Subject: WI State Championship Report - Academy deck - Marc Aquino Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 11:33:24 -0600 From: thehomer@juno.com To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com WISCONSIN STATE TOURNAMENT 1998 Cutting to the chase: I misplay to lose a game and hence the match, knocking myself out of the running. I finish up with a 5-2 record, placing me at #17. DECK HISTORY I began working on a deck with Benj Hamilton of Team Full Left Auto. One of his team members had a version of the Academy deck that we used as our base deck. After we worked with it awhile, we decided we wanted to go with very heavy card drawing. I added in Brainstorm to the main deck, and as my big breaker in the sideboard, Hurkyl’s Recall. We initially test Tolarian Winds as a card drawing possibility, but then discover Scroll Rack (along with everyone else.) We decide to go to Jason Jones for more criticism, and despite our worries, we finally play Intuition (yeah, yeah, I was pretty dumb about that...) Playtesting against Bob Maher Jr. on Wednesday, I get whupped and decide Voltaic Key isn’t as bad as I thought it was. Waste Mines also don’t appear to give me land screw, so those go in as well. My final playtesting against James Hamblin running my Sligh deck goes till 1:30 AM. The deck: 8 Island 4 Tolarian Academy 4 Waste Mine 4 Mox Diamond 4 Lotus Petal 4 Mana Vault 3 Voltaic Key 2 Scroll Rack 3 Mind Over Matter 3 Power Sink Capsize (SO much better than Rescind) 4 Brainstorm 2 Meditate 4 Intuition 3 Stroke of Genius 3 Windfall 4 Time Spiral The sideboard: 4 Chill 3 Hydroblast (should have been 3 Light of Day) 2 Hurkyl’s Recall (should have been 3) 2 Capsize 4 Pyroblast (should have been 3) TOURNAMENT DAY As usual, I’m zonked from the lack of sleep and it will cost me, as it takes till 4th round before I feel awake. I wake up late and have to leave the door unlocked so James can let himself in. I get a phone call while getting dressed. It’s Dan Bock. His ride has lamed out on him, so James goes to pick him up while I finish dressing and eat breakfast. We spend our time hanging out with other Madisonites. Adrian Sullivan asks James what he’s doing there. He is shocked to hear that James is playing in the MAGIC tournament with a deck that isn’t green. James spends some time giving play pointers to John Galli, one of the local kids who is running an Arcane Ertai deck. Finally, it’s time to play. 86 people showed up to compete for the title of Wisconsin State Champion! ROUND 1: Steven Enghung, Suicide Black Game 1: I take beatings to 2 life. Good think I Power Sunk the Cursed Scroll that would have killed me. I of course draw all 3 Windfalls against this guy as my only card drawing engine. In my “win now or die turn” I cast Windfall for 2 cards, then Windfall again for 2 cards. I draw 2 Intuitions. Hmm... looks like a Duelist puzzle. I have 6 in my pool. Academy is in play and makes 6 mana, and I haven’t played a land yet. I Intuition for Academy, play it and tap, giving me 9 mana. I Intuition and Time Spiral, and that’s game. Game 2: I don’t cut him. He draws swamp, Ritual, Priest of Gix, 2 creatures. I have mulliganed to a so-so hand because an island and 6 spells that cost 6 or X kind of suck. I die. Game 3: I learn my lesson and cut him. He draws swamp, Ritual, Priest of Gix, Black Knight, Planar Void. I don’t mulligan, and the promising hand turns into 4 mana, Voltaic Keys, and 6cc spells. He beats me down like a snoop-dog on a Saturday night. GAMES: 1-2; MATCHES: 0-1 ROUND 2: Jeremy Carr, Tolarian Academy deck This is the guy I will refer to later on as my Brother In Tolarian Arms. We hang out a bit throughout the tourney. His deck is pretty standard, but lacks the Academy wrecking sideboard I have. Game 1: I waste his Academy, he draws another one. He’s not doing much, so I Meditate. He’s STILL not doing much and has nothing in his hand. He top decks time Spiral. I check my hand for Power Sink or Capsize. Nothing. New hand: still no Sink or Spiral. He plays MoM and Windfall. New hand: STILL NOTHING. I lose. Game 2: Hurkyl’s Recall throws 5 artifacts back in his hand in response to his Windfall. With my new hand of 7, I win. Game 3: a.k.a. THE VERY BAD MISPLAY GAME. I’m winning, but decide that it would be just childish if I put all his permanents back in his hand before going off. Big mistake. I miss the untapped Mox Diamond, and he has drawn one of his two Pyroblasts off the Spiral. He blasts my Stroke. He then his own MoM, and we sit and blunder for awhile. I have too much of my good stuff in the graveyard. Eventually, despite some horrible playing on both our parts (including his Time Spiral when I would’ve died to my Mana Vaults next turn), I die to my Mana Vaults. However, I WILL have a chance to avenge myself later... GAMES: 2-4; MATCHES: 0-2 ROUND 3: Mark Johnson, Tolarian Academy deck I predict myself going 0-3 then sweeping for a final 4-3 record at this point. James asks me what food I want and he goes off to try and find a McDonald’s. Game 1: Mark says, “This is the best hand I’ve had all day.” Boy, I hate hearing that. He drops Diamond and Academy. I waste Academy and he says, “That sucks.” He plays Island. I play some more stuff, leaving a Mox Diamond and Capsize in my hand. On his turn, he casts Show and Tell. Obviously, he plays MoM. He then casts Windfall. I Capsize MoM to his hand, and we both draw one card. The game slows for a bit, when he Meditates at the end of my turn. In response, I Stroke for 5. That ends up making game. Game 2: He plays Island, says done. I pull off turn one Time Spiral, and I have just enough to play the MoM I Intuitioned for, but instead I keep two Pyroblasts up, just in case he has Annul or Force Spike. I’ve learned my lesson from last match. He plays Island, says done. Game with a turn 2 kill. GAMES: 4-4; MATCHES: 1-2 While waiting for James to return, I play Adrian’s CounterPhoenix deck and go 3-0 (a bad omen for Adrian’s next match, which he loses to Bob Maher’s Academy deck.) James comes back without food because he couldn’t find any. ROUND 4: Don Schamun, Tolarian Academy deck At this point, I’m starting to wake up. I’m starting to suspect a conspiracy, because I keep hearing that Academy keeps playing other Academy and Suicide Black, and Sligh has yet to play against Academy. Furthermore, I know Don, since he has taken over ownership of a local store, The Realm, from Mark Drapec. Game 1: Neither of us does anything very exciting for awhile. Finally, in response to my Stroke at the end of his turn, he Strokes himself. I go off on my turn, Spiraling twice to get the MoM. Game 2: I have a good hand, his sucks (I think he even mulliganed.) Finally, he is forced to tap his island, Diamond, and blow his Petal to Meditate. I Pyroblast, then Capsize his Diamond with my free turn. I still can’t do anything for a little while, but he is completely handicapped. Eventually, I Time Spiral with a Pyroblast back up, play MoM, and call it game. GAMES: 6-4; MATCHES: 2-2 We start watching our neighbors. Marc Haase is running an almost identical deck to Adrian’s, and his opponent, Mark Gresbach, is running what he has dubbed “CounterMoose.” CounterMoose uses Humility, Orim’s Prayer, and Peace of Mind to hold you off before eventually killing you with Carabou Range tokens and the deck’s only white border card, ALADDIN’S RING. Don, Marc Haase, and I all watch in shock and realize how much of a beating the shotgun is. They end up drawing, and Mark goes 3-3-1 for the day. I was supposed to get a URL from him, but haven’t heard from him via e-mail yet. ROUND 5:Steve Payne, ANOTHER &*^((^^($ Tolarian Academy deck Game 1: Best summed up as 1) I suck, 2) he Intuitions a lot, and 3) he Spirals a lot. I lose. Game 2: He draws one land which he pitches to a Mox Diamond. He Spirals but still sees no land and eventually has 4 artifacts in play. Hurkyl’s Recall wrecks him. I eventually have 13 artifacts and Academy in play with Capsize and 2 Pyroblasts in hand, while he has no permanents. Who said Rescind is better than Capsize? Game 3: Wow, this game is SOOOO slow. I have the advantage with Academy and Wasteland in play, but he has a ton of land himself, the old fashioned way - 6 Islands plus artifact mana. Finally, he taps out his colored mana to cast MoM, and I respond by Intuitioning for 2 Pyroblasts and Capsize, either of which I can cast. I think I’ve beaten the fear of Capsize into him, as he picks Pyroblast. In response to his casting of a Lotus Petal, I blast the MoM. On my turn, I go off. GAMES: 8-4; MATCHES: 3-2 ROUND 6: Damien Sena, NOT Tolarian Academy - WW This is Damien’s first tournament, so he’s doing pretty well. Unfortunately, the matchup is not in his favor. Game 1: I go off on turn 3. Game 2: He makes lots of weenies, and I have lots of the cards I need. Topdecking Academy lets me cast the MoM before Time Spiraling, I Capsize a ton of his stuff, then Spiral again, then finally Stroke. GAMES: 10-4; MATCHES 4-2 I’m pretty psyched, and I go talk to Steve Port who’s running the show, to ask if he can do a tournament for 9 - 16 with some small prize, and he agrees! ROUND 7: Gary Nawrocki, Team C+C, Suicide Black with Hatred in sideboard Gary is not happy to be playing another Academy deck (I know the feeling!) Game 1: I play many artifacts and have another Academy to replace the one he wastes. Using Brainstorm, I get all my land and artifacts in play and put Time Spiral on top of my deck, leaving no cards in my hand to be Duressed. Go off, win. Game 2: Damn, he gets a Dark Ritual and beats me down. I spend my last turn casting tons of spells in an attempt to survive, and I fail, but it looks really good the number of spells I cast. Game 3: He likes his hand. That doesn’t sound good to me. I paris down to 5 cards. Finally, I reach that “must win this turn or die” point. I Intuition for Time Spiral before my turn, topdeck Academy, Intuition again for a Mana vault to maximize my Academy mana after the Time-Spiral and to thin my deck, then Spiral and go off. GAMES: 12-4; MATCHES: 5-2 I make #17, but since people above me don’t want to play in the 9-16 tournament, I get in. For having 2 or less losses, I get a pack of Urza’s Saga and a pack of Tempest. I get a Dirtcowl Wurm and a Stroke. THE “WE DID OKAY BUT NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO MAKE THE TOP 8” TOURNAMENT ROUND 1: Jeremy Carr, Tolarian Academy deck Ah, my chance for vengeance has arrived! Game 1: He wins, just like the first game. Game 2: I win, but nothing spectacular happens. Game 3: He tries to go off casting Time Spiral, Windfall, then Windfall. He is only running 2 Intuitions and 3 MoMs, so he can’t find them. I play a bunch of stuff and start using Scroll R ack to set up my hand. He gets a MoM in play but can’t do anything with it since all of his card drawing is in the graveyard. Eventually, I have Hurkyl’s Recall, Time Spiral, MoM, 2 Pyroblasts, and a land in my hand. His graveyard (fortuntely for me) has lots of good stuff while mine is jank. At the end of his turn, I Hurkyl’s him at the end of his turn, and he has no interrupts. In response, I Pyroblast his MoM. This leaves him with 2 islands and 1 Academy in play. I manage to get MoM in play and Time Spiral, but I can’t go off so I let him have a turn. He gets some stuff in play. Eventually, I get what I need, and this time, I DO put all his stuff back in his hand before going off. ROUND 2: Paul Artl, Necro Smokestack Game 1: My hand is land and artifacts. He Duresses a Mana Vault. No big deal. A few Brainstorms later, I set all my land and artifacts in play and put Time Spiral on top of my deck so he can’t Duress me (I did mention Brainstorm is some good, right?) Game. Game 2: He gets no Discard, and taps out to play a Disk. I have been using Scroll Rack to set up my hand, putting all my land and artifacts in play and putting my good spells on top of my deck with junk in my hand, so I go off. The other semi-finalists are taking forever to play (Academy vs. Academy) so they draw and we all get two packs os Urza’s Saga. One of my packs has a Time Spiral. All in all, it was a good day. I saw so many people having a great time, *I* had a great time. James, using my mono-red deck, makes the final 8, but his opponent gets him DQed for marked cards. That soured the day. Still, he rocked! PROPS Steve Port and Darryl Wyatt for running a great tournament All the people who were there to have fun and who showed great sportsmanship (this includes all of my opponents) James Hamblin, for making the top 8 in his first big Magic tournament in a format he didn’t even play a month and a half ago Everyone who made it a point to congratulate James for his performance. It helped keep him positive about the game after he was disqualified. It’s those people who can get more players into the game and keep them there. My packs, for having Time Spiral and Stroke of Genius B^) SLOPS Jacob for getting James DQed at his first major tournament and then trying to tell him he was sorry. If you were really sorry, you wouldn’t have done it. Me, for giving James a deck with played beta Mountains and clear sleeves Dan Bock, for being Dan Bock (the Boeckmeister) The food, because we couldn’t find it Marc Aquino Builder of Decks ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]