A birthday win for MastrianoI was in a tough spot for a little while in Magic land. I felt that Thorn of Amethyst had ushered in a new era of Stax decks and that building a combo deck to compete in this format was quite challenging. It seemed like to be competitive you had to constrain your mana base with a bunch of basic lands and try to run a more controlish build without as many good bombs. I considered playing this… until I read Steve Menendian’s tournament report about Psychatog. It seemed that play mistakes and maybe a couple card choices had kept him out of a Top 8 spot, yet the deck could have won.
He didn’t have Fastbond or Duress. I wanted those ones.
I worked with Brian Keil to try to contort the Intuition AK build into one that could run Duress and Fastbond, and the deck looked alright. Steve came back with a version that cut the Intuition AK engine, and I figured that was correct. I made some changes and got Duresses in there, changed the mana a little bit. I tested with Keil, Justin Morford and Josh Morford for a while and was feeling pretty comfortable for Sunday morning. Here’s what I ran:
3 Psychatog
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Gorilla Shaman
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Brainstorm
3 Merchant Scroll
2 Cunning Wish
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
4 Gush
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Fastbond
3 Duress
1 Swamp
3 Island
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
2 Tropical Island
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus
Sideboard:
1 Rack and Ruin
1 Artifact Mutation
1 Oxidize
1 Firestorm
1 Extirpate
1 Pyroblast
1 Berserk
3 Yixlid Jailer
2 Pithing Needle
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Echoing Truth
1 Hurkyl's Recall
The 27th was my birthday, and I could have spent it at home – maybe went to dinner with my parents and hung out with Josh, but I decided winning some serious power would be more fun. Plus I figured that maybe it’d be my lucky day…
SO I roll up to the tournament at 11 with my boys Josh and Justin Morford. Pam (the store owner) told me they had birthday cake for me and stuff, which I was really surprised about. I didn’t even realize that they knew it was my birthday, let alone have a cake for me! That was so nice!
Round 1: Ich-nard
I saw this guy sleeving up earlier and knew he was Ichorid. Of course that didn’t gain me much of an advantage, I knew he was Ichorid for sure in a matter of seconds.
Game 1: I got steam-rolled. I think this is kinda par for the course here. He had turn 0 Leyline and Bazaar. Pretty good.
Game 2: I sideboard in al kinds of stuff. My opening hand is keepable, but not against Ichorid. My second hand had Vamp tutor and 2 mana sources – good enough. If you can’t see how you’re going to get sideboard cards in play by turn 2 then you MUST mulligan. He had Leyline, tho, which would make killing him slow going. At one point he made an awful error, he played Reverent Silence to kill my Fastbond (which I didnt really need after I spit all my lands down) so I could gain 6 life and he lost Leyline - thanks!
Ichorid really messed up here by not siding Contagion, so the Jailer that I stuck on turn 2 did the job, all he had to contest it were a couple dryad arbors, which did get kind of close.
Game 3: He sides in his contagions. I knew because 3 of them came up in his first set of dredges! I forced an Unmask and got Jailer into play. Now I needed to avoid the contagion. I tapped Sea, Island and Demonic tutored for Extirpate, which I then played a fetch and brought up a second sea to cast it now. Contagions were now RFG. But it wasn’t over yet. He managed to have 2 bridge tokens before I had the Jailor, so I was on the clock. I drew Cunning Wish, got beat down to 2 life and on his end step I cast the wish… but for what? The only solution left in my board was Firestorm, but I didn’t have red mana. I felt it was my only chance and I top-decked like a champion - drawing Volcanic Island to finish the game.
Ichorid is a NIGHTMARE match-up. It has good answers for the hate cards, and the hate cards are your only game against them. It probably served me well to have faced this guy in the first round before he had the day's experiences behind him. He went on to Top 8.
1-0
Round 2 : 5c Aggro stax
G1: I lost the roll. I countered a few cards but was overwhelmed by Juggernauts and stuff.
G2: Firestorm won for me like an All-Star here. I burned out welder and 2x juggernaut, and I discarded the extra card to burn his face (which is a good idea if the math is close). I then rolled on in with the ‘Tog.
G3: this one went to time. I had tog vs juggs and 7/10 (which had monstered my land). He made a critical error and attacked with both guys so next turn I’d either have to win or keep the Tog back. I only had 2 cards in hand, how bad could I really hit with the Tog? Well, the two cards were Gush and Scroll, so I actually was able to hit for A LOT of damage and I won right there.
2-0
Round 3: Justin Morford – MUD
Well, it’s both good and bad to meet your friend at this round of the tournament. The winner can ID and is a shoe-in for top 8, and the loser only needs to win the next round. In testing, this match could go either way, and I don’t have the same edges against Justin as I do against other players that aren’t used to facing me. So we just decide to split whatever we win and play. At least at this point we could be pretty confident that someone with us would finish in the money. Justin took good notes on this round, so I’ve included an exerpt from his report:
“Paul wins the die roll and starts with a ridiclious turn 1 against me of Lotus, Land, Mox, Tog. - Ouch. After a couple jabs at him, I manage to push through with Arcbound Ravager and ramp him to 3/3. At this point Paul swings, I make ravager a 4/4, then with damage on the stack make him a 5/5."
At this point Justin didnt have much left, just a City of traitors and a mox emerald. I pumped tog up to 4/5 and Justin was "ok, damage on the stack?" and I was like "yeah" and then he ate that mox. I felt like a total idiot! Anyways... back to Justin:
"This was my big opening as Paul at this point brainfarted, and ravager survived eatting a large portion of his Tog's yard and part of his hand.
I then proceed to draw tangle wire and smoke stack, and workshop, (hoping like hell to find SoFI as a single swing with a SoFI equipped Ravager will polish paul off) Paul keeps digging and eventually is able to gush out through my ravager the turn before I would've drawn SoFI. - I had run Paul out of counters as he was forced to answer Tangle and Smoke Stack, damn.
Game 2 was just as close but featured me making 1 play mistake that cost me the game. Long story short on this one - Smoke Stack, and 1 or 2 spheres and some land in play, to Paul's board of Mox Emerald, Mana Crypt, and a couple of lands - mox emerald is tapped. I then rip Karn off the top and am holding Wasteland, City of Traitors, and Karn. I play Wasteland and Tap out for Karn - this was my mistake. Had I played City of Traitors, then Karn, I would've been able to eat paul's only green mana source (mox emerald), and been safe from any green based artifact hate - I know Paul has artifact mutation and Oxidize. Paul then proceeds to untap and Oxidize Karn, Gush, and drop Tog. -GG. “
I really didn’t see that play with the Ravager, and felt pretty dumb, I could have won easily in the following turn or two had I killed that guy! I was glad to make that mistake here in a round where the stakes were lower because we had already split, though!
3 -0
Round 4&5 ID
3-0-2
Top 8: Sam Lei T1T
So I kinda panicked here because I had no idea what this guy was playing. I knew all the other decks, but had no recon about this one.
G1: I don’t really remember how we got there, but I remember how it ended. I played Tog, he played Warrens for 8. I mana drained the Warrens for the 4 mana. On my Turn I cast Yawg Will and he scooped. I might not have had enough cards to win, actually!
G2: Still didn’t know what his deck was – figured he was slaver, and I even made a note of it. I think he thought I was bluffing. In this game I was ahead in cards the entire time. I made a massive Yawg Will which yielded a 32 point Warrens and left me holding a FOW. He Intuitions for Engineered Explosives, Engineered Explosives and an Accumulated Knowledge. I take a puzzled glance at this and give him the AK. He gets off an AK for 2. then I counter AK for three. He counters back. He draws 3 cards and has only 1 more mana available. He extends the hand and I breathe a little more easily, if he had a third EE, I might have lost!
Semis: Ben Perry, Superlong
G1: He pushes through Tinker for Jar and passes. He vamp tutors for Black lotus and then cracks the Jar on his next turn. In response I Mystical for a FOW. He fans open his hand and Duresses me. I force it, and then wait for the inevitable reaming… but it doesn’t happen. He drops a bunch of dark rituals in the yard and passes the turn with no cards in hand. I easily win.
G2: He gets turn 1 Lotus – Necro, I counter and he counters back. I feel pretty beat, and he draw 10 cards. On my turn I Duress and he FOWs it. On his turn he doesn’t do anything good. He Brainstorms and then Necros for a couple more cards. Then he scoops it.
So combo fizzled against me TWICE. How lucky!! By all rights I should lose that round.
Finals: Charles – Slaver w/ Meloku
For the record, I’m pretty sure Meloku is the suck compared to Triskelevous.
G1: We get down in it for a while and we both have a bunch of Manas. I slap down Tog pretty early and start picking at his face. He gets Meloku out
I was close to killing him, too! On my endstep he makes 2 Melokuvites and on his turn he attacks with 1 and Meloku himself, dealing me 3. On my turn I attack with Tog and he blocks with 1 token. I figure I’d be better off if he had less mana to make guys with, so I lay Gorilla Shaman. He hardcasts FOW against it, using most of his manas. I Time Walk. I untap and surmise the board – if he doesn’t make a bunch of tokens, I can kill him with Force backup, otherwise it’d be a bit of a gamble. I attack and he blocks with one token. I Gush and ramp up the Tog, then C-Wish for the Zerk leaving Force of Will backup.
G2: I play turn 1 Tog and start going to the face with it. He tries to get ahead but I counter a bunch of his stuff and Duress him and all of that. Finaly he taps out and lays his last card in hand, Mindslaver. I could counter it, I could Echoing Truth it, but I just don’t care. I untap, discard everything and swing for lethal, uncontested.
So, the hardest matches were Ichorid and Combo. Even with Duresses, combo is a nightmare. Drains and shops were a bit easier to beat. Lots of people were unable to get a good estimate of how dangerous the Tog is. Sometimes I’d just crash in and create awkward situations.
Afterwards Pam had a cake ready for me and we celebrated in the back parking lot. It was pretty awesome. As usual, RIW is the most awesome place to go to a tournament that there is. I always go to the RIW tournaments, and I’m always really happy with the way they’re run. Seriously.
So, "winner winner chicken dinner!" Well, I had a steak dinner compliments of Josh for my birthday - which was quite savory.
Chalk another one up for Meandeck. See you all at the next one.
-Paul
