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Exactly 32 players have showed up today to play 5 rounds of swiss and 3 of top 8 with a Mox Pearl on the line. It's a beautiful sunny day, so what better way to spend it than whiling away the hours in a game store playing Magic?
Round 1: Marco Barreno (4 color stax) v. Michael Klemic (strange dragon/renimator hybrid with Oath of Druids in the sideboard)
Game 1: Marco calls for low roll goes first, gets boxcars, and Michael keeps his opening hand. Marco takes a mulligan. The opener from Michael is Gemstone Mine, Mana Crypt, go. Marco has Mishra's Factory, go. On his end of turn, Michael plays Intuition for Worldgorger Dragon, Life from the Loam, and Bazaar of Baghdad. He gets the fatty in his hand and replaces his next draw with a dredge of Life from the Loam hitting nothing important.
Michael loams up and taps his Bazaar discarding Worldgorger Dragon, Eternal Witness, and City of Brass. Marco finds something which might help his cause in Trinishpere, but it doesn't stop Michael from playing Animate Dead, giving Marco a billion spirit tokens, and playing Cunning Wish to get Stroke of Genius out of his sideboard. Game Score: Marco 0, Michael 1
Game 2: Marco takes a mulligan, Michael takes 2, and Marco opens with Workshop and Trinisphere. Michael plays Undiscovered Paradise, and the players get into a dispute about whether that land can be used during his upkeep. The judge gets on it, and on Marco's second turn, he plays Trinisphere. On Michael's turn, he plays Forbidden Orchard, and when Marco finds a third land, he pops Jester's Cap and is puzzled by the composition of Michael's deck. Eventually he settles on Spirit of the Night, Akroma Angel of Wrath, and Bogardan Hellkite.
Michael finds his third land and plays Black Lotus. Marco attacks, plays Chalice of the Void (2 Counters), and passes back. When Michael replays his Undiscovered Paradise, he has no more gas, and Marco continues beating, complicating things with a Goblin Welder. Michael remarks that his draw this turn was actually okay, and thinks really hard. Eventually he settles on saying “go ahead.” He takes another beat from his token, dropping to 17, and Marco plays and activates another Jester's Cap. In response, Michael plays Intuition for Bogardan Hellkite, Bazaar of Baghdad, and Life from the Loam. The fatty goes to his hand, and Marco goes to remove three cards. With a Hurkyll's Recall, Rebuild, and Necromancy removed from his deck, Michael finds himself with 8 cards in his hand during his turn (he didn't replay Undiscovered Paradise) and ditches his Bogardan Hellkite. Marco plays and Tinkers away Mana Crypt to get Tormod's Crypt (I noticed the similarity as well). Michael picks up his cards. Game Score: Marco 1, Michael 1
Game 3: Michael is on the play for this third and final game. He keeps his opener, and Marco goes into the tank. Eventually he takes a mulligan. Michael leads with Bazaar of Baghdad. Using it, he discards Worldgorger Dragon, Akroma Angel of Wrath, and Life from the Loam. Marco has Gemstone Mind, Sol Ring, Sphere of Resistance on his turn, and Michael kicks off turn number 2 with another Bazaar activation. This time, Spirit of the Night, Forbidden Orchard, and Animate Dead bite the dust, and another orchard takes the table on his side. On Marco's next turn, he finds Tormod's Crypt, and declines to activate it. Michael's next turn sees an Undiscovered Paradise join his side of the table, but nothing spicy other than that. Marco continues to develop his board and take sol ring mana burn by playing Goblin Welder.
Michael starts what could be the fundamental turn of the game with yet another Bazaar tap. He dumps Bazaar, Force of Will, and Animate Dead. With a Mox Pearl that costs a mana (so bad!), he's done. Marco has nothing but a second tormod's crypt, so on Michael's turn he gets to play Oath of Druids. Marco goes into the tank again, looks at his hand with a displeased frown, looks at the board, looks back at his hand, and remarks that there are “so many almosts...”
After long deliberations, Marco removes Michael's graveyard with a crypt, welds his sphere of resistance into another crypt, casts Crucible of Worlds, and says go. Michael quickly turns over a Bogardan Hellkite, takes out Marco's welder and his him for 4, and plays Time Walk. It resolves. On his time walk turn, Michael burns a bunch of library finding a second Bogardan Hellkite which domes Marco for 5, draws his card, attacks for 5 with his un-sick hellkite, and flashes back a Deep Analysis he concludes his turn with a Duress on a Jester's Cap, and passes. Marco draws a blank, and the match is Michael's. Game Score: Marco 1, Michael 2
Round 2: Scott Cedergerg (Oath of Druids) v. Jeff Huang (White Fish) As it turns out, Jeff Huang had a deck registration error, and so takes a game loss before the beginning of this match. Therefore, he is given the choice of whether to play first, and does so.
Game 1: Both players kick off the first game with a mulligan. Jeff leads with a Windswept Heath, which he sacrifices to get a Tundra. A Mox Pearl joins his mana team and he casts Isamaru, Hound of Konda and Savannah Lions.Scott has Underground Sea, Mox Pearl, and Ancestral Recall, but nothing else. Jeff untaps, draws, plays Kataki War's Wage, and passes. Scott untaps, loses his Mox Pearl, plays a second sea, and passes. Jeff continues his beats (for 6 now), and Scott digs with a Brainstorm. After untapping, Scott uses Wasteland on Tundra but has nothing else, and Jeff beats once again, taking Scott down to 4. Scott digs again with Impulse, thinks very hard about his choice, and resigns the game. Game Score: Scott 1, Jeff 1
Game 2: Scott keeps his opening hand, but Jeff decides to go all the way down to 5 cards. Scott opens with Flooded Strand and Mox Sapphire. Jeff has Tundra and Savannah Lions, and Scott responds by sacrificing his strand for a tropical island and playing Mana Leak. On Scott's second turn, he wastelands Jeff's Tundra. The players don't really do much for a turn, and Jeff plays a Brainstorm, untaps, and plays another Brainstorm. Scott joins in the Brainstorm action, and gets out an Oath of Druids. Once again, the players stall. The impasse continues for a few turns, with Scott countering an Ancestral Recall from Jeff, who seems to be unable to find a second land.
As Jeff discards 2-power cats, Scott digs for but does not find Forbidden Orchard, until Jeff finds a second mana source in Flooded Strand. He decides to sacrifice it and cast Time Walk, which runs into Mana Leak. Scott finds another mana source himself, which allows him to play Triskelion. Jeff fires up Oath of Druids to find a Savannah Lions, draws, plays Wasteland, and uses Swords to Plowshares on the trike. Scott kills the lion and hits Jeff for 2 in response, and Jeff plays Seal of Cleansing, which runs into Force of Will.
On Jeff's next turn, he uses Echoing Truth on Oath of Druids and plays Meddling Mage, naming Oath of Druids. Jeff, now on the attack, adds Jotun Grunt and Savannah Lions to his team. Scott continues with no action, and Jeff attacks for 8 (reducing Scott to 9 life). Scott plays Gaea's Blessing and loses his Tropical Island to a Wasteland, then casting Demonic Tutor for Rushing River. Jeff puts Time Walk, Ancestral Recall, Seal of Cleansing, and another card back in his library, breaks his Flooded Strand, draws, and attacks. Scott takes himself to 8 with Polluted Delta and taps out for kickered Rushing River on Meddling Mage and Jotun Grunt. Jeff replays the Jotun Grunt, gets out another land, and casts Time Walk. Scott, at 6 life, picks up his cards. Game Score: Scott 1, Jeff 2
Round 3: Christiaan Royer (Something with Mana Drain, storm cards, and Darksteel Colossus) v. Zac Carlow (Blue Control) Game 1: Zac wins the roll and goes first. Christiaan has a mulligan, and Zac opens with Island, Mox Pearl, and Chalice of the Void (no counters). Christiaan just has a land, and Zac plays Impulse. In response, Christiaan resolves Ancestral Recall, and then Zac filters his library. Christiaan has one too many cards and loses a Darksteel Colossus. Zac strips away Christiaan's island, which forces Christiaan to have no play on his turn. As Zac thinks he is playing solitaire, his Ancestral Recall runs into a Force of Wil, which in turn runs into Rune Snag.
Christiaan continues with nothing at all while Zac develops his mana, playing a second chalice, this time with one counter, and an Ophidian. Soon he is drawing two cards a turn. A second ophidian joins his squad, and he starts drawing three per turn. Once he finds a Morphling, Christiaan resigns. Game Score: Christiaan 0, Zac 1
Game 2: Christiaan, on the play for a change, kicks it off with a Brainstorm. Zac has a magnificent first turn of land, Mox Ruby, Black Lotus, Chalice of the Void with no counters, Arcane Laboratory. Christiaan is once again shut out of the game. Zac plays some lands, and Christiaan slowly develops his mana base as well. When both players run out of lands, play is primarily draw-go for a while, with a few discards thrown in. Zac slows things down even more with Back to Basics and Wastelands on Volcanic Island and Underground Sea.
When Zac plays Chalice of the Void with one counter, Christiaan thinks really hard but allows it to resolve. Soon enough, both players are discarding every turn.
This continues for quite a while. I decide my Pastrami Sandwich will be much more exciting than the match in progress.
After a while, Zac decides he wants to discard faster, and plays Ophidian, but Christiaan counters it with a hardcast Force of Will. A second Ophidian runs into a Mana Drain, which deals 3 to Christiaan a turn later, and both players start discarding again.
Neither player can resolve a spell that doesn't say “counter target spell” on it, it seems. Yet another Ophidian bites the dust to a Mana Drain, and once again Christiaan takes three mana burn (reducing him to ten life). After a while, Christiaan decides to discard Yawgmoth's Will. As both players' graveyards grow to be more than twice as big as their libraries, Zac decides to cast, rather than discard, a second Arcane Laboratory, which provokes a laugh from the bystanders.
When the graveyards are easily four times the size of the libraries, the fourth ophidian of the game gets countered. Eventually, Zac puts out a Chalice of the Void with four counters. Christiaan realizes that Zac has more cards left in his library, and mutters some profanity. Two short turns later, he loses the game the long way. Game Score: Christiaan 0, Zac 2
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Round 4: Sam Sherman (Ichorid) v. Luis Scott-Vargas (TPS with Empty the Warrens) Game 1: Sam takes a mulligan, keeps a hand with Bazaar, and starts off by discarding Nether Shadow, Stinkweed Imp, and Ichorid. Luis leads with Tolarian Academy, Mox Jet, Mox Pearl, Dark Ritual, Yawgmoth's Bargain. Sam dredges, uses Bazaar, dredges again, dredges again, and has a relatively full 'yard. Then he strips away the Tolarian Academy, and passes.
Luis drops himself to 11, plays Mox Sapphire and Ancestral Recall, goes to 7, Dark Ritual, Vampiric Tutor (5 life), draw a card (4), Lotus Petal, Yawgmoth's Will, Lotus Petal, Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Vampiric Tutor (2 life), draw a card (1 life), Tendrils of Agony for 22. Game Score: Sam 0, Luis 1
Game 2: Sam goes Bazaar, discarding Grave-troll, Grave-troll, Ichorid, Urza's Bauble, Urza's Bauble, Chalice of the Void with no counters. Luis has a Force of Will, which goes to town on the chalice (removing Time Walk), and Sam replaces his bauble draws with Grave-troll dredges. Luis goes Lotus Petal, Ancestral Recall, Mox Emerald, Mox Ruby, Mana Vault, Mox Sapphire, Pithing Needle (naming Bazaar).
Sam returns a Nether Shadow to play, dredges a Shambling Shell, attacks for 1, and passes. Luis doesn't have any gas, and Sam gets to go again, but doesn't have anything to dredge up. He plays a Blinkmoth Nexus and attacks, and Luis uses Black Lotus to play Necropotence on his turn. He drops himself to 10, setting aside 7 cards, and discards two Pithing Needles on his turn. Sam returns double Ichorid to play, draws, attacks with his team, and Luis plays Fire to kill both Ichorids. Sam follows up with a Chalice of the Void for free, and in response Luis Brainstorms and it resolves.\
On Luis' turn, he just sets aside four cards, draws them, and discards Vampiric Tutor and Force of Will. Sam returns only a single Ichorid to play, gets a second Blinkmoth Nexus, animates his old nexus, and drops Luis to 3 life on the attack when one of his Ichorids is targeted by Chain of Vapor. In resopnse, Sam sacrifices that same Ichorid to bounce the cain onto Pithing Needle and activate his Bazaar.
A Cabal Therapy is flashed back, only to be countered by hardcast Force of Will (Luis found Tolarian Academy last turn), and Luis plays Sol Ring, Pithing Needle (Bazaar again), Dark Ritual, Tendrils (for 8), Necropotence for 6, reducing him to 5 life.
Sam's attack with his shadow drops Luis to 4, and on Luis' turn he casts Brainstorm, Dark Ritual, Brainstorm, Force of Will (on his Brainstorm), Recoup (targeting Tendrils), Tendrils of Agony for 12 to win the game. Game Score: Sam 0, Luis 2
Round 5: James Cabot (Ichorid) v. Galen Lemei (Some Combo Deck) Game 1: James wins the die roll and elects to play first. After some joking about whether or not his hand contains Bazaar of Baghdad, he elects to mulligan. Seeing another hand without Bazaar, he elects to mulligan again for free using Serum Powder. Galen elects to mulligan as well. The other day, I was elected president. As president elect, I, too, elected to mulligan. Galen elects to keep his 6-card hand. Elect elect elect. James elects to play Bazaar of Baghdad on his first turn, and use it to discard Ichorid, Ichorid, Grave-troll. He then plays Chalice of the void with no counters and ships it over to Galen, who plays City of Brass, Mana Vault, go.
James kicks off turn 2 by responding to ichorid's trigger by tapping Bazaar of Baghdad, dredging grave-troll number 1, hitting a second, dredging that one, and then discarding grave-troll, grave-troll, Golgari Thug. Two thugs get removed from the game to bring two Ichorids into play, and James replaces his draw step with another grave-troll dredge. After an attack for six (reducing Galen to 13), James is done.
Galen Brainstorms, plays City of Brass, and passes it back to James. James responds to his Ichorid triggers by returning Nether Shadow, using Bazaar to dredge 12 and discarding grave-troll, grave-troll, Stinkweed Imp. Then two Ichorids come in, and John uses them and his shadow to flashback Dread Return on Sutured Ghoul, which gets pumped up to 12 power and picks up some Dragon Breath. The truly enormous ghoul swings in to end the game. Game Score: James 1, Galen 0
Game 2: Galen takes a mulligan, and James takes two Serum Powder mulligans and a regular one. Galen leads with Lotus Petal, Black Lotus, Dark Ritual, Windfall, Vampiric Tutor, Cabal Ritual, Thrashing Wumpus. On James' turn, he returns Ichorid to play, plays Bazaar, uses it, plays Chalice of the Void with no counters, and flashes back Cabal Therapy naming Dark Ritual, which misses. (Galen's hand was Tolarian Academy, Wheel of Fortune, Brainstorm.
Galen draws, plays a land, and attacks for 3 (James 17 to Galen 15). James returns Nether Shadow and Ichorid, uses Bazaar of Baghdad, and during his draw step Galen activates Thrashing Wumpus to kill both creatures. He plays a second Bazaar and ships it over. Galen plays his Academy, attacks, and passes back.
After some more dredging and bazaaring, James returns three Nether Shadows, which get Wumpused away (Galen 12 to James 11). Soon enough it is Galen's turn. He attacks (12 to 8) and passes back. James plays a second Mishra's Factory, and it is Galen's turn once again. He pretends to be a draw-go deck. James untaps, returns two Ichorids, which get Wumpused away (11 to 7). Galen does another draw-go maneuver, wumpuses away two Nether Shadows (10 to 6), and James concedes the game. Game Score: James 1, Galen 1
Game 3: James, on the play once again, starts with Bazaar discarding Ichorid, Ichorid, Shambling Shell. Galen, glad of a start that includes mana, goes Underground Sea, Mox Pearl, Mox Emerald, Cabal Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Thrashing Wumpus.
After being amused along with the rest of the audience, James dredges and Bazaars, returns two Ichorid to play, replaces his draw with a grave-troll dredge, plays and uses a second Bazaar, attacks galen to 14, and flashes back Cabal Therapy naming Brainstorm and hits. Time is called, and Galen's turn is the first extra turn. He draws, plays Gemstone Mine, attacks James to 17, and passes back. James returns Nether Shadow and Ichorid, which get Wumpused, and it's Galen's turn. On the third extra turn, Galen attacks James to 13. After some returning and wumpusing, James is unable to win the game, and passes back to Galen. Galen plays Brainstorm to set up the final turn of the game. On the last turn, Galen attacks and James blocks with a Mishra's Factory, making the game a draw. Game Score: James 1, Galen 1 – Draw
____________________ PoTaTo!
Posts: 213 | From: Berkeley | Registered: May 2004
Top 8: Luis Scott-Vargas (Gifts TPS with Empty the Warrens) v. Eric Campusano (White Fish) Game 1: Luis wins the die roll, and starts off with Mox Ruby, Mox Sapphire, Merchant Scroll (countered by Eric's Force of Will), and Island. Eric starts his game with Mishra's Factory and Mox Sapphire. On Luis' next turn, he plays a land and that's all, and Eric attacks with his factory for 2. Luis gets a Gifts Ungiven countered by another Force of Will, and Eric attacks with a factory. Luis seems to have nothing but lands, but Eric plays Null Rod. A few turns of attacking and drawing later, Eric plays Flying Men and puts Curiosity on it. At this point, Luis is down to 8 life.
Luis starts what may be the fundamental turn with Brainstorm, cracks a fetchland, and passes back. After an attack, Luis is at 4 and Eric plays Meddling Mage naming Gifts Ungiven to seal the deal. Game Score: Luis 0, Eric 1
Game 2: Luis, on the play again, starts with Underground Sea, Sol Ring. Eric plays and cracks Flooded Strand, casts Flying Men, and passes. Luis untaps, plays another land, and passes back, and Eric attacks with Frlying men, switching it out for a Ninja of the Deep Hours which runs into a Red Elemental Blast. On Eric's third turn, he plays Null Rod and wastelands Luis' Volcanic Island. Luis plays land go, and Eric casts two Flying Men, only to have them destroyed by Massacre for free, followed up by Dark Ritual and Necropotence dropping Luis to 13.
Eric, with nothing to play, has to watch Luis do his thing for a few turns, until Luis casts Echoing Truth on the Null Rods. After he untaps, Luis plays Black Lotus, Yawgmoth's Will, and Eric concedes. Game Score: Luis 1, Eric 1
Game 3: Eric looks at a hand with only a Black Lotus for mana, smiles, and keeps. Breaking for white, he casts Null Rod and Icatian Javelineers. Luis plays land go, and Eric topdecks a fetchland, gets Tundra, puts Curiosity on his Javelineers and attacks.
On his turn, Luis Massacres, gets Force of Willed, and Massacres again. Then he plays Dark Ritual and Empty the Warrens for 12 goblins to win the game. Game Score: Luis 2, Eric 1
Top 4 As it so happens, David “Web” Ochoa, Luis Scott-Vargas, Jeff Huang, and Eirik Aune won their matches in the top 8, and so became the top 4. It also just so happens that the four of them are friends, and rode to the tournament in the same car. As such, they decided to be nice to each other and split the top 4 prize 4 ways between them.
So much for drama.
After the dust settled, I found time to interview Brett Allen, the winner of last year's Black Lotus tournament (which the largest turnout for any event at Eudemonia ever). See if you can find out what it takes to bring home a $1,000 prize.
Player Profile: Brett Allen When did you start playing magic? Brett: Fall of 1993. Arabian Nights was out, I don't know if it was new. I think Unlimited just came out. We had Beta starters, but they didn't have any rares in them due to early print run issues. It took us years to figure that out.
What was your favorite magic card back then? Brett: I don't know. I think I remember that I liked Instill Energy more than it should be liked.
What is your favorite magic card of all time? Brett: All time? Hmmm... Let's go with Morphling. It's a good one.
What are your biggest Magic accomplishments? Brett: Well, I won Washington states in 2004. In a Mark Rosewater contest, I found the longest chain of card names. I also won a $1000 draft once. And, of course I won a black lotus. That's true.
What do you think is the best deck in type two right now? Brett: Well, I don't play type 2, but I think the Dralnu deck is pretty good.
What do you think of your chances in this type 1 series? Brett: I'd expect to top 8 a couple times. That's what I'd hope for.
Is there anything else you want to add? Brett: Thanks to you guys for hosting this thing.
____________________ PoTaTo!
Posts: 213 | From: Berkeley | Registered: May 2004
quote:Originally posted by potato: Christiaan realizes that Zac has more cards left in his library, and mutters some profanity. Two short turns later, he loses the game the long way. Game Score: Christiaan 0, Zac 2
Lol!
Anyways, great reports here. We want lists! or promises that lists exist!
Posts: 45 | From: Vacaville, CA | Registered: Apr 2006
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Deck lists do exist and will be posted by the end of the week. I'm pretty short staffed at the moment due to illness but I promise I'll resort to extra magic commons for bandages before I use the decklists.
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"After the dust settled, I found time to interview Brett Allen, the winner of last year's Black Lotus tournament (which the largest turnout for any event at Eudemonia ever)..."
Fact police are going to get you on that one. Vs Prereleases we get 64 people for the main flight + tons more for side events. Also we held the 3rd largest UFS tournament ever, anywhere, at 74 players.
Largest Turnout for a magic tournament is definatly true though.
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