Perkins Open Nov 24 2008
Drew Ganske - 2008-11-28
Brand new name and a new remodeling of the trophy with only the best quality pink duct tape. Perkins Open? I know where do we come up with such a quality name, it only took like three people to come up with it, being the creative beings we are. It was also decided that possession of the trophy would give immunity to the "no permanents no talking" rule, but the trophy had to be present to brandish to abolish the rule. Can't call shenanigans without a broom.
Definitely had to get the pancakes in there. That trophy is so totally a piece of junky plastic but the camera makes it look like you are winning a platinum symbol of authority. The tournament usually takes place on the last Sunday of every month but was moved one week ahead to this Sunday so midnightshambler could make it, guess who didn't show up.
So far I have played Fish, Reanimator and Zooicide and I wanted to keep the variation going. During the week I put together a deck of "good stuff" so it pretty much automatically fell into the Midrange category. I wanted to play Doran, Swerve, Quasili Ambusher, Wall of Blossoms and Firespout so I did.
Tarmo Midrange
White (26)
R Balance
4 Doran, the Siege Tower
R Enlightened Tutor
4 Loxodon Hierarch
4 Mystic Enforcer
4 Qusali Ambusher
4 Rhox War Monk
4 Swords to PlowsharesBlue (29)
R Ancestral Recall
4 Blue Elemental Blast
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
4 Force Spike
4 Spell Snare
4 Swerve
4 Trinket MageGreen (38)
4 Burning-Tree Shaman
4 Chameleon Colossus
R Eternal Witness
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Ravenous Baloth
R Regrowth
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Treefolk Harbinger
4 Wall of Blossoms
4 Wild NacatlRed (32)
4 Chain Lit
4 Fire/Ice
4 Firespout
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Lightening Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Tribal Flames
4 Woolly ThoctarBlack (22)
R Demonic Tutor 4 Duress
4 Ghastly Demise
R Mind Twist
4 Pernicious Deed
4 Thoughtsieze
4 VindicateArtifact (19)
R Chaos Orb
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Etched Oracle
R Mox Pearl
R Mox Ruby
4 Senseiís Divining Top
4 Skullclamp
3 Umezawaís JitteLand (84)
5 Basics
1 Academy Ruins
4 Badlands
4 Bayou
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Breeding Pool
4 Flooded Strand
1 Hallowed Fountain
4 Horizon Canopy
4 Plateau
4 Polluted Delta
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Savannah
4 Scrubland
1 Stomping Ground
R Strip Mine
4 Taiga
4 Temple Garden
4 Tropical Island
4 Tundra
4 Underground Sea
4 Volcanic Island
1 Volrathís Stronghold
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
Yes its pretty much a pile of good stuff, nothing that impressive, slightly metagames versus the red based aggro decks that seem to plague the area. At this point if I actually got to test this at all I would have added more of an end game strategy to this deck. When I come out of the gates its sometimes not even possible to stop me but when it faltered and it entered the late came control decks like had their way with me. The tempo based counterspells definitely win me the early game but I folded to dead draws later. I loved Spell Snare but I could probably lose Fore Spike, Daze, and since theres a lack of red the Blue Elemental Blasts. Needed to add Skyshroud Warbeast as soon as I saw a lack of cheaty decks but I did not want to make last minute cuts.
Drew (Chimaera) - Midrange
Ian - Midrange / Control
Mark B - Flashless Flash & Friends
Steve (phlonominal) - Toolbox Reanimator
Aaron (or4nge) - Madness Threshold
Jesse - Slivers
Matt - Aggro Zoo
Seear (Queklain) - Highlander Reanimator
Gord (zapdos101) - Land Destruction
Cam (Dalranth) - Midrange / Control John - Control
Mark H - Brown Aggro
Bad times eh, I meta'd my deck for more of the cheaty red / aggro matchup and look where it got me. Topping out at 12 is not too bad, especially when the last two came from a different store complete with an awesome manabase and one of them even had a full beta power set. That should bring our total potantial player maximum to around 20. We had two spare decks but Nate who usually runs the events only played in the first one didn't want to play. Friz had a fully complete deck but didn't want to remove his 10ish proxy lands and but in real lands to play, what a pussy. He just sat there and watched the whole time.
Round 1
Ian - Midrange / Control vs. Gord (zapdos101) - Land Destruction
Drew (Chimaera) - Midrange vs. Steve (phlonominal) - Toolbox Reanimator
Matt - Aggro Zoo vs. Seear (Queklain) - Highlander Reanimator
Mark H - Brown Aggro vs. Jesse - Slivers
Cam (Dalranth) - Midrange / Control vs. Mark B - Flashless Flash & Friends
John - Control vs. Aaron (or4nge) - Madness Threshold
Game 1 - No matter what it seems I play Steve, as long as we both are in the tourney. Might as well get it over with now. We both keep our hands, I lay a land and pass with a Ruby and land ready for a turn two Woolly Thoctar surprise. I rarely play my Mox's turn one unless I have a relevant play, well he Duress's that Ruby to the yard. I topdeck a Thoughtsieze on my turn for revenge and take his Buried Alive. We pass back and forth, I play my Thoctar which gets swords to RFG, he taps out for Trinket Mage and I rip a Duress to steal his clamp from him. I think it was a clamp because I believe this is where I learn he only runs one clamp. That pretty much is it for all the interesting stuff that happens this game as we play more land he draws two more swords for TWO of my Chameleon Colossus and I pout some. His deck is build far more for the late game with Genesis type cards and Chord of Calling where my best late game creature is definitely the CC and they just got owned. I take a loss.
Game 2 - I get my lifegain draw and start it going with Loxodon Hierarchs and friends. This game also starts escalating. I end up getting another Chameleon Colossus going but he gets Kitchen Finks and ends up also chording out a Mystic Snake to stop another Chameleon Colossus which I found with Treefolk Harbinger. I can't kill kis guys because he has Volrath's Stronghold. Trying to get a CC through endless Finks is impossible. I manage to pump my CC in response to a swords to gain even more life. I have quite a supply of Burning-Tree Shamans this game and since he has a Top and I keep drawing bolts I see my only way out of this game. I lay a Nacatl and say go with 6 mana open for a deed I played.
Yes that's six free mana and a seven cc Angel of Despair coming down to smash it, go figure. I keep getting attacked by that angel falling from 18 to 12 to 7 but I start launching my burn supply which contains 2 Lightning Helix and a Chain Lightning. I draw another Bolt along the way and he is at 3 when I am still holding a Helix. Topdeck another Bolt to seal the deal, apparently he could have dealt with one of them. Ok all I need is 2 Helix, 2 Bolt and 1 Chain Lightning to win, I can do this...
Game 3 - There was about 10 minutes until time was called on the round. I kept a pretty weak hand with 2 lands and no real way of getting anymore. I end up drawing another land but still having no green sources and get some offence with I believe Finks and a Trinks. I have a Goyf and a Hierarch stuck in my hand and finally draw a green source when it goes to time. End up losing on his turn four, excellent start as always, you know me.
At this point I am so far behind of who is playing who, what the matchups are, and what relevant information I missed, it's not even funny. Apparently Mike showed up sometime during the first round and got a free bye and was entered into the tourney which brings up the total to 13. I did get all the info eventually.
Standings Round 1
Mike (WeaponX) - The Ideal Awakening (Ideal + Rude Awakening) - Matches 1-0 (Bye!) Ian - Midrange / Control - Matches 1-0
Mark B - Flashless Flash & Friends - Matches 1-0
Steve (phlonominal) - Toolbox Reanimator - Matches 1-0
Aaron (or4nge) - Madness Threshold - Matches 1-0
Jesse - Slivers - Matches 1-0
Matt - Aggro Zoo - Matches 1-0
Drew (Chimaera) - Midrange - Matches 0-1
Seear (Queklain) - Highlander Reanimator - Matches 0-1
Gord (zapdos101) - Land Destruction - Matches 0-1 Cam (Dalranth) - Midrange / Control - Matches 0-1 John - Control - Matches 0-1 Mark H - Brown Aggro - Matches 0-1
Scrambling around trying to pile shuffle, and get organized, and seeing who won what, and why these are not the droids I was looking for, I somehow got the bye again. Can't be a 5-Color tourney if I didn't get a bye in it right? Im not sure I wanted it at this point, I wanted some revenge, but it allowed me to collect my thoughts and calm down a bit.
Round 2
Aaron (or4nge) - Madness Threshold vs. Mark B - Flashless Flash & Friends
Steve (phlonominal) - Toolbox Reanimator vs. Jesse - Slivers
Ian - Midrange / Control vs. Matt - Aggro Zoo
Mike (WeaponX) - The Ideal Awakening vs. Cam (Dalranth) - Midrange / Control
Seear (Queklain) - Highlander Reanimator vs. John - Control
Gord (zapdos101) - Land Destruction vs. Mark H - Brown Aggro
Drew (Chimaera) - Midrange Bye
So I didn't really have to take notes around here but I did jot down a few interesting plays and got some pictures. Looks like its bad times when you are light on land (Gord is playing Land Destruction), staring down two Dues of Calamity and your "chump" blocker gets removed and don't draw anything relevant.
Cam was actually going to Faith's Fetters a Top when Mike was tapped out from playing an Ideal which brought out a Pandemonium. Cam took the play back and Mike would have let it resolve anyways because Saporling Burst was only a stones throw away.
Yah that's a Hag Hedge-Mage that is being Circular Logic'd and yes I had to look it up just now, Mark always plays the strangest cards for some reason. In game three it put a Tribal Flames on top of Mark's deck with Aaron at 1 life. He had to submerge it to get through for lethal. Apparently the Hedge-Mage can be annoying.
Standings Round 2
Mike (WeaponX) - The Ideal Awakening - Matches 2-0
Matt - Aggro Zoo - Matches 2-0
Aaron (or4nge) - Madness Threshold - Matches 2-0
Steve (phlonominal) - Toolbox Reanimator - Matches 2-0
Jesse - Slivers - Matches 1-1
Mark B - Flashless Flash & Friends - Matches 1-1
Drew (Chimaera) - Midrange - Matches 1-1 (Bye!)
John - Control - Matches 1-1
Ian - Midrange / Control - Matches 1-1
Gord (zapdos101) - Land Destruction - Matches 1-1
Cam (Dalranth) - Midrange / Control - Matches 0-2
Seear (Queklain) - Highlander Reanimator - Matches 0-2
Mark H - Brown Aggro - Matches 0-2
Mike's doing well, top of the standings. Matt usually has a good show as well as Steve. Aaron is probably the third longest 5-Color player in the group and has yet to make a Top 4 appearance. the two newer guys are near the bottom of the standings, their deck's seem fine, maybe just less tested. We do put alot of random hours of playing every Friday, not sure what goes on at their other store.
Round 3
Aaron (or4nge) - Madness Threshold vs. Mike (WeaponX) - The Ideal Awakening
Steve (phlonominal) - Toolbox Reanimator vs. Matt - Aggro Zoo
Jesse - Slivers vs Drew (Chimaera) - Midrange
Ian - Midrange / Control vs. John - Control
Gord (zapdos101) - Land Destruction vs. Mark B - Flashless Flash & Friends
Cam (Dalranth) - Midrange / Control vs. Mark H - Brown Aggro
Seear (Queklain) - Highlander Reanimator
Game 1 - Ah the Sliver's matchup again. I remember I played him last tourney and crushed his face with turn one Kird Ape Savannah Lion, turn two Woolly Thoctar. I'm sure he wanted some revenge but I was ready to give another trashing. We both get a few lands, he decides to drop a Quick Sliver, I let it pass. Lay a second land say go. He plays a shockland tapped and says go. Then I lay the hammer with a Chain Lightning to the Quick Sliver and Spell Snare the Darkheart Sliver that tried to come down to eat his counterpart. My Thoctar decides to get personal and I follow up with a Hierarch. Nothing but Business when I play Jessie I swear. Burning-Tree Shaman (Thor) joins the team once the Thoctar goes down. Jesse has a Necrotic Sliver and tries to nuke my duo but the rarely used second ability of Hierarch saves Thor. Jesse delivers more random 1/1 slivers and a Crypt Sliver but some more beef off the top seals the deal for me.
Game 2 - Game two starts off with Jesse Parising to six and me providing a turn three Doran on board versus a Winged Sliver and a Hibernation Sliver. The Doran gets Diabolic Edicted. I drop a Woolly Thoctar and on his next attack Qasali Ambusher comes down and ruins his entire day by blocking the Winged Sliver which he returns for two life. I continue to bring the heat with a Hierarch and he starts having to block and bounce his guys. Necrotic Sliver comes online again and snags something but I have another Thoctar anyways. He is set back so much there's no way for him to recover.
My round ended with enough time left over to take a gander at the other games going around. I hears Aaron had to submerge a land when Mike was attacking with Rude Awakening, which let him not lose, but win. Sounds better than his game two where he kept one land and Mike vindicated it. I see quite the tainted pact from John playing against Ian to determine who wins the game. Swords or no?
Standings Round 3
Aaron (or4nge) - Madness Threshold - Matches 3-0
Matt - Aggro Zoo - Matches 3-0
Mike (WeaponX) - The Ideal Awakening - Matches 2-1
Steve (phlonominal) - Toolbox Reanimator - Matches 2-1
Drew (Chimaera) - Midrange - Matches 2-1
Ian - Midrange / Control - Matches 2-1
Gord (zapdos101) - Land Destruction - Matches 2-1
Jesse - Slivers - Matches 1-2
Mark B - Flashless Flash & Friends - Matches 1-2
John - Control - Matches 1-2
Cam (Dalranth) - Midrange / Control - Matches 1-2
Seear (Queklain) - Highlander Reanimator - Matches 1-2 (Bye!)
Mark H - Brown Aggro - Matches 0-3
With just after Round 3 being completed Cam decided to drop and go watch the Grey Cup, something about the Calgary Stampeders going to beat the Montreal Alouettes, and I also had to look that up as well. He did just post in the forums that it was a sucky game and should have stayed to play magic, we told him but he didn't listen of course.
Round 4
Aaron (or4nge) - Madness Threshold vs. Matt - Aggro Zoo
Drew (Chimaera) - Midrange vs. Gord (zapdos101) - Land Destruction
Steve (phlonominal) - Toolbox Reanimator vs. Ian - Midrange / Control
Mike (WeaponX) - The Ideal Awakening vs. Jesse - Slivers Seear (Queklain) - Highlander Reanimator vs. Mark B - Flashless Flash & Friends Mark H - Brown Aggro vs. John - Control
Game 1 - This matchup was actually tested on Friday a bit, some of the minimal testing I got done. Gord's deck tends to destroy lands and play annoying cards that don't exactly win but arenít the easiest to deal with like Icy Manipulator, Ajani Vengeant and an almost entire snow manabase with Skred and Scrying Sheets. Yes that's where that Oracle wearing three clamps came from. I knew this was a decent matchup for me from testing. Turn two Sylvan Library from Gord slowed the game down to a crawl. I ended up getting my own library in Top form. A Loxodon Hierarch joins my side wearing a clamp. Gord only has four lands to my six when the opportunity of the tournament presents itself.
Bam! Yes it went incredibly downhill for him there as I Twist him out and he used his Viper to block. Double Chain of Lightning and a Bolt at 95% accuracy, close range, seals the deal.
Game 2 - I keep a land heavy hand including a turn 1 wasteland. I hope Gord kept a weak hand but to my dismay he had infinite lands. I get no gas and a Jitte with no wielder, and the game goes into the boredom stage. He gets a loam lock going with Sylvan Library but I have infinite lands on top, into a fetch into three more lands, into a fetch into lands sigh. So basically loam lock doesn't affect me at all. I Twist him down and get slightly lower in lands in the process. I see the gold however and just go for it shuffling my top away in the process not letting him strip any needed colors away:
There's Doran and friends wielding a Rocket Launcher that shoots Chainsaws that explode! Or Jitte. At the end of this game we piled up Gord's cards into lands and nonlands, it was nearly 2:1 in land's favour.
And here we got slivers storming the gates like an unstoppable 1/1 army with no abilities from some movie with rings and "short challenged" persons. This army had Tribal Flames though and Mike dies to Jesse.
Standings Round 4
Aaron (or4nge) - Madness Threshold - Matches 3-0-1 Draw
Matt - Aggro Zoo - Matches 3-0-1 Draw
Drew (Chimaera) - Midrange - Matches 3-1
Steve (phlonominal) - Toolbox Reanimator - Matches 3-1
Jesse - Slivers - Matches 2-2
Mike (WeaponX) - The Ideal Awakening - Matches 2-2
Seear (Queklain) - Highlander Reanimator - Matches 2-2
Ian - Midrange / Control - Matches 2-2
Gord (zapdos101) - Land Destruction - Matches 2-2
Mark B - Flashless Flash & Friends - Matches 1-3
John - Control - Matches 1-3
Mark H - Brown Aggro - Matches 1-3
Well it can't be an article if I wasn't in contention would it? Well it would be but it would be far more boring.
Le Top 4
Aaron (or4nge) - Madness Threshold vs. Steve (phlonominal) - Toolbox Reanimator Matt - Aggro Zoo vs. Drew (Chimaera) - Midrange
Game 1 - This matchup was also tested on Friday which revealed about a 60/40 in my favour. He was playing a list that had less duals than a normal suicide list but compensated with some mana related slowness with a few four drops like Hierarch, Rumbling Slum and Solifuge. Going second I keep a possibly ridiculous hand with a Spell Snare, Pearl, Doran with no black source. I snare his turn two Goyf and top deck a Scrubland for Doran. That's pretty much it and signals a scoop from Matt.
Game 2 - I get a first turn Treefolk Harbinger that stacks a Doran on top. Matt has a Serendib Efreet and gets more business than me, despite getting him down to 8, there's nothing to write for this game because I had five nonland cards and one of them was stacked there by a Harbinger. Tied up. Its not like top four games could be decided by playing magic not random blowouts?
Game 3 - I have to Paris to six and keep Duress, Duress, Swerve, Chaos Orb, Scrub, Dual. I Duress out his Thoughtsieze which is fine to protect my Orb. He goes Overgrown Tomb go. I draw land and duress out his Vindicate, he has Wretched Anurid, Ram-Gang and Solifuge in hand. He drops a Forest on top of his other land and lays the Anurid. I draw land and nail both of the land with the orb with ease, and I know I missed the picture. And no I didn't take the orb out of its sleeve. He seems to be drawing replacement lands, I take 3. I draw another land and pass. He lays another land and swing for 3. I draw another land..... and pass. He drops yet another land and Ram-Gang and comes in for 6. I draw the best answer in my deck. A land. I scoop. Mulligan to six turns into 4 spells and 7 lands, great eh. Worst top 4 matches ever.
Finals
Matt - Aggro Zoo vs. Steve (phlonominal) - Toolbox Reanimator Aaron (or4nge) - Madness Threshold vs. Drew (Chimaera) - Midrange
Game 1 - This match doesn't really matter but I prefer to play it always as I already have two 3rd places and a 1st, might as well make it another 3rd. This match seems to favour me as long as I get a beefy enough start. And that's how this game takes off with me chaining a Wall of Blossoms into a Woolly Thoctar. Aaron produces an elephant token and a 3/3 Skyshroud Warbeast. I can tell he has a Circular Logic by his unwillingness to lay more guys waiting to try to take down my Thoctar. It doesn't matter as I end up Chaining one of them down and laying Chameleon Colossus and Tarmogoyf.
Game 2 - Dear god, I get a slow hand and the most embarrassing card possible that continued to pound my face was Squee, block Ravenous Baloth, Squee, block Baloth, Squee, block, Squee. I did play my deed to early and when I had to use it to kill his enforcer he had some Wild Mongrel and Nimble Mongoose with Wonder in the yard. They kept using Wing Attack and Aerial Ace to smash me down. I wouldn't have lasted as long as I had but Ravenous Baloth is a beast as well as Woolly Thoctar and Chameleon Colossus.
Game 3 - I just got an excellent curve this game where Aaron just got a ton of Sunken Ruins. The filter lands were good for him all day until top 4 where they always made up 1/2 to 3/4 of his manabase at times. He kept going to the discard phase being unable to play anything where I went Kitchen Finks, Loxodon Hierarch and Qasali Ambusher the G/W Dream Team.
Top 4 Standings
Matt - Aggro Zoo
Steve (phlonominal) - Toolbox Reanimator
Drew (Chimaera) - Midrange
Aaron (or4nge) - Madness Threshold
For the record for some reason Steve only played one Skullclamp, Aaron built Steve the deck to play, I am not totally sure Steve has played a deck of his own cards / creation on a tourney yet, mildly annoying but that's fine...I guess. Below is the second series of modified cards that have been completed. Most of them were done lat month and a few older ones. Yes there's a "Textless" craze going on right now.
We managed to get twelve people out for Perkins. They only screwed up five of our orders and somehow came got a 13th order, that's only about a 50% batting average, go Perkins! It doesn't help that nine? people ordered Tremendous 12. We had two games of dice magic going on at the same time and randomly all the top 4 sat at the same table. Going clockwise you got me, then Steve, then Aaron (I would call him the master of the Tremendous 12, but that clearly belongs to Nate now) and then Matt who is completly supressed by Aaron's overpowering presence.
Obligatory winner picture of Matt with the new and improved pink duct tape trophy. Past winner's signed it off.
Now to end with some thing witty, something undeniably classy, something to invoke envy or possibly pity? I have 126 Mudholes, 11 are foil. Is that enough? Never.