Subject: Stronghold Impressions/Tourney Report/the usual Gripes Date: Sun, 22 Feb 1998 17:40:27 -0500 From: Zack Weintraub Well, I made it to the New YorkPre-release, and have a few comments about the set in general, Tempest/Stronghold sealed, the way the tourney was run, and random bitching. I have to right this, cause when they were calling out names for seating to get your deck, someone (sorry, I missed your name) came up to me and asked how long after I got home I'd right a report for the list :) I'll start with the bitching, because what fun tournament report ever doesn't have gripes? I'll keep it short cause no one really cares, and it has no strategic value, whatsoever. Anyway, my friend Ben that was supposed to drive us to Trenton to catch a train to Penn Station coped out on me at like 8:30 the night before, after making me print out like 1289 train schedules, go to a hockey game (this is a little kids game, so it wasn't that exciting) to wait for him to get me (he nevered showed), and saying that he'll "probably" be going and that he can't wait for it for the last 2 months! I do get a ride to Trenton with another friend, but then when we miss the train because of an idiot ticket collector that didn't know where the train was going. We thought that we'd be late, because it was already about 9:30, the tournament was supposed to start at 10 (read no earlier than 11), and we were still an hour and a half ride away (before we ran into the hotel). Hehe, looking back on it, it seems kinda funny that I thought we'd be late. So on to the organization gripes. When we got to the hotel it was absolutely packed. There were (litteraly) magic players hanging over balconies and crammed on to the 2nd floor. At least, I think they were crammed up there. I never actually saw the 2nd floor. This is because of the number of pre-releases. For Tempest, there were tournaments in (I think) PA, NJ, NY, Washington, Columbus, and I think Mashechusetts (maybe). And there were still over 300 at the PA one. For Stronghold, we had two in NY (one was in Syracuse, though which is about 5 hours away) and one in Columbus. What did they expect, only 300? Double that probably showed up. At first, they said that we'd have to wait 1/2 an hour to go upstairs because the floor was too crowded. WTF is 1/2 an hour gonna do? So after 30 minutes a guy comes down and says that the 2nd floor is at max capacity, and any more would be against fire emergency laws. Keep in mind that there are still close to 200 magic players waiting on the 1st floor to go up. So Gray Matters (they were running this) decide that anyone that wanted to play in the tournament (people that just wanted the cards got them and left) that was still downstairs would have to walk over to their main store, and there would be two seperate tournaments. So at Neutral Ground (name of store), after waiting in lines to get registered, get my name down so I will get mailed a pre-release card (they ran out, yet I must have found 20 ripped up Revenaces lying on the floor over the course of the day), and even to get into the elevator (!), we thought it might FINALLY start. Oh, this is about 12:30. I don't think we got seated and got the cards until around 1:45, cause they ran out at Neutral Ground and had to go to the hotel to pick up more. Ok, on to the tournament report section. So when I finally got my cards, I looked at them and I wasn't that happy. With the Tempest, first I looked at the rares and uncommons, because that is where game breakers are usually found (Living Death type stuff). I wasn't too happy. Gerrard's Wisdom is ok, but Ertai's Meddling and Fugitive Druid both suck. I also didn't have much good red, and no big red creatures to support it. I looked again, though, and decided that it wasn't half bad. I had some ok small-mid sized critters, and a LOT of fatness. Also good creature control. Here are the cards I wound up playing: Creature Control: 2 Smite This was AMAZING for me Dark Banishing 2 Cannibalize Great with each other, the smites, and the Banish Creatures: Wall of Souls This is a fantastic card Soltari Trooper Unfortunately, my only shadow Spined Wurm I got three, but had too much heavy mana stuff Venerable Monk Not so amazing, but I needed small creatures 2 Spike Colony Almost never used them, and never used the ability. Better than Wurms in theory, but not play Master Decoy Always great. Specially with Cannibalize. Mounted Archers Lowland Basilisk Redirect that damage, you dumb en-Kor Youthful Knight Useful, and 2 mana to cast. Always good Nurturing Licid Never drew enough mana to abuse it, but it helped Spirit En-Kor Won me several games. Redirection is powerful Skyshroud Vampire Flying fatness :) Warrior Angel !!!!!!!!!!!!! MAD beatdown here Utility: Anoit Great with everything, especially the Basilisk and Wall of Souls (you'll do four to kill it? I'll prevent one, take 3). Orim's Prayer With the Anoit, Cannibalises, and Battle Cry, humility Would have been amazing in this deck. Rampant Growth Other stuff that switched around main and sideboard: 2 Dungeon Shades In most of the time, but I never got enough black Stronghold Taskmaster mostly against black shadow. Worked well Dauthi Trapper Also vs. Shadow The other two Wurms Other stuff I got: Rootbreaker Wurm I had enough flying fatness and it was just too much to cast Hornet Cannon IMHO it is too slow for sealed Brush With Death Why does everyone love this? It is 7 mana to cast and buyback (3 of it black), it doesn't target creatures, and it is VERY slow! Shaman En-Kor I should have, but didn't think of it. I saw it used VERY well I went 2-1 before I felt like dropping. Round 1 was against someone that isn't all that good with timing or anything, and a good player in his seat would have beaten me. He had a lot of shadow out (3 creature) while I had a wall and a Decoy. He had a Seathing Anger in his hand with enough to buy it back. He would attack, I would tap a creature to bring him back, but I don't think he knew that he could cast the Seathing Anger then. That happened a few times, and I ended at 7, so he would have beaten me. 2nd game he gets not much great. I had a great combo going. I attacked with the Basilisk, and he blocked with a 4/3 creature (Mogg Bomber, was it?) I then cast Anoit w/ BB and that was when he realised he probably lost. Flinging with 6/6 wall at my En-Kor didn't do him much good, cause I just double battle cried and redirected :) 2nd round I got double mana screwed against a fairly good opponent. First game I drew 5 plains with mostly green/black hand. I got out a decoy, monk, and Knight, but he got out a nice swarm. Smite helped out a LOT this game. I finally get a 6th land and cast a Warrior Angel, and attack him once to keep myself somewhat high (maybe 8) but he cast a Decoy of his own next turn, and I couldn't top deck removal. 2nd game I saw a plains and forest early, but that's it. I had this in my hand the ENTIRE game: Warrior Angel 2 Dungeon Shade Spiked Wurm Skyshroud Vampire grrr, 17 land in 40 cards plus one rampant growth. It seems I never get mana screwed only once. When I do, I always get it two games in a match. We played a third game for fun, and I beat him around. I Cannibalized some fat creature and put the counters on one of his flyers. He was REALLY curios why I put it on that, and not a decoy or something, and since it was a fun game we attacked next turn to see what was up my sleeve. Smite :) Smite/Cannibalize is like a double dark banishing with no targetting requirements for half the cost. And I got two of each :) Third round I just beat a scrub pretty easily. He Frog Tounged and Screamed a Watchdog, making it like 7/5, so I banished it, and beat him down. I used a taskmaster to nail some stuff, nothing spectacular. After I this, I played a side type 2 tournament and scrubbed out. I did have a Staunch Beatdown, though, so it wasn't a complete loss. I was playing a 5cu against a counter/burn Tradewind. I was somewhat low, so I dropped a Defender, and you should've seen the look on his face :) I disked away a bunch of stuff, Wisdomed to stay alive, then proceeded to drop another defender and 2 Scragnoths. Ouch. Before I left, I had picked up a spoiler list off the net. I also made a few predictions on the way to NY about the day: 1) It would be INCREDIBLY over-crowded. 2) I would end up completely malnourished (I think I wound up having one piece of pizza as my only food from 7am-6am; I made this when we moved cause there is no good food near NG) 3) Red/white/black would rock the tournament seen. 4) I would stay way too late even though I had to get up at like 5:30 today 5) I would enter in a thousands side events and get about 1/2 a box worth of Stronghold, like I did for Tempest I must be psychic, cause I hit everyone right on the mark. Well, all but #5. Since soooo many people showed, they ran out of Stronghold to run side events with. Grrrr. Red/black/white was EVERYWHERE. Or at least two of those colors, if the other got shafted and green or blue got good stuff. I said this for a few reasons. First, Stronghold had very few common creatures in blue, and with only 1 starter of Tempest, creatures and countermagic wouldn't be very heavy. 2nd, black got a LOT of good flyers and other creatures, and so pretty good spells. It is complimented from the Shadow in Tempest, and since there is little shadow in Stronghold, it is a valuable aspect for a creature. 3rd, red has MAD direct damage to add to Kindle, Lightning Blast, and Thunder. There is Mob Justice, Fling, the 2 point bolt, Flame Wave, Mogg Bombers, and the buyback fireball. ICK! 4th, white got some powerful sealed deck cards. The En-Kors are great by themselves, but with Anoit, Master Decoy, and common high toughness creatures, they are even better. Especially the Spirit and Shaman. Green is pretty good if you get a good selection of big creatures, and the Spikes are fairly useful. The Soldier and Breeder are probably the best. Well, that's all the complaining I have time for now. Gotta go ref a kids hockey game (a great job for a 14 year old :) ---Zack Weintraub ICQ UIN# 1877572 Scrub #03018 http://www.users.fast.net/~gandalf/index.html "Some people say that I'm a horrible man, but that's not true. I have the heart of a twelve-year-old-boy... in a jar on my desk." ---Robert Bloch