Dave Feinsten's Mox Top 8 Report

[MirariKnight]

So I'm leaving for college in St. Louis a week from today and I've been thinking how much it sucks that I live so close to so many events yet I've never been able to make it to one. I wasn't in the country to make it to Waterbury, so I decided to make the trip to Dave Feinsteins Sapphire Tournament. Woke up really ridiculously early and got food, paid a million dollars for the ferry to Connecticut, drove off the boat without dying, and got to the location without getting lost. Nice. I had been putting decks together for a while for this and I finally went with URW Mountains, which is basically Bomberman without Salvagers and with Magus of the Moon. I think it was a really good call. I never thought I'd make top 8 which was awesome, and the whole thing was a great day. I had also wanted to try to trade for a lotus but no one seemed to have one I had a lot of moxes....

UWR Mountains:
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
6 Island
3 Volcanic Island
2 Tundra
5 Blue Fetch Lands
1 Ancestral
1 Time Walk
4 Force of Will
2 Mana Drain
3 REB
3 Stifle
3 Merchant Scroll
4 Brainstorm
4 Trinket Mage
4 Magus of the Moon
3 Aven Mindcensor
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Echoing Truth
1 Fire/Ice

Sideboard:
4 Leyline
1 Balance
2 FTK
1 Tinker
1 Platinum Angel
1 Stifle
1 Phyrexian Dreadnought
1 Pithing Needle
3 Shattering Spree

The deck worked perfectly for me, I never felt like I didn't have the answer to something, although I avoided Flash completely and only played GAT round 6, both should have been good match ups I think. My notes suck so I'll give a quick synopsis of each game without the turn by turn, sorry if these are innacurate or if I spelled your name wrong, let me know.

Round 1: Brennan - Mind Twist w/ Confidants and Tops
Game 1: I had a Trinket Mage out, got him down to 11, Platz came out for him, he attacked, I blocked with Mindcensor and Fired the Angel.
Game 2: I think he thought I was playing bomberman, like everyone did. Life totals look like I might have died to a combination of Bob beats and Mana Crypt. Notes reminded me not to Trinket Mage for Lotus with Chalice on 0 out, although I think I did get a Needle down on his Library.
Game 3: I think I had a lot of Magi out and just beat down.
I win 2-1, which I was happy with for my first round ever.

Round 2: Taylor with Stax
Game 1: I came really close to killing him with 2/2s, Triskellion sucks but still cant block Flying Mindcensors. I needed 1 more turn to swing for the Win and we realize that he can kill me with Karn by animating not just Crucible and Tangle Wire but also the Sol Ring for the last point of damage.
Game 2: He thought I was playing Bomberman too I think. He Needled Lion's Eye Diamond (not in my deck) and then we both realize that it's a mana ability anyway. I got 3 Magi out and beat.
Game 3: I got in a few attacks with Trinket Mage and then dropped the Dreadnought with Stifle. Caught everyone by surprise which was awesome, some people didn't even know that works again.
Another 2-1 for me. I'm really happy at this point. I thought I'd 0-2 drop.

Round 3: Rob with R/U Goblins.
Game 1: I died to a Piledriver
Game 2: I think it's Negative Life totals+Flying Angels for the win, last point of damage was done by Fire.
Game 3: He gets good early plays, I EE and Fire and Kavu stuff. Pretty much we both 1 for 1 a lot, then he gets out this 5/5 thing with an ability called Goblin Tribute, it's kinda cool. I almost died to it but i ripped a sick Balance that wound up being a much needed WoG, we go to extra turns and draw it.
My record is 2-0-1, looks good to me.

Round 4: Justin with Gush Tendrils
Game 1: Magus of the Moon x3, he only plays 1 Trop the whole game.
Game 2: He resolves his Recall and MisD's mine. Still somehow I get him down to 2, try to Walk to beat for the win, that gets forced. His turn he plays Empty the Warrens for 0 storm to block my 1 attacker, my Echoing Truth gets countered, Tendrils sucks.
Game 3: Tendrils sucks.
2-1-1, still at the top tables though which is nice.

Round 5: Brain with Contract Tendrils
Game 1: He does some cool stuff, I tap wrong to play Magus so that I can't play the REB in my hand. I hope to god he didnt have Tinker, he does. Out comes: MEMORY JAR! Thank god. My new hand is ridicluous beyond belief. Stifle, Force, Drain, Mindcensor, something else. He tries to go off, with about 12 mana floating after a contract. He goes for Mystical Tutor. In response Mindcensor. He finds: Vamp Tutor. Nice. He fizzles and burns for a lot.
Game 2: I don't remember but it must have involved a Mindcensor beating I believe.
3-1-1. If I win the last round, I make Top 8.

Round 6: Doug with GAT
Game 1: It's about time I got paired against GAT. His was the only GAT at the top tables I believe, and there was no Flash. I had a nuts opening hand, Ancestral resolves, I draw 3 islands, and continue to draw lands for the till I die to a Dyrad.
Game 2: Magus of the Moon stops Gush really well. Mindcensor sucks when you have like 20 tutor effects.
Game 3: See game 2. I think
4-1-1, that gets me into the top 8.

Unfortunately I have to make a ferry home at 10 so my mom doesn't castrate me, which means I'd have to leave at 7:30. Top 8 starts at 7:10 or so. I tried to fit in as much as I could.

Top 8: Dan Yarrington with B/R Mountains and such.
Game 1: I get out Trinket Mage and Magus, but since we both play Magus it doesn't do much to either of us. I die to Jagged Poppet I think.
Game 2: It's getting reallllllly close to the time I have to leave, so I decide to just look at my opening hand. No land, 1 lotus, 1 Merchant Scroll. I didn't have time to mull to I treid it. Ancestarl resolved but no land was to be found. I scooped and had to run. Everyone in the top 8 was awesome for letting me get early dibs on the prize so I could leave. Thanks everyone. I got 3 Windswept Heaths.

So we leave and head toward the ferry. Looks good, we didn't get lost. Nice. About an hour away from the ferry, traffic stops completely. We miss the boat by a longshot, and I wound up having to drive around anyway, which meant I have time to play out the top 8, which sucks but it's cool. Of course the ferry phone reps leave at 8 so you can't cancel the reservation. There goes $45 for nothing, and someone's getting an angry call tomorrow =P

Thanks to Dave for running an awesome tournament and for being really helpful in helping me get there and such. Thanks to everyone for being awesome and making my first tournament everything I expected it to be. And thanks to all the Top 8 people who let me pick the prize early, you guys are awesome.
<3 to everyone

[Grand Inquisitor]

Thanks for the report, nice finish.  In working this list, I came up with something very close to yours and I was wondering if you liked having a full set of magus, and if you ever wanted the dreadnought main?

[goobafish]

Are top 8 lists anywhere or coming?

[Implacable]

All signs point to (Blood/Magus of the) Moon being really, really good against GAT.  I expect to see huge amounts of Moons swamping the Gush-infested North-East now.

[MirariKnight]

Grand Inquisitor: Magi were good for me in every single matchup. They're really hard to deal with and I even saw someone board in Pyroclasm in a non-red deck just for them. I wouldn't run less than 4. Pretty much every game I wanted the Dreadnought main, and I would have mained him over Tormod's Crypt, which I never used all day. The only reason I sided him was because I made the list the night before and I wasn't really sure what to cut main. The one weakness of the deck is the lack of pressue once you establish dominance, and Dreadnought really helps solve this.

[kalithrian]

Round 1: Brendan - Confidant Storm Sensei's Top
Game 1: I had a Trinket Mage out, got him down to 11, Platz came out for him, he attacked, I Flashed in Mindcensor to block and then Fired the Angel.
Game 2: I think he thought I was playing bomberman, like everyone did. Life totals look like I might have died to a combination of Bob beats and Mana Crypt. Notes reminded me not to Trinket Mage for Lotus with Chalice on 0 out, although I think I did get a Needle down on his Library.
Game 3: I think I had a lot of Magi out and just beat down.
I win 2-1, which I was happy with for my first round ever.

First of all, my name is Brennan, not Brendan. I guess it was "Brennon" on the match slips the whole day, but ah well I have terrible hand writing so I cannot blame anyone but myself. Game 1 was a lot like that; but mindcensor was already in play and he had force backup for the fire i had expected; I would have happily done the 4-for-3 but yawgmoth's will was too late as crypt was in play, so I scooped and went onto the next game. Good thing crypt was there since I had a huge mana base at that point. As for thinking it was bomberman, I had a feeling that bomberman would not have room for very many salvagers, if any because of the magi; and if it was, there would have been some spellbombage on the angel in game 1 off the trinket mage; not a combat trick. So for game 2 I did not bring in leylines, and I took out mind twists and bad cards for smothers and pyroblasts. I guess running 5 fetches, 3 islands, and 1 swamp just was not enough to get a single basic out to deal with the 3 total magus of the moon in game 3. As for being a storm deck; the empty the warrens is an alternate kill; I was a mind twist deck but it didn't seem correct to play mindtwist against a deck that can beat me in a counter war (I don't see double blue for drains very often with magus out). Game three was taken by turn 1 brokenness in turn 1 magus of the moon, chalice for zero on the play. I guess that's one way to lose! And mana crypt almost still won for me, but haha I loved that red/white/blue deck for the metagame that day so it's alright.

Anyways, thanks for the tournament, Feinstein! It was pretty amazing, in spite of the presence of 50+ pokemon kids. A turnout of 47 for your first tournament is ridiculously good.

Also,

All signs point to (Blood/Magus of the) Moon being really, really good against GAT.  I expect to see huge amounts of Moons swamping the Gush-infested North-East now.

I think that magus of the moon is a great piece of disruption against GAT, but considering I have seen lists running not only snuff out (which magus can turn off), but snapback (which he can't), it may not be the lonesome answer necessary, but coupled with other cards like REB's, I'd say it can take plenty of games home.

Snapback, on the other hand, is a great 1 or 2 of for GAT since it deals with so many cards including big colorless creatures, goblin welders, and maguses/mindcensors. It can also mess up somebody's math against a dryad since it grows 1 for free, and eliminates a blocker, all at the expense of a drain or opt you probably didn't need to win with your broken deck anyways. The fact that it can only target creatures is probably why it has not been run before, but it CAN bounce mishra's factories, not to mention other dryads.

[tehmajickguy]

Are top 8 lists anywhere or coming?

Dave will have lists and pics up before too long.

[MirariKnight]

Round 1: Brendan - Confidant Storm Sensei's Top
Game 1: I had a Trinket Mage out, got him down to 11, Platz came out for him, he attacked, I Flashed in Mindcensor to block and then Fired the Angel.
Game 2: I think he thought I was playing bomberman, like everyone did. Life totals look like I might have died to a combination of Bob beats and Mana Crypt. Notes reminded me not to Trinket Mage for Lotus with Chalice on 0 out, although I think I did get a Needle down on his Library.
Game 3: I think I had a lot of Magi out and just beat down.
I win 2-1, which I was happy with for my first round ever.

First of all, my name is Brennan, not Brendan. I guess it was "Brennon" on the match slips the whole day, but ah well I have terrible hand writing so I cannot blame anyone but myself. Game 1 was a lot like that; but mindcensor was already in play and he had force backup for the fire i had expected; I would have happily done the 4-for-3 but yawgmoth's will was too late as crypt was in play, so I scooped and went onto the next game. Good thing crypt was there since I had a huge mana base at that point. As for thinking it was bomberman, I had a feeling that bomberman would not have room for very many salvagers, if any because of the magi; and if it was, there would have been some spellbombage on the angel in game 1 off the trinket mage; not a combat trick. So for game 2 I did not bring in leylines, and I took out mind twists and bad cards for smothers and pyroblasts. I guess running 5 fetches, 3 islands, and 1 swamp just was not enough to get a single basic out to deal with the 3 total magus of the moon in game 3. As for being a storm deck; the empty the warrens is an alternate kill; I was a mind twist deck but it didn't seem correct to play mindtwist against a deck that can beat me in a counter war (I don't see double blue for drains very often with magus out). Game three was taken by turn 1 brokenness in turn 1 magus of the moon, chalice for zero on the play. I guess that's one way to lose! And mana crypt almost still won for me, but haha I loved that red/white/blue deck for the metagame that day so it's alright.

Thanks for correcting me and I apologize for misrepresenting it. It was a really long day and I was just going by memory and life totals. And yeah I almost did die to that Crypt game 3 I think I ended up at 3.

[Hell of a Hat]

Taylor here.

Running the Needle out on LED was a joke on my part, as I realized by that point the salvagers I had expected were never going to show up.  Poor sideboarding ftl.

And you forgot your own Needle tech on my Welder to protect your Dreadnaught.

[Myriad Games]

Hi Josh,
   It was a pleasure meeting you and playing. Glad to see a new version of Mountains    These U/R hybridizations of Bomberman and Moon are some good. Glad to see you running a diversified split of Blood Moon and Magus to help against creature removal. Have you considered going up to 4x Mindcensor?

[MirariKnight]

Taylor here.

Running the Needle out on LED was a joke on my part, as I realized by that point the salvagers I had expected were never going to show up.  Poor sideboarding ftl.

And you forgot your own Needle tech on my Welder to protect your Dreadnaught.

Yeah believe it or not I was sitting there thinking that if I played Needle on Welder then you could weld out the Needle for my Lotus...then I realized how dumb I was.
But you killed me with a Sol Ring which is really all that matters.

@Dan: I REALLY would have liked to have 4 Mindcensors. I have no clue what to cut, but they would have been awesome in every matchup, even if it's just because they fly. There were a few game I won of came close to winning just because they couldn' block, and a good portion of the other games were won because of his ability. I only ran 3 because of the small amount of white sources, but maybe it would be better off 3 Trinket Mages 4 Mindcensors instead.

[Dxfiler]

Hey Josh.  Your deck was awesome and congrats on the performance.

As for what to cut for 4 mindcensor, I think crypt for sure and maybe an EE.  Crypt is solid and you can fetch it with trinket mage, but it doesn't really do much early and is very narrow right now in that it doesn't really do anything to flash and is only a minor hinderance to GAT.  Also Bomberman and Ichorid can easily work around it.  EE is great but I don't see why you need two?

Fire/Ice is another maindeck card you could possibly cut for mindcensor.  You don't have mystical to get it and not a ton of card-draw so if you need it you just kind of have to cross your fingers to randomly draw it.  Same with echoing truth.  I could see keeping both in but not without a mystical imo.


Also I'd like to see daze in here as a 2 of... maybe over mana drain?

Your deck is not full beatdown but it definitely is more aggressive than controlling.  You can get fast starts and if you're tapping out for magus you won't be able to protect it with drain.  Have you considered Daze?  Maybe it isn't right for this deck, but I'd try out 2 in the drain spot just to see.

Daze might be a terrible suggestion :p  I love the card in any sort of aggro deck so it might not have a home here, but I think if you pretty much keep your deck as is it won't be terrible.  Mystical in here seems right the more I look at it.

I really want to tinker with this deck.  It looks like something I could have fun with.  =0  Anyway thanks again for the report and the decklist.  It was great meeting you.  I hope to see you and your friends again for my next tourney on October 7th.

Thanks again.

- Dave Feinstein

[Euphonic]

Greetings everyone! This is my first post on the drain....so please be gentle...

Let me start by saying congrats on the success you had in the tourney. I have been lurking the trinket magus thread for a while now and have really liked the way deck has developed and im happy to see it do well in a tourney. Ive built my own little adaptation of it based on my meta but i did want to ask you a question. 
How much difficulty did you have making sure that you had both stifle and dread in your hand. I've been toying with the idea of useing dread, but it seems that it may be difficult to get you hands on both the naught and the stifle. Also, did you have any problems getting the necessary colors for mindcensor or balance under MoM? Is there a specific order in which you would prefer to play the trinket, MoM, or Mindcensor?

[bebe]

Fire/Ice is another maindeck card you could possibly cut for mindcensor.  You don't have mystical to get it and not a ton of card-draw so if you need it you just kind of have to cross your fingers to randomly draw it.  Same with echoing truth.  I could see keeping both in but not without a mystical imo.

There are 3 scrollls to fetch it. The deck is a toolbox that fetches or searches for solutions. 

MirariKnight - I thought about the extra mindcensor too but there are so many creatures being played I would be nervous without two EEs and Fire/ice main deck. The second EE just makes it easier to get one out.