Subject: High Point, NC Tournament Report From: smith120@galactose.mc.duke.edu (Eric Smith) Date: 1996/11/08 Message-Id: <55vlap$bai@newsgate.duke.edu> Greetings, Having followed with interest the tournament reports on this news group for some time I thought that I would try my hand at writing a short one myself for the High Piont, NC Pro tour qualifier which was held last weekend. The winner was Richard Finegan and the second qualifying slot went to Nikolai Kettemann. At the end of the report I will list three of the top four decks as well as my own (I lost to Richard in the round of eight). I also want to apologize in advence for the brevity of the game descriptions as I did not go into the tourney with the expectation of writing a net report and so I am relying mostly on memory. Overall, I thought that the tournament was quite well run and by and large the day went pretty much according to schedule. There were approximately 140 enterants in the tourney which resulted in eight rounds of swiss being played, leading into an eight person direct elimination final. The scoring was done by match points (1 for a win, .5 for a draw) and the cutoff for entry into the elimination round was 6.5 match points with one player with 6 points makinging it into the finals from a group of about seven or so tied with that record. The top seed after the swiss rounds was David Barker who went 7-0-1. From what I saw in the swiss the standard IA/Al decks were all well represented, although there was a rather humourous rush on snow covered swamps in the hour or so before the start of the tourney which lead to some unusual trades (two snow-covered swamps for a lodestone bauble for example). Here is a brief description of the games in the elimation rounds: Round of Eight: Richard Finegan (R/w/U) vs. Eric Smith (R/W): I must admit that I got pretty much cleaned out in both of these games. In the first game he got out two early gargoyls while I was having a small mana problem and countered my swords with force of wills. A jokulhaups soon followed and that was about all she wrote for game 1. Game 2 actually went much the same with him getting out several gargoyls, countering my swords, and then haupsing. Ahhh well.... As it turns out my only two losses of the day were to the eventual qualifiers. But, as they say, timing is everything... -While I did not closely observe all of the other round one games, the pairings ended up with Dave Barker (B/W) beating B/w deck, Lincoln Torres beating a R/W deck and Nikolai Kettemann beating a (B/U) deck. On to the round of four.... Richard Finegan (R/w/U) vs. Dave Barker (B/W): This match went to three games with the first and third games going to Richard as a result of well timed jokulhaupses combined with counterspells. In the second game Dave was able to over-run Richard with fast creatures before the Jokulhaups became a factor. Nikolai Kettemann (W/u) vs. Lincoln Torres (B): This match turned into a race between Knights of Stormgald and Orders of the White Shield. The first game went to Nik while the second went to Lincoln on a soul burn which hit after an attack had caused nick to tap out running a COP:Black. The deciding game was over quickly as a Demonic Consultation for a dystopia resulted in there being only two cards left in Lincoln Torres' library. And while a Necropotence kept him from being decked he was quickly finished by an Order of the White Shield as well as a number of soldier tokens.... Final Round: Richard Finegan vs Nikolai Kettemann: The first game of this match saw Nik end up with slight mana difficulties in which he never saw the fifth point of mana required for him to cast any of the three Ivory Gargoyls he had in his hand. Richard, however, had no difficulty casting three gargoyls of his own and the Jokulhaups that followed pretty much wrapped up game one. I must admit that I can not remember much about the second game (as by this time it was about 2:30 am and I was dreading the drive home) other than it was again won due to a Jokulhaups when Richard had gargoyls in play. Here are the Deck lists that the above players were kind enough to share with me (and I hope to have Dave Barker's deck list sometime soon): Richard Finegan (R/U/w) 4 Ivory Gargoyles 2 Swords to Plowshares 3 Disenchants 4 Counterspell 3 Force of Will 2 Powersink 1 Binding Grasp 1 Sibilant Spirit 3 Jokulhaups 3 Lava Burst 3 Incinerate 2 Pyroclasm 3 Lodestone Bauble 8 Island 8 Mountain 3 Plains 4 Adarkar Wastes 3 Thawing Glaciers Sideboard: 2 COP Black 2 COP Green 1 Sword to Plowshares 1 Disenchant 2 Stone Rain 2 Blinking Spirit 2 Hydroblast 3 Pyroblast Nikolai Kettemann (W/u) 4 Ivory Gargoyls Sideboard 3 Blinking Spirits 1 Slight of Mind 4 Order of the White Shield 2 Cold Snap 4 Wild Aesthir 3 Royal Decree 2 COP Red 4 Swords to Plowshares 1 COP White 3 Disenchant 1 COP Green 2 Inheritance 1 Martyrdom 2 Martyrdom 1 Arenson's Aura 2 COP Black 1 Sol Grail 1 Energy Drain 1 Zuran Orb 2 Elkin Bottle 3 Walking Wall 3 Zur's Wierding 4 Kjeldoran Outposts 4 Adarkar Wastes 15 Plains 2 Islands 2 Thawing Glaciers T. Lincoln Torrey (Mono-B) "Black Alice" 4 Knight of Stromgald Sideboard 4 Abyssal Specter 3 Icequake 4 Foul Familiar 2 Dystopia 4 Ashen Ghoul 2 Despotic Scepter 2 Lim-Duls Cohort 1 Contagion 2 Soul Burn 3 Contagion 1 Stromgald Cabal 3 Dark Ritual 1 Lim Duls Cohort 1 Mind Warp 1 Infernal Darkness 2 Soul Burn 1 Jester's Cap 2 Necropotence 1 Icy Manipulator 2 Infernal Darkness 1 Demonic Consultation 2 Lodestone Bauble 1 Icy Manipulator 22 Swamp 1 Thawing Glacier 2 Lake of the Dead Eric Smith (R/W) 4 Swords to Plowshares Sideboard 3 Ivory Gargoyls 2 COP White 3 Blinking Spirit 2 COP Green 3 Disenchant 1 COP Black 1 Exile 1 Disenchant 1 Ivory Gargoyl 4 Incinerate 1 Pyroclasm 2 Lava Burst 2 Pyrokinesis 3 Storm Shaman 2 Cold Snap 2 Pillage 3 Pyroblast 2 Pyroclasm 3 Jokulhaups 3 Lodestone Baubles 2 Jester's Cap 2 Icy Manipulator 1 Zuran Orb 3 Kjeldoran Outposts 2 Thawing Glaciers 13 Plains 11 Mountains -Thanks for taking the time to read my report, Eric Smith