Posted by Roy Ho on December 21, 1997 at 21:02:11:
...It was a massive showing, close to 130 people attended the tournament..
Meta-game decisions heavily affected the deck types in play and everyone was expecting sligh and bounce decks to dominate. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case. Played 7 Swiss rounds, top 32 qualified for the next round, which was being played in a knockout format.
I played a Necropotence/Haunting Misery deck, mainly because I was absolutely sure there was no direct threat from sligh since my necro has a realiable way of lifegain in Dark Ritualed Drain Lifes and Bottle Gnomes. Furthermore, playtesting indicated that creature based slighs would die against me and I could match Deadman's firepower sligh point for point..sometimes even faster. Stompys would collapse after sideboarding in Perish. Counterdecks would definately not be able to counter everything I throw at them and lock decks would need too much time to set up. Land destruction was not a problem as I had 20 land and was playing the best card drawing ability that is.
Anyway...here's my deck and the tournament report for your reading pleasure.
Necropotent Misery:
4 Necropotence
4 Dark Ritual
4 Drain Life
4 Bottle Gnomes
4 Nev's Disks
4 Black Knight
4 Knight of Stromgald
4 Vampire Bat
4 Hidden Horror
4 Dauthi Slayer
2 Haunting Misery
20 Swamps
Sideboard:
4 Perish
4 Diabolic Edict
4 Gloom
3 Nekrataal
Round one..
Played a Singaporean dude, reputed to be one of the top control deck players in Singapore. The first round he got mana-screwed heavily, just one quicksand for 4 turns. I had a nice draw. First turn swamp, ritual and horror and by the time he got a mind stone out, he was at 4 life, and I had another black knight on the table...he conceedes. I still wasnt sure what he was playing, so I didnt put in my sideboard. The second round, I found out part of his deck. The Orim's Prayer and Humility combo came out when he was down at 6 life, and the following cards he played were 2 Aura of Silences, while I had a Necro in play. I was killing myself and he was just sitting there and Geddoning me. I concede after the second Aura comes out. Third game, sideboarded in the Glooms, took out the bats. First turn Gloom, second turn knight, third turn gloom, fourth turn Necro. He concedes. I won 2-1. Turns out later, this dude went 6-1, and he was playing a monastery version of Sandsipoise!!
The next game was against a senor stompy/overrun deck. This bloke had only ONE overrun in his WHOLE deck. I reckoned I would cream him silly. First game I got stomped silly, couldnt control his horde of creatures, and he kept pulling out elephant after elephant. I managed to hold on forawhile, and was providing beatdown with my shadows, while the horrors and the knights were holding his stampede in check. Then he pulls a four point hurricane, enough to kill me off. Second game, I sideboarded in the perishes, edicts and nekrataals content of just sitting there and taking damage before I pull out the 10 point haunting misery. Alas...this is the only game which I am seriously mana screwed. Two swamps in 8 turns, with 2 Nekrataals, 2 Perishes and NO Edicts. I die helplessly, to an stampeded overrun. Lost 0-2, and now I am at 1-1.
Third game, I played ANOTHER Stompy. This one had more structure, and he was one of the top players in Kuala Lumpur. This time I had all the answers. He dropped his hand within 4 turns, and I had like 5 creatures facing me and giving me 7 points each turn. I was casting the occasional blocker and surving by Bottle Gnomes, while managing to pull out a Disk. I disk the board and out comes another Horror. I win by beatdown and a 7 point Haunting Misery. Second game was a total annihilation. I had two Perishes in my hand, and three swamps, one black knight, and one necro. I wiped the board with two perishes, refilled my hand and hammered him down with shadow and knights. I edicted away his final lurgoyf. 2-1.
Fourth round, I met the deck I never dreamt anyone would play. A classic white weenie. With 16 pro-black creatures, my deck screamed for mercy. Knight after knight after falcon. as a finale...he popped down 2 crusades and managed to pull a disenchant the turn after i played the disk. Sideboarding the glooms didnt help....by the time I drew one..it was too late. I knew I should have played Dread of Night over the Nekrataals in the sideboard. 2-2..and qualifying looks grim.
Fifth round, faced a black horde deck with kaervek's spite as a finisher. My necro ambled along and demolished him with drainlifes and disks. I didnt even bother to sideboard the second game and my opponent made a ridiculous mistake. I was down to 7 life, with a bottle gnome in play. He attacked with a nekrataal and an erg raider. I block the nekrataal...killing it off, adn took two from the erg, putting me at 5. The bloke then casted the spite, and i sacrificed my gnomes for three life, putting me at 2..and him at an empty board. Next turn, I dropped a horror. That was the game. 3-2.
I now needed to win one more and draw one at least to qualify. In the sixth round, I got paired with the ONE person I never wanted to meet...Michael Toh. He was playing a Tradewind/Quiron/Land Des combo and could block two creatures and return them to your hand. First round was merciless...he had three elves, a winter orb and a tradewind out by turn 5. I had one swamp..after losing two to winter's grasp. Then he dropped a Dirtcowl..I conceede. Sideboarded in the Edicts and the Perishes. I got him down to 1 life and he got me in a lock with two tradewinds, an armageddon and a quiron elf. I perished the elf with a darkritualed swamp and the next two turns I pulled out swamps, allowing me to drain him for 1 point. The third game was tense....He had gotten me down in a lock, and I had no more cards in play. My hand held two swamps, a disk and a perish. I was waiting for a dark ritual to come and had 4 turns to pull it off, while he was pummelling me with 2 tradewinds, 2 quirons and a llanowar. I knew if I managed to pull a dark ritual before he could get me down to 5 life, I had a chance. The dark ritual never came...at 3-3...and I couldnt qualify.
The final game was a blast. I demolished another stompy but could not belive I did not even meet ONE sligh deck in the whole tournament.
Finished with a 4-3 record. Surprisingly, Necro holded out quite well in this enviroment, with so many colour hosers. There were only two necro players in the whole tournament, mine and another dude playing Lauer-Potence. Lauer-Potence deck went 5-2. There were a couple of Monastery deck, 3 ProsBloom decks which got creamed and beat down by weenies, a sliver deck(!) and tons and tons and tons of black fast creature decks which all the players were complainig about, but I had the misfortune of drawing the only original white weenie deck. Land Destruction decks were not really prevalent, but there was one dude who was using a black/green land destruction deck with Nature's Revolt. There were a couple of dudes playing Scrollpox, but they met an early demise with cheese and black weenie decks. Squandered stasis was also quite popular, which caused the entire thing to end at 10pm.
There will be another one next week, at Ampang, Kuala Lumpur. I hope I don't meet Michael Toh again.
Me.