Subject: Scottish Scrub Report Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 12:03:09 GMT From: Dougie Anderson Newsgroups: uk.games.trading-cards.misc Well I decided to play 5cb in the end as I felt more comfortable than any of the other decks. I knew it could deal with most decks and those it couldn't deal with I just hoped to avoid. (those being u/r 5cu and prosbloom or some other dodgy combo deck) Deck Sideboard 3 shadow guildmages 3 pyroblast 3 black knight 2 dwarven miner 3 dauthi slayer 3 dread of night 3 nekrataal 2 forsaken wastes 2 erg raider 3 warmth 1 necratog 1 disenchant 4 diabolic edict 1 phyrexian furnace 4 incinerate 3 disenchant 3 sex monkey 3 man o war 3 mana leak 1 phyrexian furnace 1 bottle gnome 2 volraths stronghold 1 wasteland 2 reflecting pool 3 gemstone mine 3 undiscovered paradise 2 city od brass 1 sulphorous springs 1 cinder marsh 1 underground river 1 rootwater depths 7 swamps Onto the tournament. 1st round Iain Young 266014 (1632) 2 pints A fellow team member, another interesting match up was barry v clark (r/u v 5cb) game 1 most of the damage I took was from cities of pain. I just kept drawing things to deal with it.I finished on 11 life. game 2 This game was a bit closer and it all came down to the final couple of turns. Iain has a priest, a longbow archer and a warrior en kor out along with a city and 3 plains plus the only sideboard card of the match a warmth. I have 4 lands of various types a man o war a sex monkey and a guild mage. In my hand I have a nekrataal an incinerate a mana leak and a disenchant. I'm on 4 life, he's on 5. I keep thinking about earthquake attack which could win him the game so I need to hold on to my mana leak and some land. I can ping the priest and block the other 2. So no problem. Then why do I cast the nekrataal?!?!?!? Ikill the priest and say go with a completely calm face meanwhile swearing to myself and waiting for him to finish me off. He attacks with his 2 creatures. I block losing the taal and mow and he loses the longbow. He then earthquakes for 2. Doh! when he does this he realises his mistake. I'm on 2 he's on 2. I untap disenchant the warmth and incinerate him. I finish on 1 life. 2-0 1-0 2nd round Brian Forrester 268838 (1608) r/b bottle gnomes/coffin queens/dauthi mindrippers and hammers. game 1 A furnace in the first couple of turns seals his fate. I'm such a good player! I finish on 9 life game 2 In come the warmths and the other furnace but I can't draw any of them. he draws 2 furnaces though. gets the hammer rolling and finishes on 14 life. Doh! game 3 He gets his furnaces again. Hmm my stronghold is so good. But he obviously forgot to put his spells in the deck this game and I kill him in 10 turns with a slayer. I finish on 10 life 4-1 2-0 3rd round Paul Grocott 265536 (1714) Another Dundee player. Burn with a touch of white game 1 touch and go for a while but I am victorious in the end but I only have 6 life remaining. game 2 Once again an opponent forgets his spells. It is so depressing when this happens! I finish on 11 life Paul asks for a 3rd so I oblige and end up on 47 life by the end of it. 6-1 3-0 4th round Graham Thomson 270243 (1974) A black deck (thats all I will say as he asked for no detailed report) game 1 He gets a very good start and I get an average one and he kills me quickly. He's still on 15 life. game 2 Better draw and can deal with his threats. He can't deal with mine. I finish on 11 life. game 3 This is the closest. He's on 8 life when I have to keep using the Stronghold and I can't get to the next card. I'm only on about 4. Another 2 or 3 life and I would have been able to get that card which in turn would have enabled me to stop using the Stronghold. A no-win situation, and a tad annoying.Good to watch him play a stronghold when mine was already in play though!!!! Graham's quote being "You mean it's a Legendary Land?" 7-3 3-1 5th round Neil Jones 272197 (1632) playing a b/r gnome dance game 1 I'm not sure on this at all. But I didn't really draw anything to give him problems. Apart from my scary land of course.he finishes on 22 life. game 2 Another poor opening draw. But I've got good land and a couple of leaks so I stick with it. I don't draw any creature kill so or craetures so I have to dtart leaking his creatures and it is after I use all three that I discover he is playing corpse dances. Doh. I don't see my furnaces. I do get him to 4 life though it's too late. 7-5 3-2 6th round Andy Tee 265535 (1758) 5cb and another Highlander I played Paul Grocott who was using Andy's deck in the last tourney and won. But it's probably 50-50 when you meet a similar deck. game 1 My opening land is a gemstone and 2 undiscovered. Not the best but with 24 land I expect to pick up a non disapearing land soon and I do. Next turn I draw a stronghold but Andy has played his first turn. It was several turns before I drew another land and by then I had been forced to play a man o war using the last gemstone and the 2 undiscovereds and it was all downhill from then.He finished on 12 life Game 2 Better draw and I think that I'm simply playing a better version.I finish on 8. game 3 I could be wrong however as I draw lots of land (including a stronghold)a couple of creatures and one incinerate. He draws enough land lots of creatures and a shock, incinerate and 2 edicts. I just can't cope. He finishes on 19 8-7 3-3 Things have started to go pear shaped in the last couple of rounds along with the loss of about 60-70 points I am now out of the running for a slot at the UK Nationals.But I will still play the last rount and try and finish on a winning record. 7th round Orlando Richards 272080 (1810?) 5cu Doh! A couple of incinerates, a rainbow and shard phoenix are the changes. Game 1 Its the usuall story with lots of land, counters etc. He gets his rainbow out and hits me with it a couple of times. I'm thinking about conceding when he fireballs me to death. He finishes on 29 life. Game 2 Aha. in come the miners, blasts and wastes. Turn 2 miner which eats about 6-7 land before being incinerated. But its too late. I finish on 14 life. Game 3 I get a miner again but have to wait untill I can mana leak to get it in. It kills a few lands but is then wrathed. So I put down the second miner. I am such a good player. I finish on 17 life. 10-8 4-3 Pretty poor result all in all. I got some poor draws (then again I got some good ones like in the last round) and on a different day I could have beaten any of the decks I lost to. You know what I say, "Its better to be lucky than good" and I wasn't. This very well could be the first time I want to be English. I think its around the top 80 that qualify from their Nationals. We only had 12 slots allocated. It must be really hard to make top 80. Anyway i'll just have to make sure my limited is up for next year. What's annoying is that thare wasn't anything in the deck that I would have changed for the tourney just a wee bit more luck. The rest of Team Highlander finished like this. Clark 4-3 Silas 4-3 Craig 4.5-2.5 Gary 4.5-2.5 Andy 5-2 Iain 3-4 Paul 4-3 Barry 5-2 GT 5.5-1.5 Mark 2-3 then withdrew. So he gets the Spoon for the 6th time. Qualifiers are Barry, Andy and Gary. GT, Clark and Silas already have invites. I'm obviously not good enough. I don't know the top 8 exactly but Graham got knocked out by a red deck which then lost to a tradewindish deck in the semis played by Dave hughes. He lost to the French bloke in the final who was playing 5cg. Why didn't I play him earlier?? Out of the 16 Scots going to the UK's I reckon 6-8 have a chance of playing well but there will only be a couple of them do well. Dougie Anderson -----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==----- http://www.dejanews.com/ Now offering spam-free web-based newsreading