"Dave Feinstein destroyed my native homeland." - Random Indian
"Dave Feinstein destroyed my village while ravaging my woman, while I was forced to watch helplessly, hearing her screams and lamentations."
- Random Village Person
"Dave Feinstein destroyed my first Pro Tour." - Random Scrub
NOW YOU HAVE ALL SEEN ME FOR THE TRULY DESPICABLE CHARACTER THAT I AM. BWAHAHAHAHA.
Sigh. I wish I was half that evil. Sadly, Dave Feinstein the man can't hold a candle to Dave Feinstein the myth. I didn't go into this tournament looking to pillage or plunder or sabotage someone's Pro Tour (not this time around, anyway). No, I was merely looking to have a good time. A good, quiet, relaxing time. I decided to show up dressed 'snazzy,' which was a terrible idea because the venue, as I've said hundreds of times over the years, is a complete and total hole. The fact that owners of Brighton Knights of Colombus decided to recently get rid of air conditioning made my decision to dress sharp even dumber. Oh well.
Before we go any further, I'd like to thank Pete from SCG for already hearing player's concerns and not holding a tournament in this dump ever again. Thank you for that.
Day 1-
Anyway, 116 people are here. Seven rounds of swiss cut to top 8. Here's the deck I ran for day 1:
Three color fish:
// Lands
3 Tundra
1 Island
1 Plains
3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
3 Underground Sea
4 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
1 Scrubland
// Creatures
4 Dark Confidant
4 Meddling Mage
3 Jotun Grunt
3 Kataki, War's Wage
// Spells
4 Force of Will
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Brainstorm
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Black Lotus
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
3 Duress
3 Null Rod
1 Mox Jet
2 Misdirection
1 Mystical Tutor
// Sideboard
SB: 1 Null Rod
SB: 3 Energy Flux
SB: 3 True Believer
SB: 3 Threads of Disloyalty
SB: 3 Seal of Cleansing
SB: 2 Orim's Chant
Round 1- Paul Mastriano /w Pitch Long
So much for an easy opponent to start off the day. I knew Paul was good, and I also knew he had a reputation for, well, being Smenenen Jr. He didn't disappoint. From the second he sat down, he was overly energetic, frenetic, and talkative. The banter was there to try and throw my game off, which is fine. People have tried that on me for years and it doesn't affact me. As long as he wasn't offensive, he could recite the Gettysburg Address for all I care.
I stayed silent and shuffled up for...
Game 1: I mulled to 6 and kept a one land ancestral hand on the draw. He plays a vault and passes I untap and draw into a nullrod. I immediately ancestral, looking for mox to drop rod ASAP. Immediately running out Ancestral on your main is always the correct play here, because if I drop Rod he's set back for at least a few turns. Sadly there's no fast mana and no second land. I discard and he sets up on his turn two. I know he's ready to blow. I need a second land right... about... now. I untap and... it isnt there. I discard. He easily goes off turn three. Oh well.
I side out Kataki's for True Believers, mystical tutor for the fourth rod, and both misdirections for both orim's chants.
As I'm boarding, he continues to banter. Somewhere in there he slips in, "That's too bad you weren't able to stabalize before I killed you."
Does Dave Feinstein have to "choke a bitch?"
I once again stayed quiet and away we were to...
Game 2: I lead with dorks. He sets up for yawg will. He builds up some storm, empties his hand, pops jar... I tap my one plains that's open...
Dave Feinstein: "Chant you."
He scoops his cards. GG.
Now that I'm on the draw, I don't care as much about confidants, so I board back in the Misdirections for 2 of them.
Game 3: This one goes long, with me having Mage naming Tinker and a True Believer out. They are pounding him down. We're trading counters and duresses for a while. I'm forced to pop some chants off. Time gets called. On his turn two he pops a jar with no cards in hand.
We both draw a new seven cards and I love mine. With plenty of mana open, I have a mix of Brainstorms, Fow/Mis D and a Time Walk. As I admire my adorable hand, a random spectator decides to jump in and look with me.
Random Spectator: Excuse me, you have 8 cards.
Dave Feinstein: No, I have Seven.
Random Spectator: No, you definitely have Eight.
We have about thirty spectators watching at this point, since we're the last match going. I drew my cards one at a time and clearly have seven visible, but there's no judge present yet so I decide to headbutt the random spectator.
*ZIDAN ZIDANE'D!*
Just kidding. I actually counted out my seven cards one by one in Sesame Street's 'The Count' fashion.
One! One Card! Ah-ha-ha... Two! Two Cards! Ah-ha-ha...
Man, that'd be awesome if I had actually done that. Unfortuantely I was too steaming to come up with this, and instead forcefull laid them out one by one for this random spectator. After counting them for him I then said:
"THIS IS SEVEN CARDS. DON'T EVER RANDOMLY COME INTO MY MATCH AND ACCUSE ME OF CHEATING AGAIN."
Crowd goes silent. Random spectator skulks away. I turn my attention back to the match at hand. I brainstorm, taking a realllly long time to think about it. It turns out I didn't need to take that long, since he's at 3 and I have a true believer and a meddling mage out. If I just put back Time Walk I win. the problem is I missed 2 damage off him casting Imperial Seal, so I thought he was at five. You can thank random spectator for that one. So I'm sitting there forever until the realization that he's at three sets in. This is confirmed by spectators and Paul. So I put Time walk back on top and win.
Paul took the loss well. I felt good about winning that match, and figured he'd be good for tiebreaks as well.
1-0
Round 2- Arend (SpecialK) /w Slaver
First two opponents both Top8'ing Gencon? Ouch. I also know what Arend is running as soon as I see the pairing, and I'm also braced for more... 'banter.'
He's a little late coming to the table, and as soon as he sits down I am informed he has just received a game loss for misregistering his deck. Sucks, but I'm not gonna turn it down. :p
Game 2: I get out a rod, but don't have enough pressure on him before he goes off with will. Oh well.
As I shuffle, he also decides to banter the hell out of me. And of course, what would 'friendly' banter be without the obligatory snide comment?
Arend: "Losing that game can't be good for you."
Now, a plethora of retorts entire my mind. I could do the classic, "Nor would be my foot going up your ass" response, but I'm being a quiet Feinstein this weekend. My rertort to him his simply this: In previous testing, my game one's against slaver (even though that was technically a game two) show it to be rough. He asks who I test with.
Dave Feinstein: "Rich Shay."
Arend: " ... "
Rule of thumb: if a control slaver player is giving you guff, name drop everyone's favorite Atog and they'lll shut right up. If you're actually facing Rich and he's trashtalking you? Well, you're out of luck. But Rich doesn't generally trashtalk... just don't call him 'Rick.'
Anyway, since I can actually board this game, out go true believers, in come seal of cleansings. I also again do the mystical for fourth null rod swap.
Game three: He mulligans and doesn't seem happy about his next hand, but keeps. I lead with turn 1 confidant. He lavadarts it. I brainstorm a couple times. He drops a turn 4 razormane. I seal of cleansing it.
Arend: "You are getting pretty pretty lucky"
Dave Feinstein: "I do what I can."
A duress shows me his hand is crap, and he flashbacked dart a while ago... so I run out a confidant. Kataki joins him. He rips fire/ice. I drop ANOTHER PAIR of confidant/kataki... he draws, chuckles and shows me ANOTHER Fire/Ice. I'm getting lucky? :p I do my best to fight back, but I've run out of gas and he eventually tinkers into some monster and kills me. This loss was depressing.
1-1
Round 3: Neat Peas /w GG Gifts
Are you kidding me? Nice first three rounds I got. Nate is basically a ninja with gifts, and a friend...so I was not thrilled to see him this early with me in the 1-1 bracket. We both frowned, shuffled and away we went...
Game1: I have the game firmly under control with turns one and two confidants. My hand is stacked and I'm pretty sure i'm going to win. Then, of course, I flip over back to back Force of Wills and die from a tendirls for four. If it's anything but consecutive Forces flipped up, I easily win. But it isn't, so I lose. :p
I board out Kataki for True Believer. Chants should have but didn't come in here.
Game 2: Isamaru and friends get in there, but he combos off the turn before I can win. I remember holding two duress and having no black source also.
1-2 DROP
Nice Day One. I drop and am ready to head home, but Mike Lydon graciously offers an invitation to stay at his house. He also scrubbed out today, so we both go back to his place and sleep... separately. I remember having a nice sleep, until his roomate staggered in and saw me sprawled out shirtless on his couch. There's nothing quite like the sight of a shirtless Feinstein...espcially when you don't know it's a Feinstein. Mike's roomate is not thrilled and make me put my shirt on. When offering me couch or futon, I took couch. Apparently, Mike offered me a couch that wasn't his. OWNED.
Anyway, sleep, get up...go to venue. My mutually shared Barn Steffan, is in top 8. I talk with Steffan's fellow hull, Andy Probasco. Steffan's third and final hull, Rich Shay, is also monitoring his barn via tracking device. We're all so proud of our little Steffan. He's come so far. One day, he won't even need three hulls! In fact, he might not need any hulls! He could be... A FREE BARN!
That'll be the day.
So Steffan scrubs out of top 8, and I go eat with him, Brassman, and Mike Lydon. Out of the frigging blue appears Crossman, and we all go to this bar.
A few tables from us is Adam Barnello, Roland Chang, Jeff Anand and some dealers. Card dealers :p As I'm conversing with Crossman, Steffan and Brassman, a waitress comes over with like 10,000 deserts. As she sits them down before us, she says:
"To Dave Feinstein!"
Heh. Didn't expect that one. I look over to the other table and they raise their glasses and toast me. Free dessert? Hot waitress exalting my praises? Works for me.
As we eat said dessert, conversation comes up of the top vintage players curently. I mention my list, and some names get tossed around that I missed. I end up with a list that I feel comfortable enough with. For your viewing pleasure, here is my list of the top 10 ACTIVE players in vintage:
DAVE FEINSTEIN'S POWER 10!!!!
1) Tommy Kolowith. This isn't even close. He's been on a tear since coming out of freaking nowhere just five months ago. He'll continue to stay in this spot the way he's playing. The fact that he's top 8'd major events with decks as diverse as SS, Pitch Long and now Slaver is simply amazing.
Two to ten are debateable and interchangeable, but here are my picks:
2) Nate Peas. Some people like him, some people don't. Doesn't matter either way, he's still on an unbelievable tear right now. Of the past four SCG's, he top 8'd 3 of them. Both days South Carolina and Day 1 Boston. He also top 8'd day 2 of Waterbury. He's probably the best gifts player in the format.
3) Ben Kowal. Ben consistently does well, and averages a top 8 per month. He didn't have a good run at this SCG, being his hometown, but he also didn't play day two. The only person on the list to win multiple SCG's. Also the only person to top 8 the last Waterbury both days (A feat narrowly missed by someone else :p).
4) Robert Vroman- He just continually does well month after month, with the exact same deck that is completely his own. That's impressive.
5) Chuck Norris. Chuck and his ninjas had been doing well up to and including Waterbury. Then ninjas became grunts, and Chuck has since still been performing consistently, with numerous top 8's. Still, he has yet to win a major vintage tournament. If Chuck doesn't win one soon, he'll probably just roundhouse kick all those who performed better, and he'll be the winner by default.
6) Paul Nicolo. Puts up alot of good numbers over a very long period, including a recent top 8 at gencon. Can't rank him higher because he plays vials over null rods. Just kidding. With the way he's going, he'll shoot up higher. It'd be nice to see him play more on the east coast, but as with Demars, I realize distance is an issue.
7) Brian Demars. He's a beast in his area. He just doesn't player much on the east cost, due to distance. If he comes up big at an SCG or Waterbury in the near future, he'll catapult up the list.
8) Roland Chang. He's been on a little bit of a dry run lately in vintage, with just one top 8 from a major vintage tourney. That still happens to be day 1 of Waterbury, and Roland is easily one of the best players around, even when in a slight vintage drought. His Legacy champs win at Gencon cements this.
9) Ugo Rivard. I'm pretty sure he ended up back to back top 16 this past weekend, coming close to top 8 both times. Ugo's best run was with Slaver, but he ran a stax/confidant concoction this weekend that I personally liked alot. I expect him to do well with it in the future.
10) Mike Pies- Numerous t8's and wins from Myriad and Beanie Exchange tourneys, Mike finally comes out of mentor Nate Peas's shadow with a day 2 win at SCG. He wasn't in my top 10 when I originally made the list, but that was before day two happened. Oops, foreshadowing.
Honorable mentions: Tons. I had a real hard time narrowing it to just 10. If my list was a top 20, the next 10 would include (in no particular order) Elias, Ashok, Colby Evenpence, Arend Kreahling, Paul Mastriano, Mike Herbig (debuted at SCG Boston but had a hell of a first showing), Crossman Wilkins, Eric Becker, and both Carps, Dan and Ben.
On top of that, there's easily another dozen or so great players who could easily crack my list but are either in a drought (a.k.a. having a bad run of luck) or are not playing at all for various reasons. Examples: Rich Shay, Steve Menendian, Demonic Attorney, Justin Droba, Travis Leplante, Eli Kasis, Justin Timoney, Carl Winter and Andrew Probasco.
I tried to be objective as possible in making my list. Winning one big tourney with no other top 8's means less to me than top 8'ing a bunch of large tourneys consistently, so my list is performance driven. If you're offended by this list... get over it :p It's not meant to inflate/deflate ego's. I just felt like recognizing top players right now.
So that ended my day one. I knew going into tomorrow that I wouldn't be running this deck. The black portion of it was just letting me down too much. Crossman, Steffan and I went back to Mike Lydon's for a testing jamboree. We invited the Brassman, but he was very depressed. He being poor and jobless, much like myself, didin't want to spend another $30 "only to go 1-2 drop" (his words, not mine). The dejected little metal hero went home alone. Awww.
So much testing was done with Crossman, who was playing gifts. The 10 or so games we did were split directly down the middle. Most of the games were drawn out with multiple choices from both sides. Gifts had a great showing day one, with both Steffan and Nate Peas running it to top 8. I figured combo would be on the rise for day two, which made my deckchoice easy: UW Fish, obv :p
So I tinkered with it a little more before morning, and this is what I ran:
UW Fish- version 1,1152 Lands
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
2 Island
2 Plains
4 Flooded Strand
4 Tundra
1 Polluted Delta
1 Windswept Heath
// Creatures
4 Meddling Mage
3 Kataki, War's Wage
3 Jotun Grunt
3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
3 True Believer
// Spells
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Black Lotus
1 Ancestral Recall
3 Null Rod
3 Stifle
1 Time Walk
2 Misdirection
// Sideboard
SB: 3 Energy Flux
SB: 3 Seal of Cleansing
SB: 3 Umezawa's Jitte
SB: 3 Orim's Chant
SB: 3 Threads of Disloyalty
Looks alot like the deck posted in primer, doesn't it? :p I wasn't kidding when I said I was going to run my 'future' version practically card for card. I listened to you guys and went with the True Believers in the end. I still don't feel they are a fish staple, but for this particular metagame they are pretty much a must run. I knew I was't going to run them over chants and I knew I wasn't enjoying lions or apprentices, so where to fit them in was easy. I was apprehensive about cutting apprentice/lion at first, because I thought it would affect the curve to much. This ended up not being a major concern, as the deck was still plenty fast and it's game one against combo went up DRAMATICALLY. So I went to bed comfortable with this list, hoping not to scrub out again...
Day 2- 76 people. Thirty less than day one, but oddly enough about 30 new people showed up. Many of them were very good to boot. Despite the size differencial, my guess is the tourney would be as hard, if not harder, than day one. As long as I didn't get mauled with name opponents every single round, I thought my odds to top 8 were decent.
Rd 1- Nate Peas /w Gifts
BAH. I don't mind playing Nate...but round one? Where are all these randoms people tell me so much about. Why do I know every single frigging opponent I'm up against?! Wait, I'm a big mouth who talks to everyone. That makes sense. Still, this is not the person I wanted to be across from round one. Nate felt the same way.
Game one: He thinks for a while but ultimately decides to keep his hand. I lead with Isamaru. "Library off the top," he says. As he draws his first card he reveals that is in fact a library. That's pretty lucky. He draws a couple cards with it before I'm able to find a waste. I drop Null Rod, and he's setting up slowly. I have Force in my hand but no blue card. By the time I find one, it's too late... he goes off with multiple counter backup the turn before Isamaru will kill him. It did 14 points on its own.
This time I have a very easy swap of Kataki for Orim's Chant. You may be wondering why I'm boarding out Kataki instead of Isamaru. The reason is simple: I like Isamaru in this matchup. He's a fast clock that applies pressure and usually forces them to go off earlier than planned. Kataki often gets in the way here, casuing me to pay upkeep on rod when I really shouldn't have to.
Game 2: I mulligan and he keeps. He states he will rip library off the top as his first card drawn... as he draws he chuckles and shows it AGAIN. Must be nice. He just dominates me this game. My only shot is to set up a 3 threat turn and hope that the third and most important threat, null rod, resolves. Nate correctly ignores the first two spells, True Believer and Jotun Grunt, and counters the rod. He goes off the following turn.
0-1
I want to go home
Debating on dropping, Nate says the following:
"Dave Feinstein, are you going to 0-2 drop?"
That's it you little pudgy bastard, you just threw down THE GAUNTLET.
Dave Feinstein: "I'm going to win out and beat you in top 8."
Now I'm motivated. Now I'm hungry. NOW IM ANGRYYYYYYY!!!! :p
Hmmm... I need a ridiculous catch phrase right about now...
IT'S FEINSTEIN TIME!
To further help me get motivated, type one's original loudmouth, the one and only Travis La Plante, played some games with me. Every time I was about to win, in true Travis fashion, he'd do something incredibly goofy and win. Animate dead on welder... for the win! Despite the asskicking, he did his job. I was motivated plenty for...
Round 2- Eric /w Bomberfish
Eric is a local from my store who has been working on an SS/bomberman build for weeks. One that looked very close to his got second place on day one, so I expected to see some of it today regardless, but Eric had his own design for quite some time.
Game 1- I lead with weenies and keep trying to sneak a null rod out, but he keeps countering it. That's not nice. I was looking good until he found a salvagers. I then lost.
I side out True Believers for Threads of Disloyalty.
Game 2- He drops an early Jitte... didn't see that one coming. He then drops a salvagers. It's a mexican standoff with his salvagers equipped with jitte vs. my Isamaru and Meddling Mage (I believe it was on trinket mage). He's in single digits but is fine since I can't attack. All he has to do is just sit there until he draws a lotus and it's over. So he swings? Alright, I'll group block... show me what you got. You got a dead salvagers. I'll gladly trade my two guys for him dead and both jitte counters removed. I'm guessing he did this to lay a trinket mage that was stranded in his hand... but after combate he... passes the turn?! Alright... biiiiig opening here and I'm gonna do the best I can with it. Back to back Grunts will do nicely. He counters the first one, but the second one takes it home before he can find antother creature.
Whew. I got out of that one barely. Time to sideboard correctly... out go threads, in go jittes. I can't rely on just null rod to stop his jittes, and seal doesn't seem robust enough. I'll almost exclusively be using it to stop his jittes... if that's the only reason I'm boarding in seal, Jitte makes a hell of alot more sense. If he doesn't a draw jitte of his own, he's forced to deal with mine. Welcome to type two.
Game 3- We're low on time, but he takes a mulligan and I come out of the gates big time. Isamaru + Null Rod + Mage + Jotun Grunt guarantees me the game and he concedes in extra turns.
I like Bomber-fish alot and I suspect it will see numerous top 8's to come.
1-1
Round 3- Sean Trahan /w 3 color vial Fish
Sean's one of my buddies who I don't get to see too often. Once in a blue moon I'll get to go to his neck of the woods and play emperor, but that's only when Brassman invites me along. Brassman hates me with a burning passion, so getting to play games with Sean and his friends is few and far between :p
Game 1- He leads with double stormscape and it's wrecking me. I can't get an offense and I'm low on lands. His version seems very tuned for the mirror, having both wastelands and factories main. We have a big, long game that goes back and forth. His stormscapes and ninjas go flying to the RFG zone while my True Believers and Meddling mages start dying to factories. Null Rod Ironically saved my ass here, allowing me to trade even with factories instead of double blocking each time. This was especially important because I was at low life. There was a key turn where he passes with wasteland up, and that allows me to untap with my Tundra and resolve a grunt. The grunt wins the war of attrition, as he starts drawing nothing but vials.
Finally I get to put my sideboard to real good use. Out go True Believers and Null Rods, in go Jittes and Threads.
Game 2- He leads with stormscape and I lead with Isamaru. We both start developing boards but I screw up majorly. I brainstorm back threads two cards deep and keep a plow in hand. Elias sees this and shakes his head. I know I screwed up as soon as he cast Grunt. I was forced to plow it when I really should have been stealing it. The next creature i'm able to steal is dark confidant, but Sean has the seal of cleansing ready. If I kept threads in my hand and put plow on top, I could have done damage with it before he could seal and take it back. By the time he takes it back, it's dead from too many age counters on it. Then I have the plow for confidant. I then probably stabalize and win. Because I played like a donkey, he stabalizes with confidant and wins.
Game 3- I lead out with turn one meddling mage on stormscape apprentice. A quick jitte later and that's all she wrote.
Sean's a great guy who just started playing vintage. I suspect as time goes on he'll have some very good showings.
2-1
Round 4- Adam Barnello /w 5c Uba Stax
Ah, Mr. Nightmare and Feinstein, finally face to face. Mumuhahaha. Actually, I didn't want this match. Adam's a very good player and despite only having met him a month ago, I consider him a good friend.
Game 1- He starts with welder and Bazzar. I answer with plow and wasteland. He gets a glut of moxen, I answer with null rod. Nothing seems to be going right for him here. I force a crop rotation, which sacrificed another key land. He finds another Bazzar anyway, but I stifle the first two activations. In this scenario, it's the same thing as casting time walk. By the time he gets any real mana online, it's just too late.
I board out stifles for seals and True Believers for Energy Fluxes.
Game 2- He leads with lotus/trinisphere, but I have the force. Kataki and Null rod come out fast off a lotus of my own, and it's enough.
3-1
Round 5- Ugo Rivard /w confi-stax
If Ugo plays Hold'em, I wonder if after he wins a hand, he gets up and yells, "YOUR ASS JUST GOT RIVARD!" That'd be awesome.
Anyway, Ugo was very friendly. I had never played him before but I knew it would be tough.
Game 1: He comes out of the gates with workshop trinisphere... I'm holding Force of Will... but my only blue card is Ancestral Recall.
See Ya Cestral, thanks for coming. Basically, if you have the chance to counter a turn 1 trinisphere, you do so... no matter what the cost. This was painful to do, but I'm positive it won me the game. A lone Isamaru started getting in there whie I kept plowing his welders and bobs off the board. Mana Crypt also did like 9 damage to him this game. My entire game centered on a lone Isamaru getting in there... and it went all the way.
He ran null rods, which is a big tip off that I should probably be siding mine out. I found exactly the card I wanted to bring in for them: Threads of disloyalty. The confidants and welders make it worth it. In addition to that, I also took out true believers for energy fluxes and stifles for seal of cleansings.
Game 2: He leads with a land/mox. I respond with wasteland/lotus/flux. That's a pretty hot turn one start. Ugo doesn't give up though, and tries for turn 2 Juggernaut of a workshop. I draw the seal but aim it at his crypt, since his only other mana source is the workshop.
Ugo: "I had to take the risk."
Dave Feinstein: "Your ass just got Rivard!"
Just kidding, I didn't really say that :p Ugo played perfectly, I just happened to have exactly what I needed at the right times. Once he couldn't pay the upkeep for Juggs, the game was over.
Ugo was very gracious and is a hell of a player. In addition, I liked his version of Stax much.
4-1
Round 6- Noah Long /w Counter Goblins
Noah had been checking up on me throughout the day. I had absolutely no idea who he was or what he was playing, but I let him know how I was doing every time he asked. My guess was he was running combo.
Game 1: I win the roll and lead with Island, go. He mulligans, but leads with mountain/lackey. Oh good god. THAT'S NOT WHAT I EXPECTED. I brainstorm in response and find the clutch force. I get a meddling mage out pronto naming goblin piledriver. Playing against Joe Colon in some side games a couple weeks back helped me learn this match very well. It's actually winnable if the fish player doesn't screw up. We trade some wastes back and forth, and he can't find a creature. I drop an Isamaru. It + meddling mage take it down.
I board out Rods for Jitess and True Believers for Threads. We didn't start this match off on a good foot, because he didn't have his sideboard on the table. I end up making this an issue, which upsets him. He comments that I might be trying to get him to flip over cards while he takes his sideboard out of his bag, but that's not the case. Basically, if I'm playing someone in a tournament, I expect their sideboard to be on the table at all times. It can be in a deckbox (that's usually where mine is), just make sure it's on the table. His was in a box in his bag that contained 50 or so other cards with sleeves of the same color. If I don't make an issue out of it, then I don't know if he's accessing a larger than normal sideboard in between games. I'm positive this is not the case, but it doesn't matter. I like to eliminate any chance of shenanigans in my match. I reported shenanigans earlier in the tournament in an adjacent match, which later resulted in a DQ. That's how much I hate shenanigans.
Anyway, I told Noah it was nothing personal, but he wasn't very happy. I can understand that frustration. At the time, I wasn't very happy at him. Basically, we were both mad at the other. I don't think he knew that having your sideboard visible on the table was customary. Before hostilities grew any larger, I called over the head judge and he sided with me.
Game 2- He mulled to five and kept a one lander which I immediately wastelanded. He was very frustrated and I don't blame him.
After the match we talked and basically things settled down. Noah's a cool dude. Our match just got off on the wrong foot due to a harmless misunderstanding. It happens. I'd continue to talk with him throughout the day.
5-1
Well, that's a pretty good comeback from 0-1. I still didn't feel very good going into the last round though, because there were oodles and noodles of intentional draws from teammates running into each other. Nate Peas and Crossman ID'd midway through, as did Mike Herbig and Ashok. All these guys ended up 4-1-1 going into the final round, which increased the odds that I would have to play. Losing round 1 certainly didn't help my tiebreaks either.
Round 7- Mike Pies /w Gifts
Well, this is a good thing. I wanted the pair-up and got it. Mike and Elias were both 5-0-1, having ID'd with each other to guarantee top 8 the last round. They are both friends, so I knew at the very least I'd be getting the intentional draw from either one. Normally I'd be satisfied with this, but the number of 4-1-1's lurking around had me VERY concerned that I'd be drawing to 9th place, so I asked Mike if he would concede. He had 100% tiebreakers and was first after swiss up to this point, having not lost A GAME. That means he's in win, lose or draw. Mike thinks it over for a while, but ultimately does concede to me. For the record, I'm not big on concessions. It's something I almost never expect, and something I pretty much never grant, but there are exceptions. If I'm guaranteed in top 8 and get paired down to a friend, chances are good that I will concede to get them in top 8. I ended up being on the reverse side of this, and Mike was kind enough to concede to me when he didn't have to. It turns out that a draw would have gotten me in anwyay, but at the time I had no way of knowing that.
6-1
So I'm in as first after swiss, but in reality should be somewhere between 4th-5th.
Top 8- Joe Davis
Joe is a very solid player who has been making his mark in tourneys recently, usually playing Grim Long. I knew this time around he was playing gifts. He wasn't very confident going in, but I told him what I tell everyone: This match is a 100% coin flip... of the skillful variety. Fish vs. Gifts depends ENTIRELY on the players and versions being run. It can go either way every match.
Game 1- I lead out with null rod and meddling mage on tinker. If I didn't have null rod, you can bet your ass that mage would have named Yawgmoth's will. Since I had rod out already, this was an easy call. He facts or fictions early, giving me an incredibly tough pile of:
mox/manavault/tolarianacademy/misdirection/rebuild. After taking a considerable while, I split the piles the following:
Pile 1- Mox/Vault/Rebuild Pile 2- Misdirection/Academy
I could have split the two most dangerous cards, but chose to put them together. I was holding force with no blue card, but I can't give him rebuild + mis direction. That will give him ample time to go off and have counterbackup when he does. He had I believe one card in hand prior to the FOF, so I knew he wouldn't be going off any time soon if I did the piles the way in which I did. He ends up taking pile 1, as expected. A few turns pass, and he merchants scrolls for gifts, but can;t immediately cast it. I'm holding true believer, but screw up and cast meddling mage naming gifts ungiven. Bzzzzz. Wrong. I really should have just cast TB, that's why he's there. I chalk this was up to fatigue, but the mistake luckily didn't matter. Either way he can't gifts, and that's enough to seal the game for me.
Sideboard out Kataki for Orim's Chant.
Game 2- He leads with Ancestral, I Misdirect, He Forces, I force back... you'd think that would be game right there, since he's left with pretty much no hand and I just re-filled mine before taking a turn. Surprisingly, it's not game over. He fights back casting two gifts, but I kill him the turn before he would have combo'd off.
Joe's an awesome guy and I'm sure he'll put more good finishes in the future.
7-1
Top 4- MIKE PIES /W GIFTS
Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Mike only recently picked up gifts, but has been under the tutelage of Nate Peas. Mike's a quick learner, and plays this deck flawlessly.
Game 1- It's long and drawn out, but he eventually takes it down with a yawg will at 1 life.
Same board as against Nate, with Kataki coming out for Chant.
Game 2- I lead with Grunt...he counters with Threads? Yikes. That reminds me, there was an awful lot of threads going around this weekend, on both days. This is interesting, because I had literally seen 0 of it prior to this weekend. I wonder if my primer had anything to do with this? :p Anyway, that grunt dies, but I replace it with another one. The entire game comes down to me just protecting it, as it hammers away and he's trying to find answers to it. He casts a gifts revealing ancestral/walk/reb/chain. I give him Anectral + Walk. That may seem insane, but his entire game plan right now is to survive grunt and go off later. The reason I didn't give him REB was because I also had a meddling mage out naming tinker, and I really couldn't afford a 11/11 getting in my way when I had lethal on board. Another reason I gave him the cards I did was because mana crypt was out, so I didn't mind him getting an extra turn. That's one more chance to die off a coinflip. So he draws his three cards then he takes his extra turn... and he dies on upkeep to his crypt.
Game 3- Turn 1 Tinker with counter backup. I had force but no blue card. :p Oh well.
Final record: 7-2
Mike goes on to win the tourney, and I end up with a sapphire. Can't complain.
Well, this report only took me 8 hours. That's shorter than usual :p
In closing, the weekend was fun enough. There were things that I wish went better, but I posted all of those criticisms in a different thread. I had a good time. I'd also like to praise Scoops666, a.k.a. Derek, his judging was spot on the entire weekend... probably because he's a vintage player.
That's all I got... nothing left. UW fish roxxors your soxxors. Have a nice day.
- Dave Feinstein
