Type 1 - Crazy Cards and Comics - 10-20-02

[Dante]

Another Sunday, another Type I at Crazy Card and Comics

On a side note, are there any baseball fans not watching this World Series?  A 1-run Game 1, a tie game in the bottom of the 8th in Game 2….can’t beat it.

I had been thinking of switching from my Keeper deck that I’ve played forever to something new, but with a friend’s wedding this week, I didn’t have anything made up.  I also haven't really had a chance to look at the new set to make adjustments yet.

4 Mana Drain
4 FOW
1 Misdirection

2 Morphling

1 Balance
2 Swords to Plowshares
2 Diabolic Edict
1 Abyss
1 Moat
1 Powder Keg
1 Shaman
1 Disenchant (forgot to put in the Dismantling Blow again).

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Vampiric Tutor

1 Fact or Fiction
1 Stroke
1 Ancestral
1 Braingeyser
1 Time Walk
1 Mindtwist
1 Zuran Orb
1 Yag Will

4 Mox (no emerald)
1 Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Strip
3 Wasteland
4 City of Brass
4 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
4 Underground Sea
1 Library
1 Undiscovered Paradise
1 Mishra

Sideboard:
4 Red blast
1 Keg
2 Cop Red
1 Cop Black
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Pyroclasm
2 Tormond’s Crypt
1 Ebony Charm
1 Scrying Glass
1 Misdirection

(World Series update – 11-9 Anaheim on a Tim Salmon 2-run homer, the Rally Monkey is going silly)

Maybe 3 graveyard effects is too much..what does everyone think?

(update  - Barry Bonds hits 9th inning homer, 11-10 Anaheim.  Is he sick or what?  They didn’t even show where the ball landed, probably because they couldn't zoom that far out.)

decks were a smattering of everything – a couple of sligh, couple of black-based discard, 1-2 Full English Breakfast, a U/r deck, a black-green deck, a couple Keeper decks, a couple of re-animator decks, 1 TnT deck, and a Grow deck (ugh).  16-17 people total – the usual for a Sunday tournament.

(update – Angels win 11-10.  Damn that Rally Monkey.)

Round 1 – Rich Sutton – Sligh

Game 1 – I win the roll and play first.  My opening had has 1 mana source so I mulligan.  He plays a fanatic and a Flunky in the first couple of turns.  I get a Moat out at 15 life and looks like I might steal Game 1.  Not so!  His next turn is Goblin Grenade, Goblin Grenade.  <sigh> down from 15 to 5.  Bolt, Incinerate (Misdirection), and then Price of Progress finish me off.

Game 2 – side in Pyroclasm, 2 Cop Red, Powder Keg.  Opening hand is 7 land.  Mulligan.  Opening hand includes Cop Red and Powder Keg.  I draw Zuran Orb second turn and I never get below 16 life.  He concedes when Morphling hits.

Game 3 – he sides in 3-4 extra cards over what he already sided in.  Again, opening hand with Cop Red.  Draw powder keg and zuran orb shortly.  His life goes 20-15-10-5-0.

1-0   Matches

Round 2 – David S playing Grow

I really wanted this matchup to come later, but I don’t really get a choice in the matter.  This is going to be a touch matchup.

Game 1 – Opening hand is good with Mana Drain, Abyss, Fact or Fiction and appropriate mana.  He wins the roll.  Second turn Winter Orb really screws me (all my mana sources are land).  He gushes and blushes his way to victory (I’m pretty sure I would have won if not for the Winter Orb).

Game 2 – He gets a werebear and a dryad under my counters and I can’t find any creature control.

1- 1 Match record

Round 3 – Matt B – black-based discard with Juzams plus a splash of Blue

Game 1 – he gets a second turn Juzam, I get a fourth turn Moat &#61514;.  

Game 2 – Side in cop black.  His mana consisted of a mox, waste and a strip.  After he strips and wastes 2 lands, I lay the Library, mox monkey his mox and leave him with just a swamp.  I beat on him with a Mishra and then a morphling joins in.

2-1 Match record.

Round 4 – Robert S playing U/r with Shard Phoenix and Rainbow Efreet.

Game 1 – I mulligan a zero mana source hand.  Next six include an Abyss.  He plays rainbow efreet and intuitions for shard phoenix, but they don’t really help against an Abyss.  He gets a Fairie Conclave going, but Swords and Morpling take care of that.  Zuran Orb keeps me alive long enough to get the Morphling out.

Game 2 – Side in red blasts – It’s tough for him when my counters cost R and his cost 5 or require pitching.

3-1 Match record

This time I make the top 4.  Top 4 is the Grow deck I faced earlier, a U/r deck with Ophidian, a Green/Black deck they call Rock or Crackrock or something like that.  I’m matched up with the U/r deck.

Game 1 – I think I get an Abyss out and am in good shape, but he gets a Masticore out.  A Zuran Orb only delays the inevitable as I can't find a Plow or Edict.

Game 2 – my opening hand is 5 land, demonic tutor, and merchant scroll.  I mulligan.  Next hand is ok, but I keep, not wanting to drop to 5 cards.  He opens by wasting my land (I had 2 drains and a red blast in hand) and playing a 1st turn vise.  He follows with a 2nd turn Blood Moon.  Not much I can do from there.

The green/black deck beat the grow deck in three games in the other semi-final match.  It then beat the U/r deck 2 straight.  It kind of seemed like a pile – birds, wall of roots, duress, hymns, deranged hermits, spiritmonger, a couple of deeds – but it seemed to work for him, kind of like a not-so-tuned version of PT Funk from the ToC.  I had been thinking about making a B/g deck with Deeds and all, but more something black-based as opposed to green based...

[carl]

Hello Bill,
Thanks for the report. Interesting as usual.

The G/b deck that won was based on The Rock and his minions, an extended deck before the last rotation.

Michael Pustilnik won GP Las Vegas in Dec 2001 with it.
Check the decklist at
http://www.wizards.com/sideboard/article.asp?x=GPLV01\786decks3

[DarkCrusader]

Nice report Bill. Carl is right about Bryan playing the Rock. He does extremely well with it but alot of us believe he is extremely lucky. He always seems to draw up what he needs and never gets mana screwed or hosed. But never the less he put up W up and we couldn't do anything to stop it.

As for your keeper, I feel its a strong deck. The only thing I would do is try not to guess the metagame so much. Try to play a broadbased sideboard that can handle alot of threats. We that play there realize that when you expect 3 reanimator decks and put 4 crypts in the sideboard. People choose to play a different deck and none of them are graveyard based. (Ps. If you play me, please don't side in Ebony Charm. I can't handle that. Crypts I can, Charms I can't)

Hope to see you at CCC next weekend. I am so hoping for a 5 round tourny. And if its not and I miss top 4 by tie breakers, be prepared to see a grown man cry.

Rock On Bill  

[Crazy Card & Comics]

  
Hey guy's.
Everyone says that Bryan is a very lucky player or that he topdecks every turn.  I believe that Bryan is a good player. People have to understand that Bryan has been playing the rock for a very long time. If anybody knows the rock deck extreamly well, it would be Bryan.

P.S. Bryan does get mana screwed & hosed.

[Dante]

Quote (DarkCrusader @ Oct. 22 2002,11:39)As for your keeper, I feel its a strong deck. The only thing I would do is try not to guess the metagame so much. Try to play a broadbased sideboard that can handle alot of threats. We that play there realize that when you expect 3 reanimator decks and put 4 crypts in the sideboard. People choose to play a different deck and none of them are graveyard based. (Ps. If you play me, please don't side in Ebony Charm. I can't handle that. Crypts I can, Charms I can't)

Well the crypts/charm are not there just for the reanimator decks..the past couple weeks I had seen a couple Pandeburst decks - it's hard to replenish for the win with an empty graveyard and it's too slow to beat a control deck by hard casting them.  There was also an Oath deck as well as at least 2 Full English Breakfast decks...again the shapeshifter is fairly useless with an empty graveyard.  It was a combination of all those factors that led to 3 graveyard spots, not just the reanimators.

Dante

[ump]

I agree with Dante's sideboard.  Knowing the metagame, you are seriously hurting yourself if you do not have enough graveyard hate.  The one suggestion that I do have is to use Aura Fracture instead of the Seal of Cleansing in the sideboard.  Aura Fracture has its obvious uses against the one stasis deck that appears there from time to time.  However, it can also be used effectively against Pandeburst as you can trade a land for the Attunement or as a last-ditch effort against Saproling Bursts.

[Dante]

Aura Fracture doesn't kill artifacts though..


Dante

[ump]

On Aura Fracture, I guess it's a trade off between flexibility and reusability.  Why do people run Gorilla Shaman when a Disenchant offers more flexibility?  Because the Shaman can be reused to get rid of more than one artifact.  I would think the same thing applies to Aura Fracture over Seal of Cleansing.  All the enchantments that you don't want to see, your opponent will probably be running four of.  So your two ways to get rid of enchantments will be overloaded and there is a chance that they can run a couple under your counterspells if they run enough threats.  But that's just my thought on it and you can run what works best for you.

[Ruboonia]

Congrats, Bill...and a nice report.