the first of many...

My first tournament report.

i went to the tournament venue a full hour before the event began. it was the Gold Rush Trials at Titan Hobby Shop. I was hoping to get a glimpse of the field and adjust my UB control deck accordingly. there were already a lot of players there, but no one was playing except for two UB control decks playing each other. everybody else had their decks with them, but was not willing to give up any information. at this point, i was a bit tempted to play 2 grave titans and 1 frost titan instead of 3 frost titans due to the amount of doom blades i was expecting to encounter. after a few minutes of contemplation, i went with the 3 frost titans. This decision would prove to be crucial in this tournament.

Round 1: (vs. UB control)

It seemed just right that my first round back on the tournament scene would be a headache. a mirror match would not only be a long ordeal, but also a draining one.

Game 1: after a few exchanges of mana leaks and duresses, i found myself with stuck at four lands. after my opponent saw i didnt land drop for two straight turns, he activated both his tectonic edges and killed off two of my lands, i never recovered and the trinket mage finished me off. it took him a good 10 turns but the mage had a ton of counterspells and doom blades to back him up.


Game 2: i boarded in 3 memoricides and 2 more duresses. an early and mid game duress gave me enough room to get my mindsculptor in, after that it was all downhill from there. the massive card advantage eventually ended in an exiled library. on an off note: the trinket mages were pretty useless in this situation. i boarded them out, put back the doom blades i previously removed.


Game 3: once again, we exchanged duresses and mana leaks. i had 6 land untapped, 7 in hand, one of them a frost titan, and no counterspells. this is the point of the tournament that i realized i still had a lot to learn. in a moment of lunacy, i casted my titan hoping to use up one of his counters and set up my next few turns to cast the 2 mindsculptors in my hand. he mana leaked the titan and cast memoricide on his turn to eliminate my mindsculptors. i never recovered. there was a point in the game when i had the chance to bounce his titan to force a draw, but i was on tilt. i failed to make the right play again.

erick 0-1-0

Round 2: (bye)

i had a lot of time to cool off and reflect on what just happened. one of the things i learned to read in my days playing poker is the art of bluffing. little did i know that it would be the difference between winning and losing. had i kept my mana untapped and represented a few counters, the game would have gone differently. after lots of hydration and focus, i was ready to make another run.

erick 1-1-0

Round 3: (vs. ramp)

Game 1: i started my hand with a bunch of counters, kept the momentum up with a midgame jace beleren, and eventually replaced it with the better jace and broke the game wide open.

Game 2: dumped the mages and a few others for 2 more duresses and 3 memoricides. i casted a turn 3 mindsculptor but my opponent responed with a turn 5 and 6 gaea's revenge. 'nuff said.

Game 3: The same as game two, but without the Gaea's Revenge on turns 5 and 6.

erick 2-1-0

Round 4: (vs. RDW)

Game 1: after seeing the klin fiend on turn 2, i knew i was in good shape. i have been playtesting this deck against RDW with a lot of success. my rule against this deck: take the burn and pick on the creatures. with a deck composed of several creatures and several burn spells, my opponent will need around 9 or ten burn spells to kill me. on the average, RDW has around 14-18 burn spells. this means he will only get those burn spells by turn 23 based on the law of averages. 23 turns is about 18 turns too many for RDW. i can't remember the specifics of the match, but i remember i knew exactly how to play my cards.

Game 2: i loaded up with lots of removal in the form of disfigures and vapors, But an explosive hand with 2 goblin guides and a jinxed idol on the fifth turn was enough to force a game 3.

Game 3: i tried to stop the initial assault with doom blades and disfigures. at turn 5, he had no creatures and 2 cards in hand. i casted my mindsculptor and fatesealed to give him 5 counters. looking at the opportunity as a chance to cast spells without permission, he opted to cast the jinxed idol w no creatures in play. Jace and i loaded up on counterspells and kept the creatures from play. he took 10 damage from the idol before he could dump it to me, to which i responded with into the roil on the idol. he never played it again and my tar pits ended the game.

erick 3-1-0

Round 5: (vs. eldrazi ramp)

Game 1: after what seemed to be an eternity of countering, we ended up in the midgame with 1 or 2 cards in hand(probably both of them lands) and topdecking our swing cards. he got one first with eye of ugin. i could nnot keep up with eldrazi after eldrazi. he finally resolved an emrakul and finished the game.

Game 2: still countering the land spells to keep my opponent from reaching 6 mana early, i ended up with the same decision as in round 1: i had no countermagic in hand, 6 or 7 untapped mana and 1 frost titan. it took me a long time before deciding he had no threats he could cast the next turn to stop me. i casted the titan, tapped the eye of ugin. the next turn he dropped ulamog and destroyed my titan. this was my round 1 nightmare all over again! luck was on my side though, my next 3 draws were consuming vapors(+12 life from ulamog!), frost titan, and another frost titan for good measure.

Game 3: i mulligan-ed down to 5 and ended up with flashfreeze, island, darkslick shores, jace beleren, and doom blade. due to my hand disadvantage, i changed plans and stopped trying to counter/doom blade his ramp cards and kept them for the biggies. it worked! eventually we were in a stalemate again waiting for a few good draws. because i had a jace beleren in play. i was gaining more ground. he was able to cast kozilek at one point, but i had 2 titans at hand and that proved to be the game breaker.

erick 4-1-0 (final ranking: 2nd place)

overall, not a bad way to start the season. with proper play and more playtesting, i'm sure thinks will just get better. things to note though: had i not tilted in round 1 and forced a draw, i would have been 1st in the tourney and got myself a bye in the gold rush next month. one small mistake ripples into something bigger. hopefully this ripple doesn't reach the Gold Rush next month.