What an event! So large with so many good players, must be a Calvin production. I had a lot of fun and enjoyed many aspects, notably the food onsite. Very clutch.
I played cavern forgemaster shops to a top 4 split against some great players. It went a little something like this.
Round one, fight!
Actually not, since I had a bye from winning the black magic invitational.
Round 2: Kevin An on some sort of blue artifact deck (tezzerator I think)
Game one: game loss due to deck reg error. Like a pro
Game two: I sphere him out quickly accompanied by chalice for 1.
Game three: i play a quick trinisphere into thorn, but dont have a threat. He makes it to 3 lands and when I go to metamorph my thorn, he hurkyls me with it on the stack. Luckily one of his lands is a seat of the synod, so I get a free land. I then replay my trinisphere off a mox. I find a revoker and name a top he tapped out for, then land lodestone. His turn he taps low for thirst for knowledge. I topdeck academy and cast chalice 3 (chalice is already on 2, so I cant cast chalice 1) and steel hellkite in the same turn. On his turn all he can do is kill hellkite, but is still dead to lodestone revoker.
Round 3: Rich Shay on Ur delver
Game one: I win the roll and have shop thorn turn one. He plays land delver. I play cavern lodestone. He flips delver and attacks. I draw duplicant and cast it, quickly putting the game away.
Game two: He plays land mox delver. I play lotus, thorn, shop trinisphere. He flips delver and plays another one. I draw duplicant again and cast it. He flips delver and attacks. I draw lodestone and cast. Rich is stuck on mana and attacks. Im pretty sure I drew another lodestone and that was it.
Round 4: I want to say Chris Albino on doomsday.
Game one: I lead off mox shop sphere. He plays a fetch and passes. I play lodestone off a wasteland and pass. He plays a fetch and passes. I attack, pass. He double fetches and plays a land to thoughtseize me. I double waste him on my turn and thats it.
Game two: He mulls into oblivion and concedes. Anticlimactic.
Round 5: The forgemaster mirror!
Game one: I have a high cmc hand but 2 shops. I lead off shop thorn pass. He plays factory mox pass. I play second shop, hellkite. Pretty sure that's how it went down.
Game two: I lead shop crucible, he comes back waste mox mox metamorph your crucible. I dont have a wasteland to fight him, so I play forgemaster. On his turn he dismembers my forge and plays his own. I am easily destroyed.
Game three: I lead off crucible again, and he wastes and passes. I.dont have a threat right away, and he keeps wasting me off the top. We each play a lodestone, but I know he has dismember and I dont so I offer the trade. We each revoker the others mox and he has a second blind naming sol ring. The deciding turn is when I have waste and shop in play with waste in gy. I tap shop, waste my own shop, then replay to get to 6 mana and play trike, which shoots both of his revokers. I easily take over from there.
Round 6: ID with Brian Kelly after some discussion and because the other undefeateds played it out (Greg fenton and Dave kaplan)
Round 7: I get the better breakers and am paired to Greg, meaning we can ID and easily make top 8.
Top 8: Matthew Bevenour on Dredge
Game one: If im the low seed, might as well be to dredge. I mull aggressively looking for turn one combinations of lodestone plus waste, turn one steel hellkite, or turn one batterskull. I.dont find them, keep an irrelevant 4.
Game two: Oh man the tensions were high. Im on the play but my deck gives me an unkeepable 7 and 6. My 5 feels loose with waste, strip, mox, mox, thorn. He has to powder away two 7s though with a lot of free guys and mulls to 4 before finding a bazaar. I lead crypt thorn strip. He plays bazaar. I topdeck lodestone, strip him and play wasteland. He puts imp troll in yard and when he dredges for draw, he pulls a card off the top but doesnt look at it, then declares his intentions to dredge. He flips the top 6 and we notice he never put the card he pulled off the top back. Judges are called, the card in question is a narcomoeba. He is allowed to put it in the yard as the first card dredged and put his trigger on the stack. To which he immediately plays bazaar. Call the judges back, and the ultimate decision is that he acknowledged his trigger but chose not to put it into play, as it is a may. On my turn i top deck workshop and play lodestone. He dreges a lot but only hits one more narc and a bloodghast. He plays a gemstone mine to get back the ghast and passes. There are 6 cards left in his library, but they are probably gas. I topdeck tormods, waste his gemstone mine and crypt him. There is nothing left but to attack with lodestone.
Game three: He leads bazaar, I waste and play sphere off mana crypt I think. He dredges well and hits two ghasts. He plays a gemstone and gets them back, pass. I win my roll, waste his mine and pass. He dredges two narcs this time and the heat is on. I lose my roll and draw workshop, then play lodestone. He draws and attacks for 2 in the air. I draw a land and play forgemaster. He dredges, doesnt hit more narcs, and swings for 2. I untap, play another forgemaster, and end up forging for wurmcoil. He concedes. Matt is a great player and I was thoroughly worried I would lose.
Top 4 splits and we decide its too late to play it out.
I had a fun day even though I was exhausted from battling legacy the day before.
Notable mentions: I upgraded my sol ring before the tournament started. As a result, I never drew it or played it. Not one time. Triskelion is very good right now. I cant comment on batterskull, because I never drew that either!
If any of my opponents have corrections on my story, feel free to help me out!
See everyone again soon I hope!
