I was poking around in the Dojo archive and, in addition to being amazed how awful decks were back in the day given the card pools, I found a tournament report from Carl Devos himself. Thought some people might get a kick out of it.
From: Carl Devos
Email:
carl.devos@yucom.be Submited: Tuesday, 7 Nov 2000 13:1:20
Subject: Type I Revival 2 with Twister.dec
Hello,
Yesterday I organised my second Type I tournament at the Greenwich Cafe, Brussels. 9 players showed up.
There were 2 Keeper, 1 Twister, 1 Sligh, 1 mono-black discard, 1 white weenie, 1 Stasis and 2 others.
6 decks had at least one power nine.
Here is what I played:
1 City of Solitude
1 Fast Bond
1 Regrowth
1 Kaervek's Torch
1 Mana Flare
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Braingeyser
4 Force of Will
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Recall
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Time Spiral
1 Timetwister
1 Time Walk
1 Trade Routes
1 Windfall
1 Black Lotus
5 Moxen
3 Scroll Rack
1 Sol Ring
1 Zuran Orb
4 City of Brass
1 Glacial Chasm
1 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland
Sideboard:
1 Balance
1 Disenchant
1 City of Solitude
1 Emerald Charm
2 Erhnam Djinn
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
3 Blue Elemental Blast
3 Serendib Efreet
1 Powder Keg
This is a basic Timetwister deck. You try to drop as many lands as you can (Fastbond is
helpful), play Time Walk and Torch your opponent.
There are a few tricks:
- Glacial Chasm/Fastbond to play extra lands without damage
- Trade Routes/Fastbond/Mana Flare or Trade Routes/Fastbond/Tolarian Academy to get 'infinite' mana
- Trade Routes/Fastbond/Library of Alexandria to draw a card for 2 mana and 1 damage
So, if you get out Fastbond, Trade Routes, Glacial Chasm and either Academy or Mana Flare, it's difficult to lose.
Round 1: Hans Schrijvers - Control
I didn't know the Schrijvers brothers had the power 9. I quickly find out hans is playing control.
Game 1, I get the combo out.
Game 2, he plays a Shaman which hurts me a lot. I then manage to get out City of Solitude, but next turn he Mind Twist.
I lose.
I sideboard in the creatures.
Game 3, I drop a Serendib Efreet that goes all the way.
2-1, 3 points.
Round 2: Cedric Janssens - White weenie.
Cedric plays a very aggressive version with Crusade, Jihad, Army of Allah and lots of efficient creatures.
Game 1, I manage to Braingeyser him for 100 before he can kill me.
Game 2, he gets out 3 creatures, I Balance, he gets out more creatures, I Balance/Zuran Orb, he plays 2 more creatures,
I die.
Game 3, Cedric doesn't drop a creature turn 1, drops a Crusade turn 2, meaning there is no early pressure. This buys me
enough time to combo him with another Geyser for 100 on the turn time is called.
2-1, 3 points.
Round 3: Alexander Schrijvers - Control
It seems Alex is playing the same deck as his brother, killing with Channelball.
Game 1, I manage to combo him out.
I side in the creatures.
Game 2, Alex gets out a 4th turn Ivory Mask. Of course, I let it go. I drop an Erhnam in my 4th turn.
Alex then cast Mystical Tutor for Swords to Plowshares (he has seen me playing against his brother, so he kept some
removal), cast Mind Twist for 2 (I am holding 5 cards), I Force of Will (pitching Merchant Scroll), followed by
Swords to Plowshares that I Force again (pitching Mystical Tutor). Erhnam does its job.
2-0, 9 points.
Round 4: Stephane Steurs - Sligh
Stephane is playing a deck I lent him. He doesn't own any Wasteland so he only plays one.
He made his sideboard on the spot and didn't put in Emerald Charm to get rid of CoP Red, but packs Mage Contest.
Game 1, I go off on the 2nd turn. Power cards are ugly.
I sideboard out 2 Pyroblast and City of Solitude for 3 BEB.
He goes turn 1 Cadet, I BEB it. 2nd turn Shaman is also BEBed, but I don't have any answer for the 2nd Shaman (he
plays 4 main deck). I cry and soon fall under the fire.
I sideboard Balance and Powder Keg.
Game 3, Stephane has a quick start with 1st and 2nd turn Pup, I have to drop Glacial Chasm to stay alive.
I play a Wheel of Fortune but get nothing of interest. Stephane topdecks his lone Wasteland and kills me.
1-2, 9 points.
Round 5: Tim Steurs - Turbo Stasis
Tim has a U/w/g version with good old Kismet for a true lock and the power cards.
He uses Mind over Matter to keep Stasis in play.
Game 1, Tim has to mulligan and his severly mana screwed (only a Mox Pearl) for several turns.
My Wasteland/Strip Mine don't help him, so after I start going off, Tim concedes.
Game 2, I get out a turn 2 Trade Routes, Tim lets it go. He then Force of Will my third turn Time Walk.
I am happy to draw a counter with it, so I can Wheel of Fortune later.
Tim then Forces my City of Solitude, but I've got Fastbond out and draw my Tolarian Academy, which gives me the extra
mana I need to Windfall, then Mystical Tutor for the Torch and kill him.
2-0, 12 points.
In the meantime, Stephane lost against Alex, so he stays at 10 (he had drawn earlier) while Alex is also at 12 points.
I have 44 resistance points while Alex has 43, so I win, Alex is 2nd and Stephane 3rd.
Check
http://cdevos.multimania.com/magic/revival/res2.htm for the results and top 2 decks.
Carl
9-person tournaments, Ernham Djinn (in the same role as Negator)...I thought this was a nice illustration of how far the format has come in 4 years.
Luckily, Matt had some ideas to fix Type 1 in the wake of the Necro restriction:
From: Matt D'Avanzo
Email:
tetragrammaton@hotmail.com Submited: Friday, 29 Sep 2000 20:44:31
Subject: How the DCI ruined type one....and how to fix it.
Well, when they restricted Necro wizards finally killed type one. As someone who generally plays a Keeper-esque control varient I shold be jumping for joy, as discard backed by a Necro-engine is my biggest threat. However, after some consideration I realize just how bad this is for the enivironment.
Necro besides being one of the all-time classic archetypes, was a truly great deck that anyone could build (in one of several versions) with or without power cards. It allowed good players, new to type one, the opportunity to compete without playing stupid red burn. Now fewer new players will attempt to play type one, which is a dying format as it is.
Secondly, without Necro to keep it in check Keeper-control will definitely become the top deck. If the extinction of Necro wasn't enough to facilitate that they decided to give control back mindtwist just to make sure. Now, this is bad because if control becomes too dominant we wind up with the DCI stepping in and screwing us control players over. Can you imagine manadrain being restricted?
As you know NEcro's restriction was to kill Trix. Now Necro isn't used in any other combo deck (21 and others need the graveyard, peebles sucks in type one). Now what could have been done to stop the power of Trix and not kill one of magic's all-time classic decks?
1. Restrict Donate: This is the obvious answer I suppose. It would work, although I don't think this card is a problem in itself. However if it has to come down between a quirky little card with fun possibilties and our beloved mighty Necro...donate is the one that has to go.
2. Errata the Illusions. Nice and simple. Make it so that when this permanant comes under your control you gain twenty.....or when you lose control you lose twenty. Thus donating it would give a person 20 life or make the Trix player lose 20 when he donates it. This however would effectively kill the Trix deck. Personally I don't care. Donate could play with other things instead of illusions (Forbidden Crypt) that would still be a good deck, but not the outright montrosity it is now.
After choosing one of these two, the DCI, if they wanted to check the power of regular Necro decks (which isn't really needed as it dies to an abyss or any five year old playing burn) could...
1. Unrestrict Black Vise. A 1.00 card that any new player can afford 4 of in any deck. It's a huge threat for control and Necro as both require full hands. It gives creature/agressive strategies a huge boost. Personally I'd love to see this happen....it puts aggro decks on par with the control.
2. Unrestrict Strip Mine. Necro hasto have BBB to work without a ritual. Three swamps on turn three is a bit difficult in a deck with 17 or 18 black mana sources. An early landkill gives you a few turns in which you can establish mana and a counterbase or inflict crucial points of damage to kill the Necro ability. VERY few true type one decks can afford to run 4 Strips and 4 Wastes (truly I can think of one) along with the moxen etc. as you won't have enough colored mana. A new player however (keep in mine strip mine is a nice $2 card), with no moxen, etc. can afford to play with all 8 to compensate for a lack of power cards. If it's still a problem restrict wasteland.
Although this wasn't really mentioned Demonic Consultation was totally worthy of restriction in type one. None of the truly powerful type one decks can pack four of them as the good stuff is restricted. Good versions of Trix, like Finkel's, use a total of two at most and STILL wind up losing their shirts to them every so often. Demonic Consult is a totally balanced card as it can grab you the game winner, or remove all chance of winning depending on luck/fate. Again any deck packing four of them is likely to be someone with no restricted goodies....so having if four demonic consults helps him compete against more powerful decks it's a good thing.
--Matt
I can actually get behind the errata arguement, but it's not like RectorTrix is dominating. Vise, Strip Mine, and Consult...
And, since I should be fair:
After the documented success of these decks, the research and testing of Mana Crypt decks became quite intensive. Although it generally became apparent that earlier designs were very draw dependent, it was also apparent that a few good draws (by the luckier players) could easily translate into a tourney win. Heavy LD and Hand destruction can beat a Mana Crypt deck slightly more than 50% of the time (ala TI Necro), fast creature decks are also problematic (esp. before sideboarding), but with a decent draw, a lucky player can beat any of them handily (and quite quickly). Hence the appeal to those inclined to gamble.
To battle some of these inconsistencies, Andrew Marshall suggested this deck (in outline form):
*"The Itch" (U/r/b) Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Mystic Remora, Mana Drain, Browse, Nether Void, Strip Mine, Pillage, Cyclopean Tomb, Fireball, Black Vise, and various hitters (usually Wildfire Emissary, Serendib Efreet, Derelor, etc.). The idea is to slow down slow decks with mana manipulation while nickel-and-diming her with critters or 'Vise, then when the lock deck goes for the get-me-out-of-this-mess spell, counter it (hopefully with a 'Drain), and DD her to death. The Mana Vault (and 'Crypt to power it) makes it possible to cast just about anything under Nether Void, and your HUGE Fireball is a threat through- out the game. It also works very well against quicker decks. This is one deck that is a severe pain in the neck to play against no matter what you are playing
-Andrew Marshall.
Ugh. I actually did a google search to see if this was still around but didn't get any hits a few weeks ago. Finding this was a rude shock. I was the first (and maybe only) guy in my area to get 4 Mana Crypts so I felt I needed to build decks around them. The Itch actually did well in tournaments but I attribute that more to the "all my broken cards in a deck" aspect of things over "I built a great deck."
Things like these are why I consider Type 1 a new format that's only
really been around for 2 or 3 years.
