I imagine I'll never forgive myself for writing this but ....

'It was Team 5FU vs. the world, and the world didn't stand a chance. Want to
know how we did it? Read on... '
I'd been testing for extended for quite some time, as i had loads of
catching up to do ... I decieded pretty early on that i wanted to play rock,
as it suits my play style, and it didn't look like something that could
easily be hated out of the environment ala reanimator ... it has ferocious
staying power, and doesn't seem loose consistently to anything other than a
really patiently played oath deck, which i didn't expect to see a lot of.

Round 1: vs Craig Brookes Psychatog

Game 1:I sat down happy enough to be playing tog, having done a good amount
of testing against it. The game progressed slowly, I played some early
spike feeders and walls, and did some negligible damage, before craig
stablisied with a couple of psychatogs .... the game should have turned in
my favour when craig upheaveled, but forgot to float mana to replay his tog,
and I resolved a deed, which meant it was pretty much impossible to lose
provided i kept 3 mana untapped .... as we approached time, i was swinging
for 2 a turn with a feeder and had just summoned a coffin queen, the
intention being to use it on one fo craigs togs for the win. Cunning wish
for submerge bought craig a turn, and cunning wish for capsize should have
ensured the draw as he had 6 mana in play, but unfortunately i made the
worst play in the world ever(tm) tapping out for no good reason and dying to
a wished up corpse dance .... I had thought corpse dance required the top
card of a graveyard to be a creature .. it doesn't and I died. This might
have ended up being a blessing in disguise .... I rushed through my last
turn of this game, and blundered ... I played a lot more deliberately for
the remainder of the tourney

Round 2: John McHale RG fires

Game1: John won the roll and went first, showing me a second turn fires, but
my hand was well set up to deal with aggro ... walls of blossoms and spike
feeders kept my life at a safe level, and a buried alive coupled with a
living death sealed the deal.

For game2, I boarded in edicts, the extra smother and a baloth, and took out
haunting echoes, a couple of cabal therpaies and a living wish. John kept
a one land hand and was able to apply a decent amount of early pressure, and
knock my life dangerously low, but a deed wiped out his mana producers, and
a spiritmonger together with a recurring spike feeder put me out of harms
reach.

Round 3: Dave Wall Suicide Black w/Red

So we're in single elim mode now, and I'm facing off against a nippy suicide
black deck splashing red for burning wish and terminate. Game one was one
of the best games i played all day ... I take early beats, until my wall
and feeder even things up ... john wishes for a haunting echoes, which will
rid me of most of my win conditions, so i vamp for a therapy and strip it
from his hand. Things start to look bad again when a shade hits on his
side, and my answer (a faceless butcher) gets terminated ... Eventually i
stabilise with a genesis and start to recurr feeders to get me into double
figures (I was on 3 life) and he scoops. Had he drawn a land on his last
turn, i would have died to breath of darigaaz.

For game 2, the edicts and smother came in again, not that it mattered
overly ... I'm completely overpowered by turn 2 shade, turn 3 negator, turn
4 anurid and another shade. I deed at 3 life, but can't find an answer to
his dauthi slayer

Game 3 was a much less scary affair, I go first and start to lay beats with
a spike feeder while john can't seem to muster any offence .. he very
graciously concedes when its clear he can't win and a draw will probably
eliminate us both.

Round 4: Steve Ruttledge psychatog

This one pretty much hammered home that luck was on my side ... steve won
the toss, played and kept a 2 land, brainstorm hand. unfortunately for
him, none of his first 4(5??) cards were land , and my dustbowl reduced him
to a single source of blue early on. I apply as much pressure as i can,
and drop steve to 4 before he has to upheaval ... normally this should be a
good thing, but steve seems to have an answer for every one of my recast
threats and is tearing through his deck to try and find a win .. I can't tap
out for fear of corpse dance, but i eevntually run him out of couners, and
force through a win.

Game 2 started less than 10 minutes before time was called, and once again
i brough in the edicts and an extra smother as well as a crypt creeper, this
time in place of a monger, buried alive, livcing death and haunting echoes
... steve had to play aggressively, but my hand was heavy on removal, and a
team of elders and spike feeders do him in

Round 5 vs Dalton Moloney the rock

We chat briefly about whether we can afford to ID, but our OMP is so poor at
least one of us (probably me) wouldn't make the cut. I win the dice roll,
and elect to draw, which i think is right in rock mirror matches .. they're
not blisteringly fast by any manner of means. I mulligan to a strong
second hand, play a cabal therapy which hits, knocking out an elder, bust
showing me 2 duresses faceless butcher and a monger. Daltons duress misses
after i vamp in response. I go find a buried alive, and play it next turn,
but soon i'm facing a spiritmonger, butcher, and a wished up coffin queen.
I have 3 (count em!) wishes in hand, and I topdeck a deed, kill the coffin
queen, and living wish for a butcher to slow things down ... once the board
is reasonably neutral, I wish for visara, and she dominates the board,
teaming up with my recurring faceless butcher to remove any of daltons
troublesome creatures from the game, while my monger takes chunks out of his
life. Not for the first time today, Buried alive was immense in this
match.

Again, we can only shuffle up for game 2 with less than 10 mins to go ...
dalton goes first but my draw is solid and plenty defensive, so like the
arsenal of old, I grind out another one-nil and its off to my first ptq top8

Top 8: Oli Bird, Elves

I'm utterly dreading this match ... I know oli can go infintite with some
elves and aggravated assault, that he can daw scads of cards with slate of
ancestry and that he can kill me realy quick with mana critters and gaeas
cradle fuelling a masticore. Oli wins the toss and plays, but my hand is
absolutely awesome , i'm able to drop 2 walls, a spike feeder and vamp on
turn 4 to set up a 5th turn living death ... I draw haunting echoes and
follow it with a spiritmonger, and Its off to game 2

I make a foolish sideboarding error, taking out cabal therapy, even though i
know that oli will have to bring in bind, and that i have no other way of
dealing with it. I'm suitably punished, as oli cheerfully expands, and
binds my last gasp pernicious deed activation.

The therapies come back in for game 3, and I'm both surprised and delighted
when oli says 'done' on turn 2 without playing anything ... i untap, think
for a bit and cabal therapy for skyshroud poacher, which is the only card i
could imagine him keeping the hand for. It hits and I see 2 fecundicity,
ravenous baloth and bind. I hum and haw some more, before deciding to take
the baloth, and leave oli without any immediate threats. I play a spike
feeder and pass the turn ... we're running out of time, and oli needs to
find a creature soon ... as he's behind on life ... I kill a spike feeder to
make one of my birds 2/3 , but oli binds the second activation to slow me a
little. Time is called, and oli has two turns to catch me, but i manage to
dustbowl his gaeas cradle, which leaves him just shy of the mana to win the
match. In the other semis, Diarmuid had beaten cormac in a rock mirror,
paddys rock had lost to alan meaneys angry hermit deck and dave kearney had
beaten stewarts UG deck.



Top 4: Dave Kearney Psychatog

Another tog, and another 50 min game 1 ... we end up with the usual staring
match, and dave upheavals comparitively early, having lost 2 of his togs
along the way .... A spike feeder means i'm safe for a few turns from dr
teeth, so I'm able to redevelop my board without having to chump block ...
one one turn i was 1/2 a life away from death, but i was able to vampiric
tutor for, and force through a smother. Again we play land gor for a
while ... I fish for counterspells and eventually run dave out of them witha
cabal therapy resolving, and showing e a single force spike along with some
removal. I say go, and smile at the haunting echoes i've been sitting on
since turn 4 or 5, and when dave passes the turn back to me, I figure i'm in
business .... I cast it, and dave pauses before saying 'powerful
...unfortunately i drew this' and showing me a circular logic. Next turn
dave says 'Unfortunately i drew this' and shows me a fact or fiction ... we
play more land go for a while, until dave wishes for a capsize ...
(thankfully he wasn't playing corpse dance) ... i play 3 cabal therapies on
my next turn , flashing them back with my treetop villages, and whip the
capsize as well as get rid of a good amount of his counter magic, and the
information on his hand was crucial, as when dave did cast the final tog , i
am able to smother twice at eot to draw his last two counters, and play a
deed on my next turn safe in the knowledge that it can't be countered.

We have only a very few minutes to finish the second game, and I board in
the removal, baloth and crypt creeer in place of mongers, living death,
haunting echoes and a living wish.

I draw an awesome hand of two smother 2 vamps , some land and a wall ... my
next draw is an edict and i know I'm off to the final .... so it proves a
few turns later!

Myself and diarmuid split, with him getting the slot and i the boosters ...
Its highly unlikely that i can go to venice and its highly likely that
diarmuid can, so happy days all round!

Heres the deck list ... If i was to play a ptq tomorrow, I'd probably play
it exactly as is ... the only change i'd consider is a faceless butcher for
the 3rd living wish

4 pernicious deed

4 cabal therapy (MVP!!)

4 birds of paradise

4 yavimaya elder

3 smother

3 vampiric tutor

3 living wish

3 spike feeder

3 wall of blososms

2 spiritmonger

1 buried alive

1 haunting echoes

1 living death

1 genesis

Board:

2 cofifn purge

2 diabolic edict

1 engineered plague

1 faceless butcher

1 visara

1 ravenous baloth

1 coffin queen

1 filth

1 crypt creeper

1 smother

1 dustbowl

1 buried alive

1 genesis



Thats about it for now folks .... cheers to everyone who was kind enought to
lend me the cards to make the deck and to everyone i played .. the matches
were without exception friendy and intense, and I enjoyed it a lot ... I'm
looking forward to seeing some of you at regionals, and all of you at
nationals.

Cheers,

darragh

*cheerelader enthusiast*




'The Meek ain't going to inherit shit'
- The book of Larry