June Tournament (tournament complete; scherbchen1 wins)

[Cognis]

To make sure none of the players were damaged because I didn’t learn how to play their decks I played three matches against random decks that aren’t in the tournament, as will with all other decks, after that I started playing the tournament.

Match A

Juzamjedi vs Serbitar 2-1
Serbitar vs Juzamjedi 2-0

Juzamjedi: 1 point
Serbitar: 2 points

Match 1 (Serbitar AI)
Game 1: An early start brought the AI down to 8 but then Wrath of God followed by 2 Baneslayer Angel turned the game around.
Game 2: AI controlled the board with a lot of removal and had me at 8 with Baneslayer Angel, but Goblin Warchief powered goblin army helped by 2 Siege-Gang Commander and Goblin King swinged for enough in the last turn.
Game 3: Aether Vial put Goblin Ringleader into play followed by revealed Goblin Warchief and Goblin Matron that went for Goblin Piledriver sealed the game in 2 swings.

Match 2 (Juzamjedi AI)
Game 1: It was a long match but early removal, Elspeth, Knight-Errant and Sensei’s Diving Top were the key to victory.
Game 2: It was over quickly. Elspeth, Knight-Errant and Sensei’s Diving Top powered by 3 Baneslayer Angel made this over quickly. I must say that Sensei’s Diving Top works marvellously with Wall of Omens, really good synergy.

[aww1979]

Bracket C:

aww1979_Cuddles(human) vs Jatill 2-1 (aww1979 +1 pts)
Jatill(human) vs aww1979_Cuddles 2-0 (jatill +2 pts)

Match 1: as myself
Game 1: Against my own advice (a few posts back, responding to yggdrasil) I keep a hand that has no real merits except Drop of Honey. AI casts Natural Order for Simic Sky Swallower (probably had Progenitus in hand). I kill all his walls with Drop of Honey and beat a bit with some elves, but without Natural Order I have no hope, and I concede. 0-1
Game 2: I have Natural Order in hand. Unfortunately, I only get 2 Forest, so all I do at the start is beat with Nimble Mongoose until Wall of Denial comes down. Eventually I get the 4th Forest, pop out 'Cuddles', and hug AI to death, while AI is manaflooded badly all game. 1-1
Game 3: I get the dream hand. 2x Forest, Magus of the Vineyard, Natural Order. Magus survives turn 1, Progenitus lands turn 2, and I win turn 4. 2-1

Match 2: as jatill
Game 1: I keep a hand with 2 walls, a plow, and 4 land, thinking I can stall any tarmogoyfs, and plow the first mana producing creature. Jatill's deck is built more around the long term, whereas mine is based on winning much faster, so I know if I can drag it out a bit, I'll win. AI gets all four Tarmogoyf but I have walls and the plow, and I'm perfectly safe. Cantrip walls mean I'm more likely to get Natural Order first, and I do. My walls hold back the Tarmogoyf army while progenitus pwns. 1-0
Game 2: I have Natural Order in my opening hand, so I keep it, even though Progenitus is also in hand. I stall with Wall of Omens and a couple pieces of removal, and on turn 4 I can cast Natural Order... but I don't have a green creature! So I wait, taking a few points of damage from 1/1s, but nothing too serious. A few turns later I get Overgrown Battlement, immediately tap it thanks to enemy Concordant Crossroads, and drop the Simic, who attacks. When the AI is at 9, I have managed to get Wall of Roots out and cast another Natural Order, and swing with 2 Simics for the win. 2-0

http://rapidshare.com/files/396066086/bracketC.zip.html

[discoransom]

Match A:

Juzamjedi vs Serbitar

game 1: Goblins on the play wins
game 2: White Wrathed into 2 Baneslayers
game 3: Goblins on the play wins

2-1

Serbitar vs Juzamjedi

game 1: Wrath into Elspeth into Baneslayer
game 2: AI manascrewed, Elspeth w/mass 1cc removal wins

2-0


Serbitar: 2 points
Juzamjedi: 1 Point

[discoransom]

Match B:

Salbei vs Scherbchen

game 1: AI manascrewed, Progenitus wasn't enough
game 2: Meekstone shut down Progenitus, Blossom + Shade ftw


2-0

Scherbchen vs Salbei

game 1: Progenitus into Progenitus beat Meekstone
game 2: AI drew Damnations when needed, Phyrexian Arena ftw
game 3: Progenitus into Progenitus beat Meekstone

2-1


Salbei: 2 points
Scherbchen: 1 Point

[thedrigo]

Hey, I was on a business trip for a couple of days and couldn't get anything Magic-related done.
I just downloaded the Playdeck file and I noticed my deck is not in the file and I'm not in any of the brackets. Did I not submit my deck in time? Please let me know.

PS. When I try to load Serbitar's MWC (Updated) deck to the Deckbuilder, it crashes Magic, causing it to close.

[taron]

The odd thing is, while I was testing my own submitted deck, the AI was using natural order perfectly fine. Nevertheless, I will try to re-update and see if it fixes.

Edit: The update did not fix it, so I did a fresh install on my manalink, seems to work fine now. Redid that part of the match to give both players a fair chance.

(Fresh install attempt at playing as Salbei)
3 swamps, 2 damnations, 2 bitterblossoms, keep. Drop bitterblossom, topdeck another, drop bitterblossom, drop bitterblossom, crapswarm for the win.
1-0

Fair hand, few lands, chicken hawk, bitterblossom, some life drain, keep. Opponent t3 progenitus. Meekstone topdecked. Bl progenitus. Phyrexian Arena comes to the board, keeping me from gaining life, but lots of card advantage, woodfall primus knocks out bitterblossom, but not enough of a delay to save him.
2-0

Edit:: More match data

Match C:
aww1979 Cuddles vs jatill
Match1- Player as aww1979Cuddles:
Fair hand, conc roads, mongoose and some acceleration, looks to be workable. Get some early beats down to 12 and then progenitus + wall of denial. =\ I hate losing to the AI.
0-1

He got out progenitus first, thankfully I was holding roads in my hand this time. I topdeck natural order, legend rule, no more progenitus. Just a ton of walls I can only get past one by one with an exalted Goyf.
Lovely, wall of Denial. Could really dig that drop of honey right about now. Goyf gets path'd. Get another forest, might as well thin out the deck. Ohdear, simic sky swallower. Slight bit of trouble. Drop of honey, too little too late at this stage, given that I can't get past the wall of denial, and can't target it with drop. Seems there are too many lands in this deck, topdecking nothing but. Another loss to the AI...
0-2

Match2- Player as jatill:
He got out the first progenitus + crossroads, no way to stop it. Crushing loss.
0-1

Get out an early sky swallower, he doesn't get a progenitus, fairly easy guess as to what happened.
1-1

I get the early progenitus out, 2 turn bash, win.
2-1


Match D:
Brandon vs Taron
Match1- Player as Brandon:
Fair hand vs absolute goldfish hand, t1 progenitus on the play. loss =\
0-1

Try an early deeds and turn before I can activate, suprise progenitus. Today is not my day. Needs lower cmc in the deck I think.
0-2

Match2- Player as Taron:
Get out a t3 progenitus, to have it diabolic edicted. Platinum angel comes out next with lightning greaves equipped. He double drops stinkweed imps. He pipers for a stinkweed imp. Natural order away a heirarch for progenitus. Edict again, throw away platinum angel, keeping progenitus. Bash for lethal.
1-0

Get an early lead with heirarchs and llanowar elves until deeds clears my board and leaves him with his imps. Keeps the lockdown with more edicts. And the broodmate dragon is down. Dead hand with 3x Eureka and 2x Naturalize. Dead.
1-1

Lots of small accelerants with no sight of Natural order for 2-3 turns. Swarm the board, natural order comes up with him on 9. Progenitus comes out and next turn swing for the win.
2-1

Match E:
Cognis vs Monopoman
Match1- Player as Cognis:
No mana hand, mulligan. I get an early swing, but too many goblins puts me on the defence as we build up forces, price of progress belts me for 6. My army is bigger, angrier and has support from elspeth and ajani, I win. -21 life.
1-0

Aggressive trading on my part drops him to low life, topdeck Ajani to pump dudes for the win.
2-0

Match2- Player as Monopoman:
Did not draw enough goblins, couldn't keep up with the Wild Nacatl and Skyfishers, disappointing loss @ -4 to 9.
0-1

Warchief + Siegegang + Piledriver with only a bloodbraid elf to defend = win.
1-1

Keep drawing land against 2 goyfs, a skyfisher and a sarkhan vol. Loss.
1-2

[discoransom]

Match C:

Aww Cuddles vs Jatill

game 1: turn 3 Progenitus
game 2: longer game (removal), but another unanswered Progenitus

2-0

Jatill vs Aww Cuddles

game 1: One swing, Progenitus got legend-ruled, Sky Swallower ftw
game 2: Long game but finally got Progenitus advantage

2-0


Aww Cuddles: 2 points
Jatill: 2 points

[aww1979]

Hey, I was on a business trip for a couple of days and couldn't get anything Magic-related done.
I just downloaded the Playdeck file and I noticed my deck is not in the file and I'm not in any of the brackets. Did I not submit my deck in time? Please let me know.

PS. When I try to load Serbitar's MWC (Updated) deck to the Deckbuilder, it crashes Magic, causing it to close.

Regarding Serbitar's deck: I thought I fixed that, but just make sure the file name matches the first line of the text file. Probably I uploaded the wrong one by mistake.

Regarding TheDrigo's deck: I'm a shithead. Somehow I missed including it in the brackets. I haven't the foggiest idea how I missed it. It wasn't even the last deck submitted. I downloaded it just like all the other decks people sent in, but it's still sitting on my desktop. The only possible explanation I can think of is that I looked at the decklist, saw Progenitus (for the 4th time) and maybe I thought I'd already included it, so went on to the next one.

The fairest solution I can think of is to delete Bracket F and replace it with a bye for TheDrigo's deck. That, or TheDrigo may choose either opponent in Bracket F to face.

Nobody play any Bracket F matches until this gets straightened out. So far, only Brandon played it. Sorry for all the screwups this time around on my part.

[discoransom]

Match D:

Brandon vs Taron

(had some crashing issues)

game 1: Elvish Piper did his thing, Progenitus made no appearance
game 2: Edict away mana creature instead of saving for Progenitus. Got there.

2-0

Taron vs Brandon

game 1: Both had slow starts, Progenitus just in time
game 2: Went all-in for a turn 2 Progenitus and prayed against edict

2-0


Brandon: 2 points
Taron: 2 Points

[monopoman]

This format seems really odd why do the same people play each other like 10 times?

[thedrigo]

Regarding TheDrigo's deck: I'm a shithead. Somehow I missed including it in the brackets. I haven't the foggiest idea how I missed it. It wasn't even the last deck submitted. I downloaded it just like all the other decks people sent in, but it's still sitting on my desktop. The only possible explanation I can think of is that I looked at the decklist, saw Progenitus (for the 4th time) and maybe I thought I'd already included it, so went on to the next one.

The fairest solution I can think of is to delete Bracket F and replace it with a bye for TheDrigo's deck. That, or TheDrigo may choose either opponent in Bracket F to face.

Nobody play any Bracket F matches until this gets straightened out. So far, only Brandon played it. Sorry for all the screwups this time around on my part.

I don't know if everyone would be okay with me "picking" the deck. I'd be fine with the bye, but I'd rather everyone give their opinion about the whole thing to better decide what the fairest solution is.

[Brandon822]

About theDrigo situation: I'm okay with both situations(bye and choosing opponent). Maybe the bye is better solution though.

[Snacko]

No, I'd have done the same. Against jatill, you *need* the Progenitus asap since Drop of Honey can only kill his walls; it cannot target anything with shroud.

Yes, but if Drop of Honey methodically kills all the green walls, AI would be unable to sacrifice a creature with Natural Order, no ? (At least, until AI have enough mana to play a green creature AND Natural Order in the same turn, which give you more time).

Uhm Drop of Honey doesn't have any targeted abilities so it can kill shroud creatures just fine (so you can dispatch all those Wall of Denial)

7/15/2006: This card's ability is not targeted, so even untargetable creatures or those with Protection can be chosen.

[taron]

Match G:
Discorandom vs Shantak
Match1- Player as Discorandom:
Steady discard steamrolls his hand, dropping threat after threat such as baneslayers and tomstalkers. In the end I finished with a Tidehollow Sculler.
1-0

Too much card advantage coming from the other deck, ivory tower + phyrexian arena + 2x bitterblossom before I can throw out their hand.
1-1

Steamrolled him, Hymn + 3 tidehollow skullers stole all his lands.
2-1

Match2- Player as Shantak:
T2 bitterblossom, and lots of life leeching spells killing off baneslayers and tombstalkers gets me the win with nearly no hand left. Late phyrexian Arena supplied me with the last bit of gas needed.
1-0

2 bitterblossoms, -2 life a turn, couldn't seal the deal against him, kept getting my life gain discarded.
1-1

Opening hand of 3 ivory towers and a bitterblossom with land, forced the opponent into extremely long game. Tried to force them to overcommit for a damnation or pulse, but no bites, just meant I could chump a baneslayer all day with free faeries. Eventually taking back the board for a win with an Eldrazi monument + garruk combo.


Match H:
Nyktorion vs Yggdrasil
Match1- Player as Nyktorion:
Got a decent start, but thochtar, figure of destiny and then balefire liege made me sadface.
0-1

Quick damage, got quickly reversed trading removal, until he hits a wooly thoctar from a bloodbraid cascade. Bad things are happening, especially with his Balefire Liege out. Killed by a 7/6 Thoctar =<


Match2- Player as Yggdrasil:
Slow going trading removal, eventually stick a pair of Kor firewalkers and a Figure of destiny and swing for the win.
1-0

3 Figures of destiny and a Wooly Thoctar stuck, bashing for 16 a turn, eventually wins out.
2-0

As for round F, I'm happy for any solution, bye is easier I guess

[monopoman]

Match A

Juzamjedi vs Serbitar 2-1
Serbitar vs Juzamjedi 2-0

Match 1 (Serbitar as the Computer)

Game 1: Got some quick beats out computer starts to stabilize after removing many threats but the force finishes the job.

Game 2: Double Baneslayer and Elspeth after removing nearly every goblin I played made quick work of me.

Game 3: Extremely long game where Elspeth kept the deck in the game for the match but eventually Goblin horde finishes it out.

Match 2 (Juzamjedi as the Computer)

Game 1: Game goes so long that I activate Elpseths ultimate ability then proceed to make a ridiculous army and swarm the goblin deck who had a pretty good hand and swarmed me fairly quick. Thankfully Wrath was in hand or it would have been over early. Also had Emeria tricks which was a backbreaking addition to the craziness from the control deck.

Game 2: A near identical replay of the first game but the comp never came out strong at all removed some early creatures got down Elspeth then slowly took over the game after activating Elspeth's Ultimate.

Note: This is one of the most mind numbing decks I have ever played.

Match B:

Salbei vs. Scherben

Salbei vs. Scherben wins 2-0
Scherben vs. Salbei wins 2-0

Match 1 (Scherben as the computer)

Game 1: Computer gets out quick Progenitus after I get out an early Bitterblossom and some flying beats. I damnation everything away and follow it up with trying to exert some pressure with a phyrexian arena. AI steals some creatures as I attempt to take over the game but eventually drawing two cards a turn wins it out as the AI never gets down another Progenitus.\

Game 2: Feeling pretty good as I get down turn 1 meek followed by turn 2 Bitter. AI does nothing its first few turns really. AI eventually plays a Noble hierarch late which I remove to prevent the Natural Order combo from happening. Proceed with flying beats to slowly whittle the AI down. Sorin comes down and I lose my vampire nighthawk to control magic. Life total is going crazy for me at this point with 34 life and the opponent down to 8. Eventually get in the final beats and drain him down.

Match 2 (Salbei as the Computer)

Game 1: Not much to say here the Salbei's deck plays some stuff early down to lay into me a bit but eventually the U/G card advantage stacks up and makes it impossible to come back. Didn't get the combo going but the AI had a meekstone. AI does get down Sorin but he doesn't have enough cause the beats still coming with both Jace and Garruk going insane.

Game 2: AI again gets down an early Meekstone which sucks. Lose some early creatures to removal but drop a Jace and start to gain some card advantage. Out comes Nantuko Shade and Bitterblossom. Finks trades with Shade eventually cause AI is stupid and won't pump it. Game keeps going back and forth but eventually I remove and counter all meekstones and Order for Progentius game ends shortly after.