Subject: Darwin's Nightmare Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1998 17:20:27 EDT From: HunyBee20@aol.com To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com I attended another Type 2 tournament on Saturday, 5 September, at Black Hills Magic, here in South Dakota. I arrived at an hour before the tournament which started at 1:00pm and was one of the first persons there. Kirby, one of the top, if not the top player in the state was there but I was happy to here from him that he had decided not to play in the tournament but was going to judge. Having yet decided what I wanted to play, either SurvivalNightmare or CMUBlue, I talked with Kirby about both decks and decided on the SurvivalNightmare. With only about 10 minutes left before start time I hurriedly put together a sideboard for the deck. This was a mistake because I should have had it prepared before hand and I made some poor choices (as you will see later.) Only 8 people showed for the tournament (a far cry from the 30+ we had in the early summer tournaments) so it was going to be 3 rounds of Swiss with only the top 4 going into the finals. Since prizes are determined by the number of entrees and there was only 8, an Unlimited Vesuvan Doppelganger and Unlimited Wheel of Fortune would be claimed by first place with second taking a Cursed Scroll (they sell for 20 bucks out here!) and 3rd getting a few packs of Stronghold. Having won the past four Type 2 tournaments I was the player to beat, which I felt wouldn't be too difficult for I had very little experience playing the SurvivalNightmare deck I had decided on, save for some playtesting with my buddy, Scott "Alienshirt" Moore on Apprentice. Anyway, here is a deck list followed by a tournament recap: "Darwin's Nightmare" Creatures: (26) Birds of Paradise 4 Wall of Blossoms 4 Wall of Roots 2 Sex Monkey 2 Spike Feeder 3 Spike Weaver 1 Nektraal 2 Thrull Surgeon 1 Man'o'war 1 Cloudchaser Eagle 1 Orcish Settlers 1 Tradewind Rider 1 Spirit of the Night 1 Verdant Force 1 Lhurgoyf 1 (A very good card I haven't seen included in other SurvivalNightmare decks. With all the creature discarding he can get big quickly.) Other: (12) Recurring Nightmare 4 Survival of the Fittest 4 Firestorm 3 Scroll Rack 1 Land: (22) City of Brass 1 Underground River 1 Sulfurous Springs 1 Pine Barrens 1 Gemstone Mine 3 Undiscovered Paradise 2 Volrath's Stronghold 1 Swamp 4 Forest 8 Sideboard: (15) Cloudchaser Eagle 1 Cartographer 1 (anti-land destruction) Wood Elves 1 (as above) Ravenous Baboons 1 (even with Orcish Settlers in main deck I like the Baboons being able to destroy a land when they come into play and not having to wait a turn.) Shard Phoenix 1 Spike Weaver 1 Stronghold Taskmaster 1 (great sideboard card against SuicideBlack!) Knights of Mist 1 Thrull Surgeon 1 Dauthi Cutthroat 1 Scragnoth 2 Lobotomy 3 As you can see the main deck is similar to Brian Selden's World winning deck with no Living Deaths. The sideboard is a little different then other SurvialNightmare decks mainly because the local meta-game here is different from elsewhere and I put it together at the last minute. Swiss Draw: Match 1 vs. Chris M. playing a modified Draw-Go. Nothing like starting the tournament playing the worst match-up for me. Game 1 and 2: I won't bore you with the details of these 2 games, mainly because EVERYTHING I cast got countered. He played with 28 counters. I lost miserably both games, even after sideboarding. Match 0-2, Overall 0-2, 0 points Swiss Draw: Match 2 vs. Nathan playing SuicideBlack. Game 1: He quickly plays 3 Shadow freaks by turn 2 and begins beatdown. I follow up with a turn 4 Firestorm wiping out his creatures and quietly discarding Spirit of the Night into the graveyard. Turn 5 sees my Spirit of the Night come into play after I sac a BOP to the Recurring Nightmare and the game would end 3 rounds later as he does nothing but lose life. Game 2: He plays first turn Dauthi Horror and puts Unholy Strength on it. A 3rd turn Man-o'-war turns the tide. We each cast more creatures and evenly exchange blows since I can't block his shadow and he can't block my non-shadow. Victory is mine on the next turn but he cast an Unholy Strength on one of his creatures giving him the extra 2 damage he needs to kill me before can I take him out. Game 3: Once again he quickly unloads the shadow beatdown but a 4th turn Stronghold Taskmaster seals his fate. The taskmaster wipes out all 4 of his creatures and then beatsdown to victory. Match 2-1, Overall 2-3, 3 points Swiss Draw: Match 3 vs. ah, I forget his name but he was the above's younger brother, playing Blue Beatdown. Game 1: He plays a first turn Cloud Spirit after laying down an Island and 2 Lotus Petals. He won't tap out and I know he is holding counterspells in his hand so I am hesitant to cast spells. The Cloud Spirit gets me down to 5 before I can stabilize the game and begin my comeback with a Recurred Spirit of the Night. Game 2: I quickly play 2 Scragnoths thanks to Survival of the Fittest and never look back. He does use Reins of Power and attacks me with my 2 Scragnoths, 2 Nektraals, and Man-o'-war but this was only a last act of desperation and 12 point of damage is not enough to kill me. I finish him off next turn. Match 2-0, Overall 4-3, 6 points Well, at 4-3, I was doubtful of making it into the finals but I do manage to slip in at 4th seed. Finals: Match 4 vs. the undefeated Mr.Counter who obliterated me in my first match. I had pretty much given up faith in extending my Type 2 championship having to play him again and figures I would be playing for 3rd real soon. Game 1: This was pretty much the same as our first match, he counters my first 9 spells and then beats me down with Stalking Stones. Yeah! Game 2: He gets off to a slow start as I build up mana and more mana but no meat. I am soon able to cast more spells a turn than he can counter and Scragnoths slip in for the very close victory. Game 3: Once again he counters almost everyspell I cast but I want him too because it is keeping his hand size down. I am able to get a SOTF in play and then "tutor" for my Scragnoth. Next turn I cast him and... he cast Desertion! I couldn't believe it. For the Love of God, no one plays with that counterspell. He doesn't counter the Scragnoth but steals him from me! In return I have to "tutor" for my other Scragnoth just to keep my first one from beating down on me. A few rounds later I put a Volrath's Stronghold (Party Shack as I have seen some people call it) and that was the deciding factor in the game. He has a disk in play but doesn't use since he doesn't need to and man, do I ever want him to use it. I cast Lobotomy and get a the rest of his disks. I keep casting some more creatures finally forcing him to disk and that would be that. Three turns later both my Scragnoths are back in play and beating down. He has 2 Wastelands in his deck but cannot draw them to destroy the Stronghold which ensures Scragnoth beatdown. So, once again as I did last Type 2 (see my SuperSGD report) I come back and defeat the undefeated mono-blue in the finals. Match 2-1, Overall 6-4 Finals: Match 5 vs. Brian playing WW/x. If you have read any of my previous reports you will see where I talk about Brian always playing White Weenie, no matter what format it is. Today was no different. I was pretty confident I would win because I have like a 95% win record against him and I know exactly what he is playing since I have played it many times before in one version or another. Game 1: The first game wasn't that exciting. He never drew a Cataclysm so I was able to SOTF for what ever I needed to deal with what he played. Two Nektraals would win the game after "terroring" 2 Armored en-kors. Game 2: This was one of the best games ever. Why you ask? well... My opening hand was this: 2 Forests, 1 Swamp, 1 Birds of Paradise, 1 Spirit of Night, 1 Survival of the Fittest, and 1 Recurring Nightmare. This is possibly the best opening draw for this deck. The game went like this: Turn 1: Him: Plains Me: Forest, BOP Turn 2: Him: Plains Me: Forest, SOTF (which he quickly Disenchants), discard Spirit of the Night, get Wall of Blossoms Turn 3: Him: Plains Me: Swamp, Recurring Nightmare, sac BOP, bring Spirit of Night into play, attack for 6 Turn 4: Him: Plains, Cataclysm (don't ask me why? I am still trying to figure this one out.) Me: It doesn't matter. That would be game as Spirit of the Night ends it 3 rounds later. It was nice to pull off the 3rd round Spirit of the Night and to win the tournament, making it the 5th straight Type 2 I have won. I ponder on taking store credit instead of the cards but settle for the Vesuvan Doppelganger and Wheel of Fortune. Before I end I guess I should give thanks to the following persons: Scott "Alienshirt" Moore: Thanks once again for playtesting with me and getting me ready for the tournament. Maybe one day you will get over your "I have only been playing for 6 months" attitude and attend a tournament. Ha. Jack: For having tournaments at Black Hills Magic and being the best card store in the area (ok, so there is only 3 but still.) Brianna: My wife for putting up with me playing Magic almost every Saturday. Kelton: My 14 month old son for being the most important thing to me in life. Frank: For having the best Magic site online which has had a profound affect on the game. Until next time, Chadd Collier Team...ah, one day, I will be on a team. "That was fun! Now me." ~ Gwendlyn Di Corci