From: nickolof@aludra.usc.edu (nickolof) Subject: San Diego PTQ report (7/6) Date: 8 Jul 1997 23:30:36 -0700 Before the PTQ/Playtesting All of Southern California geared up for playtesting starting in mid-June. With the inclusion of Weatherlight into the envrionment, and the banning of Squandered Resources, most of the Paris decks would not be adequate in the new enviroment. (Read: scrubs couldn't copy the winning decks directly from the Sideboard). The first deck shown to us was the mono-red "slighish" deck. Dan Gray showed us the creation made by other friends in the midwest. It ran Keepers of Kookus, Goblin Elite Infantry, Viashino Sandstalkers, Suq-ata Lancers, and Talruum Minotaurs. The rest of the deck was filled with assorted burn: Kaeverk's Torch, Incinerate, Hammer of Bogardan, and Thunderbolt. Final Fortune and mountains completed the deck. Goldfish tests shown it won by round 5 consistantly. This deck was fast and lethal. I noted it as a "control deck"; i.e., if a new deck couldn't beat burn consistently, it won't work. (Remember, "If it can't beat Necro, you can't play it.") I made a R/U beatdown deck as well (Lancers, Minotaurs, Sandstalkers, plus Man-o-War's, Abduction, burn and counters). Basic playtesting showed that the red deck and the R/U deck were pretty even in games. A B/U beatdown deck was also made, and was very consistant. These three decks were the starts of the final types of decks seen at the PTQ about 3 weeks later. At the Saturday Gathering in Costa Mesa on 6/21, we gathered to playtest. The standard decks were pretty much even; however, the red deck did rack up some impressive finishes. 2 rogue decks made heads turn. Shane Cargilo's R/G land destruction deck with Firewhips, Granger Guildmages, Stone Rain, Creeping Mold, Quirion Druid & Rangers was very unique and murdered most playtest decks (it wasn't too good against burn). Mark Venthaus's graveyard deck was also a powerful deck. It ran the usual beatdown creatures in U/B: Fallen Askari, Man-o-War, Nekrataal. However, with Ertai's Familar, Hidden Horror, Barrow Ghoul, and Thran Tomes, the early, fat creatures stayed out and beat you down. Necromancy, Dark Rituals and Impulse rounded out the decks. With the new decks, modifications were made to the old ones, and a few popped up out of nowhere. In the meantime, Abeyance was clarified to include "can't tap land for mana", so, it became almost a Time Walk. It was immediately added to the mono-red deck. I added Shimmers to my U/B beatdown deck, and it gave troubles to the burn deck. Through playtesting, it was shown that it lost to most other decks, so it was scrapped. A 'Maro-skin/Falcon' deck was constructed as well. It was iffy. When it got the early armor on the Freewind Falcon, it beat burn. It only won about 40% of the time or less against the rest of the field. On 6/28, I spent most of the day playing against Jessica Scott. She designed a U/B/R deck, that was the "Good Stuff" of Mi/Vi/Wl. She kicked my ass. I went 1-11 against her with a variety of decks. The burn deck had a chance against her, but the others just couldn't handle the fast and early beatdown. Venthaus still had his same deck, and it was stronger than ever. Cargilo and Cory Jones appeared with a R/W control deck. It stalled the game with Gerrard's Wisdoms and Gossimer Chains and won with Sacred Mesa. The burn deck beat it in long games, but they vowed it would be back. During the following week, Olle Rade came on IRC and gave us the winning deck from Norway: a Necratog/Stairwell deck. It overran the opponent with creatures, and used Stairwells, Necratogs, and Song of Bloods for the final kills. It seemed very strong, and better than Venthaus's similar deck. Jason Zila made U/W control deck, just his style. Cargilo's R/W deck was tuned and very strong. What to play? I went to Costa Mesa on 7/5 unsure what to play. I liked the Necratog deck alot. Zila's deck was pretty good as well. Jessica's deck was strong too. Enter Aether Flash. I looked at the card a few weeks earlier, but I couldn't get a deck to work with it. However, the Flash would murder most of the decks that I had at the time. It would be stupid to try to sideboard against the flash. Your main deck needed to prepare for the Flash. Many decks had the flash already. Mario Robina had a U/R deck. Bryce Currance had a R/W deck. However, the deck that Andrew Corley and I enjoyed the most was Preston Poulter's R/G deck. Preston's deck is listed in Dan Gray's tournament report posted elsewhere. It's based around burn, and creatures that survive the flash: River Boas, Jungle Trolls, Ogre Enforcers, and Subterrian Spirits. We added white for Abeyance, and Honorable Passage, with additional cards in the sideboard. July 6, 1997: PTQ in San Diego Andrew and I stay up until 2 A.M. working on the sideboard and playtesting it against Zila's Deck. It just murders it. We're both confident that we'll do well. I go 4-1 in sealed on Saturday with a Hammer, Ballista, and good, fat stuff. I drop after beating Hacker and getting tons of points. Why? My deck was too slow. I didn't start playing until 4th and 5th turn. My loss came as, first turn Village Elder, second turn Fallen Askari, third turn lancer, fourth turn cyclops. Ugh. The day starts out bad as I get a ticket for 75 in a 65. Whatever. He stopped us because 'kids in dealer plates=stolen car.' I was borrowing my parent's car over the weekend. I didn't let that bother me, cause I'm going to try and do Traffic School over the Web :) Also, we didn't have time for breakfast, so I'll I have for the day is a Mt. Dew. (Its about starvation, I tell you) Here's the deck I registered: 4 Abeyance 4 AEther Flash 2 Forest 2 Gemstone Mine 3 Grasslands 4 Hammer of Bogardan 2 Honorable Passage 4 Incinerate 4 Jungle Troll 3 Kaervek's Torch 11 Mountain 3 Mountain Valley 2 Ogre Enforcer 2 Plains 4 River Boa 1 Subterranean Spirit 2 Undiscovered Paradise 4 Wall of Roots Sideboard: 4 Afterlife 3 Disenchant 3 Freewind Falcon 1 Phyrexian Furnace 1 Plains 3 Savage Twister After pre-scouting, most of thoughts were true. Alot of heat was around. Arizona was playing burn, or U/R. 187 decks were around as well (Zila's Paris deck). Some rogue decks were seen. Abeyances were sold out at $6. Round 1: Chris Gutierrez WLW He's playing R/U beatdown. Fat creatures (emmisaries/s. spirits) with light countermagic and alot of burn. Celerity creatures, undo/man-o-war round out the deck. I beat him first game with hammer recursion and my regenerators. The Wall of Roots stops his creatures. I sideboard in the Twisters, out the fat creatures. 2nd game, he undo's me 3 times in the first 6 turns. Whatever. I kick him to hell 3rd game after I twister away 3 of his 2/2s, while my trolls survive. Round 2: Alex Davis WW Scrub time. He plays mono-red sligh. 3rd turn Aether Flash locks up the ground. I sideboard in 3 Freewinds for 2 Enforcers and something else I forgot. 2nd game, I cut him to 1 land. Whatever. After winning, I see he had honorable passages and he sided _IN_ Aether Flashes. Huh? He didn't side out his X/2 stuff either.... dunno. Round 3: Shane Cargilo LL Doh. If I ever played Shane again, I would have lost every time. In the first game, we both draw 1 land, and discard for awhile. I recover faster and get hammer recursion. However, Shane goes, "Torch you for 8?", with no passage in my hand. I side out the torches for the disenchants and Furnace. I get hammer recursion early 2nd game, but Shane topdecks a furnace...bye-bye Hammer. :( Shane then Wisdom's for 12 and then 8...and the Mesa Tokens nibble me to death. At this time, I'm 2-1. Shane's 3-0. Cory Jones is 3-0. Mario Robina is 3-0. Andrew is 2-1, losing to Riad first round. Zila is also 3-0, along with James Takanaga and Preston Poulter. Round 4: Christa Miller WW Ah, Andrea Kunstt's sister. Aether Flash shuts her down 1st game, and I mana screw her in the 2nd. What a good magic player. During this match, I have to riffle shuffle my deck because Christa can't get the hang of it. This haunts me later. Round 5: Darren Stanford LWW 187 deck. Easy. 1st game, he gets a god draw. No deck could beat it. I s/b the 3 twisters for the fat creatures. The twisters/Wall of Roots and Flashes murder him the next two games. Round 6: Steve Pletsch LWW U/W weirdness. Control with Man-o-Wars, Abduction and Waterspouts. I lose the first game to 3 waterspouts and his 4 Abeyances. Ugh. Out comes the fatties and passages; in comes the afterlifes, disenchants, and the plains. Next game, he plays a Djinn turn 4 (thinking of beatdown). I afterlife it that turn, and play the flash the next. He has to use the token to block my trolls, as they come in for the kill. I mana screw him in the 3rd game. Now, Preston is 5-0-1 along with Zila. Andrew is 4-2, along with Cory Jones. Shane is 5-1 like me. Mario moves to 5-1. After some confusion, and a mispairing, I get a new opponent. However, when I sit down to play, I count my sideboard, and notice 14 cards. UGH! I had people watch me unsideboard last round. I try to sneak the last card out, but Andrea is there and gives me a warning for 'Failure to de-sideboard.' That sucks. Then, I have to play a 4-0-1 guy as well, so no attempt to draw. Round 7: Shawn Di Armand WLW Before we play, I know he's running mono-green fat. I don't get to use my sideboard 2nd game. Crap. 1st game, my regenerators and the walls stop all of his ground force, and I hammer him to death. I look at my sideboard, and wish for the twisters. Oh well. 2nd game: 1st turn Rogue Elephant. 3rd turn Fallow wurm. 4th turn, 3 more Rogue Elephants. Whatever. In comes the twisters for the Passages and the S. Spirit. I pay him back in the 3rd game. 5 Regenerators in the first 6 turns is fat. I beat him down to 10 and torch him for the rest. WOW! I'm in the Top 8! Shane loses to Riad. Corey wins to end up the top 5-2. Preston and Eric invoke the Intentional "Cheating" rule for a 5-0-2 finish. Here are the standings: 1. Jason Zila 19 2. Riad Mourssali 18 3. Michael Nickoloff 18 4. Kevin Dimdiman 18 5. Preston Poulter 17 6. Eric Householder 17 7. James Takenaga 16 8. Ernest Alexander 16 9. Cory Jones 15 While I'm playing in the 7th round, Zila gets DQed for 2 identical warnings. I was asked not to share why. I am respecting the wishes of those parties involved. Therefore, Cory makes the top 8. Andrea also notifies me that Christa said I didn't let her shuffle my deck when we played. I explained to her exactly what happened; Andrea apologized about the confusion. Round 8: Ernest Alexander LL The "Call of the Wild" Deck. I've been on IRC with him, so I know about the deck and how to beat it. First game was close, until he draws the Call. I lose. Period. I side in 2 Disenchants, and 3 Afterlifes. Now, the hunger and fatigue gets to me. The first game lasts about 30 minutes, and the second one matches the same length. I made 2 huge mistakes. First, he attacked with his two River Boas. I should have blocked with mine, and then played Abeyance to kill his. This would have led to a quicker beatdown. Later on, I got him down to 2. I played a fetch, Ernest took his turn, and it came around to my upkeep. I thought a long time about fetching. I decided to fetch. Of course, the next 2 cards were burn. :( I never drew another heat card, and Ernest eventually trampled all over me. Oh well. 6-2 is fine. I was happy (and tired, and hungry) about the deck and my playing. I did not make a mistake until the final round. I just need to eat after swiss :) I got another Abeyance in the WL I recieved. WOO! On the drive home, Andrew and I stop and Denny's and eat $13 of food each. We also put up with a waiter that should have gone postal at any time, the onslaught of high school kids, 3 loser nerds, and this cute girl that always bent over to pick up something in front of our table. Go figure ;) If you're going to copy the deck, don't. We made changes to it to make it better already. But, if you're going to, least give us and Preston credit. We did. Mt. View this weekend...maybe. Least another PTQ in Costa Mesa in 3 weeks. "Poor Bart...always chooses 'Rock'", Lisa Simpson. Mi/Vi/Wl is all about Rock-Paper-Sissors. Choose Wisely. -- Michael Joseph Nickoloff Computer Engineering/Senior at USC nickolof@scf.usc.edu USC Deckmasters; http://www.usc.edu/dept/Deckmasters Secretary of Delta Sigma Phi, Alpha Phi Chapter Vice Pres. of USC Deckmasters Webmaster of http://www.innocence.com/shadowfist