2001)

It’s me, It’s me, the Wookie, and its time once again for another venture into the realm of magical cards with your aforementioned author. First off, let me introduce myself to the CardShark crew. My real name is Michael Davidson and I have been playing magic on a competitive level since Urza's Saga. I Have dome some writing on MTG Planet recently, however, with their slow updates and extremely biased submission process, I am tired with them. I wandered on to this great page about a week ago when I stumbled across Marcus Anderson's IBC PTQ report (which led me to Dave Andrew's report as well, both are fine pieces of writing and should be read by those preparing for the upcoming IBC qualifier season) and when I got here, I was seriously impressed. After checking, I realized that the updates here are lightning fast and the site layout is quite good. So what does all this have to do with anything, well, I am here to present my first submission to Card-Shark.com. This time I am going to give a type 2 report full of beatings, top decks that would make even the most seasoned pros stand up and cheer, and many other magical things as well. Before I get into the Report though, I should make one thing clear, I use a great deal of comedy, satire, and sarcasm in my writing, so if you are offended by such things this may not be the report for you. Well, without further adieu, here we go.

The Scene: Homefield Sportscards and Games
The Setting: A weekly Type 2 event
The Hero: Wookie
The Villain: Jon, my third round opponent
The Deck: B/W/r Arena

The List:

4:Phyrexian Arena
4:Vindicate
4:Gerrard's Verdict
4:Death Grasp
4:Terminate (MVP)
4:Duress
3:Rout
2:Disenchant
2:Desolation Angel
1:Western Paladin
1:Earthquake
1:Void
1:Avatar of Fury (this man is SCARY)
1:Northern Paladin
8:Swamp
6:Plains
4:Urborg Volcano
3:Battlefield Forge
2:Caves of Kolios
1:Mountain

The Sideboard:

3:Pyroclasm
2:Disenchant
3:Aura Blast
2:Dodecapod
1:Earthquake
1:Tsabo's Web
3:Obliterate

First, I believe that you might be shaking your head and saying, ´´what a pile´´ or something to that effect, well, allow me to assure you the loyal reader, that this deck is far from a pile. The key to making this deck a good one though is knowing how to properly play it. This deck is far from fires whereas you could hand the deck to a monkey and get a winning record of some sorts. Playing the arena is very similar to playing Jayemdade Tome back in the day, and as such, this deck is a control deck. On some of my card choices, the 2 Desolation Angels and 1 Avatar of Fury are like a dual layered security system, when you aren't casting the angel for significant beats, the avatar works just as well, if not better. The Paladins are in for added removal, however, in a deck with a possible 16 spot/mass removal spells, they turned out to be nothing more than overpriced beats. Well, enough of this pre-report babble, on to the show.

Round 1
Opponent: Patrick Yopp
Playing: B/W Arena (aggro)

Game 1: There really isn't much to say about game 1, I died with no lands in play after having drawn only three and no arena to go get more. I did get to vindicate a Spectral Lynx this game though when Patrick tapped out to double Soul Link (who plays Soul Link?) his Lynx. Other than that, Gerrard's Verdicts and a Desolation Angel wrecked me.

Game 2: This game went much more according to plan as one of Patrick's early verdicts hit a Dodecapod and my vindicates kept him away from his black mana until way to late in the game. He did manage to Vindicate the 5/5 free monster, however I followed his vindicate with a Desolation angel with kicker, onto game three.

Game 3: This game was by far the closest of the three as he started out with first turn Dark Ritual, Arena. Uhh oh, bad times ahead for Wookie, but, all was well as my second turn verdict caught another Arena and a Desolation Angel. Pat responded by returning the favor with a verdict of his own grabbing a land and an Avatar of Fury from me. However bleak the situation looked though, my deck was there with a lovely topdeck in the form of aura blast. The card draw from the aura blast gave me an arena of my own which entered play my next turn after Pat laid a land and passed. The Card advantage garnered from the arena soon overwhelmed Patrick as he could not find an answer for the engine, and couldn't find an arena of his own either. Soon enough
desolation angel showed up and I proceed to lay the beats until my worthy opponent's life total was well below zero.

Games: 2-1
Matches: 1-0

On to Round 2

Opponent: I forgot my opponent's name, and my notes don't reveal that information.
Playing: R/W/U (aggro)

Game 1: Well, I see Islands and prepare for the long haul, but when my opponent's third turn revealed a Razorfin Hunter, I breathed a sigh of relief and proceeded to Terminate/Vindicate/Rout until Mr. Angel decided to make an appearance and seal the deal in short order.

Game 2: This game featured the Almighty opponent parising to 5 with me having the Duress/Verdict draw. With such a disadvantage, my opponent conceded after I played a Arena and showed him the Angel. Well, that was no fun, oh well, on to round three.

Games: 4-1
Matches: 2-0

Round 3
Opponent: Jon Random (sorry guy, I forgot your last name)
Playing: The same B/W aggro deck from round 1

Game 1: Game 1 started out as a normal game between these 2 decks would, I verdicted on turn 2, he verdicted on turn 2, I play arena on turn three, he plays an arena on turn three, but, that is where the game stops being a game. On my next turn, I vindicate his arena and pass, he draws, doesn't play a land and passes. Missed land drop number 1 for the opponent, good times for Wookie. After a few missed land drops by Jon, he is visibly upset, and when I decide to Desolation Angel with kicker on turn 7, he scoops.

Game 2: This was probably the best game of the night, full of suspense, drama, and topdecks beyond those even the topdeck gods themselves could bestow. The only Way that I can describe this game is to show the turn sequence, so here it is.

J: Swamp, go
W: Swamp, Duress (taking Arena), go
J: Plains, go
W: Plains, Verdict (Disenchant, Spectral Lynx), go
J: Caves, Verdict (Avatar of Fury, Battlefield Forge), go
W: Urborg Volcano, go
J: Verdict (two random cards), go
W: land, go
J: Verdict (AGAIN!), land, go
W: Arena, go
J: Arena, go
W: Disenchant Arena, lay land, go,
J: land, go
W: Dodecapod, go
J: Arena, land, go
W: land, Death Grasp for 3, serve for three, go
J: land, Disenchant my Dodecapod, go
W: land, Death Grasp for 4, go
J: Spetral Lynx, Aura Blast my Arena, go
W: land, Terminate Lynx, go.

We took turns dropping lands until john played an Arena when he was at 5, looking desperately for a death grasp. I continue to savagely topdeck land after land. When John is at 1 he Vindicates his Arena and passes the turn, I lay a land and pass the turn, praying for an Angel. Jon, topedecks a death grasp and hits me for an obscene amount and passes the turn, I draw, and glumly lay a land. Jon draws a card, smiles, and taps out to death grasp me for like 12,094,701 and reducing my life total into negative numbers. Oh well, I lasted far longer than I should have after being hit with three topdecked Verdicts in a row. On to game three.

Game 3: We shuffle and cut and shake hands, hoping for another good game. This however is ruined by Jon's first turn. Swamp, Rit, Rit, Desolation Angel. What is that, oh well, all I need to do is draw a vindicate or terminate within the next 4 turns, so what do I do, I don't draw one, of course, oh well, what a bad way to lose what had been up until that point a good match.

Games: 5-3
Matches: 2-1

Round 4
Opponent: James (a 12 year old with serious game, and even more serious freckles)
Playing: Mono red Wildfire

Game 1: I go first and duress a Chimeric Idol away, James counters with a second turn Fire Diamond, and third turn Sissay's Ring. Unfortunately for James, or Leppy as we call him since he looks similar to a Leprechaun, he didn't draw anything significant from that point on, so, Arena does what it does, finds the Angel, and I proceed to clean house.

Game 2: All I have to say about this game is that Void is absolutely amazing. Flash ahead to turn 5, leppy has 2 fire diamonds and 3, yes 3 Sissay's rings on the board, that is a total of 13 mana with the mountains he has in play, all I have is a lowly arena and the threat of a huge Ghitu Fire. Well, the topdeck gods will have none of that and graciously allow me to pull a Void straight out of Compton and do a drive by on Leppy's Rings. Whew, that is a load off my mind, however, Leppy decides to Wildfire on his next turn, damn, thats dash cunning, all is well though as I draw into land and vindicates for his remaining mana. Somewhere along the line death grasp did 7, 8, and 8 in consecutive turns to seal the deal, all is well in the land of Wookie.

Games: 7-3
Matches: 3-1

Sweet, top 8 here I come

Quarter finals
Opponent: Patrick Yopp (from round 1)
Playing: B/W arena (again, damn, that’s dash cunning)

Game 1: Patrick draws all of 1 land this game, need I say more. I did however get to hardcast an Avatar of Fury.

Game 2: Patrick's second turn runs into a pair of Dodecapods. Ten damage a turn for free is some good I hear, well, on to the semis.

Games: 9-3
Matches: 4-1

Semifinals
Opponent: Clayton Young
Playing: W/U/r (control with lightning angel and Skizzik for beats)

Game 1: A first turn duress reveals a hand containing 3 land, a Prophetic Bolt, a Lightning Angel, a Disenchant, and an Absorb. Great I think to myself, here we go, I snag the Absorb and begin to pray heavily to the topdeck gods. They responded by giving me a second turn Verdict (Lightning Angel and Disenchant?) and a third turn Arena. After Vindicates took out every piece of waterfront property I had seen, Mrs. Angel showed up, and decided to wreck house.

Game 2: There really were no highlights or spectacular plays in this game as Clayton was stuck on 2 land all game, and the fact that I vindicated his only blue land away, again, sealed the deal as soon as Lord Angel showed up again. Finals, here I come.

Well, now that we have arrived to the promised land, it is around 1:30 in the morning, and Kenny (one of the random fat twins as they are lovingly known) decides that it would be better to split the store credit rather that to waste more precious sleep time flopping cards. Good call Kenny.

So, after all is said and done, I ended up with 20 bucks in store credit and some valuable ratings points. Some changes that I am making to the deck are taking out the Earthquake for a Yawgmoth's Agenda, and the Paladins for Trench Wurms. Also, the lone earthquake in the sideboard will magically morph into another Dodecapod, as soon as I find my blasted 3rd copy of him in my big box of random cards.

Well, I hope that you enjoyed this little ditty. Any and all feedback, negative or positive is welcomed with open arms at bigwukmike@hotmail.com . Please, let me know what you think of this article, and the deck, I am always open to any thoughts.

Well, till next time, this is Wookie signing off, good night and happy card flopping to you and yours.

Peace,
Wookie

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