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Revvik
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« on: February 13, 2006, 02:47:58 am » |
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I have not played competitive Magic: the Gathering since November 2005. On Sunday, February 12th I unplugged myself from the World of Warcraft, bummed a deck from my teammates, and joined them in Livonia, MI, in contest for a Mox Sapphire.
My weekend began with a concert Friday night at Mac's Bar in Lansing, in attendance at a live showing of the band The Hard Lessons. I stayed up until 6am drinking with a friend of mine, waking at noon with a mild hangover. I managed not to move around a whole lot until my girlfriend came over to prevent me from napping before my shift started at 10pm. I left work at 6am feeling like hell, knowing I had to meet at a friend's house at 10am to make the drive out to Livonia for the tournament they talked me into attending. By the time I made it there, I'd already been awake 22 hours and still felt pretty rotten from over-indulging in alcohol the night before.
We followed through on pre-arranged plans to find me cards for a deck, seeing as how I sold mine earlier for $3,500 to finance my move to Lansing (including the buying of a new car, which was destroyed in an accident a mere two weeks after the purchase). The list, as follows, was originally created by Bob Mahannah, and tweaked to fit me more comfortably:
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Jet
1x Mana Vault
1x Mana Crpyt
1x Sol Ring
1x Lotus Petal
1x Library of Alexandria
1x Tolarian Academy
2x Flooded Strand
2x Polluted Delta
3x Underground Sea
2x Volcanic Island
4x Island
4x Force of Will
4x Mana Drain
4x Brainstorm
4x Accumulated Knowledge
2x Merchant Scroll - Bob's list originally ran Thirst for Knowledge here
2x Cunning Wish
2x Intuition
2x Pithing Needle
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Time Walk
1x Night of Souls Betrayal
1x Rebuild
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Tinker
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Darksteel Colossus
1x Tendrils of Agony
The Side
15 Cards:
3x Red Elemental Blast
2x Rack and Ruin
1x Skeletal Scrying
1x Ebony Charm
1x Misdirection
1x Echoing Truth
1x Pithing Needle
1x Hurkyl's Recall
1x Darkblast
1x Jester's Cap
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Grab the Reigns
An explanation on card choices is probably warranted, but I'm pretty sure trying to convince anyone that Night of Soul's Betrayal or Grab the Reigns was the right choice would be wasting my breath. Instead, I'll just say that my experience will be deafening compared to the criticisms of theorists. Probably the only point I will bother with is explaining why I made the switch to Merchant Scroll over Thirst, and that was simply because I've been using Scrolls in AK decks for far too long to give up now. Besides, when the most unexciting play you can make is Merchant Scroll finding Ancestral Recall, you know you have an MVP card.
Deck Reg at Noon, Tournament Start at One, yadda yadda.
Round One: GWS Oath
This round set the pattern for my victories in the swiss - I would just ignore the Tendrils kill and Tinker straight into Colossus. Game Two gave me a little bit of a chuckle, since he Extracted me fairly early. I already had a Yawgmoth's Will in hand, so I felt comfortable enough with having only one of my two win conditions left. I could honestly see in his eyes when he came across the Night of Soul's Betrayal, and he even mentioned afterwards his thoughts on just snatching that one out of principle. I ended up activating Jester's Cap on him twice thanks to my Yawgmoth's Will (Welders are for chumps anyways), taking two of his three creatures (third in hand, no Brainstorm) and an Extract with two Chokes.
1-0
Round Two: Dawn of the Dead (teammate, Nick Antes)
I come out of the gates firing in game one, and he never really catches up. Somewhere around turn four I draw my Jester's Cap, which sets off the alarms in my head: I forgot to de-sideboard from round one. I explain my mistake and award myself a loss for game one, which I make up for with victories in games two and three. Nick is hardly fazed, since he is one of the strongest consistent finishers at R.I.W. and I fully expected to see him in top 8 anyways. His deck is an incredible creation as always - I encourage everyone to look it up on these forums.
2-0
Round Three: Flame-Vault Gifts
I took game one in a most typical fashion involving everyone's favorite Legacy uncommon. Game two I wasn't so lucky. Gifts Ungiven is a really good card, after all, and Mitch was a solid player. I get burned out after putting up all the struggle I could. Game three takes us all the way to time and an unintentional draw, with him unable to pull off the combo and me unable to do much except hope to Rebuild his Time Vault in response to Flame Fusillade.
2-0-1
Round Four: ???
I don't remember much of anything about Round Four, other than Tinker-Colossus. This is really starting to remind me of the days of Iron Giant, when Darksteel first came out. I had a very early incarnation of a deck that operated off Tinkering Colossus into play as its main win condition, with two Morphlings as backup. Things have just totally been streamlined since then, eh?
3-0-1
Round Five: Intentional Draw
I was top-seated before this round, so even though I can't do tiebreaker math I figured there was no chance of me screwing myself out of top 8. I get the chance to scout out my opponents in the top 8 and make informed decisions about my gameplan, but instead I opt to play Brian DeMars in a few casual games - his Slaver vs. my Togless. I get easily destroyed. Sad panda.
3-0-2
Top 8: Flame-Vault Gifts
Pretty well modified, and I had to ask my teammates on the ride home to clarify what I was playing against, since our games never really went long. I pulled off a quick Tendrils kill in game one, and did the Tinker thing in game two. Both games he had a very early Gorilla Shaman hassling me, but both times Night of Soul's Betrayal put the Mox Monkey in the dirt for good.
This time I do check around, and see, other than myself and my opponent, that Nick Antes indeed did make it into Top 8, winning his match along with Brian Demars, Josh Franklin, and a control slaver player I didn't recognize. At this point I'm worried Demars will knock me out of yet another RIW top 8 (it's the scarf, I swear), but pairings are announced and I get yet another reprieve - well, sort of.
Top 4: Josh Franklin, playing "Josh Franklin's Deck"
In the round of Everyone Intentionally Drawing or Fighting Like Mad to Beat the People Intentionally Drawing, Franklin and I did the comradely thing and shared deck tech with each other, so we both knew the basics of what the other was playing. Josh and I have had a history of sharing info with each other for a while now, and we're both looking forward to this match that we've been building up to all day long. Despite our goofing around and jests, we get the match underway. Game one favored me pretty early. Towards the end, I found myself one mana short of a lethal kill with Tendrils, so I gave him a nonlethal dose and Tinker'd up the Big Man himself to finish the job. Game two was by far more interesting - I Tinker up the Colossus and take a swing, landing a hit. He finds an Echoing Truth fairly quickly, and ships my Colossus back to my hand. We play the draw-go for a bit, until I get an Intuition to stick, with an AK removed from game and an AK in hand. I pull out AK, AK, Mana Drain. Franklin hands me the Mana Drain. Not two minutes later, Franklin goes for broke and ramps up to eleven mana to hardcast his Darksteel Colossus. I thanked him for the gift wrapping on the win, cast Mana Drain, and powered my Colossus back out of my hand, with everyone around us laughing the whole time.
I check around the room after the match - Nick, while he managed to make it to game three, wasn't quite able to pull out a win against Demars, so my opponent is chosen.
Finals: Brian "Forcefieldyou" Demars
With our last games still fresh in my mind, the match commences. Game one gives me the win, but it was close from start to finish and I am still wondering how I pulled ahead. Demars calls on the spirits of all those who I've wronged with Tinker / Colossus, and sends in his own incredibly early during game two to beat me down for the win. On to game three, where Demars's slow mana start gave him a full hand and an active Library of Alexandria, while my large mana-base was backed by a card-light hand. In the end, the cards in my hand were the exact ones needed to bomb him out on his endstep, and untap with Mystical Tutor for Yawgmoth's Will. Tendrils of Agony was the murder weapon.
All in all I am incredibly pleased with what I played. Some cards never came up (Darkblast, Grab the Reigns) while some were instrumental (Night of Soul's Betrayal - I'm not even kidding, I love this damn card). I went looking for something with a familiar style and a good amount of power backing it, and I found just the deck for the occasion.
I'm glad I decided to go with the Intuition / AK base as well - it's a potent draw engine.
One thing I was really surprised with myself was the inclusion of Tinker / Colossus over Psychatog. I am still firm in my beliefs that Psychatog is superior, but this deck really wants to run less slots for its kill conditions so it can support game-stalling pieces such as Pithing Needle or Night of Soul's Betrayal.
There's not a whole lot else to add here. I am genuinely stoked that I played and beat Demars (finally). I am thrilled that I won my first piece of power (although disappointed that I won't be keeping it). And I am extremely glad I decided to drag myself away from World of Warcraft long enough to join my friends for this excellent time. I can highly recommend attending this event - if you have even the slightest interest in the tournament Magic scene, this is easily one of the best to be a part of. On another note, it was really great to see everyone out there again (onelovemachine, PacmanXSA, everythingitouchdies), and I expect to see you all again soon.
The Good:
- My teammates, both for insisting that I come and supporting me from round one on
- My opponents, who were a treat to play against
- Josh Franklin, Ben Perry, Brian Demars, PacmanXSA, and every other person I regularly see out at RIW Hobbies
- The Hard Lessons, for putting on one hell of a live show
- Random newer cards, for showing up in my deck
- Edman, for loaning me well over $1,000 of the cards I needed
- Bob Mahannah, for the deck list itself
The Bad:
- My finances, forcing me to sell my first won piece of power
- Edman, for thinking that those Merchant Scrolls were his. Dammit.
The Ugly:
- Whoopi Goldberg
And before I forget: I still have Ben Perry's Mana Vault, with added flavor text "Height of Pleasure from the Depths of Hell." If anyone knows how I can get this back to him, or get a hold of him, please - PM me.
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