Diego Ostrovich has always played big, splashy Timmy decks, but they're dragged him to some fine finished in Extended; he's always done well in Extended with his Elves! Decks, which produce a ton of mana to swarm players under. The Hump, on the other hand, is playing his classic Oath build, ported and tweaked from last year's winning finish, still featuring Cognivore as a trusty finisher.

Diego won the roll with a thirteen on a twenty-sider, indicating that he would go first and win.

"I'll try and not go 5-0-3 this time," said Humphreys, referring self-mockingly to his own famously-glacial speed of play.

Game 1:
Diego made the first move with a Grim Monolith, indicating that he had eschewed his usual Elves-laden Extended decks for a more classic Tinker build - although on this day, there are at least three builds of Tinker floating around New Orleans. This one features Myr Incubator to ramp up to a swarm of twenty-plus weenies. This Tinker build had one thing in common with Diego's old Elves! deck, though; explosive mana and knee-dropping turns that could explode through the smallest openings.

Diego then cast another Monolith to lay a Chalice of the Void for two. Humphreys hissed air through his teeth and allowed it to hit the board, knowing that it hurt his own strategy considerably, shutting down all of his Counterspells, Fire / Ices, and the key card in the deck, Oath of Druids.

The Hump laid a Wooded Foothills and said go, crestfallen.

Ostrovich laid a Crystal Vein to fuel his mana-hungry deck, then laid a Metalworker. If there's one thing everyone in this room knows today, it's that allowing a Tinker deck to untap with Metalworker is almost certain doom. His back against the wall, Humphreys Brainstormed at the end of Diego's turn, putting the worst two cards in his hand back on his library before he shuffled it with the Foothills to fetch a mountain, He laid a forest and passed with a sigh, able to do nothing; he had a Fire / Ice in his hand, but the good side was nullified by the Chalice.

Now it was Diego's turn to think. What deck did he know of that had three colors in it, and he could he work around Humphreys' strategy? He passed, proving that he had nothing to use with the Worker, and Humphreys Cunning Wished for Illusion / Reality.

Go ahead. Click the link. We had no idea what it did, either.

He laid a second island and then cast Reality, destroying the Void. Now he had room to work with, but he was down to a single mountain... Or was he? With the Chalice neatly handled, Humphreys cast a Chrome Mox imprinting an Oath of Druids in order to cast an Oath of Druids.

At the end of Humphrey's turn, Ostrovich used Metalworker to untap Monolith, revealing two artifacts in his hand. Ostrovich may not have known exactly what was in Humphreys' deck - but just as everyone knows that allowing a Tinker player to untap with Metalworker out is a bad idea, allowing an Oath player to start the turn with by Oathing up a creature is even worse. So Diego Tinkered for Myr Incubator, neatly ridding himself of the Metalworker at the same time.

Humphreys was once again under the gun, as Ostrovich had the mana to activate the Incubator and give birth to approximately ten thousand 1/1 artifact creatures at the end of Humphreys' turn. He passed glumly - and as expected, Diego went for it, removing a lot of artifacts.

But how many should he remove? Humphreys had sandbagged two Fire / Ices in his three-card hand, although he had only one mountain to cast them. (He also had Moment's Peaces in his deck, but none in his hand.) If Diego went for anything less than twenty 1/1s, Humphreys could Fire two of them away and survive for another turn. Or, even more interesting, he could try to Ice something and draw into a Moment's Peace.

Diego considered... He asked twice how many cards Humphreys had...

And made the easy play of going for twenty-four. Why go with less?

Humphreys took the time to go through Diego's deck thoroughly before conceding. He cast two Ices in desperation, trying to find a Moment's Peace, before being swarmed under by a horde of 1/1s.

Ostrovich 1 - Humphreys 0

Diego sideboarded in two Null Brooches, a Phyrexian Processor, and a Mindslaver, and sideboarding out three Masticores and a Clockwork Dragon.

Game 2:
Humphreys kept instantly - an uncharacteristic start for a normally-thoughtful player, signaling a good hand. And it was; he led with a Dust Bowl, which could kill almost all of Ostrovich's lands in the late game.

Diego was more than willing to cut off that strategy, and laid Voltaic Key and then followed it up with Grim Monolith, Tangle Wire, slowing The Hump to a crawl. Alas, Diego couldn't seem to take advantage of the opening, as two turns passed and he couldn't dig up the necessary artifacts to go explosive in traditional Tinker style. Realizing he needed to get some pressure in before the Tangle Wire faded, he tapped out to Tinker one of his own artifact lands for a Thran Dynamo and passed the turn.

Humphreys had three lands now, but two of them were tapped - and to make things worse, he didn't draw into a fourth land. Diego dropped the elbow with a Mindslaver.

Humphreys winced and entered his own turn. He had finally drawn a land - a Treetop Village - but couldn't lay it, since Diego would undoubtedly Dust Bowl it away on his next turn. Instead, he laid an Isochron Scepter, imprinting Counterspell.

Counterspell! It's been a while since you left 8^th Edition. I can't say I'm glad to see you back, but still....

Diego considered. Humphreys was tapped out; after this turn, things were going to get a lot harder. Should he go for the Mindslaver and try to frotz The Hump, or should he go for victory when the path was clear?

Oh, what the hell. He could always tap the Hump down if it turns out there was nothing to screw with. He went the Mindslaver route.

Humphreys' hand:
Three Fire / Ices (one fresh off the draw), four Fact or Fictions, Village.

Diego could find nothing more interesting to do than to tap Humphreys out.

"It's your go," Humphreys laughed."I mean, if you want it to be...."

Diego grinned. He Tinkered another Tangle Wire into play, buying more time, then put the Incubator out.

Humphreys kept Icing lands, trying to find a card or an extra land to work with, but came up short. Diego went balls-to-the-wall out with twenty-four 1/1s again, and smashed The Hump into the 1-1 bracket.

"It's not a great matchup, but those were definitely substandard draws," The Hump noted. "I'd have won that first game if I'd drawn a Moment's Peace."