The meaning of life is not 42: It is some multiple of three. (And 42 doesn't count? - The Ferrett)

This is a tournament report over PTQ: Osaka in K.C, but it is also about the meaning of"Life." Life is a deck that I came up with about year and a half ago. If you do not know how Life works, it wins by using the rewording of en-Kors to set up a prevention shield targeting either a Task Force or Angelic Protector to make its toughness as big as you like - then it either deals that much damage using About Face or gains that much life with a Worthy Cause, or decks your opponent with Altar of Dementia and About Face.

Life came about two summers ago when I was working at a camp in North Dakota. I read about the idea of About Face in a TopDeck magazine article and put a deck together... But it was not that great and lost a lot. Soon after that, I found Worthy Cause and had to read it several times before I believed what it said. That one card made the deck golden. I then spent the rest of my time getting the deck ready for the Extended season of 2000. While in that season, the deck was just a W/R deck. I had really good tournaments and I was calling the deck Googolplex, because in testing that was the number I would always use when gaining life or dealing damage. Then in St. Louis, I made the Top Eight with the deck. Ped Bun did not like the name - he decided that since it was a combo deck, it should have a cereal name. He called it"Life." And so Life was born.

Life matches up against creature decks really well, and has no real problem with beating them. The sideboard usually is used to help to disrupt counter decks, which can give Life some problems. The deck that consistently beats life is Oath; almost all other decks it can handle. In a beatdown environment, the deck is golden.

Since then, I have changed life into a B/R/W version and Ped Bun recently played his version in GP: Las Vegas. The deck I played in K.C. was as follows:

Creatures:
4 Mother of Runes
4 Nomad en-Kor
4 Shaman en-Kor
4 Task Force
4 Angelic Protector
1 Serra Avatar

Spells:
2 About Face
4 Worthy Cause
3 Vampiric Tutor
3 Sword to Plowshares
4 Duress
1 Altar of Dementia
1 Seal of Cleansing

Land:
3 Plateau
2 Badlands
2 Scrubland
3 City of Brass
3 Swamps
1 Mountain
8 Plains

This is a good deck and it isn't played a lot. My teammates joked with me about the deck as the tournament went on. Eventually, they just would ask me if the deck my opponent was playing had islands... Because if it did not, I would usually win the match. Now into the Tournament report. There were, I think, sixty-six people there - so that meant seven rounds of play. We started really close to ten o'clock and so I was really happy about that; we had little room to play, but we all made do.

Round 1: Three-Deuce
In game one, I got down an early Mother of Runes to protect the en-Kor that I played on the next turn. He had a Lyrist that had a Rancor on it, which I gladly sent to the fields to work. Then a couple of turns later, I dropped a Protector and then the next turn attacked for a billion points of damage with the help of an About Face. In the second game, I got a Task Force out and an en-Kor on the table... Then, soon after that, I went to a billion life with the help of Worthy Cause. Soon after that, he conceded the match to me

1-0

Round 2: Oath
This is not a good matchup for me before sideboarding, since two-thirds of my combo is creatures. I got a turn 1 Mother, and he got a turn 2 Oath followed by a turn 3 Morphling. A few turns later, I was dead. The second game was a little closer, but he topdecked a Swords the turn before I would have been at a billion life - and soon after, that I died to another Morphling.

1-1

Round 3: 10-Land Green
The first game I played an en-Kor and had a Worthy Cause, but no Task/Protector and took some beats, but right before I was about to die I draw a Protector and went to a billion life. He soon conceded the game. The second game he played a first-turn Vineyard, so I got to play a first-turn Task Force and a second-turn Angelic Protector, then spent the next turn dropping an en-Kor and dealing a billion points of damage to his head.

2-1

Round 4: Stasis
This was a long, boring match. The first game I conceded to him once he had the lock on me and there was no way for me to win. The second game, I had an untapped Protector when the lock was in place, so I just waited and drew cards; eventually, I won it went like this: I Duress, he counters; I Duress again, he counters; I Pyroblast, he counters; I Pyroblast, he counters; I Pyroblast, he counters; I say okay. Then I play an en-Kor, he says okay, and then I play About Face deal a lot of damage. The next game, he played a Morphling on turns 7, 8, and 9, and I die.

2-2 At this point I thought of dropping out but decided to stay in.

Round 5: LD
I do not remember much about this round except for About Facing him in game one and game two for the win.

3-2

Round 6: B/G
In the first game, I did not draw a third land and was killed off. In the second, I had the land and eventually went to a billion life. The third game was a lot like the second game, but he did not apply pressure and I went to a billion life.

4-2 If I win the next round I have a shot at top eight.

Round 7: Oath
I get paired up against one of my teammates and he conceded the match, so I have a shot at top eight.

5-2

Top eight standings come out... And I was in eighth place. It also turns out that three other of my teammates made the Top Eight; one in first, one second, and one in fifth place. In addition, a friend of mine from my hometown also played Life, and he was in seventh place.

Top 8 decks were:
2 Life decks
2 Dumbo-Drop decks
1 Stasis deck
2 G/B decks
1 Oath deck

In the first round of the Top Eight, I ended up playing against one of my teammates playing Dumbo-Drop, and he beats me - but another of my teammates played Stasis, and he ended up winning the tournament.

All in all, I had a great time that day. Life is a fun deck to play and is a combo deck that doesn't leave you with that nasty combo feeling after a tournament like some decks do. I would recommend to anyone that they play this deck; it is a lot of fun and if your environment is beatdown, then this is the deck to play.