If I expected a lot (over 40%) of Trix, I'd play White Weenie. Why? It has Soul Warden, Swords to Plowshares, Disenchant, and Aura of Silence in the main deck. That makes it a monster in that matchup, allowing you a lot of time to beat your opponent.

For creature decks, I wanted to play Oath, but not the Tutor version. I figured the 2-color version would be faster (with Thaws) and have more counterspells.

For Control, I wanted to play Secret Force. Just because it's hard for control decks to eliminate so many tokens while you have 4 Creeping Molds and a few Uktabi.

So which did I play?

I decided that Trix wouldn't show up as much this week because everybody would be expecting it, therefore everybody knew not to play it. So I played Oath, mostly because I thought the non-combo, combo deck (Hatred) would be there in full force to beat Trix, along with Counter Sliver handling all the other decks. Here's the list.

1 Morphling
1 Spike Weaver
1 Spike Feeder

4 Oath of Druids
2 Gaea's Blessing
2 Sylvan Library
3 Powder Keg
4 Force of Will
4 Counterspell
2 Dissipate
1 Forbid
1 Annul
4 Impulse
4 Brainstorm

4 Tropical Island
4 Thawing Glaciers
8 Island
3 Forest
4 Wasteland
3 Treetop Village

Sideboard
1 Annul
3 Emerald Charm
1 Spike Feeder
1 Powder Keg
1 Gaea's Blessing
1 Compost
3 Propaganda
4 Hydroblast

Since this tournament, I've taken out one Impulse for Abundance, allowing for the "Draw three non-land" rule to take full effect. I only wish I had done that before this tournament. Oh well.

Not sure how many people showed up, but it was seven rounds.

-= Round 1 vs Opposition =-

My only wish is that I had known what he was playing before it was too late. I would have played less cautiously.

Game 1: He wins the roll and plays first, laying an Island. I match it with a Glacier. At this point, I know the Oath in my hand was staying there for some time. I play the matchup like I would normally play against draw-go. Using Libraries to dig through my library, finding as many counters as possible. He eventually taps out to get an Ophidian. I drop a Powder Keg and the Oath and get ready to claim victory. He attacks, draws the card, and lays down a Tradewind Rider. I force, He forces back, I look at my hand and stare at the Counter I was holding that I could have played instead of the Oath. The Tradewind resolves. I Oath into a Morphling and put the counter on the Keg. I keep attacking (bringing him to 5) until he plays an Opposition, I Annul, he counters, I Force, he puts it into his graveyard and plays a Man-o'-War targeting the Weaver I had in play (which also allows him to activate the Tradewind). I have no counter and bounce the weaver. After a few turns of him bouncing my islands, he plays an Opposition with counter backup, but I don't have any at this point. I recycle my library and keep using the Library to find the proper draws, but he keeps bouncing my Kegs and other stuff and I eventually concede when he plays a second Tradewind and a Winter Orb. The game took 45 minutes.

To play the speed game, I side in the Annul and the third Blessing for my Spikes, forgetting about the emerald charms for some weird reason.

Game 2: We shuffle up and I keep a two land hand with one Glacier, this costs me because he is able to play Back to Basics, and an Ophidian. I cast a Powder Keg and he gets a Tradewind. Before I could get a Keg up to three counters, he drops another Ophidian and bounces the Keg. Unable to win in the next five minutes and five extra turns, I shook his hand.

1.. (0-2)

-= Round 2 vs Draw-Go =-

This was an extremely nice guy playing a good deck, I was getting ready for another 40 minute first game.

Game 1: He wins the roll and plays first. Laying a Glacier, I Waste it. He lays another Glacier, which I Waste. Then I attempt to play a Glacier, which he Wastes. At this point, I'm very confident because I have 26 lands in my deck and am bound to draw another one for the Brainstorm + Impulse in my hand. I keep going through my library finding counters to hit him with. After winning a counter-war over a Library, I am able to pay life to keep my advantage. He makes the mistake of playing an Ophidian, and I play the Oath, this time leaving mana open to counter any odd threats he may have. He shrugs and attacks to draw a card, then lays a Disk. I Oath into a Spike Weaver, which I use to block his Ophidian and kill it, then remove all the counters from him to keep him from Oathing. After a few turns of attacking with a Treetop Village, he gets impatient and plays another Ophidian, I Oath past a Blessing that I kept on top of my library (with the Sylvan Library) into a Morphling. He Disks, and I point out that my Village would eventually kill him now. He conceded. The game took only 34 minutes.

I side in a second Feeder, a second Annul, and Gaea's Blessing for the Weaver, one Oath, and a Powder Keg.

Game 2: I don't remember most of the details, but he kept Thawing and drawing cards from Ophidians before he blew them up with a Disk, only getting rid of a Library and a Oath. After multiple uses of my Blessings, he suddenly realizes that he doesn't have much hope. He eventually decks himself, allowing me to claim victory.

1.. (2-2)

-= Round 3 vs U/W Control =-

This guy had an interesting deck, apparently playing Armageddon over Wrath of God, as well as using white, "cast as instant" creatures that made the deck somewhat frightening.

Game 1: He allows he to play first, and I lay the Glacier, then a Village. I then force him to make a huge counter-war over a Swords to Plowshares on my Village which he eventually wins, with only one card left in hand. I bounce the Glaciers back to my hand and play a Tropical Island, holding a counterspell, he asks me if he can cast Armageddon, I say fine and throw my lands in the graveyard. I lay the Thaw and he realizes his error. After a few turns, he still doesn't have any lands in play and I'm back to where I started. He allows a few Blessings to resolve, but I never show him an Oath, after the Morphling hits the table, he concedes. The game didn't take too long, but he did draw all four Swords to Plowshares. The entire time (before he cast the Geddon, he was using Capsize with buy-back against my Village, I held a Dissipate in case it became a real problem, but he solved it for me. I really don't think he expected the Armageddon would resolve.

I side in a Gaea's Blessing for the Annul

Game 2: He plays first and lays a third turn creature, which I respond by casting an Oath, I then Oath into a Blessing and a Morphling and it's over four turns later. I know it seems like it was that easy, but it pretty much was. No offense to the guy I played.

2-1 (4-2)

-= Round 4 vs Counter Sliver =-

This was a fairly young kid whom was fairly unfamiliar with the way Slivers work together. It showed throughout this match.

Game 1: We get about two turns into it, dropping are respective lands (his Tundras vs my Islands) when…

I get deck checked, which took a lot longer than it really should have. After a while, the head judge comes over with a small frown on his face, and I'm thinking "Great, I just wasted my money and three hours." He hands me the deck and says "Here's your graveyard (places it to the side), your hand (hands it to me), the lands in play (puts them on the table) and your deck (slams it on the table), good luck."

NOT FUNNY! Seriously, when do you need the Head Judge to come over and give your deck back? That scared the $#!* out of me.

Anyways, this game is over fairly quickly because he only plays a Muscle Sliver, which I use to Oath into a Morphling, then blow up a Crystalline and the Muscle with a Powder Keg. The game was very uneventful.

I side in 3 Propaganda and 1 Powder Keg for 1 annul, 1 Oath, the Feeder, and the Forbid.

Game 2: This game doesn't take very long. I cast a Powder Keg, he Disenchants, I play a Propaganda, he Disenchants, he plays multiple creatures and attacks me down to 6, I play another Propaganda, he Consults for an Acidic Sliver and kills me with direct damage.

Game 3: I keep a hand with a Keg, Oath, 2 Counters, 2 Tropical Islands, and a Propaganda. It looked really good. He casts a Winged Sliver, I blow it up with a Keg (Didn't want him to know I had an Oath), he Consults for another one, and removes one in the top six. He then gets into this long story about how he tested against Oath and all sorts of other things. It basically ended in "I sided out two Winged Slivers, you killed one, and I just lost the other. You win."

3-1 (6-3)

This was the first round that I played that didn't take most of the 50 minutes, so I walked around and talked to people. Trying to relax, 3-1 seemed to put me in a decent position for top 8.

-= Round 5 vs New Age Bloom =-

Game 1: I was mind-boggled to begin the game. All he did was play basic lands and I played Glaciers and Islands, never showing him a green source. I didn't want him to know what I was playing. Then, I crack and cast a Spike Feeder and attack with Treetop Villages. Then, sensing danger, he Duresses me. I Brainstorm in response and put two counters on top of my library and smile. He takes a Force of Will and starts to go off. I about shoot myself after I find out that he's using Stroke of Genius over Prosperity. Of course, the pressure starts to sink in, and he says "Drain you for 22?" holding two cards that I can only imagine were a Force of Will and a blue card, I say "In response, remove the counters from my Feeder." Faced with defeat, he conceded.

In come Annul, Emerald Charms, and Compost for Oaths and Kegs.

Game 2: He plays a second turn City of Solitude which I Annul, then he Forces, I have no Force and lose shortly after. I did make a feeble attempt at pounding him with my Villages but it just didn't happen.

Game 3: The notes on this game are sketchy, but I get a Library in play and counter 3 Cities of Solitude, but cannot find a Charm (even with the Compost in play!) and am Drained out of contention for the top 8.

3-2 (7-5)

-= Round 6 vs Maher Oath =-

Game 1: This was by far the most boring game of magic I've played in quite a long time. It does, however, show that my version of Oath can beat Maher's if played properly. I Dissipated his Libraries and Abundance and Wasted whatever I could. It basically came down to me having a Morphling and a Treetop Village on the board vs his Spike Weaver, had I three more minutes in the round, I would have won it. This game took all 50 minutes.

3-2-1 (7-5-1)

-= Rouind 7 vs Rebel WW =-

I'm playing against Mark, a friend of mine. We decide that we should split whatever product we may get from the store (they give prizes for the top 8 people that didn't make the top 8 and have an extended ranking of under 1700. So I didn't care too much about who won the match).

Game 1: I keep a no-Oath draw with a Powder Keg and quickly learn why Rebels are superior than normal WW. He got out multiple weenies of that cost 2 and 3 and I couldn't recover in time.

Game 2: Much the same as game 1. Nothing exciting, I just wanted to go home =)

3-3-1 (7-7-1)

I go home with a few packs of cards and think to myself "I didn't do too badly" until I realized that I went 0-2-1 after going 3-1 in my first 4 rounds. =( I had a lot of fun though, and think my deck was the correct choice to play (although Secret Force would have won me that first round match ;p)

Until next time,

Jeff Wrobleski
wfamily@airmail.net