Date: Sun, 10 Aug 1997 12:55:28 PDT From: Lance Conrad Subject: PTQ report (the bitching continues) I just got back from the Seattle PTQ. A crew of three of us went. I tried a bunch of decks out and in the end decided to go with mono-blue again. I would have gone blue/white with abeyance and hazeriders, but nobody in the hick-town I live in knows what abeyance is, much less own any. So I took a mono-blue with suggestions from Guevin. Turned out to be something like this; 19 Island, 4 Quicksand 4 Cloud Elemental, 4 'spouts, 2 Biskelions, 3 Rainbow Efreet, 3 Floodgate, 4 Man-o-war 4 Impulse, 3 Foreshadow, 4 Memory Lapse, 4 Dissapate, 2 Boomerang Sideboard 4 Fog Elemental, 2 Biskelions, 2 Suq'Ata Firewalkers, 2 Dream Tides, 3 Powersinks, 2 Flooded Shoreline If I had known almost half the people were going to play that Ertai's Familiar Necratog monstrosity, I would have boarded way different. I am not even exaggerating on this. The B/u deck was everywhere. Since I'm a little out of touch with the scene up there, I didn't have a clue. Oh, well. Let's rumble! Round 1 vs. Terry Tsang Blue/white Great. I get matched up with a good player first round. His man-o-wars annoy the living shit out of me first game. Between that and abeyance, he gets board contol early. Somehow I fight back with my own man-o-wars, we trade djinns twice, and I even the playing field up. I don't remember how I won the first game, but I think I did it with a cloud elemental with one biskelion counter on it (?!?) I board out the floodgate and biskelions (had a serious debate about that in playtesting) and in go the powersinks and flooded shoreline. Flooded shoreline rocks him. He disenchants the first one, but I go cantip crazy and pull the second one out of my deck just in time. The second game was hella close, coming down to his snake basket and my flooded shoreline. I memory lapse the afterlife that would have won him the game and reduce him to zero life exactly. Long, hard-fought game. Phew! 1-0 Round 2 vs. Brian Wilson B/u ertai's tog As a player, I respect Brian. As a person in general, I don't. I won't get into it except to say that he has some serious growing up to do. I draw all my man-o-wars and pretty much just peck him to death with a few points from a man-o-war here, a few points from a cloud elemental there... Second game I get mana screwed. I get my second land the fourth turn and impulse for some more, but I'm so far behind by that time I can't come back. I hate nekratalls. They should ban them. I'm not biased or anything, really, seeing as they single-handeldy DESTTROYED me third game! I'm changing my email address to nekratallmagnet@hotmail.com after today. Everyone who had nekratalls in their deck drew all eight(it seemed like they had at least eight. I should have had them all deck checked) of them against me. 1-1 Round 3 vs. my roomate, friend, and playing partner Lars Grevstad mono-red I get mana screwed again (you sure 23 land is enough, Tom?) and get wasted in five turns. Out go biskelions and a couple floodgates, in go the fog elementals. He draws all four of his sandstalkers, but I draw all four fog elementals. Touchee', assholio!!! Things don't look to good for him because I'm still at twenty life by the sixth turn. He starts playing defensive by blasting by djinns, but with my creatures drawing away his DD, he doesn't have the power to kill me. I take him down. Third game was warped. At the end of the game, he had no land because he sacked it all to fireblast by djinns and quicksand my man-o-wars. He just never had the upper-hand and tried to draw the game out. 2-1 Round 4 vs. Josh Lytle playing that B/u ertai's tog thing Did I mention that everyone has has nekratalls in their deck draws all ten of them against me? First game was horrible; I scratch and claw to stay alive. Nothing works and I die by hungy barrow ghouls. What the hell am I supposed to board in? I didn't see any weenies in Josh's version. I went with powersinks. He gets a good start and knocks me down, but I recover with man-o-wars and a couple floodgates. I fear the thirteen nekratalls in his deck. I had to work for my win on this game. A 'spout delivered the main damage in between man-o-wars clearing the way. I start off with one land third game. Lame. Fortunatly, so does he! So we sit there discarding cards-good for him-bad for me. I get the second land first and go impulse crazy. He almost recovers. Josh draws enough land to start casting his fifteen nekratalls, but I've got enough djinns and counters to beat him down. Ugly, ugly, ugly... 3-1 vs. Matt Garcia playing -guess what? I am the nekratall magnet. He has to have at least twenty nekratalls in his deck. How else does one cast two nekratalls, have one ertaied away, need a fourth one to finish me off, and draw it like it was no big deal!!! This match isn't even close and I just get plain butt-slammed. 3-2 out again. But the top 16 get prizes again. So I stay. again. Round 6 vs Bill Puckett playing Blue/white FIrst game he man-o-wars, and abeyances me to death. He goes into impusle mode, draws his counters and abductions, and just shuts me down. Out to the biskelions and worthless floodgates. In go the powersinks and flooded shoreline. Flooded shoreline, baby. This is a wierd game, with him abducting my rainbow, me man-o-waring it, him man-o-waring my rainbow, and the damn thing seems to be bouncing everywhere. But when the flooded shoreline hits, I get board control instantly. I end up killing him with the rainbow. Third game I get flooded shoreline again! This card plain rules against blue decks. He gets out a snake basket and makes six snakes (SNAKES!!! AAAAGGGHHHH!), but not in time to save him from my fliers. 4-2 Round 7 vs. James Eccles Playing sands of time/equipoise I've heard about this deck, but I didn't have a clue what it was first game until I was locked up. He layed out gemstone mines and lotus vales and didn't seem to do much. My impession of James was a kid who didn't know what he was doing. My mistake. He drops a sands of time, waits until enough blue it tapped, then drops equipoise with his only land in play being two lotus vales. I just dropped the soap hardcore. My last two lands get reality rippled and I die by a sandstalker. I have to think fast. Five colors, counters would screw him, he probably has four city of solitude, why the hell is my only artifact and enchantment removal two boomerangs? Out go the floodgates and man-o-wars, in go the powersinks, biskelions, and a the firewalkers (I don't know!). This deck scares me. I don't tap anything for the first five turns. He eventually tries to get his set up going by trying to get a city into play. Foreshadow turned out to be my biggest weapon against his enlightened tutors-gee, I bet that's a City of Solitude on the top of your library. I counter I don't know how many citys (he argivian finds one) and get enough mana to throw out creatures and protect myself. I feel bad for him third game. His only land is a couple lotus vales. I still play tentatively, all he needs to do is drop a lotus vale and equipoise or city and I'm screwed. He eventually gets some land out, but he burns his gemstones up trying to pull himself out of his dilemma, I boomerang his lotus vale like the mean bastard I am, and I beat him when he has no land on the table. I finish 5-2. Good enough for the top 16 and prizes, right? WRONG!!! I get 18th AGAIN!!!!!! WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!?!?!?! Ryan Fuller and Mattias (sorry I don't remember his last lame. He came with Olle Rade) split the winnings. They were each playing black/blue by the way. Even so, I want to tell them congrats, good job, and good luck in Chicago. Six of the top eight decks were the eartai's necratog deck. Is that messed up or what? One of the other was mono-blue and the other was a wierd red/green (John Pennock rules!). My friends Lars and Gary went 4-3, Lars with mono-red, Gary with a mono-black that won his first four rounds, then bombed hardcore against the black/blue. Sorry, Gary, but four nekratalls and four dark banishings weren't the best cards that day! I liked this format for the variety of decks at first, but this day reminded me of when everyone at the top eight tables were playing that four hymms and strips thing called necropotence. I play in the sealed deck side tournament and lose to Lars with his Hammer, fireblast, incinerate, spitting earth, fattie from hell deck. The highlight for me is when I kill his crash of rhinos with a fire whip-locust swarm-querion ranger. The only problem is that I can only do that to one of his 4/4's and he doesn't even need to pick up his hammer during the two games he killed me. At least one of us won something. I think I'll stick to sealed deck. I didn't have enough information to metagame this one, which is what killed me. I had fun, though, even though I wanted to punch anyone who laid out a first turn Bad River on me. Good luck, Y'all. You'll probably hear from me again. Lance Conrad ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com