Subject: [Report] The deck w/recursion Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1998 08:59:25 +0200 (MET DST) From: Carl Devos To: Frank Kusumoto Hi, On Saturday 23rd of May Wizard's Arena held a Type I event. Small turnout, but almost everybody had the power cards, meaning everybody was fighting on the same ground. Thanks to Christophe Meester and Dominique Symens for lending me the OOPs I was missing. This gave me the opportunity to play once again a Mirror deck: 1 Balance 1 StoP 2 Disenchant 3 Gaea's Blessing 1 Pyroblast 1 Gorilla Shaman 1 Fireball 1 Demonic Tutor 1 The Abyss 1 Amnesia 3 Mystical Tutor 3 Impulse 1 Ancestral Recall 1 Time Walk 1 Pyroclasm 4 Mana Drain 3 Force of Will 1 Braingeyser 1 Emmessi Tome 1 Mirror Universe 1 Zuran Orb 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Pearl 1 Mox Ruby 1 Mox Sapphire 1 Black Lotus 1 Sol Ring 1 Fellwar Stone 4 City of Brass 3 Wasteland 1 Strip Mine 1 Library of Alexandria 4 Island 4 Tundra 3 Volcanic Island 60 cards Sideboard 1 StoP 1 CoP Red 1 Sacred Ground 1 Disenchant 1 Moat 1 Pyroblast 1 Gorilla Shaman 1 Timetwister 2 Disrupt 3 Hydroblast 1 Zuran Orb 1 Jester's Cap Round 1: Thierry Verhoest playing 5CU weenie Thierry is playing an original deck of his with 20+ creatures: Dib, Serendib Djinn, Man o War, Merfolk Riders, Lord of Atlantis, Unstable Mutation and some counters. I get my lone StoP in my inital hand, have no problem to take control of the game and win thanks to a Mirror. I SB in 1 extra StoP and Pyroblast. Thierry manages to pass a Blood Moon through my counters. He is pounding me with an Mutant Serendib Djinn and a weenie. He casts another Unstable Mutation on the weenie. I wait for the first counter on it then disenchant it, so it dies (it was a */1 creature). I am still taking a lot from the Djinn, but I can bear it as I have Mirror and Zuran Orb on the board. Once I'm down to 2, I sac the Mirror and take some more from the Djinn along with a Manta Riders Thierry just summoned. I start sacking land to the Orb (the Djinn is now 3/4 or so).Thierry has to sacrifice a land a turn. Since he's playing five colours, he has a lot of non Islands, but run out of it and must soon sac an Island, losing 3 lives, enough to kill him :) What a funny way of winning! 2-0, 3 points. Round 2: Pierre Cools playing his Mirror deck Pierre built up a very good classic ranking with his deck, thus he knows the inside and outside of it. I put a hole in his head in the first, he's got Amnesia and Geyser. He mystic-tutors for a Balance I believe, but doesn't play it. Too bad for him, as I was holding a Geyser and no more counters. I win. I sb in a Cap, a Pyroblast and a Shaman. I start game 2 with a 1st turn Shaman. The little guy hit him 14 times 8-) Pierre got a Cap on the board that I can't stop; he takes Mirror, Cap, Geyser, then plays an Insect. I am unable to attack with the Shaman. Winnning the counter war, he then put out a Mirror. I mystic tutor for a Fireball and kill him. This one was very close, another counter from him and I was dead meat. 2-0, 6 points. Round 3: Pierre Giraudroux playing control Pierre doesn't often play type 1 because he doesn't have the power 9 anymore. Today he managed to put his hands on a full set and went for a Mirror deck with a lot of counters and 2 Snake Baskets. I lose the first to his 7 snake tokens. I sb in the extra Pyroblast, the Moat instead of the Abyss. In the second game, I am not able to stop a big Geyser. He kills me with a sideboarded Rainbow Efreet, nice move as I couldn't kill it once it was on the board. Key play of the match: his Rebound on my Ancestral Recall. Pierre has found a very good sb card IMO: it takes care of a lot of threats: Hymn, Amnesia, Geyser, Ancestral, Fireball and probably some more I can't think of. 0-2, 6 points. Round 4: Nicolas Vidovic playing control It's the first time I see Nicolas in a tourney. He was very nice. His deck is not very original with Mirror and Snake Basket to kill. I have no problem dealing with him (he is mana screwed in game 2). This is the only match where I could really recurse the Ancestral (I believe I cast it 5 times in the 2nd game). 2-0, 9 points. Round 5: Dominic Symens playing Mishra's Deck Dominic is playing type 1 again since the Workshop is unrestricted. His deck features Juggernaut, Walking Wall, Jade Statue, and other biggies, along with Arcane Denial, big blues. Barbed Sextant rounds the mana. I lose game 1 to a Juggerault I can't stop. I sideboard extra Plow, Moat and Disenchant and ZOrb (to kill his Workshop with Balance). In the second game, Dominic quickly jump at my throat with 2 Factories and a Walking Wall. I drop a Mirror, but want to wait until the last moment to blow it (it will have to be defensively, as I don't have any City of Brass). I start eating my lands to my 2 ZOrbs. Thanks to Gaea's Blessing, I recycle Balance and a Mystical Tutor. It's his turn, he thinks for some time, then announce his end of turn. I've been thinking (too) deeply, wake up, untap and... draw! Dammit! I had to sac the Mirror to survive :-( I concede and we go on for the fun to see if I would have won had I not forgotten to sac my Mirror: it would have been 1-1. Too bad I scrubbed. 0-2, 9 points. Round 6: Christophe Meester playing Mishra's Deck Christophe designed the deck with Dominic from round 5. They both have their own version, but it's basically the same deck. In the first game, I manage to trick Christophe with burn in my untap phase after untapping, followed by some Mirror action. Christophe is a Magic dinosaur (playing since UL or so) and he's not aware of all the latest rulings. This costs him the game. I sideboard as in round 5. We don't have time to finish the next game, so it's a draw, but we go on to determine to outcome: again a Mirror kill, after his Disenchant on my Moat. Christophe is still a bit pissed about the burn trick in the first game, but he's sport. 1-0-1, 12 points. Of course 4 wins out of 6 isn't enough to get a prize. If only I knew how to use a Mirror... Well, I am happy with the deck. I never used the Disrupt so they will be replaced by Rebound. Still, I am not sure that Gaea's Blessing is that good. It might be a bit slow. Comments welcome. Carl