Subject: Tourney report From: Christoph Berg Date: Thu May 15 22:42:56 1997 Hi, Last weekend there were northern german championchips which served also as qualifier for the german championships. I havent played Magic for 2 Month now, but since I somehow managed to qualify, I decided to give it a try, even without a thorrowly tested deck. To start with the analysis of the metagame, I expected a lot of wheenies in green, white and black as well as some pure burn. No more stasis, subtelties (squandered Jokulhaups and such) or prosp-bloom. Some Counterpost or counterburn, maybe. Oh, and Marogeddon, of course. Since I love outposts, I originally tried to build some creature-post style deck, but somehow I couldn't find all my white stuff (stolen ?) and so I had to find a substitute. Inspired by the report a few days ago (southern german championship), I decided to try a monoblue wall deck: 4 Counterspells 4 Force of Wills 2 Dissipate 1 Desertion (test card) 3 Air Elementals (Game ender, sometimes desperation measure) 2 Rainbow Efreets (Late Game ender) 4 Wall of Airs (Great wheeniestopper) 4 Floot Gate (Not-so-great Wheeniestopper, but still nice) 4 Suq-Ata Firewalker (Pain for red and wheenies, Riverboa-defence, Outpost-stopper, outright cool, IMHO) 4 Binding grasp (get the maro...) 2 Flooded Shoreline (nice with floot gates, I thought) 4 Quicksand (card of the tournament plus Riverboa-defence) 2 Soldevi excarvations (simply great) 3 Coral Rifs 16 Islands 2 Glacier 61 Cards Sideboard 4 Pyroblast (no comment) 2 Snake basket (additional game ender, antioutpost) 2 Political trickery 1 Jesters Cap 2 Cerulean Wyvern (against monogreen) 2 Deflection (I dont know what for, did probably not think enough about it) 2 Sea sprite (main deck candidate) The deck was supposed to be good against all kinds of wheenies as well as 'keycard-decks' such as Marogeddon. The idea of the sideboard was to be able to switch out most counterspells against monogreen (a second-turn city can really ruin your day) and to get creatures as a substitute. Heavy anti-red should make up for the hammer-problem. =46or a more detailed deck-discussion, see the bottom. We played 7 rounds of swiss with 65 players, the top 8 qualified for the german championships. so here we go: First Round: Gunnar Refsdal. Hooray. One of Hamburgs strongest players, pro-tour participant and notorious for drawing a balance whenever he needed it (back in the old days). Otherwise a nice guy, but with Counterhammer with a little creature-support (Sandstalker) he had good draws, my mana didn't show up and I lost quickly two games (walls didn't show up). Bad start. 0:2 games, 0:1 matches Second Round: Marogeddon OK, if I can't handle this, I am really screwed. I mean, just counter the armageddons and everything is well, isn't it ? I thought (sigh). Somehow things just didn't work out. His armageddons went through and so did his Maros. My binding grasps were on vacation or immedeately armageddoned. I could take one game, but lost the match. This was not my original intention (sigh). From the view of qualifying, the tourney was over. What's left is the fun in Magic. 1:4 games, 0:2 matches 3.) Monoblack - wheenie. There was nothing special in his deck, so I had no problems in going down to 5 life, getting control and a sure win. 3:4 games, 1:2 matches 4.) Another monoblack... great ! This is what my deck is designed for, or shall I say: against? Unfortunately, there are 4 Crypt rats in his deck. They looked so scary that my firewalkers hide at the bottom of the deck and didn't show up in two matches. Eventually a 10-point-rat-pestilence ends game one and three. Hmgrrph. But at least, it was a fun game ;-) 4:6 games, 1:3 matches 5.) Think positive, here in the loosers bracket, things aren't that serious, so all the left games are a big fun; we joke around and have a great time. I meet a guy with a four-color-deck (no white). He won a tourney with this deck 4 weeks ago, but had a bad day. We give creatures back and forth, since he plays binding grasps and counters. He comes up with big green creatures that I keep shorelining till finally, I can counter them. Rainbow Efreet eventually wins the day. 6:6 games, 2:3 matches 6.) I play a nice guy with a standard green-red deck with big creatures. No big problems, some counters and a deserted shivan do a nice job for me. Fun game, though, since I go down to 1 life. 8:6 games, 3:3 matches 7.) Red-green with Cities in the maindeck (shudder). He told me, that he expected a lot of blue (which was not the case, actually). We have some fun as stupid mistakes happen: I block his flank knight with my sea sprite; First and third game, I am down to 4 or so and out of counters, but he doesn't draw any direct damage and so my Air elemental does the job. In game two, he Fireballs me to death but takes one damage from his painland, so my walkers can give him the final poke and we have a draw. 10.5: 6.5 games, 4:3 matches Before I continue, a few words on the tournament: Red was BIG. white was small. I expected a lot and saw none monogreen. Red-green of course, and black. Quicksand was the second most popular card, right after the Glaciers (13 Glaciers among the top 4 players). In the final, the most surprising thing: 'My' deck was in two versions among the final eight. Two red-green, one black-red, only one Counterpost, one strange black-white deck that I didn't understand; white knights and skulking ghosts. And finally, a classic white wheenie. Up to the finals, the only remarkable game was green-red against monoblue: blue went down to 1:20, got control and went on for a sure win. In the end, the final saw both monoblue decks (and was eventually decided by some snake baskets and scepters in the sideboard. So I take this opportunity to start a diskussion on monoblue, based on the three decks that I saw. Private or public, please mail any comments, opinions, ... First the 'no doubt'-cards. 4 Counterspells 4 Force of Will 4 Wall of Air 3 Dissipate (Hammer death) 3-4 Air Elementals (one deck had waterspout djinns, but I am not convinced; this is no speed deck anyway.) 3-4 Firewalkers (Incredible cards. They stop monored, river boas, orden, Outposts) 22 cards This leaves 10-12 cards that I would like opinions on: Here are the candidates: -- Disks -- Impulse (hot candidate) -- Flood gates (other walls ?) -- Flooded Shoreline (strong against Marogeddon: If he has Maro out and casts Armageddon ... you get the picture) -- Flood -- Desertion (The eventual tourney winner praised them) -- Ancestral Memories (dito) -- Rainbow Efreets (Not worthwhile, imho. When they are strong, its the late - game. In that situation you are dead or you have won. -- Bindings grasp (potentially very strong. Do they fit into the=20 deck?) -- Snake baskets For the manasources, Quicksand and excarvations are a must. I wont use coral riffs again, since they slow you down in a critical phase of the game -- the opening. Something like this looks reasonable to me 4 Quicksand 2 Excarvations 4 Glaciers 18 Islands For the sideboard, help would also be appreciated. Here are the candidates -- Pyroblast -- Disrupting scepter -- more Desertion -- Creatures... which one ? -- Political trickery (outposts...) -- ??? Ok, folks so far for now. Christoph ------------------------------