Subject: Regional Report: Brazilian Gypsy Pox Date: Thu, 04 Jun 1998 20:06:32 -0700 From: Demetrius de Vasconcelos Santos To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com This is a tourney report from Brasil. My name is Demetrius de Vasconcelos Santos. I'm system analist and a Magic player in my free time. Well, I didn't do any good playing a Trap deck in my city, Rio de Janeiro, so Lussandro, a friend of mine, and I decided to take a plane and try to make it in Brasilia, capital of my country, Brasil (What? Did you think it was Buenos Aires? Come to Brasil and learn more about it, it is a marvelous place - and Rio IS cool). So, after about 1 and a half hour of flight I landed at Brasilia, where a friend of mine, Barbara (thanks Barbara!) was waiting for us and gave us a place to stay - her house, obviously. Lussandro was using a Sligh deck that a top player from Rio, Bruno Gunther, borrowed him. Really a good deck, and as Lussandro still was not sure if he was going to play or not. Anyway, I asked him if he wouldn't play so I could use the Sligh deck. As he decided to play, I had to play with a deck which I was feeling very instable, Gypsy Pox. I've been playing testing the deck for a centain period of time and it was not doing very well. Anyway, I've corrected some errors I found and decided to play it. Here goes the deck: Gypsy Pox by Jay Schneider, modified by me: Black Spells - 4 Poxes - 4 Bottomless Pits - 4 Funeral Charms - 4 Diabolic Edicts - 3 Abyssal Gatekeepers - 2 Dark Rituals Artifacts - 4 Bottle Gnomes - 3 Paupers Cages - 3 Esnaring Bridges - 4 Cursed Scrolls - 1 Phyrexian Furnaces - 1 Mox Diamond - 1 Charcoal Diamonds - 2 Mind Stones Lands - 1 Undiscovered Paradise - 4 Wastelands - 2 Quicksands - 1 Volrath Stronghold - 3 Gemstone Mines - 9 Swamps Sideboard - 3 Chills - 2 Pyroblasts - 3 Disenchants - 1 Null Rod - really null. In the middle of the tourney I realize that it would shut me down (scrolls and gnomes) - 1 Terror - 2 Dread of Night - 2 Perish Only the top four would go to the Nationals, and the tourney had about 100 duelist. Not easy. This is a 6 round swiss with the top 16 going to the finals. The tourney was organized by ECLIPSE RPG, a nice RPG shop, with many tables for playing. So let's go to the report: Round 1: vs ??? - Playing Suicide Black Nice deck, with Necratog being a serious threat to my deck. It's got power 1 (so it can pass the bridge with not much difficult) and can be pumped really high. Game 1: He has a good start, with lotus petal and a knight, but I empty my hand quickly and put a bridge that shuts him down. Just wait for cage and it appears pretty soon. Game. No sideboard against this guy... not good. Game 2: Mana screw = black weenie beatdown. Game 3: My hand is: Wasteland - Quicksand - Scroll - 2 Bottle Gnomes - 1 Ensaring Brigde - 1 Pox. Put the lands into play but no more land came. Black weenie beatdown. Again. Matches: 0-1-0 Games: 1-2-0 This was not a really good start. I started thinking if I had any chance. Round 2: vs small kid - Mono Green This is not a Stompy, there are too many fatties (Bull Elephant, Lhurgoyf) and not too much Elves or QRangers. I remember he was as confident as Hardy Ha-Ha. Game 1: Shut down him by turn four (understand shut down as Bottomless Pit + Ensaring Bridge) and scroll him to death. Game. Out 1 Bottomless and 1 Pox, in 2 Perish. Game 2: Elephants and Centaurs on my head. Ouch. Game 3: See Game 1 but instead of scrolls two cages appears. Game. Matches: 1-1-0 Games: 3-3-0 Round 3: vs ??? - 3CW Nice deck, but I think Dread of Night destroys it really fast. This guy plays very well and know about rules. Game 1: Put a Bottomless Pit and take care of creatures with edicts. He plays a scroll which is not enough to beat me down as I have two gnomes in play. Scroll him to death. The last thing he plays is empyrial armor with no cards in his hand. Out 2 gatekeepers and 2 Bottomless, in 2 Dreads and 2 Disenchants Game 2: I make a bunch of stones, with Mox 1 turn and Charcoal Diamond in turn 3. In turn 2 I disenchant his first turn scroll. Pox twice and shut him down and as I see his auras being discarded (only 2 lands in play). Game. Matches: 2-1-0 Games: 5-3-0 Hey, my first 2-0! Starting becoming confident. Although I've got tons of flaws, my best qualities by far are my patience and my calm. So, I kept myself quiet and discreet, as the tourney restarts. By this time, Lussandro is also 2-1, and Barbara (hey again, thanks Barbara) is now 1-2 and a little upset. I try to make her more confident and she agrees to continue playing. Round 4: vs ??? (not really good with names) - ?CW I call this ?CW cause I didn't see any non-white spells but he's got a lot of multilands. I don't remember much about this match, except that I won by 2-0. Matches: 3-1-0 Games: 7-3-0 Round 5: vs Rubens - Black Weenie This is a guy that I MUST remember. This is by far the funniest game I've ever played in a tourney. Rubens is a really very nice guy, and it will be always fun to play with him. Game 1: His black weenie is not a common black weenie, he's got some fatties in his deck. As the game starts, he starts commenting about a deck he had never seen, with some kind of bridge in it. I smile as I play the bridge, and he goes: "Hey, You've got that bridge too! Cool!". I laugh and I win the game as he explains he thinks he had done too much with his deck. Shut him down and put a cage. Never seen a guy so happy for losing :) Game 2: See game 1 with more laughters by both players (I still can remember him saying: 'Incredible, man!!). Matches: 4-1-0 Games: 9-3-0 By this time, I just need a draw to be in the first 16. But... Round 6: vs Tadeu - Stompy I remember this guy's name because: 1) he was the most nervous person I've ever seen in my life, as he had to win and; 2) he's got a cousin which made the greatest card trading for 4 cursed scrolls and stuff. I'll talk about it later. Game 1: Shut him down and scroll him to death. Game. Game 2: Green showdown. Not too much time to say: Ouch! Game 3: When he got 5 manas, he play a volrath's lab, so I wasteland his two brushlands, kill his birds, and then pox. Shut him down and he starts buying and discarding tranquilities (two lands in play). Starting scrolling him and any creature he plays and it is over. Game. Matches: 5-1-0 Games: 11-4-0 So I made to the final 16. In fact I was in third place(!!). Lussandro is also in, although he lost 2 rounds. The guys from Rio in the finals! Woohoo! Barbara didn't do well and is out, but she is happy with our campaigns. This time I start to pray for not having to play against Lussandro/Sligh. I know it would be very difficult to win his deck as he knew how my deck worked. My prays are listened... Finals: vs ??? - Reanimator/Living Death deck This is the most original deck I saw in the whole tourney. With Animate Dead, Necromancy and Living Death, and Sliver Queen and Verdant Force (and their tokens) to apply beatdown. Game 1: I forgot to get paper and pen when the judge starts the match, and ask him for some paper and a pen. He tells me to get up and get it in the bookstore, but as I have to leave the table after the match started he gives 1-0 to my opponent. I take my pen and paper and sit again, calmly saying: "All right". Remember, patience and calm are my best qualities. I recommend them to all Magic players. Game 2: Shut him down with no cards in hand, so nor vendant tokens neither slivers tokens can hit me. Game. Game 3: I put the bridge with a cage but still got a Pox at my hand, so the tokens hit me leaving me with 2 life. I've five lands in play. I topdeck a ... pyroblast with no multilands and no mox in play. I think I'm about to lose, so it comes to me: I pox, discarding the pyroblast, with 3 lands in play and 1 life. I topdeck again and now it is a pit! Play it and pray for not coming a ritual or a pox or the other pyroblast. Buy lands in the next four turns, as the cage slowly does its work. Game. YES! The most difficult game I had in a tourney and I won. So let's go on. Lussandro is out as a mono blue shows him how chills can be annoying to mono red. Quarter Finals: vs ??? again - Suicide Black Again the only guy which won me. I know my deck is better than his if I do not get mana screw twice... Game 1: I resist to the first assault, killing his weenies with scroll. Shut him down and scroll does the dirty work. Game. Game 2: Shut him down, but this time he plays a nevinyrral. I continue til he drains me to 3 life. I've got six lands in play, one of them THE stronghold of the deck (should have been 2), and a bottle gnome and a gatekeeper, while he's got a black knight and a necratog. So here goes first mistake in all games. I had already another gatekeeper in the graveyard, but I prefer to start recycling the gnome, afraid of another drain life. I make it once going to 6 life and playing the gnome again, but he funeral charms my gatekeeper. I sacrifice my gnome, going to 9 life and he sacrifices his bknight. A fat 11/12 tog hit me and I started thinking that with the other gatekeeper in play he could not do that. Well, out 2 pits, in 2 disenchants. Game 2: Disenchant and gemstone in my first hand, but the lock was also here, so I decide to risk and play the combo, discarding the disenchant. He concedes when I got 6 lands and 2 scrolls in play. Yeah! I'm in the Nationals! The last 4 players decided to divide the prizes (boosters only) equally - so the last of us wouldn't get only 5 four boosters after 8 hours of playing. I'm happy and confident now. No one can stop me, I think. A great flaw I've got is to become more confident than anyone should, but this time I was right. The finals decks are: The Trap (with WOrbs), 5UDonais, RTJ and finally, Gypsy Pox. All control decks... coincidence? I think not. Semi finals: vs ??? (names, who needs them?) - 5C Donais Game 1: 3 Bottomless Pit countered. Not good. He memory lapse a gatekeeper and booby traps me, taking me to 4. Fireball hits me hardly. 2 gatekeeper and 3 bridges out, 3 disenchant and 2 pyroblast in. Game 2: First turn furnace makes him shiver. As he taps out in turn two for a sylvan lybrary. I cast a pit, so he taps out again, another pit. Pit rules against control. Game. Game 3: He's got 5 lands, including a wasteland. I got a pit and a mine at hand and 3 lands in play, and I topdeck a pyroblast. I play the mine, which is not blew up. I play the pit, he dismisses it, taping the wasteland and goes for the draw, I stop him saying: "No!" and play the pyroblast. He looks at his hand, looking at two 2cc counters he's got in his hand that were discarded soon. I kill him with a horde of gatekeepers(!! again). Game. Wow, I came from 1 thousand kilometers away to play the finals. Barbara is really happy with this, and Lussandro still don't know how I made it so far. I can really win the tourney! Finals: vs Coutinho - RTJ Coutinho is another great guy. He was actually more excited than me for being in finals. A curious thing about this guy that it was his girlfriend that told him to play RTJ, so he was always thanking and kissing her. That's something that doesn't happen every day... Game 1: My first turn is : undiscovered, ritual, pit. He discards a vineyard and plays a land. And he plays no others because he was counting with the vineyard to play his spells, so he didn't mulligan. He discards two silvan lybraries and he plays a third one!! He caps me and take my scrolls, but what really does damage is this deck are the cages (scrolls are for board control; if you can kill something, then kill it. Also makes your opponents feeling bad as their creatures are blown as soon they are played). So far the cages arrives his life points abandon him quickly, with a little help of a pox. Game 2: He caps me again and again my scrolls are the target, but as I said, if you want to beat pox destroy the cages, not the scroll. I lock him down and game for me. And I won. COOL! My prize would be a box of Tempest or Stronghold (my choice), but I take only my 17 boosters, as the other 3 finalists do. I take 10 tempest and 7 stronghold. Give one of each to Lussandro and open the others, promising to Barbara if I get a cursed scroll it will be hers. Nothing good in Tempest, except a Living Death and a Vineyard Lussandro got in his booster. But in Stronghold I got a Pursuit of Knowledge and (which I wanted) a Volrath Stronghold. But Lussandro did take the prize ever. He made one of the greatest card trading I've seen. Here it goes: 4 Cursed Scrolls + some type II stuff worthed: - 1 Diamond Valley; - 4 Deserts; - 3 Elephant Graveyards; - 2 Bazaars of Baghdad; - 2 Throwing-Stones Devils; - 2 Kabal Ghoul; - 3 Flying Men; - 2 Old Men of the Sea; - 2 Drops of Honey; - 1 Singing Tree; - 2 Jihads; - 1 Sherazaad; - 1 King Suleiman; - 4 Rukh Eggs; - 4 Kird Apes; - 2 Rings of Maru'f; - 1 Pyramids; - another stuff I can't remember... Remember I told about a Tadeu's cousin? Tadeu played with me by Round 6, and he had a cousin which was also playing the tourney. He's bought a box of Arabian Nights, thinking about selling the boosters, but no one bought them, cause they were too expensive. So he opened the box and kept it safely with him... until Lussandro appeared. - Props & Slops Props to: - Barbara: for accepting us in her house in a so great manner. Hey Barbara! Your family and your dog are really COOL! - People from Brasilia: happy and nice with me all the time. I had a great time with them. Oh, and thanks for not playing mono-red. - Brasilia itself: The only pre-designed city in Brasil is a cool place to live, with many options of fun and entertainment. - Jay Schneider: the deck is very strong. Very well-designed and is a winner. Slops to: - Myself: for not trust in the deck I was playing and for my errors during the tourney. Need to practice more. - Lussandro: for still thinking that this deck cannot win a tourney. - My sideboard: null rod was a idiot choice, and any other sideboard card, except for disenchant and pyroblast, no other sideboard card showed up! - Myself again: for making such a long report. Hope you enjoy. Demetrius (heading to the Nationals!).