Subject: Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 00:02:08 -0600 From: "Lis Leckey" To: Hello all. Well, I finally have something to report so let me begin by thanking Frank for his creating the Dojo, a tool which has been second only to the cards themselves in helping me prepare for countless tournaments. Good job! I would also like to thank Kip Kludt- my teammate and one of the finest players and deckbuilders I could ever hope for. I very simply could not have won if it wasn't for his input, playtesting, and uh.... the two Academies he loaned me. And finally, I would like to thank Larry Kohlman and the entire crew at Dragon's Den (Sioux Falls SD) for running one of the finest, best organized tounament I have ever attended. Super job guys! The idea coming in to the tourney was for us both to play Academy decks- a deck type I've been testing since I opened my first pack of Urzas. Goldfish from the start was 3rd turn and, after playtesting numerous decks against it, we found that there were very few ways to disrupt it badly enough (more on that later) to beat it on a consistant basis. Unfortunately, we couldn't locate all the cards necessary. That may have been a blessing in disguise because we both built alternate decks in case we couldn't come across the cards we needed and playtested Counter Phoenix (the worst matchup for Academy) among others. When tounament day arrived I was short two Academies, and Kip was short 3 Spiral, two Academies, and one Intuition. When I came across the two Academies I needed, Kip was good enough to loan me his instead of giving up cards to trade for two (which- as of the 28th will be banned shortly). Kip went in with his backup, which in my estimation was pretty darn solid- Green/Red Cradle with Scavenger Folk, Lyricists, main deck Scragnoth (which killed Counter/Phoenix), and assorted nastiness. My deck: 4 Time Spiral 4 Windfall 4 Stroke of Genius 3 MoMa 3 Meditate (great 1st game- but sided out every time) 3 Intuition 2 Counterspell 1 Power Sink (would now start a 2nd and lose one Meditate) 1 Capsize (won me a match) 4 Mana Vault 4 Lotus Petal 3 Voltaic Key (also sided out 2nd game) 3 Mox Diamond 3 Scroll Rack (If 'ya ain't playin' 3- don't play Academy) 10 Island 4 Academy (BAAROKEN- if the rumors are true: good riddance) 4 Ancient Tombs (sided out for Wasteland) Sideboard: 4 Chill (duh) 3 Pyroblast (chose over Propoganda) 3 Wasteland (never actually got to waste anything) 2 Interdict (for Nightmare/Whale) 2 Counterspell 1 Capsize I won't go play by play for each match because: 1) By now all of you know how the deck works. 2) It gets REEEEALY boring when the deck starts rolling. So here goes. 1st match- Camden Isengerg- Black Weenie/ rogue deck Well, black 1st round. Fun. Thankfully he had no Duress or Persecute and I saw no Wasteland. But what I did see both games was a 2nd turn 5/2 regenerating Kjeldoran Dead. Luckily I was able to go off on turn 3 or 4 both games and deck him before his Dead got too nasty. Well played match on Camden's part and it was good to see more players from my town (Brookings). Match: 1-0 2nd match - Izac Adams- Cradle/Elf madness Small tourney (@30 players) so by now everyone knew what I was playing. Izac didn't seem to think he stood a chance but I knew it would be a tough match if I saw either Scavenger Folk/ Lyricist. First game I didn't. After a first turn Spiral that left him without any land in his hand, all I saw was Forest/Llanowar. Next game he mulliganed twice for first turn Root Maze and, after I took several turns building rescources, I Capsized/ Countered the Maze and went off next turn. Another super player- I was just lucky to have one of the two Capsizes in my deck in hand after sideboarding. Match: 2-0 3rd Match- Dan Jerke- Counter Phoenix (oh, wonderful) First rule. Don't ever let Dan's age fool you. He's young but he plays flawlessly and he built a super deck. First game, after much posturing, I attempted to go off. Just couldn't draw the MoMa I needed for the win and the searching left me tapped out. So after much damage from the Tomb- he burned me out. Second game- he draws 3 pyros. Pyros Spiral, Spiral, Windfall but with a Rack out I found the Spiral I needed to go off with Academy in hand. Whew! Third game- drew my Counters and Hydros, fought a counter war that left him tapped out. Dropped MoMa and went off. My brain hurts at this point. Watch for Dan to do some good stuff in the future- very talented young man. With 5 rounds of Swiss- I checked the pyramid and just needed 2 ID's to go final 8. Sometimes you just have to know when to lay-up. Match: 3-0 4th match- Adam Zelmer- Sligh Intentional draw. Adam's one of the top players in the State and, against Sligh, a draw was just fine with me. I'll see Adam later in the tourney. Match: 3-0-1 5th match- Kirby Kozel- Academy Intentional draw because we were both in at this point. Also one of the top players in the state and one of the top ranked Arena League players in the Region. We were also the only 2 Academy players at the tournament. I didn't want a mirror-match anyway and now I can say that I've been to at least one tounament where Kirby didn't whup my butt :) Match: 3-0-2 Well, I'm in and the deck has been performing perfectly. I am extremely happy with only one game loss at this point and it seems that quite a few players are somewhat tentative playing against the Academy. Can't say I blame them. The deck is just simply broken. I played Necro quite a bit when it was THE deck but, unlike Academy, quite a few decks could be built to beat Necro that would do very well against the rest of the field. Just doesn't seem to be the case with Academy. Sure, there are ways to slow it down, but just not many main-deck ways to stop it. If it's true that both Academy and Windfall will be banned- I applaud the decision. And to those of you asking "why Windfall": The deck can still be dominant using Show and Tell and Mana Vaults. Now hopefully Great Whale and Peregrine Drake will be erratted to "successfully cast" as I can definitely see a shift in power to the Nightmare/Whale decks. On to the final 8. Quarterfinals: Sean Sutton- Green/red/ LD/ Smokestack- rogue 1st game I started slowly and after, seeing Stone Rain/Raze, I had enough artifacts to drop Academy and go off. 2nd game. Unfortunate. Sean Razed an Academy (I had another in hand) so I dropped another and began to go off, casting Windfall. Unfortunately, Sean thought I cast Spiral and reshuffled his hand into his library. Completely honest mistake but it cost him the match. I felt horrible because Sean is a great guy and another super player (didn't meet any bad ones today) and I just hated to get into the semis because of another players mistake. We played the rest of the game for fun and, after I decided that it would be ok to untap the Academy without a MoMa on the table (saw Chill- thought MoMa-mistake corrected), I did go off. Sean had a great deck and was using Smokestack to back up the LD. Thankfully, I never saw that card or the match might have ended much differently. Match: 4-0-2 Semifinals- Jeremy Hall- Recur/ Whale 2 infinite mana decks. Jeremy is another super player with a great sense of humor- most fun match all day. Who'll drop their combo first? Well, first game it was me as he never saw a Survival and just couldn't get any creatures into the graveyard. I sided in Counters, Hydroblast, Wasteland, Interdict (for the Recurring Nightmare). Him- Pyros, Carrion Beetles, Duress, LOBOTOMY. Ick. Toughest game of the day for me as, after I started slowly, he cast Lobotomy. I had already countered a Recurring Nightmare and had Spiral, Intuition, Hydroblast, Island. Bye-bye Spirals. Well, that's great, as I was building to the point where I could cast it next turn to go off. We went a few turns laying lands- his Survival was hiding and he had Carrion Beetles, Staunch Defenders, and Peregrine Drake on the table. I'm holding an Intuition. He Duresses it. Great. No cards in hand, taking 3 damage a turn. He doesn't have Survival yet. He says go. I draw Island. Wonderful. I say go, expecting to die. He declares an attack (for 6- I'm at six life). I look at my life total- about to congratulate him and move on to the third game. Then I look at the board. I have MoMa out. Hmn. In response to his attack phase, I use the Island to tap the Staunchies. Just a delay tactic right? I have no cards in hand. He says go. I then perform the most astonishing top decking of my life- Stroke of Genius. I use all of my available mana to Stroke, drawing another. No Stroke. Use Scroll Rack for 3. Well, there it is. Stroke again. To make a long story short- after doing plenty of math, I was able to deck him using only Mana Vaults after Scroll Racking the rest of my deck. Best game of Magic I have ever played. Lucky as hell, because if Jeremy had drawn Survival in either game- I would have lost the match. On to the finals. Match: 5-0-2 Finals- Adam Zelmer- Sligh Well, after avoiding it in the 4th round, here it is. Adam's a heck of a player and I was astonished to find out that he built his deck the morning of the tournament. He had a similar miraculous top-decking experience in his semifinal, drawing a Ball Lightning to kill his opponent the turn before he would have lost the match. First game, I went off about the third turn. Nothing spectacular. Second game, he decides that his deck likes Pyroblast and, after my deck stalled, I conceded. Final game I draw this: Lotus Petal, Mana Vault, Voltaic Key, Tolarian Academy, Island, Time Spiral. One more Voltaic Key and I would have had the decks "God hand". So, after dropping my entire hand (except Island), I Spiral. The deck stalls but I'm able to drop Scroll Rack (MVP of the Tourney) and take a couple points of Mana Burn. His turn- Mountain, Pup. Whew, no Wasteland. My 2nd turn- I draw, Scroll Rack- get Spiral, MoMa: off to the races. My first 2nd turn kill of the tournament. State Champion? Yep. Adam played a great match but, with the hand I drew, the deck just plays itself. Adam was a super sportsman and has finished second the last 2 years. It was a good Sligh deck but I think the lack of Meltdowns in the sideboard hurt. Match: 6-0-2 So, as the SD State Champion, I collect my winnings (1/3 given to Kip as a reward for being... well, Kip). The bag was cool and the plaque is great. The most ironic thing about the packs- my rare in the first one I opened was: Tolarian Academy. Geez. Now on to the..... Props: Kip Kludt. Hands down, he is the main reason I won the tounament. Without his input and playtesting, I wouldn't have stood a chance. He went 2-3 with his deck but sometimes, matchups are everything. If anyone gets to Watertown SD, look him up. Larry and the gang at Dragons Den. I have never had so much fun playing 9 hours of Magic. Larry is a contributor to the Duelist price guide and everyone should thank him because his prices are among the lowest around. Matt, Bill, and the Brookings gang. Card hunters extrordinare. If it wasn't for their willingness to trade, I would have had one Academy, one Spiral, two Strokes, and have been playing Counter-Phoenix. Thanks guys. All of my opponents. Great guys- great decks- great players. 'Nuff said. My fiance Lis- For just putting up with me and my obsession. Also for being there during the final match and renting a hot tub room for the night. Ohhhh.... hot tub. Mmnnn. Wizards of the Coast.- The prizes were excellent. It's good to see tournament support for a smaller Magic community. Slops: Wizards of the Coast.- Tolarian Academy and either Time Spiral/Windfall should never have made it out of playtesting. Yeah, I played the deck (because it was the strongest in playtesting) but that doesn't mean I have to like the principle of it. Wizards of the Coast.- The State Tounaments should award at least one spot each to Nationals. They could still hold regionals for the remaining slots. It just doesn't seem right to give 8 invitations at Regionals and completely ignore the State winners. How do they advertise "You say you're the best player in the state. Now prove it.", and then, in essence, say "OK you proved it ...but you're not good enough to go to Nationals.". A slot at Nationals would REALLY make the state title worth something and turnout for the tournaments would increase dramatically. Doesn't make sense to me. Kori Swanson SD State Champion 1998