[MtG] Australian Nationals - Report
David J Low
I've been waiting for the organisers to post their own report of
events, but since it's been over a week with nothing (that I've
seen!) I've taken the plunge myself. Enjoy!
Regards,
David.
THE TOURNAMENT
==============
The Australian National MtG Championships were held Saturday July 15th at
the Sydney RSL Club. Chris Foggin was the official organiser, assisted by
Matt Boesen. About fifty people participated, spread evenly between the
states (except the ACT, half a dozen of whose representatives were
misinformed as to the date of the Nationals). The venue was magnificent -
individual tables with plenty of elbow room, good lighting, and a fully
operational bar. This latter facility served $1.70 pints, and I assign at
least some blame for my performance to my inability to resist such
temptations!
The SA team numbered about eight players: Michael Johncock, Jeremy Lucas,
and yours truly flying courtesy of Tactics and Stadium Sportscards; Nathan
Russell drove over with Lou the Peg, Simon Bucyk and Ikey; Russ Ireland,
James Crockart, and Andy Ahrens also made the trip. Saturday morning saw us
meet up at the RSL, at which point the fun started. Andy had to go back to
the hotel to get his cards, Ikey found out that he couldn't play due to the
qualifying rules, and Jezza and I started agitating for the bar to open
before the proposed 11am start. Nathan, who incidentally played the entire
day in black gloves and sunglasses, discovered that his deck was only 56 cards
("Oh, that's right, I'm only using 16 land!"), and hurridly traded for a
few essentials. And, to cap it all off, we had to persuade the organisers
that Lou really was Lou, and not some last-minute ring-in. I also managed
to meet up with the QLD contingent (the wonders of EMail), and SA/QLD formed
an instant bond against the rest of Oz.
Anyway, with this all over and our request for the scoring rules turned down
("Could we please have a copy of the rules?" - "No, there aren't any." -
"Any what: copies, or rules??!"), the first of eight rounds was drawn. You
played three games against your drawn opponent in a round, scoring one point
for a win (3-0, 2-1), half for a draw or incomplete, and nothing for a loss.
This had the unfortunate effect of simulating an elimination event, as well as
increasing the luck factor in sideboarding. Supposedly the tourney was to be
Swiss, but there's obviously a different interpretation of what makes up a
Swiss draw in Sydney - more on that later. I started off the day in poor
form, not helped by an opponent who drew more Hypnos than a Dr. Mesmer
seminar, and a closed bar. Nathan and Lou had rockets, though, and went
through undefeated until about the fourth round where they met each other
(with Lou victorious).
Simon Bucyk was playing what was undoubtably the most amusing deck in the
tournament - mono Red, with Mana Clash, Game of Chaos, and a variety of
destructives. We had arranged before the tourney that he would announce his
first Game in a loud voice, alerting the rest of us. The plan was that,
upon his opponent pulling out of the Game, the rest of us would all stand up
and join Simon in a loud, finger-pointing call of "Piker!" at the poor
unfortunate opponent.
The pity was, none of us heard him, and poor ol' Bucky was left standing
with his mouth open, amidst a sea of incredulous faces. Really, Simon, we
didn't hear you. Honest.
Anyhow, the tourney has continued, and by keeping track of scores ourselves
(the organisers declined to publish scores on a round-by-round basis) we
worked out that Lou and Nathan had done well enough to win, joined by one of
the QLDers (Chris Hudson). Unfortunately, our assumptions were based on the
draw being a proper Swiss, and as it turns out there were a few holes. The
prizegiving was moved to The Pavilion (a sort of indoor food court, with a
lot of tables and space), where the top sixteen or so have been announced.
Imagine our surprise when Nathan has been called out in about fourteenth
spot, with a 7-1 record! My puny 5-3 was called up a few places higher,
which prompted us to query the scores. A bit of confusion ensued, and the
organisers unfortunately decided not to check the scores before reading out
the top four finishers (who would be getting flights to the Worlds in
Seattle). This resulted in them having to recant one place, never a
pleasant experience. The bloke who was announced as the overall winner came
as a surprise, since he had managed to avoid the other top finishers during
the tourney (another indication of the non-Swiss draw). In fact, none of
the SA or QLD contingents could remember seeing him playing at all! That's
what comes from concentrating too hard on our own games, I guess. Anyway,
you won't find his deck below, since no one I've asked has any idea about it.
Another surprise came with the prizes - apparantly, Wizards were only
putting forwards about half the winners' airfares (although they were
generously paying for the organisers to go to Seattle). This left Nathan and
Lou in a bit of a bind, since arranging a thousand dollars at short notice is
a significant ask. Nevertheless, they're trying :-)
If asked to summarise the tourney, I would have to include the word
"shabby" (not shoddy). The organisers displayed considerable
inexperience in dealing with this type of event, but could well improve with
practise. Little things such as an intelligent scoring system, proper Swiss
draw, providing full scoring details to the participants, and checking the
scores before announcing winners, would have made things run a little
smoother. On the larger scale, details of the prizes should have been made
clear beforehand - all advertising implied that the winners would be paid
for, not just half-paid for. A trip to the US is not a minor excursion for
many people, and it should never be assumed that the winners could just come
up with the cash. The efforts of the organisers to arrange extra
sponsorship are to be applauded, but they should not have been necessary at
such a late stage.
A sad addenda - on the way home, Nathan and friends disputed road position
with an escaped herd of cattle on the Hume Highway outside of Hay. At about
8pm, in the darkness, they rounded a curve and proceeded to harvest two
cows, writing off the car in the process. The police officer who
arrived moments later accounted for another couple, as did sundry other
commuters, but the major damage was done by the semi-trailer rig driver who
cleaned up at least five before grinding to a halt with barely a scratch.
Nathan, a committed vegetarian, is still coming to grips with killing two
cows (and contributing to the deaths of thirteen others) :-(
THE DECKS
=========
Of course, there was a lot of individual variation between fifty-odd decks,
and these are just my personal feelings based on what I saw! The decks I
played included:
* three Black denial variants (one straight Black, one with Blue, one with Red)
* two UW Stasis/Kismet/Vice variants
* RG fast mana/Wurm (Scaled, Craw, Johtull)
* RW artifact-critter
* RU land destruct/denial
Winter Orbs, Vices, and Zuran Orbs were popular. Denial in a variety of
forms, but generally land denial, seemed to be a prevalent theme around the
tourney. My own preference is for straightforward life-denial, without any
of the bells and whistles :-) Weenie decks were not as popular as I thought
they'd be - maybe people were put off by the thought of Pyroclasm and/or
Anarchy?! There seemed to be a large number of decks which relied on
combinations rather than a theme - many decks shut down if they didn't see a
Vice, Orb, Stasis, or whatever, as you'd expect. Good tourney decks don't
rely on any particular card, they act like a seamless whole barring things
like mana gluts or shortages which you can't do a damn thing about anyway.
Now for some individual decks. These include three of the top four (missing
the "Invisible Man's" deck), plus a few others that I was able to obtain.
Other World Championship contenders reading this article are more than
welcome to sideboard before their first match, but should be warned that we
Aussies tend to change decks rather drastically between tournaments!
Anyhow, it's my report, and I'll go first if I want to...
DAVID LOW (RG weenies-on-steroids-with-guns)
--------------------------------------------
4 Scryb Sprites, Goblin Balloon Brigade, Mons Goblin Raiders,
Mishra's Factory, Giant Growth, Blood Lust, Lightning Bolt, Incinerate,
Goblin Grenade
3 Timber Wolves
2 Night Soil, Stormbind
1 Sylvan Library
4 Karplusan Forest, 1 Timberline Ridge, 8 Mountains, 5 Forests
Sideboard: 3 Shatter, 3 Earthquake, 3 Anarchy, 3 Tranquility, 3 Meekstone
The worrying thing from my point of view is that I didn't see any decks
which really stuffed me up. I'm sure they were there, it's just that I
never performed well enough to meet them! As to why...well, I can come up
with excuses at will, and have appended a few below :-) Score: 5-3.
Highlights: 3-0 wins and 1-2 losses. Played Chris Hudson in the second-last
round, tied 1-1, and we played a 90-second third game so that one of us would
get through (an incomplete or draw would have stuffed both of us). My deck
choked under pressure, and he ran off with a plane ticket :-(
NATHAN RUSSELL (W weenie horde)
-------------------------------
4 Order of Leitbur, White Knight, Icatian Infantry, Savannah Lions, Crusade,
Swords to Plowshares, Black Vise
3 Benalish Hero, Kjeldoran Warrior, Disenchant
2 Order of the White Shield, Hipparion, Armageddon
1 Mesa Pegasus
16 Plains
Sideboard: 3 Conversion, 3 Healing Salve, 2 Mesa Pegasus, 1 Karma,
1 Righteousness, 1 Kjeldoran Warrior, 1 Red Ward, 1 Disenchant,
1 Pearled Unicorn, 1 Benalish Hero
Nathan went 7-1 (or maybe 6.5-1.5, depending on whether his last round of 1-0
was counted as a draw or a win - another problem with secret scoring systems),
and was probably the rightful winner. The matter is currently under
discussion with the organisers, and the results are awaited with interest.
Of course, we're still trying to persuade them that we played *eight* rounds,
not seven, in the day....
LOU THE PEG (B weenie/denial)
-----------------------------
4 Black Knight, Order of the Ebon Hand, Knights of Stromgald,
Hypnotic Spectre, Hymn to Tourach, Urza's Bauble, Barbed Sextant,
Sleight of Mind, Dark Ritual, Strip Mine
2 Bad Moon
1 Mind Twist, Drain Life, The Rack, Dance of the Dead, Unholy Strength,
Thrull Retainer
3 Underground River, 9 Swamps
Sideboard: 4 Weakness, 3 Drain Life, 2 Gloom, 2 Swamps, 2 Terror, 1 Disenchant,
1 The Rack
Lou started off really well, reaching about 5-0 before stuttering in the
last couple of games and finishing on about 6.5-1.5. And no, I don't
understand how a deck with that many BB spells can get by with just twelve
coloured mana!
JEREMY LUCAS (WR weenie-with-guns)
----------------------------------
4 White Knights, Pikemen, Mesa Pegasus, Crusade, Lightning Bolt, Incinerate,
Fireball
3 Icatian Infantry, Swords to Plowshares, Disenchant
2 Tundra Wolves
1 Serra Angel, Northern Paladin, Jayemdae Tome
2 Ruins of Trokair, 9 Plains, 9 Mountains
Sideboard: 4 Disintegrate, 4 Pyroblast, 2 Conversion, 1 Swords to Plowshares,
1 Disenchant, 1 Icatian Infantry, 1 Karma, 1 Dwarven Ruins
Jeremy had probably the worst day of the lot of us (he even lost to Simon's
Mana Clash deck, which is a sad statement in itself). He had a worse mana
day than me, with a typical land distribution of WRRR. Ah well, it had to
happen to someone! Another of those data points in the "Magic is 90% luck"
hypothesis, since his deck was easily going 50% or more against Lou, Nathan
and myself in playtesting a couple of nights before the tourney. Just goes
to show that even a competitive deck can suffer heart failure, curl up and
die.
CHRIS HUDSON (RB card denial)
-----------------------------
4 Dark Rituals, The Rack, Hymn to Tourach, Hypnotic Spectre, Mindstab Thrull,
Lightning Bolt
2 Disrupting Sceptre, Nevinyrral's Disk, Sengir Vampire, Animate Dead, Shatter,
Incinerate
1 Dance of the Dead, Zuran Orb, Mind Twist
1 Sulfurous Springs, 2 Lava Tubes, 6 Mountains, 12 Swamps
Sideboard: 4 Red Elemental Blasts, 3 Gloom, 2 Terror, 2 Shatter, 1 Anarchy,
1 Deathgrip, 1 Jeweled Amulet, 1 Greed
Chris also finished on about 6.5-1.5, and I'm sure he used Jedi mind tricks
on the bloody Zuran Orb, which always seemed to turn up when he most needed
it!
DAVE-FROM-QLD (mainly-UW stasis)
--------------------------------
4 Stasis, Power Sink, Swords to Plowshares, Disenchant, Howling Mine,
Black Vise, Fellwar Stones
3 Wrath of God
2 Implements of Sacrifice, Kismet
1 Island Sanctuary, Land Tax, Balance, Ivory tower, Jester's Cap, Portent,
Sylvan Library
4 Rainbow Vale, 4 Ardarkar Waste, 2 Land Cap, 1 Plains, 10 Island
Sideboard: 3 Counterspell, 3 Hydroblast, 3 Pyroclasm, 2 Sleight of Mind,
1 Wrath of God, 1 Island Sanctuary, 1 Land Tax, 1 Hurkyl's Recall
Another silly deck from QLD :-)
DAVID'S EXCUSES
===============
Number of rounds lost: 3
Number of rounds lost to Black card denial: 3
Number of rounds lost to Black card denial due to mana-rape: 3 <sigh>
Most number of Hypnos in an opponent's starting hand: 4 (plus an Animate Dead,
Dark Ritual, and
two Swamps, with a
third Swamp drawn)
Number of pints of Toohey's Draught consumed: 4. Err, 6. OK, OK - hell, I
lost count around then. How
many rounds were there? :-)
--
| David J. Low dl...@physics.adelaide.edu.au Oooo. |
| ( ) |
| WWW: http://www.physics.adelaide.edu.au/~dlow/dlow.html ) / |
| "I'd rather be lost in the Darkness than blinded by the Light" (_/ |