From: "Jamie" Subject: How I qualified for Dallas - ice age alliances ptq So. I continue to have my weekly saturday tournaments and they become all ice age/alliances constructed decks. I need to practice in order to qualify for Dalla so this is the format. It helps everyone, because there will be a qualifier in Burlington in a month and I know all the lemmings from Comics and Collectibles are going to be there as well, and they will have tuned, ready to go decks that have been tested time and time again. I want them to do well. Also, after winning the last six of these little tournaments I start to add other incentives. I give away all the cards that I win in the tournament, as I have a staggering collection. I also start to provide an extra card for third, and divide the first place prize into first and second place prizes. So, I don't feel guilty about winning every week. I play test and tune as much as I can before the boston qualifier and I make up four test decks that I think will be viable in an ia/ai constructed format, and test and tune, and test and tune. I win in middlebury for a couple more weeks, once with my version of a garglehaups deck, and once with a marton stromgald/ llurghuff/death spark/stormbind deck. Its an amazing deck that makes me giggle like a school girl its so fun to play. Then I finally settle on the Clifford deck. Its a big red creature deck that I love to play and really suits my style. I will later find out the name was even more prophetic than I wished, as it turns out that the deck is also a dog. Mark Justice gave some good advice in the latest duelist about - weeks before a tournament, settle on one deck, and play that deck exclusively. So thats what I do. Of the decks I just listed, I decide that I will go down to Boston with Clifford, the big red dog. I play it for a week at the shop and saturday, at the tournament, I play it again, expecting to win again. I lose. Not only do I lose, I lose badly. I don't even make the top three out of ten. And a balduvian horde was the first prize. I pace most of the night, and then I pace most of the morning. The lovely and understanding Marilyn asks me what I'm thinking. And I tell her. "I don't have a deck for next weekend. I've been concentrating on cliffod for a week and have nothing else as tuned and I lost. I have six days to get ready for Boston and I lost this weekend. I need to tune, playtest and get a deck ready for Boston." "So call Doug, Hil and Michelle and get them down here to help you today. I bet they'll come down today." I stare at her in disbelief. I had promised her that we would clean out the cellar today, and it really needs it. She's been so understanding about my magic fanatacism that I really wanted to give this day to her. To clean, and work, and get the house back in shape and ease the stress she gets when we haven't done much work around the house. I know, it's not dinner and a movie, but this is what makes her happy. Cleaning. "But I thought we were gonna clean the cellar?" "Naw, we can do it another day. Call the Team down and make yourself feel better." Hot damn. What a babe, huh? And I'm married to her. Relieved, I get the team down and we practice. Using clifford, I run about 50-50. Using my garglehaups, I don't lose a game with it all day. Later in the week I play someone not previously mentioned, my friend Rob. I beat him 12 games to 1 in a two and a half hour set of magic in the middle of the week. I play at the store and I stomp both Kieth and Louise all week. I'm ready. Almost. Doug comes down in the early afternoon on Friday and we playtest in a way that I hope will become a tradition. We tune and sideboard and tune and sideboard Tournament style. No moves taken back. No - "You should have done this," or "You didn't draw your cards after the Arcane Denial.". We tell each other these things AFTER the game is done, and it helps me immensley. This last eight hour session is the icing on the cake I needed. I feel better about my deck than I have since Pro Tour 1. I feel great. Hilary comes down a bit later, like 5:30 in the afternoon, and we playtest his deck as well. He has had an exhausting week and crashes at 8:00 pm. Like the bastard he is, he falls asleep right off. Doug, Mare and I all crash at 9:15. I shut off the TV in bed at 9:55, and roll over. I'm pretty tired and I try to sleep. I fail. At 10:30 I get kind of excited and think, I'm doing it, I'm starting to fall asleep! But this of course wakes me up. I focus on nothingness, on the deepness of space, on clearing my head of all thoughts and just letting night take it's course. But, no matter how hard I try, a little voice in my head is singing. I'm not thinking about the tournament, or my deck, or testing, or anything. But a little voice in my head is singing tunes that I have heard throughout the day. And it won't stop! It's like my Id is so happy about finally going to another qualifyer that it can't contain itself. What a pain in the ass. I finally make it stop, and I'm almost asleep when the phone rings. THE PHONE RINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 I know its Michelle, cause she's in Texas and was told to call Hilary to let him know she arrived safely. She did but the plane was delayed. See, she called earlier to tell me this, and to tell him when he arrived. But he wasn't here. What the hell she's doing calling him now, I have no idea. I'm just pissed. I get Hilary up, he answers the phone, talks for a few minutes and tells me later that he went right back to sleep and slept the sleep of the dead. I think Michelles going to sleep the sleep of the dead when I get my hands on her. I lie awake and fume until 12:30. 12:30 a.m. I'm getting up at 4:00 a.m. to drive to Boston to compete in a game that is pretty damn mental intensive, and I'm gonna be like a zombie. Great. Just great. I go downstairs at 12:30 and get a glass of milk and sit at the dining room table and say a little prayer. God, I think. I have worked so hard for this. I have to sleep. I have to do well tomorrow. Just three hours. Thats all I ask, just three hours. I go back upstairs, and think, if I can't get to sleep soon, there really isn't any point in going to Boston. I've done this enough to know that with no sleep, I'll make more mistakes than good plays. I go to bed and (A MIRACLE!!! I CAN SLEEP!!! I CAN SLEEP!!!) fall asleep almost immediatley. I sleep for three hours and awake, still feeling like a zombie but immensley thankful for the three hours. Its so much better than nothing. Doug gets up when he hears me making coffee in the kitchen, (he's on the living room couch, and Hilary is in the spare bedroom.) We compare notes on the lack of sleep that we have gotten and how close we were to falling asleep when Michelle called. We entertain fantasies about what we are going to do to her for waking us up. Hilary has to be woken up by me pulling on his foot and going "Hilary! Hilary! Hil! It's 4;00 am, time to get up." I 'm just amazed. Every little noise wakes me up the night before a tournament, but not Hil. He sleeps the sleep of the dead as usual, and when he gets up, complains that he only got eight hours of sleep. I beat him senseless with a supersized box of cards and throw him into the trunk of the car in a heap. Well, no, But I consider it and I know Doug would help me without a second thought.. We all take quick showers and load up the car. Hil takes the back seat and promptly falls into a deep slumber that last to Rutland, 45 minutes away where we stop for donuts and more coffee. Rod is about 45 minutes past Rutland and we get to his apartment about 6:00. He is up, just out of the shower and almost ready. He tells us that he got out of work at 2:30 a.m. and could not sleep, sat in front of TV for an hour and sipped a beer until he was able to go upstairs and finally crash. We are all exhausted and I fear for our chances this weekend in such debilitated states. But, enough whining. This is costing lamenting of our poor selves is getting so old even I'm sick of it. So we continue on. The directions to the Knights of Columbus hall suck, and being the country bumpkins we are, we get lost and it takes us an extra half an hour to get there. We finally show up, and we are still early. The door is pretty busy, and there's a young kid there that does a great job all weekend long. He is overwhelmed and another guy steps up to help, looks right at me and says... "Wakefield. Right?" I'm flabbergasted. Hil nudges me and says "Jeez Jame, I didn't know your fame had spread so far, I thought you were famous only through to the lower part of Vermont. I ask this guy how he knows me and he tells me at the last qualifier, we were talking about my stormbind/jokulhaups deck. I vaguely remember this, but it is unclear. As it turns out, this is Tom Guervin. I find this out reading another tournament report when the author mentions that Tom Guervin was the Head Judge at the SMK Qualifier in Boston. So, I surmise that Tom must have seen our Team Quarterstaff shirts, seen the name Jamie on the front of mine, and remembered me from the net. I know he has net access so I assume he must read my reports. He was nothing like I would have pictured him. The pictures of Tom I have seen show him as thin, with a weak face, and since there is nothing to scale, I always thought he was smaller, like a hundred and fifty pounds maybe. In reality, which is why it takes me so long to place him, he is six feet one, maybe six foot two. He's a good 180 probably 200 pounds. He's well built and a pretty big guy, not the way the few pictures I have seen show him. He's also pleasant, and seems to know all of us. He asks Hilary where his wife Michelle is, and in the bleary state we are in, no one catches on that he must know us from the net. So we grab a table, and the REAL Team Quartertaff is there. Fritz, Don and Alan, the guys we are staying with tonight, whenever we get done, spend more time in Quarterstaff games than we have in months. They play there more than us, and Fritz lives with the manager, Chris Meyers who is supposed to meet us later. We have to get them shirts. So we take up seats with them and Fritz tells me that he hears I've been doing really well lately, and that we have both come with the same deck, and that that makes him feel good. I offer to show him my deck, and he accepts. He looks through it, and says, "Hmm, I guess we didn't come with the same deck. You're using a whole bunch of cards I'm not." Typical. My standard decks are never standard. I have a solid black deck that a lot of people think is necro, but I don't have any knights, or any necropotence in it. Yet its won me three large tournaments. My Garglehaups is quite different too. No lodestone baubles, heavy on the creatures, and only three haups. Now is as good a time as any to list the deck, so I'll let you see it for yourself. 3 Jokulhaups 1 Zorb 4 Plowshares 4 Incinerates 4 Lava Burst 3 Pillage (I love these!!!!!!) 2 disenchant 4 Goblin Mutant 4 Balduvian Hordes (I traded hard for these) 4 Ivory Gargoyles 3 blinking Spirits 15 mountains 11 plains Thats right, 26 lands, and none of those damn evil Glaciers. I hate that card. I'd rather be mind twisted or channel fireballed than have those damn glaciers stay unbanned or unrestricted. Have I mentioned I hate that card? With a burning hatred that rivals the fiery pits of Hell? So anyway, there's the deck. It has two roads to victory, and I decide which one to take depending on the opening hand, and what sort of deck my opponent is playing. If they can handle the large amount of damage I'm throwing at them via spells and huge creatures, then it's pretty unlikely that they can handle a haups right after a gargoyle hits the board. They can't handle it all. Its too much coming at them They must use a plowshares on a Mutant or a Horde, or its gonna end up killing them. If they do that, then thats one less for the gargoyle. If they counter the lava bursts, the hordes, the mutants and the incinerates, then they have an empty hand when the gargoyle and the haups comes. There is so much in this deck that MUST BE DEALT WITH RIGHT NOW that it overwhelms people. It works pretty well, but if I play it again I would put in storm shamans for the blinkies and put in some wild aesthir for something else. More creatures they must deal with, and the blinkies are so defensive that they don't fit my style, or the style of the deck. Whew, time for the action. I look at the long rows of tables and I think - We're going to slowly work our way up these tables to the head table, and we're gonna stay there. We're gonna do it today. We''ve worked hard for this. I'm confident in my deck and play style and despite three hours worth of sleep, I feel damn good. A cool confidence and underlying current of anticipation and adrenaline. Clear headed and ready to start. I'm amazed at how good I feel, and once again I question the existence of God. I'm a strict agnostic, but almost getting hit by a Cab in New York, and being able to suddenly sleep last night both question my faith or lack thereof. We start. I walk up and down the rows of tables and look for my name. Rodney calls me over to where he's sitting. Rod is my first opponent. I sit down next to him, anxiously await for everyone else to sit down, and finally, we start. I try to make this as fun as possible, but Rod is taking it deadly serious. He knows my deck and I know his, and I know that my sideboard will crush him. Rod is playing a blue white deck that he is very comfortable with, but I know I can take him. He has been busy as a one armed paper hanger at work, and with a 5 year old son, he's been too loaded down with responisbility to play as much as myself lately. Sadly, he is out of practice. I overwhelm him in the first game. As soon as I get 4 mana on the board I start sending out little teasers for him to counter. Blinkie? I ask, knowing he will counter it. He does. Bolt you for three? (I call incinerates Bolts.) He allows it. I bolt you for three? He allows it. Fireball you for five? Nope, thats enough of that. Goblin mutant? No. Goblin Mutant again? No. Ivory gargoyle? He allows it. Hmmm, out of counterspells I think. The next turn I haups with a silent prayer, and he can't stop it, nor can he recover. He does not get the plains for the plowshares he's holding. I'm 1 and 0. The second game I side in six cards. 3 red blasts and 3 kjeldoran outposts. We start off very quick, and I have only a goblin mutant in my hand, land, 2 red blasts and an outpost. As soon as I see the sick little dude ranch, I know I've won. Rod starts off quick with an illusionary forces, which I blast, he counters, I blast. Next turn I try to play a mutant and he quickly blasts it himself. I drop an outpost on the next turn and the rest of the game was... I make a little token before I start my turn, hit you for 1. I make a little token before I start my turn, hit you for 2. I make a little token before I start my turn, hit you for 3. I make a little token before I start my turn, hit you for 4. I make a little token before I start my turn, hit you for 5. I make a little token before I start my turn, hit you for 6. and that was game. He did get another forces on the board, but all my little weenies just ran into and around him. I feel like crap for this and tell him so. He says its fine, but you can tell he's quite disappointed. So, we're done. I go next door to get a slice of pizza and some coffee. I'm very careful about what I eat, drink enough coffee to keep me going but not enough to make me edgy, or light headed from not enough food. I can't believe it, but I feel great today. The next round starts and they are having some trouble with the experimental new software they are trying out, and I think about going up to offer a hand. I'm a Tech in my other life, and spend my weeks building and fixing new machines. I'm also a programmer, and have three games on the net, Hero, Superher, and my latest and greatest Llhore. Do an ftp search in Accufind, and you'll find Llhore fast enough. Its worth the download. I go up to the table, but they have two laptops hooked up together over what looks to be some spanky propriety network, and they are obviously running a database program to keep track of all this. I look it over and decide not to say anything. They seem to know what they are doing, and if its a software problem, i.e. the programmer messed up, then there is little I can do. If it's hardware or settings, I can do a lot, but I don't want to make the offer only to find out its something only the original programmer can fix. I walk back to the table. They're a little delayed but not too bad when we start the second round. I walk up and down the tables, looking for my card, and I can't find it. Hilary is laughing, and calls me over. "Look at this! I'm playing Rod! Can you believe it? We could have had this tournament in your living room!" So I continue to walk along the tables looking for my card, and I think... Oh no. Rod lost, and Hil won, they shouldn't be playing. I walk back to Hil, and I see that Hilary was looking at Rod's name on MY sheet as being my last opponent. I'm actually playing Hilary. I'm playing Hilary. Hilary gets totally mana hosed in the first game, and I walk all over him. Hil is playing a red white deck, but no Gargoyles and no Haups. I tried to get him to go Garglehaups with me, but he didn't want to. The second game is a little better. I tease him with large creatures to pull the plowhares out of his hand, and when they are gone, I cast a Gargoyle, and then a haups. Like me, he is playing a lot of big creatures. He just can't get them on the board fast enough to save himself from the gargoyle. We get done and he is de-sideboarding. "You Bastard" he says. (he's just kidding, we call each other that all the time.) "Thats seven. Seven times you've taken me out." I'm on a hot streak these days and can't seem to lose. I feel worse about beating Hilary today than I have ever though. All of us have worked harder on our decks than since before the first Pro tournament, and I really had hoped we would all be in it for a long time. On the bright side, Rod has won and Doug has won, after losing his first Match, so the rest of the team is 1-1 and I'm 2-0. Not a great start, but, it's the last time today anyone we know, will play anyone we know. Hmm, I notice I'm movng up the tables now. 2-0 should start to get me a good seat. The software is still giving them trouble and finally, I walk up and offer my services, and they politely decline and tell me they will keep it in mind, and thank you. I get some lemonade from next door at the pizza shop as I have found soda makes me play badly on tournament day. Too much sugar I guess. So I get a lemonade, and head back in, chat with everyone and anxiously await the start of the third round. I take on a junior who is 2-0. He starts with a mountain, orc lumberjack. Uh oh. Check my hand. I have no creature elimination in my hand. No bolts, no plows, not even a lava burst. I draw, a pillage. He lays down a forest, tap, sacs it, out comes a Balduvian Horde. I'm gonna take a pounding from this guy I think. I draw and carefully take a look at my card. (oh please, oh please, oh please...) A plowshares. Alright! Thank you. Plow the horde. Next round, he lays another lumberjack and hits me for one. He's mana screwed! I think wildly. I untap, draw, pillage his remaining mountain, and then the creatures start to come. I get like two hordes, two goblin mutants and an ivory on the board by the time he's dead. He bolts the first mutant I put out, then I put out another, and then I summon the Horde, and then another Horde. If I wans't Ice Age/Alliances I wouldn't play this way, but I know there's no wrath, no disk, no mass destruction other than the Haups, and he'll never get one of those off with the mana he has, so I roll over him. I comment on what a cool deck he has, and how he must have rolled right over his other opponents, and he says he did. Without plowhsares, it takes a hell of a lot for a deck to get rid of a second turn Hordes. He has two in the deck. We start and he chooses to go first. I have two plowshares in my opening hand. Forest, tinder wall. (here we go again) I think, and I'm right. Mountain, sac the wall , Hordes. Funny how a raging group of angry barbarians can just suddenly decide that a life of farming is so much more desirable than angry mob warfare. Five point stream of life for my opponent. He lays down a lumberjack on the next turn, and I let him live. He lays down another forest next, and sacs it for a deadly insect. Hmm, plowshares don't work well on those. I get out a Mutant which he promptly bolts, and hits me for 6 with the insect. Ouch, stings. I summon a hordes, and he is out of bolts and decides not to attck. Next round, I attack with the hordes, and he takes it. Then I cast a gargoyle to hold off his insect. he does not draw a land and says done. I attack with the hordes again and he takes it once more, then I pillage one of his mountains. He has one mountain, two orcs, and an insect on the board. I lava burst one orc and kill the other with a bolt. The insect ends up blocking my Hordes and then I get out another mutant and end up killing him with it. The pillages won me these games I think. 2-0 2-0 2-0 Not a bad start. Must keep a clear head. I feel great still for some odd reason, and force myself to go get some food since it is now about three hours since the last time I had something, and I get another cup of coffee. Doug has lost again, Hil has won and Rod has won. Not a bad start and we all encourage each other and talk about how even two loses is not out of it with seven rounds of swiss. Spirits are high, except for Doug. Doug was the master of this game when I started. In every tournament we went to, Doug was in the top three. Every time. He's been on a downhill slide since the first pro tour. He is disgusted today with his deck's performance and it will just get worse. He has made the same mistake that I made six months ago. He thinks that if you don't play for a couple of months that your skill does not get worse, it just stays the same. We discuss the decks that we have seen, and what seems to be powerful, and most of all, the lack of black. I haven't played a black deck all day. I'm further up the tables now with a 3-0 record, and face off against a guy who I have seen before. He's pleasant, quiet, wearing an army fatigue jacket and, horror of horrors, he's also playing Garglehaups! I spent days on my sideboard, and I played some other garglehaups decks so I would know how to handle them, so I think I have a pretty good chance. I spent a long time looking over cards that remove creatures from the game, but in Ice Age/Alliances there is a plow, and an exile. And exile doesn't work on white creatures. But, hey, no one I've seen plays garglehaups the way I do. He's going to have to plow my hordes and my mutants as well. People love to plow a hordes and they'll do it without hesitation. They love to think. Hah! a creature gone, and a card! Can't beat that. Well, actually, you can beat that, because the key to beating this deck, is having a way to get rid of the gargoyle. I much prefer you plow the hordes than the gargoyle. So, I recognize my opponent Rob Dougherty, but I can't place where. He says the same to me, and we compare notes and find out that we must have seen each other in the Burlington Qualifer for the last pro tour. Oh yes, thats right, now I remember, you were the top seed going into the final eight. Hmm, MUST CONCENTRATE. important match coming. Well, we start. It's a great game, but I'll make a long story short and let you know he wins. He has a much more defensive deck than I do, and handles all of my offense with ease. After the first game, he sides in exiles for my Hordes (5 point stream of life for HIM) and caps for my gargoyles. I mention - "That was the card I was looking for. I couldn't figure out how I was going to sideboard against another graglehaups deck", and he has just shown me. The caps remove my plowshares and my gargoyles from the game, and he exiles my hordes when they rush over for the final five points of damage I need to kill him. Now he's at ten, and he haups, and his gargoyle finishes me off. Rob's a very pleasant opponent, and I think he would beat me 9 out of 10 times with the deck he brought. On the other hand, I have a better feeling about my deck versus the rest of the field. It's far more agressive than his, and has more roads to victory. I tell him that I hope to see him later in the final eight, because he was such a nice opponent. And my hopes are still high. 3 and 1 isn't bad, and I knew I would have trouble with other haups decks. The rest of the team is not doing so good. Hilary has lost to a Pox deck that is played by a great, funny guy who I will sit next to later. He has a good sense of humor and really enjoys his Pox deck, and hey, you have to have a good sense of humor to play a pox deck! They're just so crazy! So, Hilary is sick to death of Thawing glaciers that he starts trading for them right away. Everyone on the team mentions what a sick card this is, and I have noticed it myself. We missed it before coming down here. I of course had read what a power card it was over the net, but having played it, it didn't suit my style, and I dismissed it. It hurts us a lot. Everyone that is winning has thawing glaciers in their deck. We see as lot of Bugbind, we see a lot of garglehaups and we see a lot of red green speed stormbind. Very litte black except for the pox deck so far, and rumors that Dave Dittmer is playing a mighty necropotence deck. Doug has lost again and drops out. He heads over to talk with Andrew from Wizards of the Coast and play with two constructed decks from Mirage. I walk over to take a look. The art is the best I have ever seen in a set, with the colors vibrant and full, the lines clean, and very detailed. The Mtenda lion is a fantastic piece and the new lands are fantastic. A lot of the cards I look at, do not look that great from the spoiler list at neutral ground, but they sure as hell look powerful when I see them for real. The set looks powerful and fun, and I think it will be even more popular than Ice Age and Alliances. We are all impressed. 3-1 and I'm sitting further down on the tables than before. 2-0 2-0 2-0 0-2. Not bad. Through sheer force of will I am trying to keep my thoughts straight on only three hours of sleep and it seems to be working. I've never felt this good in the middle of a tournament before and I'm very thankful. My opponent is playing blue black. My first black deck of the day. The first game I overwhelm him with creatures. I get out too many huge things for him to stop, and thats the end. In the second game, I side in the Order of the white sheild, and he can't stop those. Most all of his creatures are black except for the sibilant spirit he gets out late in the game. He keep pounding on me with the spirit, but I keep careful track of his and my life, and keep hitting him with everything I have, and then end it with a double incinerate he isn't expecting. I end the game at 3 life. So, I'm back up to the winners table and its starting to get late. Rod and Hilary are still playing and are doing so more out of wanting to boost their ranking than make it into the finals, but we hold onto the slim hope that they still have a chance to get in. They play hard, and develop a burning hatred/respect for the glaciers. Doug has dropped out, and has just started a sealed deck tournament and he wins the first round. He has some good cards and is hopefull for the later rounds. 4-1 going into the latest rounds and I take a break to call the lovely and talented Marilyn and let her know how I'm doing. She's had a quiet day at home. She wishes she could have come with me, but someone had to stay home and take care of our only child, the lovely and talented Jazmine, an eleven year old tri-color Sheltie that has been my wife's constant friend and confidant. The puppy is well, but still not fully back to normal. I'm hopeful as I head back to the table to wait for the sixth round to start. They finally call the sixth round, and I am facing a familiar face. The Mighty Michelle Bush! Michelle is a great player who I always have a good time playing. Our matches are always heart stoppers, and she's due to smack me around this time. I've seen her in the top position at a number of tournaments that I've gone to and know her to be an adversary to be feared. But I'm still looking forward to our match. Michelle came up to Vermont for the pro tour qualifer in Burlington, and was seeded number two going into the final eight, (I think) but just missed out in the finals. I believe she beat two other Team Quarterstaff members to get to the top eight. Also, Michelle is the girl I played in Boston that I ended up beating by one point of life with my primal order deck. During her upkeep she took two damage from a primal order on the board just as they called time. That was a squeeker and she tells me as she sits down- "I'm due for a win against you, you know?" "I know." Just as I feared, she is playing garglehaups as well. I know that she develops and playtests with Rob Dougherty and, she tells me that much like our own discoveries, garglehaups is one of the toughest IA/AI decks out there. After trying to beat Rob's deck for weeks, she finally gave up and made one like his, but with her own differences for her play style. Hilary has done this with my deck as well, and Doug was very, very close to making this same decision right before we left. So we start, and her deck is, like Rob's, more defensive than mine. She is set up more to haups and then recover and go on with the game, with cards like evil thawing evil glaciers and lodestone bauble. Side note - I don't like either of these cards, to tell the truth. I once haupsed, setting off the bauble the next turn and put four lands on top of my deck. I had a blinkie in hand, and wanted to get it out, so I put too many land on top of my deck. After I had taken the four lands off the top of the library, I drew four more. Eight turns of drawing land is too many and I lost. I hate that, and never used the bauble again. I realize that I put too many lands on top, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth. Instead, I set my deck up so that if I haups, thats game. I don't have to recover from it, because I've won if I get to that point, and that works a lot better for my style. Side note over - I take the first game, and she takes the second. In the third game, she gets me down to nine, and we are late in the game. She has out a helm, and I have out a hordes and mutant and maybe a white pump knight. Since I know that her deck is much like Rob's, I have sided in more creatures, specifically my ice age pump knights in hopes of overwhelming her. She helms me for three and no creatures turn up. I look through my graveyard, and I know that a hordes is due to come up soon, as I have one on the table and one in my graveyard. She helms me again, and I fear that it will break my creature advantage. I beat her down from twenty, until finally, I have her on the ropes. She had a huge lead on me, but then I got control, and we are one move from the end. She is at three, and has one less creature on the board than me.I'm very afraid that she has a scars of the veteran in her hand, and the next round will NOT be the last and she will regain control again. We are both low enough that a well drawn fireball would just end it. She draws, and gets nothing useful. She seems very nervous, and does not give me the impression that she has any other way to save herself than by helming me, and getting a creature to block one of mine. I decide that she probably does not have a scars. She says done. I untap, and she says,"I helm you for four." I uncover the cards from my library, one at time going into the graveyard. Card number 1, plains Card number 2, mountain Card number 3, pillage Card number 4, plains I breathe a sigh of relief, and she does not. I draw my card for my draw phase. Look at it.... "I bolt you for three." I tell her as I show her the incinerate I have just drawn. The helm got me to this card, but I still would have killed her with the creatures. She nods, and says, "Can you show me the next cards? I want to see what I would have gotten, if I had helmed for more. (or something to that effect. If she had done something different.) The next 4 cards are not creatures, and she says, "Oh well, it would't have mattered anyway." We chat for a bit more, and de-sideboard, and compare notes, and then go up to tell them the score. She will tell me later that I am the only one to beat her all day. Other than me, she never lost. The rest of her score was wins and 2 or 3 draws. So, I'm now 5-1, and feeling fine. I feel like I'm gonna be sick from the tension, but I'm still doing pretty well. Once again, I'm amazed at how good I feel. I get more pizza and another lemonade from next door. Rod and Hil are still playing in the tournament and will end up 3-4, for the day, and with a new dedication to magic. Doug has won his first round of the sealed deck, and I go over to watch his second. He faces off against a technically excellent player who has a blue white deck made almost entirely of fliers. Even though Doug has an excellent sealed deck, he can't get rid of all the guy's fliers and loses in a 2-1 squeeker. We start the seventh round of swiss and it is close to eleven p.m. I have been awake since four a.m, which was a long, long time ago. I feel great. I have no idea whats keeping me going other than will, and adrenaline, but I feel just fantastic. I feel cool, confident, and clear headed. I have none of that fuzzy, I've been awake, and drank too much coffee feeling. I have none of that - I know I'm going to mess up and make a horrible mistake that I will regret for weeks - feeling. I head into the seventh round - finally. I am five and one. My opponent is Andy. I have no idea of his last name. Side note - Alright you negative bastards, let me address you for a minute. Everyone I have played today has been perfectly pleasant. No one has sneered at me, no one has been caught cheating and the qualifier has not brought out the worst in anyone I have played, and I hear no complaits about anyone from the rest of Team Quarterstaff. Everyone is pleasant, talkative, and in good spirits whether they win or lose. Andy is no exception. He is polite and gracious, and plays as hard as he can, just like I do. But there is no swearing at each other, no trash talking, and I am once again amazed at all the cool people I meet in this mental sport. I'm sure there are assholes out there, and I'm sure some people have played them, but from some of the posts on the net you would think they lurk like the boogie man at ever tournament, willing and able to abuse and berate little children and push over old men. If I see one more post about how the Pro tour is bringing out the worst in people, I'm gonna scream. People are jerks because they are jerks no matter what the prize. If the prize was a beta scryb sprite, I bet these jerks and losers would still act like jerks and losers. And the princes would still be princes. Look for the nice people and post about them. End of side note - So we start. He's playing a recycler deck with Ivory Gargoyles, Ashen Ghouls, and Krovikan Horrors. Every time I try to plowshares something, he sacs it to the Horror and it goes to the graveyard instead. Clever, and it catches me off guard. I take the first game with too many big creatures for him to stop, and some of them with trample, so he can block all day with recyclers, but he's still gonna take damage. In the second game, he casts an Infernal darkness, and I'm in trouble. I have nothing on the board, and he pounds me for four rounds, getting me down to six before he finally lets the darkness go. I get two gargoyles on the board in the next two turns, and block everything with them as I no longer need a draw phase, having all the cards I need in my hand. The third round after he lets the darkness go, I haups and my gargoyles finish him off from the beating the darkness gave him. He looks over the cards on the table and realizes that if he had kept the darkness one turn longer, he could have killed me, and stayed alive by saccing lands to the zorb he had out. He's pretty depressed. Infernal darkness is an evil card, and it almost costs me the game. I love it, but not when it's played against me. The Mighty Rob Dougherty is facing off against dangerous Dave Dittmer, and its a long battle. It lasts until either time is called or just before. As much as I like Rob as a player and a person, I hope he loses for purely selfish reasons. His deck is perfectly set up to beat mine, and I think I can take the necro. To this day I wish I had gotten a chance to play it. Rob loses. I feel bad for him, but good for myself (sorry Rob.) But thats not it. Steve Sardel comes to the mike and tells us that there are seven people tied for the eigth slot. It will take a while to sort it out, so make yourself confortable while they decide the final eight. I am a little bleary, and I think I'm in at 6 and 1, but I want to hear my name called, just to be sure. He does not call it. After his announcement, he and his team go to work, and he will tell us all the final eight at once, not seven and then later, the last person. They get done about 45 minutes later, and I'm starting to get tired from sitting around for so long. Please God, let me stay clear headed for just a little while longer. Steve calls off the names Seeded first - Dave Dittmer. Seeded Second - Jamie Wakefield Holy shit! The work has paid off. I'm seeded second. The light headedness lifts with a surge of adrenaline and I can't wait to start. Second!!!! Cool. So, The Mighty Rob Dougherty is the eighth slot, and I hope I don't have to play him later. Rob will face Dave in the first round, and I will play someone I do not know, and I'm sorry, but I cannot remember his name. He has a blue, green and red deck (I think.) I take the first game, and I remember none of it. In the second game, we spar for a bit and then I get out a gargoyle. In my hand I have 2 lava bursts, and a haups. He is at eighteen. I test the waters for a counter spell. I hit him with the gargoyle for two He's at sixteen. I lava burst him for 5, same round. He takes it, no counterspell. He's at 11. He takes his turn. and doesn't do anything that affects me that I can remember. I untap, hit him again with the gargoyle for two. He's at 9. I lava burst him for 5, again, same turn and still no counterspell. If he had it, he would have used it, I think to myself. He's at 4. During his turn, he taps one of his pain lands for blue and controls the Ivory gargoyle. I take my turn, haups, and it's all over. He loses a draw, and then I hit him twice with my returned gargoyle. I have advanced. My next opponent is... Greg I think? Playing an evil thawing evil glaciers four color deck that is just evil. :-) I don't know if he remembers, but I find out later that he played Michelle deck ante for a starter deck, or something. Hilary tells me this later and remembers him. He tells me he's a very nice guy. Another one! Where do these poople come from? I tell everyone on the team, that this is what it is all about. If I do not win this match, it has all been for nothing. Play until 2 am and I will still not be going to Dallas. It all comes down to the next two games, and to tell you the truth, I am very hopeful. Must... Win... The... Next... Match... I don't know how our matches went. I know that in the second match, after he had won the first, that I was land screwed. For the first time all day, I have nothing but red spells in my hand, and four plains on the board. I show my hand to the surrounding crowd. How frustrating. I draw a mountain, and he pillages it. When I am at one life, I draw another. Thats game, and the whole shooting match folks. I have lost a slot on the pro tour. Huge Bummer. As this is sinking in, Tom Guervin leans over, and whispers in my ear... "You are not out of it yet." I'm sorry... what? Hope springs forth from my breast to my throat. "Dave Dittmer is already qualified, and if he wins this match, he will be in the finals, and you will have to play his oppoent to see who gets third. and..... A SLOT ON THE PRO TOUR BABY!!!! Holy crap. You are never, and I mean, never, given a second chance in life. When it comes, you take it. You take it with both hands, and I am desperate not to lose. I MUST NOT LOSE! So, I sit, and I am pretty calm, waiting for the match between Dave and his opponent to end. Steve Sardell comes over and gives me my prize. A ton of packs, and I pull the Alliances and Italian legends and open them. Everyone else... Doug, Rod, Hil, Fritz, Alan and Don, are all waiting for me to finish. We are staying at Fritz's and he has a place just on the outskirts of the city, and he and his friends (now mine as well) are all waiting for me. I apologize for taking so long, and tell every one to take four packs of anything they want, There is german 4th, renaissaince, some other language homelands, and a few packs in english. When everyone has taken four packs, I tell everyone to take four more, and then when that is done, to take three more. We all open our packs, and I get four diabolical machine's in four different languages. So, we wait, and we wait and we wait, and finally, the match is done. Dave Dittmer has won, and I have to play for third. Rod asks me... "Are you nervous?" Surprisingly, I am not, and tell him so. "Thats o.k., Hilary is nervous enough for both of you." Hil is pacing and looks like an expectant father. Hilary? The guy who slept like a baby the night before this qualifier? The guy who I have never seen worry about anything? Ever? Cool. So we start. It goes two out of three with him having what I guess is a very similar deck to Gregs, who he came with, with a lot of huge green creatures, stormbind, and deadly insects. Twice he gets the gargoyle/stormbind lock on me, and I have to banish the Gargoyle from the game. In the third, he does not get an evil thawing evil glaciers, but he has plenty of land anyway. Six right off the bat. He gets out a Johtull Wurm and a Shambling Strider while I have two Gargoyles out, and then I haups. He sort of sinks in his chair a little bit. I hit you for four Hit you for four for four four... and thats game. He gets out two mana before I kill him, and the last turn, he pyroclasms, killing my two gargoyles. "You lose two draw phases." "Live in fear." He says it dryly without humor. What a great sport. "I hit you for four." "Yup," he says. And thats it. I'm going to Dallas Baby I've been on a high ever since. Hope you enjoyed it. Comments always welcome and appreciated. If I misreported anything, my apologies. I remembered as best as I could. Later Jamie, Bard of Team Quarterstaff. Jamie C. Wakefield Bard of the Five Colors of Death 18th at Pro Tour 1