Date: Mon, 14 Jul 1997 18:04:38 -0700 From: Chris Foley Subject: Chicago PTQ (Seattle) Report Although I usually post tourney reports to mtg-strategy-l alone, there is enough metagame stuff and especially tourney centre info in this post that I felt it was general enough for mtg-l. I would have split the post, but there's too much overlap IMO. Besides, it's not as if my reports ever have any *strategy* in them anyway =). I attended the Chicago PTQ at the Seattle WotC Game Center (sic -- they misspelled "centre" of course -- right, David?) This report-ish post will cover the prevalent decks and strategies, my thoughts on the tournament and on the Game Centre (sorry) in general, and give an outline of my deck. I'll give a preview of that last section by saying that *more than half* of my opponents on the day said, and I quote, "I just don't know how to play against this deck." =) For the most part, the decks I saw at the PTQ seemed to fall into one of several categories: - Big Blue Control and Flier, with white - Black/Red speed - Black creature mix with splash of white, blue, or red - Mono-Red - The Green Machine =) - Armor-deck wannabes - "I'm Playing Rade's Deck So Why Am I 1-and-4?" =) There were a few weirdos that I saw, such as a multiple Aether Flash deck with burn, but nothing too weird made much of a showing (but see below) =). In general, matches were quite fast, and I think the average game length would have been 12 turns or less! I chalk this up to the large amount of removal (temporary or otherwise) in MirVLight. From my observations, my deck rankings would be: 1. Blue/White control -- 4 out of the 8 top decks were of this type. Man O' Wars clear the path, Waterspouts provide "Kill Me Or Die" threat power, Falcons and Hazeriders provide protected backup, Pacifisms provide removal somewhat, Disenchants get rid of Armor and opposing Pacifies, and Abeyances just generally annoy. Oh, and counters. Lots of 'em, too. I saw Memory Lapse/Foresight WAY more than I expected to, especially among the top players. A strong deck if played well, and fairly useless in the hands of chumps, just like all well-built control decks. 2. Mono-Red. Nope, Black-Red wasn't the dominant creature deck. Mono-Red kicked its butt. And with ELITE INFANTRY no less. Infantry, Bloodrocks, Lancers, Talruums, and the big card : FERVOR. Tons of burn provided removal and disgusting game-ending power. Opponent's turn: attacks with 4/2. Incinerates you. Torch for 3. Sacs 2 mountains to Fireblast. Yeesh. All on turn 5. 3. Green. Smartly constructed and played green decks did VERY well. Players who understood that Striped Bears and Arctic Wolves are fscking good cards used them to advantage, especially with Wildebeest. Call of the Wild: Strooong. =) Other decks ranked somewhat below, with B/R speed and Black creature being quite strong. Armor (ArmoUr, armoUr!) decks never quite got off the ground (heh), since I've yet to see anyone playing Armor who's able to consistently win without drawing it, or against enchantment removal. Weak. A few people were playing the Rade Ertai's Familiar/Necrotog/etc. deck, but they were completely without a clue. Yeesh. Here is a FREE clue for y'all who played this deck: DO NOT COPY A DECK THE NIGHT BEFORE A TOURNEY AND EXPECT TO WIN. Hell, copy a deck from the net if you want, but at least have the brains to playtest it so you know how it works. Oh, and I didn't see ProsBloom at all. Too weak without Squandered Resources I expect. I'm not sure what won the tourney since I was busy watching MST3K when the final two rounds were on =) ("Jack Frost", if anyone's wondering, and it *was* Deep Hurting, and Mary Jo Pehl is *the* most appealing woman on television IMO). But the top 8 consisted almost entirely of U/W control and mono-Red. There ya go: the big MirVLight decks in SEATTLE, the MtG centre (!) of the universe (take that, Bay Area). Speaking of Seattle, the WotC Game Centre is a marvel. It's actually in a happening area of town now, namely the U District of Seattle, so hip things abound nearby. McDonald's across the street (frown, no Boston Market nearby though)! The area is a cross between a sedate university suburban area, and a seedy downtown street. =) You enter the building from the busy street and see the reception desk. Here you can inquire about events or sign up for tourneys or Battletech. Above your head to the right is a huge dragon, possibly a Crimson Hellkite (but not very big -- maybe 2 metres long). To your right is the WotC store, of course, but the contents of this store STUNNED me. Maybe 25% of the store is WotC merchandise (er, 35% counting TSR =). About 15-20% is Games Workshop, indicating a possible impending unholy alliance? I dunno. Maybe WotC could teach GW something about PRICING THEIR PRODUCTS FAIRLY instead of gouging, but I digress. There were a lot of VERY well painted GW miniatures in a display case (great Chaos dreadnaught, and Elf dragon of some sort), and I had the good fortune to talk to the ON-STAFF GAMES WORKSHOP SUPPORT GUY. Impressed by the support WotC is giving to ALL games, not just MtG. Ah, the rest of the store. A large display on the far wall is where you'll find all the MtG product, including foreign editions of just about everything (but not Weatherlight yet, which must be why I haven't got my booster sub =). Sleeves and boxes of all shapes, sizes, and colours are also for sale. Just about every major and medium-scale role-playing and CCG is available, including Battletech, L5R, and Mythos on the CCG side, to far too many RPGs to count -- I'd only HEARD of maybe half of them. Excellent selection. OK prices, too. To the left of the entrance is the arcade (cool -- Moon Patrol,* Joust *, Galaga, and all them new-fangled games with them fightin' doodads) and the Battletech area. I'll say that Battletech is REALLY NEAT, but I have SEVERAL comments: 1. Brutal training, or lack thereof. We paid and entered the staging area, and were tromped to our pods (marked with our call signs -- cool =) and locked in without even a "the trigger button shoots stuff" for instruction. Pa-thetic. How about a 1-minute briefing beforehand? 2. Damn expensive. *Too* expensive. Eight bucks gets you a ten minute mission. For $4 or $5, I would have played several times over the weekend, but for $8, the pods remained idle for most of the time we were there -- I think 4 missions got run all day. Hmm -- what makes more money? A dozen missions at $5 or 4 at $8? Bad price point, especially with 5 minute T-Mek games for 50 cents just steps away. Sure, the pods are WAY more complicated and entertaining than T-Mek, but not $7.50 more entertaining =). 3. I like the game, but the staff should NOT insist that gamers who have played MW2 or Mercs extensively play on "Beginner" mode. Beginner mode was BO-RING after 2 minutes. Joystick moves you around, throttle controls speed, trigger does all your weapons. Yawn. I want torso twist. I want overheating. I want ARMS BEING BLOWN OFF. Beginner mode is like a boring and slow "Doom" -- no overheating, no localized damage (you kill opponents by shooting them X times, and they blow up), no choice of 'Mech. After my first game, I went back asking to play in a higher mode to use more controls, and was asked how many previous missions I'd been on. I answered, "One, but it was boring." The guy laughed at me. What the hell? I think I'm old enough and ugly enough to figure out how to rub my stomach and pat my head at the same time -- I didn't want to play that pablumized version of the game more than once. The staff at the BT simulators were the only staff in the place that I thought weren't top-notch. They didn't seem to be able to differentiate between "yuppie off the street in for a game with his wife" and "hardcore gamers who could probably pilot a F-14 within 5 minutes" =). Back to the place in general -- the snack bar, located in the arcade, had very yummy and crispy pizza (and hot pepper shakers! yay!), a good selection of general junk food, and "large" soft drinks that were actually "large". Good prices as well add up to YET ANOTHER thumbs up from me. This place is great. Good thing the BT sim is way off to the side =). Behind the front reception desk are the stairs downwards. And on your way down you see what is IMO the centrepiece of the building -- a HUGE bas-relief of a Hurloon Minotaur head. Check that -- "bas-relief" doesn't do this justice. The Mino is POPPING OUT OF THE WALL. Excellently sculpted, this piece really sets the mood for the gaming downstairs. Once downstairs, you find yourself at the check-in desk. The large downstairs room is a huge rectangle with a bit cut out in the middle (where the stairs are). To your right when you get down are two very large Warhammer and 40K modular terrain boards, both of which were excellent both artistically and strategically. I got to witness a game played on the 40K board and I was impressed by the thought put into the various features. Warning: don't play a 4-turn Dawn Raid. The terrain is TOO BIG. Continuing around, we get to the large tournament area. Lots of tables are sufficiently spaced, and decor puts you in a real sword-and-sorcery mood. Dramatic art, along with cool curtains and tassles, give it a very medieval/goth look. Only problem -- with ~110 people the room was pretty full. I do NOT KNOW how they're going to hold Worlds in this place =I. Going further to the back of the room, we enter Comfy Mode with couches and a TV area with BEANBAG CHAIRS BABY. Ahhhh -- nothing says "Help, I'm Stuck In The 70s And I Love It" like a beanbag chair (cf. the alt.drunken.bastards home page). The Sci-Fi channel was on almost non-stop =). Now we start walking back to the front of the room, and we find: The War Room. Quite cool. Large world map on the wall, with a counter where a staffer will rent games to play on one of the ~10 console systems or ~30 fast Pentiums. Games were predictable: XWv.TF, Quake, Warcraft II. Neat setup and fast computers led to a fun diversion. $2.50 for half an hour though -- a bit steep, but not out of bounds by any means. I was also impressed by the speed at which everything got going -- the tourney was under-way by 10:45, a WotC record! =) So we come to the part you've all been waiting for =) -- the tourney report and deck listing. This is, without a doubt, the most fun I've ever had at a tournament. I'd win -- I'd have fun. I'd lose -- I'd have fun. Fun fun fun. =) Without further ado, here's the goods. The deck name is "Sade". I'll send a free Lichenthrope to whoever can give me the best reason why it's called that =). (The deck has changed a bit since the tournament, and I'll give the changes after the tourney report). 4 Thundermare 4 Tolarian Serpent 2 Aboroth 1 Spirit of the Night 4 Nekrataal 3 Dark Banishing 3 Strands of Night 4 Shallow Grave 2 Necromancy 4 Hidden Horror 4 Anvil of Bogardan 2 Teferi's Puzzle Box 1 Gaea's Blessing 4 Gemstone Mine 2 Undiscovered Paradise 16 Swamp It's old-school! It's re-animator, baby! =) This deck has been in testing for about 3 weeks now and it's done quite well, but without the experience of a MirVLight tournament I wasn't sure quite how to tune it. My sideboard was a complete joke -- 4 Tranquil Domains (yipes! bloom!), 4 Serene Heart (yipes! armor!), Strands (yipes! disenchant!), Abeyance ("Ohhhh -- you can't tap land either!" revelation the night before), and 5 other cruddy cards I can't remember. Here's the match-by-match, during which the weaknesses will be revealed. (Warning: I may have gotten the order of some of these matches wrong -- sorry =) Match 1 -- vs. Blue flier with green splash. This guy ended up doing OK and finishing in the top 20 or so (out of about 110). It seemed that every time I played a card he would grin. Boy is this deck fun. I ended up winning after 3traight even though his sideboarding was strong (monkeys vs. the Anvils and charms vs. the Strands). Nekrataal is just too strong vs. expensive creature decks. 1-0 Match 2 -- vs. Black/Red. Pretty good first game which I won after some trouble with the black stuff. This was the first game in which I put the big gun of this deck to work: end of your turn, I Strands in a Thundermare and a Serpent. All your creatures tap. I untap, draw draw draw discard discard =), Shallow Grave Aboroth, attack for 21. =) All you need is a Strands out or a Shallow Grave in hand, and a Mare in your graveyard, and you've got your Winter Blast for the win =). I should note that it's also fun watching people let your Serpent survive, thinking it'll mill you to death. Hmm, I've milled 21 cards now, not including the Anvils -- I wonder if I have some fatties to animate? Or a Thundermare? =) Holding me off? Woops, I've hit the Gaea's Blessing =). (Yes, it DOES suck to draw it, which is one of the big reasons I took it out after the tourney). I lost games 2 and 3 of this match due to sheer speed and this deck's inability to deal with black creatures. This turned out to be this deck's biggest weakness over the day, and heavy black decks were the only ones I struggled against. Match 3 was against Armor Fun. Whee =). First and second games were fun, with me getting a quick "Aboroth-Bolt" in the first one (Shallow Grave =), and holding off a giant swarm of flying things in the second. Going into the third tied, I got burned by the 2nd turn Duskrider, 3rd Turn Armor play with no Serene Heart in hand. Bummer. 1-2 now, but STILL HAVING FUN. REALLY. The funnest part of this match was discarding an Aboroth on Turn 3 and having my opponent say, "*I* heard about *this* deck!" Apparently, my deck was the talk o' the tourney! I heard this from my round 5 opponent as well, *and* I had a guy come up to me after a match and ask to see the deck. There's a lot to be said for Fun Decks That Don't Suck. I can't remember the 4th match at all. It was against an almost entirely mono-black deck with a splash of white for who knows what. I got creamed -- my deck could do little against mono-black =(. But still, It's All About Fun. =) I was back on the Chump Table, ie. the last table in the room, for match 5. I was disappointed by the deck's performance but at least I knew WHAT the weaknesses were. Against everything but black I was doing great, even when my opponent was playing enchantment removal. Match 5 was against a WEIRD Aether Flash-Burn deck. I didn't see a creature all match, about 20-25 turns. 2 Aether Flashes out in Game 1 meant that most weenie players without removal would be toast. But Abby and Serpie laugh in the face of 4 damage. =) I ended both games with enormous attacks. Fun. =) Match 6 was against the dreaded Control =). It wasn't a particularly GOOD control though -- it tried to be a MirVLight counterburn. I died one game due to a Abducted Horror/Ten Points O' Burn combo, but pulled off the win! Yay weird decks! All in all, this deck performed quite well, but I was disappointed by the performance against certain decks, mainly black. I didn't get a chance to play it against a strong U/W control deck, but I had in testing, and it worked fairly well. Since the tournament, I've made the following changes: - OUT: Puzzle Boxes. They worked well in testing to cycle to reanimator cards when I was in a Serpent loop, but in the MirVLight environment games were too fast to get this going. - OUT: Gaea's Blessing. Same reason. Any time I got a Serpent out for 2 or more turns, I won. The Blessings weren't needed -- they're more important in environments where counters are more plentiful and you're more likely to deck yourself. - OUT: Spirit of the Night. Twice I wanted to Necro something. Twice the only critter was Spirit. Damn. =) I replaced it with an extra Aboroth, which I wanted to do beforehand but couldn't trade for one (!) - IN: Crypt Rats. BADLY needed Black Weenie removal. Also, see next item. - IN: Drain Life. I had 2 games where I had my opponent down to 1 or 2 life, and choked. Attacking with 2 Serpents and a Thundermare might look cool, but if you never do another point, you ain't gonna win =). Drains also will help keep my life up for the Strands, though this was only a problem once on the day. Also, Drains can get rid of pesky Black Things. Evil Black Things! Bad! No biscuit! - SB: Decomposition. This card is AMAZINGLY strong against black weenies. It's like a green incinerate vs. your opponent, combined with removal. I tested later using this and had LOTS of people pay the upkeep for a round to hit me once, then let the creature die. Woo -- extra free beat for me! - SB: Tropical Storm. I had minor problems with blue flying swarms, and I got lucky with Nek/Banish draws. Also, little fliers were a problem all day. - SB: extra Rats and Drains. Vs. Black, the Banishes and Neks are outta there. - SB: took out Tranquil Domain. I feared Bloom needlessly. I've had some people look at this deck and suggest adding more land. I disagree. I only need 3 land to get some creatures and defense going (Horrors/Banishing), and with 4 I can cast anything in the deck aside from the biggies. The Anvils help to fetch land in a pinch. By the time I'm Strandsing, I don't care if I'm down to 2 or even 1 land since I've probably won. I won at least half my games with just 1 or 2 land on the table. If anyone can think of anything I should take *out* to add land, go ahead, but I think I have a good balance. Any comments on this tourney report, the WotC centre, my neato deck =), or anything else are more than welcome. I expect to improve on the 3-3 showing at the next PTQ in Vancouver. Oh, and you other mugs who went to the tourney -- POST A REPORT. Doesn't take long, and it helps everyone. Uh, for those of you who follow this kind of thing, the top 4 included Brian "Not a Junior Anymore, Sorry" Wilson, Max "I Wish I Was Still A Junior" Suver, and two other guys I didn't know very well. Good showing by the Seattle Clearasil Contingent (yeah, you always whoop my ass, I know I'm a chump =)!