I forgot that I haven't posted my report on the Drain yet. I promised the Creator I would post one here, so here goes:
On Sunday morning, my team (Jacob, Eric, Richard, and Anthony) made the almost 4 hour drive to Pittsburgh. Without our GPS navigator, we would have never made it. We got lost about ten times. Once we arrived, I saw several familiar faces, including Zohar Bhagat and Paul "Cot4" Mastriano. We settled in, and I made a couple savage trades before the tournament started.
Pairings came up, and we were notifed that we were at 36 people. The next step up in prize support kicked in at 37. Ugh, sometimes you get dicked.
Round 1 - 4c Landstill AKA BHWC Landstill
I simply cannot beat Landstill with my Threshold list. I always put up a valiant fight, but I don't think I've ever beat them in a tournament. They have answers to EVERYTHING! Anyways, I drop good cards, he deals with them, while keeping insanely better CA. /lose
0-1
Round 2 - UGR Threshold (w/ Counterbalance & Top)
I don't think that the Counterbalance plan is very good. He was just never able to take control of the match. He lost before he got thresh game 1, and Jotun Grunt ripped his yard away game 2. I'm glad I've been ignoring people's advice to play the red splash.
1-1
Round 3 - Homebrew Combo (Griffin Canyon shenanigans)
I really admire my opponent's originality. He was really nice, and was having a great time playing his rogue combo deck, even though it's not that great. I easily wrecked him, but he did some cool stuff, and he gets props.
2-1
Round 4 - Faerie Stompy
Wow. These were some hardcore games. All I know is, he played Chalice for one and two game two and I still won the match 2-0. Krosan Gripping his Crypt while having 3 Mages naming Efreet, Drake, and Jitte is good, I hear. He also forgets to draw from his SoFaI twice game 2, and when he calls a judge, he gets a warning. I was assuming he was drawing from it, so it was news to me. Poor guy. He gave me a favorable trade after the event, so I'll always remember him fondly.
3-1
Round 5 - Hulk Flash
I've been testing against Hulk Flash a lot lately, and I own it with Threshold. Post FS, only Fish can beat it, but for now, Thresh owns it quite well. I ask a teammate what he's playing before the match starts, and although he doesn't hear me and tells me to "Stomp him", I interpret this as "Stompy". Thinking I'm playing some 9-land Stompy jank, I keep a hand with two StP and a Mongoose. I lose the first game handily.
After I realize what he's playing, I own him, but not before he drops three Massacre's in one turn. I managed to counter the first two, but a third came, and I could hear the angels singing behind him. Irrelevant though, I still won. Stifle is my best friend.
4-1
Round 6 - ID
Drawing this round would guarantee me a spot in the T8. We do. I'm happy.
4-1-1
Top 8 - Hulk Flash
I get matched up against my friend Zohar. Like the previous opponent, I just seem to win vs Hulk Flash. The deck needs to address the Thresh matchup if it plans on winning the GP.
Top 4 - Counterslivers AKA Meathooks
I have to play my teammate Richard. I consider scooping to him, because I feel like he has a better matchup vs the winner of the other game (Goblins vs Landstill). However, the idea of winning the event is very tempting. I shuffle up against my friend and play it out. I get early tempo both games and get pretty lucky with my topdecks (I had two guys out, no cards in hand, and 4 cards in my graveyard. I call a Mental Note off the top. Wins!!). I also Stifled my Jotun Grunt's upkeep two turns in a row to win game two.
Finals - Goblins
There's some controversy over what happened in the top 8 match between this guy and my teammate. Some people in attendance believe the goblins player misrepresented the game state and caused my teammate to lose. Others believe no foul play occured. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. I'm not going to throw any accusations around, but I was hesitant to play against this guy.
I decided to split with him for several reasons. One, I literally got zero hours of sleep the night before, and I was very tired. Two, I was getting bored of Magic and wanted to go home to see my girlfriend Dana. Three, I either crush Goblins or get crushed by them. It wasn't worth the risk of not drawing Tivadar's Crusade and losing. Four, if I got the byes, my tiebreakers would keep matching me up against other people with byes, and I'm not good enough to roll with the professionals. I figure it would be easier to manually win all my rounds at the GP.
So we split and I got over a box and a half of packs. 60 boosters is insane! But still, if we had that 37th person, I would have won like 3 boxes, lol.
PROPS:
- Paul Mastriano, for being the most awesome dude ever.
- Team Lucksack, because we came *this* close to putting 4 out of 5 guys in the top 8, and we really should have put three guys in the top 4. Oh well, we had some old fashioned fun.
- Car rides, because they're absolutely hilarious.
- Meddling Mage, for earning the right to be in Threshold. I loved-ed you Pikula!!
- The store owner, for being honestly the nicest guy I think I've ever met.
- Zohar, for reminding me that Predict is the greatest card EVER against Hulk Flash.
SLOPS:
- The judges, because they kept having to look up simple rulings.
- Pittsburgh, for being further away that I thought.
LIST:
4 Tundra
4 Tropical Island
4 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
2 Island
1 Plains
4 Nimble Mongoose
4 Werebear
4 Meddling Mage
1 Mystic Enforcer
4 Force of Will
3 Counterspell
3 Daze
3 Stifle
4 Brainstorm
4 Serum Visions
4 Mental Note
4 Swords to Plowshares
SB:
4 Hydroblast
3 Tivadar's Crusade
3 Jotun Grunt
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Krosan Grip
1 Mystic Enforcer
Anyways, I'm very glad with how Threshold performed. It kept the streak of Top 8's alive (I've never taken Thresh to a tourney and not Top 8'd). I think I'm going to take Zohar's advice and test the Predicts over Note. They own Hulk Flash's face even more!
Kyle
