Report Gen Con 2001
WB About Face by Jason Chapman
WB About Face by Jason Chapman
N.B.: This is all to the best of my recollection, due to family problems I didn’t even start until over 2 weeks after the convention. I know that my deck lists are not 100% accurate but they come close.
It was three days before the tournament and I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t even close to ready. I had 0 decks, 1 untested idea for a deck, almost 30,000 unsorted cards to look through, and only a few hours each day to pull it all together. I was a wreck and the worst part is that if I had stayed off the net and not spent time giving out advice on the newsgroups I would have had time to get my own business in order. Oh, well.
As I sat down (finally) to build my deck I started thinking about what I had wanted. I had posted my choice for the top 5 decks for the format:
Sligh/Agg. Red
Stompy
Black Discard
White Weenie
Suicide Black or Elf Ball (toss up)
Being unusual I knew that I wouldn’t play any of the above formats. I would go rogue and although I believe that this is usually a bad choice (I will explain why it was good in my analysis of the top 9 decks) I figured that this tournament was just for fun so I would build fun decks (Which should have stopped me from stressing out in the first place).
My first deck choice was a non-suicide/non-control/non-discard utility black deck built mostly in case I wanted to play for a win and ignore a little bit of the fun aspect.
The biggest weakness was that it lacked any way to deal with non-creature threats. Not even a single Duress. This was highly unorthodox especially because the format favored black discard effects (I had thought). It made up for it in that I could play aggressive with the Grave Servitude/Maggot Therapy/Funeral Charm as instant pump damage on unblocked creatures or I could play slow and use the same cards to control my opponent’s creatures. It played well but needed the sideboard to get beyond the 50/50 range against Stompy and Sligh (the 2 main decks in the field). After the sideboard I went 5 for 6 or better. It was the only deck I really tested.
4 Skittering Horror
4 Skittering Skirge
4 Duathi Horror
4 Grave Servitude
4 Funeral Charm
4 Maggot Therapy
3 Phyrexian Boon
4 Drain Life
4 Dark Ritual
4 Haunted Crossroads
1 Massacre
20 Swamp
3 Curiosity
2 Coastal Piracy
4 Sigil of Sleep
2 Betrayal
4 Cho-Manno’s Blessing
4 Soltari Visionary
4 Master Decoy
1 Benalish Trapper
4 Metathran Soldier
3 Stinging Barrier
4 Counterspell
1 Exclude
3 Capsize (Probably should have had less)
21 Island
My second choice was a much mutated variant on an old deck of mine. It is called the U.N. deck because it is white and blue. In the original form it concentrated on defense and slowly pinged its way to victory. For this format I thought I could use something a little different.
This deck had the advantage in that when it worked it generated huge advantage. If I could get to the mid-game I would typically draw 2-4 cards and return a creature to my opponent’s hand every turn. The downside of the deck is I had to play slow and cautious against red until I had about 4 mana. That means that I was usually dead. The other downside was that I had no way to deal with Blastoderm except for Hibernation and Washout. Both were in my sideboard and not main deck. The reasoning behind this move went like this: 1) I don’t always need Washout, but when I do I need it bad 2) The only way to find Washout is if I can draw a lot of cards because I have a limited number of uncommons I can play 3) My card drawing engine is almost all uncommon 4) Card drawing general utility is on average better than drawing 1 game breaking card. Basically it’s a consistency argument. I could care less about the sideboard except for the Washout. Sure the elemental blasts and stuff would help but I was scared of the ‘derm.
My final deck was a slightly altered Black/White deck that I play often in casual games. It’s the never dreaded but always talked about En-Kor/Task Force or Angelic Protector/Transmutation or About Face infinite (unbounded) damage combo.
I played with black as the back-up color since I thought Pestilence would be substantially better than one shot red direct damage. The haunted crossroads were also important as they provided a way to get the combo out a second time if my opponent broke it up or I could help stall out a creature stalemate (not the best solution but it could work). There isn’t much to say about how the deck plays out or why I like it, it’s pretty simple. Infinite damage is cool. En-Kor are cool. Task Force and Angelic Protector are cool especially in a direct damage environment. As far as fun goes this deck was far out in the lead. Again the sideboard here was unimportant to me mostly because this was my fun deck and not an actual tournament deck. The only thing I really liked was Congregate. I can’t say enough good things about this card as it will often buy multiple turns against both Stompy and Sligh (slightly better against Stompy).
4 Nomad En-Kor
4 Spirit En-Kor
4 Task Force
3 Angelic Protector
3 Fog of Gnats
4 Drudge Skeletons
4 Cho-Manno’s Blessing
1 Story Circle
1 Haunted Crossroads
4 Pestilence
4 Transmutation
15 Plains
9 Swamp
4 Ghitu Slinger
4 Mogg Fanatic
3 Cinder Elemental
2 Ancient Hydra
1 Stinging Barrier
4 Fireball
4 Shock
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Capsize
1 Washout
4 Counterspell
2 Exclude
1 Power Sink
13 Mountain
10 Island
I also had put a deck together for my girlfriend to play. She is pretty new to Magic and in the last 6 months she had played maybe 10 games (I actually wasn’t much better with maybe 20 games in the same period). I had once made her a Blue/Red deck that she loved and also beat me with a few times. All I had to do was modify it slightly.
In testing I was able to beat her deck with each one of my other decks but it wasn’t the deck’s fault; it was almost always a forgotten rule or strategy. I would suggest similar decks for any beginning player. It has a little of everything and plays out well for both aggressive and defensive players. The early game plays out like most for blue. They do their thing while your deck slowly gets moving forward. Then around turn 3 or 4 you start to have an answer for everything. With red you can destroy those early creatures and have a way to kill your opponent before you start running out of steam and counterspells.
When I built all these decks I still didn’t have any cards from Apocalypse, I will post modified decks with additions when I have a chance.
HERE BEGINS THE TOURNAMENT REPORT, SORRY FOR WASTING YOUR TIME
Anyway, I show up pretty early expecting to have to go through a deck check and stuff. Turns out that wasn’t in the cards. Neither was a sideboard.
When Rob made the no sideboard announcement I heard only two things. The first was a series of curses, the second was a puzzled, “what’s a sideboard?”
I was shocked. I started going through my Black deck trying to figure out what to put in and what to take out. In the end I dropped the Phyrexian Boons, 2 Funeral Charms, a Grave Servitude and something else for 4 Vicious Hunger (probably should have been main deck from the beginning), a Spinning Darkness and a Perish. I shuffled, and shuffled, and shuffled, and then put the deck back in the box. I went up to Rob and started changing my deck choice every 30 seconds. My girlfriend’s deck was easy, put in Washout and leave the rest. Eventually I settled on my fun Black and White deck, I added nothing from the sideboard.
ROUND I
First round I was up against Marc Anderson from Card Sharks. Let me just say that Marc was a really great guy, he was also a really good magic player and he had really thought about some of those older cards I forgot about. I was consistently saying “wow that’s a common, oh yeah I knew that” (I don’t know why I didn’t think of half these cards nor did I put together a legal card list until after the tournament). He also out played me by a good amount. I normally play at his level if I have slept, am not stressed, am playing a deck I had tested with, and I’m not having a great time talking to the players on either side of me. You can probably guess that I lost but here is how I went down.
First game. This was the longest. We started and I had little coming out mostly thanks to a second and third turn Hymn (IIRC). I drop a Nomad En-Kor and he cruises in for a three turns alone and unmolested and then Marc drops a Crypt Rat. I attack for 1, he explodes the rat. He exhumes the rat. He attacks with the rat. I really start to hate the Crypt Rat. I couldn’t keep much on the table although I do get a Spirit En-Kor in to deal another 2 points and stall his rat. Then the hippie comes into play. I hate to see Hypnotic Specter unless I’m the one playing it. I was still at 15 life so I wasn’t all that worried. He attacks, I block with the En-Kor. Everything else is dead so I couldn’t redirect the damage but that’s okay because the specter will go to the graveyard too. That is until he casts exhume and cruises in for the kill with the help of the Rack.
Second game is short and sweet. I get a few creatures out. He Drain Life’s a Nomad En-Kor early, I get out an Angelic Protector and fly over to poke him a few times. Then that damn Hypnotic Specter hits the table. We beat at each other for a while. I cast a Pestilence so that I can at least stop the hippie from killing me and then I look down at the life total and he looks down at his sheet and in the same instance we both realize that I’m at 7 life and he is at 5, I tap 5 mana and win the game.
Third game I don’t even want to talk about. IIRC it went Hymn, Duress, Phyrexian War Beast, Crypt Rat, The Rack and then Hypnotic Specter or some other nonsense. What was the point of trying.
Here is my guess at Marc Anderson’s really nasty deck (I’m pretty sure he made it round 4 with 1 loss or less):
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Duress
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Crypt Rat
4 Phyrexian War Beast
4 Exhume
4 Drain Life
4 Vicious Hunger
4 Dark Ritual
4 The Rack
4 Desert
16 Swamp
Round II (I don’t remember round 2 or 3 as well as round 1)
I played Josh who was also very nice. He was playing a Blue/Black evasion pump deck. Pretty much the standard, blue flyers and black shadow creatures with Unstable Mutation, Unholy Strength, Grave Servitude.
Game 1 is pretty fast. He deals 4 points of damage to me (I don’t remember how but I think there was a Fog of Gnats there somewhere). Then I am able to sneak through with a Task Force. They are unblocked. I have an En-Kor in play. I tap a Swamp and a Plain. Transmutation, take 3 million damage. Before that play I had dealt only three points of damage.
Game 2 is also fast but not so good for me. I have no direct removal other than Pestilence and since I died on turn 4 thanks to a really really pumped up Metathran Soldier. I think it went turn 2 Soldier. Turn 3 Grave Servitude and Unholy Strength, attack for 7 unblockable. Turn 4 Unstable Mutation and Unstable Mutation attack for 13. That’s one big ugly 1/1 creature.
Game 3. Another 4 turn win, this time in my favor. My combo goes off as soon as it can. Turn 1, Nomad En-Kor. Turn 3, Task Force. Turn 4, Cho-Manno’s Blessing and Transmutation. Every card was in my starting hand except for a swamp.
Round III
I meet Greg and we are now both 1-1-0. Since it’s a two and out format we both need the win to continue. Did I mention that Greg was also really nice. You may have noticed the trend but I didn’t meet a single player I didn’t like out of all 85 (or so) of us.
Anyway, Greg had a U/R Tim deck with Quicksilver Dagger. I had never seen the card before but I was impressed with the card but not the deck. It has always been my preference to build U/G or mono-blue Tim decks.
First game goes really fast. I drop the En-Kor, then the Task Force. I have a swamp in play and I attack with the Task Force even though he has a 1/1 blocker (after all I can always save the Task Force from any amount of damage). He lets me through. I was so sure that he would block because most players recognize the combo pretty quickly that I almost missed him saying “I’ll take it”. I said I almost missed it but after the shock and surprise I played Transmutation for the infinite (unbounded) damage.
Game two. I have 2 swamps in play… for the entire game. I don’t remember what he did but here is my life total as recorded in my notebook: 19, 18, 15, 13, 10, 6, concede. I think when I conceded he had something like 5 creatures out all of which could ping for 1. I might have been able to pull out the win but I doubt it. After the game I start top decking to see what was there. I had 4 more turns for another land.
Game three. This game is close. We have an almost even creature match up. He couldn’t take down my Angelic Protector, but he pings me over and over and over. I have an En-Kor in my graveyard and draw my Haunted Crossroads. All I need to win is Transmutation and then I will win the turn after my draw (he has no flyers). 6 turns go by I don’t draw the transmutation and I die to 2 points of Quicksilver Dagger and 1 point of Fire Whip.
And now I’m out of the tournament.