TUESDAY NIGHT AT NEUTRAL GROUND - A TOURNAMENT REPORT (5-20-97)

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.

Rankings are from the posted list of 5/26/97
* indicates regulars at the NG sealed tournaments.

 *Jon         Finkel             1981
 *Steven      O'Mahoney-Schwartz 1880
 *Dan         O'Mahoney-Schwartz 1858
 *Eric        Kesselman          1858
 *Hogan       Long               1805
 *Adam        Katz               1790
 *Brian       David-Marshall     1783
 *Pat         Donovan            1763
 *Cary        Newburger          1752		
  Mark        Lim                1705
  Jay         Bommer             1708
 *Adam        Steidley           1692
  John        Roman              1679
 *Adam        Wersan             1670
 *Sayan       Bhattachapyya      1645		
  Alex        Berzins            1539
  Larry       Brando             1518

Not found in ranking list:

  Jeff        Perl               ?
  Ethan       Carp               ?
  Doni        Farkovits          ?
  Elisa       Silverglade        ?
  Frank       Ayala              ?
  Monte       Faidley            ?
  Nancy       Faidley            ?
  Nigel       Selwood            ?

This one was big - 25 people!  With an average ranking of 1697 (if
you count unranked at 1600).  The average for the ranked players was
1742.  Not an easy field.  (1750 is in the top 10% of all ranked
players.)

Here was the deck I got:

LANDS
4 Forest 5 Islands 4 Mountains 4 Plains 5 Swamps
Svyelunite Temple

ARTIFACT
Battering Ram
Clay Statue
Flying Carpet
Glasses of Urza
Helm of Awakening
Magma Mine
Rod of Ruin
Soul Net
Wall of Spears

GOLD
Femeref Enchantress
Scalebane's Elite
Simoon

BLACK
Coercion
Crypt Rats
Dark Privilege
Drudge Skeletons
Erg Raiders
Fear
Frozen Shade
Funeral Charm
Lost Soul
Sengir Autocrat

BLUE
AEther Storm
Betrayal
Breezekeeper
Enervate
Force Spike
Inspiration
Labyrinth Minotaur
Man-o'-War
Shrieking Drake
Spell Blast
Zephyr Falcon

GREEN
Elven Cache
Fog
Giant Caterpiller
Killer Bees
Lichenthrope
River Boa
Spider Climb
Stream of Life
Tranquility
Venom
Whirling Dervish

RED
Ambush Party
Blood Lust
Dwarven Vigilantes
Errantry
Fireball
Fire Drake
Goblin Recruiter
Mana Flare
Raging Gorilla
Rock Slide
Song of Blood
The Brute

WHITE
Angry Mob
Brainwash
CoP: Blue
Healing Salve
Hope Charm
Ication Scout
Infantry Veteran
Parapet
Relic Ward
Remedy
Remedy

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:

I could not find my notes on this tournament - I think I went 2-1 or
2-2 but I am not sure.

MY DECK

LAND (17)
6 Forest (+2) 6 Mountains (+2) 5 Islands
Svyelunite Temple


UTILITY (3)
Flying Carpet
Enervate
Spider Climb

CREATURES (14)

FLY
Breezekeeper
Zephyr Falcon
Killer Bees
Fire Drake

REGENERATE
Clay Statue
River Boa

WALLS
Wall of Spears

BIG
Lichenthrope
Labyrinth Minotaur

OTHER
Man-o'-War
Giant Caterpiller
Ambush Party
Dwarven Vigilantes
Raging Gorilla

REMOVAL (5)
Rod of Ruin
Magma Mine
Blood Lust
Fireball
Rock Slide


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