Subject: tourny report--the guildmage deck Date: Sun, 25 Jan 1998 21:45:28 PST From: "Jason Castonguay" To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com ********************************************************************** Greetings all... It's time to bask in the glory of green. I don't understand how all these posts about green is a sucky color. They just forgot the rule in the game book that requires green to be complemented with red. :) As to the reason of this post: I am playing a variation of a 5cg deck that has a lot of guildmages in it as well as only being 4 colors and using other cards that are not seen as often. I played this at The Mint Card Company in Glen Burnie, MD, an environment that has been red-influenced for what seems like a year, as a reaction honorable passage is common in many a sideboard. Anyway the deck as I played it, not the way it should be played, for I was running late for the tourney and did not find / have all the cards that I wanted. That should change completely by tomorrow. Besides I should have had a sylvan in it anyway. The Guildmage Deck by Josh Catlin and played by Jason Castonguay (also by teamate Mel, see his post) (no particular order) 4 Granger Guildmage --These rock, from killing all the 1/1 s to killing off your opponent 2 Shadow Guildmage --I should have had one more, but I couldn't find it in any common box I looked in 4 Kindle 4 Incinerate -- Big Dumb Red, standard 2 Cursed Scroll -- only because I did not have more and Mel couldn't let me borrow any because I don't play sleeves 4 Wall of Roots --Great card, I feed of these a lot and they stop the stupid little attackers 4 Suq'Ata Lancers 4 Fallen Askari --Flanking is good w/ Direct Damage as well as first-strike done by the guildmage 4 River Boa --Green is a good color 1 Goblin Bombardment --kill everything, fizzle buyback, respond to emanate death 1 Gaea's Blessing --speed up the deck a little and can recures some more incinerates or creatures 1 Disenchant --kill the opposing scrolls, I always wanted more artifact removal 1 Terror --creature kill, should have been an edict or a scroll 1 Diabolic Edict --creature kill 1 Tranquil Domain --kill stupid enchantments 5 Swamp 5 Forest 4 Mountain 1 Karplusian Forest 2 City of Brass 3 Undiscovered Paradise 3 Gemstone Mine a stupid mix of multiland due to the fact that I was in a hurry and do not own all the cards I want SideBoard 3 honorable passage -die S. R. B. die 2 tranquil domain -kill enchantments, prosbloom etc 2 forsaken wastes -kills slow 2 pyroblast -couldn't find other boils 2 boil -self explanatory 1 terror -this deck needs help sometimes for killing big creatures 1 fireball -I was expecting more winter orb main 1 havoc -you never know 1 serenity -kills a lot of enchant/artifact stuff, against anything dependent on scroll and prosbloom and proporb I wanted to play w/ more scrolls, but I couldn't borrow them, and people want like $20 for them. Anyone in the Baltimore / DC area want to trade them away to me? castongj@bigfoot.com Okay, the rounds First round I play against a deck a lot like mine. Basically it came down to topdecking and land screw. There is no strategy this round worthy to report. 2-1 1-0 Second round I play against Hunter. I know Hunter is playing straight red burn because that is what he always plays. My deck decides not to give me land the first two games. The third I get a massive amount of burn in my hand even after siding out the kindles. I fireball him plus two incinerates plus I goblin bombard him just enough for the win. The actual strategy will come later. 3-3 1-1 Third round Another deck like this one. This one plays more centaurs then the one before which I have a hard time dealing with, but he makes a few mistakes that cost him the game. Did I mention that 5CG is a popular deck here. 6-3 2-1 Top Eight I am playing Jason Jones. The first game he is land screwed. (who ever says that land screw does not affect the game a lot is on crack) I see enough to make a guess at either the new hyper-discard necro that I am hearing about from New York or Schnider Pox. I think Jason went up to NY last weekend, so I am wondering. I put in the fireball, the serenity, and the enchantment destruction. I should have put in the wastes for the second game, because after I laid down my first land I remember overhearing Jason talking about pox and how good it was. He pulls out of a burn win by me and I die to a scroll/ golem. Out goes the enchantment removal, in goes the wastes. I had him last game, but he pulled out due to the life gain. It works well, even though I am scared because he has a scroll on the board and I have nothing to stop it or damage him more. Luckily I draw an incinerate and do not have to think about possible solutions to the problems that were increasing. 8-4 3-1 Top Four I came to the tournament with Mel, and we built our decks together. His is better then mine due to the fact that he did not rush through to find his cards and that he has all of the scrolls he could want. I get off below average draws and once he gets the advantage, he wins. I almost get him the second game. If I had one more mountain, aka mountain number two, so I could cast 4 burn spells and could have tied him with burn. Maybe I should have cast burn at him earlier. I was waiting for him to tap his city of brass one more time, or one more thing for me, but that's okay he gave me some money. 8-6 3-2 (see his report for more detail) Things that I learned: -It is good to draw land -Wear a watch -Build you deck in advance If YOU play this deck: -Don't be afraid to use the mages, that's what they are there for. -Remember that the mages can do more things then just tap to deal damage. Thanks to everyone there who loaned me cards. Don't worry, you'll get them back (sometime or another) :) cya ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jason Castonguay from T. L. S. Laugh, curse, cry. Team L*** S**** If you don't get it castongj@bigfoot.com You will die ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com