Subject: 4 Corners Atlanta report Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 13:44:56 -0400 From: gs11slm To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com 4 Corners Sealed Deck Challenge in Atlanta was held in the "Quality" Inn in a dimly lit room with no tablecloths. About 40 to 50 people showed up, including most of the top Atlanta players, the Tallahassee crew, etc. Format was 5 rounds of swiss with top 8 playing single elim (no novice/advanced split due to low turnout). I opened this deck in the swiss (we used the cards we opened): Skyshroud Troopers Sandstone Warrior Flunkies Conscripts Shambler Craven Giant Opportunist Trained Armodon Canopy Spider Heartwood Dryad Horned Sliver Spined Sliver Manakin Skyshroud Troll Tempting Licid Spined Wurm Lightning Elemental Cloudchaser Eagle Rolling Thunder Overrun Bullwhip Phyrexian Splicer Mulch Provoke 7 forest 6 mountain 3 plains (land distribution was bad out of the starter so this was the best I could do) --40 cards Round 1: Mike Ghim G/B/u Game 1 he puts some walls out and we just lay creatures for awhile with no one able to get through. That is fine with me since I have overrun in hand. I just keep laying creatures as I draw them and then overrun for 31 points of trample of which he could stop 9 at most. He concedes. Game 2 he does some early damage with a Kezzerdrix before I lay enough creatures to stop it. So he lays Crovax, backed up by Lab Rats. I chump with a Canopy Spider and am at 3 life, with my only chance being to draw Overrun...so I do it. When I cast it, Mike, who is at 18, concedes. However, he probably did not realize that (either) my Mogg Conscripts could not attack or his Kezzerdrix could stop all the trample damage from my 7/4 Lightning Elemental, and the most trample damage I could have done was 17 I think. 2-0, 1-0. Round 2: Tyson Winter G/W/B Game 1 is going ok for me when he lays a Bullwhip. He kills my small stuff and makes my midrange stuff attack and kills that too. I lose. Game 2 I beat him down with fat. Game 3: See game 2, except he tried to Smite a Skyshroud Troll. Darn foreign cards! 4-1, 2-0. Round 3: Gordon Howes B/W/R Game 1 his life is in midrange, I have 2 potential attackers and a Conscripts, he has a Wall of Diffusion and a couple small dudes, plus a Shard Phoenix. With six mana in play and 2 cards in hand I Overrun. He declines to sac the Phoenix. I lay a land and a Manakin enabling the conscripts to attack. this leaves him at 3. Next turn he attacks with some shadows and then blows the phoenix, leaving me with a Calming Licid. Then he lays a Decoy and a fatty. I get a fatty but the decoy allows him to get through...so I TD the Roll to finish him off after drawing ass for a few rounds. Game 2 I can't remember much, I think it was just fatty beatdown again. 6-1, 3-0. Round 4: Ethan Smith, G/R very strong deck I heard Game 1: I draw 2 of my 3 plains, 4 of my 6 mountains, no forests (7), some green spells, and the Spined Sliver. Game 2: I draw (after a Mulch) 2 of my 3 plains, 5 of my 7 forests, no mountains, some red spells, and my Spined Sliver. 6-3, 3-1. Round 5: Bruce Chirrey B/W/R weenies Game 1 he gets out a foot soldier, it hits for about 5 or so which I ignore. He gets a Spirit en-Kor but I just keep laying creatures (both slivers and another fatty), and when the Spirit attacks the beatdown is on. Game 2 he gets a turn 1 Pit Imp which fully pumps on turns 2-4 for 6 damage, plus weenies on turns 3 and 4. I just ignore the Imp and lay large creatures and eventually a Cloudchaser, and win due to superior creature quality. 8-3, 4-1 and into the top eight. This is what I opened in top 8: Rolling Thunder Torture Chamber Shock Flowstone Blade Manakin Patchwork Gnomes Bottle Gnomes Victual Sliver Spirit en-Kor Soltari Trooper Sandstone Warrior Fireslinger Conscripts Flowstone Salamander Spitting Hydra Trumpeting Armodon (first rule of TE sealed: I always get the fatty trumpet Seeker of Skybreak Spike Feeder Spike Colony Skyshroud Troll Canopy Spider Tempting Licid 7 mountain 7 forest 4 plains ---40 cards The deck was an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. The top 8 matches were about a 2, though. Quarterfinals: Rudy Edwards U/B/R Game 1: He draws a Cinder Marsh and about 20938475 islands, I get out Slinger, Trooper, Seeker, Manakin, and the Spike Colony and apply, rolling him for the win. He was sitting on Evincar's, 2 Foul Imps and a Death Stroke. Game 2: I blade his turn 2 slinger, get out a Sandstone with several mountains plus a Spitting Hydra, and outrun his Brush with Death with little difficulty. To his credit, Rudy did not open as good a deck as I did, and it drew poorly. Semis: Paul Wilkens, G/R/W. Game 1: He draws lots of land and his Magmasaur can't stop my 5/5 Troll. Game 2: He is screwed for the second red to cast his Lowland, and I establish board control with a Slinger and Chamber after a mana debt of my own. I win by out-creaturing him with the 3 life gainers for backup. Finals: James Duguid, G/R/B. Game 1: I get the Chamber and kill his Servant with a Shock and chamber for 1, he gravedigs it, I kill it again for 2 for 1 once again. So I win, right? Nope. I draw an insane amount of land. At one point I kill a 5/4 with a Flowstone Blade with one mountain left over. He gets a Searing touch going and kills me with him at 1. Game 2: I still have confidence because he does not have as good a deck as I do. I draw 2 mountains, a plain, conscripts, manakin, gnomes, and Trumpet, going first. The conscripts do 2 before opponent mutuals with a Muscle Sliver. However, I draw some small stuff and 2 green creatures, still waiting for the forest, while his Serpent Warrior holds me off. He draws much more fat than I do; I eventually get the green and lay the Trumpet, mutual with something, and do the same with the troopers, but those were the only fat creatures I saw in either match (none in game 1). In the end with him at 9 and staring down a 4/3 and a 4/5, I draw the Roll with enough to do it for 5. Had I had one of my 7 forests by turn 4, I would have won. As it was, I can only stop 1 of his fatties, and I lose. I get 2 boxes and some packs of Italian for my efforts. Sol Malka -- gs11slm@panther.gsu.edu Open Access Station LS109-65 in room LS109 (I486-50), Georgia State University