Allright. My report:
I finally have a Sunday off from work, and can actually plan to attend the event.
I haven't touched my bag of Vintage Goodies since 2 months previous, so I still had my Gilded Claw and Jr's uh, RemoraTog deck built.
Then M10 rules changes were announced. Then the B/R changes.
I decided that I wanted to give Thirst For Knowledge one last go, and teammate Alex wanted to play 5c Stax (actually a list about 4 cards off Ochoa's list).
I settle on Bomberman. I whip up a UWr build because I quite liked the Empty The Warrens option plus SB REB and Mox Monkies.
That was at say, 3am prior to the tourney.
Alex and I show up about 20 minutes before the tourney is supposed to start, but the doors are still locked etc. All is well within 10 minutes, and I unexpectedly have an extra hour and a half to tweak the deck. I decided to go Generic UW Salvagers with 4 Salvagers maindeck.
Round 1: Brian Hoyt. He's played UGB Fishies last time I was here, and that's all I know about him. He says he built this deck because no one else (locally) had built it and wanted to try it out.
Game 1: I keep a mediocre hand with FOW and Blue card. He leads with Remora. Sigh. I decided to Force it because I have played so little real Vintage that I forget he can't keep it up forever and should probably just let it sit. He later plays another one. I drain it. Then I force something else and again something else. (I had plenty of protection in my top 12 cards!). Then he plays and resolves DREAM HALLS?!?!?!?!?!!? He discards Inwell Leviathon to play Cruel Ultimatum, draws cards, gets back Inkwell, discards it to play Cruel Ultimatum, draws cards, gets back inwell, discards it to play Cruel Ultimatum. I was at 15 and die to Dream Halls.
Game 2: I get a coupla of Trinket Mages out to set a clock, and when he was at 11 or so, he EOT Meditates. I thought for sure that I would rape him, but as it turns out, I just get my free turn (knocking him to 7, dropping one more dude), and he resolves DREAM HALLS and Dreamcrushes me.
Well played Sir and good luck! I probably should have sided in Ethersworn Cannonists, but I thought "I just sack it to his stupid Ultimatums...
"
I should have thought harder and said "I would have to sac a Trinket Mage FIRST, then get my turn with Ethersworn in play". 0-1 start.
Round 2: I forget.
Game 1: I get Land Mox Mox Trinket Mage (resolves) Mox Top start.
He plays Volcanic Island, Mana Vault, pass. Hmmm.
turn 2 I resolve another Trinket Mage (interesting), top and find a Salvager, activate top and Play Salvager. Nice, pass. Opponent maybe plays a mox and passes.
Turn 3 I cast Thirst for Knowledge and he REB's it. (oh!). So I cast another Trinket Mage (or bounced one of my earlier ones with Echoing Truth or something), get combo peices and go off.
Whoot!
Game 2: He has turn 0 Leyline. I try to play turn 1 Top and Chalice for 1 off land and two moxes. He MOGG SALVAGES my Chalice right away. Later, he taps out to play Painter and Grindstone, but can't activate it YET. Like a champ, I rip Engineered Explosives off the top of my deck and asplode his painter. Tinker magically appears soon after and a few swings with an 11/11 seal the deal. 1-1
Round 3 I get paired down against a guy who admits "he first set out to win a match at this tourney, now he's just out to have a game".
Game 1: I leads with Sage of Epytr (the look at top 4 cards eurotech guy). I lead with Library at Alexandria, and slowly draw cards while getting beat down. When opponent finally wastes it, I start playing Trinket Mage after Trinket Mage after Trinket Mage after Trinket Mage and just swing and swing with Islands and fetchlands as my mana base (maybe a mox or two). My fishies are bigger than his.
Game 2: I keep Tundra Mox Emerald hand of 6, and it gets wasted and crushed and I get Ninja's and Meddling Maged etc. He kills me before I have any sort of usable mana base and I die.
Game 3: He reveals he had no idea what I was playing except some random Trinket Mage conction. I play around Daze and resolve stuff, bounce Meddling Mages, and top away until I get Auriok Salvager into my hand with SB Ethersworn Cannonists. I play the Cannonist, then the Salvager (Doh!), then recure Black Lotus, then bounce all his stuff with Spellbomb, then draw lots, then put 10 creatures into play, then keep 7 blue spells in hand. It turns out he sided out his Null Rods. Lucky me. I had actually sided in 9 Creatures to deal with his fishies since I would probably have bigger and more creatures than him.. I didn't expect to combo out, but just out aggro him. Does that sound like a good plan? Me with 18 dudes to his dudes?
Round 4: Charles (apparently LiberBias in the forums sometimes).
Game 1: I keep double Salvager Double Thirst, Land Mox Mox kind of hand. He thoughseizes me and takes a thirst.
I draw a thirst (or a sexy sol ring or something), and just start to play and resolve stuff. I figure he MIGHT not play Force of Will at ALL I through a Salvager out there, and it sticks. I might has slipped in a Time Walk (I don't remember. There was some fun dance music playing across the street and I likst to move it move it). Point being, I have a Salvager on the field, and I play Tinker, I select my card and say "Any guesses?" He says Inkwell Leviathon" I slap my Black Lotus on the Board, get infy mana, play my thrirsts, top, fetch top trinket Aether draw cards and put stuff on the field. He had cast Imperial Seal the turn before, and asked me if I can actually kill him this turn. I said Well, no, my Time Walk is already in the graveyard, but After I put all my stuff into play, and cast TimeTwister, I can get to my time walk and kill you next turn.
Love that card.
Game 2: I keep a hand of Force, Hurkyls, Mindsencor, Sol Ring, Land, Land, Land.
He turn 1 duresses me and I Force it! He MIGHT take my Sol Ring, which I would hate, but would obviously take the Force. So I pitch Hurkyls to Force, and let him sweat it out.
My turn is Tundra Sol Ring go.
His turn (I THINK) is Dark Ritual, Necropotence (refill hand) go.
I through Aven Mindcensor out there, and maybe drew Sensei's Diving Top (MVP of the day I think), and Charles spends the next few turns taking 2 damage per turn while Mystical Tutoring for an instant or sorcery in his top 4 cards, Merchant Scrolling for a blue instant in his top 4 cards, fetching for a land in his top for cards etc.
He gets down to 3 life when he lauches Tendrils for 4 storm (8 damage). I Force a copy just to deny him life.
At some point, I have Ancestral Recal on top of deck and when he goes for the Yawgwill Play, I Ancestral Thirst Top and Thirst my way into a Force. Whoot!
3-1
Round 5: ID with Dylan. I said "Play for fun?" He said "I'm playing Ichorid", I said "I'm don't complain about playing against any kind of deck, even Ichorid". He said "I don't want to pilot Ichorid! cuz it's Ichorid." We played some Bomberman on Stacks no SB action and he got me 2/3.
Top 8 vs Brian Morgan.
I'm just guessing he's playing a bunch of blue and black busted cards.
Game 1: He ancestrals, I misdirect, he forces and draws three cards. I decide to just through stuff out there. 2 Trinket Mages later and a few unlucky rolls with the Mana Crypt seal the deal before he can get anything good.
Game 2: He takes his time sideboarding against me, and apparently hasn't played Magic lately any more than I have. (All if my sideboarding was kinda random). I bait some stuff, he drains some stuff, I bait more (after he takes burn for the 2nd time in a row, I decide to just throw out Tinker and see what happens). What happens is he dies next turn.
So I make top 4 and the others decide to split for 125 store credit each, and by this time FOB Web and company are allready gone, and I find out the cash option is but 60 each (ouch) and I sorta recall Alex winning 25 cash for top 8 last time (with 17 turnout). Web and FOB know the owners TO's more than I do but I have no one to get information from like "Wasn't this billed as a cash tourney?"
Well, I am happy that SuperStars is having a regular thing, and 125 store credit (that I can shop at leisure at
www.channelfireball.com, is kind of a fun perk. Maybe I can finally buy all those stupid cards that go into an Ichorid Deck, then I'd have one. Or get Force of Will #4, or God forbid, a Standard Mana Base, or Tez or Empyrical Angels or Delta #4 or...
All in all I was happy, but I would have loved $125 put in my pocket instead.
If it wasn't 8:30 by this point I might have insisted on playing it out as my deck has been performing and I had a new plan versus 2 of the decks in top 4, but gads it was late and it's 90minutes from home.
Truth Be Told: My opponent's (except round 1 Dream Halls) just got really unlucky vs my deck, and my deck faced no hardcore hate. (I saw two leylines I think, but nothing like Chalice or Null Rod or Sphere of Resistance, Ichorid or other dedicated anti-combo cards.). I was fortunate.
Thirst: It was nice knowing ye.
