Subject: tempest local sealed report
Date: 27 Oct 97 12:01:14 EDT
From: tjest@vms.cis.pitt.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy

Hi all, yesterday I entered a small (Steelers were playing) local tournament
report here in Pittsburgh at Game Masters in the North Hills.

Only about 10 people showed up, and I think that is more a testament to people
wanting to go to the steeler game, so in the future, I think all the tournaments
are going to be held on saturday.

Anyway, it was tempest sealed deck, 1 starter, 2 boosters, 5 rounds of swiss
(should have been 4, but some people wanted to play another round, so we did)

This is what I got:

white played with

quickening licid, elite javelineer, mounted archers, soltari lancer, flickering
ward, cop: red, cop shadow, pacifism

red played with

flowstone salamander, mogg fanatic (x2), mogg raider, fireslinger, canyon
wildcat, wall of diffusion, aftershock, kindle

black played with

leeching licid, dauthi horror, dauthi slayer, dauthi marauder, marsh lurker,
knight of dusk, dark banishing, dark ritual, disturbed burial, dregs of sorrow

artifacts

coiled tinviper

lands

5 plains
6 mountains
7 swamps
1 salt flats
1 cinder marsh

disn't play with

cop red, light of day, talon sliver

shatter, heart sliver

dauthi embrace, rain of tears, clot sliver

watchdog, grindstone

sky spirit

skyshroud elf, frog tongue, heartwood treefolk, respite, elvish fury,
tranquility (x2), reality anchor, verdigris, trained armodon, charging rhino,
natural spring

rootwater hunter, shadow rift, giant crab, gaseous form, twitch, propaganda,
spell blast, tradewind rider, thalakos seer, voltraths curse (x2), counterspell,
time ebb (x2)

i sideboarded shatter, watchdog, grindstone, rain of tears, clot sliver and the
other cop: red at different points.

I didn't realize I had the pretty decent combo of mounted archers and gaseous
form, but I think I made the right choices as far as colors go.  I would have
liked to play green because elvish fury is GOOD in sealed, but no real good
cheap creatures like in the other colors.  If there was a rootwala, I might have
played it.

So, on to the report.

I must apologize beforehand because I seem to remember so little about the
tournament.

In the first round I played against Brandon.  He was playing red, green and I
can't remember his other color.  He had some good stuff like fireslinger,
rootbreaker wurm, rootwala, blood frenzy, but he had no shadow creatures.  I
had 4, so he couldn't stop any of them and my mogg fanatics took care of his
fireslinger.  He also got out a mongrel pack, but I aftershocked it, so he
wouldn't get the tokens.  I win 2 games quickly.

Second round, I don't know that I found out his name.  He was playing red,
white and green.  He had some good stuff like winds of rath, searing touch, wall
of diffusion, rootwala, mogg conscripts.  I don't think he had any shadow
either.  The first game I get the dauthi marauder and flickering ward him to
give prot red.  Turns out he ends up drawing winds of rath and searing touch,
but neither can stop the 3 point per turn onslaught.

Second game I throw a turn 4 leeching licid on his wall of diffusion.  I think
it does about 10 points of damage to him.  He casts winds of rath to stop my
shadow creatures, but that doesn't get rid of either the wall or the licid.  I
end up kindling him to death.

3rd round, I play Art, a good friend of mine.  He is playing black, white and
green.  The first game he elects to play.  He lays no land.  He says go.  I
start thinking if there are "lotus vale like" lands in tempest.  He has me
baffled.  I lay a mogg raider.  He goes again and discards the enchantment
killing griffon.  I lay a dauthi horror I think and attack for 1.  Art goes,
lays a swamp and casts reanimate on the griffon.  And takes 4 damage.  I can't
believe he played for that strategy if he didn't have something big in his hand,
or at least a cheap heavy like rootwala or something.  Anyway, that gets
kindled, I start hitting for 3.  Game is over soon.

Second game he made another crucial mistake.  I get a clot sliver.  He lays a
metallic sliver and a mindwhip sliver.  The mindwhip sliver was his mistake
because he had cast disturbed burial with the buyback, and I waited until he had
one card in his hand and made him discard it by saccing my sliver.  Then I
killed his slivers and used my disturbed burial to get my clot sliver back.  The
fact that I had a disturbed burial and he didn't made all the difference from
then on.  In this game I also rain of teared a forest because of rootwala, and
it kept him from casting overrun, which he showed me.

4th round I play Chris, and I definitely thought Chris was going to win the
tournament.  He had an obscence amount of red black white creature control.  His
quote, "I was only going to play red white, but i thought I would splash black
for the 3 diabolic edicts and a dark banishing."  BUt it didn't stop there.
rolling thunder, repentance, aftershock, fireslinger, 2 master decoy, searing
touch.

1st game I get crushed by 4th turn spirit mirror, 5th turn safeguard.  I got out
a coiled tinviper but couldn't block the mirror tokens because of safeguard.  I
draw nothing that doesn't get searing touched away immediately.  I get a knight
of dusk with a flickering ward for white and he edicts it.  (Does flickering
ward have errata not to destroy itself if prot white is given?  I was the only
one who picked up on it, and it wasn't until later)

2nd game, was all about my weenie rush.  1st turn mogg raider, 2nd turn
fireslinger, 3rd turn knight of dusk.  I follow it up with another creature, but
he can only rolling thunder one.  I win.

3rd game was a long drawn out struggle in which I hold 7 black cards with no
black mana and he is holding an equal number of white cards.  I finally get a
salt flats, and he gets a no plains.  I ritual out a huge dregs of sorrow to
kill 3 of his creatures, and next turn he gets a plains and I get a swamp and
rain of tears it.  I start folling this up with 2 creatures a turn, but he has a
coffin queen which is really annoying.  Finally I make a rush, he coffin queens
my watchdog, but I banish it before blocking is declared and he takes a beating.
 Next turn I finish him off.

Now, the tournament should have been over, but because of another round, I at
4-0 end up playing a guy who is 2-2.  I win easily the first game.  I get 2
nonshadow creatures, he gets 2 shadows.  I follow this up with wall of diffusion
and cop shadow and he concedes.  Hw was playing white black blue I think.

Second game was all about my dauthi marauder and he gets no shadow.  I expect
him to have a capsize, so I rain of tears one of his 2 islands, and no capsize
on it.  Turns out he has 2 in his deck as my marauder finishes him.

Into the semis, I play Art again, and I beat him again, the first game using
the leeching licid block and bounce back on trick, the second he would have
overrun me had it not been for rain of tears on his forest again.

Brandon managed to beat Chris in the other bracket after a marathon match.

I play Brandon and he offers to split the prize and I say no, and he crushes me
the first game.  Then in the second and third his lack of shadow makes him pay
as I get all my black shadow creatures out and start hitting him for 7 a turn.
This game I wisely held back my fanatic, and he laid a fireslinger and I laid my
fanatic and killed it.  I think that was the difference.

3rd game, I remember jumping all over him very quickly as he is a little mana
screwed.  Still, I don't care because I finished 2nd here in 2 consecutive
tournaments, so it felt good to win one for a change.

Well, that is the news.

comments.

dregs of sorrow (i got it in the prerelease and got it again) is huge in the
middle game.  I was also fortunate enough to get a dark ritual with it as well.

Even though I have played 14 rounds of swiss with a cop red and an aftershock
(got both of those in the prerelease as well) I have never had an opportunity to
cop the aftershock damage.

overrun looks good, but is really hard to cast.

marsh lurker is very big, and knight of dusk is a monster if you can get him
going.  Leeching licid singlehandedly won me games.

I never really got distured burial going yesterday, but I did at the prerelease
and it can be pretty sweet.  quickening licid was good, but not as good as
leeching licid. cop shadow and cop red deserve to be standard.  flickering ward
was pretty good, but don't cast it unless you have the mana to bounce it.

wildcat was very effective, but I never saw it.  after shock is good, but only
if you are in control.  When rootwala has hit you twice already, it sucks to
have to pay 3 life to kill it.  flowstone salamander I got out once.  It is al
little pricey, but effective if you have the mana.  fanatics as always very
effective, especially with disturbed burial.

thats it,