Tournament Report Castricum 01-5-2003

Well, it’s been a while since we played a t1 tourney, and since we’re regulars at this tournament, we packed our cards and got going. A lot of the people from Eindhoven went, but noticably absent was Steven Bukkems. Normally he always comes with us, but he had a family weekend and thus couldn’t come. I think this was the first time we went there without him. Oh well, shit happens. On with the report.

There were 9 of us: 4 with Keeper, 3 with Parfait, 1 Void and Marco, who always plays a rogue deck, and today was nothing different.

I was playing keeper. As usual. I always play keeper at tournaments. I don’t know why, the deck just has it’s magic moments and it’s crappy moments, but as of late I’ve been on quite a killing spree with the deck. The last tourney I played was in Germany in November, and cause I had just put in the fetchlands then, my results there were less than stellar, with me going 3-2 and finishing 9th, outside the top 8

My deck is a mix of European Power Artifact/Monolith tech and Team Paragon keeper, and I didn’t mind having the combo at all. To be exact, I only beat my opponents to death thrice this tourney, the rest of the time I had the combo and some random x-spell. If it works, don’t fix it, and I have to say Keeper feels great right now. The fetchlands are amazing as are the Brainstorms combined with them.

Decklist as follows:

   4 Force of Will
   4 Mana Drain
   2 Morphling
   2 Brainstorm
   2 Cunning Wish
   1 Power Artifact
   1 Fact or Fiction
   1 Stroke of Genius
   1 Timetwister
   1 Misdirection
   1 Braingeyser
   1 Mystical Tutor
   1 Ancestral Recall
   1 Time Walk

   1 Yawgmoth's Will
   1 Vampiric Tutor
   1 Diabolic Edict
   1 Demonic Tutor
   1 Mind Twist

   1 Renewed Faith
   1 Swords to Plowshares
   1 Moat
   1 Balance

   4 Tundra
   4 Underground Sea
   3 Volcanic Island
   3 Wasteland
   2 Polluted Delta
   1 Flooded Strand
   1 Strip Mine
   1 City of Brass
   1 Tolarian Academy
   1 Library of Alexandria
   1 Black Lotus
   1 Grim Monolith
   1 Mox Sapphire
   1 Mox Emerald
   1 Mox Ruby
   1 Mox Jet
   1 Mox Pearl
   1 Sol Ring

SB: 1 Misdirection
SB: 1 Volcanic Geyser
SB: 1 Ebony Charm
SB: 1 Shattering Pulse
SB: 1 Allay
SB: 1 Skeletal Scrying
SB: 1 Enlightened Tutor
SB: 1 Swords to Plowshares
SB: 1 Counterspell
SB: 3 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1 The Abyss
SB: 1 Circle of Protection: Red
SB: 1 Circle of Protection: Black

Notes on my deck/sideboard:

The Volcanic Geyser is there cause in playtesting we've seen a lot of matches where I'd just be in topdecking mode vs any deck and not draw anything usefull. Even with the combo out. I figured I might as well try this card, and I didn't really need it, but it's not bad having an extra instant win option in the sideboard. The Moat maindeck is the result of seeing a lof of creature decks. And I don't mean sui black, but mono green as well, which just crushes Abyss by sherr weight of numbers. Also, having it in play vs TnT and removing his Wonder with Ebony Charm is great

The actual report

We arrived and as we entered, we saw 4 german ppl sitting there. Since we had assumed there’d be more from our neighbouring country, we were surprised to say the least. Anyway, we registered, I lent some cards to Mike and leon, 2 other peole from Eindhoven and played some cards while waiting for the tournament to begin. After about half an hour of playing cards the pairings for the first round were up and I went to my table.

Round 1, Mickael Karst with mono black.

I had a pretty good hand, with LoA, Mox Jet, Monolith, 2 Seas, Force of Will and a Mind Twist. Figuring I only had a little chance to meet a Wasteland I kept and opted to begin. I played LoA and said go. He played a Swamp and I cringed, fearing all kinds of Rituals and Hypnotics flying around. He didn’t do anything though, just said go. I drew a card, the activated LoA and drew Sol Ring. Figuring I’d meet danger the 2nd turn then, I played Mox, Ring, Monolith, Sea and Mind Twisted him for 4. This yielded a few type 2 cards, like Cabal Therapy and stuff. I then kept drawing counters, card drawers and eventually combo’ed him out.

Side: -1 Renewed Faith, -1 Moat, +1 Enlightened Tutor, +1 The Abyss

Game 2 was utterly broken. Ancestral, Time Walk and a lot of counters made my day vs. mono black. Afterwards it seemed he didn’t play with Duress for some reason. Oh well, too bad for him. I felt a little guilty of beating up a scrub like that, but that’s life.

2-0 games, 1-0 matches

Round 2, Marco Kiewit with U/G weirdstuff.dec

I know Marco, as he’s also from Eindhoven. He played a deck he thoguth of himself, featuring the right stuff to battle the Castricum metagame, with Wall of Blossoms, Tradewinds, Time Elemental and a score of counters, Birds and card drawing. My first hand featured 5 lands and 2 other cards, and I opted to keep, since I was sure to draw good cards. How wrong could I be? In the first 17 cards I drew 5 non mana cards, go figure. The few threats I drew were all countered and he was soon gaining card advantage with Tradewind/Wall of Blossoms recursion. Figuring I would lose, I was tempted to concede, but didn’t do it in the end. Topdecking in Keeper is good. Topdecking Will is briljant. He didn’t have a counter and this became his waterloo. I Balanced to get all his critters of the board and discard his hand. Then I cast a Morphling and let him go. The only card he kept from his hand after the balance was Braingeyser. D’OH!! He drew 6 cards but didn’t manage to find an answer for Morphling, as it beat him into the ground. After that game, he revealed he’d drawn 5 lands and a useless Fore of Will of the Geyser.

Side: -1 Renewed Faith, -1 Diabolic Edict, -1 something, +2 REB, +1 Swords

The 2nd game confirmed my belief in Brokencards.dec, as keeper is known around here. I started of good with 1st turn Ancestral, drew answers and counters for all his stuff and beat him to death with a Morphling.

4-0, 2-0. Nice

Round 3, Bram Verhees, Nether Void

Hmm…for some reason, even at tourneys with upward of 60 players, I always have to play the same people I playtest against. This was a tough match and I knew it. The first game was uneventful for me, as a flurry of hand destruction wrecked my game and me as well.

Side: -1 Renewed Faith, -1 Diabolic Edict, +1 Swords, +1 Misdirection

The 2nd game was the opposite, as I had a totally broken hand which bashed his head in with a 2nd turn Ancestral, Lotus, Will and Brainstorm, revealing 3 more counters, and I already had the combo on the table. Needless to say he died a horrible death. Who needs Morphling?

The thirth game was pretty drawn out(by Void means) but he topdecked better then me. Hmm…, 2-1 loss, but at least it’s to a friend of mine and vs black, so I didn’t feel too bad. I mean, he didn't even have to walk home

5-2, 2-1

Round 4, Raymond with U/W control

The first game was uneventful, as his control deck got utterly wrecked by me. Drawing like all the broken cards in my deck surely helped, but keeper IS better then U/W control any day.

Side: -1 Vampiric, -1 Mystical, -1 Renewed Faith, +3 REB

The second game was long, extremely long. Neither of us was able to wrest control from the other, since I drew a lot of excess chaff, but counters at just the right moments. In the end time was called when I managed to swords his Morphling and he had to do 7 damage with 2 Ophidians in 6 turns. This was impossible and he conceded.

7-2, 3-1

Round 5, Bart Peerdeman with mono red burn

The first game was over even faster then the first game against the void deck I played. I didn’t manage to draw anything usefull and died a horrible death to a Final Fortune extra turn and a LOT of burn.

Side: -1 Renewed faith, -1 Vampiric Tutor, +1 CoP:Red, +1 Misdirection

The 2nd game was utterly broken once again. I got my Ancestral in my first hand and basically countered all his burn till I got my CoP:Red. Ater that, it was a bit of waiting while I built up card advantage and got the combo. Fearing REB’s I Wishes for the Volcanic Geyser and burned him for 10000.

The 3th game was over even faster. I had land, sapphire, monolith turn one, then in my upkeep cast Mystical for Ancestral and drew 3 cards, 2 of which were CoP:red and Power Artifact. It does have it’s merits, sitting behind a CoP:Red with infinite mana. I built up card advantage, Will’ed and ended the game with a Stroke with 2 counter backup.

9-2, 4-1

Round 6, Koos Cramer with mono black suicide

From the stories I heard from people around me and knew I had reason to fear him. Not that it made any difference the first game. I drew a god hand once again and first turn LoA with him having no Duress to stop it from activating. This sealed the game, as I drew a ton of cards and combo’ed him out. He didn’t draw anything usefull.

Side: -1 Stroke, -1 Renewed Faith,, -1 something, +1 Enlightened Tutor, +1 Abyss, +1 Misdirection

The 2nd game was a repeat of my game vs. Void, as I got utterly wrecked by his hand destruction and beat to death by a Shade and a Hyppie.

We wished each other succes for the thirth game, I looked at my hand and knew I’d win. I mean, things don’t get anymore broken then this. Sea, Jet, Ancestral(did we see this anywehere before?). With the Ancestral I drew Lotus, Mind twist and Sol Ring. I forced his Duress with FoW pitching my useless Timetwister, then Mind Twisted his hand away and went into topdecking mode. With him having 2 lands, it isn’t that hard, especially when I drew Monolith and after that my sideboarded Enlightened Tutor. I Cunning Wished for the Stroke I’d sided out and Stroked him for 2 billion or something.

Final Result:11-3, 5-1.

Very nice. I finished 4th overall and got 6 boosters, which yielded nothing, and I mean NOTHING. I talked to Gijsbrecht Hoogendijk a bit about the Dutch GP later in the year and inquired whether or not he’d play Type 1 some more after he’d been here. Note to Rakso: he played your keeper deck, and I mean the EXACT list. Even the damn Dromar’s Charm.

On a sidenote: Seeing I almost never used Morphling this day, I may put the 2nd one in the sideboard and maindeck a 3th Brainstorm instead. I’ll also add the 4th fetchland then, since these 2 cards together kick major ass, ditching random crap for good cards.
And yes, I DID play with 29 mana sources(if you include the Monolith) and I didn’t mind it. Ok, against Marco the 2nd round I did draw a few too many lands, but that stuff just happens.

Props:
My deck, for giving me insane hands
The crew rom Eindhoven for being good fun
Teun van Zijp, for running a great tourney, even if he was on his own.
The people in Castricum, for buying lots of cards from me, so I can buy the few cards I still need Foiled/Beta
Marco, for being a good sport even when being utterly demolished by me.

Slops:
Bram, for beating me in a topdecking race. Oh well, congrats anyway. I’ll beat you some other time.
My deck, for having not a single foil fetchland or Beta Volcanic(the things you look for when playing )
The weather. Driving back when it’s 0 Celcius and raining a bit is NOT cool. When the road ices over, it gets even better…yeah right