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Smmenen
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« on: September 08, 2002, 06:23:09 pm » |
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Outside of Origins and other tournaments like it, Professional Events exclusively manages eight man events when running sanctioned type one tournaments. Perhaps as a result of such a strong showing at Origins, and the efforts of myself to continually get type one side events going at PES events, Guptil and his team uncharacteristically scheduled a type one tournament in the GP Cleveland schedule for 8PM the night of the trial.
Aware of this, I made a conscious effort on The Mana Drain and by phone to alert those who would be interested of this event. Additionally, I did the best I could to prepare.
My friend Paul Mastriano – the Mask player from Origins indicated he would be there, and another type one advocate and a five color guru, Kevin Cron (aka Cha15 on BD and The Mana Drain) expressed interest.
Based upon my experience with Ohio Type One I expected a moderately powered field with a lot of non-stompy, non-white weenie aggressive decks and a lot of mono blue decks. Additionally, since I knew Kevin was playing, I was going to expect Oath, and by the same reasons Mask from Paul. However, since we were going to be in Cleveland, and the pro’s would be around, I thought it very likely that Chapin and/or some of his type one friends would show up with Grow. That would be troubling for mono blue – which is what I was planning on playing.
When we arrived and walked around to see familiar faces in the type one seen, my suspicions were confirmed. However, I was mistaken in two respects: Paul didn't make it on time and there was no Gorw. One of the most striking things that appeared to me is how there are always mono blue decks, but so often they are bad mono blue decks. I saw one guy with only two ophidians, one psionic blast, foils and other such cards maindeck with Maze of Ith in the sideboard.
In such an environment, I think, inevitably the best deck choice is Mask. So at 7PM I began assembling my Mask deck by pulling cards from my binder and borrowing factories and a pair of ‘naughts from friends. Ironically, I own the Masks but not four ‘naughts.
With both decks in hand, as I sat down a few minutes before we were to begin I decided to go with the deck I had been thinking about for the last week. I had done some testing against Grow and modified my mono blue’s maindeck to suit such an environment (more notably I cut one Back to Basics in the main for a third Misdirection in the main – a totally correct move).
So I sat down and began round one of four rounds of swiss of a fourteen man type one event with my mono blue at table number one.
Round One
My opponent wins the flip and proceeds to play Underground Sea and Entomb. I knew where this was going. Unfortunately, I was a bit worried. My hand had neither Moxen nor Force of Will, but I was sporting a useless Misdirection. So the turn passes to me and I play an Island and pass the turn. Here my stomach fluttered until my opponent played a land and passed the turn. Now I was set. I also had a capsize in hand, which I knew would create trouble for the combo. My opponent land base was Underground Seas, Volcanic Islands, Gemstone Mines, AND CITY OF ASS. Yes that’s right, I did most of my damage from his own lands, the infamous tarnished citadel. It got to a certain point where I was double capsizing his underground Sea’s and Volcs to his hand to force him to discard and use the Citadels and the Gemstone Mines. Game One goes to me before I even play a morph.
Game two is primarily a blur, but I do recall siding out the Powder Kegs in favor of other things. This game I countered his entomb from mox island prohibit/leak hand with force of will in hand based on the assumption that it would be the primary way to discard gorger. Unfortunately he had Careful Study, which I also countered. Nevertheless, I totally dominated this game with at least three ophidians in play before morphling joined the fun.
2-0, 1-0-0
Round Two:
I sit down across from a middle aged man who certainly appears to know what he’s doing. My opening hand went Island, Lotus, Ophidian, with ancestral on his upkeep. I forced a first turn Kird Ape to keep my ophidian drawing. Shortly however, uncounterable mongeese, both Blurred and Nimble joined the fray – but they found it hard to pass Ophidian. A Keg took out the 1/1 nimble guys who get big with threshold and the Ophidian dealt with one of the Blurred Mongeese. The other Mongoose was taken care of by a second keg. Most of my misdirections ended up misdirecting stuff to him. His deck was only two colors so the Back to Basics were subpar. Over the course of the tournament I noticed that his deck had Kird Ape, both Mongeese, Shaman’s, River Boa, and Wild Mongrel.
Game Two began with me abusing a library for almost the entire game. But he began with a first turn Sylvan. Over the course of the first game he had three wastelands in play by the end. This game they didn’t show up very early. My ophidians caused the same problems as the first game and my kegs were extremely effective. This guy was obviously very good and would go on to win all of his other matches but his SB was lacking. He admitted he couldn’t find REB’s before the tournament (it’s hard to find commons) and he was sporting a few burnout’s and pyro’s. At the climax of the game he tried to pyro my Phid. I had three pitch counters which all protected my phid and he was only at 4 life from the Sylvan and I had already misdirected some damage to him putting him at one. The survival of my phid at a crucial moment meant the game.
2-0, 2-0-0
Round Three:
This guy is a regular player at the Ohio Type One events and plays sligh. His sligh deck is much better than when I last saw it. He was disappointed to have to play me. Game one involved him playing a burn spell on his first turn which was good for me. I don’t recall all the specifics of this game, but I was at 6 life or so with 2 barbarian Rings in play when I won.
Game Two involved him using an immense amount of damage very early through burn spells. I sucked up a lot of damage until I was under ten life. I was very close to death range for a while before I got the phid engine really working. He should have won this game very near the end when he played a chain lightning that I misdirected and he failed to realize he could pay it again. I told him that later and he said that he didn’t even know you could do that. By the way, mono blue players of the world – it you really want to save a phid you can misdirect the chain lightning to yourself.
2-0, 3-0-0
Round Four:
My last two opponents were going to face each other now. And Kevin and I were now to play each other. We would be guaranteed first and second place if we drew, and if one of us lost only one of us would be first. So, after some pressure from Kevin, I drew with him. We played a match for fun. My opening hand was alright, but I won the key battles and he lacked an Oath and I had a phid on the table. He cast a Morphling and tapped out to do so but I countered and he outcountered me. I did this because I was using hard casting spells while he was pitching cards to save the Morph. You might ask, what are you talking about – how did you let him out counter you? Well I had more pitch magic in hand and A CAPSIZE. So on his turn I capsize the morph and he concedes.
Game two was very close. I get mox, mox, Island, Island, mana leak, FOW, Ophidian, . He goes first and lays a land. Unfortunately I draw an Island, but I play a phid anyways. He plays a land and plays Oath. I leak, he misdirects it and I’m screwed. If I had draw a blue spell I would have been in great shape. Considering my mana base, it was pretty surprising.
Game three involves us both Parising and I get the ultimate god draw: Lotus, Island, Extract, Ancestral, Back to Basics. It was amazing. I play when Island, Lotus. Sac the Lotus for three blue and lead off with Extract. This pretty much wins the me game. I look through his deck and see 3 Misdirections, 4 FOW, two blessings, a regrowth, and no morphling. This means he has no pitch magic and the morph is in his hand. I remove a blessing from game destroying his Oath Engine. Since all his Mis-d’s are in the library I ancestral. I don’t draw a mox so I burn for one. But shortly after that play he concedes.
So I won 2-1, but admittedly it wasn’t the tournament so he might have played differently. We go onto game four for fun – which is really, really long and involves sillyness. He wins it though.
Final score: 3-0-1 – with no official game losses for the entire tournament, which Kevin and I win.
Here is what I played:
15 Islands
5 Moxen
LOA
Lotus
4 FOW
3 Misdirection
4 Counterspell
4 Mana Drain
2 Prohibit
4 Mana Leak
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
3 Impulse
4 Ophidian
3 Powder Keg
1 Capsize
2 Morphling
2 Back to Basics
SB:
1 Island
1 Black Vise
1 Powder Keg
2 Thwart
1 Misdirection
2 Back to Basics
4 Control Magic
2 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Extract
Nevertheless, it was a lot of fun. JP and Rian indicate an interest in doing a type one 8-man after scrubing out of the trial – but that is another story.
Stephen Menendian\n\n
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