Bovinious
03-31-2008, 08:42 PM
Disclaimer: Ive never written one of these reports before and didn’t take notes during my matches because I didn’t think Id top-8 and Im lazy, so bear with me if this report is vague, lacking detail, or whatever.
So, the day starts off with me waking up at like 8:30 and leaving my house at 9:15 to pick me friends/teammates Noelle and Drew, and also Calosso who bummed a ride off of me as well (I apologize to all present for this :P). So we arrive at the site at about 10:45, so I decide to go to the Starbucks next door and get myself a frappuccino, which is apparently a “gay drink” or something, even thought theyre delicious. Whatever. So pretty much at exactly 11, when the doors open, we all enter and start trying to get decks together, even though I already know Im playing Ichorid and have it built. I spend the next hour or so registering my deck, helping Noelle get Aggro Loam together, getting Dragon Stompy together for Drew, and giving my teammate Sean Park, who arrived later, Affinity after failing to get Goblins together in time. Calosso also borrowed almost his whole 5c Breakfast deck from me because hes a barnface and doesn’t have most expensive Legacy cards. All of them end up scrubbing out pretty early, but apparently a different fate is in store for me. Without further ado, the list I ran:
Ichorid, AKA Teh_Unlosable
MD:
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Cephalid Coliseum
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Golgari-Grave Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
2 Golgari Thug
1 Darkblast
4 Ichorid
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Putrid Imp
4 Narcomoeba
4 Bridge From Below
4 Breakthrough
1 Careful Study
3 Dread Return
3 Deep Analysis
1 Cephalid Sage
1 Flame-Kin Zealot
SB:
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Chain of Vapor
4 Pithing Needle
2 Ray of Revelation
1 Ancient Grudge
Pretty much your standard Ichorid list, for the last 2 non-widely agreed upon slots I decided on a 3rd Dread Return and a single Careful Study, which worked out pretty well. The Darkblast also probably should have been another Thug, but since I only have 2 foil Thugs I ran my foil Darkblast (all of my dredgers are foil). Kind of OCD I know, but I didn’t think itd make much difference and also could have helped answer Jailer. Anyways, on to the tournament, and like I said before I apologize if I don’t remember some stuff because I didn’t take any notes at all other than scribbles from Therapys and life totals, so yeah.
Round 1: Jim Lampman (source name?) with Gb Treefolk
Game 1: He plays a lot of foil Forests and treefolks (I think his ENTIRE deck was foil, pretty hawt), I think he gets out a Dauntless Dourback or something but is run over by hasty zombies on turn 4.
For game 2 I SB in 4 Needles and 1 Ray of Rev (don’t even know why…), expecting Crypts because I thought he was in mono green, he had Bayous that I saw game 2/3 but he was smart not to let me see any game 1.
Game 2: He begins with Leyline of the Void, which is a frown for me because I now have a 1 outer to even have a chance, I pretend that’s it’s a game for a few turns and then concede.
I SB in Chain of Vapor and my other Ray or Rev, or else Leyline may tear me a new one.
Game 3: I start with a hand with 2 Ray of Rev, Cephalid Coliseum, and some other gas, which I figure is fine even is he has Leyline because I will just need to wait for a rainbow land to cast Ray, and will be fine obviously if he doesn’t have Leyline. He opens the game up with Leyline, and Therapys me for something I didn’t have, seeing the 2 Rays. After I draw and play me Coliseum he Therapys me again for Ray of Rev, snagging both of them. A turn later however I top deck Chain of Vapor, EOT bounced the Leyline, and went off the following turn, Therapying the Leyline away. From that point it took me a few turns to win, but I got there. I was pretty lucky to topdeck the Chain, but better lucky than good right?
1-0
Round 2: I cant remember anything about this match for some reason, I know I won and I guess it must have been pretty quick if I cant remember anything about it. Something tells me he was playing a blue deck but Im really drawing a blank here, if anyone/my opponent has any information about this match shoot me a PM or something and ill edit :wink:
2-0
Round 3: Nick DiTizio (source name?) with Dreadstill
Game 1: I mulligan to 5, sometime in the first few turns he Stifles my Coliseum and Dazes a Deep Analysis, then on turn 5 he plays a Dreadnought and Stifles the trigger, which proceeds to beat me down over the next 2 turns. I never could get rolling this game.
Game 2: I mulligan to 5 again, but am able to make it a game with a Putrid Imp and several dredgers. He draws 1 Tormod’s Crypt to set me back a bit, but then draws 2 Trinket Mages for 2 more Crypts, the third of which pretty much puts the game out of reach for me. I end up getting beaten to death to death by Trinket mage and a zombie token of mine that he stole with Threads, and Factory. I don’t feel too bad about losing because I drew pretty poorly (I don’t think I misplayed) and he had 3 Crypts game 2, plus his deck seemed pretty cool, I didn’t even know it was a real deck until a week or 2 ago and had never seen it in action.
2-1
Round 4: Matt McInnes (source name?) with Ugwb Threshold
Game 1: Don’t remember what happened but its Threshold so Im guessing I just went off turn 2-3 and there wasn’t much he could do, it was probably over quickly as games 1s usually are.
Game 2: He plays a turn 2 or 3 Jailer, and plays another one a few turns later at which point I scoop it up and SB in my Chain of Vapors for the Jailers I wasn’t expecting (I don’t think I saw black game 1).
Game 3: I mulligan once but start with a great 6 card hand of Coliseum, LED, DA, Therapy, City of Brass, Stinkweed Imp. Turn 1 I Therapy him for Jailer and miss, seeing 2 Daze, FoW, Strand, Goose, Goyf, and Top. I am obviously thankful he doesn’t have Jailer but forsee this countermagic potentially being problematic. I do however get the LED to stick and pass. I think he plays land Top go. The next turn I draw Breakthrough, and play my Coliseum. At this point I could use City to cast Breakthrough, before passing priority sac LED for UUU. If he FoWd countered the Breakthrough, I would still be able to flashback DA and have 1 mana left to pay for Daze. Thing is though if he did Daze, I could pay the 1, but then I wouldn’t have been able to use my Coliseum (I couldn’t use my Coliseum before DA because I would only have 6 cards in my GY after LED) and would just have had 2 dredges that turn. I opt to pass the turn, thinking the chances of him drawing another land and Jailer since I saw his hand are slim. Indeed, he played a land and passes his next turn, not having gotten the Jailer. Then on my next turn I draw something irrelevant, and cast the Breakthrough in the fashion I described above, expecting it to get FoWd, but I planned to use the Coliseum which I could now use thanks to the extra card obtained by my draw phase. Oddly, however, Matt doesn’t counter the Breakthrough, and in the middle of my second dredge he says “I think I made a mistake” and I say “yeah, this definitely shouldn’t be resolving”, in fact I was planning on it not resolving. I then proceed to activate my Coliseum, rip his hand apart, and win the next turn with a horde of zombies. Matt is a bit frustrated by this loss which is understandable, especially with the misplay, he talks about how he hates how he think Magic is worse off with a deck like Ichorid than can play from the GY with no lands and no permanents and still win so quickly. I of course disagree and think this is fun to do. When he mentions how WOTC pretty much intentionally made the deck with printing Narcomoeba and Bridge in the same set, I bring up that WOTC was really fucking up at that time since they also made Goyf, so we have some nice WOTC bashing words, stupid WOTC. After this match Bryant Cook (wastedlife) tries to tell me I should have gone off the turn before with the DA, which I did consider but opted for the 5 dredges next turn rather than 2 that turn, thinking the chances are slim that he would find both a second land and a Jailer in the 1 turn I gave him. My “gamble” turned out to be fine since he didn’t have the Jailer. So yeah, he kept trying to convince me I was just wrong and that it wasn’t a judgment call, and eventually just walks away in disgust because he refuses to argue with “someone like me” or something…don’t know what was up with that, I mean I don’t try and tell him how to make judgment calls with TES or anything :wink:
3-1
Round 5: Dave Price (quicksilver) with Survival
Game 1: He mulligans to 6, and opens with Thoughtsieze, and takes my LED. This sets me back a bit, but next turn I Therapy him naming Survival which whiffs, seeing 3 land, Eternal Witness, and Rofellos. The next turn he plays Rofellos, and a turn later I flashback Therapy on Witness. He does nothing but swing with Rofellos for the next few turns and I win eventually.
Game 2: I think this is the first turn 0 win I’ve ever gotten, he mulligans to 5, I mulligan to 6, then he opens up with Thoughtseize and sees Gemstone Mine, Stinkweed Imp, Breakthrough, Breakthrough, Putrid Imp, and some irrelevant card. After seeing my hand he says “I concede” which catches me off guard. I remind him that its game 2 and I won the first, and he says he knows, but that he cant possibly beat my hand no matter what he takes because the rest of his hand is so bad, and he wants to go get food. He drew really poorly both games, it wasn’t really a fair match but that’s how it goes sometimes.
4-1
After winning that match in about 15 minutes, I give Zach Tartell (lonelybaritone) a ride down the street to go get his car, because apparently his brakes took a shit on him and he needed to get the mechanics very soon. He later returns to the site, presumably with his car fixed.
Round 6: Cody Mannion (Ta Jugs) with Ubg Landstill
We look at the standings, he is in 7th and I am in 8th, and we figure out that we cant draw because we are 2 of the lowest 12s and that 1 or 2 13s will be cut from top8, so we have to play it out. He seems to want to draw and risk it but I insist we play it out, I know I have a positive matchup anyways and am not guaranteed top8 with a draw. Indeed, Dominic got cut from top8 with 13 points, and if Cody and I had drawn another 13 would have gotten cut, probably one of us.
Game 1: As we are presenting our decks, the judge comes up to us and says that we will be deck checked, so he takes our decks and SBs away for about 10 minutes. When he returns, he tells Cody that he presented a 61 card deck and a 14 card sideboard and that he will be getting a game loss. That seems like kind of a harsh penalty to me but I guess Ill take it, and apparently game 2 is without sideboarding which really makes this match basically unlosable.
Game 2: Cody seems kind of shaken about receiving a game loss and doesn’t really seem too into the game. He plays Standstill and says go on his turn 4, and on my turn 4 I have 3 Ichorids to bring back, and rather than attacking with them, I Dread Return a FKZ making 9 zombies from my 3 Bridges, but the Dread Return is countered. I later of course realize (and hear from many bystanders) that I should have just swung for 9, let the Ichorids die EOT and had zombies and Ichorids next turn. My misplay gave him a few more outs and a bit more time to find EE/Deed, but it was not to be. I won with about 8 zombie tokens and 2 Ichorids a turn later, having taken an EE from his hand with a Therapy the turn before.
5-1, a top-8 berth, and apparently the number 1 overall seed at 15 points (there were no other 15s).
So I dick around for a while as they get final standings, top8 pairings, clear some space, all that jazz. Once I see the standings I realize that in top8 I play Jesse Hatfield (Mad Zur) with the build of 5c Threshold both he and Alix (who *SPOILER ALERT* I go on to play in top4) top8ed with. I get some bad intelligence from Calosso, who says they both have Jailers in their SB, which I was playing around the whole time. Apparently neither one of them ran Jailers, so either Calosso was just mistaken, or, more likely, he is a giant jerkface and intentionally misled me in some feeble attempt to gain favor with the Hatfields or something, it didn’t end up mattering so Im not too worried about it. Whatever. On to the top8.
TOP8: Jesse Hatfield (Mad Zur) with 5c Threshold
Game 1: Don’t really remember what exactly happened but I think he Forced my LED or something and I never got rolling, I remember I died to a 6/7 Goyf and a 3/3 Goose, after chumping them for a few turns.
Game 2: He mulligans to 5, and doesn’t really get a hand that does much and I just beat him pretty quickly with zombies/Ichorids from what I recall.
Game 3: This was a pretty long and epic game, he Pyroclasms like twice to hold the line and eventually has to block an Ichorid with a Goose, leaving him with just a Goyf at 3 life, me with 2 Ichorids, 2 other black dudes in the yard and 2(!) cards in my library. The 4th Ichorid was the 3rd to last card, and Im pretty sure I would have lost if it was in the bottom 2. Anyways, since hes at 1 he NEEDS to find a creature to block, or the 4th STP (he used 2 on Ichorids, 1 on a Narcomoeba) or else hell die next turn. He does a bunch of unfair things with Top, fetches, and Ponders, causing me to question my love of the game. He must have seen like 20 cards but apparently still nothing that would have helped, he used his 2nd to last land to activate Top, leaving Trop untapped, which meant he needed to see 1 of the 2 remaining Geese in the top 2, while at 1 life. Jesse later told me that he should have just drawn a card with Top leaving Tundra and Trop, which would have given him 6 outs, 2 Geese, 3 Goyfs, 1 STP, as his library was randomized at that point. Either way, he didn’t find what he needed, and I kill him with 2 Ichorids versus his 1 Goyf, with 1 card left in my library. I was thinking I was going to lose for about the last half of the game, but I obviously figured Id play it out to see what happened, and he just didn’t see what he needed to near the end so I won. Pretty good match.
Once the rest of the top-4 is set, Alix, Kenny, Matt, and I discuss possibly splitting top-4, the 3 of them seem content to split but I don’t really want to. I figure Im guaranteed a set of blue duals win or lose, so basically we were playing for 9th/10th pick. I would rather just play for the pick rather than split a set of Strands 2/2 or whatever, that seems dumb and I came to play Magic. An added boon is that I know Alix is playing Thresh, and I love to crush Thresh since fanboys think it’s the undisputed best deck or something and constantly ride its balls. Also, I really want to win so that Ichorid possibly gets some respect finally, don’t know if thatll happen or not but whatever, I put up results, nothing more I can do (I already had trash talk covered :wink:). Anyways, on to the match.
TOP4: Alix Hatfield (Obfuscate Freely) with 5c Threshold
Game 1: Alix wins the die roll, and as he is taking a mulligan to 6, I look through my sideboard and realize I have forgotten to desideboard from my last match. I immediately call the judge, and am given a game loss for presenting an illegal deck/failure to desideboard. I feel pretty dumb about it, but at least game 2 is without SB and with me on the play so it wont be too bad I hope. I still cant believe I did that, that has never happened to me before, and I guarantee will never happen again. After this “game” Alix offers me the draw again, but I decline again, since I really just want to play and don’t care too much about the potential prize loss.
Game 2: This is a non-sideboarded game with me on the play, I think he Thoughtsiezes me or something but doesn’t do much else to inhibit me, I don’t think he saw Clasms or any hate this game and I win pretty quickly.
Game 3: This game was pretty epic also, not as epic as the game 3 with Jesse though. Early on, I fizzle 2 Coliseums, having to draw 2 cards normally off EACH of them, and then later on I fizzle a 3rd Coliseum and draw 2 even though there was apparently a Stinkweed Imp sitting right in my yard. This is another mistake I made this tourney that I had never made before, and Id like to think it was because of tiredness. Anyways, sometime down the line I Therapyd him for something and miss, seeing Clasm, REB, Goose. That turn I had dredged the 3rd Narcomoeba in my deck, who joined an army of many zombies, with 2 Bridges. He had a Goose and a Goyf, and if it weren’t for me hitting the Narcomoeba he would have been able to simply Clasm and swing for the win, but since I did have the Narc, if he Clasmed, my Bridges would trigger and leave me with 2 blockers, and Id live. Apparently he had drawn a 2nd Clasm, so he swung, I chumped Goyf and took 1 from Goose, the he Clasmed (which was the 7th card in his yard so Goose lived and didn’t RFG Bridges) which was smart because now I wouldn’t name Clasm with any potential Therapys next turn. Indeed, next turn I Therapyed away the REB I knew was there and saw the 2nd Clasm. I think I must have had another Therapy for his Clasm, because I don’t remember him casting it and don’t know how I would have survived a Clasm. I have his life total going down from 13 to 3, probably getting hit by 2 Ichorids and 2 zombies, and victory the next turn. As was the case against Jesse as well, I got a little lucky, by hitting Narcomoeba number 3. If I hadn’t hit it that turn, I would have been dead on the board, better lucky than good sometimes I suppose. Another good match, I always like playing against the Hatfields, especially when theyre playing Threshold :wink:
We finish our match before Kenny and Matt finish game 1, mostly because our first 2 games took like 8 minutes combined, and I have to wait around for a while to claim my prize so I can get the Hell out of there. It was all good though.
TOP2: Matt Elgin (Spatula of the Ages) with Enchantress
We agree to split, and rock-paper-scissors for first place in the official standings. He wins, and takes Tundras with his first pick because he already has Seas. I then select Seas, and the deal was whoever lost RPS got the 9th pick also, so I took Flooded Strands 9th. Not too bad for a days work. Afterwards like 16 of us go out to dinner at this Italian place that was about to close. We had dinner/fourth meal, and then part ways. After I dropped Calosso, Drew, and Noelle off, I finally got home at 1:30 and collapsed from tiredness. Even though this was admittedly one of the worst days of Magic Ive ever played as far as play mistakes go, they never came back to bite me in the ass and it was a good day :wink:
Props:
Ichorid, for being the best deck in the format
Zuhair, for running a great tournament, and Akki for judging
Fuddruckers, for letting us have the tournament there and for bottomless drinks
Golgari Grave-Troll, for being the best creature in Legacy
All of my opponents, who were pretty cool and good sports
Ichorid, for being unlosable
Luck, for allowing me to win even though I did my best to punt a few games
Dredge, for being the best keyword ever, just ahead of Flashback and Threshold
Slops:
Leyline of the Void, Tormod’s Crypt, and Yixlid Jailer, for (potentially) hosing Ichorid
Tarmogoyf, do I really need a reason?
Calosso, again, do I really need a reason?
Not eating until like 6 pm, because all my rounds took longer than I expected
Calosso, for giving me bad intelligence on the Hatfield’s sideboards
Anyone who doubted me, or the strength/resilience of Ichorid
Getting home at 1:30 AM
Calosso again :P
My driving, for almost running a guy off the road at 1 AM, and having no clue how to navigate around my own home state without the help of Noelle’s GPS
Me, for playing badly at times, but winning anyway :wink:
Gearhart, for not bringing Solidarity back :frown:
Noelle, Drew, and Sean Park for scrubbing out
The rest of Team the Copenhavers, who couldn’t make it to see their fearless leader trounce
So, the day starts off with me waking up at like 8:30 and leaving my house at 9:15 to pick me friends/teammates Noelle and Drew, and also Calosso who bummed a ride off of me as well (I apologize to all present for this :P). So we arrive at the site at about 10:45, so I decide to go to the Starbucks next door and get myself a frappuccino, which is apparently a “gay drink” or something, even thought theyre delicious. Whatever. So pretty much at exactly 11, when the doors open, we all enter and start trying to get decks together, even though I already know Im playing Ichorid and have it built. I spend the next hour or so registering my deck, helping Noelle get Aggro Loam together, getting Dragon Stompy together for Drew, and giving my teammate Sean Park, who arrived later, Affinity after failing to get Goblins together in time. Calosso also borrowed almost his whole 5c Breakfast deck from me because hes a barnface and doesn’t have most expensive Legacy cards. All of them end up scrubbing out pretty early, but apparently a different fate is in store for me. Without further ado, the list I ran:
Ichorid, AKA Teh_Unlosable
MD:
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Cephalid Coliseum
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Golgari-Grave Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
2 Golgari Thug
1 Darkblast
4 Ichorid
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Putrid Imp
4 Narcomoeba
4 Bridge From Below
4 Breakthrough
1 Careful Study
3 Dread Return
3 Deep Analysis
1 Cephalid Sage
1 Flame-Kin Zealot
SB:
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Chain of Vapor
4 Pithing Needle
2 Ray of Revelation
1 Ancient Grudge
Pretty much your standard Ichorid list, for the last 2 non-widely agreed upon slots I decided on a 3rd Dread Return and a single Careful Study, which worked out pretty well. The Darkblast also probably should have been another Thug, but since I only have 2 foil Thugs I ran my foil Darkblast (all of my dredgers are foil). Kind of OCD I know, but I didn’t think itd make much difference and also could have helped answer Jailer. Anyways, on to the tournament, and like I said before I apologize if I don’t remember some stuff because I didn’t take any notes at all other than scribbles from Therapys and life totals, so yeah.
Round 1: Jim Lampman (source name?) with Gb Treefolk
Game 1: He plays a lot of foil Forests and treefolks (I think his ENTIRE deck was foil, pretty hawt), I think he gets out a Dauntless Dourback or something but is run over by hasty zombies on turn 4.
For game 2 I SB in 4 Needles and 1 Ray of Rev (don’t even know why…), expecting Crypts because I thought he was in mono green, he had Bayous that I saw game 2/3 but he was smart not to let me see any game 1.
Game 2: He begins with Leyline of the Void, which is a frown for me because I now have a 1 outer to even have a chance, I pretend that’s it’s a game for a few turns and then concede.
I SB in Chain of Vapor and my other Ray or Rev, or else Leyline may tear me a new one.
Game 3: I start with a hand with 2 Ray of Rev, Cephalid Coliseum, and some other gas, which I figure is fine even is he has Leyline because I will just need to wait for a rainbow land to cast Ray, and will be fine obviously if he doesn’t have Leyline. He opens the game up with Leyline, and Therapys me for something I didn’t have, seeing the 2 Rays. After I draw and play me Coliseum he Therapys me again for Ray of Rev, snagging both of them. A turn later however I top deck Chain of Vapor, EOT bounced the Leyline, and went off the following turn, Therapying the Leyline away. From that point it took me a few turns to win, but I got there. I was pretty lucky to topdeck the Chain, but better lucky than good right?
1-0
Round 2: I cant remember anything about this match for some reason, I know I won and I guess it must have been pretty quick if I cant remember anything about it. Something tells me he was playing a blue deck but Im really drawing a blank here, if anyone/my opponent has any information about this match shoot me a PM or something and ill edit :wink:
2-0
Round 3: Nick DiTizio (source name?) with Dreadstill
Game 1: I mulligan to 5, sometime in the first few turns he Stifles my Coliseum and Dazes a Deep Analysis, then on turn 5 he plays a Dreadnought and Stifles the trigger, which proceeds to beat me down over the next 2 turns. I never could get rolling this game.
Game 2: I mulligan to 5 again, but am able to make it a game with a Putrid Imp and several dredgers. He draws 1 Tormod’s Crypt to set me back a bit, but then draws 2 Trinket Mages for 2 more Crypts, the third of which pretty much puts the game out of reach for me. I end up getting beaten to death to death by Trinket mage and a zombie token of mine that he stole with Threads, and Factory. I don’t feel too bad about losing because I drew pretty poorly (I don’t think I misplayed) and he had 3 Crypts game 2, plus his deck seemed pretty cool, I didn’t even know it was a real deck until a week or 2 ago and had never seen it in action.
2-1
Round 4: Matt McInnes (source name?) with Ugwb Threshold
Game 1: Don’t remember what happened but its Threshold so Im guessing I just went off turn 2-3 and there wasn’t much he could do, it was probably over quickly as games 1s usually are.
Game 2: He plays a turn 2 or 3 Jailer, and plays another one a few turns later at which point I scoop it up and SB in my Chain of Vapors for the Jailers I wasn’t expecting (I don’t think I saw black game 1).
Game 3: I mulligan once but start with a great 6 card hand of Coliseum, LED, DA, Therapy, City of Brass, Stinkweed Imp. Turn 1 I Therapy him for Jailer and miss, seeing 2 Daze, FoW, Strand, Goose, Goyf, and Top. I am obviously thankful he doesn’t have Jailer but forsee this countermagic potentially being problematic. I do however get the LED to stick and pass. I think he plays land Top go. The next turn I draw Breakthrough, and play my Coliseum. At this point I could use City to cast Breakthrough, before passing priority sac LED for UUU. If he FoWd countered the Breakthrough, I would still be able to flashback DA and have 1 mana left to pay for Daze. Thing is though if he did Daze, I could pay the 1, but then I wouldn’t have been able to use my Coliseum (I couldn’t use my Coliseum before DA because I would only have 6 cards in my GY after LED) and would just have had 2 dredges that turn. I opt to pass the turn, thinking the chances of him drawing another land and Jailer since I saw his hand are slim. Indeed, he played a land and passes his next turn, not having gotten the Jailer. Then on my next turn I draw something irrelevant, and cast the Breakthrough in the fashion I described above, expecting it to get FoWd, but I planned to use the Coliseum which I could now use thanks to the extra card obtained by my draw phase. Oddly, however, Matt doesn’t counter the Breakthrough, and in the middle of my second dredge he says “I think I made a mistake” and I say “yeah, this definitely shouldn’t be resolving”, in fact I was planning on it not resolving. I then proceed to activate my Coliseum, rip his hand apart, and win the next turn with a horde of zombies. Matt is a bit frustrated by this loss which is understandable, especially with the misplay, he talks about how he hates how he think Magic is worse off with a deck like Ichorid than can play from the GY with no lands and no permanents and still win so quickly. I of course disagree and think this is fun to do. When he mentions how WOTC pretty much intentionally made the deck with printing Narcomoeba and Bridge in the same set, I bring up that WOTC was really fucking up at that time since they also made Goyf, so we have some nice WOTC bashing words, stupid WOTC. After this match Bryant Cook (wastedlife) tries to tell me I should have gone off the turn before with the DA, which I did consider but opted for the 5 dredges next turn rather than 2 that turn, thinking the chances are slim that he would find both a second land and a Jailer in the 1 turn I gave him. My “gamble” turned out to be fine since he didn’t have the Jailer. So yeah, he kept trying to convince me I was just wrong and that it wasn’t a judgment call, and eventually just walks away in disgust because he refuses to argue with “someone like me” or something…don’t know what was up with that, I mean I don’t try and tell him how to make judgment calls with TES or anything :wink:
3-1
Round 5: Dave Price (quicksilver) with Survival
Game 1: He mulligans to 6, and opens with Thoughtsieze, and takes my LED. This sets me back a bit, but next turn I Therapy him naming Survival which whiffs, seeing 3 land, Eternal Witness, and Rofellos. The next turn he plays Rofellos, and a turn later I flashback Therapy on Witness. He does nothing but swing with Rofellos for the next few turns and I win eventually.
Game 2: I think this is the first turn 0 win I’ve ever gotten, he mulligans to 5, I mulligan to 6, then he opens up with Thoughtseize and sees Gemstone Mine, Stinkweed Imp, Breakthrough, Breakthrough, Putrid Imp, and some irrelevant card. After seeing my hand he says “I concede” which catches me off guard. I remind him that its game 2 and I won the first, and he says he knows, but that he cant possibly beat my hand no matter what he takes because the rest of his hand is so bad, and he wants to go get food. He drew really poorly both games, it wasn’t really a fair match but that’s how it goes sometimes.
4-1
After winning that match in about 15 minutes, I give Zach Tartell (lonelybaritone) a ride down the street to go get his car, because apparently his brakes took a shit on him and he needed to get the mechanics very soon. He later returns to the site, presumably with his car fixed.
Round 6: Cody Mannion (Ta Jugs) with Ubg Landstill
We look at the standings, he is in 7th and I am in 8th, and we figure out that we cant draw because we are 2 of the lowest 12s and that 1 or 2 13s will be cut from top8, so we have to play it out. He seems to want to draw and risk it but I insist we play it out, I know I have a positive matchup anyways and am not guaranteed top8 with a draw. Indeed, Dominic got cut from top8 with 13 points, and if Cody and I had drawn another 13 would have gotten cut, probably one of us.
Game 1: As we are presenting our decks, the judge comes up to us and says that we will be deck checked, so he takes our decks and SBs away for about 10 minutes. When he returns, he tells Cody that he presented a 61 card deck and a 14 card sideboard and that he will be getting a game loss. That seems like kind of a harsh penalty to me but I guess Ill take it, and apparently game 2 is without sideboarding which really makes this match basically unlosable.
Game 2: Cody seems kind of shaken about receiving a game loss and doesn’t really seem too into the game. He plays Standstill and says go on his turn 4, and on my turn 4 I have 3 Ichorids to bring back, and rather than attacking with them, I Dread Return a FKZ making 9 zombies from my 3 Bridges, but the Dread Return is countered. I later of course realize (and hear from many bystanders) that I should have just swung for 9, let the Ichorids die EOT and had zombies and Ichorids next turn. My misplay gave him a few more outs and a bit more time to find EE/Deed, but it was not to be. I won with about 8 zombie tokens and 2 Ichorids a turn later, having taken an EE from his hand with a Therapy the turn before.
5-1, a top-8 berth, and apparently the number 1 overall seed at 15 points (there were no other 15s).
So I dick around for a while as they get final standings, top8 pairings, clear some space, all that jazz. Once I see the standings I realize that in top8 I play Jesse Hatfield (Mad Zur) with the build of 5c Threshold both he and Alix (who *SPOILER ALERT* I go on to play in top4) top8ed with. I get some bad intelligence from Calosso, who says they both have Jailers in their SB, which I was playing around the whole time. Apparently neither one of them ran Jailers, so either Calosso was just mistaken, or, more likely, he is a giant jerkface and intentionally misled me in some feeble attempt to gain favor with the Hatfields or something, it didn’t end up mattering so Im not too worried about it. Whatever. On to the top8.
TOP8: Jesse Hatfield (Mad Zur) with 5c Threshold
Game 1: Don’t really remember what exactly happened but I think he Forced my LED or something and I never got rolling, I remember I died to a 6/7 Goyf and a 3/3 Goose, after chumping them for a few turns.
Game 2: He mulligans to 5, and doesn’t really get a hand that does much and I just beat him pretty quickly with zombies/Ichorids from what I recall.
Game 3: This was a pretty long and epic game, he Pyroclasms like twice to hold the line and eventually has to block an Ichorid with a Goose, leaving him with just a Goyf at 3 life, me with 2 Ichorids, 2 other black dudes in the yard and 2(!) cards in my library. The 4th Ichorid was the 3rd to last card, and Im pretty sure I would have lost if it was in the bottom 2. Anyways, since hes at 1 he NEEDS to find a creature to block, or the 4th STP (he used 2 on Ichorids, 1 on a Narcomoeba) or else hell die next turn. He does a bunch of unfair things with Top, fetches, and Ponders, causing me to question my love of the game. He must have seen like 20 cards but apparently still nothing that would have helped, he used his 2nd to last land to activate Top, leaving Trop untapped, which meant he needed to see 1 of the 2 remaining Geese in the top 2, while at 1 life. Jesse later told me that he should have just drawn a card with Top leaving Tundra and Trop, which would have given him 6 outs, 2 Geese, 3 Goyfs, 1 STP, as his library was randomized at that point. Either way, he didn’t find what he needed, and I kill him with 2 Ichorids versus his 1 Goyf, with 1 card left in my library. I was thinking I was going to lose for about the last half of the game, but I obviously figured Id play it out to see what happened, and he just didn’t see what he needed to near the end so I won. Pretty good match.
Once the rest of the top-4 is set, Alix, Kenny, Matt, and I discuss possibly splitting top-4, the 3 of them seem content to split but I don’t really want to. I figure Im guaranteed a set of blue duals win or lose, so basically we were playing for 9th/10th pick. I would rather just play for the pick rather than split a set of Strands 2/2 or whatever, that seems dumb and I came to play Magic. An added boon is that I know Alix is playing Thresh, and I love to crush Thresh since fanboys think it’s the undisputed best deck or something and constantly ride its balls. Also, I really want to win so that Ichorid possibly gets some respect finally, don’t know if thatll happen or not but whatever, I put up results, nothing more I can do (I already had trash talk covered :wink:). Anyways, on to the match.
TOP4: Alix Hatfield (Obfuscate Freely) with 5c Threshold
Game 1: Alix wins the die roll, and as he is taking a mulligan to 6, I look through my sideboard and realize I have forgotten to desideboard from my last match. I immediately call the judge, and am given a game loss for presenting an illegal deck/failure to desideboard. I feel pretty dumb about it, but at least game 2 is without SB and with me on the play so it wont be too bad I hope. I still cant believe I did that, that has never happened to me before, and I guarantee will never happen again. After this “game” Alix offers me the draw again, but I decline again, since I really just want to play and don’t care too much about the potential prize loss.
Game 2: This is a non-sideboarded game with me on the play, I think he Thoughtsiezes me or something but doesn’t do much else to inhibit me, I don’t think he saw Clasms or any hate this game and I win pretty quickly.
Game 3: This game was pretty epic also, not as epic as the game 3 with Jesse though. Early on, I fizzle 2 Coliseums, having to draw 2 cards normally off EACH of them, and then later on I fizzle a 3rd Coliseum and draw 2 even though there was apparently a Stinkweed Imp sitting right in my yard. This is another mistake I made this tourney that I had never made before, and Id like to think it was because of tiredness. Anyways, sometime down the line I Therapyd him for something and miss, seeing Clasm, REB, Goose. That turn I had dredged the 3rd Narcomoeba in my deck, who joined an army of many zombies, with 2 Bridges. He had a Goose and a Goyf, and if it weren’t for me hitting the Narcomoeba he would have been able to simply Clasm and swing for the win, but since I did have the Narc, if he Clasmed, my Bridges would trigger and leave me with 2 blockers, and Id live. Apparently he had drawn a 2nd Clasm, so he swung, I chumped Goyf and took 1 from Goose, the he Clasmed (which was the 7th card in his yard so Goose lived and didn’t RFG Bridges) which was smart because now I wouldn’t name Clasm with any potential Therapys next turn. Indeed, next turn I Therapyed away the REB I knew was there and saw the 2nd Clasm. I think I must have had another Therapy for his Clasm, because I don’t remember him casting it and don’t know how I would have survived a Clasm. I have his life total going down from 13 to 3, probably getting hit by 2 Ichorids and 2 zombies, and victory the next turn. As was the case against Jesse as well, I got a little lucky, by hitting Narcomoeba number 3. If I hadn’t hit it that turn, I would have been dead on the board, better lucky than good sometimes I suppose. Another good match, I always like playing against the Hatfields, especially when theyre playing Threshold :wink:
We finish our match before Kenny and Matt finish game 1, mostly because our first 2 games took like 8 minutes combined, and I have to wait around for a while to claim my prize so I can get the Hell out of there. It was all good though.
TOP2: Matt Elgin (Spatula of the Ages) with Enchantress
We agree to split, and rock-paper-scissors for first place in the official standings. He wins, and takes Tundras with his first pick because he already has Seas. I then select Seas, and the deal was whoever lost RPS got the 9th pick also, so I took Flooded Strands 9th. Not too bad for a days work. Afterwards like 16 of us go out to dinner at this Italian place that was about to close. We had dinner/fourth meal, and then part ways. After I dropped Calosso, Drew, and Noelle off, I finally got home at 1:30 and collapsed from tiredness. Even though this was admittedly one of the worst days of Magic Ive ever played as far as play mistakes go, they never came back to bite me in the ass and it was a good day :wink:
Props:
Ichorid, for being the best deck in the format
Zuhair, for running a great tournament, and Akki for judging
Fuddruckers, for letting us have the tournament there and for bottomless drinks
Golgari Grave-Troll, for being the best creature in Legacy
All of my opponents, who were pretty cool and good sports
Ichorid, for being unlosable
Luck, for allowing me to win even though I did my best to punt a few games
Dredge, for being the best keyword ever, just ahead of Flashback and Threshold
Slops:
Leyline of the Void, Tormod’s Crypt, and Yixlid Jailer, for (potentially) hosing Ichorid
Tarmogoyf, do I really need a reason?
Calosso, again, do I really need a reason?
Not eating until like 6 pm, because all my rounds took longer than I expected
Calosso, for giving me bad intelligence on the Hatfield’s sideboards
Anyone who doubted me, or the strength/resilience of Ichorid
Getting home at 1:30 AM
Calosso again :P
My driving, for almost running a guy off the road at 1 AM, and having no clue how to navigate around my own home state without the help of Noelle’s GPS
Me, for playing badly at times, but winning anyway :wink:
Gearhart, for not bringing Solidarity back :frown:
Noelle, Drew, and Sean Park for scrubbing out
The rest of Team the Copenhavers, who couldn’t make it to see their fearless leader trounce