Player A and Player B are in a first round match. Game one went to Player A and this game is now well on its way into the second.

Player A: "Whats your life at?"

Player B: "20, like its been the whole match, you haven't damaged me yet"

"k...cards in hand?"
"5, for the second time..."

Player B fidgets around, noticably agitated, as he has been the whole time since mid-way through the first game.

Player A: "cards in hand?"

Player B takes his hand and starts laying his cards, face down, on the table.

"LOOK, 1, 2, 3, 4 ...5..you just asked that"
"ok ok, im just thinking..."
"hmmm, thats nice"

Player A looks his board situation over once more and taps his sky diamond and 3 colorless mana.

Player A: "Pendrell mists..?"
Player B: "Whhhatever man.. whatever"

Player B throws his hand down and starts packing his cards up, and desideboarding, ignoring his opponents gesture of shaking hands after a good match. Looks like Player B didnt think the match was that good...

Ok, explanation time. Player A is me, me is Jason Casssidy. Player B was my first round opponent that just lost to my deck I had decided to take 2 days ago on the advice of, at least to my admition, a good trader and even smarter player who gave me some last second advice on my trap deck. "Trap deck?", your asking, hmmm, what is that. Well, here is the deck list, see if you cant figure out what its goal was....

4 natures revolt
3 pendrell mists
4 propagands
4 counter spell
3 force of will
3 mana leak
4 sky diamond
2 moss diamond
3 marble diamond
2 enlightend tutor
2 wrath of god
....lands lands and more lands...

Maybe I shouldnt have skipped that land count part, as it really is the basis around this story, but eh, lets move on.

Anyways, a small back track before I go on so your not all totally in the dark here.

Earlier that morning: 9:31 am:

"Jason Micheal Cassidy, I TOLD you to be up at 9 o'clock SHARP if you wanted a ride. Im leaving in 5 minutes, be ready mister or your tough outta luck!!!".

Im hearing something here, loud, obnoxious, yet familiar. ARGG, im thinking, im already half up, I might as well se"HOLY S*@#!!!!!!". I do my best impression of ben johnson and hop off my bed, grabbing the first pair of jeans/shirt I can find and run upstairs, heading for the bathroom. I was supposed to be up at 8:30 this morning and be out the door at 9, as registration started at 9:30 and ended at 10:30, although marvin almost always made last minute exceptions. "OK mom, ill be out in 5 minutes tops" I yell, as I do a bad 2 mintues job of showering, drying off and brushing my teeth and what naught. I run back downstairs, my dad just gives me this look like, "your SURE your my kid??".

I make it to my room and start gathering my deck box, trade box and crap I hope someone takes box together in my gym bag. Im all ready to go in under a minute, im GGGGReat, well, not really but. Im half way up the stairs when something hits me. My deck is still lying on my table from last night when I was sleeving the land up. "Oh thank god I remembered" I thought to myself as I hauled *** back downstairs to gather it up. I start doing a deck count for 60 cards to make sure I dont have another last minute blunder and realize im 15 cards short. "**** **** ****" I say aloud as I chuck of the top of my monster box container and start yanking out land like a madman. What I was missing was lands, and mostly islands. I grabbed as many as I can find, first going for ones that all look the same, I dont know, I must have thought I was some sort of freaking fashion designer. Well that dont work, I have a unbalanced amount of black bordered ones and wb ones. "ARGG, who bloody well cares what they look like" I think to myself. I wasnt going to get dci points for style so I just grab a stack full of islands, hoping there is at least 9 in it(which is the exact amount I need), and start sleeving them up on my bed. Turns out I made a good guess. Nine islands exactly. I put the deck in my box and run upstairs, this time for good.

Now, your caught up. I go in, register my deck, go sit down with the people at this big tourney that I actually know, one which is Robyn Palmar(A very good player), who tells me he, like a # of people that day, has deceided to go with Godzilla. Godzilla was the "big deck" at the time, and basically consisted of throwing large fat creatures in your graveyard and then recurring them somehow.

Well, im feeling good about myself, starting 1-0. I go back to my table of friends and we all exchange our outcomes and good/bad plays. No one at my table had actually asked me what I was playing yet, which was strange. They all just asked me, "How'd ya do Jay?", and Id reply "I won, 1-0. You?".

"Pairings are up for Rd.2. Please DO NOT start to play until the judge has said so".
Im up against a guy, that through talking to before the match started, seems to be a fairly new player to the game of Magic, newer then me at least. Turns out I was right, but that didnt mean he was playing a "newer to Magic deck" though. Hes playing 5c bouncy boucny, flagpole, whatever you want to call it. Birds, tradewinds, walls, some beat you through creatures and counters. Game 1 I decide to screw trying to stop his lock setup and just go for mine. I get the pendrell mists out and he starts paying the upkeep as if it was cumulitive. A judge walks by as he is sorting his mana out and doesn't even notice. After two turns I tell him to read the card AGAIN, closer this time. After he reads it and a puzzeled look comes across his face. I enlighten him to the fact that he has no cumulitive upkeep to pay and he in fact does not have to lose his birds. A few turns pass and I get a few diamonds out as well as a propaganda which isnt really serving a purpose. I draw my second counter and decide its time to go for it. I tap 5 mana and cast my Natures Revolt. The guy asks me what it is and after he reads it I say "ok"?. I already have the two islands tapped to counter his counter, but he says "sure, we all have more creatures, fine with me, more bait for my tradewind". I look at him, give a mundane smile and say "sure thing", and say its his go. Now, the intresting part happens. He goes into his upkeep like normal and taps his mana, as to pay the upkeep for his creatures. I say "your lands and creatures are dead". He looks at me as if I just tried to sell a priest some really bad crack. "What??. My creatures aren't dead, LOOK, im paying the upkeed for them now". I look at him with a tinge of pity, as I know now he has NO IDEA what he just let through. "All your lands are creatures now, right?, due to the Revolt".
"Yaaaa, I see that part, but i..". "Right, so now they TOO have a upkeep of one, you see?".

His face turns to surprise then back to normal as he sees the logic in it all. "Ahhh, I see, thats easy then, ill just tap each land to pay for itself". "No, you cant, you cant use any ability of the creature until its upkeep cost has been satisfied", I say, tapping my Pendrell and lands in demonstartion. "OOOk" he says, now sporting that confused look on his face he had just shown minutes earlier. He goes to tap his birds. "No man", I say again, "You cant tap or do ANYTHING AT ALL, with your creatures until their upkeep cost is payed for". His face grows slightly red and that confused look just seems to become more confused, if thats possible. "So what your trying to tell me here is, I cant use any of my creatures, my birds, tradewind, or lands, for mana or jack until I magically pay for them, WHICH, I cant, so then your telling me that all my lands and creatures are dead???".
"Correct", I say, nodding in approvment to him. "Oh theres no way im buying that one..JUDGEEEEEEEEEE!!!". So, I sit back with that rare feeling you get when you know your right and the other person is wrong and all you have to do is wait until a higher authority says so, almost like when you were younger and your sister/brother refuses to believe you so you tell them, "go ask mom then". And they do, and sure enough, they are wrong and you, if you want, can probally gloat alittle too.

Anyways, the judge comes over and I describe the situation. I belive it was one of the Donais brothers too. After the judge tells him its a go, my opponent looks at me with a muffled face, as the judge walks away, and simply says, "nice combo". Game 2 goes exacly like Game 1 except this time he attempts to counter the revolt, but I had 3 counter spells backing me up and he just looks at me wide eyed and shakes my hand. His friend, who had joined his side mid-way through Game 2 is filled in on what had happened while I get up and make my way back to my table.

Round 3: Is the EXACT SAME THING, so I wont even go into detail. My opponent refuses to believe the ruling so he calls the judge over(same judge), sports just about the same type of facial expression as Victim #2, and packs up. By now im feeling pretty damn good.

Round 4: ....
Well, this figures. Im going to be playing a 3-0 guy now, and there is nooo way a guy will go 3-0 in this field, and not know what he and his deck are doing. And, sure enough, im right. Nick Chen, (I hope I got your name right bro..) Who even today is one of the better players in and around Ontario, was my opponent. Well, not much to say here except he knew the ruling and when I got it out 1st game, he just looked at the board a couple of times and started getting out his sideboard for #2. Well, he must have had some board against me, for a deck that looked like a zooish land kill, he had a answer for every threat I could muster while beating my down with whatever nightmare he could toss out. Game 2 and 3 were identical arse beatings and I was happy it was over, when it actually was.

Round 5: Mr. Russia.

Guess what he is playing??. Same as almost half the field. Zilla. He is playing 5c zilla, with firestorms, mana leaks, recursion, geddons, and the like. Game 1 is all about him doing some funky second turn merfolk traders, and then reanimating the verdant force he just discarded. Now, propaganda works well for tokens but, no wrath or removal means 7 a turn and a quick death. The good thing: he didnt see jack of my combo. The bad thing: MAN DID I EVER JUST TAKE A BEATING. Game 2 goes a little slower for him, and I get out a Mists and sit back awhile and just keeping pumping out diamonds that he does not seem to care about, all this while his graveyard is starting to look very, very gross. I finally draw into a revolt and with 3 counters back, im pretty sure im good to go. I cast it and he takes it and looks at it. I dont think he knew exactly what it meant for him if it got out but he tries to disenchant it all the same at eot, which I counter. On his upkeep I tell him how he sucks and he starts to argue, but the guy beside us on his side, possibly a friend, tells him I am right and he in fact DOES suck, and it seems good enough for my clearly, forign friend, and scoops up for game 3. Now, this is the most intense and NAIL BITING game I have played in awhile.

Basically, he does the trader, dump a fattie, a helkite, a force, whatever. And I counter every recursion spell he can muster. Then, he simply starts drawing, laying a land, beating me with his trader, and saying "go". "Hes saving up", I said to myself, as I found myself drawing more and more land. A few turns go by and he finally makes his move, first trying to reanimate, then animate dead, then reanimate again. On my last counter, which is a forbid I think, he gets me with his mana leak, which I can do nothing about. Im hoping hes dumb and takes the helkite, he looks at his graveyard, "hmm...", goes to take a creature, then stops. "hmmm...". Same thing, finally, he has it narrowed down between the sliver queen and the verdant force, and he does the smart thing and takes the force. "****" I say to myself, I have a propaganda out but no other contingent of the combo. I take my turn and breathe a tiny sigh of relief as I look at my newly drawn Natures Revolt. I cast it and he looks at it with a face of disgust but nods his head, he knows it wont make much differnce right now either way. He takes his turn and out comes another token. I was at 17 from the trader, he actually forgot to hit me a couple of times. 4 mana payed= 8 damage. "Yummy", I say as I take those lumps. Both of his gemstones are gone now so he is only on 6 land, but I am at 9. He waits for me to take my damage, like a hungry jackal waiting for its prey to become weakened enough to go in for a easy kill, smiles and says "go". Now, I untap and stop and start thinking on my upkeep. I have no counter magic in hand, does it matter though, he is tapped low minus one mana, so I only fear force of will which I was sure he wasnt running. "I can draw a wrath or a pendrells", I say outloud, looking at him with a face of enpending death on it. "Yes", he responds back. "Lets hope you dont see that stupid thing and I win". Ya, well, I take one more second, to make sure I only have 6 cards I can draw in now say, a 42 card deck that can help me. I take a HUGE deep breath in, and like a coward, close my eyes and draw the card up into my hand. Its in there, I stop, breathe out, reorder my hand, move it back, and open my eyes.

Hands contents:

Island
Plains
Moss Diamond
Disenchant
...
PENDRELL MISTS~~~~~~

Im sorry, I couldnt even keep a poker face. It was such a stupid move on my part too as he could have had a Force and back up in his hand, but I did the biggest sigh of relief job I have ever done, probally robbing all the players at my table of H2o in the process, and slapped the Pendrells down on the table. "Ahh ****", Commie said, (We gave him that nick name after my friend Mike had managed to sell him a Mawcor for 8 bucks at a ptq later on), "**** **** ****", he continued, as I extended my hand with the biggest smile I had ever used in Magic. I had just done the best top deck job in my short Magic career. I made my way back to my table and told all my friends about it. Robyn was 5-0 at this point.

Round 6: Why me???????

Now this is where my GREAT day took at big, very big turn for the worse. I sat down and shook hands, exchanged pleasantries, blah blah blah. After the second turn I can see my opponent is playing, White Weenie, (Ah..memories...). I go into my third turn and drop a Sky diamond and say "go". He looks at the play and shakes his head in acknowlegdment, then stops... DEAD. He sits there looking at my board for, what seemed like a eternity, then just, out of nowhere, screams "JUDGE". Christ, he yelled it so loud, and it came out of nowhere, I litreally jumped out of my seat. A judge came around, and my opponent reached over, picked up one of my lands, and showed him. I hadn't the slightest clue what was going on here, "would somoene tell me whats going on!!", I thought to myself. The judge shook his head in aggreance, and dropped the land in front of me, as to show me. There, lying in front of me was one of my islands. I looked back up at him, the man being a fair bit bigger, and slightly bit taller then me, slightly portly I remembered, but when your siting down, and looking up, with the feeling like you just commited a murder and were now exposed, as now almost the whole tournies competitors had turned their attention to the situation, anyone 5'9 or over can seem like a giant. I looked up at him with a puzzeled face, and he looked back at me, fairly sympathetic as he could obviously tell I had NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO idea what was going on. "Your getting a match loss", he said to me, and my eyes grew to the size of dinner plates in disbelief. "You have a snow-covered Island in your deck, which is not type2, thus illegal, its only a match loss, not a dq", he finished, giving a sigh as he summed it all up. I looked back down at the island and saw it had what looked like the picture of Easter Island on it. But, true enough, the text at the top read: "snow covered island", ala: Ice Age.

I looked over at my opponent, who had now all but cleaned up his deck and was standing up. "Sorry about that man, its the rules, hey, if I didnt notice it, and you continued, someone would have". And with that, up he left and I was left sitting there, feeling like just about the BIGGEST *** IN THE WORLD, and having gained a match loss for my trouble.

Well, to make a already too long story shorter, I won my next rd. Ending the day at 5-2, barely missing the cut. I had 3 1/2 opponents call judge on me, and many more give me some, before this, unheard credit for a deck I played. Ah well, I didnt do too bad right?. I was still fairly new to competitve Magic, and
after going 5-2 I actually got to sit at the "better players table", half which consisted of players that made it, the other half with the ones that just didnt.

Things of note: It wasnt a total loss that day. Robyn had silently went 7-0 and was in the top 8, which was now draft(I dont remember what sets). So I stayed around for awhile and did some trading....

Turns out I didnt have to feel that bad. A well known player in this area, John Hong, ended up getting a match loss as well for having a snow-covered Forest in his deck. And my friend Robyn ended up winning the Whole DAMN TOURNEY... good job Robyn.

Oh, and that judge that informed me on my big mistake, ya, that turned out to be Gary Wise...

Thanks for reading, if you made it this far your a real trooper.

Jay

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irsih31
Pygmy's build character

Nice article...the part about the snow-covered Island sucked though.

Well, better luck next time (5-2 isn't all that bad either)!

Youri.

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I really can't see why anyone would ever do that... unless they had such a lack of confidence in their deck. Quite sad, really.

I feel like I'm someone defending you right now, 'cause if you could hear what I'm saying, you'd laugh.

You get a loss for having a snow-covered island? [censored] x20.

Jay

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irsih31
Pygmy's build character

what can i say though? rules are rules

But then again, you'd do the same..

but so would I >=)

a win is a win!