Subject: IN State Championship Report Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1998 17:08:12 -0500 From: "Theron L. Martin" To: The Dojo The Indiana State Championship was held for the second year in a row at the Convention Center adjacent to the RCA Dome in downtown Indianapolis. An impressive tally of 123 players participated in the event, making it to my knowledge the largest Magic tournament other than PQs and Grand Prixes ever held in Indiana. T.O. George Pratt and his Simply Magic group ran the event quite efficiently with only one minor computer glitch, and head judge Mitch Smithson once again did a solid job. In one significant development for those of us who attend Indy PQs, Mr. Pratt announced that Indy's Downtown Comics chain has taken over sponsorship of Simply Magic's events, giving them the solid backing they need to continue running fine tournaments. George also announced his intention to start holding non-MTG side events at PQs in the future, including Warhammer demos and AD&D RPGA Living City events. Watch this space for future developments on those issues if you're interested. Last year, local store The Goal Line dominated the State Championships, placing three of its regulars in the Top Eight, including both finalists. Two of those quarterfinalists - including the defending State Champion and another PT verteran - were unable to participate today, leaving me (as last year's runner-up) as the sole returning top placer. Although I did make the quarterfinals again, I was the only Goal Line regular to do so this year. Dominance honors this time around go instead to Fantasy Cards and Games, located near the University of Notre Dame on Indiana's northernmost fringe. They placed three of their own in the quarters this year, including the eventual champion. Contrary to some predictions, the expected flood of Academy decks did not happen. In fact, many estimates placed their total number present at only six or seven. Why weren't there more, despite the hoopla about them? Three reasons: 1) The price of the key cards is becoming prohibitively expensive for many players. 2) This isn't a deck that just anyone can pick up and play. Like Prosbloom, you have to know the deck inside and out and have practiced with it extensively to make it work consistently. Players whose skills are less than stellar don't win with this deck. 3) Fancy combo decks have never been big in Indianapolis. We've always been a major weenie stronghold. This isn't to say that Academy decks didn't have a major impact on the environment; quite the contrary. The very real threat of Academy decks forces one to design their deck to account for it. The end result of this is an overemphasis on speedy, disruptive, or heavy controlling decks and a near total absence of Survival/Recur/Death decks. (I'll get back to this point later.) Somewhat surprisingly, though, the field did *not* include a mass number of Sligh decks. (Oh, they were there in good numbers, just not a flood of them.) Black weenie decks were also respectably represented, as were Draw-Go-type decks, although most of the latter succumbed in the early rounds to the overwhelming horde of weenie decks. A few 'Geddon decks were around, as were Counter-Phoenix; two of them were in contention for the Top Eight going into the seventh and final round, but both suffered somewhat surprising losses to Academy decks. (More on this later.) Energy Field saw widespread use, though not much success outside of Counter-Phoenix. If TradeAwakenings was present, I didn't see it; apparently people abandoned it in droves just like they did Death because of the Academy threat. Sliver decks were present, though, albeit in small numbers. Among the rogue decks to pop up was a very interesting Crabcraft deck, which I'll describe in my sixth round account. The deck of the day, though, should be no surprise to anyone who knows the Midwest constructed scene - and in particular the Indy scene - well: White Weenie. Almost completely absent or not succeeding well in most other tournament reports from across the country, decks of this type dominated the field in the late rounds. (As an example, going into the fifth round there were seven players with 4-0 records. Two were using monoblack decks, the other five were all using various versions of WW.) As I have said before in reports, even many veteran players underestimate the impact that the presence of WW in numbers - or the lack thereof - has on the rest of the field. With WW around in droves, Sligh decks didn't have much chance to succeed. Sure, a Sligh deck can beat a chump or poorly-planned WW, but in the long run good WW almost always comes out ascendant over Sligh. That was certainly the case here today. Because of the threat of Academy, most better players were opting away from the creature rush/Scroll/pump-up enchantment approach and towards the more disruptive and option-oriented Star-Spangled Weenie (aka 3cWW aka Standard Jank). Although the selection and exact construction of these decks was clearly inspired by reports of such decks from Missouri and the NE, designs similar to it were floating around in RCC during the Rome qualifiers in the Indy area. As for myself, I'd been in a quandry for quite some time over what deck to play. I hadn't had much time to play-test, but I was fully convinced that the Survival loop deck I wanted to use couldn't reliably stand up to Academy. Commitments to work and a newly-forming role-play group left me little time to work on deck construction during the week before, so I found myself scrambling on Friday night to get something else together that could work. For various reasons, I ultimately decided to go with my emergency fallback position: Star-Spangled Weenie. Why was this only my fallback deck? Because it had been testing absolutely terrible only two nights before. (I should be less leery about doing this, though, because last year I had to go with my emergency back-up deck due to leaving my main deck behind - a black twin of this one, almost - and I made it to the finals with that deck. I also nearly made the Top Eight at the Midwest Regionals this year using a similar deck.) I decided to make some alterations and scrambled to pick up the last couple of cards on sight. The deck I ended up playing was this: STAR-SPANGLED WEENIE (a much better name than Jank, I think!) -------------------------------------- 4 White Knight 4 Warrior en-Kor 3 Paladin en-Vec 4 Soltari Priest 2 Soltari Monk 2 Tradewind Rider 4 Mox Diamond 4 Disenchant 4 Incinerate 3 Mana Leak 2 Earthquake 2 Armageddon 4 City of Brass 1 Reflecting Pool 3 Wasteland 2 Ardarkar Wastes 2 Mountains 10 Plains SIDEBOARD: 4 Pyroblasts 2 Meltdown 2 Arcane Lab 3 COP: Red 1 Armageddon 1 Earthquake 2 Humble (Secret Tech!!) Why no Pariahs in the sideboard? Partly because I couldn't find them in time! I can't say how well the Humbles worked, because they never showed up the couple of times I sided them in, but I found myself wishing that I had sideboarded Scrolls, Wraths, or Orim, Samite Healer instead as the day wore on. I had originally intended to go with four Arcane Labs (they are MUCH better than Energy Flux vs. Academy), but decided literally at the last second to go with two Meltdowns instead of the other two Labs. Never got to use them, either, so I can't say how well they worked. Everyone I talked to thought that the 4 Tradewinds in the original version of this deck was too many, so I cut two out and some cut them out entirely. I also shifted one Armageddon to the sideboard, which felt appropriate throughout the day (I never sided it in). On to the report. . . ROUND 1 - vs. someone (sorry, I had a list of names but can't find it now) with Sligh This was a solid, Dojo-type Sligh deck played by a solid player; I was the only loss this player had until the seventh round, which was one reason why my tiebrakers were so good. We exchanged land problems the first two duels, and the third duel came down to a perfectly-timed Armageddon: he had only one card in hand and drew three straight Ball Lightnings after it! And that with a Cursed Scroll and Havoc in play, but unfortunately for him I cast only two white spells after Havoc came out and didn't even draw another one the rest of the duel. Record: 1-0, 2-1 ROUND 2 - vs. Sam Gilly playing Academy Sammy makes occasional appearances at The Goal Line, and although I didn't know for sure that he was playing Academy, I suspected it, since he normally favors monoblue. Sammy is normally a very solid player, so I was concerned about my chances. Academy was not kind to him today, though (he ultimately finished 2-3), and because of that in this match I saw The Sign. Ever have one of those situations where you know you're fated to do well because you win in a situation you shouldn't possibly be able to? That happened in this match. The first duel Sam was slow to fire off, due in part to the fact that I killed his first two Academies and he had to Time Spiral to get them back, but the only creature I could find to attack him with was a Tradewind. I did four points of damage with that damn Tradewind! Another creature shows up and I probably win this duel, but between this and a possible error concerning the timing for laying a land I didn't. I saw this as a Missed Opportunity, and thus a Bad Sign. Then the second duel happened. I get a terrible, six land opening draw (I was mana-flooded so much early that I later took to regularly siding a land out), and mulliganed to a draw with two Diamonds but only one land - an Ardarkar Wastes. Since I needed the guaranteed colored mana sources, I decided to play the land and use the Moxes off the next lands. . . problem is, I didn't see another land in my next three draws! Sammy, realizing what was going on, Wasted my only land, leaving me with no mana sources and no cards on the table for THREE STRAIGHT TURNS. So I lost, right? WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sam used a Windfall to get the combo going, but didn't get a good enough draw off the Windfall to fire it off. The new hand I got off it was very good, including my third Mox, and after holding him off for a turn with a Disenchant or Mana Leak or Pyroblast (don't remember which) I had an Arcane Lab down. Sam was never able to get around it, and a combination of one attacking creature and Incinerates took him down. In the third duel, a second-turn Disenchant of a Mana Vault slowed Sam long enough for me to get the Lab down again, and by the time he was in a position to get around it I had stockpiled Pyroblasts. A pair of attackers went all the way. Additional thoughts on playing vs. Academy: Arcane Lab is a key card to use against such a deck, but only if you can protect it and have a creature out putting the pressure on him (you only need one) because, given time, an Academy deck can work their way around it. Also, Disenchanting Mana Vaults is a far more key play that trying to hit MoMa, because the Mana Vaults are critical to the deck's speed. Hit them immediately and you'll probably buy yourself at least an eatra couple of turns. 2-0, 4-2 ROUND 3 - vs. 3cWW I'm not calling this Star-Spangled Weenie because it was very different from the deck that I and several others were playing. He used a heavier creature based that included Soul Wardens and Spire Owls, used Interdicts standard, and had less red, although he did sideboard Havocs. The Interdicts were actually damned annoying, particularly when he 'Dicted my Tradewind THREE STRAIGHT TIMES! In the end, though, Star-Spangled Weenie proved to be the stronger deck. This was my only sweep win of the day, although they were both long, hard-fought duels. 3-0, 6-2 ROUND 4 - vs. Suicide Black Now I've hit all the major deck types present. The first duel I go first and spend something like four straight turns dropping Pro: Black creatures. Black weenie doesn't like that! He had Hatred in hand, but I was always a couple of points ahead of him on damage. He never really had a chance. In the second duel I had a good hand but no Mox or Earthquake, so I was unable to match the god-awful fast slam-down that Suicide Black can manage now that Priests of Gix are a staple. The third duel I had an opening Mox and Pro: Black creature rush again and he didn't see any Dreads, his only real chance when you also factor in my DD. 4-0, 8-3 ROUND 5 - vs. Tom Wethington playing Star-Spangled Weenie Great, a mirror match! His deck had extra Monks in place of the Tradewinds and the third Armageddon standard, but otherwise I believe we were identical. We were playing at table 2, so I looked to my left and saw WW vs. Black Ice and to my right and saw another Star-Spangled Weenie mirror match. WW rules! I normally hate mirror matches because, unless one player is significantly better than the other, they usually come down to who gets better draws and who mulligans the least. That proved the case here, as I mulliganed a total of three times to his one and couldn't but a way to deal with a lone Soltari Monk over eight straight turns in the first duel. 4-1, 8-5 ROUND 6 - vs. CrabCraft If you don't know this deck, it uses 8 Enchantresses (Argothian and Verduran) and a horde of cheap green enchantments (Vineyard, Exploration, Fertile Ground, Wild Growth, Mirri's Guile, Earthcraft) to cycle through its deck, get a Horseshoe Crab and Earthcraft out, and use an Island or Thran Quarry with multiple Growths and Grounds on it to produce Academy levels of mana for a single big Stroke of Genius. (You tap the land for 5-6 mana including a couple of blue, you see, tap the Crab to untap the land, then use one blue to untap the Crab and repeat.) Although I had done some scouting before, I had dismissed this as some sort of Elf deck and thus had really paid no attention to it, so I had no idea what he was up to in the first duel until he actually fired the thing off. Very impressive and far more interesting to watch in operation than Academy. In the second duel I now knew what he was up to, and he also took a chance on a one land draw - normally a safe play for his deck, but it backfired this time and he spent three turns with only one mana source. I didn't have a particularly fast start but did have my Earthquakes, so I made sure his Enchantresses never lived long once he got out of his mana screw. The third duel was much more intense. I got out one early Priest and, despite having more in hand, hit him only with that while saving back my mana for Leaks and Disenchants. Hitting an early Vineyard and Thran Quarry slowed him down, but I eventually found myself in a situation where I could try to Earthquake him to finish the game but didn't want to risk that he had a Power Sink AND would be sharp enough to leave enough mana open to pay for a Mana Leak (which he was capable of doing). I almost blew this situation and ultimately gave him one turn during which he could have done something, but earlier Disenchants had slowed him down enough that he wasn't able to set up the combo. I won the next turn and felt quite relieved to have done it. 5-1, 10-6 Going into the final round with a chance to make the Top Eight isn't a terribly unusual situation for me, but having a good tiebraker in such a situation has been a rare occurence. Because all of the odd undefeated who had been paired down throughout the day had lost, only two players with 5-0-1 records remained, with 10 5-1s and a 4-0-2 that had chances to make it in. (There was also a 4-1-1, but we figured that he had no chance due to an inferior tiebraker.) Also making matters interesting was that a lot of the top 5 had played each other already - #1 had drawn with #2 and beaten #4 and #3 had lost to #2 but beaten #5. Of this mess I was #4, with the second-best tiebraker among the 5-1s. I am a master of calculating who can safely draw and who can't, so I figured that I could safely draw if paired with #2 or #3. ROUND SEVEN - vs. Dave Van Ooteghem with Black Ice Dave and I have a friendly MTG rivalry going back 4+ years. We used to play at the same store (the aforementioned Fantasy Cards and Games) before I moved to Indy, have playtested against each other in the past, and often have parallel thinking when it comes to deck construction in Standard formats. (We are also both teachers of about the same age and experience level, so there's solidarity there, too.) He has been my nemesis during the several occasions that I have bumped into him in tournaments over the years; until this past summer, when I finally soundly beat him during a PQ for PT-Chicago, I had a long string of mana screws and terrible draws against him. That history was irrelevant this time, though, because he was ranked #2 and we had already agreed that we would draw if we were paired against each other. We instead spent the round scouting and playtesting a monogreen deck vs. my Survival deck. We concluded that the monogreen deck would have a serious problem beating the Survival deck, even with Null Brooches standard. This point will come up again later. As an interesting side note to this round, both Academy decks remaining in contention got paired up against both Counter-Phoenix decks remaining in contention. C-P lost in three duels in both cases. 5-1-1, 10-6-1 TOP EIGHT 1. Andrew Sandler, 6-1, Academy (Fantasy Cards and Games regular) 2. Granger Peterson, 6-1, monogreen control (FCG regular) 3. Bill Jackomis, 6-1, Necro 4. Robert Smith, 6-1, TradeWurmGeddon (not The Goal Line's Robert Smith!) 5. Tom Wethington, 5-0-2, Star-Spangled Weenie 6. Dave Van Ooteghem, 5-0-2, Black Ice (FCG regular) 7. Theron Martin (me!), 5-1-1, Star-Spangled Weenie (Goal Line regular) 8. Aaron Huntsman, 5-1-1, Star-Spangled Weenie ALSO: 9. Doug Weaver, 5-1-1, Academy. (He was the 4-1-1 that I said had no chance to make the cut.) As a consolation prize, Doug was given free admission into his next Simply Magic event. With a potential value of up to $28, that's not a bad prize! DECK NOTES Robert's and Dave's decks were pretty standard for their type, although I found Dave's use of Thrull Retainer rather interesting. Andrew's deck was standard for Academy, but he used Winter Orbs out of the sideboard as his secret tech. These won him into the Top Eight when, during the third duel of his seventh round match vs. Counter-Phoenix, he caught C-P with its lands tapped and kept him that way with MoMa until he could set up the Stroke. The Necro deck was NOT the weenie version - it used only 11 mostly artifact creatures (Bottle Gnomes, Mindless Automatons, and pump knights) with a standard Necro complement of Drains, creature control, and hand disruption (Duress and Persecute). The Star-Spangled Weenies were all nearly identical in standard set; I had Tradewinds instead of extra Monks and played with one less Armageddon, and I believe Aaron had a basic Island, but those were the only differences. Sideboards varied a bit more but still have several cards - Pyros, Meltdowns, extra Earthquake - in common. The only really standout deck was the monogreen control (for lack of a better name) used by Granger. It used Vineyards, Scrolls, and Null Brooches standard, with a creature complement that included Spikes, Elves, Trained Armodons, Llurghoyfs, Mirri, and a standard Scragnoth (and I think Wall of Blossoms, too). Basically, it was a post-US version of the Spike Tech deck that hit big at U.S. Nationals. So, the Top Eight break down as 3 WW, 2 totally different monoblack, 1 monogreen, 1 Academy, and 1 pure 'Geddon deck - a much better variety than what had been expected. Notably, no Sligh or heavy control decks are present and only one of the former even had a chance to make the cut in the final round (my first-round opponent). The most consistently-seen card between these decks? Armageddon, which appeared in four of them. A trend for the future, perhaps? As another side note, I am the only repeater from last year's Top Eight. (I think.) The emphasis in the Top Eight on speedier decks made the single elim rounds go about as fast as I have ever seen them go. They went as follows: QUARTERFINALS Aaron Huntsman (SS Weenie) over Andrew Sandler (Academy) 2-0. Andrew just couldn't put it together the first duel and got disrupted too much in the second. Although this wasn't an easy match-up, him going out in two was a surprising turn of events considering that he had played up and beat two undefeated players (at 4-0 and 5-0) during the swiss rounds. Dave Van Ooteghem (Black Ice) over Bill Jackomis (Necro). Bill was concerned about this being a bad match-up for him, and his concerns proved warranted. One of only two poor match-ups in the final seven matches. Tom Wethington (SS Weenie) over Robert Smith ('Geddon). Don't know anything about this match. ROUND EIGHT - vs. Granger Peterson playing monogreen This was a match-up I was concerned about, because Vineyard can be a problem for weenie decks. The first duel quick shadow creatures and an Earthquake that made his Gaea's Cradle useless led to an easy victory for me. (This was also the only bad play-out that Granger had in the elimination rounds.) In the second duel I had a respectable creature draw which included an early Tradewind, but he had a Vineyard and a better one, and I never saw the board-clearing Earthquake I needed. In the third duel I opened with what I considered to be an ideal hand vs. Granger's deck - 3 lands, a Mox, a Priest, a Paladin, and an Earthquake. I later found out, though, that he had mulliganed into a one land draw that included two Vineyards, a Feeder, a Weaver, and a Null Brooch - a nearly perfect starting hand against me. On turn one I played the Mox and Priest, he played the Vineyard. On turn two I played the Paladin, took one burn, and attacked with the Priest, while he played the Feeder (Life: 18 to 19). On turn three I dropped a three point Earthquake to get the Feeder out of the way and he sacks it, then I attack for four (Life: 15 to 16). On his turn three, he lays no land but drops the second Vineyard and a third one he had just drawn! On turn four I drop a second Earthquake for seven to dump the mana and then attack, leaving him at 4 and me at 6. (I know this doesn't add up right; somewhere I am missing three points of damage. Maybe a CoB was involved.) He drops a land, Weaver, and Armodon. I draw an Incinerate on turn 5 and burn the Weaver, he Fogs in response, then I burn for 5 myself down to one. My hope is that he either is going to burn himself out or I will draw my third Earthquake. He puts an end to both by playing and using a Jester's Cap. I draw a land next round and mana burn to death before I can attack and kill him. Had he not played all three of Feeder, Weaver, and the third Vineyard, or had I drawn an Armageddon, Tradewind, or Disenchant on turn two or three, the result would have been different. I had to live with the satisfaction that he needed a very good draw in that third duel to beat me. SEMIFINALS Granger over Dave 2-1 in a battle between two FCG regulars. Dave went into this one knowing he was at a disadvantage because he had helped Granger playtest the green deck, but still made a match of it. He got stalled out and lost the first duel to a Cursed Scroll with a Vineyard in play, then won the second with the kind of blow-out opening play that makes black weenie decks so dangerous. The third duel a Vineyard/ Scroll combo again hurt Dave, and he came up one turn and two points of damage short of winning. Tom over Aaron 2-1 in a mirror match. The first duel was decided by recovery speed from an Armageddon, and the second by a mana hosing which resulted in a duel so quick that I looked away for a couple of minutes and missed it. In the third duel Aaron again had early mana problems, but ultimately lost more because Tom simply had a better draw. FINALS Granger crushed Tom 2-0. All the good draws Tom had been getting all day in key matches must have finally caught up with him, because he had poor draws overall and pulled little in either duel to disrupt Granger's game. (No Earthquakes and only one Disenchant showed up for him between the two duels.) So Granger Peterson from South Bend, IN(?) is the 1998 Indiana State Champion and a second Midwest title has gone to a green-centered deck. Who would've anticipated that? FURTHER THOUGHTS Granger's deck was well-constructed, well-played, and performed consistently for him when he needed it to, but he also had favorable pairings in the elimination rounds. In the end analysis I feel Granger's deck succeeded primarily because it was a strong metagame choice. (Also, he must not have run into much in the line of Academy decks; I'm not clear how his deck is supposed to beat them before sideboarding.) Vineyards are very fickle things to put in a deck, with its usefulness bouncing between extremes. Against weenie decks their appearance is often a game-winning play, but against green-heavy decks (TradeAwakening, Fire Elf, most 'Geddon decks, other monogreen) they can be counter-productive, and playing one against a Survival/Recur/Death deck is almost like committing Magic suicide. Simply put, I don't think this deck could have succeeded if ther e were a lot of Death decks around. Thanks to Academy, though, the Death and TradeAwakening decks weren't around, and the weenie decks it is strongest against were prominent instead. Since rumors are flying that Academy is going to be banned effective December 1st, don't expect this trend to last. Congratulations to Granger in any case; he had to win some hard-fought matches to take the title. As a final wrap-up, I'm supposed to mention that Leonard Richardson in his cool Pro Tour hat and Andy Hicks in his cool Scooby-Doo shirt but lame Pooh hat were there selling cards instead of playing because they are both Kentucky residents. Why? Ask Leonard the next time you see him and he'll explain. - The "Big T"