TMD Open T16 - RG Belcher gets the job done

[GrandpaBelcher]

There’s not really much to say in prelude to this tournament report.  The weekend was thrown together maybe not at the 11th hour but at the 8th or 9th when Matt Hazard and I were lamenting not having been able to attend GP Chicago.  I pointed out that the TMD Open was in two more weeks and that cheap flights were still available from Columbus to Baltimore, which was conveniently along the route from Virginia to Connecticut.

“I think I might want to do this,” said Matt, and within two days his flight and a hotel room had been reserved and we had added Hale Simon and Kyle Guillemette to our crew for cost deferment and general hanging-out purposes.  Fantastic!  Vintage is so much better than Legacy anyway.

I already knew that I’d be playing Belcher on day one of the tournament.  Though I try to not be possessive and jealous, I do think of it as my deck.  Mine.  Not playing Belcher would be a grave betrayal of some of my favorite cards.  Plus, I had T4’d in Baltimore two weeks previous and T8’d Pittsburgh the week before.

Choosing a list wasn’t difficult.  The deck I was worried about was Mystic Remora, which I hadn’t yet faced but which seemed like a beating against my deck.  I didn’t want to hear the phrase, “Commandeer your Belcher,” without being able to answer with Guttural Response.  Maindeck Welders and Empty the Warrens also seemed strong, especially in an environment that’s passing on Echoing Truth for cards that bounce Tinkwell Leviathan.

So I played the following list:

4x Goblin Charbelcher
4x Empty the Warrens
1x Wheel of Fortune
1x Memory Jar
1x Timetwister
1x Tinker

4x Rite of Flame
4x Tinder Wall
4x Simian Spirit Guide
4x Elvish Spirit Guide
4x Chrome Mox
4x Manamorphose
5x Mox
1x Black Lotus
1x Lion’s Eye Diamond
1x Lotus Petal
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Sol Ring
1x Channel

4x Goblin Welder
4x Street Wraith
3x Guttural Response
1x Pyroblast

I don’t think there’s too much to explain there, but I’ll go over a couple of things before the sideboard.

• Guttural Response takes the bulk of the protection slots because it works with either Spirit Guide and is better with Chrome Mox, but I wanted a miser’s Pyroblast against Tezzeret, Tinker, and other non-instant spells.
• Tinker and Twister make the cut over other bombs like Yawgmoth’s Will because they’re good in the opening hand.  I haven’t had significant problems getting the blue for them, but I’d mulligan past hands when they’re uncastable.
• Goblin Welder is so good.  So, so good.  If you’re not playing black, you should play Goblin Welder.  It’s not just for getting back a countered Belcher; it works with Jar, LED, Wheel, and Black Lotus too.  Just trust me on this.
• Street Wraith is in there because I don’t want anything else.  The spell that would replace it is Desperate Ritual, and I don’t feel like I need that.  If you have trouble mulliganing with Street Wraith, just pretend it’s a mana source.  Two out of three times it will be.
• Serum Powder is not in there because drawing it midgame or when you don’t need to mulligan is like finding a Pokemon card in your deck.  It’s embarrassing and disappointing.
• Pact of Negation is not in there because it doesn’t work well enough with your win conditions.  You will never pay the upkeep on Pact, so you can’t use it to protect Empty the Warrens or a Belcher without activation mana.
• Black cards aren’t in there because they take room away from Guttural Response and Goblin Welder, which were my maindeck answers to the Drain and Remora fueled metagame I expected.

Speaking of the metagame, here’s the sideboard.

• 1x Gaea’s Blessing – Strictly for Painter.  I’m not convinced this is necessary, but I’ve had bad experiences versus Painter in the past.
• 2x Pyroblast – One or both of these come in against Tezzeret, Remoras, and opposing combo on the draw.  I rarely have all six Blast effects in the deck at one time because I don’t want to dilute the combo too much.  Usually it’s 3x Pyroblasts and 2x Guttural Response, but I’ll mix it up depending on how I feel or what I’ve seen in the previous games.
• 4x Tormod’s Crypt – My nod to Ichorid.  My plan is to race them anyway, but Guttural Responses come out so I have room.
• 4x Seething Song – Stax and Workshops can’t counter spells, and I’ve found it’s just easier to race them than it is to try to blow up their lock pieces.  Plus, Song helps me cast…
• 4x Deus of Calamity! (a.k.a. Mark Trogdon) – It’s big and it destroys land; plus it can’t be Commandeered.  Normally, Deus and Seething Song would be Storm Entity and Desperate Ritual, but Storm Entity loses too easily to too much.  Go big or go home!

So my deck was ready to go weeks in advance.  Unfortunately when Friday night rolled around and we were ready to hit the road, Matt’s plane was two hours delayed leaving Tampa, which meant it would get to Columbus late, which meant instead of getting to Baltimore at 10, it would get in at midnight.  Kyle and Hale were good sports about everything, though and after pizza and games with my fiancée at my apartment and some test rounds at Hale’s, we leapt into the wild blue Honda for the Nutmeg State, picking up Matt at Thurgood Marshall airport on the way.

Five hours, one tank of gas, $25 in tolls, and countless lost GPS signals later, we were pulling into the parking lot of the only hotel in town.  Twenty minutes later, we were all asleep.

The next morning we enjoyed the free continental breakfast and headed for the tournament site.  One-hundred thirteen people registered—I was impressed!  This was the biggest tournament I’d played in for a long time.

Matt, Kyle, Hale, and I rolled dice to see who would sit out of the team competition.  I won.  Or lost.  Whatever.  I wasn’t on the team.  Who’s laughing now?  (Actually, I don’t think anybody is.  I don’t think the team competition mattered that much to any of us).

Anyway, this intro has gone on long enough:

Round 1 – David – TPS

David was friendly and said he hadn’t played Vintage in a long time.  After a little more talk I learned that he knew my carmate Hale from back in the day and we had a nice relaxing CHANNEL BELCHER

Oh, uh, well, that was the end of game one.

Seemed like a good way to start the weekend—a day one, round one, turn one kill.  I don’t think I sideboarded because I saw none of his deck.

For game two, David mulliganed once and I once.  I have no notes for myself, but David played Imperial Seal and cracked Lotus to play Brainstorm and Ancestral Recall.  Then he played Tinkered for Jar and cracked it into Demonic Tutor for Yawgmoth’s Will and the win.  I think that went down on turn two or three.

I mulliganed again on the play in game three but still had the mana for a turn one Jar, which I cracked.  He Forced my Manamorphose to stop me that turn, but I drew Belcher and played it on turn two with mana on board.  He Twistered to go for the win on his turn (and I really hoped to draw three Spirit Guides to end it there), but even with three floating mana, that play stalled.  I untapped and won.

Matches – 1-0-0; Games – 2-1-0

Round 2 – Eric – Mono-Red Workshop Aggro

Eric was friendly but quiet.  After the match, he admitted that he hadn’t had a lot of practice with his deck.  We both made several misplays in the Welder matchup.

I won the roll and played Belcher and Welder on turn one, still needing activation mana.  He played a Welder to match me and another one on turn two, making me regret having used Lotus Petal.  He attacked me to 12 with one Welder, and we moved Belcher and Petal back and forth a few times.  Then he played a Gorilla Shaman and my heart sank.  Welder + Shaman with a 0-drop artifact in the yard makes for a little situation we like to call, “Eat your board.”  Belcher got Welded into a Lotus Petal and was eaten.  Next turn I drew the last mana I needed for activation and the artifact I needed to Weld: a Chrome Mox.  My hope was that my opponent wouldn’t realize the play of eating the Mox in response to the Weld.  Fortunately for me he didn’t.  Belcher got Welded back in for the win.

I boarded out Guttural Responses and Manamophoses (which are terrible under a Sphere effect) for Seething Songs and Dei.

Game two was very interesting.  My opening hand had two Welder, a Deus, and some good, stable mana.  He opened with Thorn and I played a Welder and a couple of Moxes off a Spirit Guide.  He answered with a Welder of his own, and I attacked, hoping he’d block.  He did, and I played my second Welder.  His Magus of the Moon was answered by my Tinder Wall, and his Trinisphere kept me from ramping mana to play the Deus still in my hand.  At last I drew a Spirit Guide.  Deus rocked the world and the game was over quickly.

Matches – 2-0-0; Games – 4-1-0

Round 3 – AJ Grasso – UR Landstill

AJ and I had seen each other before at Baltimore tournaments but hadn’t actually played or met as far as either of us could remember.  The match was a lot of fun and felt a lot closer than the outcome indicates.  (Maybe I’m just an optimist).

AJ was on the play with no mulligans in game one, and I opened on my turn with an Empty the Warrens with five storm that came up four goblins short as my opponent Dazed one copy and Forced another.  I left my goblins up to block as my opponent dropped several Mishra’s Factories.  Periodically I’d test the waters with spells that got countered until I drew Belcher and saw it resolve with back up in hand.  I activated on the next turn to finish my opponent off from five life.

I likely didn’t board.  If I did, I brought in a Pyroblast for a Chrome Mox or an Elvish Spirit Guide.

AJ dropped an Island and used it to Daze my Mana Vault.  I paid the extra, but that prevented me from Emptying the Warrens.  I played a Welder instead.  He Chained my Welder before it became active and I played Empty the Warrens for two storm.  I got some damage in, but my opponent put me under a Standstill and played Factories to keep me out of the game.

Finally on the play in this match, I made the most of the opportunity by mulliganing to five.  My opponent mulliganed once as well, and we played draw-go for a couple of turns while I waited to draw mana.  Instead, my opponent played Standstill.  Twice.  I can’t play through that kind of card advantage and lost the game in short order.  He Fired me for the win.

Matches – 2-1-0; Games – 5-3-0

Round 4 – Stephen – Angel-Dragon Oath

I don’t remember much about my fourth-round opponent.  Just your average friendly Magic player, I guess.

I won the die roll and went first, launching a turn one undisrupted Belcher and Welder off a Lotus.  Unfortunately my opponent played a Lotus of his own and Demonic Tutored for Echoing Truth to put the Belcher back in my hand.  I played draw-go then for a couple of turns, as my opponent played Oath and activated it once to Hellkite me to 10.  On my last legs, I topdecked Channel!  I Welded in my Lotus, played Channel, and launched the returned Belcher for the win!

No sideboard.

My opponent opened with nothing serious as I mulliganed into an Empty the Warrens for 10.  He Impulsed twice off Lotus to find an answer but struck out. I attacked, he drew and conceded.

Matches – 3-1-0; Games – 7-3-0

Round 5 – Raf Forino – 5c Stax

This was one of the more intense, fun matches I can remember playing.  I hope to run across Mr. Forino again at future events.  He was friendly, a challenging competitor, and completely invested in the match outcome.

Game one, on the play, I Emptied the Warrens for 16 goblins and played a Welder, probably off Wheel or something.  Unfortunately, Raf had Powder Keg in hand and blew my hopes out of the water.  The Welder couldn’t keep me from being locked down for long, however, and I scooped to save time.

I boarded out Manamorphoses and Guttural Responses for Seething Songs and Dei.

I mulliganed to four for game two and figured I was done for.  I played a Mox, Sol Ring, and Mana Vault, and Raf played a Trinisphere.  I topdecked Belcher and played it, waiting for activation mana.  Raf Tinkered for Karn and ate one of my Moxen, but I topdecked a Spirit Guide for the win on the last turn before Karn ate the rest of my mana.  Whew!  I was relieved to win this game, even more so because I thought it was game three.  It turned out we still had one more to go!

After the match, Raf said he made the wrong Tinker choice.  He could have gotten Pithing Needle to shut of my Belcher.  I think that was probably a better choice for him.  Dealing with Pithing Needle at that point would have been really difficult for me.

On the play in game three, Raf mulled deep to find a first turn effective lock piece against me, eventually opening from three cards with a Thorn of Amethyst.  I kept a seven card hand that allowed me to play two Moxen and Mana Crypt off a Spirit Guide.  After mulliganing so far, he couldn’t lock me out from playing Belcher on turn two and activating on turn three.

Matches – 4-1-0; Games – 9-4-0

Like I said, that match was intense.  I got lucky at all the right times and pulled out the win, but it could have been far worse for me.  From this point I only needed to win one more round to earn a top 16 spot.

Round 6 – Michael – Oath

I don’t remember much of my opponent this round either (something about Oath opponents, I guess), but my notes and the games are pretty good.

I mulliganed to five on the draw in game one and opened with an Empty for eight goblins on my first turn.  Not an especially quick clock, unfortunately, and my opponent played Oath on his turn.  I got in for eight and he Oathed up Inkwell Leviathan.  “Not what I really wanted,” he said.  I swung in again and he blocked, going to four.  Then he Oathed up Hellkite and Time Walked for the win.

I probably didn’t sideboard here either.  I’m more worried about the artifacts in Oath than the counters, so I just want to be fast.

On the play in game two, he Forced my Belcher on turn one, but I recovered on turn two with an Empty the Warrens for eight tokens.  Fortunately for me, he had kept a one-land hand to get that Force and was unable to deal with the goblin horde before they finished him.

I mulliganed twice again for game three, but again had a turn one Belcher, which got Negated.  Dang.  And then he played a Null Rod.  Double dang!  Welder resolved, but suddenly became a liability as my opponent dug for Oath with Lim-Dul’s Vault.  No problem, though.  When he activated Oath (getting Hellkite), he dumped a Mox Sapphire to his yard, allowing me to Weld out his Null Rod.  On my turn, I Welded in my Belcher and activated for the win at one life.

Matches – 5-1-0; Games – 11-5-0

So that was it.  I was able to draw in to the top 16 at 5-1-1.  I ate some packaged crackers my fiancée had packed for me and waited for the final rounds to begin.

When they did, I was at once pleased and disappointed to be facing the Dark Lord himself, Stephen Menendian.

Top 16 – Smmenenenenenendian – 1-Gush GAT

Steve is a lot of fun to play against, but he was playing a new version of GAT.  Six Duresses, Disrupts, Force of Wills and a pair of Mana Drains is pretty bad for Belcher.  I definitely had to go broken on my first turn, when all he had were the quartet of Forces.

So that’s what I did game one.  I played a Mox Sapphire and got him to counter a Mana Crypt.  Then I pitched two Elvish Spirit Guides to play Timetwister.  A few more mana spells went through and I Emptied the Warrens for 16 tokens.  Steve did some digging, took sixteen damage, did a bit more digging and scooped.

He asked if I was bringing in the Dei of Calamity that I’d showed him earlier in the day, and I was coy but made no changes.

Game two was much more interesting.  Steve Ancestral’d himself on my upkeep and had Force of Wills for my Tinder Wall and Goblin Welder.  Next turn, he Duressed the Charbelcher I was going to play and the turn after he Thoughtseized my Memory Jar.  That was plenty good enough to keep me down, as he started attacking with Dark Confidant, but Steve decided to play Yawgmoth’s Will and Duress me twice more and Tinker up Inkwell Leviathan for good measure.

Game three was similar.  I kept a hand with Black Lotus, Channel, and Belcher, and Steve Force of Will’d the Lotus.  Steve is one of the best at mulliganing to Force against me, so I knew he had it, but I can’t reasonably throw that hand back.  Anyway, Steve kept me off my game by Duressing and countering mana (I found out later that he had two Forces, again!) and preventing me from resolving Welder.  I died to a Tarmogoyf and a Tinkwell again.

Matches – 5-2-1; Games – 12-7-0

I can’t really imagine a worse matchup in the top 16.  That ended my day.  I walked away feeling pretty good about myself for having done well.  Plus, I got a nifty free playmat and two draft sets!

My carmates and I headed to a grand feast at T.G.I. Friday’s or Applebee’s or one of those restaurants.  It was okay.  No Thurman’s, but okay.

I was pleased with my performance and how the deck played all day.  If I were to play this build of Belcher again, I wouldn’t make any changes.  Even to Deus of Calamity.  Each card has its role and performs it well.

If my carmates (and I) hadn’t wanted to leave early on Sunday, I would have played Belcher again, but the RUGBurn version with Black.  I’m still in the process of comparing them to see which versions to play in which situations.  These are the changes I would have made to get that version:

-4 Goblin Welder
-4 Guttural Response
-4 Empty the Warrens

+4 Dark Ritual
+3 Wild Cantor
+1 Necropotence
+1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
+1 Demonic Consultation
+1 Demonic Tutor
+1 Tendrils of Agony

RUGBurn Belcher is more explosive, and I’m finally pleased with how the mana works together (you can imprint Street Wraith for black!), but I still win a lot of games with Goblin Welder and counter backup.  Both versions are strong; your own play-style matters more, and I think there are some metagame factors that should be considered.  For example, RUGBurn Belcher would be much better in an environment with lots of Shops and few counters.

This is the end.

Props:
Ray, Gaming ETC, and the judging staff for putting on a fantastic event
Southwest Airlines for $49 flights from Columbus to Baltimore
Team Serious for putting up with reading about a deck that only I have interest in
Team I-95 Billboards (Go Humans Go!) for splitting tolls and gas, staying awake for all 11 hours in the car, and being all-around great traveling company
All of my opponents for being generally awesome and good competition
Stephen Menendian for quadruple Force of Will

Slops:
Twaun P. Pownerton, Jerry Yang and the other road warriors from Team Serious – Next time I expect to see you there!
Southwest Airlines for mechanical problems
Stephen Menendian for quadruple Force of Will

And last but not least, many thanks and great love and affection for my fiancée Elizabeth for understanding and accepting my need to game.

[icy_triskelion]

Yeah, man yeah!    Con grats!!!   

Makes me want to mess with Belcher again.

[andrewpate]

Congrats on the finish.

Soly said he was trying to talk you into playing GWSx instead of Belcher.  What made you decide to go with the old standby?  Just deck familiarity, or did you think Bob Tendrils was bad as you predicted the meta?

Do you really not want Yawgmoth's Will here?  It makes LED so much better, allows you to replay a Belcher from the yard without waiting for Welder to get un-summoning sick, etc. in addition to its usual silliness.  Seems much better than, for example, the untutorable, miser's maindeck Pyroblast.

Also, what about Time Walk?  It is good when you play Welder and want to go off right away, it lets you activate Belcher without giving them another turn if you are only one mana short, and it lets you untap before breaking a Memory Jar.  Is this sort of thing just not better than anything you're already running?  I'm not sure what I'd try cutting for it, but the effect does seem strong.

[LordHomerCat]

Nat Moes is still my hero.  Your reports are always terrific.

[GrandpaBelcher]

Congrats on the finish.

Soly said he was trying to talk you into playing GWSx instead of Belcher.  What made you decide to go with the old standby?  Just deck familiarity, or did you think Bob Tendrils was bad as you predicted the meta?

Do you really not want Yawgmoth's Will here?

Also, what about Time Walk?

Thanks!

I did play GWSx on day two.  It was pretty good.  I'm sure if I had done any testing with it beforehand, I would have done better than 2-2.  As it is, I don't feel qualified to comment much on it since I've still only played 11 games with it ever.  I played Belcher definitely because of familiarity factor.  Plus, I think it's strong in a Mana Drain metagame since I can plan on racing most of the hate that would be thrown my way.

Yawgmoth's Will is a good topdeck in Belcher, but it's awful in the opening hand, and it's a turn-one deck.  If you're not doing something life-threatening on turn one, you should probably mulligan.   The deck doesn't have enough tutoring or draw power to make use of the card.  Will's weakness was one of the reasons I cut black initially.

Likewise Time Walk.  It's just not a big enough threat.  I want cards that win the game: Tinker gets Belcher (or Jar); Timetwister gets me seven new cards.  I'm not including Ancestral Recall for the same reason--three cards just aren't enough for me to win the game on.  A lot of the mana in Belcher isn't permanent anyway, so Time Walking after playing Belcher or Jar (in addition to making Belcher cost six or Jar cost seven) won't necessarily do much for me as far as untapping mana goes.

[Implacable]

Mr. Moes, please, just write these every time you go out.  They're great.

[Twaun007]

BAAAAOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am super glad you were powning cats with Belcher and battled your way to a top 16 spot.

Slops:
Twaun P. Pownerton, Jerry Yang and the other road warriors from Team Serious – Next time I expect to see you there!

With my move back to C-Town and everything I couldn't find the time. I really want to make it out to one of these events too.

I was at once pleased and disappointed to be facing the Dark Lord himself, Stephen Menendian.

He is quite the Sith lord I hear.

[Eastman]

Great report and congrats on the finish. 

[Almighty]

Slops: The Ramada toilet for not being able to handle it.

[Diakonov]

Fantastic report.  I lol'd numerous times.

I'm a big fan of Belcher myself, so props to your finish.  It's pretty badass to land top 16 with zero lands and no Ichorids.

Speaking of which, do you find this strictly better than using Land Grant?

[GrandpaBelcher]

Thanks for all the great compliments, everybody.  (Even though I can never quite tell if Jimmy's being serious or sarcastic...).  I'll try to get these reports online more often.

Slops: The Ramada toilet for not being able to handle it.

QFT.  Actually, the whole hotel, minus the restaurant (which was too nice for gamers) and the continental breakfast, was kind of... disappointing for a Ramada.  I shouldn't complain because the price and convenience were definitely worthwhile.

Fantastic report.  I lol'd numerous times.

I'm a big fan of Belcher myself, so props to your finish.  It's pretty badass to land top 16 with zero lands and no Ichorids.

Speaking of which, do you find this strictly better than using Land Grant?

On the subject of Land Grant, I fully expect to never play that card in proxy Belcher again.  Plays are so much better when they don't begin with showing your opponent your plans and four out of your five "lands" can be Force of Willed.  Thank you, Wizards for unrestricting Chrome Mox. 

[LordHomerCat]

Definitely serious.  As long as I am not the one getting belched out, I fully support it.  Also, you playing belcher means you aren't playing Fish, and you know what I think of Fish.

[yangtime]

Nat, you know I would've been there if I could.

Congrats on the finish.  I'm really glad that the no land version is working out so well.  Land Grant was just such a bad Turn 1 play before.

Oh, and you definitely should know that Jimmy was serious.  That guy has millions of cats!  He doesn't have time for sarcasm or humor.

[hitman]

Great job Nat.  I'm glad to see you're still owning everyone with your Belcher list.  Hopefully there's a tournament coming up that we can both attend. 

[GrandpaBelcher]

I decided to post a bonus day two report, mostly for rounds one and two, one of which makes for a good story, and the other of which was just an interesting matchup...

When I went to bed on Saturday night, I still didn’t know what I would play.  My carmates didn’t want me to play Belcher again for fear I would do too well and delay our return to Virginia, and that made some sense to me.  I considered playing Workshops and SS.  I wanted to try Uba Stax again after Vroman’s success with it or maybe sleeve up Dimir Cutpurses and Erayos, just because they’re fun.

Catching up with the day’s online events, though, reminded me that I had implied that I might sleeve up GWSx (Confidant Tendrils) on day two, and that was enough to push me into a deck choice.  I fell asleep knowing that would be my choice.  Completely untested and likely misbuilt.

The morning found me tearing TPS down and building GWSx up from a list provided by Mike Solymossy on our team boards.  (That’s Team Serious, by the way, not GWS).

3x Underground Sea
1x Badlands
1x Bloodstained Mire
4x Polluted Delta
2x Island
2x Swamp
5x Moxes
1x Mana Crypt
1x Sol Ring
1x Black Lotus
1x Lotus Petal
1x Lions Eye Diamond
1x Wheel of Fortune
1x Timetwister
1x Mind's Desire
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Yawgmoth’s Bargain
1x Necropotence
4x Dark Ritual
3x Cabal Ritual
3x Tendril's of Agony
4x Dark Confidant
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Demonic Consultation
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk
1x Ponder
1x Brainstorm
1x Rebuild
1x Chain of Vapor
1x Hurkyl's Recall
3x Duress
2x Cabal Therapy
1x Sensei's Divining Top

Sideboard
1x Tormod’s Crypt
3x Yixlid Jailer
3x Xantid Swarm
1x Bayou
3x Extirpate
2x Tormods Crypt
1x Hurkyl's Recall
1x Rebuild

Soly’s list had Windfall, which I replaced with Bargain.  I also dropped a Daze and replaced it and the fourth Duress with Cabal Therapies.  Bargain seemed like a good spell to have with all those Rituals even though I’d be taking damage from Dark Confidant, and Cabal Therapy would have slightly more synergy with Confidant when I was storming.

Plus, every time I play Therapy, I think of this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H86TKkPA3QI

Anyway, I registered with no time to practice or goldfish much.

Round 1 – Craig – Tezzeret

Craig was a lot of fun to play against, except for the fact that it was snowing in Christmasland.

In game one, I opened on the play with some mana and played Ancestral on my opponent’s upkeep.  It resolved, but I got nothing meaningful from it.  Craig played Time Vault.  I drew and passed.  Craig played Voltaic Key.

Game two was way more interesting.  I played Demonic Tutor on my first turn, but I’m not sure now what for.  He was the one with Ancestral on turn one, though.  I got Bob down and had a couple of attacks, but he wasn’t digging me up any combo pieces except for a Tendrils, which Craig Duressed and then Extirpated.  Then he sent Bobby back to my hand and played Tezzeret, fetching Vault.  “Well, crap,” I thought to myself.  “I’d better win now.”

I played some spells trying to bait counters and disruption from my opponent, finishing with a Cabal Ritual with just enough cards for Threshold.  He used Relic of Progenitus to stop the extra mana, but I fetched to get the mana back just the same.  I don’t remember, though, whether he could have removed my entire graveyard.  If so, he likely erred significantly.  As it was I played a large enough Mind’s Desire to recover, if just a little.  I played two Dark Confidants and Time Walked, attacking to kill Tezzeret and temporarily shut down my opponent’s combo.  I emptied his hand with several Duresses

Then I passed the turn.

Then I lost because he topdecked Key.

Matches 0-1-0; Games 0-2-0

Not how I wanted to start, but I don’t feel like I could have done anything differently.  I guess decks without Force of Will always lose to the hot topdeck.

Round 2 – James – Sligh

James had made top four the previous night with the same (or a similar) list.  He was a serious player and would avoid tipping his thoughts by commenting, “Interesting…” when I played things.  It was a good, intense match.

On the play in game one, I took some early damage from a fetchland and then the pain started in earnest.  Not knowing my opponent’s deck, I had kept a slow hand with Therapies and Duresses, that did very little.  I was attacked by Jackal Pups and Lightning Bolts with very little action until my opponent had several creatures on board.  I probably died on turn four to an army of one-drop, two-power dudesweats.

In game two, I got my opponent to kill three of my Dark Confidants as I built up a winning hand the old-fashioned way, one card at a time during my draw step.  My opponent may have thought I was playing Mono-Black Control as he didn’t seem to have anything on hand to stop combo.  I had enough time to build a storm count of four and double Tendrils for the win.

Game three was stressful.  The combo hate came out in the form of Null Rod and Challice, and I played only things that would hurt me, like Necropotence.  Necropotence let me do a mini Tendrils to trade our life totals of five and 19.  I drew more cards, survived an attack and a Lightning Bolt, tutored for Cabal Ritual, tutored for Yawgmoth’s Will and won the game.

Matches 1-1-0; Games 2-3-0

I could see how Sligh would be good right now; everything I played did me damage!  It’s likely I should have sided out Dark Confidants, but I didn’t really have anything to bring in.  Yixlid Jailers and Xantid Swarms to block?  Sligh wasn’t something I had expected to need to board against.

Round 3 – Kyle – Elves!

Kyle rode up to the tournament with us.  Lately he’s been the other resident road warrior from Virginia, since he also rode up to the Baltimore tournament, where we also played in round three.  I told him that I enjoyed playing against him because he played decks with names I could put exclamation points after.

I opened game one on the play with Bob and passed.  Kyle opened with Heritage Druid, which soon begat another Heritage Druid and, through a Glimpse of Nature, several dozen other Elves.  I scooped a few rounds into the combo, when it was clear he wouldn’t fizzle or mess up.

Kyle mulliganed for game two, but my hand was pretty good.  I whiffed with a Therapy, but Mystical’d on my upkeep for Ancestral.  Playing that soon had me into Yawgmoth’s Will and I was able to (just for the fun of it) Demonic Consultation for Lotus for the win.

On the play in game three, Kyle mulliganed to six again and opened with Root Maze, which hindered him much more than it did me.  I had Bob and was soon overrunning him with card advantage, even removing several Nettle Sentinels with an Extirpate.  After a few more turns I played Bargain, drew a bunch of cards, played a Tendrils, drew a couple more cards, played Yawgmoth’s Will, and won the game.
 
Matches 2-1-0; Games 4-4-0

That Root Maze was pretty bad for Kyle, especially since I had mostly actual lands in my hand when he was holding fetches.  Plus, Rituals care not for coming into play tapped.

Round 4 – Sean – UWB Fish

Sean and I got deckchecked at the beginning of the round, so we sat and chatted for a bit.  He was friendly and outgoing, even doing several rounds of “That’s what she said!” jokes.  I was totally unprepared for this match though; it had been a long time since I’d piloted or played against Fish.

I get hit with a couple of Duresses early in game one and am soon taking damage from several creatures.  He Vampirics for Ancestral and I’m soon losing in card advantage as well.  I try to catch up by Chaining some of his dudes, but it’s not good enough.  He Forces my last business spell in Twister and I’m down for the count.

Mulliganing on the play in game two, I am able to Duress his Brainstorm to ensure my Timetwister resolves to refill my hand.  That only gives me Xantid Swarm, however, and Sean was able to Duress my Tendrils.  I resolved Dark Confidant, though, who got me Necropotence.  Those extra seven cards really helped.  One of them was Yawgmoth’s Will, and that Xantid Swarm kept my opponent at bay as I played it and won.

We were running short on time for game three, even with the time extension for being deckchecked.  This didn’t help me at all, since my plays were slowed by my unfamiliarity with the deck.  It also didn’t help that he Duressed me on turn one and resolved Ancestral on turn two.  Bob kept me in the game, but my opponent soon had things pretty well wrapped up with Ethersworn Canonist and a Meddling Mage on Tendrils.  I tried to get through but just couldn’t find a way to bounce that Mage.  I died to creature beats.

Matches 2-2-0; Games 5-6-0

After that, I was done.  Hovering around mediocrity wasn’t going to get me into the top eight, and my finishing now was one step closer to our car getting back to Virginia before Monday.

So I hung out, played some Belcher vs. GWSx matches against Nick Coss, traded some cards, played some 6x9 Giant Magic, and waited for other people to finish up.

GWSx seems like a decent deck.  The Dark Confidants make for a new kind of strategy, not one that particularly suits me, I guess, but different from the TPS deck I had been goldfishing.  I would rather play Belcher and be faster or TPS and have the option to actually Force of Will my opponent’s winning topdeck rather than just losing to it.  That’s how I felt about it anyway.  My round one experience might have influenced that a little.  Regardless, I hadn’t played a Yawgmoth’s Will deck in a tournament since I last sleeved up Easter Tendrils (that’s right) back in my no proxy days in 2006.  I credit this deck for getting me through a number of scrapes, because I was definitely out of practice.

On the way home, we talked about how all kinds of erratae should go away, including the one that made Island Fish Jasconius not an Island.  We decided it would be awesome if you could play eight fetchlands to go get a free 6/8, whose islandhome requirement is paid for by itself.  Plus, we thought it would be hilarious if in response to your opponent’s Swords to Plowshares, you could tap Island Fish for blue, return it to your hand with Daze, Brainstorm it back into your library, and fetch it out again only to see Swords to Plowshares fizzle harmlessly next to it at instant speed.

It had been a long weekend.

Thanks again to Ray and Gaming ETC for hosting.  I’ll be looking forward to the next one!

[Isaac85]

Nat I gotta give you huge props for the top 16 man. The more I read about your success with belcher makes me almost want to try the deck out but I know I would do horribly with it.

[Almighty]

Oh man. Root maze was the worst idea ever. I made my sideboard about 10 minutes before the player meeting and it did not even occur to me that I ran 8 fetches. This makes the second time that I've lost to you, Nat, because I opted to not play Thorn!