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AngryPheldagrif
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« on: March 28, 2004, 10:40:37 pm » |
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My report:
T1 5-proxy format. Standard DCI rules, pairings and tiebreakers using DCI tournament software. Top Prize was an Unlimited Timetwister. 2nd place was $75, 3rd place was $25. 28 people in attendance. 5 rounds of Swiss, then cut to top 4.
The deck:
Combo:
4x Illusionary Mask
4x Phyrexian Dreadnought
4x Berserk
Tutors:
1x Demonic Consultation
2x Tainted Pact
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Demonic Tutor
Obvious:
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Time Walk (Proxy #1)
Suicide Stuff:
3x Unmask
4x Duress
4x Phyrexian Negator
Draw:
1x Ancestral Recalll (Proxy #2)
1x Timetwister
1x Necropotence
Mana:
1x Black Lotus (Proxy #3)
1x Mox Sapphire (Proxy #4)
1x Mox Jet (Proxy #5)
3x Bloodstained Mire
1x Polluted Delta (I could only find one Delta)
4x Bayou
4x Underground Sea
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Crypt
3x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
1x Swamp
1x Snow-covered Swamp
4x Dark Ritual
Round 1: Random Blue
Opponent was one of the random kids playing a totally random deck. His was blue control, full of random stuff. No hope for whatsoever.
Game 1: First turn Duress pulls Binding Grasp. His hand is 3 Islands, Mischievious Quanar, and something random. I pull Mask and Dreadnought whenever, he’s dead.
Game 2: Essentially the same, fast Dreadnought, third turn win.
Matches: 1-0, Games: 2-0
Round 2: Hulk
This one was against Lloyd, a guy we met at Gamefest, playing Hulk. This was the match I was certain I’d lose.
Game 1: Duress and Unmask pull his card-drawing, and he ran out of counters before I ran out of Dreadnought.
Game 2: (I sideboard in Xantid Swarms and a couple Drakes). Slow hand, but quick Xantid Swarm lets me slip through a Mask and Dreadnought. He smashes the Dreadnought, but I go off third turn with a massive Yawgmoth’s Will including the return of the Lotus and Recall which nets me another Dreadnought. He pulls Psychatog, but doesn’t block and I Berserk for the kill. He showed me afterwards that he had Force of Will for the Berserk (and could have probably won the next turn or at least killed Dreadnought) but couldn’t because of the Swarm.
Matches: 2-0, Games: 4-0
Round 3: Food Chain Goblins
I was fairly confident since he was playing aggro, but I’m not terribly familiar with the deck and I figured he’d have a load of artifact hate on the board.
Game 1: I go first with a Duress, a Mask, and a Dreadnought (Berserk in hand). Good game.
Game 2: (I watched in awe as he totally ignored his sideboard. Apparently, his red-green deck didn’t sideboard a single anti-artifact card.) I go first turn Mask-Nought. No challenge at all.
Matches: 3-0, Games: 6-0
Round 4: Hulk
Played a guy I don’t know, playing another bloody Hulk.
Game 1: I keep a sub-par hand, and my quick Mask and Negator are promptly Forced and Drained. Just as I’m starting to get back in, he throws one hell of a curveball with a 5-mana Mind Twist for my whole hand. I sit through it until he pulls Tog with counters in hand and I scoop.
Game 2: I narrowly squeak through a quick Dreadnought, but he bargains on an extra turn to kill it and I Berserk for the win.
Game 3: He manages to mana-screw me through two Wastelands, a Naturalized Mox Jet, and Rack and Ruin on Sol Ring and Sapphire. I sit through the whole game with a god-hand and no mana. He Drains my Lotus and it’s all over.
Matches: 3-1, Games: 7-2
Round 5: Madness (Bombs over Bagdad)
At this point I needed a win to even have a chance at Top 4, and even then my tie-breakers would be close.
Game 1: He keeps a 4 land hand (no Bazaar) and I Unmask Wild Mongrel. He doesn’t have time to get going before Dreadnought appears and smashes face.
Game 2: (We talk a bit between games since our first one took around 5 minutes. He tells his friend he better get a darn good hand to win.) We draw our hands, he appears satisfied. I only grin. He drops a Bazaar and Lion’s Eye, and Bazaars into a Rootwalla. I go Lotus, land, Mask, 2 Dreadnoughts. He flashes a Roar and barely survives the first hit, but doesn’t draw a hoser.
Matches: 4-1, Games: 9-2
At this point we were waiting for top 4 pairings; the tournament organizer didn’t think the last couple of matches still going from Round 5 would matter since they were really low record people playing. We get going on it and I’m matched against the second ranked guy. I was ranked third at the time.
Round 6, Semifinals: TNT
He was quite literally playing TNT, Survival engine and everything. He even labelled his box ‘TNT’.
Game 1: We both get going decently, but Unmask slows him down. We’re going pretty evenly, but to put it simply, my fatties are bigger than his fatties. Dreadnought mows down his Juggernaut as Welder sits uselessly with my artifactless graveyard.
Game 2: I go Bayou, Ritual, Negator turn one. He is mana screwed with an Emerald and a Forest. I Wasteland his topdecked Volcanic Island, hit twice, and then Berserk the third time for the kill.
Matches: 5-1, Games: 11-2
It is at this time (since this match took less than 15 minutes) that one of the slow matches from round five reports. This apparently screws up the tie-breakers and knocks me down to 5th place! I’m nearly having a heart attack, since I’m now facing zilch in prizes, whereas I had been about to go for $75 minimum. We’re arguing over tie-breakers, (I’m trying to bargain for something and I’m kinda pissed because I already won my semi-final), when it turns out that there was one more match still going. They report and it kicks the standing back the way they were, with my in third place. This gets the guy who got kicked back to 5th place really annoyed. He argues with the organizer, but the organizer shows him that despite our identical match records, I have a 20% higher game win percentage, offsetting his slight advantage in opponents win percentage. The matter is resolved and it’s time for the finals.
Match 7, Finals: Hulk
This is the same guy who beat me in round four, so I’m not really thrilled.
Game 1: I mulligan and keep a mediocre hand. He has plenty of counters and I sit there with nothing till he pulls the Tog for the win.
Game 2: We’re neck and neck, with him countering and Wasting most of my land, and me having a first turn Negator and Necropotence. He drops Deed and Tog, and I drop a second Negator (He's running out of cards trying to keep up with several consecutive Masks he had to Force, since I'm drawing 3-5 cards a turn for a bit). He Deeds, blowing half his mana away, and I pull out my waiting Mask-Dreadnought for the kill.
Game 3: I gamble, keeping a hand with no land, Lotus, and a Ritual. I go Lotus, Ritual, Negator (which gets Forced) and Mask. This was a huge gamble for me since all he had to do was Force the Lotus and I would have almost definitely lost. He taps out for Tog, but it can only be up to like a 5/6 or something. I drop a Wasteland and a Dreadnought. He draws and passes. I topdeck a Bayou, which saves my ass. I swing, he takes it and I Berserk. He responds with Accumulated Knowledge for one, then a Brainstorm, then grimaces and packs up.
Matches: 6-1, Games: 13-3
I’m happy, chat for a bit, then go pick up my prize Twister, which turned out to be in terrible shape. Oh well, a Twister’s a Twister.
Props:
Phyrexian Dreadnought: For being so much damn bigger than everyone else’s fatties.
Berserk: For making my already damn big guys even damn bigger. Also for the fun of 20/5 Negators.
Yawgmoth’s Will: Bah-roken
Xantid Swarm: For kinda helping me win that one game.
My brother: For playing a rogue deck and breaking even in a Tier 1 metagame. Additionally, for loaning me 99% of the deck. Additionally, for suggesting the broken Necropotence, and the not-so broken Timetwister.
The store: For holding it.
Random scrubs: For amusement purposes; for giving my an effective first round bye.
Slops:
Random scrubs: For being annoying; for lowering my opponent’s win% tiebreaker.
DCI Tiebreakers: For annoying everyone and making the top 4 a living hell.
The Timetwister: For being in such terrible shape; also for sucking in my deck.
My sideboard: For being useful less than 10% of the time.
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