Subject: AL State Championship Date: Sun, 29 Nov 1998 20:08:56 -0600 (CST) From: Holt Gray To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Dear Frank, This is my first tourney report so please bear w/ me. First off, i didnt take any notes and i apologize for all the names i cant remember. Ill start with the stuff everyone wants to know and follow up with summary of the day. Alabama State Championship (T2) Place: 1st Record: 5-0-2 in swiss then 3-0 of course in top 8. Total Game Records: 16-3 Deck: Lackey Sligh Number of Players: 66 Decklist: 4 mogg fanatics 4 mogg flunkies 4 goblin lakeys 4 goblin raiders 4 jackal pups 4 balls 2 fireslingers 4 shock 4 incinerates 1 sonic burst 1 gob bombardment 4 scrolls 17 mountains 3 wastelands Sideboard: 4 meltdown 4 pyroblasts 1 torture chamber 2 portcullis 3 bottle gnomes 1 rathi dragon Top 8 Summary. 1 Lackey Sligh 2 Academy 3 Academy 4 Academy 5-8 Patriot WW (Blair Simpson and teammate) 2 Suicide Black (+smokestack, worked great) 1 Rouge Deck (like elfball but instead of x red spells, used goblin offensive, and mogg infestation. different but very effective, played by jeff butz, good friend) As for the day, unlike everyone else i did get 8 hours of sleep the night before and didnt tweak the deck until the wee hours of the morning. So we get to Dr. Bob's gameshop in Huntsville about 9:30. Having to wait for them to go and buy chairs, due to more participants than expected, many of us tried to beat Jeff Butz in Connect 4. (no one did all day as he is the king of this game, must play a lot w/ his 2 kids) Finally the tourney starts about noon. Round 1: vs ww I get paired w/ ww first match. Oh no. The guy is playing pariah main deck! Lucky for me, i pulled 1 scroll first game, and 2 second game and was able to contol his pro red creatures. Real nice guy i played. 1-0 : 2-0 Round 2: vs sligh I love sligh on sligh matchups. This guy was a pretty good player but i think he forgot to draw a couple of cards on urzas baubles. Game 1 was a matter of firesliger control, game 2, was all about bottle gnomes. 2-0 : 4-0 Round 3: vs sligh Another sligh, cool! First game he is a little mana short. Second game was just a matter of me meltdowning his scroll, then laying my own and taking control. 3-0 : 6-0 Round 4: vs draw-go This is where i had my second best draw all day. I went first and laid lackey. He plays island, go. I attack lay flunky and play lackey. He goes, lays another island, go. I attack w/ 2 lackey and flunkies. lay another flunky and gob. raider for free and play a mogg fanatic. so i have 6 creatures on the board w/ 1 mana on turn 3. he picks up his lands and concedes. Game 2 was all about scroll controll. 4-0 : 8-0 Round 5: vs academy I was play Bill Foxworthy, a good player from birmingham as well. The games went a long time as he is a very careful player. Game 1. He goes of 4th turn w/o an academy! i wasted the one he laid so he couldnt play another that turn. Games 2 and 3 were won w/ the meltdowns and pyroblasts if i recall. 5-0 : 10-1 I just choose to draw the next two rounds into the top 8. 5-0-2 : 10-1 Top 8: Round of 8 :vs suicide black w/ 4 smokestacks. This was a very close match. Game 1, i made my biggest mistake of the day. i was at 6 he was at 4. he had a sarcromancy and one of those 4/4 2cc black creatures that does damage to them for damage it deals. i had no creatures and for some reason, instead of taking the draw i thought he had won, and i conceeded! oh well. game 2: im winning creature battle. He lays smokestack! and nausias away my 2 lakeys! hmm, i start sacking land he does as well. By the time smokestack is buried, i have no permanents, and he is left w/ 1 land and 1 black knight. he was at 3 and i was at 17. he starts beatdown. I topdeck like 4 lands, and a bottle gnomes, finally finish him w/ a ball. Game 3. Best topdeck all day. he was seriously beating me down. i top a ball lightening and attack for 6 +1 from my lackey. he goes to 1 and dies during his upkeep from sarcromancy. (i was at 2 and he had multiple shadow creatures). 6-0-2 : 12-2 Round of 4: vs academy. He is in the middle of going off in game 1 and his deck just dries out on him. he cant go off and i ball him to death. Game 2, a few well timed pyros won for me. 7-0-2 : 14-2 Finals: vs academy. Like usual, he goes off 1st game. Second game is close but his deck kinda stalls on him and i take advantage w/ quick creature beatdown. Game 3 was one of the best of the day. I open w/ 5 mountains, a gob raider, and 1 pyroblast. i choose to keep cuz of 1 pyro. he plays cautious due to untapped mountains. i draw a few creatures and attack getting him down to 8 keeping mountains open the whole time. also top decked another pyro. so i had 2 cards in hand 2 mountains untapped and he had 1 turn to go off. he starts turn w/ chill, which i pyro. then after a lot of thinking he plays mind over matter, i still have 1 pyro but i choose to hold it since he didnt have enough cards to tap mountain and get a considerable amount of mana. So he discards 2 of the 3 and builds up six. Shows me the spiral and i smile, showing him my second pyro. he cant belive it. i go and finish him w/ creatures (topping ANOTHER pyro)! And that was it. I sucessfully defended my state title! 8-0-2 : 16-3 overall Props: All members of team Rakalite for playtesting (especially Dusty and Blair). Jeff Butz for his rouge deck that worked great. The tourney itself as it was run very well. Slops: Im tired of writing. Hope this is helpful, Holt Gray