Tournament Results: 3rd Place 6-2-1
TEAM WISEGUY'S FIRST TOP 8 FINISH AT A PTQ!!! That's right, I managed to battle my way through the opposition all the way up to 3rd place, and let me tell you... it felt good! I have Trav to thank for most of this, because it was he who talked me into going to this PTQ and he was the one that drove there and back, so much thanks Trav!
Anyway, onto the report, most of you know that I played RDW, and I am totally convinced that it is (until the rotation) the best deck in Extended hands down. It gave me a 9th place finish in Knoxville, an 18th place finish in Roanoke, and then a 3rd place finish in High Point.
Round 1: Cephalid Life 2-0 win
Game 1: he plays an orchard and passes the turn, I know for sure that he is playing ceph/life so I throw out some quick critters and lock things down with a port+tangle wire. Game 2: Same exact thing as last game, except there was a first turn vial for him this game. He commented after the round that it was his orchard that caused him the game, and Im pretty sure he was right, but without tangle wire I would have had to deal with infinite life....
Round 2: UG Madness 1-1 Tie
Game 1: He starts out with faster beats than I can and I do all I can to stay alive, but he eventually overruns me with 2 arrogant wurms, a wild mongrel, and a Roar of the wurm token... nasty version of madness for RDW. Game 2: I get a first turn pup, second turn port, third turn tangle wire and win with 2 firecats... I love this deck! Game 3: Time gets called, and when the game ended I was 2 turn away from scrolling him to death.. This sucks because I feel that a tie this early in the tourney may knock me out of contention for the T8 unless the guy I just played does well in the next few rounds, which he does =).
Round 3: Growatog 2-1 win
Game 1: I get some early beats and lock him down with triple tangle wire! Ouch... Game 2: I keep a 1 land hand which is a sac land, and it gets stifled! I don't draw a land and lose rather quickly. Game 3: I get some early stuff (you know this will be said MANY more times throughout the report) and then a port+tangle wire and swing with a firecat for the win. My opponent in this match looked just like Harold off of Harold and Kumar go to White Castle! His pic is in our photo album, so check it out. What makes this even more funny is that his best friend looked just like Kumar!!! we forgot to get his pic though =(...
Round 4: Gobbos 1-2 loss
Game 1: This guy is playing straight red gobbos and totally owns me with an endless amount of gobbos... Game 2: I keep him locked down with 2 ports and then a late game tangle wire and slowly burn him out.. Game 3: I make the biggest mistake ever in this match, costing me my only swiss loss... I have him at 8 and Im at 17, I have an ensnaring bridge on the board and no cards in hand.. He has a warchief, skirk prospector, pile-driver, ringleader and matron in play... and I know that he has a seige gang in hand from the ringleader. I draw a cursed scroll, and keep it in my hand like an idiot, because Jody and the rest of our team had it imbedded in my head that playing an inactive scroll was useless and it could just get destroyed... so I get slaughtered next turn and whine about this match all day long... thanks guys!
Round 5: Teen Titans 2-0 win
Game 1: He starts out with a first turn welder and I have NO first turn burn.. So I play a jackal pup and pass the turn... he then casts lightning greaves and equips the welder... I think I've totally lost at this point, but when he welds a Bosh into play and puts greaves on it and doesn't move the greaves back to the welder, I kill it.... and then a double tangle wire locks him down and Im at the point where if I top deck a mountain I win with a firecat, and if I don't I will lose... but I do so it's all good! Game 2: He gets out a second turn platinum angel and I have a fanatic in play... I attack with my fanatic next turn and he doesn't block, so I sac the fanatic to the angel and then Volcanic Hammer it... he exhumes and we both get back our critters, lucky for me I have another hammer in hand, so it dies again... his next turn he Reanimates it! Luckily for me, I had 2 Seal of Fires in hand, so after I kill it a third time he is almost dead and has no plays left...
Round 6: Squirrel Opposition 2-1 win
Game 1: I get the triple tangle wire lock again and kill him slowly but surely and the only thing that was cast was a second turn sunscape familiar which dies to a Hammer. Game 2: he drops a second turn absolute law giving ALL critter pro-red... so he gets the opposition lock on me and I die. Game 3: I get a double TW lock again, and win with a firecat. This guy looked a lot like the pictures you see of Jesus! Check his pic out in our photo album!
Round 7: Teen Titans 2-0 win
Game 1: He mulligans to 6 and doesn't get anything into play before I kill him... Game 2: he mulligans to 5 and gets a GOD draw, except he didn't have a way to reanimate the Akroma and Bosh in his yard... I destroy 3 lands with a wasteland and 2 overloads, and he loses rather quickly. Probably the nicest guy I played all day, and I felt bad because he had to mulligan so much, but then again it jumped me up into the T8 so I was happy =).
Top 8: Alluren 2-0 win
Game 1: he gets a wall of blossom in play, but I get a doble tangle wire lock on him and keep it tapped long enough to swing through for the win with a firecat... Game 2: I get a Port+tangle wire lock on him and keep tapping a city of brass for like 6 dmg total this game, but I would have probably lost this game had I not Top decked ANOTHER tangle wire when mine had only 1 counter left. He was really upset and pissed that I got so many tangle wires and top decked that last one for the win, and I have to say without the Tangles in the deck I would no doubt have scrubbed out this tourney!
Top 4: UW Desires 1-2 loss
Game 1: I get a decent start with Fanatic/Lavamancer/Lava Dart/Tangle Wire... but he cheats on his third turn and draws three cards with deep analysis and the judge just gives him a warning and lets him put a card he tried to discard on TOP of his library... this card was a snap, and he snapped my lavamancer back to my hand which gave him enough time to go off... Game 2: I get a GOD draw and go Jackal Pup/Pyro Pillar/Fanatic/Pyro Pillar/S. Vortex GAME! Game 3: He goes Mox/Land/AK turn 1, Land/Brainstorm turn 2, Mox/Land/Sphere of Law/Brainstorm turn 3 and I cant win... so I take my 24 packs and head home, only slightly disappointed, but overall very happy and proud!
RDW is absolutely amazing in this format, and I am so upset that it will not be playable next extended season =(... Just when I finally have a build perfected for it, I don't get to play it anymore, but oh well... Also, I don't care what anyone says Tangle Wire/Lava Dart/V. Hammer is the correct build to use in this format and it has worked so well for me this season! Well that about sums up Team Wiseguy's first Top 8 finish at a PTQ... but I will leave on the note that without the awesome Team I have helping me, I could never have become as good a player as I am now... and I thank each and every one of you, you guys are the best!
