all your report are belong to us

I played Oath, with a couple tricks. I'm going to keep it a little shady until
Waterbury so it still catches people off guard, but the basic premise is that it
has a stable enough manabase to run Back to Basics.

Round One: Dan Rix with U/R/W Control
Matrix, as we call him, always poses a new challenge as he tends to make some
strange card choices that catch a lot of players with their pants down. Today
was no exception.
Game one dragged on really long, and I got restless after resolving AKs for four
and five. I dropped a Morphling, he swordsed, I made it untargetable, he
swordsed again, and a counter war ensued, leaving my morphling RFG since Matrix
has a hand full of pitch. I eventually reduce my library to zero cards, and
begin recurring Time Walk with Blessing. I beat him down with Weaver without
letting him have a turn.
Game two he cycles decree early off a lotus, and I can't find my awesome
sideboard tech.
Game three drags on really long, and I find Time Walk on turn five of the five
turns. Had I been able to take the time walk, I'd ancestral in to the juice to
kill him right there and enter the winner's bracket, rather than draw in round
one. Sigh.

1-1-1, 0-0-1

Round Two: Dana (Master Tap) with TPS
Game one, I kick the crap out of him and counter draw sevens.
Game two, I put some sideboard tech on the table, and he timetwisters in
desperation to find seven cards that don't win the game when I have double force
backup.

3-1-1, 1-0-1

Round Three: Aaron Kerzner (Kerz) with TriColorHulk
Game one he fetches lots of duals figuring I don't run wastes. He's right, but
B2B is better than wastes. I never take any damage other than those from fetches
and forces.
Game two we fight insane counterwars over everything. At the end of my turn, he
Mystical Tutors, and my only counter is Mana Leak. Seeing he has two untapped,
but will have more than six next turn, I take the chance to leak it now, saying
"this sure won't counter Will." He rips the will off the top anyway.
Game three he opens with the Lotus, Emerald, and Sea, and I get a Keg for the
artifacts. He AKs in response hoping for a land, and doesn't see one for turn
two. He makes the rest of the land drops, but by starting the AKs first he
allows me to draw a ton of cards and just win.

5-2-1, 2-0-1

Round Four: Chris Kitzmiller (Moobius) with Snakes
Game one, the Oaths just win me the game. He has a tough time drawing as many
cards, and he doesn't really have much for answers to morphlings.
Game two is much closer, I think. We played four for kicks, but I believe two
was the one where he nearly killed me with Mystic Snake beatdown before I got my
engine going solidly. It was a pretty desperate game, but the deck gave me the
love it needed.

7-2-1, 3-0-1

Round Five: I ID with Brian Phelon, who's playing Deep Anal Dragon

7-2-1, 3-0-2

Top Eight: Keith Johnson with U/W Landstill
Keith playing with Tundras kind of weirds me out, as he usually packs something
with Workshops and beats. Game one I land an early B2B, and horde countermagic
to protect it. Eventually I poop out a morphling and he can't deal.
Game two he sees three Standstills, and I see poop.
Game three I plant some early sideboard tech (that's getting annoying by now,
huh?) and by the time he finds a disk it's way too late.

9-3-1

Top Four: Adam with Onikage Stompy
Game one I'm in total control when the combination of no sleep and a fever
begins to rear its ugly head. I attack with Morphling and don't wait to see him
declare no blockers before making it 5/1. He tosses out an Arrogant Wurm, and I
freak, searching for pitch counters. Then I remember blockers aren't declared
yet, and I make the morphling fly. Then I realize I'm tapped out, and his beats
kill me while Weaver sits there impatiently with three spike counters on it.
Game two I draw two oaths, and he draws three naturalizes and a strip mine, as
well as bazaar triple squee nigh immediately. I can't deal and I scoop.

An embarassing defeat in the end, but it did allow me to use Michael Broughton's
quote once again.

When you split, nobody wins. You just get two pussies.

Props:
Matrix, for being a cool guy and hooking me up with some stuff
Ryan the store owner, for buying my crap and holding a great tournament
Steve Houdlette, for loaning me a bunch of stuff to play a deck I only really
had written out last week

Slops:
Adam and Kerzner, for splitting in the finals. Fuckin women.
Me, for my godawful play mistakes in the top four
Time Limits, for disallowing me time to hit the facilities between rounds.