From: edt@ren.us.itd.umich.edu (Eric Taylor)
Subject: Re: Origens Report- Magic Revitalised !? Part 1 (long)
Date: 8 Jul 1996 18:54:40 GMT

Daniel Brickwell (Brick@ccmailer.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de) wrote:

: With the listed deck I went 1:5 in Matches and 7:11 in games. Infact, I lost 
: the first 5 rounds all 1:2. These close losses and the fact that I did see 
: many similar decks the next day at the top tables (with blinkings and 
: pillages though) tells me that my design was closer to the real thing than my 
: record implies. But as the saying goes, close counts only in horseshoes.

Daniel, I think you were right on the money with your deck.  The
outpost (aka "Dude Ranch"), the glaciers, pillage, blinky, the ivory
gargoyle, at least you had all the elements figured out.  With some
small changes, I think that is the deck for the pt3 environment.  I
didn't get it figured out at all, and played a really lame red/green,
winning 2 out of 6 rounds in the pt3.  I played Olle in the 3rd or so
round of swiss.  I was not at all impressed with his deck at the time.
When I played him, I made the mistake I think many people made of
choosing to go second.  Against his deck, you have to go first so you
can incinerate/lava burst his lumberjack so he can't insect you before
you've got a defense up.  It just seemed too unreliable compared to the
multi-colored ranch/blinky/glaciers decks.  I am still amazed that he
was able to win.  Anarchy, and attack with the insect.  I just can't
see how he was able to do it.  He certainly deserves contratulations
for his victory.

He seems so gentle, and easy to beat.  Such a nice guy.  It's hard to
believe a guy like this wins when so many of the pros are such
heartless, stuck-up, neurotic bastards.

Oh, yeah, one deck that was the ultimate in funky was the browse, dig,
cap deck.  Hammer was playing it.  I played against one of these decks
and it seemed very quite vulnerable.  But it was cool!  You get your
browse out.  Browse down to the end of your library, on the way
building up your defense so you can handle anything your opponent has.
Then at the end of the library, lay out the digger.  At this point, you
should have your cap in your graveyard.  With the digger, dig up as
many cards as you like.  Then browse to throw away the junk, dig again
and then draw a card.  When you finally have all the cards you want in
play and in the library begin the cycle.  Your turn: dig, draw, cap.
Opponent: counter anything he does, dig browse to get the counter back
in your hand.  Your turn: repeat.  Dig Dig browse cap.  Just a very
cool lock.  Unfortunately without strip mines in type pt3, blue/white
gets run over by the Dude Ranch.

Both tourneys were really interesting, both pt3 and the nationals.

Nobody had anything figured out, what would win, how the new card mix
would do.  It was all quite exciting.  I did ok in the nationals,
winning 4 rounds out of 6 and sweeping a few matchs.  For some reason,
the nationals seemed a lot easier to me than the pro tour.

A word about the nationals: Freak Out!

Turbo stasis beats the crap out of solid black necro.  Titania's song
is a power deck.  Necro with 8 pain lands and no disk is the only necro
that even has a chance.  The decks that did best in the nationals were
amazing.  Three turbo-stasis decks (i.e.  3 out of the 4 entered) make
it to the semi finals.  Rock on turbo stasis.  I talked with Derrick
about how he and his friends built this deck and asked him why it was
so much more powerful now than before.  He said it's because Blue must
quit being reactive.  Blue counterspells decks must become pro-active.
You play the first turn despotic scepter.  Second turn howling mine.
Then at any time you like cast out your stasis.  Game over solid-black
necro man.  You will be decked.  Force of will means you can be more
aggressive as blue.  Lim-Dull's Vault means combo decks work now.  The
stasis decks were all playing with arcane denial.  Figure it out.
Stasis wants you to draw a card.  In fact draw as many cards as you
like, I will deck you and there is nothing you can do about it because
I am turbo-stasis man.

What I can't figure out is how that Titaniana's song deck did so well.
That particular deck didn't use any of the new concepts.  It just
locked people down the winter orb/icy (and black vise if you draw it),
solid white with a pinch of green, cast argageddon again and again and
finally, when Titania's song comes out, whack, attack with all the
artifacts for 30 points or more.

All well, back to the qualifiers for me.  I sure hope I can manage to
re-qualify for pt4.  It's all sealed deck for the new qualifiers so I'm
going to have to practise singing the hymn to tourach.  I've gots to
get lucky.

--- Eric "The Iron Mage" Taylor

p.s. In case anyone wondered, Baduvian Hordes stunk in the pt3.  The
card advantage isn't worth a 5/5 creature for 4 mana.  Maybe if he was
6/6 for 4 mana, but not 5/5.