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As the Day "Draw"s to a Close
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Chris: Chris was playing a little deck I like to call Mono-U/B control. Playing against it is pretty much the same as Mono Blue, except there are a few creature elimination spells mixed in. Either way, it’s slow, and control - not exactly something with which I wanted to get mixed up. Rudy: Cast Psychatog Cast Psychatog Cast Psychatog. Yes, Rudy was playing good ol’ U/B/R Psychatog. This is a little faster than Chris’s deck, and has the potential of “going off.” To me, it’s a much greater threat. The adding of red isn’t something I agree with, but, hey, who am I to criticize? Cory: Tinker, eh? Yeah, we all know what it is. Play some artifacts, blah, blah, blah. Get some huge creatures, blah, blah, blah. Get the right tools you need with Tinker, blah, blah, blah. Swing……and a miss. Paul: I hear he had Corrupt in his deck. I saw him holding Mutilate, Faceless Butcher, Chainer’s Edict, Snuff Out, and Smother. Removal anyone? I never got to see what his eventual kill was other than Guiltfeeder, but I know that the deck was basically MBC - not Masques Block Constructed you sick shit, Mono Black Control. Eric: Suicide Black. Play black guys and attack. I figure it all comes down to the draw against me. Against other control decks, yeah, it’s got game. It sucks against red, which is almost nonexistent around here, but IMHO it’s still tier 2. Zach: White Weenie. Yes, it uses Blue. So, how bad can it be, right? Kinda janky, but it’s got a chance. Unfortunately, it’s best against decks that simply weren’t present - Reanimator and Coggie Oath. Andrew: HAHAHAHA……do I even have to say?…well, just look HERE and…..HERE… if that’s not enough, I’ll just tell you. Yes, Andrew played elves. Get mana, cast threat, cast threat, cast threat…hope you’re dead. Yeah, I think elves are cute. Especially those girl ones on cards like Seedtime…ooh yeah, she’s sweet…I hope you didn’t expect something constructive from me about elves, cause you aren’t getting a damn thing. Destan: The Rock. This deck should be called the Sponge. And this isn’t just because of Sponge Bob SquarePants SucksCock DildoAss doll Destan brought along. It should be called that cause it’s so easy to squish and because you’ll need it to mop up all your own blood after you get the shit kicked out of you for even playing it. Ok, so maybe I don’t give this midrange control deck enough credit. But seriously, what does the Rock do other than win slowly, if at all? Talby: Hmm, more White Weenie. And just like real life, the White Weenie decks outnumber the black ones. This White Weenie features Eladamri’s Vineyard, however, hoping to establish a nice Rebel chain. Sean: He’s playing a R/W/B Lighting Angel deck. It had Goblin Legionnaire and Squee’s Embrace. The Angel can be a beating with the Embrace. I wish I got to see more of the cards in the deck, but the only other ones I can remember off the top of my head are Jilt and Repulse. And finally, without further ado, I present to you, the deck I played, an unkillable archetype (at least until another rotation), the child of Zvi Mowshowitz himself, the one, the only, TURBOLAND!!! Main: I’m pretty happy with the deck. I felt confident going in, and I’d play the deck again. The Future Sight main deck is kind of weird looking, but as you’ll see, it helped me in more than one situation. I didn’t feel the third Time Warp was needed; they ended up sided out so often anyway. The sideboard had a little room to play with. But I’m pretty damn happy with it too. I sided every card in at least once. Powder Keg is good, but I still think three might be overkill. It’s a terrific card, but having too many can be inhibitive towards your goals of playing your combo pieces and keeping them on the board. Mostly, though, the SB is designed to shift the deck into an anti-control stance. But that’s enough of my rambling, on to the tournament report. *Pregame Note* If you notice the term “escape” used, it is to be read as “went off.” That is, when one escapes with Turboland, they’re usually under pressure and manage to go off and get the “infinite turns” combo going, one way or another. Round 1: Rudy Martinez It’s been awhile since Rudy and I have had to play first round. However, we’re accustomed to playing each other in tournaments, it usually happens. I knew Rudy was playing Tog, and to be honest, my knowledge of the matchup and my noting of Rudy’s increased skill level as of late make me a little more nervous about the games than I should be. Rudy’s been proving he can compete, and him getting better tends to get in the way of my strategy of “just winning.” Game 1: My main deck isn’t built very well to beat Upheaval. However, to Rudy, that plan is secondary. I lead with a Scroll Rack, unfortunately the best card in my hand, and Rudy counters. He Brainstorms and Fetch/Painlands himself down to 11. Eventually, I manage to deal with all of his Togs in hand, and am finally open to use the sole green source of mana I have to cast combo pieces instead of holding on for Moment’s Peace. Unfortunately, he simply Cunning Wishes for Corpse Dance and casts it for the win. Ugh, I lose to a mistake I should not have made. He couldn’t have countered either, so, that’s the worst part, but, such is life, and I reach for the board. I side in the counter magic, Baloths, Powder Kegs, and Sunder. I leave the Accumulated Knowledge engine in, since I “tricked” Rudy into admitting he wasn’t running it too. Game 2: I have a pretty weak hand. The cards are good, but the mana just wasn’t going to work. I try playing out some combo pieces, but Rudy seems to have an abundance of countering options. I get some Kegs out that deal with Psychatog. He Kegs away some more pieces of my combo. By this time though. He’s pressed to find more answers and has to start actually tapping mana to do stuff. I cast and resolve Future Sight…and well, that’s game. Future Sight is just way too good with Exploration, let alone Horn of Greed. Great…no time for game 3. Round 1 DRAW 1-1 vs. Rudy 0-0-1 Overall Round 2: Sean Sean goes to Knox College and I have to respect him since he’s a hawk and pro-War with Iraq. I had no idea what he was playing until I saw him cast his stuff. First game, I get beaten by a few Goblin Legionnaires until I actually cast Oath of Druids and get the combo working. In the end, he seemed amused at my combo and appeared to enjoy the game. I must admit, he’s a much better sport than I am, and probably just enjoys playing Magic. I’d be the first to concede that I’m a bad sport. But playing someone as nice as Sean was, in a word, enjoyable. The only sides were Kegs. Game 2: This time, I actually have a bit to worry about. He’s got a few Squee’s Embraced creatures that are looking less and less innocent. I start using my Moment’s Peace at 12 life and start to escape. He has both Jilt and Repulse to try and disrupt my infinite turn engine, but I happen to be holding two counters and escaping from there wasn’t too hard. 2-0 vs. Sean 1-0-1 Overall Round 3: Andrew I needed to win this match 2-0 to obtain the foil Mistform Skyreaver that Andrew possessed. He agreed that I could get it, tainted with his signature, if I managed someday to sweep him in a tournament. I felt okay about this matchup, but it really depended on how many unchecked Elvish Lyrists he got. I really want Oath if I want to stay in the race. Otherwise, I get really pressed for time. Game 1: What can I say, our hands sucked. I think mine was better than his, but since he took a mulligan, I just couldn’t resist the temptation. He took another one though, too. That’s gotta hurt. Sometimes it’s just way too hard to overcome a starting five card hand. No Lyrists and I get an Oath = bad for him. I board my kegs. Game2: I have a hand with two Oaths. Which, needless to say, is pretty good protection from a Lyrist. However, my hand has nothing in the order of green mana. I do have Scroll Rack, so I say, what the hell, why not? I play it second turn and Andrew takes his third turn, getting a Deranged Hermit. Ugh, a clock. I have two Islands and use one to activate the Rack on my turn. I find no green, but there is a Keg. So, I lay an Island and the Keg to blow the squirrels away. Next turn, Andrew doesn’t pay echo and casts another Hermit, serving with his remaining creatures, taking me to 11. I get the green mana after racking, and another keg. I lay the Oath, and I keg the furry guys again. Andrew, deciding to pay echo, obviously has jack shit in his hand. WooHoo, ten mana for a 1/1. He swings again and I go to three. I get another turn. Oathing some Moment’s Peace into the ‘yard. I peace his damage on his next turn and escape at three life. :D I got my Mistform Skyreaver. 2-0 vs. Andrew 2-0-1 Overall Round 4: Chris I know two things about this matchup. It’s slow and in my favor. Sideboarding, however, is very important. Game 1: I get the PERFECT HAND….if he was playing a creature deck. Exploration, lands, Counterspell backing up an Oath. I keep, although, I probably should have mulligan’d. All I seem to draw the rest of the game are inconsequential spells. Despite the worse than 50% land ratio, I drew multiple Moment’s Peace and Krosan Reclaimation. I was forced to go with the Accumulated Knowledge engine, despite him running it too. But I only got more lands off of it. His Faerie Conclaves make gruelingly slow work of me. Okay, that’s discouraging. Mental note: never keep a hand without some game toward a combo route against control decks. I sideboard everything except the Naturalize. Even the Kegs, cause I want an answer to his Conclaves. I take out the AK engine. It just isn’t as good if he left his in. Also, Oath is sub-par, counter magic is more key. Sunder is an excellent card to bring in. With Exploration, it’s a beating. Game 2: I have a lot of power in my hand, but not enough green to cast the two Baloths sitting there. Eventually, after playing some Keg games and losing one Horn of Greed, I get another green mana. Baloth after Baloth dies, and I’m left with only the Scrounger and the Treetop to try and win this game. I don’t have infinite recursion power without the Scrounger either, since I sided out the second Reclamation. However, he’s pressed for mana as I keep casting threats. With both Horn and Exploration on the table, I succeed in getting a Sunder off. At this point, it would take a lot of recovering on his part. He cant cast card drawing, but it’s not like he needs too, there are plenty of cards in his hand. I get another Exploration and get enough mana to put out Future Sight. That power is hard to compete with, and I escape the hard way, casting things. TIME…Dammit. 1-1 vs. Chris 2-0-2 Overall Round 5: Cory Helvick I have to win this match. If I don’t, I won’t T4. If I do, and Chris wins, he beats me out, Rudy gets third, and I get second. If Rudy wins just reverse Chris’s and Rudy’s position. If they draw, I could either win or get second to Rudy by tiebreakers, with Chris in third. Cory, my opponent, has to win to T4 as well. Game 1: Cory wasn’t too happy with his hand. He said he’d have to wait a turn or so to go off. On his third turn he had two Crystal Veins and an Island. I have two Yavimaya Coasts. He sacs both Veins and goes for Dynamo. I happily take two pain to counter. From there, I slowly set up the pieces and win by casting Scrounger and attacking for three each time, never even having threshold. Game 2: Cory gets a quick Masticore and beings to put me on a clock. I manage to Oath out Scrounger, which he could kill with the ‘core, but he goes for Mishra’s Helix instead. I have to counter, as I have no way out of the lock yet. He then casts processor for 8, putting him to 12. Me, being at 16, have quite a clock. He still could kill the Scrounger, but he’d have to do it on my turn, else I could Oath , recur the Scrounger with Reclamation, and win. Looking at how he played, it seemed like he was making a mistake. But, thinking back, anything he could have done had an out for me. I was holding all of the options, and even though I was at four, it was arbitrary, as he either wasn’t going to get another turn, or he’d tap out to do something fancy and I’d just Moment’s Peace. I have Capsize and plenty of mana, so, I think anything he could have done would have been moot. 2-0 vs. Cory 3-0-2 Overall Well, I didn’t lose a single match. But Chris had more match points than I did. Those two draws just weren’t good enough. I really like Turboland, I personally find it tier 1. It’s interesting to see the lack of U/G Madness this month, however. Especially since so many people can actually play it and have the cards. I still swear Suicide is a bad deck. And that leads me to a discussion that almost got started. What is the best color/most powerful color in the format. Eric’s first reaction was that black had the most powerful cards. While I can’t argue with Duress and Vampiric Tutor and Smother and Diabolic Edict. I really don’t think the way this years format started is accurate. People truly underrated the counter magic available. Just look at PT: Houston. Almost everyone used discard above the counters available. However, as the end of the season grew near, most decks used Circular Logic. The top decks showed signs of being mostly Blue. U/G Madness, Psychatog, even Turboland. Blue still has good counters and contains the best card drawers. The most powerful spell legal (IMO Upheaval) is also blue. The best “creature” Tog is black too, yes. But, the fact is, the deck only runs black cause it has to for him. While they’re at it, they use Smother or Edict. I’m not saying black is bad; I just think that all of blacks strengths rely on card disadvantage - i.e. Entomb or Vampiric Tutor, or are simply proactive discard, which can trade 1 for 1, and doesn’t compliment a control strategy as well as counters do. Obviously, black can support a rush deck a lot better than blue can, but I’ve already stated, I think that Suicide is weak. I’ll spare you further rambling and move on to a little props and slops to finish this month off. Props: Future Sight - I love this card. It wins games, it pull you out of tough situations when trying to escape. This is the deck that I have been looking to play it in. Sean - an all around nice guy. He enjoys playing, even if he’s not winning. I have to respect that, and I hope to see him around more often. War with Iraq - ok, so maybe war isn’t a great thing, but hey, we can’t let the pussy French and Germans tell us what to do, can we? Rudy - for his increased performance while playing and deepening knowledge of the game. Slops: Destan’s whistle - loud, gay. Ear piercing, gay. We should burn his Sponge Bob doll if he does it again. Destan’s Sponge Bob Doll - screw it, let’s burn it anyway. Scheduled to work at 3 - yeah, it sucks. Draws - I swear, I should just always play madness or something. |
Last changed: 08/01/2004 by AMWDirect any questions you may have to awhitlat@knox.edu
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The Valentine’s Extended is done with at Casey’s Party Creations and
another diverse field is presented. While I may not have lost a single match,
victory was just a little out of my grasp after a few iffy hands that lacked the
momentum needed to win - ending instead with my ever favorite, draw. But before
I go any further, let’s see what I can deduce about the different decks