T4 in Nebraska with Gifts

Since Travis (doubledrain) can't post here yet, he has asked me to post his report,

Hello all,

(Disclamer: as a math major, my spelling sucks!)

some of you on the boards have wanted me to write a tourne report about my 2nd place in lincoln, ne. a few weeks ago. well, i actually wrote a pretty bitchen report (took like an hour) here, but it was too long and when i tried to post it, i was informed of that fact. dumbass that i am, i forgot to save it first, and so it was lost...see lou's report for some of the details of that event if interested.

so now i plan on writing about the most recent excursion into cornhusker territory, where i took third (this time it was for an unl. sapphire).

Friday Night:

I left the springs for denver and arrived at lou's where he and Bob Yu (Clown of Tresserhorn on The Mana Drain) were hangin out. After a quick smoke, we were off to get some dinner. Those guys got burger king, but Bob, being the asian food masta that he is, recomended an awesome hole-in-the-wall (who's exact location I cannot recall) called Burbon Chicken, which has excellent chicken by the same name.

Anyways, we crash pretty early and Scott Limoges, Bob, Lou, and I all head out saturday mornin at about 4:30. The ride there is uneventful, except that somehow Bob's fruty gum ends up stuck all over my ass and the back seat of lou's car. weak sauce, and hopefully not an indicator of things to come.

so anyways we make it there with about a half hour to deck register and scout around. here is the list:

Meandeck Gifts:

Instants24)

3 Gifts Ungiven
4 Brainstorm
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
1 Fact or Fiction
3 Misdirection
1 Fire/Ice
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Rebuild
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall

Sorceries: (10)

4 Merchant Scroll
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Recoup
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Burning Wish
1 Tinker
1 Time Walk

Creatures: (1)

1 Darksteel Collosus

Mana Sources: (25)

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 "" Jet
1 "" Ruby
1 "" Pearl
1 "" Emerald
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
5 Island

Sideboard: (15)

1 Tendril's of Agony
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
1 Pyroclasm
3 Goblin Bombardment
2 Damping Matrix
1 Echoing Truth
1 Hurykl's Recall
3 Pithing Needle

My notes were pretty crappy, and I dont remember every detail exactly
Round 1: Michal Playing Metalworker/Staff combo

This was the guy who beat me in the finals of the last mox event, so needless to say I was thirsty for revenge.
Game 1 he takes a bunch of hits from his mana crypt, and I slow roll him by playing the "control deck" until at some point I manage to cast tinker for Darksteal Collosus (DSC), which would be a re-ocurring theme throuought the day.

Game 2 I remember draining an early mindslaver, and using 3 of the mana to gifts for damping matrix, tinker, mystical, and rebuild. At this point, his board is like tolarian, metalworker, and like 3 artifact lands, and so he decides to give me tinker and mystical, so I tinker up DSC and end of his turn I mystical for timewalk. GG.

That was really awesome for me to beat him, so I felt pretty good after this round.

1-0

Round 2: Dan playing leviat

Dan is a really cool guy, and it was his sapphire that we were playing for. he is currently taking over the Hobby Town USA that the tourne was at; I thank him for holding Type I power tournies. Good luck with the new store, and see you at future events!

Game1: I knew what he was playing (replenish combo/control), as that is this signature deck. I keep a hand with like 2 drain, 2 force fetch, brainstorm, island, and I am on the play, so I feal pretty good about the hand and keep. He drops a turn 2 bosedju, who shelters all from the blue mage, and I nearly shit my skivvies. needless to say, my hand suddenly was CRAP, and i dont manage to mount an offence before his Bazzar of Bagdhad starts goin Squee crazy, and he eventually dumps solitry confinment, form of the dragon, and humility into play via replenish. I scoop for the sake of time.

Game 2 and no early bosedju by him = I recolve a drain or 2 and eventually DSC comes to play.

Game 3 was a repeat of game 2, except he was mana screwed early and was never really able to recover. I remember resolving an EOT fact into the following pile:
2x Pithing needle, lotus, force, tinker. Wow.

2-0

Round 3: Ashley playing Grim Long

I am fairly confidant about this matchup, as I tested the hell out of it when I used to be roomates with Lou.
Ashley informs me that this is her first type 1 event, as she is mostly an extended player. I am all like " hell ya, you go girl"
as we shuffle up. Game 1 she makes a playmistake as she casts a dark ritual and then Imperial Seal, but then has to burn for 2 and pass the turn, as she thought the seal put the card into her hand. That sucks for her, but I feal even better about the matchup at this point. I think I fired a xanted swarm at sometine in the match. DSC eventyally comes to play and we move on to game 2.
Game 2: I dont remember much, except that this was the first time I killed with tendrils today. Yay broken Yawgmoth's wills!

3-0

Round 4: Bob Yu playing MD Gifts

He is also 3-0 and as the top seeds, we decide to ID. Plus, he is Colorado Crew.

Round 5: Scott Limoges playing UB Dragon:
Again, he is CO Crew, so we ID.

Top 8:Michael from Round 1

my notes are sketchy at this point, but I win game 1 with DSC and then game 2 I think he gets mana flooded/screwed and I drag the game out till I resolve a huge Will for the tendrils kill.

Top 4: Scott Limoges

at this point, Bob Yu was already in the finals, and we should have wouked out a 3 way split and just headed home, as we were 1st, 2nd, and 3rd at this point, but i promised my brother i would try and sell him the sapphire, so i figgure a 2-way split would be easier, as me and bob had already worked one out.
Game 1 I keep a hand on the draw that includes ancestral, force, drain, and some other gas, but scott has all the answers in the form of duress and an early win, so I have to use my resources unefficently to try to stay alive, but he powers through the win fairly early.
Game 2 was long and involved me mulling to 5 keeping a hand of brainstorm, underground, drain, mox, and I think gifts. I play it out and eventually resolve 2x needles, one on bazzar and the other on ambassador laquatis. he has null rod out, though, and the only mana sources i find in the next many draws are artifacts, so he manages to build up large land/hand advantage on me. When he finally tries to combo off (after swinging w/4 xantid swarms!) he tries to intuition and fail to find cards, but after some discussion with the head judge, he tells scott that since intuition says "search your library for 3 cards" you cannot fail to find 3 cards, if you have atleast 3 left in the library. we all wonder why you can fail to find 4 cards with gifts, and learn that the difference with cards like gifts/fetchland/mystical tutor, you are asked to find a specific TYPE of card, and so can fail to find those types. but with intution and demonic tutor (among others) you must get a certain number of carus on an unspecified type. Anyways scott just does some mental math, and makes exactly the ammount of mana he needs to force me to hurt my head untill I die (he cast ancestral recall on me like 1009 times).

Well, I didn't win, but I got 3/4 a box of guildpact and pulled a stomping grounds and a burning tree shaman, so that was kinda cool.

Props:
-- The Colorado Crew for putting 3/4 in the top 3, and takin home the mox.
-- Ashley for playing type 1.
-- the judge for knowing his rules.
-- Dan for holding the event, and puttin up his own power.
-- Lou for driving most of the way, and takin his car.

Slops:
--gum on my ass.
--cold as hell out there this time!

Peace Out