The Epic Storm - 3rd Place @ GottaCon Win-A-Mox. Victoria, BC, Canada

03/02/14

Our local gaming conference, GottaCon, hosted it’s first in the series of yearly power9 tournaments this year. The Mox Sapphire for first place brought a good handful of legacy players to Victoria from Vancouver, Nanaimo, Seattle and afar.

After finding my way to the magic room at the convention centre, I sat down with my fellow Victorians and joined them in the ritual of putting on some new KMC Hyper-Matte sleeves. I lent a couple decks to local players and said hello to the Vancouverites.

Pairings hit the wall!

I put TES in my deckbox and stuck a couple goblin tokens in my back pocket.  

4 Gemstone Mine
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Chrome Mox
4 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual
4 Rite of Flame
4 Burning Wish
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Ad Nauseam
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Cabal Therapy
1 Empty the Warrens
2 City of Brass
3 Silence
SB: 3 Xantid Swarm
SB: 2 Abrupt Decay
SB: 1 Chain of Vapor
SB: 1 Grapeshot
SB: 1 Empty the Warrens
SB: 1 Tendrils of Agony
SB: 1 Past in Flames
SB: 1 Diminishing Returns
SB: 1 Tropical Island
SB: 2 Pyroblast
SB: 1 Thoughtseize

Round 1 
J.I. Singson - Sneak&Show

Game 1. I set up carefully as J.I. leads on two Volcanic Islands. I think he is on UWR Delver until on turn 3 he plays an Ancient Tomb and passes back yet again. Realizing now that he is playing Sneak and Show, I decide waiting any longer could mean suicide. I combo out into his countermagic for a couple turns and strain his resources. He taps his ancient tomb a few times and is at 14 life when a 2/2 bird comes into play under my control via his Swan Song. I draw some more Cabal Therapies to keep him off combo until I actually close out the game with the swan and a couple goblins. Weird game. 

SB: 
-4 Cabal Therapy
-1 Infernal Tutor 
-1 Ponder
-1 Empty
+3 Xantid Swarm
+2 Pyroblast
+1 Chain of Vapor
+1 Tropical Island

Game 2. J.I. has some permission in hand, and a Show and Tell. Luckily, he can’t draw a monster for his life and I cabal through his hand and follow with Tendrils of Agony without too much trouble.

  2-0 (1-0)

Round 2
Drew Christensen - Punishing Jund 

Game 1. Drew leads on a Bloodstained Mire. I Ad Nauseam out on my turn 1 and he scoops before I can look at his hand.

  SB:
I over-think things severely and decide it’s the TES mirror. 
-1 Empty 
+1 Thoughtseize

Game 2. Drew has a flurry of discard for me on the first few turns. However, I’m able to Diminishing Returns just as he lands some pressure on board. Next turn, I cycle tutors and play rituals to go for a big Empty the Warrens, but facepalm once I realize I Sideboarded it out. I instead grab Burning wish and put Past in flames in my hand. Drew has a couple turns to beat me down to virtual 1 life till I draw the 5th land and fully tendrils him out from just Past in Flames and 1 untapped land.

 Past in flames-> Dark ritual-> Infernal tutor finding LED-> LED(red)-> Rite of flame-> Infernal tutor finding LED-> LED(black)-> Burning wish-> Tendrils for 18.

  2-0 (2-0)

Round 3 
Alex Van Der Star - BUG Delver

Game 1. Alex hits me with a Hymn to Tourach and follows with Lilliana of the Veil and a Tarmogoyf. I Brainstorm, do a bit of ritualizing and bounce off his Daze for storm count, ending up with 14 goblins. The goblins beat the Goyf clock.

SB: 
No changes.
4 go in, the same 4 come out.

Game 2. Alex gets it going with some discard but this time the clock comes quick and has counter backup. I scoop it up and fake sideboard 4 cards again.

Game 3. I mulligan to 5 and keep CT, DR, DR, U-Sea, LED. I turn 1 cabal him naming Force of Will and hit. He returns fire by Thoughtseizing my LED. I draw an Ad Nauseam right off the top and lay out ritual, ritual, nauseam for the win. This matchup is bad for TES, I was better lucky than good.

2-1 (3-0) 

Round 4  
Kevin Gomez - Elves

Game 1. Kevin mulls to 6 and I casually Ad Nauseam him out on turn 2.

SB:
 -1 Empty 
-1 Cabal Therapy 
+1 Chain of Vapor
 +1 Thoughtseize

Game 2. I can turn 1 make 10 goblins with wish but I instead decide Diminishing Returns is much safer. I diminish into 2 Silences + random stuff and proceed to draw another Silence making him skip the next 3 turns while I sculpt a winning hand. I feel like I’m ready to go for it eventually but he stops me by fetching a Tropical Island and casting a Swan Song out of left field and then making a lethal board on his next turn.   

Game 3. I hit Kevin with a turn 1 Thoughtseize taking away his Mindbreak Trap. He develops his board a bit but I resolve an Ad Nauseam before he can close in on me.

2-1 (4-0) 

Round 5
Tyler Woolley - UWR Delver

Me and Tyler are both happy to draw here. UWR delver is definitely a less desirable matchup for me and he’s probably fine with me being in the top 8.

I.D. (4-0-1) 

Round 6 
Chad Davidson - Death and Taxes

Game 1. I’m on the play here and make 10 goblins turn 1. Chad draws a card for the turn and concedes.

SB:
I only sideboard on the draw in this matchup.
-2 ponder
+1 Chain of Vapor
+1 Thoughtseize  

Game 2. My hand is passable, and features 2x Silence, Cabal Therapy, and Gitaxian Probe. I figure I can draw into a win by the time he can accomplish anything. Unfortunately, 3 turns later I was out of protection and had no win. He rips a revoker sniping my LED in hand and then follows with the rest of the crew. I scoop.

SB:
 I’m going on the play for game 3 so I sideboard back to my original 60 to be as fast as possible.

Game 3. I keep a hand with turn 2 potential. Lay down a Ponder and find some very reasonable cards under the top 3. Keep them like that and then pass to Chad. Chad plays a Vial and passes. I draw and blitz into 14 goblins and pass the turn. Chad plays out his Ethersworn Canonist and grants me the win with a smile. I wish him luck on breakers to possibly see him in the Top 8.

2-1 (5-0-1) 

Results are up: I ended the swiss in first place!  

Quarterfinals
 Chad Davidson - Death and Taxes

Game 1. Chad is back for vengeance, still amazed that he squeezed into 8th as the only x-2. I’m on the play and my opening grip shows actual no mercy whatsoever. Dark ritual, Dark ritual, LED, Ad Nauseam floating 3. I’m running so hot at this point not having lost a match yet. I don’t think I have ever opened a hand that good with TES before in a tournament. Feeling good!  

SB: 
-2 Ponder
+1 Chain of Vapor 
+1 Thoughtseize

Game 2. Chad serves up an Aether Vial on turn one. My hand is pretty good but hinges on a turn 1 brainstorm to hit action. I spin the wheel and am gifted an Infernal Tutor which I spin into 14 goblins. Chad concedes and wishes me luck in the Semis.

2-0 (6-0-1) 

Semifinals 
Trenton McIntyre - Shardless BUG

Trenton is one of my teammates from Victoria. Unfortunately for me he’s tuned his deck to be better VS combo and knows TES from the inside out due to our relentless testing. I consider this a bad match even though most people claim Shardless BUG can’t beat combo.

Game 1. I’m on the play but have to mulligan. I Ponder, shuffle, draw, and pass. Trent kept on a Thoughtseize and takes away a crucial Dark Ritual from my hand. I’m left with some bricks that I can’t move around for a while and by the time I can combo past his triple Deathrite Shamans, he is able to hardcast a Force of Will to stop me.

  SB:
I sideboarded nothing here. I know he only has two Golgari Charms at most, so I’m fine with leaving the goblins MD. I had tried out Xantids over Silence in testing but just couldn’t tell which was better yet. I decided to keep on Silence and hope to walk him on Turn 1 since he has 4 Thoughtseize and 4 Duress after sideboard.  

Game 2. I mull to 6 again and my hand is bad with 2 Chrome Mox but it has an Ad Nauseam and a ritual so I keep. I play Misty Rainforest and pass. Trent fires a Duress and takes my Dark Ritual leaving me with low hopes. We slowroll a bit and he gets a Tarmogoyf going while I draw a couple resources. On my last turn I draw a brainstorm cast it into ritual, ritual and burning wish. seems okay although I’m not sure where it’ll take me. My brain is slowing down at this point and I don’t even know if this line is lethal. I ritual up, Infernal for more rituals, ritual again, Burning Wish, check out Trent’s life total and grab Tendrils in relief. It’s enough.  

Game 3. I keep 7 this game. Infernal, Infernal, Burning, Dark rit, Ponder, Underground Sea, Cabal Therapy. The hand is not too good but its decent against multiple discard spells and if he has nothing I can get a turn 2 kill by finding an LED and a land from the Ponder. Maybe I’m sick of mulliganing at this point. I use the Sea to Ponder and have to shuffle. I draw another Therapy. Trent takes his turn and Wastelands me. This is the worst case scenario for sure. I draw a blank, pass back, and he plays Underground Sea and passes again. I joke with Trent here, “Really, NOW you have no discard?” My hand is a total brick and he closes down shop with Tarmogoyf + Deathrite in timely fashion with counter backup. I gave him a handshake, a congrats, and a good luck in the finals.

1-2 (6-1-1)

Overall, I drew well, didn’t have to mulligan much, and hit some good matchups while lucking out in or by dodging the bad ones. I’ve been playing TES for 3 years now and its always nice when you hit a string of good luck like this. Even though I didn’t go all the way I was very pleased and will be running it back on March 16th for SCG Seattle.

Trent ends up taking home a NM signed Unlim. Mox Sapphire for first place.
2nd place went to another teammate of mine, Ben.
 I ended in 3rd place winning a Scrubland.
  Great day of Magic for me and my crew :) 