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A Tale of Australian Nationals by snaga
*11th*
Nationals 2005 was the first major event I have ever been
to and probably one that will stay in my mind for years to come. The
story begins on Tuesday / Wednesday midnight when myself and 2 friends
catch a flight into Canberra from Perth. My parents drop me off about
an hour before the flight and I quickly line up to get my ticket. Soon
after receiving the ticket I meet up with my 2 flight buddies Craig
and Paul. Whether it is their parents don’t trust them as much as mine
do me or that Paul and Craig's parents love them more, both families
decided to follow Craig and Paul in to ensure everything goes smoothly.
This turns out to be a good thing for Craig. We all get out our tickets
and hand over our bags, however Craig decides he wants to take his backpack
and camera as carry on luggage to the plane, this worries Craig’s mum
and she insists on putting those Quantas labels onto Craig's stuff (pre
written for him of course) so that if Craig does decide to be dopey
there is still a chance of retrieval. So Craig puts down his ticket
and puts on the labels, we then all walk towards the security check
place with Craig's mum asking us if we have everything we need, bag?
Check! Camera? Check! Tickets?.... oh dear Craig has left his on the
counter. After many comments about Craig being dopey ECT. we go through
security and head up the escalator to the newsagency where we try and
find something non magical to do on the 4 hour plane trip. I turn and
look over at Craig who seems to be in too deep a thought for what ever
he was reading and I ask him what’s up. He then asks if Ii had his camera
and I all of a sudden crack up laughing, and tell him he better go back
to the security bit and pick it up before his mum kills him. Seeing
me laughing Craig's mum asks where he has gone and i tell her and she
sighs shakes her head and walks off. After not finding anything interesting
in the newsagency we all sit down for the 10 or so minutes before we
can board the plane, in which time Craig's mum leans over to me and
Paul and asks us to make sure he doesn't forget anything while in Canberra,
and tells Craig to turn off his phone so he will get the text message
she was sending when in Canberra, the message was obviously to remember
to put on pants or something....
We land in Canberra around 5.30 in the morning to the chilly -4 degrees
that Craig so dearly loves. Ahead of time Craig knows what the weather
will be like in Canberra and yet still deems it necessary to dress in
shorts one t-shirt and thongs, which gets funny looks from the cabin
crew.
We catch a taxi to the hotel and look forward to some sleep only to
be informed that we can't check in until 2pm :( *frowns*.
Seen as how the hotel was gonna be ages till its ready we figured we
may as well see what this town had to offer and ask for some general
directions into the centre of town or anywhere we can get some breakfast.
Canberra as a city seems reasonably easy to navigate even for someone
as geographically retarded as me and we find a McDonalds easily. After
eating we continue to walk around town and soon realise Canberra is
pretty crap. It has a casino that closes on a daily basis (Perth one
almost never closes) a club X that isn't open when you need it to be
and neither are their bottle shops. Sigh. We find greater union which,
opens at 9.45, 45 mins after the bottle shop opens bringing many idea
to mind unfortunately one which wasn’t followed through with. We wander
around while we wait for greater union to open and eventually settle
down and watch a movie called the Island. Craig, once more deciding
to give us a chance to make him look foolish falls asleep during the
movie right after buying a mega coke. Paul and I decided it was our
duty to make a fool of him in such a situation and poured a small amount
of coke on his groin, which he walked around in for the rest of the
day unnoticed... Around 12.00 we wonder over to the hotel in hope that
the room would be ready earlier than 2.00. They tell us to wait a little
longer, so we sit and wait on the couches which apparently are too comfortable
as Paul falls asleep. This presents another opportunity for mischief
and so Craig puts a unhinged plains in Paul’s hand and takes the photo.
I call him an amateur and proceed to write "i heart men" in
big black block capitals on an A4 piece of paper slap it on his chest
and take the photo. Apparently there was some conference on as just
as we were taking the photo a group of people walk past, look at what
we are taking the photo of and just start laughing. Paul wakes up and
theres me and Craig looking at him with big cheesy grins and asks what
we have done. We hand over Craig's phone to show him what we did while
he was sleep, which turns out to be a stupid mistake as he deletes the
photo :(
After some more bothering, the hotel decides to let us into our room
on the 9th floor and settle in. The other 2 were tired and wanted to
sleep some and i couldn’t be bothered doing anything else and did the
same. Apparently i needed the sleep more than the other 2 as I ended
up sleeping much more than intended. We woke up and had some dinner
in a nice pub which we had walked past during the day called King O’Malley’s
Irish Pub and got some fantastic nacho's and learned about the Guinness
challenge. The challenge stands that if you drink 100 pints of Guinness
in a space of time chosen by you i.e. Forever, they will put your name
up on a plaque and give you a jacket. Guinness being one of the best
beers in the world I thought it might be worth attempting this challenge
and asked for the card that will check off my progress. Unfortunately
they didn’t have any so I gave up and enjoyed the beer for what it was.
We make our way out to the casino later that night and Paul wins a bit
on the poker table. We then head back to the hotel to sleep.
Thursday we wake up around 8.00 in the morning and Craig and Paul head
down to breakfast while im in the shower.While I'm in the lift Ii look
at my phone and see 3 messages, all from fellow Perthian Jason "no
pants" Gasso.I check the time of message and it was 6am, apparently
he wanted to crash in our room instead of the ground floor sofa while
waiting for his room oops! We meet for breakfast and have a good meal
consisting of far too many greasy things you shouldn't eat. Thursday
was rather uneventful until around 2pm when Gasso was able to check
in, we all walked to the main desk so Gasso could get his room key and
room number and while he was distracted and getting something out of
his wallet Paul creeps up behind him and all of a sudden BAM! No pants,
Paul found it hilarious dacking someone who isn't wearing a belt and
in a public place, and actually had me in tears of laughter and amusement.
Many death threats were thrown around the place and amusement was had
by all who wasn't Gasso no pants. The night ended with a few multiplayer
games of tower and much drinking and a tiny amount of sleep for those
who intended on grinding in.
On Friday the rest of the Perth crew arrived really early and we met
them all down at breakfast. After breakfast we headed to the rooms and
started building decks people intended to grind in with and wrote deck
lists for the grinders and main event.
As I had qualified for nationals already via Western Australian Regionals
I decided I would go down and give the Perthguys some support and have
a look at the general idea of the meta game of the grinders. The first
limited grinder was scheduled to start around 9.30 and the first standard
grider 10.00 so we rocked up around 9.00 and had a look around.
Perth had 6 people attempting to grind in of which 3 managed to make
it. Everyone’s favourite Jason “no pants" Gasso, George "Cabal"
Zhao and Shawn "G-440" Rayson managed to grind in early in
the morning while Craig Chapman, Patty Robinson and Hayden Smith battled
on into the night without managing to make it. Better luck next year
fellas! The people who had already qualified decided to then go out
to dinner to Hoggs Breath Cafe, where what could possibly be the best
steaks ever were consumed. The most amusing part of the night was actually
when the drinks waiter came around. His tray held drinks of all the
colours of the rainbow, while handing out the drinks it came to the
glass of water, and the waiter asked who ordered water where Paul decided
to yell 'yeah who ordered the ice faggotry?' the best part was at this
time he was sipping from a fruity coloured drink quite possibly as homosexual
looking as the rest of the table.
So the morning of nationals finally rolls around, limited amount of
sleep was had, decks needed to be written out last minute and no amount
of last minute play testing could help.
We make it downstairs around 8.30 awaiting the 8.45 players meeting
and just chat while we wait. We have specific tables we need to sit
at and as I was not quite awake yet and feeling retarded it took me
3 times to find table 26.... Or was it 13.... Or was it 46? I don’t
remember and after feeling quite stupid I finally sit down and wait.
After a quick introduction by the judges the rounds finally start and
its time to pit the ever faithful from Regionals tooth and nail against
the rest of Australia. I ran the following deck list on the day.
Main Deck
4 urza's mine
4 urza's power plant
4 urza's tower
9 forest
1 boseiju, who shelters all
2 chrome mox
4 sakura tribe-elder
4 sylvan scrying
4 reap and sow
4 creeping mold
4 sensei's divining top
3 oblivion stone
4 eternal witness
1 darksteel colossus
1 triskelion
1 sundering titan
1 duplicant
1 kiki-kiji, mirror breaker
4 tooth and nail
sideboard
1 stalking stones
1 mephidros vampire
2 sundering titan
2 iwamori of the open fist
2 viridian shaman
3 jester's cap
4 troll Ascetic
I'm sorry in advanced if I misspell anyone's name or if I forget any
detail as I didn’t take notes at all and most of this is from memory
and life total drops from my book.
Round 1: Chris Ninnes playing white Weenie
I swear this round would have been one of the worse games of magic
I have played for a while, Ii blame sleep rather than pressure of the
event.
Game one Chris gets a fast start and I do nothing and die in short order.
Game 2 I tooth and nail 2 times and take out the game quickly.
Game 3 was one of the most amusing games Ii have played. Chris keeps
a one land hand off the play and a paristo 6 and gets some pressure
down. I creeping mold his land, and finally blow up oblivion stone on
7 life. Chris then plays a plains and a lantern kami. I draw into a
creeping mold via sensei’s divining top and kill off his final land
and pass the turn. He beats me down to 6 and passes. I draw nothing
and pass back. Chris beats me down to 5 and discards something. I draw
something else non relevant and pass back. Chris attacks me to 4 and
once more discards. Ii draw another land and pass. Chris whacks me to
4. I draw and top into tooth and nail and figuring I have the game won
and grab Kiki Jiki and triskelion. Ii kill off his lantern kami and
swing in with the copy of triskelion with damage on the stack chris
shoals 4 damage from my trike from him to me winning the game with 0
permanents in play :( ah to throw away game 3's if only i had been patient
and waited, pinging him for 3 at the end of each of his turns. I have
also been recently told that if the triskelion isn’t in play when the
shoal resolves the damage doesn’t get moved either, so I could have
attacked and if he tried to shoal it to me Ii could respond by pining
him 2 times and the trike itself once. Live and learn I guess and a
nice way to start the nationals experience. 0-1
Round 2: Mathew Joseph playing rats
This round we were both deck checked. As the judge hands back our decks
he informs my opponent his deck has been sorted and will need a good
shuffle and tells me mine will require a light shuffle. I give my deck
a heavy shuffle after looking through it and pile shuffle it 2 times.
My opponent does the same, we present decks and I end up having to paris
2 times after seeing no land in my first 2 hands.
Game one my opponent didn’t have a very aggressive start and I try to
make a game of it, however a few discard rats after a paris remove me
from the game.
Game 2 Mathew sides in allot of tooth hate in the form of extraction
and persecute and manages to cast a persecute the turn before I would
have toothed with entwine. I have top in play and manage to find a stalking
stones and we start trading damage, me with a stalking stone Mathew
with a blinkmoth nexus. Eventually he has to block my stone with his
blinkmoth and vials a hypno into play, after blockers are declared but
be4 damage i blow up oblivion stone killing off his hypno and vial and
the stone kills the nexus and swings in for the win the following turn.
Game 3 is similar to game 2, Mathew gets some early disruption but is
unable to find any way to kill me quickly and I top into stalking stones
and start beating, a viridian shaman eats a jitte gaining Mathew 4 life
however he runs out of gas when I drop sundering titan for the win.
1-1
Round 3 : Simon Henry playing red green
Before the round starts Simon complains about not having enough paper
to track life total correctly for the rest of the day, so I tell him
I don’t mind if he never attacks me, purely to save paper. He obliges
game one after a quick tooth and nail after he kept a less than stellar
6 card hand involving 2 Llanowar elves 2 land a jitte and something
else.
Game 2 Simon gets an early sword of fire and ice equipped to a Llanowar
elf and follow it up with a sowing salt the turn after, giving me no
outs and once more saving paper as I don’t get to damage him at all.
Game 3 is just as uneventful as Simon manages to cast a turn 3 Iwamori
of the open fist via a sakura tribe-elder and a turn 4 sowing salts
removing my land and me from the game. 1-2
1-2 wasn't the best way to start my first nationals experience especially
in constructed as i felt that was my better of the 2 formats. I had
even mentioned to fellow perthians that realistically the best i could
hope for in nats was 5-1 or 4-2 in constructed and 3-3 in draft. i was
a little down after my start and felt i was one or 2 losses away from
dropping from nats all together and seeing what side events could cheer
me up.
The first draft went reasonably well for me; Ii first picked a Nagao,
Bound by Honour and then got passed much white goodness in the form
of sensai golden-tail, myojin of cleansing fire and candles glow. I
dabbled with the idea of drafting blue but didn’t get past anything
good late so I left it to pack 2 to find my second colour. Lucky for
me I opened a okiba-gang shinobi and was passed a Horobi's whisper and
also managed to pick up a hired muscle and moonlit strider with the
hopes to get a solid black white deck. The 3rd pack rewarded me nicely
with a descendant of kiyomaro and a few other playables.
After drafting my deck Ii didn’t think it was particularly good and
mentioned to the table I felt a 1-2 performance at best coming from
this deck. The only chance I really had was if the games went into the
long game where my white myojin can ruin their board or if I can start
splicing candles glow or horobi's whisper onto death of a thousand stings
each turn. When constructing the deck I tried playing as much samurai
as possible in the hopes I can steal some quick wins with Nagao, or
at least hold off the ground until the late team shows up. For the first
draft I ended up playing
9 plains
9 swamps
1 kuro's taken
1 hand of cruelty
1 araba mothrider
1 sensei golden-tail
1 hired muscle
1 descendant o kiyomaro
1 kitsune riftwalker
1 nagao, bound by honor
1 mothrider samurai
1 moonlit strider
1 okiba-gang shinobi
1 samurai enforcers
1 silverstorn samurai
1 pus kami
1 myojin of cleansing fire
1 horobi's whisper
1 sink into takenuma
1 death of a thousand stings
1 spiritual visit
1 hundred-talon strike
1 candles' glow
1 indomitable will
Round 4 Tron Young (red/green)
Tron was being fed by me in packs one and 3 in the draft and is a fellow
perthian.
Game one started with Tron parising to 4 which is some rough beats for
a friend and I kill him in short order.
Game 2 I get an early descendant of kiyomaro and start gaining life,
we trade back and forth for a while and I eventually get to pus kami
mana and pus kami something and horobi's whisper something else then
attack for the win.
Tron wasn’t really ever in these games as im pretty sure he had to parisin
game 2 as well. 2-2
Round 5 Andrew Lehmann ( blue/ white )
Andrew was seated across from me in the draft so sitting down I wasn’t
sure what colours he was in. Game one I get an early descendant of kiyomaro
eventually getting my life up to around 30. Andrew stabilizes the game
on 11 life after dropping an early blue honden and started bouncing
my guys to ensure those enforcers stay home. It seems he is spending
all his mana on his turn playing a spirit, returning kiri-onna and replaying
the onna and the game goes for ages. When facing an all spirit board
I send in my kitsune ritwalker who ninja's a okiba gang into play knocking
out 2 of the 3 cards Andrew was holding, which were charge across the
araba and blessed breath! I sigh a big sigh of relief and count up the
possible damage i could have taken the previous turn and it turn out
to be only 18, normally a scary amount of damage unless your on 30 life.
The stalemate eventually breaks when during his turn I manage to cast
death of a thousand stings splicing horobi's whisper and candles glow,
with Andrew having 0 cards in hand and me having 4. This game took around
35 minutes to complete so we quickly jumped into game 2.
I got down an early sensai golden-tail and araba mothrider who started
attacking; Nagao joins the team however he is mystically restrained.
We start trading attack for attack trying to end the game quickly one
way or another, with Andrew pulling ahead a little. During his turn
I tap down all his attack team with sidebaorded aether shockwave and
manage to pull out enough damage for the win with a death of a thousand
stings for the final point. 3-2
Round 6 David Crewe (4 colour green)
David and I sit down and start playing without waiting for the clock.
His cruel deceiver trades with my kuro's taken early and sensai golden-tail
ninja's okiba gang into play giving me a huge lead on David's somewhat
slow deck. We were up to around turn 6 when a judge comes over and tells
us to shuffle up and wait for the clock :( guess that will teach me
as David agrees I pretty much had that game in the bag from David's
less than stellar start .
Game 1 part 2 starts off well for me; I get down some early creatures
and start applying the beats. We trade a few creatures and I manage
to pull out the win before David can stabilise.
Game 2 goes for a longer time with the game eventually stalling out
on the ground with the game ending when David milled me for 4 cards
a turn towards the end.
We start game 3 with about 15 minutes on the clock and again this game
goes to the long game, I manage to get a pus kami and attack with it,
and kill off one of David's creatures however Ii make the fatal mistake
of not sacrificing my moonlit strider to remove the free from the real
enchanting my samurai enforcers figuring I’d need the strider next turn
to block with. Unfortunately I forgot the pus kami would have been able
to soul shift the strider back which would have sped up the outcome
of this match quite considerably. Time is called and i start attacking
trying to pull out the win, while David attempts to deck me with soratami
minesweeper. The first turn of extra time I sacrifice my strider to
free up my enforcer and start attacking. Soon the only creatures on
the field are the enforcers and the minesweeper, with me having 9 cards
in my library and David having 6 lands in play. Im pretty sure if we
each got one more turn after extra time i would have pulled the win.
3-2-1
From that 1-2 start in constructed to going 2-0-1 in my first draft
pool really raised my spirits, and i gave up on that voice in the back
of my head telling me one more loss and you should drop. With my new
outlook on this tournament I prepare for my second draft.
Champions of Kamigawa had some nice cards for me for the second draft,
I opened and took a strength of cedars, second picked a moss kami, was
passed a 4th pick soratami mirror-mage and 5th pick kodama's reach.
The second pack brought me a first pick unchecked growth and followed
it up with 2 ninja of the deep hours, a matsu-tribe sniper and some
other playables. the 3rd pack is where I got a lot of power into my
deck, picking up an early ayumi, the last visitor and 2 shinen of flight's
wings, a kami of the tended garden, sakashima the impostor and a nightsoil
kami.
I was really pleased with this deck, and given i managed 2-0-1 with
my previous deck, which I didn’t think was particularly that great,
Ii figured i was due a 3-0 or a 2-1 with this deck. The deck seemed
to have a hole in the 3 mana slot, and a few gnarled mass would have
fit nicely, however they never came. Seen as how the space was open
I played a hinder, a card I don’t usually rate highly in draft. Tthis
is what I played.
9 forest
8 islands
1 floodbringer
1 matsu-tribe sniper
1 oboro breezecaller
1 mistblade shinobi
1 burr grafter
1 soratami mirror-mage
2 ninja of the deep hours
1 sakashima the impostor
1 kami of the tended garden
1 moss kami
1 ayumi, the last visitor
2 shinen of flight's wings
1 nightsoil kami
1 strength of cedars
1 unchecked growth
1 kodama's reach
1 reach through mists
1 phantom wings
1 veil of secrecy
1 freed from the reel
1 hinder
Round 7 David Crewe ( Red / Black )
ahuh! Time for revenge, I get another chance to play David Crewe. Unfortunately
both of these games were a bit of a blow out, David keeps sketchy hands
on the play 2 times, the first game getting stuck on 2 lands for far
too long holding multiple 3 and 4 casting cost spells, but still managing
to get me down to 7 life before I kill him. Game 2 he gets coloured
screwed and I finish him off in short order. So much for getting to
play David Crewe again as these games weren’t really games at all. 4-2-1
4-2-1 at the end of day 1 and i get told that it’s possible to top
8 if i can manage to go 4-1 in day 2. I figure my draft deck is good
for at least one more win meaning I’d have to 3-0 my constructed or
2-1 it if i go 2-0 in the remainder of my draft pool. While it certainly
felt like a long shot I felt it was all still possible if i continued
to play well. at the end of day 1 there were 4 people still playing
the main event from perth, myself ( 4-2-1 ) paradise's own Cabal or
George Zhao ( 4-1-2 ) Paul chamberlain ( 4-3 ) and Jason "no pants"
Gasso ( 4-3 ).
Day two begins with...
Round 8 James Zhang ( black / white )
Game one James paris's on the play and I get an early ninja of the
deep hours, which starts trading damage with James's raving oni-slave,
that is until it's cowed by wisdom. James tries to keep as many cards
in hand as possible to keep my ninja at bay and eventually gets me down
to 7 before I can mount an air team offence of a shinen of flight's
wings and orboro breezecaller to match my ayumi, the last visitor. James
plays a split-tail miko to slow down my attack however it eventually
has to chump my ayumi and that ends game one.
Game 2 I keep a relatively slow hand on the assumption James wants to
play to the late game. This gets trumped quickly by some quick beats
in the form of deathmask nezumi and nezumi ronin which is then topped
off by patron of the kitsune.
Game 3 goes to the very end, with me almost throwing the game away.
The board position ends up with me having 9 lands in play and soratami
mirror-mage on 9 life against James's nezumi ronin enchanted by my freed
from the real deathmask nezumi and genju of the fens. James attacks
me down to 5 life and passes the turn. I untap and attack with my mirror
mage and cast unchecked growth putting James to 7 life and pass the
turn. James swings in with everything and drops me down to 1 after i
bounce his death mask nezumi and tap his nezumi ronin. Jamesthen casts
a moonlit strider and passes the turn, now i assumed this gave target
creature protection from a colour rather than target creature you control
and failed to win on my next turn by casting strength of cedars, instead
i attack James down to 5 play a land and pass the turn back. At the
end of turn James attempts to remove the freed from the real on his
nezumi ronin by sacrificing his moonlit strider, however im holding
veil of secrecy and make it untargetable in response. This leaves me
with 5 untapped lands and 2 tapped lands and a tapped soratami mirror
mage against his freed from real nezumi ronin and genju of the fens.
James activates his genju and attempts to attack with both his creatures;
i tap down his ronin and bounce his genju. untap play a land and cast
strength of cedars for the win. As soon as the slip was signed and handed
in cabal whacks me over the head and asks why i didn’t just win when
I attacked when sitting on 9 land... I read moonlit strider and hit
my head. At the same time Tim He lets James know he would have had the
game if he didn’t sacrifice the moonlit strider and attacked with 2
creatures forcing me to bounce them both and no way at all having enough
mana to cast strength of cedars or getting the 3rd land into play to
bounce the genju a second time. FEW! What a close game. 5-2-1
All other Perthplayers lose leaving me and cabal being the only people
left in contention, with cabal being on 4-2-2 and me being on 5-2-1.
Round 9 Luke Gratton (blue / white)
Of all the opposing decks I would have to face this one Ii would prefer
the most to be mana screwed and to have a slow start. Luke's deck seems
to be my nemesis having many good creatures in my 3cc slot hole and
if he didn’t get mana flooded ( and screwed of blue at the same time
) and then mana screwed by being stuck on 2 lands these games might
have been very different. None the less Ii got 2 very good starts with
the first game getting an early kami of the tended gardens, and the
second a quick double ninja of the deep hours, which were unfortunately
dealt with nicely by a well timed shining shoal. I eventually get 2
shinen of flight's wings in play and a sakashima making the 3rd to leave
Luke with no outs. 6-2-1
My friends said this deck wasn’t worthy of going 3-0 without something
strange happening and it seems the mana gods came through for me this
day as Luke's deck should be one that produces some very close games
or games where he is too fast too quick and wins on the spot. Going
3-0 in my second pod gave me a great feeling as i was expecting a 3-3
record from my nations drafting experience. Now all i needed was to
go 2-1 in the final constructed portion if allot of people draw to make
top 8 or 3-0 to guarantee it, as my tie breakers weren't very good.
(going 1-2 early will do that i spose )
Round 10 Phillip Lah (white weenie)
This round I once again get deck checked and 17 minutes pass before
we get word from the judges. As I had already been deck checked in round
2 I wasn’t worried and Philip let me know it was most likely his sleeves
as they are reasonably old. The judge dealing with my deck eventually
calls me over to the side to speak with me and informs me Ii will be
getting a game loss for the alpha lands I was playing. Apparently 3
different judges were able to pick out the 2 alpha forests Ii was playing
in my deck and that’s the reason it was taking so long. Ii told them
I was unaware I was playing any alpha land ( I assumed they were all
beta ) and was most definitely not doing it as a way of cheating, however
they weren't about to let me off after 3 different judges had double
checked the deck and the game loss stands.
Well what a good way to start off my climb into the top 8. Unfortunately
there wasn’t much to this game, I was feeling pretty down about this
game and manage to creeping mold a land assuming my oblivion stone will
kill off the dampening maxtrix in play only to then remember that artifact
actually comes with text.... and I quickly die to the little white men.
6-3-1
Round 11 Chris Aitchison (blue tron)
This game went really well for me, Chris managed to get 6 lands in play
but not a full set of urzatron and taps out to play a mindslaver. I
untap and cast darksteel colossus and pass the turn. Chris activates
mind slaver and passes back. At the end of turn I activate my top and
top in response ordered the cards so chrome mox is on top followed by
oblivion stone and then the top, with a chome mox being in hand. Chris
plays both moxes with no imprint and passes the turn. He untaps plays
and land and casts memnarch. I draw and play oblivion stone and swing
for 11 dropping Chris to 8. Chris untaps and scoops.
game 2 I get an ultra aggressive land destruction start with creeping
mold hitting a urza's tower when Chris already has 2 power plants in
play and then I cast a reap and sowe on his island that he managed to
top into. The game ended when I found eternal witness 2 and 3 on the
top of my library able to hit the next 2 lands he finds after playing
and activing top on his turn 3 turns in a row. 7-3-1
Round 12 Ross Schafer (mono red w/ arc slogger)
Once more the "computer" "randomly" chooses my round
to be a deck check and while we wait Ross tells me he wouldn't have
a problem with conceding to me if there was any chance at all for me
to make it as he was on one point less and had no chance to make top
8. We have a look at the top tables and too many seem to be drawing
and too many of the tables just above me were playing ruining all chance
I would have of making top 8. We worked it out that if I win I’d be
in place 10,11 or 12.
The decks come back with no troubles and we shuffle up and start. I
win a close game 1 with a resolved tooth and nail with entwine on 6
life, and lose game 2 after arc slogger comes into play on turn 2 on
Ross's side after a mulligan to 6 and when sword of fire ice is equipped
its game over. Game 3 is a little more fair with me having a sakura-tribe
elder ready for Ross's slith firewalker. the game stalls around as we
both build up mana until Ross finds a sword of fire and ice to equip
to his slith and starts chewing though my tribe elder wall. Ross then
decides to play a chrome mox imprinting shrapnel blast to play the last
card in his hand razormane masticore. He then attacks with this sword
wielding slith which gets blocked by my eternal witness and Ross hits
himself on the head explaining he intended to draw a card from the slith
to pay for his masticore. It didn’t really matter anyway as I drew and
played a duplicant targetting his masticore so i have a 5/5 to give
me some space. Ross attacks his slith into the duplicant and I block,
he then casts magma jet on the duplicant and they trade. I top at the
end of his turn and manage to find the missing urza piece and tooth
and nail with entwine for sundering titan and kiki jiki killing 3 of
ross's 4 mountains and begin attacking. Ross draws a card and scoops.
8-3-1
While a part of me knew i didn’t really have a chance to make top 8,
as I had the worst tie breakers of anyone on 22 points( standings before
last round ) another part wished that something would go wrong somewhere
allowing me to make the top 8 of my first nationals event. Eventually
all matches are finished and the standing are produced with me finishing
in 11th place, which was good enough to win a box and a nice magic the
gathering beanie. While i would have loved to make the top 8, making
a good record for nationals and eventually being the top placing paradiser
(well at least of all the non lazy people) made it all worth while.
Im still unsure if im going to Melbourne for the GP later on this year
however its entirely possible, so if any of you guys are there make
sure you say hi.
So apparently no tournament report would actually be one without props
and slops so here we go.
PROPS:
* everyone from Perth who encouraged me and wished me well before and
during the national’s trip, it does mean alot to know you guys are there
to support me so thanks!
* Cabal, Big Shawn and Jason "no pants" Gasso for grinding
into the main event - nice work guys!
* Paul and Craig for entertaining me in Canberra when there wasn’t
nationals to be playing in, man Canberra is a hole thank god you guys
kept me sane.
* The mana gods for not visiting me too harshly in this tournament,
and for scewing with a few opponents thoughtout the weekend.
* The waiter at Hoggs breathe cafe for properly asking who ordered
the iced faggotry.
* Craig for amusing me during the grinders when he went turn one ZoZu
against a blue tron player who didn’t have a bounce spell for far too
long. The whinging and complaining done by your opponent was almost
the funniest thing i have ever heard.
* Lazy people not signing up for the paradise competition enabling
me to win :D
* MTG paradise for running a cool competition and buying heaps of my
cards. cheers Scott. J
SLOPS:
* Jason "no pants" Gasso for not understanding the reason
behind the wonderful invention "the belt" surely your only
asking for it....
* Canberra Casino for not only being terrible but for taking too much
of our money :(
* the DCI reporter for not working miracles and putting me in the top
8
hopefully cya in Melbourne with byes rounds 1,2 and 3.
Scott Lennon
"Snaga"
| 
Editor: Staff. Monday 3rd October 2005. 
