Date:         Mon, 11 Aug 1997 23:12:01 +0900
From: David Low <dlow@KURASC.KYOTO-U.AC.JP>
Subject:      Mirage-block tourney report [part two of the epic, concluding]

   Otherwise entitled, "I traded two IA Games of Chaos into two Abeyances, a
   Hammer, and a Bubble Matrix over the course of thirty minutes, do you
   reckon I *care* about the tournament?!" :-)

SUNDAY (10th August 1997)
======
   Mirage-block ("Wilma", MI-VI-WL) constructed, 48 players.  Had stayed
   overnight at Shibata-san's place playing games all night with him and
   Yoshikawa-san, instead of going home or sleeping :-)  I haven't thought
   much about the Wilma-constructed environment, apart from the odd bits and
   pieces I've picked up from talking with people who are playing in the
   PT-Qualifiers (duh!).  My two mates were quite convinced that the
   BU-Ertai/Necratog deck was going to be big, and in their (and apparently
   most of the good Tokyo players') opinion, it's the all-round strongest deck
   out there.  I don't know enough to say if this is true or not, although I
   wonder how well it deals with large-ugly-flying-Blue things :-)  But the
   sort of thing that's done very well at the Japanese events goes something
   like:

Ertai's Familiar(4), Sage Owl(4), Man O' War(4), Necratog(4), Nekrataal(4),
Shadow Guildmage(4), Barrow Ghoul(3), Ophidian(2),
Honorable Passage(2), Necromancy(2), Delirium(2), Disenchant(2)
Undiscovered Paradise(4), Gemstone Mine(4), Bad River(2), Swamp(10), Island(3);

Sideboard: Dark Banishing(2), Disenchant(2), Honorable Passage(2),
Ray of Command(2), Phyrexian Furnace(3), Necromancy(1), Kaervek's Torch(1),
Mind Bend(2).

   Other variants fiddle with the "extra" creatures - Circling Vultures were
   popular in Tokyo (four Vultures and four Barrows, with no Ophidian and one
   less Necratog, for example).  They all feature circa-30 critters, then
   add in utility spells to taste.  Sideboard obviously flavoured likewise
   :-)  Yoshikawa-san's deck went 4-1 or so before he fell asleep (!) and
   withdrew before the last round.  It had Tombstone Stairwell(2) for flavour
   (instead of Disenchant), with Hidden Horrors instead of Barrow Ghouls
   (sideboarded in place of Ray/Bend).

   Having suggested before that if this was big, Abeyance-Burn would be an
   appropriate counter, I decided to give it a shot myself.  Problem being,
   just one Abeyance :-)  The test deck I made up overnight against them went
   about 40-60 without them, though, so I figured it was a chance.  Playing
   in the tournament would let me know what else was needed (another example
   of the dangers in assuming everyone playing in a sanctioned tournament is
   there trying to win - some are conducting research :-)).  One thing I *did*
   feel beforehand was that the deck played better after sideboarding against
   a variety of things.  So, I decided to play fully pre-sideboarded, just to
   see if I could get anyone to think I'd not de-sideboarded :-)  *This* meant
   that I didn't have a real sideboard, so I just used some things I'd brought
   along - I didn't want to go the transformational route (Lancers, Talruum's,
   Squatters, et al.) this time :-)

   The other thing, of course, is that Len recently said five-colour-Red was
   weak (in T2, admittedly, but I don't have a problem taking words out of
   context....!), so I had to build one :-)

Incinerate(4), Thunderbolt(4), Hammer(2), Fireblast(4), Torch(2),
Volcanic Geyser(2), Sandstalker(3), Elephant Grass(2), City of Solitude(2),
Phyrexian Furnace(2), Honorable Passage(2), Savage Twister(3), Delirium(2),
Abeyance(1), Bosium Strip(1), Paradigm Shift(1), Mountain Valley(3),
Forest(2), Undiscovered Paradise(3), Gemstone Mine(3), Mountain(12)

Sideboard: Dark Banishing(2), Man O' War(4), Emberwilde Djinn(1),
Forsaken Wastes(2), Disenchant(2), Touchstone(2), Telim'Tor's Darts(2)

   Don't laugh, I actually put the Darts in once, and killed someone with
   them :-)   Paradigm Shift was in on spec - I wondered whether I'd ever be
   in a situation where I'd want to use it, so I kept considering the
   possibility.  Never drew it in 14 games, though :-/  While the concept is
   amusing (having sucked out the land, other permanents on the table or in
   the hand, recycle the Bolts in your graveyard for the kill), I don't
   really rate it as of yet.  It has the usual spec-card problem, even in a
   deck like this: if you've been having a bad game (few Bolts), this won't
   recover it for you.  If you've been having a good game (lots of Bolts),
   this is just icing.  One possible exception is the time when you've been
   drawing a lot of Bolts which were countered, but that's not very
   environmental, and even *I* wouldn't be playing "1 card in 60" on *that*
   premise :-)

   This deck badly needs the Abeyances, I think - Cities just don't do the
   same job.  And after play, I reckon *four* Phyrexian Furnaces main deck -
   at the very worst, they're a place-filler cantrip for sideboarding; at
   best, they win the game for you.  Note the big difference here between
   this and Paradigm Shift :-)  Delirium is *so* funny: killed one poor
   bloke who Natural Ordered an Aboroth out early, with an immediate
   Delirium, followed by another in his upkeep responding to his paying the
   CU :-)  It also did the job against pump-critters, and once people knew I
   had it, it considerably slowed down their killing of me - just what an
   all-out offense Bolt deck wants (hence the Elephant Grasses, for example),
   since it's annoying to die to cheese when you consider yourself cheesier.
   One thing I seriously started wondering about halfway through was
   Mindstones, though - particularly for the critter version.  Sounding sort
   of Bauble-Burnish that way...! :-)

   Play notes: shoot the opponent.  Forget about his creatures for the most
   part, barring things that will kill you :-)  You only have to inflict 20
   damage (plus Gerrard's, but that's what you want more Abeyances for, and
   what you've got Wastes for :-)).  Land ratio - dunno.  Plan is for four
   of each UP/GM and no Forests, but 3/3 seemed to get enough for splash
   purposes (dangers in single-tournament performance noted).  What I *did*
   note was that I often didn't have the fourth Mountain for the
   double-Blast.  Temptation, then, is to go 3UP/3GM/13M plus four baublelands
   for compression, but....

   Other things: is it just me, or is Cursed Totem looking better and
   better? :-)  Final Fortune, or Desperate Gambit, to get the mandatory
   coin-flipper in? :-)  The latter being particularly ha-ha-funny with
   Fireblast...!

   Decks played against:

   Black-White "creature" deck - the player was new to the game, and I had
   to gently teach him that no, you weren't allowed to order your deck
   as you liked then cut, you actually had to shuffle :-)  However, while I
   had cards he'd never seen before (Savage Twister, for example....), he
   had *Japanese* cards I'd never seen before even in English (Righteous War,
   for example), so that made us even :-)  Deck was Knights (yes, I lost a
   Sandstalker to a Benalish Knight....), Rats, plus an assortment of neat
   rarely-used single spells - in Japanese :-)  Calling for the judge every
   couple of turns to translate a card for me was amusing, to say the least!
   Don't know if Judge Shibata-san thought the same, though....

   Red-Blue, centering on Teferi's Veil (diamonds, burn, light-counter,
   Fog Elemental, Frenetic, Breezekeeper, and a Taniwha), played by
   Nakamura-san.  I knocked Nakamura out of the local Regionals in the sixth
   round earlier this year, and he wasn't looking terribly pleased about us
   playing this early - however, I cheered him up by pointing out this meant
   it was his turn :-)  This marked the fifth tournament in a row that I've
   played the eventual winner (and lost, BTW :-)).  You can guess what that
   means as far as results go in *this* match, as well as the whole event :-)
   Three good, close games, all down to the wire in terms of "he who went
   first won by a Bolt's length" :-)  After the Regionals match, I'd given him
   one of my "trademark" souvenir Aussie-Boomerangs (which can be interpreted
   either as "I'll be back...." or "You'll be back", depending on result and
   what I write on it) - he wanted to give it back as "circuit completed", but
   I just gave him another one and told him it was my turn again next time :-)

   Black weenie (Askari, Rats, other Rats, TPW, Morinfen, Dark Rituals and
   Drains).  I died with one land on the table in each game, to a large
   early DR-powered Drain each time.  One day, it's going to sink in to me
   just how bad a player I am, but until then I'm going to continue to
   ascribe my losses to bad luck and any victories to skill :-)

   Black-Red discard-burn (plus Wildfires, and Snake Basket!).  Good deck,
   rolled me.  I'll have to think more about discard, I'd written it off as
   poor versus the graveyard manipulators....he was basically running Stupors,
   Coercion, and Agonizing Memories.  He had problems against the Ertai's
   decks, though, obviously :-)

   Mono-Green with large fast critters.  For first game, refer to
   Aboroth-Delirium comment above :-)   Second was longer, with me managing
   to pull off an Abeyance-Twister that netted about six cards worth of
   advantage including some large now-non-regenerating Wildcats.  Mind
   you, one turn later and...well, there wouldn't have been any "later",
   which shows where card advantage can be a flawed concept :-)

   Black-Blue discard-counter, with Black weenies for damage.  Good deck,
   that probably should have beaten me, but in the second game I got the magic
   hand for a fourth turn kill (Thunderbolt turn 2, Hammer turn 3, then
   Incin-Bolt-Blast-Blast after he tapped out to cast a Rat or something on
   turn 4 - he wasn't pleased :-)), and in the third game he was stuck at UU
   when I got to four and dropped a City (strategy discussion: drop at three
   and risk a Power Sink, or drop at four and risk him getting one more mana
   in the turn in-between? .... Steve Edney, come on down :-)).  Thereupon
   followed the Sandstalker-fest, plus note the Dart comment above :-)

   Made my "pass mark of 50% with a test deck" again, although it was looking
   bad at 1-3 :-)  Judge Shibata-san's wife compiles the deck list info
   during the event to give the players some statistics afterwards: Nekrataal
   was the most popular card on the day (ho-hum), Black the most popular
   colour followed by Blue, Red, Green, and very little White.  There's
   actually a local PTQ sometime in October (when I'll be in Hokkaido - I'm
   sure someone looks at my calendar before setting the dates of these
   events, refer back to what I had to do to attend Regionals, for example
   :-)), so local interest is definitely centered on Mirage-block.  Easy way
   to tell?  That's where almost all of the trading action was happening.

   Oh, and for those that are interested in the important bit:
   Game of Chaos(2IA) --> City of Brass(5E) --> IA/Blinking Spirit(3) -->
   City of Brass(5E,CH) --> City of Brass(5E)+Infernal Tribute+Abeyance -->
   Abeyance(2)+Bubble Matrix+IA/Game of Chaos(2)+Goblin Bomb -->
   Abeyance(2)+Hammer+Bubble Matrix (same guy as first trade - he was
   collecting BB/coinflip cards for a concept deck that would annoy Tom G.
   right off the planet :-)).  There were four people at the tournament
   trying to collect Goblin Bombs...be afraid, be very afraid - or at least,
   pack Honorable Passages :-)

           Regards,

               David.

--
{ David J. Low                     |             dlow@kurasc.kyoto-u.ac.jp }
{ JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow         | http://www.kurasc.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~dlow }
{ Radio Atmospheric Science Center |    "The words of the Prophets are     }
{ Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto 611 |    written on the subway walls...."   }