The Best Game I Ever Played

[MaximumCDawg]

So I was playing sanctioned Vintage this week and the best thing ever happened.  I was playing RUb Welder, featuring Dack Fayden, tinkerbots for the yard, Welder, that kind of thing.  My win conditions were Tinkerbots, vault-key, or painter's servant-grindstone.

So I end up playing match 3 against someone playing Imperial Painter.  I was prepared for hilarity, and it was pretty good in Game 2 when I tinkered into Grindstone against his Painter for the win.  But, Game 3 was the best ever.

His opening: Ancient Tomb, Painter, Go.
My opening: Land, Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, Grindstone, Activate.

His reaction was what you would expect -- tossed his hands in the air just like he don't care.  And that was a best game I ever played to date.

The only other game that came close was ANOTHER Grindstone story from back in the day.  In that game, we had both resolved Grindstone and we both had milled out our libraries, except I had an ace in the hole (so I thought) in Darksteel Colossus.  Yeah, it was that long ago.  Well, I had neglected to notice my opponent's Academy Ruins.  He calmly taps it to restock his library and that game ends with both of our libraries totally empty. 

Anyone else got a story to top?

[Chubby Rain]

Best game of Vintage was against Justin Kohler in the Top 8 at Bloomsburg. He was on Bomberman and I was on Omnitell. Game 1, I have the play and we both keep on 7. I have turn 1 Lotus + Show and Tell, putting  into play Omniscience. Justin puts in Vendilion Clique and sees my hand of two Force of Wills and a Preordain. He takes a Force and I draw a land. I Preordain into a second Preordain, then windmill slam a Griselbrand onto the table. Justin's response is "Man, you win. I was gonna play turn 1 Jace with Drain back up if you had to pass the turn." And he shows me the Mana Crypt, Black Lotus, and land to pull it off.

Best game of Magic ever...well, I'm just going to leave this here:



Since the cards are a bit small, that is my opponent with Consecrated Sphinx in play with me copying it twice (Phantasmal Image + Phyrexian Metamorph). I'm pretty sure the first game, I restarted the game with Karn Liberated, putting a second Karn Liberated into play on turn 0.

[A.-1.]

The only other game that came close was ANOTHER Grindstone story from back in the day.  In that game, we had both resolved Grindstone and we both had milled out our libraries, except I had an ace in the hole (so I thought) in Darksteel Colossus.  Yeah, it was that long ago.  Well, I had neglected to notice my opponent's Academy Ruins.  He calmly taps it to restock his library and that game ends with both of our libraries totally empty.

I've had a lot of memorable games, but I think my favorite one is from the same era with the same deck. I don't know if I'd call it my best game per se, maybe best overall tournament. It comes from TMD Open 12.5. (If you're a fan of old school Painter tech, check out Oli's list.) Six years ago seems like an eternity. My memory of the event is probably not 100% accurate. I feel like it requires a little setup first.

Anyway, the event was the day before classes started at Penn State. Sean Robbins and I were crazy, or maybe dumb, enough to make the drive up there and back. I think I got to bed at 4:00 am the day classes started and decided to just skip what I hoped would just be a syllabus day. I was cruising along until I got a game loss in round five. It was after I got deck checked and incorrectly listed my fetchlands as four Flooded Strand and two Polluted Delta instead of a 3/3 or 2/4 split. I lost that round. Then I got paired against Rich Shay in round six. I asked Rich if he would like to ID, but he wanted to play. Obviously, he crushed me in two games. Being the amazing person he is, he signed the match slip as an ID anyway.

In top eight, I got paired against Matt McNally on Control Slaver. I won game one. Game two is a hazy memory at this point. Some highlights I think I remember: I Blue Elemental Blast a Goblin Welder, he taps six mana during his turn to eat my Sensei's Divining Top with his Gorilla Shaman while holding two Mana Drain, he casts three? spells off Boseiju, and I finally land the killing blow with Yawg Will into Demonic Tutor into Lava Dart for the last point of damage. Lava Dart is overpowered.

Of course I have to face Rich again in top four. I somehow manage to win game one. At some point in game two, I play Duress and pass. Rich plays a FoF, and I correctly split the piles. From the Duress, FoF, and number of cards in his hand, I know exactly what Rich has in hand. I double- and probably triple-check just to make sure before I use exactly all of my mana to play Painter, Grindstone, and activate. I do this even though I know he has a Grindstone in hand. It leaves him with a Darksteel Colossus in library. He Grindstones me back, leaving me with just a Darksteel. I pass the turn, and he decks.

I probably couldn't make it to the next TMD Open, so I scooped to Oli in the finals after we split the credit.

TL;DR - I won a top eight match with Lava Dart, which I also accomplished several years later, and then I won the top four match.

[hashswag]

I played a game with NWSC on mtgo the other day against an opponent playing Painter+Grindstone. He had a grindstone, while I had a top in play and not much else. I played Dack, stole the Grindstone and started activating it to dig through my library with top (best combo ever). Then he played his Painter. hmm.

[Nefarias]

I think this thread should just be Grindstone stories, because I have one too.

This happened at TravisCon at the Moose Lodge, the last tournament where 4 Brainstorms were still legal. I was on Painter against an unknown opponent. It's game one and I win the Dredge lottery: my opponent mulls to 1. Meanwhile I draw a pretty busted hand that is capable of first turn Painter/Grindstone plus activation. I want to say it was Painter, Grindstone, Land, Sapphire, Sol Ring, Lotus, Drain, because I remember thinking about playing it safe and leaving Drain up the entire time.

I think for a minute, because putting Dredge's entire library into their graveyard is a scary proposition, but cannot come up with any way they can kill me at instant speed, so I go for it. Well, my opponent decided to run a MAINDECK Darksteel Colossus to prevent just such shenanigans, binning his entire library -1. Worst of all, he couldn't even kill me in one turn, having to Cabal Therapy his Colossus back to the top.

On the bright side, now when my opponent mulls to 4 at FNM I can give them hope by telling them I've lost to a mull to one before.

[Meddling Mike]

I think this thread should just be Grindstone stories, because I have one too.

This happened at TravisCon at the Moose Lodge, the last tournament where 4 Brainstorms were still legal. I was on Painter against an unknown opponent. It's game one and I win the Dredge lottery: my opponent mulls to 1. Meanwhile I draw a pretty busted hand that is capable of first turn Painter/Grindstone plus activation. I want to say it was Painter, Grindstone, Land, Sapphire, Sol Ring, Lotus, Drain, because I remember thinking about playing it safe and leaving Drain up the entire time.

I think for a minute, because putting Dredge's entire library into their graveyard is a scary proposition, but cannot come up with any way they can kill me at instant speed, so I go for it. Well, my opponent decided to run a MAINDECK Darksteel Colossus to prevent just such shenanigans, binning his entire library -1. Worst of all, he couldn't even kill me in one turn, having to Cabal Therapy his Colossus back to the top.

On the bright side, now when my opponent mulls to 4 at FNM I can give them hope by telling them I've lost to a mull to one before.

IIRC I beat you on a mull to one at the last Pandemonium event where we played getting Bazaar as the 1 card.

[Nefarias]

I think this thread should just be Grindstone stories, because I have one too.

This happened at TravisCon at the Moose Lodge, the last tournament where 4 Brainstorms were still legal. I was on Painter against an unknown opponent. It's game one and I win the Dredge lottery: my opponent mulls to 1. Meanwhile I draw a pretty busted hand that is capable of first turn Painter/Grindstone plus activation. I want to say it was Painter, Grindstone, Land, Sapphire, Sol Ring, Lotus, Drain, because I remember thinking about playing it safe and leaving Drain up the entire time.

I think for a minute, because putting Dredge's entire library into their graveyard is a scary proposition, but cannot come up with any way they can kill me at instant speed, so I go for it. Well, my opponent decided to run a MAINDECK Darksteel Colossus to prevent just such shenanigans, binning his entire library -1. Worst of all, he couldn't even kill me in one turn, having to Cabal Therapy his Colossus back to the top.


On the bright side, now when my opponent mulls to 4 at FNM I can give them hope by telling them I've lost to a mull to one before.

IIRC I beat you on a mull to one at the last Pandemonium event where we played getting Bazaar as the 1 card.

This is possible. I recall we split two games (yet played 3) and I recall you mulliganing very low (possibly to one) in one of those games yet got a Bazaar. Whether your win occurred in the same game in which you mulliganed, that I do not recall.

So perhaps I've lost to a mull to one twice! (Though Grindstone was definitely not involved the second time)

[Norm4eva]

Years ago, before Thalia was a twinkle in anyone's eye...

Turn 1, me on the play:
me: Chrome Mox (pitch a White card), Ancient Tomb, Glowrider.
opp: "sure fine w/e"
me: pass.
opp: some land, Lotus Petal, starts going through the motions for other 0-drops...
me: "Errr that petal costs 1."
opp: ".....okay. wait what?" *picks up Glowrider* "........oh."

That match didn't go well for combo player. It went fairly well for White Weenie though.

[TheWhiteDragon]

I once played some kid...must have been about 11 years old.  Said he was new to magic, but was really excited to be playing.  He was playing some scrub deck.  I was on the play and opened with a nice play with my reanimator deck...Swamp, ritual, ritual, buried alive (2x phyrexian drednaught, 1 sutured ghoul), shallow grave, swing for 24.

Long story short, he start crying like a little b!t^h.  It was annoying, so I punched him in the face.  His mom came over, and she was a hawt MILF, and laughed that her kid was such a little b!t^h.  So, I nailed her on the table while he watched, told him his deck sucks, and that I was his new daddy.  I'm pretty sure he quit magic after that. 

Best game ever.

[Grand Inquisitor]

Long story short, he start crying like a little b!t^h.  It was annoying, so I punched him in the face.  His mom came over, and she was a hawt MILF, and laughed that her kid was such a little b!t^h.  So, I nailed her on the table while he watched, told him his deck sucks, and that I was his new daddy.  I'm pretty sure he quit magic after that. 

Best game ever.

That was almost like an Adam Bowers story except with less elegant writing and more violence.

[Purple Hat]

Back when 4 trinisphere was legal I won a game against someone playing stax who went turn one 3 sphere turn 2 crucible, wasteland.  I managed to get enough artifact mana down to play an eon hub cutting off his other lock pieces and then I used welder and jesters cap to strip all his his creatures away and he scooped.

[hashswag]

Back when 4 trinisphere was legal

I don't even want to think about that.

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

I dont know about best but a pretty ridiculous one In very old extended, in an important match with many spectators, my opponent and I both resolved sideboarded solitary confinements with no answer to the others persons. As well as both of us had the ability to pay for it forever but never deck ourselves.