I arrived on the scene at 10:02 AM, and had some time to ask a couple players about their decks and their experience playing Magic. The metagame appears to be very rich in Control Slaver this time around, with the other two prominent decks being variations on Workshop decks and control/combo decks with Mana Drain and Dark Confidant and/or Tendrils and/or Tinker. This being the day after the Guildpact pre-release, I talked to a couple of the guys about their experience yesterday playing with the new cards. All predictions point to white/blue being a force in the post-Guildpact type two, though when I tell them about “the new Hymn to Tourach,” a couple get pretty excited.
I ran into a pair of guys playing Oath decks, they were certainly a change of pace for this tournament metagame, in which three-color control decks with Intuition or Goblin Welder or Gifts Ungiven or all of the above run rampant.
The day got off to a bad start, primarily due to the store's lack of receipt tape which prevented us from registering players who wished to pay the entry fee using credit cards, but that issue was resolved when we found out that our receipt tapes were next door. They'd been moved out of the supply closet without anyone being notified, so we wasted about half an hour searching in the wrong places.
The consensus among the attendees, though, is that the new errata on Time Vault sucks. To the max. No, really, it does. It’s lame. There’s nothing more to say. Nothing. Okay, I’m going to stop now. Really, I am.
Round 1: Tyler Daytin (Staff of Domination Stax) v Christiaan Royer (Counter-Slaver) Christiaan sits down to wait for his opponent, yawns, and pulls out his card-carrying case. Real nerds always have specialized card-carrying briefcase-size bags. Tyler is late.
Tyler arrives and lets his soon-to-be opponent that he has a copy of Break Open in his sideboard. He’s pretty confident. With good reason, as his deck is full of black-bordered power, a set of foil Japanese Goblin Welders, and his awesome customized foil Tangle Wires. Sadly, his Staves of Domination aren’t even foil. T_T.
The two players shuffle up for game one, each having set aside a sheet of note paper and a pen. Tyler has a couple pins on his mat, and jokes with his friends about his “sick sideboard tech,” while Christiaan is silent and businesslike.
Tyler has a collection of mana symbol patches to keep track of his floating resources. I just had to take a picture.
Game 1: The players finish shuffling, present their decks, roll a die, and Tyler wins the roll, choosing (predictably) to play first. He considers his hand, and decides to keep. Christiaan announces a mulligan.
Tyler’s first turn is Bazaar, Emerald, Mana Crypt, Smokestack. Christiaan considers removing time walk to force of will it, but decides against it. His turn is Flooded Strand, pearl, sacrifice strand to find Volcanic Island, Time Walk. On Christiaan’s extra turn, he plays Goblin Welder, Underground Sea, and taps pearl for Sensei’s Divining Top, Mana Crypt, taps crypt to use his new top, and sees Ancestral Recall, Mox Sapphire, and Fire/Ice. Predictably, he uses the top to draw the ancestral, and taps his underground sea to draw three cards. Using his floating mana from his earlier top activation, he replays his type two card, lays down the sapphire, and activates the top again, finding a force of will and artifact mana.
Tyler begins his second turn, adding a counter to Smokestack, missing damage from mana crypt, and playing a Wasteland (after drawing a card, naturally). He announces that he would like to think, and then uses his wasteland to destroy his opponent’s underground sea. He then plays Staff of Domination with his emerald and mana crypt. Christiaan, amazed, reads the staff. During his upkeep, he rolls for his own mana crypt and avoids damage. He taps his mox pearl, sacrifices it to his opponent’s mana crypt, draws a card, and then activates his top with the floating mana. I am drawn away from the game momentarily to remove the cat from the play area, as a few players are allergic.
After a brief dispute about life totals, it is agreed that both players are at 19 (Tyler from a City of Brass activation and Christiaan from his earlier Flooded Strand).
Christiaan taps his mana crypt and mox sapphire to play Ice targeting Tyler’s city of brass and activates his top with his leftover colorless. He then plays a Goblin Welder with his volcanic island.
Tyler’s third turn begins with avoiding damage from Mana Crypt, sacrificing City of Brass, and adding a counter to his now quite potent Smokestack. He draws a card, plays Gemstone Mine, and announces that Christiaan is free to take his turn.
Christiaan begins his turn by floating two colorless and one blue mana from his mana crypt and sapphire, sacrificing the aforementioned artifacts, and (yet again!) avoiding mana crypt damage (the trigger had already been put on the stack, so he still had to check for a lightning bolt to the face). He draws a card during his draw step and activates his top with a floating colorless mana, and then his other colorless mana, and then his blue mana. He plays a Mox Ruby and passes the turn.
Tyler uses his Staff of Domination to tap Goblin Welder during Christiaan’s end step, and then during his own upkeep, taps the other welder. Christiaan responds by turning his Mox Ruby into a Mox Sapphire (talk about a $100 profit). Tyler continues with his turn by sacrificing Mox Emerald and Gemstone Mine to his large smokestack. He draws a card, plays a second Gemstone Mine, and allows Christiaan to take a turn. Christiaan uses his top during Tyler’s end step.
Christiaan, now free of mana crypt randomness, begins his turn by getting two blue mana from his Volcanic Island and Mox Sapphire. He draws a card during his draw step and activates his top using one of his floating blue, seeing three mana sources. During his main phase, he plays a flooded strand, and has no more actions.
Tyler sacrifices his Smokestack and Gemstone Mine, and takes the first Mana Crypt damage of the game. Christiaan uses a goblin welder to switch Tyler’s Mana Crypt into a smokestack with no counters. Tyler plays a Barbarian Ring and passes.
Christiaan draws, plays an island, and says go. Tyler chooses not to put a counter on his smokestack, remarks that he would like to be able to attack with his non creature artifacts, and says go. Christiaan uses his top during Tyler’s end step, doesn’t like the cards he sees, and sacrifices his Flooded Strand, getting an Underground Sea, and using the sea to activate his top again.
Life totals: Tyler 16, Christiaan 18, with any attack still to be made.
Christiaan begins his turn with drawing a card, and then playing a Brainstorm during his main phase, remarking that the third card drawn is a “mystery card.” He plays a volcanic island and is through with this turn. He inspects Tyler’s graveyard and Tyler draws a card during his draw step and is through. I’m getting awfully tired of writing down every time Christiaan uses his divining top.
Christiaan plays draw, go. Not to be stuck doing likewise, Tyler plays a goblin welder during his main phase, to which Christiaan responds with Brainstorm, seeing Demonic Tutor, Mox Emerald, and Mindslaver. He replaces Mindslaver and the Force of Will in his hand, allows Tyler’s welder to resolve, and plays Mystical Tutor during the end step, getting Tinker and activating his Sensei's Divining Top. Predictably, he draws tinker, sacrificing the Emerald which he just played from his hand. He fetches Triskelion and allows Tyler to fill in the blanks as far as what happens to his own Goblin Welder. Tyler plays land, go after all, and Christiaan activates the Card Which Must Not Be Named.
Christiaan attacks Tyler down to 12 with his Triskelion (he’d taken some damage from his barbarian ring). Christiaan removes the remaining two counters to deal damage to Tyler and replaces all three with the tech that is a pair of Goblin Welders. Christiaan takes Tyler down to 3 by attacking and removing counters, and welds twice to seal the deal.
Game score: Tyler 0, Christiaan 1
I remark that the first game took far too long and implore the two combatants to finish their second game more quickly than the first. This is type one, after all. The players shuffle extensively. Tyler sideboards in a few cards, and Christiaan goes for four new faces.
Game 2: Tyler opens with Mishra’s Workshop and Crucible of Worlds, followed by a Mox Jet. Christiaan plays island, go.
Tyler plays a strip mine, activates it targeting Christiaan’s island, and Christiaan responds with Brainstorm. Tyler follows it up with a customized art Sol Ring. Christiaan plays Flooded Strand, go, and Tyler plays a Trinisphere. Christiaan decides to use his Force of Will on this one, removing Tinker from the game to play it for free. Tyler plays a Gemstone mine, taps it and his Sol Ring, and Tinkers away the aforementioned Circle of Fire. Christiaan has a second Force of will, this time removing Mystical Tutor from the game.
The embattled Christiaan begins his turn by drawing a card, and playing a Goblin Welder with the Volcanic Island his Flooded Strand earns him. Tyler’s turn consists of drawing, playing and using his Strip Mine, and setting down a Gorilla Shaman with his Gemstone Mine. Christiaan uses his turn to draw and say go. Tyler draws a Tolarian Academy, uses up his Gemstone Mine for red mana, and plays Burning Wish (tapping his Mox Jet). The head judge announces that there are 10 minutes left in the round. Tyler finds Balance. Christiaan, confused by the awesome foil DCI judge promotional card, reads everyone’s favorite white sorcery. Tyler attacks with his ape and Christiaan welds Tyler's Crucible of Worlds into a Trinisphere. Another Land, go turn is all that Christiaan has, and Tyler attacks with his Gorilla Shaman. Tyler’s new sphere turns back into the crucible which is once was, and Christiaan plays Draw, Trinisphere for Tyler, go.
Tyler plays a second crucible of all things, and then Balance. Christiaan, forced to discard down to 1 card in his hand, retains Dark Confidant. Tyler’s out of lands, but that doesn’t matter too much with two crucibles of worlds in play. After another attack, Tyler is finished. Christiaan, once again, plays Draw, go.
Tyler’s turn consists of a strip mine out of the graveyard and another attack.
Life totals: Tyler 20, Christiaan 13
Christiaan plays draw, go. Tyler plays a Wasteland from his hand, attacks, and is finished. Christiaan plays Draw, go. After asking the judge how much time is left in the round (3 minutes and 46 seconds), Christiaan concedes the game and shuffles up for the conclusion of the match.
Game Score: Tyler 1, Christiaan 1
Game 3: Christiaan keeps his first 7 cards, as does Tyler. Christiaan’s turn is Flooded strand into Underground Sea, Mox Emerald, Mox Pearl, Dark Confidant. Tyler plays Workshop, Tangle Wire, go. Christiaan gets 3 mana, taps all of his permanents, Confidants into a Polluted Delta, and plays Thirst for Knowledge, discarding Mindslaver. He then plays Volcanic Island and is finished. Tyler draws, plays Gemstone Mine, and then Ancestral Recall. Christiaan remarks that he would like Tyler to have drawn three lands, and Tyler plays Mox Emerald and Mox Jet and passes. Christiaan plays Brainstorm during Tyler’s end step.
Time is called, and Christiaan taps his Mox Pearl and Mox Emerald and Volcanic Island to the Tangle Wire. Dark Confidant (surprise surprise) reveals a land for Christiaan, and he main phase fetches a second Volcanic Island and plays a second Dark Confidant.
Extra turn 1: Tyler’s turn begins with drawing a card, continues with playing a strip mine, and ends with a second Tangle Wire, which Christiaan allows to resolve.
Extra turn 2: Christiaan begins his upkeep with brainstorm and finishes it with Rack and Ruin on Tyler’s Tangle Wires. Christiaan taps all the rest of his permanents, draws two lands from his two Confidants, draws a card for his turn, plays an island, and is finished.
Extra turn 3: Tyler draws, plays a second Gemstone Mine, and Burning Wishes for Balance again. Christiaan burns two Force of Will on it. During Tyler’s end step, Christiaan plays Mystical Tutor, getting Time Walk.
I get smacked upside the head by a spectator.
Extra turn 4: Christiaan takes two getting a Time Walk, takes 0 for a Library of Alexandria, and gets a third card for completely free (awesome!). Christiaan plays Time Walk, sacrifices a Flooded Strand, and plays Dark Confidant number 3. He attacks Tyler down to 14, and untaps for his extra turn.
Extra turn 5: Christiaan reveals Fire/Ice, Rack and Ruin, and Island. His draw step card is Goblin Welder. He plays Thirst for Knowledge, seeing two moxes and a Demonic Tutor and discarding two lands. Remarking that he wishes he had one extra turn, Christiaan plays a Mox Sapphire and a Sol Ring.
Tyler gets smacked by a spectator unrelated to the one who smacked me.
Christiaan accepts that the match is a draw.
Game Score: Tyler 1, Christiaan 1
Round Two: Tyler Daykin (Staff of Domination stax) v Cory Hurrle (Dragon), both of Team Scrubby Bubbles
Since Cory Hurrle, being a good friend of Tyler’s, has promised to trash talk to the max, this feature match coverage will consist only of the dialogue.
Tyler: You gotta watch this guy, he kicks people under the table. Cory: Yeah, I’m a ruthless cheat. T: I’d like this guy’s sleeves checked for marks. C: I drew a picture of all the women he’s been with. Oh wait, that’s none. T: At least I haven’t been with horses. C: Hey, that’s our little secret. C: I’ll try to keep this PG for all the kids that read the website. T: PG my &*$! C: Actually, I love the store. It’s an awesome store. T: He’s suck the store’s %&*^ if it had one. C: Tyler! C: Okay, so here’s a story about this cat: he’s in Amsterdam, and a supermodel hooker wants 50 euros. He has only 30, and his friend won’t give him 20 to get him laid for the first time. That’s why he carries around 20 euros in his wallet now.
After a brief confusion about a card which dropped on the floor, the players finish shuffling and consider how to decide who will go first. After much rancor, they settle on flipping a Holiday Inn stationery pad, which comes Tyler's way, and he elects to play first.
C: There’s my 7. T: I need to think. I don’t know if I can keep this. C: You’re losing turn 2, it doesn’t matter. T: Whatever. C: What’s with the random 1 force of will in your deck? T: I dunno. C: That’s about as useless as you carrying a condom. You’re not gonna need it. T: See this guy? He makes fun of me.
The players are too fast with the trash-talking for me, so I’ll just get in the best bits.
T: I’ll play a first turn welder. Go. C: Untap, upkeep no effects, draw. T: I hope you didn’t say it that way last round. C: I did. T: Spirit token! C: I didn’t tap it yet! T: Yes you did! C: Judge! Bystander: You know the story of the boy who cried judge, right? C: Draw three. EOT discard Worldgorger Dragon. T: Attack! C: Did you really just attack for deuce? T: Oh yeah.
C: Draw, discard Ambassador Laquatus.
T: I’ll go to 18. Red. C: Cards in Hand? T: 5. Goblin welder. C: Dos? T: Yes, dos.
C: Discard sliver queen. T: Mystical Tutor. I’ll get the recall. C: Alright. T: My hand sucks! I’m beating down with welders. C: Alright, 16. T: What a horrible, *%#ty-@#^ hand. C: You kiss your mother with that mouth? T: I do. C: I kiss your mother with that mouth too. It’s okay.
C: Oh, what! Necro-mother-frickin-mancy! T: I don’t see no combo! C: You don’t see Ambassador in here? T: Win! C: Okay.
Game Score: Tyler 0, Cory 1
Cory laments having Eternal Witness in his sideboard, saying that he should have had it main.
Game 2: Tyler elects to play first again, and Cory remarks that putting him on the draw is dangerous, given that he is playing such a sick combo deck. Tyler doesn’t seem to care.
Tyler: Are you looking at my deck? You cheater? Cory: What, it’s hard to find! Oh wait, you said “deck.” My bad.
C: Bazaar of Baghdad, activate, you just lost. T: Cards in hand? C: 9. Discard Worldgorger Dragon, discard two glimmervoids. T: How much time is left? C: We’ll have plenty of time to take a walk and find you some hot granola-eating Berkeley ladies.
T: Attack with my two staff of domination. C: Take 6. T: You didn’t even make me take damage from my mana crypt! C: It’s no big deal. T: I still haven’t drawn my 1 force of will! Did I board it out?
Game Score: Tyler 0, Cory 2
Lunch Break. I go across the street to get a Feta Cheese, Egg, and Turkey Crepe, and bring it back to the store. It was savage.
Round Three: Benjamin (Counter-Slaver) v Jason Getman (Uba Stax)
Game One: The two players sit down, and Jason wins the coin toss. A slight mishap in shuffling delays the beginning of the game. Jason elects to play first, and decides that six cards are better than seven. Benjamin disagrees and sticks with seven. Jason’s first turn is Workshop, Crucible, Mox Ruby, go. Benjamin plays island, go. Jason decides that his board is better with a smokestack, and sets one down. Benjamin responds with a Brainstorm that finds him a copy of Force of Will. A Time Walk exits the play area to assist Benjamin in his mighty effort. Jason finishes off his turn with a Bazaar of Baghdad, which draws him Mox Pearl and Granite Shard. The former goes to the graveyard along with a pair of barbarian rings.
Benjamin begins his second turn with a Polluted Delta, and finishes it with, um, yeah. That was it. Jason untaps, draws, and plays Granite Shard. Benjamin responds by sacrificing polluted delta. Jason informs me that Ben has sacrificed the delta. I let him know that actually, Ben sacrificed Jason’s mom. He agrees. Benjamin plays Mana Drain targeting Granite Shard.
Ben kicks off turn three with an island, which Jason eagerly tells me is snow-covered, and finishes it by forgetting that he has mana from his mana drain. A judge is called over, who notifies him that he has floating mana and will take mana burn if it is not spent. Benjamin uses two of it to play an Intuition, tapping his island which is actually named “Island.” Jason looks at Force of Will, Thirst for Knowledge, and Ancestral Recall, electing to give Benjamin the aforementioned expensive counterspell.
Jason plays Barbarian Ring number 2 from his graveyard and (almost) taps out for a Triskelion, which runs into a Brainstorm-assisted Force of Will. Benjamin plays an end-of-turn Mystical Tutor, which finds him Tinker.
Neither player has cards in hand, and Benjamin finds himself a Darksteel Colossus. Jason activates his Bazaar of Baghdad, finding nothing useful, and drops to 8 on Benjamin’s Turn, and to 0 one turn later.
Game Score: Benjamin 1, Jason 0
Benjamin sideboards in a whopping 11 cards, Jason opting instead for a mere 3 changes.
Game 2: Jason kicks off the game with Wasteland, go, which Benjamin counters with Volcanic Island, Mox, Mox, Thirst for Knowledge. Wisely, he elects to discard Darksteel Colossus. Jason’s second turn is Wasteland number 2, Pithing Needle (naming Mindslaver). Ben plays Land, go. Jason plays Draw, go. Ben plays Land, go. Jason plays Draw, go. Ben plays an end-of-turn Intuition, looking for Demonic Tutor, Rack and Ruin, and Mystical Tutor and getting the red card, and then plays Land, go.
Jason puts out a Mishra’s Workshop and uses his newfound mana to play yet another Granite Shard, which runs into a Counterspell from Benjamin, who sacrifices a flooded strand for an Underground Sea, plays a Mana Crypt, and then the monstrous Triskelion. Jason looks positively devastated at this turn of events, and plays the Crucible of Worlds sitting in his hand. After Wastelanding Ben’s Underground Sea, Jason gets his Crucible and Pithing Needle destroyed by Rack and Ruin. Ben takes 3 from his new Crypt of Mana and attacks back for 4 with his Tricycle of Doom. Jason plays Crucible number 2 and Ben plays Counterspell number 2. This time, Benjamin avoids damage from Mana Crypt, draws a card, attacks for 4 again, and plays Tormod’s Crypt.
Life totals: Benjamin 16, Jason 12
Jason plays a Tricycle of Doom of his own, which Benjamin responds to with a Brainstorm followed by a Thirst for Knowledge, but it ultimately resolves.
Unfortunately for our friend Jason, the Thirst for Knowledge found Ben a Tinker, which he uses to transform Crypt of Mana into Smasher of Face, followed by a topdecked Time Walk to end the game.
Game Score: Benjamin 2, Jason 0
Round 4: Cory Hurrle (Dragon) v Jeff Neilson (Workshop Slaver)
Jeff and I reminisce about a time in a previous Vintage tournament where I played Draw7 and made a Procedural Error – Major level mistake and got a game loss penalty to lose the match. I had forgotten to remove cards from the game for a Diminishing Returns.
Game 1: Cory wins the die roll and chooses to play first. His first turn is Bazaar of Baghdad, activate, discard Forbidden Orchard, Glimmervoid, Dance of the Dead. Jeff plays Mox Ruby, Goblin Welder, Wasteland, destroy Bazaar. Cory plays Bazaar number 2 and activates, discarding Mana Crypt, Forbidden Orchard, and Dance of the Dead. Jeff plays Mox Emerald and wasteland number 2 for Bazaar number 2.
Cory’s third turn is Gemstone mine, go. Jeff plays Workshop, Memory Jar. Cory draws Vampiric tutor (!) but plays nothing. Jeff draws wasteland number 3, plays it, and silences his cell phone. I mean he plays Chalice of the Void with 2 counters on it. Cory plays his Vampiric Tutor during Jeff’s end step to find Ancestral Recall. Pumping his fist at the prospect of drawing extra cards, he triumphantly picks up his blue instant, but declines to play anything.
Jeff cracks memory jar and plays a white mox, a Mana Crypt, a Mana Vault, and a Chalice of the Void with 3 counters on it, finishing off his huge turn with a Grim Monolith and a Juggernaut. Cory gets his hand back, plays his Ancestral Recall, and takes his turn, during which he plays draw, go. On Cory’s end step, he gets his Intuition countered by his own Chalice of the Void. Exchanging his Mana Crypt for a Memory Jar, Jeff finds a Jester’s Cap to end the game.
Game Score: Cory 0, Jeff 1
Cory, a little “on tilt” I suspect, due to Jeff’s amazing capacity to draw Wasteland, asks that Jeff consent to a deck check at the end of the match. Jeff sides in a whopping 11 cards, Cory far fewer.
Game 2: Both players keep their first 7 cards, and Cory leads off with Bazaar, go. Jeff plays Black Lotus, Mishra’s Workshop, Mox Sapphire, sacrifice lotus for Goblin Welder, and Cory responds with a Bazaar activation finding nothing special, but he manages to discard a Sliver queen. Jeff uses his Workshop and Mox as well as his floating mana to play and use Jester’s cap. Cory remarks that Jeff’s first turn was “broke-#$% ^&*@.” I find myself unable to do anything but agree. Jeff goes for removing three of Cory’s four Worldgorger Dragons from the game, and Cory decides to shuffle thoroughly, as Jeff sorted his deck during the Jester’s Cap ability resolution.
Cory untaps, looks at a hand of Ancestral Recall, Time Walk, Cunning Wish, land, mox, and decides to activate Bazaar (discarding Cunning Wish, Echoing Truth, Dance of the Dead) and then play Time Walk. On his extra turn, he plays Ancestral Recall, activates Bazaar (discarding Squee, Goblin Nabob, Necromancy, and Glimmervoid), plays a second Gemstone Mine, and taps out for Null Rod. Jeff plays Crucible of Worlds and announces that he is done.
Cory returns squee to his hand during his upkeep, draws something which he calls “cute,” and activates Bazaar discarding Mox Emerald, Bazaar, and Squee. Jeff activates Goblin Welder, transforming Cory’s Null Rod into a Mox Emerald. What a downgrade. Jeff draws for his turn, plays Juggernaut, and passes, stuck on lands.
Cory plays Intuition and gets Worldgorger Dragon in his hand with Demonic and Vampiric tutors in his graveyard. Cory activates Bazaar and discards Squee, Dragon, Null Rod, and then plays Animate Dead targeting Worldgorger Dragon. Jeff decides to make Cory play through it, so Cory, step by step, dumps his library into his graveyard, makes infinite mana, and dumps Jeff’s library into his graveyard, finishing him off with a Deep Analysis, which he took quite a while to find, after some confusion about whether he had sideboarded it out or not. He remarks that “nobody should ever play as sloppily as I just did,” and Jeff remains conspicuously silent.
Game Score: Cory 1, Jeff 1
Between games two and three, Cory sideboards one card.
Game 3: Jeff kicks off the concluder with City of brass, Mox, Mox, Time Walk, Gemstone Mine, Chalice of the void with 2 counters. Cory plays Bazaar of Baghdad and activates it discarding Worldgorger Dragon, Gemstone Mine, Forbidden Orchard. Jeff plays land, Jester’s Cap, go. Cory activates Bazaar and has a hand of fast mana, time walk, Ancestral Recall, and Intuition. His Time Walk is countered by Jeff’s Chalice of the Void.
Jeff untaps, draws, and activates Jester’s Cap. This time he goes for removing Cunning Wish, Necromancy, Necromancy after much deliberation. Jeff attacks for 2. Cory activates his Bazaar of Baghdad and discards Bazaar, Crop Rotation, Force of Will. Jeff plays Mishra’s Workshop and Mindslaver. Cory responds with an awesome promotional foil Intuition, which puts a copy of Force of Will into his hand and two into his graveyard. Jeff attacks for 3.
Life Totals: Cory 14, Jeff 15
Cory draws land, activates his Bazaar discarding Intuition, Gemstone mine, Force of Will, and draws three with Ancestral Recall, one of them a Demonic Tutor. Jeff activates Mindslaver on his turn.
Cory is forced to use Bazaar of Baghdad, discarding Squee, Demonic Tutor, and Worldgorger Dragon, leaving another Dragon and a Dance of the Dead in his hand. Jeff untaps, attacks for 5, and plays a Duplicant.
Life Totals: Cory 7, Jeff 14
Cory untaps, returns Squee, Goblin Nabob, and draws. A Bazaar activation brings him nothing of help and he extends his hand.
Game score: Cory 1, Jeff 2
Round 5: Benjamin (Counter-Slaver) v David Ochoa (TPS)
David asks if Benjamin is interested in a draw (since a draw would get him into top 8), but a draw would strand Benjamin in about 10th since David has been paired down. As such, the players are unable to reach a compromise, and must play the match out.
David wins the coin flip, and the two players deal out seven cards each. As they wait for the judge to announce the beginning of the round, the tension in the air is palpable. It is clear that both are eager to begin this, the final round of the swiss pairings. One of these players will get into the top 8 and the other player will be going home.
Game 1: David examines his first seven cards and decides they’re good. Benjamin considers his options for a few moments, eventually settling on a keep. David’s first turn is Underground Sea, Duress, seeing Force of Will, Brainstorm, Mystical Tutor, Darksteel Colossus, Mox Jet, Volcanic Island, and Strip Mine. The tutor takes a hike to the cemetery and stays there. Benjamin plays Mox Jet, Sol Ring, Strip Mine, and destroys David’s land. David plays island, go, and Ben counters with Volcanic Island, go. During Ben’s end step, David plays Brainstorm.
David draws, plays a Polluted Delta, sacrifices it for an Underground Sea, and plays Time Walk. On his extra turn, he draws, plays Mana Vault, plays Tolarian Academy, and is through. Ben plays Seat of the Synod, Brainstorm into more mana sources and a Tinker, which he plays, sacrificing Seat of the Synod, to put Darksteel Colossus into play. David Duresses his opponent and then plays Chain of Vapor targeting the Colossus. Benjamin topdecks a Thirst for Knowledge which returns his Colossus to his library. David untaps, Brainstorms into Tendrils of Agony, Timetwister and mana. He sacrifices a Polluted Delta and Brainstorms again. Benjamin has no effects during David’s end of turn step and untaps his mana.
He then plays an oddity of a card in the form of Goblin Welder, and has no response to David’s end-of-turn Vampiric Tutor for Ancestral Recall. David draws three instead of one, plays Dark Confidant, and is finished with the turn. Benjamin draws, plays a second welder, and says go.
David draws a free Mana Crypt and continues with his turn by playing it, followed by Mox Jet. He breaks Polluted Delta for basic Swamp and taps his Jet and Crypt for Yawgmoth’s Will, which finds Benjamin’s Mana Drain. David follows the will up with Timetwister.
The players shuffle up again and get ready to play game 1 (For real this time, I mean it. Really, I do.) all over again. Benjamin asks if he is allowed to mulligan, and David reminds him that he is unable to do so. Ben kindly informs me that I am allowed to record his request for posterity.
David attempts a Duress, which is met with Force of Will, and David responds with Vampiric Tutor. Force of Will resolves, and David plays a Mox Sapphire and an Ancestral Recall. David plays Tendrils of Agony.
Game Score: Benjamin 0, David 1
Benjamin uses the awesome tech of shuffling in all 15 sideboard cards and then removing 15 cards from his 75-card mixed deck. David sideboards 5 cards.
After some discussion, the players decide that really, they can’t draw, thanks to the way the other matches are playing out this round, so they continue onward in this battle of elimination doom death destruction ultimate destiny struggle awesome epic fight for the top 8 slot.
Game 2: Benjamin elects to play and both players deal out 7 cards. Ben keeps his first hand, as does David. Ben’s first turn is Volcanic Island, Mox pearl, go. David kicks his game off with basic Swamp followed by Duress, to which Ben responds with Brainstorm. David sees Darksteel Colossus, Mana Drain, Intuition, Seat of the Synod, and Volcanic Island. Ben’s Mana Drain takes up farming, but gains him no life.
Ben plays land, go, and David plays Cabal Therapy. It resolves, and Benjamin discards Intuition. During David’s end of turn phase, Benjamin plays Thirst for Knowledge, to which David responds with Brainstorm, but it resolves. Ben returns Darksteel Colossus to his library, plays a Flooded Strand during his main phase, and says “pass the turn.”
David plays Dark Confidant, go. During his end step, Ben plays Intuition, which puts Mindslaver into his hand and Jester’s Cap and Triskelion into his graveyard. He then sacrifices Flooded Strand to get Underground Sea and plays Mystical Tutor to get Demonic Tutor. A Volcanic Island later, he plays Demonic Tutor with his Underground Sea and Mox Pearl. David remarks that there is a 60% chance Benjamin is finding Black Lotus. Ben’s card of choice is Goblin Welder, which he plays.
David draws a free Mox Pearl and then Brainstorms. After an attack for 2 with Dark Confidant (taking Ben to 17), David plays Dark Ritual, Mox Pearl, and Mana Crypt. Following Mana Crypt is Yawgmoth’s Bargain. David goes to 19, to 18, to 17, to 16, to 15, to 14, plays a Mox Emerald, 13, Tormod’s Crypt, 12, 11, 10, Black Lotus, Tolarian Academy, Dark Ritual, Darkblast targeting Goblin Welder, Dark Confidant, Tendrils of Agony.
Game Score: Benjamin 0, David 2
The top 8 is now decided. In order from first to eighth, the competitors still in the running for the Mox Ruby are:
1: Jeff Neilson (Workshop Slaver) 2: David Ochoa (TPS) 3: Sam Smith (Counter-Slaver) 4: Andy Griswold (U/G/B Oath) 5: Alex Bloch (U/G/B Oath) 6: Kevin Tiepelmon (Counter-Slaver) 7: Kevin Schambers (Stax) 8: Michael Klemic (Counter-Slaver)
Funny story about Michael Klemic's top 8: He won in rounds 1 and 2, lost in rounds 3 and 4, received a bye in round 5, and appeared in the top 8. He made top 8 with a bye. That's hot.
Top 8: Andy Griswold v Alex Bloch
These Two clearly know each other pretty well, and so this promises to be a good match. Andy inquires about what happens if they draw this match, and I inform him that there can be no draws in top 8 contention. Someone must win and someone must lose. The players contemplate agreeing to mulligan to 0 cards, and then decide against it. Alex remarks that the stakes here are who gets to sit in the front seat of the car on the ride back home from Berkeley.
Game 1: Alex, never to be ahead in any life race, starts off the game with cracking a Flooded Strand to get an Underground Sea, and plays a Duress. He catches Force of Will, removing Repeal (!). Andy talks about his awesome tech, which I’m pretty sure doesn’t measure up to his first turn Polluted Delta into basic Island for Ancestral Recall. Alex plays Sea, go, and Andy plays Forbidden Orchard, Oath of Druids. Alex attacks for 1 with his newfound spirit token and plays a Forbidden Orchard of his own. The players count up damage, and lo and behold, Alex is ahead after all, 17 – 19. Alex plays Impulse using his Orchard, and the players are tied in creature count.
Andy plays a second Forbidden Orchard (!) and transmutes Muddle the Mixture (!) to get Time Walk. Alex plays his own second Forbidden Orchard, and after much trash-talking, hawking a loogie, and baby talk, attacks for 1. Andy Wastelands Alex’s second Orchard, and plays Time Walk. Alex Counterspells, Andy FOWs, Alex FOWs. Alex starts his turn by Wastelanding Andy’s second Orchard and attacks with 2 tokens. 1 gets through for damage.
Alex has 4 spirits and Andy has 2, so Andy uses Oath of Druids to get Akroma, Angel of Wrath into play. A successful attack later, he plays a land and says go. Alex takes a mana burn to give Andy another spirit token. Alex attacks with 1 token, which is blocked by a token from Andy and ten plays Oath of Druids of his own, giving Andy yet another token in the process. Andy plays Darkblast on one of his tokens, giving another to Alex.
Having Razia in his hand, Andy does not use Oath, and plays Sensei’s Divining Top before attacking with his 6/6 flying monstrosity. Alex sacrifices his Flooded Strand going down to 2 (Andy is at 15) for a basic Island. He checks his top card and then attacks with all 4 of his spirit tokens. Andy considers his options and blocks all 3 of Alex’s attackers. Alex plays a second Oath of Druids and picks up his cards for game 2.
Game Score: Andy 1, Alex 0
Andy sideboards 3 cards and Alex switches 4.
Me: It’s good to see Oath doing well. Oath is supposed to be dead, but here you both are. Andy: It’s because we’re gangsters. That’s how we roll. Me: Did you beat up your previous opponents. Andy: Stabbed them and took their money, actually. Alex: And kicked them. Me: Well then you don’t even need to win. You’ve got their money anyways.
Game 2: Alex selects to go first and keeps his first hand. Andy doesn’t and doesn’t.
Alex: Do you know why I kept? Do you know why? Andy: No. Me: Is it because you have a hand of seven Forbidden Orchard? Alex: Five, actually.
Alex plays Forbidden Orchard, Mox Jet, Mox Sapphire, Oath of Druids. Andy grimaces and plays a Black Lotus, then attacks with his spirit token. A Tropical Island and Brainstorm later, he plays Time Walk and Sensei’s Divining Top. On his extra turn, he attacks with his spirit token and uses his Divining Top. He then draws a card, plays Flooded Strand, sacrifices it for basic Island, and draws 3 extra cards. What a cheater.
Alex untaps, uses Oath of Druids, and finds Triskelion. He draws a card (another Triskelion), and plays Intuition (giving another token to Andy). A Forbidden Orchard goes into his hand and two more Forbidden Orchards go to his graveyard. The aforementioned Forbidden Orchard in his hand comes into play.
Andy untaps, Brainstorms, and attacks for two. He then plays Echoing Truth targeting one of his spirit tokens. Alex responds by killing the target of the spell with his Trike, and during Andy’s end step, mana burns off an orchard and shoots his own token. He oath’s up Akroma, Angel of Wrath (which was almost the bottom card), and Gaea’s Blessing shuffles everything back into his library. Alex attacks with Akroma (taking Andy to 13) and sits uncomfortably on the Razia and Triskelion in his hand.
Andy untaps, plays Duress, and both players laugh hysterically at Alex’s un-techy hand. Alex gives Andy an additional token in response to Andy’s Strip Mine activation, and Andy concedes game 2.
Game Score: Andy 1, Alex 1
We find out that Jeff Neilson lost his quarterfinal match against Michael Klemic.
Game 3: Andy thinks that 6 cards are better than 7. Alex agrees. Andy leads with Black Lotus, Island, go. Alex counters with Black Lotus, Forbidden Orchard, Duress, and Andy plays Orchard, go. Alex Brainstorms into a second Orchard and puts Gaea’s Blessing back on top.
Spirit tokens: Andy 2, Alex 0
Alex plays tropical island, go. Andy attacks for two. Alex sacrifices Black Lotus to play Cunning Wish, which resolves and finds Magma Jet (!) to scry. He draws Triskelion and says go. Andy breaks Black Lotus for red mana, taps two Forbidden Orchards, two Islands, and an Underground Sea, and plays Razia, Boros Archangel, which runs into Counterspell from Alex, which runs into Force of Will from Andy, which runs into Force of Will from Alex. Andy attacks with two tokens and they both get blocked by Alex’s tokens.
Tokens: Andy 1, Alex 0
The two play draw, go for a while and then Andy plays Vampiric Tutor using an orchard. Andy then plays Ancestral Recall into Oath, Accumulated Knowledge, and Repeal. He plays the Oath, tapping an orchard, and Alex plays Vampiric Tutor using his own orchard, to which Andy responds with a Repeal targeting his lone spirit token. Alex’s Vampiric Tutor resolves and he taps an orchard to mana burn.
Tokens: Andy 1, Alex 2 Life Totals: Andy 16, Alex 12
Alex attacks with one of his tokens, plays a third (!) Orchard, mana burns, and says go.
Tokens: 2-2
Andy Duresses, which whiffs on Alex’s Triskelion, Brainstorms, and Accumulated Knowledges. Alex mana burns for 2. Alex plays draw, go.
Tokens: 4-4
Andy plays his third Accumulated Knowledge, an Underground Sea, and a Time Walk, which resolves. An attack phase later, both players have 4 fewer spirit tokens. Alex takes 2 mana burn to keep the token count even (at 2). On Andy’s extra turn, he Brainstorms, Wastelands one of Alex’s orchards (and gets a token, keeping it even at 3), makes a token with a Divining Top activation, and says go. Alex plays Intuition, giving Andy two tokens, which runs into Counterspell. Another top activation gives Alex another token.
Tokens: 5-4
Andy sacrifices Flooded Strand for a basic Island during his upkeep and activates his divining top to fix his draw, also giving Alex a token. Alex draws, plays Ancestral Recall (into a Counterspell from Andy), and plays an Oath, giving Andy another token. Andy uses top to avoid mana burn from giving Alex a token. After an upkeep phase Top activation and some more mana burning, both players have 8 tokens. Andy plays Mystical Tutor to get Demonic Tutor to get Forbidden Orchard to break token equality and end the game.
Tokens: Andy 15, Alex 14 Life totals: Andy 11, Alex 1
David Ochoa won 2-0 over Kevin S Kevin T won 2-0 over Sam Smith
Semifinals: David Ochoa v Kevin Tiepelmon
Game 1: These players, in stark contrast to the last two, are all business as they shuffle up for their match. David wins the die roll (3 to 2!) and chooses to play. He mulligans to six and then to five, which he claimed would be “amazing.” He then mulligans to four.
David leads off with Black Lotus into Dark Confidant and mana burn, and Kevin fires back with Island, Sol Ring, go. David reveals a basic Swamp, attacks, and is done. Kevin, after a remark about how he doesn’t have any upkeep effects, plays a Volcanic Island and says “go ahead.” David reveals Tolarian Academy, plays a second basic Swamp, and is done. Kevin, during David’s end step, plays Thirst For Knowledge and discards Mox Pearl.
Kevin untaps, plays his own Tolarian Academy, and says go. David reveals a Mox Sapphire, to the amusement of all onlookers, attacks, plays Duress, which Kevin responds to with Thirst for Knowledge (discarding Mox Ruby) and Brainstorm. Kevin uses Force of Will removing Fact or Fiction to prevent Duress from resolving, and David plays his Mox Sapphire and a Dark Ritual, and a Tendrils of Agony with 6 copies (his opponent was at 13).
Game Score: David 1, Kevin 0
Game 2: Kevin keeps his first 6 cards, and David mulligans yet again, but only once. Kevin plays Polluted Delta, go, and David plays Mox Sapphire, Brainstorm, Mox Ruby, Polluted Delta, fetch Underground Sea, tap out for Dark Confidant, and then plays Black Lotus. Kevin plays Island, fetches Volcanic Island with his delta, and casts Fire, to deal 1 to each of David and Dark Confidant.
David cycles Rebuild, plays Tormod’s Crypt, and sacrifices Black Lotus to play Necropotence. He then sets aside 6 cards and ends his turn, placing them in his hand. Kevin untaps, plays an island which is covered in snow, and taps it to cast Mana Vault. David untaps and resolves Time Walk. He then plays an island and taps his Island and his Underground Sea to play Demonic Tutor which is met by a (hardcast!) Force of Will. David plays Mox Pearl and Mox Emerald, and sets aside 6 more cards with his potence of necro.
On David’s extra turn, he casts Duress seeing Duress and Yawgmoth’s Will and takes Duress. David follows it up with Brainstorm, Underground Sea, Dark Ritual, a second Brainstorm, Dark Confidant, and Tendrils of Agony for 12, bringing himself up to 18 and Kevin down to 7. He ends his turn by setting aside 6 cards with Necropotence.
Kevin takes 1 during his upkeep from his tapped Mana Crypt, and does nothing else. David takes 1 from Dark Confidant for a Duress, plays the Duress taking Mana Drain, attacks for 2, and casts Tendrils of Agony for another 4, taking Kevin down to 1, who then dies during his upkeep.
Game Score: David 2, Kevin 0
Finals: David and his would-be opponent Andy agree anticlimactically to split the prize of the Mox Ruby and 12 Dissension packs.
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The final's game of Oath vs. Oath was almost funny, it was just orchard vs. orchard! Haha.
The greatest match's of the day were definetly David Vs. Kevin. What a great play by David, honestly. He mull's to 4 and still pulls it out. Not to mention the fact that he basically surprised him with the Tendril's that Kevin powered for him with Thirst, Brainstorm AND FoW.
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I'm glad you enjoyed it. Regrettably, I am not yet able to include the pictures I took during the event, but I hope that I'll be able to do so soon.
And yes, David's surprise tendrils in his first game against Kevin was both shocking and amazing.
____________________ PoTaTo!
Posts: 213 | From: Berkeley | Registered: May 2004
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You took 7.82 seconds out of my life just so you could "uh...take a pic of the gamestate at the end of game two of TheGildedClaw.dec's blowout and ultimate "you got Served" status to all decks in the Swiss, you could at least figure out how to host pictures on the WWW.NET and post them.
Yeah, I got served in Top 8, but almost anyone would have (except my previous SlapJack builds...PWNED!!!)
quote:Originally posted by LotusHead: You took 7.82 seconds out of my life just so you could "uh...take a pic of the gamestate at the end of game two of TheGildedClaw.dec's blowout and ultimate "you got Served" status to all decks in the Swiss, you could at least figure out how to host pictures on the WWW.NET and post them.
Actually, the problem is one of hardware - the cable to connect my camera to a computer, which was supposed to be included with the camera itself, was not, in fact, included, and I've had a devil of a time trying to find one.The trouble isn't getting the pictures hosted, it's getting them off of the camera and onto my computer.
I'd disagree with the statement that combo is "out of control," however. I'd say the situation is more one of players being unprepared to battle today's combo decks, or making mistakes against them, because in a combo matchup, no matter which side of the table you're on, making the right play every time is very important.
____________________ PoTaTo!
Posts: 213 | From: Berkeley | Registered: May 2004
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I had the same problem with my Digital Camera, but only because two crackheads broke into my apartment and stole my computer. The Camera Cable was part of the mess that is laying around the SurgeSuppressor area. It took 1 year to deal with it.
SANDISK READERS...
It takes your memory card from the camera and plugs it into your computer (as opposed to plugging the camera itself into your computer).
If I can figure it out, I will post the 1 pic I took of the tourney (Christiaan Royer versus Tyler PimpStaxBoy Feature Match)
Posts: 45 | From: Vacaville, CA | Registered: Apr 2006
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