all your report are belong to us

The Background:
I started playing type one back in the early 90's down in CT.  Traveled to nyc
for GrayMatter tournaments a ton.  Played with all the olde school New Yorkers
when we were all just kids.. and even got cheater Jason Gordon kicked out of a
tournament.

I began judging/running combined sanctioned T1/T2 tournaments in CT in Danbury
from 95-98 or so with my friend Ron Kolbig (known as "roncon").  Eventually  I
moved to Boston, type one slowly faded to black for a while and we stopped doing
them.  I can't tell you how hard it is to watch alot of mediocre players win
tournaments I judged back then.. Thank god Ray is doing these Waterbury
tournaments now so I can finally play (as Boston doesn't have many T1
tournaments around unless you have a car)...

Onto Waterbury..
I had been testing Mono Blue with chalices for a few monthes now at YMG or
whenever I could get a pickup game.. unfortunatly no playtest group yet to work
with tho.  I debated moving to Oath, but it just didn't feel right although
everyone and their brother on TMD said oath is a better version of mono blue.

I get my rental car at 9am in boston and fly down to CT with barely enough time
to get there... but then I remember how late our old CT tournaments used to
start and stop fretting about making the 11am starting time.

I get to Waterbury and see my old tournament cohort Ron Kolbig and his son Kent
who is now a lawyer and in grad school.  I see a bunch of college kids that were
12 the last time I saw them playing magic.  I feel really really OLD.

Mykeatog tells me to run Arcane Labs over Control Magics in the side.. and I
register the following deck:

4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
4 Ophidian
3 Annul
3 Impulse
3 Back to Basics
3 Chalice OTV
2 Powder Kegs
1 Morphling
1 Keiga Porn star (should have been plat angel or memnarch)
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Tinker
1 Darksteel Collosus
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Misdirection
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Chain of Vapor (should have been aether spellbomb)

7 island
5 blue fetches
7 SoLoMoxen
1 Strip Mine
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Wasteland

s/b
3 Arcane Lab (storm/combo)
2 Stupefying touch (welders) (jank, should have been hydro blasts)
3 Energy Flux (mws decks)
4 BEB (welders)
3 Chain of Vapor (oath, should have been aether spellbomb)

====

Round 1
Razvan ( Razvan on TMD) with Welder control

game 1-
I have no idea what he's playing and my hand is a little slow, so I drop an
early chalice for 0.
he makes a play mistake playing a mox..  he eventually draws a welder, and I am
not able to counter it..
he draws a darksteel citadel.. and welds in a titan.  I play my morphling and
begin the race.. and draw into a sol ring so that I can attack and untap
morphling with enough mana to pump superman on the back end to block Titan.

out-keiga,chain of vapor, mystical tutor,3 annul
in-4 BEB, 2 stupefying touch

game 2
i blast a few welders, he draws more.. I never draw much of anything and attempt
to misdirect his ancestral and lose the force war.  he houses me.

game 3
I get a solid draw and he drops multiple moxes and a welder.  I topdeck a powder
keg and play it.. he rack and ruins it and I keg away 3 moxes.  He has a welder
and I believe taps out to tinker for titan eventually.  I draw a force and then
tinker with force back up as I i'm confident a DSColosus will race his titan. 
We play it out and he doesn't draw anything major to respond with and its over.

1-0  

my first t1 tournament in like 6 years.. off to a good start.. and everyone so
far seems super nice and friendly to play (as opposed to the
ptq/states/regionals scene which is full of rules lawyers).

---
Round 2
Justin (negator13 on TMD) with TPS

Game 1-
We chat a little bit and talk about what we played against first round.. he
won't say, but I find out he played the mirror, which doesnt seem like too much
fun.   I don't know what he's playing so it doesn't even phase me to keep a hand
with saphire/island/drain/keg/ophid/b2b/wasteland...not even thinking that I
should be muliganing into a force.
He plays 10 spells into a Desire and the desire fizzles with no kill or further
draw, but he gets a walk in the 9th or so desire.  He drops bargain on the walk
turn and I never see my turn 1.

out- keiga, 3 b2b, mystical, thirst
in- 3 chain of vapor, 3 arcane lab

Game 2
My game plan is to stop his card drawing (bargain/necro/etc..) and drop arcane
labs
We both get slow draws.. I eventually play a arcane lab with force backup.. and
lose the counter war.. but we both end up with one card in our hand, mine being
an ophidian, which I play next turn.  I draw a ton of extra cards and I think I
kill him with a morphling.

Game 3
I start off with a good hand holding an annul and a force.. with an impulse and
another card to force with..  
he plays necro.. while I have 3 mana open.. I impulse to hopefully find a 2nd
force but find the Lab, and annul the necro.
he tutors for im assuming Yawgwill, which he casts and I force. I drop a lab
next turn with force backup.. and play 3 ophidians over the next few turns and
draw an absurd amount of cards and counter a few card drawing spells he plays
waiting for him to eventually play some sort of bounce on the lab.  I eventually
tutor for tinker-> colossus and win.

2-0

Off to a great start.. and even in losing, both opponents are totally nice and
friendly.. I like waterbury.

---
Round 3
Steven with IRM (mono red workshop)

Game 1.  
I believe this was the round that I sat down next to Mike Panas, who just
happens to live in Boston also and we realize he goes to the college that I work
at.  Small world

I show my lack of recent tournament experience by not aggresively muliganing yet
again.  He plays a first turn workshop and lotus for a juggernaut and 2 welders.
I drop a mox and an island and say go the next few turns.. as I draw cards to
stop anything else he could do.. but no gas of my own.. I throw an ophidan in
front of his juggernaut and die in 5 turns

in - 3 energy fluxes, 4 beb
out - 3 b2b, mystical, keiga, thirst, chain of vapor

Game 2
He gets turn 2 workshop -> juggernaut, turn 3 juggernaut and REBs my counter.
I draw no gas and feel totally downtrodden as I just get run over.

2-1
way to beat down my confidence here..

---
Round 4
Scott with an affinity variant.

Game 1
Maindeck annuls wreck him.  he gets a ravager out.. but I get superman
(morphling) with tons of mana and fly over him.

in - 3 energy flux
out - chain of vapor, mystical tutor, keiga

Game 2
I counter the first two ravagers he plays.  get two ophidians and start drawing
3 cards a turn into a full hand of counters.
I drop an energy flux and a few turns later tinker for colossus and he concedes.

3-1
perhaps I am ok at this magical card game


Round 5 and 6 are a bit of a blur..so I may have what my opponents played flip
flopped..

----
Round 5
Dave with U/W scepter chant deck

Game1
We both play draw go for a while.. I annul a scepter and the go online with
multiple ophidians and chain of vapor the creature he plays.
I draw multple cards a turn for a few turns and counter a few things  and drop a
morphling.  He throws a few blockers out in front of the ophidians but superman
wins it.

out 3 b2b
in 3 chain of vapors

Game 2
He plays meddling mage for chain of vapor
I tinker for colossus on turn 3 with force backup.
I feel like im playing a combo deck!
two turns later its done.

4-1

I get cocky here and think.. "hey, not much has changed since I used to play
type 1 alot more"..  and say to myself.. if I can just avoid oath ill be all
set.  
I go and watch Razvan beat a oath matchup where he has helm of possesion out
with his a stolen platinum angel.  He had won the first game and the second is a
draw.. meaning he won the match.. his opponent calls a judge, thinking that it
should be a draw..  I guess its been a long day.

----
Round 6
Carl with, you guessed it, Oath.

Game 1
I know I win this one but my memory is getting sketchy here.
He gets an early orchard only draw with no oaths in site. I ancestral and play
an ophid and drain his counter then force.
I play another ophidian and attack with his tokens he's given me and I know ive
gotten lucky this game. I kill him with his 2/3 tokens he gave me and 2 ophids


out- 4 ophidians, thirst (thinking If I ever get to oath, I want something big
up)
in 3 chain of vapors, 2 arcane labs

Game 2
I annul an early oath.  we play draw go for a bit.. Ive not playtested this
matchup at all yet.. so Im learning as I go.
He intuitions and I dont have a counter.  he gets AK's.. and Ak's for 3.. then 
AK's for 4.
He has a full hand and plays an orchard next turn  then oath and I attempt a
lame attempt at a counter war that I lose.
He gives me a spirit token and I attack with it and I attempt to chain of vapor
the token after I attack with it, which he counters.
He oaths up Akroma and I die 3 turns later

I bring back in the ophidians, and take out the arcane labs, and a mystical and
something else.

Game 3
He gets a turn 2 oath.
I bounce the token after attacking.. not sure if I should have bounced the oath
instead.. but I know he sided in the pro-everything angels so I cant bounce
them.  
He creates another token and I draw a few counters.. but nothing to deal with
the token or the angel he oaths up.
He gives me another token and doesnt block my spirits attacking.  he oaths up
another angel (akroma I think) and I draw my next card and concede.

4-2

I may still be able to make top 16 as both of my losses are to players still in
contention for top 16 so I play on.

---
Round 7
Jason with Landstill...

Game 1
We play an insanely long first game where I make multiple play mistakes (like
putting a counter on my powder keg not realizing that he's playing landstill
with a factory out.  he beats on  me with man lands and I make a play mistake
and don't leave enough mana out to win a counter war over a crucible.  I
eventually back to basics and stabilize for a bit but he keeps bringing back man
lands with the crucible
i am very land light and cant play any creatures with counter backup and play
draw go for many many turns.. he eventually draws multiple man lands and plows
my ophidian and I lose.  20 minutes left in the round.

out -thirst, mystical
in- 2 chain of vapors

Game 2
I run out of the gates with a few moxes and waste his first 3 man lands.. he
still draws more, but I play keiga which he has no answer to.  I counter his
crucible and win this game with about 3 minutes left

Game 3
We both shuffle quickly and start playing.  Time is called and we go into our 5
turns after my second turn.
I have tinker in hand, and going for colossus is the only way I can win this
one.  I tinker, he counters, I force, he forces. grrr.
Im pissed because we draw.. and I know im out of contention.  

I never even think of talking to my opponent about conceding until after I
submit our slip . one of us would have a chance of making it in at 6-2 to top
16, but neither of us will at with a 5-2-1 record.
Oh well. ill think of it next time.


---
Round 8
Mike with FCG

Mike is honestly the first player I play all day that has that way too serious
tournament demeanor.  It was painful to play him as everytime I did something,
he sighed or tried to make me feel like I was just lucky and not good.  maybe he
had a bad match prior or was just pissed that he was out of contention.. but
regardless.. I was friendly and tried to chat him up.

Game 1
I keep somewhat of a good hand.. but annuls are useless against FCG and he plays
turn 1 lackey into the chain of goblins and sets everything up.  He gets me down
to 2 and  I eventually play a few ophidians and drain one of his 4 mana goblins.
next turn I hardcast Colossus (with force backup) and the look on his face was
priceless. I kill him over the next two turns with ophids back to block

out - keiga, 3 annul, 3x back to basics
in - 3 chain of vapors, 4 BEB

Game 2
He brings me down to 10 with piledrivers and their friends.  I draw multiple
chains and bounce his warchiefs each time so im only taking 1 or 2 each time.  I
topdeck tinker -> Colossus with drain backup.  He dies two turns later as I
squish a piledriver or two.


We all hang out for a bit as Ray figures out the top 16 with some random issue
of a top 16ers mom wanting them to go home.
I collect my packs and see that my opponents from the 1st and second rounds that
I beat both place higher than I do, one of whom makes 3/4th (justin).  I totally
dread the 2 hr drive back to Boston starting at 11pm, but I have to be back in
Boston for sunday afternoon, so stayin in CT isn't in the cards for me.  a few
redbulls later and Im home.

All in all a long day.. a ton of fun playing magical cards again.. with everyone
I played being really rad and friendly outside of the last round.   I wonder if
the Star City events are this fun... but somehow, I doubt it.  Perhaps I'll have
to make the trip up to syracuse in February.. but sadly I'll miss Mykeatog's
Vintage Evolution (BAAAAD WRESTLING NAME!!!) as I'll be on a sunny cruise ship
in the caribbean as opposed to smelly convention