all your report are belong to us

DMF Saturday April 30th 2005 for a Mox Ruby, Alpha Sol Ring, UL Berserk & Winter
Mishra's Factory

Wake up a few minutes early to write out my decklist. Tim (xrizzo), my teammate,
comes to pick me up (a bit too early for my taste, but ah well) Jump in the car,
and we head down to DMFs, chatting about what my sideboarding plan will be
against the expected top archetypes. I already have my plan for what I want to
bring in vs various decks, but I go over what I should take out. 

We make it to the tournament about half an hour early, and hop inside to scout.
As normal, there's nothing much really to be learned from going inside, as the
normal crowd is there, and most people aren't advertising their decks/lists. Joe
(DonkeyStaxx Joe) and Ken (Kil0) make some jokes about how some deck called "UBA
stax" placed at the last SCG. Having been testing/tuning my build for the pass
~2 weeks, I chuckle at Tim, not letting on exactly what I'm playing. 

People continue calling the store asking them to wait, so we don't get started
until 12:30 or 1. Finally we get paired up, and I sit down with my first
opponent, looking forward to a long day of magic ahead of me. 

In the following report I've attempted to remember what happened to the best of
my ability, but some of it was fuzzy, and my notes with life totals only
somewhat completed the picture. If anyone had any discrepancies, please let me
know and I can update the report.

I'm playing the following list. My inspiration was from vroman's SCG list, but I
feel that I've improved upon the deck significantly. Furthermore, the addition
of animate deads make it play a little more like CA, and seem to make the
bazaars better overall. Without further ado..

TWL Scuba Mask (5cUba Mask)
2 wasteland
1 strip mine
3 city of brass
4 gemstone mine
4 workshop
1 tolarian academy

4 bazaar

1 mox emerald
1 mox pearl
1 mox ruby
1 mox jet
1 mox sapphire
1 sol ring
1 black lotus
1 mana crypt
1 mana vault
1 lotus petal

1 duplicant
1 karn silver golem
1 triskelion
1 sundering titan
1 platinum angel
4 goblin welder

1 ancestral recall
1 tinker
1 demonic tutor
2 animate dead

3 crucible
4 chalice
4 uba mask
3 smokestack
1 memory jar
1 candelabra of tawnos
1 trinisphere

Sideboard:
1 Triskelion
2 Rack and Ruin
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Phyrexian Furnace
3 Ray of Revelation
3 Ensnaring Bridge

The curve on this deck is pretty insane. And bazaars are good even when mask
isn't out with the current configuration. 

# colored cards: 9
Ave cc colored cards: 14/9 = ~1.5

# non-mana artifacts: 22
# 1 drops: 9
# 2 drops: 7
# 3 drops: 2
# 4 drops: 2
# 5 drops: 1
# 6 drops: 1

Onto the report...

Round 1-Tony-playing 5c Dragon
Tony had said hi to me earlier on in the day, and I had noticed that he was
playing Dragon. Tony's earlobe had the biggest hole of all of those in the store
(I believe), which stood out, but was by no means his whole personality. 
He wins the roll, and opts to play. 
 
Game 1 goes something like this: "Keep" "Keep" "Gemstone Mine, Mox Jet" "Ok"
"Time walk" "Ok" "Untap, bazaar of baghdad, use it. Animate dead" "Game 2
then..."

+3 furnace -1 Trisk, -1 Sundering Titan, -1 Smokestack.

Game 2: I open with a welder. He plays a bazaar pitching a dragon, and 2 random
cards. I play a bazaar of my own, and get a memory jar and platinum angel into
my graveyard. After he drops a land, eot I weld in the jar. Cracking it brings
an uba mask into play, and a chalice for 0. He passes the turn. I make a mistake
here: I have an animate dead (which I want to use to win the game here) but I
want to activate my welder to use it since I don't have a win condition from his
graveyard, and I can't come up with a good one from my deck (with infinite
mana). I figure that animating the dragon will give my welder summoning sickness
when he re-enters, so I use it before I cast my animate dead to bring in my
memory jar. Then I cast animate dead on his dragon, in response, he
necromancies, and produces "infinite" mana. He attemps to buried alive, and win
(which is a sorcery), so he takes it back, and with tons of mana in his pool he
concedes the game (my uba mask removes his cards from the game) (I should have
just saved the welder as a backup plan...) ((I believe he could have won after I
made my mistake, by using his bazaar, finding his win condition or a cunning
wish, then ending the loop on my angel, and using the extra mana to kill me. I
wasn't about to offer that up at the time however.))

Game 3: He opens with a mox, and a bazaar dropping an ambassador and lands into
his graveyard. I attempt to cast an uba mask (I believe) which is forced. He
casts a xantid swarm, dark rituals for a buried alive (for the dragon and kumano
combo pieces) and passes the turn. I chalice for 2, and let him go. He draws and
passes the turn. I draw (into animate dead), and cast a welder. He draws and
passes the turn. I cast a phyrexian furnace (with 1 land open), weld out my
chalice for 2, and then cast animate dead, and he scoops.

Lunch- Tim, myself, and RobertTheSwordsman (another TWL member), go to grab some
food @ Carl's. Tim orders a Bacon Guacamole burger (which comes out pretty gross
looking), eats about 3/4 of it, figures out there is no bacon, and asks for a
new one. One that looks better than the one in the picuture shows up promptly,
and everyone seems happy. After we eat, we head back, and arrive just around
when the next round is supposed to start.

Round 2 Brent playing 4cTog
Brent was cool, and had a provocative play matt. After our match, it was evident
that he didn't like my Trinispheres showing up nigh every game, but he still
managed to make the Top 4. He's pretty quiet so I can't say I met him too well
though. 

He wins the roll and opts to play.
 
Game 1: He doesn't seem to have much of a hand. After I resolve 1-2 early
threats (smokestack and mask or crucible) without him having much land (I think
I stripped 1), he scoops and we move onto game 2. 

-1 trisk, +1 reb

G2: He goes first and drops a fistful of acceleration. I follow it up on my turn
with an uba mask. EOT he wishes, and artifact mutates it into oblivion (bringing
in 4 mutants). He swings for 4, and passes the turn. I resolve a karn, but can't
eat his stuff yet. He swings, and I block 1, and he AKs for 2 (or 3). My hand
consists of: Chalice, Tinker, Trinisphere, and I topdeck my Lotus. I make a
mistake here though. I cast Lotus, followed by Trinisphere, and then tinker my
Trinisphere away (HUGE mistake... should have opened with chalice for 0, but
even tinkering away karn would have been better). He forces the tinker, I look
at the life totals, my empty hand, and his fist full of stuff, and we go onto
game 3.

G3: I don't remember much about this game. I just recall (around turn 4) ripping
lotus off the top, casting it, using my workshop to cast the trinisphere in my
hand (after having drawn some counters with other stuff), then tinkering away a
useless mox into a sundering titan for the game. 


Round 3: Brent (different one) playing Keeper
Brent was pretty quiet, but he seemed cool. Nearly all of his cards were
foil/asian which was pretty awesome. I also have to respect someone who would
still bring an old school 4c keeper build to a tournament these days. 

Game one he drains my Mask, but isn't able to capitalize on 3 of the mana. He
swords my welder before it becomes active, and forces my chalice. I'm able to
then resolve a sundering titan, which takes out his lands, and he scoops when I
follow it up with a welder that he can'd deal with.

+3 Reb -1 trisk, -trini, -1 smokestack

Game 2, he forces/drains everything. His waste on my workshop, combined with
countering my chalices, and swordsing my welder leaves me with a very bad board
state. He then resolves a gorilla shaman, eats my stuff, and builds up a fistful
of cards. When he wastes my single remaining mana source, I scoop, and we go
onto game 3.

+1 Trini, -1 Reb

Game 3. I resolve an early trinisphere, follow it by tinkering in my titan, and
waste his mana source for the win to prevent him from hitting 3 mana.



Round 4, 5: ID and play some test games vs Severance Belcher, and our team's
oath build (we had been testing some different variations and didn't test the
regular one vs Scuba Mask)

Top 8: Round 1 vs Marshal with Salvagers Oath
I win the die roll and play first. 
Marshal was a really cool guy who obviously had played a lot of Type 2 magic.
This was one of his first Type 1 tournaments, but he was very cordial
during/after the match, and had a lot of interesting ideas about Type 1 in
general. Hopefully he'll show up to more T1 @ DMFs. 

Game 1 I open and he doesn't have a force of will. By the time my first turn is
over, I have resolved a smokestack and a crucible. He casts and oath with an
active orchard, but I'm able to sac the token to my smokestack before he can
activate. He lays few moxes down, and then staves off my smokestack with lands,
and his oath. I end up tinkering out my Trini, and he is forced to yawg just to
recast his vampiric tutor. In the end though, he's locked down, and concedes
when I establish smokestack @ 1, crucible, and chalice for 0.

+3 furnace -2 animate dead, -1 Triskelion

Game 2: He opens with a mox and an orchard/oath. (I believe, or it might have
been turn 2). I resolve chalice for 0 to slow him down, and cast a smokestack.
He oaths and gets his salvager, but he oathed away all of his lands, so cracking
his fetch leaves him nothing to get. I cast crucible and start to ping away at
his land. The chalice for 0 is stalling him. He builds up his hand, trying to
prep to kill me. I get 2 active phyrexian furnaces. EOT he bounces my chalice.
On his turn he casts his lotus, and tries to recover it twice. (After the game
he told me I could kill his single spellbomb and he would've conceded, but I
thought he might have another in his hand) I use both furnaces to stop him from
getting his lotus, but he can still get his LED (next turn). I recast my chalice
for 0, and my strip lock takes away his white land source. I tinker in my
trinisphere to make his echoing truth less effective. He finally draws his last
card (oathed away almost everything). I keep my lock in place to remove all of
his permanents, etc before I remove my uba mask for the win. He krosan
reclamations his yawg and orchard. I finally get my duplicant, so I dup his
salvagers, and he scoops. A long interesting game.


Top 4
When we got to this point, we agreed that we would all rather split up the
prizes in some fashion, so the four remaining people organized a split and we
tried to play it out for bragging rights. 

I was paired up against tim, co-founder of TWL. 
Game 1... wanna help me with the recap tim? (Written by tim as me, with comments
by me in bold)
Quote
Top 4 - xrizzo (xrizzo) with our team's Oath variant

To this point, we were both undefeated on the day, and decided it was a good
time to split the loot. After some short discussion with the rest of the Top 4
(Ken and Brent) we decided to split the prize at ~$125 per person... I wanted to
play it out to determine the real winner of the mox, so we quickly shuffled up
and got at it.

My opponent (and teammate) xrizzo has been playing this oath variant for months
now, and as a team and individually we have had great success the past 6 months
making nearly every top 8. The past few weeks, however, we have been
experimenting with all the possible oath builds (Chalice/Furance oath,
furnace/intuition/AK oath, salvagers Oath, yawg Oath, etc...) and on the drive
down this morning xrizzo decided to revert back to our trusty old build; old and
trusted? or new hotness... which has been solid in the past rather than try one
of the newer variants we worked on. This is bad news for me because 5cuba Stax
owns the other versions of oath like no other. It isn't that bad of news really,
though my matchup against the others felt pretty solid. We played the current
matchup in the last round of swiss for fun as we both were able to ID into the
T8, and all 3 games were extremely close, so I knew this matchup would be a good
one. Close, but I cheezed wins on them all, so I knew I had a chance. If I can
make it to my turn 2-3 without an activated oath, I feel pretty good about the
matchup

Game 1
xrizzo wins the die roll I have to mull to 6 with potential and already I am
thinking about game 2 well not quite yet. He proceeds to crack a fetch, and
duress away my mana vault (to prevent crucible / smokestack from seeing play on
my first turn). I play a land and a mox and pass the turn. xrizzo drops an
orchard and oath giving me a clock. I play another land and try to drop a
smokestack, but he Forces. He oaths up Akroma, beats for 6, and brainstorms into
some goodness. I think he strips a land, and the game is basically over at this
point. I think I resolve an insignificant threat, but it is too little too late.
We move to game 2.


Game 2
I bring in 3 ensnaring bridge, 3 Ray of Revelation
I assume Tim brings in x,y,z (do you know what I bring in?) Pristine Angel,
energy fluxes, and oxidize?
I have a great hand, and going first get a chance to exploit it. I drop a first
turn smokestack powered by moxes and a workshop. Then I drop chalice for 0. Tim
drops a delta and passes the turn. I up smokestack to 1 counter, and play a
welder which Tim forces. EOT, Tim cracks the delta and brainstorms looking for
answers. In his upkeep he sacs the land and chooses not to play another
realizing it will be smokestack fodder. For a few turns I build up board
position while he optimizes his hand ditching a few extra spells. Before long, I
have a crucible, smokestack, welders, and chalice at 0 and 2 out... which is
pretty much game. Tim waits around for an opening with no chalice at 0 to drop
jewerly and energy flux to even the game up, but I never give him enough of an
opening. I win with a hardcast duplicant.

Game 3
He gets to go first, and I hope for a non-broken hand which I can only recover
from by dropping a smokestack and clearing the board. Post board it isn't this
bad... I can answer with an ensnaring bridge, or a ray of revelation, or a
smokestack, or a welder/duplicant... it still sucks, but it isn't nearly as
difficult as game 1. He drops a delta and passes the turn. I play a volcanic
island tapping for welder. He thinks about it for a second and allows it to
resolve. On my EOT, he cracks the delta for tropical island and a brainstorm and
seems happy with the results. On his turn, he drops an island and a mox and
plays an Oath leaving blue available and without an orchard. I play chalice for
0, and bazaar discarding memory jar, bazaar, and XXXplatinum angel. I play a
crucible and pass the turn. He oaths up Akroma and attacks for 6. He plays an
orchard and passes the turn. This is where things get crazy. EOT, I weld in
memory jar. I take my draw and play the workshop I drew. Then I crack jar
playing welder #2 which gets Forced, I play another welder which resolves, and I
know that paves the way for me to play Tinker! I tinker in duplicant removing
Akroma from the game. I discard my hand to the grave which includes ensnarying
bridge and platinum angel. EOT Tim scrys for 3, and during his upkeep Oaths up
Pristine Angel (which prevents duplicant removal) and again searches for more
answers with brainstorm and the like... Tim passes the turn. On my turn, I do
some welder tricks, play an uba mask which gets annuled, and then drop welder
#3. In the middle of all of my previous foolishness, tim manages to resolve an
energy flux, due to me leaving an opening without chalice for 0. During my
upkeep I bring in the jar, pay for the ensnaring bridge, and crack the jar so I
can see 8 cards this turn. I resolve I believe 2 uba masks, and crucible #2, and
then demonic tutor for a mox emerald which I play (though he doesn't know thats
what I dted for). After I let the jar hands go away, I flashback my ray
destroying his energy flux. When I pass the turn, I have crucible, Ensnaring
bridge, a few moxes, 3 welders (1 tapped, 1 with summoning sickness, 1
available), and no untapped land. Tim draws and casts Time Walk, but can't
attack with pristine when bridge is in play and I have 1 card in hand. He drops
another land giving him 6 mana on his time walk turn. He takes his timewalk turn
and decides to activate oath. He dumps his whole library into his grave, and
casts Krosan Reclamation from the grave targetting Time Walk and Yawgmoth's
Will. (hoping to draw TW, cast it, draw Yawg, cast it, re-cast Time Walk, and
cast Echoing Truth targetting welders (x3) and Hurkyl's Recall clearing my
board. I remember that I have a memory jar in my yard, actually, I was planning
on decking him on my next turn with 4 jars in a row, and if he drew a lot of
cards I knew I could win on his turn with a single activation so I weld it in
for a mox, and sac it forcing us both to draw 7 cards, but he couldn't so he
loses.

They were all really close games, and my deck didn't let me down. I was thankful
I didn't have to face any first turn activated oaths, but 2x times I had to face
it 2nd turn.

Ken and Brent had finished there match with Brent (tog) the winner, but they had
somewhere to be that night and since we already split all prizes, there was not
much motivation to play it out any further. 

Top 2
In the middle of Tim + My match, Ken + Brent told us that they wanted to leave
(something about going to see the women), and so we would have to forgo the
finals. I wanted the winners to play it out, but I guess it wasn't to be. 
Brent was the winner of the other matchup, and since we'd split already, there
wasn't a huge motivation to finish. So, brent conceded (though he didn't concede
that he would lose the match had we played). Since I had played Brent earlier
(and won), that was good enough for me, and we called it an evening.