2001)

Back to Battle – an Origins Report, Part 2
Dave Andrews

After playing in the first IBC PTQ at Origins, I was pretty happy with the U/G aggro deck, although I was quite concerned that I had run into 3 decks packing Voice of All in 8 rounds, and had lost to 2 of them. Luckily, I had a couple of hours before the 10:00 pm PTQ started to get a good meal at Damon’s and to run back to our hotel to load up on some Wash Outs for the sideboard. I took Dodecapods out of my sideboard, since I never got a chance to use them and many decks were siding out discard for game 2 anyways. I also removed the Disrupts, as some opponents were playing around it during game 2 before I even had the chance to reveal one. I guess Disrupt is just expected out of the sideboard in a deck with Islands. In addition, Tranquility never did anything for me that Rushing River or Temporal Springs couldn’t have done well enough, and I felt I wanted Confound for the mirror match and for decks packing more removal than just Vindicate.

When 10:00 pm rolled around, this is what I was packing:

U/G Aggro
By Bill Fleming

4:Blurred Mongoose
4:Kavu Titan
4:Gaea’s Skyfolk
4:Mystic Snake
4:Exclude
4:Repulse
4:Rushing River
4:Temporal Springs
4:Fact or Fiction
4:Yavimaya Coast
10:Island
10:Forest

Sideboard:
4:Jungle Barrier
4:Wash Out
4:Gainsay
3:Confound

Round 1 vs. Corey Kiser-Davis with G/R aggro

Ughh, I started out playing against the worst matchup for my deck. You know something’s wrong when you have more mulligans in a match than damage dealt to your opponent, and that’s with only one mulligan. :( This matchup is not unwinnable with the amazing Jungle Barrier out of the sideboard, but it is very tough, and I didn’t get the draws to win it.

Games: 0-2
Matches: 0-1

Round 2 vs. Steve Zimmerman with Domain

I started this match out with a mulligan, and got stuck on 2 lands for a few turns, but was able to start swinging with Gaea’s Skyfolk, eventually adding a Kavu Titan and a Mystic Snake to the team. Steve cast Obliterate, but I was able to Rushing River and Repulse my entire team, and when I made the next 2 land drops and redeployed the Gaea’s Skyfolk, Steve packed for game 1.

Game 2 was Steve’s turn to get stuck on only 2 land, while I proceeded to play out 2 Gaea’s Skyfolk and 2 Blurred Mongooses. If there’s one thing the U/G deck does well, it’s punishing a mana-screwed opponent.

Games: 2-2
Matches: 1-1

Round 3 vs. William Han with B/W Arena

In the interest of preserving our environment, I think that Phyrexian Arena should be banned, not because it is too powerful, but because of all the paper it takes to keep track of life. Down, down his life total went as I swung with creatures and he lost life to Arena and Ragers. Then back up, thanks to Gerrard’s Verdict. Down a few more points, then back up via Death Grasp. My life total, on the other hand, went down only, especially after William cast Desolation Angel. :(

Game 2 just went much better for me, with my Skyfolk and William’s Arena pecking him from 20 to 0, without him able to get anything off that my bounce or counters couldn’t deal with. Game 3 I was not so fortunate, as William’s discard left me without an answer for the Desolation Angel, and my lift went quickly from 14 to 9 to 4 to 0.

Games: 4-3
Matches: 1-2

I had no doubts that I could end this tournament at 5-2, but with my losses coming that early, my tiebreaks wouldn’t get me into the Top 8. On the other hand, what better did I have to do in the middle of the night, sleep? Might as well play on and see if 9th-16th gets product again.

Round 4 vs. Nick Eisel with B/U/R control

Nick’s deck was a creaturless B/U/R that was designed to win with Prophetic Bolts and kicked Urza’s Rages to the head, brought out of the grave with Yawgmoth’s Agenda. During game 1, he was able to control my creature assault, and hit me in the head with a Prophetic Bolt, 2 Rages, and a kicked Rage for the win.

During game 2 I got a Mongoose rolling, and needed only to Mystic Snake his Void when he was at 12 life to be able to finish him before he got up enough mana to start blasting me.

Game 3 I was rolling with Mongoose again, but he revealed a Void off of Fact or Fiction that I didn’t have an answer for. Luckily, he didn’t have the land to play it, so I piled lands and another Fact or Fiction into the opposite pile, which he took in hopes of drawing into another Void. He never found another Void in time, and I got the match.

Games: 6-4
Matches: 2-2

Round 5 vs. Jason Harrod with the Desolation Deck

Jason’s deck featured both Desolation Angel and Giant. During game 1, he was able to get a Desolation Giant to resolve, which I was able to Repulse later. When he tried to cast it again, I had Mystic Snake ready. From there, all I needed was a Repulse for the upcoming Desolation Angel to wrap up the game.

During game 2, I again had a bounce spell ready when he cast Desolation Angel, which left my forces to finish off the match before he could assemble enough lands to defend himself.

Games: 8-4
Matches: 3-2

Round 6 vs. David Orleman with U/G Aggro

I found myself stuck in a mirror match for this round, which is often decided by the die roll. Luckily, I won that die roll, and so was able to go first, which should mean victory for me. Unfortunately, I forgot to draw more than 2 lands, and get beaten up by David’s critters.

I was in a situation where I had to win the next 2 games versus the mirror match, one of which I had to go second. I hoped that the Confounds I put in my sideboard were as good as I had hoped they would be, and it turned out they were. I got 2 Confounds off in game 2, once when he tried to Repulse his critter after damage was on the stack and once when he was trying to bounce a critter of mine. Game 2 was mine easily after going first and having the additional sideboard tricks.

I was pretty nervous about Game 3, as he was going first, which is vital in this matchup, but the Confounds came through fabulously, giving me 7 total counters for 2 mana and giving me solid card advantage. Game 3 was close, with David bringing me down to 6, but the Confounds carried me through.

Games: 10-5
Matches: 4-2

Round 7 vs. Travis Cullum with U/G Aggro

In the last round, I got matched up versus one of the guys I had come to Origins with, and we were playing identical decks, although he had not changed his sideboard at all between tournaments. Unfortunately for Travis, this just wasn’t his night, as even without the Confound advantage, things didn’t go his way at all. I won game 1 thanks to utter skill (die-rolling), and during game 2, Travis get stuck on 2 lands for far too long.

Games: 12-5
Matches: 5-2

So, after 7 rounds, I finished at 11th place. For this PTQ, however, there were only 78 participants, so there was no product for 9th – 16th. I guess some Magic players really do value sleep.

Kiet once again managed to pilot the deck into the Top 8, this time drawing in at 5-1-1. I watched his first match vs. Craig Wescoe’s R/G/w/u beatdown deck, which had some elements of the R/G beatdown, but with additions such as Goblin Legionnaire, Prophetic Bolt, and Lightning Angel. That Lightning Angel turned out to be Kiet’s doom, as his lineup of 3 Jungle Barriers were unable to stop it from flying over, ending Kiet’s second Top 8 run in the first round again.

Kiet and I caught a shuttle back to the hotel, and gratefully crashed into our beds for some much-needed sleep. We only got a few hours, though, as check-out time was at 11:00, and we had decided that since Marcus had slept after leaving Friday night’s PTQ early, he would be driving us home that night after Saturday’s adventures were over.

Saturday afternoon found 4 sleepy card players wandering through the vendor area. Marcus was promoting Card-Shark and explaining the website’s benefits to any dealers or players who were interested. Kiet was in search of a Mox Sapphire, which he ended up picking up for around $120. Travis and I just checked out some of the games available, and appreciated some vendors’ ingenious selling methods. A couple of vendors had hired professional models in skimpy outfits to push their games on the pathetic masses of girlfriend-lacking dice-chuckers.

Hottie: “I haven’t played a board game since Candyland, but I think that Troll Battalion is the best game on the market today.”

Gamer: “Oooookaaaaaay.” Reaches for the wallet.

Eventually, 4:00 rolls around and it’s time for the 3rd PTQ to begin. I considered switching decks, but figured it wasn’t time to mess with what seemed to be doing pretty well so far.

Round 1 vs. Mark Herberholz with U/G/B

I love driving all the way to Columbus to play against players I get to see every Thursday evening. Mark was playing U/G/B with some similar elements to the U/G deck I was playing, but with toys such as Vodalian Zombie and Spite/Malice. Vodalian Zombie was tough, and the Plague Spitter he had in the sideboard for my Blurred Mongooses was trouble too. Our match went to 3 games, and was basically decided on 1 factor. I hadn’t been particularly secretive about how good Confound was in the mirror or semi-mirror match, especially with those people that I usually play with. As a result, I’m pretty sure Mark sided out targeted spells such as Repulse for games 2 and 3. In game 3, when I had an early Skyfolk and Titan to his early Plague Spitter and Vodalian Zombie, I decided just to let the Spitter ride, never blocking or taking any action to get it out of play. I knew that having bounce spells while he had sided his out would probably win the race, and other than making my Mongooses dead cards, the Spitter would be working for me. The only real concern I had was the possibility of Undermine turning the advantage in his favor, so I tried to avoid casting any more spells than necessary to just barely win the race. This plan worked out for me, with the occasional Rushing River and Repulse on his 2 Vodalian Zombies giving me the advantage I needed to squeak out the win.

Games: 2-1
Matches: 1-0

Round 2 vs. James Waters with B/R

I hate to be the guy who blames losses in his tournament report on mana-screw, but I definitely took my share in this round. In game 1 I started with 2 lands in hand, and didn’t draw any more. In game 2 I drew more land, but they were all forests for far too long. This was a disappointing follow-up to the hard fought match in round 1.

Games: 2-3
Matches: 1-1

Round 3 vs. Matt Schaub with B/W Arena

For games 1 and 2, we played “Who Gets the Better Draw,” and took turns winning, bringing us to a long game 3. We traded Skyfolk hits for Lynx hits, and Repulses for Vindicates. Unfortunately, Matt was able to get out an early Phyrexian Arena, and I wasn’t quite getting in enough beatdown to make me comfortable with all those extra cards he was getting. Eventually he played a Desolation Angel that I was able to bounce back to his hand, but with his Arena, he was able to recover faster. Matt dipped as low as 2 life with my game winning Gaea’s Skyfolk on the table, but he had drawn too many cards to not have a Death Grasp in his hand, and was able to Grasp me to 1 and himself back to safety. Shortly thereafter, a Lynx put my life total to 0.

Games: 3-5
Matches: 1-2

There I was, at 1-2 again, feeling once again that I could probably win out, but knowing that I wouldn’t have the tiebreaks to get in. This time, however, I decided it was time to drop. It turned out to be an excellent choice, as I was able to catch most of the Smithee Awards. For those who haven’t checked this out before, it’s a hilarious awards ceremony for B-movies with fun categories like Worst Special Effect, Worst Science, Best One-Liner, and Most Inane Dialogue. It was tons of fun, and I’d recommend it to anyone attending Origins in the future.

When we headed off on our 5 1/2 hour car ride, I was exhausted, and feeling a strange mixture of disappointment and satisfaction. I had really hoped for a bit better performance than missing out on Top 8 for 3 PTQ’s in a row, but on the other hand, it’s pretty hard not to have a good time at Origins. All my opponents were excellent sportsmen, the games were fun and exciting, and I had a total blast.

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