Round Three (Table 6)
Raymond Robillard versus Stephen Menendian
Ray is running an archetype unfavored by most in the current metagame, Workshop Slavery. Many feel that the aspect of recurring Mindslaver is not as effective as recurring Sundering Titan, and that the absence of Psychatog from the current metagame makes 7/10 universally better.
Steve is running Mono-Blue Control, a deck that’s basic nature can be inferred directly from the decklist, which contains no fewer than fourteen counters and four Back to Basics. This is pure control.
Ray wins the die roll and elects to go first.
He keeps an opening hand of Black Lotus, Brainstorm, Goblin Welder, Goblin Welder, Thirst for Knowledge, Polluted Delta, and Mox Jet. Leading with his Black Lotus, he cracks it immediately for Blue mana, playing Brainstorm. Steve allows it to resolve, and Ray draws his three, returning a Lotus Petal and a Goblin Welder. With mana floating, he drops his Delta, and goes into his library for Volcanic Island. He plays his Welder, which resolves, and then he drops his Jet, playing Thirst for Knowledge into Memory Jar. Stephen looks notably concerned, but isn’t about to let that start end the game so early.
Steve’s start is nearly as broken. He opens with Island, Mox Ruby, Sol Ring, casting Time Walk and burning for one. On his second turn, he has a second Island, as well as Ancestral Recall. Ray has drawn Force of Will off of his Thirst, and attempts to counter it. Undaunted, Steve has Mana Leak to answer, and is able to cast his drawn Powder Keg. Steve looks at his board position for a moment and attempts to reach a decision.
“I think I can pop this now and keep all your artifacts off the board for the rest of the game,” he muses.
Ray looks unconcerned. Stephen activates his Keg and the moxen are removed from the board.
Ray plays Mishra’s Workshop on his turn, and with nothing else to do, he attacks Steve with his 1/1 Goblin.
Steve attempts to resolve an Ophidian, but Ray once again has a Force of Will. Steve decides to wasteland Ray’s Workshop.
Ray still has nothing to do, and attacks Steve.
“I think using the keg then was the right play,” Steve says.
Ray nods, and passes the turn.
Steve topdecks Impulse, and casts it, apparently hitting gold, because people several tables away could hear him saying”oh, savage!” He puts three cards on the bottom of his deck, drops a Mox Jet of his own, and uses it for a second Impulse. He then passes the turn.
Ray topdecks another card he can’t use. At this point, his entire hand is Time Walk and Merchant Scroll. He appears to be in trouble.
Steve casts Impulse again, and locates an Ophidian to cast. He then Wastelands another one of Ray’s lands.
Steve gets a turn of draw-draw-go before Ray finds something to do, which is cast Mox Pearl. Steve denies that Pearl to him with a Mana Leak.
Steve gets another turn, and once again, Ray finds an artifact, this time a Chalice of the Void set at zero. Steve nods yes, and Ray begins to go nuts with his welded in Memory Jar. His Jar hand contains Platinum Angel, Polluted Delta, Ancestral Recall, Mana Vault, Chalice of the Void, Chalice of the Void, and Volcanic Island. He tries to resolve a Chalice of the Void, but Stephen has the counter. Ray announces his second Chalice, which resolves. Ray plays his Polluted Delta, and goes in for an Island, which makes Steve squirm. Ray uses his Island to cast Ancestral Recall, which nets him Mox Ruby and two Brainstorms. Ray forgets his Chalice and plays Mox Ruby in to it, which enters his graveyard immediately, and ends his turn with a Mana Vault.
Steve draws two cards, and drops a second Ophidian.
Ray mulls over his decisions for a moment, which prompts Steve to say,”No sense playing stupid. Weld in Platinum Angel, and I need to ramp up to seven with my Powder Keg.” Ray appeared to be doing so already, and Steve’s comment cements his decision. They shuffle up for game two with Ray up 1-0.
Ray boards in two Rack and Ruin, and two Shattering Pulse. He sides out a Chalice of the Void, a single Mindslaver, a Merchant Scroll, and Windfall.
A conversation about a female in Ray’s life goes awry when Ray blurts out,”she’s the silent type, which is cool because I’m a necrophiliac.” Steve appears amused as they draw their seven cards.
Ray has to Paris, and keeps a hand of six including Goblin Welder, Force of Will, Time Walk, Polluted Delta, Black Lotus, and Chalice of the Void.
Steve opens with Flooded Strand, Mox Sapphire.
Ray topdecks Thirst for Knowledge, and leads with his Fetchland.”I’ve got no idea if you’re running Daze,” as he follows it up with Black Lotus, which resolves. Ray breaks his fetchland for Volcanic Island, and uses that and his Black Lotus for Chalice of the Void set at two. Steve has Mana Drain, but Ray has Force of Will pitching Time Walk. Steve looks disappointed and is forced to use his Force of Will, removing Ophidian.
On Steve’s turn, he Wastelands Ray’s Volcanic and burns for four. Several turns later, Stephen is sitting on several Wastelands, and Ray is attempting to find even one land to steady himself with. Ray scoops to Steve’s Ancestral Recall, and they get ready for game three.
Steve’s siding for game three is a little sloppy, and from Ray’s side of the table I can observe he’s removing his Powder Kegs for more Control Magic and Energy Flux. Ray’s sideboarding from game two gets reversed, and they begin shuffling up.
Ray is forced to mull to five, all the while singing the Oscar Meyer Weiner song.
Mox Ruby, Goblin Welder, Thirst for Knowledge, Thirst for Knowledge, Brainstorm is hardly a solid opening, but it will have to do. Ray keeps it.
The Ruby, Welder opening works, and Ray gets a 1/1 to stick. Steve’s opening hand is apparently quite strong however, and he follows Ray’s with Mox Sapphire, Mox Emerald, Polluted Delta in to an Island, and an Ophidian.
Ray topdecks land, but unfortunately for him it’s Mishra’s Workshop. Steve wastes no time in Wastelanding that Workshop, and goes to town drawing extra cards with Ophidian.
Ray finds a second Shop, and once again it gets wasted. Worse yet, Steve finds Blue Elemental Blast from his Ophidian to remove the Welder. Ray has no game and scoops to Steve for the 2-1 win.
Round Four (Table One)
Michael Simister vs. William Dicks
Michael is playing what’s known as the fastest combo deck in the environment, Goblin Charbelcher. A deck designed at the time when Long.dec got all the publicity, his invention was at first ridiculed and is now a respected archetype in Type One. The key to the deck is that Michael is running only two lands in his entire maindeck (both Forest), and a full complement of Land Grant to remove them before going off.
William is running a different combo deck – Worldgorger Dragon. Here the concept is to put Worldgorger Dragon in to his graveyard, and cast one of three”animate” spells – Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead, or Necromancy – to start an infinite loop generating enough mana to kill the opponent via any number of ways, the most common being Ambassador Laquatus.
While it’s rare we get to see an interesting combo on combo matchup, it’s rarer still that we see it at table one. I had to observe this match to see how both players kept their stranglehold on the 3-0 bracket.
Dicks wins the die roll, and elects to go first. While he throws his seven back, I get a good look at Simister’s opening hand, which contains Elvish Spirit Guide, Goblin Charbelcher, Black Lotus, Cabal Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Ancestral Recall, and Goblin Welder.
Dicks leads with a Polluted Delta, which fetches his Tropical Island. He then drops his Black Lotus, and Xantid Swarm. A strong opening play for Dragon, this is notably weaker when the opponent is running zero counterspells and can conceivably win turn 1 thirty percent of the time!
Simister topdecks Timetwister, and opens with Black Lotus, which he cracks for triple Blue. Using one, he Ancestral Recalls in to Brainstorm, Tinker, Channel. He sighs, seeing that with one more Green source, he could win this turn with Channel. He puts back two, removes Elvish Spirit Guide, and casts Timetwister, hoping to get a new broken hand. It resolves, and they shuffle up for their new hands. Simister has enough juice to play Black Lotus over again, as well as Lion’s Eye Diamond, and goes nuts with Yawgmoth’s Will into Tendrils of Agony.
Dicks shakes his head and elects to go first for game two. A judge is called to watch, as Simister accidentally shuffled Timetwister in to his deck when he cast it. Determined to be too far to reverse the game state, both players are given a warning.
Dicks keeps an opening hand containing Chalice of the Void, Worldgorger Dragon, Force of Will, Polluted Delta, Sol Ring, Bazaar of Baghdad, Animate Dead. A strong hand.
Leading with his Bazaar, Dicks tosses away a newly drawn Dragon, his original Dragon, and the Sol Ring, playing a Chalice of the Void set at zero. His Bazaar was good to him, as it also drew a second Force of Will!
Simister looks unimpressed however, and opens with a Bayou (one of the two lands in his whole deck!) which turns sideways for two Dark Rituals and a Cabal Ritual. With one single Black floating, he plays Memory Jar, which meets Dicks’ Force of Will, removing the other. Simister uses the floating mana for a Mana Cylix, and passes the turn.
Dicks topdecks Ambassador Laquatus and says go.
Simister has a Goblin Welder to play through his Mana Cylix, but not a whole lot of else.
Dicks finds his second mana producing land, and uses it to cast Animate Dead, milling away Simister’s entire library. Simister scoops.
Dicks keeps Bazaar of Baghdad, Polluted Delta, Polluted Delta, Swamp, Null Rod, Squee Goblin Nabob, and Black Lotus. He’s forced to think about it, because he’s going second and it contains no Force of Will.
Simister opens with Chrome Mox imprinting a Black card, as well as Mox Ruby, Mana Crypt, and Goblin Charbelcher. He’s setting up for a turn 2 win, but Dicks is unfazed.
His topdeck is Mox Emerald, and which he drops after bending his Bazaar to toss a Delta, a Swamp, and Squee. Dicks sacrifices Black Lotus to play Null Rod, which causes Simister to lament,”Oh man, oh God, I just been done in!”
Dicks is given several turns of drawing off Bazaar before Simister can begin to try to start winning. He removes Elvish Spirit Guide and uses it to play Tinder Wall, which William counters with Force of Will.
A few turns later, Simister is almost dead through the damage on his Mana Crypt. Dicks is beginning to draw with two Bazaars, and is throwing away various Animate spells. As the last crypt flip kills Michael, he explains why he refused to animate the Dragon.
“During the loop, all my permanents are removed. That gives Michael a window to shoot a Charbelcher shot at me while Null Rod is not in play, which could possibly be lethal. The Crypt flips were slow, but they were a solid win condition that game.”
Round Five (Table three)
Kevin Cron versus Matt C. Smith
Kevin is playing a Stax variant he’s been tweaking since his top 8 appearance in last year’s main event. The concept behind his deck is that it forms a prison of restrictive artifacts, building up an advantage in number of permanents and literally making it impossible for his opponents to play spells, let alone break free of the lock. To keep it active, he utilizes Goblin Welder, which was without a doubt the favorite card of this year’s winners bracket.
Matt is playing a similar Mono-Blue Control build to Stephen Menendian. It seeks to control the game through a mountain of counterspells, and outdraws the opponent with slow but steady engines like Ophidian. Its high number of basic lands allows it to abuse Back to Basics like no other deck in the format.
Matt wins the die roll, and with it opens the game with Mox Pearl, Mox Emerald, Island, Back to Basics.
Kevin grimaces a little. His hand is Mishra’s Workshop, Trinisphere, Mox Emerald, Wheel of Fortune, Wasteland, Sol Ring. He topdecks Crucible of Worlds, but Crucible/Wasteland is very weak against a deck with many basic Islands. Regardless, he opens with Mishra’s Workshop, Mox Emerald, Sol Ring, Crucible.
Smith keeps up with Mono-Blue’s tradition of being somewhat boring, and ends his turn doing nothing but dropping a fetchland.
Cron topdecks Mana Vault, and casts it, as well as Trinisphere, which gets Mana Drained. Cron Wastelands his Workshop and plays it again via Crucible. He then casts Mana Vault and passes the turn.
Smith topdecks Mox Sapphire, and uses it to cast Impulse. He then says go.
Cron topdecks Lotus Petal, and casts Wheel of Fortune with it. Smith Brainstorms in response, and has the Force of Will, removing a second Back to Basics. On his own turn, he drops Morphling.
Cron topdecks Trinisphere, and casts it.
Smith beats down for five with his Morphling.
Cron topdecks Sundering Titan, and it resolves, nuking one of Smith’s gorgeous signed guru islands.
Smith beats down for five.
Cron swings for seven, and surveys his life total. He thinks for a moment, causing Smith to ask,”Is this one of those awkward moments where you said go and I’m just waiting for you to go?”
Kevin shakes his head, and picks up his cards for game two.
Smith boards in four Energy Flux, three Annul, and four Blue Elemental Blast. From his maindeck, he removes 3 Brainstorm, 3 Powder Keg, Fact or Fiction, Time Walk, two Mana Leak, and a single Impulse.
Kevin has drawn and seen his seven before Smith even finishes sideboarding. He keeps this opening hand: Island, Ophidian, Ancestral Recall, Sol Ring, Mana Leak, Mox Ruby, Flooded Strand.
Kevin opens with Lotus Petal, Mishra’s Workshop, Trinisphere. It resolves, much to Smith’s dismay.
Smith topdecks Blue Elemental Blast, drops an island, and says go.
Kevin plays a City of Brass and passes.
Smith topdecks Annul, and plays his fetch, passing.
Kevin plays Gemstone Mine, and casts Meditate.
Smith sacrifices his fetchland end of turn for an Island. He then drops another island, and discards Ophidian. He takes his Meditate turn and topdecks Annul.
Kevin plays a Mox Sapphire, another Mishra’s Workshop, and a second Trinisphere. Kevin then casts Tinker sacrificing one, but Smith has his Mana Leak to protect himself.
Smith draw gos, and Ancestrals at the end of Kevin’s turn.
Smith keeps playing nothing but mana sources. At the end of his turn, he discards Back to Basics, Blue Elemental Blast, and Mox Ruby.
Kevin plays a Goblin Welder, which meets Mana Drain. Kevin then plays Sundering Titan, which resolves.
Smith sacrifices a fetch, and plays Back to Basics.
Titan turns sideways decreasing Smith’s life by increments of seven. Despite Matt’s topdeck Morphling and topdeck Energy Flux, Titan goes the distance and they move on to game three.
Smith keeps a hand with nothing but Mox Sapphire for mana. His hand has the goods though, including an Annul, Force of Will, and Back to Basics.
Matt’s turn of Sapphire, go is met with a saucey City of Brass, Black Lotus. Black Lotus gets Annulled, but Kevin has Red Elemental Blast for it.
Smith topdecks Wasteland and plays it, but doesn’t use it.
Kevin plays a second City of Brass, and uses it to play Goblin Welder. Smith allows it to resolve, and topdecks Impulse on his own turn. He passes.
Kevin topdecks Demonic Tutor, and casts it. Smith Impulses in response, and Force of Wills after the Impulse resolves, removing Ophidian from his hand. Kevin sacrifices his Black Lotus and plays Wheel of Fortune, which Matt is unhappy with, but it resolves all the same.
Matt’s new hand is Blue Elemental Blast, Blue Elemental Blast, Wasteland, Island, Impulse, Annul, Flooded Strand. Kevin wastelands Smith’s tapped Wasteland, and says go.
Smith topdecks Mana Drain, and Blue Elemental Blasts to remove the welder from play.
Kevin plays a second Welder, and an Emerald. Then he Strip Mine’s Smith’s Island, and attempts to pass the turn. Smith Blue Elemental Blasts the Welder, but Kevin has Red Elemental Blast to keep it alive.
Smith plays an Island and passes.
Kevin welds in Crucible of Worlds for his Mox Emerald, and begins replaying his Strip Mine. During his next turn, he Welds out his Crucible for a Strip Mine, after playing his Strip Mine over again. The two players go back and forth, occasionally getting Moxes in to play, but Kevin’s Crucible keeps the game locked down. It looks clear that Matt will lose, but at this point, match time is called. Kevin does some math, laughs, and decides to go for the throat in order to win the match before the five turns are complete. Kevin Welds in his Black Lotus, and plays Triskelion.
Smith takes turn one of the five turns, and uses it to do nothing.
Kevin swings to bring Smith to 14 and passes.
Smith plays a land and says go. Kevin uses Smith’s end step to shoot three Triskelion counters at Matt’s face, bringing him to eleven. He then welds it out and back in with three fresh counters.
On turn four, Kevin swings with Triskelion, bringing Smith to seven. He plays Smokestack, and does one final count of the math. Kevin aims two counters at Smith, bringing him to five. He then shoots the last at his Triskelion, sending it to the graveyard. A Goblin Welder brings it back, so it can fire two more times at Smith and at itself once. Finally, his other Welder brings it back, and it sends the final three points at Smith for the match win.
Round Six (Table one)
William Dicks versus Stephen Menendian
William is still playing Worldgorger Dragon combo. Check the Round Three coverage to see what this deck is all about.
Stephen has also continued his undefeated run with Mono-Blue, and at this point these two players have gone 5-0 through the swiss of a tournament that has most likely the highest caliber of Type One players in the world.
Steve wins the die roll and elects to go first, leading with an Island and nothing else.
On Bill’s upkeep though, Steve has Ancestral Recall, which resolves. Dicks plays his Tropical Island, and uses it to play Xantid Swarm. Steve is forced to expend Force of Will, removing his Mana Drain from the game.
Steve plays Polluted Delta, and breaks it immediately, to play Sol Ring. With his Sol Ring and untapped Island, he plays Back to Basics.
Dicks prepares to enter balls to the wall mode and plays half his hand, including Underground Sea, Mox Pearl, and Mox Emerald. Using these, he casts Intuition, putting some Dragons in the bin, and an Ambassador in his hand.
Stephen topdecks his Powder Keg, and obliterates all mana solidarity Bill had.
Thankfully for Bill, he topdecks his Swamp so he can start to think about winning once again.
Steve fetches an Island and says go.
Bill finds a Polluted Delta, putting him back in business! He plays it, and searches out his basic Island. Using that and his Swamp, he casts Animate Dead in to Mana Drain.
Steve plays Powder Keg, and passes, making a joke about ramping it up to six. He refers to the bane of the Worldgorger combo’s existence, in that if the Dragon is removed while its comes-in-to-play trigger is still on the stack, all the permanents will be removed and never brought back in to play.
Bill casts Lim-Dul’s Vault on his upkeep, and will end up doing the same the following turn after his Ancestral Recall resolves. Unfortunately, the Back to Basics keeps Bill’s efforts fairly meek, and Steve is able to capitalize, playing not one, not two, not three, but four Ophidians.
“I’ll Opportunity myself” is said several times, while his Powder Keg sits at one, waiting for Bill to decide to play Xantid Swarm. After an Animate gets Mana Drained and Steve Impulses into his Morphling, Bill scoops.
For game two, Dicks elects to mulligan twice, into a mana heavy hand. He drops one of his mana sources and passes.
Steve Ancestral Recalls, and plays some artifact accelerants and Powder Keg.
Dicks plays another mana source and casts Lim-Dul’s Vault, vetoing his five cards several times.
Steve Wastelands Dicks’ Tropical Island, and passes.
Dicks plays Xantid Swarm.
Steve Wastelands the Bayou, and pops his Keg.
Dicks Animates his Xantid Swarm.
Steve has another waste, keeping Bill’s mana count light, despite his mana heavy opening hand. Dicks keeps digging for his basics, but Steve has his Strip Mine too, to remove Bill’s swamp. Soon he Control Magics Bill’s Xantid, and plays Ophidian with Mana Leak backup. As Bill is down to topdecking and Steve is holding several counters, Bill conserves time and scoops, heading off for a bathroom break and some nachos that the writer really wishes were his. Thankfully, Josh O gets props for making a McDonald’s run for him, even though the chicken nuggets were total garbage.
Round Seven (Table six)
Richard Mattiuzo versus Stephen Houdlette
Rich is playing an archetype that was unknown to most before the main event. It’s a sort of Mindslaver control variant, running both Mana Drain and Mishra’s Workshop.
Steve is running a Keeper variant, which contains the Tinker/Darksteel Colossus”combo” and a couple other tricks, such as Isochron Scepter.
Rich wins the die roll and elects to go broken. He opens with Mishra’s Workshop, Black Lotus, Mox Pearl, Sol Ring, Chalice of the Void with one counter, and Crucible of Worlds.
Steve plays Polluted Delta and passes.
Rich plays an Island and passes.
Steve plays Underground Sea, fetches a land, drops a Mox, and plays his own Crucible of Worlds, which meets Mana Leak.
Steve topdecks Cunning Wish, and since he’s holding Isochron Scepter, he begins to look up. He casts it, and Rich casts his card (Thirst for Knowledge) in response. Wish resolves, and Steve gets his Disenchant from the sideboard.
Rich has a Wasteland, and plays it, destroying one of Steve’s lands.
Steve plays his Scepter, and puts his Disenchant on it. Rich casts Thirst for Knowledge on the end step, but apparently still hasn’t found business.
A couple turns of the players draw-going later, Richard finds a Chalice of the Void and plays it at two with some backup to stop the Isochron Scepter from destroying his entire board.
Steve decides to try to win anyway and casts Skeletal Scrying for seven, and then Brainstorms to put the Colossus from his hand back in the library. He casts Tinker and it resolves, and he fetches his large target.
Unfortunately for Steve, Rich has a second Crucible by now, as well as a hardcast Memnarch. Steve decides scooping is the greater part of valor.
Steve’s game two opening hand is Black Lotus, Mox Jet, Underground Sea, Tundra, Strip Mine, Tinker, Volcanic Island. He leads with the first turn tinker, and elects to get Darksteel Colossus instead of Crucible of Worlds, despite his strip in hand.
Rich Mattiuzo essentially shuts down the game with his first turn, which is Mox Ruby, Sol Ring, Undeground Sea, Echoing Truth.
Steve plays a Polluted Delta and mainphase Brainstorms. Rich casts Thirst for Knowledge on the end of turn, but doesn’t have any artifacts he wants to discard.
Rich Demonic Tutors for his Black Lotus, plays it, and passes.
Steve casts Ice, targeting the Black Lotus, which resolves. He then topdecks his own Demonic Tutor, which gets Gorilla Shaman. The Shaman is Force of Willed pitching Mana Drain, but Steve has his own Force of Will now, pitching Teferi’s Response.
He should have saved his Will however. Rich plays Yawgmoth’s Will and goes absolutely broken. Despite Steve’s Scrying for four the following turn, Richard has not only more counters than Steve has cards in hand, but enough mana to cast them all and a Fact or Fiction in the same turn. They shake and it’s on to the final round.
Round Eight (table five)
Dan Rix versus Brian Fisher
Rix is playing another interesting combo deck, entitled TPS, or”The Perfect Storm” after its kill condition, Tendrils of Agony. The concept is to function as a slow combo deck that’s nearly impossible to stop once it’s ready to win, based on the fact that its kill condition is uncounterable and has great synergy with Dark Ritual, which is one of the few really efficient mana producers still unrestricted.
Fisher is playing 7/10 Split, a deck designed by Team Short Bus earlier this summer off the frame of Meandeck Slaver from late March. This deck runs the same engine of Goblin Welder and Thirst for Knowledge, but kills with Sundering Titan instead of Mindslaver lock.
These players are both playing very tight. The REL 4 judges have been fluctuating in actual severity all day, and nobody wants to be on the bad side of one this late in the event. Fisher has a brutal opening start, consisting of Mox Jet, Mox Sapphire, Sol Ring, Thirst for Knowledge, Volcanic Island, and passing.
Rix plays Underground Sea, and casts Duress. Fisher Brainstorms in response, and Rix is forced to take the other Brainstorm.
Fisher casts Mystical Tutor on his upkeep and gets Tinker. He Tinkers away his Mox Jet for Sundering Titan, then plays another Volcanic Island and turns it sideways for Goblin Welder.
Rix plays Volcanic Island, and casts Brainstorm.
Fisher attacks for seven, then welds out his Sundering Titan, and plays Memory Jar.
Rix plays Polluted Delta, and turns it in to Underground Sea. He casts another Brainstorm, and then plays Chrome Mox imprinting Tendrils of Agony, and lastly a Sol Ring.
Fisher topdecks Force of Will, and breaks his Memory Jar. He doesn’t get much business, but he is able to hardcast two Gilded Lotus before Welding in his Titan.
Rix does the draw-go thing again.
Fisher attacks with Titan, and then casts his topdeck Ancestral Recall. Off it, he gets Misrha’s Workshop, Triskelion, Volcanic Island. At this point, Triskelion is enough to go lethal.
Fisher mulligans his hand of Mox Sapphire, Mox Jet, Sol Ring, Volcanic Island, Volcanic Island, Thirst for Knowledge, and Brainstorm, in to something less explosive but with a Trinisphere in it.
Rix plays Underground Sea and passes.
Fisher plays Mox Pearl, Mishra’s Workshop and his Trinisphere, which causes Rix to Brainstorm in response. Both players land go for a couple turns, until Rix has amassed enough Underground Seas to cast Ancestral Recall on Fisher’s end step, which resolves.
Rix plays his Black Lotus which gives him the Red he needs to cast Rack and Ruin to remove the Trinisphere and a Mox. Fisher uses Rix’s endstep to cast Brainstorm, and has enough mana on his own turn to Thirst, discarding Triskelion, and plays Goblin Welder.
Rix plays a land, and Hydroblasts the Welder into oblivion.
Fisher’s newfound Mana Crypt bolts him, but allows him to cast Thirst for Knowledge. His Thirst gets him Blood Moon, which meets a Force of Will pitching Brainstorm, which Fisher mirrors. Then he plays another Trinisphere and passes.
Both players land go for a while, Fisher getting zapped down to eleven before he finds his Tinker and gets Sundering Titan with it, Rix hardcasting Memory Jar through the Blood Moon.
Fisher swings and plays a Goblin Welder through the Trinisphere.
Rix draws, and activates his Jar in the first main phase. He has enough lands at this point to play Chrome Mox imprinting Brainstorm, and Lotus Petal.
Fisher topdecks Island, and plays it, as well as welds out Rix’s Chrome Mox for a discarded Mana Crypt from the Memory Jar. He then swings for seven.
Rix draws a card, and casts one of his other cards… Yawgmoth’s Will. Through it he gets his Rack and Ruin as well as several artifacts, the Hydroblast, and enough Black mana to Tendrils Fisher for forty.
At this point, time is called. If the players draw, neither makes top eight. If one of them loses, the other will enter the top eight as seventh seed. They’re staring each other down, trying to convince the other to concede. Neither will budge, and they shuffle up for game three. Rix plans to win turn 1 or 2 with his TPS build, and Fisher plans to do nothing but spitefully shut down Rix’s chance at the top eight.
Rix mulls to four, and Fisher mulls to five. Rix has enough juice to win with a turn 2 Yawgmoth’s Bargain, but Fisher has the Force of Will he mulled for. Neither player is able to accomplish anything, and they stubbornly keep each other out of the top eight. Hands are not shaken.
Check Back on Monday for the Top 8 Coverage and Interviews with both the new Type One World Champion and the runner-up!