Subject: Edmonton Pre-Release Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 05:49:48 -0700 From: Jim Roy To: Frank Kusumoto This is a tournament report on the Stronghold pre-release held in Edmonton (Feb. 21). I'm not sure how many people showed but I think it was well over 200. Every magic junkie from across the land came to get a good look at the new set, including "the coven" from back home in Grande Prairie. The big three showed up in traditional ceremonial dress: Cowboy Dave Brown with everything except the spurs, Shady Pete with the eye-shadow to match, and of course Mike Hanfield doing his usual impression of Marilyn Manson. Not quite as freaky but I'm sure some of the stiffs had to cover their eyes. Well, here's what I got: Blue: Dream Prowler, Contempt, Mind Games (will undoubtedly be key in T2 control blue and, Static/Winter Orb decks), Wall of Tears, Time Ebb, Sea Monster, Whim of Volrath, Interdict, Thalakos Seer, Leap, Rebound. White: 2 Change of Heart, Smite, Skyshroud Falcon, Conviction, Youthful Knight, Gallantry, Soltari Monk, Elite Javelineer, Avenging Angel, Pacifism, Cop: Shadow, Cop: Red (sided in a few times), Bandage, Samite Blessing, Black: Screeching Harpy, Dark Ritual, Diabolic Edict, Wall of Souls, Clot Sliver, Dauthi Marauder, Dauthi Slayer, Dauthi Ghoul, Brush with Death, Morgue Thrull, Rabid Rats, Foul Imp, 2 Torment, Dungeon Shade, Cannibalize. Red: Furnace Spirit, Stone Rain, Mogg Conscripts, Ancient Runes, Flowstone Blade, Flowstone Hellion (very cool in sealed), Convulsing Licid, Mogg Bombers, Craven Giant, Lightning Blast, Sandstone Warrior, Wall of Diffusion, Mogg Infestation, Rolling Thunder, Mogg Flunkies. Green: Respite (kind of put to shame by Constant Mists eh?), Rootbreaker Wurm, Natural Spring, Skyshroud Ranger, Mulch, Burgeoning, Provoke, Hermit Druid, Skyshroud Troll, Spike Worker, Seeker of Skybreak, Constant Mists, 2 Lowland Basilisk, Scragnoth, Overgrowth, Wall of Blossoms, Spike Colony, Trained Armodon, Spined Wurm. Other: Hornet Cannon, Crystalline Sliver (I think most of the 2 mana for 2/2 slivers will be viable as stand alone creatures in Type II), Lotus Petal (I think this is made obsolete by the Mox Diamond), Essence Bottle. Land: Pine Barrens, 5 Forests, 5 Mountains, and 4 each for Islands, Plains, and Swamps. Here is what I decided to play: Flowstone Hellion (true beatdown) Convulsing Licid (doubles as unkillable blocker and helps offensives against someone with a nasty blocker, also a plain old weenie if all else fails) Mogg Bombers (wasn't sure about these, but they were quite good. In the least it is 3 points of direct damage) Craven Giant (wasn't too great, had to be blocked but to easily blocked) Lightning Blast Sandstone Warrior Wall of Diffusion Mogg Infestations (only threw it in because it seemed powerful, was much better than expected. I won most of the games where I played it against the opponent as it turns all his nasties into 1/1 wimps that are easily crushed by my fatties) Rolling Thunder Mogg Flunkies (funky funky, drawback is negligible in a creature heavy sealed deck) Skyshroud Troll Seeker of Skybreak (only played it because it was cheap, but it sucked) Spike Worker Spike Colony (like the spikes, pretty resourceful creatures) Constant Mists (not as godly as I thought, but still very good) 2 Lowland Basilisk (excellent blockers, good attacker in a semi-creature lock) Scragnoth Overgrowth (2 mana for 1 card, good in my high casting cost deck) Wall of Blossoms (gotta love it) Trained Armodon (one of my "weenies") Spined Wurm Essence Bottle (only threw in because I had too many creatures, better than I thought. Saved me quite a few games) 5 + 3 Forests 5 + 2 Mountains 2 Plains (added this although I'm not playing white because I hate mana screw plus I have lots of expensive stuff, plains are less harmful than any other land because of the landwalkers) I could have played other colors, but I liked green because of the big monsters and Constant Mists. Maybe I could have tried white instead. Round 1 vs. Allen McKay Allen was a kid who hasn't had a lot of tournament experience, but he seemed pretty nice and was learning. I crushed him 2-0 with the fatties. 1-0 Round 2 vs. Bob Protter Bob was a pretty good guy with a Blue-White deck. He had a lot of tiny creatures and some good defense. I fatted him the first game. The second game he was beating me down with 4 unblockable weenies. I was going to die really soon (I was at 2) but I topdecked a Rolling Thunder and killed all 4 of them. The Essence Bottle brought me back up to a safer range so that his new unblockable weenies wouldn't finish me off. He managed to pull of a few tricks but my fatties eventually rolled him. In one of the games he cast that Hesitation. I had board control so I simply did nothing until he had to get one of his own spells countered to get rid of it. I think that card sucks ass. 2-0 Round 3 vs. Jason Kipp Jason was playing Black-Red-Blue. The first game I got a good draw but so did he: he managed to get a 3/1 Cloud Spirit and a Mogg Bomber/Disturbed Burial combo going. He was killing me faster than I could kill him. I cast the Mogg Infestations when I was pretty low and his creatures turned small. I managed to outrace him with my fatties and the essence bottle before he could get his creatures back. The second game he got mana screwed. He managed to get two land and he was playing mana leaks (2) so I cast the Scragnoth (yes, that's how mana screwed he was) instead of the Spike Colony and he instantly goes "Mana Le.... um, ok". It was already over anyway though. 3-0 Round 4 vs. Roy Mah This one was closest yet. He also had a Red-Green deck with some very strong cards. He clobbered me first game. The second game he mana-stalled a tad and it was enough for me to win. The third game we both developed equally and I got some huge creatures out. He had a Basilisk so I was holding them back. Then he got out his Volrath's Laboratory and I got worried. I figured I had better beat him down fast before he got out of hand. Luckily I drew the Convulsing Licid so I could attack him without losing a giant. I got him low enough to cheap him out with a big rolling thunder. Whew. 4-0 Round 5 vs. Kent Cross We were on the first table now, and all eight of us got deck checked. It took a VERY long time but they gave us extra time to play. One unlucky soul forfeited a match for not writing down all the cards. He was supposed to play Benny Wong (one of the coven from G.P.) so Benny got the automatic win. The "unlucky soul" seemed fairly distraught at having lost this way so Benny offered to play him a fun game. Benny cheaped him out with about 5 direct damage spells and goes "Well, now you know that you would have lost anyway, feel better?" I don't think he did. Anyways, Kent was playing White-Black with a lot of shadows, fliers, and Kor. The first game I managed to kick his ass. I drew a Rolling Thunder to smoke his little white wussies and my fatties showed him who's boss. The second game he trounced me. He got out some Kor to block my big shots and killed me with fliers and shadows. The third game he started slow and I got some huge guys out. I was sure I would win, all he had was that flying 2/2 Kor guy and another wuss and a Dauthi Marauder. I had a 5/4 Spined Wurm and the Hellion and he was down to 5 while I was really high. He managed to block both my guys and redirect from the kor to the wuss. He drew a lot of wuss while I couldn't draw a thing. Somehow he managed to draw a new wuss every turn as he beat me down with the Marauder. It was a very close game and he drew a semi-game breaker (can't remember) to smoke me down. I hate losing. 4-1 Round 6 vs. Cory Bradshaw I figured I might have easier games now that I was in a slightly lower tier. Well, this game I got mogged, flogged, pussy whipped, bull whipped, you name it I got it. Bull Whip is almost broken for sealed deck play. He simply got out a weenie with that 1/3 enchantment and bull whipped all my 3/3 guys. He eventually built up enough defense to hold out against my huge guys and he got me down to zero cards with Mind Peel. I lost handily. I figured, well the only way I can deal with bull whip is to side in my Ancient Runes (he had other artifacts). I drew the Ancient Runes (along with my Essence bottle, grrr). I also got out 3 fatties and I thought I might do ok. Nope. Next turn he casts Marble Titan and my big guys suck. Then he casts BULL WHIP and my little guys don't exist. He gets out that white enchantment where you painful memories yourself to prevent all damage from a sorcery. So my burn was useless. Then he starts casting Invulnerability on the Runes to prevent damage. Hmm, I'm feeling a little locked. I drew the Constant Mists to help defend against the shadow guys, and I kept a card in my hand to prevent the Mind Peel. But he puts out that black sliver where you discard a card at RANDOM but he missed it. Then he just Mind Peeled my mists away. I was clobbered. I really hate losing. 4-2 Round 7 vs.. Micheal Mauro Well, only a couple 6-2's out of 20+ were going to make it, but I kept playing 'cause I thought my tie breaker might be ok. Micheal had a green-red-white deck. The first game I had a killer draw and Thundered him down (but it was close, he got me down to 3). The second game I drew one card and 9 land for my first 10 cards. Luckily it was the Constant Mists. He got out some really large guys and would have been doing 8 per turn. Finally I drew the annoying Basilisk and managed to get creatures of my own. It was close, but I managed to gain a control eventually and win. 5-2 Round 8 vs.. Aarron Holmes Aarron had a kick ass deck. It was heavy red with a bit of green and black. He had a Flamewave, a lot more direct damage (like Rolling Thunder), Lab Rats, Cursed Scroll, ect. The first game was very tense. He mulched and got 3 land but the other card was the flamewave. He beat me down with weenies and burn but I got a good draw and got out some quick fatties and hit him with the Hellion for 5 on turn 5. That was enough to get the edge. The second game he got out a cursed scroll and emptied his hand but it was no match for the fatties. He also managed to pull off the flamewave but I had the Spike Colony and saved my Spined Wurm and another guy. Whew. So I ended up 6-2 but there were lots at 6-2 and I didn't think my tiebreaker would cut it. I figured I'd be at around 17th (top 16 made it in). But when they put the names of the top 16 I came up as the runt. Woo hoo! First Round of Finals vs.. Roland Au Roland was the top seed. He is a very good player and somehow we made a deal that whoever went on would give 1/4 of the prize to the loser. Wow did I get slaughtered. His deck was phenomenal, white-black-red with Coffin Queen, Lab Rats, Coercion, Acidic Sliver (so good, a 2/2 for 2 that you can sac to deal two points to anything), burn, Bottle Gnomes, and a million Kor creatures. The first game I could hardly touch him. Second game I got mana screwed (only second time in tournament) for one turn and had to toss. He had a Coffin Queen out. I looked at my hand and had lots of good savers, the only thing that sucked was the Mogg Bombers because 3 points of damage to him for 4 mana would not save me. So I tossed it. MISTAKE! I recovered quickly but every time I cast a creature he would use the queen to get my bombers and do 3 to me. That sucked. Eventually he got bored and started coffin queening his gnomes. I was so dead. I think Roland was a little regretful about the deal because my deck simply sucked compared to his. He went on to split first so I got 3/4 of a box. Pretty cool. The decks in the final 16 were really good. Two of them had both a Fanning the Flames AND and the Phoenix guy (living Hammer/Earthquake/Flier). One kid, Ryan Keef, had 20 white weenies and two Mob Justice plus more burn. He got beat by Steve (don't know last name) and his Torture Chamber. The chamber just pops off those weenies nicely. Roland had to beat Cory Bradshaw (the Bull Whipper) and met Steve in the finals. It was around 3 or 4 am when we finally left in Steve's car. We dropped by McDonalds for a night time snack before heading home. All in all it was a great tourney. The location was nice. The tournament organizers were excellent as usual. Some observations about Stronghold in Type II: I think Stronghold will have a decent impact Type II. I don't think it will be as much as Visions, but you never know. White definitely got good cards: I like Scapegoat (against Wrath, disk, earthquake, capsize, 187's, ect). The Kors will simply DESTROY red. No more earthquakes, especially if you have a pro red guy (I'm pretty sure you can redirect red damage to a pro-red guy right?). It got the anti-land destruction card for the slower decks too. Pursuit of Knowledge is blatantly powerful. Youthful Knight could be good for Wx decks. Black did average: Lab Rats will go nice in a black control deck. Also, black's discard theme has been heightened quite a bit with Megrim, Mind Peel, and Bottomless Pit. Red got Shock the baby bolt, plus red sligh could be modified with stuff like Mob Justice (?), funky Mogg Flunkies, and Mogg Maniacs (with Earthquake). Green got the ernhamish Endangered Armodon. It also got a lot more land manipulation with Mulch and Burgeoning. Tempting Licid is the best licid yet, especially with some of the Basilisks and even Elven Warhounds. The Spikes are decent, probably good in Vineyard decks. I think Volrath's Gardens sucks though (despite popular opinion). This tapping your own creatures for 2 mana on your own turn seems barely worth the 2 measly life you get. Mana Leak looks like another staple counterspell for blue. Mind Games will undoubtedly be put to good use. Intruder Alarm gives rise to another infinite damage combo (tough to get, but good cards that are in synch with each other: some mana creatures (Sea Scryer or Elves), a Man o War or Shrieking Drake, and infinite mana could happen, or you could have a tim out and just tim him to death. Kind of a gay combo eh? The Mox Diamond is not too bad, could be great in 5cg with the Harvest Wurms. Horn of Greed could get insane with some of the green cards like Burgeoning. Volrath's Stronghold might become standard in all black decks. Ensnaring Bridge will obviously kick ass in Pox/Scroll decks. The new slivers are incredible. Many of them are playable in non-sliver T2 decks. Of course the coveted 5 for 7/7 Sliver Queen will make her appearance occasionally. They really want us to play sliver decks in type II don't they? I'm getting tired of writing, as I'm sure you're getting tired of reading. ---------------------------------------------- Jim Roy jproy@ee.ualberta.ca http://www.ualberta.ca/~jproy "Trying is the first step towards failure." Homer Simpson ----------------------------------------------