From: rsh9395@is.nyu.edu (Robert S. Hahn) Subject: Report from NY Magic Date: 4 Feb 1996 22:01:48 GMT As I promised the good people who run NY Magic and its large monthly $1000 tournaments, and as I promised the people who have been asking for a Type II version of Schools of Magic, I wanted to report my impressions of Type II tourney play from yesterday's tournament. First, this is a large tournament with about five to six hundred people showing up regularly. The Type II field is particularly competitive as a number of top players in Type I moved on to Type II. I went with a Type II deck I made up the night before because I thought I would learn more playing than watching. My deck was a U/W Weissman/Maysonet variant and was like this yesterday: 2 City of Brass 4 Adarkar Wastes 5 Islands 6 Plains 4 Fellwar Stones 4 Mishra's Factories 3 Strip Mines 25 mana, not including strip mines 2 Disrupting Sceptre 2 Jayemdae Tome 2 Jester's Cap 2 Millstone 4 Disenchant 3 Swords to Plowshares 1 Balance 1 Wrath of God 2 Serra Angels 2 Mahamoti Djinns 4 Counterspell 3 Powersink 1 Recall 1 Zuran Orb 1 Ivory Tower 1 Icy Manipulator Can't remember the sideboard, but it had 2 Divine Offering, 3 CoP:Red, 2 Spirit Link, 1 Deflection, 2 Control Magic, and a Land Tax... maybe a Feldon's Cane and another Power Sink and something else... another Jester's Cap maybe. Anyhow, I went in expecting a couple of things. One, speed rules in Type II. Two, direct damage/weenie or blaster/big guys (the so-called Ernham & Burn'em deck) will be big. Three, Hymn decks would be everywhere. I didn't expect land destruction because of the restriction of the Vise. I was, to put it mildly, surprised. I got a first-round bye, and found myself against a seven year old kid who had been playing with his brother. He was using an all-red goblin/blaster deck. I won't recount this sad match as I felt really bad for him when he didn't know what a CoP:Red does exactly. The round after, however, I ran into a copy of my own deck, except using white weenie (Lions and Orders) and no lock-capacity. He won the first game easily as I drew a Strip Mine and a Mishra as my only land. The first turn Lion took its toll and then he plowed my Angel when I had three life left. Nonetheless, it was exciting. In the second game, the first turn lion again took its toll but I plowed it in time. Then I got out an Ivory Tower and went up to something like 38 life when he started making an all-out assault with his Mishras and Orders. His Jayemdae also kept him at a card advantage whereas none of my cards were showing up. I kept drawing Felwars and land. Eventually, I Control Magicked one of his Orders in an effort to block. He disenchanted the CM and got me down to seven or eight. I drew a land and played the Mahamoti in my hand. He countered it and I conceded. The entire game was exciting as we went back and forth, trading plowshares and countermagic, but he had the edge with the weenies. I went into a side tournament in T2 after that to try and learn more. I made a couple of changes to the deck, adding another Wrath of God, removing the overly-expensive Mahamotis (which are great in T1 with Mana Drain, but not in T2) for Control Magic standard. First round, I play another wee kid running a R/G land destruction theme. I plow the bird, I counter the Stone Rains, and I have lots and lots of land so I won easily. I Capped early for all of his anti-artifact and anti-white stuff (sorry, no shatters, no detonates, no Anarchy, no Jokulhaups, etc.) and crusied. Second round, I run into a friend of mine who's running a fast black weenie deck. Drew Wrath of God and the Ivory Tower in the opening hand -- kicked him to smithereens. Second game, I put out a third turn Karma and countered just about everything else he did. Quick victory. Third round, I run into a white weenie deck -- very standard with Crusades and Angelic Voices and 12 Knights. Won the first game because of the Tower and a Wrath of God (after he had dropped his whole hand -- probably a mistake on his part) followed by a Serra Angel (with 3 Crusades in play). In the second game, he was playing overly cautiously because of the Wrath possibility. I quickly Capped him for three Disenchants, Recalled the Cap and did it again removing the other Disenchant and 2 plowshares. countered the CoP:White (not a bad idea in T2, actually) and Mishra'ed him to death. Fourth round, my first R/G Ernham/Burn'em deck. Rather standard, with birds, Ernhams, Autumn Willow, bolts, incinerate, etc. But he was a really decent player. He puts out a second turn Ernham with a Tinderwall, which I powersink. He plays a bird, then the Willow. I Wrath of God. In the meantime, I start milling him and drawing cards with my Jayemdae. The first Jester's Cap (turn six or seven) pushed him over the edge in terms of confidence as I remove his Nevy's Disks and Detonates. I could have won easily via the Serra with the Sceptre lock on him, but i chose to mill him to death to make things even more hopeless for him. As expected, in the second game, his mental edge was just a bit off. I had spirit linked a Dervish, which kept attacking and growing till it was 8/8 or so, then he casts Tranquility. I plow the Dervish, then lay my Serra down. Even though he had me down to six life or so, and he was at 18 or so, I was holding multiple countermagic, and had the lock on him. In the finals, I ran into one of the best players (Sean is his first name and I don't know his last name) in the NY area. His deck is a great example of a Type II Kim School with Mishras, Ernhams, Autumn Willow, Elves and Elvish Archers, and Blinking Spirits, along with the hammer -- Hurricane. And the series was as good as it could be. I successfully played good defense for the first few turns, but he kept disenchanting my key artifacts. The CM on his Ernham was disenchanted, forcing me to plow it, and he plowed my Mishra forcing me to burn a counterspell on it (whereupon the Blinking Spirit simply went back into his hand). I never got control of the environment as a Wrath got rid of the Willow and a couple of Spectral Bears, but his Blinking Spirit and Mishras just hung out. It was interesting and exciting, but I lost eventually when he plowed my Angel, having forced a counterspell from me with a Hurricane, then rushed me with 2 Mishras and 2 Blinking Spirits. In the second game, things were pretty much the same, though I was countering his spirits and not his Ernhams. He eventually found a breach in my defensive wall (via StP and Disenchant), drew a counterspell with Autumn Willow, then Hurricaned me to death. Afterwards, I asked him about the deck and he said he has seven "must-counter" spells in the deck. 4 Blinking Spirits, Autumn Willow, and 2 Hurricanes. Which means that the opponent's defense has to take care of the other stuff -- Ernhams, Spectral Bears, Elvish Archers, Mishra's Factories, etc. It's a very interesting and effective deck, and forced me to change my deck around quite a bit -- e.g., one Serrated Arrows starts in the main deck now. Anyhow, my experience (along with many games for ante) told me a few things about Type II play around here at least. Defense still wins games. In the main tournament, U/W control decks were everywhere -- meaning that if someone put down an Adarkar Wastes, you can expect to see Disrupting Sceptres, Jayemdae Tomes, Serra Angels, and Jester's Caps. The other vaunted decks -- discard, weenies, R/G, etc. -- all seem seriously hurt by the restriction of the Black Vise. The defensive decks can now easily hold as many cards as it wants to hold. Serrated Arrows were really popular for killing birds, elves, lions, orders, and even Mishras (the counters stay on). These insights will be included in the next version of Schools of Magic, but for now, that's it from the field. I welcome all comments ont he Net or via email. May your mana be plentiful and right, -The Sophist -- Robert S. Hahn rsh9395@is.nyu.edu NYU Law School, '97 http://pages.nyu.edu/~rsh9395/index.html Politics, Pool, Magic, Shadowfist, Film, Literature, Poetry.... Who has time for work?