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I finished 5th. Here's my report:
After planning to go to the Grudge Match in Hadley for several weeks, everyone from Pa backs out. Couple days later, we find another to go with so the trips back on. Set out from home to Keith's place on Friday, stay the night, get little sleep thanks to his cat's claws, and set out at 6am on Saturday morning, with me driving on what Im sure is less than 2 hours of sleep. Once we hit the highway, we fly at 80mph till midway through NY when we get clocked and pulled over. Cops asks for licence and registration, sits in his car for several minutes, comes back up and says, "Here's your licence and registration." and walks back to his car. After that, no more problems. We get to the store with over an hour left till the tournament starts. We survey the area, and get the Team Pa situation straightened out (Keith Seals was the only one from the voted Grudge Match team to make it to the tournament. Team Pa becomes Team My Car (Me (Evan Hundertmark), Keith, and Paul Mastriano)).
Round 1 - Dark Depths
Game 1 – I mulligan to 5. He plays Bob, beats for win.
Game 2 – I seal win quickly through spheres and stacks.
Game 3 – I mulligan to 6 he mulligans to 5. My hand is: Workshop, Pithing Needle, Pithing Needle, Chalice, Chalice, something else (may have been Smokestack). Hes on the play. Goes: Black Lotus, break for BBB, casts Demonic Consultation, names Hexmage, flips 6 and a few more, plays Hexmage, plays Dark Depths, sacs Hexmage, gets 20/20 flying, indestructible dude. I fail to topdeck Tangle wire = I loose.
Games 1-2
Matches 0-1
Round 2 – Dredge
On the way to my seat, I notice that the store has become infested with bugs. This provides a huge problem for the majority of the rest of the day. (Bugs in eyes are really fucking annoying!!!)
Game 1 – Dredge does what it does. Loose
At this point my opponent is really pissed about the bugs. In the middle of the next game I became 95% certain that he was going to get up and walk out of the store. Sadly he did not do this.
Game 2 – After siding in 15 cards, I am on the play. We both mul to 6. He manages to beat me for a couple of turns but I eventually get enough dudes out to block his. Early on I see this game is going to end with him decking, everything he puts in his graveyard, I remove quickly. I eventually get Trinisphere in play, he only has 2 lands, I then play Cap, turn after that I play Sculpting Steel on Cap, sac it, and remove his last 3 mana producing lands. Next turn I remove 3 more cards. He decks a few turns later.
Game 3 – By turn 2 I have 2 Tormod’s Crypts and a relic in play, and he Nature Claimed my Pithing Needle. He beats me with a Narcomoeba for a few turns while I block other dudes with Karn. Eventually I eat one of my moxes to remove his Bridges. I Cap him, remove 3 Natures Claims. Comes down to beating through dudes and removing his graveyard from the game in response to a Golgari Thug’s trigger. I win on turn 5 of extra turns.
Games 3-3
Matches 1-1
Round 3 – I don’t know, I saw a lot of typical blue cards and Inkwell
Game 1 – On the play, go mox, workshop, then my lodestone gets forced by pitching ancestral. I feel pretty good about this game at this point. He concedes a few turns later (cant remember what else happened).
Game 2 – We both mull to 6. He plays Tinker, fetches Inkwell. Next turn I play Sculpting Steel. He scoops to my Inkwell after I point out that Sculpting Steel does not target and therefore “shroud” does nothing to stop Inkwell from being coppied.
Games 5-3
Matches 2-1
Round 4 – Oath
Game 1 – I set up good game early. Tides turn in his favor when Oath hits the board. He flips some dude, his next turn, flips a second creature then draws the last card in his deck.
Game 2 – Hes on the play. Opens up with Tundra, Sapphire, Timevault, go. I play Shop, mox, smokestack, go. He untaps, plays Enlightened Tutor, fetches Key, draws Key, plays Key, no land drop, go. I untap, add counter to Smokestack, draw, play more permanents. He tries to stay in the game. Every time he draws a land, he had just sacced a land. I eventually overrun him.
Games 7-3
Matches 3-1
Round 5 – TPS
Game 1 - I play spheres. He plays lands and Necropotence. Starts drawing cards. I start beating with Factories. He plays Rebuild/hurkyls. I replay everything and win next turn.
Game 2 – I play Trinisphere, he plays lands, I beat with dudes, he bounces my stuff, plays Bargain, and attempts to go off, fails, and I win.
Games 9-3
Matches 4-1
Round 6 – Oath
Game 1 – I set up control early and win easily.
Game 2 – I win quickly, maybe double Lodestone. He puts up little fight.
Games 11-3
Matches 5-1
At this point all I have to do is draw into the top 8 but, I get paired down to someone with 13 points who has to play, so I have to play.
Round 7 – Bob Tez?
Game 1 – I won, cant remember what happened.
Game 2 – He plays turn 1 Vault. I play turn 1 Smokestack. My Stacks never gets a counter
Game 3 – I loose some roles to Mana Crypt, but that doesn’t matter. I beat for the win.
Games 13-3
Matches 6-1
Top 8
I enter the top 8 in first place with 18 points.
Top 8 – Oath, my round 6 opponent.
Game 1 – I never really get set up, and right before he gets in control and wins, I receive a game loss for failure to desideboard.
Game 2 – I set up control early. He hangs in there, never getting past one land, but does Pithing Needle Mishra’s Factory, this makes the game last a lot longer than it should have. He Tinkers out Colossus. I Duplicant it. He gets Oath out. I beat him to 1. He flips Terastodon, destroys one thing on my side and 2 on his. I get Triskelion, in response he Nature’s Claims one of his moxes to put himself at 5. I think about attacks and decide to pass. He passes. I think about attacking again, I see Duplicant getting blocked by a token, Triskelion getting blocked by Terastodon, and Elephant getting blocked by his other token; he blocks duplicant with a token, triskelion with a token, and my token with terastodon. Next turn he Nature’s Claims my Duplicant. Now it’s Terastodon versus Triskelion. I topdeck another dude and win.
Game 3 – I keep Workshop, Sol Ring, Smokestack, Lodestone, Tangle Wire, ?, ?. He keeps his hand. He opens with Sapphire Strip Mine. I play Shop, Sol Ring. He Spell Pierces my Sol Ring and Strips my Shop. He plays stuff. I topdeck 2 mox and a factory and never get back into the game.
I get to pick first from the 5th – 8th prize pool. First we are offered $60 each cash split. The prizes were 4x Force, 4x Phyrexian Dreadnaught, 1x Jace, the Mindsculptor, 4x Dark Confidant. I take 4x Force.
Props:
Lots of new faces.
Good competition.
Keith Seals and Paul Mastriano for deciding to make the trip.
Slops:
THE FUCKING BUGS!!!
Hot store with no air circulation.
