You originally stated that you were considering trying a deck like this for Type 1 and were wondering how it would fair against the current metagame. I was serious with my reply. It wasn't meant to be a joke or even a snide remark, and I think you know that. If that's not what you were asking then I totally missed what you meant by your post in the first place and you can ignore anything I've said.

The first thing you need to figure out is what the metagame is for your area. The metagame is going to be different from one region to the next. Just because Oath is fairing well on the East Coast, it doesn't mean that the local kids have everything they need to make an optimal MeanDeck Oath deck and compete in your area.

How are we supposed to tell you how this deck is going to fair in your metagame? That's what I was going for in my first reply. Find out what your matchups are actually going to be and playtest them. Build the deck and bring it to a tournament. Then, if you still have questions and need input for certain matchups come back and post your results and the concerns that you have with your build. Without anything to work with except a decklist just shows that the effort wasn't there to find out for yourself. I think if you like the deck's design and want to play it then by all means do so. But unless everyone on this message board plays in the same meta, then you'll need to do a lot of the testing yourself. Just because Fish might not be taking tournaments on the East Coast, it doesn't mean they aren't doing it over-seas... because they are.

You can look at a deck and say "Well, it has StP(s) and Seal of Cleansing so it must be good against Oath." And then say, "It has Humility and Moat so it must be good against aggro."

Well, therein lies the problem with what you are asking us here. You want to know how it would fair against the current metagame. You need to build the deck and then test it for yourself. This will give you answers to many of your questions.

1st, it will answer your question as to how the deck would perform. Then before you even ask what to sideboard in certain situations you would already know this from the testing that you have done. I think if you go through this process you will instead be posting your results and how well the deck has done for you. Instead you are just asking us to do the work for you.

-- RESULTS -- 40 People were in attendance for this Tournament. The Structure was 5 rounds with a top 8 playoff.

1 Ojala, Brad
2 Thompson, Gerry
3 Hustad, Jake
4 Zwirn, Jeremy
5 Bauer, Tim
6 DeGraff, I@n
7 Schultz, Joe
8 Hannafin, Matt

-- Deck Lists --

(1st and 2nd in No Particular Order)

MeanDeck Oath - Gerry Thompson

4x Mana Leak
4x Force of Will
4x Mana Drain
4x Brainstorm
4x Accumulated Knowledge
4x Intuition
4x Oath of Druids
4x Forbidden Orchard
1x Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1x Spirit of the Night
1x Gaea's Blessing
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk
2x Echoing Truth
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Sapphire
2x Tropical Island
4x Island
3x Polluted Delta
1x Flooded Strand
4x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine

Sideboard:
3x Ground Seal
3x Energy Flux
1x Pristine Angel
1x Platinum Angel
2x Deep Analysis
2x Crucible of Worlds
3x Back to Basics

MeanDeck Oath - Brad Ojala

4x Mana Leak
4x Force of Will
4x Mana Drain
2x Misdirection
4x Brainstorm
4x Accumulated Knowledge
4x Intuition
2x Impulse
4x Oath of Druids
4x Forbidden Orchard
1x Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1x Spirit of the Night
1x Gaea's Blessing
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Tropical Island
5x Island
4x Flooded Strand
2x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine

Sideboard:
1x Arcane Laboratory
1x Iridescent Angel
1x Platinum Angel
1x Pristine Angel
3x Ground Seal
3x Energy Flux
3x Back to Basics
2x Control Magic

(3rd and 4th in No Particular Order)

RUG Madness - Jake Hustad

4x Wild Mongrel
4x Basking Rootwalla
4x Arrogant Wurm
3x Fiery Temper
3x Roar of the Wurm
2x Violent Eruption
2x Anger
2x Wonder
2x Deep Analysis
1x Wheel of Fortune
1x Windfall
1x Crop Rotation
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk
1x Timetwister
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mana Crypt
1x Lotus Petal
1x Mox Diamond
1x Lion's Eye Diamond
1x Sol Ring
4x Bazaar of Baghdad
3x Wooded Foothills
3x Taiga
2x Volcanic Island
2x Tropical Island
2x Riftstone Portal
1x Strip Mine

Sideboard:
4x Pyrostatic Pillar
4x Artifact Mutation
4x Ray of Revelation
2x Circular Logic
1x Krosan Reclamation

Workshop - Jeremy Zwirn

4x Goblin Welder
4x Thirst for Knowledge
4x Trinisphere
4x Juggernaut
1x Gorilla Shaman
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Tinker
1x Time Walk
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
3x Crucible of Worlds
1x Razormane Masticore
1x Triskelion
1x Sundering Titan
1x Duplicant
1x Fire/Ice
1x Memory Jar
2x Tanglewire
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
4x City of Brass
4x Gemstone Mine
4x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
1x Tolarian Academy
4x Mishra's Workshop

Sideboard:
3x Chalice of the Void
3x Ray of Revelation
2x Red Elemental Blast
2x Rack and Ruin
2x Artifact Mutation
1x Fire/Ice
1x Triskelion
1x Jester's Cap

Workshop - Tim Bauer (5th)

4x Goblin Welder
4x Trinisphere
4x Juggernaut
3x Seal of Cleansing
3x Swords to Plowshares
3x Thirst for Knowledge
3x Crucible of Worlds
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Tinker
1x Duplicant
1x Sundering Titan
1x Platinum Angel
1x Karn, Silver Golem
1x Triskelion
1x Memory Jar
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mana Crypt
1x Sol Ring
1x Tolarian Academy
1x Strip Mine
4x Gemstone Mine
4x City of Brass
4x Wasteland
4x Mishra's Workshop

Sideboard:
3x Rack and Ruin
3x Tormod's Crypt
3x Red Elemental Blast
3x Hydroblast
3x Chalice of the Void

Workshop Combo - I@n DeGraff (6th)

4x Tanglewire
4x Smokestack
4x Metalworker
4x Lodestone Myr
4x Trinisphere
4x Chalice of the Void
3x Staff of Domination
3x Time Vault
3x Crucible of Worlds
3x Well of Knowledge
4x Mishra's Workshop
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Tolarian Academy
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Crypt
1x City of Traitors
4x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
3x Ancient Tomb
2x Rishadan Port

Sideboard:
3x Triskelion
3x Ensnaring Bridge
3x Culling Scales
2x Sphere of Resistance
2x Tormod's Crypt
1x Rishadan Port
1x Icy Manipulator

MeanDeck Oath - Joe Schultz (7th)

4x Mana Leak
4x Counterspell
4x Force of Will
4x Brainstorm
4x Accumulated Knowledge
4x Oath of Druids
4x Forbidden Orchard
1x Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1x Rorix Bladewing
1x Platinum Angel
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk
1x Scroll Rack
1x Gaea's Blessing
1x Tinker
2x Stifle
2x Impulse
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Diamond
4x Flooded Strand
5x Island
2x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
1x Tropical Island
1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All

Sideboard:
3x Damping Matrix
3x Arcane Laboratory
3x Propaganda
3x Back to Basics
2x Energy Flux
1x Iridescent Angel

Workshop - Matt Hannafin (8th)

4x Trinisphere
4x Goblin Welder
4x Juggernaut
4x Thirst for Knowledge
3x Chalice of the Void
2x Crucible of Worlds
2x Tanglewire
1x Tinker
1x Windfall
1x Memory Jar
1x Wheel of Fortune
1x Sundering Titan
1x Mindslaver
1x Masticore
1x Razormane Masticore
1x Darksteel Colossus
1x Duplicant
1x Triskelion
1x Black Lotus
1x Grim Monolith
1x Mana Vault
1x Mana Crypt
1x Sol Ring
4x Volcanic Island
4x Shivan Reef
4x Mishra's Workshop
4x Ancient Tomb
3x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
1x Tolarian Academy

Sideboard:
4x Red Elemental Blast
3x Seal of Removal
2x Rushing River
2x Sphere of Resistance
2x Rack and Ruin
1x Triskelion
1x Mystical Tutor

Rumor has it the boyz from Milwaukee are bringing brand new tech to this tournament.

Was it something they picked up from SCG Chicago??? Or is it something new ?

Tournament Results to come soon after Friday !


Edit: This just in, the boys from Team Charlie in the Box want their respect. Here you go guys, I can't wait to see your tech lol.

Sorry, I wasn't directing the statement to you. It was more of a clarification for people wondering why you would play the card (and deck) in the first place.

I'm not really here to judge what you've brought up, but I think some of the cards you've included just don't make it in Type 1. The idea however is pretty good. Uba Mask + Prison is probably the best way to pull it off in my opinion. Because your opponent will "hopefully" be sitting under the lockdown effects they will be removing vital cards from their deck each turn.

Below is a list thrown together by myself when I was attempting to build somewhat of a turbo-possessed portal deck. Using both Welders and Trash for Treasure allowed for more consistency in getting the Portal into play.

Lockdown:
4x Trinisphere
4x Tanglewire
4x Chalice of the Void
3x Smokestack
3x Uba Mask
2x Sundering Titan
2x Crucible of Worlds

Draw:
4x Bazaar of Baghdad
4x Squee, Goblin Nabob

Tools:
4x Goblin Welder
2x Trash for Treasure

Mana:
5x Mountain
4x Mishra's Workshop
3x City of Traitors
3x Wasteland
2x Ancient Tomb
1x Strip Mine
5x Moxen
1x Lotus

Sideboard:
4x Red Elemental Blast
2x Tormod's Crypt
3x Sphere of Resistance
2x Possessed Portal
1x Mindslaver
1x Platinum Angel
1x Duplicant
1x Pyroblast

Notes from the Oracle:

Bazaar of Baghdad
Land    
T: Draw two cards, then discard three cards.

Uba Mask
4  
Artifact    
If a player would draw a card, that player removes that card from the game face up instead.
Each player may play cards he or she removed from the game with Uba Mask this turn.

Possessed Portal
8  
Artifact    
If a player would draw a card, that player skips that draw instead.
At the end of each turn, each player sacrifices a permanent unless he or she discards a card.

Interactions:

Bazaar says Draw 2 cards then discard 3 cards (This happens immediately). Uba Mask says "If a player would draw a card, that player removes that card from the game face up instead." therefore, the cards drawn by Bazaar are not in your hand when it comes time for Bazaar's Discard Resolution. You do however need to play these cards before you end your turn.

The beauty is that you are playing a Prison Style Deck, i.e. Stax. You drop a lock on your opponent and they proceed to remove cards from their deck from the game. Meanwhile you have hopefully set yourself up to be able to cast the cards that you draw.

In the case that you find the need to get rid of Uba Mask and/or Possessed Portal you can either Weld them out of play or Trash for Treasure them into something better or.... even Sacrifice them to Smokestack.

I've included the 5 Blast plan in the sideboard because it is apparent that Energy Flux + Back to Basics are going to be part of the meta-game for a while.

We expect to see the Milwaukee, Illinois, and Minnesota guys again. 1st Place - 28+ people NM-/EX+ Mox Jet, under 28 people Mox Ruby in played condition.

The Jet is *Hot* so we wanna keep it in Eau Claire and will have the "Team" together to make it so.

Rumor also has it that I will not have to work unless we are real busy which means I get to enter and bring the Mox home myself when I win it ~

See you on Friday!

I noticed that a lot of the conversations in this thread lead up to the way that Koboldclamp can stall out in it's search for the perfect Will and/or Tendrils. Some of the players at our shop have been discussing this as well. What I decided to do was search for a secondary way to utilize the creature base in the deck.

While searching for a secondary kill in a deck with free casting red creatures I finally stopped at Quirion Dryad. The deck we were looking at putting together already uses Green to cast Glimpse of Nature. It also already uses Elvish Spirit Guide to speed itself up in most builds.

Quirion Dryad is a very cheaply costed creature that has inherent advantages when run in this type of deck. I understand that the kill is normally Tendrils of Agony, but in a deck that putters out from time to time the Quirion Dryad would allow for a secondary kill first of all, and a nice sized blocker or beatstick in times of trouble when sputtering is all you've been able to pull off.

Here's the build that I've recently posted on our store's boards:

Brownnn:
3x Skullclamp
1x Tangleroot
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mana Crypt

Reddddd:
4x Kobolds of Kher Keep
4x Crimson Kobolds
4x Crookshank Kobolds

Greeeen:
4x Elvish Spirit Guide
4x Glimpse of Nature
2x Quirion Dryad
2x Land Grant

Blacckkk:
1x Yawgmoth's Will
2x Tendrils of Agony
4x Dark Ritual
2x Duress
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Carnival of Souls

Lannndd:
4x Bayou
3x Swamp
4x Bloodstained Mire
2x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
1x Gaea's Cradle

Sideboard:
1x Mind Twist
2x Duress
3x Xantid Swarm
3x Oxidize
3x Naturalize
3x ???????

For the Mods: If you feel that there are too many different replies with "Here's my Decklist" you can edit this list out at your leisure. The link below is for the discussion thread on our boards and a DeckList can be found there if needed. It allows for a much cleaner thread.

The Discussion thread for Grobolds.

10 days to go.

For those in the Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota area it would be a great time to head down to the SCG tournament this Saturday and then a week later on Friday Night make it for a Mox Tournament in Eau Claire, WI.

I especially agree with the highlighted portion of your reply. That is the likely transition that will happen up until the point that Oath is either hated out of the environment (that you currently play in), or another deck is able to take advantage of the changing meta-game to either stage a come-back or even a new arrival.



What I tried to do for this discussion was set up a situation that I personally had gone through that changed my deck-building process entirely. By looking back upon dominant decks I was able to find a good procession of techniques used to build those decks. It probably wasn't the intent of the person who built the deck, but it was what I got out of it. A good portion of that comes from the Event Coverage as well.

The important aspects of the game that I have learned since returning from my 4 1/2 year stint in the Marine Corps are as follows:

1. The meta-game matters.
2. Every card counts in the deck-building process.
3. If you research and pay attention to what others are playing in your area (the meta-game) then you should be able to come up with a strong deck to begin with.
4. The sideboard is not about hosing a particular deck archetype, instead it is about strengthening that already strong deck under certain circumstances as set by your current opponent.

This is what I have learned, I guess I was wondering what the rest of you were learning. It's natural to have a progression of decks from time to time. I've heard more than once that aggro is supposed to beat control, control is supposed to beat combo, and combo is supposed to beat aggro. For me I'd like to take what I've learned and build my decks to fair well against them all.

2 Weeks to go and we hope to see the Milwaukee guys again. It was also a treat at the last Mox Tourney to see the guys from Illinois. Hopefully we'll be able to get another great turnout.

Toad from themanadrain.com boards gives a grand discussion about this variant of Control Slaver/Goth Slaver/Meandeck Titan and many other variants of Welder decks.

One thing that I see a lot more now than anything in the past year of Magic the Gathering and the Type 1 scene that I have been re-introduced to is this: The increased amount of blue cards in each Type 1 deck archetype. Meandeck Oath is basically mono-blue with Oath kill. I am not trying to water down the deck by any means, instead I am trying to pick the pieces that it is made of apart... By doing so I want to find out why and how it worked and hopefully use those methods to increase my own win percentage.

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandnews.php?Article=8339

// "Cruci Slaver"
// Mana Sources -- 25
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Flooded Strand
1 Strip Mine
2 Darksteel Citadel
4 Polluted Delta
4 Volcanic Island
5 Island

// Expensive Artifacts -- 4
2 Mindslaver
1 Pentavus
1 Platinum Angel

// Recursion -- 5
1 Crucible of Worlds
4 Goblin Welder

// Draw -- 19
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mystical Tutor
4 Brainstorm
3 Intuition
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Thirst for Knowledge

// Protection -- 8
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain

The continued use of blue control along-side great kill methods is causing me to re-think the way I am building my decks as well. I took a moment to look back at the last 2 Vintage World Championship Decklists:

Control Slaver
2004 Vintage World Champion Decklist
 
4 Goblin Welder

4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Thirst for Knowledge

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Fact or Fiction
2 Duress
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
2 Mindslaver
1 Pentavus
1 Sundering Titan
1 Platinum Angel

1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl

4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
4 Volcanic Island
3 Underground Sea
2 Darksteel Citadel
4 Island

Sideboard
3 Old Man of the Sea
3 Blue Elemental Blast
3 Flametongue Kavu
2 Mogg Salvage
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Duress

The strengths of this deck were it's inherent ability to play off it's opponent while including the basic counter magic followed up with great draw power. The meta-game for GenCon 2004 was heavy with Fish and Workshop variants. It was very apparent that Vintage magic players wanted to play off the game-breaking Goblin Welder + Mishra's Workshop power. This deck said "Yeah, that's cute. Now I'd like to introduce you to my main man 'Old Man of the Sea'."

Hulk Smash
2003 Vintage World Champion Decklist

3 Psychatog
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Demonic Tutor
2 Duress
1 Mind Twist
1 Yawgmoth's Will
4 Accumulated Knowledge
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
3 Cunning Wish
2 Deep Analysis
4 Force of Will
3 Intuition
4 Mana Drain
1 Time Walk
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
2 Tropical Island
4 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
2 Island

Sideboard
1 Artifact Mutation
1 Berserk
1 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Deep Analysis
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Naturalize
1 Psychatog
1 Rack and Ruin
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Snuff Out
1 Starstorm
1 Vampiric Tutor

The strengths in this deck are the draw power coupled with the cunning wish versatility. With the cunning wish(es) it has more answers than any other Main Deck Archetype currently being used.

A new consideration that needs to be taken when you come back to today however, is it's disruption: 8x Counters and 3x Disruption. Currently we see decks that include 12 counterspells + other disruption and that is a lot to overcome even for this build. While it looks great on paper (Hulk Smash), it appears that the meta-game and Decks in general are "beginning" to plug slots with 4x FoW, 4x Mana Drain, 4x Mana Leak, and then varying amounts of Misdirection, Stifle, Chalice of the Void(s), etc...

Sure it seems like I am only speaking of Mono-Blue at this point, but look at Meandeck Oath: 14 Main Deck counterspells. I don't like to base my deck-building on trends in general, but the fact that 4 of the top 8 decks at the SCG Richmond tournament were packing 14 counters main is enlightening to say the least. It paints a picture that begins to blend my old school Type 1 roots into today's meta-game.

When I first began playing Magic the main winners were either Mono-Blue Control or Heavy Blue 2-color decks. I speak of a time when 4x Counterspell, 4x Control Magic, Vesuvan Dopplegangers and Clones ran rampant in our area and they won because they were able to either say "no" or say "ok that's a cool creature, I want it or one myself as well..."

Now start looking a little at other decks that have been taking the Large Tournaments over the past couple years. The Vintage World Champions for the past 2 years have one thing in common, they eached included 4 Force of Will(s), 4 Mana Drain(s) in their builds. Then each included a great amount of draw power into their decks: 4x AK for 2003, and 4x TFK in 2004. Does this mean that a winning deck needs to include these cards?

After looking at these previous decks and considering the current trends. If I was building Control Slaver myself I would probably re-think the builds that have been used already. Especially upon noting what happened in Richmond, VA. Let's try to map the deck out:

Counter Spells:
4x Force of Will
4x Mana Drain
4x Mana Leak
2x Misdirection/Stifle

Slaver Components:
4x Goblin Welder
2x Mindslaver
1x Pentavus
1x Platinum Angel

Draw:
4x Thirst for Knowledge
4x Brainstorm

Restricted:
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk
1x Tinker
1x Mystical Tutor

Total: 34 Spells

Mana:
5x Mox
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Crypt
1x Black Lotus
4x Volcanic Island
4x Fetch
5x Island
2x Darksteel Citadel (Indestructible Welder Component)

Total: 23 Mana Sources

Total: 57 Cards, with 3 slots left.

I then started thinking about the decks themselves and noticed that this past year's Vintage Champion played a lot on the fact that there would be definitely be other Welder decks at the top. Instead of trying to out-do the other decks in the meta he decided to use their strengths against them. He concentrated on his Slaver-control and then post sideboard enlisted the Grand Old Man of the Sea's assistance in board control. Not only did this help him against other Welder decks, but it also assisted him in controlling the Fish match-up (which happened to be another deck that was reaking havoc around the world at the time).

Mark Biller's meta-gaming may not have been meant as a lesson in Magic the Gathering for those watching the Vintage Championship at GenCon this past August, but it did give me reason to change how I build decks today. Instead of packing every restricted card into a deck and hoping that the God Hands would come up enough for me to win a Game, I now start with a base card pool. The base card pool are those required for a deck to run. After that I begin thinking about what others in the area are playing and I begin to find ways to capitalize on the decks of others.

When looking at the above build for Control Slaver you find what works and then are left with 3 slots that can be used for Main Deck meta-game tech. After GenCon this year I've had to admit something to myself: I no longer think about each individual game anymore, instead I think about the Match.

When I start thinking about the Match instead of each game I am able to understand why it is so important to learn what the meta-game is going to be for an area. Those 3 slots that are left open for meta-game tech in my opinion are going to be the difference between winning the Match and continuing on and losing the Match and dropping out.

Before you dismiss me as an idiot think for a moment. If you can win the first game hands down what has happened to the match? You now need to just get a decent draw and win 1 of the 2 remaining games. Correct? You've just finished seeing what your opponent is playing and so you should be able to beat them based on what you know about their deck at this point. You've built your deck and Sideboard with ways to deal with every deck. If you haven't then you didn't really want to win the tournament anyhow right? Why lose the first game and then hope that for the next 2 games you get a fair draw and your opponent doesn't get a God Hand?

So if you can increase your chances of winning by including Main Deck answers to either a: decks that you have a hard time beating or b: decks that will be over-abundant in this meta-game, then you should be able to win more Matches and then more Tournaments.

How has Vintage been treating you? Have you changed the way you build your decks based on the techniques you notice other players using? Are the well covered large-scale events changing the way you play Magic?

Normally the meta-game is not combo exclusive. This night there were three Deathlongs, 1 2land Belcher, 1 RG Beatz, 1 Welder/MUD, 1 Goblins and myself in the top 8...  That's 5 Combo decks. That's not the norm for our area and I believe that the 3 Deathlong/MeanDeath players were also set up for the Meta. Instead we all pretty much butted heads and I ended up on top through good luck.

We have a variety of decks every week from UG Madness to 2land Belcher, from RG Beatz to Control Slaver. It's a tough meta to predict and with 5 Proxies I felt the CA main was best in an environment where normally the players love Welder.

Props and Slops were the areas that I had placed this comment. But! I have heard back from him on the play and he had actually not boarded for the Dragon Combo at all and did not have Gaea's Blessing in his deck. Instead he was attempting to cause me to make a play mistake by insinuating that he had indeed boarded one in. He did not know that my alternate win condition was Sliver Queen and had hoped that he could somehow come out with me making some sort of play mistake that would give him a chance.

That brings something to think about to the table though. You can bluff your way through some matches if your opponent is really worried about his/her win factor.

For those of you that don't know The Adventurers Guild in Eau Claire, WI holds Type 1 tournaments every Friday Night. Registration begins at 6pm and the tournament starts by 7pm. Most of the time it is finished up right around midnight. This week was a 5 Proxy tournament and was not sanctioned and so I decided to play in it myself. Normally I am the Tournament Organizer and run all of the Sanctioned Type 1 events and Mox Tournaments. Last night however Nate ran it and I was able to run the new Cerebral Assassin deck with slight changes.

By the way there's a Mox Tourney coming up November 12th that is already listed in the Tournament Forums here.

The Report:

For a while now I've been looking for Welders and Workshops to work up my own Bazaar/Welder Mix. But recently Eastman has posted his version of Cerebral Assassin. The deck utilizes Welders, Bazaars, Squees and Titans to establish and maintain board control and card advantage. I decided to put it together and try it out at our Weekly Type 1 Tournament.

Eastman's Original Version:



My Version:

Spells:
4x Goblin Welder
4x Bazaar of Baghdad
4x Squee, Goblin Nabob
4x Animate Dead
4x Thirst for Knowledge
4x Force of Will
2x Sundering Titan
1x Duplicant
1x Triskelion

1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk
1x Tinker
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Memory Jar
1x Possessed Portal

Mana:
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Sol Ring
3x Shivan Reef
3x Underground River
4x Gemstone Mine
4x Glimmervoid

Sideboard:  
4x Worldgorger Dragon
1x Ambassador Laquatos
1x Sliver Queen
3x Necromancy
3x Chalice of the Void
3x Ray of Revelation (Synergy with Bazaar and Thirst, Enchantment removal that I can flashback for 1 green mana: I hate Ground Seal)

The difference between my build and Eastman's original build are in bold above. What I like about the deck is it's ability to answer Workshop builds with an early Animated Sundering Titan and it's own Welders. The draw engine is much superior to anything the Workshop build can put together with it's lone Memory Jar, Thirsts, and possible Wheel of Fortune. Sadly (yeah right...) I was unable to test it against anything similar to Mono-U Control, GAT, or 4CC.

Round 1 (Seth - RG Beatz):

Game 1 - I am able to push an Active Welder through after he Chain Lightning's my first attempt. A Sundering  Titan and Duplicant make there way into the GY and I establish board control and win. The only permanents he had at the time were a Kird Ape, Gorilla Shaman and 2 Mishra's Factories.

Game 2 - Dragon Combo comes in. For some reason Seth makes a play mistake during this game. It wasn't really anything that had to do with cards in play though. I was able to get the combo with Worldgorger in the Yard and a Bazaar on the table. I proceed to start drawing cards and discarding them off the Bazaar. Seth asks how much mana I put into my mana pool to which I answer that I am only drawing and discarding at this time. He then says that he was just wondering how Ambassador works with Gaea's Blessing :/. I then continue putting cards into my GY and Animate Sliver Queen to produce 1 million Sliver Tokens and let him go. He doesn't draw an answer and I win game 2.

Record: Games 2-0, Matches 1-0

Round 2 (Kinney -Goblins):

Game 1 - Kinney mulligans down to 6 cards and keeps a hand with no land. I don't know why. We need to teach him how to mulligan. I mean... really. I proceed to drop lands and Tinker into a Triskelion, Sundering Titan. He scoops.

Game 2 - Dragon Combo comes in. Kinney gets a much better start and drops Mountain, Ruby, Goblin Lackey, Reckless Charge - I'm at 16 and he has no Goblin in hand, phew. I proceed to play for the combo. He eventually gets Lackey, Gorilla Shaman, and Goblin Piledriver on the board. After using painlands and Vampiric Tutor I drop myself to 3 life and combo off with Dragon/Ambassador. Apparently Kinney isn't holding instant speed damage and I win Game 2.

Record: Games 4-0, Matches 2-0

Round 3 (Taylor - Deathlong):

After learning that the tournament is 4 rounds top 8 I talk him into drawing this round.

Record: Games 4-0-1, Matches 2-0-1

Round 4 (Jake - Deathlong):

We are top seats headed into round 4 and decide to ID into the top 8. Both my 3rd and 4th round opponents were playing Deathlong and I really didn't want them to have any idea how the matchup would run. I myself didn't know if there would be any key plays to be made on either side, but I felt it was better to not prepare them for something they hadn't seen before.

Record: Games 4-0-2, Matches 2-0-2

Quarter-Finals: Matt Hannafin with Aggro-Welder/MUD

Game 1 - Matt Hannafin played perfectly both games. There's nothing I can think of that would have turned the game around drastically enough to be called a play mistake. I was able to Animate 2 Sundering Titans and stay above surface at 5 Life as I raced his Tanglewires. His Juggernauts were no match for the Titans. He Tinkered into Masticore to stave off my Titan offense with me at 5 Life and him at 14 I think. I top-decked a Tinker into Duplicant and he was defenseless against the Titans. I win Game 1.

Game 2 - When sideboarding for this game I made one choice that was different from the other games. I kept 2 Sundering Titans in the main when I put the Dragon Combo in. I wanted to be able to stop the 4 turn Juggernaut Clock in case that was needed for me to combo off. Matt starts strongly with a Trinisphere and Chalice set at 2. My Animates, Demonic Tutor and other such spells are dead. I drop them into my GY as I search for the lands I need to be able to cast the Necromancy in my hand.

Eventually I'm able to get Worldgorger Dragon into my GY and go off with the Necromancy after laying a Glimmervoid with no Artifacts in play (I had been waiting and waiting for a land other than the 2 Glimmervoids in hand). I go off the turn before he would have drawn the Volcanic Island on the top of his Library. He reveals the Rushing River and BEBs that are dead in his hand without the blue mana.

Record: Games 6-0-2, Matches 3-0-2

Semi-Finals: Andy Hiser with 2-Land Belcher

Game 1 - Even after I am able to Welder in a Titan to destroy his only 2 lands he is able to get the Charbelcher and win.

Game 2 - He gets rolling and Spoils of the Vaults away for a Charbelcher... luckily I cut well and the Belcher is just a tad too deep. We move on to Game 3. In hindsight I should have used my active Welder to put the Possessed Portal that was in my GY into play, but I took my chances and had Vamp'd a second Squee to the top of my library that same turn to lockdown on the following turn. Greediness could have put me out of the tournament at that point, but the Lead-weighted Charbelcher was there for me.

Game 3 - Somehow Andy's mana sources are held at bay and I am able to Combo off with Dragon. I move on to the Finals after some very lucky Matches.

Record: Games 8-1-2, Matches 4-0-2

Finals: Jay Goodman with Deathlong

Game 1 - Jay goes broken with Yawgmoth's Will and Mind's Desire. Whatever, Game 2.

Game 2 - This is the funny part of the night for me. I draw for my opening hand: Thirst for Knowledge x3, Mox Ruby, Mana Vault, Squee Goblin Nabob and Glimmervoid. I turn to our onlookers hold out my hand and state "If you ever play this deck, this is not the hand to keep." and promptly kept it.

I was willing to take it if Jay was able to go off right away and settle for 2nd place. I wasn't however willing to mulligan into a worse hand. I drop Mox, Mana Vault, Glimmervoid, and Thirst for Knowledge 1st turn. Then I proceed to topdeck into Bazaar of Baghdad as Jay isn't able to do much right away except Duress away my Animate Dead leaving me hoping for another mana source for my Necromancy. I Bazaar into Lotus and with a Dragon in the Yard and combo off.

Game 3 - Jay starts off to a slow start and is only able to get 2 lands into play from the get go. Afterwards I find out he's holding Windfall and Timetwister and is waiting for the 3rd land drop. He duresses me and finds that I had kept a hand with 2 Force of Wills and a Thirst for Knowledge. I believe he was hoping to keep me from comboing off before he can find his gas and he duressed the Thirst. I was able to get my combo the turn after he attempts Timetwister to pull my FoW. I Forced it and went off on my turn.

Record: Games 10-2-2, Matches 5-0-2

This deck is a very fun deck to play. It attacks the opponent on many different levels and most times I can gain control during the first game and pull it off with Sundering Titan. After the sideboard most opponents aren't ready for the Dragon Combo. Soon however this will not be the case and most people will realize that GY hate is the way to go both Pre and Post Sideboard. I foresee that I will have to find a way to deal with that GY hate if I intend to keep playing this deck.

Props:
Eastman for developing the deck I had been mulling over in my head.
Everyone else for not playing Turbo-Collosus so that I didn't have to find out if Duplicant can deal with it.
Seth for letting me know he had boarded in Gaea's Blessing.
Spoils of the Vault for returning the favor (I play Spoils Dragon and have died to Spoils a few times   ).

Slops:
Seth for letting me know he had boarded in Gaea's Blessing.
My Lucky Die for not being that Lucky (I never won the Die roll in any of my matchups if I remember correctly).
Kinney for keeping a 6 card mulligan hand with no land :/.

After all was said and done I had a great time playing this deck. For those wondering what happens when I sideboard, this is how it turns out:

2nd Game:
-4 Goblin Welder
-2 Sundering Titans
-1 Duplicant
-1 Triskelion
-1 Tinker
-1 Possessed Portal
-1 Memory Jar
-1 Thirst for Knowledge

+4 Worldgorger Dragon
+1 Ambassador Laquatos
+1 Sliver Queen
+3 Necromancy
+3 Chalice or Ray of Revelation (depending on the opponent, most of the time it was +3 Chalice of the Void).

Time for the 3rd Mox Tournament in 4 months. November 12th, 2004 will be another Type 1 Mox Tournament at The Guild. Low $15 Entry Fee. After the New Year it is apparent that our players continue to desire Mox Tournaments and so the plan is to have 1/month after we ring in the New Year.

Adventurers Guild
307 South Barstow St.
Eau Claire, WI 54701

Type 1 Mox Tournament!
Friday, November 12th
Cost: $15.00
Registration begins at 6:00pm
Decklists turned in by 6:30pm
1st Round starts by 7:00pm
Format: 5 Proxy Type 1


Information: 1st place prize is an Unlimited Mox. 2nd place is to be determined. 3rd and 4th prizes will be packs and/or store credit, the choice is left up to the players. The 2nd room will be used for this tournament because of the expected attendance. The format will be 5 round Swiss, Top 8. The tournament will be scheduled to end at midnight as normal for those not placing in the top 8, we will be holding the store open after-hours for the top 8 and those who desire to watch the results and cheer their friends on. I will be there til the end to crown a winner!

This will be a 5 Proxy Tournament. Your Proxies must include the appropriate mana cost and pertinent information on the card. You can use only Basic Lands to create these proxies. If you do not have your proxies made when you arrive we will have Basic Land cards available to use up until the Registration period has been completed. Decklist Forms will be given to each player to fill out when they pay for their registration.

Directions: Address: 307 South Barstow Street in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Take Exit 70 off I94 and head North on HWY 53. Follow HWY 53 North until you come to Main Street (They are rennovating a Golf Course on the Right Hand side of HWY 53 when you reach Main Street, look for this). Take a Left onto Main Street and head West following Main through the residential area until you reach Downtown Eau Claire. Go through the 1st stoplight in Downtown Eau Claire and you will come to the stoplights for S. Barstow St. Take a Right onto S. Barstow St. our Store is the 5th building on the right on this block. The Adventurers Guild is located across from the Barstow Court and just down the way from the Budget Theatre. Parking is located on the street or side streets. For other questions about directions call: (715)834-4343

For more information visit www.advguild.net and check out our Magic the Gathering Forums. Or email me at nightwind@mmorpgamers.com Thanks!


Directions from Madison using mapquest.com. If you are coming from the Twin Cities, Minnesota you will be taking I94 East through Hudson, WI and following it up until mapquest's directions: Merge onto S HASTINGS WAY/US-53 N via exit number 70 toward EAU CLAIRE/CHIPPEWA FALLS, the rest of the directions are the same.

      -- The Adventurers Guild --
-- Home of the $75 Booster Boxes --

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but the deck would need to see a lot of hard playtesting before it would be able to go beyond "the newbie forum". It's nothing against you or your playstyle, it's the way this discussion board works.

Way back when 5th Dawn first came out I created an Oath "lock-down" deck and was hurting pretty bad because it needed Funeral Pyres to give my opponents creatures. I still won many games just because of my ability to play well. My deck was "so bad" that it was even moved to the Casual Forum because they decided it didn't even belong in the newbie forum.

Now we live in a Kamigawa world and have Forbidden Orchard to make things so much easier. Here's a LINK to my first post. I've already gone through and made the necessary changes to the decklist so that it would include Forbidden Orchard.

Here's the decklist:

The Combo:
4x Oath of Druids
4x Forbidden Orchard
1x Darksteel Colossus

The Lock:
3x Bringer of the White Dawn
2x Mindslaver

I said no:
4x Force of Will
3x Duress

Removal:
3x Ghastly Demise

Mandatory Vintage Cards:
2x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine

Search:
4x Brainstorm
2x Lim-Dul's Vault
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Crop Rotation
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Time Walk
1x Tinker
1x Vampiric Tutor

Get it back:
1x Regrowth
1x Gaeas Blessing
1x Yawgmoth's Will

Mana-base:
4x Tropical Island
3x Underground Sea
4x Polluted Delta
1x Island
1x Forest
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Diamond
1x Black Lotus

For those wondering why there are 3 Bringers in an Oath deck the answer is because the creature doesn't have any evasion. It's vulnerable to burn and StP. I upped the count to 3 because of this.

Sideboard:
3x Hurkyl's Recall/Stifle (depending on the meta being combo or stacker variants)
3x Oxidize
3x Tormod's Crypt
1x Sundering Titan
1x Plated Slagwurm
1x Ground Seal
3x Naturalize

Discussion:

The object of the deck is to Oath a Bringer of the White Dawn into play with 4 mana on the table and a Mindslaver in the graveyard. The FoW's and Duresses are for the early disruption and control to set up the combo. The Ghastly Demises are main-decked because of the prevalence of Goblin Welder in the area. If using the Mindslaver route as the main lock and kill it may be suggested to main-deck the Naturalizes over the GD's to make sure a main-decked Null Rod doesn't ruin your day. The lone Darksteel Colossus is just beefy and is often a 2-turn clock. I included Tinker in the deck for the Mindslavers, Crucible and Colossus.

Oath was given an early Christmas Gift this year in the form of Forbidden Orchard.

Yeah the deck it looks like it sucks, but it's a blast to play. The only reason I post the decklist here is because you posted your deck with the Title: "Lock Down Oath, very good, but needs help". I like the way your Oath deck locks the opponent down, but I would have to put it together to get a good feel of how it does against stacker normally and combo post-sideboard.

Everyone (ok... not everyone, but I've seen a few) has been trying to establish a lock-down deck using Oath of Druids ever since Forbidden Orchard hit the Spoiler List.

Back before 5th Dawn was released I picked up 4 Bringers of the White Dawn on eBay for like 20 bucks because I wanted to throw them together with Oath and Mindslaver like you wouldn't believe. Not for some random rogue winning deck, but because I love to be able to abuse cards and create a no-win situation for my opponent.

Fast-Forward to today and we have Forbidden Orchards all over the place. Without making everyone re-read what I've posted above I'm just going to post my current Oath deck that I have been playtesting with 5 Proxies for our local 5 Proxy Type 1 Tournaments.

The deck as it stands right now:

Engine:
4x Oath of Druids
4x Forbidden Orchard

Beatz:
4x Darksteel Colossus (4 to overcome aggro and removal, if you don't like the number that's fine. I've been playtesting for a couple weeks now and find it to be necessary in "our" meta)
2x Dragon Breath

I said no:
4x Force of Will
3x Duress

Removal:
3x Ghastly Demise/Swords to Plowshares

Mandatory Vintage Cards:
2x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine

Search:
4x Brainstorm
2x Lim-Dul's Vault
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Crop Rotation
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Time Walk
1x Tinker
1x Vampiric Tutor

Get it back:
1x Regrowth
1x Gaeas Blessing
1x Yawgmoth's Will

Mana-base:
4x Tropical Island
3x Underground Sea
4x Polluted Delta
1x Island
1x Forest
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Diamond
1x Black Lotus

(I've updated the decklist to it's current build. I'm still working on which cards are "necessary" and which cards are "optional", i.e. Dragon Breath.)

Sideboard
3x Tormod's Crypt
3x Oxidize
3x Naturalize

6x Metagame Cards (Seedtime, Gilded Drake, Sundering Titan, Plated Slagwurm, Energy Flux, Control Magic, Diabolic Edict, Ground Seal, Ebony Charm over TC? reasoning: white indestructible bushido boy)

So far the 6 meta cards have been: 3x Stifle, 1x Sundering Titan, 1x Plated Slagwurm and 1x Ground Seal

I've also worked on a Transitional Sideboard that uses my original build, I haven't done any playtesting with this type of sideboarding yet:

3x Bringer of the White Dawn
3x Mindslaver
1x Sundering Titan
1x Plated Slagwurm
1x Control Magic
3x Tormod's Crypt
3x Naturalize


Card Analysis:

Time Walk - When I started looking at the necessary power cards to put into the deck I looked at this card and had to include it. Not only is it a "cantrip" as everyone calls it these days, but it also quickens the lethal point for the DSC.

Lim-Dul's Vault - A must have after a bit of playtesting... Being able to set up your Oath turn is very good in this deck. Mill the Dragon Breath into the Graveyard before you turn up that DSC, then place that Time Walk into the Draw Step... so good. The deck works much better when it has a way to stack itself.

Brainstorm - Must have. You need to be able to put cards back on top of your library. Whether you are protecting your Oath from a Duress or setting up the Dragon Breath for your DSC.

Dragon Breath - Good for quickening the lethalness of the deck. I am currently testing with it, I will be testing without it as well. I want to be able to know for sure that it can't be swapped out for some more blue counters and/or draw. I'm debating this card's spot most in the deck right now.

The only information that is "new" about the deck is main-decked Razormane Masticores. You don't have any real numbers for your promising results and you state:



Why not instead start a thread about Razormane Masticore and the possibility that it is the game-breaking, turns the tide card for the mirror and fish match-up? Nothing "new" here man... :/

Results are In !

The Decklists for the entire top 8 and results for this tournament can be found Here. 26 people showed up from the local area and as far southeast as Illinois. As everyone knew the 1st place prize was going to be a Mox Ruby in played condition because we had 25 players registered when it was time to start. But, because we are just too damn cool we let them pool together $15 to put one of the local younger players into the tournament. This meant that the Mox Sapphire signed by Garfield would indeed be the 1st place prize. After 5 rounds of play and a top 8 playoff Tim Deering and Chris Lehman decided to split 1st and went away with $150 cash each. They did play out their match and Deering's UG Madness with Wonder was able to fly just a little higher than Lehman's O-stompy variant.

For more information on the Match-ups and some good tournament reports Click Here.

The top-8 players:

Tim Deering with UG Madness
Chris Lehman with O-Stompy
Matt Hannafin with Stacks
Jake Hustad with Stacker
Tim Kline with Dragon
Josh Bayer with Combo-GAT
Chris Koster with RG Beatz
Tony Higly with UB Masknaught


Tim Deering (1/2 - UG Madness)

1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Black Lotus
4x Wild Mongrel
4x Aquamoeba
4x Basking Rootwalla
1x Gush
4x Force of Will
3x Deep Analysis
1x Time Walk
1x Ancestral Recall
3x Oxidize
3x Brainstorm
4x Arrogant Wurm
4x Circular Logic

Land:
4x Wasteland
4x Tropical Island
4x Flooded Strand
3x Forest
3x Island
1x Strip Mine

Sideboard:
3x Null Rod
4x Energy Flux
4x Blue Elemental Blast
3x Tormod's Crypt
1x Wonder

Chris Lehman (1/2 - O-variant)

4x Basking Rootwalla
4x Wild Mongrel
4x Arrogant Wurm
3x River Boa
4x Squee, Goblin-Nabob
4x Elvish Spirit Guide
4x Null Rod
4x Survival of the Fittest
1x Lotus Petal
1x Brawn
1x Mox Emerald
1x Black Lotus
3x Hidden Guerillas
1x Mox Ruby
3x Naturalize
4x Bazaar of Baghdad

Land:
4x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
10x Forest

Sideboard:
3x Ground Seal
3x Xantid Swarm
3x Splinter
3x Oxidize
2x Root Maze
1x Gaea's Blessing

Matt Hannafin (3rd - Welder MUD)

4x Trinisphere
2x Sphere of Resistance
1x Mana Crypt
4x Myr Servitor
4x Thirst for Knowledge
4x Smokestack
4x Juggernaught
4x Goblin Welder
1x Memory Jar
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Ruby
1x Sundering Titan
2x Triskelion
1x Sol Ring
1x Chalice of the Void
4x Tangle Wire
1x Metalworker
1x Mana Vault
1x Tinker

Land:
3x Volcanic Island
1x Strip Mine
4x Shivan Reef
3x Wasteland
1x Library of Alexandria
1x Tolarian Academy
4x City of Traitors
2x Ancient Tomb
2x Mishra's Workshop

Sideboard:
1x Duplicant
3x Caltrops
2x Rack & Ruin
2x Tormod's Crypt
4x Red Elemental Blast
3x Blue Elemental Blast

Jake Hustad (4th - Stacker Variant)

4x Thirst for Knowledge
4x Trinisphere
4x Goblin Welder
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk
4x Juggernaught
2x Fire/Ice
1x Wheel of Fortune
2x Su-Chi
1x Memory Jar
2x Triskelion
1x Tinker
1x Sundering Titan
1x Duplicant
2x Crucible of Worlds
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Ruby
1x Sol Ring
1x Mox Jet
1x Mana Vault
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mystical Tutor

Land:
4x Wasteland
4x Volcanic Island
4x Mishra's Workshop
3x Shivan Reef
1x Strip Mine
1x Tolarian Academy
2x Polluted Delta

Sideboard:
1x Viashino Heretic
3x Blue Elemental Blast
1x Jester's Cap
4x Chalice of the Void
3x Rack & Ruin
3x Red Elemental Blast

Coming up Monday! I was busy running a table at the Kamigawa Pre-release in MN Saturday and Sunday. 26 Players, 1st Prize was the Mox Sapphire (15 players pulled together to pay for one of the younger participants that didn't have money, cool guys) the top 2 decks were UG Madness and a variation of O-Stompy. More info to come tomorrow.

Tomorrow Night in Eau Claire, WI !

2nd Prize is most likely $50 in Store Credit, 3rd and 4th Prizes will be packs and/or Store Credit. See you there.

If there are 26 or more people in attendance the 1st place prize will be a Mox Sapphire.

bump, it's this weekend!

Due to the responses of our regular Type 1 Magic Players the tournament will again take place on a Friday Night. We hold regular Friday Night Type 1 Tournaments every week and our regular players have grown accustomed to this system. We hope to see many others at this tournament as well. Thanks for checking us out!

Adventurers Guild
307 South Barstow St.
Eau Claire, WI 54701

Type 1 Mox Tournament!
Friday, September 17th
Cost: $15.00
Registration begins at 6:00pm
1st Round starts at 7:00pm
Format: 5 Proxy Type 1


Information: 1st place prize is an Unlimited Mox Ruby. The Mox is in good condition. (Any changes to first prize will be posted asap. We may use a better condition Mox for the 1st place prize.) If there are 26 or more people in attendance the Prize for 1st Place will be an Unlimited Mox Sapphire. 2nd place is to be determined. 3rd and 4th prizes will be packs and/or store credit, the choice is left up to the players. The 2nd room will be used for this tournament because of the expected attendance. The format will be 5 round Swiss followed by Playoff Pairings for the top 8 players. The tournament will be scheduled to end at midnight as normal for those not placing in the top 8, we will be holding the store open after-hours for the top 8 and those who desire to watch the results and cheer their friends on. I will be there til the end to crown a winner!

This will be a 5 Proxy Tournament. Your Proxies must include the appropriate mana cost and pertinent information on the card. You can use only Basic Lands to create these proxies. If you do not have your proxies made when you arrive we will have Basic Land cards available to use up until the Registration period has been completed. Decklist Forms will be given to each player to fill out when they pay for their registration.

Directions: Address: 307 South Barstow Street in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Take Exit 70 off I94 and head North on HWY 53. Follow HWY 53 North until you come to Main Street (They are rennovating a Golf Course on the Right Hand side of HWY 53 when you reach Main Street, look for this). Take a Left onto Main Street and head West following Main through the residential area until you reach Downtown Eau Claire. Go through the 1st stoplight in Downtown Eau Claire and you will come to the stoplights for S. Barstow St. Take a Right onto S. Barstow St. our Store is the 5th building on the right on this block. The Adventurers Guild is located across from the Barstow Court and just down the way from the Budget Theatre. Parking is located on the street or side streets. For other questions about directions call: (715)834-4343

For more information visit www.advguild.net and check out our Magic the Gathering Forums. Or email me at nightwind@mmorpgamers.com Thanks!


Directions from Madison using mapquest.com. If you are coming from the Twin Cities, Minnesota you will be taking I94 East through Hudson, WI and following it up until mapquest's directions: Merge onto S HASTINGS WAY/US-53 N via exit number 70 toward EAU CLAIRE/CHIPPEWA FALLS, the rest of the directions are the same.

Breakdown of the top 8 Playoffs and Matches:



Playoff Pairings top 8:
1 UG Madness vs GAT
2 Hulk Smash vs 4CC
3 Modular vs 4CC
4 Welder MUD vs WTF/r

Semi-finals:
1 UG Madness vs Hulk Smash
2 Modular vs WTF/r

Finals:
Hulk Smash vs Modular

3rd and 4th place finishers split the prize pool packs (store credit).

The day began at 5:30pm when Type 1 players from all over Wisconsin and even some from Minnesota began showing up to register for the tournament. In all there were 36 players. All through the store heated Magic Players were going at it with the ferocity only seen when Power is up for grabs. Luckily, half-way through the tournament some guy with an Ice Cream Cart rolled on down the street and half the attendies took advantage of him.

After 7 1/2 hours of grueling Type 1 goodness the Mox Ruby ended up in the hands of Gregg Seaverson from Milwaukee, WI. The NM English Legends Mirror Universe went to Luke Ojala from Brainerd, MN. Here are the top 8 decks for this evening's tournament.

1st Place, Gregg Seaverson with Hulk Smash

4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Brainstorm
4 Accumulated Knowledge
3 Cunning Wish
3 Psychatog
2 Duress
2 Pernicious Deed
2 Tsabo's Web
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Deep Analysis
1 Intuition
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Gush
1 Mindtwist
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Sol Ring
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
4 Tropical Island
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Swamp
3 Island

Sideboard:
2 Energy Flux
2 Propaganda
1 Berserk
1 Ghastly Demise
1 Stifle
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Thwart
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Oxidize
1 Naturalize
1 Smother
1 Coffin Purge
1 Psychotic Haze

2nd Place, Luke Ojala with Modular

1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus
2 Triskelion
1 Memory Jar
2 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Arcbound Crusher
4 Myr Servitor
4 Myr Retriever
4 Tangle Wire
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Skullclamp
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Metalworker
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
3 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Mishra's Workshop

Sideboard:

2 Arcbound Crusher
4 Trinisphere
4 Tormod's Crypt
2 Triskelion
3 Razormane Masticore

3rd Place and 4th Place Split

Taylor Hustad with RUG Aggro-Control

4 River Boa
4 Spiketail Hatchling
3 Null Rod
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Force of Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Curiosity
4 Brainstorm
2 Call of the Herd
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Stifle
1 Oxidize
1 Fire/Ice
4 Polluted Delta
3 Volcanic Island
2 Flooded Strand
3 Tropical Island
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Library of Alexandria

Sideboard:
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Fire/Ice
2 Naturalize
1 Rack and Ruin
2 Artifact Mutation
1 Crucible of Worlds
2 Sigil of Sleep
1 Razorfin Hunter

and Tim Deering with UG Madness

4 Force of Will
4 Circular Logic
3 Null Rod
3 Wonder
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Arrogant Wurm
4 Aquamoeba
4 Basking Rootwalla
3 Brainstorm
2 Deep Analysis
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Gush
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
4 Tropical Island
4 Flooded Strand
3 Island
3 Forest

Sideboard:

3 Blue Elemental Blast
3 Chill
3 Oxidize
3 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Rushing River
1 Wonder

5th Place, Brad Ojala with 4CC

4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
1 Gorilla Shaman
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Mindtwist
2 Fire/Ice
1 Decree of Justice
1 Balance
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
1 Fact or Fiction
3 Cunning Wish
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mystical Tutor
3 Exalted Angel
2 Skeletal Scrying
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
1 Island
3 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
2 City of Brass
3 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
3 Underground Sea
1 Library of Alexandria

Sideboard:
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Rack and Ruin
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Damping Matrix
1 Gush
1 Blue Elemental Blast
3 Red Elemental Blast
1 Disenchant
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Coffin Purge

6th Place, Jake Hustad with 4CC

1 Fact or Fiction
2 Swords to Plowshares
3 Cunning Wish
4 Brainstorm
4 Mana Drain
1 Balance
3 Exalted Angel
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Black Lotus
4 Force of Will
1 Mox Jet
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Sol Ring
3 Skeletal Scrying
1 Mox Ruby
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Decree of Justice
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mindtwist
1 Fire/Ice
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Mystical Tutor
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
2 City of Brass
3 Tundra
1 Library of Alexandria
2 Volcanic Island
3 Underground Sea
2 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand

Sideboard:
2 Crucible of Worlds
3 Red Elemental Blast
1 Fire/Ice
1 Swords to Plowshares
2 Rack and Ruin
1 Disenchant
1 Skeletal Scrying
2 Flametongue Kavu
1 Gush
1 Vampiric Tutor

7th Place, Andy Hiser with Welder Mud

1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mana Vault
4 Trinisphere
4 Grafted Skullcap
1 Bosh, Iron Golem
4 Tanglewire
4 Goblin Welder
2 Crucible of Worlds
4 Smokestack
4 Metalworker
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Sol Ring
1 Grim Monolith
1 Memory Jar
1 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Triskelion
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
8 Mountain
3 Mishra's Workshop
3 City of Traitors
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine

Sideboard:

4 Price of Progress
3 Pyroblast
3 Triskelion
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Crucible of Worlds
2 Jester's Cap
1 Mindslaver

8th Place, Jeremy O'Dell with GAT

4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Brainstorm
4 Quirion Dryad
2 Psychatog
3 Duress
2 Pernicious Deed
3 Cunning Wish
1 Mindtwist
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Gush
4 Accumulated Knowledge
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Swamp
4 Tropical Island
4 Polluted Delta
2 Island
4 Underground Sea

Sideboard:
2 Energy Flux
2 Propaganda
1 Smother
1 Coffin Purge
1 Echoing Decay
1 Oxidize
1 Berserk
1 Naturalize
1 Stifle
1 Hydroblast
1 Thwart
2 Tsabo's Web

Tomorrow is the day. Directions are above! It should be a great time.