Subject: Tourney 2/8/98 Date: Sun, 8 Feb 1998 20:59:57 -0500 From: "Monty" To: Well it's Sunday, February the 8th, 1998 just hours after a tournament at Books & Comics Unlimited. A pretty big showing of over 20 people, (maybe 30?). So it's four rounds of Swiss, and Top 8 in the finals. But first let's backtrack a bit to the previous week when I'm wondering what to do for a deck. Last week I did pretty horrible with a R/U Fire, Ice, and Steel deck. I don't remember the matches too well, but I remember a mistake I made against John Tatum (a top player in Jacksonville, usually playing lock decks, though this week I think he played 5cG.) Anyways, he was playing a grindstone deck, and I cast a Mind Stone which he countered. I pyro'ed his counter and it stayed. I then tapped my last four lands to drop a disk. He spikes it. I put it in the graveyard.. Then my Mind Stone looks at me and says - "You idiot.. What am I? Chopped liver? I could have payed that one mana." I apologize to the mind stone and curse myself for the rest of the game. Which I lose by the way against his Orb/Prop/Pendrell Mist/Grindstone/Diamond deck. (Note to self: Test more against these lock decks...) Where was I? Oh, yeah, I was trying to figure out what deck to take. I tested with 5cG against a red sligh deck with Wastelands and Slingers (A deck I made for my wife to play because it's pretty straightforward. [Oh, I'm not bagging on women playing, I promise. But my wife is new, and hasn't learned the full timing system yet. I know there are several great women players out there that hand guys their lunch all the time. Actually I think they may have an advantage in that women think about everything]) Not even close. Spank the birds, and Waste the Paradise's, and it's 1cG. And Maro or no, if 5cG can't cast all of it's B, U, R, or W spells, it's done. Game over. Then I thought about a Pox deck. I threw together the Schneider Pox deck, and had trouble playing it correctly. I like the concept as I feel Pox is like a Black Balance in many ways, but what to discard? When to play Pox? It gave me a headache. I won several games with it, but lost pretty horribly against the red deck again. I also tried a Jamie Wakefield idea (Again.. The first deck of his I tried was the BoneDancer deck which did really well. There's a couple reports somewhere on here about those tournaments. Jamie has such cool decks...) This deck was a Mono W deck with Staunch Defenders and Mistmoon Griffins. Alabaster Dragons and some other lifegaining things. I played a sligh deck with it, and after I got used to the deck, it really tore it up. One game the red did win, but only after dealing 75 points (No really, we counted...) of damage. Staunch Defenders are Awesome. But they're expensive. And this deck lost to blue bounce. I also tried a Mono U deck from the Dojo, but without 4 Medallions (I traded mine. I'm an idiot!) it just didn't cut it. Red beat that deck as well. So I think.. Well it seems like Red is just too fast to beat easily. So I decide to take my wife's deck, after modifying it a bit. I also make a sideboard that I think will fare well against the local deck types. (Mostly anti-blue, which now I think I may have made poor decisions. It seems that the scene locally is heavy blue, and heavy 5cWhatever) Enough babbling, on to the report proper.. Match 1 vs. Ed Banias. - Ed was playing.. I don't know what Ed was playing to be honest as I didn't get to see enough of it to say. We draw our cards, and one of us Mulligans. The other takes it, and we go. He drops a forest, and I drop a mountain, and a Mogg Conscript. His second turn he doesn't play a land and that pretty much seals it. I win while still at 20 life. The second game was a little better, but I believe he had a slow start again. I ball lightning and sac to bombardment for 7 damage. He did get out a pretty big 4/4 green creature at one point, but I was ahead on the damage race with a Tongs in play and creatures o plenty. 2 - 0 - 0. Games 1 - 0 - 0 Matches. Match 2 vs Joseph Crosby. Heavy Blue with a splash of red. First a little background... After posting one of my early tournament experiences from B&C, Joseph e-mailed me and said some nice things about my report. He mentioned he was ranked pretty high in Florida, and when I checked, he was ranked #1 or #2 in Jacksonville. And 6th or so in Florida. Impressive. We've played in several tournaments together, but never faced each other until today. Though he's not the most humble guy in his reports (See his reports - they're pretty interesting.. For example - http://thedojo.com/t981/t2.980201jcr.txt", he plays clean, and has my respect. Game 1 starts off with me doing a little Ball Lightning Action, followed by miscellaneous red burn, etc. Then my deck slows down as Joseph starts throwing land back to my hand. I get him to 9 before I'm locked at one land. I keep playing to see what's changed in his deck (mostly just a little red sweetness) Then a Waterspout beats me down. Game 2 was a little bit of the same, but I pyroblasted a few things - the wrong things. I feel now I should have waited to attempt to pyro a Tradewind or a Phidian. Hmph. So much for a perfect tournament... 2 - 2 - 0 Games 1 - 1 - 0 Matches. Match 3 vs. Jess. Jess is somewhat new to the tournament scene, but she did have a mono green deck, but I feel she really didn't have good draws against me. I swept in two quick games. First game I was dropped to 11 life, the second game I was at 17. 4 - 2 - 0 Games 2 - 1 - 0 Matches. Match 4 vs. David Bryant. Man, this sucks. Two top rated players in Florida (David's ranked around 1850, where Joseph was around 1950 I believe. Fortunately for me, it looks like David's playing a fun deck this time. Both games were pretty fast. The second game I dropped a Ball Lightning and attacked for 10 at one point. 6 - 2 - 0 Games 3 - 1 - 0 Matches. Finally, I make it to the top 8 again... Top 8 - Match 1. Vs. Joel Rittenhouse. Playing what appeared to be a Goofy Gaea deck. Both games it seemed Joel was a little mana hosed, and that's something you can't do against a strong burn deck. The first game he managed to Wisdom for 10, but not much else. I made a mistake when I had a bombardment and Jackal Pup in play. He fireballed the pup for 5, and I took five damage. Doh! I've got to learn to start playing a bit slower, and be more patient in games. Game 2 - More of the same, except without the mistake. For the finish I tapped out for a Boil which was countered, then fireblasted. Top 4 Match 2 vs. Chris Johns. Playing what appeared to be a white weenie. Game 1 - I win. Game 2 - I lose to a Soltari Priest and a cop: red. Couldn't scroll the damn Priest.... Damn. Game 3 - I win. I don't recall exactly what the life total was, but I was at approximately 10, and at the end of the game, he says to me "You know, honestly you shouldn't have won that game." Now I'm not one to be happy at losing, but I always try to be a respectful opponent, and say Congrats to whoever beats me. I'll examine my mistakes, or deck problems, and work on them. If he was trying to psyche me out, he should have said it before the match, or before game 3. Finals vs. Andrew ? Don't know his last name.. Sorry Andrew. (Not Pacifico...) Final match against what is almost a mirror copy of my deck. He had a few differences, but seemed to draw a little better. Game 1 was over pretty quick. A mogg fanatic kicked me around for a while, while I waited for mana. I was able to put out some creatures, but wanted to make sure and hold something back for the Ball Lightning. In one of Joseph Crosby's reports he wrote that when playing another red deck, you should wait for 5 mana before tapping to cast the ball. Made sense at the time and it still holds true in my opinion. Needless to say I didn't reach five mana, and double Scalding Tongs sealed my doom. Game 2 - Sided out Jackal Pups for Vandals and Slingers. (Damn I should have put in Shatters instead of Vandals I think. But then again against blue a first turn vandal is nice against Medallions.) I draw my seven cards and look at 3 ball lightnings and only 1 land. I may have also had a few mogg conscript or something... This slow start led to my demise. So I end up second and take 10 packs for my bounty. The deck - no where near original. A blatant copy of Jay Schneiders 4 Ball Lightnings 4 Mogg Fanatics 4 Mogg Conscripts 4 Incinerate 4 Cursed Scroll 4 Scalding Tongs 4 Jackal Pups 4 Kindle 4 Fireblast 4 Ironclaw Orcs 3 Suq'Ata Lancers 1 Goblin Bombardment 17 Mountains Sideboard is unlisted. Make your own. If you have comments or questions or feedback in general, feel free to send 'em. Dave "Monty" Montgomery monty@southeast.net