Subject: [TOURNEY] Sligh deck self-destructs: the Sligh-brarian reports Date: Thu, 4 Dec 1997 03:34:41 GMT From: Jeff Boes So, here's my tail of woe for the night. I just got back from attending my first T2 tournament since mid-October; moonlighting 10 hours a week and numerous other things cut into my time so that I couldn't make my usual every-other-week trip to South Bend (just one night in 14, that's all I ask, but do I get it, NOOOOOO). I had decided that my deckbuilding skills in the post-Weatherlight, post-Tempest arena aren't savvy enough to serve, so I copied a deck off the net (still my beloved Sligh, but hardly an original thought in it except to substitute 2-3 cards I didn't have). Here's da deck: 12 Mountain 2 Gemstone Mine 2 Karplusan Forest 3 Undiscovered Paradise 2 Fireblast 1 Firestorm 4 Mogg Conscripts 4 Mogg Fanatics 2 Goblin Vandal 2 Jackal Pup (AIH) 4 Canyon Wildcat 4 Ironclaw Orc 4 Incinerate 2 Fireslinger 2 Goblin Bombardment 1 Hammer of Bogarden (AIH) 2 Suq'ata Lancers 2 Bogarden Firefiend* 3 Ball Lightning 3 Viashino Sandstalker *Probably not the best card in the Sligh universe, but I like 'em, especially with the Bombardment. SB: 4 PyroIHATEblastsBLUE 3 Emerald Charms 2 Gloom 1 Hand to Hand 2 Keepers of Kookus 2 Goblin Digging Team 1 Havoc Now I ask you, how can a deck with this mana curve and 19 lands stall on a mana glut, two games out of seven? This way... Round 1, Game 1: Mono-blue. He counterspells everything in sight, for the first 10 turns. He was playing Remove Soul main deck. Good grief, no one plays with that. He finally drops an Air Elemental, Unstable Mutations it the next turn, and rapidly beats down. Good grief, Unstable Mutation? Game 2: I'm ready for mono-blue: 4 Pyroblasts, 3 Emerald Charms. He's ready for me: Chill (Blue's version of Gloom for Red), Suq'ata Firewalker. His sideboard cards show up early, mine are at the bottom of the deck. He does duty on me with an unstable Phantom Warrior. Round 2, game 1: it's a G/r/u good stuff deck, with Thundermare as the finisher. I draw lots of land. I lose. Game 2: Sideboard the same stuff, plus a couple of Keepers of Kookus to block Thundermare with. He incinerates Keeper when I'm tapped out, but I manage to generate enough offense to do him in. Game 3: I draw lots and lots of land. I stink. Round 3, game 1: another mono-blue, this one somewhat better constructed with Ophidians (between these and Manowar, why does WotC bother to print any non-Islands?) I do something very unusual, never happened to me before. About 5 turns into the game, I draw one of my cards (Pyroblast) which should be in my sideboard. I call the judge, fearing his answer but deserving it. He sadly disqualifies me; my opponent offers to let me toss the card aside and draw another, but the judge will not relent (and I would have respected him less if he had). I proceed to... game 2: massive amounts of card advantage, via two Sapphire Medallions, Ophidian, Impulse, etc. I lose, recognizing the lock when he gets enough mana out to cast Capsize twice a turn, not to mention Tradewind Rider and three Opies. I had 6 land in play and 5 in my hand near the end of the game (just before I tossed them away to attempt a Firestorm (R; discard X cards, do X damage to X different targets) which is, of course, countered. I just want to know how he played rounds 1-2 so badly as to be paired up with me this round. I have a 50-50 chance at getting a bye in the last round. I decide to go for the one sure thing all night. I withdraw. Sigh. Summary and notes: (You can find this deck, along with a tournament report extolling its can't-lose nature, at http://www.thedojo.com/deck97/dka.971111ssa.txt.) As I expected, blue is the color of choice in my environment. All decks I saw were either mono-blue, mono-red (one other besides me), or splashed red. Next time (if I can work off the disgust factor) I will play with every anti-blue card I can squeeze into the sideboard. Why doesn't Red have a prot:Blue creature? I'm also thinking about putting Cities of Solitude in the main deck! so what if it hampers my direct damage? I don't block anyway, not with Sandstalkers, Ball Lightnings, and 2/1 creatures. Or I may screw the whole thing and play that 16-mountain, 35-creature Song of Blood deck I saw on the Dojo. Clearly I can't be relied on to have enough skill to play a *real* deck. Oh, and the pasta I had for dinner before the tournament was lousy, too. I threw half of it away. If you knew me, you'd realize I don't throw away food. I should, but I don't ... So it was that kind of night, ALL OVER. Rained, too. Jeff Boes The Sligh-brarian! jboes@qtm.net http://www.qtm.net/~jboes/Magic/sligh.htm UIN 3394914