Its about freakin time! After 4 straight 9th places finishes (I think 1 may have been a 10th place), I needed to get over that hump. Of course I spent all week complaining that Ichorid was just ridiculously sick now and my playtesting had me at 0-8 against it on the week. Cry me a freakin river! I was so not looking forward to this tournament with FS legal a day early. I figured the meta would be overrun with Ichorid and flash.
After registering, I talked briefly to a few of the players about the shift in the meta. They all seemed to think Ichorid was rough and flash would be no big deal. After talking about it a bit, I felt a bit more confident but still dreaded the ichorid match up. I also found there were a lot less flash decks than I thought. They posted the pairings and round 1 was underway:
vs Colby Evenpence with ubastax
Nice match up for me to kick things off. Uba stax can be problematic for me, but I can usually pull a win out of the ol' poop shoot.
He wins the die roll. I keep a hand with no FoW. He drops mox emerald, mox pearl, mana crypt crucible, strip. Crap!!!! My hand was volcanic, welder, brainstorm, gifts and some other stuff. 1 mana source.
I played the volanic and welder and passed the turn. He took 3 from crypt and passed. I swung and passed. 3 crypt for him and pass. I swung and passed. He took 3 from crypt and passed. I dropped volcanic, welder swung and passed. He did nothing to change the board again. I swung with both guys and passed. 3 from crypt pass..etc. I get the win on welder beats backed up by his mana crypt.
side: out merchant scroll, gifts: in 2 rack and ruin out sundering titan. in memnarch out thirst in jesters cap (to deal with his trikes)
Game 2 he goes first and gets a first turn trinisphere. Crap. My land, mox, gifts, mana vault, land, echoing truth doesn't look so hot now. I draw a welder play my land and pass. On his turn 3 he drops a smokestax. Great. I'm facing trinisphere w/ smokestax and nothing but 2 lands in play and a 3rd land in hand. Guess I'll have to play the land, tap out for the vault, tap it for the mox, right? Looks good..until I top deck a 3rd turn R&R. Drop my land, pop his artifacts drop my mox and vault and we're off to the races. I forget exactly how the next few turns developed, but I got my welder into play and then hardcast a memory jar. I built up quite a nice storm count playing other little spells and moxen (including a timewalk, so not matter what I did, I had another turn w/ an active welder) but I didn't have tendrils. Hell, why not go for it. Weld in the jar, activate it again, grin. Colby yells, "Gay!" and scoops. Nice hand shake and an interesting start to my day.
1-0 (2-0)
Coby and I play another game or two just for kicks which are as fun and entertaining as the real matches.
Round 2 vs Vinnie Forino with his own build of tendrils
Vinnie and I played each other for the first time at the last Blue Bell:
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=32548.0 . He was a great opponent and a solid player so I was looking forward to a good match this time.
And now, after a good nights sleep, I am drawing a complete blank on game 1 (but I think its a tendrils win for me...god I hate being on this side of 30). It was a win for me and I don't remember seeing much of his deck. *edit in some of game 1*
I just remembered something about game 1. My opening hand had good mana accelerants and a gifts. I drew into A. Recall. On turn 4 I counted my library and noted I had 32 cards left in it. Yes, by the end of turn 4 I had seen 28 cards. There is this concept in Magic called card advantage. I don't know if you ever heard of it. But apparently it can hold true. I believe I hit both of my gifts, my a recall, a memory jar and a thirst or two.
He goes first and drops a dark confidant. I had kept 2 lands, mana drain, brainstorm, crypt and vault on a mulligan. Not bad. Has some potential. On my turn I brainstorm revealing a trike and another drain, but I am 1 mana short of the trike at this point. Oh well...next turn, right? His reveals....NULL ROD! Crap again (crap is a recurring theme in this report). But he also has a necropotence from turn 1. He had drawn down to 7, played a few spells and had 4 floating B. He announced Grim Tutor and said, 'awright?' (in a very heavy NY accent). I said sure and right away he asked if he could do something else. I looked at the score sheet. He was at 7, the tutor would put him at 4, well within range of a trike win. I apologized for having to be a rules whore, but he announced it. He was tapped out, had played his land and I knew he had a null rod in hand. He dug something up (I was hoping it wouldn't be a mox or a dark ritual to get the mana needed for his null rod) and passed his turn. I asked if he meant to burn and he said yeah. I knocked him down to 3 on the sheet and flipped over the trike on top of my deck. I felt bad being a rules whore like that to a guy like Vinnie. I often let things go and play loose, but just couldn't that time.
2-0 (4-0)
Round 3 vs UWB gifts concotion (sorry, I can't remember your name)
Game 1 he leads tundra and I start thinking U/W fish. NICE. We play back and forth a few turns and I nail a trike. I swing once and then he follows up with a tinker colossus! Crap. There goes my victory as there is nothing else on the board...until I rip a welder off the top! Nice! I drop the welder, pass the turn. He attacks, I block with the trike, put damage on and ping him 3 times. This puts me at 7 life. He passes. I draw and weld out his colosuss. On my turn, I bring back in trike with him at 7 life. Next turn I swing and ping.
I side in the REB's.
I keep a very counter heavy hand with a mix of mana involved. We play draw go for a while and the mana builds. We both have 7 cards and I have 2 turns in a row where I play a spell I might normally play just so I don't have to discard. We both have boatloads of mana on the table (I have 11..if you count it out that is enough to hardcast the sundering titan, goblin welder and a mana drain that are all in my hand). I bait with the hardcast titan, he counters, I drain. He counters, I FoW. He counters..ok. I break my last fetch, get a volcanic and play welder...he drains. Crap! That was unpleasant. He now has 9 drain mana for his turn. Draws gets his mana, uses 2 to timetwister with...7 floating mana and 4 lands in play. Crap. He burns for 7 putting him at 7. WHAT?!?! I get another welder, weld in my trike at the end of his turn. Swing and ping.
3-0 (6-0)
I draw in from there. My round 4 opponent is ichorid. We played just to see what would happen. Game 1 goes about like I thought it would. He smashes me in the face. Game 2, leyline of the void in my opening hand goes the distance. Game 3 I keep a 6 card hand with 2 Black sources and some card draw. The draw is not needed as my first turn draw is a leyline. He gets a few cards in his graveyard, but I hard cast leyline to stop any dredge. A few turns later I tinker for tormod's crypt and he agrees that is game.
Top 8 report
Round 1 vs Chris Collins with Tyrant Oath. Crap! I finally get into top 8 and my first game is a really crappy match up
Game 1 I lead black lotus, sol ring, tolarian, mox: tinker for titan (blowing up his land as he went first) and timewalk!!! Most. Broken. Opening. Hand. Ever. My next turn I swing for 7. On his turn he plays Oath. I swing for 7 more then bounce his oath. He replays it on his turn but on my turn its lethal damage.
I side in jesters cap and some REB for the counter war.
He's on the play. He mulligans to 6 and I read that he has a slow hand which he is not completely happy with. I keep my hand which is powerful, but slow. Turn 2 I demonic and grab jesters cap. Turn 3 I drop a welder. Turn 4 I drop the cap. Turn 5 I activate cap taking 3 oaths. I weld it back in for a second activation (4 lands and 2 mox) and take his 4th oath, tyrant and a cunning wish. His turn he tries to ancestral but hand is FoW, Fow, MisD and BS. I misdirection pitching force and draw 3: FoW, BS and land. He scoops.
Top 4 vs Rob U/W fish
Game 1 goes about like I expect against U/W fish and I get the win. It was an insane opening hand with easy access to all my combo pieces.
In: 2 pyroclasms, 2 REB
Game 2 I go for a turn 1 welder which he dazes. He gets an early jotun grunt and beats me down to 12 before he can't pay upkeep. He follows up with another jotun grunt and beats 1 more turn. I start to actually get some stuff, but he's beaten me down too far. Suddenly I combo out on him for lethal damage with tendrils!!! but he has a trickbind. Crap. I go up to 3 life and he kills me. Wow, 5 round tournament, top 4 match is my first game loss.
Game 3 was another long, drawn out draw-go fest. I kept getting mana, mana, mana with a sprinkling of counter magic. He got a meddling mage and a kataki and the beats start. I finally pull a pyroclasm with REB back up which resolves and clears the board. He tries brainstorm later which I use my REB on. He tries another mage later which I REB.
I get a welder in play. I cast yawg will which resolves! I replay 3 moxen and a black lotus from the yard (thank you kataki) and believe I have atolarian in play. I hardcast jar (he tapped out his last blue earlier in the turn for something), activate it and the first card I draw is tendrils!! my spell count is already at like 10. I then proceed to flip some forces and mana drains. He drew a trickbind, but didn't have the open mana for it. Wow.
Finals match vs grim long.
He goes off in game 1 early, I cna't stop him.
Game 2 I start with a leyline in play. He's hampered and I play the game at my own speed. I force some early shenanigans by him (pitching force) and draw into another force. I have 5 mana so I slow play. His resources are a bit depleted. He goes for a demonic, I hardcast force. Next turn I draw force. He goes for another spell which I hardcast force again. I eventually get the win.
I had sided out my tendrils kill so I could bring in 4 leylines and 2 REBs and it worked in game 2 as my counter magic kept him in check. Game 3, my opening 7 is trike, sundering titan, mindslaver, 2 lands a brainstorm and something else. Very slow, no forces, no leylines. I mulligan to 6 and draw 3 goblin welder, trike, REB and something else...no mana at all. I mulligan to 5 and see goblin welder, tolarian, echoing truth, leyline and mana vault. Ok, with the leyline, maybe he'll be slowed down until I can get something going. He gets a first turn bargain with mana crypt in play, pulls a bunch of cards and passes the turn. I draw a FoW and pass with tolarian in play. He takes no damage from the crypt (key later for him) and draws a bunch of cards, building storm (maybe this is 3rd turn).He's eventually down to 2 life and goes for mystical tutor. I pitch force. He reponds by chain of vapor on my leyline. I look over his board, seeing a pair of 0 CC artifacts and his lands. My eyes simply glaze over his bargain. Bounce resolves, force resolves and his tutor goes to the yard. He then plays yawg will and replays the tutor with his last floating U mana and BBBB floating at 2 life. He has an untapped mana crypt and thats it. Good game. he gets tendrils on top, pays 1 life down to 1 and uses his 4 Black to csat tendrils. If i had only sac'd my tolarian to bounce his bargain, he would have had 2 choices: hardcast bargain, using all his mana. In that case, he gets to draw 1 spell only off bargain (his tendrils) and cast it for 2 so he can draw 2 more cards. Or pass t he turn and burn for 4. I'd probably have more than enough time to recover, but it didn't happen that way. I just missed it.
It was a great tournament. It was nice to have a head judge. However, our tournaments have always been very loose and friendly. They posted the pairings and like we always do, players immediately sat down. Colby and I started played and were on turn 2 when the judge came over and admonished us for starting, saying he had announcements to make and hadn't said go yet. I told him we were just messin around and Coby nodded his agreement. Aside from that and a bit of a control issue with starting top 8 (which the judge ended up doing the right thing on) I had no problems with the judge or the judging. He was a nice guy and he was there for our benefit. I think we all appreciated that, but he could be a little more loose procedurally for our environment.
