First and foremost I have to give props to Dave, owner of the Gamers Lounge. Actually paying out the Sapphire with only 9 in attendance was awesome. Second, I have to say winning was more luck than skill, and as you read, you'll understand what I'm talking about.
I wondered if I should bother posting a report due to the small turn out. I mean how much could be learned? But what the hey, the deck did win power, so here it is.
Grow-a-whatever
Land
3 Tundra
3 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
4 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
2 Island
1 Strip Mine
Creatures
4 Quiron Dryad
2 Nimble Mongoose
3 Meddling Mage
1 Psycatog
1 Darksteel Colossus
Spells
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Serum Visions
3 Daze
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Gush
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Wipe Away
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Disenchant
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Berserk
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
SB:
3 Null Rod
3 Orim's Chant (All Star)
2 Pithing Needle (Honorable Mention)
2 Energy Flux
2 Engineered Plague
1 Darkblast
1 Rebuild
1 Tormods Crypt
So I take the roughly 2 hour drive from Detroit to Sandusky, very boring, and so much freakin' Christmas music, I wanted to rip my hair out. Oh, wait, I don't have much. I arrive at The Gamers Lounge around 12:40 to find only a few guys there, mostly from the Clevland crowd. What? No Trogdon? No Yang? No Demars? No Nichalo? No Droba? No Menendian? No Mastriano? Where is everybody? (Enter the luck factor, none of the Michigan crew came, and only half the Clevland guys, and only one Mean Deck (Lyle)). I see Nam Tran when I get there and ask if they are even going to have a tourney? He replies, "I paid, I'm gonna play no matter what". I figure he is right, I drove 2 hours, I might as well play some Magical cards, even if it was for store credit. I find out later that Dave (store owner, and down right nice guy), is going to pay out the Sapphire, no matter the attendance, what a great guy! I make some SB changes (no Oath in site), do deck reg, and BS with everyone. The tourney begins, but unfortunately the printer isn't working, and they have to call out the pairings. Who do I play???
Rd. 1.
BYE playing with myself (The luck continues)
Oh hurray! Every time I get a round one bye, I usually follow it with round two and three loses, and a long drive home. It does however give me a chance to see the field. No Stax, no Oath, no combo (unless you consider Bomberman combo), one Gifts, one U/B Fish, one U/W Fish, and what??? Psycatog. Yes, Twaun007 wasn't playing his usual Twaun-Stax. Interesting field tilted in my favor (more luck).
1-0/ 2-0 (not really)
Rd. 2.
Nat Moes playing U/B Fish
Nat finished in the top 8 at the last Sandusky tournie, but I didn't play him.
Gm.1
He opens with Withered Wretch and gets Bob online. I get Psycatog to stick, but Wretch keeps him a 1/2. Nat Forces my Recall, so I Swords Bob. I get Dryad in play, but he doesn't stay. Tog picks away at his life, and Meddling Mage joins him to finish up.
Gm. 2.
I make my first mistake of the day, keeping a one land hand, with BS and Serum Visions. I thought I would draw into gas before he coud out tempo me. Wrong! Nat goes Island, Martyr of Frost, (what the hell does that guy do?). I play Tropical and BS, find USea, and another BS, I should be alright. Next turn Nat plays Wasteland, goodbye Tropical. I draw, play Sea, Vision into nothingness, pass turn. He plays Mox and Strip Mine, whacks the Sea, and Ninjas out NoTDH. I do nothing for a few turns while he beats me down with Ninjas and Martyr of Frost. He uses Martyr to counter the other BS and I scoop at 9 life out of frustration, annoyed at myself for keeping a bad hand.
Gm 3.
For being such a pain the last game, my deck rewards me (more luck). Within the first two turns, I resolve Ancestral, Time Walk, and Tinker, all with Force back up. Nat tries to recover, but Darksteel does what he does best, and pulls out the random win. Stupid.
2-0/ 4-1
Rd. 3.
Nam Tran playing Control Burning Slaver
I know Nam from, Richmond, and Chicago, and RIW. I make a comment that I have never beaten him, and he says I will. I'm not so confident. Historically my record vs anyone even remotely close to resembling an Asian is like 0-500, including my only loss in the Swiss rounds last month here in Sandusky to him. Nam is a great guy, our matches are alway interesting.
Gm. 1.
Nam has to mulligan twice. He starts slow, and I drop Dryads and Mongeese. He still ends up with a Tinkered Sundering Titan in play, against my army, we trade swings, his Titan against my two Dryads, 1 with 4 counters 1 with none. He plays a Welder but is forced to use him as a blocker as lethal will be coming across otherwise. I drop a chump third Dryad, which seals his fate as he is at 1 life.
Gm 2.
Nam doesn't do much for the first few turns, other then fetch lands. I get a quick Mage to stick naming Tinker. Mage is soon joined by a Dryad who quickly beat him to 1. He tries to win with the Wish /Tendrils kill but winds up just one tutor or one mana short. Good games tho'. I feel like I stole this one.
3-0/ 6-1
Rd.4
Twaun (Twaun007) playing Psycatog
I know I don't have to play, so we do some calculating. Twaun is sitting good with tie breakers, and should finish 4th seed. We only broke to top 4, (obviously). If he chose to play, and lost he would be out, so we agree to ID. He does in fact finish in fourth.
3-0-1/ 6-1
Top 4
Brendan (I don't know last name, sorry) playing Gifts
Brendan is a nice guy. I'm pretty sure I have played him before, but can't for the life of me, remember when.
Gm. 1
Brendan muls, and I am on the play. I start with Lotus into GGG into Mongoose, resolves, Dryad meets Force. Land, A. Recall, (hotness!). Goose gets pumped up while Brendan sculpts his hand. Goose plucks away and I manage to Tinker out DSC to finish up before he could go broken. God DSC is stupid!
Gm. 2
My turn to mul. We do little early, I see no dorks and he sculpts his hand, setting up for a nice Yawg Win. Finally he Wills, I respond, A. Recall, he responds Misdirection, I respond, Orims Chant, resolves. So he gets 3 cards and no Yawg Will, a hallow victory. A few turns later I try to Force his Tinker, which meets Mana Drain. My life goes 20, 19, 8, loser. Did I mention that DSC is stupid?
Gm. 3
By far the strangest game against Gifts I have ever played. Brendan has to mul again (letting me know he threw back a saucy hand of DSC and NO mana). I play, fetch, use it, pass. He draws, plays Volcanic Island, Sol Ring, Mana Vault, burns for one. I draw Strip Mine, (how lucky), Strip Volcanic, pass. He draws and passes. I draw, play a land, attempt Null Rod, he Fow, I respond with FoW, he scoops. I sit there mystified for a moment, but then Brendan explains that he had drawn DSC again, but had enough mana to cast him next turn, but the Rod killed that plan and he had no gas. Strange game.
I finish before the other two finalist, Twuan and Matt, so I go watch their game. I'm actually hoping for Twuan to win, because Matt has many 2/2's, Jotun Grunt, and Wastelands. Twuan has two Togs and no strip effects. Considering my mana base, and limited ability to deal with Grunt, go Tog.
Finals
Twaun playing Psycatog
We mull around the idea of a split, but could only come up with $90 and some store credit. I really would have liked a split, Twaun played so great all day, albeit long, so both combatants would have come out with some prize, but it's rare that power tournies are played out, and IMHO this is the reason we play the game. For the "Power" and glory! I figured my odds at 50/50, not great, not terrible. We shuffle up.
Gm. 1.
He's on the play. We both fetch, and trade Forces. He gets Tog to stick, gets in two damage. I draw nothing in the shape of a body. I try to Demonic for help but Twaun Drains it. He draws, attacks, and takes two mana burn from from Drain mana, leaving us both at 16. I draw nothing, and Tog kills me next turn after Twuan draws and discards about a hundred cards. 10 castable creatures in the deck, I draw 0 in 6 turns + opening grip, how sad.
I side in Needles, Chants, and Null Rod as he uses tons of artifacts.
Gm. 2.
I get early Dryads and get Vamp for Pithing Needle, shutting off Tog. Twaun, per usual draws tons of cards, and finally gets a Tog down, but Needle keeps him from winning. I have him at 3 with lethal swinging next turn, and play a chump Dryad
which he should have Drained. I have Chant, and try to Chant him during his upkeep, (yeah! I win! Yea right!). He responds, C. Wish into MisD, how nice, (never saw that coming). So I'm effectively Chanted, and he does some card drawing and stuff, but winds up two mana short for the win, see above. Passes the turn and proceeds to lose. (Luck still in play).
I side Rods back out, as I decide they are worse than whatever I sided out originally.
Gm. 3.
He goes first, land, Mox, Mox, pass. Nice. I draw, fetch into Tundra, Mox, Mage (Yawg Win). My Mage and his Deep Anal and Fow's take him to 7 in a few turns. I drop Mage #2 (E. Truth) and Needle Tog. Ironically I draw Tog the next turn, but he becomes FoW fodder for his Smother on Mage #2. He drops Tog and passes. He Smashes my Needle but I have StP back up, but I don't really want to give him massive life. Mages beat him to 2, drop Needle #2, and will get him next turn. I Force his Intuition during my end step. He draws, draws a bunch of cards, does some math, and shakes my hand. These games were very intense!
So after almost 10 hours of Magic (thanks Twaun
), I scoop the Sapphire. Not mint, but it cleaned up nicely.
All in all a great tournament. It would have been better with more players, but sometimes it just goes that way. As I said I was really lucky, and sometimes the cards just fall right for you. It was just my day.
Again, thanks to Dave for putting on the event, and paying out with low attendance. I will be traveling to Sandusky often, as it's a great enviroment, and a damn nice store.
It was great seeing every one who showed up, and playing some awesome games.
Hopefully we can get a bigger turn out next month.
***A note about the deck. I totally created this deck, it's concept and design were solely thought up by me. Anyone who makes any claims to Grow, Gro-a-tog, or Grow-a-whatever, is obviously mistaken. I'll be looking for Mean Deck "Grow" at the next Star City. (This is an inside joke, you had to be there
).
Seriously about the deck, black should not be in there. I never once Yawg Willed, and rarely Tutored. They will probably be replaced with 3 Thirst and one more Goose for the Tog, as I was always wanting that guy.
Ohio has National Champions, Michigan has guys that win power. Seems fair. lol
Props:
Dave, you already know why.
All who attended.
My wife, for understanding.
Toledos Vintage Rap station, oh so good!
Slops:
Sandusky, for not having a freakin Mc D's on the waterfront.
JR's deck for hating on him all day.
No time limit rounds.
Tired old X-mas music.
