Rico's Philly Open adventures

Hello there, this is going to be a two part report for the two days I was playing at the Philly Open. The first day was a Vintage tournament where I played Oath of Druids, and the second day was a Legacy tournament in which I played ANT (Ad Nauseam Tendrils). This post is rather long...so if you want to skip to one part just look for the giant dividing line.

Firstly, the whole experience was excellent. If you are within a reasonable driving distance of a Philly Open and do not come, you are truly missing out.

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VINTAGE

In preparing for the Vintage event, first I had to take the expected metagame into account. Usually the mid-Atlantic area contains 6 primary decks:
1) Blue-control
2) Storm
3) Oath
4) Dredge
5) Workshops
6) Fish

There are also other rogue strategies that one must be prepared to face, but either way it is pretty much a guarantee that the field will have a good showing of all of the above 6 archetypes. This day was no exception.

Oath in particular is a very powerful strategy regardless of its opponent. It is my preferred choice in a wide open field because of not only its sheer power and nut draws, but also because it has certain advantages that made my back-up deck (which will remain a secret) a less than optimal choice.

Here is the exact list I played:

Mana - 25
4 Forbidden Orchard
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
2 Island
1 Forest
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Tolarian Academy
5 Moxen
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring

Tezz package - 3
1 Tezzeret
1 Voltaic Key
1 Time Vault

Oath package - 7
4 Oath of Druids
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Terastodon
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind

Disruption - 11
4 Spell Pierce
2 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
1 Nature's Claim

Action - 6
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Tutor - 5
1 Demonic Tutor
1 VampiricTutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Tinker

Broken - 3
1 Time Walk
1 Regrowth
1 Yawgmoth's Will

SB:
2 Thoughtseize
1 Mana Drain
1 Bribery
1 Show and Tell
1 Terastodon
2 Nature's Claim
1 Strip Mine
2 Pithing Needle
4 Leyline of the Void

The mana base is of course the most important part of any deck. This one is stable, robust, flexible, powerful, and explosive. The Strip Mine in the SB was one of my MVPs all day long. Library wins too many games to cut. Academy is simply broken. The colored sources are plentiful. The basic Forest is great against mana denial. Pretty much everything about it is awesome.

As for the rest of the deck, most of it is pretty straight forward except for the Nature's Claim. Nature's Claim, even maindeck, was based on the idea that it's useful in nearly every match. It hits Vault/Key, Null Rod, Oath in a mirror match, and it is obviously excellent against Workshop decks. It can even snipe artifact mana to make Spell Pierce more effective, and there was at least one time the life gain while targeting my own card was relevant.

To a well trained eye, the maindeck isn't about what is there so much as what isn't there. It took a lot for me to leave Gifts Ungiven out of my deck today. The 2nd Sensei's Divining Top was painful to cut. Nevertheless, sometimes it is important to have an appropriate mana curve, enough blue cards for Force, and a generally more agile deck.

Round 1 vs. Chris playing G/W 1-2

Game 1 - I start with a mulligan and lead with a Sea and a Sol Ring, which gets Wastelanded, then I fetch into a basic Island and cast Merchant Scroll for Ancestral. Unfortunately he has Strip Mine which cuts me off blue and I never get back into this game.

Game 2 - At some point I Tinker out Sphinx of the Steel Wind, and he flashes me a hand with Nature's Claim and some other green removal.

Game 3 - He has a True Believer in play, blanking my draw of multiple Oaths. He spends a few turns casting Pridemages while I set up Ancestral Recall. My Ancestral is very disappointing, leaving me with a lot of mana. I end up drawing a lot of mana, a number of useless Nature's Claims that I boarded in expecting Null Rods, and end up casting Terastodon as my only relevant play. I make 18 power which is nice, but it's not enough to stop his Aven Mindcensor from killing me in two turns with Exalted and lots of chump blockers.

Round 2 vs. John playing Dredge 2-0

Game 1 - John Serum Powders away a Flame-kin Zealot and some dredgers at the beginning, while I keep a hand that is respectable for a game 1 Dredge hand. John is pretty familiar with the idea that I play Oath, and naturally a Therapy strips that option away from me pretty quickly. Never giving up, I get a Top and some fast mana down, which sets up an Ancestral Recall on myself and leads to a 2nd Oath that lands on the board. He has double Bazaar and gets a lot of junk into his graveyard very quickly, wherein he makes a very large number of zombies by doing so, but has no other action and passes. I Oath up Terastodon, taking both of his Bazaars and my Oath to set up a chump blocker. I play another copy of Oath during my mainphase, and do some searching with Top and pray that my Pierce and Force are enough to hold him off. He has a Petrified Field on his turn, which lets him Dredge away pretty much his entire deck. Unfortunately for John, his 2nd copy of Flame-kin Zealot is literally the last card in his deck - the only card he could not manage to Dredge out. He takes me to 4 life with his zombies from the previous turn that aren't suffering from summoning sickness. I untap and already have the play of Regrowth -> Ancestral targeting my opponent to steal game 1.

Game 2 - I mulligan to 5 looking for a playable hand. My opponent has an unexpected series of plays, which leads to an awkward state of events for me. He opens with Therapy naming Oath of Druids, which was in my 5, and then hard casts a Bloodghast on turn 2, 3, and 4. My life starts getting low quickly. He does some other Therapy nonsense to strip most of my business, but not before I manage to Tinker -> Sphinx. Sphinx changes the game entirely. It keeps his army of Bloodghasts at bay while I climb from a single digit life total to a life total in the mid 30's against his chump blocking flyers, eventually taking him to 2 life. He ends up finding a Chain of Vapor for my Sphinx on his last turn to live, then follows up with a Chain for my Needle, a Therapy to strip my Needle, and a Bazaar to get his Dredge going on. I hardcast Leyline of the Void the next turn to prevent really silly things from happening, but he's still able to beat for 7 a turn with his Bloodghasts and a spirit token I've given him. I topdeck an Oath at the last opportunity, Oath up Terastodon to give myself 4 elephants with the life totals at me 4 and him 2. He can't get through for lethal damage, and his Bloodghasts cannot block to prevent me from swinging for the win.

This was a very interactive Dredge match.

Round 3 vs. Matt playing Tezz 2-0

Game 1 - One of us mulligans, I can't remember who. This turns into a long attrition war featuring him with a hand full of counters and me with some action trying to force things through. At some point I give him the opportunity to Drain a spell of mine, and he uses the moment to cast Tezz and find Time Vault. I untap with a Time Vault of my own already on the board and use a Brainstorm I had been sandbagging. Then I cast Tinker. He doesn't have a counter and is surprised when I find Black Lotus. I told him Tinker was just bait and I already had Key in hand.

Game 2 - Another long match. This time he has more counters than before as he is equipped with REBs. He also has Gargadons from the board, which I knew because I played round 1 next to him, so I boarded in both Bribery and kept the Tinker -> Robot plan. This was also destined to be a long game, where my early Thoughtseize revealed a hand full of permission. Most of the game was spent with me trying to whittle away his large number of Forces, REBs, and Drains without giving him the opportunity to use the Drain mana to blow me out in one big turn. He does manage to ping me with a spirit token each turn, and has a Gargadon suspended with 6-8 counters, so I must be careful that he might just try to alpha strike me. At some point I manage to resolve a Jace. On the next turn I am at 9 life and he has just enough permanents to bring his Gargadon to life and attack me for lethal. My opponent opts not to sac his board, and instead I establish Vault/Key just as time was called.

Yes, the 2 games took the full 50 minutes. After the match one of the spectators mentioned that he could have sacced his permanents to kill me with Gargadon. I kept it to myself at the time that I had a Nature's Claim to gain myself life and blow him out if that was the case, especially given that I could bounce his Gargadon with Jace.

Round 4 vs. Max Brown with Dark Times 2-1

Max and I had an epic battle in our last tournament, and this match was going to be no different. He even came better prepared this time for the Oath match.

Game 1 - I am on the play and lead Orchard, Mox, Oath with Force back-up. Life is good. He plays Swamp, Duress taking my Force, Lotus -> SadSac. I lose an embarrassing game.

Game 2 - I establish a turn 2 Oath with Orchard, wherein my opponent's tech is revealed - Phyrexian Tower! This sucks, especially considering he also has a Wasteland to prevent me from establishing the double Orchard play. He has a number of Duress effects to leave us with little to nothing, but I have Top to sculpt my draws. Unfortunately I'm pretty flooded, and at some point I hardcast Sphinx which he Edicts. On my next turn I just pass. He goes for something dangerous, which I Drain, then I make an Orchard token at his EOT and use Top to let me Time Walk, get Iona naming Black, and seal it.

Sideboarding in particular is rough against this deck.

Game 3 - Max mulls to 6, while I keep a stable but slow 7. I am pretty safe against Duress effects, but if he goes broken I have little to stop him. He seems unhappy with his 6, but decides not to go to 5. He plays a Leyline and a Karakas, then passes. I establish my mana while he has no other lands or plays. I Strip his Karakas, Oath into Terastodon to blow up his Leyline, and he gets colored mana too late. His hand was pretty great with several Rituals, Consult, Helm, and some other stuff. If he had drawn a mana earlier I probably would not have kept up with him, but alas it was a risk and it ended up not working for him.

Round 5 vs. Scott Playing Workshops with Red 2-1

Game 1 - My opponent is on the play and opens with a Chalice at 0 and a Chalice at 1. I land go. He plays Karn. I play land go. He tries to play a Thorn, which I Drain. On my next turn I have no other land drop, but I do have 2 Drain mana to help me D.Tutor for Oath and cast it. I get Sphinx, which he cannot answer.

Game 2 - I get blown out by Chalice at 0 and Chalice at 2. At the end of the game. My entire hand was 5 spells cut off my Chalice, 2 large uncastable monsters. He eventually killed me with Golem, but I made him play it out to get as much information as possible to SB better for game 3.

Game 3 - I lead, on the play, Tropical Island Mox Oath. He plays a Forbidden Orchard. Oh man, I did not see that coming. I have a Strip Mine for his Orchard thankfully, and I end up with a spirit and he has a Goblin Welder. A turn or two later I'm sitting on the good side of an Ancestral and have an Orchard of my own. I get out a Terastodon that keeps him off balance, then Oath up a 2nd Terastodon to finish him.

Round 6 ID

Quarterfinals vs. Nate playing Drain Tendrils 1-2

Game 1 - I start with a mulligan. My 6 is relatively slow but still playable. He has Library which is bad news. I manage to M.Scroll into Ancestral and resolve it, but hit a lot of reactive cards. Library builds him up some more. I try to cast my business, then Regrowth Ancestral, but the hand is too slow and he wins on like turn 5 or 6 with a giant Will.

Game 2 - I am on the play and Pierce my opponent's first turn Necro attempt. I land go on the 2nd turn. He has no 2nd land. I Vamp for Orchard and cast Oath, which he tries to Spell Snare, but I Pierce. I'm Oathing up Iona naming blue. When I get Terastodon, he Vamps in response to me blowing up his only land. On his next turn he plays Black Lotus which I Drain, and he scoops.

Game 3 - My 7 was 4 lands, Mox, Jace, Will. My 6 had Tezz, Jace, land, mox, Drain, and something else like a Demonic Tutor with no black. My 5 was 4 lands a Force. My 4 was Orchard, Thoughtseize, Spell Pierce, and I think Voltaic Key which I kept. He led with a ton of fast mana and a first turn Gifts, which ended up with him getting Jace and Voltaic Key. I Thoughtseize his Vamp and his "only" business is Jace. Jace gets in there and I just don't have anything relevant while Jace punishes me.

Nate ended up winning the whole shebang, so congrats to him. It was kind of disappointing losing in that fashion, but Nate played well and I don't want to take anything from him.

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LEGACY

On to day 2!

In an unexpected twist, my Legacy deck is arguably more "broken" than my Vintage deck.

My attempts into CB decks, as much as I love that strategy, were unsuccessful due in large part because it is tough making a control deck that can legitimately answer every angle of attack that is found in this format. Quick aggressive strategies are brutal and unrelenting, not to mention the various flavors of aggro all require different counter measures. CB suffers from attacks on its mana base, it struggles against slow plodding Life from the Loam recursion decks, it can get randomly blown out by completely unforeseen metagame decks that its SB is not prepared to defeat, and it even has to fight against its "good" matches like combo. I couldn't do it. So I wanted to play a deck that is a threat in and of itself; I wanted a deck that the opponent must stop or be strong armed out of the match entirely. I wanted to do something powerful.

ANT is such a deck. There are many, many decks in the format that are ill equipped or completely incapable of defeating the deck. Most of the format is at a serious disadvantage. It is strong enough, fast enough, and resilient enough from my experience to have a great shot against any deck that it can square off against.

Of course, the other flag bearing deck of this type is Reanimator. Putting out a turn 2 Iona is a pretty strong play. I was in a tough spot between playing Reanimator or playing ANT. Ultimately I decided on ANT because of two reasons: 1) I have been playing ANT for a while now and know it pretty well; 2) I don't actually own Entombs. Of course the 2nd reason is pretty much a deal breaker.

Nevertheless, here is the build I ended up playing:

Land - 15
4 Polluted Delta
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
2 Island
1 Swamp

Acceleration - 18
4 Dark Ritual
3 Cabal Ritual
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
3 Chrome Mox

Action - 4
2 Ad Nauseam
2 Tendrils of Agony

Disruption - 7
4 Duress
3 Thoughtseize

Manipulation - 16
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
2 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Mystical Tutor
3 Infernal Tutor

SB:
1 Tropical Island
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Echoing Truth
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Rebuild
1 Slaughter Pact
3 Krosan Grip
1 Extirpate
4 Dark Confidant
1 Ill-Gotten Gains

This build has, more or less, remained almost identical across the several events I've played it in.

The mana base is solid. I appreciate the value of basic lands more than most people, and they have won me a very large number of games. I also value a large acceleration package, which is important when casting Ad Nauseam. Not only does it make the deck faster, it also makes a "risky" Ad Nauseam better, as you're more likely to climb out of a sticky situation by having your deck provide enough mana to do its thing.

Most of the spells in the maindeck are pretty self explanatory. The focal point is of course Ad Nauseam, and the rest of the spells either find AN or pave the way to make sure it resolves.

The SB is also pretty obvious, though the Dark Confidants always seem to draw questions. Bob is like an Ad Nauseam that costs 1B, with the drawback of taking a few turns to get the effect instead of all at once. Either way, it doesn't matter if you draw the cards all in one turn or over 5 turns - once you have them you still Tendrils them for lethal. As such, any match where the opponent is going to play defensively and give you turns, Bob is an invaluable asset. Against a blue deck looking to hide behind cards like Counterbalance or Force of Will, resolving an early Bob takes only as little as two land and it will frequently win the game by itself.

The fact Bob hits for 2 each turn is a plus. Each turn Bob connects with the opponent's life total is one less storm you need to Tendrils them to death. He functions as an engine. He draws disruption like Duress effects, making him serve the same role as Xantid Swarm. He draws cards like Krosan Grip to deal with an active Counterbalance. His life loss can simply be negated by casting Tendrils. He can dig its owner out of mana-light draws. He puts the opponent into awkward positions where they have to keep creature removal in their deck. He also dominates the storm mirror. There are few first turn plays against a blue deck better than Ritual, Duress, Bob. Put simply, Bob is amazing.

On to the report!

Round 1 vs. Harry playing Bant 2-0

Harry is a good player, and performs pretty well and does so consistently. Today was no exception for him, despite this particular round.

Game 1 - Game 1 starts off with me Duressing him, and taking a Spell Snare. My 2nd turn Divining Top is shocked by a topdecked Spellstutter Sprite. He taps out on the next turn, and with me knowing most/all of his hand I use a M.Tutor to set up a lethal AN.

Game 2 - I keep an exciting hand, which gets even more exciting given my first turn's draw. He plays land go. I lead with a first turn Thoughtseize for his Spellstutter Sprite. He plays land, Goyf. I Duress his Force. On his next turn he beats with Goyf and has nothing relevant outside of playing a Trygon Predator, which is unfortunately not enough for him to stop me from using M.Tutor to set up a 3rd turn kill.

These games I drew pretty well, but they are also evidence of just how solid ANT can be. In the first game I Duressed a counter, had a pretty strong spell countered, and won on turn 3. In the second game I Duressed away 2 counters, and once again won on turn 3.

Round 2 vs. Eric playing UBGR Counter/Top 2-1

This deck featured a number of cards I like in Counter/Top, namely cards like Bob. I have seen Eric around at a number of events, but never gotten a chance to sit down with him.

Game 1 - I am on the play, which is very fortunate. I use Duress effects to keep my opponent off balance, then play a turn 2 Top. He taps out turn 2 for a Bob while I set up an all-in play on Ad Nauseam on my 3rd turn. Eric wisely Dazes my Dark Ritual, because if he didn't I would cast AN and crack the LED to pay for his Daze. Instead I pass the turn. On his next turn he flips a Daze to his Bob, replays his 2nd land, casts a Top and bashes before swinging the turn back. I use Top to set up a play next turn where he is unable to use Daze to prevent me from resolving AN and he cannot find Force with his Top. I get dangerously low on the AN, but still manage to get there.

Game 2 - I keep a hand with 3 land, Brainstorm, Dark Ritual, Duress, Duress. He opens with a first turn Thoughtseize, taking my Brainstorm. I Duress him to see Extirpate, Stifle, Daze, Bob, and a land (I think). I take his Extirpate and he lands Bob on his next turn. He gets a Top the turn after that to keep his life total very high. It takes me a while to find any action, and by the time I do he has drawn plenty of cards off Bob and can easily prevent my poor attempts to win.

Game 3 - He mulligans to 6, and my first turn Thoughtseize shows him having 4 lands, CB, and Bob. I take a while for my decision, but ultimately I take his CB and commit myself to the "my opponent has Bob" strategy. On my 2nd turn I play Top. I let him draw a bunch of cards with Bob while I sit back and sculpt a hand. The key strategy here is to be patient and let him draw cards, and just wait for an opportune moment to go for it. Bob, combined with his fetchlands and Thoughtseize, puts him at 10 life when he casts Trinket Mage finding Top, then plays Top with 1 mana untapped. I decide now is the time to go for it. I untap and cast Duress, taking his Stifle and leaving him with 2 Brainstorms and a number of irrelevant cards. I play a large number of fast mana cards, then Infernal Tutor with nothing in my hand. He casts Brainstorm, but cannot find Force of Will, and he is tapped out so I have no fear of Stifle. Infernal Tutor finds Tendrils and I pull it off.

Much to his credit, Eric played very well. It just so happens that Bob is actually not that great of a card against Tendrils decks.

Round 3 vs. Robin with Goblins 1-2

Game 1 - I win on like turn 3 or something.

Game 2 - I keep a pretty loose 7 and die a terrible death.

Game 3 - I'm in a pretty good position. I've Duressed his Thorn and forced him to try and race me, but that's not the end of the world for him because I need to make a number of land drops in order to put myself in a position to go off. Plus, he has a Rishadan Port to stall and Lackey can never be underestimated. So he has a first turn Lackey, a 2nd turn Chieftain with Port up to lock me down, and on his 3rd turn he decides to keep his Port active instead of playing a creature attacking for an extra 5 or so damage (a wise decision). He still Lackeys a Warchief into play, then uses his Mountain to cast a Piledriver and still has enough to Port me. The problem is I'm at 14 life, and he has lethal on the board. This isn't too bad, because my board is 3 land and a Top, and my hand is Land, Chrome Mox, Duress, Infernal Tutor. When I use Top at EOT, I see Dark Ritual and know I can win because I'll have just enough to IT -> AN, and even though it'll be a stretch to win from that position it's still in my favor.

Instead, I try to get fancy and put Brainstorm as my top card. During my upkeep when he goes to Port my land, I draw with Top and use the Port'd land to cast Brainstorm...then I see my mistake. My original plan was to cast Infernal Tutor but with that extra card in my hand I am unable to Infernal Tutor and find AN. If I cast the Top to let IT be able to find AN, I'm 1 mana short of casting it. So I play to my out and cast Mox, Ritual, Top, Tutor for LED. After popping LED for 3 black I look at my top 3 and try to find the only card in my deck that would save me (IGG) but do not see it.

Round 4 vs. Allen playing Bant 2-1

The last time I played Allen, he crushed me with his Dragon Stompy deck. He is, in fact, the reason I'm playing Rebuild in my SB. Today he was sporting a slightly different deck.

Game 1 - He has a hand with 2 Stifles, Daze, and some other spells. I Duressed his Stifle, then played around Stifle/Daze enough to cast AN. His Brainstorm did not prevent it from resolving. AN takes me to a pretty low life total, but I have enough to finish it. When I Duress him to make sure he doesn't have Stifle, he Swords his own Goyf which scares me because I was afraid I didn't have enough to storm him for lethal, but I end up getting there.

Game 2 - My opponent plays land, go. I land go. He misses his 2nd land drop. I land go. He draws a land for his turn and plays Teeg. I anticipated this course of action and Duress him to see a hand with another Teeg, 2 Force of Wills, and 3 Tarmogoyfs. I take his Force of Will. At this point I have 2 Mystical Tutors in hand, and one needs to find removal for the Teeg and the other needs to find AN, which is awkward because it takes so long to get there. M.Tutor for Slaughter Pact works. When I try to M.Tutor for the AN, he casts Force of Will but Teeg is in play so he takes it back. Either way I do not have the ability to kill his Teeg and get my AN to resolve through his Force.

Game 3 - I don't really remember much honestly. I believe I fetched a Swamp on turn 1 to play around Stifle and Wasteland. He played a land, and I played a basic. He Dazed something on my turn, then replayed a land on his turn. I believe I won on the next turn.

Round 5 ID

Quarterfinals vs. Jack Wang with Zoo 2-1

Jack won the last Legacy Blue Bell event, so he's looking to add to that here. Jack is playing Zoo, but it's a very aggressive and burn oriented Zoo which happens to be more dangerous to me than a slow plodding Zoo deck with Knight of the Reliquary or similar cards.

Game 1 - I mulligan to 6, with a ton of acceleration and a Ponder. I Ponder into 3 mana, which I don't need at all, and shuffle before drawing a blank. I draw about 4 more blanks over the course of the game and see no action before dying to beatdown. How embarrassing.

Game 2 - Jack mulligans to 6 while I keep a turn 3 hand, or a turn 4 after removing a hatebear hand. He has no 2nd turn land drop, and I kill him on turn 3.

game 3 - Jack plays a first turn Lavamancer, and after drawing for my turn I am faced with a tough decision. My hand is: Delta, Sea, Chrome Mox, Ponder, LED, Infernal Tutor, Infernal Tutor, Dark Ritual. I can play land, Ponder, go. This gives him the opportunity to play a hatebear which I did not have an answer to in my hand. I would basically need to Ponder into an answer for a hatebear. The other option was to dump my entire hand into a first turn Ad Nauseam, taking out a significant number of fast mana cards in my deck and leaving me with nothing floating and no land drop into the AN. I learned from my mistakes in previous events, and learned how to shake my doubts and trust in my deck to get there. It's an Ad Nauseam deck because the card is broken and wins games, so when in doubt casting AN is the right play. I flip over a lot of cards, but most of them are worthless due to being bottle necked on mana. At 6 life I flip Tendrils of Agony to go down to 2. I sit there for a long time staring, but just don't see it. Eventually it hits me in a very "duh" manner (it was actually quite obvious) and I try to reassure my opponent that I was not slow rolling him.

In the end the top 4 decided to split.

Ultimately, I'm still undecided whether I want to stick with ANT or switch over to Reanimator. I watched the Reanimator players struggle today against Leylines, Faerie Macabres, Extirpates, etc. I heard a lot of phrases over the course of the day like "who plays maindeck Tormod's Crypt?" and "oh wow Extirpate is good" which sounded like by-products of the Reanimator players being unsuccessful. I like playing with Force, but not when I can't counter the cards that are stopping me from winning. It's too tough to say right now but I think both are perfectly valid choices for a large event.

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In conclusion, I just want to thank Nick Coss for holding awesome events. Keep up the good work, you attracted people from Pittsburgh to Virginia to New England despite PTQs and other distractions for a fun filled weekend of this game we all love. A lot of people don't understand how difficult it can be to organize events like these and your dedication, as well as the work of the people helping you, does not go unnoticed by me. Thanks. =)