TOURNAMENT REPORT:  August 24, 2002
Deck Name:  “Double Potions With the Slytherins”
Joshua Julian
Denison, TX
A local tournament with 11 participants

My deck:
“Double Potions With the Slytherins”
Starting Character:  Draco Malfoy, Slytherin
20 Potions
4 Pewter Cauldrons
4 Self-Stirring Cauldron
4 Magical Drafts and Potions
4 Bulgeye Potion
4 Sliver Unicorn Horn
2 Moonseed Poison
2 Elixir of Life
4 Dungbomb
4 Baneberry Potion
4 Malevolent Mixture
4 Potions Dungeon

<The Report>
Eleven people have showed up for the tournament.  I see myself, my rival
Lucas, 4 kids around the age of 11, 3 teenagers, and 2 other people mine and
Lucas’s age (early 20s.)  There’s a woman here who is in her late 30s or
early 40s here, but she’s not participating.  I think she’s the mother of
one of the kids.

The format is: 4 preliminary rounds, best four records advance to the
semifinals, the two winners play each other.  Each round is held best
2-out-of-3.  Entry fee: $10 – the prize is SWEET.  There’s a box of Basic
Set and a box of Quidditch Cup up for grabs.  Winner picks, runner up gets
the other box.  I know money was still made from this tournament, but hey,
ten bucks for a chance of one of TWO boxes?  That’s sweet.

My luck seems to change dramatically from what I’m used to in the first
round as I draw a bye.  During this time, I got the chance to walk around
and see what everyone was playing.  My rival has selected TurboFluffy for
his deck.  I was expecting to see him with either McGonnagal Destruction or
Flitwick Pets, but apparently he was thinking along the same line of thought
as me – by using Hermoine, no one else in this newbie-heavy tournament could
use her for a support character.  Great minds think alike, but I guess Lucas
can get lucky some times.  ^_^  Outside of him, I see a basic set Harry
Potter in some kind of a Quidditch deck, I see Madam Hooch, and the rest are
either Hermione or Draco decks.  I watch Lucas stomp apart the Hermione
charms/potions deck he’s up against, and wait for round two.


<<ROUND TWO – Opponent:  Colby, Draco Creature Deck>>
Round two finds me facing off against an 11-year-old.  The 30-something
woman is his mother, and apparently has accompanied him to the tournament. 
He gives me his name, Colby, and I give him mine, and we begin.

Game One:  I find out he’s built himself a rather fast somewhat-rareless
Draco creature deck.  It’s good too, for this environment.  No creature in
there costs more than 5 to cast, and he can sure get them out there,
sacrificing lessons, and using owls to get his missing lessons back.  He
uses Draco’s ability to knock those healing potions out of my hand (smart
kid), but I am able to beat him in the first game after 2 Malevolent
Mixtures and a Bulgeye Potion.

Game Two:  Elixir of Life saves my butt late game and I am able to win it,
barely.

A note before I move on to round three:  I wish I had the words at the time
to express my gratitude, respect, and admiration to Colby’s mother for
accompanying him to this tournament.  It’s great to see such parental
involvement, and she did absolutely nothing to ‘play for him,’ or interfere
in the game in any way.  She just let her son play through, and I am as
impressed with her as I am with her son.

<<ROUND THREE – Opponent:  Mark, Harry Potter Spiral Dive Deck>>
Round three puts me against a teenager, Mark.  Now I get to find out what
that Quidditch deck was I scoped out in round one.

Game One:  Best opening hand I’ve ever had, 2 potions, Magical Drafts and
Potions, 2 Pewter Cauldrons, Malevolent Mixture, Potions Dungeon.  Very
quick game, and I don’t get to see what the point of his deck was.

Game Two:  Some early direct damage from Ouch! and Fouled! powered up with
Biased Commentary have left me without a fair amount of my healing potions. 
He’s the only person I’ve ever seen use Smash!, and I watched him destroy 3
cauldrons that way, I watch him draw a bunch of cards using Harry’s ability
as I struggle to get the lessons/cauldrons to play my big potions.  End
game, he hits me with an 18-point Spiral Dive.  I could only imagine the
horror of this deck if it contained a Human Chess Game…

Game Three:  Second-best opening hand I’ve ever had:  2 potions, 2 Magical
Drafts and Potions, Pewter Cauldron, Potions Dungeon, Baneberry Potion.  The
damaging potions came in draw format quickly after that, and the smack got
laid down.  I become 2-0.

<<ROUND FOUR – Opponent:  Jack, Hooch Quidditch/Creatures/Charms deck>>
This round almost was not, because my name was drawn when it came time to
give out the bye, and I had to explain to them I already had a bye, so a
different name was drawn, Deedra (can’t spell it), and I played Jack.

Game One:  Jack goes first, uses Hooch to dig out the Comet Two Sixty.  He
plays some creatures, hits me with Stream of Flames and Toe Biter, but since
I have no creatures, I’m the only one affected.  I use my healing potions
and dungbombs to outrun the creatures just long enough.  3 Malevolent
Mixtures ends the game.

Game Two:  Jack draws no lessons in his opening hand.  Next turn, he draws 3
cards.  Next turn, he lays down two lessons.  Next turn, I bust out the
Malevolent Mixture.  You get the idea.  I become 3-0, sure to advance to the
semi-finals.

<<THE SEMI-FINALS – Opponent:  Deedra (sorry again), Malfoy Denial Deck>>
The four who advance:  Lucas (4-0), Myself (3-0), Deedra (3-0), and a
pleasant surprise, Colby (3-1).

Game One:  She wins the coin flip and goes first.  Discards a
Transfiguration to look at my hand, and forces me to discard a Potions.  She
discards a Cancelled Practice to make me discard my other potions.  The game
goes as follows:  any time I manage to draw a Potions and play it, she
either Lost Notes, Picking on Neville, or Cauldron to Seive’d it.  The
Avifors, Cancelled Practices, and Restricted Sections flew out of her hand. 
She owns me.  A trio of Wild Boars ends up finishing me off as Mrs. Norris
looks on.

Game Two:  I manage to not only draw 3 potions and a pair of cauldrons in my
opening hand, but since I lost last game, I go first.  I own her.

Game Three:  This is where it gets interesting.  The game progresses slowly.
  She can’t make a move, because she can’t find Mrs. Norris, and has to use
an action every turn to keep my hand down.  Unlike her, however, I have
healing potions.  A Wild Boar comes down.  I nail it with a Malevolent
Mixture.  That was more fun than it had any right to be.  Mrs. Norris comes
down.  I nail her with a Baneberry Potion.  My healing potions keep me just
alive enough to watch her run out of cards.  I advance.

Lucas manages to scrape out a game 3 win against Colby.  And now it comes
down to us:

<<THE FINALS>>
We both want that Quidditch Cup box.  There’s no doubt in my mind.  That,
and I’m playing my rival.  It’s personal:

<GAME ONE>
Lucas wins the coin toss.
L Turn 1:  2 Care of Magical Creatures
J Turn 1:  2 Potions
L Turn 2:  Draws two cards.  I smile.
J Turn 2:  Potions, Potions Dungeon
L Turn 3:  Draws a card, Care of Magical Creatures and Charms
J Turn 3:  Draw, Potions
L Turn 4:  Draws 2 cards.
J Turn 4:  Baneberry Potion – 8 damage, 2 Potions go back to my hand. 
Potions.
L Turn 5:  Charms, Care of Magical Creatures, Photo Album
J Turn 5:  Draw, Potions
L Turn 6:  Gringott’s Vault Key (Care of Magical Cratures), CoMC, Charms
J Turn 6:  Potions, Pewter Cauldron (Potions to hand)
L Turn 7:  Blue Wig, Photo Album
J Turn 7:  Silver Unicorn Horn, Potions, Draw a Card
L Turn 8:  2 Charms, Fluffy
J Turn 8:  Panic, Malevolent Mixture, Baneberry Potion (4 Potions go to
hand)
L Turn 9:  Dog Bite, Dog Bite, Laugh Maniacally as I take 36 points of
damage in one round.

<GAME TWO>
J Turn 1:  2 Potions
L Turn 1:  2 Charms
J Turn 2:  2 Potions
L Turn 2:  Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, Draw a Card
J Turn 3:  Potions Dungeon, Self-Stirring Cauldron (2 potions return to
hand) 2 Potions
L Turn 3:  (gasp) Draw, CoMC, Charms
J Turn 4:  2 Potions
L Turn 4:  Blue Wig, Photo Album
J Turn 5:  Draw, Self-Stirring Cauldron, (2 return to hand) 2 potions
L Turn 5:  Draw, CoMC
J Turn 6:  Draw, Bulgeye Potion, Baneberry Potion
L Turn 6:  Draw, Blue Wig
J Turn 7:  Draw, Silver Unicorn Horn, Activate Bulgeye Potion
L Turn 7:  Charms, CoMC, Fluffy (laugh maniacally)
J Turn 8:  Malevolent Mixture, Silver Unicorn Horn, Dungbomb
L Turn 8:  (draws 2 cards and is down to 4 in library)  Skips both Actions
J Turn 9:  Moonseed Poison, Activate Moonseed Poison, Game.

<GAME THREE>
L Turn 1:  2 ComC
J Turn 1:  2 Potions
L Turn 2:  2 Charms, Draw
J Turn 2:  Potions, Potions Dungeon
L Turn 3:  Charms, ComC, Draw
J Turn 4:  Potions, Draw
L Turn 5:  2 ComC, Gringott’s Vault Key (Dog Bite)
J Turn 5:  Potions, Draw
L Turn 6:  Draw, CoMC, Charms
J Turn 6:  Potions, Draw
L Turn 7:  Fluffy, Dog Bite
J Turn 7:  (wince)  Silver Unicorn Horn, Activate Silver Unicorn Horn,
Dungbomb
L Turn 8:  Bewitched Snowballs, Blue Wig
J Turn 8:  Magical Drafts and Potions, Malevolent Mixture, Malevolent
Mixture
(I really wish I hadn’t have switched out Draught of Living Death now…)
L Turn 9:  Dog Bite, Dog Bite, Game.

And so I lose yet another one to my long-time rival and good friend.  He’ll
be gloating for a week.  By now the crowd had dispersed.  Colby had been
watching our game intently while his mom was off in the room reading. 
(Apprently she didn’t take as much interest in the game as her son did, but
kudos to her still for showing up.  That’s a dedicated mom.)  Lucas picks
the Quidditch Cup box, of course, I end up with the Basic Set.  We both pick
through the boxes and take out all the rares and foils, and give the rest to
a quite ecstatic Colby.  It took us 5 minutes to talk his mom into letting
him keep the commons/uncommons we just shoved off on her son.  ^_^

All in all, a fun tournament (minus that Draco Denial deck I was grinding my
teeth through).  And a foil invisibility cloak looks kewler than ANY foil
you’ll find in the Quidditch Cup set.  ^_^

Joshua Julian
white_shrew@hotmail.com