From: Ryan Barker Subject: [TOURNEY REPORT] - PQ Santa Ana, CA Date: Tue, 29 Oct 1996 00:46:36 -0800 Jason Hee (ranked 58) and I went to the qualifier with extremely similar decks. I've decided to call it JokuLDpotence. It is designed to hose their land, get out creatures, haups and necro when appropriate. A listing of my version is at the bottom. Round 1: (I didn't keep track of any names, sorry to those I played, next time, I will) I play a R/w/g deck with stormbind, deadly insects, and fire. I lose the first game to a deadly insect after I drew no LD and he incinerated and swords all my creatures. 2nd game: I sideboard in the dystopias and out go some LD(this ends up killing me, doh) I win this game by thawing and stone raining his glacier. Death by abyssals and knights. Dysopia kills his only insect. 3rd game: Death by insect again. I rack it up to bad luck, but decide later it was because of sideboarding out LD instead of Necro for the Dyatopias. Match 0-1 Games 1-2 Round 2: Sweep #1:I LD him both times to a couple lands, death by creatures and Necro. Match 1-1 Games 3-2 Round 3: I get swept by a nasty R/w/g deck. Garglehaups w/ Stormbind. I sideboard out the LD again for dystopias. I'm only a Junior and I figure I only need to win 3 out of the next 4 matches to get to the final 8 so I stay in. Match 1-2 Games 3-4 Round 4: Sweep #2: This game changed my sideboard strategy as I finally figure out that the LD stays in no matter what. Death by LD/ necro/ haups/ creatures/ fire/ Thaw. This match and the next two are a blur. Match 2-2 Games 5-3 Round 5: Sweep #3: See Round 4. Match 3-2 Games 7-3 Round 6: Sweep #4: See above. Match 4-2 Games 9-3 Round 7: Sweep #5: I play against a friend of the guy who beat me in Round 3. We both realize that we need to win to get to the next round. I'm kind of scared because the last deck game me such trouble. Too many juniors were doing good for anything less than 5-2 to get in. No real need to worry as it turns out, these games go just like my last 4 matches. my dystopias end up sitting in my hand during the second game. After the match, I ask where the Insects were. Turns out he was playing baubles instead of Gargoyles and insects. His deck was not nearly as good. I'm into the finals ranked 8th as a junior, 21st over all. Match 5-2 Games 12-3 Round 8: Sweep #6: I play agains the junior ranked 5th overall. He lost only 1 match before me. He is playing a W/R deck. First game, he only plays plains, a couple mountains and a glacier(I think, next time, better notes) I LD all his lands except the plains and he dies horribly. 2nd game: See game 1. It turns out the guy was from Arizona and he was the one who kept Jason out of the final 8, giving him his second loss in Round 7. Too bad, Jason is a better player than I am and deserves to go to Dallas. Match 6-2 Games 14-3 After this match, I find out that #4 beat #5 and #4 had already qualified. I figured this meant that I would play him, while the winner of 2 vs 7 would play the winner of 3 vs 6. I would be able to lose 1 out of the next two matches and qualify. The pairings are announced, and I have to play the winner of 3 vs 6! I now must win this match to qualify if #4 loses. Sorry everyone, I don't have a good memory with names. Next time notes. I head into round 9 needing to win. Round 9: Game 1: I draw a lot of LD and a glaciers. He glaciers also and we both icequake eachother's glaciers. He plays Bw-necro with the snow-covered swampwalking zombies, disenchants, abyssals, contagions and the kicker, Dance of the Dead. He gets a creature advantage and the turn before I haups was able to get a necro and ZOrb out against me. He Dance of the Dead's my creatures and kills me after I run out of bolts and creatures. Game 2: I LD a lot of his lands, fumarole a zombie and a swamp, but he manages to stay at 3 lands. he necros down to 5 life, I have glaciered all the way to 10 or so lands after he has gotten me to 9 life. he begins pounding me with my own Phantasmal. He gets out a Withering Wisps, kills my pump knight and abbyssal. I pray for one of 2 Lava Bursts left in the deck. Draw, knight, play knight, play glacier. Take 4, 2 from fiend, 1 from wisp, I'm at 5. Draw, knight, play knight, use glacier. Take 4 agian. Draw.... Swamp. I'm dead. No haups no Burst. Match 6-3 Games 14-5 Turns out that #4 lost. I'm not going to Dallas. I get a bunch of Ice Age, 4th edition, German Rennaisance(crap), a couple Italian Legends (anyone need a Gwendolyn?)and a couple Alliances. I got screwed because the single elimination rules are wrong. Assuming #1, 2, 3, and 4 win, 1 should play 4 and 2 should play 3. In tournament rules, 1 plays 3 and 2 plays 4. This is an advantage for player 2 and 4, but 1 and 3 get screwed. They both have to play harder opponents than they need to. 1-------\________ 8-------/ \__________ 4-------\________/ \ This is how it should be, the 5-------/ \___________ players with the best records 2-------\________ / play the players with the 7-------/ \_________/ worst records. 3-------\________ / 6-------/ Well here's my deck: JokuLDpotence ---Jason's version had 1 more necro, 1 less haups, some other differences 4 Incinerate 1 Lava Burst 3 Jokulhaups 1 Goblin Mutant 4 Stone Rain 3 Pillage 3 Ice Quake 4 Dark Ritual 4 Abyssal Specters 4 Knights of Stromgald 2 Phantasmal Fiend -------->Should have been Stromgald Spys 2 Necropotence 1 Lodestone Bauble --------> Probably switch this with the burst 1 Zuran Orb 2 Sulfrous Springs 3 Thawing Glaciers -------->It's all about the glaciers 8 Mountains 10 Swamps Sideboard: 4 Dysopia------>great 4 Pyroblast---->only played 1 blue deck, never drew them 2 Goblin Mutants----->good maybe replace with Fiend's 2 Fumarole----->Almost saved me 1 Lava Burst----->needed more 1 Icy manipulator ----\should have been Lava Bursts probably, 1 Necropotence ----/never used them.