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Vintage Tournament Report
February Dülmen 1st place wit h Cerebral Assassin
von Kai Lange
23.02.2005

Hello out there,

since I've been playing magic for almost a decade and have been reading articles/strategy/reports for as long, I feel I finally might contribute myself. It's a long time since I did my last piece in English, so please be gentle!


Introduction:
I started playing in 1995, when Fallen Empires was in the stores. I got hooked by tournament magic and won my very second tournament playing a Necrodeck with maindeck Paralyzes to earn me an invitaion for PT3 Columbus. I got totally raped there as at that time nobody was really playing block construced (Iceage/Alliances). I managed about 10 top8 of PTQ thereafter, never qualifying, usually losing in the Semifinals. Oh well. Studying in Kaiserslautern (K-town) for two years, I had a lot of fun playing with some American guys serving at Rammstein. I would be thrilled if somebody of you reads this I stopped playing after Urza Block, due to heavy committment to my studies. I graduated in 2002, spent some time in India and have been working as a fulltime architect since then. Amazingly, this left my weekends to play in magic tournaments occasionally, although I never ever do any testing, since I am just too busy. As I did not want to keep up with T2, I decided on getting power. Finally, I'm 28 years old and live in Dortmund/Germany which happens to be exactly between Dülmen, Moers and Iserlohn


Deck Choice:
Having played Dragon, MonoU and Oath with some success I discovered Eastmans CA on tmd. I really liked his list and decided to play it in this months' Dülmen.

Changes:
-1 Balance
-1 Mystical Tutor
-1 Yawgmoth's Will
+1 Intuition
+1 Worldgorger Dragon
+1 Memnarch

I just wanted the DragonCombo available since it messes up peoples sideboarding and can give you surprise wins/alternate way to victory. As I didn't want to waste a slot for Laquatus, I chose Memnarch. He can be weldered and is decent on his own, while he steals all of opponents permanents when comboing. Benjamin Ribbeck remarked during our final match, that the opponent could just take his turn and win. Although this is true for his deck, there aren't a lot of decks that are capable of this. Maybe TPS, but even that, I think is highly unlikely, since then he should have won before.
As the manabase/structure of the deck is similar to Dragon, I decided to cut Will. Balance doesn't fit in my opinion and Mystical had to go as the last card. I added a Death spark (go, find out what it does) to the Sideboard to fight opposing Welders. It should be nice with Squee+Bazaar or Intuition for Titan, Titan, Death Spark. Here comes the list:

Cerebral Assassin
 
lands (16):
4Bazaar of Baghdad
1Tolarian Academy
4Gemstone Mine
4City of Brass
1Shivan Reef
1Underground River
1Seat of the Synod

creatures (15):
4Goblin Welder
4Squee, Goblin Nabob
3Sundering Titan
1Triskelion
1Platinum Angel
1Memnarch
1Worldgorger Dragon

spells (29):
4Animate Dead
3Thirst for Knowledge
3Intuition
1Tinker
1Demonic Tutor
1Vampiric Tutor
1Ancestral Recall
1Time Walk
1Possessed Portal
4Force of Will
1Mox Pearl
1Mox Ruby
1Mox Jet
1Mox Sapphire
1Mox Emerald
1Black Lotus
1Sol Ring
1Mana Crypt
1Mana Vault

60 cards
creatures (1):
1Triskelion

spells (14):
1Death Spark
4Chalice of the Void
3Pyroblast
3Rack and Ruin
3Ray of Revelation

15 cards
 
I did not take any notes, so its possible I mixed up some matches or there are some mistakes in here. But still I'm mainly writing this to give you an impression of the decks' performance. It doesn't really matter if you go Thirst, Animate Titan or Intuition, Animate Titan. You get the point. I missed some mulligans in the report I believe but there were relatively few on my part. Also I don't remember names, sorry. Here we go:


Round 1: Mister stupid (myself) playing CA

While I am busy looking for the single Shivan Reef that I am missing, I completely forget about registration. When I finally remember, they are just printing pairings. Just great! Luckily they are nice and squeeze me in, awarding me with a first round bye
I do some scouting and try to remember the people who are playing either Oath or Workshop since these I consider the worst matchups. Also against Workshop it gives you a huge advantage if you know what they are playing. Me don't see any ethical problems here
1:0


Round 2: Some guy playing FoodChainGoblins

Game 1: I lose the die roll. He keeps and I have to mulligan a one Mana source hand. My hand of six contains Land, Mox, ManaVault, Lotus Intuition and Squee. He starts Mountain, go. I draw Jet and play Land, Mox, Mox, Vault, Welder, Lotus. He fetches taiga and plays a Piledriver. I Intuition for Tutor, Tutor, Bazaar. He gives me Vampiric which is immideately cast for Tinker. I untap Tinker for Titan and kill his land. A Welder joins to add insult to injury. He should have given me Bazaar after all.

Game 2: Side in Deathspark and Triskelion for Squee and Thirst.
I keep a mediocre hand containing Deathspark. He goes Mountain Lackey. I go land and Spark the little bastard. In the following I bazaar Titan away and animate. He Shattering Pulses it and drops Blood Moon (doh!) which I cannot counter due to not having a blue card. Next turn he plays FoodChain and combos me out. What an embarrassing way to die (balls resting on his lips). Most embarrassing was that in this moment a picture was taken, so look for some guy with a cord jacket and three lands facedown…

Game 3: Side in 3 Ray of Revelation (Should have come in for game two) for I think Portal, Thirst and Squee. I drop early Welder with him not doing anything relevant. He tries to play Blood Moon, I draw White Mana in response, Ray it, Intuition for Triskelion, Titan, Titan and proceed to kill all his lands while 7/10 does him in.
2:0


Round 3: Some guy playing ScepterKeeper

Game 1: I win the die roll and hold a strange hand with lots of artifact Mana, a Bazaar and a Titan which I can hardcast on the second turn. He plays Library and proceeds to draw tons of cards with an occasional Ancestrall. He Forces Titan and Keeper does what its supposed to do and finds all the answers like swords Titan, strips Bazaar, fires Welder. All I can do is draw threats and let him deal with it but I know I don't put up enough steam, although I resolve the Portal but as I havent found a single Squee going through half my library it doesn't save me. I scoop with him having a Manadrain and Fire/Ice on a stick. Note its very important to know when to concede whatever deck you might play. This game I should have scooped earlier.

Game 2: Board in three Blasts for Dragon, Memnarch and Time Walk I think.
This game takes a long time, fighting back and forth. Eventually I resolve an Animate and kill four of his Duals. Its going downhill for him from there. Time is called. During the second extraturn he cracks Lotus for Blue and attempts to Time Walk which I blast. I untap and animate, animate Titan and Angel, which kill him during extra turn five. He could have cycled decree though and used the Lotus for tokens instead of Time Walk, which would have won him the game since he would have blocked all the fat that he knew was coming his way.
2:0:1


Round 4: Some guy playing Workshop+Bazaar deck

Game1: I knew what he's playing and win the die roll. I keep a Mox Emerald, Sol Ring, Welder Hand, since I just need one colored Land and I'd be just fine. Mox, SolRing is some good against Workshop. You guessed it. He's got Crucible+StripMine before I draw my first Land. I put up some fight with Welder but well… I tell him I don't like Workshop decks

Game2: Board in 3 Rack and Ruins, Triskelion and Deathspark for Thirst, Intuition, Portal, Squee and Platinum. I go something like land, Lotus, Mox, Mana Vault, Welder. He plays Workshop, Mox, and Karn. I Intuition End of Turn for Titan, Titan and Triskelion and draw Tinker. Tinker for Memnarch, weld in Lotus, steal his Karn and kill his mox playing another Welder. This might not exactly be how it happened but thing is I get double Welder steal his stuff and hardcast Force to counter his Triskelion.

Game3: I get a Land plus lots of artifact Mana again. From his expression I know he does not have first turn Trinisphere so I keep. He plays Mox, Mountain, go. I play Welder and artifact stuff. He cast trinisphere while I thirst to weld in Titan killing his two Mountains. He cannot recover and I just weld Titan in and out while he is trying to find answers with Bazaar. I know these games must have been frustrating, sorry, but I like to beat Workshop
3:0:1


Round 5: Some guy playing Vengeur masqué. Last time I played against this deck in Dülmen I was with Reanimator and killed my opponent by exhuming his Phage

Game1: He wins the die roll and goes Land, Mox, Mox, Mask, facedown creature. I draw a blue card for my Force He hits with Quirion Ranger (puh!) and casts Survival. I Force, he Forces back with the last two cards. I play Welder and pass, setting up Tinker (I'm afraid of creature, Survival, SexMonkey). He draws no creature. I Tinker for Platinum sacrificing a SeatOfTheSynod while losing a GemstoneMine, which leaves me at one land. He doesn't draw a creature until Platinum brought him to three and I got a second Welder. He SexMonkeys, I double weld and that's about it.

Game2: Board in 3 rays for Thirst, Portal and Triskelion (stupid).
He goes Bird, Bird, Xantid Swarm during the first two turns. I Tinker and realize I boarded out my Triskelion (damn it, so stupid). I fetch and animate Titan killing his Duals. He attacks, plays Mask, Survival and Dreadnought. I manage to get Menarch in play and doubleblock his Dreadnought. He does five to memnarch which gets Welded out for ArtifactMana and comes back next turn to steal Dreadnought He tries stuff like Gilded Drake and Sex Monkey but cannot deal with Welder fast enough. These two games were a cakewalk which I did not expect. Welder goes all the way.
4:0:1


Round 6 (finals): Benjamin Ribbeck playing BUG Dragon with Spirit Guides, Xantid Swarm and Careful study. Whenever he plays in Dülmen he seems to put up very good results with a decent number of wins. Im not looking forward to playing him although he's a very nice guy of course

Game1: I win the die roll and go Land Mox, Mox, ManaCrypt, Tinker for Platinum. He thinks for a second and reaches for his sideboard. I didn't even lay down the Welder in my hand. I thought he had some maindeck answer for Platinum but obviously that was not the case. I played dragon for a long time, finishing second due to tiebreakers in Dülmen once. I always included a solution/killing option that could deal with platz. It really sucks to lose like this.

Game2: Side in 3 Rays for Dragon, Thirst, Portal.
He goes Land, Careful Study, Mox, Chalice for Zero. I play Land go. He plays Land, Mox, Xantid and Chalice for one. I draw Sol Ring. I bazaar two Titans away and animate, killing his two Undergrounds. He untaps, drops Bazaar and wins. I might have misplayed here: I could have animated Platz, which was in my hand but somehow was afraid, he'd go Necromancy in response and then Animate my Platz with Chalice shutting off my Welders. Probably, this wasn't very likely and I still had three Rays in my deck. Whatever…

Game3: I open with Land, Mox, Welder (I think). He does stuff and I Tinker for Platinum. A second Welder joins (Double Welder is some good). Platz gets him to 10. At his End of Turn I attempt to Thirst aiming to weld in Titan to kill him on the attack. He necromancies in response trying to get me killed by my own Thirst. He mills my deck and tries to bounce Platinum. I doubleweld and he gets upset thinking he messed up, which he didn't. There was no way for him to win there. I get Titan and swing on my turn, missing Laquatus which stays aound until his next End of Turn. Damn it, hes at 6, I should've welded in Triskelion to kill Laquatus but I just didn't see it as I was so in untap, attack, win. I can only do 5 by Triskelion so I give him one more turn. He bazaars, draws, bazaars, careful studies. I untap swing and he casts Necromancy on Triskelion which I weld into play as a response and he extends his hand.
5:0:1 First place, I feel nice!


Conclusion:
This deck is a hell lot of fun to play. There are so many interactions and three different roads to victory. Also I really like the sideboard. Welder is insane and I was drawing these guys all the time while I saw relatively few Animates. Also I didn't use Bazaar a lot. Maybe its because in Dragon for example you Mulligan/Tutor a lot for Bazaar. In this deck you usually go for Tinker which wins you the game on its own. Still, Welder+Bazaar or Bazaar+Animate is absolutely huge. May this is also the reason for Force being dead some times, while I never had trouble finding blue cards playing Dragon.
I am not sure about the portal since it never made a showing apart from round 3 where I had lost already when I played it. Perhaps it was because lack of playtesting since there might have been situations where Intuition for Portal would have ended the game while I preferred to put a 7/10 into play and kill some Lands. It will definitely stay in the deck for now.
I also never pulled the Dragon combo, which again might be because of my playing, although you need something like Bazaar+Animate+Intuition which I cannot remember happening under the right circumstances. But as it only takes up one slot due to Memnarch being very nice on its own it will stay as well. You might want to consider cutting Thirst for the 4th Intuition and a second Dragon and maybe Swap Memnarch for Laquatus if you'd like to focus more on the Dragon combo. But then you dedicate three slots and only have 4 Animates which I don't really like. Testing will show for you.
Welder makes this deck go round and save for the keeper matchup they never got killed. Just board three Lavadarts or some GroundsSeals and this deck will have some trouble, also it doesn't rely as much on Welder like Slaver does.

Thanks for reading,

Kai Lange
klange@bauart-do.de

 #1 mal allgemein von MatthiaS am 23.02.2005 • 18:59
Bevor ich den Artikel gelesen habe:
Das T1-Turnier war echt lächerlich besetzt, mal gucken was passiert wenn nächsten Monat Iserlohn und Dülmen am selben Tag stattfinden.

Sonst: Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Sieg. Hab euch da im Finale sogar zugeguckt.
 #2 Fehler: Kein Betreff angegeben! von Kofi am 23.02.2005 • 20:47
Warum auf Englisch? War der vielleicht für Morphling.de bestimmt ursprünglich?
 #3 der... von Piotre am 23.02.2005 • 21:31
Artikel ist gut geworden

Danke das man auch neach dem Artikel über die Budget Decks mal wieder was von T1 hört

Dann noch herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Sieg
schreib mal wieder aber dann bitte auf deutsch
 #4 Man sollte nur noch... von Chickenwire am 23.02.2005 • 21:56
..englische Artikel schreiben, das holt vielleicht auch den Rest der Welt auf die deutschen Seiten. Glückwunsch zum Sieg.
 #5 glückwunsch von McJoka am 23.02.2005 • 22:13
naja ich schaue als schüler ja nur mit neid auf t.1 oder wie das jetzt auch immer heißt... aba spitzfindig stellt sich mir da glaich ne frage:

zitat:
He goes Land, Careful Study, Mox, Chalice for Zero. I play Land go. He plays Land, Mox, Xantid and Chalice for one.

da stimmt doch was net?

aber schön, dass man das portal doch irgendwo brauchen kann
 #6 hmmm von koji am 24.02.2005 • 02:02
trader hin und her auch wenn die atmosphäre in Dülmen genial ist. Der Trader muss sich was einfallen lassen, die geringen Besucherzahlen (47 typ1 spieler) sprechen eine klare Sprache und das lag garantiert nicht nur am Wetter. Der Trader sollte dies nicht als aggression gegen seine Turniere sehen sondern im Gegenteil, als gut gemeinten Ratschlag etwas in Sachen Preispolitik beim Typ1 zu unternehmen.
Trotzdem macht Dülmen Spass.
 #7 Preispolitik. von Celetuiw am 24.02.2005 • 04:43
Der Trader wird wahrscheinlich grosse Probleme haben, sich einfach was einfallen zu lassen in Richtung Preisausschüttung.Nachdem jahre lang Preise ausgegeben wurden, die jenseits der Gewinnausschüttung liegen, hat man jetzt wieder realtistische Preise angesetzt, die auch dem entsprechen, was REIN kommt. Und bsp. Iserlohn kann sich es leisten, mehr Preise auszugeben, da sie eventuell geringere Nebenkosten in Bezug auf Judge´s, Räumlichkeiten und so weiter haben. Ich denke dass der Trader das Problem im eigenen Interesse schon gelöst hätte, wenn es eine einfache Lösung gäbe.
Mfg
 #8 Clerks, baby! yeah! von catweazle77 am 24.02.2005 • 11:13
Schöner Artikel, auch wenn ich kein Typ1 spiele.

Aber besonders gefallen hat mir das versteckte Clerks-Zitat! Danke dafür
 #9 Clerks Zitat von tfp am 24.02.2005 • 13:28
Na, versteckt fande ich das nicht... eher auffällig in die Augen springend
 #10 Finale gegen Benni (Spiel 1) von RolandB am 25.02.2005 • 16:20
Leider hat Benni Spiel 1 weggeschmissen, denn selbst wenn sein Deck keine Solution für den Engel hatte. So hatte dein Deck doch eine. Der Plan hätte also sein müssen: Unendlichmana, Mit Stroke die Bib ziehen, dann dich mühlen, dann animator auf trisk oder memnarch, dann Engel handeln und noch nen stroke für 1 auf dich hinterher.
 #11 aber das sind sachen von Falk am 26.02.2005 • 11:15
an die nur das "German Wunderkind" denkt
 #12 Sehr richtig, von JustusR am 26.02.2005 • 12:05
was Celetuiw da sagt. Wenn man sich die Sache mal durchrechnet, sieht das gar nicht so schlimm aus, wie man meinen möchte. Ich kenne zwar auch nicht die genauen Kosten für die Halle, aber hier, was ich weiß:
Startgebühr € 12,-
Davon muss erstmal die UmSt. abgezogen werden, bleiben
€ 10,-
Davon gehen insgesamt € 2,- an die Schiedsrichter, bleiben
€ 8,-
An Preisen rausgegeben werden ca. € 6,- pro Spieler (bischen mehr sogar, aber wir wollen ja bei glatten Zahlen bleiben). Somit bleiben noch
€ 2,- für Raum und den Menschen, der das Essen verkauft (der macht das auch nicht umsonst und die Trader verdienen auch nichts am Essensverkauf, das läuft über die Gaststätte. Das Zeug kann deshalb so günstig angeboten werden, weil die Trader selber einen Verkäufer stellen, was wesentlich günstiger ist, als wenn das jemand von der Kneipe machen würde).

Was dann noch übrig bleibt geht dann tatsächlich an die Trader (die das ja auch nicht (nur) zum Spaß machen).

Ich persönlich verstehe nicht so ganz, was daran so unverschämt sein soll.
 #13 @unverschämt von TogGodKook am 27.02.2005 • 03:16
Persönlich war ich leider nur 2mal in Dülmen. Was für mich gegen eine häufigere "Frequentierung" spricht, ist das wenn wir aus Nürnberg hinfahren und entweder den 1sten oder 2ten stellen, der jeweilige irgendwas zwischen 20-30 Boostern bei 128 Teilnehmern mit 12 Euro Startgeld erhält. Zum Vergleich: Typ1 in Nürnberg 14 Leute, 10 Euro Startgeld, Platz 1 2 zusammen 30 Booster. Wem fällt da ein Mißverhältnis auf? Antworten bitte in einen frankierten Umschlag und sich den zu Hause an die Wand hängen.
 #14 @Kook von auenland am 27.02.2005 • 17:43
Ich seh da kein Missverhältnis. Für 14 Leute muss man keine Location anmieten und keinen Judge bezahlen, das macht der TO alles ganz allein. Und falls es ein privater TO ist, muss er auch keine Steuern abführen.
 #15 @ trotzdem unverschämt von T.R.I.B.U.N am 27.02.2005 • 23:45
Soweit ich weiss, is es net privat ... und auch wenns NUR 14 Leute sind ... irgendwo müssen die ja auch hin.

Und ein Judge ausser dem TO war auch immer am Start ... also wie schaffen die das ... aus reiner Nächstenliebe wohl kaum ...
 #16 blabla von auenland am 28.02.2005 • 14:46
Es gibt eine Menge TO, die Turniere nur aus Nächstenliebe veranstalten! Und überhaupt sagen die Zahlen gar nichts aus, solange man die GESAMTE Preisausschüttung nicht kennt. Einfach nur den 1. und 2. Platz auflisten ist inhaltlos.
 #17 Re: Finale gegen Benni (Spiel 1) von KaiL am 02.03.2005 • 17:41
@ RolandB:
Doppel-Animate hätte es auch getan. Kombo durchziehen, mich millen und mit meinem Memnarch Engel Welder klauen. Benjamin wusste aus den Spielen der vorherigen Runde, dass ich einen Memnarch im Deck hatte.
Also: Bazaar Dragon Animate Animate/Tutor/Stroke und ich darf bis er alles zusammen hat keine Force finden. Zumindest hätte mans probieren können, fünf turns dauern ja nicht so lange
Weggeschmissen halte ich aber für etwas übertrieben.

@kofi:
der Artikel sollte einem möglichst breitem Publikum zur Verfügung stehen. Siehe Chickenwire.

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