Posted by Scott Kennedy on April 06, 1998 at 16:40:59:
This is my first tourney report, but I thought I'd give it a try. The tournament was a type II at Match Play with about 15 players. My deck is the deck I've been playing for the last few months, and for the life of me I don't understand why everyone doesn't play it. Its easy to play and extremely versatile, and there hasn't been a deck I've played that can beat it consistently (although that might change, see below). The deck is a five-color black variant.
4 Shadow Guildmage (mvp of deck)
4 Black Knight
4 Dauthi Slayer
4 Erg Raiders (good)
4 Manowar
2 Necratog
4 Disenchant (necessary)
4 Incinerate
2 Mana Leak
4 Winter Orb (vital to deck)
3 Diabolic Edict
1 City of Pain
1 Sulfurous Spring
1 Underground River
1 Reflecting Pool
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Undiscovered Paradise
9 Swamp
Sideboard
4 Pyroblast (too many)
3 Chill (too few)
2 Honorable Passage
2 Forsaken Waste (not useful)
2 Tranquil Domain (good)
2 Perish (good)
Two points about the deck.
1) Erg raiders have serious problems against pacifism and propaganda, but have proven time and time again that they are superior to any other black creature I could put in the deck. The 3 toughness and ability to block for one turn is crucial.
2) People who don't put 4 winter orbs in the main deck of 5cb are morons. I can't even imagine how they win consistently without them. The only deck that functions better than mine under the orb is 5cg, and some prison decks (which aren't as popular).
I didn't take many notes and didn't take names, so bear with me.
Round One - Mono red burn
In what would unfortunately be a trend for the day, he was playing a straight mono red burn deck. My deck has something like a 30% chance to win game one against burn. Not good.
Game one - he wins the toss (bad). He goes first, puts out jackal pup and fanatic. I put out black knight and orb. I then learn an important lesson about the effect of stronghold on the environment. Shock is better than kindle, because it only takes one mana now to take out my knights. Bad, especially when you depend on the orb to slow them down. It also means only four mana to shock my blocker and ball lightning. I die horribly to pup and fireblast beatdown.
Game two - side in anti-red. I draw chill and winter orb in my opening hand. That's game. A lesson to all red players out there. If you see your opponent is playing winter orbs, SIDE OUT cursed scrolls for anti-artifact. My opponent played 3 completely useless scrolls.
Game three - I draw mana leak, honorable passage,and edict in my opening hand. That's game. See game two about the cursed scrolls.
Record 1-0
Round Two - Mono-red Burn (again)
Ugh. Same deck as last round, but better player.
Game one - he wins the toss. Oh well. My blockers die to shock, and I draw 3 dauthi slayers which are the worst thing in my deck to draw against burn. I lose horribly.
Game two - side in anti-red. I draw one land in opening hand. I take a paris and draw 4 lands. Ugh. I play and proceed to draw three more lands. You can imagine what happened next. I die horribly. Note: he did take out the cursed scroll for goblin vandals. He was also playing with mogg flunkies which is a great card for the deck in my opinion.
Record 1-1
Round 3 - 5 color green
I tell my opponent I would be willing to lose to him only if he is not playing monored burn. He smiles and said he's not. I find out he's playing 5cg, which by the way is even worse for my deck in game one than burn. It deals with the winter orb better than my deck, and jorael's centaurs pound me because my diabolic edicts usually end up just killing birds or elves.
Game one - there was almost no defense this game. He played rogue elephant, harvest wyrm (he got the combo), and centaur. I play erg raider, black knight, and dauthi slayer. I edict away his harvest wyrm, he incinerates my knight. I lose the damage race to giant growthed elephant.
Game two - I didn't see any winter orbs that game and consider just siding in perish. Scrub. Then I wake up and take out all my winter orbs and put in honorable passage. My opponent wonders whats taking me so long to sideboard. I draw a guildmage and play him. I draw 2 more guildmages, mana leaks, and manowars and just crush him utterly as he plays winter orb and I am doing better than him at dealing with it, he can't play anything that I don't ping away and the guildmages go all the way and kill him.
Game three - I draw shadow guildmage, black knight, 2 manowars and perish. It was a great hand, but was unnecessary because my opponent drew nothing but land and mana leak. Game over.
Record 2-1
Game Three -Mono White weenie with cursed scroll
I saw two of these decks today. They use lots of shadow creatures (including the 1/1 dudes) and the en-kor, and no armor. I made one and considered using something similar, but then saw how badly it fared against my 5cb and changed my mind. This is the best possible match up for my deck. I can play like a complete scrub and still beat this deck (which was lucky for me since I do play like a scrub after a few hours in a tournament).
Game one - he plays cursed scroll, I play winter orb. He plays white knight, I play black knight and manowar. He plays white knight again, I incinerate. I play erg raider (note: cannot be killed by scroll). He plays white knight, I edict. You get the picture.
Game two - see game one, but it was a closer race with all his shadow creatures. He didn't figure out he should side out cursed scroll, either.
Record 3-1
Game 4 I think it was a 5cg, don't remember this one
Game one - shadow guildmage ruins his day
Game two - I outrace him with dauthi slayer/incinerate
Game 5 blue/red control
Game one - he plays mountain, and I think great, more burn. He plays two more mountains, and does absolutely nothing. Then I figure it out. He's playing blue/red, has a hand full of counterspells, and no blue mana. I drop weenies, winter orb, and he concedes so I don't see any of his deck.
Game two - he plays ophidian, I play winter orb. That's game. he tells me ophidian was his only creature.
Record 4-1 (I'm in the finals!)
The other decks are
Monored Burn
Monored Burn (the one I lost to in round 2)
White Weenie/Cursed Scroll
5 color black (me)
Note: everyone but me was using cursed scrolls, thus justifying my use of winter orbs and erg raiders
I get paired with the burn deck I haven't played yet. Ugh. Playing red decks is such a crap shoot.
Game one - I win the toss! he pummels me with pup and moggs, then I play winter orb, and he stalls completely. I get out blockers and he can't use the cursed scroll effectively. He kills my creatures one by one with burn, but finally dies to a really big necratog which he can't kill. He drew no fireblasts which might have swung the game.
Game two - weird thing happens. The judge takes his deck for like ten minutes, then comes back and says its stacked - land, spell, spell, land, spell, spell, etc. through the whole deck. I'm glad he spotted it. I'm such a scrub, I wouldn't have noticed if he'd been drawing cards from under the table and had ten fireblasts in his deck. I didn't even notice that he only pile shuffled after sideboarding. My opponent gets evicted from the tournament.
Finals - White weenies with cursed scroll and enkor
I should have known the en-kor creatures with crusade would eat the burn deck, but I was very happy to play the white weenie and not go into the finals with burn.
Game one - I said it before, but winter orb vs. cursed scroll. Orb wins. His only means of creature takeout was the cursed scroll. My weenies win the damage race because
1) I have direct damage with incinerates. I top deck a gemstone mine for the red mana to incinerate him the turn before his shadows kill me.
2) Erg raiders with THREE toughness cannot be killed with cursed scroll. My erg racks up something like 12 points of damage.
Game two - We both take a mulligan. we get into a damage race which I am winning, then he disenchants my orb, wraths, plays shadows. I have a hand full of solutions: tranquil domain for the crusade, 2 manowar, incinerate but only 4 mana. I'm such a scrub that I play the wrong cards at the wrong times and he ends up killing me. Everyone watching the match is looking like "If it were me, I would have won that game".
Game three - this game is all about the power of the 5cb deck. I draw winter orb, black knight, and erg raider, but I top deck solutions to all his creatures. I draw two edicts, two incinerates, and a manowar. My erg raider (unkillable by scroll), goes all the way.
I win 18 packs of stronghold. After the match, I play someone with a living death/buried alive deck which crushes me utterly. He wins like 6 games in a row. He says he was going to play it for the tournament, but was worried about all the mana leaks. Since the deck has pyroblasts standard, I tell him he should have played it. Next type II tournament, I'm putting graveyard removal into the sideboard.
Hope this report is useful. See 'ya.