Constructed Deck Tournament -- June 15, Bowling Green, KY
(Or, "The Wisconsin Street Punk and Me")


    I set up two tournaments for Saturday, June 15, at Hobby Crossing
in Bowling Green, KY.  I originally planned to play only in the first
(constructed deck) and just observe/judge in the second.  However, the
word "awry" seemed to fit my plans for the entire day. =)

    "Play will begin promptly at 11:00 AM," the flyer read.  Wouldja
believe 1 PM?  We had seven players at 11; three were stuck in traffic
in Louisville, and one only recovered enough from the night before to
stagger in at noon.  The general opinion seemed to be to wait for the
others to show up (since they called ahead to explain the situation).
So we waited... and waited... and waited... =)  One of our local players
had to bow out because of time constraints as a result, but I'm hoping
to see him play next month.

    Anyway, here's what happened to me (player's perspective).  I
trotted out the now-infamous Richie "Wisconsin Street Punk" deck (cheese
and lots of it =).  I had a long running argument over whether to use
a Quickening, but decided against it.  This would come back to both 
haunt and relieve me later.  Also, the fact I hadn't been playing Ped-5
for a loooong time would hurt me, as would a general lack of sleep and
concentration.

    The following players made it to the tournament:

	Jeff Barnes (me), playing Richie cheese and Ped-5
	Josh Barnes (my brother), playing a Xavier deck
	Nathan Byers, with his Slan "Denial" deck
	Buddy Dowdy, with one of the ugliest decks I've ever seen
            (more on this later)
	Chip McMann, playing Xavier (?)
	Scott Jones, playing Slan
	Craig Lilly, converting his Richie "deck" into a Conner 
	    tower
	Danny Mink, with a modified version of the Duncan deck I
            helped him build last time (shoulda left it alone =)
	Dave Eckard, playing Xavier

    In the first round, I faced off against Dave Eckard's Xavier deck.
It's general theme seemed to be "leave me alone!"  Lots of Ped-2's, 
Sea Witch, and so on.  Would have worked well against an attack deck,
but it pretty much just gave me time to recover from a horrid initial
draw and do the Sedarius thing.  A Ped-5 ended the match.

    In other play, Chip received the bye; I was surprised to see him
with a Xavier deck rather than the "Tower of Power."  Suppose variety
is the spice of life.  Josh (my brother) had the poor luck to run into
his worst nightmare: a Slan Challenge deck (he's still blaming me for 
that, BTW =).  Craig somehow upset Buddy; how I'm still not sure, and I was
half-suspicious at the time that Buddy threw the match just so he could
have easier pickings in the loser's bracket. =)  Nathan defeated Danny.

   I moved on to the second round, but (by random determination), I got
the bye.  Scott downed Craig, while Chip defeated Nathan.  I'm kind of
vague on these particulars, since I was mostly away organizing or 
eating. =)  In the loser's bracket, Dave had the bad luck of running
into another non-attack deck, and Josh won the match.  Buddy defeated
Danny in what was essentially a forfeit (Danny's now claiming he's 
through with all gaming, and that he's selling everything but his Magic
cards; I give him a month before he gets back in =).

    In the third round of the winner's bracket, Scott received the bye
(since Chip and I had already gotten one).  I was kind of worried at 
having to face Chip again, and wondered what horrors lay in his Xavier
deck.  However, his luck misfired against me somewhat; IIRC, he only 
saw one Forethought the entire time.  My Ped-5 drought begins here,
but I get enough of the damage-causers to beat him down.

    I'm feeling pretty good about my chances at this point, despite 
premonitions the night before I was going down hard.  I look around
at the other games.  Josh runs afoul of Buddy, and I begin to see how
horrible Buddy's deck can be (Josh's deck beats me 40% of the time or so).  
Meanwhile, Craig falls to Nathan.

    Now, I get to play Scott.  Slan with Challenge.  Hooray.  However,
as Dave said, "We have more faith in Scott's deck than Scott does."
This proves to be the hardest-fought match of the tournament.  

    First off, I should have lost.  I was distracted, I was tense, I
was tired.  My deck drew another bad initial draw, and I didn't see my
Ped-5s until late.  However, Scott misplayed three times, or else the
game (and probably my head) would have been his.

    I get off an early Sedarius combo against him.  Later, he realizes
he had a Holy Ground in his hand.  That's four points he shouldn't have
taken.  He plays a Carl, and forgets about it; so do I (duh) and play Holy
Ground.  Twice.  He doesn't counter, and I don't notice.  Since he
Challenged me with each, that's eight more (actually four) that I should
have taken.  Then, I do a Challenge/Shooting Blade at him for four (three
HG finally got me to my good stuff).  He is holding a Run Through, my
brother later tells me.  I'd have been skewered.  By the time I get to the
Ped-5s, I can't afford to chance it; two Challenge and power blows and I'm
history.  Somehow, though, luck gets me through this.  Scott's not a bad
player, but he was apparently suffering from the same things I was.  I sigh
a big sigh of relief and remind myself to put down Carl before Sedarius
from now on.

    Meanwhile, Buddy rips up a TCGames card to prevent a Head Shot, and
downs Nathan.  He goes on to beat Scott (love to have more details, but I
was still coming down from my match with Scott =).

    Now I come up against Buddy's deck.  Hey, can't be too hard; after all,
Craig beat it, right?

    Wrong.  This thing is the most beautifully-designed deck I've seen in a
long time.  He plays with 2 pre-game Darii and the "do an extra point of
damage" Quickening.  Kinda neat, but nothing special, right?

    Think Xavier.  Think Forethoughts and three Wargames West.  Think his
extra attack plus the Quickening after a Dodge.  His deck locks me up
big-time during the first game.  Even so, I should have won.

    Let me explain how.  At one point, he has WGW down, but chooses to play
another, since he has a Forethought in play.  I can't police it (and it
wouldn't do any good at this point), so I use Watcher: Treatment (why
not?).  Three turns later I realize why not: I was ahead in life and
holding a Ped-5.  It's about all I can do not to slam my head through the
table.  Idiot, idiot, idiot.  Sure, he could have used a TCG card to
counter it, but that would have left me another game to get it down, since
he had no other TCG cards (and no Police, he told me later).  I go down in
flames for the first time in a tournament.  Sigh.

    Oh, well, he still has to win again since I was in the winner's
bracket.  I'm tired enough that I start to look for my sideboard before I
remember I'm playing HL, not M:TG. =)  The next game is really uneventful
and dull.  He gets in two shots I couldn't stop, but I get a Master's
Advice and a Watcher: Treatment to take me to 16.  I Stalk him and use a
Street Punk (I think) to take him to 13.  He plays WGW with a Forethought
out (didn't matter; I'd exhausted my Police on his other Forethoughts).  I
play... Ped-5, and I hold my breath to see if he counters it.  If he does,
I'm toast.

    He doesn't.  And I have a hand filled with blocks, dodges, and even a
Master's Block or two.  He can't do any other damage, and I eke out a
victory of sorts.

    To be honest, I was extremely disappointed in my deck.  Apart from me
not playing it for a while (big minus points; know your deck, boys and
girls), I came to realize the WSP is too fat now.  Sure, I can have four
Seduces and three Darii, but it was running better at 2 and 1.  Sure, I can
play with four Carls, but two are usually enough.  And so on.

    I think I'll be putting the WSP away for a while (though I reserve the
right to take it to Syndicon if I go =) and try another deck concept.  I'm
even considering modifying Buddy's deck to fit my style (and Quickenings
=).  So, while the WSP may not be around much longer, I hope I will be.

    Alternative comments on and/or reports of the tournament are welcome.  I'll
do something about the sealed deck tourney tomorrow or so.  Maybe. =)

-Jeff