Date 5/26/01-5/27/01

TO: Barret Moy

Location: Fantasy Shop, St. Charles, MO

Over the weekend, I attended the Apocalypse Prerelease in St. Charles, MO. They started playing at midnight on Friday night, and Barret told me they had sixty people at that time. Because of work, I got to the play area in the afternoon for both days. There were a lot of tired players; thus, they were easy pickings for the well-rested player. I ended the weekend by accumulating fifty-four packs of Apocalypse.

I ended the first day 6-0 in two different drafts. We drafted Invasion/Apocalypse/Apocalypse. I did have the opportunity to peruse the spoiler list, so I knew Apocalypse heavily favored the opposing colors. My goal for the first day was to draft a solid green mana base with Invasion.

Draft 1 Highlights: First-pick Nishoba. Didn't see any rares after that, so someone must have been rare drafting. I pick up some elves and Harrow. With the Nishoba, I was planning to play White as a secondary color. So I would look for either Black or Blue for a tertiary color. My first Apocalypse pack gave me a Fungal Shambler, and there were no rares after that. The final pack gave me Gerrard Capashen. I also picked up a couple Urborg Elves to help the mana base. I do get a couple Ana Disciples as well. I play a maindeck Canopy Surge because I'm light on flyers; Life/Death is almost like a direct damage x-spell.

Draft 2 Highlights: I stick to the same strategy. I don't remember my Invasion Rare, as I took an Elf. I pick up a Harrow. For my first Apocalypse pack, I open a foil Fungal Shambler, so that takes care of my colors. Nothing too exciting, but it had a solid mana base. Green/Blue/Black with lots of Blue flyers.

Day two was another successful day. I went 3-0 in one draft and 5-0 in the Prerelease flight of 32.

Draft 3 Highlights: I start off with a Blazing Spectre, then an Agonizing Demise. I don't see any green coming my way, so I start taking lots of solid red creatures, two Pouncing Kavu, two Aggressive Kavu. Didn't see much more black, so I started into white for my second color. In the Apocalypse pack, I started off with an Illuminate. Goblin Legionnaires started coming by, and I picked up three; I remembered seeing a bunch of these go by the day before. Creature sweepers included Bloodfire Dwarf and Bloodfire Kavu. I did get a couple Kavu Gliders and four Raka Disciples, so I went blue for the third color, giving me two Jilts.

Prerelease: To get people to play in the final thirty-two person flight, Barret knocked the entrance fee down to $20 and threw in an extra pack of Apocalypse for us to keep. We received one Invasion Starter and three Apocalypse Boosters. I also liked the Sanskrit Foil Fungal Shambler (that's three Shamblers for the weekend).

I'm not going to list all the cards. Here is my deck:

Green
Kavu Howler
Savage Gorilla
Ana Disciple
Penumbra Kavu
Thornscape Apprentice
Harrow
Lay of the Land
Canopy Surge

White
Benalish Trapper
Coalition Honor Guard
Prison Barricade
Benalish Heralds
Shackles
*Rout (Kind of funny against Life/Death)

Gold/Artifact
Llanowar Knight
Llanowar Dead
Ebony Treefolk
Consume Strength
Death Mutation (Reya Dawnbringer was the biggest thing I hit with this)
*Pernicious Deed
*Overgrown Estate
Treva's Attendant
Chromatic Sphere
6 Forest
6 Plains
4 Swamps
1 Island
1 Ancient Spring

My goal was to fit in as many broken rares as possible. The Overgrown Estate, Deed, and Rout easily gave me my three main colors. White and Green had to be the primary two colors, with WW in Rout and the need for the Green mana base. With all the Black/Green cards, Black had to be fit in. I added the Island and the Ancient Spring to supply the Blue for the Blue abilities of many of my creatures.

Notable sideboards: Plague Spores, Protective Sphere, Captain's Maneuver, Shivan Emissary, two Jilts, two Ana Disciples. I tended to side out the Kavu Howler and the Treva's Attendant quite often. If I decided to go with Plague Spores and Captain's Maneuver + 2 Mountains, I would side out the Island, Spring, Heralds, and Gorilla. This was a useful build against some decks. Protective Sphere could have been in the main deck, but I am already light on creatures.

I beat Mike Donnovan in the 5th and final round of the Prerelease. He conceded when I Death Mutated his Reya, Dawnbringer the turn after he cast it. We had decided to split the final prize so we both got 27 packs.

So I go 14-0 for the weekend. One of my best winning streaks. I also had gone 5-0 in the Planeshift Prerelease. I do admit that the Prerelease crowd is not exactly a competitive PTQ crowd, but here are three of the tactics that got me to 14-0: Topdecking, the Jedi Mind Trick, and Baiting.

Topdecking
Believe or not, there is some skill to topdecking. First, you must know which cards could potentially help your situation. Next you must create a game situation that allows you to use that topdecked card. Game situation takes into account life, mana, permanents in play, etc. For example, you need at least one life, since you can't topdeck if you are dead. You need to consider how much mana you need to cast that card when you draw it. When you cast a cantrip, you must leave the correct amount of mana to cast that topdecked card. You need to keep in mind what permanents are in play. A burn spell won't do you any good if a he has a Flagbearer. An Explosive Growth won't help if you chump-blocked with your only creature the turn before.

There are ways to increase the chances of topdecking: The two important wars are to draw more cards and library manipulation. In one game, I held back an opponent's Spiritmonger with a Coastal Drake and a Kavu Climber. I was eventually able to draw into my Jilt. I bounced his Spiritmonger and kill his Urborg Elf, his only source of Black. Library manipulation can be as simple as casting a Harrow just to decrease the land count of the deck.

Build a deck to maximize topdecking; that's the theory of putting four of every key card in a Constructed deck. In Limited, put in deck manipulation, card drawing, and multiple copies.

The best way to topdeck is to stay alive long enough to draw the card you need. Remember, your opponent is working on topdecking, too. The best way to prevent that is to defeat him before he gets his topdeck.

Some say it's all luck on what you draw. Luck is part of the game. I must have been quite lucky to go 14-0.

Jedi Mind Trick
This is the manipulation of your opponent into doing what you want him to do. There are some very subtle ways to do this: The simplest way is to remind him of certain options that may appear beneficial initially, but in fact benefits you more because of cards in your hand or play-tricks on the board. For example, you are at three life with a Confound in hand. Your opponent casts a Magma Burst at you for three. You can ask,"With kicker?" He may reconsider and decide to pay the kicker and target one of your creatures. You can then save yourself with the Confound.

Another way to do the Jedi Mind Trick is to make him second-guess his actions. In my first draft, my opponent has a kicked Benalish Lancer, a 4/4 creature, and a 1/1 Flagbearer. I have a Fungal Shambler and an Order/Chaos in my hand. I'm at nine life. He attacks with all his creatures, including the Flagbearer. I say in a surprised tone,"The Flagbearer too?" He quickly untaps his creatures and reconsiders. The then attacks with the Lancer and the 4/4 creature. I say"Just those two?" to confirm his attack. I then Order the Lancer and trade off my Shambler. I eventually drop a 3/3 creature and win the game. After the match, I told him about the Jedi Mind Trick. I don't think he thought seriously about it, though.

A third way is to bluff. This is one of the more difficult things to do correctly. There have been articles on this previously. I can bluff a Rout by saying,"Just what I needed" as I play my second Plains, or by counting my lands to seven, starting with two plains. My opponent may then think twice about playing out too many creatures.

Talking is a very important of the Jedi Mind Trick. You have to be calm, like a Jedi. When you are calm and friendly, you are more likely to be heard. I think it is unethical to use the Jedi Mind Trick on beginner players, however; their minds are not yet equipped to overcome the power of a Jedi. When you give them advice during a game, it should be genuine and not meant to deceive.

Baiting
This tends to work only if you have a board sweeper in hand, such as Pernicious Deed, Rout, or Breath of Darigaaz. The goal here is to get your opponent to overcommit. You can do this in a number of ways. Create a situation where one creature is holding back many. A single 3/3 creature can hold back up to three 2/2 creatures. A Protective Sphere can slow down damage enough so that your opponent becomes impatient and commits more creatures. Another tactic is to create a sense of hopelessness. After he draws a card, you can say in a dejected tone,"What have you got for me now?" Acting is very important. Entice him to cast more creatures and pound you into a bloody pulp — then you make him pay with your board sweeper.

In the prerelease event, I used baiting as often as I could to maximize Rout and Pernicious Deed. I've had opponents overcommit after I used the Deed, only to be Routed.

Playing the Deed leads to an interesting game position. The opponent must try to bait you into using the Deed. As you play threats, he must play out his threats to match yours. He must try to get board control with minimal resources.

Play of the day: Winning with a Shimmering Mirage

My opponent is at four life. I've been beating him down with flyers; he casts a kicked Green Anavolver (6/6 flying/regenerates). I've got a Coastal Drake and a Living Airship. He also has three Reef Shamans in play. I have a swamp, a mountain, and lots of forests and Islands. I put an Exotic Curse on the Volver. Eventually, I get out a Savage Gorilla. However, I can't kill the Volver yet, since his Shamans can turn my swamp and mountain into islands/forests. Then I topdeck the Shimmering Mirage. I sac my Gorilla to give Volver -3/-3. He responds, predictably, by changing my mountain and swamp to Islands. He still has an untapped Shaman. I then Shimmering Mirage one of my lands to make it a Plains. There is no way for him to use the Shaman to save his Volver. Then the Volver dies, and I draw two cards to boot! Then I attack in the air for the kill.

Final Thoughts
Without Planeshift and Gating creatures, white enchantment creature control is a little stronger, notably Manacles of Decay and Shackles. Shackles becomes a lower pick when Gating creatures are around.

For draft of Invasion/Apocalypse/Apocalypse, my first choice is to draft a 5-color Green mana base with the Invasion pack; the second choice would be to go White/Red for the Goblin Legionnaires. I've seen some people get up to six of these guys in a draft. Third choice would be 5-color Blue, with Dream Thrushes and Reef Shamans, while also trying to pick up deck manipulation cards and one or two power cards of each other color.

I haven't formulated a strategy for Invasion/Planeshift/Apocalypse, but I think I'll stick with the similar preferences as above.

Constructed with Apocalypse is a totally new environment. The new painlands allow many more possible color combinations. Overall, it seems that the opposing-color cards are more powerful than allied colors. Creatures are getting bigger for less. Cards to watch: Phyrexian Arena, Pernicious Deed, Spiritmonger.

Props
Barret Moy: Excellent tournament as usual. Great prize support. 9/5/2/2 for $13 drafts.

Thanks for reading,

Ped Bun
The Penumbra Medic,"I'm back."
drped@aol.com