Charleston results from Jan 4 '03

[Zelif]

Okay, I'm sure others will have additional input but I'll begin with my report.

The monthly Charleston tourney always has a fairly strong turnout, with numbers and level of players. This month was an exception in that the level was quite high. There 14 or 15 powered (as they needed) decks, with very strong win-potentials. Including:

MaskNaught
AnkhSligh
AnkhZoo
Trix
3 Keepers
Parfait
2 TnTs
3 Voids
TurboLand
PTJunk(ish)

Also:
RectorGhoul
(edited in) Reanimator (thanks Bill)
Enchantress
Clerics
SuperishGro
a Natural Order deck
a cool Elf deck
one other deck I missed somewhere

So, definitely a field that could've got cut to ribbons, depending on the matchups.

I went in, with some slight modifications to my Dark Keeper, expecting to hit discard quite a bit. So, I maindecked Timetwister, Stroke, Braingeyser, and Skeletal Scrying, with two Dodecapods in the board. Turns out I was running the AnkhSligh side of the universe, and didn't touch a single discard all day, except Duress. Oh, well.

Round One: face Mike M, Charleston, Natural Order

Mike and I have a tradition of starting off round one against each other. I was expecting Oath, as thats his traditional favorite, but ran into a lot of elves, and weird stuff I couldn't figure out (like Molimo, I think his name is) and ran the gauntlet of Stroke to get Scrying to get Braingeyser, Mind Twist, Abyss, yer dead. Game two went about the same way, with me STILL not seeing Oath or any identifying cards. He told me three rounds later it was a Natural Order deck.

Round Two: Shawn, Charleston, Zoo(Ankh)

Played Shawn before, with a very similar deck, and saw the usual field of Boas Mongeese and some burn, alonjg with some Watselandage. I ran the Skeletal, 'Geyser, Balance brokenness and won game one, fairly easily.
Game two, my deck took a nap, and I had Balanced away all threats and lands when he recovered in two seconds. I got no answers from my deck, and had been forced to throw YawgWill away with the Balance (he Naturalized my Zuran Orb, to have zero cards).
Game three, he Ankhs on the second and fourth turns, despite me never having seen them all match. I was a tad low on lands/mana, as I was forced to fetch under (thankfully one) Ankh. Still got no answers, and I can merrily say this was as merciful as my next two games would be.

Round Three: Dave Allen (not the Richmond one), AnkhSligh

Oh, boy! More fun, and faster than before. Dave had really opitmal draws, in a matchup where I have to draw optimally anyway. Pup, Monkey, Bolt, Cursed Scroll, PoP, Pop END. Game two was almost identical, but added an Ankh and a REB for my benefit. I'll put that one on my list as ways to have fun on Saturday afternoons. Ugh.

(1-2 matches, 3 whole points!)

Round 4 John O'Conner, Charleston, Enchantress

John is a very nice guy, and was working against the tide. With no dispuption, I countered freely, and Wished for Allay, and Tormod's Crypt completely sealed both games.

(2-2, 6 points)

Round 4 Nick, Superish Gro with Meddling Mages

This was an interesting match, as his build resembled A Beautiful Mind, minus Scroll Rack and Tax. I dropped an Abyss after Mana Draining a Seal of Cleansing, and kinda let him play some, while I built my hand up. I found Mind Twist, and Forced it through. Morphling finished the game. Game two, I sided in Scrying Glass, figuring I might not get to try it at all, and I wanted to use my sideboard for something besides Allay. He dropped a second or third turn COP Blue, which was interesting, but in my deck, I only use one Morphling at the moment, with Triskelion and Masticore being the other main kills. After a repeat of game one, I was Scrying his hand and seeing 2 Dazes, one Force, and one Foil (and one Swords to Plowshares). So, I got the Mind Twist all loaded up, and sent it. Daze, pay it, Daze pay it Foil, Mana Drain, FORCE, Mana Drain, but I am all tapped out, and the Morphling was exposed....but he had tapped all his Tundras. Boom, empty hand. What did he do? Draw a Brainstorm, and then an STP off it, and got the Morphling! I followed up with a HUGE Stroke, and Masticore and Mishra's Factory (off the Drains' 9 mana) and finished him off.

3-2, nine points, but didn't quite make the cut, despite playing two of the top-eighters, as my round four opponent dropped. Ah, well, it might not've mattered anyway, as John was 0-4 after our match.

THE FINALS:

Bryan (Statesboro GA) VOID
Hill Redwine (Atlanta)   TnT
Dave Allen (Charleston) AnkhSligh
Shawn (Chucktown)  Zoo
Todd Judy (Savannah)  TnT
Jesse Driggers (Charleston) Void
Rudy  (Charleston)   Void
Evil Bill (Charleston)  Keeper

Yes, thats two TnTs and THREE Voids.

Round One: Dave plays Shawn (Sligh vs Zoo, with Ankhs), Hill plays Rudy (TnT vs. Void), Todd plays Jesse (TnT vs. Void--echo, echo, echo), and Bill plays Bryan (Keeper vs. Void)


TnT is a bad game for Void, and both of these go in favor of Todd and Hill. Dave's Sligh is outweighed by Shawn's bigger critters, and they're untargetable, and regenerate. Bryan is a pretty crafty up-and-comer who likes controllish black, and cannot be counted out, even when Keeper is rolling. I will say that during game two, it was an apparent lock, with Bill owning Light of Day AND Moat, on the board. However, Dystopia appeared and away went the problems. Another sure-fire use for Alter Reality, folks....Hopefully, these players can add their own input for the rounds.

Round Two: Todd faces Bryan, and Hill faces Shawn. Again, Void seems to be no match for TnT, with Welder ruining the best plans, and Shawn comes close (1 life) but Hill manages to eek out from under it, and its TnT vs. TnT in the finals. Weird, and explosive!

Finals: After game one (for Hill), both realized that the match would be decided in the first few turns, no matter what, as they are truly playing with dynamite. There is no time for recovery or defense, really, except holding back a Welder, to "trade" a threat.
Todd manages to get two active Welders, and Tormod's Crypt, fairly sealing the game, and it ended within another turn and a half.
Game three gets closed out nearly as quickly, with Hill plying out some big threats, and making a big mess.

Good job, and thanks Jon. My 'Pods never saw the daylight, and Scrying/Stroke/'Geyser/Timetwister in the main is cool when you can get away with it.

Darren A. Dew
THE UNION

[thorme]

Thanks for the report.  Sounds to me like Parfait should be quite the powerhouse in that field.

I'd try to make it down there myself one of these days, but I'm pretty sure the universe would implode if multiple Dave Allen's met at a tourney.

[Carbon]

No way my deck was complete JANK!
After winning in savannah the last two tourneys with Trix and Paragon Keeper..i was getting over-confident so i went with a deck that i knew wouldn't do as well. I ran Copper Tablets and Gamble in sligh...what kinda jank is that lol.
anywho It'd be pretty damn funny to see two Dave Allen's play so come on down to our next tourney February 1st and its going to be a proxy tourney so all the "Timmy's" can play with the big boys too.

I'll post a report of my deck and stuff later on

Dave Allen

[Gilthanas01]

My thanks to all who attended the Charleston tourney this month, as organizer I didn't expect the especially high-powered turnout. I can say that it was quite a challenge and was very enjoyable. For my part, I won't submit a long report, except that I went away from my usual combo mindset and ran Keeper instead, and unfortunately was in the Void/Suicide side of the draw. I never enjoy the discard/Wasteland matchup, and this tourney was no different, as I lost to Void twice in the Swiss. I also dropped my first round match to Gohan with Turbo-land, which of course is winnable with Keeper, but I despise playing against Turboland in the first place which hurt my concentration, especially since I could never draw any good cards to help my board position. The only matches I managed to win on the day were against Suicide Black and against an ElfSwarm deck. Oh well, back to combo for a while I guess, lol......Anyway, congrats to all the players who made top 8, and to my bud Dave Allen who ran the steamiest pile of crap to a T8 finish. I hope that the field for next month's tourney will be as strong or stronger, especially since we will be allowing proxies for the 2nd time ever.

[Zelif]

Quote (Gilthanas01 @ Jan. 05 2003,17:57)For my part, I won't submit a long report, except that I went away from my usual combo mindset and ran Keeper instead, and unfortunately was in the Void/Suicide side of the draw. I never enjoy the discard/Wasteland matchup, and this tourney was no different, as I lost to Void twice in the Swiss. I also dropped my first round match to Gohan with Turbo-land, which of course is winnable with Keeper, but I despise playing against Turboland in the first place which hurt my concentration, especially since I could never draw any good cards to help my board position.

JS,
I'd be interested to know what your decklist looked like. I know mine is a non-standard Keeper, but I look forward to TurboLand and mono-black constructs including Void. Sounds like I should've taken your slot, and (perhaps) you, mine. BTW, the bribe is in the mail for lining me up with Mike in the first round

And Dave's deck might've been steamy, but it was lined up to beat Keeper.

Darren A. Dew
THE UNION

[Zelif]

Evil Bill added his report in the unregistered forum, and I thought I'd add a link, since its easier:
"Evil" Bill's report, complete with vulgarity and weirdness
Bill is a terrifically funny guy, and a great competitor any day.

Darren A. Dew
THE UNION

[Jesse Driggers]

I Played Void.

4 Hypnotic Spectre
4 Nantuko Shade
4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Sinkhole
3 Powder Keg
3 Nether Void
2 Chainer's Edict
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mind Twist
4 Dark Ritual
4 Mishra's Factory
3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus
15 Swamp

Side(That matters...
3 Null Rod
2 Chainer's Edict
2 Diabolic Edict
Crap
4 Planar void
2 Zuran Orb
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Necropotence
--------------------------------------

Round 1, vs. Mike Biechner(spelling), playing Rector/Ghoul.

Mike's one of the better players in the area, but he's more interested in draft and t2, only playing t1 because they are the only tourneys within a hundred mile range.  I played vs. him in the t8 of the last tourney and beat the nuts off him. so I'm confident...

game 1
I win the die roll and go first, taking a Mulligan.  My next hand has
1 Factory
1 Wasteland
1 Shade
2 Swamp
1 Hymn

and I keep.  I drop a Factory 1st turn and pass.(I run more land than him, so I was hoping that he would waste the factory, then I would be able to Waste his next land.  He plays all Non-basics in this deck.)
He doesn't have a Waste, but he drops a Savannah.  I draw a hippie, play a swamp and Factory swings him to 18.  he drops bayou, pass. I draw a hymn.  I drop swamp and Shade.  he plays a Windswept Heath, and grabs a bayou.  I draw a Duress, play Wasteland, activate Factory off Wasteland, attack with factory and Shade. he drops to 13, and I duress.(I would of Duressed 1st, but he doesn't run instant removal.)
he has lands and Feeder.  He goes and drops a Heath, grabbing a Savannah, and plays a Feeder.  I draw Swamp, play it, Attack.  he blocks shade and gains four, I pump.  he's now at 14.  He plays Deed, with one mana open.  I swing for 7(5 shade, 2 factory)and pass.  He blows deed for 2 and wastes my factory.  I drop hippie.  form here on he gets land and I draw beats, so I win.

in
4 Edict
out
3 Keg
1 Sol Ring

game 2
he goes 1st, playing Bayou, duress.  My hand has a Hymn, D. Edict, 4 Swamp, 1 Factory.  He takes Hymn.  I draw land six swamps in a row, he swings for 24 after a wasteland...

game 3
I go 1st with
2 Swamp
2 Hippie
2 N. Void
1 Hymn.

I drop a swamp, He bayou/Duresses the hymn.  I Draw Mox Jet, play swamp/jet/hippie.  He plays a land.  I draw swamp and win.  Nether void is good when your opponent has 2 lands the whole game. lol

matches 1-0-0
games   2-1-0

Round 2 vs. John "Chub" Ellis. Playing Donate.

This is the guy I lost to in the finals of the last tourney, so I need to bring the guns.  I also know that this is one of my best matchups, I'm 4-1 vs this...

Game 1
I dont have notes on Hand/Draws from here but my life totals explain where the damage came from so.. Also, theres not much to explain here.  Black SHOULD win this, barring a 1st turn combo.

I go 1st.  We have a mana war, He plays land, I kill 'em.  I end up screwing his mana, But he does have a Island from a flooded strands.
here are the life total notes
him           me
20            20
19 Strand     20
17 Shade      20
14 Shade      20
12 Shade      20
11 Strand     20
0  Shade for 7
   Shade for 2
   Factory for 2

In
3 Null Rod
2 D. Edict
out
3 Keg
1 Sol ring
1 Mind Twist

Game 2
He plays lots of moxen and a Crypt 1st turn, no land.  I remember this hand, b/c it's so good: 3 swamp, 2 duress a Rod, and some random card.  Rod resolves turn 2.  He manages to drop morphling off an academy, but edict = good.  He dies to his crypt and a hippie.

Matches 2-0-0
Games   4-1-0

Round 3 vs. Evil Bill with Paragon Keeper.

I expect this to be a hard match.  Before Bill sold all his cards, he used to play black only, and he Knows what to do to hurt me.  He borrowed this deck from dave, who won the last savannah tourney with this.

Game 1
He goes 1st, plays a Sea, 2 Moxen Demon Tutor for Lotus(he just dropped it into play), Go.  I duress, he forces. Oh shit... He draws, Tundra, Mind twist your hand.  I concede after missing 4 land drops.

in
3 Null Rod
2 C. Edict
Out
3 Keg
1 Sol Ring
1 Mind Twist

My notes for games 2 and 3 are:  Null Rod = Gunz

Matches 3-0-0
Games   6-2-0

Round 4 Todd Judy(BurntGerbil), TNT.
I offer a draw, he says yes.  Yay, TNT rapes void.  Seriously, I am 0-3-3 vs this deck, with 3 ID's.  I have won 1 Game vs TNT.  

Round 5 Shawn Moreland, Red Green aggro.

Seeing that we are a Team,  I own his deck(Minus his lotus), I drove him here, and paid his entry fee..... we draw, and go to Taco Bell.


T8

 Brian (Void
 Shawn (R/G
 Hill (TNT
 Todd(TNT
 Me (Void
 Evil Bill (Paragon Keeper
 Dave (Ankh Sligh
 Guy3 (Void

t8 Todd Judy, TNT
yay.

Game 1.
he goes to 15 off search lands.  I lose to Survival and a mistake.
I drop a turn 2 shade, and have a ritual for the Void, but only 2 swamps for mana.  I also have 2 sinkholes.  I should of killed 1 land then voided and won, but I hesitated 1 turn to long, hoping for a land, and lose.

In
4 Edicts
3 Planar Voids
Out
1 Duress
3 Keg
1 Sol Ring
1 Hymn
1 Mind Twist

Don't ask about the Rods, my mistake.

Game 2
I school him with ld and he draws nothing.

Game 3
I draw the 2 Edicts that should of been rods. He wins off 3 moxen(Emerald mainly) for mana for 6 turns......And Survival/Squee.

I have decided to devote my sideboard to beating this deck.  I spent all of sunday messing around and I'm happy with the new board, hopefully it will beat Dave friday. I now bring in 13 cards.

I have also decided to put Will in over Mind Twist.  Darren convinced me.  Thanks Pants!!!

Props.

Evil Bill.  Playing a deck through a Sea of black and still making top 8.  For being a funny guy, and killing me turn 2 with keeper. lol

Jon. For hosting a Cool event.  Taking one of those useless L'abissios off my hands.  Hopefully These will be sanctioned soon.

Todd.  For Id'ing with me

Gohan.  For the trade.  I pimped out my deck, and it only cost me my 2nd ruby.

Slops

Jon.  For not running Combo, Although It might of sucked vs all the black.

Todd.  For beating me.

Evil Bill. For promoting Ports over Factories, Negators over Shades.

Me.  For not siding in Null rods.

[Gilthanas01]

Darren, for the record this is what I ran:

        1 Library of Alexandria
        3 Wasteland
        2 City of Brass
        2 Volcanic Island
        1 Strip Mine
        1 Tropical Island
        3 Tundra
        4 Underground Sea
        4 Flooded Strand
        1 Mox Sapphire
        1 Mox Ruby
        1 Mox Pearl
        1 Mox Jet
        1 Mox Emerald
        1 Black Lotus
        1 Sol Ring
        1 Vampiric Tutor
        2 Cunning Wish
        1 Swords to Plowshares
        1 Yawgmoth's Will
        1 Stroke of Genius
        1 Demonic Tutor
        1 Time Walk
        1 Fact or Fiction
        1 Fire/Ice
        1 Circle of Protection: Red
        1 Mystical Tutor
        1 Diabolic Edict
        1 Ancestral Recall
        1 Mind Twist
        1 Regrowth
        2 Morphling
        1 Braingeyser
        2 Brainstorm
        1 Balance
        1 Misdirection
        1 The Abyss
        4 Force of Will
        4 Mana Drain
SB:  1 Alter Reality
SB:  1 Peacekeeper
SB:  1 Abeyance
SB:  1 Swords to Plowshares
SB:  1 Capsize
SB:  1 Ebony Charm
SB:  1 Moat
SB:  1 Pyroclasm
SB:  1 Diabolic Edict
SB:  1 Tranquil Domain
SB:  1 Allay
SB:  1 Shattering Pulse
SB:  1 Counterspell
SB:  1 Red Elemental Blast
SB:  1 Misdirection

Looking back at the results, I should have run the cop:red in the side, left the alter reality in my binder, and run moat main, probably. Mostly, the reason I lost to Turboland was my own mistake in a counter war game 1, and a poor sequence of draws in game 2. My 1st Void loss was both games due to major disard and LD the 1st 4 turns which left my hand empty when the critters started to hit the board, and my 5th round loss to Void against Bryan was actually pretty close and was probably due to my rustiness with Keeper in general.

[Zelif]

Quote (Jesse Driggers @ Jan. 06 2003,14:22)I have also decided to put Will in over Mind Twist.  Darren convinced me.  Thanks Pants!!!

No problemo. You will be a completely sold convert, soon enough. It might make you drop to two Voids, since, from the sounds of yer report, you were beating the hell out of epople with no Void in play. Another search card, maybe?

One other question, have you run into any Land tax problems? I was just curious about the lack of Dystopia in yer 'board.

Sounds like you had some fun.

Darren A. Dew
"Pants"?
THE UNION

[Zelif]

Quote (Gilthanas01 @ Jan. 06 2003,17:29)Looking back at the results, I should have run the cop:red in the side, left the alter reality in my binder, and run moat main, probably. Mostly, the reason I lost to Turboland was my own mistake in a counter war game 1, and a poor sequence of draws in game 2. My 1st Void loss was both games due to major disard and LD the 1st 4 turns which left my hand empty when the critters started to hit the board, and my 5th round loss to Void against Bryan was actually pretty close and was probably due to my rustiness with Keeper in general.

Cool. And thanks. You might want to drop this over in the thread for "Post your current Keeper".

Sounds like the environment ran away with the day, overall. Rustiness in that kind of minefield is definitely a disadvantage!

The green spells are different, and I wonder if that might not, long-term, contribute to some mana problems. I ran without Regrowth this time, and surely there is a white replacement for Tranquil Domain? Maybe add another Volcanic Island in that spot, and the mana base might help you out a tad.

The Alter Reality trick is cool, but this whole field was powered by the level of aggression: the games were pretty much decided in the first seven draws, leaving no time for combos. Hell, I often didn't have time to CAST my COP against this field!


Darren A. Dew
THE UNION

[Gilthanas01]

I ran Tranquil Domain because my opponents ALWAYS hammer my Tundra's......My experience against Sui/Void is that my Tundra's get nailed almost as soon as they hit the board. They're more likely to leave me with a green source than a white one since they know the only stuff likely to be in green is Regrowth  and possibly Sylvan Library. However, since they are terrified of Balance, no white source is safe for long, and you know that Keeper has to keep making land drops, I can't hold them in hand and hope to play them when I need that color..

[Jesse Driggers]

@ Darren:  I don't really have a problem with parfait.  the worst card in his deck is Scroll Rack.  They can fill up with plains all day, but if he ain't ancestraling with the Rack, he isn't going to win.  That sideboard was more of an experiment than anything else.  The new one has 3 Dystopia's, to combat Survival.  I also hope that the new board lets me smack on TNT.

Also, I'm going to stick with 3 voids for now.  I didn't really go into LD mode this tourney, unlike the last where I killed about 5 lands a game.  I prefer not to play a void if my opponent can generate 4+ mana, or if they can make more mana than I can.

And the Pants thing.  Biechner told me about the 1st time he saw you come down, you were wearing some "Short shorts."  and he thought you didn't have on any pants

[Carbon]

Well since everyone else posted i might as well throw my jank up
I thought ankhsligh would do decent...but not have enough guns for the top 8
whadda ya know..i was right

anywho heres the janky deck i ran

17 mountain
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Incinerate
4 Chain Lightning
4 Price of Progress

1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Gamble
3 Cursed Scrolls
4 Ankh of Mishra
1 Black vise
2 Copper Tablets (THATS TECH)

2 Gorilla Shaman
4 Jackal Pup
4 Mogg Fanatic


Sideboard=Total Jank
4 Red Elemental Blast
2 Earthquake
2 Dwarven Miner
3 Fireblast
2 Shatter
2 Gorilla Shaman

Well to say the least i went 3-1-1 for the day and scrubbed out first round of top 8 versus Shawn play R/G Beating Machine

oh well back to playing a real deck lol

Thanks to everyone who came from Savannah and Hill for makin the journey from Atlanta to us
Thanks to Jon for hosting and also to The Green Dragon for letting us use the game room once again.


As a side note...Next months tournament will be held on February 1st and we will be allowing "Proxy cards" so that the playing field will technically be even...i'm so tired of kids bitchin about my power...oh well
Anywho Prizes are yet to be determined..I will post them ina  new thread and i think everyone will be happy with what they will turn out to be.

See everyone in Savannah in 2 weeks!

Dave Allen
(Sligh fuckin sucks ass)