Fantasy Five Hundred

Wiping the sweat from his forehead the control player lets out a sigh of relief. At one life he tries to cool his nerves from a shy Ignite Memories from a near twenty storm count. Staring defeat in the eye the player manages to overpower his opponent with a Tombstalker and multiple kill cards. From there he would move into the top eight bracket for a chance to earn $500.

Looking toward the release of the tenth edition core set, Magic Players recap the end of the month tournament at Tate's Gaming Sattelite. According to Sales Associate Kellen Huber, hosting the event was great experience.

"I knew that the tournament would bring more people to the store," said Kellen Huber, Tate's vendor and magic player. Generally an Aggro player in constructed events, Huber's store duties left him as host for the event. However, under his organization Tate's Gaming Sattelite hosted one of their largest tournaments of the year.

Although the event was unsanctioned about 32 casual and competitive players entered the tournament with hopes of maximizing their investment. $10 would grant the top four players a chance to earn cash prizes ranging from $300 for first place and $50 for third and fourth respectively.

The event was a five round swiss Type 2 event with a cut to top eight. Deck builds from all across the Meta-Game were present at the constructed event. Rouge builds of Boros, Orzhov and Rakdos were present as well. Trading card game fan John Rojas entered the tournament with his own version of Narcobridge, a fairly new deck that has been receiving more and more tournament play thanks to its chances of early victory.

"In my opinion you almost always win your first round," Rojas said. "You basically take someone down with one shot." The decks works off the dredging mechanic of placing cards from the top of your deck into the graveyard in order to get a chosen card. Once the Bridge from Below's are in the yard you can sacrifice your creatures to flashback a Dread Return and make a an exponential amount of Zombie tokens thanks to the Bridges ability.

Choosing speed over consistency, Rojas managed to place in ninth place, just short of the semi-finals.

Some of the decks that made it into the top eight were archetypes of Dralnu de Louvre, Mono Black The Rack Discard and a more tempo version of Boros Deck Wins designed by four year Magic Veteran Gabriel Aviles.

"It was surprising to me that I made it in on a draw," Aviles said. "Luckily my tie breakers were good enough to get me in." Rather than playing traditional version of Red/White with cheap creatures and burn spells, Aviles opted to play more passively with Firemane Angels, Serra Avengers and Knights of the Holy Nimbus. According to him, this version is better due increased amounts of life gain, creature hate and back up plans.

Apart from the tournaments outcome, store vendors and competitive players alike look towards a productive outcome on Magic Game July 14. Sanctioned events will be held for a $30 fee all day and door prizes will be handed out as well.