TMD OPEN 14-Waterbury, CT Marriott-September 11, 2010 *YUP, you read that right*

[KingSquee]

For those who couldn't make it out, Mark Hornung and I will be providing semi-real-time updates via Twitter. I'm @kingsquee and Mark is @womba_. We'll be using the hashtag #tmd14 in case any other tweeps want to join us.

[BruiZar]

Havent zeen Amy tweets so far

[KingSquee]

Just posted the first tweet now, player's meeting has begun, 125 players!

[Stormanimagus]

Couldn't make it out to this one because of my brother's bachelor party, but best of luck to team Deus Ex Machina, Jostin, Ici and Dave. Looking forward to seeing what the meta was like for this one.

-Noah

[Evenpence]

Updates? 

[v4ino]

Nick D. (prospero) is in T16 with Espresso Stax.

I'm not because I didn't go today (obviously).

[DubDub]

I scrubbed hard, but a lot of the usual names were at the top tables when I left.

My personal meta was 2x DC/Trygon/Jace, 1x SCV, 1x BR Stax, and then in the side event XMas Beatings and Tezz/Oath Hybrid.  Fun fact, my first three opponents were each named either Jon or John.

I played RUG Show and Tell.

It was great to meet a bunch of people, and be a part of the largest Vintage event in the US this year.

Props
Mind's Desire and Kozilek the Butcher for drawing me four cards.
My Desire for four (one copy countered) being better than the Desire for 12 that Mr. Type 4 dodged.
The dealers for selling me a Show and Tell and both the GURU Mountain and GURU Forest that I needed to keep the deck two-proxy.  (Okay, I probably could have run non-GURU basics.)
Firespout, for killing everything relevant.
My opponents, for not playing Dredge.

Slops
Burning Wish, for being restricted.
Jace, the Mind Sculptor, for never being my ally, always my opponent's.
Table 56.
Hull Breach, for suckering me in to not killing 'just' a Time Vault from my Oath opponent.  I wanted value damnit.
Smokestack, for remembering how many permanents have to be sacrificed even if it gets destroyed in response to the trigger.

[v4ino]

Nick in T8

[voltron00x]

Joe brown slayed the entire meandeck team to win with mud.

[conboy31]

Any other information regarding players/decks and the top 8?
Thanks.

[Sporkcore]

Any other information regarding players/decks and the top 8?
Thanks.

Any info on what the meta looked like in addition to T8?

[mikekilljoy]

I went for Espresso Stax, went 1-3, with my round 1 bye. Still, great tourney and my team ended up 2nd in the Trivia Challenge.

Last I saw, Ashok was in the Top 4, playing ANT against Dredge.

Props
To Nick Detwiler, for representing Long Island.
To Ray, for simply running one of the best Vintage events not in Long Island I have been to.
To the entire judge staff there also.
To Team Jager, for being trivia gods, despite getting 2nd by 1 point on the last category.

Slops
To there not being any T-Shirts or Playmats for sale.
To that one guy who has be a jerk on trying to get a guy DQed because of his proxies and then complaining for at least 10 minutes after being unsuccessful.
To my choice of deck and not being able to win anything against a guy who got mana screwed twice.
To James Hangley, for reasons he should know.

[personalbackfire]

The tournament was pretty enjoyable despite the letdown which was my record... 4-0, 0-3. Way to miss the big bulls eye which was top 16.

Props:
Matt Elias for being a Man among boys, even if he played tinker... jk Matt
Ray for running a great tournament. I wish these things were more often then once a year but I'll take what we can get for.
Most of the players for showing up and getting the turnout we did
Jeff for driving
Detwiler and R. Forino for being great guys. I really do enjoy the times we all get to play Magic together.
The rest of the Long Island/New York crew, you guys are sweet.
And the PA guys as well. I kind of think the bluebell/long island player base is one of the best with the nicest people.

Slops:
The hotel was pretty poor.
Tinker for Mindslaver... Yikes
Twaun for not being there, where were you?

[Gaagooch]

Ray, the tournament was spectacular, which I'm sure I have told you enough at this point...As for the top 16 I can name some of the people, I don't know everyone's name though (sorry).
Rich Meyst (Mono-Red Shops)
Ashok (Ad Nauseum)
Craig Dupree (Tezz?)
Kron (Cobra Tezz)
Brian DeMars (Cobra Tezz)
Paul Mastriano (Cobra Tezz?)
Dan Cunningham (Bomberman)
Me (Tezz)
Nick Detwiler (Esspresso Stax)

Those are the only names I can think of/can remember, I believe the finals were Ashok vs. a player I didn't know playing stax.  As for the team competition Team Perfect Scrubs took it home by 1 point over Team RIW (Smmemen, Mastriano, DeMars).  

Props as always to Ray for an excellent tournament, and to my team winning the team competition for ourselves and New England...

Slops obviously being me losing in top 8 to DeMars...

[T00L]

Slops obviously being me losing in top 8 to Demeers...

[oshkoshhaitsyosh]

whats cobra tezz?

[Commandant]

whats cobra tezz?

New Meandeck abomination running Lotus Cobra.

[Juggernaut GO]

I'm sure there will be an article about how insane it is.

But really, it is pretty good innovation and helps out 2 shitty matchups a bit.

So I went 5-2, and didn't hit the cutoff at 22nd.

but


Chrissy Browne finished 32nd, so I win the grudge match that never really materialized even though he took the time to write a 5 page diatribe about what an idiot I was.

Maybe we will have to schedule a deathmatch at Traviscon 4.0, with the loser having to spend a few hours with the bridge and tunnel posse near the 91 onramp.

Thanks for keeping the flame high for vintage Ray.

[Bill Copes]

Ray, the tournament was spectacular, which I'm sure I have told you enough at this point...As for the top 16 I can name some of the people, I don't know everyone's name though (sorry).
Rich Meyst (Mono-Red Shops)
Ashok (Ad Nauseum)
Craig Dupree (Tezz?)
Kron (Cobra Tezz)
Brian Dumars (Cobra Tezz)
Paul Mastriano (Cobra Tezz?)
Dan Cunningham (Bomberman)
Me (Tezz)
Nick Detwiler (Esspresso Stax)

Those are the only names I can think of/can remember, I believe the finals were Ashok vs. a player I didn't know playing stax.  As for the team competition Team Perfect Scrubs took it home by 1 point over Team RIW (Smmemen, Mastriano, Dumars). 

Props as always to Ray for an excellent tournament, and to my team winning the team competition for ourselves and New England...

Slops obviously being me losing in top 8 to Dumars...

I made it in with Bob tendrils, but was immediately run over by one of the dredge players from Philly.

[The M.E.T.H.O.D]

I'd like to thank Ray for hosting a great event! It was trippy being in that hotel again for Waterbury

I had a lot of fun and it was great seeing the vintage players I used to play with, the NYC/Philly kids, and my fellow Meandeckers.

Watching James & Egan yesterday was hilarious and made my day....Jimmy is a god among men haha

I got 2nd playing this:

4 Duress
4 Thoughtseize

4 Ad Nauseum
4 Dark Ritual
3 Cabal Ritual
3 Tendrils of Agony
3 Chain of Vapor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Necropotence
1 Hurkyl's Recall

4 Chrome Mox
4 Polluted Delta
3 Underground Sea
2 Swamp
1 Island
1 Bayou
1 Tropical Island
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring

/Sideboard
4 Xantid Swarm
3 Dark Confidant
3 Yixlid Jailer
2 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Slaughter Pact

[voltron00x]

Ray, the tournament was spectacular, which I'm sure I have told you enough at this point...As for the top 16 I can name some of the people, I don't know everyone's name though (sorry).
Rich Meyst (Mono-Red Shops)
Ashok (Ad Nauseum)
Craig Dupree (Tezz?)
Kron (Cobra Tezz)
Brian Dumars (Cobra Tezz)
Paul Mastriano (Cobra Tezz?)
Dan Cunningham (Bomberman)
Me (Tezz)
Nick Detwiler (Esspresso Stax)

Those are the only names I can think of/can remember, I believe the finals were Ashok vs. a player I didn't know playing stax.  As for the team competition Team Perfect Scrubs took it home by 1 point over Team RIW (Smmemen, Mastriano, Dumars). 

Props as always to Ray for an excellent tournament, and to my team winning the team competition for ourselves and New England...

Slops obviously being me losing in top 8 to Dumars...

I made it in with Bob tendrils, but was immediately run over by one of the dredge players from Philly.

It was a pleasure to meet you at this event, and a shame as I also lost to Dredge after beating it rd 6, to draw in rd 7.  It was a rather anticlimactic ending to an otherwise awesome tournament, one that really started off with a bang.

Just wanted to thank Ray, Nick, and the staff for putting this thing together.  And again, big props to Joe for winning this after winning Hadley a few weeks back.  NEPA > New England, apparently, and we all have learned that Joe has Protection from Meandeck.

PS - More of these, please.

[DubDub]

Only 16 players for TMD Open 14 day two today, where the top-4 split was:

Paul Mastriano
Jesse Martin
<myself>
Jeff K*

*I would butcher his last name so badly, I won't even try.

Too bad more people didn't make day two.

[Sextiger]

I played this to a 30th place at Waterbury, 4-1-2. I drew with Trygon Tezz and Stax (1st teammate), beat Bomberman, Noble Fish, Dredge  and Faeries and lost to another Dredge played by Willie Munch (my other teammate), who went onto the top  four.    I feel the deck has a good to decent matchup against everything and  could turn out to be pretty ridiculous if the new Spellbomb in Scars is good, which it probably won't be because I will make a bet that it won't bounce creatures but it will just mill cards.     

When I lost to Dredge,  game 1 I had second turn Salvager with Lotus but could not draw anything but land for about four turns afterward.  Game 2 I had Key/Vault in opening hand and my opponent mulls to 5.  I play first turn Vault, hoping for the win turn 2, he lays down land/Nature's Claim on my Vault.  He apparently mulliganed into a mana land, Bazaar, Nature's Claim, a dredger and I think a Bloodghast, GOOD HAND.  He kills me two turns later. 

Card choice wise, I would definitely take out the Needle and Balance main and possibly remove one of the Jace.  Needle is nowhere as good as it should be because the main uses for Needle in Vintage are Jace and Time Vault, two cards that I am very reluctant to name because I run them as well.  Balance is good for coming back but it never really WINS the game unlike its use in Stax.  As good as Jace is, I probably would rather just play another draw spell or a Salvager.  The deck is still fundamentally a Drain deck and loves to sit back and drain into bombs, more EOT spells would help.  I have been testing Read the Runes somewhat and it could work since you usually have a pretty ridiculous permanent count in play, allowing you to sac Mages/Lands/Artifacts to fuel a Combo win.   Another  Salvager would work because he wins games a lot faster than Jace and is a lot easier to resolve these days because he gets around Spell Pierce and has an easier casting cost.  Tormod's Crypt should definitely be in the main, it still is too good not to include. 

On a negative nancy prancy note, the last time I played Vintage (about 2 years ago), this deck primarily won by creature beats followed by the Salvager kill.  This time I won most of my games through Time Vault wins, followed by only a handful of creature beats (by Inkwell, not even by the Bomberman guys) or Salvager combo wins.  I won on turn 1 (technically) twice on the day and probably would have had about four if my opponents didn't have a counter of some sort.  Time Vault combo in this deck is pretty ridiculous since your Mages fetch Key and Top for filtering for the Vault.
 
3 Flooded Strand
3 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
3 Polluted Delta
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Underground Sea
3 Tundra

5 Mox Ruby, Pearl, Emerald, Sapphire, Jet
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus
1 Aether Spellbomb
1 Voltaic Key
1 Sensei's Top
1 Time Vault
1 Pithing Needle (garbage)
1 Engineered Explosives

2 Auriok Salvagers
4 Trinket Mage
1 Inkwell Leviathan

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
1 Hurkyl's Recall
3 Mana Drain
3 Spell Pierce
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Thirst for Knowledge

1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Tinker
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Time Walk
1 Balance (super garbage)
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Sideboard
2 Meddling Mage (meh)
2 Energy Flux (meh)
2 Yixlid Jailer
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Sower of Temptation
1 Disenchant
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Sacred Ground (pro)
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Darkblast

[V is for Vintage]

   Don't feel bad guys....I play Joe Brown all the time in Scranton...and I can't beat him either....

[Leooooh]

Does anyone have the top 8 or top 16 decklists???

I really wanna see this mono red list!


Thanks

[Bill Copes]

It was a pleasure to meet you at this event, and a shame as I also lost to Dredge after beating it rd 6, to draw in rd 7.  It was a rather anticlimactic ending to an otherwise awesome tournament, one that really started off with a bang.

Likewise    I think we basically had the same exact tournament experience, somehow dodging the 927 shop decks in the room.

I can't remember details, or the exact match order, but here's how my day went:

Round 1 - Prepaid Bye
Round 2 - 2-0 v. RG Beats
Round 3 - 2-1 v. Oath (Might have been 2-0?)
Round 4 - 2-1 v. Ichorid
Round 5 - 1-2 v. Bob Tendrils
Round 6 - 2-1 v. Noble Fish
Round 7 - ID
Top 16 - 1-2 v. Ichorid


Here's the list, if anyone is curious (and to save Ray from having to type a little bit):

4 Force of Will
3 Preordain
2 Hurkyls Recall
1 Jace, The Mindsculptor
1 Time Walk
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Ponder
1 Brainstorm
1 Rebuild
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Mind’s Desire
1 Time Twister
1 Gifts Ungiven

4 Dark Confidant
4 Dark Ritual
2 Tendrils of Agony
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth’s Bargain
1 Cabal Ritual

4 Polluted Delta
3 Underground Sea
2 Island
2 Swamp
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Tolarian Academy

1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus

Sideboard
4 Yixlid Jailer
4 Thoughtsieze
2 Ravenous Trap
1 Sadistic Sacrement
1 Hurkyls Recall
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Island
1 Perish

[Mr. Type 4]

this tournament was a lot of fun.  I didn't play Snake City Vault (or Cobra Tez as you guys have it listed here) just so we could cover our bases incase the deck was actually worse than we thought (it wasn't).  I played UBW Jace, pretty close to what i would have played at Vintage Champs if had been able to go:


UBW Jace
Paul Mastriano - Top 16 - went 5-1-1 (although I was 5-0 and played Rich M. in round 7 for team points and lost)

2 Drain
2 Jace
2 Spell Pierce
1 Thoughtseize
1 STP
1 Edict
1 D-Blast
4 FOW
1 Top
1 Acall
1 Time Walk
1 Yawg Will
1 Time Vault
1 tinker
1 Inkwell
1 Key
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Merchant Scroll
2 Disenchant
1 vendillion Clique
4 Bob
1 Vamp
1 Mystical
1 Demonic
1 ? (i think im missing something here, but maybe i counted wrong. should be 26 cards 24 manas)

1 Strip Mine
2 Tundra
1 plains
1 Island
3 Sea
4 Strand
1 LOA
1 Academy
1 Misty rainforest
5 Mox
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus petal
1 Sol ring

My tournament experience on the whole was pretty interesting, so I was working on a report.  I looked over here hoping that someone may have posted my deck because I really cant remember the 60th card right now.

The Waterbury was a tremendous success.  Ray really pulled out all the stops on this one to deliver a class A experience.  I think that the work he did to figure out the byes was really worth it - it felt a lot like a "Grand Prix" for Vintage, and I think that this really helped to build the buzz for this tournament.  

In the end, I made out pretty well at this event, but the real prize was the fact that so much of the Vinatge community (new and old) was there - even Marske showed up from Europe!  If you missed this one, you missed out.  Congratulations to my team mate Ashok for making the finals, and to Joe for a well deserved victory after defeating wave after wave of Meandeck players, myself included.  Don't let anyone fool you - workshop doesn't suck.  

[voltron00x]

If anyone wants to discuss further, I'm available by PM and IM.

Here’s my deck:

Bob Tendrils:

2 Preordain
3 Duress
2 Island
2 Swamp
4 Force of Will
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Necropotence
1 Ponder
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Brainstorm
1 Chain of Vapor
4 Polluted Delta
1 Hurkyl's Recall
4 Dark Confidant
2 Tendrils of Agony
1 Mind's Desire
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal
1 Cabal Ritual
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Timetwister
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
3 Underground Sea
1 Rebuild
4 Dark Ritual
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Misty Rainforest

Sideboard
1 Duress
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Echoing Truth
2 Yixlid Jailer
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Tundra
1 Tinker
3 Serenity

[Demonic Attorney]

Alright, thread is reopened.  If you're interested in pursuing the debate over whether having a recognizable pattern of foil cards in your deck should be sanctioned as cheating or something else, I've split some of the posts into Vintage Issues.

Also, Full Warning to Marske for violation of Rule III, Inflammatory Posting (flames).  From here on out, I'm counting on the spirit of goodwill and unity in the TMD community to prevent a recurrence of unseemly accusations of cheating from spoiling the memory of the best U.S. Vintage tournament in recent history.  I sincerely hope I'm not disappointed.

[Smmenen]

FYI: Top 16 decklists and a complete metagame breakdown is (or will soon be) available here:

http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=41172.0