Subject: Indiana State Tournament Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 17:46:31 EST From: DSan1821@aol.com To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com This report ended up being longer than I wanted it to, but I was trying to keep track of a bunch of people, so hopefully you'll forgive me. Well, the Indiana States were this Saturday, Nov. 21, at the Indy Convention Center. Chris Bowman, Dave Van Ooteghem and I starting talking about states back on Nov. 4th. Chris and I had made an Academy Deck and were excited about bringing it to Indy (we only had the cards for 1 deck, but were confident that we could trade for the cards we needed for a second one by the times States rolled around), Dave had resurrected Black Ice (deck list will be at the end) and as he was getting 4th turn kills with it he was pretty happy about it. By the time the weekend rolled around we had 8 guys from the store who were in for States (not bad since we haven't been getting a lot more than that on Wednesdays since school started). Friday night two guys, Elihu and Klaus, pulled out and Troy Ashley decided to drive down for with his friend Mike, so we were down to 5 guys, me, Dave, Chris, Granger Peterson and Justin Smith. Chris had managed to borrow his last two Time Spirals from Mark, the owner of Fantasy Cards and Games (our local magic store), but was bemoaning the fact that he had to play the deck. His quote of the morning was "I'm walking into the room and saying, anyone want to buy an Academy?' And if anyone offers me good money I'm taking it and playing something else." Granger had built a green deck (he doesn't have a name for it, so I'm going to call it Granger Green) that is very subtle. I've played him 3 times in the last 3 weeks and lost every match. I hope I don't see him in the tournament. Dave has had similar experience with Granger's deck (only beating him once because Granger made a HUGE mistake which he won't happen again) and in fact has a copy of Grangers deck and is trying to decide if he shouldn't play that deck instead of playing Black Ice. My advice is "play the deck you know." Justin is playing a version of wurmgeddon. Granger and Justin end up sleeping over on Friday. We get up at 5 am (something so horrible needs to be shared!), drive over to Dave's and I jump into his car and away we go. Notable quote of the morning, Dave: "I took out my sideboard cards for your deck Granger. I figure it's a large tournament I'm not expecting to see anyone playing your deck besides you and what are the odds we'll meet?" It's about 3 hours to the Indianapolis Convention Center. We get there with about 30 minutes to register our decks and relax, which according to Chris is 29 minutes of lost sleep. Troy Ashley and his friend Mike are here. Troy is playing Black. Mike is playing Tradegeddon. Chris can't find any buyers so he's going to play the Academy. Sam King and some of the Valpo guys are there. I'd emailed Sam my version of the Academy (which I'm calling Master of All domains.) so we talk about sideboards for 5 minutes. Round 1: Anthony Cenkush WW I sit down and I recognize this kid, he's from another store in South Bend. Chris is next to me and he's playing another kid from South Bend, 123 people in the tournament, what are the odds? He's not prepared for me. It's not very pretty. I win both games Although second game memory lapsing his mana leak wins me the game (had to sac a petal to do it, power sink wouldn't have been enough). I do have to mention that he pointed out that I'd shuffled my Time Spiral into my deck and lets me pull it out before I draw 7. Thought I'd stopped doing that. Hopefully I won't do that again. 1-0 Matches, 2-0 Games Chris loses to what will be a very prevalent deck: WW with splash of red and blue (people were calling it star spangled White by the end of the day). Mike and Sam lose. Everyone else wins. I think Chris deck is getting back at him for talking bad about all day. Round 2: Jared Dresdow Green I'm sitting at table #1 (Whoo Hoo!) Again he's not ready and I roll in two games without much problem 2-0 Matches 4-0 Games Granger, Dave, Justin, Chris, Mike and Sam win. Troy loses. Round 3: Granger, Granger Green Ouch! This is not good. Like I said, I'm 0-3 vs. him. Dave is at table #1, Granger and I are at table #5, Justin is sitting next to us at #6. Not bad for South Bend. Granger's pen explodes in his hand just as we're about to start. I tell him, no big deal, go wash up and I'll wait, we know our match won't take 70. It's a bad omen for him. Game 1: I survive 1st turn scavenger folk 2nd turn elven lyrist and go off on 3rd turn. I start it all by capsizing all of Granger's permanents back to his hand and then windfalling for 9. Something you don't see very often: the games ends with both of us at 20 life. Game 2: By turn 4 Granger has 2 scavenger folk and 2 lyrist out. I have some mana, a key and a petal on the board. Turn 5 he lays a Trained Armadon. Turn 6 I start capsizing his Armadon and praying I can keep pulling mana as I'm holding a Time Spiral and a Mind over Matter and if I can stall long enough I can capsize both the lyrists. I finally get both lyrist up and go off at 3 life. Granger tells me after that he could have crumble my early petal, but held it for "real threats." It goes against his stated anti-academy strategy of "early and often disruption." It definetly cost him this game. 3-0 Matches 6-0 Games I finish quick enough so I go watch Dave play. He's got a near mirror match up. But his winter orbs, Thrull Retainers (Dave Tech) and paralyze help him comeback from early beatdown. He squeaks through game 3. Quote of the match is from Justin' match: It's not even turn 5 yet and I hear Justin's opponent say "What, are you smoking crack?!" If you've ever played Justin you know that matches with him are filled with sound effects and off the wall comments. Granger and I crack up, because we play Justin all the time and know exactly what the guy is talking about. Takes us about 5 minutes to compose ourselves. Dave, Mike, Justin, Troy, Chris win. Sam loses, but stays in, he wants to keep playing the deck. Round 4: Tom Wethington Star-spangled white Game 1: He wins with early creature beat down protected by a timely mana leak. Game 2: I go off on turn 4 without an academy as he has an untapped wasteland and I needed to drop a 4th island to play MOM. I kill him with Fireball. Game 3: He pyroblast MOM (when I cast it) disenchants a Mana Vault and has a mana leak ready for Time Spiral. Too many answers. 3-1 Matches 7-2 Games Quote of the Match, after I beat him game 2 "the only other game I've lost today was to a guy play an Urza's Saga sealed deck." Chris, Dave and Granger. Mike, Troy and Justin lose. Round 5: Tom Wethington Suicide Black I play up... That's very cool. Black is one of my worst match up as I have no decent sideboard (propaganda is the best I can do) so I'm worried... Game 1: I memory lapse a pump knight which is just so much fun against weenie decks. I go off with an academy boost on turn 8 or 9. I'm at ZERO life when I win due to my Ancient Tombs. Game 2: He plays 2nd turn disk, 3rd turn rain of tears. I memory lapse a knight drop some artifacts and go of around turn 7 at 3 life with pump knight in play. 4-1 Matches 9-2 Games Dave wins and is 5-0. He can now draw into the finals. Granger wins. Chris and Justin lose. They drop. Have to take time out from the report to tell you a story. In between rounds someone swiped Granger's binder!!! What is wrong with people?!! I felt so bad for Granger, in the last week he's lost his job and his apartment and now this. I am appealing to the thief's conscience to save whatever last speck of humanity you have left and please return the binder. Drop me an email (ndmai@zinc.helios.nd.edu) or mail it to the store (Fantasy Cards and Games, U52025 S 31, South Bend, IN 46637) - no questions asked. Round 6: Aaron Huntsman Star-spangled banner. This isn't good. My only game losses are to this deck and it's got a great sideboard for me. Game 1: Mulligan to 5. Get the engine going around turn 5. Game 2: 3rd turn kill with Fireball Wow! Deck worked just like it's suppose to. 5-1 Matches, 11-2 Games Granger wins, Dave takes a draw.. Round 7 Counter Phoenix. I'm sure the computer has screwed up the pairings (the # 1 seed has played Dave (#2 seed) and me (# 3 seed, so I'm pretty sure Dave and I are going to play each other and then we can take a draw into the finals. But I get paried with #9). I offer the draw of caurse he declines. So now I'm playing Counter Phoenix (he beat an academy deck with two lab's in play in round 6) it's not a great match up, but I've got winter orb in my sideboard and play testing tells me that I win if I can get out an orb. Game 1: You don't need no stinking orb if you go off before he drops a 2nd island. Game 2: I have the god draw: Mana Vault, key, winter orb. Only one problem: no land, no lotus petal. Ugh. I think long and hard about the odds of drawing one first turn (24/53) .I decide not to gamble (yes, I looked before I shuffled, the petal was the 2nd card.). He intuitions at the end of my 3rd turn (uh oh) I don't have a memory lapse or annul. I die miserably to the lab/phoenix. Game 3: 3rd turn he does a two point meltdown. I have Mana Vault, key and Scroll rack in play. I have MOM, land and memory lapse in hand. I (now I wish I had that damn mana leak/power sink). I lapse the meltdown praying I draw something good. I don't. During his upkeep I tap his only mountain. He drops an island. I don't draw anything. At the end of my turn he intuitions (uh oh!!!) I scroll rack and draw Time spiral (doh! I can'tthrow this at him!) I start praying heavily that he plays the lab and not the meltdown. He does! I Spiral, draw an Orb and a Time Spiral. I scroll them on top of my deck and during his upkeep toss 4 cards to tap all his land. Next turn I play Orb. He was looking pretty smug up till then. Now he knows he's in serious trouble. Now I can keep him tapped for only 1 card. Next turn I Spiral. A few turns later I stroke myself for 15 cards. During my turn I stroke him for 52 (he has 49). I WIN WITH ARCANE LAB IN PLAY!!! 6-1 Matches 13-3 Games Dave takes his 2nd draw and Granger wins. 3 of the 5 who came down from South Bend make final 8!!! Very cool. Final 8: Final Eight look like this: 1. Drew Sandler (me) Academy 2. Granger Peterson Granger Green 3. Bill Jackomis Suicide Black 4. Robert Smith TradeGeddon 5. Tom Wethington Star Spangled White 6. Dave Van Oooteghem Black Ice 7. Theron Martin Star Spangled White 8. Aaron Huntsman Star Spangled White Doug Weaver (5-1-1) playing an Academy deck is 9th. He had the mirror match up round 1 and they ended up with a draw and that killed him. Notably absent: Sligh. I think only 1 deck (one of the Valpo Guys who came with Sam King) even had a chance of making top 8 (he lost to Granger). Quarterfinals: 5-1-1 Matches 8-4 Games Semifinals: Aaron Huntsman Star Spangled White Same guy I played in round 6. I would love to say I fought the good fight, but... Game 1: I play land, mana vault, key, Scroll rack. The deck swings and misses for the first time all month. Even meditate, scroll doesn't help. I see about 12 cards and can't find one of the 15 cards that would win. You never know he might have been holding a mana leak, he wasn't playing like it though. Game 2: He has all the answers, wasteland, pyroblast, disenchant. I lose horribly... Match 6-2 Games 13-4 Granger beat Theron. One game he played 3 vineyards on him, in that game (I think, although they might have been the same game, I never saw any of their games) Granger was able to play a Jester's cap and tap it without tapping any mana sources! (He took 3 burn cards since Theron was at 1 life and he was at 4. Theron died with a serious mana sunburn). Dave beat Suicide black. His thrull retainer, winter orb, paralyze tech carried the day. Quarterfinals: Star-Spangled white mirror match up and Granger and Dave Dave: "I took out my sideboard cards for your deck Granger. I figure it's a large tournament I'm not expecting to see anyone playing your deck besides you and what are the odds we'll meet?" Oops. It's a really bad match up for Dave, really bad. Game 1: Dave gets early beatdown going but then vineyard, cursed scrolls come out and he dies. Game 2: Granger gets vineyard and spike weaver out, but can't find the cursed scroll and eventually dies to the beatings. Game 3: Granger is at 9 life before he has time to say his name. He manages to pull out Marri (take THAT Black Knight) and then cursed scroll. He slows the game down with Spike Weaver and eventually takes control of the board and wins. Finals Granger vs Tom Westhington Game 1: Granger gets out early scroll, kills all the knights and start his own beatings on turn 3 or 4. I don't think he took 4 points of damage. Game 2: Game two his opponent keeps the 1 land, disenchant, handful of 2 casting cost creatures, hoping to draw out of it. He didn't. By the time he played his first Knight the match was over. It didn't matter. Granger has a god draw: vineyard, 2 lands, Cursed Scroll, mana elf and spike weaver in his hand. First run vineyard gets disenchanted. Second turn, mana elf, scroll. Third turn trained armadon... So Granger is Indiana State champ! (I guess I can take some solace knowing that I was his only match loss) He got a bag, a plaque, a box of US and $100. Which means he's only down about $700 after the stolen binder... One question: Why aren't the 50 State champs given invites to Nationals? Can anyone explain this to me? You're state champ you should be given a bid to Nationals, right? All in all a great day! 3 guys from the Bend made final 8 taking home 1st, 3rd and 5th. Notes: I decided to play memory lapse over Mana Leak and Power sink b/c they win in the mirror match-up. In the end I loved the memory lapses only once did I regret not having leak or sink and I won that game. I won 4 or 5 other games because I had them... Granger's deck is strong. It subtle and catches you by surprise. I watched 2 or 3 good players scratch their heads and say "but what's it do?" It wins... Before we start BANNING cards why don't we just revert to the old rule where you could only have 1 copy of any Legendary card in your deck? The Academy decks would still be strong, but not quite as strong. I think ammending/changing/redefining the rules is a better solution than Banning cards. Props: Chris Bowman for helping me make and playtest the deck. Dave for his advice during the month and for taking 3rd, Mark for lending Chris two Time Spirals. The tourney organizer, George Pratt, who despite the computer acting quirky with the match ups, managed to make the day go without any real problems. They were expecting 80-85 they got 123. There were no problems that I could see. The judges were professional (well, I don't know if I like the fact that the judge during Theron and Granger's quarterfinal match was his student, but he certainly didn't do anything that would make me question his impartiality). Justin for making me laugh and just generally relieving stress during the day with his nutty ways(put the crack pipe away). Troy and Brett Boneau for playtesting with me. The people at the tournament, except for 1 notable exception, from what I could see the Jerks and rules lawyers stayed home. During the finals a lot of people were talking about the level of considerate play during the day... And especially to Granger, Indiana State Champ. Slops: The jerk who swiped the binder (ooh, I would have loved to have caught you), the guy who shuffled Dave's deck face up in the quarter finals. Here's the South Bend Decks who made final 8, as promised: Mine 4 Tolarian Academy 11 Island 3 Ancient Tombs 2 Wastelands 4 Time Spiral 3 Stroke of Genius 3 Mind Over Matter 4 Intuition 2 Meditate 1 Capsize 3 Windfall 4 Memory Lapse 2 Mox Diamond 4 Lotus Petal 3 Voltaic Key 4 Mana Vault 3 Scroll Rack Siideboard 1 Fireball 2 Winter Orb 1 Wasteland 2 Propaganda 3 Annul 4 Chill 2 Interdict 15 Granger Green (I don't have a decklist so I might have a few mistakes, but this is pretty much it...) 4 vineyards 4 manaelves 4 elven lyrist 4 Scavenger folk 4 Spike feeder 2 Scragnoth 4 Null broach 4 cursed scroll 1 lurghoyf 1 Mirri 4 trained armadon 2 wastelands 3 Gea's cradle 18 forests 4 crumble 2 Jester's Caps 2 wastlands 2 lifeforce 3 Dessert Twister 3 Spike Weaver Black Ice (Like Granger's I had to guess about some of this, but mostly accurate) 3 sarcomancy 2 Skittering skirge 3 dauthi horror 4 carnophage 3 Priest of Gix 4 blackknight 4 dauthi slayer 4 knight of strongeld 4 paralyze 2 Drain Life 2 thrull retainer 3 winterorb 4 dark ritual 18 swamps Sideboard Sorry I don't know much except: 3 duress 3 Walls (of souls?)Anti-red 4 Bottle Gnomes Drew Sandler ndmai@zinc.helios.nd.edu