From: Aziz <aaa8557@garnet.acns.fsu.edu 
Subject: Re: Hey Aziz!!! Atlanta Report
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 1996 03:48:07 -0500

  So, I hear that Aziz qualified, so where is the tourney report?  I
  believe that Aziz qualifying nearly completes the circle of the damned:
  Mario Robaina, Dave Price, John Chinnook, and Rudy Edwards have already
  qualified.  Only Josh Bradford is left...
 
 
Well, I didn't get back until today, so I haven't had the chance to make
my usual report.  (Btw, "Circle of the Damned seems appropriate, but I
think/hope that eventually we'll break out of it).

I had two exams friday morning (one at 7:30!), but after I finished I
started to get psyched for Atlanta.  Yuh-Kong Liao, Randy Ellis and Kyle
Bigos went in one car while me, Josh Bradford and Alex McConnell went in
mine.  Pete Leiher was already there when we got in, along with Mike Long,
Chris Bishop and co.  Plus Rudy Edwards, Chip Hogan, Travis Thomas, and a
whole mess of guys from Neutral Ground.  A friend of mine that I've
mentioned before (Joe Nicolosi) has gotten a new apartment so we are able
to sleep there to avoid hotel costs.

With only a few hours sleep, we drive to the hotel to try and qualify for
LA.  Everyone in my group except for Randy has played in the Pro Tour
before, so we expect a good showing.  While opening our decks, (or the
decks we initially wrote down, anyway) Kyle busts TWO Lion's Eye Diamonds.
Weird.  After throwing trash across the room at Randy, I receive my deck.
While David Doust explains the rules, I take a sneak peek at my deck list
(naughty me) I look at whatever cards I can without opening the piece of
paper.  I can't really see much, but I notice that I have no Torch (damn).

I open my deck and initially decide that I can win if I have some luck.
As the tourney goes on, I realize that my deck is better than my initial
assessment.  Here is what I played with and some of the cards that I
almost played with and sometimes sideboarded in.

Creatures (15)
---------

Black:  Cadaverous Knight, Skulking Ghost, Dread Specter, Breathstealer,
Feral Shadow, Blighted Shaman, Barbed-Back Wurm

Red:  Searing Spear Askari, Burning Palm Efreet

White:  Mtenda Griffin, Unyaro Griffin, Iron Tusk Elephant, Femeref Knight

Blue:  Teferi's Drake

Artifact:  Basalt Golem

Spells (7)
------
Black:  Dark Banishing

Red:  Incinerate, Spitting Earth

Blue: 2 Rays of Command

Gold:  Energy Bolt

Artifact:  Phyrexian Vault (great with those Rays of Command, but I
wouldn't play it if I didn't have alot of creatures.  This was often the
first card I sideboarded out).

Mana (18)
----
5 Swamps
1 Charcoal Diamond
4 Plains
5 Mountaians
3 Islands

I found myself sideboarding in a 4th Island every once in a while, along
with my 2 creatures for other blue decks: Kukemssa Serpent and Merfolk
Raiders.  When I put those in I would take out my Femeref Knight and
Teferi's Drake.  A few cards I wanted to use were the Femeref Healer and
Reality Ripple.  I think I may have sideboarded in my Wall of Corpses
once.

I won my first four matches, all but one of them went three games.  My
deck is very solid, but I don't have any real bombs like a Torch, Twister,
Geyser or a huge flyer.  But I have a really solid base of spells, all opf
above average but few spectacular (Rays of Command rule, of course, and
when I drew them, I won.  It's especially ugly when I have out my Blighted
Shaman or Phyrexian Vault.

]B@Q"
K/t_7T he Cstrongest things about my deck were it's above average creature
line-up and the casting costs of my spells.  Only my Burning Palm Efreet
and Energy Bolt required two of a color.

Some of the highlights were:  Against Rick Vasquez (Team Atlanta), I was
at two and he had a Tainted Specter.  He lays a Crocodile to make sure I
die soon if not next turn.  I have out my Shaman, a Kukemssa Serpent, and a
Searing Spear.  He is at 12, but is tapped out with no creatures
untapped.  I have already used one Ray, but have the other in my hand.  Of
course, I Ray the Croc and attack for 12.  Damn close.  Rick tells me that
he won his 4th match in almost the same manner.  If his Hammer had come up
more often, he might've crushed me.  The life gaining aspect of Energy
Bolt actually won me my first match.  I had noticed my opponent counting
his mana when I was at 7.  He has enough to Geyser me for 7 2 turns later,
but I have already Bolted myself for 7 to give myself enough time to run
him over.  All day long I win matches with a few life points remaining.

Y
I make it through the swiss at 7-1.  My last match was one of the two most
exciting matches I've ever played.  (The other was in the round of another
4 slot qualifier in which I almost died to a Swamp Mosquito.  He got me to
9 counters before I could kill it.  This was a qualifier for Atlanta).  We
split the first two matches, but I know that since he is a junior, he is
already guaranteed a slot in the final 8, I can tell he doesn't want to
beat me, but I promise that I wasn't sure about that.  He completely blew
me away in game 2, and then in game 3 I spend every turn thinking as I
slowly lose my life points.  I manage to keep him off of me as I gain a
card advantage by sac'cing two of his creatures via Ray/Vault combos.
With only 10 cards left in my library and 4 life, he drops his 2nd Crash
of Rhinos.  I must draw my Energy Bolt to win.  I can sac a creature the 
end of his turn, draw, attack with my Griffin and then sac him as well.
I ray that one of those cards is the Bolt, the first of three is the one,
and I win barely.

The final 8 is made up of two guys from Neutral Ground, Josh Bradford,
Randy Ellis, Ben Champion (Team Stupid, and you know he's gonna win with a
name like that).  Ben pulls off a great streak by beating Josh, me, then
Randy in the finals.  

My first round opponent in the final 8 gets mana screwed with only two
Islands.  With the help of a Moss Diamond, I get out a 3rd turn Raging
Spirit followed by 2 Flankers.  He dies fast.  The next game is much
closer.  His Taniwha nearly kills me, but my Dark Banishing saves me as
soon as his lands phase out.  I overwhelm him and stop his attempt at a
comeback with a Power sink.   

Although my final 8 deck isn't as good as my swiss deck was, I
believe it to be very solid.  The deck had good creatures: Searing Spear,
Burning Shield, Cadaverous Knight, Raging Spirit, Jungle Wurm, Talruum
Minotaur, Gibbering Hyenas, Kukemmsa Serpent, Quirion Elves, others.  And
some of my spells included:  Dark Banishing, Thirst, Cinder Cloud, Power
Sink, and others.  I also have good acceleration with the Elves, a Moss
Diamond and a Rampant Growth.  My 2nd four color deck of the day was
helped by a Bad River as well.

Josh loses to Ben, but Randy wins and becomes the 7th Tallahassee person
to win a PT slot.  This from a town with no tournaments within 3 hours.
Ironically, Ben Champion went to college in Tallahassee, too.  He got a
good dose of our Magic water while he lived here, I guess.

Ben hands me a solid beatdown with his Torrent of Lava, and wins the match
2-1.  Obviously, I'm not two concerned as I've already won a slot.  I hear
that Randy has won again, but he loses to Ben in the finals.


We head for Denny's after watching Alex and Mike Long play some Type II
for Ante.  They break even after a few 3 out of 5 matches.  

The next day, we play in the $1000 type II.  I make the round of 8, but
lose to Jon Finkel in the first round.  I attribute his win to the massive
quick mana advantage he attains by playing with 10 mana artifacts.  U/W on
U/W, this is huge.  Randy continues his incredible streak by beating Jon
in the next round winning a U/W marathon against Wai Cheng, who received
$150 for 2nd place.  Randy went from a few top 8 finishes to taking first
and 2nd in two large tourneys in the same weekend.  We have a word around
here for when someone wins two large tournaments in the same weekend,
K'tow.  Josh K'towed by winning Regionals and a qualifier in the same
weekend, and I won a qualifier and a $1000 tourney a few weeks later.
Just a little insight on our weird Florida Magic Slang.

We head to a restaurant called Cow Tippers as recommended by Joe.  The ten
of us enjoy a solid meal, (Rudy, me, Josh, Alex, Pete, Joe, Yuh-Kong,
Kyle, Randy and Wai) then head home in the morning.  A great weekend, but
a tiring one, when you consider that almost every match I played in the
qualifier was 2-1, and my lack of sleep kinda hurt too.

So I suppose David Price, Mario Robaina, Josh Bradford and I have
qualified for 4 PT's by placing in qualifiers as Chris pointed out.  If
Josh qualifies, it'll make 5 for him, giving him the lead, I think. :)

Good luck to everyone else in their quest to qualify, and don't ever
sideboard out your Rays of Command. :)

Aziz
Team 5 Guys With a Peter

P.S.  We checked out David Doust's new store, the Warzone... It looks
great.  Check it out if you can.