Power Tourney: Timetwister
T1 Tournament Report
04-19-2003, Sports Cards Unlimited (Durham, NC)
Sports Cards Unlimited
Durham, NC (Northgate Mall)
Weekly T1 - Saturday @ 2:00p, $10
#919-286-5585
This is our second power tourney for this area (Yay!), and the prize was a (GD+/EX--) Timetwister. There were 9 entrants, most of which were top quality players with good decks. It was great to see some new faces as well!
I brought my Keeper deck, recently altered with some suggestions from the board. I did some fairly 'radical' changes, against my usual conservative update strategy. Some examples: Move Abyss to SB, Drop Braingeyser for Future Sight, Drop Stroke for Skeletal Scrying, Play Renewed Faith MD. I'll list the deck and some comments at the end.
Round 1: Mike - Full English Breakfast
Cool! A new deck to play against and one I've been collecting the cards for. I knew the combo, but it took me awhile to pin down what deck he was playing.
Game 1: Don't remember much, but I think I Mind Twisted him for his hand and got a Dreadnought, which was the giveaway for his deck. Later he got out a Survival and pulled a Volrath's Shapeshifter, confirming my guess. But Morphling beats ran him over while counters and Swords stalled his strategy. I think he was mana screwed this game, helped along by a top-decked Powder Keg against his three Birds, and a few wastelands.
Game 2: We vie for control, but he counters a key play (don't remember what I did.. Morphling maybe?), and proceeds to get the combo. I scoop.
Game 3: I keep a hand full of counters, and start building mana. He plays some mana acceleration. I try to keep his blue low with wastes, then break the game open with Future Sight. This card is bomb! I play *at least* three cards per turn and get into a strong position with Morphling, counter backup and Yawgmoth's in hand. After that it was counter, Morphling, pass, counter, beat, yawgmoths, timewalk, beat, game over.
Record: 1/0 - 2/1
Round 2: Sam - R/B Sligh/LD
Game 1: I thought this was going to be straight sligh, which would be a worse matchup against my current maindeck, but it turned out to be slight/LD, which I can handle much better. He plays spells like bolt, rancid earth, hippie, and duress, I alternatively take damage, drain, play morphling and lose worthless cards. I ran him over pretty good this game.
Game 2: This turned out to be a really close game. His burn comes on strong, and double racks with Hymn take me below 10 in a few turns. I mox money away one rack before he is burned. Then it's topdeck mode. I keep my hand up to avoid damage, but slowly dwindle down to 1 with some burn and rack damage. He hits topdeck mode and prays for some burn, I pull a morphling and start the beatdown. Future Sight was in play too, and a swords on top of my library. He pulls a burn spell, I pump the morphling and swords it in response. I'm left at 3 life. I topdeck Mystical Tutor, tutor for Fireball and (using Future Sight) torch him for the win.
Record: 2/0 - 4/1
Round 3: Will - "Piece of crap" RWU Control Red - Hammer of Bogarden, Shard Phoenix, Seismic Assault, Land Tax, Rage, Bolt, Pillage, Lightning Angel, Dwarven Miner, Obliterate
Will was in town for the Easter break and brought his "Piece of crap" deck with him. He played T1/T2 awhile back, but didn't know the cards after Odyssey. I particularly surprised him with the Wishes. He was a bit of a rules lawyer, but not arrogantly so.
Game 1: Testing the waters against this new opponent, I should have played a bit more cautiously but I was being aggressive today. Made some pretty bad play mistakes; Dropped a morphling with only 1 blue open. He attacked, I blocked and pumped, he raged it in response. Then I yawg will it back, with only a sac land open. He rages it again, I sac the land in response to make it untargetable, in response to the sacing, he swords' it. (Does that work?) Sigh. A Wheel of Fortune took my fireball, and another bad play left my second morphling in the grave. After a minute of calculation, I scoop.
Game 2: Time to slow down, no more mistakes. I build mana, he plays out some artifacts. I counter his ancestral with counters drawn off my own ancestral, and continue to build up mana. Future Sight hits and I start to pull away, dropping 2-3 spells per turn and still leaving mana for drains. I drain a shard phoenix into a FoF and a morphling. Careful to protect it, the morphling goes all the way.
Game 3: His deck wasn't giving him any threats early on, leaving me plenty of time to setup. I think Future Sight may have seen play this game too. I remember a yawg willed Time Walk for morphling beatdown of 10, and a fireball finish. Ebony charm also showed up to take out his recycling spells.
Record: 3/0 - 6/2
Round 4: Scott - G/B/R Recurring Survival
Scott usually plays PT Funk, but I hadn't been seated next to him this tourney so I was not able to scout his deck before our match. I knew it had black though.
Game 1: My deck falls flat on its face. I keep a hand of Sapphire, land, brainstorm, plus stuff. He drops Survival turn 2 and I have no answer. It goes downhill from there; Anarchist, Recurring Nightmare (fitting name), Sex Monkey. I'm kept at 1 land for at least 5 turns. Random creature beatdown takes me to zero.
Game 2: He is land light early and I keep him there with wastes. At one point he is beating down with the sex monkey and a mox monkey, while I search for answers. Answers arrive; Future Sight, Swords. I'm at 5 facing a mox monkey when Morphling drops, unprotected. He is running off one mox jet. I take the game from there.
Game 3: I don't remember anything significant from this matchup. One of our late games left me with a bad hand, but an active library, to his Survival, Nightmare, and random creatures. Dig as I might, he owned the game. I fell to a barrage of utility creatures.
Record: 3/1 - 7/4
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#1 Scott - G/B/R Recurring Survival
#2 Bryan - 4c Keeper
#3 Will - R/W/U "Piece of Crap"
#4 Mike - Full English Breakfast
Semi-Finals: Will - RGU "Piece of Crap" deck
Game 1: I play cautiously again, but he is stuck at 1 mountain and a sol ring for some time. Wastelands keep him under his requisite 5 land (Shard Phoenix + Hammer = both 5 manna), while I play out mox monkey (bolted), library (pillage), and finally Morphling. Swing, pass, topdeck Fireball, swing, Fireball for 8; game.
Game 2: Lots of mana for me (mox, mox, lotus, sac, sac, tundra in the first 3 turns), he builds his multicolor base. I lead off with a Future Sight, which he has no response. The game starts to get sick after that; his deck seems to be working fine, but it just can't match a land, card drawing, and utility spell *every turn* from mine. Morphling gets one swing, then I fireball for the rest.
Finals: Mike - FEB
This turns out to be anti-climactic, as Mike's deck sputters out both games. One of them he parised down to 5 and still kept a land light hand.
Game 1: Mike is mana screwed (keg vs. birds). Later I play Future Sight, revealing Yawgmoth's Will with everything nasty in the graveyard. He scoops.
Game 2: We're both rolling along, I'm holding counters for the Shapeshifters while he's Survivaling and playing utility creatures. I drop morphling and begin the beatdown, he responds with Shapeshifter, we fight over it but he keeps it. He's at 7 life when I swing, forgetting to make morphling fly, it is blocked by a 12/12 trampler. Damn. I'm one turn away from losing (he is holding the combo), but I'm holding Morphling #2 and a tutor, fireball. I play Morphling #2, swords the shapeshifter and pass, leaving Morphling unprotected. He survivals for a Shapeshifter and casts, I counter, he counters and keeps it. He doesn't have enough mana left to run the combo this turn, and passes. I swing for 3 with the Morphling, then tutor for Fireball for the win.
I take home the Timetwister, my first power win from a tournament.
.. I know I promised a decklist and comments, but I've run out of time to write this. I'll add a reply with the decklist soon, sorry!
--Bryan
