Astro City Games (Chicago) Ancestral 2/28/09 Results/report--split w/Nautilus

[Tha Gunslinga]

7 people.

for a Recall.

Yeah.

Seven.

There were a LOT of conflicting events.

RIW 2-day.
Indy GP Trial or PTQ or something

Misty Mountain Madison GPT (the rest of ICBM was there)

GWS was absent except for Donovan, who straggled in an hour and a half after round 1 started.  He hung out a little and left.

We did 3 rounds of swiss, with cut to top 4.

Benjamin Carp
Team ICBM
Nautilus

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
3 Underground Sea
3 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
4 Force of Will
3 Stifle
3 Daze
3 Counterbalance
2 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
1 Echoing Truth
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Trygon Predator
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor

SB:
4 Krosan Grip
3 Red Elemental Blast
1 Volcanic Island
4 Smother
3 Oxidize

Note the total absence of any Ichorid hate.  Totally slipped my mind.

Round 1:  John Beste (Red Stax)
Game 1 I won somehow.  Game 2 I kept a hand of Mox, Wasteland, 3 Trops, U Sea, and Demonic.  He kept a bad six and I won.  Note the overkill SB vs Stax.  DEATH TO SHOPS.

Round 2:  Kurt Maske (Mana Ichorid)
Game 1 he mulls to shit and I crush him.
Game 2 I bring in the Volc and REBs for his blue stuff.  He has a solid hand and wins.
Game 3 he mulls to shit and I crush him.  TRIPLE GOYF is pretty fucking good when they're 6/7s.

Round 3: Isaac (TPS/Tez)
I scoop him in, as he's 1-0-1.  Not an incredible idea considering how the points work out.

Top 4:
Isaac (TPtez)
store owner (Ichorid)
Ben (me) (Nautilus)
someone else (Oath)

Oath is a bye.  TPtez is probably easy.  Ichorid.  Frowntown.  I haven't started our match, though, when I think the Oath player asks about a split.  I would MUCH rather chicken out and take the split than get crushed and win nothing.  We split.  I get the Ancestral and pay everyone off.  I go home.

Meta was:
Affinity/combo
2 Ichorid
Oath
BUG Fish
Red Stax
TPS/tez

Now, I'm fully aware that if this were someone else's tournament report, I would probably rip them to shreds over it.  You will note that I'm totally honest about how stupid this was.

Strike 1: seven people
Strike 2: I only played 5 games
Strike 3: I lucksack the match vs Ichorid
Strike 4: 4-way split at a 7-person tourney
Strike 5: I forgot about Ichorid, and neglected to scout
Strike 6: I'm a wuss

Yeah.  So that should pretty much take care of it.  Nautilus is the fucking bees knees.  I'd cut the Counterbalance/Top probably; it was a test slot and wasn't too hot.  No clue what to put in, but I'm sure I can figure it out.  Cut a few cards out of the SB for Tormod's Crypts or something fun for Ichorid.  Maybe just Propaganda, though this deck has a bit of a hard time hitting that much mana.  I definitely need more mana maindeck; at least Petal needs to be there.

[Smmenen]

So, by "Nautilus," you mean you are playing Grow? (With Wastelands?).

That's funny, that's what my Vintage article on Monday is about. 

[Tha Gunslinga]

I named it Nautilus because it was originally pretty much "Noughtless Noughts," when I took DEEZ NOUGHTS and cut the Noughts so it didn't roll over to Ancient Grudge.  "Noughtless" sounded an awful lot like "Nautilus," so that's what I decided to call it.  It's a pretty hot deck; basically a stronger BUG Fish.  You don't really need Null Rod in my opinion, though I could probably get it back in there if I yanked the Counterbalance/Top setup.

[M.Solymossy]

I feel REALLY bad that I wasn't able to get to this event.  The RIW Event took presidence.  Hopefully this doesn't discourage them from running more, as I definitely will be back to defend my Astro City#1 title!

[BoomChild]

Gentlemen,

The event was a great time, even with only a 7 player turnout and I will be hosting more of them in the future, as long as the weekends aren't packed with over 9000 events.

Boomer

[ktmaske]

I'd just like to point out round 3 against Ben he didn't totally crush me lol, i did have to mull but i had ancestral and was able to discard to start dredging my second turn, i had narcs out and was able to let an ichorid to come in ot play just to die and get me more tokens setting up for blockers and hopefully future one big swing, but his 4th turn he threw out his 3rd and 4th tarmogoyf!, which i could hold off as it seemed for now and his 5th turn he turned over echoing truth with dark confidant swinging in for 20 when i had only one narc left in play. lol it wasn't like there wasn't a game like the first one, just he had some nice draws

[vassago]

WOW! I thought we were fighting just to get more than eight people to show up at one of our events here in AZ.  Smasher and I have been working really hard just to get people interested in the format out here.  Hopefully you guys will get a much larger turn out next time. 

[M.Solymossy]

20+ is almost always guarenteed out here... until there is a legacy GP A week away, and GPTs left and right.

[Razvan]

I am seriously not certain why events are losing attendance by the year. It's not just this event, it's all. It's unfortunate, I am impressed you keep the prize as is.

[BoomChild]

The prize support was kept as is because I am a man of my word.  If I had an option I would have pulled the recall and played for something lower but a promised prize support is promised prize support.  Packed with this knowledge, people should come out to my events so that I can keep running them.  Ask the people that showed up to this event, there as much more space to play and had we had 20 people it would not have been crowded at all. 

I am looking at late March/Early April for my next event.  Good luck to anyone at the GP.

Boomer

[Suicideking]

I will come to these events in the future.  There was just too many things going on that weekend.

[LordHomerCat]

Same for me.  I already had plans for RIW, but in the future these tourneys will be on my to-do list.  Sorry the turnout sucked this time.

[Isaac85]

I am looking at late March/Early April for my next event.  Good luck to anyone at the GP.

Crosses fingers for early April for the next event. I don't think I can ask for time off for the rest of the month lol.

[Nehptis]

It's a pretty hot deck; basically a stronger BUG Fish.  You don't really need Null Rod in my opinion, though I could probably get it back in there if I yanked the Counterbalance/Top setup.

It looks to me like a variation / evolution of BUG Fish.  I'm hoping that you add some comments to that thread based on your experience with this build.  I do think that as you suggest CounterB/Top should go out and Rod should come in.  I really like Daze, too. The only other card that is in and out of BUG these days is Cursecatcher.  Personally, I like Curse.