TMD Open 16 - Milford, CT - August 23, 2014

[iamfishman]

It is a last minute idea, but might be a really fun one.

After trivia, and a long day of running the event, I like to just sit and laugh with friends...you know...what Magic is all about.

Who here(assuming you are still around after trivia) would be up for one last game.  The Magic Storytelling Game.

Everyone gets a chance to tell their very best story relating to magic and its community.  I can even find a prize(maybe a playmat) for the best, most entertaining story, as voted by all contestants.

Thoughts?

[Samoht]

I'm totally in. Have a few gems.

[iamfishman]

Streaming feature matches at
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/ray%27s-tourneys

[The Atog Lord]

...do we have results?

[jlim17]

Congrats to Will Magrann, the Top 8 and literally everyone who attended this!!! Thanks, Ray!

Main Event:
1st Will Magrann (actually won)
2nd Paul Mastriano
3rd Justin Kohler
4th Dominic Difebo
5th-8th (in no specific order)
Andy Farias
Taylor Pratt
Ben Feingersh
Brian Pallas
(apologies for any spelling errors)
Top 4 did split, "Splitting is for gymnasts" - Craig Berry

Team Results:
1st - Vintagemagic.com (Mastriano-Menendian-Lim)
2nd - 2 Kohlers and a Kelly (figure it out)
3rd - No Fat Chicks (Magrann-Granberry-Berry)

Grudge Match Results:
1st - PA/NJ (woot)*
2nd - NY/NJ
Honorable mention - NE
*Determined by tiebreakers, Top 2 had the same match points. Of note, Greg Fenton was on steroids. Actually, he wasn't. But he did concede in the last round knowing he couldn't crack Top 8 to his opponent who had a slight shot at Top 8, like a true gentleman. His opponent obviously then finished in 9th, sorry Dave Kaplan.

[Smmenen]

Paul, Joel and I took a bunch of photos that are posted on VintageMagic.com's Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/maseraticoupe007/posts/10152220617746822

Here is the page of the final standings:

https://scontent-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/v/t1.0-9/10377637_10152220617221822_4739811120965244686_n.jpg?oh=9b8360d28f24087220a8f91eb9f5ff9a&oe=54791233

Despite going 5-2, I had a great time, and ended up making top 16 to help my team win (again) the team prize. 

I was Crushed by Will (the eventual Champ) in the swiss, but at least I took a game from him!  Will told me I was the only person in the swiss to win a game against him, and apparently he only lost two games the entire tournament!  Wow!

[Untranslated]

Ray, thanks so much for a wonderful time.  Now I understand why everyone loves your events.  The fortune cookies, trivia, free play mat (hey now!) — it's the thoughtful and creative additions that really make you shine among tournament directors.  Really appreciate the match videos too.

I would have loved to watch the top 8 players duel but my friends and I had to take off shortly after the swiss ended.  Thanks, Joel, for promptly posting the results.

Congrats to Will and everyone else who came out and enjoyed themselves!

[brianpk80]

Great event.  Congrats to Will, Justin, Paul, Dominic, and Team Pennsylvania. 

[jlim17]

Great event.  Congrats to Will, Justin, Paul, Dominic, and Team New Jersey/Pennsylvania. 

Fixed that for ya...

For the record, aside from Paul (DC), 3/4 in the Top 4 are also PA/NJ guys. 3 NE guys made Top 8 but none advanced, with the 4th Top 8 guy being a NY/NJ. Time to step it up NY/NJ and NE

[brianpk80]

Thanks Joel.  No Jersey hate intended.  <3 NJ.

[Greg]

Ray, thanks so much for a wonderful time.  Now I understand why everyone loves your events.  The fortune cookies, trivia, free play mat (hey now!) — it's the thoughtful and creative additions that really make you shine among tournament directors.  Really appreciate the match videos too.

I couldn't agree more, Untranslated. Very well stated!

Ray, really, thank you for putting so much care and effort into your events. The day was so much fun for a variety of reasons. Thanks again for being such a special part of our community. I wish I didn't have to leave in the middle of the trivia event -- I was having a blast, even though I surprisingly knew virtually no answers... not even the question about my own deck.

Card Carrier Games turns out to be a very nice space to have a big event. I'm hoping that there will be more quality Vintage events at this location, especially since this is a store that's convenient for the New England crowd to travel to, as well.

As Joel mentioned, I won my last round, but ended up instead conceding the match to an old friend, as he was 4-1-1 and I was 4-2. It was our first game of Magic since 2001, believe it or not. I was fairly sure that this would help get him into the top 8, but he instead finished in 9th place. That decision, unfortunately, cost New York the team event. We'll get you next time, gents.

Overall, it was great spending time with everybody, as usual. Looking forward to the next one!

[Samoht]

Ray, thanks so much for a wonderful time.  Now I understand why everyone loves your events.  The fortune cookies, trivia, free play mat (hey now!) — it's the thoughtful and creative additions that really make you shine among tournament directors.  Really appreciate the match videos too.

I couldn't agree more, Untranslated. Very well stated!

Ray, really, thank you for putting so much care and effort into your events. The day was so much fun for a variety of reasons. Thanks again for being such a special part of our community. I wish I didn't have to leave in the middle of the trivia event -- I was having a blast, even though I surprisingly knew virtually no answers... not even the question about my own deck.

Card Carrier Games turns out to be a very nice space to have a big event. I'm hoping that there will be more quality Vintage events at this location, especially since this is a store that's convenient for the New England crowd to travel to, as well.

As Joel mentioned, I won my last round, but ended up instead conceding the match to an old friend, as he was 4-1-1 and I was 4-2. It was our first game of Magic since 2001, believe it or not. I was fairly sure that this would help get him into the top 8, but he instead finished in 9th place. That decision, unfortunately, cost New York the team event. We'll get you next time, gents.

Overall, it was great spending time with everybody, as usual. Looking forward to the next one!

Agreed on all fronts! Ray was awesome and so was the event! Trivia was great, especially the flavor text questions!

Would love to have some big events here going forward as it's not to far for the NY crew to make it and we can start growing the scene in New England again!

Greg, I'm proud that you conceded to David. I gave you a hard time about it, but mostly it was in jest. It's precisely this sort of behavior that makes our community so strong. Though there was personal gain for yourself you instead though of the greater good and sacrificed for it. Thanks!

Dinner afterwards was pretty fun and reminiscent of the older events where everyone would congregate post event and have a blast. Looking forward to the next one!

[Mr. Type 4]

this was a great event- as usual Ray puts a lot of extra time and effort into making sure everyone has a good time.  ive been to at least 6 of these and have yet to be disappointed.  fortune cookies were a nice touch, although i didnt get to eat very many

thanks to Brian Demars for designing the base version of the deck i played.  i made some changes, but the major innovations were his.

congratulations to Will on the win, and to all the other competitors.  everyone i played was cool.  

ill have an article coming out soon for Vintage Magic.com (which is a website that doesn't yet exist, so it'll likely be posted to their Facebook) detailing the crazy awesome deck i played.  

looking forward to see you all at the next one!

[Will]

Echoing everyone else who went to the event and posted here, this was an awesome tournament. I had a great time and am happy to say that I not only played in but also won my first of hopefully many TMD Opens!

Ray, thank you very much for running such a great event, I had a blast!

A huge thank you goes out to Nick Detwiler and Raf Forino. Without your guidance I don't know where I would be as a Magic player or a person, you have been tremendous role models and I hope someday be half the man that either of you are.

I need to give a shout out to Craig Berry, one of the best testing partners and friends that a guy could ask for.

I want to thank the judges for not allowing me to play with my new Roland Chang altered Trinisphere, if it weren't for your decision I probably wouldn't have decided to change decks 10 minutes before the event started. Brad and Nick, thanks for giving me sound advice that helped me to make this decision, I really appreciate it.

[iamfishman]

Thanks so much everyone for the kind words.  These events are always a lot of work and if adult life didn't get in the way so often they would be way more frequent.

I would have loved to watch the top 8 players duel but my friends and I had to take off shortly after the swiss ended.  Thanks, Joel, for promptly posting the results.

You can watch the replays of all feature matches and the top here.
http://www.ustream.tv/search?q=tmd+open+16

The one that doesn't have a round listed is the whole top 8.
Not sure why the names don't show in the descriptions but for reference:
Rd 1:Craig Berry vs. Brian Schlossberg
Rd 2:Joe Brown vs. Anthony Scalzo
Rd 3:Tom Dixon vs. Shawn Griffiths
Rd 4:Steve Menedian vs. Taylor Pratt
Rd 5:Joe Lim vs. Brian Pallas
Rd 6:Andy Farias vs. Greg Fenton
Rd 7:Brian Pallas vs. Craig Berry

Top 8:Andy Farias vs. Dom Difebo
Top 4:Will Magrann vs. Justin Kohler
Finals:Will Magrann vs. Paul Mastriano

[omg_sharks!]

looks like an awesome event.  love the community feel!  Wonder if there are deck lists available??  Great coverage, I curse my adult life for keeping me from being on the ground for these elite events...but seriously friends, deck lists??  Meta breakdown??  Is Forgemaster Shops the elephant in the room??  Cheers all and props on pulling off a major vintage event!!

[iamfishman]

looks like an awesome event.  love the community feel!  Wonder if there are deck lists available??  Great coverage, I curse my adult life for keeping me from being on the ground for these elite events...but seriously friends, deck lists??  Meta breakdown??  Is Forgemaster Shops the elephant in the room??  Cheers all and props on pulling off a major vintage event!!

Lists coming soon.

[Cruel Ultimatum]

Great event as always. I wound up going 5-2 but scooped to JP in the last round, because his team was live for the team event. Hopefully we won't have to wait so long for the next one.

[KanaKaishou]

looks like an awesome event.  love the community feel!  Wonder if there are deck lists available??  Great coverage, I curse my adult life for keeping me from being on the ground for these elite events...but seriously friends, deck lists??  Meta breakdown??  Is Forgemaster Shops the elephant in the room??  Cheers all and props on pulling off a major vintage event!!

Awesome, awesome event. I got home a little later than I would have liked (too much durdling at the store after the event!), but I'm not really going to complain about that. Happy with the day, finishing at 5-2.

As to why the above is quoted: I don't think Forgemaster was the elephant so much as Shops in general. I was dispatched by 2 shop players, but took two with me. That's...a lot of shops. But three of the four (terra nova/terra nova/espresso) didn't have Forgemaster. I think a lot of people have realized that Forgemaster shops is really good and played it, and the next level shop players were on something else--specifically, things which punished you for going on the destroy all monsters plan that works spectacularly against Forgemaster and company.

[bfeingersh]

I played forgemasters and lost to Will's terra nova in the quarters. Felt like a considerable dog in the heads up, and had to work an unorthodox sideboard plan to make up for it. Unfortunately, none of the sideboard cards ever came up and I got crushed g2/3 after stealing g1

[Nefarias]

I may be a little bit off, but I think I can remember 7 of the 8 decks in top 8, and they were 7 fairly distinction archetypes. From what I remember:

Terra Nova Shops
Steel City Vault w/ Dack
Grixis Control
U/W StoneForge Still
Forgemaster Shops
BUG Fish
U/R/(g?) Delver

From my rough Round 1 scouting of the room, Delver seemed to be the most popular deck with about 7 players. Note that this didn't include the ~20 people with byes. There were also around the same number of Shops decks, which with a quick look were difficult to distinguish exact archetype, but Terra Nova and Forgemaster were both definitely present. I believe there was only one Dredge deck in the room. There may have been more with a bye, but if there was I never saw it.

[DubDub]

Thanks for posting the videos Ray.  I'll be done watching the swiss rounds just in time for VSL!

[iamfishman]

Report up with decklists.

Also, I have a few extra playmats leftover.  PM me if interested.

[OGB]

In round 4, it looks like the player on the left played 2 lands on turn 2.  Wasteland, which he uses on Mana Confluence, and then a Misty which he uses to fetch Underground Sea.  Am I missing something?

[Samoht]

In round 4, it looks like the player on the left played 2 lands on turn 2.  Wasteland, which he uses on Mana Confluence, and then a Misty which he uses to fetch Underground Sea.  Am I missing something?

Nope, that happened. Surprised Steve didn't catch it.

[Commandant]

In round 4, it looks like the player on the left played 2 lands on turn 2.  Wasteland, which he uses on Mana Confluence, and then a Misty which he uses to fetch Underground Sea.  Am I missing something?

Nope, that happened. Surprised Steve didn't catch it.

Shit happens, I've seen Vintage players make way worse errors. Pretty positive that match up is complete garbage for Pitch Long regardless.

[Meddling Mike]

In round 4, it looks like the player on the left played 2 lands on turn 2.  Wasteland, which he uses on Mana Confluence, and then a Misty which he uses to fetch Underground Sea.  Am I missing something?

Nope, that happened. Surprised Steve didn't catch it.

Wow, it wasn't even like there was a huge Yawgmoth's Will turn or something where it'd be easy to lose track of something like that. He literally plays them both back to back.

[shrewarmies]

Report up with decklists.

Also, I have a few extra playmats leftover.  PM me if interested.

sent a pm a couple of days ago if I remember correctly.