[Results] Eudemonia Mox Jet, 6/1: Pix, B/R Apocalypse, and a Brewmaster's Tale

[Webster]

ACT I:

Twenty-three people showed up today to duel for sole ownership of a chewed beta mox jet. Top 8 lists can be found here at Eudemonia's web site.

Top 8:
David Ochoa (Webster), playing gush-tendrils, defeats Christiaan Royer (Zhalfirin), playing Trinket Painter.
Liz Black, playing flash, defeats Jeff Huang (JeffTheFob), playing GAT.
Cory Redmond, playing mono-red workshop aggro, defeats Lucas Siow (toor), playing GAT.
Luis Scott-Vargas (LSV), playing gush-tendrils, defeats Brett Allen (hiryu), playing MSPaint.

Top 4:
David Ochoa (Webster), playing gush-tendrils, defeats Cory Redmond, playing mono-red workshop aggro.
Liz Black, playing flash, defeats Luis Scott-Vargas (LSV), playing gush-tendrils.

Top 2:
David Ochoa (Webster), playing gush-tendrils, defeats Liz Black, playing flash.



ACT II:

I guess the story starts earlier in the week on AIM. I had mentioned earlier about how there had been talk in the TMD forums that dark ritual can be an awkward card in gush-based combo decks sometimes. The results of testing proved otherwise. Dark ritual is the nuts. Period. Anyone who says otherwise is wrong. I vehemently back that statement up 100%. Luis and I discuss the various painter lists that have been making top 8 in the last few weeks. We come to the conclusion that not playing duress is the worst decision in the world (think of pitch long vs control slaver) and that the existing painter lists need a lot of change to accomodate them. While the painter decks have some good things going for them, the ability of other decks to sculpt their hand while painter has to keep volcanic islands untapped to blast their opponent's ancestral led to underdeveloped gameplans on painter's side compared to their opponent. Add to that list that Painter's Servant and Grindstone are just bad cards to draw and we scrapped the thought of playing with the deck. I would have still given us good odds of winning with the deck, but I'd rather play a deck that I think is better.

So the general concensus is that there is going to be a decent amount of painter at the next tournament. Even though we think it's not very good, the chances of other people just looking at raw tounament data without much attention to detail and deciding to gun painter because it's the new rage is high. We begin looking at the existing doomsday list that we had been using recently and begin to theroize changes to make the painter matchup better. We go through a few variations of changes but there's not much that's really exciting. Fob and Luis test a bit. I end up meeting up with some local friends that I haven't seen in a few weekends because I've been out of town terrorizing the coutryside. There was rock band, chaos highlander multiplayer, bowling. Lots of stuff. I may have even mised half a pitcher of beer that was left at the bowling alley when the people next to us left. Can't let good beer go to waste. (P.S. I'm really not an alcoholic.)

So it's Saturday night now and even though we've been throwing ideas back and forth at each other with such fervor that would make a pong player jealous, we haven't come to a solid conclusion of what to play. The tournament is tomorrow at 11 AM. At 1 AM, I give Luis a ring on the phone so we can finish brewing our masterpiece. He had been testing mind's desire and empty the warrens in the doomsday slots with some other minor changes and had said that he'd had positive results. We aren't saying that doomsday is a bad deck; it's sweet, but at the same time, we wanted something else. So we end up talking over various cards and strategies for a ridiculous amount of time and I end up going to bed at 2 AM, content with having a list that seems like it is awesome.


Gush-Tendrils:
4 Gush
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder

4 Force of Will
4 Duress
2 Thoughtsieze
1 Chain of Vapor

3 Merchant Scroll
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Fastbond
1 Mind's Desire
1 Necropotence
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth's Will

1 Empty the Warrens
1 Tendrils of Agony

4 Dark Ritual
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire

3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
1 Island
1 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island


Sideboard:
4 Dark Confidant
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Yixlid Jailer
1 Extirpate
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Gaea's Blessing
1 Pyroblast
1 Sensei's Diving Top
1 Ancient Grudge

Overall I was happy with the way the deck played out, though the SB options against workshop decks is still a joke; one ancient grudge and one chain of vapor was desperately in need of accompanyment. I ended up losing the coinflip on having a good workshop sideboard. I like another basic land, maindeck hurkyl's/rebuild, etc. even if there's only one person playing workshops at the moment; but enough of that.

round 1: some guy, remora blue; I win 2-1
round 2: Liz Black, flash; I win 2-0
round 3: LSV, mirror; I get scooped to.
round 4: ID.
round 5: I dreamcrush to help Luis make top 8 but he thinks he's in regardless so I offer the draw when it's 1-1; ID.

top 8: zhalfirin, UBR painted trinkets w/ duress and bob. I win 2-0.
top 4: Cory Redmond, mono-red workshop aggro. I win 2-1.
top 2: Liz Black, flash. I win 2-1.

In game 1 of the finals, I am on the draw and have a hand of: volcanic island, mox jet, dark ritual, necropotence, ponder, mystical tutor, gush. It doesn't have force which is pretty bad, but despite that fact, it is a very powerful hand which will let me have access to force on her turn 2 and a win on my turn 2 or turn 3 depending on what I necro into. She of course has the turn 1 plays of: land, mox, flash, put protean hulk into play. Ok, I guess you win this one. She wants to just get all the creatures out at one time but I ask her to go through the gameplay motions the way to humor me. It's possible that she could have carrion feeder in hand and is baiting me into scooping prematurely. I soon find out that I'm not that fortunate. She get's carrion feeder and body double which copies protean hulk. She sacrifices body double to carrion feeder. At this point, with what little hope I have of her making a misplay being crushed, I ask her, "So, does carrion feeder have a +1/+1 counter on it now?" She says yes, at which point I look over at Ryan, our head judge, and ask him exactly what is going to happen now. Even though I am about 83% sure that Ryan would let Liz search for reveillark and mogg fanatic from the copied protean hulk's triggered ability despite resolving the abilities in the wrong order, I still want to try to salvage this game and crush her regardless of it being a bushleague play. I'll be the first one to say it's a bushleague play. I won't deny it. It was dirty but it was within the scope of the rules. Using what I know to my advantage is in my best interests. I will not lose any sleep over something like this. I'm sure a lot of people would disagree with this line of play which is fine with me. I'm wouldn't do this if I were just playing for fun with some random person. However, there's money on the line here and I came to win. Ryan comes back after having looked over the acceptable shortcuts section of the comprehensive rules and allows the search. I don't even consider trying to argue my case any more because that would just be stupid for many reasons. So I lose game 1. Such is life.

I end up winning game 2 with leyine and empty the warrens. I keep a six-card hand of: leyline, lotus petal, brainstorm, gush, time walk, dark ritual. I play petal and pass. I don't really want to brainstorm yet because if I miss on action, I'll probably lose. I wanted to wait about 2 turns. Liz plays turn 1 duress though which changes my plans and I brainstorm into volcanic island, black lotus, ancestral recall. I put back lotus and recall and she takes gush. I recall on my turn and play lotus. Next turn I brainstorm again and set up a play of warrens for 6 off duress, ritual, warrens. At this point, I had forced her protean hulk and hand another force in one turn to protect myself. I win in 3 turns.

I win game 3 opening with: leyline, 2 flooded strand, duress, extirpate, ponder, merchant scroll. It's a pretty solid hand. I slow roll my game development and set up a turn 5-6 kill with demonic tutor for lotus, yawgmoth's will, demonic tutor for fastbond, gush, gush, ancestral recall, dark ritual, etc.

Afterwards, we do a bit of wheeling and dealing exchanging various mox jets from hand to hand along with some cash here and there. A Fistful of Dollars; great movie.

At the end of any day of tournament magic, the general feeling is a rumbling in one's stomach; our group was no different. We head over to Zachary's pizza and devour a few pies. For those who don't know of Zachary's, it's a Chicago-style pizza parlor. Their pies are so massive that they have their own gravitational pull. After devouring a few spinach and mushroom deep dish pizza's, we head home.


ACT III:

If the reader has the same keen memory that I do, they'll remember that the last banned/restricted announcement was actuallly posted about a day earlier than it should have been. Armed with this factoid, I was refreshing my IE browser every few minutes starting on Friday night starting around 8:30 PM PST when I know the site starts to update. Alas, it looks like there will be nothing until the next night despite being a weekend because GP Birmingham was going on and they were updating because of that. Fastforward one day and we're still stuck on pause. Suspence is for books and movies, not banned/restricted announcements.

Now it's Sunday, May 1 and I've just arrived home from the tournament. I log on and check out magicthegathering.com. Yaus, they updated and posted the announcement. Click, redirect.... reading..... reading.... processing.... processing....

"Jeez, WOTC just red-blasted type 1."

I don't want this thread to have ANY discussion on the banned/restricted announcement at all. If you feel the need to post your feeling about that particular event, use one of the 500 threads elsewhere in other forums/forum boards. This thread is for the tournament experience only.

JeffTheFob is crafting some pictures which will be up at some point.

The next Eudemonia tournament is on Sunday, June 22, 2008 for a mox sapphire.

Discuss.

[hiryu]

Luis and I discuss the various painter lists that have been making top 8 in the last few weeks. We come to the conclusion that not playing duress is the worst decision in the world (think of pitch long vs control slaver) and that the existing painter lists need a lot of change to accomodate them.

I agree 100%... unfortunately I did 100% of my testing at the event rather than beforehand and showed up with Painter without so much as shuffling it up.  As a result I was out-Duressed and out-played by Luis in the top eight.  Game 1 I've been triple Duressed and my hand is Island, Vamp Tutor.  I have three lands and a Painter in play.  Luis has just loaded up with Necro and is in his end step.  Having no real plays, I Vampiric Tutor for Grindstone, go to my turn, and play it.  It resolves.  Luis, always the sly one, asks "Grind me?"  I shrug in assent and he flips his library, skips his draw step, and shows the Will in hand.  Owned.

I guess if I were a better player I would have held back on grinding and seen if he could go off without playing a draw spell, while trying to race my 1/3 dude vs his Necro?  Seems sketchy, since he also had the Tendrils in hand.

...and I brainstorm into volcanic island, black lotus, ancestral recall

Holy crap, that card needs to be restricted. 

Too bad I didn't know it was the last huzzah for the insane Brainstorm/Gush/Ponder engine or I would have played TTS as well.  There really is no better deck right now.

[Webster]

...and I brainstorm into volcanic island, black lotus, ancestral recall

Holy crap, that card needs to be restricted. 

Too bad I didn't know it was the last huzzah for the insane Brainstorm/Gush/Ponder engine or I would have played TTS as well.  There really is no better deck right now.

There's supposed to be a tournament at Adventures in Sacramento on the 14th. You'll still have a chance to sleep with those dirty dirty blue cards in multiples that we all love one last time. I thought it had posted but I guess not. I'll see if I can get some information about it. Here is their contact info:

Adventures in Comics and Games
6026 Fair Oaks Blvd
Carmichael, CA 95608
(916) 973-9064

[The Acidic Hasidic]

This was kind of fun. i was playing mana ichorid and actually did pretty well.

Round 1: vs. Slivers

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH A


1-0


Round 2: vs. Mono Red workshop

g1: i turn 2 him
g2: he goes t1 stuff, thorn of amethyst, go. I play a  bazzar and activate it pass the turn. He goes Tormod's crypt, Magnus of the moon, whatever, proceeds to beat me down with it cause i cant find ichorids
g3: He mulls to five. Turn 1 i Bazzar, breakthrough for zero , hit all of my ichorids and 3 bridges... no narco's. He goes double tormods crypt, magnus of the moon.

1-1

Round 3: vs. GAT

G1: i turn 2 him
G2: my emerald charm gets forced, he drops a jailer (wasnt expecting that) so i scooped.
G3: Turn 0 double leyline. Ok, thats find cause i had 2 emerald charms in my hand. After i played the second one, he echoing truthed it back to his hand to recast it next turn. Then instead he plays Jailer, i contaigion and on my turn cabal therapy his leyline. The the obvious happens. He topdecks another jailer and beats me down with it

1-2

Round 4: Vs. MSPaint

G1: i turn 2 him
G2: He drops a leyline plays a land mox and painter then passes. I go Mox, COV leyline, play bazzar, draw into a breakthrough and a lotus, breakthrough for one (keeping the other breakthrough in my hand) then breakthrough for 0. Pretty decent hand.

2-2

Round 5: Vs. Deez Nuts + Painter servant Jank

I had already conceded to him because we were chill, and he had a better shot at top 8 (he ended up coming in ninth). we still played it out

G1: i really didnt want to play, so i just kept some random shit that was like breakthrough mox land and crap. So whatever i breaktrough t1, hit nothing, put some ichorids, a few dredgers and 1 bridge in my graveyeard. I was able to beat him down with ichords, cause he drew 6 duress in a row
G2: He mulls to 5 with a leyline, emrald, 2 trinket mages and a stifle. i cov, cabal therapy it and his mages and just destroy him.

3-2

That pizza place was pretty decent afterwards too.

[hiryu]

Round 1: vs. Slivers

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH A

OK, let me expand on this one... I happened to be sitting next to Mr Acidic and saw this go down.

Slivers guy wins the coin flip and leads off with... Wanderwine Hub (tapped).  Acidic lays a Bazaar of Baghdad.  There's some card reading, some explanation, and then Slivers goes to take his turn.  Acidic stops him with a "Whoa, whoa, I'm not done" and activates the Bazaar, pitching Golgari Thug, Bridge from Below and something else.  Slivers guy goes to take his turn, but is stopped again so that Lotus Petal can enter play and be sacrificed for an Ancestral Recall.  Golgari Thug comes back to the hand to the great consternation of Slivers guy.  What shenanigans is this; Ancestral Recall lets your draw three cards as everybody knows!  Acidic smiles and says "Yes, but... OK, you'd better read this," and slides over the Thug.  A turn later and it's all over.  Meanwhile, back at my match, my opponent has finally finished resolving his turn 1 Brainstorm.

I saw Slivers guy again in round 2.  He was tragically matched up once again against dredge.  His opponent flashes back a Cabal Therapy, naming Echoing Truth.  Slivers guy reveals a hand of Winged Sliver and four copies of Tribal Unity.  What a terrible mis-read on the Therapy.  Dredge guy attacks for 33.

As I waited out my intentional draws, I talked with Slivers guy, who was regretting his choice not to play Goblins deck, or his Spells deck.  I never found out what the deal is with the Spells deck, but I battled his Goblins deck with my type 2 deck.  He won the flip and played turn 1 Lackey, turn 2 Raging Golbin and Lackey'ed out like a Goblin Grappler or something.  I cast Firespout on turn 3 and Chameleon Colossus and Tarmogoyf cleaned up.

Keep at it, Slivers guy.  You'll get there.

[tomjoad]

This tournament is, in all likelihood, the worst beat I've suffered since I've been playing Magic (aside from letting my parents sell all my old cards at a garage sale when I was 16 or 17 and far too "cool" for M:tG).

a) Sleep in
b) Make multiple wrong turns while rushing to Eudo in attempt to make it on time
c) Show up only slightly too late (but too late, none-the-less)
d) Cards left in San Ramon. Couldn't have played even if I was on time
e) Very unlikely to be able to play TTS ever again, despite it being totally fun and awesome

I think I've committed to going to Oregon (for essentially no good reason) the weekend of the 15th, so I'll have to try to push that back if Adventures is actually holding a tournament.