all your report are belong to us

This is my 3rd top 8 of the 4 tourneys of Nick Coss I've gone to and the second
time I've won a mox.

For reference, this is the deck I played:

The core; what I call cards common to most dredge decks:
4x Bazaar of Baghdad
4x Serum Powder
4x Bridge from Below
4x Narcomoeba
4x Golgari-Grave Troll
4x Stinkweed Imp
4x Bloodghast
4x Chalice of the Void
4x Cabal Therapy
4x Undiscovered Paradise
2x City of Brass
2x Petrified Field
2x Golgari Thug
2x Ichorid
1x Darkblast
1x Dakmoor Salvage

The tweaks:
3x Dread Return
3x Nature's Claim
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
1x Terastodon
1x Flame-kin Zealot
1x Ancestral Recall

Sideboard:
4x Chain of Vapor
4x Unmask
1x Ichorid
1x Nature's Claim
2x City of Brass
2x Pithing Needle
1x Serenity

Instead of 2x Dread Return, 2x DR targets, 2x Nature's Claim and 4 Leylines, I
opted to remove leylines entirely (they simply weren't needed) and add a pure
tank of diesel to the deck.  The board was solid and the boarding plan is
generally simple and straightforward.  For game 2, assuming I won, I would
remove the entire DR package (6 cards), and Chalices and put in the top 10
sideboard cards.  If the enemy doesn't have wastelands, then Fields get swapped
for Cities.  Likewise, if the enemy is playing an artifact based deck, unmasks
are less important because they won't possibly play ravenous trap and most of
their hate can be Needle'd.

Suprisingly, I lost two game 1s today, and failed to find a bazaar for the first
time in tournament play.  Also of interesting note, the inclusion of Recall
enables dredge to win without bazaar of baghdad, as I did in my 2nd round.

The report:

R1: Ryan playing fish.
G1 - I actually manage to lose this game after he wastelands my bazaar and I
dredge nothing relevant the entire game.  I was dredging every single turn, but
I didn't flip any bloodghasts, ichorids, narcomoebas, etc. until it was far too
late.  The turn before he killed me I managed to flip a Narc, but his multiple
pridgemages and hierarchs ensured little would come of it.  I did sacrifice it
to therapy to make some zombies, but I had no way to stop him from STPing one
zombie and bouncing the other with Jace.
G2 - He sideboards True Believer and it really doesn't seem to do much for him. 
I go to town and force him to block with true believer and then proceed to wreck
what may have been left of his hand.
G3 - It's a nice good and close game - he actually gets me down to 6.  However,
Ichorids + Bloodghasts simply overwhelm him.  We do some Chain of Vapor
shenanigans when he attacks me whilst I am at 6 and it ends with me still having
a bunch of creatures (and a bazaar) while he has a lone pridemage and just two
lands.

R2: Mike on R/B Shops.
G1 - This game ends very quickly where he asks how many bridges I have at the
end of my second turn and when the reply is 3 he simply scoops it up.
G2 - I mulligan to 6 and keep a hand with some anti-hate and Recall.  Recall
gets there and I am able to slow dredge to a win, with the assistance of his
Mana Crypt.  Timely Nature's Claims keep him off crucible lock, and also kill
his ensaring bridges.  It's painful when he dumps his hand to 2x Bazaar of
Baghdads to simply see a Nature's Claim set him back tremendously.

R3: Dom on OBVstorm - we meet again.
G1 - I miscount...I should be ashamed...and I want to go to medical school?
Seriously.  He has 12 1/1 tokens from EtW and I am at 10.  I swing for
non-lethal and he's able to just attack for the win next turn.  I had Chalice @
0 and Iona on black, as well as zombies + ichorids.  If I simply attacked with
Iona, and held up blockers I would have won in two turns because he was only at
13.  If I won the die roll for this match, however, I would have won easily
because my t1 chalice for 0 would have stopped his lotus -> FoF -> busted nuts
win.
G2 - I do my thing...nuke his hand of anti-hate and win around t5 with multiple
creatures that swarm in.
G3 - Fail to find bazaar, it happens.

R4: ?? on Storm - records of this match have vanished.
G1 - I do my thing and win g1 quickly.
G2 and/or G3 - I think he necro'ed for 8 and whiffed, securing my victory after
putting himself in lethal range to hastly bloodghasts and ichorids.  I also
remember a timetwister at some point during this match.

R5: Draw with Josh whom I play in t8.

T8: Josh playing Oath
G1 - NUTS GAME ONE HOLY !@#$.  He has t1 oath, but my t1 and t2 BoBs secure my
victory.  I dread returned Terastodon and then FKZ to swing for more than
lethal.  His nuts hand was defeated by my nuts hand.
G2 - I guess I do some math wrong and make some play errors, but it was very
close.  His Oath -> Emrakul only became scary after I failed to win on my
subsequent turn (brought him to 2) and he went Oath -> Sphinx and top decked his
only out, Time Walk, like an absolute fiend.
G3 - It's another excellent game filled with oathing.  FTR, t1 chalice is good
as it counters his mox ruby.  It gets to the point where I have some things, he
has no hand, but he has an oath and a key in play.  I choose to draw for my turn
instead of dredging thug and I secure victory with a top deck chain of vapor.  I
allow him to Oath because anything he oaths for won't actually scare me (I can
bounce his stuff, Emrakul is useless, and he doesn't have Iona).

T4:  Chris Playing Fish
G1 - I get 4 Bridges Early and simply blow it out very quickly with Iona + DI
Zombies.
G2 - He draws multiple hate cards with the assistance of mystical tutor, but it
comes to a point where his hand is clear and he has a mere two lands to my
bazaar + mana source.  After a couple turns I simply capitilize on my superior
board position of having bazaar vs. nothing.  Again, like my prior fish
opponent, Chris sided in True Believer and I don't understand how good it is.

T2: Elias on Oath
G1 - Shenanigans happen and I destroy his oath with nature's claim.  It buys me
just the time I need to swing for lethal in one fell swoop.
G2 - More Shenanigans ensue with an early timetwister.  I was sure I was locked
out of this game, but he happened to have extremely terrible luck when he found
his final oath target was at the bottom of his deck.

Someone was surpised to learn that I take out the entire Dread Return package
during game 2 and 3 and my response to that is it changes the dynamics of the
game completely.  Instead of playing the enemy's game and trying to secure a
sudden victory with a dread return, the enemy is forced to play your game by
stopping your slow and steady game plan.  Big creatures aren't necessary game 2
and 3 because it's a much easier to disrupt concept.  It hurts you a lot more to
lose dread returns + dread return targets than it does to lose Ichorids.

Slow and steady certainly wins the race.

And, for the record, Ima let you finish, but my wolf shirt is cooler than your
wolf shirt.  'Nuff said - Thank you Nick Coss!