I played in the weekly Friday Sanctioned Type I at Neutral Ground yesterday. We had 9 people for the usual 3 round tournament.
I was of course playing Legend Blue, soon to have only 1 Fact or Fiction come December 1. Yes, I have heard more rumours, it seems like it IS going to happen. Fact or Fiction is going to be restricted, according to someone close to Mark Rosewater. I'll have as much fun as I can before the party's over in a few weeks, though.

Friday's decklist:

4 Fact or Fiction
4 Morphling
2 Powder Keg
2 Back to Basics
4 Mana Leak
4 Misdirection
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Impulse
19 Island
5 Moxes
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus

Sideboard:

4 Hydroblast
4 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Powder Keg
2 Back to Basics
3 Gainsay


Tournament Breakdown:

Sligh: 2
Suicide Black: 1
Fully Powered Keeper: 1
Mono-Blue Zoo with Power 9: 1
Legend Blue (me: 1
Multicolor Burn: 1
Random Decks : 2

This was not the most powerful field we've had recently, but there were some OK decks today. I maindecked 2 Kegs and cut back on the B2B because I haven't seen as much Keeper lately....but sure enough....


ROUUND 1: ERIC WILKINSON PLAYING KEEPER WITH P9

GAME 1: Eric has 5 color Keeper with 4 Red Elemental Blast and 2 Pyroblast in the board, so it is important to get the first game. I go first and drop 2 Moxes, an Island and a Back to Basics. He Forces of Will. But this is only a temporary solution for him, as I go berserk and start casting Fact or Fictions left and right, and soon he succumbs to another Back to Basics and a Morphling.

GAME 2: I side in some Blue Elemental Blasts and a couple of Gainsays. Also the 2 other Back to Basics. We go back and forth for a while playing lands, but when I have a full hand I go for the Back to Basics off a Mana Drain of a Sylvan I think it was. However, he actually outcounters me!! Then he is able to go crazy with a bunch of card drawing and a Yawgmoth's Will. However, he can't seem to finish me off, even though he has 10 cards in his hand at one point to my one. I decide to make him kill me, hoping to ensure no worse than a draw. My reasoning is that with only 10 minutes left in the round,he would have a hard time winning the 3rd game that quickly, whereas I might be able to by rushing a Morphling into play.
So he is going nuts with Sylvan Librayr, Ancestral, Stroke and Library of Alex. Finally, he kills me, but we are almost out of time.

GAME 3: We run out of time after a few turns. I try to rush a Morphling into play to avoid the draw, but he counters it and time runs out.

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


ROUND 2: STEVE SADIN PLAYING MONO BLUE ZOO

Game 1: He goes first and has Mox, Mox, Land Ophidian. I go with a Sol Ring and an Island. Then he goes Rootwater Thief, Time Walk, and draws a card off Ophidian. Then on his next turn, he removes a Morphling from my library, and draws another card off Ophidian. I cast Fact or Fiction on my next main phase. Then he casts a Serendib. Another Morphling gets removed from the game and he draws another card with Ophidian. My only hope is to cast the Morphling in my hand. I play my 3rd island for 5 mana total and drop Morph. He Forces it, but I Force of Will back. Amazingly, he can't do anything else about it. he goes for a Serendib next turn which I also force of will. Amazingly, my Morphling holds off his Serendib, his Thief, his Ophidian, and a Coral Merfolk. Then I draw a Powder Keg and the game goes downhill from there for him. He is openly distraught after my miracle win.


GAME 2: I win easily, siding in 2 more Powder Kegs. I get Mana Leak up on the first turn, and counter his first 3 or 4 spells. Everything goes to hell for him when I find my Ancestral Recall and Morph easily goes all the way here.

MATCHES: 1-0-1 GAMES: 3-1


ROUND 3: RAMZI WEIR PLAYING SUICIDE BLACK

GAME 1: His deck is a little suboptimal, but he has all the cards that hurt mono blue nevertheless, including Negator, hippie, hymn, etc. He rolls a 17 on the die roll to see who goes first. Then I roll an 18!! This turns out to be huge, as I have the Mana Leak ready on turn 1. I am able to hold him off for a while. A Negator does come out though. I keg the Negator away when I am at 10, though. He edicts away a Morph, though, and one was lost in a FOF. But I Impulse and find another one, then I win.

GAME 2: He gets a first turn Specter. I have a Mox, Time Walk, and Lotus in my opening hand, but no Morphling to take advantage of it, so the Specter and a Skittering Skirge do me in.

GAME 3: I counter all his early threats with 3 Mana Leaks!!! He edicts another Morphling. He gets me down to 4 with a Carnophage. Soon it is a Negator and a Phage versus a Morphling and a Powder keg. he edicts again. But I Misdirect it at him. He loses the Carny and my Morphling is too strong for his Negator because I have a ton of mana out. So I win a few turns later.


MATCHES: 2-0-1 GAMES: 5-2

At the other table, Eric is playing Ray's Burn deck. If Ray wins, he will be 3-0, Eric will be 1-1-1, and I will be 2-0-1. My only hope is for Eric to beat Ray, which will give Ray a loss. Then it would be me and Eric as the only undefeated players at 2-0-1 each.

My hopes are answered when Eric beats Ray 2-1. So we have to have a fourth round, a final match between me and Eric to determine the winner. Ray is out at 2-1, so me and Eric as the only 2-0-1's play it off in a rare fourth round at a Neutral Ground tournament.

ROUND 4: ERIC WILKINSON WITH KEEPER

GAME 1: I get the first turn Back to Basics again!!! He has no way to deal with it and I am definitely going to win this game...or not. He proceeds to draw all 5 of his moxes and his Sol Ring, while I draw lands for 8 turns in a row. Eventually, he figures out that I am bluffing and casts a Yawgmoth's Will, getting his D-Blow back from the graveyard (which I had countered earlier). The game goes downhill from there, as he gets to untap his Library of Alexandria, Mind Twists me, plays a Sylvan Library, and a Zuran Orb, and starts drawing a million cards. What a disaster for me.

GAME 2: I just outcouner him in this one, and I manage to cast 2 Fact or Fictions which get me the card advantage I need to force a Morphling into play. I also get a Back to Basics. But he Balances away my Morph the turn before I kill him. But I have another one waiting and he has no answer this time.

At this point, we had played 4 games, with each of us winning 2. Instead of chancing it, we decide to split the prize and ID. So we both end up 2-0-2. I end up sharing 1st place with him in what was a bizarre tournament. But I was later told that the draw doesn't count, so we were both really 2-0-1 anyway. I think I may have gotten enough ratings points to crawl back to around 1750 again. Overall, a good tournament, I hadn't been doing as well recently as I had earlier this year. And after December 1, I'm going to really need to make changes.

Time is running out on Fact or Fiction. I am going to start looking at other options, I am really feeling that it is going to be restricted.

I may use 4 Accumulated Knowledges, 4 Impulse, 1 Merchant Scroll, 1 Fact or Fiction, and 1 Ancestral after the December 1 decision. Whatever I do, Type I is going to be very different in a few weeks if this does indeed go down.

BTW, Matt did not show up, so I didn't get a chance to play against the Doomsdau deck. So much for that.