Hello, everyone.  This time around I wanted to give everyone a Tourney Report for Extended that features Torment.  It took place two weeks ago so my memory of it all is a little fuzzy, so bear with me.  Also, before I get started, I wanted to let everyone know that I went on a little deleting spree in my e-mail a little while ago and deleted some mail that I hadn_t looked at yet.  So, if you sent me something and I didn_t respond, send it to me again and I_ll see what I can do.

Anyway, a few days before the tournament, I was doing some random testing with my friend Jeff when he told me that he couldn_t go to the tourney.  He usually plays Sligh and I wanted to try something new, so I stole his deck and took off Friday night.  Here_s the list:

4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Jackal Pup
4 Seal of Fire
4 Shock
4 Incinerate
2 Price of Progress
2 Viashino Sandstalker
4 Ball Lightning
4 Fireblast
4 Fire/Ice
2 Ghitu Encampment
4 Wasteland
14 Mountain

Sideboard:

4 Anarchy
4 Pyroblast
4 Scald
3 Ruination

This deck seems to have a lot more burn than the normal Sligh deck, yet draws enough creatures that it doesn_t seem to bother the deck much.  The Lavamancers were great all night long, as were the main deck Price of Progresses.  The Fire/Ice were in the deck to help out against the random Secret Force or White Weenie decks that might show up.  I wasn_t all that excited about the Ghitu Encampments, but it_s better to be safe than sorry, I guess.  In the sideboard, I found out too late that the Ruination_s were just a turn too slow for this particular deck and probably should have been more Price of Progress.  On to the tourney.

I showed up an hour or two early to get some last minute testing in, but not all that many people had showed up yet.  So, I just played a couple of random games and didn_t worry about the deck all that much.  As usual, the tournament didn_t start on time for some reason (about a = hour to an hour late), but since first prize was a box, I didn_t mind waiting too much.

Round1- Chris playing Machine Head

Coming in to this match, I thought it would be pretty easy (which it was for the most part) since I had more burn than he did.  In the first game, he started off with a mulligan and I believe that he was playing first, which didn_t help him out too much.  I just sat there and hit him with a Fanatic and Lavamancer while he built up his mana and Duressed me (taking a Fire/Ice over a Fireblast).  I think around turn 4-5 I burned him a bunch during his end step and then finished it off during my turn.  In game two, I had problems with my mana and he beat me down with Ball Lightnings and Skizziks until I died.  By the way, neither of us sideboarded.  It did make me wish that I had Bottle Gnomes in the side, though.  In the third game, he mulliganed twice and kept a one land hand.  Good thing it wasn_t a non-basic (I love Wastelands).  I pretty much owned him this time around since he had to Vampiric Tutor for a land, which made my job easier.  I beat him down with (I think) some Sandstalker_s while he Duressed me (once again taking the Fire/Ice over Fireblast) until I unloaded all of my burn on him.

Round 2- Sean playing Junk

Sean is one of the best players in the area and usually does pretty well at these tournaments.  In the first game, I got him down pretty low until he dropped a couple of Spiritmongers, Swords one of them, and then beat me down.  In game two, he couldn_t get a decent mana base going (thanks to Wasteland) and I got pretty much everything I needed.  I think that a Ruination was involved in this game, but can_t remember.  In game three, he had an decent mana draw and got out a COP:Red out.  This pretty much sucked, but the Grim Lavamancer helped tie up his mana and let other guys through to take the last game.

Round 3- Erik playing White Weenie

I had loaned Erik a deck before the tournament and we had a deal that if I won the first game, then he_d concede the other to me.  If I lost the first, then we_d take a draw.  Since he had almost no main deck red hate (I had traded most of them away since I never thought I_d use the deck again), the game was pretty much a cakewalk.  I just hit him with Ball Lightnings and the like, threw a bunch of burn at him, and called it a match.

Round 4-Matt playing Threshold _Geddon

I had lost to this same deck a while back in the Top 8 using Fish and knew that it had an absurd amount of non-basic land.  This would help a lot since I was using both Price and Ruination.  In the first game, I just threw Ball Lightnings, Sandstalkers, and burn at him, as usual.  In game two, I was hitting him with Fanatics and then smacked him with a 10 point Price of Progress.  That_s game.

Round 5- Brandon playing Miracle Grow

Since, like an idiot, I hadn_t tested this match-up before the tourney, I thought that my massive amounts of burn would wreck all of his small creatures.  Boy was I wrong.  I was having a hard time getting past 4/4 bears and equally sized (if not bigger) Quirion Dryads.  Unfortunately, he was using basic lands of both Islands and Forests, so my beloved Wastelands couldn_t shut him down as easily.  I get stomped pretty bad in both games, even with a sideboard.  Oh, well, I still made Top 8.

Quarterfinals- Adrian playing Type 2(!) Millstone Well, this match was extremely difficult due to the fact that he was using Absorbs, Life Bursts, and win conditions that I couldn_t kill.  In the first game, I got him down to 2 life and needed to top deck some sort of burn (which this deck can do pretty easily) since he was out of counter-magic and about to deck me but, of course, I didn_t and lost.  In game two, it was pretty much the same only he finished the game at 21 life.  It_s pretty humiliating to lose to a Type 2 deck with and Extended deck.  Oh, well.

I was really happy with how the deck performed, but now I_m interested in using Skullscorch in the deck since it might help out at least a little and could take the place of some sort of burn in the deck.

Overall, I didn_t really see all that much Torment being used in the tournament (aside from my Lavamancers).  I don_t really understand why not since something like Hatred might have done fairly well with the apparent lack of heavy control or Sligh (there was only one other person playing it) and the addition of Nantuko Shade to the mix of strong black cards.  I guess some of the great minds out there will have to come up with some really good deck that uses Torment that people can copy. 

Well, that_s all for this installment.  My next article will be a R/G deck fix for Extended.

Until next time, keep _em legal