By NBarnes, November 05, 1997:
Tournament Report - WotC Game Center, Seattle WA - Nov 5
Aggro-Red
This was the first post-Tempest T2 tournament to be held at WotC. I figured that the
metagame would be very jumbled, with lots of people trying out the new Altar/Stairwell
deck, Propaganda/Orb, Recycle varients, Vineyards, that sort of thing. So I wanted to
take something that was reliable. Steady. Consistant. And fast. So I took New Math.
I figured I’d eat mana-screwed opponents alive, out-speed most decks, and put up a
good fight against anything that could show.
4 Jackal Pup - Do not doubt the power of the Puppy Dog. First turn Pup means a
quick, quick beatdown. The pressure they put is worth the danger of getting them burned.
3 Mogg Fanatic - Solid. Rarely spectacular. Once zapped a River Boa when on my
second turn. My opponent had tapped out to play it, and it let my Jackal Pup through.
I’m beginning to see these as Searing Touches that apply the beatdown for you.
4 Ironclaw Orcs - Just 2/2. Nothing more, nothing less.
3 Suq’Ata Lancers - Yes, only 3. And it worked out well like that. I want one.
Just one. With Ball Lightning and the Sandstalker in the same CC slot, and both doing
more damage, I don’t like these to clog up my hand. Honestly, I might cut back to 2
and add Wildcats or something.
4 Ball Lightning - Blood for the Blood God! I can’t argue with one card taking away
about 30% of an opponent’s life for one card, can you?
2 Viashino Sandstalker - More for longer games. Ball Lightning is generally the first
cast, both for the extra damage and to draw countermagic.
2 Lava Hounds - Didn't come up too much. Given the relatively
light land balance in the deck, I think 2 is the right number,
especially since they have other issues against them (4 life
isn't often much in this deck, but the times it is, it sucks to
draw them).
4 Incinerate
4 Kindle - It’s not a choice between Kindle and Incinerate. It’s a choice between
Kindle and Thunderbolt. When was the last time you killed a Black or White Knight
with a Thunderbolt?
4 Fireblast - So, so strong. So quick. Victoria isn’t sure 4 is the right number. I am
sure.
2 Hammer of Bogarden - My concession that games aren’t always over by the fifth
turn. And more burn.
2 Kaervek’s Torch - Just in case I need a late game finisher.
4 Wasteland - Excellent. Takes out Quicksands that otherwise annoy my Ball
Lighnings and Sandstalkers. Good disruption at minimal cost.
18 Mountain
Sideboard -
4 Pyroblast - Against Chill, Countermagic, ProsBloom.
3 Winter Orb - Against CoP: Red and any deck that likes it’s mana too much.
Perhaps out for Disks? Disks would help against Chill, too.
2 Goblin Vandal - Against other people’s Winter Orbs, Disks, Diamonds, and
people that are too artifact happy.
2 Havoc - Mostly against white weenie. I didn’t see any, and they only came
in against my final opponent. And I never saw them. A candidate for being
dropped.
2 Quicksand - Against quick critter decks and other burn decks. Burn vs. Burn often
ends in an empty handed stalemate. I wanted that little extra critter kill.
2 Final Fortune - Against other Burn decks and Prosbloom. Burn vs. Burn is also
often a matter of ‘one more turn’. Well, I’ll just take that turn right now. I expected
that this deck vs. ProsBloom would be much the same way, so the same answer.
Since I didn’t see ProsBloom or burn, these never came into the deck, but I think that
that’s a quirk of matchups, not a indication of weakness. Yet.
1st Round - Jason Smith - Mono-black Necro
1st Game - One Ironclaw does not a quick critter rush make, but he started slow, far
slower than I would expect for a Necrodeck (more on this later). He didn’t do anything
until he Diabolic Edicted my 3rd turn Ball Lightning. The 4th turn Ball Lightning
connected, but the 5th turn Sandstalker ate a Terror, and the Ball Lightning the next turn
met a Spinning Darkness cast off an Internal Tribute, the Edict, and the Terror. But the
Ironclaw had been working him, and Disking late didn’t keep him from eating two
Fireblasts for the finish.
Between Games - I’ve got no idea what I’m looking at. I saw no Knights, pumping,
Black, or Fallen. I didn’t see Drains. I didn’t see Choking Sands. I did see a Disk.
Necro doesn’t occur to me, and I figure it’s one of those Altar/Stairwell decks I’ve
been hearing rumbles about. So I figure that the Vandals in my sideboards will
help to break them. In they go, for two of the Pups (he only had one Spinning Darkness,
it turned out, but I thought a graveyard oriented deck might have more, and I didn’t want
any aimed at my Pups)
2cd Game - He opens to a single Swamp. He tops decks a swamp and some
Quicksands, but my Wastelands keep his Quicksands from helping him. Two mana is not
good to his deck, and Dark Ritual is _not_ a long-term solution. He doesn’t put up much
resistance to a critter rush and burn.
Post Match - I don’t think he played a single creature all match. Afterward, I saw that it
was, indeed, Necro, with heavy land destruction. 4 Choking Sands, 4 Rain of Tears.
Only 8 critters, hough, Black and pump Knights. I don’t think that that’s the right formula
for Necro. he mono-black Necrodeck I won the last pre-Tempest T2 at the Game
Center with had 12, adding Fallen Askari to the Black and Stromgald Knights. And I
found that to be an excellent mix.
Anyway, a fairly pressureless 2-0 match. 1-0 overall, 2-0 in games.
2cd Game - Ty Holcomb - U/R CounterHammer with Ophies and Man’O’War
I wasn’t totally pleased here. I didn’t like the matchup between his deck and mine,
and Ty is easily one of the very best players that comes to the Game Center.
I saw his deck a week ago and lost painfully to it, seeing two Swamps in the opening
14 cards from my mono-black Necrodeck. I wanted revenge, and the challenge.
His deck is very reminicent of McCabe’s Worlds T2 deck, a CounterHammer without
much burn, going for creatures. I was surprised to see him playing it, actually, since
it is basically the same deck he was running pre-Tempest, and I feel that it’s fairly
obvious that the environment is much less favorable to U/R than it was. No Force,
no Thaws, no Pillage, no Pyrokinesis.
1st Game - He pulled about what his deck is. A few counters, a few burn spells,
a few critters, but not a lot of any. I burned out his Man’O’War, recast my Suq’Ata,
and ran him over. He was starting in with a Frenetic after finally getting board
control with Incinerates, but I’d been sitting on two Fireblasts all along. I top deck an
Incinerate and go for broke, with him at 11.
He had two blue untapped, so I fear Counterspell, but fortune favors the bold.
I show him the Incinerate. He’s at 8. I show him the first Fireblast, saccing two
Mountains. He’s at 4. I take a deep breath, lose my last two mountains, and
show him the second Fireblast. No Counterspell.
Between Games - In with the Pyroblasts, out with the Pups.
2cd Game - A slightly less quick draw for me, and a slightly better for for Ty.
I come out, I always do, but he burns out my critter rushes and counters the
Ball Lightnings. I get him down to 10 while being at 17 myself from Earthquakes.
I just lost my final critter in hand, a Lava Hounds, to a Dissipate/Dissipate over my
Pyroblast, but his hand is empty. I’m holding a Kindle (my first) and an Incinerate,
and there’s nothing but land on the board. I’m feeling pretty good, but get a twinge
and give my deck The Look, commanding it not to serve land up to me at a critical
point of the game. My deck ignores me and serves up three Mountains and a Wasteland.
Ty, meanwhile, gets cards he doesn’t play right away, and a Wildfire. Two turns after
the Wildfire drops, I get a Fireblast. I consider taking out the Wildfire, but don’t. All
the burn in my hand puts him at 1 measly life point if I cast it, so I wait for more damage.
I never see it, and the Wildfire puts me low enough while I wait for Ty to Fireball me to
death.
3rd Game - Much like the 1st game, but closer. Again, I rush him and get him down to
about ten. Mark Justice looks over my shoulder and sees my two Fireblasts and the
Hammer, then watches Ty tap out for a Frenetic. My gut worries about Force of Will,
it’s a hard habit to lose, but there’s nothing he can do to keep from taking 11 and dying.
Ty asks afterward how many cards I had left after the Fireblast routine. I show him
empty hands, and nod agreement. Too close, but a win.
Post-Match - In retrospect, there are much worse match-ups for my deck than Ty’s,
since he had niether the heavy burn to stop my creatures, nor enough countermagic
to stop all the heat. I got good draws, winning both games with the double Fireblast.
I asked afterward if he had Ophidians in there still, since I didn’t see them. He said
he did, and bascially he drew them when he didn’t want them, and didn’t draw them
when he wanted them. Since that was the card I was most worried about, I was
fairly content to let sleeping snakes lie.
Good games, 2-1. 2-0 matches, 4-1 games.
3rd Round - Vladimir Golikov - Mono-green, Vineyards, Jolrael’s, Rangers
1st Gme - He gets a Quirion Ranger after I drop a 1st turn Puppy Dog, but my
Fanatic takes care of the Ranger, and the quick creature rush is just too damaging
to let him survive the burn.
I didn’t see Quicksand, and I figure mono-green is unlikely to show other non-basics,
so the two Quicksands came in for two Wastelands.
2cd Game - He gets a Ranger. I get a Puppy Dog. He thinks, then throws out two
Eladamri’s Vineyard and attacks. I take one. My turn consists of dropping a second
Mountain, then using the Vineyards to drop an Ironclaw and a Suq’Ata. He takes
4, and my creature rush is feeling really buff. My third turn shows him a Ball Lightning,
and my fourth two Fireblasts.
Post-Match - Not much to say. Vladimir was a class act all around, and we pretty
much agreed that any more games would have looked much the same.
Mono-red > mono-green. You’d think that my deck wouldn’t like Vineyards so
much, but I find that I like them. They make playing Suq’Atas much easier, and
I have a fair amount of things that I can drop two at a time thanks to a Vineyard.
Two was harder, and I did burn for 4 on my 3rd and 4th turns both in the second
game, but the 2nd turn was just huge.
Another fairly easy 2-0 match, and I’m feeling cocky. 3-0 matches, 6-1 games.
4th Round - Robert Lee - U/W Propaganda/Orb with Rainbows for the kill.
Drat. I lost to Robert in the final round exactly a week ago, when he was running
some Land Destruction jank that he threw together on the way there. I want revenge,
and I want $50 in WotC bucks. He offers to draw, but I turn it down. And would
again, despite, well, just read on.
1st Gme - He mana stumbles. I rush him with the usual suspects, and he’s forced
to spent time playing Diamonds. Not good when you’ve got this kind of pressure.
Fireblast finishes, ignoring a late Winter Orb on his part.
Between Games - I didn’t see Propaganda, and I don’t remember the
Propaganda/Orb decks that I’ve been seeing. Stupid me, I think it’s a white-heavier,
more traditional U/W control. In with Vandals for the Fanatics, for the Diamonds,
three Pyroblasts and two Havocs for a Sandstalker and the Hammers and Torches.
2cd Game - He plays plains, Enlightned Tutor for a Chill. I play a Pup. Him, Island,
Chill. Me, nothing, but attack with the Pup. Him, Island, Chill. WTF? Two Chills?
I am not a happy camper. Believe it or not, the Pup almost goes all the way.
He’s lacking actual critter removal, I think he’s relying on Wraths alone for critter
kill. He’s down to 4 before he finally removes the Pup, and that ends it. He’s got
countermagic for my Fireblasts, and the rest of my burn costs at least 6??
He’s a Winter Orb, so that’s not an option. So close, so very close...
He’s low, but with two Chills, a Propaganda, _and_ an Orb, I know I can’t
touch him. I concede.
Between Games - I get a partial clue. I take out the second Sandstalker for
the fourth Pyroblast, but don’t take out the Havocs.
3rd Game - Another Pup, but he gets second turn Chill, third turn Propaganda,
and an Orb on the fifth. A Vandal gets the Orb, and I manage to Pyroblast the Chill,
but can’t creature rush him with the Propaganda out. Perhaps I should have gone
for the Propaganda? In any case, his lack of direct critter removal almost undoes him
again as an Ironclaw dodges Propaganda to plink at him, but he eventually gets another
Orb, after Wrathing the Vandal away, and then plays every burn player’s worst enemy
when he’s at 6 life. Gerrard’s Wisdom. That knocks him up to 16 and I just can’t
threaten him. Meanwhile, he lays another Chill, finally, and then a third, then a second
Propaganda. I concede again.
I lose 2-1, without having never been below 15 life. If only my Pyroblasts had turned
up. They refused to show in my opening hands, and I’m quite sure that cost me both
games, the match, and 1st place. Considering how quickly I can burn him out and how
consistant I am, it was all about his draws. And his draw the second game was just
incredible, and almost as good the third game. Oh, well. I knew I’d have trouble with
blue and with Chill, I just wish my sideboard had been as kind about showing up as his
was.
Like I said, I wouldn’t draw, even if given the option again. I think I’m strong enough
to take 2-1 or even 2-0, I just need for him not to see Chills and Propaganda all the time.
One or the other, but both just is too much.
A painful 1-2 loss. 3-1 matches, 7-3 games.
Game Center tournaments tend to only run four rounds and no round of 8; there’s
some interesting things that happen when T2 tournaments run twice a week, instead of
twice a month in other places. For instance, relatively small prizes. I get, for second
place, five packs of Tempest. Not bad for a $5 entry fee, though.
In the final analysis, I rule the first game. The cards that kill me are in the sideboard,
and to be consistant, I need better answers. CoP: Red isn’t too bad, Winter Orbs help
again it, but Chill is awful. And Propaganda is pretty much equally bad. Again, I’m
considering Nevinyrral’s Disks in the SB, perhaps for the Havocs or Worbs. Also,
I totally brain-froze and didn’t slide two Boils into the SB. I don’t think they’d have
saved me from Robert and Chill, but it’s not a bad idea to use on blue.
So... comments?
NBarnes