Date: Mon, 8 Sep 1997 06:09:14 -0400 From: Michael Bayer Subject: PTQ-Germany summary Hi! Now that Uwe Stroinski and I have attended all 3 PTQ in Germany, I'd like to give you a summary. First of all: I suck! In the fist two PTQ I played Ertaitog, and either that deck hates me, or I am just too stupid to play it - it's probably a combination of both. In the last PTQ (yesterday) I played Uwe's burn deck (more on that one later), but we both made so many mistakes, and we both quit with a record of 3-0-3. PTQ 1 - Hannover the turney was on saturday, and Uwe called me on tuesday and told me, that we were going there - PANIC! We both didn't have a clue about this environment, so we packed all (ALL) our MiViWe cards, and I leeched some decks from the dojo before we headed off to Hannover on friday afternnoon. After a 7 hour drive we arrived at our hotel, and constructed our decks. I had a 'tog since tuesday but no sideboard, and Uwe had nothing - so he took a look at Martin Jodoes and Jeff Hanes' celerity-burn decks, and built one. then we had some hours of sleep. The next morning we went to the turnament. it was very badly organized. We played on dirty tables, and we had to play all three games, so that they could use their lame computer proggy. Suprisingly Uwe made it into the top 8 - losing only due to bad draws. the top 8 consisted of 2 'togs, U/W, mono-U, Mono-R and one ProBloom invented and play by Marcel Baran. Gregor Wolny (spelling?) won this Tournament after kicking out Uwe during the quarter-finals. I ended up 4-0-3 or something. PTQ 2 - Nuernberg This one was organized a lot better. I played 2 ProBloom decks in a row! ProBloom was everywere, and Marcel Baran ended up to be the winner. Uwe went 5-0-2, and I quit after I had my second loss to play in a side event (Minimaster). Gregor Wolny earned his second flight to Chicago. PTQ 3 - Saarbruecken Ok, now I hated this environment! Basically we only went there to advertise a price-tourney Uwe organises (13th/14th of september). I didn't want to play 'tog anymore, because it sucks, and because everybody sideboards like 8 cards, so I used Uwes baubleburn. Gregor was there again, and we asked ourselves what he needed a third flight for, after he had one for himself and one for his wife - his grandparents? His dog? His cards?. Before the turney there was an announcement, that there was a ruling to Ophidian, that you can use his ability during 'fast-effects-on-declare-attackers' - before your opponent had the possibility to declare his blockers, because there's a difference between 'not-blocked' and 'unblocked'! If this is true, I'll play my new 'turbo-Granadiers' deck in the next T2 I attend: 4 Bone Dancer 4 Goblin Grenadiers 4 Shallow grave 4 Necromancy 4 Animate Dead Throw in some weenies and it'll go like this: Attack with Grenediers, sac them and destroy a land and creature. Next turn repeat this with shallow grave or the like. After your opponent has no lands and blockers anymore, attack with Bone Dancer to steal all his creatures (optional), and beat him to death with them! We were all laughing about this ruling, and we all hated it. Some poeple were shouting stuff like: 'Cheap ophidians for trade' or 'Can i change my deck listing to add saboteurs?' After a while this was overruled by the head-judge, and everybody was happy again. There still were a lot of ProBloom and Mono-G, but this time U or U/W were all the rage. As I said before I played crappy and made a lot of mistakes, but once a wrong judge's decision (IMHO of course) lost me a match: I was playing against mono green, and I had won the first duel. During the second I used my minotaurs and lancers as blockers and was slowly hammering and bolting him away. I had a cursed totem out - IMHO one of the best sideboard cards in this environment, because it screws green, fucks around with togs and you even can't use ophidians and guildmages. Then he made his last attack, and I decided to block his lions with one of my lancers, taking som damage from another 2/2 creature. I wanted to prevent the combat damage done by the lion to my lancers, and the judge my opponent called said it was correct, because since there is no ':' on the lion, this is no 'creature ablility with an activation cost', but the head judge decided it was. Does anyone know something about this? We didn't stay till the end, so I can't say wether Gregor won his 3rd flight or what won the tournament. After all i'd like to say: -I hate this environment. Mana-screw is deadly, but you can't use more lands, because then you'll lose anyway. -congrats to Marcel Baran who AFAIK invented the new Probloom deck. Ask him about the decklisting, but I can tell you, it is possible to do a 3rd turn kill with it! -congrats to Gregor '"ol' greedy bastard" Wolny for doing so well at all 3 PTQs. He probably is the best german player right now - and he is a cool guy to talk to. MIKE "I am the god of hellfire - and I'll bring you: FIRE!!!!"