Subject: [Report] Static Oath, by Cedric Nouveau Date: Sun, 26 Jul 1998 11:43:19 +0200 From: Nouveau To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Tournament report: Static Oath, by Cedric Nouveau Disclaimer: this report was written by a person not living in an English speaking country. Flames for bad grammar/spelling are welcome, but in French ;-) Sunday 19 th I was in Paris, France and participated in a 70+ players tournament at Ostelen, the Parisian game center. It was a type 2 tournament (seven Swiss rounds) for which I expected green, suicide black, big blue, perhaps some bloom and a few oath decks. -----The deck---------- I chose to play my latest creation, Static Oath, a U/G/b oath of druid deck (Surprising, isn't it ?half of the magic players in the world are doing the same !). I felt it was very strong against creature decks, but slow against combo deck. So I sideboarded heavily against them. It has a strong U base, to get the oath (impulse), protect it (counters) and slow down the opponent (propaganda). Green was used for the oath of druid, obviously, but also gaea's blessing and my artifact/enchantment control, creeping mold. An instant would have been better, but I didn't want to add a fourth color for disenchant. Black was here to cast spirit of the night in the very late game against a creatureless deck, and allowed me to play lobotomy, a.k.a. summon counterspell ;-) 9 island 8 forest 2 Rootwater deep 3 Undiscovered Paradise 3 Mana Leak 4 Counterspell 2 Forbid 2 Power Sink 2 Legacy Allure 4 Impulse 4 Propaganda 3 Gaea's blessing 4 Oath of Druid 1 Verdant Touch 1 Spike Feeder 3 Creeping Mold 3 Static Orb 2 Spirit of the Night 1 Lobotomy Static orb slow down creature deck (and work very well with propaganda) and U deck using a lot of mana (whisper of the muse…). The only permanents I may untap are lands, or spirit of the night when the kill is going on, so I have two mana available each turn (three with an undiscovered paradise around) which is enough for this deck. Forbid allow me to use the extra cards which are filling my hand under a static orb (extra lands when I use the paradise each turn, extra orb or oath…) They are also very useful to get rid of a spirit of the night in starting hand or sent back by a man o war. Legacy allure is used to control the tradewind riders which are very common occurrence in French tournaments, and verdant touch id for the cute opponent who doesn't cast creatures. I chose to play two spirit and one spike (which is unusual ) because I wanted to get the spirit quickly and go for the kill rather than accumulate life points. Red decks are less played since many people use 4 to 6 walls main deck, so I thought one spike should be enough to get me all the life I needed and the 2 +1/+1 counters allowing the spirit to kill in 3 turns rather than 4. Sideboard 2 Lobotomy For bloom/blue deck (lobotomy = summon counterspell :-) 2 Jester Cap For combo deck, black suicide, oath decks 2 Dissipate Against counterhammer or blue decks 2 Tranquil domain For bloom 2 Perish To be sideboarded against the popular green decks 3 Chill Sligh…… works well with Static orb :-) 1 Needle Storm For tradewind decks 1 Creeping Mold ---------------The tournament ---------- Round 1 versus Cyril Choque He plays green three Duel 1 : he was shy on land, and my propaganda didn't help him ! So I had plenty of time to cast an oath backed up by counters, and killed him with a spirit of the night. Ha, to play spirit of the night in a tournament :-) Duel 2 This time he has a quick start, and cast a turn fourth centaur, with only one mana untapped. So I cast lobotomy :-) And see an armageddon in his hand. My propaganda is still in my hand, he has the mana to cast the geddon the turn after, so I don't have any choice and remove his geddon. Propaganda and static orb, backed by counters gain me enough time to cast a late oath, and then it's spirit of the night beatdown. Even in losing he was a nice player, as well as his girlfriend who was looking the match. 2-0 Matches 1-0 ----- Round 2 versus Frederic Chaix Black suicide, I'm lucky :-) Duel 1 He starts very fast, (quite surprising with this kind of deck ;-) but a static orb slow him down and give me the time to cast an oath. Spirit of the night and spike kill him in three turns. Duel 2 By turn 5 I have propaganda and orb in play, and I tap out to cast a Jester cap. I wanted to remove the disks he must have . And during his turn he cast a disk . Gloups. I have a creeping mold in hand, but, on account of the orb, will get only two mana during my turn :-/ So I use those two manas to remove the other 3 disks from his deck, he destroys everything, but cast just one creature. I take some damages, countering creatures, and eventually manage to get an oath in play. He then edicts his own creature, and waits while I cast a legacy allure. With legacy and oath in play I felt safe, and cast lobotomy, seeing…. two drain life in his hand :-) I removed those, as well as the other two he had in his deck. With no way to win left, he concedes. Once more, a nice opponent. 2-0 Matches 2-0 ---- Round 3 vs. ? (didn't had time to get notes) He is playing a merfolk power deck, with a lot of artifact (scrolls, scalding tongs) Duel 1 I have a fast start with propaganda and orb, which take care of his creatures and scrolls. I cast oath of druid, he man o war the first spirit and the second one kill him. Duel 2 He manage to cast early artifact source of damage, and kill me with these while I'm waiting for the orb… Duel 3 I have the creature lock (orb, propaganda) which also prevent him from using his scrolls, with him not playing creatures. He eventually casts a critter, and I put my oath of druid in play, winning the counters battle. Spirit comes and do the clean up, while I was expecting a rein of power, but nothing…. I win. This person was playing in a sloppy way, often coming back … I let him do it because I was in a strong position, but learn later that he finished 9 th of the tournament. Next time I won't hesitate to play it "chess rules". 2-1 Matches 3-0 --------------- Well, looks like a good start… But then I meet… Round 4 vs. Eric Vinh He is playing a blue deck, with disks, stalking stones, steel golem and I believe some main deck blue charms. Last time we played he beat me in the last round of a QT, finishing in the top 8. I thought he was a bit obnoxious at that time. Duel 1 I got deck checked, and the Judge gives me back my deck, but stacked :-( I take 5mn to shuffle it, and have to mulligan. Then I get one land and an impulse in my starting hand… I chose to try it, but fail miserably as my opponent kills me with his stalking stone while I wait to get above two lands…. Well, that's my usual manadeath for the tournament. Duel 2 This game was interesting from my point of view. I have a static orb in play most of the time, which really hinder my opponent, but he always manage to get a disk backed up by counters or charm. I try to fetch all of his counters, with the lobotomys (hence the name summon counterspell) but it looks like he has an answer for everything. The duel end up with a static orb in play but also a steel golem on his side, doing 3 a turn. The life total at the end of the match was something like 20 to 0, but all that duel was about control which he obviously eventually managed to get. Some instant speed artifact removal would have greatly helped :-/ Thanks to Eric for this duel, which was the most interesting game of magic I had for a long time, for his nice attitude during all the match, (even when I was in control) which erase the bad memories from that last QT. 0-2 Matches 3-1 ------------------ Round 5 against Stephane ? Duel 1 He began by playing islands… just another blue deck. Now I had some good training, I would take my revenge… Well, big mistake, as he played howling mine after a few turns ! It reminded me of the turbostasis days, and without further thinking, I countered it (Go for the mines !). He then played winter orb, mox and the blue medallion, which gives him the edge in counter battles. He then tried to cast mind over matter, which I managed to counter (it was really too powerful in his deck, I couldn't allow it). He eventually got a soft lock with stasis and howling mines, and I concede this game to have time to do the second and third duels. Duel 2 I cast lobotomy during my fourth turn, while he was tapped out (he just played a sapphire medallion and something else). I saw two mines, a feldon's cane, a counterspell and 2 mana leaks. Now having 4 creeping mold and 3 blessing in the deck I thought I could deal with the mines latter, and removed the counterspell…. It eventually turned to be a bad choice, as he played the 2 mines and manage to protect them. A Jester cap went through, and I removed the 2 mind over matter (with 2 howling mines in play it's really a game breaker,) and a stasis… he played kismet, winter orb and a stasis when he had enough mana to pay for a few turns. He had some problem when I used my verdant touch, but eventually managed to lock me with a stasis while he was at 2 life. I concede when he boomeranged the stasis. That's the only moment I would rather have played archangel than spirit of the night. When I build my sideboard I thought that energy flux weren't needed…. And then I meet that rogue deck ! 0-2 Match 3-2 Round 6 vs. John Fouiller Duel 1 Once more, my opponent played islands… having 3 oath in hand, I cast one, hopping to draw some counterspell, but he just played a Tim in his third turn. Wondering what was happening, I fetched my spirit of the night and began to administer beatdown… and during his fourth turn, he played apathy and curiosity on Tim! That's a powerufl 3 card combo which scared me to death :I would be dead during his next upkeep ! Without any counter in hand and 3 land in play, I coudn't do anything but cast an impulse, which gave me 3 land and a creeping mold.. Well, I took the mold and prayed to topdeck a fourth land … Which I did :-) I'm such a good player ;-) I destroyed his curiosity, he killed the spirit during his upkeep, I got the second spirit during mine, and finished him quickly. I really lucked out of this game . Rather lucky than good ;-) Duel 2 I managed to get a cap into play, and had a look at his deck. With a dozen Tim in it, I went for the curiosity, found only three in the deck, looked at him and his smile, changed my mind and went for the apathy. 3 Apathy also in the deck :-( .Bigger smile on his face…He had the combo in hand, so I removed the curiositys, and waited for him to cast a Tim. I then played an oath, with 3 counters and a creeping mold in hand. He cast apathy, I countered it twice in the ensuing battle, which he won. He cast the curiosity, which I also tryed to counter, he protected it, tapping out in the process. During my turn, I got the spirit and cast creeping mold on the curiosity :-) He conceded. 2-0 Matches 4-2 ------------- Round 7 against X X didn't showed up. He dropped without telling the judging staff. I find it very disrupting as a Judge, and really annoying as a player. If you ever drop out of the tournament, please tell the organizers: It will take you just a few seconds, it's the polite way to do it, it prevent someone from waiting for 10 minutes for nothing, and you won't lose DCI points. Thanks. 2-0 Matches 5-2 Some good fellow accepted to play a few games with me while I was waiting for the results, which I don't really listen, as I don't expect a good tiebreaker. Props - my round 1 and 2 opponents, very nice people (yes, it happens to meet nice people at magic tournaments ;-) - Eric Vinh, for a very interesting second duel, which remove the bad feeling I had after the QT where we first met. - The judges from Ostelen, who are very professionals. Some players were surprised by the scouting warnings, but I felt it was a good thing. Some people grumbled when they throw a guy out of the tournament, but I was at the table next to him when it happened, and I think he had 10 or so "proxy" card near his sideboard, all of which could be used in his suicide black. As a diabolic edict in his deck list was replaced by a bad moon, he was considered a cheater. With so many stories on the net about cheater, it's fine to see that there is some area where they are dealt harshly. - Emmanuel Beltrando, the Head Judge, for allowing me to take notes between games for this report. Slops: - To Jubu, god of manadeath, for not forgetting me ;-) - My round 3 opponent, which during the last round ask me what my standing were because he thought he had a chance to get into top 8 : I you pretend to a place in the top 8, you have no excuses for sloppy play ! - X , for dropping out without noticing anyone. It's really annoying to do 200 km, pay 12$ and not having an opponent in the last round Congratulations for reading this report that far, and if you have any question about the deck, fell free to contact me at : nouveau@nol.fr Cedric Nouveau