From: KEFHOFFY@aol.com Date: Fri, 22 Aug 1997 05:02:40 -0400 (EDT) To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Subject: Type 2 Mono black and a Hint to beating the Big Guys Well I have read enough of these reports to know that it is time to post one. For a small tournament of about 15 it certainly gets a solid 10 or so solid players with good decks comprising the spectrum of what is out there in type 2 so after much debating on what deck to take I decide to run mono black B.A because of its abibility to beat Blue and Blue Orb especially. Most people in the area have become accustomed to seeing me run WW and Kicking people around with it but WW has a major flaw in that it rarely is able to beat blue decks and blue orb so I went with the logical solution if ya can't beat it with a good deck then play a cheessy one. Here's the deck 4 Dark rituals 4 Buried Alives 4 Vampiric Tudors 1 Urborg Justice 4 Ashen Ghouls 4 Black Knights 4 Nether Shadows 3 Urborg Stalkers(ok I am just gonna Hang out for awhile and Kill ya Blue orb) 2 Knights of Stromgald 4 Hidden Horrors(hehe very bad for people first turn) 3 Nekrataal 2 Necratog 1 Necrosavant 20 Swamps Sideboard 2 contagion 2 disks 4 Dystopia 3 Glooms 2 ebony charms 2 Urborg Justice First match Matt one of Hammers boys Game1 Well small tournament of course the only 2 B.A. Decks go at it first so I do something like first turn Buried alive and tudor secound turn for another and 3rd turn buried alive. Matt does a third turn buried alive so he can start the recursion too. It is important to note here that he was only playing with Ashen ghouls and zero nethershadows. Game one is mine. Game2 Slow start Ebony charms go flying and both recusions are almost gone and he just keeps getting his first strikers out against me so down I go. Game3 Great now everyone else is done and watching the 2 B.A. Decks go at it this is not supposed to take the full hour but now there is only 10 minutes left in the round. I start with hidden horror first turn go Matt Drops a land I cast a nethershadow hit for five. Matt draw a card and forgets to play a land for a turn bonk bonk bonk. Great games between me and Matt and I beleive he will be putting in the Nethershadows if he plays B.A. again. Round 2 Another guy from Hammers forget name Game 1 Big blue Great I should be able to take this down. Get weird start like 5 land and not much else. Can U say Rainbow Waterspout Manowar beat down I can. Game2 Got Buried Alive rolling no creatures for him enough said! Game3 I drop a black knight he drops a furnace. I draw all of my black Knights and a Urborg stalker beat down begins until i get him to like 5. He ends up manowaring the Stalker and then Foreshadowing it. Manowar dies in the line of duty via Black Knight but now he has a Ophie out and a Quicksand and is all tapped out. I have 2 black Knight and a recently summoned Nether shadow. I attack he quicksands one of the knight and very very quickly tries to declare a block. I say stop before you declare your block there is a phase I would like to use after the death of my black knight and I Urborg Justice Killing the Ophidian and my other creatures ride in. This was an error in timing for my opponent and I believe he new he screwed up but was trying to rush it to cover his mistake. A judge came over and annouced that there was a phase in between the death of my black Knight and his declaring a blocker. Interlude Helpful hints againt Pro Tour Players I have spent alot of time reading many posts and have noticed a certain self doubting syndrome developing amoung many players. I have played and beaten pretty much every big name player in the northeast and ya know what? Fear is the only advantage that they have over you and that is of your own doing. It is amazing to me how many people remeber playing the Loco's, Guevin's, and the Darwin Mess's(or is it Kastle now hehe) and they can tell ya how they almost beat them but they screwed up cause they were scared. Do you know that every player has certain quirks that they do when playing Magic and that those same players that play the most magic the quirks tend to be magnified for all to see. Body language learn to read your opponents mannerisms during the match. Case in point Darwin Kastle has a couple of habits that he does in certain suitatuations of a game. The Most pronounced one is when he is in trouble and usually has nothing in his hand but land or useless cards is that he will start talking and talking and talking hit him hard then is my advice. Now go through the list of all the people that worry ya and start watching them and look for unusual movements that they do during the game. This can be anything from shirt biting, talking, a hand gesture, card moving, hand on the next card, a sudden disinterest in the game or anything all players have their body language signs that they give off so use it against them. Round 3 Jason Game1 Jason is playing a PCL green red stompie. This is not one of the decks I figured I would be facing game one went somthing like this gazban orge giant growth I get a black knight out bolt and than 2 bolts later and 2 knights later i died. Game2 2nd turn dervish great none of my side board for green come up but it is very close as i get the horrors and knights out and the just barely die to the dervish plus a bolt. Had Jason not drawn the incerate.... Round 4 WW with a little blue for slights I should know this guys name.... Game1 secound turn falcon third turn armor..... Game2 Can you say Hidden horror and dystopia.... Game3 See game 2 thank you dystopia you rule!!! Small tournament in Biddleford Me top 4 advance 1Jason GR Stompie 2 Mike GWR Armagedon Maro 3 Me 4 Jeff WW from what I heard Jason Applies beatdown Round 5 Game1 Mike has never seen B. A. in action I get the engine rolling and his creatures are on total defense I pick away at his Wild fire's and Sentinel but the engine in going and I got a Hidden horror wrecking havok... Game2 He starts to set up his defenses but I drop down a hiddedn horror that messes with him and a disk un disenchanted and he has 3 diamonds out he geddons I disk its a race to get un mana scewed I won the race. Finals Me and Jason Me and Jason have always been good friends since I met him earlier this year so we split which was fine by me because I did not want to see if Stompie could cast a early dervish against me again. Box of Weatherlights we split first pack I draw a Abeyance smiles this is a good box. Final notes I am very curious to see posts on Extended from Worlds since it is a new format for all of us. I am heading down to New Jersey with Michael Loconto and Jim Allen for the PTQ on Sunday hopefully to qualify and join Jim Lemire and Hammer for the PT Chicago so any thoughts on MVW are appreciated. Michael Hoffman "HOFFY" Just a guy the big guys don't like to play