This tournament report documents my journey through what I believe was the first 5 Color format tournament in the Twin Cities area ( Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN) and possibly the whole state of Minnesota . It took place during Magic Madness IV, one of four Magic events happening at The Source, a great gaming and comics store right between Minneapolis and Saint Paul. The other events were:

• Multiplayer Mayhem: Free-for-all games of five to seven players with a random effect every so often. When you die, you take your 3x5 card up to the desk and get seated again as soon as there's enough other dead players, and you or the judges could place a"bounty" on another player during a game — usually a few packs or a rare or three
• Spin the Wheel Sealed: Starters and boosters from Revised on up, chosen by spinning a wheel for randomization
• A Standard Tourney that was free if you participated in the other three events.

The tourney was held Saturday, June 23. There were actually two pods - one playing for Ante and one not. Now I know all you Five purists out there may have just spit coffee on your computer screens:"Did he say a pod where there was no ante?" Yes, he did; let him explain. The Source and it's crew are heavily into casual playing, and like many stores where lots of different people congregate for game playing, they have had their share of problems with sharks. They have taken a fairly strong stance against anyone who's just trying to take good cards away from others, whether through trading (as in"Sure kiddo, I'd be happy to trade my BIG LOAFING GIANT for that terribly SMALL MEDDLING MAGE") or theft (yeah, it happens) — or, in the case of Five, the harebrained bozo who was quizzing Greg (the Magic organizer at the store) about the ante rules:"What if you don't have any rares in your deck?" or"If I only have one crappy rare in my deck, do they have to accept it?" With the store owners concerned about these kinds of activities, Greg felt that the best way to introduce Five as a new format was to offer a safe way of playing to those who were iffy about the possibility of losing good cards. As there were fourteen people in the Ante pod and about the same number in the non-Ante pod, I'd say he doubled his attendance by doing this.

My deck was an effort at Aggro-Control with a toolbox mentality. I put in as many 187 and kicker creatures as possible with ways to recur them or bounce them (in my opinion, one of Five's most underrated cards is Erratic Portal). I went base green for some of the great fast and tough-to-deal-with beatdown creatures (River Boa, Albino Troll, Spectral Bears, and Llanowar Sentinels), Rancor, and mana smoothing (Harrow and Gaea's Balance). I also was able to construct the deck with only three cards that had a double-colored casting cost (one Wrath of God and two Capsize). Overall, the deck has performed very well, able to find answers for just about anything so far while keeping up combat pressure.

There would be five rounds, with the winner being determined by record and match wins, etc. No top four or eight because of the number of tournaments being run that day.

First round opponent: Keith. I am not familiar with Keith, but he was a good guy who had some help from a friend constructing his deck. He almost went Domain-style with it and proceeded to spank me around pretty soundly. My memories of all the matches are a little vague, so I apologize now for the lame match coverage I will give. I do remember having to deal with a big ugly Tek amongst other large, hard-to-kill creatures. My deck didn't seem to be working as well as my playtesting seemed to indicate. I swallowed my pride and geared myself up for not scrubbing out for the next four rounds.

Second round opponent: Damon (spellchecker says: Daemon). I get paired up and have to play against a regular who seems to be pretty good. During a recent Arena season, Damon and I traded wins back and forth with our Extended decks. He was running White Weenie with Empyrial Armor and Parallax Wave, and I was running Elf-Ball with Mungha Wurms - boy oh boy did we have some fast games. This day Damon is running efficient creature.dec... But my deck comes out to play this time. Game One went to me. In game two I make my Bad Play of the Day and try to Stormscape Battlemage his Ebony Treefolk, which was the only creature on the board. Doh! It was a Flores-worthy play (actually, it was probably much worse). The next game I make up for it with a turn four Academy Rector, turn five Mind Twist for three when he has six in hand, eliciting a groan with each card I pull (I got the three best, according to Damon). I then played a Contract with my last remaining mana and had to Ante a Mox Diamond!!!! At this point, I know the game is mine because I have never lost a Diamond in Ante. My hand after the contract: Mox Diamond, Sol Ring, March of Souls, one other card, and three land. Now I have a way to smack his critters and blow my Rector. I wait a few turns to try and see if he plays anything good before I March, but he topdecks a Nomadic Elf and can wash white for a Swords on my Rector in response to the March. He Rancors up a Spirit Token and has air superiority. I get to two life and topdeck a Bone Shredder to take out the token and smack him for the last several. Whew!

Round three opponent: Donald. I have not played Donald before and don't remember much about these games, other than not being able to find my second Treasure Hunter when I Intuition for my Citanul Flute so I grab a Gravedigger, which he gives me, and I have to wait an extra turn for my Shredders and Battlemages to clear the board. I win 2-1.

Round four opponent: Ben. Ben is the only undefeated player left, and several of the regulars are cheering me on to knock him off. Ben is playing one of two tough rebel chains floating around our pod, but he can't seem to get them in play. I handle everything he sends at me in games one and three and take the match. I believe game three came down to me at little life, but a timely Puffer Extract says my unblocked creature kills you. At this point there are five of us at 4-1 and I have a good shot at winning, as I have beat two of the five and hope to beat a third in the last round.

Fifth and last round opponent: Terry. Terry has the other Rebel chain in his deck and I vow to keep them (especially Sivvi) off the board. Game one I forget my vow and use a Fireball on a Thunderscape Battlemage that had just cleared my side of the board so it could beat on me. Okay, I panicked. The next turn he lays a Lieutenant and then a Sergeant, and then Sivvi. If I had the Fireball, I could have stopped the chain right there for a turn or two and possibly stabilized. I get Rebel swarmed. Games two and three I hold to my vow by holding any removal for those pesky rebels and blowing them up before they could call for reinforcements.

There are only three of us at 4-1, and I beat the other two (Ben and Damon) so I have a really good shot, but I seem to remember winning my matches at 2-1 so I am not sure how the tiebreakers will swing things. While I am waiting, Kevin Dolbeare shows up for another shot at taking a card from my Five. I proceed to protect my win streak against Kevin (who had just won a sizeable IBC tourney the night before) and go 7-0 against him in Five. He hates that I own him in Five, but I am humbled and appreciative because Kevin is a good player. While duking (spellchecker says: ducking) it out, Greg announces the results, starting with non-Ante first. The suspense builds and finally Damon is third, Ben second, and I WIN THE ANTE POD!!!!! For my win, I get a box of Apocalypse (the Source rules for prizes!). As I had bought almost three boxes already, it doesn't seem quite as huge, but the real joy was winning the tournament and title of first 5 Color Tourney Champion in the state of Minnesota! I am eagerly awaiting Grand Prix Minneapolis to see if some of the 5 Color bigwigs will be around to teach me how it really works (Kurt!???!?!?)

Props:
The Source, for a great weekend of Magic and a great atmosphere to play in

Greg Langer, for putting up with all of us pesky players

Pat (can't remember last name), who I am told started a collection for a kid whose trade binder was stolen despite the fact that Pat didn't have many cards to begin with. I hope we can all learn from his generosity.

Joe - for not showing.

Slops:
The guy asking about the Ante rules — play for fun, dude!

The vintage car show at the nearby State Fairgrounds that made it impossible to run out quickly for food in between rounds.