Worlds Tournament Report (Top 8)

Beyond Dominia: The Type One Magic Mill: Tournament Archive -- ALL TOURNAMENT REPORT THREADS GO HERE: Worlds Tournament Report (Top 8)

-->
By Marco A Toso on Wednesday, August 15, 2001 - 03:20 am:

I journeyed 2 hours north of my home town of London, Ontario on Saturday, August 11th, 2001 for a Vintage (Type 1) Tournament at the Magic World Championships in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and had a great time. The highlights were getting a pair of Morphlings signed by artist rk post (I missed out on getting my Ancestral Recall signed by Richard Garfield); finally getting a Black Lotus to complete my set of Power 10; meeting Matt D'Avanzo and other BD regulars; and finishing in the Top 8 of the tournament.

My deck was Keeper/5-Colour Control:

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Zuran Orb

1 Abyss
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Mind Twist
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will

1 Ancestral Recall
3 Fact or Fiction
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Misdirection
2 Morphling
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Timetwister
1 Time Walk

1 Regrowth

2 Gorilla Shaman

1 Balance
1 Disenchant
1 Seal of Cleansing

3 City of Brass
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine
2 Tundra
4 Underground Sea
1 Undiscovered Paradise
4 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland

Sideboard
1 Mana Short
1 Scragnoth
2 Dwarven Miner
2 Gorilla Shaman
4 Red Elemental Blast
2 Aura Fracture
1 Circle of Protection: Red
1 Ivory Mask
1 Moat

Notes: Before submitting my deck list, I asked Nevyn for some tech. He suggested an Undiscovered Paradise in place of the fourth City of Brass. I went with it and was happy with the results. At worst it's less self-inflicted damage than a City of Brass, at best its another boon in the dreaded mono-blue with Back to Basics match-up (great when it's in play with a Back to Basics on the table). I wanted to replace the Tormod's Crypt I had in my sideboard (which, Nevyn informed me, was only good against his deck). I don't remember if Nevyn suggested Scragnoth or I did, but he thought it was a good idea, so I went with it too.

Round 1 Bryce AKA ahappyclown playing OSE

Game 1 This was a looooong game. I should have realized he was playing the U/B OSE deck earlier that I did, as soon as he dropped the Underground River, actually. I cast a lot of spells off of a Yawgmoth's Will and Bryce was mana screwed or something, I don't remember. At one point I my two signed Morphlings and a Gorilla Shaman were staring down his Morphling. I won with about 7 mintues left in the round.

Game 2 I countered an early Masticore, cast Scragnoth and beat him down with it and a Gorilla Shaman before extra turns ended.

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

Round 2 Cody Brown playing B/G Land Destruction

Game 1 Our decks are taken away to be deck checked and, after what seems like an eternity, are returned to us. Mine is okay, but my opponent's deck contained three cards (Phyrexian Scuta, Demonic Tutor, and ?) that were not on his deck list. He is given a game loss and we begin game 2 without sideboarding.

Game 2 I win, destroying more of my opponent's lands than he destroys mine. Cody was Matt's round 3 opponent, and Matt was correct in saying that his deck was untuned (he wasn't packing Nether Void, by the way).

Games 2-0-0
Matches 2-0-0

Round 3 Cyrille de Foucaud playing B/U/r/w Good Stuff

Game 1 Cyrille gets out an early Phyrexian Scuta with kicker and kills me quickly, adding a Hypnotic Specter to the attack. I remember casting a spell, which he Force of Will'd, which I Misdirected, which he Red Elemental Blasted(!)

Game 2 I get out a first turn Dwarven Miner(!) and eat all of his lands before winning with a combination of Dwarven Miner damage and a Morphling(?)

Game 3 Dwarven Miner resolves and again I eat all of Cyrille's lands. Actually, I think we get into another Force of Will-Misdirection-Red Elemental Blast war and I later Regrow the Miner. Later in the game I cast a Morphling and win.

I really liked Cyrille's deck. He is a Pro Tour player and his deck contained Dark Ritual, Phyrexian Scuta, Hypnotic Specter, Force of Will, Ophidian, Red Elemental Blast (main deck), and Balance.

Games 2-1-0
Matches 3-0-0

Round 4 Lam Pham playing Mono-Blue

Game 1 I know Lam from Skyfox games in Ottawa, Ontario. I know he is playing mono-blue and joke about intentionally drawing. He beats me down with Mishra's Factories in short order.

Game 2 He casts Back to Basics and I make my only mistake of the tournament: I have five untapped lands in play and a Force of Will and a Misdirection in my hand. I tap five lands to cast Force of Will (instead of pitching the Misdirection to cast it) and of course, Lam has a counterspell, so I am trapped under the Back to Basics and remain so for the rest of the game. He plays cool stuff like Rootwater Thief and Black Vice.

Lam had a very interesting Mono-Blue deck, quite different from Legend Blue.

Games 0-2-0
Matches 3-1-0

Round 5

Nevyn is kind enough to advise me that I can safely draw into the Top 8, so my opponent Josh Alvarez and I intentionally draw. He is playing Pox and I want to play for fun, but he wants to go watch Question Mark.

Matches 3-1-1

Top 8

Lam Phan with Mono-Blue
Carl Winter with Mono-Blue
Olivier with Mono-Blue
A guy with Mono-Blue
Josh Alvarez with Pox
Bob Maher, Jr. with Keeper
Me with Keeper
Another guy with Keeper

Quarterfinals Carl Winter playing Mono-Blue

Game 1 He gets out an early Back to Basics. I take a gamble and try to draw three cards on his end step with a Stroke of Genius but he Misdirects it to himself. I have a Undiscovered Paradise in play so I'm not doing too badly for mana (although he Kegged away a Mox and had a second Keg for my Sol Ring). I realize that Mono-Blue is a bad match-up for me and decide to conceed both games so I can catch the last Greyhound bus home. I can sideboard in Mana Short, Scragnoth and Aura Fracture (which, as good as they are, actually have to resolve to be useful) but it is still a tough match-up for me. Instead of getting knocked out and missing my bus, I stop playing and collect my 2 packs of Invasion, 3 packs of Planeshift, and 3 packs of Apocalypse (I think that's what I got -- crappy cards, only an Orim's Chant was worth anything). Now I know that had I beaten Carl I would have won $200. (Although I would have had to stay in Toronto until 6:00am and buy another bus ticket.)

No props or slops, but I would like to talk about my deck. It perfomed beautifully and wouldn't change a thing main deck. It's nice to finally have a Black Lotus, you can do some wonderful things with it and a Yawgmoth's Will. Zuran Orb saved my butt (like always) and it will never leave the main deck. Fact or Fiction was hardly seen by me and was never a game breaker when it was. Ditto for Merchant Scroll, although I'm keeping both in the deck. Disenchant and Seal of Cleansing were nice. Sometimes I had to wait to draw a white source (only 2 Tundra + 3 City of Brass/1 Undiscovered Paradise + 1 Mox Pearl and 1 Black Lotus), but I was never in dire straits for white mana. In fact, I've never once in this or any tournament experienced Keeper's supposedly shaky mana base. Heck, I was even aggressively Wastelanding against a Land Destruction deck! Not once did I have trouble casting something because I didn't have enough mana, and I'm playing a 5-Colour deck! (Granted, green is only represented by Regrowth and a Scragnoth in the sideboard). Of course, Back to Basics is another issue entirely. Which brings me to my sideboard, where I propose the following changes:

Staying:
1 Mana Short
1 Scragnoth
2 Dwarven Miner (I just love these guys!)
4 Red Elemental Blast
2 Aura Fracture
1 Circle of Protection: Red
1 Moat (may be tough to cast, but awesome against creature decks)

That leaves three slots open:

Ivory Mask and Spiritual Focus are both good against black (and red), but Ivory Mask has two white in the casting cost and I didn't side it in once. Since I've already got a C.O.P.: Red in the sideboard, a Circle of Protection: Black would make a nice addition against the aggressive black decks that seem to be popular these days (and it only requires one white in its casting cost).

The final two cards occurred to me the other day. I was thinking about putting in a card or cards that would untap my lands when under a Back to Basics (Reset, Turnabout, etc.) but it occurred to me that these spells could be countered and thus the lands I used to cast them would be tapped along with all my other lands. Then I thought, what about a spell that returns lands to your hand, regardless of whether the spell is countered or not? Gush came to mind first. Return two islands (dual lands) to your hand, and if it isn't countered, you draw two cards to boot. The lands can then be replayed, untapped. But then I thought about Thwart which returns three islands (dual lands) to your hand and counters a spell to boot. So without further ado, I am testing two Thwarts in my sideboard as another weapon in the fight against Mono-Blue.

Go forth my Keeper allies, and use this tech to defeat Mono-Blue wherever it rears its ugly head.


By Marco A Toso on Wednesday, August 15, 2001 - 03:54 am:

I forgot that I was playing an Obliterate as my 61st card. I never cast it and when I could cast it I didn't because I was in control of the game and casting it would have taken that control away. Therefore, Obliterate is now in my casual Keeper deck only.


By Razor (Razor) on Wednesday, August 15, 2001 - 04:17 am:

Thanks for posting your deck!

Was Cyril that guy in the black jacket with the beta/all black deck?

Razor


By Nevyn, the Village Idiot (Nevyn) on Wednesday, August 15, 2001 - 09:46 am:

Yes, he was wearing the black jacket and glasses/shades.

Scragnoth was Marco's half-joking suggestion and the more we thought about it vs mono blue, the more we liked the idea. Powder keg for 5 takes a while, and mono blue has no other answer but to outrace you.

Crypt is occaionally useful in many matchups, but I think only good enough to bring it in against a few (including mine). The ironic thing is that most of the games I won would not have been lost by an opponent having a crypt. But the card can ruin my day. I suppose the main reason it was good to take it out, though was the proportion of mono-blue decks (several) relative to my deck (1 in 29).

Anyway, congrats again on your top 8 Marco.


By JP 'Polluted' Meyer, the Archivist (Jpmeyer) on Wednesday, August 15, 2001 - 06:58 pm:

Cyril is also famous for breaking pre-DCI Magic. He would play TwisterBall which contained no basic land and therefore could always mulligan into a first turn kill. He won like 11 Lotus and about that many Moxen with that deck.

My preferred card against black is Compost. It works against landkill and creatures as well as discard and turns all your counters into cantrips.


By Mako Satou, Rose among the thorns (Mako) on Wednesday, August 15, 2001 - 11:17 pm:

Marco: Nice report Marco. There was alot of mono blue at worlds it seems. Too much of it. Where I am I don't see that much mono blue. People like 4 or 5 color control here if they have the power cards to play it and then there are mostly agro decks. Well its the worlds so everyone has the good cards.

As for your sideboard you should go with Cop black.
I dunno about scragnoth it can get keged, masticore kills it and morphy is faster in killing you then a scraggie.


Jpmeyer: whats twisterball??
compost only works if you have enough green to cast it consistently when you get it. if it gets out it is simply amazing.


By TracerBullet on Wednesday, August 15, 2001 - 11:41 pm:

Timetwister+Fireball+Lots of Mana Artifacts=Way too many turn one kills.....


By Razor (Razor) on Thursday, August 16, 2001 - 05:17 am:

JP 'Polluted' Meyer, the Archivist:
"Cyril is also famous for breaking pre-DCI Magic. He would play TwisterBall which contained no basic land and therefore could always mulligan into a first turn kill. He won like 11 Lotus and about that many Moxen with that deck."

How could he mulligan into a kill because he had no land in his deck? Could a handful of toys, fireball and a timetwister kill someone first turn? How did DCI fix this?

Razor


By Nevyn, the Village Idiot (Nevyn) on Thursday, August 16, 2001 - 09:54 am:

The DCI disallowed the "no land mulligan", as well as restricting cards and enforcing deck size limits and card number limits.

He used to be able to continuosuly mulligan his hand because it contained 0 lands until he had one that could kill that turn.


By Matt D'Avanzo, the Sylvan Librarian (Matt) on Thursday, August 16, 2001 - 10:30 am:

I liked some things about Cyrille's deck for the coolness factor, but in the end it was (basically) a black deck vulnerable to wasteland. Every single time I watched him play (4) he was screwed due to mana disruption.

The funniest moment of the tourney was him playing Eric. He had like one permanent in play (wastelands and mox monkey), got mindtwisted, and is staring down Morphling at 5 life. Eric then shows him a hand of counterspells. Cyrille is like "What the hell are you showing me your hand for?" Eric, says "For a concession." Then Cyrille (dead serious) says, "You're conceding? Yes, I accept."

--Matt


By Marco A Toso on Thursday, August 16, 2001 - 12:46 pm:

Yes, you're right about Cyrille's deck being very susceptible to mana denial. I won my second and third games with few or no permanents on his side of the table (thanks to Dwarven Miner). And I saw him in a similiar state when I watched a game later on.


By Razor (Razor) on Thursday, August 16, 2001 - 05:43 pm:

I watched from behind Cyril as he faced down a Morphling and Miner with a Mox Emerald and Badlands or something. He desperately stared at his hand for a minute or two then Pyroblasted the Morphling! who made itself untargettable. He was still holding another Pyroblast he couldn't use.

He just doesn't give up!

I wish I'd heard him accept his winning opponent's 'concession'.


By Big Blue on Monday, August 20, 2001 - 02:30 pm:

Props for the Undiscovered Paradise :) But I would play it in addition to and not instead of the 4th City...


By Marco A Toso on Monday, August 20, 2001 - 04:08 pm:

Then should Undiscovered Paradise be my 61st card? Because I have no idea what to cut for it.


Add a Message


This is a private posting area. A valid username and password combination is required to post messages to this discussion.
Username:  
Password: