Well, it's been a long time since I wrote a tournament report. Mostly because I've been, you know, losing and such. ;) Honestly, I've been trying a lot of new decks recently, with varying degrees of success, and I haven't really settled on one--GAT has been my standby ever since I first played it, but I've felt kinda guilty using it. And now it turns out that I should have just been enjoying it when I had the chance. Sigh. Well, as a fond farewell to the old girl, I decide to give her one last go. Of course, so did everyone else (predictably), but I was ready for 'em. I finally took the plunge and cut Regrowth--I never liked it much in this mana-light deck and I was usually annoyed at drawing it. My trademark 3 Duress were maindeck as usual, and I considered going to 4 for this tournament, but I'd been wanting to fit Cunning Wish #2 into the deck for a while and slipped it into the Regrowth slot instead of the final Duress (which took its well-deserved slot in the sideboard). I still have Berserk maindeck, and one sideboard. This I'm still not sure on (I might just cut the maindeck Berserk), but I suppose it doesn't matter much now. Brian (Fishhead) and I carpool (thanks again, Fishhead!) and it turns out that his car must have some kind of special aura, as we end up splitting first place this tournament. His tournament report is probably more interesting, but here's mine, at least. Round One: Jun, Ankh Sligh. So, the Bye then. No, seriously. But my deck, never one to sleep on the job, decides to reward me for picking it back up and gives me The Fix in Round one, though I assure it that it's entirely unnecessary. I smile ruefully, look at my hand, and preemptively apologize. Lotus, Scroll, Ancestral, LoA. Go. Upkeep, draw a card. Thanks. So, not a bad opening hand. He plays Mountain, Pup. I just kind of look at him and shrug, play my second turn Dryad, and kindly nudge his Chain Lightning back in what my deck is convinced is the right direction (Jackal Pup, we hardly knew ye). I counter his last-ditch Dryad-torching campaign next turn, and by the end of his third turn Dryad is forever out of burn range. I win handily from there, LoA back up and running thanks to Gush. *sniffle* Game Two I remember being a little closer, but he ends up topdecking land for two crucial turns while I play Psychatog, aka My Other Burnproof Creature, Who Also Laughs At Your 2/1's. IIRC he tries for Bloodmoon at some point, but I have the counter. His REBs get Duressed and I try to be as apologetic as I can be without becoming patronizing. Jun's a good guy, but Ankh Sligh vs. GAT is just not the way he wanted to start the day. Games: 2-0. Matches: 1-0. Round Two: Tom (Raziel) with GroMask. I've read bebe's EVF thread and alot of the previous discussions of this deck, and I'm willing to be open-minded about it, but it always seemed simpler and probably more effective to just play GAT. I'm looking forward to these games nevertheless, and Tom is always fun to play. He's a class act. We roll and I win. Game One: I lead with Delta-Sea-Duress. I see two Dreadnaughts and (I believe?) a Mystical, along with Island and Tropical, and a few cantrips. The Tropical and Sleight of Hand give away his deck immediately. I take the Mystical. Dodged that one. He plays Fastbond on his first turn and I'm vaguely nervous (he TD'd it), but frankly I'm not worried about Fastbond yet--I should have at least a turn or two before he's able to do anything really sick. Mask is going to be a bigger problem, and I'm only worried about Gush insofar as it gets him two cards closer to a Mask. I lay a Tropical, and pass the turn. He attempts a Mask and I Counterspell, and silently pat myself on the back for not playing the Dryad I had in hand the turn before. Having seen his hand, however, I know that I should be safe at this point, and on my turn I drop a land, play Dryad, and cast Ancestral. I get FoW off the Ancestral anyway, as hoped, and he's never back in the game. I get Mystical for YawgWill at some point just to close out our transaction. Game Two: I have so much to side in, and so little room! I settle on bring in a Hurkyl's Recall, two Naturalize, and a Smother, leaving in a Wish to get the other Hurkyl's Recall, the other Naturalize, and the other Smother if necessary. He leads with Tropical and no other play. That's good, because it means I don't have to worry about my hand being too slow: LoA, go. Draw during your upkeep. Turns out I was only partially right. His turn two is Delta, then Mask. I FoW, but he MisDirects back at me, and I lose the counterwar. HOWEVER, I draw a Naturalize and kill it before it ever puts anything horrible into play. That turns out to be basically the defining play of the game, as that exchange basically shifted all the tempo of the game to my side of the table. Soon I've got a Dryad on the table getting huge, I Gush to get LoA active again, play some Jewelry, and start hardcasting FoW and MisD. I end up pitching Hurkyl's Recall during a counterwar because I'm so sure I don't need it. Tom gets close to resolving a Mask a few times, but my Dryad puts him on a short clock and he can't beat it. Tom is gracious in defeat and wishes me luck. Games 4-0, Matches 2-0. Round Three: ?, Ankh Sligh (again!). So at this point all the other GAT players have had to play a mirror match, but I get the Ankh Sligh player who's 2-0. He's a good player, but, well... you know, Ankh Sligh. Versus GroAtog. Etc. Game One: First turn Duress takes Fork. He can't stop my second-turn Ancestral, and he can't Fork it now, either. Chalk another one up for Duress. I get a Dryad down early and he has no way to stop it before it gets gigantic. Then he has no way to stop it at all. Game Two: Much more interesting. I heard him asking people if they had Blood Moons before the tournament, so I'm wary. He has a first turn Pup, and my Duress shows plenty of burn in his hand. I play a Tog on turn 3, but I'm starting to get a little low on life. By which I mean 13. ;) I draw a lot of land, but that turns out to be okay, since I'm constantly dumping it to Tog to keep him alive anyway. He ends up with 3 Ankhs on the table at one point (!) while I'm at 6 life. So, no more land for me. Then he resolves Blood Moon. Against some decks, I scoop to Blood Moon, but I have a Tog on the table who is dominating and couldn't care less whether I'm on some Tropical Island somewhere or hanging out in the Alps; he just wants to pound something. So I keep going. I get Sapphire, Scroll into Hydroblast. He tries for Blood Moon #2, but I FoW it and then Hydroblast the first one. Gush refills me on counters (important at this point, as Tog's not lethal and burn can now be pointed at my head if he draws it), though it leaves me forever stuck at 3 mana. Then again, my deck is designed to run on three mana, so no big deal. Tog gets lethal while he draws lands. He successfully manages to REB my Tog, but I Lotus/YawgWill/replay it and the match is mine. Games: 6-0. Matches: 3-0. Turns out there are only going to be four rounds and no Top 8, because not many people showed up. This is kind of annoying, as even at C&J's (our Thursday night Type 1 tournaments) we get about 25 people per tournament. The field is very strong anyway, however, despite lacking a few notables in the area. Round Four: Brian (Fishhead), The Mirror. We check the pairings and we're both the only 3-0's here. So we agree to draw, split the prizes, then play the games out for fun. The games are long (oh, so very long), and they are absolutely immense. They all involve copious amounts of graveyard counting, and they were all incredibly swingy. The mirror basically consists of cantripping your way into a tidal wave of a hand, then throwing it against the rocky shoreline that is your opponent. Then you switch, and you get to be the rocky shoreline and he's the tidal wave. You both get constantly eroded and eventually, someone has two big creatures on the table and the other just has one. So yeah, it's really fun (REALLY fun), but really dumb. See Fishhead's report for more info on our games; he won 2-1, but every game felt like it could have gone either way, and very nearly did just about every third turn or so. It's all about the tempo in the mirror, so you really want to be the aggro deck if at all possible. Unless you have LoA. Then you milk it. This is how I won Game 1. ;) It's also how Fishhead won Game 3 (mostly). So the final game total is 7-2; matches, 3-1 (theoretically, though in actuality I'm 3-0-1). It felt good to take GAT out for a last big spin. I suppose I have until July 1st, but this feels like goodbye. Maybe a few more times, just because I can't let go, but it'll never be the same. It's a bad love story. Boy meets GAT. GAT and Boy fall in love. Montage of GAT and Boy laughing, riding a bicycle, sitting on the beach. Then the Powers That Be forbid the doomed love, and we see one last shot as they part forever. Cue violin. Roll credits.