Subject: Az state champ tournament report Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 07:02:36 PST From: "Gregory Plitz" To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Greetings, This is my second post to the dojo, it is my first tournament report. The Arizona State Championship was held this weekend at ASU West so let me tell you all about it, and my weekend. Two weeks of playtesting my deck culminated in a frenzy of decktesting on Friday night (11/06/98). With the introduction of Urza's into the Type II mix the metagame was still being debated by my peers, though we were all pretty sure Tolarian Blue Stroke decks would be well represented. We were up late friday night and due to some misinformation we got up early Saturday morning in order to be ready for registration which supposedly started at 9:00 am Sat. So when many of us arrived at ASU west at 8:30 and found no sign of any other life we were, needless to say, a bit worried. We stuck it out though and after some breakfast and some horseplay and other assorted unprofessional behavior the judge who was running the event (Matt) got there. A short while later there were 54 people registered and round one started a tiny bit after 1 pm (the 6 of us who were there together were exhausted after waiting for 5 hours and getting only catching a little bit of sleep the night before). I was playing a stroke deck which I designed myself based on some of the dojo decks, some playtesting, and my own experiences. I knew very little about the field except that there was one other stroke deck to watch out for. The player was hunting down his last two time spirals just before the tourny began. He did manage to get them and he ran a solid deck which got him into the finals, but you will hear about that later. Onto the report of the rounds: Round 1 vs Matt Anderson (50th) Matt was playing a black weenie deck with a splash of blue for mana leak, unstable mutation, and lobotomies in the sideboard. Game 1: he got mana hosed with only a mox diamond and a swamp in play. This slowed his weenie assault down long enough to go off on him late. I think I capsized two unstabled creatures that game and fireballed two shadows leaving him only with a skittering skirge to attack with for two turns. My deck was running slow since I was only getting the "extra" support cards but I managed to go off at 1 life. He was holding a hatred at one point which he accidentally flashed to me while drawing and suspected I had a capsize (I don't remember if I did) but even if I did, he risked nothing in casting the hatred even down 10 life (more than enough to kill me) Stroke decks generally don't do much damage so he really had nothing to worry about. Game 2: he sideboarded in lobos I think (I didn't see it the first game) and I didn't have much against black weenie in my sideboard. At one point during the game he managed to lobotomy my academies because I was expecting a wasteland to get it on his turn. Oh well, I had to go off without the academies :) He did exactly 0 damage to me that game. Probably due to a poor draw. I capsized a bunch of his stuff too. 2-0, 1-0 (games, matches) Round 2 vs Jeremiah McCreary (3rd after round 6) Jeremiah played red sligh and introduced himself as J. He was an amicable fellow who was full of biting sarcasm and caustic wit. That tinge of friendly animosity may have been due to the fact that Stroke decks are not fun to play against. Game 1: I went off pretty early he managed to get me down to 17. Game 2: It was obvious he was playing sligh so I sided against it. Chills and hydroblasts. He sided heavy against the stroke deck, anti artifact and anti blue. He went played a fanatic, I went played a island, petal, and used them for a chill. He went and attacked. I went and played a petal and a chill, he went and attacked. This went on for a bit until my mana hose situation cleared up. I had blasted his fanatic earlier and he had put gnomes in play on his turn. I could have gone off with a big stroke etc etc. But I elected to save myself the time and deck counting and him the dull waiting by using a fireball. Silly me forgot to tap enough because I was tired ok! And as I was announcing it (I had more than 10 more mana available to me if I wanted it) I realized ya know, he's got a bottle gnomes in play, fireball for 21 ain't going to cut it, oh well too late. So he got one more turn which I wasn't worried about (due to chills) and I went off the next turn with strokes. Well it was a learning experience! I learned not to play magic for good sized stakes when you are dead tired. 4-0, 2-0 Round 3 vs David Cramer (2nd) My mind is completely blank on this match. I remember nothing about what he was playing and I don't even remember why. I think he was playing elf burn and since he came in second after the swiss rounds he must have been sitting next to me during the quarterfinals, yet I still remember nothing about him or his deck. Oh well, sorry David. Game 1: He got me down to 7 and I went off. Game 2: He got me down to 8 and I went off. 6-0, 3-0 Round 4 vs Alan Dedinger (21st) Alan was playing a white/red smokestack deck (well it had a smokestack combo in it anyway). He had arrived early for the event too (around 9-9:30 I think) so he might have been tired, but he was 3-0 too so he must not have been too tired. Game 1: he started beating me down with a halo'ed monk realist and some incinerates and shocks. I played an urza's bauble early and he knew exactly what he was up against, he responded to it with a shock (no need to use them as creature removal!) I baubled him and saw his smokestack (halo was already in play, I had a power sink in hand, I knew what it was going to be used on :) ) plus the cantrip draw next turn=baubles are so broken! Later, when I was at two life he went ahead and shocked me when I time spiraled, bringing me to 0. After the time spiral resolved I had the MoM and everything else I needed to go off. It was pretty neat to kill him off while at 0 life. Game 2: he sideboarded heavy, 11 against tolarian blue. I think I put in hydroblasts In any event after a tight game I went off at 5 life. So far my deck wasn't performing any 2nd turn kills or even very many 3rd-4th. but it was winning so I wasn't complaining. 8-0, 4-0 Round 5 vs Riad Mourssali (5th) He played sligh and was the only other undefeated player at the time. I heard a few people say that he was a quality player, but I figured even if I lost I would be 4-1 with an excellent shot at the final 8. Game 1: I played major artifact and mana sources, he played a goblin lackey, I played more artifacts and land, he attacked and got two raiders out of the deal. I fireballed all of his goblins for 2 on my 3rd turn :) . I went off either the next turn or the turn after. Game 2: 3rd turn chill and 4th turn chill. I took mana vault and jackal pup damage down to 12 but I went off and he was left with a large hand but no deck. 10-0, 5-0 In between rounds I found out that a ruling that the head judge had given us before the match stating that you cannot tap a land for mana in between MoM resolutions was reversed. You can (as I had originally suspected) throw a bunch of untaps through the MoM in response to themselves and have the land untap, tap for mana, untap, tap for mana, etc. Round 6 vs Ben Robinson (6th) In order to prevent collusion on draws, the head judge called every pairing up individually and let the two briefly discuss what they would do and that's it. No contracts or conditional agreements to draw would be allowed. I said I didn't care about playing or drawing, Ben wanted the draw, I said ok if you play me anyway, the judge said you can't do that, I said oops, Ben and I both said draw. we walked away, shuffled and prepared for the announcing of the beginning of the round. We knew we were both playing stroke decks. It would be fun to see which was better. He was 4-1 and I was 5-0 at this point. But wait a minute, one of my friends noticed his score was misreported at this time and spoke up. The pairings were revised and I ended up against Matt Mortensen. Round 6 (again) vs. Matt Mortensen (9th) I decided I wanted to play, there was no need for me to draw, and Matt just seemed a little tiny bit less friendly than Ben did, after I said play he was even less friendly. He muttered I wanted draw. He sat down across from me and we both prepared to play. His friend sat down next to him and asked him something about how his necro deck was doing, I said how what deck was doing? Matt muttered "thanks alot" to his friend. I found it amusing and fun, Matt probably didn't. Game 1: The game was really really drawn out, I wasn't seeing what I needed he wasn't seeing what he needed, he got out an early disk but I didn't put out enough artifacts for him to use it. I countered his first necro, a later necro got through and that gave him the resources to drain me for 5, 6, corrupt for 9. My first game loss came on my 11th game played that day, not bad. Game 2: I am pretty sure I went off second turn, I don't remember much about it. Game 3: He played a black night second turn, third turn hit me, fourth turn hit me, fifth turn hit me, sixth turn hit me. All the while he was necroing with a first turn ritualled necro, he necro'ed for 10 his first turn, and got himself down to 1. My sixth turn I started to go off, after I scroll racked and got a card I needed (fireball, only needed to do it for 1) the following occurred: He said, "Can I necro" I said, "umm sure" He said "I don't want to necro" He called a judge. Matt Mortensen told Matt the judge that I had just relinquished control and thus ended the phase per the 96 ruling on the pro tour (he called it the lightning bolt of 96 or something). Matt the judge asked me if I was done with the phase, I said no. Matt the judge explained to me and everyone else that what he was essentially doing was deviously asking if I wanted to end my phase. However, Matt the judge was not going to be a party to this underhanded play and since I did not want to end my phase, and the event wasn't a class 5 event he ruled that I retained control and the phase was not ended. Of course had the phase truly ended I think I would have had a chance for effects during the discard phase (though I would have taken 8 mana burn at the time and gone down to 6 life) to stroke myself and then him for the rest of his deck. No matter though. I didn't care if he won or I won, though if he had won using a sneaky trick like that it may have left a bitter taste in my mouth. Matt the judge told me after the match not to get discouraged because of play like that, I told him that I can have fun in a game despite my opponent's attempt to ruin it :) 12-1, 6-0 Here are the standings after 6 rounds of swiss. Rank/Name Points/Op-match win/Pl-duel win/Op-duel win 1/ Greg Plitz 18 64.8148 92.3077 58.6813 2/David Cramer 15 60.1851 71.4286 58.7179 3/Jeremiah McCreary 15 56.4814 71.4286 56.0592 4/Ben Carr 13 64.8148 60.0000 59.6925 5/Riad Mourssali 13 60.3704 69.2308 57.3291 6/Ben Robinson 13 55.7407 66.6667 53.9690 7/Sean Fitzgerald 13 53.3333 64.2857 53.4212 8/Jonathan Rapisarda12 61.1111 66.6667 56.5873 Had I drawn with Matt M. he would have gotten a higher spot and I may have had to meet him later on, so I'm glad I didn't draw. Riad, Jeremiah, and David only got losses to me at this point so there was a good chance I would play them later. Quarter Finals vs Robert Blasius Robert was playing a greenie weenie type deck with pouncers, ghazbans, scavenger folks, lyricists, and those elves that gain counters whenever a green spell is cast. Game 1: He got a bunch of guys out and proceeded to attack me for 5 damage 4 turns in a row. scavengers messed up one of my few sources of mana (i got land screwed oh well, it happens, he did not mess up anywhere in that game either, that never helps :) ) Game 2: I went off second turn. Game 3: He got me down to 6 with elvish elite (+1 +2 if opp controls nonbasics) that had elven rites on them. I got a propaganda (elites were sideboard, props were too) that slowed him down enough for me to go off. 14-2, 7-0 Semis vs. Riad again Game 1: Riad got me down to 14 life before I went off. Game 2: My deck didn't give me what I needed (except two chills, one of which was pyroblasted) and he got pretty much everything he needed. I took heavy mana vault damage that game. Game 3: Went off in 4 turns though I took a ball lightning a shock and one other miscellaneous bit of damage. 16-3, 8-0 Finals vs Ben Robinson It seemed kind of ironic that we, who did not get a chance to play for fun earlier in the day would have to play for the title. This would be the first time I would ever play a mirror match and I did not side against it. Game 1: he wins the die toss (not good!) he goes wasteland, tap for colorless put out a mana vault, play a lotus petal done. I go draw a card put out a wasteland, tap for colorless, put out a mana vault, play a lotus petal done. Weeeee a true mirror match! Which means I will probably lose because I will go off the turn after he does! Luckily we did not get duplicate draws, I managed to play more land and artifacts and MoM and, well I went off first. Game 2: he gets off to a fabulous start with mana vaults and other fun toys. I sit there waiting while the spectators yawned and paced. It was nearly midnight and both of us were trying hard not to make mistakes so we were taking our time. Anyway he had a big mana advantage and in one go he managed to intuition for a lobo and lobo out my MoM's. That was pretty much the death of my engine I could only hope to build mana up and go for a big fireball. I timespiralled the next turn and had there been any MoM's left in the deck (well if there had been 3 of them) then I could have intuitioned and went off. But the lobo was the kicker. I conceded after he stroked himself to save us all some time. Game 3: Similar starts, he wastelands my academy and plays his own a bit later. I'm having trouble getting the exact mana I need. On turn 5 or so I play an island which gives me enough mana to capsize his academy and play my own academy...doah! wait a minute I already played a land, well I thought that silly mistake would cost me dearly I was just waiting for him to go off on his turn and make me pay. Luckily he did not and my next turn I went off using mana vaults since he put the academy back into play. And that's that. 18-4, 9-0 Final notes: Everyone there were great sports considering what deck they played against. Never play a Tolarian academy stroke deck for fun...I guarantee your opponent will die of boredom while you shuffle and draw 19 times. Anti red is the best way to side, it has the most ways to knock the wind from your sails. You can ask Rik what time the tournament starts but always check for yourself anyway. Playtesting all night the night before is not a good idea, it is far better to be rested and slightly unsure of your deck than to know every little detail of your deck but not have the coherency to put that knowledge to good use. Do _you_ pronounce tournament as (tour' na-mint) or (tur' ne-mint) or some other way? Why don't convention halls have any air circulation? Why do people who did not make the final 8 insist on giving you needless advice after the last game is played and won? Thanks to Tony, Rik, Jon, Denny, and Brian for their support. This was the first major magic tournament I have attended in 4 years and I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Most of the players were great fun to play against. Except for the one sneaky trick and a players request to have my deck checked I enjoyed every moment. Good luck to all those who are planning on playing in the states later this month. -Greg Plitz squish1999@hotmail.com ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com