Subject: [TOURNAMENT] Tournament Observations, by Jason Tackett Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1998 11:11:19 EDT From: MRJ1483414@aol.com To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com While my report is only somewhat of a success story, it is, however, a reflection of the metagame's current state, and a prime example of the influence of large scale tournaments on the local metagame. Relying partly on intuition, and partly on suggestions made by my #mtgpro colleagues, I decided to play monored. Monored was made only slightly less attractive to play by the popularity of the Oath of Druids gimmick decks. With the power of Oath of Druids being less than spectacular in an enviroment heavy with control oriented decks, including CMU's revamped version of Blue Disk, incinuating that monored could be played without fear of losing simply because of a "bad matchup." Here's a decklist: 4 Mogg Fanatic 4 Jackal Pup 4 Ironclaw Orc 4 Ball Lightning 4 Incinerate 4 Shock 4 Fireblast 4 Cursed Scroll 3 Hammer of Bogardan 3 Fireslinger 4 Wasteland 18 Mountain Sideboard-- 4 Pyroblast 3 Phyrexian Furnace 1 Torture Chamber 1 Dwarven Thaumaturgist 4 Bottle Gnomes 2 Shattering Pulse The decklist is fairly standard, with the main deck and sideboard being almost identical to the monored played by Finkel and Pikula, among others, at the World Championships. Probably the most alluring aspect of monored is its ability to capitalize on an opponent's bad play or slow start. In addition, the deck has few weaknesses, losing more than fifty percent of it's matches against less than a handful of deck archetypes. My only problem with the deck is it's performance against Recurring Nightmare/Survival of the Fittest decks, such as John Yoo's. An impressive 7-0 record at the World Championships may have caused an attraction to Yoo's deck, making monored weaker in the field. As I'll later reveal in more detail, the successful portion of the field had no part in the Recur/Sotf gimmick. The tournament was composed of a field of forty-one players. Mike Donais, our friendly local level four judge decided to play six rounds of swiss and eliminate the field to four players, rather than play five rounds and cut to a final eight. Round One: Bill Fleming, playing monored Game One: Bill is a talented local player who has just recently come back to the game, not playing since regionals. Bill's monored was very similiar to mine, with the exception of his replacing Fireslingers with a fourth Hammer of Bogardan and a pair of Goblin Vandals. Looking at my opening hand against Bill, I felt fairly comfortable with my land situation (a Mountain and Wasteland). I had the curve, and an answer to Bill's first turn Jackal Pup. My land situation began to stall, however, as I fell to Bill's Hammer recursion. Game Two: I sideboard in four Bottle Gnomes and a pair of Shattering Pulse. Again, I come short on land. I'm able to activate Cursed Scroll with three cards in my hand, all of them Fireblasts. With only three lands in play, including two Mountains and a Wasteland (Bill went to the extent of targetting one of my Wastelands with his own), I was forced to activate Scroll during my upkeep, in fear of drawing an uncastable card. Later, after playing another land, I was forced to Fireblast one of Bill's Ball lightnings. I eventually lost a close race in the symetrical matchup I hate most of all. Matches: 0-1, Games: 0-2 Round 2: Monored Game One: My opponent is playing a version of monored which seems to have suboptimal cards. I win fairly easily in both games one and two. Matches: 1-1, Games 2-2 Round 3: Iain, playing SotF/Recur Game One: Iain is a great guy and sportsman. This was yet another matchup in which I felt luck would be a factor. I have the ideal mana curve, which were simply more powerful than my opponent's pair of Spike Feeders. Knowing the low number of non-green mana sources at Iain's disposal, I shock Birds and Wasteland his off-color lands at any chance I get. At one point in the game, my opponent had the option of removing a counter from each of his Feeders, gaining four life, and still successfully block and kill my Jackal Pups. My opponent instead let one Pup survive in an obscure play, allowing me to do enough damage with a Pup to Fireblast him to death. Game Two: I sideboard in my Dwarven Thaumaturgist for his multiple Walls, and three Phyrexian Furnace. My first turn Furnace serves me well, as I remove multiple cards from his graveyard. With two Cursed Scrolls on the table, Iain begins to Recur an Uktabi. Eventually I'm able to burn him to death, but only after the multiple beatings provided by my Cursed Scrolls. Matches: 2-1, Games: 4-2 Round Four: White Weenie Game One: From this point on, I'll refer to my opponent simply as "Barnaby." Barnaby was one of the most unsportsmanlike opponents I've ever had the displeasure to face. After his ranting and raving as a result of me pile shuffling his deck, he was issued a warning by the head judge for the use of profanity, as I ask him to simply count the cards in his hand when he called a mulligan. Barnaby stalls at a single plains after calling a mulligan, and can do little but watch my mana curve develope. Game Two: I choose not to consult with my sideboard, and Barnaby chooses to play first. He opens with Soltari Priests on the first two consecutive turns, and a third turn Empyrial Armor. I win the game by a single turn, as Barnaby plays a Shock target in Soltari Monk, giving me an additional turn to take the win. Matches: 3-1, Games: 6-2 Round Five: Monored Game One: In two straight games, my opponent loses the race. The symetrical monored matchup is my least favorite, if I havn't yet mentioned. Matches: 4-1, Games: 8-2 Round Six: John Thomas, playing 5cOath of Druids Game One: John draws neither an Oath and can find only a Wrath of God with library manipulation, allowing me to attack with Ball Lightning and Fireblast for the victory. Game Two: I sideboard out Ironclaw Orcs, Jackal Pups, and Fireslingers, and replace them with four Pyroblasts, four Bottle Gnomes, and three Phyrexian Furnace. John is able to play a quick Oath, which slows the multiple Mogg beatings, although, I successfully cast Ball Lightning, and burn him out. Matches: 5-1, Games: 10-2 At this point, the six rounds of swiss have concluded, and with four other players with a record at least equivalent to mine, I'm rather uneasy of my chances to make the final four. It turns out that I miss final four on very close tie-breaks. The final four looked as follows: 1. Monored, played by Bill Fleming 2. Monogreen Vineyard, played by Tim Wu 3. Monored, played by Jeff Sluzenski 4. Monored Without a match of my own, I intently watch the match between Jeff Sluzenski and Tim Wu. Having multiple Walls and Spike Feeders, I felt Tim had the advantage, but Jeff emerged the victor in two straight games. As for the finals between Jeff and Bill Fleming, Bill managed to walk away the winner of game one, but lost in two straight close matches, making Jeff the tournament's winner. In a key play, Jeff had cast a Fireslinger on his turn. With Jeff at a scant nine life, Bill activated his Cursed Scroll, targeting Jeff, with the only card in his hand being a Fireblast. Jeff responded with a timely Final Fortune. At this point, Bill was at seven life. Assuming Fireslinger was part of Jeff's plan to win, he was forced to Fireblast it in response to Jeff's Final Fortune. With the Fireblast out of Bill's hand, Jeff was able to cast the Ball Lightning and Shock Bill for the kill. May I again reiterate: I hate this symetrical matchup! Props: Props go out to Aaron Heiss, John Thomas, and Jeff Sluzenski, all of which I hung out with for the duration of the tournament. Huge props also go out to the supremely cute girl working at the deli. Also, to Mike Donais and Nuetral Ground Detroit in general, for another smoothly ran tournament. Great job, guys! Slops: Not many slops, other than the poorly clad Barnaby. Later, Jason Tackett #1 Mother Sex0r of all time!