From: "Adam Maysonet" <leech@gate.net>
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com
Date: Sun, 31 Aug 1997 16:58:01 +0000
Subject: PTQ Orlando 8/30/97

Well, all I have to say about Magic is that it will never be a
"professional" game until the element of "mana screw" is dealt with.
Saying that, here is my tournament report for PTQ Orlando.

It begins on Friday night, driving up in the car with Al Sousa, Karen
Roche, Melody Alder, and I. Jeff Kostic, who I've been playtesting
with a lot, had to cancel at the last minute due to his job flying him
to Turkey of all places.

I had decided to play a monoblue deck, after hearing how well some
have done in the other qualifiers. I didn't use my Sands of
Time/Equipoise deck due to the fact that this week everyone would be
expecting it, and after all, I posted it on the net. Not a good
practice to post a deck on the net that you plan on using the next
week. Al also went with a blue deck, very similar to mine, but with a
few cards of difference. Melody went with her modified G/R deck, and
Karen played Marofalcon/weenie, based around Patrick Van Beek's deck
that we saw the week before at PTQ Miami.

We get to the Howard Johnsons around 11pm, but Melody and I crash on
the bed and are too lazy to do some playtesting. Al orders a mushroom
and olive pizza, and begins playtesting with Karen. I'm ready to fall
asleep, but Strip Tease comes on the tube. Now, I know it is a bad
movie from what everyone else has said, but I had this urge to see
Demi Moore's breasts. I've never seen them, and I think every
heterosexual male should at least see this sight once. Al kept on
telling me this is the scene where they pop out, but alas, every scene
was a teaser. Finally, about 1/3 through the movie, I got my first
glimse. Now I could sleep happily.

The next morning we get up, and Melody and I split while Al and Karen
playtest to get some grub. We go to the hotel restaurant, but they
only serve the buffet, which isn't that great IMHO, so she had coffee,
I had water, and we filled out our deck registration.

The tournament is preparing to start, so we enter the great chamber,
and I chat around, trying to see what the field would be like. I
thought I saw a lot of blue, but it ended up R/G was the popular color
to play. Okay, enough of the chatter, here goes the round by round.

Round 1
Jeff Barber - Red burn/LD

Jeff is a junior, and a pretty good player. I played against him at
the State Championships, and he was playing burn there as well, using
all sorts of Japanese and black border cards to demolish me. I felt it
was time for vengeance. 'Lo and behold, he was playing red again.

I don't remember much about the games, but I won the first one, due to
him allowing my Ophidian to live. He didn't make that mistake any
other game, learning his lesson. The second one I sideboarded in my 3
Shimmers and 3 Disrupts. Lemmie tell you something about Shimmer - it
totally rocks. I almost single-handedly won because of this card. It
gave me a free turn every other turn to set up and not have to worry
about counterspelling anything dangerous. And those Disrupts... wow.
Red players always tap out to torch you, hammer you, etc. Once he
tried to Stone Rain a land of mine and I disrupt... he is stunned, not
expecting such a card, saying he's never seen anyone use it. He tried
to torch me later, but I disrupted again. Next turn he wisens up and
torches me, leaving 1 mana untapped. I ask him if that's what he wants
to do, and he says yes, so I proceed to power sink him for the rest.
As it goes, he won the second game, and I won the 3rd, getting a
Shimmer out each of those games.

1-0-0

Round 2
Sean Sutherland - U/W

Sean had a U/W deck, running Afterlife, Floodgate, Manowar,
Hazerider's, etc. First game I performed the Ophidian Beatdown. Second
game in goes the Disrupts, and my super-secret sideboard card, Flash.
Against another blue deck, Flash allows me to cast a critter on the
end of their turn, and if they counter, they only counterspell the
Flash. If they let it though, well, then I've got a critter in play.
In theory that's how it was supposed to work, but it's hard enough
taking spells out of my deck to put the 2 Flash's in, and against him,
I didn't have any time to Flash a critter out. I had a Flash in my
hand, but I never needed to use it, since I had nothing I needed to
cast with it. I did manage to Disrupt one of his counterspell attempts
- that was a smiley moment. The third game he was color screwed and
mana screwed, and I was too slightly, but I had blue (as a monocolor
deck, this is my advantage), and won that game.

2-0-0

Round 3
Al Sousa - Monoblue just like mine

It figures, we play one another, but as we all know, this always
happens in a tourney. Al has a few cards different in the main deck,
such as no Ray's of Command, but 3 Mind Stones, and maybe another card
or two different. We decide not to draw, so that one of us has a
really good chance of getting in and the other person has an okay
chance. He also doesn't have Flash or Shimmer, but put Disrupt in when
I told him how good it is. First game I draw 2 Islands and die. Second
game I draw 1 Island and die. Simple as that. There was nothing I
could do. Match ended in 10 minutes or less. Not my idea of a
professional game, but those are probably sour grapes talking. I'd
rather manascrew to my friend than to anyone else, so I'm glad it was
him.

2-1-0

Round 4
Jason Malone - R/U

Jason is a really cool kid from Jacksonville that I see at some of the
other Orlando tournaments. He was running a R/U deck, with
Breezekeepers, Waterspouts, Lancers, and lots of burn. No
countespells. He didn't know the law of the Ophidian, so I had to
teach it to him. And he still didn't practice that law the second
round. I had *four* Ophidians out on him. I was drawing mucho cards.
To his credit, he only had one source of red on the table and 4
Islands, due to his Gemstone Mine blowing up on him. He was holding
three Fireblasts and a Hammer or two.

3-1-0

Round 5
Andrew Pacifico aka "Dr. Pacifico" - Red Burn/LD

Andrew is playing almost the same deck as Jeff Barber is. They are
friends, and he tells me Jeff got the deck off him. Andrew whips out
two calculators to keep score on. And he shuffles my deck for about 5
minutes, after counting all the cards to see how many are in my deck.
I am a believer in pen and paper to keep score, as you can just look
on the sheet to backtrack on damage in case a question ever comes up,
as opposed to a calculator, where all you have is a total.

Andrew and I boast to each other, saying one another is going to win,
beat him up, etc. I began to believe him after he DEMOLISHED me first
game. Within 5 turns he has out an Orcish Settler, 2 Mindstones, and a
full complement of land. He blows up 2 of my lands on turn 4, and
burns every creature I lay. He drops another Settler and blows up all
4 of my lands. I draw my next card, it's not a land, and I concede, at
a low life with a Lancer pummeling me away. Little does he know, my
sideboard action is going to rock him. In goes the 3 Disrupts and 3
Shimmers.

Second game I Shimmer him, which allows me to build up defenses and
win. Third game I open with all counterspells, draw a Shimmer, and
Memory Lapse him a few times to stunt his growth while I pull a win at
a very low life, and with him having a Bosium Strip in play, but not
enough mana due to the Shimmer. I drew a Disrupt the turn my
Waterspout (which by the way is the card that ends up winning all the
games) finishes him off, so I didn't get to use any this match.

4-1-0

Round 6
Mike Bevel - Black weenie/critters

Mike is from the infamous Team Stupid, and I see him all the time, yet
we've never played against one another. In all the games, he was low
on mana (but I have no idea how many he was running). I controlled
both games with multiple Ophidians (three in the first game). I kept
him from drawing more by Memory Lapsing his Shadow Guildmages so he
would have to draw them again. In his own words, he said something to
the fact that he was my bitch and I schooled him. One noteworthy move
I pulled: Mike had a Skulking Ghost and a Shadow Guildmage in play,
and I was holding a Ray of Command. Before his attack, he plays a
Fledgling Djinn, then attacks. I Ray the Fledgling, block the Skulker,
and get my 2 for 1 card economy. A minor mistake, but it cost him.

5-1-0

Round 7 
Dominic Crapuchettes - W/u critter madness

His deck consisted of all weenie creatures, like Longbow Archers,
Ophidians, Manowars, Vigillant Martyrs, Zharkrin Crusaders, Mistmoon
Griffins, Serrated Biskeleons, and Parapets and Miraculous Recoveries.

First game I get an early Waterspout, seeing him tapped out (worrying
about a counterspell, not knowing at this time he has none in his
deck), and he follows up with a Serrated Biskeleon. He manages to get
one counter on my Waterspout before I Ray of Command his Biskeleon and
use it to kill itself (even with a Parapet out). I hit him for 3 a
round, he hits me for 4, but I've already hit him a few times. Still,
he'll kill me one turn before I kill him. However, I have lots of
counterspells and a Boomerang in my hand, so in the final turn I
Boomerang and counter his critter, thus letting my 'Spout sore to
victory. The second game he overruns me with critters. The third game
goes pretty long, but my Voldalian Illusionist keeps control while my
trusty Waterspout flies over for the kill. This was a good, long game,
but due to the fact I had 3 Quicksands and a few critters at home, he
couldn't get through. I dropped a second Waterspout, and he managed to
get biskeleon counters on each one, and then Miraculous Recoveried it
to have a 3/3 Biskeleon. He was low on life (as was I), and I couldn't
allow it to live, so I Boomeranged it back to his hand on my next
turn, and flew over for the final kill.

6-1-0

Round 8
Wade Maraj - G/R

Wade is from Team Kaos, a fairly new team, but one that is doing well.
So far, one member qualified at Origins, winnning a PTQ there, one won
at the PTQ in Miami last weekend, and three of four of them were in
the top 8. Very impressive.

At this point, there were 10-11 people in contention for the top 8,
based on how a few of the matches went. I felt I had a good enough
tiebreaker as did most other people, so I drew.

Went to get a bite to eat, came back, and they called out the names. I
was number 8. Phew! That was close. So far, the two big tournies I got
in at #8 I won, SE Regionals and a PTQ in Orlando for NY.

Round 9
Kelsey McNair - B/u Ertai big critter

Kelsey was using a variant of an Ertai deck, using some bigger
critters like Morifen, along with Ertais, Necratogs, Manowars,
Nekrataals, Crypt Rats, Dissipates, and plenty of Necromancies. I had
good control first game with a stray Ophidian, and Jay'Tomed every
turn with it. Second game I got an Illusionist out, which was able to
protect most of my critters. I held him at bay with counters while my
Waterspout performed a beatdown. Meanwhile, I was getting beatdown,
and was soon at 1 life, although I still felt in control. I ran out of
counterspells, so I dropped another Waterspout incase he topdecked
something. I think he topdecked a Manowar, cast it, and then dropped a
Morifen to block my other Waterspout (he's at 3 life). I wave my hand
a few times, and perform my once-in-a-while topdeck magic to get a
Manowar, allowing Spoutie to come bursting through for the final win.

Round 10
Shane Myerscough - Ertai deck

Shane is another member of Team Stupid. Funny thing, when I sat down,
I was surrounded by all these people wearing black shirts - all the
Team Stupid members, cheering on their teammate. I felt like I was
going to get mobbed! All I had was my beautiful girlfriend to protect
me, but she did that quite well, holding off those mean people!

First game I open with an Island and a Quicksand. Okay, not too bad. I
draw another land, stall at three for a while, but keep control with
counterspells until I can keep a Waterspout out and win the game. At
this point I felt like victory was in my hands. I had designed my blue
deck with Ertai decks in mind, so that I wouldn't have hard of enough
time against them. But alas, here is where the horror begins.

Game two I open with one Island. I start discarding, draw a land or
two a few turns later, and of course die to the onslaught. Nothing I
could do. I held him off as long as I could with a well-timed
Powersink or Memory Lapse, but it wasn't enough, since I didn't have
land.

Game three I open with one Island. I start discarding, draw a land or
two many turns later, and of course die to the onslaught. He had so
many critters on the board, so, by the 10th-11th turns  (when I had 4
lands) I tried everything I could, boomeranging, manowaring, etc, but
he had too many cards in hand. He forgets to pay the upkeep on his
Barrow Ghoul and his Circling Vulture, but he still has an armada on
the table. He then drops a Benthalic Djinn, hits me once, drops a
Crypt Rat, and does it for 2. My last imagine before I faded into
obscurity was Al standing over me, shaking his head saying, "Mana
screwed AGAIN?"

At least I'm the king of something... Mana Screw.

That ends my journey to qualifying via qualifiers. However, I am
ranked #31, and I have 2 more tourney reports to be entered that were
done before the cutoff date, and they are good, so I'm really hoping
to qualify via ranking.

Finals were Shane Myerscough against Wade Maroj, and they split the
prize, not bothering to play it out.

Overall, it was a fun weekend, and I did manage to get to the top 8 in
the last three qualifiers I played in (winning one of them). Good luck
to everyone who is going to Chicago, and I hope to be there.

Here is the deck I used:

4 Ophidian
4 Manowar
4 Waterspout Djinn
2 Voldalian Illusionist
2 Serrated Biskeleon
4 Memory Lapse
4 Dissipate
4 Power Sink
4 Impulse
2 Ray of Command
3 Boomerang
2 Winding Canyon
4 Quicksand
17 Islands

Sideboard:

2 Flash (not useful to me at all)
3 Shimmer (totally a rocking card)
3 Disrupt (anti red and blue - rocks)
2 Abduction (I'm sure they are good, but I NEVER drew them when I
sided them in) 2 Mind Harness (never sided them in, as all the red
decks I played used little or no critters, and didn't go against any
green decks) 2 Serrated Biskeleons (these rock vs Ertai and weeie
decks - very useful) 1 Boomerang (very good, since these allow blue
another chance to counter once they develop).

I never got color screwed, just mana screwed. I'm not sure how WotC
can fix this problem, but it must be dealt with. Perhaps change the
game, by allowing you to put a land in play every turn from a land
pile you have, but then you can't draw from your spell pile, or
something like that. But that totally changes the game. Oh well, Magic
is still a great game, and I'll take my manascrew like everyone else
does.

A silent prayer to all those who have experienced the pain of a lost
game due to mana screw.

Adam Maysonet