Subject: THE BEAST [tourney reports-current-oath of druids] Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 10:55:12 -0400 From: musatow_mike@advmar.com To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com I dragged THE BEAST to a sanctioned standard tourney last Sunday at Painted Visions in Woodbridge, VA. (Nice store. Plenty of seating and stock. Good prices.) It was the day after the US pre-release, so the turnout was pretty small, 8 guys. I knew 2 of the players were pretty good, but I didn't know the rest of the guys. The field was: 3x Recurring Nightmare 1x Oath of Druids (Me) 1x Mono-Red 1x SGD 1x Mono-Black 1x Other For those of you who have not memorized THE BEAST :) here is the decklist: 4x Oath of Druids 2x Gaea's Blessing (only 2 is risky, but all that should be necessary) 1x Verdant Touch (again, 1 is a bit risky, but all that is needed) 4x Counterspell 2x Mana Leak 2x Dissipate (Metagamed in. Pulled Forbids) 1x Force Spike (If you have to ask . . .) 4x Impulse 2x Brainstorm (In case you draw a critter.) 3x Propaganda 3x Winter Orb (Fights off other counter heavy decks and buyback) 2x Cataclysm (Some risk, but worth it for dual utility) 2x Wrath of God 2x Disenchant (Utility and Cost selected over buybacks and Creeping Mold) 1x Aura of Silence 1x Archangel 1x Spirit of the Night 8x Island 2x Forest 1x Plains 4x Undiscovered Paradise 2x Reflecting Pool 3x Adarkar Wastes 3x Brushland SB: 1x Aura of Silence 3x Lobotomy 3x Phyrexian Furnace 2x Cursed Totem 1x Rainbow Efreet 1x Verdant Touch 2x CoP:Red 2x CoP:Black Let me explain the sideboard. This may sound completely anal, but it works. Here goes, when making a SB for a tourney: a) I make a pile of about 20 different cards that might be good in the SB. b) Then I write down a list of all the deck types I think I'll face. c) Then I write down which cards I'd sideboard in against which deck. d) Now I write down which cards to PULL from the main deck. e) Refine. Refine. Refine. Zero in on cards that are useful vs. multiple deck types. f) Here's the important part, BRING THIS LIST TO THE TOURNEY. This method does a few things: 1) You only keep sideboard cards that you'll use. 2) It stops you from over-sideboarding. For example, why have 8 SB cards against Hatred, if you can only squeeze 2 of them in when it comes time to SB? 3) You see which cards you almost always pull from the main deck. Once you have this little tidbit of knowledge, you can reconsider having that card in the main deck to begin with. 4) You don't have to think too much when sideboarding. This is what my little sideboard note card looked like: Draw-Go: Out> 3x Propaganda, 2x Wrath, Impulse. In>Aura of Silence, Rainbow Efreet, 3x Lobotomy, Verdant Touch ps You can beat draw-go by decking. SGD: Out> 2x Propaganda, 3x Winter Orb, Verdant Touch In> Aura of Silence, 2x Cursed Totem, 3x Lobotomy ps Must stop Eladamri's Vineyard from Killing You. The smart player won't play a creature after the first game, so may need to put Verdant Touch IN! Hatred: Out> Verdant Touch, 2x Disenchant In> 2x CoP:Black, 1x Aura of Silence ps Must Wrath or Propaganda quick. Orb stops the Scrolls Recur/LD: Out> 3x Propaganda, Verdant Touch, Wrath of God, Impulse, Winter Orb In> 3x Lobotomy, 3x Furnace, Aura of Silence ps Pre-emptive strike with Lobotomy. Awakening: Out> 3x Propaganda, 3x Winter Orb In> 3x Lobotomy, 2x Cursed Totem, Aura of Silence ps WOrb and Ganda do NOTHING against awakening. Sligh: Out> 1x Propaganda, 1x Orb, In> 2x CoP:Red (Lobotomy?) (Touch?) ps Smart player may not play a creature after the 1st game. xWW: Just counter the Armor. Didn't think I'd see it anyway. So after reviewing this, you see that Propaganda almost always comes out while Aura of Silence and Lobotomy almost always go in. Hmmm. Maybe I'll tweak a little next time. Match 1: Ross, Recurring Nightmare Ross is a good player who's won his share of local tourneys, including a Lotus or 2. Game 1: I don't draw an Oath for a while. I Wrath away a slew of creatures twice. Eventually, I get an Oath, but he has a wicked Weaver/Volrath's House recursion going on. I Cataclysm. He's at 5. I'm at 3. I'm going to kill him next turn. We each have a creature. He kept an Undiscovered Paradise, top decks Firestorm and whacks me for 3 for the win! Game 2: Pretty similar. I sideboard in 7 cards. The Furnaces wreck his graveyard and Lobotomy removes his Recurring Nightmares. I eventually counter the Weaver Recursion and win with Spirit of the Night as time runs out. It's a 1-1 draw. 0-0-1 Match 2: Travis, SGD Travis seems fairly inexperienced, but was a good sport. I gave him some hints and coaching during the game. SGD is normally a tough matchup. Game 1: After taking serious Vineyard damage, I manage to get out an Archangel that goes the distance. I inform Travis that he can sac his Spike Feeder and use the Oath of Druids himself. Game 2: Sideboard. Draw both Gaea's in opening hand, but use Vineyard to get rid of them. 2nd turn Oath. Archangel. He quits once the Cursed Totem hits the board. After the game I suggest that he try to kill Oath Decks with Vineyard and Scrolls alone, don't bother with creatures. 1-0-1 Match 3: Aaron, Cursed Black w/o Hatred Aaron is good. He's good to talk to and play against. He always has sound advice and never puts anyone down. His deck is packing Paralyze which is some good. Game 1 and 2: Both games were close and played the same. Both games he splashed out his opening hand with Rituals, Carnophages, Scrolls etc. Both games I hit 2nd turn Oath, 3rd turn Propaganda. And both games all he had to do was top a land or Ritual in order to kill me with creatures and scrolls. (Spirit of the Night is Pro-Black!) 2-0-1 Match 4: Daniel, Recurring Nightmare This is the last round of the tourney. The top 4 are playing each other and we all draw into the single elimination final. 3 Recurring Nightmare Decks and me. 2-0-2 Semi-Final: Daniel, Recurring Nightmare Daniel is pretty young, seems pretty solid. Once he called me for untapping and then trying to go back to the last discard phase, which is fine, but I informed him that he better not make any mistakes from now on, since he was fond of tapping and untapping different lands before he cast a spell. Neither of us asked for leniency again. Game 1: I played very conservatively. Eventually got an Angel and ran with it. I disenchant and counter Recurring Nightmares Game 2: I apply my 7 card SB against Nightmare. The Furnace did great, but my opening hand had 2 Gaea's. I never drew an Oath. And I screw up by not Cataclysming early OR using extra Furnaces to draw cards. His Spike Feeder goes the distance! 20 points. Ouch! Game 3: 2nd Turn Oath. 4th Turn Lobotomy pulls his Lobotomies, 2 were in his hand. He delayed and delayed and delayed. I pleasantly informed him that I would deck him, since I had Gaea's and he did not. He finally dropped an Orangutan to kill one of my Furnaces. I got an Angel. His hand was full of Pyroblasts, Man O Wars and Nekrataals. Luckily I had a pile of counters and Lobotomy stored up. I pulled the Nekrataals with Lobotomy and covered the Angel with counters. The delay worked both ways! Final: Ross, Recurring Nightmare (already played him). Ross has already beaten both other Recurring Nightmare decks and we've drawn after an hour of play in the 1st round. We decide to split the prize money and go home. Hope you win a few, Grasshopper "No one ever conquered Wyoming from the left or from the right."