Subject: Indiana State Tournament Report Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1998 22:51:15 PST From: "Granger Petersen" To: Mcracco@AOL.com, fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Hi. I guess I am the Indiana Magic Champion. I planned to write a report on how well I did at the event regardless and took some notes on how my matches went. The notes get less detailed as time went on. Before I decided what I wanted to play I did some serious thinking on what the enviorment was like. The most influencial factor on the enviorment currently is the creation of the Tolarian Academy deck. This is not as obvious as it sounds. I think the fear of Academy has influenced type 2 Magic more than the deck has. Based on this belief I decided that the most numerous deck in Indianapolis would not be Academy decks but those decks which people believed or had proven themselves in other state championships capable of beating Academy. There is this much fear of the Academy deck. From this belief I guessed that Suicide Black and Sligh would numerically dominate the field. I also believed that White Weenie would make a strong showing because it beats Suicide Black and Sligh consistantly and could be fast enough to defeat Academy. I did not ignore the presence of Academy when building my deck but did not tinker my deck to beat it without considering the whole field, something many players are ignoring. The last thing that influenced my final decklist is what defeats it. Here is what I came up with. I named it after a very versitile creature from Mirage. The Guildmages Deck Green Creatures 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Elven Lyrists 4 Scavenger Folk 4 Spike Feeders 4 Trained Armadons 1 Mirri Cat Warrior 3 Lhurgoyf 2 Scragnoth Green Spells 4 Eldamri's Vineyard (probably mispelled) Artifacts 4 Cursed Scrolls 4 Null Broaches Land 17 Forests 3 Gaea's Cradle 2 Wasteland Sideboard 2 Lifeforce (suicide black/graveyard recursion) 4 Crumble (nevinyral's disk/cursed scrolls/academy) 2 Scragnoth (draw-go/counter pheonix/any deck with tradewind riders) 4 Desert Twisters (pinpoint removal mainly for large creature control) 1 Jesters Cap (academy/wierd combo decks) 2 Spike Weavers (any assualt deck specifically those with shadows) After playing the deck in Indianapolis I would probably remove a Desert Twister and put in another Spike Weaver. The deck will play like a board control deck for the first 5 to 6 turns. Creatures are mainly there to block or to destoy the resources of your opponent until they play out thier hand under pressure from the vineyards. After the Cursed Scrolls clean up the board the creatures and vineyard burn finish your opponent. The deck does not play with the brutal assualt that Stompy or SGD did although some draws make that a possibility. Now for the tournament report. People who I went to Indianapolis with and what they played. Drew.........................................Academy Chris "we'll never make it" Bowman...........Academy Dave.........................................Black Ice Justin.......................................Argothian Wurm/Cataclysm None of us finished with losing records and three of us made it into the final eight. All of us play at a game shop in South Bend called Fantasy Games. Playing thier weekly tournaments is good deck testing as there are very few poor players there. People tend to help the newer players learn the game fast there. In Indianapolis over 120 people were in attendence. The head judge/organizer was George Pratt, who did an excellent job. There were very minimal incidents of unsportmanlike conduct from my expierence. Overall the final eight matches were very polite. The only thing I would change would be to give a half an hour break between the last round of swiss and the final eight but I understand time constraints. The format was 7 rounds of strait swiss to eight person single elimination. 1st Round: Courtney Rice Geeba Sligh 1st Game: An early Goblin Lackey brought out some Flunkies but I dropped multiple armadons and a Cursed Scroll to regain board control. I didn't see a vineyard so I had to become more offensive until a Rathi Dragon hit the board. I finished the last four points of damage with a cursed scroll. 2nd Game: Although I had a decent opening hand a fast meltdown and 2 Flunkies ruined it quickly. I think I saw 8 Forests by turn 7. 3rd game: I don't remember this game much except it was over quickly. My notes say "Armadon, Armadon, Armadon, 6/7 Lhurgoyf, 6/7 Lhurgoyf". I didn't see a single vineyard the whole match. My opponent did not see a single Cursed Scroll. 1-0 2-1 Round 2: Randy Tallis WW with Cursed Scrolls 1st Game: He got out an early Cursed Scroll and Warrior En-Kor. I got out Mirri. He attacked and in response to my blocking the En-Kor used his Cursed Scroll on Mirri. He was absolutely unaware of Mirri's first strike ability. He never recovered from the disadvantage that put him at from then on had an unusual fear of Mirri. He put a Spirit Link on Mirri when I had a Trained Armadon on the board. I won to vineyard burn and Armadon damage. 2nd Game: He had to muligan. He accepted a hand with one plain in it due to a Cursed Scroll and Disenchant it contained. He put out his scroll first turn. I put out my Vineyard on my first turn in order to get out a quick Armadon and start my own Cursed Scroll. He disenchanted my Vineyard and put out a series of Soul Wardens which stood between him and my Armadons. By the time he got a second land he had to throw knights out to stand in front of Armadons. 2-0 4-1 3rd Round: Drew Academy 1st Game: I make my first mistake of the match when I don't Mulligan my initial hand. I have one forest and a Elven Lyrist. Besides I play tested against Drew at Fantasy Games in the weekly tournament and he usually dumped my hand out for a new one by the second turn. Needless to say I lost. He Capsized all my permanents to my hand after 4 rounds and cast Winfall. Then decked me. He didn't even take a point of damage from a Mana Vualt. 2nd Game: I made my second mistake and second dumbest error (se semifinals for dumbest) of the tournament in this game. I quickly establish board control with 2 Lyrist, 1 Scavenger Folk, and a Crumble. I put out a Trained Armadon and put him on a timer. I hold a Crumble in hand not wanting to "waste" it on a Lotus Petal. He begins Capsizing with buyback my Armadon to survive using 3 islands, a City of Traitors, and a Tolarian Academy with only one Lotus Petal on the board. I am happy letting him hurt himself with his own City of Traitors so I hold the Crumble. I get a Scragnoth and cast it for more permanent damage. After a round of Scragnoth assualt he has to go off or die next round. I foolishly continue to hold my Crumble instead of depriving him of 2 mana for his last round before he can effectively use it. He barely manages to deck me the next turn something that would have been unlikely had I used the Crumble on the petal. My mistake at least the loss was to Drew who played very well while facing the hoard of disruption by 2nd turn. 2-1 4-3 4th Round: Doug Weaver Academy 1st Game: I don't fear Academy decks but there is always the possibility if a first or second round victory. I am wary because of my previous match loss. He wins the die roll and muligans down to five cards. I keep my 2 Scavenger Folk and 1 Lyrist draw. He plays 2 Lotus Petals and says he is done. I put out the lyrist and am done. After his second turn I am sure he doesnt have any land, not even an academy he is potecting. I put out a pair of Scavenger Folk and begin Lyrist beatdown. I then Force the issue by playing a Vineyard. He decides to use the petals to fuel his blue mana for spells to avoid mana burn. I destroy the artifacts he puts out and cruise to victory. 2nd Game: He accepts his opening hand but doesnt really stand much of a chance with the 2 Crumbles, 1 Elvin Lyrist, and 1 Scavenger Folk I am holding. I draw 2 more means of destroying his artifacts. His only nonartifact spell he casts is a Counterspell against my Jesters Cap. He doesnt have that horrible of a draw despite his complaining of lack of mana. He gets out 2 Lotus Petals, 2 Mana Vualts, a Scroll Rack, and a Mox Diamond. I just dont let them stay around. 3-1 6-3 5th Round Jim Berrie Counter-Burn no Shard Pheonix 1st Game: He draws all burn and no counter. I draw two vineyards, a couple of disruptive creatues, and a Cursed Scroll. I take lots of Incinerates before he mana burns and falls to the Cursed Scroll. 2nd Game: He makes the statement "I hope you don't have that opening draw again" I do except that the disruptive creatures are replaced by Crumbles and he is holding a couple of Annuls but places mountains on the board before islands. I help him out for a couple of turns by crumbling disks then put out a Scragnoth and march to victory holding a second Scaragnoth in hand. Overall this was good draws and some poor decisions on my oppenents part I can have real trouble playing against counter-burn with Whispers of the Muse. 4-1 8-3 6th Round Ryan ???? Blue Tradewind/Evasive Creatures/Curiosity/Counterspells 1st Game: He wins the die roll and goes first playing a Manta Rider. This allows me to get the vineyard out despite a Force Spike in his opening hand. He puts Curiosity on his Manta Rider and draws four extra cards before I can kill it with a Cursed Scroll. He takes 12 damage from the vineyard before I begin attacking with creatures. Neither of us sees more than 3 lands the whole game. 2nd Game: Again he goes first and again he allows me to sneak out a vineyard. After seeing Legacy's Allure the first game I avoid playing any creatures until 3rd round when I drop the Scragnoth. He has taken several points of mana burn damage and by 5th round concedes as I refuse to play another creature to be allured. After the match we talked and apparantly a friend of his did well in another state championship with this deck. He did not expect green to be a force so didn't prepare for Scragnoths. I am ranked 6th after this match heading into the final round. The top 12 players have been fairly constant throughout the tournament after the 3rd round. If defeated most move quickly back up to the top of the rankings. Therefore I cannot risk an intentional draw. In the end no 5-1-1's make the cut. 5-1 10-3 7th Round Robert Main Cursed Sligh 1st Game: This is a true demonstration of what happens when any deck bottoms out vs a Sligh deck. My life totals tell the tale..20..18..13..8..6..dead. 2nd Game: Vineyards and Cursed Scrolls fly out of my deck after the 3rd round. He sits on 4 mana burn a turn and cursed scrolls backing it up. After the game he begins sideboarding against me. 3rd Game: This game is close. I get the early vineyard but don't see any Spike Feeders (actually saw none whole match). I sit at 4 life with 2 Cursed Scrolls, a Null Broach, a vineyard, an armadon, and 4 forests for a long time. I can't opperate both Cursed Scrolls for the fear of a Sonic Burst and can't attack with the Armadon because he is always holding 2 cards and I haven't seen a Ball Lightning the whole game (if I tap out to scroll a Ball Lightning he could Sonic Burst me). I finally burn him down despite his topdecked Bottle Gnome. I made it into the final eight in the second position. Drew (6-1-0) makes it in as the first and Dave (5-0-2) as 6th. Justin and Chris drop out after the fifth round and happily draft. 6-1 12-4 Top 8 Decks 3 WW with splash of red/blue (Patriotic Weenie) 1 Necro (discard/controlish) 1 Black Ice 1 Academy ME 1 other (don't remember sorry maybe another WW) Quarter Finals Theron Martin Patriotic Weenie 1st Game: He gets out 1st and 2nd turn Soltari Priests. I can't find a Cursed Scroll to cope with them and can't out race him due to a timely Earthquake and a couple of 2/2 walls (called White Knights). 2nd Game: I get the early vineyard and a Scragnoth. He gets out a Paladin En-Vec and a Tradewind Rider which bounces the paladin to protect him from the Scragnoth when he is siting at 5 life I top deck the Cursed Scroll, kill the paladin, move some spikes to the Scragnoth and rush though the hole to victory. 3rd Game: I have to muligan due to the 4cc no mana help draw. I am worried because his deck requires everything for me to turn the tide. My second draw is 2 vineyards, a Spike Feeder, a Spike Weaver, a Jesters Cap, and a forest. I decide to go with it. By the 3rd turn I have a 3rd Vineyard out on the board and he is Earthquakes away my Spike Feeder I regain some life and continue to take paladin damage. I stall out for a couple rounds with the Spike Weaver and play a couple of ground pounders that promptly get incinerated. When I am at four life and he is at one he is looking fairly confident. I have 1 card (Jesters Cap) in hand to his 2. I draw a Null Broach and begin my main phase with 6 green mana. I have the choice of playing the Null Broach and taking mana burn but being able to counter 1 spell or Putting out the Jesters Cap and using it to pull Earthquakes and incinerates which he could use to draw/win. I chose the Jesters Cap for a couple of reasons. If he had a incinerate in hand and topdecked any of his other burn he would win/draw regardless because I could not take mana burn and stop both or survive both. I figured that if he had a Mana Leak he would tap me down to 1 mana source regardless (I only had two forests) or counter the Null Broach making it so that at best I could play but not use the Broach. I really didn't think the Cap would be countered and I didn't forsee him making it to his attack phase. The last reason was because I was tired and the thought of csting a Jesters Cap and activating it without tapping a mmana source ammused me. The look on his face was worth it. He mana burned dead next round. He felt that I had top decked every carded that mattered when I showed him my opening hand he seemed happy that I had indeed topdecked the third vineyard. Given 6 or 7 rounds I would probably have topdecked something to do 3 or 4 points of damage. This was the most amusing game of the tournament for me but I was getting tired and silly by now. Drew lost to Patriotic Weenie and Dave beat the Necro Deck. 7-1 14-5 Semi-Finals Dave Black Ice 1st Game: I win toss and get 1st turn Vineyard. Dave has an excellent first turn with a Priest of Gix, Dauthi Slayer, and Sarcomancy hiting the board. My second turn allows me to put out a Forest, Cursed Scroll, 2 Llanowar Elves and a Elven Lyrist. I am at 1 card in hand (Null Broach) and 2-3 turns from locking him down with a Null Broach/Cursed Scroll combination without creatures. He drops a Winter Orb off my vineyard mana and Paralyzes a Llanowar Elf. I block his Priest of Gix with the Lyrist. After that I scroll out his creatures and eventually play out 2 Null Broaches. He dies to scroll damage/vineyard burn. 2nd Game: A first turn Dauthi Slayer with Thrull Retainer seals the game for Dave. I can't find eith part of the combo I need to deal with it (Lyrist and Cursed Scroll) I find a Spike Weaver to stall for awhile but without a feeder to give it more fogs I can't wait for the vineyards to win it for me. A 2nd or 3rd turn Wall of Souls keeps me from mounting an effective offensive. 3rd Game: I have a very good start but stall out towards midgame. I have my Scroll up and going but Dave keeps getting creatures. Finally I am able to go on the offensive and victory is in sight. Here is were I make the dumbest error of the whole tournament. I forget about my vineyard (I was very tired) and use land to scroll. I am at two life with two mana in my pool and am thinking about what would happen if I attack luckily I remember the vineyard mana and play the only card in my hand, a Llanowar Elf. I burn for one and attack and win. This match was the closest in I had in the tournament. In theory and in playtesting my deck will beat Dave's deck nine out of ten games. I simply don't care about Winter Orbs. I knew he would side them out and I sided out my Scavenger Folk. We also could have written each others decklist out before the match. I had given him my decklist at the last Fantasty Games tournament and he briefly considered playing the deck. Despite the bad matchup for him and our knowledge of each others decks it was close and may have been the best match of the final eight. 8-1 16-6 Finals Tom Wethington Patriotic Weenie 1st Game: He gets out a City of Brass, Plains, and Mox Diamond and begins dropping White Knights. I scavenge the diamond and get Mirri out too hold the knights back. We stalemate with him having 4 White Knights and a Paladin En-Vec out but having to suffer from using the his two Cities of Brass and a plain to cast them and me having a Scragnoth, Mirri, an Armadon, and a Spike Feeder out. He needs to get an Incinerate or Shoadow to turn the game. I need a CCursed Scroll or Lhurgoyf. I get the scroll 4 turns before he gets the shadow. I knock the wall of first strike to pieces and take some shadow damage before I win. At this point I realized how tired I was and decide to side board unusually against his deck in hopes of speeding the game up. I put in every creature in my sideboard in hopes of smashing him quickly. I also hoped to see the vineyards which seemed to hide the first game. 2nd Game: He mulligans and accepts a draw which includes a plain and one Disenchant. He does Disenchant the early vineyard but by the time he gets a second land, a City of Brass, I have to much on the board for him to deal with thanks to a Gaea's Cradle. He keeps mumbling "Perish" as he draws and the green swarm devistates him. This match went so fast that George Pratt went to get the plaque for the winner and did not make it back in time to see any of it. My opponent did not make any mistakes except perhaps not muliganing to five cards the second game. It was a poor match up for his deck and my draws were very good against him. 9-1 18-6 Overall it was a very good day. The exception bieng that my binder was stolen during the final round of Swiss and now I dont have trading cards, multilands, painlands, or most of my extended playable cards. I do wish to apolagize for pretty much ignoring most of the congratulations for winning but I was ready to collapse by the end of the tournament. Thanks to the following people/things/places: Drew and Chris "we'll never make it" Bowman - for letting me crash at thier place Friday and Saturday nights, driving me to Indianapolis, and for showing me the Acedemy deck and how it works. Dave - Help on sideboard. I never used the twisters but three of them do belong in the sideboard. For helping me focus for the final eight after somebody stole my binder. Justin - For beating me senseless with a 8/9 Bird of Paradise at the last Fantasy Games tournament. Desert Twisters do belong in the sideboard. Fantasy Games - The tournaments here are small but the compition here is such that if you do well here your deck is not just a quirky scruby deck it has potential. The players are generally good enough and willing to help new players learn. Jeremy Friesen and Klaus Heubert - For helping me test my deck in Goshen against a variety of decks including Stasis, Necro, Counter-Burn, Sligh, Draw-Go, and White Weenie. The Academy Deck - It is good but it's most important effect isn't that it's unbeatable (its not) it's that fear of it has created a metagame that was perfect for my deck to excel in. Comments are welcome t0adie@hotmail.com Granger Petersen ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com