Rochester News

[JR]

The last top 8 deck that Gunslinga listed was the first seed going into top 8, and he lost to Jeremy. He was playing UR slaver with no DT or Yawg Will(maindeck REBs instead), and he sided into  UR stax, with 3Sphere, crucible strip, and extra welder and tangle wire in the board. He didn't lose a game all day until top 8.

[CrashTest]

Eh, I guess Gifts didn't show up anywhere!

[LordHomerCat]

There were scarce gifts decks from what I saw (this is Day 1 info).  Lots of Oath early on, very little at the higher tables.  There were half a dozen or so Grim players doing well (Day 1 was me, Smennen, Paul Mastriano, and the other guy who top8'ed (its 4am, i dont recall his name)).  I had to play Paul in the mirror last round for the top8 slot, or else there very easily could have been 3 Grim out of maybe 6 or so players in top8.

Ian in top8 day1 was playing Ugo Rivard style slaver with Mana leaks and Plat main, and Blood Moons in the side.

Day 1 Top8 was:
TK with Erayo (1st)
Me with Grim (2nd)
Ian with Ugo CS (3-4)
??? with ?? (bomberman?) (3-4)
dicemanx with Dragon (5-8)
Ben Kowal with Slaver (5-8)
??? with GrimLong (5-8)
??? with Dragon (5-8)

4 combo decks in the top 8 is savage.  Day 2 Paul, me, Smennen, Mr. Nightmare, and the guy who top8'ed Day 1 played Grim again.  Paul did OK, I scrubbed out, Smennen and Mr. Nightmare got paired at 4-1 and had to play, so only one Grim was left to top8.

Congrats to TK, those were some savage hands, and solid play as well.  3 forces plus chain for colossus in your opener are hard to beat =/

[Mr. Nightmare]

The Grim player who T8'd day 1 was Mike Herbig, more known for his Solidarity skills in Legacy.  I played it day 2, going 4-0 and then losing to Dicemanx, who went off turn 2 on the play, followed by an awful game on my part for the loss.  Round 6 saw me paired against Steve, and after a failed attempt at reaching a mutually beneficial result, we played it out and I lost in 2.  Considering the competition that I both beat and lost to yesterday, I'm happy with 12th, but being so tired from 12 hours of Magic on 3 hours of sleep, then 4 hours of drinking followed by 3 hours of sleep, I made the worst mistakes I've ever made in Magic.  Mis-desideboarding, drawing 7 when I mulligan, I was awful all day.  Anyway, nice to meet all you guys in person, and I hope I can make it out to some more events real soon.

[Kevin Folinus]

Congrats to TK, those were some savage hands, and solid play as well.  3 forces plus chain for colossus in your opener are hard to beat =/

Wasn't allowing TInker to resolve a mistake? Isn't there a good chance his opponent will go for Memory Jar...

[Mr. Type 4]

Rochester was a blast.  If you missed out, shame on you.

We played a 9 player type 4 game on day 2 which was won by this guy Kyle who played out the entire game with like one card in hand.  It was the largest game I've ever played.

The Canadians played fiercely, putting a large number of people into T8 both days, despite being a small percentage of the field.  They just couldn't bust their way into the finals.  ICBM stole double Lotus, without playing Oath.  GWS was nowhere to be seen.  When did ICBM become better than GWS?

It was nice to see all of the familiar faces again. Steve was driving my car and got pulled over on the way to Roch.  He showed the cop his bar association card and got out of the ticket.  Laywers win again.  

We were all sad to see that Demars didn't make it.  We think he should hire a hot escort to shuffle his deck and tap his perms.  Think of the psychological advantage to that!

We packed 7 people into my Chevy Cobalt to drive people to their hotels Saturday night.  Including Rich Shay in the back, and practically was sitting on Brassman's lap up front.  After we dropped off Probasco and this guy Charles, Shay tried to call Jeff Anand to get directions to his hotel.  Jeff, of course, was savagely drunk and had no idea how to give Rich directions.  We ended up finding the hotel randomly as we drove around.  Mise.

Steve killed Rich Shay on turn 1 AGAIN.  He's turn 1'ed Rich three times in the last two matches.  

Mr. Nightmare and I played a number of games of Mana Storm.  We learned a lot of new stuff, more on that later in the casual forum.

Grimlong seemed to be running rampant because it perforemed well.  There wasn't a large % of the field playing it, but a large % of the Grimlong players had winning records.  

Gifts suffered a savage blow when Timevalult got banned (sic).  Many of the well-known Gifts players converted to Slaver, and none of them T8'ed.  

As for me, I played myself to contention again and lost to a friend in the mirror.  I had to play a rough road after IDing with Smmenen in Round 2.  Jimmy did buy me a delicious steak dinner at Ruby Tuesday, so all was not lost.  At making 65th at Grand Prix Philly, scooping to JD in Richmond because my breakers just weren't good enough, and having to play Jimmy in the last round here, I'm due to eight at the next event.  I'll see you all at the finish line.  

                     -Paul



    

[Moxlotus]

GWS was nowhere to be seen.  When did ICBM become better than GWS?

Um, we didn't go.  I would hope they would do better than us when we didn't show up   It's ok, they were due for something good after underperforming at Richmond.  But nobody expected this 

This makes 3/4 of the last SCGs won by the Midwest when they were a small portion of the field.  Midwest Vintage > East Coast Vintage?

[Tha Gunslinga]

Dan and I had to miss Rochester for his high school graduation.  I was extremely pissed, and we will definitely be making it to Charlotte.

[herbig]

I'd just like to say that it was really cool to meet everyone and see some familiar faces from my last tournament in Baldwinsville, including a legendary rematch day one against Kowal.  I look forward to seeing everyone again and earning another piece of power.  Only 7 more to go...

[TimDeluxeIt]

Why is midwest vintage better than east coast vintage? We have no beaches.

[rureddy31]

Rochester was amazing. You Americans, you're alright Thanks to Paul, et al. for a great night at Ruby Tuesdays, and to Steve M. for the greatest Quarters match since mine with Demars Grats to all the winners.

[pyr0ma5ta]

Dan and I had to miss Rochester for his high school graduation.  I was extremely pissed, and we will definitely be making it to Charlotte.

Who graduates, anyways?

On topic: Was the Stax build a traditional 5c build?  Tangle Wires?

[Smmenen]

TWO Grim Long decks made top 8 day one.  I don';t know why peolpe are getting that mixed up.  Cross completely misunderstood brassman's comments.  Brassman was saying that he heard horror stories of Grim Long players screwing up, not their opponents. 

I made top 4 on day two with grim long.  I've now made top 8 at 3/4 SCG events I've played Grim Long.

[Sephiroth_FFVII]

Somone posted the winning Fish list from day one on SCG forums...Im not sure if its the correct one but heres a link...

http://www.starcitygames.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=289910&sid=d0bea02026472813b8245b6aa907b645

[Disburden]

TWO Grim Long decks made top 8 day one.  I don';t know why peolpe are getting that mixed up.  Cross completely misunderstood brassman's comments.  Brassman was saying that he heard horror stories of Grim Long players screwing up, not their opponents. 

I made top 4 on day two with grim long.  I've now made top 8 at 3/4 SCG events I've played Grim Long.

Once again Grim Long does extremely well. I'd have to say this deck is a powerhouse. I hope maybe now people will see how good the deck is, play it more, and develope a true play skill with the deck. You ran Repeal correct? I think I saw someone mention that you did in this forum.

"Grim long is too hard to play, it won't do well"--Something people say for some reason.

[Smmenen]

No repeal.

The major new tech was my SB:

4 FoWs
3 Chain of Vapor

and a maindeck Chain

BTW, Rich shay got mainphases BOTh games against me!  So don't let it be said that I ONLY win on turn one!

[M.Solymossy]

So... I heard you lose to Tinker too now, steve?

[Dante]

So... I heard you lose to Tinker too now, steve?

That's what happens when he allows people to have main phases.   

[M.Solymossy]

From what I understood, steve resolved Recall, Tinker, and WILL and still lost to a lonely Tinker with 2 mana open.

[Smmenen]

I lost to myself.

I'm writing a report, but my match against Spooky boy looked like this:

G1:
I mull to 2 (really bad play on my part)
I never play a spell

G2: I win on turn one,

G3: he mulls to 5, I keep this hand:

City of Brass,
Orchard,
Jet,
Ruby,
Emerald,
Dark Ritual,
Hurkyl's Recall

He goes:

T1:  Gemstone Mine, Go!!!!!!!!
I'm like OMG NO. 

I go: draw ESG.  I decide not to play it.

I play Sea, Mox, Mox Mox and pass

He plays Workshop and something irrellevant.

I draw another land and play it and then I draw: chain of vapor, Yawg Will, and another land. 

I drew no business AT ALL in my top cards.

He plays Chalice 1 and In the Eye of Chaos Crucible + wasteland and other crap and then Stack and it ramped to one.  I sacced a mox, and then another.

Finally I realize that I could tinker away my mox pitching ESG and a land for Lotus, and then Yawg Will and replay Hurkyl's and Chain bouncing all his shit and then Chaining the In the Eye.

If i had realized this a turn sooner, I would have had one additional mana - then I could have chained my own mox, saccing my land and had TWO mana.  Then I could have played the Rit, RIt, in my hand and followed it with Tinker for jar with BBB floating.  Seems like i would have won pretty handily.

I made three mistakes that match and I lose.  You can only make two mistakes per match with Grim Long and expect to win.  My three mistakes were mulling to 2 game one, NOT mulling my hand of 7 game 3, and missing the TIniker for Lotus, Yawg Will play until a turn too late.

[Mr. Nightmare]

I keep this hand:

City of Brass,
Orchard,
Jet,
Ruby,
Emerald,
Dark Ritual,
Hurkyl's Recall
.
.

My three mistakes were mulling to 2 game one, NOT mulling my hand of 7 game 3, and missing the TIniker for Lotus, Yawg Will play until a turn too late.

Don't you always mull that hand?  You have absolutely no gas at all, even brainstorm makes it a keeper, but with nothing?

[Smmenen]

It was a mistake.

There was a flawed analysis.  But the reason I kept it is that in SOME stax games, the key is mana stability.

I was thinking this was more like Death Long rather than Grim Long.  With Death Long, I'd keep those hands all day long against Trinistax.  Sometimes, esp. when Stax mulls to 5, it becomes a permanent war.

We already had our stupid games, so i assumed we'd have one highly interactive game.  Instead, we had another stupid game.  He muilled to 5 and that should have been a signal to look for business, not just gas.

Remember, I was on the draw, so I was more inclined to keep that. ANY business in my top 3-4 cards and I win the game where he goes :
turn one: gemstone mine, go. 

I did not draw business.  BTW, I force of willed his 2 Sphere.

[LordHomerCat]

Congrats to TK, those were some savage hands, and solid play as well.  3 forces plus chain for colossus in your opener are hard to beat =/

Wasn't allowing TInker to resolve a mistake? Isn't there a good chance his opponent will go for Memory Jar...

You'd have to ask TK that.  It seems like a tough call; for me, if I'd had any more acceleration, I might have gone for Jar, but my hand was Gemstone, Mana Crypt, Mox Pearl, Tinker, Brainstorm, Vampiric Tutor, some other non-mana card.  I would have gone into jar with only one white mana available and having used my land drop.  Plus, if I wait to jar, he gets to untap and Chain it anyway and I'm still screwed.  It was risky either way, if I get colossus and he has bounce, I'm in a bad way, and if I get jar and don't win, I'm still hurting (plus, little did I know, he would have gotten back triple Force and I would be completely sunk).  His hand worked out perfectly (he drew an island turn 1 and then found a fetch before I found any mana source, which is to say, like 5 turns later, to play Bob and end it), and mind failed to pan out. 

As to steve's situation:  My stax knowledge is pretty bad (heh), but any business spell is insane as it auto-resolves, so as soon as he draws something that does ANYTHING (which, by probability, should be next turn or almost certainly in 2 draws), he wins the game because he has 800 mana floating.  Sometimes, the draws just don't go your way though.

[Disburden]

That's a really good call running Chain of Vapor. I was even running a Hukyl's Recall and a chain of Vapor maindecked against Null Rods a while ago and it helped a great amount. Even though there way to be alot of Fish decks in Rochester you didn't need to run Balance anymore in the Sideboard? I always had it there, but it never became useful all that often. Can't wait for the report, this Rochester was great news for me. So many combo decks top 8ing.

[CrashTest]

I can't wait for some tournament reports with decklists!

[Chiz]

Bomberman is the big surprise of the weekend

Bomberman won so much tournaments around here for the past year... I just hope Americans will show more respect to this deck now. Only 3 players played Bomberman this weekend (Me, Lany and Éli), and all 3 made top8 once, which is really good... Bomberman isn't the best vintage deck, but certainly a good one.

Rochester was great as always. Congrats to every one how top8ed and to ICBM team for winning both tournaments.

[goobafish]

I really want to see a bomberman list. Interesting deck choice, people dont really know how to play around it, which is a huge advantage.

[Chiz]

I really want to see a bomberman list. Interesting deck choice, people dont really know how to play around it, which is a huge advantage.

Yeah, that's a huge advantage, because we knows how to play it pretty well (we play it for a little more than a year...)

You can find a Bomberman dekclist easily on starcitygames.com (Lany finished 9th at the last Rochester SCG in December)

Anyway, I don't know if it is the place for it, but here is the build I made top8 with (Lany and Éli made top8 with a pretty simillar build):

Créatures (8)
4 Auriok Salvagers
4 Trinket Mage

"Trinket Toolbox" (other than mana sources)
2 Pithing Needle
1 Engineered Explosives
3 Aether SpellBomb
1 Tormod's Crypt

Counters (11)
4 Force of WIll
4 Mana Drains
3 Mana Leak

Others (11)
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Thirst for Knowledge
3 Brainstorm
2 Disenchant

Mana Sources (23)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Sol Ring
1 Snow-Covered Island
4 Island
1 Plains
4 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Strip Mine
1 Library of Alexandria

Sideboard (15)
3 Kami of Ancient Law
1 Disenchant
1 Seal of Cleansing
4 Chalice of the void
3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Energy Flux

And no... No Pyrite Spellbomb... The win conditions are Trinkets and Salvagers Beatdown!

[The Chosen One]

And no... No Pyrite Spellbomb... The win conditions are Trinkets and Salvagers Beatdown!

Wow! Is that really effective? I guess it must be... Im impressed

[LordHomerCat]

I imagine thats secondary, after Opponents Scooping to infinite mana and deck in hand =]