THE FOLLOWING EVENTS TAKE PLACE BETWEEN THE HOURS OF 6 P.M. AND 6 A.M. THREE DAYS IN A ROW.
*clock begins to count down accompanied by several annoying beep sounds*
We begin on the Friday before said event. I didn't want to go to this event intially, for a whole host of reasons. First of all, it was really far away and I wouldn't be flying. I'm used to driving long distances to play vintage, but 14 hours is a bit longer than I wanted to travel. This problem would be alleviated when I found out there was a small band of east coasters planning on going to this event.
This leads me to problem number two. This trip was being organized by Travis LePlante :p I was very skeptical about the trip actually happening, since details were changing every single day up to and including the day of the trip. More on this later. Back to Travis. He's a good man and very passionate about vintage, but he needs to have a warning label on his mouth. I'd have it say something like this-
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CONTENT MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR GENERAL AUDIENCES. OR FEINSTEINS. IF YOU HAVE BREASTS AND ARE FEMALE, WE STRONGLY RECOMMEND YOU STAY AWAY FROM THIS MATERIAL AS IT IS RATED T. THAT DOES NOT STAND FOR TEENAGER.
See, Travis has a habit of saying what's on his mind. He also enjoys talking about female anatomy. Both have gotten him in trouble on certain forums previously. I don't personally have a problem with this. My concern about traveling with Travis would be something else. Simply put, Travis enjoys torturing me. We're not talking Hostel style, but that might actually be less painful. Travis enjoys verbally tearing me a new one. He does this just about every other sentence. It's one of those things that I've kind of gotten used to. That doesn't mean I like it :p
I look at Travis as boot camp. I felt if I could put up with him for 14 hours each way, I would be mentally unstoppable. The problem is I didn't want to play fish, which was my biggest issue when it came to going on this trip. I have not been quiet about my feelings on the current state of fish. I feel it's generally outclassed by Gifts and was worried about 10,000 gifts showing up. Even if Gifts didn't show, the deck can sometimes just be completely outclassed by better draws, and it almost never has a god draw to fight back with. Stil, I felt a connection to the deck. It's done well for me every single time I've played it, and I've gotten destroyed every single time I didn't play it. I briefly flirted with countergoblins recently, but I find that deck to be a total piece of ass if it doesn't lead with goblin lackey. So if you play countergoblins, mark your lackeys. :p
Carefully weighing all of these factors, I decided to bite the bullet and go on this trip. A big plus was that regardless of performance, I was positive the trip would be entertaining. In addition to Travis, I would be traveling with Colby Evenpence and Elias. Both good guys, and both have had their moments of being 'outspoken' on this site as well. I might actually be the quietest person in the car. That's a scary thought.
There was almost a fifth passenger in the car, but he decided not to go. This anonymous individual changed his mind approximately 20 times before finally settling on a decision, moments before I leave for Travis's house. This anonymous individual cited reasons for not going as a) not wanting to spend alot of money, b) not wanting to travel that far, C) not confident about doing well either day and d) being booted off the great designer search. Ok, he didn't actually mention that last one as a reason, but I was pretty sure that Bra- I mean, anonymous individual, was still depressed about that as well.
So the four people in the car were set and we had a rental car reserved. Travis took care of that. I was happy that he reserved a rental car, as all I could think about while making the two hour trek to Travis's house was 'Gee, I'm sure glad we wouldn't be taking my car.' Shortly before arriving at his house, Travis gives me a call.
*ring ring ring*
Dave Feinstein: Hello. This is Dave Feinstein.
Travis: Yo Feinstein. There's been a snag in the plans.
Dave Feinstein: ...
Travis: The rental car fell through.
Dave Feinstein: ...
Travis: If you want to go, we'll have to take your car. I'll make sure you get taken care of for gas. You'll even get extra because I know you didn't want to take your car and it'll have at least 1200 miles put on it.
Dave Feinstein: (attempting to find words that don't involve curses) OK.
*click*
Travis: Gotcha' Bitch! (believed to be said after phone conversation ended)
The temptation to turn around and go home was great. But I stayed the course in the hopes of finishing my mission. Or something like that. I wasn't pleased, but I really wanted to go through with this trip by now, as I had changed several plans to make sure I could attend. So I did in fact show up at Travis's house. I was greeted by his mom. She was nice, and told me that Travis, "should be fine this weekend." Now I feel safe. With Travis now picked up, the adventure begins. The first leg of the car ride was driving to New York to pick up Elias. During this Travis and I had continued some old debates, including whether or not pop stars such as Kelly Clarkson do or do not in fact have a 'no BJ' clause in their contracts so their voices wouldn't be screwed up. We came to the conclusion that most do, with a notable exception being Clay Aiken. After that, Travis makes fun of me... alot.
3 or so hours in and we pickup Elias in New York. The next tree hours are coincidentally filled entirely with bad Borat and Christopher Walken impressions. Next up is Evenpence in Pennsylvania. The final leg of the first tour is filled with bad Borat/Walken impressions, highly annoying laughter and making fun of me. So far no surprises.
We arrive at Star City Games around 9 AM. It's a complete ghost town. 10 AM rolls around and it doesn't look much different from when it did an hour ago. Only 46 or so people showed for day one. I expect it to be a cakewalk, but looking over the names of people registered shows a much different story. At least thirty people on the list had a clue and most of them were above average to very good. I was also sure that there would be at least 5-10 unfamiliar names to me on the list who were also good. In other words, despite the very low turnout the tourney was filled with almost entirely hardcore players. Interesting.
I went to war with this on day 1:
// Lands
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
2 Island
1 Plains
4 Flooded Strand
4 Tundra
1 Polluted Delta
1 Windswept Heath
1 Flagstones of Trokair
// Creatures
4 Meddling Mage
3 Kataki, War's Wage
3 Jotun Grunt
3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
3 Savannah Lions
// 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
1 Time Walk
3 Daze
2 Orim's Chant
// Sideboard
SB: 1 Kataki, War's Wage
SB: 1 Null Rod
SB: 3 Seal of Cleansing
SB: 4 Threads of Disloyalty
SB: 3 Energy Flux
SB: 3 Umezawa's Jitte
I tuned the list to beat gifts. No one should see maindeck chant coming. Even if they do, my line of thought would be that it should drastically alter a combo player's gameplan more often than not. There would be decks where the chant is dead, but that's ok. I felt the amount of gifts I'd run into would be worth that. Let's find out how much gifts I faced...
Round 1: Counter Goblins
I forgot his name, which happens when you're the very first opponent of a very long trip on a very long tourney over 2 days. I remember I showed up discombobulated. I had to re-sleeve, since I felt they were horribly marked. I was also finishing my deck as the round went up. The judges kindly gace me a few minutes to finish, as it was clear I had traveled far to play in this thing. They gave other players time to finish also, but a couple got the game loss because they took up too much time. That luckily didn't happen to me.
Game 1: He kicked my ass anyway. He led with lackey and had counter backup. I died quickly.
I board in jittes for rods and threads for chants.
Game 2: I get jitte out.
Game 3: I get jitte out.
I wish I could describe the games more, but that's literally what happened. The game where I didn't have jitte, I lost. The games where it was online I couldn't lose. He was a very nice guy and I regret forgetting his name.
1-0
Round 2: Travis LePlante /w Broodstar Stax
I wish I was making that up. See, Travis has a habit of running a couple insanely awful cards each tournament. He revels in playing shitty cards in stax. It's his gimmick. People laugh at his stupiditiy in card choices, then he pwns them. If he were a wrestler, he'd be... "THE SHOCKMASTER!" <gold star if you catch this reference>
Game 1: He uh, sylvan scryings for workshop. I swing with little weenies. Can't draw kataki. He locks me down at low life.
Board out chants and daze for flux/rod
Game 2: First turn Kataki. GG Broodstar player.
Game 3: He leads with turn 1 workshop/crucible. I ancestral but he quickly gets down sphere of resistance and trinisphere. I lose. He made sure to let me know.
1-1
Round 3- Hydra of ICBM (forgot real name :p) /w Beckerfish
Hydra's awesome. We talked the whole weekend. I can't believe I forgot his real name.
Game 1: he leads with confidant and has lots of counter backup. I drop weenies but he keeps protecting confidant and draws a ton of cards, then locks me out of the game with chalice.
Game 2: He presents a 59 card deck.
Game 3: He mulligans into a turn 1 confidant, but I have the plow. I drop a jitte followed by critters and that was all she wrote.
2-1
Round 4- Phil Cape /w Oath
Phil is part of the Michigan crew, and we had talked at other events. He's a good player but usually doesn't play vintage. I knew he was playing Oath from watching his other matches. I was not happy about this pairing.
Game 1: It goes long, with me holding chant but getting no mage. He's pretending like he isn't oath, so I do him one better and pretend that I don't know what he's playing. We both do the silly mindgame thing for a little bit, playfully. The jig is up when he Intuitions for AK's and draws a bunch of cards. He drops oath with lots of backup. He maindecks SkySwallower and i'm staring at 100 plows. I die with him at 3 and I never drew a mage.
I side out plows for seal of cleansing. During sideboarding he mentions how bad plows are in this matchup... which immediately makes me want to keep them in. He's basically giving me a ridiculous tell (POKER PHRASE!) by telling me to side out plow. I play along with him, mentioning I think plows are bad vs. Sky Swallower oath. I actually believe this, but in this case I knew plow would be key. He was bringing in something for me that he didn't want plowed. I kept one in. If he stayed quiet I would have boarded them all out, but it ended up not mattering.
Game 2: He mulligans into ancestral. I have the daze. Meddling mage and rod are more than enough at this point.
Game 3: We're low on time. Mage is out naming oath, as is a grunt. He gets an early tinker into Triskelion. So that's why he wanted me to board out plows. I run out a rod in response to this. He says resolves. He looks visibly upset. I'm pretty sure this is because he wanted to ping mage in response to rod and chose not to. Turns out he had the drain and just chose not to drain the rod. That ended up being a huge mistake and cost him the game. I get in a few hits with grunt, then he is finally forced to trade trike with it. I then am free to kill him with mage and other assorted small creatures that made their presence known at this point. I win on turn 3 of extra turns of what was a close match.
3-1
Round 5- Brandon /w Slaver-Stax Hybrid
Brandon sits down and the first thing he tells me is he's happy to be facing me. His friend sits down and looks at him like he's on crack. I have no idea what I'm up against, but Brandon sure looked happy.
Game 1: I have ancestral opening into katak on the first two turnsi. He isn't happy anymore. His friend starts to say "I told you-" but I cut him off and politely ask him to stay quiet. Brandon starts cursing fish. Then Kataki. Then Ancestral. Then Kataki some more. He did pretty much nothing this game other than resolve a thirst, and curse alot.
I board in the fourth kataki.
Game 2: He mulligans into a slow hand. Plays land and passes. I open with sapphire/ancetral...ancestral resolves into lotus/isamaru/kataki. He's ready to flip the table over.
My turn 2 I resolve mage on tinker, then mage on thirst. This was over by turn 6. I heard "I H8 FISH!" about 50 times by this point.
Yes I had good hands against him, but I dont really fear this match. His deck was definitely original and creative, but he doesn't have the raw power starts of a normal workshop deck, and that's what scares me about the most when I face a workshop deck. His list gives up the raw power for card advantage and slaver elements, which is an interesting direction to take the deck into. I got paired up to Brandon, so he was not eliminated at 3-1-1. He ended up winning his last round and making top 8.
4-1
Round 6- Eric Becker /w Urbana fish, or whatever the name is.
With my win last round, I was looking good for top 8. Becker and I amicably drew. I have alot of respect for Eric, as he's very consistent as well as innovative.
4-1-1
I made top 8, I forgot what seed. Somewhere in the middle.
Top 8: Jeff Folinus /w Pitch Long
Jeff is an up and coming player (more on this shortly) who I definitely wasn't thrilled about facing. He's very softspoken, but a really good player who has quietly put up great results at other tourneys. I didn't sweat this match too much, as I felt it favored me over 3 games. Even if I lost, I was just happy to make top 8 given how ridiculously tired I was.
Game 1: I disrupt the hell out of him with wastes and dazes. I get him nice and low and he makes a last ditch attempt to go off the turn before I would win. With null rod out, he plays a few moxes to work up a storm count and rituals out a desire for 3. He gets infernal contract off the desire and then the 4 cards get him into a lethal tendrils. Depressing way to lose, since he ripped off a very small desire, but he played very well in order to be put into that position. Good players don't just get lucky. They play well to put themselves into a position to be lucky. He could have just punted away the game by playing those moxen earlier, but he kept them in his hand to build up storm. Most players would just play out the moxen and hope to draw a chain. Jeff gave himself the best chance to win and was rewarded for it. I can deal with that.
I board out plows, which is a new approach I adopted against PL. Tinker is basically a last resort card for them, and they almost never maindeck it. I knew Jeff's list came from GWS, and tinker isn't a focus at all in those versions. I figured this would be a sound strategy, as I really wanted Daze on the play and it pitches to Force. If he just tinkered out a colossus and I didn't have the counter, then he'd win. That's a risk I was willing to take.
Game 2: I have ancestral early and lots of counter backup. It was over fairly quickly.
Game 3: He mulligans to five. I keep a hand with no force but it does have daze, as well as mox/isamaru/brainstorm with some lands. He fires out ancetral immediately and I frown. I do my best, brainstorming twice early wtih fetchland backup each time. Unfortunately, both brainstorms show me 3 lands on top. Casting the second brainstorm after a fetch to find yet another 3 land is about the most depressing thing that could happen. I can't find fow's or chants to save my life. I have rod out, and a couple weenies swinging, including mage on yawg will. He's just building up to go off on rituals, and that's exactly what he does. I die with nothing in my hand. It's at this point where I wish I had a random trickbind.
Final Day 1 Record- 4-2-1.
I told Jeff I thought the winner of this match would go onto the finals, as he would be facing Brandon's Stax/Slaver deck. He quickly rolled Brandon and then worked out a deal with his roomate Mike Hetherington in the finals, with Jeff getting the concession. Congrats to both of them.
Before talking about day 2, I would like to stop a minute and reflect about the format. The weekend had an incredibly light turnout, but it was all good players. Notably, most of the 'name' players from the past 2-3 years were not in attendance. It seems that Vintage has reached a crossroads where there is a very noticable changing of the guard. For the next few years, I predict lots of new names being established and leaving their mark in the format. TK was the first in what I suspect will be a very long line of new players who will reinvigorate format. With that in mind, here is my list of 5 up and comers who are still relative unknowns but should make an impact in the coming year...
DAVE FEINSTEIN'S TOP 5 UP-AND-COMER'S!!!1!!1
1) Mike Hetherington: This one is easy. Mike is a great player who before this weekend was usually met with the response of, "Who?" He quietly had been doing well the past few months. He top 8'd day 2 of SCG with me and I didn't even realize it. I'm sure he prefers to stay under the radar, as it no doubt helps him in matches when people think they're sitting across from a random. He's no random. With his back to back top 4 this weekend, he's solidified as a force to be reckoned with and will only continue to impress.
2) Jeff Folinus: Mike's roomate, and basically the same scenario I gave for Mike applies to him. Quiet player who is very good and in the know about the format. Top 4'd the GP Jersey side event the week before VA. Unlike Mike, I had known about how good Jeff was since he won the mana leak, but that was a legacy tourney. I didn't think he played vintage, but like Mike, has quickly stormed into the format and done well. Other than TK, he's hands down the best Long player I've faced... and I've played against many good Long players.
3) Stefan Barnsworth: Stefan is still very early into his vintage 'career'. He wants to win and has been actively barning, I mean studying, under Rich Shay and Brassman. He also harasses the hell out of me for games. He's eager to learn and has been getting advice from a vast array of good players. The results are already starting to show, as he played in only 1 SCG (day 1 of Boston), and top 8'd. I suspect he'll have a very good run in 2007.
4) Mark Trogdon: Known locally among Ohio players, Mark has yet to splash onto the big scene. I've watched Mark's results locally and they are very good. He's similar to other great Stax players like Vroman and Evenpence in that he uses his own lists exclusively, constantly adapting to what he believes the metagame will be. I think that's the only way Stax can win big tourneys. You can't just copy a list and cross your fingers. You have to actively prepare for what you think will show. Mark does this, and is also a really nice guy. Look for big things from him next year.
5) Andy Farias: The other Andy from Rhode Island. Farias is a good friend of mine (I think), so there's some bias in this pick, but in the few handful of tourneys he played in this year, he top 8'd 90% of them. He won 3 moxes out of 4 tourneys where he played Slaver, including a top 8 at the only SCG he played in. If he actually plays in tourneys this year, he'll probably top 8 most of them. As far as unknowns go, I think he has more raw talent than any other player I've seen.
Honorable mention: Mike Pies. Mike isn't really unknown anymore, since he won day 2 of SCG Boston. He's a great player who worked alot with Nate Peas, but really came into his own. Mike Herbig is my other honorable mention, but I left him off the lost because he also is known at this point. I expect Herbig to dominate in 2007.
The list was made to recognize unknown players. If you're unknown and offended... start winning :p
Anyway, back to...
DAY 2!!!11!!1111
Elias also ended up top 8'ing, and got alot of congratulations from people, including many offers to join good teams. It must be nice to feel loved :p
Travis, Elias, myself and Evenpence head to some buffet and eat all their food. We go back to the hotel and get in the elvator. Elias is straggling, so Travis keeps the elevator open for him while we wait in it. travis does this by jamming the "DOOR OPEN" button. Some poor mom and her 10,000 kids are waiting to get into the elevator, and Travis just keeps jamming away.
*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*
The mom is getting mad, while I'm trying to hold in my laughter. Elias finally gets to the elevator, and the door closes with mom and her 10,000 kids staring a hole into Travis.
Bwahahaha.
We go to the room and test. I decided to run fish again, because I just can't do well with anything else. Travis decides to put confidant in his stax, actually cutting bad cards to make room. Maybe he'll do well tomorrow. Nah, they'll probably be a Stuffy Doll snuck in there or something. Elias decides to tank his chances of day 2 and run 4 color GAT. Colby just missed top 8'ing and is prepared to give it another run with his Stax deck. I like his odds. I go to sleep not knowing if I'll actually play tomorrow, since this was the first shuteye I had gotten in over 48 hours. Frown town.
*THE FOLLOWING TAKES PLACE BETWEEN 9 A.M. AND THE REST OF THIS REPORT*
I wake up feeling really shitty. Travis makes fun of me a little, and I feel better. He came with no clothes, buying them all at Wal-mart. This results in him wearing ridiculous sweatpants. When I first saw him in them, I thought he ate Richard Simmons whole. Anyway, we go downstairs and raid the open breakfast buffet. Evenpence took the last yogurt on me. I should have charged him more gas money.
Day 2 sees even less players, but the arrival of David Kleppinger. <3 Klep.
I go into this thinking I wished I had a random Misdirection, just to randomly mise people with. I remember how many times Ancestral determined who won the game on day 1, so I decided to fit one in. I also loved daze, and added a 4th. The Orim's chants were mediocre, so they were easy cuts. They still would make their way into the sideboard. Flagstones was pure ass, as there wasn't anywhere near as much Stax as I thought there'd be. In addition, when deciding to play the card I had no idea that the plains it fetched came into play tapped. This made it an easy cut, and I replaced it with a Hallowed Fountain.
That's basically all the changes I did, but here's the list anyway for reference:
// Lands
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
2 Island
1 Plains
4 Flooded Strand
4 Tundra
1 Polluted Delta
1 Windswept Heath
1 Hallowed Fountain
// Creatures
4 Meddling Mage
3 Kataki, War's Wage
3 Jotun Grunt
3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
3 Savannah Lions
// 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
1 Time Walk
4 Daze
1 Misdirection
// Sideboard
SB: 1 Kataki, War's Wage
SB: 4 Seal of Cleansing
SB: 3 Threads of Disloyalty
SB: 3 Umezawa's Jitte
SB: 1 Trickbind
SB: 3 Orim's Chant
I put the random Trickbind there just in the hopes it would randomly steal me a game, even though that never happened. I cut the energy fluxes entirely because you really don't need them for Stax. Against Uba Mask variants, they aren't even that good. 4 Seals and a fourth Kataki in the board should be plenty for a match that I didn't expect to run into much.
ROUND 1- MIKE /W GOBLINS
Goblins in round one on both days? Sheesh. Mike was a really good guy, but was brand new to vintage. There were numerous mistakes made both games because he wasn't familar with the concept of the stack. The biggest mistake was game 2 when Jitte was out and he had mana to replicate his Shattering Spree. He didn't know he could replicate, and simply targetd the jitte once. I had force and a blue card, but if he replicates I lose my Jitte and he may have come back that game. Without the replicate, the jitte got huge and it wasn't close after that. I talked to him alot after the match letting him know what he could have done different, and he seemed appreciative. Mike was a very nice guy and I hope he continues to play vintage
1-0
Round 2- Forgot Name /w Pitch Long
This was another player who was new to playing Pitch Long. He was really nice and I wish I remembered his name. He kept a very iffy opener with lotus petal but no other sources. He goes for vamp and I had the daze, basically ending game 1. Game 2 he mulliganed into ancestral but I had the Misdirection.
2-0
Round 3- Jesse Pinchot /w BUW fish variant
I recognized the name but couldn't tell from where. Turns out he had a couple SCG top 8's in the past. Nice guy too.
Game 1- he leads with confidant but I have the plow. I get Grunt out and start going to town. We have a counter war over some spells, leaving us both low on cards and turning it into a topdeck war. He rips a grunt that trades with my grunt. He then rips another grunt that is holding off my horder of lions and hounds. I rip plow to win.
I side out rods for jittes and all but 1 daze for threads.
Game 2- He leads with duress and sees jitte and misdirection for legal choices. I also have a couple dorks. I have no other blue card. He thinks for a very long time before deciding on Jitte, stating he'll take the risk. I know that means Anectral is dropping on my head as soon as he untaps, so I hope to god I draw any blue card. I draw meddling mage and thank the heavens. I play isamaru and pass. He casts Ancestral and asks if I drew a blue card... he frowns. I'm suddenly drawing 3 cards and the sudden shift in tempo gave me the game. For the record, I think he played right. I would run out Jitte as soon as possible and no amount of removal would stop it from eventually becoming active. He can take the MisD and guarantee the ancestral goes through on his next turn, but he still has to deal with the jitte and he told me he brought in nothing to deal with it that game. So he either ancestrals and hopes to draw into a fow to stop the jitte, or he just takes it out of play now and hopes I don't draw a card to pitch to Mis D. It's choosing the lesser of two evils, and I think he chose right. I was just fortunate to draw a blue card on my next immediate draw step.
3-0
Round 4- Chris Nighbor /w Pitch Long
I had talked with thespookykid all day long, and he told me of his teammate Chris Nighbor. I had never seen nor heard of Chris before, but he was on ICBM and had high praise from Jeremy, so that was enough for me to automatically respect him. He was very quiet but polite.
Game 1- My opener on the draw is Daze/Mis D/Fow/Isamaru/Meddling Mage and two lands. Amazing hand against pitch long, ESPECIALLY if he has ancestral in his opener. He isn't shy and does in fact go for the turn 1 ancestral. We have a counter war than I win, leaving him crippled. I should have the game right there, but he claws back slowly. I drop rod and some weenies, and also waste his mana sources. He has an island and a sea on low life. He passes, setting up for that crucial turn. I draw time walk. I play it. I swing with some guys and cast it, holding a meddling mage. I draw a strip mine on my extra turn. I lay the meddling mage on yawg will. I pass the turn.
I PASS THE TURN.
Let's go to John Madden and Al Michaels for a recap of this:
Madden: Hello and welcome to our half-time show. The highlight of the night had to be Dave Feinstein's amazing punt return. Buy my videogames.
Michaels: I agree John, he really punted that game away.
Madden: With the game in the palm of his hands, all he had to do was just lay the strip mine and destroy that last blue source. Buy my videogames.
Michaels: I agree John, the punt was truly masterful. Only a true master of the game could punt away a game like that.
Madden: FEINSTEIN GOES TO PLAY THE STRIP MINE, HE LOOKS, HE FAKES, HE MAKES THE KICK... AND IT'S GOOD. FEINSTEIN PUNTS THE GAME AWAY! HE DID IT. I CAN'T BELIEVE HE ACTUALLY PUNTED THE GAME AWAY FROM THAT FIELD POSITION. GET TOUGH ACTIN' TINACTIN!
Michaels: Buy his videogames.
Yeah, I swung with weenies, leaving him at 1, then hastily passed with strip in my hand. As soon as I said go I had to hold in the cursing. As I make this earth shattering mistake, Smenenen is playing a match directly to my right (lucky me :p) and also screws up royally when up against a spookykid smokestack. He is forced to sack his colossus when he could have avoided it. He starts swearing alot. Anyway, back to my match. Chris untaps, rituals with the swamp and taps blue with the sea he shouldn't have. He casts timetwister with a black floating. He draws a hot 7 and I got ass. He ends up doing a buch of rituals in the face of null rod and actually manages to tendrils me out. He had no other blue source he could use if I stripped the sea. A winner is not me.
I side out all plows, sticking with the 'plz dont cast tinker' strategy.
Game 2: He ancestrals early while I was forced to mulligan and keep a double waste no other land hand. I'm waiting to scoop. I play a waste and pass. He fetches into a non basic? I waste it. I play another waste. He plays another non basic? I waste that too. He plays another land. I draw a strip and manage to actually play the goddamn thing this time. I get a nullrod out. He rituals out a Thrashing Wumpus, but it's forced to trade with a Grunt, doing minimal damage. He lays lands but the wastes set him back enough to where by the time he could go off, he walked right into a chant. If he led with basics, I don't think I could have won.
Game 3: We're short on time and he goes for a tinker. It resolves. I'm prepared to scoop my cards with just a lions and a nullrod out. He drops Pentavus.
...
Alright, guess I'm still in this. Pentavus starts to swing but I have weenies amassing. Time is called and I can't safely play for the win. I was starting to develop a good board but definitely can't kill him in time, so I resign myself to playing for the draw. I have more than enough resources to safely not lose, and we draw.
I ask after the match if he had massacre and he said no. Wumpus and Pentavus over Massacre and Colossus are why I drew this match instead of losing. After the horrible mistake I made game 1, I felt fortunate to escape this match with a draw.
3-0-1
Round 5: Cullen Cox /w BWR Hide/Seek Metagame deck
I had watched Cullen in prior rounds and was impressed by his deck. He was destroying combo and had a great match against creatures as well. The combination of Duress/Hide Seek/Plows and Diabolic Edicts had me shaking in my boots. I knew he was extremely low on win conditions, having only Exaltged Angels and Confidants. My strategy for this match would be to go for the long game, letting any creature removal spell through and hoping to eventually win the attrition war by just laying endless weenie after endless weenie.
Game 1: I get an early ancestral and start playing weenies. He starts killing them. I have a force in my hand but let him kill creature after creature. I aim my plows at his morphs and just keep waiting for that backbreaker spell from him. He starts seeking my FOW's. We draw a big, big crowd as this game goes incredibly long. The key point comes at about the half an hour mark, with about 30 turns from both sides having gone by. He tries for a moat, and I use my last FOW on it. If that moat resolves in game 1, I can't win. He duresses me a couple times afterwards, but I just draw creatures and eventually get a lion and a hound to stick after he killed my first 12 or so creatures. I win a nail biter. He would have won if he waited on the moat, because he knew I had fow in my hand. I had used one already during the game and he Seeked the other 2 out of my deck. He just waits to draw into a chant or a duress and then I'm left with no counters for the moat. I was very fortunate to win this game.
I side in seals taking out dazes, rods become threads and the 1 misdirection becomes a 4th kataki. With no Blue cards in his deck I don't see the value of keeping it in. At best I can MisD a plow or edict to one of his guys, but with 4 maindeck duress from him as well as hide/seek it probably won't work.
We don't have much time left but I have a great opener with alot of weenies and counter backup. He leads with pithing needle on wasteland as well as a couple mox. I run out turn 1 Kataki and it sets him back huge. He's forced to pay for his moxen and needle. By the time he can cast other spells he's staring down a ton of weenies and a grunt. My meddling mage should seal the deal, but like a donkey I name Moat. He only has access to a colorless and a white. I wonder what spell fitting that mana cost could wreck me :p As soon as I name mage I comment I probably screwed up. He says yes but the balance isn't in his hand and he needs to rip it. Luckily he does not and I take down a match I felt very fortunate to win.
I named mage on moat out of fear of lotus + moat, but this was silly. I had seals to deal with it later, and only balance gets him out of the hole on its own. I had thought about naming it but he ran creatures so I didn't peg him for it. The moral of the story is even if you think your opponent doesn't have the one nightmare card that can wreck you, name it anyway. He congratulated me on making top 8. Cullen is an awesome guy and he ended up making top 16.
4-0-1
Round 6- Draw /w Cody Vinci
4-0-2
I draw into top 8 at 3rd seed. I was happy. Hetherington also did the hat trick of back to back top 8's, and Becker barely missed. we had all ran the same decks as played on day 1.
Top 8- Jesse Pinchot /w UBW fish variant, again
I wasn't really thrilled about this match, because while I felt I had a distinct post board advantage, he knew what was coming in and how to play against it. He's also a very good player.
Game 1- He resolves Ancestral after a counter war and gets a confidant to stick after I plow the first one. He's up too many cards and finishes me off with a Yawg Will.
I side in seals anticipating needles and do not bring in jitte. This was stupid, since his needle is probably going to end up naming jitte. I'd rather have a threat than an answer to protect my threat that I didn't even board into this game. Fatigue was definitely starting to settle in.
Game 2- I blow him out of the water with a god draw of lotus/2 mox/ancestral/2 critters and a plow leftover. His only plays were a confidant that quickly went farming and a needle.
Game 3- I come to my senses and put the jittes back in. During this he looks at a mysterious one-of in his sideboard and exclaims, "I think I finally have a use for this card!"
I never want to hear that :p
On the draw I keep a very average hand of a weenie, a brainstorm, some land and a misdirection. I'll be really happy if he leads out with ancestral. He opens with Fetchland, Lotus... adds 3 blue... mysticals... YAUS! Ancestral on Top... I do my best to keep quiet, inwardly praying he has brainstorm. He uses his second mana for brainstorm... MORE YAUS! He uses his third and final blue mana for Ancestral... DING! I run out the MisD before I can even announce it. He pauses for a few seconds and says, "responses." He cracks the fetch, goes for another brainstorm and crosses his fingers. He looks at the top 3 from his new Brainstorm...and frowns. W00T. I use his ancestral and promptly draw my own ancestral. I'm up 8 cards on my first turn and it's academic at this point. If I didn't have the Misdirection, I'm pretty sure he won. Nice one-of. His one-of was Ronom Unicorn. :p Jesse was a really good guy and he'll definitely have more top 8's to come.
5-0-2
Semifinals: Chris Marchand /w Bomberman
Chris beat Jeremy in a tight 3 games and I was happy, because I really liked my odds against bomberman, and I did not like my odds against Jeremy /w Uba Stax. Chris and I talked while getting deck checked. He was very friendly and we were both just happy to be in top 4 at this point.
Game 1- I'm on the play with a nice weenie rush with nullrod backup. His first threat is a salvagers which I promptly Daze. It's over pretty quickly.
I board all 4 dazes for kataki and 3 seals.
Game 2- This goes long with his 2 salvagers staring off against my 10,000 two power or less weenies and a null rod. Anytime I get a grunt out, it quickly goes farming. The game ends when he resolves a cunning wish for wipe away. He wipes away my rod and goes off. I drew all 3 isamarus very early, meaning 2 got stuck in my hand. That definitely atributed to me losing this game.
I look to my board wondsering if jitte should come in. I ultimately decide it should not, and take out seals for dazes.
Game 3- I lead with turn 1 nullrod. He gets salvagers and trinket mage out quick and just starts beating me over the head. I saw no plows and keep being forced to groupblock his salvagers, meeting a plow from him each time. No plowshares or grunts did me in, and I wonder what would have happened if i boarded in jittes over rods.
FINAL DAY 2 RECORD- 5-1-2
OVERALL TOTAL RECORD-
9-3-3
I ended up with a ruby from day 1 and a sapphire on day 2. The sapphire was actually in great condition, much better than the beat to hell one I got from 3rd place at SCG Boston...which had twice as many people than this event did.
"Interesting."
I thanked Pete for holding the tournaments, as he took a beating this weekend but had a positive attitude the entire weekend. I admit that in the past I had very strong doubts about SCG's commitment to vintage. I'm glad to say my doubts have been completely erased. The judging was smooth (<3 Klep), the prizes were fantastic and the store was amazing. Overall great event. Pete Hoefling is a good man. I also enjoyed meeting Chris Woltereck, who works for Pete.
Everyone in the car had a good time. I made the 14 hour car trek back to Rhode Island, dropping each off along the way. When it was down to me and Travis, business picked up. First came the accident 2 feet in front of us that forced a wait of over an hour. We were about an inch from reaching the tolls, but had to wait anyway. Gogo ?New York Law Enforcement. When we finally get to the tollbooth, Travis decides to be inquisitive.
Travis: So do we get a discount for waiting over an hour from this accident.
Tollbooth Willy: Absolutely not.
Travis: Why not.
Tollbooth Willy: *grabs change... mutters something about Travis being a smartass*
Travis: I'm a smartass eh?
Hands down the most profound thing said all weekend. I glare at Travis and before he does anything else Travis-like, thankfully just drives away from Tollbooth Willy.
A few hours later, ninjas attempted to assassinate me. Or so it seemed. A shuriken shaped Rim came hurtling towards my tire, and I swerved out of the way just in time.
Dave Feinstein- 1 Ninjas- 0
I dropped Travis off some time later. Suddenly I wasn't stressed anymore. I finish my 14 hour trek home and get sleep. W00t.
The weekend was nice. I met alot of nice people. Big thanks to Nathan, who top 8'd day one with a pretty much carbon copy of my uw fish. Glad to see the deck worked for someone else, too. We talked all weekend, he was a really nice guy.
There are some of you no doubt saying,
'SEE FEINSTEIN! GIFTS DOES NOT NEED TO BE RESTRICTED. YOU WON 2 MOXES DESPITE THINKING THE CARD IS WARPING THE FORMAT!1!1'
Please Keep in mind I never faced Gifts on the entire weekend :p I also feel happy about that. I still stick to my view that the card is simply too good. It's just there aren't enough good players running it at the moment, which is why it's free to roam. My stance is that if you're a good player with Gifts, you're winning. Mike Hetherington was the perfect example of this. With that said, the format is OK for the time being. There just aren't enough good Gifts players to restrict the card at this point in time. I think this will change as the months go by, and Gifts will finally run wild. I hope I'm wrong.
In conclusion, UW fish is an amazing deck if your goal is to top 8 a large tourney. It may actually be the most consistent deck in the format. With that said, it's a TERRIBLE choice if you actually want to win a tournament. I just don't think it can be done. I've come close time after time and always manage to just fall short. I attribute this to the power level of the deck. It's just not strong enough to go the distance. On the other hand, if your goal is to win a mox at a big tournament, it's a very good choice. It does not deviate very much in terms of what you'll draw. Mulligans usually aren't backbreakers either. I enjoy UW fish and as always, recommend it to those looking to have fun but still have a shot at winning prizes.
I don't know if I'm going to run it again in a major tourney. I know I always say that. This time I think I mean it, though. I really want to win one of these big tourneys, and I just don't think UW fish is the deck to do it with. I'm unsure of where I'll go from here. Knowing me, it'll be right back to UW fish :p
That is it for this edition of 'Feinstein's Long-ass Top 8 report.' It was nice meeting everyone who went. If there's an SCG in the near future, I'm sure I'll see everyone again then. If not, I'll see many of you at the next Waterbury. For those who have never been: Go. It's worth it.
Thanks again for reading. K Thx Bye.
- Dave Feinstein
