From: Scott Wills Subject: Tournament Report Date: Mon May 19 15:11:46 1997 The tournament in question is one of 8 qualifiers for the UK National championships which will take place at the end of June. The Nationals are invitational only, and the UK team for the Worlds will be chosen from the winners of that tournament. Approx 100 players turned up for the qualifier which took place in Cambridge, the top 7 being offered a place in the Nationals. My Deck: After a reasonable amount of testing I'd decided to go with a Black 'Ice' Weenie deck that I'd be tuning recently. It had done well in two previous tournaments (5-1, 5-2) and had been tweaked since so I thought it would be as good as any. Here it is: Land: 3 x Lake Of The Dead 2 x Sheltered Valley 4 x Quicksand 14 Swamps Only 23 land and no Rituals! :-) My friends were playing similar decks and could not force themselves to drop below 26 land. I still get mana-screwed less than they do. :-) Part of it is to do with the way I play, and also the fact that no-one is playing LD at the moment. Creatures: 4 x Black Knight 4 x Pump Knight 3 x Skulking Ghosts 2 x Crypt Rat 4 x Nekrataal 2 x Dancing Scimitar 2 x Phryxian Warbeast 2 x Evil Eye of Orms By Gore (Total 23) Same number of creatures as land. The Warbeasts work great with the Sheltered Valley. 6 of the creatures can be used as creature removal, and 19 hit for at least 2 points of damage a turn. The Dancing Scimitars were a recent change for many reasons - CoP's, Dervishes, White Pump Knights, Air Elementals, Frenetic and Rainbow Efreets, and opposing Skulkers. Stuff: 3 x Drain Life 3 x Choking Sands 3 x Winter Orb 2 x Contagion 2 x Nev's Disk 1 x Kaervek's Spite (Total 14 =3D 60 card deck) Standard fair really. Heavy on the Drains and Choking Sands as they are yet more sources of damage as well as getting rid of key permanents. I've seen the Spite mocked well lately, but two of my friends played it also, and it probably won us 5-6 games that would otherwise have been lost. Note only two cards devoted to creature removal (Contagions), but 17 cards total that can be used to get rid of creatures. This is what made the deck strong IMO. The tournament was going to played over 8 rounds of pure Swiss. Top 7 at the end of that would get the Nationals places. They were operating the '3 points for a win, 1 for a draw' system, so we figured you'd need 6.5-1.5 (19 points) to qualify, but a couple of 18's might get through as well. Round 1 - vs Ian Thompson - R/G Creature/Burn. Got the valley down early and started gaining some life. 2nd turn Skulky got incinerated, but two knights quickly followed. He had a River Boa down, but after the 2nd Knight landed, he tapped out in his turn to Creeping Mold the Valley. Winter Orb on my next turn and game over. Game 2 saw a 2nd and 3rd Turn Dervish, whilst I saw none of my Sideboarded Dystopias or my Quicksand. He pounded me badly with them, whilst I hit him with Knights. He was on 5 life when he beat me, if I'd drawn the Spite I'd have won. Game 3 and once again I'm facing a 2nd and 3rd turn Dervish! I'm a little mana screwed, but get a Winter Orb down. I get a Disk out, but he'll kill me in two turns (Dervishes are 3/3 and 4/4). He mistakenly untaps a Mountain, and tries to Creeping Mold the Disk with 3 red and 1 green mana. Next turn the Disk goes off, I get the Valley down and win the game with Knights and a 5 point Drain. Finished the game on 21 life, coming back from 6. :-) Match: 1-0, Total Games: 2-1, Points: 3 (1-0) Round 2 - vs Steve Harrington - Mono-red Goblin/Sligh. First turn, a Keeper Of Kookus for him, and I lay the Valley. He then lays a Valley on his 2nd turn. This is going to be a long game! The game hinged on one play: I had a War Beast down, and he played a Goblin Recruiter, bringing two more Goblins to the top of his deck. He played the both next turn, tapping out, giving him 4 creatures to my one. In my turn I made a Crypt Rat and set it off for 2 damage, clearing out all the Goblins, and leaving my handful of creatures to get the win. Game 2 Steve was badly mana-screwed. He had one Mountain, and then sacced it to a Balduvian Trading Post. I Choking Sands it (Talk about kicking a guy when he's down - I felt like a right heel. :-( ). He didn't draw another land and it was over by turn 6. Match: 2-0, Total Games: 4-1, Points: 6 (2-0) Round 3 - vs Lee Lote - R/W destroy everything + Ivory Gargoyles. Just the deck I didn't want to face. 4 Disks, 4 Wraths and numerous Earthquakes all in the main deck. The first game was a long one. I played creature after creature and they all got burned, Disked or Wrathed. I managed to get some damage in with some creatures and a couple of Choking Sands (Hate them Balduvian Trading Posts!), and brought him down to 11. The Winter Orbs and the great number of creature threats kept the big X-spells away from me. I drained him for 11 for the win. Game 2 was messy. He saw early Gargoyles and Blinking Spirits and I saw few creatures. He got rid of the single Orb I drew and burned me for 9 for the kill. Ouch. Game 3 was weird. Once more none of my creatures ever lived to attack. I got two points from a Choking sands, and a double Winter Orb got him low on Mana. An Evil Eye got in one attack before it was burned. I finally won the game with a 7 point Drain, followed by an 8 soon after (2 Lakes in play). Weird. Match: 2-1, Total Games: 6-2, Points: 9 (3-0) Round 4 - vs Adrian Turner - R/U Counter-Burn. I'm on table 1 at this point, but I feel as though I've been riding my luck a little. I'm waiting for my deck to fall over but it doesn't (yet). Game 1 saw an Evil Eye and two Drains get past his Counters. The first Drain after a Frenetic Efreet on turn three, and the 2nd Drain after a Firestorm Hellkite on turn 6. The Efreet hit me a couple of times, but the Hellkite was Contagioned on sight. I don't think Adrian was playing Forces (I didn't see any). Evil eye did the rest. It's excellent vs burn. Game 2 I died badly. He countered and burned all the relevant things, and the coin flips on three Frenetics didn't go my way. Game 3 was very quick. I played a turn 3 Winter Orb after he burned a Knight. He was totally shocked as it was the first one I'd played and I think he might've sided out his anti-artifact. A Warbeast hit for 3 a turn and he never had the 5 mana needed to Fireball it. Match: 2-1, Total Games: 8-3, Points: 12 (4-0) Round 5 - vs Oliver Clements - Mono-White Weenie. Another deck I didn't fancy playing. :-( Game 1 we both played Pump Knights on turn two, although he had an Infantry Veteran so we were trading 2- 3 damage for a couple of turns. I was a little mana screwed with only a Lake in play. I drew a Swamp and made a tough choice: Tap both it and Lake for a Black Kinght, then play a Pump Knight the turn after, or sac it straight away for either both Knights or a Nekrataal (Killing the Infantry Veteran). I went for the double-knight and I think it was the right move. On his turn he played Crusade and a Mtenda Herder. His single Pump Knight was now doing me for 4 per round. We traded 4-4 for a turn as I kept the Black Knight back to block the Herder or the Veteran if it attacked, then he put down another Mtenda, and a Benalish Hero. I was dead in two turns, he was still on 14. I attacked with both Pumpers, bringing him to 10. He attacked with everything taking me to 1 life. Next turn I attacked with with all three Knights, and then the big boy - Kaervek's Spite! He takes 11, and game 1 to me. Phew! :-) Game 2 was similar. I played a Valley to start and gained 3 Life from it. By that time he had slightly more creatures in play than me, and so he Geddoned! Luckily I had my second Valley in my hand and played it straight after the Geddon. I tapped out for a Disk soon after whilst on 10 life, he attacked with everything to put me on 2. Next turn the Disk went off - killing my Warbeast putting me on 1 life, but getting me back under the 3-or-less land required for the Valley. I recovered faster and just scraped the win. Scary games!!! :-) Match: 2-0, Total Games: 10-3, Points 15 (5-0). Things are looking good - I need 4 points fromt he next three games to be sure of qualifying. I have a bad feeling about it though... Round 6 - Paul Parker - R/G.. 'stuff'! Game one is nasty. I pull a Quicksand and a Lake in my opening hand. He puts a Bird of Paradise in on turn 1. Turn 2 I draw a Swamp but can't cast anything (All double Black). In his turn he Stone Rains it (Ouch!). He then proceeds to Stone Rain or Pillage all of my next three Swamps as well, and I don't think I ever got a card in play. He beats me up with a Centaur, and I have Contagion, Crypt Rat and Disk in my Hand. :-( I find out after the match he is only packing 6 Land Destruction spells total! Game 2 was closer. We trade some creatures for Burn, but then he pulls out a turn 4 Balduvian Horde (!). I don't have a Nekrataal, and he gets a hit in with the Horde and a River Boa before I draw a Black card to pitch to my Contagion. I remove the Boa, and then put down a Warbeast to bounce the Horde. If he has burn to kill the Warbeast I'm dead, but he doesn't. I'm not drawing anything off my deck that can get rid of the Horde, but I do get a Winter Orb which slows him down. We stand-off for about 5-6 turns, then he Incinerates me in mine. He then waits for a couple of turns and Incinerates and Torches me for my remaining 10 life. Match: 0-2, Total Games: 10-5, Points 15 (5-1) Uh-oh... Round 7 - Richard....... - W/U Control, Gargoyle, Wrath/Disk. Even worse than the deck I played in round 3! Game one he controls the board well. Well timed Wraths, Disks and Counters leave me fairly creatureless. Nothing I could do as I needed to get the early damage before he could set-up. I get up to around 28 life from a Valley, then he plays two Gargoyles in quick succession. Despite me killing them repeatedly (He missed 6 consecutive draw phases I think!) I made some god-awful mistakes (In response to my disk I'll Contagion both the Gargoyles so they become 0/1 - "OK - they come back at the end of my turn as 2/2 again.." "DOH!!, @~=A3$%!!") :-) and lost any advantage I may have gained. He killed me fairly quickly after that! Game 2 was bad. At the start of my turn 4 I (thought I) had 3 land, and so did he. I tapped a Valley and a Swamp for a Bad Moon which he then Disenchanted when I attacked with my Skulker, and I then played another Valley (burying the first) to play a Winter Orb - he only had a Plains untapped. At this point he stopped me and said I had already played a land that turn, and couldn't play the second Valley. For the life of me I don't think I did (This was my turn 4 remember and I only had 3 land in play when I played the 2nd Valley). However, I've played the bloke before, and he's a sincere player so I don't think he was attempting to cheat, but then I'm sure I hadn't played a land as well. We couldn't agree between us, and despite 2-3 spectators watching, none of them remembered the order of play that turn. We had to call the judge over. He said we had two choices - coin-flip for the result or start the game over. I didn't really want to start over (I had the Valley down, a Skulker, plus a 2nd Winter Orb and a Pump Knight in my hand) but a coin-flip seemed a messy way of deciding so we did restart. 1 turn into that game, the guy on the table next to me spills a 1/2 litre bottle of Pepsi Max all over our table and my deck. :-( I spend the next 10 minutes attempting to lever the sleeves apart and desleeve the deck whilst changing tables. The tension level is rising somewhat.. :-) When we finally got game 2 going he pulled a 2nd turn CoP: Black, but then I followed with a third turn Gloom. He got up to four mana quickly, and was only taking 2-3 per turn. When he got to 6 mana, he Disenchanted the Gloom. At this point I had an untapped Disk and 2 Creatures. I knew if he untapped all his land I'd be dead, so I Disk'ed, and played a Black Knight. In his turn he Recalls the CoP: Black and puts it straight down. I can't get rid of it as he has a handful of counters. I ask him afterwards, and the CoP: Black was the only one he had in the deck..... :-( Match: 0-2, Total Games: 10-7, Points: 15. I think I'm out, but on checking the scoreboard, I see I'm in 8th, top of a huge pile of 15-pointers due to my opponents match record. (If they had done it on games I'd have been well down) There are 2 players on 16 points above me, so if they lose, and I win, I could go as high as 6th. Round 8 - Rick Powell - R/U - Firewalkers, Embermages, Counter/Burn. Rick is an old playing buddy of mine, and I am not happy to have to play him at this point. He is a very good player who gives nothing away. I tell him the situation and we both agree, that if we draw, we'll flip for the match. He's also on 15 and has a slim chance of getting through on 18 points if he wins. Game 1 - Counters, Burn, Creatures, Creature Kill. I end up having 4 creatures which will do Rick for 7 points a turn. He is on 15 I'm on 7. He has no cards in his hand. He draws an Incinerate and a Disintegrate from the top of his deck in the next two turns and kills me. Bugger... :-) Game 2 - I start off with a Valley, and some early creatures. Rick burns some, counters others. I get off a Winter Orb, and the awesome Evil Eye (It is vs Burn anyway). Rick takes the damage for a few turns, but the has to double-incinerate it. This followed by two Arcane Denials in quick succession gives me the egde needed for the win. Game 3 - Rick draws 2 land all game. :-( I have one in my opening hand and I start to think we're both screwed but I draw two off the top of my deck and start laying creatures. A Warbeast gets Forced, and a Knight gets incinerated, but two Bad Moons I play on turns 2 and 3 when I'm mana screwed make the Crypt Rats and Black Knight damn near invincible. Match: 2-1, Total Games: 12-7, Points 18. I wait around with baited breath - I think I'm through but no-one knows for sure what the tie-break is for players on equal points. They call out the results in reverse order from 16th place - I wind up 6th. Nice. :-) And not an intentional draw in sight. :-) Tournament overview: Black is big. There were a lot of mono-black and some B/U weenie or B/R. I think the mono-black was stronger than both of these. Blue was massive. Lot's of players playing mono-blue with man-o-wars, floodgates, and many counters. A number of U/W control as well. I think there were 3 heavy blue in the top 5. There were lots of people playing white without many (or even any) CoP's or Disenchants. This I found strange. Equipoise was there which I thought I'd have problems with until someone said it can't target any of my 8 pro-white Knights. (Is this true?) Pros/Bloom was there as well - a lot of people still didn't know what it did. On the whole it is as Len Blado said recently. The field is tremendously diverse, and it's very difficult to prepare for an entire field. Fun though! :-) Hope this wasn't too long for you, if it's well received I'll try to do more from the upcoming qualifiers. Scott scott.wills@nene.ac.uk