Subject: tourney report - living nature - standard Date: Mon, 11 May 1998 21:23:59 +0000 From: "COACH" To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Hi Frank! I will report from the bavarian regionals. For all the readers, who are unfamiliar with the german system: The 80 best players from 6 qualifiers were invited, 54 showed up. Best 8 players qualify for the german championship. On the first of april I started working, good bye magic-life. I had a whole of 3 nights to create a deck, playtest and get familiar with it. Known as a player, who NEVER copies a deck out of the DOJO, I started deckcreation with one card to build the deck around: Living Death. I knew a lot of players wouldn't be prepared for it. In the end the deck looked like this: Living Nature: 6 swamp 6 forest 3 undiscovered paradise 3 gemstone mine 2 city of brass 1 volrath's stronghold 1 reflecting pool 3 birds of paradise In the end the mana configuration was very bad, I lost only games when I was screwed or stuck at 4, needing the 5 for living death. 4 granger guildmage -- should have been shadow guildmage (I changed the deck at the last moment and forgot to change the guildmage back from green to black) 4 wall of blossoms 4 spike feeder 4 uktabi orangutan -- had to side them out 5 times, nobody plays artifacts 4 nekrataal -- I can't count the tradewinds that died by the hand of the ultimate assassin. 4 living death -- I love this card 2 corpse dance 2 fallen angel -- she was the winner in some games 3 dauthi horror -- he can get past a wall of blossoms 3 tradewind riders -- good with all the creatures I have, can get rid of nasty cards I can't handle otherwise. 1 goblin bombardment SB: 3 pyroblast 2 dread of the night 2 lobotomy 2 disenchant 3 ebony charm 2 bottle gnomes -- absolute nonsens 1 goblin bombardment -- this was the last card I put in, total crap The tourney was in Erlangen, near Nuremberg. 54 players showed up, 6 rounds of swiss. 1st round: Mario Wirth, Landshut, UG Mario played a very strange deck with the usual stuff and a lot of spikes. This is the third tourney we square off against each other in the first round. game one: After taking a mulligan I started with 2 lands. He got Tradewind1, which was nekrataaled, TR2 which got living deathed but he still was able to get a third Rider into the game. From that point on I was on the losing side and he delivered the spike beatdown. game two started great. A dauthi horror put him under 10 and a lobotomy stole his Riders. With him on 8 life we stalled for a long time until the fallen angel appeared. With a stronghold on the board there was no way to shut her down. But he conceded not right away, what proved to be a big mistake. We had about 5 minutes for our last game. We played speed magic. A early horror showed him again, where his problem was, but then a scragnoth and a firewalker turned the tide. As I heared the judge saying 15 seconds, I realized that I would be dead in his next round. One card could give me the draw, Living Death, but he countered. After he countered the judge spoke his famous words. Draw. I thought I should give him the game, but a loss in the first round is not funny. I felt a bit guilty, but I never stalled except the last 2 seconds. Mario had a shot at top 8, but lost the deceiding last match. Sorry for him, cause he is a great player and sportsman. 0-0-1 2nd round: Micha Schulte-Middelich, Regensburg, SteelNecro SteelNecro is one of my best matchups. game one started with him edicting and charming 6 of my creatures. His eyes popped wide open, when they came back to play. In game two I had to take 2 mulligans and started with a lonely pool. I never drew a single land. Game three provided six lands in the opening hand. He played with a touch of LD, so that was a great starting hand. At the start I got only defensive creatures, he necroed like wild and started dancing gnomes. A lobotomy later the gnomes lost their dancing instructor and I got my comeback dancing the feeders. The wingless angel was a creature he couldn't handle with his deck. 1-0-1 3rd round: Günther Brenner, München, UG He played the traditional UG with tradewind, manowar, wall, firewalker, but without awakening and ranger. In game one a lot of riders had to die by the hand of the nekrataal. The horror was a great decision, cause he caused all the damage in that game (see next game). In his defense I have to say that he drew all land. In the end I had 5 lands, he 15. After game 2 he told me that this was one of the biggest beatdowns in his life. 2 horrors just ignored his walls and the guildmages had their machineguns with them. 2-0-1 4th round: Wolfgang Balhar, Erlangen, WW He played shadows and en-cors, but no protection from creatures, bad decision. Empyrial armor and armageddon. First game started with six lands and living death. He layed all (6) his creatures and brought me down to 5 life. living death caught him offguard. Horror and nekrataal did the rest. Game two started slow on both sides. I killed some creatures with dread but wasn't able to get my own offense going. Lobotomy put away the mighthy armor. A round later he armageddoned. I looked at the table and my hand and laughed loud. He had 2 creatures and I had a tradewind rider. 2 rounds later he was in the lock. I had land, bird and wall in my hand. 3-0-1 5th round: Falko Mekrusch, ?, Sliver the deck was a lot like the DOJOdeck. muscle, crystaline, winged, armageddon. In the first game he layed slivers like mad. I hoped to draw the 5 land to living death and reset the game. He played armageddon. 3 minute beatdown. Second game was worse as I stopped laying lands in the second turn. 2 minute beatdown. 3-1-1 6th round: Ralf Kohler, Aschaffenburg, 5cWW The one who wins has the honor to play at the german championships. the first game is over in seconds. Black knight, armor, armageddon. Great!!!!! All my hopes left the building. You can play without hope. Second game got him mana screwed. Two spike feeders can't be blocked by a single knight. And now game three. Read this carefully! He drew his hand and I could see he is not happy, but keept it. He stopped laying land after the first one. Again a feeder came to play. He drew land 2 and puts a knight into play. After some more rounds, I can't attack, I drew lobotomy. He showed me his hand, I looked at the judge, the judge looked back. He had armor, sleight, perish, 2 more and MANA LEAK. Andre Konstanczer, a friend of Ralf, who watched the game, shook his head and just walked off. I took the perish (3 green creatures on the board). With 2 tradewind and a nekrataal in my hand, that was game. He had to waste the sleight and so the armor was useless. Better lucky then good. 4-1-1 Standings: 1. Mekrusch Falko -- Sliver 2. ?? -- ProsBloom 3. Gerald Wonner -- UG 4. Me -- Living Nature 5. Balhar Wolfgang -- WW 6. Sebastian Zurek -- 5cU Donais 7. ?? -- ?? 8. Thomas Weizenbach--RB beatdown Quarterfinals: Balhar Wolfgang WW After game one went back and forth, I brought out a fallen angel. He armored a longbow archer. I topdecked a nekrataal and the angel flew to victory. Game two gave him 2 Crusades, a warrior and a longbow archer. I was lower on life, so he attacked for 4 every round, I countered with 5. Armageddon put me in a bad situation, but I drew a land and put two guildmages in the game. In the end I killed us both with the mages, but I had a spike feeder, which provided the extra life I needed. 5-1-1 Semifinals: Thomas Weizenbach, Augsburg, RB beatdown His deck was pure beatdown (pup, horror, erg Raiders, fallen Askari, lancer, mage, ghoul, fanatic) and a neat combo (Scroll,Orb)????????? In game one he layed every creature he had. In the end he had 8 creatures on the board, I had about 10 in the graveyard. Living death in my hand. The spectators behind me prayed for my 5th land to come, but it didn't show up for 3 turns. I would have liked to see his face. game two I saw it, as he lost 4 creatures to my 3 returning. goblin bombardment gave me a recursing nekrataal, later a feeder. I could have won the game earlier, but I didn't see living death in my hand. I could have pinged him for about 15 damage. Game 3 was mana screw. I fought with 3 lands, 3 feeders and 2 corpse dance for a long time, but then my resources were empty. 5-2-1 Thomas won against Sebastian Zurek in the finals and is reigning bavarian champion. Congratulations!! See you in Dietzenbach Otmar Jatsch