Subject: T2 G/w Arma-don-geddon Tourney Rpt. Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 18:28:16 -0600 From: Patrick Madden To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com The Report: I don't see many tournament reports for this sort of deck around, but I don't have any all-color-lands except for one Gemstone Mine, so I have to make do with what I've got. Hopefully this will be an inspiration to those players, like me, who don't have the cards to make 5 color decks. The Tournament: This was a local Type II Salt Lake City tournament at Mind Games with 18 players. The format was 4 rounds of swiss, then top four playoffs. Prizes were $50 and $25 store credit for first and second. The Deck: "Arma-don-geddon" Green: 4 Eladamri's Vineyard (get stuff out fast, and mana burn people more often than not) 4 Trained Armadon 4 Endangered Armadon (the big man: 4/5 for 4) 4 Wall of Roots 4 Giant Growth (protects creatures a LOT of times, or do some extra damage) 3 Trumpeting Armadon (Vineyard mana sink) 3 Stampeding Wildebeests (5/4 trample for 4, and get a card each turn – see below) 3 Wall of Blossoms (keep returning them with Wildebeests, play them with Vineyard mana, and draw!) 3 Heartwood Treefolk (3/4 forestwalk for 4, not bad) 2 Sylvan Library 1 Worldly Tutor (don't need this, will take it out) White: 3 Armageddon 2 Disenchant (usually didn't need this either) Land: 4 Brushland 4 Vec Towsnship 12 Forest Sideboard: 4 Scragnoth 4 Honorable Passage (saved my neck in semi-finals) 2 Disenchant 2 City of Solitude (saved my neck in first round) 2 Lifeforce (fear of Perish) 1 Choke I realize that the deck isn't very original, but I did think of it myself, before reading about some of the things on the net. When I saw the Endangered Armodon, I immediately thought of the old Ernhageddon decks (though that was way before I ever started playing) and went to work. The Wildebeest/Wall of Blossoms thing came out naturally. The deck's fairly easy to play, though I have to work on playing against Wrath of God. The Rounds: First round: The Donais U5C deck (forget the guy's name) Game 1: This game was slow and boring, but I got to see every card in his deck and see how it works. It was exactly the Donais deck from the Dojo. I hate it when it works. The key to his victory was Wrath of God and Gerrard's Blessing. He gained 40 life in this game, and kept recursing his counters and Wraths with Gaea's Blessing. I finally conceded, but he would have fireballed me to death on his next turn anyway. Game 2: I start out a little slow, on purpose, then fake him out with a Vineyard, which he counters, and then I play my dang City of Solitude. Yeah! From there I proceed to beat him up with elephants before he can Wrath or Wisdom. Game 3: This game was similar to the second, but he was slightly mana screwed and mulliganed down to be still mana screwed. He disenchanted one City just to have me play another (lucky draw – I only have 2). He also mana burned from the Vineyard, which made him die all that much quicker when I Armageddoned. Yow! 1-0 / 2-1 Second Round: W/R/etc. Kor/Earthquake/Mogg Maniac (Julie) Game 1: Julie had just beaten her boyfriend with his own deck, but seeing as how he had made it, she made some mistakes playing. I basically started out strong because she had trouble using the Vineyard mana and was stuck without red mana (I don't think I knew she was even playing red) and she ended up chump blocking to stay alive long enough. Game 2: I can't believe this! I mana burned from my own 2 Vineyards because I kept drawing land and she played a Pursuit of Knowledge (using 3 mana) on one turn, and incinerated my Trumpeting Armodon (mana sink). She was at like 1 or 2 life when drew a stinking forest and burnt to death (I could have attacked then and won, or she would have burned next turn). She also kept plunking away at me with a Soltari Priest, which I hate. I have to sideboard like Bullwhip or something. Game 3: This game she gets a little bit of a mana screw again, and I beat down with elephants again. I can't remember many details. 2-0 / 4-2 Third Round: U/G Tradewind Rider and Junk (John) Game 1: He gets really screwed and mana burns every turn in addition to taking 4 points of Endangered Armodon damage. I mean, he's playing green and can't even use the Vineyard! Game 2: This time I get screwed. No land, mulligan. No land, mulligan. 5 cards now, still no land, but I've got a Vineyard so I figure I'd better go for it. I don't draw land until my second draw, then he disenchants my Vineyard right away and gets out his Tradewind Rider and some Birds of Paradise and starts sending my only land back to my hand so I have to discard and I soon realize that he's got me locked. Ouch. Game 3: His turn to get screwed again and I beat him up. Unfortunately, we never got a good chance to play our decks. But I'd rather be on the lucky side of the mana screw match anyway. 3-0 / 6-3 Fourth Round: W/U weird control w/ Snake Baskets (John O.) A draw gets us both into the playoffs, and we've played each other in other tournaments and get along really well, so we intentionally draw. We play one game for the heck of it, and he Wraths and Wisdoms and I think I hate those two cards. I lose this one to a lot of snakes, but hey, it didn't matter. 3-0-1 / 6-3-1 Semifinals: Julie's Kor/Earthquake/Maniac deck again. Game 1: Although I had lost a game in every match, I'm the #1 seed because out of the 4 people I faced, 3 are in the playoffs: John, John O. and Julie. I'm pretty confident about playing Julie again but I had seen her deck "go off" in a tie-breaker match and she earthquaked for 4, then redirected the damage from two Kor guys all to the dang Maniac and that was that: 16 damage! So I'm a little nervous. But anyway, game 1 was a race to kill each other in different planes. Luckily my armodons were bigger than her Soltari Priest (again!) and she didn't know to redirect all of the 8/7 wildebeest's damage back onto her Kor guy who blocked it. Game 2: She sideboards well and the judge warns her boyfriend to stop giving her help (they're both nice people, but I still don't like him telling her what to sideboard and how to block). She get a cursed scroll and is able to incinerate too many of my creatures. I also take 4 damage because she blocked my armodon with the Maniac and she Priests me to death. I hate those Priests. Game 3: This game was almost the same as the second except worse. She disenchanted 2 Vineyards right off the bat and used the mana to cast Aura of Silence. She had the dang Priest out again and a Derelor and a few redirector. So while I'm attacking with lots of big guys, she keeps only losing one creature per turn. Undaunted, I keep stockpiling creatures, hoping against hope for some way to win. Here's how it went: I had to use an Honorable Passage to prevent 2 measly points of Priest damage, but she was still scrolling me a lot. She Tithed for 2 plains and then on her turn had to return an Undiscovered Paradise to her hand. She drew and then played a plains, bringing her land total to 3, and she used them to Scroll me by calling "Plains." I picked up a die and cast a 6, which happened to correspond to the Undiscovered! Whew! Then she Priested me down to four. Next turn I draw Armageddon! I drop it, bringing me down to 3 life (with Brushland because Vec Twp. was depleted) and attacked for a lot of damage (she was at like 15 life, she blocks with her last surviving Kor and takes 5). Next turn she has plays a plains and can only attack with the Priest, so I'm at 1 life. Turn over, I take my turn and attack like crazy with like 14 points of damage! I win! She's upset because she had 3 plains in hand along with the Undiscovered Paradise, and she played a Plains, thus allowing me the opportunity to pick the Undiscovered when she tried to Scroll me. Understandable, but hey, I'll take a few lucky breaks when they come my way. 4-0-1 / 8-4-1 Off to the finals Finals: John O.'s W/U weird control w Snake Baskets again Game 1: This is the same guy I drew against in the last round of Swiss. It's getting late and my 2 month old son is getting restless and my wife wants to go home. John suggests we draw, and so we do. That's $37.50 of store credit each, not so bad. We play anyway, and I beat him solidly because he taps out to play a Blinking Spirit to block my Endangered Armodon, then next turn I draw, and play Armageddon. I just do 4 points of damage at a time until he's dead. That's how it's supposed to work. But anyway, it works out well, because we actually played two games and we each won one, so the Draw was a good idea. 4-0-2 / 8-4-2 Tied for First Place Anyway, I tied for First Place and picked up the 8 new Vanguard cards, 2 crusades, 2 Order of the White Shield, another Uktabi Orangutan, some counters, and 6 Stronghold boosters. Of the six rares I got, 3 of them come with the preconsrtucted decks and the other three suck. John got a Pursuit of Knowledge and this other guy who bought a pack of Italian Legends for $7 got a Mirror Universe. If you've got any ideas on this deck, or anything similar, please let me know: email me with comments and suggestions: Pat Madden pcm2@email.byu.edu