Swiss Qualifiers : Tourney Report
Vincent Musolino
Hello all. This is my first tourney report, so please bear with me for
uncompleteness and errors.
This was one of the 15 (!) tourneys organized by Fata Morgana (many
thanks to them), a qualifier for the Swiss Championships to be held in
Meiringen (BE) the first week-end of June. It was held in La
Chaux-de-Fonds (organized by La Croisee des Rencontres, thanks to them
too), small town 30 minutes away (with the train) from where I live (see
my page for details).
I entered just to have the experience of a DC sanctioned tournament, to
see what was played, to have fun, and maybe, with some luck (which I
didn't have), go to the Finals.
My deck was a white weenie with the usual blue :
11 plains, 4 Adarkar Wastes, 1 Island, 3 Strip Mine
3 Armaguedon, 1 StP, 3 Disenchant, 2 Land Tax, 1 Balance, 4 Crusades
1 Zuran orb, 2 Howling Mine
3 Tundra Wolves, 3 Icatian Javelineers, 4 Mesa Pegasus, 4 White Knight,
4 Kjeldoran Warrior, 4 Benalish Hero, 2 Repentant Blacksmith
Sideboard : 4 Sleight of Mind, 2 Backfire, 1 Land Tax, 1 Howling Mine, 1
Serrated Arrows, 3 Energy Storm, 2 StP, 1 Disenchant.
It was 6 rounds of Swiss, 26 tables for 52 people. Type II of course.
We waited for about an hour until everything was set to start.
I was so nervous my hands were shaking like I had Parkinson's disease.
Round 1 : 0-0-0 / 0-0-0
So I sit and play Michael Verbung, who played... a Tim deck, GU, with
Thallids, Skull Catapult and a few big critters. Got eliminated from a
Type I tourney earlier this month by a Tim deck.
Oh well. First game :
Me : LT (smile)
Him : Bird
Me : Benny
Him : Tim #1. Same thing the next turn and the turn after.
Of course I draw the Crusades *after* he kills my early creatures, and
then I don't draw any until he gets an Ernhie and a Mahamoti Djinn out.
This one took about 30 minutes.
Next game : He starts pouring Thallids on me, but this time I get an
early Knight and a Mine and start attacking. My game.
Next game is called on time.
Round 2 : 0-0-1 / 1-1-1
Christian Spyr, and a ... Goblin deck. *sigh* The only deck that can
spit out more creatures than me.
First game : not a Crusade in sight. Easy game for him.
Second game : I think he got mana screwed. It took me about 5 minutes to
kill him.
Third game : at that time, my only sideboard move was to include Energy
Storm and the Sleights. He gets out a Ernhie via a Tinder Wall, we
exchange blows for a while. He gets me down to 7, and casts.. a Mountain
Yeti. I can't believe this. First guy in ages to play that card. Of
course, no Sleight to be seen, and my Arrows are sitting in the
sideboard.
At the moment, I'm pretty depressed. I lost to two decks I should have
won against. What the hell am I doing here ?
Round 3 : 0-1-1 / 2-3-1
Simon Yohann, a kid about 14 years old, who doesn't know all the rules
and plays a R/U toaster/counter. I feel somehow bad trouncing him 28-0
(Arma/Zorb), 20-0 and 14-3. But I guess that how it goes...
Round 4 : 1-1-1 / 5-3-1
Philip Din-Martin, who (I found out later) played a Kismet/Stasis deck.
First game : he gets out a Time Elemental he never uses, he Sleights my
Crusade, WoGs, and Serras his way to victory.
Second game : Played a Stasis, but that's it. I run him over with my
hordes (first time today my deck works well) 20-2.
Third Game : he gets out an early ITower, but I overwhelm his defenses,
even though he has a Kismet in play.
Second victory in a row. I'm a lot happier now :)
Round 5 : 2-1-1 / 7-4-1
Oemer Kurtoglu, playing a R/G LD. Bad luck for him (I thought). Pivotal
game : I win, winners bracket. I lose, byebye Meiringen.
First game : no contest. 18-0. Boy am I smiling.
Second game : he sideboards at least 12 cards (!). I'm worried. Well I
was right to be : here come the big creatures via fast mana creatures
and Tinder Walls. Of course, all I get out is a LT he can stay under
pretty easily, and my Javs are bolted as soon as they are summoned.
2 creatures in the first 8 turns.
Third game : only 1 creature in the first 6 turns. Opening hand : 6
lands and a creature.
Turn 3 Ernhie, turn 5 Ernhie, turn 6 Orgg (!). I always shake hands with
my opponent, but this time I really congratulated him for his deck.
Oh well, last game I'll really play for fun since I'm so out of
contention (I thought).
Round 6 : 2-2-1 / 8-6-1
Regis Kempf, who played an all blue merfold deck. We agreed not to use
sideboards to speed up our games since the big games were played at that
time too.
Didn't take notes on this one. I won 3-0, I never quit making weird
noises when attacking or summoning creatures, comment every move. We
were laughing our butts off. What a good time we had.
Final record : 3-2-1 / 11-6-1 for 3.5 wins and 39 points.
I was so surprised when the organizers gave out prices (Legends
boosters, IA starters, a few Duelists, etc...). I placed 10th ! Yes !
I took home the December 1995 issue of the Duelist, the one with the
complete neat listing of all the cards. I was happy.
Winner was another Tim deck (!) who beat a Willowgeddon in the Finals.
Here are stats on decks I saw :
3 Land's Edge, 1 Goblin (...), 3 Tim, 6 HD , 3 WW, 5 Willowgeddon, 2
Necro, 4 anti-creatures (R/W or U/W), 3 LD, 2 Jester's Cap. That's 2/3
of the total, didn't get to see the others.
Only dark spot of the tournament : people cheated and played under false
identities to have one more chance to qualify for the Finals. I was so
pissed. How can people be so... I can't find a word fitting that state
of mind. Anyway.
My comment on the luck/skill debate : of course I made mistakes. But not
ones that cost games. I played with what I drew, tried to get the best
out of my cards. But when you don't draw what you need, forget it. And
the initial draw is *so* important. A day of luck for me, and I would
have gone in the first 6 I think.
That reminded me that Magic is a *card* game. Not chess. A card game.
--
--Vincent Musolino
--Physics PhD student, System Manager
I.R.R.MA phone : 0041 21 693 46 00
INR-Ecublens fax : 0041 21 693 66 55
1015 Lausanne (Switzerland) e-mail muso...@irrmasg5.epfl.ch
http://irrmawww.epfl.ch http://irrmawww.epfl.ch/vm/vm.html
"Modern art is easy to understand. If it hangs on the wall, it's a
painting. If you can walk around it, it's a sculpture."
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