Subject: Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1998 22:44:56 -0800 From: "Jared Vineyard" To: `Frank here is a copy of a tourney report I sent you earlier today. Some changes have been made as I have recived some info Iwas waiting for i.e. names of opponents. Please post this one instead. Well it is time again for the Idaho state championships. All the best players in this state will be gathering together to battle it out for that grand title of Champion. Included in the scrub section of this get together is yours truly. And for this all important event I will be playing the notorious Academy deck I chose this deck to play because it kinda reminded me of going into war with a 50 caliber machine gun when all your enemies are fighting with sling shots. So with that in mind I construct my own tweaked version of this Frankenstien deck, and began testing 3 weeks before the tourney. I will list the deck first so you can an idea of what I had to work with: Mind Stroke 3x Mind over Matter 4x Time Spirals 3x Stoke of Genius 3x Windfall 4x Power Sink 2x Force Spike 2x Intuition 1x Rescind Artifacts 4x Voltaic Key 4x Mana Vaults 3x Claws of Gix 4x Lotus Petals 2x Urza’s Bauble 2x Scroll Rack 3x Mox Diamond Land 11x Island 2x Ancient Tomb 4x Tolarian Academy Sideboard 4x Chill 3x Hydroblast 4x Propaganda 2x Rescind 2x Mana Leak The sideboard was geared towards the local metagame . I expected to see a lot of Sligh, White weenie , suicide black, and some control with Tradewinds and Arcane Laboratory. I did not however expect to see to many other Academy decks. As it turns out there was only one other Academy deck there and that was the best news all day (I hate mirror match ups). This is my first tourney report so bare with me. I am going to give a rundown on the rounds and then I have some afterthoughts I’d like to share. So without further hold up here is my Idaho State Championship experience: Round one: Tim Twarg playing Green Stompie Game one: The opening draw looks real good with Time Spiral , and the Academy is in hand so I go with it. He goes about laying gigantic green creatures and proceeds to whoop the Hobbit snot out of me with Elves and rangers. This guy has no idea what I am up to when I lay the academy down, so I tap it for six and play Time Spiral (By the way I am at eight life at this point and he has about seven creatures on the board). This is what I draw from the Spiral: M.o.M , five Islands and a Force Spike. Hmmmm.... I say go, so he plays Overrun , so I die. Game Two: I side board in Propaganda for the green phat. Oddly enough, I never see one , he on the other hand, gets to see his whole deck as I play Stroke of Genius on him for 63. He was not happy. Game three: Again I never see a propaganda, but my first three draws were sent from God. My opening draw saw all the combo cards including a Mana Vault and two Islands. In the next three draws I saw a Lotus Petal, Scroll Rack, and another Island. Needless to say the rest is history. I go off on the third turn and his hand size just jumped to about 54 cards. 1-0-0 Round two: Steve " " playing Land destruction Game one: I win the dice roll and decide to go first. I have the Academy in hand but I don’t know what he is playing yet so I lay an Island and I play a Voltaic Key . He lays a mountain and I think to myself oh great -"Sligh".Then he plays a Raze on my Island. Now I am really concerned because L.D Sligh can give the Academy deck serious trouble. So on my turn I play another Island and a Mana Vault , and I tell him to go. He lays a swamp and plays raze again on my Island. Now it is the third turn , and I draw a Time Spiral. My turn goes something like this: Academy, Mox Diamond, tap the Academy and the Mana Vault for six Mana altogether..... use the key to untap the Vault, tap it for three more Play M.o.M., discard to untap the academy, tap the academy play Time Spiral and we are off to the races. Ten minutes later I play a Stroke for about seventy. He looks about as happy as my last opponent. Man, I love this deck. Game two: Its all about Chill baby. I go off without a hitch on the third turn due to a first and second turn Chill. I love that look on their face as they realize things are about to go down hill 2-0-0 Round three: Michael " " playing Stasis Game one: This poor guy had to sit through a Academy deck last round. He beat it though and was feeling quite confident about this game. He starts his turn by laying four Lotus Petals and an Island, not what I wanted to see. He now has the possibility to counter all kinds of stuff, but instead he plays a Soul Sculptor. So I take my turn playing it real careful. I have two Power Sinks in hand with the combo at this point. So I just wait for him to tap out or I’ll tap him or I will "Sink" him out. I go on the offensive in the third turn (I managed to get M.o.M. into play) by playing a Time Spiral, he counters, I untap the Academy play another Time Spiral, he counters leaving me with no cards in hand. I calmly say "go". He does nothing and its my turn again, and I draw a Stroke of Genius. Whewww.... On his turn he taps out to play a Soul Sculptor, in response I play Stroke of Genius and draw eight cards. Stroke of Genius is "some good". I happily go off and he draws 130 cards. Game two: I sideboard in two Mana Leaks and a Rescind. The game goes long, into about turn ten when he goes to play a Soul Sculptor I Sink it for eleven and he has no counters in hand. On my turn things got hairy as I went about Time Spiraling and "Stroking". My opponent draws 400. 3-0-0 Round four: Joel Lytle playing Trade-Laboratory Game one This guy definitely knows what he is doing. He is an old Pro tour player and has put a beating on a couple of my fiends already. Needless to say I am a little concerned. The game goes bad for him though as he is stuck at two lands for awhile. He counters Spirals and some other stuff, but there is to many threats for him to deal with. And that is game on about turn five. Game two: In goes the Mana Leaks out goes baubles. We both mulligain down to six. This game was short but intense. On the fifth turn I attempt to play a M.o.M. and he taps out to counter, I Sink for one. Hmmmm... and we’re OFF and running. That’s game... 4-0-0 Round five: Jesse Pitz playing Tradewind Game one: This game was a simple one. On the fifth turn he taps and plays a Ertai, Wizard Adept, so I sink for three, he counters tapping his last two Mana. Same difference I am happy either way.On my turn its all about Strokes and Spirals until he draws 100 or so cards. Game two: This game went off even easier than the fist as leaves all but one land untapped to play a Tradewind on the fifth turn. On my turn you guys all know the story i.e. he draws a billion cards. 5-0-0 Round six: Steve Cantry playing Sligh We draw as we are both 5-0-0. Whooohoooo I am headed into the top eight as number one seed.My only goal today was to have at least a 3-3 record when I left, so as you can imagine as was pleased as punch. Semifinals: Sam Corona playing Sligh Game one: I am all about not getting the right cards even after a mulligain, and he is all bout beating the tar out of me. I die and hope to do better with the sideboarding. Game two: I mulligain down to five to get the Chills. Now guys when it came down to it wasn’t meltdown or wasteland that made the difference in this game. It was one lone Goblin Lackey on a mission to recruit an army that finished the mighty Academy off. What about propaganda you say, well I wasn’t prepared for the cunning Lackey and thought that Chills was enough to hold the angry red mage at bay. It wasn’t..... So I finish the day at fifth place. More than this Magic addict ever expected to do. The only game I lost all day besides to Sligh was the first I payed, and the deck preformed like.... well like magic Sorry for not having the end results but the people I was riding with and myself were tired and ready to go home. Lades and gentlemen this deck is a STEAM ROLLER with a Insane madman at the wheel. It totally obliterated everything that stood in its way, without stopping for lunch. Sligh is very good against the Academy, but any good Academy player is not going to lay all their artifacts on the first turn. So melt down is not the ultimate hoser. Four Pyroblast to my six counters and chills is not sufficient to halt the Academy consistently. I believe that the most consistent deck that I have seen so far is Suicide Black with heavy discard. Planar Void with Duress and Persecution give enough of head start so that those black beasties under the "bad moon" to put the smack down. I am personally tired of those that are always complaining about the brokeness of this deck. Buck up! Use you head and take some time to plan for the Academy. It is not the end all deck and it can be beat, consistently. Props: To all those that played. Everyone was a good sport and I enjoyed playing To team Scrub from Twinfalls . You guys are the bomb. To all my opponents that sat through the Academy going off and not throwing their cards at me. Thanks for the patients. To Jack Stanton for teaching how to play and think like a "pro". Slops To all those that chattering and whining about the Academy deck. Constructive comments are good but when people start getting belligerent and nasty just to express their feelings then this game ceases to exist as a game. Then what are we playing for. To all the people at the Idaho State Championships who whispered and gave dirty looks because I played the Academy.