Subject: BULLETPROOF - A T2 Tournament Report Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 02:07:44 GMT From: Robert Arnar Ulfarsson To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com BULLETPROOF ( the Icelandic Type II Tournament Experience) by Robert Arnar Ulfarsson Another Saturday, another Magic tournament. But not just any tournament. Now itīs bigger and better. IN COLOR. White that is. You see, this particular Saturday was the day the white weenies triumphed over adversity and took most of the prizes which consisted of booster packs of any available set. I had been playing white weenie for several weeks and it had served me well, landing me 1st place in one tournament and 3rd in another. But people were prepared for the third time with their Glooms and occasional Dread of Night. So I had to seriously reconsider my strategy. My deck consisted only of white cards, so Gloom and Dread of Night were (as you can see) a big problem. Itīs not like I hadnīt considered adding blue for Sleight of Mind but I liked the purity of plain olī white. But in order to have a fighting chance against those anti-white decks, I ended up with WW/u playing Man-o-War in the basic deck and put Sleight of Mind in my sidedeck. Not the most original deck ever made but nowadays what is? WW/u - BULLETPROOF ---------------------------------- 4x Soltari Priest (Kevlar Priest) 4x Soltari Monk (Kevlar Monk) 4x White Knight (The Mean Weenie) 4x Order of the White Shield (The Meaner Weenie) 4x Freewind Falcon (Kevlar Falcon) 4x Man-o-War (The Essential One) 3x Empyrial Armor (Bulletproof Vest) 4x Tithe (The Little Land Tax) 3x Aura of Silence (Itīs soooo good!!!) 1x Disenchant (I like you too) 3x Armageddon (Geddoni) 4x Quicksand (Beware!! May swallow little critters) 2x Undiscovered Paradise 2x Gemstone Mine 4x Adarkar Wastes 1x Ruins of Trokar 10x Plains Sidedeck: -------- 3x Honorable Passage (Keep away from flammable materials) 1x Karma (Bad Karma, Good Karma, just Karma) 1x Aura of Silence (More, more!!!) 1x Disenchant (I hate PropaOrb & Trap) 3x Wrath of God (I DO use these, Hjalti!!!) 4x Sleight of Mind (How to make strengthen Kevlar) 2x Wall of Swords (Why did I put this in?!?) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Game David Roach Gunnarsson (16-17) playing a blue deck with cheap counterspells (Memory Lapse, Disrupt, Counterspell), Ophi, Man-o-War, Legacyīs Allure and Air Elemental to finish the game. David is one of the more successful younger players in Iceland. He recently had his first Pro Tour experience in Mainz last december and has done very well in recent local tournaments. #1 - Second turn Legacyīs Allure stops me dead in my tracks. My enchantment removal eludes me and I donīt draw enough creatures to swarm him. He gains full control, I lose. In go the Sleights. #2 - Same as above, except without Legacyīs Allure. Just Ophi, Man-o-War, counters and itīs all over for me. Too few creatures and no Sleights. 0 - 2 - 0 Well, this is not what I hoped for but I was sure I would do better the next game. 2nd Game Gunnar Mar (21-22) playing B/G deck with black weenies, Giant Growth, enchantment control and Cursed Scroll. Gunnar is a good player with original deck ideas and the guts to implement them. In the Icelandic Nationals ī97 he beat me for a spot in the World Championships, which meant of course that I had (and will always have to) beat him. Sadly I donīt seem to remember much about these games except I won 2-0. Of course these results are not very surprising since I have 12 protection from black dudes in my deck. 2-2-3 3rd Game Einar Agust (18-19) playing a blue PropaOrb deck with Grindstone and Steel Golem. What can I say?!? Playing against Einar Agust isnīt the most thrilling experience one can have in Magic. He plays exceptionally slow and playing PropaOrb doesnīt help. #1 - He draws the cards he needs, Quicksands, Propagandas, Winter Orb, Jesterīs Cap (removing of my enchantment and artifact control) and eventually Pendrall Mists. I lose. I sidedeck in my Sleights. #2 - I draw a Priest and an Armor. When he tries to Capsize the Priest, I sleight him from blue making him bulletproof. Einar casts 3 Propagandas and a Pendrall Mists. This grinds the game to a halt. Nothing much happens for some time. I cast an Aura of Silence which doesnīt get countered. When I draw my 7th land, I attack and deal a whole lotta damage. He then taps all his mana and puts 2 Winter Orbs into play. I then sacrifice my Aura to destroy the Mists and start collecting untapped lands for the final attack. He casts the fourth Propaganda but inevitably I finally attack and win. #3 - Since there were only five minutes of game time remaining, Einar takes his time shuffling his deck because he knows he cannot win in such a short time but I can. So the match ends in a draw. 3-3-4 4th Game Gunnar Hall (23) playing G/R/b Song of Blood deck with numerous creatures including Ornithopter, Phyrexian Whatever (0 casting cost) and a lot of pingers. Gunnar Hall is one of the few people I know who plays solely for pleasure. That is, he does not care about the hottest cards in the game or the most popular decks. He doesnīt surf the Dojo for information, he likes to come up with zany ideas for funny decks. He realises this gives someone like me the advantage but he doesnīt care. He just likes to play. For example, this particular deck is called "Junkyard Hall". Why? Because it consists of common cards and yet it can win on the second turn. He knows the odds, he doesnīt care, it could happen. Anyway, Iīm not going to into our games in detail. It was pretty unexciting. The Junkyard Hall is a pretty weak deck so it was an easy 2-0 victory for me. 5-3-7 5th Game Jakob the Toad (16-17) playing BottleNecro. Jakob is another young player who is getting better everyday (at Magic that is). He has done very well in the local tournaments and is always a difficult opponent. Iīll say one thing though. Heīs a very annoying little man. #1 - I donīt draw a single Aura or Disenchant and not many creatures. He gets to Necro all he wants and Disco all he wants. I lose. In go the sleights, karma and the wraths. #2 - My first turn: Plains - His first turn: Dark Ritual - Gloom - My second turn: Adarkar Wastes - Sleight of Mind - Gloom (Black) - His second turn: Swamp - My third turn: Plains - Aura of Silence I win (Duh) #3 - He only draws one swamp and two wastelands. Game over. 7-4-10 6th Game Hjalti Andrason playing 3CW. Hjalti is an excellent player with Pro Tour and Worlds experience so I was expecting a very difficult match. He is not the fastest player in the world so I was also expecting a long match. I donīt remember these game in detail, but I do remember two things. One, since we were playing similar decks he thought I had Incinerate in my deck which made him play too cautiously and two, from previous experience he thought I wasnīt packing Wrath of God which made him play too boldly in one part of the game. I managed to win 2-1 so I was 4th overall with 9-5-13. 15 other people qualify for the elimination. 1st Game - Elimination Johann Moller (22) playing Stompy with Winter Orb. Johann is a friend of mine so Iīm not too happy playing against him in elimination. He is also the Icelandic National Champion ī96 and ī97. #1 - I draw a perfect hand. A Priest and two bulletproof vests. I win. In go the sleights. #2 - I draw 1 Plains, 1 Quicksand and a lot of Priests and Monks. I lose. #3 - I draw another perfect hand. A Priest and a bulletproof vest. 2nd Game - Elimination Gunnar Mar (See above) #1 - My Prot.Black dudes stop his black weenie horde and eventually one of my guys gets a bulletproof vest. I win. In go the sleights. #2 - He gets a black horde, I donīt get my blockers. I lose. #3 - I get a handful of Prot.Black dudes, all the time fearing a Dread of Night since I didnīt have a Sleight in hand. Instead he draws two cursed scrolls, I manage to destroy one and he doesnīt have time to use the other one before I finish him off. Semi-finals Reynir Sigurdsson playing 5CW. Reynir is a very good player and has been showing good results for the past six months. I donīt remember exactly what happened but I think I just drew more creatures. I won 2-0, surprisingly easy. Finals Hjalti Andrason (See above) This time Hjalti knows exactly whatīs in my deck and whatīs not, partly because we had already played but also because Jakob the Toad had told him exactly what was in my deck as we finished our match in the sixth round. As I mentioned before, Hjalti is not the fastest player in the world, contemplating each move (must be a chess thing) for several painstakingly boring minutes. So while he was thinking I managed to do my homework, watch two series of Babylon 5, clean my room (whew!!) and write this report. Maybe I should have paid more attention to the match because I lost 0-3. So, Hjalti was one first place and got two boxes of boosters, I got one and Reynir (3rd) got 13 boosters. As you may have noticed, we were all playing some variety of white weenie and although most people were expecting white weenie it still triumphed, which I thought was very interesting. Anyway, thatīs all I have to say for now. Stay tuned for more tourney reports from Iceland.