Feeling Blue with Moxie Fish

Yesterday was the RIW “Feeling Blue” tournament, which I guess can now be considered the last “big” tournament before the September 1 banned and restricted announcements. There were 41 people there in the end, I think, since there were 38 when pairings went up and players 39-41 came in just after round one started.

Though I was thinking all last week that I would be playing Belcher, I put Moxie Fish together on Saturday night while watching LOST season two DVDs and decided to give the attack phase a try once again.

The list I played was almost exactly the one from my earlier blog post on the topic, except that I dropped a Mystical Tutor for the third Swords to Plowshares. Here it is anyway, and I’m not just trying to pad my word count:

4x Tundra
3x Flooded Strand
2x Polluted Delta
4x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
1x Plains
1x Island
5x Moxen
1x Black Lotus
1x Lotus Petal

4x Aven Mindcensor
4x Meddling Mage
3x Jotun Grunt
3x Stormscape Apprentice
3x Martyr of Frost
3x Ninja of the Deep Hours

4x Brainstorm
4x Force of Will
4x Stifle
3x Swords to Plowshares
1x Time Walk
1x Ancestral Recall

Sideboard
3x Kataki, War’s Wage
3x Control Magic
2x Engineered Explosives
2x Pithing Needle
2x Sword of Fire and Ice
2x Umezawa’s Jitte
1x Swords to Plowshares

Like I said, -1 Mysti, +1 Swords. I figured I’d rather have that against GAT anyway. The best thing I could get with Mystical Tutor is either Ancestral Recall or Time Walk, and Ancestral draws me Fish cards… Meh. Plus, it couldn’t find any of my sideboard cards, most of which could have been picked up by Enlightened Tutor.

The sideboard I was pleased with. Certainly there were cards I didn’t use, namely Control Magic, but everything got sided in more than one match except for Kataki. I’ll try to remember what came in for what matchups.

So yeah, that’s what I packed, in the light blue sleeves. (As a side note, does anyone else color coordinate their decks to their sleeves?)

I woke up on Sunday early to shower, make lunch, and make for the Trogvan to pick me up. The extra time I had, I used to read the comics. Man, that Marmaduke, right?

Finally, the van arrives, and I clamber in to find Mark “16th Best Vintage Player in the World” Trogdon at the helm, with a crew of Dave, Nam, Jerry, and Vanessa in the seats behind.

“Nat, funny you’re here—guess what deck we were just goldfishing,” says Nam, after general greetings and pleasantries had been exchanged.

“Belcher?”

“Yeah!”

It turned out Vanessa was playing Jerry’s Belcher list. Jerry and I compared lists and found his was three cards different from mine: -3 Seething Songs, +3 Welders. I argued that Welder was better since, against some decks, it’s a must-counter that costs only one mana. Seething Song, on the other hand, is sometimes an all-in spell that isn’t a win condition. I suggested replacing the Songs with Welders, or at least Desperate Rituals if they felt the acceleration was a necessity.

They switched to the Welders, which seemed to go okay since Vanessa made it pretty far in the single-elimination side tournament, unfortunately going 1-2 in the main event.

Halfway into the ride, Juan called and asked for advice on his deck choice for the day, Goblins. We convinced him to cut Leylines of the Void from the maindeck and go with Pyrokineses instead. Leyline works against Flash now, almost exclusively, and Pyrokinesis works almost as well as a free, non-Misdirectable, answer to a horde of Slivers.

That change worked out as well, considering that Juan made second place and took home a Mox Sapphire for his trouble. Not bad.

Of course, nobody had to help Trogdon to his top eight finish. He did that on his own.

Anyway, the drive up was great. Nam and I even played a game against each other sharing Rich Shay’s second-place GAT list. I think I would have won, but his board got wiped you Tormod’s Curve and we called it a draw instead.

We stopped at Bob Evans in Michigan for some pre-tournament feasting, and I wrote out my decklist. In crayon. Turns out all you have to do is ask, and they’ll give you a kids’ placemat, which includes two crayons.

After breakfast, we headed over to RIW and got registered. Before long, pairings were posted and we settled in for round one.

Round 1 – Bruce – UBW Trinket Counterbalance Fish

Man, Counterbalance is such a pain. With or without Sensei’s Divining Top, it’s still pretty good. It’s especially good when the majority of your opponent’s deck costs the same as your own. Fish vs. Fish? I think that fits the bill. Anyway, Bruce is a good opponent, friendly and a little laid back, but a tough competitor.

He won the die roll and went first, after my mulligan. His first significant play was Counterbalance, which brought out a Meddling Mage on SDT as a result. Trinket Mage found Engineered Explosives for him and he nuked the world, wherever it cost two. Thus saving his Top, I attempted to put Meddling Mage on Counterbalance, but he Forced. He took control from that point on, and I took damage in increments of two until I died.

In: Equipment, Explosives, Needles
Out: Stifles, Martyr of Frost

Game two went much better for me. Though he had a first turn Dark Confidant, I had an early Jotun Grunt, who soon picked up a Jitte and started swinging. When Grunt fell to tiny graveyards, Aven Mindcensor picked up where he left off and went the distance. At seven life, my opponent conceded with a three-counter Jitte-equipped Bird swooping down on him next turn.

In the third game, I gambled a little and kept a heavy land destruction hand. I Wasted his first two lands, leaving myself with one land in hand. Unfortunately, he kept drawing lands, while I couldn’t get past number one. He dug out from under my Wastelands to drop Dark Confidant and absolutely bury me in card advantage.

A typical RIW performance, and a typical first round loss for me.

Match 0-1-0
Games 1-2-0

Round 2 – Jason – GobLines

My second Legacy deck opponent of the day, and believe me, it would continue like that. Goblins has become a notable contender in today’s metagame since it blocks and kills Flash’s Slivers and can race around and over GAT. Weird. Anyway, Jason was a blast to play against—a fun match overall.

I was on the play in game one, and he thought a while before deciding to mull to six. He then opened with double Leylines, meaning he effectively mulled to four against me. I play land-go, while he plays an Aether Vial that I wanted desperately to counter but could not. I played a Meddling Mage on Goblin Piledriver.

His hand started small enough that I could keep up with him creature-wise, and I even got to Stifle a Siege Gang Commander trigger. In fact, I would say I had game one well in hand for many turns, fighting through blockers. Unfortunately, when I played Ancestral Recall it was nothing but lands. Likewise two following Brainstorms. Ugh. He ended at five life, but his deckful of creatures beat my apparent deckful of mana sources.

In: Equipment, Needles
Out: Stifles, Marty McFrost

Game two I can sum up in three words: Ninja and Sword. I played an early creature that turned out to be a Ninja and found and played Sword of Fire and Ice. When he tried to Diabolic Edict before my first attack, I played Aven Mindcensor in response and lost that instead. From there it was all over but the cryin’. Pro-red for the win!

Unfortunately, game one took so long that we were short on time for game three. I mulliganed, planning on staying alive rather than trying to win. When I ended up with double Swords to Plowshares, I figured I was good to go. Last train to Drawsville, population: we two.

Match 0-1-1
Games 2-3-1

Round 3 – Josh “Coffee Cup” Chapple – URPhid with Magus

Josh Chapple and I go way back, Magic-wise. He was the first guy I know who owned Force of Will, and he played it in UG Madness. He beat everybody because his deck was so good. He retired for a while, but I’m glad he’s back in the game. He still needs some practice, but he’s good, sneaky good.

Anyway, after talking about our records and plans for the rest of the tournament, Josh (at 0-2 himself) said he would scoop to me and go play in the side event.

“All I want to do is play,” he said.

In game one, I Stifled his first fetchland and put up a bit of an offense but not enough. He Fired the Meddling Mage I had on Magus of the Moon and played two Magus of the Moon and a Trinket Mage. I did some damage with double Jotun Grunts, but those guys go quick, and he turned it around at two life to win the game.

I kept hoping he would crack a fetchland or Force something since I had a Stormscape Apprentice and Lotus Petal in play for Black mana. Unfortunately, I drew nothing worth countering and he had all the mana he needed.

Suddenly I was glad he scooped to me.

In: Sword of Fire and Ice, Explosives
Out: Stormscape Apprentice, probably Stifle

Game three was Sword of Fire and Ice versus Sword of Fire and Ice, and he got his creatures to stick. It was over quickly, two hits after that.

Match 1-1-1 (actual 0-2-1)
Games 4-3-1 (actual 2-5-1)

Round 4 – Twaun – Stax

I hate playing against friends. Twaun and I were both on the bubble at this point; a loss for either of us could mean the end of our chances. Had someone explained to me the difference in chances between what would have been 3-1 for him and what would have been 2-1-1 for me, I would have scooped. Unfortunately things didn’t work out that way.

Sorry, Twaun. I owe you one.

Twaunstax, a bit like Staxless Stax, eschews a major part of modern Stax technology in the hopes of disrupting gameplans with enchantments rather than artifacts. In Twaun’s case, though, he quits on Welders, claiming they’re weak and unreliable. People just kill Welders, he argues.

I’m not so sure about this change to the Stax archetype, but it’s worked for Twaun in the past, probably in part because it’s an unexpected twist that people still react wrongly to and in part because Twaun knows what he’s doing when it comes to playing his deck.

In game one, Twaun mulliganed and kept an unfortunate hand and led with Wasteland. I wanted to see what his deck was made of, so I Wasted his Wasteland on my turn in the hopes that he’d do something significant that I could react to. He had nothing, though. I played Meddling Mage on Welder (forgetting it was Twaunstax) on turn two, Meddling Mage on Crucible of Worlds on turn three and never looked back.

Eventually he had three Cities of Brass in play, but couldn’t use them effectively since he was hemorrhaging life. He scooped at seven life to the two Meddlers and a Mindcensor.

In: Kataki, Needle, Explosives
Out: Mindcensors, Swords to Plowshares, Stifles

Twaun’s game two hand was truly bomb-like—explosive and unstable. His first turn was Crypt, Lotus, Sapphire, Mana Vault, Crucible of Worlds, Sphere of Resistance, Vampiric Tutor. I forced the Sphere of Resistance. I played fetchland, Mox Emerald and passed, waiting to see what he Tutored for, expecting Strip Mine. Strip Mine it was, and I put a Pithing Needle on it on my next turn. From there on out it was a Jotun Grunt, Mana Vault, and Mana Crypt.

If I weren’t so gung-ho about playing every match and wanting to win, I probably wouldn’t have killed both our chances in this round. Like I said: Sorry, Twaun.

Match 2-1-1
Games 5-3-1

Round 5 – Ray – Sliver Flash

Ray is a cool Michigander who comes down and supports the Gamers Lounge tournaments, so that automatically ranks him pretty highly in my book. He and I have had some good games in the past, the most memorable for me was when he was playing Tinker GAT last year and wiped the floor with me. Apparently real men don’t need Gush to be unrestricted.

I was on the play in game one and led with a Tundra, hoping to get some idea before I did anything else. Ray knocked himself down to 18 with a Street Wraith, then did it again to go to 16. He fetched and I played a hunch and let it go.

“I thought maybe you’d Stifle,” he said.

“Nope, no Stifles today,” I replied, eyeing the one in my hand.

I knew I had my chance when he played Flash and responded with Summoner’s Pact. “You got it,” I said. Surprise, surprise he found Protean Hulk and Flashed it in. When he couldn’t pay the mana cost, Hulk went to the graveyard, and I Stifled the resulting trigger, praying that he didn’t have Force of Will or Pact of Negation. He had neither and conceded.

In: Explosives, Jitte, Swords to Plowshares
Out: I don’t remember—Time Walk, Ninja, Stormscape probably

Ray’s game two opening hand must have been pretty gassy. On turn one, he played Scroll for Ancestral Recall and played Vampiric Tutor on turn two. He must have had combo pieces but no protection in his opening grip, and then Ancestraled into Slivers, because that was what he played after Duressing me for a Swords to Plowshares. Heart Sliver came down on one turn, followed a turn later (when I had blockers) by two Virulent Slivers off of Lotus.

My opening grip had Stifle and Swords to Plowshares, along with two Meddling Mages and two Mindcensors. I felt like I should be okay. Mindcensor hit play at the end of his turn, followed next turn by Meddling Mage naming Massacre. At this point, we both realized that he had fetched through Mindcensor, but did nothing about it. My mistake. Regardless, Meddling Mage came down a turn later naming Red Elemental Blast. I drew into two more Meddling Mages, and the third one named Echoing Truth. When I sent his two Virulent Slivers Farming, he called it a day.

Actually, he said that it might be time to retire. He said he doesn’t really have time to practice any more because of family, job, etc. I said that’s a sad day and that I hoped it didn’t happen.

I see he posted on the Neoh-G forums that he’s going to SCG Indianapolis, so we’ll see how long his retirement lasts.

Match 3-1-1
Games 7-3-1

Round 6 – Rhyno – Magus Slaver (Slaver of the Moon!)

Ryan “Rhyno” Spindler hails from Wisconsin and GWS. He’d had some recent success with his particular build of Slaver, which he calls Spaceman Slaver. I think both of us figured we were playing for the last spot in the top eight, and the match was pretty intense all the way through.

There was very little action in type one until he decided to unload with Ancestral Recall and Forced my Force. This put him ahead on cards, but I was attacking with a Mindcensor that slowed him down a bit, not to mention that he forgot to crack a fetchland when Mindcensor entered play. He spent another Force to counter Meddling Mage, which was fine with me since I had no idea what to name anyway. His gameplan became obvious when he hardcast Platinum Angel, but I had Swords to Plowshares just sitting around in hand, that I used at end of turn.

In: Sword, Explosives
Out: Little creatures probably

At ten life, he Drained a Force of Will to get Goblin Welder on board, but was unable to us the mana and burned for five. He Welded in Mindslaver and took my turn, but my board was super stable, and I dared him to “Wreck me.” He could not, and two Mindcensors took him down in short order.

Game two started out shakily. I kept a hand of all white cards, one Wasteland, and a basic Plains. He kept a hand with first turn Moonman on the play. When he Tinkered up Triskelavus on turn two, I had Swords to Plowshares at the ready once again. Jotun Grunt knocked him from 23 to 19 to 15, while he killed a Mindcensor with a Trike token. I drew enough white creatures to go the distance, and Sword of Fire and Ice carried it home again.

After the match he told me that he had drawn Sundering Titan the turn he Tinkered, which would have been the much better target and almost certainly would have wrecked me. I still would have been able to Swords it by floating mana, but I likely would not have drawn a usable mana source for many turns. Lucky, lucky, lucky.

Match 4-1-1
Games 9-3-1

Had Josh Chapple’s games counted, I would have been 3-2-1 and 7-5-1, which are decidedly not as pretty looking. As it was, Fish struggled a bit in the early games but came on strong in the end, not dropping a game after the Coffee Cup concession.

Juan and I thought for sure we would be playing in the T8 and started discussing splits and concessions, but when all was said and done, my 13 points and my opponents win percentage of 47% weren’t quite good enough to put me into extra games.

Well, crud. I made ninth on tiebreakers. Now I definitely should have scooped to Twaun.

C’est la vie. I guess.

We stayed until the end of the tournament since Trogdon and Juan were both in the top eight. I played Moxie Fish against Jerry using Belcher with the “no mulligan” rule in effect. What a drubbing. I don’t remember the exact totals (7-3 maybe?) but he beat the crap out of me again and again. Clearly, at least one of us should have played Belcher, and it was probably him since he’s quite savvy with it.

Oh well, that was good time spent.

In the end, Trogdon’s artifacts lost to Intuition Tendrils, and Jamison (whom I played at Becker’s tournament) beat Juan in the finals. It was RG Goyf beats versus Goblins, no Islands in sight. In fact, at least half of the top eight weren’t playing Islands at all, since along with Jamison, Juan, and Trogdon, Paul Nicolo played a TMWA-style deck that Vroman devised.

Crazy.

After the tournament we went to a Diana’s-like all-night restaurant called the Ram’s Horn. It was okay. I was starving, but the burger wasn’t impressive. At least the fries were good, and the conversation was excellent, though there were no sandwiches punched.

We finally headed for the border around midnight. Some of us slept and dreamed of the upcoming SCG; some of us stayed awake and talked strategy. Apparently Juan and Nam got lost on the way home and didn’t get back until 6 a.m.

I got home at 2:30 and crashed into one of the best sleeps ever.

I’ll have something more detailed about how the deck worked and what changes I would make probably next time. All in all I felt it was solid, though we can all see that the sideboard changes I made were repetitive: equipment always came in, and one or both of the one drops went out. That’s not necessarily bad, but it does suggest that there is room for improvement.

We’ll see. Next time.