A Gencon Report (2-2 in champs, top 8, side event)

I feel like although I didn't really do too well at the actual championship, I should write a report, because the decks I played were both very good, and I did top8 the Saturday tournament. I also have a lot of people to thank for various things, and I didn't get a chance. This will be short, however, as I'm terrible with names and only write key plays down.

I arived at the champs site on Friday morning at about 1am with D-rock Wochinski, Jimmy Homercat, and Dan Fish. I met up with David Williams and Mark Trogdan, who were playing top 4 matches in the Preliminary. Dave lost to Grand Inquisitor when he drew academy with only non-blue/black artifacts in play, drew a gifts ungiven, and drew a black source. His gifts pile was just INSANE. Here's what happened (i might be somewhat off):

Dave Williams cast tinker for Inkwell. Houdlette was pretty dead without mana, but he played a Time Vault. DW hit Houdlette for 7, and Houdlette untapped his time vault after playing Academy. DW hit for another 7. Houdlette untaps, draws a fetchland, and casts gifts ungiven for Time Walk, Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, and Tinker. DW thinks for a long time, and gives GI Time walk and vamp. GI plays Time walk, (dave knows he has a drain) and lets it resolve. At this point, GI has the checkmark, and ends up keying out.

GI scooped the byes to Mark Trogdan.

I went back to the Carp room and slept.

The prelims had a lot of shops and aggro from what I was told, so in the morning I was trying to tech out Tezzeret. I met with Doug (Vassago) and crew, and the ICBM crew as well, who all told me that Bob Tendrils was the route to go, so I built the standard GWSx, cutting red for a straight UB build.

4 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
4 Bob
7 Ritual
3 Tendrils
1 Demonic
1 Mystical
1 Vamp
1 Demonic Consult
1 I.Seal
1 Yawg Will
1 Minds Desire
1 Necropotence
1 Ad Naseum
2 Chain of Vapor
1 Rebuild
1 Hurkyls
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Sensei's Top
1 Timetwister
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
5 Moxen
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Lotus Petal
1 Black Lotus
4 Sea
2 Swamp
1 Island
4 Delta
2 Mire
_
3 Xantid Swarm
1 Bayou
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Hurkyls
1 Rebuild
2 Infest
2 Jailer
3 Tormods Crypt
1 Planar Void

Round 1: Vassago with Tezzeret

Game 1: I win the die Roll and play a turn 1 Confidant. We jockey back and forth, and turn 2 I ponder, find lotus, and sack it to thoughtseize. He brainstorms, and reveals a hand of Tezzeret and stuff. I take something like a tutor I think, and then Imperial seal for Time Walk (it's ancestral recall with confidant in play). He draws plays a land and passes, and I know I gave him a Drain on top, and play right into it. He plays Tezz, tutors up Sol Ring, and plays Time Vault. I untap, play some other stuff, and attack tezzeret. He attempts to untap, but I chain of vapor the Vault. He Fact or Fictions and doesn't hit a counterspell, and on my next turn I storm to exactly lethal by Consulting for Yawgmoth's Will with Tendrils already in hand. NO FEAR!

Game 2: I forget what happens, but I know it's a lot more one-sided than the first game. It was still a great match though.

Round 2: Josh Morford with Steel City Vault
I know from experience that this is an awful matchup. Not having force of will sucks.

Game 1: He has ruby, sol ring, land, lotus, timetwister. He twists me into no land, and he has lotus petal recall and something else. I draw, play a mox, and pass. He untaps, casts time walk, and then vamp with about 8 mana on board. I know he just gets Gifts and Kills me, so I scoop it up.

Game 2: I play Lotus petal and Recall, which resolves. I then play my Sea, and cast Dark Ritual. I play Vampiric Tutor for Lotus, and then play Sensei's Top, and draw my lotus. I cast lotus, and play Yawgmoth's Will. I replay Lotus, and Lotus Petal, Hit the Petal for Black to play Dark Ritual, and Sacrifice the lotus for blue. I recast vamp, recast recall, and Tendrils. Payback is a bitch.

Game 3: I keep a hand of Delta, Jet, Ritual, Lotus, Sapphire, Lotus Petal, Tendrils. I keep knowing I have 14 cards that just flat-out win this game, and I could even draw Time Walk to give me an extra chance, recall, brainstorm, ponder, or twister to keep in. He plays Ruby, Mana VAult, sea, go. I play land go drawing another artifact. He misses his land drop but plays Memory Jar. He hits the jar and I'm thrilled as he can jar me into Brainstorm, Vamp, or mystical and I will just win. I get a useless hand that only mills 1 of my 14 autowins (chain of vapor). He plays Lotus, land, a couple other artifacts, and plays Leyline of the Void. I say okay, and EOT chain it. He has the misd to an artifact. I pitch my jar hand, and draw for turn. It's vampiric tutor! OH man I'm psyched. I will most likely get another turn, and then he auto-loses since if he counters my upkeep vamp, I just kill him outright with my hand. Unfortunately, he has the Helm of Obedience, and I get milled. Lame.

Round 3: Landstill

Game 1 I play some confidants and beat him down to 1 before he gets the fire-ice. It's too late though, because I have a tendrils.

Game 2: I can't recall what happens here, but I remember I chain of vapor everything he ever attempts, and an EOT Ad Naseum resolves.

Round 4: Jon Donovan playing tendrils.hate

Game 1: He has cannonist + teeg on turn 3. I don't have a fast hand.
game 2: He has cannonist + teeg on turn 2. I don't draw infest.

Fuck my life. Drop.

It sucks because I think I waltz into the top8 if I avoid the GW deck, that's designed to solely destroy me. My deck was insane if I get paired against anything non-gaddock teeg.

Day 2: Saturday night.

I decide to play something fun, so I build a goofy tezzeret build.

4 Delta
2 Strand
3 Sea
2 Trop
2 Volcanic
1 City of Brass
2 Island
1 Tolarian Academy
5 Moxen
1 Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus

1 Ponder
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Gifts Ungiven
2 Goblin Welder
2 Intuition
4 Accumulated Knowledge
1 Tinker
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Rebuild
1 Regrowth
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key
1 Tezeret the Seeker
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Thirst for Knowledge
-
1 Tundra
1 Sacred Ground
2 Aven Mindscensor
2 Red Blast
3 Leyline of the Void
1 Helm of Obedience
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Darkblast
3 Sower of Temptation

Round 1: Painter
Game 1: I play a welder, and he has tormods crypt. I have to grudge a painter and counter something else removing Inkwell, and he counter's my time vault, so I only Have Tezzeret and welder as win conditions. I get down to 2 with my opponent having a Trinket Mage in play, and I cast gifts ungiven with 5 cards in hand for Time Walk, Goblin Welder (my first one got killed), Merchant Scroll, and something else ( I want to say Demonic?). He gives me Time Walk and Welder, and I play Time Walk. I then play Lotus and cast Tezzeret. which resolves. I untap my sol ring (the only one I have) and then play 3 moxes from my hand, which goes lethal on my timewalk turn.

Game 2: He mulligans to 6, but unfortunately draws 7 again. he didn't get to look at his hand when I ask if he has 6, and he says "shit no.. judge". I would have been fine since he didn't look at his hand with removing a random card, but the judge forces him to mulligan to 5. It's unfortunate for him, because I have a solid 7. I end up casting Helm of Obedience without leyline in play. He casts Mystical for recall, and then I helm him for 1 to mill it. Next turn, I intuition up 3 leylines and go lethal.

Round 2: Tiziago with URG Tezz?
Game 1: He opens Library, go. I don't play duresses so I'm kinda upset with this, but eventually I stack some counterspells and demonic for Time Vault. He's attacking with a 3-power Tarmogoyf. Two turns later I play key, and two turns after that I play gifs. He responds with Fact or Fiction, which I force of will. He lets that resolve, and then force of will's my Gifts. I then play my Time Vault that I waited on patiently, and take every turn in the game.

Game 2: I don't recall much of this except he mulligans to 5 and I win.

Round 3: Dan Carp with Confidant Tezz
Game 1: Game 1 dan plays Time Vault. Two turns later, he duresses me, knows I have thirst but nothing else, and he plays Vamp, taps his sensei's, and key's out.

game 2: I aven mindscensor his tinker, which wifs. He then demonics and hit's A-call, and then blind-fetches and gets a land, casts brainstorm to put a land back, hits another fetchland, casts will, and kills me with tendrils. He lived in christmas land. I drew 5 mana sources in a row.

Round 4: ??? with Yang-Stax
Game 1: I play a ton of mana, counter some stuff, play vault, and then draw key.
Game 2: He beats me down with 3 confidants, combined by a couple wastelands.
game 3: I put my chips all in. I play Lotus, Delta, go. Force his Thorn, and then play Tezzeret blind. He doesn't draw a reb and extends the hand.

Round 5: AJ Grasso with MUD
Game 1: He mulligans, but then caps my tezzeret, time vault, and inkwell. I play a welder. He caps me again for Welder#2, Ancestral, and Will. I'm beating with Mons Goblin Welder while countering his spells and he only has ancient tombs for damage. He scoops up at 6.

Game 2: I get to counter some stuff, and then he caps me again. I beat down with a welder, while also using it to stop any threats he has. I resolve a Sower on his metalworker and bash. Ancient Tomb did a lot of damage too. It turns out he didn't have triskelion anywhere in his decklist.

Round 6: Vroman
We ID.

Top 8: BUG FISH
fuck. Bad matchup. Oh well.

Game 1: He's on the draw, and mulligan's to 4. I keep a pretty awkward hand of TFK, AK, and some control. He plays a lotus and I have to force it. two turns later he plays a Bob and again I counter it. The next turn he has another one, and from there he actually grinds it. I drew 9 action spells (5 of them counters, 1 of them a rebuild) and 14 mana.

Game 2: I sower a goyf, counter a bob, and smash him.

Game 3: Again I draw a lot of mana and not enough business. I hardcast 3 force of wills this game.... against bug fish....

So with 40 people at 25 a piece, first got a mox, 2nd got a FTV:E, 3rd and 4th got FTV:Dragons, and I got.....12 boosters. And not even all M10. 3 M10 and 3 draft sets of alara. Yippy Fucking Kai-yay.

There are a lot of people that I met for the first time that I wanted to list, and say it was fun to hang out with. On top of that, there's the list of regulars too.

the Carps, TK, Owen, Jake Kempfer, James King, Derek Wochinski, Vasago, Jay Webb, Razvan, Eastman, Rich Mattiuzzo, GI, Twaun007, trogdan, yangtime, Hazmat, Steve Golenda, Demars, Matriano, Bommholt, the rest of Meandeck and crew, and anyone else I forgot to mention.

Special thanks to John Donovan and Goblin Nick for hooking me up with Full power to play both days!