From: Donais Jeff Subject: (long) Tourney Report: Pro Qualifier - Toronto Date: Mon, 22 Apr 1996 12:10:29 GMT Tourney Report: Pro-Tournament Qualifer, Toronto - Canada --------------- This is the report of the Pro Tourney qualifier that happened on Saturday, April 20th, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The report is VERY LONG. Be warned. It started about a week before, after the coverage in the various mags about the Pro Tourney this spring, I decided it sounded exciting, and wanted to try for it myself. The only qualifier that was easy to get to was in Toronto, so that would be the place. After a generous invitation by a friend, (Gary - aka The Wise One, from his trade auction) who lived in Toronto, to stay at his house; we set out for Toronto have ourselves some fun. Note on myself: I am a student at the University of Windsor. I have been playing for less than a year, and have about 10 tournaments under my belt (mostly type 2, but some type 1, 1.5, and sealed deck experience). I consider myself a good player, and haved placed 2nd in several tournaments, and usually place in the top 10%. I picked up Mark at 10:00 AM on Friday. Mark has been playing for a little over a year, and is also a good player. He wasn't sure what deck he was going to play, but was up for the challenge none the less. The drive to Toronto was about 4 hours, we stopped once at a Magic shop on the way to check out some prices. The store we stopped at was not the greatest, and one moment of humour occured when I spotted a set of FE in the display case for $200.00. I remarked to the owner that he must get a lot of offers on that one, and he said, "Ya, actually we do". We couldn't stop laughing, and after checking through a ridiculously overpriced binder (Marsh Goblins for $2.00, and he wouldn't budge on the price), we continued on our trip. We arrived at Gary's house, and set out to check out the local shops before the tournament. The local shops were pretty overpriced on most stuff (UL Time Walks for $250! bleh). I did pick up two Mana Crypts for dirt cheap (if only this people has net access), and cleared out the local shops of Marsh Goblins (my collection is spilling over into a second binder now). I did trade a few cards to the local shops owner's, and managed to trade some Ice Age cards for OOP stuff (Beta Will-O-Wisp for my black creature collection, Beta Sinkhole, Berserk, and a couple other things in that range). I was happy to be able to trade in print for out of print, something that is not possible in Windsor. Mark also picked up a Timetwister, and was happy. We met another friend Fish (nickname). He is from Ann Arbour, Michigan, and drove in for the qualifier. We all went back to Gary's and spent the night playtesting our decks. Gary was playing a straight necro deck with Hymms, Knights, Orders, 4 Nev's Disks, Racks, Serrated Arrows, and a Disrupting Scepter. Fish was playing a white weenie deck (the only kind of deck he EVER plays) with Knights, Orders, Death Speakers, Savannah Lions, Mesa Pegasus, Benalish Heroes, and Icatian Javelineers. He also used Swords, Disenchants, Land Tax, and Armageddon. Fish has a collection of every white card ever printed, in every expansion, and language (I would say he is 90% of the way to completing it). I was all set with a deck I designed the night before. It was totally creatureless, white & red, I designed it to kill creature decks, especially necropotence. It had wrath of gods, bolts, incinerates, swords, disenchants, pyroclasm, earthquakes, fireballs, icy manipulators, aeleopiles, serrated arrows, winds of change, land tax, I also put in 2 power sinks (only blue mana was barbed sextants and cities of brass) for surprise counters of armageddons, and crap like that (feared armaggedon). I was confident that I could destroy any necro deck, and pretty much any other deck. I playtested the deck versus Gary's necro deck and lost most of the games. I was a little dispirited that the deck type I was supposed to destroy beat me, so I decided to switch decks (at 3:00 AM the night before). I started with a deck that my brother Mike designed, and changed it slightly. This is the deck I ended up with: LAND(22): 4 City of Brass, 12 Swamp, 6 Plains. ARTIFACT(10): 2 Serrated Arrows, 1 Jester's Cap, 1 Icy Manipulator, 1 Ivory Tower (I traded for an AQ version the night before so I could use it with Land Tax more effectively), 1 Zuran Orb, 4 Barbed Sextant WHITE(9): 1 Land Tax, 4 Swords to Plowshares, 3 Disenchant, 1 Balance. BLACK(25): 2 Ihsan's Shade, 4 Black Knight, 4 Order of the Ebon Hand, 2 Necropotence, 3 Drain Life, 4 Dark Ritual, 4 Hymm to Tourach, 2 Knight of Stromgald. BLUE(1): 1 Recall SIDEBOARD(15): 2 Sleight of Mind, 2 Magical Hack, 1 Ashes to Ashes, 2 COP: Black, 2 COP: Red, 1 COP: White, 1 COP: Green, 1 Feldon's Cane, 1 Disenchant, 2 Serrated Arrows. The idea behind the deck was to make Terror and Swords to Plowshares useless. It had Serrated Arrows to deal with other Knights and Orders, and the all powerful-white cards (Swords, Disenchant, Land Tax, Balance) to deal with the drawbacks of an all black necro deck. I playtested this deck very little, and was taking a bit of a chance using it, but what the hell, life is short... I helped Mark create his deck at that time, we decided upon a R/G Stormbind, Shivan, Erhnam, Bolts, Fireballs deck. He threw in some serrated arrows, and some Elvish Archers for fun, and added some Tinder Walls for fast mana. Lifeforce was the sideboard vs. black, Monsoon for blue, and Anarchy for white. I playtested vs. Mark and beat him pretty much every time, he wasn't too happy, so he added some Aeleopiles to deal with Knights even more effectively, and tuned it a little. Gary and I wagered on an ante game that Fish was having vs. another friend's type 1 deck, and I won a small amount (forget exactly). I tried to get to sleep at 4:00 AM but was kept awake by the sounds of Fish playing ante games all night (I think about $300 worth of cards changed hands during the night). Morning Arrives. We wake at 7:30 AM (with about 1 good hour of sleep), and head out to the tourney. The cost was $35 (fucking outrageous). The prizes were boosters. First prize got 16 Italian Legends, and some French, 4th, and IA. The prizes descended to 8th place, who got about 1/2 a box of Homelands. There were doorprizes (which I predicted I would win, because I always win door prizes). When we got to the tourney, the room was packed. About 65-70 people were there, and I recognized a few faces, including some people from London and Windsor, against whom I had played before. There were a lot of great players, and one or two relatively new players. The tourney was a swiss style, with 6 rounds. After each round you would be paired with someone who had the same win/loss ratio as yourself. The top eight after 6 rounds would advance to the finals, and the top two would go to the Pro Tourney in California on May 5th. I wanted one of those spots, and knew I had a decent chance. I kept notes from every match so I could post here (I love reading other people's tournament experiences, and wanted to return the favour). The tournament is about to begin, Fish is still scrambling for some more Serrated Arrows, and I make some last minute changes to the deck (that is when I added the second Ihsan's and made some mana changes, the final version is what I listed earlier). With further ado, here are the matches: ROUND 1: I am taking liberal notes, and always asking opponent permission before I take notes... I sit down to face a younger gentleman (about 16). I pull out my Plague Rats miniatures, and set them on the table. The first deck I ever made consisted of 30 Plague Rats and Dark Rituals, and I have loved them ever since. After looking at the viscious miniatures, the lad said, "Oh, a rat deck eh?". I smiled. We began. I started out with a shit draw, and had no creatures in hand till turn 5. He dark ritualed for a Necrite, which I Swordsed. He then Bolted Me and Incinerated me, and brought out a Black Knight (which I Drained Life). On turn 4 he cast An-Zerrin Ruins for Rats (I was laughing like hell inside! He hadn't seen a single creature of mine yet! The rat miniatures had given me an unexpected advantage). I drew a necro, and immediately the tide turn in my favor, I necroed to 7 every turn and quickly got the Ivory Tower. Knights hit the table fast, and everytually Ihsan's shade got out. My opponent had used all his bolts, and could do nothing. He cast a Sengir, and another Necrite, but they quickly fell to my Arrows/Swords/Drain Life and he was pummeled. The next game went quicker, as I had a decent draw. I had sideboard in COP: Black, COP: Red, and an Ashes to Ashes (for his Black Knights). He got a Black Knight and a Necrite out fast, which I Ashed (copping the damage). Having cleared a path, I attacked with my Orders and cut him down by turn 6 or 7. We played a third game (it was important to not just win 2 out of 3, but to sweep all 3 so you have more overall wins). I got an average draw, with no artifacts showing up at all during the game (except sextants). This time he cast An-Zerrin for Knights, which I disenchanted when appropriate. I got out an early COP: Black, and never took a single point of damage from him (I did necro, however). With a 3-0 sweep, I was very happy, and anxious to do a little more damage in the next round. Gary, Fish, and Mark all won with 2-1 or 3-0 records. ROUND 2: I was paired against another guy with a 3-0 record. He was from Ajax, Ontario. A nice guy, I again pulled out the Rats, and asked him if I could take notes. My intial draw was cruel, very cruel - no creatures, no swords - I was concerned. He played an elf, and I soon noticed he was playing a R/G deck. After a few turns, I did get out a Knight, which was bolted. He attacked a few times with the elf, throwing in blood lusts and giant growths. I was nearly dead. I desperation I cast necropotence in hopes of drawing some defense for the Erhnam that was just cast, I drew a Swords, and used it, only to be killed by the elf and a bolt next turn. I sighed, and threw in a COP:Red and a COP: Green. Second game, I drew only 1 land, but managed to use Dark Rituals to get out defense and start hitting him. I drew a necro and filled my hand, eventually getting out a Zuran Orb so I could keep a good life buffer ready in case. I killed his the turn they hit the table and kept pounding with one or two knights at a time, saccing land, and throwing down more as the got bolted or incinerated. Game Over. Third game, I drew an early tower, and double ritualed for Ihsan's (god I love this guy). The game was over quickly and effeciently. My record for this round being 2-1. ROUND 3: The competition was starting to get tougher, as I was paired up against people who had the same record as me. I dropped the rats, and asked permission to take notes. As I was shuffling I noticed something, the card sleeves I was using (Ultra-Pro, you know the ones that love to pop at the worst moments). Anyway, several of the sleeves had the silver dot showing, I said "shit", and showed my opponent, as I turned each one over, I showed him which card it was (I thought I would do this to show I wasn't cheating). Unfortunately most of the cards with dots were key cards that I had added that morning, including a Necropotence, Serrated Arrows, the AQ Ivory Tower, Ihsan's shade, and a Balance. It looked suspicious, and my opponent pointed this out several times. We were delayed about 4 minutes, and he asked if this was going to be a problem, I said, "No prob, I have a fast deck". We started at it, and a found out he was playing a creatureless Red/White deck (similar to what I originally intended to play). I drew a Jester's Cap early on, and capped him right away, looking through his dead was ugly, he had 4 Wrath of God, 4 Armaggedon, 4 Nev's Disk, Stormbind (tiny bit of green mana), and Land's Edge. I sighed and took out Armaggedons, and remembered to only play one creature at a time. Next turn I recalled my Cap, and took out Land's Edge and the Stormbinds. He had no way to damage me left in the deck. He threw down an Ivory Tower and Land Tax, he also used a tactic I had never seen before: We both had 3 lands in play, one of his was a strip mine. During upkeep, he stripped one of my lands, and after he sacrificed the strip mine, he activated land tax before the effect resolved (so he had 2 lands and I had 3 right before he stripped it). Anyway, I did ask a judge, and apparently this happened at the Pro Tourney in NY, and was legal. Anyway, I eventually got out Ihsan and finished him off. Second game I threw in the COP: Reds and took out as much anti creature as possible. I drew a COP: Red in the opening hand, and disenchanted the disks as they hit the table. He had a shitload of land in his hand, and a stormbind out, I was getting very little mana, and he stripped as much as possible. He cast armaggedon once, and hurt me badly before I recovered enough land to activate the COP. Each time I threw out a Knight, he killed it with Stormbind (I was saving my last disenchant for my last disk, and hadn't seen recall yet). I knew time was running out, and I didn't want a draw. I did something stupid, which I regretted. With 6 mana on the table I dark ritualed x2 and cast Ihsan's Shade. He only had two lands, so I knew he could not kill the beast. At the end of the turn he threw 4 land at me, all of which I COPed (he had already disenchanted my zuran orb). I was tapped out, he land taxed twice (2 Land Tax out) and threw 6 lands at me, killing me. Sigh, I knew it was my fault, and I knew I had better win this next turn. I got out another COP: Red early, and capped him (taking out armageddons). I also had a Tower out, and a Zuran orb. Things went very slowly, eventually time was called. Since they decided things on life (which I think is a stupid rule), and I was at 61 life, to his 34, the judge said I was the winner. Unfortunately things were not this simple, my opponent wanted a win, and asked the judge if we could play it out. We both knew the game could easily last another half hour, and it didn't help things that we started 5 minutes late. I said practically nothing, feeling bad about the higher life rule, but knowing it was the only thing they could do to be consistent. The judges stood by the rules, and I received a 2-1 record for this round. Gary's round went well, he played a straight green player, and on the second match, he got this combo: First turn - dark ritual, ivory tower, deathgrip. Second Turn - dark ritual, necropotence, zuran orb. Needless to say he won that one. ROUND 4: I had one of the best records, and played someone with the same. He was playing a green/white Serra Angel, Ernham deck, with Armageddons, Land Tax, Swords, Disenchant, etc. Pretty standard, and I knew how to kill it. He had a good deck, and was a good player, but I drew early swords, and he had very few ways to kill my creatures weren't white. He armageddoned several times, but I had lots of land, and recovered quickly. His ernham allowed me to forestwalk him for several turns before we both realized he currently had no forests in play (mishra's, city of brass, brushland, and plains only). We let the damage stand, and played on. His last chance was a Serra, that I promptly drained life, and that was that. The second game I sideboarded COP: green and COP: white, and we began. He managed to get out the early Erhnam and Armageddoned the next turn. I had no land in hand, and couldn't do much at all. He won that game in about 5 minutes. The last game was a little more drawn out, I got out early Circles of Protection and he really couldn't do much. I capped him for his armageddons (I decided this is the most important card to take out when capping). He got out Erhnam's, but this time he did have forests, it wasn't pretty. My record for this was 2-1. I was still happy, but very hungry. BREAK: We went to McD's for lunch, and Mark showed his prowess at answering correctly all the Disney questions on the scratch of game forms. Needless to say, we were impressed. We talked about our matches, Fish and I were still undefeated, and Gary and Mark had each been beaten twice. Gary's worst game was one in which he drew 2 lands in the entire game, both of which were stripped. ROUND 5: I had the third best record of all 68 people, but I was tied with another for this score, and we faced off. I had a god draw the first game, with an Ivory Tower, 3 Dark Rituals, Necropotence, Zuran Orb, 2 Swamps, my first draw was a black knight. I started off with a tower, next turn necro, and kept my hand at 7 while I summoned creature after creature. My opponent was being a bit of a prick, and was saying things like, "That's quite a coincidence, that draw of yours". I asked what he meant by that, and he said nothing. I said he was being childish, and he made little remarks like, "I bet you always draw that, no wonder you got this far, that's quite the coincidence". Anyway, the next game I had a shit draw to make up for it, and he pounded me with an Erhnam to death. He did have a pretty fast deck, but that game lasted a good half hour. He had sidebaord Dervishes (he was playing G/W), but they were useless since I had arrows, and plowshares. At one point he had 4 Mishra's out, and was using hallowed ground to block then throw them back into his hand. I actually had to disenchant hallowed ground to start hurting him (I never though it was a good card, and I couldn't believe I actually had to do it). Eventually he pulled a Serra, and cast armageddon in the same turn. I was dead (armageddon+creature killed me the most in this tourney). The judge said we only had 2 minutes left in this match. I suggested we call it a draw, since it would be simply luck of the draw, whoever got the first damage source would win (because of the life total rules). As I was doing this, I noticed he was putting his land back perfectly every third card. When he asked me to cut (1 minute, 30 seconds left), I quickly started cutting every third card to the bottom, he immediately complained to the judge that I was stalling, and I had to stop, without finishing the cut how I wanted. He ended up getting a good draw, and hurt me with a mishra's and a giant growthed elf, there was nothing I could do in 1 minute to hurt him more than he hurt me, and he could have sacrificed his defender's for several turns. Time ran out, and he was given the win. I had suffered my first loss. The health rule had helped me once, and hurt me once, at least it balanced out, I guess. -Oh, I forget to mention, in the second game I managed to Hack a Karma to plains, and sac my one plains I had it. It was great. DOOR PRIZES: As round 5 was ending, the door prizes were called, and of course I won the best one (I think it was the best, most people received a t-shirt). I got 10 packs of IA boosters. The only big cards were Lhurgoyfh, Vexing Arcanix, and a Marty Stromgald. This made up a little for my loss. ROUND 6: I was no longer in the top 4, and played a guy who also had one loss. If I beat him, I was in the finals, and from what I saw, I think I would have done well against the other finalists. This was an important game, and I was a little demoralized. I was also tired as hell. I had slept only 4 hours in the last 48 hours, and was having big trouble with the whole staying awake thing. I sat across from a very nice guy, and had one of the most enjoyable matches of the day. He was playing a Red/Green Stormbind, Autumn Willow, Erhnam, Blood Lust, Giant Growth deck. At least he didn't have armageddons. The first game went badly. I lost very quickly to a double bloodlusted, giant growthed birds of paradise (i have no fliers, and had already swordsed an Erhnam). The second game I had COP: green out on turn two, and COP: Red out on turn 5. He could do absolutely nothing. I had sideboarded sleights (scared of lifeforce), and used it on Ihsan's so nasty bolts couldn't hurt him. I walked in and that was that. The next game I also drew early cops and Capped out 3 disks (leaving on in...sigh). I hymmed him 3 times early, getting his Autumn Willows. As a side note, every Autumn Willow he drew I Hymmed out of his hand, it happened about 4 times this round. He dropped a disk, and I had no disenchant. Bye, bye COPs. Next turn he cast Stormbind, and threw his hand at me. it really hurt. I managed to somehow convince him that I had a Reverse Damage in my hand (I had said, "Wow, I always draw reverse damage when I need it". He held off a bit with the fireball I knew he wanted to cast, and killed my knights as they came out, eventually he got out an erhnam, and ate me for breakfast. My record for this round was 1-2, and that wasn't quite good enough to get into the finals. I thanked him, and checked on the other guys. Fish had also lost that round, and wasn't quite eligible for the finals either. His worst move was when he used his javelin counter on an opponents Savanahh Lion, with a Crusade in play (a Crusade that he had cast). We were all very tired, and I think that contributed to the poor playing in the last 2 rounds. I highly advise anyone to get lots of sleep and eat breakfast and drink fluids while playing, it's almost as important as your deck. Overall, I was happy with the deck. Nobody else was playing B/W, and nobody expected it. Many people said they were not able to sidebaord effectively against it, which was nice. FINALS: There was a break before the finals. I got a chance to meet Eric Tam, the Canadian champion. He was in the final 16 at the Pro Tourney in New York, and he talked about the players, and told us the funny story about why Lestree didn't get a chance to play at the '95 French Nationals. The story about him being kicked out for cheating is not exactly what happened, the whole story is much more interesting, and shows that Lestree didn't actually cheat. Anyway, that's a long story. I asked Eric what he though was a good card to represent him was, and he said he always put a Jayemdae in his decks, so I asked him to sign one for me, which he did. He was a very down to earth guy. I did a few surveys of people. Here are the results: Q: What was the most pivotal/influential card in today's tourney: 18 - Land Tax 12 - Zuran Orb 3 - Armageddon 2 - Ivory Tower, Necropotence 1 - Many Responses, including: Cop's, Swords to Plowshares, Jokulhaups, Hymm to Tourach, Balance, etc ( * Land Tax was considered the most influental even by people who did not play it, I myself noticed it was brutal, and have to say it was the most pivotal, followed closely by Armageddon) Q: Do you enjoy yourself enough to justify the $35.00 20 - yes 28 - no ( Many people thought the price was way too high, most said the prizes were not worth the money. People did say that they enjoyed Swiss Style, because you do get a chance to play more games than elmination.) Q: Do you like the optional draw rule? 30 - yes 2 - no ( I think the rule is fair myself. The rule, for those that don't know is: If you go first in the match, you do not get an initial draw. The person going second gets his draw as usual. If you lose the match you get to choose whether you go first or not in the second match. When I had the choice, I usually choose to go second, to get card advantage, unless I was playing a very fast deck, in which case I chose to go first.) I interviewed the only undefeated player at that point. He was playing a straight black necro deck with no Nev's Disks. The most unusual thing in his deck were takklemaggots. He would play them versus other necro decks, and put them on the first Knight or Order that was played. The Maggot would kill that Order, then start doing damage to the player. After the Maggot was safely doing damage to the opponent, he would them drop his own creatures. The opponent, taking a damage every turn was brutal against another necro player. Other than that, he had a pretty standard deck, but with no Ivory Tower (he doesn't own one...sigh..) At this point I felt like chilling a bit, and some decided to do a little trading. I was very happy with the trade situation in Toronto. I was able to trade smaller cards for some large cards. This is a list of what I picked up (all mint): Library of Alexandria, UL Timetwister, UL Psionic Blast, Black Bordered Nightmare (I only need 3 more Beta's to have every single black creaure in black border), Old Man of the Sea, 5 Baron Sengir, Sinkhole, Consecrate Land, Beta Word of Command (beautiful condition), Nalathni Dragon, IT Eureka, IT Invoke Prejudice, IT All-Hallow's Eve, IT Sword of the Ages. I had to give up: Jester's Cap, 2 BETA Psi Blasts, 2 IT Abyss, Candelabra, IT Underworld Dreams, Acid Rain, 2 Stormbind, IT Chromium, IT Rasputin Dreamweaver. I was very happy with my new cards. I didn't get to watch too much of the finals (the crowd was huge, and I was trading quite a bit). The necro deck that was leading before the finals didn't make the final two. The final two decks both were R/G with stormbind. This is the winner's deck: -Bryan McKinty's Deck: 20 LAND: 8 Forest, 8 Mountain, 4 Mishra's Factory 20 CRITTERS: 4 Scavenger Folk, 4 Naf's Asp, 4 Ghazban Ogre, 4 Brass Man, 4 Orcish Lumberjack 20 SPELLS: 4 Lightning Bolt, 4 Incinerate, 3 Land's Edge, 1 Stormbind, 4 Aeleopile, 4 Giant Growth SIDEBOARD: 2 Folk of An-Havva, 2 Orcish Mine, 1 Apocalypse Chime, 4 Meekstone (he used these a lot), 2 Whirling Dervish (used these twice), 1 Goblin War Drums (used once), 2 Forgotten Lore, 1 Jokulhaups (he would flash these "accidently" while sideboarding, which usually made his opponents target his lumberjacks over anything else. - So the deck that won this qualifier had Naf's Asps. I couldn't believe it. He said they were as good as a 2/1 creature because people usually didnt want to tie up mana too early in the game. He would attack every turn, and the other player would usually not block, for fear of a giant growth. He would finish the opponent off with Land's Edge or Stormbind. It is a simple and effective deck. I wish I would have played against it to see how I would have done. The Ghazban's were usually not a problem, and if the opponent ever did control them for a turn or two, he would just block with the brass man, neither would die, and he could get the Ogre back later. After the tourney, we all went to a local store and played a mini-draft tournament. We decided it was winner take all, and the the winner would get everyone's cards. We got a deal on 2 4th packs, and 1 Homelands. Brian McKinty won this won as well, with a Giant Oyster. I had 2 jumps, and 2 battering rams, and was pretty happy. During one game, I was playing Gary, who also had drafted blue/red (like me), he attacked to finish me off with a ghost ship, and I cast jump on my Dark Maze (he didnt have the mana to regenerate). I won that game. One player rocked with a Serra Angel, Holy Strength, Unholy Strength, and a Feast of the Unicorn - it was ugly. After the draft we went back to Gary's. I played ante games with Fish till 7:00 AM, winning some and losing some. Basically we came out even. It would have been faster if we just traded, but not as fun. Later, we all played some unusual ante games, I was in a gambling mood, and we gambled on everything. We played one game where we had to toss a 30 sided sided die in a bowl from 10 feet away. We also played one by just rolling dice. And in a fit of maturity, we ante agaist who could hold their breath the longest (I won that one). Overall it was a fun weekend. I learned a little more about type 2, saw some new ideas, met a few people. I can't wait until the next expansion, so type 2 can have some variety in it. Land Tax was a key card, and everyone had a Zuran in their deck. Should Land Tax be restricted? I don't think so, it's great, and sometimes can be abusive, but I think I will just throw in a few Storm Seekers next time. Sorry for any spelling and/or grammer problems, I'm not gonna check it. Well, I'm tired. Bye all. Next report: Alliances Sealed Deck. Jeff -------- Gamemaster: But why did you kill the kobold women and children? Player: Because they aren't worth any experience points to us alive. --------