Subject: Sydney Rath Cycle Tournament Report Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 06:36:21 +1000 From: "Dylan Chan" Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy Im having this conversation with Ben Seck about the KINGS rath cycle constructed tournament that’s going to happen, he says he’ll lend me this static U deck that Dane also reckons is pretty good. Ok, well, I kinda sold all my cards and so I just test on appr now so I say ok. Then on like Thursday Dane sends me a new deck from #pro that smashes Static U around the ball park. So I figure I want to play this instead cept it’s a deck ‘o rares so Im not sure whether someone will have all the cards or not. I figure next time I see Ben Ill tell him to put it together and bring it in so I can play it. This is it.. the creator shall remain nameless for certain reasons so lets just call it… AlexMackwearsahat.dec I didn’t make this….. 4 spike feeder 4 spike weaver 4 Hermit Druid 4 Tradewind Rider 2 Verdant Force 1 Cloudchaser eagle 1 Gravedigger 4 Wall of Blossoms 1 Mirris Guile 4 living death 3 recurring nightmare 4 survival of the fittest 3 Mox Diamond 1 plain 1 island 5 swamps 10 forest 4 rootwater depths SB A bunch of random stuff vs ww and sacro… torture chamber, dread, light of day Apparently Mark Schick has a better version but, whatever, I played this. Anywho, it’s like the day of the tournament, 8 am and it starts at 9:30, so I figure Im not going to talk to Ben in time. HA! Ben comes onto ICQ and I tell him about the deck and he puts most of it together. So YAY Im going to play. I see Andrew C at the station whos also going in to play and he shows me what hes playing. It a passive lock ensnaring bridge, grindstone, null brooch deck that looks pretty cool to me. Anywho, I get to the tournament site and its not exactly brimming with talent but this is also a bad thing which is why I call Kings tournaments “The Great Ratings Rape”. Cos I mise well walk around with a sign saying “rape me for points” stuck on my forehead. Its like +6 points for a win and –24 points for a lossdfjkfjsasdfghgklhg. Anyways, there are a few good players there who are all pretty cool. Round 1 Some Guy 2-0 This dude is playing a kinda ww splash counters/whispers which used sub-optimal white creatures. He throws out a 1st turn soul warden but forgets to gain like 32453460435 life from it throughout the course of the game. He gets some soltari champion, trooper, cloudchaser eagle beatings going but I have another survival and so I get mondo fat into my graveyard and death the turn after he overcommits and that is pretty much game. In the second he cataclysms but I recover well and serve with a tradewind and a spike feeder, then he … Sweet Merciful Crap!!! He casts a cop green lol. So I put the spike dudes onto my tradewind and continue to serve up large portions of the BBE. 1-0 Round 2 Andrew Galea 2-0 Andrew’s playing a mono G vineyard deck that uses Basilisk- Bullwhip- Provoke tech….. hrm . First game he slowly puts out some green stuff including THE BASILISK and he seems to have nfi what Im doing with my hermit druid and survival.. Anyway I cast living death and I get spikes and tradewinds but more importantly I get THE BASILISK off the board. My tradewind is doing some serious damage to his side of the board but he topdecks ANOTHER BASILISK.. this guy, whatever. He casts provoke on my tradewind so It’ll be forced to block his BASILISK and die ?!?!?!?!? uh. In the second game he throws down 2 early vineyards which makes me =) like I never =) ‘ed before cos I have 32523235 vineyard sinks and it allows me to manually cast my Verdant force. Anyway, my deck rips through mono g like a hot samurai sword through butter so I never really lose control of this match. 2-0 Round 3 John Chan 2-0 John recently qualified for Chi-town PT (way to go!) and hes a good player. I heard him talking about forbids and counters and shit early on so I just figure he’s playing some mono U concoction. But then he lays a second turn soltari emissary and I discover hes playing like WW with heavy counters. He lays some shadow and counters a survival and a recurring but then he taps out (I presume cos he ran out of counters) so I living death and get some good shit and pretty much win from there as I don’t think he ran much removal (im not sure whether he ran cataclysms) . I get a pretty good hand in the second game and John gets some shadow, a counter and land land land. I win this one without much of a fight as Johns deck lets him down. I go over and watch Andrew Corney play vs Tim Nheu, it’s the end of Andrews turn, he is at 2 life and Tim has 2 tapped rootwater hunters in play and 0 cards in his library. Tim could win this but concedes cos he has nfi lol. Round 4 Warton Cheng 0-2 Warton is a young but not so new player in the Sydney scene and he always plays solid decks and makes very few errors. He’s playing beatdown living death with muscle slivers, mindwhip slivers and vampire hounds etc. Game 1 and Warton gets the god draw of all the god draws that god has ever given out and goes.. 1st turn mindwhip, 2nd turn muscle, 3rd turn mindwhip, 4th turn muscle.. naturally I get the living bujeezuz kicked out of me. In game 2 I get an ass hand with no land so I mulligan and get a spike feeder, land and two living deaths. I keep it as you do but Warton gets another god hand with second turn survival (making my living deaths shitto) and a third turn recurring nightmare. Going into the match I knew whoever got the better draws would win and Warton got some great draws and handed my ass to me on a plate. 3-1 Round 5 Jun Ren 1-0 This guy is playing a mono U deck with pile-ish creatures such as Dream Prowler and rootwater hunter (uh seriously, what was the fascination with this card?!?!). This is not the deck I came to play as going into the tournament I expected heavy ww, SRB and sacro rush and I don’t like having my crap countered. I figure he’s probably not the greatest counter player ever to grace the game so Ill just run him out of counters and cast some game winning tech.. I throw out a bunch of stuff first game trying to lure out early counters and waiting for him to overcommit on his mana. He never does but gets down to three cards in hand and I know one of those is a dream prowler (he fumbled the card and I saw it). I cast a living death but he counters it and I’m in some serious shit as I don’t have anything left with which to press the advantage. He has his turn and taps 2 to cast an allure. So I figure he has 1 possible counter in hand. At the end of his turn I survival of the fittest 3 times to thin my deck, hold my breath and draw a card….. Living Death!!!! He sits there looking at it for a while but I know he doesn’t have a counter. I get like 2 verdant force, tradewind, spike feeder, and spike weaver into play and he actually decides to continue for another 2 turns b4 conceding. Wayne calls 15 minutes left to go and I figure that I can time the match out vs Jun’s slow deck. I sideboard and shuffle for a bit and we start, I get out a second turn survival which doesn ’t get countered… hehehehe. At the end of each of his turns I survival out like 3 creatures which chews up time like nothing else. He taps out to cast a dream prowler?!?! So I survival out some more stuff drop a recurring nightmare and bring out Mr Force. Hell I could take this 2-0. Theres like a minute to go so I bla bla bla wuzza wuzza wuzza. 4-1 Round 5 Ricky something or other 2-0 I could ID this one but I want the points and I figure my deck will topple Ricky’s spike feeder corpse dance deck without any problems purely on deck matchup. I win the toss and get a Grrrreeeaaatttt!!! Opening hand. 1st turn survival of the fittest, 3rd turn Verdant Force… Strong. I start hitting him with it but he throws down blockers and what not and gets out a spike weaver which saves him for a bit.. I survival out more stuff and I have 2 verdant forces in play, and am gaining 4 life a turn from spike feeder/recurring nightmare. I start ripping up the table number to use as force tokens cos I have about 2134890345390 of them by now and Im thinking that if I just let him spike weaver for long enough I can draw the match out until there wont be time to play a second and then tradewind his weavers back to his hand for the win. I run out of saproling counters however so I get out a couple of tradewinds.. bounce his weaver and he conceded. We sideboard and Im ready to go when Ricky says to me “Hmm Im missing a sideboard card, but it doesn’t matter”.. Like hell it doesn’t. I call a judge and Ricky’s given a game loss. I tell him as we pack up he probably shouldn’t have said anything. But Ricky says he didn’t want to play unfairly which is pretty cool! 5-1 So I go to 15 points.. Warton managed to draw with Andrew Galea in the last round which puts him on 16 points, me on 15 and everyone else is on 13 and 12 or something. Quarter Finals Tim Nheu 0-2 =( All I know is that Tim is playing rootwater hunters and that if on 2 life I manage to get him to 0 cards in library I should win the match no matter what hes got out lol. He wins the toss and I mulligan a no land draw. I get an ok second hand but Tim dumps 3rd and 4th turn Dauthi Marauders.. whatever.. He beats me down for a bit, counters my living death and beats me down some more. YAY. I side in 3 torture chambers which are GOOD tech and a couple of light of days. I get an opening hand chamber which is cool and drop him, I draw a light of day but no W mana. He lobotomies my light of days and I kill 4 shadow dudes with the torture chamber but Im drawing land and and unuseful living deaths in the meantime. I have like 3 creatures out and my chamber but then he perishes my ass and stops playing creatures. I draw all sorts of craptastic stuff such as 2 recurring nightmares and another chamber but no creatures. He stops playing creatures and I start taking damage from my chamber, I then hit some weavers and what not but he counters FOUR of my creatures in a row and I die to my own chamber… BLERGH! So I scrub out in the quarters but Warton goes on to win the tournament which makes me feel better as Warton actually had a GOOD deck and deserved to win, well done man. Well I guess Ill give some Pats on the back and some Kicks to the cack. Pats on the back….. Wayne Lawson and The Wizard of ID for putting on the best regular tournaments in Sydney rain, hail or shine. lol Wayne Lawson and The Wizard of ID for lending me the cards to make my deck Warton Cheng, watch out for this guy!!!! My hair for looking so good Ricky for not wanting to play unfairly with an illegal sideboard Survival of the Fittest.. the Thawing Glaciers of Rath Cycle Kicks to the Cack…. The standard of magic in Sydney… which has taken a huge nose dive of late. All those guys who mana weaved… you know Ill just three pile Powr and Valium…. You guys are so gay, stop taking over #mtgpro and do something with your lives. Dylan AlexMack