Newsgroups: uk.games.trading-cards.misc,rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy From: U Stroinski Subject: Mox a Month - 128 Players - more than 50 on the reserved list Date: Mon, 8 Jul 1996 10:02:36 GMT Who won? Which decks where successful? What is the fundamental law of MtG? That and much more in my report. Here we go again. Mox a Month IV in London. 128 players. 7 rounds knock out without optional draw rule and no Alliances. The biggest (nonWotC organized, but sanctioned) tournament in UK attracted this time more than 180 players. Two assassins namely Julian Wiffen and I (Uwe Stroinski) tried to get a place in this event. I said tried and I mean tried. We failed miserably. Calling the organizers 1 week in advance resulted in a 38th and a 19th place on the reserved list (tournament booked out). As notorious optimists we tried out luck and went. After our arrival we had three hours until the organizers would confirm a place in the tournament. We used this time for a couple of test matches. I played Necro, Julian Good Stuff. After 7 games it was 4:3 for me. Why am I the only Necro player with problems against Good Stuff? Afterwards Julian completely trashed my Diminishing Returns deck. That much for Alliances :-( I also played my W/G deck against Olivers (he posts to mtg-strategy-l) Necro (which is more or less a copy of the Necro which brought me to the finals of MaM II) and could win 2:1. Good luck in Germany Oliver :-) Three hours were quickly gone and the organizers announced: "Reserved list 7 or higher get no place in the tournament". Means: approximately 40 players did not get a place. Both assassins included. Good time for a lunch break and a brief discussion of our further plans. After a cheeseburger and a coke we returned to the site and just wanted to start a match when Robert Judge announced he would organize a small tournament for the poor guys on the reserved list. 32! players signed up. 1 pound entrance fee. Winner gets ~2/3. Runner up ~1/3 of the money. (Was later converted to cards :-( Not much but at least something. The format was as in the main event 5 rounds knock out. Julian and I signed up with the strong will to meet in the final (Did I already mention it? We are optimists :-) My first game was against Oliver Breese. He played a NecroKnight and started. (Arghh!) To bad that there are so many cards against Weenies. Serrated Arrows, Aeolipiles, Weeknesses made him struggle and confirmed that 6-8 Knights are too much in a Necro. I could win 2:1. Second game against Richard Hudson. He played W/U control and was never able to establish control. It was a real uphill battle for him. Lucky Hymns with early Necros. No targets for his Control Magic. 2:0. (BtW he started.) Game number three. Chris Llewellyn. He played a Goblin and won the die role. (third time in a row). Heat against Necro is always a race. I won the first game on 3! life. Luck is part of our business! Necros out. Serrated Arrows + Drain life in. (Hymns, Grenades, Blood Lusts, disks should give me enough card advantage.) Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle and .... 1 Mishra in my opening hand. 1 all. Third game. I go first. No sideboarding. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle .. dream start. Ivory tower. Hymn him. Somehow he manages to bring me down to 2 life. He is on 1. I kill him with a Mishra. After that match we had to drink a beer :-) I like Magic. 4th game against Robert Judge. He played HD and even worse he wins. I didn't know that there are still B decks around without Necro. Anyhow that should not be much of a problem. He starts. (See the trend?) I win :-) Second game was more interesting. I get a Necro into play. Draw like crazy. He sits there and does nothing (playing Racks and other useful stuff). Draw more and more until I am down to 3 life. No life gainers, but 1! Knight and 2 Mishras. I pound on him. He gets a Mishra. He is on 8 life and I made the following (not really) mistake. I attack with everything in a desperate attempt to kil him in 2 rounds. He blocked my Mishra with his Mishra. Both died. If he had tapped his Mishra, he had won. Why? Next card he drew was a Mishra. I am tapped out (not a good idea) and he can attack for 3. Next time I only attacked with the Knight for 2 and he was dead 1 turn later. 2:0. The final against Chris Manners who beat Julian in a tight match. Chris played Oliver Schneiders (runner up UK nationals) R/w/g deck. I WIN the die role. This brings us to the fundamental law of MtG: There is only a certain amount of bad luck in this world. Say x. If you play y times and y > x then you will be lucky. Unfortunately the die role is all I win in the first game. Orggs, Ehrnams everywhere. Lightning Bolt, Incinerate and Fireball on the player. Cheesy! I got him down to 5 but I lost. Sideboarding. If you read my last report (about the UK Nationals) you will know that I was well prepared against Olivers deck. I knew exactly what to sideboard and won the metagame (at leat for the 2nd game). I needed 2! Necros. Both were only one turn on the table and gave me a 6-8 card advantage. That was too much for him. I finished the game on comfortable 6 life. High tension. He resideboards. I stay with my deck. We shuffle. I shuffle a bit longer. We cut our decks. I draw. He goes first and I watch my cards. A dream. Swamps, Hymns, Ivory Tower ... I played a first turn Ivory Tower. He couldn't get rid of it. He playes an early Erhnam. Surprise! I don't do anything. (Gain life.) He attacks. I Dark Banish it and could see in his face that he had no chance to stop me from getting a ridiculous amount of life. I had 35 life when I dropped the Necro. (I was in Necro heaven.) Julian's loud comment at that stage. "Game over!". I just had to convince Chris and Oliver who came along to assist Chris. It went like that. Oli (spectator):"Block with your Mishra, Chris". Uwe (player):"Sorry Oli, but that is a tournament game. No help!". Oli (spectator):"Yeah! True, but he would have done that anyway." Meanwhile Chris had Zorb, Land Tax, Storm Bind in play. He threw all his basic land on me. He played a Vise. I played a Disk. I use it. I Hymn his cards. I attack with 3 Mishras. I Drain life him ... he dies. Julian finished fourth, I first. A good day for the assassins :-) Meanwhile at the table next to us Wai Dat Chan and Stephen Roche played the final of the main event. I would like to give you a long and detailed Julian finished fourth, I first. A good day for the assassins :-) Meanwhile at the table next to us Wai Dat Chan and Stephen Roche played the final of the main event. I would like to give you a long and detailed description of the game, but unfortunately I couldn't see the first game (Wai won). In the second game Stephen was mana screwed and Wai finished him off without any difficulties. The winner of Mox a Month IV is Wai Dat Chan. After the game both players let me have a look on their decks. Stephen played a W/g/b deck with B for Derelors. Wai played a classical W/G ErhnamGeddon. The organizers plan something really big for Mox a Month VI. A 256 player tournament. Only the format is not yet clear. IMHO knock out would would make Mox a Month the WIMBLEDON for MtG. I would probably loose the first round, but I had the feeling to be part of something really great :-) That was the last tournament in UK without Alliances. Next week we meet in Reading to celebrate Thames Valley X. The Assassins will come with a whole team. Cardiff and High Wycombe will send teams too. This tournament will settle the question: Who has the best MtG-team in UK? for once and forever :-) Some of you asked me for last weeks report. I am sorry, but last week was EURO '96. Since I also post this mail to US newsgroups I should explain. The european soccer championships are after the Olympics and the soccer worlds the biggest sports event (100 000 000$ TV rights). What's soccer? "Soccer is, when Germany wins" and so they did :-) See you in Reading Uwe Stroinski uwst@maths.bath.ac.uk