[TMD Open Report] 12th in Waterbury with Big O

Obligatory pre-tournament coverage: This tournament began as many others before it. I was drunk and playing cards the night before. I was in Connecticut, which is slightly unusual, but then again I have woken up in much stranger places before. Like Tijuana. Waking up, however, was not something I had the luxury of doing this time; the reason being that I never got around to getting to sleep. I opted instead to drink a whole lot, and engage in lengthy discussions on the state of the type 1 meta, magic in general, and my thoughts on Dragon and its future. Eventually breakfast happened, and much coffee was consumed. This made me happy. Somewhere in there, I decided to try and rename the deck formerly known as Oshawa stompy. I decided to call it Big O, both as an abbreviation of its original name and a reference to the cartoon. Honestly, I love green but even I can't take the word 'stompy' seriously.

For reference, here is what I played:

Big O

Threats
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Arrogant Wurm
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Hidden Gibbons

Hate
3 Null Rod
3 Root Maze
1 Gaea’s Blessing

Utility
2 Naturalize
1 Crop Rotation

Engines
4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Squee

Mana
4 ESG
11 Forest
4 Waste
1 Strip
1 Lotus
1 Emerald

We Have to Play Out Game 2?
4 Tormod’s Crypt
4 Ground Seal
3 Troll Acetic
2 Naturalize
1 Ground Seal
1 Silklash Spider (tech)

After coffee, I got some trading in, engaged in a massive lending campaign which included lending out an entire set of power to other team Hadley people among other things, and got some mixing and mingling done. Eventually, pairings came up.

Here is what I played my pile of bad green cards against:

Round 1: bye
I’ve played this matchup before, and I have never lost it. I had plenty of time to get my scout on.

1-0, 2-0

Round 2: Welder MUD
Game 1: I wreck face because he forgets welders can block.
Game 2: he opens with land, go. I open with land, mox, crypt, root maze, rootwalla, go. I drop the null rod turn 2. He never recovers, I eventually he never recovers, I eventually kill him.

2-0, 4-0

Round 3: Landstill
Game 1: I get turn 1 gibbons, turn 2 gibbons, arrogant wurm. I smash face.
Game 2: Turn 1 gibbons gets forced, turn 2 troll resolves. It keeps turning sideways in the face of 2 mazes and a legacy’s allure, etc. It goes all the way.

3-0, 6-0

Round 4: Dan Richardson (Pernicious Dude) playing Landstill
Game 1: This one was close, but I resolve some early threats and manage to ride them.
Game 2: He forces my first turn threat, then forces my second turn threat pitching Acid Rain (phew!). I eventually resolve survival, then a troll. I manage to ride the troll all of the way, he eats the lands that would play the disk.

4-0, 8-0

Round 5: U/r Wizards
Game 1: I lose to a triple curiositied spiketail because I never see forest #2.
Game 2: I lose to some little red and blue things because I never see forest #2. He gets some foil firebolts, which I sign for him.

4-1, 8-2

Round 6: Keeper
Game 1: I get some early beats and a root maze on the table, he eventually hardcasts a decree for 2 to chump some wurms, and kills some of my stuff with swords / smother. I land a survival, then a dog, and he is forced to balance away his hand and most of his land to survive for another turn. I win on the next turn instead.
Game 2: I crush him with big, fat green dudes the turn before he could land a moat, thanks to root maze.

5-1, 10-2

Round 7: EBA
Game 1: I stomp all over him with active survival, double bazaar quadruple squee action. Mongrel swings for the last fourteen points while I have 12 cards in hand.
Game 2: He gets turn 2 angel, turn 3 moat. I see no naturalize in time.
Game 3: He gets turn 1 meddling mage naming naturalize, turn 2 moat. He eventually lands an angel and goes to town. Yay for dumb luck.

5-2, 11-4

Round 8: Fish
Game 1: My dudes are bigger than his.
Game 2: But all of his fly
Game 3: But I have a silklash spider, and he kills them all.

6-2, 13-5

I end up taking 12th place, doing some more trading, and eating at Denny’s. I have no problem with this at all, since it was a great tournament and I paid nothing to be there.

Props:
Green, for being the best color in Magic
Root Maze, For being just that cool
Silklash spider, for eating flyers and liking it.

Slops:
Meddling mage, for naming naturalize
Moat, for not letting my dudes attack
Lack of sleep, for owning me all day long.

-=ADAM=-