Fact or Fiction

Episode 2: "Summer Regional" - Bubbled at Both Cuts

• Squee's House of Pizza • Episode 2

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 1:17:26

Neal Sacks and Chris Roy recap a New England summer regional, one of the bigger events on the local calendar, run by Duress Crew and drawing a crowd that included players up from New York. It is a full tournament report aimed at anyone following the Northeast Premodern scene or curious how the paper metagame is pulling away from what Magic Online looks like. The headline is Chris going 5-0-2 with Psychatog and missing top eight in ninth on tiebreakers, undefeated and out.

Before the event the two talk through how they read the field, landing on Terrageddon, Oath Ponza, and Replenish as the decks to beat. Neal took Replenish to a 4-3 in his first paper tournament with the deck, including a game where an opponent's Meddling Mage named the wrong card and it happened to be Fact or Fiction. Chris goes round by round through the Psychatog run: a fast Sligh race against Hodge, an Aluren opponent flipping Form of the Dragon off Academy Rector, and the concession from Jason Grigley in the last round that set up the ninth-place bubble. They finish with the regional top eight, Landstill taking down the event, Stasis and HFeb over-performing, Goblins doing what Goblins does, and a Fact or Fiction verdict on Claire Ackerman's Gloom-and-Vindicate Oath Ponza.

Also in here: the charity raffle mystery pizza box and its Onslaught packs, a run of Melee signup headaches, and a case of pre-tournament poison ivy.

Chapters

00:00:16 - Reading the field and picking decks

00:10:16 - Tournament prep and signup woes

00:16:16 - The mystery pizza box

00:20:16 - Neal's 4-3 on Replenish

00:28:35 - Chris's 5-0-2 Psychatog run

01:01:16 - Ninth on the bubble, undefeated

01:08:02 - Top 8 and metagame breakdown

01:13:25 - Fact or Fiction: Claire's Oath Ponza 



Send us Fan Mail

Fact or Fiction is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.

Reading the field and picking decks

Neal

welcome to episode two of Fact or Fiction. I am Neal Sacks, joined today by New England regional top nine competitor, Chris Roy, fresh off of our, tournament at the, Duress Crews, quarterly regional tournament that we kinda talked about last week. Very big tournament for the New England area. We actually had a lot of people come up from New York as well too to kinda have that Massachusetts, New York, New England, New York rivalry going on which was pretty cool to see a lot of people there. because of the magnitude of the tournament, we had a little bit more preparation than normally would for, say, like a monthly tournament or just like an FNM, pick up the deck and go. A lot more thought process put into it, at least I did, and I'm sure, Chris you and the rest of the team members did as well. But if you wanna just kinda let us know how you prepared for this tournament and you got to that finish, that'd be great

Chris

Yeah, sure. So I'd say with a few weeks leading up to the tournament, I was paying attention to results from local tournaments such as the Yielding Monthly as well as local players, their Magic Online handles challenge results, and just trying to predict what I thought the top players and what the winner's meta game was gonna look like. And it was actually a little different than the Magic Online meta game where you see a ton of Stifle Nought. I thought in the New England meta, there would be a lot less. There are... Yeah, there are a lot of Terrageddon players. There's Oath Ponza, both the green-red Smokestack version as well as the green-white that can bring in Glowriders and Armageddons and such. So I thought those were gonna be two top decks that in addition to Money Ball, which would potentially drive Stifle Nought down, I thought there would also be Replenish. I pretty much had those as my top four decks it was a matter of trying to pick a deck that might match up decently well against most or all of them, and hopefully just get through the early rounds and face those decks that I was targeting in the top eight.

Neal

Yeah, that very similar to how I thought the meta game was gonna break down. At the last monthly, I'm pretty sure I was the only person playing Stifle Nought, so I imagined there would be a lot less. New England has a kind of- What's the word I'm looking for? A preconceived notion that we're a blue area of the country where there's a lot of blue decks being played. But I would argue that New England specifically it's a Terravore area. with the Oath Ponza deck doing well on challenges, recently I also expected a lot of Terravore. It's, always the most played deck at these kind of smaller local tournaments. the regional obviously a little bit bigger than a monthly or an FNM, but I expected a lot of Terravore. I think the one area where we differed in what we were thinking was I actually thought Moneyball was gonna be going down. it hasn't really been doing well locally lately. so because of that, impacted my thought process because obviously if Moneyball's a top deck, I'm gonna be slinging Lightning Bolts. There's just gonna be no thought about that. We're gonna play Lightning Bolt, and we're gonna win off the back of Cursed Scrolls. But less Moneyball and more Terravore and more Naturalize effects and more, God forbid, Zuran orbs coming out of the sideboard, Sligh was not in the cards for me, so to speak. so I wanted to be able to play something that had game versus the Terravore decks and then various combo decks, whether It's Replenish, HFEB's been doing okay, and Survival Madness has won back-to-back tournaments in our area. was my thought process for that as well too, and I, think other than the Moneyball thing, I think we had a, a very similar process, and I think our team thought the same thing as well too. in that regard, what deck did you end up going with based on your thoughts, and how, do you think that worked out?

Chris

It's interesting. I actually I, was considering Sligh, a- as, a deck. I, I thought potentially if you build it with maybe fewer one drops, go back to Ball Lightings, Sulfuric Vortex, I thought you'd do pretty well. Oh, and Price of Progress, of course. So I thought you'd do well against Oath Ponza, Terrageddon. even though if they are packing Zuran Orbs, it can be challenging. I thought the local sentiment was maybe less red hate in the board, so that is one of the reasons why I was considering it. And Sligh being it's, not favored against Replenish, I wouldn't say, but it's probably a coin flip. And of course,

Neal

a pretty decent game versus it. I like I don't mind the matchup. O- of course, it probably involves die roll a lot, but I, think there are worse decks you can play from the Sligh side

Chris

Sure. So yes, Sligh was a deck I was considering, and after the last ELD where I don't know, it was just like 100 degrees that day or something, and I'm thinking, "I don't know if I wanna play Psychotog again, have these like longer rounds and use all this brain power and everything just, exhausting myself." So I thought maybe it'd be better to have a faster deck. initially I was trying Sligh, and William and I got online, we were doing different leagues, and I had a list that I thought was pretty good, but then it was maybe just like one or two bad leagues where I went up against a ton of red hate and thought to myself, "I, I'm not totally confident in my read of, New England, and there might be people showing up with like blue-white control, you know, cop reds, and a bunch of blue blasts and stuff." So

Neal

Spoiler

Chris

I was thinking-

Neal

Landstill did win the event, so that is a, a good

Chris

Yeah. Exa- congratulations to Andy Voellmer. well done. so yeah, the other deck that I thought I might be able to tune for those four decks was Psychatog, which is what I had been playing. and you know, with that, I made a couple tweaks, moved some Tsabo's Webs to the main deck to target those Terravore decks and, added Sickening Dreams to kinda have more outs to Withered Wretch and Hypnotic Specter and also give some splash damage to some other match-ups like goblins and things like that, so

Neal

before the tournament when you were, waiting for Andreas to show up with some cards, and I said, "What cards do you need from him?" y- you had said Sickening Dreams and Engineer Plague, and I was like, "Did he pivot to Reanimator and I didn't hear this yet?" So I wasn't, I didn't, I hadn't seen Sickening Dreams in, in the Tog decks. but I, thought that was actually a pretty, pretty cool idea. And, how, did that end up working out?

Chris

Sickening Dreams was excellent, and actually, I believe I wanna properly credit Triple A, from the Psychotog Discord. I believe he was the one that had previously suggested using that, either in conjunction with Wonder or in place of Wonder. So you would usually use Wonder to fly over ground guys, but a lot of times you would sideboard it out. So a card like Sickening Dreams could also clear the ground so your Tog can get through while serving as a potential win condition sometimes if someone's damaging themselves with Ancient Tomb and they're not expecting it, or even just give you more chance against the go-wide decks like Elves or Goblins game one before you bring in the plagues to reinforce that

Neal

Yeah, no that makes a lot of sense. from my standpoint, on the decks that I was choosing between, obviously I Was Sligh is always my first read, but ended up playing Replenish, and it's a deck that I've been interested in for quite some time. very complex deck. A deck that when I first started playing the format, I lost to all the time. I think I was like for five the, first six matches I played against it And Brian? was a lot of them.

Chris

Yeah

Neal

I think my one win was actually, against, William because I had two lightning bolts in my Ponza deck and he did not see that coming and tapped an Ancient Tomb. going down to six life,

Chris

Nice

Neal

Ponza deck thinking he was safe, which he normally probably would've been. it's a very powerful deck. Obviously, it wins a lot of tournaments. Brian won, Lobstercon. The finals was a mirror. the past regional, the finals was a mirror. So even though a lot of people would be prepared for it, I figured this would be a good opportunity to get some live reps. One, one spot where you and I

Chris

popular human

Neal

in our preparation where, and I'm gonna say this the way you do it is, better, and the way that most people do it is better. I don't play online at all. I only play in paper. I went in with these being my first tournament reps of this deck. so I don't recommend that if your goal is to usually win a tournament. it works for me. Air quotes works for me. I went four and three. but it it's how I like to learn and it's how I like to play, so I figured, eh, why not? Let's dive into it. Same thought process with you with Tsabo's Web, I think being really strong, So I wanted a deck that could utilize that. I only played two copies in the sideboard. I wish I did three.

Tournament prep and signup woes

Neal

but yeah, I played Replenish. I probably would play that again, knowing what I know. but that's the thing about a meta game, changes week to week. I can't necessarily say I'd do that for next week's tournament. but it's definitely a deck I consider and obviously one of the S tier decks in the format

Chris

So I guess like, all right, we've talked about our deck selection process a little bit. any issues or any random stories leading up to a tournament on your end?

Neal

Leading up to it, no, pre- pretty smooth. I, got a workout done in the morning, had a good breakfast brought, my giant cooler of food. that's, the super secret tech right there, is always coming prepared with food and water. don't wanna sound like Hulk Hogan saying, "Eat your vitamins, say your prayers," but, if you're prepared for a tournament, in those long days with protein bars, fruit, lunch it can go a long way, especially when, For this tournament I was playing a deck that, plays a little bit of a longer game. I'm used to being usually one of the first matches done. I found myself, going to time once and going late into the round, several times. So having that type of preparation ahead of time I always find to be helpful, and it was especially more so this time. you?

Chris

I, remember just signing up for the tournament initially when it went live on the Sunday. I had my alarm set, all ready to go, and I log into Melee, try to like do my payment. It freezes, and I'm like, "Okay, fine." by the way, I'm trying to sign up for a tournament as I'm doing a video term report of the previous ELD just for the team. And then at

Neal

that

Chris

the very e- yeah, at that very end of it, it was a two-parter, because at the very end I'm like, "Oh, hold on one moment. I just have to sign up." And then the site's having issues and stuff, and I'm like, "Oh my God, I have to end this now." So that was a little stressful, but I eventually I got on, had to make a second account, but Jay from Dress Crew he, made sure I was in. so yeah that was nice. But other than-

Neal

with PayPal. Like I signed up and then it instantly refunded me, but it said I was enrolled, and then I had to pay again. So we're to Melee for this 'cause I know we previously used Spice Rack, RIP, no longer a thing. but I'm sure the kinks will get worked out with Melee as we go through more of these

Chris

Yeah. That wasn't the only thing though. Actually, the night that we recorded our podcast, actually earlier in the day, I was trying to beat the heat wave so I was, you know, mowing the lawn, weed whacking, all that stuff, and for whatever reason I thought it'd be a good idea to start ripping out some vines along our fence that previous sellers had. Uh, they had this wall of vines pretty much for, you know, years and years, and eventually it was getting a little unwieldy and I just started ripping some down. I was wearing gloves and everything, but after I filled up all my lawn waste barrels, I was, like, using the brown bags. You know, and those things tear, so I'm coiling everything up. Long story short, I ended up getting poison ivy or whatever... You know, some rash from that. So totally sucked, but I, was on the, the steroid that, like, the dermatologist gave for a few days. Still itchy, but that's pretty much, like, you know, nothing was stopping me, whether it was the site crashing Melee, my payment not going through, poison ivy, whatever. Like, I, I was going to attend the summer regional. I was ready to win it. that was the mindset I had but

Neal

That was funny when you, were talking about ripping out the wall of vines, the first thing that popped into my head was Wall Roots 0/5, and I was like, "Oh, he's putting a counter on it to add some green mana at it." But just dumb Magic humor.

Chris

You know, other than that, I'd say, day of the tournament, I did everything I could to keep it chill and relaxing, minimize stress. You know, I got up early, took care of things around the house, made my way down, which was about an hour and 15 minutes or so, but it was a nice day. beautiful drive. Get down there and, waiting to pick up some cars, as you referenced from Andreas, and he's not there. I get a text from him as I'm pulling into the parking lot that he's running late, and I'm thinking, "Okay, I, I gotta go buy the cards from the store or ask around." I, I just don't want anything to, I don't wanna leave anything to chance, whether it's, like, a flat tire or something. So that was kind of like a sweat that I didn't necessarily want, first thing. But eventually he showed up, JP Sam, and yeah so there were five of us in attendance this time, and it was awesome. Honestly getting to the venue, great stories, nice store, big, clean,

Neal

Lot of space, air condition

Chris

Y- yo, the air conditioning is wonderful, yeah. And not only that, there's a lot of food options nearby. So I'd only packed some protein bars, but I think there's a Star Market or a Shaw's or something, and a bunch of fast food that you can hit up if you have time to do so.

Neal

Yeah, no, definitely. And I know it was, it felt like a sweat waiting for Andreas to show up, but the great thing about Magic tournaments is that they never start on time. even though we were waiting for an 11 o'clock start, I think it was closer to 11:30 if I recall correctly

Chris

Yeah. Although that actually gave a chance to catch up with a bunch of people and just wanna say thank you to anyone that came up to any of us and gave feedback regarding the first episode. Appreciated that. It's always nice to see people from all over Tolarian PTA, they came up from Connecticut, bunch of Order of the Sacred Torch Sonny and Andy Voellmer, and SWB finally met him, so that was great. They came down from New York, so cool. And of course all the New England re- regulars, so Zoo Crew Duress Crew, everyone just catching up and also dropping

The mystery pizza box

Chris

off the mystery pizza box. So that was fun. Yep

Neal

get into the mystery pizza box in a second, but I just wanna echo the sentiment that I, also had a lot of people, reaching out to me, which was, surprising and awesome after just one episode. a lot of people say, "Hey, listened to your podcast. Hey, that was awesome. what- are you seemingly talking about this tournament in the next one? Is anyone else from your team ever gonna be on?" A lot of questions, a lot of feedback, and, overwhelming at first 'cause I was just not anticipating that. But, I thought that was really cool. So shout out to anyone listening. we appreciate it, even only after only one episode, we're in the second one now. Yeah, it just it's just really awesome But with the mystery pizza box, I guess it's no longer a mystery now because someone won it in the raffle, and they got, the bounty that was inside. we wanna share with, everyone, what we decided to, donate this time and kinda why we made that decision

Chris

Yeah, a number of us went to Gen X, in Portsmouth for a tournament a month or so ago, and we saw they had, Onslaught packs. So we're thinking, ooh, all the original Onslaught fetches. Those are great. Get three packs of that. You, have a, you have an okay chance of cracking a fetch or something else. there's other things in the set too, right? Like Exalted Angel, I believe is a Onslaught, right?

Neal

I think so. I

Chris

Yeah, Morph.

Neal

In there, because the, that's the morph set and there's a bunch of other stuff. I don't know why

Chris

Yeah

Neal

I thought of was Blistering Firecat. I just get the red cards in my

Chris

The

Neal

but

Chris

that, yes it is.

Neal

one.

Chris

yeah, so we end up going with three packs of Onslaught, a Squee dice bag with dice, the Wuburg poker chip set, the Squee's House of Pizza sticker, and also these are really cool. We had Brian... After Lobstercon, Brian wanted to make something for the crew to thank us for supporting him and all that, so he had all these different tokens designed, and they're super cool. So people like to someti- Yeah, people like to do the rock, paper, scissor game with the unglued cards, I think

Neal

Yep.

Chris

to determine...

Neal

paper tiger, scissor lizard. Yeah.

Chris

So they want to do that to determine play draw. So Brian did that with Squee's House of Pizza themed. So there was like rock, which is I think like the stone pizza...

Neal

the pizza stone, yep

Chris

The pizza stone. Scissors was like the knife or like the butcher knife or something,

Neal

The, the

Chris

or

Neal

cutter and the

Chris

pizza cutter.

Neal

The box.

Chris

the pi- yes.

Neal

I used it all day. I'm usually someone who prefers dice, high roll. I didn't

Chris

Yeah

Neal

my dice, which that was a mistake for some reason in my head. I thought I had no counters. I'm playing Parallax Wave and Decree of Silence, so I had to borrow dice all day. But I used the rock, paper, scissors all day, and everyone thought it was pretty cool, so

Chris

Yeah. And also, he made tokens for all the commonly played and uncommonly played, tokens in pre-modern. So there's even some like 4/4 beasts with pizza-themed things. So th- there was a... Oh, and also a morph token, which is really cool, but

Neal

for

Chris

that's...

Neal

angel, even though it

Chris

Yeah.

Neal

Could

Chris

No anything,

Neal

but it's usually an angel

Chris

so I think I don't... I can't find a picture right now. Offhand, I think that's everything that was in the, the mystery box, but hopefully whoever got it was happy, and maybe they cracked a f-

Neal

got it?

Chris

ah, I don't... I didn't see anyone post in the Discord, but that'd be cool to find out if... I imagine if somebody cracked like a foil Flooded Strand or something they'd be posting about it, but maybe they are keeping the pack sealed. I don't know

Neal

yeah whatever they wanna do with it. But if, you're listening and you're the one who won it, maybe sound off in the Discord, comment somewhere so we can kinda find out what you did with it. That would be pretty cool

Chris

So I guess, let's see. Is it worth going into the tournament itself at this point, or is there

Neal's 4-3 on Replenish

Chris

any other- Probably,

Neal

I didn't really have too much outside the tournament. Again, I was playing a lot of long matches we can dive into that a little bit. I, joked at the top of this episode that we had top nine competitor, Chris Roy. So it was a little bit of a teaser of what he'll go through. I'll just talk a little bit briefly of It was an interesting story behind that, obviously, not just a ninth place. I'll talk a little bit about my tournament just fairly briefly. I went four and three playing Replenish. Lot of good matches. I had a lot of fun playing the deck. Every single round, I played against a really strong opponent. There were no easy wins, and there were no matches where I really didn't have to use that much brain power. I had to think pretty much the entire time, No one really cares about a 4-3 especially someone who didn't do any testing and they're playing the deck for the first time. They, they're, they're not here for my Replenish expertise. If it was Brian talking, they, they'd wanna hear every single detail of every single game. Um I'm, fine just doing a quick summary. I'm not gonna go too much in depth into my tournament, 'cause again I, went four and three, but I did have a lot of fun. I had a lot of great games, like I said, against a lot of strong opponents. in round two I played against, Teddy Lockman, who's doing, really well this past year. won, two months ago, the, the monthly tournament, and has had pretty strong showing. so, so I played... replenish. Obviously he was not expecting that. I've never played it. A- after the first game where I did the full combo off pretty early, he picked up his cards, started shuffling, and he said, "When did you become a villain?" And I had to, I had to laugh at that.

Chris

Wait hold I gotta push back on that He played I think he top eighted a summer a regional with Reflet

Neal

He did. I

Chris

about

Neal

I played him in that one too, and I played red. But, yeah, it's, it's what... Maybe he considers himself a villain. I, I don't know. But the implication that, I, took it a different way. I took it the implication that mono red is the hero, and I will, I will stand by that, that,

Chris

Yeah

Neal

us sligh players are doing the, doing the good work against the bad guys. But I did, under his definition I guess, defect to, the villainous side for, for at least one tournament. so I thought that was pretty fun. We had a really good match. went three games and, had a lot, a lot of fun, a lot of tape play. Uh, another match... Oh, sorry, go ahead.

Chris

No I was just gonna ask if you had any other matches that were good

Neal

Yeah, I had, I'll, I'll, focus on two other ones. one I played against, Josh, Cicio he was playing, that next level Tog that he and, Aiden have, similar lists for. this was actually a, a rematch. he beat me in the top four of a monthly tournament, and, he actually took down the whole tournament with that deck. it was crazy, in that match. I jokingly said, I looked at one point, marked the life totals. I was up 28 to three on life, and I go, "Uh-oh. I know that that number doesn't e- end well for the team that's at 28." And, lo and behold, I, I did end up losing that game. But this time, again I, think one thing that was a little beneficial to me was playing a deck I don't normally play, and one of the reasons was, I was able to, in this game particularly, mask what deck I was playing up until, like, turn four. I started on basic island go on the first two. And last, turn, I played Dreadnought, so that, that's a pretty normal start for Dreadnought. the third turn I played, Adarkar Wastes as my third land drop, so that kind of eliminates Dreadnought at that point. But because I didn't play a three drop spell, maybe I'm land still in that situation, too. So he untaps, he plays Meddling Mage, and he sits there thinking. He's like, "What am I supposed to name here?" And funny enough, the card he named was Fact or Fiction, uh, which I thought was pretty funny. I was like, "Oh, that's the name of the podcast." Um, I don't know if he watched it or not or if that's why he thought about it, but I, I, I thought that was pretty funny. So if I was land still, maybe that's fine. But then I, uh, end of turn cast Intuition and combo'd off with the next turn, and he said, "Oh, if I just name Replenish, uh, I probably just win this game," and if he did, 100%, I I don't think I could've won from the state. I have to make a pretty different Intuition. I can't even think off the top of my head what I would've had to done, but it d- doesn't play the way that I play it that, that turn

Chris

Yeah so if you go Island Adarkar Wastes and you haven't cast anything I don't know what his hand was It's tough but uh I I thought he was gonna name Swords to Plowshares

Neal

I think that's a pretty safe name as well too. Yeah, or like Counterspell or Mana Leak or something. I, I don't think you name either of those because I probably just counter the, uh, the Meddling Mage if it comes in. So I think Swords to Plowshares is a pretty good default, but if, if your hand's strong enough and, like, you're not, like, losing to anything that Landstill has, uh, me and him talked it through after the match, and I think he said, "Even if I thought you were Landstill, I probably should just probably name Replenish here," and I, I, I tend to agree with him, because I just untapped, Frantic Search, got the card he let me have, go into the graveyard, and then just Replenished off. But he was a little unlucky. He mulliganed quite a few times against me, but even despite that they were, pretty decent games. And then the last match I want to talk about was, um, against, uh, SWB. Uh, first time meeting him and playing against him. Three-game match that was awesome. He was playing, uh, Stasis, which, counter to what I said, said in the previous match, I put him on Dread Nought on the first two turns of, uh, of, uh, game one, and, uh, he definitely got game one, uh, surprising me with a Stasis that I then tried to jam into and got countered. Uh, game two was a little bit more back and forth, a lot of fights over his, uh, Meddling Mages. But game three was the game that I really want to talk about, because it was insane, and it was awesome, and it was one of the most fun games I've played in a long time, and I lost that game. And I, I think there's something to say about being able to enjoy a game even if you don't win it. Rewind 10 years ago, and I lose that game, I'm probably upset. I probably don't have this perspective. Especially with, like, a PTQ, uh, GP, something like that. I'd probably be, like, pretty down, thinking, "Oh, what could I have done differently?" "I can't believe I lost that game." But I, um, he put a tournament report out and pretty much, summarized it pretty well, where I was able to Replenish off, but I had everything but, the Parallax Wave. So it was kind of plan to attack with, like, Decree of Silence, Attunement, and, some Seal of Cleansings, and just kill him in two turns quickly, and hopefully the Decree of Silence is good enough. He was able to, play three spells by Dazing one of his own things, and then

Chris

Nice

Neal

bounce, Opalescence, counter it on the way back down. I was just in awe. I was like, "Wow, that's insane." Because then I just had, like, Attunement and two, two, uh- seal of cleansing's in play. it ends up going all the way- we started that game with probably, like, 20 something minutes left, and we ended up going to turns, and he ended up beating me, I think, in turn one or two. I forget who... I was active player, so, so it was turn, it was turn one, effectively my turn two was a Black Vice. Where he was able to add a, a huge upheaval. I had pretty much no threats left. I was, like, digging to, like, another Meddling Mage or my second Exalted Angel to try and close out the game. And, he said, "Trigger Black Vice." I counted I was gonna take 15 damage, and I was at exactly 15 life. And that's where I learned, uh, you know, Ancient Tomb actually does kind of matter, and I probably shouldn't have been tapping it as much. But I think I still lose anyways, because I, I take, uh, a few more damage on the next turn. I couldn't get all the cards out of my hand. But it was awesome. Um, he

Chris

That's

Neal

w- he ended up top eighting. really fun match, really f- really friendly, and, we talked about it afterwards, too, and it was just awesome. And I think, more people, could, have that mindset. And again, it's, it's easy for me to say, having played for just so long, being numb to losing at this point and just, like, accepting that it's part of the process. Like I said, 10 years ago I would've not been having the same conversation. I'd be, I'd be probably talking about it as a bad beat instead of a, a cool story, those were the highlights from my tournament. I know I've been just going off a little bit, not really too much structure. if I had a better result, I'd probably, or if I had better knowledge of the deck, like I said, it was my first tournament with it, I'd probably go into

Chris's 5-0-2 Psychatog run

Neal

a little bit more detail. But I think the highlights are fine for now, and you can get more detail, whenever I play Red again. But Chris, I know you play, Psychatog a lot. had a really good tournament. pretty much a rollercoaster of, some results, some ultimate highs, some, some lows. so why don't you dive in and let us know how your tournament went?

Chris

I just wanna wind back for a second

Neal

Yeah, sure. I'm just trying to push past it, but yeah, you can... No, I'm just kidding

Chris

no you going four and three with your first time no Magic Online testing at all

Neal

no

Chris

games under your belt with Replenish I I think that's really good considering the field has so many so many good players you just named off three excellent players like all tournament winners the match against SWB I have to read that report it does Is it on a

Neal

Where He, he posted to his Substack. It's on Twitter. I think I, I liked and commented on there. X, Twitter, whatever. I'm always gonna call it Twitter. I... Round one I played against Jon Cawley. I, played against Andreas. I played against a lot of str- I played against I think it's Josh Clough. I apologize if I'm

Chris

Oh

Neal

HFeb Yeah yeah, I apologize if I'm pronouncing his last name incorrectly, but played a good match against him, against HFeb where he just absolutely destroyed me. So yeah, a, a lot of strong opponents, definitely

Chris

I gotta read that SWB report Sounds like he threaded the needle for perfect damage That that's awesome So

Neal

Yeah, it w-

Chris

congratulations to Congratulations on the top eight and

Neal

it was, really well done

Chris

for

Neal

Yeah

Chris

New York came down took the tournament down SWB top eighted That's awesome so

Neal

Now we just gotta do the same to Sacred Torch and kinda return the favor to keep that rivalry going, so W- why don't you let us hear about the Psychatog adventures.

Chris

Yeah sure So my day also all my opponents

Neal

they

Chris

were like

Neal

They

Chris

ranged from good to excellent I played against a lot of tournament winners champions and I do like what you said about taking something away even in a match that you lose Stuff you can take from it and just appreciating the awesome gameplay that the format provides and I think yeah 10 years ago I'd be more upset about losing and

Neal

losing

Chris

to an upheaval black vice or whatever the case now it's just Oh wow Dude you totally got me That was sick so let's see do you want me to go round by round briefly touch on some highlights

Neal

Yeah I, think, it'd be cool 'cause your, tournament record I'll give a spoiler for people. It was 5-0-2, but we didn't get to 5-0-2 with a 5-0 double draw. So I think it would be kinda cool to kinda just take us through the journey of your tournament and how that record came to be

Chris

Yeah round one I played against Peter from I think he came up from Rhode Island I think he recently got into premodern but is more affiliated with old school Really nice guy he was playing Replenish he took a couple mulligans during the match but I hit him with Duress to get some action and eventually just chained some AKs drew cards and closed it out I di I I like to give out swag buttons stickers poker chips things like that but I was running empty So after the round

Neal

I did the opposite of you where I, brought all my poker chips and I forgot to give a single one out. So apologies. We'll do that at the next dinner. Sorry to cut you off there

Chris

That's right After after the round I went over to see Billy and get some tickets for the charity raffle And I usually don't put tickets in for myself Maybe I'll do one just because it's one less thing I have to focus on during this tournament I like to contribute to the charity and give away tickets but So I saw Pete and I was like Hey good luck put in for the mystery box It's a good one

Neal

Yeah, I d- I did I do something similar sometimes. I remember at LobsterCon, Billy was going around with the tickets, and I gave him the money. Said he started to get the tickets. I go "No I don't, want the tickets. I just wanna make the donation. I don't wanna have to worry about paying attention to that as well too." So similar mindset as you when it comes to that.

Chris

So yeah I start off won both my games and 10 Round two I get paired against Hodge the commissioner of the Crew Clash League Hodge you're the man And yeah take a mulligan and I have two Smothers of which I could keep both if I think he's on Dreadnought which you know he's been before but I wasn't positive I just I shipped one Smother to the bottom kept a more balanced hand and he goes turn one Jackal Pup and I'm

Neal

Nought Oh boy So this is gonna be tough and I got pretty lucky that first game in him missing his third land drop because allowed me to It bought me just enough time where I had to play my s fourth land I think which was a second island to then gush to go back down to two land in play just to find a Psychatog which played the Tog Yeah Jackal Pup Doesn't really match up well against Tog unless I go all in and then he tries to bolt it before damage or something Obviously I'm not gonna be Got by that But that's a good play though I've made it against people online It's pretty funny Yeah so I got that one Game two he played very well and he was just flinging burn spells at my face and got to a point where yeah I c I used Powder Keg to clear the board of a Fanatic A Grim Lavamancer and a Jackal Pup he held back a Curse Scroll very smartly between that and Barbarian Ring I didn't have a basic swamp so I couldn't actually tap my Underground River and Yeah he He put me down low so my mana became an issue Game three really tight Our match was so fast It was like probably 15 20 beauty, that's the beauty of Sly. Yeah one way or the other very quickly

Chris

Yeah I think game three I just had the right amount of blue blast hydro blast just to stabilize and get there with Tog but the match was tight so you know off to

Neal

it's,

Chris

good start

Neal

it's funny, I was sitting next to Hodge, I wanna say round four, and I turned over and I looked, and he had a Jackal Pup, a Barbarian Ring, some Mountains in play, and I was like, "What is going on here?" I had to do a double take 'cause he's normally on some sort of blue deck or he plays white weenie sometimes as well, too. And he's like I thought it was a good meta call." Talked to him about it afterwards, and he was saying with Oath Ponza, he expected a lot of replenish, and I agreed with his logic. Was a little jealous in his deck choice, but I still had a lot of fun, too.

Chris

Yeah that's what I was telling him too I said I almost played Sly and then I just ran up against Cop Red and Blue Blast and I got a little scared So I didn't wanna take I didn't wanna take chances and just get hated out so I was gonna do it with Tog if at all and just the hard way Yeah

Neal

round

Chris

three I get paired against Brian Phelan who

Neal

Oh yeah

Chris

Hodge he's a champion of the Team Unified format Yeah I think that was like last yeah last November

Neal

and

Chris

also he was runnerup player of the year for ELD runnerup to Brian Tzu of course but his one of his teammates Brian Phelan also won the Team Unified event and I'm playing against him in round three He's on Replenish so you know first three rounds I get replenished twice And game one I actually I got him pretty good with my main deck on the hull That caught an Attunement pretty much he couldn't assemble the combo I was able to draw some Duresses and counters close things out Game two I can't believe how much hate he had in his sideboard for control So he had everything He had Abeyance he had Defense Grid Meddling Mage Exalted Angel everything

Neal

caught the tail end of that game and saw the d- defense grid in play and just everything. I was like, "That, this is crazy."

Chris

Yeah so it got to a point where even with all the threats he had I still was in a pretty good spot He face up cast an exalted angel after a Meddling Mage tapped out and I had Sickening Dreams for five to clear it away but that put me on a low amount of cards in hand I think I just had a null

Neal

and

Chris

maybe a couple o lands that I was just holding for Tog And bluffing right So I think he had a couple cards and he goes for a defense grid and I have a lot of lands in play I'm thinking this could be bait He might have the last card in his hand could be Opalescence but he was just jamming He was just hoping that I have three cards in hand maybe I don't have a counter So he jammed the grid

Neal

I

Chris

Thought about it He let it resolve and I think it could've been all right if the cards came off the top a little differently but it favored him He was able to build up enough resources to push through because I didn't have enough mana to cast foil pay for the grid cast a second foil He lined up very nicely I think Abeyance and instant replenish So yeah he locked me out and going to game three there's not much time left

Neal

Yeah, I can't believe that game had the time with it. But just real quick before you go into that I, think one part I wanted to hop on where you said off the top maybe if it played better I think that's one of the beauties of Replenish, and what was drew me to it is a lot of decks, your top decks, they get you back in the game or they keep you in the game, or they progress your game. And when you're in that top deck state with Replenish, your top decks usually just end the game. Lo- lock your opponent out, and so I'm not surprised that in that top deck war he, was a little favored in that spot

Chris

Yeah Yeah so game three we don't have much time left at all maybe five minutes We're just trying to frantically shuffle up and he goes turn two Meddling Mage which I foil pitching an AK and then I cast an AK for two and you know the whole thing with AKs it's the lamest feeling I think But I just chained AKs I draw four and then I'm able to get Tog and gush Impulse attack for lethal pretty quickly He couldn't believe it just cause just of how little time we had left in the round but he's a good sport about it and wished me luck and everything So they were tight games

Neal

I thought for sure we were looking at a draw that game three, but the way it lined up with all those AKs, that was just absolutely crazy and just happened. I think it was like exactly lethal you had with the, Tog attack and turns or something like that

Chris

Yeah the gush got me there as it usually does plus six and a half so real good off to an awesome start three and O feeling good and I've played against Replenish twice now and that's one of the decks that I pick Tog to have a good shot against and round four I get Replenished again only this time it is Mike Packer and Mike Packer he he's been playing Replenish for a long time Excellent player Plays all sorts of decks too I think he he crushed at LobsterCon last year I think he top eight with Enchantress He won I believe a couple monthlies with Enchantress too so

Neal

I've played him twice, and the two times I played him it was Sly and Parfait. So he's got, he's got a wide range of decks that he likes to play

Chris

Yeah And one thing I'll say after the match too I'll just say it right now like he started this last year where at the end of the match he'll have a card from the deck that he's playing at that tournament and he has his opponent sign it And I hadn't played him for don't know like a year and a half like almost two years actually Last time I played him was in August of 24 And so he only introduced the like the card signing thing last year and I'm like Wow this is really cool tribute that you're doing and

Neal

I think it's awesome.

Chris

Yeah,

Neal

Yeah I signed a, goblin patrol. I signed a Gaia's blessing, and I actually played him a third time on Angry Wolf again. I don't remember what I signed for that one

Chris

Yeah So I think it's really cool But I knew it was gonna be a tight match I was ready to give it my best shot And then game one he wins the die roll keeps seven which is never good when the person's playing Replenish and they keep seven But I mull to five and that is it I'm not gonna give up it But it seems like it's gonna be a quick loss My hand is something like it's d it's Polluted Delta Duress Gush Impulse Counterspell is that five Yeah so those five

Neal

That's right

Chris

A and I'm thinking like Okay I only have one land and it's a Delta I need two Islands for Gush but it could potentially undo a mulligan This is probably better than going to four cards Either way I'm probably gonna lose quickly so you know Basically he goes turn two Attunement off Island Ancient Tomb and I don't draw a second land so even though I don't wanna crack the Delta I have no choice I crack it for Swamp I Duress some action out of his hand and still thinking I'm gonna lose But the way it plays out I keep drawing lands and I'm back in it and it just prolongs the game But eventually he puts it away after just building up enough resources And that ends up being pretty unfortunate f to how the match finished because game two it's again long and drawn out we're both trying to set up and try to strip away his things with Duress and counter whatever threats I need to Tog in there He has Parallax Wave and I'm just chipping in for one and he doesn't wave it out until he needs to And eventually I draw enough cards with AKs Fact or Fiction and I win that game but not left with much time for game three So there's only two minutes on the clock and I've I'd been holding in I had to go to the bathroom the entire match I guess you can call a judge and ask for a bathroom break but I

Neal

You can

Chris

I what I didn't care I was in it I was playing

Neal

You're in the zone. You're in a not, for, to intend a pun 'cause I didn't think it was a pun till I said it, but you were in a flow state at that point, so you didn't need to go to the bathroom

Chris

Yeah So with two minutes left we could in theory both win or present a win But I am like Do you wanna just take the draw We have a break whatever I'll hit the restroom He's like Yeah sure Awesome player awesome opponent and wish each other luck Hopefully that we meet again in the top eight it's just too bad that the way game one played out where I thought for sure I was gonna lose quickly I I'm the kind of person where if I know I definitely can't win or if my odds of winning the game are very low I'll just pack it up really quickly because you have to save time for games two and three But I just kept getting more hope e with every land drop and the way he was bricking Yeah it's just one of those things So I took a f unintentional draw 30 and one now But

Neal

Undefeated

Chris

Yeah undefeated still Yeah at this point with a draw so early in the tournament I'm not sure exactly what I'm gonna get paired against and Again I didn't have a easy match in round five cause I was up against Corey Abrams who's a long time grizzled veteran I read tournament reports that I think were on the dojo from him I saw him top eight extended PTQ's way back in the day I was talking to him about it So I know him from way back And playing a really cool build of Aluren So it was tricky He had like veteran explorer diabolic intent academy rector all sorts of things Like I'm I'm familiar with kind of recently played Sam Black blue green Aluren deck but also just the kind of more traditional no diabolic intent that kind of stuff Just where

Neal

Yeah

Chris

Duress therapy and a lot of creatures But he had a bunch of stuff that caught me off guard over the course of the match and just a really cool deck build game one let's see yeah game one is pretty funny I Duress an an Aluren away and then later he casts Cabal Therapy and he flashes back he names Foil and I don't have Foil But then he casts He he jams Aluren and gush into Foil So it's like that that whole thing

Neal

Thoughtseize bug

Chris

but exactly Yeah. So I'm able to win that game and I'm feeling pretty good because I, brought in some engineer plagues some Annuls. Go into game two thinking Okay we'll see how it goes I'm expecting to have things like Xantid Swarm Which he did had a turn one but he's not drawing any mana that's not green so he's just playing like Xantid Swarm couple other things like a Spike Feeder a City of Solitude So he had a lot of the anticontrol deck covered between Therapy Swarm City and it's pretty tough for me in my hand I have couple Psychatogs Sickening Dreams Plague The only issue is I have just one black source So he plays Academy Rector and I'm thinking Okay he's probably gonna get Aluren right I

Neal

Yeah

Chris

list He could ha Honestly he could have anything and he sure did But my plan was to Sickening Dreams away his board He gets Aluren I put two Togs into play on my turn because he has a City of Solitude and then from there just hope he kind of bricks and I play Plague and just play stuff out that way Unfortunately when the rector triggered he got Form of the Dragon and I was like Oh Oh man that's one of favorite cards

Neal

I just gotta shout out how awesome that was. Like, that, I know it was not good for you, but that's what's awesome about this format is just stuff like that. You don't see that coming, but that is just so awesome. Form of the Dragon shout out that card

Chris

I had to give him props on that it I think my jaw d my jaw totally dropped I was like Oh boy Yeah I still I fortunately still had one out I didn't have many turns to get it but I had a re one remaining Sickening Dreams in the deck Which I couldn't find and he just burned me out over a few turns so really cool Yeah, Game three I think he took a couple mulls but he goes with a turn one Swarm which I foil and we're just playing draw go Then should I get Tog and we just end up running out of time Unfortunately we get to turns I think I'm gonna get there but he has Man -o- War to delay me just enough and gum up the board and that was it so another very sadly unintentional draw I I don't think either of us played slowly or anything it's just the matchup itself was a grind it always is when you're a blue deck going against Cabal Therapy They're stripping your hand away and also presenting threats And game two was just nuts potentially I could have played differently game two if I thought about Form of the Dragon but

Neal

Yeah why didn't you think about that? Come on.

Chris

That that's the thing Sometimes I'm like if I make a play I'm thinking I don't know all 5000 cards in the format could be something maybe I should play around but do the best you can nice guy though And yeah I am 3-0-2 at this point but I'm still feeling good I want to come into the day playing crisply just get five quick wins and then double draw That's what I wanted to do I'm 3-0-2 You know what At this point I'm fine with it I just have to win the next two rounds I'm in that that's what I'm thinking so

Neal

With the the, the, X-0 double draw it's been something I've been thinking about for a while. I do it every single time I'm in that spot. But every time I think, "Maybe I should play this out." But as I know the seeding does matter, and we've had a lot of weird bubble spots in tournaments where sometimes X-0-2 doesn't get there. Spoiler. I had a, Legacy Cup at MagicCon Vegas in 2024, 2025. 2025 where because they didn't have the event capped correctly, four people went X-0 double draw, and I was X-1 looking to draw the last round, and my opponent was saying, "We can't." I said, "Okay if you don't wanna draw, I guess we're playing." Ended up winning, but because of the amount of people in the tournament and because they didn't do the round capping correctly, X-0-2 with a double draw, not unintentional draws, one of them got ninth place. A- And that's, I know you'll go into it a little bit more, but that's crazy to me. But I know you got two more rounds to go through, so we'll tease that a little bit throughout this whole episode

Chris

Yeah sure anyways I'm just thinking get the next two I'll be fine I had a couple protein bars it's not much but it's something Had some water just trying to refresh myself a bit and I'm thinking Okay I'm gonna get a feature match at some point right I'm still I'm gonna win out but round six I get paired against Connor I think Connor Haley from I believe he's Yeah Deranged Hermit Really cool dude he's playing Iggy Pop and I don't actually have experience with Psycho Tog against that deck so I don't know if it's a good matchup or not After the match he said that a good matchup for Tog was a little scared because I'm thinking Oh he's got Storm I'm gonna get Brain Freezed out or something and I don't have Stifle Dreadnought does So I play it pretty pretty cautiously I Duressed Intuition out of his hand counter another Intuition I'm thinking I have to not let that card resolve because I don't want him to get triple Deep Analysis And again I'm not real familiar with Iggy Pop so maybe they're not even running Deep Analysis

Neal

I have no familiarity with that deck, so I have played against it zero times

Chris

Yeah. so I'm able to do that game one and it's funny where I get to the point I know his hand and then I have Psychatog and I cast Portent on him Portent is the best I look at the top three cards of his deck I'm like y okay you can have these two cards that are blanks Your hand is blank and I'll just get you over the next couple turns And the third card down is the thing that would win the game but at that point it's a wrap that's my favorite use of Portent love it Yeah

Neal

Yeah Under, underutilized, but really cool

Chris

Yep game two I'm expecting either Swarm or Orim's Chant or something like that and that's what he has He has Orim's Chant which I'm able to duress a couple away and eventually just you know stick a Tog out there when there's an opening and have counters to protect myself So maybe it wasn't as close as I felt it was just cause I needed the last two rounds but the games were pretty good and nice guy I think at this point I'm 4-0-2 I'm like All right this is my win and in I if you ask me at the start of the day would I take this spot being one win away from top eight Sure it's not the way I was planning initially like I wanted to 5-0 double draw But I start with three wins get two draws and then just win two more and then go from there back in the top eight And round seven yeah so round seven Yeah, I like go into the restroom I wash my hands all that freshen up I'm like Yeah I'm on the feature match for sure 100% But it's my win and in I'm defending champion But anyways I get I walk over and I check the pairings And the the thing with Melee which is annoying is that people's names aren't always in it so you don't know who you're playing I'm paired against somebody named Grigis or something like that and I don't know who it is But as I make my way to the table I see a friendly face you know waving at me and I'm like Oh my gosh this is Jason Gregley awesome dude He also The Man you wanna talk about a tough field I play against all all good opponents all day And Jason Grigley another champion He won the first Unified Premodern event That was last August I think so he won that with Will Holland and Brendan Dougherty Brendan Dougherty also had an amazing finish He came in 11th with Stasis which is really cool

Neal

Yeah Jason's a pretty cool guy. I, I got to know him a little bit recently. He's actually who I got my, uh, replenish cards from, so been talking with him at a few tournaments, uh, in between rounds since then and, um, picking his brain on a couple of things. So, um, it's pretty, uh, pretty, um, pretty cool that you got paired against him in the last round

Chris

Yeah So as I'm making my way to the table I'm like Oh man Well I wi I wish we could both make top eight that's too bad only one of us gets like I'd rather face you in the top eight and he's like top eight I'm playing for top 16 I'm like What So apparently he was 4-2 so I got paired down And I was just like Okay would you like to concede And he Such a nice guy he thinks for like two seconds and then he's like Yeah. sure He's like Good luck on the top eight basically no hesitation whatsoever He

Neal

Yeah Real classy move. Great guy

Chris

a real yeah real classy And he was actually playing Oath Ponza greenwhite and That that's one of the decks that I prepared for have yet to lose to in testing I actually played against him in the previous monthly and we had tight games but I won that match At the same time It's Magic and I'm thinking Okay If he can't make top eight What's What does it hurt to ask And Yeah he's really nice To Scoop it up I said Hey do you wanna play some triple A He's like Yeah let's do it Because he was telling me about this Spicy brew that he made at the last monthly so we finally

Neal

what do you ha- what do you have

Chris

it

Neal

in it? 'Cause I've been dabbling in triple A little bit too. Shocker, I'm playing Mountains and Lightning Bolts, but, I'm curious what he was playing

Chris

So he had I wanna get this right he had a blackwhite deck

Neal

where

Chris

there was this one drop Initiate of the Ebon Hand I think that can

Neal

Yep

Chris

mana to make black mana But he has that and he also has Ashnod's Altar and Enduring Renewal and some other thing he has maybe it's a fivecard combo It's really ambitious but I'll give him props for it

Neal

That's what Triple A's for though

Chris

It is yeah unless you're me and you're boring you just play Sligh or whatever But

Neal

What's boring? Oh hold on. I take offense to that. What's boring about Sligh Come on.

Chris

Yeah Hey I have Orcish Librarian though That's a top eight Lobstercon card

Neal

too is. Shout out Stu

Chris

yeah Yeah so Jason had a really cool spicy brew in triple A

Neal

played

Chris

a few played a few games and yeah after that I just got okay go collect my thoughts for a bit and

Neal

see

Chris

how the rest of the crew's doing And

Neal

at

Chris

that point JP was four and two and he got paired against Josh Cicio I think they end up They drew that round Andreas won his last round He was five and two so I'm like all right He's top 16 Let's go this is a good showing for the crew for CCL and all that And I'm just trying to be in a zen mode and stay focused And

Neal

We were feeling pr- we were feeling pretty good at that point at least I'm sitting there thinking, I was like, "Awesome. We've got a top s- we've got a top 16. We've got a top eight." I'm even saying, I was like, "Yeah, I'm probably gonna have to head home early 'cause I'm feeling tired." And then I snapped out of it. I was like no, I'm staying. Chris is in the top eight, teammate's in the top eight. We're gonna we're, gonna, we're gonna see it through." And we were riding pretty high.

Chris

Yeah

Neal

And then,

Chris

yes I

Neal

that's when the hero's downfall happened

Chris

Yeah so it's funny cause 2024 I won with Stasis the only person playing the deck I almost won the Fall 25 only person playing blueblack Tide control And it just so happened. that I looked at Hodge's metagame breakdown Apparently I was the only person playing blueblack Psychotog today or at the regional And I'm thinking like Okay pretty cool the metagaming is paying off and just picking the right decks getting what things are lining up and we'll see how it goes in the top eight I knew there was a an HFeb deck that was gonna be tough but other decks that were there I thought I I had a pretty good shot

Neal

One's two Terra of Vore, Landstill, Stasis. That's a, pretty decent top eight for you minus, minus H web

Chris

Yeah and goblins with me having the four plagues plus the four blasts this time plus two sickening dreams all the good stuff

Neal

We ta- we talked about this at the beginning of the tournament where I always dismiss goblins a bunch, and goblins, it always feels like a top eights one at the, these regional events. There's always a copy in there. So I, maybe have to reevaluate my process a little bit. Goblin lackey's a heck of a card, and yeah, another, another strong finish by goblins at this tournament. Yeah, sorry to, again, keep interjecting, but that, that was something we had talked about at the beginning that I, w- I hadn't mentioned, and gob- goblins is just, it's always crushing these events. It's crazy

Chris

Swiss ends they have the final standings and they announce the top 16

Ninth on the bubble, undefeated

Chris

They go from 16 to nine and I'm waiting for him to say Andreas name so they go through listing everyone off They keep going and then I'm thinking like I'm trying to count numbers in my backwards in my head and I'm thinking Whoa did Andreas get ninth cause they're not calling There's they're I didn't r I wasn't even thinking that he could not make top 16

Neal

Yeah

Chris

I didn't know how many people were like X-2 or whatever But then they then at the very end Billy's like And in ninth place Chris Roy And I was like What

Neal

My my eyes like popped out of my head. I was like, "What?"

Chris

Yeah Yeah it's funny I learned how to play Magic with Portal in like 97 98 but I've been playing tournaments since 2000 So that's a long time and I've been on every end of the draw the bubble all that stuff So I've Come in ninth where I've offered a draw thinking I was safe to make top eight and I just drew myself out I've had the opposite happen like be offered to me and I take the draw and then they bubble out I've been ninth place a bunch of times at like old PTQ's going X-2 like 5-2 things like that Maybe they were smaller fields I've bubbled being X-1 and one Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that like an X-0-2 would not make top eight that's like a pristine record

Neal

Yeah. Didn't lose going home. The, only time that feels like it should be the case is when you win the whole event. But yeah, it's crazy

Chris

Yeah so I was one of two undefeated players on the day I was thinking about it I'm like this is so weird because if you were to compare it to the World Series of Poker or something I don't feel like I was eliminated from the tourna I know I didn't make top eight but I don't feel like I was eliminated from the tournament I didn't take a single loss It's almost like somebody just took my stack of chips and were like you're not at the final table,

Neal

make the final table you're out of here. But it is a little different 'cause we know tiebreakers are a thing and,

Chris

Yeah

Neal

it

Chris

I've never s the last two regionals I believe ninth and 10th were both X one and one Never in my I'd never seen anything like it I don't know if I'd chalk it up to just some fluke thing or just

Neal

I-

Chris

we're

Neal

it's not, it's it's not a fluke though because like I know your, y- your two draws were not intentional, which means there are other people that didn't have intentional draws, and that does change the math a little bit. So it, it is reasonable that it happened, but definitely doesn't feel good. I get I get that. It definitely feels horrible. I remember we were all standing outside afterwards "Andreas got 17th you, got ninth," and I'm sitting there thinking, I was like, "We were on top of the world like 10 minutes ago. What, what, have happened?" And we're all sitting there, I was like, "We just gotta get out of here. We, just gotta go home and lick our wounds and go from there." But yeah, it is 5-0-2 not making it does feel not great, but it's not like you double drew yourself out of it. There were some other circumstances involved too, so I'd take some solace in that if I were you

Chris

Yeah I was happy with how I played on the day I had tight matches all friendly opponents good opponents yeah I guess it's just how it shook out I in the last round like I I could have played I could've get paired against some I could have been paired against somebody else and had to I don't know just it all it all seems to kinda hinge on who I got paired against in the last round And I know I ha I know he scooped to me I would've honestly I would've preferred to play on the feature match cause I really thought it was a win and in

Neal

Yeah. Yeah, you kept thinking all day you were getting it. It's it's pretty cool. I, like being on the feature match. It's cool to be able to actually go back and watch your matches, so it's something I'm always looking forward to as well, too. But yeah, it just the breakers, it was, I think you were off by 2%, and just after your draws getting paired down, you must have got paired down several rounds in a row, and I'm sure that didn't... I know it didn't help the case, so

Chris

I think it So when I was 3-0 and one I got paired against a 3-1 so that's a cross slash down a bit then in round six I got paired against a four and one when I was 3-0 and two So I actually got paired up right And then I got paired down so it was like a rollercoaster of a tournament but also of like my pairings once I had that first draw Yeah

Neal

Yeah that's how it breaks sometimes. But again it's a strong finish. Obviously not the one you want in the, moment. But look back at it, great showing and you had the best performance of everyone on our team. Something to be proud of even if it's... We live in a kind of an all or nothing state sometimes, at least I do, where I s- I do have a tough time sometimes separating a good result. And I think I was saying to you, it's just like being upset about it just shows, like, how you have that competitive drive and want to be that champion and always being in a position to make a top eight shows you have the skill to back it up as well, too. So i- it stinks. We, got another tournament next week, another opportunity to get a top eight, to get a win, go from there

Chris

We do not only that though actually I thought of it when I was driving home not necessarily that night but the following morning My drive home by the way I had been Like I was talking about the poison ivy after that tournament after like bubbling out Yeah, it was like an itchy drive home let's just say not only that I was trying to listen to the stream on my phone but my phone kept glitching out or something so that sucked but the next morning I'm thinking like this is I spent all this mental energy not nothing really to show for it and I felt bad that that Jason had scooped me and I didn't even top eight right And he If he if we played it out and he beat me he definitely We looked at his breakers he would've been top 16 So I reached out to him on Discord I said Hey why don't we play our match sometime with the same deck lists and the winner gets the opalescence that I got for Ninth place or whatever So

Neal

Yeah I think that's cool

Chris

Yeah. and he's to he's a totally chill guy he's like Sure it's totally unnecessary but let's do it yeah so I'm looking forward to that whenever it happens and

Neal

Yeah Cool. Yeah, no, that's awesome.

Top 8 and metagame breakdown

Neal

Do we wanna break down the top eight a little bit and give some context to some people who might be outside of the region, maybe didn't see it, maybe didn't look at M- MTG top eight? Enchantress and Dreadnought have just been really going down in our area at least, and I, I don't really know why. It just feels like people have s- steered away from those decks. So I think why don't we, um, dive into the, the top eight here. So we had Landstill taking down the event. Uh, there was HFeb. Again, I had mentioned Goblins. Um, there was Terrageddon,

Chris

Terrageddon

Neal

Enchantress,

Chris

of

Neal

two Oath of Druids decks, one labeled Oath of Druids, one labeled Oath Ponza. I think they were both Oath Ponza, but that just might be a MTG top eight thing, and then Stasis. So yeah, that, that, that's our top eight. very diverse metagame in the, the whole room. very diverse, set of decks in the top eight. Obviously a bunch of Terravore decks, but with some different flavors as well, too. I think one thing that is very clearly missing from here is the, boogeyman of the format, and that is Dreadnought. Dreadnought has not been performing that well in our, local meta recently. And, I know that's the opposite of Magic Online. I know there's a lot of, Dreadnought roaming around there in the challenges and whatnot, but, whatnot Dreadnought. but yeah, a notable absence here again.

Chris

again

Neal

something to keep a track of as we, go forward and try to make decisions on what we plan for the next couple tournaments. I know we have another ELD,

Chris

You the

Neal

New England monthly tournament as well as, there's Sacred Torch coming up in New York, so we'll have, two sets of tournaments to talk about before the next episode. Yeah, Dreadnought, um, not, um, not showing up in our area that much. I know you, uh, have a, a, an affinity for, and that is, uh, Stasis

Chris

First of all we Justin Provencal you gotta get back on Stiflenought. We need you to put big finish with that deck again

Neal

he's, he's one of the reasons why, uh, Oath Ponza is popping up. He's been, he's been crushing the challenges online, so, um, he, he's, he's pivot- pivoted for sure

Chris

All right But yeah Stasis I was so delighted to see Stasis top eight again once again congratulations SWB What an amazing showing And he was saying that he didn't have a ton of reps in with Stasis so to play as well as he did and thread the needle and your matchup in in particular are just really awesome very impressed

Neal

and

Chris

there was also Stasis by Brendan Dougherty a local player came in 11th so two Stasis decks in the top 16 Yeah that's what I'm talking about Love to see that And hey they banned Tide so we have to go back to Stasis oth other notable notable decks in the top 16 So there were two two Hfeb decks Yeah that that's having a bigger meta share than we would've seen a year ago

Neal

Agree

Chris

I I I heard on the commentary Brad Stone was saying that Magic Online really unlocked HFeb and everyone's ability to get practice in with it So it was a very good point by him and I actually I wanna pick up the deck myself It looks really fun

Neal

I'm not gonna lie when Josh crushed me, I was like, "He's using Triskelion. This looks pretty sick."

Chris

Yeah

Neal

definitely on my radar to, to, look at as well too. Really cool, really large part of the meta game which is, really crazy to think one year ago, but obviously had a great showing at LobsterCon and has been picking up on Magic Online here as well too, so really cool deck. That all the decks are cool decks, but that, that one in particular

Chris

E even though so Enchantress it seems locally has been on the decline but I believe Rich Shea had a good showing and also Jason LaFarte Boston Snorlax he's just he's tried and true

Neal

he's

Chris

A Enchantress player to the end and he keeps putting up awesome results with it So he top eighted I think his second regional and he's won a ELD monthly top eighted a Shoe City event So just loves it loves his himself some Enchantress and he plays it very well That's good to see

Neal

Then one last one I wanna shout out is Evan on Goblins. When we were talking earlier I didn't have his name on who, who was playing it. But now that I'm seeing the list and I'm seeing in a world with all these Terragon decks maybe, a deck that plays four Wasteland, four Port, maybe that's something to be considering plays Mountains too, so that's good. But I think Goblins always performs well. I was saying it earlier, and I think it's a, a good aggressive choice if you're,

Chris

if

Neal

trying to get into the format

Chris

to get into form

Neal

and want to learn a deck that has a little bit of aggression and can fight with some of these boogeymen of the format Cool. yeah let's, you know, shout out everyone who, uh, who made that. You can see the deck lists and, um, everyone on, uh, MTG Top 8. Some really

Fact or Fiction: Claire's Oath Ponza

Neal

good tech there. Do you wanna pick one deck to go through, uh, fact or fiction on?

Chris

Yeah let's see So got I really liked Last Claire Bender is what it says So Claire Ackerman played Oath Ponza tuned her top four Lobstercon list

Neal

Yeah

Chris

adding Gloom to it added another color had an awesome showing at regional

Neal

and

Chris

I think lost a really tight threegame set to to Andy Voellmer

Neal

But

Chris

Yeah let's go over this for Fact or Fiction Let's see

Neal

I f- while you're doing that, I just, when I was looking at the, this list I, think Claire had a pretty, pretty brilliant, change here because not only having Gloom in the sideboard, it opens up the ability to play, two Vindicates with this mana base as well, replacing two of the Stone Rain effects, and I thought that was a really cool flexibility. Obviously there's some strain on the mana, but there wasn't too many red decks, so City of Brass didn't matter too much. So I, really liked this list. I thought it was a really innovative

Chris

I love it Yeah just having Vindicates gives you more answers to Terra vores in the mirror Looks like she upped to 29 lands added a third Sylvan I think she had two at LobsterCon so

Neal

just

Chris

a little more consistency there And I lo I love it I love the idea of Gloom Vindicate I think a adding black was a

Neal

really

Chris

good call So I'm gonna go with fact on this deck I think

Neal

I'm gonna go fact as well. Yeah, this, this list was awesome. I think Claire did a great job with this, and obviously some really strong finishes, with LobsterCon and the regional. so, definitely, a, very strong, Terravore, deck builder and player So that seems to, as you can tell, we're probably getting a little tired here. Do you have anything else that you wanted to go over, Chris? there's a lot of decks here, a lot of good information. Shout out to,

Chris

now

Neal

Duress Crew for putting together the event, getting all the information out there, and navigating through, Melee for the first time. I thought it was a great tournament. Had a lot of fun. it's always a, a good cause as well too

Chris

Yeah I just wanted to say thank you to the Psychotog Discord I can't remember everyone but Furnace Scamp or Robert Loomers TripleAAA Eaglesom the All those guys awesome feedback and people are hyped up that I came in top nine

Neal

So

Chris

even though I didn't top eight everyone's still excited and

Neal

happy

Chris

and everything and just a little more discussion happening in the the Tog Discord That's always good to see I definitely appreciate all the support and

Neal

Yeah

Chris

And I certainly want to thank everyone again for coming up and talking to us about the podcast and anyone that's watched or listened to this point thank you so much for the support and hopefully we'll have a lot more fun doing these

Neal

Yeah. That's the title of this episode, Top Nine at the Regional with, Psychatog. That, that's it right there, but yeah, no, I appreciate everyone who's listened. You made it through, two episodes. Thank you so much. Appreciate everyone's support as we get through, um, these first couple episodes with more to come. Uh, again, in two weeks we'll be talking about, uh, the next set of tournaments that come up, but for now, uh, we'll see you at the beginning of the next upkeep. That's Fact or Fiction Thank you everyone

Head Shot

Chris Roy

Host
Head Shot

Neal Sacks

Host