Tournament Report
Saturday, September 7th, 2002
By Jason Barnes

I showed up early to do some trading and got my hands on 5 Clones and a couple of other goodies. My Hunting Grounds deck (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=sideboard/gptai02/champdeck) is ready except for 4 Absorbs, 2 Mystic Snakes, and a Coastal Tower. Phil's lending me the Snakes and Tower and I know he'll show up cause he's judging. Peter agreed to lend me the 4 Absorbs since I let him use my 4 Meddling Mages at the last Extended tourney. So the tourney is about to start, and neither Phil nor Peter have shown up. Then I realize that since Peter hasn't played for about year, it's unlikely he's gonna show up for a Type 2 tourney. I panic and throw together a PoS 'Tog deck, and while I'm frantically running around begging for spare Chainer's Edicts, Phil walks in and asks me what the heck I'm doing. I say/curse that !@#$ Peter didn't @#$% show up with the #$%& $%&*s. Apparently he too has Absorbs (3), so I put my Hunting Grounds deck back together. All this is done with a limited number of sleeves, so it takes quite a while to de-sleeve/re-sleeve everything. I toss together a Forrest-esque sideboard. By the time my deck is rebuilt, everyone else is playing, but my opponent is

Round 1: Jesse w/ Black/Green Jank
First Game: I was still pretty flustered so this game is kinda blurry. I won though. Second Game: I Wrath away a Llanowar Elf with Sinister Strength and Blanchwood Armor on it, but am low on countermagic. He gets 2 4/4s into play, and forces me to start playing Mystic Snakes just to chump block. It comes down to one crucial turn-I'm at 4 life and have 7 mana on the table, and his 2 4/4s will kill me next turn. I have to get a Wrath to live. I draw Fact or Fiction-bleh. I cast it, revealing 2 lands, 2 spells (one of which was a Repulse I think), and the fifth card-a Wrath. Mise! He puts the Wrath and a land in one pile. Needless to say I take the Wrath/land, play the land then the Wrath to kill his critters. I quickly gain control and go on to win the game. 1-0, 2-0

Round 2: Chris w/ MonoGreen Druids
First Game: I roll a 2. He rolls a 1. Sweet. His first play is a turn three Seton, but after that he starts bustin out Druids like there's no tomorrow. They schmack me around a little but are too busy tapping for mana to do much damage to me. Wrath of God puts a damper on his Druid-fest, and Nishoba tramples over for the win. Second Game: He plays a mana druid-Werebear I believe-and gets a 3rd turn Living Terrain. It proceeds to hit me for 10 as I fail to realize it's not legal in Type 2. Deja Vu of game 1; Wrath clears the board, then Living Wish gets me a Nishoba in play. Nish plus Ninja Dragon (Mystic Enforcer) end the game. 2-0, 4-0

Round 3: Jon w/ Trenches
First Game: =( Probably the best deck in the tourney. We played a couple games before and both won one, so it seems like a toss up. To get in 2-3 slow games is practically impossible to do with the 40-minutes-per-round time limit. He risks a 3rd turn Trenches which I counter. A couple turns later he tries again; I counter, he counters, so it resolves. On my turn I Wish for my Cloudchaser Eagle and play it to nuke the Trenches. He peels his third Trenches (who does that?) and I'm tapped out, so I lose. This actually took much longer than it sounds, I'm not sure why. Second Game: Time is called (grumble). I think he was winning though. 2-1, 4-1
I'm dismayed because if I get to the finals/semifinals, we have a very good chance of playing each other, and this doesn't bode well.

Round 4: Jimmy w/ Burning Fish + Orbosition
First Game: I have to win this next game to be in the finals, so I'm less than thrilled to be playing Jimmy. His merfolk beat me like a red-headed stepchild. Second Game: Don't remember other than that his Orbosition showed up but I managed to win. Third Game: A couple of early fish get Wrathed away, and then I play my Genesis, Enforcer, and Nishoba. He gets his Opposition out, but only has 2 creatures out. The 1/1 Merfolk stall my 7/7 trampler and 6/6 Flyer (embarrassing!). Genesis gets through though, and I counter any other creature he plays.

w00t! I slip into the top 4 at 4th place. Go figure, Jon is in first, so we have to play again... But no time limit this time.

Semifinals: Jon w/ Trenches again
First Game: This game is pretty slow and a lot of fun. I let him draw all the cards wants and save up my counters for more important things. My manlands (Nantuko Sanctuaries) worked overtime by being Repulsed multiple times by both players (stuff like Repulsing in response to the opponent's Repulse). I eventually win.

Second Game: =/ He gets manascrewed. When he doesn't drop a third land, I go into beatdown mode with Genesis. Another land shows up once it's much too late.

Finals: Jeff w/ RW Life/Burn
First Game: He plays a lot of burn and life gain, but nothing very threatening, so I let it all through and save up a lot of counters. By the time he gets a real threat (Desolation Giant) I just Mystic Snake it. Other Snakes come out to help their bro when need be. I eventually get all three out and 6 damage a turn is too much to handle. Second Game: Similar to the second game of the semi-finals, but instead of not getting much land, he doesn't get much of anything else. By the time he draws/plays much of anything, I have 4 mana out, and 2 Snakes in hand. I finish the game similarly to the first.

Better to be lucky than good.

Later Jon Phil and I went over to Mickey D's and then to Phil's place to spend the night. But first my mom shows up and demands everyone's name, address, phone number, social security number, etc. Geez. We played some Magic and then Mario Tennis. I had no idea what I was doing so Phil and I lost to Jon and the computer. Next Mario Kart, which I sucked up as well. My mom calls and demands I come home so I can get up bright and early tomorrow (Sunday!?) to do my schoolwork. !@#$.

Props:
 Phil for lending me stuff
GZC for hosting tournies
McDonald's for being there

Slops:
 Peter for not showing up
Me for not realizing living terrain isn't legal
Jon's deck for belching out 3 Trenches in a row



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