Ruby Slippers

Guh, yesterday was a long day. I forgot how much fun tournaments can be, though, harking back to my younger, far more n00by days at SandCon. Back then the most exciting plays were getting in those first few points of damage (Mountain, Lightning Bolt, go) before running face first into Millstone-Stasis-Serra Angel, or using Mana Vault to power out Mahamoti Djinn then watching it get Terrored and having not enough lands to untap the Vault for another 4 turns.

Then somewhere along the line I learned to wait for Counterspell backup before putting Fat Moti on the board. The benefits of selected discards. The mana curve. The mana curve as its affected by acceleration.

In short, somewhere along the line I learned to not be such a n00b and became just average at Magic.

Some day I hope to improve on that.

For now, I’m still 2-3-1. Just to spoil the surprise.

It went down like this…

Saturday night around 8pm, I head out to my friend Justin’s house for some casual gaming to get pumped for the tournament. So far he has no plans on coming to the tournament, and I don’t tell him that it’s my goal for the night to make him come along. We compare some deck notes and look through the Tome, his collection of prospective decks that takes up the better part of a notebook.

We talk to Anthony phonewise who announces that everyone is going to the $15 tournament and if we want to have actual opponents we will too, so we’re going to Alter Reality, not Compendium. I guess money wins out over a cool tournament organizer, though in the end the TO at Alter seemed like an okay guy to me. So, hey, I saved $15.

After a while of that and watching Aqua Teen Hunger Force DVDs, Mike shows up. We sit around a little while longer and eventually get around to throwing actual spells at each other. I play Justin and win. I play Mike and lose. Mike, Justin and I play and Mike wins. We talk a little more. I casually suggest that Justin should put a deck together and come to the tournament. Mike agrees.

It was peer pressure like no other, and Justin eventually caves. He still doesn’t have a deck, so we scramble through the Tome again looking for things that we can possibly make into a viable T1 deck in an hour or two. The tournament is full-proxies, so money is no object.

Mike remembers how much fun it had been playing the Zur’s Weirding-Words of Worship deck I had made a few months ago and suggests that. Justin laughs giddily at the idea of completely baffling some players under a soft lock, and I mention that I still have most of the parts together, all we have to do is proxy some cards and we’re good to go.

So we do. We write up Force of Will proxies and some others and throw this together at midnight:

Words of Weirding

6x Island
2x Plains
4x Tundra
4x Flooded Strand
1x Strip Mine
2x Faerie Conclave
1x Library of Alexandria
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Pearl
1x Sol Ring
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Black Lotus or Mana Vault
4x Words of Worship
4x Zur’s Weirding
4x Howling Mine
2x Rhystic Study
2x Disenchant
3x Cunning Wish
3x Miscalculation
4x Brainstorm
4x Force of Will
4x Mana Drain

Sideboard
2x Annul
1x Enlightened Tutor
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Stifle
1x Disenchant
3x Swords to Plowshares
2x Wrath of God
2x Chain of Vapor
2x Envelop

That may not be exact, but it’s close enough. The idea is to keep yourself alive until you can play Words of Worship and Zur’s Weirding in that order with a Howling Mine in play. Zur’s Weirding lets players pay 2 to make a person not draw a card; Words of Worship allows you to skip drawing to gain 5 life. Therefore, every one card not drawn means two cards you can prevent your opponent from drawing. It’s a soft lock, but it’s a really robust soft lock.

In hindsight, we should have put the Enlightened Tutor maindeck with Merchant Scrolls and moved the Rhystic Studies to the sideboard against storm combo. Also, the deck needs more brokenness, like Tinker for Colossus. Justin didn’t really mention what he would do with the deck, but he still has the cards so he might figure some surprising stuff out about it.

I think with more acceleration, this can be second- or third-tier tournament-worthy. Try making it a Gifts deck instead of Wish. You can probably get away with fewer copies of the necessary enchantments if you do that. You can put a lot more counters and control in for a typical Vintage field, and the deck already has the tools to be a house in an aggro-heavy environment, namely insane amounts of lifegain. Try it in Legacy too!

Anyway, by the time we get done putting that together, it’s close to 2 in the morning, so we had to sleep. Busy day ahead of us.

We wake up early when Justin’s wife leaves for work. Justin makes grits, which are delish, and I work on getting directions to the tournament site—Alter Reality is at 15601 Detroit Rd. in Lakewood. They have a good selection of singles for all formats and booster boxes ranging from Revised and Antiquities through Fallen Empires to Ravnica and Guildpact.

We eat and watch some episodes of Pure Pwnage to make sure we’re sufficiently pumped up, and leave a little after 11 for the tournament, deciding to forgo meeting friends at an IHOP by the airport for breakfast. We get there well before Alter Reality opens and walk up and down Detroit avenue to see what’s around. It’s a good place to game because there’s a Taco Bell and a Chipotle just up the street one way, an IHOP down the road the other, and a pizza place next door. At 11:45 the store is open and we amble in to register and do the usual pregaming.

We check out the glass cases and I’m interested in a Meddling Mage for $17, but I never make the purchase since I’ve spent what feels like a lot on Magic in the past few weeks. We try to get excited about original Arabian Nights’ Deserts for sale (not possible) and debate whether foil Unhinged lands should really cost $8 (no).

As we sit down to register our decks I overhear some kids talking about Red Elemental Blast versus Pyroblast, so I explained the difference to them. I don’t know if they cared. (If you care, Red Elemental Blast can only target a blue spell or permanent and is less prone to interference. Pyroblast can target any permanent or spell but is only effective against blue ones. Usually you play Pyroblast in storm combo to get your storm count up if you have to.)

This is what I register:

UB Fish

4x Force of Will
2x Daze
3x Stifle
4x Spiketail Hatchling
3x Withered Wretch
4x Dark Confidant
3x Chalice of the Void
4x Aether Vial
2x Umezawa’s Jitte
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Darkblast
1x Demonic Tutor
4x Standstill
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk
1x Mox Sapphire
4x Mishra’s Factory
3x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
4x Polluted Delta
2x Underground Sea
4x Island
3x Snow-Covered Swamp

Sideboard
3x Energy Flux
2x Viscerid Drone
2x Diabolic Edict
2x Darkblast
1x Red Elemental Blast
1x Withered Wretch
2x Rebuild
2x Seal of Removal

Looking back I would have tried harder to get a fourth Chalice of the Void for the Maindeck. I’m hoping to get some Rootwater Thiefs for maindeck (mostly since they won’t roll over to Darkblast) and I’d definitely run Dimir Infiltrators over Demonic Tutor and probably some of the Spiketail Hatchlings because Dimir Infiltrator can Transmute for so much of my deck. In short, this is what amounts to an early build, but overall I was happy with it.

Like most Fish builds this is meant to disrupt long enough to deal 20 damage to an opponent. This deck probably could have done well itself if I had more extensive testing knowledge and more experience playing against established Vintage decks. There were a number of times where I just didn’t know what to Stifle, Force, Daze, etc.

Also, some day I’ll get the last two Polluted Deltas for my playset so I won’t have to proxy any more. Sigh. A day without proxies…That’s the life.

Over the next half hour we sit around and talk with Anthony and the WarZone gamers who have come in, and I play against Justin’s Words of Weirding with my non-powered Metalworker-Slaver deck and lose a close one when I manage to Slaver him down to two life with his combo out. Either way, I think that bolsters his spirits going into round one.

Thirty-one players register and pairings are announced for round one.

(Did I forget to mention that this is for a Mox Ruby? Sorry. I was going into this just to play and try out a new deck, so the prize didn’t really matter, but when you think about it, winning a mox would be beyond…freaking…awesome.)

As usual, I’m nervous going into the tournament and I can’t stop my right leg from shaking. I steady myself on the table then pick my arms up to stop the table from shaking too. Next to me, Justin shuffles and cuts against Roland Chang, winner of the Vintage Championship last year. It’s a rough match for him that he loses before my second game has started, but it’s all worth it when Chang (playing Stax of course) Duresses him early and is baffled by a blue-white hand that includes Words of Worship.

Round 1 – Chris playing Vintage RGW Zoo

I lose in two games because his creatures are bigger than mine and because Burning-Tree Shaman is a freaking house of bricks with a cannon. Beatsticks should not be unfairly costed and have a broken ability—one at a time, please, Wizards. Being multicolored is not a drawback when one of the colors is green. Anyway…

Game 1 – I drop an Aether Vial and say go with a hand of not disruption. My deck is not prepared to face a Kird Ape and a Shaman in the early turns. His 3/4 trumps my 3/3 Mishra’s Factories, and his 2/3 trumps everything else. He beats me and never gets more than three lands on the table; I see no Wastelands or Strip Mines. He ends the game at 21 life thanks to Lightning Helices.

Game 2 – It’s even worse as I face two Shamans, two Apes, and a Rancor. The one sideboard card I draw is an Edict and it kills a Kird Ape. This game he ends at 18 life. When we end he shows me a deck that includes Rumbling Slum and Loxodon Hierarchs; I would have hated to see those, but I don’t think they would have been better than the Shaman.

He was a nice guy, though and seemed happy that he won a match. I would have been happy for him too if it hadn’t come against me. Maybe I’ll run into him again in Dayton to play for a Mox Emerald.

The loss keeps me at the back tables, near the open back door where it’s freezing cold. Also there’s a flickering neon light that gives nearby players headaches as the game goes on. I vow to someday sit at the front tables where it’s warm and comfortable.

0-1-0 match; 0-2-0 games

Round 2 – Jason playing Gifts-Tendrils

This probably would have been a fun match (I like watching combo, even against me) if he hadn’t been an excruciatingly slow player. I can see where Brainstorms and Gifts Ungivens require a certain amount of thought to use properly, but every one you cast should not require more than two minutes to decide.

He was really quiet too, and no-nonsense. Courteous, but somewhat cold. Maybe that’s just nerves on his part, though.

Game 1 - He gets lots of mana to counter my stuff and Gifts a few times, the first time for Sapphire, Ruby, Lotus, and Time Walk. I give him Lotus and Walk, which he cycles. I get out Chalice for zero and attack once with a Factory. He Rebuilds two moxes and my Chalice, casts Yawgmoth’s Will against my Daze, plays moxes from his graveyard and his hand, rebuilds again, moxes again, and Tendrils for death.

Game 2 – This is largely the same as the previous as a good combo deck should be. Turn two we have this lively conversation:

Him: Brainstorm.
Me: Okay. You gonna win this turn?
Him: Maybe.
Me: Cool.
Him: [Continues Brainstorming for another minute or two, which seem like ages] Go.
Me: Go?
Him: Go.
Me: Okay.

Third turn he Pithing Needle’s Wastelands (that I haven’t seen many of) to protect his Tolarian Academy. I put down Energy Flux while he has 3 moxes and the Needle in play with three lands. He takes a long Brainstorm and sacrifices all of them. He Fact or Fictions at the end of my turn and takes a Yawgmoth’s Will over a Tinker (go figure). On his turn he Wills, Forces my Force, Pyroblasts my Energy Flux, and wins.

Things look pretty bad, but now I’m hanging out at the fun tables.

0-2-0 match; 0-4-0 games

Round 3 – Logan playing 5c Dragon

Realistically, this match was mine to lose since the deck I play against most is Dragon and my deck is more tuned to beat that than any other. I suppose we shall see, however.

As we shuffle and cut, Logan talks down to his deck. I tell him not to because that makes the deck unhappy and less likely to perform. Justin, sitting across the table from me says that talking down to it enough will make it want to prove itself. We both have to mulligan and talk about drawing seven, but I decide that since he’s playing combo it’s better if we don’t. We start at six for…

Game 1 – I force his first turn Animate (off of Mox Emerald and Mox Jet) with a Dragon and Squee that he put into the graveyard with Bazaar of Baghdad. I take control from there getting out a Jitte and eventually a Withered Wretch that wrecks his day by shoveling 3 Dragons and a Squee out of the graveyard. He Echoing Truths the Jitte to my hand only after it kills his Xantid Swarm; I gain 6 life and end the game at 22 in short order.

Game 2 – I run out of disruption and get no draw, so he Worldgorger combos me out rather quickly with a massive amount of mana and Cunning Wish for a Stroke of Genius. My sideboard cards do not appear, but I did Wasteland his Bazaar for the second game in a row.

Game 3 – We shuffle and cut while time is being called and go immediately into 5 turns. I immediately develop the upper hand with creatures on the board and double Force in hand but can’t kill him quickly enough with weenies. After five, we’re still tied and both a little disappointed that we couldn’t decide a winner.

At this point Adam, one of the kids I’ve gamed with before is 3-0 with UW Fish and is well in contention for a top 8 finish and the possible Mox. As for me, I’m…

0-2-1 match; 1-3-1 games

Round 4 – Justin playing Words of Weirding

I hate playing friends in tournaments. Justin is also winless, so another loss for either of us will be harder than usual.

Game 1 – I get a good amount of mana denial cards and keep him off of counter mana long enough to get a good offense going and win the game. This is the first game I saw a possible Crucible-Strip combo, but it never got going as Justin Forced the Crucible. It doesn’t help and he rolls over.

Game 2 – Neither of us sideboards—me because I have nothing against him, him because he’s stopped caring. I forget that he’s playing combo and use a counter to save one of my Vials from a Disenchant. As such, he gets the combo into play against me with a Mine out and one in hand. I have enough creatures out to make him play it out, though, and neither of us draws much of anything with the Zur’s Weirding out. I’m hoping to draw to time, but I Vial out a second Dark Confidant at the end of one of his turns and take back-to-back Forces of Will to the face for 10 points of damage and the loss. Ouch.

Game 3 – Again I draw the mana denial hand and keep him off of lands for the win.

The loss causes Justin to dive into his “sideboard” and join “Captain Morgan” for a “toast” because he is a “scalawag.”

Adam also loses.

1-2-1 match; 3-4-1 games

Round 5 – Jerry playing MUC with Tinker-Colossus

Jerry is a nice guy and we have probably the best in-game banter of my tournament. He introduces himself by saying that he’s been getting terribly mana-screwed all day and that 24 lands used to be enough. I laugh knowing that I’m playing 22 mana-sources, one is a Mox Sapphire, and 8 of them get sacrificed for other effects.

Game 1 – He tries a very early Tinker for which I have an even earlier Force of Will. My mana ramps up; his stays largely flat. I Wasteland his Academy to put him in a hole that he can’t climb out of as two Mishra’s Factories and a Withered Wretch dispatch him in short order.

I didn’t see enough of his deck to know what to sideboard in, so I do nothing.

Game 2 – He has an early Brainstorm that I really should have countered as it puts him into Ancestral with Force of Will backup. His mana ramps up with moxes and a nice assortment of blue duals; mine stays tied up trying to stop him. I never get anything together except a few swings with a Mishra’s Factory before he Tinkers up Darksteel Colossus in the face of a futile Daze. He Time Walks and attacks. I take 11. My turn I untap and say go. He attacks again, I block with the Factory and pump to take 8 and stay alive. He Darkblasts my factory to make me take 9 again. I respond by breaking a fetchland to make me take 10 and Darkblast my own factory to take 11.

I realize I could have used the swamps I had in play to Darkblast his Colossus and stay alive, but really, what’s the point after that? My Edicts and Seals were still in my sideboard because I wasn’t considering Colossus.

(Considering Colossus would be a good name for a band, or a literary modern novel.)

Game 3 – I bring in Diabolic Edicts and Seals of Removal. I play a first turn Seal of Removal to a look of surprise and a laugh from Jerry; apparently he had not planned on seeing that one, which is, I think, the sign of a good sideboard. He is clearly mana screwed and never gets more than 3 lands in play at a time. I topdeck a Wasteland and am faced with the choice of Tolarian Academy (no artifacts in play), Underground Sea, and Library of Alexandria. I wisely chose the Library to go since he’s trying to draw out of a hand full of useless spells that cost mana.

We enter extra turns.

Eventually he gets two Pithing Needles out for Wasteland and Seal of Removal and another land to Fact or Fiction at the end of my turn. I try to get him to take the pile including Jester’s Cap (mostly because I’ve never had it used against me), but he wisely takes the one with Yawgmoth’s Will. He Wills, I counter, he counters. He plays a land and Accumulates Knowledge for 3, but I Daze it and he is unable to survive my next attack. If he had been able to reuse his Tinker for Colossus, I had Diabolic Edict in my hand waiting for him.

I felt pretty good after this match, but I’m not sure if I should have. I did well against a guy who never got mana. All game I was drawing answers, though, and that’s pretty much the idea of Fish, innit?

Adam loses again. He has to win to stay in contention.

2-2-1 match; 5-5-1

At this point I really wanted the tournament to end as I had a not-losing record, which was really good to me. Almost respectable. Almost.

Unfortunately for my record, but fortunately for my love of playing Magic there were six rounds and not five.

Round 6 – Tim playing Oath

Tim was a nice guy too. (Isn’t it amazing how people who play Magic are good people? Who’d have thought?) He thought very hard about swinging and killing me every time before he did.

Game 1 – He opens with Mox, not-Forbidden-Orchard, Oath, and I Force the Oath. I play an Aether Vial off an Island (to keep Daze mana up) and pass the turn. He plays a Forbidden Orchard and Oath. I let it hit because what else am I going to do? I attack him with my token, like a good Oath opponent should. Next turn he Oaths up Razia, Boros Archangel and attacks. The turn after that he Oaths up Akroma and attacks. I swing with some creatures and he thinks about blocking, then does and kills some of them with Razia’s ability. Next turn he goes lethal.

Me: I’ll take 12 [turning my die for the next game] and go to 20.
Him: Hahaha! That’s a good one. I haven’t heard that before.

I’m always happy when I can spread the good word.

Now that I think about it, that paragraph took longer to write than the game took to play. I side in my anti-Oath tech of Viscerid Drone, Seal of Removal, and Diabolic Edict.

Game 2 – Turn one I play a Vial. Turn two I play a Viscerid Drone, which causes him some consternation. Turn two he plays uncountered Oath. Turn four he Oaths up Blazing Archon but doesn’t swing. Turn five he Oaths up Razia and swings with everything, but I kill it with my Drone. Turn six he null-Oaths to shuffle back in and attacks me with the Archon, which I do not block. Turn seven he Oaths up Razia and hardcasts Akroma. I could block but it’s a losing proposition.

Oh well.

2-3-1 match; 5-7-1 game

I am the Chicago Cubs.

Some day I’ll be the Red Sox.

Adam loses too. He goes from first to worst. Well, not worst, but from first to not at all close to the top 8. I could have gone 3-3-0 too!

Seriously, what a great time. I met some cool people, played some exciting games and bettered myself for next time. For the record, next time should be in two weeks:

1 p.m., March 11
Bell Book and Comic
458 Patterson Rd.
Dayton, OH 45419
(937) 643-9006

Apparently we’ll be playing for a Mox Emerald, which is a lesser piece of power (since it’s not blue or black), but is sweet nonetheless.

In the end, after checking The Mana Drain and its tournament forums, it looks like a couple of Michiganders took home the Mox Ruby using Control Slaver with Duresses. (Maybe I should run Duresses in UB Fish again. Hmm…) Roland Chang, Doug Linn and Menendian himself were there tearing it up as usual for Team Meandeck. The biggest surprise of the tourney was a Metalworker-Staff of Domination deck that ran more than one table and made type 8.

Ten pages and 4 hours later, though, I’m done.

Go Broken! Play Vintage!