Imps, Horrors...and a Butcher to Boot
By Isaac Tong
Tournament Date: Friday June 28, 2002
Number of people: 20
Location: Comic Warehouse, Brampton, Ontario, Canada
Format: Booster Draft (Odyssey, Torment, Judgment)

Here we are. School's done and university is looming ahead. Time for a bit 
of R&R with Friday Night Magic. I hit the jackpot in this tournament. No, I 
didn't win anything but I scored several major kick ass cards plus a foil 
rare. And if you think that isn't worth ten bucks, then you must be brain 
dead. Here's the rundown of my draft deck.

Land

1 Shadowblood Ridge
3 Forest
8 Swamp
5 Mountain

Red Spells and Creatures

1 Accelerate
1 Demoralize
1 Savage Wildcat
1 Breaking Point
1 Hell-Bent Raider
1 Shaman's Trance (I don't know why I drafted it. I never used it. But a 
rare's a rare)

Green Spells and Creatures

1 Roar of the Wurm
1 Skyshooter
1 Krosan Wayfarer
1 Krosan Reclamation

Black Spells and Creatures

2 Soul Scourge
1 Faceless Butcher
1 Putrid Imp
1 Childhood Horror
1 Strength of Lunacy
2 Cabal Ritual
1 Decompose
1 Grotesque Hybrid
1 Coffin Purge
1 Dusk Imp
1 Morgue Theft
1 Waste Away

Artifacts

1 Mossfire Egg

I actually kept close to the 40 card minimum instead of going overboard to 
50 cards. I drafted a bit of burn but decided not to use it as it either 
required that I ditch a card or that I have Threshold first.

Round 1 - Isaac Tong VS Jonathan Freund

Game 1 was fairly smooth for me. I got the Savage Wildcat out early and beat 
him to a pulp along with some help from my Grotesque Hybrid. He stated that 
he could have won if he had only found his trump card. The next game, I 
finally saw that card which turned out to be a Persuasion. He swiped my 
Grotesque Hybrid which was enchanted with Strength of Lunacy so I took the 
dirt nap for this one. But in the third game, I bounced back with a few 
quick creatures and overwhelmed him before he could put up a decent defense.

Rounds 1-0 Games 2-1

Round 2 - Isaac Tong VS Chris Sampson

He was looking forward to creaming me after I beat him in previous 
tournaments. I hoped to have some good luck. First game would have been mine 
if he didn't play Major Teroh. That legendary buttmonkey saved him and gave 
Chris enough momentum to soar to victory. Game 2 gave me a quick start with 
Putrid Imp. Then I used Strength of Lunacy, which really ticked Chris off 
since he was playing white. That was enough to beat him, along with a bit of 
help from Faceless Butcher and Dusk Imp. Game 3, he got mana screwed and 
mulliganed down to five cards. He only had a few lands the entire game. I 
got a decent enough hand to finish him off.

Rounds 2-0 Games 4-2

Round 3 - Isaac Tong VS Jon Fanalaro (or something like that)

Great. The guy who kept using Faceless Butcher in limited and constructed. 
He surprised me by not playing black. He went with white and some other 
things instead. Too bad, considering I got Strength of Lunacy and Hell-Bent 
Raider in my deck. Game 1 was mine. Game 2...he got mana screwed. He still 
fought me by using blue Nightmare creatures which I nuked with Faceless 
Butcher. Grotesque Hybrid came out and strutted its stuff. I was thankful 
that I made it in one piece. He had a Wormfang Crab in his deck which would 
mean game over for me if he got it out.

Rounds 3-0 Games 6-2

Round 4 - Isaac Tong VS Guy Laroche

He was a pretty nice person. He played his cards upside down so I can get a 
better look. Anyways, I got a quick start with Dusk Imp and Strength of 
Lunacy but he was able to get rid of that. In fact, he got around everything 
I had thanks to his own Faceless Butcher. I dropped two straight. But he was 
nice. He even apologized when he cast his Faceless Butcher and nuked my 
card.

Rounds 3-1 Games 6-4

Semi-Final Isaac Tong VS Lindsey Hokanen

Damn. That's all I could say. But then again, it was either him, Guy or 
Craig. And Craig is as nasty as they come so I was hoping luck would be on 
my side. Game 1 got me with an early Hell-Bent Raider along with Grotesque 
Hybrid and Wurm tokens. I even got my Soul Scourges out. After getting him 
down to 2, I paid the flashback cost for Morgue Theft and got back one Soul 
Scourge. But I was at a disadvantage since I couldn't play it right away. He 
used Chainer's Edict twice to get rid of my two creatures and attacked but 
it wasn't enough to save him and the first game was mine. Game 2, I got a 
Putrid Imp and a Wurm into play but he used a white card to nuke my 
attacking creature and gain life in the process. I couldn't recover quickly 
enough. Then game 3, I choked and got diddly squat.

Rounds 3-2 Games 7-6

It wasn't bad but I wanted to get into the finals just to add another 
promotional card to my collection! Time to wrap this one up by going to 
props and slops.

Props

Comic Warehouse for running FNM and my parents for putting up with this. 
Special props to my good friend Aaron, who gave me a hand for getting good 
Type II cards and exposed me to his warped point of view. Good luck in 
America! Just promise me you won't become another ignorant American, 
alright?

Slops

None today. It was a pretty good night with the cards I got.

I just hope that the Type II decks I've made up are decent enough. Yes, 
they're experimental but who knows how far they can go. If they do decent 
enough, I'll tell ya all about it. This has been a Limited Tournament 
Report, brought to you by a Canadian Magic Nut. Peace...out.

Isaac Tong
ditong@ipoline.com