Subject: Type 2 Report - Gravesend, Kent, England
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 14:02:50 -0800
From: Paul Lister <100530.3003@compuserve.com>
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

Tournament Report - Gravesend, Kent, England. 11 January 1998

I decided to play a net deck and chose Alex Shvartsman’s  Counter -
Hammer (Fire, Ice and Steel see the Dojo) because it is really hard and
no one plays counter - hammer in the UK. I would love to have the time to
create my own decks but work, friends, sex, drugs and rock’n’roll comes
before MTG. On the train from London I realised I did not have all the
cards so I put in a 4th disk and a Wildfire Emissary (losing Whispers of
the Muse and a Steel Golem). Oh, I added a Desertion to make the deck 61
cards. The side board contained 4 pyros and 4 hydros and the rest meta -
gamed.

The deck is, in my opinion, very strong and can deal with most of the
current Type 2 Archetypes (it struggles against good Cursed Sligh). The
Desertion was a fun addition and got me at various points a Big Blue
flyer and a  Disk. It sucks in the opening hand though. The Emmisary was
a waste of space.

The tournament was held in the Gravesend Conservative Club (yes, such
things still exist) and there were about 30 players. I had expected to
see some London Mafia but they were elsewhere. The Kent (Gravesend,
Ashford and Herne Bay) Tournaments are well organised, friendly and
competitive ( All but one of my opponents had a DCI ranking over 1750). A
word for the London players - Don’t visit Kent expecting to harvest
scrubs for ranking points, there are a lot of good players in Kent.


First Round - Ben Twitchen,  Shocker/Altar of Dementia/Library Depletion.

Game one - Standard start counter/burn/disk away early threats and then
go mad with the hammer.
This was quite a slow game. Ben was putting a lot of thought into his
play and I had not played a tournament for six weeks - I did not want to
make any mistakes by rushing.
Game Two - He gets out an early shocker and my discard pile gets big.
With one minute to play I have seven cards in my library he has an Altar
in play and tries to cast a Voldavian Illuisionist I dessert it and the
threat disappears. I think I would have beat and burned him to death but
time was called.

One - nil

Second Round - Roy Thearle - Mono - Blue Merfolk /Legacys Allure/Unstable
mutation

Argh! Roy is a very good player and was up for a rematch after I had
rolled him over in a recent Ashford tournament.

Game one - Both of us sit back, waiting for the counter war to start. I
think I manage to disk away the first threats and then win a big counter
battle which left him short of cards in hand. A steel Golem serves
beatdown and the Hammer does its thing. He grabs my Golem with a Legacy’s
Allure/Quicksand combo but can not stop the Hammer. I win

Game Two - Not much time left so Roy sideboards for a quick kill. I
manage to hold back the weenie hoard and time is called.

Two - nil

Third Round

Mark Ritter - White weenie/ Blinkies / Cursed Scroll

Only his second type 2 event.

Game one

My opening hand leaves me without the necessary two blue and I fail to
draw the second blue (I impulsed 3 times) until it is over. I do manage
to top deck all four Disks but he is playing threats every turn and I
can’t counter the blasted Blinkie. He wins.

Game two

I get the blue mana and the counters to stop early threats, then the disk
and the hammer and win with the hammer.
Time out

Two - one - Nil

Round Four

Darren Stevens - Shadow/Falcon Armour/Tithe/Sleights.

Game one - I quake/Disk/counter the early monsters. I have control and a
hammer in the graveyard. He resigns to give him time to win the next two.

Game two - Big sideboarding mistake on my part - I should have sided in
the hydro’s instead of  slights and a Dream Tides. I get down the dream
tides and my one Wildfire (Bad move against sleight). I am overconfident
and he Sleights the Tides to Red and starts  Shadow beatdown. I get
through a Disk and drop a Golem he has a White Knight and my hand is full
of good stuff. He forces through a Geddon with a Pyro and the Golem is
facing a White Knight. He pulls the land and puts out more weenies I see
no more land and lose. We agree to draw the last game with only five
minutes remaining.

Two - Two - Nil

Round Five

Stuart Ballinger - A modified Trap deck

Stuart has a high DCI ranking which puts him in top 25 UK.  I thought we
both needed to win to make the top 8 cut-off.

Game One - I know how the Trap works and only need to counter the key
cards (Natures Revolt/City of Solitude maybe the Aura). As long as I have
blue mana and counters I am confident I can control this game. I get them
in my opening hand and he doesn’t draw/play enough of his combo to lock
me down. I think I Disked away most of his Diamonds. He plays three
Propagandas! I have a Golem on the table and an absurd amount of Mana - I
can pay six, attack and have enough untapped for 3 Counters. I win.

Game Two - This is where I play really, really stupid. I sideboard in
nothing and we play. There is only 15 minutes left and I think I have won
- my opening hand is strong. So what do I do? Tap out to play a Golem (I
have counters in hand). He smiles, tutors for a Aura then lays Choke.
This is followed by the Aura and a Cap to take three Disks. I concede.  I
deserve to be out of the tournament for stupidity

Game Three - Time is called.

Two wins three Draws and no losses.

I assume I am getting an early train home but because of some strange
results I am in the top eight. All of my matches have taken the full 45
minutes and I am tired.

I go to the bar for my first pint of Guinness and twenty Marlboro and
come back to find that I am playing John Ormerod (or "God" for his PT
Mainz performance)

John is playing his white/green  Blessing/Maro/Centaur/Wisdom deck. He
assures me that I will beat it.
I am not so sure.

Game One - John draws nothing good and I counter/Quake away the Centaurs
and Llanowar Sentinals
The Hammer wins.

Game Two - I board in a Earthquake and two Slights. I draw two quakes in
my opening hand and he looses most of his centaurs. I make loads of Disks
and he disenchants all of them. I can’t remember much about the middle
game apart from me slighting his honourable passage and John wisdoming
for 10. I knew he sided in a lot of passages so, I feel I have to very
careful with my burn. I am on five (mainly earthquake damage) and john is
on twelve. I have run out of counters and only have slight and Fireball
in hand. I fireball for nine leaving an undiscovered untapped for the
slight. He does not have a passage. John Plays a Disrupting Sceptor and
uses it. I discard the Slight. John is tapped out and sees that I have
just enough red mana to recurse the Hammer and use it in the same turn.
John resigns

I am now exhausted.

I play Roy Thearle in the Semi-final and he drops a Firewalker in the
first game which I can not remove. In the second he has terrible mana
problems with only one island for something like 15 turns yet I play soo
badly I can not capitalise on his mana screw.  All credit to Roy’s deck -
it can survive on one island and two quicksands ! Roy goes on to play
Darren Stevens in the final and wins the tournament.

Thanks to:
The Gravesend Gamers Guild for organising the tournament.
The Judges: Owen Cole and Graham Charlton
Alex Schvartsman who is a great deck builder. I wish I had the skills to
do his decks credit.

Paul Lister