all your report are belong to us

X9 wasn't close for my friends carpooling and me (2hrs 15 mins), so we went
there pretty eager to win even for a $10 tournament. The other three in my car
were: My girlfriend along for the experience, who would have played Tez had we
known the tournament was going to start so much later than planned; Jesse
playing my same main deck list of TPS that I gave him a way while back, which I
in turn took from a Menendian report like a year ago, which in turn I'm sure is
probably just the generic list for TPS. We each had our own SB though; and
Stefan playing my Foil'd out Mana'd Dredge deck running Chalice. I prayed I
didn't have to play against my own deck, but optimistically I have ten SB cards
against it.

As with most people I have bad notes so I'm going to try my best. Hopefully
people will chime in and help me fill in the blanks. Please PM me so I can just
edit it, so it's less confusing. Thanks!

This is what I ran:

The Pimpest Storm - TPS

22   Mana Sources
1   Black Lotus
2   Flooded Strand
2   Island
1   Lotus Petal
1   Mana Crypt
1   Mana Vault
1   Mox Emerald
1   Mox Jet
1   Mox Pearl
1   Mox Ruby
1   Mox Sapphire
3   Polluted Delta
1   Sol Ring
2   Swamp
1   Tolarian Academy
2   Underground Sea
   
4   Non-Mana Permanents
1   Inkwell Leviathan
1   Memory Jar
1   Necropotence
1   Yawgmoth's Bargain
   
19   Instants
1   Ancestral Recall
1   Brainstorm
2   Cabal Ritual
1   Chain of Vapor
4   Dark Ritual
1   Fact or Fiction
4   Force of Will
1   Gifts Ungiven
1   Misdirection
1   Mystical Tutor
1   Rebuild
1   Vampiric Tutor
   
15   Sorceries
1   Demonic Tutor
4   Duress
1   Grim Tutor
1   Imperial Seal
1   Merchant Scroll
1   Mind's Desire
1   Ponder
1   Tendrils of Agony
1   Timetwister
1   Timewalk
1   Tinker
1   Yawgmoth's Will
   
15   Sideboard
3   Hurkyl's Recall
1   Island
3   Leyline of the Void
3   Pithing Needle
1   Swamp
2   Tormod's Crypt
2   Yixlid Jailer



Round 1 - Scott Hughes - Aggro Shops

Scott's an amazing guy, who despite my memory I've met before at TMDO. He's fun
to play against and stays friendly throughout the game, which I enjoy playing
against versus a "poker face" kind of player. Plain and simple Magic is suppose
to be fun, so when you find people that can maintain that even in a tournament
environment it's great. This is actually my first time playing Scott, so
although we've met neither knows what the other is playing so his game 1 tactics
are rather odd, lol.

Game 1 - On the draw
Scott opens with Sapphire. He grabs a twenty sided die and goes "one spell". I'm
thinking: this is interesting. He #1 is possibly playing TPS as well and #2
thinks his opening hand is going to storm high enough for him to need to keep
track. Next he plays Chalice at zero and moves the die to two spells. Now I'm
thinking: #1 he's definitely trying to bluff me or #2 he's got some crazy storm
deck that doesn't storm with a bunch of zero costing cards, which I highly
doubted. I don't remember my opening hand but I had Force/blue card, but no
Lotus/Moxen so I didn't care much about Chalice for zero yet and I can bounce it
later if it's relevant. He follows that with Sol Ring off the Mox, and then
moving the die to three spells.  So next he plays Chalice for one off Sol Ring
and moves the die to four storm. Now I'm insulted, lol. Just kidding, but still,
there's no way in hell I think he's playing any kind if storm deck. Aside from
that, Chalice for one hurts my team, but not
enough where I can't just tutor for Rebuild with Merchant Scroll, DT, or Grim,
so I let it resolve as well. He plays Mountain and uses it to cast Welder. I
probably should have countered that, I don't remember why I didn't, but I also
think my story may be wrong, he then passes the turn. I play a fetch, do nothing
amazing if anything, and pass. He plays Thorn and there's no point to Force now
with active Welder, so I save force for later. He passed to me; I play another
fetch, and pass back. He eventually gets Jugs, then Sim on the table and I get
nowhere. Jugs gets there FTW.

Game 2 - On the play
+3 Hurkyl's Recall, -3 ???
I mull to six, keeping: 2x land, Lotus, Emerald, Walk, and Bargain. I go land,
Emerald, and then Walk. On Walk turn, I go land, Lotus, and then Bargain. I use
Bargain's ability> Pay 19 life, draw 19 cards: You win the game.

Game 3 - On the draw
He mulls to four. I keep my hand mainly due to his mull to four. I have fetch,
Sapphire, Emerald, 2x Force, Brainstorm, and Tinker. I figure he has at least a
one lander, probably Shop, and three business spells. And even with Shops can
only play two of the three at best and I can choose to Force none, one, or two
of them, if I really had to. The main goal though was to only have to Force one,
if that, and that being Chalice for zero or Thorn. Then I would Tinker for
Leviathan which he probably has no answers to in three turns, if ever. It played
out better than expected. He plays Mountain, and then passes. I fear a REB or
Blast, but still have Force backup. I go fetch, Emerald, Sapphire, and then
Tinker. I sac Emerald, I asks if it resolve he says yes. I put Leviathan on the
table while shuffling for Tinker and proceeds to scooping up his Mountain.
1-0


Round 2 - Dan V. - Oath

I just met Dan, and although not as fun to play as Scott, he seems to like
throwing quick jokes in here and there, like me, which is cool. I think I
angered him when we went to time though. I didn't intentionally mean to time us
out, but my outs were running low and I really had to think. And I'm sure it
didn't help that #1 it was my turn when time was called and he was playing Oath
with no Oath on the board, so it meant he needed turns one, three, and five to
win probably and #2 He literally just said my Time Walk resolves, then they
called time. So needing three turns aside, any player screwed out of one of
their last turns wouldn't be happy. Unfortunately this match up I also remember
the least details about, so any help from Dan would be greatly appreciated.

Game 1 - On the play
My notes on this one are terrible. I remember it was a wicked long game, but all
I can tell from notes is that I first turn Duress an Oath and on a later turn
dropped Necro and it resolved. I was at 19 when it resolved and set aside ten
cards. It looks like, as I'm sure you predicted, I won next turn after a Grim
Tutor. I'm almost positive it was Grim Tutor for Yawg Will or Lotus, whichever
wasn't in the first ten cards I drew, and then win with a crazy big graveyard
during a Yawg Will. This game ended up lasting like 30 mins, at least.

Game 2 - On the draw
I don't remember specifics about my hand, but I believe it was a good one lander
hand. I play fetch, and then pass. He plays fetch, then pass. I EoT fetch, he
fetches in response. I'm like uh, oh. Fetching, in response to my fetching, and
not allowing me to search at the same time had me thinking Stifle. Sure enough
he has the Stifle. That's not cool, because I kept that one lander hand. I saw
no Stifle game 1, so I didn't quite expect it (turns out they're in the main
deck). Not sure how far from that, on a later turn, I eventually cast Time Walk.
He says it resolves, and then from behind me, almost immediately after, I hear
the judge shout "Active players that is time!" So we have five turns after my
current one and I'm getting majority of them, including the one following my
active turn. If I remember correctly, I actually originally played the Walk in
hopes to bait out a counter, if he had one, so that I could play Necro on my
next turn. So I pass the turn to myself, going into turn one. I play Necro in
hopes that if he had a counter, he would have used it against Walk last turn. He
SDTs, fetches, and then SDTs again with no luck. Necro resolves and I'm at 17
life. I remove ten cards to Necro and am at seven, and then pass the turn. I
draw mana accel and Memory Jar, but nothing that makes me think I can win for
sure. He does nothing relevant on turn two, and then passes the turn. On turn
three now, I play Jar using the mana accel drawn, because I still only had two
to three land to work with. I remove five cards to Necro, which leaves me at two
and then pass to his final turn, turn four. I draw nothing relevant, but still
have Force/blue card. So here's to hoping he can't do two damage in his final
turn. He does nothing, during his final turn. I go to my final turn, and just
pass the turn because that's all I need to do with a win under my belt already.
For the sake of not wanting to think I ripped him off, I flipped the next 7 to
see what would happen if I "tried", on my final turn. It was at least: Dark Rit,
Cabal Rit, and Yawg Will. I already had some mana accel and DT in the yard, so
that actually would have done it regardless of time restraints.
2-0

Round 3 - George Theocles - Control Painter
George was a good sport and seemed like a nice guy. I say he's a good sport
because our games would have even made me quite angry, if I was in his shoes.

Game 1 - On the (?)
Nothing exciting happens here until about turn four or five. He plays Painter
turn four, I have Force, but don't care about him yet lol. He names blue and
passes the turn. I look at my hand and it has potential, but needs more mana
accel for both storm and to get things done. I believe it had Cabal Rit, Grim
Tutor, Merchant Scroll, Force, and Ponder. So I Merchant Scroll. I want to take
Force or something else unhelpful, as I had already used Ancestral and
Brainstorm, at least. While going through my deck though, I'm thinking how great
it is that every card is Blue, so I can take a black card as well. Nothing crazy
jumps out at me because mostly all my black instants are tutors. Then it jumps
out at me, grab the accel you need! So I reveal Dark Ritual, and then pass the
turn. He plays a Vampiric Tutor and Ancestral Recalls. He plays Grindstone, I
Force, he Negates, and the counter war ends with him tapped out, no cards in
hand, and the win on the board. He passes the turn to me. I play Ponder. I see
Dark Rit, Dark Rit, and Mox Jet. Man I wish that was an Ancestral instead. I
leave my library as is and take the Dark Rit off the top. I play 2x Dark Rit,
Cabal Rit, Grim Tutor for Yawg Will, Yawg Will, Cabal Rit, 2x Dark Rit, Grim
Tutor for Tendrils, and finish off with Tendrils.

Game 2 - On the draw
+2 Pithing Needle, -1 FoF, -1 Gifts
I keep a hand that I probably shouldn't consisting of Lotus, Ancestral, FoW,
Misdirection, and three others I can't recall of at least two were blue. The
idea was to have an unstoppable Ancestral into land and better cards, with
basically double counter back up. He goes land, Mox, and then Ancestral. I ask
him who it's targeting. He replies: himself. I ask him if he's sure, while
placing Misdirection on the table and removing a blue card. He mentions that he
guesses not so much anymore. I live the dream. On top of living the dream, his
Ancestral is ridiculous. Off of his Ancestral I draw land, Bargain, and Dark
Ritual. I Ancestral myself and then just go crazy, to sum things up.
3-0


Round 4 - Sam Richardson - Oath ft. Tidespout Tyrant

I can't say much about Sam, as our games didn't last more than maybe ten mins.
The only thing I know is that he chose to play every match out. Our match and
the following match he could have drew and went 3-0-2 still, but he played this
and the following match out.

Game 1 - On the draw
My hand had a FoW and a blue card. That's all I remember and that's all that
matters. He plays Orchard, Mox, and then Oath. I Force, he Forces back. I lose
next turn to Tidespout Tyrant infinite loop. He reveals that he actually had
double Force back up first turn.

Game 2 - On the play
Again I have nothing worth discussing in my hand. He plays first turn Oath off
an Orchard, with Force back up again. Wow...
3-1-0


Round 5 - Jeff Green - ?

I wait for like five mins for Jeff to show up, and he asks if I'm his opponent.
I tell him I am, we shake hands and say "good game".
3-1-1


3-1-1 is good enough for top 8 here.

Top 8 - Jesse Martin - TPS

Gee, I've never had this matchup before. We only play Magic together five out of
seven nights a week. In our experience we've humorously concluded it comes down
to who draws more broken an opening hand and also who wins the die roll. It
really sucks we carpooled here together and are paired up against each other in
top 8. I mean I guess, if we both performed well, it was inevitable. I just wish
we could have top 2 split I guess, which would be asking a lot of lady luck.

Game 1 - On the draw
Game 1 played right into our humorous logic of the TPS mirror. He played first
and drew more broken. He didn't really draw a broken opener, as much as he just
drew better cards, as we played draw-go. He storms off before I do.

Game 2 - On the play
Game 2 goes against our logic to my dismay. I go first and have a hand with Yawg
Will, Dark Rit, Emerald, fetch, and then some other cards. He attempted to combo
off and doesn't "get there". He's now on draw go with nothing in hand. I now
have Yawg Will, Dark Rit, Emerald, and draw Twist. I have almost nothing in the
yard. I could make a bad attempt to get somewhere by ramping mana and then
Twisting, but I decide since he's handless, I rather not refill his hand for him
to maybe combo off. This becomes a misplay, in a way, two turns later. Although
I don't know if most people, like myself, would have seen it coming. He draws
after I pass, keeps it in hand, and then passes back to me. I draw something
irrelevant and pass back to him. He draws a second card, keeping two in the
hand, and then passes back. I again draw nothing amazing and pass back. He plays
EoT Mystical Tutor. I have no Force, but play my ass of like I do, ironically by
acting really calm. He debates aloud whether I have the Force or not, and then
decides to go all in, even though I have five cards in my hand. As I predicted
he goes for Yawg Will, which in this occasion was the right play. He put me on
not having the Force and luckily was rewarded with being correct.

Placed 5-8th


In hindsight I'm really glad I lost to Jesse, for a few reasons. First off, at
least I lost to a friend and not someone I don't even know. Secondly, I helped
him as a friend; get one step closer to that Grim Tutor, by losing to him.
Lastly, I just got a Grim Tutor during the previous week, so fighting him for an
additional Grim Tutor when it's him versus me is not very friend-like, lol.

For placing 5-8th I was able to pick up a Foil Masques Dark Ritual, which is not
bad at all for a 5-8th prize.

My carload, Ray Robillard, and Scott Hughes went to dinner at Buffalo Wild
Wings, in the mall, afterwards.  There's a huge story about that, which I can
add later.

- Great job Jesse for winning the Grim Tutor, especially since I had to lose to
you.
- Great job Matt for running a great tournament, with great prize support for
the buy in price.
- HUGE thanks to Buffalo Wild Wings for taking 2 hours to get us our food, it
being wrong, and then taking 30 mins to separate the check. Best waste of 2.5
hours ever. In their defense the food is amazing, it was the server.