Origins Report 2002

[Smmenen]

Origins Report: 2002

This year GAMA sponsored Origins and produced, numerically, very healthy type one tournaments.  The July 4th 4PM classic had 33 players.  The July 5th 1PM consisted of 57 people.  The July 6th 11AM consisted of 37 players.  Elsewhere on the internet I've seen figures for the previous year and this is, at the minimum, a jump of 25% more vintage interest.  Mike Guptil, the Professional Event Services level four judge, and prime mover of the Columbus magic community reviewed the situation and was impressed by the numbers and the strength of the format.  

Unfortunately, Origins demonstrated the weakness of the format too.  At each the of three tournaments I attended and mentioned above, only a very small handful of players came to the tournaments fully prepared in terms of knowledge of the BD/NG metagame, continuous playtesting of the format, and a desire to innovate or push the limits of the format.   This isn’t intended as disrespect for the players – many of whom are capable.  The problem is the format.  Many of the players simply pulled out a deck without truly understanding the format -- many which hadn’t played type one in some time, in some cases years.  

My friend Paul Mastriano spent many hours during the last two quarters of my college career playing type one with a small circle of magic players in Athens, Ohio.  At the end of the school year we had settled on sideboards and sufficiently tuned our decks and because he would be back in Pittsburgh and I returning to a summer camp for employment, neither of us would be able to continue testing.

Simultaneous to our testing and beginning in January the tournament of champions had begun for Beyond Dominia.  I was playing an extremely janky mono blue deck that I had originally designed to beat the old BBS juggernaut which, if you remember this 2001 deck, had four fact or fictions.  In December of 2001 I had created a large gauntlet deck of 12 type one decks: OSE, Keeper, Mask, Stacker, Oath, Grow, Stompy, Suicide Black, Academy, Sligh, BBS, and Trix which I used to test our decks against.  

When the decklists to the TOC5 (Tournament of Champions 5) were finally revealed I alerted my friend Paul to CF’s “Mask of Terror” deck.  Almost immediately Paul found some bargain deals for Illusionary Masks on Ebay.  Paul and I relentlessly tested and tuned that deck into a three-color juggernaut: Blue and Black with white for the utterly important seal of cleansing and some COPs in the sideboard.  

I had also tuned my mono blue into a place that I fell comfortable.  (I would like to correct some of Oscar Tan’s writings.  In particular a comment that he said I still prefer Prohibit to Kegs that is simply a false statement).  My final deck had three kegs and one capsize and only one Prohibit.  

All the type one tournaments had significant error in their structure.  It is impossible to determine with the degree of reliability accorded to normal sanctioned type two tournaments which decks were actually best because there was no playoff structure for top eight.  This worked to the benefit of certain decks.

In the six rounds of the first tournament, I faced three mono blue decks and lost because of poor playing to one of them (to Matthew Smith – whose report can be found on the internet who used Accumulated Knowledge’s and cunning wishes).  I beat a Void deck, two other mono blues, and I Crazy Carl’s Keeper (or was that match day two?).  Anyway, I lost one other match to Ryan McIntosh’s extremely good rOSE which he played extremely well while I played my deck poorly.  So a 4-2 netted me 5th place.  

The second day I got my deserved revenge on Matt Smith and lost only to a horrible Stacker deck do to play errors.  A 6-1 netted me 3rd place with 1st and 2nd also going 6-1, but my tiebreakers were awful and in part my fault.  In an early round my opponent signed the match slip and I turned it in shortly after.  But when I got back my opponent had expressed a desire to drop.  Unfortunately for me it was too late and so he went 0-2 to my friend Paul the next round.  That day I faced a very good zoo deck, two mono blue’s and other stuff I can’t remember.  My friend Paul got 8th.

The third day I lost my first round to a mono blue player who didn’t even know what the stack was to my play errors – being overconfident and tapping out when my opponent topdecks morphling (as they always will do).  But I quickly woke up and began a rampage which including me winning a nightmare enchantress matchup, beating my friend Paul in a match I have on video and will try and get on the web soon, and misdirecting two squirrel nest’s to my own Islands against the earthcraft deck.  In the last round I lost in an extremely interesting matchup to a turboland deck in which the guy had drawn his entire deck in the third game and won by the skin of his teeth.  I ended up 5-2, 6th place and my friend Paul in 2nd only because I beat him.  Paul had a very interesting match with cooberp, where Dan played ensnaring bridge which was beat by a face down 0/1 which became 12/12 only after it became an attacker.  

All in all a great time – I won a crap load of product and had a lot of fun.  The video is hysterical and I’m sure Parrot, Carl, and Cividel will all look forward to seeing it.  

Ultimately the lesson of origins is that Type One’s future cannot lie on the tournaments – but that these tournaments must support a larger presence on the web which itself is supported by diehard fans who devote a great deal of their magical prowess to the format.  

Here is what I played:

16 Islands
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Moxen
1 Black Lotus

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
3 Back to Basics
4 Impulse
4 Ophidians

2 Morphling
3 Powder Kegs
1 Capsize

4 FOW
2 Misdirections
4 Mana Drain
4 Counterspell
4 Mana Leak
1 Prohibit

SB:
4 Control Magics
1 Powder Keg
2 Thwart
2 Misdirection
1 Extract
2 Blue Elemental Blasts
2 Prohibits
1 Back to Basics

Stephen Menendian

[Milton]

Good job.  

I do like your deck.  Can you tell us what the field looked like?  Keeper?  Zoo?  Suicide?  I'm going to GenCon and Origins is usually very indicative of GenCon.

Also, where do I find Matt Smith's article?  He beat me last year at Gen Con in fifth round of the Type I.

[Milton]

Also, how do you sideboard (in and out) against Keeper, OSE, Void, Suicide, Mono Blue and Sligh?

[Smmenen]

The field fluctuated day to day.  Overall the field was pretty random.  Keepers all did well until they had to play mono blues.  I saw pretty much everthing over the course of the three days: void, stacker, zoo, sligh, four or so Keepers, ROSE, WorldGorger Dragon decks, Mask (my friends), several mono blues, turboland, Kai Budde Trix, Academy, zoo, grow, and suicide black.  

There was a notably very low presence of sligh and no stompy at all (at least that I saw).  It reminded me somewhat of the last tournament of champions without actually having playoff rounds.

Matt Smith's report is here:

http://www.cardshark.com/content/view_article.asp?article_id=580  

I'm the player that he refers to at the end who he thinks he is better than.  To be honest, he did play better than me.  But I got my act together and acquired revenge the next day.

Stephen Menendian

[Smmenen]

From day one to day three my sideboard changed significantly to reflect the lack of sligh and stompy.  I cut the annuls and one REB and added the fourth B2B in my sb.  Additionally I added a 2nd Thwart and more prohibits so that in the mirror I could go: -3 b2b, -3 Kegs, + 2 Prohibit, +2 Mis-d, + 2 Thwarts and I would keep in the Capsize just in case.  

Against Keeper I would side in the fourth B2B and two Misdirections while taking out a capsize, a keg, and prohibit.  Two Kegs were enough to knock out moxen.

Against sligh the keg, two REBs, two misdirections come in and out goes the capsize, and three back to basics and probably a mana leak.  And as weird and janky as it is, I side out the leaks for prohibits probably.  

Against Suicide, I side in the control magics - and depending on the suicide build, depends on what else and what comes out. I like Phids against carnophage/sarco versions more than againt Legendesque sueys.  

Stephen Menendian

[CrazyCarl]

Ahhhh Origins, good times.  Yes, you thrashed me(I think it was the first day).  I must exact revenge...

Everyone, I assure you, the video is comperable to a Texaco station..... It's so gassy ;D  

Stephen: Do please e-mail me when you get the movie up, i'd love to see it.

Oh, as for the whole sligh/stompy thing.  I saw 1, maybe 2 sligh decks on the first day(the one I saw was foiled out and did rather poorly, I think he played control the next day )And I saw some mono green decks, but they were a far cry from stompy.

Carl

[NaClhv]

Nice report; I enjoyed reading it.  I was half thinking about going to origins, but was afraid of dragon running around all over the place.  I guess people haven't caught on to the deck yet.

Don't be concerned about what Oscar says about you; I think most people know better than to believe him when he points out specific people.

If you're going to gen-con, do you expect to see the same metagame of little dragon and little aggro?

I haven't been impressed with the builds of mask that I've seen so far;  I'm interested in the decklist of the one that did well in the tournament.  If not a whole decklist, can you at least tell us whether it was built as a combo deck or an aggro deck?

[Rakso]

YOU USED POWDER KEGS?!?!?!

Woo-hoo... you have seen the light!!!

Seriously, though, you do realize that Matt Smith's deck looks like a complete pile of junk? If you were able to watch a game or two of his, would you mind reporting how he might've played better when his report simply says, "I played B2B and won. I topdecked B2B and won. I pulled B2B out of my anus and won."

I didn't read his report before I wrote my last column, but it seems prophetic because I named Origins as a relatively large Type I tournament that may not be as credible as it seems.

HIS report gives Type I a very bad name so you may want to publish your own.

Yes I said that.

[CrazyCarl]

I agree his deck may look suboptimal(I think it would look alot better with some Ophidians), but hey, I lost to it(GOD DAMN PSIONIC BLAST :flaming: ).  I would have beaten him in game 2 of our match(and most likely won the match) If I'd ever drawn a Tutor or Morphling(I had sylvan going the whole game, but all I drew were counters and random broken cards).  He really had no chance of winning but I got very, very very unlucky to have not seen a way of getting a kill card that late(I had at most 15-20 cards in my deck).

Maybe it's because I really like the card, but I think the Wishes(maybe 2, 3 seems excessive) were a good addition, and with some tuning could be pretty devastating.

Carl

[Green Knight]

Thanks for posting the report Smmenen, it was a good read.
It makes no sense to me that there was no top eight, did GAMA give a reason for this? Time restraints, maybe? Either way congrats on the high finishes.
Is there any chance of posting a link to the video match here (when you get it up)?
Thx

[cactusbiter]

Smmenen: Thanx a million for posting report, now I'm prepared for this September's side events. Congrats on using kegs, guess I won't have to finish off that play set of foil prohibits for you.

On another note,

Roughly what was the ratio of combo to aggro to control, etc.

Thanx

[Akuma (gio)]

Smmenen: Are there decklists posted anywhere for Origins. I would really like to see the decks people played.

[Fishhead]

Everyone should check out the Matt Smith report that Smmenen linked earlier in this thread.  It covers a lot of ground including several newly popular decks like Gro and Dragon as well as the MonoU he played.  Good stuff.

[Smmenen]

Answers:

The Mask deck my friend Paul played - the one we have spent countless hours tuning is primarily black with a splash for Ancestral and Time Walk and one Seal of Cleansing maindeck.  It is very aggro with four negators maindeck but also heavy in discard as well.  

My games against Matt were ridiculously poor.  The second day - the 2nd game of our match that he alluded to, I lost by decking myself.  I overused my Phids to the point that I miscalculated how much I could draw.  

Control forms, G/W, Void, and blue based decks composed a majority of the decks with combo probably more prevalent than aggro.  Combo included Squirrelcraft, Mask, Trix, Dragon, and Academy.  

Stephen Menendian

[Rakso]

Quote (Fishhead @ July 17 2002,20:48)Everyone should check out the Matt Smith report that Smmenen linked earlier in this thread.  It covers a lot of ground including several newly popular decks like Gro and Dragon as well as the MonoU he played.  Good stuff.

Uh... you mean subpar versions of decks we've known about for months and haven't exactly focused lots of attention on?

Anyway, Carl, what made you think Cunning Wish was a good addition to mono blue. I'm scratching my head because he said it was a page off Mike Long's book, but Long plays with five colors, not one, and he very obviously has more options.

I still don't understand how Spelljack fetched via Cunning Wish is a serious strategy, for example. Hell, I don't understand where you find three slots for the Wish.

Also, Carl, what did you side in? You lost the topdeck war, basically, and got outcountered due to sheer weak topdecks?

Steve, would you attribute blue winning to Back to Basics, or to a combo-heavy field?

Also, how exactly did you deck yourself in game 2? If he couldn't handle Phid, I figure you'd have a full hand in a few turns. I understand overconfidence and slipping like that, but you made it sound a bit extreme.

[Mr. Channel-Fireball]

Quote Uh... you mean subpar versions of decks we've known about for months and haven't exactly focused lots of attention on?

Hmmm....that whole sentence says a lot about your character. I'll leave it at that.

Quote Anyway, Carl, what made you think Cunning Wish was a good addition to mono blue. I'm scratching my head because he said it was a page off Mike Long's book, but Long plays with five colors, not one, and he very obviously has more options.

If you had actually read the article you would have realized that I said Mike Long saw my addition of Cunning Wish and mentioned that he'd put it in his Keeper, not the other way around.  Long obviously has more options but that isn't the point. When you're talking about card advantage you have to think in 3-D.  Yes, Cunning Wish would obviously be better in a Keeper deck, but it is COMPLETELY viable in Mono-Blue.  

Of course, testing would tell you this.  

Quote
I still don't understand how Spelljack fetched via Cunning Wish is a serious strategy, for example. Hell, I don't understand where you find three slots for the Wish.

Hmm...how about you do yourself a favor and read that article again buddy?  It never once states that Spelljack was thought to have been a good idea...and if you can't understand the Wish then I would recommend trying to play a few more games.

I am always amused to see what comes out of that hole in your face Oscar.  You discredit tournaments like Origins and Gencon, but where do you play?  I've already spanked you at least five times on Appr and by the way you played (Keeper also) I don't really see where you have ANY room to talk about what, or how, someone should be playing in this format.  

I guess what they say is true:  write a couple of articles, join enough newsgroups, and you think you're all that.  

I've actually won tournaments there, Tan.  Show me what you've done.  Because to me it sounds like a case of JB Syndrome.

Stephen, as I said in my article, I think your build was indeed better than mine.  I'd like to combine to two and manufacture something in between.  Good job on the two tournaments after that.  I'd also like to get a look at the decklist your friend had for the Mask deck, as I think it has SERIOUS potential in the new T1 environment.

To anyone else I played on Thursday, if you have comments concerning myself then go ahead and address me. I obviously didn't bite anyone's head off at Origins, and I know that last year at GenCon there were quite a few people who approached me from BD and asked me for some advice on their decks.

[CrazyCarl]

Rakso: I sided in 4 REB, siding out Vamp, Mystical, Zorb and Fire/Ice.  I lost because, while I had counters in my hand, and Sylvan going, I was unable to find a shaman or morphling to finish him off.I got myself down to four and he cunning wished for Psionic Blast.  He basically out topdecked me(I hadn't drawn my demonic either i think.).  I had the game won for MANY turns, but we fought a counter war over something major, then a few turns later(Him drawing counters, me not- i was drawing lands even drawing 2 a turn off sylvan sometimes)he drew the cunning wish to kill me ;\.  The wish may not be good in mono blue, i just really like the card alot.

Carl

[Fishhead]

Quote (Rakso @ July 18 2002,06:38)Uh... you mean subpar versions of decks we've known about for months and haven't exactly focused lots of attention on?

OK, Rakso, you dont have to read the thread if you dont want to.  

Seriously though, you seem a little tense these days; half of your posts are annoying, snippy or totally incoherent.  You're rapidly burning up my patience and all the goodwill you built up from Modding BD for all those years.  Don't care?  Too cool to be bothered?  Well, to each his own, but you've got to be noticing how many uncomplimentary comments your behavior is drawing.  

Tangent: Since the new Rakso is so much more crotchety than the old Rakso, its time to bust out a Secret Conspiracy Theory.   Anyone else notice that as the new Rakso ramped up his posting here, Legend seems to have drifted away from the boards?  Its like Clark Kent and Superman; you dont see the two of them together.  Can they be --- alter egos?

[Matt The Great]

Quote (Mr. Channel-Fireball @ July 19 2002,13:37)Because to me it sounds like a case of JB Syndrome.

What is JB syndrome? The only JB I know of is Jim Beam...

[NaClhv]

Rakso:

So let me get this straight.  In determining what decks are good, you choose to ignore:

1) Results from Origins, which along with Gen-Con is probably the largest and the most well-known tournament for type 1 in the U.S.
2) Other people's playtesting, over many games, across many opponents, and with many builds.
3) Sound arguments and reasonings presented to you, choosing to respond with cheeky comments and personal jabs rather than logical discourse in kind.

Can you tell us, then, what actually counts as a "Proof" of a good deck to you?  It seems to me that you've alienated yourself from all possible experimental and theoretical demonstration that a deck is actually good.  We all know that you've got a fetish for keeper, but this extreme practice of shutting yourself off from all possibility of being convinced that there are other good decks is... disturbing.

On to more important things:

Smmenen and Channel-Fireball, congrats on high finishes at one of the best-known type 1 tournaments in the country.

On the mask deck: Like I said, I've been unimpressed with what I've seen of mask so far.  In my playgroup, it's mostly something that we see as "been there, done that, didn't work".  But then again, we've only seen a combo version of mask.  I've always thought that the mask-dreadnaught combo is not fast or devastating enough to be a combo by itself, so it should be played in an aggro deck, with the illusionary mask being a "trick" to the overall aggro strategy.  So I think that your friend's version of mask is probably headed in the correct direction, and if I can see a decklist that'd be great.

My general impression with mono-blue is that it does well against many control strategies, but loses to aggro.  Having never played mono-blue myself, I'm not sure how accurate this impression is.  Can anyone tell me how the matchups work for mono-blue?  And do you think that the lack of aggro in the metagame was a significant factor in your high finishes?

[kirdape3]

NaClhv:

1) If the Amateur Championship at Origins was any indicator of general field quality, the results are skewed because the field was poor.  Winning over somebody who doesn't follow the format as regularly as they could is no great feat.

2) Never, ever, trust anybody else's playtesting unless you know and trust that person to be a reliable and intelligent player.

3) If by 'logical argument' you mean stuff like 'my horrible pile of cards beats Keeper 7 out of 10 games' then I'd make jabs at you too.  Stuff like that leads me to believe that you suffer from repeated MDMA use.

OF COURSE Rakso's a Keeper nut.  However, it is still the deck most capable of performing for a great player.  Yes, there are good decks besides Keeper, but if the guy playing Keeper is competent then he'll win.

[Smmenen]

Quote Steve, would you attribute blue winning to Back to Basics, or to a combo-heavy field?

Also, how exactly did you deck yourself in game 2? If he couldn't handle Phid, I figure you'd have a full hand in a few turns. I understand overconfidence and slipping like that, but you made it sound a bit extreme.  

I'm not sure that there is a single clear-cut reason why mono blue wins.  I think there are definitely elements of both points you stated in the answer.  To be honest I found myself siding out B2B more frequently than one would think.
Mono blue also has to be able to beat other mono blues.

I think one of the primary reasons mono blue wins is because of its versatility - it can pretty much deal with any creature, out draw any other deck, and even steal opponents creatures.  Capsize and counterspell is explemplary mono blue cards.  It's got the best creature, the best drawer, and great removal: kegs and capsize.  B2B is possibly icing on the cake.  

In my experience what B2B allows mono blue to do is to accelerate the game so that mono blue doesn't have to play the waiting game and sit there for the other deck to make its move -- B2B can be played immediately and early, not just after  a huge counter war.

B2B possibly makes mono blue decks worse because mono blue players don't think they have to do the real work because they win by the B2B default - and the result is poor decks like we saw at origins: no ophidians, four cunning wishes, accumulated knowledges, - and I'm not just talking about Matt Smiths deck.

The first night of the tournament - I played Matt Smith the last round.  The person who won our game would get 2nd place.  I won the first game and then lost the subsequent two due to being extremely stupid.  He got 2nd and I got 5th.

About my game where I got decked.  I was extremely cocky.  I countered all of his morphlings and his Masticore and just assumed that I would win.  But he managed to force an ancestral recall through and make me deck myself when I only had 3 or four cards in my library.
To others: Please stop bickering about the legitimacy of origins.  Here is my thoughts on the matter:  It's somewhere in between.  It's not the best indicator of the metagame, but then what is?  It's not totally dismissible either.  But the way it was set up makes it impossible to tell which decks were truly best.

About the Mask deck:

I think, and still believe, that this deck is strong - but one of its biggest strengths is that it is new and unexpected.  There is a SIGNIFICANT amount of psychology and rules lawyering at work in this deck: when to flip creatures, faking out which creatures might be which, i.e.: is that a hippie or a naught?, using the rulings to get around cards like kegs and ensnaring bridge.  

Its surprise value is very high.  Nevertheless, it has proved itself again and again.  The reason I beat Paul - and was one of the only decks to do so, I think he went 17-2 or something like that over the three days, is because of my intimate knowledge of the deck.  

Additionally, I'm not sure that having him release his decklist would be right for him because I, and him, are interested in using this deck in the future.  

Carl - it seemed like the Wish was just really good in your keeper.  Do you think that maybe it deserves a permanent slot?

[CrazyCarl]

Stephen: Do you mean in keeper or mono u?

[Mr. Channel-Fireball]

Quote B2B possibly makes mono blue decks worse because mono blue players don't think they have to do the real work because they win by the B2B default - and the result is poor decks like we saw at origins: no ophidians, four cunning wishes, accumulated knowledges, - and I'm not just talking about Matt Smiths deck.

Actually Stephen my deck ran 2 B2B's main, and against the field during the first day (which was control for those not present) it did earn its spot.  

But you ran three....

Once again, if you believe that Cunning Wish is a bad card, then I have to argue that you're wacked out on Prohibit crack.

I'll admit, your deck was better than mine.  But that doesn't really matter, does it?  In fact, after watching a few of your games you convinced me to run the Phids myself.  I'm still unsure about how I'll filter the mana, as I'd like to keep the 2 wastelands and, of course, the super good Cephalid Coliseum.  

And I would have stood behind AK much the same way I'm sure you'll defend Prohibit.  But for me I'd rather see it in action and test it out myself, not hear it from someone else and take it as gospel.  So after watching them work for you, and using them Saturday and Sunday at the Rook challenge (to net me two super cool metal deck holders) I am convinced that Phids are probably the best way to go.

But I still think you should run the full jewelry to get them out faster...

Truthfully, in some situations I still believe AK to be better than Ophidian.

[Milton]

I liked the Accumulate Knowledge in your deck.  Ophidian is a fragile card.  If you plan on using Phid as your card drawing engine you have to be prepared to counter Lightning Bolts, Diabolic Edicts and Swords to Plowshares, otherwise you cannot reliably establish card advantage.  I'm running 3 Edicts just to beat Ophidian.  Also, after you cast an early Phid, I can Red Blast on your end step.  You will most likely be nearly tapped out to cast the Phid and I will be able, with Keeper, to do some nifty things on my main phase against a tapped out Mono-Blue player.

I thought the AK's were a good way of getting around the fragile Phid.

[Superman on Dope]

If you run AKs over Phids, there's no excuse for not running Merchant Scroll.

Milton: Phids are more powerful than AKs, though I agree that they're more fragile.  I also agree with Matt Smith that the AKs will be better than Ophidian in certain situations, but you have to take the cards themselves and see the huge difference in power level before thinking of situations that may arise where AK would be better.  Those instances are rare, and the gamebreaking nature of Phid is just too tremendous to pass it up for a weaker card that's only better in certain 'situations'.

I play Keeper as my secondary deck to TurboLand/Control, and I fear an early Ophidian far more than I fear an early Back to Basics.  To me it's the Phid that keeps mono-U a top deck, with the BtB being that annoying extra something that makes the deck even more aggravating to play against.

[Rakso]

Steve,

I QUOTED you in my next column.

Mwahahahahahahahaha.

I know you're going to get me for it, so I may as well enjoy it to the hilt.

Again, congratulations on seeing the light (well almost all... still one Prohibit left).

[Rakso]

Quote (Mr. Channel-Fireball @ July 18 2002,23:53)Once again, if you believe that Cunning Wish is a bad card, then I have to argue that you're wacked out on Prohibit crack.

I'm going to kill myself one day for actually agreeing with Smmenen on anything, but he's probably a better player than a lot of posters. Of course, he's also a lot more fun to make fun of and he tends to be hard to talk strategy with, so we like to suppress that little detail.

That said, I did write an article that concluded Cunning Wish is probably the Wish to try in Type I, if you think they're any good.

However, I assumed it would be tried in a multicolored deck, since it's admittedly limited in MONO BLUE for crying out loud. Of course it's good in some situations, but everything can be good in some situations.

Cracks about crack from a guy who ran Spelljack for the love of everything holy then blamed it on Mike Long???

[Rakso]

Quote (CrazyCarl @ July 18 2002,15:06)Rakso: I sided in 4 REB, siding out Vamp, Mystical, Zorb and Fire/Ice.  I lost because, while I had counters in my hand, and Sylvan going, I was unable to find a shaman or morphling to finish him off.I got myself down to four and he cunning wished for Psionic Blast.  He basically out topdecked me(I hadn't drawn my demonic either i think.).  I had the game won for MANY turns, but we fought a counter war over something major, then a few turns later(Him drawing counters, me not- i was drawing lands even drawing 2 a turn off sylvan sometimes)he drew the cunning wish to kill me ;\.  The wish may not be good in mono blue, i just really like the card alot.

Carl

By the way, I forgot about this one.

I still rue the day I was playing a Game 3 against Suicide Black and got a freaking FIRST TURN SYLVAN LIBRARY on the table.

It revealed...

Morphling
Braingeyser
Yawgmoth's Will
Regrowth
etc.
etc.

Then, the land with those cards were Cities and my UP!

Guess who won?

[Smmenen]

I was definately talking about Cunning Wish in Keeper - I would not play it in mono blue.

Rakso:  Look forward to reading your column.

Stephen Menendian