Off Topic-Tournament Report for Type 1 at Worlds

Beyond Dominia: The Type One Magic Mill: Tournament Archive -- ALL TOURNAMENT REPORT THREADS GO HERE: Off Topic-Tournament Report for Type 1 at Worlds

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By ahappyclown on Wednesday, August 15, 2001 - 09:48 am:

Well, I figured that I should post a report of my adventure at Worlds.
The trip up was pretty uneventful, my friend Smack and myself left from Binghamton, N.Y. on Friday morning and upon reaching the Canadian border, we were harrassed by the guy in the booth. He was straight outta da' South Park movie.

Him:'So what is your purpose in Canada, eh?'
Smack:'We're going to the Magic World Championships'
Him:'You mean like doing magic tricks and stuff?'
Smack:'No, Magic: The Gathering'
Him:'Eh?'
Smack, handing him the postcard from Wizards:'Its a card game'
Him:'I still don't know what you're talking aboot'
Me:'We're visiting my aunt'
Him:'Do you have anything to declare?'
Smack:'No'
Him:'Like you don't have like a DVD player you're giving to your aunt Sally?'
Me:'NO!'
Him:'Ok, take care, eh'

We finally arrived at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre at about 6:00 pm and checked into our parking garage (I just love slumming it).
Then we checked out the tourney area and some dealers booths looking for Null Rods for Smack's deck(we really only came for the Type 1). No Null Rods? 3 dealers and no Null Rods...d'oh! We finally found someone who had the 2 he needed and traded out the waaaz for them(I think).
The rest of the night was pretty uneventful until I heard that someone got a match loss for marked sleeves. Uh oh. That reminds me...my sleeves are marked...I think.
So I go to find a judge and catch this short guy with white hair wearing a black and white striped shirt. I figured that he's got to be high level if he looks like a referee and I'm going straight to the top with my rules questions.

Me:'Excuse me sir, are you like a high ranking judge type?'
Mark Rosewater:'Yes.'
Me:'Great, could you tell me if my 7 year-old sleeves are marked?'

Needless to say, my sleeves were marked and I had to buy new ones. D'OH! Now I'm down to about $20 Canadian. Well, no more veggie dogs for me...time to go to bed.
Saturday, we got up around 8:00 am and dorked out into our Magic Dork Shirts, ate some leftover bannanas and donuts(excuse me...donettes) and went upstairs. So before I left, I was determined to pick up at least one more p9 to add to my collection, and I found a guy with a Mox Sapphire that he was trying to trade for umm....not cards (there was a no cash transaction thing in effect). So I said:'I'll catch up with you later if I can dig up the "not cards"'. I ended up trading off a foil non-seventh edition Serra Angel to this guy for a binder full of foils. I felt like a change of pace anyway. I ended up selling the binder to a dealer for $190 Canadian. Sweet...food and a Mox Sapphire. Yeah, I probably got ripped off, but hey, you can't beat a Sapphire for around $40 U.S. So I was tickled, and still am.
Anyway, Smack and myself hopped in a draft before the Type 1 and I grabbed some decent rares and what looked like a decent deck. Phyrexian Arena, Pyre Zombie, Mystic Snake and Suffocating Blast. Well, that takes care of the lack of trade fodder in my binder. I got schooled in the first match and went to get some food, after I told the judge I was dropping.

Me:'Excuse me your honor, but I'm dropping'
Judge:'You can't'
Me:'And why NOT?!?!?'
Judge:'Because its single elimination'
Me:'Oh....are you Mark Rosewater?'

Oh yeah, I got one of my Morphlings signed earlier....sweet.
So I go and get me some veggie dogs and a smoke.
Then I come back and find out that Richard Garfield is wandering around 'Gunslinging'.
Perfect.
So I got Richard Garfield to sign my already signed by Mark Poole Ancestral Recall for luck. Oh baby! NOW its got character.
So I walk up to one Carl Winter who I bump into a lot around here and demand that he kneel before the splendor. He pays homage and goes off towards said 'Gunslinging' area. I'm sitting around waiting for the Type 1 to start and Carl walks up to me and slaps an Ancestral, Walk, and 'twister in my face; all signed by Dr. Garfield himself. Man, what's with the one-upsmanship? So I call him a greedy bastard and go on about my business.

The Type 1 begins.
I am playing a really bad U/B control with my Mishras in the SB. I always change my deck before a tournament and then don't really test it.

Round 1: Marco A Toso, with Keeper

I introduce myself and let him know that I'm the ahappyclown here that you folks rarely hear from.

The first game takes almost the entire round due to some self inflicted mana screw on my part. I mulligan once, then I just have to wasteland every non-basic I see. He gets out a mox monkey, and I'm drawing all land, so I have to wonder if its going to go all the way. Nope, 'Edict.
Then he pops out Morphling. I sit there and try to look intimadating with all my land in play and the 4 lands in my hand.
Game 2, we both need to take a bathroom break, but the judge informs us that there's only 12 mins left in the round. So we attempt to play quickly.
He pops out a mox monkey again and I just sit there waiting for my beatdown to arrive. A few turns later, some top-secret Scragnoth tech arrives. I sit there and take it like a man. This time the mox monkey hung out for the victory dance.

Marco was a great opponenthe was very courteous and respectful.

Matches: 0-1 Games: 0-2

Round 2: Mmm...bye. I hate byes. I came here to get my face kicked in, not to eat veggie dogs. Mmmm....veggie dogs.

Matches: 1-1 Games: 0-2 (I never count byes as wins, but I guess the DCI does)

Round 3: Troy Something, Ye Olde Blacke Weenie Decke

This guy was playing a really old style black deck that ran Drain Life and Terror.

Game 1: He gets some early Sarcomancies out, I get out Powder Keg, boom. He gets some shadow creatures and I get Masticore. He gets pissed and I beat him down while shooting his weenies.

Game 2: I keep a hand with one swamp because I'm stupid. He beats me down rather quickly. Oops.

Game 3: Mishra jumps on him early, then Masticore takes over. The Abyss comes out to make sure he has no critters when I kill him. I just hate whiny opponents.

He takes off without signing the match slip and Smack grabs a judge for me. The guy was pretty pissed I think. Sorry buddy, but I didn't come all this way so I could lose to a bad Suicide Black.

Matches: 2-1 Games: 2-3

Round 4: Carl Winter, BBS

So this is what it comes to, driving 600 miles to play a match that could have been played at home.

Game 1: It takes a while before he establishes control and is rather close up until that point, but he takes the win in the end.

Game 2: I side in my Mishras and go to work on him with a Mishra and two Masticores to get around his Morphling....who cares if I'm discarding 2 cards each turn?

Game 3: He gets out an early Back to Basics and it squashes my deck like a bug. Wait...that's not supposed to happen.......

Carl's a great player and a nice guy, although he does get hung up on rules technicalities frequently, but hey, I don't think anyone came here to lose.

Matches: 2-2 Games: 3-5

Round 5: Matt D'Avanzo, Keeper

Game 1: I guess that I would have to say that I was out-countered for most of the game. I did, however, get up to about 50 life early on from my evil Ivory Tower. Mwa ha ha. It takes a while, but in the end he beats down with Morphling, I lose.

Game 2: I side in my Mishra's Factories and leave The Abyss in, in case I see any top-secret Scragnoth tech, but no such luck. I get in some early Mishra and Masticore slaps until he puts down Morphling. I try to get a second Masticore out, since he is at 4 life and I need to get around Superman, but its countered. So I just sit there with my useless critters and take some pain.
Then I grab The Abyss off an Impulse in hopes of making him tap his 2 Cities of Brass to keep Morphling alive so I can kill him with Mishra getting through. No such luck, as he doesn't tap a damn thing during his upkeep. Wait a second...Morphling dies. He's at 4 life and next turn Masticore comes in for the kill. Chalk one up for the magical Abyss, that's Morphling #2 down.

Game 3: Games 1 and 2 have taken quite a bit of time, and i think at this point there are only 12 minutes left in the round. I could easily go for the draw, but that's not how I do things. I attempt to go nuts with early Masticores, Morphlings and Mishras, but it seems as though Matt has an answer for everything. Aaaah...but so do I...he gets down a Morphling and I bait him into a counter war over something, I can't quite remember. It pays off, and he has no counter for the Edict that I cast on my turn. Unfortunately, he FoFs at the end of that turn and nabs another Morphling. We eventually get into extra turns, and he's at 6 life (I think) from a couple of Mishras and his Sylvan Library and I'm at I think 11. I peel Demonic Tutor and cast it, having tons of land and only one black source. Now I have two choices: I can go for the other Edict in my deck and hope he has no counters next turn when I can cast it, or I can rules cheese, grab the Zuran Orb that I sided in drop it when I know he has no counters, and sac all of my land on the final turn to have more life than him when the turn is up. I choose to grab the Edict, I guess because if I'm going to win, I want to do it the right way. But, he had the counter for my Edict, so I get slapped around by his Morphling and die on the final turn.

Matt's a really nice guy, and he kept telling me about this guy he knew who built a similar deck that ran Mishra's Factories main and Rootwater Theives in the board. Hmmm....I guess he didn't realize that I chill out here.

So, overall I went 2-3, not bad for my first real sanctioned Type 1 tournament. Not to mention, I gave a lot of people some difficult matches instead of taking it laying down like I thought I would.
I think my deck does need some adjustments though, here's what I played:

Blue:
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
3 Fact or Fiction
3 Impulse
1 Ancestral Recall
2 Morphling
1 Misdirection
1 Mystical Tutor

Black:
3 Duress
1 The Abyss
2 Diabolic Edict
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Mind Twist

Artifact:
2 Masticore
1 Ivory Tower
3 Powder Keg
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring

Land:
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
4 Underground Sea
4 Underground River
1 Undiscovered Paradise
6 Islands
2 Swamps

Sideboard:
3 Mishra's Factory
1 Zuran Orb
1 Teferi's Response
1 Misdirection
2 Perish (what? no one was playing Stompy?)
2 Tormod's Crypt
3 Mangara's Blessing (and I didn't even play the Pox guy)
2 Mana Maze
(A side note about Mana Maze; against BBS, Impulse functions a lot like Abeyance before it was erratta'd with the Maze in play)

So, I had fun, got my arse handed to me and played in the greatest Magic format known to man, its too bad few people realize it.

Thanks for the good times and to everyone for being great opponents (except for the one guy with his Terrors).

Oh yeah, overall I finished in 18th place and Smack finished in 15th with a Sligh deck that slightly resembles Rubefacere, except it dropped the black and most of the green, and ran 4 Null Rods maindeck. Man, those things are nasty.


By Marco A Toso on Wednesday, August 15, 2001 - 10:57 am:

You remembered more about our match than I did. :)


By ahappyclown on Thursday, August 16, 2001 - 08:39 am:

Yes, I happen to have a very good memory. That's why I love Duress, because off of just one, I can often tell what's in your hand for the duration of the game. Unfortunately, I only got one Duress to resolve through the entire tournament. D'OH!


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