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Hello, and welcome to Eudemonia's Mox Sapphire tournament 2008 edition! It's been a while since I wrote one of these, but now I'm back with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and a fresh new outlook on the world. Hopefully, my beautiful assistant Tyler Wishnoff will stop in at some point to guest commentate, but if he doesn't, I'll just have to be snarky enough for the both of us. A Vampire game has restricted our playing space somewhat today, so hopefully we won't have more than 28 players, because if we do, we won't have space for them.
Round 1: Junior Cervantes (all the good cards) v. Marco Barreno (all the good cards)
We start this tournament with a match between two regulars at the events here. Marco, known for his johnny-like desire to play wacky combo decks, has probably cooked up something new for us today since the restriction of all the interesting parts of Flash Hlk.
Game 1: Junior cantrips a turn 2 Time Walk and in a return to the classic Keeper strategy of denying your opponent a mulligan, plays a turn 2-and-a-half mox, Timetwister. Marco, unfazed, plays a Dark Ritual and a Dark Confidant, and then a Time Walk of his own, which gets forced.
A Merchant Scroll for an Ancestral Recall reloads Junior's hand. With a Tolarian Academy, Gush, Black Lotus, Cabal Ritual, Mind's Desire for 7. He turns up land, Tinker, Duress, Mox, Tendrils, Duress, Chain of Vapor, and the game is over. Game Score: Junior 1, Marco 0
Game 2: Marco gets a turn 1 cheating Dark Confidant, draws a free (not really) Tendrils, and plays a second confidant. Junior just has a turn 2 Demonic Tutor, Black Lotus, and Necropotence combo. Marco draws some more extra cards and plays a Duress, taking out Yawgmoth's Will, and a second Duress on Empty the Warrens.
Junior plays Ponder, Brainstorm, Mana Crypt, Dark Ritual, Timetwister, Mox, Cabal Ritual, Demonic Tutor, Black Lotus, Brainstorm, Tendrils of Agony. Game Score: Junior 2, Marco 0
Round 2: Brett Allen (handyman) v. Dan Messino (handyman)
Game 1: Dan's Ancestral Recall resolves through a minor counter war. Brett gets out a Goblin Welder. Dan plays a Painter's Servant to make everything in the whole world red and then finds a Goblin Welder of his own. Brett can't seem to come up with anything, and Dan tinkers an artifact land through another counter war. Grindstone comes in and goes to town on Brett's library. Game Score: Brett 0, Dan 1
Game 2: Brett mana drains a Goblin Welder from Dan, but Dan has a second one. A turn and a tolarian academy later, Dan has a Painter's Servant, a mox, and a divining top, and Brett still has nothing but mana.
A Rack and Ruin from Brett in response to drawing a card with the top slows down Dan's combo train, but Brett's Thirst for Knowledge gets counter warred and Dan finally topdecks a Grindstone to go with his rebuilt Painter's Servant. Game Score: Brett 0, Dan 2
Round 3: Galen Lemei (drain tendrils) v. Eric Campusano (bomberman)
Game 1: Eric leads off with Tundra, Mana Crypt, Trinket Mage (top). Galen has a Demonic Tutor. Eric plays another land and passes back. Eric beats down for a few turns and plays a few more lands and an Aether Spellbomb. Galen develops his mana base but can't get much action. An interesting counter war ensues when Eric casts Merchant Scroll, Galen responds with Intuition, Eric tries to fetch, galen tries an Ancestral Recall, and Eric casts Force of Will. When the dust settles, Galen doesn't draw or tutor for anything, and Eric has only an Ancestral in his hand and no untapped mana.
Galen doesn't have anything exciting to do on his turn. Eric gets some mana drain mana and plays Thirst for Knowledge, discarding (temporarily) a Darksteel Colossus, followed by ancestral, which galen taps out to force, only to be forced back. Eric plays his top, a sol ring, and a Trinket Mage for lotus. Next turn, Galen mana drains Eric's salvagers and Eric spellbombs his Trinket Mage to get a Tormod's Crypt.
Next turn, Galen goes for the gusto and harcasts Darksteel Colossus. Eric's mana crypt takes him down to 1 life and he plays Mystical Tutor for Tinker (to rid himself of the soon-to-be-lethal crypt?), which does indeed exchange Mana Crypt for a Darksteel Colossus of his own! An Echoing Truth takes Galen's threat out of the game, but does this the deal?
NO! Galen untaps, casts a Tendrils of Agony for 2 life, and squeaks it out. Game Score: Galen 1, Eric 0
Game 2: Galen has the first action with a Thoughtsieze on a salvagers. Eric makes a Trinket Mage for another top and Galen does a Merchant Scroll for the usual. A second mage gets Eric a Mox Sapphire, of all things! Perhaps he wanted to get 2 blue mana sources. Galen goes for the ancestral, and Eric stops it by sheer strength of will. Galen then goes for a smal Skeletal Scrying and Eric swings away with his two attackers.
Galen goes for a Time Walk, and Eric goes for another Force of Will. Galen plays an Accumulated Knowledge and then another AK to not-quite-ancestral himself, but can't come up with the gas to finish it. Eric plays Merchant Scroll for a Stifle. Eric's attack takes Galen down to 3, and the Mana Crypt finishes it. Game Score: Galen 1, Eric 1 Time is called, and the match is a draw.
Round 4: Stan Gin (dredge) v. Morgan Brewer (goblin welder)
Stan used to play here all the time, but disappeared completely a couple years ago to go get married or some stupid **** like that. But now he's back from outer space. We just came in to find him here with that sad look upon his face. We should have our stupid locks, we should have thrown away the keys if we had thought for one second he'd be back to bother us. Now go on, Stan, walk out the door. Just turn around now, you're not welcome anymore. Weren't you the one who tried to hurt us with goobye? You thought we'd crumble, you thought we'd lay down and die!
Oh ****, the players started the game while I was motowning.
Game 1: Morgan starts with a welder, and Stan has a Bazaar. Next turn, Morgan ditches a mox to a thirst for knowledge, draws 3 extra cards, exhanges a mox in his graveyard for a mana vault in play, and kills his own guy with a Fire to remove the Bridge from Below in Stan's graveyard.
Stan finds a second Bazaar and goes to town. Morgan makes a second welder. Virtually all of Stan's deck is now in his graveyard, and the narcomoebas are beating down. A Cabal Therapy gets forced, Mana Vault comes back into play for Morgan, and Morgan finds a Tormod's Crypt and then does the Mystical Tutor thing for a Tinker.
Stan halfway finishes off his library during the end step and picks up his cards. Game Score: Stan 0, Morgan 1
Game 2: Morgan manages to start this game with not 1, but 2 Leylines of the Void in play, which totally stymies Stan, who had a bazaar-go hand. Morgan, however, has nothing but mana to follow that up with for 8 turns, but he finally finds a Goblin Welder. However, with nothing to back that up with, the game continues in slow motion. Stan plays a Chain of Vapor on one of Morgan's Leylines, but Morgan has a Force of Will for that. A second chain resolves, and a third chain takes care of the second leyline.
Stan gets some dredge on, and Morgan extirpates all of the Golgari Thugs out of Stan's library. Then he gets to untap and do a Tormod's Crypt on Stan after a pair of Thirsts for Knowledge, much to Stan's chagrin. Morgan also manages to find a Platinum Angel somewhere in there to start attacking. Then he gets a funny bug hat onto Stan's head, and dredges away roughly 30 cards of Stan's library during his turn, emptying it out. Game Score: Stan 0, Morgan 2
Round 5: David Ochoa (Grim Long) v. Galen Lemei (Drain Tendrils)
And in the last round of swiss pairings, we join Galen Lemei and David Ochoa in a must-play match for top 8. The recent changes to the format have left everyone scrambling to figure out what's the new “best deck,” and both of these players have switched up their game, Galen going from the winning machine Flash to the new build of the once-great Drain Tendrils, and David revising his usual blue/black storm combo decks to a multicolor Grim Long after the restrictions of Brainstorm, Ponder, and Gush.
Game 1: David starts with two mulligans, but speedily unmulligans with mox, Tolarian Academy, ancestral. Galen has a bunch of mana on his first turn but nothing to play with it and David goes into hard-thinking mode, and settles on playing a land, a Demonic Tutor, and a Sol Ring. Galen has an end step Thirst for Knowledge. He untaps, plays another mox and a land and a Demonic Tutor.
David leads off his next turn with a Cabal Ritual and an Imperial Seal. Black Lotus, Rebuild, Mox, Sol Ring, cycle Street Wraith, Mind's Desire for 7 hitting land, Mana Vault, land, Vampiric Tutor, Tendrils of Agony, land, Dark Ritual. David plays the fast mana, tutors, and goes for the 22-point tendrils. Galen responds with an Ancestral Recall and accepts the loss. Game Score: David 1, Galen 0
Game 2: Once again, David has the first turn ancestral (lucky bastard), but followed up this time with Dark Ritual, Night's Whisper, cycle another wraith, Thoughtsieze (taking Mystical Tutor over Thirst for Knowledge, Yawgmoth's Will, and Time Walk). Galen thirsts and walks, but doesn't do anything else, and passes back. David tries a Timetwister, but Galen has topdecked a Mana Drain!
Galen proceeds to go a little bit nuts with yawg will and David plays a Wheel of Fortune, but Galen has yet another Mana Drain... and a set of three Accumulated Knowledges...
David finds even more gas in his tank in the form of a Grim Tutor and a Mind's Desire. The first copy resolves, hitting a land, and Galen responds to the original with Thirst for Knowledge, Mana Drain, and Vampiric Tutor. Galen then untaps, gets drain mana, plays Fact or Fiction getting a land and a Chain of Vapor, Intuition for AK, Merchant Scroll, Skeletal Scrying (hand), and passes back.
David plays Extirpate to remove Galen's 4 drains from the game and get a look at his hand and library, and Galen taps out for a giant scrying, then untaps, plays some stuff, Tendrils of Agony. Game Score: David 1, Galen 1 And time is called, and this must-win becomes a draw.
Top 8: Morgan Brewer (goblin welder) v. Jeff Huang (ICATIAN JAVELINEERS.dec)
Game 1: Morgan starts with land, mox, mox, thirst. Jeff has tundra, ICATIAN JAVELINEERS. Morgan has another thirst and a Ponder. Jeff has a Meddling Mage, which resolves through a Force of Will thanks to Daze and puts the kibosh on Mana Drain.
Morgan, however, has yet another thirst and an ancestral, which Jeff forces. Morgan follows that up with some JAVELINEER bait, and Jeff gets out a Mishra's Factory and attacks a little bit. Jeff's next attack transforms his JAVELINEER into a NINJA! A Strip Mine takes out Morgan's black mana source, but Morgan, who is not concerned with actually casting spells, manages to make a funny bug hat out of the scraps of his now-defunct Mox Pearl, and jam it onto Jeff's head.
Jeff proceeds to play a Standstill and then immediately break it with a JAVELINEER! Morgan figures out a way to make the same funny bug hat out of a Mox Ruby, Vampiric Tutor, and jam the hat, once again, onto Jeff's head. Jeff's JAVELINEER then shoots himself in the foot, and the mage and ninja attack. A second ninja exchanges places with the mage, and Morgan Echoing Truths both ninjas. The goblin welder beats down.
Jeff untaps, plays Savannah Lions, animates and attacks with the factory, and then Isamaru to bait Mana Drain. Morgan has yet another thirst for knowledge. Jeff animates and attacks with his men, but the lions die to fire and the factory dies to fire plus goblin welder. A JAVELINEER comes in though, and destroys a goblin welder. Morgan has nothing, and the JAVELINEER is soon replaced by a ninja. Morgan's two Mana Drains then go after a Meddling Mage and the almost-newly-replayed JAVELINEER, leaving Morgan's hand completely empty. Game Score: Morgan 0, Jeff 1
Game 2: Morgan has a Black Lotus and a Goblin Welder. Jeff has a Black Lotus of his own, a Time Walk, and a Meddling Mage which gets drained which gets forced and the mage names Thirst for Knowledge. A JAVELINEER joins it in battle. Morgan doesn't have anything cool, and the welder gets shot with a JAVELIN COUNTER. Standstill comes into play, and the creatures keep reducing Morgan's life total. Morgan breaks the Standstill with a mox, responds to the trigger with a red blast on Meddling Mage, breaking it again, and a Thirst for Knowledge after the dust clears. Jeff has a Null Rod and another Standstill. Morgan can't find anything to get out, and 3 turns later Jeff's JAVELINEER has ended it with the help of a Mishra's Factory. Game Score: Morgan 0, Jeff 2
Semifinals: Dan Messino (goblin welder) v. David Ochoa (grim long)
Game 1: David leads with a Duress, and takes Tinker. Dan goes land, mox, mox, Trinket Mage for Sensei's Divining Top, mox, play top. Two nothing turns later, David has a Tinker for... Black Lotus!
He sacrifices it, Cabal Rituals (threshold!), Yawgmoth's Wills, Cabal Rituals (threshold!), Mox Emerald, cycle Street Wraith. Somewhere in there, Dan played two Thirst for Knowledge. David follows that all up with Brainstorm, Sol Ring, Memory Jar, Mind's Desire for 14.
He hits Grim Tutor, Necropotence, Demonic Tutor, Grim Tutor, Dark Ritual, Vampiric Tutor... Game Score: Dan 0, David 1
Game 2: Dan has a far less impressive first turn with land, mox, go. David decides that's what all the cool kids are doing. Dan has a Goblin Welder, and David cycles Rebuild, untaps, and tries a dark ritual-ed Timetwister, but runs into red blast. Dan's Goblin Welder gets him a Platinum Angel, and David tries out a big Necropotence. Dan gets a Trinket Mage for Tormod's Crypt.
David untaps and shoots out an Extirpate on Red Blast. Dan reveals his hand (thirst and pyroblast[!]). Mana Vault and Yawgmoth's Will come out there and Dan goes for the graveyard with his crypt. David responds with Brainstorm, and Dan decides it's Pyroblast's time. Will resolves and David plays the same Brainstorm again. He doesn't like what he sees. Game Score: Dan 1, David 1
Game 3: David starts this one off with Black Lotus, mox, Grim Tutor, mox, Sol Ring, land, Wheel of Fortune. He sighs pointedly with relief when it resolves as Dan reveals a hand of no force, and also no land!
David decides to try to keep the ball rolling with mox, Lotus Petal, Cabal Ritual (threshold!), Duress (no counters!), Night's Whisper, cycle wraith, Chain of Vapor on sapphire and pearl, replay them, Ponder, Mana Vault, Dark Ritual, Grim Tutor, Yawgmoth's Will, lotus, petal, cabal, tutor, tendrils for a bajillion. Game Score: Dan 1, David 2
____________________ PoTaTo!
Posts: 213 | From: Berkeley | Registered: May 2004
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