Subject: Type I tournament Date: Mon, 13 Oct 1997 13:10:26 +0200 From: Grzegorz Swietlik This week-end we had the largest Magic tournament in Poland ever. Apparently, people from outside Warsaw we invited for the last one brought more friends. Finally we might see some more Poles in DCI rankings because more people finally got 10 games played. Attendance about 50 people. 7 round Swiss, 8 qualify for knock-out round. Win 3 point, best of three. Since it looked like a 14-16 hour event, I decided to go with a fast deck to get a maximum rest possible between the games. Maybe major changes to my zoo deck so it looked more like artillery one. Have played it for 8 hours stratight against a sparringpartner with lots of new decks making adjustments to deck/sideboard. Seemed like I might have trouble with big critters as we refused to put swords in but anyway decided to give it a try. Deck listing (approxomate). 3 savannah Lions, 2 Miners, 1 Shaman, 1 WK, 1 Wildfire ->last two an addition to handle biggies. SHould have Suleiman's Legacy in sideboard but no space. 3 Power blue, 3 Mystic Tutors, Regrowth, Tutor, Aura of Silence, 3 Moxes 4 bolts, 2 incinerates, 3-4 tactis, 1 hammer, 1 thunderbotl, 1 kaervek's spite Added 1 pyroblast as a surprise factor. 1 Psionic Blasdt +2 tithes, WoF 4 strip mines, 4 gemstones, 2 cities, 4 plateu, 3 tundra, 2 volcanis, LoA. In the morning added 1 undiscovered as I realized there might be a lot of LD In total 62 cards. Sideboard: 3 anarchies, 3 disenchants, 3 pyroblast, 2 psychic purges, 1 wrath 3 honorable Passage Round 1 Stasis deck (run over him). The guy was still a beginner, no pyroblasts, no power cards 2:0 3/3 Round 2 Mana Crypt+ disrupting Scepter. Rukh Eggs, Taniva (big blue legend) +'haups. Game 1: He uses sceper in his upkeep to avoid flipping the coin. My two tactis help me a lot. Game 2: Sideboadring mistake as he takes scepers out I bring 2 Psychic Purges in. He gets taniva and egg out, I manage to balance and thunderbolt the egg token. 2:0 3/6 Round 3 Mono-red. I lose game 1 as he gets more burn then I. Game 2 and 3 honorable passages deal enough damage to him. 2:1 3/9 Round 4 R/B LD, I don't remember much WLW 2:1 3/12 Round 5 Facing a white weenie. No power cards but somehow the deck keeps winning. I burn him game one. Game 2 he doesn't play any COPs, passages, conversions, but somehow I don't draw my anarchjies. game 3 I do draw 2 anarchies and one wrath but get stuck at 3 mana. 1:2 0/12 Round 6 Now I have to win to be assured of qualifying. Wug with Serendibs and Ernhams. In playtesting it seemed to be a difficult deck to beat. Somehow I get a really good draw and win game 1. Blasts and wrath in. In game two I get turn one miner, blast his timewalk and manage to leave him with only plains on the table (7 lands destroyed). I manage to blast, double bolt, thunderbolt etc. all djinns 2:0 3/15 Round 7 Since there are 5 people at 15, 1 at 13 I agree on a draw. Quarterfinals At that time there was only one deck with power cards left -mine. Somehow the other 3-4 decks with more complete sets of power nine were eliminated. It's not the cards .... A) Necro beats White weenie 2:0. From what I heard, in game two gloom appeared on turn 1 and his sibling on turn 3 B) Mono-white prison wins with R/G DD C) Classic Weismman beats R/G LD+haups D) I face R/G LD with Ice stroms etc. Game One I only draw a strip mine. Fortunately a mox and sol ring get me jump started. He also got only one Strip mine as well. Seen a lot of LD discarded but not much more. Game 2 I use Tithe a lot to get the lands plus Mystical tutor for ancestral is not a bad thing. In the end I tutor for timetwister to get some more bolts After the game I was told that the guy was playing with three blood moons but didn't get them. Lucky me. Also in this game I made a mistake (playing first time with psionic blast). Got him to four lifes after tactics and tutored for Ancestral to get some bolts. Should have asked for psionic but forgot I can deal 4 damage. Semifinals: A) Necro walks over weissman 2:0 B) I get to face prison. I have no idea how he managed to beat control, necro etc. but I was having real problems with him. Tormond's Crypts don't allow me for recycling, too many artifacts etc. I concede the first game when he gest 2 thawing glaciers + 2 icies. I get worried about passages in the next two games but it appears that he plays with COps instead. turn 2 aura of Silence slows him down a lot. I use twister and wheel to draw cards (graveyard was clean most of the time). Somehow I manage to win the next two games) but I am sure if we went to best of five it would be impossible. Final: Best of five around midnite. I know I have an edge over necro. MAde me discard baby. I probably get too confident. Game One I stall the hyppies and orders. But when he drops Necro AND Ivory Tower and I don't get Shaman or aura it's over. Fortunatelly my sideboard can win the game for me. Disenchant for Tower+Zuran Obr 2 Purges + wrath. Out 1 land since he doesn't pack much LD, miners (mono-black), pyroblast. The next three games total control on my part. He gets nervous experimenting with different sideboard (putting gloom for example). In game 4 he gets stack on Mishra/ swamp. Drops necro pays twice five life to get more land. As he gets to 6, out of desperation vampiric tutors for Ivory Tower. In the draw phase he tries to draw it, but I stop him. Pays another life to get the tower but I bolt him. My friends told me I should let him cast it and then disenchant ( I had two in my hand) But I think it would be too cruel. So I won. The following day was type II (next message)