Subject: PT Rome Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 07:52:04 -0500 (EST) From: Erik Lauer To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com After PT Chicago we got back and started building extended decks. I hadn't really seen any urza's cards, but Andrew Cuneo had, and built a creature based Academy deck. The next day I found out what Timespiral was, and we had a degenerate deck, and knew everyone else would. I wanted to play Br Necro, it beat everything in our guantlet except for Sligh. However it had too much trouble with Sligh. I decided I didn't like our Academy sideboard, so I changed the deck into a Vampiric Tutor based deck. The Intuition based version had to have sideboard cards in groups of threes, with Vampiric Tutor I could have 1 of different cards that are good against different decks. Now I felt I had three decks to choose from ; Br Necro, Sligh, and Academy. When I got to Rome I still felt there would be too much Sligh to play Necro, and I found out some of the Sligh decks were using Scrolls. That ruled out Sligh to me (if no one else had Scrolls I felt I could play Sligh with Scrolls, and White for Disenchant and Abeyance). That only left me with the Academy deck. Randy wanted to talk more about changed, but I had not slept much (so I could fall asleep), and slept like a log :) Next day I found out there is this yummy breakfast downstairs where we are staying with pastries, some juice I could not identify, but I could not find any coke. Round 1: Steven O'Mahoney Schwartz (Survival Recur) Game 1: I win around turn 5. Game 2: Steve Duresses away my Scroll Rack turn 1. Turn 5 he taps out for a Ashen Ghoul. On my turn, I drop an academy, 4 artifacts, Spiral 4 times, and tell him to take his turn. Game 3: With under 8 minutes left, I decide to try to win. Steve gets a judge. After time runs out, my win attempt is starting to dry up, I ask the judge if we can have 3 extra turns. The judge says while my turn was long, I was not playing slowly so no. Steve asks head judge who does not overturn. Draw. Round 2: Janosch Kuhn (Academy) Game 1: He gets out Academy, I never find Wasteland. I can't beat an excellent control player with that kind of handicap. Game 2: Once again I can't find Wasteland. I am now 0-1-1, and it is time for the lunch break. A bunch of us go to a pizzaria, but it is slow so I get my pizza but have to take it back. I hope my next match is fast so I can eat the pizza. At least I got to have some coke, though it is incredibly expensive. Round 3: Ryan Cole (Counter Pheonix) Game 1: My Academy gives to much mana for his counters. Game 2: He slows me down with permission, thaws into control. I try to conceed, judge wants me to further explain. I hate this stupid rule ; is the point for me to explain to my opponent in the middle of the match why I think I can no longer win this game?? I know the judge knows I am not colluding. This rule should be striken ASAP, it hurts honest players, and does little to stop cheating. Meanwhile my pizza is getting awfully cold :( Game 3: Academy gives me a turn 1 City of Solitude, that gets Forced. However, I have card advantage and mana advantage. I manage to Spiral into more of both, and force home a win. Now I can eat that pizza. Round 4: John Pennock (Academy) Game 1: I have more land, and play a control game. Game 2: Same as game 1. Round 5: Neil Rigby (Reap Lace) Game 1: He Arcanes some of my spells, turns some of my permanents black, and Reaps. I start Wastelanding him, he does not draw enough land. I start to go off, but am not sure what his deck has (especially the permission content). So I decide to just keep using Windfall and examining his graveyard, Neil conceeds. I notice he has Lions Eye Diamond, which he can use to mess up my Windfall even if I have him Abeyed. Game 2: Neil has to mulligan twice, I get out a City of Solitude. Neil plays a null rod, which is annoying since I have a Scroll rack out, so I play 2 more Scroll Racks. Finally I Spiral and Sapsize with buyback his Rod, then win. Neil tells me he likes my version and expects me to do well. Round 6: Jesper Thrane (Academy) Game 1: I get a Scroll Rack out, which is very powerful in this matchup. I can collect my Permission and Abeyances, and consistently play land. Game 2: Jesper gets his hand almost empty on turn 1, and I play Volcanic + a mox monkey. Jesper keeps getting card advantage from Windfall, or Tricking away an academy of mine, but my mox monkey goes the distance and I win on damage. Round 7: Brian Benedict (pebbles) Game 1: Just before I can Windfall he drops 3 0 cost artifact creatures. I figure out what he is playing, and apply the Wastelands. I get him Abeyed and win before he can get to 4 mana. Game 2: He mulligans, drops a land and a creature. I Windfall, then Spiral, but get no card drawers. So I Capsize with buyback his land, and use the Capsize till he Pyros it. That is good enough, since I can use Stroke to draw the rest of my combo, and win. I try to call my sister who had surgery to replace her ACL, but was unable to get through. I figure I will reach her when I get back to the states. Round 8: Peter Leiher (Academy) Well it is morning and I need some coke, but can't find it before this match. Game 1: I get the Wasteland and the Academy and win. Wow, that is unfair. Game 2: I have to plan out a big turn, but my mind is not clear yet and I forget I can't respond to playing an Academy, so I forget to Waste his first. He Aobotomies me, I want to give up in response, but the judge wants me to further explain my concession. That stupid rule is kicking in again. Either the rule needs to be changed, or the judges interpretation must be changed. Clearly I am not attempting to collude, I am giving up for my benefit, and that should be good enough. If it isn't just strike this crappy rule out, and investigate how it ever got on the books. Game 3: Once again I get the better draw. At least my argument over letting me conceed gives me enougha adrenaline to concentrate, and I win. I think the fact that I have more red mana producing land has given me an advantage. Round 9: Rui Mariani (Academy) Game 1: I get the Academy advantage, and eventually get to a complicated turn. I cast Abeyance on him, he Arcanes, and we have both used vaults. I announce I am casting Spiral but stop to check the mana supply. After we confirm the mana supply, I continue announcing my spell and select the land to untap, then ask if Rui wants to counter. A judge comes over and gives me a notice for this! I explain why I stopped, and she said I stopped for too long (10 seconds in her estimation), and it was not clear to her. I asked how long people are allowed to stop in the middle of announcing Recurring Nightmare to select the creature they are targetting. She gets another judge, who asks if I am appealing, I say yes. The judge listens, and overturns the notice. After all that arguing, I am really awake at least :) I win on that turn. Game 2: I get out a mox monkey, and start using Wastelands. Time is running out while I am killing Rui with the 1/1 beatdown. Round 10: Andreas Jonsson (stompy) Game 1: I go first, have a prett good draw and win on turn 3. Game 2: My draw is reasonably good, but my Spiraling is not getting anywhere. I accidentally shuffle my land in when I Spiral the 4th time, and get a game loss, which I think I was probably going to get anyway. Game 3: I get out turn 1 Mox diamond + Scroll rack, with Academy and Spiral in hand. I am guessing turn 3 win. He plays turn 1 Scavanger folk. Turn 2, I use my Scroll rack, find Perish and kill the Folk, he drops a couple weenies. So turn 3, I Spiral and win. I now know that the two decks ahead of me are both WW. The deck type I have always hated. I don't mean hate to face with academy, I have just always despised WW decks. I know there is some Gloom action coming up! Round 11: Justin Gary (WW with red) Ah, I am at table 2 playing a US National Champion. Time for my second feature match, right? Wrong. Combine that with me playing against my hated deck, and I am feeling angry! Game 1: He draw is just beatdown, but my draw is average -- so I win. Game 2: He gets out a Lion, I get out Gloom and Waste his red. I get off a spiral, then a Stroke (countering his blast). Finally I have out 8 artifacts, a Mom, a Lion, I go for it. So now I think I need to go 1-1-1 to make the final 8. I ask Randy whether he thinks I should draw with Olle, Randy points out he is no expert at this. I ask Brian Hacker asks me if I think I can win, I say I think Gloom and City of Solitude are really powerful against Olle. Brian tells me to play and win. Round 12: Olle Rade (WW with red) OK so this round is a feature match, and I am playing against my hated deck, for a top 8 spot. I hate WW and am determined to destroy it. Game 1: My draw is slow, his deck is fast, I lose. With that out of the way it is time for Gloom. I sideboard out 2 counters and 2 Abeyance for a Gloom, a City of Solitude, a Mox Monkey and a Capsize. I am prepared to watch the WW deck discard. Game 2: My draw is mediocre, so I mulligan. I get a hand with a Mox, 4 land, and Gloom. I cast turn 2 Gloom, and apply Wastelands. Ah a quick Gloom and some Strip Mines -- brings back the memories, but our hero the Hypnotic Specter is banned from this format :( Perhaps if they had unbanned the Specter, there would have been more creature decks in Rome :) Olle goes into discard mode, and I am sure he has some pyros. I have to build up to 8 mana to get off my abeyance / windfall combo off. Finally I find a City of Solitude, get that out, and win. Game 3: Olle has to mulligan. My hand is a bunch of mana, and a Stroke. He taps out on turn 2 for a creature, I Stroke myself for 5. Next turn I get city out, and win. Rounds 13-14 : Intentional draw into #1 seed. Day 3: Wake up, get breakfast and head on over. I am playing Nicolas Labarre and his merfolk deck. Argh he keeps drawing 2 Force of Wills with Wasteland backup, and I go down 0-2. Game 3, he plays Curiosity on his Lord of Atlantis, and I Pyro the lord in response, Nicolas Forces again! I tutor for a city of solitude and drop it. No force of will! Hurray, I win this game. Next game he has the Forces again and I lose. They keep all the final 8 players in this storage room. We are fed lunch (though some players decline the food). I am paired up with Mark Le Pine. Game 1 he has a big permission advantage and wins. Game 2 I get to board in Pyros, Capsize and City of Solitude for some Moxes and Petals. I manage to Spiral with him Abeyed, Mind over Matter in play, and an untapped Scroll Rack. I get a terrible hand, Scroll Rack it away. My new hand has an Impulse (which I use just to get 4 cards off the top), and a Windfall which gets me 7 new cards (in the meantime I get more mana and untap my Scroll Rack). I get another hand with no card drawers and Scroll Rack it away, then get another one with no card drawers, but has the Capsize. I partially Capsize lock him for a while, but eventually die. Oh well, from 0-1-1 to #1 seed in 10 rounds wasn't bad :) I watch Tommi face almost no force of will action in the finals, and play his deck very well (a couple minor errors, but there are SO many decisions one can almost always nitpick), and win the tourney. I was glad that the dominant deck once again won the PT. Randy and I try to go out and find food, but fail. We head back and find Brian Hacker who takes us to a Chinese Restaraunt. We come back from that, and find Mark Rosewater, then I go out to dinner again :) After that Mark shows me a new game he is working on. I stay up till we fly home (with some Cali guys, who obviously had a longer trip ahead), and Jason Opalka (who, to the best of my knowledge, designed the high tide deck). Mmm, British Air has free liquor. But I am Coke deprived after that trip, so I decide to keep having Rum and Coke. I get back, finally reach my sister, and she is doing well, ready to rehab her knee. See ya in La-La land :) Erik