies and combo's out.  G3 I misplay and he goes off in my face turn 1.

Rnd 2 - GWS Oath.  G1 I chain together draw spells and go off.  G2 he drops turn 2 choke, but my academy and cadre of moxen don't care, and I combo him out the next turn.

Rnd 3 - Uba Stax.  G1 he has 3sphere, mask, welder, stack, crucible.  G2 I have turn 1 energy flux.  G3 I have turn 2 and turn 3 energy fluxes (this was actually close, however, as stoneshaker shaman makes me sweat)

Rnd 4 - CA.  G1 he finally gets a welder to stick, but can only threaten with Trike, which isn't nearly fast enough.  G2 he's never really in it, as my opening is LoA, Lotus, Ancestral, Intuition, AK, Brainstorm, Mox

Rnd 5 - I get a feature match with Jiggly Puff (playing gifts).  Game 1 I bait and develop, but make a crucial error with my time walk and his time vault (he also drew Gifts like it was his job).  G2 I have LoA early (until pithing), and duress is better than REB with recoup, so I'm able to push through my yawgwin in the extra turns.

Rnd 6 - Mono R hate - G1 in spite of mulling, she starts off with vandal, and waste, strip.  I slowly build with AKs, and pull off a big tendrils while at 1 life.  The turn before Yawgwin she chain lightning'd me, but I had drain.  If this had been a lightning bolt it would have been a very different match.  G2, early tinker>DSC

Rnd 7 - Bomberman - G1 I pick the right way to do counter wars, and play something huge off drain mana.  G2 I stop his momentum, and purge his lotus, however, he applies trinket mage beats.  I'm able to yawgin again at 1 life.

Rnd 8 - Oath - G1 he has little action, and baiting with ancestral recall sets up turn 3 bargain.  G2 he slaps down a quick arcane lab.  However, he has to use orchard three times, and I pin him under his own hate and answer oaths by tutoring for FoW's.

T16 - Vault-Fusillade Combo-Control.  G1 he has turn 1 time vault (which he had every game), turn 2 flusilade (my ancestral finds nothing).  I didn't know what matchup I was playing, and my hand was admittedly slow.  G2 I annul a lotus (for flame), and drain thirsts to keep him from developing hand/land until I can gifts into will.  G3 I have to mull to 5.  I stop his early rush with (again) annul, drain, and Fow, but, while he draws more and more gas, I draw land after land.  My bluffing, and recoup > duress were the only things that kept me in the game for very long.  Good player, interesting deck, fun match (and tourney), in spite of the powerless finish.

[jCoKn]

Thanks Ray for another amazing tournament. The legacy of awesome Waterburys lives on.

Jon

[Moxlotus]

Wasn't there a 1st place GAT 2nd place Tog a loooong time ago when Gush was still unrestricted at Waterbury or am I just imagining things?  I think it was JPmeyer playing Tog.

Congrats to Josh and GAT.  I hope he posts a tournament report as I am very curious as to what he played.

[Dante]

Amazing! GAT defeats Tog in the finals!

It WAS an amazing finals to watch.  Very entertaining, albeit, probably a little distracting to the players.  Also, oh-so-nostalgic for those of you who remember the spring of 2003.

Yah, flipping through the report earlier, I had to go "WTF".

Also, let's not have anyone ask Ray for the decklists until at least next Saturday.   

[Kowal]

Wasn't there a 1st place GAT 2nd place Tog a loooong time ago when Gush was still unrestricted at Waterbury or am I just imagining things?  I think it was JPmeyer playing Tog.

Congrats to Josh and GAT.  I hope he posts a tournament report as I am very curious as to what he played.

That was a Syracuse tournament actually.  He made finals with Tog and lost to a guy by the name of Jason if I recall correctly, who was piloting GAT.  The following Syracuse was won by the same guy, who had replaced his extra three gushes with two Merchant Scrolls and some other card of that nature.

[Komatteru]

Also, let's not have anyone ask Ray for the decklists until at least next Saturday.   Very Happy

I'm also on that duty as well.  I hope to get them all up by the end of the week (Friday).  In any case, they'll be up there quick.  The T16 lists will get up there as soon as I receive the lists.

[iamfishman]

###POSTING STRAIGHT FROM THE SOURCE###

Day 2 is  underway...the ancestral event has 73 people.

As for day 1 decklists...they will be up sooner than next weekend since I will be sending them to Droba and he will post them on SCG.

More updates to come during the day.

Ray

[The Atog Lord]

These won't be premium, will they?

[Komatteru]

Decklists are never premium.

[Bean]

Next question. What did Laplante play?

Becaouse I don't think anyone answered this yet, Travis was playing a 5 color stax decklist. I lost to him round 8, and was disappointed in him missing Top 16 by 1 slot.

[Lunar]

Wow, waterbury always puts up some amazing results, heh..

any ideas on if these were pretty traditional tog and gat decks? heh, just dying to find out...

congrats to all the top 16 and especially the winners...good job ray on what souds like another amazing tournament..

[UR]

Will these results finally end the debate about whether Vintage has become stagnant or not? Major archtypes aren't played as much as some people will have you believe and I don't think anybody would have predicted this final... Stagnant my hiney...

[Klep]

Will these results finally end the debate about whether Vintage has become stagnant or not? Major archtypes aren't played as much as some people will have you believe and I don't think anybody would have predicted this final... Stagnant my hiney...

Actually I predicted it as soon as I saw GAT in the T16. 

[SonataOfTheCathedral]

I came up with Josh and Vincent, who played the Ill-Gotten Gains Tendrils. Seth exclaimed to me "I really shouldn't have beaten Vincent he just ended up losing to himself."

     Josh was running Gifts Ungiven in GAT and I was a huge fan. His success can definetly be boasted by the fact he avoided Workshop like a plague. He had some interesting SB and maindeck choices. Gilded Drake really allowed him to take advantage of Colossus and Oath. Although he did manage to beat Goblins in the swiss which is an accomplishment I'd say.

    The Ill-Gotten Gains deck was really sick and I definetly digged it. It only ran a Lotus and a Mox Jet believe it or not. Also it contained Wastelands and it definetly threw many people off, I recall Kyle R Leith telling me how the deck converted to Suicide Black and smacked him up with a Negator and Null Rod.

    I played something interesting I dropped X-2 and would have also probably squeezed in top 16 since my tiebreakers were awesome but I really got tired. I did win two side events for some petty cash. I played a very interesting and unique deck. I lost to Salvagers in the swiss and that was it we had such a close match too. If anyone is interested I guess I can write a brief list and a report of the tournaments I won with it. Basically it was EBA with Dark Confidant and other cards.

Overall it was really aweseome Waterbury, too bad I had around $400 of stuff stolen but it's ok I guess. I really appreciate Rays, LordOfTheGoats, Ultima, Morgan, Zack, Jacob and everyone else who tried to help in anyway they could to spot my jacked stuff. Some really great people in a nasty world.

Sad times to Me, Roland, and Ralph, the ones in the car who didn't top 16. : (


-Elias

[Komatteru]

too bad I had around $400 of stuff stolen but it's ok I guess

Why is it that something seems to go missing at every Waterbury?

[UR]

Actually I predicted it as soon as I saw GAT in the T16.

I meant before the tournament started... just look at the threads around the forum... you'll see what I was aiming at.

[iamfishman]

   DAY 2 EVENT AFTER 4 ROUNDS(standings of those with 7 points or more

                davis, joe    12   64.5833   100.0000   66.6667   4/4/0/0
   parisi, bernie    12   62.5000   80.0000   54.5455   4/4/0/0
   hatcher, chris    12   60.4167   72.7273   55.8523   4/4/0/0
   rudolph, jeremiah    12   47.9167   88.8889   46.1174   4/4/0/0
   wilkins, crossman    10   56.2500   75.0000   55.4924   4/3/1/0
   antes, nicolae    10   54.1667   100.0000   53.1250   4/3/1/0
   jacob, michael     9   70.8333   63.6364   70.9524   4/3/0/0
   timoney, justin     9   61.1111   75.0000   62.1212   3/2/0/1
   chitturi, ashok     9   60.4167   70.0000   52.9040   4/3/0/0
   fico, jessica     9   60.4167   63.6364   55.1452   4/3/0/0
   mann, corey     9   60.4167   63.6364   54.4697   4/3/0/0
   pease, nate     9   58.3333   75.0000   58.3333   4/3/0/0
   buda, jay     9   58.3333   63.6364   51.0606   4/3/0/0
   ng, thomas     9   58.3333   54.5455   56.6739   4/3/0/0
   mocadlo, john     9   56.2500   63.6364   57.3232   4/3/0/0
   carpenter, jeff     9   52.0833   77.7778   47.8535   4/3/0/0
   huff, tyler     9   50.0000   66.6667   55.8333   4/3/0/0
   trevisan, thiago     9   41.6667   66.6667   41.6667   4/3/0/0
   mann, jared     8   33.3333   75.0000   39.6465   4/2/2/0
   hall, jason     7   68.7500   62.5000   73.0114   4/2/1/0
   gacioch, daniel     7   62.5000   62.5000   55.3977   4/2/1/0
   merriam, ross     7   56.2500   66.6667   58.6607   4/2/1/0
   McNally, matt     7   54.1667   57.1429   54.5455   4/2/1/0
   yarrington, dan     7   54.1667   55.5556   53.6364   4/2/1/0
   cleveland, jason     7   54.1667   50.0000   50.6313   4/2/1/0
   magda, philip     7   45.8333   62.5000   48.9583   4/2/1/0
   murgo, gabe     7   39.5833   55.5556   43.3333   4/2/1/0

[Luiggi]

Congrats to Josh and GAT.  I hope he posts a tournament report as I am very curious as to what he played.

I spoke to him on the phone a few hours ago, and he said he'll try to post something later this week. His success with GAT just goes to show you that in this format the key is knowing your deck inside and out and having tons of experience with it.

Luiggi

[jCoKn]

And getting good matchups By the sounds of it he never had to run in to Workshops, lucky guy. His deck was well meta'd to beat up on control though... *sigh*

[G-A-T 177]

And getting good matchups By the sounds of it he never had to run in to Workshops, lucky guy. His deck was well meta'd to beat up on control though... *sigh*

There were definitely more workshops there than I expected, so I suppose I was a little lucky not to run in to any.  Last Waterbury there was a whole lot of dragon gifts and cs, and given cs' recent success, I expected even more than last time.  GaT really beats up on most drain decks, (usually) has a great matchup with cs, and has a fine matchup against any deck without solid locks (ie. trinisphere crucible waste!), so my friends and I figured it was a fine choice for the meta we expected.  as it turned out, most of my matches were against gifts variants.  GaT also happens to be my favorite deck...
here's my list for whoever's curious- I'll try to get a short report out sometime this week
4 dryad
2 tog
4 force of will
2 misdirection
3 daze
2 mana drain
3 duress
1 mystical
1 vamp tutor
1 demonic tutor
1 yawgmoth's will
1 regrowth
2 cunning wish
2 gifts
4 brainstorm
2 merchant scroll
1 gush
1 ancestral recall
1 darkblast
1 time walk
3 flooded strand
2 polluted delta
3 trop
3 underground sea
1 library
2 island
5 mox
1 lotus
1 crypt

sb
3 ground seal
2 naturalize
2 oxidize
1 echoing truth
1 berserk
1 skeletal scrying
1 duress
2 gilded drake
1 darkblast
1 mana drain

-Josh

[Cross]

I'm not sure what won day 2, but the field was like all fish, with some oath and stax.

I made top 8 with Combo, amazingly, because I played aggro-control decks every round.
JigglyPuff made top 8 with gifts.
Hatcher made top 8 with his deck.
I lost 1-2 to some guy playing flamevault with misds and sideboarded plagiarize (NOOOOO!)
I think the rest of the top 8 was aggro-control decks, one of which I'm hoping wins was like a bazaar lftl confidant deck that no surprise smashed the field of fish.

[shoeboxtony]

from out here on the west coast, i really appreciate ur tourney updates brassman, thnx!

josh strong play w/GaT, question for u... when u mention that ur choice was because it "beats up on most drain decks" were u expecting to see more CS, than the amount gifts deck running around?

oh btw, clown of tresserhorn.... u called it u/w lions t8. there was something just..embarrassing 'bout getting my faced punched in by lions in berkely, lol!  -tony.