[Report] Lotus tourny in Flint Michigan, 20th place w/ UGw Threshold.

Here's some fluff before we get started.

This was hands down the best Magic event I've been to in my life. I want to give some huge props to everyone who set it up, Lou for judging the event and all 41 players that showed up. The baby-mama-drama was kept to a minimum, and I'm glad we had a decent turnout. Lots of players from out of state showed up, and I really liked the guys from Cleveland. C.H.U.M. represented with 5 players, I believe 3 or 4 from predict and 5 from RI.W.

I decided that I would leave goblins alone this time and try with a new deck, WUG threshold. I was told to expect lots of goblins and affinity, enter the sideboard.

2 Tividar's Crusade
2 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Stifle
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Compost
1 Chill
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Card's that escaped my memory. I got up at 3 p.m. today.

Some teammates of mine came up with the idea of having an Enlightened Tutor sideboard. Instead of having lost of hoser enchantments taking up the board, just use the tutor. Sounds like a good idea to me. Tividar's Crusade and Kataki are to hose goblins and affinity, respectivly. Stifle is for Iggy Pop, Shackles is for decks with low threat density and is marvelous in the mirror, Engineered Explosives is nice for aggro decks. Compost and Chill are for the Black and Red decks, and Crypt is becomming pretty standard now.

The deck
Land 18
4 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
2 Windswept Heath
4 Tropical Island
3 Tundra
2 Island
1 Forest
1 Swamp

Creatures 13
4 Nimble Mongoose
4 Werebear
4 Meddling Mage
1 Mystic Enforcer

Spells 26
3 Swords to Plowshares
4 Force of Will
3 Counterspell
3 Daze
2 Stifle
4 Brainstorm
4 Serum Visions
4 Mental Note
1 Worship

I believe in maindecked Stifle. It hits a ton of cards in the format, even fetchlands are a decent choice. The Mages are beautiful in non-aggro matchups. 3 and 3 on Stifle and Counterspell is what we feel is the best number. Counterspell is too bad turn 1 and 2, and Daze is bad late game. The maindecked Worship is golden against aggro, with Nimble Mongoose. Everything else is pretty average.

THE TOURNY

Round 1 - Andrew with R/w goblins

Andrew was a fairly competent player, and a nice guy.

Game 1 - He wins the die roll and plays. Turns 1 and 2 he drops Lackey, to which I respond with Nimble Mongoose and Werebear, respectively. I didn't have threshold, so we were both without a creature going into turn 3. He's been stuck on 1 mountain and gets a plateau turn 3. By then I've cantriped enough to fuel Mystic Enforcer for the win, he couldn't recover fast enough. The only other creature he got to play was goblin Sharpshooter. I win at 16 life.

Out: 4 Meddling Mage
In: 2 Enlightened Tutor, 1 Chill, 1 Engineered Explosives

Game 2 - I get stuck on 1 Tundra. Another land comes down turn 4 so I can drop Chill, which has been in my hand since the game started. Even with the Chill, red men run me over. I didn't manage to deal a point of damage to him.

Game 3 - I mulligan to 6 cards and drop Chill turn 2. He can't get enough men down before mongeese and bears eat him alive. I take it away at 17.

2-1-0

Round 2 - Carl with B/W Confidant

Carl is a guy I've seen around. A great guy to play magic with.

Game 1 - Carl win's the die roll and plays. Three wastelands take out some of my duals, thus I'm left with no lands and very little cards in hand, thanks to Duress, Hymn to Tourach and Hyppie. I had him at 4 life before he finished me off.

Out: 3 Meddling Mage
In: 1 Compost, 1 Engineered Explosives, 1 Vedalken Shackles

Game 2 - Various creatures ate away 7 of his life before flyers and no hand did me in. I remember some Sinkholes and Vindicates and Wasteland. Ouch.

2-3-0

Round 3 - Angel with R/w goblins.

Angel is a cool guy, who is quiet for the first game, afterwards he explained to me that he was up until 3 a.m. playing Yoshi's Island with his team. Along with the table next to us, we discuss how Mario and Luigi beat the hell out of Yoshi to get him to spit out his tounge.

Game 1 - I win the die roll and play first. I lost this game because I forgot to attack with a Mongoose 1 turn. He lays down Lackey and 1 gets through for a Seige-Gang. His ALPHA strike takes me from 10 to well below 0. His remaining life? 3. Oops.

Out: 4 Meddling Mage
In: 2 Enlightened Tutor, 1 Chill, 1 Engineered Explosives

Game 2 - I play. Tividar's Crusade is in my opening hand, and if I can draw into a second white mana source, I'll probably have this game. I never hit one, fetch or otherwise. I managed to swing in for 3 this game. My life total goes 20, 19, 18, 14, 9. I should have mulliganed, but I relied too much on my topdecking skills, which lost me the game. Said skillz, however, would win me a game later that I should have lost. Phyrexian Furnace kept my graveyard from getting out of hand (for him) and my creatures would have saved me from his mob had they been bigger.

2-5-0

Round 4 - Al with Salvagers game.

Al was a cool guy that took some advice from the internets and used Simic Sky Swallower.

Game 1 - He wins the roll and fetches a swamp. "Iggy Pop?" I ask. "Yes" he replies. He proceeedes to Thearapy for Force of Will and hits 1. "Sal Game?" I ask. "Maybe" he replies. He proceedes to combo out with 7 life remaining. I managed to eat away with Mongeese and Bears, while doing my best do dodge Vindicate and Innocent Blood.

Out: 1 Daze, 1 Mystic Enforcer, 1 Mental Note, 1 Engineered Explosives.
In: 1 Stifle, 1 Compost, 2 Tormod's Crypt.

Game 2 - I hit him for 10, using Crypt and Swords to dodge Gamekeeper. Living WIsh brought in Viridian Shaman to nuke 1 crypt. I thought I had the game in the bag, with Stifle in hand and Crypt on the board, and gamekeeper trigger resolves. Then I see something I only expect from Chris Walton. Simic Sky Swallower hits the table. Uh-oh. I can't deal with this. And with not enough creatures to race it, I lose. Nicely done.

2-7-0

Round 5 - Mike with Suicide Black.

Mike was one of 21 players left in the event. By now all the people not making top 8 are casual and fun, including last round. Mike was a cool guy and got a little upset when out decks both got the nutz draw.

Game 1 - I win the roll, and he mulligans to 5. I'm taken to 14. Three Wastelands hit the table and I'm almost sure he can win. Dark Confidant is eating away his life and I'm using up counterspells to buy some time. He hit's Phyrexian Negator with Confidant and I'm like "Oh fuck." That thing is scary. My topdecking skillz hand me a Counterspell (I've already used up 2 Force of Will, 1 Counterspell and 2 Daze this game, buying 1 more turn, 1 more turn, 1 more turn) and I'm glad to hardcast CS for the Negator. I beat him down when his deck stops delivering threats.

Out: 4 Chris Pikula
In: 1 Compost, 2 Enlightened tutor, 1 Vedalken Shackles

Game 2 - I have Worship in my opening hand, which is why I boarded in those Tutors. I manage to get him to 15, and at 12 I should be sweating bullets, it's turn 4. He Unmask's me turn 1, some Swords to Farms get played, Duress, I topdecked into Daze for some good reason (my notes are shaky at this point). I have Nimble Mongoose on the table. Worship resolves. He thinks for a minute, and scoops.

4-7-0

Round 6 - Anthony with more Suicide Black.

Anthony is here with Angel and some guy from Cleveland. We're laughing, and talking about random shit, real casual. This is what Legacy should be.

Game 1 - I win the roll. He accelerates into Braids, Cabal Minion. This wrecks my day, but he has Bob on the table. I've got nothing in play. I'm at 1, he's at 2. Lots of beats this game, lot's of pain for him from Confidant. I kindly ask him to reveal the top card of his library. He explains he'd like to untap first, he does, and Smother deal lethal. An audiable "Whoooo!" erupted from me.

Out: 4 Meddling Mage
In: 2 Enlightened Tutor, 1 Compost, 1 Vedalken Shackles

Game 2 - He's on the play, and I've got 2 big Mongeese in play. Secret Tech Grinning Demon get's played. The combat math has me at 9 and him at 5. He loses either way. We laugh, and agree that Suicide Black is a good name for the deck.

6-7-0

Rounds 3-3

Not nearly enought to top 8, but comming in 20th isn't as bad as I could have done. This was the funnest event I've ever played in, and I cannot wait for the next one. Not once did I accually worry about winning the Lotus or Walk, but everyone there was pretty laid back (save DeMars and Bogangles). After my games a little drama occured when Angel beat DeMars 2-0. If he had given him the match 2-1 DeMars would have been in the T8, but Angel explained "I didn't drive all the way up here, I did it for my team." One of his teammates was in the T8 and DeMars would have been a pain, or whatever. Angel walked away and DeMars said something like "What a fag." Angel proceded to scare the white out of Brian, saying motherfucker about 3 times in one sentance. He was pretty pissed off. Serves him right. Quite you, Meandeck!

The T8 consisted of Rich and Dan from Pande, and some guys from R.I.W. After Dan lost to affinity, C.H.U.M. was really confidant (no pun intended) that Richard had a Lotus. I'll let him explain how that went down.

I felt this deck could have performed way better, but with me making some bad decisions at keeping opening hands, and some bad luck was less than pleasing. As I've stated, I really enjoyed this event, despite my teams poor performance and my personal slops.

Props and Slops

Props: For the two lowest skilled players on C.H.U.M. stepping up, Kyle for playing a difficult deck and placing well and Bob for being handed a stack of cards this morning and almost making T8. I'm very proud of how the team as a whole did. More props to the organizers for setting up a wonderful event and to everyone for showing up.

Slops: The whole round 6 incident. Boxes piled up on tables that we weren't supposed to look through (oops). Richard's play error, some of my play errors. Chris' bad luck, Kacey's bad guess on Pyrostatic Pillar.

Thanks for your time, please rate and all.

- Becenz