Subject: Two Tournament Reports
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 00:45:16 -0500 (EST)
From: Michael R Tidrick 
To: webmaster@classicdojo.org

    I only got to play in one tournament since M/V/W rotated out, and I really didn't have much of a clue with this new format.  I knew that Academy decks were hugely popular as well as very powerful.  I also knew that two of the best decks vs. the Academy were Suicide Black and Green weenie decks.  I built this U/B deck with that in mind.  The two main purposes of my deck were disruption and efficiency.  I planned to use counter magic and hand destruction to take apart combos and decks that rely heavily on one card.  I put in disks and Evincar's Justice (in the sideboard) for decks that unload quickly.  I thought that this would give me the best chance against most of what I'd be seeing in Columbus.  Unfortunately with almost no play testing or tournaments under my belt, it was hard to build a consistent deck that I could depend on right off the bat.  This is the deck that I went with.  It could use a lot of work, but it was fun to play.
 

8 Swamp
8 Island
4 Underground River
2 Volrath's Stronghold
4 Nevinyrral's Disk
4 Bottle Gnomes
2 Lobotomy (2 worked out good, but 3 or 4 might work too)
4 Thrull Surgeon (AMAZING!)
2 Wall of Souls (Wall of Tears would have worked way better in this deck)
2 Abyssal Specter (These didn't work out as well as I thought they would, but still came in handy at times)
2 Dark Ritual (2 was good, but 3 might work out better)
3 Diabolic Edict (I like them, but not everyone does.  They saved my butt in several games)
4 Counterspell
4 Forbid
3 Capsize
1 Stroke of Genius (Worked well in a few games, but sat in my hand most of the time.  I sideboard it out vs. quick decks.)
2 Air Elemental
1 Silver Wyvern (2 might be better)
60 Total Cards

Sideboard:
2 Oath of Ghouls (for use vs. Draw-Go)
2 Evincar's Justice (for use vs. any weenie deck... great card, very underrated.  I should have used more)
2 Terror (Great vs. Ball Lightning and Tradewinds)
1 Disrupting Scepter (for use vs. Draw-Go... would be better if it was a 3rd Oath)
2 Wasteland (for use vs. Academy and any deck that relies heavy on non basics... 3 may be better)
3 Energy Flux (for use vs. Academy, can also work well vs. Cursed Scroll decks)
3 Perish (for use vs. Green...  would be better if they were Evincar's Justice, or something else)

Round 1 vs. Brett Foster (U/W Tradewind-Geddon w/ Looters)

    Brett's Deck was blue and white built around Tradewind Riders, Armageddon, and Merfolk Looters.  His other creatures included Paladin en-Vec and Crystalline Sliver.  Bottle Gnomes were so amazing against his deck, their 3 toughness kept his creatures at bay long enough to function.  This was a really good, close match up.

    Game 1: Early Creatures and Mox Speed give him the early advantage, but Nevinyrral's Disk got me back into the game and we held even positionally with me at 9 life and him at 20.  He gets a Tradewind out with 2 Looters in play.  He keeps me short of blue mana with his hot tradewind action, so I can't counter or do anything.  He then casts Armageddon and I promptly concede.
    Game 2: He taps out for a turn 4 Lobotomy and takes my Evincar's Justice out of the game.  My turn 4 I top deck a Lobotomy and remove his Tradewinds from the game.  I had control for most of the rest of the way, the only way he can stay in the game is to use his Merfolk Looters often.  I eventually run him out of cards in a really long game.
    Game 3:  We both play quickly this game since we only have 10 minutes to go in the round.  With 3 minutes left and me at 1 life 5 of my next 6 draws are top decking wonders that keep me alive.  Without stalling time runs out on Brett's turn just as he casts the Armageddon with his Tradewind out.  I got really lucky there.  (Bottle Gnomes kept my from dying to the Tradewind)

    Sideboard: 1 Diabolic Edict and 1 Forbid out for 2 Evincar's Justice

Game: 1-1-1
Match: 0-0-1

Round 2 vs. Randy Craig (Academy)
    The only special thing about Randy's deck that I was able to notice was he seemed to prefer counterspells over powersink, and I don't remember seeing any Voltaic Keys or Scroll Racks.

    Game 1: Turn 3 Randy starts with 2 Meditates and looks like he'll go off, but he can't.  I get 3 turns after that, but I don't draw the disk until the 3rd of those.  If I got it a turn sooner I would have wrecked him right there.  He gets his 4th turn with me tapped out and my disk tapped.  He goes off.  Fortunately he screws up and casts Stroke of Genius on himself for just a few more cards than he actually had.  I get a lucky win there.
    Game 2: I Lobotomy his Mind over Matter early.  He casts lots of Time Spirals and Windfalls in an attempt to win.  I manage to Lobotomy his Windfalls and Wasteland his last Academy.  He can't do anything else at this point.  He has 7 cards left in his library, I have 6.  He tries to hold out for the win, but I get his last few cards a couple turns later with my own Stroke.

    Sideboard: 3 Diabolic Edict and 2 Wall of Souls out for 3 Energy Flux and 2 Wasteland

Game: 3-1-1
Match 1-0-1

Round 3 vs. Sauni Mathis (Recurring/Death)
    Same old Survival of the Fittest/Recurring Nightmare/Living Death type concept, but he puts in lots of the new Urza's Saga black creatures that have triggered effects to make it pretty interesting.

    Game 1: He gets somewhat mana screwed and my Air Elemental and Silver Wyvern team up to put the hurt on.
    Game 2: I get mana screwed and can't get more than 2 swamps out all game, with 6 cards in my hand that needed 2 blue to cast.  I eventually got 2 Underground Rivers, but at that point I didn't have the life to spend on it.  I was at 1 life when I finally got the 4th mana for a Disk.
    Game 3: I get a second turn Lobotomy off and remove his 4 Recurring Nightmares from the game.  I know from looking through his library that he only has 2 living deaths.  After a long hard game, and 2 Perishes, his graveyard is pretty stacked with big fat creatures.  He draws out my counter and gets me to tap out and then casts Living Death.  The game was all downhill from there.

    Sideboard: 4 Bottle Gnomes and 1 Capsize out for 3 Perish and 2 Wasteland (For Game 2)
                       2 Bottle Gnomes, 2 Wall of Souls and 1 Capsize out for 3 Perish and 2 Wasteland (For Game 3)

Game: 4-3-1
Match: 1-1-1

Round 4 vs. Wade Schwendemann (Academy)
    Just an average Academy deck.

    Game 1: Thrull Surgeon combined with the Volrath's Stronghold takes his hand apart, including 3 of his Time Spirals and his Power Sink.  I then got the disk off followed by an Air Elemental.  The rest is history.
    Game 2: This is the second most memorable game of my life.  I have no land in my opening draw, I mulligan.  At 6 cards I still have no land, I mulligan again.  Usually I stop at 5, but this hand had 2 Disks, 1 Air Elemental, 1 Silver Wyvern, and 1 Thrull Surgeon... still no land.  Since all that was so high casting I went for the mulligan again.  At 4 cards I get 3 Swamps, and a Disk.  I keep that.  His first turn was Academy, Mana Vault, Scroll Rack (with the Mana Vault) and all sorts of other Academy deck type chicanery.  On my first turn I draw an Energy Flux and play a Swamp.  I thought this game was hopeless at this point, but my second turn I draw a Dark Ritual.  From the look on his face I knew he had a Powersink.  I figured the disk would draw the counter for the Energy Flux on the next turn (hoping for some blue mana).  He powersinks the Disk (as expected).  My turn 3 I draw an Underground River and get the Energy Flux out.  This wrecks all of his artifacts and puts him at a serious disadvantage.  He can't go off then, so on my turn 4 I cast the Lobotomy that I drew, take his Stroke of Genius, and he concedes.  That was some amazing luck!

    Sideboard: 3 Diabolic Edict and 2 Wall of Souls out for 3 Energy Flux and 2 Wasteland

Game: 6-3-1
Match: 2-1-1

Round 5 vs. Charles Bowman (Suicide Black)
    A mostly typical Suicide Black deck, with a few interesting Urza's Saga creatures.

    Game 1: 3 Islands was all I got all game.  I was sitting on 2 disks waiting for a 4th land.  His hand was near empty, and 3 Bottle Gnomes in play kept me alive for a while.  Eventually he pounded his way through.  At only 2 life I draw an Underground River, and have no Gnomes left.  That land just came a bit too late.  I cast Lobotomy to have a peek at his hand, and then concede that game.
    Game 2: He unloaded his hand quick, but Evincar's Justice cleared everything out except for my Wall of Souls and my Bottle Gnome.  I went on to win that pretty easily.
    Game 3: He casts Dark Ritual and plays 3 creatures on his first turn.  My second turn I cast Dark Ritual and play a disk.  By the time I can use it I was already at 5 life.  Right after using the disk he casts another Dark Ritual for 3 more creatures.  I've never seen a Suicide Black deck come out THAT fast.  I got smacked REALLY hard.

    Sideboard: 2 Lobotomy out for 2 Evincar's Justice

Game: 7-5-1
Match: 2-2-1

Round 6 vs. John Moesner (Academy)
    An Academy deck with lots of non basics (For the sideboard).  John is a really nice guy, and is fun to play.  I hope to see him at some future event, just because he is a really friendly person.  I wish there were more of those people out there.

    Game 1: He had a really bad draw.  My Thrull Surgeon with Volrath's Stronghold raped him.  Once I got the Silver Wyvern out, it was hard for him to come back.
    Game 2: I removed the Time Spiral from the game with Lobotomy.  I kept him from doing too much with the Abyssal Specter and Thrull Surgeons.  The Disk wrecking was key to that game too.

    Sideboard: 3 Diabolic Edict and 2 Wall of Souls out for 3 Energy Flux and 2 Wasteland

Game: 9-5-1
Match: 3-2-1

Round 7 vs. Jess Means (Goblin Tech)
    The deck just seemed to swarm with goblins, and backed it up with direct damage and cursed scroll.

    Game 1:  My two Wall of Souls kept him at bay for a while, but eventually he was able to swarm me in spite of the walls.  The cursed scroll was a pain too in that game!  My only two blue I got that game was from 2 Underground Rivers.  He was able to use his Wastelands on them, shorting me of blue and keeping me out of this game.
    Game 2:  The only removal I saw all game was one Terror.  One Wall of Souls kept him from abusing his Lackey, but I just got overwhelmed by burn, scrolls and goblins.

    Sideboard: 1 Stroke of Genius, 1 Forbid, 1 Capsize and 1 Lobotomy out for 2 Terror and 2 Evincar's Justice

Game: 9-7-1
Match: 3-3-1

    I would have liked to do much better, but the deck shows a lot of promise.  It seems to be a very solid concept.  If only I could have tested it more, and got better aquatinted with the field.  I underestimated the power of some decks I thought I had beat.  It's a good first try and will definitely be better after some modifications.  Feel free to try it.  If you do use "The Disrupter" please email me and let me know what you did with it and how it works out.  I'd be happy to hear from you.  The bright spot on the day was going 6-0 vs. Academy.  It just goes to show that you don't need blazing speed to beat that deck.

    Thumbs up:  To Andon for one of the most fun tournaments I've been to.  To everyone who had nice things to say about my deck.  To all the nice people I made trades with...  Nobody tried to extort me.
    Thumbs down: To Andon for scheduling this when all the best players in the state are in Rome... I know we'd have a different State Champion if some of those guys were in town.

Good luck in all your playing,
Michael Tidrick   Team Twisty