Disclaimer: I play way too much World of Warcraft. There are a bunch of jokes in here that are references to that game. If you don't know what I'm talking about it's probably about that.

Monday night:
Me: "Guys, I'm not sure I'm gonna go to Gen Con. I'm way too stressed and my power got stolen in the fall and I'm just not feeling it."
My friends: "Stop being an idiot."
Me: "I'm serious."
Them: "So are we, you already bought a plane ticket."

So I go to Gen Con. I got way too little sleep Wednesday night because of World of Warcraft. Then I found out my once every four days ability came up 10 minutes before our flight... suck. I'm not in a good mood. We fly out there, drop bags at the hotel and head for the con.

I spend day one of the con attempting to trade, something I'm way too bad at to ever get my power stolen again, seeing vendors and catching up with friends from college. I'm exhausted by the time we head to dinner at our favorite restaurant near the convention center, the Ram Brewery. I add two 24oz beers and some food to my exhaustion and head over to the Magic room for the first time. I run into some TMDers who were playing in the Legacy championships (seriously, who starts a major event at 10 am the first day of the convention?) and chat for a bit. I tell them I'm looking for people to play a few games with because I haven't played in three months and I'm thinking about playing Cerebral Assassin (CA) in the main event.

A little history: I've been playing Type One pretty seriously for the past two-and-a-half years. I fell in love with the format when I played against Dragon at Gen Con 2003 and went back up to New England for school prepared to become a regular on the New England tournament scene. Since then I've played in a few TMD Opens and the first SCG Richmond in which I finished 14^th. For the last year or so I've been playing Worldgorger Dragon-based combo at most events including 2 TMD Opens, the late night at Gen Con last year and a bunch of other smaller tournaments. I've played CA a grand total of once, at a small tournament in Western Mass. I scrubbed out hard.

Back to Thursday night. I throw CA together while Rich Shay and Mike Lydon head out to dinner. Rich says he'll come back and play a few games with me. I roll some kid's Type Two deck a few times. Oddly enough power + combo aspects > Type Two. The kid was a great sport about it though. Just started playing the game and was having a good time, so much better than my other experiences with people who are unfamiliar with Type One. Rich comes back and we play a few games, and he convinces me that there's basically no reason to play CA when I'm so much more familiar with Dragon anyway. I lose all our games when I play CA, and I throw 3-Color Dragon back together. I lose some more but I win some. Rich and I talk some more.

Me: "The 5-color idea that the Canadians brought to Waterbury a few months ago was interesting, but wouldn't Wasteland just own me? I mean how does it beat Stax?"
Rich: "Won't Wasteland kinda own you anyway?"
Me: "Well it can, but not as bad as if I'm playing a 5-color mana base, I mean what do I get from White?"
Rich: "Sacred Ground is pretty good against Stax."

I go for it. I'm planning on playing in the 3:00 prelims on Friday so I head over to the con around 10:00 and start looking for people to play against. I drop $23.50 to retool my mana base and buy the Red win conditions. Still not sure which one I'm going to use, I buy both. I buy some sleeves and head back to the Magic room to encounter Mike Lydon. Mike and I play a few games. He's got Workshop Aggro and we split pretty evenly and head to lunch. The 3:00 tournament starts...I go 0-2 drop losing to Ray Robillard (0-1-1), of Waterbury fame, and Brian Cox, a nice guy I'd never met who was playing Fish and dropped two Meddling Mages on me the turn before I could win naming both Necromancy and Animate Dead (1-2). I go meet people for dinner. We drink some Long Island iced teas (drink specials rock), eat some food, and I head home to finally do my Mooncloth transmute, watch some TV and get some rest. The rest of them head off to draft Invasion block.

I wake up at 6:30 am on Saturday and can't get back to sleep, so I hop in the shower eat some food and head down to the convention center. I talk to Rich Shay and make a few final tweaks to my deck. We calculate that I have a 33.33, you know, repeating of course, chance of surviving the swiss....

Enough talk. Lets do this!

LEEROY JENKINS (a.k.a. 5 Color Dragon)
By Hale Simon
8/20/2005

Mana:
4 Forbidden Orchard
4 Gemstone Mine
3 City of Brass
2 Glimmervoid
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt

Protection:
4 Force of Will
3 Xantid Swarm
1 Echoing Truth (should have been Chain of Vapor)

Combo:
4 Worldgorger Dragon
3 Necromancy
3 Animate Dead
1 Shivan Hellkite
1 Sliver Queen

Tutors:
3 Intuition
3 Lim-Dul's Vault
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor

Draw:
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
2 Compulsion
1 Ancestral Recall

Goblin Nabobs:
4 Squee, Goblin Nabob

Sideboard:
2 Sacred Ground
2 Ray of Revelation
2 Swords to Plowshares
2 Pernicious Deed
2 Verdant Force
2 Rack and Ruin
3 Null Rod

My notes weren't the greatest as I tend to try to stay focused on staying on the map while playing combo rather than on taking notes. I write down unusual cards I see and might want to board against or if I see a hand, but in general I just try to stick to the plan, so I'm sorry if this isn't exactly what happened or if I didn't get your name down at the beginning of a round.

Round 1: Jordan playing Stax
Game 1: Jordan goes first and plays Sphere of Resistance. I go and drop Bazaar. Dragon hits the yard. He plays a Mishra's Workshop, drops another Sphere and a Chalice of the Void on zero. We go back and forth for a few turns before I make the mistake of miscounting my mana and showing him my Animate Dead. I get a Sol Ring instead. He drops Chalice for two on his next turn. This whole time I'm taking beats from Orchard tokens. Eventually he has 2 Spheres, Chalice on two, Chalice on zero, and Trinisphere to go with 3 Orchard tokens vs. my three lands, Sol Ring and Bazaar. I'm at 2, Jordan's at 20. He goes to play Sphere number three and I Intuition in response showing him 3 Necromancy. Sphere resolves. On my turn I drop a land and get the Dragon, make tons of Red mana and light Jordan on fire for a few hundred or so. Jordan shows me a Time Walk from his hand and I realize that I'm facing colored Stax.

Sideboarding:

-4 cards (Vamp, 3 Xantid Swarm? Not sure) +2 Sacred Ground, +2 Rack and Ruin

Game 2: Jordan plays a land, Mox Jet, Sol Ring, Vamp, Sphere of Resistance or something like that. I play a land, tap for a Mox, tap for a Mox, pass. He plays Smokestack and passes, I drop Sacred Ground and Bazaar and pass. Jordan puts a counter on his stack and on my next turn I sac a land which gets returned, and cast Lim-Dul's Vault for cards that win. Jordan sacs Smokestack and then does things that don't make me lose. I win on my next turn.

Matches: 1-0, Games: 2-0

Round 2: Charlie with Uba Stax
Game 1: We sit down, a judge comes over with a deck list, he tells Charlie that he's only registered 59 cards. So Charlie gets a game loss.

Game 2: He plays turn 1 Goblin Welder, I'm unfazed and drop some artifacts and a land. He drops Null Rod and beats me with Welder I start to set up my kill, land, pitch Dragon, go. He plays another Null Rod, beats me with his Welder and I Vamp for Animate Dead. On my turn I animate the Dragon and go find Hellkite for the win.

Matches: 2-0, Games: 4-0

Round 3: Mike Lydon with Workshop Aggro
Game 1: So my notes say "I give him an Orchard token, he forgets to attack. Then I give him another and take two twice before I combo him out." I don't really remember this game any more and apparently didn't see fit to give myself any clues, so I'm going to go with that story.

Sideboard:

-4 cards +2 Swords, +1 Rack and Ruin, +1 Sacred Ground

Game 2: Mike plays turn 1 Strip Mine, Mox, Chalice for zero, go. My opening hand was Swords, City, Orchard, Sacred Ground, Bazaar, Squee, card. I'm not sure it gets much better vs. turn 1 Strip. I drop City and pass, Mike thinks about it and decides not to Strip the City. On his turn Mike drops Workshop taps for Juggernaut and decides to strip my land. I send Juggy farming. On my turn I drop Bazaar and Bazaar away Dragon and Squee. Mike drops a land and passes, I drop a land and pass. Mike Fetches, gets Volcanic Island and plays Welder leaving a second Volcanic Island untapped. I let Welder resolve since I have Animate Dead and Force of Will backup. On my turn I drop a land and animate the dragon. Mike plays Blue Elemental Blast with the comes into play trigger on the stack and asks if I have Force of Will. I show him Force and a Blue card and he holds out his hand.

Matches 3-0, games: 6-0

Round 4:
Unfortunately this is the only round that I don't remember the guy's name. At this point I know I just have to not lose two of the next four rounds and I'm in, so I'm really nervous. Like to the point that my hands are shaking while I shuffle. So I forgot to write down my opponent's name. It sucks because he was a really nice guy and was wearing a Pro Tour Competitor T-shirt, so I was a little intimidated. I'm really sorry I forgot to write it down. Anyway, he was playing Control Slaver (CS).

Game 1: He plays a Blue source and maybe a Welder. I play turn 1 Xantid Swarm, which resolves. My opponent looks at it and says "Xantid Swarm is really good right now." I'm not sure how long this game was but I'm pretty sure it was less than five turns. I beat with the Swarm a few times, my opponent wrote down that he took zero damage, we both laughed. Lim-Dul's Vault found me Dragon, Vamp, Demonic, and the game ended on my next turn. I think this was either turn 3 or turn 4 but I'm not sure. My opponent shows me a play set of Mana Drains from his hand. Apparently those zero point beats really hurt. See kids? Type One players use the attack step.

At some point during the game my friend Niko shows up because I called him when I realized I wasn't gonna scrub out in time for lunch. He says some stuff unrelated to Magic and I tell him to wait until the match is over because I'm trying to focus.

Sideboarding:

-2 Compulsion, - Mana Crypt, +3 Null Rod

Game 2: I resolve an early Null Rod and play for the late game with Bazaar and double Squee. I build the God hand and combo out turn 10 or so. Not a very eventful game. Dragon beats CS in the early game with speed and power and in the late game with the God hand. It just loses if they crack a Mindslaver while you're building the God hand in the mid game. Hence the Null Rod.

Matches: 4-0, Games: 8-0

Niko and I walk around some and he tells me that he's surprised I'm playing so tight but that it's a good thing. He also says he thinks I'm playing really well. We leave the Magic room for a bit and I get some Dippin' Dots and call a friend and let them know I'm doing pretty well. I gain some more confidence and head back to the floor to chill, scout and wait for the round. I forget to get a drink and send Niko for soda. I watch a game being played by a cool Bazaar-based control deck from Spain that didn't Top 8. Then pairings go up.

Round 5: Ben Allen Uba Stax
Game 1: We go back and forth for two or so turns early. Neither of us has Bazaar, but I've got enough tutors and other goodies that I'm not worried. Then he drops Uba Mask and I cast Lim-Dul's Vault in response, I go through 5 or 6 piles before I find the good stuff. And by the good stuff I mean the win. My 5-card pile is Ancestral Recall, Intuition, Bazaar of Baghdad, Squee and some other card. Ben calls a judge when I go to shuffle my remaining cards. The judge reads the oracle text off a tiny sheet, and given how tiny the text on Lim-Dul's Vault is, I'm not sure how he did it, and tells Ben that I'm right. I shuffle, Uba Mask resolves. I go to my turn and Ancestral revealing Intuition, Bazaar and Squee. I Intuition for Dragon, Hellkite and Sliver Queen, play Bazaar and pitch Dragon keeping Necromancy in my hand. Now I just need a mana source, which conveniently appears on my next draw. I animate the Dragon and shoot Ben for 200.

Sideboard:

-3 Xantid Swarm, -1 Vamp +2 Sacred Ground, + 2 Rack and Ruin.

Game two: Ben drops Bazaar and passes. I drop Bazaar, Jet and Sol Ring and activate Bazaar discarding Dragon, Hellkite and another card. Ben plays a Workshop and activates Bazaar pitching Duplicant and two other cards. I think he played something else, but I'm not sure what it was. I draw and Bazaar looking for Red mana but only find Mox Pearl and Sacred Ground so I drop those two and animate the Dragon. Ben checks the game state and decides to scoop them up, we shake hands and I get up.

Matches: 5-0, Games: 10-0

As I'm walking away from the table to turn in the match slip Niko asks me why Ben scooped there when I didn't have Red, and I remind him that Ben probably didn't have a way to deal with 2x10^9 Slivers on his next turn.

I go tell my other friends that I'm drawing in and collect some hugs from the girls, which of course is the whole point of making Top 8, then I head back and proceed to do so as there are only four players with a 5-0 record. I wait around for a while, sign stuff and go get dinner.

Top 8: Josh playing Tog
Game one: I'm not exactly sure what happened in this game. I think it was pretty short, no longer than three or four turns. I know I cast Lim-Dul's Vault to set up the win and I remember that it was either in this game or in game 3 that I didn't shuffle my remaining cards because the top 5 just make me win. I ask a judge who says it's okay and Josh opts to give it a quick shuffle/cut. Then Dragons rise from the grave and light the little Togs on fire, I'm just not sure what else happened.

Sideboarding:

-2 Compulsion, -2 other stuff, +2 Swords, +2 Ray of Revelation (for Ground Seal)

Game 2: I mull to 5. My six-card hand was 3 lands, a Mox, Sol Ring and Demonic Tutor. There's no way that Tutor resolves against control. My five cards aren't bad but they don't let me win before Merchant Scroll fetches Mystical Tutor. I mention that I really don't like where Josh is going with this and someone in the crowd asks what I mean. Zvi appears from nowhere and explains about Yawgmoth's savage win condition and Josh proceeds to demonstrate.

Game 3: I get Xantid into play and get Bazaar and two Squees going and decide the game is going long. I sit on Swords and build up my hand. I hear Zvi asking someone why the combo deck isn't actually playing spells or doing anything at all basically as Tog will just inevitably kill me. The other spectator explains that Dragon is more inevitable than Tog. Josh bounce counters my Xantid, and I play another one and Swords a Tog. I make a mistake and give him another turn but it doesn't matter because his top card didn't say Yawgmoth's Will on it anywhere. He shows me a hand containing two Naturalizes and either 2 Stifles or 2 Blue Blasts, I'm not sure which, but Blue cards that make me lose anyway. I love my attack step - it makes my opponent go away.

Matches: 6-0-2, games: 12-1

Top 4: Roland Chang with Stax
Game one: Roland lays a turn 1 Sphere, I play a land and a Mox, Roland plays Balance with three cards in hand to my six, I discard Dragon, Animate Dead and Vampiric Tutor keeping Ancestral Recall, Force of Will, and a Blue card. On my turn I Ancestral myself, negating the card disadvantage from Roland's Balance. On his next turn he tries to Tinker and I pay one to Force of Will. I win the game shortly thereafter.

Sideboarding:

+2 Sacred Ground, +2 Rack and Ruin, +1 Verdant Force, -2 Xantid, -2 Squee, -1 Vampiric Tutor

Game two: I mulligan to 4 on the draw against Stax. Roland doesn't keep a bad hand. I lose.

Additional Sideboarding:

+1 Verdant Force, +2 Null Rod (Tormond's Crypt), -2 Dragons, -1 something else

Game 3: Roland has a pretty broken hand including turn 1 Trinisphere. Unfortunately for him I'm playing first and drop a Sapphire and a Sol Ring. I Intuit for 2 Verdant Forces and Sliver Queen on turn 2 then Intuit again on turn 3 for a Black source. I then reanimate the Force and am feeling pretty good until he Balances. He proceeds to develop a savage lock with Crucible-Strip, Trinisphere and Smokestack with Tormod's Crypt in play. I get Rack and Ruin for the Smokestack and the Crucible. He Tinkers for another Crucible. I get Rack and Ruin again for the Crucible and the Tormod's Crypt. He Crypts in response removing my 'yard: bye, bye Verdant Force. I make a last ditch effort to reanimate his Triskelion but Seal of Cleansing says no. Breaking out of the lock cost me too many Orchard activations and he beats me down with spirit tokens for the win.

Final Record:
Matches: 6-1-2, Games: 13-3

All in all it was a good tournament. The deck preformed well, although I have no idea how this mana base didn't cost me more games. I would have rather had something other than Deed in my board as I didn't play any random aggro decks where I needed to clear creatures away, didn't have room for it against Stax and had better answers for most hate (Swords, Ray and Null Rod). Also who plays White and doesn't play Balance? Echoing Truth should have been Chain of Vapor so it could deal with Chalice for 2, but it's tough to feel bad about any tournament in which you don't lose a single game in the Swiss. My friends and I go collect my prizes, I crack an Italian Chains of Mephistopheles and a bunch of kobolds. Then we head out to the Ram and I order Buffalo Wings, which were insanely hot. We get some drinks to celebrate and I complain about Balance and having to mull to 4, but at least I got chicken.

Gen Con was great. If you have the means I definitely recommend going next year.

Hale Simon
Purple Hat on TMD
hale.simon@gmail.com