Drain-O

<p align=justify> 1st Place Extended Report<br> Big O`s Collectibles<br> by Justin Yap <br> <br><br> Once again, Friday night at Big-O`s arrives this week, and I suprisingly attend. I was taking a haitus on Friday nights, for reasons of my own, but if I wanted to play at all this week it would have to be tonight since I was expecting to go to Lexington, KY the next day and couldn`t go to the Saturday tournament. As I didn`t have time to prepare, I sit at my kitchen table Friday night with a few hours left, wondering what the heck I want to play. I had wanted to play Cursed Bridge again, but that wouldn`t sit well if I couldn`t borrow some Masticores, as I own none myself and the guy I had been borrowing them from would most likely not play that day. Sligh, maybe? Played it once, with an interesting sideboard of 4 Ensnaring Bridges and 4 Millstones (interesting to me, anyway. I love Bridge!) It worked well, but sucked against W/U control. Speed black... HA! <br><br> So, with half a dozen concepts running through my head, I finally left for Big-O`s and got there with thirty minutes left to come up with a deck. When I had packed up my cards, I had a half built a R/B beats deck, mainly splashing red to kill pro-black critters. I took out the red and added more stuff for speed black, like Bad Moon. I stopped halfway, with a bad feeling, as if I knew that type of deck wouldn`t work, even if I wanted to play it and try it out. Finally, I decided to just throw together my old Drain-O deck, and at least have fun tonight; I was fully expecting *not* to win. <br><br> DRAIN-O! <br> 4x Knight of Stromgald - MVP of the night. W/U(/R) control decks can`t contend if they can`t plow it, or if they`re Wraths or Disks become single creature eliminators. <br> 4x Pyrexian Scuta - While Knight of Stromgald was MVP, Scuta made the deck *work*. While I can`t get it out on 2nd turn, I didn`t exactly need to with this deck. <br> 4x Black Knight - Unplowable. <br> 3x Nekrataal - Creature kill on a stick. <br> 3x Bone Shredder - Nekrataal`s illegitamite brother. <br> 3x Duress - Excellent. Takes care of annoying little enchantments/counterspells that stand in my way. <br> 3x Diabolical Edict - Bypasses pro-black critters, or even phasing creatures if timed right. <br> 2x Disturbed Burial - I bet most people thought I was on crack when I included this, but you`d be suprised. It`s better than Volrath`s Stronghold because it pops the card to your hand and not on top of your library, denying you more cards. <br> 2x Yawgmoth`s Agenda - Not very good. It maybe came into play one time, and that one time was a life saver. But one would probably be better then two. <br> 4x Drain Life - Key card. Draining is good because of the big swing it gives on life totals.<br> 4x Corrupt - Key card. <br><br> Land <br> 21x Swamp<br> 3x Wasteland <br> 1x Lake of the Dead <br><br> Sideboard <br> 3x Cursed Scroll - Good against Sligh and White Weenie. <br> 3x Millstone - Useless. Replacing with 1 more Scroll and... other stuff. <br> 4x Ensnaring Bridge - Good against creatures, especially Sligh, making half their deck useless. <br> 2x Dystopia - Useless that night, but can`t do without it. Needed vs COP: Black and Light of Day. <br> 3x Planar Void - Good against Gaea`s Blessing, Oath, and Fluxator decks (yes, *Fluxator decks*. I`ve seen it happen). Useless. <br><br> The basis of the deck is to get weenies out and beat your opponent down as much as possible within six turns. On turn six, you hopefully will have enough mana to start blowing them away with Drain Life and Corrupt. Because you gain the life they lose, it`s much harder for them to make a comeback. I`ve been all the way down to 2 life and made a come back with this deck. <br><br> Round 1: Fires, vs. Craig Embargo <br> Poor Craig. Nobody ever told him that you can`t play a Type 2 deck in Extended unless you`re a genius, sold your soul to the devil, and/or are the luckiest scrub on the face of the earth. I doubt Craig sold his soul, as he wasn`t carrying any dangerous weapons on him at the time, so it must have been inexperience. He`ll learn though, eventually. <br><br> Match 1: Craig plays a forest and a Bird of Paradise. I lay out some land as he draws into no more land and an Elf, which he plays, but I Shred on my turn. I then proceed to play everything I can, as he draws into no more land, and has access to only one mana, since I Nekrataaled his Bird. I win easily. As we scoop up our cards, I notice that his deck of cards looks smaller than mine. Turns out he only had 48 cards in his deck, and he only had 9 land in it, because he forgot to buy some foil land off of Big-O. Rather than be a total ass, and since I came to play for fun and thought I had no chance to win the tournament anyway, I let him put in the land without penalizing him and restarted the whole match so he`d have a fair chance at winning. <br><br> Match 2: Craig plays first, playing Birds and Elves in the early game. I lay land, but I don`t have much of an answer when he plays a Blastoderm hastened by a Fires cast previously. I get smacked about twice, before I throw out kicked Scuta to chump block and draw into more land that allows me to start draining back my life. With the Blasto gone, he plays other creatures, but unlike Blasto they are targetable to Shredder and Nekrataal. I quickly take over and send over weenies for the win. Match 3: He plays Birds and Elves which are blasted out of the way by Taal`s and Shredders. At one point he gets a Shivan Wurm out, but I either Edicted or Shredded it away. Weenies and Drain give me the win. <br><br> 2-0<br> 1-0<br> <br> Round 2: Lackey Sligh, vs. Andrew Young<br> Andrew Young is a nice guy from Team Wet Panties. We have had good matches together, but it seems like lately the only reason I`ve been winning against him is because I get lucky or he makes mistakes. I`d be a hypocrite to say that I`d never like to win from luck, but I`d rather play my friends at their best so there are no hard feelings. <br><br> Match 1: He puts the hurt on me with early creatures, but unless he can get something better than a 1/1 it won`t do much damage. He was playing with Mogg Fanatics, Goblin Mutant, Mogg Flunkie, Goblin Lackey, and Ball Lightnings. Ball Lightnings pose the biggest threats, since my creatures are my prime source of kill other than an Edict. He manages to get me down as low as 2, I think, when I make a comeback with drain. I get back up to ten or eleven, when he charges again with creatures and puts me away with burn, just as I had laid Yawgmoth`s Agenda the previous turn. <br><br> Match 2: I sided in my Scrolls, Millstones, and Bridges. Once again, early creatures smack me around very low, but this time I have enough drain to put me all the way back up into the twenties. I get a scroll out, and scroll away at him from the protection of a Bridge. Half of his deck is now ineffective, as he didn`t have Shattering Pulse in his sideboard. He fights a losing battle by casting a couple of Bottle Gnomes, but I soon scroll him to death. <br><br> Match 3: He plays some weenies, but his biggest asset by the mid game is two scrolls on board with six mana. I had managed to keep a high life through drain, but it started to slowly decline as he enacted the scrolls. I had to be careful, as he was naming Fireblasts among the four cards he hand in his hand. The round lasts a couple of more rounds than it should have, as I pulled Reckless Abandon during some of the times he scrolled. He drops me to twelve life before it goes to my turn. He`s at seven, I`ve got seven or more land, and I need to pull the Corrupt or Drain Life for the win. I do. He then reveals that he had made a mistake, because he could have tapped out, used the Fireblasts, and then scrolled, as he only had Reckless Abandon left. I go on to the third round knowing that I shouldn`t have won that round. <br><br> 4-1<br> 2-0<br><br> Round 3: Rainbow Effreet R/W/U Control, vs Terry Street Terry Street is another nice guy at Big-O`s, who was kind enough during my scrub days to offer advice and even tried to teach me how to play sealed deck format. Still, I just don`t like sealed deck. Anyway, it was great to play him again, as I rarely ever get to. I think the last time was at Ronnie`s Game Locker. My word. <br><br> Match 1: I lay out a Black Knight 2nd turn and start attacking with it. I was going to lay out another creature, but realized that`s probably what he wanted when he laid out a Disk. Knights are immune to plow, and he`d have to be desperate to blow a Disk on a single creature. Several turns later, he finally blows the Disk when he`s at around 6-8 life. I then start playing creatures, which he in turn counters, using Absorbs to get back up to 10-12. When he finally lets one through, I attack, only to let it get killed by Disk/Incinerate. I then play a creature, when either gets countered or killed the next turn. Either way, I`m getting rid of his resources steadily. He gets out a Rainbow Effreet at one point, and attacks me with it a couple of times, but he soon has to rely on it for defense. With the creatures constantly threatening him, he runs out of counters, which lets me drain him for the kill. <br><br> Match 2: Much of the same of Match 1 with a few differences. I kept a hand of two land, a Knight of Stromgald, and two Edicts. Later I draw into a third Edict. He gets out two Rainbow Effreets quickly. He only has six land untapped, but that`s good for him considering he has ten due to Thawing Glaciers. I Shred one of them on my turn, and he phases in respones. I Edict on response, and he phases again. I Edict in response, and he phases again. Finally, I edict a third time, and get one of his Rainbows. The other difference was that I had Disturbed Burial in my hand, and when he ran out of counters in his hand, I popped creatures into my hand. I eventually overran him for the win. <br><br> 6-1<br> 3-0 <br><br> Round 4: U/W Control, vs. Doyle House<br> I get to play Doyle once again, one of my best friends. He loaned me the Scuta`s for this deck. Anyway, we`ve had some of the best matches. He offered a draw, but we both declined for our own reasons. Btw, Kudos on D&D later that night, Doyle. <br><br> Match 1: He gets a Masticore early on, which I can`t kill as easily as a Rainbow Effreet. Doyle also packed more counters than my previous opponent, or he had drawn more when I played him. Either or, Masti the Beatstick wins Doyle match one. <br><br> Match 2: This goes better for me, as I get Wastelands to halt his early land and Thaws, long enough to draw out his counters and play a Scuta and a Knight of Stromgald. He doesn`t have a ready answer and I win. <br><br> Match 3: Same as Match 1 except it`s a Morphling beatstick. <br><br> 7-3<br> 3-1 <br><br> Quarterfinals: Blue Control w/ Gaea`s Blessing, vs. Barry Hyden<br> Poor Barry. He could barely contain his disgust of being beaten by a black deck in Extended. His response to losing was something like this: ``Well, Yap... you managed to... beat me... with a black deck...`` Even so, he did shake my hand and even complimented me during the game about not overextending. <br><br> Match 1: I play a Knight of Stromgald and start swinging for 3 at a time. He let`s me beat him down to about 9, before he plays a Masticore. He kills off my Knight, and starts giving me some payback. I try to kill off the Masticore with Drain spells, which he counters but puts himself into a bad position because his hand size is lowering due to the Masticore. Eventually, I get a kicked Scuta out, putting me down to 5. He can`t attack with the Masti anymore. Next I play an Agenda, and the turn after that another kicked Scuta from my graveyard. Turn afterward I charge in with both Scuta`s for the win. <br><br> Match 2: Same as match 1, in that he got a Masti out that screwed his hand size and allowed me to get card advantage over him. He traded one Masti to take out a Knight of Stromgald that was annoying him, but casted another one. In the end I had hit him low enough to blast him with a Corrupt, which won me the game. <br><br> 9-3<br> 4-1 <br><br> Semifinals: Lackey Sligh, vs. Andrew Young<br> Once again, I get to play Sligh. Sigh...<br><br> Match 1: Andrew gets the God Hand. Enough said, but I`ll describe it anyway. He plays a Lackey first turn, and swings. 19. He lays a Mutant from it, and casts a Mogg Fantastic. Next turn, he swings. 12. He lays another Mutant from it, and casts a Flunkie or Fanatic. I snort and scoop. <br><br> Match 2: I side in the Scrolls and Bridges. I get a Bridge and Scroll early on, and drain and scroll his life down to 1-2. He plays a Bottle Gnome three turns in a row, every time I`m about to kill him. I finally kill him when he fails to lay the fourth Gnome. Freakin` Gnomes. <br><br> Match 3: We draw our seven cards. We both paris. I had no land, and I never rely on drawing into land. We draw six cards. We both paris. This time I had one land, but I had a bunch of high casting cost spells. Finally, we both draw five cards, and I get a decent hand of a Scroll, an Edict, and 3 land. He paris` down to four. I know exactly how he feels, as I once got so mana screwed I had to paris down to three, and it was the finals. Anyway, he keeps on four and we play. He can`t keep up, and I kill anything he tosses at me. I attack and scroll him to death for the win. <br><br> 11-4<br> 5-1 <br><br> Finals: R/W/U Effreet Control, vs. Shane Sams<br> I had to wait a good two hours, I think, to play this match. Shane Sams is a generally nice guy. Big-O was in the back, cheering Sams on, though, talking about this would be Sams 2nd victory and that he had to win it because we haven`t had a double winner since Terry won a Friday and Saturday tournament. Therefore, I couldn`t let Shane win. And no, Shane, I didn`t get this deck off the net, even though it *is* off the net. I made it minutes before the tournament began. <br><br> Match 1: I keep a hand of a couple of Drain spells, but mainly because of the two land and one Knight of Stromgald. I get the Knight in and start swinging for 3. He lays a disk, but expects me to put more creatures out. I don`t and he`s forced to Incinerate it. I play more creatures, which he Absorbs or kills off with Plows and Incinerates. During this time he`s Thawing for land. By this time I`ve got 2 Corrupts and 2 Drains in hand, and draw into a Disturbed Burial. I start Draining every turn, until he runs out of counters and I drain for the win. <br><br> Match 2: Same as match 1, although it seemed to end a lot sooner than expected. I first turn Duress, and see that he only has two lands, an Incinerate, a Disk, an Absorb, and a Wrath of God he put in from his sideboard. I take the Absorb, and cast a Knight of S. during my 2nd turn. He doesn`t draw into the plain he needs until I`ve got him pretty low, and then I draw out his kill and counters with creatures and drain. He gets a Rainbow Effreet in play, and I`ve got a Knight of S. I play a kicked Scuta, and attack the next turn. He couldn`t wipe the board on his turn, he couldn`t kill off either or individually, and I had enough mana to pump the Knight up to 4 damage, which is how much life he had. <br><br> 13-4<br> 6-1 <br><br> Yay! I won! First time I`ve won a Friday night tournament since... Monty`s? So happy! My prize is 24 packs, or 60$ store credit, rather. I get 2 Rages, 3 Rishadan Ports, with 7.50$ left. While hanging out after the tournament, amongst all the congratulations for winning and the incredible metagaming, I hear Shane still talking about how he disobeyed his rule of Cop: Red and Black in every sideboard and if he had had Light of Day he would have won. I then challenged him to next Saturday`s Extended Tournament, where I`m sure we would play each other due to the fact not as many people show up on Saturday`s. At least, I would like to have formally said I wanted to challenge him; as soon as the words had left my mouth; ``Well, there`s an Extended Tournament next Saturday...`` ``I`LL BE THERE!`` Needless to say, Saturday is going to be a lot more interesting now. I`ll probably get beat, now that everybody knows what I`m going to play, but at least it`ll be fun. Now, I just need two more Dystopia... <br><br> Props: Doyle - for loaning me the Scuta`s and D&amp;D.<br> All the Players - for playing.<br> Big-O - cuz it`s his place. <br><br> Slops: Garrett - for saying a stupid joke that even Gary couldn`t make sense of, and he was sitting right in front of him. <br><br> Justin Yap<br> ryunnosuke@hotmail.com