Hi everybody!Disclaimer: In this article I use Flores vocabulary.
Before I get into the nitty gritty of the actual tournament, I think it's in order that I get you into my thinking process.
Mike's Thinking Process: I am here to do one or more of three things:
1- Win the damn tourney.
2- Make Top 8 for a prize and a nacky pin.
3- Raise my dismal 1523 constructed rating up to 1600 or over again.
To steal a phrase from Squirrel Prison inmate Theron Martin, the most accurate way to describe Extended right now is as "Metagame Madness". It is that exactly.
I've been preparing for this tournament off and on for about a month and a half. Originally, my plan was to play Three-Deuce, as the environment was primarily Donate/Junk, Walamies was there and faded fast, and Miracle Gro had as yet not burst onto the scene.
Suddenly, Doante died. Boo hoo f'ing hoo. The Rock was "the deck to beat", and Miracle Gro was noticed as well. It seemed like Three Deuce was in trouble, and in the time I had I wasn't able to scrounge up all the materia I needed to build the deck.
Then, Donate was resurrected, and Gro became a force to be reckoned with. Subsequently, Gro became so popular that Donate died a second time. Zombie and Reanimator strategies were popular, and life was good in Extended. The wildly shifting metagame gave rise to a thought that led me to a great tournament:
"Consistency is the way to win."
Junk is quite simply the most consistent deck out there right now, moreso than Gro variants is for certain. So, with a few weeks to build, I set out to make a Junk deck to wreck the local field.
There was a snag to keep me from netdecking totally (which I'm no fan of anyway). This was that come the day of the tournament, I was 1 Tithe and 4 Calls of the Herd short of your run of the mill Junk deck.
Junk with no calls? He's mad!
Apparently not. Without further ado, the deck I entitle "Miser Junk" for 2 reasons, that I decided to save my money instead of buying a playset of CotHs at exorbitant prices, and secondly, because in playtesting the deck and I mised on to consistent victory.
Miser Junk
PTQ Osaka (Montreal)
Mike Skolnik
Land
4 Scrubland
4 Savannah
4 Bayou
4 Treetop Village
3 Wasteland
2 Caves of Koilos
Men
3 Spiritmongers
4 Spectral Lynx
4 River Boa
Other
4 Duress
4 Vindicate
4 Gerrard's Verdict
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Pernicious Deed
3 Tithe
Tech (or, the cards I used to fill the 5 slots for the above mentioned missing cards)
3 Planar Void
2 Contagion
Sideboard
1 Wasteland
2 Diabolic Edict
1 Planar Void
2 Contagion
1 Absolute Law
1 Circle of Protection: Red
2 Wax/Wane
1 Aegis of Honor
2 Choke
2 Powder Keg
Why my tech?
Planar Void is the most potent graveyard strategy killer since Tormod's Crypt, if not even better than that. Thus - threshold decks (Enforcer Junk, Threshold Geddon, Gro) lose out, and those newfangled Zombie decks take a beating too. Oh yeah, so does Oath, ideally, until they hit the proper removal. The stall on Oath is hopefully enough to propel Junk to victory in this matchup.
Contagion is a card that is potent removal. Sure, Junk is crammed with it, but River Boas and regenerators abound, and sometimes Swords aren't enough. Contagion was an all star killing off Boas, Lynxes, Ashen Ghouls, etc.
So that's that.
Fast forward to Today, tourney day. 60 Players, 6 Swiss Rounds.
Myself and my team, Team West Islandwalk (representing the only West Island of Montreal Area players in such events) all arrive on time for registration, swap all the last minute cards we need and register our decks. Justin (MOTL's Notherin) Is playing some Zombie variant, I think it's Zombie-Go. Andrew is playing a B/G Secret Force deck, and Sameer had morphed his Super Gro deck into a Threshold-Bearscape-Gro deck with no Dryads. (this sounds contradictory, just like Molimo-Geddon. Contradictory decks lose. His was no exception.)
The first round pairings go up 45 minutes late, because our local TO, Mauro Bongiovanni, can't seem to ever start anything on time. Andrew and Sameer are paired, and Justin is left off of the list, A new set of pairings go up after Justin finishes talking with the TO and all the administrative hiccups are fixed.
This brings us to ROUND 1.
Round 1 - VS. Normand Perreault w/Tradewind Stasis
Game 1: He wins the roll, and I mulligan a 1-land hand. I get a Tithe off, and my Verdict is Forced. Holy Card Disadvantage, Batman! I drop a Planar Void. With his mana at 1 Plains and an Island, I go for a Vindicate on the Island, which is Forced as well. Eventually, I get out 2 Boas and a Lynx to his Threshed up Mystic Penitent and Tradewind. The Twind gets to go farming (via STP) and I get a win.
Game 2: I side in Chokes and Edicts. He begins, and drops a turn 1 Penitent. I Duress revealing land, another Penitent, 2 Stasis and a Twind. I suddenly understand what he's looking for and chuck the Stasis. He eventually had to pitch that other Stasis to Force. I drop a Boa, and as Threshold isn't on for him, there's a standoff on the table. He plays a Teferi's Moat, freezing my Boa on the spot. He had tapped out, so I chanced a Deed, which got through. He Fact or Fictioned, and picked up the pile with Arcane Denial and Force. Two turns later, I drop a seventh land on my turn and play a Spiritmuncher. On the end of my turn he Facts again pulling the following 5 cards off his library: Arcane Denial, Stasis, Force of Will, Plains, Wrath of God. I split Wrath/Plains in one, and he makes the big mistake of taking the Stasis pile. He plays Stasis, I deed for 2, and a colorcycled Monger lays down savage tings for the win.
Round 1: 1-0-0, 2-0-0
Justin, sitting next to me, drew against a monoblue stall engine. Andrew beat Seismic Assault Jank and Sameer did god-knows-what.
Round 2 vs Matt DuBrey - Mirror match w/Mystic Enforcer instead of Spiritmiser.
We're sitting at the top table. Naturally we're deck checked and clean.
Game one: We both mulligan, I open Duressing out a Vindicate, then, I mise two more Duresses, yanking Tithe and STP. Verdict eliminates his hand, and a Boa goes unopposed for 7 turns, is joined by a Spiritmuncher and I win.
My opponent comments: "There's not much I can do against the hyper-aggro-discard hand"
Game two: I side in Contagions and Edicts, but this resolves the same as I him, where I'm beaten down by 2 Lynxes I don't draw an answer to.
Game three: This was a fight. Our weenies were chipping away, and standing off intermittently and then he dropped a Threshed Enforcer, which I could not deal with quickly enough. (Plow is the only answer, Edict wouldn't cut it.)
Round 2: 1-1-0, 3-2-0
Round 3 VS Luc Boudreau w/Wild Zombies
Game 1: I drop a turn 1 Planar Void. He drops a turn 2 Hermit Druid and am I ever smiling, he hardcasts some creatures which I clear out with a Deed and then I smack him around.
Game 2: I side in Void #4. No Void, No Deed, not enough Plow power. He wins with 3 cards in his library, and an army of Ashen Ghouls.
Game 3: I drop a turn 2 Void, he Vampiric Tutors into an Emerald Charm and nerfs it. I lay a land, he drops Mongrel. Vindicated. He drops another, Vindicate nerfs that one too. A Boa and Treetop swing in for the win.
Round 3: 2-1-0, 5-3-0
My opponent was shocked at the 3 maindeck Voids, and with good reason. Void garnered me some praise from nearby players as a tech choice.
Round 4 vs Sebastien Rioux, mirror
Game one: I drop a Lynx and Treetop Village after stripping his hand, and serve with those with no resistance. As a side note, I played an early Planar Void, and discarded 2 more over the game. He called on a judge to check my listing for 4 maindeck Voids. I told the judge I maindecked 3, he checked my list, I was clean, and my opponent was surprised as all hell that I legally turned his CotHs into 3/3 for 3 Deedbait.
Game 2: Repeat game one with less discard.
Round 4: 3-1-0, 7-3-0
This brings me to the low part of the tournament.
Me and Andrew are both 3-1 at this point and crunching the numbers. We figure it's ideal if we meet in round 6 at 4-1 and draw into the top 8, but, Mauro's computer pairing system kicks our team and pairs us.
Round 5 vs. Andrew McWhaw w/ B/G Force
We discuss drawing, and I push to play at this stage. We're about to get underway, when suddenly...
DECK CHECK!
Ten minutes into the deck check we go to the judge's station because it really shouldn't take this long. Andrew gets an unofficial warning for insufficient randomization before we even start from TO and Level 2 Judge Mauro. We go back to sit down and wait for them to finish with our decks. Andrew is called back to the Judge's station with me waiting. He comes back red in the face, slams his deck on the table and relates to me in profanity laden sentences that he got a game loss for a "marked sleeve in the sideboard". I found that to be a garbage call. We finally start playing, Andrew still simmering.
Game 1: Game loss to Andrew.
Game 2: I am quickly overwhelmed by 1/1 for 1 dorks (5 of them) to my 1 River Boa, but Andrew has out only one Forest. Deed for one by me, then Vindicate his Forest and next one, serving with the men.
Round 5: 4-1-0, 9-3-0
I am the only one with a shot at top 8, so the team goes into strategizing mode about what pairing situations to try for a draw under. The pairings come up and...
Round 6 VS. Louis Boileau (the 2nd highest ranked player in Canada to my knowledge) playing "La Cabane a Fife" Oath
He's 4-1 and in 6th, me in 7th, I have great tiebreaks, we ID.
Round 6: 4-1-1, 9-3-3
I finish in 7th place.
The top 8 has me playing a mirror, with my opponent from Round 2.
Game one: He hits threshold and drops an Enforcer I can't handle.
Game two: I fight back from behind with Contagion and Edict, winning with a Spiritmiser.
Game three: I elect to take a one land hand rife with 2 Lynxes, 2 Plows, a Planar Void and a Vindicate. My Scrubland is Wasted, I pull a Treetop four turns later, and my top 8 run ends with me going out without even a whimper.
Round 7: 4-2-1, 9-5-3
The end. I scored a half box of Apocalypse and a nacky pin.
The winner of this shindig, whose name escapes me at the moment, played Goblin Sligh.
I don't think there were all that many changes I'd make to the deck, although the addition of SB Reprisals may have been feasible, ditto Last Breath. Also, my opponent in Round 2 and the Quarters showed Skyshroud War Beast to be savage tech as well (it was also 'Cate bait).
This was my first Top 8 finish at a premium tournament, and my best finish ever. A good time was had by all, except Andrew who was really boned by the judges and Mauro's pairing program. That was made up for by Andrew scoring the Amateur prize as he still finished 11th.
Props to:
Matt DuBrey, for beating me in TWO teched out mirror matches.
Louis Boileau, for the ID.
Luc Boudreau, for being a good sport with my Planar Void tech. At least you didn't lose to someone who scrubbed out.
The Team, for lending me all the cards I needed.
Slops to:
Mauro Bongiovanni, for not being able to start the damn thing on time.
Mauro Bongiovanni, for issuing garbage warnings and game losses.
Sameer, for building a deck as logical as Molimo-Geddon.
For any questions or discussion on this, I can be reached through the email icon above.
~Peace
~Mike "Atreides" Skolnik
[Edited 1 times, lastly by Atreides on January 20, 2002]
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posted January 19, 2002 08:25 PM
LOL