Esper's Misc Internet Browsings and Tournament Reports

[Esper3k]

Crazy ass Japs...

[grimlock]

Was Ronald sticking his hands up all their skirts at 0:41??

[Esper3k]

Originally Posted by grimlock

Was Ronald sticking his hands up all their skirts at 0:41??

Yeah, I was wondering that myself. They're Japanese, so it's ok.

[Esper3k]

A full preview of the new Thor movie. What shows up at the end is pretty neat...

[Esper3k]

[Esper3k]

Ron Livingston is awesome...

[Esper3k]

Vintage Championships 2010 Tournament Report

 

My second time playing in a really large Vintage tournament, the first time with Power. I had come to the tournament fully intending to play Noble Fish, but at the last minute switched to a Trygon-Tezzeret list that Brian thought was the best deck in Vintage. After playing a few test games against David, I was ready. Here's the list that I ran:

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/m...Gauntlets.html

114 players, 7 rounds of Swiss, cut to Top 8. My memory of many of these rounds kind of blur together since I just finished two pretty long tournaments (Vintage and Legacy).

Round 1 - Swiss (vs Thomas)

Thomas was playing Oath, that's about all I remember from my notes

Game 1: I open the nuts hand on the play and have a T1 Tinker into Inkwell Leviathan, with Force backup. I don't even need Force because he doesn't have Force - I also have Thoughtseize and Mana Drain and tear him a new one.

-3 Dark Confidant
+2 Nature's Claim
+1 Duress

Game 2: He Thoughtseizes me T1, but I land a Trygon and start thugging him with it. He lands an Oath and flips into a Terrastodon... but doesn't blow up his own Oath! He attacks me with his guys and I throw the Elephant token he gave me under the bus so I can get an Oath activation on my turn. I have the second Trygon in my hand, so I am either going to flip into Clique or Inkwell. I Oath... and after about 40 cards, flip Vendelion Clique and I see he has nothing relevant in his hand, so I let him keep it. I attack with Trygon Predator and he's surprised when I don't blow up his Oath. He passes the turn without attacking and I just beat his face with the Clique, knocking him to 10. He gets around to attacking me again on his turn and I chump the Terrastodon with my Predator. I Oath again on my turn and Inkwell is the second to last card in my library. An attack with Clique drops him down to 7 and he scoops when I beat him down on my turn, winning with 0 cards left in my library!

1-0 (2-0)

Round 2 - Swiss (vs Quinn)

Quinn was playing some sort of weird UB control deck with normal stuff. There was a lot of crap going on in this round, which I'll get into.

Game 1: I got called over by a judge this round and it was pointed out that I had only registered 59 cards. Fuck! Game loss.

Game 2: I pretty much beat him to death with a lone Trygon Predator and my opponent comments about decks that play creatures are lame.

Game 3: He mulls to 4 and I get both Bob and Jace on the board. He accuses me of playing with a fake card (my Alpha Time Walk, which I knew was damaged). After much examination, the judges were still unsure, so David (who had just 0-2 dropped), lent me his Time Walk to use for the tournament. Getting back to the game, my opponent immediately then (clearly fishing for a win) accused me of having too many cards. Note this is after multiple turns of having both Jace and Dark Confidant in play. I gave him a death stare and he just scooped.

2-0 (4-1)

Round 3 - Swiss (vs Stanley)

Stanley and I were laughing because we both have the same last name! Stanley was a pretty cool guy to talk with - he actually spent a year in Japan training with the Japanese MTG players!

Stanley is playing Oath.

Game 1: I keep a hand on the draw where if I draw a second blue mana source, I can do a T2 Tezzeret with Force backup. I don't pull a second land until it's way too late. I manage to Tinker for Inkwell, but on his turn, Stanley hardcasts Terrastodon. Ouch!

Game 2: I mull to 5 and have to keep a hand with double Thoughtseize, but no black mana source. Ancestral + Library of Alexandria sort of gets me back into the game, but Stanley has Vault + Key in his hand plus FoW backup.

2-1 (4-3)

Round 4 - Swiss (vs Jim)

Jim is playing an odd mono black deck that was running Phylactery Liches with Leyline of the Void main.

Game 1: T1 Inkwell gets there and cares nothing about Leyline of the Void!
Game 2: Jim opens again with Leyline and his Thoughtseize on my Time Vault makes me a sad panda. I peel Ancestral like a champ, which gets me Force of Will and Tinker. I Tinker out the Inkwell, Force his Gatekeeper and he can't find an Edict effect before he dies.

3-1 (6-3)

Round 5 - Swiss (vs Nick)

Nick was another cool opponent to play against. He's playing a BUGr Oath list.

Game 1: I get Vault/Key out, but Nick kept playing to see more of my deck and I had a Mana Crypt out, so he wanted to see if it would kill me (I was at 11), but I dig into Tinker and kill him with my giant crab.

Game 2: We go back and forth, but he resolves a massive Yawgmoth's Will and gets Vault/Key out.

Game 3: This is a pretty epic game as I keep dropping threats and he keeps answering. We go to time and right at the end, he casts Terrastodon. I just scoop to him to keep us from drawing.

I stay in the tournament to try and get Top 16.

3-2 (7-5)

Round 6 - Swiss (vs Hiro)

Hiro is another member of the Japanese contingent. He's also playing Oath (I play Oath a lot during the tournament, but luckily my deck is designed to beat it).

Game 1: I get out a fast Trygon Predator and thug him up with it and he can't really answer it.

Game 2: We get a pretty epic game. He gives me a bunch of Spirit tokens off of Forbidden Orchard, but gets down an Oath and flips into Terrastodon, so I'm on the defensive and have to chump the Terrastodon while his Elephant token beats me down. I keep drawing ridiculous amounts of mana and lands (I have 6 artifacts on the board, one is a Lotus, 6 lands including a Tolarian Academy). On the final turn before I'm going to die, I rip Yawgmoth's Will like a champ... and play it! Hiro Gifts Ungiven in response, with 2 mana up, and gets a Gifts stack fo Mana Drain, Force of Will, Ancestral Recall, and Spell Pierce. Unbeknowest to him, I have a Spell Pierce in my hand, so I give him the Drain and Pierce. He tries to Drain, I Pierce, and then go nuts with Yawgs and pull off the win!

4-2 (9-5)

Round 7 - Swiss (vs Jerry)

Jerry Yang is actually someone that Brian knows fairly well and is pretty well known in the Vintage community. I have a pretty good time playing against him.

He's playing a UBW deck that's pretty much the same list as mine, but splashing White for StP, Disenchant, and Balance instead of my green splash.

Game 1: I get out double Bob and Jace and blow out Jerry with the massive card advantage I'm getting (putting the same 2 lands back on top of my library each turn is pretty nuts)

Game 2: I Thoughtseize Jerry early and see that he doesn't have much business and set up for a Tinker into Inkwell. Sadly, the turn I'm going to Tinker, I draw the damn crab, which costs me the game.

Game 3: We're running low on time, so I go for the aggro plan and board in all 4 Goyfs! I land a T2 Bob, T3 Goyf which gets Forced. I reveal Tarmogoyf with Bob and Jerry Extirpates the Goyf I have in the yard. Sadly, I actually have another Goyf in my hand on top of what I just got from Bob! I have to give Jerry a high 5 though, heh. It's ok though since next turn, Bob gives me Tinker and I draw Jace. Talk about some gas! Tinker resolves and Inkwell + Bob gets there.

5-2 (11-6)

I end up in 21st place, sad times!

[Klutz]

Seems like an odd call to scoop in round 5 rather than draw. X-1-1 usually has a legitimate shot at top 8.

[Esper3k]

Originally Posted by Klutz

Seems like an odd call to scoop in round 5 rather than draw. X-1-1 usually has a legitimate shot at top 8.

Yeah in hindsight, I probably should've drawn if not also just to increase my chances of T16ing.

[Esper3k]

Here's my Legacy Champs 2010 tournament report:

 

Ahh the Legacy Champs tournament. This is the tournament that I had really been trying to prepare for and had the highest hopes of doing well at. Of course, this just means I'll be more dream crushed if I do poorly.

I played Bant Survival, the same deck that I have been playing these past 8 months or so.

Here's the final decklist I settled on:

Main Deck:

4x Noble Hierarch
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Swords to Plowshares
4x Survival of the Fittest
4x Rhox War Monk
4x Force of Will
4x Brainstorm
3x Sensei's Divining Top
2x Qasali Pridemage
1x Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
1x Gilded Drake
1x Trygon Predator
1x Meddling Mage
1x Squee, Goblin Nabob
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
1x Loyal Retainers

4x Misty Rainforest
4x Windswept Heath
4x Tropical Island
3x Savannah
1x Tundra
2x Forest
1x Island
1x Plains

Sideboard:
4x Counterbalance
3x Krosan Grip
2x Path to Exile
2x Faerie Macabre
1x Tormod's Crypt
1x Relic of Progenitus
1x Llawan, Cephalid Empress
1x Eternal Witness

197 players, 8 rounds of swiss.

Round 1 - Swiss (vs Daniel)

Daniel was pretty quiet and businesslike. He's playing UW CounterThopters.

Game 1: I resolve an early Tarmogoyf and go for Survival, which resolves. However, Daniel gets CounterTop online and I am forced to just beat him down with a 4/5 Goyf. I start testing the waters with a Pridemage and a War Monk, but he reveals a Thopter Foundry and Crucible of Worlds. He has 2 Tops on the board, and I bait him into flipping one when I play a Hierarch, so I know he probably has CMC 1, 2, 3 on the top of his library. However, instead of bringing the Top back next turn, he gets antsy and plays the Thopter Foundry! I'm afraid he might be sandbagging a 2 drop, so I test the waters with a Goyf... and it resolves! I then drop a Pridemage, which gets through and he dies shortly afterwards.

-4 Swords to Plowshares
-1 Gilded Drake
+2 Faerie Macabre (to stop any Sword of the Meek shenanigans
+3 Krosan Grip

Game 2: I have double Survival in my hand and slam down the first one on turn 2, expecting it to get countered. Holy crap, it resolves! I go for Iona and have Retainers in my hand, ready to cast it on turn 4... when he Enlightented Tutors up a Humility. Fuck. So, I go for plan B, which consists of playing a 1/1 creature every turn. He tries to get an EE down to blow up Survival, but I have the Force for that. He Enlightened Tutors up a Relic of Progenitus and pops it, which I don't care that much about since my Goyf is still 1/1. I peel Krosan Grip off the top and immediately pop the Humility and he's dead when I attack.

1-0 (2-0)

Round 2 - Swiss (vs Ben)

Ben is Kuma on the Source, one of the posters on the Bant Survival thread.

Game 1: He confirms what he's playing when he drops a T3 Survival with Tropical Island and Savannahs in play. I drop a Qasali Pridemage on my turn and immediately attack with my Goyf, stack Exalted trigger, then pop his Survival with my Pridemage. I then drop my own Survival and go for Iona. He stalls for a turn with a Clique to put Iona on the bottom of my library, but ultimately doesn't have an answer for Iona when I Survival her back out.

Game 2: We both have interesting sideboarding strategies here. I board out most of my removal and go for 2x Faerie Macabre and 3x Krosan Grip. Ben reveals after the match that he boarded out the Iona/Retainers combo and brought in all his Paths to try and control my board and planned to steal Iona with Gilded Drake. T2, he drops Survival, which resolves. I drop my own Survival on T2, which also resolves. T3, he passes the turn, trying to play around Faerie Macabre (which I did have) and on my turn, I drop a land and Grip his Survival, making Ben very sad. I get out Iona on White and he can't find Gilded Drake before Iona gets there.

Ben and I talk shop after the match and I'm sad to have had to play against someone also trying to represent for our deck so early on, especially such a great guy.

2-0 (2-0)

Round 3 - Swiss (vs Anthony)

Anthony was playing straight up Show & Tell with Lotus Petals and Noble Hierarch.

Game 1: Anthony leads off with T1 Hierarch and starts dropping Lotus Petals. I'm not really sure what he's playing, so I continue onto my plan with a T1 Hierarch into T2 Rhox War Monk with Force of Will and Gilded Drake in my hand in case he drops anything particularly tasty to steal. I drop a Sensei's Divining Top and start the pancake flipper beatdown and at 11 life, he goes for the Show and Tell. I have a Trygon Predator at the top of my library and he has 3 cards in his hand after the Show & Tell, so I pop the Top and let Show & Tell resolve, putting the Predator into play. I didn't drop the Gilded Drake because if he dropped Dream Halls or Progenitus, I didn't want to lose the Drake. On the other hand, if he drops Emrakul, I still have the Drake. Well, the giant Eldrazi hit the table and I played the Drake on my turn, which resolved and traded with Emrakul. Anthony looked at his next card, then scooped.

Game 2: I take out my removal and board in the Counterbalances. I keep a one land hand with Force x2, Counterbalance, Gilded Drake, Brainstorm, Sensei's Divining Top, Tropical Island. Anthony drops a T1 Hierarch and passes. I drop my Trop and find out that he also kept a 1 land hand on his turn when he attacks me with his Hierarch. EOT, I Brainstorm seeing no lands, ugh. I drop the Top and spin the top on my next upkeep into a land. Meanwhile, Anthony has dropped an Ancient Tomb and then a City of Traitors, but has done nothing with them. I Top into seeing 2 Survivals and try to cast them on my next two turns. The first one meets a hardcast Force, which I let go. The second one meets another hardcast Force, which I Force back, which gets Misdirected by him. I consider FOrcing again, but I want to keep it just in case he goes for Show & Tell. After a few turns of draw-go (during which I get a warning for forgetting to draw a card), I get down a second Tropical Island and get Counterbalance online. I then drop a Goyf and spend the rest of the game keeping a Rhox War Monk on the top of my library and he doesn't even try to Show & Tell before he dies.

3-0 (6-0)

Round 4 - Swiss (vs Lee)

Lee is playing Mono White Stax. I haven't actually played this particular matchup much, but I have a bunch of experience playing against the deck (my good friend is Brian Peters, who won tbe SCG Philly 5k last year with Mono White Stax).

Game 1: I open a hand with plenty of land, Survival, and Force backup, but no T1 Hierarch. Lee opens with T1, Ancient Tomb into Chalice @ 1, which I let resolve. I drop a fetch land. T2, he goes for a Trinisphere, but I Force that. T2 I drop Survival, then set up Squee on my T3 for Iona on T4 (on his T3, he drops Lodestone Golem). T4, I play my 4th land with Retainers in my hand and bring Iona back. Iona > Lodestone Golem, who knew?

Game 2: I have a pretty solid hand with Force, Noble Hierarch, Tarmogoyf, Rhox War Monk, 3 lands. He plays a Plains and passes the turn. I fetch a basic Forest and play my Hierarch. T2, he rips Suppression Field (he told me he drew it here) and plays it off of the Plains and a Mishra's Factory, which I let resolve. I play another fetch on my turn and pay 2 to fetch a basic Island when he plays Mox Diamond (pitching Wasteland) and Crucible of Worlds, which I let resolve. I'm not terribly worried about the Wasteland because I have fetches and Hierarchs and plenty of basic lands. I drop a Goyf on my turn and another fetch. He spends his mana to drop a Magus of the Tabernacle, which I Force. I drop a Hierarch and Qasali Pridemage on my turn and go to town on his face with my Goyf. Lee drops an Oblivion Ring on my Pridemage. Goyf gets in there again. He starts to chump my Goyf with his Factory and replay it, but I have a Krosan Grip for his Crucible after he chumps the Goyf. In a move of desperation, he goes for Armageddon - he has Mox Diamond, Flagstones of Trokair, Oblivion Ring (with my Pridemage) while I have my Goyf and 2x Hierarch. I have Force and Brainstorm in my hand, so I let the Armageddon resolve (he's at 8 life). He fetches a Plains with his Flagstones and drops his last card in his hand, a City of Traitors. Goyf gets in for 6 next turn, he draws, and concedes.

4-0 (8-0)

Round 5 - Swiss (vs Stephen)

Stephen is the manager of Madness Comics in Dallas, Texas, so it's nice to see another Texan doing so well. He's playing the UGB Mosswort Bridge/Dreadnought/Stifle deck.

Game 1: He Show & Tell's on T3, I have Force, but he has Force too and Emrakul rapes my face.

Game 2: I board in Counterbalances and I have a T2 Goyf, T3 Goyf, T4 Rhox War Monk. Sadly, T1 Thoughtseize (taking my Force) and he has T3 Phyrexian Dreadnaught. My last turn to live, I rip Qasali Pridemage like a champ, which resolves, and I pop his Dreadnaught, which immediately powers up my Goyfs to 5/6's and I tear him a new one.

Game 3: I keep a slow hand, but has double Counterbalance and Path to Exile. His T1 Thoughtseize takes my Path and I Brainstorm into a Swords to Plowshares to deal with his T2 Dreadnaught. His Thoughtseize on T3 reveals 3 Counterbalances in my hand and he shakes his head. I drop both Counterbalances and leave a fetchland out. I proceed to draw a bunch of lands and a Qasali Pridemage, which starts to chip away at his life. Stephen gets down Mosswort Bridge, then goes for a Dreadnaught. I stack both CB triggers, reveal a land on the first flip, crack a fetch, reveal another fetchland on the second flip. He goes to activate Mosswort Bridge, and I pop his Dreadnaught with my Pridemage in response. I continue the beatdown with the Rhox War Monk, drawing more lands and he then goes for Show & Tell. First Counterbalance reveals a Meddling Mage, crack a fetchland... and reveal land. Emrakul hits the board and I'm quickly dead afterwards.

4-1 (9-2)

Round 6 - Swiss (vs David)

David is one of the guys from my group in Houston - sucks that we meet each other in a round where someone is going to get knocked out of T8 contention! David is playing Enchantress with Words of Wind.

Game 1: David mulls to 5 on the play. I have a pretty aggro hand with Hierarch and Pridemage in my hand. I peel the Trygon Predator and play it on T2. David O-Rings it on T3, but I drop the Pridemage and bring the Predator back with it and David can't really recover.

Game 2: This game was pretty brutal. I get out a fast Goyf, Force and Enchantress effect, then drop a Meddling Mage on Sigil of the Empty Throne (I have Grip in my hand in case of Humility). David ended up having 2x Sigil as the last 2 cards in his hand, to his frustration. He drops an Argothian Enchantress and tries to get back into the game, but can't get going before I overrun him with creatures.

5-1 (11-2)

Round 7 - Swiss (vs Scott)

Scott is playing Merfolk, a Ub list, but I'm not entirely sure what the black is for. I'm assuming it's Saito's list, but I never saw any Perish or Nature's Ruin in our games.

Game 1: I keep a pretty decent hand of Hierarch, Goyf, War Monk, Swords and lands, but no Force. He drops an Island and T1 Aether Vial and I know what deck he's playing. I drop a T2 War Monk, which gets Dazed, but my T3 War Monk resolves and I start swinging for 4 lifelink a turn. I think I'm doing pretty well until things quickly spin out of control when he Vials in Adept, into Adept, into Adept, into Standstill, which chains into 3x Merrow Reejery. Oh god, I just lost

Game 2: Board out Gilded Drake, 1x Pridemage, Meddling Mage, and bring in 2x Path to Exile and Llawan. Game 2, I resolve Survival, then get out Iona and my opponent scoops so we can quickly go to game 3.

Game 3: I open LLawan, Noble Hierarch, Force of Will, Rhox War Monk, and 3 lands. Scott doesn't have a super fast start and I go for a T3 Rhox with 1 mana open for Daze, prompting him to Force the Rhox. I then next turn play Llawan, which resolves. Scott peels an Aether Vial, but I draw a Qasali Pridemage to match it. A Goyf follows up my team and I take the game.

6-1 (13-3)

Round 8 - Swiss (vs John)

After looking at the standings, it was determined that I couldn't draw in. John is playing a Landstill deck, which is a matchup I don't really have much experience against.

Game 1: He has double Swords for my Goyf and Rhox War Monk and double Counterspell for my two Survivals. He then sticks a Jace, manlands, and Standstill and I can't catch back up.

I board in the Counterbalance package - it's the only thing I can think of that can really do anything against his deck. I also bring in 2 Faerie Macabre just in case he gets graveyard recursion going with his Crucibles and Academy Ruins.

Game 2: I mull to 5 on the play and keep a pretty slow hand, but at least had 2 lands. Well, my first land gets Wastelanded (had no fetches and no basics) and he just beats me down with manlands under Standstill. When I'm finally forced to break Standstill, he discards a Brainstorm (after the match, he tells me he drew 3x Counterspell). I try and dump my hand and run into a bunch of Counterspells. He drops Elspeth on his turn and starts cranking out dudes. I land a Tarmogoyf, but against his horde of Soldiers, 2x Mishra Factory, and Faerie Conclave, I don't even have a chance at breaking through and I quickly lose.

6-2 (13-5)

I was pretty embarrassed by how poorly I did in the bubble match. Sad times! That Landstill deck was pretty amazing though. I ended up finishing 13th place. My friend, David (who I played in Round 6), finished 12th, so we're going to pack wars it up with our packs when we get home!