First, here is the decklist I played: The Deck, JACO REMIX 06.19.2003 Business Spells (34) 4 Force of Will 2 Misdirection (Foil) 4 Mana Drain 3 Brainstorm (Signed Foil) 1 Ancestral Recall (Beta) 1 Time Walk (Beta) 1 Fact or Fiction (Chinese Foil) 1 Future Sight (Chinese Foil) 3 Cunning Wish (1 Chinese Foil, 2 English Foil) 2 Swords to Plowshares (Signed Beta) 1 Balance (Signed Beta) 1 Dismantling Blow (Japanese Foil) 3 Duress (Saga Foil) 1 Demonic Tutor (Beta) 1 Chainer's Edict (Japanese Foil) 1 Yawgmoth's Will (Chinese) 1 The Abyss 1 Zuran Orb (German) Mana Sources (26) 1 Sol Ring (Alpha) 1 Black Lotus (Alpha) 1 Mox Jet (Signed Beta) 1 Mox Pearl (Alpha) 1 Mox Ruby (Alpha) 1 Mox Sapphire (Alpha) 1 Library of Alexandria 1 Strip Mine (Tower) 2 Wastelands (Foil) 1 Polluted Delta (Chinese Foil) 3 Flooded Strand (Chinese Foil) 3 Island (Saga Foil) 3 Underground Sea (1 Alpha, 2 FBB) 3 Tundra (1 Beta, 2 FBB) 3 Volcanic Island (FBB) Sideboard (15) 1 Ebony Charm 1 Fire Ice (Japanese Foil) 1 Hurkyl's Recall 1 Shattering Pulse (Korean) 1 Allay (Korean) 1 Swords to Plowshares (Signed Beta) 1 Diabolic Edict (Foil) 2 Red Elemental Blast (Beta) 1 Blue Elemental Blast (FBB) 1 Alter Reality (Foil) 1 Misdirection (Foil) 1 Stroke of Genius (Foil) <--- Switching to COP: Red (Chinese Foil) 1 Aura Fracture (Foil) 1 Scrying Glass (Japanese Foil) Ah yes, good old Los Angeles. You would think in the second largest city in the US more people would show up to play the greatest format in Magic, but it was a pretty dissapointing turnout for a sanctioned Type 1 tourney. I drive and hour to an hour and a half to play in a sanctioned Type 1, and we can't even get half the people from LA to play. Anyway, after the on-site tournament organizers get their heads out of their asses we get started about an hour late. I was going to play my version of RG TnT, but forgot that I had a bunch of proxies in it (all the real loot was in The Deck), so I end up deciding to play The Deck about a minute before the tournament, because it has no proxies and is just ridiculously pimped out. By the way, some of the details of games (i.e. first, second, or third) may go with different games against that player, because I didn't take notes and this is done from memory. Also, the sideboarding may not be entirely accurate either. Round 1 Stan, playing Red-White Sligh/White Weenie, is my first round opponent. He drops some early threats and Wastes some of my lands, but I Swords to Plowshares, Wish for Fire/Ice, Demonic Tutor for Zuran Orb, and then Mana Drain into a Morphling with a couple counters as backup to win game 1 after like 40 minutes. The second game I Mana Drain into a 2nd turn Future Sight, and after his Dwarven Miner and Wastelands screw me over for a few turns and he beats with the Jackal Pups and White Knights, I get a Swords and The Abyss to stabilize. Morphling ends up taking him down in just a few turns once I have a few counters in hand. Sideboarding: +1 Aura Fracture, -1 Brainstorm 1-0 matches, 2-0 games Round 2 I get paired against Karim, who is playing Fish. We're both aware that this is supposed to be a bad matchup for me, but with my slightly tweaked version of The Deck I'm not overly concerned. We don't do anything the first turn and second turn he drops Cloud of Faeries which I let resolve, and I Mana Drain his Standstill. I use the mana during my next turn to Cunning Wish for Fire/Ice or something of that ilk. We go on to not do much and then he plays a Rootwater Thief (which I let resolve because I have Fire/Ice in hand) and Lord of Atlantis, to which I attempt to Fire/Ice the Rootwater Thief in response. This draws us into a counter war, which I lose, after having used ALL the cards from both of our hands. This is not looking good for me, as he has 2 Islands, Faerie Conclave, Rootwater Thief, and Lord of Atlantis on the board. I have a measly 3 duals and 1 Wasteland on the board, so it is time to topdeck. And I do. I draw Balance the very next turn and proceed to Wasteland his Faerie Conclave and play Balance. We continue to topdeck and I stave off the few creatures he plays and drop Morphling, which seals the deal after 35 minutes. The second game he plays an early Manta Rider, then plays Standstill (to which I play Swords and Brainstorm in response, and cannot counter). We are having fun drawing and playing lands (I Strip Mine his Mishra's Factory which had gotten me down to 12, and there is absolutely NO other action), so I then play Fact or Fiction or something at the end of his turn (so he has like 11 cards in hand), which I believe gets countered, and basically wastes the Standstill. He goes on to play more man lands and actually resolves a Lord of Atlantis, but this is no match for the mighty Morphling which I play a couple of turns later once I am down to 4 life or something. Karim (and my own Force of Wills and fetchlands) gets me down to 1 life before I finish him off with Superman. Sideboarding: +1 Aura Fracture, +2 Red Elemental Blast, +1 Fire/Ice, +1 Swords to Plowshares, -1 Brainstorm, -3 Cunning Wish, -? Matches 2-0, Games 4-0 Round 3 Tim, who is playing Zherbus' exact Keeper build card for card, is also 2-0 at this point, and I was hoping to play against him, because the mirror is so fun. I feel fairly confident in this match as well, because I basically play more control cards than him and I am a savage miser. I keep an average hand with 2 duals, 2 Wastelands, Force of Will, Mana Drain, and something else. He plays some duals and I Waste them, then I play some duals and he wastes them. It seems we have drawn nearly identical hands. I believe I Demonic Tutor for Library of Alexandria, which lets me draw a boatload of cards before it is dealt with via Wasteland or Strip Mine. By this time I have a bunch of counters and his Mind Twist is Misdirected back to him after a counter war and drops his entire hand into the graveyard. I mop up with Morphling later and that's that. I don't remember a lot of details from game two, but I have a feeling it was a lot like game 1. Duresses AND Misdirections main deck are key. Sideboarding: +1 Aura Fracture, +1 Scrying Glass, +2 Red Elemental Blast, +1 Alter Reality, +1 Diabolic Edict, +1 Misdirection, -3 Cunning Wish, -1 Brainstorm, -2 Swords to Plowshares, -1 The Abyss Matches 3-0, Games 6-0 Round 4 Giovanni (Akuma Gio from TMD) and I are the only unbeatens, so we ID into the top 4 to play for the money the next round. So we watch some of the other matches and mill around the dealers. Matches 3-0-1 Top 4 is as follows: 1. Jaco (me) playing The Deck 2. Giovanni (Akuma Gio on TMD) playing GroATog 3. Pat (TracerBullet on TMD) playing BG Void 4. Tim playing Zherbus Keeper Round 5 So, I am paired with Tim again, for another exciting mirror match. Game 1 Tim goes first and we both get the first turn Library play. Fortunately I get the second turn Wasteland play and proceed to draw a bunch of cards off of my Library. The first few turns we don't do much except both Cunning Wish (he for Red Elemental Blast and I for Blue Elemental Blast). As the game progresses he decides to make a move, going for the Mind Twist with double counter backup, and it goes something like this. He plays Mind Twist, I play Misdirection, he plays Force of Will, I play Force of Will, he plays Red Elemental Blast, I play Blue Elemental Blast, so once again he is left with no cards in hand. As I gain control of the board he enters the scoop phase, and we move to the second game. I side in around seven cards and we get started. We both keep our hands and as he plays first he remarks "you only live once, mise well go for it." I know this mean Ancestral Recall, which he plays on my upkeep before I have played a land or drawn a card. Fortunately for me, I have a Misdirection in hand which I use, but unfortunately he casts Red Elemental Blast using the Mox Ruby he dropped and he draws three cards. A turn or two later foolishly attempt to cast my own Ancestral, which is met with a Force of Will from Tim. I knew right as I was casting it that I made a mistake, as I should have just waited a turn or two to draw into a Mana Drain or pitch counter (which I did). I remember little from this match except him casting Balance twice (via Yawgmoth's Will), which pretty much screwed me over for good, and I think I end up entering the scoop phase about ten turns later once he has sealed the board position with Masticore and held off some move I had made with double-counter backup. We move on to the third game and as I drop a first or second turn Library he again goes for the early Ancestral to drop some cards out of my hand if nothing else, and this is probably the greatest sequence of the day. I believe it went something like (Tim)Ancestral, (me)Misdirection, (Tim) Misdirection, (me)Ancestral (no counter, I draw my three cards), (me)Force of Will (draw Tim's three cards). So I draw SIX cards in one turn off of both of our Ancestrals, and needless to say this pretty much swings the game totally in my favor and keeps me in Library of Alexandria abuse range for the rest of the game. We continue to play and I either destroy or counter everything Tim musters over the next dozen turns, and the board position looks like this: Tim: 2 lands, Mox Ruby, couple cards in hand Jaco: 10 lands, 3 Moxes, Sol Ring, 7-8 cards in hand, Morphling on board At this point we are both playing for fun as the game was over long ago, so I counter his Diabolic Edict and counters he had been holding and end of turn Dismantling Blow with kizicker his Mox Ruby, adding insult to injury. Sideboarding: +1 Aura Fracture, +1 Scrying Glass, +2 Red Elemental Blast, +1 Alter Reality, +1 Diabolic Edict, +1 Misdirection, -3 Cunning Wish, -1 Brainstorm, -2 Swords to Plowshares, -1 The Abyss Matches, 4-0-1, Games 8-1 In the other top 4 match, Pat swept Gio 2-0, so I would be playing Pat in the finals (The Deck vs. BG Void). I think I have a good shot at beating him if we played it out, but he offers a 2-0 concession if we split the prize money, so I graciously agree. We play a game for fun and I win the die roll, and keep a total BS hand. I play Wasteland, Mox Ruby, Sol Ring, Black Lotus, Future Sight. After we play cat and mouse for like 40 minutes (destroying each other's permanents and hands), I go on to eventually deck myself under a Void (who draws ALL THREE VOIDS!?). Matches 5-0-1, Games 10-1 TOP 5 MOMENTS FROM THE TOURNEY: 1. Top deck Balance to save a game against Karim's Fish. 2. Drawing SIX cards from two Ancestrals on one turn against Tim's Keeper. 3. Misdirecting Tim's Mind Twist TWICE to basically seal two games in two different matches. 4. Giovanni (with GroATog) playing a second turn Compost against Pat's BG Void. 5. Pat being at one life and top decking for the win against Ankh Sligh.