Pro Tour Qualifier - Honolulu - Portland, Oregon - October 29, 2005 - Report!

A pro tour qualifier where I can play Goblins for a plane ticket to Hawaii? Sounded too good to be true. I couldn't pass up another chance to play the little red men.

I chose to splash white for Goblin Legionnaire main, which is quite good against the mirror and against Madness, and I thought the Orim's Chants would be good against Mind's Desire and other wacky combo decks. Of course I didn't play combo all day.

Here was my build:

Creatures (36)
--------------
2 Frenzied Goblin
1 Goblin Goon
4 Goblin Incinerator
2 Goblin King
3 Goblin Legionnaire
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Ringleader
2 Goblin Sharpshooter
4 Goblin Warchief
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Siege-Gang Commander
3 Skirk Prospector
1 Sparksmith

Artifacts (2)
------------
2 Umezawa's Jitte

Land (22)
---------
12 Mountain
3 Plains
3 Sacred Foundry
4 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard (15)
--------------
4 Blood Moon
4 Disenchant
3 Orim's Chant
4 Pithing Needle

Round 1 - Alex Luttman - Rg Goblins

Alex is a good player and I think he did well at States. I remember him sitting at the low number tables. We both dropped a Mountain on our first turns and the mirror match was on. The first game was back and forth but I was able to get a Goblin Sharpshooter out with a Warchief already in play to decimate three Goblins at once. He played his own Warchief but I used Frenzied Goblin to send an unblockable alpha strike.

I didn't board game two but made a point of taking some cards out of the board and going through my deck, bluffing the board so he wouldn't know what I was up to. My lack of board against the mirror cost me all day. The next time I play this deck I'll definitely have Sphere of Law in the board instead of the Chants. But I digress. I don't have a lot of notes on game two other than watching my life total decline. So on to game three. I boarded in the Chants in hopes of slowing him down and took out the Jittes and the Goon. I played some early Goblins but stalled on land as he kept playing Goblins. I had a hand full of Ringleaders and the like but couldn't get them out fast enough as he overran me. Stupid Goblins.

matches: 0-1
games: 1-2

Round 2 - Geoff Zeiger - mono red Goblins w/Burning Wish

Another round, another opening of Mountains. In game one I got him low on life and then used crazy Goblin Sharpshooter tricks to kill his guys and then swing. I love the Sharpshooter. Game two he got lots of land (I'm not sure he ever missed a land drop) and a quick Siege-Gang. I kept killing guys but he kept throwing them at my head for two and I couldn't overcome that advantage. Game three he stalled on one Mountain and one Swamp while I got an early Warchief and played a bunch of other Gobbo's and overran him. Did I mention this isn't really a complicated deck?

matches: 1-1
games: 3-3

Round 3 - Josh Lytle - Mono Black Control

Mono black can be very troublesome for me but fortunately I never saw an Engineered Plague or a Hideous Laugher in this matchup. Game one he was mana screwed, spending most of the game with two Swamps and a Cabal Coffers in play while I got an early Jitte equipped and a couple of Goblins swinging away. Game two took quite awhile, I kept getting him low on life and he kept playing land and casting huge Consume Spirits to kill my guys and gain life back. Eventually he Mutilated all my guys and swung with a huge Nantuko Shade. Game three I jumped to an early lead and was bashing with Goblins. He killed some of my guys but I still had three or four cards in hand when he played Haunting Echoes. Ouch. I lost a LOT of my deck in one fell swoop, but I had a Warchief, a Gempalm Incinerator and a land in my hand. Fortunately I kept drawing Goblins after that, the few Goblins in my deck, and I just played one a turn and attacked. I kept one in my hand to avoid being wiped out by Mutilate. Eventually I got him to five life and had two Incinerators in play. I had a Goblin King in my hand, he had one card in his hand. I top decked a Jitte. I thought about what to do and decided to play the Jitte, equip and swing. If I'd played the King and he didn't have a response I would have won that turn but I really didn't want to lose all my threats at once. I put him at 1. He drew and then conceded.

Nathan Saunders, 2005 Oregon State Champion, along with lots of other people watched our match. Nathan couldn't believe I didn't play the King and just go for the win, reasoning that I'd already lost most of my threats to the Haunting Echoes and that letting Josh stay alive was just giving him more time to draw an answer. He was probably right as I thought about it but fortunately it didn't cost me.

matches: 2-1
games: 5-4

Round 4 - Nathan Saunders - Rb Goblins

And Nathan's reward for helping my strategy was to play me in the next round. Game one I was stupid and kept a one land hand. I had a Jitte, a Prospector and a Piledriver so I figured if I drew a land I'd be fine. The most dangerous phrase in Magic, I'm convinced, is "If I just draw one land." Naturally I didn't for several turns. I sacrificed the Prospector to play the Piledriver on the second turn, much to Nathan's surprise. "I think you made a play mistake there, Roy," he said and it turned out he was right. I drew land soon but it was too late as he overran me with Kiki-Jiki powered craziness after a turn three Ringleader. Game two I didn't board, I just went with what I had. Normally I would board out the Goon in the mirror match but I left him in too. That turned out well because I got him out on turn three and used Incinerators to keep Nathan's side of the board smaller than mine. The Goon smashed. Game three I got two quick Piledrivers in play and swung for 14 in one turn. He chump blocked my Warchief and a Prospector to try to cut down my numbers, but the two Piledrivers were too much and he was down to four.

matches: 3-1
games: 7-5

Round 5 - David Conachan - Wake

A feature match?!? Unexpected but kind of cool. I started off well, two land and five Goblins. But then I missed seven land drops in a row. Seven. SEVEN! I had at least two Warchiefs and two Ringleaders in my hand just waiting to be played, but when you give a Wake deck that much time you're just destined to lose. Game two I boarded out the Incinerators and Jittes for Blood Moons and Disenchants. I got an early Blood Moon out but couldn't force a Goblin King through. I had him down to nine but he Cunning Wished for a Pulse of the Fields to get his life total back up to 16. I kept getting threats into play but he stalled me with Moment's Peaces and eventually got a couple of Wakes, then a huge Decree of Justice for the win.

matches: 3-2
games: 7-7

Round 6 - Jeremy Yuse - Wake with Mirari

Again with Wake! I started fast again but then missed a couple of early land drops. He had double mulliganed but still had time to come back and win after stalling with Moment's Peace. Unbelievable. Game two I started very fast and played an early Ringleader. Whiff! I got three land and a Jitte. Ugly. I finally got him down to 10 and was able to kill him off with crazy Goblin Sharpshooter tricks powered by Skirk Prospector. I almost blew it though. I had him down to one. I pinged him, then sacrified my Warchief, untapped my guy and tried to ping him for the last point of life. He reminded me that the Sharpshooter had just come into play and now had summoning sickness since I had sacrificed the Warchief. Fortunately I had three red mana floating so I played a Warchief from my hand and killed him. I did ten damage in one turn without attacking. Did I mention I like Sharpshooter?

Game two took forever so we were running short on time for game three. I had a good army building but he played Gifts Ungiven to find Pithing Needle and Wrath of God. We ran out of time before anything could be resolved so we drew.

I forgot to mention the stupid thing I did in game one. I played another Ringleader and wound up with nine cards in my hand. I forgot to discard down to seven at the end of my turn and he didn't catch it. On my next turn I untapped and went to draw but realized I hadn't discarded and said, "Oops, I forgot to discard." I had seen the card I was about to draw too, a Mountain. Ugh. He called for a judge, rightly, and the judge finally decided it would just be a warning. I discarded down to seven (I discard a King, since I had two in my hand, and a Siege-Gang Commander. If I would have known a Mountain was coming I probably would have kept the Siege-Gang but I tried my best not to let that knowledge influence my decision.) As it turned out it didn't matter because he went on to win that game but I couldn't believe I did that. I was getting pretty tired by then and it was starting to show. I don't think I've even done that in a casual game before.

matches: 3-2-1
games: 8-8-1

So I wound up 16th out of 53 players, good enough for four packs including the challenge round. Unfortunately my run of opening dual lands ended but at least I got some rares I didn't have four of already. I did have fun and I beat Nathan, which was good for the ego. It wound up keeping him out of the Top 8 as he finished 9th.

I will make a few changes before playing this again (I hope to go to the PTQ in Seattle in December---we'll go up the day before and have some family fun before I play on Saturday).

I'll put four Chrome Mox in the main and take out some land in order to get the fast starts. A second turn Warchief is huge. I'll also put in one or two Goblin Sledders to help protect against Sharpshooters and Gempalm Incinerators. Last I'll take the Chants out of the board and put in Sphere of Law. That will be great in the mirror, especially with Chrome Mox to get it out faster.

Oregon State Championships - October 22, 2005 - Report!

Apparently I can't resist the siren call of The Rock, or at least black and green together in one spicy deck. I played BG last year at States, without Death Cloud, and went 3-3-1 but that didn't prevent me from trying again this year. I reasoned that none of the "Tier 1" decks (WWr and Gifts, mainly) were decks that I wanted to play for seven rounds and I didn't see anything else out there that I liked any better. So I went with a deck that I've been tweaking for the past few months. Thanks to Mark Gebhart for loaning me the two Vinelasher Kudzu. Those were really good and the next version of this deck will have four of them. Today's version went like this:

Artifacts (4)
------------
4 Umezawa's Jitte

Creatures (23)
--------------
3 Elves of Deep Shadow
2 Grave-Shell Scarab
4 Hypnotic Specter
3 Kokusho, the Evening Star
2 Llanowar Elves
1 Nezumi Graverobber
2 Nezumi Shortfang
4 Wood Elves
2 Vinelasher Kudzu

Spells (10)
----------
4 Last Gasp
2 Moonlight Bargain
4 Putrefy

Land (23)
---------
6 Forest
3 Llanowar Wastes
1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
4 Overgrown Tomb
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
1 Svogthos, the Restless Tomb
7 Swamp

Sideboard (15)
--------------
4 Cranial Extraction
3 Execute
4 Naturalize
4 Pithing Needle

I went for more of an aggro tilt on the deck than most lists I've seen. I didn't go for the Plague Boiler at all because it seemed too slow against WW variants and I felt like the spot removal would carry me through until the fatties arrived. I only went with two Scarabs but that probably should have been more because they really are quite good. But the deck's mana curve was very high anyway and I had to cut something out of the five or six cmc slot. I decided to go for some card drawing in Moonlight Bargain and the card was quite good, mostly at getting excess land out of the way late but sometimes it did drop a Jitte in my hand when I needed it.

I went with Wood Elves to ramp up to the necessary five or six and chose them over the Sakura-Tribe Elder because I wanted a creature which could carry a Jitte and I didn't want all my accelaration to be vulerable to Pyroclasm or opposing Jittes.

But on to the games.

Game 1 - Steve Glubetich - Wildfire

Steve said he threw the deck together at midnight the night before and rued the loss of his only Island after casting and early Wildfire. I was still staring at the Sorcery as he said that because I didn't do any preparing or even thinking about playing against Wildfire. Game one he pretty much crushed me. I had two Elves and an early Specter but lost all my permanents to the Wildfire because I didn't see it coming.

Game two I boarded in four Cranial Extractions and took out Last Gasp. I was able to get Wildfire on an early Extraction and cruised from there.

Game three I was set up for the turn three Extraction after a Llanowar Elves and Elves of Deep Shadow on the first two turns, but he got the turn two Pyroclasm to slow me down. I never got more than two land in play after that when I missed the next three land drops and he eventually found a Wildfire before I could do anything.

Great, the 0-1 start. I hate the 0-1 start because that really sets you up to play random decks for the rest of the day (like one of the two Battle of Wits decks), plus ends your chances of drawing into the Top 8 after winning early. But I tried to put it behind me and focus to avoid going 0-2.

matches: 0-1
games: 1-2

Game 2 - Josh Beck - UG Control

Josh is a great guy who recently qualified for the Pro Tour and is looking forward to PT-LA next week. He qualified playing blue green and he stuck with it at states.

Game one he mulliganed twice and was stuck on one land, a Yavimaya Coast at that, for most of the game even with a Top in play very early. I only took one point of damage. Game two I had to mulligan twice and I never was able to get off the defensive. Game three we both actually got to play our cards. I don't remember many of the details other than Cranial Extraction for Meloku and Kaiga definitely slowed him down. I didn't have many big threats but I eventually wore him down just after time was called.

matches: 1-1
games: 3-3

Game 3 - Merritt Filban - BGw control

There was a lot "Rock splashing white" or "Rock splashing red" and his was the former, splashing white to get to Loxodon Hierarch. He also played Plague Boiler main which is a problem for my permanent-based attack.

Game one he just owned. He won at 21 life after an early Plague Boiler removed my threats and big Hierarchs smashed me. Game two I brought in the Cranials again, removing Last Gasp again. I started fast with Elves and accelerated into Extraction naming Kagemaro. I eventually cast all four Extractions, also removing Kokusho, Loxodon Hierarch and Putrefy and wore him down after that. Game three was a bit of an Extraction war but I was able to get and keep enough creatures in play to win.

I must at that Svogthos, the Restless Tomb helped the beats in game three here and also did well against Josh in game two. In general that card worked out much better than I expected, especially since I had just thrown one in basically as an experiment. That experiment definitely succeeded. Also, Cranial Extraction was better today than any other tournement I've attended. For some reason many of the decks I faced had one primary threat that I could go after with the Extractions.

matches: 2-1
games: 5-4

Game 4 - Shea Malchow - Reanimator

Shea watched the end of game three of the last match so he knew what I was playing. He graciously told me he was playing Reanimator before we started but I was surprised by his build. He did have four Vigor Mortis and four Goryo's Vengeance plus an assortment of Kokushos and Kagemaros, but he also had one Razia, Boros Archangel and also played Gifts to toss cards into the graveyard. He also played Greater Good which combo'd amazingly with Goryo's Vengeance.

Game one he just crushed me with quick reanimation. Game two I went through two different runs where I drew five land in a row. I played some threats and held him off with Svogthos for awhile but I just couldn't keep up with the recursion, not even after Extracting Kokusho and Kagemaro out of the game.

matches: 2-2
games: 5-6

Game 5 - Clint Hawk - mono black aggro (but not Black Hand)

Game one was a back and forth affair. He got a couple of cards from me with an early Hippy but I was able to hang in long enough to start casting Kokusho and finally got him. Game two I boarded in my Extractions, mainly to fight off his, and boarded out Shortfang and Midnight Ritual. I figured it would get forced out of my hand before I could use it anyway. Game two I had him on the run but he had two Phyrexian Arenas in play and I couldn't keep up with his superior card drawing. He just drew more threats than I could deal with.

Game three was very very close. I beat on him with Svogthos for awhile before I found a dragon. In the meantime he had two Ravenous Rats in play, one with a Jitte with three counters. He was at one life. I attacked and he removed three counters to go to seven. I pumped the dragon for one with Okina putting him back to one. I didn't do anything else and passed the turn. As he untapped he looked at his hand, looked at his life total, and let out an anguished cry. "I had this one!" he said as he showed me the Sickening Shoal which was in his hand when I had attacked. If he had Shoaled my dragon down to a 1/1 he wouldn't have had to use all his Jitte counters and could have alpha striked me for the win. I didn't really know what to say. He was gracious about it but was clearly frustrated.

matches: 3-2
games: 7-7

Game 6 - Chris Christensen - The Rock

Chris's build was definitely on the control side, complete with multiple Plague Boilers and lots of Grave-Shell Scarab. Game one saw lots of creatures hitting the yard, which eventually worked out as I had enough mana to activate Svogthos, equip a Jitte on him and hit for a bunch. Game two I had an early Hippy and found a Jitte and he couldn't kill my creatures fast enough. He found a Scarab but I had too many flyers.

matches: 4-2
games: 9-7

OK, I figure at this point if I go 5-2 I still have a very outside shot at Top 8. It was a slim chance but a chance. Then I went to see the pairings and wasn't happy: Christopher Brandon Buker, one of the best players in Portland. I knew he was playing WWr and I felt that I could take that deck, having done much of my testing against it. But I was wrong

Game 7 - Chris Buker - White Weenie splash red

Game one I thought I had him on the ropes. I was playing creatures faster than he was and had killed his big threats with multiple Last Gasp's. He was swinging with a couple of 1/1's but I wasn't too worried. He got me down to 10, then Char'd me down to 6. I played a Scarab, then he swung for two putting me at four. Then he Char'd again. Ugh, I was really starting to build.

Game two I boarded in the Executes and boarded out Midnight Ritual and one Shortfang. I played threats, he played threats, except his held a Jitte for a couple of turns which wiped out my threats. Then I found a Jitte and blew his up. On the next turn he drew another Jitte and swung in. I found a Putrefy but I blew up the Jitte during his attack instead of during my turn. I don't know why I waited. He used the counters to pump the bird and hit me for 8 (he'd found a Glorious Anthem in there). I couldn't get blockers in time and lost again.

matches: 4-3
games: 9-9

Overall not as well as I hoped for, but not terrible either. I won three packs including another Watery Grave, so that was good. I think if I had played smarter in the last round I could have gone 5-2 and if I hadn't lost round one I might have faced different decks and done better. I felt I had good game against blue but I didn't face any blue all day. Oh well, that's better than I usually do when I'm playing rogue (or a rogue build of an established archetype as in this case).

Next week, back to Goblins for the PTQ-Honolulu!

Report from GPT Philadelphia - Legacy - Portland, OR October 15, 2005

This was my first Legacy tournament ever and I was really looking forward to it. I've always thought the format was interesting and it most closely matches the old casual games I used to play when I first started back when The Dark was the current set. My family and friends didn't have any of the power nine but we had lots of other good cards since we started relatively early. Heck, I even saw a Moat played today and I haven't seen that since my wife's Deck of Infinite Annoyance, a monsterous white/blue control deck which would just lock everyone down if it was allowed to live past turn five, even in our four player free for alls.

I took Goblins. I felt justified in playing Goblins since I've had a version of the deck together since at least Fallen Empires, if not before. I used to love Goblin Wizard, as much for the pro-white as the putting creatures into play ability. Now that Goblins is a Tier 1 deck I couldn't miss my chance to play all the best ones (minus Recruiter---I miss Recruiter).

Here's the version I ran. With duals and fetch lands there's no reason to go mono red when it's so easy to splash a color. I chose white, partially for the confusion factor and also because I was toying with playing Rule of Law in my sideboard. Combo decks scared me, but I eventually decided that a turn three answer against a blue deck probably wasn't going to get the job done. I wound up with just Disenchant but that was very worthwhile by itself. I should have included Swords to Plowshares and the fact that I didn't wound up costing me.

Artifacts (4)
------------
4 Aether Vial

Spells (2)
---------
2 Lightning Bolt

Creatures (32)
--------------
3 Gempalm Incinerator
1 Goblin King
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Ringleader
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
4 Goblin Warchief
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
4 Mogg Fanatic
1 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Skirk Prospector

Land (22)
---------
1 Dust Bowl
9 Mountain
4 Plateau
4 Wasteland
4 Woodland Foothills

Sideboard (15)
--------------
4 Disenchant
4 Pithing Needles
4 Pyroblast
3 Sulfuric Vortex

Round 1 - Jeremy Virden - rogue blue white toolbox

I thought I might be in trouble when his first creature was a Mother of Runes. He played a Savannah Lion next so I thought it was just some sort of white weenie deck. I used Lackey and Gempalm Incinerator to kill the Mother but then a Soltari Priest came out. Maindeck pro-red? Ugh, there is a problem with your deck having a big target on it's face after all. Then he played a Pariah on the Soltari Priest. I proceeded to the scoop phase.

Game two I boarded out the Aether Vials and brought in Disenchants. He quickly put three (!) Galina's Knights while I had a Piledriver and a Fanatic. I attacked with the Piledriver and his little known pro-blue ability, and he swung back with the Knights. I eventually found a bunch of friends for the Piledriver and swung for an large amount of unblockable damage.

He played a Divine Sacrament early in game three and I was tempted to blow it up with one of my two Disenchants but I held them. I don't think I ever did use them, I just kept playing Goblins until they overwhelmed him.

matches: 1-0
games: 2-1

Round 2 - Shane Munyer - Solidarity/High Tide

Shane had gone to the bar across the street and slammed a couple of quick drinks, and he was playing High Tide, so I felt good about my chances. It's a complicated deck when you're sober. Early Aether Vials combined with a relative lack of land, especially in game two and despite my double mulliganning, let to Goblin smashing.

matches: 2-0
games: 4-1

Round 3 - Dan Flanagan - Suicide Black

Here's where things got dicey. A couple of early Carnophages applied pressure and I had trouble finding threatening Goblins. When I did find them he Smothered them. He got a Phyrexian Negator on turn three, the Sarcomancy on turn four and I couldn't get out of playing defense.

Game two I boarded in the Disenchants for the Vials again in expectation of seeing Engineered Plague. Sure enough he played the Plague but I cast Goblin Matron for a Goblin King to save the rest of my crew. I played the King and started building but then he found another Smother which he used to kill the King. That turned into a three for one as the Matron and another 1/1 Goblin died without their King. I cound't get any traction after that and he crushed me again.

matches: 2-1
games: 4-3

Round 4 - Scott Mills - Red Deck Wins

Scott got off to a quick start with the turn two Slith Firewalker followed soon after by a Ball Lightning. He had me down to 9 before I started to stabilize. I was finally able to kill the Firewalker that I'd been blocking most of the game and then started laying down my own Goblins. Two Goblin Ringleaders on consecutive turns plus two Aether Vials in play put too many little red guys on the board and his life total went 20, 18, 16, 12, 8, 0.

Game two I boarded in Disenchant for Vial again, this time to take care of Cursed Scroll which was his only long game. I didn't really need it as I had a Fanatic on turn 1 to take care of any Firewalkers or Ball Lightnings, then just built slowly into a Matron for a Ringleader and a bunch more Goblins. It took me awhile to get past his burn but I did.

matches: 3-1
games: 6-3

Round 5 - Brandon Rausch - Landstill

I was worried about this deck because it can take control of the board quickly. I hinted about drawing when we sat down because I thought 3-1-1 would get into the top 8 but he didn't bite, so I figured I'd take my chances.

Game one I dropped Wastelands to keep him off blue for several turns and just played Goblins after that. Game two I didn't board correctly. I couldn't take out the Vials as they are gold against blue, but I didn't put in the Disenchants because I'd forgotten about Chill. Unfortunately he didn't, as he played one on turn two and then beat me down with a couple of Mishra's Factories. Game three I fixed my error and took out the two Bolts, a Goblin King and the Skirk Prospector for the Disenchants. I didn't really need them as Wasteland and then Dust Bowl destroyed his land one after the other. He never got going as I just kept hitting him for a couple each turn, slowing building up a Goblin army while Dust Bowl'ing his land away.

matches: 4-1
games: 8-4

TOP 8

Round 6 - Top 8 round 1 - Dan Spero - Landstill?

I have a question mark there because I never really saw much of his deck. In game one on turn three there were no permanents in play! We both Wastelanded the other's land away. After that I still had one land and drew more while he was stuck on one Plains for most of the rest of the game. Without blue he didn't have any way to slow me down and he scooped after I dropped a Kiki-Jiki from my Goblin Lackey. Game two I replicated my correct boarding from the last round, leaving in the Vials of course. I had a Vial on turn one and also had a Wasteland, but he dropped a Plains turn one because he didn't want to risk his land. I played a land and dropped a Piledriver. He dropped a Mishra's Workshop and I was tempted to Wasteland it but I didn't, I just kept building my army. He played a Jitte. I dropped a land and said go, waiting with my Disenchant in my hand for him to play a land, equip the Factory and try to attack. He drew and said go a couple of turns in a row as I attacked with a rather small army. Then he drew a Tundra and said go. I played the Wasteland, blew up the Tundra, and he couldn't Brainstorm into more land.

Not to sound cocky, but this took longer to type up than to play. The only blue spells he played was one Brainstorm each game, after that he was stuck on mono white and no creatures.

*EDIT* I saw later that his deck was Fish. See his tournament report on The Source and his article about the deck on Star City Games .

matches: 5-1
games: 10-4

Round 7 - Top 8 round 2 - Joel Popick - Survival of the Fittest

I was curious about this deck because I have a build too but I thought it was too risky to play. I was wrong, obviously. Game one I thought I had him as he played a Mountain, then I Matroned for a Goblin King and started sending Mountainwalking Goblins. Unfortunately he got his SOTF going, went and got a Flametongue Kavu, killed the King, and then started dropping more Kavus and Ravenous Baloths to overwhelm me.

Game two I boarded out the Bolts and the Vials for four Pithing Needles and two Disenchants. I opened with one Needle and drew another turn two, so I thought I was set. Unfortunately he played a quick Goblin Sharpshooter and I used one Vial on that, then the second on SOTF on the same turn. I figured that would shut him down but he followed with a Baloth and a Sword of Fire and Ice, which made him a 6/6 pro-red monster. I couldn't find a Disenchant as the Baloth crushed me for 6 a turn plus a card plus a dead Goblin. I didn't last long with that combo.

matches: 5-2
games: 10-6

So I finished in third place and won 10 packs, including a Watery Grave and a Birds of Paradise which together are worth twice what I paid to enter the tournament, plus I had lots of fun. The finals were Control Sliver (!) versus Survival of the Fittest. I'm not sure who won but the Slivers seemed to be having a good time as I left.

Green Day - September 28, 2005 - Portland, OR - Another Review

Green Day has been a guilty pleasure of mine for years. With their often sophomoric lyrics and simple music I sometimes felt listening to them was the equivalent of reading a Calvin and Hobbes book instead of spending my time with more "literary" works. But, like Calvin and Hobbes, there's a lot of good stuff in Green Day's works and what the heck, I like them!

American Idiot put me over the top as far as my level of enthusiasm for Green Day. I think the album is fantastic and it finally inspired me to see them this past Wednesday, September 28 here in Portland, inside the large brick that is Memorial Coliseum. Billy Joe must be the reincarnation of an old time carnival barker---he really knows how to work a crowd. And I mean that in a good way.

They opened with three from American Idiot: the title song, "Jesus of Suburbia" and "Holiday." For a minute I thought they were going to play the entire album in order, 2112 style, but then they launched into some of their older songs like "Longview," "She" and "Basket Case," punctuated by encouragement from Billy Joe for the crowd to sing along and wave their hands in the air (presumably as if they just don't care). The more well known songs were punctuated by huge bursts of flame from the rear of the stage, a ten-foot tall "Green Day" sign that descended from the ceiling, and/or huge sparkler-like eruptions from the lights above. I haven't seen pyrotechnics like that in years and apparently they're still popular because the crowd loved it.

Sidenote: the crowd. It was a strange mix of people. I think the average age was 18 but I don't think there were any 18 year olds in the crowd. There were tons of youngsters, say 12 to 14 years old, boys and girls, and there were also lots of old fogies like me, in their 30's or older. At least some of these were parents keeping their eyes on the kids but I saw several older couples rocking out in their own right. And there were enough of us to fill up the beer garden nicely.

The large percentage of youngsters was evident in two ways. First, before the show started, there were two huge screens, which displayed messages that concertgoers sent to a dedicated number. Most of them were pretty inane, "Green Day rocks" or "I love Jennie," that sort of thing, but it still beat most of the between-set music I've heard over the years. Second, during the slow songs the crowd almost unanimously held up open flip phones instead of lit lighters. It struck me how different that was from the Nine Inch Nails show I'd seen just days before, a show that featured an older and more mono-black clad crowd.

Anyway, back to the show. At one point, right in the middle of the song (I've forgotten which one, sorry) they stopped and Billy Joe said, "Alright, I'm going to form a new band right now." He asked for a bass player, a guitarist and a drummer and the more agile members of the crowd climbed atop their friends to try to catch his attention. He asked each potential band mate how long they had been playing and made them swear they knew how to play the appropriate instrument. He chose as his drummer a young, short-haired guy sporting a "Fuck Bush" banner, a tattooed girl for the bassist, and a large young boy for the guitarist. The kid couldn't have been older than 14 but he claimed he'd been playing for 11 1/2 years. Billy Joe took a chance and called him up to the stage anyway. After a brief lesson on what he wanted them to play Billy Joe started singing again and the new band kept playing. The drummer and guitarist definitely did know what they were doing and the guitarist was really getting into it, even moving up to the front of the stage and adding little flourishes to the chords Billy Joe had shown him. The bassist followed instructions but she was obviously so excited and amazed to be playing on stage with Green Day that she looked like she might burst at any moment. They finished the song and the kids moved to the back of the stage. Billy Joe thanked the drummer and the bassist and showed them off. The guitarist started to walk backstage, guitar slung over his shoulder, when Billy Joe saw him and said "Hey!" The kid walked toward Billy Joe and BJ turned to him and said, "You get to keep the guitar." The kid fell to his knees on stage and I thought he might have to be helped off stage in his excitement and shock. I'm sure he'll never forget this show.

But yes, the show. The band was quite energetic and played a lot of older songs in the middle of the set, including going to the way back file for "2000 Light Years Away" from Kerplunk. After that some roadies brought out huge squirt guns attached to hoses and Billy Joe started dousing the crowd. Then he stopped and called a young girl on stage who couldn't have been more than eight or ten but was already sporting a Green Day shirt. He gave her the squirt gun and then went into another song (sorry, I don't remember the order of the songs but suffice to say they played all their hits except Warning, which I did miss). She seemed to be having fun but was somewhat intimidated, and who can blame her?

Billy Joe mentioned Portland a lot and I thought it was just the typical sucking up to the home crowd, but in between one of the numbers he explained that their first gig outside the Bay area was at the classic Satyricon here in Portland, which also helped launch Nirvana and is where Kurt Cobain met our home town tart Courtney Love.

All these antics might make it sound like there wasn't much actual music but don't get me wrong, they played for two hours and they played quite well. The crowd was very into it, complete with crowd surfing and singing along and hand waving. They went back to songs from American Idiot toward the end, including the obligatory "Boulevard of Broken Dreams." The band ended the main set with a surprising medley of "Shout," "Stand By Me" and "We Are the Champions" then left the stage to loud applause. They didn't wait too long to come back out for the encore, which featured "Wake Me Up When September Ends" and ended with a moving version of "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)" which Billy Joe played and sang on his own after the rest of the band had left the stage.

All in all it was a thoroughly entertaining night for anyone willing to let their hair down and just have fun. Green Day's lyrics will never be mistaken for Shakespeare but the band puts on a great show.