HOWDY!

Thursday has arrived once again.

This entails a trip to the STRIKE ZONE in scenic Asheville, North Carolina for a night of magical card playing. Thursday nights alternate between Standard and Sealed. Tonight is Standard.

Last Saturday I played a Tinker deck. I got the deck tech from my High Point connection, the brothers Kryzwicki. Did you know that Mike was Donnie Gallitz’s college roommate? 8-)

Being that it isn’t my deck, I will refrain from giving a listing. I did reasonably well that day, going 3-1 through the Swiss. The match I lost was to a deck that was very much similar to Road Trip Red. I was matched up with the same deck in the final four as well. Needless to say, I didn’t win the day. 8-(

We now move to Wednesday night, ARENA night in Sylva, NC. We are playing Standard with Nemesis in the mix. I retooled my Accelerated Blue deck to a certain degree for that night, including the MIGHTY Accumulated Knowledge. The modifications did as well as can be expected until I faced off with Kyle McCay and his WW deck. He beat me to a pulp with a timely Armageddon. That actually makes me pretty happy because I rescued Kyle and his brother TJ from that evil scourge on the earth called Pokemon. 8-)

ANYHOW

After taking a serious beating at the ARENA, I considered running something different on Thursday night. Well, briefly considered it anyhow. I went on home to the Mountain Stronghold and fixed up the deck with a little less of me and a little more Patrick J in the mix.

Here it is . . .

4 Morphling
4 Treachery
2 Palinchron
1 Masticore

4 CounterSpell
4 Miscalculation
3 Rewind

2 Inspiration
2 Opportunity

4 Powder Keg
4 Grim Monolith

20 Islands
4 Faerie Conclave
2 Dustbowl

The“Secret Ninja SideBoard” needs to be experienced to truly appreciate it. 8-)

We don’t have a very good turnout in Asheville, so it is only three rounds of Swiss cutting to the final four elimination rounds.

ROUND ONE— David Fuller— Wildfire
This really threw me for a loop because David has NEVER played this deck before.
Game One— On turn three I Treachery a Covetous Dragon. On turn four I Treachery another one and serve it up for six in the air. Twelve on the next turn causes David to consult his sideboard.
Game Two— Colossus? I think that would look better on my side of the table to apply with my Conclave for the win.
Matches 1-0 Games 2-0

ROUND TWO— Andrew Douglass— The NOT so mirror match
Game One— He drops a Monolith on turn two. On my turn two I drop one as well so I don’t get out-mana’ed. He then casts Bribery, taking my Masticore. Of course I Treachery that bad boy back to my side of the table and it goes all the way.
Game Two— Having no Annul in hand, I see him drop a Monolith onto the board. I follow with a Monolith of my own in order to get into Opportunity range quickly. Sounds familiar right? Of course he casts the Bribery and does the right thing this time and scores a Morphling.

RUT-RO!!!

On my turn, I top deck the Annul I needed for his Monolith. Morphling beats proceed.

Once I am at four life, I start to chump with my Conclaves in order to find a solution. It takes three Conclaves along with an Opportunity and both Inspirations to find a Morphling of my own. He makes a critical error by trying to apply again. I block with my own Morphling and having a superior number of lands in play, I win that little party.

Morphling beats proceed.
Matches 2-0 Games 4-0

ROUND THREE— Jason Wallace— Control Black with the PlagueLord and Wumpus.
DUDE— Let’s ID!!!!

The Final Four
ME— Accelerated Blue
Jason Wallace— Control Black
Steven Becker— Road Trip Red
Cody Baker— Creature Blue

Remember last Saturday when I lost to the Road Trip Red deck?

TIME FOR VENGENCE!!!!

ROUND FOUR— Steven Becker— Road Trip Red
Game One— He gets some minor Port annoyance going and finally casts a Masticore. I respond with an Opportunity, while looking at the CounterSpell in hand along with two untapped Islands. The third card drawn is the Treachery, so I let the Masticore resolve into play. Two turns later a Palinchron joins in on the fun.
Game Two— I don’t mulligan for an Annul because I have a Chill in hand along with two Conclaves and an Island. Steven drops and Encampment, I in turn drop a Conclave. He drops a MAY-OW-TEN and says done.

I WIN— I WIN— I WIN

ME— Island, Chill
STEVEN— Gggggrrrrrrrrrrrr
STEVEN— MAY-OW-TEN, serve with the Encampment
ME— OW!
ME— Top deck Chill #2 8-0
ME— Conclave, Chill
STEVEN— Ggggggggggrrrrrrrrrr
ME— Heh— Heh

Morphling beats proceed.

ROUND FIVE— Jason Wallace— Control Black
Jason—“Do you want to split the box and draw?”
ME—“I’ll split the box, but let’s play for points.”
Jason—“Sounds good”

Game One— First turn Spawning Pool— Second turn Persecute. Do I really need to say more?

Game Two— He must have gotten a slow start because the Negator doesn’t hit until turn two. My life total drops down to five when he casts a second Negator in case I draw into a Treachery. I Opportunity in response and do indeed find a Treachery, along with...

THE MIGHTY-MIGHTY MORPHLING!

I Treachery the untapped Negator and follow up with the Morphling. This leaves me with One Island untapped. On his side of the table is the following, a Port, a Spawning Pool, four Swamps and a Negator. He will have five cards in hand after his draw phase though.

Jason untaps, draws his card and . . . ATTACKS!

I block with the Negator and the Morphling.

Think about it. That adds up to a one-way Haups.

Jason enters into his Scoop Step after I Rewind his attempted Yawgmoth’s Will on his next turn.

Game Three— Turn one Duress, taking away my Inspiration. Turn two Persecute takes TWO Treachery and TWO Morphlings. RUT-RO— Looks to be a losing night for our hero.

His next turn is a Rat, which scores a land. The Rat starts to apply. Negator hits the board and things are looking pretty grim. He gets the Port running to mess with my Conclave so he doesn’t lose any permanents until I draw into a Dustbowl to kill it off. He sacrifices a Swamp and the Rat to the Negator/Conclave that leaves me at eight life.

Negator Serves.

I’m now sitting at three-life.

I have three cards left in my deck that can save me. Treachery. Treachery. Masticore.

I got some email from Jamie Wakefield yesterday. He gave me some compliments that are too embarrassing for me to type. But then he put the same curse on me that he put on Alan Webster.

I am doomed to failure until I play Secret Force at a PTQ.

That is actually pretty scary to me, considering I helped him out some with the deck when he first Q’ed with it in Boston. Alan will most likely ignore it because the deck has Forests in it. (Trust me— that is Alan.) Me on the other hand, consider this to be some seriously bad Karma. I hope that the curse hasn’t started already.

I enter my draw phase and SNAP the card into hand.

AH - The force is strong in this one.

T R E A C H E R Y

The Negator begins to serve once again. 8-)

Here is the life count from my notebook.

20
18 FConclave
16 FConclave
15 Vendetta
11 Negator (Island)
DB -> S-Pool.
6 Negator
1 Negator

SCOOPERSON!!!!

Some days I REALLY love this game.

Good luck to all my buds this weekend. My cold will be keeping me close to home this time around. Hopefully, I will be in Atlanta. Playing what?

We shall see. (That really doesn’t sound ominous when you type it.)

CYA!

Rick (Sometimes Muse) Saunooke
With continued thanks to Chris Cade for his copious proofreading skills.