1st Place at FOWGD #1 - John Jones Tournament Report

My night and a chance encounter with Santa and Scranton 1st Place Tourney Report
By John Jones

So pretty much the night before my brother came home and there was a small get together at my house.
We got to drinking and then I got picked up by Josh Butker and Mykie Noble. We go up to Josh’s house
and then Mykie leaves. Mykie had stuff to do the next day and couldn’t go to the tournament. We go in
have some coffee and go stand on his porch and talk about sb options for Stax. Go back inside play a few
games of Stax vs Potuchek’s Landstill. We have some more coffee, stand on his porch again, come back
in and then play EDH. I am playing literally the most annoying deck on the planet. If you want to play
against it ask me at the next vintage tournament and hopefully there will be time to play. Sometime
during this I tell him I want to play RG Beats because I want to play tarmogoyf. I also inform him that I
left my box of playable playsets I like at my house and may be over proxy. It’s like 2 am and he goes to
sleep after we roughly play EDH and build this list. I stay up and look it over the list again. I take a quick
walk to 7-11 to pick up some milk. I write out the list for ease of use in the morning. I go to sleep.

Four hours later, I wake up! Now, I have to tell you, my body is used to functioning on this amount of
sleep. I pull all nighters somewhat frequently while doing school work because I am horrible at time
management. I would have liked to have two more hours but the time wasn’t there. So I took a shower,
drank some coffee, drank some water, ate some food and stood on the porch. Also we couldn’t stop and
get my box of cards because “its our first time going there and we don’t want to be late”, which is
perfectly understandable...-_-. I would like to say thank you to Josh Butker for the usual teammate/friend
stuff. Shawn Griffiths and Sean Duffy for lending me cards. Support Shawn if you can at bloomsburg!
Sean I gave ESG’s to Dominic. Shawn I still have your pyroblast. All the people who I met or met again.
Vito and all who ran a great event and the artist who made the playmat. (Btw I think playmats are a great
idea)

Round One - Dominic Difebo – “Pork Pie” – Loss
GameOne : The game opens up with him early forcing a goyf. I resolve a null rod and a magus. He fire’s
magus to death. Tin Street Blows up his already nulled sapphire and starts beating. I play metamorph
copying tinstreet blowing up another nulled mox and start beating. He sticks a bob. I swing, and get him
down to 12, when he fires them both tinstreets. I play a Simian spirit guide, he reveals DT with bob and I
think is able to get will, do a bunch of stuff and I think tinker time walk into BSC for the kill.

GameTwo: I essentially do nothing turn one. He plays lotus double bob. I do some more irrelevant
things. Eventually he just over powers me and combos off with ETW. The final gamestate was him at 11
with 12 1/1’s, two bobs, and a top/jace. I was at 1 with a magus and a tinstreet. -_-

Result: 0-0-1

Round Two - Shawn Griffiths – Landstill – Win

Game One , approx. 45 mins: This game should not have happened the way it should have. I should
have lost. Long story short I eventually won to him decking himself. A bunch of stuff happened, we
both had null rods, he had two factories, and a crucible. I was able to metamorph his crucible and start

wasting his factories away as they had already brought me down to 6. I continually played spells that got
countered or broke his standstills. He was jacing digging for one of his answers for my crucible. He found
a few, but was unable to have the mana to counter my reb. I figured he was looking for a combination
of fire/ice’s / bounce for crucible and he was. So he continued to jacestorm which if he ultimated
would have long since killed me. Eventually he was able to bounce my crucible, but it was too late. He
had 3 cards left, I was sitting at 6. He had no factories in play. He was sitting at two life. Yeah, I don’t
really know how it happened but I do know that these are the reasons you stick in the game. I took the
risk of not scooping when he was at 7 cards with a jace in play and I had 3 cards, stuck at 5 land (due
to me having to continually waste his factories). Meaning , I could only play 1-2 two cards per turn at
best which against a landstill deck is easily stopped. I broke his standstills when he was at 7 cards to
maximize his discard. I stayed out of fire/ice range. I stayed at 6 knowing he had at max 3 fire/ice in his
deck and had already played one, luckily he only had two fire/ice’s total and had already played one.

Game Two :We don’t have enough time to finish.
Result: 1-0-1

Round Three – Patrick Judge – MUD - Win
Game One : He resolves a turn one lodestone. I waste his shop. He plays shop and a sphere. I waste his
next shop. Arguably I shouldn’t have wasted at all and should have just kept playing land so I could play
stuff. I think this would have killed me faster though.
Game Two : He goes turn one precursor. I go turn one artifact mutation get 5 guys. He goes Lodestone, I
go rack and ruin on his lodestone and mox. I beat in with the 5 guys to kill him.
Game Three: He does stuff. I do stuff. He ended up scooping while staring down a goyf and a
metamorphed goyf. I think he could have still been in the game but he didn’t seem to think so.

Result: 2-0-1

Round Four –Matt - Landstill - Win
Rules Question: If you metamorph a tinstreet using green do you get to kill an artifact?
Rules Answer : You get to kill an artifact but it doesn’t matter because your opponent has REB. Fail. +3
minutes to time.

Game One: Null rod resolves AND ALL THE ARTIFACTS DIE. Just kidding. There was a force and
I don’t know what it countered. Eventually I stuck a goyf and started beating down. He played jace,
bounced goyf and then countered everything I played while jacing me out. I lost.

Game Two: I start out by bolting him to the face. Then tinstreet gets through and starts beating. I then
Bolt him to the face again. I play SSG’s and start beating through.

Game Three: I have nothing written down. He goes from 20 to 18 to 12. I am assuming a goyf.

Result: 3-0-1 Round Five – Chris Varosky – Gush – Win
Game One: He forces both my turn one and turn two plays. I then Land a goyf and then a SSG.
Eventually I beat him down until he dies.

Game Two: Long story short he lands a turn one fastbond and has everything important. Doom blade for
my goyf. Gushes and will and recall for fastbond and a well place tendrils to my dome.

Game Three: Force counters goyf. Force counters a magus. I land a SSG, I land another SSG, I proceed
to beat down with the two.
Result: 4-0-1

Round Six – Joe Pace – ID
Result: 4-1-1

Top 8
Round 1 – Quarter Finals – Dominic Difebo - “Pork Pie” – Win
Game One: No lie, I really didn’t want to face him again. He forces turn one magus off two spirit
guides. This is enough to stall him on counters for a while as I drop a null rod and a goyf and proceed to
beat down. I then metamorph the goyf and He is able to get rid of the magus and then vamp for tinker and
tinker into blight steel. I stingscourger the BSC and finish him off with goyf.

Game Two: He opens up with a library. I play a land, remove a ssg and resolve a null rod. He starts to
draw cards with library but can not find land. He plays a mox and paasses. I tinstreet his mox. He draws
more cards, and can’t find land. He plays another mox and next turn I metamorph tinstreet and blow it up.
I think I resolve a SSG and beat him down pretty quickly.|

Round 2 – Semi Finals - Joe Canada – Cat Stax
Game One: I resolve a turn one Moon Man. Then a turn three Moon Man. He plays a tangle wire and I
let it run out. This is pretty much enough to get there.
Game Two: I dismember his early Lodestone. Then play a goyf. He plays a chalice on 3 (I think fearing
rack and ruin and more dismembers) and I am able to tinstreet it next turn and then swing in there the next
couple of turns.

Round 3 – Finals - Paul mastriano – Meandeck Landstill
We Split the Mox and Sea and then play for the playmat. For the record, I think his deck is significantly
different from other landstill decks in that it runs snapcaster and tinker. It doesn’t run null rod or gorilla
shaman and only runs one crucible. It actually plays a little differently as its not as focused on mana
denial.

Game One: I resolve a turn two moon man with SSG REB Backup to his force. I then drop SSG and
proceed to beat him down. He sticks a jace and fateseals me. Next turn I reb it.

Game Two: This game is a little bit longer but not my much. He forces a magus. I play a tinstreet on his
mox and next turn he burns it and me. I then play goyf and it sticks. That was enough to get there.

The Deck

1 Berserk – So the only reason this was in here was as a tribute to my friend Taylor Ferst who once won
a berserk a long time ago in quite possibly the most ridiculous bet ever against Jason Koresko. He
essentially called that he was going to open up a damnation out of a random pack pull. If he won he got a
berserk. If Jay won he got a Dream Halls. Jay lost that bet that night...

4 Magus of the Moon – This card is insane and has so much theoretical card advantage its ridiculous.

4 Tarmogoyf – I wanted to play this because I figured it would be good against landstill.

3 Phyrexian Metamorph – So the way that this got into the deck is that I have been trying to work on a
metamorph lenonin relicwarder genesis chamber combo deck for vintage that didn’t quite pan out well.
However I did learn that cloning creatures and artifacts is very useful a lot of the time. Now when a card
costs 3 colorless mana, doesn’t target anything, can copy opposing crucibles, blightsteels, bobs,
lodestones, karns, etc… it really just gets nuts when you think about it. I actually think this is one of the
most powerful and metawarping cards in a long time.

3 Lightning Bolt – Cheap and efficient

1 Rack and Ruin – We figured we needed something to get rid of a chalice on two as all our MD artifact
kill spells costed 2. I also had recently picked up a foil foreign one.

2 Smash to Smithereens – I love this card. I used to run it in BR and RW aggro decks I played after Turbo
Tezz for a little bit. Its like a shatter with a lightining bolt attached for one less. See what I did there? This
is also good to kill a random artifact and kill redirect the damage to a planeswalker *jace*

3 Stingscourger – You know, the only reason this card is in here is because it was in the other seasons
beatings list and I had seen it played a lot in RG aggro decks. I figured that if I am a beat down deck and
can save this for later in the game, I can start beating down and then when they play a creature just buy a
turn and continue to beat. Additionally its another answer to BSC. I also savagely misplayed with this
card Round one because I misread and thought I could bounce my own dudes.

3 Red Elemental Blast – I figured I needed something to force through spells game one. I am not sure if
this would have been better as Vexing Susher though. I think it may have been.

3 Tinstreet Hooligan – Heh See above for why I was proxying tinstreet and had a real lotus. This being
said it was the first time I played with this card in a tournament and I thought it really good all day. It was
pretty much never dead and I only ran into the problem of not wanting to cast it because it would have
killed my own thing once.

4 Elvish Spirit Guide, 4 Simian Spirit Guide – These are just solid bears that no one likes to counter
but has to because they beat face. Additionally they allow you to get through a turn one trini and are all in
all a nightmare for shop based decks.

1 Artifact Mutation – I just like this card. I only played it once and it killed a precursor (see above).
However, that actually won me the game. Additionally if someone tinkers and passes the turn and you
have mana open and they are at 10 or less with no other creatures out, you can get there.

4 Null Rod – This card was good for the most part I guess. I kinda feel like it could have been more
effective as gorilla shaman but I’m not sure.

1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus -
2 Forest
2 Mountain
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Taiga
4 Wooded Foothillls

Sideboard:
4 Ravenous Trap - Dredge
2 Relic of Progenitus – Dredge and Landstill
2 Dismember – Fish, MUD, and other creatures
1 Red Elemental Blast – Blue, possibly dredge
2 Pyroblast – Blue, possibly dredge
1 Lightning Bolt – From what I remember, pretty much everything.
1 Rack and Ruin - Shops
1 Shattering Spree – Shops (this should probably be claim)
1 Nature’s Claim – Shops, enchantments.

How did I board?
Stax, didn’t play against but something like +1 Rack, +1 Shattering Spree, +1 Claim, +1 Lighting Bolt
-1 Berserk, 3 REB

MUD +1 Rack, +1 Shattering Spree, +1 Lighting Bolt, +2 Dismember
-1 Berserk, 3 REB, -1 Stingscorger

Dredge, didn’t play against. What I would do is probably like -1 REB, +1 Bolt, +4 Trap, +2 Relic, +2
Pyroblast-4 Null Rod, -1 artifact mutation, -2 Smash to smithereens, -1 Rack and ruin

Landstill - +1 REB, +2 Blast, +1 Bolt, -4 Null Rod

Gush w/ bob - +1 REB, +2 Blast, +1 Bolt, -1 Berserk, -1 artifact mutation, -1 Rack and ruin, -1 sting
scourge

Why did I play the deck?

Honestly, I was sick of playing blue. Landstill the last two tournaments for me wasn’t doing so well and
after not being able to attend NYSE but seeing 3 of 4 top 4 and 3 Bluebell wins before that. I always
expect shops to be there so beating landstill and shops seemed like a good call for the day. Gush is a little
harder but very do-able with magus goyfs and 6 blasts. I didn’t face dredge so I have no idea. I assume its
do-able with an early magus and the board?? I guess?? Idk. RGBeats seems amazing right now. I think
the addition of metamorph put it over the top. The card is literally broken. I doubt it will be restricted
though.

On playing Two Emerald and Two Lotus : With much playtesting my partner and I decided that the
this was the optimal amount. We still wanted to run null rod but didn’t want to draw lotus or emerald late
game.

Random Highlights of the day: 25 cents for 2.5 hours on a parking meter with a 10 hour max…While
we were outside of the store standing an elderly couple told us that there was no bus there… Seeing a
Waffle House…