Canned Trying to Win Becker's Collection

What a weekend. Should I spoil it for you?

Long story short, I’m exhausted right now, but I had an absolute blast. My decks and my play were underwhelming to say the least, but I’m not discouraged. I learned a lot and met a lot of cool people. And that’s all that matters, really.

I stayed with my cousin, Magus of the Bazaar, Geoff Moes, and his lovely fiancée, Sarah, in Toledo on Friday night after a two-hour drive from Columbus. They had just moved in and are planning their wedding, so I was grateful that they could make time and space for me.

Twaun and I were planning on leaving for Chicago five hours before the tournament to ensure we’d have plenty of travel time for getting lost, fuelling up, etc., so after having a quick dinner, chatting about work, and watching Borat, I threw my deck together and hit the hay (a sleeping bag on the floor of their as-yet-unfurnished guestroom) for a long five-hour nap.

It was a mistake to put my deck together like that. I made a not-insignificant number of changes with no real testing because I was unsure of the metagame and wanted to be prepared for anything. This is what I put together:

4x Force of Will
4x Duress
4x Stifle
3x Extirpate
3x Null Rod
2x Echoing Truth
2x Daze
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk

4x Dark Confidant
4x Martyr of Frost
3x Ninja of the Deep Hours
2x Carnophage

1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Lotus Petal
2x Swamp
2x Island
4x Underground Sea
3x Polluted Delta
2x Flooded Strand
1x Bloodstained Mire
4x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine

Honestly, this isn’t that much different from my previous builds. Just four cards: plus two Daze, plus two Carnophage, minus one Chain of Vapor, and three metagame slots. I’ve had the feeling lately that I want just a couple more creatures available to put some pressure on my opponent, so that explains the Carnophages. And Daze has been in and out of my list before

The sideboard was drastically different:

4x Energy Flux
3x Arcane Laboratory
3x Old Man of the Sea
2x Tormod’s Crypt
1x Echoing Truth
1x Daze
1x Extirpate

At least I think that was it. I was worried about the Midwest Stax matchup, which explains the Fluxes, and Arcane Lab is pretty good against storm decks. I figured Tormod’s Crypt would be pretty good against Ichorid since I side my Null Rods out against them anyway, and actually, I wish I’d had more.

Was I so wrong?

Anyway, I woke up at around 5:30 so I could shower, get some doughnuts, and fuel up before meeting Twaun at his house. Then I had the most interesting experience in the bathroom…

So I was getting ready to shower: I had the water warming, the shower curtain was closed, I'm naked, and, what the heck? Where’s the shower knob? I couldn’t see what lever to pull or button to push to make the shower turn on. There was no indication anywhere. Stupid newfangled technology. I rinsed myself off as well as I could, dressed, and packed.

Geoff and Sarah were kind enough to see me off, and I thanked them profusely and left them the sandwiches and a can of soup that I had brought to eat. I think they may have gotten an apple too, actually. I hope they enjoy.

The song playing on the radio in my car when I left was, no lie, Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries.” Was I pumped? Heck yes, I was! This was the song I listened to every day on my way to three consecutive first-place finishes at Matrix Games with Easter Tendrils.

So after some searching I reached Twaun’s apartment and we got going immediately on the toll roads of the Midwest, bound for Chicago and Eric Becker’s collection. The chatter and squawk of citizen’s band radio was our theme song.

Actually, pretty much we just talked about Vintage and the idea of CB radio as the true voice of America, except for the fact that as soon as you hit the transmit button you get a southern accent.

"Gotta b'ar with cust'mers on 80 westbound at mile 137."

"Ooh, he's got his disco ball on, and he's dancin'!"

As we approached the Indiana state line, Twaun announced, “I need a deck, Nat!” Since he got home late from work the night before (and by late I mean, 3 a.m.) he hadn’t had time to put a deck together.

“No Tog this time?”

“I don’t know!” (Twaun says a lot of things with his volume turned up. He’s just really enthusiastic about everything. It's awesome and infectious!)

“I’ve got Belcher with me,” I said, pulling the deck out of my bag.

“Shuffle it up and pull me a hand. Let’s see what I’d get.”

I did, and it was the nuts. I don’t remember exactly but it had tons of mana (namely Channel and Lotus) and a Belcher. Pretty good.

“Oh god,” he said. “Lemme see that.”

So for a good fifteen minutes, Twaun was driving through Indiana with his knees, goldfishing Belcher.

We wanted the tollbooth lady to cut the deck once, but forgot to ask.

Speaking of tollbooth ladies, is every major road between Toledo and Chicago a toll road? It felt like we dropped $20 in tolls there and back. That may be because we missed an exit in Chicago and ended up taking the Dan Ryan Expressway around US Cellular Field near downtown rather than the outerbelt right to DuPage, where the tournament was.

Anyway, Twaun’s fishing produces numerous turn-one kills and massive Warrens Emptyings. So he decided on the spot to play Belcher at Becker’s tournament. Awesome. I was glad someone’s playing it.

The drive was largely uneventful except for that, and we found the campus of the College of DuPage without too much trouble. We really had no idea where the tournament itself was, though. Twaun dialed Eric Becker, and asked him where we were supposed to be. We ended up following him into the parking lot of the student resource center.

We had actually arrived more than an hour early thanks to the change in time from Eastern to Central. Of course I realize that only now, only as I type. Oh well, nothing like getting up early to get the blood pumping and keep the mind sharp.

So we hung out. Twaun played a game of proxied SS against Becker and the URB Long deck he’d be playing in the tournament. I traded Becker a Cabal Ritual for a Planar Void since he needed the Ritual to enter the tourney under proxy limit and the Void was holding its place in the deck. Twaun goldfished some Belcher—horribly, I might add. Really, really horribly. He suggested that he was just getting the bad hands out of the way before the tournament.

And we finally met Kyle Guillamette, who would be traveling with us back to Twaun’s house in Toledo and riding with us up to Michigan on Sunday for more Vintage action. Kyle had chosen to wield Doomsday—a bold move that was ultimately underwhelming for him.

Also, somewhere in there, the dining hall in which we were playing was invaded by around 100 little kids in a weekend day-school. They temporarily displaced us while they ate their lunches. The best part was that, despite the tripled volume of sound and people, Twaun didn’t even notice until we told him.

Finally, four pages later, pairings were posted and the “Win Becker’s Collection” tournament began:

Round 1 – Nicolae – Intuition Tendrils

Nicolae was friendly and competent, a pleasure to open the tournament with. He was playing Intuitive, I believe. It was basically Gifts with Intuition instead of, uh, Gifts. He mentioned he had been a longtime Fish player, but had recently switched to the powered decks because he got tired of being beaten about the head and neck with broken cards.

In the first game, I mulled to five and opened with Martyr of Frost. That little guy plus a Carnophage (who eventually died to the tokens from a Stifled Empty the Warrens) took my opponent all the way down to four life. At four, he rebounded, Drained my Null Rod, and won with Tendrils for at least eight storm. It’s hard to say what went wrong. I know he countered a Dark Confidant at some point, and it may be that I need to learn to protect those better.

I boarded in the Labs, the Daze, and the Extirpate but never saw them.

In game two, I again mulled to five and again opened with Marty McFrost. This time wasn’t so promising, though, as I Stifled a fetchland, leaving myself open to an Empty the Warrens for 10 dudes. This was a bit much, and after I lost life in huge chunks, I extended the hand.

Round 2 – Chris – Ichorid

This seemed promising as Chris mentioned that he had mulled to one in the first round, suggesting that he was playing Ichorid, a deck against which I should have a favorable matchup.

At least I used to.

Game one saw a tight battle as I got Bob into play and slowed my opponent down with Stifles. Unfortunately, my draws weren’t quite hot enough that Chris’s dredging got ahead of me and he was able to reanimate Sutured Ghoul with the eight power necessary to kill me at that point. Looks like that probably happened around turn four or five.

Extirpates, Old Men, and Tormod’s Crypts came in for Null Rods and Duresses. but I wouldn’t see any of them, especially not the Crypts or 'Pates.

In game two, I again had an early Dark Confidant, but he found me a Force of Will instead of the cheaper, less damaging cards I prefer. Most of the other cards I drew were lands, though, and while I was able to block the hard charging Ichorids, they beat me down rather quickly, without the help of their stitched-up friend.

I’m not sure exactly what happened this match. Like I said, I used to have a favorable matchup against Ichorid. Now, with Extirpates and Tormods Crypts to supplement the Stifles and Wastelands, I should have been golden. Unfortunately, I saw few of those cards and seemed to be drawing mostly lands.

I really need to go over the mana count at some point.

Round 3 – Mike – Ichorid

Mike and I were already well aware that neither of us is playing for a spot in the top eight this point, but neither of us really cared. He also clued me in that he was playing Ichorid, but I chose not to heed his warning.

As such, I kept this hand in game one:

Island
Underground Sea
Flooded Strand
Ancestral Recall
Flooded Strand
Mox Sapphire
Polluted Delta

And I immediately conceded in response to Unmask.

“Really?!” he asked.

“Really.”

After sideboarding like in the previous match, this time things went much better.

He opened with a bunch of dredging and tried to Unmask me, but I Forced it holding two-times Extirpate. He lost Ichorids next turn as I played a Mox and a land. When he hardcast Therapy off a City of Brass, I responded with an Extirpate on Therapies. He swung and missed, naming Chain of Vapor. He played very carefully from that point on, attacking with only two Nether Shadows for seven turns, afraid that I could wreck him at any time. At last, I Truthed his dudes, dropped a Ninja for card advantage and an Old Man for moral support, and my opponent conceded—more than a little piqued—at fifteen life.

In game three, he mulled a bunch and kept a hand that would have been strong against Extirpates and Crypts, but not against double Carnophage beats. I kept double Carnophage beats and a Wasteland to keep him from digging for an answer. This game ended quickly—20, 18, 14, 12, 8, 4, 3 (City of Brass), dead. I even got to take control of his hardcast Golgari Thug with Old Man of the Sea.

My first win, against the deck I consider my nemesis, even with a one game handicap. It was about time.

Round 4 – Jamison – URB Grim

I’m not sure how I feel about round four. My opponent was friendly for the most part, but never had a chance. He made a fatal mistake in game one, and my deck gave me just about everything I could ask for against combo in both games, so did I really even win or was it just one of those “better lucky than good” moments?

He won the die roll and elected to play a land and Brainstorm in response to my Duress. Next turn, he played Necropotence and went to 10 life but could not win on the subsequent turn thanks to a Duress of my own. He elected instead to break a fetchland, play Dark Ritual and Duress me (leaving two mana floating). In response, I Extirpated his Dark Ritual, finding another in hand and leaving him without the mana to go off. He Necroed again for seven. He passed and I looked at his Extirpated Dark Rituals.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. “You look confused.”

“What happened to your other two Ritual mana?”

Necro for ten, fetchland, Necro for seven, two unused mana floating equals twenty life.

My opponent had killed himself to his very great consternation.

So we sideboarded in silence. He was clearly on tilt at this point, but he did mention that he wasn’t mad at me; he was mad at himself. “I did the exact same thing to keep myself out of a top eight,” he said. “I’ll never win if I don’t learn to not make stupid mistakes.”

Truer words were never spoken.

Game two was also tense as I Duressed him three times in the first four turns and had an Arcane Lab and a Null Rod in play by turn three. Ninja and Bob provided the beats and the card advantage, and my opponent was buried.

He also apologized to me for being, as he put it, “salty.” Believe me, I could understand. That was quite the misplay followed by quite the drubbing, especially considering that he pretty much had me dead in game one. I would have been salty too.

So I was 2-2 at this point. Disappointed, but still pleased that when my deck did work it was completely dominating. Twaun and Kyle were a combined 1-X, I think, and had both dropped to work on decks for the announced side tournament for Becker’s Forces of Will and Misdirections. Of course I would be participating in that too, but since Twaun wasn’t using Belcher, I figured I’d just go with that.

Twaun was building Tog (of course), and Kyle was metagaming RG Beats.

I elected to play round five.

Round 5 – Andy – UWB Fish

Andy and I both recognized that we were just in this match to play Magic and that neither of us had anything riding on the games. That was nice. It was casual and fun, but my notes are pretty abysmal after the first game and we went to time after game three, so I’ll try to get the salient points into list form.

1. I played Ancestral all three games unimpeded but lost. Take that, Patrick Chapin.
2. No one ever wants to target their opponent with an Ancestral! Vintage players are wusses.
3. Bob is awesome. Game two ended with three Dark Confidants in play.
4. Bob is also risky. Always Stifle Dark Confidant if you have the win on board and can protect it.
5. I didn’t. I showed him the Stifle and told him that since the outcome didn’t matter I was just going to be brave.
6. Fish players hate, hate, hate Old Men.
7. Threads of Disloyalty is pretty good, but I still don’t like it.
8. Marty McFrost trades with a surprising number of UWB Fish creatures, but not as many UW Fish creatures.
9. Null Rod was surprisingly good for me in this match.

Yeah, nine seems like a good amount. It’s square, like me.

Anyway, I ended the day at a technical 2-3, though I count it as 2-2 because I threw away two games in the last match. I know that’s a terrible thing to do, but it’s true.

My non-successes were not very discouraging. I know that in the first match I was up against an accomplished player (Nicolae Antes) and I mulliganed to five twice. That doesn’t bode well for Fish as, to win, I have to stay in the metagame. Losing to Ichorid in round two felt like bad luck as well as I mulliganed further and never saw a sideboard card. Clearly it’s not as good a matchup as it used to be, but it could have been closer. I’m sure I made mistakes in those rounds as well, so I don’t fault the deck.

Of course, despite not faulting the deck, I still made relatively drastic changes for Sunday. You’ll read about them later.

This feels like it’s gotten a little long, so I’ll end it here. I’ll have the report from the side tournament and the ride home tomorrow (hopefully), and the RIW tournament on Friday.

G’night and g’luck.