T1 Tournament *1st Place* reoprt 'Jank'

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By TheStarBoss on Saturday, August 11, 2001 - 09:22 pm:

Let me start off by saying that this is my 1st T1 tournament actually playing a T1 deck! Thwere were 24 people there, including top 5 in San Diego David the Janitor (I dunno his last name*). Many of them have been playing for a while, so I had some tough competition. The rounds were 55 minutes long, so I was not worried about not finishing a game due to time-out.

I wondered what I was going to play two days before the day of the tournament. I could've gone wih a burn variant or a suicide stompy, both built for extended, or a T1 discard that I felt wasn't good enough for tournament play. I thought that these decks were only ok, and had a minimal chance of placing in the top 3, much less first, so I was unsure of what to do. After a while, I remembered the deck called "Junk" that I had been creating for extended play. I also remembered that it was geared to handle everything thrown it's direction, and thought that it would be a great deck modified for t1 play. This is what I came up with:

Creatures (17)
4 Blastoderm
4 Savannah Lions
4 Meddling Mage
3 River Boa
1 Phyrexian Negator
1 Phyrexian Processor (Not a creature, but we'll call it one, as it makes them)

Spells (22)
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Duress
3 Tithe
2 Vindicate (A miracle card, but only 2 cuz I thought the land base couldn't handle 3)
2 Powder Keg
2 Cursed Scroll
2 Wax/Wane
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Aura of Silence
1 Mox Diamond
1 Land Tax

Mana (21)

4 Flood Plain
4 Scrubland
4 Savannah
3 Treetop Village
2 Tundra
2 Gemstone Mine
1 Undiscovered Paradise
1 Yavimaya Coast

The varioud decks I planned to face were Stasis, Burn variants (Sligh, etc), stompy, various rogue decks, and a couple combo decks. Above all, Stasis with it's counters and Sligh wielding that damn Price to Progress and cheap burn spells were my biggest concerns, although I believed I was prepared for Stasis maindeck. Here's what my sideboard looked like:

4 Voice of All (Mono-colored stuff, but mainly for sligh)
2 Perish (Green)
2 Phyrexian Negator (No burn = in)
2 Honorable Passage (All I had, for Price to Progress)
1 Phyrexian Processor
1 Ivory Mask
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Aura of Silence
1 Glaciers

I left my house and rushed to the store that held the tournament. There were many people and 6 tables set up with 2 matches a table. The start of the double elimination tourney was only a few minutes away, and I had yet to put my deck in sleeves. As soon as I finished, the first round's matches were posted. Here's how everything went:

Round 1 - Seth playing a White rogue deck

Game 1 - This game went pretty easy, getting a turn 1 Savannah Lions and a turn 4 Blastoderm. His creatures that he laid each were demolished in turn by well timed vindicates and Swords to Plowshares. By turn 6, all he could do was chump block the bBlastoderm, but a Treetop Village and the Lions were there to finish him off.

Game 2 - I stalled at 2 lands with 2 Blastoderms and a Phyrexian Negator in hand. I watched in horror as a Jhovall Rider, a Kavu Chameleon, and a Blastoderm were played in succession. I drew a vampiric tutor followed by the Perish that I searched for. I laid down my mox Diamond with no land to discard, so I tapped it for a black and sacrificed it, paying 2 more to perish his side away. I drew a land next turn and laid a Negator to bump him for 5 each turn, taking him from 20 life to 0 in four fast turns. I wouldn't have drawn a 4th land until 4 turns later.

Seth did great for only playing Magic for 6 months. Props to you if ya read this!

Matches: 1-0
Games: 2-0-0

Round 2 - Tong Pang (Cool name!) playing a counter-hammer variant

Game 1 - I knew I was dead if I let him get to 8 land, and he never missed a land drop the whole game. A first turn duress saw mountains, an island, a counterspell, and 2 hammers. I knew he would waste me if he got enough time, so after his 3rd land drop, he played the hammer, and I vindicated his lone island. He played mountains like crazy, and I went Kamikaze on him, playing a Phyrexian Negator. I ended up Swordsing it after an attempt at Lightning bolting it twice. A Blastoderm sealed the deal for him.

Game 2 - A first turn Savannah Lions met a first turn Mogg Fanatic, and a third turn Voice of All was countered. A 4th turn duress showed me prophetic bolts, 2 of them in hand, and a mage made sure they never saw play. I was hit by 2 lightning bolts and a rage, but that wasn't enough as a Blastoderm hit the board followed by the Swords and the duresses needed to clear a path to victory for me.

Matches: 2-0
Games: 4-0-0

Round 3 - Eric playing a twisty "Ping for 1"-Stall deck

Let me say that this is the most un-orthodox deck I've ever seen, and it's even wierder to see it play, but it works!

Game 1 - A first turn Savannah Lions followed by a 2nd turn river boa, by the way is the first time I've seen one all day, sets the game in good motion. A second turn Razorfin Hunter makes me wonder if this deck is any good or not. he takes 4 and pings my boa, which I regenerate. A prodigal sorcerer is played and a mountain is put on the board. I had a negator in hand ready to play next turn, so I'm glad he played it then. He kills my boa by pinging it twice, and then plays another sorcerer. It's looking pretty even now as I swords one and vindicate another. A Thieving Magpie is played and sends him onto Card-Advantage heaven. I play a Blastoderm and he starts taking 5 a turn. He chump blocks the blasty with weenies while he's at 6 life, and then plays out a Temporal Adept to which I did not have an answer for. A river Boa could only prolong the inevitable and I fall to a bunch of 1/1 pingers and a bouncer.

Game 2 - I never saw a burn spell in that entire deck, but the pingers are enough to make me take out the Negator. The enchantment destruction is traded out for 4 Voice of All to help combat the bounce, the pinging, and the Thieving Magpies there. I also throw in an Honorable Passage which turned out great. My opening hand showed a first turn duress, revealing a hand of 5 land, a sorcerer, and a Suffocating Blast. A 2nd turn River Boa was quick to follow. I played out a Blastoderm and a Voice of All one after another, and that was enough for him to concede. Too much land is a bad thing...

Game 3 - I show a fast pair of Savannah Lions on turns 1 and 2, and a Vampiric Tutor searching for a Duress to see what was in his hand. I was set with an Ivory Mask in hand as he played out all of his little 1/1 pingers. A Thieving Magpie hit the board, and I took it out with a Swords. I laid the mask out, and he hit me with a PAIR of Price to Progresses next turn! I had the 2 mana and the Passage in hand, and laid waste to my enemy by dealing him 14 damage. (He had a Shivan Reef in play... I had 5 nonbasics in play.) Oh, what an answer I have in Honorable Passage!

Matches: 3-0
Games: 6-1-0

Round 4 (Quarterfinals) - Mark playing a fast T1 Sligh variant

The deck I've prepared most for turns out to be played by a friend of mine that playtests with me... I had no idea, the bum*

Game 1 - The game looks good for me until he kills me on turn 4 with a god hand of 2 Mountain, 2 Lightning Bolt, 1 Chain Lightning, a Ball Lightning, and a Fireblast... He drew the last mountain in the process he says. Pretty good draw!

Game 2 - I side in the 9 cards from my sideboard that were designed to whup Sligh's butt. I start out wit an Honorable Passage in hand, ready for whatever he throws my way. A a turn 1 Savannah Lions meets his turn 1 Mogg Fanatic, and a turn 2 Meddling Mage takes the lightning bolts in his deck and turns them into toilet-paper. A duress gets rid of a fireblast and a River Boa enters the playing field. A Chain Lightning takes out the Mage and a Lightning Bolt seals the deal for the Savannah Lions. He is stuck on 2 mana, which is a bad thing when I have a vindicate in hand. He Fireblasts me in response, and needs to draw 2 mana to finish me in 2 turns, holding 2 seals of fire and another Fireblast in hand. Unfortunately, the game turns sour for him as he never draws another land and concedes after I drop a Blastoderm and a Voice of All.

Game 3 - He got a great hand with 4 mana, a Mogg Fanatic, a Ball Lightning, and an Incinerate as my Duress revealed. I started shaky with 2 treetop Villages and a Flood Plain turned Scrubland, all coming into play tapped slowing me considerably. I Swords the Ball Lightning when it hits play and drop the Ivory Mask that I kept my hand for on turn 5. He lays a Nevinyrall's Disk and blows up the world, preceeding to hammer me with burn. I end up at 5 life, as he shows me a seal of fire and a chain lightning in his hand. I keep my poker face as I chain hisself back by paying the cost. He plays the seal and sacs it for the would-be kill, but I swords a Voice of All to stand at 2 life, finishing him off with his own Fireblast against my Honorable Passage. THAT was a close game! I had no idea he had disks in there :-)

Matches: 4-0
Games: 8-2-0

Round 5 (Semifinals) - Mike playing ProsBloom (His record is 8-1-0)

This deck is absolutely insane when it gets it's combo going! Read on to find out why...

Game 1 - I start turn 1 Savannah Lions, turn 2 River Boa. He starts with a turn 2 Squandered Resources, Dark Ritual, Mox Diamond, Cadaverous Bloom (Pretty good for turn 2!). A 3rd turn crazy crap by him causes us both to draw 21 cards from Prosperity and me to take 14 damage from a Drain Life, on the THIRD turn. Don't ask me how he did it... I couldn't explain... Anyway, the 21 cards I got showed both Wax/Wanes and a Seal of Cleansing, of which I took all. He cast Meditate once, which gave me two turns in a row to recover. I did so by casting all 3 disenchant-type cards on his combo. All he could do was Force of Will the Seal, and he conceded with only a Mox Diamond on the table.

Game 2 - I side in the negators and the Ivory Mask, as well as the extra enchantment removal. I start fast with turn 1 Lions, turn 2 Boa, turn 3 Negator. He never gets his combo going and kills a few of my permanents with a Desth Grasp hitting the negator. I keep the boa and the Negator while my other 3 land and lions had to be sacrificed and whittle away at his life total, bringing him from 24 to 17, to 11, to 5, and then to a first match loss for him. He ended up taking third place.

Matches: 5-0
Games: 10-2-0

Round 6 (Finals) - Dave playing Stasis (Undefeated in games so far)

I'd been told that this guy took top 5 in the California State Championships, so I asked and he said he was in 2000, but couldn't go this year... That just about made me crap my pants... lol Everyone was standing around watching us duke it out, clapping when an answer was drawn or a good play was made. That was cool.

Game 1 - A Stasis never shows and counters are taken by an early Duress and a River Boa that I wanted to be countered. A negator was played next turn followed by a Phyrexian Processor, sealing the deal for him. A boomerang was all he could do to stall 1 turn more, but to no avail. My win.

Game 2 - A stasis hits 2nd turn with a Forsaken City paying the upkeep. All elaborate plans to get rid of the Stasis didn't afford much breathing room, as he always had another in hand. Late into the game, he made a very lucky play. He had 3 Howling Mines in play, was at 4 life, had no stasis in play (He got to untap), and I had 2 untapped Phyrexian Negators in play. He needed 2 Boomerangs and 1 Stasis to not die out of 4 cards, and he got them. To add insult to injury, he also played out his lone Kismet, making sure that I could not disenchant the stasis away. A Feldon's Cane seals the deal and he ends up stalling me out of cards at 4 life. An insane game, and some lucky topdecks.

Game 3 - Aah, yes. The final game to decide the winner and the loser... I hit hard and fast with a 1st turn Duress followed by a Meddling Mage naming Stasis, playing another mage next turn naming Stasis as well. He'd have to somehow get rod of both if he'd hope to win. He gushed twice, drawing two copies of Boomerang he needed 6th turn to send stasis onto the table. A mage named Thwart after a duress removed a Force of Will. I took him by surprise and played two copies of Wane and a Seal of Cleansing that I had been saving until I recieved 4 untapped land. I untapped and then played a Blastoderm and a Treetop Village. I took him at 10 a turn, wasting him on close to the 30th turn, sealing the deal for him and guaranteeing my first place finish!

Matches: 6-0
Final Record: 12-3-0

I was awarded with a Foil DCI Jackal Pup and 17.50 in Store Credit. Not bad for an entry fee of 2.00, eh?

I'd like to thank the Academy and stuff... Oh ya, here are the props and slops:

Props
- Dave for being so friendly and cool
- Tong Pung's cool name
- The prizes at the end!
- Everyone on MOTL that gave opinions on my deck
- Mark for letting me borrow the Swords to Plowshares
- Mark for letting Dave and I eat the rest of his fries

Slops
- That wierdo that always tries to trade me cards that I didn't want for my foil Hermits...!
- The people that aren't there to have fun -> It's a game people!
- Me always forgeting my stuff when I changed tables... aargh...
- The people that try to rip people off w/ cards... it's not cool
- The bums that took Ren and Stimpy off the air

Thats pretty much it for now. Thanks for reading this, as I know it's probably starined your eyes by now... Responses would be cool!

Catch ya later,
Andrew


By Jelal (Jelal) on Saturday, August 11, 2001 - 09:43 pm:

Nice report.

"I laid down my mox Diamond with no land to discard, so I tapped it for a black and sacrificed it, paying 2 more to perish his side away."

Mox Diamond has been errated so it never comes into play if you don't discard a land, so that was an illegal play :/.


By Eric Castle on Monday, August 13, 2001 - 02:54 pm:

Neat-looking deck.

After playing it through the entire tournament, would you change anything now?

Finally, how do you think it would do against the more standard control variants running around, like BBS or keeper?

I think I'll give a try this; I'm tired of control. :)


By deuce on Monday, August 13, 2001 - 03:26 pm:

land tax with no basic land in the deck????


By White Knight (White_Knight) on Monday, August 13, 2001 - 03:37 pm:

Land Tax can be used with no basic land at all. What happens is that you only get to check out and shuffle the library.


By deuce on Monday, August 13, 2001 - 05:12 pm:

ya but whats the point? If you know your deck then you can just look at the cards in play, in the graveyard, in your hand and the ones removed from the game to know what's left. There's no way to know what's cominng up to want the shuffle. it should be a sylvan library if anything.


By npa on Monday, August 13, 2001 - 05:28 pm:

I expect that he used it to get duals. AKA cheating, but the whole tourneyment had "sketch" written all over it.

IE: The combo deck was pros-bloom? (which generally no longer works with death at 0 life) The finals had a T1 Stasis deck that used Forbidden City? A tim deck at 3-0?

Land Tax is the Best Card Ever if you can hunt for dual lands.


By Robb Hunter on Monday, August 13, 2001 - 07:39 pm:

Where was this tourney anyway? Also interested in how it would do vs keeper, BBS and mono black.


By Raven on Monday, August 13, 2001 - 09:34 pm:

Must have been a scrub tourney at some local shop, I mean common, a ping deck?!?! And Stasis comming in at 2nd? Wheres all the BBS, OSE, and Keeper decks?

Where was this held, a non-sanctioned tourney I'll bet.


By Burning Ice, the Elementalist (Burningice) on Tuesday, August 14, 2001 - 01:15 am:

Who cares? The guy still won, and instead of bashing him for winning against a non BD-reading field, we should give him props for winning a tourney. Jeez.


By Rakso, Patriarch & Rules Ayatollah (Rakso) on Tuesday, August 14, 2001 - 03:47 am:

WARNING: Raven


Quote:

Must have been a scrub tourney at some local shop



By Lucian on Tuesday, August 14, 2001 - 07:34 am:

You can use Land Tax to search for duals, because they are also considered as two types of basic lands.
So you can draw a tundra as a plains or an island.
Land Tax is not that bad... ;o)


By deuce on Tuesday, August 14, 2001 - 10:51 am:

duals are not basic lands, you cannot tax for them. You can only tax for basic plains....


By Raoul (Raoul) on Tuesday, August 14, 2001 - 11:08 am:

the land tax must be a mistake. i mean, if he wants to shuffle his library without doing anything he also could use soldier of fortune:) at least it provides beatdown lol
but many new players are confused by this "basic land type" things and "basic land" cards. caus a dual land has as already said, two basic land types, but isn't a basic land. new players might have problems with this.
and if he won the tourney, then he won it.
congrats. i don't care if there weren't the standard bd-decks.
i would pray for such a T1 environment, caus at my tourneys, i always play against the same pox,mono blue, sligh and keeper decks. few nethervoid. i'd like to play against different decks sometimes.


By meh on Tuesday, August 14, 2001 - 11:41 am:

you can tax for any basic land (and _only_ basic land. plains, forest, island, mountain, swamp and the snow-covered equivalents.) you can tithe for plains (which includes plains, snow-covered plains, tundra, savannah, scrubland, and plateau.)


By Liam (Liam) on Tuesday, August 14, 2001 - 01:02 pm:

it's good to see such a varied environment. I too am in a $150 deck environment, but i never see anything but bad domain and pitiful attempts at control (which kill with MEGRIM....).

It must be fun to live where you get to play so many decks. Sigh.


By obithrawn on Tuesday, August 14, 2001 - 03:22 pm:

I live in an enviroment like that. Actually its rather frustrating, because my decks are built to beat properly designed decks (and, in fact they do) but I lose to these weird janky decks because they have some card I cannot get around, because I did not expect it because NO ONE SHOULD PLAY IT.

But now I'm testing a sligh with lots of mana disruption and it seems to do well against everything, ESPECIALLY jank. Tournaments are always fun, especially when you play against weird decks casually...and lose. I lost to a type 2 fish a few days ago :[. Topdecked the winning burn spell a turn after he killed me.


By steve_nash on Tuesday, August 14, 2001 - 10:54 pm:

this looks alot like an extended tournament repot before they rotated sets. almost all of those decks were popular at that time. how do you think that your deck would fare against some of the tier 1 decks, or decks with type 1 only legal cards in them (nether void, etc.)? just curious.


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