LORD OF THE FISH: RETURN OF THE FEINSTEIN (Waterbury Day 1 top 4 report)

[Dxfiler]

Yeah I hate the title too, but it got your attention didn't it?  :p

So It's been a very long while since I have done a tourney report.  The main reason for this was because I haven't done that well lately.  The format has been kind of icky and I set my expectations low for this waterbury.  Going into the tourney I knew I'd be playing something fish-like but felt like it wouldn't be too promising because fish doesn't run merchant scroll, and you pretty much are forced to run that card right now.  I mean people can say 'hey I got some wins with goblins' or 'I nut drew them with stax and got there,' but really if you aren't playing merchant scroll then you aren't playing a deck that is on par with other decks.  Even the best deck in the format for about a month (Ichroid) became completely inferior to scroll-running decks after Flash and Gush came out of freaking nowhere (Thanks WOTC <3).  Bomberman is probably the only deck besides GAT and Flash that can run close to on par with those two big dogs and it too usually ran merchant scroll.  Basically the format turned into merchant scroll decks vs. everything else... Everything else was probably the wrong call.

I knew this.  I didn't care.  I knew I wanted to play fish, but I wasn't totally sure it was the right call...even for me.  So Began my quest to find the right deck.

Now another reason I hadn't done a report of any kind in quite a while was because some had thrown flak at me for focusing too much on events outside of the actual tournament.  Some of the humor-impaired who read my report don't enjoy reading about me having a heart-to-heart with kird ape or putting a paper bag on my hidden gibbons and flushing it down the toilet.  To those who feel that way and really only want to read about me attacking for two every round I say...

There is a back button on your interweb.  :p

So anyway, back to my quest...

I took off in my flying winnebago and searched the galaxy in the hopes of finding the right deck.  My first stop was to the atog system, where I asked the great and powerful LORD ATOG what I should play.  Sitting on top of a pile of bones that came from all his fallen opponents (no Feinstein bones there...yet) he contemplated for a while, even going to the bathroom while making me wait.  After deliberating for quite some time in his blood soaked bathroom, he gave me this nugget of information:

LORD ATOG: YOU SHOULD PLAY FLASH.
Dave Feinstein: ...
LORD ATOG: THERE ARE BIG AND POWERFUL GREEN CREATURES.  DAVE FEINSTEIN LOVES GREEN CREATURES.  DAVE FEINSTEIN'S DAYS WITH FISH ARE OV--

Before he could continue I quickly ran to my winnebago and took off.  As I left the planet all I could hear was...

'GUSH.  GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUS H.  AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA'

It was from here that I went to the misery system.  This system is located in the far reaches of Rhode Island and is inhabited by a very lonely, but knowledgable creature known as the 'Brass Man.'  The Brass Man lives deep in the bowels of Brassville and will only come outside once a day, in search of the 'Brass Woman.'  I once  got him away from his dewllings for a prolonged period of time by telling him his 'Brass Woman' was at the pro tour, but I knew that trick wouldn't work again.  So this time I dressed up as a Bronze Bombshell in the hopes that it would catch his attention.  It did.  My head could barely fit in the helmet but I made due.  The Brass Man peeked out from his hole and noticed me. 

Brassman: My Love.. It is you!
[takes off helmet]
Dave Feinstein: Sorry, it's just me.  What do I play for Waterbury?
Brassman: You're a terrible human being. 
Dave Feinstein:  Agreed.  So what do I do?  Flash is not my style.  Gifts is not my style.  UBW fish kept scrubbing for me in those mox tourneys the past few months.
Brassman: I don't know.  This format sucks.  I want Brasswoman.   =(
Dave Feinstein: I don't want to play in this tourney.
Brassman: Me neither.  But we both have to =(
Dave Feinstein: Yeah.  =(
Brassman: Hey I think you should play fish!  The dark lord even said you should.  He mentioned you in his latest article.
Dave Feinstein: ?!?!?! Do you mean who I think you mean? 
Brassman: Yeah, _ _ _ _ _ _      _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Dave Feinstein: Stop!  Don't say his name outloud three times or we're doomed.  I must go!  See you at Waterbury... and I hope you find Brass Woman!
Brassman: Thanks.  Bye.  =(

Brassman had confirmed my worst suspicions: I would have to pay a visit to... HIM. 
The Dark Lord.  That whose name shall not be spoken... 
"The Voice of Vintage."
Finally, after exhausting all other options at this point,I made my final voyage to the MEAN system... having to dodge so many insane asteroids on the way there.
I reached the eye of Sauron where the Dark Lord was seated beneath, with his back to me.  I could tell he had a sharpie in hand... adding merchant scrolls to every decklist.  I saw the victims lay motionless at his feet...
Suicide black, Stax, even fish lists... they never saw it coming.  All of them now had the dark mark of merchant scroll.

*The DARK LORD turns around*

The Dark Lord: Who hath disturbed my insane modifications?!
Dave Feinstein: Uh, hey there.  Sorry to bother you, I was just wonder-
The Dark Lord: SILENCE!  HAVE YOU COME TO SEEK ADVICE ON ADDING MERCHANT SCROLLS TO YOUR LIST?
Dave Feinstein: No.  I heard you mentioned me in your latest article...
*The Dark Lord's eyes turn pitch black*
The Dark Lord: YOU MUST GO TO BACK TO EARTH AND PLAY FISH.  YOU SHALL WIPE OUT ALL WHO STAND BEFORE YOU.  YOU WILL HAVE MANY INSANE PLAYS.
Dave Feinstein: You really think so eh?  Well, you're more helpful than the other vintage sith lords.  So, I think I'll do that Ste- er, Dark Lord.  Thanks.

The Dark Lord: YOU SHALL WIN...
                                                            UNLIMITED....                             
                                            POWERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRR!

So I thanked the dark lord then made the very long trek back to earth now confident that fish was the right call for me.  Upon arriving home, I only had a week left before the tournament.  Before I could fire up mws, my cell phone rang and I heard a familiar voice...

TRAVIS: #$!%^
Dave Feinstein: ?
TRAVIS: *)#@!&
Dave Feinstein: What the hell is your problem.  Speak english, you aren't banned here.
TRAVIS: Resolves.  Let's go Gam-bling.
Dave Feinstein: I really should test for Waterbury.
TRAVIS: We can do that too. 

Well, I knew what I was getting into, but Travis is just too damn entertaining.  Two days go by and much gambling has happened.  I have more money than I came with (none :p) and stayed over Travis's for the weekend.  We watched Caddyshack and Brewster's Millions and just about every single dirty 80's comedy in between.  Travis has an endless library of them.  It was about here where I realized I needed to actually test some vintage. 

We met up with yet another waterbury winner, Rich Meyst and the rest of his team... TPS (the perfect scrubs).  I shared with them a list I was working on and they liked it alot.  It involved Tarmogoyf.  Rich Meyst likes green creatures and had just finals'd a tournament with tarmogoyf so he was all about my list.  We tested for a while and it looked like I was heading into waterbury playing this:

SS GOYF-

// Lands
    2  Flooded Strand
    4  Polluted Delta
    4  Underground Sea
    2  Island
    1  Strip Mine
    3  Tropical Island
    1  Wasteland
    1  Swamp

// Creatures
    4  Dark Confidant
    3  Tarmogoyf
    3  Dimir Cutpurse/Erayo

// Spells
    1  Ancestral Recall
    4  Duress
    1  Echoing Truth
    1  Vampiric Tutor
    1  Time Walk
    4  Force of Will
    4  Brainstorm
    1  Mox Sapphire
    1  Mox Ruby
    1  Mox Pearl
    1  Mox Jet
    1  Mox Emerald
    1  Demonic Tutor
    1  Black Lotus
    3  Daze
    1  Tormod's Crypt
    2  Stifle
    2  Engineered Explosives
    1  Lotus Petal

// Sideboard
SB: 4  Leyline of the Void
SB: 2  Yixlid Jailer
SB: 4  Oxidize
SB: 2  Spell Snare
SB: 3  Threads of Disloyalty

Basically I came up with this while thinking about how SS could be updated.  Nothing revolutionary, it's really just SS with Tarmogoyf.  I started to run this list by lots of people and they agreed that it had lots of potential and that goyf seemed like the missing creature SS has really wanted, but the deck might just be outclassed by flash or gat or even bomberman... A.K.A. decks with merchant scroll.

I felt like this probably could get me to top 16 but it just didn't seem right to play at waterbury.  It wasn't quite optimal yet and I was struggling alot to win games versus a wide variety of things.  Worth noting is that I did have erayos in the list and Rich instantly took them out, having cutpurse instead.  That is why I included a / in between them on the above list. 

So anyway, Rich Meyst thanked me for the list and began tinkering with it alot but I had decided to look at other options.  By this point it was about 4 days before waterbury and I still wasn't comfy with anything.  At this point long time friend Carebear (thats actually his name) calls me.  Carebear usually cant make tourneys and hasn't played in a waterbury since the days of Broodstarrunner.  He played that 'thing' to a top 16 about 4 years ago and has wanted to try playing vintage since but has no cards.  I told him I'd make him a spicy little fish number for him to play.  For the past several weeks he had asked me exactly what he would be playing and I told him fish, but I never specified because I didn't know what I would be playing. It took a while but after scrubbing out with it 3 tourneys in a row I decided he would be playing UBW fish.  Now I'm not a spiteful person, I wouldn't just give him a crappy list and leave a good one for me.  I like Carebear (in the minority on that one :p). 
I had started playing UBW fish right around when gifts was restricted because I felt like it could be solid.  I kept getting my ass kicked but it was to fluky stuff like dying to my own confidant several times despite the deck having a converted mana cost of 1.1.  Also, every time I played UBW fish I did a little bit better, although not making the top 8's I was used to with UW fish.  It took me a while, but I realized null rod was total ass in the format right now.  About 3 nights before Waterbury, I had a UBW list I liked alot but didn't want to play because it had bombed for me so many times.  I gave it to Carebear and we tested alot.  I played URB, UW, SS Goyf...
he kept kicking my ass.  It then dawned on me that I should also play UBW fish.  I had been tweaking it tourney after tourney, and although it kept failing me, I felt like it might be in or close to optimal form finally. 

Now the night before waterbury, I showed the deck to my Team... ICBM.  Now let me get something out of the way right now because people have asked me why I'm I'm on ICBM: The majority of my team are really good guys and unfortuantely get a bad rap because of how they post online (the ones that can post :p).  Yes, there is some arrogance in their posts... as there is on any major vintage team.  ICBM is extremely passionate about the format, and I dare say more passionate as a collective team than any other one out there... as a result sometimes their posts get the best of them.  I don't personally agree with all the posts the team does as a whole but basically, if they weren't good guys I wouldn't be on the team.  It's as simple as that.  It took me 4 years before I joined a team and I'm glad I joined this one.  I admit that for a long time I thought they were a bunch of negative nancy's but once I met them in real life I realized they were actually a pretty cool group of people.  That was a year ago.  Since then they have helped me enormously and the night before waterbury was no different.

Carebear really wanted to play UBW fish and so did I, but I only had one copy of the deck... ICBM lent me the entire other deck and went over every single spot in the deck and sideboard for me.  They made countless recommendations that other people just wouldn't help me with and I realized what is was like to be on a supportive team.  In the end I felt very happy with the list and this is the list myself and Carebear ran:

UBW fish

// Lands
    3  Wasteland
    1  Strip Mine
    4  Flooded Strand
    2  Polluted Delta
    1  Island
    4  Tundra
    3  Underground Sea

// Creatures
    4  Dark Confidant
    3  Jotun Grunt
    4  Meddling Mage
    2  Kataki, War's Wage
    3  Aven Mindcensor

// Spells
    4  Force of Will
    4  Brainstorm
    1  Mox Sapphire
    1  Black Lotus
    1  Ancestral Recall
    1  Time Walk
    3  Duress
    1  Mox Jet
    3  Daze
    1  Mox Pearl
    3  Swords to Plowshares
    2  Stifle
    1  Lotus Petal

// Sideboard
SB: 1  Kataki, War's Wage
SB: 4  Leyline of the Void
SB: 3  Seal of Cleansing
SB: 1  Swords to Plowshares
SB: 2  Threads of Disloyalty
SB: 2  Yixlid Jailer
SB: 2  Chalice of the Void

Echoing truth was originally in the list but was cut at the last minute for more plow and daze because I felt the tourney would be very light on empty the warrens, and really that's the only time where I'd rather have it over plow.  Plow is just absolutely bonkers right now because it hits every single top tier deck in the format, doing significant damage to every one besides ichorid.  Now Ichroid is something else I also toiled with... I just couldn't gauge how popular it would be.  Last waterbury I completely ignored it but this time around I knew I had to give it some respect because it was just so much more powerful and the chances of me hitting one randomly were enough of a threat that I wanted a good board for it.  I can't win game one so I felt a board of 4 leyline and 2 jailer would be enough.  I try to always have cards that cover multiple archtypes in my sideboards and typically I want 4-6 cards for every major archtype.  The chalices were another late addition over null rods because chalice for zero was great against flash.  Shutting off pacts is H U G E.  I probably should've had more but oh well.  Overall I wasn't sure I could withstand all the broken stuff that would be hurled at me but I knew that I at least had I chance with this list... and that's all I really wanted.

So it was tourney time and just under 130 people showed up.  Ray announced that he based prizes on 150 people but wouldn't be cutting anything for prize support.  The room applauds.  If there is such a thing as being too awesome, it's Ray.  More on that later.  So Ray announced the first ever TMD award and since he refused to win his own award (he would've received the most votes hands down), there was no clear winner going into this.  Now I'm normally against popularity contests but I was curious to who would win as well because the winner of this would be a representation of the good in the vintage community.  The runaway winner was someone who definitely was worthy of it... Dan Yarrington.  Dan is and has been a pillar of New England vintage for many years, being the first store to regularly hold vintage tourneys for the sake of growing the community.  Dan is not and has never been strictly about the money and that's why he's so successful in running his tournaments.

*shameless plug*
Speaking of vintage tournaments, don't forget mine on August 12th :p
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=33527.0
*end shameless plug*

I pay my entry fee and away we go...

ROUND 1: BYE.  I spend this time scouting as much as I can and good god is there alot of flash.  Gooooooood grief.  Also a ton of GAT and fair amounts of bomberman. 
Not a whole lot of ichorid or stax and I saw virtually no fish.  =(

ROUND 2: FEATURE MATCH VS. DAN CUNNINGHAM /W Bomberman

Wow that was quick.  I must say I didn't want to get feature matched at all early because I just want to build momentum.  The one thing every single Waterbury has had in common for me was that I would lose early and be forced to grind it out for the rest of the tourney.  Now more often than not it's had good results for me but god it's depressing to lose early and being faced against Dan was definitely not something I wanted at this stage.  He's supposed to be like the guy you fight before Mike Tyson in punchout.   

Game 1: I am on the play with a turn 1 option of Confidant or meddling mage with daze backup.  I know it's almost a lock that Dan is Bomberman because he's dominated quietly with the deck for months on end but his camp didn't really tell me what they were playing the night before so I couldn't be certain.  Because of this I had to go with the turn 1 confidant.  If I knew he was a bomberman for certain I may have done confidant anyway because of daze, but I can tell you for certain that without daze I probably just run the mage out there naming trinket mage or auriok salvagers had I known for sure was playing it.  He leads with a sol ring which I daze.  I reveal brainstorm and draw into stifle.  I attack and pass.  He untaps and drops a fetch, immediately attempting to use which I stifle.  I EOT brainstorm into ancestral.  I resolve the ancestral on my turn with FOW backup and by that point I'm just up on too many cards for him to mount any sort of effective offense.  The active bob nets me a ton of cards and his library gets wasted.  I win fairly handily in about 10 minutes.

I struggled with the board, not knowing if Serra Avenger was coming for me or not.  I know they put that card in the sideboard specifically for me many months back and I had gotten my ass kicked by it on more than one occassion, but Dan's group is a very dedicated bunch of bomberman players who always modify so my guess is there would be no more serra avenger because it seems terrible in general right now.
SERRA AVENGER.  GO.  TAKE THAT FLASH.  WAIT, WHAT DO YOU MEAN IM ALREADY DEAD?!
Aren't I witty.  So anyway I board out some stifles for a plow and another kataki.

Game 2: He leads with trinket mage getting pithing needle off the bat. He runs it out there naming wasteland and  I can't really ever get into the game because I have all the wastes in my hand obv.  I drop kataki and he lays a morph... uh oh.  At this point he's only on one white mana source.  A turn after paying for needle with kataki he forgets and suddenly I'm able to wasteland him furiously trying to keep him off double white, but it's to no avail as he manages to drop a lotus and pound my skull in with an unmorphed exalted angel.

There's a ton of time left so I ponder my best course of action in sideboarding.  On the play I really like Chalice against bomberman but it's not really something they have to deal with immediately, which is unlike flash.  Bomberman can wait to combo off or just beat me to death with bigger guys so I really wanted something else to answer angel.  In went the two threads and out went I believe 2 kataki.

Game 3: I keep a hand of daze/brainstorm/duress/confidant/some other stuff but no land.  I think about it for a while and ultimately decide to keep because I know the mox is resolving as is the brainstorm.  I brainstorm.  3 non-mana sources.  Sigh.  Luckily dan mulligan'd and starts off slow.  4 turns go by where I do nothing and dan has cast a trinket mage grabbing aether spellbomb.  Meh.  I finally get a land and run out mage on salvagers.  Mage comes out, Salvagers gets bounced but there's no lotus in sight.  I trade something with meddling mage but still have the issue of salvagers.  I can't plow it because dan always keeps a blue mana open with spellbomb.  I start to rip his hand apart with multiple duresses and just hope he doesn't draw lotus before I can get two plows.  I draw into a grunt and we go a few turns where my grunt is bounced, he swings with salvagers then recurs spellbomb at the end of my turn and replays it on his turn with a blue mana up.  This is looking really bad but I manage to fire out a couple guys on one turn, including a meddling mage on salvagers in addition to my freshly cast grunt.  I also waste a mana source.  I'm tapped out, Dan decides to bounce mage EOT in case he randomly draws the lotus.  He does not, and instead draws a second salvagers.  He casts it and passes the turn... TAPPING OUT.  I have to actually do a double take as I ask to see his graveyard and confirm that top card is indeed his spellbomb.  He cringes and I immediately grunt it to the bottom of his library.  I duress again and take repeal over misdirection.  I can't really bust through and have to pass.  A few turns of draw/go happen but I get some more dorks out and eventually can swing with the grunt.  He takes the first hit but has to group block later.  I don't mind trading a grunt for a salvager, especially since grunt had been out there for a long time and was on his way to drying from unpaid cumulative upkeep anyway.  Dan is on only one white mana and I've been holding threads for a while, so man oh man was I happy when he the next creature he drew was a morph.  I immediately threads it.  I untap and draw into a meddling mage.  Thinking about it for a while I decide to name swords to plowshares for several reasons.  A) I don't have two white to unmorph B) I burned through 2 plows already and he hadn't used any but I knew they were in there.  C) He's holding misdirection so if I do draw another plow it isn't going to do much.  I mean I could name something like repeal or trinket mage but he already used repeal and had burned through 2 trinket mages.  The odds tell me to hit plow even though I run them so I do.  Of course I pass the turn and he uses repeal.  To add insult to injury the next turn plays both trinket mage and the morph.  Trinket gets the spellbomb thats on the bottom of his library and I die.

The loss was depressing because I felt I played the best I could while Dan was er, not playing as good this match as he has in the past :p  Still, he's one of the most gracious opponents you could ever face and losing to him should in theory help my breakers.  Also, we both learned after the match that had I gotten a double white and unmorphed angel, the htreads would've fallen off and he would've won with it anyway.  Threads apparently constantly checks the creature it's on, which I was told is a fairly new ruling.  It had to be because neither Dan nor I were aware of it, but I'm glad I know because under that ruling threads is terribad against exalted.

1-1

Sigh.  Well I've been in this position before... just about every other waterbury in recent memory :p  I now have to run the tables to make the elimination rounds.  It is only seven rounds so 2 losses will just not cut it with 128 people.  All X-1-1's should make it in though.

ROUND 3: GABE /W BG AGGRO

Gabe is a friend of some rhode island locals who I am also friendly with, and apparently is from the town over even though I've never seen him before. 

Game 1: He leads with aether vial on the play and I don't know what to expect because it was swamp/vial.  This worries me but not enough to FOW pitching brainstorm.  I let it in.  I could fire out a turn one meddling mage but I don't know what to name.  I just play land/petal and pass.  He duresses and I brainstorm eot.  I meddling mage naming yawgmoth's will because duress is also in my deck and he probably doesn't have a will but lotus is in his yard.  I start firing out guys and he starts diabolic ediciting them. Bah@maindeck edict.   Finally I get a grunt to stick and stave off mongrels.  I'm able to setup a turn where he dumps his hand to mongrel in an attempt to try and kill grunt and I plow it in response.  From there I'm able to take it home.

I board out stifles for plow and kataki.

Game 2: He leads with rootmaze and it follows up immediately with vial.  By the time I get online he has mongrel and confidant online and just edicts everything I play.

Game 3: I consider boarding in seal of cleansing but on the play I'm not terribly worried about vial or rootmaze.  Had I known about maze for game 2 seal would've come in over daze, but on the play daze is nuts so I keep it in.  I lead with lotus/strand/confidant/kataki and he is not happy.  He tries for vial and I daze it.  I untap and flip wasteland, taking out his bayou.  By this point I'm just too far ahead for him to mount any type of comeback.

2-1

After I looked at his deck and made some suggestions.  Gabe was a great guy and I look forward to seeing him in the area again sometime. 

Round 4: JAMES TEPPER /W FLASH

James has played vintage for a while and usually plays whatever deck is the objectively most powerful.  I put him on GAT before the tourney but then saw him beat the tar out of t00l round 1 with Flash, which was my second guess.

Game 1: Knowing he's flash means I have to keep a hand with force of will on the draw.  I get FOW in opening hand with a blue card and thats good enough for me to keep.  No creatures in it but it does have brainstorm, which should be fine if I'm not forced to pitch it to Force...but I probably will be because flash is stupid.  Thanks again R&D <3  Anyway, he looks at his opener and says "I got you."  I reply "ok.  Come get me."  He leads out with island and brainstorms, then summoner's pacts... then plays 2 moxes and attempts to flash.  I point out he has no blue mana source... he looks at the board, looks at his hand... starts swearing :p  About 30 seconds later he scoops it up telling me he had double counter backup.  He said he shouldn't have brainstormed and should've just tried for the turn 1 with what I assume was 'only' single counter backup... I agree with him.  Luckily for me, he didn't do this.

I board out 2 plow for 2 chalice and 2 daze/2 kataki for 4 leyline.  He doesn't sideboard at all because he never saw a play from me (fish can turn 0 kill...take that flash!)

Game 2: He mulligans and thinks and keeps.  I keep a hand of fow/bluecard/lotus/mage/strand/confidant/something
He plays a land and passes.  I immediately lotus firing out confidant then mage.  Mage is on flash.  His turn two he does nothing, I start drawing cards with confidant and that was it.

James was still frustrated by his game one misplay but it happens.  Like random brainfarts are just a part of magic and I've definitely done them.  Still, I was happy for the brainfart because I don't want to be down game 1 against flash, it's just too much of a hole for decks to climb out of... and I have like 20 something cards for this match post board... still scared to death of it.  Nice metagame.

3-1

ROUND 4: BRIAN ROZZERO /w Gush Tendrils

Meh.  Brian is one of my favorite vintage players.  I don't want to play him but on the flipside I don't think we've ever played in a tourney despite me knowing him for 13 years :p 

I lead with duress and take sol ring.  He has a land and passes.  I draw lotus and pop it to duress again and see a freshly drawn duress in addition to the repeal he's holding.  There's also a force in his hand.  I decide to take the force.  I'm holding a daze/force/blue card and although he can untap and duress me, there's a mox jet in play on his side and I'm hoping he'll repeal play the other land in his hand to try and bounce the confidant I'm about to cast... I cast confidant with remaining two mana.  He untaps and draws, thinks for a while and then does drop the land attempting to repeal my confidant... I daze it and now with confidant out I gain enough tempo to by the time he does duress me I still have 2 forces and stifle.  A meddling mage on yawg will seals his fate.

I don't do a ton of boarding here.  I know he doesn't play red so out go plows for chalices and a kataki.  I hate chalice on the draw but I just don't sense plow being a factor in this match despite not knowing his board.  If a wumpus randomly comes after me oh well.

Game 2: we both trade duresses and he starts ramping mana.  I'm wasting his base but mana vault is out there waiting to do something mean to me.  I rip a daze and hope he rips a bargain, because he'd be at exactly 6 mana this turn and I'd have only 3 cards him hand and he knows two of them... plus who puts me on daze for game 2?  He draws and thinks, then says "I guess I'm all in."  W00t w00t.  I daze his bargain now vault is tapped, crippling his available mana.  We do draw/go again for a while but I get confidant out, which starts getting me brainstorms.  I'm able to take control of the game from there.

We both wish each other good luck.  Brian is an incredible sport as always and I genuinely did not feel good about giving him his second loss because this effectively knocks him out of the tourney =(  He tells me to win the whole thing and I tell him I'll do my best.

4-1

Round 5: DAVE BRENNAN /W ICBM OATH

Dave is another friend who I frequently talk to online.  He also posts here quite alot under oneofchaos.  He's not on ICBM but is friendly with the carps and has complete access to their oath list.  He's even sporting a very outlandish looking crocodile-dundee looking hat, no doubt to match Ben's trademark amish straw hat.  He asks for the intentional draw but I politely decline.  He is disappointed but I explain to him that a draw makes us both still have to win a round, while a win gets one of us in for sure and the other one still has a shot.  Not a great shot, but it's still better than drawing and being forced to win next round instead of this round.  Oath isn't even a great match for me, but I know it's winnable and their fish hate has died down alot in the past few months because oath is forced to deal with other more popular and prominent threats.  Still it's a tough match and Dave is a friend, but I'll take my chances...

Game 1: He leads out on the play with a fetch and passes... this is a no-no against fish, especially against feinsteins with fish.  I run stifle.  He knows I run stifle.  I showed him my list before this round :p  I lead with underground sea and pass the turn, opting not to brainstorm even though I like playing extremely aggressive against oath.  I reckon he's going to try for an eot brainstorm of his own off the fetch and he indeed does, meeting my stifle.  He plays another land and I untap and waste.  I soon get a mage on oath and that's it.

I board out plows for 2 jailers and a kataki plus both stifles and a daze for 3 seal of cleansings.  Now some of you may raise your eyebrows at jailer coming in but I feel it's really good against my team;s version of oath.  They run life from the loam and jailer stops blessing... at least for waterbury.  Apparently it is ambiguous if jailer actually conclusively stops blessing, as the judges told me... but they decided before the tourney that it would work on gaea's blessing because the trigger does happen in the graveyard.  Oliver A.K.A. Englishman from NH was all over this and very helpful as I pulled him aside while sideboarding to double checked this worked. 

Random aside: all the judges at waterbury are kickass because they all have played the format and primarily are VINTAGE PLAYERS.  This is absolutely 100% crucial in running a large scale vintage tourney and something I've criticized SCG's for (I've also heard many criticize gencon criticized judges for complete lack of experience in vintage).  If you have judges who know the format they are much more likely to make the correct ruling.  I'll take an active level zero vintage judge over a level 3+ dci judge with GP/PT experience but no vintage familiarity any day of the week when it comes to judging a vintage tourney.  I've seen high level judges absolutely butcher rulings in vintage and it's something that just didn't exist here because Ray hired the very best possible judges he could get for this tourney... and I believe they were all level 1's or lower.  The reason they were the best is because they know exactly what they are doing in terms of judging vintage card interactions.  They see it all the time and they also know how to enforce traditional dci rulings... it's the best of both worlds and I can't thank Aaron, Oliver, Derek and Dan enough for their amazing judging.

Anyway, game 2 he runs out a turn 1 oath and I have the force.  He tries again turn 2 after I wasted his first land but I'm able to daze it.  I brainstorm into some decent cards like meddling mage and I run mage out on oath.  He pops explosives for 2 without hesitation.  This is the reason I kept stifle in.  I don't care about stifling oaths and I'll stifle fetches when I can but I know he won't make the same mistake twice.  Sadly no stifle is here and the explosives is good.  Out comes a confidant from me and I'm building up an army of orchard tokens plus he is low on cards and has popped 2 oaths.  He is low on threats and I know tinker for plats is a possible topdeck but I have 3 seals still floating around in the deck and when confidant gets online I think I'll just overwhelm him with card advantage... the thing is bob doesn't go online for another turn and I'm currently open to whatever he topdecks...

which of course is oath #3 =p  I cringe and unflip a force... a little late there... then a land for normal draw.  He oaths up razia which surprised me, I thought he'd be on sky swallowers.  =/  I draw seal the next turn but it's too late as I have no plows in the deck and Razia does me in.

On the play I board back in the daze I took out and consider plows coming back in over jailers, but jailers are aggressive and if I'm plowing against oath I'm really just delaying the inevitable.  I decide to stay with all other board options.

Game 3: I lead out with petal/tundra/meddling mage and it resolves.  It beats for a little while and we're both amassing an army of cards.  I know he's setting me up for explosives and am prepared to dump my hand to stop it from hitting.  If he happens to randomly tinker me I have time to draw into seal where if oath resolves and I draw seal after it's active I probably can't win.  Sure enough he tries for explosives for 2 about 3 turns into mage attacking.  No other creature is on the board and my hand is ripe with counters, but if he's holding multiple oaths then I have to be williing to go to war over protecting the mage.  I remember Ben telling me that a mage on the board is the worst possible thing his deck wants to see and that protecting mage at all costs leads to victory.  So I force, he forces back, I force again.  He's down to 3 cards, 2 of which I believe are oaths.  I;m down to just one card but draw confidant off the top.  He draws mishras factory and although it holds me back I'm drawing twice the cards he does which means it's only a matter of time before I get a seal or wasteland.  I eventually get a seal and will happily pop it to get through 6-8 damage a turn.  He activates factory to buy himself time to draw into oath but his window to get it is 1-2 turns.  I'm hoping he doesn't get it because despite my very large grip I have no fows and only 2 seals remain in the deck.  I cross my fingerts that he doesn't topdeck oath again on me... he doesn't get it and I win a very close match.

5-1

Dave was a class act about the loss.  I wish him good luck next round and he congratulates me on top 16.

Round 7- Michael LeFrenier /w Flash- DRAW

Pretty much the entire top 16 was locked in.  12-13 out of the 16 could draw in and one random x-2 would sneak in there.  I look around and try to find out what's in top 16 and I see an absolute murderer's row of potential opponents.  Brassman, Shay, Outlaw lead the potential scary ones for me but everyone in here so far I'm pretty familiar with.  Even the ones trying to fly under the radar, like Desolutionist, do not fly under the feinstein radar. 

5-1-1

So top 16 is announced and at first I think I'm paired against Josh Meckes... hmm... don't know what he's playing but the name is familiar... probably gat or flash.

Me: What's Josh Meckes playing?
People: Flash
Me: That's not good
People: He also boards into oath
Me: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good god that's not good.  It turns out I misheard the seed Josh ended up in and am actually paired against Chris Hatcher... A.K.A. Travis Jr.

DING.

This is probably the best top16 match I could hope for because I've played against travis's stax more times than I can count and I have a vicious board.  Game one isn't even that bad unless they lead out on the play and have the nuts.  I try to wish hatcher luck but he has none of it, thinking I'm trying to butter him up.  He tells me he's going to crush me just like he crushed Rich Meyst because we're both the same deck.  I agree with him as best I can, letting him think I'm SS goyf.  For the record, I don't think SS goyf has a bad stax matchup either.  Oxidizes are really brtual there.  Apparently Hatcher beat Rich to make top 16.  Rich ended up 5-2 and did not get in.  He told me what to watch out for and it's really just a standard stax list... silent arbiter is an unusual one but I'm not particularly worried about it.  I am worried about losing game 1, because he can randomly get there 2 or three... but if I win game one I honestly feel UBW fish has the match in the bag.  I never feel that way about a match.

Game 1: He wins the die roll.  He leads with turn 1 crucible.  Sigh.  I get turn 1 kataki.  He has a mox to pay for crucible but cant pay for the mox because his land is workshop.  Turn 2 is land/smokestack.  Bigger sigh.  I fight as best I can but there's just no hope... his start was too good and I had no FOW.

Board: In: Kataki/plow/3 seal out: both stifle all 3 duress.  4 plow/3 seal/3 kataki post board plus 4 mages is very very nice against stax.  I thought about keeping duress in but it's not that effective and only really helps with meddling mage.  more often than not what I name with mage is very straightforward and fluky situations with duress can come up vs. stax like they have welder out and are looking for a way to get their artifact bomb in the yard, then you handily put it there for them because there's nothing else to take... then they weld it in and you promptly lose.  I did not want that to happen :p

Game 2: I come out firing with land/lotus/mage on crucible and confidant.  I also have a daze, which promptly stops his attempt at turn 1 uba mask.  Chalice for 2 comes out the next turn but it's fine because I have 2 solid beaters on the board and he just shut off his own balance and spheres of resistance.  He tries to run a sphere anyway the next turn and I point to his chalice.  I think confidant died at some point in here, trying to remember how... maybe darkblast?  Anyway I'm able to EOT mindcensor and although he does get out a blocker, I have lethal damage.

I side out mindcensors on the draw because it appears that he won't be taking sphere of resistance out against me.  I am fine with that and wnated to bring duress back in anyway.  Duress is alot more helpful on the draw than mindcensor is. 

Game 3: He leads out with welder which I promptly plow.  He then gets sphere of resistance in but it actually locks him down.  He is apparently land light because after I wasted his gemstone he sat on just a mox pearl for several turns.  I lay dorks one turn at a time and mage comes out naming balance.  I draw seal of cleansing and play it even though I suspect he has ray of revelation in hand.  He drops a land at attempts to ray the seal... I think about it for a while.  I can either just let it resolve and lose the seal but have him locked under his own sphere, or pop seal in response taking out sphere but giving him a small window.  I decide to respond and pop sphere only because a) His best out is balance and I currently have it turned off with a mage and b) I just put wasteland back on top with bob, so as soon as he resolves ray of revelation I can take out the land he finally drew and he's back to square one.  Once I take out his land Hatch becomes very frustrated and the fact that his sphere is in the graveyard doesn't matter... he kept a mana light hand and just never got there.

6-1-1

Top 8: Dan Herd /w Bomberman

Dan is a good guy from the Blue Bell area and is friendly with many of the people who I always say hi to at Waterburies.  I thought at first he was playing GAT but I managed to watch the tail end of him beating my teammate Dan Carp out of nowhere game 3.  Although not thrilled with the bomberman match, I'm still relieved to have played 0 GAT at this point and only 1 flash.

It must be nice to live in Feinsteinland.

Game 1: I get a strong opener of turn 1 confidant/turn 2 meddling mage.  I just dazed a sol ring and wasted his tundra so it;s unlikely salvagers is coming down any time soon... he says I should just name "the old standby" which I presume he meant was salvagers, but he actually meant mana drain.  I name neither, deciding trinket mage was the biggest threat to me right now.  Mindcensor would also be bad but not as bad as trinket mage, which pretty much always hurts because aether spellbomb usually follows it.  Aether spellbomb is such a barn :p  Anyway, I duress him soon after and he reveals a hand of 2 salvagers but by the time he gets one down I have lethal out.

He tells me he has a very good sideboard for me and I'm trying to think what could be better than exalted angel... I couldn't come up with anything and just assumed angels were going to be paying me a visit.  Angels are not welcome in Feinstein-land.  I did the same board plan I did against dan cunningham, except no threads came in this time. 

He leads with turn 1 sol ring and I mulligan.  I play a land and pass.  He doesn't have another land or mox but debates for a while... I'm guessing trinket mage wants to come say hi.  he does indeed drop it asking if I have the daze.  I tell him it resolves.  He thinks about what to get for a while and ends up with fetching an explosives, which definitely has me confused.  I have no pressure right now and expected a lotus or spellbomb for sure.  I drop a grunt nice and early to try and get him to blow explosives.  He drops another trinket mage getting spellbomb, bounces grunt and passes.  I replay grunt.  He draws a salvagers and has top out by this point.  This is bad, because he can just sit here and find a lotus to kill me fairly easily.  But he plays it VERY aggressively.  Passes the turn, let's me drop grunt, blows it up on his turn and swings again.  Yes he's topping during all this, but he's just trying to be the beatdown and it's not the right call.  I'm at about 10 life, but I drop my hand consisting of several 2 drops and suddenly we have a stalemate.  I attempt to plow salvagers a turn or two later and he puts top on top in response to get a FOW... he fows but my follow-up play was meddling mage on top.  It almost named lotus but he's already ran through 3 trinket mages by this point and it's clear he doesn't have one in the next few draws.  I start to turn the tide with mindcensor, grunt and an army of 2/2's.  We get into some wars of trading creatures but Kataki is still left standing as is my grunt, which has literally cycled back like 14-16 cards by this point.  The grunt just kept hitting him and hitting him and finally he was lethal... but I was short to keep it around one more time and needed to daze something.  He untaps and draws... with 5 total mana out he says 'if you got daze you win.'  He drops vedalken shackles and I do in fact have the daze... which resolves shackles but makes him pay one more mana which means he cant cast and use it in the same turn.  Suddenly he surveys the board and says 'yes!  I'm still alive.  you're two cards short of grunt!'  I have kataki, a mox and a fetch out... I explain to him that I can fetch then stack grunt/kataki so kataki goes of first...fail to pay for mox and then grunt back just enough cards to swing for exactly lethal.  He frowns and I'm not sure if he tried to pull a head game or not but I think he genuinely wasn't sure... he asks the judge for confirmation which goes in favor what I explained and he scoops it up.

7-1-1

Ridiculously close game that I was surprised ot win.  Dan tells me he believed he screwed up by not trinket mageing for lotus and casting the second mage on his turn 2 way back, saying he feared daze.  I told him if I had daze it was going after trinket #1 every single time.  If the coast is clear for one mage, the coast would be clear for mage #2... had he got lotus the second mage would've got spellbomb then the salvagers he topdecked soon after would've killed me rigbht there.  I told him getting explosives there made no sense because there was nothing I could drop that would pose any immediate danger.  Confidant or mage is the most harmful I suppose but neither of them is going to help me from staving off two attacking trinket mages...I have to block at some point soon.  He should've attacked with mages but focused on piecing together the combo instead of reactively getting explosives when I had no threats out at the time.  Dan was very receptive to the advice and wished me goodluck in...

TOP 4

Well as soon as I finished my match I notice outlaw and brassman chilling by Rich Shay's match... I stroll over and ask them if I can join top 4 and we all kind of look at each other with that same expression of 'Damn, if Rich wins his match this top 4 is absolutely insane.'  About 5 minutes later Rich does indeed win.  I immediately propose a split because this top 4 could've basically come out of my basement.  We are all friendly with each other (outlaw and Brassman are a little TOO friendly with each other...if you catch my drift *wink, wink*).  Outlaw/Brassman are both very receptive to my proposal but all three of us know Rich will probably be a pain in the ass about it because he's been on a tear lately and probably think he's going to win the tournament.  Rich does indeed immediately hesitate at the proposal of a split but I had ray hammer out the numbers before talking to rich and we had them ready.  Basically, we each get $430 in cash or 530 points to buy whatever cards we wanted.  This is basically what second place would've gotten and only $150-200 off from what first would've gotten.  If you lose in top 4 you're traditionally looking at about 200-250 cash/points.  This split insured all of us insane prizes if and we'd still play it out for the mantle of waterbury winner.  I admit I wanted to split the most here, because well... my deck is just inferior to the other three.  I do my best without merchant scroll, I really do... but you don't make it easy on me R&D... no you don't.
=p

Still, you can bet your ass I still wanted to play it out as everyone else did, we just wanted an even prize split beforehand.  Rich hems and haws for a while, initially agreeing then deliberating about it in the bathroom.  Since he did initially agree to it I immediately run over to Ray and tell him to just give me cash.  I know Rich well and he can change his mind in a heartbeat, and I'll be damned if I'm going to risk winning another $200 against 2 GAT and a flash with some of the best possible pilots behind each deck while I'm stuck attacking for 2 (although outlaw is only attacking for one :p). 

Rich comes out of the bathroom and sticks to his decision, citing the reason for splitting being because he's started to make misplays.  I'm glad the top 4's collective 5+ year friendship had little to no impact on his decision :p

I'm probably sounding like I begrudge Rich the thought of turning down a split, but truthfully I don't blame him for being reluctant and am thankful he agreed to it.
Rich has been on a complete tear since finding the correct build of GAT for him.  When he used ELD's build he got his ass kicked for a little while, but once he found the build that was right for him he just hasn't been beaten... not even once.

So the split was on and we all went about our own separate ways of collecting prizes.  This was merely a short break because we knew the top 4 was still going to continue as normal and there was a very large crowd gathered around to watch it go down.  As I said before I felt very honored to be a part of this top 4 because I just don't see it getting much better than that as far as vintage goes.  Speaking for me personally, it was hands down the best top 4 I've ever been a part of.  Many spectators came up to me saying similar encouraging statements and I'm not gonna lie... the feinstein's ego was soothed.  I mean I would like to win one of these some day, but if today wasn't that day I simply didn't care at this point.  I was overjoyed with being in and able to split with this top 4, but still able to play it out for that coveted win I've come oh-so-close to for 4 years.

TOP 4: OUTLAW WITH FLASH

I knew outlaw had tarmogoyf for me but wasn't sure about massacre.  He wasn't sure what I had for my sideboard because I was uncharacteristically quiet about my decklist.  Anyone who knows me knows I have no problem talking about my decks, but I didn't go out of my way to show it to many people today.  As a result outlaw wasn't totally sure what I had but he felt the match was bad for him.  I told him I felt that his deck was too powerful and he'd probably win the tournament.  He said he hoped I was right :p

Game 1: On the play I lead out with land and pass with brainstorm/daze/some creatures in hand.  He tries for ancestral which I attempt to daze, he forces and it resolves.  I untap and brainstorm, getting a petal+stifle+plow AND waste his underground sea.  This matters little as he untaps and kills me with double counter backup.
What a fair and balanced deck.  Flash should become an anchor on Fox News.

Side out: 2 kataki and a grunt In: 2 chalice and a plow.  That's it.

Anyone reading the above line: ...
Me: No leyline

Yeah, you read that right.  Leyline didn't come in here, and no I wasn't letting fatigue get to me.  I determined that plows still had to stay in maindeck and there was simply nothing else I wanted to take out that would be worse than leyline.  Outlaw's version had goyfs and I knew that.  I had to plow to win against goyf.  Leyline, while preventing a turn one kill, simply doesn't do much else.  In testing I found that flash usually wanted leylines to come in so they could kill you far more easily some alternate way, whether its tinker/plats or oath or tarmogoyf, the good flash players made sure they could easily circumvent a leyline.  Of course they kept the main flash kill in more often than not, and outlaw certainly would, but I just didn't see leyline on the play being better than something like daze or stifle.  If it went to game 3 I'd consider bringing it in, but not on the play, not for this particular version of the deck.

Game 2: My opener is strand/petal/jet/confidant/meddling mage/stifle/daze.  Fantastic opener and he mulligans.  Now most people would just run out the turn one meddling mage on flash without blinking, but after long and careful thought I determined that this was not the optimal play.  I reached the conclusion that my best possible turn 1 play would be playing a confidant, fetching either a sea or island to cast it with tapping the jet, and not having massacre online with petal still open and access to daze+ stifle. 

Most armchair quaterbacks will instantly say that you run out turn one meddling mage every time against flash if you have the option to do so, and more often than not I'd agree with that statement, but consider this: In order for turn 1 confidant to be the wrong play he has to turn 1 kill me after having just mulligan'd AND have double counter backup all on his turn one.  If he doesn't have exactly that then I can basically untap, cast mage off petal, be completely out of massacre range and just coast on mage/confidant to an easy victory.  I'll go as far as saying that if he does not have the turn 1 kill with double counter backup after mulling, I can't lose this game.  That's how certain I was that confidant was over meddling mage.  Yes, I could fire mage out there by fetching a tundra but that would've turned off stifle and left me wide open to massacre on turn 1.  So I ran out the confidant, with full intention of being able to untap with a full grip and fire out mage without fear of massacre. 

Outlaw's turn one is lotus/jet/sea/scroll... resolves... grab flash... cast flash, with no mana floating I daze, he pacts I let it resolve, down to 2 cards now he flashes in hulk... down to one last card in his hand I stifle the hulk... tapped out one card in hand... he has another pact.  Nice format.

I lost quicker than a hiccup and it turns out he didn't have any massacres.  They were good abot keeping that quiet and I never made it a priority to find out for sure earlier on, which bit me in the ass.  If I just ran out meddling mage on flash he couldn't have killed me on turn 1, but his hand was so ridiculously insane that despite a mulligan he could've easily got me turns 2-3.  He needs to draw either a flash or chain in that window, whatever he doesn't draw he cant just merchant scroll for.

I took some criticism for not playing the mage turn one from people but I still defend it was the right play because I wasn't sure if he had massacre and the odds of him drawing that exact game after a mulligan had to be extremely slim.  Carebear ran into massacre earlier agaisnt flash and it knocked him out of top 16 contention in the second to last round (he still ended up 5-2).  I saw it in so many flash sideboards I just assumed Outlaw had it as well.  Now I could only wonder what would've happened if I played the mage turn one instead, but I still have absolutely no regrets about the way I played it.  He had the nuts.  Flash is dumb :p

FINAL RECORD:  7-2-1

Outlaw goes on to kill Rich about 2 minutes longer than it took to killed me.  Rich gambled as well game one by EOT brainstorming when he had mana drain mana open, and outlaw went off on his own turn 1... in the end of turn step.  Rich probably lost even if he keeps drain open, because end of Rich's turn outlaw tries for flash, Rich theoretically drains, outlaw untaps and flashes again (he had 2 opener) and has hulk + counter backup.  Game two outlaw again won on his turn one, after Rich mulled and could do nothing but try for a mere force on outlaw's flash. 

So yeah, Flash won the tournament... which is what I had predicted to many people in private.  I knew how dumb the deck was and outlaw had told me that he didn't even have to make any decisions until top 4.  He said he actually had to think a little bit against myself and Rich, but he still handily clobbered both of us.  Still, congrats to outlaw... he had top 8'd waterbury many times before and finally deserved to win.  Now all 4 people in top 4 had won a water- wait a minute :p

Yeah, still didn't win.  This is my 8th or 9th top 8 at Waterbury but still no cigar.  I really can't complain.  The format is so frigging broken right now that I'm just happy to compete without playing gush or merchant scroll.

Where do I think the format heads from here?  Merchant scroll should almost certainly get the axe... that much I know.  As for flash and gush, those two cards are both very unfair but they become a little more fair if merchant scroll gets restricted.  Merchant scroll is one of those cards that just always had friends to play with.  It was a 3-4 of in long, it was a 3-4 of in gifts, slaver, bomberman... I could go on.  It's always been an acceptable card to use in multiples but never seen as a problem card.  It was always just kind of there, like Force of Will.  Unlike FOW, scroll is now the centerpiece to turn 1 kills or to unwinnable game states such as grabbing gush when fastbond is out.  Factor that in with my rough estimate of 13-14 of the decks in top 16 had 3-4 scrolls and I think it's safe to say that the card has warped the format.

Meh.  We'll wait and see.

Anyway, I was tired by this point and decided to hit the sack.  I went back to my room which was loaded with teammates but they assured me a quiet spot on a bed.  I went to sleep soundly.

I wake up to horrible shrieking sounds and have blurred vision.  I look around to find dozens upon dozens of people crowded into what was already a very crowded room.

Fuck me.

No, I didn't mean that literally.  Kowal apparently thought so.  The first figure I can correctly identify is him bumrushing me on the bed.  I fall off, topless only in my feinstein jammies.  Much laughter happens.  I'm so groggy I don't even care, I push kowal aside and climb back into bed.  He is drunk as a skunk.  Brassman may actually be dead.  Anwyay, I try to sleep but it's no avail.  People keep coming over and doing stupid things to me.  JR pretends to lick me, Kowal hugs me, Elias tries to talk to me.  It just gets more painful by the minute.  I doze off again...

An undetermined time later I feel something but before I realize what hit me I look up to see kowal with my goddamn wallet.

KOWAL: LOOK AT ME, I HAVE DAVE FEINSTEIN'S WALLET.

Kowal then had the bright idea to play a game of 'musical wallets.'  This is similar to musical chairs but the main difference being instead of people moving to different chairs to the beat of some catchy music, my wallet moves to different people to the sound of brassman wailing on a guitar.  Now someone already asked me 'Why did you keep your wallet under the pillow.'  Oh please.  I'm not that ridiculous.  Keeping your wallet under your pillow would almost be as silly as keeping it in your pajamas...

Oh god.  He found it.  Why the hell was he digging around in my pajamas to begin with?  There's no sapphire in there.

This whole 'Dave Feinstein' craze has REALLY gotten out of hand.

Can't get enough Dave Feinstein?  No problem!  You can have access to him any time, 24/7...just moleste him in his sleep!  He'll never see it coming...

[Dxfiler]

<PART 2- NEVER THOUGHT ID HIT THE MAXIMUM YOU COULD TYPE IN A SINGLE POST BUT I JUST FOUND OUT I DID >

So anyway, before the words 'gimme back my wallet you 50 cent hooker' can come out of my mouth, my wallet is flyingaround the room.  It winds up in the hands of JR, who promptly drunkenly drops it and suddenlythe hotel room is raining down dollar bills...
MY 100 DOLLAR BILLS.

Before they hit the ground I pounce out of my bed and sail over people to get to my money.  TK watches in astonishment as I reveal my true powers... drunk-person vaulting.  If this ever becomes an official olympic competition, that gold medal is in the goddamn bag.

Oops I just swore.  I've done that alot in this report.  Normally I try to keep swearing out of my reports to keep them clean (while at the same time not family friendly), but sometimes things just pop out... like when my money hits the floor and people are scrambling for it... sometimes the first thing you think just runs right out there, much like a turn one savannah lions.

As soon as I see the drunken hands (and t00l paws) reach for my money, I exclaim:

"THIS IS NOT A FUCKING DRUG CARTEL."

The room erupts with laughter... good.  They are still grabbing my money on the floor, not good.  So by this point I literally jumped over several drunk people and scaled from one side of the hotel room to the other in about 5 seconds, which is pretty damn impressive if you ask me, considering there were about 20 people stuffed in it.  I make a b-line towards my money and brush people out of the way.  I begin prying my money out of the hands of drunken fools... Brassman is impressively clenching a $20 dollar bill despite his condition.  I poke him and he drops it, then immediately falls asleep.

I collect what I believe to be all of my money, although I may have lost $20 and am still not totally sure.  Needless to say, at this point I am...

ANGRY FEINSTEIN

The laughter dies down a little as people watch me count my money and see my face turning into a new shade of red.  The temptation to do not-so random acts of violence was very, very high but the majority of the room was drunk and I did not view this as an act of malice, just some innocent drunken lunacy. 

Still, I did look for the nearest full trashcan I could find for Kowal... but none were nearby.

Anywho, at this point I just wanted to sleep... but not in that room.  It was clear that no one would be leaving and I was still very upset, so teammate I@n DeGraff offered me the option of staying in his room, which I decided to accept.  I slept in until about 1 p.m. having no intentions to play day two.  I was satisified with day one and after last night's fiasco I decided that Dave Feinstein would become a limited time only attratcion... not some carnival ride open 24/7.  God I felt like a stripper in that room... and Kowal was Pac Man Jones.

Anyway, I made it to the site a short while later and saw most of my team playing goblins.  I thought they ran it as a joke, which I know some of them did, but apparently they decided it had a good match against flash and GAT so that's why they ran it.  The results spoke loudly, as 2-3 made top 16 and one made top 8, losing in the finals to... who else?  Rich Shay.

I'm glad Rich won, even though it was day 2.  He literally is something like 60-2 in matches with that deck over the past 2 months.  It's just insane.  Worthy of note is that Rich Meyst took SS Goyf to 5-2 both days, narrowly missing the elimination rounds both times.  I think SS Goyf has potential, but only time can tell.

So even though the format is kinda meh right now, lots of good players are rising to the top, which I guess is a good sign.  With that said, I feel this it's time to bring out an old favorite in Feinstein tourney reports...

DAVE FEINSTEIN'S NEW AND IMPROVED POWER 10

Disclaimer: Yeah, this is really just my take on the top players right now (from JAN 07 to present), but I base it purely off tourneys so if you're somehow offended you're not on here don't take it personally.  Just win more.

1) Rich Shay- The easy and obvious pick for best player in the format right now.  Not even remotely close in my opinion.  I expect he'll top 8 gencon since it's in his backyard, and he has to be the frontrunner to win.  He's simply been unstoppable with GAT right now, although I'd like to note he's yet run into Teh Feinstein :p

2) Brassman- Again this isn't that hard.  Yeah I'm friends with both of these guys, but they are both on ridiculous tears.  Brassman top 8'd SCG then Waterbury most recently, and although he was quiet between feb-march he had won the January Waterbury with Empty gifts and proceeded to top 8 or win every tourney since then up until gifts was restricted.  He's made the seemingly easy switch over to Rich's GAT and I expect him to do well with that, unless he decides to pick up flash.

3) Shawn Anthony (Desolutionist)- He quietly did well at blue bell tourneys all year long, then erupted with a win at SCG VA.  He then quietly obliterated everyone in the swiss with a modified version of Ritual gifts, still not missing a beat despite gifts being restricted.  Shawn is very quiet and likes staying under the radar, but he went undefeated in the swiss, scooping only in the final round to Dan Carp because he wouldn't draw and Shawn didn't want anyone to know what he was playing.  Sean lost in top 16 to Dan Herd and I consider myself fortunate, because if he had beaten Dan I'm pretty sure he would've ran right through me.  I expect Shawn to rack up alot more wins with his own original combo lists for a long time to come.

4) Brian DeMars- Although not at all scene on the east coast recently, Brian has tore up local mox tourneys for many months with his own unique takes on slaver and he did top 8 the most recent SCG.  Not to mention he did win day 2 of the the last waterbury he went to back in January.  As long as he actively plays vintage he'll probably be cemented on this list.

5) Luis Scott Vargas- completely dominates the very popular Eudominia tourneys.  He rarely plays outside of those but I imagine that's because he's too busy winning moeny at PT's and GP's.  He's the only current pro who is successful both in vintage and on the tour.  If he played vintage more I suspect he'd thoroughly destroy everyone, but he hasn't made his way to tourneys outside of CA...which the rest of the vintage community should feel fortunate for.

6) Steven Menendian- Yes.  He finally made my list.  He's actually playing alot right now and constantly top 4'ing his local tourneys.  It'd be nice to see him do better in large scale tourneys so he could move up higher, but he hasn't played a ton of those as far as I can tell and I suspect he'll be a threat come Vintage Worlds.  Steve is someone you always have to look out for when he plays.

7) & 8)- David Ochoa/Jeff Huang- These two also constantly do well in California and seem to closely associate themselves with Luis, which probably helps.  One of these two almost always winds up in top 4 at Eudominia, a tourney that I consider very high caliber, and usually both of them make the elimination rounds.  I would like to see them play in an SCG or at worlds but I realize how far away California is and Eudominia's seem to be their only real chance to play consistently challenging vintage in CA.

9) Ben Kowal- The once retired and now fully unretired/usually completely drunken fool puts up very solid numbers in any tourney he plays in.  He barely missed top 8'ing at Waterbury both days but has done well at SCG's and smaller mox tourneys such as ELD's and Myriad Games.

10) Rich Meyst- The former waterbury winner also barely missed top 8/16 both days playing with tarmogoyf.  He recently took second at myriad, losing only to shay.  He also usually does well at ELD tourneys.  I suspect when Rich has hit the comfort zone again with whatever unique deck he's playing at the time, he'll once again be winning alot.

That's my current take on the 10 of the best players in the format.  I based it pretty much on tourney results only. 

As for me, I'd like to think I've done ok lately.  I'm not on the complete tear I was last year but it's also a different format.  If I can just top 8 a waterbury now and again, that's good enough for me.  I will say this past performance surprised me as I didn't really think I'd do well, and it did re-invigorate me a little...
but I will point out (before some jackass does :p) that I faced 0 GAT on the day and only flash twice... the second time not being until top 4.  That is definitely lucky no matter how you look at it.  I know the next tourney I play in the pairings gods won't let me be that lucky again.

Still, I think I want to go to Gencon and play for my first time ever in the Vintage world champs.  I had normally sworn off on the idea but I really would like to try my hand at it and have access to a room and most of what I need.  I hate that the tourney is no proxy but I'm lucky in that there are many people who have already offered to lend me power.  Unfortunately I'm still trying to find someone who will lend me a lotus and that will ultimately decide if I go or not.  If you are reading this and plan to go to gencon and somehow have an extra lotus I could borrow just for the tourney, I will gladly give collateral or rent it and if I do well, I will happily pay a portion of the winnings to you.  Anyone who knows me knows I am always grateful when I can borrow power for a tourney, and although I try to avoid doing it, I will have no choice but to borrow power for Gencon if I go.  So if you have a lotus I could borrow and wouldn't mind be borrowing it (would be preferable if you lived in or near new england), please PM me.  Thanks :p

That's just about a wrap for me.  I'm glad I could get one more tourney in with my sapphire before I have to give it away at my mox tourney August 12th.  If all goes according to plan I will leave for gencon a few days later.  I'll probably do another primer on UBW fish if I get around to it sometime this week. 
Thanks for reading my report. 

Sorry I talk so much :p

- Dave Feinstein

[breed]

One of the greatest report I ever read!

Thanks Dave "Fish" Feinstein!

 

[Bubbydan]

 I loved your report. I just wanted to make on little correction. Colin is in fact Gabe. He is a great guy and loves to play magic, its just a shame that this metagame has him so upset that you probably won't see him out of our local store until either flash or merchant scroll are restricted.
  I think his actual quote was "F@#$in flash here, F@#$in tog there, and a little bomberman thrown in for fun. Doesn't anyone innovate anymore or do they just all just copy everyone else."
 
  I wanted to tell him that his third round opponent doesn't, but it kind of looked like he was having fun complaining.

Dan

PS did I say your report was great.

[pyr0ma5ta]

This is the most hilarious explanation of deckchoice I've ever read.

And it's good to see the West Coast guys get their due.  LSV and Web are ridiculously solid players that don't get credit past the Mississippi.

[Duncan]

Dave, congratulations on your good finish and your absolutely awesome report.  The part where the dark lord adds merchant scrolls to every deck is really hilarious!

some things i noticed:

Game 2: I come out firing with land/lotus/mage on crucible and confidant.   

How do you do this? Is it a Feinstein magical trick?

Outlaw's turn one is lotus/jet/sea/scroll... resolves... grab flash... cast flash, with no mana floating I daze, he pacts I let it resolve, down to 2 cards now he flashes in hulk... down to one last card in his hand I stifle the hulk... tapped out one card in hand... he has another pact.  Nice format.

he has 1 mana floating right? 5-2-2=1?

Again, thank you very much for this report!

-Duncan

[Hell of a Hat]

Congrats on your top 4, and thanks for the great report Dave, even if you did hack the pairings software.

As I left the planet all I could hear was...

'GUSH.  GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUS H.  AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA'

What a fair and balanced deck.  Flash should become an anchor on Fox News.

I lol'd at both of these here in my cubicle.

[twault]

Thanks for the report, it had everything....useful information, humor, mentioning of the "Voice of Vintage", and even a Star Wars reference.

In all seriousness, it was a very well-written report that kept my interest to the very end. I don't even play Fish, but I learned a lot about it from reading your report. Keep up the good work, and congrats for the top-4.

Your tournament reports are always entertaining, but this one was hilarious. I was laughing so hard that I spewed my Red Bull outta my nose. My co-workers looked at me like I was crazy.

I think you should trademark "THIS IS NOT A FUCKING DRUG CARTEL!" It's going to be the most used quote in the tournament scene for months.

[wierdmtg13]

congrats on the amazing finish!

Awesome report.

I agree with twault that "THIS IS NOT A FUCKING DRUG CARTEL" will be used quite frequently on the vintage scene for sometime to come.  immediate classic

[Xman]

Great Repoprt, I couldn't stop laughing.

How do I get as awesome as you, as in, can play an ENTIRE tournament & not see a GAT deck once.  Man, you have such great mad skillz!

[JR]

I have a slight correction to your report. I did not "drunkenly drop" your wallet. In fact, I caught your wallet, and then attempted to throw it to Outlaw, who wasn't paying attention, which is at what point your wallet hit the floor and asplode.

Congrats on the finish.

[oneofchaos]

Way to go Lord of the fish!

Congrats, I thought we had a great match especially when we deciding if or not we'd get deck checked.  We cut, and oliver is like...yea....... your getting deck checked.  Close games, damn your double force.  Always a pleasure seeing/playing you, and my hat will win it for me next time

Edit: for the record I had no idea ben wore a hat.  I've just been rolling this way for the past year, why stop now!?

[jeffthefob]

Nice report! I was at the TMD index and saw "Lord of the Fish" in caps. and I am like............... ^_^

I am pretty sure what you did in the semi's (game 2) is correct.  It is just that people judge on the hindsight of what you could had done and etc. after you lost.  Not to mention that Flash is just... -_-" There are too many different possible situations to consider... Massacre was definitely one of the most important factor.

But in the end, you just lost to Flash, not to yourself.

I think through that example you had shown this deck doesn't auto run and takes skills to play, which probably made this top 4 more rewarding.  Congrats again ^_^

East Coast vintage scene looks scary

[Mr. Nightmare]

Bummed that he could not make the event, Adam suffices to know that his favorite Feinstein saves the day again.

Amazing report.  Start writing articles, for real.

[Smmenen]

Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design.

It is as I have forseen it. 

Contrary to: "It'd be nice to see him do better in large scale tourneys so he could move up higher, but he hasn't played a ton of those as far as I can tell and I suspect he'll be a threat come Vintage World," note that I haven't played in any major vintage event this year (neither Waterbury nor the SCG.

The only tournament of more than 40 people I've played in all year was GP Columbus, where I got 21st (out of 885).
/me returns to Merchant Scroll modifications....

[desolutionist]

OMG FEINSTEIN'S FANTASTIC FIVE TEN!

[Meeee]

Very nice report good job on the top 4 sadly Brassman on day 1 and then Rich on day 2 were both to much for me and I was not able to break into the really good prizes.  I know we've been in at least 3 top 8's at the same time (SCG Boston, Roanoke and the recent Waterbury day 1) but I don't think we've ever faced before.  Probably a good thing for me

Mike H

[The Atog Lord]

Dave, brilliant report. I multi-ROFL'd.

 You wonder why I might suggest Flash to you? Then allow me to present:

The Top Five Reasons why Dave Feinstein should play Flash

5. It has a full four 1-drop Green creatures.

4. It involves  a full set of four seven-mana 6/6 Green monsters.

3. Like all Dave Feinstein decks, you win in the attack step.

2. You do cast a blue instant, but only to put a Green creature into play.

1. Haste and Poison.

[dawgie]

Your reports truly amaze me, sir. They are always excellent and are always entertaining.
Congratulations on your top 4 finish. 

[TopSecret]

Dave Feinstein once employed his rarely seen
spider-man skills to snatch $100 bills
from a room full of drunken onlookers
who had mistaken the place for a drug cartel.

TO DAVE FEINSTEIN!

[MrJolly]

Great report, and congrats on the finish, Dave.

[Anusien]

2. You do cast a blue instant, but only to put a Green creature into play.

It's Talen Lee's secret fantasy: blue whoring itself out to Green instead of the other way around!

[Pave]

Thankyou for your very good report.

Did you consider playing Demonic Consultation?  I would play it.  In a pinch and at little cost you get the right two-drop, or a force, daze or swords to save the game.  Consulting for Time Walk also wins games otherwise lost.

EDIT: Furthermore, I notice Aven Mindcensor featured little in your report.  Did he do much?  Or do you simpy attribute his lack of impact to your not being paired up with GAT and more Flash?

[ashiXIII]

Just a quick fix, Shawn actually played Rob Moreau in top 16, not Dan Herd. Dan Herd had beaten Dan Carp to make top 8. (Which is probably also lucky for you, huh?)

Anyway, great report. Look forward to seeing you at the next one.

[Dxfiler]

Thank you all for the kind words.  Sorry if I got some small things off, I do my reports strictly off memory. 

@buddydan- thanks, I'll fix Gabe's name right now.  Next time you see him tell him not to get discouraged.  There's nothing wrong with playing underpowered decks and people shouldn't feel bad about it.  I was where he was at one point and he just has to keep playing.  I mean I still play underpowered decks.  I think Gabe just has to keep experimenting and eventually he'll find what works for him.  If sui black can still win tournaments (which it apparently just did), anything can win with enough work put into it. 

@Duncan- No Feinstein magical trick, I had a petal there as well... I just forgot to mention it.
As for the outlaw scenario, I know he didn't have a mana open to pay for daze so I know I got one of the cards in his hand wrong...took me about 20 minutes to conjure up everything on both sides but other than the fact that I mixed up one card somewhere, everything else was accurate.  He had 2 blue pacts, a merchant scroll, the hulk, and the mana to cast the flash after he scroll'd for it but not being able to pay for daze.  Basically he needed his entire mulligan'd hand plus whatever piece of it he drew off the top that turn to kill me turn 1 with counter backup...

I don't know what card from his hand I got wrong from memory but the above scenario is exactly how it went down.

H8 flash.  H8.


@Pave- I considered all forms of tutors but fish just doesn't really have alot of things it can tutor for to break open a game.  Tutors are traditionally best at grabbing silver bullets... I have no silver bullets to get.  I rely on lots of useful cards in multiples and the deck draws enough cards where I usually have a good shot to get what I need when I need it.  Sure scenarios comes up where I wish I had a plow at exactly this moment or a fow at exactly that moment, but those moments don't happen enough to where I want to cut cards to find spots for tutors.  If anything I'm trying to find spots for more of certain cards I already play...

...Such as mindcensor.  I was quiet on mindcensor in this report because I plan on covering it in my uwb fish primer, but basically he was fantastic all day despite never running into gat over 10 rounds (yes, I haxx).  I'd like a fourth but the slots are so tight.

Spellsnare is something I'd love to fit in also, I think it could've been bonkers for me on the day in the stifle slot.  If I had it over stifle against outlaw I think I would've won at least one game against him... countering merchant scroll is the nuts because they usually don't want to pact there, and sometimes they grab pact with it.

@Smenenen- Fair enough, but for the record you aren't the only one taking their time out of vintage tourneys this year to top 32 grand prix's :p 
I encourage you to find the time to play bigger tourneys, I'm curious to see how you end up and I'm guessing it would be at least pretty good.
Thanks again for your Dark-sith lord advice.  It really did help me.

@JR- You may only have drunkenly thrown the wallet instead of drunkely dropped it, but then again the blind guy didn't mean to drive into the grand canyon either.
You drunken fool! :p  With that said, it was definitely awesome meeting you.

Thanks again to everyone for the comments.  You are the reason I keep putting 10-12 hours into these reports.

- Dave Feinstein

[Purple Hat]

Dave, brilliant report. I multi-ROFL'd.

 You wonder why I might suggest Flash to you? Then allow me to present:

The Top Five Reasons why Dave Feinstein should play Flash

5. It has a full four 1-drop Green creatures.

4. It involves  a full set of four seven-mana 6/6 Green monsters.

3. Like all Dave Feinstein decks, you win in the attack step.

2. You do cast a blue instant, but only to put a Green creature into play.

1. Haste and Poison.

I think it's odd that given these criteria you haven't really suggested that I should start playing flash.

great report, very interesting, well written and funny as always.  Maybe I'll do well in something one of these days and write another one myself.

[LotusHead]

5) Luis Scott Vargas- completely dominates the very popular Eudominia tourneys.  He rarely plays outside of those but I imagine that's because he's too busy winning moeny at PT's and GP's.  He's the only current pro who is successful both in vintage and on the tour.  If he played vintage more I suspect he'd thoroughly destroy everyone, but he hasn't made his way to tourneys outside of CA...which the rest of the vintage community should feel fortunate for.
7) & 8)- David Ochoa/Jeff Huang- These two also constantly do well in California and seem to closely associate themselves with Luis, which probably helps.  One of these two almost always winds up in top 4 at Eudominia, a tourney that I consider very high caliber, and usually both of them make the elimination rounds.  I would like to see them play in an SCG or at worlds but I realize how far away California is and Eudominia's seem to be their only real chance to play consistently challenging vintage in CA.

I think it's great that these guys get their TMD due, finally.  I belive it is Ochoa that is the mastermind listbuilder of whoever is on his team, primarily, with Jeff playing the odd deck out (was Fish, now Flash). In our <35 person tourneys, they have to win say, 3 games out of 5 (with a draw being one of the other two games), but they obviously do well IN the top 8 as well.  We here long to have "the big tourney" with multiple power (even all P9) as prizes, 100+ players, etc, but we are happy to at least have what we have. 

Pyromasta, were you there? What were your impressions? Was it all that and a bag of chips?

As for your report, it was FEINSTEINTASTIC, and I waited almost a whole week to read it (I was too busy watching crazy stuff on YouTube to put in the 30 minutes it would take to digest the whole report).

[korgano]

Feinstein,

First of all, I would like to thank you profusely for this in depth and entertaining report from Waterbury.  Not only was it an excellent narrative of the play by play, but it was also quite humorous.  Over the past couple of weeks I had been toying with running fish in the final two eudemonia P9 tournaments, but I was not satisfied with the decklists I was seeing.  Your analysis and list were indeed a breath of fresh air.  I have decided to run your deck with perhaps some modifications depending, but I think that changes such as tendrils over old man, and chalice's over rod's seem to make the deck more fast paced especially in the first few turns.

Small bit about me so you know where I am coming from:

This will be my first attempt at a vintage tournament.  My friends and I have been avid mtg fans since arabian nights; although, for the most part, it was purely recreational. During college I wanted to get back into mtg, and ended up playing a solid mirrodin block arc-sloggerdeck, beat all the decks of my friends at college , and finished 32/300 at a T2 tourney in LA.  T2 was enjoyable, but I have always wanted to get into the Vintage format especially since middle school I've had a large amount of duals and other old cards sitting around.

I realize that a majority of real skill with this deck (and with vintage in general) comes not only from playing it a large amount, but also being entirely familiar with all of the various deck archetypes of the format.  I have been avidly reading about a majority of the other vintage deck lists and strategies and it will be exciting to try my luck at thwarting them.  I will probably get the tar kicked out of me, but it will be fun at least to have a solid vintage deck to roll with.  Your narrative really aided me in some of the inner workings of this format.  I suppose one of most important strategies that I gleaned from your report is that one should consider sideboard choices not only on what the opponents deck is, but also depending on who plays first.

Do you have any suggestions about side-boarding and meddling maging versus decks that you did not encounter at Waterbury, such as Goblins and GAT?

@LotusHead

I've been to Eudemonia a fair amount over the past week, but have not ventured over to the back tables since I had yet to construct my deck.  Do you, and or the general "guys" usually hang out and run decks against each other?  I don't want to breach any etiquette with regards to new format players bothering veterans, but I would certainly enjoy playing, and watching whatever games are going on!

Thanks all,

Patrick

[Dxfiler]

Hi Korgano.  Thanks for the kind words.  It looks like I won't be doing a primer for the deck at this point in time (but a very good chance that it happens down the road), so I'll answer your questions in this post as best I can and give the updated list I would run for a tourney.  =)

Sideboarding is very tricky for this deck and really metagame dependant.  In my meta it's primarily gush based decks with a smattering of bomberman and tendrils combo.  There is always Stax looming in the background and sometimes it shows up taking half of the field, other times two people play it (one with trinket mages in it ;p).  The metagame in your area could be different, but from what I can tell Eudominia has a very similar field where gush rules the day and flash isn't very far behind (unless someone randomly leyline/ritual/negator's them right out of the game :p). 

The reason I always come back to fish is because it's so damn customizable.  I believe that UBW right now has the most options of all the fish variants so thats why I play it.

The base of the deck are the confidants, everything revolves around them.  They are pretty much the only reason I don't maindeck leyline right now, even though it's quite good.  Basically I find leyline coming in alot (it's nuts against flash and really good against stax/gat), but the cards that come out for it vary.

You pretty much want all the blue cards in there, with stifle being the only maybe spot.  I've toyed with Disrupts and spellsnares lately, and both have their perks, but stifle seems to be the most solid option still.

The plows are great and I want them over echoing truth maindeck pretty much every time, but I think etruth in the side might be needed now.  Empty the warrens is starting to brew again and flash likes to be tricky and board in tinker/colossus sometimes.  I think the tarmogoyf plan is actually not worth it in flash and most decks are off that plan despite the fact that this version beat me at Waterbury.  Outlaw pretty much never used the goyfs since he could just kill everyone on turn one and two constantly.  I find that if you focus off the flash kill too much you dilute it, and tinker/colossus still keeps the focus on the main flash kill of slivs/kiki-karmic while having a backup plan if things go south.  Plow just isn't worth it against flash in the long run so I find echoing truth would be better to bring in against them.  I also think leylines must come in every time despite me not doing it in my top 4 match.  I still should've brought them in against outlaw me-thinks.  Leylines are a card that flash must deal with if they want to win on their primary kill.  While they are spending time trying to deal with leyline, you're building a board and gaining cards and precious turns.  The longer it goes the more the game favors you.

As for GAT it's such a sticky match.  One minute I think the match is fine, the next minute I play 6 games in a row against Shay and win zero :p  It's a work in progress and I wish I had more definitive strategies but I just haven't faced the deck alot.  Apparently I haxx every tourney I'm in but I just never run into GAT.  I know that their mana is awful and you have to play the tempo game with them.  Anything you can do to offput them is one more hurdle they have to overcome before they go broken on you.  I find that without fastbond they don't gush too often.  The most common gush scenario is turn 3 after they made their first two land drops.  You usually won't have enough to pressure them from not gushing and they can replay one of the lands they bounced on turn 3 without being setback too much because you won't have more than two creatures out, so I find countering that first gush to be H U G E.  It can often lead to the knockout punch if you cut off that first gush, assuming they returned used two lands to cast it.  I found myself wishing I had daze in an awful lot of scenarios against GAT and as a result have just bumped it up to 4.  I've yet to do testing with 4 daze against GAT but I know how nuts they have been for me and they were amazing at Wbury, so I don't see how running a full complement could hurt.  I cut a grunt to do it but I find that you only need grunt once in a while and multiples in play at once are not great.  They shine against bomberman but that's dropped off significantly so I think you should be able to slide by on two.

With all this emphasis on stopping gush you think it would be my first suggestion to name with meddling mage against GAT, but it isn't.  I think you go for fastbond then yawg will, with gush being option #3.  There are times where drain makes sense but it's starting to fall out of fashion in that deck rapidly and I know many people around here are cutting them.  Basically fastbond is a must counter at all times, so if you name that with mage that's one more FOW you have free.  Yawg will is also always a must counter.  Gush is not always a must counter but as I already mentioned it's nice to be able to counter it, especially if it's the first one and they've sacrificed tempo by bouncing lands to cast it.

Mindcensors are king in this match causing all sorts of headaches.  Running him right out there on your turn isn't a bad call if they don't have drain mana up.  I'd rather run him out there playing around drain than trying to be tricky and EOT casting them if they have two blue up.  Yes casting him end of turn is more desirable than main phase, but if they have drain mana up and a drain they will drain him every time.  He is too much of a headache for GAT because they rely so much on fetches and mindcensor throws those right out the window.

Massacre is one of those things that is just going to always be plaguing you at some point.  It's not the most played sideboard card but people will always have it and as long as you try to make an effort to play around it without sacrificing tempo then it's always worth it to play around, but don't put yourself in a losing position to do it.  I know that's vague advice but the best way to learn how to play against massacre is to constantly face it.  There are times where you just run anything out there in the face of it and times where you lay one creature and absolutely nothing else.  Those times completely vary on the decks you're facing and the individual situations.  I know that in general if it's something like combo I'll try to pace myself and not go for broke with creatures.  You don't have to race them you just have to control the board and disrupt them.  The best way to disrupt combo typically isn't the creaures.  Mindcensor/mage are the best creature disruptors against combo but they are merely supplementary and you should focus on attacking their mana base with wastes/stifles and their hand with counters and duress.

That's about all I have for now but I do think the deck is solid and I wish you and anyone else who plays it good luck.  I think it will become much stronger as the weeks go by (and hopefully after some new restrictions occur *cough merchant scroll cough*). 

With that said here's the current list I'd recommend trying out:

// Lands
    3  Wasteland
    1  Strip Mine
    4  Flooded Strand
    2  Polluted Delta
    1  Island
    4  Tundra
    3  Underground Sea

// Creatures
    4  Dark Confidant
    2  Jotun Grunt
    4  Meddling Mage
    2  Kataki, War's Wage
    3  Aven Mindcensor

// Spells
    4  Force of Will
    4  Brainstorm
    1  Mox Sapphire
    1  Black Lotus
    1  Ancestral Recall
    1  Time Walk
    3  Duress
    1  Mox Jet
    4  Daze
    1  Mox Pearl
    3  Swords to Plowshares
    2  Stifle
    1  Lotus Petal
   

// Sideboard
SB: 1  Kataki, War's Wage
SB: 4  Leyline of the Void
SB: 3  Seal of Cleansing
SB: 1  Swords to Plowshares
SB: 2  Threads of Disloyalty
SB: 2  Spell Snare
SB: 2  Echoing Truth

SB plans-

Against stax- If on play - 2 stifle + 1 plow/Kataki, -3 Duress +3 Seal.  On the draw same cards go in but do a swap of -2 daze, - 1 Mindcensor + 3 Duress.

Against flash- If on play +4 leyline + 2 Spell Snare +2 Etruth,  -3 Plow - 2 Stifle, - 2 Kataki -1 Daze.  Going second Same cards go in, do a swap of -2 more daze (leaving only one left in maindeck) + 2 Stifle

Against GAT- If on play - 2 Stifle + 2 Spellsnare - 1 Daze + 1 Plow.  If on the draw -2 Stifle + 2 Spellsnare, - 3 Daze +1 Plow/ 2 threads

These board plans are fairly straightforward but emphasize when you are going first or second.  It's something you'll get used to the more you play the deck and nothing above is certainly set in stone.  One thing I can say for sure is that even though I side out daze alot on the draw I'll never side out all of them because the sheer 'do I have to play around it' factor is too good and you don't want your opponent's in a comfort zone of knowing they don't have to ever worry about daze games 2 or 3. 

I hope this helped and as always fish is a work in progress for me, so while I hope the info I put above is helpful it may end up not being as helpful as I'd like because as I've said many times before fish is a metagame deck and you've got to tweak it to what you feel is right for your area. 

Again goodluck to anyone playing the deck and please let me know how the deck works out for you if you play it.

Thanks again =)

- Dave

[LotusHead]

@LotusHead
I've been to Eudemonia a fair amount over the past week, but have not ventured over to the back tables since I had yet to construct my deck.  Do you, and or the general "guys" usually hang out and run decks against each other?  I don't want to breach any etiquette with regards to new format players bothering veterans, but I would certainly enjoy playing, and watching whatever games are going on!

My crew is from Vacaville, but our local shop closed down about a month ago, so we have no place to playtest except at Eudemonia on Game Day.

Austin and Junior commandeered two decks and with their own pile of broken cards rearrange those two decks from GAT to Oath to Flash to Storm, etc (Plus various STAX Builds) and they playtest against each other. I use MagicWorkStation and pray for a good game once in a while...

I have either a Bomberman list or some crappy Shop List.

We show up (often building decks in the car ride up) and hope for the best.

There is no ettiquette to breach, we are all very approchable