FRIDAY NIGHT AT NEUTRAL GROUND - A TOURNAMENT REPORT (5-23-97) 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. There were a lot of players at this tournament - 35. It was the first big weekend of the summer and there was a big tournament in the city over the weekend. 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 Eric Phillips 1871 *Dan O'Mahoney-Schwartz 1858 *Hashim Bello 1842 *Neil Crane 1812 *Hogan Long 1805 Femming Chan 1802 *Adam Katz 1790 David Bachman 1788 *Cary Newburger 1752 Aaron Kline 1752 *Vince Kozlowski 1749 Andy Baquero 1730 *Wayne Rosen 1713 *Adam Steidley 1692 John Roman 1679 *Adam Wersan 1670 Brandon Lim 1661 James Cunningham 1629 Steve Jones 1589 Jay Ryan 1563 Alan Kobb 1498 Natalie Webb 1488 Not found in ranking list: Christopher Lemmens ? Daniel N McGloin ? Danny Lam ? David Sample ? Dustin Alexander ? Eric Briggs ? James Prater ? Jekke Bladt ? Lorelei Okun ? Miki Lacourse ? Mitch Okun ? Sanjaya Silga ? With an average ranking of 1688 (if you count unranked at 1600)! The average for the ranked players was 1733. Here was the deck I got: LANDS 5 Forests 5 Islands 4 Mountains 4 Plains 4 Swamps ARTIFACT Brass-Talon Chimera Elixir of Vitality Pyrexian Walker GOLD Haunting Apparition Kaervek's Purge Purgatory Radiant Essence BLACK Blighted Shaman Cadaverous Knight Coercion Crypt Rats Drain Life Grave Servitude Infernal Harvest Skulking Ghost Urborg Panther Wake of Vultures BLUE Betrayal Breezekeeper Dream Fighter Impulse Memory Lapse Merfolk Raiders Mystic Veil Sandbar Crocodile Thirst Tidal Wave GREEN Barbed Foliage Decomposition Giant Mantis Jungle Wurm Katabatic Winds Kyscu Drake Mtenda Lion Panther Warriors Panther Warriors Quirion Ranger Quirion Ranger Sabertooth Cobra Stampeding Wildebeests Warthog RED Builder's Bane Ekundu Cyclops Goblin Recruiter Hearth Charm Heat Wave Incinerate Kaervek's Torch Rock Slide Stone Rain Telim'Tor's Edict Tremor Raging Gorilla Viashino Sandstalker WHITE Alarum Benevolent Unicorn Freewind Falcon Healing Salve Hope Charm Pacifism Prismatic Circle Mangara's Equity Mtenda Herder Sun Clasp Ward of Lights Warrior's Honor Zhalfirin Crusader Zuberi, Golden Feather 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 - Cary Newburger (Blue, Green, Red) eeek, I have to play Cary in round one - Where did I put that guarantee that life should be fair? Game 1: DC:20,16,12,10 H:20,15,10,5 ded I got five black cards and no black lands - can't win with that kind of a draw and this deck. Game 2: C:20,17,14,12,7,2 PH:20,18,16,11,7,2 ded This was close - I hit a land pocket when I needed to be able to do two points of damage for the kill. I should have waited on sacing of my shaman. ROUND 2 - Arron Kline. (Blue, Black, Red) Arron is not a very nice person. He thinks a lot of himself for no good reason that I can see. But I must admit in this match he was on good behavior - so maybe he is trying to clean up his act. I did catch him playing two lands in a single turn once during the match. Game 1: A:20,19,14,12,11,10,9 PH:20,18,16,15,13,11,9,1 ded He has two much removal - 2 x crypt rat, necromancy, eatherwell - I could not keep up. Game 2: A:20,19,18,15 PH:20,19,14,10,7 He did not get his removal. Game 3: PA:20,19,18,15 H:20,18,16,14,4,3,1 ded See game 1. ROUND 3 - David Sample I did not take notes on this match - David was not a beginner. Game 1: D:20,19,16,11,7,2 ded PH:20 Game 2: PD:20,14,15,11,9,5 ded H:20,18 I dropped at this point to play decadent draft - just not getting good draws (in ops or cards). MY DECK LAND (18) 7 Forests (+2) 5 Mountains (+1) 6 Swamps (+2) UTILITY (1) Grave Servitude CREATURES (16) Warthog Quirion Ranger Quirion Ranger Mtenda Lion Blighted Shaman FLY Kyscu Drake Skulking Ghost REGENERATE Cadaverous Knight Wake of Vultures BIG Ekundu Cyclops Viashino Sandstalker Stampeding Wildebeests Giant Mantis Jungle Wurm Panther Warriors Panther Warriors REMOVAL (5) Kaervek's Purge Crypt Rats Incinerate Kaervek's Torch 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