From: Bob Pizzano Subject: Tourney Report - Total Confusion (LONG) Date: Mon, 04 Mar 1996 08:50:54 -0500 Tourney Report - Total Confusion - Marlboro, MA - 22-25 Feb 96 I have always enjoyed reading tourney reports and thought I’d report on my experiences. It ended up being pretty long, my apologies.. I played in a 40 person Type I tourney with a U/W/G Winter Orb Control deck. It is my variation of a deck that I saw Chip Hogan play to win the Sorcerer’s Open last summer at Origins. It contains Icy’s, Relic Barriers, Orbs, Permission, StoP, Disenchant, Mishra’s, Ernham Djinn’s, Disr. Sceptre, Glasses of Urza, Regrowth, Balance, Sol ring, 2 moxes, and no big blue. I took a small amount of notes during the matches but most of what follows is from memory. Where I could not remember things exactly forgive me some dramatic license and ignore the misspellings ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Round 1 - Ken Gates Ken is playing a fast R/G/B deck, with Howling Mine, Underworld Dreams, Storm Seeker, Direct damage deck. Game 1 I get dealt a Relic Barrier and an Orb and have him only untapping one land a turn on turn 3. I take some damage from storm seekers early on, but the Orb is slowing him down. He gets out a Juggernaut which I StoP. I counter several of his spells, til I finally draw 2 Ernhams in a row and he dies shortly thereafter. Game 2 Ken plays Underworld dreams on his first turn. As I saw no enchantments in the first game, I left 2 of my 4 disenchants in the sideboard, since I use Relic Barriers for artifact hosing, 2 disenchants is usually enough. Between direct damage and the underworld dreams I get knocked to 12 life by turn 4 or 5, I’ve got mostly land in my hand and things do not look good. I draw Braingeyser, what a "useless" card with a Underworld Dreams out, but wait, what is the only non-land card in my hand, Mirror Universe. I braingeyer for 6 cards, drop to 6 life. I draw an icy, counterspell, and the Relic/Orb combo. Next turn play Mirror Universe, leaving 2 blue untapped for the counterspell. He casts something, I forget what but ends up tapped out. He can’t stop me so next turn, I swap life, 4 for him, 20 for me, and drop the Relic/Orb combo. Go back and forth for a bunch of turns, he has little mana as I am soon re-tapping the one land he gets to untap with my Icy. I am damage him once with a Mishras, which he bolts next turn, and then finish him off with a Djinn. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Round 2 - Pete Delios Pete is one of my best friends. What rotten luck of the draw to play him in round 2. I helped him put his deck together and play tested it against my deck. He is playing a fast R/G/W direct damage, big creature deck with FB, LB, Dis, Kird Ape, Shivan, Welp, Djinn, Jugger, Full Mox/Lotus set, Bererk, Gauntlet of Might, Disenchant, StoP. Game 1. I get off to a slow start, playing only land. Pete plays a Kird Ape on turn 2 or 3. I get out Glasses of Urza so I know what I am up against. Soon 2 Kird Apes are beating on me and I have been hit by a LB. I am losing 20-9 at this point and will die is a couple of rounds at this rate. I draw balance to kill off both the Apes as I only have a Mishra in play (which he later kills when I try to attack). Next turn Pete plays an Ernham Djinn. I draw StoP on my turn and kill it. I braingeyser for 4 and get my Library of Alex. out. I am now drawing 2 cards to his one. He gets another Djinn out and I keep it tapped with an Icy. I counter a FB and a Shivan, but a LB gets through. I still have no creatures, but pick up my Mirror Universe (swapping, I now have 24 and he has 6). Finally Orb/2 Icy/2 Relic combo comes to my rescue. Every upkeep I am tapping 3 of his creatures/lands/or artifacts and I am holding a power sink. Finally I draw a Mishra’s and sneak it through all the tapped creatures to finish him off. Game 2. Pete got dealt almost all land and no creatures. Soon I get out a Disrupting Sceptre and start making him throw away cards. After 4 turns of throwing away cards he was in trouble, no cards in hand and no creatures in play. We went back and forth for a while but then I got out a Djinn and was able to protect it to do 20 points. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Round 3 - Doug Daniels Doug was playing an all blue deck. Mahotmis, Phantom Monsters, Clones, Sunken Cities, Floods, Juggernauts, Cont Magics, CounterSp, Powersink, high tide. No moxes or other power cards that I saw during the match. Game 1. Both of us have slow starts. I only have one land (not blue), a Sol Ring, an Icy, and a Mishra in play after 4-5 turns. I StoP a Mahatmi and use the Icy to stop another one. I’ve got a glasses of Urza out and see he has got a 2 Power Sink and 2 control magics. In the next several turns all I play are 2 more mishras. He can’t sink’em or control’em. I begin attacking with the Mishra Army. I do quite a bit of damage to him. He plays a Jugger, but I pack 4 Relic Barriers, so playing Juggers just makes my job easier. I finally pick up some blue mana and my 2 moxes and we exchange counters for a while but my Mishra’s keep sneaking in and eventually they kill him. Without the knowledge from the glasses of Urza I would have cast a Djinn early and he would have controlled it and won this game. Game 2. Got the relic/orb combo out early. I did not get any creatures for a while. I StoP’ed, counterspelled, or kept tapped each of his creatures. I eventually got out Icys and tapped the one land that he got to untap and bascially paralyzed him. I then braingeyered and Lib of Alex to gain a big card advantage until I got mishras and Djinns out to kill him. I am in the final 5. The judge randomly picks one of us to get bye, it not me and on to round 4. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Round 4 - Mike Kelly Mike was playing a B/R/G deck. Dark Rit, Dem Tutor, Syphon Soul, Vinnie, Ball Lighting, LB, Orc Lumber jack, Fyndhorn Mana Elves, Bird of Paridise, Ernham Djinn, Centaurs, Giant Growth, Storm Seeker/Black Vice/Howling Mine combo. No moxes or other power cards that I saw during the match. Game 1. Again, I am blessed by luck and get the relic/orb combo dealt to me. I counter or plow everything he throws my way and kill him by turn 10-12 with a couple of mishras. Game 2. Well, I’ve used up my luck. First turn black vice played against me. I take 5-6 points of damage before I get down to 4 cards in hand. He has 2 orc lumber jack beating on me for another 3-4 points of damage. I had to play a winter orb just to dump cards and both of us can only untap one land. The final blow was dealt to me by a howling mine and a couple of lightening bolts. Mike had an impressive array of mana sources at the end of game, 2 Fyndhorn elves and 2 Orc Lumbersjacks. Add in the Dark Rituals and these "mox substitutes" can make a deck pretty quick and deadly. Game 3. Again Mike gets a fast start. Between an orc, LBs, and storm seekers I am very quickly down to five life at turn 6 or 7. I played an orb (without a means to tap it) on turn 5 to slow him down as he had tapped out. I play a mishra which now holds the orc at bay. I slowly begin my comeback, playing a relic barrier, so now I can use my mana. He plays another orc, which I counter. He plays a Djinn, which I StoP. He has 24 life, I still have 5. He StoP’s my mishras (life=7) and I take another point from the damn orc (life=6). I play a Djinn to provide a blocker, oops, next turn I have to give the orc forest walk, I am in trouble. Next turn , I keep the Djinn as a blocker, he has got 24 life and I need to be conservative, just in case. Good move on my part as Mike summoned a ball lightning. I have a powersink in my hand, but decide I’ll just block the Ball, killing th Djinn, as I have another Djinn in my hand. He giant growths the Ball Lightning, which will give me 4 trample damge plus the 1 from the forest walking orc, which will leave me at 1. I powersink the Giant Growth, and only take 2 points (life = 4). Next turn I play the Djinn and am done. Mike has only has one land to use since I power sank him with the orb out. Next turn I give the Orc forestwalk and attack with the Djinn. The orc then wacks me for 1 (life=3) Since he was so mana hosed by the orb, he casts Birds of Paradise. He did not realize was a mistake until I give forestwalk to the Birds. This was the turning point of the game. A few turns went by, where I kept the Djinn as a blocker to stop the Orc from attacking. I think I countered a storm seeker which would have killed me, again tapping Mike out. Finally I get out a Icy and can attack with my Djinn. I did 24 points of damage, with Djinns and mishras before he could pick up another direct damage spell. I never picked up another counter and would have lost if he picked up a LB or even a Black Vice. What a great game! ------------------------------- Final Round I am in the final 3. We will each play a match with the other. If some one wins 2 of the matches then he will be the champion. -------------------------------- Greg Taylor vs. Jim Johnson Greg wins the match 2-0. I did not see it so I have no commentary. Each of us was gentlemanly enough not observe the others’ games and thereby gain an advantage. ----------------------------------- Bob Pizzano (me) vs. Greg Taylor Greg is playing an R/W/U Artifact/Atog/Damage deck, with Atogs (surprise), disrupting sceptre, the rack, Zuran Orb, Sword of ages, Icy, Full mox set, Lotus, Mishras, Ivory Tower, wheel of fortune, LB, Incinerate, FB, Time Walk, Timetwister, Acestral, Copy Artifact, counters. Game 1. I lost very quickly. I got dealt 6 land. Greg plays most of his hand in the first 2-3 turns, including, 2 moxes, septre, and sword of ages. I have only played lands, a relic barrier and a glasses of urza, and then he wheel of fortunes to refill his hand. I pick up mostly land again. Now he starts making me toss cards with the sceptre. I never really get much in play and a pumped up Atog and lots of direct damages kills me. I take my time on my sideboard, grabbing my other 2 disenchants and two hydoblasts. Game 2. A very drawn out game. He dropped a Blood Moon early and I was in deep trouble. I have 2 plains and 4 disenchants in my deck as my only defense against it. Four of my 8 creatures are Mishra, so I only have 4 creatures in the deck now. My large amount of artifacts are not hurt by the "plethera of funny looking mountians that adorned my mana area". I get out 3 Icys, 2 relic barrier, orb, and a disrupting spetre. I lock down the game by emptying his hand and tapping land, moxes, and Atogs to make it difficult for him to cast anything or do any damage to me. I must have forced 6-8 power sink, counter, time walk, etc from his hand by denying him any blue mana. He had a Mox Ruby, and Mox Saphire out so I could not stop any 2 mana red or blue instants (that somehow escaped the sceptre) cast during his upkeep, but other than that I had a pretty complete lock. About turn 25-30, I get my Mox Emerald and cast a Ernham Djinn (which I have held the whole game) and did 20 points in 5 consecutive turns. I had a disenchant the whole game but never got a plain to get rid of the blood moon. A lot of my sideboard is devoted to Blood Moon defense. In comes 2 tranquility, 2 plains, and 1 forest. Turns out it did not matter. Game 3. Greg goes first plays land, 3 moxes, lotus, fellwar. I play a land. Greg plays land, LB, and timewalk. Then he plays a balance with no cards in his hand. I throw 7 cards in my graveyard and give him a big smile as I know he has just won the tourney. I make him earn it by destroying some creatures and powersinking some spells later in the game, but the 7 card advantage is too much to overcome and an Atog and LB finish me off. ----------------------------------- Bob Pizzano (me) vs. Jim Johnson, playing for 2nd place Jim is playing an R/U blue weenie/blast deck, with Mana Drain, Power Sink, Zepher Falcon, Flying Men, Mana Flare,LB, FB, Disintegrate, Word of Undoing, Psionic Blast. I think he had moxes and big blue, but they had no impact in our games, so I don’t remeber them. Game 1. I play 2 moxes, land, and winter orb on turn 1. He plays land. I play relic barrier and Mishras. Shortly thereafter I have 2 mishra and a djinn beating on him and quickly I do 20 points to him. Game 2. A long drawn out game. He got some weenies out early and did some damage to me. He got out a Jugger, which I kept tapped with a relic barrier. I got out Lib of Alex on turn 3 or so and stayed at 7 cards, usually going down to 6 after hydroblasting/ countering/powersinking what ever he did. This went on for several turns (I only drew counters and land at this point) til he emptied his hand. Now I have a full hand and am drawing 2 cards to his one. Eventually I got out creatures and locked down his land and creatures and attacked for the win. Conclusion Well I finished 2nd out of 40 people in the major Boston Area game convention. I credit it to mostly mistake free playing and a lot of luck. I knew a lot of the really excellent players (who own all the power cards) and many were knocked in the early rounds by the efficient R/G speed/direct damage decks. My deck was able to survive the initial onslaught of these decks and come from behind and win. So finishing second does not mean I was the second best player at the convention, but it does mean that on that day I had the second best results of everyone that played. As a dose of humilty, I got knocked out in the first round of the Type II tourney :-( , but I did play well in Emperor where I teamed up with 2 new friends (formerly complete strangers) to finish third. I did have to move the winter orbs into the sideboard, however :-) FYI: I got a pack of AQ, 4E, and CH as a prize. Power Artifact was the rare from the AQ. Greq got a pack of LG,et al, Nether Void was his rare. --------------- Bob Pizzano Boston, MA rpizzano@mitre.org