Newsgroups: uk.games.trading-cards.misc,rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy From: U Stroinski Subject: Swindon III - New successful deck designs To: mtg-strategy-l@oracle.wizards.com Date: Mon, 5 Aug 1996 10:50:44 GMT Baublebind - UK's most successful deck - a description. The secret of NewNecro revealed. Why PowerStasis is dead. Insights in German MtG. Swindon III - the report. That should be enough for everybody. I actually wanted to start with a remark about the organisatorical desaster last week in Atlanta, but then I realized that I lost all last week's emails. (You shouldn't go on holiday without unsubscribing ALL mailing lists. I forgot one). Umpf. That's particularly sad since those mails contained Tonio Samaranch's answer to my request of MtG becoming Olympic. I guess we won't meet in Sydney :-( As I said, last week I was in Germany. As a big fan of Germany (they won EURO '96 remember?) I was a bit disappointed about MtG in Germany. Are there any sanctioned events? I didn't get the info, so I asked around and played whoever wanted. The "best" deck I faced during my 10 days was a R/B Necro LD. I won 6:0. Pretty disappointing! Reutlingen/Tuebingen/Boeblingen doesn't seem to be a "Hochburg" of MtG in Germany. Immediately after my arrival back in UK. I heard a couple of rumors. I have to set them straight. - It is true that Oliver Schneider is an outstanding MtG player. It is not true that he won the UK nationals as reported in ARCANE. (I don't know where these guys get their info from, but obviously NOT from my weekly report). - It is true that at the Pacific Coast there is a team called "The Legends". Its is not true that after their #$%^ performance at the US Nationals they decided to call themselves "The Fallen Empires". Furthermore, it is not true that WotC convinced them to change their name to "The Mirages". - It is true that Jamie Badman will leave The Assassins - UK's premier MtG team. He goes to the Netherlands. This week in Magic. Swindon III. Martin Steed and his team organized a 92 player type II tournament. 5 rounds swiss + 4 rounds knock out. Great organization (as usual in Swindon). For those who have never been in Swindon: the swiss rounds are determind by machine and then presented via an overhead projector. Impressive. Here we go. I played NewNecro. Some of you asked me about NewNecro and as usual I don't answer these questions }:-). Only that much. Big creatures and lot's of creature defense. Occasionally a 2nd color. The other assassins played: Julian Wiffen a Necro/Goblin, Steve Presten a (sort of) WW, Jamie Badman a ... he showed me his deck ... I saw Kaysa, Kaysa, Kaysa and a couple of Scavenger Folks, Ernhams, Ants ... My first thought was: that does not work, but ... one never knows with Jamie. First Round Graham Richards R/G LD His first tournament so I had to explain him Mishras and Necros. That took a while. He started with a 1st turn Black Vise and I was slightly Mana screwed. His LD kicks in and I loose. I sideborad in more land and try it again. This time I get a Necro, draw 3 cards a turn and win. Decider. Was very close. 1min to the end I decided not to sac all my land to Zorb, thus leaving me open for a Fireball. He had none. I Danced his Hordes (I wanted to test Dance of the Dead against LD. So I sideboarded one in) and did 6 damage just when time was called. Graham ended up with slightly more than 50% of points. In his first tournament! I guess we will see him more often. 2:1 - 8 points Second Round David Simpson U/W control I got the Ivy/Necro combo and killed him with a Sengir. Game 2 he didn't see U Mana 2:0 - 18 points Third Round Jonathan Summers R/b Goblin No, no, no! Not with me! First game I killed his blockers and hit him with a Knight, second game I killed him with an Ivory Tower (he couldn't get rid of it, was mana screwed) 2:0 - 28 points Fourth Round Tom Cleaver R/G LD (is there a trend?) First game he saw no G mana (I was SOOO lucky in this tournament!), second game I Hippied him 5 times. After that we played a couple of friendly games with much more balanced scores. 2:0 - 38 points Fifth Round Mark Jeffries R/W/G BaubleBind I hate these table 1 matches. Mark was on 40 points, I on 38 and we had to battle out the winner of the swiss part. Both of us were already qualified for the KO rounds, nevertheless we took it seriously. You probably remember Mark from my report of the UK nationals. I could beat him, but only just. He is a member of the Cardiff team, I am an Assassin. That says it all. His deck - Baublebind - was jointly developed with Clint Oldridge another top player of Cardiff. It contains Barbed Sextant, Lodestone Bauble, Urza's Bauble, Sylvan Library, Specral Bears, Stormbind, Bolts, Disentchant, StP, Erhnam ... my current favorite deck. I lost game one and game two in about 10 min. (Another) Umpf. Not much I can say about the match. I never has a chance and was killed by Spectral Bears. He didn't even play a Stormbind. 0:2 - 38 points qualified (cut was 35). Mark Jeffries had 50 points out of 50. For the first time in the history of the Swindon events a player won every single game in the swiss round. (The competition was not bad: Steve Easton, Jason Nicholl, Dave Mahor, Iain MacDonald ... just to name a few) Last 16 Daron Challis Necro (traditional) In the first game he got a Necro on the table and that usually means game over, but he somehow managed not to kill me. Eventually the Necro went. He then played a 2nd Necro and still it was not enough. I won. Very strange game. Second game I had no Mana. Decider. This time I got the Necro and he was without a chance. 2:1 Last 8 (believe it or not) Mark Jeffries again Oh no. I still was shaking from the crushing defeat in the swiss round when I shuffled my deck. At that point I had no idea how to beat his deck. What could I do? ... yes ... I know it ... suddenly an idea occured in my mind ... suddenly I knew how to beat him. Just in time I remembered Jamie Badman's advise after the UK Nationals. "Uwe", he said "Uwe, you will never become a reasonable Necro player if you play you Hymns badly". The key in successfully playing Necro is the HYMN! In other words: Play your HYMNS well and you need no DISKS. That is what I did. In game one I Hymned 2 Bolts and hit him with an Order and in game 2 he was slightly mana screwed (I was lucky in this tournament) and I hymned Balance and StP. 2:0 That's why I don't like Swiss combined with KO. Mark won 12! games in a row just to loose to a couple of lucky Hymns. Mark's, Clint's and Dave's success with BaubleBind reminds me on the early days with Necro. Did you ever win 10 games in a row? I did, when I first played Necro. Is BaubleBind the new Necro? PowerStasis isn't. Nobody played it, nobody wants to play against it, organizers hate it. It is not the kind of MtG people WANT to play. It's no fun to play and it's no fun to play against. Last 4 Joe Agass W/u/g what can I say about that deck? Never seen such a deck before. Not in the first round of a tournament, not in the semis. Kind of "Good Stuff" for W. It was an epic battle. We played at least 90 minutes and the organizers started to get nerveous. In game one he got a first turn Land Tax combined with a second turn Ivory Tower. Not even the 2 swamps, Order, Zorb, Sac Swamp trick helped to prevent him from getting a ridiculous amount of life. I broke the stalemate and ran into 3 StPs and 2 Wraths (until about turn 7 or 8). He won that game. In game 2 I couldn't get rid of a CoP:B and had to kill him with an Aeolipile. He Divinely Offered his Icy. 20 min later I tried it again. This time it worked. Game 3. I was kind of relieved when his Kjeldorans built their Outpost with me not have a Strip in my hand. That eventually decided the game. The other semifinal was Clint Oldridge BaubleBind vs Jamie Badman Kaysa. Jamie lost, but I award him the price of the coolest deck design of the tournament. (Yes I know he is an Assassin, but who said I am neutral?) I left the tournament when Clint and Joe started to play. Knowing both decks and at least Clint very well I give him a 70:30 chance. But I wouldn't bet on that, Joe's deck is really sick (in the best sense of the word :-) Martin could you post the result? I have kind of no plan of what is going on next weekend. Are there any tournaments? See you Uwe Stroinski uwst@maths.bath.c.uk