So just a little recap for those who weren't there-
Pat, Karl, and I all rolled down to the site. We left Karl's at 7:00am Saturday morning (it was still dark out
), but fortunately the drive to the new tourney site was really easy. Hoffman Estates was a straight shot down I-90, and you were literally there as soon as you got off the highway. The total trip took about 1 hour and 40 minutes, and about 2/3 a tank of gas (for the roundtrip).
The tournament itself was at the Marriot, and this one had a rather upscale feel with very friendly employees, but as a result food was the typical PTQ fare which needless to say was overpriced pizza and burgers
. It was a pretty good site, they had enough room and the general consensus when Pastimes took a poll was that people had a good time.
The tourney was 8 rounds of swiss with about 135 players or so. It seemed even smaller, and people dropped out quickly during the course of the day. I finished 2-3-1 before dropping, I believe Pat finished 2-4 or 3-3, and Karl finished 3-3. We all never really had a shot at a top 8 run, but it was a fun chance to see extended in action and get a pulse on the format. I certainly learned some in getting to see decks first hand, especially ones like dredge (Tyler and his whole crew were playing it), Scapeshift, and Thopter Foundry Combo. Overall, I was most impressed with Thopter Combo; It looked really strong on paper but I couldn't figure it out until I was beaten to a pulp by it in one of my rounds (by a bad player no less).
Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to really spy on the top tables to see what was winning, but I'm sure the results will be online soon. The entire squadron of ego-trippin Madison folks were all essentially 0-2 / 1-2 Drop, and we saw their entire gang leave even before we did ;D . I know Treveranus and a few others played Marytr, which I didn't quite understand why. Marytr is great against zoo, bant, and aggro decks, but it's pretty bad against any control deck and it takes forever to win games. All throughout the tournament the three of us witnessed Marytr players in long drawn out games that went to time, or just plain losing. Faeries was crushing it (along with everything else), and even Karl squeaked in a win against it
.
Here’s my tourney report (for what it’s worth) even though my deck felt overmatched. I didn’t expect much as it was the first extended tourney for us all and we hadn’t really playtested, but at least we all got a few wins.
Round 1 Vs The Sullivan Solution
I played against a guy with Adrian’s new B/R/W Bloodchief Ascension deck. I wasn’t too happy to see this matchup, as I had cut the number of Duergar Hedge-Mages down to 3 and had just about nothing else to kill enchantments let alone deal with constant burn effects. I kept my head in the game though and managed to win game 1. I just kept thinking “this kid looks young, he probably built the deck last week, just play better than him and hope for the best.” In game 2, we both got off to awfully terrible starts and I had to mull down to 4 cards. Unfortunately that was a running theme for my deck all day, I had to mulligan almost every single game of every single round. I think the issue was I had some higher curve cards and fixed mana cards that were making the 24 land count seem too light. Regardless, I tried to stay in it for as long as I could and I think an appropriately timed Magus of the Moon kept him off Ascension. Once he got the punishing fire combo going though it was only a matter of time and eventually he got there. Game 3, we both got off to OK starts, but again no ascension from him. Still, he had isochron scepter on turn 2 of each game, and this was making it difficult for me to get things through. At one point he had to fend off a bushwacked siege-gang and Ranger of Eos team, but the game clearly wasn’t going my way. Luckily, time in the round expired, and I was at 23 life. So onto the five turns. He begins to kill my squad in turns 1 and 2, and I’ve left with a jitte but no dudes. It looks as if he might be able to get there with his large and in charge countryside crusher, when I rip a spectral procession off the top and am able to block the crusher enough times to force a draw. Fortunately my opponent was cool about it and we both kinda have quisical looks on our face for having a draw in the first round heh
0-0-1
Round 2 Vs Faeries
At first I thought maybe this guy was playing Bant because it’s so hard to tell with the shock lands, but after another land or two dropped I was pretty sure he was faeries. A turn later he spell stutter sprited a figure of destiny from me, and now I knew. Our first game ended up being very long and drawn out, with him mostly playing counters and cryptic bounces, and me laying down token army after token army. Eventually my double siege-gangs with spectral was too much for him to handle and I came back after being down to 1 life. Game 2 he mopped me up quickly with a very large tarmogoyf and some well timed spell snares (including a turn 3 mana leak on what would have been a game crushing Magus of the Moon). Game 3 I was again hoping for another draw as time was running low and he was beating me, but he eventually got there and we shook hands and moved on.
0-1-1
Round 3 Vs Bant
Finally, a match where I have a better chance. In practice with Karl I had a favorable win record, and last season in extended Zoo and Bant were the decks I could win against the most. Game 1 my opponent took it to me and was smashing me down with double war-monk, meddling mage, and crew. BUT, this boat brew deck doesn’t fall that easy and I kept my head in the game, eventually swinging the game back in my favor when I was down to 5 life. I don’t think she really expected the comeback, and as soon as I started dealing with her threats I was able to get an Ajani Geddon off and that was all she wrote for game 1. Game 2 she started off to another punishing start much like the first, but this time I baited her by chump blocking some of her guys so that she would over extend her hand. The plan worked perfectly, and I cast wrath of god killing 2 war monks, 2 heirarchs, pridemage, and meddling mage. From there on out I was in cruise-control dropping Reveillark and Siege Gang and fetching up a figure which grew to 8/8 and flew in for the win.
1-1-1
Round 4 Vs Thopter Foundry – Sword of the Meek Combo
Another girl opponent, what da heill. Ok to be fair they were the only girls in the entire place lol. She was a bit annoying to play against (she kept spouting off some nerd stories that I didn’t care about), but I was polite and played through it. I soon learned though of the mighty power of the THOPTARS, because a single thoptar and double sword of the meek made it a 3/5 flying. At one point in game 1, I cast two lightning helixes, 2 path to exiles, and used 2 jitte counters to kill her birds, only to have her still be able to make another thopter or two. And on top of it she’s gaining an exorbatant amount of life, so I was just dead in the water. The combo felt busted as all hell, and I’d only be winning this if I had 4 kataki war’s wage in my board plus a number of other threats. Game 2 was just as big a beat down except this time she cast Tezzeret as well and just completely power-owned me.
1-2-1
Round 5 Vs Zoo-Scapeshift
Yup, this guy combined Zoo with Scapeshift Combo. It was pretty dumb. At first I pinned him on scapeshift because I saw red/green and Steve. But then he busted out with Zoo creatures and I was quickly backpeddling. Fortunately my game against Zoo is pretty good and as usual I cameback and beat him. Game 2, I now knew he had Zoo but was still skeptical because of all the scapeshift cards. He cast Harrow at some point too, so then I really grew curious. Unfortunately for him though, I was the one giving the beatdown this game, and it was quickly won by an 8/8 figure and some bushwacking.
2-2-1
Round 6 Vs Life-Rock
Not much to say about this match, it was basically Kitchen Finks + Loxodon Hierarch giving me headaches alongside Tarmogoyf. It was a pretty tough battle, I hung in there with him but eventually he swept it up.
2-3-1
The guys and I then decided it was time for sellage. I sold my 4 baneslayers, 1 Elspeth, 1 Lotus Cobra (an extra one), and a few other things. Overall, I didn’t sell too many crucial cards and walked away with a boatload of money, as did Pat, so we all felt great and had a good time. I wasn’t using my baneslayers, I traded for most of them, and they were giving a fair price of $45 for them. It was still “Dealer Prices” but even so most of the prices were generous for a dealer so we didn’t feel ripped. Karl picked up some cards for his Type 4 deck, and off we went back to madtown, leaving at an agreeable 5:25pm
), but fortunately the drive to the new tourney site was really easy. Hoffman Estates was a straight shot down I-90, and you were literally there as soon as you got off the highway. The total trip took about 1 hour and 40 minutes, and about 2/3 a tank of gas (for the roundtrip).
. It was a pretty good site, they had enough room and the general consensus when Pastimes took a poll was that people had a good time.