Date: Mon, 01 Sep 1997 01:56:00 -0400 From: David DeMichele To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Subject: Chicago PTQ: Orlando This will be my first tourney report, so bear with me. I didn't take notes either so this whole thing will be from memory and I may mess up. I decided to go to the PTQ even before I came back up to Tallahassee for school from Tampa, and asked some guys that mainly play for fun if they wanted to go and they are going up just to play booster drafts. I also meet a freshman named Hal who is going to go with us all crammed into my Geo Storm. We end up leaving about 5 in the morning because I don't really have the money for a hotel room if I want to make Atlanta on the 6th, and end up getting there 15 min. before reg. ends. I decided to play a modified version of the Donais Ertog deck while Hal plays a B/U deck with a little white thrown in for Abeyance. I end up being the 100 person out of 140 people registering and am right behind national champ Justin Gary(went 6-2 I think). Other people that I know that show up are Aziz Al-Doorey, Wai Chang, Pete Leiher(who didn't play), Alex McConnel, Kelsy McNair and a good number of others from Tampa. Round 1 - R/G Match 1: I draw lots of land and only 1 or 2 creatures, he plays a Keepeer of Kookus and then a Suq'Ata Lancer and starts hitting me, then plays Armor of Thorns on the Lancer and does some more damage. I then top deck a Nekrataal and kill the Lancer and start drawing lots of creatures and start beating him down, he concedes a few turns later. During the match I see Pete Leiher and ask him where Randy Ellis is but he says Randy couldn't come because of work or something Match 2: He goes first, lays a mountain then forgets to lay land the next 4 or 5 turns and I kill him easily. 1-0, 2-0 Round 2 - Large guy from team stupid, Mono-black Match 1: He starts laying creatures and I start laying creatures, eventually a Necratog and Ertai's familiar start him chump blocking and I go on to win. Match 2: Again he starts laying weenies and I do to but he use a few Drain Lifes and Enfeeblements to kill them. All I have left is something like a Shadow Guildmage then I draw a Necratog and use it to hold him off until I kill with w/ some flyers. 2-0, 4-0 I find out Aziz's recent bad luck is holding as he goes 0-2 and drops. Round 3 - Rich from team Stupid who I was sitting next to the round before, he's a good player. R/G Match 1: He starts off with a Guildmage I think and some Suq'Ata Lancers but I also start laying down the hordes of creatures. He only gets one mountain and uses up a Gemstone Mine casting stuff including a Sandstalker and gets me down to 7 and i'm hitting him with Barrow Ghoul, Skulking Ghost, and Circling Vultures with an Ertai's feuling them while he can't get another mountain. I do an all out attack and barely kill him with like 7 creatures. He then shows me the Viashino from before and a Fireblast. Match 2: He goes first and lays a Quicksand, then on turn 3 lays another Quicksand. I'm attacking with Gulidmage, Fallen Askari, Barrow Ghoul and Ertai's but he can't Quicksand because he'll need the mana if he draws any colored land. He's still discarding burn and Lancers and eventually uses a Quicksand then draws a mountain but still can't play anything and he concedes. 3-0, 6-0 Round 4 - B/U/r Ertog Mactch 1: I get good mana and lots of creatures and start hitting him as much as he's hitting me, man o' waring his Hidden Horror in the process(that's why I don't play them). Eventually I attack with everything except an Ertai's taking him to 1 and play an Askari. I was at 7 and he could have killed me if he drew a man o' war to get rid of my Ertai's but he didn't. Match 2: For the first time ever since playing Magic I actually draw 7 lands and being a fool call mulligan(I should have realized with that much in my hand I wasn't going to draw any more for about 20 turns). My next hand had my one and only mountain and such began my mana troubles until round 6. I died easily. Match 3: I draw only a swamp and no 1 casters until turn 4 and then lay another swamp and then pump out the 2 casting flyers that become chump blockers. I lose eventually. 3-1, 7-2 Round 5 - G/R Match 1: Again I start the early beat down with lots of creatures and use Guildmages to make him regenerate River Boas, tapping them, leaving me open to attack. I win easily. Match 2: I board in disenchants and tranquil domains to take care of elephant grass. As usual I start early beatdown, on turn 4 he lays Aether Flash then on turn 5 Savage Twisters for 3 leaving me a Barrow Ghoul then turn 6 pays to fireblast the Ghoul. About 15 turns later I have a hand of creatures all toughness 2(didn't see another Ghoul)and one disenchant, but no Gemstone or Undiscovered. I die to Hammer, Incinerate, Fireblast, Fireblast. Match 3: First turn he lays an elephant grass, then top decks 7 lands to keep it out. Lets it go on turn 8 and lays 2 Aether Flashes and slowly start burns some creatures and lays another elephant grass and finishes me off with burn. In my hand I had a disenchant and tranquil domain but never saw a gemstone or undiscovered. 3-2, 8-4 Round 6 - Now I went from head table to sitting w/ chumps in 2 rounds and getting mad. The judges say one 6-2 will get in so I don't drop and I also play for DCI pts. I play some guy I played in the Paris PTQ(my first PTQ, I lost to him so I'm out for revenge) he playing G/W. Match 1: I start early beatdown and render baos useless with guildmages and do a recurring Nekrataal on anything else. I win. Match2: Just about the same thing as game 1, except he plays an elephant grass which I disenchant and win easily. 4-2, 10-4 Round 7 - I can't remember much about this match because a huge headache was keeping me occupied. He was playing U/W. Match 1: Early beatdown, easy win, about 2 minutes. Match 2: Mana screwed, easy loss, overwhemled by ophidians and Waterspout, about 2 minutes. Match 3: Everything he lays either gets Man o' Warred or Nekrataaled, easy win, he concedes after a few minutes. Blue's counterspells didn't do anything as I have to many creatures for him to keep up, never saw a floodgate but it can't block 10 flyers anyway. 5-2, 12-5 Round 8 - Chris Honan(he knows alot of the Tampa guys I know thats why I remember his name) Ertog Match 1: He draws twice as many creatures as I do and cruises to victory, I saw 9 of 22 land. Plus 3 of the top 4 cards of my library were land when he won. Match 2: Draw only 2 land and put out 1 flyer a turn to chump block Barrow Ghouls, Askari, etc., my final turn I draw a third land and put out a Necratog. He then man 'o wars my skulking ghost, all out attack, I'm at 4, he torches me for it. 5-3, 12-7 Oh, well. I did all right. Most of my friends did better though, Hal went 6-2, and friend named Travis from Tampa went 6-1-1 and was tied w/ 4 others for the last 2 top 8 spots. Adam Maysonet(8 seed) and someone else got the last 2 spots by opp. match %. Kelsey McNair went 6-0-2 and got num. 1 seed with a modified Ertai's w/ big fatties, he had to play Maysonet in quarterfinals though and wasn't happy about that though when I talked to him. I think Wai Cheng also went 6-0-2 and was num 2 seed, I wasn't really paying attention to the other names when David Doust called them out. My 2 booster draft buddies wanted to leave so we all piled into the Storm and drove back to Tallahassee so we could get back by 2 am. Ekon(a really good player from here) asked if he could hitch a ride, but we were already like sardines in a can in my car, he said something about trying to get a ride back that night w/ Aziz though. I've already altered my deck for Atlanta and it plays much more smoothly than before, still got more playtresting to do though. Here's my pre-Atlanta deck: 3 Barrow Ghouls 4 Skulking Ghost 4 Circling Vultures 2 Fledgling Djinn 4 Fallen Askari 3 Shadow Guildmage 3 Nekrataal 2 Necratog 1 Tombstone Stairwell 4 Man o' War 4 Ertai's Familiar 4 Song of Blood 1 Bad River 1 Rocky Tar Pit 1 Mountain 2 Island 3 Gemstone Mine 3 Undiscovered Paradise 11 Swamp Sbd: 1 Bubble Matrix 2 Forsaken Wastes 2 Reign of Terror 2 Disrupt 1 Mind Harness 2 City of Solitude 2 Elephant Grass 1 Tranquil Domain 2 Disenchant See ya later.