This is the tournament report for the A-Z Ancestral / Time Walk tournament on 07-27-02
STARRING: (primarily)
Freddie Williams II, Keeper
Jeff Beith, Aggro Blue
Pat Giles, R/g anti Keeper
Ben Parrott, Keeper
Brent Everest, Mono Blue
Matt Reitz, Parfait
Everyone but Jeff were supposed to have picked me up at 4:30, to get to Jeff’s by 5-5:15, so that we could all drive together for 45 minutes to get to A-Z, by 6:00, since Jeff was the only one of us that knew how to get out there.
The gang shows up at 5:10… this is not looking good, we have at least an hour of traveling time ahead, and A-Z will start pretty promptly.
I ride with Jeff and Ben, Pat and the rest of the crew following. As we speed to beat the tournament clock, we call ahead to sign us up… come to find out the person that we spoke to on the phone was apparently on crack, cause they had the time wrong, as it started at 7:00, not 6:00, and the entry fee was $10.00, not $5.00.
So we pull into A-Z with plenty of time to spare, we make last minute tweaking, and play a few games. This attracts a crowd, Jeff vs Ben, and me vs Reitz (Reitz getting a 1st turn land tax, and zorb, with a 2nd turn scroll rack, bustard)… This must have been the most power cards that they (the crowd) had seen on one table, since there were quite a few of them surrounding us, and whispering… a few of the bystanders actually decided not to play in the tournament, after watching us…
5 rounds of swiss, and then single elim top 8.
It’s going to be a long night.
Finally we get the parings, almost everyone in our group plays vs one another Me vs Brent Everest, Jeff vs Reitz… rigged? I don’t know but at the least ironic.
0-0, Round 1: Brent Everest, Mono Blue
Brent is cool, about the nicest and most laid back magic player I’ve met.
Game 1: I get some early brokeness, and then seal it with a will, with only about 15 cards in my deck, I lay a morphling, and swing 4 times. On to game 2
SB: -1 Plow, -1 Abyss, -1 Zorb, -1 Mystical, -1 Wasteland, -1 Vamp, -1 Geyser, +4 REB, +1 Aura Fracture, +1 Diabolic Edict, +1 Tranquil Domain
Game 2: I strip his 1st island, and then drop 2 moxen one of witch is a sapphire, to impulse at his eot. He lays an island, and an emerald, and when at my eot tries to impulse I reb, cause the way he says it, like he would be afraid if I did. He is totally mana screwed by this, and I win cause I do nothing but lay like 8 mana, while he is discarding.
Finally I win a counter war, were he was pitching allot, over an eot ForF, then twist his hand, and lay morphling, as his next 12 draws are land, the game is over.
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1-0 Round 2: John Sanders, keeper
I had seen John 1 month earlier at the Juzam tourney that I won. He was playing a really weird keeper build, back then, with maindeck duress and abeyance, since then he has gotten a little more current, the only divergence from mainstream keepers, was running at least 1 urza’s Rage.
Game 1: This is were I am so happy to be running 4 wastelands, and a strip mine… I mana hose him early, but don’t draw any pressure he recovers a little, and gets a monkey that eats like 3 moxen, before being plowed.
I finally draw a few counters and force in a tome. Tome is so good in this sort of situation, were I the controller is able to break stalemates with it, and that is what it does, allowing me to out counter him and resolve a yagwill, I win in short order.
SB: -1 Plow, -1 Abyss, -1 Zorb, -1 Mystical, -1 Vamp, -1 Walk, -1 Geyser, +4 REB, +2 Miner, +1 Edict
I have all mana in my opening hand, but keep, since 1 of them is a library, and 1 is a wasteland, with 2 COB, I knew I would have a better early game then he would, at least establishing mana dominance.
I was right and wrong, He gets a 2nd turn Miner, I think "Library, you are about to work some overtime," I waste his red source, and then I draw into another waste, before he can hit 3 mana.
The Miner starts applying the beats, but I counter every attempt to find mana he has, I REB an impulse, I counter 2 moxen and a sol Ring.
I take 8 points from this freaking Miner, before I finally see one of my own.
He dies with 1-2 permanents in play and 1-2 cards in hand… the library survived until my last turn.
We decide to play a fun game w/out SB, and the only play of note was, john got a really good early start with wastes and strip, finally I drew a white source, and cast a mox, balancing.
John has 4 lands in play, no moxen, but a Zorb, so he counters, and I FOW, he then adds to the stack and sacs all land to the zorb, I add to the stack and FOW my own Balance, thus killing all his land, about 12 turns later I had mana burned a bunch of times, and taken allot of city damage, he urza’s raged me, and I had to plow my own shaman on the stack to stay alive… style points.
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2-0 Round 3: Alex Sylverman, White Weenie
I met Alex about a year or so ago at a T2 tournament, and have not seen him since, nor have I ever liked him… He was playing sleeveless, and I could never tell for sure, but I think that all his lands were Ice age, so that they had the Blue cast to the black border on the back of the cards… I was unsure and this was non-sanctioned, so I did not say anything, but I kept my eye on them.
Game 1: He does the usual 1 and 2 cc little bitches, and I get to a dangerous life total, I have not seen Zorb, and no tutor to fetch, so I do a bunch of stuff to try and find one, but cannot. I cast a Yawgwill, and start to play a land, and he says that I had already played 1 for the turn, although I had not.
He complained so much, that the judge came over and said that since he could not be certain, that all he could do is assume that I had not… lame. So I guess that all I will need to do from now on is every turn yell and complain that my opponent had already dropped a land, and it will be the same as me countering his land drop. I needed that land to ancestral, and the zorb was in the top 3 cards of my deck… of course!
If he really thought that I had dropped a land, then I understand how hard he fought for it, as I would too, I am just aggravated that it turned out the way it did, and the way that the judge explained his decision.
I loose, cause of the decision, as I am at 2 and he has a mother of runes, and a white knight out, and gives the knight pro blue, and sneaks past my morphling.
SB: -1 Counter spell, -1 Misdirection, -1 wasteland, +1 Edict, +1 Moat, +1 Enlightened tutor
Game 2: I kick his ass so fast with an early ancestral, and mind twist, that he looks surprised, I mean, it was almost like I was playing combo.
Game 3: I get a slower start, and since he is such a slow player, and the 1st game was so long (with the time consuming debate about the land drop) time is getting close. The punk starts stalling… what I mean by this is every turn he asks me how mana cards are in my hand, and then looks at his grave yard, then shuffles his hand, then looks in my graveyard.
Come to find out that he had only 3 stupid ass plains in his hand… yeah, he was really trying to figure out a tech play with that.
We draw, The judge was not going by life totals, or else I could have vamped for zorb, and won, so Alex got to progress to the next round. He had already lost once, and would have been spun if he had lost, of course he knew this, and of course he manipulates the rules, but I had another chance to get even in a few rounds…
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2-0-1 Round 4: Scott ?? Black Red Burn, with a splash of blue for power.
I don’t know Scott from Adam, so no small talk, we just start playing.
Game 1: I undermine his mana base with early wastelands, then twist his hand, yawgwill, and eventually morph.
SB: -1 Abyss, -1 Edict, -1 Counter spell, +1 COP Red, +1 Enlightened tutor +1 Compost
I am afraid that he may SB in Negators, so I leave in the balance, and the plow.
I get an even better start then game 1, and a miner works him a few turns, until he bolts when I have no way to defend him.
I leave him with 3 city of brass, and he cannot do crap since he is at 3 life… I win with a monkey. More style points!
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3-0-1 Round 5: Jeff Beith, Aggro Blue
Jeff is hyper cool. He is a veteran of the T2 scene, and has recently been getting his whistle wet with type 1. He is good at it, and since he has been able to borrow all cards from myself or our mutual friend Jerry Moon, he has a great deck, that he based off an aggro blue deck I designed.
We decide to intentionally draw, since we are both guaranteed into the top 8, but to play for fun
Game 1: I get an awesome start and win with an early morphling.
SB: -1 Geyser, -1 Counter, -1 Abyss, -1 Mystical, -2??, +4 REB, +1 Edict, +1 Aura Fracture
Game 2: It is a really close game, but he pulls it out by top decking 2 mishra’s when I don’t have any real way to deal with them.
Game 3: I keep a 2 impulse 1 mox, 1 lotus hand, witch even now I am not opposed to, since the impulses would just find me land.
Jeff is smart and intuitive enough to force the lotus and I draw 1 land the whole game, a wasteland… crappy.
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Finally Top 8
3-0-2 Round 6: Alex Sylverman, White Weenie (again)
Game 1: He gets really mana flooded, and I counter his only 2 threats, then twist his hand and lay the Morphling…
SB: -1 Counter spell, -1 Misdirection, -1 wasteland, +1 Edict, +1 Moat, +1 Enlightened tutor
Game 2: He keeps a 1 land hand and since I have a 1st turn strip, and 2 mox + sol Ring and Ancestral, the game is over on turn 1.
I twist his hand, and lay an abyss, with a moat and a morphling soon to come, and he concedes.
It may be petty but I was pretty happy to see that look on his face of helplessness as I went HAIR DEEP on him, try stalling that.
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4-0-2 Round: 7 (Semi-finals) Jeff Beith, Aggro Blue (again)
We both chat about how we would have rather faced each other in the finals, but since it had to happen sooner or later, let's get it on.
Game 1: Jeff lays a mishra on turn 1, and an island and a mox on turn to plus a serindib.
I cannot find an answer, and the dib goes all the way, with a bit of help from my cities, and a few hits with a mishra.
SB: -1 Geyser, -1 Counter, -1 Abyss, -1 Mystical, -2??, +4 REB, +1 Edict, +1 Aura Fracture
Game 2: I lay a really early morphling, and go for the quick kill, he dies with like 4 counter spells in hand, but no actual answers.
Game 3: Maybe I was tripping as it was past 1AM, but I kept an opening hand with all mana except 1 FOW, it has a strip and 2 wastes, but I thought that this was good since Jeff had usually been leading with a mishra, and I figured I could stunt him 3 turns and in the best case senario, mana screw him the whole game.
This strategy doesn’t work at all, no mishra’s in Jeff's opening hand, and a 2nd turn Rootwater thief deals me 10 count them 10 points of damage. Plus I drew all 4 cities.
I drew a total of 13 mana sources but only 5 non mana that game, 3 FOW, a D.Blow, and a stroke, that as a last ditch effort tried to go for 4 to me, but the last 2 cards in jeff's hand were a misdirect and a drain, so I just refilled his hand, took 3 from city damage, and had a juggernaught up my ass for the win. Game over for me.
This is such an anti-climatic end to the tournament for me, as technically it ended up being a single elim for me, having not lost any matched on the record, It sucked to have lost that way, in that way, but perhaps I should not have kept the hand.
Jeff seems apologetic that the last 2 times that we have played that the game always comes down to me having mana problems, and him just mindlessly churning out creatures, but that is the risk of playing the deck I guess.
We shake hands and I wish him luck in the finals. I stuck around and watched the match.
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Round 8 Jeff Beith (Aggro Blue) vs Pat Giles (R/G Anti Keeper)
Pat declares that he was hoping to face me, as he is playing anti keeper, with 4 MD Dwarven Miner, Mox Monkey, Scrolls, and River boa… but I guess that’s life
Game 1: Jeff saugeses Pat the first game, getting a turn 1 sapphire, and Island, then mana draining a mox monkey, and a turn 2 morphling tapping out, with a misdirection and random other blue card in hand, for pats incinerate, pat scoops right there.
Game 2: Pat gets an early set of beatings in with 2 boa and a shaman, seals the game with a bolt, and jeff takes the death blow on his upkeep from his own serindib.
Game 3: Jeff gets a bit mana hosed with some help from Pats waste and strip, then pat lays a masticore that goes all the way, Jeff mis Sideboards, and even though he knew that Pat played Masticore he did not bring in control magic.
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Pat Giles wins the Ancestral, and Jeff gets 18 packs, not bad for $10.00 and a night full of mind numbing brain-exhausting fun!
I think that the reason that I lost was that I didn’t fuel up on super charged Chipotle Burrito’s before the tournament.
If there are any of you in Missouri or Kansas that want to get a listing of some good local tournaments, please email me
few_ii@yahoo.com I would love to see even larger turn outs to these tournaments.
Thanks for reading:
Here is my keeper for the record: (61 Cards)
Blue: (21)
Stroke of Genius: R
Brain Geyser: R
Fact or Fiction: R
Ancestral Recall: R
Time Walk: R
Mystical Tutor: R
Impulse: 3
Mana Drain: 4
Force Of Will: 4
Counter spell: 1
Misdirection: 1
Morphling: 2
Black: (6)
Mind Twist: R
Demonic Tutor: R
Vampiric Tutor: R
Abyss: 1
Yawgmoth’s Will: R
Diabolic Edict: 1
White: (3)
Dismanteling Blow: 1
Balance: R
Swords to Plowshares: 1
Red: (1)
Gorilla Shaman: 1
Artifact: (2)
Zuran Orb: 1
Jayemdae Tome: 1 <- 61st card
Mana Sources: (28)
SoLoMoxen: R x 7
Library Of Alexandra: R
StripMine: R
Waste Land: 4
Volcanic Island: 3
Tundra: 3
City Of Brass: 4
Underground Sea: 4
Undiscovered paradise: 1
SideBoard: (15)
Red Elemental Blast: 4
Tranquil Domain: 1
Diabolic Edict: 1
Dwarven Miner: 2
Time Twister: R
Enlightened Tutor: R
Circle of Protection: Red: 1
Tormod’s Crypt: 1
Aura Fracture: 1
Compost: 1
Moat: 1 (Still evil)
Props:
Pat Giles: one hell of a guy who ain’t "Cracker"
A-Z for a great tournament
Illusion-X aka Jerry McMillan: for watching my life total when it’s past 1am, and I screwed it up.
Jerry Moon: for letting Jeff Borrow $2000.00 worth of cards, so he could beat me
Slops:
My deck: for pooping on me in the semi’s
Me: for keeping that hand (in the semi's)
Reitz: for telling every person that Parfait was their worst matchup, even if they had beaten him 2-0.
Those guys at the tournament that backed out at the last minute, wussy's
-Freddie
