Subject: [TOURNAMENT] Urza's Saga Pre-release @ Neutral Ground - SF Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1998 16:49:44 -0700 From: Daniel DuBois To: "'fkusumot@ix.netcom.com'" Hello, my name is Daniel DuBois, and this is my tournament report. I went 6-0 at the Sunday Northern California Urza's Sage Pre-release. When I constructed my deck at the beginning of the day, I thought for sure it would be a "2-2 and drop" deck; it seemed to have one or two 'I win" conditions, but those were expensive, and I questioned my ability to provide a good defense until the "I win" could be drawn and successfully cast. I dismissed Confiscate as being too slow at 6cc. I also underestimated the power of little kiddie magic (my term for creature enhances) -- Serra's Embrace is strong. I made 3/4 pro-red, no-tapping fliers all day long. // I win 1 Confiscate 1 Serra's Embrace 1 Drifting Djinn // Creature control 2 Pacifism 1 Heat Ray 1 Arc Lightning // Stupid creatures, meant for chumping, blocking, or trading. 1 Horseshoe Crab 1 Coral Merfolk 1 Voice of Grace 1 Opal Acrolith 1 Pegasus Charger // Tricks 1 Turnabout 1 Disenchant // The real reasons I won as much as I did 2 Spire Owl 1 Clear 1 Sandbar Serpent 2 Disciple of Law 1 Sandbar Merfolk 1 Smoldering Crater 1 Remote Isle 1 Drifting Meadow // Lands 6 Plain 6 Island 2 Mountain More on "The real reasons I won as much as I did": While my opponents were forced to play with a 40-card deck, I had the benefit of playing with a 31 card deck. 9 cyclers was huge. Turn two Spire Owl ensured I would not be stalling for land - I almost always put all the lands on top so that I would be able to play a land every turn for the first 4-6 turns. If there was going to be any stalling - cycle something. Opponent not playing red? Pitch a Disciple. Spire reveals a Disenchant coming up? Pitch a Clear to draw. Draw a Sandbar Merfolk? Pitch it. (I don't think I cast him all day. Even when I did a turn one Island, I'd still wait to see if my opponent would play a 2/1 creatures before casting him. No one ever did, except for goblins, in which case, Disciple was better anyway.) I don't need to explain how playing with 14 'real' lands is a benefit, do I? Round 1: R/G/u (??) Some older gentleman who didn't seem to have designed the best deck. In both games he played little more than 1/1's and 2/2's. I'd take a little damage early get up the slightest bit of defense, and fly over for the win. Also in both games, he'd enchant up some creature on the 4th or 5th turn, only to have me promptly pacify it, netting me the big card advantage. Two main deck 2cc cheap pro-reds meant goblin beatdown would not be an effective strategy against me on this day. Round 2: B/G/r (Erik Finklestein) I only remembered this person's name because I had played him the day earlier and he gave me my first loss. I told him how upset I was to be playing a 'grudge match' against him because my deck was rather weak. First game I won, I believe by Confiscating a treefolk to hold the ground while I performed flying weenie beatdown. At that point, I proclaimed: "Hmm, maybe my deck isn't so bad." The next game I struggled to deal with the multitude of large ground creature he laid out, using a Pacifism on a Order of Yawgmoth early, and was finished off by Pestilence. (I had drawn both my Clear and my Disenchant, but when both were sitting in my hand, I burned the Clear, and then later Disenchanted an Abundance.) I resolved myself to not blow Clears so easily through the rest of the day, and especially not in our third game. The third game he had lots of mana, but not black mana until I had him halfway dead with flying weenies. When he finally laid a Polluted Mire, I considered Confiscating it, but decided that would just be rubbing it in, and felt Confiscating whatever mean thing he might possibly play with the black mana would be to right play. I'm still not sure what the right play was -- he did start to mount a comeback, drawing a second swamp 2 turns later and casting a Western Paladin (which can't kill the serving Voice of Grace). I confiscated something and raced with his gray ogres to victory. Round 3: G/W/u (name unknown) This guy knew what he was doing and had a good deck. I was feeling pretty confident though - I had gone 4-1 in games, without ever having drawn the fat moti. I figured if my deck can go 4-1 without a 5/5 flier, it probably would be pretty good if it drew one! The first game starts off with him going turn 4 Argothian Wurm. I had stalled at 2 or 3 mana, but had lots of cyclers in my hand and on top of my library, having seen 15 cards of my deck, and seen 0 of 2 Pacifism, I resolved myself to draw an answer in short order, and decided not to sac a land to keep it from coming out because of my land situation. That was a mistake, as I didn't draw an answer. But here's where I made a huge, gross mistake: I decided to chump block with 3 creatures, a 2/1, a 1/1, and a 2/4. I said: "Ready to move to damage prevention?" Yes. "Any effects?". No. I then looked at the creature, looked at him, and wondered why he wasn't burying the wurm. Then I stared at the creatures in my hand, mumbled something to myself about how "Knowing how to count is strong", and promptly conceded. Game two and three went much better. At some point (can't remember after which game), I sideboarded out 4 red-based cards for 3 swamps, an Expunge, and an Unworthy Dead (not all of his big green things trampled). I drew the mana I needed, the Pacifisms I needed, the I Win cards I needed, and basically had an answer for everything. I burned a Clear early on a Carpet of Flowers, which I later regretted when he gave me a much better target (I believe he Pacified my moti), but was still able to win with some comfort. I also remember not even needing the Expunge I drew late (or was that game three). Third game I would have died horribly if he had drawn a Hush: He would have destroyed 2 of my Pacifisms and a Confiscate and beaten the hell out of me. (He would have destroyed about 4 of his own enchantments, including a Pacifism on the Confiscated creature, but it wouldn't have hurt him much at all.) He didn't draw the Hush, and the moti mows down some of his life, then his chumps, then the rest of his life. If he had dealt with the moti, someone would have become Embraced by Serra however, so it really was all about not drawing Hush. Round 4: B/R/u (Ryan Reynolds) This match was pretty stupid. First game he kept the one land mulligan, and started discarding. I beat him up. Second game was all about him going first and me only having one white mana. There were alot of times I wanted to cast two white spells in a cycle: Play blockers and Disenchant, Play a blocker and Healing Salve to protect a creature, play Serra's Embrace. He was able to punch through enough damage with fast efficient weenies before I could stabilize, and having to blow my Disenchant on his Shiv's Embrace'd goblin (instead of making my pro-red Disciple a 3/4 non-tapping flier) meant I had no answer for his Pestilence to finish me off. Third game he again(!) keeps the one land mulligan and starts discarding. I start slowly, but have a handful of good reactive cards and am able to answer pretty much everything even after he starts recovering. He never does get the 2nd black mana he needs to cast all his spells though. We play a fourth game for fun, and he's a little mana shy in that one as well (no discarding, but still not a reasonable game) so I win. I talk about how stupid magic is, remembering all the time I got manascrewed playing this game, and lost (and won!), not because I was a lesser (or better) player, but because I drew poorly compared to my opponent. Then I think to myself about how I haven't gotten mana-screwed today, and more and more realize just how huge my cycling ability and library manipulation was. I had designed my deck to always give me what I want. It's not about having broken combo's in sealed: it's about drawing the right cards, and being able to cast those cards at the right time. I spend the rest of the day talking about how I built a "Cycling Deck" in sealed, and how amazing Cycling is. Round 5: R/U/g (??) He mulligans three times and sits on one mountain for about 3 turns. I felt so sorry for the guy, I began playing like a real scrub: I waste removal spells and counter magic on 1/1's and 1/3's that have no hope of racing me when I've already beaten him down to 10 with a Pegasus Charger. I Powersink a stupid creature so that his Veil of Birds will become a 1/1, just so I don't have to worry about wanting to cast something with a higher cc later on: when I could have just waited until I played 6 land and Confiscated his Veil of Birds (strong!). I still win, but what basically happened was is I gave him every chance to come back by being a scrub in the mental game. Second game he plays only mountains for a while and I make a 3/4 pro-red Serra and play with a bit more viciousness. Round 6: R/B/W (John O'Neil) I offer to split the sum of the prizes, regardless of the outcome of the match. My opponent refuses, giving me some excuse about how he's agreed to spilt his prizes with his friends. For some reason, I get offended, and say "Fine. I hope you split 6 packs with your friends." (If you go 6 wins, you get a box, if you go 5 wins, you get 6 packs.) He had a deck that was chock full of great cards: Angelic Chorus, Wall of Junk (combo!), Dragon Blood, Torch Song, lots of good creatures, lots of good removal. The first game sees me almost dying while I draw 14 land in my first 22 cards. He kills my moti, then kills the flier I Confiscated, and things are looking grim. His Sanctum Custodian is slowly but surely beating me down with a Opal titan on the table strongly discouraging me from playing the weenies that are building up in my hand to block. finally around 3 life I decide I can't take it anymore, and drop the herd, including a Spire Owl I'm holding, giving the Opal pro-blue. The owl puts a Pacifism on top of my library and chumps the Opal next turn. When I pacifism the Opal, and see that he's going to start losing to fliers, he drops a set of gray ogres and gains life to the Angelic Chorus. I squeak out a win with a Serra's Embrace'd Coral Merfolk, leaving my pro-red and my pro-black behind to block his black and red creature respectively (each growing with Dragon Blood), and win with one card left in my library. Second game he beats the hell out of me with a fast Viashino Outrider, that he starts pumping with Dragon Blood. I keep coming up with answers, he comes up with counter answers: blocker? killed. Pacifism? disenchant. chumper? killed before block. How many cards? One?! Whoa, only one? My hand is still beefy, and a Djinni is on top of my library! I confiscate his 5/4, pay the echo, drop a Coral Merfolk, make it a Serra, and kill in 3 turns. I spent the next half an hour whooping, doing a little jig, pumping my fist, and talking at length with my friends about beatdown and service. Daniel DuBois #irc Pizzatog ddubois@pobox.com