Mom's Friendly Robot Company (1st)
Mykie Noble - 2008-10-20
Preface - Whenever I'm traveling to either the New Holland or Haddonfield tournaments I always seem to pull off some sort of insane move where I put us a half-hour behind schedule. In fact, I've incorporated this half-hour into each drive time and we will actually leave from the starting point that much earlier. Well, this time went almost perfectly, save for an accident on a more local road while going to pick up Darklantern. I even remembered that I have to make an illegal U-turn at one point during the trip to save about 10 minutes.
But enough about the trip, this is about the tournament. There were a lot of recent changes coming from all directions that left me with the deck that I decided to run at this event. First, there were the recent unrestrictions, leaving me with playsets of both Channel and Skullclamp at my disposal. Second, there was the printing of Shards of Alara, the important part being Esper and their many wonderful, colorful artifacts. Finally, there was the land proxys, which not only made for a great 18 person tournament, but also allowed me to run a Mishra's Workshop (or, in this case, Mishra's Porkchop) and make 3 mana for some crazy delicious artifact power. So when all these things come together, what do you get? This amazingly hilarious decklist:
Robots!
WHITE (20)
4 Aven Mindcensor
4 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Treasure Hunter
3 Leonin Abunas
2 Tidehollow Sculler
1 Dispeller's Capsule
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Weathered WayfarerBLUE (20)
4 Master of Etherium
4 Somber Hoverguard
4 Thoughtcast
4 Trinket Mage
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Etherium Astrolabe
1 Fabricate
1 Tezzeret the SeekerBLACK (20)
4 Disciple of the Vault
4 Duress
4 Moriok Rigger
4 Salvage Titan
2 Tidehollow Sculler
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Executioner's CapsuleRED (20)
4 Atog
4 Fling
4 Goblin Welder
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Shrapnel BlastGREEN (20)
4 Fecundity
4 Land Grant
4 Rancor
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Crop Rotation
1 Gaea's Blessing
1 Regrowth
1 Sylvan ScryingARTIFACT (71)
4 AEther Vial
4 Arcbound Crusher
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Cranial Plating
4 Etched Oracle
4 Frogmite
4 Genesis Chamber
4 Juggernaut
4 Mox Diamond
4 Myr Enforcer
4 Myr Retriever
4 Skullclamp
4 Synod Centurion
4 Tangle Wire
4 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Black Lotus
1 Chaos Orb
1 Grim Monolith
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol RingLAND (79)
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills3 Bayou
3 Savannah
3 Taiga
3 Tropical Island
3 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
3 Underground Sea
1 Badlands
1 Plateau
1 Scrubland4 Ancient Den
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Great Furnace
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Tree of Tales
4 Vault of Whispers4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
1 Mishra's Workshop
1 Tolaria West
1 Tolarian Academy
As you can see, the Channel part of the motivation was cut in a roughly 10th hour decision. I found that the only game that I even cast it was to generate a single extra mana to play a Tangle Wire and be able to leave a black source open to activate Etherium Astrolabe that, quite honestly, didn't need to be activated anymore that game. Anyways, onto the show!
World's happiest tournament organizer.
What a crowd!
Round 1 - John Jones (John Jones) playing TurboFag
Game 1 - John has decided to sleeve his entire deck in toploaders, which has made shuffling a bit...difficult. However, after having a small argument about me choosing which pile he's drawing from, we get under way. I get down an early AEther Vial, and it starts ticking away. He's developing a manabase, and I drop Chaos Orb. In a brilliance that only I can accomplish I proceed to completely punt the flip. However, after grabbing a card with a Vialed in Tidehollow Sculler, I proceed to play a Treasure Hunter and grab the Orb again. In my second attempt I manage to only hit one permanent, leaving me with an average of .5 permanents destroyed per flip. I start beating with my dudes, letting the Vial continue to tick, and he eventually destroyed my dudes. At this point my Vial is set to 6, and I proceed to EOT drop Salvage Titan as well as a Mindcensor. They beat him to 1, and he destroys all my dudes again. However, I EOT return Salvage Titan and Vial him out again, and its off to game 2.
Game 2 - This game took forever. He starts doing his Martyr thing, and at some point he gets down Solitary Confinement. Before that drops, however, I get down a Fecundity the turn before he Wraths, causing it to be easy to rebuild from. I eventually get to Trinket Mage for Dispeller's Capsule, but not after he's cast Invincible Hymn for 224 life. I start spamming the board thanks to double Skullclamp, Fecundity, and double Genesis Chamber, and get him down to 186 despite the double Maze of Ith. The match is taking so long that we go to time, and we start playing our turns. I'm turn 0, and I make a misplay where I don't attack that turn, since I know he's going to fog me with Kami of False Hope. However, turn 3 of turns he drops Test of Endurance, leaving me to have to find some way to deal with it. On turn 4 of turns I spend about 5 minutes doing calculations with my Atog on board and Fling in hand. However, while I start sacrificing dudes to him and drawing off of Fecundity, I eventually draw into Fabricate. After messing up the math multiple times, I show John my hand and realize that I have enough to Fabricate for Myr Retriever, play it, and sacrifice it for the Dispeller's Caspule I used earlier in the game, with just enough to use it.
Notes - At some point during this blur of a match I was pissing off John with recurring Tangle Wire, and put counters from Modular on an Etched Oracle so I could activate it twice.
1-0 (1-0-1)
The Orb is ready for flipping! (Before it failed)
A bit of board position.
That thing is huge!
The world's tallest deck spills everywhere.
This is why Chaos Orb rules can change mid-game
Round 2 - Matt Cerino (italyrox3) playing Midrange Control
Game 1 - I get an early Disciple of the Vault, and Matt gets a turn 2 War Beast and turn 3 War Beast. I manage to deal with them thanks to Welder tricks and chump blocking, but it still leaves me at 6. However, he gets stuck on land, and I take him out with a combination of Sculler, Master of Etherium, and Myr tokens.
Game 2 - Matt gets a land base of I believe Tropical Island and two Gemstone Mines, and that's all he sees for the game. We both get early Goyfs, but I keep drawing the land to cast my dudes.
Notes - I made sure to write "DID NOT ENJOY" on my game notes, because quite honestly I didn't.
2-0 (3-0-1)
Game state for myself after game 1
Game state for myself after game 2
This man is getting ready to flip an Orb!
How devastating!
Round 3 - Mark Weiner (Degeth) playing Charbelcher
Game 1 - I get a turn 2 Trinket Mage and turn 3 Juggernaut to bring the beats, but when he goes to Terminate the Juggernaut he gets Shrapnel Blasted with it. Eventually I drop a Master of Etherium and he joins the fray, and his anthem effect allows him to push Myr Retriever over the edge to drop Mark exactly to zero.
Game 2 - He gets turn 3 Rhystic Tutor for Goblin Recruiter, turn 4 Charbelcher, turn 5 play Recruiter and belch for 25. I have a handful of late drops at the end of it all.
Game 3 - I play a first turn Weathered Wayfarer, and he drops his land for the turn, Duressing something out of my hand. He sees that I have other lands in hand, but when I draw and say go he realizes my gameplan for Wayfarer. He starts dropping lands to develop mana to get his combo off, as well as dropping the world's most aggressive vexing Shusher, but I start tutoring for hits like Mishra's Porkchop and begin Juggernaut beats. He casts Mana Severence on himself, since with 7 lands in play he hardly needs anymore. Eventually he drops a Deed that wipes my board, but I have another Juggernaut, a Tarmogoyf, and a Myr Retriever that turn to refill. The turn before he's about to die he draws the Clutch of the Undercity to transmute for Charbelcher, but doesn't have enough to activate it.
Notes - 2 card combo decks are perhaps the most annoying things to sit across from due to their inevitability when playing a deck devoid of countermagic. Now I know how some of my opponents felt when I played Flash.
3-0 (5-1-1)
Random proxy shot: Time Vault vs. Morality Shift
Random proxy shot: Powered Creature Control vs. Yawgmoth's Last Stand
Random proxy shot: Slinky Control vs. Beasts
Round 4 - Jake Taft playing Goblins
Game 1 - His draw is amazing, while mine is Skullclamp and three Somber Hoverguards. Eventually I start equipping them and swinging, allowing his Razorfin Hunter to ping them so I can try to muster a faster offense. Eventually he gets a Moggcatcher out, and it fetches a Kiki-Jiki to try to keep me and my Tezzeret at bay. He pulls everything from untapping to fetching Executioner's Capsule, which itself gets welded back into play so I can kill Kiki-Jiki and Moggcatcher. Eventually Tezzeret screams his final hurrah as he fetches me a Cranial Plating, bringing my opponent to 8. He topdecks another Kiki-Jiki and creates another Piledriver, causing me to have to chump block with a Salvage Titan and a Ravager, losing both. He's tapped out now, thankfully since there is a Seige-Gang Commander out, and I proceed to Rancor my Somberhoverguard, bring him to 3, and Fling it at him. At some point he also played a Boggart Ram-Gang and a Knucklebone Witch, but they only really saw action during the Kiki-Jiki on Piledriver turn.
Game 2 - My turn one is Ancient Den, Mox Ruby, Arcbound Ravager. My turn three is Tundra, Tangle Wire, Frogmite, Frogmite. His board position never exceeds a few lands.
Notes - My camera died before this match starts, and I didn't want to be a jerk and leave to go get fresh batteries.
4-0 (7-1-1)
This man found Tezzeret the Seeker to be a horrible card.
Afterthoughts - I am quite obviously happy with my performance. When Josh Barkon (Darklantern) recommended Fling to me over Mishra, Artificer Prodigy, it made the deck infinitely better, despite it only being 4 cards. Not only was the deck reasonably good, but it was an absolute blast to play, moreso than any other deck I've piloted so far. Hopefully Conflux will continue with Esper's artifacts and add more goodies to this archetype.
The most important part of the tournament was, of course, the land proxies. Let me tell you, they were everywhere. Players who were new to the format were enjoying having their mana be so much smoother, and overall it was amazingly positive feedback. I would love to do this again in a different area, either Blue Bell or New Holland, just to see which new faces we can bring to the format.
I'll leave you with one final picture:
Best burger ever.