TYPE 2 TOURNAMENT REPORT (June 15, 1997 @ Neutral Ground) By Alex Shvartsman cbrangel on IRC -- Neutral Ground is currently one of the most competitive fields in the world when it comes to Magic tournaments. Describing the decks that can successfully compete in such environment should be of help to anyone researching the Metagame. -- I have not played any type 2 tournaments since the Regionals and felt a bit rusty entering the $250 type 2 competition held at Neutral Ground this Sunday. Metagame could not have changed much and, in my opinion, U/R CounterBurn and U/W CounterPost remain the strongest deck concepts in current type 2 environment. Very well matched against each other, I felt that U/W has a slight advantage over U/R because it can deal with straight-red burn decks which U/R loses to pretty badly. U/W may have a slightly bigger problem with weenie decks, but I feld confident when registering the following deck: 4 Wrath of God 2 Exile 2 Disenchant 2 Ivory Gargoyle 1 COP: Red 1 Enlightened Tutor 2 Amber Prison 4 Impulse 3 Browse 4 Countespell 4 Force of Will 1 Dissipate 1 Desertion 3 Kjeldoran Outpost 2 Sky Diamonds 2 Marble Diamonds 4 Quicksand 3 Thawing Glaciers 4 Adarkar Wastes 6 Plains 5 Islands Sideboard: 4 Hydroblast 2 COP Red 1 COP Black 1 Dissipate 3 Time Elemental 2 Suq'Ata Firewalker 2 Disenchant It is basically a standart CounterPost with a few extra tricks. Impulse and Browse allow for excellent library manipulation. Ivory Gargoyles are strong against decks otherwise capable of dealing with U/W. COP Red is easily accessable with my library manipulation (and Enlightened Tutor). I almost always throw one "fun" card in my decks - something not played very commonly which can still turn an amazing advantage occasionally. In this case, the "fun" spell is Desertion. Sideboard is even more fun. Along with usual stuff, I use three Time Elementals. When faced with another U/W decks, no card is better. If Elemental hits the table it is almost impossible to kill - Wrath of God being just about the only spell capable of it. Other anti-creature cards such as Spirit Link, Exile and Pacifism are totally useless against this critter. That said, on to the tournament. ROUND 1. My opponent is Jason Chin from Long Island a fun and gracios player. I was pleasantly surprised when he recognized my name from my InQuest articles. Couple of turns into the game, it is obvious that Jason is playing TurboStasis. I feel that the deck is not as tight as some of the TStasis decks I have seen, it uses too many Plains and several cards Stasis can live without such as Wrath of God. Jason has a pretty good start getting a Howling Mine, Anvil of Bogardan and Kismet through my counterspells. He is however forced to lose one Stasis to the Force of Will and then lose the rest of his hand to an unsuccessfully cast Recall. Eventually, I climb out, Disenchanting both Howling Mine and the Anvil. Jason manages to lay down another mine while taking a beating by my Gargoyle and a horde of Outpost tokens. Eventually he succeeds in setting up the Stasis lock (my draws weren't great throughout the game), but he is forced to do so wiht only 1 Island untapped and only 1 Howling Mine on the table. I wait it out as it should be impossible for him to draw an island each turn. He struggles for quite a while, tries to cast another Howling Mine with few remaining Plains but I counter it. Eventually, he can no longer keep Stasis around and loses with me having about 15 cards left in library. Sideboard time - I am happy about the opportunity to use my pet Time Elementals. Out goes all creaturekill and some Browses, in come 3 Time Elementals, Dissipate, 2 Disenchant and 2 Suq'Ata Firewalkers (hey, they are better then an Exile against Stasis). Second game is no contest. Jason has a horrible mana draw and discards several cards. Meanwhile, I drop Amber Prison and lock up one of his two lands. Then I drop an Outpost and beat-down begins. The game is over very quickly. I never draw a Time Elemental. Result: Matches 1/0; Games 2/0. ROUND 2 I am matched up against Chris Martin, a cool guy that occasionally plays at the 'Ground. He is playing a green Blitzkrieg deck complete with Ants and other mean creatures. After taking a serious amount of beat-down, I seem to have victory within my grasp. My life is at 7, I have an Amber Prison in play and I am holding *three* Wraths of God in my hand. Chris has a Llanowar Elf. He attacks with an Elf. Amber Prison is tapped, so I Quicksand it (I do not have a Counterspell and do not want to get in Hurricane range). In response, Chris casts 2 Giant Growths and an Armor of Thorns. I die to a really angry 8/7 weenie. Sideboard time. Out goes COP Red and Enlightened Tutor. In come two Suq'Ata Firewalkers, aka the Firing Squad. Second game goes a lot better for me. I manage to stop the early creature assault, then draw and cast both Firewalkers and an Outpost. Chris' Deadly Insect sits there dumbly. (Chris added them in as he did not see either Outposts or Gargoyles first game). With this sort of creature control I am in charge throughout the game. I stop his City of Solitude. He manages to cast a Tornado and kill my Outpost with it and I disenchant it in response. His life total is low enough by then and I finish him off with the Firewalkers. Having seen Tornado, CoS and other unpleasant cards, I replace a Browse with a third Disenchant for the next game. Third game goes very much like the second, with my weenies beating down on him as I use enough removal to stop anything coming my way. Result: Match 2/0, Games 4/1 ROUND 3 I am to play against William Cowan who I know from back when I was enrolled in Brooklyn College. He has shown me his deck before the tournament and I have very little concern. It is very anti-black, with Elephant Grass and other cards starting which do not bother me much. The deck is all green with a couple of Cities of Brass and 1 Fireball. As usual with a green weenie deck, I take a lot of pounding early in the game. As usual with a U/W control deck, I come back, assume control over the game and beat William down. I actually get to use my Desertion on one of his critters, but it is late enough in the game where that does not matter much. Sideboard. In goes the Firing Tim Squad and 1 Time Elemental. Out goes the red COP, Enlightened Tutor and 1 Browse. Time Elemental has been added mainly for fun as I feel pretty secure about winning this match. This game has been a lot of fun - for me, not for William. I get a Third turn Time Elemental out and lock him at 3 mana for the rest of the game, returning a land to his hand each turn. This way he can't cast any of his bigger creatures, and 2 Suq'Ata Firewalkers (yes, I drew both of them again!) take care of the weenies we well as eventually taking care of Will. Result: Match 3/0, Games 6/1 ROUND 4 I am up against Justin Hernandez, who is playing a straight red burn deck - the kind that stopped me from qualifying for Nationals. He also packs for Pillages and 4 Stone Rains. I feel a lot better with a COP: Red in my main deck. I take about 8 points of damage early on, managing to stall the game and counter/remove most of his stuff. I pray for the COP and my prayers are answered - I draw an Enlightened Tutor and Tutor for a COP. Justin is rather unhappy. From then on, it is only a matter of stopping his Disks, Jokulhaups and a Snake Basket which I manage. I beat him down with an Ivory Gargoyle which his deck simply cannot deal with. I unsideboard 2 Wrath of God, 2 Browse and Desertion and replace them with 3 Hydroblasts and 2 more COP Red. On turn three, I cast a COP and from there on it is only a matter of time until I make enough Outpost tokens to kill him. Justin is not very much concerned once I explain to him that both of us definately make top 8. Result: Match 4/0, Games 8/1 ROUND 5 (First elimination round). I am paired against Justin Hernandez again. Needless to say, he is not happy about it. Other top 8 players include Jim McGovern, Jon Finkel, Mike Postulnik, Zvi Mowshowitz, and a player from Finland who, I hear, won the Wednsday type 2 tournament and 1 more person I cannot remember right now. First game goes great for me - I draw the COP Red in my opening hand and cast it on turn 2. Takes me a while to draw offensive cards, but once I do the game is over. Second game is no game at all. Justin draws 1 land for a while and I have the game by the time he draws more mana. Result: Match 5/0, Games 10/1 ROUND 6 My opponent is Zvi Mowshowitz, Junior Finalist at Pro Tour:LA, excellent player and my good buddy. He is playing a U/R deck - different from the one I used at Regionals. His features Frenetic Efreets, Dwarven Miners and a lot of burn. We have tested these decks the day before and I won a lot more then I lost. Still, against Zvi I expect anything but an easy game. The other semi-finalist matchup is Mike Postulnik vs the Finnish guy. Game 1 is a furious exchange of Counterspells, burn and permanent destruction. Eventually, I seem to have the game in hand. I've got an Ivory Gargoyle and a Kjeldoran Outpost on the table and am at 7 life while Zvi is at 4. He casts an Earthquake for seven forcing a draw, and I have no counterspell. Well, these are the elimination rounds, which means we will be playing until someone wins 2, unless there is another draw. I think about my sideboard for a while and add a Dissipate, a COP Red and several Hyrdroblasts. Zvi is manascrewed in game 2 and it lasts about 5 minutes. Faced with two Kjeldoran Outposts, he concedes once I counter his second and last Political Trickery. Third game goes very bad for me. I get an Ivory Gargoyle out but Zvi quickly Glaciers for enough mana to achieve a Hammer lock on it and that forces me to remove it from the game. I get a COP out, but Zvi forces a Disk through my counterspells and blows it away. I die to Hammer recursion without ever seeing a Dissipate or any offensive cards. Fourth game is tough. I manage to counter the turn 3 Frenetic, but Zvi casts another one turn 4. On my turn, I get a Browse out but with only 1 Island and 2 Adarkar Wastes, am reluctunt to use it. Eventually I get enough land and start Browsing like crazy. Still, Zvi seems to have all the answers. He manages to Trickery away my outpost and Disk away my COP. After a war of Forces of Will, I get an Ivory Gargoyle out. Zvi draws his only Disintegrate and sends it out the of game. With less then 15 cards left in my library, I finally draw another COP and, following yet another counterspell war, I get it on the table. I only have 2 mana untapped. Zvi Hammers me and I prevent it. Zvi Hammers me again and I take it, going down to 1. Then, Zvi casts a Political Trickery on my untapped land, and gives me a tapped one instead. He proceeds to Earthquake for 1. Although I lost this game, I do not feel bad. We had a lot of fun playing and the last game was definately a classic. $25 prize for making the top 4 is a pleasant edition to my limited budget, too. Result: Match 5/1, Games 11/3/1. For the record, Zvi lost the finals against the Finnish guy.(Whos deck was very much like Justin Hernandez', so I think I could have taken him). I believe this to prove my theory about dominance of U/W and U/R in today's type 2. It also shows that straight red is very dangerous and, while it loses to U/W, it is a strong tounrament deck to either play or prepare for. Post-tournament deck analysis: I intend to make the following changes to the deck now that I tested it against the field: Out: - Desertion - 1 Browse In: - 2 Time Elemental Sideboard Out: - 1 Time Elemental - 1 Disenchant In: - 1 Suq'Ata Firewalker - 1 Divine Offering Feel free to send comments and suggestions on this report to ash@abinet.com Mail bombs will be returned to sender. Alex Shvartsman