all your report are belong to us

I rode with Josh "Xtreme Games September 2009 Champion" Smith, Lalo, Cheng, and
the Jaker. Some slapdash planning on our part yet again, led to leaving
unnecessarily early this time. I played Iona Reclamation: Now with plausible
alternate win!

4 misty rainforest
4 forbidden orchard
2 u sea
2 trop island
1 island
1 forest
1 library alexandria
1 tolarian academy
5 mox
4 lotus petal crypt sol
4 force will
4 spell pierce
4 oath druids
2 thoughtseize
1 rebuild
1 dtutor
1 vtutor
1 mtutor
1 sensei top
1 thirst knowledge
1 pernicious deed
1 ponder
1 latnam
1 t walk
1 ancestrecall
1 bstorm
1 mscroll
1 regrow
1 k reclamation
1 yawg
1 twister
1 fire/ice
1 iona
1 vault
1 volt

side
2 mindbreak
1 trinisphere
1 extirpate
1 tormod
1 ravenous trap
1 pernicious deed
1 balance
1 slaughter pact
1 oxidize
1 tezzeret
1 hellkite
1 akroma
1 stripmine
1 echo truth

I cut reclaim. it's not strictly necessary, but absence does make extirpate
slightly more dangerous. it was the weakest link to make room for 1 pdeed main
which has tested superbly in virtually every matchup. primarily to make life
difficult for opposing time vault decks, and Seal of Wrath vs fish, pretty good.

Rd 1 - Solymossy w blue cards
g1 I had solid-like-a-rock opening of orchard, sapphire, recall, pierce, so had
t1 protected recall, which drew me oath, resolving t2 on back of another pierce.
so Iona arrives upkeep of turn 3 naming Michael Solymossy.
g2 I had more reasonable opening of just ponder, that countered something
relevant-ish on t2, and resolved oath t3, serving up another Iona@Soly

Rd 2 - UGB fish
g1 I mull to 5, and have I think 3 land, pierce, force. enemy has t1 dconf, and
flips I think force on first reveal. He has 2x brass as part of his onboard
mana. enemy plays dconf#2 on his t3. I rip recall on my t3, over which I win
counter-skirmish to my pleasant surprise. this draws me The Goods of dtutor,
yawgwill, land.
enemy then promptly flips glen elendra archmage to dconf, which puts him to 8,
after some fetch+force action prior. this is outrageously good at the moment,
and he swings w 2x dconf+spirit to put me also to 8. with glen elendra on board,
he has 7 power, so 2x clock, he dtutors but not to tap 2x brass for time walk as
a gambling man would have, and just passes w 1 card in hand. I have reasonable
clutch of mana now, so pretty much need to draw anything enemy will sink both
persist counters into, so I can yawgwin. my rip is Forest.
enemy's upkeep he uses his dtutored bstorm to keep bobs on a leash, and
succesfully takes no damage. he plays engineered explosives@2, w swamp+2xbrass
up, then sends me to 1 and passes. I draw black lotus, which will for sure make
yawgwill lethal. I bait dtutor, and he goes for it, tapping brass #1. he lets
lotus resolve, and now I have sucessfully played to my only out, as he is forced
to go to 6, to counter yawg, and not being able to activate explosives. on his
upkeep drum roll please, he flips sower temptation and... regrowth. exactly 6.
fist pump. this was admittedly stupid way to win, and he got extremely unlucky
taking 15 total damage from dconfs, even with a bstormed turn. however, it was a
real swingy game, from my mul to 5, to golden recall, to glenendra hoser, to
final dconf suicide.
g2 I have hand w moxen and some draw. enemy resolves t2 trygon. I take 2 hits
losing mana, while fixing hand w bstorm and ponder. then I draw oath, and go all
in casting it, w Ice on Predator upkeep, w pierce+force back up. success, and
Iona accepts his surrender.

rd 3 - josh smith w 5c drain
I know he has mad-outs to Iona, so I pre-boarded into the alt combo. I get
ridiculous opening of lotus+orchard+oath+time walk+mana crypt+2 mox. it all
resolves and I oath whole library into yard, kros-rec, yawg will, play out
artifact mana and academy, and have just enough for 12WWU to vault+volt, Divine
Intervention, and twister. I take my first extra turn, DI loses its first
counter. I take my second extra turn, and am getting pretty confident here since
Josh has yet to have a card make a zone change by his own choice. great news!
Josh doesn't do anything and I take the 2nd intervention counter off DI and the
game is a draw! I look at the clock and we only have about 47 minutes left, and
explain theres no way we will have enough time to finish another game. Josh
agrees that theres nothing else we can do. so I follow DCI floor rule #1256b and
start the bidding at 1. Josh finally passes at 5, and we sign the match slip at
5-5 draw. draws are mega-lame, but I don't think I had any other outs.

After this round I wandered over to the ultra-pimped-out-car show next door,
where there were lots of bright colored spoilers, and ineffective mufflers. I
saw this super sweet 2005 Town and Country minivan, with Missouri plates, that
should totally have won the ten thousand dollars. it was white, about a ffffcc.
I think I dozed off for a bit on the bench outside and maybe another round
happened but when I came inside, they told me I made top8. I asked if that meant
I could switch decks, since I brought along my friend Gregg's deck. this deck is
the most hilarious deck ever, bc it plays only mountains but has crazy different
colored creatures like Mindleech Mass, and can play them with this insane card
Sneak Attack. it gets me every time, so I wanted to give it a whirl. you have to
keep all the same cards tho it turns out.

my record is 2-0-2 despite my Intentions.

top8 vs Cheng w mirror match
g1 I get pretty early control of the game, w a few successful draw spell
advantages, and setting up for big yawgwill. then Cheng hardcasts Iona out of
nowhere via dropping lotus and academy. I am caught w no force, and die fast.
g2 I board out 3x oath, etc, which leaves lots of room for mindbreaks. Cheng
plays the oath+orchard gambit, but I have orchard also. I have sdtop which is
digging slowly but surely, and theres about 5 turns of non-action, until I find
strip mine and gain spirit disadvantage ftw.
g3 we both keep real dicey hands. mine is forest+strip, so I kill his library.
cheng is left w island->sol->time vault and doesn't draw a land for quite
awhile. I draw petal, but wait on my dtutor, hoping for blue mana. I push my
luck and force cheng's brainstorm after he misses land drop turn before. next
turn I draw volt key, and cheng draw-goes again wo another land. I draw island
and resolve recall, and am in business. I force his volt, then mystical for
regrowth and recall again. at this point the game is in the bag, since I'm
loaded up pierces, vs his meager mana. I counter a tinker, then yawgwill for
major advantage and pass turn w 2x pierce and UU up, w tvault in hand. Cheng
isn't able to put his many cards to any use, and I take the match.

top 4 vs Soly again
g1 Soly mulls to 5, but my hand is mostly mana, w dtop+dtutor. I lose counter
war over both my recall and then his mtutor for recall. soly drains my dtop I
had to recast, and I continue the manaflood, while he tries to go off. If he
merely mills my library and passes I actually win, bc can just k-rec yawgwill.
however soly isn't stupid and mainphase tormod's me, while he had his last
forcewill revealed on mind's desire.
g2 I have a hand w 4x counters, but no spicy action. this gets cut down a bit,
by extirpate on force. I have to give him a spirit on T2-ish which will proceed
to deal 14 damage over course of game. A real long drought of draw-go, w me
occasionally trying to resolve an oath, and soly repeal->draining both.
meanwhile my 2x spell pierce are getting increasingly antiquated as his mana
climbs to 6. I cast time vault I'd been sandbagging for awhile, and then draw
twister, which surprisingly resolves. my twister hand is pretty swing. I suck a
drain out of his hand w key, and have oodles of gas w vamp, yawgwill, 2xland,
latnam, pierce. I pass and soly does not much, but full grip. I endstep latnam
away an island, then vamp for recall, but soly brainfreezes away top of my
library, which doesn't really matter, since the recall was just to drag out more
counters, so I can yawgwin. this works perfect as my latnam draw is oath+pierce,
which is effectively +2 in counter war, and he's down to just 3 mana up. I
resolve yawg on back of pierce, and soly did not re-draw his extirpate, so time
vault happens.
g3 I draw pure domination, w pearl, sapphire, orchard, pierce, force, twister,
land. top deck oath, resolves via pierce protection. then Still Got These to
counter his tinker. Soly has tormod on board, so I can't insta-win, and have to
attack x3 while he is holding a subpar 7 card stud hand. it could have been
better, the 2nd land could have been time walk. also, my gold is pretty heavy.
Soly pitches a fit, but he told me earlier in the day he was purposefully
eschewing a broken time vault deck in favor of something fun. I have no such
compunction.

Finals vs FUCKTEZZ w BUG fish
I bribe FUCKTEZZ $90 cash to concede to me, and I totally get away w it! I'm the
winner and get a mox ruby, which is sort of like a mountain, so I will trade it
to Greg to put in his sneak attack deck. I think he has the other DI that I need
for my playset.

few other highlights, Josh beat Jimmy McCarthy w helm of obedience. no leyline,
just helm.
jaker had 6 mana in play, dtutor, tinker, and yawgwill in hand, vs enemy=zero
cards in hand + dconf in play. I cant think of another human being who could
possibly have lost that, but jaker found a way.
cheng beat a 60proxy stax deck. in all 3 games, enemy had dozen+ permanents vs
Cheng's 1-3 mana, w multiple chalice and spheres out every time.

good tournament, and happy to play in this venue. will be back in November w
same crew.