Yesterday I played in a type 2 tournament at the Hero Zone.
Thinking about it last night, I realized that was the first time I've played an actual match of Standard in nine years. Nine years! I won my first match in closer to ten!
The last time I played standard, I used Homelands cards. Not because they were good, of course, but because they were still legal and I didn't know any better. I had Trade Caravan and Icatian Moneychanger in a deck at one point because I'm an idiot.
Seriously. Me = Not very good at Type 2.
Or at least, I used to not be. I can't really say for sure now since I don't really play it. I should assume that, though, since very often I'm not good at Type 1 either.
I'm learning, though. Really. It's all about practice.
Anyway, last night I played UR Splice, you know the one I'm talking about. Yeah, the Kamigawa Block deck that uses a whole bunch of arcane and splice spells, no creatures, and Ire of Kaminari for the win. Broken. Heinously broken beyond belief, like Affinity, only not that broken because that was outrageously, heinously, grievously broken beyond belief, and still is in a number of formats.
Right, so UR Splice. It cost me two dollars to make out of the 5centbin because everything is common or uncommon. It goes about like this:
4x Glacial Ray
4x Ire of Kaminari
4x Ideas Unbound (which I borrowed and will return to the Hero Zone at my earliest convenience, I swear)
4x That arcane splice card that returns a creature to its owners hand.
4x That arcane card that returns a permanent to its owners hand.
3x That arcane splice card that taps a permanent.
4x That arcane splice card that draws a card.
3x That arcane card that lets you reveal the top three cards of your library and have your opponent give you the worst two.
4x That arcane card that lets you look at the top five cards of your library, reveal and keep an instant or sorcery, and put the rest on the bottom of your library.
3x That arcane card that deals damage based on the number of cards in your hand.
3x That arcane card that deals damage to a creature based on the number of Mountains you sweep to your hand.
11x Islands
9x Mountains
Yeah, I really don't know anything about Type 2. Yet at the same time I really enjoy playing this deck.
At one point in the tournament, my Ires of Kaminari were Cranial Extracted. I won that game by drawing all four Glacial Rays and playing Glacial Ray splicing Glacial Ray and Glacial Ray for the win. The fact that all of my opponents really liked to play Phyrexian Arena didn't hurt either. For some reason, none of them ever played more than one. I definitely would have because cards are better than life.
In my second match, I lost 2-0 because my opponent decided to be dumb and start countering my spells. Nah, counterspells are part of the game, especially Remand, because it's really not like you're countering my stuff at all, just delaying it. Yeah, I realized I could have played my last few turns differently and maybe kept myself alive, but oh well. (Namely, knowing that some of his counters were Remands would have let me play the Eye of Nowhere [arcane sorcery Boomerang] and the Consuming Vortex [arcane splice Unsummon] three times instead of two to get his creature off the board.)
Maybe the coolest play I made in that match was Eye of Nowhere-ing my opponent's lone Island back to his hand three times. Doing that made him think that I had something bigger and cooler to play, so he floated blue for the Mana Leaks and Remands that were filling his hand. Yeah, I didn't have anything, and said go, making him burn for one like the total hack that I am.
It was fun. Makes me want to play Type 2 more often, so maybe I will. I just wish there had been more rounds of play and that more people had stayed in for the entirety of the tournament.
I realize I have a greater love for this game than most people do, but I dislike people dropping. It just doesn't make sense to me, especially in an unsanctioned tournament. Really, I understand why keeping your rating high is important because it will allow you to play pro without necessarily qualifying, but c'mon. If you play in a tournament, you should finish it, if just to let people who came to play enjoy themselves. How torturous is it to play Magic? What else have you got going on that's more important? You're obviously hanging out at a card store on a Friday night, so I know you don't have a girlfriend. It's just not cool.
Lamer.
Anyway, that's my grouse for the day.
Tonight I'm playing some Vintage Casual with my friends and then tomorrow I'm going to rock some socks in a Vintage tournament for a Mox Ruby in Cleveland:
Compendium Collectibles
19644 Center Ridge Rd.
Rocky River, OH 44116
(440) 895-1224
You should come if you have the cojones. I bet you can beat me.
In fact, it's got 5 proxies, so I know you can beat me.
I'll have more on that on Monday.
Until then, finish your tournaments!
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