Subject: A tournament report Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 20:59:29 PST From: "Luis Buenaventura" To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com A Sad Tourney Report This report is about two weeks old by now, because I keep painting my stupid college projects, writing my stupid college essays, blah blah. The other reason why this is so old is because it's sad. I was kinda close, y'know? I could've made it. Anyway, a little introduction: I'm not a good player. Not really. I've been to maybe a dozen tournaments, and won 2 by virtue of a)Dojo-inspired deck design and b)really stupid opponents. Before this recent tournament, I went a pathetic 2-3-1 in a 60-person tournament in the University. So you can tell I was feeling a little down about it. The next Type II tourney was pretty big, almost a hundred people. The judge was this guy Dean that got his name mentioned in Duelist recently, a former Philippine Team member, I think. I'm there with my friend Eli the white weenie player. I'm Luis the Necro player, so between the two of us, I figure we've got the extremes of the environment. I see some other guys from Team PhilCoa, but I try not to let them know I'm there coz that'd mean I'd have to split the darn box with them if I won (in any case, I needn't have worried.) Eli was nervous as hell as usual. His card sleeves were getting all sticky because of his sweaty palm shuffling. When Dean finally gets his 100th guy, he tells everyone to get of the darn chairs and let him put the index cards down. Eli is in the table next to me, playing against some 4-colorG guy, I think. I see my name but the name on the card in front of it doesn't ring a bell. I look up to see that he's Jeremy of Team Antiquities. Uh-oh. He's playing 3cG. The Necrodeck I'm playing is an earlier version (splashed red) of the one posted in the Dojo's BestoftheNet. Just check my Necro article for the listing, if you're really interested. So, we shuffle and cut, really polite-like. He plays creatures for a couple of turns while I let him beat me up. There're Jolrael's, Grangers, Rangers, and an Elephant. On my sixth turn, I play my Nev's, take a little more damage and then blow it all up. I take control and my knight dances on his corpse. Next game is a lot like the first one, except he's seriously mana-screwed. He has two lands in play and can't seem to draw a third. I choke one, waste the other, Necro for a couple of cards, Drain, Drain, Drain, Dra --- oh wait, you're dead. 1-0 (Eli didn't do too well, going 1-2 first round) Next game, I'm playing against a Senor Geersten's Green Monster Clone. The first game goes really well for me. This guy doesn't anticipate the Nev's/Necro at all. He must've thought I was playing a ScrollPox or something. He looks pretty embarassed when he concedes. Second game was really funny. He plays a second turn Lifeforce and I do a belly-flop. I hadn't seen a Lifeforce in ages. I look at the two Perishes in my hand and realize I defnitely have a problem. In any case, I figure saving two mana a turn will slow him down considerably. I hold off his creature assault with some Bottle Gnomes and one or two Quicksands. I finally throw a Knight at him just for him to counter it, and then cast the Perish. He smiles a little. I think he was ready for it. Darn. Next turn he again leaves two mana untapped, but casts 2 Rangers and another Centaur and I'm fast running out of bait for the stupid Lifeforce. Next turn I draw a Drain Life. I've got five mana and a Dark Rit in hand and am at 10 life. I have 1 gnome in play. I'm trying to decide if he'll counter a two-point Drain so I can cast Perish with the dark rit, and then realize that he's till at 20 for crying out loud. So I do nothing. Next turn, he casts Overrrrrunnnn. 2 4/4 rangers and 1 5/5 centaur. 10 damage, even after blocking with the brave little gnome. I'm pretty mad 3rd game, so I cream him fast. I get really good Necrodraws, and he doesn't topdeck a monkey for the Nev's so I win, easily. 2-0 (eli, meanwhile, has a 1-1 match score) Third game, I'm sitting at the big boys (2-0) table and my opponent's a little late so I get to watch the other play. On my right is PropaOrb vs. Blue Bounce. On my left is BabyBlue vs. Big Blue. And now, directly in front of me is 3colorPropOrb. D-uh. Is it just me or is blue a really strong color after Tempest? I'm off to a slow start, 1st game. He counters a Stupors for awhile, but can't do anything with my Nev's. He finally has to play a W'Orb to add to the Prop, just so I'll blow the darn thing already. We play for ages. Is it just me or does he have 4 Gerrard's Wisdoms in there? Finally I get overrrunnnn ... by Pegasi tokens. Yaarrgghh. Talk about weird deck design. Oh well. Second game, we're a little low on time, so we both play fast. I play a Knight of Stromgald first turn and it goes alllllllll the wayyyyy!!! Boy was he pissed. Third game, I'm actually thinking I have a chance. I have shatters in for theW'Orbs and Pyroblasts for the Props. I look at my hand and don't see any of them, so I play the next best thing ... 1st turn Necro! He looks at me funny and watches as I fill up my hand each turn, destroying one of his lands, shattering his diamonds, pyroblasting his Props. He finally gets a WOrb down but it hurts him too. When I waste his undiscovered, I know I have him. I play my Knights and pound on him until our life is about the same (7-8 maybe). I Necro down to 6 life, and he plays a Derelor. I'm the epitome of calm when he does this. No really. He played a Salt Flats last turn and played a Derelor this turn. I'm calm. I'm really calm. Then I remember I boarded out all my Edicts for the shatters and pyros. I'm even more calm now. I drool a little. I look at my hand, see a Drain Life. I'm tapped out from pumping the stupid knight last turn. I'm trying to figure my chances of drawing a Dark Rit by Necroing for 2. I wish I'd paid more attention in Statistics. Darn. Anyway, I do it, obviously. And I get the Dark Rit, and a swamp. At the end of my turn, I have 1 untapped land, 1 untapped knight. Next turn he attacks and I block. My turn, I untap another land, play my swamp and realize I'm one mana short of killing the stupid Derelor. Ouchie. Oh well. 2-1 So now I'm in the medium boys table. I feel pretty bad. The guy I'm playing with is really really polite and even offers to tally the life totals for both of us (actually I think he was gay). Needless to say, I beat him up for it. First game, I cast some Knights for him to toast, and then a Necro to fill up my hand. When he finally gets to three mana, though, he plays a Mana Flare. I chuckle a little and he interprets this as "Uh-oh, you have wildfires don't you? I'm a little worried now." He chuckles a little also in response. Actually what I was chuckling at were my three Drains and three Dark Rits in hand. "Uh-oh, I have 3 Drain Lifes. You're a little dead now." Second game, he actually gets the Wildfire/Flare combo out. What a dork. What, did you think I was gonna sideboard the Drain Lifes OUT after seeing you use mana flare? Sorry dude, but I really need the points. 3-1 I'm in the almostbigboys table (3-1 to 4-0-1). I look at the indexcard beside mine and the name is vaguely familiar. Harold Sy. Hmmm. When he sits down in front of me, it clicks. His shirt says HongKong Open. My mind races back to the Duelist article about Harold Sy of the Philippines placing second in the Hongkong Open, missing a new car by >this< much. I'm a little nervous. Eli passes by and goes "ohhhh booyyyy". Sheesh. He's playing 3color something. I suddenly realize the advantage a deck like that gains. I've never seen it on the Dojo, never played against it, never tried to use it, and will therefore never know what to expect from it. He's got a lot of creaturekill (Incinerates, Kindles, Edicts, Quakes) and we trade a whole bunch of cards. Then he makes one crucial mistake. He cast armageddon with no creatures in play. Next turn, I topdeck some land and proceed to cast knight after knight. Meanwhile, his gravediggers etc. are lounging around in his hand and all he drew was a crummy plains. I'm feeling pretty good when he concedes. Next game I make the stupid error of boarding in Spins when I don't even know what creatures he had in there. What I should have done upon retrospect, was stick Coercions in against his stupid Armageddons. Oh well. He beats me up, needless to say. Derelors, Diggers,Scimitars and Armageddon. And Armageddon. And Armageddon. Third game, I throw out the Spins and stick shatters in for his Dancing Scimitars. Really, really annoying creatures. He beats me up again, but it's closer this time. It all boils down to a point in the game where I had Drained up to 30 and didn't draw a fricking Necro. Meanwhile, his Derelor came on over and kicked me in the groin for 4 each turn. I threw out a couple of Knights so he could kick THEM in the groin for a bit, but in the end, I was just delaying the inevitable. I really really miss Demonic Consultation (and don't tell me Vamps are better, darn it!) 3-2 Next game, my opponent forfeits since there's really no chance either of us are getting in. So I end up 4-2. Eli gets 3-2-1 or something like that. We both go home depressed. The McDonalds in the mall didn't even have sundaes coz they were having a power outage or something. What did I learn from this tournament? 1) Don't sideboard if you're not sure what your opponent is playing. 2) You can't beat PropaOrb with just Stupors for crying out loud. 3) We need a Demonic Consultation in Stronghold. Or anything like it. 4) This deck needs at least three wastelands. 5) Cheese sucks. 6) Derelors suck too. 7) I can't play well when I'm nervous. 8) 36 packs of Tempest is a lot. And that's my sad tourney report. Luis Buenaventura II not really Team PhilCoA luis_12@hotmail.com http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Fortress/6087 (The Republic of Magic) ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com