Presenting...the Threshold deck that broke even!
By Isaac Tong
Tournament Date: Friday July 19, 2002
Number of people: 26
Location: Comic Warehouse, Brampton, Ontario, Canada
Format: Booster Draft (Odyssey, Torment, Judgment)

Why, oh, why didn't I just stick with something simple? Then I would have 
had a chance to get into the finals but I'm happy that I broke even instead. 
You're wondering why I would write about this even though I didn't do that 
great. It's a good learning experience with an important lesson...actually 
two important lessons.

Number one: Stick to two colours in limited. Less chance of getting mana 
screwed. Number two: If you go with three colours, either balance your mana 
properly or drop out.

Why? Because you will get crushed if you don't get that critical balance. 
Allow me to demonstrate by telling you what happened on this particular 
night. Here's the deck:

Land

1 Barbarian Ring
4 Swamp
6 Forest
6 Mountain

Gold Creature

1 Vampiric Dragon

Black Spells and Creatures

1 Treacherous Werewolf
1 Faceless Butcher (ever since I've lost to him in a draft {refer to 
Vampire's Vengeance}, I've snatched him in almost every draft)
1 Unhinge
1 Cabal Trainee
1 Boneshard Slasher

Red Spells and Creatures

1 Pardic Firecat
1 Flame Burst
1 Mad Dog
1 Kamahl's Desire
1 Reckless Charge
1 Accelerate
1 Soulgorger Orgg (I was forced to take it)
1 Skullscorch
4 Crackling Club

Green Spells and Creatures

1 Elephant Guide
1 Werebear
1 Centaur Chieftain
1 Anurid Scavenger
1 Anurid Barkripper
1 Forcemage Advocate
2 Venomous Vines
2 Woodland Druid
2 Harvester Druid

Since there were 26 people here, we had to play five rounds instead of four. 
It was definitely going to be a long night.

Round 1 - Isaac Tong VS Craig Sherwood

A big guy with a big mind. One of the usual favorites to win the draft. He 
played red and white. I was pretty surprised that he wasn't playing blue. 
There were a half dozen people also surprised. Game 1 went fairly slow until 
I got out my Vampiric Dragon. He strutted his stuff before beating the snot 
out of Craig. Game 2 was his when he used Devastating Dreams to wipe the 
board. He recovered a lot more quickly. Then came the big game 3...we were 
at a stalemate. I would have been beating him down but he used Cagemail (I 
think?) to make my Centaur bigger and sit there since it can't attack. He 
should have saved it for the Vampiric Dragon which came out to strut more 
stuff. But Devastating Dreams reset the board again. Time ran out and we had 
to call it a draw.

Rounds 0-0-1		Games 1-1

Round 2 - Isaac Tong VS Brent Bunn

Game 1 should have been mine. I had a Boneshard Slasher pumped up with an 
Elephant Guide, with a Werebear and a Treacherous Werewolf as my defenders. 
But he pulled off a crazy play. He killed my two creatures with Lava Dart 
and Firebolt to give me Threshold before targeting my Slasher. Then he had a 
big ass creature with trample (the green rare Phantom creature with nine 
+1/+1 counters) ready to go. Game 2...he gave himself Threshold before 
casting Grizzly Fate and Beast Attack. I got slaughtered by tokens.

Rounds 0-1-1		Games 1-3

Round 3 - Isaac Tong VS Bryan W.

He played a well balanced black and red deck which was why he won both 
games. His nightmares just kept nuking my stuff and didn't give me enough 
time to counter.

Rounds 0-2-1		Games 1-5

I considered dropping out since it was getting late and there was no way I 
can advance to the semi final matches but I kept going like the trooper I 
am.

Round 4 - Isaac Tong VS Jason ?

This guy was a newbie. Actually, he told me he bought a Visions pack and 
played Magic for a bit. Then he stopped for five years before finding a box 
of old cards and playing with his friends until 4 AM at his cottage. 
Crazy...he had some nice cards like Laquatus's Champion, Spelljack and some 
other stuff. But because he was using four colours...he was majorly messed 
up which brings me back to the important lesson that I'm trying to teach. In 
game 1, I got a swarm of creatures out and used the Forcemage Advocate to 
keep sending useless cards back to his hand as well as pump up my guys. Game 
2, Faceless Butcher came out and had some fun. Tossed an Elephant Guide on 
along with a few more creatures like a Mad Dog with Crackling Club and 
Kamahl's Desire...I hope he got a good learning experience out of this.

Rounds 1-2-1		Games 3-5

Round 5 - Isaac Tong VS Kristen ?

She was nice. I mean really nice in the fact that she let me go first in 
game 1. I think she's new to the game too. But considering how she's even 
for the night...I had to be careful. Game 1...she brought out something 
similar to Beloved Chaplain except it was bigger and it could fly. Commander 
Eesha (or something like that) came out and beat me up. But it wasn't enough 
as I got out Anurid Barkripper with Elephant Guide and the Vampiric Dragon. 
Man...I got an eight casting cost creature out a few times tonight! Game 
2...she could have taken it. I made a mistake but she didn't capitalize on 
it. When she played Last Rites (I think?), it was a choice between Faceless 
Butcher, Soulgorger Orgg and another card. I had only one swamp in play. But 
she decided to make me ditch the Soulgorger Orgg. Somehow my heart went on 
and I got the Butcher out to nuke her Grotesque Hybrid as well as several 
weenies to swarm her. Real players never let mistakes go unpunished.

Rounds 2-2-1		Games 5-5

That was it. I was done at about 12:30 AM but I would have happily kept 
playing until 4 if it meant I could score a promo card. Let's get down to 
props and slops.

Props

My parents, Comic Warehouse, Wizards and Kristen and Jason for being nice.

Slops

Brent for calling me poo. But hey, it could have been worse. If I won, he 
would be calling me biggest poo.

That reminds me...if I ever find a way to continuously defeat him, he'll be 
calling me feces, mega poo, crap and the s-word constantly. You wanna give 
me a shout? You know where to go.

Isaac Tong
ditong@ipoline.com