Subject: [Fwd: Tournament Report] Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1998 18:20:01 +1000 From: "G. Romans" To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com -------------------------------------------------------------------- Tournaments Australia (Brisbane) held an Adelaide qualifier on Friday 2nd October. Format was Rath Constructed. Having not played control for a while, I went with a mono-blue control deck: Spells: 4 Counterspell 4 Forbid 4 ManaLeak 2 Dismiss 1 Legacys Allure 1 Puppet strings (Good against Scragnoth, Untap Mawcor) 2 Capsize 2 Treasure Trove (Better than Whispers) Creatures: 3 Tradewinds 3 Mawcors 2 Thalakos Drifters 2 Hammerhead Sharks (Rod Ho tech - Strong) 2 Mindless Automatons (Stop Scragnoth) 1 Merfolk Looter 1 Silver Wyvern Land: 2 Wasteland 24 Islands Sideboard: Wasteland, 3 Interdicts, 4 Chills, 4 Propaganda, 2 Rebound, Grindstone Round 1: David Werner - RED/blue with Shocker, Dracoplasm, Wild Wurm Dave was telling about this deck the week before. It abuses Pandemonium with tech creatures. Game 1: Dave had to mulligan while I drew a strong hand of land and counter. After countering some creatures I applied the wyvern beatdown. Game 2: Dave had to mulligan again while I drew a stronger hand of land and counter. After countering some boils I applied the shark, mawcor beatdown. Shark is strong - 2/3 for 2 mana is good. Match 1-0 Round 2: Dan Romans (my brother obviously) playing Living Death with Scrivener/dark banishing tech. I knew my deck was inferior to his. I needed to win the first duel as Finkeldeath sideboard crushes counter. The problem was Dan runs 3 Mox Diamonds, dark Rituals and scragnoth main deck making it tough for counter. Round 1: I have to mulligan -not good. He gets a 1st turn hermit druid, early survival and tradewind. He survivals for scragnoth. He lobotomies my forbids. With tradewind lock this is game over. Round 2: I know this will be tough as he has 3 oath of ghouls and extra strongholds in sideboard. I sideboard in an extra wasteland and some interdicts for surgeons and rebounds for lobotomy. Turn 1. I draw 2 land , 2 interdict, forbid, rebound, Mawcor I play island go Turn1 .He plays swamp go Turn 2 Play Island go Turn 2 he plays Oath of Ghouls ... I have no counter I lose... >From then on its recurring surgeon as I have no capsize. After the tournament I came across Randy Bueller's Lisbon report which stated that Finkels oath/scroll/survival is so strong against counter. His solution was portcullis. This may work with Counterphoenix but mono-blue really has no answers. Match 1-1 Round 3: Michael Martin (Fellow Russkie) playing a truly sick deck. Only a twisted person could have concocted such a perverse and insipid concept as this - Reigns of power/Altar of Dementia/Natures Revolt/ Vineyards/Ensnaring Bridge/Null Brooch. To hell with deck archetypes and Dojo Effects, thought Michael. Round 1: Michael goes 1st turn Vineyard ouch. I managed to counter the 2nd but he then lays a third. I managed to get 2 Mawcors out which was just as well as he had an ensnaring bridge out. I was then losing 4 life a turn - Michael was taking the same hit with 2 ping damage and mana burn. I lost when I drew a land on 4 life and michael at that time was at 4 so it was fairly close. Round 2. Michael goes 1st turn vineyard again which enables me to cast 2nd turn Drifters. Michael then casts wall of blossoms and altar of demetia. I give my Drifters shadow but begin taking mana burn. Michael then starts sacking his wall to the altar and then reclaims it twice though on the second time i countered it. I then go all the way with Mr. Thalakos "B.Tings" Drifter. Round 3. Michael lays Altar and quick Null Broochs while I was tapped out playing tradewind and Wyvern. These creatures would then go on to win despite a vineyard in play. Michael needed to topdeck a Bridge or Reigns to win but he didnt. Both Michael's and my deck suffered from a lack of deck manipulation - Scroll racks and Intuitions would have been useful. Match 2-1 Round 4: Roy Ho - Sligh Red Beatdown.with Spellshock, Tongs tech I expected Roy to play Blue like he usually does and was glad to see he wasn't. I wasn't up to massive counter wars. Round 1: I drew a near perfect balance of counter/land and sharks. Roy gets me to 8 before I take full control with the Wyvern/Mawcor. Dismiss was ace. Round 2: A very close game but the 4 chills/Propaganda swung it my way. I was on 1 life when I won. It came down to whether Roy was a good topdecker on the day. Match 3-1 Last Round: Jason McDonald playing Trade-Awakening I need to win this for second place as my brother was undefeated. I won the toss and decided to draw. Round 1: Poor Jason had to mulligan twice due to no-land draws. He was cursing the Paris Mulligan rule. Consequently this proved to be an easy duel as he cast Awakening when I had a Trove out. Round 2. Jason sideboarded 4 Scragnoths in. Game Over as I failed to draw an Automaton or Strings despite many dips into the treasure trove. I failed to have a counter for his spike feeder which was important as I had allured a wall to block the scragnoth. Round 3. I stalled on 2 mana as Jason got an early allure and scragnoth out. Game over!!! Match 3-2 I would have to say there is too much anti-blue tech in Rath to allow Blue to be domineering. A good Living deck deck with Scroll racks poses too many cheap early threats for blue to deal with. Randy Bueller will attest to this. Scragnoths are a major problem as artifact solutions are 'band aid' at best. From my study of the Rath environment, Living Death is the most consistent deck. It can take out control and weenies. Strongholds/thrull/cloudchaser can take care of humility/orims. If you are not convinced just remember Finkel knows best. Now to work on that Oath of Druids/Cataclysm deck....