Subject: [TOURNAMENT]: Type II in Atlanta, GA (9/4/98) Date: Mon, 07 Sep 1998 12:12:27 -0400 From: egm@ebytes.com (Ebytes) To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com My wife and I were attending Dragon*Con in Atlanta, GA this weekend, planning to take part in some Magic tournaments in addition to the other events going on. Our main goal, was to try and qualify for the Rome Pro Tour during the Pro Tour Qualifier there on Saturday, but we also planned to play in some of the Type II and other tournaments going on. Neither of us had played much Magic since the LA PTQs back at the beginning of the year, so we were looking forward to having a chance to play. On Friday morning, there was a Type II event scheduled that I we both decided to play in. We arrived early in order to get in a little more playtesting with our decks (although we only played against one another). The tournament started a little late, with about twenty or thirty people competing. It was announced that there would be four rounds of swiss pairings with a cut to a final four for single elimination and prizes. Prizes were to be 8 packs for first place, four packs for second, and two packs each for third and fourth. Round 1 - Bye I hate getting byes... Some people may think I'm crazy and be glad to have the free match win, but I prefer to play... I enter tournaments to play Magic, not to sit around waiting for a round to end. I'm also probably one of the last people you would ever see taking an Intentional Draw, but that's another topic for another time... Games: 2-0 Matches: 1-0 Round 2 - Jennifer Million (DCI# 700400) Deadguy Red After a grueling first round (mainly because I had to sit around and wait for seventy minutes without watching any of the other matches, my rotten luck continues with my wife and I getting paired together... We had been playtesting our decks against one another quite a bit, but all of that had been done without sideboards... Since I had built both decks and sideboards, I figured that gave me the advantage. In the first game, Jennifer came out quickly, as Deadguy Red always does. I was on the ropes for a few turns until I could cast the Disk I had off the opening draw. She capitalized on me tapping out to cast the Disk by hitting me with a Ball Lightning in addition to her Orc and Fireslinger. I went ahead and blew the disk at the beginning of my turn to eleminate the creatures she had as well as the Cursed Scroll she had cast earlier. A few turns later, after unsuccessfully trying to cast a creature or two, she Incinerated and Fireblasted me bringing me down to four, with her having three Mountains remaining... She then attempted a second Fireblast, which I countered with a Dismiss. At the end of her turn I Impulsed for an additional Counterspell, and the proceeded to start casting Whispers of the Muse with buyback... After seven or eight turns of this, while countering or Quicksanding any threats of hers, the raw card advantage took over... I was soon able to start the Stalking Stones beatdown with a pair of them and take game one. In the second game, it was very ugly for Jennifer... She kept an opening hand in which she had only one Wasteland. She added two more Wastelands around turn five, but didn't draw a mountain until around turn ten or eleven. By that time, I had a well developed mana base to fuel my hand full of counters. At this point, she just conceded... I really felt bad about beating my wife like this, and felt somewhat responsible for perhaps not going over some of the reasons to take a mulligan. She insisted that she wasn't mad at me, and told me not to worry about it. Games: 4-0 Matches: 2-0 Round 3 - Steve Phillips (DCI# 11006) Propaganda/Orb Game one started out with us both playing Islands for several turns, so I figured he was playing a deck similar to mine. After a few turns, he cast an Impulse at the end of my turn, and I attempted to counter it (though I'm still not sure if this was a good move). Steve countered back, leaving me with only one untapped land and him getting to Impulse. On his next turn, Steve dropped a Winter Orb and a Propaganda. OUCH!!! Not only had I guessed wrong about what he was playing, I was now caught. We played on with both of us playing land for a while. Finally, I attempted to cast a Disk; a counter war ensued, which Steve ended up winning... After a number of turns, I tried a second Disk with the same results. During this time, Steve had cast three Impulses, so I began to think I could possibly deck him. I began playing with that in mind, and countered his few creatures. Unfortunately, I realized that Steve was playing with a fat deck (I estimated at least seventy cards) about the time I reached five cards left in my library. With about thirty minutes to go in the round, I conceded the first game to him. In game two, I had a good start. Steve and I both played land for a while, but this time I was much more patient and concentrated on the key cards in his deck. I let him cast an early Propaganda, and a few turns later let him cast a Winter Orb (though both of us expended a counter on it). A few turns later, Steve attempted to cast a creature (a Silver Wyvern I believe), and we began a counter war over it. Steve won that battle, but was then tapped out. At the end of his turn, I cast one of the two Capsize I had in hand and bounced his Winter Orb back into his hand. On my turn, I cast a Disk. Steve got in one shot with the Wyvern, but I was able to disk away it and the Propaganda on my next turn. From that point I was able to counter his further attempts to cast either another Propaganda or Winter Orb, and finally was able to kill him with a pair of Stalking Stones with only a minute or two left in the match. We were both mentally exhausted, and simply let time expire before starting the third game. Games: 5-1 Matches: 2-0-1 Round 4 - Robert Smith (DCI# 783577) Survival/Recurring/Living Death Robert got off to a pretty good start with an early Bird of Paradise and a Wall of Roots. I started out, as this deck pretty much does, by playing a land on each of my first four turns. On my fifth turn, I again played a land, and then opened myself up by playing a disk. Robert got in an attack with a few creatures, but I promptly swept the board clean on my next turn. By this time, I had pretty much guessed that Robert was playing a Survival of the Fittest/Recurring Nightmare deck, and this was confirmed on Robert's next turn when he attempted to cast a Survival. From that point on, I countered his key spells (the Survival, Nightmare, and Living Death) and a few big creatures (he actually cast a Verdant Force), while using Disks to handle any other threats. I finally finished him off using my Rainbow Efreet and a Stalking Stones. The second game started off much the same as the first, up until I cast my first Disk. Since I was tapped out, Robert cast Boil on his next turn, wiping out five or six Islands. OUCH!!! Luckily, I had several Quicksands and a Stalking Stones in play, and managed to quickly draw a few Islands. While I was recovering, Robert managed to get out a Survival of the Fittest, but I was able to deny him the Recurring Nightmare and Living Death. After I had built my manabase back up, I again tapped out for a Disk. Again, Robert answered with a Boil, wiping out another five or six Islands. Amazingly, I quickly recovered again, and was able to cast my Rainbow Efreet. On his next turn, Robert cast a THIRD BOIL!! I, however, had mana for a Mana Leak. Robert tapped out to pay the three colorless mana and smiled, thinking he had me. That's when I tapped my final land (an Island) to cast Force Spike! I managed to take control from that point, began casting Whispers of the Muse (with buyback), and finished off Robert with the Efreet and one of my Stalking Stones. Games: 7-1 Matches: 3-0-1 With the cut to the final 4, I cruise in with a 3-0-1 match record, as does Steve Phillips and a husband/wife pair who had drawn in the final round of swiss. I cross my fingers in hopes that I don't get paired up against Steve again, and am soon happy to find out that I'm not... Round 5 - Jeff Wilson (DCI# 10704) G5C In game one, Jeff comes out with a few Birds of Paradise and a Querion Ranger. Great, a Five Color Green deck. I quickly clear the board with a Disk, and manage to keep it clean with two more Disks in quick succession. By eleminating his mana producing creatures, I'm able to establish control fairly quickly and end the game with a pair of Stalking Stones. In game two, Jeff's sideboard comes out to play. He disenchants each of my Disks and is able to force key spells through with Pyroblasts... I am quickly dispatched after he forces through an Armageddon, and I fail to draw any Land. Game three is almost an exact repeat of game two, with Jeff quickly establishing his game and managing to draw the answers to everything I attempt. Again an Armageddon paves the way for him to finish me off. Losing out to Jeff was a little disappointing, but Jeff had a very good deck and played it well. Games: 8-3 Matches: 3-1-1 As a prize for 3rd/4th place, I received one Unglued, one Weatherlight, and one Foreign Stronghold booster (they added an Unglued booster to each of the prizes). Out of them, I managed to get a Jester's Sombrero (which was later signed by Jeff Frazier) and a Foreign Sliver Queen. All in all, I think I did quite well for my first tournament since the LA PTQs back in January. The deck I played was almost card for card the CMU Blue deck that Randy Buehler and Eric Lauer put together for Worlds and was posted last week on The Dojo by Eric Lauer... The only change I made to the deck was the replacement of the Grindstone in the sideboard with a third Capsize (after reading Eric's comment in his post that Grindstone "did not seem worth the slot in retrospect.")... //NAME: CMU Blue // Format: Type II // Updated: August 1998 // ----- // Land 4 Stalking Stones 4 Quicksand 18 Island // Artifacts 4 Nevinyrral's Disk // Blue Spells 4 Whispers of the Muse 4 Impulse 4 Dismiss 2 Dissipate 3 Forbid 3 Mana Leak 1 Memory Lapse 4 Counterspell 4 Force Spike // Blue Creatures 1 Rainbow Efreet // Sideboard 4 Wasteland 3 Capsize 4 Sea Sprite 4 Hydroblast In retrospect, I can think of about 6 definite mistakes I made throughout the day. The biggest mistakes I made were in countering creatures when I had a Quicksand poised to do the job, or in simply trying to force a position rather than being patient and letting the game come to me. As I begin playing regularly again, I should make fewer mistakes of this type, and should once again be able to play with more confidence. Edwin -- Edwin Million egm@ebytes.com Ebytes Institute of Magic http://www.ebytes.net/magic/