ICBM open #6 - 10th place Drain Tendrils

[Dante]

I played Drain Tendrils, trying out Soly's suggestion of Regrowth and Fastbond.

Round 1 - Alex Frankson, Belcher.

Game 1: He wheels turn 1, but Wheels me into 2x Fow - he empties his hand and I stop his belcher.  I win with Tinker shortly thereafter.
Game 2: I have the FOW for his turn 1 business and fastbond into mana drain mana.

1-0 (2-0 games)

Round 2 - former SCG champ Jameson Bryant, GBW good stuff

Game 1: Turn 1 Tinker for DSC takes it home for me.
Game 2: I get a turn 1 Goyf, he gets stuck on 1 Scrubland and all 5 of his strip effects and can't cast any of his own Goyfs or more than 1 black spell per turn.  Duress doesn't help much vs a big green creature.

2-0 (4-0 games)

Round 3 - Jake, Scepter

Game 1: I have tons of gass, but in the first 2 turns he has FoWx2 and Mana Drain.     I almost pull it out anyway, but like a dumbass, I split his Fact or Fiction pile wrong (the pile was 2xFOW, Sol ring, Mana Drain, Rushing River) - my first instince was 2xFOW in one pile, but for some reason I threw the sol ring in that pile which led to him having exactly 10 mana to hard cast both. 

Game 2: I mull to 5 and start out way behind.

2-1 (4-2 games)

Round 4 - JACO, UBG goyf confidant

Game 1: we trade until eventually he tinkers for lotus(?) to hardcast Titan the following turn.  This wrecks my manabase and sends us to game 2.
Game 2: I get an early Tinker -> DSC.  I think this was turn 1.
Game 3: I mull to 6, but he mulls to 5.  I have a turn 1 or 2 Goyf and eventually get a second one and they both get there.

3-1 (6-3 games)

Round 5 - Owen, Painter

Game 1: don't remember, fairly sure he played better than I did.
Game 2: mull to 5, his REBs trumped my cards and I never saw any duress.

3-2 (6-5 games)

Round 6 - Nam Tram, MUD

Game 1: my first turn is nuts - Fastbond, Ancestral,Gush - end my turn with 3 open mana having drawn 5 cards.  I drain his crucible and then hardcast DSC on my second turn.  He gets a Staff of Domination out, which holds off my DSC for a bit, so I just Will and Tendrils him.  That's my first tendrils kill of the day.

Game 2: I get turn 1 Goyf, followed by Tinker for DSC.  HE fends that off with Staff and recurring Mishra's factories with crucible.  I build up some mana to try and force the Tendrils kill through and he starts wasting my underground seas, which doesn't leave him enough to block the Goyf.  Once he gets low enough Time Walk takes it home.

So I end up 4-2 (8-5 games), which is good for 10th.

AK was crap all day long.  Goyfs were great.  Regrowth was good.  I'm torn on fastbond.

[misslehead3]

Congrats on tenth and thanks for the report, you say AK was garbage all day. In all the instances you played Inuition for AK AK AK how many of them would have been better or worse if it had been Inuition --> DA DA DA. I understand what you mean on fastbond in testing it in most any deck in the post-gush era it seems like its ok for the first few turns but nothing too special and then its just plain dead in the mid to late game so it acually does something for about 3-4 turns and then i would rather have a grizzly bear.  You also said regrowth was pretty hot in this deck but do you think that maybe DT could go a 4C way and splash red for recoup so you could make busted Intuition  piles such as regrowth recoup will --> win. One last thing what was the exact list you played???

[Dante]

the list was the one soly posted, maybe I changed 1 card, can't remember.

3 Island
2 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
1 Tolarian Academy
10 Artifacts

2 Intuition
1 Gifts Ungiven
4 Accumulated Knowledge
3 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Gush
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Rebuild
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
1 tinker
1 Mind Twist
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Fastbond
1 Regrowth

Sideboard:
4 Tarmogoyfgoyfgoyf (he's a pokemon  in hiding!)
4 Duress
1 Hurkyls Recall
1 Rebuild
2 Tormods Crypt
2 Extirpate
1 Darkblast

Doing it again, I do this:

-4 AK
- 1 Mind twist
+2 DA (try beckers recommendation)
+3 Duress

Recoup would not have been as good as regrowth - many times I regrowthed but didn't have mana to cast the target until next turn (typically early Regrowths) and there were just as many non-sorcery targets (Tarmogoyf, Ancestral, Thirst (to pitch a DSC for the tinker in my hand)) I got back instead of just Will, Time Walk, a and DT.  4 Colors would be too much for the deck, it's already susceptible enough to Wastes.

There wasn't a single time I cast or could cast AK for more than 2 all tournament.  I wanted to Intuition early for draw most of the time where a pile of Will, regrowth, recoup (assuming you add red, which I wouldn't), you often won't have enough mana to do a whole lot with that turn 2-3 when I want to intuition.

[M.Solymossy]

I played the exact list Bill did, with a different sideboard.  I took 11th right behind him.  I tried to make it a little less known that the real green bomb is Regrowth, NOT fastbond, but I think when people play the deck they will realize this.  I used regrowth to grab Forces and protect my threats all day long.  Fastbond works like dark ritual, it's only REALLY good post-will, or when you have fastbond + Gush.   It randomly chains into a ton of spells, but you never find yourself tutoring for fastbond (Unless it's intuition or gifts).  I did however use fastbond once to create a win that otherwise wasn't there.

My sideboard was:

2 Thoughtseize
1 Duress
1 Echoing Decay
1 Darkblast
3 Tormods Crypt
2 Hurkyls Recall
1 Rebuild
3 Tarmogoyf
1 Yixlid Jailer (i think I cut him for something else, but I can't remember).

[OwenTheEnchanter]

I wish people would get rid of this idea they have that Tarmogoyf is a good creature in vintage.  Literally every single time that guy has resolved against me, I sigh relief that my opponent wasted two mana to play a vanilla creature.

[ErkBek]

I wish people would get rid of this idea they have that Tarmogoyf is a good creature in vintage.  Literally every single time that guy has resolved against me, I sigh relief that my opponent wasted two mana to play a vanilla creature.

DING!

[M.Solymossy]

That guy is fine out of the sideboard.  I play combo and Combo-control.   The guy is obviously a nightmare for shops/aggro decks, but against Combo or Combo-Control, usually I just LOL.

[Dante]

on a non-magic note, this is the first tournament I played in since November of last year and my hands weren't used to 8+ hours of shuffling, cutting, constantly manipulating cards, etc.  The following day at the gym, when I tried deadlifting, my grip was useless.  I normally deadlift in the 265-280 range and I couldn't even hold onto 225 more than 5 times.

So lesson is I need to work on my finger shuffling strength - these ICBM tournaments on saturday instead of Sunday will help get me back on the horse.

[M.Solymossy]

I normally deadlift in the 265-280 range and I couldn't even hold onto 225 more than 5 times.

That's it?  I used to deadlift in the 500 range, before I tore my knee.  Granted, this was when I was 16...  I also outweigh you by at least 80 pounds. LOL.

[Dante]

I normally deadlift in the 265-280 range and I couldn't even hold onto 225 more than 5 times.

That's it?  I used to deadlift in the 500 range, before I tore my knee.  Granted, this was when I was 16...  I also outweigh you by at least 80 pounds. LOL.

Yes that's it - I only weigh 185, so it's still 1.5 x bodyweight, but I've only been deadlifting and olympic weightlifting about 15 months.  I would like to see it more in the 360 range by next year.

[nartman99]

First, my last name is Tran 

Second, it was a blast to flop some cards with you. I guess I didn't put up much of a fight but I did manage to hold off Darksteel Colossus and Tarmogoyf for a little while.

On a side note, I had no idea that you were Dante on TMD. I remember that you were one of my favorite people to read reports by when I was getting into Vintage.

Maybe next time I will put up more of a fight!