Subject: Alabama State Championship Tournament Report Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 04:56:58 -0600 From: NIEVES-ES@redstone.army.mil (NIEVES-ES) To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Hello one and all. This report will consist of 3 parts. 1-The top 2 decklists and results; 2-Host information; and, 3-My personal experience at my first State Championship with the deck I used. 1) And now...the decklists. #1 State Championship Deck #2 Runner Up Holt Gray Adam Fears DCI # 020231 DCI # 774489 (Note 2 Time Champion; won with "Buried Alive" in 1997) Red Sligh Tolarian Academy 4 Goblin Lackey 4 Wind Fall 4 Goblin Raider 4 Mana Vault 4 Mog Fanatic 4 Voltaic Key 4 Ball Lightning 4 Mox Diamond 4 Mog Flunkie 4 Lotus Petal 4 Jackal Pup 3 Scroll Rack 2 Fireslinger 4 Stoke of Genius 4 Shock 4 Time Spiral 4 Incinerate 3 Intuition 1 Sonic Burst 4 Mind over Matter 1 Goblin Bombardment 4 Power Sink 4 Cursed Scroll 1 Capsize 17 Mountain 4 Tolarian Academy 3 Wasteland 4 Wasteland 9 Island Sideboard 4 Pyroblast 4 Chill 3 Bottle Gnomes 2 Winder Orb 1 Rathi Dragon 2 Turnabout 2 Porticullis 2 Tidal Warrior 4 Meltdown 3 Propoganda 1 Torture Chamber 2 Capsize I don't know much of the details of the whole match (I had dropped well before the final eight). I do know that it was played in 3 games and that in the 3rd game Holt had 3 Pyroblast in his hand. Adam attempted to cast two spells and was pyroblasted twice with Holt holding on to the last Pyroblast and burned on to victory. Congratulations to Holt on a much earned victory and his second Alabama State Championship in a row! There were 66 competitors (great turnout people!!!). The prizes for the top 8 were as follows: 1st: Plaque, Magic The Gathering Bag, 1 Box of Urza's Saga Boosters 2nd: 1 Box of Urza's Saga Boosters, Zippered Ultra Pro bag (WOW!) and a 3 Ring Binder 3rd & 4th: 1 Box of Urza's Saga Boosters 5th-8th: 1/2 Box of Urza's Saga Boosters Now, can you get better prizes than that for winning in a tournament? There seemed to have been alot of Sligh (there was a van load of 9 players that all played a Sligh variation) and a few academies. I know there was at least one Elf Deck (the girl kept talking about it; Girl you ask? There were 3 playing in the tournament. I thought that was cool!). There was a CMU Blue (Buehler's 98 Championship deck with an Ephem creature in it), a few White Weenies and I believe a couple of black (suicide maybe?) decks. I do know that there was a Recurring Nightmare (Seldon's 98 Championship) there. I felt bad for the guy when he got disgusted every time a card got capsized to his hand when he was playing against the Academy deck. Oh yeah, there was this guy playing a Fireball-Tolarian Academy combo deck. He torched another Tolarian Academy deck (sucks when you get Burned for 150 huh?) Ah, and there was this guy playing a Persecute/Yawgmoth's Will/Duress combo deck. It perked my interest. I might build it and see how it goes (he traded me 2 rares for one of the 3 Persecutes I had.) 2) Host Information. The cost for the tournament was $12.00 if you registered the Wednesday before the tournament, $15.00 at the door. We were playing Type 2 Standard (I guess you could say 'constructed' too) The tournament was held at Dr. Bob's Game Shop (web site: www.drbob.com). His address is: Dr. Bob's Game Shop Village Center 7914 S. Parkway #8 Huntsville, Alabama Note: For those of you looking for Huntsville on a map, it is south of Nashville, TN and north of Birmingham, AL -smack in the middle of both cities; about 1 1/2 hours driving from either city. Dr. Bob's Game Shop sells new and used home video games and systems, Dungeons and Dragons books, Babylon 5, Star Wars, and other card game boosters and packs (as well as Magic, of course!). He has a really nice setup of Magic cards he sells in 2 'Y' type wall setups and a back wall for the really nice rares (ie-Black Lotus). He has 2 big rooms for playing games. He has a wall in one room full of games set up (Monopoly, etc.) for those people who just want to hang out. Oh yeah, Dr. Bob also hosts Babylon 5 tournaments. They look cool. Interesting but I am all locked up spending money on Magic. Dr. Bob's hosts tournaments every Saturday at 1:00 P.M. Normally it's Type 2 Standard. I think it's about $5.00 to enter. Prizes are: 1st- 2 US Boosters per entrant, 2nd: 1 US Booster per entrant. Dr. Bob will also be hosting two cool tournaments this coming December. There will be the PTQ:LA Qualifier on December 12th. Pre-registration is $28.00 ($30.00 at the door). Registration is from 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM. Start time will be at noon. The format will be Urza's Saga Limited format with Booster Draft Finals. Prizes are: $250.00 plus an invite to the PTQ:LA. (Cool huh?) Other prizes include: 2nd-4th: 1 Box of US Saga Boosters (GOT TO LOVE BOB!) The 2nd Tournament Bob will be hosting is a customer appreciation tournament on December 26th. There is NO cost to enter. Repeat: NO COST TO ENTER (YOU GO BOB!!!). Format: Type II Standard. Starts at 1:00 PM. Registration begins at noon. Prizes: 1st & 2nd- Box of US Boosters, 3rd & 4th: 1/2 Box US Boosters, 5th-8th: 1/4 Box of US Boosters. Ok, say it: WE LOVE BOB! WE LOVE BOB! WE LOVE BOB! Give Dr. Bob or Erin a call at: 256-880-3726 for more information. Good luck if you go (I know I want to go.) 3) Ok, My experience at the Tournament. First, my deck: Burning Hatred 9 Swamp 9 Mountain 4 Wasteland 4 Raging Goblins 3 Black Knights 3 Nether Shadows 3 Pit Imps 4 Dark Ritual 3 Hatred 2 Disintegrate 3 Diabolic Edicts 3 Shock 3 Incinerate 3 Kindle 3 Shower of Sparks 3 Cursed Scrolls 1 Soul Net 1 Feldon's Cane Ok, why 64 cards? Because I was stupid! That's why! I thought the Cane would help with Mana screw and the Soul Net worked against burn earlier in the week. Well, I was wrong. I should've kept the Net and Cane out and took out a Goblin. I also, thought the extra cards would help when I sideboarded so my key cards would stay in (I over thought ok???) Finally, the land I used sould've been dual use. Oh well...here's what happened. match 1: Against Tony- Red Sligh (ugh, my worst matchup; I did horribly in play testing against this deck). Game 1: me: Mountain- Goblin Ping you for one. Tony: Mountain Shock (uh oh-realized Sligh was coming then) me: Gets blurry from here (sorry, didn't take too many notes) Basically his flunkies got the best of me and I couldn't get the black mana to cast dark ritual and Hatred his booty! Good match though. Very close. Game 2: Ball Lightnings got the better of me. Sheesh! Dead in round 4...maybe I should've bought those $7.00 ball lightnings I saw...? Hmm, oh well. On to round 2. Match 2: Against White Weenie- Johnnie Barrett (OH YEAH! He be dead!) This was a weird combo deck. Had alot of gain life in it, some shadow, and anti red and black in it too. Game 1: Went to me: Couldn't handle the beat down from my Raging Goblins, Nether Shadows and Black Knights. Not too mention I kept burning his creatures up. Game 2: (He sideboarded, I didn't). He crushed me when he played some enchantment that just shut down my creatures ("black creatures cannot attack or block"). And to think I had Hatred in hand with a Dark Ritual. I conceded when I knew he had me locked up. Red burn cards weren't coming. Game 3: I overwhelmed him by just rushing him with everything I could get on the board. He was dead in 4-5 rounds I believe. Burn is so pretty...and Dark Rituals are DA BOMB! Note: This guy could've beaten me. Why didn't he? He didn't realize he could play his creature's fast effects before I killed or Diabolic Edict them. I told him that after the match. I thought he would've picked up on that when he disenchanted my Feldon's Cane and I used it immediately (I was having trouble with Mana anyways--as always!!!) "as a fast effect" of course. Okay, I am 1-1. Maybe my Mana Screw problems will go away (NOT!) Match 3: Against Red Sligh - Don't remember his name, sorry. (sheesh! Not again? That's when I realized there was ALOT of Sligh running around!) Game 1: Mana hose!!! I couldn't get ANY red out and I got wasted in 3 rounds by, guess who?, Mr. Ball Lightning. I love/hate that card! Game 2: I got "the" draw, but when you get shocked and you have lower life than he/she does, can you effectively Hatred someone? Nope, not without killing him too (hmm, now that I think about it, why didn't I do it? I could've gotten a tie out of that game and maybe squeeked on the next?--oh well!). The highlight for that game for me was when he played a ball lightning and I had my cursed scroll out. I activated it (I had 5 cards in hand, 2 of them rituals) and he picked one my rituals which killed his Ball Lightning. Wow. That was cool! Well, I died in 6 rounds this time. Sucks to be me. Ok 1-2. Let's see if I can even up and pull one out so I can keep playing. Match 4 Ok, I don't remember his name. Don't care. He was anal retentive. Some say that's an opinion. Read on and you will see what I mean. He was playing Bluehler's CMU Blue with an Ephem in the deck. I hate it when people can't build there own decks. On to the match. Game 1: Had him down to 5 life fast! Really fast! Was waiting for Hatred to show up as I had a black, red, and a wasteland out after the 3rd round. Plus having Ritual in hand helped. Well, he proceeds to keep laying Blue land after blue land. I first thought was going to play an academy (I had beaten academy 75% in play testing); I never saw the artifacts. But when I saw him play the Stalking Stones, I knew what was coming. He then played some blue enchantment that only allowed one spell per turn. Well, that hurt because he kept "forbid"-ing or "counter spell"-ing my creatures and burn spells. Not too mention Capsizing stuff! Well, he got the Ephem out and I was dead in 5 rounds. What irked me is that he kept making sure his cards were laying in a certain way. He got upset with me when I cut his cards in such away as to not have the sleeves facing towards me so he could see them right as they came up. Huh? Game 2: I sided for 4 pyros. I thought I had him beat now. In the beginning he got upset again because his sleeves weren't facing right, tried to tell me that my sleeves weren't facing right and then was just plain obnoxious. Sheesh, how I HATE Opie Tayler!!! Anyway...He tried to play that "one spell a turn" enchantment later on and I pyro'ed it immediately. He was surprised by that. I used my wasteland to get rid of his stalking stones (when he got enough mana to cast it of course) and hosed myself in the process. Didn't have enough mana to do what I wanted. Again I had Hatred in hand and could'nt use it due to mana screw. Not too mention I did fry him up a bit and had him down in life but he pulled it out. I don't mind losing. But I hate losing to an anal retentive ... you know the rest. Anyway...better luck to me next time. Ah, and something else that really irked me. The day before I was looking for some Jokulhaups and Apocalypse to put in my deck. These guys helped me get them from Dr. Bob. Anyway, one of those two dudes came over, sat next to my opponent and asked me if I had bought them. Then he asked if I put them into the deck. What the #@($( was that? I informed him that he was scouting for the guy he is sitting next too. Well, I didn't have the Apocs in the sideboard, but I did have a Jok in hand. Unfortunately, I was dead before I could cast it. :( Well, that made it worse. Dr. Bob told me I should've came up to him during the match. Lesson learned (AGAIN!). Oh, and how did I solve my mana problems for the next deck I built? Read my next post...and see the deck I play. You might find it interesting (I wish I had those cards for that tourney though...so goes life in the magic world). Oh yeah. Something of note. There was a team from the Player 2 shop (a store that also hosts Magic Tournaments in Huntsville; they sell, trade, and resell video game systems and games and sell Magic cards. they also have a pretty impressive Magic Rare collection and their boosters sell for less than 2.50). About 15 players wearing black shirts with the Player 2 Logo. They also had this "NMO" screen print on it (which meant "No More Order"; didn't some wrestling team wear something like that too? Whatever happened to originatelity? Oh, yeah. I forgot. People read the Dojo so they don't have to use originality to build decks. Ok. Then I guess it's ok, huh?). They even had things like, "rules were meant to be broken", "no more rules", "what rules?" or some crap like that(?). Well, the "team leader" (or ring leader if you will) was going through the crowd of people scouting and figuring out who was playing what. I thought it was funny. What was even funnier is how some of those team members wound up playing each other in the early rounds and then didn't even make top 8. That' what happens when you flood the tournament with a bunch of guys! I have played at Player 2 a few times. I don't anymore. Why? Well, the Level III judge told me to look out for people that cheat and there are people that cheat ALOT. Even teams that practice cheating. Well, that was kind of funny hearing this from a guy whose store has been accused of fixing tournaments so people could get points and where cheating was rampant. Well, these are rumors mind you...but the 2 main reasons I don't go to P2? I got scammed by a dude that works there when I went looking for cards and was told they didn't have them. And number 2? I get treated like a person by the players at Dr. Bobs. The Player 2 players don't seem to like outsiders all that much. That's ok, I will be going to play at Player 2 later on when I get more experience (did I mention I have only been playing for 3 months?) and I do well at Bob's just to irk some people (you know, the "who is this scrub?" look. heh heh) Adios. Y quidate! Sam AKA "Medor The Madly Magnificent Mage" & Welverin the Necromantic Mind Phreak!