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 Shu's Clues
by
Chris "Taco" Shumack Diddy Prince
With not much else to do on a Tuesday night, I decided that
writing this out on paper would once again "save time". I've got lots
on my mind right now, and I don't quite know where to start. My tournament
report isn't first, for starters. Ah, I know! Incoherent babble and whatnot: As
much as I enjoy the Casey's tournament scene, I refuse to vote for tournaments
every 2 weeks. One reason being that I actually enjoy regular (and uncrowded)
days down at Casey's more. Every 3 weeks would be pushing it, but that would be
a helluva lot better than 2 weeks apart. Another reason is that it doesn't allow
for much decktesting time in between (not like I play anyways). A flood of
tournaments is not what we need. Oh, and throughout this article, or any other
for that matter, do not be a pussy and skim through any articles. Just making
sure I have your attention, and if you are reading any of mine, just pretend you
can hear me saying what is typed, that way it will help your understanding of my
rambling.
Motivate people to come down! Despite that exclamation point, thats a command.
We could easily have 20 person tournaments if the people knew about them. Tell
people about the website as well. Thats what its there for. No, I'm not the
moderator or anything like that, but I find it stupid to hold back and keep the
site to ourselves. There is a possibility to expand this site into something
rather impressive, ranging from deck help and construction (if needed), to
something like a humor page or trading area. Theres a lot o' potential, and you
guys should realize it.
Thats just a "skoatch" of whats on my mind concerning Magic as of
late, but thats not all! In my next article, I'll expand more onto my thoughts
of the game and what I perceive it as, and even tell you readers more about
myself (since my posts and other articles probably leave you frightened and in
cold sweats), something of which I haven't done yet. You'll learn stuff about me
that you may not give half a shit about, and stuff that many friends and family
members don't know ( nothing bad, don't worry ), but I won't delve into that
shit now.
I got some more random side notes for you: A while back, before I really got
into Magic, Inquest ( the gaming magazine I hope you've heard of) rated each of
the colors. Mind you, that was 5 or so years ago, so things have
changed......considerably. They rated them in the way I did in my last article-
Metagame, Metagame, Metagame, but with grades (A,B,C,D, and F) instead of
numbers. The order was, from first to last: White. White, at the time, was the
shit. Wrath of God. Armageddon. Swords to Plowshares. Disenchant. Huge cards for
a long time. And over time, those cards, with the exception of Swords, seemed to
slowly become less and less useful as the decks changed and more sets were
added. 2nd place belonged to Black. Who doesn't like Hymn to Tourach and
Hypnotic Specter on the first turn? Your opponents? Necropotence, Drain Life,
Dark Ritual, and a plethora of other power cards allowed Black to swell up and
become very lopsided in its favor. That sounded gross. Just read it again!
Anyways, the slow color, the one few enjoy seeing, took 3rd. Blue was slow, but
it seemed to have enough power to make up for it. Counterspell. Force of Will.
Control Magic. Braingeyser. If those aren't annoying in combination, I don't
know what is. Perhaps the 4th place color's cards. Red had Lightning Bolt,
Earthquake, and Incinerate, but the was just the tip of
the......Red.....iceberg. It was pretty fast, but it lacked in comeback power (
with the exception of topdecking burn ), or control for that matter. Its pretty
bad when I look back and see that people actually feared Shivan Dragons and
Balduvian Hordes, but thats how it was. Poor, poor ol' Green. Llanowar Elves,
Birds of Paradise, Sylvan Library, and Erhnam Djinn just don't have great
synergy together. It had the most speed, but what to speed up? Force of Nature
perhaps? Not too much else and I can't help but agree with them. However, with
time having taken its toll on the game, people realized that counters and card
draw are great, and that a speedy blitz means game win, or that heavy discard
and hand replenishing is a snap. White had none of those-speed, hand
destruction, or many great ways to catch up once it lost momentum. It could
Wrath of God for great card advantage, and only lose turns later to being burned
out or having more creatures played the following turns because they knew Wrath
was coming. With so many decks that don't fear it, why play it? The same can be
said for Armageddon. The lack of goodness in those 2 cards alone were enough to
make people lose interest in and think twice about playing white. In my opinion
( and mind you, I'm not easily swayed by other's opinions ), is that White takes
last place nowadays. It may have been "the shit" before, but now it
really is the cream of the shit crop. (another side note: this is my
generalization of all the bigger formats, but mostly of extended) Like I said,
White lost tons of power, especially with the rotation of Swords to Plowshares.
Pretty pathetic, huh? I personally have never really respected White ( yes, I
have played White Weenie several times ) because it doesn't seem to have that
momentum, that "umph" that I look for. But still, White, as a whole,
is bad. Don't argue, just look at the facts. Next up, taking 4th place, is Sligh.
Oops. I mean Red. It gets to you, ya know? When I think Red, I think very little
other than a brainless deck dubbed Sligh. I certainly know the power that is Red
indeed, but it lacks the "umph". 3rd place ( once again, in my opinion
) goes to Black. It has lots of good and very playable cards, but oftentimes has
a weakness if played on its own ( i.e. Reanimator, Suicide Black, etc. ).
Discard, creature destruction, evasion, reanimation-it all adds up, but so does
the hate. What it lacks in some categories, it more than makes up for them in
nearly everything else. Enough with that. Obviously the top 2 colors remaining
are Green and Blue, which is quite strange compared to years ago. Green got so
much over time-power enchantments, fast fat creatures, very fast little ones,
stall spells, crazy mana, and the list could go on, but if its one thing I've
noticed, it would be the overall efficiency of most of the creatures. For
example, as an overall view, lets take a look at the top Extended decks of the
season at one time: The Rock, Psychatog, Red Deck Wins, U/G Madness, and
Turboland. There are various others, but look at the decks card for card. The
Rock is primarily Green, with powerful Black control cards. Psychatog is
primarily Blue with maybe a few Black cards. U/G Madness is obviously heavily
Blue and Green. Turboland has more than enough of both previous colors to add to
the mix. That makes Blue and Green huuuuuge. I don't doubt Black's importance in
the season, but it seemed that the same cards were used repeatedly in the decks
that have it ( Cabal Therapy, Duress, Smother, and perhaps Edicts and Vampiric
Tutor ). Red was somewhat mild, but it at least has a show in more than one
deck, unlike White. One deck for White, you ask? Pretty much. Oh! Did you really
want me to include Turboath, too? Ok! More Blue and Green for you. Satisfied?
No? Then go kill yourself 'cause I'm done with that anyways. In a faster and
easier to read way, the comparison between the years:
1997 era 5th- Green 2002'ish
era 5th- White
4th- Red 4th-
Red
3rd- Blue 3rd- Black
2nd-Black
2nd- Green
1st-
White 1st- Blue
Thats quite a big difference. It looks like the old "stats" were out
in a Boggle dome ( the one that you shake up and mix around ) and jumbled around
a lot. A complete reversal for White, a jump up of 2 for Blue, a fall back 1 for
Black, and a whopping 3 moves up for Green. Red just sat there like a fat baby.
Thats my opinion ( a cross of facts and feelings ) of what I believe the power
each color has.
Now, finally, I know, on to what I played on our "Valentine's Day"
tournament on February 15th, 2003, and what happened throughout the day. But
first ( this will become habitual for me ), me deck analysis and briefing on it.
( On a huuuge side note: For many a year now, Casey's has a reputation for the
oddball deck to have an impact, while oftentimes pushing the bigger, more
popular, and probably better decks out of the way. I've seen lots of the big
decks sitting on the bottom brackets, but that doesn't always happen, and I
guess it shouldn't. I would like to say that the best deck should win, but then
I'd kick myself. Nay, may the better ( and perhaps luckier for the day ) man
win.
Alrighty, Kran Sliver Queemo ( inside joke and a long story, so I'll make it
short by not telling you, hehe ), my deck, dubbed Shu's Clues, or Mono
Blue/Black Control, tee hee. Its a Blue based heavy control deck with Black for
creature destruction and a more versatile sideboard. Its got a considerable
amount of card draw, a nice array of counters, lots of variety, and some
questionable cards ( the
I-don't-give-a-fuck-if-you-disagree-with-them-or-not-kind-of-cards , but mostly,
hope. You will most likely notice the lack of kill cards in the deck, but I'll
do the playin' and you do the noticin'.
The list ( and reasons for use ):
4 Counterspell- I haven't seen a better counter printed ( in my opinion....again
) than this in a while. This is my must have in the deck. The "10" if you
will. So basic, yet so damn good.
4 Memory Lapse- Yes! You can read, and you read Memory Lapse. It's horribly
overlooked and underrated. Some players think too quickly and claim it sucks
because it lets them cast that spell again. Well no shit! It sets them back just
enough for me to consider this a good, and yes, quite playable card. ( on the
plus side, its unexpected and rather annoying )
3 Fact or Fiction- You should know the motions when this card is played. Reveal
5 cards. Split into 2 piles. Someone weeps. Card advantage has shown itself to
be perhaps the best way to overcome obstacles. This is the card to do that for
you. 1 remains in my sideboard for my next card. My preciousssss.
2 Cunning Wish- While I believe this to be the best and most powerful of the
wishes, it isn't my favorite in terms of coolness. I like Living Wish
considerably more, but this has shown me lots of potential from Judgment on.
With 9 versatile SB cards, these can be game-breakers.
2 Force Spike- Another less than spectacular counter, is gold in the right
matchups, but in others, its bronze. Hee-hee ho haw ho haw! Just like the
Olympics. Remember, its Caseys after all.
3 Brainstorm- I took time off from this card, and for somewhat good reasons. In
the older days of Draw-Go, these were "a must", but I looked to cards
that did something instead. I "must" have these with my multiple
"one-of's" in combination with my fetchlands. Against Duress and Cabal
Therapy, these are really quite good. Consistency is always a nice boost as
well.
4 Accumulated Knowledge- These have received much play from me. They help with
land drops that I don't want to miss. I mentioned this card before in another
article, and how I hate how game-breaking it can be when both players have them.
The 1st one isn't amazing, but the 2nd becomes an Inspiration for 2 less, and
thats a good thing you sick bastard.
1 Forbid- Just one, yes. I didn't ever truly appreciate the card, but there are
cards in here you don't mind throwing away to its buyback. It sucks against
counters, is slower than most, is costly, and......well, thats that. I think I
bought it back once in the tourney. Oh well.
1 Mana Leak- Just wanted more counter power, and this is my second best option,
however, just for kicks, I opted for Memory Lapse over these.
1 Miscalculation- Good card. Underplayed. I rarely cycle it, but thats always a
helpful ability, but since its a spicy one-of, I rarely draw it.
1 Whispers of the Muse- I've used these back to when I first started. I was off
my blue kick for quite a while, but this was considered the best card-drawer at
one time. Its pricey, indeed, but it becomes a threat with 8 land and a counter
backup. Not bad overall, and also unexpected. More like unappreciated, but its
because of much better options. Its Caseys motherfuckers!!!
1 Capsize- By now, you've noticed the one-of's, and well milady, this is the
only one that I think is a necessity. If its one thing U/B can't handle, it'd be
permanents that slipped in and you can't deal with. This has helped me recover
soooo much in so many games.
3 Powder Keg- Quite important. Token-killer here has single-handedly wiped the
board clean of annoyances that were oftentimes too fast for Blue. Mass
destruction, card draw, counters. Sound good yet?
4 Diabolic Edict- Simple and effective. This is one of the best commons ever.
Masticore needs to die. Can I regenerate? No, ya fat baby. Morphling is getting
boring and it needs to leave. Untargettable? No, you sorry shit-hole. Speaking
of Masticore and Morphling......
2 Smother ;) - With the "actual" metagame being as it is/was and with
my respect for a Black card that can actually kill most Black creatures, this is
a great addition. Once in a while, and I mean a while, these can be somewhat
dead. Remember Forbid? This is one of the reasons I played with it.
Now, onto what I said I was talking about earlier, here are my 2 creatures.
Arguably 2 greats, 2 Titans in the Magic: The Gathering history books ( don't
try and find these books ) , are of course Morphling and Masticore. I'll
definitely place these on my Top 10 creatures in the game, but I don't care to
argue which is "better" overall. Anywho, I sport one of each.
1 Morphling- Whats that? Up in the sky. Its flying! Its untargettable! Its
pumping itself up and down. I'll stop there. If you've ever seen these played
effectively, this is one of the most feared/hated/respected/loved cards in the
game. Thats why it has such wimpy nicknames like Superman and God.
1 Masticore- Mr. "I Ate My Weenies This Morning" here is super-powered
against nearly all creature based decks. It does single-handedly win board
advantage and games for you. Don't mind the drawback too much, its other 2 great
abilities make up for it. On average, he can take away 5 cards of yours. Why? Oh
I'd say for the 10 or so creatures he killed ( and the pissed look on you
opponent's face ).
Well, those are the spells. It does add up to 38, which is frowned upon by most
control players. I'd say its great as is, mostly because you've never tested it,
and I have several hundred times. Card draw gets you land. Knowledges,
Brainstorms, the Whispers, etc. I don't have problems with my land 95% of the
time. Anyhoots, my land:
4 Polluted Delta- Most necessary. The 1 life won't matter at all if you're in
control of the game. Great with Brainstorm.
9 Island- Most every game, I see at least 5 of these, and in longer games, I'll
see them all.
4 Swamp- With only 6 black cards maindeck, this may seem unnecessary with the
fetchlands and all, but I do like drawing at least 1. This allows for painless
black, which, too, is a good thing.
2 Underground River- 2? Yes. I only have 2, firstly. I took 1 pain all day, so
that says that even these aren't that important.
1 Dust Bowl- Just powerful enough, but most of the time, it just sits there,
producing mana from time to time. With my land draws as smoothed out as they
were, these fit nicely.
And, bum bum buuuuuummmm
2 Faerie Conclave- Tru dat to the Conclaves yo'. Seriously though. My deck
lacked in kill, and it ended up that I won more games with these than I did with
Morphling and Masticore. Wowzers. Since there is a severe lack of Wasteland,
Dust Bowl, and land destruction floating around, these are actually very good.
Well, in a more readable way, the deck and sideboard:
4 Polluted Delta
9 Island
4 Swamp
2 Underground River
2 Faerie Conclave
1 Dust Bowl
2 Smother
4 Diabolic Edict
1 Whispers of the Muse
1 Mana Leak
1 Miscalculation
1 Morphling
1 Capsize
1 Forbid
3 Fact or Fiction
4 Counterspell
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Memory Lapse
2 Cunning Wish
3 Brainstorm
2 Force Spike
3 Powder Keg
1 Masticore
SB
1 FOIL Dominate (teehee, very good for the day)
1 Submerge (ok)
1 Capsize (ok)
1 Teferi's Response (useless)
1 Repulse (bad)
3 Chill (useless)
1 Slay (bad)
1 Morphling (pointless)
1 Masticore (pretty good)
2 Smother (great)
1 Powder Keg(pretty good)
1 Fact or Fiction (powerful enough)
Well, thats the deck. Its good and all, and I'm happy it worked out for me, but
notice where I failed....miserably. Since I made it a last minute decision to
play this, I scraped up that scrubby looking thing I called a sideboard. I
should've spent more than 35 seconds making it. Damn. That seems to happen all
too often with me. Unpreparedness. So many cards in the board sucked ass and
weren't even touched. Crap, crap, ok, and crap. Thats what I was thinking when
I'd Cunning Wish. If you want to be an asshole and say this is something I
copied, or that its Psychatog without Psychatogs, think again. There is only so
much you can do with Edicts, Smothers, and lots of Blue cards, I know, but this
is off so much from most decklists. Would you rather have me win with my own
creation, or something I copied? Anyfuck, on to the tournament scene. Finally, I
know, I'm gasping myself. This is the generalization of what I could sum up from
my viewpoint:
(I title some of the decks)
Chris Talbert- an older player who recently got back in the game, I thought this
was cool to see, you know, someone else getting back in, he was sporting
"Cocoa Rebels", a rebel deck with Eladamri's Vineyards and various
control cards and creatures.
Cory Helvick- a regular, a regular stick figure that is. Ahahahaha. Anyways, the
skinny bastard was playing Tinker.
Sean ????- a guy that goes to Knox that I really didn't get to talk to or play,
but he was apparently playing R/U/W with Lightning Angels, Meddling Mages, and
other good gold cards, sorry, lack of info on this guy, but was pretty cool
though
Rudy Martinez- a mysterious Spaniard who was granted god-like nuclear powers by
traveling to the earth's core, to hell and back......that might be a cool story
for somebody to write, but I played Rudy, and hes a lowly Mexican, you should
know what he plays if you read any articles, a nifty B/U/R Psychatog with
Terminates and other goodies, and I secretly know my deck is pretty good against
him
Eric Hoffman- a long time player who seems to be kicking back in recent
tournaments ;) , he tried Suicide Black again, hoping to spur a
change in momentum from his previous performance.
Paul Wang- an Asian wannabe, oh never mind, he is Asian, and thats intimidating,
however, him being 14 doesn't scare me that much, he says that the Chinese
invented all kinds of stuff: stuff like the compass and fireworks, wow, I bet
they invented love, life, and time too, huh Paul? Well it was in America the
fortune cookie was invented, so ha! Now who's the bitch? He played mono-Black
creature kill
Adam Whitlatch- you know who he is at least, he runs the site, he has a laptop,
it is useful, he was playing Turboland, Zvi Mouseshit probably let him borrow
it, and I knew this wouldn't be my stronger matchup
Destan Hoots- the loudest one, you'd know him if you were ever at Casey's
before, he has a deck I dubbed "Don't Call Me Rock", yet I see 6-8
cards different, oh well, his is at least a more aggressive, and hence, faster
version of your regular run o' the mill Rock
Andrew Whitlatch- we play quite a bit, we usually play fast games which is
always a plus, however, they can be topsy-turvy in either's favor for most of
the game, I anticipated he'd play green, perhaps with Elves and whatsuch, but I
guess everybody did, its because hes Elfdrew Whitlatch, he has a Green deck of
Elves and efficiency: Ravenous Baloths, Call of the Herds, and other goodies,
and I wasn't sure of this matchup
Zach Totten- his nickname is Ratcock, but thats all I really know about this
guy/beast ;) , except where he lives, his family,
his personality, his choice of music, his smells, etc., he had White Weenie with
Blue for Meddling Mages, just check Andrew's article
for a decklist if you wanna
and of course, me, the Taco Prince- long story about that nickname, and to make
it short, I will never....ever tell you, unless you ask that is-with Shu's Clues
After starting rather late, we managed an 11 person showup after that shit
snowstorm thingy we got. I had been up since 3 A.M., so I was .......excited.
Hurray. The pairings go up, but I go upstairs to piss, only to find my Elven
opponent whence I returned. Like I said, Andrew and I play a lot. We roll the
die as I mutter "Well, here goes the losing streak". Good God
Gertrude!!! I start off with a winning roll! That is phenomenal for me. It
raised my alertness level ( it really did ), and I was ready for a well played
gamed. I get a decent hand, and he shows his to his brother, Adam, playing
behind him. "Why can't I get hands like this against you?" he asked.
This made me think. That being said, I figured he had at least 2 Elvish Lyrists.
I could always use a hint. Thanks Elfdrew. I lay lands and play Accumulated
Knowledges while he gets disgusting with a Call of the Herd token, Rofellos,
Priest of Titania, and Gaea's Cradle. I get to play around with more card draw
and see a couple Powder Kegs and the Masticore, along with Smother. I go from 20
to 17, 12, and then 11. I end up Smothering an attacking Rofellos after reading
his mana availability for that anxious Uktabi Orangutan he Living Wished for.
Keg sets me up for a protected Masticore. I quickly, but not for sure, start to
take the board from him. I get nasty with "Masty", and he calls it is
an "honorable defeat". He had 3 Lyrists in the end. Well, that went
well. I just hope in the next game I don't have to search like a madman for a
Masticore.
I side in a Masticore, a Keg, and the Smothers
Out goes an Edict, the Whispers, a Fact or Fiction, and the Forbid
Even after siding out and Edict, I manage to draw the remaining 3 opening hand!
So much for pile shuffling twice. It really does suck, since hes going first,
meaning my Edicts are slow, and he'll have an edge on tempo, especially with
Call of the Herd. The Kegs show up for me though, along with Masticore, so I
knew late game I could do it, I'd just have to survive til' then. This game
wasn't as diverse. I get land, he gets a Masticore. While I don't have many
options, I decide to play my 'Core in defense. I was whittled down to 4 this
game, but then we have fun with our Masticores for a while (he attacks and I
block....we both regenerate.....wowzers), but I feel confident since I have 2
Knowledges in my graveyard, and I hadn't yet seen a Wish or a Fact or Fiction.
With card draw, it was only a matter of time before I got a Capsize to reset the
game for him. He figured out after about 20 seconds of deep thought that he
couldn't possibly pull back. Okay then! I go 2-0. We finished with lots of time
left, but I don't bother to scout, somewhat because of I have a strong feeling
of what everyone is playing, even Zach, who played Mr. Bye right next to me. I
could always use another hint on what people are playing. I didn't really scout
otherwise, more of a reason is because I don't really care.
games 2-0 matches 1-0
Next up is Destan Hoots. I am very aware of what he is playing. This next thing
was amazing. Seriously, no joke, I won the die roll!!! Holy cow! Seemed to be my
day. The first game wasn't exactly hardcore. I Memory Lapse multiple Duress, and
he takes pain from Llanowar Wastes for whatever Black he uses. I lose 2 life to
fetchlands and then take a few hits from River Boa (yes, I let him resolve,
remember, I have Edicts and Smothers in here). I eventually end up Cunning
Wishing for my FOIL Dominate and take the Boa and stabilize at 12. The next Fact
or Fiction basically sealed the deal, revealing 2 Diabolic Edicts, 2 Accumulated
Knowledge, and a Cunning Wish. He tries to resolve Deed after Deed, but Faerie
Conclave and his ol' pal River Boa end up goin' all the way.
Sideboard?
Nope!
He decides going first is usually better for him (well, duh!). He draws his hand
and then goes "WOW!!", chuckles, wishes me luck and extends his hand,
basically saying it was perfect against me. I like challenges and all, but I
tell him we'll shake hands later. He playes Birds of Paradise and Living Wishes
for Kavu Chameleon. I make note of that on paper and put "LW-Chameleon".
He seems disgruntled and asks what it means. I claim I don't have to tell him.
Still disgruntled, he makes a remark, and I just simply say "What card did
you just play?". He thinks and figures it out (I guess). Anyways, he
eventually gets his Chameleon in play, which is ok I guess since I have Capsize
for it. It gets to be a little "un-okay" when he plays Genesis. I
decide its not worth countering since he'll just catch up on card advantage. He
beats me down to 16, then 12, and 8. By this time I have Capsized with buyback
one of the a turn, hoping to survive long enough to get something that can help
immensely. Time is a runnin' out, but I finally get my Morphling. Things still
look bad for me as people gather around because they're all finished, and they
see me fending off a Chameleon in tandem with Genesis. I, on the otherhand, knew
exactly what would end up happening. He'd actually need to Deed successfully in
order to survive my Edicts, chump block Conclaves, and beating bastard Morphling.
I cave in Destan's groin with 4 swift chops with Supershapeshifter, all that
with about a minute left, all with me knowing yet again how horrible my position
looked to the "bystander". On a funny note, Adam was watching and said
"Genesis is so gay for Blue". I couldn't help but agree, but my mental
thought at the time was "Capsize is so good against Genesis". A
very close and long game, and I go 2-0 without the use of my sideboard.
games 4-0 matches 2-0
The next matchup I wasn't too sure about. Paul "small wang" Wang had a
mono-Black deck capable of annihilating creature decks, but that doesn't mean it
sucks against me. He has Phyrexian Arenas to make things worse, and if I don't
have counters for them, things will get very rough. We sit down and roll the
die. This time I lose the roll, which makes me a little paranoid: if he runs
Duress, he could easily protect an Arena, and thats bad fool. However, he opts
for Festering Goblins instead, and that means I'll actually have to bother
killing it. I go down to 11 from it and fetchlands, which is gay, but by this
time I have lots of land and counters, which is what happens when he only plays
Phyrexian Arena for the rest of the game. I end up Cunning Wishing for Dominate
and end up taking his Goblin, while his Arena gets Capsized with buyback around
15 turns in a row. He bothers with killing his once loyal Goblin cronie with a
Chainer's Edict, but I make good use of my Faerie Conclave and it goes all the
way. Strangely enough, he doesn't draw a Diabolic Edict, and I don't worry about
countering anything else. That only took about HALF AN HOUR!!! I thought we'd
have time to finish if I'd put in my creatures from the sideboard.
In come Fof, Morphling, Masticore
Out go 2 Smother and an Edict
Nothing spectacular 2nd game either. He Corrupts me once for 6, and that was a
highlight! I couldn't do much on a 1 land hand and 1 counter that game. It
happens. We actually don't get to finish, which is a strange feeling, being as
I've never had that happen to me before. I have always finished at least 2 games
in a match...until then. I'll take a match win any day, however.
games 5-0 matches 3-0
With myself sitting as top seed, and Adam and Rudy not too far behind, I knew it
was either of them I'd meet 4th round. I get Adam, however, and I know this
isn't exactly going to be a fun match, but really, none of our matches ever are.
We start a bit late since, Zach, Chris T., and I went to Mickey D's, but ended
up taking more time than we should have. Not my fault, but whatever. He wins the
roll and goes first. "This is the perfect hand against not you" is
what he tells me. It had to be better than my 1 land, double Smother hand, but I
keep in hopes that I get a fetchland to throw away those gross cards. It happens
that way as I Brainstorm into 3 land, 2 of which are fetchy wetchies. He got
crazy with Exploration and Oath of Druids while I smirk at both creatures in my
hand. Oath still sucks for me, since my only way around those are Conclaves and
Capsize. Whats worse is he has 2!!! We have little minor counter fights over
random shit, but since I outcounter him, I resolve a pretty good Fof, revealing
3 out of 4 kill cards: 2 Faerie Conclave, 2 Island, and the Morphling I had
previously BS'ed on top. The split isn't easy, but he splits the Faeries from
the other 3. I go the Faerie route. I then get busy with the manly lands whilst
he looks for a way out and hopes for less land and less relying on Moments
Peace. He should really have 7 or 8 Scroll Racks in there. Nee har
har. Goola goola hee clee clee. Not an amazing or drastic game, but it went
better than I'd figured. I knew his SB could help quite a bit, and since he
sided out 14 cards, I knew the Ravenous Baloths were coming in.
Out go the Smothers
In come a Capsize and a Fact or Fiction
Not much I could do with that shit sideboard anyways. I have to mulligan away a
no lander ( I had 4 one land hands that day, just so you know ) . I manage a
shit 6 card hand and he makes me Edict and counter his attempts at a Baloth
beatdown. I run out of countersteam apparently, only seeing 3 counters in the
top 25 cards of my library. He gets going, and Sunders at one point, and I draw
3 land and 2 Fofs in a row afterwards while he "successfully goes
off". I make him kill me with his Scrounger as a hopes we wouldn't finish
our next game. With about 5 minutes left, we decide its best not to play it out.
We draw 1-1-1, and thats fine for me.
games 6-1 matches 3-0-1
My chances at 1st were almost secure, as I knew Rudy was a comin' my way. I
didn't know he was even tied with me, so we had to play it out, and thats how I
would have rather had it. I make sure I know what hes playing by seeing him
shuffle. Seeing Psychatog was enough for me, teehee. I lose the roll ( I jinxed
myself,damn it all, by saying I was winning at die rolls ) and he goes first.
Not good. However, he double mulligans and that raises my confidence tenfold,
but little did I know that this would be the closest of our games we've had. I'm
automatically up 3 cards!!! That can't be too good for him, but as he
successfully has all the right counters for my stuff and all his Fof's at the
right time, he manages to catch up on cards!!! That sucks royal ass. He makes
this such a long game and I pretend my Powder Kegs mean something and he rids
them quickly. I build up on land, with Smother, 2 Counterspell, and 2 Diabolic
Edicts in hand. As he whittles away at his library, I counter or kill Psychatog
after Psychatog and put him in a position where there was no possible chance of
winning, i.e. Cunning Wishing for Corpse Dance, or Upheavaling because his
multiple Gushes and maybe a Thwart set him back a tad too far. To makes things
worse, my Dust Bowl is also taking his Sulfurous Springs and other nonbasics, if
any. He ends up conceding with about 4 or 5 cards left in his library. Such a
long, dramatic, drawn out game for a double mulligan. He put up on hell of a
fight.
In go 2 Smother and a Fof
Out come a Keg, Whispers, and Capsize
Not much I can do except make things harder on Psychatog. We both keep our hands
this time, and I manage to plop out the lands I need while drawing all the
counters, elimination, and card draw I could possibly need. Time runs out
slowly, and I have a bit of fun with 3 Edicts and a Smother in my hand as a
shield against his attempts. This puts me with a matchwin and a
tourney win. Cool enough. $30 in store credit is a good
thing, so I go upstairs and get nine Onslaught packs, because I refuse to get
Legions at all. To my dismay, I am shown only two decent rares and
several shit ones. Rat's assshole. Why do I have such bad
luck with packs? Oh well. I don't even know why I care so
much anyways. Adam got 2nd, Rudy 3rd, and Paul "mono-black"
Wang took 4th place. Nice job Paul. My games ended up
7-1-3 with matches at 4-0-1, the same record I got at the Extended Tourney in
Chicago, but I didn't woirry on gettting fucked over at opponent match win this
time. We could have had a bigger tournament, but I'm amazed we had
that good a showup. As with anything I do for an article, it has to
have some from of stupidity of confusion. I know, What you just read
was bullshit. Yes. I lied. But to which pard
did I not tell you I lied to. Or didn't I not lie? You
should know if I'm telling pork pies and a bag of trout, you sick fuck. I'm
sorry. Here are my "childish" props and slops.....yo'.
Props:
-having slops.
-that's it
-really
Slops:
-loud things at a tournament
-crowdedness
-dirty tables
-horrible smells
-smelly Mechwarrior people
-the smells presented from the Mechwarrior area
-Mechwarrior
-lack of props to put
Recent "silly-billy" quotes:
"You didn't know Eric was gay?!" -Adam to Destan
"That's why we don't call him Frosh anymore" -me to Destan
At Subway on Saturday, I didn't want to buy a drink, so I grabbed a cup out of the trash and
dumped the remainders out and filled it with Pepsi at the fountain.
"I don't remember you buying a drink, Chris." -Adam, with the intent
of drawing attention from the Subway employees.
"I didn't. I dug it out of the trash!" -me, loud and clear
"Even male models can't not die in a freak gasoline fight accident." -
Ben Stiller in Zoolander
"Ever hear of a guy named Julius Caesar?" -my dad to me
"No, you stupid fucking queer!" - my response
"You may have noticed I put a lot of quotes from myself in here" -me
"Alrighty, Quee!" -Zach, Ratcock Totten
"Hahahahahahaha.....hahahahahahahahahahaah, - Eric, all the fucking time, -
hahahahah......hahahahahahaha"
"I'm not going to watch any of the Lord of the Rings movies until they all
come out 'cause my friend told me not to." - random dumb chick at the
Laundromat.
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