Tourney Report

Tourney was Nov. '96 Type 2 using Two-Headed Giant Rules
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Prize was a pair of Two-Headed Giants of Foriys.

Special Rules: Teams of two entered the tournament and played against
another team of  two, sharing 40 life
between them. Teammates had their turns at the same time, sharing the same
upkeep, draw, main pahse, etc. They attacked with their creatures
together, and either opponent could block with creatures. If one player
ran out of cards or accumulated 10 poison counters, there would be a dead
head so to speak, otherwise both players lasted until their 40 life was
used up. 

Our Decks: My brother, Mike, and myself entered the tournament using a
form of the Weedwhacker deck (The Weedwhacker was originally a Type 1.5
deck which has as it’s only way of killing, one Millstone). I played all
blue, and Mike played all white. This combination allowed us consistent
access to white’s removal cards, and blue counterspells - so in theory
would could deal with any deck. Here are the decks we used: 

Mike’s Deck: (mono white) 3 Kjeldoran Outpost, 2 Mishra’s factory, 2
Thawing Glaciers, 1 Strip Mine, 17 Plains, 4 Wrath of God, 1 Balance, 1
Land Tax, 1 Enlightened Tutor, 1 Blinking Spirit, 4 Swords to Plowshares,
4 Disenchant, 2 Divine Offering, 2 Jayemdae Tome, 1 Disrupting Sceptre, 4
Icy Manipulator, 1 Grinning Totem, 1 Zuran Orb, 1 Ivory Tower, 1
Meekstone, 4 Marble Diamond, 2 Winter Orb. (Sideboard: 1 Kjeldoran
Outpost, 1 Feldon’s Cane, 1 Tormod’s Crypt, 2 Divine Offering, 1 Black
Vice, 2 Disrupting Sceptre, 2 Serrated Arrows, 2 Reverse Damage, 2 Winter
Orb, 1 Kismet) 

Jeff's Deck: (mono blue) 4 Counterspell, 3 Power Sink, 2 Dissapate, 4
Force of Will, 3 Thawing Glaciers, 3 Mishra's Factory, 1 Strip Mine, 17
Islands, 1 Meekstone, 3 Icy Manipulator, 1 Sky Diamond, 2 Fellwar Stone, 1
Ivory Tower, 1 Zuran Orb, 3 Soldevi Digger, 1 Millstone, 1 Jester’s Cap, 1
Grinning Totem, 1 Boomerang, 1 Recall, 1 Political Trickery, 4 Browse, 1
Steal Artifact. (Sideboard: Black Vise, 2 Feldon’s Cane, Tormod’s Crypt
Serrated Arrows, Power Sink, Political Trickery, 2 Hydroblast, 3 Blue
Elemental Blast, 1 Jester’s Cap, 1 Sleight of Mind). 

Match One: (2-0 Game Wins in this match) 
Opponent #1: (Mono-White) Crusades, Weenies, Outposts, Wild Aesthirs, 12
Knights. 
Opponent #2: (Mono-Red) Bolts, Fireballs, Anti-Artifact, Anaba Shaman,
Lots of Burn. 
-Game#1: The format was best two out of three, and the first game started
a little slow as they dumped out pump knights and bolts. I quickly built
up Browse mana, and started browsing and using the glaciers. Mike got a
Wrath of God soon enough and wiped the weenies from the board. A crusade
hit the table, shortly followed by a couple of our Kjeldoran Outposts
(they weren’t pleased). I used a Political Trickery to steal the
opponent’s only Outpost (I gave him my Glaciers after using it so it would
come back to my hand). With my Fellwar Stone out to supply white mana, I
started pumping out Dude tokens, and Mike did the same with his 2
outposts. I countered any attempt to Pillage our Outposts, and we kept
their creatures tapped with our numerous Icies. They soon died to our Dude
onslaught. 
-Game#2: We sideboarded in Serrated arrows and I put in some Blue Blasts.
Mike didn’t bother with Reverse Damage since they never really came close
to doing any substantial damage to us. The game started, and we quickly
got out arrows and started the loving. I got out a Fellwar Stone, and used
my Totem to take the opponent’s Anaba Shaman and did about 8 damage to him
before I let him kill it (also killed some pump knights and Savannah Lions
with it). A Winter Orb hit the table, and with 4 or 5 Icies out between us
we locked them up pretty efficiently. We eventually killed them with 3
Mishra’s pounding on them repeatedly. The key card was really Serated
Arrows and Winter Orb in this one. We were done before anyone else (rounds
were 1.5 hours, and we finished in less than 30 minutes). 

Match Two: (2-0 Game Wins in this match) 
Opponent #1: (Red/Blue) Arcane Denials, Counters, Grinning Totem, Bolts,
Torches, Artifact Destruction, Mucho Direct Damage 
Opponent #2: (White/Blue) 12 Pingers! (incl Suq-Ata Firewalkers),
Counterspells, Soldevi Digger, Force of Wills, Disenchants, Totems, Caps 
-Game#1: The first game saw our opponents with a few pingers slowly eating
away our life with the help of a few bolts. Mike saved a Wrath of God
until it could kill a few pingers at a time. Eventually we set up a Winter
Orb lock that had us tapping their mana during their upkeep with 7 Icies
out between us, they were completely shut down. We killed them with Dude
tokens and Mishras. There was really anything they could do about it
(although they did counter a few things here and there). -Game#2: Serrated
Arrows came in from the sideboard, as well as a couple Blue Blasts. The
game started out kinda of shaky when Mike was Capped twice early game and
his Winter Orbs were taken out along with some Disenchants. I got out a
Totem and used it to take my opponent’s Totem, which I used to take
another one of his Totems which I used to take the other opponent’s
Jester’s Cap, with which I took out a few anti-artifact. That was a pretty
funny few turns, as all this happened. By that time I had out a huge mana
advantage due to the Glaciers, and huge card advantage due to the Browse.
I eventually got down to the Digger/Browse lock, and digged counterspells
and Cap until they were locked down. Unfortunately they were still at a
large life total from their Ivory Towers, and there was only 10 minutes
left. We started attacking full force will our Mishras and one Outpost
producing dudes. They had some pingers out, and we had to be a little
tricky about it (keep Mishras back to save others from dying, etc). We
slowly weeded them down and did the last point of damage at the 30 second
warning. With so many Totems and Caps between us after sideboard, it was a
pretty unusual game.

Match Three: (2-0 Game Wins in this match)
Opponent #1: (Mono-Black) Hypnotic Spectres, Hymm, Stupors, Knights,
Sengirs, Drain Lifes, Choking Sands
Opponent #2: (Mono-White) Weenies, Armageddons, Crusades, FE Sac Lands,
Disenchants, Mtenda Herders,12 Knights
-Game #1:
These players were probably the worst examples of sportsmanship that were
at the tournament. The first opponent (mono-black) had his deck right at
the edge of the table, and his hand was constantly poised over it within
an inch. Flashes of Justin Schneider went through my head as this guy
proceeded to draw extra cards when he knew we weren’t looking. The first
game I called him on it, and we counted up his cards, and sure enough he
had drawn extra. We worked it out, so he could skip his draw phase since
we really didn’t think we were going to have a problem with these guys.
With repeated Wrath of God and Meekstones (after he cast a Crusade,
effectively making most of his creatures 3 power). Our dude tokens were
conveniently 2/2 and walked all over them (Icies held off his blockers,
and Swords took out his 1/1 weenies that didn’t get affected by the
Meekstones). During the game, the mono-black player repeatedly complained
about my Japanese Fellwar Stones saying that he didn’t know what they did.
The same guy also tried to cast Enfeeblement several times on my Mishra
during his turn (after I had activated it during my turn). I was a bit
surprised they had made it to this bracket of the Swiss Rounds with their
level of ignorance. -Game #2: During sideboarding I threw in Serrated
Arrows, and left in my Meekstone in case we could take advantage of the
Crusade again. Just before we started he mentioned how he took out his
Crusades, so I took out my Meekstone, and threw in something else instead.
Mike took out a couple Swords, and threw in Arrows and more Winter Orbs
(nearly every time he sideboarded, all the Winter Orbs went in). Mike got
a first turn land tax the second game, and I got out a first turn Ivory
Tower. I Force of Willed a ritualled Hippie, and we quickly got out
artifact mana, Icies, and a Winter Orb. The opponent cast an Armageddon,
and even though I had several counterspells in my hand, I let it go
because we had out what was basically a lock down with the Icies and
artifact mana (plus Mike had Land Tax out). It was basically game over, as
we rebuilt our mana, and kept their mana tapped. Soon enough we got out an
Outpost, and overran them with tokens and a Mishra. Key cards here were
Serrated Arrows and Winter Orbs.

Match Four: (1-0-1 Game Wins in this match)
Opponent #1:(Blue/White) Time Elementals, Stasis, Vise, Kismet,
Boomerangs, Swords, Disenchants, Disempowers 
Opponent #2:(Blue/White) Disempower, Boomerang, Force of Will,
Counterspell, Howling Mines, Vise, Library of Leng, Ivory Tower, Stasis
-Game #1: This game went quite well
for us. We new that Len and Joe (our opponents) would be playing this
deck, and we knew it wasn’t a true Turbo Stasis deck at all. We were
experienced playing and playing against Stasis, and we knew what we had to
do. I waited till Stasis was out and they only had one blue untapped, and
I played and used my Strip Mine to make them lose Stasis. During our next
uncontested turn (since they were tapped out), we both played Grinning
Totems and used them to take each of the opponent’s Black Vises and played
them on Joe, who just happened to be holding 10 cards with his nice
Library of Leng. Joe was displeased. Next turn a used Steal Artifact to
take this Ivory Tower, and he was faced with taking 12 points a turn
(those Howling Mines hurt). They conceeded since they were locked down
with Winter Orb anyway.
-Game #2: This game lasted far too long. We had
good sideboards versus Stasis, and we put in Feldon’s Canes, Caps, Vises,
Tormod’s Crypt. Lots of Goodies. We made one slight mistake by taking out
all the anti-creature, not realizing that our opponents had put in Trade
Caravans (which helped them immensely actually since our anti-creature was
gone). The game dragged on forever. Eventually they double Vised me,
although with my Zuran Orb out, I had plently of lands to sack. Both our
Tormod’s Crypts were in play, and they waited far too long before
disenchanting them, and we managed to take out a sizeable chunk of their
graveyards. Mike had a Feldon’s Cane out, and it looked like we would win
by having more cards in our libraries. I was going to die soon by running
out of cards, which was fine, since it would be both Vises would be
useless. There was only about 5 minutes left in the round, so we explained
to them the situation, and showed them how they couldn’t win. Len said he
still had a Feldon’s Cane in his deck, and we told him that he did not (we
knew since we had Capped him). He said he would concede if there was no
cane in his deck, and we showed him that there wasn’t one. Unfortunately
Joe didn’t have the same opinion, and there was a short argument with the
judge being called in as to whether they had actually conceded (since they
got to look through their deck). Eventually we gave in, and let Len
continue, and the game ended in a draw anyway when time ran out. If we
would have put in Serrated Arrows (to kill the Time Elementals and Trade
Cravans) things would have been owner much sooner. Intermission: The votes
were tallied up for the Best Sportsmanship award. We were very surprised
when they announced we had won. The prize was Mirage starters, which
contained nothing but chaff, sadly. The final match would be us versus the
only other undefeated team. We knew the other team didn’t have much of a
chance against our deck types, although they did well against the rest of
the field. 

Match Five: (2-0 Game Wins in this match)
Opponent #1:(Red/Black) Agent of Stromgald, Binding Agony, Fire Covenant, Bolts,
Fireballs, Anti-Artifact, Blood Lust, Land’s Edge, Final Fortue
Opponent #2: (Red/Black) same as above with Ersaztz Gnomes, Drain Lifes
-Game #1:
These guys had been using the Binding Agony/Fire Covenant combo throughout
the tournament to kill their opponents. The did not have any way to give
the opponents creatures, so we never made any dude tokens, and basically
took some direct damage until we managed a Winter Orb lock down and killed
them with protected Mishras Factories. They were using Glasses of Urza
(helped them get past counterspells etc), and I used Steal Artifact to
turn the tables on that, even though it wasn’t really needed in the end.
-Game #2: I sideboarded in Blue Blasts, they sideboarded in tons of Red
Blasts. Mike brought in his Disrupting Sceptres, and we both dropped in
some Serrated Arrows. The next game was all about Disrupting Sceptre
locks, and that’s what we had going. Anythng they cast was countered (or
killed with Arrows), and anything they held onto was Sceptred from their
hand. There really wasn’t much of a chance against a mostly creatureless
deck for them, but they were very gracious in what must have been a fairly
frustrating game. Though they sideboarded in tons of red blasts in the
second game, it really didn’t help that much, since we played so many
artifacts. Conclusion: Weedwhackers did themselves proud again. The first
prize was a pair of Two-Headed Giant of Foriys, which was fine (we were
mostly there for the fun, and to play in a new tourney environment).