FRIDAY NIGHT AT NEUTRAL GROUND - A TOURNAMENT REPORT (5-17-97) Sorry that it took me so long to post this report - life got in the way. 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. This Friday was a surprise - there were very few people playing and an incredibly small percentage of regulars. My guess is that the change of weather (summer is on us!), and the end of school (NYU let out last Wednesday) contributed to the lack of players. I suspect that as the summer goes on the attendance will increase - more people getting back from college etc. As Steve O'M-S put it "Where the HECK is everyone?" Or something like that. (NOTE: since this is late I can point out that the next 3 tournaments had LOTS of people - see other reports.) Hashim came late so he missed the beginning of the sealed deck, but don't worry he kicked my *ss at type 2 and felt good about himself. Rankings are from the posted list of 5/26/97 * indicates regulars at the NG sealed tournaments. *Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz 1880 *Hogan Long 1805 *John Onorato 1761 *Cary Newburger 1752 *Wayne Rosen 1713 *Adam Wersan 1670 Robert Velasquez 1584 Donald Marshall 1522 *Nate Pearson 1460 Not on list Jim Herisse Miki Lacourse Rupert Hall Sam Weiss Victor Fernandez With an average ranking of 1653 (if you count unranked at 1600). The average for the ranked players was 1683. Here was the deck I got: LANDS 5 Forest 4 Islands 4 Mountains 5 Plains 4 Swamps Flood Plain ARTIFACT RED Basalt Golem Chaos Charm Horrible Hordes Dwarven Miner Lead-Belly Chimera Dwarven Nomad Sisay's Ring Dwarven Vigilantes Sisay's Ring Elkin Lair Fireblast BLACK Goblin Elite Infantry Death Watch Incinerate Forbidden Crypt Keeper of Kookus Gravebane Zombie Lightning Reflexes Skulking Ghost Rock Slide Soulshriek Searing Spear Askari Tar Pit Warrior Spitting Drake Wake of Vultures Spitting Earth Wall of Corpses Viashino Sandstalker Wicked Reward Withering Boon WHITE Alarum BLUE Civic Guildmage Bay Falcon Ethereal Champion Cloak of Invisibility Gossamer Chains Knight of the Mists Healing Salve Memory Lapse Illumination Reality Ripple Ivory Charm Sapphire Charm Knight of Valor Thirst Resistance Fighter Vision Charm Righteous Aura Undo Cloud Elemental GOLD Firestorm Hellkite GREEN Harbor Guardian Bull Elephant Phyrexian Purge Elven Cache Scalebane's Elite Feral Instinct Gibbering Hyenas Giant Mantis Jungle Wurm Mortal Wound Nettletooth Djinn Stalking Tiger Quirion Elves Uktabi Orangutan Worldly Tutor I have put my deck at the end of this post (with comments), so you can compare what you would build against it and post all the mistakes I made. 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 - Don Marshall (White Blue Red) Don was very nice. He gave me a very nice compliment: After the second game he said I was just giving him a chance -- said the only people he was afraid of at NG were Steve O, Cary and myself. I think there are others he should be afraid of (I know I am) but still it was a nice compliment - almost made me feel bad when I won the third game (esp. how I won - see below). Game 1: D:20,19,18,15,11,4 ded PH:20,15 Just was faster - over ran him. Game 2: PD:20,17,14 H:20,17,12,10,8,6 ded Started with 1 land. Got Elves, played them and said "Blue"!!!? I don't know what was wrong - I was not playing blue. Sometimes my ability to be a moron amazes me. Then I could not get the 2nd red (what I should have said for the elves) to fireblast the flyer. Game 3: D:20,19,16,15,13,9 ded PH:20,14,11 Now we're playing with power. He is at 13 and I am at 20. I purge his two 3/3 creatures (Cobra and Taroon) to put myself at 14, then hit him for 4 (flying 2/1 and two 1/1s). Next turn I can only hit for 2 with a flyer then I incinerate and fireblast for the win. (When games go like this I feel like a cheater.) ROUND 2 - Nate Pearson (White Green Blue) Nate is a very sweet guy, easy going and fun to hang with. When he first started playing he was not a great player, but he is a good example of what happens if you stick with it. He has gotten quite good at sealed deck. One of the things about NG is that though the competition is hard, if you listen to people's advice there and keep playing you will get better - Nate is a good example of this I don't know what his ranking is but I would say he plays at a high 1700 level now! Game 1: PN:20,16,12,7,3 ded H:20,19,18,13,8,5,4 I got the superfast weenie beatdown. Game 2: PN:20,17,13 H:20,19,17,9,2 ded Could not get a red to stop his flyer. Game 3: N:20,14,13,11 quit PH:20 He got no green and gave up. ROUND 3 - John O Game 1: PJ:20,18,16,14,12,10 ded H:20,11 In both games he was kinda mana screwed. I purged for 9 and then rushed in for the win. Game 2: PJ:20,18,15,12,9,3, ded H:20 Creature trading put him in gravbind zombie lock. We played a 3rd one that he did not get mana screwed in but I won that one too. ROUND 4 - Wayne Rosen Game 1: W:20,17 PH:20,18,16,14,10,6,2 ded Bad draw - no red. Game 2: W:20,17,14,6 ded PH:20,19,16 Purged away creatures and beat him down. Game 3: PW:20,17,14,7,3 H:20,14,8,2 ded Made big mistake that cost me the game. Attacked with only the skulking ghost when he had a block to kill it. If I had waited to bum rush him I would have been able to overwhelm him. He was at 3 while I was at 20 but then he got his defenses up and beat me down with a swampwalker and a 1/1 flyer with armor of thorns. (It was a locus swarm.) MY DECK 6 Forest (+1) 6 Mountains (+2) 5 Swamps (+1) CREATURES (17) FLY Skulking Ghost Basalt Golem Wake of Vultures Tar Pit Warrior Spitting Drake Gibbering Hyenas Giant Mantis WALLS Stalking Tiger Wall of Corpses Quirion Elves Dwarven Vigilantes BIG Searing Spear Askari Bull Elephant Keeper of Kookus Gravebane Zombie Jungle Wurm Viashino Sandstalker REMOVAL (6) Phyrexian Purge Incinerate Chaos Charm Rock Slide Fireblast Spitting Earth FINAL STANDINGS 4-0 Wayne Rosen 3-1 Hogan Long 2-1 Adam Wersam 2-2 Victor Fernandez 2-2 Miki Lacourse 1-0 Steve OMS 1-1 Jim Herisse 1-1 Rupert Hall 1-1 Nate Pearson 1-2 Cary Newburger 1-2 John O. 1-2 Robert Velasquez 1-2 Don Marshall 0-2 Sam Weiss Play well, and don't get mana screwed, H. PS - I have put my reports on the net for those who care at http://www.akula.com/~hogan