"Bah bah blacksheep have you any wool? Yes sir, Yes sir three times full."
Normally there's a good explanation for my opening quotes, but I only used that one because it had 'bah' in it.
'BAH!' basically summed up my two months regarding vintage. I had not been happy for a while, floundering since top 8'ing waterbury. I started to play decks that weren't UW fish and was getting completely owned. I switched back to fish, albeit 3 colors, for a local tourney in my backyard... templecon. I thought I would have a good time but for me personally it was just miserable. My sideboard was stolen, including my savannah lions deckbox that was graciously given to me by Nathan Harrison at SCG Virginia. Inside said deckbox was my full sideboard, including chants, jittes and kataki's. I also had extra cards in it that I was debating on using that day, such as a flooded strand and a tundra. Had I went with UW fish on that day, those cards would've not been in the deckbox and instead in my hand as I went around looking for maindeck cards. Instead I needed to find cards for my sideboard :'( I managed to scramble and get everything together, only to take the biggest kick in the pants of the day by losing to sam best for top 8. :p
So yeah, I kind of laid low after that. I wasn't really thrilled at losing alot of expensive cards, but I still had my entire maindeck. Still, the propsect of playing vintage anytime soon wasn't very appealing to me. I didn't like the scene at the moment and it seemed like every time I hopped on forums it was 'gifts this, gifts that, fish can't win. mwahaha.' A month or so goes by and I notice a Myriad tourney. Oooooh. I noticed the guaranteed mox pearl if 24 players were there. Why I could use a pearl at no additional cost. 28 players for a ruby. Ooooooooh. That's not bad, either. I called the brassman to see if he was going. Days passed, night fell. As expected I hear from him the day before the tourney.
This was the exact phone conversation, word for word:
*ring*
Brassman: Hi Dave.
Me: Hey Brassman! How are you? I noticed a sad emoticon lurking behind you. Is everything ok?
Brassman: No, no. Everything's fine.
Me: Er, ok then. I heard you might be going to myriad tomorrow?
Brassman: Well, I want to go... but I have no money.
Me: Well you could always sell cards. Or I could lend you. I'm not exactly rolling in dough, but it should be a good time.
Brassman: I think I'm going to pass on this one. I'd like to go but I don't think now's a good time.
Me: So you're going to just sit around all day tomorrow and do nothing? <tm>
Brassman: Probably
But if anything changes I'll call you.
Me: Ok then, have a good weekend Brassman!
Brassman: You too.
*click*
I wasn't going to hold my breath. So Brassman was out. I then called another friend (I think) and Brassman's roomate Andy Farias to see if he'd be going. He said no as well. He had an actual reason in that he works on saturdays. Before hanging up I recommended he keep all sharp objects in the house safely tucked away from Brassman. He said he always does.
So I thought I'd be traveling to this shindig alone, but was contacted by the reclusive MASTER TAP, a.k.a. 'dana,' but really Master Tap. MT and I have been friends for a long, long time. He really doesn't play much magic nowadays, only traveling to vintage tournaments once in a blue moon. His claim to fame was top 16'ing a waterbury with straight sligh and coming within one point of winning a match against Carl winter. He played with mountains before they were cool... if mountains ever were cool. I'm not sure mountains are cool? You get the idea :p
Anyway, MT and I were excited about going. I looked down to my leg and found Stefan Barnsworth not attached there. This also pleased me. :p Dana decided to play oath, which had been testing well for him lately. I on the other hand decided to go back to my mistress, uw fish. Some of you might say 'FEINSTEIN, WHY U ALWAYS GO BACK TO UW FISH. WHY EVEN LEAVE IT IN THE FIRST PLACE? WHAT ARE YOU, A NEGATIVE NANCY OR SOMETHING?!'
To those people I say, yes... I was a negative nancy when it came to UW fish. I enjoy playing it, I do well with it, but I just wanted to win a tournament, I can't seem to do it with that deck... blah blah blah. That's the usual explanation I give. The truth is I just wanted to have fun this weekend and UW fish was the most fun for me personally, so that's what I played.
Murray's Kosher Deli (That's what I named it for the tourney. Get it? Kosher... fish... del- oh nevermind)
// Lands
3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
2 Island
4 Flooded Strand
4 Tundra
2 Polluted Delta
1 Windswept Heath
1 Plains
// Creatures
4 Meddling Mage
2 Kataki, War's Wage
3 Jotun Grunt
2 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
4 Savannah Lions
// Spells
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Black Lotus
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Daze
1 Misdirection
3 Echoing Truth
3 Stifle
3 Null Rod
// Sideboard
SB: 1 Kataki, War's Wage
SB: 3 Seal of Cleansing
SB: 3 Umezawa's Jitte
SB: 3 Swords to Plowshares
SB: 3 Old Man of the Sea
SB: 2 Trickbind
Nothing here should surprise tho who keep tabs on me. That reminds me, for those who do keep tabs on me... thanks, but find a hobby :p Wait, I hear something...
Hooded figure at my window: "BUT YOU ARE MY HOBBY!"
Alright, I'm just going to pretend nothing happened, turn around and get back to this report.
So I make the tumultuous 2 hour car ride up to New Hampshire without a hitch. Wait, that'd be too easy. Let's try that again... so on my way up to the tourney I get a call. I answer.
*ring*
Travis: "Gotcha' Bitch!"
me: ?!?!?!
Travis: Look in your mirror, hooker!
*click*
Sure enough, coming up behind me at around 90 miles per hour is Travis LePlante in his 92' civic. Fat man in a little car. Best get outta his way. Travis speeds by me and I initially try to race him in the other lane, being the competitor that I am. This is also what we call a 'BAD IDEA.' <tm> If I go 80, travis goes 90. If I go 90, travis goes 100. I resign myself to just following the crazy bastard instead of trying to race him. Good call me.
We get off the exit and as I get to the light before Myriad, the car behind me pulls to the side of the road. Out pops someone who starts running towards my car. Keep in mind Travis was in front of me and is already at the store. As the blurry figure comes into view I can tell immediately by the hair that this mop-haired figure is none other than Marc 'THE FUTURE' Tuttle. Turns out Tuttle's car ran out of gas as soon as they got off the exit. I feel like I'm in a National Lampoon movie. Tuttle pops in my car and his dad gives me gas money. Apparently I'm dropping him home. Oh joy. :p
Two minutes later and we arrive at the tourney. Man this report is long. I talk too f'n much. Ok, ok. Thirty people show.
Round 1: Todd? (forgot the name :p) /w burn
Todd was very friendly. Game 1: I pop out some guys. He burninates them. I pop out more guys. He's low on cards. He rips wheel of fortune. He draws a fresh seven burn spells :p My guys all die again. I replay some more but he finally gets a lavamancer online. I have no way maindeck to stop lavamancer other than bounce/counter. I lose.
Sideboard: 3 rod for 3 jitte, 3 echoing truth for 3 plow. 3 stifle for 3 old man. one daze for one kataki.
Game 2: I come out fast and he drops lavamancer. He end of turn magma jets something. With misdirection in hand and a blue card of not high importance, I foolishly say 'resolves.' That mancer hangs around for another 4 turns until I have the chance to again misD a burn spell at it. Had i done this earlier I would've ran away with the game... instead I have to drag it out for another 12 turns at low life where grunt takes it home.
Game 3: Low on time I ask Todd if he could play faster. He had alot of long turns earlier in the match but I didn't really mind because I figured one way or another this would be a fairly quick match. I get a nice start and his first two plays of both lavamancers are plowed. He drops a ruby and a crypt and an ankh. I drop a kataki. It's right around here where I would encounter a very large thorn in my side :p Arik Prove-mylastnameistoolong decided to sit down and watch my match. This is fine. Thirty seconds in he starts announcing triggers and abilities. This is not fine. I don't mind if someone points out something that should happen if both players missed it, even though you're technically supposed to call a judge. Myriads a friendly enough environment where that isn't a big deal and players can more often than not resolve things themselves. The issue is when someone decides to take it upon themselves to be table judge. Every time a land was played, arik would immediately point out the two damage from ankh before I could say anything. He'd announce all the scryings from magma jet, and quickly point to the yard when lavamancer abilities were used. This started to bother me :p The breaking point came when after drawing his card with kataki out, Arik immediately pointed out to Todd that all his artifacts were in the yard. He said it was too late to do anything about it and they had to be buried. At this point I flipped out at Arik :p
While I appreciate the intentions of what he's doing, Arik's essentially taking over the game and only making things longer. He was pretty much beating me to the punch on pointing things out and I'd have to repeat after him more often than not. Because we were low on time, this was BAD. Also, I felt he came off verry harsh on explaining kataki and although he is correct in what he's saying, I don't need him to point those things out. I can do it myself... and be nicer about it :p
Anywho, Arik apologizes and we're back to the game, where time is immediately called. We're on his turn, hence being turn zero. I do the math out and 5 turns should be just enough to kill him if my grunt can stick around. Grunt was beating him down and I had meddling mage on fireblast. He has a burn spell for the mage but he's at 8 with grunt active (being my only creature) and lots of cards in both yards to play with. His turn 2 he untaps and draws. He passes with one card in hand. Not a fireblast. w00t. My turn three I untap, draw fow and swing. His turn four he untaps, draws... and concedes. He drew blanks the last two turns but was very gracious about it.
I won what I felt was a very close and hard matchup for me.
1-0
Round 2- Oliver Beaumont /w slaver?
Meh. I like Oliver. Alot. There aren't enough gracious removed from London english vintage players around here. Come to think of it, he's the only one I know of. :p Oliver's a Myriad staple and frequently in the top 8's. I didn't want to play him this early. He felt the same way. Awww.
Game one: I play this game very cautiously because I don't think he's playing bomberman. He leads out with tundras but something doesn't feel right. I hold my meddling mages instead dropping brainstorm and savannah lions. He attempts to gifts, I daze it. That goes through. Soon after he thirsts and discards a memory jar... I think the jig is up :p I untap and decide it's time to play mage. I think very hard about what to name, but it really only comes down to my main choices of yawg will or tinker. I haven't seen any black out of him yet but I did see volcs. It smells like slaver. As much as I'd love to name yawg will, tinker is a more immediate threat and I know he has that so I name it. I pass the turn and he drops a mox jet and starts to do small things. Uh oh. smells like a yawg will next turn. He's at 12 and I have 3 2 power beaters out. He's tapped out. I'd sure love to draw a time walk right about now. I untap, draw... time walk. I swing and he asks if I have it. I show it and he scoops. I'm pretty sure I was dead if he got to untap. Oliver confirms. I am a lucky bastard. :p
Still not entirely sure that he's slaver, I don't bring in plows. I keep in stifles and side echoing truths and kataki and two trickbinds. This was a very bad sideboarding decision. Turns out I wasn't the only one who sideboarded badly :p
Game 2: Oliver fires out a welder on turn one. I run out a rod then kataki. I make sure to pay for my pearl... I don't want it in yard. When I think I have things under control he fires off a tinker. He searches his library... he cringes. He's forced to bring out trike, stating he sided out a much better creature. Me: "Don't side out sundering titan :p" Trike has to just sit there as Oliver is facing down some 2/2's. I have mage out naming thirst. I drop a grunt. Oliver takes the first hit but has to block the second time. This clears the way for my 2/2's and soon enough welder has to block. He still has some time to yawg will my head in, since you know... yawg will wins games :p Luckily he doesn't get there and I win a tough match.
2-0
I start to talk to Travis and we wait in line for pizza. Some 10 minutes pass and I'm still waiting :p I'm at the front of the line by this point and eagerly awaiting some nourishment. As I lay my eyes on Dan walking back to the counter... he immediately turns to the left and serves ELD. I immediately glare at ELD and this looks like a scene out of Kill Bill. I say nothing and walk away in a huff. I am now officially grumpy-stein! Travis, because he's Travis, asks me where my pizza is.
Round 3- ELD /w gifts
Dan says, "here's the match you wanted!" I don't want this match :p Eric can have the slice and I'll get a different opponent... works for me! Don't read into that the wrong way, I have tons of respect for Eric, I'd just prefer not to face him this round. He was the only gifts player doing well and there's a reason for that. As stated many times previously, I feel fish vs. gifts comes down alot to the players. I mow down bad to average gifts players and can sometimes struggle against good ones. Eric is one of the best.
Game 1- I'm on the play with brainstorm, isamaru, pearl, ancestral, tundra, misD/blue card. I feel now is a good a time as any to fire off ancestral, since he'd have to have 2 pitch counters and two blue spells to stop it... and if he pitches two forces and two blue cards to stop ancestral than that's fine by me. The only way this would really suck is if he has Misd/blue card AND fow/blue card. He does :p He draws my 3 cards and although I played an adorable Isamaru, there's not much more I can do this game.
As we're sideboarding, ELD comments on how devastating Empty the Warrens is against fish and how fish is forced to adapt. I've been around the block before... ELD doesn't make comments during a match unless he thinks it's going to help him. By him making those comments while I'm sideboarding, he's basically telling me 'SIDE STUFF VERSUS EMPTY. IM TRYING TO MAKE YOU THINK I PLAY IT.' Truth be told, his comments didn't change my sideboarding at all. I already knew Eric ran no empty because he feels he can beat fish without the card. I don't necessarily agree with that opinion, but I respect his line of thought and understand why he might feel that way. Eric has probably never lost to fish. I ask him and he confirms this. Anyway... I took out two echoing truth for two trickbinds and a savannah lions for kataki.
Game 2: I realized that I had mis-sideboarded. I setup Eric for a turn where he's forced to pop fetchlands and walk into my stifles and trickbinds...but that's exactly what he wants. He waits for that turn to happen and as soon as I'm tapped out, off he goes with his gifts/will/tendrils.
I didn't really get into either game. Eric tells me he feels there isn't alot fish can do against him... I respectfully disagreed. I pointed out that I drew no null rods the entire match and also was very counter light. I felt like I could take him in a re-match but to even get to that point I'd have to make top 8. By beating me Eric was a lock while I now had to grind out at least one more round. Oh well.
2-1
Round 4- Matt McNally of TPS /w TPS
Matt is a very good combo player. He's also a good friend. We both groan at the pairing and get on with our business.
Game 1- I keep a hand with no creatures or counters but I'm on the play with lotus/rod and that's good enough for me. I start with lotus and he forces it? That's either really good for me or really bad for me. He clearly doesn't want me getting out a ton of gas on turn one, which means either his hand is very susceptible to meddling mage or to null rod. I frown and pass. He untaps, draws, drops a bunch of artifacts and... passes the turn?! W00t. I drop rod. We play draw/go for a long time, but I eventually get creatures out. Meddling mages on yawg will and tendrils seal the deal.
Sideboard- I know he boards into empty so e truth isn't going anywhere. The question is trickbind or no? I decided to go with it again versus combo... it would be the LAST TIME. Out: lions + 2 daze In: Kataki + 2 Trickbind
Game 2- I drop guys with double counter backup. He proceeds to duress the holy hell out of me. He then goes all in on an empty for 10 guys and I'm forced to rip an e-truth. With no cards in his hand I'll definitely win if I get there, but 40-ish cards to go to draw to 3 outs isn't good statistically, and I predictably don't get there in two turns.
I realize it's time for Trickbind to take a long walk off a short cliff. Out- 2 Trickbind In- 2 Daze
Game 3- He mulls to four and my opener is brainstorm, ancestral, misdirection, small dude, force, land/mox. I feel very good about my chances but I know there's still a game to be played. I fire off ancestral, draw no more lands but lay a mox, a small critter and pass. He starts duressing the crap out of me again and plays some fast mana sources. I draw rod off the top and really don't want to play it but he has two artifacts out there and if I play the rod he's essentially down to one land as well. I lay the rod. I swing for a little bit then he plays massacre. We do the draw/go bit for a while and I become very concerned about losing this game because despite being 6 cards up on him from the start I can't get to a second land. About 10 turns go by total until I get to land number two. Now I'm in business but he's amassing a huge hand and I get worried. He does indeed start a tendrils chain but only manages to do it for 10 points. This still hurts because it buys him another couple turns to setup and fire another one off at me. I drop a grunt and it starts to go to town. I eat his graveyard full of mana sources alive and over 2 turns everything in it goes back into his library except for the tendrils. Normally I'd go after me first and put ancestral + other goodies back in, but against combo you can't get greedy. All the mana sources have to get the hell out of his yard in case he tries a yawg will. Grunt hits him for 8 then I manage to stifle and keep him around. Grunt hits him again and he has 3 cards in his graveyard to my 2. He is at five life and grunt currently has 3 time counters on it. He thinks for a very long time and grim tutors himself down to two. He knew from an earlier duress that I had echoing truth... what he didn't know was that in the 4 turns that had elapsed since then I had drawn another one :p EOT I bounce his mox, I untap and with grunt upkeep trigger on stack bounce my mox... grunt moves to four counters. Four cards in his graveyard, four cards in my graveyard... game/set/match!
I win what ended up being a MUCH closer game than I thought would be. Matt took the loss well.
3-1
Round 5- James Burilson /w TPS SS
James is a good guy and on the same team as Matt McNally. I hadn't really talked to him previously, but he's friends with everyone I'm friends with so how bad can he be? Wait, people often ask that about me then they find out the truth :p
Anyway, I'm pretty sure the top 8 can just draw in. I was so sure I told everyone. I tell James it makes sense to draw here, and his team agrees with me. He was concerned about not being able to draw in top 8 because he was 8th going into this round. I offer to go look at standings one more time just to be sure. I take a look and to my absolute horror there's in fact another 3-1 who got paired down. If he wins he'd get in over one of the 3-1-1's. James had the worst tiebreaks with me behind him. I told him this and he then goes into the think tank on whether to draw or not, which I totally understand. This is also the point where everyone else swoops in decides to give there two cents even though the round has officially started. Basically he's under a ton of pressure to play but I could tell he didn't want to. Arik once again pops in and explains to him it's stupid to leave his fate in another persons hands. I explain to him that even if the paired down guy wins, he could still make top 8 and another 3-1-1 could be bumped out instead... possibly even me. So about 10 minutes into the round and James is still thinking and which point I tell him I need a decision. I don't care if we play or if we draw, but if we're playing it needs to be done now. I tell spectators to stay out completely and James decides to stick with his original decision and draw. His teammates understand but Arik once again pops back in and immediately starts barraging James with questions. It's like Arik almost doesn't want me in top 8 or something :p Anyway, I offer to play it out for fun and we get into game 3 just starting up when top 8 was being announced.
3-1-1
Although the 3-1 who got paired down did in fact win into top 8, James did still get in at 8th and I got in at 7th. I'm glad we both made it in. All those spectators (team TPS + Arik!) giving us grief was for nothing :p
So they announce top 8 and I'm paired against ELD again. Before deciding to play it out all of the top 8 is asked if they want to split 8 ways. Normally this is a total no-no but it would come out to $90 each, which is actually pretty damn good. Now that isn't bad but it has to be unanimous. I was for it (I'll take any damn split I can get with this thing :p), Dana was for it, Rich Meyst and Goblin Ron were for it, person I didn't know was for it, James was for it... Arik was leaning towards not doing it but would if it was unanimous... so down it came to ELD. He thought for a little while, looked at me, looked at the rest of top 8... then chose to play it out.
I respect his decision, but I'll be honest and say I definitely didn't like it. There's a $70 difference between doing an 8 way chop and losing in top 8. Sure if I win here I'm looking REALLY good prize-wise, but if I lose I don't even get my entry fee back. It may sound like griping, but traveling 2 hours and making top 8 to get $20 in credit is a total waste for me personally, so I REALLY WANTED TO WIN.
Hooded figure still at my window: "ME TOO."
Top 8- ELD /w gifts
Well at least I had some real motivation now. I honestly felt like this match was about 50/50 and heavily draw dependant, but Eric had never lost to fish so I could see why he felt differently. He didn't have empty though so I knew if I could draw a little bit better than earlier I'd be in decent shape against him.
Game 1- He mulligans right off the bat and I get another solid opener with possible turn one ancestral. I have daze to protect it but would once again be dead in the water to 2 pitch counters/2 blue cards. I probably go for ancestral with counter backup every single time even considering what happened to me the last game one against him, but Eric had mulliganed and took a while to think about keeping the 6 hander, so the odds of him having that type of hand were even slimmer. I play ancestral... it resolves. I draw critters and a fow. I go mox, critter, pass. He tries to finagle past my nice opener with a merchant scroll for his own ancestral, but I misdirect it. His last ditch effort is a mystical for tinker but he has to wait a turn to draw the tinker, and I obv have the meddling mage.
I know this time around to not even bother with Trickbind. Etruths shouldn't be reduced in number at all because of his tinker plan. I simply side out a daze for a kataki.
Game 2: He starts out with artifacts. I drop rod. He tinkers for colossus. I lose. :p
On the play I side back in the fourth daze taking out a lion.
Warning: My details will probably be off on this next game. Don't shoot me, alot happened :p
Game 3: I lead with turn one meddling mage on gifts. It was either that or yawg win, and I felt that given my hand of all critters and echoing truth, his avenues to victory would be severely limited. He'd pretty much have to go all in on a yawg will. His turn one is an ancestral and some artifacts. My turn two is brainstorm, time walk and another 2 power critter. My turn 3 is Jotun grunt and another critter. His turn two he goes for it while i'm tapped out with lotus petal/brainstorm/dark rit/yawg will. Yikes. Storm's up to 8 and he's at 14. He has some mana floating, I don't remember exactly how much, and a demonic tutor yet to be cast. He has a brainstorm still in his yard waiting to be cast again. I'm at 18 and he's already played his land for the turn. He can dt for tendrils but will be one mana short of casting it. I have daze in hand but if he brainstorms into a sol ring or crypt or black lotus i'm dead. He'll just have enough to dt for tendrils and kill me despite a daze. He thinks if he wants to gamble. He can't just go for it and be fine if he misses, because if he doesn't get there he mana burns to exactly lethal on board damage. He thinks about it for a very long time, choosing to dt for massacre and mana burn slightly. I was very happy to be able to untap because he lost all of his momentum trying to go off there plus my grunt is still hanging around with a hell of alot of graveyard to play with even after a will resolving. I draw another daze and swing. He draws and passes. I draw a blank and swing. He's a grunt away from death now. He untaps and goes for main phase gifts. I double daze it knowing he can pay but he's forced to tap out if I do that. I double daze and his gifts resolves. He thinks for a very long time and goes with sapphire, brainstorm, chain of vapor and time walk. He had one card in hand and had not played a land for turn yet. I was pretty confident he had no land in hand. His out was to brainstorm into lotus/tinker. I hesitated on giving him walk/sapphire because he could go land/mox walk, but then he'd have no cards in hand and would be left to ripping tniker off the top for a colossus that at this point couldn't even swing. I decided on giving him sapphire/walk after a very long time of thinking myself.
HE OFFERS THE HAND SHAKE. FEINSTEIN WINS! FEINSTEIN WINS! FEINSTE- You get the point.
It felt good to win this very intense match. Eric was gracious about it. Afterwards Oliver comes over and just asks in the future that we go a little bit faster even though the rounds were untimed. I don't mind a request like this at all, but I do point out that the only long turn occured with Eric resolving gifts and me picking from it. Oliver agrees with that and I agree with him that time is always a factor and will go faster next time.
Mini rant #454- Now I know Oliver wouldn't just come over and complain about the time we took on his own accord... he's just too damn nice to do that. Someone put him up to it! My 'spies in the woods' <tm> confirmed that the person who put him up to this was...
ARIK.
Gah. He's like a bad case of the herp and he just won't go away! He's in top 4 against the person I didn't recognize and I am against Dana. I was for a top 4 split because I got paired against Dana, who is a good friend... and he's running a terrible match for me :p Plus it was now $160 four ways. We all agree to a four way split...
Then Nataz comes over and suggests we play it out for the 'glory' of a fish on fish potential finals.
Bah! Bah I say. This gets the gears going in arik's mind and suddenly we're playing it out in top 4. I wasn't thrilled with this but at least if I lost Dana would make finals. Arik and other person start to play. Dana thinks for a moment and simply states "You win."
Me: ?!?!?!?!
Dana: I want you to make finals and beat Arik.
I can hear it now...
ROFL-COPTER nice semis match feinstein!
Incoming LOLcano, you really worked hard for that one!
Pat that man on the back and buy him a ROFL-WAFFLE!
Hooded figure in window: "WELL THAT IS PRETTY LUC--"
Shut it. I don't want to hear about it. Dana decided to concede because he was tired of playing and wanted to see me win. I didn't ask him to and double checked that he actually didn't want to play it out. He confirms this. I thanked him and moved on to a place I'm not used to going with this deck...
THE FINALS!
Dana walks over to Dan and tells him I won. We get food. I can see the hate in Arik's eyes building. Before leaving I did explain that I wouldn't be offering a split of any kind in the finals. Arik and other person do a 60/40 split and they play it out. I come back to find Arik waiting for me with DAGGERS IN HIS EYES. DAGGERS I SAY.
I'm really building up this tension between me and Arik that doesn't actually exist. While we both wanted to win the tournament with our respective fish decks, but we both respect the other and constantly talk out plays and strategies all the time. On this particular day though, I reallllllly wanted to beat his ass. :p I felt like with a best of five finals it was going to be VERY hard for me to lose this one. He had no brainstorms or plows and I had 10 cards coming in for him post board. Then again it's me, and we know how many tourneys I've won before this so I just shut up, rolled the die and away we went...
Game 1- He won the die roll and we both mulliganed. I had isamaru, lions one land. He went tundra pass. I went Isamaru pass. He untaps, draws...passes? I'm also stuck on one land but add a lions to the fray. I get a second land before he does and start to cast an army of meddling mages. He knows i'm going to name confidant and fires away counters. 3 Mages in a row got stopped. Daze/daze/force. The problem is he's still trying to stop an onslaught of 2 power beats. He drops isamaru and due to legend rule I'm down to the lone lion. By the time he finally draws a second mana source his confidant is forced to block. I have too much tempo by this point and it's all ova.
Sideboard: -3 rod +3 jitte, -4 daze +3 Swords and a kataki, - 3 stifle + 3 Oldman
Game 2- He runs out rod and confidant. I plow them and do some brainstorming. I run out a meddling mage on threads. He gets a grunt out and I plow that too. This one goes for a while with him being on the back pedal but able to get my mage naming threads off the table... then suddenly my critters were all going to his side of the table. He had a mage out naming Old man by now. I rip my final plow and get rid of it. Old man comes out to play and just goes to town. I win a good game but I think he had a real shot at taking it down in short order if his meddling mage came out naming plow instead of Old Man.
Sideboard: I decide to bring in seals for his threads. It also makes his rod almost completely useless...only being good if I'm light on lands and need one of my 2 moxen for mana.
Game 3-
I'm light on lands, needing my mox pearl for mana. he drops null rod :p A bunch of wastes follow but I fetched early for one island and one plains. Two manas is all I need baby! I fire out critters galore while he's drawing alot of lands. By the time his first creature sticks to the board I have four staring back at him. He edicts me a couple times but I drop Old man. He responds with cutpurse and confidant and is left with 0 cards in hand. I echoing truth his confidant, steal his cutpurse and make him discard bob. bwahaha. That just felt evil. Had to laugh, sorry.
So where were we... oh yeah...
I WON TEH MATCH. I WON TEH TOURNAMENT. W00T.
Hooded Figure in window: YAY!
It felt good to finally win a tournament with this deck. It felt VERY GOOD. I felt like I was long overdue, and I try not to think in terms like that but I mean... gimme a break! I get offered the ruby from Dan but I really want the mox pearl and look longingly at it. It's near minty and shiny and signed...and he beat me for it at a past tournament :p Dan says I need to pony up 25 more to get the pearl. I was going to point out that it was guaranteed on the interweb but I was just so overjoyed to be winning a mox I didn't care. I'm not going to bust balls over which one I get. I shouldn't even really be mentioning that but Travis put me up to it. Blame him.
As I'm going to pull out 25 cash to buy the pearl Dana says just take it out of his credit. I'm wondering where he wants me to sign on the dotted line to give up my soul but he really didn't want anything. I told him I wouldn't forget this. He said not to worry about it. That Master Tap, he's truly a good friend. I just hope to never piss him off or I'm a dead man.
Anyway, where was I. Oh yeah... FEINSTEIN WINS! FEINSTEIN WINS! FEINSTEIN WINSSSS!!11!!S!
I thanked Dan for the tournament and said bye to everyone who was there. Master tap, Tuttle and myself all left and here I am finishing this report. Er...thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed it. What other cliche can I conclude with...
Oh yeah,
- TO DAVE FEINSTEIN!
- Dave Feinstein
