Here's my tournament report from the the sanctioned Type I event held at the Tangled Web in Spartanburg, SC on June 26th, 2004.
They had a strong turnout for the event. 22 people which is more then recent Type I events in our area have gotten in some time. I think the lower entry fee of $5 attracted some Type 2 players that might have otherwise shied away from it. The local environment had no power of its own. Budget decks were everywhere. White Weenie, Reanimator, Wildfire, Sligh, Suicide, Enchantress. Even a few straight Type 2 decks like Ravager-Affinity, W/U Cats and a Door to Nothingness deck that swept someone in the 3rd round. Machinus came in from Asheville, NC along with his girlfriend Anna. They were playing U/G Madness and Sligh respectively. Hill Redwine (hrot) came up from Atlanta and loaned out a TnT deck to dringle and a few extra pieces of power he had on hand to Machinus and a few of the locals. I played a modified version of 4cControl which I was very comfortable with and felt would do well in the environment. Here's the list:
4 FoW
4 Mana Drain
4 Brainstorm
3 Cunning Wish
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
3 Skeletal Scrying
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Mind Twist
3 Exalted Angel
2 Swords to Plowshare
1 Balance
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Fire/Ice
1 Burning Wish
6 SoLoMoxen (minus the Emerald)
1 LoA
1 Strip Mine
4 Wastelands
4 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
3 Tundra
2 Volcanic Islands
2 City of Brass
SB:
3 REB
2 Rack and Ruin
1 BEB
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Disenchant
1 Swords to Plowshare
1 Timetwister
1 Pyroclasm
1 Haunting Echoes
2 Damping Matrix
The Burning Wish is something that I feel is really strong in the latest version of 4cControl given the amount of synergy it and Cunning Wish have with the Skeletal Scryings. While my tournament report may not reflect it, there were several times when I Burning Wished to play Time Walk, Balance or Yawgmoth's Will a 2nd time during a game. While they were rarely plays that completely turned a losing game around in my favor they were something that caught my opponent off guard and helped further cement my hold on the lead. Time Walk especially late in a game when it was coming close to time while I had an Angel or two out was very strong. And having Burning Wish in there meant I could play Will a little earlier then I normally would just to play one or two key cards. My SB Sorceries are still a matter of debate and dependent on the metagame. Pyroclasm is there as a extra card primarily vs Fish that I anticipated seeing but no one played. I think I only sided it in once through the course of the day. Timetwister is a come-from-behind sorta card that I've been testing but haven't really ever needed. I've never been in favor of giving your opponent 7 new cards but on rare occassions it can help turn a losing game around. Haunting Echoes I know will receive a lot of heat but I think it is very strong vs most Workshop decks (sans Slaver builds) and control decks that do not run Mis-D. Meltdown was something else I considered but I didn't see enough artifact heavy decks there to warrant it.
Anyway onto the tournament...
22 players. 4 rounds of Swiss. Cut to the Top 8. Prizes for Top 4.
Round 1 vs Jamie playing Reanimator.
Game 1. He opens up with Black Lotus. Break it for three black. Zombie Infestation discarding Multani plus another creature and then Reanimates Multani. I take 11 next turn from Multani and the Zombie Token while Mystical Tutoring for Balance. Balance resolves and a few turns later he plays Exhume again bringing Multani back from the dead. I'm able to chump block with a morphed Exalted Angel. He later plays Animate Dead on the Exalted Angel and I am forced to Swords it. I eventually succumb to the fat swinging from the other side of the table.
IN: StP, Haunting Echoes, Vamp Tutor
OUT: Fire/Ice, 1 Cunning Wish, Mind Twist
Game 2. He leads off with a Putrid Imp which I didn't see game 1. I STP it and am able to hold off his reanimation spells and get an Angel up and running. He plays a few Buried Alive early on putting Multani, Akroma, Platinum Angel and Phantom Nishoba into his graveyard. He plays Animate Dead on the Platinum Angel and I Wish for a Disenchant and dispatch it back to the graveyard. Later I Vampiric Tutor Haunting Echoes up to the top. Next turn I Wasteland his Badlands and hit him with Haunting Echoes removing most of the remaining threats in his deck from the game. I continue swinging with the Angel and comment that I have him pretty much in check and he scoops and we go onto game 3.
Game 3. He leads off with a Putrid Imp again and slowly pecks away at my life with that. I Cunning Wish to get Fire/Ice back from the SB and dispatch the Imp. He resolves a Zombie Infestation and created one token from it before I Cunning Wish into Disenchant to get rid of it. I'm pretty much in control but time is called a few turns after I play and unmorph an Angel. The extra turns leave him at 2.
M: 0-0-1
Round 2 vs Noah playing Wildfire.
Game 1. I am able to keep his threats off the board. I Mind Twist his hand after he plays Razormane Masticore. I STP a Shard Phoenix and he allows it to resolve and be removed. Exalted Angel and Gorilla Shaman come out and lead the way to victory.
IN: 2 Damping Matrix, 2 Rack and Ruin, 1 BeB
OUT: 1 Cunning Wish, Fire/Ice, Mind Twist, Fact or Fiction, ?
Game 2. He plays a few early mana artifacts and I counter his first Wildfire. I lay Damping Matrix a few turns before he plays Karn. I STP Karn. He plays his 2nd Wildfire leaving me with no land and 2 moxes (Sapphire & Ruby) and him with 2 Mountains and 3 mana artifacts. I Mystical Tutor into Ancestral Recall and begin a comeback while he draws cards neutered by Damping Matrix. I Strip Mine a Mountain and Rack & Ruin 2 of his mana artifacts. I Cunning Wish into Vampiric Tutor to get an Angel up and running. I mount my comeback while the next creature he sees is Avalanche Rider a few turns later. I Rack and Ruin his only 2 remaining mana artifacts on my turn insuring the Rider will die to its Echo and Noah scoops.
M: 1-0-1
Round 3 vs Chris (Machinus) playing U/G Madness
I knew Machius playing Madness but I wasn't familiar enough with the deck to know how our games should play out. Madness isn't something that sees a lot of play in the Charleston-Savannah circuit so I was looking forward to the opportunity to play against it. His tournament report from the event is located
here.
Game 1. We both start out slow. He opens up with a few Wastelands and I fire right back with a few of my own. He Ancestrals, I Ancestral. I get a LoA out and active. He plays an Aquameba and hits me twice with it before I STP it. I Mind Twist for 4 while he only has a blue and a colorless mana up. He hard casts Daze. I Force with ACC. He plays Daze #2 with ACC. Daze #2 resolves but not after I burned a few counters out of his hand. He plays an Arrogant Wurm and another Aquameba. I STP the Wurm and take out the Aquameba with Fire before they can hit me. Later I Yawgmoth's Will with FoW backup and it resolves. I refill my hand and get an Angel up and running. She goes all the way.
IN: 3 REB, 2 Damping Matrix
OUT: 1 Cunning Wish, Mind Twist, Gorilla Shaman, Fact or Fiction, Fire/Ice
Game 2. I am able to resolve an early Damping Matrix while he seems light on mana. I play a second not sure how much artifact removal he might have brought in. He plays a Wild Mongrel which hits me once before I STP it. He tried to Gush in response to a spell I played and I REB'd it. I play a morphed creature and I lose the counter war that ensues. Later I would play it again out of the graveyard with the help of Yawgmoth's Will. He Snaps it back to my hand but I'd play it again and the next turn follow up with another. He scooped when time is called with him at 12 and me with 2 Exalted Angels on the board and sufficient control of the game.
M: 2-0-1
Going into the last round of swiss neither Hill nor I were sure if they were cutting to the Top 4 or Top 8. We weren't sure if a 2-0-2 record for me would make Top 4 on points so I decided to go ahead and play it out. Hill was 3-0 at this point and got paired against dringle and they ID into what would be the Top 8.
Round 4 vs Eddie playing White Weenie
Game 1. He only sees two of his many creatures. I am able to counter some key spells and get an Angel up and runnning.
IN: Pyroclasm
OUT: 1 Cunning Wish
Game 2. He starts off playing a few land and a White Knight. I STP the White Knight and hit him with a morphed creature. He plays Land Tax and starts refilling his hand. He plays an Exalted Angel of his own that hits me once before I STP it. He plays a Soltari Monk and next turn drops 2 Empyrial Armor on it making it a 10/9 dropping me down to 3. Looking at the board and my graveyard my initial plan was to play Yawgmoth's Will to Mystical Tutor STP up to the top of my library but what happened was even better... On his first main phase I Iced the Monk and top decked STP! Denied of an attack he played a Warrior en-Kor and another Empyrial Armor on it and pass the turn. On my turn I draw into Time Walk and proceed to go broken. I Time Walk, STP, Will, STP, Time Walk, morph. Time Walk #1 I unmorph & swing with the Exalted Angel plus Skeletal Scrying for 3. Time Walk #2 I swing and play a 2nd Exalted Angel. The 2 STPs had inflated his life up to 35 before the Angels started pecking away at it. They go all the way. This is why I play Type I. I love come-from-behind games like this.
M: 3-0-1
Top 8 included:
1. dringle - TnT
2. Hill Redwine ( hrot ) - Stax
3. Me - 4c Control
4. Chris ( Machius ) - U/G Madness
5. Brad - Suicide Black
6. Chris - W/U Mirrodin Block Cats
7. Jamie - Reanimator
8. Eddie - White Weenie
Quarterfinals vs. Chris Brangman playing W/U Mirrodin Block Cats
His entire deck was Mirrodin Block from what I saw. Cats, equipment and land mostly. I think he only had blue in his deck to use for Trinket Mage to get his equipment cards. He also play Steelshaper's Gift to go after his 15 equipment cards! Leonin Scimitar and Bonecrusher primarily plus Loxodon Warhammer I believe. Not sure what else he was packing. He is amazed at all the good cards in my deck. The Ancestral, the Mana Drains, etc. I don't think he had ever seen the cards before.
Game 1. I take a few hits from his equipped creatures but am able to get out an Angel fairly easily and win.
IN: 2 Damping Matrix
OUT: 1 Cunning Wish, Fact or Fiction.
Game 2. I didn't take a single point of damage from him this. I counter some early plays of his letting him resolve 2 creatures. Next turn I play Balance w/ no creatures of my own floating 3 mana. Balance resolves and I play a morph. Next turn I unmorph the Exalted Angel and begin chipping away at his life. I play Damping Matrix while he's waiting on a creature for his 3 Equipment cards he has out. He draws Loxodon Punisher a turn before I finish him off.
Semifinals vs. Hill ( hrot ) playing Stax
Game 1. He leads off with a few Moxes and a Ravager. It hits me once for 1 before I STP it and he lets it resolve. He plays Tanglewire to stall me out. On my upkeep I Cunning Wish for Rack and Ruin but am without a red source and then tap down to the Tanglewire. I top deck a City of Brass and Rack and Ruin his Tanglewire and Gilded Lotus on my next upkeep. He tries to Tinker but I have a counter. I get out an Exalted Angel a begin the offense. I get him down to 4, show him 2 counters plus a Cunning Wish and he scoops.
IN: 2 Damping Matrix, 2 Rack & Ruin
OUT: 1 Cunning Wish, Fact or Fiction, Mind Twist, ?
Game 2. He seemed to get a slow start. Mid-game he resolved a Wheel of Fortune and I draw Tundra, Time Walk, Force of Will, 2 Brainstorm, Sol Ring, and Mystical Tutor with one Tudra in play untapped. He plays Trinisphere and I Mystical Tutor Ancestral up to the top of my Library and then FoW the Trinisphere pitching a Brainstorm. Next turn I play the Tundra, the Sol Ring, Time Walk and Ancestral. He plays a Smokestack and Tormod's Crypt. He made a misplay by thinking it would stop Skeletal Scrying in if activated in response. Next turn he found out that was incorrect. I Skeletal Scrying for 4 in response to the Smokestack trigger and sack my Jet to the Stax on my 1st upkeep after it becomes active. He adds another counter to Smokestack and later plays Triskelion during his turn. I Rack and Ruin them during his EOT and I take 3 from the Trike. Later I play Damping Matrix, get an Angel out shortly thereafter and begin racing to keep him from rebuilding. I Time Walk to hit him again. He is at 7. I draw a Skeletal Scrying and remove the Time Walk to wish for it. I show him Burning Wish and he scoops.
By this time it is 8:45. The store has been officially closed for 45 minutes. Everyone is tired and hungry so Dringle and myself agree to split the store credit for the Top 2 and head out for some food at Applebee's. I get a dual land out of the case and 7 packs of Fifth Dawn which I let Melinda, my girlfriend, to open when I return home. She has a knack for busting good rares and foils. Out of 7 packs I got 4 foils and several choice rares.
Props:
To the T.O. for running a very efficient event. Even after we had a match recording mishap after the 3rd round he was able to fix it and get everyone repaired very quickly.
To Machius and Anna for making the trek in from Asheville, NC. Always nice to meet Mana Drain people IRL.
To Zherbus and everyone else who has contributed to making 4cControl what it is today. A very strong deck that's really fun to play. Great work guys.
Slops:
None.
Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it.
Zombie Shakespeare
