T is for TOOL
08-22-2007, 02:23 AM
My tournament report begins as I duck out of work early on Thursday to drive up to Indy for Gencon. Coming straight from work in a nice shirt, pants, and shoes, I’m sure that I will stick out as much as a guy LARPing as Xena Warrior Princess. My game plan was to get to the convention center early enough to enter the SSBM tournament scheduled at 2, and then follow it up with the Legacy Championship Prelims at 5. Last time I traveled to Indy I took 75N up to Cincinnati, but Mapquest recommended 64W to Louisville because it supposedly saved me a few miles. I reached Louisville at 12 and left at 1:30. Scratch one Smash tourney. T is for Traffic :frown:
I arrived in Indy around 3 and met up with the rest of the group by 3:30. I’d decided to go with R/G goblins in the time I’d spent sitting in traffic so I requisitioned the pieces I was missing from the Hatfields. Here is the list I ran:
R/G Goblins
4x Goblin Lackey
4x Goblin Piledriver
4x Mogg Fanatic
4x Goblin Matron
4x Goblin Warchief
4x Goblin Ringleader
4x Gempalm Incinerator
3x Siege-gang Commander
2x Tin-street Hooligan
4x Aether Vial
4x Taiga
4x Wooded Foothills
2x Bloodstained Mire
4x Rishadan Port
4x Wasteland
5x Mountain
SB:
4x Chalice of the Void
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Pyroknesis
3x Tranquil Domain
While finalizing a SB I was informed that Goblins needs at least 8 pieces of dedicated hate for combo to have a shot. The recommendation to me was 4 Chalice of the Void and 4 Pyrostatic Pillar, but I had strong doubts about Pillar. I was only really worried about Belcher, and Pillar doesn’t seem too hot there, so I opted to go without it. I went with Tranquil Domain as enchantment removal because everyone expects Grip and Domain also randomly hoses Enchantress. Gofy serves the same function as Patron of the Akki against Plague except it costs 1G. My general strategy going into the event was to have fun, not play against combo (specifically Belcher), and beat everything else. The four of us (Obfuscate Freely, Mad Zur, Machinus, T is for TOOL) finished assembling our decks and departed for Gencon to buy badges and tickets. We buy our badges and collect our swag bags, and depart for the card hall only to find that Obfuscate Freely has lost his badge. Frown. We locate the help booth, and they… check the lost and found but find nothing. Alix ends up having to pay for another 4-day badge, and it is now 4:40. Jesse and I hurry on ahead to get in line for event tickets, where we are later joined by Alix and Chris. Allen (Urabahn), who bought his badge and tickets in advance, stops by before heading into the hall. I spend the next 20+ minutes watching the clock and waiting impatiently for the extremely slow line to move while the other three have an enlightening conversation about pedophilia. We finally get the event tickets, and rush into the hall to try and signup before it’s too late. T is for Tardy. Allen is there already talking to someone who he introduces as Anarky87 and being the tardy jackass that I am, I offer a brief greeting and dash off to find the line. I waited in line for about 5 minutes before someone points out that it is the line for drafting. I move over to the front of the stage and grab a registration sheet and a blank decklist. I scribble out the bare minimum of required info and present it along with my event tickets just as registration closes. Phew.
I sit through the pre-tourney player chat, and round 1 pairings are posted. (Note: This entire report is based solely on my memory, so names, plays, life totals, etc may be omitted or inaccurate)
Round 1 vs. Mono R Goblins Chris Boomer
Game 1: We bust out the Gencon die from my swag bag and Chris gives it a roll. The die comes up as ‘Doh!’ We determine that the Doh is meant to be a 1 and Gencon 2007 is meant to be a 6. I win the die roll and opt to play. I lead the game with mountain Lackey. Chris responds with mountain Mogg Fanatic. Thank god it isn’t Belcher. Lack trades with Fanatic and I drop Aether Vial.
I’m sketchy on the details of the game, however suffice to say his 2 Ringleaders netted him 3 or 4 goblins, while my 3 Ringleaders netted me 10. I also noted that he Bolted one of my goblins during the game, and he played Pyroknesis on two others.
SB:
-4 Goblin Lackey
+4 Pyroknesis
Game 2: I keep an opening hand with Pyroknesis, and he mulls to six. He leads with mountain into vial. Chris then proceeds to not miss land drops for the next six or seven turns, while I continue to Ringleader into many Goblins. After the game I found out that he played 1 MD Pyroknesis and 3 MD Lightning Bolt.
1- 0
Round 2 vs. Belcher :cry:
Game 1: He wins the die roll, and throws his hand back saying something like, “I can do better than that.” I get a sinking feeling at this point, but cross my fingers and hope that he isn’t playing what I think he is. He tosses his hand of six back quickly as well, saying that the first one was probably better. He keeps his hand of 5 and I take a look at my cards. My hand is good unless he is playing Belcher or some other fast combo, in which case it doesn’t really matter, so I keep. He plays Lotus Petal into Tinder Wall into Desperate Ritual. He drops LED and plays Burning Wish, sacking the LED and getting Empty the Warrens for 12 goblin tokens. I draw a card for my turn and scoop it up.
SB:
-4 Aether Vial
+4 Chalice of the Void
Game 2: My opening hand contains no Chalice, so I mulligan. My six card hand has no Chalice, so I mulligan. My five card hand has a Lackey, Siege-Gang, a Tin Street Hooligan and 2 Lands, so I keep. I play Lackey and pass the turn. He drops belcher and activates for 48 points to my dome. After the game I immediately go to a dealer and buy a new set of Purple Dragonshield sleeves, since my others were kind of old, and I’ve been told that combo doesn’t like purple.
1-1
Round 3 UGRW Gro
Game 1: I lose the die roll and he opts to play. He drops a Polluted Delta and passes. I drop Wooded Foothills and attempt to fetch. He responds by fetching for a tropical island and Stifling. He untaps and drops another fetchland. I drop a mountain and play Aether Vial, which resolves. Vial eventually gets up to 4 where it drops 2 Ringleaders for me and then a Siege-Gang Commander. He draws 4 Lightning Bolts throughout the match and sends them all to my dome. The game ends with me at 7 life.
SB:
-2 Goblin Tinkerer
-2 Goblin Piledriver
+4 Tarmogoyf
Game 2: My Lackey is Swords, my Vial is countered, and he then proceeds to drop Goyf followed by Werebear and Mental Note. What a beating.
Game 3: I mull to 6 and keep a 3 fetchland hand that could be worse. I lead with Fetch for Taiga pass. He plays Delta pass. I draw a Vial for my turn, and drop a Fetch. He Stifles the Fetch. Fearing Daze I pass the turn. He untaps, drops a land, and passes. I untap, draw Vial #2, and play a Fetch. I fetch for another Taiga, and he responds with a Brainstorm. I go dig out my second Taiga, and drop Vial. It resolves. I drop Vial #2 and he Forces. I eventually Vial in a Warchief and tap out to hardcast Siege-Gang Commander. He responds with STP on the Warchief to keep me from playing the Commander, but it doesn’t work very well.
2-1
Intermission
While waiting for the round 4 pairings to go up, I take a seat next to the rest of the group. Alix (Obfuscate Freely), Jesse (Mad Zur), Chris (Machinus) are all 3-0 at this point and Allen (Urabahn) has gone 1-2 drop. After about 10 minutes of idle chatter, and announcement is made that there is a problem with the computer system and that pairings for round 4 will take a minimum of 30 minutes to be posted. Lame. We briefly discuss dropping, since it will be very late (early?!) when we finish, but since everyone seems to be doing well, we all decide to wait it out. About an hour and a half later, pairings for round 4 are up.
Intermission
Round 4 vs. Solidarity
Game 1: I keep an opener with Lackey and Siege-Gang against an unknown opponent. I drop Lackey and he frowns. He plays Polluted Delta and passes. I untap, and swing with Lackey dropping Siege-Gang into play. He Fetches for an Island and draws for his turn. He drops another Island and passes. I untap, drop my third land, and swing with the team, putting him at 12 and dropping a Ringleader with Lackey. He Impulses EOT. Now that I’m sure of what he’s playing, I sac a Goblin token using Siege-Gang to put him to 10. I untap and swing on my turn putting him to 3 and sac 2 tokens for the kill.
SB:
-2 Goblin Tinkerer
-2 Gempalm Incinerator
+4 Chalice of the Void
Game 2: He leads with island pass. I play mountain lackey which is Hydroblasted. He untaps and plays an island. I untap and fetch for a taiga, dropping chalice for 1. He Remands. He untaps and drops a land and passes. I untap and drop Rishadan Port, playing Mogg Fanatic followed by Chalice for 1. He forces the Chalice. He untaps and plays a land and passes. I draw Port #2, and I drop Ringleader which resolves. Ringleader gets me Warchief and Incinerator. I swing for 3 putting him at 17. He impulses EOT, untaps, draws, and passes. I untap, draw, and drop Lackey, swinging for 3 and putting him at 14. He untaps, and I tap 2 lands on his EOT. He misses another land drop, and I untap, swinging for 4 and dropping Warchief off of Lackey. He untaps, and plays High Tide after drawing a card. I respond by tapping 2 of his lands, which leaves him with 0 mana in his pool after Turnabout. He doesn’t have enough mana to continue the combo.
3-1
[b]Round 5 vs. URG Threshold Chris ‘Alix lets me wear his hat all the time’ Coppola
Game 1: Alix and Chris were paired last round, and it seems that the pairings really didn’t want all of us to make t8. On the brightside, the loser will get a reasonable amount of sleep for tomorrow. I win the die roll, and mulligan to six. I lead off with Port into vial. Port was my only land, and I’m holding a Lackey, so I pray that Vial resolves. It does. Chris untaps, drops a Strand, fetches an Island, and plays Portent. I untap, set Vial to Doh!, and draw a mountain. I pass the turn, and Port his island on his upkeep. He fetches a forest and passes. End of turn I vial in Lackey. Lackey connects on my turn, and also the turn after that. It seemed that Chris was having mana issues and Port certainly wasn’t helping.
SB:
-3 Goblin Piledriver
-1 Gempalm Incinerator
+4 Tarmogoyf
Game 2: Fearing Pithing Needle, I leave the Hooligans in and drop Piledrivers. Maybe this wasn’t the correct call. Anyway, Chris opts to play and mulls to 6. I don’t remember the specifics of the game, but I resolve an Aether Vial, and Wasteland plus double Port keep him from doing much for the rest of the game. Also noteworthy is a Tarmogoyf I drew while he was at 2 life! T is for Tarmogoyf. Afterwards, he drops and has the benefit of sleep before the championship in the morning. Since the Hatfields and I were still in contention, I asked if he’d be willing to do a food run to Steak and Shake for us. He gave me the finger. :frown:
4-1
Round 6 vs. Mono R Goblins
Game 1: Goblin mirrors are kinda fuzzy in my memory, so I don’t recall much from this game. I do remember that I had an early Aether Vial and he didn’t. I also drew really well off of Ringleaders and he didn’t. The game ended when I vialed a Siege-Gang into play at the end of his turn.
SB:
-4 Goblin Lackey
+4 Pyroknesis
Game 2: Much of the fuzz from Game 1 remains. This game we both resolved Vials, and I slow rolled, holding onto Ringleaders and Siege-Gangs while building up Incinerator mana for his relevant Goblin threats. I start swinging with Ringleaders and Matrons, slowly chipping away at his life. I send the team in each turn while holding double Pyroknesis in an attempt to get him to attempt an alpha strike. He never draws the goblins to pull it off, and scoops.
5-1
Round 7 I.D. David Caplan
We are both tired, and we want to draw, so we spend the first couple minutes of the round looking at the standings to see if we can draw into the t8. I’m pretty sure that both of us will make it due to our tiebreakers, and the judges pull the sheet down so that we can’t see it anymore, and we agree to a draw. He tells me he is playing Thresh, and I tell him I’m playing Goblins.
5-1-1
Top 8 Recruiter Aluren
I checked the standings after the round, and thankfully both David and I made t8. T is for Top 8. Additionally, both Hatfields made it as well. Upon wandering over to the pairings sheet, I learn that I will be playing against Aluren first round. I quickly consult with Alix to get the low-down on Aluren. I learn that the deck can have problems assembling the combo and that it has trouble with a first turn lackey. Check
Game 1: I win the die roll and keep an opening hand with Lackey and Matron while he mulls to 6. I drop Lackey and he sighs as I pass the turn. He plays a land and passes. I drop another land, swing with Lackey, drop Matron, and tutor and cast Piledriver. He is quickly overrun.
SB:
-2 Tin Street Hooligan
-1 Mogg Fanatic
-1 Goblin Matron
-1 Goblin Ringleader
-2 Gempalm Incinerator
+4 Pyroknesis
+3 Tranquil Domain
Game 2: He keeps his opening hand, and I take a look at mine. Lackey, Ringleader, Fanatic, Pyroknesis, make me keep. He drops a land and passes. I drop Lackey and pass. He plays another land and Wall of Roots. I swing in with Lackey and Pyroknesis the Wall after he blocks, removing Fanatic. He Forces removing Intuition. He Therapies me for Krosan Grip and he whiffs. I immediately topdeck Tranquil Domain, and hold onto it while eventually getting enough mana to drop a Ringleader. He plays draw go for a few turns, apparently unhappy with whatever he is getting, while I swing in with Ringleader and Lackey. Since he hasn’t played any spells, I figure that he’s holding combo creatures and looking for the Aluren or tutor off the top. When I finally get him low enough on life that I can kill him next turn, I make the mistake of tapping out to Gempalm his wall after he blocks with it. He untaps and rips what he needs off the top. Without any mana, I can’t Domain and he goes off. It turns out that he was holding 3 Alurens.
Game 3: I see no Lackey in the opening 7, so I mull. Lackey appears in my 6 card hand, so I keep. I start out with Lackey, which is Forced. He plays a land a passes. I rip another Lackey off the top, and this one resolves. T is for Topdeck! He drops another land and passes. Lackey connects and drops a Ringleader, revealing Warchief and Matron. He ends up at 12 life, and passes the turn to me. I untap, and drop Matron finding Piledriver and play it, swinging with Ringleader and Chief to deal 12 to him.
Top 4 URG Thresh Jesse Hatfield
I wander over to the other games to see how things are going and I end up paired against Jesse Hatfield.
Game 1: I mull to 6 and keep a relatively mediocre hand. Jesse resolves an early Goose and starts swinging with it as soon as he hits threshold. Another one joins the first, and I continue to not draw the awesome. :frown:
SB:
-3 Goblin Piledriver
-1 Gempalm Incinerator
+4 Tarmogoyf
Game 2: I already know Jesse’s exact list, so I am prepared for the Pyroclasms. However I didn’t prepare for his SB Leyline of the Manaflood, which he of course drew in his opening hand and started with in play. By this point it is really late, so I don’t remember many details about this game, except that Leyline won the whole thing for him. I ended the game with 7 or 8 lands in play, including 3 Ports, while he beat me down each turn with Tarmogoyf.
T is for Third. I collect my prize of 24 Time Spiral Block booster packs and a Swagbag. The prize support could have been better I suppose. Jesse and Alix play out the finals in the URG mirror, which takes forever in a total of 4 games while I make a food run to Steak and Shake for patty melts. We finish up the tourney at about 5:30 in the morning and head back to the hotel room to build our decks for the championship. I might include a tournament report of the championships but right now, T is for Tired.
-TOOL
I arrived in Indy around 3 and met up with the rest of the group by 3:30. I’d decided to go with R/G goblins in the time I’d spent sitting in traffic so I requisitioned the pieces I was missing from the Hatfields. Here is the list I ran:
R/G Goblins
4x Goblin Lackey
4x Goblin Piledriver
4x Mogg Fanatic
4x Goblin Matron
4x Goblin Warchief
4x Goblin Ringleader
4x Gempalm Incinerator
3x Siege-gang Commander
2x Tin-street Hooligan
4x Aether Vial
4x Taiga
4x Wooded Foothills
2x Bloodstained Mire
4x Rishadan Port
4x Wasteland
5x Mountain
SB:
4x Chalice of the Void
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Pyroknesis
3x Tranquil Domain
While finalizing a SB I was informed that Goblins needs at least 8 pieces of dedicated hate for combo to have a shot. The recommendation to me was 4 Chalice of the Void and 4 Pyrostatic Pillar, but I had strong doubts about Pillar. I was only really worried about Belcher, and Pillar doesn’t seem too hot there, so I opted to go without it. I went with Tranquil Domain as enchantment removal because everyone expects Grip and Domain also randomly hoses Enchantress. Gofy serves the same function as Patron of the Akki against Plague except it costs 1G. My general strategy going into the event was to have fun, not play against combo (specifically Belcher), and beat everything else. The four of us (Obfuscate Freely, Mad Zur, Machinus, T is for TOOL) finished assembling our decks and departed for Gencon to buy badges and tickets. We buy our badges and collect our swag bags, and depart for the card hall only to find that Obfuscate Freely has lost his badge. Frown. We locate the help booth, and they… check the lost and found but find nothing. Alix ends up having to pay for another 4-day badge, and it is now 4:40. Jesse and I hurry on ahead to get in line for event tickets, where we are later joined by Alix and Chris. Allen (Urabahn), who bought his badge and tickets in advance, stops by before heading into the hall. I spend the next 20+ minutes watching the clock and waiting impatiently for the extremely slow line to move while the other three have an enlightening conversation about pedophilia. We finally get the event tickets, and rush into the hall to try and signup before it’s too late. T is for Tardy. Allen is there already talking to someone who he introduces as Anarky87 and being the tardy jackass that I am, I offer a brief greeting and dash off to find the line. I waited in line for about 5 minutes before someone points out that it is the line for drafting. I move over to the front of the stage and grab a registration sheet and a blank decklist. I scribble out the bare minimum of required info and present it along with my event tickets just as registration closes. Phew.
I sit through the pre-tourney player chat, and round 1 pairings are posted. (Note: This entire report is based solely on my memory, so names, plays, life totals, etc may be omitted or inaccurate)
Round 1 vs. Mono R Goblins Chris Boomer
Game 1: We bust out the Gencon die from my swag bag and Chris gives it a roll. The die comes up as ‘Doh!’ We determine that the Doh is meant to be a 1 and Gencon 2007 is meant to be a 6. I win the die roll and opt to play. I lead the game with mountain Lackey. Chris responds with mountain Mogg Fanatic. Thank god it isn’t Belcher. Lack trades with Fanatic and I drop Aether Vial.
I’m sketchy on the details of the game, however suffice to say his 2 Ringleaders netted him 3 or 4 goblins, while my 3 Ringleaders netted me 10. I also noted that he Bolted one of my goblins during the game, and he played Pyroknesis on two others.
SB:
-4 Goblin Lackey
+4 Pyroknesis
Game 2: I keep an opening hand with Pyroknesis, and he mulls to six. He leads with mountain into vial. Chris then proceeds to not miss land drops for the next six or seven turns, while I continue to Ringleader into many Goblins. After the game I found out that he played 1 MD Pyroknesis and 3 MD Lightning Bolt.
1- 0
Round 2 vs. Belcher :cry:
Game 1: He wins the die roll, and throws his hand back saying something like, “I can do better than that.” I get a sinking feeling at this point, but cross my fingers and hope that he isn’t playing what I think he is. He tosses his hand of six back quickly as well, saying that the first one was probably better. He keeps his hand of 5 and I take a look at my cards. My hand is good unless he is playing Belcher or some other fast combo, in which case it doesn’t really matter, so I keep. He plays Lotus Petal into Tinder Wall into Desperate Ritual. He drops LED and plays Burning Wish, sacking the LED and getting Empty the Warrens for 12 goblin tokens. I draw a card for my turn and scoop it up.
SB:
-4 Aether Vial
+4 Chalice of the Void
Game 2: My opening hand contains no Chalice, so I mulligan. My six card hand has no Chalice, so I mulligan. My five card hand has a Lackey, Siege-Gang, a Tin Street Hooligan and 2 Lands, so I keep. I play Lackey and pass the turn. He drops belcher and activates for 48 points to my dome. After the game I immediately go to a dealer and buy a new set of Purple Dragonshield sleeves, since my others were kind of old, and I’ve been told that combo doesn’t like purple.
1-1
Round 3 UGRW Gro
Game 1: I lose the die roll and he opts to play. He drops a Polluted Delta and passes. I drop Wooded Foothills and attempt to fetch. He responds by fetching for a tropical island and Stifling. He untaps and drops another fetchland. I drop a mountain and play Aether Vial, which resolves. Vial eventually gets up to 4 where it drops 2 Ringleaders for me and then a Siege-Gang Commander. He draws 4 Lightning Bolts throughout the match and sends them all to my dome. The game ends with me at 7 life.
SB:
-2 Goblin Tinkerer
-2 Goblin Piledriver
+4 Tarmogoyf
Game 2: My Lackey is Swords, my Vial is countered, and he then proceeds to drop Goyf followed by Werebear and Mental Note. What a beating.
Game 3: I mull to 6 and keep a 3 fetchland hand that could be worse. I lead with Fetch for Taiga pass. He plays Delta pass. I draw a Vial for my turn, and drop a Fetch. He Stifles the Fetch. Fearing Daze I pass the turn. He untaps, drops a land, and passes. I untap, draw Vial #2, and play a Fetch. I fetch for another Taiga, and he responds with a Brainstorm. I go dig out my second Taiga, and drop Vial. It resolves. I drop Vial #2 and he Forces. I eventually Vial in a Warchief and tap out to hardcast Siege-Gang Commander. He responds with STP on the Warchief to keep me from playing the Commander, but it doesn’t work very well.
2-1
Intermission
While waiting for the round 4 pairings to go up, I take a seat next to the rest of the group. Alix (Obfuscate Freely), Jesse (Mad Zur), Chris (Machinus) are all 3-0 at this point and Allen (Urabahn) has gone 1-2 drop. After about 10 minutes of idle chatter, and announcement is made that there is a problem with the computer system and that pairings for round 4 will take a minimum of 30 minutes to be posted. Lame. We briefly discuss dropping, since it will be very late (early?!) when we finish, but since everyone seems to be doing well, we all decide to wait it out. About an hour and a half later, pairings for round 4 are up.
Intermission
Round 4 vs. Solidarity
Game 1: I keep an opener with Lackey and Siege-Gang against an unknown opponent. I drop Lackey and he frowns. He plays Polluted Delta and passes. I untap, and swing with Lackey dropping Siege-Gang into play. He Fetches for an Island and draws for his turn. He drops another Island and passes. I untap, drop my third land, and swing with the team, putting him at 12 and dropping a Ringleader with Lackey. He Impulses EOT. Now that I’m sure of what he’s playing, I sac a Goblin token using Siege-Gang to put him to 10. I untap and swing on my turn putting him to 3 and sac 2 tokens for the kill.
SB:
-2 Goblin Tinkerer
-2 Gempalm Incinerator
+4 Chalice of the Void
Game 2: He leads with island pass. I play mountain lackey which is Hydroblasted. He untaps and plays an island. I untap and fetch for a taiga, dropping chalice for 1. He Remands. He untaps and drops a land and passes. I untap and drop Rishadan Port, playing Mogg Fanatic followed by Chalice for 1. He forces the Chalice. He untaps and plays a land and passes. I draw Port #2, and I drop Ringleader which resolves. Ringleader gets me Warchief and Incinerator. I swing for 3 putting him at 17. He impulses EOT, untaps, draws, and passes. I untap, draw, and drop Lackey, swinging for 3 and putting him at 14. He untaps, and I tap 2 lands on his EOT. He misses another land drop, and I untap, swinging for 4 and dropping Warchief off of Lackey. He untaps, and plays High Tide after drawing a card. I respond by tapping 2 of his lands, which leaves him with 0 mana in his pool after Turnabout. He doesn’t have enough mana to continue the combo.
3-1
[b]Round 5 vs. URG Threshold Chris ‘Alix lets me wear his hat all the time’ Coppola
Game 1: Alix and Chris were paired last round, and it seems that the pairings really didn’t want all of us to make t8. On the brightside, the loser will get a reasonable amount of sleep for tomorrow. I win the die roll, and mulligan to six. I lead off with Port into vial. Port was my only land, and I’m holding a Lackey, so I pray that Vial resolves. It does. Chris untaps, drops a Strand, fetches an Island, and plays Portent. I untap, set Vial to Doh!, and draw a mountain. I pass the turn, and Port his island on his upkeep. He fetches a forest and passes. End of turn I vial in Lackey. Lackey connects on my turn, and also the turn after that. It seemed that Chris was having mana issues and Port certainly wasn’t helping.
SB:
-3 Goblin Piledriver
-1 Gempalm Incinerator
+4 Tarmogoyf
Game 2: Fearing Pithing Needle, I leave the Hooligans in and drop Piledrivers. Maybe this wasn’t the correct call. Anyway, Chris opts to play and mulls to 6. I don’t remember the specifics of the game, but I resolve an Aether Vial, and Wasteland plus double Port keep him from doing much for the rest of the game. Also noteworthy is a Tarmogoyf I drew while he was at 2 life! T is for Tarmogoyf. Afterwards, he drops and has the benefit of sleep before the championship in the morning. Since the Hatfields and I were still in contention, I asked if he’d be willing to do a food run to Steak and Shake for us. He gave me the finger. :frown:
4-1
Round 6 vs. Mono R Goblins
Game 1: Goblin mirrors are kinda fuzzy in my memory, so I don’t recall much from this game. I do remember that I had an early Aether Vial and he didn’t. I also drew really well off of Ringleaders and he didn’t. The game ended when I vialed a Siege-Gang into play at the end of his turn.
SB:
-4 Goblin Lackey
+4 Pyroknesis
Game 2: Much of the fuzz from Game 1 remains. This game we both resolved Vials, and I slow rolled, holding onto Ringleaders and Siege-Gangs while building up Incinerator mana for his relevant Goblin threats. I start swinging with Ringleaders and Matrons, slowly chipping away at his life. I send the team in each turn while holding double Pyroknesis in an attempt to get him to attempt an alpha strike. He never draws the goblins to pull it off, and scoops.
5-1
Round 7 I.D. David Caplan
We are both tired, and we want to draw, so we spend the first couple minutes of the round looking at the standings to see if we can draw into the t8. I’m pretty sure that both of us will make it due to our tiebreakers, and the judges pull the sheet down so that we can’t see it anymore, and we agree to a draw. He tells me he is playing Thresh, and I tell him I’m playing Goblins.
5-1-1
Top 8 Recruiter Aluren
I checked the standings after the round, and thankfully both David and I made t8. T is for Top 8. Additionally, both Hatfields made it as well. Upon wandering over to the pairings sheet, I learn that I will be playing against Aluren first round. I quickly consult with Alix to get the low-down on Aluren. I learn that the deck can have problems assembling the combo and that it has trouble with a first turn lackey. Check
Game 1: I win the die roll and keep an opening hand with Lackey and Matron while he mulls to 6. I drop Lackey and he sighs as I pass the turn. He plays a land and passes. I drop another land, swing with Lackey, drop Matron, and tutor and cast Piledriver. He is quickly overrun.
SB:
-2 Tin Street Hooligan
-1 Mogg Fanatic
-1 Goblin Matron
-1 Goblin Ringleader
-2 Gempalm Incinerator
+4 Pyroknesis
+3 Tranquil Domain
Game 2: He keeps his opening hand, and I take a look at mine. Lackey, Ringleader, Fanatic, Pyroknesis, make me keep. He drops a land and passes. I drop Lackey and pass. He plays another land and Wall of Roots. I swing in with Lackey and Pyroknesis the Wall after he blocks, removing Fanatic. He Forces removing Intuition. He Therapies me for Krosan Grip and he whiffs. I immediately topdeck Tranquil Domain, and hold onto it while eventually getting enough mana to drop a Ringleader. He plays draw go for a few turns, apparently unhappy with whatever he is getting, while I swing in with Ringleader and Lackey. Since he hasn’t played any spells, I figure that he’s holding combo creatures and looking for the Aluren or tutor off the top. When I finally get him low enough on life that I can kill him next turn, I make the mistake of tapping out to Gempalm his wall after he blocks with it. He untaps and rips what he needs off the top. Without any mana, I can’t Domain and he goes off. It turns out that he was holding 3 Alurens.
Game 3: I see no Lackey in the opening 7, so I mull. Lackey appears in my 6 card hand, so I keep. I start out with Lackey, which is Forced. He plays a land a passes. I rip another Lackey off the top, and this one resolves. T is for Topdeck! He drops another land and passes. Lackey connects and drops a Ringleader, revealing Warchief and Matron. He ends up at 12 life, and passes the turn to me. I untap, and drop Matron finding Piledriver and play it, swinging with Ringleader and Chief to deal 12 to him.
Top 4 URG Thresh Jesse Hatfield
I wander over to the other games to see how things are going and I end up paired against Jesse Hatfield.
Game 1: I mull to 6 and keep a relatively mediocre hand. Jesse resolves an early Goose and starts swinging with it as soon as he hits threshold. Another one joins the first, and I continue to not draw the awesome. :frown:
SB:
-3 Goblin Piledriver
-1 Gempalm Incinerator
+4 Tarmogoyf
Game 2: I already know Jesse’s exact list, so I am prepared for the Pyroclasms. However I didn’t prepare for his SB Leyline of the Manaflood, which he of course drew in his opening hand and started with in play. By this point it is really late, so I don’t remember many details about this game, except that Leyline won the whole thing for him. I ended the game with 7 or 8 lands in play, including 3 Ports, while he beat me down each turn with Tarmogoyf.
T is for Third. I collect my prize of 24 Time Spiral Block booster packs and a Swagbag. The prize support could have been better I suppose. Jesse and Alix play out the finals in the URG mirror, which takes forever in a total of 4 games while I make a food run to Steak and Shake for patty melts. We finish up the tourney at about 5:30 in the morning and head back to the hotel room to build our decks for the championship. I might include a tournament report of the championships but right now, T is for Tired.
-TOOL