Hullo,
This report is about the Classic UK & Irish Championship held at Gen Con UK
2001.
This was the first big Type I event for me since a long time. I didn't know what
to play, but I had an idea about the metagame (see my article at Cutting Edge
http://www.cutting-edge-cards.com/Articles/ViewArticle.asp?iArticleID=95).
Basically, I predicted control would be dominant, with mono-blue being the most
dangerous. I tested different decks, but most of them would be shut down by Back
to Basics.
So, I finally settled on my good ol' twister.dec:
Non-mana (32):
1 City of Solitude
1 Fastbond
1 Regrowth
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Kaervek's Torch
1 Mana Flare
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Braingeyser
4 Force of Will
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Relearn
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Time Spiral
1 Timetwister
1 Time Walk
1 Trade Routes
1 Windfall
1 Horn of Greed
2 Scroll Rack
1 Zuran Orb
1 Glacial Chasm

Mana (28):
1 Black Lotus
5 Moxen
1 Sol Ring
4 City of Brass
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Tropical Island
4 Underground Sea
1 Undiscovered Paradise
3 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland

Sideboard:
1 Balance
1 CoP Red
2 Seal of Cleansing
1 City of Solitude
1 Pyroclasm
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Mind Twist
4 Phyrexian Negator
2 Blue Elemental Blast

I made some changes to fight against mono-blue: 1 extra Seal of Cleansing and
switched the Dibs and Hunted Wumpus with 4 Negators, which meant that I had to
adapt my mana-base and play more blue. I also chose to try Undiscovered Paradise
to fight Back to Basics.
I don't know why the schedule was so awful (Thursday at 9pm), but it allowed me
to attend while taking only one day off at work. I left Brussels with the
Eurostar and arrived 20 minutes before the event started. It seems that most of
the people didn't take the tourney as seriously as some were drunk, especially
the judges. The rule enforcement level was 1 and the k-value a disappointing 16.
37 players, 5 swiss rounds, cut to top 8.

Round 1: Ryan Kelly - mono-green
Ryan has chosen a fun deck to play, he is with Call of the Wild, many Elves like
Titania's Priest and fat. He has support cards for the combo like Mirri's Guile
and Worldly Tutor.
Game 1, I draw a hand with a mana, many mana, too many of them. He drops some
Elves, Call of the Wild, then Deranged Hermit and tramples me. When I am at 3
life, I drop Glacial Chasm, wait for two turns (down to one life, then I have to
get rid of the Chasm), play Scroll Rack, Mana Flare (Ryan forgot about it and
took 5 burn) and Trade Routes to dig deeper in my deck. I think I am dead when I
cycle and cycle lands, then I am with 3 mana left, cycle one more land and peel
a Time Walk. I untap, Scroll Rack into Wheel of Fortune that I cast, get a
Torch, count my mana and Torch him for 16. Good that Ryan had forgotten about
the Mana Flare early on and took burn, otherwise I would have lost.
I sideboard out 2 REBs and City of Solitude for Mind Twist, Pyroclasm and
Balance.
The second game doesn't take a lot of time as I get a great draw, Mind Twisting
him for 5 turn 2, Stripping his Forest to slow him down, then going off. He dies
with a lone Llanowar Elf in play.
2-0, 3 points.

Round 2: Sonny Nielsen - keeper
Sonny has all the power cards as well, and like many of the old timers tonight,
chose to play keeper.
Game 1, we don't do much until he drops a Morphling with two blue untapped. I
believe that I managed to make him think I am playing keeper with some weird
card choices. I Time Walk, he Drains, I Scroll Rack for 3, keeping Force of Will
and Windfall in my hand and get a Spiral, so I Force the Drain, ditching
Windfall, then take my Time Walk. I spiral into another Time Walk and combo him.
I side in the 4 Negators, hoping that he fights my combo and pull his creature
removal, which he does (he kept Balance).
Game 2, he drops a land, I go Underground Sea, sac Lotus for RRR, cast Negator
with R open, Negator resolves, I cast a Shaman that he BEBs. In his turn 2, he
Demonic Tutors for a Balance. I draw a Force of Will, hit for 5. His T3, he
Wastelands away my lone land, cast Balance - I Force, he doesn't have any. I hit
him for 5 twice. He Vampiric Tutors, but doesn't have any other removal, so he
goes for Ancestral, hoping to get a green mana and Regrowth, which he doesn't
get and concedes at 3 life.
I wish Sonny good luck, he smiles and adds: "See you in the final."
2-0, 6 points.

Round 3: Richard Wysong - Sligh
Richard doesn't have the power cards but he manages to win his first two matches
with his goblins and burn.
He beat Peter Gysemans the previous round in an epic mirror match.
Game 1, Richard hits me turn 1 with Raging Goblin, then turn 2 with a second
one, while I play Mana Flare. I go off in my third turn (I went first) and
Richard has soon to draw 100 cards.
I sideboard in Pyroclasm, CoP Red and 2 BEBs.
Richard get a good start in game 2 while I am mana flooded and I got burnt out.
We don't have much time in the final game, but as we both have fast decks, it
should be all right.
I Demonic Tutor turn 1 for CoP Red that hits turn 2. I build mana to hold his
Goblins and burn, then tutor for a Mind Twist. When his hand is empty, I drop
Trade Routes, followed by Mana Flare, Regrowth my Torch and kill him in the 4th
extra turn (my last one).
2-1, 9 points.

Round 4: Luk Schoonaert - Keeper
Luk is also from Belgium, and he comes each month to play in my Type I tourney
in Brussels, so we know each other pretty well. Luk is fond of combo, but he
isn't confident enough in his Lich deck (sketchy mana base), so he went with a
solid keeper with a lot of hate against mono-blue in the board.
Game 1, Luk manages to Mind Twist my hand away, but I top deck a Timetwister.
Ah, the joys of Type I. He is drawing extra cards with Sylvan Library, then
successfully casts Yawgmoth's Will, get back his Mox Monkey, and keep 3 mana
untapped to eat my moxen away instead of casting the Time Walk he had in the
graveyard. This will cost him the game as he is low on life (5 due to Sylvan
Library and City of Brass) and I manage to Torch him exactly for 5. His Force of
Will doesn't do much as he is tapped out. I am not playing Fireball for a reason

I sideboard in the extra REBs and City of Solitude.
The second game starts slowly, which is bad for me. At some points, he let me
play Yawgmoth's Will, but Force of Will my Fastbond (which is thus removed from
the game, so it will be difficult for me to win). He then casts Yawgmoth's will
on his own, and I know I will lose that one. He beats me down with Shaman to
death.
We don't have time for game 3 where I was planning to go the Negator way.
1-1, 10 points.
Simon Hodges, playing keeper, has intentionally drawn with Rich Skyrme, playing
mono-red, meaning there is nobody at 12 after round 4.

Round 5: Simon Hodges - Keeper
We decided to ID after checking that 11 points is enough to top 8.
Simon takes the 2 games we played for fun. He won them twice by misdirecting my
Ancestral.

The top 8 consists of:
- Sonny Nielsen (keeper)
- Dave Fry (mono-blue)
- John Laurie (B/w Pox)
- Casper Thomsen (workshop.dec)
- Luk Schoonaert (keeper)
- Simon G Hodges (keeper)
- Rich Skyrme (sligh)
- Carl Devos (twister.dec)

Quarters: Casper Thomsen - Workshop.dec
Casper is actually Gnu at Beyond Dominia, but I didn't know it at that time.
Game 1, he drops a Volcanic Island and a Mox to play Goblin Welder. I play a
second turn Shaman, he tinkers his mox away to get Karn, which is annoying as I
am holding 2 Moxen. But he forgets to play lands, which allows me to play Mana
Flare, then Stroke for 5 and from there on, it goes downhill for him, as I strip
his land away and then combo him.
I sideboard out 2 REB for Seal of Cleansing and a BEB, as I don't know his deck.
He goes turn 1 Workshop, Grim Monolight, Juggernault.
He hits me for 5, then dies as I played Fastbond, Horn of Greed, Zuran Orb,
sacrifice all 5 lands to Zuran Orb and Yawgmoth's Will, drawing an insane amount
of cards thank to the Horn. This combo is deadly, especially since I had Glacial
Chasm out.
These were 2 quick games, Casper never had the chance to show what his deck is
supposed to do.

Semis: Dave Fry - mono-blue
This was the time to see whether my sideboard hate was enough to overcome the
mono-blue monstrosity.
I get out Fastbond and Horn of Greed. I had a Force of Will ready for his Back
to Basics, then I go off.
I side in 2 extra REBs and City of Solitude along with 2 Seal of Cleansing.
Game 2, I am facing a though choice: he has played his Library of Alexandria and
is holding 5 cards, I cast Demonic Tutor. What to get: City of Brass so I can
play Seal of Cleansing (for his coming Back to Basics) or Wasteland to kill his
LoA? I chose the former. City of Solitude hits, Dave plays Back to Basics, I sac
the Seal to kill it. He drops another one, but I have a REB ready for it. His
hand is full of useless counters, he drops Morphling. I torch it, drops a Shaman
and start beating. Dave concedes, he has no way to get rid of City of Solitude
as he built his sideboard in a hurry and didn't put Nev's Disk in.

Final: Sonny Nielsen - Keeper
Sonny's sentence after round 2 wasn't a joke: we were facing each other in the
final.
Game 1, I start with Library of Alexandria, then sac Lotus for a City of
Solitude. Sonny disenchants it, then strips my LoA. He plays Morphling and
starts to hit me. I should have played Regrowth on City of Solitude as I knew he
had few counters in hand, but I didn't, and so I have to play Glacial Chasm to
stay alive. I have Trade Routes out to reset the upkeep cost of the Chasm (I am
at one life), but this little game eats my lands. I play a Shaman, Sonny sends
it farming, and I am back to 2 life. This allows me to take one more City of
Brass hit without Glacial Chasm out. I think for a long time (it's 5am at that
time), then go for Yawgmoth's Will, Sonny doesn't have a counter, so I Demonic
Tutor for Fastbond and pull the combo.
I side in 2 extra REB and City of Solitude.
Game 2, I manage to get out City of Solitude, which allows me to kill Sonny's
Morphling. He Yawgmoth's Will some stuff, then I do it myself. He Mind Twists my
hand away just when I planned to go off with a Time Spiral next turn. But I top
deck another goodie and combo him again.

I win the tourney with a 6-0-2 record, which I am quite happy about. Too bad
there weren't more good English players like Jason Turner and Ben Martin, but
they had to judge the trials that evening and PTQ the day after.

I was a bit disappointed not to get a crown, but the Revised and Jap BB
Chronicles boosters were welcomed.

That's it for the Type I report.
I played in the PTQ on Friday (1-2-0 drop), in the GP on Saturday where I had to
win the last round to have a chance to make day 2, but I didn't.

On Sunday, I got my Type I deck stolen :/
Ben Martin and the judges were very kind and helped me trying to find it, but
the thief had vanished with my deck and the Jap Chronicle boosters.

Thanks for reading,

-- Carl Devos
Reigning Classic UK & Irish Champion ;)