Mods I apologize if I should have just piggy-backed this in FFY's post. While the topic is related the content is quite a bit different. Also, I haven't got to do this in a long time.
I'd like to preface this by saying that about 4 months back I went to a small local Vintage tournie. I was playing Sullivan Solution at the time, and I got pwned by a 13 year old playing sui-black circa 2001. I had wondered at that point, if the game had passed me by? I've been playing a long, long time and I hadn't won a tournament in over two years, thanks in large part to team VAG. I was through, had enough, done. Well I saw the announcement for the RIW b-day Lotus and I couldn't resist. Now mind you, I had not played a single game in close to four months, and I had no idea the goodness that Time Spiral has brought to the format. I wanted to play something rogue, so I built a few old decks, and every time I tested vs EBA they got smashed. So I figured if you can't beat 'em.....
EBA
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
4 Underground Sea
4 Tundra
1 Scrubland
3 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
4 Dark Confidant
4 Meddling Mage
3 Phyrexian Negator
2 Withered Wretch
4 Duress
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Stifle
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Echoing Truth
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Seal of Cleansing
SB:
3 Energy Flux
2 Pithing Needle
3 Null Rod
3 Engineered Plague (MVP)
2 Leyline of the Void
1 Darkblast
1 Seal of Cleansing
Nothing flashy, nothing broken, the deck just does what it does. Disrupt and protect early, develop mid-game, smash late.
Round 1
Marcel Moore(?) playing Tendrils.
Game 1: Marcel plays some combo pieces. I force Recall. Negator and Bob hit the table and I serve beats before he can combo out.
Game 2: I get Meddling Mage out on Yawg Will, and Bob and start beating. He Tinkers out Memory Jar, which I stifle, and Marcel replies that I should have saved it for the Tendrils, I say, "we'll see". I get Negator down and have Swords in hand thinking if he gets off Tendrils I can Swords the Negator, gain the 5 life, and win with the little dorks. So Marcel ramps up, and decides to play two extra spells, which puts well more than lethal on the stack and my plan out of range, so I just die. As it turns out he had Force back up, so it wouldn't have mattered anyway.
Game 3: I get Null Rod out early to go with Mage on Yawg Will. We Force and Fetch, and Mage pecks away. Marcel plays Necro, and I consider Forcing it but decide to let it in. As the Skull comes down time is called. That leaves me with turns 1,3, and 5, with him at 12 life and me with just the Mage in play, but I have two Forces in hand. Need to draw a Negator, sorry only a fetch land. I swing and pass. I figure he's going for the draw, but suprisingly he Necro's for 7, leaving him at 3, pass turn. I draw, great, Black Lotus, works great with Null Rod down, but I play it anyway figuring if he bounces Null Rod I can hard cast both Forces. Swing, pass. He's at one, and I got him next turn, if I make it. He's goes for it, attempting to bounce the Mage, I show him the Forces, and he shows me the Yawg Will. If I couldn't have stopped the bounce he would have rolled over me with a loaded yard. Takes guts to play for the win, nice job Marcel.
2-1/1-0
Round 2
John Frank playing Slaver Variant
I can't remember to much of these games and my notes are shady.
Game 1: I get Bob down and reveal an early Force to start me off at 15 life. Wastelands help John into mana screw, and he scoops after a few turns. I hate winning that way.
Game two: All I remember is I got several Bob's out and Withered Wretch removed Burning Wish and the new Triskelion from his yard, which killed his offense. And at some point I was at 5 life for two or three turns with one Bob out and John was hoping I'd flip a Force.
4-1/ 2-0
Round 3
Ben Perry playing Ichorid
Me and Ben go way back, and have played some great games.
Game 1: By turn 3 Ben has 40 cards in the yard and 3 Ichorids, I have a land and a Mox. I do a little math, and we go to game two.
Game 2: (I actually have good SB for this) I draw the stone cold nuts, Pithing Needle, StP, StP, Tundra, Pearl, Stuff. Needle comes down right away and Bazaar is turned off. We call a judge to find out rulings for Ashen Ghoul and I find out that Ashen Ghoul ability is activated, so Needle number two prevents Ghouls. Ben plays Ichorid, I Swords, Ben plays Ichorid, I Swords, Ben plays Ichorid, I Swords. He says, "you gotta be f*cking kidding?" Sorry old friend. Negator soon comes down to finish the job. He does get his final Ichorid out, but I dredge about 4 draws and kept Darkblasting him off the table.
Game 3: Leyline of the Void starts the game. Needle again shuts off Bazaar. Cut off from that avenue Ben goes Imp aggro, and is beating with three Imps. He had the oddest Ichorid draw I have ever seen, having two Cities and two Cephalid Coliseums in play. Most of his damage was self inflicted. I Finally get Mage and Negator out and he get out Ahsen Ghoul and Imps. I Darkblast ghoul and find E. Plague for the Imps and trample over for the win.
6-2/ 3-0
Round 4
Brain Demars playing Burning Slaver
I've played Brian probably 10 times in two years. Before this match I've beaten him once. I was hardly optimistic.
Game one: I get a Mage and Bob out, he mows them down with Trike. Titan comes down and wrecks my board, before he goes Plowing, (at least thats what my notes say). Brian has all the pieces for the Slaver lock and I scoop.
Game Two: All I remember is Waste and Strip and Bob, and maybe a late Negator. At the end of game two Brian comments that we should speed it up a little, as I think he was worried about running out of time. I say, "no problem", as this deck has a very limited decision tree, (play a land, disrupt, play a dork).
Game Three: I come out flying, as my deck has provided me with a perfect mix of dudes, disruption, and double FoW. I can tell Brian was annoyed, but hey, everybody gets lucky some time. I tell Brian, "don't worry you'll get me in the first round of the top 8 and whip my a$$".
8-3/ 4-0
Cool, I can draw in from here.
Round 5
Steve Menendian playing Gifts
As I have never played Steve, I would have liked a shot, but there was no point at the time.
ID
8-3/ 4-0-1
Round 6
Arend Kahling
I have also never played against Arend, maybe next month.
ID
8-3/ 4-0-2
Top 8
Dirty Hairy (Sean from team Canada) playing UG Threshold
Game 1: Trygon Predator wrecks face. I hold him off for a while but he has more dorks, and I can't find answers fast enough.
Game 2: He beats me down to 9 fast, but I stablize with creature control, and E. Plague. I get 2 Mages to stick and hold him off just long enough to win. At some point mid-game, the other three matches must have ended and they were already talking about a split. I agree, that
IF I win, I was good with it. I really didn't think I was going to pull it out at that point.
Game 3: I get Leyline out to start the game to stop his threshold, but it gets shot down by Predator. Swords and E. Plague do the job again, as I have Plague x2 on Hound, to get rid of his Mongrel, and Mage on Echoing Truth to make 'em stick. Mages and Negtor do the dirty work. Very intense games, could have gone either way.
Smennen, Arend, Demars, and I split. I figure of the remaining decks, mine had the least chance to win against the other three. And Brian would have been the next round. As I said I hadn't beaten Brian twice in one year, the odds of beating his twice in one day, yeah right!
Overall a great day.
Props:
Pam, for putting on the best tournaments in the state! And for the bad a$$ RIW shirt. Thank you!
All the K,zoo- BC guys, all the Ohio guys, and all the Canadiens. Thanks for making the long trip. It was great to see every one, and play some great games.
Engineered Plague for saving my a$$ all day.
Demars for his drunken phone call story. Classic.
Judge Dave for having to put up with endless stupid questions.
All the RIW regulars, and the Michigan Vintage community at large.
Slops:
Kurt for finishing 9th two days in a row.
Demars for losing a Mana Drain.
Pac-Man for not showing up.
Brian, I checked my case and my deck box. I did not have your Drain. As my sleeves are obnoxious yellow, I'm sure we would have noticed a red sleeve in my deck. Hopefully Kurt finds it, or it turns up elsewhere. Could you have lost it in the round of 8?
As Fast Eddie said at the end of The Color of Money: I'm back!
