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San Diego is in the country, so of course you have to work
hard to qualify. It's an easy trip.
I went to Austin late Thursday night after the type 2
tournament. We arrived around 330 am Friday morning, went to IHOP and stuff.
Friday was a hang out day, and I got to see all my friends who sold out and
went to UT.
Saturday morning was the most beautiful day ever. It had
snowed overnight, and now the sun was out. Driving around the snow was melting
off the hood of my car and flying up into my windshield. It was really cool.
When we got to the tournament, it looked like the snow had
kept some of the other out of towners from showing up. There was only 61 people
there, and the quality of competition was slightly lacking. I know for a fact
some of my friends got in an accident just south of Austin on their way and
missed the tournament, how unfortunate.
The deck I opened was pretty poor I think, I didn't pay too
much attention because I was hoping I wouldn't get it back. Luckily, i got a
ridiculous deck passed to me. Here is what I played:
Island x6
Plains x6
Swamp
Vault of Whispers
Arrest
Blinding Beam
Raise the Alarm
Neurok Spy
Thirst for Knowledge
Terror
Aether Spellbomb
Clockwork Condor
Crystal Shard
Frogmite
Gold Myr
Isochron Scepter
Leaden Myr
Soldier Replica
Wizard Replica
Pteron Ghost x2
Test of Faith
Quicksilver Behemoth
Vedalken Engineer
Echoing Decay
Arcbound Stinger
Razor Golem
Specter’s Shroud
Spire Golem
Vulshok Morningstar
Notable sideboard cards included Goblin Dirigible, Yotian
Soldier, and Goblin Replica. If I could do it again, I wouldn't play the
engineer and would add in Scavenging Scarab and some more black mana. However,
I was really happy. This is the kind of deck I like to play: cheap creatures
and blinding beams. The rinky dink strategy. The nickel and dime strategy. The
stealing blinds strategy.
Round 1 - Mike Lynch
He is playing black green and he mentions having 18 lands.
18 lands?!?! Thats 4 more than I am playing. Mirrodin is all about the really
low land counts and it shows. both games I stop at 4 lands and deal with hes
few threats then win. One game involves scepter-raise the alarm. Not much to
say, my deck was a lot better.
1-0 2-0
Round 2 - David Cerda
David is playing green something, I don't remember. I do
remember that he is one of two opponents to ever play artifact removal against
me, creeping molding my crystal shard in the first 2 games which we split. Game
3 he stalls on lands and my 1/1's get in some beats. Eventually he gets out
empyrial plate and equips, but i have the blinding beam for just enough.
2-0 4-1
Round 3 - Steven Livingston
Steven is a good player and he beat me last time I was in
Austin. This was going to be tough. Mulliganing to 5 didn't help either. I get
some early beats, and my Pteron Ghosts are getting through unblocked. One of
them stays back to block a turn, and then has a test of faith, and then is much
bigger allowing me to win the race. 5 card hand wins. Game 2 we trade early
dudes, then i make a mistake and attack after arresting his bonesplitter elf
replica. I forgot he could move the bonesplitter to his myr and attack, so I
take 2 more than i should have. This turns out to be crucial as right when I
thirst into total gas, he draws the last land he needs to fireball me. Game 3 I
once again start the beatdown, and he has to fireball to stabilize. Eventually
I run out of gas, but my Spire Golem is holding his team off. We sit for a few
turns when he maybe should of been attacking with dirigible, maybe not, but
time is called and he is 1 point short of killing me and decides to play i! t
safe and stay back in case i have something. All I have is lands, so it is a
draw.
2-0-1 5-2-1
Round 4 - Paul M Hagan
Game 1 he is land screwed, so my cheap beat sticks do 20
really quick. Game 2 he mulligans to 4. And he lost. Coincidence?
3-0-1 7-2-1
Round 5 - Damien W Mayfield
Game 1 I keep a 5 land, myr, crystal shard hand. I draw 3
more land and only 1 more creature, and I can't keep up. Game 2 my deck plays
like it does, and doesn't meet too much resistance. Game 3 I play some early
fliers, and he has turn 3 Warhammer. If you know me, you know I love to race
Warhammer, and without any artifact removal, it looked like i would have to. I
put spectral Shroud on a flier and he discards land. Then he plays Wand of the
Elements. Ok, this might be tricky. Luckily, I have crystal shard, and after he
discards another land, i play some more guys for more pressure. He plays Myr
Enforcer, which i bounce on my turn with Aether Spellbomb, then attack with the
team. Then he plays Spikeshot, and it looks like he might gain control.
Unfortunately for him, he has to go to my dome because i can bounce any of my
guys with crystal shard if he tries to get them. Anyway it turns out he taps
out somewhere, i have raise the alarm, he kills my condor with spikeshot, i attack him down to 3 after sharding his blockers, then cast the 2nd ability only
of blinding beam to keep the spikeshot down. He can only play 2 blockers, and i
have 5 dudes, so i get just enough and notch another win vs. the big dumb
elephant.
4-0-1 9-3-1
Round 6 - Alex Duran ID
We draw because there is no reason to play really with
random top 8 seating, and I am exhausted after racing warhammer.
4-0-2
Basically my top 8 draft boiled down to my first pick. The
relevant cards were Bosh, Iron Golem, Viridian Shaman, and Myr Enforcer. The
guy to my right seemed kinda random, so I didn't want to take the Shaman in
case he went green. Bosh is terrible if you are like me and play 14 lands as
much as possible. So I took myr enforcer hoping to put Jeff Meyerson to my left
in green and then draft affinity. But somehow he doesn't take the shaman, and
instead takes bosh, and we end up in the exact same colors. Looking over the
deck lists, it seems that whoever got the shaman didn't play it. And i got a
lot of late green picks, meaning i probably screwed this one up. Oh well. I
think Jason Krysak had a good point though. How can you take Bosh, and pass
Altar of Shadows?
Deck lists are here
http://www.ehevents.com/eh2003/articles/article_00034.asp
My deck isn't really as bad as it says, i think my registration
sheet may have been hard to read because i kept messing up.
Island x5 *
Swamp x4 *
Mountain x2 *
Tree of Tales
Vault of Whispers
Mirrodin’s Core
Neurok Spy x2
Thoughtcast x2
Moriok Scavenger
Woebearer
Electrostatic Bolt
Frogmite
Goblin Replica
Iron Myr x2
Lifespark Spellbomb
Mask of Memory
Myr Enforcer
Sunbeam Spellbomb
Vulshok Gauntlets
Wizard Replica
Psychic Overload
Nim Abomination
Scavenging Scarab
Echoing Ruin
Arcbound Bruiser
Arcbound Stinger x2
Genesis Chamber
This is what i really played, and I never drew my 3rd pick
mask of memory, and well, my opponents deck was a lot better. Because the guy
to his right had never seen the set before. Both sets. So his deck is pretty
yummy, and mine is one step away from being completely weak.
Anyway, I lost in 2 quick games, despite how slow I was
playing to make it last. But I had a good time, and learned a lot.
Maybe next time I can make the final push in the top 8, and
not have to play mirrodin sealed again.
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