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Editor: Audrey Chin-Quan. Wednesday 12th January 2005.
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"Here is a man who would not take it anymore..." Sunday morning, 19th December 2004. As I put on my Taxi Driver t-shirt that had the above quote printed on it, I felt its message was more than relevant for the days exercise. Robert De Niro face covered in blood, his fingers pointed at his temple like a gun. That crazed look in his eye. A man who had just taken out a house full of drug dealers and pimps. Definitely a man who would not take it anymore. And neither would I. When I decided to embark on this insane experiment I didn't know what would happen. Would I come out of it a reformed character whom every tournament oriented spike would fear? Would I go back to the unintelligible rambling masses of the mad rogue players? Would I just give up constructed and stick to limited only? The only way to find out was to become a netdecker for a day...
The deck Since Ravager Affinity seems to be the bane of my existence as a rogue player, I decided that should be the deck to run. I decided to set some rules for myself...
Here's the deck I ran. I found the basis for the deck at playordraw.com. It had good reviews and was apparently a deck that had won a state championships somewhere in the world.
There were only 8 players but there was a good mix of decks being run. I found out there were 2 Raffinity, 2 TnN (one was very underpowered), 1 B/G Control, 1 Broodstar Affinity, 1 Mono-Blue Control and 1 White Weenie Equipment. By the time the tournament had started it was well known throughout Infinity Games that I was playing a netdeck and it was Raffinity. Numerous sell-out and netdecker jokes followed in my wake as the first round pairings arrived... Round One - Nathan Newman (Underpowered TnN)
This was Nathan's first ever tournament and after hearing about how nasty Raffinity was he was pretty nervous playing against me. He jokingly asked me to go easy on him as it was his first tournament. My reply was I didn't think the deck would let me. Game one was pure gravy and I dealt the final deathblow on turn 6. Second game I kept a 1 land hand and I quickly bashed Nathan down to 5 life. Nathan hit Urzatron and dropped out a Myojin of Life's Web. Goodbye Divinity counter, Hello Darksteel Colossus, Yosei
and Platinum Angel! Managed to beat him down to negative life with a flyer but I didn't topdeck the Shrapnel Blast I needed to take the angel out as the next turn it was wearing a Neurok Stealthsuit. Massive beats took me out. Game three I managed to get a nuts draw and win on turn five.
Round Two - Stuart Lee (TnN)
This was a good deck to play against and Stuart knew how to play it well. I managed to win the second game with little resistance. Games one and three I had my butt handed to me on a platter as Triskelion/Mephidross Vampire nuked my dudes and hate blew away my Cranial Platings. Stuart went on to win the final against the other Raffinity deck and take out the prize for the day.
Round Three - Scott Jacob - White Weenie Equipment I've played Scott a couple of times in the past and beaten him each time. He's only been playing for about six months and over that time he has improved greatly. First game I drew an opening hand with 1 Blinkmoth Nexus and 6 spells so I threw it away. Next hand wasn't much better but at least 1 artifact land opening is better than none. Scott played some fast beats against me involving a pair of Auriok Glaivemasters, each armed with a Leonin Scimitar and an Auriok Blademaster to make em bigger. I drew weenie after weenie but nothing that could crack these guys. I finally drew a Cranial Plating but it was too late. Second game Scott Mulliganned twice with no land hands each time. The game was tough with first turn Leonin Elder slowing me down. I managed to plow my way through eventually for the win.
Game three I drew a one land hand and remembering my previous luck with one land hands I threw it away. Six cards, no land. Oh well, down to 5 cards. Finally a land (Blinkmoth Nexus) but better than nothing. I remember Shrapnel Blasting 2 creatures to survive but 2 Leonin Elders and a Lightning Greaves helped the weenies take me out. I got in one good hit with a Cranial Plating but it wasn't enough. Congrats Scott, you finally beat me.
Given my results I would have placed anywhere between 5th and 7th. Maybe my finish is as depicted on my t-shirt - blood covered face pointing fingers at my temple waiting for the bullet that would never come. The weirdest thing happened. I was actually smiling at the end. I had my butt kicked playing a netdeck and it didn't matter. At previous tournaments I have been annoyed with myself, and those times I finished with better results. I think it didn't matter because in my mind the deck didn't matter. I hadn't put any of my heart and soul into building it so it didn't matter how good or bad I finished. One clear message though - being a netdecker for one day is enough for me. The deck didn't feel right all day and I didn't feel right playing it. I could have jinxed myself but in playtesting the deck was nuts. I will admit in playtesting I wanted to tweak the deck further but decided that would alter what I was trying to test. I had to trust that the deck was well designed and would play well. I think that was the issue. I didn't trust the deck would play well because I didn't build and research it. If you want it done right you have to do it yourself. I'm not willing to make that leap of faith that a deck built by a pro-tour player would run well for me. As I wander back to the unintelligible rambling masses of mad rogue players the ideas I was working on before are coming back. Maybe I could playtest and build my own variant of Ravager Affinity... Nah. I'll just find a use for all those Vampiric Spirits I've been trading for lately. He he he ha ha ha chortle chortle cough cough splutter wheeeeeeeeeze. Man I gotta work on that evil laugh. Joe Tobin (Aytakk2) [ Email the Author | Discuss this Article ]
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