Subject: [PTQ] Chicago Qualifier - Baron Harkonnen - 3CWW Winning decklist Date: Wed, 7 Jan 1998 17:26:39 -0600 From: The Corrupter Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy LA PTQ-Chicago-1/3/98 The Qualifier of the Cell Phone --- or --- Yet Another Sexecution Society Tournament Report Once again, the various members and Tricks of the Sexecution Society road-tripped to a tournament. An astounding 195 people and 8 or more teams decided to join us in Chicago for a whopping _ONE_ slot. Wow. As usual, Ken Roth was the Level III Head Judge for the Great Lake Games tourney. Not expecting a larger tournament turnout than they had had for the 2 slot earlier Chicago tournament, they did not bring their big, expensive computers to speed things along. Excepting some slow results for the final 8 (tie-breakers were apparently very rough), Ken's loud voice and cracking whip could be heard keeping the tourney in tow. As usual, the Final 8 and a synopsis are provided towards the end of the report. Also, as usual, we had members unable to make the tourney. Our Team played as follows: Adrian Sullivan - Baron Harkonnen (UG Control) Brian Kowal - Senor Gonzalez (Stompy) Wyatt Agard (junior) - Senor Gonzalez (Stompy) Breaking with long-standing tradition, we will now refer to team "hanger-ons" as Tricks, Affiliates, or Associates (we apparently offended someone) Affiliates: Matt Baranowski - Beavis Burn (new name for our earlier misnamed HerbieBurn - see previous Chicago PTQ Final 8 for Rough Deck list) Other Teams: Team ACD The Crew Team C&C Team Indy Team Anonymous Team Cave Rats (formerly the Zombie Squad) Team Jaybirds and the more informal Barrel of Monkeys Notable players included Bob Maher, the Wallachs, "Turbo" Bob Wagner. Andrew Nishioka and Chris Pikula looked on from the side, with Pikula noting "The decks here really suck." --- The Chicago MetaGame For those of you who are not familiar with the Chicago area MetaGame, it can be summed up in two different ways: BURN or FIRE, depending upon which philosophy the speaker decides to adhere to. This tournament was little in the way of surprises. While burn did predominate, various Frenetic Control decks were running around, a number of green swarm (which apparently did not do so well), and, of Course, versions of White Weenie (3CWW, Roman Weenie, WeenieBurn, and Sleight Weenie all did relatively (surprisingly) well). Despite all of this, the Final 8, Ray DeGuzman's undefeated performance throughout the Swiss Rounds, as well as an amazing final 8 performance (free from ANY game losses), will likely tell you what was good. --- THE TOURNEY Let us see how UG-Control, the Baron Harkonnen, does... All of the players DCI records are for standard... ROUND 1 - Paul Yee - Chicago - independent - 1600 - Red Blitz Paul was playing his deck fairly well, running heavy Blitz (4 Ball Lightning, 2-3 Sandstalker) and Moggs as his only creatures. He was, however, playing a card standardly in his deck that was perhaps the worst card he could play in Chicago. I'll give you the end of the round to figure it out (it was red). Game 1 - 1 Mogg Fanatic and 3 Ball Lightnings later, I'm on the ropes... :) I begin to recover when he lays down The Worst Red Card to Play in Chicago. I lose to it, despite my recovery... Game 2 - I side in the Life Gain, and Out-Run him to oblivion. Out comes the Baron Harkonnen, and the game soon ends. Game 3 - See game 2. GAME/MATCH: 2-1/1-0 Brian wins 2-0 vs. UG vineyard Wyatt loses 0-2 vs. Sleight Knight Matt wins 2-0 vs. a weak Roman Burn variant The Worst Red Card to Play in Chicago is, incidentally, Furnace of Rath. You _could_ play it in the sideboard, but if you read the rest of the tournament report, you'll see how punishing it would have been in the main. Notable Side Notes: Kai Martin gets a draw versus an opponent playing Burn/Walls/Worthy Cause. It becomes the talk of the tourney... :) Chris White (Whitey) plays against a Thallid/Overrun deck. ROUND 2 - Adam Goron - Skokie IL - independent - 1673 - Beavis Burn Beavis Burn, for those not in the know, is a deck created by Matt Barnett and played in the final 8 of the first Chicago PTQ for LA. All it really is made of is instant burn, with multi-lands for sideboarding and Blitz for speed. No longevity creatures. It works surprisingly well. Game 1 - In addition to the massive, normal instant burn, I get Kindled 3 times for 9 damage. Kinda like a bad bolt, that kindle... Game 2 - I lay an Early (turn 6) Baron Harkonnen, and Counter-protect him for 4 turns. Game 3 - As game 2, but I do it on turn 5... GAME/MATCH: 4-2/2-0 Brian wins 2-0 vs. Jeff Sternal's Br deck (see Final 8 of previous LA PTQ@Chicago) Wyatt wins 2-0 vs. RB Bag of Tricks Matt loses 2-0 vs Fruity Pebbles ROUND 3 - Andrew Stefanski - Shaumburg IL - ACD affiliate - 1612 - Red Blitz Burn again. Andrew and I joke a little bit, and Vlad looks on from his game to watch the fun. Vlad (my neighbor) is playing vs. Vineyard with Spitting Slugs... Their game is infinitely more interesting than mine... Game 1 - I drop some Early Slow Down (ESD) and establish Massive Late Control (MLC). I know this because I wrote down ESD/MLC. Game 2 - I establish MLC, but then somewhere, somehow, my thawed out deck decides to provide me with 5 Funk Lands and 2 Thawing Glaciers. Thanks Deck! He burns me out while I draw land from a deck that is hypothetically "tightened". This game should have been mine. Game 3 - He establishes Hammer Recursion (and me without my dissipate), but we run out of time before the match ends (though I was going down...) GAME/MATCH: 5-3-1/2-0-1 Brian loses 1-2 vs. Bob Allbright's Wolf Pack Pox/Pimp Pox Variant Wyatt wins 2-0 vs. UR swarm Matt loses 1-2 vs. Blitz ROUND 4 - Eric Kjellman - Madison - independent - 1576 - Sligh/Blitz cross Eric is a friendly player playing a Blitz deck mixing in the heavy Poke elements of Traditional Sligh. Artillery and Fireslingers abounded. Less on the Blitz element, he still did include it. Game 1 - I am a little bit mana light (one color missing). I get killed by an orc. Yes, I counter everything else of _major_ import, but that one orc kills me. :( Game 2 - ESD, in late game he Boils me. I begin to recover with Glacier. He Boils again. I am almost out of Islands, but establish MLC. Game 3 - Worried about the Boil, I hold back a little land, but it doesn't matter. Turn 5 Flying Fat Man comes over. GAME/MATCH: 7-4-1/3-0-1 Brian wins 2-0 vs. 5C-Goodstuff Wyatt loses 1-2 vs. ShadowSleight Priest (DROP) Matt loses 1-2 vs. Bwr Knight Necro (DROP) ROUND 5 - Ray DeGuzman - Chicago - Team ACD - 1867 - PT Jank (3CWW) Ray was playing virtually the deck that his now-Teammate Derek Rank played in St. Louis: the 3CWW referred to as Pro-Tour Jank. Using WW plus Burn, plus Frenetic, 3CWW is an extremely solid deck that highly impressed me in St. Louis, and here in Chicago. For those of you who don't know Ray, he's one of those players you prefer not to play in a tourneyment: ranked 2nd in Classic is one of his accolades. Game 1 - He gets out massive early weenies and knocks me down to 4 when I sweep his side of the board. I pull out that MLC. Baron Harkonnen finishes him off. Game 2 - I see two mana. He wins. Game 3 - A Long, Long Game. At this point, we're both making light, subtle errors. He auras away an untapped disk, and we swap permanents. He has one card in hand. He top decks like a madman, and I sit back without counters in my hand to do anything about it. While I deal with all of his creatures, and ride a bit of life gain, he storms over me. Anyone that can e-mail me the title of the card he did over 40 points of damage to me with will get a prize. I take that back, I'll just tell you. He did 40 points with Swords to Plowshares... This was that Point in the tourneyment that you tourney players know about: the point that makes or breaks that tourneyment for you. Ray pulls on... GAME/MATCH: 8-6-1/3-1-1 Brian wins 2-0 vs. Prison ROUND 6 - Mike Bernat - Plainfield IN - independent - 1826 - Rwb Blitz I only remember frustration from this match... Game 1 - I'm one mana short of responding to his threats in time... I get overrun by burn. Game 2 - I lay a disk. I'm at 14, he has 2 cards. He draws, smiles and kills me, emptying his hand. And me without my counter. My next turns had over 24 points of life gain. GAME/MATCH: 8-8-1/3-2-1 Brian wins 2-0 vs. Beavis Burn So I'm out, but I play on... ROUND 7 - Steve Giese - Green Bay - independent - 1700 - Battleford variant Steve is a friendly opponent. We both know we're out of it... His deck is fairly similar to early Battleford, utilizing a blend of cards I guess would be Steve's adaptations... Game 1 - I sweep his side of the board after he's emptied his hand. I'm at low life, but he never recovers. Game 2 - see game 1 GAME/MATCH: 10-8-1/4-2-1 Brian wins 2-1 vs. Fruity Pebbles ROUND 8 - Mark Slapac - Chicago - ACD junior - 1929 - Souders' Road to Nowhere Mark is Playing Aaron Sounder's Road to Nowhere, a Prison-like deck that wins via Stormbind/Titiana's Song/Bolt Recursion. Game 1 - After an extremely long game of him out-drawing me, and me countering the important pieces of his deck, his concedes the game and match out of frustration. Game 2 - See game 1 GAME/MATCH: 12-8-1/5-2-1 Brian loses to Texaco 1-2, after being outdrawn, missing his chance at the top 8. Overrall, I was a little disappointed, but rooting for Ray cheered me up... THE FINAL 8 -----------(seeded) 1 - Ray DeGuzman - Chicago - Team ADC - 1867 - 3CWW 2 - Juan Morales - Chicago - Team Jaybirds - 1600 - WW-burn (his first big tourney) 3 - Dan Edelman - Adrian MI - independent - N/A - Texaco-variant 4 - Bob Allbright - Madison - independent - 1801 - Wolf-Pack Pox/Pimp Pox variant 5 - Matt Thacker - Madison - independent - 1644 - Wolf-Pack Pox/Pimp Pox variant 6 - Judd Hadlock - Chicago - Team ACD Junior - N/A - RWU Aggro 7 - Eric Plus - Ann Arbor - independent - 1885 - Counterpost 8 - Yuan Jing - unknown - independent - - Roman Prison The Final 8 is surprisingly empty of expected faces. Though Ken Roth has already posted the results, I am reposting for your sakes... Ray (3CWW) wins 2-0 vs. Yuan (Roman Prison) Matt (Pox) wins 2-1 vs Bob (Pox) Eric (Counterpost) wins 2-1 vs Juan (WW-Burn) Dan (Texaco) wins 2-1 vs. Judd (RWU Aggro) Meanwhile, a cell phone rings and 5 of the spectators and 2 of the final 8 check... It might have been that fatal phone call that decided the Pox/Pox matchup... ;) Ray (3CWW) wins 2-0 vs. Matt (Pox) Eric (Couterpost) wins 2-1 vs. Dan (Texaco) Ray fairly quickly disposes of Eric. --- The power of the 3CWW deck, ProTour Jank, was fairly stunning: 4 Savannah Lions 4 White Knight 4 Soltari Priest 4 SuqAtta Lancer 3 Frenetic Efreet 1 Aura of Silence 1 Disenchant 4 Lightning Bolt 2 Incinerate 2 Swords to Plowshares 4 Cursed Scroll 4 Tithe 4 Wasteland 4 Mishra Factory 4 Tundra 4 Volcanic Island 4 Plateau 2 Plains 2 Flood Plains This deck list varies from version to version, but is relatively accurate... Have fun, and see you at the next PTQ... Look for the guy with the big mug. No props/slops (not my style), but any such things regarding my report are always welcome. Adrian Sullivan @#$ The Corrupter $#@ GAT/CS/WS C(+++)$ N++ PS++@ b++ R+++* r+ z++**? Game Theorist, Coffee Addict, Opinionated Gynophile Hedonist MHTHTS But who needs labels? - Comments always welcome...