1st at Dartmouth, MA with Turbo-Drazi for x4 Underground Sea Feb 20, 2011

[Rock Lee]

TLDR: Turbo-Drazi did it again, eat it haters.

STORY TIME (Skip past this if you don't like stories, or time):
In an effort to raise the prices of Candelabra of Tawnos even higher than its current price, I took Turbo-Drazi to the largest event I could find within a 4 hour radius this weekend. I had never been to Dartmouth, MA but for some reason I recall there being lots of talks of cows and the woes of isolation in regard to Dartmouth and talk of the place being generally reminiscent of the Lovecraftian Dunwich, so I went into this event with a large degree of trepidation. All three of my Magical Card tromping troupe abandoned me for less cardboard endeavors so I was flying solo this time. Hurray 3 hour drives! If anyone decides to go to Dartmouth, MA, for the love of god do not use Google Maps. While normally Google Maps will get you there easier and happier than the mapquest or yahoo maps equivalents, apparently when it comes to U Mass Dartmouth, Google maps wants to send you sight seeing some rather impressive, but not Dartmouth windmills deep down Route 24-S in the bowels of southern Massachusetts. This complete failure to be anywhere near Dartmouth by what I thought was a 10 am starting time in combination with the idea that at any time the Cthulhu worshiping townsfolk were going to eat my brains, I wasn't off to a good start and panic was running amok in my vehicle of one. After some kindly locals redirected me 45 minutes in the direction of Dartmouth I arrived frenzied and exasperated. Dashing for the entrance and registration I slammed down my 30 dollars praying that they would delay the entries at the sight of some delicious Hamiltons. It was then that I was told that the event wasn't beginning for another hour, and likely another two since I wasn't the only person having issues getting to the dark abyss known as Dartmouth. So then I got some great reading done for two hours while I sat pretty.

I played the exact same decklist as the previous week at Jupiter, having thought of no greater synergies in the sideboard.

// Lands
4 [MR] Cloudpost
4 [TSP] Vesuva
4 [U] Tropical Island
1 [IN] Island (2)
1 [WWK] Eye of Ugin
4 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
4 [SOM] Glimmerpost
1 [JGC] Flooded Strand

// Creatures
2 [ROE] Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2 [M11] Primeval Titan
1 [ROE] Kozilek, Butcher of Truth

// Spells
3 [ROE] All Is Dust
4 [ZEN] Expedition Map
4 [FNM] Thirst for Knowledge
4 [AQ] Candelabra of Tawnos
4 [V09] Sensei's Divining Top
3 [GP] Repeal
4 [AL] Force of Will
3 [M10] Ponder
3 [UL] Crop Rotation

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [LG] The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
SB: 3 [ZEN] Mindbreak Trap
SB: 3 [TE] Propaganda
SB: 4 [R] Energy Flux
SB: 4 [SOK] Pithing Needle

As I am a pro at only writing shorthand and losing half my notes, these will be from memory.

Round 1: Merfolk (Ends up Top 8'ing)

Game one: I drop kozilek on turn 4, which doesn't go over too well for him
Game two: he crazy swarms me while supplying two forces. oh you merfolk, when you do it, you do it so well
Game three: I assume an easy win with a hand of 3 cloudposts, kozilek, all is dust. I end up being caught at a bad time against a Back to Basics. I end up punting by going all in on an all is dust instead of propaganda, then eot Repealing the B2B untapping and winning. grrrr! I punt and really hope a round 1 loss doesn't cost me the event!

Round 2: Goblins(Adam)
Oh good. Red men. Aight bring it red men.

Game one: he keeps a hand with wasteland, vial, million-angry-goblins. I keep a hand of force of will and a blue card and lands. Hurray force on vial. He doesn't find a red source for two draws, which is ample time for me to play big bad colorless men.
Game two: My notes show that he ends up attacking me for 18 when all he had in play was a piledriver at the start of the turn. yuck.
Game three: Turn 4 emrakul. who needs player interaction?

Round 3: Indy 4cc Thresh (Li)

Game 1: Turn 4 Emrakul. rawr.
Game 2: He resolves an early Meddling Mage naming Repeal, while I'm holding 3 in hand. Awk Ward. He then sticks Ajani Vengant and keeps my single Cloud Locus tapped. He ultimates me, and I would come back had it not been hastened by a tarmogoyf of epic proportions (he was a 6/7 and was missing creature)
Game 3: Turn 5 Emrakul. hate makes it one turn later. Still works though!

Round 4: Burn (Dalton)
I had heard that there was a treacherous burn player completely stomping the top tables. This of course, scares me shitless, so I make sure I know him by his fancy hat. When the Fancy Hat man strolls up to my table and shakes my hand, I require a new pair of pants.

Game 1: My notes show me going down to 7, and then gaining back up to 27 from a Primeval Titan. I believe it was on turn 4. On the pivotal life swing, He responds to the double glimmerpost trigger from Primeval Titan with Flames of the Blood Hand, which BLOWS MY MIND. Unfortunately I have the force for it, so thank goodness for that.
Game 2: As if game 1 didn't have enough lifegain, I gain 36 life this game, making for a very very frown town burn player. This opponent goes on to tell everyone else that I'm playing a lifegain deck, which I love him for! <3

Round 5: Canadian Thresh (Dana)
Dana is always highly enjoyable to play against. Not only does he look just like the Undertaker, and I know this without even owning a television nor watching soap operas for guys, but he innovates and has the massive brass cohones to play decks like mono red burn and crush people's dreams with it. Today he's playing Thresh, unfortunately for him.

Game 1: Kozilek resolved on turn 4.
Game 2: Nimble Mongoose chews at my face for several turns, followed shortly by a goyf. My life flutters at 2, but a repeal on goyf followed by an all is dust lets me gain up to 6, 8, 14, then emrakul. Ermakul life is my favorite life total.

Round 6: ID into Top 8. cheats


Top 8!

Jeff with Indy 4cc Thresh

This is a rough matchup for him to say the least and we both know it. Jeff is a great guy though, and takes his licks with pride and a smile.
Game 1: I play many things that get swords'd, Kozilek, Primeval Titan, both of which do their duty once they've hit play and Jeff can't match the absurd Card Advantage
Game 2: I keep a hella risky hand of one mana producing land, two vesuva, ugin, top, force, thirst. He forces my top and I debate forcing back but decide I will mise like a beast. I don't. Instead I play a highly risky play of crop rotation in response to a Trinket Mage on the stack with Counterbalance Top in play. He opts to let the crop rotation resolve, which is risky and he beats himself up over it mercilessly. I then vesuva the cloudpost three times and play Emrakul.

Top 4
Merfolk. Of all the aggro matchups, I strongly prefer Merfolk. They lose massive amounts of inertia to both pinpoint and sweeping removal, and I pack that in droves.

Game 1: I cast a turn 4 Kozilek, which evokes many frowns.
Game 2: Turn 3 has a repeal on attacking merfolk, which draws out counters. Turn 4 has a primeval titan, which my opponent apparently misread and thought the search was a trigger on casting it instead of an ETB trigger. He lets it resolve and while I'm tutoring lands he shows me the force, which he kicks himself for not casting. I win with the titan.

Finals!
Merfolk. (Eric) Freakin blue men and women need to sink!

Game 1: He keeps a double wasteland hand, and stifles my fetchland. However, I keep a 4 land hand and draw more. I cast an Emrakul by the time he has dealt me 6 damage. hurray.
Game 2: He pounds my face in with wastes and stifles again, but vial is keeping up the pressure. Oh those merfolk and their merfolky ways. My only out this game is for him to not pay for tabernacle, which he does. fiddles!
Game 3: I gain a reconkuloso amount of health off early cloudposts into larger glimmerpost gains. We have a rather epic counter war over an eot Eye of ugin activation. Ugin -> Stifle -> Force -> Force -> Force -> Force. frowns. Still though, its inevitable and two turns later kozilek carries to victory on the back of multiple candelabras.


Slops!
-Google Maps
-Cthulhu
-Misplays costing me matches
-17 degree weather making fresh air a limited commodity
-1 hour delay on starting, although acceptable for a 1st big event

Props!
-Great locals and an incredible event venue
-Attractive woman gamer with a furry fluffy tail. I swear to you, no matter what level of cosplay you ascribe to or hate, you cannot not be distracted by this level of hotness. I prayed to the Cardboard deities not to get paired with her for I would be thumbs and babbling incoherently. The gods answered my request.
-Dartmouth's gaming club placing 3 people in the top 8! Go go locals.

Dartmouth Gaming Society may just become my new most favorite venue for legacy events. Their -2-19-11-Legacy-Underground-Seas]most recent event was simply amazing. In addition to a great hall that could easily support 200 people, they had multiple staff on hand vending food, helping with registration, and having multiple people on the judging staff. There was a large amount of both organization and enthusiasm to be efficient and friendly. This event felt smooth and controlled like a PTQ. The DGS had multiple gaming counsels set up for Super Smash Brawl and some Capcom vs Marvel type thing, which gave players great outlets between rounds and nearing the end of the event. There were actually women taking food and drink orders of players between and during rounds, which blew my mind! When they went over their goal on players to prizes, they gave out almost 3 full boxes of Mirrodin Besieged for upto top 16 and a large amount of judge promos. Ultimately, this was a group of social players who enjoy running events as much as we enjoy playing in them. I will completely attend with even highly reluctant teammates to a similarly sized event in the future and I strongly suggest others check them out as well! Apparently they haven't been posting on the source with their recent events, but I'm sure that will change now.

Last note! I'm Currently invoking my creative control over Turbo-Drazi as I feel it needs a name-upgrade/change. Post your ideas here. I generally enjoy names that don't try to emphasize what I consider the weaknesses of a deck, namely Locus/posts. Anyone suggesting Flying spaghetti monster references will be shot. buried, then shot again. Anyone with references to Lovecraftian or Egyptian horrors will get extra consideration!