This has been edited to not have messed up margins, and I changed some typos I found. Posted the first version late last night. FRIDAY NIGHT AT NEUTRAL GROUND - A TOURNAMENT REPORT (5-9-97) Due to the overwhelming positive response to my report on last Tuesday's tournament, here is my report for last Friday's tournament. [Truthfully, about 10 people asked me to keep posting, but it is Hashim's ire that is spurring me on. (Clearly not my writing ability :)] For those of you that don't know and did not read the last report: NG is the main (read only) gaming club in New York City. Some back rooms of game stores exist, but NG is the main spot for Magic and other gaming in NYC, see www.nground.com for more info. My thinking is this, NG has sealed deck tournaments on Tuesdays and Fridays, I wanted to show other players on this newsgroup what it is like to play at NG where the competition is fierce. (IMHO) Friday tournaments start at 730pm (read 800) and go till 12 or 1am. (Well, this one went till 2am). The lineup this Friday was as follows (with current DCI points if I could find them). The * means that this player is a regular at NG: *Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz 1915 *Vince Kozlowski 1810 *Jon Finkel 1782 *Scott Seville 1779 *Mike May 1772 *Adam Katz 1760 *Mathew Wang 1754 *Hogan Long 1711 John Roman 1665 (not sure said John R. on sheet) *Wayne Rosen 1659 *Adam Steidley 1639 Stuart Blaratnik 1559 Dale ? Jeke Bladt ? Jim M ? Ned V ? Paul Leicht ? Now for the fun bit - here was the deck I got: LANDS 4 Forest 4 Islands 4 Mountains 5 Plains 5 Swamps ARTIFACT Elixir of Vitality GOLD Harbor Guardian Pigmy Hippo Shauku's Minion Tempest Drake Unfulfilled Desires BLACK Dark Privilege Dirtwater Wraith Enfeeblement Fallen Askari Fetid horror Grave Servitude Infernal Harvest Mire Shade Nocturanl Raid Tar Pit Warrior BLUE Breezekeeper Cloak of Invisibility Cloud Elemental Jolt Kukemssa Serpent Mystic Veil Power Sink Sandbar Crocodile Shrieking Drake Teferi's Drake GREEN Armour of Thorns King Cheetah Kyseu Drake Giant Caterpiller Locust Swarm Natural Balance Quirion Druid River Boa Seedling Charm Spider Climb Uktabi Orangutan Village Elder Warthog Warthog Wall of Roots RED Armorer Guildmage Blind Fury Builder's Bane Dwarven Vigilanties Dwarven Vigilanties Firebreathing Goblin Elite Infantry Icinerate Keeper of Kookus Reign of Chaos Spitting Drake Suq'Ata Lancer Talruum Minotaur Viashino SandLstalker WHITE Civic Guildmage Daraja Griffin Disempower Disenchant Hope Charm Melesse Spirit Parapet Pearl Dragon Prismatic Circle Remedy Righteous Aura Wall of Resistance Zhalfirin Knight I have put my deck at the end of this post (with comments), so you can compare what you would build against it and not see it on the same page. REPORT: I was interested in seeing how long games went. So, I made some notes at the end of the games - specifically the number of cantrips I cast (CT), the number of cards in play (IP), the number of cards in my hand (IH), and the number of cards in the graveyard (IG). It turned out I only did this for the first few rounds, then I started to get tired. Also, I lost a game and was upset/excited to get to the next one. Maybe next time, if any of you think it is useful. A P means play first by choice, a D means draw first by choice. Also note: the numbers are not always every turn, sometimes I damage or get damaged twice a turn in different phases, etc., and made changes to the life totals twice. ROUND 1 - Stuart Playing red, green, blue and white! For most of the first game I thought he was only playing two colors - he was mana screwed. Game 1: S:20,18,16,14,12,8,4,1 dead PH:20,18 IH 7, IP 10, IG 6, CT 1 15 turns Got the wall of roots out turn 2 and started weenie beat down. Traded creatures and then hit with the Sandstalker for 8. He Grinning Totemmed to kill a creature with incinerate - only had two of his colors. (Also, was stuck with a Nettletooth Djinn in his hand.) Game 2: Ahh, he is playing white and blue - sideboard in Reign of Chaos. DS:20,17,15,10,5 dead H:20,16 IH 2, IP 9, IG 3, CT 1 7 turns! Quick start with the wall again. Get out King Cheetah after turn 3, also have the nomads out. Turn 5 he Sand Stalkers and kills my wall, I have a phased out Sandbar Croc. Next turn I attack with all creatures and he takes 5 to be at 10. He attacks with breath stealer and plays a Kukemssa Serpent. I Reign of Chaos the breathstealer and the Island to kill both creatures! He does not have any more creatures and I win in two turns. ROUND 2 - Ned V. Never seen Ned before at the Ground. He was playing a red/blue/black deck. Game 1: N:20 H:20,19,17,15,11,6 dead Only got out 4 islands, even cantriped once - yuck. Can't win with one of three colors. I have won a few times (read as two games) with two of three colors, but never with one of three colors. Game 2: He is playing black - side in 2nd warthog and take out a Dwarven Vigilantes N:20,17,11,6 dead PH:20,19,18,17 IH 4, IP 9, IG 0 5 turns! 5 turn beatdown! I love the amour of thorns and creatures that don't have summoning sickness. Game 3: N:20,19,14,12,10,8 H:20,19,17,12,1 dead IH ~4, IP ~7, IG ~5 It was close. He was at 10 and I was at 19 as we traded creatures. Then kaboomb a Firestorm Hellkite hits the table. I have three fliers including a phased out breezekeeper - it seems like it is still ok. Take my turn and leave my air defense up. He attacks and I am now at 12. Still feel like I have the game under control. Then he drops a Bentic Jinn. eeeep I can only live for two or three turns to that! he will take 6 and be at 4 tho! And with the creatures I have I can hit him for another 1 - all I need to be able to do in the next three turns is an additional 3 damage. A creature on the first draw, or one of my non-summoning sickness guys on the second or the incinerate or Sandstalker on the 3rd draw. I draw 3 lands. ROUND 3 - Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz Steve O is ranked 3 world wide in sealed deck play. There is a good reason for this - Steve does not lose often. I have probably played Steve in about 10-15 sealed deck matches and I have only beaten him twice (counting this one.) One thing that makes it hard to play Steve if that he gives nothing away: his tone of voice and attitude are no different when he is beating you down or when he knows he going to die. Steve is also very pleasant to play with - he is always polite and nice: I would rather lose to Steve than win playing against some of the more unpleasant players. Steve has been very liberal with his advice about sealed deck and I have also leaned a lot from getting beaten down by him. He was playing a Green/Red/White deck. Game 1: DS:20,18,16,14,9,6,1 dead H:20,18 Both of us are man screwed - I am slightly better off because I get out 4 lands but I am holding 6 green cards and have no forests. I have to discard once. Steve has to discard 3 or 4 times! Silly game. Game 2: DS:20,19,14,10,4 dead H:20 I win with three flyers. Steve is holding two rock slides. ROUND 4 - Matt Wang I like Matt a lot. We always make great trades and he often beats me in sealed deck. He is a great type two player and knows the cards very well. He is also a nice guy with a good sense of humor - always has a smile. His deck was Red/Black/Blue. Game 1: M:20,18,15,8 dead PH:20 This was a superfast beatdown game - 4 or 5 turns. Used the Armor of Thorns and the Sandstalker. Matt's comment - "It's hard to get a 5 turn kill in sealed deck play." Game 2: DM:20,18,16,14,12 H:20,18,15,7 dead His infernal harvest put him ahead in the creature race, I could not catch up. Game 3: DM:20,18,14,13,7,5 dead H:20,18,16 He could not deal with my flyers in this game. STANDINGS AFTER FOUR ROUNDS: Tie breaker points for the final 4 are in (). 4-0 Jon Finkel (216) 3-1 Scott Seville (188) 3-1 Wayne Rosen (175) 3-1 Hogan Long (125) 3-1 Vince Kozlowski 2-1 John Roman 2-2 Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz 2-2 Mathew Wang 2-2 Ned V 1-1 Adam Steidley 1-2 Adam Katz 1-2 Jim M 1-3 Mike May 1-3 Stuart Blaratnik 1-3 Dale 1-3 Jeke Bladt 0-1 Paul Leicht I just squeeze into the final 4. Vince is bummed - I don't blame him, the final four really is sorta random (unless you go undefeated.) The seating is such that I play Scott and Jon plays Wayne. FINALS ROUND 1 - Scott Seville Scott is a nice guy, and a very good player this was a hard match and I did not make any notes, because Jon and I played as soon as I won - so I have no idea what happened (it was a long weekend at the Pro-Tour Qualifier, more on that later.) I am not even sure who won the first and second game. Sorry about that. I do have the score record tho. I do remember Scott saying he was mana screwed to Jon and thinking that he always says that when he loses. Game 1: S:20,18,17,13,11,7,5 ? H:20,19,16,14,11,9,5 ? Game 2: S:20,19,17,15,8,9,6 H:20,18,14,9,7,5,3 I think I won this one - I remember thinking how annoying his roots of life was. He gained more than just the one shown here - I just did not mark off life if it "balanced" out. Game 3: S:20,15,10,1 dead H:20,19,18,15 FINALS ROUND 2 - Jon Finkel Jon is another great player. He comes from a type 1 background and likes to play very reactive. Often will chose white and blue and wait to ray of command or remedy to mess with your head and do creature removal. Jon loves to bluff, and 50% of the time his bluffs are not bluffs. It works - he has "Jedi-Mind Tricked" me any number of times. Game 1: J:20,19,18,14,12,10,8,6,4 dead H:20,18 Long game. I won with one flyer hitting for 2 and the Quirion Druid - made lotsa 2/2s then swarmed. Jon kept threatening me with crypt rats (i.e. he was going to crypt and destroy all my land) - scared the shit outa me. Game 2: J:20,18 H:20,18,13,5 dead Got no green mana. Sigh. Game 3: J:20,18,14,9,3 dead H:20,16 Got out fast with flyers and the Quirion Druid. Finished him off with the sand stalker. Jon's comment about the match was that I won with the Quirion Druid. This is probably true - but it is strange because I had only played the Druid in one other game in the entire tournament and it had never had a real effect on the games (well it drew out an incinerate once.) But, it does show the following - when you get a card like the Druid you have to play it, it may not come up or matter, but if it does it is devistating. FINAL TOURNAMENT NOTES: I think my deck was strong because of the three landwalkers and the three creatures that did not have summoning sickness. This made my deck very fast. I also had a lot of flyers. Here is the deck: MY DECK (40 cards) LANDS (17) 6 Mountains (+2) 6 Forests (+2) 5 Islands (+1) UTILITY/DEFENSE (3) Mystic Veil Power Sink Armour of Thorns CREATURES (18) -1 Walls, 6 Fliers, 4 "Big", 3 "Very Fast", 10 "Fast" Wall of Roots Breezekeeper Cloud Elemental Teferi's Drake Spitting Drake Locust Swarm Kyseu Drake Kukemssa Serpent Sandbar Crocodile Viashino SandLstalker Dwarven Vigilanties Keeper of Kookus Suq'Ata Lancer Talruum Minotaur King Cheetah Quirion Druid River Boa Warthog REMOVAL (2) Jolt Icinerate SIDEBOARD Dwarven Vigilantes (never put it in) Reign of Chaos Warthog Uktabi Orangutan (never put it in) Builder's Bane (never put it in) If op. not playing red the Keeper of Kookus was sideboarded out. If op. not playing blue the Kukemssa Serpent was sideboarded out. Otherwise if I had something to sideboard in the Dwarven Vigilanties was sideboarded out. DECK NOTES: I wanted to try 18 lands but I could not because of the colors I needed to play and the land distribution. I also really wanted to play some of the good gold cards (Harbor Guardian, Shauku's Minion, and Tempest Drake) but I just could not fit these color combos into the deck. I don't know how the Pygmy Hippo fairs in sealed because I have never had the chance to try it (this is the 2nd time I have gotten it and both times blue/black was not viable.) FINAL NOTE: Please post or write your comments, was this report at all interesting? Was it worth my time (i.e. did anyone like reading it?) Let me know. I prefer for your questions comments etc. to be posted to the newsgroup as opposed to e-mail because that way more people can enjoy/ignore them. If you do send me e-mail please let me know if you don't want me to post your letters and my reply to the newsgroup - I may do so otherwise if I think it is interesting to the strategy group at large (or small.) EVEN MORE FINAL NOTE: I am going to post about the Pro Tour Qualifier that I did not do so well in (I went 2-2). But I was up late at this tournament and tired at the time and took my deck apart. (eep) I think it would be very interesting to get people's input on my deck - it looked strong but did not perform so well - it was very slow but had some ugly (read BIGGER!) creatures in it. I have to get a copy of the deck registration sheet from Gray Matter before I can write the report (Brian are you listening?) - so please be patient. I then went 3-0 at a side tournament and split the prize with the ever Happy John - the nicest player in all of Magic. Be good, H. The only magic player who has enough cards to make any type 1 or type 2 deck but does not play type 1 or type 2.