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Hello, and welcome to Eudemonia's first Power Nine tournament of 2008! This week, our prise is the oft-undervalued Mox Pearl, which has been sneaking into all kinds of non-combo decks, much to low-budget players' dismay. In this, the most valuable Magic format, everything is legal, except for those “whoops we're encouraging people to break the law” ante-based cards, and the ones that require you to throw things. Other than that though, you can use any card you want. Today, 29 people have paid the entry fee to win the right to compete for the aforementioned piece of Magic history. Anyways, on to the first round.
Round 1: Marco Barreno (Flash) v. Eric Campusano (Bomberman)
These two are regulars at Eudemonia's magic events, and since they posess relatively jovial personalities, they're our first feature match! Marco usually does his best to take advantage of the more degenerate aspects of this highly degenerate environment, and Eric usually does his best to ignore the fact that he could be winning on turn 1 in favor of some lame deck full of Dark Confidants and Meddling Mages. I wonder how the ever-so-common combo versus aggro/control matchup will work out.
Game 1: Marco starts things off dramatically with a Mox Ruby, an Underground Sea, and a Summoner's Pact. It looks like he could end the game right now with a Flash. Eric does not have a Force of Will, and the first game is over quickly. Marco 1, Eric 0
Game 2: Eric starts with Leyline of the Void and Underground Sea. Marco plays Ponder, and Eric Mystical Tutors for Ancestral Recall. On Eric's second turn, he draws the cards and plays Sol Ring. Marco doesn't do anything special, and Eric gets to untap and play Trinket Mage, which gets him an extra Aether Spellbomb. On Eric's end step, marco has a Brainstorm and a Vampiric Tutor, and then a Chain of Vapor for Eric's Leyline. When Marco untaps, he has a Demonic Tutor, a Summoner's Pact, and a Flash.
Protean Hulk comes into play and then immediately leaves play, and Eric waits to see something to spellbomb. Marco gets Body Snatcher, Carrion Feeder and Mogg Fanatic. Eric tries to figure out the combo, and lets Marco continue. With the “discard a creature” ability on the stack, Marco sacrifices the snatcher to his feeder and tries to return Protean Hulk to play. It does return to play, and Eric uses his spellbomb to short-circuit the combo, but the Hulk is still in play. Eric replays his Leyline of the Void, and for one reason or another, Marco concedes. Marco 1, Eric 1
Game 3: Marco has another not-so-degenerate-looking start with Mox Jet, fetch Tropical Island, ponder. Eric has a similar land-mox-go first turn, and Marco plays a Vampiric Tutor. Marco attempts a Flash, starting a counter war which Eric wins, so Marco plays a Black Lotus and hardcasts his Hulk, and starts attacking.
Eric Duresses away a Summoner's Pact, but can't stop the onslaught of the giant amoeba monster. Marco 2, Eric 1
Round 2: Brett Allen v. Walter Shatford (Dredge)
Brett is another seasoned veteran of Eudemonia's Vintage tournaments, having won a Black Lotus in a previous event with a blue/white weenie aggro deck sometimes known mysteriously as “Fish.” Walter is one of a group of younger players who all go to Cal and play a lot of limited, who are just getting into this scene.
Game 1: Walter starts with a Leyline of the Void and a Bazaar of Baghdad, discarding two Golgari Thugs and a Serum Powder, followed by an Unmask. Brett counters the Unmask with force removing force. Walter double dredges for a Bazaar during his upkeep, putting a Narcomoeba into play and discarding double thugs and a Cephalid Sage. Then during his draw step he dredges again, completing his turn. Brett Ancestral Recalls and then Ponders.
Walter dredges a bunch more cards making a second Narcomoeba and dumping a Bridge from Below, gets two Ichorids into play, sacrifices one Ichorid to play Cabal Therapy naming Brainstorm but missing, and make three 2/2 zombie tokens. He goes for a Dread Return sacrificing his only nontoken creatures but making 6 more, which gets countered.
Brett uses a fetchland and casts Gush after floating mana. He doesn't see a way out and concedes. Brett 0, Walter 1
Game 2: Walter goes through two insane Serum Powders, but Brett starts the game with Leyline of the Void in play. Walter has a Bazaar to start digging, and Unmasks a Timetwister over a currently-uncastable Necropotence. He then makes Dryad Arbor and gets rid of the leyline for free!
Brett gushes away all his lands, Brainstorms, and manages to get Necropotence into play. Walter, now able to actaully do something, attacks a little, gets a second Bazaar online and starts dumping cards. Brett Extirpates the Bridges from Below out of there though. He sees a chance to go off, and plays two Dark Rituals, a Demonic Tutor, and a Yawgmoth's Will to win it. Brett 1, Walter 1
Game 3: Walter starts with Bazaar again. Brett goes mox, Ancestral, land, Dark Ritual, Demonic Tutor, Black Lotus, Yawgmoth's Will, Black Lotus, Dark Ritual, Ancestral Recall, Ponder, Tendrils.
Sometimes it's over quickly. Brett 2, Walter 1
Round 3: Michael “I'm not a player, I just crush a lot” Bue (Flash) v. Morgan Brewer (Some combo deck)
This round, we draw our feature match from Table 1 – the winningest two players in the tournament so far, as determined by DCI Reporter, which seated them there. Michael is a relative unknown, and Morgan is a member of that same young player group from which Walter hails.
Game 1: Morgan has a land, and Michael has a Thoughtsieze. In resopnse, Morgan brainstorms. The Thoughtsieze takes out Morgan's Thoughtsieze. Because Michael has offered to buy me Chicken Nuggets in exchange for mentioning this, I have to say that Michael draws like a pro – setting aside his next card on his play mat and then sliding it smoothly towards him as he picks it up. Morgan has a Fastbond and a Vampiric Tutor. Michael makes a point of matching his lands to Morgan's. Both players at this point have two Underground Seas and a Tropical Island, interestingly enough.
Morgan floats mana and plays Gush, Dak Ritual, Lotus Petal, Timetwister. Michael responds with Flash, and Morgan sinks a bunch of mana into Force of Will hardcast. Morgan wonders aloud if Michael actually had a Protean Hulk in his hand, and Michael smiles coquettishly. Morgan trots out a pair of moxes and a Vampiric Tutor. Gush from Morgan resolves too, and he drops to 11 to replay lands and cast Tendrils of Agony. Michael 0, Morgan 1
Game 2: Morgan starts the action with Thoughtsieze on Michael's Protean Hulk. Michael has a Merchant Scroll for Brainstorm, and Morgan has a Brainstorm too, followed by a second Thoughtsieze. This one takes out the Brainstorm from a hand of Merchant Scroll, Flash, and some white creature.
Michael, drawing like a pro again, finds a Protean Hulk on top of his library, flashes it into his graveyard, and gets Body Snatcher/Carrion Feeder. Michael discards Reveilark to the snatcher, Carrion Feeds his Snatcher into a new Hulk, eats the Hulk for a Body Double and a Mogg Fanatic and goes infinite. Michael 1, Morgan 1
Game 3: Morgan starts with a Leyline of the Void and a Ponder. Michael uses Merchant Scroll to find Chain of Vapor, and then another Merchant Scroll for a Flash. Morgan uses Mystical Tutor to get a Gush, which gets countered by force removing chain. Morgan replays his lands and casts Dark Ritual and Yawgmoth's Will, which gets countered by a second force removing ancestral. Michael goes for a Brainstorm, and Morgan plays Imperial Seal.
Michael hardcasts a Protean Hulk. Morgan, at 11 life, goes into panic mode and plays Ancestral Recall but can't find anything to deal with his lack of combo pieces. Michael 2, Morgan 1
Round 4: Michael Klemic (Lhurgoyf Control) v. Luis Scott-Vargas (Oath)
In round 4, we join two seasoned veterans of all kinds of Magic. Michael Klemic, who has played in nearly every Eudemonia Power Nine series event, is paired against Luis Scott-Vargas, the reigning National Champion.
Game 1: Michael starts by stifling one of Luis' fetches and Duressing a Vampiric Tutor. He then plays a Tarmogoyf, and Strip Mines Luis' next land. On the attack, he follows that up with a Demonic Tutor and yet another Duress. Luis, in his first play of the game, Brainstorms in response and loses Force of Will out of his hand. He has an Oath of Druids next turn, though, to get Tidespout Tyrant, followed by a Forbidden Orchard for a mana burn. Michael attacks Luis down to 2 life, and Luis Oaths another Tyrant, reducing his library to 4 cards.
When Michael attacks again, Luis flashes back Krosan Reclamation to shuffle in Yawgmoth's Will and a mox, bouncing Michael's goyf. The token reduces Luis's life to 1, but Luis returns all of Michael's permanents to his hand. Michael 0, Luis 1
Game 2: Michael starts with Duress, taking a Red Elemental Blast over Gush, Gush, Merchant Scroll and Ponder. Luis Ponders, and Michael Brainstorms. A Trinket Mage on Michael's next turn gets him an Engineered Explosives. Luis plays a Merchant Scroll for ancestral, and Michael gets a Trygon Predator out there, which Luis counters with force removing Gush. The explosives get set to 2, and Luis plays an Oath. Michael tries to waste a land, but Luis Gushes, and the explosives destroy the oath.
But Luis has a Time Walk and another oath! Also, a Ponder. Michael rips a split-second disenchant, and Luis Ponders some more, and plays Demonic Tutor for yet another Oath. Michael presses his attack, and Luis gets a Tidespout Tyrant, which returns instantly to his hand via an Aether Spellbomb.
Michael rips another split-second disenchant for Luis' last Oath, and his attacking mage gets Red Elemental Blasted. Luis flashes back an enormous Flash of Insight and uses his enormous quantity of mana to do some degenerate combo things involving a Yawgmoth's Will and make a huge Brain Freeze after returning all of Michael's permanents to his hand. Michael 0, Luis 2
Round 5: Scott Hanscom (New Stax) v. Michael Klemic (Lhurgoyf Control)
In yet another age vs. beauty matchup, we have Michael Klemic, ancient veteran of Magic tournaments versus Scott Hanscom, another member of the young player's group.
Game 1:
Scott starts with Workshop, Mox, Mox, Trinisphere. An excellent start for the whippersnapper. On his second turn, he follows that up with a Juggernaut and a Thorn of Amethyst, and then another thorn. Michael, on his third turn, makes a goyf, and the Juggernaut must attack for 5. Two turns later, the Juggernaut has dispatched the goyf and its friend the Trinket Mage.
Michael has stored up 6 mana now, and combos his Phyrexian Dreadnought with a Stifle. Now, the Juggernaut's disadvantage becomes relevant as it kills itself on the gigantic war machine. Michael totally loses it and frags Scott good with an ***-be-gone spell. Scott 0, Michael 1
Game 2:
Scott starts with Chalice of the Void for free and a Juggernaut. Michael has nothing yet, and Scott makes a Sphere of Resistance. A Tangle Wire ends the game. Scott 1, Michael 1
Game 3:
Scott makes a Trinisphere, but Michael has a Tarmogoyf. Scott plays Mindslaver, but Michael has Trygon Predator. Scott taps his mana wrong when he plays a Sword of Fire and Ice and gets his bug hat eaten by a flying manta ray monster. Scott makes a Juggernaut and a Chalice of the Void set to 1. Michael gets an Engineered Explosives at 4 counters and destroys the sword, and Scott attacks for 5. Michael attacks again and destroys the Juggernaut, and the deal is sealed. Scott 1, Michael 2
Top 8: Eric Campusano v. Luis Scott-Vargas
Walter Shatford v. Brett Allen
Dan Messino v. Michael Bue
and our feature match,
David “Webster” Ochoa (Oath) v. Morgan Brewer (Gush Combo)
Game 1: David gets the “god draw” and starts the game with an Oath and a sheep token on Morgan's side. Morgan Thoughtsiezes a Ponder over Yawgmoth's Will and Merchant Scroll. David takes about half his deck to find a Tyrant, and Boomerangs Morgan's land with a newly-drawn Time Walk. A few cards later, a second Tyrant is in play, and the first begins its attack. The rest is just theatrics. David 1, Morgan 0
Game 2: Morgan starts with a Lotus Petal into Thoughtsieze. David has a Force of Will for that, and Morgan Ponders. David has the orchard, a Black Lotus, a Merchant Scroll for Force of Will, and an Oath of Druids. A turn later, Morgan has sheep instead of lands and David has a huge guy. Morgan Ponders again, loses his land again, replays it, and then Dark Rituals for Yawgmoth's Will into force and losing his land again.
Web does some Duressing and Pondering and eliminates some sheep, and Morgan just can't find an “out.” David 2, Morgan 0
Top 4 match: Brett Allen () v. Luis Scott-Vargas ()
My laptop died during game 1, so I'll piece this back together as best I can.
Game 1: Luis gets a tutor and Yawg Will out of Brett's hand with some disruption, both players get a Tutor off and then Luis ancestrals in response to Brett's ancestral, Brett Gushes, Luis forces the ancestral, but it's not enough to stop Brett from playing a bunch of fast mana and a tendrils. Brett 1, Luis 0
Game 2: Luis, on the play, has a rare “go” first turn, so it's kinda like Brett is on the play with the draw? Anyways, Brett has a land, and Luis has a land on his second turn, which he claims to have topdecked. BUT DID HE REALLY? We will never know. Brett has an Ancestral Recall, which starts a counter war. Luis burns two forces and two brainstorms to stop it, and Brett loses a force and a gush. Luis plays Thoughtsieze next, taking Tendrils of Agony out of a hand of three fast mana spells. Brett draws and plays Demonic Tutor and two Dark Rituals, gets Yawgmoth's Will, and wins. Brett 2, Luis 0
Brett Allen and David Ochoa agree to split in the finals.
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