Subject: WI State Championship Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1998 11:09:05 -0600 (CST) From: Jacob P Welch To: Frank Hi Frank, this is my tourney report for the WI State Championships, sorry about the length but I won, so I figured I must write a report about it. On Saturday Nov. 21, 1998 the Wisconsin State Championship was held in the great beer city of Milwaukee, at MSOE a local college. The turnout was 86 people I believe and 7 rounds of Swiss was going to be used to determine top 8. Team VGC was sitting around deciding what to play at Jimmys Grotto, a restaurant in Waukesha, outside Milwaukee. There they SERVE these deep dried, oversized pizza pocket type things called Ponzas. Some thought that the BROKEN academy decks were going to be very strong and just beat everybody. So, Mike Heinrich and I decided to play a deck that Brian Kowal was playing in Rath Cycle. The deck is called Ponza Red. The deck uses little creatures to establish control early and then come out with some big fatties for the kill. There were the Teams of Ultra-Pro, C & C, Rouge-Cabal, Team RJA, and Team VGC Members Jake "The Snake Welch" (Me) Mark "Vikings Suck" Gresbach Dave "Counter-Sliver" Schriener Marcos "Skillz" Fontenez Julio "Down by the School yard" Fontenez Jacob "National" Janoska Brian "Mana Screw" Kowal Paul "Spike Girls" Artl Chris "Playtester" Hilmoe Robert "5 Color" Castro (1997 State Champ) Mike "#1 seed" Heinrich Jay "Go for yours" DeWeese Ponza Red 4 Cursed Scrolls 4 Shocks 4 Incinerates 4 Stone Rains 1 Aftershock 3 Apocalypses 2 Wildfires 4 Mogg Fanatics 4 Fireslingers 4 Lighting Dragons 2 Orggs 4 Wastelands 4 Stalking Stones 18 Mountains Sideboard 1 Grizzly Bear (I said I only need 14 sideboard cards and because I have over 1,500 bears, I decided that it was the extra card to put in for Good Luck) 2 Wildfires 1 Aftershock 4 Meltdowns 4 Pyroblasts 3 Disco di Nevinyrral (I like that name better) So yes I am playing 26 land in Mono-red (Thanks, Wakefield) Round 1 vs. Jesse Mills playing a WW/red burn Jesse is a good friend and I was play testing against him the day before, so we both are mad that we are paired up together but its round 1 so, FIGHT! Game 1 He goes turn 1 plains, mox, priest I Lose Game 2 He gets mana screwed and I stone rain the land he does have and then wasteland the others and I kill with the FOIL pre-release dragon. Game 3 He gets priest and paladin, but I disk and play dragon and attack for 11 and kill him. 1-0, 2-1 The rest of team VGC was 6-6 after round 1 Round 2 vs. Dustin Stern playing gay academy Game 1 I should auto lose game one which I do Game 2 I should win game 2 which I do with stone rains and wastelands Game 3 I have a 50/50 chance game three and nothing happens, he plays many artifacts and then I apocalypse and he plays MoM next turn with more artifacts and academy and kills me with no hand and no cards in play 1-1, 3-3 The rest of Team VGC went 8-4 to be 14-10 Round 3 vs. Julio Fontanez a team member playing Show and Tell, Verdant, Tradewind Game 1 I kill him with scroll and many creatures Game 2 I get early land destruction and then he draw land for about 6 turns in a row 2-1, 5-3 The rest of Team VGC went 6-6 to be 20-16 Round 4 vs. Rob 5 color Castro 1997 State Champ and Team Member playing Mike Flores's Draw-Go Bottle-Dance Game 1 I get 1st turn fanatic and hit him for about 13 turns and burn him when I can, but he got bottle-dance going so I apocalypse and out top deck the former state champ Game 2 I push through apocalypse and get land then scroll and kill him a few turns later 3-1, 7-3 The rest of Team VGC went 5-4-1 with two people dropping to be 25-20-1 Round 5 vs. Adrian Sullivan playing Counter-Shard Game 1 I get fanatic first turn and hit him for many turns and burned him when he was tapped out Game 2 I set a record for Ponza red this game by destroying 32 land by double wildfire and apocalypse and he still wins by Shard buyback Game 3 I get first turn scroll and I have 3 wildfires in hand and it goes all the way before he sees disk 4-1, 9-4 The rest of Team VGC went 4-5-1 to be 29-25-1 Round 6 vs. Adam Anderson playing a green stompy type deck, he was 5-0 and he was playing down and because I had the worst tie-breakers of all the 4-1 he had to play me. He offered me a draw and I had to play to get into the finals. Sorry :( Game 1 He plays muscle sliver and other little creatures and I drop the FOIL dragon and with Bob "The Bomber" Maher playing next to me says "Your just wanted to play pre-release stuff" but then me say to him I attack for 9 and attack for 10 Game 2 I stone rain many land and aftershock some more and beat down with stalking stones 5-1, 11-4 The rest of Team VGC went 4-1-1 with 4 people dropping to be 33-26-2 Round 7 vs. Eric Shipman playing Ertai-Lab, He is also undefeated at 5-0-1 but I have to play because of tie-breakers Game 1 I get 1st and 2nd turn scroll and they go all the way Game 2 He plays chill but that does nothing to a red deck with 26 land in it and I still cast 2 FOIL dragons and beatdown with dragons and stalking stones 6-1, 13-4 The rest of Team VGC went 3-1 with 2 people dropping to be 36-27-2 So the Top 8 looks like this 1. Mike Heinrich Team VGC playing Ponza Red 6-0-1 2. Shane Duffy playing Counter Sliver 6-1-0 3. Jake Welch (Me) Team VGC playing Ponza Red 6-1-0 4. Bob Maher playing Academy 5-1-1 5. Eric Shipman playing Ertai/Lab 5-1-1 6. James Hamblin playing Sligh 5-1-1 7. Marcos Fontanez Team VGC playing Academy 5-1-1 8. Brian Knock playing Suicide Black 5-2-0 1. Mike Vs. Mike wins 2-1 8. Brian 4. Bob Vs. Bob wins 2-0 5. Eric 2. Shane Vs. Marcos wins 2-0 7. Marcos 3. Jake (Me) Vs. Jake wins 0-0 see below 6. James Top 8 vs. James Hamblin playing Sligh I have a saying with Ponza Red that says "Thanks for the bye Sligh" Thanks Brian Kowal, but we still have to play it out. Before the game we are both shuffling our decks and then I give him my deck. I see him pile shuffle my deck, I was like O.K. Then he asks me to count my sideboard and I was getting made now, so I pile shuffle his deck and I notice some marked cards. He was playing clear sleeves which made it easy to see the cards that were marked. Because this is may first top 8 I ask the judge what I should do. He tells me to take the cards that I think are marked and pull them out of the deck. I pulled out 5 cards and he looks at them and then tells me to shuffle them back in the deck and to pull out the 5 card which I think are marked. He them takes the deck the head judge and after about 10 minutes or so they come back and say "If this were not the final 8, he would have more playing but because it is the finals, you are done." Later I talk to the head judge and find out that him and a different judge were able to pull out all the land in the deck. One pulled out 18 land and the other one all 20 land. I later found out that all the land was beta so it was darker then the other cards in his deck. This only happened because he pile shuffled my deck and counted my sideboard, so I went and pile shuffled him and noticed the cards. I think that the judges should have seen this in the deck checks because then the #9 seed would of got in and that was Adam Anderson my round 6 opponent that had to play down and lost against me and lost next round to finish 5-2 and not make top 8. The judges did make the right call, but I understand what they are doing durning deck checks and that is checking decks lists not the cards. 7-1, 0-0 this round total games 13-4 still Top 4 1. Mike Vs. Bob wins 2-0 4. Bob 3. Jake (Me) Vs. Jake (Me) wins 2-0 see below 7. Marcos We all are feeling good because he have 3 of the top 4 people, Members of Team VGC Top 4 vs. Marcos Fontenez playing academy Game 1 (I should auto-lose remember) I get fanatic beatdown going, I force him to go off with burn and he screws up, and I win. I am very happy because I always figure to lose game 1 Game 2 I get a 5th turn disk with pyroblast in hand and force him to go off and he fails and I now am very happy to just be in the finals 8-1, 15-4 FINALS vs. Bob "The Bomber Maher" playing academy Game 1 I go 1st turn fanatic and it hits him for a couple of turns and I try to apocalypse and he counters it. Then time spirals and off of the spiral he pull many land and artifacts so he has to scroll rack and off of that he get 3 moxes and more land. I win and now I am very happy because I am now one game way from state champ. I start sideboarding and I take my sideboard and take 11 cards and throw them on the table and no I didn't put in the bear. I hear Dan Bock say someone ways read for academy and I take out the orggs, dragons, 1 scroll, 2 apocalypse, 1 aftershock and 2 wildfires. Game 2 I draw 5 land in opening hand and draw more land and he goes off and strokes me for many Game 3 for the Championship I look at my opening draw and see a meltdown and 2 pyroblasts but I have no land so I squander. My new hand is pryoblast, fanatic, stalking stone, and 3 of David Prices favorite cards the "mountain" He goes, he squanders, and I was told that he does squanders to get 1st turn chill so I don't know if his hand was bad or no chill. Later I was told that it was very BAD. He new hand has two land in it. Here is the play by play Me: land Him: land, mana vault Me: land, fanatic Him: academy Me: wasteland top-decking skillz, attack for 1 Him: go Me: stone rain land, attack for 1 Him go Me: land attack for 1 Him: academy, mox, tap for 2 blue and tap vault chill, chill Me: land, DISK, attack for 1 Him: vault deals one, go This continues till he is at 2 and I attack with fanatic to put him at 1 and say done and he goes and takes damage from mana vault and dies. I win the State Championship by beating Bob Maher. I am going crazy and everybody I know is asking me questions and I am in shock and I receive my award, a bag that says 98 Wisconsin State Champion and a box of Urzas Saga. It was kind of sad that the game ended in him getting mana screwed but that is a part of the game and I will take every win I can get. After the match is over I hear Brian Kowal and Adrian Sullivan say "Jake Welch you just won WI state championship, what are you doing next?" I reply by saying "I'm going to Jimmy's Grotto" So, I end up 9-1, 17-5 and Mike that played the same deck went 7-1-1 with his only lose to Bob in the finals so the deck went 16-2-1. The only two loses to academy decks. Thats pretty good I hear. Team VGC had a total record of 41-29-2 and we now have back to back State Champs :) Props: Me for winning the thing To Team VGC for have back to back state champs in the store Marcos and Mike for a top 4 finish Bob Maher for a good game Mark for driving me down to the tourney, and going 3-3-1 with counter moose Slops: Brian Kowal and Jacob Janoska the higher ranked player in Milwaukee for not being near the top, but bad days do happen. Adam Anderson for not making top 8 after go 5-0 and then losing the last 2 rounds. Rob Catro for not even making top 8 to try to repeat Karl Davis for not coming to play in state because of his master debating tourney which he won (He says he is really good at it) Chris Hilmoe for leaving after round 4 or 5 and not even see any of his teammates in top 8 I was a good day and we all went to Jimmys Grotto to have a victory Ponza after the tourney and If you are in the Milwaukee area come see both the '97 and '98 state champs in ONE STORE at VGC in West Allis. Let me know if any of you are playing this deck. I can give you some ideas of other decks and how to play Ponza Red. It is really good very Sligh, black, and academy, which is the current metagame, so I would recommend it to anyone playing in state. Thanks for reading this far, Jake Welch 1998 Wisconsin State Champion Member of Team VGC jpw@csd.uwm.edu