Games By James Box Tournament @ the Games by James Tournament Center (Coon Rapids, MN)

Games By James Box Tournament @ the Games by James Tournament Center (Coon Rapids, MN)
Saturday -082209- (25 Participants)

Main Deck:
3 Anathemancer
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Mulldrifter
2 Puppeteer Clique
4 Putrid Leech
4 Shriekmaw

3 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Makeshift Mannequin
3 Volcanic Fallout

25 Lands total consisting of:
10 come into play tapped lands
5 Basic lands
4 Reflecting Pools
6 Filter lands

Sideboard:
2 Acidic Slime
2 Caldera Hellion
2 Great Sable Stag
1 Anathemancer
1 Cloudthresher
3 Deathmark
3 Thought Hemorrhage
1 Volcanic Fallout


Round 1 vs Ben’s RG Aggro Tokens deck (Raging Goblin, Dragon Fodder, Garruk, Ant Queen)

Game 1: I mull down to 5 on the draw. He never gets a 2nd forest and is stuck on 4 lands for most of the game. He does get off to a fast start with a turn 1 Raging Goblin, turn 2 Dragon Fodder, but I’m able to land a turn 4 Bloodbraid into a Putrid Leech and eventually am able to kill off his army and eventually him.

Brad, a really good local player, who was sitting next to me, kept on telling Ben that I was a really good player and he immediately got intimidated! I felt kind of bad because I saw that it totally got to him and he made some misplays.

Game 2: He gets off to another fast start with a turn 1 Raging Goblin, turn 2 Goblin Piker, and a turn 3 Dragon Fodder, but I play a Volcanic Fallout and wipe the board. He gets stuck with 3 lands in play, desperately needing a 2nd forest to play a Garruk, but he doesn’t get it till it’s too late. On turn 2 I play a Putrid Leech and then drop another one on turn 3, then another one on turn 5, and I play Fallout for the win and there’s nothing that he can do about it. I’m glad that he didn’t splash black for a Maelstrom Pulse.

2-0, 2-0, 1-0

Round 2 vs. John’s Grixis Control deck (Agony Warp, Volcanic Fallout, Cruel Ultimatum, Cryptic Command, Oblivion Ring, Thraximundar, Chandra Nalaar, Negate, Essence Scatter, etc)

Game 1: I play a Finks that gets O-Ringed. I play another Finks that gets O-Ringed. We have a battle over who can play/evoke more Mulldrifters. I evoke 1, hard cast 1, and Makeshift another. He evokes 2 and hard casts 1. He keeps killing my creatures and stalling the game with his Agony Warps. Eventually, it comes down to the point where he needs a Fallout to get rid of my army of Bloodbraids & Mulldrifters, or a Cruel Ultimatum, but he never finds it.

Game 2: I Thought Hemorrhage him for Cruel Ultimatum revealing Cruel Ultimatum, 2 Deathmarks, Negate, Spellbound Dragon, Island, & Terramorphic Expanse. The next turn I play another Thought Hemorrhage naming 2 Deathmarks. This drops him down to 8 and 2 turns later he loses.

2-0, 4-0, 2-0

Round 3 vs. Dorothy’s RDW Deck (Ball Lightning, Lightning Bolt, Magma Spray, Flame Javelin, Hellspark Elemental, etc.)

Game 1: I mull down to 6. I drop creatures and Bloodbraids gets me even more creatures, like 2 Kitchen Finks. She plays a Ball Lightning which I take, next turn, she plays another Ball Lightning, which I have a Fallout for. Eventually, my Finks gain me 8 life and she runs out of burn spells.

Game 2: Same thing happens again, I draw Bloodbraids and they get me more creatures. She again plays a Ball Lightning but again I have a Fallout waiting. She Sprays my Finks but a Puppeteer Clique grabs a Ball Lightning from her graveyard putting her at two life and I Volcanic Fallout for the win.

She’s not that great of player but has access to a lot of good cards because her dad is the storeowner, James. She made some misplays, which we discussed after the match, like playing a Lightning Bolt on her first turn, as opposed to playing it at the end of my turn. She said she wanted to do something on her first turn, haha, funny stuff.

2-0, 6-0, 3-0


Round 4 vs Xue’s Elfball Deck (Normal Elfball stuff with Mirror Entity & Guilt-Leaf Archdruid as his kill conditions)

We both decide to ITD (intentionally draw) into the top 8 instead of risking one of us not making it. But we still decide to play out three games for fun. I win all three games because I have so much removal, after sideboarding I have 4 Shriekmaws, 3 Deathmarks, 3 Maelstrom Pulses, 4 Volcanic Fallouts. His deck is very weak against mass removal and spot removal for his BFTs.

Round 1 of Top 8, Round 5 of the day vs. Jesse’s Time Sieve Deck (Time Seive, Open the Vaults, Tezzeret, lots of artifacts)

Game 1: He plays a turn 4 Pollen Lullaby, I lose the clash. He plays a turn 5 Pollen Lullaby, I lose the clash again and now 4 of my creatures don’t untap. He plays a turn 6 Pollen Lullaby, I WIN the clash. I get him down to 13 life and have more than lethal on the board but then he goes off and smashes me with 7 or more 5/5 artifacts.

Game 2: I side in my Thought Hemorrhages. Turn 4 I play a Bloodbraid into a Maelstrom Pulse and destroy two of his Borderposts putting him at 3 lands in play. Next turn I thought Hemorrhage him for his two Tezzerets and he never draws any more sources of mana and I smash him with my creatures.

Half way through this game I started to get really nervous because I was close to finishing the game! My left thumb actually went numb for a little bit, which was weird… plus it was freezing cold in that place.

Game 3: He sides in some stuff while I keep my deck as is. This game was an epic battle where I got a turn 2 Putrid Leech out. He taps out for his 3rd turn so I swing in and pump the Leech bringing him down to 16. On his next turn he leaves mana up so I attack again but don’t pump the Leech, incase he has a Path, he goes down to 14. He taps out again and the Leech gets pumped up and drops him down to 10. I also Thought Hemorrage him for his Tezzerets again.

I finally draw my fourth mana and drop a Bloodbraid which gets me a Kitchen Finks and I swing in with my Bloodbraid and Leech, he responds with Pollen Lullaby and I lose the clash. My next turn I swing with my Finks and again he plays Pollen Pullabuy, I win this clash but he stays 8 life, while I have Finks, Leech, and Bloodbraid in play (enough to alpha strike for the win!) and another Bloodbraid and Fallout in my hand! But on his next turn he goes off and gains about 5 extra turns. He has 2 Cannonist & 2 Vedelkin Outlanders out in play. I’m able to stall for a little bit because my Finks gains me 2 more life and absorbs
4 damage but with that many turns in a row he’s able to make my life go from 24, 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 6, 2, -2.

Darn… so close… Xue, Vandy, and I consoled each other & talked about our matches afterwards. Vandy didn’t make into the top 8 and Xue lost his 1st Top 8 match, he was playing against B/R Blightning and got his board swept about 3 times and he drew only one Ranger of Eos.

It’s hard for me to remember what happened in games that I win, but in games that I lose, I remember a lot of stuff. I was literally one turn away from the match win in my last match. If he would have played 1 less Pollen Lullaby or 4 total throughout the match, I would have won. Oh well…

So in both games where my Thought Hemorrhage resolved, I called Tezzeret, what would you of called? Granted Tezzeret isn’t part of the combo, it is the win condition, aside from the Cannonist and Outlander, both 2/2s, which they have to sideboard in. Plus Tezzeret, allows their combo to go off sooner, with it’s +1: untap two Borderposts ability.

I think I called the right thing; the other things that I could have called were Time Sieve, Time Warp, & Open the Vaults. Maybe I should of played more defensively and called the Time Seive, that way all he could do was use Time Warp to gain extra turns, but still an army of 5/5 artifacts would of killed me eventually. Gosh… I don’t know… did I call the right thing? Hrm, I think I did. What do you think?

If I could make any adjustments, I would leave my main deck the same but make the following adjustments to my sideboard:

-2 Caldera Hellion
-2 Acidic Slime
-1 Volcanic Fallout

+3 Thoughtseize/Duress (My deck has no 1 drops anyways besides “come into play tapped” lands. So these would have been great, especially against my final opponent. Taking away their Pollen Lullabies or Open the Vaults would have been amazing! Plus it makes my Thought Hemorrhage even more dangerous.)

+2 Jund Charm (Great against WW, Elemental, & Elves; pretty much any deck with weenies and no counterspells. PLUS, being able to remove my opponents Graveyard from the game in response to their Makeshift Mannequins or Open the Vaults would have been amazing! Especially, during the final match)

Man, If I would have had just 1 Duress or Jund Charm in any of the game that I lost, I think I would of won. Ack! Okay! Okay! Okay! Shake it off Johan! Life goes on, so go play more Magic and enjoy the weekend! Have a great weekend everybody!