[Report] Waterbury Day 1 Top 8

This story begins on Friday morning. When I woke up that morning, I was planning on driving down to Stratford with the company of my friends and teammates, and sharing the cost of my hotel room with 3 other people. By the time Friday evening was upon me, I was making the trip myself and spending the night alone in the hotel. I guess the lesson here is, don't count on plans coming through.

After the three hour drive to Stratford, I arrived in my room and heard a loud conversation down the hall about mana, lands, and counters. Putting two and two together, I knocked on the door to say hello to some of my competitiors. As luck would have it, I had stumbled across the stronghold of team ICBM. After meeting some members of their team and watching some games between TK and SonataoftheCathedral, I went back to my room and prepared my deck for the next morning.

The field at Stratford was one of the most competitive ever, featuring former Gencon World Champions Mark Biller and Roland Chang, former SCG winners Mike Pise and Tommy Kolowith, former Waterbury winners Rich Myest and Travis LaPlante, along with many other accomplished players. I also met Dan and Ben Carp for the first time before the tournament began. It was nice to be able to put a face to all the moderation threads. Thanks to my comeback win at Myriad Games last month, I used the first round as an opportunity to scout.

Round 1 vs Bye

The metagame was not what I had expected it to be, featuring far fewer Ichorid decks than I thought the recent chatter on TMD implied. While I had expected a large number of Gifts decks, they turned out in far greater numbers than I anticipated. Lastly, the other deck of note was Stax, which comprised a small but significant portion of the metagame after being virtually unheard of in the Northeast for months. Following the conclusion of round one, my own tournament experience began.

Round 2 vs Ichorid

I wasn't expecting to see any Ichorid after scouting the tables in round one. However, I had come prepared based on my expectations on Friday. After testing some 30 opening hands (approximately equal to the quantity I might play in a large event, assuming I made it to the finals), I found that boarding in 4 Leyline and 2 Planar Void while keeping in all my tutors guarantees seeing first turn graveyard hate within the first few mulligans. With this knowledge in mind, I approached the match with confidence, but expected game one to be a wash.

Game 1 He mulligans twice with Serum Powder, so I know what I'm up against right away. My hand contains one Force of Will, a Merchant Scroll, a Tinker, and a Gifts. Not optimal, but possibly workable. He Bazaars Ichorid into the graveyard along with Cabal Therapies, plays Mox Jet, Chalice of the Void at 0 which I Force, and Chalice of the Void at 0 which sticks. During the ensuing turns, he has some trouble finding cards to dredge with and continues to animate his Ichorid to attack and then fuel Cabal Therapy. I hide my strongest cards with Brainstorm, and eventually assemble a hand of Repeal, Gifts Ungiven, and Ancestral Recall. I win shortly thereafter.

Sideboard: -2 Misdirection, -1 Tinker, -1 Sundering Titan, -3 Mana Drain, +4 Leyline of the Void, +2 Planar Void, +1 Tormod's Crypt

Game 2 My opening hand is insane, featuring Ancestral, Lotus, Gifts, Scroll, Tormod's Crypt, and ample mana. I break my own mulligan-into-hate rule, thinking that I could always open game 3 with hate if I had to, and that this hand presented the opportunity to outrace Ichorid. That turns out to be what happens, as my opponent mulligans to 5, finds Bazaar, but only one Stinkweed Imp which can't start the dredge engine in time before Gifts puts this one away.

Surprised by how quickly my deck worked and how well it handled a bad matchup, a conferred with some of the Myriad Games crowd who confirmed my earlier estimations of the metagame. I watched a couple of combo decks play out their matches, and heard that my teammate Mike Lydon lost a match against a combo player named Brian Rozerro, who boarded in Morphling.

Round 3 vs Combo

My opponent is none other than Brian Rozerro. This provided me with a difference-making advantage; I was prepared to make all the tough decisions with advance information about what I was up against.

Game 1 I kept a hand that included a strong early game against Combo, and played the control role for most of the early and mid game. I got Tinker-> Sundering Titan through and destroyed his lands, which he was unfortunately able to quickly replace. He resolved a Timetwister as one of the last cards either of us had to play, but couldn't follow up on it on his turn, while I drew into Drain, Force, Gifts, and additional strong cards. I stopped his first advance on his next turn, and Brainstormed into Force of Will to stop his last-ditch Yawgmoth's Will later on.

Sideboard: -1 Mystical Tutor, -1 Vampiric Tutor, -2 Repeal, +3 Duress, +1 Tormod's Crypt

Game 2 My opening hand contains Mox Ruby, Island, Sol Ring, Repeal, Empty the Warrens. 10 Goblins put this match away in short order, and Morphling isn't enough to get him back into it.

I walk out to my car to eat some more of the muchkins I bought for breakfast, and socialize. My next opponent is a regular attendee at the tournaments in the Northeast, Sam Best.

Round 4 vs Dry Slaver

My hands during this match are absurd.

Game 1 I open on the draw with Library of Alexandria, holding Mox Pearl, Gifts, lands, Drain, and Merchant Scroll. Library finds me Tinker, which I use Merchant Scroll to defend. Sundering Titan wrecks his mana and he concedes facing a still-active Library.

Sideboard: +1 Tormod's Crypt, +2 Trickbind, -1 Mystical Tutor, -1 Vampiric Tutor, -1 Repeal

Game 2 I open on the draw with Library again and Sam can't find a second land after Brainstorm.

I called and made updates at this point, and grab some lunch from a nearby fast food place. Many of the name players have fallen out of the undefeated bracket by now, some out of contention altogether. Feeling the momentum building, I approach my next match.

Round 5 vs Confidant EBA

I'm never really in this match, partially due to bad draws and partially due to bad mulliganing decisions.

Game 1 My hand on the play is Mana Crypt, Sapphire, Mystical Tutor, Misdirection, Brainstorm, Tinker. There are too many good places this hand could go to not keep it. I can steal an undefended Ancestral, find my own Ancestral, Tinker with backup before Drain comes online, or even just draw into lands. My opponent plays an early Confidant, and I draw into a Flooded Strand. I later Mystical for Ancestral, defending with Misdirection. Once my opponent has provided enough targets, I Tinker for Titan and destroy his mana base. Unfortunately, I'm out of control cards at this point and he draws into more mana, tutoring for a Swords which costs me some of my own manabase. Between my inability to find additional mana sources and Confidant's card advantage, I can't get back into this game.

Sideboard: +2 Empty the Warrens, -1 Tormod's Crypt, -1 Merchant Scroll

Game 2 I mull to 5 on the play. This takes me out of any realistically competitive position. He has counters for anything of consequence that I happen to draw, and another early Confidant finishes this match.

Dejected at my first loss, I don't have much time before the next round begins.

Round 6 vs Confidant EBA

I get a chance at revenge against another player with the same deck.

Game 1 He mulls to 5 on the play. My hand is slow and mana light, which allows him to get back into the game with mana denial. I can't ever get to the four mana threshold that Gifts needs to work, and I die to creatures.

Sideboard: See Round 5

Game 2 I tutor into an early Titan, which I defend with Force. He later drops Lotus and plays Wipe Away before I can finish him off. My control engine is working at this point, and my mana base remains intact. I finish this with Yawg Will, re-Tinkering Titan after Brainstorm, with Time Walk.

Game 3 My memory of this game is hazy, but my control engine kept early threats off the board. I baited with Gifts and then hit with Tinker for Titan, destroying his mana base which this time he can't rebuild.

The next match determines making it past the cut or elimination.

Round 7 vs Gifts

Game 1 I Scroll for Ancestral, but can't defend it immediately, so I wait on playing it. He drops 2 Volcanic Islands, which only give me greater pause. Ancestral sits in my hand for at least 6-7 turns, as we draw out of two slow hands. My control engine stops his mid-game plays, and once he's out of control cards in hand, I go for Ancestral after a counter war, which leads to Tinker for Titan. I take it home from there.

Sideboard: +1 Trickbind, +1 Empty the Warrens, +1 Tormod's Crypt, -1 Mystical, -1 Vampiric, -1 Repeal

Game 2 We again have slow hands, but I have to keep throwing threats at him to keep him off Library. I manage an ETW for 6 Goblins and switch to control role, relying on Tormod's Crypt to keep him off any instant-win plays until the Goblins finish him. Without ETW, I don't think I would have won this game.

Assuming I don't get paired down, I should be in.

Round 8 vs Jeremiah Rudolph

ID.

At this point, I want to say a word on the new elimination round system. Its stated purpose was to reduce the importance of tiebreakers, simplify questions regarding who is eligible for the elimination rounds, and guarantee those with X-1-1 records would make it past the cut. Based on my experience, it has done none of those things.

A crowd of players huddled around the standings in confusion after Round 8. Who would have byes and who have to play out the "bonus round" in order to make it in? No one was sure; it would depend on how many X-1-1 players there were, which was impossible to predict.

One thing we did know was that tiebreaks would figure prominently into deciding the answer to the question of who would have to play another round before top 8. To me, that seemed to mostly defeat the purpose of having this new system to begin with.

As it would turn out, 9 players were eligible for the elimination rounds at X-1-1. So, the 8th and 9th seeds are forced to play it out. This means that even with an X-1-1 record, someone could be knocked out before making it into the elimination rounds. This hardly seems to accomplish the original goals of the new system.

The top 8 consists of myself, Brassman, Dave Feinstein, and 5 other players. I'm paired against someone no one seems to have heard of before. This doesn't seem to matter very much since another recent innovation in Waterburies involves posting the top 8 decklists publicly. I'd offer comments on this new change as well, but I'm sure enough people will be complaining about it that anything I say will be adequately covered in their comments.

Top 8 vs GAT

Game 1 I keep another mana light hand and pay for it yet again. While it has Ancestral and Brainstorm, the AR is countered and the Brainstorm fails to find me more land. He also opened with Library of Alexandria. I'm never really in this game and die to a Dryad.

Game 2 I open with Mox Jet, Lotus Petal, land, Ritual, Repeal, replay Jet, Empty the Warrens. This one ends quickly.

Game 3 I keep a 2 land hand, which meets with Strip Mine and later Wasteland. I manage to keep myself on the cusp of competing throughout the match, hovering at 3 mana which allows me to counter his offensive spells, but not use my own. I find 2 Empty the Warrens but can't find mana or storm-generating spells to save my life. He draws Library and keeps ahead of me for the rest of the game.

I played a losers-bracket ranking match after this, but at that point it was late, I was disappointed at how I lost in the top 8, and I was facing a 3 hour drive to Vermont. This should not take away from my opponent's performance; he won our match, and deserved to. I'm just not covering it because my heart was not in the game at that point, and there's nothing anyone could learn from it. I think I finsh out at 7th place, collect my $120.00 prize, and set out for my hard drive back.

I don't think there's much I would change about my list. I wanted to fit in a 3rd Repeal, which probably would have helped in the matches against creature-based aggro decks. I couldn't find the room, though I might look harder in the future. For now, here it is:

Aggregated Gifts

4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Brainstorm
3 Gifts Ungiven
3 Merchant Scroll
2 Misdirection
2 Repeal
1 Rebuild
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vapiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Tinker
1 Sundering Titan
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Dark Ritual
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
5 Mox
3 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
3 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
3 Island
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Library of Alexandria

It was an honor to represent a fine and exceptionally talented team at such a competitive and challenging event. I especially want to thank Rich Shay (The Atog Lord), Ben Kowal (Kowal), Josh Silvestri (Vegeta2711), and Dan Spero (Bardo) for their theoretical input and testing participation. Also, I want to thank Jeff Riek (Methuselahn) and Dave Feinstein (Dxfiler) for lending me some of the cards needed to play this deck. I want to further thank Jesus Roxas (Roxas) and Team Reflection's newest addition, JR, for their help in discussing the Stratford metagame. Additionally, I want to acknowledge Andrew Probasco (TheBrassMan) for his work and theoretical insights on the Gifts archetype. Lastly, I want to thank Ray Robillard (iamfishman) and his judging staff for their efforts in keeping the Waterbury tradition alive. I look forward to seeing and competing against many of you again soon.

- Demonic Attorney