Subject: LA PTQ - Houston 11/28/1998 Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 17:33:56 -0600 From: "Sutherland, Shawn" To: "'fkusumot@ix.netcom.com'" Well, 'tis the season for Pro Tour L.A. Following is a report for the Limited Format PTQ in Houston on 11/28/1998 by Shawn Sutherland. Team history & Stuff b4 the tourney: Team ArkAngel has been newly formed by myself, Danielle Sutherland who is my wife, Lowell Ponder who has been my best friend for the past 16 years, and Kathy Price who is Lowell's awesome Lady. Lowell, Danielle and I have been playin' since Legends/The Dark and Kathy has been playing for almost one and a half years (since she met Lowell). BTW, he's the one that got my wife and I started playing too. Thanks bud! So, we decided to get into the competitive side of things after throwing a few mini tourneys of our own. Lowell and I competed in our first PTQ last year in Tulsa and really enjoyed the Limited format. So we prepped a little for the PTQ by doing a few mini-tournaments of our own with some friends etc. Houston was our first one of this series and all in all we had a good time. Things were hectic though. Danielle had to work Saturday and couldn't make it. Lowell and Kathy spent the Holidays in San Antonio with her folks, and so just met me at the hotel in Houston Friday night. Lucky me, I got to drive to Houston from Dallas after work on Friday night after just driving to and from Waco Thursday for Thanksgiving. However, it sure beats getting up at 5am to make the drive to Houston Saturday morning! We were able to procure some nice accommodations at one of the Local Holiday Inns due to Lowell's line of work. Except for some teens messing around in the halls until about 1am, it was much nicer to not have to drive to the tourney the morning of! Tournament Summary: HEAVY competition. Right off we met the nicest guy by the name of Steve Willis. He had obviously been playing at a competitive level for quite some time (he had gone 7-0 in swiss for US pre-release) and had a lot of great advice to offer both technically and as an insight to the Who's Who of the local seen (Team BookBrowser/Houston etc). So besides Team Houston being there (lot's of purple shirts folks - some have made it to the Pro Tour if I understand correctly), I saw the current Texas State champ and Kathy reported that the State Champs from the previous 2 years were there as well. So, even though the turnout was not overwhelming (80 total), the competition was there to be had! True colors. While testing with Urza's Saga we all noticed plentiful creatures in red, black, and white. Ocassionally green would come in ok, and blue had a rare plethora of critters if ya got lucky. At the tournament in Houston though, it seems like I was always seeing green everywhere! White seemed to be the next most commonly played followed closely by red and then black. I didn't see anyone playin blue, but hey, it coulda won someone the tourney for all I know . Team score. Lowell and Kathy pretty much got the short end of the stick for cards to work with. They both HAD to work with 3 colors or die a fast death. Turns out that working with 3 colors was just more of a slow painful death anyway. My cards were nothing to complain about. Lowell and Kathy ended up withdrawing early on and I withdrew after round 6 at which time I was ranked 22nd out of the 80 that showed up. My details: Round 1. Played Kevin Baehr who I think was a Houston Local. Nice guy and good player. I'm playing white and green with a little black splashed in. Turns out that I adopt a standard MO of sideboarding out all my green after the first duel for the rest of the tourney because almost everyone has mountains and I had 3 mountainwalkers in my red. It also turns out that my red was sucking pretty hard though! He's playing white and green. Duel I - I got out an early Lyrist and proceed to ping him with it 3 times while looking for other land. I come up with a plains and get a couple of Silent Attendants. I don't get any offense and just keep gaining life as he beats me with random stuff. I'm hoping I'll get my Serra Avatar into action, which I do but too late. He is able to rush me and win the first game. Duel II - I think he gets mana screw and I get a lot of red critters out fast and beat him down enough that he can't come back. Duel III - We play about 3 turns and get called on time. The match is a draw We are both thinking we could have won the next game and I really wish I could have played it out. Oh well, we'll never know. He was a good player in many ways and I hope to play him again sometime. Round 2. Played Alan Tetu of Team Houston. He's playing green and red??? (sorry folks I can't find the notes I had made after the tournament). The match goes something like him getting Branchwood Armor or whatever that green card is early on EVERY time. He throws it on some flyin rangers and beats me to death with em. Gaea's blessings don't help me much and he sweeps me. Alan was very polite and an excellent player. Round 3. I get paired up against Lowell, my team mate. I get him the first two times barely due to him getting color hosed both times (also special thanks to falter!). We play a third game for fun and he crushes me (he managed not to get land screw this time). Round 4. Played Craig something??? (I really wish I could find those notes). He's very intense (but also very nice and also polite) and playing R/G I think. Craig is from Louisiana and plays a great game. He beats me down the first game but it is close and I do the same to him the second game. Third game draws several spectators for some reason and it also close. I eek it out by cycling a Scrap, throwing a Bravado, Monk realist to send something annoying to the GY and pump up the Bravado by one more and hit him with a Falter for just what I needed to get through. He woulda killed me next turn for sure. Unfortunately, the buddy he rode to Houston with watches the whole 3rd game and offers him several comments on how he might have beat my deck etc. This is a bad thing 'cause his buddy is Tai Phu and is the next person I end up playing! Argggh Round 5. I get a by due to the fact that my to be opponent forgot to drop lasts round or something. They try to find someone to pair me with, but nada. So.... Round 6. Played Tai Phu. As soon as I see him I groan inwardly and kinda mention the fact that I wish he hadn't had an opportunity to watch my last match in such great detail. But hey, he was just watchin his buddy play, and he graciously offers that he is playing green and red with something or another going for it. He wins the first duel as I wait to sideboard out all my green. Second game goes to me thanks to my Serra Avatar. Third game is very close as I try to hang on as long as I can to get my Avatar into play which I have been holding in my hand for like 5 turns. He manages to get out about 5 fatties and I run out of chump blockers. I get the final plains for my Avatar but it's too late. My next card was a congregate and then nothing but creatures! Tai played some very good strategy and was also a most courteous player! So, that's it for my first big tourney in a while. Still learning a little about US and once I got my deck home an really tore it down, I prolly shoulda made a black/white deck, but hey, that's how we learn! I feel pretty good that the 2 people that beat me both made it to the top eight. I got a chance to watch Mason Peatross, Jennifer "beer and cigs" Vodvarka, Alan Tetu, and Steve Willis play some good games. Props: * To Kathy Price (our team), Jennifer Vodvarka, and the few other brave gals who came out and played with us! * To Lowell and Kathy for cheering me on when I was winning and when I was getting stomped! * To Steve Willis once again for being helpful and just making us all feel welcome to Houston, we will certainly be back because of it! Slops: * Why oh why did I have to play green even though it seemed to work better for others than myself! Thanks! Shawn Sutherland shawnsutherland@hmhs.com "Focus, concentrate!" - Mr. Miagi