Subject:      Tournament Report- The Crew- Chicago PTQ
From:         sheckman@ix.netcom.com(Sam Heckman)
Date:         1996/10/27
Newsgroups:   rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy

Tournament Report 10/26/96

Chicago Qualifier

Once again The Crew travelled to a PT5 qualifier, this one closer to
home.  All 7 of us: Kai, Adam, Max, Brandon, Mark, Ron, and myself were
able to make it to this qualifier, unlike previous ones (Adam was
grounded).  Max and Brandon had already qualified, so they didn't play.
 Adam played in Juniors, and the rest of us played in Masters.  I think
we all got about 1/2-2 hours sleep apiece, but luckily the drive was
only about 35mins to get to the tournament.  The tournament was run by
Todd Hansen and it went very smoothly.  The attendance was about 120
people.  I played "The D*ckhead Deck" designed by Brandon Rutter (for
list see below)

Round 1: After all the pairings were done I was called out an given a
Bye.  It was too good, It's the first bye I'd ever gotten in a large
tournament, so I was excited.

Round 2: vs Ben Falls playing a Black/White Necro deck.
Game 1: He gets out a Necro, Outpost and Gargoyles.  I draw no creature
elimination and quickly lose.
Game 2: He is at low life, and all his defenses were Blinkers/Outpost
tokens.  I get 2 knights of stromgald that he can't block so I'm able
to finish him off.
Game 3: I draw a lot of Ashen Ghouls, they attack and finish him.

I was pretty nervous after this match, I was hoping for a sweep, but
Ben wouldn't let it happen.

Round 3: vs. Chris Czuba playing B/W/R Gargoyle-Mindwarp- Haups
Game1: Chris was having Mana problems and my Infernal Darkness didn't
help.  I hit him with multiple creatures.
Game2: I get Darkness out with a Knight of Stromgald and a Hoar Shade.
Chris helms me and gets a Hoar Shade of my  deck after I attack.  He
blocks and pumps the shade so that it lives, and then hits me for 5
with the shade to kill me on his turn.  My darkness backfired in a big
way that game.
Game3: We run out of time, I had the upper hand at the end of the game.
 Nonetheless the Match was a draw.

Chris had offered to intentional draw before the match, I declined but
felt stupid since I got a draw anyway.

Round 4: vs. Jeremy Bezroukoff playing U/W counterspell- outpost
Games 1 and 2: Jeremy was really manascrewed.  The match wasn't even
fair.  After the match I asked him his mana ratio.  He said 20 lands 2
Glaciers.  He needed a lot more mana to run the deck he was playing.

Round 5: vs. John Severa playing B/U/R phantasmal fiend
Game 1:  He played a second turn knight of stromgald.  3rd turn he cast
Errantry on it and beat me down.  I couldn't draw a creature he didn't
kill, or a contagion.  It was not cool
Game 2: I got out an early Abyssal Specter he didn't kill.  He died
with no cards in his hand and no chance of winning.
Game 3: My draw was very Flipperized (in other words really good)  I
was mana hosed early and started discarding Ashen ghouls.  I destroyed
his early creatures and around turn 8 the ghouls starting coming back
from the graveyard.  I had 4 cycling and killed him quickly at that
point.

Round 6: vs. Eddie Ferrier playing R/W big creature
Game 1: He played 2 Storm Shaman's and a Balduvian Hordes.  He finished
the game off rater quickly.
Game 2: He was manahosed, I played Infernal Darkness with multiple
creatures in play.  The darkness was game.
Game 3: I played an Abyssal he could kill.  I got darkness/Zuran Orb
combo and finished him.

Cool, at this point the Swiss rounds are over I'm 5-0-1 going into the
top 8 seeded at #4.

Round 7: vs Joe Wustrack playing R/G spider deck with Balduvian Hordes
Game 1: He plays tinder wall and gets out an early Hordes.  I contagion
it and eventually play 2 Krovikan Horrors.  All  this time he is
sitting at only 2 lands in play.  I play darkness, and eventually kill
the Hordes that he was using to block.  The Krovikans finish him.
Game 2: I kill his stuff with contagion and Dystopia till I get some
land out.  I then play a darkness and Multiple creatures.  He was
locked and lost.

Round 8: Todd Fasnachit playing R/G/W outpost-Blinker- Stormbind
Game 1: He was manascrewed.  I played Darkness and consulted for Hoar
shade.  It was over at that point.
Game 2: He destroyed all my creatures, but Dystopia held him off
forever since I had zuran orb out.  I got him to low life with Horrors
and Knight of Stromgald finished him.

At this point my slot in Dallas was secured.  I was happy, but still
nervous because Mark Shumaker was playing in the other semifinal.  I
really wanted both of us to qualify.  He ended up losing to Mike Cavey
playing U/W
counter outpost.  Mark was playing the exact same deck I was, and Mike
got a Cop Black and Drought on the table against him.    So Mike Cavey
and myself  qualified for Masters.  We both split the prize and never
played.
We were tired and stress, so another match over $50 wasn't worth it.
My teammate, Adam Jansen got a slot in Juniors.  The day overall wasn't
bad, our team got 2 slots in Dallas.  One Masters, one Juniors, but we
really should have taken 3 slots :(  Oh well, so far 4 out of 7 us are
qualified.

Here's the deck I played (The D*ckhead deck) - designed by Brandon
Rutter  This deck also won a qualifier in St. Louis when Brandon played
it.  The deck was named the d*ckhead deck by Rick Latham at the
Missouri qualifer.

4 Infernal Darkness
4 Ashen Ghoul
4 Krovikan Horror
4 Swords to Plowshares
4  Knight of Stromgald
4 Abyssal Specter
4 Icequakes
2 Hoar Shade
3 Disenchant
2 Contagion
1 Zuran Orb
1 Demonic Consultation
16 Swamp
5 Plains
4 Thawing Glaciers

Sideboard:

4 Dystopia
2 Cop Red
2 Contaigon
1 Disenchant
1 Lodestone Bauble
1 Jester's Cap
2 Mindwarp
2 Dark Banishing

Dallas, here I come....

Sam Heckman