Subject: Report PT Rome Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1998 06:34:44 EST From: Calenh@aol.com To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com -------------------------------------------------------------------- PT Rome, Extended 13-15 November Hello, It's my first report to the Dojo, but since I've done well, for my first PT, it seemed a fine occasion to write one. So, I qualified early, and began to look for a deck. At first, I thought that most people would play sligh, living death, or LLL. That was before Urza's Saga. Then, the spoiler list came out, and I built my first serious deck for Rome, a weird windfall / mox / megrim / ritual / time spiral thing, which really did not work. It could definetely perform a kill on turn 3, but he utterly collapsed against a deck with counterspells, and he wasn't consistant enough to beat sligh on a regular basis. I dropped it early, and considered playing heavy discard, or some kind of control weeny. With Gregoire, from Nantes, we built a black-white discard deck, that had the edge over sligh, but tended to lose against anything else, provided my opponent had a good draw. After having seen my girlfriend topdeck monkeys and creeping mold game after game, to destroy my scroll / bridge / rack, and run over me without mercy, I dropped this one too. A that point, two weeks before Rome, I still didn't have the faintest idea of what I would play. I tried briefly a WW with counters, but it didn't work either. And on november 2, I found the first Academy report on the Dojo. The deck looked really strong. And I read other reports, which informed me that it was REALLY strong. So, it seemed a good idea to build a deck which would beat this one. At least, I would have a chance to win some games, provided I had a good pairing... It seemed obvious that the Academy would lose against 4 force of will and 4 wasteland, or so I thought, which meant I had to find 52 other cards, just to beat the other archetypes. And playing Merfolk seemed both fun and effective : So, after a bit of tuning, here is what I played : 4 force of will 4 counter spell 2 curiosity 4 lord of the atlantis 4 merfolk trader (not "raiders" as on the official list) 4 manta riders 4 man-o-war (bad idea) 4 suk'ata firewalker 3 waterspout djinn 3 nevynirral disk 4 wasteland 18 ile sideboard : 4 hydroblast 2 glob gnome 2 phyrexian furnace (I couldn't find my tormod's crypt) 1 nev disk 2 force spike 2 disrupt 2 serrated arrows (never used them) In fact, the deck is very classical, packing the usual blue utility creatures, plus some merfolk to provide fast pressure. I've often been asked why I did not include looters, instead of traders ? Well, apart from the Di Terlizzi picture, traders are just better in this deck. Not only are they bigger than the looters (1/2 to kill moggs and elves, 2/3 with a lord), but their ability is active immediately, and do not prevent them from attacking, which is REALLY important when playing against Academy. I playtested it a bit before the PT, and it seemed it could beat Jank, LLL and Living Death, provided I got decent draws. It lost horribly to necro/discard, which was bad, and I was unsure about how it would perform against both Academy and Sligh, since I didn't get an opportunity to play against those before the begginning of the PT... So, my goal was mainly to make second day, and to finish first among the other merfolks decks... The trip was long (26 hours in a bus, from Paris to Rome), and we drafted all the way in every kind of formats, which was real nice. I also got an opportunity to play against a sligh deck, which crushed me. Ouch. I briefly considered shifing to a more reliable deck but did not... So, on to the first day of my first pro tour : Round 1 : Andrea Venturini, High Tide His name sounded familiar to me. In fact, he was 5th in the european extended rating. Wow. My personal rating was around 1614. So he starts, and lay an island. A fish deck too ? Then another island. Would he be playing some kind of weird combo deck ? Anyway, I lay some creature, since I don't have any counter in my hand. On turn 4, he plays high tide. High Tide ? What's that deck ? Is he going to play a Mahamotti, or something like that ? In fact, he plays Time Spiral, launch his combo, and kill me. I don't see any counterspells. Sadly for him, I do see FOW in the 2nd and 3rd game, which mean he doesn't have a chance. He dies quickly. 1-0 Round 2: Hammer, Academy Great, already a name player, on round 2. And he plays academy. First game, he goes off on turn two, when my only permanent is an island. I manage to draw 2 FOW to prevent him from killing me on the spot, but he already has around twelve artifacts in play, and when he finally topdeck a card drawer, I'm dead. Out go my Man-o-wars, and in go 4 more counters. Once again, I draw some FOW, and my curious merfolks are too much for him to handle. His version had some weird stuff in, and was pleasant to see. I think he had shield spheres main deck, library of leng, tormod's crypt... Well, I won anyway, and he was a real sport during the whole match. 2-0 Round 3 : Mykko Snygg, Sligh Ouch, a sligh deck. What can I say ? I get crushed, and start wondering why I did not include some chill in my sideboard, instead of the hydroblasts. 2-1 Round 4 : Yoshiro Yumakawa, Necro B/r During playtesting, I found out that necro was one of my worst matchups. So, when he goes first turn swamp, duress, I'm worried. He takes a FOW, and from that point, there's nothing I can do. I get Drain Lifed to death, which is sad when you're supposed to play a deck with counterspells. I side my disrputs in... and start topdecking. Yagmoth's will ? disrupt, since you're tapped out. Contagion ? Disrupt, then draw a FOW to really counter it, while yoshiro tapped his last red mana to pay for the disrupt, and had a pyro in his hand. Then, I topdeck a waterspout for the kill, while he has a skittering skirge out. What could he do ? In the third game, he mulligans, tries to ritual out a 2nd turn necro, which get FOWilled, then sees all his non basic land die to my wastelands. Good game. 3-1 Round 5 : Ned Burgonsiku, Academy Two FOW in the first, one in the second. that's enough to kill him. It looks like I was right when I thought this card could wreck the whole Academy deck by itself. 4-1 I make day two already Round 6 : Erno Ekebo, sligh A friend (teammate ?) of Mykko Snygg, and he plays sligh. This time, it's a bit closer, but he topdeck a bolt to get rid of my waterspout in the first, then may two cursed scrolls in the second... too bad. 4-2 At that point, I don't know whether I should play or draw my way into the 2nd day. I'm ready to play, then I aske Raphael Levy and Olle Rade, which both tell me to draw. Always listen to a good advice. I draw. 4-2-1 So, I'm 60, which means I have a good opportunity to win enough money to pay my trip back. All I have to do is go 4-3, or maybe 3-4. I should be able to do that. Round 8 : Pap Gabor, Necro B/r Since I had beaten a deck very much like his on day 1, I thought I might get lucky again. But my deck defintely doesn't agree. I can't counter his necros, or if I do, then Yagmoth's will goes through. My merfolks can't race his vampire, nor his drain life, his duresses wreck my hand... I am really crushed. So, now, I'm 80, and I say to myself that I still may reach top 8 if I win 6 duels in a row. And even so, I'm not sure it would be enough. All the other French players are better ranked than me, and I still wonder if the merfolk deck was a good choice. 4-3-1 Round 9 : Jon Onorato, Academy 3 FOW, then 2 in the second game. Should I say more ? 5 more rounds to win. 5-3-1 Round 10 : Kum Quan-Tran, Academy 3 FOW in the first, then when he goes off in the second, I draw two from his first time spiral. He has done 20 damage to himself in that game, with ancient tombs and city of brass, and still, he could have killed me, hadn't he made a small mistake... Still 4 rounds. And we (meaning, Cyrille, Manuel and others), that IDing was really a good thing, since it meant the odds of playing against other academy deck are great... 6-3-1 Round 11 : Carl Devos, reccuring / whale Several people played that deck during the PT, and I had seen Manu (Bevand of course) win against one on first day. It's a combo based deck, based on reccuring nightmare, and which uses looters, traders and intuition to get the card it needs. Problem is, if you can counter the recurring, then the rest of the deck is rather weak (compared to a classical living death) I win the first game in 7 turns, ending with a force spike on a triskellion, and he sees mostly land in the second, till finally my merfolks show up and islandwalk their way to a quick kill. There was nothing much he could do on either games, since I knew his deck, countered his recurring, and a real good draws. 7-3-1 Round 12 : Peter Leiher, Academy Wow, another academy deck. Fine. I mulligan my first hand. He goes land, me island, then academy. I wasteland. On his turn, academy again. I wasteland. He uses his scroll rack to get a third academy. I don't need a scroll rack, I just hit my deck and it comes... wasteland. Next turn, I play a merfolk trader, which gives me a FOW for my waterspout djinn. What could he do ? In the second game, I just draw enough counters to stop it. 8-3-1 So, I might do it after all, and I'm the last French in position to reach top 8, since Raphael Levy, Pierre Malherbaud and Olivier Piechalzyk have all lost this round. Manuel keeps crushing other Living Death deck and is coming up fast, but is already out of contention. Round 13 : Eric Taylor, Academy Even before I see him, I know what he is playing, since he already has two draws The first one goes quickly. I think my three FOW were a bit depressing for him. However, in the second, he goes off and I concede when he abeyances me. From that point, he stars playing very slowly, and I'm glad there are judges all around, ready to grant us some extra turns if the time runs out. Eventually, it does, and we are allowed three turns to finish the game. He has to go off, since there are a few merfolks in play. He tries to abeyance me, and I disrupt. He only has six manas left, so the abeyance is countered, and he spirals... I draw a poor hand, and so does he. He has to windfall, and there they are : two FOW, along with two other blue cards. He loses. 9-3-1 One more round to win, and I may make top 8 if I win, depending on the pairings of the last round. I get to play against Randy Buehler. THE Randy Buehler. And he plays Academy. Too bad. Round 14: Randy Buehler, Academy. The report of that game is on the Wizards site. To sum it up, I lay a disk in game one, and he goes off, but can not find an academy. So, the disk blows up, along with a MoMA and many artefacts (including three vaults). I then draw a firewalker, put a curiosity on it and that's game. In the second, he has to mulligan. I go first turn manta's riders, second turn merfolk traders, third turn lord of the atlantis... he counters, then curiosity on the trader. I win this one with 5 counterspells in my hand. "Are you sure this is an extended deck ?" 10-3-1 We do the maths, find out that I should be in, wait for the announcement, and yes, I'm in !!! After a well deserved pizza, we go back to the hotel, where Manuel, Greg, Julien and me try to gather mint cards to replace the worn ones I have in my deck, since the top 8 will be played without sleeves. Around 1 AM, we finally go to sleep. I know that I will play my quarterfinal against yet another academy deck, and then, if I win, against High Tide. Things are looking good, since I'm 8-0 against academy / high tide decks. Quarterfinal : Erik Lauer, academy I win 3-1 in less than 50 minutes. As he said, I keep drawing FOW and merfolks and curiosity, and more FOW... He manages to go off in the third, and tries to see all my deck thanks to multiple windfall. I concede. In the last one, he has to mulligan, and keeps a bad hand, without any artifacts. On turn 4, he finally draws one, and tries to go off, but I disrupt his time spiral. 11-3-1 and my extended rating looks a lot better Semifinal : Frederico Dato, High Tide The good thing about a high tide deck is that you can play more counters than in an academy, and that you're not afraid of many sideboard cards. On the other hand, it has two huge drawbacks against merfolk : it doesn't have abeyance, which is bad, and it can't kill before turn 4 (well, in fact, he might do it on turn 3, but definetely not on a regular basis), which means I have 3 turns to lay some critters, then I can wait, all untapped, while they bite him. I keep a poor hand in the first, thinking that counterspells are good. When he goes turnabout, turnabout, turnabout, there's nothing much I can do, and sicne I can't draw a force of will when he goes off, I lose. The second is fast : 1st turn manta's riders, 2nd turn curiosity, game. In the third, he mulligans twice, I mulligan once. He plays a mana web on his third turn, but since I already have a lord into play and a force of will in my hand, that's not much of a threat. In the final game, I go manta + curiosity again, and he has to try to go off eraly. Unfortunately for him, I have a disrput and a force of will. He shows me his hand afterward, and he only needed a blue card to cast his FOW, but he had drawn... mana web. I make the final ! With a Merfolk deck ! Final : Tommi Hovi, Academy (again) Well, I don't have much to say about this one. He played perfectly. Really perfectly. He had good draws, and I did not (no FOW), and I also did make some mistake, like that first hand I should have mulliganed a second time. However, he fully deserves his victory. Congratulations. So, finally, I made the final for my first pro tour, and it was with a rogue (and smelly) deck. I can't see any reason to complain... See you in LA, Nicolas Labarre Calenh@aol.com I don't usually like prpps and slops, but since there are some people I want to thank : Props: - All the magic players from Rennes, which helped me a great deal to improve my play over the last year - Greg, Julien and Manu, for lending me their cards on saturday night, knowing that they would get munched by the shuffling of the Academy decks - All the French that were there, and who supported me during the last rounds and the finals - Tommi Hovi, this guy is impressive ! - Manuel Bevand, again. For a lot of reasons. - And of course, Marie-Laure, my girlfriend, who kept beating every single deck I tried to build with her LLL, till finally, I came up with the Fishes. Slops : ?