Subject: Tourney Report from the lost Crew Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 22:33:23 PST From: "Max Szlagor" To: Fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Hello everyone, this is my first tourney report But I'm hoping you find it informative. Please bear with me. There's a lot of rambling here so if you don't want to hear it skip to the section marked tournament report. Ramblings on the PT scene: Ok, first the background story. The CREW has been inactive (well, at least me and Ron Serio) since about January. I have forgone the Germany, LA, and NY PTs becuase the costs of the PT were just catching up to me. I planned on being a pro player, a profession which I just couldn't live up to. After winning PT LA #1 Juniors I only managed one top 64 master victory between Columbus through PT Chicago (barring worlds, PT Paris, and PT Germany) and needless to say, I was becoming disillusioned. I had let winning become my only goal and lost sight of what the game was really about. A long time ago PTs had been all about meeting new people and schmoozing with friends that shared the love of a game. I had let winning become my only goal and lost the sense of why I began playing in the first place. I was still making decks here and there but the PT had just seemed like a stupid dream which enticed me in the beginning but scorned me thereafter. While I admit I wasn't totally prepared for some of the PTs, there were many I had playtested a long time for and got nothing out of. I was just spending more and more money with no return, and I was barely meeting people anymore. Something had to give. Ron Serio, fellow teammate, also pretty much quit around this time. Then about a week ago I felt like I really needed to start playing again, between Ron's renewed interest over Stronghold, Sam's perpetual excitement about the game, and my own desire to return to the tourney scene. I had been putting together the latest type 2 decks including variations of blue, sligh (our team deck for the most part), and steel necro as well as other miscellaneous experiments. I liked steel necro but I still feel like sligh is the greatest deck of all time (except maybe old school necro of course). The night before the tourney: I talk to Sam Heckman on friday night and he notifies me that there's a type 2 tourney at a local mall. It's only 5 bucks to get in, and I like the small tourney environment, so I agree to go. He picks me up and we chill out at his house. He notifies me he is playing mono blue using 16 counters, disks, steel golems, whispers and impulses. He credits ACD with making the deck. At this point I decide I should check out Stronghold for the first time ever. Yes, this was actually my first look at the cards, and I only had vague notions about what the cards did by browsing the spoiler lists. I thought the art seemed capture a dark theme, and I was into that. After browsing Sam's Stronghold I decide he needs to ge beat down. Well, I do beat him down a few games but his mass quicksand/dissipate draws end up beating me down like 3 games to 2. Dang, sligh had gotten beat by blue! I dont remember getting beat by blue while I was playing sligh and it certainly got me thinking about the deck. I was still determined to play it the next day thinking that these games were pretty much a fluke. If you haven't figured it out by now I love sligh and I do love to talk smack about it. It may not be very good anymore, to you, but I love it so go along with it. Sam decides we need to get to sleep about 1 am, which is way early for a tournament that starts at 11 am, so I end up just talking with him for a while about our team and decks..pretty much just random stuff that came to mind. Eventually I seemed to be getting the feeling that Sam really wanted to go to sleep (such a weirdo, trying to get sleep for a magic tournament) and I go upstairs to catch some of my own shuteye. At least thats what I thought. Small Cat likes to be insane all the time, and especially when people are trying to fall asleep so I end up staying up for another hour or so before I finally doze off. The day of the tournament: Ok so Im awake by like 9:15 from random sounds going on around the house and find myself looking for the snooze button. I end up getting like 45 more minutes of half-sleep. Sam wakes me up, I get freshened up and we head off to Charlestown mall, Sam telling me he expects a crowd of about 40. When we actually arrive it looks a lot like 8 people to me, but 8 more show up and the tournament gets going about 11:15. The tournament report: The format is type 2 with no Stronghold allowed, 16 players in a double elimination format. Sam and I breiefly glance at the pairings and see we will be playing each other round 2, how typical. The field is as follows: 2 sligh, one proporb, 5cg, 5cb, about 4 miscellaneous green decks, a five color good stuff type deck(I know this is vague but I'll go into more detail on this deck later), and a few other mismatched decks that didn't belong in a tournament. I was just hoping not to hit the proporb deck, and managed to dodge it by the sheer fact that it isn't very good against a general field. Round 1 begins and I'm ready to play. Deck list at the end of the report. Round 1 vs. 5 color good stuff This guy had mox diamonds in his deck but I totally didn't pay much atttention to it. Highlights of this deck included dismiss, counter spell, mox diamonds, incinerate, wrath of god, cursed scroll, frenetic efreet, thalakos seer, propaganda, disenchant, and a bevy of multi colored lands. We roll to see who goes first and I win the roll. Game 1: My starting hand is pretty decent but not amazing. I get first turn Mogg coscripts, second turn jackal pup and cursed scroll, and like third turn canyon wildcat. A ball lightning comes out to play one turn and the scroll, hammer, fireblast, and incinerates finish him off. He didn't play much on his side..just a bunch of plains and mountains. He only killed one of my creatures so he pretty much got rolled. I found out he was playing more colors and just couldn't find the mana for it. I decide to sideboard in a pair of nev's disks in the event he brings in cop:red. I don't like adding 4 if I don't know what my opponent has because I never saw permanents the first game outside of lands. I figured he just killed with a lot of late game burn or a big fireball, maybe even hammers but certainly not with creatures. Well, needless to say these were poor assumptions. Game 2: The beatdown continues in the form of mogg conscripts, fanatics and a scroll which he doesn't counter because he figured on disenchanting it. I play another and this proves to be his downfall. He ends up playing a cop:red when he is at 11 life so I fireblast nad incinerate him in response. He then proceeds to die in two turns to the amazing scroll. He's a nice guy though, and didn't really come to win so he's not too upset but he does mention the fact that he should have countered the first scroll. I didn't even see one of his creatures in either game but saw that he put in 4 cop:reds from his sideboard..wow, those might have been bad if they actually stopped sligh :). Sam plays against some bad deck that for some reason was running main deck boils?! He won in two games though, so apparently it didn't matter. All matches are to be played as soon as both opponents are ready, and me and Sam face the inevitable. Round 2 vs. Crew Team Member Sam Heckman, playing mono blue: Well we grumble about this matchup and both of us are looking to win, so it becomes intense at times. Game 1: This game Sam got to go first, a major factor in the match in general, but not in this particular case. I proceed to play several moggs and jackal pups which rip him up and a couple of hammers and the scroll put the nail in the coffin. He just couldn't seem to draw the responses he needed. He has a big sideboard against sligh though, including 4 chill and 4 hydroblast. My sideboard is big too however, and I bring in the kird apes (straw golems) as well as pyroblasts, removing the mogg conscripts, 2 dorks (ironclaws), and 2 incinerates. The way I figure I need those blasts for the chills and the straw golems are huge against him, while the conscripts and incinerates are marginally useful. The dorks just went cause I couldnt think of anything else I'd rather remove. I did want to leave a couple of incinerates in to make sure I still had plenty of direct damage. After a bit of shuffling Sam is ready to go again. Game 2: Sam plays almost nothing early on while I get multiple straw golems and jackal pup beating his face. He fails to draw any of his sideboard cards while I get 2 straws and 2 pyroblasts which prove to be huge. He once again can't respond in time and at the end I have him at 5 life with a fireblast, incinerate, pyroblast, and cursed scroll in hand while he has only a quicksand and 2 islands untapped. In the worst case scenario he has 2 hydroblasts in hand so I cast the scroll first, figuring he will die by either burn/scroll or just to the burn. He ends up tapping both blue to counter the scroll and the burn finshes him off. I move on to the winner's bracket while he fights it out in the loser's bracket (I really dislike that name). I know that he still has a great chance of winning and give him some words of encouragement, but I know he hates losing to me. We play in tournaments against each other so often, and there is sort of a friendly rivalry between us. At this point I believe we discover the prizes are 2/3 box of Stronghold for first, 1/3 box of Stronghold and a Vanguard gift box for second, and t-shirt for third (this really isnt a prize to me, I already have more magic shirts than I need). Things are looking good for me, and I need that Stronghold bad. At this point I am waiting on other people so I grab some Subway and a hot sog for Sam. When I return I find that he has been beating on his next oppnent pretty bad. Excellent. Eventually I move on and settle in for the third round. Round 3 vs. Stompy (or something pretty close to it) This match was all about ghazban ogre. Game 1: First game he plays a ghazban on turn one after I have already gone first. I proceed to incinerate him (following turn one jackal pup) and beat him down with ghazban, pup, ball lightning and a couple of hammers. He is mana hosed this game for the most part so he can't really answer my threats. I sideboard in one Rathi Dragon since I figure he has no way to deal with it, removing a fireblast. Game 2: he goes first and drops the ghazban ogre again. I drop mogg fanatic. Man do I love taking other people's creatures. He proceeds to play a rogue elephant and I play a mogg conscript. He doesn't attack so I get a turn to draw the land I needed to hammer the elephant..no giant growth! I proceed to beat him down with the ogre and he follows with liege of the hollows. I hammer it and conscript it down to get 4 squirrel tokens while he only gets one. He then plays a disk but has gotten too low to come back. Burn finishes him off. At this point Sam plays someone using a weak version of mono red (it's not quite sligh) which uses the Goblin Bomb. He plays turn 2 bomb and wins 4 flips in a row. The Bomb was at 4 counters! I was gonna start crying if the bomb actually went off...but it went down to 3 then 4 again then 3 and 4 I think..it got hydroblasted eventually but it was truly an experience to remember. One more match to go till I'm guaranteed second. Round 4 vs. 5cg This guy had winter orb, geddon, jolrael's centaur, winter orb, disenchant, birds of paradise, disenchant, quirion ranger, man o war, terror, and a lot of rainbow lands including city of brass, undiscovered, and gemstone mines. We shuffle up and I win the dice roll. Game 1: Fast creatures wrecked him. I played first turn pup second turn cayon wildcat. He incinerated the pup and ate SOME balls damage the following turn. He drops a winter orb at one point and I wasteland his paradise. He never gets to 4 mana but the orb is annoying. 2 hammers and 1 scroll hit later and he dies. I decide to bring in 4 nevinyrral's disk after carefully contemplating whether shatter would be better. I don't think he has many disenchants however, and I can bait him with cursed scrolls first. I never draw the disk and he never plays a cop or warmth or anything so it turns out to be irrelevant anyways. Game 2: This game was all about wastelands. I get some early creature damage but I'm totally killing his mana. I wasteland 2 undiscovereds and fanatic a bird. He keeps hitting me with a centaur but he has been slowly dropping in life. He uses the city a little and I collect two fireblasts and an incinerate, enough to kill him if he taps his colored mana. I was a little concerned about honorable passge so I wasnt anxious to use the spells, but he tapped out to play geddon, something I counted on. He took the damage and I was guaranteed a spot in the finals. Most excellent. Sam ends up playing against the 5 color good stuff deck and gets wrecked by the mox diamond second game. It put his opponent way ahead with a frenetic turn two and scroll backed by dismiss a little later. Sam proceeds to point out the mox diamond and the guy seems as surprised as I do about it. He is a true gentleman however and concedes the match with no complaints as long as Sam will play the match out for fun. No problem there. Sam proceeds to move to his final match where he faces the g5c I played earlier. He was worried about playing this deck and wins in 3 close games..the last one where he has like 5 cards left in his deck, one way to win, and his life being at 3. So in the finals it's me and Sam. At this point I'm just thinking one thing: USA! USA! USA! (if you don't watch the Simpsons you will not understand this..but basically it equates the excellence of The Crew returning to a tournament and taking first and second..we split prizes of course so we are pretty happy about it.) The tournament was run quite well and we look forward to returning in the future. I was happy to be back on the tournament scene and acquired some cards I needed in trade as well as my first Stronghold packs ever. Well for those of you curious, here's the deck I played: Crew Sligh (No I don't take credit for sligh in general but I want people to understand that this deck was designed by me and Ron Serio back when Tempest first came out, with the exception of the cursed scrolls which eventually made their way in. I did not copy this deck despite what people may claim as similarities to other sligh decks out there. We have been playing sligh in various forms since Regionals 97 (you can find this deck on the dojo as well) and will continue to play it as long as it's viable. Enough on that for now.) Crew Sligh: 4 Mogg Conscripts 4 Mogg Fanatics 4 Jackal Pups 4 Ironclaw Orcs 2 Canyon Wildcats 4 Ball Lightning 4 Incinerate 4 Hammer of Bogarden 4 Fireblasts 4 Cursed Scroll 4 Wasteland 18 Mountains Sideboard: 2 Shatter 4 Straw Golems 4 Pyroblasts 4 Nevinyrral's Disk 1 Rathi Dragon Commentary on the deck: This deck was basically an evolution of our original sligh deck denoted by the presence of 4 hammers. Sure it's not good against people when orb hits the table or they geddon, but combined with cursed scroll it gives the deck a lot of late game staying power. I prefer a more control oriented sligh approach and these hammers have proved their worth time and time again. As much as I love control, Dave Price has shown me the power of the mana curve and beatdown in general, so the 12 one cast creatures and the 6 2 cost creatures make up the meat of the continuos damage. Our old deck had a much higher mana curve, but the red cretures become better and faster with every set. The mogg conscripts are great against almost everyone. They can consistently attack and are a fast beatdown. The rest is pretty standard sligh stuff and I'm sorry if I'm stating the obvious here, remember I haven't played much Magic or read tourney reports since January. As far as the sideboard goes, I guarantee it is sub optimal but I rarely use sligh sideboards anyway, the deck is tight and it's very hard to take cards out in most cases. The Disks were primarily for cops and warmth, plus decks that tended to overplay what they had. I don't like them very much but there has to be a way to deal with cop red. The Straw Golems work well becuase they get around chill and are like kird apes against very creature light decks, they can't be copped either. The shatters were more or less for orbs and scrolls, but I'm not really sure they have a place in the deck. The pyros are pretty self explanatory and the Rathi was for mono green or other sligh decks, I could only gank one since I have a small supply of tempest and Sam only had one. Now I have to start thinking about the effects of Stronghold and prepare for regionals. Hopefully Ron will start playing the game again and THE CREW will make a strong showing at regionals and hopefully PTs and nationals as well..time will tell. Sorry about the length of this report, I hope it mangaed to do something for you. Well I got to go to a quailifier with Ron Serio tommorow and see if he can qualify..not sure if I'm gonna play or not. There is a type 2 500 bones tourney and I may play in that however, and of course I'll be playing sligh if I get into that. Well I'm out for now...CREW forever... Max Szlagor PT 2 Juniors Champion PT scrub Full Fledged Member of THE CREW