Subject: Try, Try Again :-) Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 13:00:34 EDT From: Barylski@aol.com To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com -------------------------------------------------------------------- UrzaŐs Sage Prerelease Tournament Report - DC After having an awfully good day I figured I should write a tournament report for the UrzaŐs Sage Prerelease. First off, I am Marty Barylski, an ŇolderÓ (not wiser) player and Level III judge from Maryland. I played in the DC/Baltimore event with around 350 other people. Since the event was fairly large they split it into two halves. We played eight rounds of swiss with two groups of finals for the top sixteen players (all winning prizes of 12 packs to a box+). The deck I registered was not too good and I didnŐt get it back thankfully. Before the event started a vote was taken on doing a land swap or not and saving some time. I voted for swapping, but most others did not. So, everyone has to play three colors or get mana hosed all day. Also, a ruling was announced on a very poorly worded card - Lifeline. The ruling matched what I now see in the prerelease FAQ, but is still in flux as of this writing. This card is one in a long line of very powerful sealed deck cards (Cursed Scroll, Empyrial Armor). Near the end of deck construction I verified again the ruling on Lifeline to make sure it worked as good as it sounded. The deck had 15 1/2 creatures (triggered guy counts for 1/2), 6 that had evasion abilities. HereŐs the deck I played: Land: 17 6 Swamp 6 Forest 5 Plains Black: 8 Crazed Skirge (evasion) Ravenous Skirge (evasion) Order of Yawgmoth (evasion) Unworthy Dead (regenerator vs. the beefy stuff) 2 Expunge (always good) Befoul (sided out for Humble vs. more black critters) Victimize (played it once, otherwise it was useless when I drew it, sided out some) Green: 8 Treetop Rangers (evasion) Cradle Guard (early trample/fat = awesome, very good card) Blanchwood Treefolk (beef) Acridian (early defense) Pouncing Jaguar (early offense) Treefolk Seedlings (occasionally three or four toughness) Priest of Titania (hardly ever seen) Hidden Spider (helped my flying by dissuading my opponents from casting flying critters) Symbiosis (good, almost always took out two enemy creatures) White: 5 2 Angelic Page (evasion, always good) Disciple of Law (pro red stopped early red echo) Silent Attendant (okay, should have been Congregate most likely, sided out a lot for the Congregrate) Humble (kill opposing evasion, black too, always good) Artifact: 1 Lifeline (I admit I am no great player when I win with this. Definitely my MVP.) In my sideboard I had five cards to kill enchantments - 2 monks, 1 elf, 2 cycle tranquilities. I didnŐt see many enchantments all day so didnŐt side in much of the enchantment kill either. I had nothing to deal with artifacts and saw very few of those too. I did get three runes of protections, but with three color decks they are really quite useless in my opinion. I never boarded any of them in. HereŐs the only cards I ever sideboarded: A second Humble - I used this a lot of games Congregate - I put this in almost every sideboarded game, but never drew it Monk Realist - I used one a few times, not much of an impact Brilliant Hero, Despondency, and Gorilla Warrior - each used once as I recall. The Despondency contributed to a win. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Before I start the round by round, I want to mention that all of my opponents were enjoyable to play. They all played with the kind of attitude that keeps me coming back to Magic tournaments. I commend their patience with me as I can be a little too talkative. Thanks to you all. Round 1: Sean B. I donŐt remember the details. We had two quick games that I won. I cast Lifeline the second game, but he was about to lose anyhow. I used it for insurance. M: 1-0-0 G: 2-0 (0 Lifeline wins) Round 2: Fred F. Game one is very close. I am at four life, he is at one. He has the creature advantage and has just cast a flyer to block my flyer also. I have nothing in my hand and he will win on his turn. I have to top deck something good. I draw an Expunge, kill the flyer, win. I have almost never top decked for the win. Usually, I get a land when I need a spell or the other way around. Second game he has mana problems and gets beaten up. M: 2-0-0 G: 4-0 (0 Lifeline wins) Round 3: Steve F. (Finalist also) Game one he mulligans and has to keep a one land draw. He dies to my first turn Mr. Jaguar who goes on to do like 18 point of damage. Second game he gets only mountains but has lots of early red critters. Eventually, we creature stall. I cast my Lifeline, he groans. He makes a mistake with instant earthquake which we think costs him the game. He casts it for three the turn after Lifeline is in, but does not kill my Acridian, so everything springs back to life. This was an amazingly close game considering his mana problems early. M: 3-0-0 G: 6-0 (1 Lifeline win) Round 4: Mike Both games I get the Lifeline and he has no way to bust it. My evasion creatures eventually win the games. Afterwards, he talks about his Lifeline and lack of artifact kill. I have the same situation. This match could have been exactly reverse if he gets the Lifeline both games and I donŐt. My luck is rarely this good. M: 4-0-0 G: 8-0 (3 Lifeline wins) Round 5: Joe F. First game is all about my removal and evasion. He also plays a lot of echo creatures and forgets twice, which I let him correct. Third one was his cradle guard which had to hit the graveyard. I try to cut my opponents more slack in prereleases since it is supposed to be fun. He has no problem with the way I handled this, and neither do I him. This was a guy I would probably like playing all the time, what a fantastic attitude. Second game is the Lifeline winning it again. M: 5-0-0 G: 10-0 (4 Lifeline wins) Round 6: Matt G. (Top 8) Two back and forth beatings. His fast red echo does early damage. My creature kill and evasion win both games. My deck is obviously a good deck without Lifeline as it doesnŐt show up either game here. M: 6-0-0 G: 12-0 (4 Lifeline wins) Round 7: Adrian (Finished 9th) There are three players at 6-0 at this point. I am the lucky one (not!) who has to play a 5-1 player. I offer him the intentional draw, which he turns down (as expected). First game he gets the monstrous dragon/hellkite thingy that can ping repeatedly. Oof. My first game loss of the day as I could not draw any kill through the whole game. Second game I got off to a quick start and used the evasion and creature kill to go on to win. He has not seen the Lifeline in either game. In game three, I get the Lifeline with a couple of critters early and he canŐt deal with it. We stall as I fly one creature over a turn. He Congregates for about 20. I anticipate that he is waiting to draw the hellkite as a way to kill me. I keep befoul in my hand for about ten turns. He casts the hellkite, on my turn it is befouled. ThatŐs the game. I am now guaranteed a spot in top 8, but I need a break. M: 7-0-0 G: 14-1 (5 Lifeline wins) Round 8: Daniel K. (Top 8) We draw so we can take a break. Food, yum :-) M: 7-0-1 G: 14-1 (5 Lifeline wins) Quarterfinal: Rob The first game he canŐt draw his third color and gets frustrated and beaten. I hate losing this way too and can totally understand the way he reacts. The second game turns out to be, by far, the sloppiest game of Magic played this day (by both of us, I would bet). I had to double mulligan to boot. I cast Lifeline which he disenchants as soon as makes it into play. I donŐt think either of us could win this game, one of us was going to lose it first. He simply made more mistakes than I did and loses in a very close game. He isnŐt too cheerful at this point. Whenever I take a long break I always seem to come back and make too many mistakes. I sit and refocus on playing smart in preparation for the semis. M: 8-0-1 G: 16-1 (5 Lifeline wins) Semifinal: Mike C. Now it is time for who gets a full box and who gets a half. He is someone that I have played against and around for all four years of my Magic experience. We play each other tough, but friendly and fair. The first game I donŐt remember much of, except that he cast a pegasus before attacking with his skirge which hits the graveyard. In the second game I mulligan once to no forests and donŐt draw one until too late. I get run down big time. Definitely my worst game today. In the last game he gets early damage and evasion, but I get Lifeline and eek out a fairly close win. M: 9-0-1 G: 18-2 (6 Lifeline wins) Final: Steve F. (from the 3rd round, IŐm his only loss today) We draw as we agreed before the semis. We both get the same prize and it is late and well after time to go home. Yawn. Time to drive forty miles home. Unfortunately, I got me a possum on the way. I hate hitting things. :-( M: 9-0-2 G: 18-2 (6 Lifeline wins) Definitely my best day of tournament Magic. Would I have made Top eight without Lifeline? I canŐt answer that question one way or the other, no way to know. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- And now for a few comments, opinions, bla bla bla. The New Abilities Echo - Quicker creatures are nice. I think they have to be cheap unless they are really special. The one echo that I really donŐt like is the 6/6 green critter for five mana. That much mana with no trample or regeneration is too much. When I faced this it was often expunged after paying ten mana. Sort of like a time walk for me. Cycling - The normal cycling lands look okay for sealed. Other than that I donŐt rate cycling highly at all. Put the cards in your deck that work most of the time. I cycled zero cards all day. My opponents cycled a couple besides the lands, usually in total desperation and to no avail. Sleepers - I am neutral on these. In limited there are two reliable kinds - triggers off cast a creature or cast anything. All of the others are unreliable at best. IŐd rather have a real creature most of the time than one of these. Growing stuff - I really canŐt say as I didnŐt see them except when people showed them to me. They look to be very slow. The black that kills critters looks to be the best in limited. Sealed Deck First Impressions I like this format so far, heh :-) Seriously, I prefer it to Rath and Mirage already. Mirage-only had a huge balance problem - gee, I got three torches I think IŐll win some. After Visions it was much better, still my favorite sealed format. Then came Weatherlight and the Armor, ugh. Rath is too much about shadow haves and havenots. Like all other sealed formats UrzaŐs Saga is about creature base and balance. You need a bunch of creatures, evasion, and workable kill spells. UrzaŐs Saga Random Thoughts I expected more artifacts and less enchantments. I also figured weŐd see some nice common artifacts that work well in sealed at least. Guess not. Worship looks to be one of the more interesting rares (with protection creatures, countering maybe). I also like the Argothian Wurm a bunch, played against one and it was a big pain. If you can cast him early your opponent is in for some kind of trouble. He probably can work well with Armageddon (Wurmageddon or maybe Wormygeddon, in honor of the old Dragon magazine toon). Lifeline Is it ŇbrokenÓ? Maybe. It appears that it may work for both players, but I havenŐt got the Ňofficial final ruling for this weekÓ on it. I can say that there a number ways to deal with it that are commons: Disenchant, Countering, Scrap, Falter. Some others are uncommon like Meltdown and Planar Void. I donŐt see it as any worse than Cursed Scroll in Rath Cycle Limited, and really think it is quite a bit weaker. Trample also can give it problems along with simply being overrun by creatures. Without a balance in creatures you still lose. Just to back up my view, I was the only one in my half of the top eight who was playing one. There were several others that people I knew were playing, that didnŐt make top eight (they told me so). Last year, Cursed Scroll dominated the Tempest prerelease to a much greater degree. As I recall we had four of the top eight playing Cursed Scroll in last yearŐs event. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for reading a long report. Questions, comments, and suggestions are welcomed. Send email to me at aliciab@erols.com. Marty Barylski