Subject: Birmingham Nationals qualifier report by M.Wraith Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 15:43:53 -0700 From: wraithboy Newsgroups: uk.games.trading-cards.misc So far I had not qualified for the english Nationals. I had missed out by a couple of slots at the only other qualifying tournament I had been to in Doncaster. Birmingham was the last chance for me to make it this year, and to fail would mean disaster. Before the tournament report really gets underway, here's the customary blurb about what happened beforehand. On Friday night I caught a train out to Leicester to meet up with Ben Jacobsen (Team Skills). The plan was to spend a day playtesting with the rest of team Skillz on the saturday. On Saturday morning we picked up a couple guys in Leicester (Paul Willis and Vinh Ly Team Jurassic Park) and started out on the long dusty highway towards the old last chance saloon. I had been playtesting with turbo Zvi all week, but for a couple days I had been thinking about changing my mind, and had borrowed a 5cG and a Sligh deck off my friend and TeamMate Lee Garner in case I changed my mind. Loads of people were there in Coventry, all of Team Skillz (Ben Jacobsen, Neil Bond, Paul Grogan, Warren Marsh, Ellis Romero and Stewart Walker, but the only one who hadn't qualified from the team was Stewart Walker.), and also a couple others from Birmingham, and Julia who was judging on Sunday. This was a fairly decent group to playtest, but unfortunately we were easily distracted and spend most of the day chatting, drinking beer, playing chess (!), and playing the '96 pro tour decks against each other. (Justice's deck is really good BTW). Finally at about 9:00 p.m. we did some playtesting. Unfortunately my 5cG deck was beaten by a strange concoction built by Mike Donais the legendary 5cU. Also I really didn't want to play Sligh, so I ended up borrowing the Blue deck off Ellis to play. I lent my Zvi deck to Neil Jones, but frankly I feared for his chances. Sunday. We set off for Birmingham at around 11:00 am, arriving there at a few minutes to high noon. There were a lot of Magic players prowling around outside, and it turned out that we had to write our deck listings out before being allowed inside. Here is the deck as well as I can remember it (I gave it back to Ellis) Donais 5cU 4 Reflecting Pool 1 Island 1 Forest 1 Plains 2 Svyelunite Temple 2 Vec Township 1 Wasteland 2 Thalakos Lowlands 1 Brushland 3 Adarkar Wastes 2 Quicksand 2 City of Brass 3 Gaea's Blessing 4 Whispers of the Muse 4 Counterspell 4 Dissipate 4 Dismiss 4 Wall of Blossoms (the BEST card in Stronghold) 2 Uktabi Orangutan 1 Disenchant 2 Rolling Thuder 4 Impulse 4 Wrath of God 4 Gerrard's Wisdom (this might not be exactly right, but you get the idea) Sideboard 1 Disenchant 1 Avenging Angel 2 Teferi's Realm (didn't use - for Forsaken Wastes, Pit, etc) 3 Dread of Night 2 Hydroblast 2 Warmth 2 CoP : Red 1 Choke 1 Lobotomy After trying to write it down in the cold wind, I finally make it inside and register. The venue looks a little run down, and some of the chairs are broken. Also a little bottle of coke costs a pound, which is outrageous! At about 1:00 p.m. the pairings for the first round are up, it looks like it'll be a very long day. I am paired up against Rick Hudson. I'd seen him around before, but I couldn't remember whether or not I had played him. He makes a few small and inoffensive creatures such as Bottle Gnomes, Mogg Fanatics, and Abyssal Gatekeepers, which I hold at bay with my Walls and eventually Wrath away. He tries to buyback Corpse Dance his monsters, but I Dismiss his efforts. I draw Gerrards, and gain life out of his range. I make what is virtually my only mistake of the day, when I Counterspell a Shard Phoenix (I had Dissipate in my hand). When he brings it from the Dead next turn, I realise my mistake and remove it from the game. I Gerrards once more, and it's impossible for him to kill me. When I cast Gaea's Blessing for a Gaea's Blessing and two Dissipates, he concedes as he realises I can deck him (I don't use the Thunder on players usually, as it is better to make them deck themselves, so you don't have to worry about game 2 getting finished. Unfortunately for him, game 2 is akin to game 1, and I deal with his early threats, which to be honest aren't sufficient to cause me much hassle unless I get a bad draw. I gain control, and an Orangutan beats him down in ten long slow turns. Match one was over in 56 minutes - I realise I'm not going to get much rest in between rounds. In Match two, i'm paired against one of the Oldham mob, Ian Bailey. I've played him once before, in the Semi-Finals at Scarborough, where he beat me. This time I'm hoipng for revenge. Unfortunately at the time I write this report, I've forgotten what Ian was playing, (very sorry Ian, perhaps you could post what it was). However, I remember a bit about what happened. In the first game I gain complete control, as in, I get to a point where my hand is seven counter, and my Library is counters and Gaea's Blessing. He doesn't concede until he's only got six or seven cards left, which only leaves us with twenty minutes for the rest of the match. This virtually guarantees that the worst I will do is draw. Luckily for me I gain control, and am about top cast a game-winning Uktabi Orangutan when time is called. Stewart Walkter is also 2-0 at this stage. In Match three I'm paired against Vinh Ly from Leicester. He has a 5cG deck, so I fancy my chances a bit. Unfortunately for me it doesn't turn out this way. He makes a turn 1 bird, I lay reflecting pool. He makes some other creature on turn two, while I play out my Svyelunite temple, so I can counterspell things. On turn four, however, he lays Wasteland and kicks in my Temple. This means that when he taps his other lands and his birdy for a Tradewind, I don't have the blue mana to Counterspell. I don't have any blue next turn, and he Armageddon's in his, so that's game. Game 2 I don't draw my blue from the start, and that's bad. He makes a turn four Maro, and I have no Wrath. The Maro beats me down in three turns. I congratulate Vinh on his win, because 5cG is usually weak against 5cU (U has few permanents, so many spells in 5cG are wasted) At least I get a break and manage to find time to get a pasty and a drink before the next round. I'm paired against Mike Wilson, who's prequalified. Unlike many people, I have no problems with pre-qualified people playing, and wish him the best of luck. In game 1 I see a weakness of 5cU, he draws a couple Wastelands. Against a deck with only three basic lands, these are like type two strips. We all know how much control decks like Strips, and I go down in flames to a horde of Goblins, Balls Lightning, and Broken Scrolls. Game 2 goes a similar way, and I drop down to 2 - 2. Things are not looking very good at all. I'm paired in round 5 against Alice Coggins. Alice has a good deck, particularly against mine. She makes many small annoying balck creatures including Sarcomancy, Shadow Monsters, Erg Raiders and Black Knights. Unfortunately she seemed to over extend slightly and plays out her hand in Game 1 to bring me down to about six. On turn 4 I wrath, turn five I Gerrards for twelve :). I play some Counterspells to frustrate her efforts to lower my life once more, and she slowly goes from her Sarcomancy. I make a big mistake here. When she is at around ten, I draw a Thunder and impulsively kill her. I realise immediately that I would have been better disenchanting her Sarcomancy, thundering a few creatures later on, and hoping she didn't concede until she was decked forty turns later. I realise this was a mistake, and in games 2 and 3 she beats me down with Shadowy things that my Broken Wall cannot block. Basically turn one ritual, slayer, unholy strength is pretty much game. I am now at 2 - 3 and am considering dropping out. However there are no side events that I wanted to play in (they were all limited) so I continue. I can't remember the name of the player I played in round six. He has a deck with Broken Wall stampeding Wildebeests and Orb, many other cretaures, and Squandered Resources to operate under the orb. In game 1 we tit about for a while, not really doing much of anything, him casting monsters, me wrathing, countering the lttle buggers. He lays a Stronghold at some stage in the game, which is quite annoying, as I've only got one Wasteland in the deck, and he can bring back his monsters every turn. I topdeck the waste in my next turn and go on to take the game. He concedes in time to give him chance to draw the match. In game two, he is Mana Screwed. He draws only two lands, which are basic, and I really wish that my waste was a Strip instead. However, his deck has one rogue Lotus Vale, which he draws, plays, and I wasteland my way to victory. He gets up to two lands, plays Squandered. I have a Lowlands and a Reflecting Pool, along with some other rubbish. He fails to realise what a lowlands can produce, and taps / sacs for a balance. When I counter, he's back to zero land. I kill him dead with Monkey. I'm 3-3 and still in with a slim chance. When pairings are produced for round seven, I'm paired against somebody with only four points. It seems that there has been some mix up and for some reason my last match was scored as a loss to me. I correct this information, but a redraw would be too complicated, so I still play the guy on 4 (Karl Jones). which is bad for my tiebreakers. He's only been playing the game for five weeks and I feel miserable. Here I am a Pro Tour player, playing on bottom table (because of the incorrect result) in a shitty Nationals qualifier. When I fail to draw any blue mana whatsoever in the first game, and he Fans the flames / Fireballs / Earthquakes / Shocks etc me to death, I feel even worse. It's virtually impossible for 5cU to actually kill somebody who doesn't concede twice in the 40 minutes we have left (yes it really did take him 20 minutes to kill me when I had only a Broken Wall out for comfort. I side in Hydroblasts and AVENGING ANGEL. I get some blue and on turn seven I draw the Angel. It goes all the way in seven turns, while he concentrates his burn on me (and psychic venoms my land!) and I gerrard's a couple times for the fun of it. I don't draw the Angel in game 3, so I have to play an Orangutan and protect it with Counterspells, luckily I get whispers going and draw plenty of defense and lands to enable the monkey to get around Propaganda. I am 4 - 3 , Stewart Walker has lost again and is also 4 - 3. We pray we don't play each other. I get paired up against somebody with a white weenie deck (I forgot his name), and he casts plenty of things for me to Wrath away in the first game. I game control with the incredible Cantrip creature removal that is Wall of Blossoms (draw a card, remove most creatures with power three or less from your opponent's attack), and I cast Gerrards. I demonstrate the futility of his positin with Blessing for two Gerradrs and a Blessing, end of your turn Whispers, in my turn Blessing for sixteen, discard Wrath of God (I had two others in my hand). He gets a little pissy and calls my deck boring. I ignore him as I honestly think that's it's a cool deck, not boring at all. He concedes so he has enough time to win game 2 and 3, with a little luck. Unfortunately for him, this is how game three goes. Turn One : He plays plains, Nomads en- Kor, I play Island Two : He plays plains, Soltari Priest, I play Pool Three : He plays plains, Soltari Monk, Soltari Foot Soldier, I play Undiscovered Paradise, tap Dread of Night. Away go his monsters. Four : He plays Disenchant, I counter He plays on for a couple of turns but realises that's it's all over for him. I'm now 5 - 3 , unfortunately Stewart Walker lost once more and is 4 - 4. The hunt for Nationals is also over for him. Vinh Ly has also lost and gone from 4 -0 to 4 - 4. Because I had to play somebody on very low points my tiebreakers are shitter than the Great Wall from Legends, and I have to play. I'm paired against Pete Ward, a member of the Oldham Mob, and I decline his draw offer. He's playing blue but unfortuately for him, he has many useless cards such as Legacy's Allure and Nevinyrral's Disk. On turn three he makes an Ophidian, but I wrath it away. He doesn't draw enough Counterspells to win our little counter wars, and I drain his supply of them by recursing Blessing and my Counterspells. Once his are gone, they're gone, but I've practically got an infinitude of them. I get up to seven counters in hand, and he concedes with thirty-eight minutes left. In go my Choke and my Lobotomy. In game two we both to nothing much at the start. I get out an Ophidian blocker Broken Wall and quickly get up to plenty of mana and Counterspells. I sided out the Thunders as I have no reason to kill him with them now I'm one up. He taps six mana to get out a Tim and an Ophidian, which taps him out. I Lobotomy away his dismisses which leaves him with only dissipates and force spike. The tim knocks me about a bit, and gets me down to six (I'd taken a lot of pain land damage). I gerrard's a couple times tough and am back up to 30ish. Then I wrath, and when he tries to out counter my blessing, (and fails) I spot that he's completely tapped out and Choke him. I draw Orangutan beatdown but he concedes the turn before it would kill him. I'm going to English Nationals after the biggest comeback since Lazarus. I finish up 13th (lucky for some) and Stewart Walker and Vinh Ly both just miss out, along with Pete Ward. I get a couple boosters and for once they have really good rares. I give Ellis his deck back and head back to Leicester. Props to: Simeon for running a great tournament (hope your sore throat gets better soon!) Ellis for lending me a deck Mike Donais for building such a strong deck - especially against other controllish decks. Team Skillz in general for being a cool bunch of guys, especially Stewart (better luck next year mate) Ben for putting me up for a couple of nights. Team Jurassic park for being cool. Whichever madman at Wizrds that thought Wall of Blossoms was balanced - it's sick! Slops to: The guy who said my deck was "just another boring blue deck". yep that's why there's only one Island in the deck. Neil Jones for borrowing my Zvi deck, nearly getting disqualified and dropping out after four rounds. p.s when you reshuffle after a Gaea's, don't reshuffle the Mana Severanced land back in! The venue for selling small bottles of coke at ludicrous prices. Whoever designed Wasteland (even though I played one) Congrats to anybody who read all this, and see you at Nationals! Mark Wraith Team Ivory Tower