1. Powered Dragon is quite a strong deck indeed, and less complicated then other current combo. I would suggest that you build the deck and then goldfish (play a solitaire game to see how fast you can win) a bunch until you are comfortable with how the deck and combo works. A good Dragon thread can be found
here.
Can't seem to find the original primer, maybe someone can help with that. Once you get some experience with the deck and feel comfortable, you should be able to at least put up a damned good fight if not even top 8 yourself. If you can, find someone in the area who plays T1 and see if they want to get together and playtest. If you have Apprentice (if you don't, you can find it at
www.e-league.com ), I'd be happy to help you with the deck. My AIM is HunterKiller403.
2. If your opponents get annoyed, just tell them that you haven't played in while. It is a rule that if you play with foreign cards you must be able to provide an accurate translation upon request, so if they balk you can always call a judge.
3. There isn't much you need to keep track of with Dragon, but my usual tournament checklist is:
Several dice, including twenty-sided: for life totals and counters.
Deck: because showing up at a tourney without it kinda sucks:roll:
Decklist, typed: many tournaments require a decklist to enter and find typed lists convenient. At very least you can double check your deck before the tournament.
Paper: write down life totals, other stuff, general use
Water bottle: because water is the ultimate tech, and caffeine and sugar (IE soda) will make you play terrible, contrary to popular belief
A bite to eat: pack a sandwich or something, many tournaments last for many hours, and you may not have time to run out for fast food between rounds
4. Until you familiarize yourself with how to play counters and such, Dragon is probably your easiest choice of Tier 1 decks. While you do (or most do) run Force of Will, generally reading what your opponent will play will tell you what to counter. Some basic tips for countering in combo:
What to counter:Hate: The ultimate enemy of Dragon is graveyard hate. Saving the Force for their last Coffin Purge, etc. is extremy vital.
Counters: The other enemy of combo in general is your opponents counters. Often you can go off and they will have only a single Force of Will or Mana Drain. Holding your counter until then will save you in a lot of matchups.
Active and subjective threats: Things like Mindslaver that can actively defeat your combo are must counters. Goblin Welder is an important one, but you should be wary of countering this too often, as the main deck playing it, Slaver, also runs enough counters in some forms to disrupt your combo. While not a threat on its own, Goblin Welder's ability ito circumvent counters can be deadly because of Mindslaver and such.
What not to counter:Basic threats: You're playing a combo that wins either by decking your opponent or creating an arbitrary number of 1/1 tokens. You do not care about your life total or your opponents life total. Unless they can potentially defeat you before you can use your combo, virtually anything offensive that your opponent can play is useless. Exalted Angels make look deadly, but they take 6 turns to kill. If you can't win in 6 turns, you're dead against 90% of the field, so one lousy Angel isn't going to make a difference. Psychatog is about the only exception I would make here, as it CAN potentially win the game that turn, but the deck that plays tog also plays lots of counters, so consider that too.
Support spells: They can Brainstorm all they want, but unless they're holding a hand full of Forces of Will, all this is accomplishing is tying up their mana so that they can't use any other counters.
I hope this lengthy expose helps you and good luck at the tournament.
-Dan
PS: Don't sweat the inexperience thing. Just the fact that you know and own the power 9 and other type 1 staples puts you a cut above a good chunk of the field that will inevitably bring random outdated aggro.dec. The first competitive T1 tournament I played in a went 3-5, the second tournament I won a P9 piece for first place![/list]
