I suppose a short introduction is in order. My name is Christopher Ryan Adams. I am a player of no importance from the Hattiesburg, MS area. The current"Pro" player in the area, Sceadeau D'Tela, whom some of you might know, just moved to North Carolina. There was a void to fill, but I was up to the challenge.
The Thursday before the tourney, I decided that I have read every single article there is and every matchup analysis for Onslaught Block, and am ready to do some testing. My bud Chris came over, but before he got there I talked to Sceadeau and he said,"Zombie Bidding with Vengeful Dead is the tech." After a night of playtesting, I decided that I would just rather play Goblins over Zombies. Yes, it has some bad matchups - but sometimes it just wins. Saturday rolls around and I got a deck from a friend, so Chris and I head to Baton Rouge for the PTQ. On the way there, I finalized my board and we got a bite to eat. We arrived, and I saw a lot of R/W control, and a lot of variations on Zombie Bidding. My hopes started to fade when I saw all the R/W, so I registered my deck and waited for first-round pairings - and my doom.
Aside
This is my first tourney report, so don't bust my chops too hard if I do something wrong or get too wordy.
So here is what I registered:
3 Clickslither
4 Gempalm Incinerator
3 Goblin Goon (Hulk Smash!)
4 Goblin Piledriver
2 Goblin Sharpshooter
4 Goblin Sledder
4 Goblin Warchief
4 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Skirk Prospector
4 Shock
3 Goblin Burrows
21 Mountain
Sideboard:
1 Mountain
2 Rorix Bladewing
3 Stabilizer
3 Sulfuric Vortex
3 Starstorm
3 Threaten
To defend a couple of my choices before I get into the rounds, Goblin Goon and Stabilizer are both MVPs in the R/W match-up. The Goblin Goon is so huge that the early Silver Knight has to block him, and Stabilizer single-handedly won me a match.
Round 1: Doug M Azzano, playing Zombie Bidding
Game 1: I lost the roll, mulligan down to five; he plays Visara the Dreadful. End of story.
Game 2
Sideboard: +3 Threaten, -2 Sharpshooter, -1 Shock
I get turn 3 Goblin Warchief, turn 4 Goblin Goon, turn 5 Siege-Gang Commander. On to game three.
Game 3
Sideboard: +2 Sharpshooter, -2 Shock
My grip is less than stellar, but my opponent plays three lands - one of which is Temple of the False God.
Got those round one jitters out of the way, and hopefully I fixed my karma with that mulligan to five.
Record: 1-0 Games: 2-1
Round 2: Timothy T Thomason, playing R/W control
Game 1: I lost the roll, and my opponent got out a turn 2 Silver Knight. I put up a futile effort to stall the game, trying to get out enough gobbos to Siege-Gang Commander him out. He played the Akroma, Angel of Wrath and I said,"Well she's nasty. Let's go to game two."
Game 2:
Sideboard: +3 Stabilizer, +2 Rorix Bladewing, +1 Mountain, +2 Sulfuric Vortex, -4 Shock, -4 Gempalm Incinerator
This game started off kinda scary. Again, he played turn 2 Silver Knight but I put some pressure on him with Goblin Goon; he had to block the big guy and my little dudes got by. He eventually got enough red mana to Starstorm my little guys away, but I played back-to-back Siege-Gangs. He could not draw his Akroma's Vengeance and I got out a Rorix Bladewing on turn 6 to finish off the job.
Game 3: My opponent played turn 2 Lighting Rift; I played turn 2 Stabilizer. He had no Silver Knight for me, since he had two mountains. On my third turn, I played Goblin Warchief with no Wing Shards worries. He played another Mountain; I peeled Goblin Goon and swung. Next turn, he played plains and a Silver Knight; I play Siege-Gang Commander and swing. I really like turning my cards sideways. He did not have an answer, and the Siege-Gang Commander threw goblins at his head.
Record: 2-0 games: 4-2
Round 3 Derek A LeJeune, playing Zombie Bidding
Game 1: I won the roll and got out the platinum goblin beats. Clickslither and Goblin Goon both lived through Infest and couldn't be Smothered. He never got to his fifth mana to play Patriarch's Bidding and I finished him off on to game two.
Game 2:
Sideboard: +2 Rorix Bladewing, +1 Mountain, -3 Shock
Not much to say about this game; he gets double Noxious Ghoul and rolls me.
Game 3:
I got a few early beats, but he dealt with them via Smother and Infest. I got a Goblin Goon and Goblin Piledriver into play and started swinging. By the time he had gotten his fifth mana, but he only had Noxious and another zombie in his yard, while I had two Goblin Sledders and a Skirk Prospector in my yard. He cast Bidding and I named goblins. I used the abilities of Goblin Sledder to keep Goblin Goon, Goblin Sledder, and Goblin Piledriver in play. He was at three life, had two creatures in play, and one black open so I could still swing for the win on my turn.
I drew Goblin Warchief and swung for the win.
Aside
After the match, he complained about not getting to his fifth mana until to late and showed me two Cruel Revivals in hand. The point was moot, because I drew a Goblin Warchief - but would the correct play not to have been Cruel Revival the Goblin Goon? If I don't draw something, I swing for one, putting him at two - but next turn, he has Noxious Ghoul in play and can stabilize his board position.
Record: 3-0 Games: 6-3
Round 4 Christopher P Lewis playing R/W control
This is the guy I rode to the tourney with. We were both 3-0 and we were both hungry, so we decided to draw and take our chances. We headed to the Chinese food place across the way.
Record: 3-0-1 Games: 6-3
Round 5: Shane Ferran, playing MWC
I'm not going to even go into much here except that this guy wrecked me. He was playing maindecked Foothill Guide, Silver Knight, Dragon Scales... And got them both games. This guy really ticked me off cause he kept showing his"killer hands" off to his buddies. I guess it paid off in the end, though, because he got the bad karma and lost in Top 4.
Record: 3-1-1 Games: 6-5
Round 6: Mikhail Karasoulis, playing R/W control
Game 1: I got out turn 2 Goblin Warchief, turn 3 Goblin Piledriver and he found no answer.
Game 2
Sideboard: +2 Rorix Bladewing, +1 Mountain, +3 Stabilizer, -4 Gempalm Incinerator, -2 Shock
I got out turn 2 Warchief, but I got out turn 3 Goblin Goon and he had nothing.
I talked to Mikhail after the match. He had to be one of the best sport that I played all day! He confessed to me that he was not running a single Silver Knight, because he did not have them. I thought that was very odd for a guy who had 34,000+ cards online. Well, it was my first PTQ in exactly one year, and my first top 8 ever. At least I met my goal for the day.
Record: 4-1-1 Games: 8-5
Top 8 Donald M Paul, a.k.a. The Governor, playing Goblins with maindeck Rorix Bladewing
I won the roll. Thank God! I really think that was the main thing that won me this match.
Game 1: We traded Gobbos back and forth, but eventually I got out Clickslither and double Goblin Sharpshooter.
Game 2:
Sideboard: +3 Threaten, -3 Goblin Goon
He got out an early Clickslither and drew the removal he needed to keep my side of the board clear.
Game 3:
Sideboard: +2 Starstorm, -2 Shock
Don had to mulligan to a five-card hand that had no land in it. I knew it had no land in it because after I played Mountain, Skirk Prospector, he drew and played the land he drew, then said,"Go." I played Mountain, sacrifice Skirk Prospector, played Goblin Warchief, and swung for two. He drew and played Skirk Prospector, and said,"Go." I played my third land, Threatened his Prospector, swung, and sacrificed it to play Goblin Sledder. He played another land and said,"Go."
I played Siege-Gang Commander, swung, and the rest went downhill for him from there.
Record: 5-1-1 Games: 10-6
Top 4: Lyle J Landry, playing Zombie Bidding
Game 1: He did get out some early defense with Putrid Raptor. However, he could never get to his fifth mana until I had enough mana and men to kill him. I threw my men at his face with Siege-Gang Commander and used a Shock to do the final points of damage.
Game 2:
Sideboard: +2 Rorix Bladewing, +1 Mountain, -3 Shock
I drew crap. He got out double Rotlung Reanimator and wrecked me.
Game 3: We traded back and forth; he was playing Putrid Raptor, which was a nuisance, but eventually Goblin Goon and Clickslither pulled it out for me with the help of a Goblin Sharpshooter.
Record: 6-1-1 Games 12-7
Finals: Kevin Keel, playing some R/G rogue
My opponent, who was a very nice fellow and had confidence in his deck, decided he wanted the money. I really did not care about it and wanted the invite, so he conceded to me and I won.
I could not believe it! After a good six years of trying, putting my soul into this game, and losing my first marriage to this game, I finally did it. I finally get to play on the Pro Tour. Now after all that sacrificing, I only hope I can make it pay off.
PROP AND SLOPS TIME
Props:
- Richie, for letting me use his cards.
- John Klauk, for the Rorix Bladewings and the Sulfuric Vortexes
- Chris Lewis, for driving there and back and for his first top 8
- Sid the judge, for either shuffling this one-armed man's deck or getting someone to shuffle my deck.
- Sceadeau D'Tela, for making me a better Magic player.
- Lauren Hatty, my fiancée, for letting me play Magic pretty much whenever I want to.
- Last but not least (and in case I don't ever do one of these again) Ben Bleiweiss for the good times with the jank box 'till he moved away.
Slops:
- Shane Ferran, for being a braggart and for getting God draws against my friend Chris in the Top 8.
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