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Black Widow

This deck was result of the observation that in Ice Age/Alliances, you could build Olle Rade's PT-winning deck in monoblack. You would be using the zombies which were 2/3 for three mana as the Pyroclasm-proof spiders, and Contagion, Dark Banishing and Soul Burn as creature removal and direct damage. You would gain additional perks, like the stability of a mono-color manabase, access to Necropotence and to Withering Wisps. The Wisp was like a Wrath of God in that environment, even better than Pyroclasm because it could kill everything, stuck around and could lock down Gargoyles. Since the Zombies were basically black spiders, Daniel named the deck Black Widow.

From: schach@chemie.fu-berlin.de (Frank Schacherer)
Subject: PT Qualifier Berlin, Germany: Tournament Report
Date: 4 Nov 1996 11:09:49 GMT

Hi!


This is a report on the Ice Age/Alliances Constructed Pro Tour
Qualifier for the Dallas Protournament, held at CardCon 3 in Berlin,
Germany, dubbed "Glaciers over Dallas".

The tournament was won by a monoblack Zombie/'Wisp/Necro deck, which
went undefeated trough seven rounds of swiss pairings and the following
Top 8 Single Elimination, racking up a 10:0 match record. Luckily for
me, it was my deck.

The deck contained Pumpknights, Lim Duls Zombies (both kinds), Abyssmal
Specters, Soul Burns, Necros, Withering Wisps, Contagion, 'Glaciers,
Lodestone Baubles, a Banishing, Walking Wall, some DR and of course the
Zuran Orb. Expecting a lot of other B/x decks, Dystopia and Infernal
Darkness were only in the sideboard, as well as Sunstones, Mindwarp,
Consultation, additional copies of some main deck spells and some other
stuff.

Should I have to rebuild it, I'd probably drop the wall and the
Rituals, which turned out to be dead weight most of the time, for
another Soul Burn, Necro and Contagion. On the other hand, this way
there always were some easy choices to sideboard out :).

The other Top 8 decks included: two B/r Zombie/'Wisp decks, which were
very similar to the winning deck, with red for Incinerate, 'Burst and
Shatter (actually the designers told me they too were based on the
monoblack deck I had posted on the Net in Daniel Brickwell's
"Strategy:" series), one of them made finals. Three B/r Decks with
Balduvian Dead and Hoar Shade (one of them without 'wisps, another with
Drift of the Dead), a R/G landdestruction deck and a R/w Jokulhaups deck
with Aesthirs and Mutants. Top four were three B/r and monoblack.

Missing Top 8 at spot 9 because of a playing mistake was Stephan Funkes
R/w LD-Haups deck, who had crushed my black deck 3:1 during playtesting 
just prior to the tournament. Stephan is one of those players who seem 
to be able to squeak a win out of nowhere - I firmly believe, had he made 
Top 8, he would have won the whole thing.

On place 14 or so there was Daniel Brickwell with another near copy of
the black deck, but he had added blue for 3 Slight of Mind in the
sideboard (vs CoP: Black, he didn't have Counterknights), and cursed
his decision all day long. On the other hand, we hadn't had much time
to construct or test the decks we finally played. To be honest we built
them in about 10 minutes on the morning of the tournament, and I ended
up with one normal Swamp in the deck, because we didn't find any more
snow-covered ones in the hurry. I even had another Swamp in the
sideboard.

The reason was that Daniel had been to the Qualifier at Essen Game
fair the week before with his Browse deck, and it turned out that
these decks took to long to finish games, thus getting lots of draws.
And draws don't get you into the single elimination. So, even though
my browse deck was a lot more agressive (I even didn't have a digger in
the main deck), we both decided to go really offensive with the Zombie 
deck.

Dani and Stefan both are members of Team Istari - Gilde Berlin, like
me. I'm only a lay member, though, because they ran out of Istari for
the T-shirts - there are only five. So I got lay-member status and a
Daring Apprentice on my shirt. To be honest, I think the name of the
team sucks, but Mike Callahan (he also posts on the net sometimes) had
his impromtu team named Team Istari at PT3, and it even was published
in the Duelit's Sideboard, so they had to append that " - Gilde
Berlin".

Martin Luedecke and Boris Buschert, another two Istari played U/w/r
Browse and, like predicted, got too many draws and ended up mid-field.

Overall I'd say I liked the Alice environment. You get to see a lot of
cards that people wouldn't even consider for their tournament decks
under normal type II circumstances. I mean, Zombies, Trap Door Spiders,
Sibilant Spirit, stuff like that. One guy even got _Melting_ out
against Daniel (Snow covered Lands are considered Non snow-covered)!
And that wasn't funny at all, as he had Moor Fiends and Daniels
Lim-Duls Cohorts, Sunstone and 'Wisps looked pretty pointless
suddenly.

Ok, now for the match-by-match report, as far as I can remember - I
didn't expect to do so well an thus didn't take notes.  I was quite
happy with my sideboard and used all the cards save one during the
tournament. I'll try to mention what I took in and what went out (much
more difficult to decide). Comments welcome.


Round 1: Vs. Sebastian Finck, Berlin

U/g/r/w Pheldagriff 

This deck featured Outposts, Insects and Phedagriffs as offense, none
of which can be dealt with with the normal creature defense (red
direct, StP, etc.), Icies, which are deadly with Insects and one of the
best anti-critter cards in the environment next to StP or a big blocker
like Walking Wall, because they can deal with blinkies, gargoyles, and
black knights, white defense (StP/Disenchant) and a lot of
counterspells (12 or so). I don't think he had browse. He had added red
via Karplusans for Pyroclasm and maybe Stone Rain and a 'Burst, after
his earlier versions suffered vs. Outposts. I think he also had a
mountain or two to 'Glacier up. All in all a very well-rounded deck.

But, like they said in the Duelist Sideboard, Phelddagriff decks are vulnerable
to early black knights. Basically he had to draw one of his 'clasms or Icies
in time, if he couldn't FoW the Order.

In the first game, I had a turn 2 order, and proceeded to hit him for
3,4,4,4,5.

Sideboarding: Out went 2 Contagion, Banishing (he had no creatures to
target) and I think a Ritual and the Walking Wall (because of Binding
Grasp). In went 2 Infernal Darkness vs. Counters/Grasps/Disenchants
and 3 Dystopia vs. CoP: B, Insects.

Second game he made a crucial mistake: he had out CoP:B and
an Outpost, 1 Token.  I had an Zombie, 'Wisp out and Dystopia in hand,
when I drew Infernal Darkness.  Down went the darkness, he didn't
counter, but drew W into his mana pool in response. I announced my
attack phase, and he disenchanted the 'wisp! So I burned his token, put
down Dystopia and killed him in short order. I believe he figured he'd
be save behind his CoP:B, and my darkness couldn't hurt him.  


Round 2: Vs. Jim (?) from Hamburg

R/G Ant/Ranger/Burn

This deck featured Fundhorn Elves, Elvish Rangers, Kaysa, Deadly Insects,
and 4 Javimaya Ants, as well as Incinerates, Lava Bursts and Meteor Shower.
He also had Spirit Guides.

Basically it just tried to burn and damage you into the ground before you
could draw your pyroclasm. Which is what it did to me game 1, even though
I got my 'wisp and killed 2 Rangers and a Fyndhorn in one fell swoop.
The player was the most deliberate one I met all tournament (in a positive 
sense), and very enjoyable to play. 

Sideboarding: I can't remember what went out, probably the Necros, maybe
the Rituals. I kept the Lodestone Baubles, because from a R/x deck this
fast I feared Jokulhaups as a restarter. In went 3 Dystopia and
Contagion.

In game two and three, all those Dystopias and Contagions and Wisps
were just too much for him to cope with.  Btw., he had defeated Stefans
R/w deck the turn before 2:0.


Round 3: Thomas (?) Kuhl, from Hamburg, another good player whom you
usually see somewhere near table 1 in major tournaments. (By this time
we were at table 3)

U/W Outpost/Forces/Weirding
Yes, that's right, no red! He had lots of Counters, 4 Illusionary Forces,
Sibilant Spirits and I think Walking Walls. No Browse, 3 Weirding. 
Sunstones.

Personally, I don't like the Weirdings too much, you have to be winning
before you can play them, and they don't help you to win. I think 3 is 
definitely too many.

Game 1, I see the plains, play a turn 2 Order and think "That's game", but
he has the FoW. Strangely enough, I don't draw any Zombies or Specters for
the rest of the game and he whacks me mit Forces and a Sibilant. 

Sideboarding: Because I saw all his big blue critters, in goes the
second Banishing along with 2 Darkness and 2 Dystopia - there isn't
really much in white except for CoP:B which Dystopia is good for. Out
went 2 Baubles (no 'Haups), Walking Wall ('Grasp) and the Rituals - I'm
faster anyways and would rather have more threats he must counter. 
I may have taken the extra Necro for a Zombie.

Game 2 and 3 he's a bit mana hosed each time, and a well placed Ice
Quake (I wouldn't play Outpost when I'm mana short, but he did) plus
some Zombies quickly took advantage of the situation. In one of the
games I went under Necro to draw insane amounts of LD and Zombies while
he was busy getting some land. In the end I was down to 4 life and had
not drawn a single Soulburn or the Zorb when he died. Hm.


Round 4: Vs Stefan Murillo Reets (I hope thats right) a.k.a. "Mighty"
I know Mighty back from several tournaments in Hamburg as well as from
PT1, where he sucked as bad as I did (we both didn't make top 64).

U/W Outpost/Forces/Weirding

Looked like a copy of the deck I played in Round 3 (Mighty is from Hamburg,
too).

As in the games last round, he  just can't keep up with my Zombies with his
FoW/lose another card and Arcane Denial/I draw one extra. Also, he's a bit
mana short, too, and I Ice Quake his only U mana after he Binding Grasped my
Abyssmal Specter. After a quick 2-0 sweep, we play two extra games for fun.
I win again game three, but game four he finally gets the mana he wants and 
proceeds to kick the sh*t out of me with 'Grasped Specters and Forces.

Mighty comments I should take out the Glaciers for something offensive,
a view I cannot really share. After all, they too increase the amount of
offense in my deck by removing extra land. He also comments on that he
should have had Browse in his deck (probably he ran into some Browse
decks.)


Round 5: Vs Oliver Wusch, Berlin

B/r Zombie/Wisp

This deck features a lot of 2/3 Zombies (some of them SC Swampwalk),
Abyssmal Specters, Black Orders, 4 DR, Incinerates, 2 Lava Bursts,
a Mind Warp, a Shatter, a Soul Burn and 3 'wisps main deck, but no
'Glaciers. He also had 1 Lake of the Dead.
Basic strategy is to get a small life advantage via fast attack and
burning away early blockers, then wisp for 2 in each players turn with a
Zombie out to finish it, or 'burst the opponent to death.
I think the deck is more versatile than the monoblack version, mainly 
because it has ways to deal with artifacts and white Orders standard.

Oliver shows up too late, and I cold-heartedly tell him that he has
forfeited his first game because of it. He is really annoyed but takes
it like a man. I run over him in the first game we play and thus hand
him his first loss in the tournament.


Round 6: Vs Michael Eisfeld, Berlin, also one of the best players in Berlin
and Member of Team "Legions of Doom", like Fincky (from Round 1) and Oliver.

B/r Zombie/Wisp

See above. Michael is so fair to tell me he took the basic design from my post.
He also tells me that I am going down. Yeah sure, whatever you want.

Game 1 I run all over him somehow, despite his Mindwarping my Zuran Orb out
of my hand. (Sometimes it is better to hold back the orb to lure them into
exchanging life instead of blocking and waiting to secure the situation).

Sideboarding: I take out the Baubles, Banishing, the Walking Wall
(doesn't stop SC swampwalkers and Specters) and one 'Glaciers (big
mistake). I know he runs the 4 DR and am a bit afraid he's too fast for
me. But he has no Glaciers and not much R sources, which means no
'Haups. I am totally unaware of his sideboarding in 'Wisp of God number
4, and put in another Necro (hey, its black vs.  black - whoever draws
Necro first wins, right?), Consult and Contagion, as well as a Sunstone
and Icy vs.  his fliers and walkers.  Since I only have 3 Soulburn in
the deck, this is very risky, as I am toast if I go under Necro and
don't draw one in time. The extra 'Wisps he has don't help either.

Anyhow, I lucked out and drew Zorb, 'Glaciers and Necro in my opening
hand, and proceeded to totally anihilate him, even though he 'wisped 4
of my creatures vs. one of his, Mind Warped me for 4 and so on. There
is just nothing you can do if someone draws about 20 cards more than
you. It also took a long time since he had his Zorb out, too. This was
Michaels first loss, too.


Round 7: Vs Stephan Piepenhagen, from Berlin
Stephan is a friend of a friend of mine and has a very modest collection of 
cards, but he learns quickly and borrowed some from all those card lords
he knows. He also was a very pleasant opponent with a friendly, not-stuck-up
attidude. 

R/G LD
His deck featured Fyndhorn Elves, 12 LD spells, 1 Haups (he only had one),
Goblin Mutant, Rogue Skycaptain, 1 Insect (he only had one), Stormbind, 
Balduvian Horde, Icies, Incinerates and Lava Burst. No Glaciers. 
Because a lot of things were in there only one time, it was pretty hard
to sideboard against.
His sideboard vs. me had Natures Wrath waiting (yuck!)

Game 1 he doesn't do much and dies to an Order and a Zombie in no time.
Generally I had the impression that he had mana problems a lot of the time,
mainly to get his RR for the Mutant or Pillage. 

Sideboarding: I took in my anti-Ld SB: The Swamp (Ha! take that!),
Consult ("its like a black swamp"), some Dystopia and a Banishing vs
his red biggies. Out went 2 Soul Burns (expensive), the wall (casting
cost 4 and he has Pillage) and a Zombie - I thought about taking an
Abyssmal and about taking in an Infernal Darkness, to shut him down as
he doesnt damage me early on, but decided against it. Darkness costs 4
and upkeep too. If you get to four mana, you'll probably win anyways.
Maybe this line of thought is wrong, though.

In the second game I went too early under necro when he was
colourscrewed for red, and died to Necro and Stormbind damage the turn
before the zombies would have killed him, as I drew no lifegainer - my
fault. So I took out some Necro for more Dystopia and won the third
game, luckily, because I had one of them in hand and _just_ enough
swamps in play after a surprising 'hops, from which he recoverd faster
and played Natures Wrath (go figure what else would have happened).


Single Elimination: Quaterfinals vs. Stephan Piepenhagen again

I run over him game 1 again, second game he goes first Forest, Elf.
I have no Contagion, and end up on the recieving end of 4 LD Spells in a row.
Still I draw even more land, but not fast enough to stop his Insect/Icy
combo, as no Dystopia or wisp or consult shows up and he taps and blows up
my blockers. Of course I drew 2 Contagion and a Banishing while the Insect
was working me ;). Game three his lack of experience does him in as he plays
a Rogue skycaptain way too early. I could banish it, but instead glacier and
Icequake it into my service, while hitting Stephan with a Zombie. He 
finally plays his Balduvian Horde (it's too late anyways), and I banish it
just on principle. 

Single Elimination: Semifinals vs. Marcus Heiduk a.k.a "The Duke", Berlin
Marcus won the Mirage Sealed Preview in Braunschweig and missed National
Team '95 as quarterfinalist.

B/r Hoar Shade/Wisp 

He was nice enough to let me look at his deck and sideboard afterwards
and talk a bit about it.  

This deck features Hoar Shades, SC swampwalking Zombies, Abyssmal
Specters, and Balduvian Dead, as well as Withering Wisps. He had
Warbeasts in the main deck, as well as 4 Feast or Famine, no Dark
Rituals, no Black Orders, no Contagion, no Soul Burn. He also ran 2
Dystopia and a Mindwarp main deck.  It had a solid red percentage and
had 4 Thawing Glaciers, to get the mana for his pumpers and offset
Warbeast land-loss (and because they are just abusive, of course.) He
also had a Moor Fiend main deck, as well as a Stench of Decay, as he 
is afraid of white orders.  

The Sideboard contained Contagions, Darknesses, more Dystopia, a
'Haups, Primitive Justice, 'Burst and Karplusian Yeti (vs. Zombies,
Spiders, Gargoyles, the list goes on). He said he preferred the Feasts
to Banishings, as he found it more important to kill Insects than
artifact creatures. He didn't use orders because they died in the
smallest 'wisp, so he used Hoar Shades. He also said he'd run the
'burst main next time.

These were the toughest, most nerve-wracking matches of the whole
tournament. I won the first one pretty quick.

Sideboard: I'm aware of 'wisps this time so out go the Banishing, a
Necro, a Ritual, a Lim-Dul Cohort (doesn't SC walk) and like always,
the wall. He has enough red for 'Haups, so in stay the Baubles. In goes
Contagion, Icy, a Sunstone, all vs. walkers and fliers (and pumpers),
and the Mind Warp.

Second game he plays a warbeast. Warbeast? Agk. These things suck -
always when I use them.  I considered putting some into my SB vs. other
black decks but decided on Walking Wall and a second Banishing
instead.  My Banishings are in the SB by now. Having only a Specter as
black card in my hand
and having only 5 Land out, 4 SC and my normal Swamp, with no decent
blockers left in the deck and only 1 DR left after sideboarding  to
feed Soul Burn, I consult for 'wisps and play them. He
Icequakes one SC swamp. Hehe. I knew that normal swamp would come back
to haunt me. But I luckily draw another SC one and wisp the mess away.
Then I start taking control with Abyssmals and Stuff.  He plays 'hops
and catches me unprepared. Well that was one mistake too many on my
part (I had vowed I'd be careful of 'hops, as he had enough red and 4
'Glaciers in his deck to pull it off.), he got out of the hole faster,
and another warbeast finished me off.  

Game 3 he gets two glaciers going but not much else. I had drawn none
of my glaciers of course. So I build up my mana base slowly and put out
a Zombie- he double Glaciers (they were both out at the same time
somehow), I attack, no contagion.  I Mind warp him for 3, and he has
only the 'Glaciers and more land in his hand. He has nothing left and
sits under the Zombie, I got wisps, too and am at 17, he's  at 12
life.  He draws and plays - Zuran Orb.  This was a bad mistake, because
if he hadn't shown it, I'd started to wisp down. He told me afterwards
he was fearing a big Soul Burn. So he got eternal life for now. I get
out a Black Order and start to hit him hard, he gets out a warbeast and
hits back, when suddenly his cellular phone rings.  He answers "Hello?
... I'm busy right now, I'll call you back later.", but is totally out
of his concentration, as he proceeds to draw - his own wisp. In a
reflex he wispes for 8, killing all the critters, both wisps. I was at
2 now. He immidiately realized his mistake, but it was too late.  He
could have won the game right there. He draws and plays Icequake. I'm
at 1, he's at 2 and about 5 land + Zorb. I just had a lot of land. I
can't remember what I drew, must have been another Order or Soul Burn
or Something. I only remember sitting there like "Zuran Orb,
pleeeaze!". Oh well.

(Btw. the guy who called was a friend of his, who just wanted to ask
how he was doing in the tournament. So it goes.)

Finals: vs. Oliver again 

B/r 'wisp. He had beaten a non-wisp Balduvian Dead/Krovikan Horror deck.

The second game in the finals is the only time I'm mana-screwed at 2
swamps all tournament. I really felt like I had a charm working for me
because of that. I win the die roll and go first. We split the first
four games, whoever goes first wins.  

Sideboarding: I didn't take out the Icequakes, even though he had no
'Glaciers. I had been lucky all tournament, so I stuck with it. I still
could screw him for red.

Decider: I have some Swamps, 2 Icequakes, Consult, Necro. 1 Zombie. He
has Zuran Orb, but is mana Screwed at two mana, which I both quake (one
is a Lava Tubes ala Mark Justice), still he plays a Lake of the Dead,
taps it for B (I dispute that but the Judge says it's ok), DR, Zombie. I
have no Contagion, no other Zombie, nothing. He sure will get out of
his screw soon. Having read the Article by Justice about the 1/36 chance
for both Strips in the top 6 cards I consider consulting for another
Quake ("If in doubt consult for the Strip Mine"), but then he had his
opponent on the ropes. So I decide to go under Necro and just set
aside offense and LD. If I wouldn't draw lifegainers, I could still
emergency-consult. So while he got another 4 land, I got another
Icequake and my Sideboard Icy, to nail him down at 2 mana. But I only
drew 2 more Zombies, which he contagioned, and he had lots of life
because of Zorb, I was at 5 and he has Incinerates. Consult for Soul
Burn, none in the top 6. That's game.

After the tourney I played some games vs. Andreas Pischner, Berlin, who
was seeded at spot 10 and wanted to test his decks performance vs. the
tourney winner. After all, it's always fun to say you defeated the
winner. It was B/w with Walking Walls, Black Orders, 'Wisps, Glaciers,
Outposts, StP, Disenchant, Gargoyles. His non-allied colours, both of
them quite color intensive, and all the life he gave me with StP were
clearly a liability as he lost 3:1.

I hope you all enjoyed the report.

I'd also like to thank all the people who responded to the original
posting of the "Black Widow" deck and shared their thoughts with me,
especially Eric Taylor (hope I got the name right). Thanks!


--
Frank                     schach@chemie.fu-berlin.de
"Amnesia - it's a no-brainer."

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