metalhead
07-17-2012, 06:31 AM
This past Sunday I took 27th at Starcity St.Louis. I didnt find out until 5pm on Saturday that I was going to be able to go. Due to this I had not
been doing any testing. So rather than play Doomsday I decided to sleeve up TES. I did not take many notes so I'll try to touch on key points but
my memory is a little hazy on some minor details.
My list.
Artifacts
4 Chrome Mox
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
Instants
1 Ad Nauseam
4 Brainstorm
4 Dark Ritual
4 Silence
Sorceries
4 Burning Wish
3 Duress
2 Gitaxian Probe
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Ponder
4 Rite of Flame
1 Tendrils of Agony
Lands
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
1 Polluted Delta
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
Sideboard:
2 Xantid Swarm
2 Chain of Vapor
1 Echoing Truth
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Grapeshot
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Past in Flames
1 Reanimate
1 Shattering Spree
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Thoughtseize
The main is the same as Bryants current list on the opening page. With a few changes to the SB.
Round 1. Byron with Burn. Very polite kid.
Game 1. He wins the roll and leads Mountain Goblin Guide attack. Guide trigger reveals Chrome Mox and my oppoent sighs.
On my turn I make 10 goblins and they get there.
Game 2. He least turn 1 Figure of Destiny. I Inquizition him taking Pyrostatic Pillar. A few turns go by and I use Infernal Tutor
to get a Second LED to set up for a win on the fallowing turn. He burns me out before I get another turn.
Game 3. I lead turn 1 Ponder vs his turn 1 Figure. Turn 2 I again Tutor for a Second LED. He plays a Keldon Merauders and attacks
for 1. On my Turn I make 14 tokens and win the race.
1-0
2-1 in games
Round 2. Devin with RUG. The last time Devin and I played He was on Belcher and I was using Rev614 and I won both games after his
Belcher activations didnt produce wins. He has given me shit for it at every event I've seen him at since. Bad part is He knows I'm
most likely on combo. I had overheard him outside talking about playing goblins so I hoped that was what he was playing. Turns out thats
just what he played in the Legacy Trial the day before.
Game 1. He wins the roll and leads with Tarn. Not typical of Goblins but still possible. I play a fetch and pass. On my endstep he fetches
Volcanic and Brainstorms, not Goblins. I spend a few turns sculpting and taking damage from Delver before I Duress him taking Force and
Storm him out oldschool using his soft counters to up my storm count before casting Burning Wish for a lethal Tendrils. I could have won sooner
but Ad Nausium was in my hand and i couldnt find a Brainstorm to get rid of it.
Game 2. He leads turn 1 Delver, Turn 2 Flip and I draw blank. He finally adds a second Delver that flips and I lose.
Game 3. He doesnt apply a whole lot of pressure due to Snapcaster and mongoose being his only early pressure and I spend a few turns Sculpting. He finally Puts lethal
on the board with a Delver. But after revealing Bolt to Delver he fetches to shuffle it away. Then attacks me down to 5. On my turn my hand is
Infernal Tutor, LED, LED, Petal, Tendrils, Dark Ritual, Burning Wish, and draw Duress for turn. I have 3 lands in play. I lead with Duress taking
Blue Elimental Blast leaving him with a Daze and Irrelavent cards. I tap out for Burning Wish. If he Dazes my plan is to play Petal, LED, LED, Break Petal
for black and play Dark Ritual. Then Play Infernal breaking LEDs and get Burning Wish for Tendrils thanks to Daze. But instead he lets Burning Wish resolve
so I grab Past in Flames. I play Lotus Petal and try to casually act like I hope he doesn't daze it. He takes the bait and Dazes the Petal. I then play
LED, LEd, Break them for 3red 3 black discarding Ritual, Infernal, Tendrils, and Past in Flames. Storm is now 6 (Duress, Wish, Petal, Daze, LED, LED).
I flashback Past in flames leaving a black floating. storm 7. I flashback probe paying 2 life going to 8 storm and cross my fingers hoping for any mana
source and draw LED!!!! I flashback Dark ritual. Storm 9, play LED storm 10, break LED for black and play Tendrils for 22.
2-0
4-2 in games
1-0 vs Force of Will
2-1 in games vs Force
Round 3. Andrew RUG. Another very nice guy. He rolls a 3 on 2 D6s and I inform him he'll still probably win the roll. Then I rolled snake eyes.
Game 1. He leads with a turn 1 fetch and passes. Turn 1 I play Probe paying 2 life then duress a spell pierce Turn 2 or 3 a Goyf joined his team
and I starts going to town. I get to a point where I have 2 options. Cast Silence and and then Ad Nausium from 11 life with 0 floating and already
played a land for turn. Or pass, Silence him on his upkeep take 4 from goyf, and Then cast Ad Nausium from 7 because of City of Brass. I decide to try
option 2. I Silence him on his upkeep and it Resolves. I take 4 from Goyf and cast Ad Nausium. I end up drawing around 10 cards before stopping at 2 life.
I Drew enough cards for lethal storm. But no protection vs his 1 card hand. I start playing out Petals and LED's and somewhere in the middle he respods to
something with Brainstorm. I continue Comboing out and when I announce Burning Wish with Lethal storm and lots of mana floating. He Bolts me in response.
He apolagizes for slow rolling and said he was just curiouse about what I was doing because he had not played against storm much.
Game 2. I don't actually remember at all. But on my life pad my life gets widdled down to 13. While his goes 20,19,18,0 and my sorm count was at 8 with
BBBUUR in pool... So i'm guessing I threw a bunch of Artifact mana on the table and cast Burning Wish intending to get Deminishing Returns before realizing he
was at 18 and won with Tendrils instead.
Game 3. He gets a couple goyfs in play and starts chipping life away untill my 16 member Goblin Crew joined the party. I win the race.
3-0
6-3 in games
2-0 vs Force of will
4-2 in games vs Force
Round 4. Matt from the source and stormboards. TES Mirror.
Game 1. Game 1 I'm on the play and lead with a Gemstone mine. He plays a very sexy altered Volcanic Island and ponders. Turn 2 i play a probe and realize I'm playing
the mirror and he has a rainbow land and silence in hand. I have no silence and am 1 mana shy of being able to make a bunch of tokens. I pass expecting him to play
his rainbow land to hold up silence. Instead he plays a fetch and fetches Underground Sea and plays a cantrip.. cant remember which one. On my turn I draw a Chrome Mox
start playing out my rituals. Then cast Chrome Mox then we both Check my storm count just to be sure where I am at. Because of this I completely forget to imprint
Brainstorm on Chrome Mox. And I dont realize it until I cast Burning wish and realize I only have 3 floating and my Brainstorm is still laying face down on the table
where I'd been setting my hand. So I cast grapeshot for 8 in hopes that it scares him from casting Ad Nausium for a few turns. We proceed to play draw go with an
occasional duress for what felt like and eternity before he was finally able to combo me out. As he was playing with foreign Rite of Flames I had to inform him that
it counted all copies in all graveyards.
Game 2. On my life pad our life totals never changed and all I have written is storm 3. RRBBB. I believe on turn 2 I cast Rite of Flame, Dark ritual, Ad Nausium. And
we both counted down the life together as I flipped and then he scooped when I pointed out that I had everything I needed to kill him.
Game 3. We ended game 2 with just over 3 minutes left on the clock. We both shuffled quickly but thoroughly and had a back and forth war of attrition before time was
called on my turn. On the last turn of the game (Turn 5 of extra turns) I silenced him on his upkeep to force the draw.
3-0-1
7-4-1 in games
2-0 vs Force of will
4-2 in games vs Force
Round 5 Alex UW countertop myracles
Game 1. I win the die roll and he is hesitant but keeps his 7. I Probe him turn 1 seeing. Force of Will, Spell Pierce, Jace, Clique, Counterbalance, Brainstorm, Tarn.
Lets just say he naturally draws the lands he needs and I'm never really in this game. But I try the best I can to conceal what I'm playing because he never really
seams sure he knows what I'm on.
Game 2. I duress him turn 1 seeing Clique, Counterspell, Pithing Needle, Island, Strand. I take counterspell. His turn 1 he plays Pithing Needle naming Sneak Attack.
I end up never drawing a green source to cast Xantid Swarm. But I Inquizition away his Clique and on turn 4/5ish I play a Petal, It resolves, play Chrome Mox and imprint
something play LED, and pass so I can Ad Nausium on his upkeep and use LED to pay for pierce/daze or both. On his upkeep I cast Ad Nausium and he calls a judge to make
sure Ad Nausium is and instant because mine is Japanese. Matt my round 4 opponent is sitting next to him watching the match and as the judge arrives Matt puts his english
Ad Nausium on the table for my opponent to read. But the judge insists on using his smart phone to get the ruling, Rather than the card laying in front of him. My oppoent
then spell pierces the Ad Nausium and I break LED to pay for it. He had another Spell Pierce. He establishes counter/top lock and I never get back into the game.
3-1-1
7-6-1 in games
2-1 vs Force of Will
4-4 vs Force in games
Round 6. Jay BUG
Game 1. I'm on the play and my opening 7 is Sea, Mine, Dark Ritual, LED, LED, Infernal Tutor, Petal. I snapkeep and think for a minute about wether to go for it blindly on
turn 1. I decide not to as I'm not lucky enough to not be playing against Force of Will dot deck. I decide waiting 1 turn to see what he's playing is worth it. He plays
turn 1 Sea into Delver. Congrats to me for not getting trigger happy. I play my second land and pass. He misses on Delver attacks for 1 plays a second delver and passes.
I play another land and pass. He misses on delver again and attacks for 2 plays a Goyf and passes. On my turn I finally draw Duress and take the Force he admitted to having
in his opening hand. I comfortably combo off from 16 life.
Game 2. I keep an ok hand on the draw with only 1 land (Tarn) but 2 cantrips and a Chrome mox. He plays a turn 1 delver. I play my fetch but dont crack it.
Turn 2 he misses with Delver and attacks for 1. I again miss on land during my draw and instead get a second brainstorm. I imprint 1 brainstorm on Chrome Mox and
cast Ponder looking for a second land. I dont see one in top three so I shuffle and draw a non land. His turn he flips Delver and attacks for 3 then thoughtseizes me.
On my turn I play another Chrome Mox imprinting something for black and I Inquizition him taking Pierce. On his turn he attacks for 3 with Delver again and Plays a
Perniciouse Deed and pops it for 0 destroying both my moxen. I play draw go for a couple more turns and on the turn he puts me to 7 he plays a Tombstalker meaning lethal
next turn. I pray to the storm gods and draw GEMSTONE MINE!!!!!! He's at 15 from fetching and Seize. I play probe paying the life and see Daze, Daze, Wasteland, Wastland,
and draw something Irrelavent. Storm 1.I play LED Storm 2, he Dazes, Storm 3 I let LED get countered. I play Dark Ritual off of Gemstone Storm 4 and try to act like
the Ritual is Crucial. He looks at me and snap Dazes the Ritual. Storm 5. I respond by cracking fetch for Sea and playing another Dark Ritual. Storm 6 and use 1 mana to
pay for Daze. with 5 black floating I play Duress. Storm 7. Tendrils from hand for 16.
4-1-1
9-6-1 in games
3-1 vs Force of Will
6-4 Vs Force in games
Standings go up and i'm sitting at 23rd as the highest ranked person with 13 points. Meaning if I win my next 2 I have a shot at top 8
Round 7 Ryan UW Stoneblade. The only opponent of the day that I Really REally Really wanted to Grapeshot for 60. while shuffling he was stairing at the bottom of his deck for
the entire time. I was waiting for him to present to me to call a judge. But then he pile shuffled and then side shuffled a few times before presenting. So I held off
but made extra sure to pay attention to his actions during the game. He was one of those figity players that tries to irritate you to the point that you mess up by constantly
asking questions you just told him the answer to. like how much mana you have floating and what your storm count is even though you litterally just told him.
Game 1. He wins the roll and leads with a turn 1 Delver that he flips with Brainstorm turn 2 and attacks for 3. On his turn 3 he plays a Geist of Saint Traft and attacks for
another 3. I spend my first few turns trying to sculpt a hand but am not quite finding a buisness spell. On his turn 4 he attack for 9 with Geist, angel token, and Delver.
meaning the next turn it will be lethal. I draw Burning Wish for turn and Silence him which resolves. I play out LEDs and Rituals into a Burning Wish Breaking LED for 3 blue
and get Deminishing Returns which I cast and is storm 7 with UB floating and a Petal and Sea in play. As per usual the first 7 I look at when I exile are the nuts that would win
me the game with mana to spare. This always happens to me. Call it Coincidence but I always check the first 7 I exile to see if they would win me the game if Returns had been
Time Spiral or even Time Reversal. And they more often than not will. In this case I got to exile a bunch of mana and a tutor and my hand I got to keep was Chrome Mox x2, Silence,
Ponder, and 3 Lands. I use the U floating and Cross my fingers that Tendrils is in the top 3. I look and see land, Infernal, LED. So if Ponder had been Brainstorm I win. I shuffle
and draw another land.
Game 2. He again gets a turn 1 Delver and flips it turn 2 revealing Surgical Extraction. I draw and try to sculpt with cantrips. His turn 3 he plays a stoneforge mystic getting
a Sword of Body and Mind and attacks for 3. On my turn I Burning Wish for Thoughtseize and Seize away a Force. On his turn he attacks for 3 and passes. On my turn I fetch
and play out a Petal. storm 1, Rite of Flame storm 2, he Pierces storm 3 I respond with Silence Storm 4 and he Dazes Storm 5, I Play Ritual Storm 6 and pay for Daze and Silence
resolves. I play LED Storm 7. Cast Infernal storm 8 Breaking LED in Response. He tries to Pierce the Tutor. I remind him of silence and should have called the judge but I didnt
As I'm about to kill him anyway. At this point he says. "So you have one black and 3 red in your pool" I say no I have not yet declaired what I'm getting from LED and i have 2
black floating. He tries to insist that I announced LED for red even though I didnt. He finally conceded the point and I counted my storm up at 8 including the Infernal on the
stack. I then asked him to confirm my storm without telling him what I had written down and he said 8. So I announces black for LED and tapped Underground Sea for Black and
Sacked Petal for black and then searched my deck for Infernal and Tendrils and announces I was going to Ifernal for Infernal for Tendrils. He says ok so I'm at 1. I tell him he
is dead and he says tendrils is my 9th spell. I'm so tired and pissed that I Look at my graveyard and think that I must have counted the thoughtseize in my yard and completely
forgot about his Daze that was under his Spell Pierce in his graveyard that he had stacked neatly on top of each other for the the first time in the match. Before this he
had his graveyard spread out so he could easily check it for snapcaster mage. Im completly flustered and say fine and pass the turn with him at 1 and me at 29. He uses mystic to
flash Sword into play and on his turn equips it attacks for me to 23, mills me for 10 and makes a 2/2 wolf. I draw Infernal tutor for turn and cast it for Burning Wish with no cards
in hand and go to 22 from City of Brass.He tries to tell me I have to reveal it and I make him read Infernal Tutor. On his turn he attacks me down to 14 Mills 10 more and makes
another wolf token. On my turn I draw Lotus Petal and cast Burning wish for Grapeshot going to 13 from City. On his turn he attacks me down to 3 mills 10 more and makes
another wolf. On my turn I draw Brainstorm. I cast petal. Storm 1, Cast Brainstorm Storm 2. And then cast Grapeshot for 3. I'm really glad I was really glad I won this one
even though I got cheated. And I even got to Grapeshot him even though it was not quite for 60.
Game 3 I keep an ok hand with Xantid Swarm But again never draw a green source. I eventually try to Ad Nausium from 7 life unprotected and he has Pierce.
4-2-1
9-8-1 in games
3-2 vs Force of Will
6-6 vs Force in games
Checking the standings this time i've dropped form 23rd to 46th. Unsure at this time wether I should as my opponent to draw. I am paired up to him and he says that if I decide
I want to draw at any point he is ok with it. I decide to go ahead and play it out.
Round 8 Rich with Merfolk.
Game 1. He wins the roll and leads turn 1 Island Vial. Turn 2 Vials in a Cursecatcher plays a Mutivault and plays another Vial. Turn 3 vials in Silvergill Adept
and plays a Lord of Atlantis. I try to combo out but dont quite get there. He then drops more Lords and Swings for the fences.
Game 2. I play a fetch and pass. He plays Darkslick Shores and Grafdiggers Cage. I play a gemstone Mine and Xantid Swarm which resolves. He plays a Mutivault and
plays a Standstill. Yes he cast Stanstill while I had Swarm in play. I nearly shat myself. I spent a couple turns letting a Mutivault attack me before attacking with Swarm and
comboing him out with Ad Nausium from 12 life.
Game 3. He plays a turn 1 Vial off of Mutivault. I attempt a Xantid Swarm off of Gemstone mine and he Forces. On Turn 2 he vials in a Coursecatcher and passes. My turn
2 I Duress him taking a Pierce and then call on my Goblin Crew again. He draws for turn vials in a Silvergill and passes. I attack for a bunch and pass. He draws for turn and concedes.
5-2-1
11-9-1 in games
4-2 vs Force of Will
8-7 vs Force in games.
Props.
Trevor for giving me a ride and staying later than he'd planned since I was in contention for top 8 after round 5
7 out of 8 opponents being really polite. Even Devin who had a chip on his shoulder was polite during the match.
Empty the Warrens for being an absolute house. I think even Winning me most of my games.
Gitaxian Probe for pulling some seriouse weight throughout the event.
Starcitygames for having shirts in my size for only $10
Michael Lanier for loaning me LED's.
White Castle for being deliciouse.
Slops.
Star city for only having 2 events within easy driving distance per year.
My round 7 opponent.
Forgetting to imprint cards on Chrome mox.
Letting an opponent mess with my head.
White Castle for not being closer to home.
Not getting to Reanimate a Grislebrand.
been doing any testing. So rather than play Doomsday I decided to sleeve up TES. I did not take many notes so I'll try to touch on key points but
my memory is a little hazy on some minor details.
My list.
Artifacts
4 Chrome Mox
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
Instants
1 Ad Nauseam
4 Brainstorm
4 Dark Ritual
4 Silence
Sorceries
4 Burning Wish
3 Duress
2 Gitaxian Probe
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Ponder
4 Rite of Flame
1 Tendrils of Agony
Lands
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
1 Polluted Delta
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
Sideboard:
2 Xantid Swarm
2 Chain of Vapor
1 Echoing Truth
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Grapeshot
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Past in Flames
1 Reanimate
1 Shattering Spree
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Thoughtseize
The main is the same as Bryants current list on the opening page. With a few changes to the SB.
Round 1. Byron with Burn. Very polite kid.
Game 1. He wins the roll and leads Mountain Goblin Guide attack. Guide trigger reveals Chrome Mox and my oppoent sighs.
On my turn I make 10 goblins and they get there.
Game 2. He least turn 1 Figure of Destiny. I Inquizition him taking Pyrostatic Pillar. A few turns go by and I use Infernal Tutor
to get a Second LED to set up for a win on the fallowing turn. He burns me out before I get another turn.
Game 3. I lead turn 1 Ponder vs his turn 1 Figure. Turn 2 I again Tutor for a Second LED. He plays a Keldon Merauders and attacks
for 1. On my Turn I make 14 tokens and win the race.
1-0
2-1 in games
Round 2. Devin with RUG. The last time Devin and I played He was on Belcher and I was using Rev614 and I won both games after his
Belcher activations didnt produce wins. He has given me shit for it at every event I've seen him at since. Bad part is He knows I'm
most likely on combo. I had overheard him outside talking about playing goblins so I hoped that was what he was playing. Turns out thats
just what he played in the Legacy Trial the day before.
Game 1. He wins the roll and leads with Tarn. Not typical of Goblins but still possible. I play a fetch and pass. On my endstep he fetches
Volcanic and Brainstorms, not Goblins. I spend a few turns sculpting and taking damage from Delver before I Duress him taking Force and
Storm him out oldschool using his soft counters to up my storm count before casting Burning Wish for a lethal Tendrils. I could have won sooner
but Ad Nausium was in my hand and i couldnt find a Brainstorm to get rid of it.
Game 2. He leads turn 1 Delver, Turn 2 Flip and I draw blank. He finally adds a second Delver that flips and I lose.
Game 3. He doesnt apply a whole lot of pressure due to Snapcaster and mongoose being his only early pressure and I spend a few turns Sculpting. He finally Puts lethal
on the board with a Delver. But after revealing Bolt to Delver he fetches to shuffle it away. Then attacks me down to 5. On my turn my hand is
Infernal Tutor, LED, LED, Petal, Tendrils, Dark Ritual, Burning Wish, and draw Duress for turn. I have 3 lands in play. I lead with Duress taking
Blue Elimental Blast leaving him with a Daze and Irrelavent cards. I tap out for Burning Wish. If he Dazes my plan is to play Petal, LED, LED, Break Petal
for black and play Dark Ritual. Then Play Infernal breaking LEDs and get Burning Wish for Tendrils thanks to Daze. But instead he lets Burning Wish resolve
so I grab Past in Flames. I play Lotus Petal and try to casually act like I hope he doesn't daze it. He takes the bait and Dazes the Petal. I then play
LED, LEd, Break them for 3red 3 black discarding Ritual, Infernal, Tendrils, and Past in Flames. Storm is now 6 (Duress, Wish, Petal, Daze, LED, LED).
I flashback Past in flames leaving a black floating. storm 7. I flashback probe paying 2 life going to 8 storm and cross my fingers hoping for any mana
source and draw LED!!!! I flashback Dark ritual. Storm 9, play LED storm 10, break LED for black and play Tendrils for 22.
2-0
4-2 in games
1-0 vs Force of Will
2-1 in games vs Force
Round 3. Andrew RUG. Another very nice guy. He rolls a 3 on 2 D6s and I inform him he'll still probably win the roll. Then I rolled snake eyes.
Game 1. He leads with a turn 1 fetch and passes. Turn 1 I play Probe paying 2 life then duress a spell pierce Turn 2 or 3 a Goyf joined his team
and I starts going to town. I get to a point where I have 2 options. Cast Silence and and then Ad Nausium from 11 life with 0 floating and already
played a land for turn. Or pass, Silence him on his upkeep take 4 from goyf, and Then cast Ad Nausium from 7 because of City of Brass. I decide to try
option 2. I Silence him on his upkeep and it Resolves. I take 4 from Goyf and cast Ad Nausium. I end up drawing around 10 cards before stopping at 2 life.
I Drew enough cards for lethal storm. But no protection vs his 1 card hand. I start playing out Petals and LED's and somewhere in the middle he respods to
something with Brainstorm. I continue Comboing out and when I announce Burning Wish with Lethal storm and lots of mana floating. He Bolts me in response.
He apolagizes for slow rolling and said he was just curiouse about what I was doing because he had not played against storm much.
Game 2. I don't actually remember at all. But on my life pad my life gets widdled down to 13. While his goes 20,19,18,0 and my sorm count was at 8 with
BBBUUR in pool... So i'm guessing I threw a bunch of Artifact mana on the table and cast Burning Wish intending to get Deminishing Returns before realizing he
was at 18 and won with Tendrils instead.
Game 3. He gets a couple goyfs in play and starts chipping life away untill my 16 member Goblin Crew joined the party. I win the race.
3-0
6-3 in games
2-0 vs Force of will
4-2 in games vs Force
Round 4. Matt from the source and stormboards. TES Mirror.
Game 1. Game 1 I'm on the play and lead with a Gemstone mine. He plays a very sexy altered Volcanic Island and ponders. Turn 2 i play a probe and realize I'm playing
the mirror and he has a rainbow land and silence in hand. I have no silence and am 1 mana shy of being able to make a bunch of tokens. I pass expecting him to play
his rainbow land to hold up silence. Instead he plays a fetch and fetches Underground Sea and plays a cantrip.. cant remember which one. On my turn I draw a Chrome Mox
start playing out my rituals. Then cast Chrome Mox then we both Check my storm count just to be sure where I am at. Because of this I completely forget to imprint
Brainstorm on Chrome Mox. And I dont realize it until I cast Burning wish and realize I only have 3 floating and my Brainstorm is still laying face down on the table
where I'd been setting my hand. So I cast grapeshot for 8 in hopes that it scares him from casting Ad Nausium for a few turns. We proceed to play draw go with an
occasional duress for what felt like and eternity before he was finally able to combo me out. As he was playing with foreign Rite of Flames I had to inform him that
it counted all copies in all graveyards.
Game 2. On my life pad our life totals never changed and all I have written is storm 3. RRBBB. I believe on turn 2 I cast Rite of Flame, Dark ritual, Ad Nausium. And
we both counted down the life together as I flipped and then he scooped when I pointed out that I had everything I needed to kill him.
Game 3. We ended game 2 with just over 3 minutes left on the clock. We both shuffled quickly but thoroughly and had a back and forth war of attrition before time was
called on my turn. On the last turn of the game (Turn 5 of extra turns) I silenced him on his upkeep to force the draw.
3-0-1
7-4-1 in games
2-0 vs Force of will
4-2 in games vs Force
Round 5 Alex UW countertop myracles
Game 1. I win the die roll and he is hesitant but keeps his 7. I Probe him turn 1 seeing. Force of Will, Spell Pierce, Jace, Clique, Counterbalance, Brainstorm, Tarn.
Lets just say he naturally draws the lands he needs and I'm never really in this game. But I try the best I can to conceal what I'm playing because he never really
seams sure he knows what I'm on.
Game 2. I duress him turn 1 seeing Clique, Counterspell, Pithing Needle, Island, Strand. I take counterspell. His turn 1 he plays Pithing Needle naming Sneak Attack.
I end up never drawing a green source to cast Xantid Swarm. But I Inquizition away his Clique and on turn 4/5ish I play a Petal, It resolves, play Chrome Mox and imprint
something play LED, and pass so I can Ad Nausium on his upkeep and use LED to pay for pierce/daze or both. On his upkeep I cast Ad Nausium and he calls a judge to make
sure Ad Nausium is and instant because mine is Japanese. Matt my round 4 opponent is sitting next to him watching the match and as the judge arrives Matt puts his english
Ad Nausium on the table for my opponent to read. But the judge insists on using his smart phone to get the ruling, Rather than the card laying in front of him. My oppoent
then spell pierces the Ad Nausium and I break LED to pay for it. He had another Spell Pierce. He establishes counter/top lock and I never get back into the game.
3-1-1
7-6-1 in games
2-1 vs Force of Will
4-4 vs Force in games
Round 6. Jay BUG
Game 1. I'm on the play and my opening 7 is Sea, Mine, Dark Ritual, LED, LED, Infernal Tutor, Petal. I snapkeep and think for a minute about wether to go for it blindly on
turn 1. I decide not to as I'm not lucky enough to not be playing against Force of Will dot deck. I decide waiting 1 turn to see what he's playing is worth it. He plays
turn 1 Sea into Delver. Congrats to me for not getting trigger happy. I play my second land and pass. He misses on Delver attacks for 1 plays a second delver and passes.
I play another land and pass. He misses on delver again and attacks for 2 plays a Goyf and passes. On my turn I finally draw Duress and take the Force he admitted to having
in his opening hand. I comfortably combo off from 16 life.
Game 2. I keep an ok hand on the draw with only 1 land (Tarn) but 2 cantrips and a Chrome mox. He plays a turn 1 delver. I play my fetch but dont crack it.
Turn 2 he misses with Delver and attacks for 1. I again miss on land during my draw and instead get a second brainstorm. I imprint 1 brainstorm on Chrome Mox and
cast Ponder looking for a second land. I dont see one in top three so I shuffle and draw a non land. His turn he flips Delver and attacks for 3 then thoughtseizes me.
On my turn I play another Chrome Mox imprinting something for black and I Inquizition him taking Pierce. On his turn he attacks for 3 with Delver again and Plays a
Perniciouse Deed and pops it for 0 destroying both my moxen. I play draw go for a couple more turns and on the turn he puts me to 7 he plays a Tombstalker meaning lethal
next turn. I pray to the storm gods and draw GEMSTONE MINE!!!!!! He's at 15 from fetching and Seize. I play probe paying the life and see Daze, Daze, Wasteland, Wastland,
and draw something Irrelavent. Storm 1.I play LED Storm 2, he Dazes, Storm 3 I let LED get countered. I play Dark Ritual off of Gemstone Storm 4 and try to act like
the Ritual is Crucial. He looks at me and snap Dazes the Ritual. Storm 5. I respond by cracking fetch for Sea and playing another Dark Ritual. Storm 6 and use 1 mana to
pay for Daze. with 5 black floating I play Duress. Storm 7. Tendrils from hand for 16.
4-1-1
9-6-1 in games
3-1 vs Force of Will
6-4 Vs Force in games
Standings go up and i'm sitting at 23rd as the highest ranked person with 13 points. Meaning if I win my next 2 I have a shot at top 8
Round 7 Ryan UW Stoneblade. The only opponent of the day that I Really REally Really wanted to Grapeshot for 60. while shuffling he was stairing at the bottom of his deck for
the entire time. I was waiting for him to present to me to call a judge. But then he pile shuffled and then side shuffled a few times before presenting. So I held off
but made extra sure to pay attention to his actions during the game. He was one of those figity players that tries to irritate you to the point that you mess up by constantly
asking questions you just told him the answer to. like how much mana you have floating and what your storm count is even though you litterally just told him.
Game 1. He wins the roll and leads with a turn 1 Delver that he flips with Brainstorm turn 2 and attacks for 3. On his turn 3 he plays a Geist of Saint Traft and attacks for
another 3. I spend my first few turns trying to sculpt a hand but am not quite finding a buisness spell. On his turn 4 he attack for 9 with Geist, angel token, and Delver.
meaning the next turn it will be lethal. I draw Burning Wish for turn and Silence him which resolves. I play out LEDs and Rituals into a Burning Wish Breaking LED for 3 blue
and get Deminishing Returns which I cast and is storm 7 with UB floating and a Petal and Sea in play. As per usual the first 7 I look at when I exile are the nuts that would win
me the game with mana to spare. This always happens to me. Call it Coincidence but I always check the first 7 I exile to see if they would win me the game if Returns had been
Time Spiral or even Time Reversal. And they more often than not will. In this case I got to exile a bunch of mana and a tutor and my hand I got to keep was Chrome Mox x2, Silence,
Ponder, and 3 Lands. I use the U floating and Cross my fingers that Tendrils is in the top 3. I look and see land, Infernal, LED. So if Ponder had been Brainstorm I win. I shuffle
and draw another land.
Game 2. He again gets a turn 1 Delver and flips it turn 2 revealing Surgical Extraction. I draw and try to sculpt with cantrips. His turn 3 he plays a stoneforge mystic getting
a Sword of Body and Mind and attacks for 3. On my turn I Burning Wish for Thoughtseize and Seize away a Force. On his turn he attacks for 3 and passes. On my turn I fetch
and play out a Petal. storm 1, Rite of Flame storm 2, he Pierces storm 3 I respond with Silence Storm 4 and he Dazes Storm 5, I Play Ritual Storm 6 and pay for Daze and Silence
resolves. I play LED Storm 7. Cast Infernal storm 8 Breaking LED in Response. He tries to Pierce the Tutor. I remind him of silence and should have called the judge but I didnt
As I'm about to kill him anyway. At this point he says. "So you have one black and 3 red in your pool" I say no I have not yet declaired what I'm getting from LED and i have 2
black floating. He tries to insist that I announced LED for red even though I didnt. He finally conceded the point and I counted my storm up at 8 including the Infernal on the
stack. I then asked him to confirm my storm without telling him what I had written down and he said 8. So I announces black for LED and tapped Underground Sea for Black and
Sacked Petal for black and then searched my deck for Infernal and Tendrils and announces I was going to Ifernal for Infernal for Tendrils. He says ok so I'm at 1. I tell him he
is dead and he says tendrils is my 9th spell. I'm so tired and pissed that I Look at my graveyard and think that I must have counted the thoughtseize in my yard and completely
forgot about his Daze that was under his Spell Pierce in his graveyard that he had stacked neatly on top of each other for the the first time in the match. Before this he
had his graveyard spread out so he could easily check it for snapcaster mage. Im completly flustered and say fine and pass the turn with him at 1 and me at 29. He uses mystic to
flash Sword into play and on his turn equips it attacks for me to 23, mills me for 10 and makes a 2/2 wolf. I draw Infernal tutor for turn and cast it for Burning Wish with no cards
in hand and go to 22 from City of Brass.He tries to tell me I have to reveal it and I make him read Infernal Tutor. On his turn he attacks me down to 14 Mills 10 more and makes
another wolf token. On my turn I draw Lotus Petal and cast Burning wish for Grapeshot going to 13 from City. On his turn he attacks me down to 3 mills 10 more and makes
another wolf. On my turn I draw Brainstorm. I cast petal. Storm 1, Cast Brainstorm Storm 2. And then cast Grapeshot for 3. I'm really glad I was really glad I won this one
even though I got cheated. And I even got to Grapeshot him even though it was not quite for 60.
Game 3 I keep an ok hand with Xantid Swarm But again never draw a green source. I eventually try to Ad Nausium from 7 life unprotected and he has Pierce.
4-2-1
9-8-1 in games
3-2 vs Force of Will
6-6 vs Force in games
Checking the standings this time i've dropped form 23rd to 46th. Unsure at this time wether I should as my opponent to draw. I am paired up to him and he says that if I decide
I want to draw at any point he is ok with it. I decide to go ahead and play it out.
Round 8 Rich with Merfolk.
Game 1. He wins the roll and leads turn 1 Island Vial. Turn 2 Vials in a Cursecatcher plays a Mutivault and plays another Vial. Turn 3 vials in Silvergill Adept
and plays a Lord of Atlantis. I try to combo out but dont quite get there. He then drops more Lords and Swings for the fences.
Game 2. I play a fetch and pass. He plays Darkslick Shores and Grafdiggers Cage. I play a gemstone Mine and Xantid Swarm which resolves. He plays a Mutivault and
plays a Standstill. Yes he cast Stanstill while I had Swarm in play. I nearly shat myself. I spent a couple turns letting a Mutivault attack me before attacking with Swarm and
comboing him out with Ad Nausium from 12 life.
Game 3. He plays a turn 1 Vial off of Mutivault. I attempt a Xantid Swarm off of Gemstone mine and he Forces. On Turn 2 he vials in a Coursecatcher and passes. My turn
2 I Duress him taking a Pierce and then call on my Goblin Crew again. He draws for turn vials in a Silvergill and passes. I attack for a bunch and pass. He draws for turn and concedes.
5-2-1
11-9-1 in games
4-2 vs Force of Will
8-7 vs Force in games.
Props.
Trevor for giving me a ride and staying later than he'd planned since I was in contention for top 8 after round 5
7 out of 8 opponents being really polite. Even Devin who had a chip on his shoulder was polite during the match.
Empty the Warrens for being an absolute house. I think even Winning me most of my games.
Gitaxian Probe for pulling some seriouse weight throughout the event.
Starcitygames for having shirts in my size for only $10
Michael Lanier for loaning me LED's.
White Castle for being deliciouse.
Slops.
Star city for only having 2 events within easy driving distance per year.
My round 7 opponent.
Forgetting to imprint cards on Chrome mox.
Letting an opponent mess with my head.
White Castle for not being closer to home.
Not getting to Reanimate a Grislebrand.