Subject: Tourney Report Date: Mon, 18 May 1998 02:30:40 -0500 (CDT) From: Jacob S Chen To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Hello, A tournament report for the southern regionals Type II tournament in Dallas follows. (it is really damn long) (it took me four minutes to upload) (i won my region) i. Disclaimers ii. Acknowledgements iii. Tournament Description iv. Tournament Report v. Top 8 vi. More Tournament Report vii. Props / Slops viii. Deck List ix. Deck and General Type II Analysis i. Disclaimers ============== Okay, before anyone ever writes anything, there must always first be disclaimers. I've been out of magic since the first qualifiers for PT:NY and I saw my first Stronghold cards at regionals. Well, I caught a glimpse of some of some stupid cards because I bought a Strong preconstructed deck (who knows why?) to play a couple matches in Arena. To give you an idea of how bad it was, I thought all the ST slivers cost 3 mana (eg: UW1) for 2/2. I was horrified to find how fast they were to cast. So I basically had no idea what to expect and no deck to play a week before regionals. So don't expect too much Secret Tech from this poor scrub. Btw, the recounting of duels in part iv is based only loosely on actual events. There are cases of exaggeration and other Great Fallacies. So if you played me or watched my matches and remember differently, there is your cause. Hey, I wrote that thing about winning my region because I want people to read my report. I spent a week writing it and people must read my hard work. i. Acknowledgements ==================== Luckily, a week is more than time enough to email my magic-playing buddy Chris Richardson. For all of you who play up in the Kentucky/Indiana/Illinois area, he's the guy who went undefeated in regionals last year. We know each other from Genocide, which is not a Hitler memorial gathering, but an online text- based warring game. I always go to him for all my decks because he always knows what's up in the 'current' environment (for ptqs or regionals etc) since he playtests so much. I emailed him last year telling him I wanted to play a qualifier for Chicago, but didn't know what would be best. He mailed me a sandsipoise deck and told me how to play it and I was off to Chicago. What a guy. Incidentally, he was part of some silly antics at a NY PTQ where his team changed its name to Team Collusion. He's a cool guy all around, and reading that collusion stuff was great amusement. At regionals, I find out this deck is a dojo veteran, initially played by Paul Gallagher from our happy friendly state of Texas. At that time, the Austin guys decided it didn't perform reliably enough and removed the deck from their book of worthy decks. Chris tested it a lot and decided it was the best deck all around in t2 for regionals and told me to play it. There are people who are good at building decks, and there are people who are good at playing them, but there are also people who spend time comparing decks continually, evaluating them as the environment changes back and forth. So first Paul builds the deck, but it was somewhat dismissed as not being competitive enough soon after. Then Chris prepares for regionals and tests all the decks he can find and a couple other ones (necrosliver!) that seem weak but are actually almost playable. He finds the one which seems to be best and decides (for me too, hehe) to play it. Of course, all good players will agree the playing part is the least important since even a person of insignificant skill can win a regionals with a well- built deck that's tuned for the metagame. Anyhow, back to the theme of acknowledgements. Thanks to my other Genocide-playing Texas buddy James (Quillan) Rutherford for providing me with much needed firestorms and barrow ghouls. I couldn't find any Weatherlight at all, but then I remembered that I buried all my Weatherlight cards in a time capsule to be dug up in the future to see if expansions could become any worse. Anyhow, I still have his firestorms, so I won't tell him to read this report. Also, thanks LanDHo for still (cough cough) owing me a tradewind and a reflecting pool. If I had had more tradewinds, I might have played something stupid. On to the tournament! iii. Tournament Description =========================== For anyone who doesn't know the regionals format (coughlivesinacave), it was Type II (which is 5th Edition, Mirage, Visions, Weatherlight, Tempest, and Stronghold). The format of the tournament was 9 rounds of swiss, breaking off the top 8 for single-elimination to play for the oh-so-prestigious honor of winning the very first of eight identical invitations to nationals. In addition, the winner gets a plaque which is uglier than the cool sculture-trophies that the other 7 invitees get. Also, the winner got an extra pack of Mirage or something. All around the country, random people are getting qualified at their regionals. This day goes down in history as Random Day 98. Here are some quotes from #mtgpro. RANDOM DAY .... MAY 16TH 1998! I think this proves my theory of how gay type 2 is random day 1998 ......... the horror stories wider array of decks = more chumps winning Dojo=more chumps winning ** Encouragement for the Denizens! NY had the mother of all chumlys, bar none, hands down I'd a payed money to be a chumly on random day seriously, fubarduck is sooo random, that he should won the fucking thing iv. Tournament Report ===================== Okay, I'm 15 minutes late to regionals because I live in Dallas and I don't feel the need to wake up before 8:30 on the weekend no matter what is happening. I get there and they've run out of deck reg sheets. No problem. I get my firestorms and barrow ghouls from my friend and turn in my decklist and wait two hours for them to start the tournament. Round 1: Shawn Reimund - 5cG I find out to my dismay after the match his name is pronounced RYE-mund, not RAY-mund. We asians are touchy about mispronounced names so I always feel the pain when I pronounce someone else's name wrong. Anyways, he's a friend of my buddy James Rutherford. Losing round one is just too bad, but one of us has to take the axe in the head. Game 1: I get a guildmage with an undiscovered but have trouble getting 2 mana on the table. Eventually he gets three centaurs and I get three boas. I'm at 12 or so, he's at 19. We trade a two centaurs for one boa since I only have one mana to regen. He geddons, fearing my boas. I attack, trading my second boa for his last centaur, and my third boa goes all the way. He said he feared the burn, and I agreed that it was a good idea so he would continue to geddon to help me win. Game 2: I don't side much, basically just a firestorm for his mana creatures and any unknowns. I keep control of this game with removal pretty well and beat him down with the early jackal pup and some pinger support. Matches: 1-0, Games: 2-0 Round 2: Todd Dyer - 5cG w/ tradewind Game 1: I get early conscript and pup, he gets early walls of blossoms. That was unfortunate. I do manage to kill his birds with my guildmage before his tradewind came out and started locking me. He was keeping track of both our life so I stopped counting. Another reason I stopped counting was because I never seemed to lose life when I tapped karplusan and brass. Which was odd, because I still lost life when he attacked with his boas and he had his own cities that he took damage from, so it wasn't like he didn't know what it did. I also though river boas were odd, but what do I know? His tradewind commits acts of sodomy against my side of the board and mana leaks my attempt to incinerate his tradewind after he bounces something. It seems to be a defensive deck, but then in game 2... Game 2: I side in the firestorm and some terrors and some red blasts. Out go an orangutan the winter orbs since he has his own. I get a guildmage out and kill his birds and rangers... one, two, three, four! Four dead birdies, kakakakakaka. Then comes a FAT BARROW GHOUL. What the... his deck has the most suble synergy or something. I play a fanatic and chump block him. Then my granger goes down into the afterlife grangerhome. Then comes my barrow ghoul. I have many more cards than him so I start out-creaturing him and kill him. Game 3: We shuffle and he double mulligans. I'm happy enough since I have beatdown in my hand. I play beatdown and start trading creatures with him. A pup for a ranger and a boa for a boa. No problem because I drop FAT GHOUL for the finish. Next turn I draw and he says 'your ghoul is dead.' I act disappointed with my mistake but then I wickedly play MY SECOND FAT GHOUL. He turns pale and says a quick prayer. He goes, nothing. I go and attack. He says 'your ghoul is dead again.' 'Desparate times...' I comment. I stare at my ghoul and tears blur my vision. The game is close but I manage to prevail by a hair. In my grief, I tear little bits of paper from my scorecard and mark "PAY" on them and slip them into the sleeves with my ghouls. Matches: 2-0, Games: 4-1 Right now, the main room where we are playing is getting really hot. I am sweating hardcore and everyone is puffing out yummy minty breath as they pace. NOT. The place was nasty, and my clothes are starting to stick to me. Round 3: Patrick Odkershacesr - mono U tradewind I don't know if that's really his name or if it's a secret code generated by the pairing computer, but he's a nice guy and takes his losses with grace. Game 1: I get a second turn winter orb and beat him down many times. He only had one land anyway so the winter orb didn't help much. I considered siding it out, but decided instead to side out my mountains to help increase my land to spell ratio like his deck. Game 2: I get a second turn winter orb and beat him down many times. Oops, I just cut and pasted that. Actually, he did play a propaganda inbetween but I pyroblasted it. Then I beat him down more. Matches: 3-0, Games: 6-1 At this point I'm trying to figure out how I'm winning since I'm really not doing anything or playing marvelously. I figure out that it's because I never lose in the first four rounds of any big tournament. It's sort of like super mario game, when you start out invincible and it wears off after a while. I feel much better about my next match and find Quillian to get something to eat. I am happy to find he is almost done with his match, as his opponent is attacking with ball lightnings to test the rumoured speed of attack of Q's black knights. My feeling of elation is changed to betrayal as he tells me he already has a hamburger from someone else. Nevertheless, I take him with me to Jack-in-the-Box, the only thing visible to the naked eye from the Ramada. It's really weird, a big 12-story hotel in the middle of a warehouse district. Nothing around except the Texaco, and it's too daunting to venture off into the horizon. Service from the homosexual man at the register is slow, and I swear he winked at one of the people ordering in front of me. It starts to bother me that their Jumbo Jack is pasted with this oozing milky fluid. So instead of ordering three of them, I order two and two tacos. The tacos are disappointing. It's a greasy deep-fried shell with some meat paste and glued together with once-melted cheese. There's no lettuce or anything, and I remember hearing about some sort of lettuce shortage. My Jumbo Jack however does have lettuce and I have the uncomfortable feeling that they're making the oozing fluid burger more attractive to customers. I eat half and put the rest in my car to keep hot for dinner. Round 4: Landon McDaniel - 5cG This guy is pretty cool and laid back. I spent the first five minutes of our match shuffling and trying to figure out where I've met him before. I always remember friendly people that I talk to after matches. I finally figure out that it was the tournament day before regionals last year in a 64-person t2 tournament. I played him in semis with a sorry U/w control deck that didn't even have outposts. He had a r/g worb deck that thrashes U/w but all he drew was birds and guildmages or something. He did remember that he got me down to 7 with that guildmage though. He says he hasn't played for many many moons. Ironically, I'm playing the deck that he was playing last year. He's not playing a real 5cG, just a monogreen with one or two cards from other colors. Game 1: I drop two early jackal pups and he drops two early walls of roots and a centaur. It's not looking good, but I attack with jackal pups and he blocks both with his 0/4 walls so I firestorm them. Then he plays a spike feeder, which I have to read. Strong! I accuse him of bearing false witness to his recent playing, and he defends himself saying he borrowed the cards. I let that slide, muttering about free life. Anyways, I attack with jackal pups and he starts to block one, and I tap guildmage and undiscovered to but... he takes it back. We stare at each other and grin stupidly and he takes the damage instead. I beat him down as he plays nothing in response to nothing. Game 2: I can feel the Star Power making me invincible and gay music runs through my head, but I can't do anything about it, I'm unbeatable! He plays 69 land and I beat him down. He comments that he couldn't draw anything. It must suck to lose to Star Power and not know why because you can't hear The Music. I assure him I will do everything I can to help his tiebreakers and he assures me he appreciates my efforts on his behalf. Matches 4-0, Games: 8-1 In order to successfully play 18 hours of magic, one must achieve a mental state of playing--The Zone. Within The Zone, a skilled magic player can crush weaker mages, being immune to all thoughts of fatigue, hunger, and paying barrow ghoul upkeep. Within The Zone, the skilled magic player can ignore the effects of extreme heat and cold with not even a hint of being affected, physically or mentally. Unfortunately, by now the humidity and wet heat is past the point of endurance even for players in The Zone. As I walk around, bits of trash and people's hair start sticking to my skin. This is absolutely unacceptable. Someone walks by me, covered with even more gunk. I think he started with all that crap on his arms. Body hair = nasty, asians have it right. I hide in the bathroom for next round. Round 5: Kyle Vorwerk - 5cRG This is getting ridiculous. I haven't met anyone playing less than 5 colors. Naming decks by their colors is impossible, and the price of jelly beans is just like cherry blossoms blowing through a small furry creature. I have decided that the general philosophy of t2 players today is that "if no one can rape me after they board against me, I can pull in the luck factor and win." It basically works, as long as wastelands don't rape you either. Anyways, my Star Power has run out and I don't know what is to happen to our plumbing hero in his next matchup. Game 1: I pop out an early pup and conscript, and he pops out green shit like he was a cow chowing grass. Something like mana elves and boas. Then he drops a nettletooth. I kill it with an incinerate and a pinger, and kill his tinies. I'm glad he hasn't played a centaur, because I still don't know how I've been killing them. It's hard to know what's going on when Star Music is playing loudly and you are flashing. Maybe my opponents are all epileptic or something and accidentally put centaurs in the graveyard as they convulse. Well I win. Game 2: He does weird stuff and I can't even remember what. I think he might have been flashing. Anyways, I lose. Game 3: Btw, terrors and firestorms are at large in my deck. That means that they're around somewhere, but I can't seem to find them. Anyways, he seems to have a problem keeping his creatures in play, and I apply with a pinger and a jackal pup. He keeps trying to kill my pup by blocking with fat creatures or incinerating it, but a pair of giant growths makes the pup a real snarler. I take about 10 damage but my pup keeps on truckin through for the win. Matches 5-0, Games: 10-2 Round 6: Nathan Dennis - WW His scorecard crony tries to confuse me with multiple first names, but I refer to the "first" and "last" labels to overcome. I win the flip and play. Game 1: I play karplusan, guildmage. He plays plains. I play mountain, mogg fanatic, guildmage. He plays plains. He looks like he's trying to decide in what order to send his weenies marching into the grim face of death. Oh wait, what is happening? People are rushing out the large sets of double doors at the entrance on the far side of the room (we left table one to avoid prying eyes and those who would laugh at my deck). The lights start going out at one end of the room, and there is a very strange smell. I look around more and there is a large cloud in the middle of the room. It looks like smoke. I don't want to leave my bomb crew, and he doesn't want to leave either. All the judges are running out the door but one screams "you will all be re-paired! I shall return!" shortly before he tripped and was overrun by the mob and consumed by flames. A valiant judge, worthy of a post-humous promotion to level 2. We start running, but I feel that my pen is missing so I go back and search for it, braving the towering inferno. I am forced to leave by the backdoor and run down some stairs and out of the building, startling some kitchen workers. We gather outside and it turns out that it wasn't a fire after all, but some accident with "fluric balast" or something silly. So I get a new opponent. Round 6, take 2: Chris Herdeman - WW His deck is nothing but plains and creatures it looks like. Small creatures. Oh, and cursed scrolls and crusade. Chris is a cool guy, he's friendly to play against. Or maybe that's just because he's usually beating me when we play. We played first round of second day at PT:Chicago, his B/R (back when colors were enumerable) against my U/R/w. Third game, we're both at 4, and I attack with double frenetics. He goes to three to contagion them, but I can't let that through because his black knight is looking fearsome. I dissipate his contagion, and he pyros my dissipate. I counter his pyro, and he pyros my counter. I pitch another dissipate to force of will his pyro. He asks if I'm at three, and I say no, I am at seven. He cleverly sees through my subterfuge and bolts me. The next time we meet is in the final 8 of the extended PTQ I played. Needless to say, my 16 land, 26 creature sligh proves unable to beat the sedge troll, black knight, nekrataal, contagion deck. Now this time... Game 1: He goes plains, foot soldier. I puzzle, and he says "he's taking you down!!!!!" I drop a karplusan and a guildmage, expecting him to convulse. Instead he grins. That guy's a MANIAC! He attacks me down to 18, drops another 1/1 shadow. I'm like uh, ok. I drop mountain, guildmage #2. Kill his foot soldier. On his turn, he drops ANOTHER foot soldier. On my turn I kill one of his foot soldiers but not the other because I didn't want to take karplusan damage on top of guildmage damage so I attack with the second one. On his turn he drops a soltari monk and comes over for more lovin. At this point, my grangers go into *** BERZERK *** mode and go wild. They start pulling mana from my karplusans against my wishes and wipe the board clean. I check my life and I'm at 9. I check his graveyard and see 6 creatures. Plus 3 karplusan damage, his creatures attacked me for a total of two damage. I call a staff meeting and graphically present the gory statistics to my errant guildmages, and they repent. They take out their anger on Chris and we're off to game two. Game 2: He does weird stuff, and manages to kill half his hand somehow. Then he plays a cursed scroll as I apply with jackal pup and river boa. He names plains so I giant growth my jackal pup and then pick the armageddon. I laugh in his face because he has no creatures in play. I burn him out at the end while he looks at the single card in his hand to see if it has changed into a passage. We'll I'm 1-1-1 against Chris but he's unhappy because he is really better than me. Matches: 6-0, Games: 12-2 The heat is still unbearable, people are having strokes left and right and the staff is in chaos because unconscious people are forgetting to properly drop from the tournament. I am surprised because now not only are small bits of gum and paper sticking to me, but magic cards also seem to be flying towards me. Oh wait, that's people flinging them at each other and making a huge mess in the hotel. Oh well. Round 7: Bob Coonce - B Yes, he is playing B. Nothing fancy about it, straight and simple. He is quite a daunting opponent because he looks so much like a kung-fu villian it makes even an asian like myself fear. When he lays his swamp, I quiver. What an evil man, I think to myself. Game 1: He goes ritual ritual ritual dauthi slayer fallen askari bad moon. I say 'wait!' after I recover from paralysis and point out he has no swamp. He curses and takes a mulligan. I let him have 7 cards because it was a real mulligan and it was an honest mistake. He gets the same stuff out again, but this time I firestorm in response to the bad moon. I feel good and play an orangutan or something. He plays a barrow ghoul and my humpin monkeys grow real big. The sight proved too much for the barrow ghoul and it goes away. He gets an askari and an urborg stalker who keeps following me home to slap me around for a point of damage. I get my own barrow ghoul out and start mounting up. I have one creature in my graveyard so he's happy to let me guildmage through as well for the extra point of damage. I drop a conscript and he sits there threatening to die if Bob attacks. Next turn I pay upkeep and attack. Once again, granger guildmage takes advantage of friends fly free. Bob is down pretty low, but so am I. Next turn I drop bombardment and that man who's been following me home meets an unfortunate demise. Barrow ghoul strides by the askari who's fallen and can't get up to block to end the game. Game 2: I got land creature, land creature. He goes land, creature, land creature. I go firestorm, creature, creature creature. He goes land land land land land land land land land land land land land land. End of Game. He expresses dissatisfaction with his deck's performance that game, but I'll take a win no matter whose deck gives it to me. Interesting enough, my deck doesn't seem to do much. Somehow, everyone else's deck seems to fall asleep when I play them. That's got to be as much of a skill as topdecking. I think I'll call it metagaming. It's always a good buzzword. Matches 7-0, Games: 14-2 Round 8: Joshua Adkins - R Before the last round even ends, we agree to draw as we're the only undefeated people left. What a deal, I can play minimaster in the middle of the main event. My pack was decent, I had: lotus petal, horned sliver, elite javelin, thalakos seer, time ebb, horned turtle, lightning blast, stone rain, angelic protector, cloudchaser eagle, cop:shadow, excavator, bellowing fiend, spinal graft, and winged sliver. I lose my second match though. Oh well. Matches 7-0-1, Games: 14-2-1 Round 9: Tai Phu - WWu/armor Now Tai Phu is the defending regionals champion. He is also 6-1-1 whereas I am 7-0-1 so we cannot draw. He says I can still get in if I lose... I think about it but I can't seem to convince myself. We spend several tense moments discussing transfer of stock options and real estate how asians should be jiggy with one another but I CAME TO PLAY. Besides, I don't think he's really asian, his name sounds more like some jive to me. Game 1: I see an armor when he shuffles, so I think I know what to expect. He drops a flood plain. I puzzle, but he says he's playing Tongo. That makes much more sense, and I can see how he got this far with Tech Combos like armor/frenetic and armor/wildfire and stuff. I drop a forest and a granger since he is obviously not playing priests or anything. He plays a priest, and I don't remember Tongo playing that. I drop my forest and guildmage, just in case that priest attacks me later or something. Just a precaution. He drops an ARMOR on the priest! What a dirty rat. He beats me down in three turns. Game 2: He goes priest again, I go dread of night. Then follows another march of death as guildmages control their anger and off warriors en-kor one by one. Then my guildmages go and run twenty laps around Tai Phu for the victory war dance. Game 3: Turn 2 priest, turn 3 armor. I take a beating then I cast manowar but his priest somehow has protection blue now. Instead, I bounce his warrior en-kor. Oops, he has just enough cards in hand to kill me. What a scrub I am. I feel so unhappy to not be able to be the Dream-crusher. Top 8 is announced. Matches: 7-1-1, Games 15-4-1 v. Top 8 ========= 1. Tim Capps 2. Joshua Adkins 3. Daniel Sanchez 4. Jacob Chen 5. Kirby Vardeman 6. Ron Schubert 7. Tai Foo' 8. Bryan Hubble 9. Bob Coonce I feel somewhat bad, since Bob is a cool ninja and would have been in if I had been less of a scrub. Round of 8: Hubble beats Capps Chen beats Vardeman Schubert beats Sanchez Foo' beats Adkins Semifinals: Chen beats Hubble Schubert beats Foo' Finals: Chen beats Schubert vi. More Tournament Report =========================== Round of 8: Kirby Vardeman - 5cBr This guy is playing a really really cool B/r deck that amazes me how well thought out it is. Game 1: He gets a total bomb draw and annihilates all my creatures with a million different pieces of removal but I firestorm his stromgald cabal and lancer. I asked what the cabal was for and he said mainly wraths and wisdom and such decks. That sounds pretty wise to me. He also had his own firestorm, which is huge. I had to incinerate his dwarven miner too; that's a big threat. I still manage to win because my barrow ghoul runs him over. A growth spurt saves him from the evil incinerate. Game 2: He gets a first turn furnace. I had to think to figure out what it was for because I'm a scrub. Then I look at my hand and, egads, a barrow ghoul. That's bad news, but not that bad because I can get my creatures killed fast--it's Secret Tech. Barrow ghoul goes the distance and more. Actually, this was the guy who incinerated my jackal pup multiple times. I put it in round 4 or something, but that was wrong. Semifinals: Chris Hubble - U draw It's just a blue deck with lots of artifacts. I'm told it's called draw-go, but draw-go sure didn't have argivian finds. Secret Tech! Before the game, he says "are you ready to die? Here's some eye candy for you." He flashes the argivian find at me but I fail to comprehend since I'm waiting for him to take his clothes off or something. Game 1: He draws his hand and shows a card to the crowd. I am unhappy because I have been left out. I am distraught and can't remember what happens. I think I win. I don't know how, maybe a creature or something? The simulated double-mulligan helped me win, since he drew both argivian finds that were supposed to be restorations. Game 2: I get a slow, hard beating. It's actually rather enjoyable. Err, because I spend my time annoying him and the people around me, not the beating itself. He drew 7 wastelands in his opening hand and even killed my basic lands. It was an unhappy match. Game 3: I once again have the single undiscovered draw, but also a pup, and a boa. He plays: quicksand, quicksand, mindstone, reflecting pool, disk. At that time, I have a disenchant in hand. I draw an orangutan. Humping monkies bounce all over and break all the furniture including the disk. He plays another disk--what a trap! The first was a decoy. I topdeck another monkey. They eat the disk. He lays a land a golem I think, so I topdeck a second disenchant. It's looking pretty good and I cruise through the last game. Hubble is a good player. He has like 2800 DCI points or something and really is the only person from the top 8 that's not "random." And maybe Tai Foo' even though he SKIPPED NATIONALS LAST YEAR and didn't properly represent the jivin' asians. Finals: Ron Schubert - U fish Ron is playing like weird stuff. I don't know what he's doing here, but I quiver. He's got lords of atlantis, but his only fish are the riders. He's also got puff daddy, azimaet drake, and supposedly waterspouts and counters. He's playing THREE UNDO STRAIGHT UP. He is really cool though, and so is his mom. She goes to all his tournaments and stays for the whole thing. I met him when I q'd for Chicago and met him again there where he was playing the super series. He's like 14 or something. He asks if I really care who wins first and I say no. He says he wants to win but is embarrassed that his deck might show up in a publication, so we play it out. Game 1: I do the voodoo shuffle, but he requests that the judge shuffle it afterwards. I've never seen so many manowars. I kill his lord and ping his manta riders and put out a pup, but he manowars it 33 times! I take massive jellyfish pain and he gets to undo my grangers and kill me. Game 2: What a fiasco. I put in pyros and tranqs and take out my monkies and worbs. I get first turn conscripts, holding a fanatic and I'm feeling fine. He plays a chill. Oh, btw, he went first. It's a weird story. While we shuffle, I say 'I'll play.' Then we both draw our 7 and he says he'll play. I chuckle politely and look at my hand. No land. He lays an island an a rider or something and says go. I'm like what the... and i sneak a peak at my next card: mountain. Judges confer, and I offer to let it go if he doesn't mind that I've seen my next card. Well anyways, he lays a chill and it's not looking good. Third turn, I drpo my fanatic and attack for the big two. He's getting pretty cruel as he lays down a propaganda, but my river boa can still attack 3 times until my gemstone dies. I get a third land and pyro the propaganda, and now my fanatic can attack too. I firestorm his puff daddy, drake, and lord and finish him off. Whew. Game 3: This time he thankfully doesn't get the chill, and I firestorm his two fliers and him fourth turn and apply beatdown with another boa. I'm holding a tranq and play it when he lays his second prop. Hooray for my sideboard. I'm happy I got to side every card in it today, that makes me feel special. Ron claims he plays 8 counters, but I don't believe him. He didn't counter a single spell in 3 games. I think he has 20 land, 17 creatures, and 3 undo. I don't get out of The Zone for a while. While playing magic, it is The Zone. Doing anything else, it's just being Zoned Out. I took three wrong highways driving to my home 25 minutes away in Plano. I will blame it on the weird smoke blowing up from Mexican forest fires. vii. Deck List ============= Okay, here's the ever popular decklist. Creatures (25): Land (20): -1cc- 6x Mountain 4x Mogg Fanatic 4x Undiscovered Paradise 4x Granger Guildmage 3x Karplusan Forest 3x Jackal Pup 3x Gemstone Mine 3x Mogg Conscripts 2x Forest -2cc- 1x City of Brass 4x River Boa 1x Reflecting Pool 3x Barrow Ghoul -3cc- 2x Man-o'-War Sideboard (15): 2x Uktabi Orangutan 3x Pyroblast Spells (10): 2x Terror 4x Incinerate 2x Wasteland 2x Firestorm 2x Dread of Night 2x Giant Growth 2x Honorable Passage 2x Disenchant 2x Tranquil Domain Non-creature Permanents (5): 1x Firestorm 4x Winter Orb 1x Uktabi Orangutan 1x Goblin Bombardment viii. Props and Slops ===================== Props to: - Chris Richardson, who is my god of M:tG. - Fox, who ran 12 rounds in 16 hours and took only 17 minutes to recover from the fire and sold 2 all hallows eves for $10. - All my opponents for being cool. - All my opponents' decks for farting on my opponents and doing nothing. - My crew of guildmages (the green ones, not the big ones). - Quillian, who hooks me up with cards and lets me keep them. - Ron for winning with undos and losing to me. - Erik Knipp for building the best deck I saw that day. - Landon for beating people down with SPIKE FEEDER. - Kirby Vardeman for having cool ideas. - The voodoo shuffle and double mulligans. - David William's Super Tech. - The Weenie Death March. - King of Mental Magic, fubarduck. Slops to: - The guys who took my rares in pack poker. - Quillian who would have won with his necro-nightmare-venerable monk deck but for scrubbing out. That's the creature, in case you're wondering. - Hotel AC management for not notifying us of the survival fitness training that was scheduled to be in the hotel. - Team Dallas for evaporating. - Gay people serving food. - Ron for almost representing Texas Secret Tech with undos. - The fire for making everyone good lose. - Ops on mtgpro that kick me. - People accusing me of playing bloom. - People who ask the judge to shuffle after the voodoo shuffle. - My ugly plaque and extra pack of tempest. ix. Deck and General Type II Analysis ===================================== The big mvp of the day was definately FIRESTORM. This card is great. Chris told me that already, and I put two maindeck. It never got countered all day and it's the greatest. Lvp card would be winter orb, but it won me a match by itself so that's worth something. It did what it was supposed to, but I didn't have matchups where it was that necessary. It does make it easy to board and to discard to firestorm though. This deck is pretty well built; there are no obvious changes I'd make. It's somewhat weak to 5cU or lowering worbs would be an option. Also slivers are a big threat. Crystalline sliver makes a million centaurs and those are hard enough to deal with one at a time. The only way to win is to apply early, hard beatdown. It really thrashes the tradewind decks weenie decks aren't a problem with grangers and firestorms. The monoblack deck seems to be doing well in other regions, but that can only be because noone prepared for it. A few elephant grasses will shut it down completely. Reanimator decks placed well in California, and blue was everwhere in Texas. Sligh always has the chance of the bomb draw, but has big problems with this deck. All in all, this deck will win every time if you cut your opponent right. Good luck, and see everyone at nationals! jacob chen -- killrb@utdallas.edu