Howdy, kids. This tournament report is hidden in the archives in accordance with Rakso's wishes.

I'm a bit worn out, so I'm going to just cut to the relevant information.

The date: Sunday, April 28th 2002.

The place: Altered States, Syracuse NY(www.alteredsts.com).

The prize: A total of $200 cash.

My deck:
Maindeck:

4 Land Tax
3 Scroll Rack
2 Zuran Orb

3 StoP
2 Wrath Of God
1 Balance
1 Humility

2 Sacred Mesa(best creature in the game)
1 Soldevi Digger
1 Tormod's Crypt

4 Orim's Chant
3 Aura Of Silence
1 Story Circle
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Ivory Mask

4 Argivian Find
3 Replenish

1 Mox Diamond
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus

1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
1 Library Of Alexandria
14 Plains


Sideboard:

3 Abeyance
1 Black Vise
1 Replenish
2 Thran Lense
1 Masticore
2 Ivory Tower
1 Worship
1 StoP
2 Abolish
1 Phyrexian Processor


Round 1: Shawn, playing what looked to be an extended Ankh/Tide deck.

Game 1: I have to mulligan due to a crappy hand. He plays an Ankh, which I lay a land into then he combos me once, removing 5 cards and eventually deals 10 to my dome. I then go nutz with Tax/Rack, play Zuran Orb and take apart his combo peices as he plays them over the next few turns. The game takes a while since I'm playing cautiously, overwhelming his counters while avoiding his combo. A Jesus Ranch hits the table and I swarm him with pegasi.

Side in 2 Abolish, 1 Masticore, 1 Worship

Game 2: I mulligan again, he Ankh/Tides me for 6, then plays another Ankh. I kill one Ankh with an Abolish, then play Zuran Orb and proceed to lay land and apply pegasus beats. Eventually time is called and the game ends in a draw.

Matches: 1-0 Games: 1-0-1

Round 2: Nick playing U/B OSE

Game 1: I don't remember much about this game, except that at a crucial point he forces a Wrath when he has a Morphling in play, then I Replenish a buttload of nasty enchantments onto the board including a Sacred Mesa and a Humility. The game lasted a very long time and was very brutal. I make pegasi and swarm him, bringing him down to -7 five seconds before time is called.

Matches: 2-0 Games: 2-0-2

Round 3: Tariq, playing reanimator.

Game 1: Tariq gets out a first-turn Hypnox using Ritual/Entomb/Exhume. I get out a first-turn Land Tax. Next turn he swings for 8, then I Tax like a madman. For the next 3 turns, I Chant him with kicker, then drop Humility which he has no way of destroying. He scoops.

Side in 2 Abolish(expecting Gloom), 1 Swords to Plowshares

Game 2: He casts Ritual/Entomb/Exhume at some point, bringing out a Meddling Mage naming Humility. I Plow his Mage, then drop Humility. He scoops again.

Matches: 3-0 Games: 4-0-2

Round 4: Crazy Carl Winter, playing rOSE

I had every intention of playing my way into top 8, but after learning that the entire $200 prize would be split up amongst the entire top 8, I decide to take Carl's offer to ID since I need a snack and a short break.

Matches: 3-0-1 Games: 4-0-3?

Round 5: Jeremy, playing Keeper

Game 1: I take a mulligan, get Tax/Rack going and cast bombs into his Sylvan Library-powered counterwall until his hand was about 3 cards. At one point he Dismantling Blowed one of my parmanents, then attempted to Regrowth it, and I RFGed his graveyard with my Tormod's Crypt that I had dumped into play earlier. I eventually ran him down with pegasi whith him having a Morphling in play.

Side in: 3 Abeyance, 1 Black Vise

Game 2: I get Tax/Rack going again, although it took a little while since he D-Blowed my first-turn Land Tax and I had to Argivian Find it back to my hand. At one point he casts FoF, revealing Morphling, Demonic Tutor, Swords to Plowshares, and 2 Mana Drains. I put the Mana Drains in one pile, and everything else in another, since I'm not too worried about them. He takes the pile with Morph, StoP and D-Tutor. I cast bombs into his counterwall, and eventually his deck is out of counterspells. He casts Morphling with a Zuran Orb in play and a buttload of untapped land and about five cards in his hand, but I know he has about 1 Mana Drain remaining in his deck so I'm not concerned. I cast Sacred Mesa and my horseys run circles around his Morphling.

Matches: 4-0-1 Games: 6-0-3?

Round 6: Jeremy, playing Forbiddian with Mishra's Factories

Game 1: I mulligan into an opening hand of Lotus, Land Tax, Scroll Rack, Wasteland and some other stuff. On my first turn, I have the white Necropotence on the board, and it is active.
I'm not worried about this matchup at all since almost all of his card-drawing dies to more than half of my deck. At one point he casts Nevinyrral's Disk, but I Enlightened Tutor for an Aura and kill it. I run him down with pegasi.

Side in: 3 Abeyance, 1 Replenish

Game 2: I have to mulligan for the 6th time. I get nearly all of my protective enchantments on the board this game. I begin the pegasus beatdown, but he casts Washout twice over the course of four turns, and then essentially bringing me down to 12 with his Magpies and Mishra's Factories. This does little more than annoy me, as the game has been uneventful thus far and I have all of my Replenishes and most of my Finds in my hand. Additionally, he can't seem to draw any counterspells to stop me from re-casting my Mesa. I run him down in short order.

Matches: 5-0-1 Games: 8-0-3

Round 7: Crazy Carl Winter playing rOSE

This is the final match for the farm. Carl plays at my local card shop and we've played this match many times before, so he actually knows how to play against me.

Game 1: We play cat and mouse for a bit, with him working his Library and me working Tax/Rack which I was able to resolve earlier. The game takes a while, but I eventually overwhelm him and run him down with pegasi.

Side in: 3 Abeyance, 1 Black Vise, 2 Thran Lens(Anarchy)

Game 2: I get Tax/Rack going, then he casts a Morphling, then I cast Abeyance in the middle of a counter/abeyance war. One Abeyance resolves and I plow his Morphling. He eventually throws out a Mox Monkey and eats my moxen. Within the next few turns I make a grave error, casting Balance while he has 3 cards in hand. In response, he eats my ZOrb with his Mox Monkey, and I forget to sacrifice all of my land. I lose a bunch of cards from my hand and am tapped out with an Abeyance in my hand. On his turn he casts Yawgmoth's Will, bringing back a Morphling that I had Wrathed earlier and his lumpy red monkey, then casts Time Walk and Powder Keg after Ancestralling himself. During his extra turn, he kegs for 0, killing my leftover pegasus and then swings for 6. During my turn, time is called. By the time our extra turns are up, I'm at 3 life and the game ends in a draw.
Carl should have won this game, causing our match to be a draw, but he is one turn too late and I take first place and $80.

Matches: 6-0-1 Games: 9-0-4?

For the record, when playing this deck, I've found that time limits are your friend since I would most often win the first game, although it gives me a dirty feeling to win that way.

On the plus side though, I took first place with a deck that, aside from the Lotus, Pearl and Library, costs about $50 to build from the ground up. Type 1 is about money and power cards my hairy yelow arse...