HELLO DAVID. WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY A GAME.I'm already in one. MWS.
OH.Yeah.
UH...COULD WE PLAY ONE AFTER?Sure what kind of game- hey wait a minute! This better not be who I think it is.
Dave Feinstein: Bah! What are you doing here. I told you we were through.
Jigsaw: I just want to play one more game!
Dave Feinstein: I don't. This format is the worst.
Jigsaw: THERE WILL BE BLOOD.
Dave Feinstein: What the hell does that mean?
Jigsaw: OH YES. THERE WILL BE BLOOD.
Dave Feinstein: Oh man this is why we don't talk anymore. You never make any sen- hey wait a minute! Blood.. Red...Goblins! You're telling me I should play mono red goblins. Jiggy, you're the best!
Jigsaw: Please don't call me that.
So for those who couldn't tell, I've been non-plussed with this format. To be frank...I hate it :p I've been rather quiet in tourneys because I just don't enjoy playing gush decks every other round. The only reason I even flew out to SCG Indy was because I had family out there. My sister took care of me, like a good feinstein sibling should... and made me late for the goddamn tourney. I arrived late and was informed I could only play if I took a rd 1 loss... I intially rejected this, but decided what the hell didn't fly out here to sit around and watch Smenenen play all day. I entered with a loss. Two rounds later I'm 2-1 and lo and behold I do infact get...
THE DARK LORD.
Yes, after all these years I finally get the match I was looking for.
Smenenen vs. Dave Feinstein
An epic 45 minute game 1 led to this...
Uh... led to the scene after that :p Yes... I threw Smenenen down a reactor shaft. He could not get up in time to finish game 2, and I won game one and hence the match.
I still haven't lost to meandeck :p
So while I had a blast facing one of the best players in the format I could face, I had to face the harsh reality of the format soon after... where I was gushed and flashed into oblivion.
Nice format.
Despite that, I was pretty sure I could've top 16'd and had a good shot at the old top 8 with my trusty fish, but my sister pwned me. For this, I punished her with a fate worse than death...
I drove away and left her at the convention center with 200 magic players. Take that Jen.
Flash forward to the present. I still hate this format :p Testing led me to believe that gush was going to stay strong despite lorwyn, but Stax would instantly become a top contender (if it wasn't already) due to thorns of amethyst. I knew that I would need to be ready for a stax explosion when Lorwyn became legal. Chester Li, a good man, would hold his first mox tourney immediately upon Lorwyb being legal...so I decided to give the format another try.
I knew going in that I'd be playing goblins. Discussions with both my team and Jigsaw (not sure who is more evil) led me to the conclusion that goblins could still be strong. I recently saw a list from a Sandusky tourney I liked, but it had 3 goblin tinkerer and those really really needed to be tin-streets. The immediate kill is just too good. I also didn't want to play ports, which was something that this list and my team had been keen on. With a stax explosion meant an explosion in strip effects. Too many non-basics is a bad thing not just because of wasteland being heavily played, but I also knew that magus of the moon would be in my board. I considered just running mono red with nothing but fetches and mountains, but tin-street let me re-visit an old friend...
Taiga: *COUGH* D-David? Is that really you?!
Dave Feinstein: Hello old friend. It's been so long!
*HUGS*
Taiga: Oh David! The years have not been kind to me. *WHEEZE*
Dave Feinstein: Yeah blue's insane. What am I gonna do? You know I miss you.
Taiga: *SOBS* Oh I know David. I've missed you too! Do-- do you think we could get together again... for old time's sake?
Dave Feinstein: Sure thing Taiga. I know your days are limited.
Tagia: *hacks up blood* They told me I'd live forever... I'm unlimited!
Dave Feinstein: Wizards says alot of things Taiga. It's ok. Let's just go out there and show those blue playing noobs who's boss. It'll be just like the good old days.
Taiga: THANK YOU SO MUCH DAVID. I WON'T LET YOU DOWN *cries tears of joy*
So with Taiga on board I knew only good things would come. I arrived at Chester's tourney with Marek and my trusty T00l by my side. They both played gush decks. They are both terrible human beings. These are not coincidences :p
I was supposed to have a full car, but long-time friend and Feinstein tourney report regular guest Dana Renfrew (A.K.A. The Dead Man, A.K.A. Master Tap) pulled out at the last minute to celebrate his birthday. I can't exactly go into detail what he was doing, but let's just say that Match.com's slogan is 'It's ok for you to look.'
MasterTap.com's slogan is 'It's ok for you to be buried alive.'
We show up with plenty of time to spare...which is good because parking sucked. Marek and Stefan, being the terrible human beings they are, bail out of the car forcing me to park alone. As I'm trying to find a parking spot, I run into an also hopelessly lost Dan Yarrington. I find a good enough spot and tell Dan to park there as well. He gives me a look like I'm trying to get him a ticket. Oh Dan, I wouldn't do that to you... today. :p
I walk into the store and see the usual cast of New England vintage characters...
The one with the pipe is Outlaw.
29 people show with 5 rounds of swiss. This was my deck:
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Warchief
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Ringleader
2 Seige-Gang Commander
1 Stingscourger
1 Gempalm Incinerator
3 Tin-Street Hooligan
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
4 Aether Vial
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Taiga
2 Mountain
2 Barbarian Ring
3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
SB:
1 Tin-Street Hooligan
3 Shattering Spree
1 Ancient Grudge
3 Pyrokinesis
2 Pithing Needle
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
2 Magus of the Moon
2 Red Elemental Blast
This is about as straightforward a goblins list as it gets. It's basically my team's 'Goblines' deck. They hadn't played it in a while but I figured it'd be fine. Some people told me to cut leylines and I think that's kooky talk. Leyline is an amazing card to maindeck in a non-force of will playing deck. You need to be able to stop turn 1 kills in this format. Leylines does that.
Round 1- Mixing Mike /w GAT
Mixing Mike is a long-time friend who doesn't play as much as he used to but is very passionate about the vintage. We tested for waterbury and he ran GAT. I expected that to stay the same.
While the main theme of this report is Halloween... the bonus sub-theme is MISPLAYS.
I got to do the very first one. I look at my opening hand of vial/fanatic/piledriver/lleyline/warchief/ringleader/taiga/mountain. This is a nice opener against gat. I obviously put the leyline in before taking the turn... and my first play is...
Mogg Fanatic?! Oy. For some reason I felt like I needed to defend against Dryad here, despite knowing going in that you never ever ever under any circumstances lead with anything that isn't a vial if you're against GAT. You pretty much always lead with vial unless you have a lackey. I did not have lackey...I had his much weaker half-cousin fanatic. You just don't want to lead with fanatic over vial in this deck. Ever. If you hit flash that's about the only time where it makes sense. I knew all this. I led with fanatic anyway because I'm a dumbass. Of course his first play is a Duress...which also is generally not the play against me. But yes he hits my vial here. After that the game goes fairly long, where Mike easily counters any real threat I drop and while I have him out-creatured, it's nothing dangerous... just a bunch of 1/1's. If I just led with the damn vial I had that game in the bag. He'd have to deal with uncounterable threats coming in every turn and I would've easily over-ran him around turns 5-7. Because he could counter each serious threat one at a time he eventually just build up a hand with Tog on the board then beserked me to death. Even with leyline out he had more than enough time to get lethal through. I deserved to lose this game.
Sideboard: -2 Tin-street + 2 Reb
You might be wondering why I kept in leylines here... the answer is because they are good :p I don't see the point of siding out leyline vs. any deck with yawg will. Leyline makes them beat you a different way and with GAT it means fighting a creature war.
Dave Feinstein likes creature wars.
Taiga: Me too!
Game 2: I lead with leyline which completely nerfs Mike's hand. He apparently had the nuts will draw but leyline shut that off and he has to try and keep up with my curve. I led with lackey into 2 fanatic into warchief and his TOG met a reb. This one was over quickly.
Game 3: No leyline this time and he comes out with dryads. I drop guys and we begin to flood the board again. His 2 Dryads + Tog vs my hoard of little green men.
I try to get good things like stingscourger to bounce his now extremely large dryads but he won't let me. I manage to get one Dryad off the board with a giant gemplam incinerator cycle but he still has a dryad and a tog. I reb the tog and down comes a goyf. Ah crap. He decides to make his move with time short on the clock and does a decent sized yawg will. It wasn't completely game over sized will because I made him burn some cards in his yard to tog earlier. This was completely intentional as I'm more than willing to lose a couple dorks to make sure Will doesn't completely cave my skull in. This will netted him an 7/7 dryad and a goyf with my board now small. I'm at 18. Mike casts time walk. He thinks for a long time. I know he has cunning wish in hand and I'm ready to scoop it up... but in order for me to lose he has to attack :p Mike decides to untap and immediately take his time walk turn instead of sending in the now 9/9 dryad to force me to chump block. This is key.
Now facing a 9/9 Dryad and a 4/5 goyf mike attacks in his extra time walk turn into my 3 reamining creatures (he obliterated alot of them on the will turn). I look long and hard at the board and realize I can survive if I play this right. I put a 1/1 in front of goyf while piledriver a ringleader in front of the Dryad. Mike now has a 10/10 dryad from the time walk and cunning wishes for beserk. He casts beserk and starts to assign damage but I inform him of the extra counter dryad gets from cunning wish. Dave Feinstein don't cheat :p Anyway, I'm now looking at an 11/11 dryad. Mike Beserks it making it a 22/22 and I'm at 19. Woot. Mike distributes the mandatory 4 damage among my creatures and tramples through for 18. Beserk kills his dryad at end of turn and we're both looking at empty boards. I untap and draw ringleader. I ringlead in a mob that includes warchief... he's at 9 and in comes 10 hasted damge. Yay.
Mike was not happy he misplayed :p I told him not to feel too bad about it... after all I punted game 1. Truth is I got really lucky here against GAT. This would not be the last time today.
1-0
Round 2: Tom /w GAT
Tom's a nice guy and a local who I see from time to time. I have no idea what he's playing.
Game 1: I lead with vial. He asks if he can counter things activated off vial... ok this sounds like GAT :p I play around the drain mana he has open and vial does it job, dropping hordes of little bastards. Of course I can't get through because of TOG since there's no piledriver to be seen. No leyline this game so I have to just wait for the right time to overwhelm him. Unfortunately that doesn't happen as he is able to get off a fastbond and starts gushing away. He draws a ton of cards and I'm a sitting duck. With 2 Blue and 2 Green open and a stacked yard with full hand Tom casts Cunning Wish. I specifically ask him what mana he's leaving open. He says green. Damn! :p He gets beserk. I'm just about ready to scoop once again.
Tom enters his attack and turns his Tog sideways, I cringe and painfully go through the motions of lining up my guys to slaughter. Tom has more than enough to trample through but I have to make him do it out. Tom starts to dump his hand and... wait a second... what did I just type?!
"Tom enters his attack and turns his tog sideways."
I immediately stop Tom midway through his dumping cards as we both realize he had a green mana floating from his pre-combat main phase. Tom frowns. I call over the judge just to get the official ruling even though we both already know what it will be. The judge rules Tom cannot use the green mana to cast beserk because it became unavailable once he was in his attack. We were so deep into combat at this point it wasn't a close call. I still had to keep my blockers lined up and would lose them all, but Tom wouldn't kill me so that works for me.
Tom is very unhappy. I lose my board and he still has a tog out, but I have vial at 4 and in true feinstein fashion draw a ringleader once again off the top. Suddenly my piledrivers show up in force and the game is over shortly after. I really really didn't deserve to win that one.
Sideboard: Tom asks me if pithing needle works on vial. I guess I should leave tin-streets in but I still go with the same -2 hooligan +2 reb configuration. I figure if he drops a needle it won't hurt too bad.
Game 2: Tom looks long and hard at his hand and decides to keep. He goes emerald/ruby/needle on vial. My hand is vial/vial/guys :p
I run out the 2 vials and they sit there while we both build up cards. Tom has no blue mana or lands to speak of and I draw my now one-of hooligan. I run it out there and it gets forced. We both sit around for a long time and I just work up my mana. Eventually I get to that coveted 4 spot and start going to town with ringleaders. He doesn't get a blue mana for ages. By the time he does I have an army out and Tog simply can't hold them all back.
2-0
Round 3: Eric Kerwin /w Ichorid
I have never had the pleasure of playing Eric but he's a good guy and usually travels to tourneys with ELD. I didn't get to see his earlier matches but ever tourney result I ever saw for Eric involved Ichorid so I figured I'd be mulling into leyline game one.
Game 1: I look at my first 3 cards of Lotus/Warchief/Leyline and announce keep before seeing the rest of the hand. The other 4 show me foothills/mountain/fanatic/ringleader.
ELD is playing to my right and as he glances at my hand I can tell he's trying to hold back from wincing at the broken-ness that is this hand. I'm not sure I can have a better opener in this match. Out comes leyline as a pre-game effect (no matter how excited you get dont EVER forgot to do this kids! :p) and I think momentarily about turn 1 chief + fanatic or turn 1 ringleader and decide on the former. Eric is unphased and plays it out for a few turns but scoops shortly after.
Sideboard: -2 tinstreet + 2 Magus - 1 Siege Gang/-1 Stingscourger + 2 Pithing Needle. I think sharpshooter came in here too but I don't remember for what.
Game 2- Eric mullligans a ton thanks to multiple serum powders and eventually settles on a hand he's happy with. I once again have leyline opener and down it comes. He leads with Bazzar and passes. I go mountain/sol ring pass. He lays a dryad arbor. I fanatic it and pass. He lays another non-basic and I think to myself how sweet would it be to topdeck a...
Magus of the moon. How. Lucky. I drop the moon man and Eric pauses. He tells me outloud he's probably about to concede. I advise him not do to that :p He says he's thinking of his outs and can't think of any. I ask him if there's any contagion in the deck and he says no. Ok scooping makes sense here. He does in fact scoop facing a magus and leyline. ELD confirmed after to Eric that he had no outs. I ask them why no contagion in the board and ELD tells me that it isn't worth worrying about magus of the moon because that usually isn't top 8. I then mention that jailer basically has the same effect as well and he gives the same response of 'jailer usually isn't in top 8 either.'
If you ask me I think Ichorid should be packing contagion 110% of the time in the sideboard. It's a very valid point that jailer/magus don't see play much in top 8's... but if you run into it in the swiss you can't just roll over and die. Contagion also buys you time against random aggro and it really crushes goblins. The only sideboard card I fear more is Pyrokinesis, which non-myriad people don't run.
3-0
So now I can draw into top 8. That's pretty exciting. Round 4 gives me the mysterious Pyr0masta, who I had never met before. We draw. He's a nice guy.
Round 5. I draw with Pat Broderick. Probably the unluckiest vintage player of all time.
3-0-2 Record going into top 8.
Top 8 is filled to the brim with gush decks. There's one stax and me. Outlaw got 9th on breakers... like the scrub he is!
Top 8: Tim Landale- Gush ETW
Tim and I both make the frowny face. We wanted to face GAT not each other. I personally think Empty Gush is the best deck in the format. It's generally much harder to pilot and does not always have the raw power plays that GAT has, which is why most people play GAT instead. But I really feel Empty gush in the hands of a good players is just simply the nuts. I knew about the deck before SCG Indy but it wasn't my style. Half my team ended up running it and 3 made top 8 with one splitting in finals. Still with that kind of loud result I don't really see the deck around that much... and I'm very grateful for that. I honestly expected to lose here because Tim maindecks tinker/colossus AND has empty AND tendril AND yawg will... AND I CAN'T STOP THEM ALL
Game 1- I get out leyline but Tim just shrugs and ancestrals. He builds up a hand and gets out gush/bond. Soon after I'm dead to many 1/1 tokens... courtesy of Meloku :p
Sideboard: -3 Tinstreet /+ 2 Reb +1 Sharpshooter, -1 Gempalm incinerator/-1 Siege Gang + 2 Magus
Game 2- I lead out with taiga/mana crypt/magus. Tim doesn't have the force. He manages to empty for 6 but I just build up an army and eventually overwhelm him.
Game 3- Tim mulligans to 5 and says go. He had ancestral/pyroclasm/tinker/emerald/something else. I lead with lackey and just start bringing in dumb stuff. He does not find a mana source in time. I win a another game I really didn't deserve to, but Tim was gracious about it.
Top 4 comes around and I see Gat/Gat/Gat. I realllllly want to play this out. Craig and T00l do not want to play it out so I tell them I'll leave it up to ELD...which probably means we're playing it out. ELD thinks about it for a while, which he always does... and ultimately decides to split, which I did not see coming. I would've had Craig in top 4 and ELD would've had t00l. I really believe I was in good shape to win that mox but I always have been a man of the split. I don't like being the guy who makes everyone play it out... around here that guy usually gets bit in the ass by karma :p
FINAL RECORD: 4-0-2
I thank and congratulate everyone for splitting and get the hell out of dodge. I was tired. Chester ran a good tourney. It was a refreshing to just have a good time in vintage. I have not been able to in a while due to various factors. Basically, I had alot of headaches both in and out of the game and it's been a rough couple months for me. I wish I could just gobble up all my problems one by one...
just like that horribly rendered 3d pacman. I feel bad for the ghost that gets in that guy's way.
So that's about everything for now. I think goblins is solid but unspectacular. It can definitely do well but it's underpowered and relies specifically on explosive draws. If you expect a room full of stax I honestly think it's still a good choice for the aggro player. There was actually a ton of stax here I just didn't face it. I think I overboarded for stax and reb/magus were huge. I really want one more of each. Plus looking back I wouldn't have minded a random tarfire. You can matron it, ringleader it or just mise it and it really can surprise people. Yes incinerator is strictly better but there were a few times where I needed a finisher with my opponent at low life and tarfire fits that bill. So here's the updated goblins list I would play in the future:
// Lands
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
4 Taiga
4 Mountain
// Creatures
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Warchief
1 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Goblin Ringleader
1 Stingscourger
1 Gempalm Incinerator
3 Tin Street Hooligan
// Spells
1 Mox Ruby
1 Black Lotus
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
4 AEther Vial
1 Mox Emerald
1 Tarfire
// Sideboard
SB: 3 Shattering Spree
SB: 3 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 2 Pyrokinesis
SB: 2 Pithing Needle
SB: 1 Ancient Grudge
SB: 1 Goblin Sharpshooter
SB: 3 Magus of the Moon
So that's the list I'd play if I were to play it again, but I don't see that happening any time soon.
Taiga: Da-vid... it was... *COUGH* a great run. Thanks for--
Dave Feinstein: Taiga? TAIGA?!?!
Tagia: -- The memories
*Taiga goes limp*
Dave Feinstein: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Taiga-- I shall miss thee.
So that's about it for me right now. My personal future is in the air. I'm kind of winding down with vintage for various reasons, but the main one is I'm just kind of not entertained by the format right now. Maybe that will change but for the time being I plan to keep playing to a minimum. I just plan on working on my final mox tourney
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=34724.0 and maybe hitting a couple places between now and then.
I hope you enjoyed the report. I had fun doing this one. Sorry if I got a little carried away with the pics :p
- Dave
