Having Fun with Gasoline

Wow, long time no blog.

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks for me since I’ve been busy finding a new apartment. A roommate and I now (well, as soon as we move in, starting August 15) live in the heart of German Village, well within walking distance of Thurman’s.

I believe I win.

Anyway, time should open up a little bit in the future, so I should have more to write about, certainly after August is over.

Did I mention that there’s a Star City Power 9 tournament in Indianapolis on September 15?

There is.

There will be so many insane players.

Anyway, I’ve got a tournament report to write, right?

I told my girlfriend a week ago that I was going to be playing in a Magic tournament on Sunday. She was okay with it, but disappointed since she’d rather me hang out with her. Saturday night, I asked if she was doing anything on Sunday because I really didn’t feel like going to the tournament. The metagame has been depressing since the unrestriction of Gush (I didn’t explain this to her), and I didn’t feel like I had a deck to play (I did tell her this).

We finally agreed that I should go and have fun anyway. Okay, so I still need a deck.

I had done some testing with SS on Friday, but the results were largely disastrous against GAT, so I felt like that was out. My other options were between my own list of GAT with Tendrils main and Belcher.

I didn’t feel like playing GAT. Not only is it not fun for me to play The Deck, the one that everyone else is playing, but also I don’t feel like a skilled enough pilot to go through a mirror with Menendian and Mastriano and the others who have been practicing it. I’m sure I would have been fine because the deck is retarded good, but it was not to be for me.

I played Belcher.

Saturday night, I had hit on the idea of Magus of the Moon in the sideboard. It’s a Living Wishable target that isn’t expensive and attacks for two. Plus, it should pretty much slow GAT and its foil, Stax, enough for me to win. I proxied Moonman the Sunday morning, but realized actually boarding him would be stupid. Why would I wish for and play Magus for five mana when I should be able to just win the game instead.

It’s a possibility in the future, but not right now.

Here is what I played:

4x Goblin Charbelcher
3x Empty the Warrens
1x Wheel of Fortune
1x Memory Jar

4x Goblin Welder
2x Living Wish
3x Red Elemental Blast
3x Pyroblast

4x Simian Spirit Guide
4x Elvish Spirit Guide
1x Taiga
4x Land Grant
5x Moxen
1x Black Lotus
1x Lion’s Eye Diamond
1x Lotus Petal
1x Chrome Mox
1x Grim Monolith
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Channel
4x Rite of Flame
4x Tinder Wall

4x Street Wraith

Sideboard

1x Taiga
1x Mishra’s Workshop
1x Ancient Tomb
1x Bazaar of Baghdad
1x Tolarian Academy
3x Gorilla Shaman
1x Tin Street Hooligan
2x Ancient Grudge
2x Shattering Spree
1x Storm Entity
1x Empty the Warrens

Though it’s almost back to where it was two months ago, I’m really pleased with this list. The one change I would make is to put the fourth Empty the Warrens back in the maindeck, either for the fourth Goblin Welder or for one of the worse acceleration pieces.

For the record, out of the six games I won, three were with goblin tokens, two were with Belcher, and one was with an unpaid Pact of Negation.

So I woke up early on Sunday morning and made sure my deck and sideboard were ready to go. I showered and had an excellent lunch of grilled tomato-and-cheese on bruschetta. I got to the tournament site on time and sat with Jerry Yang and Mark Trogdon to register.

It was a small turnout of only 14 players. Disappointing, but oh well. I guess we’ll get to dinner early.

Round One – Dave Daugherty – GAT

Dave is a fun opponent, and he and I exchanged the usual pleasantries and pre-game banter. I had him pegged for GAT, but I was worried he might be playing Ichorid as well. Ichorid can be a tough matchup for me because Cabal Therapies can demolish my hand while Chalices slow me down.

I won the die roll and elected to go first. Then I elected to make 10 goblins. He Merchant scrolled on his first turn but announced he had no Echoing Truth to get, having replaced it with Chain of Vapor as the more efficient bounce spell. Therefore, the game was good.

In game two, Dave dropped a Pithing Needle naming Belcher. I Living Wished for Bazaar and saw a Goblin Welder and two Gorilla Shamans get countered in a few more turns. With Ancient Grudge in hand, I bided my time and waited for the moment to spring. Unfortunately, Duresses picked my hand down while my opponent searched for his win condition. Finally he found Dryads after playing Yawgmoth’s Will and Fastbond. He Time Walked with a 12/12 Dryad and a 6/6 Dryad in play and knocked me dead.

Game two had taken long enough that we went to time quickly in game three. My opening hand was not a turn one winner after mulligan, and he couldn’t put anything together fast enough, so we drew. My notes say that there was “No action from either side, really.”

The draw ended up being bad for both of us as we ended up fifth and sixth in the tournament that cut to top four. I probably should have mulliganed one more time in the third game, just to see if I could pull something off. There is a protected five-card first-turn kill in Belcher, and there’s always the chance I could have drawn that.
Round 2 – Jacob – Flash

Before the tournament my opponent announced that this was his first Vintage tournament. I hope he had fun.

In game one we both pass turns, setting up combos. He plays Summoner’s Pact for Protean Hulk and Flash, but I have the Pyroblast. He’s lucky enough to have the mana for the Summoner’s pact upkeep, but is forced to pass the turn tapped out. I play Charbelcher but will have to wait to activate. Unfortunately, he has the Flash and is able to win the game in the meantime using the antiquated (?) Kiki-Jiki kill.

Well, crap.

In game two, I catch a break when I am able to Pyroblast his Ancestral Recall and he elects to Pact it but draws nothing. Apparently, he was one mana shy of being able to win that turn, so it was probably a fair move since he could have drawn any of his lands as well as any Mox.

Now that I say that, I wonder why he didn’t just win with the mana he spent on the Ancestral. Anyway, passing the turn, FTW.

Game three opens with Underground Sea, Carrion Feeder, go. I Street Wraith into a first turn Belcher off of Mana Vault with Pyroblast backup. It takes me a couple of turns to find the activation mana, but I do. He elects to Pact of Negation my Tinder Wall instead of dying to Belcher. I pass the turn again and win.

So I lost a game, stole a game and won a game. I’ll take it. Flash is stupid.

Round 3 – Stephen Menendian – GATr

My opponent pretty much needs no introduction. It’s Stephen Menendian! Vote for Steve in the Storyteller spot for the Magic Invitational! The voting starts this Friday, I think, and I’ll try to have more information before then.

Game one starts well as I Empty the Warrens for eight tokens on turn one. He’s forced to Vampiric Tutor for Fastbond, hoping to dig himself out of trouble with Gush, but his draw engine ends on an Opt and he scoops at eight life.

In game two, he Brainstorms on turn one, plays Black Lotus, and passes the turn. I drop Mox Monkey with REB backup and eat his Lotus with the unused mana. He floats black and uses it to Vampiric Tutor for Ancestral, sending himself to 16 with mana burn. I make six goblin tokens and he’s forced to block with Quirion Dryad, just as I’m forced to leave tokens back to block.

It’s a close game at the beginning, but the tide turns as the Dryad grows menacingly. I’m forced to storm up with a Land Grant for nothing and play Empty the Warrens for four tokens, but he Forces both copies and goes to four life. My holdout blocker, the original Mox Monkey, dies to the Dryad and his next attack goes through for a ridiculous amount.

Steve Duresses my unplayable Empty the Warrens in game three but leaves me with two Belchers, which he Needles soon after. I decide that some monkey beats are in order, so I hardcast Simian Spirit Guide, who eventually sacrifices himself as a blocker. The game gets out of hand quickly, and I die again to Dryads.

GAT is also stupid.

At one point in game three, Steve discarded from his massive hand before declaring an attack with a 6/6 Dryad. Mark Trogdon asked me afterwards if I was okay with that, and I said, yes. I could have saved myself for another turn (probably) had I called him on it, but, meh. It wasn’t a big deal, and I knew what was meant to happen.

Round 4 – Josh – Oath with Red

I’ve played against Josh before, most notably in the top four of one of the Meandeck Legacy tournaments. He seems like a nice guy. I’m glad he started playing Vintage. Plus, Oath seems like a decent choice right now if you play the metagame right.

In game one, he dropped a Chalice for zero that didn’t do much against me. Unfortunately, I was stupid enough to drop a turn one Goblin Welder against him even though I knew he was playing Oath. Long and painfully obvious story short, he played Oath on turn two, and beat my face with Akroma. My hand wasn’t fast enough to catch up.

My hand is pretty good in game two. I have two Belchers, permanent mana, and Living Wish in my opening hand, so I go get Mishra’s Workshop. I play Belcher, which gets Forced. I draw REB, play Belcher, play REB on Force, and sacrifice Lion’s Eye Diamond to win. His opening hand had at least three, maybe four, Brainstorms and some fetchlands. I’m pretty sure I was lucky to beat that.

I should mention perhaps, that after my flub in game one, I sided out all of my Goblin Welders. The other creatures I have that I’m compelled to play are Tinder Walls, and I can sacrifice those if necessary to keep him from Oathing. I did, however bring in the fourth Empty the Warrens because a bunch of goblin tokens can race one Angel.

So in game three, he plays land go while I attempt to Empty the Warrens for ten guys. He Brainstorms and Forces on of the copies. Goblins get in for eight as he draws and tutors, sending him to 10. On his turn, he gets and plays Oath, saying he has a two in three chance to get Platinum Angel. (What he doesn’t know is that I have Shattering Spree and Ancient Grudge in my hand and enough mana to play either). He Oaths up Akroma and attempts to play Time Walk, for which I conveniently have both REB and Pyroblast off my Tinder Wall. He scoops at one life to certain doom

He mentioned afterwards that his play should have been to just get Oath down and try to race or get Platty faster. I tell him about the artifact kill in my hand, but he still would have won, I think.

So that’s it. My match record was 2-1-1 and I was 6-5-1 in games. I will take that. I was never 0-2’d, but I never 2-0’d anyone either. And for playing Belcher, I had some of the longest games I’ve ever played.

Right now is actually a fairly good time to be playing Belcher, I think. Pithing Needle is easier to answer than Null Rod is, and no one’s playing Null Rods anymore because GAT only plays three moxes. Forces of Will and Duresses aren’t as scary as they could be, and there’s a lot of power to be had off the topdeck in Belcher.

I’m not sure whether I’m trying to recommend the deck to other people or whether I’m just trying to justify the choice to myself. Either way, I can see myself playing Belcher for a while. It’s a lot of fun.

Anyway, like I said, there were 14 people at this tournament, and the most popular decks by my count were GAT (five) and Flash (three). GAT put three people into the top four (Menendian, Paul Mastriano, and Jimmy McCarthy), accompanied by Mark Trogdon and his amazing Nine-Mine Uba Stax.

For now, though, I will be waiting for Star City Indianapolis. I hope there will be more Vintage between now and then. I will need the practice.