GP Melbourne report: T1 in Australia

I've been spending far too much time reading this site, learning all about competitive Type 1.

A couple of months ago I looked at my collection and decided on my first "serious" Type 1 build. I didn't want to go lame Sligh (I always have a Sligh deck built, but its no fun!) so black seemed the way to go. Suicide Black interested me, but I lacked Nantuko Shades, not to mention Sinkholes. I came across the Pox archetype: I used to play (bad) Pox, and I already had Chimeric Idols and Cursed scrolls. I got down to serious trading/buying and came up with my Pox deck:

// Black Evilness (16)
4 Pox
4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Sinkhole

// The Bad Guys (6)
2 Nether Spirit
4 Chimeric Idol

// The Good Stuff (9)
4 Cursed Scroll
3 The Rack
2 Powder Keg

// Black rort (7)
R Yawgmoth's Will
R Demonic Tutor
R Demonic Consultation
4 Dark Ritual

// The sacrificial lambs (22)
R Sol Ring
R Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
16 Swamp

// Purgatory (SB)
4 Phyrexian Negator
4 Dystopia
1 Powder Keg
3 Planar Void
3 Spinning Darkness (should have been Diabolic Edict)

The sanctioned Type 1 tournament started at 7:30pm, after the 7 rounds of Onslaught sealed. There were 15 players, with little randomness. Archetypes making an appearance: 5-colour Keeper, TnT, Dragon combo, Gro, Suicide black, Pox, Parfait. There was lots of black, I only got matched against one random deck. I didn't see any sligh or stompy.

First prize was a box of onslaught, followed by some number of boosters for 2-4, and 1 booster each for 5-8. For $10AUS that's reasonable enough, since packs retail at about $6.
Everyone was really excited about playing and watching Type 1. Anyway, let's start the report.

Round 1: Simon Keys playing old Suicide Black (Carnophage/Sarcomancy build).
Game 1:
I played really bad this game. A wrong play first turn cost me the match.
Basically, he went first: Swamp, Ritual, Shade, Sarcomancy.
Me: Swamp, Ritual, Hymn, Rack when I had a Powder Keg in hand. Sure I would be dealing him 3 a turn, but he had a Shade out, and the play mistake gave him one too many turns with it. My life went 20, 14, 7, 2, scoop. He took 6 Rack damage.

Game 2:
I sideboarded in an extra keg for a sinkhole. If I had put Edicts in sideboard instead of the Spinning Darkness, they would have come in too.
I don't really remember this, my life total dropped all the way while he remained at 20. I think a sideboarded Negator got into the action against me.

Game 3 (for fun):
This was better, but for some reason I simply forgot to put a counter on a keg that would have dealt with his Negator before it ripped me to shreds.

I was disappointed to lose this, because I wanted to play against some good power decks, rather than random jank. A loss here increased the likeliness of random jank. Simon came
second overall, though, so his deck must have been reasonably strong.

I watched some other game, where a Keeper player let a TnT player sacrifice a Jug to the Abyss. The Keeper guy said he'd borrowed the deck, and didn't realise either. This is probably true, since I don't think he made top 8. I also watched a Dragon deck go off under Planar Void. Apparently if you go off in the opponent's turn with Necromancy, the triggered ability for Void stacks below the Dragon's exit play trigger. How convenient. This is another reason to play Edict over Spinning Darkness: since Planar Void is merely disruption, not an answer to Dragon (like root maze), the extra disruption caused by the Edicts would be very useful.

After round 1:
0-0-1

Round 2 (Max Weatherwax piloting a bad black reanimator):
I had talked to the guy before the tournament, and taunted him that I had Planar Void in sideboard. His response was: "What's that?" I gleefully showed him and he complained to his friend about them.

Game 1:
He got an early Zombie Infestation and made a couple of dudes, discarding Reya. I Hymned away an Animate Dead, cast Nether Spirit and a Scroll. I rode those to victory, while he failed to draw another animate card. I sideboarded in the Planar Voids and maybe an extra Keg to kill the Zombie Tokens. I think I took out the Sinkholes. Guess what: Edicts would have been useful here too.

Game 2:
He made a huge play mistake first turn. He Duressed me, and took a Duress, nothing wrong with that. My turn I topdeck a Duress and hit him with it. He's holding an Entomb, and two reanimate effects! A first turn Entomb would probably have won him the game. Obviously I took the Entomb with the Duress.

Nothing much happened after that until my third turn where I cast an Idol. I smacked him down turn 4, then drew Demonic Tutor turn 5.
Me: "Demonic Tutor. Concede?"
Him: "No?"
Me: (search for Planar Void) "Planar Void. Concede?"
Him: "Oh... yes."

I hurried off to watch the broken decks play. A 10 minute victory when there's other Type 1 to watch. Awesome!

After round 2: 1-0-1

Round 3 (Glenn playing fast black, splashing blue for power and red for bolts.)
Poor guy. This was all about land destruction.
Game 1:
He didn't really do anything. He had a fast hand, but all he played was a Zuran Orb and an Ivory Tower. He gained life while I cast Scroll and Nether Spirit and Chimeric Idol. He climbed up to 34 life. Eventually I kegged his Zuran Orb and hymned his hand down to nullify Ivory Tower and just kept beating with Scroll, Spirit and Idol. A funny play: He laid a Lotus and used it for red to Bolt my Idol... taking 2 damage himself!

I don't think he expected a focussed deck or he would have mulliganed.

Game 2:
This was really funny:
He mulliganed down to 6, and kept a one land hand. He laid a land first turn. I Ritual/Sinkhole/Rack. He laid a land second turn. I Sinkhole. He laid a land 3rd turn. I Pox.

The game was interrupted by me looking across to the guy playing Pernicious Pox next to me: he had a ROYAL ASSASSIN on the table! Sideboard tech versus Gro. It made the tournament for me.

Anyway, Glenn resigned shortly after that, not having dealt me a point of damage in either game!

We played a friendly match where his deck worked better, but I killed him with 2 Racks after Wasteland took out his Sheltered Valley (really!)

After round 3: 2-0-1.

Round 4 (Anthony Ward playing old school monu blue control).

Nether Spirit is awesome versus counter decks.

Game 1:
We laid land for a few turns until I found my Nether Spirit and played it. He just looked at it and sighed: "There's no point countering that!" Later on he Dissipated something I played, so I was lucky he wasn't holding a Dissipate for it! I think I Wasted a Mishra's Factory or two, he Disked once and I Poxed once. Neither of these stopped my Spirit from doing its work. I was left on 13 from my Pox.

I sideboarded in my Negators. First time playing with them! I think I took out some Sinkholes (a mistake). I know I sideboarded wrong.

Game 2:
He had the counters for my stuff and dropped Morphling. Since I didn't have Edicts, I have no real answer for Morphling. I scooped a couple of turns later. I think he also used Treachery on my Nether Spirit.

Since I saw a Maze of Ith, I sideboarded Sinkholes back in. and took out two Idols. I figured Negators were acting like bigger Idols. I think I need to rethink my sideboarding versus mono-blue.

Game 3:
This was really close. I had an early play of Ritual/Sinkhole to draw a counter, followed by Demonic Tutor for Nether Spirit. I cast it and beat maybe once, but then he used Treachery.
I summoned a Negator (he let me have it, note that he had a Maze of Ith out). He attacked into the Negator with a Mishra's, I blocked, saccing the Negator and a land. At this stage I had a Negator, a Yawgmoth's Will and a Pox in hand, with 4 land in play. Here's the really great play: He had a number of Islands and 2 Maze of Ith, and 3 cards in hand.
I cast Yawgmoth's Will, expecting a counter. He let it resolve! I used my last Swamp to Ritual, Pox from the graveyard (I discarded Pox to the Pox). This took me to 6, him to 12 from 18, and got rid of the Treacherous Nether Spirit (removed from the game). Even better, he sacced one of the Mazes to Pox. I played a Wasteland from the graveyard and killed off the last Maze. I tried a Negator next turn, which was countered, then topdecked an Idol, which resolved! I beat him down to 6, and then time was called in my turn. He drew no answers and I killed him on my final turn. Yes!

Final results: 3-0-1

Standings:
1. Dave (Worldgouger Dragon)
2. Simon Keys (Suicide Black)
3. Dre (T1 Miracle Gro)
4. Guy with Pernicious Pox (he claimed his Pox is better, and the standings seem to agree.)
5. Me (Pox)
6-8. Don't know, but Parfait and Anthony with his mono-blue were in there.

My first competitive tournament went great, we all had a fantastic time, and are definitely planning more Type 1 tournaments in the near future.

Props:
Nether Spirit for being the man, and Royal Assassin for sheer class.

Slops:
First turn Hymn when Powder Keg is the better play.