When asked about his rumored shaky mana base, Finkel replied "People say that only because they don't understand the format. This block is all about shaky mana bases. Finkel had three colors on the board early, with plains, swamp and mountain helping him Vindicate away an early Goblin Legionnaire from Van de Logt.
Van de Logt came back with Amphibious Kavu. Finkel matched him with Mire Kavu. Van de Logt untapped and brought down Maniacal Rage, sending his Kavu. Finkel hesitated only a fraction of a second before moving in for the block. His read was off, however. He untapped and dropped Zombie Boa. Van de Logt's Kavu came in again, and was joined by a Stone Kavu.
The two traded hits, and Finkel added a Sea Snidd to his team. Van de Logt brought down a kicked Pincer Spider with things standing seven to four in his favor. Finkel's Boa evened the score. Now it was Van de Logt's turn to chump block. He sacrificed his Spider to the Boa to stay at four. Finkel slowed him down further with Hobble on his Amphibious beatdown machine. The race hit a fever pitch as Finkel's Boa dropped Van de Logt to one.
He had a Kavu Glider in reserve, which fell to save his bacon. Van de Logt made a Kavu Scout. Finkel's draw yielded no creature, and he had to concede the race to Van de Logt, hanging back with his Boa. Van de Logt had no trouble drawing men, however, and the game was soon his. Finkel gave Van de Logt the lead-off position for game 2, and he made good use of it. Quirion Explorer powered out a Goblin Ringleader, which unfortunately sent four spells to the bottom of Van de Logt's deck.
Finkel's slow accumulation of troops continued with Living Airship. Van de Logt showed him how it was done. Maniacal Rage came down on the Ringleader, and all Finkel could manage was a very slow " Alpha Kavu confounded his calculations. He dropped to nine. He Hobbled the Stone Kavu and passed it back.
His fliers teamed up on the Alpha Kavu, losing the Drake. He fell to five. Van de Logt played a Legionnaire. Finkel made a Mire Kavu, struggling to keep the incoming horde from overwhelming him. Van de Logt sent his whole team. The Legionnaire made the save, and Finkel stood at three. His fingernails held firm with Zombie Boa. Van de Logt drew and thought hard, all but revealing his hand.
He eventually decided to send his pumped-up Ringleader into the breach. It took down the Boa in a team block. Finkel played a turn 1 Sol Ring and followed it up with a second turn Mind Twist for 4, leaving Rubin with just one card in hand and one Jackal Pup in play. That City was Finkel's only source of white and both Balance and CoP: Red sat in his hand, but only for a turn until Impulse and a draw phase found a Tundra.
Down came main deck CoP: Red and Rubin could do nothing but roll his eyes. Things got somewhat interesting when Rubin drew and played Dwarven Miner, but Finkel simply Balanced it away. Rubin had had two other Miners in his opening draw, but they were both knocked away by that second turn Mind Twist.
Game one goes to Finkel. Rubin drew his Ancestral in his game 2 opening hand and played it to draw three cards before Finkel could stop him. With Library of Alexandria as one of the 5cards in his hand, Finkel's card advantage strategy seemed appropriate. Then he untapped, Ancestralled, mana burned for 4, and played his Library with 6 cards in hand.
Rubin recast the Ancestral from his graveyard, drew two Moxes, and recast the Mind Twist - this time for 2 cards. That was enough to prevent Finkel from activating his Library any time soon, so Finkel went ahead and Fireballed the Goblin Cadet and the board was clear for a few turns. Rubin drew into a Jackal Pup and Finkel's life total went into the single digits.
Next Rubin drew and played Boil, destroyed a pair of blue dual lands. Finkel was able to Mind Twist Rubin's hand away, but he was down to 5 with no answer in sight to that Jackal Pup. Finkel cast Timetwister out of desperation, found a Zuran Orb, but all that did was but him one turn and he died with no permanents in play.
Thus Type 1 came down to a third and deciding game. Rubin had to feel better now that he finally had a game win under his belt. The Response in an Invasion rare that counters and spell or ability targeting a land and allows the player to draw two cards. It's interesting to note that Finkel's Type 1 deck includes two different Invasion cards - he also plays Obliterate.
He played that and Moat and Timetwister, refreshing both their hands while Finkel's board included Moat, Zuran Orb, three land, and a Mox. All Rubin had was a Volcanic Island. One Wasteland off the 'Twister later, Rubin had no permanents. Finkel built another control deck for the Bring Your Own Block format. It's mono-blue with lots of permission, Masticores, and Powder Kegs.
The Counter-Phoenix versus Draw-Go match has a lot to do with land. Whoever plays less land will be forced to play the first spell and probably lose the ensuing permission war.
One crucial difference between their decks, though, is that Finkel runs Stalking Stones. Thus, it's possible for Finkel to win without ever tapping mana on his own turn. Rubin could have used Stalking Stones, but because he's using two colors red and blue he felt he couldn't use them.
Rubin does have Wastelands in his sideboard, though, which he brought in. Finkel went in this format during the round robin and Rubin went Finkel won the coin flip an elected to draw first. Rubin led with a turn 2 Legacy's Allure. Finkel answered with Powder Keg. Rubin played a turn 3 Hammerhead Shark which soon got Kegged away and then went for a turn 4 Tradewind Rider, which Finkel let him have. Both players ran out of lands to play on turn 6.
During Finkel's 6th end step, Rubin attempted to Intuition. Finkel played Dismiss, but Rubin had Counterspell ready and three Shard Phoenixes made their way into Rubin's hand and graveyard. The Phoenix can be recursed from graveyard to his hand for just three red mana so Finkel could never get rid of them. Finkel pounded his deck, asking it to deliver up a Masticore that might allow him to deal with the flying Phoenix beats, but he was never able to stabilize.
Rubin won game 1.
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