Report and Results from Blue Bell Double Blue power

[Midknight]

     My friends, Colby Evenpence which is well known, and Matt, Eves, and Dave, all headed down to BlueBell for the main T1 event. I decided to stick with the same deck, I played last time, which was Bomberman, since I top 8 with it last time, and lost to Fish first round in the top 9. My friend Dave wanted to play, Blue White Fish, but since we found out that Cold Snap, wasn't going to be legal for the tournament he decided to play a new deck that he never played before, Worse Than Grow. Matt ended up playing this Blue Black deck that hated out Combo, that Colby made up. Colby played Uba Stax which hes one of the best players with that deck. Eves play my Grim Long deck.

      I think there were only 28 people in the tournament, with five rounds of swiss. First and second round I played Oath of Durids which is a really good match up for me, so i went 2-0. Third round I played Blue White fish and got completely destroy by him. He ran allot more creatures than me, and with the Meddling Mages naming cards that shut off my combo. So I got wreak both games by him. Fourth round I played Slaver which was a really close match but i ended up winning the third game. Fifth round I ended up drawing, since there was no reason for me to play it out.

      Colby and Eves also manage to squeeze in the top out. Thats two of my team mates! I was so happy all of us top 8ed. Colby lost to the same Blue White fish guy, that I lost to in the swiss, and he also played him in the rounds of swiss, and lost to him. Eves lost to this, Black White discard land distruction deck, it was a terrible match up for him since he was playing Grim Long. I played Dragons first round in the top 8, and just crash him both games. Semi Finials I played the guy playing, that black white deck and won 2-0. In the finials I played the same Blue White fish guy, that I lost to in the swiss, and some how pulled it out both games and didn't even go to the third game.

     I must say, I made my fair amount of mistakes there, but my deck must really love me. Before I played the finials, I try to get the guy to split with me, since I figure I didn't stand a change, but he made me play it out. I got really lucky and won and got the Time Walk! I still can't really believe I won. I been going to T1 tournament's for over the past two years and never won before.

     We had people stealing there which really pissed me off, because I had it happen to me when I got my deck box stolen from me at Regionals, which had four decks in it. One of the kids at the campus got his book bag stolen and it had his wallet, car keys, and cell phone in it. The guy running the Tournament also got his Vampiric Tutor stolen. I think we need to bate these theifs, by sticking out deck boxes with nothing but commons and lands in it, and watch to see who picks it up, and puts it in his pocket. But overall I had a Blast there. Great tournament Mike Thanks.

Here is my deck list that i ran there.

Land 17
5 Island
1 Plains
4 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
4 Tundra
1 Strip Mine
1 Library of Alexandria

Creatures 7
3 Auriok Salvagers
4 Trinket Mage

Spells 23
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Mana Drains
4 Force of Will
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Brainstorm
2 Cunning Wish
3 Mana Leak

Artifacts 13
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Pithing Needle
1 Sol Ring
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Black Lotus
3 Aether Spellbomb
5 Moxes

Side Board 15
3 Meddling Mage
3 Swords to Plowshares
2 Disenchant
3 Energy Flux
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Misdirection
1 Kami of Ancient Law
1 Orim's Chant

      The thinks I might actrally try to change with the deck,is to improve my match up against Fish. Fish runs so many threats against me, the two main ones are Null Rod which completely shuts off my combo and Meddling Mage and its hard to deal with all there little creatures. I'm thinking of actrally putting Jotun Grunts and another Sword to Plowshares in my board, and possibly maybe decree of justice or two. Against fish decks, they have so much hate that its almost impossible to combo off on them, and usually the only way to win is my swinging. I actrally won most of my games my beating down with my creatures. I only combo off a few times in the whole tournament. The fact that Tricket Mages gives you a creature plus a tutor is really powerful. So against fish I think adding in Meddling Mages and Jotun Grunts and Swords to Plowshares and SB out cards that allow me to combo off might be the best bet. Ill have to test it out.

[MarkPharaoh]

congrats.  Unfortunately I could not attend due to a few mixups with cards at GenCon so I didn't have a complete deck.  Hopefully i'll be able to show up at the next event to smash face

[Evenpence]

A few things:

A)  Mike made several very obvious play mistakes to those in the crowd.  However, in his defense, there are a few reasons for this:

     1)  This is only his second time playing Bomberman (his first venture with the deck he made a Top 8).
     2)  Mike is used to playng controlish type decks.  Most of his mistakes revolved around being too conservative (naturally) and not comboing off at the right time.
     3)  He was very nervous, as he has never won a piece of power before, although has Top 8ed several times in local tournaments.

B)  The thief or thieves that were there were not found.  This was the first time something like this had occured at Blue Bell, and it will not happen again.  Blue Bell is a very safe enviroment, and we want to play many more tournaments there.  Like the tournament organizer said, (who's name is also Mike,) these people are not welcome here, and everyone agrees that it is a very nice enviroment to play in.

     1)  Mike (the tournament organizer) had several things stolen from his binder, which roughly estimated about 100 dollars (or more).
     2)  A student on the campus where the tournament took place had his bookbag stolen from him (although there were no cards in it), and had his wallet robbed then thrown in the hallways of the college.

Although Mike has not specifically asked me to help, I would like to ask for any kind of financial support that we could provide Mike, as he provides for us an extremely fun and laid-back Magic enviroment.  I've said many times that Blue Bell is always the most enjoyable tournament that any Vintage player can go to.  The atmosphere is amazing and the people are the most friendly.  It's surprising that something like this happened at Blue Bell - we must have attracted some bad apples.

Mike's handle on TMD is MISTERTREK.  You can find him by going to the userlist or tournament announcement forum to get his information if you would like to help him out with his loss.  I'll be helping him out (hopefully) the next time a Blue Bell tournament is held.

Mike (MidKnight), I recommend you post a more detailed match analysis, including what you played and what your sideboard decisions were.  It would also be helpful if you could explain a little bit about the deck, and how to play it, particularly against the matchups you had.

Congrats to us for getting three people to T8, and special congrats to Mike for winning the whole thing!

[Khahan]

Sorry I missed the tournament.  Couldn't make the lotus or the double power tournament. That's what 3 kids will do. Getting a babysitter for the next one.

Congratz on the time walk. I would love to read a bit of a match analysis, even if you only write up a detailed report of the top8 matches.  This helps us all in many ways. The biggest (in my eyes) is that Blue Bell is still a developing meta. Being able to see the different decks played helps everybody plan better for the next tournament.

[LouGodKingofDustBunnys]

First off,congrats on your first power win. I love seeing people top 8 and/or win power with Bomberman...the deck is alot better then some people give it credit for.
I also have a suggestion that might help you with your fish matchup, and that would be to play either Seasinger or Old Man of the Sea in your board. Resolving either one vs fish GREATLY improves the matchup post board. Get together with your teammate and test it. You won't be disappointed.

[Midknight]

Thanks, for everyones advise, and for congrats me for winning my first piece of power. I didn't even think of Old Man Of The Sea. The deck can easily support it. I will try my best to write up a better report on the top eight, but I'm not sure what all the decks were in the top 8. Heres the decks I know top eight-ed, Uba Stax, Grim Long, Blue White Fish, Black White discard land destruction, Dragons the old version with squee, and of course my deck Boomerman. I Think there was another Fish deck in the top 8, thats what Colby told me. I have no clue what the other one was. If anyone knows Please post it.

[Nehptis]

Congrats on the win.  I too was unable to attend at the last minute.  Sounds like the usual diverse meta that we come to expect in this area.

I'm disappointed to here about the stealing incident.  As others have stated this is a great tournament scene with room to grow.  I'm not sure if stealing in the T1 scene is just a popular topic at the moment or if  it truely is occuring more often than in the past.  In either case, we really need to keep a watchful eye out in an attempt to eleminate this kind of thing from proliferating.

Keep the decklist and matchup analysis coming.  They are great reads!  Hope to see you all at next month's event.

Edit Re: Theft

In the past, as others have mentioned, Mike as had a very open policy about letting players flip through his binders.  I think in light of recent events caution should be advised and dealer binders (especially Mike's who is concentrating on running the tourney) should be less accessible to players.

BTW, here's a nice concise article from a local storeowner regarding Theft Control.  Some obvious but sometimes disregarded pointers that everyone should attempt to follow.  It's in the Yugioh section!

http://www.headgamesonline.net/yugioh/yugioharticles/max2.htm

[Khahan]

As far as the theft goes, we'll be working on it. Mike has plenty of support players from his old shop that helped organize the original tournament series and are more than willing to help out.   Not that this should be a challenge to anybody to try, but theft at his next tournament will be much more difficult. Simply put, more pairs of eyes actively looking out will help.

This past tournament, Mike was down 2 helpers (myself and Jer). Jer moved away, but I'll be back for his next tournament.  He'll definitely have help keeping an eye on things from here on out.

[SonataOfTheCathedral]

This looks a lot like this list I played at Waterbury, actually identical. Did you netdeck it, or did you conclude through random testing from your team this was the best build? How was the one random Kami of Ancient Law? Seems terrible.

On fish:

I have been testing Meloku the Clouded Mirror, and untapping with him does far greater damage to fish, than the other cards mentioned. It is basically game over for aggro.

[Evenpence]

Mike netdecked it.

Meloku seems amazing.

[Midknight]

Yes I net deck it. I been playing Boomerman for the past two months. When I saw your deck list, with Cunning Wish over Disenchant or bounce, and a extra land, I try it out. Its better to Cunning Wish for Disenchant. About half the time, Disenchant just sits in your hand. Playing Cunning Wish, give you access to many Sb cards, Disenchant, Swords to Plowshares, Ormins Chant, Fact or Fiction, or Misdirection, so its never a dead card. I played a good amount with both versions, and I perfer the Cunning Wishes. It also gives your another card to pitch to force. As for the Kami of Ancient Law, I ran that over the brainfreeze in your Sb, theres absolutely no reason to play that, its overkill. Whenever I combo off, I draw out my whole deck leaving a few cards so I don't deck myself. Play all seven creatures. Then I Time Walk, if I didn't already play it. And discard down to 7 counter, only keeping the Drains, Force of Wills, and the Cunning Wishes. There is no reason why you shouldn't win the race. Kami of Ancient Law was fine. I played oath the first two rounds. If anything, it was a another Disencant against them that also Sb in, and put them on a clock.

[SonataOfTheCathedral]

Heres why you should play Brainfreeze.

A) You don't have access to a Trinket Mage or a Spellbomb at the moment. It adds redundancy. And thats a good thing.

B) Sphere Of Resistance. You can generate infinite storm with easy and auto win vs Stax like that.

C) Late game vs control...I have gone EoT Cunning Wish, had it resolve and my opponent went "Oh Shit" I played a bunch of Brainstorms and Moxes and Brainfreezed for close to thirty.

[Midknight]

You brought up some really good points. Something else that pop in my head against fish, the first card they usually name with Meddling Mage is Aether Spellbomb. It shuts off your infinite card drawing and you also cant bounce there Meddling Mage. Brainfreeze also gets around that.

[TD]

Thanks, for everyones advise, and for congrats me for winning my first piece of power. I didn't even think of Old Man Of The Sea. The deck can easily support it. I will try my best to write up a better report on the top eight, but I'm not sure what all the decks were in the top 8. Heres the decks I know top eight-ed, Uba Stax, Grim Long, Blue White Fish, Black White discard land destruction, Dragons the old version with squee, and of course my deck Boomerman. I Think there was another Fish deck in the top 8, thats what Colby told me. I have no clue what the other one was. If anyone knows Please post it.

I top foured with my U/R fish deck. I lost to u/w fish in the T8 purely to mana screw. The list i played was the same as the list i played on 7/22 except i cut a Red Elemental Blast for a Misdirection. Congrats mike on winning your first piece of power!!!