all your report are belong to us

Subject: Type I - Smoke me a kipper
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 1997 19:17:02 +1100
From: Benjamin Seck 
To: magaus@magic.net.au

Though it has been over a week, I thought people may be interested in
the report for Eastwood the Saturday before last. The format was grand
ole Type I, a format that is best described as broken. Still, there is a
fair amount of skill that can be attributed to the format, and having
been offered the use of power by Howard Mak, I decided to attend. Let me
say that was the first in a set of many good choices for me. Type I in
this particlaur month had the dubious honor of having 8 "strips" in the
format, but surprisingly or not, very few deck fully utilised all 8.

The deck I decided upon playing can best be described as an offensive
control deck, utilising quick offensive creatures and mid-late game
anti-control aspects.

"Kimba and his brothers"
Type I
4 Savannah Lions
4 Serendib Efreets
2 Ophidians
1 Frenetic Efreet
1 Gorilla Shaman
2 Fireballs
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Moxes (sans Jet)
4 Mana Drains
1 Braingeyser
1 Force of Will
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Balance
1 Regrowth
1 Zuran Orb
1 Jayemdae Tome
1 Sol Ring
2 Disenchants
4 Strip Mines
1 Wasteland
4 Volcanic Islands
4 Tropical Islands
4 Tundra
3 Cities of Brass
2 Islands
1 Plains
1 Library of Alexandria (Even with 8 strips it is ba'roken!)

SB
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Gorilla Shaman
2 Pyroblast
2 Dwarven Miners
2 Disenchant
2 Force of Will
1 Dwarven Catapult
1 Earthquake
1 Jester's Cap
2 Interdict

Having a fair amount of offence, it forces a defensive player to assume
a quick defensive (and usually at this early stage, precarious) posture,
which is made even harder by the strip mines and the mana drains. After
sideboarding it can assume an even more anti-control stance, with more
FoW, pyros, miners, another shaman, disenchant, cap, and interdicts....
The heavily anti control sideboard was the key to many of my victories.
Anyway on with the show...

Round 1 - Robert Carne - U/W Weenie/Armour...
Robert is an infrequent tournament player, but I hope in the future he
can make it to more tournaments.
Game 1 - Robert obviously doesn't play a great deal of Type 1, as I drop
Moxen on the first turn, he panicks and Force of Wills one. Hmmm...
ok... Anyway I begin the savage Lion beatdown, who get plowed and
countered, and then the Serendibs come to the party. But they get spirit
linked, and start hurting me. No fair! Eventually a get enough Serendibs
on board and finish him with a Fireball.
Game 2 - Early Lions and an Ophidian but him on the defensive. After
depleting my hand, I braingeyser for 8... and for some explicable reason
draw 10 cards. Grant... who is judging looks at me funny and then give
me a warning. Oops. anyway, the card advantage gained by the Ophidians
and Braingeyser crushed Robert out of the game.

2-0 (1-0-0)

Round 2 - Paul Merry - Turbo Balance/Crypt/Scepter/Scroll
Paul is one of the best players in Sydney, but is having an extremely
bad run at the moment... but I'm sure he'll get over it. His deck was
extremely funky - and strong. It turned out later that I was his only
Swiss loss. Hehe.
Game 1 - I get some early offence, which gets in for a bit, then is
Balanced away. Mana Crypt damage is catching up with Paul, forcing him
to Wheel in order to find a sink, but the Wheel gives me the extra punch
to kill him with too large Serendibs.
Game 2 - Paul drops his hand, with Racks, and casts balance. I die.
Game 3 - I was mana screwed for red, with a Gorilla in hand. Paul had
plenty of 0 cost artifacts. Hmmm... Paul then Balance/Orbs with a
Scepter Mana Crypt on the table,( meaning I probably will never be able
to hold on to anything...), but keeps an Undiscovered in hand. This
mistake allows me to keep the Gorilla, and top deck a Volcanic.
Topdecking is a skill that I have acquired through my PT experience :)
The Gorilla eats his way through some moxen and crypts and I get an
Opidian on the table and draw my way to a victory I shouldn't have had.
2-1 (2-0-0)

Round 3 - Ernie Hurst - B/r/g "Painless" House of Pain (Good stuff)
Ernie pretty much plays only Type I, and is pretty good at it :) Funnily
enough we both get deck checked before this round and both fail. This
means we both have a game loss, and so our only game is sudden death :)
First and only game - Ernie goes first and strats strong... Lotus, Land,
Ernham... I start with no way of dealing with it... but then top-deck a
plow :) Ahh sweet top decking... He hymns me second turn, getting land,
and then puts out a third turn Hyppie. I regrow the plow :) I then get
two Serendibs out and its a race between his knight versus my Serendibs.
I win.
Oh wow! no more games!
2-1 (3-0-0)

Round 4 - Adam Kemp - Type I Monastery W/g
Adam is a good constructed player, and as a laugh, he decided to play a
Type I of his successful type II deck. Surprisingly it bstood the
transition very well, and proved to be undefeated in the rounds.
Game I - Adam eventually wears down all my offense through gerry's,
wraths and humilty Orim's prayer... I conceed (which was a mistake). He
had me with the Grindstone, but I could have escaped the stone.
Game 2 - Quick lions and Serendibs get Adam's life total down, but then
he drops a humility. But the 1/1 Serendibs still eventually get him,
when he is unable to follow up :)
Game 3 - Time was called pretty early in this game...
1-1 (3-0-1)

Round 5 - Damien Barry - Keeper Style B/r/U/W - Abyss/Moat Control
(Torch kill)
Damien is a true power player having Beta versions of many of the power
cards :) He is also a pretty good player :)
Game 1 - I mana drain something, and the fireball him for 9. He mana
drains that, and the torches me for 17. I die soon afterwards.
Game 2 - I sideboard out my lions, and my anti-control sideboard wears
his defense down. The key card is the Jester's Cap, which I cap out all
his ways to win, and on the second recursion, cap out his recrusion.
Serendibs eventually do him in.
Game 3 - I sideboard back in the Lions, hoping to get a quyicker kill...
I nearly kill him, but then time is called :)
1-1 (3-0-2)

Round 6 - Jacob Ronowicz(sp?) Frenchy G/R/u - Ernham, Kird Ape,
Serendib.
Since we both should get in after and ID - we do so. Man this Magic
stuff is hard!
ID (3-0-3)

My record gave me 6th place in swiss, and thus placed me in decent stead
for the tournament.

Quarterfinals - Paul Merry
Paul was not pleased with this matchup since I had been his only swiss
loss. :)
Game 1 - Basically I didn't let him get the Balance off. Ophidians and
Lions do him in in quick fashion.
Game 2 - Paul gets a lightning start, but attempts an early balace,
while umping his hand, praying that I didn't force. Oops! I had the
force, and he soon died from a combination of mana Crypt damage and
Serendib smash.
Paul walks away indignant.

Semifinals - Adam Kemp
Adam is worried by my deck, as he said that I am the only (or maybe one
of the very few) player playing disenchants against him. Whoa! People
obviously don't realise the power of disenchant in Type I... even with
the creature decks, they are always sooo useful!
Game 1 - Adam does well to hold off my swarm, wrathing and humilitying
my creatures. Near the end of time, he is on 47 life, with a Zuran Orb
in play and 27 cards in his deck. I thought I was in trouble, since my
Timetwister was the bottom card in my graveyard and he was playing
Furnaces (which hadn't come into play yet). Adam is Grinding away, and
I'm hoping that he doesn't get my Regrowth. I finally get my Regrowth
after disenchanting his Grind, and think about regrowing the
Timetwister.Thinking that a Twister would still probably doom me to a
loss, I desperately look for another way out. Ahhh! I see it! It is like
one of those Rosewater duelist puzzles. I cast a 17 point fireball on
Adam, and he shrugs since he is on 47. I mana drain it. He looks
suspicious. In his turn he Gaea's Blessinged. Hmmm this may make it bad.
I get to my turn, and then use the 18 mana from the mana drain, regrow
my Braingeyser, and Geyser him for 30 (which is exactly how many cards
he had in his library). He dies in his draw phase. Wow what a Kill!
Time is called, and I win!
1-0

Final vs Damien Barry
Since I would have had the game, had we not gone to time during the
rounds, I feel confident about my deck's ability to beat Damien's. What
made it much better was when I had capped him during the rounds, I also
discovered he was not playing a Mirror Universe, which in Howard Mak's
opinion is "the most broken card in Type I". This means all I needed to
be worried about was his X-spells and recursion for the kill.
Game 1 - My creatures overwhelm him, and his attempts at Abyssing my
creatures are met with the ever-powerful disenchant. Ahhh sweet lions.
Game 2 - Hmmm my opening hand had a plateau and a ruby and blue spells.
I'm in trouble. But I'm going second, and so I top deck a sapphire and
drop a 1st turn frenetic. Strong :) He then spends 2 plows and a torch
getting rid of it. Ahhh sweet card advantage. After eventually killing
it, I drop a dwarven miner, and proceed to destroy every land that
Damien has, because all his creature removal was absorbed by the
frenetic. Eventually I get a lion and a serendib to kill him!

Yes! My first contructed victory, after 8 second places! Ahhh this is
sweet.

Anyway, on to the obligitary props and slops section.
Props -
Grant and Skeeve for running Eastwood tourneys this year, it has been
great! Hope that the new venue and dates next years will make the
tourneys as enjoyable.
Power cards - for making it all possible.
Adam Kemp, for successfully converting the Monastery to type I.
Paul Merry for a pretty cool funky deck...
Super Salad Sandwiches.
Mikko Makipaa (sp?) for assisting me on the construction of this deck
(Hey Hobbe5!)
My sponsors, Team KINGS for continually sponsoring us!

Slops
Howard Mak who though that Mono-Green in type I was any good.
Anyone who played power and didn't make the top 8. You don't deserve it!
:) (Especially you Rob!)
Everyone for not stripping my Library! Come on! There was 8 strips!
Kevin Cheng, for not making the top 8 with cheese. Come on Kev!
Lenny Collins for deciding not to turn up because he couldn't find a
deck on the net :)

Anyway thats enough from me,
Take Care during the festive season!

Benjamin Seck
Member of Team KINGS
No longer a constructed lamer.