From: Martin Huemmerich Subject: Tourney report from Germany (Type-II): Freyalises-Winds Deck wins ! Date: Mon, 04 Nov 1996 12:15:49 +0100 --- Type-II tourney in Germany: --- --- Freyalises-Winds Deck wins tourney --- --- Top three decks all Green/White --- --- Only one Necro-deck at all--- Hi all, me and my brother went to a small type-II tourney in Essen, Germany, on Saturday. Only something like 30 players... probably because there was a pro-tour qualifier in Frankfurt the same day, but I didn't manage to get in. Nevertheless, it was a very interesting tourney. (No Mirage, though) The type-II world in Germany seems to have changed since October the 1st... before the Hymn/Strip-Restriction, we had something like 50% Necro, 25% White Weenie, 15% Erhnamgeddon and 20% something else. In Essen, I've seen lots of Erhnamgeddon (at least 50%), still some White Weenies, some Blue/White-Control, but only one Necro-Deck. Erhnamgeddon and Blue/White-Control seem to be the winners of the Hymn/Strip-Restriction. Let's see how Mirage is gonna change this. Me and my brother both played the same deck, a mixture of "The Prison" and "Erhnamgeddon". (Well, actually, he had one or two other cards in it, but no important changes) It is more offensive than "The Prison", and it wins with creatures rather than by decking the opponent. I have played "The Prison" before, and I think this mixture (let's call it "Erhnamprison") is stronger. We placed second and third, only beaten by the Freyalises-Winds deck. ------------------------------------------------------------------ "Erhnamprison" (GW) Green: - 4x Erhnam Djinn - 3x Woolly Spider (good blocker, not influenced by Meekstone) - 3x Mana Elves -- 10 White: - 1x Balance - 1x Land Tax - 4x Swords to Plowshares - 3x Disenchant - 2x Wrath of God - 2x Armageddon -- 13 Artifacts: - 4x Icy Manipulator - 3x Winter Orb - 3x Fellwar Stone - 1x Zuran Orb - 1x Ivory Tower - 1x Black Vise - 1x Serrated Arrows -- 14 Lands: - 4x Brushland - 4x Mishra's Factory - 1x Strip Mine - 7x Forest - 7x Plains -- 23 total: 60 cards Sideboard: - 4x Meekstone (against other Erhnamgeddons, I'd sideboard my Erhnies out and those in) - 2x Ivory Gargoyle - 2x Sandstorm (Surprise ! Kills attacking Pump-Knights / Weenies) - 1x Winter Orb (shuts Counterspell-Decks or DD Decks down) - 2x Tranquility - 1x Disenchant - 1x Wrath of God - 2x Serrated Arrows (Pump-Knights) -- 15 No Feldon's canes, because we simply forgot them. Big mistake... see below. ------------------------------------------------------------------ On to the tourney: 5 rounds Swiss, 50 minutes time-limit, final round of the top four. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1st round: A.Stachavik (Mono Green Critters) Not much to say. I have balance and Ivory Tower on my opening hand in the first two games. 1st game: he plays some Elves and an Insect... I balance. He plays a Force of Nature, I play a Winter Orb. Game over for him. 2nd game: he plays some Elves and a big critter... I balance. I kill him with a Gargoyle he can't get rid of. 3rd game: I easily win again, don't remember how. Steve, my brother, plays against the one Necro-Deck of the tourney (Mono-black, some additional critters and Infernal Darkness for the missing Hymn/Strip) and beats it 2:1. I see him killing a pump-knight with a Sandstorm. Fun fun fun... Records Me: 1:0 (3:0) Steve: 1:0 (2:1) ------------------------------------------------------------------ 2nd round: M.Schmidt (Blue/White Outpost/Counterspells) I face a creatureless deck with 4 outposts and lots of countermagic to protect them. I win, because he cannot counter all the threats of my deck. The 1st game takes quite long, him countering/plowing/ disenchanting various things, getting two outposts running, yet, he cannot counter a Winter Orb I finally play when he's tapped out. This kills him, because the Orb shuts down his Outposts and his countering ability. I kill him with a Mishra, powered by a Fellwar Stone. I sideboard in the 4th Winter Orb and win games 2 and 3 quite easily. Steve beats a Black/Blue discard deck with 8 Specters and Racks (don't know what the blue was for) quite easily 3:0. Records Me: 2:0 (6:0) Steve: 2:0 (5:1) ------------------------------------------------------------------ 3rd round: M.Hllecremer (GW Erhnamgeddon) A creature-heavy Erhnamgeddon with Elves, Erhnies, Autumn Willow, Pump Knights and Elvish Archers (Insects ?). He is mana-hosed during the 1st match and I quickly bring him down to 3 life. He can recover by playing various creatures that can block my attacking Erhnie, a Wrath of God clears the board and a Mishra kills him. I sideboard out my 4 Erhnies, 1 Serrated Arrows and something else. I sideboard in 4 Meekstones and 2 Ivory Gargoyles. I draw balance on my opening hand in the second match. I play only one land, pretending I am mana-hosed. He plays elves and archers, hoping for an early kill. The balance finally kills 2 of his lands and 4 of his critters. Ouch. He plows a Gargoyle, plays more Elves, plays Autumn Willow and geddons. I have no creature out, but who cares ? I let her attack and play a Meekstone. He has wasted some Disenchants on Icys and Fellwars and can't get rid of it. I kill him with a Woolly Spider and a Mishra. We don't finish the 3rd match, me having three Icies running and completely paralyzing him by tapping everything he untaps. Steve beats a Stormbind/Storm Cauldron/Stormseeker-Deck with Erhnies, Lumberjacks and Elves 3:0. Records Me: 3:0 (8.5:0.5) Steve: 3:0 (8:1) ------------------------------------------------------------------ 4th round: C.Pimmingstorfer (GW Freyalises Winds) This is the deck that will win the tourney a few hours later. A GW deck with 3 Freyalises Winds, 4 Howling Mines, 4 Island Sanctuary, all the White standard spells (Balance, Wrath, Geddon, Tax, Swords, Disenchant), some mana critters (Elves/Birds) and Fellwars, no Mishras, no Erhnies. 1 Cane standard, don't know if he has any in the sideboard. 4 Divine Offering in the sideboard. He even used Exile against my Erhnies... he probably sideboarded them in. His deck wins by decking the opponent. Nearly all games work as following: - he lets the opponent play some permanents - he plays a howling mine - he plays island sanctuary - he draws one card instead of two - he delays the opponent with freyalises winds and frequent armageddons - he plays more howling mines and decks you Freyalises Winds give him the time he needs to survive and to draw the cards he needs to get rid of the opponent's threats. Certainly, there are decks that will surely beat this deck, but my deck is not designed to handle it. With no Cane in the sideboard and only three Disenchants standard, I have too few Artifact/Enchantment Removal and too few creatures to kill him before he decks me. I concede in the first game, having wasted two of my three disenchants for a Black Vise and a Zuran Orb. I sideboard in the 4th Disenchant and the 2 Tranquility and win the second game through a well timed Tranquility that kills 2 Freyalises Winds (he played two because he needed to empty his hand because of a Black Vise) and 1 Island Sanctuary. We don't finish the 3rd game, because I keep tapping one Howling Mine with an Icy, which prevents me from being decked again. I survive with two cards in my library and would have been dead two turns later... the time limit saves me. Steve beats a White Weenie deck 2:1. He is overrun by a horde of Lions and Pump Knights in game 1, but after sideboarding in Serrated Arrows and Sandstorms, the White Weenie deck has no chance. Records Me: 3.5:0.5 (10:2) Steve: 4:0 (10:2) ------------------------------------------------------------------ 5th round: S.Huemmerich (GW Erhnamprison) ;-) I play against my brother on the top table. Well... Erhnamprison against Erhnamprison, we could have rolled a dice instead. Yet, we play it out, both knowing that a draw will bring the two of us into the final round. He wins the 1st game, I win the 2nd, we don't hurry in the 3rd game and draw. At the 2nd table, the Freyalises Winds deck beats the Erhnamgeddon I played against in round 3. THE TOP FOUR DECKS ARE ALL GREEN/WHITE ! Records Me: 4:1 (11.5:3.5) Steve: 4.5:0.5 (11.5:3.5) ------------------------------------------------------------------ 6th round: C.Pimmingstorfer (GW Freyalises Winds) We both make it to the round of the best four. I have a strong Deja-Vu, facing the Freyalises Winds deck again. Sigh... no time limit to save me this time. I get decked in games 1 and 3, win game 2 with an Ivory Gargoyle. Steve beats the White Weenie he faced in round four 2:0. Records Me: 4:2 (12.5:5.5) Steve: 5.5:0.5 (13.5:3.5) ------------------------------------------------------------------ 7th round: ?? (White Weenie) Nothing much to say. I kill the White Weenie 2:0, Steve loses to the Freyalises Winds deck 1:2. He finishes as 2nd, I finish as 3rd. Records Me: 5:2 (14.5:5.5) Steve: 5.5:1.5 (14.5:5.5) ------------------------------------------------------------------ What have we learned ? Green/White has become stronger after October the 1st... not very unexpectedly. The Erhnamprison we played is (in my opinion) stronger than the standard Willowgeddon and stronger than the standard prison... too bad the Icies will be gone in two months, leaving this deck with a short lifetime. Sandstorm is a tourney-card as long as pump-knights are, Freyalises Winds can be devastating in a deck where the card fits in. Thank you for reading, Greetings from Koblenz, Germany, Martin -- Martin Huemmerich +49 (0)2621/2620 (privat) +49 (0)261/9119-419 (Labor) huemmi@informatik.uni-koblenz.de http://www.uni-koblenz.de/~huemmi/