Bath Magic Standard Tournament
5th June 1999
Bath, UK
6 Rounds Swiss

I made an effort to go to this tournament as I was curious to see what people would be playing with Necro gone out the picture, and you next month I expect to getting smacked about by Bargain, Opalescence or Metal Worker based decks. The deck I played is one that I have had on the go for a while and I have never really given it a name apart from Elf Thing. This apparently will not do so (according to another Bath Magic player) so I tentatively headed up my deck list Cheese Salad and unaware how prophetic this was too be handed it in.

The Deck
A few more tweaks have been made to the deck although I must confess I made no real effort to include any Sixth edition cards apart from chucking in a Snake Basket. One card from Sixth that I meant to add was Creeping Mold. (Tarik's deck can be found on the Past Tourneys pages).

I was not truly happy with the sideboard since I had no more answer to Perish (Lifeforce) but Absolute Law helps me greatly against Sligh.

Round One
Saul Willcox DCI No. 1102294
Saul is a young Bath regular and enjoys playing his wacky off the wall decks which can work every now and again. Today Saul is playing an Aluren Equilibrium Cloud of Fairies/Priest of Gix deck with the buyback mini-Drain Life (Brush with Death?) as the kill card once the combo goes off. In the first game I Overrun for 41 to finish him off when he is on one life. The second I only Overrun and Might of Oaks for 16 to finish.
Games 2 -0
Matches 1 - 0

Round Two
Phil Norris DCI 270279
Phil is playing an Auratog Enchantress deck with Rancors etc. In the first game two Might of Oaks serve to but him on lower life than me an thus I win. In the second game bad play on my part sees him wining with a Worship after I hit him with a double Rancored Mirri a few times. The mistake I made was to not attack with a Treetop Village because he had an Enchantress with prot green Flickering Ward. The one point of damage more a turn may have turned out to be crucial, anyway lesson learned when playing a beatdown deck, BEATDOWN. Phil proceeds to win the third game as I draw 3 spells and eight land after parising down to five.
Games 3 - 2
Matches 1 -1

Round Three
Paul Dale DCI No. 1102261
Paul is a top bloke and confirmed blue lover so I was surprised to see earlier on that he was playing a Sligh deck. I am not too confident going into this one as I know Paul has Earthquake in his sideboard and it rogers my deck in a very firm manner from behind. His burn also hurts my little pointy eared people. Sure enough Paul wins game one in convincing fashion. Game two I managed to win some Might of Oaks type cheese complemented by Village beatdown (I think). Game three proves far more interesting as we both have good opening hands and proceed to do our stuff. On turn four Paul drops a Lightning Dragon and with a Geddon in hand I need to top deck a plains to kill it, I fail. I do however, draw a Skyshroud Elf but am still one mana short of the geddon. Instead of the Geddon I drop an Absolute Law and say done. Paul hits me for four with his dragon and it is my go. I draw a Might of Oaks and decide that there is no point in Geddoning until after I have played it so I ask Paul if he wants to race, he says Yes, I say okay, cast Rancor on my Elf and attack he only has an untapped heretic on his side so can't block and I then go Giant Growth and Might of Oaks take thirteen. It's what the fans want. I get hit for six next turn and then hit him for four. The life totals stand at three for Paul and ten for me. So to stop getting overly smacked about by his dragon I Geddon and Paul responds with a Sonic Burst dropping me to six. Paul has a shock in hand and I fail to pull it off the Burst meaning that if Paul top decks a mountain he ca shock and attack for the win. He does not and I win a very close game.
Games 5 - 3
Matches 2 - 1

Round Four
Martin Hayden DCI No. 263630
Martin is a face I recognise from around the country but I have not played him before so I have no idea what to expect. Martin on the other hand has seen me play my last game against Paul so know exactly what to expect. Two Might of Oaks is sufficient cheese to ensure a win. From what I see of his deck Martin is playing red green beat down with Muscle and Spined Slivers as well as some good red critters complimented by burn. Game Two I again draw more land than I possibly should and die to quick beatdown. Game three a rancored Mirri with help from a big squirrel goes the distance after I top deck the Mirri the turn after he puts out an Impending Disaster.
Games 7 - 4
Matches 3 - 1

Round Five
Matt Green DCI No. 270879
I Have meet Matt before when he was a judge at M&N's Maidenhead tournament and know he knows his stuff. Matt is on 4 - 0 at this point and I have seen his deck between rounds when he was beating Fox in friendly games so I fear the turn two Smokestack. Game one see us in a straight race which thanks too a Might of Oaks and an Overrun I edge out on two life. Between games Matt sideboards in eleven cards against me and proceeds to stomp me into the ground in the following two games thanks to cards like Perish and Persecute. As Matt said if you Persecute and someone loses five cards it is pretty much game that's why they banned Mind Twist. I am not saying Persecute is as good as mind Twist or that it should be banned just that it is very strong. I will however have a whinge at the inclusion of Perish in Sixth especially with removal of any respectable Green colour hosers (Have you seen Compost?).
Games 8 -6
Matches 3 - 2

Round six
Rob Bown DCI No. 270266
Rob is another Bath regular and one I am yet to beat. I consider Rob my nemesis at these tournament but I know that I am fated not to beat him. Rob is playing a more traditional green Stompy with back up burn. His fatter critters meant this is always going to be a tough game for me. In Game one Rob turns the tables on me and Overruns me for the kill. In Game two it is much closer with me getting Rob down to one only to be Arc Lightninged for the finish.
Games 8 - 8
Matches 3 -3

To my surprise I squeak into the Top Eight and get a few boosters (two Destiny, a Stronghold and an Exodus) for my trouble. Everyone that beat me ended up in the Top Eight as well so that eased the pain as well. Matt went undefeated and claimed the box of Destiny which I bought off him (two foil rares, two foil uncommons, and two foil commons and the foil only one duplicate rare (one of the foils)). All in all an excellent day.

Props
James Grimmet for bringing flux along to play between rounds.

Phil Mattingly again for very friendly tournaments with some good opposition.

Everyone I played.

Slops
Alan for letting 'her indoors' not let him attend, something about spending far too much time and money at the nationals last weekend.

Tragic
Team BeatStick
DCI No 297913