Report

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.