all your report are belong to us

Once again the Stl cadre (me, lalo, smith, cheng) trekked through inclement
weather to the Illinois-Wisconsin borderlands for the glory.
I ran my combo oath list basically unchanged from last month:

4 mist rainforest
4 forbid orchard
2 trop island
2 under sea
1 island
1 forest
1 library
1 factory
1 stripmine
1 academy
5 mox
4 petal, crypt, sol, lotus
4 oath druid
4 force will
4 spell pierce
1 ancestrecall
1 time walk
1 timetwister
1 yawgwill
1 regrowth
1 merchant
1 m tutor
1 v tutor
1 d tutor
1 gift ungiven
1 bstorm
1 ponder
1 sensei top
1 thoughtseize
1 rebuild
1 pernicious deed
1 time vault
1 voltaic key
1 krosan reclam
1 flash insight
1 iona
side
2 mindbreak
2 extirpate
1 rav trap
1 tormod
1 p deed
1 trisphere
1 slaughter pact
1 balance
1 echo truth
1 tinker
1 sphinx steel wind
1 tezzeret
1 oxidize

on car ride enroute, we discussed the GW Kowal deck, and possibility of either
more deeds main, or tabernacle (still give them tokens endstep). I opted for no
change.

rd 1 vs Jaco w tezzeret
g1 my hand is [force, rebuild, land, land, voltaic, yawg, gifts] I get hit w t1
thoughtseize and he takes I think gifts. Jaco just plays mana for first few
turns, and duress me again for force. I draw something irrel, cycle rebuild,
draw mscroll, get recall, and sit on it for a long time. Jaco gets dconf, and I
get pdeed, still always facing UU on other side and no counter back up. I let
his dconf ride the whole game on the incorrect assumption that it doesn't matter
how much he draws bc I can keep him from voltvaulting, and eventually manoeuver
for yawgie or oath. I finally get counter back up, and try for recall, which I
think resolved. but Jaco's hand is stacked and he hardcasts tez, and I realize
he will just attack me until I'm forced to deed to survive, and then get vault w
tez ftw. somewhere along the way he duressed my yawg at last and I scoop after a
too long game.
-board in
2 mindbreak
2 extirpate
1 oxidize
1 pdeed
-out
stripmine
mana crypt
forest
flash insight
rebuild
ponder
g2 my hand is mana and oath and stuff, but Jaco gets early trygon. I have tvault
and oath in hand, but just draw-go for awhile. I have library online so am
getting clocked but have worn his hand down to very little. on critical turn I
have 7 land in play, am at 3 life, Jaco has 4 power on board, and I rip voltaic
w vault in hand, and have just enough to extirpate his countermagic,
play+activate vaultvolt, w spell pierce back up vs repeal.
Match goes to time and is 1-1 draw.

Rd 2 vs David w GBW hate
David was a regular attendee of stl power tourneys in 04-06 era who I hadn't
seen in 3 yrs, so glad to see some more vets coming out of retirement.
g1 he mulls to five and I have t1 oath, no orchard. it's not really a contest as
I set up draw-tutor for orchard as fast as I can get untap steps.
-board in
tinker
sphinx
balance
p deed
B pact
-out
mana crypt
4 spell pierce
g2 Dave draws all 4 qasalis, w planar void, and I can't keep up, nor steal the
game. Also at one pt he cast demonic consultation, which I like to see in Bx
hate.
g3 I get the T1 mox+orchard+oath nuts, and just run agro plan w sphinx+iona


Rd 3 vs FUCKTEZZ w ANT
g1 I have mox+orchard->oath, but he has lively first turn, w recall, lotus and
chain vapor on oath. I draw a blue card to go w my force, recast oath, and FT
attempts vapor again, I counter this and get Iona on black which carries it
alone. I don't try for combo, bc if he pact negation k-rec I deck before his
next upkeep.
-board in
2 mindbreak
2 extirpate
1 trisphere
-out
forest
rebuild
library
pdeed
gifts
g2 I know he is running sad sack, but gamble on superior counter magic. this
totally backfires when he leads w xantid swarm and my hand of 2 pierce and
mindbreak looks foolish. then he t2 sad sacks ftw.
g3 I reboard, but I am distracted by not losing to sad sack and forget about the
xantid which was the real reason I just lost. I should've brought in both
pdeeds.
instead I just go
-in
tezzeret
tinker
sphinx
gift
-out
tvault
vkey
k-rec
flash insight
this way keeps me at 4 wincons, wo the extra slots of the "empty" win of
vaultvolt by itself.
I lead w land go, and FT duress me, taking force. I'm holding bstorm and draw
Iona, and then he again gets xantid, followed by sad sack, which cannot find
Iona in hand. I cast oath next turn and bstorm Iona into play, naming black, but
FT vapors it. I now have long task of getting 6WWW as my only way to win. I cast
trisphere. he endstep vapors it, but I sac land and chain his xantid, so my
4xcounter in grip become relevant again. I mindbreak adnas, but at this pt I've
given him 5 tokens, and am really, really wishing I had pdeed. I regrowth and
cast twister (oathed out) to get Iona back into library. I get time walk in
twister hand, and serve up Iona, but am at 4, I vamp for regrowth, and twalk
again. however, FUCKTEZZ has me dead on board by chumping w xantid and then team
spirit in my endzone.
so lesson learned. I'm 1-1-1, but can still win out.

Rd 4 vs Mike Shean w red-stax
this is an interesting reversal since back in the day, Shean always played oath
at my shop and I always played R-ubastax, and we frequently met in t8.
g1 he has disruptive opening of chalice@0, and smoky which I counter. I'm
setting up mana, and he gets tangle, smoke and crucible+waste. I rip orchard,
but its too late to get around welder+2xtangle, and soot.
I take a reckless gamble on fast kill and board
-in
pdeed
oxidize
tez
-out
Iona
sensei
gift
g2 I lead w fetch go. Mike plays t1 welder naked. I drop oath, via mox, leaving
U up to pierce his only castable artifact to take welding opportunities away.
oath into the combo.
on the draw I board more conservatively.
-in
pdeed
oxidize
tezzeret
sphinx
-out
gift
ruby
sensei
mana crypt
g3 I have opening hand w land+2moxen and ponder. he ties me up w tangle a bit
but I keep making land drops, then get orchard+oath. Mike resolves welder and
another tangle. I oath up Iona, and Mike makes mistake of welding out chalice@0
for his first tangle, which lets me play sapphire out of hand and have enough
permanents to e-truth his welder while Iona is on red, and swing lethal in one
turn w sphinx + Iona when tangles fade one more time.

t8 vs Isaac w tez
g1 I lose roll. enemy mulls to 6. plays land-go. t1 tseize him, seeing, [2xland,
force, tfk, gifts] I take tfk, bc I have recall+pierce+force+multiple land, so
here I'd rather he gifts than tfk just so I know what he's got. I resolve t2
recall, while knowing his only cards are gifts+force. Isaac drops dconf, but
draws lots of mana. I hit oath off recall, and cast it. he lets it go, I guess
hoping to win w gifts. He draws academy off dconf and has 9 mana to mainphase
gifts w hardcast force back up. I force-pitch-force to make him tap out, and it
doesn't matter what he gets, bc Iona will just turn it off. sure enough he piles
[lotus, repeal, dtutor, vtutor] I give him the two tutors, then bring in Iona on
black. game over.
g2 I have solid hand w counter magic and merchant scroll. I protect recall again
while he's making land drops and grumbling. I get the idea he is holding black
cards, and by end of game has 3xvolcanic + emerald. recall draws me oath and
gifts. I run oath out w no orchard, resolves. next up I cast gifts, resolves. I
have a redundant oath and k-rec in hand so pile [orchard, regrowth, bstorm,
library] I get bstorm and library. Isaac REBs my bstorm, but library gets active
next turn. I bury him pretty fast, filling board w lands and p-deed. then draw
orchard, and Iona carries it as expected.

t4 vs Ben Carp w 5c-stax
g1 my hand is [m tutor, u-sea, academy, voltkey, oath, force, flashinsight] I
win roll and lead w u-sea->key. I'm really hoping for anything but chalice@1 or
wasteland. Ben plays gemstone, mox, resistor. I force resistor and then upkeep
tutor recall, and resolve it. I get sol ring, vamp, misty. Ben plays another mox
and tangle. I am tapped down 2 turns, but Ben doesn't add anything really
relevant to his board and I'm able to vamp for tvault wo further disruption.
g2 Ben is on play w t1 trisphere, t2 soot. I know how this works and am
shuffling up before he finishes tapping mana.
g3 long game. Ben kills a few of my lands, but I counter some of his stuff and
he's down on cards, so uses 2 relic cycles, which exiles most his waste+strip. I
get top and am filtering for land to keep up, and then finally get a turn w 3
mana, and land p-deed vs his board of gemstone@1, mana vault, mana crypt,
chalice@2, mox. I have oath in hand, but no orchard. Ben rolls himself to 4. I
decided to deed endstep and cast oath. Statistically, Ben should live 3 more
draw steps w m-crypt in play, while I can do almost nothing while chalice@2 sits
there, so not deeding would be like giving him free recall to find tinker or
smoky and stabilize. so I take out all his mana. sadly, Ben topdecks mox and
plays chalice@1 knowing top of my library is sensei. his next draw is smoky, and
very conveniently I draw 4 land in a row to race the soot, leaving me w oath and
forest to his empty board. I'm finally able to play my sensei again, and have
voltaic to do the trick every other turn. I hit chaff, then a land, and finaly
dtutor and lotus for orchard and win.

finals vs david w GBW
although I won in swiss, he had mixed-quality hands, and allegedly had 4x qasali
main, 2x seal 2x k-grip in board, which tempered my enthusiasm enough to accept
Dave's scoop for cash. I take the Emerald. See you in december.