Subject: PT Rome Report Date: 30 Nov 98 23:50:57 EST From: Justin.W.Gary@Dartmouth.EDU (Justin W. Gary) To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Wherever I May Rome It's been a long time since I've written a tourney report (it's been a long time since I've had cause to) and I have been busy as hell with school work, so this has taken a while to get written. My experience in Rome was an amazing one, filled with some great times and some bad ones. At this point I plan to babble a little bit on some things that happened to me and on the Pro Tour in general. For those of you who would like to avoid my ranting, jump ahead to the Strategy section which will include metagame info and play-by-plays as I remember them. For those of you that are still with me (both of you) I want to talk a little bit about what the Pro Tour is, should be, and shouldn't be. When I told my parents that I wanted to take a week from college to attend PTRome to play Magic, they thought I was nuts (I can just imagine what they would say if I asked for a year off!). Last year I was invited to Germany and didn't go because of the cost and difficulty of travel. Missing that tourney cost me the two Pro Tour Points I needed to get into Worlds this year which was really annoying to say the least. I had never been to Europe and I knew that it would be very hard to go to PTQ's while dealing with college work, so I decided to give the PT one last chance to see if I still had what it took to be a "Pro Tour Player." Now because of a cab strike, Rome was basically closed on the Thursday that I arrived, effectively shutting down my site seeing plans. So I ended up playing a lot of Magic, meeting with friends, getting last minute "tech" and just hanging out. Through the course of the tournament I saw a bunch of my old friends from the Tour and made a few really great new ones and had a hell of a time. After I found out I was in top eight, I took a group of friends with me to this amazing restaurant. I'm still not sure what we ordered exactly, but there was lots of pasta, seafood, and wine. We sat there at the restaurant just talking, eating, etc. for almost two hours, having the time of our lives and I remember thinking to myself "This is what it's all about." We weren't doing anything special, we weren't money drafting or going club hopping, we were just talking and I can't even really remember what it was about. That is the reason I stay on the Pro Tour. Admittedly the fact that I was guaranteed at least 4 grand was a nice thought, but I seriously wouldn't have traded that evening and ones like it for twice that amount. For instance, when I am going around the Pro Tour itself I see people huddled in corners covering their decks when anyone walks by and giving dirty looks to just about everyone not on their team. I run into opponents who try to rules sleaze their way to a win and players who start throwing things when they lose. I understand that there is a lot of competition and that it can get intense sometimes, but I can't stress enough that it is only a GAME! When all is said and done you may have picked up a little cash and you might be able to boost your ego, but if you don't have the friends to share your victories with, they can be pretty hollow. I don't know why Mike Long left the game, and I never had a personal problem with him, but I am surprised he didn't leave sooner. The phrase winning isn't everything sounds cliche but it is a fact. Few people can realistically make a living off this game and no one (not even the machine) makes so much that they couldn't make more doing something else if they wanted to.. In its efforts to legitimize Magic and to make "star" players, WotC has inadvertently isolated people from the game itself. Stars can't be normal people, they have to be better then everyone else. I admire Jon in that he has kept a perspective on life despite his "fame." He has gone back to school and is still a really nice guy. The pressure is still on him to be a machine, but he understands his own mortality and is (I think) a better person for it. Competition is a lot of fun, and the money gives us an excuse to travel, meet new people, see new sites, and to be challenged by minds from across the globe. I just hope that the competition is still seen as a means to these things and not an all encompasing ends. Okay, enough ranting on to the good stuff. Strategy I was invited to Rome through extended rating (you know, that thing that most of us have been sitting on since last year's LA qualifiers?) and I was already at college when I found out. I am a student at Dartmouth College which, while a great school, is in the middle of nowhere (Hanover, New Hampshire) which left me with very few options to test. In order to analyze extended I looked back at the Dojo archive reports from last year's qualifiers and tried to decide what decks had gotten stronger or weaker with the addition of Stronghold, Exodus and Urza's Saga. Old decks that looked good were necro with duress and yawgmoths will, sligh, which didn't need much else to add to it, PTJank, which had a lot of potential for change including mox diamonds and warrior en'kor. Decks I didn't think would survive well in the new format were prison, mono-blue, and Fruity Pebbles. New decks I contemplated were 5Cdonais, recurring nightmare, oath of druids, and of course Academy. I didn't know much about Academy at first so I started running some apprentice simulations of my own versions. I was amazed at how fast the deck worked even without tuning and I realized that this deck would be a major force in the environment. From the type 2 field it appeared that sligh would beat Academy and since sligh beat pretty much everything else, it was bound to be important. When I tested necro against academy and sligh it lost pretty badly, though aggressive necro with red did ok against academy after sideboard. The recur deck I never personally tested, but I reasoned that it would beat sligh and lose to Academy. Against the limited field of Academy, necro and sligh I tested my classic Jank deck that went undefeated at the LA qualifier last year (see my Orlando report from the Dojo archives for more on this). Jank stood a fair chance against sligh (not great though, maybe 50%), lost to academy about 80% of the time and beat necro almost all the time. I really liked the Jank deck because I had a lot of experience with it and felt because of its speed and versatility. It had tested too poorly against academy, however, and so I decided that Academy was the deck to play. Unfortunately, I had no Urza's Saga cards and nowhere to trade for them (I refuse to buy single cards on general principle, I don't have a really good reason, it just bothers me). Fortunately, David Baumgartner, a friend of mine from back in Miami, had the deck put together and was wrecking the local type 2 scene with it. I convinced him to send me the deck and was content that it would arrive several days before I left for Rome. Fate and the U.S. Postal service intervened. The package never arrived and I was forced to leave for Rome with only sligh, necro, and my old jank deck with me. While in Rome I tested with a few people, most notably Adrian Sullivan who I had only recently gotten to know, but turned out to be a really great guy to hang with (He also played this really cool necro pandemonium/dreadnaught deck that had a lot of potential and was just generally cool). Seeing that everyone was playing academy and sligh (there was a run on death sparks the night before the PT, and I was able to trade mine for some good rares) and I refused to play sligh (not because I don't respect it, just because Im not good at it. In order to do really well with a sligh deck, you DO have to have a high level of skill and knowledge about the deck. David Price knows what he's doing!) so I was left with the Jank. I followed the recommendation of a friend at Dartmouth, John Wiggins, that the blue in the Jank deck (frenetics) was no longer good in this environment because there was literally no control decks and almost no removal. I threw in a mox monkey main deck to help against academy and two warrior en'kors to help against sligh. My entire sideboard was also devoted to these two decks, because I assumed that if I played against recur (the only other deck I expected in force) I would need to keep my deck fast and could use some of my extra enchantment removal to stop the SuperWhale. This was still not a good match up for me, but I decided that was a risk worth taking. Comments about my deck: It turned out that my metagame calls were mostly on target. I didn't know about the high tide deck which I now believe was by far the best deck at the tournament. If the top eight had been paired differently (i.e. the merfolk deck had to play against any of the non-spiral decks early) then I am pretty sure that one of the High Tide decks would have won. I learned that in the extended format 4 CC spells and up are completely worthless unless they win you the game through some combo that gives you fast mana. I knew this a year ago and mentioned it in my Orlando report. What I didn't know was that 3CC spells are also worthless. I had taken out my frenetics but should also have cut my suq'ata lancers and replaced them with mox diamonds to further increase the speed of my deck. I didn't like mox diamonds in the deck at first because Jank uses all of its land and cards in a beautiful curve that I didn't want to slow by giving up card advantage. This was a mistake given the opposition I faced. Of course, given the field I think that main deck pyroblast would have been a good thing * The other problem I had was mana. The deck ran with only 4 sources of red and 7 ways to get to those sources (also one source of blue just to play mind games with people). This worked fine if you didn't get wastelanded. Tommi Hovi and Erik Lauer both realized this weakness and exploited it in order to beat me. The addition of two mox diamonds and maybe 1 city of brass would most likely solve that problem. The Tournament Rd 1- Academy Game 1- I draw two lions a plains and three wastelands- I win. Game 2- I get off one wasteland and one early creature, he doesn't go off fast enough thanks to my abeyance so I drop aura of silence, then I drop another, then I drop a third and walk away with the win. 1-0 Rd 2- Necro Game 1- I see him consult away a large part of his deck when he gets a hymn and he only seems to have skittering skirge as a creature. I had a cursed scroll in play which meant game Game 2- He gets nothing as wastelands slow him down and kitties and white knights beat him senseless. 2-0 Rd 3- Academy Game 1- I am playing against Jeremy Baca and ask if I can take some notes for my tourney report, he says sure, no problem. After it appears that I am winning the first game he calls over a judge and Says that "[He doesn't] think I am allowed to take notes!" This was a really scummy thing to do without saying anything to me and was a cheap attempt to get a win. I got a warning and proceeded to crush him two games straight. 3-0 Rd 4- Academy (noticing a theme?) Game 1- This time Im playing Darwin Kastle who is a really nice guy. We complain to Mark Rosewater that we are not a feature and Darwin jokes that my stock with him must have gone down since last year. I grin and tell Mark that now I would have to get top eight just to spite him. I was only going for top 32 before, but now it was personal. Anyway, First game I dorp a first turn mox monkey which was good for me and bad for Darwin. Darwin plays very slowly by nature and I was kind of worried that we wouldn't finish if we had to go to three games. Game 2- Darwin slowly works his way into the combo and I concede quickly to get on with the third game Game 3- I get a quick hand with kittys and wastelands and proceed to beat down. The clock is running low and Darwin is still playing slow. We get a judge over to the table and I try to get Darwin to play faster (my turns were like draw, attack, go). Darwin got very angry at me for rushing him and I apologized for being impolite, but we ended with only a minute left and I did not want a draw. 4-0 Rd 5- Legion Landloss Game1- He tries to L/D me, but I get out a priest or two and serve shadow style before he can even hurt me Game 2- He has boarded in serrated arrows, but I keep dropping creatures, he has an ernham on the board and so I just kept serving with the forestwalker until he used up his arrows and I was able to finihsh him off- this match lasted less than five minutes Rd-6 Sliver/Necro Game1- I was real impressed that this deck could get so far, but I was not really afraid of it. I drew 3 wastelands in the first game and left him with only an undiscovered paradise which prevented him from developing at all Game 2- Only two wastelands this time, but they were effective enough. Rd 7- Academy I don't remember this match too well, I know that I lost it 2-1 and that my opponent played very sloppily. Rd 8- Academy - Randy Buehler - Feature Match Again, my memory is not so good (I believe that Beuhler's report describes this match in better detail), I won this, but Buehler tried to lay an extra land in one game he was losing. I didn't call a judge because I didn't think it was on purpose (my friends all yelled at me for that) but I won anyway. Rd 9 - High Tide- Ben Farkas Playing against these decks is like beating your head against the wall (I suppose stroking yourself is a more appropriate analogy, but it's a bit overused)... I won this one through the usual strategy of quick creatures with good disruption here and there. I think that I got lucky because I have very few ways to disrupt him (pyros and abeyances) but Im not complaining. Rd 10- Jank - Olle Rade Game1 - I was interested to see how this would turn out because our decks are similar but each have separate strengths. His is faster with mox diamonds and jackal pups but my has higher utility due to 4 cursed scrolls and 4 soltari priests and no gemstone mines. First game he goes land, mox diamond, creature. I never see 2 white and cant recover as he continues to play beatdown. Game 2 I develop quick and use wastelands on his plateaus forcing him to use his gemstone mine which sets him back too much Game 3- I drop three cursed scrolls early and am able to use two of them soon after. His deck cant handle that. 9-1 Rd 11- Academy -Erik Lauer Game 1- He wins first game because I cant disrupt him * Game 2- He wastelands me when he needs to and drops a gloom to slow me down further. He played very well and deserved to win. 9-2 Rd 12- High Tide- Mark LePine Game1- I always get the impression that LePine doesn't like me. I don't know why, but he just seems very upset whenever I'm around him. In any case, he sets up and wins one turn before I can kill him (I never expected to win the first game, but it was frustrating to come so close) Game 2- This is one of the few times where I got disruption and creatures and still lost. He sideboarded in rebound to stop abeyance which was kind of amusing but he won this because he was able to protect/top deck parts of the combo I tried to disrupt. This deck is very resilient and way too powerful, but I think the force was with him in this match as well. 9-3 Rd 13- Terry Tsang Sligh Feature Match Game 1- I am getting a bit worried here because I can feel the top eight slowly slipping out of my grasp. If I win this I have the potential to draw in, if I lose then I have no chance. We are a feature match and I love a crowd, so win or lose this round promised to be interesting. First game He comes out quick and hits me with a ball lightning despite my plow bluff. Damage continues and my critters are too slow Game 2- He locks at two lands which gives me enough time to deploy priest and en'kor and to continue beating him until I have scroll security as well. Game 3- He gets more land this time, unfortunately only one of them was a mountain. I lock the game up fast and finish him with honorable passage damage. Rd 14- at 10-3 we draw into the top eight. SUNDAY Quarterfinals vs. Tommi Hovi Game 1- He wins as expected Game 2- He gets a terrible draw and I win despite little disruption Game 3- I never got to an abeyance or a pyroblast and Tommi new when to wasteland my plateaus to stop me from being effective. At one point I tapped a plateau that got wasted for white so that I could tithe if he didn't go off, I didn't realize that he had mana in his pool and that I should have tapped for red to bluff a pyroblast. I felt like an idiot for the remainder of this match although it ended up not mattering in the result Game 4- I once again am never given a chance to abeyance or pyro and he counters my aura of silence. Tommi played very well and was a worthy opponent. I obviously wished that I could have won this because the match ups after that were pretty favorable (Olle Rade whom I had already beaten, and the fish deck which is really bad against me). Oh well, to the losers brackets! Losers' Semis vs. Andre (sp?) with R/B Necro Game 1- I remember that cursed scroll made the difference here as he had no way to remove it and it provided good board control. My creatures are hard for him to kill (pro red and pro black mixtures hurt contagion and firestorm). Game 2- Lake drains with yawgmoths will for rituals are some good! Game 3- This was an exciting game. At one point I am firmly in the lead at 20 to 5, he starts necroing into drains and using the lake to take me down in life. The total swings to 6-13 with him in the lead! I use scroll and creatures in an attempt to necro-lock him and I see that all of his drains are gone, there is one turn where he necroed for 2 and could have won with the one remaining yawgmoths will in his 20 card deck, but it was not to be. Next turn I drew wasteland and killed his lake giving me a guaranteed win next turn. Losers' Finals vs. Frederico Dato (sp?) High Tide Game 1- He goes off turn four! Game 2- Second turn he merchant scrolls for force of will basically letting me know that the combo (high tide/time spiral) is already in hand. I go into beatdown mode with a lion and three mishras and can kill him on my fifth turn. He goes off on his fourth. I had the option of being patient and trying to use an abeyance, but with the force of will in hand, all he needed was a blue card to stop me from disrupting him, so I think I made the right play despite the result. Frederico is a very nice guy with an incredible deck, I enjoyed our match. Well, that's it! For those of you that stayed through to the end, thanks. I hope you enjoyed my report and I encourage everyone to write to me and let me know what you liked and didn't so that future reports can be better. Hope to see everyone in L.A., but before I go, the obligatory: Props- All of my friends that helped me either to have a great deck or just to have a great time. There are too many of you to name and I don't want to offend anyone by leaving anyone out, you know who you are. It is people like you who keep the Pro Tour fun. Rome- With the exception of dog droppings everywhere and maniac drivers this is an amazing place with gorgeous artwork and a history like nowhere else (some great food too!) The Jeff Donais- For finally letting me know about my judge certification (only 6 months late) and for not trying to head judge an extended event * Andrew Finch- For being a great guy and a key part of making the Pro Tour what it is. You will be missed. BethMo- For putting up with everything! All of my opponents who showed good sportsmanship and most importantly a good sense of humor. Slops- Jeremy Baca- Take notes on this!! Everyone who tries to rules sleaze, cheat, or intimidate your way to winning. You may not get caught, but bad mojo will catch up with you sooner or later. Adios!