4 Counter Control Eric Garant 7-21-02 Family Hobby Central Alpena, Michigan 20 people-fairly large by our standards for Type 2s 4 Aquamoeba 1 Rakavolver 1 Skizzik 4 Flametongue Kavu 4 Terminate 4 Chainer's Edict 2 Fiery Temper 4 Violent Eruption 4 Circular Logic 4 Fact or Fiction 2 Phrexian Arena 2 Death Grasp 2 Cabal Pit 1 Barbarian Ring 2 Shadowblood Ridge 1 Sulfuruos Springs 4 City of Brass 4 Urborg Volcano 7 Island 2 MOuntain SB: 4 Duress 2 Dodecapod 3 Slay 3 Circle of Protection Red 2 Rat's Feast 1 Yawgmoth's Agenda Ok, i know. Its REALLY rogue, but it runs great and stomped any deck which relied too much on critters. The board is bad, by i feared Genesis and Glory alot, though i didn't see either, except 1 Genesis. the dodecapods and a slay shoulda been 3 boil/price of glory, but there was sorta a black hype, so i ran dodecapod. anyway, onto the report. Round 1 Me vs. Joe with R/U/G deck, had Opposition, but that wasn't the base of the deck i had never seen Joe before, apparently he lives somewhere other than Alpena. anyway, he was a nice guy with a good deck and was a joy to play against. first game he never really got anything going. i got some early beats with a Moeba. he FTK'd and played some other critters, then i sweep his board. i get an arena rolling, and finally bust through a skizzik and grasp. i dont board in anything. Game 2 he still doesn't see any oppositions. lucky me. he gets tons of midgame drops, but i have tons of removal, as is the case, usually. i keep casting threats, and he just doesn't play enough counters. it was a great match, though, and i was his only loss of swiss. Match 2 vs. Isaac with Burn and lots of Punishers First game, i get multiple moeba's beating his head. he breaking points, i pay 6 life, down to 8. im taking a beating from my lands and he temporal insanities a moeba. i kill it. finally, i drop skizzik with him at 8 and me with an eruption. i board in duress and cop. game 2 i make a few dumb mistakes. i pay too much life on his punishers. i sit at 1 life for a long time before he finally draws a burn spell to finish me. game 3 i get cop red turn 2. he still gets me down low with flaring pains and lighting surge. i prevent him from playing a few firebeasts and browbeats with cop. finally a death grasp gets me out of danger range and a volver lumbers in for the win. i did have a scare about a termporal insanity, but i just logiced. burn is my decks worst matchup. Round 3 vs Tim with U/G beatdown/madness (such goodies as flying wurms, mongrels, moebas) Tim is the local star, and the eventual winner. his deck is damn annoying with genesis recurring what i kill, not to mention that he had to have drawn at least 6 counters each game except the second. im pretty sure his deck only sports logic and counterspell. game 1 is anticlamtic. he gets early critters. they smack me. i kill em. i drop moeba. i trade for his creatures. he uses genesis. i run outof removal before i can kill him. i board in slay+agenda. game 2 he gets really manascrewed. he has 1 forest for 3 turns, while i smash his face with moeba. he is at about 7 before he gets to 3 mana. he keeps trying to play creatures, but they just don't last. game 3 he stomped me. he got out squirrel nest. he made about 4 flying squirrels, then ambushed me. all i had was a blue kicked volver.i held on longer than i shouldve, but eventually got my head kicked in by a walla. Match 4 vs. Shawn with U/R Burn (moeba, temper, eruption, lavamancer, counters, land-thats about his whole deck.) game 1 i do some creature smashing early, but he clears my board. i am 8. he is at 10. he gets me to 3. then he tempers. i respond with 2 eruptions+sac ring to u. :) whata game. game 2 i blew it, BAD. i had an arena out and rolling. i had grasp in my hand and was waiting until the last second to cast it. i keep forgetting that i can only play instants with city before damage. arena kills me. game 3 i get a worthless hand. i keep, cuz lotsa land is better than none. anyway, i draw a whole lot more land, and lots of them are pain lands. they were painful. i hold on for a while with mass removal, playing an eruption on 3 looters. he finally careful studys into a temper a turn before a double kicked volver wouldve gotten me outof danger range. damn it. i do make top 8 as the eighth seed 1st seed Lance Corpe Psychatog (his was GOOD, not like most U/B togs these days) 2nd seed Shawn Plume U/R 3rd seed Tim Brown U/G 4th seed i think Adam with B/W 5th seed dunno dunno dunno me-8th seed Lance got incredible draws both games and i really never had a chance. control decks really give me trouble, even after boarding. i think i got 4th, 5th,or 6th, but only top 3 got prizes. 1st got a library of alexandria, a pretty kickass prize for a type 2. i did some trading after and got some good Odyssey block stuff, like genesis, dragon, and i also got a lot of painlands. it was an okay tournament, but i was severly disapointed, especially in my loss to Tim. i really think i shouldve won. time for props and slops Props Tim for having a cool deck, even if it did piss me off :) Me ( i know i sound conceited) for not just playing stupid archetype Joe for being a cool kid and a great player Violent Eruption, Fact or Fiction, and Rakavolver, the co-MVP's Gary, for being a good sport. he won the losers bracket, and got 2 packs of homelands and 1 pack of 7th. getting homelands is bad enough, but then he busted a Vizzerdrix from his 7th pack. Slops Squirrel nest for being too good against me genesis, also for being too good agianst me genesis (again) for being dumb broken me for making multiple mistakes during the day. family hobby central for being the most mediocre card shop on earth (and i DO seriously mean that.) Thanx for reading this far. Eric Garant