I’ll choose to truncate my usual pre-tournament routine description and will cut it down to three things:
1. Friday night, the night before the tournament, I played in a Lorwyn draft and went 2-2. I also picked up playsets of Ponders and Spellstutter Sprites and a two-pack of Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, just in case.
2. While I ate breakfast, I worked on a sudoku—just a second-level puzzle. My usual strategy is to roll through the puzzle and complete it in a few minutes, but this one I got stuck on for almost fifteen minutes before finally figuring it out in a flash of insight. It was frustrating and then strangely fulfilling.
3. Before the tournament started, I was playtesting Belcher against all comers. And pwning the crap out of them. Black Lotus in every hand, don’t Duress me because I have backup everything, here’s 16 goblins and a 7/7 hasty Storm Entity for you to deal with. It was awesome, and it’s how I immediately knew I wouldn’t be playing Belcher in the tournament. Stupid karma.
The Gamers lounge is located in sunny Sandusky, Ohio at 127 E. Market Street, in a slowly but steadily rebuilding downtown harbor area. It’s nice even on non-tournament days; there are pleasant restaurants, shops, and parks, and easy access to Cedar Point and the Lake Erie islands. If you’ve never been to Sandusky, check it out!
3x Ninja of the Deep Hours
1x Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
4x Spellstutter Sprite
4x Meddling Mage
3x Jotun Grunt
4x Aven Mindcensor
4x Hapless Researcher
4x Force of Will
4x Swords to Plowshares
4x Stifle
1x Time Walk
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Lotus Petal
1x Black Lotus
3x Flooded Strand
2x Polluted Delta
3x Tundra
2x Island
1x Plains
4x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
Sideboard
4x Kataki, War's Wage
2x Echoing Truth
2x Pithing Needle
3x Waterfront Bouncer
2x Sword of Fire and Ice
2x Umezawa's Jitte
It may look like this list is quite different from the last one that I posted, but actually there were only three changes:
First, Brainstorms went out for Hapless Researcher. I’m not sure when Hapless Researcher became such a pet card for me, but somehow he did. Brainstorm was, for the most part, not missed. I would have liked the extra draw power against Mike Smar’s Empty Gush in round four and against Jimmy McCarthy’s Goblins in the top eight, but in every other match, the extra creature was huge.
Then, one Ninja turned out to be Grand Arbiter Augustin IV in disguise! I’m not really sure how this worked out. I only saw Augustin in two games. In the first, he pitched to Force of Will and could have been any blue creature. In the second, he wielded a Sword of Fire and Ice and a Jitte to victory over Goblins and could have been any creature. I’m going to do more testing, since with five moxes it’s not unthinkable that I’d get him into play second or third turn when he can do some good. At the same time, I think in the future, I’d stick with four ninjas, especially if I keep the other creatures the way they are.
Finally, Marty McFrost rode the bench in lieu of Essie, more commonly known as Spellstutter Sprite. Sprite was awesome. With five moxes, I had Sprite or the threat of it first turn in many games, and I was tagging key cards all day. Definitely try this card out if you’re at all interested because it sure convinced me.
So with my deck decided, I ponied up my $15 and collected my free, signed, Urza’s Saga Island with lightning bolt. Nice!
Round 1 – Justin Dewey – Affinity
After I collected the decklists from Dave after the tournament, I saw that Justin had titled his deck “Poopfinity 2k7,” but since he made his first top four yesterday, I think he may have underestimated either his prowess or the deck’s, but probably both. Justin and I chatted for a bit while we shuffled about how cruddy it is to have to play against friends, especially in the first round. Regardless, someone had to die, and as far as I was concerned, it wasn’t going to be me.
In game one, I won the die roll and opened with a fetchland and a Mox, keeping mana up to play Spellstutter Sprite. Justin opened with Vault of Whispers, Mox Emerald, Disciple of the Vault, and Disciple drew the first Sprite of the weekend. From that point on, I was bent on keeping his hand-size low and his creatures off the board. When he attacked with a Cranial Plated Ornithopter, I flashed in Mindcensor as a blocker. Then I played Swords to Plowshares on an Arcbound Ravager and a Myr Enforcer, and Essie took down an Ancestral Recall and an Ornithopter. Score! The game took a while, but Justin ran out of gas and was run down quickly by Ninjas and Sprites.
Obviously Kataki came in, and I also brought in Jittes and Pithing Needle for Cranial Plating and Ravager. Aven Mindcensor and Stifle sat out game two.
Justin opened game two with a Disciple but had nothing else. I quickly had Pithing Needles on Plating and Ravager and was keeping him off of lands (and therefore artifacts) with two Wastelands and a Strip Mine. Jotun Grunt came in for an attack, but I stupidly forgot to pay for his upkeep. Kataki followed him and Justin was quickly locked out of the game. Ninjas and Kataki took him down in a heap.
Match 1-0-0, Games 2-0-0
I always feel bad about taking down a friend, but as I said, Justin turned his defeat into determination, got the power up, and won the game. By which I mean he finished in the money. Congrats, dude!
Round 3 – Jerry Yang – Workshop Aggro
Jerry and I haven’t played each other in a while. My records say it was back in February, so a break of almost eight months. Still, Jerry is one of my favorite opponents, so this would be a fun match. Except for the fact that he’s playing Workshop Aggro with maindeck Triskelion, Juggernaut, Duplicant, and Sword of Fire and Ice. Dang.
We roll six dice to the higher Yahtzee roll, and his triple threes with five kicker beat my triple ones with a six. As a side note, it’s a lot easier to remember who goes first in a particular match if you do something interesting to determine it. For example, Justin and I rolled 2D6 and multiplied, then subtracted a D20, aiming for the lower score. I got -4; Justin got 2, so I played first.
So, Jerry opened with a Mishra’s Workshop and a Sphere of Resistance, burning for one. I played a Mox. Then Jerry played Thorn of Amethyst. When I tried to Wasteland him into submission by taking out his Workshop, he played another, then a Triskelion and a Sword of Fire and Ice and another Triskelion. It was bad. I lost. Real bad. In increments of eight starting on the fourth turn.
Kataki came in again for Aven Mindcensor, and I think I tried to rectify my earlier play of bringing in Kataki and a bunch of artifacts by bringing in Waterfront Bouncers and Echoing Truths instead.
In game two, I was able to play a first turn Meddling Mage for Triskelion, but I should have named Juggernaut, since that quickly became the elephant in the game. I had two Meddling Mages on board but didn’t want to block with them without some other tangible threat to back them up with, but all I did was draw lands and die.
Round 2 – Eric Paull – Workshop Aggro
Eric was an awesome opponent who made the drive down from Michigan with Paul, Kyle, and my round four opponent, Mike Smar. My opponent looked young, so I was expecting something “Small Child.dec,” but quickly turned out to be no Vintage noob, and except for a few play mistakes on both our parts, the match was a lot of fun. Plus, Eric also made top eight, and good for him.
He won the roll for game one but his high-cost deck fell behind quickly as he Bazaared too eagerly and Magus of the Moon locked him to three basic Mountains. I had plenty of creatures, including Ninja refilling my hand, and he conceded when I put a Meddling Mage on Juggernaut. Adding the extra Island in place of Tundra to my deck really showed here as I had one Island opening hand, an opening I would see all day.
This time it was definitely Kataki and equipment that came in. Aven Mindcensor and Stifle went out.
Game two went far worse for me. He started with Mox, Land, Thorn of Amethyst and tried to play Black Lotus. I pointed out that it cost one more, and he took it back. Next turn I was able to Spellstutter Sprite it. Yes! Unfortunately, he was still able to play Magus of the Moon, which was soon followed by Goblin Welder, Solemn Simulacrum, and Chalice for two. When I commented that Chalice for two is pretty bad, he sounded my death knell by playing and equipping Sword of Fire and Ice. Dang.
Game three saw us both go to five cards from the start. He drew an opening hand of eight and was forced to mull twice; I just had to mull twice because my hands were crappy. Both of us were short on land, obviously, so the game took a while to get going. He played a Welder and got in a good number of hits. I played Jitte and gazed at its unwielded beauty. Then we had this conversation:
Eric: Chalice for zero.I looked at his board and saw the following: Mountain, Welder. Huh, I guess he’s right. I totally thought he said, “Chalice for two,” then there was that whole thing about Moxes. I must have been out of it. Anyway, he was cool enough to understand and let me take back one of the moxes. Since I probably wouldn’t have played the second one after my first one got countered. It mattered for both of us later as he was able to Weld out my Jitte when I finally got a Jotun Grunt to pick it up, and I was later able to use the Welded Mox to play Sword of Fire and Ice and go to town for the win.
Me: Ugh, sure.
Eric: You know, just in case you get some Moxes. Swing. Pass turn.
Me: Untap, upkeep, draw. Mox, Mox?
Eric: Countered.
Me: What? I thought you said Chalice for two.
Eric: No! I don’t even have the mana for that!
Match 2-1-0, Games 4-3-0
Oh, those crazy games of Magic. Eric also went on to top eight. I hope we meet again at future tournaments. (Also, after seeing Jerry Yang’s top four Workshop Aggro list, I think Eric might have to add more creatures and less Magus. Magus doesn’t seem to be that awesome when you need the mana boost of Workshop. Just a thought.)
Round 4 – Mike Smar – Empty Gush
Mike and I had this exchange at one point in our match:
Mike: I’m kind of a spaz.That’s pretty much it. Mike is an active opponent whose pregame ritual (and I do mean ritual) included setting up a pentagon of the five full-frame art cards from Future Sight on the board as a good-luck charm. The match was quickly over for me.
Me: I can tell.
In game one, he gets past my mana disruption efforts and plays a Black Lotus, leading into Merchant Scroll for Ancestral Recall. That seems pretty good. I put a Meddling Mage on Brainstorm, but it’s too late. With the card advantage he has, I should have named a win condition. He played Tinker through a Force of Will to get Darksteel and smash my face in.
For some reason, I decide not to sideboard. I am good at Magic.
My hand isn’t terrific for game two, but I have to keep because it’s playable. We play land-go for a while until he plays Ancestral and is forced to save it from Spellstutter Sprite. Ninja hits play, but it’s too late. He baits my Stifle with a fetchland, draws a bunch of cards, and the Warrens Empty for 16 guys. When I lose, he shows me his handful of Force of Wills.
Match 2-2-0, Games 4-5-0
Mike also went on to play in the top eight. Nice job. It’s nice to know that everyone I played in the Swiss rounds also played in the final rounds. I mean, I guess that should be a comfort, right?
Round 5 – Lyle Hawkyard – GATr
Lyle and I also haven’t played against each other in a while, since December, by my reckoning. I’ve known him mostly to play Fish of some color combination, but he’s playing GAT today and has been since Gush’s unrestriction. His deck registration sheet comments on that in the Deck Designer slot, where he entered, “idiots in the DCI.” Nice.
Anyway, Lyle and I find out while we’re shuffling that the winner of this match will make it into the top eight. We wish each other luck and joke about drawing.
In game one, my hand has a lot of control, but not a lot of creature action. He takes some damage from fetchlands and baits a counter from me to get Fastbond into play. He doesn’t really have a lot of action either, though. I get a couple of hits in with Jotun Grunt, but that dies soon enough since nothing else is happening. Finally, he says, something to the effect of, “Okay, you’re gonna love this,” and plays Mox Jet, Mana Drains it, Spell Snares the Drain, Gush, Empty the Warrens for 10 guys. Not bad. His horde is able to get around my defenders for the win.
Waterfront Bouncers, Jittes, and Echoing Truths come in for Hapless Researcher, Time Walk, and something else that I can’t recall.
I take an early advantage in the second game, when Lyle mulligans to five. I play a fetchland and a Mox, and put Essie into play at the end of his first turn when he does nothing but play a land. I play a Mindcensor at the end of his next turn and he allows it. When I attack and he attempts to Fire both of my one-toughness fliers, I make the incredibly techy play of Spellstuttering the Fire! Instead of going from two creatures to none, I went from two creatures to three! Yes! After that, things go downhill quickly for him as Ninja joins the fray and takes him down.
Between games two and three, I again wished my opponent luck and said I was glad that at least one of us would make it into the top eight. Then I added, “That said, you know I also hope you mulligan to five.” He laughed.
Game three is just bizarre. After a flurry of activity at the beginning including Stifling his first fetchland, putting a Mage on Gush, and sending a Dryad and a Goyf farming, we’re both looking for something to put the opponent away. Early in the game, we both had tons of land in play, enough that a hardcast Ninja met a hardcast force of Force of Will. Luckily for me the Meddling Mage I played early went all the way, helped along by a Mana Drained Ninja that led to four damage for my opponent.
Match 3-2-0, Games 6-6-0
Luckily, that rather sickly 50% win percentage is enough to get me into the top eight. My opponents all did well before and after our matches, so they’re all in as well, and my tiebreakers might even have been good enough to get me in at 3-1-1. Still, it’s been a battle all day, and will not likely let up.
Top 8 – Jimmy McCarthy – Goblins
I realized yesterday that Fish loses to any deck whose name is a creature type: Goblins, Slivers, Beasts, Elves, Thallids, doesn’t matter. And Jimmy has beaten me many times with Goblins before, once with an opening hand that went Black Lotus, Strip Mine, Lackey, Goblin Warchief, attack. I think I died on turn three in that game. At least here now I’ll have blockers. Come on, Hapless Researcher!
In game one, I Force Aether Vial, essentially mulliganning to four on the play. Not a good start. It gets worse too, even though I’m keeping the really good goblins like Piledrivers off the board with Swords to Plowshares. Lackey and Goblin Matron are hitting me just fine on their own and I die pretty quickly. I maintain that the most powerful cards in Goblins aren’t the Piledrivers, they’re Goblin Matron and Goblin Ringleader.
I look at my sideboard and see that it could easily be 15 cards in. Finally I settle on Sword, Jitte, Pithing Needle, and Waterfront Bouncer. I remove Force of Will (reluctantly, let me tell you), Stifle, and something else.
Game two, I open a hand that has land, land, Mox, Lotus Petal, Augustin, Jitte, Sword. This hand flies really far on the hope that my opponent doesn’t have Red Elemental Blast or some other removal between me getting Augustin in play and me equipping him with Sword of Fire and Ice. Thank goodness he didn’t. Turn one Jitte. Turn two Augustin. Turn three draw Black Lotus, equip Jitte, play and equip Sword, win the game. Augustin was pissed! Take that, Red Menace!
Game three is another weird one as we both spent a lot of time doing not much of anything. He brought in tons of artifact kill for my troublesome equipment and ended up with most of it in his hand; I ended up with lots of mana and no threats. His Mogg Fanatics and my Happy (but very nervous) Researcher stared at each other across a battlefield filled with charred bodies from our two previous games. We turns finding a threat and removing it, or vice versa. And in the mean time, he’s taking some damage from his Tormod’s Crypt, my best threat until he plays Goblin Tinkerer. Finally he makes his move, and has run me out of creatures. I die with a hand full of mana and no thing to do with it.
Match 3-3-0, Games 7-8-0
Ugh.
Making top eight sounded so nice in my head until I saw my final record at the end. Oh well. I was knocked from the final rounds, and my day of Magic ended there. I took home a signed Lotus Petal for my trouble. Seems okay.
The November and December tournaments are already scheduled at the Gamers Lounge, so be sure to check those out:
November 10, 2007I know, I know - this is the same weekend as Star City Chicago. Dave is planning
Registration - 12 noon
Tournament - 1 pm
Cost - $15
Prize - Full cash payout of entry fees awarded to top four
1st: 50%
2nd: 30%
3rd: 10%
4th: 10%
on marketing this tournament more specifically to more local gamers and novice
Vintage players. This means that there maybe more information and special deals
like reduced entry fee or entry bonuses. The idea is that new Vintage players
will be able to play and experience the format without feeling threatened by
Vintage "pros." So if you're not going to SCG Chicago or if you (or someone you
know) wants to get started in Vintage, this could be your big break!
December 8, 2007I’m already looking forward to the December tournament; it makes me feel all Christmassy.
Registration - 12 noon
Tournament - 1 pm
Cost - $15
Prize - Full cash payout of entry fees awarded to top four
1st: 50%
2nd: 30%
3rd: 10%
4th: 10%
Anyway, I feel like I played well, and I’ll continue to test and develop Fish because, like always, it’s a deck that gives you a chance in almost any environment, as long as you’re prepared. I just have to figure out how to predict an environment better, and I am getting better. Promise!
Until then, I’ll just hope to open up with Augustin and two swords by turn three. That sounds pretty good.
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