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21-11-2001
Theory Behind Magic: The Dawning of a New Age
Date: November 11th 2001 (State Titles)
The states championship is definitely one of the most
significant event in the Magic community this month as
players battle each other in an attempt to gain free
entry to all Magic tournaments for a year. Our event
organizer in N.S.W Chris Foggin is especially generous
as he offered MtG play mats for the top 4 players in
addition to the original prizes. Personally, I think
these play mats would make a very fashionable cape
that you can wear to all Magic tournaments. It is a
damn shame that I narrowly missed out on that superb
prize by coming
5th.
We had a great turn out on Sunday with 80 people
attending the tournament in total, which means that we
have to play 7 rounds of
SWISS. One of the more interesting things at the
states this year is that half the people who made top
8 are new faces while mighty veterans have missed out
by as much as 2 losses. Could this be a sign that a
new generation of competent Magic players has finally
emerged in Sydney to take up the top spots in
tournaments?
I usually dislike going to constructed event because
it usually means that you play the same decks over and
over throughout the whole day. However, this is not
the case at the states because people are still trying
to adapt to the new set Odyssey and though there are
many decks that are similar, yet there is still a
great diversity among decks. I would probably get
brutally molested by fellow Sydney players for
exposing their secret decks and techs. But heck, it
would probably all over the net by next month anyway.
Better say it while it is still hot if you ask me.
R/G duh Machine
1cc - Llanowar Elves,
This deck pretty much builds itself, just pitch in all
the good R/G cards and you’ve got yourself a deck. Due
to its simplicity to build and play, this is the most
popular deck in the tourney with around 30% of the
people playing it. However, only Tim He’s version
managed to scrape into the top 8 because he added
black for Duress and Terminate in addition that are
crucial against Counter Spell/ Monger decks. The best
card against this deck would be Hibernation as it
sends the team of token creatures to oblivion.
Finkel’s Snake (U/B/G)
1cc – Duress
This is probably the second most popular deck in the
field and likely to be the most expensive deck with
many copies of the best rares. The strategy of this
deck is to Deed away your creatures, counter your
spells, fill their hands with Tainted Pact/Fact or
Fiction and smash you with Mongers. I encounter Dan
Gow, the popcorn man, with this deck in one of the
matches and we decided to ID after winning one game
each, lucky we both made top 8 after a final celebrity
death match. Personally, I find Price of Glory to be
pretty good against this deck as most of their spells
are instants.
White Lightning (R/U/W)
1cc- Devoted Caretaker
Yes, I know that this is a net deck, but I played it
anyway because I don’t have time to build my own. I
saw a couple of these in the tournament but only mine
made the top 8. One of the most annoying things I
found about playing this deck is the pain I take from
damage lands. In a fun game against Ben West I took 12
points of damage from the lands before he killed me,
which is rather lame. If I had more time I could
probably fix this deck better but with minimal play
testing and some troubles on getting the cards, it has
served me pretty well. Wrath of God, Pernicious Deed
and other mass removal cards are good against this
deck.
Lightning Control (R/W/U)
2cc- Counter Spell, Fire/Ice
This is the deck that knocked me out of top 8 ran by
Michael Seymour.
If you think that it is the same as my deck, you are
wrong. Instead of creatures, this deck ran Counter
Spell galore with multiple burn spells and Wrath to
deal with weenies. His main win condition is through
either Lightning Angel or the very nasty Goblin
Trenches that killed me in both games. Gainsay, Aura
Blast and Price of Glory are all good against it I
think.
Sec’s Pact (W/G/B)
1cc- Duress
Another one of the top 8 decks and ironically, it
wasn’t the person who designed it that made top 8.
This is a 3 (or more) colors deck that tries to break
the pact with tons of non-basic lands and 2 or 3 each
of every card. I haven’t played against this deck
myself, but from what I have seen, its main strategy
is to make you discard your hand while searching for
kill cards with Tainted Pact. Very creative deck with
many cute little combos like a cloaked Mongrel, too
bad it didn’t make top 8 for Ben but it did well for
Kwong.
Orbosition (G/U/R)
The most popular net deck at the moment but
surprisingly not many people play it at the states
probably because everyone had sideboard cards against
it (I have 8!). I played against one on the second
round and beat it because I Fired his little creatures
and prohibited the Opposition to hit play with
Meddling Mages. The only person that made
It into top 8 with an Opposition deck is Adam Kemp who
featured Red in addition to play Flametongue Kavu for
creature removal and Thunderscape Battlemage for
enchantment removal/discard. I won’t bother with
analyzing this deck since what I have to say has
already been said by other people before.
I have no idea what the remaining 2 top 8 decks are
and who won the whole thing since I was in a hurry to
go home. Special thanks to Paul, Matthew, Wilkin, Ben,
Dean and anyone else who lent me cards to make my deck
possible.
Oh and Pang, TBS has already lost plenty of draft
matches in Sydney without anyone asking him.:)
Best Regards |
