Subject: [TOURNAMENT] Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1998 16:35:55 -0500 From: "sorensen" To: Anyone ever see the movie "Phantoms"? In it, Peter O' Tooles' character is asked by "The Ancient Evil" to write "The Gospel", to tell everyone about what he saw in that sleepy little town. The thought intrigued me so I decided to write about this year's Magic: the Gathering Virginia State Championship. This years festivities were held in Mechanicsville, Virginia--in a Bingo Parlor. The room of the V.F.W. Battlefield Post where we played Magic was normally used for Bingo tournaments. Maybe there's some kind of hidden meaning there. 87 participants, 7 rounds of Swiss, Top 8 advance into single elimination finals, Standard Format. My deck of choice, Control-Necro. Allen Sorensen's Control-Necro 4 Drain Life 4 Corrupt 4 Necropotence 4 Nevinyrral's Disk 4 Duress 4 Skittering Skirge 4 Diabolic Edict 4 Dark Ritual 3 Persecute 2 Yawgmoth's Will 1 Expunge 22 Swamp sideboard 3 Ill-Gotten Gains 3 Gloom 2 Enfeeblement 1 Fevered Convulsions 2 Perish 1 Eastern Paladin 2 Carrion Beetles 1 Coffin Queen MATCH #1 Vs. Michael Ganley and STUPID GREEN Key Cards: Skittering Skirge Match Record: 2-0-0 Stupid Green is the only thing I can compare the deck to. Winter's Grasp, Eladamri's Vineyard, Argothian Wurm, Desert Twister. ROUND #1: Green has always had a tough time with fliers. I get an early Skirge, and then Edict a couple of his creatures, then Drain him a couple of times. ROUND #2: I swap an Edict and a Persecute for 2 Perish. I Persecute 2nd or 3rd turn causing him to discard 2 Spreading Algae, a Twister and a couple creatures. After that, a lone Skirge did all the work. I don't believe in Spreading Algae, I think it's about as effective as Blight. It'll slow a Black Mage down for one maybe two turns, but it's not enough. MATCH #2 Vs. GREEN/RED SLIVERS Key Cards: Disk, Eastern Paladin Match Record: 2-1-0 ROUND #1: I get whacked early by a 2nd turn Muscle Sliver, 3rd turn Heart Sliver, 4th turn Spined Sliver. I don't pull up enough edicts to slow the assault down. I take 4-6 points of damage a turn, I die hard. ROUND #2: I get to see how my sideboard against creature hoards will work. I side out 3 Persecutes for 2 Enfeeblement and 1 Perish, I swap 1 Skirge for one Perish. First turn Necro draws an Enfeeblement in addition to the 2 Edicts in hand. In the Enfeeblement in addition to the Edicts earn me early board control, I later Corrupt to victory. ROUND #3: Second round I notice my Skirges dying to a fair dose of direct damage from his deck. I swap one more out for an Eastern Paladin. I gain early board control w/Edicts and a mid-early disk, he plays a Vineyard & Goblin Bombardment, I Drain him, next turn I Drain a Spined Sliver, then I cast Eastern Paladin. He doesn't cast anything for the next 2 turns, I Duress a Giant Growth out of his hand, then Drain to win. MATCH #3 Vs. Chad Roznik and SEISMIC GRAVEYARD Key Card: Skirge Match Record: 2-0-0 Chad had a deck combination that was ruled Illegal by the Prezcon judges. They wouldn't let him drop out of the third round either so we played for fun anyway. What he does is activate the Hermit Druid, there's no basic land in the deck so the whole deck goes to the Graveyard he casts Seismic Assault, then casts Yawgmoth's Will. He then "discards" all the land in his graveyard. The judges ruled you can play cards in your graveyard like it's in your hand, but you can't DISCARD like it's in your hand. MATCH #4 Vs. William Buckingham and SUICIDE BLACK Key Card: Edict Match Record: 2-1-0 By far one of the most involving (and scary) matches of the day! Whenever I play suicide black, the scariest thing is always that first swamp, because the last thing anyone wants to see is either Ritual, Sarcomancy, Sarcomancy, Carnophage, or Ritual, Dauthi Slayer, Unholy Strength. ROUND #1: He starts off with a swamp, then Sarcomancy, next turn he casts another Sarcomancy. I cast a Skirge, next turn during his attack, I Edict, then block the other Zombie. He doesn't see another Zombie I don't Drain. Taking 2 a turn, I end one of my turns with a Yawgmoth's Will, Dark Ritual, Drain for 2, he take 2 more during upkeep and dies. ROUND #2: Creature hoards are BAD! I side out a Persecute since Suicide Black seems to drop the hand like a bad habit, I rely on Duress to take the Cursed Scrolls, and Bad Moons. Of course none of this matters when your opponent REALLY gets the drop on you. 2 Sarcomancy, a Carnophage, 2 Black Knight, I couldn't get rid of enough creatures, so I get mowed over. ROUND #3: I sideboarded in a Coffin Queen round 2 which I thought was pretty dumb, so I brought the Skirge back. He starts off strong, Ritual, Black Knight, Unholy Strength, I play a swamp (now my second), he play another swamp, casts Bad Moon, attacks, and I Edict. The next creature he casts is Enfeebled, I cast Necro and start drawing cards, I draw 4 Drain Life and 3 Corrupts, I have 6 Swamps in play. I Drain a couple of times, then Corrupt for the win. William recommended Despondency over Enfeeblement because it keeps coming back. I told him I actually had it in here before, but I thought Enfeeblement would be better for killing things. I've done some light play testing with Despondency, and it's very good, but I'm not convinced enough yet to remove Enfeeblement. Taking advice from Robert Hahn, I show William my sideboard, and open the pathways of communication. I tell him that Ill Gotten Gains is great Vs. Necro, because when Necro is in play, whatever you discard is removed from the game. MATCH #5 Vs. Allan Shuldiner and SUICIDE BLACK Key Card: Persecute Match Record: 1-2-0 ROUND #1: Suicide Black with Duress is really, really good. An early Duress takes my Corrupt and another takes my Yawgmoth's Will with a Ritual in hand, a Ritual in the graveyard, and a Corrupt in the graveyard. To make matters worse I didn't pull up enough removal to gain the oh so necessary early board control. I get squashed. ROUND #2: I swap a Persecute and Expunge for 2 Enfeeblements. I get Duressed first turn for a Corrupt, but a couple of Edicts and the Enfeeblement earn early board control. I get the 3rd turn Persecute, he discards 2 Unholy Strength, a Carnophage, and a Dark Ritual. I later Corrupt to victory. ROUND #3: I start sorta strong, Ritual, Duress for a scroll (I probably should've taken a Ritual, he only ever had 2 land third round), Skittering Skirge. I really needed a first turn Necro to pull up all that good creature removal. I get Necro mid-game, but fail to draw Drain, Enfeeblement or Edict, 3 2/2 Creatures eat me alive. I'm really worried about Persecute, against a really fast deck, it's not 100% effective, more like 60%. I'm thinking about moving it into the sideboard with Enfeeblement or Despondency in the main deck. Expunge pretty much stinks too, yes it cycles, but wouldn't you rather have another card & save yourself the agony? Another thing about early board control, Necro can catch up, but only at the sometimes heavy price of life for cards. If you're getting whacked for 6 points of damage every turn by turn 2, it's unlikely you'll draw enough removal or enough cards to catch up in time. MATCH #6 Vs. Ken Russell, Boy Genius and COUNTER-PHOENIX Key Card: Skirge, Persecute Ken Russell had a perfect record against me, even in casual play. He's ranked in the Top 15 for the State of Virginia, and to tell you the truth, I was scared. ROUND #1: I first turn Necro, with three land in hand, I Necro for three. I discard, I play another swamp, I Necro for 2, still no land. I play the third and what would be my last swamp, I Necro for 2 more, still no land, next turn I Necro for 2 more, still no land. Eventually I Necro down to 3 and he Incinerates me. ROUND #2: (The details are somewhat fuzzy because I was trading with Mike Katz at the time I was writing this, and before I finished I had to start round #7) I remember an early Skirge, then I gets Incinerated, I remember Persecuting, having it Countered, then double Ritualing for a Corrupt. I later win through sheer card advantage. ROUND #3: Ken gets mana screwed, before he gets two mana I cast a Skirge, he shocks it. I cast another Skirge, it gets countered, then I Ritual, tap a fourth black mana and Persecute, he loses 2 Whispers, and a couple of counterspells, leaving him with one land in his hand. I later cast Necro and out draw him. Necro usually--correction--a good Necro deck, and good plays will beat control. The sheer card advantage gained through Necropotence is awesome, if you can out draw a Blue mage, you'll be able to cast more spells, and slowly work away at their defenses. MATCH #7 Vs. Steve Cowley (COWLEY-Nightmare), and THE ACADEMY Key card: Stroke of Genius Match Record: 0-2-0 I haven't played the Academy all day, I understand the concept, but I haven't seen it yet, until now. The key card in the deck is Mind Over Matter, so you can constantly tap and untap the Tolarian Academy for loads of mana. Another key is drawing an UNBELIEVABLE amount of cards to get the combo. Time Spiral, Windfall, and Meditate are all used to draw enough cards to cast Mind Over Matter AND have enough cards to tap and untap the Tolarian Academy to cast Stroke of Genius and deck you. ROUND #1: I don't remember even having a turn this round. He got MoM early, and decked me for 67. ROUND #2: I side in 2 Carrion Beetles and 3 Ill Gotten Gains and take out 4 Edicts and 1 Expunge. Three land is all I ever get into play. The details are fuzzy, but here's how bad (or funny) it was. He used all 4 Time Spirals, 3 Windfalls, and Meditate, and he still didn't find MoM. Twice after he Time Spiraled I was left with a Disk in hand, this was after he Meditated, so all I had to do was TAKE A TURN! After what should've been the longest turn in history (it seemed that way) he used his 4th Time Spiral. I draw my new hand only to find no Disk. He uses all 4 Urza's Bauble during my discard phase draws 4 cards during his turn, finds Mind Over Matter and wins. He asked me in the beginning if I wanted to draw, but after talking with certain individuals *AHEM* (Donnie Gallitz, Kai, Gary Fortenberry) ; ) they said just go for it. Drawing would've put me in the Top 8 where I could compete for Italian Legends boosters, but It just didn't seem worth it. I'd like to give thanks my friend Martin DeOlden, Gary Fortenberry, Scott Saunders (go Merfolk!), Ken Russell (Boy Genius and fine player), Skip Potter, William Buckingham (for some good ideas), Chad Roznik (for some good advice), Donnie Gallitz (for some good? advice) and everyone that contributed in someway to an idea that earned me 9th Place Virginia State Champion. --- Allen Sorensen, (-8 When first the dawn of a new born sun shown on the green and gold, our father Adam sat under the tree and scratched with a stick in the mold. The first rude sketch that the world had seen brought joy to his mighty heart. And the devil whispered from behind the leaves, "It's pretty...but is it art?"