From: lchancy@netcom.com (Lawrence Chancy) Subject: Tourney Report--PT5 Qualifier Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 00:16:30 GMT This is a report about the last proqualifier tourney for the Dallas Pro Tour which was held on Nov. 16 appropriately enough in Dallas. There were approximately 120 competitors with a large presence of local players and a few out of state notables. The author of this dialogue is the singularly nice Paul Gallagher from Austin, TX who is indebted forever to his teammates and friends for convincing me to go despite not wanting to. Thanks again to Bill Macey, Adrian Sayers, Sam Nam and the other members of Team Texas(aka Team 4Thaw) and to our Houston allies Bryan Hubble and Minh Tran. I apologize in advance for not recalling most of my competitors names, though they were universally kind souls and good players. On to the Report: I was playing a B/w critter/infernal darkness deck contained at the bottom. 1st round vs. R/G Radeesque Spider Deck Game 1: Neither of us is manaboned, he puts a few spiders and a stormbind which I plow and disenchant quickly. Then I go darkness, lock him out, drop a few critters and kill him in short order. Key to victory disenchanting the stormbind. Game 2: He seems not to be able to draw creatures, I tease out his incinerates on my legions and knights, drop an abyssal spectre and force him to discard a haups and some land. I then go darkness and do my thang. Bad draw for him really, I feel lucky that I've broken my qualifier curse and have finally won the key 1st match. Match: 1-0 Games: 2-0 2nd round vs. R/G LD/Big Mean Critter/Stormbind/Icy Game 1: This game is a marathon, which he is winning the whole time. I keep ahead of his LD with my 4 thawing glaciers, but am having difficulty with his bugs, while swording and banishing everything else. Finally kill his bug and I go darkness with just enough life, creatures, and damage to potential to kill him. He lays an icy under the darkness, then another icy. I die horribly to his next bug. Game 2: See game 1, only a shorter more horrible death for me. Match: 1-1 Games: 2-2 At this point alot my compadres have evened back up to 1-1 after some disheartening losses. We perk up and are determined to go on a roll, which we all do. 3rd Round vs. B/R LD/DD/Weenies/Elkin Bottle Game 1: This was one of the most original decks I saw all day. He's keeping my white mana away by trashing the thaws and plains, but I have enough mana to put out my critter swarm, soulburn his key critters and finally go darkness to put it away. Game 2: Start with 3 thawing glaciers, 1 other land, and critter kill. Feeling pretty good. I again outlast his LD, put out some critters for him to incinerate/lava burst. Then put the smack down with my moor fiends while holding his Balduvian Horde at bay with the COP red I sided in. Eventually the moorfiends get him. Match: 2-1 Games: 4-2 4th Round vs. B/w Critters/White control Game 1: He goes first and I crack a big smile as his first card layed is a snow-covered swamp. I have 8 swampwalkers in my base deck which quickly overwhelm his defenses. I don't bother to go darkness and overrun him. Game 2: I get manahosed BADLY. I draw 1 plain and no more land til turn 4 by which point his pumpknights are administering a severe beatdown. Die horribly. Game 3: Swampwalk him mercilessly while killing/blocking his stuff with my phantasmal fiends/plows. He lasts awhile with a thaw/zorb holding action but eventually succumbs to the legions. He never seemed to be able to matchup creaturewise I suspect he is critter light. Match: 3-1 Games: 6-3 5th Round vs. U/W/r/g Counters/Control/DD/blinkers/outpost Game 1: I wonder what's up when my opponent puts out 4 different basic lands by turn 5. I get him to counter a few phantasmal fiends. Then lay darkness, he's out o' countermagic, drop a few creatures and pound away. Game 2: He has a little bit of colorscrew I think, and this game goes about the same. Totally cruising and feeling in a zone at this point. Match: 4-1 Games: 8-3 My friends are doing really well at this point as well. Brian Oglibee from Austin is 5-0 and has dropped only 1 game. Bill Macey and Adrian Sayers are 4-1 and 3-1-1 respectively. Feeling good. Hungry though. 6th Round vs. a rather unpleasant Ruleslawyering type playing a rather unique U/W/B Wizard/Cleric deck which was pretty tough. Game 1: This game was really tough, although it didn't have to be. I tease out a counter or two with some creatures. He lays some zuran spellcasters and a brine shaman. I wisp and kill a whole mess and then go darkness. Like a real idiot I forget to pay the upkeep on the darkness and it goes away before I can take advantage. Feel like a moron, should have been rout. He grasps my legion, but is holding it to block my knight who has tons of swamps at his disposal. I get in a lick with the knight then finally wisp for 7 at the end for the kill. Game 2: Side in my necros, cap, COP black. I bring out lots of moorfiends and we exchange critters and whatnot for awhile. I make a dumb error when I put out an abyssal which he counters with the brine shaman by sacrificing a dude. I go necro, put a second moor fiend, and agonizingly swampwalk him to death. Kill him with 1 life left after repeated assaults by walking walls on steroids. Match: 5-1 Games: 10-3 Agonize over math and my tiebreak status with the tourney staff. Am faced against George Baxter, but decide to take the intentional draw. Everyone else at the 1st table draws as well. After everything Brian Oglibee who won the swiss with a 6-0-1 record, myself, and Adrian Sayers make the cut to the final 8. Friends Bill Macey and Brian Tweedy lose out on tiebreaks and our 9th and 10th also at 5-1-1. Record after the swiss: 5-1-1 seeded 4th. This next match is the most intense one I've ever had really. Everybody who is breaking goes to Jack in the Box tm for a quick snack before the final rounds. Quarters vs. Kary Darwin who was one of the coolest persons I've ever played at a tourney. This round is the biggie since the top 4 get spots in Dallas next week. Kary was playing a B/R LD/DD/Funky Critter/'haups deck. 1st Game: I draw nothing but creatures and land and quickly overwhelm him with knights, moorfiends, and abyssals. He can't keep up with my swarm, can't buy enough land to haups and goes down. 2nd Game: I side out my darknesses and banishings in favor of Necro/Cop Red and Black. We slug it out for awhile, me plowing his Karplusan Yetis and wisping his knights and whatnot. Finally he haupses with me not in great shape. Only 1 land in hand, no glacier, and 2 other cards. He lays a glacier. What do I do posthaups, but draw a thawing glacier which I lay. I rebuild my land, draw a necro and start necroing like crazy. I drop threat after threat, put out a zorb and pray to the gods he won't haups again. It's clear he doesn't have one, and after awhile I stop glaciering when I count and notice I've only got 4 mana producing lands left in my library. He never draws the haups he needs and finally dies to my swarm. My friends then cheer and slap me on the back cause I'M GOING TO DALLAS BABY. My friends Adrian and Brian played in the 1st round of the elims with Adrian taking it in a sweep. Adrian and I are ecstatic, Brian Oglibee is totally bummed. George Baxter and Cathy Nicolaff make the semis as well. These next matches aren't that key anymore. I pray that I won't get paired vs. Adrian because he will whuup my ass with his R/G BFC deck. I sorta luck out and don't have to play him. Adrian is paired against Baxter, I'm paired against Cathy. Semis vs. Cathy Nicolaff playing B/w non Krovican Horror deck. Our decks are very similar, with a differing critter mix to her advantage. She also packs more contagions than I do which really was the key. Well Cathy turns out to be the coolest person I've played in the past eon in a tourney and our match is warm and friendly. I don't have the energy now to describe the match really. She wins 2 straight in crushing fashion. Adrian beats George Baxter and faces Cathy Nicolaff in the finals. The tourney is finally decided in a dramatic fashion when Cathy Nicolaff defeats Adrian 2-1 by somehow placing a manahex spell on Adrian's deck. Not to demean Cathy's deck or playskills at all but Adrian had been crushing black decks all day and was the most feared guy in the finals as 6 out of the 8 of us played B/? decks. So Congratulations to Cathy for winning the whole deal and to George and Adrian for qualifying as well. Look forward to playing yall T2 next week. Hope everyone enjoyed my report. Would enjoy corresponding with Cathy, Kary(hoped i spelled this right), et al. Ya'll can reach me at lchancy@netcom.com . B/w Swampwalking Machine 4 moorfiends 4 legions of lim dul 3 phantasmal fiends 3 abyssal spectres 4 knights of stromgald 3 infernal darkness 2 soulburn 1 contagion 1 dark banishing 2 withering wisps 1 mind warp 3 disenchants 4 swords to plowshares 1 zuron orb 4 evil thawing glaciers 14 snow covered swamps 6 plains Sideboard: 1 exile 1 disenchant 1 COP white 2 COP red 2 COP black 2 lodestone baubles 1 jester's cap 2 dark banishings 2 necropotence 1 infernal darkness Thx again for reading my report. Paulagher