Date: Wed, 16 Jul 1997 16:12:15 -0500 From: Jeff Sternal Subject: Revised version of my tournament report [Chicago PTQ Qualifier, Chicago 7/12] My friends and I took a blue/black deck we'd actually playtested a lot (for once) to the Hansen-hosted Chicago PTQ. Before going on, I'd like to mention how well-run these tournaments have been. Thanks to two volunteers whose names I don't know, Chicago-area tournaments have run amazingly smoothly - and quickly - for about 5 months now. It's all about the kick-ass software they wrote to run the tournaments. This report is partly from sparse notes, and primarily from my garbled memories, so everything except the really fleshed-out anecdotes is approximate. Linus Chan, Tim McKenna, and I took a deck filled with Nekrataals, Man-o-wars, meaty black and blue creatures, Impulses, Memory lapses, Stupors, and Agonizing Memories. I'll list the deck at the end of this post. We knew that our greatest weakness was the slight risk of mana-screw or color screw, and we knew that we would lose to a well-constructed Sands of Time/Equipoise deck. Otherwise, we figured we had better than a fair shot at any deck we'd face. It's a robust deck that can totally impede the opponent's plans and also control the creature situation quite easily. Furthermore, once we get to 5 mana, it's easy to end the game. The tournament was well-attended, 154 people playing in the qualifier. Most of Big Daddy's and Team ACD were there, along with other successful Midwest players. Every single person - including me - chose play instead of draw in every match I played. MVP: The bottles of water Linus bought for us that morning. For once in my life, I didn't have to play dehydrated the entire day. [Round 1: Vs. Dwight (R/u/w/w)] Dwight played what we can now, thanks to Cathy Nicoloff et.al., call a four-color-mono-red. It appeared to be a lot like the popular mono-red decks, with white for sideboard falcons and disenchants, blue for mystical tutors, and black for I don't know what. Otherwise, it was Sandstalkers, Lancers, Minotaurs, and burn. * Game 1. I get 2 stupors to knock down his hand size, and pull reasonable stuff with both: Sandstalker, Torch, etc.. I bring out several big creatures, which he eventually Firestorms away. With his hand depleted, I finish him off with another 4-toughness creature. Sideboard -- I screwed up my sideboard during deck registration and left out two Powersinks for something dumb, so I didn't have them to use for our default anti-red plan (out go the Man-o-Wars, in come the Power Sinks + a fourth Stupor). So I only took out two Man-o-Wars and brought in a Power Sink and a Stupor. * Game 2. Pretty similar to the first. I Stupor, play a big creature, lose a big creature, play another one, and Timewalk (Memory Lapse) my way to victory. record: 1-0 (2-0 games) [Round 2: Vs. Mike, playing Mono-Blue (I think)] * Game 1. He's mana screwed. It's a stupid, short game. Sideboard -- I barely got to see any of his deck, but I figured I could always use another Power Sink. I took out a Necromancy, and put the Sink in. * Game 2. A fair game, but I draw too many big creatures, Nekrataals, and counters. Record: 2-0 (4-0 games) [Round 3: Vs. Ken Wallach, playing Mono-Blue] I had hoped I wouldn't play against someone like Ken until later (say, the 6th or 7th round), but I guess I got the short straw. Ken is a better player than his current type II ranking (1707) suggests - he's disciplined, plays good decks, and has been pretty successful. * Game 1. I get a temporary mana-screw, drawing only black, and forgetting to play land on turns 3 and 4. I come back a bit, but he's totally in control the whole game. Sideboard -- I take out my Necromancies, and put in a Power Sink and Stupor. * Game 2. I play like a fool. Early in the game he gets two Cloud Elementals out. I play a Mana Chains on one, then play a Waterspout, with another Waterspout in my hand. I don't attack because I stupidly forget for a moment that *I* get to assign the damage if he blocks with both (I've been playing too much Sealed Deck banding craziness lately). He lets the Chained Elemental go, then plays another one. Like a total moron, I still don't attack (after all, I don't want to trade a Waterspout for a Cloud Elemental, n'est-ce pas?). The problem was, of course, that I was stuck at 5 or 6 mana, while he was stocking up, which made the powersink in my hand useless (among other things). I suppose I was hoping for a Nekrataal or two, but it wasn't to be. Meanwhile, he's building up an army - 2 Cloud Elementals, 2 Sandbar Crocs, 2 Floodgates, and an Azimet Drake. I've got a Waterspout and a Cadaverous Knight. That's fine for a while, but he occasionally Boomerangs the Knight to get 6 Croc damage in, and manages to whittle me down quite nicely. Somewhere along the way, there's a little Memory Lapsing, Power Sinking, and Foreshadowing going on between us, and he Dissipates my Necrosavant, but finally he just Man-o-Wars my blockers and attacks for 700. Argh. This was definitely the biggest lesson of the day. Though I can't say I'll win, I'll be better prepared against mono-blue next time. Record: 2-1 (4-2 games) [Round 4: Vs. Ed, playing R/B Land Destruction] Ed continued the stream of great opponents. He was hilarious, and a gracious opponent. * Game 1. He only gets two land off the draw. One of them is Undiscovered Paradise, which might not have been so bad, except I played Agonizing Memories twice before he got another land. He didn't have a chance when my big creatures came out. Sideboard -- He's playing with Orcish Settlers and Army Ants, so I decide to downsize my casting costs. Out goes an Agonizing Memories, a Morinfen, and a Necrosavant. In come two Mana Chains and something else. * Game 2. Ack - I'm screwed. I have Mana Chains, Man-o-War, Impulse, 3 Black cards, and one stinking swamp. He goes first. On his third turn, I have one land in play and he puts out Army Ants. I pull ... an Island! I mana chains the ants, and he uses them on the island, then lets them go during his upkeep [which, I just realized, is illegal - whoops!]. The rest of the game, I draw enough land, and it goes something like: Lapse, Lapse, Agonize, Necrosavant. I manage to win. Record: 3-1 (6-2 games) Intermission ------------ Tim and Linus are at 2-2. I convince Linus - who has played only Red decks - to stay in to practice some more, but Tim drops out to play in the first sealed deck side tournament. He got beat by a Sands of Time/ Equipoise deck with Desolations and lost to Ray Deguzman, who was playing B/U/R. [Round 5: Vs. ???, playing Mono-Red] Both games were very strange. I got great draws, including two or three big creatures. For the first seven turns or so, I would dominate the game: Lapsing, Stuporing, Agonizing, Nekrataaling, etc.. Then, he'd manage to kill my big creatures with the remaining card in his hand, or top-decking the means to kill them (a torch, a Fireblast, etc.). Then, we'd both be out of cards and non-land permanents. Finally, he'd draw a Lancer, and for the last 5/6 turns, I'd draw nothing but land. I was bummed, because it put me out of top-8 competition, but I had known this was a potential problem. After all, my friends and I were running 24 land, and Impulse, while great, is no Necro. I decided to play on, in any case, because I felt it was a strong deck, and I wanted experience with it for other qualifiers. Record: 3-2 (6-4 games) [Round 6: Vs. Chuck, playing R/B voodoo] Chucks another super-cool kid who I've played before neither games went his way, with my Nekrataals, fat flyers, and disruptive stuff. I swept him quickly. Record: 4-2 (8-4 games) [Round 7: Vs. Adam Jansen, playing Ertrai/Necratog/ Stairwell] Adam is fucking hilarious, and I wanted to play against this deck, so I was stoked to be matched up against him. * Game 1: Adam wins the toss, goes first, and overruns me with weenies. Every time he plays a Sage Owl, he croons "Bro-o-ken." I do manage to kill his style creature, the Tolarian Entrancer, but it's a Pyrrhic victory. He kills me without ever having to play a Necratog or Stairwell. Sideboard -- I bring in another stupor, take out a memories, and substitute the two mana chains for something, and manage to bring in a Ray of Command for something expensive. * Game 2: Things are looking pretty good for me - I've got something like a Waterspout and Necrosavant out when Adam plays the broken Sage Owl. He draws, does nothing, I go. He's got two cards in hand, and I'm afraid of what they might be, since there are about 11 creatures in his graveyard. I topdeck a Stupor and rock his world with rotten luck as I blow a Necratog and Tombstone Stairwell out of his hand. Without those, he's got no chance, and I walk the rest of the way. * Game 3: Adam gets stuck at two land, and though he manages to bring out about 4 creatures, it's not enough. I get all kinds of huge stuff out, and finish him off by Commanding his Fog Elemental to kill him and attacking for an unreasonable amount. All in all, I barely pulled game two out, and took the match with the help of a mana screw, so I'll probably have to test a bit more against that thing. Record: 5-2 (10-5 games) [Round 8: Vs. Matt Smith, playing Red/Black] Matt's a cool guy from my neighborhood who I've played before. I think I'm cursed to meet him in every Stand-Alone qualifier. He helped me out with this part of the report after I massively misreported these games in the first draft of this. Game 1: I win with a Morinfen that he couldn't get rid of. Game 2: I memory lapse his stupor twice, which I probably shouldn't do, then finally take the stupor. Even though it's depleted, I'm looking at a pretty good hand: Hidden Horror, Man-o-War, and Waterspout. I decide to play the Hidden Horror and discard the Jellyfish, thinking that he won't have many good ways to deal with the Horror. Unfortunately, he had one of them, and torched it. The next part, as Matt reminded me, illustrates why Morinfen is good _and_ bad. I got a Morinfen out, and Matt couldn't get rid of him, so I knocked him down to 1. However, Matt had several weenies out, which put the pressure on me, with Morinfen's upkeep. I had to let the big guy go before I could deal the finishing blow, and then Matt drew a Torch to wipe me out. Game 3: A dumb game. He's mana screwed. He tricks me into thinking he's got no land by playing two Quicksands. So, Matt draws a couple more cards, I stupor him, knocking a Necrosavant out of his hand (Tim: "wow, you just reduced his CC by one"). I play Agonizing Memories, and find out that he drew 6 lands two torches, and the Necrosavant. About then, my friend Tim says "professional magic is stupid". I couldn't help but agree. Until they get a workable Mulligan rule or extend the matches to best of five, it's going to be too much about luck. Anyway, Matt finally gets out a creature (a Biskelion), but I'm sort of in the catbird seat, and I gild the lily on the final turn, killing Matt with *three* Necrosavants (after Ray of Commanding his - he finally got enough mana) and a Waterspout. All in all, a disappointing, if funny, way to end the day, even if I won. My final record was 6-2 (12-6 games), which was good enough to put me at 12th. Linus also finished at 6-2, placing 16th after tiebreakers. No one who went 6-2 made top eight. Can't say I felt too bad about both of us ending up that high in a field of 154. With a few modifications, and a little more luck, I think we could definitely qualify with this deck. We didn't stay to watch the final 8, but I know there was at least one Mono-Blue (Ken Wallach). Additionally, Sam Heckman, Francis Keys, and Brandon Rutter made it, though I don't know what they were playing. Maybe the Corrupter or some of their Teammates (or hell, maybe Sam) will let us know. Here's the deck, comments or questions are welcome. I'd talk about it's strategy, but I gotta get some work done. The main thing is that it plays differently, depending on what you get off the draw. The best start against most decks involves a turn two Impulse during their discard phase, turn three Memory Lapse, and a fourth turn Agonizing Memories. [From memory - a few details may be off, and each of our decks varied a little bit] 9 Island 12 Swamp 3 Bad River 3 Waterspout Djinn 4 Man-o-War 4 Nekrataal 2 Cadaverous Knights 2 Morinfen 2 Necrosavant 1 Hidden Horror 4 Impulse 4 Memory Lapse 1 Power Sink 3 Stupor 4 Agonizing Memories 2 Necromancy Sideboard; 3 Knights of the Mist (barely used them) 2 Urborg Justice (ditto) 2 Amber Prison (v. Armored Falcons, ?) 2 Teferi's Realm (Aether Flash, Elephant Grass) 1 Hidden Horror (v. Red) 1 Power Sink (supposed to be 3) 2 Mana Chains (really useful v. fast decks) 2 Ray of Command I think I'm throwing out the first 7 cards, and bringing in some others t.b.a. Suggestions? Jeff