Report: Type 1 Sanctioned, Spartanburg, 6/26

I wasn't going to write a report for this but there were some nice guys at the tournament, the TO and Hill in particular, and I felt like I should share some of the stuff that happened.

Recently I taught my girlfriend Anna how to play magic and she was interested in playing at the tournament with me. However she was relatively new so I had to build something which would not be too complicated or stressful to play but would also be competitive. Since my collection is pretty small and I don't have power, I built a goblin sligh deck for her to play - pretty standard, with lackey + siege gang, vandals, and skullclamps. There was a green splash in the board for naturalize.

I underestimated what the tournament would look like; or rather, I did not count on the presence of two powered players, one whose name I can't remember and the other is Hill. I decided to get out one of my old favorites from when I played standard a couple years ago and examine how it had been adjusted to type 1. I examined some decklists, including JPs, but I found that it was not quite what I had in mind for the environment I was going to be in. Here is the madness list I was going to run (I will explain some of the choices after):

4 Delta
3 Strand
4 Tropical
5 Island
4 Waste
1 Strip

4 Brainstorm
4 Rootwalla
4 Mongrel
4 Moeba
4 Arrogant
4 Logic
3 Daze
4 Force
3 Analysis
3 Wonder
1 Frantic Search
1 Gush

I wanted to maxmize my drawing since I don't have power. The deck is island heavy, and I did not want to run any nonblue sources since I liked the wastes and wanted to dominate the early game. So I went with seven fetches to increase my chances of shuffling post-brainstorm, and to increase my green count. I added the frantic search because without moxes it fits right in the curve, and I had lots of stuff to discard to it. The three dazes were right on target, they served me very well all day. I put those in because I wanted more cheap counters to protect my threats early on. The rest of the stuff is pretty standard.

So we leave sometime before one, and when we get there, there is a huge yugioh tournament with about twelve billion little kids so I got us some chairs to sit on the other side of the store until the tourney clears up. After a few minutes I hear three guys come in and one of them says "mana drain" really loud so I thought he might have some cards for trade. Turns out he was just trying to get my attention. Anyway, I walk over and its Hill & co. He is going to lend an entire, fully powered TnT deck to skippy (dringle) which is bad news for me. Hill won't reveal which deck he is playing, but I thought he was going to go with hulk. The other player is playing 4c control with burning wish. However, Hill does offer to let me borrow power (!!!) and lends me five pieces. In the mad scramble to get both my deck and my girlfriend's deck registered, I make one decklist construction mistake, but I got away with it as it doesn't end up costing me any games. Here is the list I ended up playing:

4 Delta
1 Strand
4 Tropical
4 Island
4 Waste
1 Strip
1 Emerald
1 Sapphire
1 Lotus

4 Brainstorm
4 Rootwalla
4 Mongrel
4 Moeba
4 Arrogant
4 Logic
3 Daze
4 Force
2 Analysis
2 Wonder
1 Walk
1 Recall
1 Frantic Search
1 Gush

I thought it was a brilliant strategy on Hill's part. In exchange for the borrowed power he received my tech and got to make a more informed decision on what he was playing. That was just fine with me, as I was powered now and was happy to make that exchange.

Soon the first round pairings went up.

Round 1 vs. Type 2 Guy playing Type 2 Combo.

Game 1. I win the roll, I go first and play a madness outlet on turn 2. He plays a prism. I waste his blue and black artifact lands on turns 3 and 4, and force the spell he plays with the prism mana. Beats ensue.

Game 2. This game I get force, two wastelands, AND a strip mine.

1-0

Anna played against a door to nothingness deck first round, but she ran over his mana myr and won 2-0. The deck later won in round 3, 2-0 against a guy playing countersliver. WTF?!? The guy he beat stormed out of the store.

By the way, I hate the DCI pairing software.

Round 2 vs. Anna.

There were 22 people at this tournament. Just so you know.

Game 1. I win the roll 20-19, power out some madness, and win.

Game 2. She wastes all my lands, burns all my creatures, and suffers no damage.

Game 3. I go first, brainstorm, fetch, aquamoeba, force a bolt on the moeba, swing and drop arrogant, and then counter her next creature. Close match.

2-0.

There was a lot of time after this round so I got to watch some of the other players. Hill had a ridiculous stax deck with lots of foils. I think he played against monowhite parfait in round 2.

Round 3. Vs Powered Guy with 4c.

Game 1, I win the roll, play, get out an aquamoeba, and start swinging. I waste 3 of his lands, but he swords's the moeba, and in response I drop wonder and gain 3 life. I don't get another outlet, and he gets recall, library, will...

Game 2. He gets recall, library, will (yes again), and lots of counters. There was one point where all I had was a tapped aquamoeba and an untapped island and wasteland. He Twists me for four, I hardcast daze, he forces, I pay ACC daze, and it resolves. He gets rid of my creature and a couple of turns later plays a morph. I have four untapped islands, a frantic search, 2 logics, and a brainstorm. I go frantic search, he says ok, I draw into a force, I discard one logic and madness the other, he forces, I force, and it resolves. I brought in 3 snaps from the board, and I draw two of them, but it is not enough to save me as we go to extra turns and I see two angels come down. Bad times for me.

2-1

The last round was really intense and while the guy shook my hand and said the games were excellent, I was really worn out and kind of irritated that he outdrew me so powerfully. But the next round was about to start so I had to shuffle up.

Round 4, guy playing Enchantress

Game 1. He wins the roll. We both decide to mulligan, and he wants us to both draw 7. I politely decline the invitation. When he does take his turn, he does not wait for a response when he plays tropical, exploration, wild growth. I say fine. I get madness outlets, wastelands, and logic his verduran and we are on to game 2.

Game 2. I get a strip mine for the fertile growth'd forest, force his foil destiny yavimaya enchantress, and win.

3-1

This puts me at fourth seed for top 8. Anna wins her match against wildfire (vandals kill all the dude's mana), but she goes 2-2 and does not make top 8. My next pairing was against sui so I cheered up a little bit.

Round 5, guy with "got smile" t-shirt playing sui

Game 1, he plays carnophage, I play mongrel and pitch wonder to block. He plays duress and takes my force, but doesn't use the window to cast anything. He gets a shade out but I have wonder.

+3 naturalize

Game 2. I keep a hand with force. He gets out a scroll and a keg, blows the keg for one killing his scroll and my rootwalla. I get out another aquamoeba. Later in the game he Hymns me with 3 cards in hand, in response I pitch rootwalla and wonder, and he gets my wasteland (I saw only swamps). He is at 8, vamps on his upkeep, I swing twice with a flying 3/1.

Now I am in the top 4. Unfortunately, my matchup is against skippy, who is borrowing a TnT deck from Hill. It was getting late and I kind of wanted to leave, since I had a long drive back. Hill came over and said him and the other guy were willing to do a four way split for top 4, and I wanted to, but my opponent wanted to play for it so I had to play.

Semifinals against skippy with TnT

Game 1. I force his welder, but he survivals into another and kills me.

I board in 3 naturalize, 3 BEB.

Game 2. This is my worst game of the tournament. I keep a hand with emerald, tropical, mongrel, brainstorm, BEB. I go turn 1 mongrel. He goes wasteland. I never see another colored source and die to phrexian colossus.

Thanks to Hill for lending me the power and the wastelands for Anna's deck, and for being a nice guy to us in general. Thanks to the TO for staying late and being an honest trader. Interesting side note; I never drew a deep analysis the whole tournament.

Hope you guys enjoyed the report.