a competitive, all-commons format of Magic: the Gathering
Pauper Tourney
Just played in my first ever paper Pauper tourney here at the local gameshop. It was a ton of fun!
21 players total, 4 rounds of Swiss into T8. $4 to play, participation foil and T8 foil. Not sure what the top prizes were.
I don't have nearly as many paper cards as I do online, so my deck wasn't quite the best. But I brought Burn Range, in the following arrangement:
BURN RANGE
Polyjak, 8/15/09, Top 8
MAINDECK
16 Mountain
3 Forgotten Cave
4 Rift Bolt
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Shard Volley
4 Needle Drop
4 Incinerate
1 Fireblast (will be increased once Shard Volley becomes Lava Spike)
4 Karplusan Wolverine (maybe Mogg Fanatic is still better, despite M10 rules change)
4 Fireslinger
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Emberwilde Augur
4 Inner-Flame Acolyte
SIDEBOARD
4 Electrostatic Bolt
4 Smash to Smithereens
4 Stone Rain
2 Yamabushi's Flame
1 Sparksmith (throwaway slot, couldn't find more Yamabushi's Flame)
Missing: Oxidda Golem; Ghostfire (?); Lava Spike
(I own 1 Chain Lightning. Run it?)
My first opponent was playing GW Slivers. In G1 I was fooled by a few clever Quick Sliver plays into wasting burn. When I needed it at the end, it didn't come, and he smashed me to bits in a close game with a Sliver wearing Sigil of the Nayan Gods. In G2 I had no play against CoP: Red and a ton of mana on his board, and eventually scooped.
Everybody's deck was unpolished. This format depends on the availablity of choice commons, and not everybody has a playset of all the strongest stuff. He didn't have Sidewinders or Virulents.
L 0-2
My second opponent was playing UB control. His finisher? Dross Crocodile. His counterspell suite? Counterspell and Daze. One Dissipate. I showed clemency when he dropped a Black Knight and managed to put him away handily in two games. He wasn't sure Fireblast was common, so we had to get a second ruling. (I was right.) He did have some nasty discard, though -- Duress and Hymn.
W 2-0
My third opponent was a mostly Standard-legal Jund deck and, outside of Naya Hushblade which was a slight impediment, he didn't even throw anything scary in my path.
W 2-0
My fourth opponent was playing Freed Combo and I was intimidated only because I've faced it so rarely. I won the race in G1 and in G2 he went for the combo in desperation, only to find I had a Lightning Bolt in hand waiting for the land creature. (No Darksteel Citadel, alas.) He had Moment's Peace which slowed me down considerably.
W 2-0
My deck received accolades from all opponents. I had some interesting choices that forced them to read my cards. Underscores the strength of the creature suite in Burn Range.
Before the T8 pairings were announced, I talked to one of the guys running WB. He was talking about how Slivers had torn him up because all his removal was aura-based. So it was only fitting that I got paired against him in the quarterfinals.
I really hate Orzhov because it's so often an auto-loss. The worst part was, his was an incredibly sub-optimal build. I got TWO 2-for-1s in the first game (he was running Unholy Strength), and still managed to drop two in a row. That's the inherent strength of Aven Riftwatcher and Blind Hunter against my deck. His use of Pillory forced me to kill my own Fireslingers. I'll need to find a sacrifice outlet. I boarded in my Stone Rains and managed to get him off white in the 2nd match, but it was too late anyway.
One positive about this match, though, was that I managed to turn my inherent hate for the Burn vs. Orzhov matchup into some comic relief for the other players around me. There were several watchers, invested in the outcome of the match. It was one of the best matches of tournament Magic I've ever played. We laughed a lot. And in the end, if I can laugh and make others laugh, I suppose auto-losing to Orzhov isn't quite as bad.
After that, while waiting for one last quarterfinals match to end, a thought struck me, and I said, "Hey, there's a Shock that removes a creature from the game! I'm going to go buy four of those!" And off I marched to the commons bins.
"Magma Spray!" the others shouted after me.
L 0-2
My overall record was 3-2 in matches, 6-4 in games. I'll need to tune up my list before next time. It sounds like this will be a twice-a-month thing at the store, which is amazing. I'm really excited about that.
Before the tourney began, I spread PDCMagic.com fliers around the tables. I know that a lot of eyes saw them, though no tabs were torn (that I saw). I did hear that one guy visited the site, though he didn't create an account. I wonder if anyone there had an account...
21 players total, 4 rounds of Swiss into T8. $4 to play, participation foil and T8 foil. Not sure what the top prizes were.
I don't have nearly as many paper cards as I do online, so my deck wasn't quite the best. But I brought Burn Range, in the following arrangement:
BURN RANGE
Polyjak, 8/15/09, Top 8
MAINDECK
16 Mountain
3 Forgotten Cave
4 Rift Bolt
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Shard Volley
4 Needle Drop
4 Incinerate
1 Fireblast (will be increased once Shard Volley becomes Lava Spike)
4 Karplusan Wolverine (maybe Mogg Fanatic is still better, despite M10 rules change)
4 Fireslinger
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Emberwilde Augur
4 Inner-Flame Acolyte
SIDEBOARD
4 Electrostatic Bolt
4 Smash to Smithereens
4 Stone Rain
2 Yamabushi's Flame
1 Sparksmith (throwaway slot, couldn't find more Yamabushi's Flame)
Missing: Oxidda Golem; Ghostfire (?); Lava Spike
(I own 1 Chain Lightning. Run it?)
My first opponent was playing GW Slivers. In G1 I was fooled by a few clever Quick Sliver plays into wasting burn. When I needed it at the end, it didn't come, and he smashed me to bits in a close game with a Sliver wearing Sigil of the Nayan Gods. In G2 I had no play against CoP: Red and a ton of mana on his board, and eventually scooped.
Everybody's deck was unpolished. This format depends on the availablity of choice commons, and not everybody has a playset of all the strongest stuff. He didn't have Sidewinders or Virulents.
L 0-2
My second opponent was playing UB control. His finisher? Dross Crocodile. His counterspell suite? Counterspell and Daze. One Dissipate. I showed clemency when he dropped a Black Knight and managed to put him away handily in two games. He wasn't sure Fireblast was common, so we had to get a second ruling. (I was right.) He did have some nasty discard, though -- Duress and Hymn.
W 2-0
My third opponent was a mostly Standard-legal Jund deck and, outside of Naya Hushblade which was a slight impediment, he didn't even throw anything scary in my path.
W 2-0
My fourth opponent was playing Freed Combo and I was intimidated only because I've faced it so rarely. I won the race in G1 and in G2 he went for the combo in desperation, only to find I had a Lightning Bolt in hand waiting for the land creature. (No Darksteel Citadel, alas.) He had Moment's Peace which slowed me down considerably.
W 2-0
My deck received accolades from all opponents. I had some interesting choices that forced them to read my cards. Underscores the strength of the creature suite in Burn Range.
Before the T8 pairings were announced, I talked to one of the guys running WB. He was talking about how Slivers had torn him up because all his removal was aura-based. So it was only fitting that I got paired against him in the quarterfinals.
I really hate Orzhov because it's so often an auto-loss. The worst part was, his was an incredibly sub-optimal build. I got TWO 2-for-1s in the first game (he was running Unholy Strength), and still managed to drop two in a row. That's the inherent strength of Aven Riftwatcher and Blind Hunter against my deck. His use of Pillory forced me to kill my own Fireslingers. I'll need to find a sacrifice outlet. I boarded in my Stone Rains and managed to get him off white in the 2nd match, but it was too late anyway.
One positive about this match, though, was that I managed to turn my inherent hate for the Burn vs. Orzhov matchup into some comic relief for the other players around me. There were several watchers, invested in the outcome of the match. It was one of the best matches of tournament Magic I've ever played. We laughed a lot. And in the end, if I can laugh and make others laugh, I suppose auto-losing to Orzhov isn't quite as bad.
After that, while waiting for one last quarterfinals match to end, a thought struck me, and I said, "Hey, there's a Shock that removes a creature from the game! I'm going to go buy four of those!" And off I marched to the commons bins.
"Magma Spray!" the others shouted after me.
L 0-2
My overall record was 3-2 in matches, 6-4 in games. I'll need to tune up my list before next time. It sounds like this will be a twice-a-month thing at the store, which is amazing. I'm really excited about that.
Before the tourney began, I spread PDCMagic.com fliers around the tables. I know that a lot of eyes saw them, though no tabs were torn (that I saw). I did hear that one guy visited the site, though he didn't create an account. I wonder if anyone there had an account...
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