Subject: T2 G/r/w "Redneck Barbeque" tourney report Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 11:48:46 -0700 From: Patrick Madden To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Here's a T2 Tournament Report for my Liege of the Hollows, Ashnod's Altar, Snake Basket, Torch & Overrun deck. I haven't seen many entries for this type of deck, and it works pretty well, so I thought I'd send it in. The Report: This report is coming a little late, but I thought I'd write it anyway because I don't see any reports for this kind of deck. Maybe I got lucky, but it did really well and usually does very well playing with friends. I know the deck is not completely original, but a friend and I actually did think of it ourselves (we were a little isolated until recently) and so I'm proud of it. The Tournament: This was a local Type II Salt Lake City tournament at Mind Games and only 10 people showed up and the judge got stuck on the highway so it ended up not being sanctioned. It was short – four rounds of Swiss and then top four to playoffs with cash prizes. The Deck: "Redneck Barbeque" Artifact: 4 Snake Basket 4 Ashnod's Altar Green: 4 Birds of Paradise 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Skyshroud Elves 4 Wall of Roots 4 Liege of the Hollows 4 Overrun 2 City of Solitude (will probably switch out and put them in sideboard) Red: 4 Kaervek's Torch White: 2 Enlightened Tutor Land: 4 Karplusian Forest 2 City of Brass 14 Forest Sideboard: 3 Pyroblast 3 Disenchant 2 CoP: Red 2 Honorable Passage 2 Choke 1 Lifeforce 1 Elephant Grass 1 Natural Spring The idea is I guess and old one – make a whole lot of squirrels and snakes by sacrificing lieges and mana creatures to Ashnod's Altar and blowing up Snake Baskets and either attack, overrun, or cook ‘em up in a Torch courtesy of Ashnod's Altar (thus the name "Redneck Barbeque" – cookin' up squirrels and snakes). The Rounds: First round: Cheating B/U and then mysteriously, R Game 1: I played a guy who was still throwing together his deck ten minutes into the match. When he finally sat down and played his first card it was a Mishra's Factory. "Um, that's not in Type II," I say. He assures me, "Yeah it is, I got a fifth edition one here in my deck, let me show you." I call the guy who ended up judging the thing and he goes through the guy's deck and pulls out the Factories and some Will O' the Wisps. The kid goes, "Well, no hard feelings, right? I'll just put in some other cards and we'll start over, ok?" Because I'm nice I let him. He plays some swamps and islands while I methodically lay out the pieces of the combo: Elf, Wall of Roots and another Elf, Liege of the Hollows, Altar. He finally attacks me with an Abyssal Specter, but since I've only got two Torches in my hand, it doesn't matter. Next turn, with me at 18, I attack for 3 with a Liege, then sac her to the altar, tap my mana creatures and sac them (leaving a red hanging around) and Torch for 20. He says "Man I hate that deck. I only have one card that can beat it." Game 2: He pulls out what must have been 40 CARDS for his sideboard. I'm kind of timid, so I just go get the judge to count his sideboard cards and by that time the kid has done something with most of them and there are only 18, including several mountains. The kid asks me to forgive him again and so we just play. He tells me again that he only has one card that can stop me. So we play and he starts playing mountains and kindling and incinerating my elves. I can't prove it, but I did catch a glimpse of the cards in his deck when the judge guy was taking out the illegal cards, and he had absolutely no red in there for the first game. So I'm getting pissed off. But I figure I can beat him anyway because he's a chump. All of a sudden he lobotomies me three times in four turns! Lucky draw I guess. Yeah right. He takes out Snake Basket, Overrun, and Kaervek's Torch. But I beat the crap out of him anyway with a solitary Liege of the Hollows, a few unincinerated Walls of Roots, and the Altar. I got like 14 squirrels anyway and just pounded him. Cheater. 1-0 / 2-0 Second Round: WW with Empyrial Armor We played three games and I can't remember which one I lost, but his deck was pretty good. He got mana screwed one game (only two land and Empyrial Armor in hand), I got going slow the other and he beat me up with armor, and then, this was the fun part, in game three he had my three Liege of the Hollows Spirit Linked and I had some Walls of Roots out so we were just going back and forth doing nothing. Finally I got the Altar and started the multiplication: sac a Liege, take mana from walls and sac them, tap my lands, I have 17 squirrels. Sac another Liege, sac 17 squirrels, now I have 36. Sac the third Liege and all the squirrels, now I have 74 squirrels. Go. He had one untapped plains out, so I mentioned, "You can make a squirrel if you want." He looks at me with this look of utter dismay, draws his card and rolls his eyes. I convinced him not to concede so I could attack with 74 squirrels. No sandstorm, I win. Fun fun fun. 2-0 / 4-1 Third Round: WW with Crusade and Soltari Priest Game 1: I have no way to deal with his 4/3 Soltari Priest and the combo is slow in coming, so I lose quickly. Game 2: He gets out three Crusades this time and I'm thinking of Disenchanting one of them because he's beating me up again, when he plays a Justice and I finally get all the cards I need for the big Torch. I disenchant his Justice at the end of his turn and make a whole load of squirrels which I then convert into snakes and then throw him a 20 pt. Torch (and still have 8 snakes left over). He doesn't like this deck either. Game 3: Similar to game 2, but this time he has both Justice and CoP: Green out (when he played it, he said "Oh man, I thought I took that out.") I disenchant the CoP: Green and overrun with 7 squirrels. He's dead. 3-0 / 6-2 Fourth Round: the kid is desperate to intentionally draw because we'll both make the playoffs anyway, so we draw. But in the mean time, I play against the judge guy and his SandiPoise deck and beat him handily twice, then the third game he finally gets his combo lock out. There's only one card that can save me. I NEED to draw Wall of Roots because it can get me just one extra mana (I've already damaged him some with an attacking Liege) because I pay two for it, then take a green off it then sac it for two. I have everything else I need to make a 15 point Torch (he's at 15 life). I draw the Wall of Roots. Game over. SandiPoise isn't that tough. 3-0-1 / 6-2-1 Semifinals: G/R with Nevinyrral's Disks and Earthquakes Game 1: This is my friend Steve who drove up with me and we play each other all the time. We pretty much split whenever we play, and I'm especially worried about his Disks and Quakes. They suck for my deck. Anyway, first game goes back and forth for a little while. He kills one of my lieges, but he's not doing much offensively. Steve has the habit of asking me every turn "Am I dead this turn?" I'm praying for another Liege, which I then draw and say, "You're dead this turn Steve." And I sac it and make a lot of Torch fodder. He's dead. Game 2: He thinks he can sideboard well against me, but so can I against him. When I cut his deck, I magically send all four disks and both earthquakes to the bottom and tell Steve as much. This game is a lot closer and he keeps pounding on me with some Viashino Sandstalkers while I piddle around and am forced to make a few squirrels when he kills one of my Lieges. Last turn, he attacks with two Sandstalkers and I'm debating blocking them with little squirrels when I notice he doesn't have any cards in hand. I take the damage, go down to two life, then next turn blow up all my little creatures for a huge Torch to kill him off. He looks through his deck and finds his four disks and two earthquakes in the bottom 20 cards. Ha ha! 4-0-1 / 8-2-1 Off to the finals Finals: Fast R/u/w Game 1: This is the same kid I drew against in the last round of Swiss. He keeps talking reverse trash: "Oh man, I'll never beat your deck. My deck just sucks against your deck. I hope I can just do you one damage with my deck. Blah blah blah." Of course my deck "fails" me for the first time today. I don't draw squat for quite some time, and end up having to Torch one of his Jackal Pups. Also, he's Mogg Fanaticking my elves and birds. Finally, when I think I could have beaten him the next turn I got, he throws Final Fortune and attacks twice with a horde of Ironclaw Orcs, Jackal Pups, Men O' War and such and I'm dead. Game 2: My deck fails me for the second time. First draw is so bad I have to (Paris) Mulligan. Next draw I don't have any land either, but decide to stick with it because it looks like a decent hand. Bad move. I had chosen to play first, so he got to go and draw before I did anything. Next turn I get my land, play a Bird, but he Incinerates it. Then I'm stuck for a while, finally get some elves out, which he Fireslings and it's just disasterous. He Memory Lapses some stuff, them Man O' Wars some other stuff, and I'm just overwhelmed. By way of defense though, he twice during the match got caught by onlookers not returning his used Undiscovered Paradises to his hand, and he took back a couple of moves. If I can learn to be tough on the rules, I think I can do better. This kid was annoying and it sucked losing to him this way. I find out later that it's not even his deck. He borrowed it from the guy who was judging. 4-1-1 / 8-4-1 Second Place Anyway, I got second place and the deck worked well except for the finals. I'm happy with it. I'm very interested in any comments anyone may have as to how to improve this deck. For instance, I was thinking of maybe taking out the Cities of Solitude and putting them in the sideboard, but I don't know what to put in their place. Maybe Veteran Explorer and then put a couple of mountains and plains in the deck. That way, when I sac him, he's worth 4 mana (four squirrels) or, if he gets killed, I'll get mana for it. Or maybe Quirion Ranger so I can also get more mana by untapping mana creatures, or can block and attack with a Liege. Who knows. Please email me with comments and suggestions: Pat Madden pcm2@email.byu.edu