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A trip, a tournament and a deck

Two - two - two mints in one. I'll be pretty amazed if anyone can pick that reference. Anyway...

The Trip

It was 5:30 AM this past Saturday, and my alarm was bleeping and I was so very tired and my wife kicked me and I turned off the alarm and sat up on the edge of the bed and scratched my head and wondered just how bloody insane I really must be. I was just about to head to the airport to fly to Victoria to play in a PTQ for a PT that I am already qualified for, and if won, would only get me some small amount more money than what would be spent on the flight, accommodation, food, etc. But teams events are heaps of fun and, as it turns out, I am insane, so I got up and had a shower and 2 coffees (not in that order) and got in the cab.

The Tournament

It was just past 9:30 when we arrived at the venue - we being, apparently, the "Northern Barbarians" of myself Andrew Corney, and Ben Seck. I have played tournaments in some interesting places before - basements of card shops, flea markets, Dunkin Donuts... even once in a movie theatre lobby (seriously. Wheaton Theater - Wheaton, Illinois). This, however, was the first time I have played a tournament in a Chinese Restaurant. Incidentally, this is located next to the "Cake Decorating School" across from Flinders Station in Melbourne, and they make a mean Honey Chicken. Well, it was passable anyway.

We received our cards to register and, after looking at the cards, were hoping for a deck swap. Not a playable rare in the bunch. The cards we ended up using were considerably better. An hour for deck building was more than ample, and without going into strategy too much we ended up:

A) Andrew - G/r - solid green groundpound with stars such as Roar, Grizzly Fate, Beast Attack, Gurzigost, and 2 Mongrels. Add a bit of red for Ember Beast, Firebolt and Mad Dog

B) Ben - U/W - also solid if not a bit reliant on our biggest star - Glory. A little bit lacking in bounce, the deck had most of the U/W utility cards with the ability to go beatdown if required.

C) Myself - B/r - probably the weakest of our decks, my deck was had a mana curve a bit far to the right and a series of average creatures. Better stuff included a pair of wererats, a Fledgling Dragon who made my deck instead of Andrew's at Ben's correct insistence, a Pat. Desire and a Toxic Stench. My star was the Grotesque Hybrid as I played White Decks five of seven matches, and Green three.

Team Sealed events are inevitably long. There were 32 teams for this one, which meant seven rounds after rego and build. Excellent.

In the course of the day I played 3 U/W decks, 2 G/W decks, a G/R and a mono red. I managed to win against the mono red and one of the G/W decks, with the rest being losses and draws. 2-3-2 overall, my worst defeat came in the last round. On turn 2 I was staring down a mongrel when I cast a mesmeric fiend to reveal Brawn, Muscle Burst, Call of the Herd and a Mystic Enforcer. Sigh. Andrew and Ben did a fair bit better at 5-1-1 and 5-2 respectively.

We ended the day 3-1-3 in 9th place. Pretty average, but a lot of fun. We got to play a lot of the good Melbourne (Melburnian?) teams including both of the finalists (drew both). We got to eat Chinese food. We got half a box for our efforts, which in the end cost us roughly $55 per booster. The biggest disappointment was that we didn't realize beforehand that the Brisbane PTQ was on the next day. Otherwise we would have flew up there the next morning.

Insane, insane.

The trip continues...

Finishing up at around 8pm and not relishing the thought of eating any MORE Honey Chicken, we headed out with Glen Shandley to consume much Garlic with some Souvlaki on the side. Excellent stuff. It was a long day, and after determining that Ben Seck had spent approximately six percent of the total time he has been alive playing Magic, we ended up at some crap hotel.

Andrew, sensibly, watched the end of England trouncing Denmark. Ben and I tried to add a bit more to the six percent by one-on-one drafting until 1:30 in the morning. I do feel sort of bad taking all of Ben's cards at this stage, as he was half delirious from hunger and lack of sleep. But only sorta bad. It IS Ben Seck after all.

So I slept for a bit. 4 hours or so and we were on the way to the airport again. Used up my portion of the Boosters playing Mini Master with Ben on the plane ride home, to the greater amusement of the flight attendants, and once again ending up with all of Ben's cards. Later on that day tried to convince Ben to do some more drafting, but he was too busy sleeping. Whatever.

The Deck - Blitzkrieg

I have been playing around with this Odyssey block deck, which I believe has some merit. As a sligh player of old I really like the idea of a mono-red deck that has a chance in the long game rather than bash-you-in-the face like Frog. Blitzkrieg has a bit of both.

I quite enjoy the block format - it has a few elements of limited given the smaller card selection, and that's always good. Blitzkrieg relies fairly heavily on Judgment. Actually it relies completely on Judgment, with Browbeat, Breaking Point, Burning Wish, and Firecat Blitz being the center of the deck.

I have tested this deck a fair bit so far, but surely there is room for improvement. At this stage, I don't believe that a Type II variant would be very successful, as a couple of timely counterspells would poke holes in the strategy.

 MAIN DECK:			SIDE BOARD:

  4 Burning Wish                 1 Firecat Blitz
  3 Browbeat                     1 Browbeat
  3 Firecat Blitz                1 Breaking Point
  3 Breaking Point               1 Firebolt
  4 Skullscorch                  1 Lightning Surge
  3 Firebolt                     2 Magnivore
                                 2 Swirling Sandstorm
  4 Rites of Initiation          The rest as yet undecided    
  4 Violent Eruption
  3 Fiery Temper
  4 Flame Burst

  1 Magnivore

  23 Mountains