Deal Me In Games 2017 Series event #2 report
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Congratulations to Joe Brennan (why do we bother since he wont touch social media Joe!!) for taking down the April Deal Me In Games event, beating Stephen Nowakowski in the finals match 2-1. The rest of the top 8 was rounded out by Keith Grim, Josh Barkon, Dan Barkon, Greg Hoover, William Dayton and Jeremy Beaver.
Top 8 quarter-finals:
Stephen Nowakowski defeats Greg Hoover 2-1
Dan Barkon defeats Josh Barkon in the battle of the brothers
Joe Brennan defeats Jeremy Beaver
Keith Grim defeats William DaytonSemi-finals:
Joe Brennan defeats Keith Grim
Stephen Nowakowski defeats Dan BarkonFinals:
Joe "1st turn library" Brennan defeats Stephen NowakowskiWill have a more complete write up as well as leaderboard standings updated in the coming days. Thanks again to Deal Me In Games and Jason for hosting another fantastic tournament.
Below is my report:
Round 1 vs Josh Barkon 0-2 0-1
Game 1 Josh wins the die roll by 1. I open my first 7 and see mox jet, voltaic key, mana vault, tolarian academy, paradoxical outcome, mindbreak trap, flusterstorm. I know Josh is on shops. Josh is always on shops. But I decide to give this a go anyway because if I can just get my 1st turn going this hand is gas. Josh opens chalice on 0. It doesn't really get better from there. I draw dead a turn or two but Josh actually doesn't do much his next 2 turns. Then he drops a revoker. He thinks for a moment and blind-names. . . mana vault Ok, I'm screwed. Scoop, go to game 2.I forget my opening for game 2 but it just doesn't matter. Josh draws well and plays well and I fold like a cheap suit under shops being shops.
Round 2 vs Carson Shup 2-1 1-1
Carson is a new player. Not just new to vintage but new to magic. He and 2 of his friends saw the tournament posting, are local and decided to show up for their first ever vintage tournament. I'm not sure where they got their card pools from but it was basically just random stuff with a few random proxied things thrown in.Game 1 I cannot keep my opening hand. Even against a deck I know is slapped together with cards he just opened from aether revolt I can't keep it. I mulligan, he mulligans. I got to 6 but offer to let him draw 7 again. I have a decent hand with some mix of mana and draw but no real business. By about turn 8 he had a board with aether herder (with a token he made from it), borderland marauder, and another 1/2 creature and 1 other creature. I was at 11 life he was at 20. I hard cast blightsteel colossus and passed the turn. He passed his turn. On my next turn I attacked. He considered and said he'd block with his 1/1 token. I explained infect and trample so he threw all but 1 creature at it. I looked over his board and talked with him about his options, pointing out that just has to stop 2 infect counters from hitting him. If he block with all everything dies and the next turn I win anyway. If he blocks with just the marauder he survives and has some options for his turn. He agreed to do that. I passed the turn. He drew his card and played his spell for the turn (hand was empty except for his draw). It was a mistcutter hydra (cannot be countered, pro blue, haste XG for the casting cost where it enters play w/ X 1/1 counters on it). He plays it for 5 and says pass. I'm at 11, he's at 9 poison counters. I ask him to look at the life totals and look at the board. He does and hesitantly says, "I attack?" I nod and he hits me for 13. We move to game 2 which doesn't go quite as well. I get a turn 2 mentor down and make 3 tokens. On turn 3 I have nothing to do but attack. On turn 4 I play a spell but am just short of killing him so I STP my new token and misstep it for lethal. Game 3 is much the same as I have an opening hand with lotus, 2 mentors and some land and draw spells. Knowing he has no counters and can't deal with even 1 mentor I keep and its over shortly after.
Round 3 vs Stephen Ganter 2-1 2-1
This is a mentor mirror and I also didn't take notes today so I dont remember much from this one. But Stephen and I have played a few times and always have close matches. I'm pretty sure he got game 1. But game 2 I had an early library and think I drew into tinker/colossus. Game 3 I got vault/key. Despite it being a mirror match it didn't play out like one.Round 4 vs Jeremy Beaver 2-1 3-1
Game 1 was rough as he got leovold and 2 deathrite shamans and just hammered me. I put up a bit of a fight but he pretty much had this one from about turn 5 on. Game 2 I had a bit of gas early and got an early mentor. He had some pretty dead draws, though he did get a leovold out. But I was too far ahead at that point.
Game 3 was pretty good. I had a turn 1 mentor and turn 2 had 2 tokens out (I think a mox and pithing needle that I did blind name of pernicious deed on not knowing if was even in his deck). I beat him down to 14 and he got an abrupt decay on my mentor. My next turn I took him to 10 but he had a managorger hydra out. From here he got a null rod to shut down most of my mana and I couldn't attack thru his gorger. He started to mount a comeback. On one turn he got his gorger up to a 5/5 and attacked bringing me down to 3. I had a tapped mana vault in play. He passed and put me at 2. I then played a land, mox, mox, pithing needle and gush for exactly 10 damage. We talked about the final 2 turns after and if he had played 2 cards differently he would have crushed me. I had a few turns while we stalled where I draw a spell and wanted to play and push more damage thru but just held it hoping for that 1 big turn and luckily I got it.Round 5 - Keith Seals Draw 3-1-1
Just a note on this draw. My lifetime record against Keith now stands at 1-1-4. This was our first intentional draw. We joked that we might as well play it out because we'll have the same end result.Top 8 quarterfinals as noted above I lost 2-1
Game 1 started with me keeping 7 and having a generally decent hand. Stephen had a bit more than generally decent. It wasn't a blow out, but in the mirror he managed to grab the early lead on card advantage which gave him the win.
Game 2 was kind of the same but went my way. I took a mulligan down to 6 and had a very keepable hand with 2 lands, gush, ancestral a mox and I think a flusterstorm. On turn 2 or 3 we were both low on mana, I drew into a probe and saw his hand was 3 pyroblasts, gush and fow. He had a tundra and a fetch in play. My plan was to gush and ancestral until I saw this. Then I gushed into his force, flusterstormed his force and took off from there. He tapped out next turn for something (I think baby jace) which I was fine with as I had a STP from the gush. Since he was tapped out I ancestraled myself. I got a top and a dack in play and just filtered cards until I overwhelmed him with card advantage.
Game 3 I had a great opening it. It had everything in it I could have wanted - ancestral, mentor, fow, top, brainstorm. Everything that is except for mana. I mulled to 6 and had 5 good cards and a library. I mulled to 5 and got 2 lands and 3 so-so cards. He hit some early card draw and again just buried me in card advantage to close out the win.
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@Khahan Hey Greg, it was great meeting you! Thanks for promoting the event and posting the report.
Just some notes on our top 8 match. In game 2 I was confined on mana and had mentor in play with one token. You had Nahiri, Mana Vault, and Sol Ring. I drew and cast Dack making a second token and stole your Sol Ring. I swung in at your Nahiri to bring it down to 1 loyalty. I think you snuck in your Recall the turn or two prior when I tapped out for Mentor. You untapped, played an artifact and cast Outcome for three, played Tinker for Blightsteel and Time Walk.
Game 3 I probed you and saw your hand was dependent on Top. On your turn one you played a Sol Ring which you had drawn for turn and Top. On my turn I played the Stony Silence in my hand and that was basically game. I think you drew Mox Sapphire the following turn.
Congrats on your first top 8 since coming back! I look forward to playing in more of these events.
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@smnowako said in Deal Me In Games 2017 Series event #2 report:
@Khahan Hey Greg, it was great meeting you! Thanks for promoting the event and posting the report.
Just some notes on our top 8 match. In game 2 I was confined on mana and had mentor in play with one token. You had Nahiri, Mana Vault, and Sol Ring. I drew and cast Dack making a second token and stole your Sol Ring. I swung in at your Nahiri to bring it down to 1 loyalty. I think you snuck in your Recall the turn or two prior when I tapped out for Mentor. You untapped, played an artifact and cast Outcome for three, played Tinker for Blightsteel and Time Walk.
Game 3 I probed you and saw your hand was dependent on Top. On your turn one you played a Sol Ring which you had drawn for turn and Top. On my turn I played the Stony Silence in my hand and that was basically game. I think you drew Mox Sapphire the following turn.
Congrats on your first top 8 since coming back! I look forward to playing in more of these events.
Thanks Steve. I couldn't remember the details of everything. Though I think the stony came down a few turns in, maybe 3 or 4? Or maybe it was turn 2 and I dug a few turns for an answer I had sided out.
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@Khahan Yea, I'm not sure that it supper matters, but I'm pretty sure it was my turn two. On my T1 I left Pyroblast up off of Volc and then when you played the Sol Ring, which I didn't know about, I thought it was safe enough to go off of Reb for a turn and play the turn 2 Silence.
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Greg I'm pretty sure game 2 of our match also had t1 chalice on 0 and you were trying to find a way to generate red all game for the a client grudge in your hand to deal with chalice.
And I guess I have become "consistent" with my deck choice the last 2 years haven't I?
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@jbarkon said in Deal Me In Games 2017 Series event #2 report:
Greg I'm pretty sure game 2 of our match also had t1 chalice on 0 and you were trying to find a way to generate red all game for the a client grudge in your hand to deal with chalice.
And I guess I have become "consistent" with my deck choice the last 2 years haven't I?
Yes, that happened. I forget my opening hand but at one point I had an ancient grudge out and just needed a red source. I had fragmentize and took out I think a sphere effect from your board or a creature instead of the chalice. I was digging with top and finally found a red source - mox ruby. I couldn't play the ruby because of the chalice but I couldn't get rid of the chalice with grudge until I played the ruby. It was the next turn that you killed me. You played that match really well. I say I died to shops being shops because the board certainly looked that way. But in both games you had a few decisions to make on which card to play when or what to name with revoker and if you had made those decisions differently the game may not have ended like it did. I look forward to our matches. You always keep me on my toes and the matches are friendly, fun and relaxed.
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@Khahan I have to agree our matches are always great.
Any idea on when the June event will be?
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@jbarkon Jason and I are looking at the calendar for June. We just have to make sure the weekend we have targeted doesn't have any special releases, GP's or other major vintage events going on that weekend.
And I have the top 8 decklists and metagame breakdown for our 2nd tournament to add to the report here.
There were 24 total players. I'm going to use my judgement and eliminate 3 of them from the breakdown/report. We had 3 players who had never played Magic the gathering before. Its not that they had not played vintage before. They hadn't drafted, hadn't played in fnm, hadn't played modern, legacy or standard. They had each bought a bunch random packs, proxied some cards and played a few kitchen table games. Their decks were representative of what they had in their collections but their collections had not once ever been geared towards any semblance of vintage. The maindeck card count totals were 63, 80 and 100. As such any % will not reflect the presence of these 3 decks.
Without further ado:
Shops decks:
4 top 8, 6 totalAll 5 shops decks were arcbound ravager variations with 4x walking ballista and 4x ravager
5 were car shops with fleetwheel cruise (1 had 3x, 4 had 4x)
1 was a foundry inspector version (none had foundry inspect and fleetwheel)
4 top decks were 1 foundry inspector and 3 of the 4 4x fleetwheel cruiser buildsCreature-centric decks (non mud)
1 top 8, 4 total
1 r/w hatebears control with U splash
3 bug control
3 bug featured 3-4 deathrite shaman and 3 leovold, abrupt decay and fatal push
2 featured grim flayer
1 featured mana gorger hydra which made top 8
1 had a singleton misdirectionoath and landstill (it was the same deck)
0 top 8 1 total
Featured 2 misdirection
3 different manlands
(I dont want to give away all his secrets but wanted something that made the deck stand out)Gush mentor builds
3 top 8, 7 total
4 were pretty standard gush mentor
1 was paradoxical gush
1 was planeswalker control
1 was saheeli rai combo
7 of 7 gush builds included exactly 3 copies of gush
1 had 0 mental misstep, 1 had 2 mental missteps, 3 had 3 mental missteps, 2 had 4 mental missteps
the 2 copy, 1 3 copy and 1 4 copy of mental misstep made top 8
1 had 4 monastery mentor, 6 had 3 monastery mentor (1 of the 6 had a singleton young pyromancer)
1 had tinker with time vault/key and blightsteel colossus (made top
2 had 3 copies of paradoxical outcome (1 made top
All 7 copies were U/W with a red splash, though what was splashed for varied greatlyParadoxical Outcome deck
0 top 8, 1 total
Paradoxical storm deckOther notes:
2 decks ran vault/key combo
4 decks ran a total of 5 main deck misdirections
9 main decked 'board sweepers' 1 pernicious deed, 2 balance, 6 engineered explosives -
Top 8 decklists:
1st Joe Brennan with Monkee Bizniss (planeswalker control)
1 black lotus
1 mox jet
1 mox ruby
1mox emerald
1 mox pearl
1 mox sapphire
1 time walk
1 ancestral recall
1 pyroblast
1 island
1 jace the mind sculptor
1 brainstorm
1 stripmine
1 treasure cruise
1 ponder
1 balance
1 mystical tutor
1 dig through time
1 library of alexandria
1 vendilion clique
1 karakas
1 chandra, torch of defiance
1 misty rainforest
1 polluted delta
2 scalding tarn
3 volcanic island
2 flooded strand
3 tundra
3 swords to plowshares
3 mental misstep
2 gitaxian probe
4 force of will
2 dack fayden
2 preordain
3 gush
3 jace vryn's prodigy
3 monastery mentor
1 engineered explosives
sb: 2 containment priest, 1 fragmentize, 2 rest in peace, 1 supreme verdict, 1 swords to plowshares, 2 pithing needle, 2 engineered explosives, 2 wear/tera, 2 pyroblast2nd Stephen Nowakowski Gush Mentor
4 flooded strand
3 polluted delta
3 tundra
2 volcanic island
2 island
1 library of alexandria
1 strip mine
1 black lotus
1 mox sapphire
1 mox pearl
1 mox ruby
4 force of will
4 mental misstep
2 pyroblast
4 gitaxian probe
1 brainstorm
1 ponder
3 preordain
1 treasure cruise
1 dig through time
1 ancestral recall
1 time walk
1 snapcaster mage
1 jace the mindsculptor
2 jace vryn's prodigy
2 dack fayden
3 monastery mentor
1 stony silence
1 sudden shock
3 swords to plowshares
3 gush
sb: 1 pyroblast, 2 disenchant, 2 fragmentize, 1 balance, 1 plains, 1 wasteland, 1 stony silence, 1 rest in peace, 3 grafdiggers cage, 2 tormod's crypt3rd Keith Seals Car shops
1 strip mine
1 tolarian academy
4 mishra's factory
4 wasteland
4 ancient tomb
4 mishra's workshop
1 mox jet
1 mox pearl
1 mox ruby
1 mox sapphire
1 mox emerald
1 black lotus
1 sol ring
1 mana crypt
4 tangle wire
4 sphere of resistance
4 thorn of amethyst
1 trinisphere
1 chalice of the void
4 fleetwheel cruiser
1 lodestone golem
1 karn, silver golem
2 hangarback walker
4 walking ballista
4 phyrexian revoker
4 arcbound ravager
sb: 3 crucible of worlds, 2 tormod's crypt, 2 wurmcoil engine, 1 pithing needle, 2 relic of progenitus, 4 grafdiggers cage, 1 dismember4th Dan Barkon Car shops
1 strip mine
1 tolarian academy
4 mishra's factory
4 wasteland
4 ancient tomb
4 mishra's workshop
1 ghost quarter
1 mox jet
1 mox pearl
1 mox ruby
1 mox sapphire
1 mox emerald
1 black lotus
1 sol ring
1 mana crypt
4 tangle wire
4 sphere of resistance
4 thorn of amethyst
1 trinisphere
1 chalice of the void
4 fleetwheel cruiser
1 lodestone golem
2 hangarback walker
4 walking ballista
4 phyrexian revoker
4 arcbound ravager
sb: 4 grafdiggers cage, 2 relic of progenitus, 2 crucible of worlds, 2 dismember, 2 steel hellkite, 1 wurmcoil engine, 1 jester's cap, 1 ratchet bomb5-8th
Greg Hoover on Paradoxical Gush
1 mox emerald
1 mox jet
1 mox opal
1 mox pearl
1 mox ruby
1 mox sapphire
1 black lotus
1 sol ring
1 mana crypt
1 mana vault
1 sensei's divining top
1 time vault
1 voltaic key
3 monastery mentor
1 blighsteel colossus
3 gush
3 paradoxical outcome
1 brainstorm
1 ancestral recall
1 dig through time
4 force of will
2 mental misstep
2 flusterstorm
1 mindbreak trap
1 ancient grudge
1 swords to plowshares
3 tundra
2 volcanic island
3 polluted delta
2 flooded strand
1 library of alexandria
1 jace the mindsculptor
1 dack fayden
1 nahiri the harbinger
1 treasure cruise
2 gitaxian probe
1 tinker
1 time walk
1 fragmentize
sb: 3x pithing needle, 2x swords to plowshares, 1x engineered explosives, 3x fragmentize, 1x tormod's crypt, 2x ancient grudge, 1 grafdiggers cage, 1 containment priestJosh Barkon
1 strip mine
1 tolarian academy
4 mishra's factory
4 wasteland
4 ancient tomb
4 mishra's workshop
1 mox jet
1 mox pearl
1 mox ruby
1 mox sapphire
1 mox emerald
1 black lotus
1 sol ring
1 mana crypt
4 tangle wire
4 sphere of resistance
4 thorn of amethyst
1 trinisphere
1 chalice of the void
4 fleetwheel cruiser
1 lodestone golem
1 phyrexian metamorph
2 hangarback walker
4 walking ballista
4 phyrexian revoker
4 arcbound ravager
sb: 1 tormod's crypt, 4 grafdiggers cage, 2 relic of progenitus, 2 dismember, 3 crucible of worlds, 1 ratchet bomb, 1 steel hellkite, 1 wurmcoil engineWilliam Dayton Ravager shops
4 ancient tomb
2 inventor's fair
2 mishra's factor
4 mishra's workshop
1 strip mine
1 tolarian academy
4 wasteland
4 arcbound ravager
4 foundry inspector
1 lodestone golem
4 phyrexian revoker
1 steel hellkite
4 walking ballista
1 black lotus
1 chalice of the void
1 crucible of worlds
1 mana crypt
1 mox emerald
1 mox jet
1 mox ruby
1 mox sapphire
1 sol ring
4 sphere of resistance
1 spine of ish sah
4 tangle wire
4 thorn of amethyst
1 trinisphere
sb: 2 crucible of worlds, 4 grafdiggers cage, 2 hangarback walker, 1 phyrexian metamorph, 2 ratchet bomb, 3 tormod's crypt, 1 wurmcoil engineJeremy Beaver The hydra of trest (bug hydra)
3 tropical island
3 underground sea
1 forest
1 island
3 misty rainforest
2 verdant catacombs
2 polluted delta
1 library of alexandria
1 black lotus
1 mox emerald
1 mox jet
1 mox sapphire
3 deathrite shaman
2 jace vryn's prodigy
3 leovold, emissary of trest
3 managorger hydra
1 ancestral recall
1 brainstorm
1 demonic tutor
1 dig through time
1 flusterstorm
1 mindbreak trap
1 misdirection
1 time walk
1 treasure cruise
1 force of will
3 gush
3 mental misstep
3 preordain
2 abrupt decay
2 fatal push
1 jace the mind sculptor
2 null rod
sb: 1 abrupt decay, 1 murderous cut, 1 snuffout, 1 mindbreak trap, 1 virulent plague, 1 ravenous trap, 1 tormod's crypt, 2 yixlid jailer, 3 grafdiggers cage, 3 nature's claim