"IMA WARIO. IMA GONNA WIN." - Wario
This would be my mantra for the tournament. Much like our little evil plumber friend, I wanted to win. Waterbury is like the superbowl of type one tournaments, and I'm like Peyton Manning (but much more handsome). Play a bunch of rounds, scrape to make top 8, make top 8... lose. Rinse, lather and repeat. I used to not mind, but it had started to get to me as of late. The worst part was I knew exactly what the root of the problem was: I kept playing uw fish. As I've stated previously, fish doesn't win tourneys. It can top 8 consistently but due to power constraints always falls just short. It's happened to me time and time again. So for this, being the tenth TMD, I wanted to make sure things would be different. I really wanted to give myself the best chance to win. So after lots and lots of playtesting with various decks, I finally decided on...
UW fish.
Yeah, I just couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger and play another deck. I really tried... really really really tried, but nothing struck my fancy. I just couldn't get to a comfort level with any other deck that matched where I was with the fish. I honestly felt that despite all of my other attempts to win a tournament with the deck, this time would be the one. So I gave it one last chance and rode into the sunset.
I arrived in the shadow of darkness, much like a ninja or an evil plumber. I told few of where I would journey. Some knew I was traveling in the cover of night alone and tried to barn rides off me. Others simply became dejected at the news and wish they had won the Great Designer Search. Either way, I was traveling solo the night before the tournament. Normally I'm a nice Feinstein and allow others to travel with me, but my team secured a hotel and I would be staying with them. While traveling, I got lost on the way and somehow wound up at Foxwoods. Looking for directions, I found my way to a poker table. Four hours into finding directions, I receive a call from my team informing me that I'd have to pickup Tommy Kolowith at the airport. As I was given this news, I lost alot of money. Talk about double whammies.
I leave Foxwoods and travel an hour out of my way to pickup TK. He was stuck at the airport since 8 am. I arrived at 8pm.
Pwned.
TK was happy to finally get out of the airport. I told him the wait would be worth it, since chances are he'd mop up the tourney. I asked him what build of long he'd be playing. He told me he was looking at scepter. I quickly changed the conversation. We arrive at the hotel some time later and meet up with the rest of ICBM. We get settled in and start to talk decks. I knew I'd be playing fish. Tommy quickly whoops out scepter and goes over the list. I ask him if he wants me to flush $20 down the toilet. He seems upset at this and challenges me to... A DUEL.
We play 5-6 games and I won most of them. If fish is owning you, it's time to play another deck. TK caves in and decides to play long. Demonic Attorney (demonic attorney) shows up randomly at our door and informs me his team ditched him. Something about Canadians staying in Canada and doing whatever it is Canadians do. He wasn't happy. I was offered a room cheap and my own bed. I took it. I went to bed. See spot run. Run spot, run.
I wake up groggy and generally unhappy. It dawned on me that I'm usually unhappy the day of tournaments. Then again, I'm generally unhappy every day. Hanging out with Brassman too much will do this to you. Anyway, I meander over to the site and it's packed. Lots of goofy looking people. Type one players are more unique than any other types of magic players because they look EXTRA GOOFY. It's like an audition for Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus in here. Some people are even dressed up like clowns, such as my teammate Elias Vaisberg. I mean, only clowns wear pajamas to a tournament.
The room was packed with lots of familiar faces, as well as a good amount of unfamiliar ones. All the major teams seemed to be here... ICBM, GG's, Reflection, Meandeck, GWS, RIT... team Milkshake. Everyone came out to play. I had done my maindeck the night before, but wanted to wait to settle on a sideboard. While walking around the room, I heard approximately 20,000 people ask for Leylines of the Void. This had me wondering if it was worth it to run them in my sideboard. For those keeping track, I had advocated the use of black leyline in UW fish because Ichorid is honestly a piss-poor match. Something clicked here. If everyone is going to be packing leylines, that probably means Ichorid is going to get owned. If Ichorid is going to get owned, that means I'm less likely to face it towards the later rounds. This logic brought me to the conclusion that running Leyline for this tournament, despite me feeling there would be a good amount of Ichorid, simply wouldn't be worth it. I really wanted to play both Old Man of the Sea, Threads of Disloyalty and Umezawa's Jitte for today. I felt that there would be alot of bomberman and I wanted to go all out on the fish matchups.
This is the final list I went with-
UW FISH: NEVER BEFORE SEEN.// Lands
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
2 Island
4 Flooded Strand
4 Tundra
1 Polluted Delta
1 Windswept Heath
1 Plains
// Creatures
4 Meddling Mage
3 Kataki, War's Wage
3 Jotun Grunt
2 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
3 Savannah Lions
// Spells
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Black Lotus
1 Ancestral Recall
3 Null Rod
1 Time Walk
3 Daze
1 Misdirection
2 Stifle
1 Echoing Truth
1 Mystical Tutor
// Sideboard
SB: 1 Kataki, War's Wage
SB: 3 Seal of Cleansing
SB: 3 Umezawa's Jitte
SB: 3 Orim's Chant
SB: 2 Old Man of the Sea
SB: 2 Threads of Disloyalty
The maindeck is the exact same list I posted in my UW fish primer thread a few days before, with the exception of the 2 stifles. I listened to my loveable peanut gallery and decided to run these at the last minute. People made a good case for them. I knew I didn't want alot, but having 1-2 would be nice because I really wanted to catch people off guard. It's not like anyone would be able to view my decklist. Decklists are generally kept private by the TO's until after the tourney. That's how it's always been at previous waterbury's. Even if they weren't, a change like that would surely be announced. They wouldn't suddenly change that unannounced in the middle of the tourney, so I had nothing to worry about. No angry foreshadowing here...none at all.
...Moving along :p
I was happy with the maindeck. I added mystical tutor/echoing truth to combat what I felt would be a surge in this little respected storm card called EMPTY THE WARRENS.
I had seen a very sharp rise in it since my teammate Evenpence first used the card to top 4 split at a Blue Bell, PA tourney some weeks ago. He had done very well with his deck, codenamed Bill Cosby, mainly on the back of ETW. Brassman got wind of the card soon after (because Colby leaked it to him :p) and quickly started abusing the ever living hell out of it. Within 3 tournaments ETW was infested in my neck of the woods. I suspected Waterbury would be no different, since it was basically a local tourney and the card was FINALLY receiving notoriety on forums after generally being ignored for months. The notion of lots of goblins running around in combo decks scared me to death so I decided to have a plan for it. Although I had never faced ETW gifts in a tourney with fish (since I always dodge gifts, obv), I did a fair amount of testing with Brassman. The games went from in my favor to barely even once he added empty the warrens. He liked the card so much that he ended up taking ut Tinker/Colossus for ETW main. This scared the bejesus out of me, so this was my limited plan for it. I didn't go overboard for the card because I didn't think it would show up heavily in maindecks (or meandecks). I could've had a random trickbind main, but it just didn't seem worth the space to me. This was yet another gamble I took. Note- if you gamble too much, you eventually lose :p
Tournament got started quickly and just over 150 people were signed up for this shindig. I paid the extra $10 for the bye I was eligible for and got some food.
ROUND 1: BYE.
1-0
Round 2: Nick Coss /w Bill Cosby (Gifts-less Intuition-AK Drain Tendrils /w red)
Nick is a good friend who usually deals cards and doesn't play that much. He came up with alot of people from New Jersey who are friendly with Evenpence. It didn't dawn on me that I could face the monstrosity known as Bill Cosby, but while shuffling up Nick told me he had switched to a new deck at the behest of his friends. Uh Oh.
Game 1- He leads with turn 1 tinker into colossus. Winning the die roll was huge here, as I'm stuck with a couple dazes and a misD and can't do a damn thing about it. I die soon after.
I died so quickly I wasn't sure what I was up against. I took out 2 stifles for plow/kataki.
Game 2- I lead out with critters, he's slow starting out. I'm able to daze him multiple times and he can never get going, but an AK tips me off to him being drain/tendrils without gifts.
Game 3- He gets turn 2 tinker for sundering titan. I'm trying to contain it but flametongues start dropping on me. Every effort I make to stabalize is cutoff by counters or more flametongues. I lose.
The loss was frustrating but Nick is a good guy and a friend so I wish him good luck and move on.
1-1
Round 3- Lorenzo /w Dragon
Lorenzo approached me earlier with his friend and we talked for a while. He was a very nice local who I had not seen in any tourneys previously.
Game 1- I get a nice draw on the play with critters and dazes. He Read the Runes in response to a wasteland which confirms my suspicion of him being Dragon. He gets Bazzar out but it doesn't stick around for long. Low on cards he tries for Intuition. I think about it long and hard, being left with a force and blue card in my hand. I decide to counter it and let my 2 power beaters do the rest. He draws uneventful cards the next few turns and the critters take it home.
Sideboard dazes for Seal of cleansings
Game 2- FOWs go flying on both sides early and I rush out a grunt. That grunt dies, so I cast another. That one dies, and I drop one more. He's low at this point, and looking to survive. With no creatures in his graveyard and dead next turn, he casts Dance of the dead. I have only grunts in my yard and can start a counter war over it, but I'm down to one final fow and he has a sizeable grip. I know Dance has a coming into play trigger so he doesn't have to announce the target, effectively making it the same as Animate Dead... but there's a key difference. I couldn't remember the difference and looked closely at the card while it was on the stack. Comes... into... what's that next word... play... ooooh, tapped! I quickly say resolves. He puts a grunt in and passes the turn. I inform him it's tapped. He extends the hand and the match is over just like that.
Lorenzo was a very gracious opponent. Dragon is usually a 50/50 match for UW fish, but he had shaky draws.
2-1
Round 4- Dan Herd /w Slaver
I saw Dan play Brassman last round so I knew what I was up against. I wasn't particularly happy about it. Slaver can be a rough match depending on the build.
Game 1- I lead out with meddling mage on Mana Drain. I was compelled to go for thirst, but I couldn't tell if he was 'dry slaver' or not. I know he has drains, so I go for the safe bet. This helps later when getting grunt out. We have a war over an Ancestral (I forgot who it belonged to), which ended with a Reb versus a daze. Lucky for me, the daze won, but maindeck reb hurts. I got a key wasteland on him which crippled midgame and was able to finish it off with 2/1's.
I side out stifles for kataki/daze
Game 2- He comes out strong with Ancestral/Welder. I have a plow but he's up on cards. I get a mage out and name mana drain. He seems happy about this, which makes me wonder if I should've named thirst this time. I manage to get out a null rod and that hurts his mana significantly. He drops academy but I'm able to waste it. I try for kataki and he thinks about it for a long time but decides to let it in. He seems to be setting up for a big Will turn. He untaps and attempts so pay for his moxen by tapping them, but I point to the rod. He becomes upset stating he forgot about it. Not countering Kataki sealed the game for me.
Dan was upset about the misplay but gracious about the loss. He showed me his board after and he had alot of hate for me. I felt fortunate to win this match.
3-1
Round 5- Josh/Jeff /w Empty Gifts
I know his name was Josh or Jeff, but I forgot which one. He was a very intense and quiet individual.
Game 1- We have a nice, big drawn out game where I manage to get a null rod out but he maindecks empty so he's setting up for that. I have echoing truth ready and waiting in hand but no backup counters. He in fact gets empty out for 4 storm and I draw stifle. He has an island and a fetchland up. I attempt to echoing truth, he tries to crack the fetch and I stifle it. His guys go away and I attempt to rebuild, but he rips a gifts off the top after burning two earlier from pitching them to forces. We know what happens when gifts resolves :p Two turns later he's more than setup for yawg will and I die horribly. My mistake here was not scooping quickly enough. I gave him chances to screw up and he didn't. He knew he had me and actually slow-rolled the kill just to spite me. He didn't kill me off tendrils, opting to empty and time walk. I was helpless at this point and should've just scooped 3 minutes earlier.
I board out plows for chants
Game 2- I have a nice curve and he's land screwed
Game 3- Only 15 minutes or so left and he's playing slow. I ask him to speed up but he still has some long turns. Some of his plays were very complicated but every turn was dragging. It came down to him timetwistering when we were both out of gas. He draws practically nothing off it and I draw the nuts. I have ample counters and critters. The game starts to swing in my favor but time is called. On his turn time is called so turn 1 starts with me. I already have Isamaru out and have the option of leading with kataki or grunt and decide with Kataki because he had 3 artifacts out and this would ensure he couldn't win. This ends up being a mistake because he was basically crippled at this point and I should've just been playing for the win with Grunt. Casting Kataki ensures he won't win but it doesn't automatically guarantee me one. His life total is 6 after swinging with isamaru and his hand is depleted, so my train of thought of just cast the grunt on turn 3 and swing for lethal on turn 5. He untaps and floats mana into his draw step for a desparation gifts, showing me 3 lands and a lava dart. He has no red out and shows me underground sea, fetch, lava dart and volcanic island. I think long and hard about this, not really taking into consideration the one card in his hand. I ultimately give him dart and sea, thinking victory was mine. He drops the sea and casts massacre.
?!?!?!METAL GEAR?!?!?!?!
Son of a bitch. Didn't see that one coming. If Grunt was out there instead of Kataki, I'd have him. But it wasn't, so I lose both guys. I'm not happy, but the massacre was a one-of and I didn't see it previously. I just couldn't play around it. His gifts was perfect, and I walked right into the massacre. He vamp'd for it a while ago and was simply playing to not lose. The tricky part was if I don't drop kataki he has access to it through artifact mana, but again Grunt still lives there and swings on turns 3 and 5. Now I have no board and am holding grunt. With 3 total mana on the beginning of turn 3, my only out is drawing a 1 drop 2 power beater and casting both creatures. I draw a meddling mage and frown. I drop grunt and pass. He draws and passes. On my turn 5 I swing and we draw with him at 2.
Sigh. It's easy in hindsight to say I should've just went for grunt, but he had 2-3 artifacts out and had tutored without casting Yawg will yet. I was scared to death of him combo'ing off, even though it was slim since his yard was depleted off the timetwister. If I drop grunt he can still bounce it, and the odds of him going off increase dramatically. SCG day 2 winner Mike Pies watched game 3 the whole way and felt I should've just gone for the Grunt. Since bounce stops either creature, my play is only really incorrect if he has massacre. He did
Looking back, even if I knew about Massacre I'm not sure I'd drop the grunt there. I wanted to make sure his mana was tied up so he couldn't empty or yawg will. Playing safe ended up turning a surefire win into a draw. Oh well.
3-1-1
The draw was depressing but I get my game face on and prepare to play for the long haul. Now i'm motivated, so it's a good a time as ever for my ridiculous catch phrase...
IT'S FEINSTEIN TIME!
Round 6- Jason /w RUW fish
I had seen Jason at alot of other eternal tourneys and I know he likes aggro. I pegged him for goblins or fish, hoping for the latter obviously.
Game 1- He wins the roll and leads with Isamaru. That answers that question :p I take a beating early but start to stabalize with alot of cards in hand. He catches me mid turn with an orim's chant after cracking a lotus and I'm forced to burn with remaining mana floating. This takes me dangerously low on life but I'm able to squeak it out as he's low on cards.
I board out dazes/stifle/rods for Old Mans/Threads/Jittes. Let's rumble!
Game 2- He leads out fast again but we trade dorks. I still don't know what his red is for but he brought a ton of cards in so I'm guessing fire/ice or flametongue. He taps 3 mana for a sea drake and I'm forced to have a counter war over it. He wins it from a REB and the sea drake starts pounding my goddamn head in. I get jitte out on a grunt but by that point I'm at 5 and can't swing with grunt yet. he attacks me down to 1, I attack back with grunt. Every time I get counters on jitte I have to immediately use them to get back out of Sea Drake death range. This is depressing :p He rips a true believer which stops my grunt and although I draw a replacement critter, Sea Drake has time to continue smashing me. I die before being able to equip once again. Swords to plowshares were conspicuous in their absence.
Game 3- He mulligans. I lead with isamaru and he fires off Ancestral immediately. I have misdirection and it's good. The game is basically over at that point. He puts up a valiant fight but my wastelands decide to finally show up so I shut off all his mana. He had no basics in the deck, leading to 3 lands in a row being destroyed.
I felt relieved to pull out this tight match and Jason showed me his board of Reb's, fire/Ice's and Jittes. Yikes.
4-1-1
During the break I stroll over to Roland Chang, who I notice has been quietly sneaking up the top tables during the swiss rounds. I ask him how he's doing... he tells me 4-1-1. We both wonder if THE MATCH will ever happen. We were both disappointed about not playing each other at the last waterbury and have never squared off. I have unlimited repsect for roland but would honestly prefer to dodge him right now, since he's probably the hardest opponent I could face in this bracket.
Round 7- FEATURE MATCH: Roland Chang /w 5c ChangStax
So much for dodging him :p Eh, this match had to happen sooner or later. We both play in too many of the same tourneys to never come across each other.
A gaggle of spectators show up as we shuffle on the feature match felt, which was beat to hell by this point.
Game 1- He leads with turn 1 smokestack. I lead out with turn 1 meddling mage on crucible. Welder comes out to say hello, but I mystical for swords. He drops tangle wire, trying to tie me down while smokestack devours the board. I rip a lotus and force out a kataki. His game starts to go downhill from there. He needs to rip a crypt or lotus to stabalize but can't. He's off one mana to get back into the game and I win a close one.
I side out dazes and misdirection for 3 seals and the fourth kataki. I added kataki number four to the sideboard about 10 minutes before the tourney started just for this match alone. It was originally a fourth seal but I didn't think there'd be enough Oath to justify needing four of them. Making it kataki instead allows me a MUCH better match against Stax as well as increased versatility for stuff like slaver/some gifts builds.
Game 2- He leads out with turn 1 workshop crucible, lotus vault/tangle wire. I lead out with lotus into kataki/isamaru and I honestly think it's over right there. He loses his entire board but I really should know better... it's roland. He immediately drops city/welder followed by a mox the next turn and starts to work back into it. Tangle wire is coming back in every other turn and I'm just looking for a plow. We both draw/go for MANY turns. He's tied up from kataki and I'm tied up from tangle wire. While my initial opener was amazing against Stax, it was land light. This ends up hurting me in the long run as I'm forced to start discarding stuff. The choices are easy as I draw all four of my kataki's. He eventully gets welder #2 out and as unbelievable as it is, the game is basically over for me. I wait to scoop until he finally draws a lock piece. Once he drops smokestack I quickly move to game 3.
Game 3- Time is running low but Roland and I both know a draw does us in so we mutually agree to play super fast. I lead out with kataki AGAIN (Must be nice? It is :p) while he powers out a turn one smokestack/welder. I plow welder end of turn (having tundra open since I started with lotus) and untap. The key play comes on my turn 2 when I can strip that shop and play one creature or lay tundra and 2 creatures. Most people would hands down fire away at the shop, but I chose not to. I don't care about it, fearing colored mana or Academy much more. The worst he can do with that shop next turn is fire out a crucible under most circumstances. Sure, there's a chance that the workshop helps him unleash some dangerous high cost one-of like trike or duplicant, but it's a risk I'm willing to take as I really just want to pound him down and be well out of smokestack range while he struggles to stabalize under kataki. Workshop doesn't let him pay for Kataki, and that's really all I cared about at that point. He untaps draws, and drops academy/tangle wire. He's about to get comfy with that stack and I'm very happy about holding back the strip. I drop it on academy and he asks if I ripped it. I tell him the truth and he's shocked I held it back. He could've dropped that tangle wire without the assistance of workshop had I stripped it, and still be able to untap and pay for both stack/wire with the academy. This would've led to bad things. The strip pulled me out of this scenario and sent him on the back peddle since he can't pay for either stack or wire with his only land being the workshop. He drops a city and passes. I drop meddling mage. He thinks for a moment and lets it in. The temptation to name Reb off him simply hesitating on the mage was strong, but it's roland so he's probably just putting up a good bluff. Even if I name reb he could have pyroblast instead, or vice versa. More important than any of that is the reality that HE PLAYS BALANCE. IT WILL HURT ME... ALOT. I name Balance. It turns out he had the REB and just wanted to see what I'd name with mage. It was a very smart move on his behalf, since he gains info which will help him in the event that he has to tutor for stuff. Still, he's severely hurting and can't get anything going. There's a one turn window where he can drop another colored source and balance, but he doesn't find the other colored source. I drop another mage naming Balance again and that was all she wrote.
The match was freaking insane with lots of swings back and forth. I tried to be as detailed as possible, but I'm sure there were definitely things I missed. Just too much happened in that round to cover accurately. It was one of the better matches I've ever been a part of. Beating Roland is certainly an accomplishment for me, but he's such a quality person/player that I genuinely felt bad about knocking him out of top 8 contention. I really hoped I could win one more round, because after that match not making top 8 would be a huge disappointment.
Checking up on people, Brassman is the only hard lock for top 8, with lots of other people looking good. Demonic Attorney is more than likely in. We discuss how many people will have to play the much talked about extra round... or as I like to call it, the bonus round. It's looking like only 1-2 people will have to play that extra round, as records of x-1-1 or better are quite slim. I'd hate to be the guy who goes 6-1-1 and then has to play another round while everyone else sits pretty. I knew my breakers were shitty so if it had to happen I'd probably be put in that spot, but to even get there I'd still have to win the final round of the normal swiss...
ROUND 8- LING /W BOBERMAN
I watched Ling beat friend and fellow Rhode Islander Andy Farias earlier with his 3 color bomberman build. He had quite a unique version featuring cabal therapy and no mana drains. I didn't really see alot of fish hate from him so the hope was that I could just run him down.
Game 1- I ran him down :p Lotus/mox/fetchland/tundra/ancestral/walk/brainstorm/isamaru. Yes folks, that's as close to the nuts as my deck can produce. I followed up off the walk turn with another fetch/grunt. He was stunned. I was stunned. One of us was the happy kind of stunned, the other the depressed kind of stunned. He conceded on his second turn.
I sided out daze/stifle for old man, threads and kataki #4.
Game 2- We both come out slowly, but I'm light on lands. He has wasteland out early but for some reason doesn't use it on my tundra. I have a plains and mox pearl up with null rod in hand, but I'm holding old man and threads so I can't cast that rod. I'm waiting for another blue source but in the mean time get out a mage on confidant. He cast threads on it, which is definitely a pain but his hand is growing and I can tell from his expression that it's loaded with confidants. He still doesn't pop the waste on my tundra but I can't find another blue source. I'm forced to drop rod due to him having lots of moxes out. He powers out a salvagers past a counter war but it can't do much other than swing. It does for a little while, but I finally find mana sources and out comes Old man. People ask me why not sea singer, but I really don't like the 0 power. Old man can swing. Feinsteins like to swing. anyway, old man takes this one home for me and I make it into top 8!!!!
...Or so I thought :p
It turns out there are 9 people with x-1-1 records or better, and under the new system that means 9th place place 8th place to determine who gets the final spot. Although I was in 8th place after the 8 rounds of swiss, I was forced to play 9th place Joe Davis. We had identical records, but the worst tiebreaks among all the 6-1-1's, so we had to play while everyone else got to rest up for the elimination rounds. what's even worse, the winner gets in top 8 and at least a timetwister, while the loser gets...
A PLAYMAT.
Alright, I'll be damned if I played 10 hours for a playmat... even if it does have Vinelasher Kudzu on it. I love Waterbury and Ray is a fantastic organizer, but this is system doesn't seem the best :p I initially supported the x-1-1 cut as opposed to the old x-2 system, since it's harder to make it in and harder is good for a tournament of this caliber. The problem is that tierbreakers still matter here, as the people with good ones just slide into top 8 while the 1-2 suckers with bad breakers have to duel. The suckers turned out to be Joe and myself.
BONUS ROUND 9- JOE DAVIS /W BILL COSBY
Meh. Being forced to play this really blows, but Joe took it well. Much better than me, in fact :p Joe and I usually have to play in late rounds and he's one tough cookie to beat. Despite my only loss on the day being to his friend whom he gave the decklist to, I honestly think this match favors me. Not having gifts, while great against alot of decks, hurts big against me. I don't really care about the intuition/ak engine, I just want to run him down before he can combo off.
Game 1- We both mulligan and keep really sketchy hands. My hand is one land and his is one land. My one land is a waste his is a non basic. I immediately rip a tundra and drop assorted one drops while he has no follow-up lands. He gets a couple artifacts out but I have kataki. Things are looking grim for him once Grunt is out. I have 3 attackers out and he's dead in one turn as soon as I untap and... and...
WE INTERRUPT THIS REGULARLY SCHEDULED TOURNEY REPORT FOR A MOVIE TRAILER.
[TRAILER BEGINS... DRAMATIC MUSIC STARTS]
<Movie trailer announcer> IN A WORLD WHERE UPKEEP COSTS ARE PAID... ONE MAN STANDS ALONE IN DEFIANCE.
(cut to close-up of me drawing my card for the turn)
Crowd: Awwwww!
Wario: WAH-OH!
ME: AFPLERGHWROTHKWRYKJOPKWRHTPOK
OPKQREEROKHMAWO! Goddamnit. REGKLTOKHPOKRYHPOYKJPOKJPETKJ
PKYPJKJKPOKTKRROK!
[END TRAILER]
WE NOW RETURN YOU TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED TOURNAMENT REPORT.
Jesus Christ, first time I've ever forgotten to pay upkeep on Grunt. Goddamn Bonus round, why'd I have to go for the box?! I should've taken door #2.
Anyway, while I'm completely flipping out at how terrible at magic I am, Joe correctly points out he's still in terrible shape. I swing and pass. He drops academy and I should be able to untap and win right now, but I'm stupid so instead have to wait another turn while that academy possibly allows him to get back in the game.
Wait, what's this? It's a bird, it's a plane... it's... a topdecked wasteland! Hey, better lucky than good at this point :p
Joe scoops. I'm a lucksack.
Sideboard out plows for chants.
Game 2- He mulligans and goes for ancestral... do I need to type out what happens? :p
Yeah, I have IT. After that the game isn't close. I make sure to drop mage on empty, just in case. Joe did what he could, but his bad draws combined with my insane luck proved to be too much. Joe and I mutually agreed before playing the match that whoever lost the match would get their entry fee back, since coming this far for just a playmat is quite frankly the nut low. So he didn't walk away totally empty handed, but I still felt bad. Joe's a good guy and a great player.
7-1-1
So I'm in top 8 as the 8th seed... for real this time :p My opponent... the one seed... the one and only... BRASSMAN.
While getting ready for top 8, I'm informed that decklists are going up for all to view. To say this bothered me would be an understatement. Such a giant change to the tourney going unannounced is A BAD THING. People shouldn't have that kind of an edge going into a match. Just announcing deck archtypes for each player seems fine. Allowing top 8 competitors to view each other's ENTIRE decklists card for card just seems plain wrong in a type one event. Any element of surprise goes right out the window. Even if you have a scouting report and the other guy doesn't, rarely will you know your opponents entire list card for card. Players were vocal on it, but it had to be unanimous amongst the top 8 and it wasn't. Most strongly against it were Kevin Sigmen and myself, because we both had meddling mages in our lists and we have the most to gain off it. It just doesn't feel right to have that kind of an edge on other people, and Kevin felt the same way. Still, the lists went up.
Brassman and I knew each other's lists practically card for card, so in theory this shouldn't effect our match. While looking over his list I noticed he added one REB main. Everything else I knew about. For him, the advantage was knowing exactly how many stifles I had... and knowing no trickbinds were coming in. This was a huge kick in the balls for me, because even though we've done this match dozens of times at my house, I always mixed up my fish lists by a couple cards. Since he knows the exact board plan I have for him this time around, he knows to only play around stifle and not trickbind. That's frowntown for me.
TOP 8- TEH BRASSMAN /W BRASS GIFTS
I'm on the play and fire out weenies and a null rod. I have no force though so he's able to set up a turn 2 empty for 10 tokens. What's depressing was on his turn 1 he leads with flooded strand but doesn't crack it. I know he's too smart to just walk into stifle, espeically since he knows it's in my list. Surprisingly, he doesn't immediately crack the strand. He waits to crack it on his turn 2, which tells me he wants it to be stifled. A stifle on his fetchland means one less for his empty the warrens. While that would've been an interesting choice, I didn't have the stifle so he just drops 10 goblins on me. I have a chance to stabalize, as I ask him what my chances are of resolving an echoing truth. He confidently states, "not good." This tells me he has 2 counters in hand. I drop mage on force of will and waste his red source, shutting off what I felt to be the maindeck reb sitting in his hand. As soon as he does this, he immediately comments that he should've stayed quiet when I commented about resolving etruth. So he swings me down to 1 (which is why I was willing to shut off the FOW that sat in my hand), and I have one turn to draw echoing truth and stabalize the game.
Untap, upkeep... draw... scoop. He shows me his hand of fow/blue card/reb. I gave myself the best chance to win and didn't draw my one-of. Can't complain.
Sideboard out plows for chants.
He empties me on his turn 1 for 6 tokens and I just can't get anything going. I'm blown out of the water in under 15 minutes for the match.
FINAL RECORD- 7-2-1
Oh well. Brassman felt bad and gave me my entry fee back. Awww. I knew if he beat me he'd go on to win the whole thing. He had the best deck in top 8 and was playing too good. If I had beaten him I don't think I could've done the same. I would've had to go through slaver then workshop aggro/slaver. It's possible I could've gone all the way, but all I can do is wonder what could've been at that point.
Brassman did go on to steamroll through to the finals and win in a tight 3 games against Davide Cohen. I was happy for him. He hadn't won 'the big one' and really wanted to... almost as much as me! :p
I collected my timetwister, which quickly turned into cash, and called it a night... or did I? Turns out Roland and Mike Herbig really wanted to play poker... so we gathered a ridiculous collection of players for a small shorthanded game. TK, Roland, Herbig, myself, Herbig's friend Zach.... and THE MIGHTIEST WARRIOR, MIKE LYDON. Davide also ended up chilling in the room watching us play. After about an hour, I ended up winning the game with ridiculous hands, knocking everyone else out. w00t. There's my dinner money for tomorrow.
Thinking it was a night and getting ready to go to bed... I get a knock at the hotel door.
*KNOCK KNOCK*
*WHO'S THERE?*
*TRAVIS LAPLANTE*
*TRAVIS LAPLANTE, WHO?*
*TRAVIS PAPLANTE, BITCH!*
I initially wasn't thrilled with the Travis wandering up to my hotel room, as we had not been getting along lately... but things were patched up and we played a friendly game of junk rare poker. An hour later I'm out of junk rares and TK cleaned everyone out. The mightiest warrior and I kick everyone out and call it a night.
I go to bed with the intent of not playing on day 2. I wake up and go to the site late on purpose, as I don't want to be playing in this while the pats game is going on. I trade, hang out for a lil' while and say bye to everyone. I then go back to the hotel room and watch the pats win. w00t.
The weekend was good. I had fun. Met lots of people from far away. I was happy to finally meet alot of my team. Although TK had a terrible weekend, we still took down the team trophy. GG's had a better weekend than us, though. Damn you Brassman!
Overall I think the format will change dramatically over the next month or two. Between empty the warrens and root of evil coming out, it should shake things up. As for me, I'm looking into Blue/Black or Blue/Black/White. My friend Ross Merriam top 8'd day 2 with a blue/black trinket mage/counter balance.sensei top deck I liked alot. There was also a 3 color fish that seemed strong that ended up being Ross. Black may be the way to go now, but time will tell.
Am I done with UW fish? I'd like to be, but I know I'll come crawling back to it after I fail miserably with some other archtype :p The deck has been just too consistent for me to never play again. On the other hand, I'd really like to win a tournament one of these days, and it definitely cannot be done with that deck at present time.
That's all I got. Sorry if this wasn't long enough :p Hope it was insightful or helpful or entertaining. Thanks for reading : D
- Dave Feinstein
