Subject: Grand Prix: Boston - Tournament Report Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 19:38:38 -0400 From: "Mike Bregoli" To: Umm.. Yea so ever since Nationals me and a couple buddies of mine (especially Dr. Eric Warren =) ) have been playtesting this Rath cycle format in preparation for the Grand Prix. After all, when is the next chance we will have to have a Grand Prix on home turf like this, neh? So early on in testing we had a few decks that were alright: Living Death, sligh, blue, ww, and a neat humility/prayer/bridge/brooch/pit deck but the deck that seemed best was Suicide Black... Then came Worlds and everyone and their mother it seems played Suicide Black (also known as Hatred.Dec) to great success... That sort of spelled the end of us playing black at the Grand Prix as everyone would be prepared for it now.. =( Back to the drawing board.. After Worlds it was much easier to determine the metagame. The field was dominated by 5 major decks: Humility, Awakening, Hatred, Sligh, and Death. We tried building some decks that could beat this field, including some extensive testing with White Weenie, but just couldn't get it to beat Death consistently... =( Finally I decided to play Sligh as it is was the most consistent deck in the field. There is no deck out there that just beats sligh. It's matchup vs Death isn't as bad as some people would have you believe, and it has a favorable matchup vs Awakening and Hatred.. Note that in our testing we played fairly standard copies of the Awakening decks off the net, not the anti-sligh variants that were going around at the GP =(... also I was not prepared for Oath of Druids, however.. which does do a pretty good job at hosing Sligh.. =( Death didn't seem so attractive because it gets beat by Hatred, Awakening, and Humility. Humility gets beat by Awakening and Hatred, Awakening gets beat by Sligh and Hatred, Hatred gets beat by Sligh and so on.. blablablah.. I head off to Andover Friday night with Tom =)ly and Bill Bovenzi. Arrive at the hotel pretty early and wander around the place aimlessly stealing random complimentary items heh.. Eventually a swarm of Magical players arrive and after watching some big name players play in big money drafts I go off w/ Farkas, Kibler and Sped to playtest. Here I get to see the CounterPheonix decks that would be at the top tables the next day. Make that 6 official deck archetypes for Rath cycle now please. heh... So we do some testing and I discover that my sligh deck has not so good of a matchup vs these pheonix decks game 1. Hmmm better have something good to sideboard vs them... also upon the suggestion of David Williams I make room for 2 Rathi Dragons in my deck... aside from that I learn little ... I have my deck all set except for a couple sideboard choices... Go off to hang out w/ other ppl including Rob Shaw, Juliane Parker, and Brian Lynch among others... Lynch seems to play 10x better w/ some alcohol in his system.. imagine that... I write down my decklist and then as Jamie Parke would say "I was cold"... The deck.. WPI Sligh 4 Mogg Fanatic (Mogg - Half man, half dog... he's his own best friend!) 4 Jackal Pup 4 Mogg Raider 4 Mogg Flunky 4 Fireslinger 3 Canyon Wildcat 2 Rathi Dragons 25 Creatures 4 Shock 3 Kindle 3 Sonic Burst 10 burn 4 Maniacle Rage 1 Goblin Bombardment 5 random spells 4 Wasteland 16 Mountains 20 land.. Sideboard 4 STEEL CAGE 4 Bottle Gnomes 3 Ancient Tombs 3 Spellshock 1 Jinxed Idol The gameplan was this: Vs other sligh decks I would just do a straight-up switch Jackal Pups for Bottle Gnomes Vs Living Death I would take out Rathi's, Kindles, a wasteland, and another random card for the Cages and Ancient Tombs to help support the cage (also anti chill) Vs Awakening I would take out Rathi's, Flunkies, and some random card for the Tombs, Spellshocks, and idol, This switch is because Awakening often SB's in chill/propaganda. Rathi is difficult to cast w/ a chill out, and often gets capsized anyway.. also dont want to be destroying my own mountains when my opponent has ganda. Flunky is also not so strong vs Ganda.. Tombs however, are quite strong vs chill/ganda... Vs CounterPheonix I would take out shocks and put in the spellshock/idol Vs Humility I would take out flunkies for spellshock/idol Vs Hatred I would.... just win. heh The sideboard was pretty good... the only thing I would prob change now is drop the spellshocks perhaps for more Idols... Spellshock is a house vs CounterPheonix but Idol is pretty important to help deal w/ Oath of Druids.. I wake up the next day and stagger down to the tournament hall to register then promptly return to my room .. =) Ahh three byes... in the course of only a few hours I managed to take a nap, shower, harass some PT playas, and go out to eat.. =) it was great! heh.. Round 1-3 I played some dude named 'Bye' three times in a row... he didn't put up much of a fight really.. Round 4 Play vs some dude w/ Tradewind-Awakening. First game is a beating as I beat him down in typical sligh fashion. Game 2 he gets out 2 propagandas but ANCIENT TOMBS TO THE RESCUE as I attack with something Maniacle to win... 4-0 Round 5 Play vs some other dude w/ Tradewind--Awakening... I win first game and im thinking damn if my opponents keep not drawing their wall of blossoms im in for an easy day! When your opponent taps 2 on turn 2 you're like oh no the awesome blossom but then they play Legacy's Allure so its all good =) heh... Game 2 I get a maniacle pup then he drops turn 2 chill, turn 3 prop, turn 4 Erratic Portal.. wow... talk about stunting my mana = ( Ancient Tombs pulls through again as I get barely kill him before he takes control... 5-0 The Awakening decks that SB in chill/awakening aren't that hard for the sligh deck to beat... both those cards dont really stop the beatdown (especially if I've got an ancient Tomb) .... by the time you got your 2 chills and a ganda out youve already taken 12 from my maniacle pup and you STILL need a way to deal with it.. Round 6 Play vs Darwin Kastle playing Death... game 1 is a close one. I got him down to 1 but he has spike feeder + volraths stronghold.... I wasteland his pine barrens and when he recurs his feeder back to top of his deck he doesn't have enough green to cast it.. =( I modified my gameplan slightly as Darwin doesnt play your typical Living Death deck so I sideboarded a little differently... kept the Kindles and took out the bursts instead as Darwin plays w/ alot of "kindleable" creatures and not alot of tradewind/weaver action.. Game 2 I get out a couple early creatures w/ Ancient Tombs then win w/ the Steel Cage Grudge Match! 6-0 Round 7 I have to play against Finkel... nobody can beat Finkel.. =( I did manage to take game 2 w/ the Steel Cage tho.. heh 6-1 Round 8 Play vs Mike Pustilnick playing Tradewind-Awakening... game 1 is a beating.. I go first turn pup.. he plays skyshroud forest.. i go waste forest, attack play fanatic, he goes Skyshroud Forest #2, I waste that as well.. he plays Skyshroud Forest #3, and by the time he has an untapped land available he is at 12 staring down 3 creatures... and he doesnt even have a wall of blossoms.. =( sorry Mike =( ... Game 2 is all about Mike not drawing any blue mana or an Oath of Druids for the first 4 turns.. =( 7-1 Round 9 Play vs Dave Humphries playing Tradewind-Awakening... sheesh whats w/ all these awakening decks.. my silly Rathi Dragons have had to sit the bench every match so far! ...=( Game 1 is a long 45 minute affair w/ Dave eventually taking control and I conceed.. =( I make mistake #1 of the tournament in playing a flunky instead of a fireslinger with Dave tapped out =( Game 2 Dave has a good sideboard that doesnt consist of lame enchantments instead consisting of more creatures and torture chambers... Torture Chamber wrecks me and Spellshock backfires for me in a big way.. oh well... couldn't have lost to a better guy.. =) 7-2 Round 10 Play vs Brian Kibler playing CounterPheonix... first game perhaps i should have mulliganned but i had 2 creatures (1 being a flunky =( ) and alot of burn so i play... my 2nd turn fireslinger gets shocked and my 3rd turn flunky just sits there looking dumb as i keep drawing shocks and kindles.. I get Kibler down to something low but shocks/kindles aint no fireblast/scroll so I succomb to the Pheonix beatdown.. Game 2 and 3 is all all about forcing Kibler to tap out to play Pheonix then laying Rathi or Spellshock... Kibler got suboptimal draws these games too.. =( 8-2 Round 11 Play vs some dude playing CounterDeath? hmm.. didnt get to see much of his deck as I beat him down quickly and he never really got more than 4 land .. the only cards i saw come out of his deck are whispers, counters, gnomes, and legacys allures... I know he played Living Death as well though... oh well magic is all about luck sometimes.. I SBed like a madman against this guy bringing in Tombs, Portcullis, AND spellshock... it was umm .. somewhat wack.. 9-2 Round 12 Play vs some dude playing sligh... game 1 I get wrecked by conscripts and flunkies... games 2 I win through double maniacle raged fanatic... and game 3 Rathi Dragon comes out to play finally and deals 10 before dying to double sonic burst. =) Rathi did his job and I won.. 10-2 Round 13 Intentional Draw w/ Randy Beuhler.... 10-1-2 Final 8 Play vs Zvi and have to mulligan both games .. my draw was so bad game 1 that Zvi didnt even have to use his 2 Legacy's Allures just sitting there on the table.. =( ... I didn't bother SBing in Ancient Tombs as I knew Zvi didn't have any chills or propagandas ... just the Oath of Doom! =( ..Game 2 is all about turn 2 Oath of Druids.. =( The gameplan was to beat Zvi game 1 and hope he doesn't draw the Oath one of the other two games.. but since I lost the game 1 that strategy failed miserablly =( heh.. oh well.. Grand Prix was a blast.. I enjoyed hanging out with everyone and especially being a nuisance at 4 in the morning.. Obligatory props/slops yadda yadda blablablah... Props Dave Humphreys, Mike Lucarello and Alex Schvartsmen - congrats on qualifying guys you deserve it.. Jon Finkel - You truly are a machine. =) Juliane Parker and Tom Smiley - Two pretty cool guys to hang out w/ at 4am.. Down w/ Nazism at Mobil! heh Team Sped, Kibler, Williams - Thanks for help w/ last minute playtesting, etc.. =) Brian Lynch and Rob Shaw - Perhaps you guys should double check your decklists so no more DQs =( Will Morgan - congrats on picking up the 500 billz dude .. too bad you had to play some scrub w/ Oath of Druids last round.. =( Dave Price - for signing my Pups! Nat Fairbanks - for judging with AUTHORITY =) and everybody else who was cool ... =) Slops no slops ... pretty much everybody was cool.... Later.. Mike Bregoli