Awesomest Plays of the GP

[GrandpaBelcher]

I was just wondering if there were any truly spectacular plays anyone made, saw or heard about in Columbus.  And I don't mean like, "I played Flash first turn and won the game." I mean something like this:

My fifth round opponent (we were both 2-2 at the time), Matt, told me about a play he made against Flash that totally made my otherwise disappointing day.  He was playing a fairly standard, semi budget mono-black control list but with a twist--he was secretly playing a Legacy-legal version of Dragon combo.  He told me that earlier in the tournament he had a first turn against a Flash deck that went Dark Ritual, Cabal Therapy targeting himself, naming Nicol Bolas, Shallow Grave on the same Nicol Bolas, swing.

Incredible!  How disheartening!

Apparently the Flash player scooped after that hit.  I saw the Shallow Graves and the Dragons in his maindeck, so I have no reason to doubt this story either.  Matt was a fun opponent and at that point both of us were pretty much just in it to play Magic.  He said that, whatever the outcome of the tournament would be for him, that one play made his day.

No kidding.  Doing that would have made my day too.

What else happened on Saturday and Sunday that the tournament crowd at large might have missed?

[freakish777]

On Sunday I was watching someone I know from my local store's match.  He was playing Goblins with MD Leylines.  His opponent's playing Threshold (neither is really in it for T8 or T16 contention, just playing it out for possible money finishes).  Goblins starts with Leyline in play.  Several turns later the Threshold player has Worship + Goose.  There's only one problem.  The Threshold player has no answer to Leyline so his Enforcer can't swing over for the win, and the Goblins player didn't see Worship coming, so he left his Krosan Grips in the board.  They call the judges over and explain that neither one can win the game outside of decking occuring and they each have 40+ cards left or so.  They ask if they can ID this game and move on to a game 4 to determine the winner of the match.  Upon the judges letting them know that the player who got to choose that game would choose again, the Goblins player says "Yeah, how about we just play on" since he'd have been on the draw.  They draw going to time.

That was pretty funny.

[Liek]

In round 12, I'm playing against Flash.

In game two, he Lim Duls Vaults on turn 2. On turn 3 he does nothing, turn 4 Duresses me and sees Pyroblast, Stifle, Lightning Bolt, and some other stuff. He takes Stifle.

Two turns later his board is still Tundra and Underground Sea. He taps Tundra to Orim's Chant me. I Daze it. He Dazes my Daze, floating a U and picking up his Sea. I pay 1. He Force of Wills my Daze. He has to have 2 mana after the Chant. I Pyroblast the Force of Will. He Force of Wills my Daze again. I Red Elemental Blast his Force of Will. He uses his U floating to pay for my Daze, replays his Sea and passes.

I attack and Bolt him twice to win.

We fought over a Daze with all of those cards. It felt strange.

[Kilz88]

In round 12, I'm playing against Flash.

In game two, he Lim Duls Vaults on turn 2. On turn 3 he does nothing, turn 4 Duresses me and sees Pyroblast, Stifle, Lightning Bolt, and some other stuff. He takes Stifle.

Two turns later his board is still Tundra and Underground Sea. He taps Tundra to Orim's Chant me. I Daze it. He Dazes my Daze, floating a U and picking up his Sea. I pay 1. He Force of Wills my Daze. He has to have 2 mana after the Chant. I Pyroblast the Force of Will. He Force of Wills my Daze again. I Red Elemental Blast his Force of Will. He uses his U floating to pay for my Daze, replays his Sea and passes.

I attack and Bolt him twice to win.

We fought over a Daze with all of those cards. It felt strange.

I am glad to hear someone was playing chant in flash. Chris (MasterShake) was planning on doing that if we had gone down. We don't understand why more people didnt do that.

[Anusien]

I am glad to hear someone was playing chant in flash. Chris (MasterShake) was planning on doing that if we had gone down. We don't understand why more people didnt do that.

We considered it, but it just seems worse than Flash.  You go Chant, they go Force, you go Force, they respond by going off.  The difference with Chant and Duress is that you want to run out Duress BEFORE you go off instead of right away.

[JACO]

I am glad to hear someone was playing chant in flash. Chris (MasterShake) was planning on doing that if we had gone down. We don't understand why more people didnt do that.

We considered it, but it just seems worse than Flash.  You go Chant, they go Force, you go Force, they respond by going off.  The difference with Chant and Duress is that you want to run out Duress BEFORE you go off instead of right away.

I considered just running Orim's Chant main instead of Duress, because my goal was to just prevent interactivity. Abeyance costs more, but does this better. It prevents activated abilities from being played by your opponent, which is very important if you are playing the Kiki version. This segues nicely into an awesome play I had at the GP, where I made Day 2 but then faltered early Sunday.

I'm piloting Flash w/Kiki, and my opponent is playing UWB Fish, and has a Meddling Mage on the table, and I believe Stifle in hand. I Lim's Dul's Vault and set up the following play:
1) cast Abeyance using Boseiju (yes, I was playing it main) targeting opponent, cantripping into the Massacre I had set below it in LDV
2) cast Massacre to wipe pesky white creatures off the board
3) cast Flash and go naughty

Preventing interactivity is the best way to play the Kiki version.

[Mr. Anderson]

JACO, your best play was convincing that Threshold player that you were playing the mirror.

However, Lim's Dul's Vault into Abeyance with Boseiju is pretty funny.

[LordHomerCat]

I managed to win a game by decking my opponent out (I was playing Flash w/ Kiki).  He was playing Black\white Land D with 4 sinkhole, 4 icequake, 4 vindicate, 4 rain of tears, 4 rancid earth, 4 Trinisphere, 3 Helldozer, phyrexian arena, and rituals.  His 3 Helldozers were the only cards in his deck capable of doing more than 1 damage (rancid earth does 1).  So, he is on the play in game 2 (I won the first), and on his second turn, plays a land, plays 2 dark rituals and tries Helldozer, so I daze it.  A few turns go by and he plays out lands and blows up some of mine, until he is empty handed with 6 lands out and I have a few random cards.  He draws and taps out for Helldozer, and again I have daze. 

At this point, I almost have my combo but just can't find one peice or something.  So, i eventually get set up to go off with just 2 lands in play, but he draws and plays 3sphere.  So, I spend 3 turns drawing my card and praying its a land (it never is), and he plays out a phyrexian arena.  So, i draw, miss land, pass.  He draws 2, sighs heavily, plays out a land and passes back.  One last chance, I miss the land again and have to say go.  He then starts drawing more Land D (what a surprise) and nukes every land in my deck by the end of the game, and I never get more than 2 in play at any given time.  He takes about 15 damage from his own Arena before finally drawing a vindicate (to leave the game at 8 life to 6, with me winning).  By this point, I have counted my lands and realize I can't cast anything else, so my only hope is to deck him or have him kill himself, but vindicate took out option two.  There are only like 12 cards left in his deck, and theres at least 15 minutes left, so I see no reason to scoop and just start flipping the top card of my deck into the yard each turn.  Every turn he draws and complains, lays a land, and says go.

Eventually, we get to him with 4 cards left in his deck.  He still hasn't played anything that can hurt me, and I ask him if he even has another helldozer.  He informs me there is one more lurking somewhere, and I can't help but laugh and declare that I have a 50% chance of winning, if it is one of the last two cards.  He draws his card, sighs, and says go.  I flip a card in the graveyard and pass it back, and brace to see what he will draw.  He draws his card, looks at it for a second, and puts his head down on the table.  He plays a land and passes.  Next turn he gets the Dozer, but when he gets his next turn he draws the last card, attacks for 6, Rancid Earth's me to 1 life, and has to say go, and procedes to deck out.  I can't help but laugh for about 2 minutes before I take the match slip up.  That was probably the silliest game of magic I have ever played.  Sadly, I ended up 6-2 going into the last round and lost to goblins with maindeck leylines (all 3 games) to go 6-3 and end up at like 160th place =/