Vampire's Vengeance
By Isaac Tong
Tournament Date: Friday February 1, 2001
Number of people: 16
Location: Comic Warehouse, Brampton, Ontario, Canada
Format: Booster Draft (Odyssey, Torment)

To be honest, I don't know why I participate in booster drafts. The best I 
have ever went is 2 rounds won, 2 rounds lost. I usually lose 3 rounds and 
win 1 round. Well, even with that type of record, I sometimes draft some 
broken cards. Anyways, I usually try to play speedy ground creatures instead 
of going with fliers and that's why I get beaten. So this time, I've 
switched to fliers. When the booster packs came around, a part of me started 
to freak. We would be getting one Odyssey pack and two Torment packs. I 
didn't know what type of cards Torment had in store but I stuck to my 
strategy. I went with blue, black and white. I got some decent cards in the 
Odyssey pack with counter magic and healers and fliers. Some people were 
talking about Sengir Vampires and how they were reprinted in Torment. I 
hoped that I could get one for this tournament. Then out of nowhere, it pops 
up as the rare card in the first Torment pack I open. He was back and hungry 
for some blood. Things were looking up for me at that moment. In the end, I 
made my deck with heavy black fliers and counter magic.

Land

8 Island
3 Plains
4 Swamp
1 Cephalid Coliseum

White Spells and Creatures

1 Militant Monk
1 Teroh's Faithful
1 Hallowed Healer
1 Floating Shield
1 Aven Cloudchaser
1 Tattoo Ward

Blue Spells and Creatures

2 Liquify
2 Repel
2 Hydromorph Guardian
2 Ghostly Wings
2 Stupefying Touch
1 Aboshan's Desire
1 Rites of Refusal
1 Fervent Denial
1 Compulsion
1 Skywing Aven
1 Obsessive Search

Black Spells and Creatures

1 Sengir Vampire
1 Grotesque Hybrid
1 Mortiphobia
1 Gloomdrifter
1 Cabal Ritual
1 Boneshard Slasher

I was thinking of main decking Llawan, Cephalid Empress. After all, she 
effectively shuts down blue decks. If I was playing against her...I would be 
in serious trouble. She bounces all of the opponent's blue creatures back to 
his or her hand. Then those creatures sit there because the opponent can't 
play blue creature spells!! If only they made something like this for black 
and green.

Round 1 - Isaac Tong VS Chris Sampson

Chris is a regular at the store. He practically works there for crying out 
loud. He's a pretty good player so I was thinking that I was dead meat. The 
first game, he gets his flying army out before I could do anything. Then he 
beats me up with flying creatures who get bigger and protection from black 
when Threshold is obtained. I swap in Llawan for game two and sure enough, 
he can't do much against her. There was a small incident when he thought he 
could target Llawan when she had Aboshan's Desire. He thought I didn't have 
Threshold but I was sure I did. I still won that game and he started 
muttering how I have no guilt when it came to cheating. I don't feel guilty 
because I knew I had Threshold. The third game was a disaster for him. He 
wasn't getting much. Eventually, I got my Grotesque Hybrid out along with 
another flier and finished him off.

Rounds 1-0	Games 2-1

Round 2 - Isaac Tong VS John Crosse

In game 1, I was able to get my Grotesque Hybrid and Sengir Vampire out. 
Then they started to lay the smackdown. He used a Waste Away to stop my 
Sengir but the damage was done. Other than casting a few things that I could 
take care of, he just got beaten up by my fliers. Game 2...the Hybrid came 
back along with the Boneshard Slasher. He was able to slow me down for a bit 
but my fliers were able to punch through for the victory.

Rounds 2-0	Games 4-1

Round 3 - Isaac Tong VS Brent Bunn

He was just waiting to take me out. He kept playing cheap casting cost 
creatures. He was also able to get Threshold easily and he kept his hand 
full with Deep Analysis. With that much to bear in mind, he kept chucking 
his hand to give his creatures an extra edge in battle. That was what 
happened in game 1, even though I played Teroh's Faithful twice. Llawan came 
in for game 2 and stopped him dead in his tracks. The Sengir Vampire came in 
for the kill. Game 3, he was mana screwed and I finished him off with a 
pumped up Gloomdrifter.

Rounds 3-0	Games 6-2

Round 4 - Isaac Tong VS Brian ???

The two things that stopped me from winning were as follows: Faceless 
Butcher, which removes a creature from the game when it comes into play, and 
a lack of offensive creatures. That pretty much summarizes this round.

Rounds 3-1	Games 6-4

Semi-final - Isaac Tong VS Jon ???

This guy was the only one who came close to beating Brian. Why? Faceless 
Butchers and fliers. Once again, the Butcher beats me up for both games 1 
and 2.

Rounds 3-2	Games 6-6

That was it. I was so close to getting a foil Albino Troll and more Torment 
booster packs. If only we all decided to call it a night and split the 
prizes between the top four players. Okay, enough with that. Let's get down 
to props and slops.

Props

Sengir Vampire and Grotesque Hybrid for getting me this far. These two as 
well as some other power cards are the reason why more creatures are getting 
protection from black. With Sengir's return to the tournament scene, I can 
finally use my old Revised Sengir Vampire!! Sweet!! A prop to Chris for 
being a good sport...somewhat. Props go to Comic Warehouse for using Torment 
packs in the booster draft to make things more interesting.

Slops

Faceless Butcher. For a common black creature, it is one of the most 
annoying cards in Torment...and I doubt I have seen the last of these.

That's it for me. This is the best I've done in a booster draft tournament. 
I hope I can do this well in any future booster drafts or sealed drafts. If 
only I had a Shadowmage Infiltrator and an Iridescent Angel. Then my chances 
of snagging first place would have increased. I guess the limit is two 
fairly broken cards or one majorly broken card. If you're not sure about 
what some of the cards in the deck list do, check the Torment spoiler list 
or e-mail me. I'm a busy guy so I may not have time to answer your e-mails 
immediately. Until next time!!

Isaac Tong
ditong@ipoline.com