Let's start this show with my decklist. It was put together on Saturday morning, Nov 2^nd, at 9:00 a.m.

Creatures:
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Basking Rootwalla (Why not?)
4 Wild Mongrel. (Any statistics on how many top 8 decks this guy is in?)
4 Call of the Herd (It never stopped being good, right?)
4 Roar of the Wurm (So they can't fly; they are still bigger than you)
3 Arrogant Wurm (Should have been Phantom Centaurs)
3 Hystrodon (the true champ, the Brock Resnor of the deck)

Others:
4 Duress
4 Chainer's Edict
2 Zombie Infestation
2 Haunting Echoes (should have been one)

23 Land:

11 Forest
8 Swamp
2 Tainted Wood (Who says enemy lands are bad?)
2 City of Brass

Sideboard:
3 Naturalize
3 Engineered Plague
3 Phantom Centaur
3 Smother (could have been maindecked; they came in every game)
3 Compost (came in zero times - but who would have thought?)

I spent the previous night at The Source of Magic, a local store west of Atlanta, to see what was up with Type 2. The owner was holding a sanctioned Type 2 tournament that night. His store draws some good Magic players from different parts of Atlanta. (Shameless plug here - it is in Douglasville, Georgia and it is a great store.)

I decided not to play because I had no idea what to play. A green/white Mobilization/Mirari's Wake deck won the whole thing - but I was not convinced. I stayed until my friends and I couldn't keep our eyes open. Still no deck.

The next morning I had a feeling that green had the best card advantage creaturewise, and black was the only color capable of stopping other people's creatures. In a mad rush, I grabbed the best green and black cards I could think of.

Hey, if Sol Malka plays green/black every time, then why shouldn't I?

Round 1 Vs. Christopher Mahoffey (0-1 match, 1-2 games) Mono-Red
Here is the reason I am writing today for the first time: I lost round 1.

Do the math, folks: One hundred and twenty people. With Ids, no one with a 5-2 record is going to make top 8. No one!

I got beat because land is good, and land is bad. One game I drew all land, One game I drew no lands. He was playing mono red and did not need much more than the goblins to destroy me. So here I am, thinking I need to go 6-0 the rest of the day. No exceptions. My friend Jeremy Anderson told me"Nick, if anyone can pull this off it's you!"

So that's what I decided to do.

Round 2 Vs. Andrew Lewin (1-1, 2-0) ???
This is where turbo writing will come in handy. I will run through the next six rounds quickly so people can see the diversity of Type 2 (well, other than green in almost every deck).

This guy was new and had only been playing for a few months. I have the utmost respect for new players; you know Andrew will be beating his friends every game if he keeps showing up to high-level events like this.

Round 3 Vs. Jonathan Hochberg (2-1, 2-1) UZI
I got perfect draws - you know, the kind that goes second-turn Mongrel followed by third-turn Roars and such. Sometimes you just flat-out get the cards you want: The deck was built well and it showed by getting good draws all day.

Round 4 Vs. Jay Royals (3-1, 2-0) mirror match - but he had beasts
All I can say is Ravenous Baloths can gain a lot of life. The problem is that his life represents dead creatures, while mine were alive and swinging. Creature removal is key for my victory here - well, that and huge Phantom Centaurs.

Round 5 Vs. Matt Payne (4-1, 2-1) Green/White beats
This is another local player from the Source of Magic. Meeting someone I knew was no shock (there were about twenty regulars from there attending), but Matt had to mulligan like a fiend in two games. I would like to play him a couple games back home to see how it may go down... But he never got more than two lands in play. Sorry, Matt, but you still are a great player.

Round 6 Vs. Ronald Gibbs (5-1, 2-0) Red splash black
It seems like this is when the tournament got really tricky. He made some great plays involving first strike damage to gain advantage over my creatures... But he didn't draw enough threats and I was able to win.

Both games were close. I almost lost to a Threatened Wurm token. This game was one where my Hystrodon was crucial.

Round 7 Vs. Jason Brantley (6-1, 2-1) U/G Opposition
I am kind of in shock at this point; I needed to go 6-0, and I was on pace to do that. I was a little lucky and a little skillful - but for whatever the reason, here I was in the match that mattered most. Our first two games took up all but six minutes. I won game 1 because I could discard every other turn and make zombie tokens, which eventually broke me out of an Opposition lock.

Game 3 was all about the dream hand. I drop a Bird, Mongrel, Smother his Mongrel, Naturalize his Opposition, and bring out the Roars and Rootwallas. This is how discard should be done. It was a well-played game on both sides of the table.

Top 8 Vs. Steven Wall blue/green madness
Wonder gave him the needed edge in game 1.

I made a good move in game 2 when I played an Engineered Plague after he blocked my Call token with his Arrogant Wurm. I had to remove it somehow, and that made a huge difference in this game.

Game 3, I desperately need a Plague to kill off his two Merfolk Looters. He looted into two Logics against my Smothers, which were going after a Roar token - and by sheer card advantage was able to maintain control and he won. Congrats!

What a day! I got some packs, got a playmat, and went home very happy with my best performance ever. I made 9^th at Regionals last year and in 1999, so this was sweet to break into the top 8.

I'd like to thank good players and good friends that have helped me become a better Magic player. Next time you are at a tournament and lose in the first round, don't give up: You never know how it will turn out.

Even if you do build your deck an hour before registration.

Signing off,
Nick Rogers

Thanks to:

• Jeremy Anderson for providing such a cool store to play Magic.
• The War Room for always running smooth tournaments.
• To all my friends in Douglasville and Carrollton. Everyone made a great showing at States. Good job.