BC's live Gencon tournament report thread

[BC]

I'm currently stuck in the airport, so unfortunately I'm going to miss the Vintage Prelims today, but I will be posting live updates the rest of the weekend, detailing my experience at Gencon.  I also have my camera along, so I will try to upload pictures at the end of each day.  Stay tuned...

[Bill Copes]

Good luck, man!

[BC]

So far bad start.  Missed my connection in Milwaukee, planes tomorrow don't get me there in time.  Right now I'm trying to rent a car, then it's all night driving.  Should leave me in great playing shape.

[Nefarias]

Damn them for moving Champs from Saturday to Friday!

Good Luck

[BC]

Just rolled into Indianapolis (6 AM).  Maybe a couple hours sleep coming up at most.  Also discovered there are 5 other people in my room.  Slightly more than expected.

[BC]

Finally got registered, waiting to start.  Registering for events at Gencon is a long and complicated process.  Terrible, terrible system.

Lots of big names here.  Should be a good tournament.

[BC]

Looks like 113 players.  Nice turnout.

[BC]

114 official.  I win rd 1 vs MUD.  Game 1 he rolls me with crypt, tomb, chalice@0, golem.  Game 2 I assemble early Crucible/waste and follow up with Stack and he doesn't recover.  Game 3 I land welder, tangle, stack, and ensnaring bridge and he can't keep up.  Afterwards he is clearly not happy, but I fail to see why he thinks he would have a good matchup vs. Red Stax. 

[Troy_Costisick]

114 official.  I win rd 1 vs MUD.  Game 1 he rolls me with crypt, tomb, chalice@0, golem.  Game 2 I assemble early Crucible/waste and follow up with Stack and he doesn't recover.  Game 3 I land welder, tangle, stack, and ensnaring bridge and he can't keep up.  Afterwards he is clearly not happy, but I fail to see why he thinks he would have a good matchup vs. Red Stax. 

Grats!  Mono-red Stax, eh?  Interesting choice.

[BC]

Playing Red Stax wasn't an option for me, it's the only deck I'm any good with at all.

I win round 2, again facing MUD.  On the play I went Wasteland, Sol Ring, Sphere.  Turn 2 I follow with Crucible to keep him completely off lands, then finish with a Lodestone on turn 3.  Scoop.   Game 2 he plays Waste, Mox, Sol Ring, but no artifact.  I play B-ring, Welder.  On his turn he again doesn't do much (he had mulled to 5).  On my second turn I play Shop, Null Rod, Null Rod.  Turn 3 I play another Welder and Bazaar.  That's pretty much it.  Welder and Dup (no imprint) beat for the win.

[Bill Copes]

Playing Red Stax wasn't an option for me, it's the only deck I'm any good with at all.

I win round 2, again facing MUD.  On the play I went Wasteland, Sol Ring, Sphere.  Turn 2 I follow with Crucible to keep him completely off lands, then finish with a Lodestone on turn 3.  Scoop.   Game 2 he plays Waste, Mox, Sol Ring, but no artifact.  I play B-ring, Welder.  On his turn he again doesn't do much (he had mulled to 5).  On my second turn I play Shop, Null Rod, Null Rod.  Turn 3 I play another Welder and Bazaar.  That's pretty much it.  Welder and Dup (no imprint) beat for the win.

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK

[Oath of Happy]

Thats awsome man, good job.  Are there a fair amount of Drain decks or is it mostly infested with MUD?

[BC]

I lost rd 3 to hotel-mate Vroman playing combo Oath.  Game 1 is close, but I get there with Lodestone behind Tangle Wire and Sphere, he gets an Oath activation at 3 life, but B-rings finish the job.  Game 2 he goes land, Lotus, Oath, Sol Ring, Timetwister.  My Twister hand is total balls, so I lose hard.  Game 3 I go Ruby, Welder, Shop, Crucible.  He goes Lotus (hl), Forest, Jet, Oath, Time Walk.  I lose that one too.

Metagame is a lot of Shops, a lot of Oath, some Dredge, and then scattered other types.

[GrandpaBelcher]

I lost rd 3 to hotel-mate Vroman playing combo Oath.  Game 1 is close, but I get there with Lodestone behind Tangle Wire and Sphere, he gets an Oath activation at 3 life, but B-rings finish the job.  Game 2 he goes land, Lotus, Oath, Sol Ring, Timetwister.  My Twister hand is total balls, so I lose hard.  Game 3 I go Ruby, Welder, Shop, Crucible.  He goes Lotus (hl), Forest, Jet, Oath, Time Walk.  I lose that one too.

Metagame is a lot of Shops, a lot of Oath, some Dredge, and then scattered other types.

Rough.  Sounds like Vroman came to that round in a little red sleigh pulled by reindeer.

[BC]

Rd 4 vs World Series of Poker's own David Williams playing Ochoa.tez.  I win the role and play Pearl, ring, lotus, Welder, Trinisphere.  All stayaround for the party.  He has infi lands, even after I waste 2, but I eventually get Golemn and Resistor.  He lands Trygon, but Welder juggles stuff so I'm not losing anything.  I eventually win.  Game 2 is more of the same.  Welder juggling Tangle Wire, Golemns, Sphere, and eventually a Smokestack to finish him off.  I am now 3-1.

In other news, Smenen was sitting next to me at 2-1 and lost, so he's probably out.

[BC]

Rich Shay is also 2-2, and I think he's dropping to play in the Legacy Prelim.

[BC]

Not much time between matches this time, but I beat Oath 2-1 to go to 4-1.  Vroman is also 4-1.  More on my match later.

EDIT:  Ok, this match.  Game 1 I bait with Lotus, which he counters.  I follow with Shop, Challice@0, Sphere.  He takes a while to develop ,while I stick a Welder with a Dup in the yard.  By the time he starts Oathing I am well prepared and handle his onslaught of monsters.  Game 2 he gets an early Oath with Orchard, but I suspend a Gargadon.  Unfortunately I don't follow it up with much, and he is able to assemble Time Vault.  Game 3 I get a turn 1 Stax, which he is never able to answer.  I land a Welder a few turns later to make the losses assymmetric.  Vroman helped me out this game by pointing out my chalice@2 when Dan played DT.  I missed it, and so did my opponent.  Not sure if it would have made a difference.

[emidln]

Good luck and more updates please.

[BC]

I lost to Jesse Martin in round 6, so I'm most likely out of top 8 contention.  Jesse is 6-1, though, and so is vroman.  Updates on the match later.

EDIT:  This match.  I start with 2 mox, Wasteland, Sphere which gets FOW.  He plays 3 moxes, sol ring, and top.  I play Null Rod shutting off both our mana.  We play draw-go for a long time, then he gets Swamp, rit, necro, drawing 6.  I play Tangle Wire.  He Ponders then takes 5 more.  I play Golem, but it gets countered.  EOT he Chains my Null Rod and wins with YWill.  Game 2 I start with Lotus, Chalice@0, Wasteland, then Trinisphere wich gets countered.  I get a decent board of Tangle, Golem, Chalice, but he keeps Hurkyling me, and I make a misplay allowing him to win without much trouble.

[Tha Gunslinga]

I dropped at 3-2.  I lost to Ichorid despite TEN pieces of sb hate.  I brought in 2 Tormod's, 2 Relics, 3 Planar Void, 3 Pithing Needle, and 2 Nature's Claim for his Leylines.  My opponent drew three Chains of Vapor in game 3 to win.  I played Oath, which is by far the best deck in the format.  Rd 1, lost to MUD by keeping bad hands. Round 2, beat unpowered Ad Nauseam/random.  Rds 3 and 4 beat Tezzeret.  Rd 5 lost to Ichorid.  Unfortunate.  Owen is X-0 and drawing in, Danny Friedman is 4-1-1, Tommy didn't bother playing.

[Rico Suave]

Did you lose to Mark Hornung?

[Tha Gunslinga]

Yep.  Game 1 he mulls to 2 and I roll him.  Game 2 I Pith Bazaar, but he already has stuff going a little, quickly hits Narcomoebas/Ghasts, drops 2 Bridges and FKZ in the bin, then flashes back Dread Return and kills me through the DSC that I Oathed up.  Game 3 he has Leyline of Sanctity, but I have Planar Void and Tormod's.  He Chains the Planar Void, so I Claim his Leyline and Crypt him.  I play Oath and replay the Void, and he bounces both of them with 2 more Chains.  I get Oath back down, but he kills me with a horde of zombies.

[Juggernaut GO]

That's some old bullshit

[Rico Suave]

Why is that bullshit?

[BC]

I lost to Mark Trogden playing Tez in the last round to finish 4-3.  Game 1 I start with Chalice@0 which gets FOW.  On his turn he plays land, mox, mox, Tinker getting his Sphinx.  I do not find a way out.  Game 2 I start Emerald, Bazaar.  He plays mox, lotus, land.  I play Chalice@0, Academy, Tangle, which he Nature's Claims at EOT.  My next turn I land a sphere, then eventually a Welder and Tangles/Golems while he doesn't do much.  Game 3 he goes Sapphire, land.  I play Challioce@0, Challice@1 which gets Drained.  He uses his Drain mana to play Jace.  I play Golem, he casts MT in response.  On his turn he bounces Golem, then plays Time Vault and Tinker for key.  I don't find Null Rod so he wins.  It's for the best, since he came into the match at 4-1-1, while I was 4-2.

I'll update more on the top 8 soon.

[i_set_fire]

These updates are great for us who are unable to attend. Thanks!

Please tell me that soly and Matt faced each other and we have a conclusion

[honestabe]

GET EM JESSE

[BC]

I finished 25th.  A good run, I suppose.  

Top 8:
Owen Turtenwald
Robert Maher
Ryan Glackin
Jesse Martin
AJ Sacher
Michael Gouthro
Vincent Forino
Jerome Yanchick

Vroman got 9th on breakers.

[BC]

I'm dead on my feet, so I'm leaving the tournament soon.  Good luck to the top 8.  Especially Jesse. 

Pics up soon.

[BC]

Jesse wins game 1.