Subject: 1.x Pox report Date: Sat, 10 Jan 1998 08:01:42 -0800 From: Taylors To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Well, since none of the other lazy Oregonians are going to write a report, I guess I'll have to. I was playing around with two decks for a while, a WW and a Pox, but the Pox was just so much fun I had to play it, against my better judgement. I really play-tested it though, and it was going really smooth before the tourney. I was confident I had as good a deck as anybody. The deck has changed quite a bit since then, but I don't want to post it, since I'll probably be playing it again soon. I drove down with some friends to Eugene, and met up with some more friends, so it was fairly easy to scrounge up the special lands I needed. Unfortunately, due to some last-minute fears of mana-screw, I gave up on the search for the third Wasteland. I didn't think I wanted it main-deck, and I couldn't squeeze it into the side. That would be important later, because I lost 4 games to Outpost tokens! Unbelievable!! Haven't these fools heard of Wasteland??!! Didn't they know that Wasteland would kill them?!?!? Outpost is not viable in 1.x!! Having said that, the Outpost remains a good card, and I under rated it. COUNTERPOST is not viable, but weenie-post gets quite the boost from it. Anyway, round 1. Gerry (Jerry) Landowski This guy was pretty fussy and uptight, but an alright guy. He was playing Static Orb, with Vineyards!?!? Anyway, first game we go back and forth a bit, I burn a little from Vineyards, but then I get a Mishra, activate six times per turn and pound him with it. He was taking massive damage from his THREE Vineyards, so it went pretty quick. I finally drain him for the last 4. Second game I side in some Divines, Dystopia, and Spinning Darkness. Quirions and Dystopia get me down to 13 by like turn 5, but then I divine an Icy and get a Scroll out for some pay back. Have you ever played Cursed Scroll against Static Orb? Don't. It is quite the hoser. Anyway, I finally Disenchant it, with a Pox in there somewhere, and kill him with the Broken Scroll. ( As a sidenote, rumors of the Scroll's power have been exaggerated. It is certainly an excellent card, but not for just any deck.) Round 2 Kent Somebody I know this guy from a card shop where I playtest, so we were flapping our lips pretty good through the whole match. I think I beat him at the banter! He tells me what he's playing- red/black, which is the worst possible match-up for my deck. The red is pain and the Spinnings aren't any good against his creatures. Few sideboard options. Game 1 is so quick I almost missed it. I can't remember if I Poxed, but he burned me down so fast I almost got whip lash adjusting my life total. Game 2 looks terrible. I open with a Wasteland. I'm down to 12 before I get control of the game, but I finally draw some land and get a Golem and a Scroll on the board. The Golem is so tough to kill. Only white can get it quickly and easily. One interesting play was when he discarded a bolt to Pyrokinesis my Golem. I Passage it and burn him with the Pyro. Can you say card advantage? I thought Pyro could only target creatures, heh heh heh. Anyway, he probably could have won this game, but he was hesitant about Kamikazing his creatures through, so I just Curse 'em to death. I finally get a Mishra's and holding that and the Scroll back for celerity creatures, I smack him down with the Broken Golem. (Another side note- any card that wins me a game is broken) After this victory I was elated. HUGE mana screw and I still come back and win. Game 3 gets me a better draw but not by much. Mana screw again. 23 lands, 5 alternate sources of mana, and not a spell costing over 3 mana. Why me? We battle back and forth for a while, but he doesn't have a Scroll, and so I take control. Finally, when he taps out once I Pox, at 9 life. I'm down to 6, and he's down to around 10 or so. Pox is so cool. He bolts me once after that, but I'm scrolling him every turn with a Spinning Darkness. Finally, I draw a Golem with him at 3 life and announce, "That's game." He draws the final bolt of the game and tries to kill me, but noooo, you forgot the Broken Spinning Darkness. I spin my Golem for 3 and beat him down next turn. Whoopee. Round 3 Jeremy Adams Jeremy is a really cool guy from my home town, playing red/white/blue aggro. He's one of the better players, but he's not quite in my league :) Game 1 unfortunately gives the lie to that last statement, because a horde of White Knights, Frenetics, and Awfulidions tromp over my lone Mishra's Factory like it's good for nothing. Oh yeah, it is good for nothing. Game 2 I show him the power of the Cursed Scroll. It's amazing how loathed that card was when it came out. "Play with one card in your hand and then tell it to your opponent?!?!" was a common sound in my area. Anyway, the Spinning Darkness takes care of the Awfulidion, and I cruise in for the kill. Game 3 Jeremy draws 2 Mishra's Factories. He does hit me once with them, but then I cream him. Too bad. We go to lunch, which is a story in itself, but I'll skip it. Round 4 Don't know He's playing something like black/white good stuff. First game goes for a while, but I just can't deal with the janky Outpost. (One of the aforementioned fools.) Game 2 I deal with all his threats, put out some of my own, and show him who the black/white player really is. After I Pox him once I ask him to conceed, as there's a scroll on the table and he's at two life. He want's to Gerrard's but the Broken Pox kills his land too, so he can't. He conceeds and we start scooping our cards up, when he realizes he could have disenchanted the Scroll. I had the game in the bag, he was at 2 and I was at 13, but I felt kind of bad about rushing him. But what am I going to say, "Sorry" ? Game 3 I get control of with the Scroll and have him way down in life and cards after some judicious Hymning, Edicting, and Goleming. He kills the Golem, but he's only got 5 turns to live from the Scroll when he slaps down Aku. Aku!?!? What the what? I stay calm however, because now he's only got 4 turns to live from the scroll, and I'll beat him in a damage race. Next turn I do nothing, he smacks for 5 and I smack for 2. Next turn I still do nothing (big mistake), he smacks for 5 and I smack for 2. My mistake was holding 2 swamps in my hand. I should have layed one, but I didn't. Anyway, next turn I draw a Dystopia, curse, and say down. I can't lay the Dystopia and Scroll in the same turn. He smacks for 5 (I'm down to 5), and I attempt to smack for 2 (he's at 4). Unfortunately, he pulls the Dystopia, and I go down in flames. I probably should have drawn some sort of removal, but I can't blame my deck when the victory was possible. After an extended visit to the rest room, where I cry my eyes out, I set out for battle again. Round 5 Some guy This deck wasn't so great. Another Janky Post-weenie deck. Hey, that's a cool name: Janky Post. I'm sufficiently ticked that I rip out his liver and eat it in front of him. My deck kicks his deck square in the groin. This is just a bad match-up for him, especially after sideboarding. Game 2 he shows a little color-bending trend with blue for Arcanes and green for Dervishes, but it doesn't stop my deck's ravaging and wreaking. I think I won both with Pox followed by Golem. Round 6 Some guy (popular name) Rack-Tax W/r weenie. First game I get fast with a Scroll, Pox, and Golem. A notable play was when he Empyrial Armored an Icatian Javilineer and bounced me for 5. Next turn I get my fourth black mana and double Hymn him. He recoils in shock, but draws and hits me for 2 more. I draw and finally dispatch of the pesty Javilineer. Second game out comes the Karma with me controlling about 6 swamps. I continue to lay them, as it won't speed up my death any, and I'm hoping to cast a big Drain to stave off the executioner. Unfortunately, he tosses down a second Karma and I pay for consorting with those dastardly swamps! During our shuffling for game 3, Blood Moon comes up, and I tell him I don't like it. The !@@#$% cheese monger then slaps it in his deck. Third game we parry back and forth for a long time, nobody really gaining an advantage, but both down around 13 due to Pox. He's got a Land Tax out, and a Blood Moon out, making all of my white spells useless. I !@#$% up royally by laying a useless anyways Mishra, which allows him to tax for like 38 cards out of his deck. I kick myself at the beginning of every turn, but it isn't until he lays the Karma that I put much force behind them. I finally draw a threat- a Golem, and get him down to 6, but he draws a Disenchant and kills it. I lay another golem that I had in my hand, but he draws another disenchant and kills it too. See, if I hadn't layed that useless anyways Mishra, he wouldn't have been able to cast the !@#$%^%^&*()(*&^%$#@! Broken Karma, and he wouldn't have drawn those Disenchants so fast. I hate myself. Oh yeah, something else. This game, I started one of my turns and purposefully didn't adjust my total due to Karma. It was a sick, cheating thing to do, and I'm glad he caught it, and I'll never do it again, and I hate myself for that too. Cheating sucks, and even though nothing really happened, and you might not think it's that big a deal, it really is. I can't believe I did it, I mean, it was a pretty big game, deciding which of us was going to get into the final eight, but I think of myself as a very good player, meaning not just good at the game but "good". I don't know, maybe confessing it will get it out of my mind. I'm out of it, but I play the last one for laughs. It starts out I'm matched up against Jeff, the guy I rode down with, but then they say that the pairing are being changed due to a drop out. I had Jeff on the ropes too, even though we weren't supposed to be playing yet. I get matched up instead against PAT. He's supposedly the best of the people here, with rating of like under 400 in the World. He lives up to his rep, because first game he comes down hard with Lions, Knights, SERRA ANGELS, and that Janky Post. I conceed after he's got more creatures on the board than I've got removal in my deck. Game 2 he come's down hard again with Lions, Knights, and tokens, but fortunately no angels. (As an amusing side note, both games he comes out with two lions and I funeral charm them both.) I almost get control, but he disenchants my scroll and swords' my golem, and that's all she wrote. After the tourney I play against Jeff's evil red-black deck, for 5 dollars a game. After the dust settles, I owe him 30 $ worth of cards, which he squeezes out of my trade stock. He was going for the Scroll Racks, but after my pitiful cries of, "They're in a deck! They're immune!" he relents and takes some crap instead. God praise the Duelist, because he was gunning for my Frenetics, but was nonplussed by their recent banning in type II. Anyway, good luck to you all and God save the Queen!