Subject: TOURNAMENT: Idaho State Championships Tourney Report Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 03:54:20 -0700 From: "Pitz" To: Idaho State Championships Report Boise, ID November 14th Jesse Pitz, 7th Place 44 Participants This is the 2nd tourney report I’ve done for Team Scrub. We all got cool t-shirts made for the tourney (hyuk). My official name is now "Mojo Scrub" for my habit of psychologically forcing bad draws upon people I’m playing against. Here’s the rest of team scrub and how they placed: Jon Beckmon: Judged today, so he didn’t get to play Gabe Garcia "Loco Scrub" : 1st place, playing Gabe Living Death Sam Corona "Goldberg Scrub": 2nd place, playing Scrub Sligh variant Steve Canty "Psycho Scrub": 3rd place, playing Scrub Sligh variant Josh Pitz "Sexy Scrub": ? place (got in top 16) playing Speed Black w/scrolls John Pitz "Phat Scrub": ? place (also top 16) playing WW cataclysm Jeremy ? (sorry): ? place, playing mono blue sleeper deck Oliver Canty "Bizzarr-O Scrub": Not a legal resident of Idaho, so he played in the side sealed event and went undefeated with a B/R/G deck. I had been working on my deck ever since PTQ Rome where I placed 12th. The one I used at the PTQ was trade/awake, but I ended up not liking the awakenings in my deck because my opponent too often gained alot of advantage. After US came out, I looked at Sunder and loved it. I slapped 3 in my deck and did some tweaking and Politics was born! POLITICS: (Named by Oliver because of the use of political-type words on the cards. i.e. - tradewinds, propaganda, etc.) 4 Tradewind Rider 4 Spike Weaver 4 Wall of Blossoms 4 Birds of Paradise 2 Ertai, Wizard Adept 3 Sunder 1 Exploration 4 Counterspell 4 Propaganda 4 Capsize 2 Stroke of Genius 2 Thran Quarry 3 Reflecting Pool 3 Skyshroud Forest 9 Islands 7 Forests SB: 1 Helm of Possession 1 Mishra’s Helix (this deck hates other counter decks) 1 Portcullis 3 Chill 4 Oath of Druids (The ultimate "some good" for my deck. Saved my butt more times than I care to remember today) 3 Hermetic Study (Maybe should have run rootwater) 2 Hurkyl’s Recall (Against academy) The concept of the deck is hidden at first, then becomes horribly obvious when the lock hits. Defense comes first with Tradewinds, Weavers, Wall of Blossoms, and Props. Then when that’s all in place, I cast the Sunder and my opponent sits and 1 land for the rest of the game while I throw everything back in his hand and commence Weaver beatdown. The 1 exploration is there for early game and after a Sunder. I ended up drawing it in only 1 duel all day and it was just before I killed somebody after I’d established lock. This deck establishes the lock more quickly than expected with the Strokes, which I usually use to draw around 4-6 cards after defense is established. Decklists of "Scrub Sligh" (2nd and 3rd place) and "Gabe Living Death" (1st) are also available on request, ‘cause I don’t want to make this report any longer than I have to. Round 1 vs. Stone Rain Red 1st duel: He starts out dog butt slow and forgets to pay echo on a war buggy. On the 4th turn he lays out 2 echoers with a fanatic on the table already, and all I have is a Wall, so I decide to fire off an early sunder, which aces his 2 echoers and I quickly set up the lock before he can take out too much of my land. 2nd duel: Its all about chill, baby. 2nd turn chill and ride the lock home. M: 1-0 D: 2-0 Round 2 vs. U/W something or other 1st duel: I don’t get to see much of his deck as I set up a 5th turn lock and he concedes. 2nd duel: I stare at 3 soul wardens by the 2nd turn and by the time I get to a tradewind, which is halfway through my deck, he’s at 86 life. I sunder, he sinks, I counter and start Weaver beatdown from 86 to zero. M: 2-0 D: 4-0 Round 3 vs. Suicide Black 1st duel: I get 2 props on him and he gets me down to 5 before the sunder hits. 2nd duel: Its all about the oath as he perishes twice and I yank 3 tradewinds out of my deck to set up the lock. M: 3-0 D: 6-0 Round 4 vs. Suicide Black 1st duel: I know Brian from previous tourney and he’s a cool guy and all, but 2 suicides in a row? I was sweating bullets by the time this match was over. Anyway, Prop slows him down enough for the lock and he doesn’t want to concede because "Hey, I’m enjoying this, its the longest duel I’ve played all day, usually they’re all over in 3 or 4 turns." I finally manage to kill him after digging the weavers out of my deck. 2nd duel: He mulligans down to 5 and I’m thinking, "Ha, easy win". That was before the 2nd turn hatred hit and I had no counter in hand. My first duel loss of the day. 3rd duel: All about props. 2 of them to be exact, and by the 3rd turn. He sb in extinction and called "spirit", when he cast it, but I only had 1 tradewind on the board at the time. Dropped the 2nd next turn and beat him down with it. M: 4-0 D: 8-1 At this point, there was only 3 undefeateds left. Me, Steve "Psycho scrub" Canty, and Jared Vineyard playing Academy. And of course . . . Round 5 vs. The Academy Duel 1: Have a counter in my hand and try to lay Ertai on the 5th turn. He sinks it and I decide he’ll be too valuable if I survive till next turn, so I tap out and counter it. I didn’t survive ‘till next turn. Duel 2: I lay a tradewind on the 4th turn knowing I’ll have the lock next turn, I never make it until the next turn. M: 4-1 D: 8-3 Round 6 vs. WW I never get to see his deck ‘cause we drew into top 8. So the top 8 ends up like this: #1: Jared Vineyard playing Academy #2: Steve "Psycho Scrub" Canty playing Scrub Sligh #3: Gabe "Loco Scrub" Garcia playing Gabe Living Death #4: Joe Lytle playing U/G Tradewind/Ertai/Arcane Lab lock deck #5: Patrick ? playing WW #6: Me playing Politics #7: ? playing Suicide Black #8: Sam "Goldberg Scrub" Corona playing Scrub Sligh So that means I have to play Gabe, a fellow scrub. Gabe and I know each other’s decks inside out and backwards and they’re a dead even match, so we knew it would come down to the draw. Quarters: Academy vs. Scrub Sligh: Sam knocks off the almighty Academy as the lackeys recruit everything in sight to beat the crap out of the stunned Academy player. Scrub Sligh vs. Suicide Black: Steve wins the first duel, then after a sideboard check by the judges, the Suicide Black deck is given a duel loss for an illegal sideboard. U/G Ertai/Arcane Lab vs. WW: All I know is that the blue player won the match Politics vs. Gabe Living Death Duel 1: He gets hosed at 2 lands for way too long and the lock hits. Duel 2: We decide to practice a time-honored tradition among Scrubs at major events. We must ARM WRESTLE to see who the grand poobah scrub is before the 2nd duel starts. Its a rough match, but I pull it out. Anyway, the 2nd duel, my deck decides its my turn for mana hose as I sit at 2 land forever and he beats the snot out of me with his verdant force. Duel 3: I have the sunder in my hand and a bunch of critters on the board, but the tradewinds decide to take a snooze in my deck somewhere and I never see one until the end. Meanwhile, Gabe fills his library and mine up with Survival/Recurring/Dark Hatchling, throws down an altar, a Lhurgoyf, sacs the goyf for 27 cards, which just happened to be every single card in my deck and says "Go". M: 4-2-1 D: 9-5 So I end out the day in 7th place, which isn’t bad. I was very happy with my deck and more pleased with the looks on the faces of my opponents after they read Sunder. I get a bunch of packs of US, Exodus, and Unglued and don’t pull dick, but I also got a Sealed Issue of Duelist #3, with the Nalanthni Dragon in it, so I’m happy. Here’s how the rest of the matches went. Semis: U/G Ertai/Lab deck vs. Scrub Sligh: Sam wins the first duel easily, but faces down a douse, Ertai, Arcane Lab the 2nd duel, so he’s forced to ride the scroll to victory. Gabe Living Death vs. Scrub Sligh: Gabe’s deck is just too metagamed against sligh. He gets it in 2 duels. Finals: Gabe Living Death vs. Scrub Sligh: Sam could’ve won the first duel, but forgot he had the scroll on the board one turn and gabe ended up winning after feeder recursion . Sam won the 2nd duel in a flurry of direct damage, and Gabe won the 3rd duel with Feeder recursion yet again. Props: Team Scrub of course, for taking 1,2,3,7 and various other places. Brian for still having a sense of humor after I got the sunder/double prop on him. Jon and the head judge for running a good tourney even after the computer broke down. Sam for knocking off the academy deck. Gabe for getting first and also getting the fastest living death kill in history. It went Gabe: lay forest, go Kid: lay mountain, tap, lay GOBLIN BALLOON BRIGADE Slops: The kid who played the goblin balloon brigade The kid who tried to sideboarded before the match started against John The Magic gods for making my deck falter when I was on the edge of victory. Questions, comments: email pitzfam@cyberhighway.net