[Report] Almost got there! Top 4 at RIW Lotus Tournament

RIW July 15th, 2007 Black Lotus Tournament

So I come home late from the 10th Edition sealed tournament Friday night and I decide that homework was more important than a day of Magical cards.

I convince myself that I was not going to RIW the following day, but I print out my decklist and set my alarm anyways.

My alarm wakes me up, but I assure myself that sleep was way more important.
JR calls me 15 minutes before we are supposed to meet up and tells me to stop being lame and to go shower.

After getting ready, some driving, and Bob Evan’s, we arrive at RIW.

Let me just say that I think that RIW is one of the hardest places to play at, and we had 40 talented players that day. I’ve never made top 8 at RIW before, ever in life.

As soon as we get there I was in search of a Planeshift Foil Quirion Dryad that I saw at the Grand Prix in one of their binders for $5. Alas, it was gone. I wish I had bought it earlier.

After the usual delays, pre-tournament smoking, greetings and banter, we begin!

Oh yeah, this is what I played:

Nam Tran

5 Color Stax

4 Goblin Welder
4 Tangle Wire
4 Sphere of Resistance
3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Smokestack
2 Powder Keg
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Balance
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Tinker
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Crop Rotation
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Sundering Titan
1 Triskelion
1 Memory Jar
1 Trinisphere
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
4 City of Brass
3 Gemstone Mine
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra’s Workshop

4 Leyline of the Void
3 Chalice of the Void
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Ray of Revelation
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Darkblast

I didn’t take any outside notes, so I am just trying to recall the details from memory. I’m sure there are some things that aren’t exact, but they should reflect what happened in the game, or how I felt that the game was going.

Round 1 – Josh Franklin – Drain TPS

So round 1 I face the legendary Josh Franklin. We have only played once before, where I was playing Night’s Whisper Slaver and Josh was playing Gifts. I remember that I played a land, Mana Crypt, Thirst for Knowledge, followed by Black Lotus and Thirst for Knowledge, followed by Mox Sapphire and Ancestral Recall all on turn one. Josh played Library of Alexandria…and I lost.

I didn’t even feel like playing game two, but we were both out of contention, so I scooped to him and he scooped to me, I’m not sure what the match slip ended up looking like.

Game 1

I don’t know what he is playing, but I keep a solid hand of Spheres and Wastes. The hand works as it should and soon Josh scoops to Crucible and Strip Mine combined with Spheres.

Game 2

I don’t get Crucible and Strip Mine, but I have Wasteland and lots of Spheres again. I ramp Smokestack up to 1 three times this game, but they all get bounced before Josh has to sacrifice a single permanent. Four bounce spells later, Josh casts Empty the Warrens for 4 tokens. Seeing in as how he is tapped out and I have a Sphere in play, I draw my seventh mana and cast the Triskelion in my hand. It was all over shortly thereafter.

Matches: 1-0
Games: 2-0

Round 2 – Jeff Anand – GAT/r

I’ve heard stories about this guy, but I’ve only seen him once, and that was when he made top 4 at SCG Richmond with Burning Slaver. Needless to say, he is good, and his deck is pimp too!

Game 1

I don’t remember much, but I had Spheres and Waste recursion. After knocking out a few lands, I had Jeff locked out but he kept playing to see a little more of my deck. He scooped to recurring Barbarian Ring.

Game 2

I don’t see very much and in short order there is a Fastbond, tones of lands, Psychatog, and a huge Quirion Dryad attacking me. Yawgmoth’s Will is a silly card.

Game 3

My Goblin Welder comes down, but my Spheres and Stacks keep me from playing the Tinker or Sundering Titan in my hand. Having those two cards together in hand against GAT/r is not a combo. I ramp a Stack to 2 and another to 1 in the face of Tropical Island, Underground Sea, and a Seal of Primordium. Jeff Gushes and takes out my Chalice for 0 with the Seal and I think time is called. We can’t finish up in time so it’s a draw.

Upon reflection, knowing about the time constraints, I should have been more aggressive in trying to resolve and weld in the Sundering Titan that was in my hand all game to finish up the match in short order. I think I wanted to swing with my Goblin Welder instead of keeping it untapped in order to protect myself against Artifact Mutation. Oh well, it’s always easier to see things when you are not in the game.

Matches: 1-0-1
Games: 3-1-0

Round 3 – Matt Hazard – Flash (Sliver Kill)

Matt is a cool guy from Ohio. The last time we squared off he beat my Stax deck with U/W Feinstein Fish.

Game 1

I try my best to keep him from casting Flash. Spheres and Wastes follow up with a Trinisphere and Strip Mine followed by Crucible of Worlds for the concession.

Game 2

I keep a decent seven card hand and Matt plays land, Black Lotus, Merchant Scroll for Flash, and Flash. I confirm that he has the Sliver kill and the Slivers in his deck before I die to poison. Look what you have done Andy Probasco!

Game 3

This game goes long and weird. I have Spheres and Crucible of Worlds, which eventually develops into Crucible of Worlds, Sphere of Resistance, Trinisphere, a Wasteland, a Barbarian Ring, a City of Brass, and 4 Mishra’s Workshop. Oddly enough, I haven’t drawn anything relevant to play with my Workshops. My hand is also 3 Goblin Welder, 1    Gorilla Shaman, 1 Darkblast, and 1 Red Elemental Blast.

Matt was mana screwed early, she he had discarded a Flash. I wait on REB because he only has three lands and I figure it would be unlikely for him to cast Flash at the end of my turn and then during his main phase. I am discarding and dredging Darkblast, trying to find Strip Mine, or more colored lands to be able to play my Goblin Welder and REB in the same turn.

After a while, Matt flinches first and I REB his Flash. He doesn’t have another Flash and I play my Welder hoping that he doesn’t top deck Flash, or a way to get it. Turns go by where I am dredging my Darkblast to try and find lands to play with my Crucible of Worlds, or a juicy artifact to Weld in. I have Barbarian Ring ready to kill Heart Sliver, as well as blockers. I find Strip Mine and Matt concedes soon thereafter. That was a weird game because time was very important.

Matches: 2-0-1
Games: 5-2-1

Round 4 – Dave Daugherty – Ichorid

Dave and I rode up here with our friend Mark Trogdon. I sleeved up my deck in the car, and Dave only had two deck choices lined up for the day. Ichorid isn’t a pretty match-up. The last time we played, my Stax list had 3 Tormod’s Crypt in the main deck and 4 Leyline of the Void in my sideboard, and I still lost two games in a row to Dave.

Game 1

I keep a decent hand with 5 mana, Goblin Welder, Sundering Titan, and Triskelion. Dave starts with Leyline of the Void out, and makes me discard my hand into oblivion. A couple of turns later, Flame-Kin Zealot comes in and I take like 40 points from Zombies and the like.

Game 2

I see an early Tormod’s Crypt and a Goblin Welder with plenty of artifacts to feed to him. Sphere of Resistance comes down soon thereafter, and Dave concedes shortly.

Game 3

Dave mulligans to 4, and then uses Serum Powder for 4 more cards, and I mulligan to 6. I lead with Black Lotus, Demonic Tutor for Tormod’s Crypt, play Tormod’s Crypt, Mishra’s Workshop, Smokestack. Stack takes out his Bazaar of Baghdad, Tormod’s Crypt wipes out his graveyard, and the Spheres come down. There was a point where Dave was using Bazaar to dig for answers. When he was about to break free, I drew Wasteland to pick off his lands in tandem with my Crucible of Worlds to seal up the game.

Matches: 3-0-1
Games: 7-3-1

Round 4 – Brian Demars – Counterbalance Slaver

We gat paired and Brian tries to see if I can draw in, since he is 4-0. It turns out that I can’t, and Demars is not happy. “I can’t draw in because my opponent isn’t as awesome as I am.” Hey, I tried! This is the second time that I’ve played Demars, since he is always winning and I am always losing at RIW. I hope that this match is better than the last match we had.

Those games went like this:

I ramp my Smokestack to clear our boards (I was playing 5 Color Bazaar Stax and Demars was playing Gifts.) Demars casts Gifts 3 times. I keep giving him another Gifts Ungiven off Gifts to strand his acceleration in is graveyard. I stupidly sacrifice my Null Rod to Smokestack, and Demars Brainstorms into Yawgmoth’s Will. It didn’t matter if I kept my Null Rod around or not though because Demars showed my his hand of 3 Force of Will (Willenskraft) and 1 Chain of Vapor (Japanese Foil I’m sure.)

In the next game, I think my hand is ok against slow decks, but terrible against fast decks. You ever get the feeling where you are too lazy to mulligan? I decide to keep anyways and I lead with Crucible of Worlds. Demars Forces, and he plays Island, Black Lotus, and Mana Crypt. On my turn, I play Smokestack, and Demars proceeds to Mana Drain it, cast Gifts at the end of turn, and another during his main phase. Yeah, I lost. I did not give him another Gifts Ungiven in that game though.

Ok, onto what happened in our match.

Game 1

Demars leads with like Mox, Mox, Goblin Welder. I play some stuff, but he Forces my Powder Keg. Smokestack and Crucible of Worlds comes down on my side, but they are scoffed at by Demar’s Welder. There was a time where Demars welded in my Powder Keg for my Smokestack, or something like that. I untapped, waited a few seconds, and happily put a counter on my Powder Keg to try and kill his Welder. Brian wisely backs me up, and decides to weld out my Keg. I keep ramping my Stack when I have a chance in-between welds, but Goblin Welder and Triskelavus is a token making engine that I couldn’t keep up with.

Game 2

Demars keeps like a one-land, Sensei’s Divining Top hand. He is light on mana and I think I Wasteland a couple of his lands here and there. When I think the coast is clear, I Tinker for Sundering Titan to destroy an Island and the Titan and Gorilla Shaman I have kill Demars before he finds another land and/or Shattering Spree.

Game 3

This game was really weird. I lead with Gorilla Shaman and proceed to Waste one of Demars lands, and then another, and then Strip Mine another. He does not seem too happy. Goblin Welder joins my team to speed up my clock. Demars Tinkers in Triskelavus and kills my guys. I kill Triskelavus with Ancient Grudge. I think I have a Welder attacking Demars, which manages to drop him to 3 life until his deck gives him the goods. Draw spells start chaining, and land drops start to be made.

So Brian is at 3 and I am at 20 when time is called. Demars gets Mindslaver out and has plenty of artifacts and a Welder on his side of the board. Comboed with Triskelavus, I never get to take another turn and figure that we will draw. Demars then proceeds to cast 2 Trinket Mages, slave me, weld in my Triskelion and have me shoot myself, and deal me 20 points by turn 5. This guy is good!

Matches: 3-1-1
Games: 8-5-1

Round 6 – Dirty Harry – Pitch Long

So Dirty Harry and I are paired and it sucks that I have to try and play him, especially since he could have drawn in. Last time we played, we had a good Dry Slaver on Gifts match-up at the scrub tables. Extirpating Black Lotus in response to Yawgmoth’s Will is some good I hear!

Game 1

Dirty Harry cuts me and I lead with Trinisphere. He Forces it, and kills me soon after. Well, this has always been a recurring theme. I always lose in the last round when I play and am put into a must-win situation. This does not seem to be any different, and I can already taste the Outback or Olive Garden on my tongue.

Game 2

Dirty Harry cuts me and I lead with Trinisphere and it sticks. I get a bunch of lock pieces down and Tinker for Sundering Titan seals up this game.

Game 3

Dirty Harry cuts me and I again lead with Trinisphere. I also add 2 Sphere of Resistance and a Crucible of Worlds to my board. Dirty Harry hits me with a bounce spell at the end of one of my turns. He is left with two off color Moxes and he exclaimed that if he drew a black source for his draw, he would win the game. He didn’t hit it, and I replayed my Moxes, my Spheres, and the turn after I used my Bazaar of Baghdad to discard my Sundering Titan, which came into play via Goblin Welder to seal up this game.

Matches: 4-1-1
Games: 10-6-1

Top 8

Steve Menendian – GAT/r

It was great to see Steve make it to another RIW tournament. I have seen Steve at plenty of Ohio tournaments, but we rarely get the chance to play each other. Oddly enough, I am 2-0 in matches and 4-1 in games against Steve lifetime. We will see if I can beat him.

Game 1

Steve wins the die roll and elects to play first. His 7 card hand apparently has a lot of broken plays. Game 1 takes a while, as Steve thinks, and tries to focus into the seriousness of our match. He does very broken things, and keeps exclaiming “Very Nice,” in a Borat-like voice to all of his draws. That’s ok, Steve was very amusing, and good thing we weren’t timed!

Through the course of the game, I mulligan to six and lead with Smokestack, which Steve Mana Drains off Black Lotus. Steve does more broken things, and casts Duress on me. On my turn, I cast Crucible of Worlds and play the Bazaar of Baghdad in my hand, with like one or two terrible cards left in my hand. On Steve’s turn, he kills me with a Berserked Tog, and like a 14/14 Quirion Dryad. I never got my third turn! It’s ok though, I <3 Vintage!

Game 2

My opening hand after Steve shuffled my deck up is: Mishra’s Workshop, Chalice of the Void, Crucible of Worlds, Strip Mine, and 3 Sphere of Resistance.

I lead with Shop into Crucible into Chalice for 0. My next play is Sphere off my Workshop. Steve takes so long to think about whether or not he wants to counter it that I forget that I had mana floating when it does finally resolve. Mark Trogdon comments that I mana burn for one, and I ask Steve if I can use the mana, even though I declared that it was ok that I burned for one. After thinking about it, Steve said that it would not be ok, which I was fine with. I use my Strip Mine, and strip Steve’s land.

Without a Sphere in play, Steve plays Pithing Needle naming Strip Mine. I play out the rest of my Spheres and Steve scoops when I eventually draw Wasteland and clear his board. Apparently he was not running any basic Islands.

Upon reflection, had Steve let me play my Sphere instead of mana burning for one, he would have still had a land in play since my Strip Mine would have been tapped due to casting the Sphere. This would have allowed Steve to play the Needle a turn earlier, keeping his land in play, and allowing him to cast Gush when I would have found my Wasteland. A few more cards and a little more tempo may have swung the game back around.

I also find that asking myself, “WWRD,” or “What would Roland do?” helps a lot!

Game 3

I start with Leyline of the Void out. I think Steve casts Duress on me, and I Wasteland his only land. It seemed like whenever Steve drew a land, I drew a Wasteland. Or when Steve played a few Moxes and Psychatog, I ramped my Smokestack and I drew Gorilla Shaman. Eventually the Spheres come down, the lands are destroyed, and a lone Gorilla Shaman is picking away at Steve.

I drop Steve to low life with my Gorilla shaman, when I drew Demonic Tutor. Steve has 4 cards in hand and a Flooded Strand in play. I tutor up Trinisphere and play it. Steve casts Brainstorm, but the Sphere resolves. When Steve would draw land, I see another Wasteland, followed by a Crucible of Worlds, which allows me to end the game with Gorilla Shaman.

Matches: 5-1-1
Games: 12-7-1

Against Steve lifetime:

Matches: 3-0
Games: 6-2-0

Top 4

Paul Mastriano GAT/r

I was really looking forward to a Top 4 split, especially since everyone was talking about it after the Top 4 was decided, except for during my match with Steve, which was the last to finish. I was looking forward to winning some money but Paul informs me that he has a side split arranged and he wants to play it out to try and make more money.

Compared to Steve, I have never beaten Mr. Type 4 ever in life. There was a time where we drew once, but that was about it.

Game 1

My hand is solid with Tangle Wires, Smokestacks, Mishra’s Workshops, City of Brasses and Gemstone Mines, and Goblin Welder. Paul sees Ancestral Recall and Black Lotus along with Quirion Dryad early. Coupled with Yawgmoth’s Will, my Goblin Welder and Gorilla Shaman can’t block all of it and I die.

Game 2

I keep my hand of Leyline of the Void, Smokestack x 2, Mishra’s Workshop, Mana Vault, Sphere of Resistance, and Wasteland. I lead with Shop, Mana Vault, Sphere of Resistance. My Smokestacks both get countered and I can’t do anything since I am not drawing land. Paul casts Artifact Mutation on my Sphere, drops a Dryad, and proceeds to pound my face in. A Berserk ensues soon after, and it is all over but the crying.

So I finally make Top 8 at RIW. The field is tough and making Top 8 there has been on of my goals since I first walked into the store.

It sucks that I didn’t win anything. I did well, so I didn’t get to play for the Mana Drain. We had to stay late so I could play in the Top 8, so we could not go to Outback or Olive Garden. We ended up eating at the Ram’s Horn, where no sandwiches get punched and I got home at around 2:30 and prepared to wake up at 7:00 a.m. the next day.

Overall, making Top 8 was worth JR dragging me out to play cards. Beating Brian Demars in a game, playing Jeff Anand, getting tips from Mark Trogdon, and remaining undefeated against Steve Menendian was definitely worth the trip.

Props

•   Mark Trogdon and Jerry Yang for being the wheelmen, as well as for being Mark Trogdon and Jerry Yang
•   JR for dragging me along and playing BomberMOON
•   Dave for tolerating us on the way there and back
•   Jeff Anand, Josh Franklin, Steve, and Demars for some awesome matches
•   The rest of my opponents for being good sports, especially Dirty Harry, who cut me into Trinisphere all 3 games
•   Pam and all of RIW for being awesome!
•   Justin Droba for telling all of his wonderful Droba-stories
•   Paul Mastriano for always making money at this game
•   Pac-Man for representing Stax with me in the Top 8
o   When will you give me your Stax decklist? We need to work on a list together and pwn the Michigan metagame with it!

Slops

•   Not winning anything for Top 4. Isn’t it weird how you can lose in the Top 8, and win something, when someone in the Top 4 doesn’t get anything?
•   Not finishing early enough for our usual Outback outing or Olive Garden for that matter.