[Report] mossivo @ GP Chicago
Hello folks, most of you know me by Joel or mossivo from practically everything magic oriented. Most of you will recognize me as that land still guy. Fair enough.
Prelude:
I made my plans to Chicago from Lansing, MI "hometown" in December with my buddy Joe. We decided since I just got him hooked up with a nice little blond girl to take our girlfriends and make a weekend of it. If we day2'd sweet and if not we get drunk and party either way, yay!
So Friday we leave at around 3:30pm and get there around 7:30-8pm. Joe and I bring in the bags to the hotel "spring-hill Marriott" and get settled. I happen to be completely ready for the grinders and basically am ready to go down and play. If I win then sweet I can go have a nice lunch, and if not I can die in the smell of male sweat. Joe puts together Merfolk that he has some experience playing in other formats, and I am playing 3c_wish_still. Something that I started playing late last year "used to play 4c" and since have been incredibly happy with this versions results. It simply doesn't loose very often. Joe takes forever "or so it seems" and we kiss our respective girlfriends and make a quick run for the elevators. At the end of the 2 mile walk "we left the ladies the car for beer and pizza" we see a skunk heading up the bridge on the way to the renasaince hotel where the festivities are being held. I say we should just run by it because its far enough away that we can make it, but Joe decides to piss it off and thank god the game of cat and mouse ends with it running back and fourth as we are walking across the damn bridge, then looping underneath the bridge at the opposite end. We get to hotel unscathed.
When we arrive at the game site I meet up with Mike "rock out from the source" and his buddy who I think was named Tim. Both are in mediocre spirits about the meta but were pretty psyched to be meeting after months of play testing online over m.w.s. I ask if he's seen Geoff aka Konsultant and he says yeah but he doesn't respond to his damn phone! So I go and sign up for flight 16 and also the GP which randomly ran out of play mats 3 people before me. I made a bit of a fuss about it and the guy in front of me offered his to me because he doesn't really want it that badly. I tell him I'll trade him for it which I do and that is that.
In the middle of all this Joe's g/f calls and tells us that she got into an accident with his car as my g/f and her were going to the liquor store. Joe is struggling to not lose it and manages to calm down when the police woman doesn't write her a ticket.
Trial:
For quick reference here is the list I played at the GP. I won't go into indepth detail on why the list is like it is.
Quote:
4 [ON] Flooded Strand
4 [R] Tundra
1 [R] Underground Sea
1 [R] Scrubland
1 [FUT] Tolaria West
1 [MM] Dust Bowl
1 [TSP] Academy Ruins
3 [UNH] Plains
3 [UNH] Island
3 [JGC] Mishra's Factory
// Creatures
2 [MOR] Vendilion Clique
2 [ALA] Elspeth, Knight-Errant
// Spells
2 [SC] Decree of Justice
1 [LRW] Ponder
3 [OD] Standstill
2 [JU] Cunning Wish
1 [IN] Fact or Fiction
4 [AL] Force of Will
2 [10E] Wrath of God
1 [TE] Humility
3 [FD] Engineered Explosives
2 [ALA] Relic of Progenitus
3 [DIS] Spell Snare
4 [FNM] Brainstorm
4 [FNM] Swords to Plowshares
2 [CHK] Sensei's devining top
SB:
1 pulse of the fields
1 extirpate
1 enlightened tutor
1 return to dust
1 path to exile
1 hydroblast
1 blue elemental blast
1 circle of protection: green
1 runed halo
1 relic of progenitus
3 Engineered plague
2 ajani goldmane
This list was put together with the core of DIF's UWb wish still list. I also took his direction for an update. One of the last things he mentioned to me is that meddling mage would probobly be dead to me at the gp, as my ichorid matchup is already good especially postboard and I already have a semi disgusting ant matchup. So he said to drop the 3x MM and add in a short list of cards. I chose cop green over red, and he said to go with runed halo even though in testing it wasn't the greatest after a while for me. Also From the original experimental list I made room for EP again and even added in a 3rd one to increase the merfolk matchup substantially. All in all I only boarded in ep once, but the meddling mage changes I did sideboard in 2-3 x throughout the tourney.
r1: Bye since when do opponents just not show to a trial match round 1?
r2:
My opponent is playing all the likings of fae stompy as far as manabase and arti's are concerned and i'm not happy because stax isn't favorable for me unless its d stompy. So he plays out masticore and breaks my standstill, I draw crappy no force or swords or other draw effect. I make 2 playmistakes in out g1 and sure enough 4 ophidians/ meloku, and 2 vensors later, I lose. Game 2 is much simpler as I know whats he's playing now and I get him on the ropes but run out of time. So is life.
I go back to the hotel and drink and eat pizza. Joe lost as well in his second round so we are off. We see the skunk again and once we've eaten and drank we head off to bed stinky asses and all. Our girlfriends we quite pleased that our room smelled of shitty flowers all night.
next morning: Wake up at 8, eat $9 breakfest and head off to GP.
GP:
r1. TA "Irrelivant from the source"
g1. He sees a good opener but it turns crappy when my hand reveals four basics to his 3 wasteland, goyf and really nothing to hard for me to deal with. He sinkholes an island, I draw a mishra's, he eot wastes it, I respond with decree for 2 which kills him from 15.
g2. I realize who he is and so it becomes much more friendly as he knows of me on the source from the testing group. He keeps a 1 lander with thoughtseize and I think ponder. Obviously I recognize his troubles and when he thoughtseizes me t4, I go dustbowl and he basicly scoops. All in all bad luck on his part, fantastic luck for me?
1:0 matches - 2:0 games
R2. R.B_Gobbos
g1. I drop top, he goes lackey. I go mishra's factory and that scares him enough to end up with a t4 humility, shortly after elspeth and soon after gg.
g2. I choose not to keep an opening hand of ep, ep, hydro, tundra, along with no other land or draw. I mulli to 5. He ends up beating me r4 of OT after resolving double ringleader, and a siege gang commander. I stabilized for a while but couldnt find an ep with top in play.
Overall this guy was so much fun to play against. He said he was from Minnesota and that he was really just here having fun. Its not very often that I meet a magic player who is both taller and larger then me. To give you an idea i'm 6'2'' 280 pounds. So it's kind of funny to see someone two inchest taller and 50 pounds heavier. Real nice guy though and we had a smoke afterwards and laughed about the match.
1-0-1: 3-1
r3: UGw Counter-top Thresh
g1: He drops counter-top but I manage to play around it with 4cc spells and eventually get him locked with elspeth/ wrath/ ee. With 15 minutes left in the round he dies.
g2: He casts meddling mage on swords with noble hierarch in play. I drop mishra's, he casts goyf 4/5 and swings with the team. I block MM killing teeg. He casts teeg, I eot brainstorm getting second swords. My turn kill teeg and tarm, pass he casts double goyf passes with 1 card in hand. I cast humility. He attacks for one more round before I reveal I have double vendillion and a 2/2 factory. He scoops.
I think this guy was alittle butt sore that I just played around his counterbalance/ top and that I didn't appear to have many problems with the matchup. I tried to laugh things off during the matchup. I really think it pissed him off when I cutt him off of green mana game one via dustbowl and took the game in firm control. Game 2 he realized that I simply know the matchup better then he does and I am really not going to get suprised by much out of his board.
2-0-1: 5-1
R4: BGwr Aggro
g1: He goes swamp duress. I reveal 6 lands and a swords "Tolaria west and mishra's were in the 6 so it was alright to play this hand." He follows it up with thoughtsieze and no second land. I'm deffinately in good shape and on t3 I go for second factory. He plays mox diamond discarding b/r source and passes. I assume he does this to play a removal spell so I simply pass my turn. He passes t4 eot brainstorm reveals elspeth top and sspell snare. I draw top and pass. He plays nothing passes, I play elspeth make a token activate tops second ability and grab standstill also casting it. He scoops.
g2: I side out like im playing against aggro loam because I saw b/r mox. I quickly find out that this is aggro with duress thoughtseize bob bob goyf goyf goyf bob in a matter of a few turns. I land runed halo naming bob to prevent myself from taking damage and when he lands his first goyf is when I ee for 2. Then he lands goyf 2-3 and I wrath off the top. Then he casts goyf 3. In an effort to not die I am forced to relic away my ee knowing full well I have ruins on top of my library comming next turn in order to not die. He then gets bob, I play ajani and gain two. He reveals krosan grip I draw wrath. He plays teeg and passes. I play standstill and gain 2. I play factory he swings in at ajani putting it at 2. I activate factory activate second ability and swing putting him at 3. he swings into ajani and manages to kill it then grips my fac, then x2 duress leaves me with tundra. He continues the teeg beatdown and I have nothing left. He plays blood moon and swings with teeg. Im in shock. I lose with 2 minutes left.
g3: He casts vindicate/bloodmoon/tombstalker/vindicate/goyf-teeg in a matter of several turns. I barely manage to deal with the threats and I drop elspeth but run out of time to do anything with it. We end on my t5.
This guy said he was a pro from north germany. He was of Asian decent but overall he was funny as hell when we went outside to smoke afterwards. He said he would contact me on the source so Im just waiting. Apparently hes been very succesfull with various top 16's and wins in major events.
2-0-2 : 6-2-1
R5: Vial Horror: Isamaru from the source:
A little back round on isamaru. He made Vial horror a competitive deck, and months ago when I discovered his list and read his entire thread on salvation I ended up accidently meeting him in Brighton, MI randomly. I begged him to sign a brainstorm for me and we left it at that. Randomly meeting him again was absolutely making my day. Its too bad his spirits were low. Apparently he played my buddy "rockout" earlier in the day and both players were ass-sore from the crapshoot that their game was. Either way I was really happy about playing him because I really enjoyed talking. He has some full art cards that are simply gorgeous. His deck is also foiled out really nicely.
g1: Hes demoralized that hes playing against another landstill. He ends up getting run over by repetitive elspeth activations via serra's embrace ability. God I love that one.
g2 Elspeth wins again: True story. <-- "Thanx for the one liner DIF."
3-0-2 : 8-2-1
R6: URW dreadstill
g1: He casts an early naught I force he forces. I cast ee for 1. Pass. He swings for 14 with a factory, I cry. I ee, then dustbowl his factory during my turn, he cries. I stabilize, cast elspeth, win game.
g2: He is much more conservative this game and tries to beat me with trinket mages. I quickly answer the mages, then he drops multiple factorys. followed by dreadnaught. I had casted an elspeth, which he pithing needled. I draw ee, and a tolaria west. In a desperation move I try to get the stifle out of his hand if he has it with tolaria west. He doesnt have it I cast 1 of 2 ee's in hand it resolves, and he looses naught needle and is forced to draw off his top. Elspeth wins the game.
This guy was a calm R.I.W. player who was remotely pissed that he couldn't figure out what I was playing, and I was very talkative to him which I think he found annoying. Oh well. He was nice after the game and I wished him luck.
4-0-2 : 10-2-1
r7: 4c Counter-top control
g1: I force him to make play mistakes and win with elspeth. He ends up loaming for 3 fetches, then killing elspeth with ee. I cast elspeth again and win.
g2: I end up in a situation which I shouldn't have been in. In an effort to end the game quicker I decree for four off of a second ability activation on top, with him having counterbalance, top in play. dumb dumb dumb. He resolves double trinket, and I simply cannot deal with it. I eventually cast ee for 3 five cc and he forces, I force, he pyroblasts, me missing my blue card in hand activates top fetches activates top again and still cannot find a blue card. I lose in the 1st round of ot. Sad :P
Really nice guy. Apparently he hates legacy, too bad. But atleast I didn't loose the match. haha.
4-0-3 : 11-3-1
r8: Fae stompy:
g1: I really would rather just say I lost. The luck in this game was second to none. Honestly it sucked to be playing against a mull to five, and 4 judges in one game.
g2: I try to out race him with elspeth and it just doesnt happen.
4-1-3 : 11:5:1
So there it is. GG had fun
Props:
-Getting Nassif/Chapin/LSV to sign different cards in my deck. Nassif island, chapin brainstorm, lsv plains. The lands were unhinged foils and the brainstorm was plain.
-Meeting Rockout- Konsultant-Isamaru- and Irrelivent. Also it was really cool to meet the german pro and realize that I can really hang with the big boys in legacy. Big ego boost I guess.
-Playing up until r6 with no mistakes. R7-8 I made some pretty big mistakes, but then again it happens. I had a great time.
-Finishing in the top 300 players in a 1200 tourney, and not even finishing the tournament. I dropped due to girlfriend being there, and that I wasnt going to make day 2. I needed 21 points and I had 15. I had to win out which I lost r8.
-Getting tons of foils for my deck. Didnt spend a dime on cards.
Slops
-Dropping round 2 in the trial to mono blue control stompy. I should have owned him but I was just out of it. I made some play mistakes in the matchup and I think it was just excitement to be there that made me awefull.
-Not having dinner with any of the guys from the source. My girlfriend was alittle mad that I didnt spend more time with her.
-Burping into my girlfriends face in the hotel. I smelled of Stella. She was not happy.
Re: [Report] mossivo @ GP Chicago
Thanks for the report. The deck looks good, but maybe you should look into a way to increase your clock, since you drew so many games.
Quote:
Burping into my girlfriends face in the hotel. I smelled of Stella. She was not happy.
That's Stella Artois, and not a different girl, right?
Re: [Report] mossivo @ GP Chicago
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Xero
Thanks for the report. The deck looks good, but maybe you should look into a way to increase your clock, since you drew so many games.
That's Stella Artois, and not a different girl, right?
I drew 2 of the games in game 2 because of an unfortunate situation of lack of blue card to suit a second force. I topped through six cards and couldn't find one. I call that pretty unlucky.
Against the gobbos guy g2 I lost in t4 of overtime do to lack engineered plague, sifting with top and fetches I just could not get one. Once again one of those unlucky times. All in all it was a good day and I reasonably could have gone 6-1-1 going into round nine had it not been for those two events. I guess all im saying is shit happens.
Stella Artois is my drink of choice yes. Along with chicago style pizza it was a good burp that almost got me not laid. Thank god for my massive card collection right?
Re: [Report] mossivo @ GP Chicago
That game one we played in the semis of the trial, was so awk. If you hadn't messed up on the EE, in not sure I could have won.
Re: [Report] mossivo @ GP Chicago
You wouldn't be the guy that spent like 3 hours arguing with his girlfriend by the side event stage would you? Cuz that shit was hilarious.
Re: [Report] mossivo @ GP Chicago
Hi Joel, interesting to read the day from your view, good report, and nice meeting you again.
You know how in round 3 I sat right next to you and your opponent? In round 4, I played you, and then in round 5 I played your opponent! Really weird, and it meant we all knew what cards were in each others' decks haha... sucked especially for me since part of my strategy was the element of surprise.
I also decided to drop after I had my third non-winning round (prevents you from getting 21 points) so that I could enjoy what time was left... It does still stink to "give up" before you've played all 9 rounds, but 12 hours is a long time without a real chance for a break.
Re: [Report] mossivo @ GP Chicago
good tourney report. it was good to meet you and any time you want to test on MWS let me know. i really should have mulled that game two opening hand.
Re: [Report] mossivo @ GP Chicago
Quote:
Originally Posted by
irrelevant
good tourney report. it was good to meet you and any time you want to test on MWS let me know. i really should have mulled that game two opening hand.
Hey thanx. I was really glad to have meet you and honestly I was quite shocked. Game 2 was kind of an odd hand to take, but it could have happened to anyone. Honestly I knew I lucksacd game 2, but you know that landstill plays for the demoralizing second game after getting locked out game 1. But good luck to you and keep in touch. Pm me if you want my number to talk about magic or something.
ttyl
-Joel
Re: [Report] mossivo @ GP Chicago
My friend's name is pat and yeah it's too bad we couldn't have had dinner saturday or sunday. We ended up having Denny's late saturday night and it was god awful. If it weren't for the mixture of ranch and honey mustard dipping sauce I probably wouldn't have eaten any of my food.
Re: [Report] mossivo @ GP Chicago
Quote:
Originally Posted by
rockout
My friend's name is pat and yeah it's too bad we couldn't have had dinner saturday or sunday. We ended up having Denny's late saturday night and it was god awful. If it weren't for the mixture of ranch and honey mustard dipping sauce I probably wouldn't have eaten any of my food.
Pat was cool. Im suprised he did so well, but honestly he sounds like he enjoys the deck a whole lot. Send him my regards for doing well, and ill talk with you soon.
