Once again in Toronto

Here is the HIGHLY anticipated tournament report by Petko.

   It starts off innocently enough; me sitting in front of the computer chugging down Dr. Pepper at three o’clock in the morning. After trotting through the forums here, I saw a thread regarding upcoming tournaments in Toronto. I take a look at my calendar and see that the weekend is packed. But who cares about family on Thanksgiving? I was going to play some decent Magic for once!

   I was getting pretty tired of playing Mono Blue, and its variants, so I decided to play something a bit different. I was considering TnT but I was lacking Workshops so that idea went to hell. My Keeper is still under construction (people have to stop offering me immense amounts of money for my cards!). The only thing left for me that was viable was Suicide Black.

   After to talking to some of my friends, I nab some Beta Suicide staples, like Demonic Tutor, Hypnotic Specters, Mox Jet, and Sinkholes. Got to have those style points! After compiling all the cards, I came up with the following build:

4 Dark Ritual
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Demonic Tutor
2 Diabolic Edict
4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Nantuko Shade
1 Necropotence
1 Mox Jet
4 Phyrexian Negator
3 Phyrexian Warbeast
2 Powder Keg
4 Sinkhole
1 Yawgmoth’s Will

1 Strip Mine
15 Swamp
4 Wasteland

The sideboard was constructed at the tournament site.

   I had to wake up pretty early in the morning anyway due to a hockey practice so it wasn’t too bad. Nobody cares about my life so I’ll get straight to the tournament report…

   I arrive at the place, The Hairy Tarantula, and get everything organized and begin to scout, seeing stuff like AoS, Mono Blue, rOSE, Suicide Black, Sligh, TnT, U/W Control, and others. The first pairings are announced.

*Note that I was taking really shitty notes and may not remember every match to their exact detail.

Round One – Andrew playing Mask

Game One
   I knew he was playing Mask before the tourney and I made a mistake of keeping such a suboptimal hand, especially against a combo deck. We both get off to a pretty slow start. No early Phyrexian Dreadnaughts gives me some time to whip out some threats. Stuff blows up on both sides of the board and he then proceeds to resolve a Necropotence which puts me in a real tight spot, although I do have a Nantuko Shade smashing face. He roots through large amounts of cards with Necro and whips out an Illusionary Mask and some face down monsters. He is at three life but it’s irrelevant since I have two Naughts coming straight at me next turn. Who else will topdeck a Powder Keg in that spot? I Keg for zero which destroys his face down creatures and attack with the Shade for the win.

Game Two
   I get a much quicker hand, although light on disruption, which I decide to run in an attempt to outrace his combo instead of shutting it down first, and then going in for the kill. This strategy is somewhat foiled when he resolves an early Necro which allows him to put the combo pieces together. My mere Shade can’t compete with those beasts. I scoop.

Game Three
   I start things off with an early Shade and all he has are Hypnotic Specters. My Nantuko Shade starts going to town and he is forced to chump block and cannot stop my onslaught of critters that followed the Shade.

2-1
(1-0-0)

   No between round chitchat this time since it just involved me sleeping… Unless you want me to write a small paragraph about that?

Round Two – Phil playing TnT

Game One
   Through some pre-tournament scouting, I know that my opponent is playing TnT. He is missing some Mishra’s Worshops, so the chance of him getting really explosive draws has been slashed, which gives me a better chance in such a nightmare matchup. I get the nice draw of a first turn Phyrexian Negator. He drops Goblin Welder and I Edict it, as well as the Su-Chi that followed, mana burning him down to one life. He cannot produce anymore threats to stand in the Negator’s way after that so I go to town.

Game Two
   A Survival of the Fittest dodges my hand disruption and he starts to do funny things. Although I start to whip out threats, the game was already over. I shortly get my ass served to me on a platter by Juggernauts.

Game Three
   The third game was pretty similar to the first – me dropping an early Negator and he has a rather slow draw and cannot deal with it in time. I was lucky for normally TnT smashes my face in. The lack of four Mishra’s Workshops really hurt the probability of really explosive draws. Although he had the Moxen, you really need a Workshop to cast those first turn beasts.

2-1
(2-0-0)

   Arend is a really good type one player who always plays Mono Blue. I’m looking pretty content since Blue based control decks are usually my easier matchups, and shouldn’t make things too hard.

Round Three – Arend playing Mono Blue

Game One
   I get a pretty good hand and start casting threats every turn but Arend has a counter for every one of them. After a while of this, we both had nothing in hand and it came down to a topdecking war – who every drew the first creature wins. I rip a Nantuko Shade off the top and he and no way to deal with it. I go to town.

Game Two
   I get to cast Duress twice off the bat but I cannot seem to get that Morphling out of his hand. No Hymn is bad. I try to deal as much damage as I can before he sees five mana, but unfortunately, he sees that five mana pretty quickly. I don’t have anymore Edicts left in my deck thanks to a Demonic Consultation so I scoop up my cards. Morphling = Shit, well, only when they’re on the opposing side of the table.

Game Three
   I get an amazing hand which gets thwarted by him Misdirecting my Hymn to myself, nabbing my other Hymn and Hypnotic Specter. Damn! That just demolished me. All my attempts to recover where negated by his countermagic and I lose to Morphling, yet again.

1-2
(2-1-0)

   The next round I was paired up against Justin Glanzer, who is a good friend and came down to Hairy Ts from Mississauga also. We both know that the winner of this match will play in the Top 4 and the loser goes home with nothing, so playing a friend sucks this round.

Round Four – Justin playing Sligh

Game One
   I get an early Powder Keg out which takes car of his Jackal Pup and Cursed Scroll. I start going to town with some critters but he shot me down to three life with massive amounts of burn. He has about five turns to topdeck a single piece of burn but doesn’t seem to pick up anything but lands. I win, in a very close game.

Game Two
   He drops a few early critters early on and I cast some of my own. He his hammering me with burn every turn but I am beating down in the process, forcing him to chump block to stay at a stable life total. He has no cards in hand so I figure I pretty much have this game in the bag, but someone proceeds to draw a Wheel of Fortune which just replenishes his hand, enabling him to burn me out.

Game Three
   I have a pretty good hand of Dark Ritual, Hymn to Tourach, Hypnotic Specter, Masticore, Sinkhole, Swamp, and Wasteland. He drops a first turn Jackal Pup and I have the chance for a first turn Hyppie but decide to wait a turn for the Core. He attacks with the Pup and Chain Lightnings me bringing me down to fifteen. I then Ritual out the Core next turn which he cannot deal with, especially with him topdecking nothing but Ball Lightnings and Fireblasts. Since I Sinked his third mana source, he actually had to sacrifice his only two mountains to kill the Core, which screwed him over anyway. I win.

2-1
(3-1-0)

   Winning that game automatically put me in the Top 4. Watching over the other games, I see that Mask and TnT won their matchups. I didn’t really care about Mask, but TnT is a nightmare deck against Suicide Black.

The Top 4 consisted of:

1.   Mask, played by Andrew
2.   Mono Blue, played by Arend
3.   Suicide Black, played by yours truly
4.   TnT, played by Phil

   The pairings were announced and lucky me, I was paired up against TnT. I was really lucky in that previous game and needed that luck again to pull through such an awful matchup.

Top Four Semi-Finals – Phil playing TnT

Game One
   I start disrupting his mana base early on with Wastes and Sinks and he cannot recover. He does Land Grant but the lands he searches for also get destroyed. He cannot do anything and I take advantage of this by beating down with a Negator.

Game Two
   I get a decent hand and start to apply some early pressure but he sees all the mana he needs this time and casts two Juggernauts. I am forced to chump block and cannot simply cannot deal with the two beasts. I lose this match.

Game Three
   I get the luxury of another first turn Negator, which is followed up by a Planar Void and Duress. I start to beat down a bit but my assault gets interrupted with a Juggernaut. He is at five life. I remember off the Duress that he had two more creatures in hand that cost four mana to cast. I Sinkhole his fourth mana source and pass him the turn. He has to attack with Juggernaut and cannot pull out another creature to block my Phyrexian Negator. I win.

2-1
(4-1-0)

   I was totally shocked, and somewhat relieved that I pulled through such a hard matchup. Arend lost to Mask in the thirds game of their round so it looks like I get to smash face in the finals!

Finals – Andrew playing Mask

   Sorry, but there was no face smashing of any sort. We’re both pretty tired so we decided to split the prize. He has a long drive back home and I still have Chemistry homework to do so everyone’s happy. The prize was $120 credit each, but I took the $80 cash since I’m getting very busy with school and may not be able to come down to too many type one tournaments during the school year, well, at least not in this semester.

   With the money and some cards, I get a Time Walk so it wasn’t too bad for a day. Although Thanksgiving weekend did hurt the tournament’s turnout, it was still an excellent place to play against some very competitive decks, unlike my local store where children with pre-constructed decks run rampant.

-Andrew Petkovics