Subject: Dallas Qualifier in Oslo, Norway - Tourney Report From: msveen@telepost.no (Magnar Sveen) Date: 1996/10/31 Message-Id: <10769.6878T1375T514@telepost.no> Hi all! This is my first report, hope it works. :) This weekend there was a Dallas-qualifier in Oslo, Norway. The members of Team "Been there, done that" (Dag Lokkebakken, Gunder Gundersen, Jon- Halvor Stridsklev, Christian Rosnes and me) were eager to go, after playtesting Alice-decks for about two weeks. Everybody had prepared their version of the Gargoyle/Haups/Stormbind/Dude-ranch-deck. Mine had 4 Browse and 2 Zur's Weirding, Ranches, Gargoyles, Stormbind, Haups. So, on Friday Gunder and I met to do the final play-testing, and to our big surprise one of our test-decks beat our deck 9 out of 10 times! .. It was a pure red, non- boltable creature-swarm deck that Gunder had made. It consited of 4 Warbeasts, 4 Chaos Harlequins, 2 Balduvian Hordes, 3 Storm Shaman, 3 Goblin Mutants, 4 Incinerate, 2 Lava Burst, 3 Icys, 4 Pillage, 4 Stone Rain, 1 Pyroclasm, 1 Jokulhaups, 3 Thawing Glaciers and 22 Mountains. After some more getting beat by that deck, I said; "I know this is a no-no, but let's play that deck instead." . Weeks of playtesting isn't anything to let go off easily. So we decided to test the deck against other decks. We made Olle-decks, Wisp/Zombie-decks, Browse-decks, and the damn deck beat them all. The only change we did was put in a Karplusan Yeti for a Mutant, and the two of us decided to go for it. 07:30 in the morning. Then, at about 07:00 in the morning on Sunday, Christian calls, telling me he's sick. Not good, I didn't have 4 Harlequins and he should borrow me one. Well, I put in a Soldevi Simulacrum instead. The door-bell rings after I've eaten an apple and brushed my teeth. It's Dag and Alex, they've come to pick me up. I grab my stuff, and we're off. Dag tells me Gunder is still asleep, they didn't manage to wake him up. Since we didn't have to pick Christian up, we went to Gunder again to give it another shot. After a while he answered the intercom, and came rushing out two-three minutes later. Nice, then I could get my lava-bursts.. (hehe) Didn't have any of those either. Didn't think I'd ever want any. Well, we're off to Oslo. When we arrive we see that Jon-Halvor hasn't showed up either, so we're just three from the team. While we write down our decks, we suddenly have second thoughts. Gunder says to me; "It's for this occation only that I left my other deck at home." .. I nod, my other deck was in the car. We register, and wait for the tournament to begin. Two members of Team Bergen/Soldiers of Fortune is here, so we talk to them about Alice and the pro-tours until the pairings are called. Round 1 -- I get a walkover, Dag is paired with Alex, I go to check on Gunder. He is playing against a Kaysa/Juniper-Order Druid/Weenie-deck. Should be easy, but the first game Gunder ends up with 3 Thawing Glaciers, 4 Incinerates and nothing but land. Second game he is mana-screwed, and makes a major mistake. Gunder bursts Kaysa for 4, while telling a fun story about when he bursted a Kaysa for 3 during the Atlanta-qualifier. Then he sees the Advocate. So he loses the first round, I tell him it's just a forced swiss-gambit. :) Alex sweeps Dag 3-0, and Dag is also depressed. I'm the teams moral support during this round, and tell him that this is exactly what happened when he made the national team this summer. Round 2 -- I'm paired with a guy that had just finished one game, winning that one. I was afraid that he was a staller, or that his decks was really slow. It turned out that I had nothing to be afraid about. He played normally, and with a Green/Red critter-deck. He was a little mana-screwed in the first game, and my land destruction sort of helped out making his situation worse. At one point he had out two Spiders, and since he had just Incinerated my Mutant, I told him; "Let's show you a nice trick." and put out my Yeti. "Yeah, that's a nice one. Let me show you one too!" And he Incinerated it. "That's nice too" I say. Beat him anyway though. This is the first time I put out a Horde, and I didn't like the feeling. I'm such a card- advantage freak. But hey; it works in Alice. He always got a distressed look on his face when I put out hordes. Second game he was colourscrewed. A funny story here. For three rounds he let my Chaos Harlequin through, with him on 5 life. I had quite the upper hand, so I decided to go for it with the pump- ability. But the betraying litte clown went to 4 each time, then up came a mountain. Gunder and I had agreed beforehand that we would be satisfied with 4, but I just had to try. Last game some ugly Chieftains beat me up since I couldn't find any Incinerates. Dag wins and Gunder loses. Gunder is really depressed now, but then we hear that it is possible to qualify at 4-2, so Gunder only has to win the rest of the games. That would be some swiss-gambit. :) 2-0 (5-1) Round 3 -- Another Green/red. This time Ants/Kaysa/Chieftains and red for Stormbind/Burst. I'm mana-screwed in the first game (sigh) and get beaten to death by a couple ants. Second game, I get really nervous. In my hand there is only a Thawing Glacier. I luck out, drawing a mountain the next turn. He Karsts the Glacier when I put it out again. I'm dead before I get another mana. *damn!* .. Win the last game quite easily. Zuran Orb helped out here, though. Those ants bite pretty hard! (Bite in a litterary sence) Dag wins again, and starts to cheer up. Gunder wins for the first time, and starts seeing hope. We all try to boost his morale further, and he tells us that he is starting to wake up now. Nice. Round 4 -- Guess what. More Green/red. Well, this time it had white too, for Swords and Disenchants. First game my land-desctruction kicks in, and a Horde beats him to pieces. The only thing I've seen is a Gorilla Shaman, a Wolly and a Disenchant. I sideboard in two Anarchy in case of Circles and another Karplusan Yeti. Second game he gets out the Zorb and an Icy, but two Hordes, a Mutant and Shaman beats him to pulp. The most important part was that he couldn't double- bind the Horde. He even had a Tactics in hand! Last game he beats me to death with an Insect, my Pyroclasms are in the sideboard, and I can't find enough creatures to stop the insect. He double- binds most of my creatures. Yet another win for Dag, and Gunder won too. 2-2 for Gunder, 3-1 for me and Dag. Starting to look good. An hour pause, so we and the two from Team Bergen go to the local 7-11. I only have enough for a Hot-Dog. So that's what it'll be. We discuss the Oslo- scene. Very much R/G, very little Browse. We come back just in time. Round 5 -- I couldn't belive my eyes when I saw this guys deck. It was almost identical with the one me and Gunder brought. He said he had just threwn it together the night before. The decisive difference is that he only played 21 lands, when we played 22 and 3 Thawing. And the fact that he used Tactics in addition to the Incinerates. For this he took out the Harlequins. So my land- destruction screwed him over, and the Tactics/Incinerates in his hand was wasted. In game two a funny situation appeared. We both had out a Horde, two Icies and a Zuran Orb. I kept tapping his Zorb, and he would sacrifice some lands to feel secure. Thereby I had more lands, and could put out a Storm Shaman and hit hard with it, and still be able to use my icies. He couldn't, he just had four mountains. So I won. An easy 3-0 Dag wins too, so we're both 4-1 and in the top 8. Gunder also wins, closely, and is now 3-2! Can he do it? It was really exiting. :) Round 6 -- Guess what. R/G.. Hordes, Tinder Walls, Elves, Insects, Stormbind. First game I draw 5 LD-cards and Incinerate his elf. Rolled him over. Second game he Pillages two lands and puts out a Horde. I never draw enough land to burst it, and can't seem to find a creature to block-bolt it. Third game I overrun him with my creatures while holding his 12/13 Lhurgoyf tapped with my Icy! *chuckle* .. He Jokulhaupses, and I have a Goblin Mutant, a Thawing Glacier, a Lodestone-bauble and 3 Mountains in hand. Easy! .. When he saw me put out a thawing, a lodestone-bauble and a mountain in the first two rounds after the haups he said "Hmm.. Shouldn't have done that, should I?".. "Nope." Dag wins 3-0 over Morten, member of Team Bergen. That was Morten's first loss in the Swiss. Gunder plays a blue-red LD-deck with Sibilants and Benthic Explorers. Gunder draws two lands in the first draw, and dies miserably. He sideboards in 3 Lodestone-baubles, and they work wonderfully. 2- 1 to Gunder, and he's in! 4-2 after 0-2.. Amazing, and every team-member that participated in the top 8. =) .. A good day for Team Been There, Done That. Quarterfinals -- This had to happen. I meet up with Dag. He plays his version of the Dude/Gargoyle deck with 4 Stormbind, 4 Thawing Glaciers, 4 Dude Ranch, 4 Gargoyles, 8 LD-cards. First game he draws his Zuran Orb, I don't draw any Land Desctruction, and he puts out three Gargoyles in a row. Even a Yeti wouldn't have saved me. Next game I did about 40 damage to him, but he had enough land to eat. Hit me to death with gargoyles and dudes. *sigh* .. I'm out, but both Gunder and Dag goes on. Gunder played and won against the green/red-deck I lost to in the swiss. Morten lost vs. a deck he had sweeped in the Swiss. Semifinals - Hey, nothings new; Gunder and Dag has to play. Gunder is mana- screwed in game one, Dag wins fairly in game two. Finals - Dag vs. Bjorn-Petter. Bjorn-Petter played a strange BUW deck, with gargoyles, dude ranches, countermagic, dances, cantrips and a Merieke or two! *hmm* .. Well, both players plowed each-others Gargoyles. The difference was that Bjorn-Petter only had two Icequakes as LD, and Dag had 4 Stone Rain and 4 Pillage. That meant that Dag had to win the Dude-war. In game two, Bjorn-Petter thawed out all his white mana-sources. When Dag saw that Bjorn didn't have any more basic lands in his deck, he Jokulhaupses. Bjorn is unable to counter, and that pretty much seals the game. One thing though; In game #2 Dag attacks with his dude, and Bjorn-Petter blocks with his. Dag the PLOWS the dude! .. Whoa.. Major mistake that almost cost him the game. Dag had two lives left and Bjorn had a Gargoyle on the table. Dag draws a Stormbind, and Bjorn had 4 mana. Dag stormbinded the Gargoyle in Bjorns upkeep, and Bjorn said "Are you gonna do that every turn?" .. Dag said yes, and Bjorn gave him the game. So Dag Lokkebakken is going to Dallas, and Team Been There, Done That has proved their strength with 3 in the top 8, 2 in the top 4 and the winner of the qualifier. :) Hope you enjoyed the report, -- Magnar Sveen - mARSH mELLOW - msveen@telepost.no Team Member - Team Been There, Done That! Everything you know is wrong.