Subject: Indiana State Championships Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 16:56:35 -0500 From: "VanOoteghem, David" To: "'fkusumot@ix.netcom.com'" On Saturday, Nov. 21, the Indiana State Championships were held at the Indiana convention center next to the RCA Dome. Five of us from the Michiana area left from my house at 6:00 in the morning for the drive to Indy. We met some other players from the area when we got there. In attendance were: Chris Bowman- Academy Justin Smith- Wurm-geddon-getsome Drew Sandler- Academy Granger "The Champ" Petersen- Green Manalishi (my name for my destroyer). Dave VanOoteghem (Me!)- Black Ice Troy- Suicide Black Ron- White Blue Metagame deck My deck is as follows with a brief explanation for some of my selections. BLACK ICE Creatures: 3x Sarcomancy 4x Carnophage 4x Black Knights 3x Priest of Gix 3x Knight of Strongold 2x Skittering Skirge 4x Dauthi Slayer 3x Dauthi Horror Spells: 4x Dark Ritual 3x Thrull Retainer 4x Paralyze 3x Winter Orb ( The Ice) 2x Drain Life Land: 18 Swamps Side: 3x Wasteland, 4x Duress, 3x Wall of Souls, 3x Bottle Gnomes, 2x Edict Overview: The deck is designed for sheer speed without sacrificing the amount of creatures. A typical suicide black deck loses creature or removal slots to cullings and hatreds. This deck applies constant pressure as every card has the potential to be a threat to other deck strategies. Winter Orbs slow down cursed scrolls and buyback spells. The Thrull Retainer is very good in the mirror matchup as well as against disks, quake, and other destruction spells. I felt there was no real need for wastelands in the main deck as this deck wins 50% in game one against good academy players like Drew (only top 8 academy deck) and is closer to 65% against poor or slower academy decks. Against other horde decks that started wastelands, their wastelands slowed them down in their mana developement if they drew them in the first few turns. The priest is GOOD if you haven't figured it out yet. The sideboard is a work in progress but I like duress over gloom as I would rather discard light of days or earthquakes. They provide more flexibility in the board and one or two can buy you an extra turn against academy. The walls and the gnomes are a must if you plan on beating sligh. I took out perish as I did not expect to see green. (If only I knew the future) On to the rounds!! I took zero notes so forgive me for no names but I will NOT call anyone a scrub. Round 1: Young player playing black weenie. Game 1: I get a good start and win the creature race by playing a winter orb and paralyzing his erg raider (ouch!) Game 2: I would get alot of help from my opponents today and this is the first instance. "Opponents for a better Dave part I": we are racing again and this time he is winning the race. I am 2 life and have 2 Sarcomancy enchanments in play and he has just finished his attack to drop me to 2. So I lose right? HOLY PIKULA! He plays his own sarcomancy and says done. I untap my horde thank him for saving me and attack. Lesson: Read the cards! 2-0, 1-0 Round 2: White weenie with walls standard Game 1: Gix Tech and the prescence of 13 creatures that can not be blocked by white creatures and winter orb= I win the race. Game 2: "Opponents for a better Dave" part II: In this game he could have possibly won the race but he forgot to attack with one of his white knights which gives me the victory. 4-0, 2-0 Round 3: White\Red with scrolls and other goodness. Game 1: Tough close game. My opponent and I are swinging back and forth. The winter orb is giving him fits. Finally I have enough creature damage to finish him the next turn and am at 9 life. He is down to a Flunky that cannot attack or so I thought. He untaps lays a Thran Quarry and casts Ball Lightning!!!! WTF!!! is that doing in a 2 color deck? At any rate I die and I find out later it is the only one in his deck. Game 2: He is slightly mana hosed as my deck creates enough threats that he can't burn them all up and he dies. Winter Orb again is a factor. Game 3: Awesome game!! I run out of threats other than a wall of souls on the board and a bottle gnome. I have the Orb out again and it is really slowing his deck down. He has lone flunky out until he casts a Rathi Dragon. I promptly paralyze it and he only has 2 land. 2 turns later he disenchants the paralyze and begins the beatdown. Next turn I topdeck another paralyze!!! Then I play a thrull retainer and begin attacking with the Battle Gnomes of goodness! He chump blocks with the flunkies and a pup so I still deal 2 points and regenerate the gnome. I finally start drawing shadows and kill him before he draws a fourth land and plays the white sorcery that gives you 2 life for every creature in play. WHHEEEWWWW!! (Big sigh of relief) Props to my opponent for a tough deck and a great match! 6-1, 3-0 Round 4: Mirror match with Evan a student from IU. Game 1: I get more creatures out than he can scroll under the Winter Orb and I manage to pull out a tight game that was well played by both competitors. Game 2: I am off to a great start until he slams down a black knight with unholy strength I am dead shortly after much chump blocking on my part. I am also slowed by my own orb. Game 3: We both get good starts and are swinging away until I draw a pararlyze and the Orb. I then proceed to draw alot of creatures while he draws lands and is taking damage from a carnophage. We were both down to almost no cards in hand and it became a top deck contest that I fortunately got lucky enough to win. Props to my opponent for running a better looking deck (all Beta) and for being a class opponent to play. 8-2, 4-0 Round 5: White Weenie! A win this round means I can do the dance of Draw joy! Game 1. I win this game with one land on the deck. I draw 2 dark Rituals and a priest and it is ball game soon after my horde of you can't block me creatures go all the way for their master. Lesson: Speed Kills! Game 2: I am in the process of racing him but he has cursed scroll going and not an Orb in sight! I knock him down to where he is dead next turn but I am at 6 life, he has 2 problack creatures on the deck, 4 mana, a scroll out and 1 card in hand so I am dead right? All he has to do is scroll during upkeep and then attack and it's game three! HOLY PIKULA !!!!! Part II "Opponents for a better Dave part III" He untaps, DRAWS!, and then attacks and scrolls with 2 cards in hand! I pick the right one for me to live and I win the match!!! A great opponent to play with and I enjoyed our match. 10-2, 5-0 Round 6 Draw ! 10-2, 5-0-1 Round 7 : Draw with Theron Martin Obviously he wanted to draw with me since my tourney record against him is 23,461,534,613,441-----1 (Ha Ha ) Just a little humor as Theron and I have played alot and I usually get him except in the qualifier that he mentions in his report. We do some testing and wait for final 8 announcement. 10-2, 5-0-2 I end up the #6 seed and my buddies Granger and Drew are up in top 8 as well. A tremendous showing for the Bend area. Quarters: Necro-Automoton w/ discard and removal. This should be a good matchup for me as I run way too many creatures for a necrodeck to handle. This proves to be the case. Game 1: I play 897654321 creatures and he does not draw a disk or enough removal and I roll over his deck. Game 2: Priest-tech blesses me with another broken start (almost like having hippy-spook, almost). He drops a blocker to slow me down and then "Opponents for a better Dave part IV" occurs. He drains a carnophage for 1 instead of a dauthi horror. The horror alone does 6 more damage and I eventually win the game. Lesson: Relax before big matches and play with a clear mind. Semi-finals: Granger Petersen and the Dave killer deck. No really, this deck eats weenie decks for breakfast and our match was no exception. Game 1: I get a great start with priest-tech off the vineyard mana but he is scrolling my creatures on turn three because of his equally broken draw. I draw all three Worbs and they sit on the table mocking me as I burn and get scrolled and get punked out by elves. Game 2: Granger gets no scroll so my turn 1 3/3 regenerating shadow goes all the way!!!! My wall of souls and my bottle gnomes help keep me from getting squished from the evil elephants. Game 3: I get a great start but I finally screw up. My turn 1 is Swamp, dark rit, dark rit, dauthislayer, thrull retainer, skittering skirge. HUGE error on turn two I play swamp, attack and play a black knight that I should have played first as now my skirge buries itself. I figure all hell I will just draw more creatures but I do not until it is too late. Granger gets my hot start under control with the vineyard and a scroll and methodically disposes of me like the champ he is 1 turn before I kill him. Granger: You deserved to win and you played a great match and a great tournament. I could not have lost to a better opponent. I felt lucky to take that deck to three games considering how well it beats mine on a regular basis. Lesson: Heed your own advice. (See Prior Lessons) Props to: My wife Traci who supports me in what I do! Granger: You worked long and hard to make that beast and you earned your championship title. Good Luck in the future. Drew: Thanks for the testing and for not letting me switch decks. Chris: For all the testing and creative ideas and for trying to sell your deck before the tournament. Justin: For being on crack (just kidding) George Pratt and his head judge Mitch : You guys did a great job and it is no wonder Indiana had such a great turnout. Mark and Sam at Fantasy Cards, Games,and collectibles: Without you guys we would have nowhere to play. Thank You! Leonerd and Yogi: You guys are too funny. All my opponents: You guys all conducted yourselves with class. Slops: Me- for leaving perish out of my board. That thieving Bastard who stole Granger's cards. Academy: What was R&D thinking! --Dave VanOoteghem #103427 "If you love something, set it free, if it doesn't comeback; hunt it down and kill it!"-obscure comedian quote.