Winnipeg 250 World Tour
Drew Ganske -
Well instead of one report, for clicking this link you get two reports because we were bored enough after going to Perkins following the first tournament, we proceeded to go to another card shop for a second tournament. Deck types and full standings appear when appropriate. Being my birthday I assumed I was going to get screwed over, but I tried to accumulate free wins with the birthday = concede factor. There are a few pictures but I was stealing whatever I could with or4nges camera so his article will have more and better pics.
Here comes the decklist of choice: Fish Fish Fish
Blue (64) R Ancestral Recall 4 Ancestral Visions 4 Brainstorm 4 Counterbalance 4 Counterspell 4 Cryptic Command 4 Daze 4 Evasive Action 4 Force of Will 4 Force Spike 4 Gush 4 Impulse 4 Hydroblast 4 Mana Leak 4 Remand 4 Spell Snare 4 Standstill White (20) 4 Azorius Guildmage R Balance R Enlightened Tutor 2 Figure of Destiny (So getting cut for x2 Koala) 4 Isamaru, Hound of Khonda 4 Seal of Cleansing 4 Swords to Plowshares Green (20) 1 Gaea’s Blessing 4 Nimble Mongoose 4 Quirion Dryad 4 Skyshroud Elite 3 Skyshroud Warbeast 4 Tarmogoyf Red (32) 4 Chain Lit 4 Fire/Ice 4 Grim Lavamancer 4 Incinerate 4 Kird Ape 4 Lightening Bolt 4 Taureen Mauler 4 Tribal Flames Black (20) 4 Dark Confidant R Demonic Tutor 4 Duress 3 Ghastly Demise R Mind Twist 4 Psychatog (Did nothing) 3 Sygg, River Cutthroat (So a fun card, should have been more business) Artifact (13) R Chaos Orb R Isochron Scepter R Mox Ruby 4 Sensei’s Divining Top R Skullclamp 1 Tormod’s Crypt 4 Vedalken Shackles Land (80) 1 Academy Ruins 2 Badlands 2 Bayou 4 Bloodstained Mire 4 Breeding Pool 4 Flooded Strand 4 Hallowed Fountain 1 Maze of Ith (Did awesome 1 game, screwed me over 2 games, so cut) 4 Mishra’s Factory 4 Mutavault 2 Plateau 4 Polluted Delta 2 Savannah 2 Scrubland 4 Steam Vents R Strip Mine 2 Taiga R Tolaria West (Worst land in the deck, 3 games super screw, should of been cut before) 4 Tropical Island 4 Tundra 4 Underground Sea 4 Volcanic Island 4 Wasteland 4 Watery Grave 4 Windswept Heath 4 Wooded Foothills
13 People, 4 rounds, cut to top 4.
Match 1 – (WeaponX) Mike with TarmoFlash…and belcher or something
Game 1 was pretty much summed up with casting Bob and attacking for 10 turns. I tossed a bolt to the dome somewhere in there, and I managed to chaos orb up some 2 of 3 lands because I’m a pro flipper. First time I flipped orb ever because in casual we treat it like a targetless vindicate. My deck had some counter backup involving Mana Leak with a Daze and a Force of Will with another blue card if he got uppity.
Game 2 was almost in the bag, I had some random bears attacking but zero disruption and or counters. He ended up just casting Flash and winning and I told him that was gay. Highlights of this game include my Psyduck impulse visible in the picture behind one of my giant d20’s.
Game 3 he had the win in his hand according to the picture, just take a look, it’s worth it, he mulled thankfully. I had no disruption or counters yet again, but had a ton of random 2/2’s. He had some Goyf backup which was playing defense but tapping it for the win with Azorius Guildmage is some good times.
Mikes deck was kind of all over the place, I felt be might have done a lot better if he went far more counter heavy with disruption and dig for Flash instead of Tarmogoyf plus 2 different flash kills and Belcher combo in one deck.
1-0
Match 2 – Curt with actual Mono Red.
Game 1 – My guys have a hard time living versus Curt and he has a decent time getting guys through the counter wall. Some Hydroblasts and Force Spikes get in there for a bit. He has a Crag Puca…a blue slot that was causing me problems due to its fat end. I end up rocking out a Goyf out against his irrelevant creature and cast Standstill. He casts Magus of the Moon, I already have the Force in my hand, did not draw a blue card from breaking the Standstill…but the Guildmage was the 4th card down. Proceed to not Tribal Flames it for 1 and not draw a burn spell, he somehow drops 2-3 guys a turn including 2 Frostling, while I draw lands and Duress x2, that’s a game loss.
Game 2 I mulled a lot, and I mean a lot. I kept a 1 land hard with Hydroblast, Force Spike and Daze with some 2 drop business like Goyf, proceeded to not have a land in the top 10 cards, I lost. Not that I lasted 10 turns, but I did flip them over to see how screwed I actually was.
1-1
Match 3 – (or4nge) with 3-2-1 Midrange
Game 1 – Playing against another red heavy deck, it appears my Hydroblasts are going to have to work overtime and they did ok, I believe one showed up in the last turn… We threw some burn back and forth, I even played a Chain Lightning that made him tap 2 mana and basically Flame Rifted us. My Tarmogoyf is a tank however and mows some life total.
Game 2 was kind of anti climatic involving turn 1 Watery Grave Top, turn 2 wasteland, probably countered something, into turn 3 waste his non-filter land, cast Mox and Bob. He missed a land drop but draws out of it next turn and kills my bob. I end up drawing double Shackles which in testing would normally mean an auto win, but I only had three islands facing a Super Saiyan Wearbear and an Ashenmoor Gouger. I end up dying, sad panda.
Game 3 was all dudes all the time. I either get the counterspell draw, the burn draw or da bears draw. Some combination of those three usually means very good times but hey, can’t get what I want all the time. This time it was basically all dudes and I play as many as I can, I do not have white mana for my Azorius Guildmage to tap down his Skyshroud Warbeast. He actually thought I was tapping it down and asked why I was at 10. The white mana comes off the top, and my guys turn sideways, he leaves a Goyf back and plays a Serendib Efreet. I rip a second white mana like a champ, tap them both everything turns sideways and he plows…my 2/2 Quirion Dryad. That brings him to 1 and he dies to his Efreet. He would have won is he plowed his own Efreet. Guess we chalk that up to Birthday luck.
2-1
Some interesting things noted while walking around the other games included flash dying to its own Summoner’s Pact Upkeep. One control versus control match, Ian had 17 lands out with a Sol Ring and only 6 non land cards (one was a dead tribe elder). Maybe if he was playing landstill that would have been a humping.
Match 4 – Nathan with Bunch o’ Stuff. Its kind of like 6-7-8 Midrange. Untargetable or pro-black themed.
Nathan had to leave right away so he conceded to me, took a look through his deck which included untargetables ranging from Nimble Mongoose - Blurred Mongoose – Troll Ascetic – Some echo 6/3 Untargetable – Kodama of the North smash face - Quagnoth – Akroma lolls. Would have been interesting at least, my burn doesn’t do much of anything and his guys are bigger.
3-1
Standings before cut to top 4:
Derek (Helmet) – Ghostway! control // 3-1 Mark – Opposition Death Pit Offering Tokens // 2-2 (bye) Drew (Chimaera) – Fish Fish Fish // 3-1 Curt – True Mono Red // 3-0-1 Matt – Control // 3-1 Mike (WeaponX) - TarmoFlash…and belcher // 1-3 (bye) Howden aka. Jason – Grindstone // 1-3 Seear or C.R…(Queklain) – Highlander Reanimator // 1-3 (bye) Aaron aka Fatty or Asian (Or4nge) – 3-2-1 Midrange // 1-3 Steve (phlonominal) – BigNastyRichHowdenDongFusionGaming Ideal // 3-0-1 Ian – Godo Midrange // 2-2 (bye) Nathan aka Nate – Bunch o’ Stuff or the “untouchables” // 2-2 Gord (zapdos101)– Midrange Control // 2-2
According to these results, Flash is as good as Highlander Reanimator, go magic. Break to top 4 resulted in some sketchy made-up top 4 formula that made little sense but was simple.
Curt with MonoRed vs Derek with Ghostway!
Drew…me… with Fish Fish Fish vs Steve with BigNastyRichHowdenDongFusionGaming Ideal
That’s me with my hand showing and that infidel across from me is Steve, he stole my yellow sleeves as I have over 400 of those but he had to be cool like me.
Game 1 – I get some early gas going and end up getting him really low, he resolves a tutor which usually means bad times. I have an Incinerate on a stick going for me and a guy. He drops Confinement and blue Hondon with a Top and some spells in hand, I Incinerate him in response and he drops to one. I draw a Chain Lightning…go figure and we end up passing the turns a bunch of times while he plays Recall and some draw spells manipulating Top but he runs out of cards and I eventually find a Seal of Cleansing to hit that Confinement and bring it home.
Game 2 – I can’t remember much of this game, I know my dudes were doing ok but I remember I lost to the double Pyroblast draw which hurts a bunch, I know he ended up casting Ideal and got Dovescape and ya…
Game 3 – I kept a hand involving the extremely underwhelming Tolaria West and Wasteland being able to play my Mana Leak and if I drew another land it turned on many spells. Cast my Leak on his turn three spell. Got a chaos orb going, cast it passed the turn. Had to wait until next turn due to lack of mana, and when I flipped it I hit two lands and used my wasteland to take care of the other bringing him to two lands. He ripped a land like a pro for his Wood Elves and two turns later it was me still at almost no lands, we were done. I don’t mind losing all that much but when I lose to manascrew or failing to draw lands over 8-10 turns it really gets me going.
Curt had to leave and I got 3rd place. Steve’s Ideal Beat Derek’s Ghostway! in the finals.
1st – Ideal
2nd – Ghostway!
3rd – Fish Fish Fish
4th – Mono Red
Then it was a lot of poking around with some trades that pretty much did not take place. We watched a side 2HG 5-Color game that sprung up while the top 4 was taking place, it was missing all the epicness and shenanigans that should have been going on. Eventually we decided that Perkins was better then Salisbury House and proceeded to make camp and recharge our mana. After ordering drinks several games of Dice Magic broke out where we roll a dice and have no hand, no land and have to cast a spell with the same cc as the dice you roll. Its like memory magic but cooler, we came up with the game at Perkins two years ago. I was busy casting Tempting Wurm and Horde of Notions, Steve and myself were 1-1 with the 6 sided dice and ramped it up to the d10 for the 3rd round. Searing Wind to Steve’s face took him down to 10 on the first roll but I did not roll a 4 for Hidetsugu’s Second Rite. He ended up being at a crazy 37 point life total due to some lifegain spell and Heroes Remembered but luckily I rolled an 8 for Reverse the Sands and he was suddenly at 6, I won.
Off to the other gaming store because the one we were at closed and we could not get back upstairs. We ended up heading off to another card shop and playing in another tournament although it was 3 rounds cut to top 4 with 7 people. I was almost going to cut my x2 Figures for Ronom Unicorns at this point but didn’t want to buy them, have them at home. Decks as follows:
Mark – Opposition Death Pit Offering Tokens Drew (Chimaera) – Fish Fish Fish Matt – Control Aaron aka Fatty or Asian (or4nge) – 3-2-1 Midrange Steve (phlonominal) – BigNastyRichHowdenDongFusionGaming Ideal Ian – Godoless Midrange. He removed the Godos…heart of the cards. Gord (zapdos101) – Grindstone Combo this time
Game 1 - Steve (phlonominal) – BigNastyRichHowdenDongFusionGaming Ideal
Game 1 involved me having a Lavamancer and a guy and he had a Wall of Blossoms or Roots and sitting in my face for a while until I could cleanse my board of their offending presence. My guys carried it come on the backs of their…efficiencyishness.
Game 2 – Things were going well, even either Spiked or Dazed an Ideal. I attacked him lower and lower, he was at 9 and had an untapped Boseiju, he cast another Ideal that could not get Cryptic Commanded, but did make 4 dudes end of turn, they did not get there, and he was at 1 life, sad panda.
Game 3- was pretty good where I was playing a bunch of guys like my deck does so well especially when the opponent doesn’t have much, when Steve tried to Damnation I countered that and swung in again. He had a Wrath this turn which resolved. I believe I played a Lavamancer and maybe a Tarmogoyf and some burn flew to the dome ftw.
1-0
Match 2 - Ian – Godoless Midrange, Gord had the bye this round and decided to take super notes for me, so I am going to go and type this all out no matter how much I don’t want to.
Game 1 – I play a shock untapped and send in the turn 1 Nimble Mongoose for the beatings. It brings Ian to 19 on turn 2 and I play Warbeast. Ian says go into my Standstill plus maze of Ith, Ian goes to 15. He breaks my standstill with something, I play Skyshroud Elite on my turn Ian goes to 12. He proceeds to drop Finks + Elder. Finks are the bain of my deck, the lack of counters make me sigh. I did not attack, drop to 16 breaking a fetch. Ian goes Tarmogoyf, I Cryptic it and return Finks to his hand expecting to get in a good attack, he proceeds to shrug and play a second Goyf like it’s his day job.
I bust out some Guildmage for some offence and I swing in and decide to lose my Mongoose with only 4 cards in the bin. Ian decides to go more finks and twist my hand…bad times, receiving a gameloss due to assault seems like good times especially after he Putrefys my Guildmage. I get some Lavamancer / Bob action and he gets some finks life to 11. I bob some Isamaru to 12. He plays a Yavamaya Dryad down to 9, go Lavamancer. I proceed to cast some Taureen Mauler which gets Pact of Negated.
Ian plows my Warbeast which is bad times, even though it’s only a 4/4, he had tons of basics out. I reveal a Shackles to Bob which is fine to take his Goyf. He Fires my Lavamancer and me which stops my clock. I bob down to 5, my Maze keeps sending his Y. Dryad back. I counter Shriekmaw, Bob up a land and send him into the Red Zone, Ian does not block and drops to 1. At this point, just looking for burn at this point and find none. He drops some more stuff, Shriekmaw’s one of my guys, attacks and bolts me from 5, bad times. Needed burn forever and my only source was Lavamancer.
Game 2 – This game started off really slow. I broke a fetch with Mana Leak mana up and countered a Farseek for my troubles, we say go a few times and Ian casts a Venser end of turn for some minimal pressure bouncing one of my lands which I bolt. He then tries to cast an Etched Oracle which I Leak. I shock out an Isamaru for some ground shaking pressure. A Flametounge tries to lash it’s fury out at my Hound but gets Counterspelled. I drop the ever underperforming Tog and come in for two big points.
Ian gets serious and casts River’s Grasp on my Tog…seriously, which gets discarded. Smack for another two then pass the turn, Ian lays a Wall of Blossoms. I sadly have to Tribal Flames that wall of pink flowers down to get in for another two, but finally the Indestructible Hound falls to another Flametounge with Ian being only being at 14. Ian then goes Kodama’s Reach and Finks and I sigh then bolt the FTK. From then on I lay a few 2/3’s of the Elite and Ape varieties, but they fall behind due to a pair of 2/1 Dryad’s and Finks offensives.
1-1
Match 3 - Gord (zapdos101) – Grindstone Combo
Game 1 – I had the glacial slowness draw that only a fat guy stuck in a chair could match. He had an early wasteland which I shrugged off. I ended up using Shackles on his Painter’s Servant. I proceeded to take off 8 life points with this guy, He had a Mishra’s Factory to block it but he didn’t want to kill it, I had my own Mishra’s Factory that could pump his. He was starting to stabilize but fell to 5 to a few of my other guys which showed up eventually and some Incinerate plus Chain Lightning had their say.
Game 2 – This game involved me having the supreme tech of Wastelanding Gord when he was manascrewed into counter backup, Goyf smash, then Goyf + Guildmage and then Goyf + Guildmage + Q. Dryad.
2-1
Top 4 - Matt – Control
Game 1 – Game one included some of your favorites from Standstill, Wasteland and Goyf’s, he had some basic islands and just scooped being unable to cast a damn thing.
Game 2 – I ran out some guy and then cast standstill on like turn 3. He tried to counter it so I forced it, then he Red elemental Blasts my Force so I Daze + Force Spike it and get it to resolve, too bad I had a twist in my hand but he broke my Standstill to twist me to ya… Lavamancer could not lead the horses to water.
Game 3 – I had insane business that involved the dreaded counterspells galore plus super efficient guys. He ramped into Leak on a Stick… as opposed to a leaky stick, I believe he Putrefied my Mauler but I stuck Bob and Quirion Dryad with a Clamp, they just kept coming In, I cast 2-3 spells a turn not even caring which ones got Leaked to get more counters on the Dryad, it ended up being a 6-4.
Advance to finals. Steve’s Everyone-else’s cards Ideal beat Ian’s Godoless Midrange
Finals - Steve (phlonominal) – BigNastyRichHowdenDongFusionGaming Ideal
Game 1 – Two turns in, he offers a draw, which I look at my hand and wince seeing not much business but I agree anyways, too bad because there was a Counterspell as my deck draw to go on my stick I had in hand, if I saw that I would of said no. I end up getting some business going and I need some red mana. Get a fourth land finally, his Wood Elves and Farhaven Elf stop my 2/2 beatdown so I burn one out and keep on trucking. After countering a few things he manages to shatter my stick and I have the win on the board. He tries to find an answer and rips ideal…like a fucking pro, suddenly glad we drew.
Game 2 – Exact game situation, I have my efficient guys coming in and I Duress to see Land, Wrath, Balance, Diabolic Tutor, and Diabolic Tutor…sighs, take a tutor. He ends up balancing my guys away and I play some more, go deck. Luckily my Seal of Cleansing show up a lot versus him, shatter a Fellwar Stone leaving him at 3 mana. The game stretches out into me topping up crap, he has to play Form of the Dragon…That stops my 2/2 Figure of Destiny and 4/4 Mauler. I draw my card, spin the top, I know what the top 2 are I lay those to the side, I need Tribal Flames, I call it strait up, go-go gadget Tribal Flames and there it was. I guess the Force is with me too.
Game 3 – This was a slugfest of a match that looks like it was going to end in another lucky topdeck, too bad his Long Term Plans put his lucky topdeck third from the top after he nukes my board in the final turns of the game and he is at 1 life. I go to my turn and toss down my Top, Figure of Destiny, and Skyshroud Elite. He rips Wall of Roots. At least I won one tourney today but too bad we drew.
Wall of Roots / Wall of Blossoms were the bain of my deck as much as Kitchen Finks, it was so ridiculous I want to play Inside Out because of this. The card choices I marked down at the beginning of the article summed up what performed badly over the course of the tourney. Tog did nothing, he didn’t even power a Force of Will… which would of been something, I never wanted to cast him. Too bad Sygg is so fun, for the real tourneys I should switch him out. Koala’s are better than the figures, especially in this metagame.