Greetings one and all, I took part in my first DCI sanctioned tournament. It was held at my friend's shop(home ground advantage, heh heh). There was a total of eight players. I was playing Jon Finkel's deck. Four of us were playing black control, two were playing Replenish, another was playing White Weenie and the other fella was playing Ponza. The format was four rounds of Swiss.First match: I played against my friend, the organiser and shop owner who was playing White Weenie.
Round one: He mulligans till he has only five cards left in his hand. I start off with a Duress. He has no lands in his hand. I take away a Glorious Anthem. A Skittering Horror, Port and a couple of Vicious Hungers carries me to victory
Round two: I'm stuck at three lands, he has a Port in play. All the cards in my hand cost at least three mana to cast. I get beaten by a Fresh Volunteers and Longbow Archer. He then casts a Mother of Runes. I draw a Massacre and all his creatures die. I was down to six life, then he casts a Steadfast Guard and Armageddon. End of me...
Round Three:
I duress and Unmask him on the first turn. I remove his creatures as fast as possible and cast a Negator. He has a Glorious Anthem and Crusade in play. Then, he casts a Mother of Runes. I cast V. Tutor for a Yawgmoth's Will(three rituals in graveyard) and I use it to eradicate his Mother of Runes and cast a Trashing Wumpus. He starts packing up...
I win 2-1
Second Match: I'm up against Black Control.
Round One: He starts and casts Persecute on the second turn. I drop my hand(five cards) and I get beaten by his creatures.
Round Two: We trade blows with stuff like Duress, Unmask and Stupor. He gains the upper hand and has two Negators in play when I only have one but he has very little life. I attack and he blocks with a Negator, we both sacrifice all our permanents. I recover first and cast a Skittering Horror with the help of a Ritual for a win.
Round Three: I get out an early Powder Keg. Then, I cast Stupor. He accidently shows me his hand but I look away an he realises his mistake and I didn't gain an unfair advantage(fair play, 
). I eventually blow away both his Plaguelords with the Keg and I cast a Wumpus to control the board...
I win 2-1
Round Three: I'm up against Replenish and I'm very ****ed off with this match.
Round one: I Duress on the first and second turn. I get out my Stromgald Cabal on turn three. I cast a Negator on turn four and that paves the way for victory
Round two: He draws a Tide on his fourth turn and that was the starting of the end for me. He eventually casts another Wave and Tide. He casts Replenish when he had two Tides, two Waves, two Opalensences, one Attunement and one Seal of Removal in his graveyard. End of story...
Round Three: I cast a Stromgald Cabal on the first turn and cast a Negator on the third turn. He Reprises my Negator, I momentarily forget my Cabal and start to move it to the graveyard. I realised my mistake before it went into the graveyard and then he goes like 'you already let the Negator die, etc, etc'. I let him win the arguement and there was no judge around. That lapse in concentration puts me off and I eventually lose.
Opponent wins 2-1
Round Four: I'm up against another Black Control, someone who had a record of 6-0.
Round one: My opponent casts a Negator and I cast Vicious Hunger for the next two turns. He then sacrifices four lands. Hmm, he has a Negator and a land in play, I cast Vampiric Tutor, guess what I searched for? I then cast Vicious Hunger and Negator. He has to sacrifice both his permanents and eventually loses.
Round two: I Unmask twice in the first two turns to remove his creatures. I cast a Skittering Horror on the third turn. He casts a Hidden Horror and casts a Treacherous Link on it. I attack him with the S.Horror and he blocks with the H.Horror and he's down to twelve life. I then cast a Skittering Skirge. I take four damage the next two turns and he's down to five life. I have a Vampiric Tutor in hand, guess what I searched for? I attack with the Skirge for three and casted Vicious Hunger on the H.Horror...
I win 2-0
Now, there was a mirror match(Replenish vs Replenish). One of them needed a win to finish in the top four. The other person who is an MOTLer, won 2-1 but conceded 2-0 just for a chance to get two measly boosters(that was what his opponent offered him). Firstly, that was an blatant cheat, all the other players witnessed it. Secondly, I've known the person who conceded longer than his opponent, I got betrayed for just a booster or two. The person who offered the bribe was a medical student at the local university, from what's probably the top university faculty in Singapore, tsk tsk. Lastly, the match took up a lot of time, we had to wait for the end of the match for the results and it took up a lot of time. As it turned out, I got pushed down to fourth and the person who offered the bribe got second(and won two Prophecy boosters) when I could have been third or first(if I only I didn't lose my concentration). The tourney organiser had to leave early due to an appointment and the person who took over did nothing.At the end of it, I grabbed my prize(a Prophecy booster) and stormed out of the shop. I seriously feel disgusted and I don't think I'll take part in anymore tournaments. I've also heard about cases of bribery in other local tournaments but to witness it first-hand is something else...
On a lighter note, I witnessed a turn four 17/15 Yavimaya Enchantress with trample, heh heh.
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posted June 16, 2000 09:15 AM
), extended obviously isn't my forte...