Next Episode! Tourney Style! (15)
The Next Episode.
Welcome, in this blog we will pick up where I left off with the MTG tournament. Forgotten part one? Click here. Alright, so this week I decided too try something a little faster. I put together a faerie rogue deck. Based on speed and using Earwig Squad to steal their best cards. I also am running a couple of Notorious Throng cards. It's a little expensive for this deck and Legacy format in general! But I got to try it.....
Once again same rules. 4 rounds of play. Winner has to take 2 out of 3 matches in the round. If you are the top two then you get to play for the winner of the night. Alright, so here we go:
Round 1:
Up first I find myself facing my friend with his 5 year goblin constructed deck from last time. I'm ready this time though! I got a fast deck too!
Match 1:
Not fast enough. He comes out of the gate with a swarm of goblins and nasty burn spells as well. 0-1
Ok, not cool. Let's try that one again!
Match 2:
I jump off to an early start this time. Hit him with some quick fliers. Get a key counter in there and start my faerie crowd going. Maybe I have a chance this time! No, not so much. He comes back on me with a couple Goblin Grenade. And I fall. 0-2.
Great this is starting off just great......
Rounds: 0-1 Matches: 0-2
Round 2:
Next up I am facing another member of the store owner's family, his son. Hopefully he's not running treefolk! I am looking forward to the battle. He has a deck that seems pretty weak. It's red/green and made to stop suspend decks and mess with storm. I'm not too worried. But I also am not stupid either. We shall see what happens.
Match 1:
We go back and forth and it is a relatively close game. He edges me out though. 0-1
Match 2:
This match was more exciting than the first one! I was able to start a little swarm on him. Still we traded blows all the way till it was the point of no return. He has me down at 3 life. I know he has a burn deck so I need a seriously quick kill.
I hit him with my Prickly Boggart and then drop Notorious Throng . OK, now I have a small army of fliers and took another turn. As I am calculating I realize one thing though, I can't do it. I can hit him for all but one, ONE, of his life. I know I can't survive past his turn though. So with a sad heart I punch him down to one. Then he wins. But I was so close this time. Unfortunately close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and nuclear war.....0-2
Rounds: 0-2 Matches: 0-4.
Round 3:
Great! Next I am pitted against this girl who is running a Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker deck. We all remember that one from last time and it beat me 2-0. It wasn't fun last tournament and I'm not enjoying the fact I have to go back. Can I get some kind of win streak going?
Match 1:
She can't seem to get a Tooth and Nail to pull her Sky Hussar out. I manage to hold on, and because of a perfect Cryptic Command, I am able to put her away! Alright and about time too! A win! 1-0
Match 2:
You know how there are moments in life when everything just comes together and meshes so well it's perfect and almost magical? Oh yeah this was finally that moment.......
Early on I am able to hit her with Earwig Squad . And I steal her only Sky Hussar in the deck. With that gone some turns later I hit her with my second Earwig Bandits. And dump her Tooth and Nails too. But I'm not done with her yet! Since my Earwig is a rogue it lets me play my Notorious Throng with the Prowl cost. Bam! Before she knows it I have generated an army of fliers and got another turn coming right up. Boo yah! She wasn't very appreciative of my resounding victory. But she was a little sore! Ha ha. 2-0!
Could this be what I needed? My deck worked perfectly and I know exactly how to manipulate it now. So all that's left is one more round and then I hopefully can get 2 rounds won for the night. Help my DCI points too.
Rounds: 1-3 Matches: 2-4
Round 4:
Ok, final round I am playing a guy who has been creating buzz tonight because his deck seems to be one of the most solid. His one loss has come at the hands of the merciless W deck with the truly scary Orim's Chant / Isochron Scepter combo. That deck is nasty. But so is my opponent's as well....
Match 1:
The deck my opponent is using has it all. He's got combos. He's got back up plans. And did I mention he is only running two land? First match he comes at me with all he's got. Which isn't a lot of creatures. So I bash him good. Hurt him down to about 7 life. I am getting to play beat down! His main combo isn't working. But then he draws the card for the secondary part of the combo. Goblin Charbelcher. Did I mention he is only running two land? He gets all his mana from cheap to no cost artifacts like Lion's Eye Diamond. I take a massive amount of damage and I'm down for the match. 0-1.
Match 2:
OK, so that was rough. I'm not depressed though. I played a good game. It was just happenstance that he got me. My deck is relatively fast. Maybe I can pull one off. Maybe I will get fortunate....and I do, just not in the way I want...
Remember the good old keyword storm? That's the deck's main combo.Tendrils of Agony are what really runs it. He pumps out a ton of mana using his spells and and artifacts. And since all the artifacts cost 0 then he builds up a massive storm and kills you in one turn. It is a sick, sick deck. And he knows it.
I try to hold on, but he draws cards with storm until he hits the tendrils. Then it is game over for me. 0-2
Rounds: 1-3 Matches: 2-6
That total looks suspiciously like my last tournament's round total! So yes I fall again. But at least I had a fighting chance this week. So what did I do wrong? Was my deck the weakest there? No.
In my opinion the deck the store owners son ran was the most pathetic. If it had a combo it didn't really show. My deck was actually better except for the fact I got stuck with mana problems on one round. The Mirror Breaker deck was good. And I do feel it was better than the faerie rogue deck I ran. But she couldn't get her combo going. I don't know if she was just bad at magic or if I just got fortunate. That match showed me though that I at least had the skeleton of a good deck. I just needed to make some changes.
First up I shouldn't have ran my Cryptic Command in it. They are awesome but the triple blue cost is bad news was a little rough since my deck was blue/black.. Especially in one where the majority of the cards were black!
Second I needed better cards. Seems simple but 'what's simple is true.' Bitterblossom was a must for a faerie deck. If you run a faerie deck and you don't think you need that card, you might need professional help! Course I am kidding but seriously Bitterblossom is a powerhouse in one card. If you aren't running it, why not? Also a play set of Mutavault might have helped my deck as well.
So anyway, there you have it. I played in 2 tournaments back to back and didn't do much. After that I decided to build a really stellar dredge deck. Spent a nice chunk of money on it. Was all ready to go conquer! And then I found out the store where we play at was vandalized. Someone checked a hug rock through the window and stole there entire YU-GI-OH stock. So they haven't been open since then. Unfortunately that was the only place I could play at in town(at the time). So there I stood. I didn't want to drive over an hour if to play in a tournament. So that ended my gaming days for a while. Such is life huh? Months later I discovered that Cloak and Dagger comics in Daytona ran them too. Ah cest la vie!
So there you have it. Whatever game you are playing can be kicked up a notch or two by just playing a tournament. You learn so much from the experience. Not just from the winning, but more from the loosing. Also you will learn a lot about yourself as well. So that's that. Until next time fellow geeks......
Welcome, in this blog we will pick up where I left off with the MTG tournament. Forgotten part one? Click here. Alright, so this week I decided too try something a little faster. I put together a faerie rogue deck. Based on speed and using Earwig Squad to steal their best cards. I also am running a couple of Notorious Throng cards. It's a little expensive for this deck and Legacy format in general! But I got to try it.....
Once again same rules. 4 rounds of play. Winner has to take 2 out of 3 matches in the round. If you are the top two then you get to play for the winner of the night. Alright, so here we go:
Round 1:
Up first I find myself facing my friend with his 5 year goblin constructed deck from last time. I'm ready this time though! I got a fast deck too!
Match 1:
Not fast enough. He comes out of the gate with a swarm of goblins and nasty burn spells as well. 0-1
Ok, not cool. Let's try that one again!
Match 2:
I jump off to an early start this time. Hit him with some quick fliers. Get a key counter in there and start my faerie crowd going. Maybe I have a chance this time! No, not so much. He comes back on me with a couple Goblin Grenade. And I fall. 0-2.
Great this is starting off just great......
Rounds: 0-1 Matches: 0-2
Round 2:
Next up I am facing another member of the store owner's family, his son. Hopefully he's not running treefolk! I am looking forward to the battle. He has a deck that seems pretty weak. It's red/green and made to stop suspend decks and mess with storm. I'm not too worried. But I also am not stupid either. We shall see what happens.
Match 1:
We go back and forth and it is a relatively close game. He edges me out though. 0-1
Match 2:
This match was more exciting than the first one! I was able to start a little swarm on him. Still we traded blows all the way till it was the point of no return. He has me down at 3 life. I know he has a burn deck so I need a seriously quick kill.
I hit him with my Prickly Boggart and then drop Notorious Throng . OK, now I have a small army of fliers and took another turn. As I am calculating I realize one thing though, I can't do it. I can hit him for all but one, ONE, of his life. I know I can't survive past his turn though. So with a sad heart I punch him down to one. Then he wins. But I was so close this time. Unfortunately close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and nuclear war.....0-2
Rounds: 0-2 Matches: 0-4.
Round 3:
Great! Next I am pitted against this girl who is running a Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker deck. We all remember that one from last time and it beat me 2-0. It wasn't fun last tournament and I'm not enjoying the fact I have to go back. Can I get some kind of win streak going?
Match 1:
She can't seem to get a Tooth and Nail to pull her Sky Hussar out. I manage to hold on, and because of a perfect Cryptic Command, I am able to put her away! Alright and about time too! A win! 1-0
Match 2:
You know how there are moments in life when everything just comes together and meshes so well it's perfect and almost magical? Oh yeah this was finally that moment.......
Early on I am able to hit her with Earwig Squad . And I steal her only Sky Hussar in the deck. With that gone some turns later I hit her with my second Earwig Bandits. And dump her Tooth and Nails too. But I'm not done with her yet! Since my Earwig is a rogue it lets me play my Notorious Throng with the Prowl cost. Bam! Before she knows it I have generated an army of fliers and got another turn coming right up. Boo yah! She wasn't very appreciative of my resounding victory. But she was a little sore! Ha ha. 2-0!
Could this be what I needed? My deck worked perfectly and I know exactly how to manipulate it now. So all that's left is one more round and then I hopefully can get 2 rounds won for the night. Help my DCI points too.
Rounds: 1-3 Matches: 2-4
Round 4:
Ok, final round I am playing a guy who has been creating buzz tonight because his deck seems to be one of the most solid. His one loss has come at the hands of the merciless W deck with the truly scary Orim's Chant / Isochron Scepter combo. That deck is nasty. But so is my opponent's as well....
Match 1:
The deck my opponent is using has it all. He's got combos. He's got back up plans. And did I mention he is only running two land? First match he comes at me with all he's got. Which isn't a lot of creatures. So I bash him good. Hurt him down to about 7 life. I am getting to play beat down! His main combo isn't working. But then he draws the card for the secondary part of the combo. Goblin Charbelcher. Did I mention he is only running two land? He gets all his mana from cheap to no cost artifacts like Lion's Eye Diamond. I take a massive amount of damage and I'm down for the match. 0-1.
Match 2:
OK, so that was rough. I'm not depressed though. I played a good game. It was just happenstance that he got me. My deck is relatively fast. Maybe I can pull one off. Maybe I will get fortunate....and I do, just not in the way I want...
Remember the good old keyword storm? That's the deck's main combo.Tendrils of Agony are what really runs it. He pumps out a ton of mana using his spells and and artifacts. And since all the artifacts cost 0 then he builds up a massive storm and kills you in one turn. It is a sick, sick deck. And he knows it.
I try to hold on, but he draws cards with storm until he hits the tendrils. Then it is game over for me. 0-2
Rounds: 1-3 Matches: 2-6
That total looks suspiciously like my last tournament's round total! So yes I fall again. But at least I had a fighting chance this week. So what did I do wrong? Was my deck the weakest there? No.
In my opinion the deck the store owners son ran was the most pathetic. If it had a combo it didn't really show. My deck was actually better except for the fact I got stuck with mana problems on one round. The Mirror Breaker deck was good. And I do feel it was better than the faerie rogue deck I ran. But she couldn't get her combo going. I don't know if she was just bad at magic or if I just got fortunate. That match showed me though that I at least had the skeleton of a good deck. I just needed to make some changes.
First up I shouldn't have ran my Cryptic Command in it. They are awesome but the triple blue cost is bad news was a little rough since my deck was blue/black.. Especially in one where the majority of the cards were black!
Second I needed better cards. Seems simple but 'what's simple is true.' Bitterblossom was a must for a faerie deck. If you run a faerie deck and you don't think you need that card, you might need professional help! Course I am kidding but seriously Bitterblossom is a powerhouse in one card. If you aren't running it, why not? Also a play set of Mutavault might have helped my deck as well.
So anyway, there you have it. I played in 2 tournaments back to back and didn't do much. After that I decided to build a really stellar dredge deck. Spent a nice chunk of money on it. Was all ready to go conquer! And then I found out the store where we play at was vandalized. Someone checked a hug rock through the window and stole there entire YU-GI-OH stock. So they haven't been open since then. Unfortunately that was the only place I could play at in town(at the time). So there I stood. I didn't want to drive over an hour if to play in a tournament. So that ended my gaming days for a while. Such is life huh? Months later I discovered that Cloak and Dagger comics in Daytona ran them too. Ah cest la vie!
So there you have it. Whatever game you are playing can be kicked up a notch or two by just playing a tournament. You learn so much from the experience. Not just from the winning, but more from the loosing. Also you will learn a lot about yourself as well. So that's that. Until next time fellow geeks......
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