November To Remember ( tourny report )

Its been a little over a week since xtreme games and this past Sunday I was interested in going to the mean deck open. Things have been more than crazy for me and around 3am I worked on travel arrangements and left my house at 5am to make the journey. I got to Dave's house around 9 sharp and soon after we was all ready to go and left in Mike's car. A few hours later and we was at the venue and filling out deck sheets. I decided to go with the same build I played with at xtreme games. If your to lazy to look at the results page here's the list.

4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
3 Thoughtseize
2 Repeal
1 Echoing Truth
1 Fire // Ice
1 Rebuild
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Ponder
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's Will
3 Dark Confidant
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted delta
3 Island
3 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island

SB
2 Mystic Remora
2 Red Elemental Blast
3 Ingot Chewer
2 Smother
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Pithing Needle

After we sit there for a while more people show up shit talks begin and I meet a ton of great guys. More jokes get thrown in there and round 1 starts.

round 1 vs cj otis

I have never met cj before but he seems like a cool cat so we shuffle it up shake and then roll a die. I think I get the die roll and go first. I mull to 6 thinking its not going to be a good day but after the mull I find a better hand that goes the distance. I drop a land and mox turn 1 and pass. He goes turn 1 land chalice at 0 and passes back. I drop land tinker. I can't recall if a counter war goes on but the end result was the big man getting some action. He goes the distance and were off to game 2. when I sided I really didn't know what to put in besides the reb's so I took out a ponder and I believe a drain for them. Game 2 was one of the bad ones of the day and I mull to 6 and see no land so I mull to 5 and keep a horrible hand. He gets in there with a faerie and shuffling took longer than the game. Game three was a replay of game 2. I mull to 6 after a iffy call. My opening 7 was mostly land and a thought seize followed up by a mox so basically 5 land 1 mox and 1 thought seize. After mulling to 6 his drawls were better than mine and he went the distance.

After talking to some guys the round goes what seems to be forever. The start time for the event was to be 1pm although due to everything it didn't happen round 1 ended at 2:30 lol I knew it was going to be a long day.

Round 2 vs William

William seems like a ok guy he mulls to 6 and keeps a bad hand and I keep a pretty bad one myself. We play land go for 6 turns. He tries to cast something I end up forcing it. I get vault combo established and he wants to see my win condition. I drawl the big man and just play land after land still i get the 11 mana to cast him. He goes down and William agrees that's a win condition and were off to game 2. I believe that the siding was reb's in and the two cards out. Game 2 was a lot more entertaining than game one. He played mox mana crypt black lotus land demonic tutor. At this point two things cross my mind. I have force in my hand with blue card to pitch. The questions I ask myself are is he going to get duress and then play will or is he going to get will and hope that I have no counters in hand. I am thinking hes not the caliber of player to go for protection and I let it resolve. He gets will tries to cast and I force. I throw down some land and after a while get bob into play then get darksteel and he goes the distance.

round 3 vs jason

I make a note that this is the clincher because if i loose I doubt I can make top. I shake Jason's hand and were off to game one. I can't recall if he went first or if I did but I know he started off strong. He turn two has su chi out and then plays o naginata. I can't recall my play but it was something irrelevant and pass. He equips and then throws down another creature. He attacks with su and I end up takeing 7 brining me down to 11 with fetches. I drawl and tinker into darksteel. He swings in with both again i block the big guy and he gets in for 3 I get a key swing in untap and he drawls and scoops. I think I side in mystic and chewers for the next game but they prove to be of no use as I mull to 6 then keep an alright hand. He plays metal worker then plays out another card I think isn't to bad. Well he equips then passes I play something then pass and the next thing I know I'm being hit for a billion. Truth be told I only had 20 life but eh who said overkill wasn't fun right lol. So now I know some more of his tricks and were off to game three. I tell myself I gotta pull threw on this or its game over for me. I play land pass. He strips my land and passes. I play another land and thought seize him. I take a metal worker and then play a mox and pass. he plays shop and a guy. I play another land chew up his guy with my mox and pass. he plays a ravager followed up by o naginata and then passes. I repeal the ravenger at the end of his turn and then do nothing on mine. He plays ravager again and I let it ride then plays su chi and I mana drain it. My hand is not the greatest but it has two things that will help me win the game. I have two seas out and a ruby and 4 colorless from my drain. There are two cards I see I need to play in my hand in order to win tezz and rebuild. I only have 2 available blue mana though so the thought process begins. I think some and then smoke comes out of my ears and think some more. I didn't know what the hell I was going to do because if I played rebuild he would just play the same guy followed up by another guy and I have one more turn to possibly get something going. I could cast tezz but he would be a plain target for ravager. I thought about it and realized I had this game. I played tezz and used his ability to search for a black lotus. I passed the turn. He equips o naginata and then plays something else. He sacks a mox and the card he just plays and goes into attack mode. I sac the lotus for blues and play rebuild. He passes I untap fetch time vault with tezz and win on my next turn. The game was great one of the best of the day and it was indeed a clincher.

round 4 vs Cordy

This round turnes into a cluster fuck plain and simple. game 1 he takes it home. Game 2 I pull it out and win. Game three I onside punt get the ball back punt again and drawl. All I gotta say is Cordy is a nice guy.

round 5 vs marland

marland talks with his brother and they talk about how well his deck douse against tezz but they haven't faced it all day. It some what bothers me but I don't let it show and think about it being a bluff. We start playing and I get a dark con out at some point and pass. He plays bazaar and gets his drawl engine online. We play out some more and I take some damage from bob he is takeing damage himself and I get time vault into play. He plays hex mage and its looking bad for the home team. He get eventualy gets dark depths into play and it looks worse for me now than ever. Were playing and I have pretty much only 1 hope. I need to get a bounce spell for his 20/20 then I need to kill off bob before he kills me and then I need to get key into play. Sounds like I got alot of work ahead of me. Well I get brainstorm and brainstorm into repeal and fire/ice I'm like ok well there is 2/3's the cards i need. I keep bob on board and he pops his mage for the 20/20 at the end of my turn. He plays some effects and douse somethings and declares attackers I bounce the big guy and drawl a card no luck. He plays a land and then passes I am at 4 life the thought of killing bob occurs to me but I take a chance and flip. I reveal key and drawl for the turn. I fire bob and then play key for the win. I had no rights in coming back to win that but luck was on my side. game 2 was a little bit different. I get a starting layline of the void out and he thought seizes me. He takes crypt and passes. We do stuff in between but it was basically all my game. I get darksteel out and he tries to find a swords but it doesn't work out and I win the match.

top 8 vs will

after a while they set up top 8 and I learn I am facing will. This is not the same guy as earlier. We both sit down and someone wins the die roll. The most I remember from the match was him playing island go then playing chalice at 0 and passing. he didn't drop another land after that. I think he drew some moxes but the chalice backfired on him. Game two was a bit more interesting we both have depleted hands but I have a bob in play. I am drawing and the end result i get tezz out and he plays a drawl spell at the beginning of his upkeep. I let that ride search for vault and then pass. He drawls three cards and plays oath I let that resolve and he passes. I go infinite and win.

After the match I try and look for some food but nothing is close by that's open. I go back inside after talking with some people and we decide to split the top 4. 82 bucks in my pocket later and we decided to drive back. Over all it was a hell of a lot of fun. I am still kind of sad me and Steve didn't play but there is always tomorrow.

props- Ohio crew you guys are bad ass all of you
props- Steve for putting this thing on I had a blast
props- mike for answering my text at like 3 am and letting me ride up with him and dave
props- Indy and Ohio for having those banana bread slices you can buy.

slops- Ohio gas stations going to three of them one closing at 10pm and the other two had there bathrooms down wtf
slops- curt for working and missing out on a hell of a good time
slops- Jerry yang for not cutting to top 4 with me. I thought we had a system
slops- Thurmans for taking to long on food. I wanted to go but with time restraints it didn't happen