Waterbury 1/28/06 Report: 3rd Swiss 6th Overall

[MadManiac21]

If a mod wants to move this thread to the tournament forums, that's perfectly fine.

I haven’t written one of these in a very long time, mainly because...well I’ve never really needed too. I was the team hadley member who in every single tournament would get to the last round when it was “win and in� and I’d always lose game three to shit draws. It got to the point where I assumed going into those matches I was just going to lose eventually.

I’ve been away from magic for about seven months. I played a lot over last summer, but then I started my freshman year of college AND got addicted to World of Warcraft. That ended magic for awhile.

Long story short some of the guys I hadn’t seen in awhile strongly suggested I show up for waterbury. I figured what the hell, should be a good time. I spent much of the week playtesting JD’s Belcher list since I liked the whole idea of just shooting people in the face for a lot. Friday night though I realized that I sucked monkey balls because I hadn’t played in so long, and went back to my pet 5c Stax list that I knew by heart.

Upon arriving at Waterbury Steve Houdlette and Jeff Green badger me that I should be playing Uba Mask. I tell them I’m just going to sideboard in three bazaars instead for when I go against it. They both kinda just stare at me till I grumble a little bit and reluctantly put the Uba’s in my deck. I was just looking forward to playing some cards, scrubbing out, selling some extra duals, and just chilling. Being completely relaxed throughout the day really helped my performance

The list went something like this:

5c Uba Stax ala Team Hadley

3 Gemstone Mine
4 Workshop
4 City of Brass
4 Bazaar
4 Wasteland
1 Strip
1 academy

Xx Artifact mana shit I don’t want to type out

4 Stacks/Chalice/Welder
3 Uba/CoW/N.Rod
1 Monkey
1 R&R
1 Balance
1 DT
1 Recall
1 Titan
1 Dupe
1 3sphere
1 tinker

Sb:
2 R&R
2 Heretic
3 Choke
1 StP
1 Darkblast
2 Ray of Rev.
1 Coffin pruge
2 Rebs

In hindsight, I really hated the lack of damage dealing sources in this deck. It takes FOREVER to win. Swinging with duplicant ten times really sucks. I also felt scared against aggro because I had no tangle wires/spheres.

Lucky for me, my deck decided to just give me gas ALL day long until top 8. I apologize if I mix of some of my early round matches, I don’t remember all of them that well.

Also, all I played against all day were drain decks; Yet I only had one mana drain played on me throughout 11 rounds. Go figure.

Round 1 against EBA:

Game 1: I play a crucible and a waste early. He plays a negator. I play Uba and Bazaar, then savagely rip and hardcast Duplicant off Vault+Workshop.

Game 2: I have most of my lock pieces out but I’ve given him time to ramp up to three mana under my 3sphere because he’s got all basics. He drops serenity (blah) and I just die.

Game 3: I get crucible wasteland going, but he has basics. He’s not really doing much of anything, but I can’t get a smokestack to stick cause I don’t see one forever. Ray announces that theres 10 minutes left in the round, and I decide to go aggro. I drop Uba mask and a couple bazaars, start ripping thorough my deck and swinging with welders. My opponent thinks about playing an exalted angel morph, but doesn’t upon learning that if I were to Dupe it, I would get it face up. It comes down to extra turns. On turn three, it’s my turn and I have three welders and a dupe. He has 11 life. I can hit him to one. I also only have 14 cards left in my library, and I have THREE bazaars out with uba mask. A little bit of praying later, I rip Titan as the fifth card and weld it into play after it gets countered, allowing me to swing for the win on turn 5.

2-1: 1-0

Round 2 against Fish:

Game 1 I play workshop mox sol ring chalice for one, crucible. Next turn I play a wasteland. He discards grim lavamancer a couple turns later, then scoops.

Game 2 I resolve a 3 sphere on turn two, then play choke on turn 3. Titan hits soon there after.

2-0: 2-0

Round 3 against Matt Snow with TPS (my teamate)

Small side rant about playing against Matt. In the previous three Waterbury’s, Matt and I have played each other in round three after being 2-0. That’s right; in four straight waterburies I play the EXACT same teammate in the EXACT same round.

I proceed to tell Ray that mathematics blow, as surely that is the basis for the DCI reporter program.

He wins game one, I win game two. We smash our decks together for game three and plays some type 4 with TPS mixed with Uba-stax.

1-1: 2-0-1

I pretty much feel that I have to win out now to stand a chance. Lucky for me....

Round 4 Mana Drain.dec

Game 1 I play Chalice for one and Null rod turn one off workshop and a mox. Turn two is land Uba. Turn three is bazaar. He didn’t have strips.

Game 2 He ancestrals turn one. I respond with Workshop Lotus Ruby, Chalice for 2 (forced), Welder, Ancestral sol ring. My turn two consists of Crucible and bazaar, and pitching a titan in the bin.

2-0: 3-0-1

Round 5 against Mana drain.dec

Game 1 I turn one ancestral welder mox. Turn two I have bazaar and Uba. Turn three Crucible and a waste enter play. The game ends shortly thereafter.

Game 2 He plays turn one ancestral. Apparently he didn’t draw force as I resolve turn one Chalice for zero, Goblin Welder, and Chalice for 1 in that order. I drop workshop smokestack. Uba and friends show up soon and it’s not even close.

2-0: 4-0-1

Sidenote:

It’s at this point that I realize I LITERALLY cannot lose. My deck just refuses to allow it. Time after time it just hands me lock pieces that my opponent’s can’t stop. I don’t think by this point that any of my opponents have even been able to hold four permanents (that they can use) on their board. This, in addition slowing my play to think all my actions out (I’ve been away from the game for so long), was just sweet.

/end sidenote

Round 6 against Oath

I am determined to smash this kids face because he knocked Matt Snow out of contention earlier. Plus, he tries really hard to “rules� lawyer, and I just feel that it’s a pretty bitch move.

Game 1 He mulls to 5 and plays turn two oath. A few turns later of Akroma beatings I have Uba, crucible, bazaar and workshop in play. I play Balance. I have three lands out, he has one. In the course of deciding which lands to keep, I throw my bazaar in the bin. I then decide I want to keep it, and move it back into play and throw away my workshop and CoB. He calls a judge and demands that I “already made my decision as soon as the bazaar was placed in the graveyard�. I try to reason that I still hadn’t finished chosing all my lands to sacrifice, and everything hits the yard “at the same time� during balance. The judge rules in his favor. I lose the ability to dig once more, where I would have found dupes, and promptly die.

Game 2 He resolves an Oath but I never let him get an orchard to stick. I keep a stack at one on my side the entire game to keep sacking the 1/1s too. I win after I blow up his board.

Game 3 I open with Chalice for zero and a 3sphere. He forces the 3sphere. I follow it up with Welder and Chalice for one on my next turn. After that he has two lands. I place my hand on my welder and say “Swin...wait�.  He demands that I already declared my attackers, and calls a judge over (shorter kid, HUGE fro, very funny, very likeable). He pleads his case to the judge that I already declared the Welder as an attacker. Seeing as this kid is starting to fucking piss me off, I give this little gem:

“Look, it’s quite obvious this kid is trying to win on semantics. If that’s the case, and we’re going by the given ‘rules’ of Magic, then I would have to formally declare that I was leaving my first main phase, entering my attack step, declaring attackers, declare goblin welder as an attacker, and tap him. None of that happened. I’m pretty sure “swing� could mean anything. In fact (here I came up with one a witty anagram for S.W.I.N.G)�

The judge, assessing the situation, just gawkes at my opponent for a minute. I think he wanted to smack him. Anyways, the ruling comes down in my favor, I weld in the 3 sphere. He never gets a third mana source on the table. Karma at its best.

2-0-1: 5-0-1

Round 7 against Oath

This guy was incredibly friendly. We crack some jokes about how everyone in the room reeks something awful, and have an enjoyable match.

Game 1 & Game 2 I don’t remember well, except that I drew strips for his Orchards and Sacked the saprolings to my smokestack.

2-0: 6-0-1

Round 8 against Seth w/ WTFPWNTYOU.dec
Seth is a great guy, I’ve seen him around a lot of tournaments before. He is playing a fucking mack truck of a deck. I’m fulling expecting to lose, but before the round Seth says something to the extent of “I’m undefeated and playing down, I really don’t care about this match....so I’m definitely going to make some play errors.�

Game 1 Seth slaps me around like a red-headed school girl. He plays the first (and only drain) of the day against me on a smokestack. I have a chalice for zero in play. I vamps for Will EoT. He sits there for a few minutes thinking about how he’s going to win. He keeps telling himself he needs to go find Chain of Vapor and Chain his own sol ring and mana vault along with my Chalice for zero so he can play lotus and win. He says this a good four times out loud. In fact, he verbally tells me spell by spell how he’s going to beat me before he does it. Having played combo, looking at his yard, I know he has the win, but figure maybe he might reveal some secret tech. He gets to around 7 spells where he has to cast his chain of vapor. He bounces his sol ring, sacs a land, and bounces his mana vault. He then puts his chain I the yard. Plays sol ring, vault, lotus, Tendrils. I stare at him, and blink a few times. He kind of looks at me, then looks at the board.

“Oh fuck.�

He’s left with only a tendrils in hand. I win from there.

Game 2 Comes down to another big misplay by Seth. Turn three I play Uba. He let’s it resolve, and THE EoT Aks for one. He picks up the card, realizes what he’s done, and throws the Energy Flux that he would have drawn (and been able to play, and wreck my face with) in his RFG pile. He then flips over FoW after Mana Drain after useless instant. I win shortly thereafter.

I felt really dirty about this round because Seth should have won both games. I told him I considered conceding to him simply because (in my mind) he DID win the games, but he shoos me off and just draws into 2nd place anyways.

2-0: 7-0-1

Round 9 against the Draw

0-0-1: 7-0-2

I end the swiss in 3rd place.

I’m in top 16. Go grab some food with Houdlette and talk about Economics and Political Science.

Top 16 against B/w fish

Before this round I realize I’ve lost my bag of dice. I’m pretty disturbed by this, and see it as a classic sign that I’m about to lose like I always do. My deck consoles me on my loss of dice.

Game 1 My opponent opens with Island ancestral, mox pearl savannah lions.

My opening hand is Bazaar x2, Uba Mask, Welder, Chalice, Mox Ruby, Black Lotus, Mishras Workshop after I draw.

Ruby, welder, Workshop, lotus, Chalice for 1, and Uba mask ALL hit the table. I draw Crucible of worlds next turn. A turn later I’m revealing 5 cards a turn with Uba/Bazaar. I win pretty quick.

Game 2 I get wasteland mox crypt Uba turn one. Bazaar and Welder turn two. Titan shows up a turn or two later in my yard, and I blow up his lands. 7/10s > 2/1s.

Top 8 against FlameVault
This guy just beat Steve, so I’m determined for revenge. That, along with the fact that his combo is susceptible to almost EVERY piece of hate in my deck makes me happy. He turns out to be a really great guy. We chat about law and economics for a little bit before starting.

Game 1 My opening hand is wasteland, mox jet, gemstone mine, welder, recall, DT, smokestack. After thinking for a bit, I decide that tutoring for chalice for 0 turn 1 is the best play, followed by welder then ancestral in my next couple turns. He wasn’t that happy when I DT and just toss chalice on the table. Ancestral finds me a bazaar to abuse with my active welder. I win after getting 3 bazaars on the table with uba when he has no permanents.

My deck decides that it’s paid its due to me right now. Hell I haven’t picked up my magic cards in 7 months, so I don’t play it.

Game two I mull to 6. He opens with heretic, then pithing needle x2 naming welder and wasteland. Tinker collosus on turn 4 kills me.

Game 3 I mull to five. He mulls into turn two tinker collosus AGAIN. I die.

Somehow I get the guy in 5-8 playoffs who just concedes cause he wants a LoA and wants to go home. I die horribly to kid whose twin brother wouldnt shut the fuck up at 3 am. I almost put my foot through his face. But instead I decide to openly cheat and just take the timetwister upon conceeding.

Overall awesome time. I had a blast. Ray always runs the best tournaments. Glad to see he’s still doing these.

Props
Steve and Jeff for making me play Uba
Really nice opponents who engage in conversation
Travis for being funny as shit
That crazy fucking dude with all the tatoos and piercings cause he was entertaining

Slops
That crazy fucking dude with all the tatoos and piercings cause he got annoying.
Tinker–>Collosus. Ewww.
Annoying twins.

[Moxlotus]

“Look, it’s quite obvious this kid is trying to win on semantics. If that’s the case, and we’re going by the given ‘rules’ of Magic, then I would have to formally declare that I was leaving my first main phase, entering my attack step, declaring attackers, declare goblin welder as an attacker, and tap him. None of that happened. I’m pretty sure “swing� could mean anything. In fact (here I came up with one a witty anagram for S.W.I.N.G)�

Fuckin served

Way to FING BONE that douche.  I hate when people try to use semantics to try to weasle out a win.  This is Type 1-we don't care for that shit.

[AbouTreeFiddy]

rules lawyering is for whiney noobs, GG CALEB coming out of hiding after 6 months to smack bitches at waterbury, and Matt should have chaliced for 11, then you would have gotten served at type 4.

[Nomad]

rules lawyering is for whiney noobs, GG CALEB coming out of hiding after 6 months to smack bitches at waterbury, and Matt should have chaliced for 11, then you would have gotten served at type 4.

It's really bad ruling on such things, you usually know the match is going one way or other on it which makes it much worse.

I had to rule on:

• The guy I drove up protesting about Grand Inquisitor changing which dual he fetched, albeit before shuffling (Round 8, playing to get in, Head judge ruled it stayed, GI won anyway, I was quite relieved...)
• A guy with an empty hand protesting his opponent playing Mystical in response to his own Ancestral, after appearing to have passed priority (Mystical stuck, but the guy wasn't exactly gracious about the whole thing, while his opponent was a nice guy)
• A guy remembering they hadn't finished resolving the Cabal Therapy (2nd of turn) that brought Bargain in, after drawing a load of cards (Bargain does enter before Therapy resolves) and going to the opponent's turn.  (Rewind, naming card isn't optional...no Null Rod...)

I also looked at the turnpike toll ticket on the way home (after Big Nick basically got lost trying to drive some odd route home) and found that they "need about treefiddy".
Goddamn toll both attendant looked like he'd been dredged up from some Scottish Loch.

[MadManiac21]

Nomad, that Oath player against steve with the fetchland problem was the same player who called the judge on me repeatedly.

tell your friend to grow a sack and not be such a bitch. ;o)

[CrashTest]

I only had two cases of people trying to rules lawyer against me, for the most minor sheeyat! Most people were more relaxed.

[Outlaw]

Caleb what about Props for me for just being sweet?  Congrats on being a hermit for 6 months and taking home power!

[MadManiac21]

I saw you once all day and you didn't even rub my nips.

I should have given you slops.  :lol:

[Nomad]

Nomad, that Oath player against Steve with the fetchland problem was the same player who called the judge on me repeatedly.

Tell your friend to grow a sack and not be such a bitch. ;o)

Sorry.  But it's better we get newer players there than not at all, not like it's his first T1 tournament even, I think he got a bit carried away by the way he was still in contention.  I'll have a word.

But he wasn't the only one.  Read Kowal's report, second round too.

The other guy I brought up went home well pleased with himself after beating Roland Chang out, even if he too lost his last round and missed out.

[Kowal]

[li]A guy with an empty hand protesting his opponent playing Mystical in response to his own Ancestral, after appearing to have passed priority (Mystical stuck, but the guy wasn't exactly gracious about the whole thing, while his opponent was a nice guy)[/li]

That would be ForceFieldYou.  He later described the situation as a "classic Demars style meltdown" which I chuckled at given his reputation here on TMD.  He chilled out pretty fast after a cigarette though.

[Rapalaman1]

Good job on making rising above the "majority" of stax players and lists and taking a top spot

[wicketsnatcher]

I'm tellin' ya - waiting several months before playing in a somewhat major tournament is the thing to do.  It's worked wonders for me!

And very much congrats on the T8!

-J:tD

[MarkPharaoh]

A guy remembering they hadn't finished resolving the Cabal Therapy (2nd of turn) that brought Bargain in, after drawing a load of cards (Bargain does enter before Therapy resolves) and going to the opponent's turn.  (Rewind, naming card isn't optional...no Null Rod...)

Yea, I was the UbaStax player...my opponent was just stupid..making infi misplays on top of the Therapy rehab and even manaburning to death later in the game..Hell, he even kept SHOWING me his hand by tilting the hand so far over to flash the cards to me...heh.

[Nomad]

A guy remembering they hadn't finished resolving the Cabal Therapy (2nd of turn) that brought Bargain in, after drawing a load of cards (Bargain does enter before Therapy resolves) and going to the opponent's turn.  (Rewind, naming card isn't optional...no Null Rod...)

Yea, I was the UbaStax player...my opponent was just stupid..making infi misplays on top of the Therapy rehab and even manaburning to death later in the game..Hell, he even kept SHOWING me his hand by tilting the hand so far over to flash the cards to me...heh.

I figured this to be the case, but it looked like his hand was a whole can of whoop-ass for what you had out right there and then.

I sometimes find I'm feeling generous enough to point out that they should hold their hand up a little.  That sometimes tends to be around the time I have lethal damage in game 2 though...

Anyway, congrats Caleb, I had no idea you hadn't played in that long.  But telling your 5/6 playoff oponent that you actually wanted a Timetwister before starting the game to play for a Pearl didn't strike me as the best way to get good Karma...  Same guy (Corey Mann - did anyone else T8 both days?) wanted to play out in Rnd 7 day 2 against Joe Davis, I suppose it wasn't 100% sure he'd get in, but it looked really unlikely to go any other way.  They drew anyway in the end.

[CrashTest]

Good job! I think i was the "Friendly" Oath player you played round 7, definitely not the one who called the judge over.

          This was also my first tournament in a long time, but my time can beat yours...almost 6 years! 12th isn't too bad after that big of a break.

    (My last tournament was 3rd in a PTQ playing Tradewind/Survival in extended back in like 2000..lol!)

         

[forests failed you]

[li]A guy with an empty hand protesting his opponent playing Mystical in response to his own Ancestral, after appearing to have passed priority (Mystical stuck, but the guy wasn't exactly gracious about the whole thing, while his opponent was a nice guy)[/li]

That would be ForceFieldYou.  He later described the situation as a "classic Demars style meltdown" which I chuckled at given his reputation here on TMD.  He chilled out pretty fast after a cigarette though.

First of all; We were in game two and he took game one; with about six minutes left in the round.  My Titan, Trike, and Duplicant are all RFG, (not to mention I had boarded B wish out) leaving me with two Welders and a Shaman to beat down for fourteen.  I'm n the middle of a Yawgmoth's Will, annouce Recall to the stack and start looking through my gravey for mystical.  In the meantime he says that Recall is fine and when I announce the Mystical he states that because he had already "allowed" my Recall to resolve I couldn't respond.  I basically say "Bullshit" I never at any time told you I was passing priority, and therefore I don't give a damn that he, with his zero card hand had allowed it to resolve, because I never told him I was passing.  So he calls a judge over and says that I said " ancestral recall" in a questioning tone (which I didn't) and that was a sign of a priority pass.  I at this time become fairly pissed because the guy is clearly stalling and wasting time in the round and I say that "I did not say Ancestral Recall, QUESTION MARK, and therefore there was no priority being passed at all.  I merely announced my spell to the stack and then was thinking about what to do next.  My opponent then decides that he wants to have a long conversation with the judge about what can be done in the future to avoid unpleasant misunderstandings.  And I respond by saying "this is absurd, my oppoonent is clearly stalling and wasting the little amount of time on the round left that I need to beat down with Welders and Shamans.  And at the end of it, the judge refuses to add the two minutes my opponent wasted off the round back onto our round.  To add insult to injury the judge tells me in the future to not play sloppy.  I supoose this is where I stop being gracious, because I was not being sloppy at all.  Yes, I was extremely pissed off after this entire event occured.  However, thank god for Rolling Earthquakes for 11 points of damage to get the win in turns.

And thanks Kowal for the Cigarette; if not for smoking I don't know how I would have dealt with the stress/

[AbouTreeFiddy]

demars u actually played a rolling earthquake?  I had to look it up to see what it did.  I would have slapped the kid off his chair if he was rules lawyering me like that.  And then rubbed it in his face that he lost to a rolling earthquake.

[Nomad]

I'm n the middle of a Yawgmoth's Will, annouce Recall to the stack and start looking through my gravey for mystical.

To add insult to injury the judge tells me in the future to not play sloppy.  I supoose this is where I stop being gracious, because I was not being sloppy at all.

Both Mystical and Recall are in the yard, Will has resolved.  You choose to play Recall first, despite opponent having an empty hand (and I rule in your favour mostly on the strength of that). 

I stand by sloppy, unless you want me to move to shady?

[NJ.Magic.Player]

Hey, it's the rules lawyering douche bag here! Congratulations on doing well in the tournament. All of the games we played were pretty close. Even G1 with the second turn oath was because of me drawing my Razia, if you hit a stax to match the wasteland that balance could have wiped Akroma off the board.

 In my defense on calling the judge when you wanted to switch lands was you had already told me  you were done with your turn and I had even drawn for mine. I think game two got me mad because I kept drawing more cards with impulse and never hit the orchard. That's magic though and after the lucky turn two oath with a mull to five the game before I can't call it bad luck. Anyway, that mixture of frustration and knowing that if you attacked I would have an extra turn to win really made it important to keep trinipshere out of play. Hell you should know everyone hates that card. (Hmm maybe that is a reason I should play a deck with it)

“I hate when people try to use semantics to try to weasel out a win.  This is Type 1-we don't care for that shit.� I'm so used to PTQ's where people will call a judge if you're sideboard is exposed during a match. Looking at your SB during a game is technically illegal. I should know people play T1 to avoid that and shouldn't try and bring it there.

 2 P.S.'s Couldn't you let me loose in peace & Come on Nomad..you were my ride, Why didn't you rule in my favor!! I even PAID for gas!

[Nomad]

“I hate when people try to use semantics to try to weasel out a win.  This is Type 1-we don't care for that shit.� I'm so used to PTQ's where people will call a judge if you're sideboard is exposed during a match. Looking at your SB during a game is technically illegal. I should know people play T1 to avoid that and shouldn't try and bring it there.

I had some ideas afterwards I was going to put to Ray.  Basically, this is as big as it gets in Type 1, and as such ought to be reasonably professional.  But by and large, that isn't what the majority of players want.

I think the default option ought to be that it's equivalent to REL 1 (trivial stuff can be undone - equivalent to 'cos we're out of sanctioned land), but if a player wants, he can declare at the start of the game (match) that they will play as REL3.

The rules lawyer gimps then have one more thing they can try to remember each match, and I feel it's best to put the onus on them...

There was a guy at Neutral Ground who always used to play in this way...where are you Raymond?

[Klep]

I think the default option ought to be that it's equivalent to REL 1 (trivial stuff can be undone - equivalent to 'cos we're out of sanctioned land), but if a player wants, he can declare at the start of the game (match) that they will play as REL3.

I disagree.  If we want our format to be taken seriously, then we need our tournaments to be taken seriously.  This will not happen if our major events are held to the same rules standard as a prerelease or FNM.  This doesn't mean we have to sacrifice our more casual attitude toward the game.  It just means you can't use that attitude to excuse being sloppy with the rules.  True there are going to be some people trying to take advantage of the higher REL, but that is what Unsportsmanlike Conduct is for.

[Nomad]

If we want our format to be taken seriously

And immediately that puts you in the minority.  Most people went to play at Waterbury because it's a fun weekend, they can hang out with some fun people and whatever - not really because they wanted to play a real serious game of cards.

Differences aren't about the rules, it's about their enforcement.  Doing something - like fetching an Underground Sea or playing Ancestral - then realising something - like your oponent has an untapped Waste and you want an island instead or you need to use that Mystical in the yard right now - shouldn't be locked down REL3 style at a tournament with this type of audience.  Save it for the SCG things.  There's a reason they get low attendances.

[Nomad]

2 P.S.'s Couldn't you let me lose in peace & Come on Nomad..you were my ride, Why didn't you rule in my favor!! I even PAID for gas!

I've just been re-thinking this...The ruling did go your way when I was called!!!
Grand Inquisitor kept his Underground Sea on the table.

[iamfishman]

If we want our format to be taken seriously

And immediately that puts you in the minority.  Most people went to play at Waterbury because it's a fun weekend, they can hang out with some fun people and whatever - not really because they wanted to play a real serious game of cards.

Differences aren't about the rules, it's about their enforcement.  Doing something - like fetching an Underground Sea or playing Ancestral - then realising something - like your oponent has an untapped Waste and you want an island instead or you need to use that Mystical in the yard right now - shouldn't be locked down REL3 style at a tournament with this type of audience.  Save it for the SCG things.  There's a reason they get low attendances.

Seconded...I think alot of people change "I want our format to be taken seriously" to "we want our format to be taken seriously".

I got out of serious magic for a reason: it breeds cheaters, liars, a-holes, etc. 

Now, seeing as how big Waterbury has gotten it may seem kind of hypocritical to say this but...I don't want our format to be taken seriously.  If I had my way, Waterbury would end at 8:00 pm, the power would be given out randomly, and all 200 of us would go to hometown buffet, pig out, and just have a fun evening.

P.S...as for the calling on the land in GI's match.  I ruled that they land stayed only because all other rulings on the day were at REL 3 and I felt that this call would be consistent.