*Cats eat fish* top 4 at togit for an ancestral

[OldOD]

So the other day me (Ryan O'Donnell) and my team of 3 excellent magic players (myself, Harry Gillen, Matt Bevenour) and 1 bad magic player (Mike Caffrey, though hes a judge so by default he has to be awful.) decided on taking a trip to Togit for some legacy action to try to win ourselves an ancestral. The tournament was supposed to be small and im a fairly confident guy with a pretty good track record and close to 2k rating so i was expecting of course to come home with the power. first thing, the list!

"Cats eat fish"

4 wild nacatl
4 tarmogoyf
4 steppe lynx
4 qasali pridemage
3 grim lavamancer
1 knight of the reliquary
4 lightning bolt
3 chain lightning
4 path to exile
3 price of progress
2 fireblast
3 sylvan library

4 wooded foothills
3 arid mesa
3 windswept heath
3 plateau
2 taiga
1 savannah
3 horizon canopy
1 mtn
1 forest

Board
3 choke
3 gaddock teeg
2 knight of the reliquary
2 fairie macabre
3 krosan grip
2 r.e.b

Some notes on card choices:

Price of progress: i kept going back and forth and the pop's but when we got to the event word was there were at least 4!! lands decks including some people who can play the deck really well Eli Kassis and Ryan McKinney so the pops got tossed in, they were awful all tournament as i dodged all the lands decks so in my current list they are the 4th lavamancer the 4th chain and something else that i dont feel like walking the 4 ft to my bed to check.

Steppe lynx: the stone cold nuts. loam lion/kird ape attack for 2. 2. ever. thats it. 2. get the point? Ive seem so many games where turn one lynx hits for 8 or 10 or even 12. then when he sits there turn 4 as a 0/1 the zoo players complains how he stinks... you mean other than paying 1 white for 12 damage right? the absolute nuts.

The random knight: The alix hatfield school of zoo doesnt like 3 drops, that said the kotr is a beast. and i just cant bring myself to cutting him all together. 2 in the board for the mirror,

So Friday night is spent at Lehigh University and Caff's infinite degree house, to the point when we wake up in the morning he sits on his couch where i was sleeping and asks "why is my coach soaked" The only other thing i remember about the night is being half asleep and Harry telling me a story about his "Busty" ex-girlfriend and some comment he made about having "mountainwalk" for the turn while he was with her.... yea it was that kind of night.

We arrive do all the pre tournament shenanigans my team is Harry Gillen playing Survival zoo, which we first saw on a thread here but me and him spent alot of time perfecting.. and let me tell you its amazing, but i couldnt find a set of survivals and Matt playing countertop thopter. and were off!

Rd1 Vs Alex Bertoncini playing bant/sur

Seriously? this was supposed to be a cakewalk tourney! and i get alex rd 1? and hes playing bant/sur instead of fish? sigh.

Game 1 hes very land light but has double hierarch and i cant find any burn, his 6/7 warmonk is bad news for me as i sit awkwardly with 2 price of progress in hand, my sylvan library on my final turn is land, land and the 3rd! pop. ugh.

I actually didnt see his deck except for 2 heirarch 1 monk and 1 pridemage so im not positive on survival or just bant aggro, but i side out the pops for kgrips anyway cuz thats my gut

Game 2 my deck decides to show up after dropping a duece game 1 and the game goes t1 nacatl, him fetch go. me t2 nacatl, nacatl. yea... that gets there.

during the game noticed him fetching some nonbasics, at one point he was 4/5 duals so i decide to bring back in pop.

game 3 was an amazing game of magic, at one point he has a warmonk and 3 cards in hand and i have 2 lightning bolt and hes still very high on life. I ask him if he kept in fow but dont really get a read on his answer. I lament out loud about how bad of a blow out it would be to get forced here, but i dont really have an option and double bolt his warmonk, he pump fakes the fow and my heart skips but he doesnt have it, i beat down for a bit and he apparently draws the force that he did keep in to not die to a pop but i have a bolt for his rafiq and I squeek by round 1!

2-1 games
1-0 match

Round 2 Counter top.

Game 1 i lose the roll and beat him down to 6 before the lock puts me out of the game.

I bring in chokes, teegs, grips and rebs for some paths and fireblast and pops as he seemed to play around it g1

game 2 i have t1 nacatl but he gets stuck on land and i dont show him the choke im gripping in hand as i just beat him down

g3 pretty uneventful as i have t2 teeg and t3 choke that he cant force because of teeg. and just beat him down.

4-2 games
2-0 match

rd3 Harry Gillen -Survival Zoo

Sigh. playing teammates early in tournaments always sucks, especially when you designed the deck hes playing together and know how weak the matchup is for you

g1 He has the survival and even though i have the pridemage turning your steppe lynx into a kotr in the mirror is pretty amazing.

i board out pops for kotr. and also bring in grips for something that i cant remember.

g2. he has the survival but my hand is Tits on a bull and hes dead before his turn 4

g3. out of all the games i played of magic that day this was the best. Back and forth. we play dudes and like in most good zoo mirror games none stick, his survivals meet my grips my dudes meet his infinite paths and bolts, through this he manages anger in his yard, i have nacatl and lynx on his empty board, he bolts nacatl, then proceeds to stack his deck (just kidding harry)! and rip insane after insane and 3 minutes after i was certain i

was 3-0 im 2-1 to a giant kotr.

5-4 games
2-1 matches

Rd 4 Emmitt Higgens - Burning bridges
Me and emmitt go way back and it was good to see him again

g1 he doesnt see ensaring bridge and im not really sure what he does but the game is never close.

i board in the grips for pops

g2 my hand is pretty awkward and he has removal for my early dudes and then triple! molten rains me and then sits behind trinisphere, bridge, bridge. im staring at my x2 grips and pridemage in hand, but only one land on the table. we play draw go for a bit til i get to 3 and the game ends very quickly after that, i even drew the 3rd grip.

7-4 games
3-1 matches

round 5 - Saito merfolk.
I forget this dudes name but he was pretty solid, i joke around alot while playing, throwing out ridiculous spew such as "You know im siding out my goyfs and nacatls to make your perish look awkard" and even though i absolutely hammered him both games he took it all in fun and was a pleasure to play against.

g1 Tarmogoyf likes it when you cook the fish he eats with lightning bolts first.

i bring in rebs and choke

g2 nice underground seas for that splash to kill my green creatures, to bad i dont need them when you get priced for 8 now.

9-4 games
4-1 matches

Round 6 - merfolk -ID.

This round im watching my teammate Matt play for top 8 with thopters against storm. I dont think ive ever rooted for someone more, another teammate in t8 and knocking the storm player out? Sometimes you live the dream.

So top 8 is announced and my entire team made it! go us!

quarters- merfolk, same guy i Id'd with in round 6

Another solid dude which was unfortunate cuz This was just an absolute beating.

Game 1 i win the roll and have the wild nacatl, tarmogoyf x3 lightning bolt draw. sorry bro.

i board the same as other merfolk

game 2. His one land vial x2 fow hand looks pretty awkward against my x3 pridemage. i dont remember if he ever found the 2nd land.

this match was over in literally 8 minutes.

Semi's - Elves!

Elves? nice jitte in my board.. oh wait.. awkwardsauce.....

game 1 he gets t3 progenitus and no way im racing

i bring in teegs to stop natural order shenanigans

game 2 i keep a skeptical hand with teeg and alot of creatures but very little removal. my teeg stops the 2 n.o. in his hand but imperious perfect shits out goyf chumpers and his lord walks over my taigas a turn before hes dead. sigh.

Harry Lost to the same elves player in the finals which was pretty dissapointing but he got a moat for his troubles and i walked away with a beta and an unlimited sinkhole. The only changes i would make to the deck i already made with the pops,

Props:
The Lehigh Valley and team pinkcrocsarewhyyoucantgetadateonline. putting 4 people in the t8 (another person from

the other car made it)
Mike Caffrey for letting me borrow his cards
Matt Bevenour for letting me borrow 20 bucks!

Slops.
Price of progress, i won my first ptq by casting you all day against miracle grow in extended like 8 years ago and i have loved you ever since, but sometimes a break up is just best for everybody.
only getting 60 bucks for my sinkholes.

Ryan!

[jrsthethird]

Haha I lol'ed like 5 times during the report. Nice job.

And I can't get a date online because chicks online are stuck up and look for something that's not there; but that's a topic for another day.

[IsThisACatInAHat?]

Hey,
I was your opponent round 5 with Saitofolk. Glad to see you made it so far, your play seemed pretty solid so a top 8 appearance well deserved.

You forgot to add g2 when I called Caff over to get the creature types of all your creatures for Eplague, then named wizard (for Lavamancer) and then played into it with Silvergill next turn anyway. When Eli cam over and asked if I named human to dodge it, I just had to laugh. Good times.

[Tammit67]

Congrats Ryan. Keep up them placements or I'll catch up. One day

[mchainmail]

Hey,
I was your opponent round 5 with Saitofolk. Glad to see you made it so far, your play seemed pretty solid so a top 8 appearance well deserved.

You forgot to add g2 when I called Caff over to get the creature types of all your creatures for Eplague, then named wizard (for Lavamancer) and then played into it with Silvergill next turn anyway. When Eli cam over and asked if I named human to dodge it, I just had to laugh. Good times.

Goddammit Shamus.... the only reason anyone calls me Caff any more...