Subject: Tourney report, TSE qualifier Columbus Oh, 9th Date: Mon, 07 Sep 1998 16:40:23 -0400 From: Adam To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com The tourney was held at the hotel adjacent to the convention center that origins was held at. 6 rounds swiss 64+ particapants. The deck I went with was one I was hoping would not be expected, and I couldnt have been more right. It was a land kill deck (mono-red) based on the basic engine of the deck Alan Comer was going to play at worlds TSE portion. I will list both decks so you can see the similarities and differences. The Decks: Comer Mine 17 mountains 19 mountains 4 wastelands 4 wastelands 2 ancient tombs 4 stone rain 4 stone rain 4 flowstone flood 4 flowstone flood 1 aftershock 1 aftershock 1 scortched earth 4 erratic portals 4 erratic portals 1 bottle gnome 4 spheres of resistance 4 manakins 4 shocks 4 shocks 2 rolling thunder 1 rolling thunder 4 mogg fanitics 4 mogg fanitics 4 mogg conscripts 2 shard pheonix 2 starke of rath 2 starke of rath 2 ravenous baboons 1 ravenous baboon 3 anarchists 3 anarchists Despite only changing 13 cards from the orginal I believe that it makes a huge difference in both the effectiveness of the deck as well as the way that the deck is played. The side board was not listed for Mr. Comers deck but I went with the following. 4 torture chambers 1 ancient tomb 1 ravenous baboon 3 bottle gnomes 1 rolling thunder 4 boil 1 shard pheonix A brief sumary of the reasoning behind the cards I changed. Shard pheonix, good creature, excellent ability vs counter spells ( no dissapate) and as a finisher/board control. Scortched earth, a way to burn excess land and a way to 2nd turn kill 2 land (mountain, tomb, 2 lands in hand and scortched earth) good vs weenie decks that run few land. Spheres of resistance, 1 of them shuts down anything relying on dark rituals for speed, any number of them are good with land kill, and preventing creatures from being recast once returned with the portal. On to the report: Round 1 vs. trade/awakening Game 1 I suspect he had a bad mana draw and expected his 3 walls of blossoms would buy him the time he needed. I killed his 2 lands turn 2 and 3 (thanx tomb) and before he played another I had 2 spheres and a lot of land, it was just a matter of time. Game 2 gets to 4 land too fast 2 awakenings make my later land kill less effective, get bored into concession (is there any other way these decks kill you?) Game 3 Early land kill going but he gets out a scroll rack and begins digging in his deck for land, he gets 8 cards deep before I kill his final land he was using to activate the scroll rack, beat him down with mogg fanitics. Round 2 1-0 (2-1) vs. living death Game 1 He gets a few of his lands killed early and was unable to put up an early offense. Was holding lands to discard to diamonds, he got to 3 land before tapping out with a Starke and an erratic portal on the board, destroyed all of his diamonds, he conceedes when a sphere hits the board. Game 2 He mulligans twice and then faces a flow stone flood bought back a number of times. He conceedes with no land as starke hits the table Round 3 2-0 (4-1) Jess ? (some pro tour guy?) white weenie Game 1 might have been the scariest game for him all day. He drops a few lands and manages to drop 2 creatures, as I am taking a beating I kill all of his lands with flow stone flood bought back with and ancient tomb (5 life a shot) Get to 1 life as my mana base becomes less painful portal his paladin envec and shock his only remaining creature ( a kor) and proceed to drop 2 spheres and beat him with a lovely asortment of creatures. game 2 my hope was land kill or torture chambers. With only 1 land kill and my torture chamber disenchanted I fall to a hore of creature that are proteced from red or redirect to protection to red. game 3 see game 2. Round 4 2-1 (5-3) Tracy (local team) Green vinyard/fattie Game 1 He mulligans twice, only a few land for him means game for me. I havent seen much of his deck so I dont side. Game 2 He mulligans to 5 cards searching for a vinyard (I found out later) and another miserable land draw for him means game for me. (He played no diamonds, 1 of only 2 people I faced that didn't) Round 5 3-1 (7-3) Nathan Heist (former Pro tour player) Curious tradewind Game 1 he gets a million land. I play weenie (as much as the deck can) and beat him. Game 2 Decent back and forth game but a few too many land kill and a sphere get countered. Game 3 Did you know that a shard pheonix only effects ground creatures when its sacrificed? Well I did but for some reason I didnt until I had sacrificed 2... ...yes 2 mogg fanitics at a tradewind, and had just cast a shard pheonix and had almost sacrificed it, that I remembered that that mistake, in a number of peoples opinions, cost me that game as well as a place in the top 8. I later forgot to return the pheonix during an upkeep. I didnt conceed because had I drawn my rolling thunder I could have burned him to death (He was at 8) Round 6 3-2 (8-5) Counter pheonix Game 1 Total confusion for him as he had no idea what to counter, nor any idea of the decks contents. (he was one of the few that hadn't heard what I was playing) Beat him in a pheonix vs. pheonix, easy as I killed all his red mana. Game 2 Very similar to game 1. This is perhaps the best match-up for this deck. Finished 9th (as I deserved) 4-2 (10-5) Finishing notes I believe that this is and effective deck and I would prepare for it in the future. If and one has any ideas comments ect. feel free to e-mail me (Adam Stansbery) at Cobalt60@udata.com.