Hi,

this is my late, late LA Report. It is so late partially because I just returned
from L.A and because of the load of exams crowding my table, awaiting my
immediate attention. (And they are still not done!)

Preparing for L.A. was a lot of fun for two reasons.

First of all, the german pro tour player scene has grown together over the net
and this and my advisor status to Team Legion enabled me to share ideas and
thoughts with the best of them. I want to especially thank Alan Comer, Kai
Budde, Gregor Wollny and the mad geniuses 
Budde, Gregor Wollny and the mad geniuses of the Legion Manuel Bevand, Alex
Svartzman and Raphael Levy.
Secondly we were able to set up a training camp in the house of Stefan's
parents and this meant an outdoor sauna, a bathroom with floor heating and
massage sessions. Massage is another hobby of mine at which I am quite good
at...
The four house sitters were Claudia Loroff (who had qualified in Prague, one of
the two women, who managed to qualify for L.A.), Martin Luedecke (our limited
specialist, who managed to finally qualify for New York while we were away after
8 Top 8s or so), Stefan Funke (our mad deck builder) and myself.

After some testing it turned out that mono-red emerged strongest. We had tried
Rathi Red, Pallimud and Starke of Rath Red, but settled on a weenie Red which I
called David because all of the one and two casting cost spells overrunning the
more expensive (hence bigger) Control Deck Goliaths...

David looked like this:

3 Mogg Conscript
3 Mogg Raider (to get by Bottle Gnomes mainly...) 4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Jackal Pup
4 Cursed Scroll

2 Goblin Bombardment (We didn't realize that Giant Strength was better ag. Winds
of Rath)
4 Scalding Tongs
4 Canyon Wildcat (the weakest card perhaps...) 4 Fireslinger
4 Kindle

2 Lightning Blast (against big blockers again Giant Strength fits this slot
better)

1 Apocalypse (my not so secret secret weapon, could have been a Rathi)

18 Mountains
3 Wastelands

When we arrived in L.A. astelands

When we arrived in L.A. the germans started to test together. It turned out that
the Metagame was pretty predictable. 30 Percent Red, 30 Percent Blue/X, 20
Percent Corpse Dance non-blue Control 20 Percent Rogue Decks...)
Basiacally a Blue and Red Field. The problems was that the german test group
contained a lot of blue white control decks specifically geared against red.
They had Horned Turtles in addition to Bottle Gnomes and after sideboarding
Chill and Warmth. The Red Deck managed to go 50/50 against that which should
have told me that it was good enough to play, but somehow the testing only
convinced me that too many people were prepared for red...
Then Claudia showed up with a mono-black Sligh Deck Stefan had built during our
training camp sessions in Berlin. She won the last prepatory tournament with it,
beating among others, the later Top 8 finalist Svend Sparre Geertsen. A few
hours later ex-german Champion Peer Kroeger arrived in our room with another
version of what he called Black Sligh. It had one Spinal Graft and Sacromancys
instead of Claudia's Dark Rituals. Personally I don't like Dark Ritual that much
so I just jumped on the Sacromancy idea. Our belief was that people would have
sideboards mainly geared against Red and Blue not against Black. Our hope was
that Black Sligh would be as fast as a Red Sligh. Infact it turned out that it
was better on average against blue decks, but it had problems with red sligh
before sred sligh
before sideboarding or whenever it did not reach Corpse Dance Bottle Gnome
recursion. On the other hand I thought that our weenie Sligh was better than a
Flowstone Giant or Pallimud Sligh against our Black Deck and that the Black
Sligh would have less problems against the normal red decks I expected to meet.
So Peer, Claudia and I all decided to play Black Sligh. Claudia stayed with her
Dark Rituals, Peer kept his one Spinal Graft, but basically our Decks were very
similar.

Black Sligh

4 Sacromancy
4 Dauthi Slayer
4 Dauthi Horror
4 Rats of Rath
4 Bottle Gnomes
2 Kezzerdrix
2 Gravedigger (also a Zombie, good with Helm of P.)

4 Cursed Scroll
4 Scalding Tongs

4 Diabolic Edict
1 Coercion
2 Corpse Dance

18 Swamps
4 Wastelands

Sideboard

3 Perish
3 Dread of Knight
1 Fevered Convulsions
2 Helm Of Possession
3 Coercion
1 Dauthi Mindripper
2 Evincars Justice

Well as I found oout in the Pro Tour (and not in testing before hand Grrr, the
disadvantage of playing a last minute deck...) Fevered Convulsions is just too
slow in this environment. And Corpse Dance and Evincars Justice are way to slow
sideboard cards against Sligh without Dark Rituals. Infact if I learned one
thing again (!) is that you need Dark Rituals in a fast environement, card
advantage be damned. Also I found out that I hate Kezzerdrix and Sacromancy and
while I admit that the cards are strong and belong in the deck. I should havestrong and belong in the deck. I should have
probably better played a deck with cards I am comfortable with or which I have
atleast used in a tournament setting before....

I think the reason that I have been a better constructed than limited player is
that my strength is strategic thinking not tactical thinking. Metagame analysis,
card choice that are all strategic problems, playing with cards you have not
used before requires tactical genius.
That is why I have to play a deck awhile against different decks before I am
good at it. Once I know my deck and the opponents decks the tactical side of the
game retreats and more decisions become strategic choices. I find that I am
really comfortable with my usual Sealed Deck at the end of day, i.e. after I
have gone 4:3 with it. Then I know how to play it, what to change, what to
sideboard etc. If I could play the same tournament again I would probably go 6:1
or 5:2 with a deck I barely made 4:3 with.
Ofcourse since I have realized that I have tried to learn how to play better
tactically and my limited skills are improving. "You loose, you learn" as
Alannis sings...

On to the tournament:

It basically went like this:

Rounds 1 & 2

I lose the first to rounds against just the Sligh Decks I expected, some with
Barbed Slivers some with Flowstone Giants or Lightning Elementals in addition to
the Weenies. I lose the same way each time I win the first game and then either
mulligan down to six cards or never down to six cards or never draw a third land with two bottle gnomes in
hand (I think it was 3 Mulligans and one two land stall in 4 games after
sideboarding.) Ofcourse I was always holding Evincars Justice or Corpse Dance
.. Sigh ( ofcourse my Weenie Sligh would have just run over them with 1-2 land
draws, double sigh....)

Rounds 3 & 4

I meet some Rogue Decks like an Earthcraft-Mongrel Pack- Goblin
Bombardment-Corpse Dance Deck , which I just crush with fast shadows and
Wastelands... One guy was holding two Light of Day when he died.

Round 5 & 6

Round 5 I meet my first blue deck. When he finally Winds of Rath, he is at one
life He has one Legacy Allure with 2 counters on it.. I am holding Gravedigger,
Kezzerdrix, a Cursed Scroll and have four land out. Now if I had played
Kezzerdrix before or if I was a better tactical player I would have realized
that Kezzerdrix right then would have been an almost assured 100% win (he had to
tap two Thalakos Lowlands for the Winds...). But because I don't like Kezzerdrix
I took the Cursed Scroll 75%+ win chance path. My opponent guessed right 4 times
when I had two cards in hand, top decked 2 Staunch Defenders and survived at one
life beating me with my own Kezzerdrix which I played out much to late... ARGGH!

Now I was basically out of contention for day two and demoralized. This led to
an even bigger Faux Pas in Round Six, were I lost the second game, after winning
game one, because I ovng
game one, because I overlooked what I could waste his Maze Of Shadow which
stopped my Dauthi Marauder 3 times! Infact I was even holding a second
Wasteland... He surviives at three life. Do you know bad hair days? Lets just
day I was having an extremely bad playing day! Ofcourse I lose game three.

Round 7

I play against a black red Control Corpse Dance Deck with white just for
Disenchants. After sideboarding he runs 4 Shatter and 4 Disenchant. I win game 1
due to mad luck with 3 Cursed Scrolls plus mana flood of whic he can only
shatter one. I lose game two.
Game three I Coercion him before I play my scroll. He has a shatter and a
disenchant. I almost take the disenchant, but stop myself and double check,
after all I am having a bad playing day... and rightly so, my opponent has no
white mana! I take the shatter  and vene get a second scroll and mad mana again.
My opponent dies with 3 Disenchant on hand... Ouch... Better Lucky than Good...

So I end up 3:4 basically I lost two games due to bad luck and wrong deck
choice, won one game due to luck and I lost the deciding 2 matches because of my
own stupid mistakes. The really depressing thing was that I played some great
magic on Saturday and Sunday!

After the tournament I immediately register for the Pro Tour Qualifier and get
my identification wristlet. It is not the first time I have received an
identification wristlet on the second day of a Pro Tour. I always call them myr. I always call them my
Badge of Shame and wear them overnight. Sofar it has not helped me not to that
again, maybe I should change my tactucs here...

Day 2: Pro Tour Qualifier

I register a mad deck with 2 Soltari Lancer, Disturbed Burial, Evincars Justice,
Edict, Dark Banishing, 2 Rootwalla, 2 Dauthi Slayer, Dauthi Marauder ouch.
Ofcourse I don't get it back but I do get a good to very good deck with one
Rolling Thunder, Searing Touch, Corpse Dance, Evinacars Justice, Flowstone
Wyvern, Mogg Fanatic, Dauthi Mindripper and my favorite Tempest spell of them
all Corpse Dance! I also have one Endless Scream which wins me more games than
the Rolling Thunder or the Corpse Dance!

The tournament runs really smooth. My first opponent conceeds because he wants
to drop, I outplay my second opponent and start out with 2:0, 4:0.
Round three I win one game with 5 business spells in the first 12 rounds. They
are one Clergy-en vec which deals 2 Damage, 1 Coercion which tells me that my
opponent is holding Reckless Spite, so that I can't play the Flowstone Wyvern
until the Clergy is dead., 1 Flowstone Wyvern, 1 Searing Touch which kills one
creature and does 2 points of damage and ofcourse one Endless Scream. I survive
at 2 life, whew! During the match I was thinking, I need to play a good tactical
game here. So I tried to think of a great tactical Sealed Deck player, which I
had watched a lot, Stephan Valkyser. Then before I would play sometfore I would play something I would
ask myself, "What would Stephan Valkyser do now?" Well Stephan did the right
things and I won.
Round 4 and 5 I agains win easily, with either Corpse Dance or Endless Scream.
Round six I come against a good finnish Pro Tour Player. He plays very slowly,
probably because he knows that he will win the first game via the Cursed Scroll.
Well he miscalculated, because I have my thunder and can sneak by enough damage
through bluffing to kill him. Now he suddenly wants to play fast and lets my
deck be checked for marked cards. Whatever! Game two he gets Disturbed Burial
and Gravedigger but no big Creatures. I soon have to use my Dark Banishing
defensively, but can sit behind a Master Decoy and a Coiled Tinviper. My
opponent gets restless, and takes care of both of my creatures, while losing one
of his own and then Disturbed Burials without Buyback just to put the pressure
on. A big mistake. I thunder all of his creatures and suddenly I have a chance
to win! But he topdecks a Canyon Wildcat, while I am at 3 life. With my Clergy
en Vec this means that I have 3 rounds to live, which is one round short in the
damage race. Then _I_ topdeck my Corpse Dance. It enables me to tap the Canyon
Wildcat the one deciding time and I win just as time is called. Whew!
I am now up 6:0 matches and 12:0 games. That has not happened to me in a
Limited Qualifier!

Round 7: I am matched up with Gary Wise, also an advisor to T also an advisor to Team Legion. He wont
draw, what I can understand as his Limited Rating was 1960 before going 6:0 in
this qualifier. He has a realistic chance to get into the World Top Ten with a
8:0 record.

Game One. I mulligan and somehow he just rolls over me... He has a deck with 2
Lightning Blast, 2 Rolling Thunder, Kindle, Tradewind Rider, Spell Blast,
Powersink, Giant Crab, Rootwater Hunter, green phat, etc. At the end he has out
a Flowstone Giant which he has pumped up the last rounds. I finally draw a
mountain and have to bluff a Searing Touch. I Coercion him and take the Spell
Blast over the Skyshroud Troll, because I will have to topdeck my Banishing
anyway, or atleast some blockers. Gary ofcourse thinks I have the Searing Touch
and doesn't pump the Giant anymore... I draw Searing Touch... Ouch. Bluffing a
card that you don't have can turn nasty, once you get it....

Game Two. He double mulligans down to five cards, but topdecks a lot of land and
defence. I am able to Coercion his Whisper of the muse though just as he reaches
6 mana. Then he plays a Scragnoth. I can Thunder the Scragnoth, but then I will
probably lose long term. I decide that I will rather topdeck two land in the
next three rounds. I topdeck my first land. Gary plays something else and
suddenly I only have one more round. I look at my deck, caress it turn over the
card, a land ofcourse and rolling thunder Gary out... Whew!

Game Three. No mullig
Game Three. No mulligans. Gary again puts a lot of pressure on me this time with
a three creature tradewind rider lock. I am able to bluff by my Flowstone Wyvern
twice though. Then I get rid of his Rootwater Hunter. Itry to bluff a Dark
Banishing which I am afraid to play because of his spell blast. Then he Harrows.
I decide to keep up the bluff, by regretting beeing to late to respond to his
Harrow... Then another flying nasty arrives. I play my Mindripper. He doesn't
deal with it, but will kill me next round... I realize that with the marauder I
could kill him if the Coiled Tinviper in my hand was a Rolling Thunder and if I
topdeck another land. So I caress my Library again and topdeck with another
flurish a land! Gary says "No, you can't, not again!". I reply, "Lets attack
with the mindripper first..." I attack do the necessary two damage. Tap all my
lands, two red for the initial casting cost.... Gary throws down his cards, "No,
you can't, I can't believe it. Show me the Thunder." I show him the Tinviper I
have in my hand. I am not callous enough to call over a Judge to say that he
conceeded first... I am callous enough to think of it though...

Great Game. Probably the most fun I had in Magic that Weekend, with the possible
exception of winning the $1000 Team Event with John Scarth and Gregor Wollny on
sunday. Team "In the Army Now" goes all the way!

I will leave you here hanging... for part two!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi,

ready for part two? Where were we, ahh yes. I had just lost to Gary in Round 
Seven of the Badge of Shame Pro Tour Qualifier, Day Two of the Pro Tour.

Before round 8 the Head Judge, Dan Gray I believe, asked each the top tables to 
come to him individually. He then asked us if we would draw or not. I was now in
third place with 6:1. In a 253 people field with 8 rounds of swiss this meant 
that I would probably be in with 6:1:1 due to my resistence, but only me of all 
potential 6:1:1. My opponent would probably be 9th with a draw unless even more 
people drew. Ofcourse everybody realized this, so nobody drew... 

Round 8: Have to win..., My opponent is Chista Stenger (Her report is on the 
Dojo). She was the only other person after round six who hadn't lost a game. Her
Deck contained among other things a Rathi Dragon... ouch.
I lose game one. 
Game two I get Corpse Dance - Dauthi Mindripper. Christa plays her Rathi 
Dragon, before the Mindripper can hit the first time, but I can stop him with my
Master Decoy, Then I get my Flowstone Wyvern. The next rounds are painful for 
Christa. I Corpse Dance my Mindripper. Attack with Mindripper and Flowstone 
Wyvern. Sac the Mindripper after she declares no blocks, empty her hand and can 
safely pump my Wyvern... She dies fast...
Game three I get manaflood and three business spells a Canyon Drake, a Flowsa Canyon Drake, a Flowstone
Wyvern and an Endless Scream, but she has a lot of heat on the ground and my 
life total is low. I am afraid of empying my hand via Drake, just to run into 
instant removal. Still I am willing to do it, if I must, but she topdecks a 
Flying Blocker (Who would have thought a Flailing Drake could decide a game?) I 
am cooked. Efven worse she also has the Lightning Blast to remove my Wyvern. 
Both Blocker and instant removal is to much and I lose another heartbreaker 1:2.

So after my 6:0, 12:0 record I drop the last two rounds really close with 1:2 
against great players and come in.... 9th! Ofcourse. Well atleast I gained like 
90 points in my limited rating... My friend Gregor Wollny does make top 8 though
and goes on to qualify with a sucky 4-color draft deck (Kind of reminds me of my
Draft deck in Bremen come to think of it.)
His semi-final opponent collapses with an epileptic seizure after receiving his 
prizes. Which surprises everyone. Nobody knows what do at first. Everybody is 
just standing around giving him room, when he suddenly starts to choke on his 
toungue! Calls for CPR go out and someone can stabilize him before there is a 
tragic ending to this PTQ. Great Guy that he is, Gregor gives half of his Prizes
to his semi-final opponent as a get well present (25 Boosters or so...)

Gregor, John Scarth and I decide to enter the Team Sealed the next day. I 
certainly wanted to test if my limited o test if my limited skills really have improved or not. As 
John has just left the Army in Germany, we decide to name our team "In the Army 
now". Sounds logical, doesn't it? No? Well we did it anyway.

Sunday:

I realize that I will miss the Top 8 due to the Team Sealed and almost decide 
not to play, but I can't let John and Gregor down. So we register and receive 
our material together with the other 32 teams.

Our initial reaction is not positive. For artifact and enchantment removal we 
have one disenchant. We only have one X-spell. We have almost no fliers. We do 
have two Pestilence, 1 Wrath of God and a Jokulhaups though.
Because I am Mr. Global Reset, I get the two Pestilence, one Wrath of God Deck, 
with no fliers, Gregor gets my disenchant, and my best creature is a Bog Wraith 
(I do have two protection form black knights though and 2 Clay Statues...) 
Gregor gets the almost mono-red Beatdown deck with Time Bomb and Jokulhaups. 
John gets our U/G Fattie, "Creature Removal, what is creature removal?" Deck 
with no Ray of Command and no Binding Grasps...
John gets the thankless Nr. 1 spot. Gregor sits in position two and I take my 
lucky number 3 slot.

The first three rounds are real team work. Each of us drops one match, while the
other two win.

Round 3 we have to play against the Witches of Eastwick, the only all women 
team. Ofcourse I have to play against my team "mate" ;) Claudia Loroff. She is 
playing U/Loroff. She is 
playing U/R control with 3 X-Spells and lots of good walls. There is quite a lot
of teasing going on and I have to admit the three were quite... lets say 
distracting. Ofcourse Claudia could not fail to mention that she finished 50 
places higher than me in the Pro Tour, thus proving for once and all that she is
better in constructed than me. To which I replied, "Lets see who is better in 
limited then..."
Game 1 I am very very color screwed drawing only swamps and no white mana I 
lose.
Game 2 Claudia puts out a lot of walls and tells me that "There is no way You 
are ever going to get through here!" I wrath ;) I win. (I did that a lot during 
the tourney...)
Game 3 Claudia is mana-screwed and gets the Dark Ritual Bog Wraith Beatdown... 

Gregor loses but John wins, its all about teamwork! And atleast I am better in 
limited than Claudia ;)

We lose round four but win round five and thus make the Top 8!

Quarterfinals: Team Frenchie (Raphael Levy, Marc Hernandez, Cyrille de Faucaid 
(?))

I have to play Marc Hernandez. The first time I played Marc Hernandez was the 
PTQ on the first day in Mainz. He was playing 5CG, I was playing Tongo. I got 
the distinct impression that he was playing in a different league, a feeling I 
have not had in a long time. Only pro tour level top decking got me the win... 
So now I have to play him for a second time. I have a deck with 2 Protection 
from Black Knights (one pumper), Ork Knights (one pumper), Order of the Sacred Torch, 2 Pestilence, a Bog 
Wraith and a Wrath of God. He is playing the Black Red Crap Deck with cards like
Erg Raiders and Sabretooth Tigers, that means I have a chance, barely...
I get overrun game 1. Game two the second Pestilence does him in after a 
surprise Dark Ritual from me knocks out his Frozen Shade and my first 
Pestilence... so it all comes down to game three. He puts the pressure on, I 
have three rounds to either draw one of the two Pestilences or the Wrath of God,
I draw land, ouch, He attacks, I draw land. Ouch. He attacks and plays a 
regenerator, the Pestilences wont save me anymore, it has to be the Wrath. 
Suddenly Serenity washes over me, I caress my deck, turn over the card... Wrath 
of God, hell yes! I Wrath, I win ;). My teammates congratulate me on my 
topdecking as John has lost and we needed that win!

Semi-finals (We play against David Mills Team)

My opponent starts out with Forest Ghazban Ogre. I have a Wall of Spears and am 
not too scared. Until the next round that is where he goes swamp Unholy Strength
on Ghazban Ogre, Llanowar Elf. I draw a Dark Ritual and Ritual out the Wall, I 
have a Devenant Archer on hand so things just might still work out... He 
attacks. I play the Archer. He plays Coral Helm... what the F*ck? I draw an 
Prismatic Ward and give my Wall Protection from green... He draws a Torture puts
it on the Wall and puts down a hungry mist. I pln a hungry mist. I play a Bog Wraith. The Bog Wraith 
and the Wall of Spears take care of the Hungry Mist during his attack. I play a 
Diabolic Machine and lose the Archer to the Ghazban in blocking. Next round the 
Ghazban and Llano attack I can Howl from Beyond the Machine to kill his Ghazban 
despite the helm... and go to six life. I play a Clay Staue and things are 
starting to look up with a measly Llano and a Helm on his side... Then he 
hurricanes for 6.... That was a topdecking feast!

Game 2: Against this deck I decide to play first, Paris mulligan be damned. I 
draw Fountain of Youth, smile inwardly and just put down a land. Ofcourse he 
plays Forest Ghazban Ogre. I put down my second land, the Fountain of Youth and 
gain a life and a Ghazban Ogre in the next upkeep ;) Things go downhill for him 
from then on...

Game 3: He starts with... Forest Ghazban Ogre! Ofcourse. I ritual out a Clay 
Statue in Round two, attack round three with a dark ritualed Howl from Beyond on
the Clay Statue, Get the Ghazban Ogre again and never look back...

John lost again, Gregor won again so we make the finals. It turns out that 
Gregor only lost one match that day with his Jokulhaups Beatdown, ofcourse 
always drawing my disenchant and one of the two plains helped a lot! John had 
more problems, especially without creature removal, but won the times it 
counted. And I always won when John had no chance... All in all we had a perfect
lill we had a perfect
line up. The 33 percent deck was in spot one, where a win is a nice surprise. 
The 100 percent win deck in second position and the 66 percent win deck at 
position three...

Finals: The Spanish Team. The Spanish Team had an obscene card selection. My 
oppoent played mono-blue, with 2 Ray Of Commands, Flood, Binding Grasp, Sibilant
Spirit, Wind Spirit, Phantom Monster, Air Elemental, Prodigal Sorcerer, Time 
Elemental! and Counterspells ofcourse...
I have no fliers he has Flood, not good.. I lose game one due to his fliers, I 
can overrun him in game two, because he still has not drawn a Flood.

Game 3: He gets a third round time elemental. I am stalled at three mana. I draw
my white pump knight, play it to atleast get some damage in and he boomerangs it
instead of my land? What the hey? I keep playing the order, but do not draw a 
fourth land I do draw my Wrath of God though. I am able to put torture on his 
time elemental, which he only boomerangs and then spellblasts. Then I can Unholy
Strength his time elemental, just to keep it down, he goes on boomeranging my 
Order. Finally I draw my fourth land. I let my order be boomeranged for a last 
time and Wrath away his two sea sprites and the time elemental. Looking back I 
think Wrathing might have been my mistake. The guy clearly did not know how to 
abuse a time Elemental and therefore the time elemental was probably not worth a
Wrath... Well I proceed to getWell I proceed to get out a Cop Blue and a Pestilence, which does not 
keep hm from putting down hordes of blue Creatures. I let them stay alive hoping
that he will play more which he does. I get to see his Air Elemental, the Wind 
Spirit, The Silbilant Spirit, his Binding Grasp on my Pump Knight, etc.I draw a 
Fountain of Youth and start hoping for a Pestilence kill when he finally plays 
his Flood, that and my Grasped Knight, do me in, but not before I kill, 1 
Prodigal Sorcerer, 1 Lord Of Atlantis, 1 Silbilant Spirit, 1 Wind Spirit and an 
Air Elemental with my Pestilence...

But that doesn't matter, because John and Gregor win, sweet teamwork! 

We get lots of cool prizes, among them DCI Tournament Champion T-Shirts and 3 
italian legend boosters each.

And thus ends my Pro Tour stay in L.A... From Pro Tour Scrub to success in the 
sidevents, it was quite a time of highs and lows. In other words, it was life at
its best!

See you in New York,

Friendly Greetings

Daniel 
Team Highway to Hell, Team Captain
Team Legion, Advisor