URphidian T1 Finals Report

[PhadeAway]

LA Frank & Sons, T1 Sanctioned 4/19/03
Alexander Kwan (PhadeAway) playing URphidian

//NAME: URphidian
        3 Morphling
        4 Ophidian
        4 Force of Will
        4 Counterspell
        4 Mana Drain
        2 Misdirection
        2 Control Magic
        3 Fire/Ice
        2 Powder Keg
        1 Ancestral Recall
        1 Fact or Fiction
        1 Merchant Scroll
        1 Time Walk
        1 Capsize
        1 Strip Mine
        3 Wasteland
        1 Black Lotus
        1 Mox Sapphire
        1 Mox Ruby
        1 Sol Ring
        1 Library of Alexandria
        4 Shivan Reef
        4 Volcanic Island
        10 Island
SB:  4 Red Elemental Blast
SB:  3 Blood Moon
SB:  1 Flametongue Kavu
SB:  1 Shattering Pulse
SB:  2 Blue Elemental Blast
SB:  2 Tormod's Crypt
SB:  1 Teferi’s Response
SB:  1 Masticore

Finally Frank & Sons, the magic scene in the Los Angeles area, was having their first sanctioned T1 tournament.  The night before I was at T2 FNM which sucked and ended past midnight.  I had to wake up early for F&S because I worked for one of the magic vendors (Shuffle and Cut Games).  After 4 hours of sleep I woke up early to pickup three friends for the tourney.  We get to F&S to find out there might not be a T1 tourney because the judge, Seth, apparently had a huge hangover the previous night and couldn't make it.  My boss, Scott, is a judge and decides he'll host the tournament.  I write my decklist and remember I haven't gotten an Ancestral Recall yet so I borrow one from Scott.  One of the four friends I picked up decides he wants to play in the T2 tourney instead which I scold him for.  Scott announces the tournament will begin in 20 mins, but we notice Pat and the group he's bringing hasn't arrived yet so we wait.  An hour later they arrive and the first T1 tourney at F&S is underway.

Round 1 - Chris playing B/G Nether Void

Game 1: He has a quick start, my memory is hazy but I remember getting whooped by an early Shade.

Game 2: He disrupts me early but I have nothing valuable.  With some disruption, countered critters, and dark rituals in his GY he attempts to Yawgmoth's Win, which I Mana Drain.  I drop Morphling off the extra mana and apply Superman beats.

Game 3: I keep a mana-light hand of only Volcanic Island and Strip Mine.  He drops a swamp and thinks for awhile, he ends his turn and from there I know he has a ritual and probably no other land in his hand, otherwise he wouldn't need to think about saving it.  I draw a ruby and drop it and strip his swamp.  His turn, the same card he drew he drops it, a swamp.  He then rituals in to a Hippie which I have no FoW for.  Eight turns later, he Wastelands my lone land and I don't draw any more land.  At 4 life with only a ruby as mana, I scoop which was my only mistake the whole day.  My next card was an island and I had Fire/Ice in my hand and a recall with a couple of counters.  After the game I ask him did he top deck the swamp and he says ya.

0-1-0

Round 2 - Bye
Great, I get the dumb bye and have to work behind the counter during the whole round.  But the only thing on my mind was my retarded concession of the last game.

1-1-0

Round 3 - Ian playing Sligh/burn

Game 1: I don't remember much except seeing a lot of burn and me dropping a Morphling for a quick win.

Game 2: I recall this game ending quickly as well with Morphling off a Mana Drain countering Ball Lightning.

2-1-0

Round 4 - Cid(PsychoCid) playing Ankh Sligh
Cid is one of the better players at the tourney in my opinion, I've never met him in real life before but have chatted with him online a few occasions.

Game 1: He wins the roll and starts by dropping a Gorilla Shaman.  Looking at my hand of 2 Fire/Ice, Mana Drain, Powder Keg, Ancestral Recall, and two blue sources, I feel sorry for him so I try to lighten things up and joke about how shaman will go all the way.  I eventually Mana Drain in to a Morphling which does go all the way.

Game 2: I wish him better luck this game and we draw our cards.  My hand is only decent, with like a counter, Masticore, and 5 lands.  He decides to mull and is wary about his 2nd hand but keeps.  I see no creatures on his side the whole game but I get burned a bit and I keg his scroll.  Eventually Masticore hits the table and that's game.

3-1-0

Round 5: Sugrim playing Ankh Sligh
Three sligh decks in a row, I was hoping to see one of the three GAT.  I've known Sugrim for awhile from Friday Night Magic.   He concedes since he's the only one with a perfect record and is guaranteed top 4.  We play anyways.

Game 1: He drops a land and lotus and drops three critters.  I drop land and lotus and fire two of his critters and Time Walk, he never recovers.

Game 2: After some burn and countering, I'm in control of the game with 2 ophidians and counter back up and his board clear, but I'm at 3 life.  A crowd gathers around since we're on table 1 and all claim I most likely won.  About 8 turns of drawing 3 a turn, I draw neither Morphling nor Masticore.  I eventually run out of counters and get burned.

Game 3: The situation is almost similar to last game, except I do get the Morphling and I'm at 3.  I ask him again, if he's conceding and we're playing for fun and he confirms.  He's at 10 and I have a Morphling out.  I tell him I have a FoW in hand but instead gonna cast an ophidian for fun with no other blue cards in hand and only 3 mana.  He draws a burn and I show him my FoW.

4-1-0

Top 4:
1 - Brian playing 3color Parfait
2 - Alexander(me) playing URphidian
3 - Giovanni playing Black(with blue splash supposedly) Mask
4 - Sugrim playing Ankh Sligh


F&S closes at 5pm and it was 4:50pm when the T4 began, we are rushed to play our games

Semi Finals – Giovanni(Akuma (Gio)) playing MaskNaught
We chat for a bit and he's very friendly.  We talk about other decks while we shuffle.

Games 1 & 2 end in like 5 mins.  Game 1 I had answers when I needed them including two FoW when it counted and an early mana drain ---> morphling.  Game 2 he was mana screwed, he shows me his hand of 3 Phyrexian Dreadnoughts and I show him my Shattering Pulse.

5-1-0

Finals - Brian playing Parfait

While waiting for the Parfait vs. Sligh match up to be over, the judge who is also my boss is pressured with the time since it's around 5:30pm.  We talk privately and I tell him I'll do the draw for him for the finals. Brian and I decide to split the prize and play one game only for the points.  Throughout the game his board position becomes good.  From the very beginning my hand is of pure counters and I’m able to cast at least two a turn.  There is a crowd around us and they blurt out annoying comments to me.  Brian plays Land Tax which I don't opt to counter, someone in the crowd says that's game.  I never counter the tax, the Scroll Rack is what's fearsome and Brian tells the guy I'm waiting to counter the rack.  He casts Humility and I contemplate that for awhile before letting it resolve.  Then someone else in the crowd says that's game and I'm like no... I'm gonna Capsize that when I get Morphling.  Brian then casts a Moat and someone else in the crowd says that's game for sure and someone tells him Morphling flies.  Then some kid kept saying Replenish is game over for me.  I finally got annoyed and told him I don't fear it right now and Brian agrees and says there's nothing much in his GY.  Somewhere in the game Brian casts a Claws of Gix which I don't like and do counter.  He Argivian Finds it and I counter, he then finds again which I could counter but let resolve so I can save my mana to counter either Scroll Rack, Mesa, or Circle.  Eventually Brian's ride, Pat tells him he has to go.  We take the draw for the round.

*RANT* One thing that annoyed me was how everyone claimed the game was over for me 100%.  I read Brian's report and he said he got rid of all my FoWs, but two turns after he got rid of my 3rd I had drawn my 4th.  My whole hand was 7 counters and I was waiting for Morphling and Capsize.  I admit the situation didn't look good for me and if I had to bet on who’d win I’d bet on Brian, but what people didn't understand was I wasn't going to quit after I scooped so quickly in my first round.  I played Parfait since it was created by K-Run and have discussed and learned a lot about it with my friend Joel(Nimrod) whom I feel has a lot of knowledge about the deck.  I know it sucks when you're winning but your opponent won't concede when playing Parfait.  All I was waiting for was for Brian to get either Rack, Mesa, or Circle to resolve and I would have scooped immediately.

Enough ranting as I usually don't care what happens since magic is only a game.  I was really happy about the meta as it wasn't full of scrubs and was a good turnout.  I hope T1 tourneys become a scheduled event at F&S.  My deck never let me down and gave me a 5-1-1 record for a draw for 1st.

Props:
Scott for hosting the tourney and lending me the Ancestral Recall
Pat(TracerBullet) for starting the T1 tourneys at Franks
Jimmy for doing decent with 3-1-1 record
My opponents
The players for attending the tourney
Mark(MarkPharaoh) for helping me with this report

Slops:
Myself for scooping in the first round
Missing my sister's b-day BBQ
Walters for playing T2 instead
Wales going 1-3 with GAT
Brent going 1-3 with the only Keeper
Jason(DoubleJ20) for not playing “Your Ass Is Mine”(yes I know that's not the name), such a tight deck
Pat for getting pissed I made T4 (joking)
The time constraint at the end

*edit*
Was told by Scott that Brian was 1st going in to T4 and Sugrim was 4th from conceding 2-0 to me.

[MoreFling]

Congrats.

btw, next time, just tell the crowd to STFU or get the fuck outta there.

People shouldn't make comments on the game, and you're fully right for making them leave. It's actually official ruling etc...

[Akuma (gio)]

Quote Semi Finals Giovanni [Akuma (gio)] playing B/U MaskNaught
We chat for a bit and he's very friendly.  We talk about other decks while we shuffle.

Games 1 & 2 end in like 5 mins.  Game 1 I had answers when I needed them including two FoW when it counted and an early mana drain ---> morphling.  Game 2 he was mana screwed, he shows me his hand of 3 Phyrexian Dreadnoughts and I show him my Shattering Pulse.

5-1-0

Hey Alex. All I have to say is that you are a savage miser and top decked like a stage magician game one, and then removed all the land from my deck before the start of game 2

I really enjoyed the tournament and had a good showing (5-2, losing to Brianb's Parfait Round 1 and Alex's URPhid in the Top 4). Everyone there was really cool. Alex is a good player and I wish I could have put up a better fight but sometimes things don't go your way. I did hear some of the comments the crowd was making during the final match (I was busy dismantling a Sligh deck for 3rd place) and must agree that it was rather annoying.

Alex: Do you know if I got a match win for 3rd place or did Scott think I wanted to draw in the 3rd/4th place game?

[TracerBullet]

Quote Pat for getting pissed I made T4

Hey...when you're the only 4-1 who doesn't make it because somebody conceded, I think you're allowed to be pissed.  I wasn't really pissed at you though...it was more the cumulative frustrations of all that had gone wrong that day (and my finger hurt like a bitch all day long).

[PhadeAway]

My Palm's batteries ran out so all the notes I had saved was gone, this report was written by memory so not every detail was written.  Two funny things happened that I wanted to mention:
-The game against Sugrim's sligh, he cast Apocalypse and I was like "WTF".  Then I drew Ancestral Recall and then an Island afterwards, MISE.
-In one of the games against Giovanni's Mask, I had two Ophidians out and he cast Hippie, which next turn I drew Control Magic  


MoreFling: Thx, ya in normal situations I'd just say stfu but this was the first T1 tourney and I didn't want to scare away any possible players for any upcoming ones.

Akuma (gio): Hey, I hope you don't got work for the next tourney in 3 weeks.  I know your decks performance wasn't relevant to your play, your deck just crapped out sadly.

TracerBullet: I know you were just playing.  Just wanted to put you under props and slops for no apparent reason because you're that cool and scrubby
As for the concession, if you read the report against Sugrim I was gonna win anyways.  Out of the 25+ decks present, about 1/3 was Sligh so that's why I stuck with URphidian instead of Smokestack.  I even helped one of the little kids that played Sligh build his deck, he didn't take my advice and kept Urza's Rage in.  I heard he cast it with kicker and his opponent MisD  

For anyone wondering, the meta looked something like this:
7 Sligh  
4 Oath (3 were unpowered and one powered by Jason)
3 GAT
2 B/G Void
1 Keeper
1 URphidian
1 Parfait
1 MaskNought
1 Chain/Solitary Confinement
1 Trix/Enchantress
1 Weird U/B/R with Mirror Universe and Nev's Disk, oldschool
and a couple others I forgot

[TracerBullet]

The 3 Oath weren't unpowered...I know Charlie at least had Ancestral and Drains, Jimmy had at least Drains and a Sapphire, and I didn't get to see the other guy.


Were there really 7 Sligh players?  I think I only saw like 5.



And official Best Deck of the Year award goes to the guy playing B/W Anvil Chains...Too bad he didn't get all three GroTog players in the first three rounds.

[brianb]

That final game certainly wasn't over.  In fact, I think you might have won the final game if you had played your cards right.  Your most likely path to victory might have been decking.  I had gained life off ivory tower, and was sitting at 37.  The claws of gix probably could have pushed me to 60 if need be.  If your capsize/morphling didn't show in a timely fashion, you might not have gotten the 12-13 swings in before we ran out of deck.  I had taxed/tithed/libraried about a dozen extra cards out of my library.  You had ancestraled and cast a couple of cantrips (don't remember if you cast FoF), but I'm pretty sure you had more cards than I had when we quit.  If you just focused on decking, you could ignore my story circle and wrath, never worry about tapping out or saving mana to protect the morphling, and only have to save counters for 3 scroll racks, 2 mesas, 2 more argivian finds, 1 replenish, and a couple duress.  I think you should have had enough counters to do it so long as you weren't forced to discard a bunch.

[PhadeAway]

Hey Brian, good idea I hadn't thought about that.  Your black addition to Parfait was a pain but I liked it.  Duress over the Chant spot allows you to be proactive instead of waiting to put Chant to a use.  Even though the game didn't end and seemed long, I wished it was one we could've finished.  It could have possibly been the best match all day.

Quote The 3 Oath weren't unpowered...I know Charlie at least had Ancestral and Drains, Jimmy had at least Drains and a Sapphire, and I didn't get to see the other guy.

Were there really 7 Sligh players?  I think I only saw like 5.

TracerBullet: I don't know how Charlie did or ran as I kept constant tabs on those I knew.  I just remember Cid telling me he lent his friend an unpowered Oath.  I know Ben played unpowered Oath.  No, Jimmy doesn't have Drains, you do remember playing him all three games in your almost drawed round don't you?  The Sapphire he had was lent to him by me.

Sligh... Sugrim, Cid, Ian, Will, the chubby kid with Goblin Grenades, the skinny one with Urza's Rage, and the Goblin Sligh that beat Brent first round.  If there were more then I don't remember, there would've been another if my friend Walters had played T1.

[PsychoCid]

Nice showing, Alex, and thanks for posting the report.

The Oath deck I let Charlie borrow was U/G and sported Ancestral and 3 Drains (2 of which were mind and he couldn't find a 4th to borrow).

Also, a friend has brought it to my attention that Giovanni's Mask was not Mono-Black but, rather, featured a blue splash.\n\n

[urza's child]

Does anyone know how any of the oath decks did? it seems weird none of them did good seeing as how there was 7 sligh and 3 GAT. and about UrPhid from your experience, how does it handle oath? It seems pretty even on paper but I don't know about real life testing

[Charlie]

I went 2-2-1, but i had to play with only three drains and more impotantly, three oaths and only one mis-d.

I also conceeded to pat to give him a better chance at top 4 as i was out of contention by that point.

We played for fun and i would have beaten him 2-0.

Not the greatest showing, but such is life.

[Often Lost]

It was a great tourney, alot of fun. Heh, it was fun to see Scott get all school-girl happy when he found out that Mask-Naught was a real deck. Good times.

I got lucky and got paired up against the Chains Anvils deck third round. It had no real protecion against combo. Some chants, duress's and stuff, but wasnt enough. He was a great guy though, anyone know what his final resaults were?

BTW, I was the little good looking kid in black playing EnchanTrix 3-2

[TracerBullet]

It seems to me as though Chains itself would be rather good against your deck...at least providing some sort of stall to hold you off.

[PhadeAway]

Quote Does anyone know how any of the oath decks did? it seems weird none of them did good seeing as how there was 7 sligh and 3 GAT. and about UrPhid from your experience, how does it handle oath? It seems pretty even on paper but I don't know about real life testing

I believe all the Oaths had fairly good records.  As for URphid's matchup, Oath itself could be a possible problem but not one I've ever felt was dramatic if it ever resolves.  I feel it favors the phid player, draw-go is what urphid likes and will play that game even without ophidians.  Now the transformational sideboard on the other hand, that is good  

Quote It seems to me as though Chains itself would be rather good against your deck...at least providing some sort of stall to hold you off.

Sup Pat, I don't know if you're refering to Often Lost or me.  I played against that deck a few times weeks before the tourney and had won them all.  That deck is slower than URphid and I don't like how it relies on solitary-squee softlock for protection.  I wonder if he played against any of the GAT as that would truely be a rape.