Returning home is always easy. All of us know the road, as we've gone through it many, many times through it. I'm no exception, and I'm back to business - first of all, I wanna say hello to all of you there; here I am again to give you some hot trash (or information, tech, or whatever you call it).

Wait! This time there's no new tech for you. Surprise! This time, I'll just give a short resume of my recent tournament activities (or "some tournament reports," depending on how you want to look at it). So, if you were looking on a guide on how to build and play properly a hot deck, you can now press your "Back" button in your browser.

So without more introductions, let's go to the middle of the question:

I've been qualified for Nationals this year in Argentina thanks to my composite rating, so no Regionals Report this time. I qualified for JSS by rating, too - but going to Orlando from here is a bit expensive, so I had to pass. It's a pity I'll turn sixteen at the end of June; I won't be able to get invited any more...

Argentina Nationals
After some hours in the train, I arrived at Buenos Aires on Friday. I went to the tournament place to register with my teammates, and watched the action as some unfortunates tried desperately to win the Grinders. After that, I bought some new sleeves and went to sleep.

Saturday was Odyssey/Odyssey/Torment Booster Draft. I'd tested some drafting and felt confident, but I was mainly hoping for an easy table to take. After a pretty average draft, this is the deck I came up with:

1 Diligent Farmhand
1 Basking Rootwalla
1 Werebear
1 Skyshooter
1 Frightcrawler
1 Spellbane Centaur
1 Leaf Dancer
1 Organ Grinder
1 Cabal Torturer
2 Krosan Constrictor
1 Krosan Archer
1 Whispering Shade
1 Rabid Elephant
1 Centaur Veteran
1 Rites of Spring
1 Nostalgic Dreams
1 Zombie Infestation
1 Narcissism
1 Last Rites
1 Elephant Ambush
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Overrun

1 Centaur Garden
9 Forest
7 Swamp

Relevant Sideboard Cards:
1 Krosan Constrictor

Overall, I was pretty happy with the deck, although the creatures were a bit suboptimal. I prepared myself and went to see the pairings.

Round 1: W/R/b
Game 1: I start popping out pretty fast with a turn 2 Werebear shooting an Ambush right into a Pilgrim's face. When I draw into Diabolic Tutor, my Cabal Torturer has already dismantled most of the opposing team... But a Vampiric Dragon has just arrived. On the following turn I play Overrun, having threshold and no cards in hand - but enough mana to sac Centaur Garden and Narcissism. He has Second Thoughts, so he goes to one and kills me with the Dragon.

Game 2: Narcissism demonstrates its brokenness, as he can never block in a convenient way. I put him out of his misery with Whispering Shade.

Game 3: Until now I thought his deck was W/B splash Red because he plays two Swamps every match. Later I found out those were his only swamps! Anyway, he chooses to start and double mulligans, so I am in an excellent position. He isn't manascrewed and his Hallowed Healer buys him time until he even stabilizes the board. I start applying pressure so he can't develop his game - until Organ Grinder comes to my rescue and finishes the job.

1. (2-1)

Round 2: U/g/b
Game 1: I choose to draw, he mulligans and plays a turn 1 Careful Study. I start making some math and realize that can be good for me. On turn 4, I have Werebear, Skyshooter, Spellbane Centaur, and Basking Rootwalla in play, and Diabolic Tutor in hand. He has only two Forests and an Island. Guess who plays a Swamp and Sickening Dreams for two? He then proceeds to beat me with Call of the Herd.

Game 2: My hand is a bit slow and I don't know his deck well. My big guys can't keep up to his tempo game and I lose horribly.

1-1 (2-3)

Round 3: U/W/g
Game 1: His creatures are a bit fragile, and I can start hitting hard. He somehow stalls the board, and I play my Tutor. Overrun just wins most of the time.

Game 2: He outdraws me in the midgame, and counters a game-winning Overrun with Syncopate while I had Nostalgic Dreams in hand. Pretty demoralizing.

Game 3: I finally manage to draw into the card that he can't deal with: Narcissism. He simply is unable to stop my creatures other than chump blocking, and he concedes after some turns of agonizing.

2-1 (4-4)

After my first table, I start watching the top tables, and I realize many 2-1 players are slightly inexperienced. I am hopeful; maybe my table won't be as difficult as I first thought.

The table seems to be okay, and my draft is normal again, so I look forward to a good performance. The deck I managed to draft, for the record:

1 Mesmeric Fiend
1 Frightcrawler
1 Organ Grinder
1 Pilgrim of Virtue
1 Hallowed Healer
1 Gravegouger
1 Infected Vermin
1 Childhood Horror
1 Gravedigger
1 Luminous Guardian
1 Grotesque Hybrid
1 Soul Scourge
1 Aven Flock
1 Innocent Blood
1 Testament of Faith
1 Shelter
1 Sandstone Deadfall
1 Crippling Fatigue
2 Embolden
1 Mind Sludge
1 Second Thoughts
1 Morbid Hunger
1 Abandoned Outpost
6 Plains
10 Swamp

Relevant Sideboard Cards:
1 Ray of Distortion

Round 4: U/W
Game 1: We both start playing land after land, as I have an Innocent Blood in hand and I'm waiting for him to start the action. Unfortunately, he sees the Blood with Peek and continues the land-go theme. The really funny thing comes when I Mind Sludge away his seven cards and play two creatures, all in the same turn. He can't believe it and concedes soon thereafter.

Game 2: This one was rather anticlimactic, as the board is even with three creatures each... But then he draws Major Teroh. After the reset, I start playing more creatures, and my Luminous Guardian prevents damage from the ground, as I kill the flyers with my removal. The problem comes when he draws Psionic Gift - but fortunately for me it's too late, and he decks himself, with me still having two Emboldens in hand.

3-1 (6-4)

Round 5: R/G
Game 1: I start killing pretty much anything he plays until Squirrel Nest joins the party. His deck is pretty much Squirrels and Giant Growth effects, but I used Mesmeric Fiend to deprive him of Overrun. Infected Vermin cleans the board as Childhood Horror goes through the distance.

Game 2: My turn 2 Fiend removes a Squirrel Nest, and he plays land for the first six turns as I beat him senseless. After the game he shows me a hand full of Giant Growths but no creatures.

4-1 (8-4)

Round 6: R/G/u
Game 1: After a double tapland start, he plays a turn 4 Petravark that takes care of my only Plains. I had five White cards in hand at that moment. Not much else to say; Arrogant Wurm made the agony faster.

Game 2: He plays an Island and a Seafloor Debris, and when I play Mesmeric Fiend I see three burn spells and no more land. I feel pretty safe... But that same turn he topdecks a Mountain and I can't stop the flow that comes later, with Arrogant Wurm going to the distance again.

4-2 (8-6)

After this I feel I didn't do as much as I could, so I start thinking about Sunday. I had already decided to play Trenches, as it was the deck I felt most comfortable with, so there I went:

4 Memory Lapse
4 Counterspell
3 Absorb
2 Syncopate
4 Repulse
2 Wrath of God
4 Fire/Ice
3 Prophetic Bolt
2 Urza's Rage
4 Fact or Fiction
3 Goblin Trenches

4 Coastal Tower
3 Skycloud Expanse
3 Shivan Reef
2 Adarkar Wastes
2 Battlefield Forge
1 Cephalid Coliseum
6 Island
4 Mountain

Sideboard:
4 Meddling Mage
4 Flametongue Kavu
2 Rakavolver
2 Disenchant
2 Circle of Protection: Black
1 Obliterate

I was mainly worried about Control Black and Frog/Crazy for You decks, so I decided Rakavolver and FTK could stop the Madness, and Obliterate should win many control on control matchups.

Round 7: Control Black
Game 1: He triple Duresses me before Tutoring on turn 4 and Sludging my hand on turn 5. Turn 6 is time for Planar Portal. Not much else to say.

Game 2: I sided in the CoPs, the Disenchants, four Mages, the Volvers, and Obliterate. I play turn 2 CoP; he plays Millstone. He mills away one of my Disenchants, but I draw the second. Unfortunately for me, at this point he played a second 'Stone and a Phyrexian Arena, so I was under a short clock. I answer to Duress with Fact or Fiction, and choose to take Obliterate vs. four other cards. I counter the Duress, but he has a Legacy Weapon to deprive me of my second red mana. That's game in my book.

4-3 (8-8)

Round 8: U/G/R Madness
Game 1: I was playing a teammate, so the game was friendlier. I take control of the game and something funny happened: I had a Goblin Trenches in my graveyard, and played Fact or Fiction. Another Trenches was flipped, and he split 1-4, thinking my deck had only two Trenches. He almost hit me when I took the four-card pile and played another Trenches on my turn.

Game 2: I knew he was sideboarding Obliterate - so I changed my deck into aggro, taking out the Wraths and some countermagic. He couldn't stop my beatdown mode, either.

5-3 (10-8)

Round 9: U/G/b Madness
Game 1: I keep a slow hand and draw all three of my Prophetic Bolts, but his tempo game is difficult to stop and Duresses wreck me. When I finally resolve a Trenches, I fall one token short of blocking.

Game 2: I sideboarded into aggro mode again, in hopes of stopping his engine with the Mages. It was not to be, however, as after mulliganing he goes into slow mode too and a turn 6 Fact or Fiction wrecks me, as he reveals: Zombie Infestation, Wild Mongrel, Basking Rootwalla, Upheaval, Fact or Fiction. I split into Upheaval and Fact or Fiction or the rest, and he takes the three-card pile. After the match he tells me he had Upheaval and three Circular Logics in hand.

5-4 (10-10)

Round 10: B/g Braids
Game 1: He starts up pretty strong, and I struggle to stop his aggression. The problem comes when I realize I had two Trenches and most of my burn in my graveyard, so I can't play my third Trenches, as a Pernicious Deed would mean game. I play it when I was 1 turn away from dying, and he has two Deeds - so if I tapped out to counter the second, I wouldn't be able to block.

Game 2: I sideboarded in my Flametongues but not my Mages, as I prefer Wraths for the 'Mongers. He resolves one of those, by the way, and I finally kill it. He Simplifies my Trenches, leaving me with seven land and seven Goblins. I throw my Goblin Soldiers at him, and a Nantuko Shade eats them, until I have only four of them and he is at seven. Ichorid starts deploying my life total, and I lose when I had sixteen land in play. That means I drew land for nine turns in a row; talk about mana flood!

5-5 (10-12)

At this point, I decide to drop. I hadn't slept well and was playing poorly, and besides I wouldn't play any important match at 5-5. I start trading and selling until round 12 finishes. A friend of mine finishes 9^th by a 1% tiebreaker, so we are very sad. That night we return home, and I start to look into Judgment, as the Prerelease Tournament was a week away.

 

Judgment Prerelease
That Saturday morning I came to play the most pathetic prerelease tournament I've ever seen. Total attendance: Fourteen people!!! (A normal prerelease here should gather forty or fifty people). This was caused by the outrageous prices Magic: the Gathering is being sold right now. I just hope there will be an Onslaught Prerelease.

Anyway, I proceed to open my three Odyssey boosters and my two Judgment ones and I am looking into a solid Red-Green beatdown deck. Check it out:

1 Nimble Mongoose
1 Liberated Dwarf
1 Werebear
2 Nantuko Tracer
1 Wild Mongrel
1 Mad Dog
2 Barbarian Bully
1 Krosan Beast
1 Genesis
1 Gorilla Titan
1 Frenetic Ogre

2 Reckless Charge
1 Blazing Salvo
1 Rites of Spring
1 Book Burning
1 Elephant Guide
1 Refresh
1 Arcane Teachings
1 Sudden Strength
1 Elephant Ambush

1 Barbarian Ring
1 Ravaged Highlands
9 Forest
6 Mountain

Relevant Sideboard Cards
1 Nullmage Advocate
1 Masked Gorgon
Swamps

Round 1: G/R/u/w?
Game 1: My opponent is playing with a 60+ card-deck, and he only plays 2 lands in the whole match. Not much to say.

Game 2: He plays a Plains, an Island, some Forests and a Ravaged Highlands. My Ambush eats the only creature he manages to play.

1. (2-0)

Round 2: W/G/B
Game 1: I know he has Phantom Nishoba and two Exoskeletal Armors, because I've seen his match on Round 1. Anyway, I go into damage race with my weenies, but Exoskeletal Armor boosts his Dusk Imp and I die easily.

Game 2: He plays a turn 7 Nishoba. Sorry about the short description, but that's all...

1-1 (2-2)

Round 3: W/U/G
Game 1: I start with a turn 2 Mad Dog, turn 3 Elephant Guide, and turn 4 Book Burning. As he isn't in a comfortable position, he lets me have threshold. That same turn I play Nimble Mongoose, and Krosan Beast comes on turn 5. He can't stop my enormous beasts and succumbs soon thereafter.

Game 2: I go turn 1 Liberated Dwarf, turn 2 Mongrel, turn 3 Reckless Charge, Book Burning, and turn 4 Krosan Beast. Did I mention he chose to start and double parised? Well, it was a very fast game!

2-1 (4-2)

Round 4: U/g/r
I choose to ID into the top 8 as he is my teammate and both of as are 2-1.

2-1-1 (4-2)

Quarterfinals: W/U/G

Game 1: He is lacking Blue mana, and I start swarming. At some point I play a creature, Reckless Charge it, and swing with all. He blocks aggressively as he is low on life, discarding all his hand except for one card to save his Mongrel, who stares at a Frenetic Ogre and a Barbarian Bully. He calmly untaps, draws, plays Exoskeletal Armor on the Mongrel, and swings for the victory.

Huh? I didn't know what to do.

Game 2: He starts and mulligans, so I have some advantage. My weenie swarm results, and I make him chumpblock one or two times. He goes to five and I play Arcane Teachings. He swings with an Exoskeletal Armored Pulsating Illusion and I go to eleven. He has no hand. He will swing for six next turn (ten if he discards what he draws), so I'll lose if he draws a creature or any creature dies in combat this turn. I have already used both of my Nantuko Tracers, and fortunately Mad Dog isn't in play. I figure I can't win this turn, so I ping him to four with Teachings and play Genesis. He draws the friggin' creature and wins.

GPT Sao Paulo
So; three weekends, three tourneys. Again this was an extremely low-attended tournament, with only twenty-five people in attendance. I decided I'd play Trenches, as I hadn't tested anything and this deck continued to work:

4 Counterspell
3 Absorb
3 Memory Lapse
2 Syncopate
1 Disrupt
4 Repulse
2 Wrath of God
4 Fire/Ice
3 Prophetic Bolt
2 Urza's Rage
4 Fact or Fiction
3 Goblin Trenches

4 Coastal Tower
3 Skycloud Expanse
3 Shivan Reef
2 Adarkar Wastes
2 Battlefield Forge
1 Cephalid Coliseum
6 Island
4 Mountain

Sideboard:
4 Meddling Mage
4 Flametongue Kavu
4 Lightning Angel
2 Rakavolver
1 Obliterate

This time I expected more mirror matches and control decks, so I included a full fourteen-creature sideboard to turn Trenches into Star-Spangled Slaughter, and Obliterate remains present.

Round 1: U/B/r Psychatog
Game 1: I control this game as I want, looking as he is unable no produce a Psychatog, and the only one that gets through is burned away. Trenches gets him out of his misery.

Game 2: I put my ten guys in, plus the Obliterate. Unfortunately, all this is useless, since I get manascrewed and he finishes me pretty easily.

Game 3: This time he gets manascrewed and my turn 2 Mage for Nightscape Familiar hurts. When the second Lightning Angel gets through, it's time for him to concede.

1. (2-1)

Round 2: U/G/r Opposition
Game 1: He tries for two Squirrel Nests, but I counter both. After that, he doesn't actually do anything until I try to play Trenches. I win the counter war, but end up tapped out and he slips Squirrel Nest and Opposition through. It doesn't matter, though, as many Goblins outnumber one Squirrel.

Game 2: Fourteen Creatures later (I should just play SSS), I get him to one - but his two (!) Shivan Wurms eat me. I didn't expect his transformational sideboard and it took me by surprise, as I had sided out my Repulses and some counters.

Game 3: After re-sideboarding, I start pretty strong but he again gets a Wurm through. I keep myself alive with a Rakavolver, and in the final turn he plays Skizzik. My lucky counter saves the day.

2. (4-2)

Round 3: U/G/r Holistic Wisdom
Game 1: We both go,"land, go" until he decides to play two Mystic Snakes just to attack and when I'm at eight plays a kicked Rage, tapping himself out. I play Absorb, then Trenches and he laments his error, but I give him back the game when tapping out for Syncopate, allowing him to Force Spike and resolve a Fact or Fiction, and consequently find a burn spell.

Game 2: I know he is siding in Nimble Mongooses and Calls of the Herd, so I sideboard correctly. He plays four islands as his only lands, so I abuse the situation and Lightning Angel goes through the distance.

Game 3: This game is strange. He plays a turn 3 Wisdom with no graveyard, and it doesn't get active until much later. I get enough time and mana to resolve a Trenches, and his burn and card drawing isn't enough.

3. (6-3)

Round 4: Control Black
I ID with a teammate, as we're both 3-0.

3-0-1 (6-3)

Round 5: Trenches
I ID again, as a mirror match is so slow and boring I would prefer to die.

3-0-2 (6-3)

Quarterfinals: UGB Madness
Game 1: I counter his three Mongrels - and he draws his fourth with a Fact or Fiction! I counter it, too. He empties his hand, playing a Zombie Token and an Arrogant Wurm, but I topdeck Prophetic Bolt, kill the Wurm, and Repulse the Token. The game goes easy after that.

Game 2: All the creatures go in. After a Flametongue Kavu kills a Wurm and trades with a Mongrel, Meddling Mage stops Opposition and Lightning Angel starts hitting. Unfortunately, he starts topdecking and I need to find an answer. After much digging, I find a Rakavolver to win a bad matchup.

Semifinals: Trenches
Game 1: His deck is a bit unorthodox, as he is playing all basic land and no Urza's Rages or Prophetic Bolts to be seen. I double mulligan and can't recover, as we both fight with Trenches but he topdecks four consecutive land.

Game 2: I play turn three Trenches and resolves, but lose my fourth land drop. Oops, that can't be good. Anyway I almost get it, if only I didn't draw so many painlands...

Overall, I think if I were to play Trenches again I'd include some Disenchants in the Sideboard. I'd probably remove the 'Volvers, as I think they weren't worthwhile. Something tells me to drop the Obliterate, but I keep embracing it; I don't know, probably dropping the Obliterate and an Angel is the way to go.

Next week, I'll probably discuss the viability of Trenches in Standard, but don't doubt that I'll return with my Play Guides or some strategic content

Don't worry; you won't see any more tournament reports. Until then, good luck and happy gaming!

Fernando Munafo
Mr_Turkenz@hotmail.com