9/22/06
I’ve been a Magic player since Ice Age was legal in tournaments. Since then I’ve had my fair share of tournament wins. I placed 7th at the Iowa States tournament in 2000 using a mono green beatdown deck. I also know what it’s like to lose badly. I prefer to play decks I enjoy playing and feel comfortable with. This means at any tournament I may win or lose badly. Here is a decklist for a fun deck I’ve been playing lately:
U/G/w
Artifact (7):
3 Simic Signet
4 Coldsteel Heart
Creatures (4):
2 Loaming Shaman
2 Keiga, the Tide Star
Spells (28):
4 Remand
4 Tidings
4 Voidslime
4 Into the North
4 Hinder
4 Repeal
4 Compulsive Research
Land (21):
3 Scrying Sheets
4 Mouth of Ronom
4 Snow-Covered Forest
10 Snow-Covered Island
Sideboard (15):
2 Gigadrowse
3 Quash
2 Palliation Accord
2 Trygon Predator
4 Spell Snare
2 Flashfreeze
Now while this deck may look like a pile of junk that couldn’t win anything, I went into the tournament with that exact attitude. I expected to lose and felt comfortable with my deck. Nothing else mattered.
Round 1:
I played against a kid that was new to type 2. Before the tournament he had to adjust his deck to switch it from extended to type 2 and didn’t get the exact cards that he should of to help him. He was playing white weenie.
Game 1: He got a turn one Savannah Lions and turn three Leonin Skyhunter. I couldn’t bounce and counter his creatures fast enough. That exposed my first weakness: Weenies. I had been told, when I posted my decklist on MOTL, that I would have trouble with aggro decks. So I was expecting it.
Game2: I went first and sided in Spell Snares. Turn one he didn’t play anything. Turn’s two and three Spell Snares stopped his early threats. I was able to get out my Artifacts and started drawing card after card. Unfortunately all my threats were near the bottom of my deck so time was running very low by the time I was able to get my Keiga into play. I was able to counter everything he tried to play or bounce all his creatures.
Game 3: Only 5 minutes left in the round. I knew he could beat me during that time but he said he didn’t even want to bother. He was a little upset at my deck since I was countering everything I could. Yes counterspells do suck to play against them, but they are fun to play with.
Record: 0-0-1
Matches: 1-1-0
Round 2:
I played against a guy playing Reanimator with Tidespout Tyrant, Clone, Niv-Mizzet. I played against him before the tournament for fun so I knew his deck pretty well and felt very confident playing against him.
Game 1: All he gets into play are some Signets and everything else he tries to play gets countered. I win with a Loaming Shaman. When I played against him before the tournament I used a different deck so he didn’t know what to expect.
Game 2: I side in Quash. Yet again I only let him get Signets out. He is only playing Mana Leak for counters so his deck is slow enough to pose no threat. Afterwords he spends plenty of time dissecting why he doesn’t feel my deck should work and how he is unhappy about losing to it.
Record: 1-0-1
Matches: 3-1-0
Round 3:
I play against a guy I’ve played often. I knew he was played Black White aggro. He is a really nice guy though and he knows I play odd decks but he still wasn’t expecting what I played. He was complaining that he was only 1-1 because he kept getting land screwed. Against me he always gets mana flooded.
Game 1: He gets out a turn 1 Savannah Lions and turn two Nezumi Graverobber. I bounce his savannah lions turn 2 then the grave robber turn 3 then counter the graverobber. Eventually I get out a loaming Shaman to block his Savannah Lion. As usuall he gets mana flooded and doesn’t draw anything to beat me with.
Game 2: Same start for him as game 1 but this time I don’t get my repeals and he crushes me.
Game 3: He beats me down with a Savannah Lion. I lose badly again but do get to claim a nice feat. I Hinder a Mortify, then Voidslime a Mortify, then Remand a Mortify all in the same turn after following that up with another hinder and the 3rd Mortify the following turn.
Record: 1-1-1
Matches: 4-3-0
Round 4:
I have to play against my wife with a deck I built for her: Green/White.
Game 1: She beats me down with Watchwolf. I manage to counter everything else until I can bounce the Watchwolf. Then she gets a Silhana Ledgewalker out and there is nothing I can do from there.
Game 2: I get revenge. I counter everything she plays. She then can’t handle my Keiga.
Game 3: It’s that annoying little Silhana Ledgewalker again. Nothing I can do against it. She beats me fair and square.
Final Record: 1-2-1
Final Matches: 5-5-0
So even though I lost some matches by quite a bit this was still a fun deck to play. I will try to fit in some creature removal to help versus Aggro decks.