MS Magic 2010 Invitational

[kartheunlucky]

For those unaware, I'm planning an (unsanctioned) invitational for December 11 at my house (saves on location fee).

For those who don't know what an invitational is, it's an all-star game (basically).

There will be 8 spots. Five will be determined by performance over the past year, mostly at our FNM events, though PTQ's and such will be figured in as best we can.

One spot will be selected by the Selection Committee (myself, John, Jason, and Nathan). One spot will be selected by you good people. One spot will be given to the best new player (a.k.a. The Rookie of the Year).

The Invitational will consist of two formats. The first is a Rotisserie Draft of my Cube. The second will be a Tribal Constructed Auction. Decks will be built in advance and auctioned to the players, who will bid starting & maximum hand size and life total. Each deck will have the creature type and the designer's name displayed, but the decklists will not be revealed before the auction.

I will be posting the participants names very soon.

Questions?

[kartheunlucky]

The Invitees are:

The Top 5 (on points)
Jason Sheffield
Merritt Lowe
John Klauk
Patrick Leaman
Nathan Hulsey

The Rookie of the Year
Mason King

The People's Choice
Blaine Sewell

The Selection Committee Choice
Dustin Stevens

I look forward to this coming Saturday. This seems like a very strong lineup. Spectators are invited. We will have some Mario Kart and other games available for those tired of watching Jason stare at the Rotisserie Draft.

[natedog08]

Let him stare. He'll still make the wrong pick.

[kartheunlucky]

After many substitutions, the final lineup was as follows:

Patrick Leaman
Merritt Lowe
Nathan Hulsey
Candy Clark
Aaron Hulsey
Billy Ray Clark
Kenneth Moffett
David Jones

In the Rotisserie Draft event, Nathan lucked out and got the first pick. The pick was Recurring Nightmare, a consensus number one. Kenneth followed with Sol Ring, followed by me picking Jace, the Mind Sculptor. After the that, the picks blurred together, but the last pick of the draft was a Kazandu Refuge. No one wanted a piece of a Red/Green deck.

I built Blue/White, a deck I have not really tried thus far in Cube. I played David in the first round. I had some stupid, stupid draws and ended up tearing through poor David. In round 2, I was paired against Kenny. Mana screw and Kenny's ridiculous creatures hosed me in game 1. Games 2 and 3 were mine, though, as Jace and Gideon can lock out almost anyone. Also, Umezawa's Jitte is quite nice (Thanks for the promo version, John. It was AWESOME!).

In the third round, I played Nathan, who had just come off an absolutely epic battle with Merritt. If I recall, the final game was decided when Merritt complained that he just knew Nathan was going to topdeck Slave of Bolas. He was correct. He took Merritt's only creature and swung to put Merritt to 3 and then Earthquaked for the final 3. Brutal.

In the third round, Nathan absolutely blew me apart in one game. The next game was close, but my Jitte won it for me. In the last game, Nathan never had a chance. If he played it, it got countered or killed, and Jitte and flyers were just adding to the chaos. Amazing.

Standings after the Rotisserie:
1. Patrick
2. Nathan
3. Merritt
4. David
5. Billy Ray
6. Aaron
7. Kenny
8. Candy

We then moved to the Auction Tribal decks. The decks available were:
Vampire Shamans (by Merritt Lowe) piloted by Merritt
R/G Shamans (Merritt again) played by Kenny
Red Shamans (also Merritt) played by Candy
Demons/Sneak Attack (Patrick Leaman and James Ruffin) played by Patrick
Myr/Open the Vaults (Patrick Leaman, Nathan and Aaron Hulsey) played by Nathan
Sucky Soldiers (The Elspeth V. Tezzeret Elspeth deck with some extra soldiers) played by Aaron
Walls (by David Jones) played by Billy Ray
Golems (by Patrick) played by David

I was so happy to get my Demon deck. I bid 15 life and 8 cards. 8 cards is dumb in a Sneak Attack deck. I ended the games against Candy on turns 5 and 4.

I played Billy in round 2 and those were over fairly quickly, though I had to go to 1 life in one game (I used Kuro, Pit Lord to clear the board).

In the finals, I faced Aaron, playing a deck everyone assumed was the worst available. He bid 20 life and 10 cards! Soldiers turn out to be AMAZING with a 10 card hand. I won game one on turn 4 thanks to an amazing opening hand. Sneak Attack came out and turn two, dropped three creatures on turn 3, and turn 4 unearthed an Extractor Demon for the win.

Game 2 went to Aaron, who removed every good card I played.

Game three was really difficult. Oddly, Halo Hunter turned out to be the big, bad card, as Intimidate was incredibly relevant. Honestly, that's how I won. Swing 6 unblockable damage, rinse, repeat.

And that's how I 6-0'd the tournament.

Patrick Leaman, 2010 Mississippi Magic Invitational Champion.

It has a nice ring to it.

Final Standings:

1. Patrick
2. Merritt
3. Aaron
4. Billy Ray
5. Nathan
6. David
7. Kenny
8. Candy

Thanks to everyone who came out and just had fun. You guys are awesome. To those who couldn't make it, you were missed. Next year, I'm defending my title. Count on it.

[ewolttirrem]

The event was alot of fun. Cant wait to see what crazy stuff we can come up with next time. The bidding on the tribal decks was alittle confusing at first. It looked like Aaron would go all the way at one point simply because he had a starting hand size of 10 with the soldiers deck.

[th3on3songoku]

seems like everyone had fun, and evil patrick made 1st year champion, sorry i couldn't come to more fnm events to get the invite but i been injured with a foot injury so i been doing nothing but sitting. glad every one had a good time.