Two reports for the price of 1! Top-4 and Top-8 at Pastimes and COD

[AJFirst]

I'm AJ Sacher (pronounced like the sport. You know, tennis). Some of you know me, most of you don't. Well these past two weekends have been pretty good for me Top 4ing Pastimes' Type 1 event, and then the next week Top8ing the College of Dupage Tournament (and Top8ing the Pastimes Legacy Tournament the next day, but I won't report that one). I had to go through a lot of matches, and didn't take notes. I have a diagnosed photographic memory, but that doesn't make me any less stupid so please correct me if you see errors. Enjoy:

PART I

It was the First of October, and I had just gotten up. Late night before and I got very little sleep. My family, including myself, have been out of commission due to illness for about a week and I felt like complete ass. I got up anyway and made sure the tournament was still on. I get down to Pastimes in Niles and meet with some people before filling out the decklist:

4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Merchant Scroll
3 Gifts Ungiven
3 Misdirection
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Tinker
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Burning Wish
1 Recoup
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Rebuild
1 Fire // Ice
1 Hyrkal’s Recall
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
3 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
2 Island
2 Snow-Covered Island
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Library of Alexandria
7 SoLoMox
3 CryptVaultPetal

Before I get to my sideboard let me talk about the main deck a little first. I registered in a rush because I picked up my sheet well after last call for sign-ups, so I put Rebuild instead of Chain of Vapor in the deck by mistake. I realized it after I turned in my sheet so I fixed the deck real quick before the first round in order to match my sheet. I played kind of a classic list without stuff like Tendrils main, or Vampiric Tutor and went more for just raw control power. I think the ability for the deck to find, use, and utilize counter magic and card draw is what makes it good—not its ability to race combo with certain hands. The sideboard:

1 Rebuild
2 Rack and Ruin
1 Flame-tongue Kavu (loved to have more, but lost all mine)
1 Massacre
1 Pyroclasm
1 Tendrils of Agony
2 Spell Snare
2 REB
1 Pyroblast
2 Goblin Bombardment
1 Threads of Disloyalty

The board was thrown together and it shows, but turned out quite alright. It has some cards that I’m a big fan of in FTK and Bombardment, and addresses the match-ups that I felt were weak. It turned out quite alright. Sideboarding is one of my strong suites, where playing any match-up that's not the control mirror is not nearly a strong suite so I wasn't too worried about that part of my deck.

Round 1 – Oath Salvagers pile 1-2 0-1

My opponent was a friendly random playing what looked like Salvagers, and out of nowhere played Oath. He took game one with a Darksteel Colossus he Oathed up early.

I don’t remember how I boarded. Just that some blasts were played. I win game two with an avalanche of card advantage scrolling up an early Ancestral and following it up with Drain on a Salvagers into Will which led to scoopage. Somewhere in here I saw a Zuran Orb and Fastbond, so I boarded in a Rack and Ruin for Crucibles and what-not.

Game three I keep a decent but slow hand, and he goes off turn 2 with LED and I only have a MisD. It sucks because going off at that time was a mistake for him and it won him the game. Oh well.

Round 2 – Goblins 2-1 1-1

I get a game loss for registering 59 cards (third Misdirection missing), and am not looking forward to playing this match-up. It’s not that it’s hard, it just doesn’t suite my playstyle well. Game one I get the nuts with a turn one Ancestral, turn two Tinker, turn three Time Walk. Game two I get a turn 4 win with not much pressure thanks to countering Piledriver and him not having much pressure (or any REBs). I dodged a bullet there pulling it out with a game loss.

Round 3 – 9-Strip Kudzu WTG thing 2-0 2-1

I win turn two casting Ancestral, Misdirecting his, Tinker, Walk, Will.

I helped him make a few last minute changes to his deck so I know he’s playing Stifles instead of Dazes.

-Fire//Ice, Rebuild, Tinker, Darksteel Colossus, Burning Wish
+Flame-Tongue Kavu, Rack and Ruin, Tendrils of Agony, REB, Spell Snare (Kudzus, Werebears, counters, and Null Rods)

I play some stuff, counter some stuff, let some stuff resolve. My deck is more efficient at the control game though, so I hit hard with consecutive Ancestral and Thirst protecting them well until I let a Kudzu or something hit. Meanwhile I’m still drawing cards and tutoring for stuff while he is low on cards. I just win the late-game in the control match-up and combo for the win.

Round 4 Oath 2-0 3-1

I have an AVALANCHE of card advantage with an early Ancestral, lots of Brainstorms and Merchant Scrolls. I’m a turn away from getting Library active and he’s at 15 from Orchard spirits with 3 now on the board, so he has to run an unprotected Ancestral out there for fear of falling too far behind. I Misdirect it getting an extra draw off Library and close the game HARD (he wouldn’t scoop because he’s a friend of mine messing with me, so I stormed up to around 30 with a Darksteel Colossus on the board, I’m about to take another turn via Time Walk, and he’s at 4. That’ll learn’em. That’ll learn’em really good.).

-Mystical Tutor, Fire // Ice, Mox Pearl, Tinker, Colossus, Burning Wish
+2 Bombardment, 2 Spell Snare, Tendrils, REB

He plays Arcane Lab for some reason, and I let it resolve because I...because I’m not Long? Well I lock him under his own lab because I have more counters and better ways to find and use them. I counter some stuff like an Oath and an Impulse. I have a REB but I’m not blasting Lab because I have superior position so he’s the one that has to do something eventually. Sure enough after a few turns he plays some moxen and Lotus, but even when he can’t play spells for the rest of the turn I don’t REB sitting on a superior hand and a stronger deck for this type of situation. Like I thought he eventually does as expected and flinches first: He drops Razia using 2 Orchards and the Lotus. Obviously I counter, then beat for two a turn until he dies. Thanks for both the win condition (spirits) and for allowing me to lock you under your own lab for the win.

What are friends for?

Ben Carp – ICBM Oath – ID 3-1-1

Top Eight – Josh Rayden - Gifts

Some Merchant Scrolling early led to a slight edge on card advantage going into the mid-game. Leaving two mana up with only 3 cards in hand I put him on Drain and Ice his Lotus Petal leaving him with just a Flooded Strand open. I then untapped and Ancestral. With a slightly more developed mana base and up three cards in hand Josh had to make a move before I could roll my advantage further. It was a Gifts, and I cast Gifts in response. He attempted the Drain I put him on earlier, but I misdirected it to his own Gifts and winning was a formality from there.

-Mystical Tutor, Fire // Ice, Hyrkal’s Recall, Mana Drain
+2 REB, 1 Pyroblast, 1 Rebuild

Some stuff happened involving lots of bad cards being cast like Merchant Scroll and Thirst for Knowledge. Finally something relevant happened and I Ancestral Recalled myself. Huge stack, counter-war, and at the end I got to resolve Recall with nothing in hand going to 3 cards. He untapped, drew for turn, played a land, and Ancestralled going up to three in hand also. I ripped some business and kept the fort locked down with counters while setting up my hand with Brainstorm, Fetch, Brainstorm. Finally I cast a Gifts and the Tendrils of Agony kill took it home.

Top Four – Dan Carp – Gifts

He goes busted. I bounce the DSC after taking a cock-slap to the dome, but he just locks me out and hardcasts the mothertrucker.

-Fire // Ice, Mystical Tutor, Hyrkal’s Recall
+2 REB, 1 Pyroblast

I kind of just win. I drag it into the late-game with counters and punch an Ancestral through, followed by Thirst and eventually Gifts. This game went how it was supposed too, even though it took a lot of concentration because obviously Carp’s no slouch.

-Gifts Ungiven
+Mystical Tutor

I saw Tormod’s and would rather find and protect Tinker than try and go for the overwhelming Will. We both keep and he goes Mox Emerald pass. To have the balls to keep a no-lander on the play shows he’s got Ancestral and at least one counter, or Mana Crypt and Tinker plus the counter, or both. Well either way he draws a land…then another land….and then Lotus. Sure enough with the proper resources his hand was insane (how could it not be in order for a competent player to keep it?) and a few turns later I run a desperation Ancestral which gets Misdirected. Next turn involved a Gifts Ungiven, Chain of Vaporing his moxen and being able to Vamp for Tendrils, Ancestral into it, and blast it off with no mana to spare, and for exactly lethal. Well played Dan, even if you are a land-ripping lucksack that win still took focus.

Well Pastimes ran quite a good event, even if prizes didn’t go down to 8th and they didn’t give a lunch break, which seem to be two negative reoccurring themes with the Niles events. The prizes were all in good condition, and the swiss was run smoothly with a generally good atmosphere. A lot of fun all around. More people should come out to these events.

PART II

I’m unsure whether I’m going to the Time Spiral PTQ at Pastimes, or the double power Type 1 event at College of Dupage when I go to sleep, but then I woke up at 9:15 the next morning and checked the start times and punched the numbers: Pastimes event starts at 10 and it’s a twenty minute drive, whereas COD is a noon start and a 45 minute drive so I choose the one that gives me time to eat breakfast and shower over the one where I leave half naked and hungry right then. I get there a little early and chat with TK and Ben Carp for a bit, do a little barning and fill out a registration sheet. Here’s what I played this week:

4 Brainstorm
4 Merchant Scroll
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
3 Misdirection
3 Gifts Ungiven
1 Tinker
1 Time Walk
1 Recoup
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Burning Wish
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Hyrkal’s Recall
1 Red Elemental Blast
3 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
3 Island
2 Snow-Covered Island
1 Tolarian Academy
7 SoLoMox
3 CryptVaultPetal

Sideboard
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
1 Flame-Tongue Kavu
1 Massacre
1 Pyroclasm
1 Threads of Disloyalty
2 Rack and Ruin
2 Spell Snare
2 Goblin Bombardment
2 Tormod’s Crypt


Round 1 – Matt Morrison – Counterbalance Control

Game one I don’t really remember what happened besides me losing a lot. Top + Counterbalance + Bob = Frown Town.

+1 REB, 1 Pyroblast, 1 Massacre, 1 Flame-tongue Kavu, 2 Spell Snare, 1 Threads of Disloyalty
-1 Mystical Tutor, 2 Mana Drain, 1 Misdirection, 1 Gifts Ungiven, 1 Merchant Scroll, 1 Burning Wish

I kind of just win. Spell Snare kept a Bob off the board, Massacre got Duressed but then Flame-Tongue Kavu took it home wiping out another Bob.

-Threads of Disloyalty, Demonic Tutor
+Mystical Tutor, Pyroclasm

More of the same stuff, this time with a Planar Void involved, but kill stuff; counter stuff; win.

Round 2 – Kevin – Uba Stax

I win the roll and go pretty broken with first turn Drain mana, drain Crucible into Tinker and Merchant Scroll for FoW. Tangle Wire does some stuff but he can’t dig far enough with Bazaar for an answer to the 11/11.

-3 Misdirection, 1 REB
+2 Rack and Ruin, 2 Tormod’s Crypt

I didn’t have an extensive sideboard for Stax so I was a little nervous when I saw him bring in well over 7 cards. I do have the Force for his first turn In the Eye of Chaos though. On my turn I Time Walk into Merchant Scroll for another force. He Vamps and I Drain something, then Force another In the Eye of Chaos. A few turns of draw-go under Tangle Wire allows me to hit some crucial non-wasteland-able mana sources. He drops Karn and I Rack and Ruin it and a Wire at 2ish and he eats his Mana Crypt in response. His life total was quite low (10ish) from dubs City of Brass being tapped for mana and for Wires, and his turn one Crypt hit him once or twice over the course of the game. He dropped a Smokestack and my hand was Gifts, Rack and Ruin, Darksteel Colossus. I had a bunch of mana up and just kind of sat. Stack has to ramp up so there’s no reason to blast it and a mana source. Sure enough down comes Chalice at 2, so I get the 2-for-1 and Gifts into the Tendrils kill with ease thanks to being up multiple permanents and with Kevin out of threats (and cards) at a low life total.

Round 3 – Brad – Reanimator

I get paired down and no disrespect but it was kind of a cakewalk. It was really just not a competitive Type 1 deck since it plays like Long but then doesn’t win on the spot, and rolls over to Tormod’s Crypt even more. Game one I Merchant Scroll for Ancestral, cast it going to 8 in hand to pitch DSC, Drain Necromancy into Gifts and just kind of win I let him have Razia off an Exhume and Chain of Vapor it Misdirecting the copy to my Mox Sapphire allowing me to replay it putting Drain mana back onto the board.

I talked to him in between matches asking what he does against combo trying to see what he’ll bring in against me since I have no idea. I assume Duresses but I’m not sure. He says he implies he doesn’t have Extract, Tormod’s Crypt, or Leyline of the Void throughout our conversation so I board as follows:

-Tinker, Colossus, Burning Wish, REB
+Tendrils of Agony, 2 Tormod’s Crypt, 1 Spell Snare (Animate Dead and Exhume)

Much of the same. At one point during my combo turn (turn 5-6) I had 15 mana floating and cast Will. That was fun.

Round 4 – Tommy Kowlith – Scepter Control

ID

Round 5 – Eric Becker – URBana Fish

ID

I’m not even talking about the Top Eight. Between play mistakes, poor draws, terrible sideboard decisions, and a little luck on the part of my opponent (turn one Duresses against very vulnerable hands games 1 and 2, then turn one Tormod’s Crypt games 2 and 3 even though he only brought in two). I’m not saying bad beats or anything (I only mulled once), in fact just the opposite: it was a fun well fought match. It’s just frustrating working so hard and coming so close just to lose straight up. Especially because I think I could’ve taken Becker taking home power with TK. Oh well. Great games anyway.

Props
COD, for being an awesome venue
Morrison for being hilarious
TK and Becker for taking home some power
Chipotle for being tasty
Becker for the ride to lunch and lending me a MisD (which I still have to get back to you)

Slops
Me for losing
Endress for not even showing up
Endress for having me not see him since GenCon
Endress for being a rascal
Soly for the Sack-Taps
Ben Carp’s “Life” bringing everyone into Type 4 games they don’t want to play
Sullivan Solution for being more annoying than Stax to play against.

-AJ Sacher
MagicFruit10@Yahoo.com

[M.Solymossy]

TWO sack tappa's, might I add.

[Moxlotus]

I'm gonna show up to the Milwaukee tournament and I'll try to drag Endress and Fisher along.  A combo of school and a bronchial infection sacktapped me on this tournament.  Work and school prevented Endress from showing his face.  WoW prevented Fisher from doing anything ever.

[ErkBek]

It was a Gifts, and I cast Gifts in response. He attempted the Drain I put him on earlier, but I misdirected it to his own Gifts and winning was a formality from there.

So hot!

Especially because I think I could’ve taken Becker taking home power with TK. Oh well. Great games anyway.

Ouch. You must have thought that my deck sucks after seeing those hands I got in the semi's or something. I'm currently 6-0-1 vs. meandeck gifts with URBana fish. It probably should be 7-0 but I drew a game match with Lyle of meandeck when I mulled to 6 into Lotus, Planar Void, Bob and no other mana sources only to have him play a turn 1 Old Man and steal my Bob, I don't believe I drew another mana source until turn 3 or 4......I still won that game but it took so much time we couldn't play a game 3.

You'd probably could have beaten those hands I drew in the semi's though, they were pretty bad but I somehow made them work.

Congrats on the recent performances.

[Pathian]

Hey man, congrats on making the Top 8 in the CoD double power tourney! I was there as well in the T8 (Justin Uy, with the UWB Vial Fish deck). I was planning on typing up a report anyway, so I figured I'd post it up on here. The list is Paul Nicolo's, who gave me quite a bit of advice via PM (Thanks Paul!). Though I pretty much got stomped in the Top 8 as well, I can't say I can complain as it was only my second vintage tourney since I got started in the format.

4 Flooded Strand
4 Tundra
2 Underground Sea
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
2 Mishra's Factory
1 Plains
1 Island

3 Kataki, War's Wage
3 Stormscape Apprentice
4 Meddling Mage
4 Voidmage Prodigy
4 Dark Confidant
3 Ninja of the Deep Hours

4 Aether Vial
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Force of Will
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk

Sideboard:
2 Crucible of Worlds
2 Annul
2 Disenchant
4 True Believer
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Energy Flux

I came back to town from college in Ohio (I live in a Chicago suburb) just the night before, so I haven't quite had the time to get the deck entirely together. I get to the site about half an hour before registration and buy the rest of my deck from Stasch. Starting to get a little nervous as I see a bunch of big name players starting to show up. I resign myself to doing something like 1-2 drop and watching the rest of the tourney for some more experience.

Round 1: Chris, 5c Ichorid
Game1: I haven't met Chris before, but he was a very friendly local player who, like me, was playing in only his second vintage tourney ever. I'm on the play, and he leads out with turn 0 Leyline of the Void. Whew, dead card, sweet. I raise an eyebrow and figure he's playing some sort of Ichorid and play accordingly. I lead out a Tundra into a first turn Vial and pass. He draws, drops first turn Chalice@0, Bazaar, activates it and says go dropping off Unmask, Therapy, Darkblast. I play Wasteland and waste his bazaar. He takes his turn, draws and says go. I Vial in Stormscape at his eot. He reads it and we make jokes about how irrelevant his second ability is. Next turn finds me Chalice@1 to stop his darkblasts and Cabal Therapy. I start bringing the beats. he's down to 9 before he finds another bazaar, but then he's back in business with me without a wasteland. I have StP for his first Ichorid, but Ashen Ghouls and another Ichorid are quickly eating at my life total. Stormscape Apprentice is being a house as a tapper in this match. After some chump blocks with less significant guys, I am down to tapped Kataki and Stormscape in play with him at 4 and me at 9 on his turn. He brings back 2x Ichorid and swings into me. I think for a moment and decide to take it. At his Eot I crack a strand into Underground Sea to Drain him for 1 with the Stormscape to 3 and attack for lethal on my turn. Guess that second ability wasn't as irrelevent as we thought.

Board:
-4 FoW
+2 T. Crypt
+1 Enlightened Tutor
+1 Umezawa's Jitte

Thoughts: I kind of wish I had the Silver Knights Paul used to run in the board, they would be excellent here. Though True Believe seems better in all other cases. Crypt, Tutor, and Jitte kinda go without saying. I board out FoWs since flipping one with Bob seems bad against aggro.

Game2: I have turn 1 E. Tutor for Tormod's Crypt and pop it with about 15 cards in his hard. I have one wasteland for an early bazaar, and he tries to go aggro with my crypt on the board using Putrid Imps. I choose to just let it go and attach into him. I waste his first bazaar. I don't want him to be able to actually drop psychatog so I go to Waste his City of Brass, but he Crop Rotations into another Bazaar, hmm, didn't see that coming, I'll make a note of it. He starts to make a comeback, but I dig deep with Bob and Ninjas and find my second crypt for the win.

Record: 1-0-0 (2-0-0)

Round 2: James King, ICBM Oath
Game 1:James seems like a cool guy, he introduces himself as a somewhat active member of ICBM. Well, I'm in for a ride then. He plays some moxen first turn, and I get the feeling I'm against some form of drain control. So I'm start to play around the drain. I resolve a first turn Vial. I vial out a Stormscape, then Bob. As he goes does some brainstorm/fetching to shape his hand. I turn Stormscape into a Ninja and am rolling in card advantage. I replay Stormscape. Then he drops Forbidden Orchard...Crap, that is not at all what I expected. I start swinging in because I know I'm suddenly in a race situation. He tutors up a Rushing River and bounces both of my guys. Aaaaand now I'm down on tempo, damn. I Vial Bob back out at his eot and turn Stormscape back into Ninja and replay Stormscape.  I'm holding back my Voidmage Prodigy with UU up just in case though. My patience is rewarded, On his next turn he goes to play Oath and I Vial out Kai and pop Voidmage. I'm lethal a few turns later.

Board:
-3 Swords
-1 Stormscape
+2 Disenchant
+2 Annul

Thoughts: I anticipate SSS coming in from the board, so I pull the swords and a stormscape. I leave two in since they're Wizards for Voidmage and conveniently turn into Ninjas. Disenchant and Annul are my sideboard hate vs Oath.

Game 2: On the draw, my hand is nuts. 2x Meddling Mage, Fow, and some other junk. He starts off with a Duress and pulls my FoW. I lead out a land and have a second turn Mage on Oath. On my next turn, I remember the Rushing River he showed me game 1 and drop my second Mage on Rushing River. The turn before I go lethal with mage and token beats, he explodes in a flurry of Brainstorms, TfK and other card draw. He later told me he was digging for his Massacre but failed to find it.

Record: 2-0-0 (4-0-0)

Round 3: Kevin Brewer, 5cUbaStax
Game 1: I know Kevin came up here with Vroman, so I am guessing he's playing UbaStax. He leads out with Bazaar and drops off UbaMask, Barbarian Ring, and Trike into the yard. My hand is slow, and I come out with Chalice @ 0, land, and pass. He gets shop, Crucible, plays barbarian Ring from the yard and plays Goblin Welder. I have StP for Welder, but little else. In a long drawn out game, he gets Stack on the board, eats all my permanents, and burns out all my guys with Barbarian Ring. Surprise of this game was his Crop Rotation for God's Eye. Seems pretty good with Stack and Crucible on board.

Board:
-4 Chalice
-3 Stormscape Apprrentice
-3 Ninja
+1 Enlightened Tutor
+1 Energy Flux
+2 Annul
+2 Crucible
+2 Disenchant
+2 Tormod's Crypt

Thoughts: While I am positive all of those cards come in from the board, I'm not sure I made the right decision on what to board out. Anyone have any thoughts?

Game 2: He has another early Crucible, but I have Disenchant. He gets Tangle Wire on the board, but I had Bob on the board already gaining me some card advantage. I get my own Crucible online and I Wastelock him. That's right, you heard it here first, Fish deck wastelocks Stax. He Ancestrals, and I allow it to resolve even though I have FoW + Blue card in hand. I figure that I can save FoW because his only legitimate threat to me his Balance at this point, and I can hit that with FoW and I can hit anything else with Annul or Disenchant. I win this one with a few guys on board.

Game 3: I have Disenchant and Annul in my opener to slow him down. I bring down Bob and Kataki off a Vial. Kataki bogs down his board as I attack in some more. Time gets called rather quickly, seems like time really flies when you're playing vintage. I have turns 1, 3 and 5, I do the math and figure out that I need to drop a 2 power guy turn 1 and swing for max damage each turn. I drop Meddling Mage and ponder for a while. I am out of disruption in my hand so I need to make this good. Tangle Wire and Balance seem like the only legitimate threats, so I name Tangle Wire. He Bazaars on his turns, but fails to find a balance. I win on turn 5.

After we finish game 3, he tells me that he would have conceded to me anyway so that he and Vroman could head home.

Record: 3-0-0 (6-1-0)

Round 4: Eric Becker, URBana Fish

ID

Record: 3-0-1 (6-1-0)

Round 5: Tommy Kolowith, Scepter Control?

ID

Record: 3-0-2 (6-1-0)

Top 8 (I think...):
Tommy Kolowith
Eric Becker
AJ Sacher
Myself (Justin Uy)
Jamison Bryant
Ben Robertson
Matt Morrison
David Carnhart

Quarters: Ben Roberts, MD Gifts

Game1: I am on the draw, so I miss my chance at Chalice at 0 being really effective. I have a quick Meddling Mage down on Tinker. I have to use my FoW to stop a Gifts, but he has another one which he uses to grab Lotus, Will, Recoup, Vault. I give him Lotus and Vault. He uses Chain of Vapor to bounce my Chalice and Tendrils me out.

Board:
-3 StP
-3 Stormscape Apprentice
+4 True Believer
+2 Tormod's Crypt

Thoughts: Ugh...painful matchup. Paul told me that boarding out Colossus hate against good Gifts players is often correct because they tend to lean more heavily on tendrils. So I went with this configuration.

Game 2: I have early Mage on Tendrils, but he Tinkers out Colossus and owns me. Well, that was a bad sideboard call.

Record: 3-1-2 (6-3-0)

All in all I had an absolute blast hanging out and playing. I can't say I'm disappointed with my performance in my 2nd tourney, but I know there's a lot of room for improvement.

As an aside, the moment of the night...
I walk over to watch TK play Jamison. TK has Scepter with Fire/Ice on the board and tells me it's his last win condition because Will and the Bus are in the graveyard. Tommy is in dominant position in this game with a full grip and Jamison living off the top of his deck. Then this exchanged occured...

TK: Tinker saccing Mox.
Jamison: Hard cast FoW.
TK: Ha! Tricked you! I'm out of targets

Absolutely hilarious. Anyway...

Props:
Jimmy McCarthy for loaning me the 4x Meddling Mages for the deck
Paul Nicolo for the deck advice
Stasch for buying my crappy cards and selling me what I needed to finish up the deck
All my opponents for being really cool
Lyle for getting me hooked on Vintage
TK for the moment of the night and winning power
Becker for winning


Slops:
Me for playing like a donkey most of the day
True Believer for not showing up/being useful most of the day
Lyle and Jimmy for not coming

[Hydra]

TK: Tinker saccing Mox.
Jamison: Hard cast FoW.
TK: Ha! Tricked you! I'm out of targets

That entire match was hilarious, especially once Jamison answered his cell phone mid-match and started not caring.

Chipotle's was also the win to be certain, and I ended up with a burrito that was easily over a pound in weight.  I probably could've knocked Jesus out with it had I tried.  I did meh at this event, going 2-2-1 with Gifts, losing to Tommy in the 3 most retarded games I've ever played and to James King in 3 when he got the nuts Oath draw game 3.  Oh well.

The event kicked ass as always, and I love the CoD venue, looking forward to the next one.

[BoomChild]

I Vial in Stormscape at his eot. He reads it and we make jokes about how irrelevant his second ability is.

Hey all this is Chris,  I just wanted to clear that up because I am not normally an idiot but he didn't see it from my side of the board.  Sure that tapping was goign to suck, but when he played it out he had no black sources to activate the life drain which is why the joke was made at the point.  It wasn't until about 3 turns later that he went searching for his B source and then it became relivent. 

It was a fun tournament even though I went 0-2.  I think I played the best to my ability with the cards that my deck decided to poop into my hand.  Congrats on the T8 and maybe next time the world of random numbers won't punt in my face.

Chris

[Liek]

Board:
-3 StP
-3 Stormscape Apprentice
+4 True Believer
+2 Tormod's Crypt

Thoughts: Ugh...painful matchup. Paul told me that boarding out Colossus hate against good Gifts players is often correct because they tend to lean more heavily on tendrils. So I went with this configuration.

Game 2: I have early Mage on Tendrils, but he Tinkers out Colossus and owns me. Well, that was a bad sideboard call.

Swords to Plowshares is pretty terrible against Gifts, but I still stick with that idea, that better Gifts players won't base thier gameplan solely on Tinker. But if it's in thier opening hand, they'll probably cast it.

Anyways, I'd try to leave 2 Apprentices, although I often just board all of the Tinker cards out against Gifts.

Good job beating Ichorid and Oath in the first two rounds, those are both poor matchups and are typically the kind of decks that knock Fish out of tournaments.

[AJFirst]

Sorry Becker, I was scooping up game one but I had a lot of Fish hate for the other games although I didn't know you brought in lots of blue blasts against me, which would have hurt a little. I was mostly just bitter about losing since I could've had a good shot but lost some close games with to David right before.

Thanks for all of your comments guys.
-AJ

[TimDeluxeIt]

Oh man there was so much fish there. I played against 5 fish decks and 4 of them were different builds (SS, Urbana, U/W vial, U/W Grunt)!!!! The only game I didn't play aainst fish was in the top 4 against TK. But I was prepared, my SB was built to hate fish:

2 Engineered Explosives
2 FTK
2 Fire/Ice
1 Pyroblast
1 REB
2 Pithing Needle
1 Rebuild
1 CoVapor
2 T. Crypt
1 Tendrils

I knew most people would expect me to side the Tinker/darksteel out, but I used that to my advantage. He owns fish.

[LordHomerCat]

Nice Job Justin, sorry I didn't show up to a tournament 5 hours away that I didn't even realize you were going to...  But thats a much better showing than last time were you couldn't even remember the Draw Step =]

[Pathian]

Nice Job Justin, sorry I didn't show up to a tournament 5 hours away that I didn't even realize you were going to...  But thats a much better showing than last time were you couldn't even remember the Draw Step =]

Ha, thanks Jimmy, though that's not to say that I didn't forget more than a few draw steps and Bob triggers

[unknown.root]

I have to say AJ you handed me a beating. All the way home I was trying to figure out if i could have done anything against the Force, Force, Rack & Ruin, Rack & Ruin, Drain game we had.

That was the better of the two games for me too.

Kevin

[scutakicker]

AJ-
I thought our Top 8 CoD match was pretty good. Last time at CoD you served me pretty well with Slaver so it was nice to have a rematch. I took game 1 against Becker but had mana issues game 2 and 3 (part Shaman, part my draws).

[ErkBek]

AJ-
I thought our Top 8 CoD match was pretty good. Last time at CoD you served me pretty well with Slaver so it was nice to have a rematch. I took game 1 against Becker but had mana issues game 2 and 3 (part Shaman, part my draws).

I think we both had some real issues those 2 games. AJ saw the whole thing sliding back and forth looking at of our hands. It was actually kind of annoying.

[AJFirst]

I think we both had some real issues those 2 games. AJ saw the whole thing sliding back and forth looking at of our hands. It was actually kind of annoying.

I got yelled at 

[ErkBek]

I think we both had some real issues those 2 games. AJ saw the whole thing sliding back and forth looking at of our hands. It was actually kind of annoying.

I got yelled at 

Yeah, because it was really annoying

[AJFirst]

I got yelled at 

Yeah, because it was really annoying

Sorry, I wasn't trying to be annoying. I was just messing around/trying to see both players' hands in the laziest way possible. When I realized it was getting on your nerves I stopped (and actually left for a bit). So yeah, sorry about that.

AJ-
I thought our Top 8 CoD match was pretty good. Last time at CoD you served me pretty well with Slaver so it was nice to have a rematch.

You had the honor of being my first infinit lock in tournament play I beleive. Both of our matches at CoD have been good. Now we just need to meet again for the rubber match, hopefully in the finals next time.

I have to say AJ you handed me a beating. All the way home I was trying to figure out if i could have done anything against the Force, Force, Rack & Ruin, Rack & Ruin, Drain game we had.

Thanks. That hand was pretty sick. You played it well though, running bait out before trying the second Eye (which I assume was the vamp target?). Luckily I didn't get greedy and just scrolled for a counter and not ancestral right away. Good games again.

Hope to see you all at Game Universe.
-AJ