Tournament reports are a unique way to see how some people view the game. Some are short and succinct: Here are my matches, I won or lost because of xyz. Some reports are long-winded, funny, and/or torturous essays on human frailty. I hope that this is a happy mix of the two.

Why on earth would someone pilot MBC in Regionals 2003 with all of the pure unadulterated hate running around? The answer, outside of sheer stupidity, and logic was that everything else wasn't nearly as much fun to play. I began with a rough decklist from OBC (I know; curse that block)! I made a few changes, allowing for some Rock Stars and degenerates, and began testing. I was pretty open in what I considered as well.

The first iterations of the deck had more removal than it ended with, and was focused on being able to beat Sligh - mainly, on not losing to a random Blistering Firecat. I had the full boat of Bloods, Edicts, Smothers, three Mutilates, and my tech card: Death Pulse. This worked for a while, but eventually the shortage of Duresses (I was running three) made me deathly afraid of the Tog matchup.

Another couple weeks went by. I added Tainted Pacts, removed Tainted Pacts, changed the number of Scryings, Gladiators, and Tutors... You name it, I tried it. I had maindeck Shades, Visaras, and Riptide Replicators. Everything worked fairly well, and I finally settled on a maindeck that looked a lot like this:

4 Duress
4 Corrupt
4 Smother
4 Chainer's Edict
3 Innocent Blood
3 Mutilate
3 Diabolic Tutor
1 Undead Gladiator
2 Skeletal Scrying
1 Mirari
1 Nantuko Shade
1 Haunting Echoes
3 Tainted Pact
23 Swamps
3 Cabal Coffers

I decided to run this in a large local tournament. This was the first time that Onslaught saw play, and man was I not ready for the cleric and zombie themes that it brought. Round one is a nightmare, which I lose thanks to Tainted Pact. Nothing like mulliganing to a hand of two Swamps, Mutilate, Mind Sludge, and two Tainted Pacts, and Pacting on turn 2 and seeing this during resolution:

Me: End of turn Pact?
Opponent: Sure!
Me: Turn over Mutilate, pass, Corrupt, think for a second... Pass. Corrupt. Frown.

I untap, draw another Tainted Pact, I wish it was a land, and pass the turn. He untaps, plays Rotlung Reanimator, passes the turn. I Pact at the end of turn into a concession, getting double Corrupt again.

The rest of the tournament goes well, with me actually recovering and making Top 8, only to run into Wake and take my exit... Still a tough matchup, but one I was working on.

I made some perfunctory changes - mainly, trying out more Gladiators, and removing the Tainted Pacts. The Pacts are okay in control matches where you need to increase your card quality, but the risk-to-reward just never seemed there for me. I ended up running two Gladiators and two Scryings, which I liked a lot. I tried having three Gladiators one week to see how it was against Tog, and it was amazing, but I ended up making other changes to help in that match.

Several weeks had passed and I was running MBC at every tournament, and riding the little Constructed gravy train at our store. There was only one matchup that really scared me, and it was Wake - and let me tell you, it's still the only match that scares me. They gain life, counter stuff, and can even win in the face of a Haunting Echoes. My sideboard goes from teched-out with Tainted Aether (to battle token decks), to a boatload of hand destruction for control matches... All the while not having a single card specifically in the board for the mirror.

My version leading up to Regionals was in flux...One or two Visaras main, but how many Shades do I run? I go for one of each, and two Gladiators, with two more Visaras in the board, and three more Shades. My decklist with sideboard (and, of course, the cards that shouldn't have been in the sideboard) are:

The Rock Stars
4 Duress
4 Corrupt
4 Smother
3 Chainer's Edict
3 Innocent Blood
3 Mutilate
3 Diabolic Tutor
2 Undead Gladiator
2 Skeletal Scrying
2 Mirari
1 Nantuko Shade
1 Haunting Echoes
1 Visara the Dreadful
1 Mind Sludge
23 Swamps
3 Cabal Coffers

Sideboard
3 Cabal Therapy
3 Nantuko Shade
2 Persecute
1 Haunting Echoes
2 Visara the Dreadful
3 Engineered Plague (I never brought these in, as every time I wanted to, it was for Gigapede, which is of course an"Insect" - as is, unfortunately, Nantuko Shade)
1 Riptide Replicator

I test out some old school card advantage the night before, just to see if it works, but in a few games it hard to see if Jayemdae Tome could cut it...it would be good in the mirror though.

We wake up at a reasonable hour, leave the hotel, and make the short trip over to the tournament site: The Waukesha Exposition Center. Which is pretty much a big friggin' barn. We register our decks, I pull the tech card out, add the second Mirari back in, and finish re-sleeving. Looks like a pretty good turnout: 440-plus players, for a mighty ten rounds. There will be no top 8.

Round 1: Monoblack Graveborn Muse
Games one and two revolve around Mind Sludge and Haunting Echoes...and Mirari, of course. There is also the benefit of Persecute in game 2. I win this fairly easily; he is at eighteen life when I Scrye for seven, Fork it, untap, and triple-Corrupt for nine apiece.

1-0, 2-0

Round 2: G/W Madness
Game 1: My removal outlasts his initial critter rush, and Visara cleans up.

Game 2: He never sees his Composts, but the Phantom Centaurs put me on a quick clock. I cast Mutilate and then proceed to forget how to tell time (although it didn't matter). Visara hits, and Echoes gets the Glory; there is some life gain involved, but not enough to overcome the Visara beats. Corrupt ends it.

2-0, 4-0

Round 3: Cunningham U/G
Game 1: Removal again outlasts the initial critter rush...Echoes resolves, taking most of the goods, and then it's Mirari time.

Game 2: He is manascrewed, but rips Compost several turns in after I steal his first. He has to Quiet Speculation me, yanking my Edicts so that he can draw some cards to get out of mana screw. By the time he recovers, I have a nearly-lethal Shade, so he is in chump block mode the whole time... Eventually, I Mutilate with enough mana to save the Shade and win.

3-0, 6-0

Round 4: Psychatog
Game 1: He is playing the non-Wish version of Tog, which immediately puts me at an advantage, and his draw is terrible. I kill him with a lone Undead Gladiator.

Game 2: He flinches and defensively tries to"Upheaval, Psychatog," and I Smother it when he attempts to go to cleanup. Shade comes down two turns later, and the beats recommence.

4-0, 8-0

Round 5: R/G
Game 1: Man, you cannot hiccup against R/G - even in game 1. He gets enough burn to kill two of me, and murders me.

Game 2: I get turn one Duress for Compost and pretty much ride the lack of Compost to an easy Visara/Corrupt win.

Game 3: He keeps a questionable hand that is City or Brass and a Llanowar Elves. He gets a couple guys on the table and I Mutilate; he is unhappy, but starts to recover, but by then the Visara smash machine is in full effect. I guess 5/5 Flyers are pretty tech against R/G.

5-0, 10-1

Round 6: MBC
Game 1: This is about who gets Sludge and Echoes off. Both of us do, but to varying degrees of effectiveness; unfortunately, he resolves Mirari first, which is the backbone of both our decks.

Game 2: In come the Shades, and Therapies, and Replicator. Matching echoes get all of our Corrupts and Edicts, and it's all about drawing a threat... He draws Shade, I draw Replicator. His Shade is bigger than my measly Replicator, but I am able to kill the Shade and start getting though with Replicator; 6/6 Black Lepers to the rescue!

Game 3: This is a short affair. He strips my hand, but I rip a Shade, and it goes the distance, He is at nine, I can swing for seven next turn; he Sludges me (dropping swamp, a swamp, and a Therapy). I swing for seven and say go. He untaps, thinks for a second, and drops Undead Gladiator in order to hold the beats off long enough to drop Visara. I untap and rip Edict...

Wow! I am so good at this game!

6-0, 12-2

I would be this guy's only loss on the day; he draws into the top 8. Good games, Ian!

Round 7: Beasts
Game 1: Things look good. I am at twelve, he has Anurid Brushhopper and a Beast Attack token on his side, and one card in hand. I play Visara; this should be pretty much game.

He untaps, draws, Reprisals Visara, and bashes for seven. I scoop.

Game 2: This is an abomination! I get an opening hand of two swamps, Coffer, and Shade, Blood, Edict, and Mutilate... I keep. And I don't draw more land until I am about to die.

6-1, 12-4

Round 8: U/G
Game 1: He is the most savage ripping U/G player - that, or the best cheat ever. I am able to resolve Mutilate/Echoes and get everything, save for cards in hand and Aquamoeba. I have a Coffer, eight swamps, and Mirari, and I am at fifteen life. I die to the Roar of the Wurm and Arrogant Wurm that were in his hand, as he gets one of the four Aquamoebas on his next couple turns.

Game 2: I win with at least one Compost on the table. Multiple Visaras make it impossible for him to keep up. (I hope that they weren't both on the table at once - The Ferrett)

Game 3: I mulligan to five, getting an opening hand of Shade, two swamps, Coffers, Edict, and I keep. I then proceed to draw a total of two more Shades, but no more land. Wow that was fun... Not!

6-2, 13-6

Round 9: U/G
Game 1: He pulls the Ancestral Recall draw of Careful Study, discarding two Basking Rootwallas; I never really recover before it's over.

Game 2: See game 3 from last round, almost exactly. Man, this sucks; 6-0, then 0-3 and out of contention. So much for putting a good big event together.

6-3, 13-8

Round 10: BR Braids LD (the decks down here in the three-loss bracket are pretty terrible)
Game 1: He beats up my land pretty good, but eventually runs out, I Blood away his Braids after sacrificing the extra Coffers, and start to recover. Then Magnivore hits; I Blood, Echoes the next turn, and he is left with little to kill me. I Corrupt for the win several turns later.

Game 2: I go after his hand, while he goes after my land... I win that war, and an able to get his hand free and clear and never miss land drops.

7-3, 15-8 and 28^th

Well it wasn't too bad of a day, and I think if someone had told me the night before that I would start off 6-0 and end up in the top 32, I would have been happy... So I guess I am. I would have liked to put just two more wins together after round 6, which probably would have made it so that there were two MBC decks in the top 8.

If I were to make any changes, they would most likely just be in the sideboard. I would try out Jayemdae Tome for more than an hour, and maybe replace the one Plague with a Book, since colorless card drawing against UG is good... Actually, seeing how U/G ends up taking out all of its utility for the sideboarded games, maybe several books!