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Tammit67
05-16-2010, 05:08 PM
This is pretty long....
5/15/10 Tournament Report: Power 9 @Jupiter Games
In the weeks leading up to the tournament, I had some issues. It was the end of the school year here at Lehigh University, and everyone who I could ride with was going home. And my brother took my car home. Thankfully, my friend Harry Matten Gillen, better known on the source as HungryLikeALion, was looking for people to take, since driving 2.5 hours to Vestal, NY isn’t exactly the greatest thing by yourself, and everyone from our local store, The Portal, wasn’t going. The conversation went something like this:
Harry: “I’ll give you a ride, sure”. Me: “Only issue is, you’d have to pick me up at home, and wait extra hours when I top 8.” Harry: “Oh was that last part from my point of view?”
So Saturday morning comes around and we hit up Wawa and get there. 129 people in attendance. During deck registration, Harry need a name of a famous sword for the deck name having brought 'excalibur' again, and ends up with the Thundercats blade by my suggestion (sword of omens). He names my deck for me:

Imitation Crab Legs
12 Island
4 Wasteland
4 Mutavault
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merrow Rejerrey
2 Wake Thrasher
2 Coralhelm Commander
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Aether Vial
4 Standstill
2 Echoing Truth
2 Umezawa’s Jitte

SB:
3 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
2 Divert
2 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Faerie Macabre
2 Sower of Temptation
3 spell pierce
2 Waterfront Bouncer

After playing UG for so long, I wanted a merfolk to reveal to adept and not have to worry so much about my mana. I’ve always preferred wake thrasher, while he isn’t a lord, since he is a must answer against a lot of the decks around. Coralhelm was an experiment.

RD 1: Evan (UG folk, Top 8’s)
Evan is playing Alex B(can’t spell last name, big UG merfolk player)’s list
G1: We both start off slow, as he plays around stifle. I cast a t2 coralhelm with my slower hand, which eats a force. He gets a vial online, and I draw standstill, dropping thrasher. Mutavaults leer at each other, as he makes a goyf and rejerrey, taking 6 from thrasher, dropping to 12. I play a rejerrey and a second vault that trades with his. My 3rd vault finds the field, as he drops a sovereign and me to 13 with another vault. I go all in on the attack, which he vials in a goyf with one card in hand and makes the blocks that lead to me losing. -4 standstill -1 catcher +3 llawan, +2 sower
G2: We both play catchers, as I land an LoA hoping to race. He gets a silvergill, and I’m not happy. I build up llawan mana, and he threads the catcher and beats to drop me to 15. My hand is blue card, force, land, llawan so I sit back and take it again the next turn. I top deck a daze, and play llawan. Llawan gets forced, which I daze, Which he reforces my creature, which I force, but he just sac’s my catcher and wins.
0-1 (0-2)

Rd 2: Adam (U Folk)
G1: Another Folk player? I keep a fast hand, and his turn 3 sovereign eats a daze. Not that it would have mattered as I had LoA, catcher, and Adept. He scoops at the daze. –4 standstill, 1 daze +3 Llawan, 2 sower. Figured the catcher is more relevant, and it was a misboard last round.
G2: Opening hand is waste, 2 vials and action. I keep, only to meet a daze, followed by force on both vials. I top deck 2 more wastelands instead of blue sources. I lose horribly.
G3: Ugh, a similar opening hand after a mull, 2 colorless sources, one vial. I keep and land vial. My LoA chips at his life total, as I force 2 adepts to keep him off of creatures. I vial in thrasher and find my blue source, dropping him to 11. He swings in with mutavault and sovereign, and I truth his lord, taking 3. Wake thrasher is huge. GG.
1-1 (2-3)

Rd 3: Jeff (Zoo?)
G1: I see the plateau and am not happy. His steppe lynx is better than my vial/catcher, especially after a fetch and pridemage hit. My vial lands me an adept (dies immediately), LoA, LoA. He swings in unadvised, and I truth the lynx, blocking the mage with vault. He taps out for 5/5 Reliquary and lavamancer. I drop another LoA and pass. He swings in the knight and a fresh hellspark elemental(!). I take the 3, but trade vault with the knight. I drop standstill, swing in for 12 with him at 11, forcing the block. Mancer drops me to 4, but he cant top deck the burn to unearth and finish me. -4 standstill, +2 divert, 2 sower (really not happy with sower at this point)
G2: He lands pridemage, followed by basilisk collar(!), as I waste him off everything but a basic plains. My active vial churns out a catcher before he decides to forgo his creature, still only having plains. Two mutavaults and a wake thrasher later, he shows me his hand of burn he can’t cast and extends the hand.
2-1 (4-3)

R4: Brian (Belcher)
I can’t seem to win a die roll
G1: he quickly mulls to five, and cycles street wraith. I look at my hand and start praying for some speed. My LoA comes down, followed by thrasher. On his turn 4, he combos for 16 goblins, but I have the Echoing truth. -2 Jitte, 1 coralhelm +3 spell pierce
G2: He t1’s removes Simian spirit guide, rite of flame, manamorphose, Xantid swarm. I have a hand of LoA, coralhelm, e truth, pierce, daze. His LED takes my pierce, as mutavault and LoA take him to 15. I truth the swarm to make daze relevant, seeing as he knows I run it and shouldn’t go goblin plan. I top deck force as coralhelm joins the fray, and he goes to 6. His attempts to combo eat daze, force.
3-1 (6-3)

R5: Kyle (Bant Survival, Winner of Tournament)
G1: The man has a nice hat, and sets up with no fewer than 3 ponders and a brainstorm as I beat him down with adept and rejerrey. His survival on t4 is forced, but he simply forces back, pitches iona, gets loyal retainers and then returns iona on next turn. Squee gives him more creatures to stall out the ground. Coralhelm isn’t enough, and my vials get pridemage’d. Rafiq lands on his side and he swings with iona for 20+ thanks to numerous exalted triggers. I concede. -1???, 4 daze(runs hierarch) +3 spell pierce, 2 waterfront bouncer
G2: My opening bouncer gets swords’d, but he goes for the old fashioned beatdown without survival. Pridemage is being indecisive about what to hit between 3 standstills and 2 vials, and LoA/wasteland/9 extra cards get there.
G3: He opens up with hierarch, goyf, as I drop vial standstill. He cracks, and I have rejerrey, 3 LoA. I pitch rejerrey to force a rhox warmonk, but he gets survival. My LoA’s are creating an army, wasteland keeping him from getting too much out of survival as he tutors squee and more goyfs, hoping to race with the 5/6’s while at 13. Another topdecked LoA(the 4th) ends that with me at 5 life. Nuts draw.
4-1 (8-4)

R6: Louis (GR Combo Lands)
G1: I can’t seem to win a die roll and he starts off with stomping grounds and exploration. I put him on lands as he gambles for loam, and write off the shock land to monetary reasons, which I dismiss when his loam dredges tabernacle. My adept and a second stomping grounds drops him to 12. Maze of Ith keeps one adept back as the other crashes in along with catcher. I EoT vial in wake thrasher, pay tabernacle on all except catcher, vial in rejerrey, play a second catcher to tap maze, and swing for lethal. I note gamble, crop rotation, scapeshift in the GY and how he does have taigas so… scapeshift combo. -4 daze, 2 jitte +2 crypt, 1 macabre, 3 spell pierce.
G2: Ah, there is a Valakut, the reason for all the mountains. Exploration and burgeoning keep his field full of ports/bosejiu early, keeping me off of mana. Thanks to vial though, rejerrey gets in along with other merfolk and simply overwhelm him. He apparently could have scapeshifted for the win had he recounted mana.
5-1 (10-4)

R7: Lam (UB Team America-ish thingy)
Another player without a loss except for his first round…
G1: His seas tells me combo, but I am sorely mistaken as I get forced, sinkhole’d, snuff’ed out,wasted, then beaten with tombstalker. Wow. -2 jitte, 2 thrasher (expect engineered plague) +2 bouncer, 2 divert. I don’t know why I didn’t include sower
G2: My turn to go first and I simply pummel him. Vial, adept, coralhelm, rejerrey mop the floor as I lose a total of 1 life off of force.
G3: 3 turns in a row he goes dual, pass, and I waste it before passing back to him. He finds basics to play instead thanks to the 4 portent, 2 brainstorm he runs, and lands engineered plague to stop my catcher from pinging him past 12. Active mutavault does the job instead until he can waste it, and I find another. He is forced to crack 2 standstills and counter the 3rd. I EoT truth the plague and vial in adept, play a second. In response he diabolic edicts me, which gets diverted back. I drop him to 8 and he replays plague. Mutavault drops him to 3 before he wastes it. I can’t find a lord all this time until I hit coralhelm, which I vial in, level up to 4 and swing for 3.
6-1 (12-5)

Rd 8: I.D. to make top 8
6-1-1 (12-5)

Top 8
My first round opponent makes top 8, as does my round 5. With breakers, I am seated 3rd out of 129 after swiss.
Rd 1: Joe Tibbetts (Zoo, like actual Zoo)
G1/2: What can I say, it zoo! I’m not Alex B. with his trinketmage package in the side that miraculously turns this matchup around. My creatures get burned, his are bigger anyway, choke makes me sad, as does REB.

After the finals clear up I take the Mox emerald proudly and head home.

Props:
Harry Matten Gillen, for naming the deck, testing, and granting me transportation.
Eli/Jupiter Games, you guys rock. I wish you were closer.
Allen Abendroth/Michael Caffrey, testing with me. For the love of god though, actually play in an event soon.
The 6 different merfolk in the list. Love them all.

Slops:
Not casting a Jitte all day.
Losing my donut round 2, only to find it in the trash after round 8. It was still tasty though.
Smelly people.
Sower/divert for being almost entirely useless.

Julian23
05-16-2010, 05:43 PM
Gratz on your finish! Just one thing: am I the only person feeling awkward when someone bashes on smelly people while eating a donut that had been lying in the trash for at least 6 hours? :P

Philipp2293
05-16-2010, 05:49 PM
Gratz on your finish! Just one thing: am I the only person feeling awkward when someone bashes on smelly people while eating a donut that had been lying in the trash for at least 6 hours? :P

Actually no, first thing which came to my mind. Congratz on the finish of course.

Tammit67
05-16-2010, 06:07 PM
To be fair, it was sealed the entire time, and only under wet paper towels. Agreed it was a bit strange though.

hungryLIKEALION
05-16-2010, 06:08 PM
There was nothing else in the can, and it was in a plastic bag, so it was pretty mundane.

Congrats again Matt. :] You deserved that emerald.

Rune
05-16-2010, 06:23 PM
R7: Lam (UB Team America-ish thingy)

If this is the guy I have played against online, I must say his deck is pretty savage... eventhough he only has 4 creatures. >_>

Tammit67
05-16-2010, 06:25 PM
R7: Lam (UB Team America-ish thingy)

If this is the guy I have played against online, I must say his deck is pretty savage... eventhough he only has 4 creatures. >_>

All of which are Tombstalker? His threat density is horrendeously low. You cant play a tempo deck with 4 threats and expect them to work for you

Rune
05-16-2010, 06:40 PM
All of which are Tombstalker? His threat density is horrendeously low. You cant play a tempo deck with 4 threats and expect them to work for you

Yep, his creature count seemed too low. It didn't seem like his deck would do very well against mono-colored/Vial decks, but I was playing some 3-colored tempo deck and got thorougly sodomized by his Portents, Sinkholes and Hymns =)