For the second time in so many months the call of Magic brought us back down to Philadelphia for another 5K tournament. Oddly enough, prior to this past summer, I had never been to Philadelphia at all. Now I've been there three times since July, granted two of those times have been for Magic, and I didn't get to explore the city a whole lot other than to be awed by its ghetto superstarness...but moving on.
This time only Conta, Matt, and I made the trip, getting on the Megabus at 6:50am after a scant two or three hours of sleep, having been at a party for Matt's girlfriend the night before. Conta slept all the way down, while Matt and I debated Magic strategy, theory, and history for about two hours. We got into Philly at 8:30, which was about half an hour before the Convention Center even opened and so had roughly an hour and a half to do deck registration (which is when players write down their deck lists so they can't cheat), get cards signed by artists, and make some purchases.
We also got to socialize with some familiar faces like Joe Shi, Lauren, James, Deon, Kevin, and Izzy (who's actually our newest team member) all from Jim Hanley's, as well as Will, a guy from Upstate New York who we've become friends with after having seen him at the last three tournaments (the Philly Open in Edison, States, and now this 5K). Who says Magic isn't good for making friends?
We were all rocking pretty much the same decks we've been playing with. To recap, that would be Boros for Conta, a fast-paced aggro deck that can consistently win the game in four or five turns. Matt was playing his USA Control deck, an ever-evolving project that got him some decent standings at the previous two tournaments. Izzy and I were both playing Jund, the dominant deck in the format, and basically a mid-range house that has so much card advantage it's almost impossible to stop once it gets going. Izzy was playing the ramp version, which uses mana acceleration spells to put out larger, late-game threats faster. I played this version of the deck at States and had a solid 0-5 record with it (0-8 actually, if you include my loses at Hanley's prior to States), so I decided to go back to the more aggressive version of the deck which features my homeboy Putrid Leech, a Turn 2 beater who can be pumped into a 4/4 for the mere cost of 2 life points. Really, the dude's a baller.
Though this tournament wasn't nearly as bad for me as States was, it wasn't all that exciting either, so I won't go into the gory detail of all nine rounds of play. Suffice it to say I ended with a winning record of 5-4, which made me feel better about playing the deck in the future (really I just think I need a better sideboard and a little more luck). Izzy went 4-3 but had to drop in order to catch a train back to New York. Matt had the roughest time of all of us with a 1-3-2 record.
Conta had an explosive 6-0 start, and was sitting at the top tables pretty much all day (Note: players are seated by table numbers, and when a player is doing well he/she is generally seated in the top 16 slots). Unfortunately he lost the next two rounds, making him 6-2 and unable to contend for the Top 8. As such, he scooped (forfeited) to his final round opponent, who had a chance to make Top 8 if he won that last round. This player ended up only making it to 10th, a $100 prize, which he gave to Conta as consolation for attempting to get him into the Top 8. Naturally that money was used to buy two Baneslayer Angels...Go Team!
Our friend Kevin offered to give us a ride back to the city, but he wanted to watch the Top 8 play out, so we stuck around and rooted for another friend (another Anthony actually) who was playing Mono White Control, and ended up losing to the eventual champ in the semi-finals.
The finals was between a Jund player and a Bant player, who split the prize money and played for the trophy (as is traditionally done since 1st place at a 5K gets $2,000 while 2nd only gets $600). The Jund player, who was playing the ramp version, won the last game after mulliganing to 5 cards in his opening hand, only 1 of which was a land (most cards in this deck cost between three and six lands to play). He ended up playing about six removal spells and a ton of creatures, killing all of the Bant player's threats and swinging home for victory. It was a combination of card-advantage and luck that I've only ever seen a Jund deck able to achieve in Magic, which is why the deck is awesome, and playing it is often compared to legally cheating.
We got back to New York at around 1am, after nearly crashing when the car hit an ice-patch on an off-ramp, and we went swerving wildly for a few seconds. Thankfully Kevin is a good driver, so it ended up being a non-issue.
In the coming weeks there are a couple more tournaments, but I'm not sure which ones the team is going to go to given that it's the holiday season. But keep checked back here; I'm sure there will be more adventures coming soon.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Friday, December 18, 2009
The Philly Open in Edison, Conta's Report
So, Edison…what can I say about New Jersey that isn’t hateful or stereotypical? Um…well…right.
So, Team D.O.T.S. had finally assembled for the next trip-we were gonna play for a foil playset of either the Standard fetches, Baneslayer Angel, Elspeth, or Lotus Cobra; all pretty sweet and shiny, so we were excited. Derek, Josh, Matt, Kball and myself along with a few others from Hanleys all headed out and played some Magic. Did I Top 8…? Well, let’s just say I went home with some shiny cards. For the record, I was running Boros Bushwhacker, a red/white deck that plans on playing creatures for the first few turns in the game to deal little bits of damage, then end the game with some burn spells to the face to deal the rest of the damage.
So, round 1 I played against Vampires. I hate Vampires, and I really don’t know why-they seem like a decent deck. Maybe it’s because I’m an aggro deck and I really don’t like when my opponents gain life (read: Tendrils of Corruption). Anyway, he won game one off of two Nocturnuses and straight out killed me. I beat him game two (I think he was mana screwed) and in game three he kept a hand of no creatures and a turn two sign in blood against my aggro deck. Smart keep.
Round 2 I was against a really cool kid and deck-he called his deck Indiana Jones! It was blue/white turbo fog…without the fog. I know. He was probably thinking, let’s give an aggressive deck a lot of cards so he can beat me to death faster. Low and behold, that’s what happened. Props to the idea though, he was running a trap package and tried to play trapmaker’s snare to find the traps he needed in the situation.
Round 3, I played against Unearth combo, a deck that plans on putting cards in the graveyard then bringing them all back at a cheaper cost. I beat him game one a turn or two before he could kill me, but game 2 he got triple Hedron Crab and I lost after he generated something like 36 mana on turn 7. Game three, I almost lost-he unearthed three Extractor Demons THEN unearthed three Rotting Rats. In response, I Celestial Purged a demon and went to 1 life from the alpha strike. Had he unearthed the rats first, which he should have, I wouldn’t have been able to purge a demon and he would have won.
Round 4 I played against a guy I had seen around from time to time, Tom. He was playing Jund, a.k.a. the enemy, and he got mana screwed in games 1 and 2. He would have wiped my board with a Jund Charm game 2 if he did it on his turn, but he waited until I attacked him and I played Harm’s Way for the win.
Round 5 was the most intense round of the day. I played against Marcin, a kid who was also 4-0 and in his first big tournament ever. I wished him good luck and we started to play. I don’t recall who won games one and two, but I remember him playing a Brave the Elements in one game to swing by my team and win. Game three, I had to beat him with an Elspeth and flying Steppe Lynx in order to deal enough-he had 3-4 creatures able to swing in and kill me, but I had just enough blockers to end at 1 life and I beat him the turn before he could swing back for lethal. Had he drawn Brave the Elements or removal, I would have lost. All really close games and a really nice kid, so it was some really good Magic.
But, it wasn’t as good as round 6. As much as I love playing with nice people and winning really close games, there’s nothing like shit stomping an asshole. So, we shuffle up and play and I win the die roll, electing to go first. My opponent turns out to be playing Jacerator, a blue white turbo fog deck kinda like the one I played against round 2, but better because of the fog aspect (fog is essentially a spell that says creatures deal no combat damage this turn-since my deck is all about attacking, I hate seeing this card. In addition, turbo fog decks run around 8-12 copies of this card traditionally and try to “mill you out,” going for the way of killing an opponent by making them draw out their entire deck of cards. As an excruciatingly long and obnoxious way of winning, it’s no wonder why these types of strategies are usually frowned upon as far as a code of honor is concerned.)
But that’s not what I disliked about this kid. He played Howling Mine on turn two and passed the turn. I drew one card for the turn, and then proceeded to play a land. He IMMEDIATELY called a judge over and said I broke a rule. I forgot to draw another card from Howling Mine, and it’s true that I technically broke the rules. However, it’s kind of like jaywalking-people do it all the time and it’s not really a rule that matters. Not drawing an extra card from Howling Mine and effects like it is a common mistake all types of players make, whether they are new to the game or pros. Worst comes to worst, he just reminds me to draw another card from the effect that he freakin controls and we resume play like nothing happened. Because, NOTHING HAPPENED.
Actually, since he noticed it and DIDN’T say anything, he technically broke the rules too, but instead of being a nice guy about it, he decided to be a dick. The judge gave me a warning, I drew my extra card, and shifted into my “you’re a worse person than I am and I’m going to show you how much better than I am” mode that I slip into when players act like a dick to me. Sadly, I lost game one. So we sideboard and I chat him up a little bit, and he says to me, “yea, I copied this deck from the Worlds list, and it has Baneslayer Angel in the side, and I don’t know why-seems pointless.” I didn’t believe him, cause, well, he’s a dick, and I expected to see the card…
In game two, I nuts aggroed him out and stomped his face in. And then we went to game three. Ah, game three-what a game. This is in the top five most satisfying games for me ever.
So, it’s game three, and we’re playing our cards. I’m attacking him, he’s fogging me-fun times. He eventually taps out to play a fog or wrath effect (for you non-players, a “wrath effect” means he destroyed every creature on the board) and I smile because of what’s in my hand. You see, I knew that his deck couldn’t answer one card if I drew it and played it when he couldn’t counter it, and that one card just happened to be in my hands. That card’s name is Manabarbs. Kball was watching the match at this point, and when I tapped out to play it, he literally got up from his chair and in the middle of the damn board, threw his hand up in the air for a high-five. I neglected to give him the high-five, mainly because it would be bad sportsmanship, but mentally, I high-fived the SHIT out of his hand.
So, for you non-players, Manabarbs essentially says whenever you tap a land, you take a point of damage. Doesn’t sound like much, right? Well, my opponent’s type of deck was the type that used up a LOT of mana, which meant tapping a lot of lands, which meant…damage. By the Megaton. So, my opponent, trying to maintain some sort of calmness, tapped out to play Time Warp (five extra damage, booyah) and take an extra turn to tap out (five more damage!) and play, you guessed it, Baneslayer Angel. And here he specifically told me it wasn’t in the deck…what a lying sack of crap. Anyway, since I was drawing so many cards, I threw two burn spells at the Angel and attacked him for lethal. Since he was tapped out, he couldn’t fog, and that was that.
So, at this point in the tourney I was 6-freakin-0. That essentially meant that A) I was locked into the top 8 and B) I could finally eat dinner. So, Derek and I went to grab food (he dropped from the tournament earlier on) while the final two rounds went on. We came back, and I sat down for my top 8 pairing.
Turns out I was playing against Russell, a kid in his first top 8. He was enthralled to be there, that was for certain. Sadly, he was my opponent, and I had to at least try to beat him. Also sadly, he was running the enemy-Jund. I don’t recall what happened in games one and two, but they were close and it went to the third game. I ended up playing two Kor Skyfishers by turn four just for him to Maelstrom Pulse them both. After that, I almost had him, as he was mana screwed. There was a point I could have Celestial Purged his Putrid Leech and hit him with a Steppe Lynx for four, but I didn’t, since I was afraid of Sprouting Thranix. That decision cost me the game, as he ended up at four life when he finally beat me.
So, I didn’t make it to the top 4 sadly, but at least I hit top 8 and prize. Russell went on to lose his top 4 match, and in a field of Jund, Eldrazi was the winner. Good times, good times. I ended up getting a foil playset of Arid Mesas for my deck, and we all went home, exhausted. Overall, not too bad of a day for Magic.
An interesting side note on the Eldrazi player-so, rumor has it that he went to another tournament the next day with 46 people in it and didn’t even top 16-strange, isn’t it? I wonder how good he is…sometimes bad luck just happens, though I had heard from the grapevine (some forum that discussed the whole Edison tournament) that he was a horrible player. Essentially, some sore loser felt the need to shit talk everyone in the top 8 who wasn’t his friend (including me and the Eldrazi player). Turns out, some people just can’t handle losing. But here’s the thing-you don’t make a top 8 with 170+ if you’re a really bad player; no one is that lucky.
So that’s the end of my reports for now. As I keep on winning, I’ll be sure to report some more. For now, here’s to shutting up whiners and haters with the utmost prejudice and where it matters most-the Battlefield. I’ll see all y’all haters at the next 5K-believe it. Oh, and I’ll be rocking my foils.
by Anthony "Corta" Conta
Upcoming: The TCG 5K Report
Check us out at: http://sites.google.com/site/teamdamageonthestack
So, Team D.O.T.S. had finally assembled for the next trip-we were gonna play for a foil playset of either the Standard fetches, Baneslayer Angel, Elspeth, or Lotus Cobra; all pretty sweet and shiny, so we were excited. Derek, Josh, Matt, Kball and myself along with a few others from Hanleys all headed out and played some Magic. Did I Top 8…? Well, let’s just say I went home with some shiny cards. For the record, I was running Boros Bushwhacker, a red/white deck that plans on playing creatures for the first few turns in the game to deal little bits of damage, then end the game with some burn spells to the face to deal the rest of the damage.
So, round 1 I played against Vampires. I hate Vampires, and I really don’t know why-they seem like a decent deck. Maybe it’s because I’m an aggro deck and I really don’t like when my opponents gain life (read: Tendrils of Corruption). Anyway, he won game one off of two Nocturnuses and straight out killed me. I beat him game two (I think he was mana screwed) and in game three he kept a hand of no creatures and a turn two sign in blood against my aggro deck. Smart keep.
Round 2 I was against a really cool kid and deck-he called his deck Indiana Jones! It was blue/white turbo fog…without the fog. I know. He was probably thinking, let’s give an aggressive deck a lot of cards so he can beat me to death faster. Low and behold, that’s what happened. Props to the idea though, he was running a trap package and tried to play trapmaker’s snare to find the traps he needed in the situation.
Round 3, I played against Unearth combo, a deck that plans on putting cards in the graveyard then bringing them all back at a cheaper cost. I beat him game one a turn or two before he could kill me, but game 2 he got triple Hedron Crab and I lost after he generated something like 36 mana on turn 7. Game three, I almost lost-he unearthed three Extractor Demons THEN unearthed three Rotting Rats. In response, I Celestial Purged a demon and went to 1 life from the alpha strike. Had he unearthed the rats first, which he should have, I wouldn’t have been able to purge a demon and he would have won.
Round 4 I played against a guy I had seen around from time to time, Tom. He was playing Jund, a.k.a. the enemy, and he got mana screwed in games 1 and 2. He would have wiped my board with a Jund Charm game 2 if he did it on his turn, but he waited until I attacked him and I played Harm’s Way for the win.
Round 5 was the most intense round of the day. I played against Marcin, a kid who was also 4-0 and in his first big tournament ever. I wished him good luck and we started to play. I don’t recall who won games one and two, but I remember him playing a Brave the Elements in one game to swing by my team and win. Game three, I had to beat him with an Elspeth and flying Steppe Lynx in order to deal enough-he had 3-4 creatures able to swing in and kill me, but I had just enough blockers to end at 1 life and I beat him the turn before he could swing back for lethal. Had he drawn Brave the Elements or removal, I would have lost. All really close games and a really nice kid, so it was some really good Magic.
But, it wasn’t as good as round 6. As much as I love playing with nice people and winning really close games, there’s nothing like shit stomping an asshole. So, we shuffle up and play and I win the die roll, electing to go first. My opponent turns out to be playing Jacerator, a blue white turbo fog deck kinda like the one I played against round 2, but better because of the fog aspect (fog is essentially a spell that says creatures deal no combat damage this turn-since my deck is all about attacking, I hate seeing this card. In addition, turbo fog decks run around 8-12 copies of this card traditionally and try to “mill you out,” going for the way of killing an opponent by making them draw out their entire deck of cards. As an excruciatingly long and obnoxious way of winning, it’s no wonder why these types of strategies are usually frowned upon as far as a code of honor is concerned.)
But that’s not what I disliked about this kid. He played Howling Mine on turn two and passed the turn. I drew one card for the turn, and then proceeded to play a land. He IMMEDIATELY called a judge over and said I broke a rule. I forgot to draw another card from Howling Mine, and it’s true that I technically broke the rules. However, it’s kind of like jaywalking-people do it all the time and it’s not really a rule that matters. Not drawing an extra card from Howling Mine and effects like it is a common mistake all types of players make, whether they are new to the game or pros. Worst comes to worst, he just reminds me to draw another card from the effect that he freakin controls and we resume play like nothing happened. Because, NOTHING HAPPENED.
Actually, since he noticed it and DIDN’T say anything, he technically broke the rules too, but instead of being a nice guy about it, he decided to be a dick. The judge gave me a warning, I drew my extra card, and shifted into my “you’re a worse person than I am and I’m going to show you how much better than I am” mode that I slip into when players act like a dick to me. Sadly, I lost game one. So we sideboard and I chat him up a little bit, and he says to me, “yea, I copied this deck from the Worlds list, and it has Baneslayer Angel in the side, and I don’t know why-seems pointless.” I didn’t believe him, cause, well, he’s a dick, and I expected to see the card…
In game two, I nuts aggroed him out and stomped his face in. And then we went to game three. Ah, game three-what a game. This is in the top five most satisfying games for me ever.
So, it’s game three, and we’re playing our cards. I’m attacking him, he’s fogging me-fun times. He eventually taps out to play a fog or wrath effect (for you non-players, a “wrath effect” means he destroyed every creature on the board) and I smile because of what’s in my hand. You see, I knew that his deck couldn’t answer one card if I drew it and played it when he couldn’t counter it, and that one card just happened to be in my hands. That card’s name is Manabarbs. Kball was watching the match at this point, and when I tapped out to play it, he literally got up from his chair and in the middle of the damn board, threw his hand up in the air for a high-five. I neglected to give him the high-five, mainly because it would be bad sportsmanship, but mentally, I high-fived the SHIT out of his hand.
So, for you non-players, Manabarbs essentially says whenever you tap a land, you take a point of damage. Doesn’t sound like much, right? Well, my opponent’s type of deck was the type that used up a LOT of mana, which meant tapping a lot of lands, which meant…damage. By the Megaton. So, my opponent, trying to maintain some sort of calmness, tapped out to play Time Warp (five extra damage, booyah) and take an extra turn to tap out (five more damage!) and play, you guessed it, Baneslayer Angel. And here he specifically told me it wasn’t in the deck…what a lying sack of crap. Anyway, since I was drawing so many cards, I threw two burn spells at the Angel and attacked him for lethal. Since he was tapped out, he couldn’t fog, and that was that.
So, at this point in the tourney I was 6-freakin-0. That essentially meant that A) I was locked into the top 8 and B) I could finally eat dinner. So, Derek and I went to grab food (he dropped from the tournament earlier on) while the final two rounds went on. We came back, and I sat down for my top 8 pairing.
Turns out I was playing against Russell, a kid in his first top 8. He was enthralled to be there, that was for certain. Sadly, he was my opponent, and I had to at least try to beat him. Also sadly, he was running the enemy-Jund. I don’t recall what happened in games one and two, but they were close and it went to the third game. I ended up playing two Kor Skyfishers by turn four just for him to Maelstrom Pulse them both. After that, I almost had him, as he was mana screwed. There was a point I could have Celestial Purged his Putrid Leech and hit him with a Steppe Lynx for four, but I didn’t, since I was afraid of Sprouting Thranix. That decision cost me the game, as he ended up at four life when he finally beat me.
So, I didn’t make it to the top 4 sadly, but at least I hit top 8 and prize. Russell went on to lose his top 4 match, and in a field of Jund, Eldrazi was the winner. Good times, good times. I ended up getting a foil playset of Arid Mesas for my deck, and we all went home, exhausted. Overall, not too bad of a day for Magic.
An interesting side note on the Eldrazi player-so, rumor has it that he went to another tournament the next day with 46 people in it and didn’t even top 16-strange, isn’t it? I wonder how good he is…sometimes bad luck just happens, though I had heard from the grapevine (some forum that discussed the whole Edison tournament) that he was a horrible player. Essentially, some sore loser felt the need to shit talk everyone in the top 8 who wasn’t his friend (including me and the Eldrazi player). Turns out, some people just can’t handle losing. But here’s the thing-you don’t make a top 8 with 170+ if you’re a really bad player; no one is that lucky.
So that’s the end of my reports for now. As I keep on winning, I’ll be sure to report some more. For now, here’s to shutting up whiners and haters with the utmost prejudice and where it matters most-the Battlefield. I’ll see all y’all haters at the next 5K-believe it. Oh, and I’ll be rocking my foils.
by Anthony "Corta" Conta
Upcoming: The TCG 5K Report
Check us out at: http://sites.google.com/site/teamdamageonthestack
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
The Source 5th Annual Anniversary Tournament, Part Deux
When we last left our hero (that’s me!) he was 3-1 going into round 5 of the legacy event. Round five paired me up against a fellow named Jared. Jared was a pretty nice kid and having a good time-he was 3-1 just like me and had his eyes set in the exact same place as me, the top 8. He won the die roll and ended up going first. Turns out Jared was playing a deck similar to mine-merfolk! This one was blue white though, and he landed a Sygg, River Guide which won him game one. I led off game two and raced him, so it went to game three. The decisive play in the match was two turns before I swung for lethal, Jared attacked with islandwalk (go Lord of Atlantis helping out both players!), then played a Merrow Reejerey. Had he played the lord then swung with his two creatures, he would have killed me the turn before I killed him. Sometimes, you just misplay.
At 4-1, I was feeling pretty confidant on finally hitting a piece of power. Then I played against James. I’ve met James several times before, the first being at the Chicago Grand Prix, where he put up a good record (I think similar to mine, I don’t remember). James was playing Dredge, which is essentially a game one loss for me, so we sideboarded and I saw my Dredge hate in game two, but not three. Suffice to say, I was dejected losing to an annoying combo deck and being shut out of the top 8, but James is a good player so I can’t be too sore about it.
With two rounds left, I still had a shot at good prizes (dual lands, baby!) so I tried to keep my cool for the last rounds. Round seven paired me up against Damon, a player who I also met at the GP. I won the roll and proceeded to beat with a slow merfolk draw while he did absolutely nothing. I thought he was mana screwed, but when I got him down to near lethal, he played an Orim’s Chant and combo killed me for exact via Tendrils of Agony. Yay Storm.
Side note for the non-players: “storm” decks revolve around the mechanic storm, which plays a spell then copies it for each spell played this turn. So, if you play 5 spells in a turn, then play a storm spell, that spell gets copied 5 times, so you end up with the original and 5 copies. Storm decks essentially play a bunch of spells to increase both the amount of mana in one’s mana pool and the amount of spells played in a turn so they can play a big spell with storm and get a lot of copies of it to just win.
It was at this point, on the verge of being shut out of the top 16 that I began to give up hope. Of course I kept playing, but I almost gave in to the depression of falling just so short of my dreams. After the most recent tournament I played in (where I went 0-1, then 4-1, then 5-4 losing some of the closest games of Magic I’d ever played), I needed a win in order to regain my confidence. So I cleared my mind and focused, determined to not lose to shitty playing and only to luck. I got a semi-aggressive draw again with next to no countermagic (a must when merfolk is matched against storm combo, as they can kill you turn one if you don’t have counterspells). I kept applying pressure until he was low again, and that’s when he went for the combo.
This was when I made the best play I made all day, and perhaps the least intuitive play I’ve made in Magic. So, here’s the board (or battlefield, I guess…*sigh*): He’s got one flooded strand (a.k.a. a fetchland) and an island, and I’ve got some critters, some lands, and two wastelands. He goes, “during my upkeep, I’ll play mystical tutor (which costs 1 blue mana) and search for an infernal tutor and put it on top of my library.” I knew if he got to draw that card, I’d lose, since I had no countermagic and he’d be able to search for the card he needed in his deck to combo out. He’s about to move to the draw step, and I’m scrambling to find SOMETHING I can do about it-I really can’t lose to another combo deck when I’m this close. I go through every mana denial strategy I can think of, since that’s how merfolk can beat storm decks.
It’s at this point I look at the board and realize I can win, or at least improve my chances. I stop him from drawing the top card and say “during your draw step, before you draw, I’ll sacrifice wasteland and target your fetchland.” That’s right-his fetchland. The sheer idiocy is part of the brilliance of this play. If you don’t play Magic, you can skip the next paragraph, cause this is for the true players of the game.
You see, if you target a fetchland with a wasteland, your opponent can, in response, sacrifice the fetchland and search for a new land, thus canceling out the point of using said wasteland. However, the fetching process forces the player to shuffle his/her library…and in THIS situation, shuffled away the tutor that would have won him the game. In addition, since I had ANOTHER wasteland out, he couldn’t fetch for a black source, since flooded strand only searches for plains or islands, and he needed the mana at sorcery speed for his main phase (this was during his upkeep, mind you, and mana doesn’t flow to the main phase from the upkeep). If he searched for a nonbasic, I could have wasted that too.
So, he thought about his options, sighed, and fetched for a plains and drew his card for the turn. I earned the concession, and we went to game three. I played some dudes and beat face with the appropriate countermagic backup to prevent the sure to be backbreaking Ad Nauseum he tried to play. Epic game two + refusal to give up = 1 round away from top 16.
I thought to myself, how could round 8 be better than that last round? I clawed my way out of the both mental distress and game play states that almost prevented me from winning. As it turned out, round 8 was almost just as good as round 7. So round 8 I was paired up against a really good player who I’ve played against before-Dan. Dan and I both piloted Faeries to the top 8 of States last year, and I’ve seen him around a few times before, but he’s never really remembered me. Sadface for Anthony, but that’s OK-I think he’ll remember me the next time we meet…
So, we sit down for the last round, the decisive round for top 16. I shuffle up my cards and start to contemplate whether or not I’d make top 16 if I lost, since I’m interested in prize. Dan says to me, “I don’t think about that stuff-I play Magic to crush dreams.” He cited an example he was particularly enamored with; a kid at the tournament who wanted to go 8-0 and just dominate the tournament instead of doing the statistically smart thing and draw into the top 8 (keep in mind, you have the potential to win $2000 in the top 8). So, after citing that example about crushing dreams, Dan and I play some Magic. Turns out he’s playing blue/green/white CounterTop with Natural Order combo for Progentius. I play aether vial, sneak in a Tarmogoyf unexpectedly to block an annoying creature, and BEAT face. Like, trounce. He had to pitch Progentius to Force of Will and Natural Order for a Rhox War Monk during the course of the game. Satisfying for me, I must admit, since it was one of the better draws of my day. Game two I ended up with the nuts aggro draw with some standstills and beat the crap out of Dan’s deck. Like, I felt bad afterwards…it was kinda ugly. For you players, it was like the kind of game where you beat your opponent so bad and ruthlessly as the stars align in your favor and Lady Luck sits next to you just playing for you; the type of game where the opponent just leaves without saying anything. He desideboarded and did just that.
In any case, I hope he remembers me now-I feel like he might.
So, I did it. I ended up 13th out of 180 people or something, just what I needed. Ironically, my friend Tariq was piloting the same deck and ended up 12th because of breakers-he was decimal percentage points ahead of me. Ridiculous. We both ended up with a beta Taiga (it’s like $100), and called it a day.
And what happened to the “dream crusher,” who wanted to go 8-0? Well, he did. In the top 8, everyone wanted to split so that they could each get $600 and go home, but he was the only one who didn’t. He made it all the way to the finals, but lost and instead of making $600, he had to settle for $400. Eh, greedy players are greedy-I would have split and gone to dinner, personally. The top player ended up with a Black Lotus and another piece of power, if I remember correctly, whose total worth was in the $2000 range.
So, it was a successful tournament overall. Didn’t hit top 8, but at least I made prize. With the tournament over, I was already thinking about the next one-I heard rumors of foil playsets of highly playable standard cards as the prize for top 8 players in Edison, New Jersey, and I was already dreaming of shiny Baneslayers…find out next time if I got my hands on them or not.
by Anthony "Corta" Conta
J$'s Notes: Thanks again, Conta. Just a heads up to our readers, we've got one more article from Conta upcoming about the Philly Open in Edison. Then after that I'll be throwing down some knowledge about the TCG 5K that actually took place in Philadelphia this past weekend. Hope to see y'all back here, and leave comments. We love 'em!
Check us out at: http://sites.google.com/site/teamdamageonthestack
At 4-1, I was feeling pretty confidant on finally hitting a piece of power. Then I played against James. I’ve met James several times before, the first being at the Chicago Grand Prix, where he put up a good record (I think similar to mine, I don’t remember). James was playing Dredge, which is essentially a game one loss for me, so we sideboarded and I saw my Dredge hate in game two, but not three. Suffice to say, I was dejected losing to an annoying combo deck and being shut out of the top 8, but James is a good player so I can’t be too sore about it.
With two rounds left, I still had a shot at good prizes (dual lands, baby!) so I tried to keep my cool for the last rounds. Round seven paired me up against Damon, a player who I also met at the GP. I won the roll and proceeded to beat with a slow merfolk draw while he did absolutely nothing. I thought he was mana screwed, but when I got him down to near lethal, he played an Orim’s Chant and combo killed me for exact via Tendrils of Agony. Yay Storm.
Side note for the non-players: “storm” decks revolve around the mechanic storm, which plays a spell then copies it for each spell played this turn. So, if you play 5 spells in a turn, then play a storm spell, that spell gets copied 5 times, so you end up with the original and 5 copies. Storm decks essentially play a bunch of spells to increase both the amount of mana in one’s mana pool and the amount of spells played in a turn so they can play a big spell with storm and get a lot of copies of it to just win.
It was at this point, on the verge of being shut out of the top 16 that I began to give up hope. Of course I kept playing, but I almost gave in to the depression of falling just so short of my dreams. After the most recent tournament I played in (where I went 0-1, then 4-1, then 5-4 losing some of the closest games of Magic I’d ever played), I needed a win in order to regain my confidence. So I cleared my mind and focused, determined to not lose to shitty playing and only to luck. I got a semi-aggressive draw again with next to no countermagic (a must when merfolk is matched against storm combo, as they can kill you turn one if you don’t have counterspells). I kept applying pressure until he was low again, and that’s when he went for the combo.
This was when I made the best play I made all day, and perhaps the least intuitive play I’ve made in Magic. So, here’s the board (or battlefield, I guess…*sigh*): He’s got one flooded strand (a.k.a. a fetchland) and an island, and I’ve got some critters, some lands, and two wastelands. He goes, “during my upkeep, I’ll play mystical tutor (which costs 1 blue mana) and search for an infernal tutor and put it on top of my library.” I knew if he got to draw that card, I’d lose, since I had no countermagic and he’d be able to search for the card he needed in his deck to combo out. He’s about to move to the draw step, and I’m scrambling to find SOMETHING I can do about it-I really can’t lose to another combo deck when I’m this close. I go through every mana denial strategy I can think of, since that’s how merfolk can beat storm decks.
It’s at this point I look at the board and realize I can win, or at least improve my chances. I stop him from drawing the top card and say “during your draw step, before you draw, I’ll sacrifice wasteland and target your fetchland.” That’s right-his fetchland. The sheer idiocy is part of the brilliance of this play. If you don’t play Magic, you can skip the next paragraph, cause this is for the true players of the game.
You see, if you target a fetchland with a wasteland, your opponent can, in response, sacrifice the fetchland and search for a new land, thus canceling out the point of using said wasteland. However, the fetching process forces the player to shuffle his/her library…and in THIS situation, shuffled away the tutor that would have won him the game. In addition, since I had ANOTHER wasteland out, he couldn’t fetch for a black source, since flooded strand only searches for plains or islands, and he needed the mana at sorcery speed for his main phase (this was during his upkeep, mind you, and mana doesn’t flow to the main phase from the upkeep). If he searched for a nonbasic, I could have wasted that too.
So, he thought about his options, sighed, and fetched for a plains and drew his card for the turn. I earned the concession, and we went to game three. I played some dudes and beat face with the appropriate countermagic backup to prevent the sure to be backbreaking Ad Nauseum he tried to play. Epic game two + refusal to give up = 1 round away from top 16.
I thought to myself, how could round 8 be better than that last round? I clawed my way out of the both mental distress and game play states that almost prevented me from winning. As it turned out, round 8 was almost just as good as round 7. So round 8 I was paired up against a really good player who I’ve played against before-Dan. Dan and I both piloted Faeries to the top 8 of States last year, and I’ve seen him around a few times before, but he’s never really remembered me. Sadface for Anthony, but that’s OK-I think he’ll remember me the next time we meet…
So, we sit down for the last round, the decisive round for top 16. I shuffle up my cards and start to contemplate whether or not I’d make top 16 if I lost, since I’m interested in prize. Dan says to me, “I don’t think about that stuff-I play Magic to crush dreams.” He cited an example he was particularly enamored with; a kid at the tournament who wanted to go 8-0 and just dominate the tournament instead of doing the statistically smart thing and draw into the top 8 (keep in mind, you have the potential to win $2000 in the top 8). So, after citing that example about crushing dreams, Dan and I play some Magic. Turns out he’s playing blue/green/white CounterTop with Natural Order combo for Progentius. I play aether vial, sneak in a Tarmogoyf unexpectedly to block an annoying creature, and BEAT face. Like, trounce. He had to pitch Progentius to Force of Will and Natural Order for a Rhox War Monk during the course of the game. Satisfying for me, I must admit, since it was one of the better draws of my day. Game two I ended up with the nuts aggro draw with some standstills and beat the crap out of Dan’s deck. Like, I felt bad afterwards…it was kinda ugly. For you players, it was like the kind of game where you beat your opponent so bad and ruthlessly as the stars align in your favor and Lady Luck sits next to you just playing for you; the type of game where the opponent just leaves without saying anything. He desideboarded and did just that.
In any case, I hope he remembers me now-I feel like he might.
So, I did it. I ended up 13th out of 180 people or something, just what I needed. Ironically, my friend Tariq was piloting the same deck and ended up 12th because of breakers-he was decimal percentage points ahead of me. Ridiculous. We both ended up with a beta Taiga (it’s like $100), and called it a day.
And what happened to the “dream crusher,” who wanted to go 8-0? Well, he did. In the top 8, everyone wanted to split so that they could each get $600 and go home, but he was the only one who didn’t. He made it all the way to the finals, but lost and instead of making $600, he had to settle for $400. Eh, greedy players are greedy-I would have split and gone to dinner, personally. The top player ended up with a Black Lotus and another piece of power, if I remember correctly, whose total worth was in the $2000 range.
So, it was a successful tournament overall. Didn’t hit top 8, but at least I made prize. With the tournament over, I was already thinking about the next one-I heard rumors of foil playsets of highly playable standard cards as the prize for top 8 players in Edison, New Jersey, and I was already dreaming of shiny Baneslayers…find out next time if I got my hands on them or not.
by Anthony "Corta" Conta
J$'s Notes: Thanks again, Conta. Just a heads up to our readers, we've got one more article from Conta upcoming about the Philly Open in Edison. Then after that I'll be throwing down some knowledge about the TCG 5K that actually took place in Philadelphia this past weekend. Hope to see y'all back here, and leave comments. We love 'em!
Check us out at: http://sites.google.com/site/teamdamageonthestack
Thursday, December 10, 2009
The Source 5th Annual Anniversary Tournament
This is a continuation from the post prior to "States 2009".
So, I got to the event at 10:30 AM after traveling for several hours from Manhattan upstate and signed in. I was playing Blue/Green Merfolk, perhaps my most favorite deck ever, due to my attraction to fish people and powerful cards and synergies (cmon, who WASN’T attracted to The Little Mermaid when they were ten? I’m not just looking at guys here either…I’ve heard stories…). I greeted my fellow players that I recognized, as not a lot of the Legacy players change from tournament to tournament-you usually see the same people over and over again. It’s nice-most Magic players are pretty nice kids. We kinda get stereotyped into being weird uncleanly freaks who lack social graces and tact. There are some people like that who play the game, but then again, those people exist everywhere-go do ANYTHING, and you’ll find someone like that. Why we get a bad rap, I don’t know-maybe Jocks and all the “cool kids” in high school are just more opinionated than us and have louder voices to spread their propaganda and after years of the same drawl and expectations, it just stuck. Go to any of these events and just talk to the people and you’ll be sorely mistaken.
So Round One starts up and I play against Jackie, a nice woman who’s running Faerie Stompy (artifacts, mana acceleration and distruption). It’s her first tournament so she isn’t completely sure of what she’s doing and I end up 2-0 against her. She didn’t really do much during the whole game and didn’t even damage me (I think she was getting use to the deck). We talked for a while, then played some games for fun-she was a good sport even in losing, the kind of player I like to see.
Round Two I played against a nice Canadian fellow playing Zoo, my second worst match up. Game one I barely stabilize at 6 life and proceed to take control of the game. Mitch gets me to 3 for two turns while I keep attacking. He doesn’t see the burn spell, and we’re off to game 2. Game two I’m on the back foot until I can keep a Tarmogoyf and Jitte on the table, and those take it away. It didn’t help Mitch that he had to mull to 5, but sometimes, that’s just Magic.
Round Three put me up against Sebastian, who I believe was from France. He was playing a deck I hadn’t really seen before-blue/red/black Tombstalker/Faeries. Game one I beat him without showing a merfolk (Tarmogoyf & Jitte are just SO good) and he boarded completely wrong for game two. Sadly, he didn’t show me a faerie in game one and I boarded wrong too-he played Bitterblossom on turn two and that was that. Game three I didn’t board in my Krosan Grips (I had relic for tombstalker game one then took it out for game three) and when I lost to Bitterblossom and Jitte in the third game, I realized my mistake.
Round Four, I was feeling kinda down-I had no idea how I was going to win the next five rounds, as I needed to in order to get to the top eight. I’d just have to keep on drudging on in order to get there. I played against George in round four, who was running W/G Stax (essentially Armageddon, Smokestack, Tangle Wire, and Ghostly Prison-really annoying stuff if you don’t have counterspells…but I do…). I destroyed him game one, as he didn’t get the spells he needed to keep me under control, while he destroyed me game two by blowing up all my lands then killing me with a Knight of the Reliquary. Game three, I blitz aggroed him out in order to seal the deal.
It was about at this point in the day my friend who was judging the event (it’s nice to have friends in high places) came up to me really excited.
“Hey, did you hear the news?”
“No, what’s going on?”
“There’s this new deck out, doing really well-something that Legacy’s never seen before.”
“What’s it running? You can tell me…we’re friends, right?”
“No, I can’t tell you, but get this-it’s running 65 cards, has no deck sleeves, and has no sideboard…”
That piqued my interest, so I went off to my friends in the event and started asking around.
“You guys hear about this rogue deck that’s been going around?”
“Yea, I saw it in action the other round-it got a turn four kill.”
“Turn four?? What was it running?”
“Well, the kid went turn one Nip Gwyillion, turn two Edge of Divinity, Edge of Divinity, turn four win.”
Yea. Nip freaking Gwyillion in legacy. I would later learn one week later from another judge at the event that this deck ended up going 5-3, a winning record. Some legacy decks cost upwards of $1000 dollars and still don’t win. This one probably cost $50. He didn’t get any prize, but then again, he wasn’t playing nearly with the optimal deck building strategy (you know, like, having a sideboard?). This just goes to prove a theory I’ve had about legacy for quite some time-if you go into a tournament as a skilled player with some cards legacy players have never seen before, you will blow their mind and win. The legacy players are so ingrained in seeing the same set of cards that when you throw in a new one they’ve never seen before, they crap themselves and just lose through bad playing.
For part two of the report, check on back at the next post…
by Anthony "Corta" Conta
J$ Notes:
Thanks, Conta, much appreciated. More stories will be upcoming. For those of you who were curious, I just wanted to say that our friend Brian ended up being eliminated in the first round of Top 8 at States, but being a Quarterfinalist ain't all that bad, especially since he hadn't extensively practiced with the deck he was playing.
Upcoming: The Source 5th Annual Anniversary Tournament, Part Deux
Check us out at: http://sites.google.com/site/teamdamageonthestack
So, I got to the event at 10:30 AM after traveling for several hours from Manhattan upstate and signed in. I was playing Blue/Green Merfolk, perhaps my most favorite deck ever, due to my attraction to fish people and powerful cards and synergies (cmon, who WASN’T attracted to The Little Mermaid when they were ten? I’m not just looking at guys here either…I’ve heard stories…). I greeted my fellow players that I recognized, as not a lot of the Legacy players change from tournament to tournament-you usually see the same people over and over again. It’s nice-most Magic players are pretty nice kids. We kinda get stereotyped into being weird uncleanly freaks who lack social graces and tact. There are some people like that who play the game, but then again, those people exist everywhere-go do ANYTHING, and you’ll find someone like that. Why we get a bad rap, I don’t know-maybe Jocks and all the “cool kids” in high school are just more opinionated than us and have louder voices to spread their propaganda and after years of the same drawl and expectations, it just stuck. Go to any of these events and just talk to the people and you’ll be sorely mistaken.
So Round One starts up and I play against Jackie, a nice woman who’s running Faerie Stompy (artifacts, mana acceleration and distruption). It’s her first tournament so she isn’t completely sure of what she’s doing and I end up 2-0 against her. She didn’t really do much during the whole game and didn’t even damage me (I think she was getting use to the deck). We talked for a while, then played some games for fun-she was a good sport even in losing, the kind of player I like to see.
Round Two I played against a nice Canadian fellow playing Zoo, my second worst match up. Game one I barely stabilize at 6 life and proceed to take control of the game. Mitch gets me to 3 for two turns while I keep attacking. He doesn’t see the burn spell, and we’re off to game 2. Game two I’m on the back foot until I can keep a Tarmogoyf and Jitte on the table, and those take it away. It didn’t help Mitch that he had to mull to 5, but sometimes, that’s just Magic.
Round Three put me up against Sebastian, who I believe was from France. He was playing a deck I hadn’t really seen before-blue/red/black Tombstalker/Faeries. Game one I beat him without showing a merfolk (Tarmogoyf & Jitte are just SO good) and he boarded completely wrong for game two. Sadly, he didn’t show me a faerie in game one and I boarded wrong too-he played Bitterblossom on turn two and that was that. Game three I didn’t board in my Krosan Grips (I had relic for tombstalker game one then took it out for game three) and when I lost to Bitterblossom and Jitte in the third game, I realized my mistake.
Round Four, I was feeling kinda down-I had no idea how I was going to win the next five rounds, as I needed to in order to get to the top eight. I’d just have to keep on drudging on in order to get there. I played against George in round four, who was running W/G Stax (essentially Armageddon, Smokestack, Tangle Wire, and Ghostly Prison-really annoying stuff if you don’t have counterspells…but I do…). I destroyed him game one, as he didn’t get the spells he needed to keep me under control, while he destroyed me game two by blowing up all my lands then killing me with a Knight of the Reliquary. Game three, I blitz aggroed him out in order to seal the deal.
It was about at this point in the day my friend who was judging the event (it’s nice to have friends in high places) came up to me really excited.
“Hey, did you hear the news?”
“No, what’s going on?”
“There’s this new deck out, doing really well-something that Legacy’s never seen before.”
“What’s it running? You can tell me…we’re friends, right?”
“No, I can’t tell you, but get this-it’s running 65 cards, has no deck sleeves, and has no sideboard…”
That piqued my interest, so I went off to my friends in the event and started asking around.
“You guys hear about this rogue deck that’s been going around?”
“Yea, I saw it in action the other round-it got a turn four kill.”
“Turn four?? What was it running?”
“Well, the kid went turn one Nip Gwyillion, turn two Edge of Divinity, Edge of Divinity, turn four win.”
Yea. Nip freaking Gwyillion in legacy. I would later learn one week later from another judge at the event that this deck ended up going 5-3, a winning record. Some legacy decks cost upwards of $1000 dollars and still don’t win. This one probably cost $50. He didn’t get any prize, but then again, he wasn’t playing nearly with the optimal deck building strategy (you know, like, having a sideboard?). This just goes to prove a theory I’ve had about legacy for quite some time-if you go into a tournament as a skilled player with some cards legacy players have never seen before, you will blow their mind and win. The legacy players are so ingrained in seeing the same set of cards that when you throw in a new one they’ve never seen before, they crap themselves and just lose through bad playing.
For part two of the report, check on back at the next post…
by Anthony "Corta" Conta
J$ Notes:
Thanks, Conta, much appreciated. More stories will be upcoming. For those of you who were curious, I just wanted to say that our friend Brian ended up being eliminated in the first round of Top 8 at States, but being a Quarterfinalist ain't all that bad, especially since he hadn't extensively practiced with the deck he was playing.
Upcoming: The Source 5th Annual Anniversary Tournament, Part Deux
Check us out at: http://sites.google.com/site/teamdamageonthestack
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
States 2009
So, Conta is supposed to have posted some stories about his experiences at some Magic tournaments, but he has real life concerns like working an actual job, going on dates, writing poetry... Anyway, so this blog doesn't end up getting backlogged to hell, I'm going to give a brief overview of States. Then Conta can take you back in the time machine and relive some of his tournament stories with you.
States is pretty much a tournament for pride. The prize payout isn't all that spectacular, but being able to say you're a State Champion is pretty awesome and a sort of tangible title that people outside of Magic can understand (as opposed to a Pro Tour Winner...see, you're already lost and rolling your eyes). It is also a tournament that invites a wide range of players. The atmosphere is lax and there's a good mix of casual and competitive players, as well as all those who fall somewhere in between.
Last year Conta and I both managed to land Top 8 spots at States, an accomplishment we were both hoping to repeat.
We made our way out to Kings Games in Brooklyn (which is about a forty-five minute subway ride), where the New York States competition was being held, along with our teammates Matt and Raja and some friends from Hanley's (shout outs to Sung, James, Newman, Joe Shi, Lauren, Andrew, and Brian!)
Kings isn't the biggest gaming store in the world, and I had heard horror stories in the preceding days about how in past tournaments players had been forced to play their games at a nearby McDonald's or on the street as there weren't enough spots for seating in the store. This year any player from any State may participate in any States tournament, unlike last and past years where you had to provide proof of residence to compete in a State's tournament, so a lot of New York players made their way out to Edison, which has a much bigger gaming venue. I had tried to convince my team to do the same, but the slight proximity difference and lower cost of heading to Brooklyn won out.
I had never been to Kings before. It's a nice store in a neighborhood that's a little rough around the edges (as most neighborhoods near elevated trains, or el-trains, are) but doesn't quite feel like the set of The Wire, which is how Raja had described it to me. They have a decently sized upstairs area, which I could see overflowing with players at a major event. Fortunately that wasn't the case, and we were all able to play within the store (though getting up to switch tables and find pairings for matches was a huge hassle).
And now for my brief overview of the actual event: TERRIBLE...at least for me. I ended up going 0-5 losing my first 3 matches either to mana-flooding (having too many lands and not enough spells) or mana-screw (having no lands with which to cast spells). I also mulliganed in 3 out of my first 4 games.
For newbies: Prior to starting a game you are allowed to choose not to play the hand you have and instead reshuffle and draw one less card, an action you can repeat until you feel satisfied with your opening hand. Most players will not go below a 5-card opening hand, as your chances of winning are pretty bad at that point.
I didn't play a good match until the 4th round, where I still lost, but at least I won a game and the games were close. I had wanted to play out the tournament after the 3rd round, even though I was out of prize contention, as there were only four more rounds. But after losing two more rounds I was too disheartened to go on, so I dropped and played a side event.
The other members of my team did better, but did not turn out stunning records either. Raja finished the tournament 4-3, and Matt finished 3-3-1. Conta played against one of our friends Brian in the last round to see who would break into the Top 8 and lost, ending with a 5-2 record.
Conta had actually helped Brian to sure up his sideboard against the high-octane Boros deck before the tournament. Conta was toting that same Boros deck, while Brian was playing Junk (basically a deck that is a list of good cards from Green and White with little to no synergy), and the sideboard changes Conta had helped him with made the difference in the match.
Coincidentally, last year Conta had helped one of his opponents in the earlier rounds sideboard correctly against his then-Faeries deck after beating him. He played this same opponent, a guy by the name of Stephen Carpenter, in the quarterfinals and lost to him. Carpenter went on to be the 2008 New York State Champ. I'm not sure if Brian got that far, as we left before the tournament had finished, but I at least think it would be pretty funny if history repeated itself that closely (I'm sure Conta disagrees).
This weekend we plan (though these plans are wobbly and Jello-like at the moment) to head south to Philadelphia for a two-day tour. Saturday is a Pro-Tour Qualifier (PTQ) and Sunday is another 5K, though this one will not be run by Star City Games. I personally feel very strongly about going, as I have only one thing on my mind concerning Magic: REVENGE!!!
Upcoming: Either “Reports from the Philly Weekend” or “Stuff from Conta”...we'll see which comes first.
Check us out at: http://sites.google.com/site/teamdamageonthestack
States is pretty much a tournament for pride. The prize payout isn't all that spectacular, but being able to say you're a State Champion is pretty awesome and a sort of tangible title that people outside of Magic can understand (as opposed to a Pro Tour Winner...see, you're already lost and rolling your eyes). It is also a tournament that invites a wide range of players. The atmosphere is lax and there's a good mix of casual and competitive players, as well as all those who fall somewhere in between.
Last year Conta and I both managed to land Top 8 spots at States, an accomplishment we were both hoping to repeat.
We made our way out to Kings Games in Brooklyn (which is about a forty-five minute subway ride), where the New York States competition was being held, along with our teammates Matt and Raja and some friends from Hanley's (shout outs to Sung, James, Newman, Joe Shi, Lauren, Andrew, and Brian!)
Kings isn't the biggest gaming store in the world, and I had heard horror stories in the preceding days about how in past tournaments players had been forced to play their games at a nearby McDonald's or on the street as there weren't enough spots for seating in the store. This year any player from any State may participate in any States tournament, unlike last and past years where you had to provide proof of residence to compete in a State's tournament, so a lot of New York players made their way out to Edison, which has a much bigger gaming venue. I had tried to convince my team to do the same, but the slight proximity difference and lower cost of heading to Brooklyn won out.
I had never been to Kings before. It's a nice store in a neighborhood that's a little rough around the edges (as most neighborhoods near elevated trains, or el-trains, are) but doesn't quite feel like the set of The Wire, which is how Raja had described it to me. They have a decently sized upstairs area, which I could see overflowing with players at a major event. Fortunately that wasn't the case, and we were all able to play within the store (though getting up to switch tables and find pairings for matches was a huge hassle).
And now for my brief overview of the actual event: TERRIBLE...at least for me. I ended up going 0-5 losing my first 3 matches either to mana-flooding (having too many lands and not enough spells) or mana-screw (having no lands with which to cast spells). I also mulliganed in 3 out of my first 4 games.
For newbies: Prior to starting a game you are allowed to choose not to play the hand you have and instead reshuffle and draw one less card, an action you can repeat until you feel satisfied with your opening hand. Most players will not go below a 5-card opening hand, as your chances of winning are pretty bad at that point.
I didn't play a good match until the 4th round, where I still lost, but at least I won a game and the games were close. I had wanted to play out the tournament after the 3rd round, even though I was out of prize contention, as there were only four more rounds. But after losing two more rounds I was too disheartened to go on, so I dropped and played a side event.
The other members of my team did better, but did not turn out stunning records either. Raja finished the tournament 4-3, and Matt finished 3-3-1. Conta played against one of our friends Brian in the last round to see who would break into the Top 8 and lost, ending with a 5-2 record.
Conta had actually helped Brian to sure up his sideboard against the high-octane Boros deck before the tournament. Conta was toting that same Boros deck, while Brian was playing Junk (basically a deck that is a list of good cards from Green and White with little to no synergy), and the sideboard changes Conta had helped him with made the difference in the match.
Coincidentally, last year Conta had helped one of his opponents in the earlier rounds sideboard correctly against his then-Faeries deck after beating him. He played this same opponent, a guy by the name of Stephen Carpenter, in the quarterfinals and lost to him. Carpenter went on to be the 2008 New York State Champ. I'm not sure if Brian got that far, as we left before the tournament had finished, but I at least think it would be pretty funny if history repeated itself that closely (I'm sure Conta disagrees).
This weekend we plan (though these plans are wobbly and Jello-like at the moment) to head south to Philadelphia for a two-day tour. Saturday is a Pro-Tour Qualifier (PTQ) and Sunday is another 5K, though this one will not be run by Star City Games. I personally feel very strongly about going, as I have only one thing on my mind concerning Magic: REVENGE!!!
Upcoming: Either “Reports from the Philly Weekend” or “Stuff from Conta”...we'll see which comes first.
Check us out at: http://sites.google.com/site/teamdamageonthestack
Thursday, November 26, 2009
A New Voice: Introducing Anthony Conta
5:15 AM: I close the door quietly as I stumble into my
apartment, half drunk-I would hate to disrupt my neighbors
with my ubiquitous slamming door this early in the morning. Or
my roommate for that matter. After drinking this much, I guess
I should go to bed-I’ve got a tournament tomorrow to win...
5:45 AM: My alarm rings, and I barely remember my head hitting
the pillow-it’s time to travel to Binghamton to take that
Black Lotus as a prize. A part of me wonders if Dunkin Donuts
carries enough coffee for me to get through this day as I
proceed to the shower, ready to kill myself.
Yes, this is how I normally go to tournaments. Well, legacy
tournaments at least-for all my other tournaments, I usually
get at least four hours of sleep. See, being a Magic player is
really hard-you end up killing your day and night when you go
to a big event because you go with a bunch of friends and
usually have to travel to get there. By the time you get home,
it’s 1:00 AM and a bit too late to pregame. The only way to
“salvage” a weekend (and by that I mean hang out with more
than just 99% guys and an odor you can’t really get off you
until the next day) is to party the night before a tournament,
as most of these events are on Saturdays. It’s almost become a
ritual for me.
So why do we do it? Why do we subject ourselves to the pain of
the hangover, dehydration, and sunlight? It’s because we have
a passion for competition and the game; we love to wake up in
the morning and feel that anticipation of winning, that maybe
we’ll be the ones at the top tables, envy of all those around
us, playing for some of the most coveted cards in Magic. It
isn’t just about the cards, it’s about proving to ourselves
and our peers that we have the talent, intelligence, and the
ability to WIN the cards through honest competition and skill.
If it were just about owning the cards, we could have bought
them years ago-that’s not why we compete.
But I’m not here to tell you why we do this; I’m here to give
a tournament report. So, I recently went to Binghamton to
participate in the 5th annual MTG The Source Tournament hosted
by Jupiter Games (perhaps the best card store that does or has
ever existed). The top prizes were allocated via a prize pool
based on tournament standings to the top 16 players, and in
that pool besides various fetch lands, black bordered (read:
prestigious and pimplicious) dual lands, and powerful cards
were one copy of the Power Nine (except Timetwister, but
that’s the worst one).
A brief aside: for those of you who don’t play Magic, the
Power Nine are, you guessed it, the most prestigious,
illusive, rare, and powerful cards in the existence of the
game-they are SO powerful that they are in fact only allowed
in one format of competitive play. As such, they are also the
nine most expensive cards in the game. Outside of the older
format circuit, you won’t come across them at all-just seeing
one is quite rare. Owning one…well, forget about it.
So the prizes for this tournament? If you finished in the top
eight players, you got one of these cards. The cheapest one is
worth about $350 dollars, depending on the condition of the
card. It’s no wonder why people want them; they want to sell
them. I think if I ever won a piece of power, I’d want to keep
it as a memento to the occasion.
So, did I in fact win a piece of “power” at the tournament
last week? No, I didn’t, but I came pretty close. Coming up in
my next post, I’ll tell you all about the tournament and how I
did…
by Anthony "Corta" Conta
Upcoming: The Source 5th Annual Anniversary Tournament
Check us out at: http://sites.google.com/site/teamdamageonthestack
apartment, half drunk-I would hate to disrupt my neighbors
with my ubiquitous slamming door this early in the morning. Or
my roommate for that matter. After drinking this much, I guess
I should go to bed-I’ve got a tournament tomorrow to win...
5:45 AM: My alarm rings, and I barely remember my head hitting
the pillow-it’s time to travel to Binghamton to take that
Black Lotus as a prize. A part of me wonders if Dunkin Donuts
carries enough coffee for me to get through this day as I
proceed to the shower, ready to kill myself.
Yes, this is how I normally go to tournaments. Well, legacy
tournaments at least-for all my other tournaments, I usually
get at least four hours of sleep. See, being a Magic player is
really hard-you end up killing your day and night when you go
to a big event because you go with a bunch of friends and
usually have to travel to get there. By the time you get home,
it’s 1:00 AM and a bit too late to pregame. The only way to
“salvage” a weekend (and by that I mean hang out with more
than just 99% guys and an odor you can’t really get off you
until the next day) is to party the night before a tournament,
as most of these events are on Saturdays. It’s almost become a
ritual for me.
So why do we do it? Why do we subject ourselves to the pain of
the hangover, dehydration, and sunlight? It’s because we have
a passion for competition and the game; we love to wake up in
the morning and feel that anticipation of winning, that maybe
we’ll be the ones at the top tables, envy of all those around
us, playing for some of the most coveted cards in Magic. It
isn’t just about the cards, it’s about proving to ourselves
and our peers that we have the talent, intelligence, and the
ability to WIN the cards through honest competition and skill.
If it were just about owning the cards, we could have bought
them years ago-that’s not why we compete.
But I’m not here to tell you why we do this; I’m here to give
a tournament report. So, I recently went to Binghamton to
participate in the 5th annual MTG The Source Tournament hosted
by Jupiter Games (perhaps the best card store that does or has
ever existed). The top prizes were allocated via a prize pool
based on tournament standings to the top 16 players, and in
that pool besides various fetch lands, black bordered (read:
prestigious and pimplicious) dual lands, and powerful cards
were one copy of the Power Nine (except Timetwister, but
that’s the worst one).
A brief aside: for those of you who don’t play Magic, the
Power Nine are, you guessed it, the most prestigious,
illusive, rare, and powerful cards in the existence of the
game-they are SO powerful that they are in fact only allowed
in one format of competitive play. As such, they are also the
nine most expensive cards in the game. Outside of the older
format circuit, you won’t come across them at all-just seeing
one is quite rare. Owning one…well, forget about it.
So the prizes for this tournament? If you finished in the top
eight players, you got one of these cards. The cheapest one is
worth about $350 dollars, depending on the condition of the
card. It’s no wonder why people want them; they want to sell
them. I think if I ever won a piece of power, I’d want to keep
it as a memento to the occasion.
So, did I in fact win a piece of “power” at the tournament
last week? No, I didn’t, but I came pretty close. Coming up in
my next post, I’ll tell you all about the tournament and how I
did…
by Anthony "Corta" Conta
Upcoming: The Source 5th Annual Anniversary Tournament
Check us out at: http://sites.google.com/site/teamdamageonthestack
Sunday, November 22, 2009
The Philly Open in Edison: Tournament Report
This tournament was supposed to be, and I guess is normally, held in Philly at the convention center, the same spot where we played the Star City 5K. Luckily for us, the convention center was booked, so they decided to hold the event in Edison, which is only a forty-five minute train ride from New York, as opposed to Philly which is two to three hours away.I personally viewed this event as a precursor to States, which will be on December 5th. With so little time between events, it's likely that the decks we see at States will be the same or similar to the ones we saw at this one, in addition to any breakout decks from Worlds. Unfortunately, I still hadn't settled on a deck by the time this event came around, so despite all of my initial protest against the deck, I ended up playing Jund.
Jund is currently the best deck in format. It's strength comes from the amazing amount of card advantage it can generate. For non-Magic players, card advantage in its most basic instance would be drawing more cards than your opponent or alternately forcing your opponent to discard cards from their hand (which Jund does quite well). Another form of it is getting more mileage out of your cards. If you were at a Magic tournament, you would likely hear the term “2-for-1”. This refers to an instance when a player's 1 card is able to destroy his opponent's 2 cards, like a playing a single spell and killing two creatures, or playing a single spell and making your opponent discard two cards. Jund is a deck that constantly 2-for-1's (or better) its opposition. It is also a deck that takes very little (if any) skill to play, which is why I felt confident playing it without having tested with it very much.
Round 1:
I started off the tournament playing a mirror match, meaning I played against someone who was also playing a Jund deck. How effective you are in the Jund mirror is directly tied to how lucky you are. This round it favored my opponent, as I ended up stuck on few lands both games, and he ended up playing better cards than I did.
Round 2:
I ended up facing the guy I was sitting next to in the prior round. He knew that I was playing Jund, but I never got a chance to look at his deck. It ended up that he was playing the new Standard “Dredge” deck. “Dredge” has become an archetype name for decks that play creatures from their graveyard (or bin), where creatures normally go to die. When the deck isn't working, it doesn't actually look like it's doing anything other than putting cards into its bin, but when it is, it can put multiple (often a lethal number of) threats on the board all at once. Luckily for me, he never got to that, so I won handily.
Round 3:
I played a really nice guy who was running a deck he called “Indiana Jones”, which was a rogue deck based off running the trap cards found in the latest set. The deck wins by milling the opposition (forcing them to put all of the cards in their deck into their graveyard). But my constant stream of creatures and burn spells proved to be too much for him.
Round 4:
My opponent wasn't exactly verbose, which made me suspect that he was playing the mono-Green Eldrazi deck, a deck a friend of mine had joked about as being a deck for anti-social people since you never have to talk to your opponent to make understood what you are doing; you just keep attacking them. It turned out that he was playing Team America, one of the few control decks in Standard. Right now the format is extremely unfriendly toward control decks, but I had also had a lot of practice against the deck as two of my friends and teammates were running it. I beat him with a stream of discard spells, as it is hard for a control deck to do anything without a hand.
Round 5:
I got paired against a deck I couldn't actually beat. 5-Color-Cascade is an incredibly bad match up for Jund, as it basically does what Jund does only better. The only reason the deck hasn't taken off is that it is even slower than Jund and loses to any type of aggro deck. My opponent was a really cool guy though, and he gave me some pointers about how to handle the match up, which might come in handy in the future.
Round 6:
Another control pairing, which favored me pretty well. I easily won Game 1, but ended up getting rocked in the Game 2. My opponent said that his deck had about a 25% winning percentage against Jund in the first game, but it went up to 60% after he brought in his sideboard changes. He also commented that the 40% still got to him a lot, and sadly his deck didn't draw any lands. I beat him easily, but I was sorry he lost the way he did since he was a cool guy.
Round 7:
Being 4-2 I looked to stand a good chance of breaking into the Top 16, the prize cut-off for the tournament. And then I came up against Boros, which isn't exactly a favorably match up for Jund, especially when your opponent gets the “nuts” hand (Magic lingo for “awesome”). Game 1 he basically killed me before I could play a spell. Game 2 I managed to stabilize and get rid of his hand, but I was already at 6 life, and two top-decked (cards drawn directly off the top of his deck) burn spells easily finished me off.
Round 8:
Now, at 4-3 I was really only hoping to get out of the tournament with a winning record since I was out of contention for the Top 16 and any prizes. And then my opponent sat down across from me, and we both just laughed. I had met the guy briefly when he beat my friend Isabel in the Jund mirror in Round 4, so we both knew it was a mirror and basically a matter of luck. Unfortunately mine didn't hold up. I took the first game pretty handily, but after that he came storming back and just played better cards than I did. I ended the tournament at 4-4 and placed 46th overall out of 173 participants.
The rest of our team did respectably for themselves as well. Matt and Joe (a pseudo-teammate) represented their Team America decks very well with winning records, but were unable to break into the prize bracket. Kanvaly also did decently with a Bella Swan deck he borrowed from Kyle (or should I start calling the deck Team Edward now?) Derek played his own variant of Bella Swan, but started the tournament 0-2 and ended up dropping after that, though he was a good-sport and did stick around all day to support us.
Conta ended up being Team DOTS's representative in the Top 8 going 6-0-2 with his Boros deck, but unfortunately got eliminated in the first round facing Jund (which made up half the lists in the Top 8).
Now with two weeks to prepare for States, it's back to the proverbial drawing board, though I haven't decided whether I will choose to optimize my Jund deck or go for something completely John Cleese.
Anyway, I will be taking a brief break from my duties as blog-author and turn the reins over to Conta who will have tournament reports both for this event and for a Legacy tournament he played in up at Binghamton. In the meantime enjoy yourselves, have a Happy Thanksgiving, and you'll be hearing from me post-States.
Round 2:
I ended up facing the guy I was sitting next to in the prior round. He knew that I was playing Jund, but I never got a chance to look at his deck. It ended up that he was playing the new Standard “Dredge” deck. “Dredge” has become an archetype name for decks that play creatures from their graveyard (or bin), where creatures normally go to die. When the deck isn't working, it doesn't actually look like it's doing anything other than putting cards into its bin, but when it is, it can put multiple (often a lethal number of) threats on the board all at once. Luckily for me, he never got to that, so I won handily.
Round 3:
I played a really nice guy who was running a deck he called “Indiana Jones”, which was a rogue deck based off running the trap cards found in the latest set. The deck wins by milling the opposition (forcing them to put all of the cards in their deck into their graveyard). But my constant stream of creatures and burn spells proved to be too much for him.
Round 4:
My opponent wasn't exactly verbose, which made me suspect that he was playing the mono-Green Eldrazi deck, a deck a friend of mine had joked about as being a deck for anti-social people since you never have to talk to your opponent to make understood what you are doing; you just keep attacking them. It turned out that he was playing Team America, one of the few control decks in Standard. Right now the format is extremely unfriendly toward control decks, but I had also had a lot of practice against the deck as two of my friends and teammates were running it. I beat him with a stream of discard spells, as it is hard for a control deck to do anything without a hand.
Round 5:
I got paired against a deck I couldn't actually beat. 5-Color-Cascade is an incredibly bad match up for Jund, as it basically does what Jund does only better. The only reason the deck hasn't taken off is that it is even slower than Jund and loses to any type of aggro deck. My opponent was a really cool guy though, and he gave me some pointers about how to handle the match up, which might come in handy in the future.
Round 6:
Another control pairing, which favored me pretty well. I easily won Game 1, but ended up getting rocked in the Game 2. My opponent said that his deck had about a 25% winning percentage against Jund in the first game, but it went up to 60% after he brought in his sideboard changes. He also commented that the 40% still got to him a lot, and sadly his deck didn't draw any lands. I beat him easily, but I was sorry he lost the way he did since he was a cool guy.
Round 7:
Being 4-2 I looked to stand a good chance of breaking into the Top 16, the prize cut-off for the tournament. And then I came up against Boros, which isn't exactly a favorably match up for Jund, especially when your opponent gets the “nuts” hand (Magic lingo for “awesome”). Game 1 he basically killed me before I could play a spell. Game 2 I managed to stabilize and get rid of his hand, but I was already at 6 life, and two top-decked (cards drawn directly off the top of his deck) burn spells easily finished me off.
Round 8:
Now, at 4-3 I was really only hoping to get out of the tournament with a winning record since I was out of contention for the Top 16 and any prizes. And then my opponent sat down across from me, and we both just laughed. I had met the guy briefly when he beat my friend Isabel in the Jund mirror in Round 4, so we both knew it was a mirror and basically a matter of luck. Unfortunately mine didn't hold up. I took the first game pretty handily, but after that he came storming back and just played better cards than I did. I ended the tournament at 4-4 and placed 46th overall out of 173 participants.
The rest of our team did respectably for themselves as well. Matt and Joe (a pseudo-teammate) represented their Team America decks very well with winning records, but were unable to break into the prize bracket. Kanvaly also did decently with a Bella Swan deck he borrowed from Kyle (or should I start calling the deck Team Edward now?) Derek played his own variant of Bella Swan, but started the tournament 0-2 and ended up dropping after that, though he was a good-sport and did stick around all day to support us.
Conta ended up being Team DOTS's representative in the Top 8 going 6-0-2 with his Boros deck, but unfortunately got eliminated in the first round facing Jund (which made up half the lists in the Top 8).
Now with two weeks to prepare for States, it's back to the proverbial drawing board, though I haven't decided whether I will choose to optimize my Jund deck or go for something completely John Cleese.
Anyway, I will be taking a brief break from my duties as blog-author and turn the reins over to Conta who will have tournament reports both for this event and for a Legacy tournament he played in up at Binghamton. In the meantime enjoy yourselves, have a Happy Thanksgiving, and you'll be hearing from me post-States.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
New York, the Local Scene: An Introduction
Until about a year ago Neutral Ground was the leading gaming store in the New York area and the hub for all Magic players in Manhattan and arguably all of New York. However, after Neutral (as it was colloquially known) shut its doors in December of last year, the Magic community has become somewhat decentralized. Several stores in the boroughs have risen to prominence, like Kings Games in Brooklyn, but for us Manhattanites the new spot is Jim Hanley's Universe.
JHU or Hanley's is a comic book store located on 33rd between 5th and 6th that happens to have some space for hobby gamers to do their thing. The people who run the place are extremely nice, and the community there is great too. Not to speak ill of the dead, but these were areas at Neutral that weren't always particularly strong. However, the one great thing Neutral did provide that Hanley's can't was a massive gaming area where major events could be held. Hanley's doesn't have that kind of space, so now major events are held at a variety of locations like in the boroughs, or worse, New Jersey.
Hanley's holds Magic events three times a week: Standard and Drafting on Thursday, Drafting on Friday, and a sort of free play on Monday (which I've never attended). Our crew goes to the Thursday Standard events almost every week, and occasionally to the Friday Night Magic (FNM) Drafting. Local events for constructed are strange beasts in two regards:
1.)Most of the people playing in them aren't highly ranked and range from beginners and more casual players to avid competitors, which means that at a local event you can go 2-2 (or sometimes even 3-1), and if you're ranked highly, still lose points because your opponents are so badly ranked. For those of you who don't understand, ranking in Magic is based off your opposition. When you beat someone who's better than you, you get a lot of points. When you lose to someone worse than you, you lose a lot of points. So when everyone is lower ranked than you are, you can only gain points by going undefeated or maybe 3-1. As such very highly ranked players tend to shun local events in order to protect their ratings, which isn't as pretentious as it sounds, since high enough ratings can get you invites to and bye-rounds at major events.
2.)Local events tend to generate their own meta-games that don't necessarily reflect the meta-game you would find at a major event. People are much more likely to bring homemade decks instead of net-decks (lists taken off the internet) or try new things. I remember a couple of weeks ago everyone brought control decks that “should beat Jund and Boros” two of the major decks in the overall meta-game. However, at the local not many people were playing them, so all of these control decks just ended up playing each other.
I myself tend to be much stronger at major events than local events. I rarely managed a 3-1 or better at Neutral, and I think the highest I've managed at Hanley's is a 2-1, but most of the time I just end up 2-2.
Our teammate Raja, on the other hand, recently went 4-0 and is consistently good at the local events. His secret: masterful meta-gaming of the local. When I asked him once about some strange choices he was making with his Bella Swan deck, he told me, “Your choices would be right at a major event, but I'm trying to make a deck that wins here.”
So that's a brief introduction and rundown of the local events in New York. Luckily for me, there is a major event on Saturday out in Jersey, and States is shortly after that on December 5th. The prize payout for the upcoming event is not cash but rather foil sets (shiny cards that are worth roughly twice as much as normal cards) of some of the major rares in Standard right now, like Baneslayer Angel (worth $50 a piece non-foil), Lotus Cobra ($20ish), and fetch lands ($15ish). Unfortunately I don't really have a deck yet. Right now it's between Eldrazi Green, which busted out of Nashville at the last Star City 5K like the Alien through Kane's chest, or [gasp] Jund. Yeah I know I said I would never play it, but it is the best deck and format, and it takes virtually no skill to play, so lack of playtesting won't be an issue. But we'll see...
Finally, I'd like to take this time to give a shout out to our teammate Conta who placed 13th at a Legacy event with 170 contenders. He claims that he's going to write a tournament report on it, so hopefully I'll have that posted here for you soon.
Upcoming: Hopefully some news involving shiny Baneslayers...
Check us out at: http://sites.google.com/site/teamdamageonthestack
JHU or Hanley's is a comic book store located on 33rd between 5th and 6th that happens to have some space for hobby gamers to do their thing. The people who run the place are extremely nice, and the community there is great too. Not to speak ill of the dead, but these were areas at Neutral that weren't always particularly strong. However, the one great thing Neutral did provide that Hanley's can't was a massive gaming area where major events could be held. Hanley's doesn't have that kind of space, so now major events are held at a variety of locations like in the boroughs, or worse, New Jersey.
Hanley's holds Magic events three times a week: Standard and Drafting on Thursday, Drafting on Friday, and a sort of free play on Monday (which I've never attended). Our crew goes to the Thursday Standard events almost every week, and occasionally to the Friday Night Magic (FNM) Drafting. Local events for constructed are strange beasts in two regards:
1.)Most of the people playing in them aren't highly ranked and range from beginners and more casual players to avid competitors, which means that at a local event you can go 2-2 (or sometimes even 3-1), and if you're ranked highly, still lose points because your opponents are so badly ranked. For those of you who don't understand, ranking in Magic is based off your opposition. When you beat someone who's better than you, you get a lot of points. When you lose to someone worse than you, you lose a lot of points. So when everyone is lower ranked than you are, you can only gain points by going undefeated or maybe 3-1. As such very highly ranked players tend to shun local events in order to protect their ratings, which isn't as pretentious as it sounds, since high enough ratings can get you invites to and bye-rounds at major events.
2.)Local events tend to generate their own meta-games that don't necessarily reflect the meta-game you would find at a major event. People are much more likely to bring homemade decks instead of net-decks (lists taken off the internet) or try new things. I remember a couple of weeks ago everyone brought control decks that “should beat Jund and Boros” two of the major decks in the overall meta-game. However, at the local not many people were playing them, so all of these control decks just ended up playing each other.
I myself tend to be much stronger at major events than local events. I rarely managed a 3-1 or better at Neutral, and I think the highest I've managed at Hanley's is a 2-1, but most of the time I just end up 2-2.
Our teammate Raja, on the other hand, recently went 4-0 and is consistently good at the local events. His secret: masterful meta-gaming of the local. When I asked him once about some strange choices he was making with his Bella Swan deck, he told me, “Your choices would be right at a major event, but I'm trying to make a deck that wins here.”
So that's a brief introduction and rundown of the local events in New York. Luckily for me, there is a major event on Saturday out in Jersey, and States is shortly after that on December 5th. The prize payout for the upcoming event is not cash but rather foil sets (shiny cards that are worth roughly twice as much as normal cards) of some of the major rares in Standard right now, like Baneslayer Angel (worth $50 a piece non-foil), Lotus Cobra ($20ish), and fetch lands ($15ish). Unfortunately I don't really have a deck yet. Right now it's between Eldrazi Green, which busted out of Nashville at the last Star City 5K like the Alien through Kane's chest, or [gasp] Jund. Yeah I know I said I would never play it, but it is the best deck and format, and it takes virtually no skill to play, so lack of playtesting won't be an issue. But we'll see...
Finally, I'd like to take this time to give a shout out to our teammate Conta who placed 13th at a Legacy event with 170 contenders. He claims that he's going to write a tournament report on it, so hopefully I'll have that posted here for you soon.
Upcoming: Hopefully some news involving shiny Baneslayers...
Check us out at: http://sites.google.com/site/teamdamageonthestack
Thursday, October 29, 2009
The Philly 5K Post-Game
Post game reports for this tournament have been out for some time, so I'm sure those of you who have read the standings know that Jund decks rocked the house, and now it's the deck that everyone is trying to beat. As such I won't blather on about that, but instead talk about some of the things we learned as a group.
Personally I learned two things from this tournament, one from direct experience and one from talking to players.
The first is that White Weenie is not very good anymore. For those of you who don't know Magic, White Weenie is what I would describe as a sub-archetype. As I detailed two posts ago, there are the grand archetypes of aggro, combo, control, and mid-range. Beneath those are these sub-archetypes, basically much more specific ways to construct your deck.
White Weenie decks are a type of aggro deck known for swarming the opposition and making its creatures bigger through the use of (well, since it's still baseball season) steroid-like-spells known as “pumps”. While the individual creatures are not very scary, when a lot of them start running around, things get wild.
In the previous meta-game White Weenie decks were awesome (hell, I played one for two years), and everyone who enjoys them was very excited by the advent of Soldiers becoming a prevalent creature type in the newest sets. Unfortunately they are just not good enough to stand up to Jund.
The second lesson I learned, from talking to several players at the event, is that I definitely do not want to play Jund. Yes, it is the best deck in format, but the mirror match (when two players with the same deck face each other) sounds like a clash of idiot-savants, not any type of skill or mental struggle. The game basically comes down to who can play better spells either first or more often. As far as I'm concerned, that's a whole lot of yawn.
Our team also learned something useful for all of you fans of the new Vampire deck.
Teammate Raja was playing a match with his build of Bella-Swan-Beatdown and had a copy of Vampire Nocturnus on the board (or the battlefield as they call it now). When the card is in play, you reveal the top card of your library (deck) and depending on what it is, your creatures get bonuses.
Now playing with the top card of your library revealed is very unusual, and it led Raja to make an unusual mistake. Instead of drawing the flipped over card and flipping over the next card in his library, he drew two cards. In major tournaments, this is an immediate game loss. Raja was so flabbergasted by his mistake, that he couldn't gather himself in time to argue with the judge about why he had drawn the two cards.
So, all of you Twilight lovers out there, remember that when you have a Nocturnus in play. You'll want to draw two cards because it's weird to have the top card of your deck flipped up...but don't do it.
And the last lesson our team learned is really more for all of you new players out there. I think everyone has this misconception that high level tournaments are populated with only good players running only the best decks. Certainly that is true of events that are so high you have to qualify for them or be invited (like a Pro Tour or Worlds), but most other events allow any player to compete. And, as Kyle learned for the first time, bad players will bring bad decks, and somehow they will still beat you.
Luck and chance are big factors in Magic, so even if you are a much better player with a much better deck, you can easily lose to a total newb who has no idea what he's doing. A singular match or even event is not necessarily a good indication of how good a player is or how good a deck is. It's over the course of many events that it is revealed how good a player really is.
Anyway, with all of these lessons under our collective belt (new for some, old for others), we return to New York City where we will be continuing to compete in local events and hone our skills for whatever the next big tournament is.
Upcoming: New York, the Local Scene
Check us out at: http://sites.google.com/site/teamdamageonthestack
Personally I learned two things from this tournament, one from direct experience and one from talking to players.
The first is that White Weenie is not very good anymore. For those of you who don't know Magic, White Weenie is what I would describe as a sub-archetype. As I detailed two posts ago, there are the grand archetypes of aggro, combo, control, and mid-range. Beneath those are these sub-archetypes, basically much more specific ways to construct your deck.
White Weenie decks are a type of aggro deck known for swarming the opposition and making its creatures bigger through the use of (well, since it's still baseball season) steroid-like-spells known as “pumps”. While the individual creatures are not very scary, when a lot of them start running around, things get wild.
In the previous meta-game White Weenie decks were awesome (hell, I played one for two years), and everyone who enjoys them was very excited by the advent of Soldiers becoming a prevalent creature type in the newest sets. Unfortunately they are just not good enough to stand up to Jund.
The second lesson I learned, from talking to several players at the event, is that I definitely do not want to play Jund. Yes, it is the best deck in format, but the mirror match (when two players with the same deck face each other) sounds like a clash of idiot-savants, not any type of skill or mental struggle. The game basically comes down to who can play better spells either first or more often. As far as I'm concerned, that's a whole lot of yawn.
Our team also learned something useful for all of you fans of the new Vampire deck.
Teammate Raja was playing a match with his build of Bella-Swan-Beatdown and had a copy of Vampire Nocturnus on the board (or the battlefield as they call it now). When the card is in play, you reveal the top card of your library (deck) and depending on what it is, your creatures get bonuses.
Now playing with the top card of your library revealed is very unusual, and it led Raja to make an unusual mistake. Instead of drawing the flipped over card and flipping over the next card in his library, he drew two cards. In major tournaments, this is an immediate game loss. Raja was so flabbergasted by his mistake, that he couldn't gather himself in time to argue with the judge about why he had drawn the two cards.
So, all of you Twilight lovers out there, remember that when you have a Nocturnus in play. You'll want to draw two cards because it's weird to have the top card of your deck flipped up...but don't do it.
And the last lesson our team learned is really more for all of you new players out there. I think everyone has this misconception that high level tournaments are populated with only good players running only the best decks. Certainly that is true of events that are so high you have to qualify for them or be invited (like a Pro Tour or Worlds), but most other events allow any player to compete. And, as Kyle learned for the first time, bad players will bring bad decks, and somehow they will still beat you.
Luck and chance are big factors in Magic, so even if you are a much better player with a much better deck, you can easily lose to a total newb who has no idea what he's doing. A singular match or even event is not necessarily a good indication of how good a player is or how good a deck is. It's over the course of many events that it is revealed how good a player really is.
Anyway, with all of these lessons under our collective belt (new for some, old for others), we return to New York City where we will be continuing to compete in local events and hone our skills for whatever the next big tournament is.
Upcoming: New York, the Local Scene
Check us out at: http://sites.google.com/site/teamdamageonthestack
Monday, October 19, 2009
The Philly 5K
Author's Note:I realize that this tournament has already taken place, but to maintain the tone of the blog and for the sake of storytelling, I have decided to keep it in present tense. Just go with me.
We arrive in Philadelphia at around 9am only a few blocks from the Pennsylvania Convention Center where the tournament is being held, and after getting some directions from the locals, make our way quickly towards it. The sun has risen, and it looks to be a pretty gray day, which is just as well since we will be spending almost all of it indoors. All of us are tired after having not slept the night before, though some show it more than others. Most of us haven't sufficiently tested our decks either, but we're all excited and feel that we have a shot of at least breaking into the Top 16, which would net us some prize money.
For those of you who have never been there, the Pennsylvania Convention Center is massive, a departure from the BO filled basements I'm used to inhabiting. The Star City Games event has its own wing, and there is actually a video game tournament going on elsewhere at the same time. So much nerd.
At around 10am (maybe closer to 10:30) we are seated so that the judges can collect our deck lists. These lists will be used later to make sure that all of the players have the correct number of cards in their decks (60 minimum), don't have more than four copies of any given card (other than basic lands), and aren't using cards that are not allowed in the Standard format. You would be surprised at how many times these rules end up being violated.
After handing in the deck lists we are reseated to be paired with our first round opponents. This basically involves everyone trying to crowd around lists posted on bulletin boards at the front of the room where the players names are listed next to their assigned table number. Once we're all seated, it's time to start!By the end of the first round, of the seven players who make up our team (either officially or honorarily) four are 1-0 and three are 0-1, which isn't a terrible start. But after the fourth round things have started to take a turn for the worst. Only one of our players has a winning record at 3-1, two are at 2-2 with only an outside shot at getting into the Top 16 if they can win the rest of their matches, and four players who have dropped from the tournament altogether.
I ended up going 1-3 and dropping after the fourth round, not wanting to play out the remaining five rounds with a deck that I have come to feel is simply inferior. There are a bunch of side events going on, but I don't enter any of them right away because the other guys want to see how well they do first. I have assurances from Kyle (who is 2-2) that if he loses in this round he will drop and draft with me. But at the end of the fourth round he and Kanvaly are both 3-2, and Conta is 4-1.
I enter a side draft on my own to kill time while those three play out their final four rounds. Our other teammates, Matt, Raja, and Joe Shi, all decide to head back to New York.
After all nine rounds are played out, Kanvaly and Kyle end up going 6-3 (not at all a bad showing, since this was Kyle's first major event and Kanvaly's second), and Conta ends up 4-5. My drafting goes about as well as my Standard play did, and I end up being eliminated in the first round. Sad-cat iz sad.
Since the main event is over, and all of the side events cease with the onset of the Top 8 final rounds, we decide to go grab some dinner. We find a nice Philly Cheesesteak place and are able to enjoy a little bit of the city's culture before returning to the Chinatown Bus Terminal next to the Convention Center.
The terminal is just about one of the sketchiest places I've ever seen. The bathrooms are trashed with graffiti covering every inch of the walls; the main room is a painful white; and there are blue Christmas lights over the windows that flash continuously in a seizure inducing manner. The bus wasn't much better, being more cramped than the megabus we took down to Philly, and squeaking annoyingly, which prevent at least Kyle from sleeping.
We get back to the city exhausted and somewhat let down from a long day without any tangible reward. But more often than not, that's how Magic goes. What separates us from many other scrubs, is that in the next couple of days we will be studying the lists that did make the Top 16 and proxying copies of them to test against, getting ready for the next major event, whenever that may be.
Upcoming: The Philly 5K Post-Game
Check us out at: http://sites.google.com/site/teamdamageonthestack
Thursday, October 15, 2009
A Brief Lesson in Terminology
Okay yeah, so I lied. I decided to forgo writing about the Philadelphia 5K immediately. My reasoning (and this will be the closest I get to making a mission statement) is that I would like people outside of the Magic community, as well as those who are familiar and initimate with its workings, to read these articles. Call me hopeful. Call me naïve. Call me Ishmael. But it's the direction I'm choosing to take with this, so all of you who are well versed in the terms of the game, please just bare with me a bit.
Now our lesson of the day for you Magic newbies out there: basic deck archetypes. A minimal understanding of these concepts will go a long way when I describe (in the next post) what sort of decks our team were playing at the tournament. Every player will agree that there are at least three major deck types: aggro, combo, and control.
“Aggro” or “aggressive” decks are designed to beat an opponent by dealing him lethal damage very quickly (many can accomplish this in about four-turns of play if left unchecked). Aggro decks (supposedly) have a favorable match up against control decks but fold to combo.
“Combo” decks try to beat the opponent with a combination of two or more cards and an infinite number of style points for pulling it off. If a combo decks plays all of the cards it needs for its winning combination (“goes off” in Magic parlance), aggro will lose because it has no way to stop it. Control decks on the other hand are designed for just this occasion.
“Control” decks use counter-magic, which is just what is sounds like, and other controlling elements to make sure that they are the ones wearing the pants throughout the course of the game. I personally believe that a good control build will always be the best deck in format. Control decks have answers to both combo and aggro decks and generally run enough “draw card” spells to get to them. The reason aggo decks are said to have a good match up against them is that control decks generally don't do anything until turn four. As such, aggro decks can sometimes out race them, but if the control deck stabilizes it's all over.
Though all players will agree on these three archetypes, there is a fourth called “mid-range” that sometimes gets mentioned. Mid-range decks tend to get lumped together with aggro because the game-plan is pretty much the same. The main difference is that mid-range is focused on playing lumbering obesities that punch you really hard, while aggro is more focused on speed, dexterity, and getting things over and done with quickly before the husband comes home. I consider mid-range a separate archetype from aggro because it plays very differently and tends to have great match ups against aggro decks while having a much harder time with control.
How your aggro, control, or combo deck works will depend on what colors you as a deck builder choose to play. I'm not going to delve into the color wheel right now because that's a topic many people have gone over and one that takes a lot of time to talk about.
Finally, the last thing I wanted to talk about was the term “meta-game”. Magic isn't like poker in that the cards players have available to them constantly change (about four times a year now). This means that the decks players can build change as well. A good constructed player will be aware of the meta, knowing what decks his opponents are likely to play and having answers to all of them, either in the main deck or the sideboard (a set of exactly 15 cards that can be swapped in to enhance the deck). The choices players make in deck building, from what base archetype they want to use to which individual cards they decide to play, are based on the meta-game.
One of the reasons the Philly 5K is such a big event (other than it's $2000 first place prize) is that it's the first major tournament since a new set of cards came in, which means there aren't any deck lists anywhere, i.e. there is no meta-game. The decks we run at this event could shape the future meta if we do well, but we are also entering the tournament blind.
Upcoming: The Philly 5K (for real this time)
Check us out at: http://sites.google.com/site/teamdamageonthestack/
Now our lesson of the day for you Magic newbies out there: basic deck archetypes. A minimal understanding of these concepts will go a long way when I describe (in the next post) what sort of decks our team were playing at the tournament. Every player will agree that there are at least three major deck types: aggro, combo, and control.
“Aggro” or “aggressive” decks are designed to beat an opponent by dealing him lethal damage very quickly (many can accomplish this in about four-turns of play if left unchecked). Aggro decks (supposedly) have a favorable match up against control decks but fold to combo.
“Combo” decks try to beat the opponent with a combination of two or more cards and an infinite number of style points for pulling it off. If a combo decks plays all of the cards it needs for its winning combination (“goes off” in Magic parlance), aggro will lose because it has no way to stop it. Control decks on the other hand are designed for just this occasion.
“Control” decks use counter-magic, which is just what is sounds like, and other controlling elements to make sure that they are the ones wearing the pants throughout the course of the game. I personally believe that a good control build will always be the best deck in format. Control decks have answers to both combo and aggro decks and generally run enough “draw card” spells to get to them. The reason aggo decks are said to have a good match up against them is that control decks generally don't do anything until turn four. As such, aggro decks can sometimes out race them, but if the control deck stabilizes it's all over.
Though all players will agree on these three archetypes, there is a fourth called “mid-range” that sometimes gets mentioned. Mid-range decks tend to get lumped together with aggro because the game-plan is pretty much the same. The main difference is that mid-range is focused on playing lumbering obesities that punch you really hard, while aggro is more focused on speed, dexterity, and getting things over and done with quickly before the husband comes home. I consider mid-range a separate archetype from aggro because it plays very differently and tends to have great match ups against aggro decks while having a much harder time with control.
How your aggro, control, or combo deck works will depend on what colors you as a deck builder choose to play. I'm not going to delve into the color wheel right now because that's a topic many people have gone over and one that takes a lot of time to talk about.
Finally, the last thing I wanted to talk about was the term “meta-game”. Magic isn't like poker in that the cards players have available to them constantly change (about four times a year now). This means that the decks players can build change as well. A good constructed player will be aware of the meta, knowing what decks his opponents are likely to play and having answers to all of them, either in the main deck or the sideboard (a set of exactly 15 cards that can be swapped in to enhance the deck). The choices players make in deck building, from what base archetype they want to use to which individual cards they decide to play, are based on the meta-game.
One of the reasons the Philly 5K is such a big event (other than it's $2000 first place prize) is that it's the first major tournament since a new set of cards came in, which means there aren't any deck lists anywhere, i.e. there is no meta-game. The decks we run at this event could shape the future meta if we do well, but we are also entering the tournament blind.
Upcoming: The Philly 5K (for real this time)
Check us out at: http://sites.google.com/site/teamdamageonthestack/
Monday, October 12, 2009
We Are Team D.O.T.S.
The city is quiet, its streets nearly empty, as I glide through it silently in the back seat of a cab. Winter is just around the corner, and so at 6am the sun still hasn't risen. I haven't been up this early for as long as I can remember, and if I was it was probably because I had just finished the night, not begun the day. Yet here I am, 6am on a Saturday, heading downtown to Penn Station to catch a 6:50 bus to Philadelphia. The occasion? Star City Games' 5K, the first major Standard event after the Zendikar rotation. For those of you not in the know, that would be a Magic tournament. I can hear the snickers already...
Whenever I tell people that Magic is the only thing that has gotten me up prior to 11am on a weekend for the last three years, the typical reaction is a laugh full of pity or a derisive chuckle followed by a catch-all “wow” or “you're such a nerd” or “you're ridiculous” or even all three. I don't really expect people to understand, which is more often why I don't talk about my hobby than shame or embarrassment, and to be honest I'm not entirely sure that I fully understand why I play the game. It's an enormous drain on time, money, energy, mental stability, social standing, and for what? It's not like anyone can make a living off playing Magic, or become famous through it, or bedazzle women with knowledge of its mechanics. It's not one of those hobbies that can eventually pay dividends for you like eating hotdogs or wrestling alligators.
So when people ask me how I can put up with waking up at the ass-crack of dawn to be voluntarily stuck in a room populated mostly by dudes for a 10 hour tournament that doesn't have any scheduled breaks only to scrub out with some unlucky draws against a bad player running a janky deck after having play-tested and perfected my build for weeks, I tell them the only thing I can. I love the game.
And I am not the only one.
Team Damage On The Stack (a.k.a. Team D.O.T.S.) is a group of players from New York City looking to take the Magic scene by storm. We all have different skills, experiences, and goals in regards to Magic. Some of us have been playing competitively for years and have already ranked in major events (including yours truly), while others have just started down that road. But one thing that we most definitely share is our love for the game.
It is this love that has us congregated under the looming silhouette of Madison Square Garden in the pre-dawn darkness waiting for our bus to whisk us away to the magical ghetto-land of Philadelphia with its promises of no-fame, no-glory, little-money, and several hours of grinding play which will most certainly leave us mentally drained and emotionally strained. The funny thing is, we're all actually looking forward to it.
Upcoming: The Philly 5K
Whenever I tell people that Magic is the only thing that has gotten me up prior to 11am on a weekend for the last three years, the typical reaction is a laugh full of pity or a derisive chuckle followed by a catch-all “wow” or “you're such a nerd” or “you're ridiculous” or even all three. I don't really expect people to understand, which is more often why I don't talk about my hobby than shame or embarrassment, and to be honest I'm not entirely sure that I fully understand why I play the game. It's an enormous drain on time, money, energy, mental stability, social standing, and for what? It's not like anyone can make a living off playing Magic, or become famous through it, or bedazzle women with knowledge of its mechanics. It's not one of those hobbies that can eventually pay dividends for you like eating hotdogs or wrestling alligators.
So when people ask me how I can put up with waking up at the ass-crack of dawn to be voluntarily stuck in a room populated mostly by dudes for a 10 hour tournament that doesn't have any scheduled breaks only to scrub out with some unlucky draws against a bad player running a janky deck after having play-tested and perfected my build for weeks, I tell them the only thing I can. I love the game.
And I am not the only one.
Team Damage On The Stack (a.k.a. Team D.O.T.S.) is a group of players from New York City looking to take the Magic scene by storm. We all have different skills, experiences, and goals in regards to Magic. Some of us have been playing competitively for years and have already ranked in major events (including yours truly), while others have just started down that road. But one thing that we most definitely share is our love for the game.
It is this love that has us congregated under the looming silhouette of Madison Square Garden in the pre-dawn darkness waiting for our bus to whisk us away to the magical ghetto-land of Philadelphia with its promises of no-fame, no-glory, little-money, and several hours of grinding play which will most certainly leave us mentally drained and emotionally strained. The funny thing is, we're all actually looking forward to it.
Upcoming: The Philly 5K
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