RUGBurn Belcher at the Philadelphia Open IV

Saturday (well, two Saturdays ago) was a very, very long day. The Philadelphia Open, held this time in scenic Edison, NJ, was a fun tournament with great post-tournament food (thanks, Jerry). I would definitely recommend making the trip out if you ever get the chance.

Tournament Organizer, Nick Coss, did a great job, and attracted more than double what he expected for the combined Standard and Vintage events. More than 70 people showed up to turn the most expensive cardboard sideways, and there were twice as many Standard players too.

A couple criticisms of the venue:

1. It was too small. Bigger events are better (and a 70-person Vintage tournament was great), but the school cafeteria we were in was just a little overcrowded. I was surprised the bathroom survived the experience.

2. Terrible, terrible acoustics and organization. A lot of people didn't hear the announcement for the Vintage tournament, but despite this obvious problem, they handed out game-one losses for tardiness anyway. Obviously they can't do much about the noise or the lack of speakers, but they could have handled the situation with a little more sympathy.

Still, the tables were clean and the chairs weren't too bad. I think if there had been like 30 fewer people in the room it would have been amazing.

After hanging out for a while, this is what I sleeved up and played:

RUGBurn 4-Color, 0-Land Belcher

4x Goblin Charbelcher
1x Timetwister
1x Windfall
1x Wheel of Fortune
1x Memory Jar
1x Necropotence
1x Tinker
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Demonic Consultation

4x Street Wraith
4x Elvish Spirit Guide
4x Simian Spirit Guide
3x Tinder Wall
3x Goblin Welder
2x Wild Cantor

4x Manamorphose
4x Rite of Flame
4x Dark Ritual
4x 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 Sol Ring
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Channel

Sideboard
3x Empty the Warrens
3x Tormod’s Crypt
1x Ravenous Trap
2x Cabal Ritual
1x Goblin Welder
3x Sadistic Sacrament

The maindeck was really good. For a four-color build, I don’t want to make any changes.

The sideboard is still tricky. Many times I was just bringing in and taking out a random mix of cards. Empty the Warrens is always solid and a good answer to Pithing Needle and Null Rod, neither of which I saw. Sadistic Sacrament got countered both times I faced it, and a couple of opponents said, "Yeah, that would have wrecked me." Sacrament and Cabal Ritual always went in together, and Ritual also went in against Stax. I never faced Ichorid and probably don't need cards against it anyway. I feel like Pyroblast, a longtime staple, is just unnecessary anymore. I can bring in enough threats that if one gets countered I play the next one and win with that.

Sample board strategy could have been something like this:
-1 Goblin Welder
-1 Windfall
-1 Timetwister
-1 Chrome Mox
-1 Wheel of Fortune
-1 Manamorphose
+2 Sadistic Sacrament
+2 Empty the Warrens
+2 Cabal Ritual

But looking at it on paper, that seems not that good.

All day, boarding felt really awkward as I was doing it, but I never felt like things were that bad in playing. I really have to practice more and figure out what this sideboard is trying to do and how to work with it.

Anyway, after showing up to my round-one pairing a few minutes late (I was lucky to avoid a penalty) we got started.

Round 1 - Stephen "personalbackfire" Nowakowski - TPS

This match was a lot of fun. He went on to top eight.

In game one, I was on the play and he mulliganed to five. I Consulted for Belcher and played it on turn one. Then with a red mox in play, I couldn't draw another usable mana source for five turns. I played a Welder on turn four. He played a Bargain and won.

In game two, he mulliganed to six. I cycled Street Wraith into Mana Crypt and killed him on turn one.

I mulliganed to five in game three but had a turn one Necropotence that he Forced. Then he tutored for and cast his own ‘Potence, drawing nine cards that he seemed unhappy with. I cast Belcher and he countered. He did a mini-Tendrils, drew more cards with Necro, and won on his next turn.

Round 2 - Rich Shay - Shay.dec

Rich and I introduced ourselves and he said he had "Heard good things" about me, which I thought was nice. He also said that he hadn't played Vintage in a while and didn't know how his deck was. It was mostly blue (I didn't see Rituals or anything like that) and it had Spell Pierce and won with Tendrils. Anyway, getting paired up against Rich Shay in the 0-1 bracket didn't help.

He was on the play in game one and led with an Island. I could have played around Spell Pierce but didn't, and had my Wheel of Fortune countered with an unused Rite of Flame and an ESG in hand. I got some Welder beats in, but Mana Crypt hit me three times and allowed him to storm up fairly easily after five turns or so.

On the play in game two, I led with Sadistic Sacrament, but Rich Forced it. I had mana, but didn't draw another threat and lost to Tendrils again on turn three or four.

I think I may have been his only win all day.

Round 3 - Visna - "Not Your Typical Tez"

Visna was an awesome opponent. He said that, since he didn't get a lot of chances to play regularly, he mostly just played for fun. His deck, which was (I think) fully powered Tezzeret, also included things like Commandeer, Transmute Artifact, and Nevinyrral's Disk.

Game one was bad for both of us. He was on the play and played Demonic Tutor for, I'm pretty sure, Tinker. I played a Tinker of my own for Memory Jar, just to get black mana or a Welder in play. I got a Wild Cantor but no Welder, and my Jar did dump his Inkwell Leviathan and Time Vault into the graveyard. He Tinkered for Nevinyrral's Disk instead. He countered Demonic Consultation (the reason I wanted black mana in the first place), and I went into beatdown mode with Wild Cantor and Street Wraith, knocking him to one life before he blew the Disk. (Apparently he didn't realize I didn't have any non-artifact mana in play).

I knew he had Mana Drain in hand and was trying to play around that. On the turn he blew the disk, I had a hand of Black Lotus, Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Belcher, Belcher and decided I was ready to go. Anyway, I played Lotus, Ritual, Belcher and his three card hand turned out to be Mana Drain, blue card, Commandeer! Instead of Draining, he Commandeered Belcher. I played the second Belcher and passed the turn with two mana in the pool. He drew and played Magus of the Unseen. I played draw-go for several turns, trying to get activation mana, while he took control of my Belcher with Magus during my upkeep. He didn't have enough mana to both take control of my Belcher and use the Commandeered one in the same turn. Finally I had the mana and targeted him on his turn. His response fire didn't kill me.

In game two he opened with Time Vault and passed the turn. I Emptied for 12 and played a Welder. He played Transmute Artifact for Key, but didn't have the activation mana. I attacked for 12 and welded out Time Vault in response to the next turn's untapping. He had no response and lost to Goblins.

Round 4 - Joe Davis - Iona Oath

Joe is always fun to play against even though I have a bad career record against him. I was surprised to see him in the 1-2 bracket with me. He seemed disappointed with that as well, and it only got worse for him.

In game one, I played LED, Rite of Flame, Rite of Flame, Belcher and killed him.

I'm not sure what happened in game two since my notes indicate that he both Mystical Tutored for ACall and Oathed before I did anything. Basically, I don't know what I did on my first turn. He played Oath on his second turn and then had both Spell Pierce and Force for Belcher on my second turn. I had nine mana and would have been able to play Belcher, pay for Spell Pierce, and activate for the win, had he not had Force as well. Dragons got me.

On the play in game three, I mulled to six and kept Welder, Chrome Mox, SSG, Manamorphose, Sadistic Sacrament, and Memory Jar. I opened with Welder (off of Chrome Mox-SSG) and hoped to draw well enough to bait a counter if he had it. I drew Lotus for turn and played it, saccing for red, figuring I could bait with Manamorphose, draw mana, bait with Memory Jar, and if that got countered, weld in Lotus to play Sadistic Sacrament. This would have been fine except that Joe didn't have any counters to bait and I drew Belcher off the Manamorphose. I played Belcher then welded in Lotus for the activation and the win.

Round 5 - Jim - Blue Vintage Cards

I don't know what Jim was playing, but he was very understanding of losing a match in three turns. Turns out he's in Richmond and is interested in trying to do some Baltimore-DC-Richmond area events. We exchanged email addressess.

Anyway, he was on the play and mulliganed in game one. I opened with Welder and Demonic Tutored for LED, since I had Belcher in hand and could use that to win without playing another spell. I topdecked Dark Ritual on turn two and cast Belcher instead. When it resolved, I cracked LED for the win.

In game two, I had Lotus and Belcher in my hand and he did not have a counter. I actually Demonic Tutored for LED a second time to get the activation mana.

Round 6 - Brad - 5c Stax

There were several good Stax players in the room, and I would have loved to have played more of them, but I guess I didn't even take advantage of the one I did get to play. Brad was friendly and turned out to be from Baltimore. We also talked about trying to get Vintage going in Maryland and Virginia.

On the play in game one, I opened with Belcher off of two moxes. He played a Sphere of Resistance and I drew Sol Ring and played it. He played Crucible, and I activated Belcher on my turn for the win.

He opened with nothing on the play in game two, making me sad that I had kept a strong mana hand without a threat, figuring I’d be playing against Stax and wanted to stabilize early. I played a Welder, two Moxes, Mana Vault, and Sol Ring. He played Mox Monkey and ate my moxes. We played a very long game that involved his Mana Crypt dealing him 12 damage and City of Brass and Barbarian Ring dealing him another seven. I, unfortunately, was never in the position to attack with Welder. I hung around for several turns waiting for an opening (I don't think he ever played a Sphere effect), but couldn't do anything. I don't think I ever drew a Belcher or Empty the Warrens. He got there with Welder, Mox Monkey, and, finally, Triskelion.

Game three, I Tom Tupa’d like a complete idiot.

Instead of making the right play and almost certainly winning the game, I decided to make the exact wrong play, gift wrap victory, and hand it to my opponent.

My hand was Street Wraith, Empty the Warrens, Chrome Mox, Rite of Flame, Dark Ritual, Simian Spirit Guide, Tinder Wall. The best play here is to imprint Street Wraith on Chrome Mox, play Dark Ritual, remove SSG to play Rite of Flame, and then Empty the Warrens for eight guys. This maximizes storm, and while it’s not an instant win, it’s a very strong opening against Stax. I recognized this before the game. Then, as I went to imprint Chrome Mox, I thought, "Wait, if I imprint SSG instead, I can play Welder if I draw it. Welder is good against Stax; I'll do that instead." I did that, looked at my hand again, and thought, "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck." I was unable to play Dark Ritual without black mana and could not play Empty the Warrens without a god-like topdeck from Street Wraith, which I did not get. It was pretty much downhill from there.

There was no guarantee that a 5-2 player would make it into the top eight, but since I was suddenly 3-3 it was irrelevant anyway. I’ll try to have a more complete writeup of RUGBurn Belcher in a few days for those who are interested. I might have to learn to sideboard a little better for one thing.

I was the last hope for our car, so we packed up and went to Stuff Yer Face for dinner. It was amazing! They have about 25 different stromboli's to choose from and a make-your-own that includes 30 different stuffings. They also have a nice selection of beers. I had a liter of beer and half of an 18-inch Original Stromboli (cappicola, onions, green peppers, salami, and mozzarela). Then I took the other half home and Elizabeth and I finished it for lunch. I would definitely recommend this place.