Subject: Beat the Stroke (MD top 8) Date: Mon, 16 Nov 98 9:46:50 EST From: David Roderer To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Beat the Stroke. I played in the MD State championships this past weekend. After sideboarding I was 4-0 vs. The Academy. Sure, it's a very small sample, and I had amazing draws. Even more importantly, they had amazingly bad draws. Still, 4-0. Not a misprint. Deck after sideboarding: 16 swamp, 4 wasteland, 4 dark ritual, 4 sarcomancy, 4 carnophage, 4 flesh reaver, 4 dauthi slayer, 2 black knight, 4 skittering skirge, 4 unholy strength, 4 duress, 4 sphere of resistence, 2 bad moon Duress, wasteland, and sphere all serve to reinforce bad draws on their part. Nothing more, no single card stops academy, not meltdown, pyroblast, force spike, wasteland, lobotomy- nothing. My creatures, however, will work them, fast. Nothing quite puts the pressure on like swamp, ritual, duress, reaver (yes, this was my first turn play, TWICE). As an academy player, what do you think is going to happen to the time it takes you to go off, if your opponent plays swamp, ritual, duress, sphere? (Yeah, it's unlikely, and probably not the best play, but after the duress I'll know as well as you about how long it will take you to go off, so I'll get to make an informed decision about sphere vs. Creature.) Duress is a great main deck card. It's good against almost every deck. Sphere of resistence was a lot better than I feared it would be. Flesh Reaver is a House. As for the rest of the tournament, my deck couldn't beat red, and I lost in the quarterfinals. I played a lot of fine opponents, and I made a lot of dumb mistakes, but it was a good day. I got to beat the Academy. There is still hope for Magic. Dave