Yeah. It's that time again...
IT'S FEINSTEIN TIME!
Sorry, had to get that out of the way. Anyway, I was looking forward to this tournament for quite some time. Feinsteins are typically nocturnal, and enjoy drafting, vintage, and legacy in their natural habitat. I practiced the bejesus out of this tournament with the usual suspects. I knew early on that I would not be playing UW fish in the vintage portion.
You read that right, do not adjust your screens.
Basically, fish is a deck that you tooth and claw with and if you get lucky/play right, it makes top 8 alot. It is not a deck that you want to take to a straight swiss tourney. In a five round tourney, fish probably goes 4-1 at best. You have to be very fortunate in dodging a bad match in order to get to that magical 5-0 mark, and it helps if people dont see it coming. With me, people would see it coming a mile away, and I just didn't think it could get me to that magical 5-0 mark.
The goal was to 5-0 both tourneys, getting the maximum prize in each one before top 8. The more realistic goal was to 3-2 or better one event, and 4-1 or better the other. Three combined losses should be guaranteed in the top 8 eternal draft, which I was dying to get into.
So for this unsual tourney, I chose an unsual deck for me to play in vintage: Workshop Aggro. When I thought about it, it isnt an unsual choice for me after all. Although I've never played it before, it does everything I want to a type one deck to do: apply pressure while disrupting the opponent significantly. The clock is also a hell of alot better than fish's. You lose of course the force of wills and the consistency of fish, but its given up for raw power and broken draws. The ability to go pure broken is much more valuable in a short tournament than a long one. You only need to pound out a few wins, and workshop aggro can usually win at least 2-3 games blindfolded.
Another reason for choosing workshop aggro was because I really, really, really wanted to play with Dark Confidants. I had been keeping a close eye on fish/workshop hybrids, and all the ones I liked ran confidants. The tempo provided by confidant was exactly what I was looking for in a stax deck. I never particularly cared for the full on hard lock, so not playing with smokestack was fine with me. My build is based on past ones piloted by Ugo Rivard and Brassman. They are different enough where I just picked out the things I liked in both and added a few personal twists. This is what I went with:
Workshopidant // Lands
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Mishra's Workshop
4 City of Brass
1 Tolarian Academy
// Creatures
3 Goblin Welder
4 Dark Confidant
1 Sundering Titan
4 Juggernaut
1 Duplicant
1 Razormane Masticore
// Spells
1 Mana Crypt
1 Trinisphere
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Null Rod
1 Tinker
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Sphere of Resistance
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Balance
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
// Sideboard
SB: 1 Triskelion
SB: 1 Darkblast
SB: 3 Seal of Cleansing
SB: 3 Orim's Chant
SB: 1 Swords to Plowshares
SB: 3 Jotun Grunt
SB: 3 Red Elemental Blast
The deck was entirely borrowed from a certain man of brass. Who attended the tourney with me with mutual barn Stefan. On the two hour drive up (why can't I ever get any tourneys locally?
Oh right, I live in Rhode Island), turned up the gas. Dave Feinstein had a need for speed, and hence got pulled over. No good. :p That's ok, it gives me another tag line to work with:
DAVE FEINSTEIN WILL BLEED AND/OR TAKE A SPEEDING TICKET TO PLAY MAGIC. WHICHEVER COMES FIRST.
Yeah, aren't I the cool. So anyway, the vintage portion was first. Thirty five people showed for it, surprisingly low. In anticipation for round 1, my nose starts to bleed... all over my shirt. Now I got the intimidation factor going. Yaus. :p That hooker LaPlante laughs at me as I clean up my shirt, and away we go to...
Round 1: Justin Brinner /w GOBLINS
Ah crap. I've known Justin for a long time, and I knew there was a good chance little red men would be staring at me from across the table. This is what we call in the business, a bad thing. This matchup isn't as bad for me as it would be if I played UW, but I still consider it shaky.
Game 1: He's on the play with lackey. I have no immediate answer. I die. In goes Triskelion, Grunts and Darkblast. Out goes Rods and some chalices.
Game 2: I lead with workshop crucible, holding strip and juggernaut. He leads with land/mox/petal: blood moon. I die.
I was unhappy to be blown out, as I think the match is roughly 50/50 post board. We play some fun games just to see how bad it is, and I win 3 out of 5. Oh well.
0-1
Round 2: Chris /w Sui Black Tendrils.
Game 1: I lock him down with chalice and sphere, and he's land screwed. I almost die to my own crypt flips and confidant, since crypt hit for him 3 out of 4 times. I win at 2 life, despite him never playing a non land permanent.
Game 2: The downside to him playing no spells is I don't know what I'm up against. He flooded strands an underground sea out, so my guess was 3 color fish. He leads this game with turn 1 confidant, and I feel happy about siding in grunts and Darkblast for nullrods. His first flip is cabal ritual, and suddenly I'm scared to death. I quickly plop down every chalice and sphere I can find. He's building up a hand to go off with, but can't cast rebuild. He's waiting to rebuild EOT then go off, and I know this. I vamp for Balance and cast it. He's forced to pop rebuild at this point, otherwise his hand is crippled. All artifacts are briefly returned and he discards minimal combo pieces, but I'm able to recast 2 spheres immediately after, securing the victory!
1-1
Round 3: FEATURE MATCH VS. MIKE HERBIG /w Pitch Long
Bleh. We were both surprised to see the other one at the 1-1 bracket. He knew going into this match that I wasn't fish, but he wasn't sure how the match would go. I also wasn't sure, but I think it favors him game 1 and me post board...mainly because of chant.
Game 1: I mulligan into a hand featuring turn 1 chalice, but not much else. Chalice stops him for like a turn, but without any backup spells or pressure from creatures, he just vamps for chain on his turn 2 and goes off.
I board out crucibles for chants, hoping to just blindside him.
Game 2: I again have to mulligan, but keep a gemstone/chant hand. I lead with gemstone and pass. On his turn one, he plays land mox and cabal ritual. I immediately grab my pen to mark storm count, but I notice he does not. This is a ridiculous tell (POKER PHRASE) that I should have acted on, but I was gun-shy. Basically, by not marking storm count, he's telling me he plans to cast just one spell and pass the turn. I couldn't figure out what the spell was quick enough, and decide not to respond to the ritual, thinking the spell wouldn't matter. He plays necropotence.
... Ah crap.
I had the correct read (ANOTHER POKER PHRASE) on him and did not act on it. Nine times out of ten, you do not cast the chant in response to the first ritual. The long player will usually play more spells, and you can bamboozle them at a better time and just cripple them. In this particular scenario, I screwed up royally. Although necro was literally the ONLY CARD where casting chant that early would be the correct play, it was his turn 1 (making it unlikely that he'd be able to go off that soon), and he wasn't marking storm. I should have moved on my instincts. Everything was telling me to Chant that sucka, but I didn't... and lost because of it. If I chant right there, he's down to 4 cards and I probably win with ease. Instead, he draws a bajillion cards and easily goes off in the face of chant the following turn. Oops.
1-2
Mike's a phenomenal player, so while it sucked being 1-2 already, I got over it quick. This was a historic occasion in that it was the first time I had ever lost to someone on Team Meandeck, but with the amount of tourneys I play in it had to happen eventually. I'm not upset that feat now belongs to Mike Herbig. He's hands down the best player on that team, and one of the best in format period.
So now I have to win alot of matches. I could use a nice Feinsteinian win streak right about now...
Round 4: Erik Andersen /w Slaver
Erik's a local who I talk with alot, and we usually help each other with cards. I didn't want to play him.
Game 1: He leads with turn 2 colossus. I have the Duplicant. That was all she wrote. I board out chalice for Reb and Darkblast. This may seem odd, but I'm on the draw. I don't like Chalice on the draw. Game 2: He doesn't do much, as he mulligans into a slow hand. I plop down alot of spheres, then big juggs. Then go to town.
2-2
Round 5: Forgot Name /w Slaver
Forgot Name was a nice guy, I just forgot his name. These games went very similarly to the previous round. I won two straight and Forgot Name had very poor draws.
FINAL VINTAGE RECORD: 3-2
CURRENT MOOD OF DAVE FEINSTEIN: DISAPPOINTED BUT HOPEFUL.
I win a pack. W00t. Now time for the event I was really looking forward to: Legacy. For this event, I had it narrowed down to my classic GR beats and a new deck: Teh Robots. Yes, those robots... the broken ones. The plan was to wait and see how I did in vintage, then choose based on record. If I was 4-1 or better, I'd probably go GR beats and hope for lots of goblins. If it was 3-2 or worse, I'd go for all or nothing and run Affinity. I'm kind of happy I went 3-2, because affinity is really freaking good. :p
Its success hinges entirely on how prepared people are for it. In training, I consulted many people. Big help came from everyone's favorite Atog. We worked on a list that I felt was very hot. The original had 7 baubles, and that felt like too many. I added Chromatic star in place of 3 baubles. I was a happy Feinstein. Star fixed the mana problems the deck would often face, while still serving to both enhance the curve and draw a card. Plus, unlike it's retarded little brother Chromatic Sphere (Awww), star can sac to draw a card without paying mana. This is similar to its creepy uncle Terrarion (Ewwww), but it doesn't have to come into play tapped. Works for me.
So lots of testing was done, most against Rich and mutually shared barn Stefan. It's hard for me to call Stefan a mutually shared barn anymore, since he pretty much never listens to me. He mostly barns off Shay and Brassman. I'm proud of Stefan, he's on the road to living a hull-free lifestyle. Or it could be he just didn't want to listen to me anymore. Probably the latter.
So yeah, I tested alot. I was worried about my high tide matchup, but I was killing on turn 3 more than they were. Wow that's hot. I was still concerned about the matchup, since it came down many times to who went first. I made sure to have a good board against it. Against Threshold it was an absolute mugging. They were some anonymous boxer in the early to mid 90's and I was Mike Tyson. Take that King Hippo! I still made sure to have a board for this match since it would surely be popular. Goblins was a pain in the ass. It felt like I couldn't lose if they didn't lead with turn 1 lackey, but if they did lead with that broken little sum-bitch, then life could be hard. On the play, turn 1 lackey is nigh unbeatable for me, since they will almost always have gempalm or fanatic backup for my likely answer of disciple or worker. It completely shuts off my vial play on turn 1. If I'm on the play, I can breathe easier, but I'd still prefer not to face lackey, since he's broken and all :p I made sure to have alot of sideboard cards for that match as well.
I felt good about the big 3 in terms of matchups, because I had 6 cards for all of them post board. I got a brief scare in the goblins matchup when I saw Chris Coppola's (A.K.A. Machinus, for the TMD/Source/any online magic forum inclined) Starcity Dual for Duals winning goblins list, since it had 4 maindeck GOBLIN TINKERER. This card looked scary, so I asked Machinus just how bad his version was for me. He summed it up like this: He's Buster Douglas in the mid 90's. I'm Mike Tyson in the mid 90's. Uh oh.
So I took a bit of a risk in hoping that no one would run Coppola's version of goblins, but I figured it would fly under the radar. For the record, I think he has the best version of mono red goblins out there. I kept my list as discrete as possible, having GR beats laid out on the table while doing deck reg. Sneaky, I know, but people like to keep tabs of Teh Feinsteins, and Teh Feinsteins couldn't afford people wandering over, noticing he's affinity, and then adjusting their sideboard slots just for him. Affinity, more than any other deck in legacy, cannot afford sideboard slots devoted to it. It has to surprise people. While I didn't go GR beats, and was saddened slightly, it GR didn't go to waste. It made its way into the hands of my protoge, Marc 'I'm Fifteen' Tuttle.
Very happy with my final version of the deck, I went to war with this:
T-1000
// Lands
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Great Furnace
4 Seat of the Synod
2 Blinkmoth Nexus
2 Glimmervoid
2 Darksteel Citadel
// Creatures
3 Atog
3 Myr Enforcer
4 Arcbound Worker
4 Frogmite
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Disciple of the Vault
// Spells
3 Cranial Plating
2 Fling
4 Thoughtcast
4 AEther Vial
3 Mishra's Bauble
4 Chromatic Star
// Sideboard
SB: 3 Engineered Plague
SB: 3 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 3 Blue Elemental Blast
SB: 3 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 3 Pyrostatic Pillar
Notice the sideboard is aimed DIRECTLY at the big 3: High Tide, Goblins and Threshold. Six cards for each. Not much for other decks. I figured the abnormal amount of combo hate in particular would payoff, since about a dozen people showed up at midnight just to play in legacy, and I feard many of them would be combo in some form. Forty six people showed in total, which meant there would likely be at least two 5-0's in this tourney. I aimed to be one of them.
Round 1: Chris Atkinson /w Reanimator
Chris is a Beanie Exchange regular who just 5-0'd the vintage portion with combo. He was looking like a near lock for top 8 at this point, while I still had some work to do. I knew going in he was reanimator, which I figure favors me if he doesn't get a ridiculous starts.
Game 1: He leads with turn 1 Akroma. Lovely. :p So I lost this, right?
I'M DAVE FEINSTEIN... BITCH!
Sorry, couldn't resist.
So I scramble to get a board, running out vials and frogs and enforcers. I'm even holding a ravager. I'm missing one crucial little piece, and at 2 life draw it: Blinkmoth Nexus. Ravager was already on the board at this point, since I had to run him out early to plop down enforcers. So while I lost the surprise factor of instant 7/7 flyer that kills Akroma, he couldn't attack anymore. Suddenly, I'm able to attack on my turn 4. And I do... alot. He's scrambling to find another reanimation spell for the Razia in his yard, but can't get one in time. FEINSTEIN WINS! FEINSTEIN WINS! FEINSTEIN WINS!1!1!1!1!1!
Chuck Norris > Turn 1 Akroma
That game was intense. I board out baubles for crypts.
Game 2: I lead with vial, he responds with needle. This shuts down alot of my plays, and I'm set back significantly. His Turn 3 akroma takes it down easily.
Game 3: I lead with vial and think about whether or not to also play Crypt. I ultimately decide to, because I fear turn 1 akroma. While he can play around it, it buys me time. Even if he answers with needle, which he does, that's a needle that isn't on vial or ravager. With both of those resources free, I start building up a board. I don't have a very heavy board in terms of permanents, but I'm drawing a boatload of cards from stars and thoughtcasts. He drops Akroma on his turn 3, but I'm able to set him up for the kill. I go for it, sacking some artifacts to a ravager to try for lethal. With 3 cards in hand, he casts Echoing Truth. This was a setback, but I'm still fine since I sacked only one creature to the ravager (worker) when trying for lethal, and can easily reload for the kill on my next turn. He has no creatures in yard so end of turn he mysticals for a brainstorm, hoping to find answers. He swings with Akroma and I'm once again at the precarious 2 life. My pants are down to a Sickening Dreams, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't running it, since he tutored for brainstorm. I hope he doesn't lay a blocker. He prays for a good brainstorm and casts it. He breathes a sigh of relief and drops putrid imp. I frown. I untap and draw... a disciple or fling wins it here. Miss on both counts. I look at my hand, I look at his board. I frown again. I can switch around plating at instant speed, but I still need two guys to get through. He has two blockers. I attack into him just to make sure he correctly blocks... Akroma and Imp both get in the way. I frown, and survey the board before preparing to scoop. There's a bunch of spectators, including a table judge. I assume there's nothing I can do. Thankfully, I notice right before I scoop that he has threshold... no imp block for you sir! I'm a wee upset that the table judge didn't notice an illegal block occuring, but that's ok. At least I didn't scoop. There's no doubt in my mind Chris also didn't realize he couldn't block, as he could have mystical'd for a reanimate and stole the arcbound worker than was in my yard to block. Instead he opted to mystical tutor for brainstorm, and that ended up costing him the game since he thought he'd be safe with the imp he got off it.
1-0
This match was beyond insane. The best legacy match I've every played hands down, and one of the best matches I've had in quite some time. I knew Chris was still pretty much a lock for top 8, and my hopes of making it just increased dramatically. We wished eachother good luck and moved on to...
Round 2: Jenn /w UW control
Jenn's a really nice guy from Mass who I had never seen before. He came with some friends just for the legacy portion.
Game 1: He's stuck on two land. He musters up a plow, but I'm still able to kill on turn 4.
I board out Baubles for Rebs.
Game 2: I lead with Vial, which is nice since his hand is alot of counters. An early ravager gets plowed. Two disciples and an Atog pay a visit. He plows the first disciple, and I sack the absolute maximum I can in terms of permanents in reponse to this. It's absolutely critical to hit him as early and often as possible without sacrificing my board position. I leave myself with one land, a vial, an atog and the other disciple. I hit one more time, then he drops moat. That's a pain. I find another disciple, but it immediately meets another plow. I once again sac un-necessary permanents in resopnse, just to nibble away at his life total. He's now in single digits, and I'm scrambling to get anything going. I draw a blinkmoth nexus, and just start plugging away. For 8 turns straight, he takes one damage from it. On his final turn, he plainscycles eternal dragon hoping to thin his deck and find absolutely anything. He reveals a hand full counters and blinkmoth carries it home for me. I'm very happy that did not go to 3 games, as I don't like my odds in the long run.
2-0
Round 3: Pudgy Little Bastard /w Goblins
Nate went 4-1 in the vintage portion, and is looking good for a top 8 spot. I really want this win, as I never seem to beat Nate and I know I'm just a good a player as he is. He starts thrashing me immedately, pointing out I haven't beaten him or Travis or Mike Pies yet. This is true, but I'm more than capable of beating any of them and I inform Nate Peas that he will be my first Beanie Exchange victim.
As we shuffle up to play, a judge wanders over to inform me that Nate has a gameloss for misregistering. This was the second time on the night for Nate in deck reg errors, as he did one during the vintage portion as well. I ask Nate why he didn't inform me he had a game loss. Apparently it slipped his mind :p
So he starts game 2 on the play, and the only card I fear is lackey. Obv he drops it. I have disciple, but I know where it's headed as he has a giant ass smile on his face. Disciple quickly hits the bin off a fanatic and lackey easily brings home the game for him. Nice card.
So we're into game three, but I'm on the play and actually get to use my sideboard. Out go 3 baubles for 3 BEB's, and out go 3 platings for 3 plagues. It may be odd that I'm boarding out plating here, but I feel it's not needed in this matchup. I don't want to board out fling, since it can randomly win. I'm definitely not boarding out atog, so it has to come down to one of the core cards. Plating is the least painful of the bunch to cut, so it goes.
Game 3: He mulls to five, but says keep after looking at his first two cards. I know I'm facing turn 1 lackey from this information, and opt to drop a worker instead of a chromatic star. If he didn't give me the tell, I was still leaning towards playing the worker first just to be the agressor, but since he gave away that he had lackey it was a no-brainer turn 1 for me. He does in fact drop lackey. My turn two I drop frog and hold back. His turn two he drops another lackey. My turn 3 I drop star and enforcer, still holding back. This ends up being right, since if I swing with either frog or worker he can cycle gempalm on the other one and get a lackey by the lone enforcer. He still cycles away one of them just for the card, but cannot attack into my 2 remaining blockers and passes. My turn 4 I drop Engineered Plague and that was all she wrote.
3-0
Nate was very upset. He let me know.
Round 4: Sam Best /w UG Madness
Sam was very energetic and had been talking to me throughout the tourney. I had seen him around alot but never got to play him. He's very passionate about vintage and loves to talk about players. He tells me he's starstruck when sitting across from me. I tell him there's nothing to be starstruck about. He then tells me he always gets like this when playing a known vintage player, and starts talking about his matches against Carl winter, Brassman, Rich Shay and Kowal. I smile and nod, trying to start the match. He continues to say these names over and over again. This match to going to be a test of my nerves :p
Game 1: He's on the play, which bothers me because it's his best chance to win. The match is extremely poor for him, but if he can muster up pressure on the play then he has a shot. He does just that, busting out turn 2 mongrel, with consecutive turn 3 and four Arrogant Wurms. Since I'm running Affinity, I manage to stabalize and have alot of dangerous critters on my side of the table. I'm a turn away from killing him. The only way I lose if he draws Wonder... he does. :p
I board out baubles for Rebs.
Game 2: I lead with vial and start sneaking out critters. He leads with rootwalla and jitte. I don't care, since my hand is two ravagers with one already on board. I do the appropriate ravager stack tricks (even playing around stifle), he never gets counters on jitte, and scoops soon thereafter.
Game 3: By this point in the match, lots of spectators come over. This normally isn't an issue for me, but Sam is talking...to all of them :p Not only is this incredibly distracting, but it's eating away at the clock. I politely ask Sam to focus on the game and he does. He leads with a mongrel, I get a vial. I get out some dorks. He plops out a wurm. My enforcers don't care. He's quickly on the defense and backpeddling the entire time. By this point he has said the word combination of "Shay," "Winter," "Kowal," and "Brassman" over 100 times, and I'm starting to go on tilt. He isn't doing it on purpose, he's just reallllly enthusiastic about vintage players. I understand this and stay quiet to the best of my ability, just silently attacking every turn. Once I draw the fling it's all over. He scoops to a 4-1 creature advantage. Sam's a nice guy and I wished him well.
4-0
This was a huge monkey off my back, since I was now pretty much a hardlock for top 8. I also was looking at very good prizes for this portion of the event. I find the other two undefeateds, who are both friends. I explain to them that one of us will get paired down while the other two will play. Since we all know each other, the common reaction from the two who don't get paired down would be to draw. I explain to them that having a winner instead of a draw actually results in more money for both players, they just need to agree to a split before the match happens, then play it out. Prizes are significantly better for a 5-0 than a 4-0-1, and still decent for a 4-1. After scanning prizes, they agree with my assesment. I cross my fingers, hoping to get paired with another 4-0.
Round 5: James Lee /w Goblins
He was one of the other 4-0's, and since we had a split worked out pre-match we were going to play it out just to have a winner. Before game 1 starts, he decides he'd rather trade and just concedes to me. He certainly didn't have to do this, but he wanted to ensure I made top 8. I thanked him. Looking at our sideboards, I think the match massively favored me anyway. He had absolutely no board for me, and I had a good one for him. Still, I was happy not to play this out. Goblins scares the hell out of me.
FINAL LEGACY RECORD: 5-0
Brandon /w 4c thresh got paired down to Sam, but won and became the other 5-0. We both had alot of prizes to choose from. I could take $140, a timetwister, a library or 4 sea drakes. He told me he really wanted the 4 sea drakes, so I took the Timetwister. James got $50 for 4-1. I sold the Timetwister immediately for $150. James and I both ended up with $100 each from our pre-arranged split, and Brandon got his sea drakes. All was good.
Even better was that I made my ultimate goal of top 8. I had prepared for this bad boy for a very very long time. Many sleepless nights on Shandalar sealed deck.
The above sentence is not a joke. :p
The top 8 ended up being beastly, with Adam Barnello (Mr. Nightmare), Herbig, Nate Peas and a host of solid but lesser known players making it in. I loved my odds, since I'm pretty sure I've put in more drafts than the other seven players combined. Yes, I draft that much :p I also really wanted to win this because I've never won a Ray Robillard tourney, and the trophy was really nice.
There was much discussion by all on how to draft this highly unsual format. For those who don't know, the top 8 rochester drafts the entire sets of Revised, Arabians and Antiquities. All three sets are laid on the table and drafted one by one. We couldn't keep the cards, but a bunch of packs, a playset of Force of Wills and the highly coveted Mana Clash trophy were on the line. The revised set was out first, and good god did this take forever. My first pick was Disintergrate, followed up by demonic tutor. I strongly signaled Red/Black, but Mike Herbig proved to be my foil again on the day. :p He immediately moved in on RB, second picking Sedge Troll over Shivan Dragon and Dragon Whelp . His first pick was lightning bolt, so I expected him to take one of the flyers. When he took the troll, I should have realized it was time to move out of one of the colors. So back to me, and I have Royal Assassin staring at me. I look towards the 100 lovable green cards no one has taken yet, and of course the adorable Kird Ape sitting in the corner... I know I can just corner the market on Red/Green and have a nice deck, with DT as the easy splash. I just couldn't get away from the royal though, and it cost me.
Three people went red and three people went black. One person went green and two people went white. If I just went Red/Green, I think I hands down won the draft. I couldn't bite the bullet though, and Kird Apes made its way into my sideboard. Sighz. My deck was still pretty hot, with 2 sorceress queen, obuilette, DT, Shivan, Roc of Kher Ridges and Royal Assassin. It was damn slow though. This was my downfall as I lost to Jeremiah's white weenie the first round of top 8. He had red and black wards maindeck, as well as white knight and repentant blacksmith. I got to flashfires him game 2, but he dropped cop black and conversion on me game 3. GG. :p
OVERALL RECORD: 8-3
Herbig's RB was also good, but he fell to Jeremiah in top 4. Jeremiah then ran down the other white player, Justin Brinner, in the finals. It ended up being a typical Rochester in that the players who drafted the uncontested colors made the finals. Dave Feinstein, how do you not draft red/green in a format with two kird apes?! Shame on you.
DAVE FEINSTEIN'S MOOD AFTER PLAYING 15 STRAIGHT HOURS OF MAGIC: THE EVENT ENDED TOO EARLY
Overall I had fun. The event was long, and after splits/speeding tickets/letting Brassman & Stefan go easy on gas money for the 10,000 time (FOR THE LAST TIME), I didn't make much money. But honestly that wasn't what it was about. I wanted to have fun and maybe win a trophy. Trophy wasn't won, but I had fun. Oh man I'm good at rhyming.
For those attending, I'll see you at SCG Virginia (10 hour drive FTW :p)
- Dave Feinstein
