2001)

To those that I play Magic with, it is no secret that Invasion Limited is not my favorite format. Every time I think I have a solid deck, it is trumped by some opponent with some bizarre deck, such as ´´Wow, Two Dragons!´´ or ´´Oops, Six Tappers!´´ Drafting is even more frustrating, with vagrant drafters drifting from color to color at will, depriving cranky old-timers like me those few cards needed to polish off an old-school two-color draft. I've never been satisfied with my Limited skills in comparison to my Constructed skills, and Invasion Limited has only served to compound that issue.

So, along comes the Planeshift Preview. Not the official WotC Pre-Release, which was conveniently excluded from my schedule by non-Magical obligations, but the 32-player Invasion/Planeshift sealed deck hosted by Baseball Card City in Grand Rapids, MI, 2 days before the official Planeshift release in stores. Now don't get me wrong, I love to play Magic, including the formats that I'm not my best in, but as this particular tournament approached, the idea of spending my Saturday snowboarding sounded much more appealing. Then I got a call from A.J. the night before the tournament.

´´Hey, Travis just signed you up for the tournament on his credit card. You owe him 18 bucks. What time you wanna leave tomorrow?´´

Hrmm. Magic tournament it is.

Saturday morning came, and of course Travis and A.J. were right. You can't go wrong with a day of Magic. So, along with the 31 other competitors, I tore into my Invasion starter and 3 Planeshift boosters. Surprisingly, the first thing I noticed about my deck was that I lacked strong black cards, so that color was eliminated right away. I started with W/U/r, but then switched into W/G/r for stronger creatures. However, the defensive white cards went better with the blue than the green, and I went back to W/U/r. This was a last minute decision, and I quickly replaced Forests with Islands and G and G/R cards with U and U/W, leaving my deck with 1 more Mountain and 1 less Plains than it should have had. Luckily my mana never really bothered me during the tournament. I also played a Star Compass over a land just to try it out, and I was pleasantly surprised. Star Compass may not get you to a color you don't already have, but it makes choosing which mana to leave untapped to allow for different instants or abilities during your opponent's turn much easier.

Here's what I played:

1:Benalish Trapper
1:Obsidian Acolyte
1:Samite Pilgrim
1:Meddling Mage
2:Disciple of Kangee
1:Silver Drake
1:Rainbow Crow
1:Crusading Knight
1:Voice of All
1:Hunting Drake
1:Vodalian Serpent
1:Ertai's Trickery
1:Worldly Council
1:Tribal Flames
1:Star Compass
1:Seashell Cameo
1:Exclude
1:Repulse
1:Hobble
1:Shackles
2:Magma Burst
5:Mountain
6:Plains
6:Island

Round 1 vs. A.J.
Drag me off to a tournament I didn't want to go to, will you? I'll show you. If only my life total didn't race to zero so fast.

A.J.'s deck was very strong, with aggressive early drops, a smooth mana curve, and enough gas to keep it swinging through the later game. Early pressure demanded that I sacrifice lands to Magma Burst before my mana was strong enough to support it, and I pretty much spent this entire match behind the 8-ball. I got to learn the strength of several Planeshift cards in this match, as his 2 Horned Kavu were difficult for me to deal with, and I was able to steal game 2 pretty much based on the strength of my Samite Pilgrim. I lost this match 1-2 to a well-built deck.

Round 2 vs. Tim Colburn
Game 1 Voice of All proved to be as good as I had hoped it would be, as my pro-red Voice backed up by Obsidian Acolyte went the distance. Game 2 was significantly more interesting. My Acolyte and Trapper were holding down the fort while my Rainbow Crow pecked away at my opponent until my Hunting Drake submerged his Lava Zombie. Then out of nowhere came Tahngarth, Talruum Hero to threaten my creatures. Luckily after he took out my Rainbow Crow with Tahngarth, I had the Shackles to lock the minotaur down. He still had the Lava Zombie to bounce his Tahngarth out of the Shackles, but every time he cast the Zombie my Acolyte gave pro-black to all of his creatures, keeping the Zombie bouncing back to his hand. This held him off long enough for the Hunting Drake and the Crusading Knight that soon followed to finish him off. I got out of this match with a 2-0 win.

Round 3 vs. Eric Thomasman
Eric's deck was 4 colors, in order to make use of his best cards as well as make the casting cost of his Draco manageable. Unfortunately for him, his colors just wouldn't come together either game, and I am the beneficiary of 2 mana-screw games in a row from my opponent.

Round 4 vs. Rick Stefanich
Not much of a story here. Our creatures battled, and I drew both of my Magma Bursts in both games. Cards that kill 2 creatures at a time go a long way in an otherwise close creature battle, and I won this match 2-0.

Round 5 vs. Richard Hunley
I like Richard, as he tends to bring interesting rogue decks to tournaments. He offers the draw, but my tiebreakers don't permit it. This is an unfortunate circumstance for Richard, as game 1 the land that he needed to be a Mountain was Keldon Necropolis instead, and I Magma Burst him to 0 while my life is still at 20. Game 2 was much closer, but Voice of All, Crusading Knight, and Crimson Acolyte are all good vs. a R/B deck. Still, I was at 6 life before I took his final 4 life, and this came several turns after a critical mistake on his part - he cast a Plague Spores on my Rainbow Crow while I had spare mana to turn it black. It always pays to play tight, since just 1 mistake at the wrong time can take you out of a tournament.

So, after 5 rounds of Swiss, I went into the top 8. Unfortunately, my first round opponent was Travis, who not only was my friend, but also had a more powerful deck than mine.

Quarterfinals vs. Travis
Travis's deck may have had more powerful cards than mine, but his mana curve was much more top-heavy, and my deck came out ahead early. I couldn't hold him off forever, though, as Travis stabilized the board and went on the offensive at 2 life. My life total dropped quickly as he attacked with his Zanam Djinn, but Travis made a critical error. After attacking with his 3/4 Djinn, he cast a red creature to make it a 5/6. Next turn, he attacked again with a 3/4, and again he cast a red creature after combat to increase the Djinn's power to 5. Had he made the right play just once, he would have finished me off with the Magma Burst in his hand. As it was though, during my last possible turn of the game at 4 life, I pealed my own Magma Burst off the top to steal his last 2 life.

Since Travis is my friend, I point out his mistake before we go on to game 2. In retrospect, I should have waited, as this visibly threw him off for the next game. It didn't matter much either way, though, as my deck once again came out faster than his, and I ended up finishing him off with Magma Burst while he was a bit mana-flooded.

Semifinals vs. A.J.
Once again I have to face off against A.J., and once again his deck is just too much for me to contain. He got multiple Horned Kavu early in both games, and beat my face in.

So, I lost in the semis to my own partner, but got 5 boosters of Planeshift for my trouble. A.J. went on to split with Mark Gordon in the finals, but while the box of Planeshift could be evenly split, the Planeshift deck box could not, and soon they were playing off for it good-naturedly. A.J. ended up winning that match, too. So Travis, A.J., and I traveled to the tournament together, and were the only ones that ended up knocking each other out of the tournament. Overall I'd say that's a successful day of Magic, and despite my cranky old-man attitude, it was a fun day as well.

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