From: NSabin123@aol.com
Date: Sat, 16 Aug 1997 21:06:02 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Boston, MA ptq, August 16th

i just attended the Boston PTQ today. it was held in the John Hancock
Conference Center(rather pretentious for the Magic players i know, but who's
counting?), and was run by Your Move Games. they did a good job, except for
the fact that they had only four judges for about 140 people. most of the
decks i saw or heard about were either straight black or Necrotog. everyone
was looking for Abeyances, and they were easily sold for $12 or so. one funny
thing that happened was in the first round. one of the players, just
mindlessly throwing together his deck, accidentally put a Necropotence in his
deck. there was a big discussion over it for five minutes or something, and
the judges decided that the player had to forfeit the first game of every
match he played so that he could side out the Necro. pretty harsh, IMHO, but
better than the alternative of elimination from the whole tournament. some
decent players were there, including Mike Loconto and Jim Lemire. a bunch of
Hammer's crew(or at least they were wearing Hitmen shirts) were there, but
their leader was nowhere to be seen. but enough with the small stuff...
here's the report.

i had been preparing for this tournament for the past month or so, and was
having a very difficult time deciding what deck to play. first it was B/G,
then it was B/R. then i abandoned that for a U/W bouncer deck. but after
severely getting that deck bounced all over the place last Wednesday, i
tweaked my previous B/R deck and added blue. it seemed like a pretty strong
deck, or at least that's what i thought. here's the decklist:

2 Shadow Guildmages
3 Nekrataal(these were everywhere)
3 Necromancy
2 Fledgling Djinns
3 Wildfire Emissaries
2 Sage Owls
3 Man-O-Wars
3 Fog Elementals
2 Impulses
4 Incinerates
2 Kaervek's Torch 
2 Heart of Bogardan(i love this card)
2 Delirium
1 Thundermare
1 Urborg Justice
1 something i can't remember
 
and assorted lands. 

Round One: Jim(i don't remember names), playing Black Weenie

this guy was strong. weenies all over the place, and Nekrataals whenever he
needed them. we only played two games(he swept me), and over that stretch, i
hit him for a total of eight points overall... i am not kidding. it was not
any kind of new deal though. rather something i would have to get accustomed
to. 

Games: 0-2
Match: 0-1

Round Two: Guy wearing a cool Animaniacs hat, playing Green Weenie

AGGH!!!! another weenie deck. this one was fun to play against, tho. River
Boas and Jolrael's Centaurs all over the place, plus Veteran Explorers(one
game, he got one each his first two turns. incinerated them both, and i had
eight land by turn four <g>). i beat him the first game, and then he came
back hard the next two for the kill... this guy, besides being really nice,
gave me the best moment of the tournament. it was in the third game, and he
was beating me down with a River Boa while i drew land after land. i was down
to two life and began my turn. i was thinking "incinerate or i die." but i
draw a man-o-war and bounce it back. he recasts it next turn and i pray for
an incinerate again. i draw another man-o-war and bounce it once more. a few
turns later i'm down to a Shadow Guildmage and a Crypt Rats, while he's got a
Wall of Roots, a Boa, and a Mtenda Lion. i'm holding Urborg Justice. he
swings in with the Lion, cos all i've got is an Undiscovered Paradise and a
Swamp. i gang block his Lion, planning to then cast the justice and kill that
damn boa. but he casts emerald charm and regenerates the thing. i cast the
justice anyway, and he keeps the boa. i end up drawing another island and
concede.

Game:1-2 (WLL), 1-4 overall
Match: 0-2

now i'm worrying. it's only seven rounds, and i think cutoff will be 6-1 or
5-2. so this is where i have to start playing REALLY good. 

Round Three: Curtis?, playing a red/white weenie

this guy was also cool. i beat him the first game with emissaries and burn,
but he came back the last two and beat me down with Lancers and other
unkindnesses. he even had Rock Slides in the sideboard(solid card, now that i
think about it). he had falcons, but i never saw an armor(thank god). 

Game:1-2 (WLL), 2-6 overall
Match: 0-3

at this point, i'm mathematically out of it. but i decide to do another two
rounds for fun.

and then i see the round four pairings. right next to my name is the word
BYE. i spend 70 minutes watching the type 1 side tournament and do some
trading.

round five: Allen, playing mono black

another deck that crushed me. Urborg Stalkers and Rat Bombs pretty much ran
me over, and i never got my offenses set up. this guy was hilarious tho. i
never laughed so much in one game.

Game:0-2, 2-8 overall
Match:1-4-0, and here i dropped.

many many many thanks to all the people who helped me out; Patrick Ogle,
Jordan McKible(check out his auction), David Rys, and Matt Trafton.

seeya all at the 98 Worlds,

Nicolas Sabin