At around 6:15 Saturday morning, I awoke to the mystical sounds of Bryan Adams playing on my clock radio. I attacked it with a tactical nuclear missile and realized I set my alarm for 6:30, so I must be dreaming. A few minutes later, I woke up to Bryan Adams on the radio, crapped my pants, and took a shower.

After getting clean, I hopped on the computer and attempted to print up the decklist paper to fill out ahead of time. After a random nine attempts and a few racial slurs cast towards my computer, I restarted and everything was fine.

We meet up at the rendezvous point, which happens to be my friend's apartment at the front of my own apartment complex, and we traveled to Perkins for hot pancake tech. Afterwards we head off to the tournament site.

The gang is as follows:
Rick, the co-founder of Team Tater Salad.
Cliff, the other co-founder of Team Tater Salad, thus making the complete co-founder statement true/
Rich, the token Asian kid.
Kris, the token guy who looks like a dork kid.
Eric, the token "Is he on some sort of drugs?" kid.
And Matt, the token Asian kid.

Yes, we have two token Asian kid, we had to make up for not having a black guy (or in Carl Winter's terms, a French guy).

We get there and we find the room is rather... non-existent. It is there, it just lacks sufficient space to get away from the stink of Magic players that seems to plague the tournament scene. That and the ventilation was quite bad, so the fat guys all were complaining about it being hot.

We registered and I released unto the world the final version of the Vernal Bloom-powered Tooth and Nail deck...

Sunder Tater.dec
Lands: 21
21 Forests

Acceleration: 16
4 Kodama's Reach
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Vernal Bloom

Techy Stuff: 17
4 Tooth and Nail
4 Eternal Witness
3 Mindslaver
3 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Oxidize

Tooth Targets: 6
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Sundering (Tater) Titan
1 Leonin Abunas
1 Platinum Angel
1 Duplicant
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

Sideboard:
3 Damping Matrix
2 Naturalize
2 Rude Awakening
3 Dosan, the Falling Leaf
1 Mephidross Vampire
1 Triskelion (the trash-can version, always)
2 Keiga, the Tide Star
1 Darksteel Colossus

The sideboard, which wasn't revealed in my initial article, basically tried to have something for every deck. The Damping Matrix and Naturalize come in against affinity, the Rude comes in whenever I need another win condition, Dosan comes in for blue based control, the Meph/Trisk combo for agro, and Keiga was for the mirror, and the Colossus came in when just one wouldn't handle it, like against Black or in the mirror.

The changes I had made to the main deck since the article was the inclusion of Oxidize. I originally put it in Oxidize in instead of Solemn Simulacrum, because the added acceleration wasn't needed. Then Kris suggested the Divining Top, and because of the increase in consistency, I was able to go back to 21 lands, and cut both a Slaver and the second maindeck Colossus to include it. It is one of the best cards coming out of Champions.

Anyway, soon the tournament started.

Round 1 - Andrew playing Ponza
Andrew was a very nice kid and we had some decent conversation while we played. He shared the respect we both had for Top, though he liked to use it during his own turn, which isn't necessarily a good thing.

Game 1 - I accelerate to five lands rather quickly, while he hits me with a Slith Firewalker. I drop a Vernal Bloom and untap to win. A Kiki-Jiki/Darksteel Colossus deals him eleven, and after a quick look with top reveals no answer, he jokingly throws a Pulse of the Forge at me and scoops.

Board: Nothing. My deck doesn't roll over to Ponza as most tooth decks do.

Game 2 - He gets the Ponza God Draw ™ with turn 1 Slith, turns 2-5 LD. I get out a blocker for a few turns, but a Nexus flies over to win.

Game 3 - I get a Tooth on turn 4 with him only having three Mountains out. Kiki-Jiki/Titan clean things up.

1-0

Round 2 - Chris playing Affinity
Ah, Affinity. The deck that plays like it has Moxes. The deck that should never have been created. The deck that made me hate Mirrodin. That being said, in testing Affinity wasn't as much of a wrecking ball to my deck as it was in the tournament.

Game 1 - It is turn 3, and he has a total of three damage on the field in the form of an Arcbound Worker and a Frogmite. I take the brief lapse in action, thinking its safe, to cast Kodama's Reach. He untaps, drops Worker, Frogmite, Frogmite, Disciple, Ravager. He has enough to attack and sac everything to Ravager and then dumps the tokens on a remaining Frog to swing in for the win. I hate Disciples.

Board: -3 Mindslaver, -1 Kiki-Jiki, -1 Titan, +3 Damping Matrix, +2 Naturalize

Game 2 - He gets a turn 3 kill, and I don't see any removal. Not much to say here.

1-1

Round 3 - Tyler playing Control Beacon
His deck basically has lots of Forests to play Beacon, with Wrath coming in if things get to thick. I saw him playing my friend with Ponza right before the round, and I was talking about my own deck, so we each knew what we were playing. Of course, throughout the course of the first round he forgot and sided out Naturalize. Because of this, I almost jumped on top of the table and did a happy dance, but since the tables were so crowded I would probably disrupt the other games. It's not that I care about disrupting the other games; I just don't want to get thrown out.

Game 1 - He casts triple Beacon of Creation, and I don't accelerate fast enough.

Board: -2 Oxidize, +1 Mephidross Vampire, +1 Triskelion,

Game 2 - Kiki-Jiki and Darksteel Colossus on turn 5 after a turn 4 Mindslaver with activation. He cast a Beacon, but the jumps weren't enough.

Game 3 - He has out 3 Forests and a Plains. You know what that means! Kiki-Titan to the face! Cold blooded! His Beacon tokens chump for a few turns until I kill him.

2-1

Round 4 - Mike playing B/R Control
His deck was good, with enough cards to take care of aggro. Unfortunately, he didn't have the tools to take care of me. I sat down across from him and goes "Oh no! A team t-shirt, I guess I'll lose this one. You got the serious competitor edge!" Of course, when I go "I got a fever, and the only prescription is more cow bell" every time I played a Reach or sacked a Sakura-Tribe Elder didn't exactly portray my "serious competitor edge."

Game 1 - He sees that all I am doing is ramping mana quickly. He counts eight mana and Cranial Extractions for Rude Awakening. I show him nothing, he slaps his forehead, and I untap to drop a land and tooth for Kiki/Titan. He is left with one land and scoops.

Game 2 - He casts Cranial Extraction for Tooth, but I hardcast a Colossus turn 5 and 6 after Slavering him turn 4. He can't find Barter in Blood or a Death Cloud.

Board: -3 Oxidize, +2 Rude Awakening, +1 Darksteel Colossus

3-1

Round 5 - Brandon playing Affinity
Not much to say. Double God hand, with him winning turn 3. However...

Game 2 - I board as I did the past Affinity game, and I get turn 2 Damping Matrix shutting down his three Ravagers, and I use Oxidize on 2 Enforcers, thanks to an Eternal Witness. This is all on two lands and two Birds with a Bloom out. However, I Top nothing as he throws more and more guys at me, which I have to eventually start to chump block. 4 Workers and 3 Ravagers throw counters on the Enforcer, making it really, really large, and as I continue to draw no removal, I just get run over as I finally start to draw lands.

After the game was over, we decided to look at the top of my library. 13 lands, then 2 Blooms, another 3 Lands, an Elder, and then a Naturalize. The deck was just not going my way this round.

3-2

Round 6 - Tom playing G/w Post Tooth
This guy barely talked until after the match was over, but it was okay, since I was pretty bummed after loosing to Affinity again with sh**-for-brains hands and stopping my chances for Top 8.

Game 1 - He Tooths for worthlessness, and I Tooth for win. He Toothed for double Witness to drop the Mindslaver I had witnessed back to my hands. I guess sometimes, you just don't want to win. I guess sometimes you just don't want to do things that are good for the game. Whatever. He Tooths again and gets a Colossus and Witness, getting his Tooth back. I Mindslaver him and use his Tooth to get rid of the colossus, and on my turn I Tooth for Kiki/Colossus. I win! Big shocker.

Board: -3 Oxidize, +1 Darksteel Colossus, +2 Rude Awakening

Game 2 - He casts Plow Under five times, all starting turn 3. It was fun, or something. You know, having only 1-2 lands out at a time. Anyway, he finally Tooths for a Colossus and wins.

Game 3 - He Plows three times, but I finally get out a Vernal Bloom and it doesn't matter. He only has Forests out, so I Tooth for Kiki/Titan and win.

Round 7 - Lackeos playing Tron Tooth
So I get to play against a guy who is now known as Little John Travolta, because he was dancing around during the tournament. But it was all good, since I ninja-mised Uma Thurman after the match.

Game 1 - I don't take a point during the entire match, because as I learned, I am infinitely faster than Tron. He takes a point of burn, and after I Kiki/Titan away his colored mana he scoops.

Board: -3 Oxidize, +1 Darksteel Colossus, +2 Rude Awakening

Game 2 - Very similar to game 1. He doesn't take mana burn this game, though. There isn't much to say other than I just outraced him.

Round 8 - Sean playing Mono-Black
He had an interesting build; he had a strategy of playing a Wicked Akuba, and not playing spells if it gets through, as he taps out.

Game 1 - His strategy was correct and sound in this game, as I took six, seven, and then I died.

Board: -3 Oxidize, +1 Mephidross Vampire, +1 Triskelion, +1 Rude Awakening

Game 2 - He hits me with a Nexus twice, but I get Bloom and then Tooth for the win.

Board: -1 Mephidross Vampire, -1 Triskelion, -1 Duplicant, -1 Platinum Angel, +3 Dosan, +1 Rude Awakening

Game 3 - I accelerate quickly, but get hit with Akuba and other things in the process. However, I cast Tooth, using Cranial Extraction to get rid of his other Extractions. I Slaver again and he topdecks Barter, which kills his Akuba and Solemn Simulacrum. He chooses not to draw, of course, because I'm such a ninja-miser. I Tooth next turn for Colossus and win.

6-2

So, as I stated I would in Knut's article's forum... suck it! There, it's out of my system. Of course, Knut was definitely right. Black/Green was the most popular deck type - even higher than Affinity! And Tooth, at least regular Post or Tron versions, are not good for this metagame. A Bloom version may be better, but only time will tell if it's worthy.

Anyway, through the tournament I realized that I was infinitely faster than regular Tooth. Therefore, I didn't need the secret uber double-Keiga tech. I also realized that I was faster than a lot of the aggro decks, so Mephidross Vampire isn't that necessary. If I were to go to the tournament again I would replace those four cards with most likely three Viridian Shamans and one more Naturalize.

In the end, I think that Bloom Tooth right now is a lot better and more consistent than any other form of Tooth. My two loses to Affinity were purely because of bad draws, but I also didn't think I had enough removal in the board to bring in against them. I think the deck is a very good version and definitely can be developed into a tier 1 deck. It also is very dependant on how the meta shifts. I know I'll be working on it for quite a while.

In case the deck isn't too great for this metagame, I am currently working on a build of Ponza to fall back on. Here is the current version.

4 Slith Firewalker
4 Hearth Kami
3 Arc-Slogger
3 Solemn Simulacrum
2 Kumano, Master Yamabushi

4 Stone Rain
4 Molten Rain
3 Demolish

4 Magma Jet
4 Electrostatic Bolt

19 Mountain
4 Chrome Mox
1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep

Sideboard:
3 Boil
3 Damping Matrix
3 Pyroclasm
3 Oblivion Stone
3 Zozu, the Punisher

It's a pretty standard list from what I've seen, though I don't like Pulse of the Forge in it, and if I had Blinkmoth Nexus I would test that as well, I just have to work on getting some. It's proven good against the U/G control deck I've initially tested against. I'm sure there are some changes to be made, but I like the board, it seems solid.

Boil is for the U/G Control decks that are becoming popular, the Matrix and Pyroclasm are for Affinity, and the Pyroclasm for against random aggro, the Oblivion Stone is for any decks where permanents might cause you problems, like Pristine Angel/Worship shenanigans, or COP: Red/Sacred Ground. The Zozu is for all the B/G and U/G decks that are around, since they seem to be going for a lot of mana acceleration, and they should be taking damage for it! The Zozu might get changed for something else during testing.

That's all for now! I hope everyone had as much fun at States as I did.

Rick Dupont
Founder, Team Tater Salad
Zekegodsmacker at yahoo dot com.
ZekeRocket on AIM.

P.S. Knut, no hard feelings on the Suck It thing, I just had to go on with my word. And because I thought it was funny. And because I'm frequently an asshat.