TUESDAY NIGHT AT NEUTRAL GROUND - A TOURNAMENT REPORT (5-13-97) 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. The lineup this Tuesday was as follows (with current DCI points if I could find them). The * means that this player is a regular at NG: *Cary Newburger 1876 *Glen Friedman 1845 *Eric Kesselman 1826 *Brian David-Marshall 1786 *Adam Katz 1760 *Hogan Long 1711 Michael J. Flores 1641 Don ? Marcin R ? Michael G ? Miki ? Patrick Evia ? Reid ? Robert G ? Now for the fun bit - here was the deck I got: LANDS 4 Forest 5 Islands 4 Mountains 5 Plains 4 Swamps City Of Brass, Urza's Power Plant ARTIFACT Ankh of Mishra Crystal Rod Joven's Tools Throne of Bone Battering Ram BLACK Deathgrip Drain Life Drudge Skeletons Erg Raiders Knight of Stromgald Lost Soul Pestilence Raise Dead Raise Dead Stromgald Cabal BLUE Dark Maze Force Spike Krovikan Sorcerer Phantasmal Forces Phantom Monster Reef Pirates Reef Pirates Sibilant Spirit Spell Blast Spell Blast Unstable Mutation Unsummon GREEN Craw Giant Crumble Foxfire Durkwood Boars Fungusaur Ghazban Ogre Hungry Mist Pradesh Gypsies Shrink Stream of Life War Mammoth Venom RED Ambush Party Blood Lust Cave People Fireball Giant Strength Goblin Digging Team Goblin War Drums Hill Giant Incinerate Orcish Conscripts Pyrotechnics Stone Rain WHITE Armor of Faith Aysen Burcaucrats Benalish Hero COP: Artifacts COP: Black COP: White Healing Salve Hipparion Icatian Scout Kismet Mesa Pegasus Prismatic Ward Shield Bearer Wall of Swords 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: 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 - Miki First tournament match ever, she had not played since the Dark. Had 2 incinerates and 1 fireball in her deck. Playing Blue/Red/Green and 1 white card! Game 1: DM:20,19,17,13,3 dead H:20,15,10 The only damage in the first game was the two incinerates. Only got out about 3 creatures. Destroyed one wall with Digging Team and the other with the battering ram. Only got one more creature out and then I dropped the Goblin War Drums. The game was over. Game 2: Sideboard out Ghazban Ogre, Shrink, sideboard in Pyroblast, and Force Spike. DM:20,17,14,8 dead H:20,18 She was mana screwed (called it mana raped ich.) Pounded her 5 creatures down to two and then over ran her. Helped rebuild her deck - looked kinda strong. ROUND 2 - Glen Friedman Glen was playing White/Black/Red Game 1: G:20,17 PH:20,19,18,16,13,12,8,4 dead Could not get mana - started with one land and stalled at 4. Made the mistake of tossing my Sorcerer in front a 3/3 and not using to burn through my deck to some removal. Game 2: I may have made a mistake in sideboarding... Took out Put In Matt Wang suggested Shrink Force Spike Foxfire Ghazban Orcish Conscrips Unsummon I was worried about the speed of Glen's deck, but of course the Conscripts are not faster. Matt's suggestions are clearly better than what I picked. G:20,19,17,16 PH:20,19,17,14,13,12,10,9,6,3,2 dead Game is going OK but then Glen gets out pestilence with 4 black lands. I was at 12 life. Needed pyrotechics and didn't get it. I had killed his black regenerator and healer while he was tapped out with my fireball. Game 3: I was frustrated by my bad mana draws and asked Glen to play a 3rd one "for fun". (Mostly I wanted to assure myself I could win). G:20,18,16,14,8,2 dead H:20,19 As you can see I won - got all three colors in my opening draw. ROUND 3 - Michael Flores Playing Black/Green/Red Game 1: M:20,17,14,9,6,3 dead PH:20,19,17,16,13,10,9,6,1 Big creature standoff. I had the cave people. Game 2: PM:20,18,15,6 dead H:20,19,18,17,15,14,8 Interesting combo ended this game. Unstable mutation on the Hungry mist, give em mountain walk with the cave people, hit for 17 points in two turns! Felt like I had cheated. ROUND 4 - Don Don was playing Black/Blue/Red Game 1: DD:20,19,18,12,10,5 dead H:20,19,18,17 He was mana screwed so I was faster. Game 2: DD:20,19,18,11,10,9,2 H:20,19,18,17,16,15,11,10,4 dead Had a lot of removal (2 terrors and an incinerate.) In this game I was about to win with a flyer and he drew a terror. Game 3: D:20,16,10,8 dead PH:20,18 My deck came out super fast. STANDINGS AFTER FOUR ROUNDS: 3-1 Adam Katz 3-1 Hogan Long 3-0 Brian David-Marshall 2-1 Reid (w/ Bye) 2-0 Glen Friedman 2-2 Don 1-0 Eric Kesselman 1-1 Cary Newburger 1-2 Marcin R 1-2 Michael G 1-3 Michael J. Flores 1-3 Miki 0-2 Robert G 0-3 Patrick Evia Adam and I decided to split. He went to play sealed deck Star Wars and I went to play Decadent Two-Headed Giant Draft with Brian, Cary, and Jason. More about Decadent draft in my next post. It seems superstitious but I am 17-4 Since I started posting reports. This is much better than my normal record (50% or worse), it seems the process of taking notes to do the reports improves my play. Play well, and don't get mana screwed, H.