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It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day in the neighborhood, and 24 boys from this 'hood have rolled up today to attempt to get an Ancestral Recall for the low, low tournament entry fee of $20, which is truly a Grand Theft: Magic.
Round 1: Christiaan Royer (Some Combo Deck without Dark Confidant) v. Michael Klemic (Some Combo Deck with Dark Confidant)
Game 1: Both players mulligan, and Michael goes Black Lotus, Demonic Tutor, Badlands, Dark Confidant. Christiaan hesitantly lets them all resolve, and on his turn plays Ponder. Michael's confidant hits him for 5 in exchange for a Force of Will, and attacks Christiaan to 18. Christiaan doesn't have a particularly interesting turn, and the confidant attacks again. Michael has no blue mana for his Brainstorm, with a Badlands and a swamp. Christiaan casts Brainstorm on the end step and then a Mystical Tutor. Michael uses his force and brainstorm to counter the tutor.
Christiaan has a Duress, and takes Michael's other force out of a hand of Dark Ritual, Ponder, and Mana Crypt. Christiaan pays 3 for Merchant Scroll to draw 3 cards. Michael goes to 9 for a Tendrils of Agony and attacks Christiaan to 14. Michael's Dark Ritual is met with a Force of Will. Michael plays another Dark Ritual and a Mana Crypt for a Tendrils of Agony to take Christiaan to 3 life and bring himself up to 18.
Christiaan plays a Mana Crypt and a Thirst for Knowledge, discarding some blue cards, plays Sensei's Divining Top and rearranges his library a little. Michael draws a Polluted Delta for free (finally) and attacks Christiaan to 1. Then he gets to play a Vampiric Tutor and a Ponder followed by a Yawgmoth's Will and a Tendrils for a lot more than 1. Game Score: Christiaan 0, Michael 1
Game 2: Both players keep, and Christiaan starts us off with a Thoughtsieze on Dark Confidant over mox, mox, Duress, Brainstorm and Orim's Chant. Michael uses the Duress on Christiaan's Mana Drain. Michael goes Orim's Chant, Dark Ritual, Tinker a mox for Memory Jar into an anticlimactic 5 lands, a Misdirection, and a Rebuild. Christiaan draws some extra cards while Michael sits on his hands.
A counter war ensues when Christiaan plays Thoughtsieze and Michael responds with Ancestral Recall. Christiaan mana drains the ancestral, Michael forces the mana drain removing a force, and Christiaan plays another mana drain on the ancestral. Thoughtsize takes Michael's only remaining business card out of his hand. After a while, something happens. It's exciting for like 2 seconds until Christiaan pays 5 for a force of will. Just for kicks, Christiaan makes Michael discard a Force of Will. After a few mores turns, something else exciting happens and Michael gives up. Game Score: Christiaan 1, Michael 1
Game 3: Michael goes Lotus Petal, Dark Ritual, Dark Confidant, mana burn. Christiaan goes mox, Sol Ring, island, Thirst for Knowledge.
Michael draws a Tinker and attacks. Christiaan plays another thirst and Darkblasts the confidant, but Michael has drawn a land! Nothing happens though. Christiaan has a Thoughtsieze and Michael fetches and plays Orim's Chant. Christiaan takes out Michael's Timetwister over Tinker and Memory Jar. Christiaan plays Sensei's Divining Top, looks at some cards and draws some cards with an Ancestral Recall and replaying top. A Time Walk gives Christiaan some extra time. He takes an excruciatingly long time to resolve a top activation and Intuitions for some extra cards. Michael plays an island and a mox and a Tinker. Something exciting is about to happen.
Never mind, Christiaan had a force of will. Nothing exciting happens. Then Christiaan plays Vampiric Tutor and before anything exciting gets to happen, Michael gives up again. Game Score: Christiaan 2, Michael 1
Round 2: Morgan Brewer (Some Combo Deck which May or May not Have Dark Confidant) v. Chris Chauvet (Goblin Charbelcher)
Game 1: Morgan cycles Street Wraith, fetches a land, and Duresses. He takes Goblin Charbelcher out of a hand of hella fast mana and a charbelcher.
Chris draws Empty the Warrens and goes mox, sol ring, grim monolith, remove Simian Spirit Guide, Empty the Warrens for 8 goblins. His attack takes Morgan to 9, and morgan says “well, here goes.” Morgan plays mox, Mana Vault, Sol Ring, Timetwister, go.
Chris untaps, plays a Bayou and Manamorphose for black/red, Seething Song, another Empty the Warrens. His attack takes Morgan to 1 life. Morgan can't figure out any shenanigans during his upkeep, and scoops. Game Score: Morgan 0, Chris 1
Game 2: Morgan kicks this one off with a Thoughtsieze, taking Vampiric Tutor out of a hand of hella fast mana and a Vampiric Tutor. On his turn, he plays a Goblin Welder and passes back. Morgan plays some fast mana and a Timetwister, followed by a Dark Ritual, Demonic Tutor, Black Lotus, Grim Tutor, Lion's Eye Diamond, Yawgmoth's Will, whatever. Game Score: Morgan 1, Christ 1
Game 3: Chris goes Mana Crypt, Simian Spirit Guide, Manamorphose for black/red, Mox Emerald, Grim Monolith, Demonic Tutor.
Morgan goes mox, Brainstorm, fetch, Dark Ritual, Sol Ring, Grim Tutor, Black Lotus, Wheel of Fortune, Duress, mana burn. Chris has nothing.
Morgan's second turn is Ancestral Recall, cycle Street Wraith, Night's Whisper, Night's Whisper, Lotus Petal, Ponder, land, Duress, mana burn. Chis, once again, has nothing.
Morgan plays Platinum Angel. Chris plays Goblin Welder to keep things interesting, but something not very exciting and kinda anticlimactic happens and Chris scoops. Game Score: Morgan 2, Chris 1
Round 3: Austin Martinez (Workshop Control) v. Morgan Brewer (Some Combo Deck which I'm Still Not Sure Whether It Has Dark Confidant or Not) '
Austin is sometimes rather taciturn, but he promised me he'd be entertaining if I featured him this round, so against my better judgment, I went for it.
Game 1: Morgan starts us off with a Thoughtsieze on Austin's Black Lotus in a hand full of gas, and Austin is relegated to merely wasting Morgan's land and playing a mox.
Morgan makes another land and a Sol Ring. Austin plays Thorn of Amethyst and passes back. Morgan plays a Ponder, a mox, and a Tolarian Academy. Austin gets a Strip Mine and takes out the academy and a Goblin Welder. Morgan has a Black Lotus and a Vampiric Tutor. Austin plays a Sphere of Resistance, and Morgan untaps and plays Rebuild into replaying his artifacts and a Tinker for Memory Jar, but gets a ton of black gas that he can't play with his floating blue mana.
Austin gets a sphere out, but Morgan uses Pact of Negation on thorn. Austin welds Solemn Simulacrum into play and then out of play with two spheres out. Morgan scoops. Game Score: Austin 1, Morgan 0
Game 2: Morgan starts with a land and an ancestral recall and Austin starts with a land, two moxes, and a tirnisphere. Morgan cycles a Rebuild and discards a Grim Tutor because he has too many cards, and Austin gets a Pyrostatic Pillar into play. Morgan does a Hurkyl's Recall on Austin's artifacts.
On his upkeep, Morgan plays Vampiric Tutor. Follows that up with Dark Ritual, Sol Ring, Chain of Vapor on pillar and Sol Ring, Dark Ritual, Yawgmoth's Will, Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Tendrils of Agony. Game Score: Austin 1, Morgan 1
Game 3: Austin has a mountain and a Tormod's Crypt, and Morgan has a land and a mox. Austin has a workshop, a mana vault, and a simulacrum. Morgan Demonic Tutors for a Black Lotus and plays Necropotence, and Austin plays Karn, Silver Golem and eats a mox.
Morgan plays Mana Crypt, Lion's Eye Diamond, Rebuild, but Austin has a Pyroblast for that. Morgan then goes Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Grim Tutor, and in response sacrifices his Lion's Eye Diamond. He throws a Tendrils of Agony at Austin to take him to 1 life.
On Austin's upkeep, nothing exciting happens and he dies to his mana crypt. Game Score: Austin 1, Morgan 2
Game 1: Tyler's on the play, but doesn't have anything cool to do. Eduardo starts us off with a Duress on Force of Will. Eduardo uncorks a triple mox Dark Ritual Mind's Desire for 5. Brainstorm, Lion's Eye Diamond, Mana Vault, Ponder, land. The artifacts come into play, the Ponder shuffles the library, the Brainstorm gets in there, and a Duress takes out Tyler's Repeal, and at some point a Yawgmoth's Will gets involved and basically ruins everyone's day. Game Score: Eduardo 1, Tyler 0
Game 2: Tyler mulligans to 6, then to 5. Eduardo once again has the first action in a Dark Confidant. Tyler sits on his hands as he gets attacked a few times. Eduardo takes out an Extirpate with Duress, plays some fast mana, Grim Tutors, and Wheel of Fortunes. Lotus Petal, Mana Vault, Sol Ring, Tendrils of Agony. Game Score: Eduardo 2, Tyler 0
Round 5: Dave Petterson (Some Combo Deck with Dark Confidant) v. Eric Campusano (Some Combo Deck with Dark Confidant and Trinket Mage), with color commentary from special guest Morgan Brewer!
Game 1: Eric is on the play, but Dave has the first interesting play in Duress on Mana Drain. Eric has a Dark Confidant. Eric fetches, Imperial Seals, and Chain of Vapors Eric's confidant, which comes back in. Dave plays an Ancestral Recall.
Morgan: “He's shakin' like an old man! He's dressed like one too! Look at his round spectacles, plaid shirt, and slicked-back hair! What is this, the fifties?”
Eric plays another confidant.
Morgan: “He's going to kill himself with bob!”
Dave plays a bunch of fast mana and a Windfall with three black floating. Dark Ritual, Mana Vault...
Morgan: “Wow, he's just like me but he plays faster.”
...tendrils for the win.
Morgan: “Another thing we have in common. He wins!” Game Score: Dave 1, Eric 0
Game 2: It's Dave's turn for the Dark Confidant, and Eric's turn to play broken spells and draw hella cards.
Morgan: “You should put in the report that he drew three lands off of that. Wah wah waaaaaaaaaah.”
Dave has an ancestral of his own, actually, but Eric Tinkers out hella Platinum Angels.
Morgan: “How many northern californians does it take to change a lightbulb? Hella northern californians. Actually, if you think about it, that kinda means that we're special, because we need help to change a lightbulb. But don't put that in there, that was just me thinking to myself.”
Dave attacks. Eric asks “WHY ARE YOU ATTACKING ME?”
Dave: “Because I'm terrible!”
Eric thinks really hard about this and takes 2 damage.
Morgan: “Oh what the ****! It's like NEZUMI CUTTHROAT GET IN THERE!”
Dave chain of vapors the platinum angel and gets rid of it with Thoughtsieze. A Dark Confidant off of Dark Confidant takes Dave down to 8 and an attack takes Eric to 12. Duress from Dave, Thirst For Knowledge in response, discard Force of Will leaving salvagers and land.
Dave plays another confidant.
Morgan: “It's kindof a sausagefest on this board right here.”
Eric plays a confidant and his salvagers.
Morgan: “Oh man, now this party is really a sausagefest.”
Dave attacks Eric down to 7 with his sweaty, burly men. Both players are now at 7.
Morgan: “BAM!”
Dave plays Mana Vault, Vampiric Tutor, Massacre, and Tendrils for 8. Game Score: Dave 2, Eric 0
Top 8 Feature: Jeff Huang (Dredge) v. Morgan Brewer (Some Combo Deck Which May or May Not Have Dark Confidant) As is now tradition, the loser of the top 8 match gets a San Pelllegrino soda, courtesy of yours truly.
Game 1: Jeff has a Bazaar of Baghdad to start us off. He discards Narcomoeba, Icorid, Serum Powder, and follows that up with Unmask. He takes Tinker over Street Wraith and Night's Whisper. Morgan tries to Duress but sees Bazaar, Strip Mine, and Petrified Field.
Jeff untaps, bazaars during his upkeep dumping some dredgers, and starts depleting his library. Some flashed-back cabal therpys take out Morgan's Night's Whisper and Cabal Ritual. Ichorids start coming in and Morgan goes down halfway. A turn later, Morgan hasn't figured anything out. Game Score: Morgan 0, Jeff 1
Game 2: Morgan mulligans to 6. Jeff Serum Powders and then takes a regular mulligan. Jeff starts with Leyline of the Void. Morgan cycles Street Wraith. Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Grim Tutor, Black Lotus, Timetwister, Ancestral Recall, Thoughtsieze, discard. Jeff says “If I'm good, this next card will be Bazaar.” And lo and behold, it was so. And it came to pass that Morgan was sore afraid.
On Jeff's next turn, an Ichorid comes in and a Narcomoeba, and three zombies come into play when Ichorid dies. Morgan scoops and goes for the San Pellegrino. Game Score: Jeff 2, Morgan 0
Top 4 Feature: Austin Martinez (Workshop Control) v. Cory Redmond (Landstill)
Cory Redmond, who has long been attending these events, has changed things up a little today and brought an old-school control deck with lands which turn into creatures. Let's see how he fares against a Mishra's Workshop-driven deck.
Game 1: Cory, on the play, goes Black Lotus, Mox Sapphire, Chalice of the Void for free, cycle Fire/Ice, Standstill. Lands go back and forth for a bit and then Austin breaks the standstill with Goblin Welder, which doesn't last long thanks to another Fire/Ice. Cory has another Standstill and a Mishra's Factory. A few more lands back and forth, and Austin breaks the standstill with Magus of the Moon, which meets Mana Drain. Cory uses that mana to fuel a Chalice of the Void for 3.
On Cory's next turn, he gets an attack together with his Faerie Conclave. Austin is unable to draw anything meaningful for a while. Eventually, Cory plays Crucible of Worlds and stifles his Chalice of the Void's counter ability, and turn on the Mishra's Factory recursive beats. Austin's deck proceeds to completely give up on him. Game Score: Austin 0, Cory 1
Game 2: Austin on the play this time has a killer start of mox, Mana Vault, Trinisphere, Orb of Dreams. This basically ensures that nothing happens for a few turns, especially as both players use Strip Mines on each other. Austin eventually gets a Juggernaut in play. Cory finally has enough lands online that he can draw some extra cards with an ancestral.
The Juggernaut keeps attacking, and Austin gets a Magus of the Moon through Mana Drain via Pyroblast. Cory Ingot Chewers the Juggernaut and Austin comes up with a second magus. Cory plays a Null Rod, and Austin plays a Goblin Welder. Cory has a Pyroclasm to clear Austin's creatures out of the way followed up by a Crucible of Worlds to go with his newly reactivated Strip Mine. A Standstill joins the party. After a really long time with nothing exciting happening, Cory is through to the finals. Game Score: Austin 0, Cory 2
Other Semifinals match: Jeff Huang (Dredge) v. Dave Petterson (Some Combo Deck)
We missed the first two games of this one, so we join it in the third game.
Game 3: Jeff starts this one with an excellent hand. Leyline of the Void in play, Bazaar discarding titan and two grave-trolls and a Chalice of the Void for free which gets countered. Dave draws extra cards with Ancestral Recall and Jeff dredges a lot and flashes back Cabal Therapy with a Narcomoeba naming Dark Ritual and missing. A second Cabal Therapy with a zombie token names (and removes) Extirpate. Dave goes for Night's Whisper, and then removes Jeff's graveyard with Tormod's Crypt.
Jeff has to restart and bazaars away a grave-troll, a Darkblast, and a Chain of Vapor, then dredging the troll. Strip Mine takes out one of Dave's lands, and Dave gets Mana Crypt. Jeff hits another amoeba and a bridge, returns an Ichorid and takes Dave to 13 on the attack. Next turn's attack reduces Dave to 4 life, and Dave sees that it's time to act.
Dark Ritual, Memory Jar., mana, Windfall. Jeff finds that his library is a little too thin and loses the fight. Game Score: Jeff 1, Dave 2
Finals: Cory Redmond (Landstill) v. Dave Petterson (Some Combo Deck)
These players don't really know each other, so their negotiations are long and annoying and I'm pretty sure I walked away with blue balls.
Player Profile: Jeff “The Fob” Huang
Ryan: So Jeff, when did you start playing magic? Jeff: 1997 Morgan: Wow, I started before you. That said, I hadn't heard of competitive magic until I came to college. I played a lot of kitchen table magic. J: Me too. Empyreal Armor was totally amazing. Like what the ****, I take 7? That's nuts. M: Serra Angel? So tight.
R: What are your favorite “bad” magic cards? J: Lightning Bolt. R: Not bad enough. J: Savannah Lions. R: Not bad enough. M: Bringer of the Blue Dawn. J: Empyreal Armor, but I don't know if that's bad enough. M: Or Megrim?
R: So if you were playing in this tournament again tomorrow, what would you play? J: Ichorid. R: Why's dredge so good? J: I don't know. People aren't prepared for it. If you look at the last couple norcal tournaments, there's always only 1 Ichorid deck, and it always makes it. R: Same question, Morgan. M: This or Pitch-Long.
R: So what subject do you teach? J: Mass. R: What? J: Math.
R: So what's your favorite actual good magic card? J: Of all time? Probably Lightning Bolt. Of all time, that would consistently be the answer. Stuff turning sideways, I like.
R: Why didn't you play the deck you usually play with ICATIAN JAVELINEERS? J: It was a meta call. Hey, if it got there yesterday, it can get there again today.
R: Why aren't you at nationals? J: I'm a scrub. I don't play like PTQs and stuff. All I really do is play type 1, it's too much pressure to play in PTQs. I don't like it.
R: What question should I ask you? J: Why am I so good at magic?
R: What does your shirt say? J: Uh oh. Don't you know? Isn't this for a PG-13 audience? White people cannot read this. R: That's what it says? J: Yeah, I'm serious. I'll wear another one for the lotus tournament.
____________________ PoTaTo!
Posts: 213 | From: Berkeley | Registered: May 2004
Hey! Jeff! I saw the "bai ren kan bu dong" tshirt that day. I was gonna come up to you and remark upon it but I was busy with the Age of Conan party. Are you a fan of wong fu? Did you see their first official music video? They made it for Magnetic North's "Drift Away" --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsafOstm6H4
(And I'm part of the crowd at the concert in the end. We shot it at Blake's. Haha.)
Posts: 458 | From: Dragonmaw | Registered: Oct 2007
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