Hiya all!
For those of you who aren't aware of my existence, I'm that cocky Canadian that likes to crush filthy Yanks. Anyways, there was a Mox Ruby up for grabs at RIW Hobbies in Livonia Michigan on April 30th, 2006. Team Canada was there in full force (at least 3 of us were) and we were up for vengeance seeing as we had T2 last time and we lost to BS in that round. Anyways, it was about time that I stepped up for the team, so I decided to take the Stax list I have been working on for about 2 months to the tourney. This list is as follows:
Lands
1x Tolarian Academy
2x Gemstone Mine
4x Mishra's Workshop
4x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
3x Bazaar of Baghdad
1x Barbarian Ring
4x City of Brass
Artifacts
1x Trinisphere
1x Mana Vault
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Crypt
4x Smokestack
3x Crucible of Worlds
1x Mox Emerald
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Jet
1x Duplicant
1x Triskelion
1x Sundering Titan
2x Null Rod
2x Uba Mask
3x Sphere of Resistance
3x Chalice of the Void
5c Goodness:
1x Balance
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Crop Rotation
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Tinker
4x Goblin Welder
Sideboard:
3x Tormod's Crypt
2x Shattering Spree
2x Darkblast
2x Pyroclasm
2x Ray of Revelation
2x Ensnaring Bridge
1x Maze of Ith
1x Duplicant
As you can see, it's kinda like a 5c Ubamask list, except it doens't get greedy when it comes to MD and SB choices. The cards are all under 3 non-artifact cost (other than Tinker) and rightfully so. There is no reason to play 3c enchantments seeing as they don't drop 1st/2nd turn. The 2nd trick to running this list is to ensure a proper threat density. If you don't mull this bad boy intensilvely, you WILL lose. It's balls to the wall, and leave no prisoners.
Anyways, I played some real solid players through the round robin and played pretty much what I expected to see. Metagaming properly is awesome.
Round 1 - Benjerman Perry (aka the King of Combo) 2 Land Belcher (One of its innovators)
Edit misc off-topic comments - Dante I love this guy and will defend his ass to the end. Needless to say, he enjoys knocking me out of T8 contention as he is infamous for killing me on the 1st turn. Luckily for me, this is not the case today.
Game 1
This game sees both of us playing welder and welding my Null Rod in and out of the game. It ultimately ends with me outdrawing him 3-1 with ubazaar. He couldn't find a big artifact source to finish off the game. I think at one point he did, in fact, have the belcher on the table, but failed to activate it seeing as I was able to neutralize his mana sources. A hard fought match for sure.
Game 2
I sided in Darkblasts and Sprees for his mana sources/belcher. I was debating whether or not to side in bridges as Ben is notorious for changing into a Sui Black/Aggro deck post board. Seeing as he was playing belcher, I doubted he would board in Negators and the like, so I opted not to run em. I think I sided out Smokers and Crucibles for the cards mentioned above. This game saw me dropping an early Welder and Tutoring for Null Road that was not countered. I was able to hold on from there.
2-0 Match
1-0 Record
Round 2
I was at table 1 with Minore. As we were drinking buddies this day, this was a huge feat. Both of us were doing shots at the end of round 1 and we were both toasty. It would have obviously been better if Franklin's sister/girlfriend were there, however this was not the case so we had to suck it up. We pounded some JD and were off to the races.
Josh Minore - Control Slaver (Not chaff DeMars Burning Slaver because Minore is smarter than the average drunk
)
Game 1
While both of us were starting on the brink of drunkeness, we both played pretty well. I opened with a 1st turn Smoker that Josh could not, ultimately, deal with. Other lock pieces slowly added up, even though he was able to Drain my Null Rod and Uba Mask. I don't think he found anything relevant after thirsting multiple times.
Game 2
I boarded in Crypts and Dark Blasts to neutralize his ability to weld and go busted on my ass. I kept a hand with 1st turn CoW with Darkblast back. He dropped 1/1 creatures like Monkey and Welder but they were easily dealt with. Hooray for booze cause I won through CoW/strip lock.
After this match, we packed her in and went off to Minore's girlfriend's mom's van and had another shot of JD. Good times baby!!!
Record 4-0
Match 2-0
Round 3
Jesse Something - U/W Fish
I got paried up with a guy I have never met before. I believe his name was Jesse, however excuse me if I get this wrong. Sorry baby, but keep showing up and I'll remembering your name. He told me right off the bat that he was a typical T2 player and wasn't a usual vintage player. I grinned and shook his hand. I had scouted this guy the round before and knew he was playing U/W fish. As long as he ain't packing an artifact hate Sb I knew I would be OK.
Game 1
He wins the die roll and plays lotus, mox, Mage (naming Stax) and a chalice @ 0. I kept a hand with Shop, Stax, Mox, CoW and waste so I was still somewhat happy. I played CoW and passed the turn. For some reason, he then started on this anti-CoW rant. I guess that was cause he had two Wastelands in his hand. Oh well
I enventually resolved welder that got a good ol' Duplicant into play that then allowed me to play Stax. I think I had ramped it to 3 or 4 before it was welded out. Perm advantage is a house. The problem with this guy was that he forced me to stack the Stax triggered abilities, and I was somewhat in the tank, mentally, at this point. It took me like 5 minutes to figure out how to properly stack the abilities, but hey, I did it properly baby!!!!
Game 2
I side in Pyroclams, Dblasts and Bridges for chalices and spheres. He plays Mox/land go and I drop a first turn Bridge that isn't countered. It's then follwed up by a welder and never leaves play for more than a phase with me and 0-1 cards in hand for the rest of the game. Needless to say, Bridge saved my ass this round. I initially decided to use it as Oath tech (as there are typically a lot of random janky players running it and Stax has a HORRID matchup against Oath, in general). It seems that Bridge is good against anything with an attack phase. Yeah baby!!!
Match 6-0
Record 3-0
At this point at have yet to lose a game. After getting brutalized last Mox tourney while playing Gifts (which I have NO CLUE, how to play btw) I am much more encouraged with my showing this time around. My teamate, Jeremy (TMDs Olive Garden) is the only other 3-0 playing Oath. We figure we can probably just draw into T8 from here as there are 5 rounds total. We then find out that there was some bullshit going on with the rounds and the point values associated with 1-2 losses and wins. A person that loses 1-2 would get a point and a win was only worth 2 points. This was fucked up and would ultimately end up fucking someone that I totally hold in high regards. I will address this in my props/slops at the end, so stay tuned baby!!!
Anyways, as we are awarded points for a 1-2 loss, me and Jeremy play it out and I lose 1-2. We figured that I would have better matchups against what was available in the field.
Match 1-2
Record 7-2
For round 5, I ID with a kid I didn't know but knew me. He told me he didnt' wanna play against me so he was obviously smart
Thanks bud
So I end up with a 3-1-1 record. Good enough for the 2nd seed going into T8. The two other guys that I went down with (Dirty Harry and Olive Garden) both also T8ed. Somehow, however, Dirty made T8 with like a 2-3 record. This is fucking bullshit and is totally the fault of the software used by Judge Big Bad Dave. I seriously don't know what happened but it shouldn't have. Anyways, I get paired up with Dirty and since I have a better T4 matchup against fish then he did (he was playing Meandeck Ichorid) he let me win, although my matchup against Ichorid is HORRENDOUS. I obviously agree to split with him if I do anything.
T4 - Ray with EBA/Fish or whatever (Should be playing Oath as usual
)
Game 1
Ray is a really cool guy. I have NEVER seen him play anything other than chalice oath with strip effects and Bob's, however this tourney he opts for EBA. I think that's what you call this deck. It had maindeck Negators, Meddling Mages, StPs, strip effects, etc. While post board my matchup isn't real good against Ray, I keep a hand with CoW/Waste with little else. I think he played a CoW of his own and I got HOSED.
Game 2
I knew I had to come up big, so I went all out and sided in Dblasts, Bridges and Pyros. I obviously played and kept a solid hand with Bazaar, Shop, CoW, Welder and Waste. I played the first turn CoW which resolved. He had a slow start and I think the CoW hosed him as I think he had a hand full of strip effects. He counters my Welder next turn and I pass the turn. He counters a lot of my stuff however I eventually start out drawing him through Ubazaar. I had baited him with Welder and got to resolve the Mask. This did not solve my problem with an active Withering Wretch on the board. He had me down to two with a Dblast in hand. I obviously couldn't kill the wretch but it, but I was a lucksack and topdecked another DBlast. With me being at 1 left and outdrew Ray and this marked the end of G2 for Ray.
Game 3
I decided to throw the chalices back in in exchange for something. I don't remember what. I got Chalice for 2 to resolve and it was a house. No more mage, Wretch, Bob and company. Before this, I Balanced with like 1 card in my hand and we exchanged draws in a 3-1 manner. Needless to say, it didn't last long.
Well I make the finals and the other competitor was playing a TPS variant. He didn't wanna play me so he gave me the split with me being the victor. I was glad to take the split as my team was ready to eat some hardcore Olive Garden. We sold the Mox, took our money and spent it on more booze and some good ol' Olive Garden. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.
Anyways, it was a good tourney, as always except for the fact that the big bitch himself, DeMars (Forcefieldyou) didn't show. His teamates certainly did and were a house as usual. This leads me to my props/slops.
Props:
-Team Canada for finally winning something.
-Josh Minore for being loaded with me.
-Pam (Store owner) for being cool enough to let us get wasted on the premises.
-My deck for drawing well.
-The wife for letting me slip away on a Sunday to play magical cards.
Slops:
-Whatever was wrong with the scoring needs to be addressed. Josh Franklin (DeMars' main teamate and probably one of the best players around) went X-0-1 and didn't make T8 whereas my teamates with like 2-3 made it. What the FUCK is this? While this error obviously benefited me, I still think that something was fucked up and was willing to re-calculate T8 as long as I wasn't screwed. This obviously didn't happen, however.
-DeMars for not showing up. I guess he was on top of his boyfriend or something. Maybe he was chilling with cooker penguins though
-Smennen for not showing. He had mentioned that we may be graced with his presence the time before but was, for some reason, insulted by my taunting PMs. Sorry baby, show up and we'll drink or chill or whatever.
-The Chinese guy for not selling me Bazaars for 150 a pop.
-Revvik for not going to Olive Garden with us cause his team wanted to go home
-Franklin for not bringing his sister or new/old girldfriend for me to spoon.
-Fishalo for not playing against me.
-The FUCKING HABS FOR LOSING 2-1 AGAINST THOSE INFERNAL HURRICANES...................
.........
Anyways, sorry for all the inside jokes. I'm sure this is horribly written seeing as I'm just getting back and I'm still buzzed... I REALLY shouldn't have driven home...
If it's REALLY bad let me know and I'll try to edit this after work tomorrow...
If you have any questions or concerns, just give me a shout. Please don't rip on the decklist. You may think that 5c Ubastax is impossible, but test before critisizing baby!
I hope you enjoyed!
Pac
