From: "Sam Goutsmit" Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy Subject: [Report] Brussels ProTour Qualifier Date: 31 Aug 1997 12:22:15 GMT Hi, folks. Please receive my PTQ Brussels report as promised. There where some 120 people present, among which all the big shots in Belgium. We (The BrassMan) were present with six people, and were sporting a wide variety of decks, such as: Bert played a White Weenie with Bubble Matrixes (good metagame deck) Jan played a Red Celerity with City of Solitude standard Frederick played a mono-red burn. Alain played his all-green critters deck. Bram played a all blue deck, with the Floodgate/Boomerang combo. Myself (Sam) playing the Blue in the Face deck (see below). My Deck (aka "Blue in the Face") Creatures (16) 4 Ophidian 4 Man-O'-War 3 Azimaet Drake 1 Fog Elemental 4 Waterspout Djinn Spells (20) 3 Memory Lapse 4 Dissipate 2 Power Sink 1 Desertion 3 Mind Stone 2 Boomerang 1 Undo 1 Ray of Command 3 Impulse Land (24) 16 Island 4 Quicksand 1 Winding Canyons 3 Flood Plains SideBoard 3 Honorable Passages 2 Plains 2 ShadowBane 2 Phyrexian Furnace 2 Mind Harness 2 Floodgate 2 Disenchant Notes about the deck: It's very manascrew resistant. It has 24 land, and only needs 2 land from the start, when I have either a Mind Stone or an Impulse in my hand. During the day, I have never(!) been manascrewed with this deck. Of course, I was manaSWAMPED once, but you cannot have it all :) The format was 6 rounds of Swiss, followed by best 16 direct elemination. ROUND 1: Tom Tondeleir (B/U Ertog) Game 1: He lays down a second turn Ertai, which tells me enough about the deck type. We trade some creatures, his ertai mills away three(!) Necratogs. After about fifteen rounds, no one has any creatures and we both have 1 card in hand. I then proceed to draw 6 lands after each other, while he bashes me with a Waterspout. Ick. Game 2: I bring in some Shadowbanes and some Furnaces from the Side. I get the early edge and a Waterspout beats him up. He Nekrataals it, I dissipate. Next round, he Nekrataals it again! I then summon an Azimaet Drake and an Ophidian and finish him off with it. Game 3: A very close game, in which a lot of creatures got killed, but which was eventually decided by him drawing three(!) Nekrataals in a row, and then being able to get the Nekrataal/Guildmage combo running. During all three games, I didn't draw a single Impulse or Man-O'-War... 1-2, 0 points, 0-1 games Great, once again, I can start the long, lonely way back up. ROUND 2: Vincent (B/R stalkers/lancers/minotaurs/stupors) Game 1: I Power Sink an early lancer. He summons a Hidden Horror. I chuckle; Hidden Horrors are _not_ good choices against mono blue. I Man-O'-War the Horror to his hand; next round he summons the Horror again; I boomerang it back. He growls at me :) I get an Ophidian out and it starts giving me cards. (He had a Sandstalker or two in his hand, but I had 2 quicksands out). The Ophidian gives me lots of land and counters but no creatures so the game just drags on a bit. I counter some threats, and then I draw another Ophidian :). Needless to say, the game was mine in the end. I think I must have drawn some 20 extra cards from the Ophidians in that game. It was sick :) Game 2: He looks smug and Rituals out a Horror in the first round. The Horror hits me for 4 before I Boomerang it again. He then Stupors me and gets an Azimaet Drake. I throw away a Waterspout, because I need to take control first. I keep him busy by giving him some creatures to kill. He stupors me again, while I have 2 cards in hand, so I dissipate it. After that, his offense as pretty much exhausted and I take control, hitting him for 2 per round with an Azimaet Drake. He tries to kill it a few times, but an Honorable Passage or two spoil his day :) I win rather easily. 2-0, 3 points, 1-1 games ROUND 3: ?? (B/W Reanimator) Game 1: I see precious little of his deck, as I get a third turn Waterspout Djinn. He gets a few Griffins out, I run over them and that's about it. Game 2: Having no way of knowing what this deck is, I do not side in my Furnaces. Boy, could I have used them :) Game starts and in the third round he does a Buried Alive. A Teeka's Dragon, Spirit of the Night and an Archangel appear in his graveyard. By now, I'm somewhat worried and I suddenly remember that when his Griffins died, they were removed from the game and the top graveyard creature comes into play. I see the combo, and therefore when he gets out a Griffin, I hold back my Waterspout to avoid Archangel problems. Those problems arrive anyway, when he starts casting Necromancies on his big nasties. I'm swamped by Archangels and Hidden Horrors and take a beating. During that time, I'm desperately Impulsing and finally draw a Man-O-'War which I use on his Archangel. He then summons a Hidden Horror and put his Archangel back in the graveyard. Next round he summons a Strands of Night, and my problems are even bigger. This goes on for a while, me holding on with all my might, until he succeeds in Stranding his Spirit of the Night into play. At that point, I am at 4 life with a Waterspout and a Man-O-War in play, while he has 2 Hidden Horrors, an Archangel and a Spirit of the Night in play! It looks positively bleak for me, but I refuse to give up. I Impulse and grab a Ray of Command. He attacks with a Horror, the Spirit and the Angel. I Ray the Spirit and block his Angel, while my Djinn kills the Horror. In my turn, I draw a Man-O-War, use it on the remaining Horror and summon another Waterspout. I then proceed to Memory Lapse his Necromancy on Teeka's Dragon twice, while my Spout and my Man-O-War beat him down. He tells me that he really didn't think I had any chance of winning when I was at four. I tell him I had a few doubts myself :) 2-0, 6 points, 2-1 games ROUND 4: french speaking guy, mono blue All four people at our table are playing mono blue, except Eric Hanuise who has to be special and splash White in it. (Hi Eric :) Game 1: A typical blue against blue game. Man-o-War's fly all around, Memory Lapses get dissipated who get Lapsed and similar nastiness. Finally, he nails me with a Spout while he was only at 4 himself. I dig in my Side and decide to get the Floodgates out, to stop his Man-o-Wars. Turns out he sided in Suq'Ata Firewalkers too, so it was even better :) Game 2: Short story: I get the early advantage, and protect it to win. Game 3: He gets out an early Ophidian and I cannot stop it. Not good at all, the Phid starts nailing him cards and I'm in trouble. He has a Phid and a Man-O-War in play against my Man-O-War and my Azimaet Drake and he also has a lot more cards in hand than me. He attacks with the Phid and the War, I doubleblock the Phid to kill it, which he didn't expect. The next turn, he gets one of his sideboard cards out: Mana Web. This card is hell against monoblue, and it's only my Mind Stones that allow me to counter a few things. He once again has the advantage with a FireWalker, a Serrated Biskelion and a Man-O-War, against my Azimaet Drake. He attacks with the Man-O-War, I block with the Drake, killing the War; he puts a -1/-1 counter on it to kill it too. Just before my round, I ray of command his Biskelion and put a counter on the Suq'Ata, killing them both (The firewalker still had summoning sickness btw). This seems to have been the deciding play, as I slowly gain advantage after that. Finally, I have 2 Waterspouts out (one was Vanished, but he didn't have enough mana to pay it all the time) and I just manage to kill him. Whew :) 2-1, 9 points, 3-1 games ROUND 5: ?? B/R DD, celerity creatures Game 1: He only draws mountains and has black stuff in his hand. I build up some mana, desertion his Suq'Ata Lancer, and beat him down with it. By the time, he had black mana, I memory lapsed him a few times and that was enough. He did waste a lot of burn of me, so I was at 12 life or so. That was good, because it told me it was worth getting my Passages out of my Sideboard. Game 2: I boomerang a mountain back to his hand in the second turn to slow him down. It seems to work as I get enough mana by the time his offense starts. I take it easy, as I don't want to fall pray to the Blast/Blast/incinerate trick and always keep some mana available. I lure his direct damage out, by summoning Waterspouts and letting him kill them. Then i summon an Azimaet and an Ophidian and in the end, he's at 2 and the Azimaet is still there. He tries to Thunderbolt the Drake, but I Passage it back in his face, and that's that. 2-0, 12 points, 4-1 games ROUND 6: U/B Teferi's Veil deck with Shallow Graves We intentionally draw, thinking quite justly that the chances of getting in the final 16 with 4-1-1 are pretty good. 1-1, 13 points, 4-1-1 games There is a half hour pause, during which there is a tombola and they compute the resistance points. In the end, turned out there was one person with 13 points who didn't make it and it was the same person who was 10th in the previous PTQ. By now, you should have guessed that unlucky guy who ends up 17th was me of course :) Oh well, I'll get over it. i'm pretty happy with my deck anyhow and maybe I'll do better at the next CHicago PTQ. If there is one, anyway, because Wotc Belgium has canceled the Liege Qualifier and doesn't seem very interested in doing another one. More on this rather sad and silly story later, as it happens. Of the six BrassMan, 3 ended up in the top 20. Bert and Frederick got eliminated in the 1/8 finals, but they played really good for being only relatively new members. Congrats, Bert and Fred! So that's it. It was a fun qualifier with a very high level of competition. Let me just say hi and congrats to: Giovanni Bazzi, for playing a really funky Black/Blue/white deck with Odylic Wraiths standard. (gave black players fits) Kurt Foket and Ben Possemiers for being once again in the final 8 (and maybe even better, but I left before that :) Geert Matthys, just to prove that I can remember his name! :) CHeers, Sam Goutsmit Member Team BrassMan