The road to this JSS was long, starting way back last year in
November, around the 10th and 11th…hmm does anyone even remember States?

Well, I edged out a Top 8 in the Maine States, using a U/G Orbosition
pile with Careful Study and Mongooses. I figured I’d be playing that for the JSS, thinking that the local series started in late November, before Masters or anything else having to do with standard.

Unfortunately, I didn’t (and still don’t) own the key cards to that
Orbosition deck, so I was forced to create a bunch of new decks. There
was the Upheaval/Infestation deck; the latest net craze…but I didn’t
like the whole concept of Upheaval. I still don’t. So I /U went with G/U tempo, quickly realized that red was a necessity, and added in the
obligatory FTKs and Prophetic Bolts.


Meanwhile, the JSS was quickly being delayed farther and farther
back, to late January/Early February. I finally got the date of February 16, so I had a timeframe. This was about the time where I got tired of Liquid Tempo, and started fishing around for deck ideas on the net. I saw Braids, and that really intrigued me, what with my Squirrel Nest usage before and all. I quickly sketched out a U/G/B Squirrel Braids deck, and I needed to fill two slots to go play, so I added in a couple of handy Psychatogs I had lying around.

I fell in love with Psychatog the day before Masters. Of course,
reading the Masters results, I fell in even more love with old ‘Tog, it being viable in Standard. I had early versions including Red for Seize the Day, a strange idea I had that I still think would work, but red was soon cut for more cantrips like Peek and Probe. Unfortunately, the deck performed worse without red, as least for my testing, so I went and found Fuller’s list, which even now I think is an inferior build. I took a lot of his ideas and plain discarded them completely, the main onePredict.

I also read Zvi’s article on the ‘Tog. That is where most of my
inspiration came from, I listed my deck and his on a piece of paper,
side by side, and sat and crossed lines through cards and such so that I had one definitive deck, my very own super-creation, which I
appropriately named Mikeatog.

Mikeatog v 1

4x Shadowmage Infiltrator
3x Nightscape Familiar
4x Psychatog

4x Counterspell
3x Opt
2x Lobotomy
4x Memory Lapse
2x Force Spike
3x Duress
4x Fact or Fiction
3x Repulse
2x Recoil

4x Salt Marsh
4x Underground River
2x Cephalid Coliseum
4x Swamp
8x Island

Then I started winning. And winning. I’d tear through the play test
field. But something was missing. I’d never have a counter when it was
crucial. So, after testing and testing, the night before the JSS, I
changed it (for the better I say).

Mikeatog v 2

4x Psychatog
3x Shadowmage Infiltrator
3x Nightscape Familiar

2x Force Spike
2x Disrupt
2x Undermine
4x Counterspell
4x Memory Lapse
4x Fact or Fiction
3x Repulse
2x Recoil
3x Duress
3x Opt

2x Cephalid Coliseum
4x Salt Marsh
4x Underground River
4x Swamp
8x Island

SB:
2x Divert
3x Hibernation
1x Slay
1x Duress
1x Wash Out
3x Gainsay
2x Lobotomy
2x Megrim**

Megrim was my super secret tech, which of course everyone had thought of but didn’t really consider it. If I happened to play a mirror
match, they would be taught a new lesson. Plus it gets the added bonus
of killing Wild Mongrel dead and post-Torment slot-worthy with all those Draino and R/G madness rootwalla stuff.


I get there at 12:15, and have 15 minutes left to deck register and
make Alex, my business partner, a sideboard. He throws in a bunch of
cards and Arcane Laboratory, since he fears Tings, and we go off to
round one. The tournament houses 19 people, a fair turnout, since I like playing more than 4 rounds and less than 7. I figure I’ll shoot for 3-1-1, since all of those will make it into the Top 8.

Round One

Feature Match (sort of, we were at the front table)
Opponent: Brendan Dorr playing Flag or Star Spangled Slaughter or
whatever you call it


Brendan is an incredible player; I’ll say that right now. He won the
New Hampshire States, giving him that big rep already. I ask him if he
wants to concede to me, and he politely declines before I grin and start joking around. We start game one trading lands for a few turns, until I decide that I don’t have to draw lands anymore and will sit at three of them looking at a trio of FoF in my hand. He throws down a couple more lands, I get a Nightscape or two countered, and he burns me and burns me and burns me until I die. I side in Gainsays and Duress, taking out a Tog and Opts and some other cards. This game is better for me, until I overplay myself and drop a Psychatog with two Familiars on the table. He Routs with counter backup as I frantically FoF and Coliseum for the counters that I do not find. I try to repulse my ‘Tog to salvage the game, but he counters and drops Trenches next turn, and I try to top deck twice before growing bored and scooping. I tell him that I tried to tell him to concede, but Brendan won’t hear any of that.

Matches: 0-1
Games: 0-2

Round Two
Opponent: Mike Gleason playing Mono-green Stompy

Mike and I just sort of sit down and start playing. I’ve gone from
sitting at the front of the store to the very back, at table number 9. I hope to change this quickly. Game one finds Mike playing Blurry
mongooses of the uncounterable type while I play Nightscape familiars
and take lots of damage. I finally stabilize at 9 life and its all
downhill for Mike after that, since I counter or Memory Lapse his
threats and green can’t deal with creatures if they don’t get any. Game two is all about him playing third turn Call over a Spellbane, thinking I had a counter. I didn’t, but top decked one. Lucky me. He plays a Blurred Mongoose to compliment the Llanowar Elf I haven’t dealt with, and next turn he tries to Sylvan Might said Mongoose. I feel really bad for having to tell him that I won’t allow him to take it back, but he understands. I finally am able to get rid of all his dudes when I’m at one, making me feel worse since that elf definitely would’ve dealt an extra damage that turn. I stay at one the entire game and Psychatog for the victory.

Matches: 1-1
Games: 2-2

Alex is currently 2-0 and my brother, Tim, is 1-1 like me. Johnny
Pop, another ‘Tog runner, is also 1-1. Weird.

Round 3
Opponent: Gerald Freedman playing R/G “his own concoction”

Heh, that’s the only name I can put to his deck. It uses a bunch of
strange choices, and that’s what he called it all day. Again, I ask if
he’d like to concede, but he just grins. He and I trade stories of past Top 8s (he’s won a JSS twice this season) and I just tell him I’ve Top 32ed all tournaments I’ve ever been in. Hey, it’s true! No matter that they’re all FNMs. First game he plays one land all game and still beats me. Second game involves his secret tech, Sudden Impact. Looks like he was expecting Upheaval in great numbers. I get swept this match. Guess that teaches me to ask people to concede.

Matches: 1-2
Games 2-4

Alex is 3-0, Tim is 1-2, and Pop is 1-2. I see Mario (no Peach here,
fellas), who’s also playing ‘Tog, and he says he’s 1-2 as well. Tog
isn’t making much of a showing today…

Round 4
Feature match (yup, at 1-2)
Opponent: Tim Dupre, playing Fires

Brenden, resident storeowner and entrepreneur, thinks its funny that
we are playing, so he usurps the front table for the feature match. Yes, you read that right, Tim is playing Fires. He’s running Natural
Emergence too, so his lands can be hasty along with the compliment of
Savage Firecats and Shivan Wurms. Game one I counter his big threats and Tog him. Game two I duress a Price of Glory but see another one and he plays it turn two. I don’t draw lands for the next two turns and scoop. For game 3 we have 20 minutes or so left. Determined not to draw and ruin my slim chance at T8ing, I start to play a little more recklessly. He plays a million Kavu Chameleons this game; luckily he taps out before I play Hibernation every single time. Finally he lays a Shivan Wurm I cannot deal with, and I am forced to lay a Psychatog to block it. I manage to have enough cards in my graveyard to block and kill the wurm AND kill Tim in two turns. We finish right before time is called.

Matches: 2-2
Games: 4-5

At the risk of looking like Rizzo, I’m now going to post an excerpt
from the standings as were posted:

12 John Potts (Pop)
13 Mike Dupre
14 Mario Giampetruzzi (surrounded by mushrooms)

Strange, eh? We’re all at 6 points too. Unlucky them, they get
paired against each other. I’m playing the winner of the last years JSS (in Standish), Tony Alcala.

Round Five
Opponent: Tony Alcala playing Sligh

As I told him, Sligh was one match I did not prepare for. However,
it turns out that I didn’t need to. Game one sees him running out of gas when I’m at 7, and I lay Familiar, SMI, and ‘Tog, him doing burns here and there. The last turn, he’s at 18 and I’m at 3. However, I have enough cards in the grave to do 15 in all, and keep a card in hand. He says, “Show me a rage” to his deck. His deck is unresponsive and offers him a Mountain. Unfortunately, even Rage could not save him since I held onto an Undermine.

Game two is much the same, except he plays more dudes like Raging
Goblin and Minotaur Explorer (one card I don’t agree with in Sligh, pre and post torment). Again, I stabilize at 2, killing his guys and
recoiling like a freak. He’s again at 18 when I have a turn to kill him. I have enough to do 16, but I top deck like a fiend and draw Fact or Fiction. I have it on the very best authority that that was the ONLY main-phase Fact or Fiction played all day. Tony shakes my hand and tells me he really enjoyed this match. I tell him the same, truthfully.

After, I watch Pop convince Mario (no Koopa trouble here) that
Bowser is a good guy and to concede the match to him. Pop wins out, and he and I and one other 3-2 are all huddled down over the standings sheet from last round trying to figure out who’s going to the Top 8. Tim Woodbrey, the other guy, is seeded 11th. So it looks like I have the worst shot, right? But Pop and Tim both received byes over the course of the day. But what’s this? Byes count as perfect tiebreakers? Well I guess its up to our other opponents. At this point I am tired of figuring so I go to the store. I come back and its time to announce prizes and such.

The sportsmanship prize goes to some dude that showed up and had to
use an Odyssey precon because the guy he was borrowing a deck from never showed. AND he didn’t complain, which I point out. Tim didn’t win the 13-under prize, as he’s at 1-4. Alex makes the top 8, seeded number 4. And the 3-2 who made it in? Timmay Woodbrey, who doesn’t use a wheelchair. I place ninth, and Pop 10th.

I stay around and watch Alex give Gerald a good run for his money, going well into game 3 before he succumbs. But hey, Alex and I share cards, and he opens Skullscorch number 5 in his packs. I am a pack opening god and get Mutilate for Alex AND some other Top 8 kid.

Moral of the story? Bug WOTC to make Byes crap for tiebreaks.