Subject: Grand Prix Birmingham report
Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 16:57:29 -0400 (EDT)
From: Barrie Paskins barrie.paskins@kcl.ac.uk
To: webmaster@classicdojo.org

Four weeks ago I read on the Dojo (the source of all knowledge and wisdom, of course) that the upcoming PTQs in Rath Cycle would be decided on skill. As I had been playing Cursed Sligh for the previous year I hadn't needed to use any skill for some time, so I was naturally horrified. As a result my team-mates and I decided to do something that we'd never properly done before - playtest.

Don't worry, I'll get to the point in a minute, but I'm having fun here.

Anyway, I went up to Dan Nuttall's house with Tony Dobson (both team-mates and far better players than I). Dan had built ALL of the main Rath Cycle decks, TradeAwakening, Death, Sligh etc. So we were able to test them all. NOTE: this was very important in our team's success. If you're getting ready for Rome I very strongly recommend it.

I didn't like any of the standard decks, the beatdown ones were just bad and the control decks weren't really my style. Fortunately Tony had brought along an untested deck full of bad cards which I, in my open-minded way had described as "crap". Here it is:

DRIVEL.TECH
4 Blood Pet
4 Rats of Rath
4 Thrull Surgeon
4 Bottle Gnomes
4 Corpse Dance
4 Grave Pact
4 Mindless Automaton
3 Stronghold Assassin
3 Coffin Queen
2 Dauthi Mindripper
4 Stalking Stones
2 Wasteland
18 Swamp

This deck beat all the decks we tested against after changing 2 Mindrippers into 2 Evincar's Justices. We didn't test against TradeAwakening that much because we reckoned that we could assassinate or pact the Tradewinds and rat-fizzle the Capsizes. Oops.

I took this deck to a PTQ at Shrewsbury and went 3-2-1 losing to a Hatred deck with a good draw (duh) and my team-mate Paul Hawkins' Trade Awakening deck. Nevertheless I was encouraged and decided to concentrate on this deck for Grand Prix Birmingham(1 page into the report and I mention the tournament for the first time. This writing lark is easier than it seems). I took it to the PTQ at Ashford the following week and placed second, losing in the final to...a TradeAwakening deck.

Despite the fact that I cannot beat TradeAwakening I decide to play this deck at the Grand Prix. It is very important to play the deck with which you are most comfortable and have practiced the most, rather than switch at the last moment.

The five of us in Team Topdeck (Me, Paul, Tony, Dan and Richard Edbury) get to Birmingham on Friday. With us by Friday evening were Sam "I came to mana screw" Waller, Brian Speelman, a tame American, and Randy Buehler, who had been staying with Dan. I play against Paul and lose 0-53(score in games) and then at about 2a.m. watch Tony bore Randy to death with about 25 Scroll Racks.

The Actual Tournament(nearly there guys, read on and I might even remember to put some jokes in)

I play the same deck with a super high tech sideboard:
3 Portcullis
3 SERVANT OF VOLRATH (amazing vs Sligh, fun with Grave Pact)
2 Dread of Night
2 Hatred
2 Slaughter
2 Evincar's Justice (Wrath of God with buyback)
1 Plaguebearer (this was awful, but I was truly desperate for a way to deal with Awakening)

My 1894 Standard ranking prevents me from playing Magic until 4 p.m. So I take the time to watch Round 1 feature matches (Standing Troops/Skyshroud Falcons vs. a Static Orb deck), and to make predictions about who would do well. I tipped Finkel, Price and Buehler to make the top 8 and Tony, Ollie Schneider and John Ormerod to do best out of the U.K. players. An impressive 0% of my predictions happened. I also play Extended against John and even with his very bad Red deck manage to beat his Death and Necro decks. Red is strong. Since I've played the Grave Pact deck around Britain a few other people know about it. Colin Tipton even comes up to me and shows me his version with 2 Spellbook in the sideboard. I smile and attempt to edge away from this man, who is obviously deranged (only kidding Colin). Anyway Round 3 starts and I have to play.

Round 3 vs Steve Easton (Blue Black)
Steve is a very strong player, his deck isn't on the Dojo and he knows about my deck. Since my game plan is to use the advantage of surprise, since I am casting Rats and Thrulls(8 in my deck!!) to beat people. However the match goes O.K. Game one on turn 3 I perform surgery on his hand. Sadly the doctor was a thrull and one of his cards did not survive the operation. He was playing with weird cards: Propaganda, Lobotomy, City of Traitors and (super tech) Mana Breach. He also has Tradewinds. He has lots of 4CC cards in hand, 3 land on the board and 1 in hand. I take the land so he topdecks another and lobotomises me. Fortunately my deck is full of bad cards so lobotomy has little effect on me. He drops a mana breach, but I look down and see on my side Coffin Queen, Stalking Stones and lots of land. I choose to pay for the Propaganda and beat him down without casting any more spells. Meanwhile my Stronghaold Assassin, brought to you from out of the graveyard, ambushed any creature he cared to make. Game two he got lots and lots of land without a useful number of spells so I beat him down again.
3-0-0, 6-0 games

After this I rejoin my friends all of whom had spent the round defeating Bye. Now Bye was worn out from playing so many people, so he dropped and everyone had to play against real people. Paul, Richard and Dan went with TradeAwakening while Tony made IMO a massive mistake by playing HumilityPrayer, expecting to meet many control decks. Needless to say he plays against Sligh and White Weenie and goes 0-2.

Round 4 Phil Pettifer (TradeAwakening)
In case you haven't been paying attention I lose to this. You may think that losing to the most popular deck is a bad metagame choice, but I took the risk that everyone would play anti- Awakening, such as the mono-blue Curiousity deck. I feel slightly embarassed at how easily Phil beats me, but it was hardly a surprise.
3-1-0, 6-2 games

Round 5 Random French Guy (Sligh)
This guy (whose name I have just forgotten, sorry) had a red deck. Sadly for him I had a Corpse Dance-Bottle Gnome deck. I drop bad chump (Pets, Rats and Thrulls) until turn 4, then make a Grave Pact, then either have banishing/edict buyback with the Assassin, Whispers/Edict with the Automaton or Healing Salve/Edict buyback with the Gnomes. After the games he shows me his 3 main deck Apocalypse (!) which he never drew. I'm afraid I wasn't particularly impressed.
4-1-0, 8-2 games

At this stage Carl Crook announces that the next round would be at 8 a.m. the next morning because it had overrun(imagine that) and they only had the venue until 9 p.m. (oops). The crowd riot and rip him limb from limb. Well no, being Magic players there is a lot of whining but no actual action.

Next morning we arrive at 8 a.m. to re-register and, amazingly enough, there is more delay. At around 10 a.m.(!) we finally start Round 6 after which there will be a cut to the Top 64. I'm 51st so I have to play. Incidentally Dan is 1st at this stage, which was pretty cool.

Round 6 Joules Haigh (Weird Blue/Black Deck)
We had a really fun match and I would like to complement him on his sportsmanship. First game I look at his hand and see Tradewind, Lobotomy, Fighting Drake and Cataclysm(!!??!). I beat him down with his bad monsters even though he lobotomises my Grave Pacts. He dies to a 5/5 Automaton. Hee hee hee. Game two I forget to lay a third land so he lobos my Pacts(which win the game vs very many decks) and locks me. I call a judge over, explain that I am bored with discarding and want to start again. NOTE: I know that the concession rule is silly, but if you make a joke(however feeble) while explaining the situation the judge will normally give you it. This can be very useful. Game three I put a Grave Pact on the table. I have Assassin, Gnome and a Blood Pet. He has Tradewind and a Fighting Drake on the table. I sac my Blood Pet to kill his Tradewind and he puts his Fighting Drake in the graveyard. A judge takes this opportunity to stop the game and read Grave Pact, because he knows that he can just lose one creature rather than sac his other creature, due to triggering and timing. However it's perfectly legal to sac two creatures, it's just a mistake. That's one reason why I play with strange cards, because my opponents might not know how best to use them. In this case the judge made a mistake, and in so doing, helped my opponent out. I'm getting on very well with Joules so I don't particularly mind, especially since I've basically won by this point. But then the judge won't answer his rules question about whether he can sac just one creature because, get this, that would be coaching. I want to finish the game so I tell my opponent the correct ruling and get the judge to go away. So this is level 5 rules enforcement. Hmmm. Soon thereafter I win.
5-1-0, 10-3 games

I make the cut to Top 64 in 32nd place. Dan and Richard are also through, but Tony, Paul, Sam and John fail to make it.

Round 7 vs Dominic Staelens (mono blue Curiousity)
He sits down and shows me a card on which he has printed "I play strict". That's fine by me, even if I don't personally. I play at my best when the match is friendly and not acrimonious. I also don't believe in "cheap wins", e.g. through warnings etc. It is amazingly easy to play for fun where both people enjoy the match win or lose and I thoroughly recommend it. Just make sure that your play is still technically perfect and you'll do fine. For examine my opponent put a counter on his Legacy's before untapping. I smiled, pointed this out and asked him not to do it again. No judges, no hassle and a much more sportsmanlike match.
Anyway, game one I don't put much pressure on him and he get double Hunter with Curiousity plus lots of land and a Forbid. I call the judge over to concede and she says yes, even though I'm at 16 life and have lots of land. Very good call. I'm still confident though as my deck should beat mono-blue as he has fewer Capsizes and no Awakenings. Game two I win with a large Automaton, after I surgeon him and see 3(!) Helms of Possession. As all of my creatures can be sacrificed I'm not too bothered by this. Game three I win with a Hatred which he isn't expecting. Excellent
6-1-0, 12-4 games

Round 8 vs Gregor Wollny (Death)
This guy is a good player, but Death is easy for my deck. Game one I thrash him to within an inch of his miserable life with three Automata and a Bottle Gnome. The Automata are awesome vs Death. I take away his monster with a Surgeon, the Pact deals with Recurring and my Automata deal with Death. Game two he is mana screwed so I attack him with a Blood Pet and a Rat and on Turn 5 in my attack he says, "Sure, take three?" and I say, "Make it 17" after playing my unfair instant spell. Tony and Gordon are watching and agree that it was unbelievably one-sided. This is getting fun.
7-1-0, 14-4 games

1-1-1 will get me on the Tour. 2-1 will make Top 8. 1 win makes me money. Sometimes Magic is good.

Round 9 vs Neil Rigby (HorseCraft)
This is a feature match which makes me very excited. A few people even take a break from watching Jon Finkel to come and watch. Neil has just beaten Randy Buehler(oh the irony) and plays the deck very well. First game he forgets to lay land number three. Even I can win that sort of game. His deck then rewards him as he goes turn 2 Earthcraft, turn 3 Overgrowth, Turn 4 Survival, Turn 5 Recurring Nightmare. I meanwhile sit there with two land. Since I'm not doing much he gains 40 million life. I ask the judge if I can concede and he says no. Interesting. I amuse myself waving at the spectators and discarding whichever cards I think that Neil knows about, trying to keep back whatever tech I can. He has a Taskmaster and beats me down with it. Game three I make a Coffin Queen as he plays out all his enchantmants exactly like game two. I animate a Stones and he puts out a Workhorse. I'd quite like a Grave PAct, but they're down in my deck somewhere. I tap out again to animate another Stone, as I don't have much else to do. Sadly he has a Corpse Dance in his hand so he combo-kills me, which I didn't realise that he could do as an instant. Oh well
7-2-0, 15-6 games

Round 10 vs Micha (Death)
This match was the only one where being friendly turned out to be unhelpful. He wins game one with a main deck Taskmaster and Anarchist/Death/Cloudchaser, despite my multiple Grave Pacts. Game two I win with a Portcullis. Game one vs Death is 50-50, after boarding it is a better matchup than Sligh vs Hatred. Game three I draw 14 land out of my first 17 cards, but mana screw him a little with the Wastelands. Around turn 9 I have a 4/4 Automaton and a Grave Pact in play and he has a Weaver and is at 7 life. I play another Automaton and sac it. He tries to respond to me removing one of the two counters by fogging. This can't be done as removing both counters is the cost. See what I mean about weird cards giving you an advantage. However he then claims that I didn't give him enough time to respind to me casting the Automaton. As we were playing fairly pleasantly there was nothing that I could do. I checked with the spectators afterwards, and they agreed that he had been cheating in this circumstance. Rather than argue I took his word for it and next turn after he summoned a Wall of Blossoms I topdecked a Corpse Dance like a champ and attacked with a 7/7 Automaton to win. Cheats never prosper.
8-2-0, 17-7 games

Last round and a win puts me in the Top 8.

Round 11 vs Craig Jones (Sligh)
A Sligh deck got this far? Excellent. All I need is a Bottle Gnome and I'm in the Top 8. Sadly my Bottle Gnomes are shy because it's a feature match and they prefer to hide at the bottom. He wins game one after protecting his Rathi Dragon from my Grave Pact with lots of creatures. I don't draw the Assassin or Gnomes necessary, so I lose. I'm not too worried as I have an even bigger advantage after boarding against Sligh. I show all the spectators my Servants of Volrath, and they laugh at me for my pathetic deck. This angers the Servants who come out and kill all of Craig's monsters. In desperation he casts Apocalypse, but I have 3 Swamps ready on top of my deck and he doesn't have any mountains on top of his
1-1 and the winner goes to Rome. We shuffle thoroughly and I advise the spectators to go and watch Jon Finkel who's playing in the other feature match. Just then Finkel comes past, he's just been hated. Oh dear. Anyway game three I will give you in full. It wasn't long.
Him: land, Pup
Me: land, Pet
Him: land, Fanatic Pet, Raging Goblin, in for 3
Me: land Rat
Him: land, Fanatic Rat, Raging Goblin in for 4
Me: (I want a Gnome to win) land, errrr...done, but I do have an Evincar's
Him: Rage on my Goblin in for 6
Me: land, Evincar's. From here I can dance my Rat after one more turn of beating and STILL draw a Gnome to win.
Him: Attack you, Shock you down to three
Me: still no gnome, land done, I can now block forever.
Him: Upkeep Sonic Burst you.
I can beat red decks, but not with that draw. A lucky red deck beats anything, as Craig proved by winning the whole tournament. Congratulations to him.
8-3, 16-9 games

I end up 20th and win $250. Pretty good. Dan is 18th and Richard is 27th. A pretty good day for team Topdeck. Incidentally Jon Finkel is 17th, Dave Price is 19th and Randy Buehler is 28th. Given the company I was pretty happy with where I finished. I'm too tired to watch the top 8, so Paul drives me, Tony and Randy back down to London. Randy describes his 28th place as "disastrous".

I wish I had disasters like Randy Buehler.

I do. I call them successes.

Thanks to:
All my opponents who were fun to play against.
Jon Finkel and Dave Price for being cool and signing my Grave Pacts.
Randy Buehler for being a really nice guy, great Magic player and fun to talk to and hang out with.
All the judges for the variable rules enforcement and random rulings on concession.
The Magic Dojo for telling us the Metagame so that we could design a new deck to beat the established ones.
Everyone whom I've forgotten to thank.
Most importantly my team-mates and friends:Tony, Paul, Richard, Dan and the London crew. Without you guys I wouldn't even be playing Magic let alone winning money at it.
All that remains is to thank everyone who had the stamina to read to the end of this report and advise everyone that lots of the lessons that I learned here can be applied to Extended, first make a huge number a test decks, then settle on a deck and tune it and test a lot. If you do then you will become mighty and powerful. It makes a little skill at the game go a very long way.

Any comments on this post please send to barrie.paskins@kcl.ac.uk

Thanks,

Daniel Paskins
Team Topdeck
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