From: Goutsmit Sam <vcb@brenda.be 
Subject: [Tourny Report] Type II Antwerp: Brass Men strike!
Date: 23 Dec 1996 19:40:55 GMT

	Ok, folks, it’s been a while since I posted a tourny report, mostly
 because it’s been a while since I went to one, but anyway here we go for 
another one.

	Btw, if Uwe Stroinski should read this: good trip back to Germany, 
Uwe. I’m glad I got to meet you in Swindon in november, together with the 
Cardiff Cartel.  Tjus!

	Ok, on to the report: 2 of our Brass Men were present today, being 
me and Mike.
	Mike was playing what people call a Sligh deck these days, but he 
has been playing this for the last 5 months without any knowledge of its 
american counterpart, so we’re just calling it "Brass Orcs" or something 
similar :)

	Myself, I had thrown together a red/green concoction based on 
untouchable creatures and some (ok, a lot of) heat. The content is listed 
below.

"Hammer and Orb"
CREATURES
	1 x Gorilla Shaman
	1 x Goblin Tinkerer	aka "Mishra-Nightmare"
	1 x Elvish Archer
	1 x Autumn Willow
	2 x Deadly Insect
	3 x Mtenda Lion
	3 x Jolrael’s Centaur
	3 x Wildfire Emissary
SPELLS
	4 x Lightning Bolt
	4 x Incinerate
	2 x Hammer of Bogardan
	2 x Pyrokinesis
	1 x Earthquake
	2 x Hurricane
	4 x Pillage
ARTIFACTS
	2 x Sol Grail
	2 x Winter Orb
	1 x Fire Diamond
	1 x Moss Diamond
	1 x Zuran Orb
LAND
	3 x Mishra’s Factory
	1 x Strip Mine
	2 x Mountain Valley
	9 x Mountain
	9 x Forest
	1 x Thawing Glaciers

SIDEBOARD
	3 x Shatter
	4 x REB
	1 x Meekstone
	3 x Guerrila Tactics
	2 x Stone Rain
	2 x Nev’s Disk

When arriving at the premises, I felt somewhat depressed and was more 
thinking of a certain Italian girl I had to leave behind for the holidays 
than of Magic. It was so bad I  almost didn’t compete, but then I said, 
what the hell, I’ve come all this way, I might as well play.

We were all put in groups of 6, and were to play each other. The best two 
of each groups would then advance to the direct-emination kockout 
quarterfinals.

GAME 1: vs. Stijn, playing B/U (0-0 duels, 0-0 games)
	This guy was playing his first tournament and it showed. He had 
something like a 85-card deck and lots of creature enchantments. Although 
it has to be said in his favour, for a first try, his deck wasn’t too bad. 
It was not really good enough to be a threat to me, though. To make a long 
story short: I swept him 3-0 with relative ease.

GAME 2: vs. Guy, playing W/U millstone. (3-0 games, 1-0 duels)
	In the previous round, I had observed that Guy was not packing any 
creatures, except for Mishra’s, so I grinned at him and said "ok, you are 
target practice". In the first game, he was able to mill one-quarter from 
my library before my Centaurs and some bolts wore him down. I sideboarded 
in my Shatters and my REB’s before the second game. I get a slow start and
he gets his defenses up. He wraths away a centaur and a Wildfire, and has 
some Icies to hold off other attackers. Since I had killed all his 
millstones as soon as they hit the table, I decide to play it patiently 
and, after some Thawing, just start to toss the Hammer of Thor at him. 
After getting hit by that hammer for some five times, he decides that dying 
might be preferable and promptly does so :)
	Last game, I hit him with some heat in the beginning, he mills me 
a bit before I shatter his Millstone to little bits (backed with a REB). 
I have two Mtenda Lions out, but he is paying his blue mana to keep them 
docile. I draw my Insect and attack with the lions. He taps his blue mana 
to prevent the damage and curses when the Insect hits the table. 
Slightly panicky, he gets a Helm of Obedience and starts going through my 
library for a creature. He finally ends up with a Gorilla Shaman, which I 
kill one second later, and then run all over him with an angry Insect. 
End of game :)

GAME 3: vs ???, Gobliiiins!! (6-0 games, 2-0 duels)
	I hate goblin decks. Really. I hate them.
	Anyway, this guy had the distinction of actually having more heat 
in his deck than me :). He was sporting something like 4 bolts, 4 inc, 4 
tactics and 4 grenades and maybe some other stuff. Did I mention I hate 
goblin decks yet?
	In the first game, it was a slaughter. The goblins ran all over me,
my untouchable creatures were on strike, the rest of my creatures were 
toasted and very soon, so was I. (bolttacticboltgrenade ouch)
	In come some Tactics of my own (..must.. kill.. Goblins!) and a 
Disk or two. I take out a lion of two. The game is more balanced now, but 
somehow he manages to out-bolt me once more and my big creatures arrive too
 late. Ouch x2.
	In the third game, revenge is finally mine, as I gleefully kill 
every gobbo that hits the table. (my Pyrokinesises has finally awoken :). 
He still bolts me fairly hefty, but once I get my hands on the Zuran Orb, 
he loses. Whew, my honour is saved :)
	I hate Go... oh never mind :)

GAME 4: vs Kurt, W outpost deck (7-2 games, 2-1 duels)
	This was a very strange, but very strong deck. It had extraordinary 
defenses (4 wraths, 4 arrows, 4 plowshares, balance, 4 icies and some Winter 
Orbs) and no creatures at all except for 4 mishra’s and 1 lonely Serra 
Angel. The main point of the deck were the four (!) Outposts.
	In the first game, he gets really lucky as I don’t draw any red mana
for the whole game, and my hand is filled with red goodies. I toast the 
Serra with a Pyrokinesis (heh!), but he succeeds in trapping me in the 
Winter Orb trap. He had 2 Icies out to tap any new mana, and, as such, a 
Vise finished me rather quickly.
	Second game, I’m slightly angry and I sideboard in Shatters, 
Stone Rains and Disks. I kick out my own Winter Orbs, since they were 
doing very little. (he also had a lot of artifact mana). Mana is good this 
time, and I kill everything that resembles an Outpost, Winter Orb or Icy. 
I finally kill him off with a Emisarry.
	Third game, things go either way as various things are killed or 
shattered. He gets his lone Serra out again and she starts hitting me 
really hard. But, then I get out a Emisarry again and  tear through his 
(white) defense. With the help of a strategically held Zuran Orb and some 
bolts, I’m able to finish him. Whew, hard game against a good opponent.

GAME 5: vs. ???, G/W Ernies and Orders (games 9-3, duels 3-1).
	This was a typical Erniegeddon deck, minus the Armageddons, 
strangely enough. I have a bit of trouble remembering all the details of 
the game, but I know that in the first game, he wrathed away some of my 
beasties and got a Serra and some orders out and eventually killed me 
with them.
	My deck seemed to work better after sideboarding (perhaps there’s 
a lesson to be learned there :) and I was able to win the second game with 
a centaur and a wildfire emissary.
	In the third game, we were at a stalemate. He had an 2 Orders and 
an Erhnam out, while I had a Lion, an Insect and a Wildfire Emissary. He 
also had this nasty card from Mirage in play, called Barbed Foliage ("All 
creatures attacking you lose flanking  and get 1 point of damage"). He was 
giving my Lions forestwalk, since he knew that if I attacked they would just
die. I attacked with them anyway, killing them. He looked smug for a moment 
until he realised that he was now forced to forestwalk my Emissary. I 
quickly crunched him with a pumpable forestwalking Efreet :)

	So my final score is 11-4 games, 4-1 duels, which gets me through 
easily enough to the next round.

	Meanwhile, Mike’s Orc deck had faced some rough competetion in his 
group but, he had managed to go 12-3 and 4-1, so he was through too.

QUARTERFINALS
	The last 8 decks were something like:
		- "Hammer and Orb" (me)
		- "Brass Orcs" (Mike)
		- W/G/R Armageddon
		- W Outpost
		- B Necro
		- B/R Orders/Hippies/Bolts/Forsaken Wastes
		and 2 other decks I didn’t get to see :)

My game was against Mark Anthony, playing with a W/G Armageddon deck. 
He also had a little bit of red in there for Stormbind and 4 bolts. Winner 
would be the one who won 2 games first.

	In the first game, his deck kicked in for 110%. Diamonds and 
mana-elves provided him with a blistering start, and very soon a Spectral 
Bear and an Erhnam hit the table. I toasted the Bear and tried to block-bolt
the Ernie with a Mishra, but he disenchanted my Mishra. I finally managed 
to off his Ernie, and finally drew a creature of my own: the Goblin Tinkerer
(woohoo). The poor thing got bolted right away, because he was afraid for 
his artifacts :)
	He then summoned another dynamic duo: Ernie and Spectral Bear. I 
was able to hold them off with a Wildfire Emissary and an Insect though, 
and pretty soon I was once again forestwalking him with an Emissary. Only 
one card could save him and somehow he drew it (or maybe he held it for the
right time; could be, he was a good player after all): an Armageddon. With 
all the land toasted, not only was there no more forestwalking, but he now 
had the mana advantage and, despite me bringing him down to 4 life in the 
end, won.
	I digged into my sideboard for the second game and noticed to my 
dismay that I had only put 1 Meekstone in, instead of the normal 2. Doh!
	The second game started much the same; he summoned Elves and 
Scavenger Folk and a Bear. I toasted both with a Pyrokinesis (felt good :).
He summoned some more critters, but this time I had a Centaur and Lions out,
and all of our creatures decided to mutually ignore each other and just 
bash the players instead. This went on for a time, until he got a Djinn in 
play once more. Suppressing an urge to say something about a deja-vu, I 
then got out a Wildfire Emissary and started forestwalking all over him 
(my lion had expired shortly before - evil bears!). I knocked his 
lifetotals down a bit for a while, until the next deja-vu happened again 
and he blew up all the land once more. I then goofed up and attacked with 
the Emissary with no forests around anymore. Ooops, they got eaten by the 
Djinn and trouble was here. Looking back, my mistake would not have 
mattered because he would have won anyway, but at the time I mentally 
kicked myself. Anyway, I struggled a bit with my Zuran, but in the end he 
won.
	Funniest incident: midway in the game, I had to summon a Disk as a 
decoy to be able to play my Zuran Orb (stupid Scavvies!). Waste of a good 
disk, but not much choice at the time. :)

	Mike played against the Necro in his quarterfinal and managed to 
scrape out a 2-1 victory. It must have been a really good Necro, to be 
able to give Brass Orcs such a tough time...

	SEMI FINALS

	I managed to sit in-between the people playing the semi-finals, so 
I got a good look at both :)

	Mark Anthony (W/G/R Armageddon) Vs. ??? (B/R boltknight)
		This seemed like a very tight battle. The blackred deck had
Orders and Hippies, 8 bolts and also things like Pox and Forsaken Wastes. 
In the first game, things looked really bad for Mark as a Hippie had 
stripped him of all his cards and his life was going down really fast. 
Luckily enough, he drew a bolt at the right time and wasted the Hippie. 
He then started hitting back with a Bear and some Elves and Scavvies. He 
had only 4 life left, though, and the other player had a bolt in his hand 
and was holding it, waiting for another one. Sure enough, when he cast some
cantrip he drew his second one; he only had mana left to cast the first one 
though. And wouldn’t you believe it, Mark blew up all the land the turn 
after that and won.
		I started concentrating a bit on the other game from then 
on, so the details are not so good from here on. In the second game, I 
believe early Orders and Hippies wasted Mark, who was drawing only Elves 
and Diamonds. The last game was once again a very close game, but in the 
end Mark was able to win, once again through this incredible power card, 
Armageddon.

	Mike Degreef ("Brass Orcs") Vs. Kurt (Outpost madness)
		I had played Kurt in my group and I knew that most of his 
defense needed at least four mana to work (Icy, Arrows, Wrath). With this 
in mind, I gave him very little chance to win against the blind fury of the
Brass Orcs. As it turned out, I was right: in the first game, Mike simply 
overwhelmed him, before Kurt could get out a decent defense. In the second 
game, things went better for Kurt as he was able Wrath away some Orcs and 
get out an Icy and a Winter Orb. His life was still dwindling away from 
the occasional red weenie that got passed him and he was waiting for 
another Wrath that didn’t show up. His mana was tied up too much for his 
defenses, so he was unable to get much offensive use out of his Outposts. 
In an attempt to slow Mike down, he then cast Armageddon which, IMO, was a 
mistake. I had been talking with Mike before the quarterfinals, about the 
different kind of decks and I had reminded him to always keep some mana 
back against white decks. This, coupled with the fact that his deck can 
operate on 2-3 lands, negated the effect of the Armageddon. Meanwhile, 
Kurt had destroyed part of his defense (his Outpost) and he was losing 
life again. Kurt then drew three plains after each other (which he did not 
need) and this stroke of bad luck, coupled with some Ironclaws finished 
him off.

FINAL

	Mike Degreef ("Brass Orcs") Vs Mark Anthony (W/G/R Armageddon)
		As exciting as the semis were to watch, so dull was the 
final. The Brass Orcs had their best possible start and this, coupled with 
a slow start from Mark Anthony (shouldn’t have wasted all his fast starts 
on me - heh :-), made for an easy victory for Mike in the first game.
		In the second game, things were somewhat more even, but 
Mike was still getting Mark’s life down pretty fast. Then, Mark Anothony 
somehow succeeded in evening the situation. He then armageddoned, hoping to
slow Mike down (should have talked with Kurt :).  After a while, Mike had 3
lands, an Ironclaw and an Cannoneer, while Mark had one land, a diamond, a 
scavvie, an elf and a warbeast.
		Mike then drew a Pillage, which he used to off the warbeast.
Mark lost his only land and his elf got bolted. This slowed him down too 
much and the Ironclaw and two zappings from the Cannoneers killed him. 

	So, with 2 Brass Men at the start, one won and the other one got 
into the last 8. A good result, and we were pretty pleased with it. Mike 
got an Ali from Cairo as prize (the other prizes were Lich, Jyhad and 
Mirage boosters). I got 2 Mirage boosters, which contained among others 
Purgatory, Dwarven Miner, Mystical Tutor and an Enlightened Tutor, so that 
was not too bad :)

	So that was it. Next week, we’re going to a Type I tournament. 
Normally, we don’t do these things (having no Power cards and such), but 
this one gives out special prizes for type II decks. Besides, sometimes 
it’s a blast to play Type I with a Type II anti-deck (come here, shamans, 
tinkerers and bloodmoons :).

	Hope you liked the report, I’ll try to make one again next week, 
but no promises.

Sam Goutsmit.
Member of Team Brass Men.
DCI Ranking ... (pretty low for the moment :)

PS: Please don’t respond to this post via E-mail; my server won’t let me 
read mail for the moment. If you need to comment, use the newsgroup pls.