[live coverage] Gencon by ggslive

[emidln]

yeah that guy also boarded out the counterbalances vs you while its probably the best card in his deck in the matchup.
ben weinburg was a master though, i saw him come back from a mull to 5 w/ only a wasteland in his hand vs the guy playing some type of deed/putrify thresh deck... i guess its some team america variant.

Deeds were in the SB I believe (common for UGB CB). It looked like a relatively tame UGB Thresh deck packing both CB and Stifle/Waste in the slots most people play Spell Snares and/or more removal.

[kabal]

Deeds were in the SB I believe (common for UGB CB). It looked like a relatively tame UGB Thresh deck packing both CB and Stifle/Waste in the slots most people play Spell Snares and/or more removal.

I believe the deck looked something like so:

Maindeck:

Artifacts
3 Sensei's Divining Top

Creatures
4 Dark Confidant
2 Sower Of Temptation
4 Tarmogoyf

Enchantments
4 Counterbalance

Instants
4 Brainstorm
3 Daze
4 Force Of Will
3 Smother
4 Stifle

Sorceries
2 Ponder
3 Thoughtseize

Basic Lands
2 Island
1 Swamp

Lands
2 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
3 Tropical Island
4 Underground Sea
4 Wasteland

Sideboard:
1 Sower Of Temptation
3 Leyline Of The Void
3 Pernicious Deed
3 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Hydroblast
3 Krosan Grip

[sauce]

im pretty sure the announcers on the stream said "putrefy" was in his hand for the entire game.

[Mantis]

Wow, Ben Wienburg played really well, timing the Wasteland activations perfectly. Tim sideboarding was rather bad, that might have cost him the third game.

Very interesting stuff to watch!

[Fons]

It was hilarious watching Ernest send the guy putting tokens down away.

[Meister_Kai]

It was hilarious watching Ernest send the guy putting tokens down away.

I don't know, that was pretty funny, and to be honest, I probably would of made the same move (nobody's going to tell me which fucking cards of mine to use) but unless Ernest knew the Jacob kid I think Ernest came across as sort of a dickbag. His tendency to slam down cards or do something like that blocking move where he kept edging his non-troll creature to be blocked was really lame, and would of pissed me off. I'm a pretty humble guy in-game, I've never thrown cards or said snide remarks towards anybody no matter what they do (well, one time I called a friend a lucksacking bastard for drawing 2 Terminates and a Malestrom Pulse back to back to back to win the game during a Sealed match).

TL;DR: Just because you are winning a game in the top 4 of a large tournament doesn't give you the right to be a jackass.

[Otter]

It was hilarious watching Ernest send the guy putting tokens down away.

Agreed. I'm not sure what was up with those tokens, because they definitely weren't funny or interesting. Shoving them in the players' faces every single game looked excruciatingly annoying.

[THEchubbymuffin]

Agreed. I'm not sure what was up with those tokens, because they definitely weren't funny or interesting. Shoving them in the players' faces every single game looked excruciatingly annoying.

He was eating his hat!

Automatic LOL.

I want some of those tokens shipped to me.

Turn 1 lackey. Turn 2 swing with lackey playing Seige-gang. Put 3 Rashad tokens into play.

P.S. He was eating his hat!

[OneBigSquirrelGod]

Agreed. I'm not sure what was up with those tokens, because they definitely weren't funny or interesting. Shoving them in the players' faces every single game looked excruciatingly annoying.

I don't think he was necessarily shoving them in his face, you just have to know Ernest. When you are winning a game, you tend to be happy, and when you are losing a game, you tend to be sad. Dropping tokens, and slamming cards on the table is just Ernest being happy, not "Having the right to be a jackass". Plus he had 10 close friends standing around him. Jackass or not, he played amazing, as did Weinburg, Caplan, Steiner, Tutenwold, Jacob, and the other two people that I didn't care to catch their names.

Ironically, both prelim's, the iPod Tourney, and the Championship was won by four of the people who play at Sports Nutz in Wadsworth, Ohio. Justin Brisentine Won the Prelim on Thursday, beatin Weinburg, and Tutenwold (sry if spelled incorrectly) with Firesprout thresh (Brisentine Thresh). Then on Friday, Ben Steiner, Playing Natural Order Progenitus Thresh won (The 2nd place guy gave it to him for FTV: Exiled, which was the prize for 2nd place). Then Ernest Turck, Playing Dredge Demolished Thresh, Stax, and bought the win (which was a mistake, because he beat Weinburg in rounds, and should have played it out). and Then to top it off Joe George went 3-0 in the iPod Tournament to win an iPod (placing second after tiebreakers). Does anyone else find that Ironic?

[JMG021283]

Needed a new ipod:) Def. Agree with onebig there on ernest. If you know him, he wasn't being a dick. The guys we're being really pushy with the tokens, just proves it when they refuse to interview someone doing well. Btw got to talk to stax player in my final match(ipod tourney) pretty cool guy over all. I'm pretty sure he took the showboating in stride.

[Majin_ZERO]

So I kind of feel like I need to apologize for aggravating some of the spectators watching my T4 match. I honestly wasnt trying to be a dick. Just trying to have a little fun. All forth coming sarcasm aside, Jacob was a gentleman and a great player. I wouldnt mind playing with him again by any means. And its true, I was surrounded by ten of my closest friends, and i was putting on a show. Im sorry if that upset some of you. Especially if it upset Jacob.

And I agree that I shouldve played it out because I did beat Ben in the swiss, and the odds were definitely in my favor. But I chose to play it safe and split. Granted he more duals, and more blue duals than I did, but the title is worth alot more. At least to me. And with the odds in my favor, I dont really feel like I "bought the win". But part of me does regret not playing it out.

Wadsworth players.....Thanks for all of your support. And I dont know whose names are whose. Except Bobby (cuz his is gay) and Joe's....whos buying me taco bell? one last thing....Joe.....I hate you......douchebag. Put that in your pipe and smoke it! haha...Im just kidding. But seriously i hate you. :)

[Jujuhawk]

Tim cut ponders for putrefy I think. I know him IRL and him and a friend were discussing that.

[Brizentine Empire]

Haha Ernest, bet you can figure my name out from my Source Tag lol. And guys, to be fair to Ernest, he was the one who made the top 2 and he was the won who had to make the decision to play out the top 2 or not. Personally, I would have played it, but then again he has a trophy and the title of Legacy Champ. Congrats man. And everyone failed to mention the head-swing game 1 against Stax when he attacked FtW!

[Majin_ZERO]

Haha! Thanks J-Dawg! Ps I still have the sower. Ill bring it tonight for you. And the more I think about it, i kinda wish I played it, but its whatever. I still have a big ass beer mug.

[Fons]

Gencon was alot of fun I met quite a few Sourcers and will hopefully take the trip to Ohio to play in some tournies.

[Kuma]

Gooba, I was watching your quarterfinals, and I saw a play which I found kind of weird. You played turn 1 Volcanic go, he plays turn 1 Heirarch which you Daze. Then, in your turn, you Waste his land while holding a Stifle and the same Volcanic. Woulndt've been better to play land go and Waste the turn after? The other guy made a mistake not playing the Counterbalance definitely.

I played Ponder before Counterbalance because I didn't want to walk CB into Daze, but mostly because I'd rather know what's on top of my deck before I drop a Counterbalance if at all possible to protect it or better use it. We all saw how well blind Counterbalancing worked for me game one.

yeah that guy also boarded out the counterbalances vs you while its probably the best card in his deck in the matchup.

Tempo Thresh has so many ways to kill/deal with Counterbalance that it really isn't worth the effort trying to fight over it. Between Force of Will, Daze, Spell Snare, Rushing River/Wipe Away/Trygon Predator, and red blasts and Krosan Grip in the board, Counterbalance will almost certainly do very little. I beat Ben Weinburg and several other Tempo Thresh players because they boarded heavily for Counterbalance, often siding out Burn spells allowing me to win creature wars with Rhox War Monk and allowing me to get great advantage out of Noble Hierarchs.

It's much better to fight over Natural Order in that matchup, IMO.

Wadsworth players.....Thanks for all of your support. And I dont know whose names are whose.

I'll give you a hint as to who I am.

HERE COMES THE HYDRA!!!

Gencon was alot of fun I met quite a few Sourcers and will hopefully take the trip to Ohio to play in some tournies.

Yeah man, it was awesome meeting you. I hope you can make it down for the Meandeck Open, or even for weekly tournaments in Wadsworth. It would be awesome to hang with you again.

[Isei]

Hey there, Jacob here (though I normally go by Jake). I just wanted to reply to the comments made about Ernest several times in this topic.

@Meister_Kai: No, I did not know him before the game started. However, nothing he did (well, except winning) really had an effect on my play or state of mind. So, since it did nothing I thought it was fine that he did that sort of thing.

Even though you can't really notice in the video, he always announced everything he was doing pefectly, saying things such as "Replace draw number two with Gogari Troll's Dredge 6," and giving me as much time as I needed to look over everything that was currently being dredged before pissting it in with his graveyard.

As far as the "slamming" things on the table goes, all he did was drop an obscene amount of tokens on the board. Twice. I did similar things when I was in topdeck mode game 2, also. Additionally, he was fair about it-- when my Magus took out his Zombies, he did his 9-inch drop back onto his token pile.

@OneBigSquirrelGod: Yeah, that's the vibe I got while playing him, and is probably the reason his play didn't piss me off at all. When you're surrounded by friends, you tend to play like you do casually back home. It's not something that other people need to get offended about.

@Ernest: If you haven't gotten it from my post already, you have no reason to apologize to me, and therefore, no reason to apologize to the spectators either. When you come to that sort of tournament, you come to see the game of Magic being played to its fullest extent. It is not your job to worry about showboating, and since you have to make no decisions other than what match to watch, they have no right to complain, especially not on my behalf.

I'd gladly play you again under the same circumstances, since I think that this is what Magic needs- a little bit more fun in the game, rather than seriously staring down your opponent every turn. Oh, by the way, did you watch the video? They cut out the time lapse between the two games.

[goobafish]

It was great meeting you Ben!
You played well in our semis match, but it is a tough matchup to win, and missing everytime on the blind CB certainly didn't help.

[FoolofaTook]

Tempo Thresh has so many ways to kill/deal with Counterbalance that it really isn't worth the effort trying to fight over it.

I've noticed this also in that matchup. I haven't actually boarded out the Counterbalances yet but I've definitely considered it. Between 4x REB/Pyro and 2x KGrip in the side board and Rushing River main they have a heckuva lot of ways to remove Counterbalance even if you land it through Spell Snare, FoW and Daze.

If you take out Vedalken Shackles, because Mongoose is not targettable, then it probably makes sense to take out Counterbalance also - since it ain't landing and sticking around for very long. Since they usually won't blow a KGrip on an SDT early on you can create some dead space in their hand that they don't even know about. Well, it's a theory at least.

[Meister_Kai]

snip

Hey, no worries on anyone's account, and since you seemingly care enough to vindicate yourself (which any self respecting person should) you can't be that bad of a guy no matter how much you showboat. What I was trying to get across though that under the right circumstances, especially if you have a bunch of friends behind you and your opponent has little to no supporters, feelings tend to get mixed.

I should go ahead and say that I am speaking from experience, at GP flash there was someone playing Flash against some kid playing a bad WW deck. The flash dude must of been some hot shit guy because he had about 8 people around him watching him every game. A lot of his spectators openly commented on how bad the kids deck was, how bad its creatures were etc. The dude didn't look like he was going to cry, on the contrary, he looked like he was about to come across the table at a couple of points (you know, that look people get in their eyes).

All I'm saying is be careful when and where you showboat, you never know when someone could take it the wrong way.

Also, I said it before, but when you denied Rashad or whatevers tokens, that was the highlight of the tournament. Seriously, you are in the top 4 of a large tournament, major props for not letting someone who seems to know shit about the format tell you what cards to use.