The Cheese-steak Open

So this is my official second foray into a resurgence of typing out a blog semi-regularly.

Let’s see… it’s November 4 (I hope you remembered to vote!) and it’s been three weeks since my last confession. I mean tournament report. Though I did commit several grievous sins as far as playing Belcher goes.

The tournament in question was the New Jersey Open, held in Philadelphia on November 2 and featuring a sizable Standard tournament and a Vintage tournament for a Black Lotus. I was looking forward to this since some of the Ohio gamers were planning on making the trip out to play, led by Jerry Yang in the Malice of Retribution, who made plans after gaming in Baltimore last month.

Plus, Philadelphia equals cheese steak!

Anyway, there was a significant development in the Belcher department between the previous tournament in Baltimore and the most recent one in Philly: Tinker and Twister.

I had ignored these two powerful cards in previous incarnations of the deck because they’re out of the red-green color base; essentially they can’t be played off of Spirit Guides. However, Jason Jaco pointed out that I have a decent amount of color fixing. With Manamorphose, I have seven blue sources in the deck: Lotus, Petal, Sapphire and Morphose, and that’s not too bad.

I did some testing with Tinker and Twister over the past couple of weeks, and they proved themselves solid in goldfishing. They’re not perfect—I still wish they were red or green—but they’re still very strong. Tinker serves as a fifth, cheaper Belcher, but requires an artifact to play, which doesn’t always happen. Twister is another draw-seven; it’s cheap and swingy, but it lacks the synergy with Welder that Wheel of Fortune has.

Still if something is going to get countered, I’d rather it be one of those than Storm Entity. And I’d rather have more power-cards in my deck than utility like an extra Chrome Mox or some Pyroblasts.

So, when I packed up my car Saturday morning and began the drive up I-95 from our nation’s capital to the City of Brotherly Love, this is what I was packing with the hopes of dominating my opponents and destroying my fellow spell slingers:

4x Goblin Charbelcher
4x Empty the Warrens
1x Memory Jar
1x Wheel of Fortune
1x Tinker
1x Time Twister

4x Goblin Welder
4x Guttural Response
4x Manamorphose

4x Simian Spirit Guide
4x Elvish Spirit Guide
4x Rite of Flame
4x Tinder Wall
3x Chrome Mox
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Black Lotus
1x Lion’s Eye Diamond
1x Lotus Petal
1x Channel
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Sol Ring
1x Grim Monolith

Sideboard
4x Desperate Ritual
4x Pyrostatic Pillar
4x Tormod’s Crypt
3x Storm Entity

The sideboard is meant to work with Belcher’s strategies. They’re cheap, effective against their targets, and won’t reduce the turn one potential of the deck. There’s no sense in bringing in one- and two-ofs because you have to see them in your opening hand. The only card I would have wanted in Philly was Gaea’s Blessing, but I’m not sure I’d cut something for it.

Anyway, three hours up the interstate from home, I parked my car at the soonest opportunity and wandered into the lobby of the Philadelphia Mariott to find Jerry, Eric, Randal, and Ben. Ben doesn’t count because he’s a Standard player and had to get to the venue early, but the rest of us headed to breakfast at the nearby Reading Terminal Market and the Down Home Diner.

Though we had some issues with food mysteriously not being available (“I’d like the corned-beef hash.” “We don’t have that.” “Uhh… okay.”) and a waitress who was seemingly near tears, the food we did order was excellent. My multigrain pancakes were nicely spiced and kept me going all day.

After breakfast, we went back through the hotel to the Pennsylvania Convention Center and walked a long, long way to the venue via the Space Atrium, which was amazing with it’s towering turrets, starry ceiling, and indoor planets. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of this because PCC employees are asses.

The tournament hall itself was large, so of course they had people crammed into two sides of it, eight to a table. Awesome. At least there was a good turnout—64 gamers were there to play Vintage.

After a while of the usual paper shuffling, grace period, and late registrants, we got settled in and shuffled up for:

Round 1 – Scott Hughes – Mono-Red Workshops

This round was an out-and-out travesty for me, though Scott was his usual genial self and I was able to make it through without too much egg on my face, I hope.

Though I had played against Scott before and knew him to be a New England Workshop player, I nonetheless allowed him to play first in game one despite winning the die roll and he led with a Thorn of Amethyst. I played through as best I could, luckily drawing an Elvish Sprit Guide that allowed me to play a Tinder Wall into Welder and Black Lotus on turn one and Wheel of Fortune on turn two. The Wheel only refilled my opponent’s hand, though, and he dropped a devastating Trinisphere. I was able to throw off one more desperate Timetwister, just in case, but I read the writing on the wall and conceded.

I played first in game two, passing the turn in another epic misplay as I counted four mana where only three existed. Needless to say, artifact locks hit the board and I was done for much like the previous game. The only bright spot was that Scott nearly died to his own manabase of Ancient Tombs and Mana Crypts.

Honestly this was awful. I can’t say that I would have won since playing against Workshops is no treat, but I was set up with a good-sized Empty on turn one, and that would have gone a long way to winning the match.

Games – 0-2; Matches – 0-1

Round 2 – Andrew – UW Fish

I can’t really comment too much on Andrew’s deck since I didn’t see much of it despite playing several turns against him. He was a friendly player, though, who seemed to have kept some unfortunate hands against me.

I won the roll and chose to play, and both Andrew and I mulled to six, which is coincidentally the number of goblin tokens I made on turn one as well. Andrew played a Null Rod on his first turn, took some beats, and Tinkered on his second turn. Unfortunately for him, Darksteel was in-hand, and he got Aethersworn Canonist instead. The blockers slowed me down, but not enough; it was over quickly.

Andrew mulliganed again in game two but couldn’t stop my Empty for eight tokens. He played an Energy Flux that had me sacrificing some mana, but couldn’t put anything else together.

I generally worry about the speed of an Empty the Warrens for six and eight tokens, since most opponents can get something going in that time, but it worked out here. Of course, Andrew told me after the match that he had nothing in his deck or sideboard to deal with Empty the Warrens, so that might have something to do with it. Is Empty becoming a forgotten win condition, one that’s not being respected or defended against as it should be?

Games – 2-2; Matches – 1-1

Round 3 – Garret – UW Fish

I meet another Fish player crawling out of the basement—hm… interesting. Generally Fish should be a matchup that I fear since it’s easy for me to fall behind and get swamped in the variety of disruption spells. One thing to notice is that Null Rod Fish decks are slower than the Fish decks that were played against GAT because they don’t run their own moxen. They’re fairly easy for Belcher to race because they can’t apply enough pressure early.

Garret won the die roll and elected to play first, leading with a Cursecatcher. Unfortunately for him, my hand was Catcher-proof as I laid Mox Jet, Mox Sapphire, Vault and Belcher on turn one and drew a third Mox on my next turn. He had a Stifle to slow me down a turn, but I cratered him in the end.

Standstill surprised me on turn one of game two, and I told my opponent that he was definitely going to be drawing some cards. Luckily my hand was amazing. I ran a Tinder Wall into Daze, and then used Mana Crypt to accelerate into an Empty the Warrens for 14 dudes. It was pretty quick from there on out.

Games were starting to play out as they should. Garret was gracious in defeat, and we wished each other well.

Games 4-2; Matches 2-1

Round 4 – Kurt – Painter

This match was a blowout. Eric was watching the games, having already dropped, and said that my opponent’s draws were unholy in their luck. Sure it was frustrating as I don’t think there was anything I could do, but, hey, that’s Vintage!

In game one my opponent won the roll and played first, and I mulliganed to six. He opened with Mox, Grindstone, Tolarian Academy, and then played Ponder into Ancestral. I played a turn one Belcher off of Lotus with Welder backup and definite turn two activation—off a mull to six, don’t forget! Unfortunately, my opponent had also found Painter’s Servant with Ancestral and had the mana to activate.

I played first in game two, and had to mull again but made six Goblin tokens on turn two with Guttural Response backup. My opponent’s start was a little slower this time, but he played Fact or Fiction on turn three and Forced it past my counter. Fact amazingly revealed Yawgmoth’s Will, Time Walk, Trinket Mage (which would certainly get Engineered Explosives), a mox, and Pithing Needle. There’s no good way to split that, especially after finding out that my opponent also had Black Lotus in hand.

Oh, by the way, Eric said afterward that my opponent’s opening hand in game one started as land, land, land, Tolarian, Mox, Grindstone, Ponder. Sigh.

It must be nice living in Christmasland.

Games 4-4; Matches 2-2

Round 5 – Jerry O’Yang – Bruce Campbell and the Army of Darkness

As soon as we sat down, Jerry launched into this huge tirade about how clever he is and how awesome his deck is and how there’s no way I’ll beat him because I have no idea what he’s hiding in his sideboard. I replied that I had read all about his deck on da Innanet and that he was planning on sideboarding from Ichorid into Oath.

Then we high-fived because it’s always cool playing your friends in a tournament!

Anyway, we were sort of playing for a spot in the final rounds since a 4-2 record could, theoretically, make it into the top eight.

In game one, Jerry won the roll and hit me with a Duress on turn one that took Belcher but couldn’t stop the 10 goblins I made with the Empty the Warrens in my hand. I started the beats on the quick, and Jerry’s best measures against me fell short as he could only play Careful Study once and Darkblast a Welder.

Game two seemed really awkward. Jerry had sideboarded into Oath and spent his first turn doing some digging for Oath or control components. My first turn was impressive but not effectual, as I played Memory Jar into Timetwister and then had to pass the turn with a couple of Spirit Guides in play. I got some beats in, but it was nothing compared to the pair of Woodfall Primuses that hit play on Jerry’s side. It was close but ultimately for naught.

And so we entered a pivotal game three situation. I’m fairly sure I went first (though you never know with me) and played Tinker into Jar into an Empty the Warrens for 18 goblins. Pretty good. In fact, plenty good. Jerry couldn’t overcome the furious hordes.

I asked Jerry if I could mark 2-0 on the match slip, just in case it made the difference in a possible top eight situation, and he was cool with it. Like I said, it’s always fun playing against friends, especially for me since most of the folks I play with are now seven hours away.

Games – 6-4; Matches 3-2

Round 6 – Eric – Firebomber-man

Eric was a pretty cool opponent, even though he pointed out early on that there was nothing real at stake in this match. We were both far enough down in the ranks that even a win here wouldn’t push us into the top eight. Oh well. Magic is fun!

Game one started out pretty well as Eric won the roll and gave me the play, allowing me to Empty the Warrens for eight goblins. My opponent drew some cards with Repeal and then attempted Ancestral Recall. I could have countered it, holding Guttural Response and an Elvish Spirit Guide, but I elected not to. I was still unsure what my opponent was playing, and my opponent drawing three cards was less frightening to me than the prospect of Echoing Truth returning me to zero.

Unfortunately, the three extra cards propelled my opponent into Trinket Mage for Engineered Explosives to stop me and gave him enough time to find Auriok Salvagers for the combo win with Lotus and Pyrite Spellbomb.

Anyway, in game two, I let Eric have the play and he squandered it by playing some mana or something else dumb. I cycled four Street Wraiths, played three Manamorphoses, played Timetwister, baited a counter with Tinderwall, and Emptied the Warrens for well more than 20 goblins. My opponent did not survive.

My opponent played first for the third time this match, but my card advantage was mitigated by a double mulligan. I still had the resources to drop a turn one Belcher, but Eric had the counter. Though I thought my hand and board were solid enough to get back in the game (I had Sol Ring and a Mox in play and more red accelerants and extra win conditions in hand), I drew poorly for several turns. It was plenty of time for Eric to put a win together with Tezzeret into the Salvagers combo.

Why I chose to counter Fact or Fiction against my fourth round apartment but let Ancestral resolve here is a mystery to me. There’s no guarantee that I would have been able to stop Recall or that stopping it would save the match for me, but this is something that has bitten me before. I wonder when I’ll learn.

Games – 7-6; Matches – 3-3

A fine end to a fun but frustrating day. Hindsight is 20/20, of course, I was pleased with the deck, even though I was disappointed with my own play in rounds one and six. I’m not sure if this was a getting into and out of tournament mode problem or what, but I’m confident that I could have won at least one of those matches.

Oh well. Next time.

After the tournament, the Ohioans and I (can I really continue to call myself an Ohioan?) spent an entertaining evening in Philadelphia. We walked a couple of miles from the hotel to Jim’s steak sandwich shop for some classically delicious cheese steak sandwiches that we spent a well-worth-it hour in line for.

Back at the hotel we did some drafting of Randal’s new Type 4 stack. I had never played the format before, but it was good times! I probably played too aggressively, attracting too much attention with my infinite bat tokens thanks to Skeletal Vampire, and lost quickly in the two games we played, but it was a ton of fun regardless. I look forward to my next go-round with the format.

The next morning we headed back to the Reading Terminal Market and the Down Home Diner, which was again delicious. We then took the time (since we had already paid for parking) to tour a little of the city. We looked around the rest of the Market, then walked up to Independence Hall and saw the Liberty Bell (in Chinese, I might add), and then walked through Chinatown!

Chinatown was pretty interesting as we sought steamy pork buns at Chinese bakeries and looked for Asian treats at the local grocery store.

Plus, Randal found the least genuine Magic cards I’ve ever seen at an Asia Bazaar. They came in packs of 30 with no basic lands or instructions, and contained mixed colors and sets despite having the box text of a red-green beatdown deck from, I think, Fifth Dawn. Seriously, they were bad. They were smaller than actual Magic cards by about 20%, had a laminated sheen to them, and weren’t even scanned or typeset properly.

Anyway, it was an all-around awesome weekend. I got to play some Magic, hang out with friends, and get some useful testing in on my favorite deck. In fact, it was so fun that I’ll likely be heading to Pittsburgh in another week and a half to throw some more cardboard down. Hopefully, I’ll see you there!