From: insanity@moselle.com (Insanity) Subject: [Tourney Report] IL PTQ Date: 22 Jul 1997 15:31:32 GMT The only reason I'm writing this report is because the Corrupter mentioned my name in reference to providing the final 8 in the recent IL Chicago PTQ. I played pretty badly and didn't really want to write a report because of this, but here I am, and here it is. Sorry it's so late. Mascot (Jim Meyers) and I were looking forward to the tourney, so much so, that we didn't even begin to playtest or even build decks until about 4 days before the tourney. When we did decide to start building decks, we're feeling especially non-creative, so we decide to use the 'Book of Meta-Game', my recent compilation of tourney reports from the west and east coast early qualifiers. Flipping to Page 9, we read, "... the environment shall consist of the following: R/U/B good stuff, Red Cheese, and maybe some other junk... " Hmmm... turning to Page 21, we read about the strong R/W control deck that seemed to be doing well against all of these decks. It relies on Gerrard's "Broken as Hell" Wisdom. I decide that I'm feeling just crazy enough to try my luck on a control deck. I realize that this will condemn me to hunger, weakness, and eventual damnation as the marathon qualities of the PTQ become evident. On Page 24, there was another deck... mono-red.... Looks like it should be relatively luck based. Mascot loves it. He decides to play the "Scrub Wrecker", a red burnburnburn deck with a splash of black for sideboarding goodness. Mascot described his deck as 'a piece of garbage'. Mostly because it was like a piece of really sharp cheddar, full of all the cheese in the set, no fun to play, and requiring little to no skill. Mascot and I leave Madison LATE on Friday night expecting to spend the overnight near Lake Geneva. We get halfway there and Mascot realizes he's left his 'piece of garbage' on his dresser. We pull a u-turn on the highway and hightail it back to the house, pick up the 'garbage' and manage to make it to our sleeping quarters by 2:40am. Of course, we wake up at 6:40, looking haggard and bleary eyed (similar to most of the rest of you who were playtesting). The drive down isn't too bad, so we make it at around 8:40, no thanks to an ill-timed bike ride we had to misfortune to encounter. [Matt Baranowski interjects here, "I am a weiner." Thank you Matt, for sharing.] Of course, neither Mascot nor I have actually obtained all the cards we need for our respective decks, so we scramble about hassling friends and dealers attempting to get all the cards. Of course, we're short and end up borrowing a bunch. So we gets our decks built and registered about 9:29, and then we sit around and wait for the tourney to begin. As usual, Hansen managed to get the tourney going right around 10am, so we didn't wait too long. I'm only going to give my matches, cause Mascot's weren't all that neat and cause I don't know who he played... Damn.. I've lost my name list... so I don't know who I played.... *hrm* Oh well. First Round: ??? Zwicke - R/B Beatdown with burn Game 1: I get a reasonably good draw, drop a few Gossamers, Gerrard's for about 20 and eventually beat him down with a Hammer after he double banishes my mesa tokens to prevent me from busting all over him. Side in 3 furnaces for HIS hammers, along with some shadowbanes ... I think... Game 2: Gerrads... Gerrards.. burn Gallowbraid... hmmm... remove your Hammer from the game, draw torch off of that.. burn you ... Oh crap... he played MANA WEB against me... OUCH... Burn him for 9, burn him for 10. Ok... good, won the first one. Game record: 2-0 Match record: 1-0 Second round: (No idea on name) - G/w with prevention and redirection First game: Oh look, I'm rather well outfitted in my first hand. 2 Torrents, 2 Mountains, 2 Plains, 2 Gerrards. Hmmm... Ride Gerrard... Ride.... TORRENT... Ride Gerrards... Disenchant Tranquil Grove... TORRENT... Hammer, Hammer, Incinerate, Torch. Sideboard in 4 Afterlifes for his Scalebanes and Llanowar Behemoths. Maybe something else too... took out 2 Passages... might have put in more Disenchants... Second Game: Should have been a repeat of the first game, but I played like a scrub and forgot to Torrent for 6, instead, I Torrented for 5 for NO reason, he taps Wall of Roots and Behemoth itself (while summoning sick) to make it 6 toughness... hmmm... oh and the Honorable Passage on the Scalebane brings me perfectly within striking distance. Oh, look at me, I'm a scrub. Third Game: See Game 1, except the finish was via Mesa Madness. He never had me below 20 after Turn 5 I believe. Ok... this isn't too bad. Game Record: 4-1 Match Record: 2-0 Third Round: (no name again) - ProsBloom, with Early Harvest First Game: Lay a land, go. He lays a land, go. Lay a land, go.... repeat til Turn 5 when he drops Cadaverous. My immediate reaction. Oh joy. He proceeds to pull a single turn (a la Killer Instinct): Ultraaaaaaaaaaaaaa Combooooooooo! Which leaves me at 0, and him at 40. Oh Great. Sideboard in 3 Mangara's, 2 Shadowbanes, 2 Disenchants, 1 Honorable Passage.... He had City of Solitude down, so I wasn't expecting to do anything against him. *sigh* Second Game: Hmmmmm... Mangara's for 5, Gerrards for 10, Mangara's for 5, I'm at 40 on Turn 5 when he begins to combo. Interestingly enough, it seems that his comboness isn't quite as broken as a pure T2 Prosbloom... surprise, without the Natural Balance/Squandered... Anyways, I disenchant like a madman on the City... He actually begins to combo on a few turns later. He says, "I have the combo, would you like to conceed?" I look at my 40 life... I look at his hand (of about 10-12 cards).... ponder... "No, why don't you go ahead and prove it, sir." He combos. "I cast Drain Life for, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20... " and falters, looking at my life-total... "Oh crap... you're at 40, aren't you?" I nod and smile. He curses. "Ok Drain you for 22." I take it, he says done. I untap, cast Gerrards for 54. He goggles, spectators goggle, judges in the near vicinity goggle. "I'm at 74, proceed." He looks at his deck. We both count. I have 19 to his 17. He could easily go for the tie and deck us both. He refuses. He tries to win. Memory Lapse his stuff... he's within 2 cards... Memory Lapse more stuff... he's within one... I Mesa him to DEATH. Whoo... I respect valor and honor in combat, but he should have just decked me and tied the second game. I pray to all the Gods for assistance. Third Game: He is color screwed and I draw 3 Disenchants in the first 12 cards. Guess who got burned to the ground. I win one I shouldn't have. Game record: 6-2 Match record: 3-0 Ok, I'm feeling very good. This usually is the BAD part of the day, when I've already used up my good luck, and the Gods have smiled on me once already. Now it's time to pull a curse worthy of Ulysses on my ass. 4th round: The Corrupter - B/U Goodstuff Graveplay The Corrupter and I playtest against one another ALL the time. We both knew each others deck contents to the number of each kind of land. Whee. Nice pairing, evil computer guys. We briefly discuss drawing, but he thinks he can take me. So be it. First game: This one should be mine. I'm pre-sided against him, kinda. Of course, I draw like a scrub. Look 7 plains, 1 mountain. He knows this and proceeds to bust out the weenie army. I'm madly gaining life, but can't draw one of the 11 red sources remaining me my deck to TORRENT the crap outta his junk. *sigh* Thanks for beating me, Adrian. *sigh* Side in 3 Furnaces, 2 Shadowbanes... maybe some Afterlifes... not sure... Second game: *hmmmmm* First turn Furnace. The Corrupter's deck LOVES the graveyard. *mmmmm* WRECK IT. Eventually I actually get both colors and Burn him down to 10. He's attacking, but I'm at 25 or so, so I'm ok. I cast Torch for 11. He sinks it. He goes. I cast Torch for 12. He sinks it. *grin* He goes. I cast Torch for 13. He curses and loses. *hmmmm* 25 minutes left in the 70 minute round. I immedately announce to the WHOLE audience, "Whoa... I think I can stall this out." Ken Roth, the head judge, who was spectating along with everyone else, looks up and says, "Oh no you don't," and grins. I GRIN back and proceed to take my full 2.7 minutes of shuffling time remaining. I side in the 3 Mangara's, assuming to go into _IMMUNE to DAMAGE_ mode. The problem, however, was this: the spectators. Because the Corrupter and I are friends, we were playing like anal-retentive timing assholes, complete with full, "Do you have any fast effects to declare prior to my turn completion?" and "I would like to start a chain of fast effects, would you like to instead respond, creating your own?" comments.... This was _of course_ done at maximum volume, leading to a huge crowd of people who were sickened and perversely pleased by my gleeful announcements of, "I cast Gerrard's Wisdom, I will be gaining 16 life. Does it resolve?" In any case, we should have had Ken disperse the crowd, but we had friends in it, and they wanted to watch, so we didn't. Because we were the last game in this round still running, we of course had ALL of the top 3-0s watching us with espionage on their minds. *sigh* Ok, so you know my deck from top to bottom. Hope you have a sideboard. Game three: Decent draws on both our parts, with me sweeping, and him getting cards out. I am almost immediately up above 40 life. He begins to beat me down, with me periodically gaining 16-20 to the moans of the audience (occasionaly *cough*cough*Broken*cough* echoed in as well) Anyways, the key thing of the game was this. I have enough mana to begin Hammer recursion, and he removes the bottom card from the game, _then_ tries to activate the other Furnace power to target Hammer and removes it from the game. I fail to notice this is illegal, and Ken won't let me have Hammer back in the graveyard after we realize. Anyways, we stall out, with me having 2 Torches left, and the Corrupter having lots of threats left. It would have been close, but I'm pretty confident that I could have flippered him. Oh well. We'll never know. Game record: 7-3-1 Match record: 3-0-1 5th round: Brandon Rutter - R/U/B Goodness Talk about the Gods pissing upon you. *sigh* The only person I'm truly afraid of. He's a pure ProTour player, a member of Team ACD. I have never seen him make a mistakes, and tends to draw the goods every game, regardless of opening hand. He was the guy who prevented me from qualifing for Nationals, by beating the odds (and me) at Regionals in the round of 16. (see Regionals Tourney report) Ok, so I'm doomed. He's my nemesis. I know he's playing GoodStuff, so again, it's a BAD matchup for him, but I'm still afraid. First game: He gets one of the worst draws of the day, mentiones it and offers to show me after the game is over. I get a not so bad draw, or so I think. He draws 8 turns of PURE sauce. All quick creatures and burn. I draw 0, none, not one, Torrent. He swarms me despite MAD lifegaining and prevention. *sigh* Why me? I side in Afterlifes and Passages... or Shadowbanes? I don't remember... this was the begining of the end anyways, so.... Second game: He just busts out, and there is nothing I can do to stop him. He's got Furnace when I attempt to recurse Hammer, and there is no way that Mesa was going to help when he burned me into the graveyard. *sigh* Thanks Brandon, hope you do well. Game record: 7-5-1 Match record: 3-1-1 Damn, looks like I have to go 3-0 to make Final 8. *hmmmm* Sounds bad for me. [ Just a note: the pairing system hates me and all my playtesting buds. Out of a group of 4 of us went down (Mascot, Matt B., the Corrupter, and myself), we had 3 pairing amongst us, with Mascot getting playing both the Corrupter and Matt, and myself playing the Corrupter. What are the odds of that crap, huh? ] Sixth Round: Tai ??? - Necrotog/Ertai's This is not a bad matchup... 2 Pacifisms... 4 Gossamer... hopefully he's not going to draw all of them... First game: Look at me, I'm a scrub. I forget to play land for a while. I draw 2 mountains, and a plains. I'm holding 2 Gerrards and Torrent. I die holding them. Whee. He mentions that he thinks I'm playing Aether Flash. I nod and smile and proceed to do some of the dumbest sideboarding I've ever even considered. Wow, epic. Must be those four 70 minute rounds sucking my will to live. Second game: He drops Bubble. That's about it. Game-match-PTQ. I end up dropping at 3-2-1, which considering my start of 3-0, is pretty bad, but the three loss/ties were to good players. Anyways, here's the deck. It's based pretty heavily off a deck created by Cory Jones of Dana Point, CA. It made Final 8 in one of the early qualifiers out there. R/W Control White: Red: Artifact: 4 Gerrard's Wisdom 4 Incinerates 2 Amber Prison 4 Gossamer Chains 2 Hammer of Bogardan 2 Pacifism 4 Torrent of Lava 1 Mangara's Blessing 3 Kaervek's Torch Basic Land: 3 Honorable Passage 10 Plains 2 Disenchant Cool Land: 8 Mountains 2 Sacred Mesa 3 Undiscovered Paradise 1 Enlightened Tutor 2 Quicksand 2 Tithe You get the idea. Mana ratio was prolly fiaxable, but on the whole, I though it did fine, aside from one bad mana screw and 2 cases of inability to draw highly probably cards (Torrent, Gerrards) Sideboard was easy. Ill thought out, but easy: 4 Afterlife 2 Shadowbane 1 Honorable Passage 2 Mangara's Blessing 3 Phyrexian Furnace 2 Alabaster Dragon For those of you interested in the Final 8, I don't have all the names, but the decks should be about right. Bob Maher (Maro/Falcon) Sam Heckman (Red Celerity with green side) Matt Cevera (B/R burn/celerity) ???? (Mono-blue, stall/beatdown) ???? (Sands/Poise) <--- This might be wrong... Brandon Rutter (R/U/B Goodstuff) ???? (Mono-blue, Floodgate/fly) ???? (Mono-blue, maybe U/b?) Quarters: Bob Maher (Maro/Falcon) vs. Sam Heckman (Red Celerity with green side) Bob Maher advances, with strong play in a tough second game. ???? (Mono-blue, Floodgate/fly) vs. Brandon Rutter (R/U/B Goodstuff) Didn't see it. Mono-blue advanced. Matt Cevera (B/R burn/celerity) vs. ???? (Mono-blue, stall/beatdown) Mono-blue advanced. Each lost one game to Mana screw, and Matt got a relatively bad draw 3rd game. Matt's only a junior, so we're all impressed by his performance. ???? (Sands/Poise) <--- This might be wrong... vs. ???? (Mono-blue, maybe U/b?) Again, didn't see it, but mono-blue advance. Semi's: Bob Maher (Maro/Falcon) vs. ???? (Mono-blue, stall/beatdown) Horrible match-up for Bob. This opponent gave him his only loss in the swiss rounds because of one card: Boomerang. As predicted, Bob got beat up, despite slightly horrible draws. ???? (Mono-blue, maybe U/b?) vs. ???? (Mono-blue, Floodgate/fly) Didn't watch, don't know. Oh wait. I'll bet a Mono-blue advanced. Finals: ???? (Mono-blue, Floodgate/fly) vs. ???? (Mono-blue, stall/beatdown) One of the persons who qualified posted a report, so you can get his name and his opponents name from that, but the evidence is plain. Blue ran rampant in the upper echelons of the tourney. 3/8 in quarters. 3/4 in semis. 2/2 in finals. If you're planning to play in a PTQ, you'd best be either playing Blue or have a DAMN good sideboard, because it looks like Embryonic Blue (progeny of Big Blue and Baby Blue) has made it's mark in the Mi/Vi/We environment. That's it for I. Thanks for reading, and sorry it's so tardy. Drew -- /~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\ | Andrew J.Hope | Email: insanity@moselle.com | | aka: Insanity | WWW: http://www.moselle.com/~insanity | \_______________|____________________________________________/