From: blumke8@uni2a.unige.ch (Alexander Blumke) Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.misc Subject: PTQ Switzerland (report) Date: 3 Sep 1997 00:02:58 GMT First I'd like to thank Gary Wise for his enthusiastic report which made me play an Ertai deck, and Mike Donais for creating the deck which I took as a starting point for building mine. Last week, I played in the only Chicago PT Qualifier in Switzerland (Winterthur, 130 people) with the following deck (metagame Ertai's): 3 Undiscovered Paradise 3 Gemstone Mine 1 Bad River 1 Rocky Tar Pit 1 Mountain 2 Island 10 Swamp 3 Shadow Guildmage 4 Circling Vultures 4 Ertai's Familiar 3 Skulking Ghost 2 Fallen Askari 3 Barrow Ghoul 4 Man-o'-War 2 Uktabi Orangutan: in for card advantage (Biskelions, standard Furnaces, Mind Stones...) and to be able to win 1st game against Equipoise 4 Nekratog 2 Scavenger Ghoul: Aether Flash proof. Almost a Sedge Troll in this deck 4 Nekrataal 1 Fervor: allows Necratog surprise kills, makes Vultures/Ghouls/Man-o-Wars/etc. more effective, allows to get rid of opponent's Guildmage with one's own 1 Song of Blood 1 Urborg Justice 1 Phyrexian Furnace: annoys Ertai's without Ertai in play, gets rid of Hammer, lands (Green Wurms), makes Graveyard cards (Necromancy etc.) and Boesium Strip useless, and is a cantrip Sideboard: 3 Phyrexian Furnace: other Ertai's. When you have 2 in play, you can keep up (1 is not enough) 2 Bubble Matrix: Aether Flash 1 Vampiric Tutor: duplicates any sideboard card 1 Urborg Justice: prot/black, other Ertai's. Almost always sided in. 1 Forsaken Wastes: white (Gerrard's Wisdom) 2 Serenity: Equipoise 1 Disenchant: Equipoise, Aether Flash 2 Honorable Passage: red 1 Shadowbane: black, other Ertai's 1 City of Solitude: blue (counters), white (Shadowbanes) The deck + sideboard was built with Ertai's, Equipoise, Mono Red, Falcon/Armor (the Urborg Justices were basically against prot/black), U and U/W as the decks to beat in mind. 130 people showed up for the PTQ, among which known players such as fellow Invitationalists Andrea Redi and Amiel Feldman, as well as some very good German and Italian players. Head Judge (and a good one too) was Timur Dogan, member of the 1997 Swiss national team. The tournament started and ended timely - organisation was good - food and drinks were provided - Swiss stuff. Well, we have facets we can be much less proud of... On to the matches. 1) Simon Stirnemann, B/R discard/DD/creatures In the first game, he Stupored me for creatures before he went down from 16 to 1 with a +14/+14 fragment-pumped Necratog attack (fragment-pump: activate multiple times a creature-enhancing effect by letting the effect resolve every single time). A Guildmage finished him the same turn. The second game was fast, too. 2-0. 2) Stefan Leppert, Ertai's I remember that the flyers made the difference. He had almost none left after he sideboarded 3 out after the first game (Guildmage or Nekrataal target removal). In Ertai's vs Ertai's games, the ground is indeed often clogged... In the 2nd game, I had the Guildmage/Man-o'-War combo going to squeeze the last damage through. 2-0 again. 3) Sepp Neff, mono U In the first game, we both were mana flooded. He won with the only Mist Dragon of his deck after he Boomeranged my graveyard-eating Necratog. In the 2nd game, he complained that he didn't get his 4th mana for 2 turns, then laid it and did nothing! Well, there's only Ray of Command... So I left my Guildmage behind for my next attack and lost a draw by putting the creature he commanded back on my library. Time was called during my turn when he was at 4 (I was at twenty). I had Barrow Ghoul, Necratog and Ertai's in play (1 creature in my Graveyard). He had a Waterspout and a Quicksand. Of course I attacked with everything. He blocked the Ghoul and... Quicksanded the Familiar! With the additional creatures put in my graveyard, my Necratog ate him to death (had he Quicksanded the Necratog, he would have taken only 3)... 1-1 draw. 3) Massimo Macchella, B/U/R Necratog/DD (perhaps Ertai's, but I didn't see any) The Italians were very strong: after 3 rounds, they were 4 at the first 3 tables. I drew a Furnace both games, so that his Necratogs were 1/2s for 3 mana most of the time. I won the first game, and in the second I almost came back from a hopeless situation thanks to Urborg Justice: I was at 3, he at 6, and he had just put out a 6th creature against my 4, so I should have been dead next turn. I draw, hoping for a creature... It's Urborg Justice. I wonder what to do, then make a desperation attack. He blocks everything, killing all my creatures (I don't regenerate my Scavenger Ghouls), and keeps exactly 4 critters on his side! One Wrath of Urborg later, it's up to who draws a good card first. Unfortunately, he does, and the match ends 1-1 again. 5) Dirk Roth, mono R Dirk is currently 2nd in the German Standard rankings with 1891 points (in Europe, being close to 1900 is just as rare as being close to 2000 in the US). I won the first game with potentially 1 life left (he gave up after not topdecking a land and showed me his Torch/Fireblast). I started the 2nd game with 2 lands, Disenchant, Ertai's Familiar, Necratog and my 2 Honorable Passages - he had no chance against that. 2-0. 6) Adi Kaelin, Ertai's Man-o'-War was key in this match. In the first game, it allowed me to let a huge Necratog through, and in the 2nd, he was stuck with 3 lands while I stopped drawing due to the Guildmage/Man-o'-War combo. 2-0. I ended being seeded 4th after the Swiss. 1st and only one without point loss was Andrea Redi, 2nd Serge Gariglio. My 3rd opponent (Sepp Neff) was in also. Feldman ended 14th with his U/W deck. Quarterfinals) Holger Meinecke, Donais Ertai's (different creatures though) Holger is also one of the better German players, being 17th in the German Standard ranking with 1816 points. He beat me in the 1st game by drawing a flyer after I Urborged away his creatures. I had a huge Necratog coming, but it was too late. I won the 2nd, and in the 3rd he had lots of land... at the bottom of his deck. He had 1 land in play *until the end of the game* (he would have drawn his 2nd 3 turns later!). 2-1. Semifinals) Giovanni Gentile, Ertai's (with Hearth Charm!) Giovanni is one of the better Swiss players - his 12th rank in the Swiss Standard with 1719 points just shows how few tournaments (with results sent over to the US) are organized in Switzerland... After winning the first game fairly easily, he made *the* mistake one shouldn't make with the Ertai deck: forgetting to pay a graveyard-eater's upkeep cost. The loss of his Vultures cleared the way for my flyers, and soon it was game. 2-0 Finals) Giulio Gomitoni, Ertai's without Vultures/Ghouls but with DD He was a small boy from Italy with his hair like Hacker's and was very glad to play me in the finals of this tournament (well, I was too). We played only 1 game to determine the winner; unfortunately, he was color screwed (no red). 1-0. Gentile took 3rd place, thus qualifying for Chicago. Sepp Neff ended 4th. Some final remarks... Against other Ertai's, I usually sided in the 3 Furnaces, Shadowbane and Urborg Justice, and removed the 2 Fallen Askari (once the opponent has a Nekratog out, they're useless, and they don't work well with Urborg Justice. Moreover, one of my Ertai opponents sided not-so-useful Knights of the Mists in), Fervor (I became more defensive), 1 Orangutan (when I didn't see any artifact in the 1st game), and 1 land (I was putting in 3 cantrips). In the course of the tournament, I won against 5 Ertai's (among which 1 Donais Ertai's in the quarterfinals), 1 Black/Red discard, 1 Red Blast, and drew against 1 B/U/R Necratog/DD (didn't see Ertai's) and mono U. I never met any Equipoise although there were a lot in the tournament. This deck (and Ertai's in general) is too strong. You have 10 creatures which give you card or time advantage (Nekrataals, Man-o'-Wars and Orangutans), and 35 creatures which also give you card advantage once you have a Necratog in play because you use them first in play, then in the graveyard. 25 creatures you use twice, and 10 you use thrice. That's what I call card advantage! When a creature gets counterspelled or incinerated, both players lost a card, but for you, a little Giant Growth remains. For those who would develop the Ertai deck further, Ophidian and Agonizing Memories could be good additions to enhance the card-advantage aspect of the deck. There would be a slight loss of speed, but perhaps it is worth it... That's it. Good luck at future tournaments - especially to those who write reports! -- From the top of his Ivory Tower, he looked to the east: the dark and barren grounds seemed to stretch to the infinite. From the top of his Ivory Tower, he looked to the west: fertile rye fields extended beyond the horizon. No cliffs, no mountains, only rye fields as far as one could see. Alexander Blumke blumke8@uni2a.unige.ch