THE MANA LEAK OPEN 1, Stratford, CT., September 3, 2006

[Kadaj]

Actually, the Faerie Stompy player didn't have a single proxy as far as I know, and I know if he did, they weren't the Sea Drakes. The only proxies I saw all day were duals (once) and a guy who lent a friend 2 Aether Vials and proxied them.

There were so few proxies that Ray pretty much said before the tournament started the Mana Leak Open next year will not allow proxies.

[Peter_Rotten]

Finals:

Goblins beats Threshold.

[The M.E.T.H.O.D]

Hey Everyone!

My name is Ashok and I made t8 at the event with Reanimator. I'll plan on start posting on this site more so hopefully this post can also serve as an introduction. I've been testing the deck alot against at lot of the tier1 and 2 decks with the rest of Meandeck in preperation for this event. I really wanted to play in this because I have a deep interest in legacy but my personal cardpool and location prevent me from playing. I had three byes at GP Philly (won a trial with goblins) and I failed to make day two by a game win. I made t4 at the Legacy side event at GP Toronto with iggy pop.

I've always had a long term infactuation with reanimator decks and I wanted to build the fastest yet stable version of reanimator possible. I'll write a full report later but quickly i'd like to address the naysayers by saying i was fully aware of the hate awaiting me but I thought that it wasn't actually strong enough to stop me from winning, especially when I have speed and tempo on my side. The combination of the transitional suicide black sb/simic sky swallowers/ pithing needles did the job.

I didn't lose 1 game in the swiss and I double drew into t8 where i lost to affinity.

'Shok Style Reanimator
4 Brainstorm
4 Careful Study
4 Buried Alive
4 Animate Dead
4 Reanimate
4 Mystical Tutor
4 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
4 Spirit of the Night
2 Duress
1 Sickening Dreams
1 Show and Tell

4 Dark Ritual
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
2 Swamp
2 Island

/sb
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Phyrexian Negator
3 Pithing Needle
2 Duress
1 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Echoing Truth.

I really like my deck and i'll probably play the same list again unless time spiral gives me another akroma like creature variant.

Legacy is great and i appreciate what you guys are doing and hopefully i'll get to know you guys!

EDIT: my only proxy was 2 spirit of the night which I ordered from Starcitygames but they were not going to make it to me on time so I didn't see the need to buy them again =(.

[Anusien]

Ray is sending me lists. T8/T16 should be up as soon as I get them, and full decklists will get up eventually.

[Nightmare]

T8 was:

First - Jeff from Rochester with Goblins/W
Second - Me with UGW Thresh
3/4 - Faerie Stompy & Raffinity
5-8 - 2x Reanimator (one B/G, and one B/U), UGR Thresh, and Feinstein Sligh.

Tournament report in the works. Stay tuned.

[Fortifitakitors]

Out of curiousity, what was the prize support like with 106-110 people?

[Kadaj]

Something ridiculous... I forget, but I think you could get like Timetwister + Library of Alexandria + 75 packs for first, with a bunch of other options.

And the prizes extended all the way down to the top 32.

[Nightmare]

Out of curiousity, what was the prize support like with 106-110 people?

When Jeff and i split, he got an UNL Sapphire and 15 packs, and I got an Imperial Seal and 50 packs. Pretty insane.

[Whit3 Ghost]

Ever wish you were playing 4c at all that day?

[AnwarA101]

Maybe now that Solidarity hasnt put anyone into top 8 in the past 2 tournies we can stop whispering about it being the iron giant. Every deck can be beat. Im interested in hearing how things went with proxies. Who used em? Was it fair? Anyone see an excessive amount of shit like Chains of Meph or Moats?

When I got off the phone with the Nova crew last night, I believe Deep6er was 12th and Ewokslayer was 15th. So that puts 2 into T16. Don't count the deck, if you do you will regret it.

[Nightmare]

Ever wish you were playing 4c at all that day?

Nope, i loved my build all day.

Report is up

[Bane of the Living]

When I got off the phone with the Nova crew last night, I believe Deep6er was 12th and Ewokslayer was 15th. So that puts 2 into T16. Don't count the deck, if you do you will regret it.

So no Top 8's again right? Thats all I said. I was only pointing something out. If 9-16 mattered that much we'd have a thread for it.

[troopatroop]

Sigh... 12th place means that he didn't make it in due to Tiebreakers. I'm pretty sure 15th place is the same thing with that many people.

And honestly, I'm not one to judge tournaments like this as the "be all-end all" source of information. Everyone knows that the smaller the sample size, the more random the data. I would much rather go off testing results than the top4's/8's of big tournaments. Granted, they DO mean something, But just because Ravager top8's more recently than solidarity doesn't mean it's better against the field. Luck is a big part of this game.

[scrumdogg]

So no Top 8's again right? Thats all I said. I was only pointing something out. If 9-16 mattered that much we'd have a thread for it.

Solidarity is still one of the best decks in the format, and it did well all day even if people were very prepared for it (not everybody, but you can't mandate intellligence or preparedness or attendance, right MR. Lives 2 hours away but was too lazy to come?). Given the proxy situation, I know a lot of us expected it to be everywhere (proxy Resets) so there was a lot of hate aimed at it. People won't be able to do that at the next MLO, as it will be unproxied. Top 16 in this case was NOT tiebreakers, with the possible exception of Phil Stoltze in 9th, everybody below that was a loss or tie away from making Top 8. This was an awesome event, Ray should get much love from the community for this - insane prizes well distributed at a fantabulous store/tourney location. Hopefully this becomes a quarterly/semi-annual event asap.

EDIT: Proxies - mostly duals all day & very few people had any that I saw, of the people I played, only my Round 7 opp with Goblins had any & they were Duals, last fetch, & some random SB card. Surprisingly, most people played decks they had cards for or chose not to delve into weird expensive inaccessible cards like Chains, Void, etc

[Angel of Despair]

Just so you know, He wasn't too lazy to go! It was our daughters birthday party, so swallow your foot.

[Jander78]

Hey Everyone!

Welcome to the Source man! Awesome job with an unexpected deck!

Props:
Ray for holding the tournament
Nightmare for 2nd placing
Horny Goat Weed
Gaming Etc. for having an awesome place to play
Subway

Slops:
Being too tired I could barely function (Gearheart can confirm this)
Taking the long way home
Caulyn for not accepting my dare
Kadi for not understanding that in order for the car to stop you need to apply the breaks ahead of time.
My Name is Scott's opponents for cheating

[herbigtoo]

I was playing Salvager Game after quite a long hiatus from tournament play so I can't say that my play skill was top notch. I went 0-2 vs. 5/3, 0-2 versus Solidarity and then spent the rest of the day coming back playing against scrubs (and then Jim, my ride to the event).

My favorite moment was duressing the kid with the hot mom and deciding that Flight was the biggest threat in his hand. Then, both times I comboed I had to explain every step of the way. He almost surprised me with a poorly placed Word of Unsummoning though. If he had hit my Salvager in response to me cracking Diamond I'd have been impressed but unfortunately that didn't happen.

Props to Mr. Nightmare for sleeping in a blanket fort and then taking second.

I've got some brushing up to do and hopefully I'll be back in my game the next time you guys see me.

[jazzykat]

My favorite moment was duressing the kid with the hot mom and deciding that Flight was the biggest threat in his hand.

Hmm...I have heard a lot about this hot mom, was there any way you could have duressed the MILF?

[Kadaj]

I was sitting right next to him pretty much as he made that play... the kids deck had no sleeves, and several championship edition cards in it. I almost felt bad for him, although I sadly never had the chance to see his mom.

[herbigtoo]

I was sitting right next to him pretty much as he made that play... the kids deck had no sleeves, and several championship edition cards in it. I almost felt bad for him, although I sadly never had the chance to see his mom.

I saw the championship cards as soon as he drew his first hand. I figured it was the third round and if no one had called him on it yet I wasn't going to be that guy.