Subject: a tourney report for PTLAQ syracuse 01/10/98 Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 16:59:20 -0500 (EST) From: jjb11@cornell.edu To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com REPORT ON PTQ SYRACUSE Thank God someone finally decided to hold a qualifier within a reasonable distance of where I live. I, like the people from Grey Matter, assumed the turnout would be small: maybe a hundred people, probably less. Imagine my surprise when over 160 people showed. Unlike other people who have written reports, I had none of the pre-qual anxiety of which deck to play/what cards to put in the sideboard. I have been tweaking the same deck since before GPSF, working in tandem with my friends Binh Pham and Ernest "Draw" Alexander. It's a form of prison mistakenly named "InsectPrison" by its listing on the posting entitled "THE Decks" in the best of the net section. It also mistakenly referred to it as Ernest's deck. Binh and Ernest worked together on this sucker for about two months before GPSF, and I came on about six weeks afterwards. Erik Landries also gave some input by taking a tweaked version to Las Vegas and winning a qual there. Since "The Phamily" names all of its decks after Beatles songs, this one was dubbed "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". So, after working on Lucy's sideboard intensively for two weeks, I was completely ready psychologically for this qual. I picked up Dave Price at about ten to eight (yes, we left Ithaca at eight o'clock the morning of a qualifier - how cool is that?) and headed up north to Syracuse. Dave, needless to say, is already qualified for PTLA, and nobly decided to stay out of this qual (unlike certain other unscrupulous people I have seen who go and intentionally screw up other people's tie-breakers to help their teammates qual), but decided he would play in some side tournaments and play Tempest constructed with Dennis Bentley. We arrive in Syracuse about nine o'clock and meet a few friends in the lobby of the On Center. Turnout is much higher than I thought. I was agonizing over trying to fit in another propoganda in the main deck, but decided against it. Tourney started about 11:00. Here's the round-by-round: Round One: opponent: Sean Seeley DCI#734501 I really don't remember what deck he was playing, but I think it was some form of blue/red/white. The match was basically a cakewalk, since he just kept playing land, even when I had rack-tax down and going. I play the control game with him, waiting for him to tap out before playing the winter orb and armageddoning. I win the first game, and time runs out on the second. After we pack up, he asks me, "what does your deck DO?!?!?" I just look at him and smile. Round Two: opponent: Jamie Park DCI#117268 A very frustrating match. He's playing prison, but instead of rack-tax he's got sylvan/gerry. He out-diamonds me and armageddons with an aura out. Suck. I figure I have the advantage, though, since I start a lot of enchantment removal. I disenchant his aura. He responds by auraing my aura. I respond by auraing his sylvan. Then, Jamie gets ANGRY. he whips out gaea's blessing and puts back in aura, armageddon, and sylvan. Then he plops down another aura and says "go." later he gaea's blessings again, targeting two auras and his other gaea's. Things begin to look bad. Endgame looks like this: He has two icies, and we both have winter orbs. All of my land is tapped. We have about fifteen minutes left in the round, and it's still our first game. He asks me to concede. I decline. He plops down a factory and says go. I look at my hand, see a disenchant and two swords, and pout. I draw, then scroll rack for eight. He's dancing in his chair, with his hand over his library, saying, "are you done? are you done?" I understand his impatience, but I am not dead yet, as I still have two wastelands in my library, which has about twenty cards or so. I rack for eight, and don't see the library. I'm deciding which order to put my hand back on my library (NOT stalling at all, mind you, taking about 15-20 seconds or so) and he calls over a judge. Again, I understand his impatience, but I think if you're going to play prison, you have to be willing to go the distance. Anyway, it ends with him auraing my rack and killing me with a factory. Had I gerry'd earlier in the game (which I could have done, I saw both of them) I would have tied. This would have changed the whole day. Round Three: opponent: Kevin Stager DCI#729620 Again, I don't really remember what this guy was playing, except that it wasn't terribly effective. I win the first game with about forty minutes remaining, and start to play carefully, aiming to draw the second game. About ten minutes into the round I think to myself, "No. play this one for the win." So I did, and had some time to relax between the rounds for once. That became my mantra for the day: play to win. Round Four: opponent: Hans Manner DCI#213982 hans was playing red/blue. I start to lay out my game when, on turn four he plops down SNAKE BASKET. I get nostalgic about mivilite booster drafts before I aura the basket on the next turn. next he taps out to play disk, which I promptly disenchant on his turn, untap, and armageddon. Game. game two was much like the first, except quicker. I felt bad about beating a dude from Deutschland, home of Udo Werner (mein Lieblingstar!). Round Five opponent: Lyle Cohen DCI#125811 I don't like to talk smack about people, but this deck was one of the worst I've ever seen in the fifth round of any tourney. Game one I play plains, tax. He plays mountain. I worry, because I had some trouble with sligh in playtesting. Next turn I play plains, rack, go. He reads rack. I think, "Game." He plays mountain, go. I think, "where are his creatures?" I play undiscovered, mindstone, go. He plays mountain, go. I commence rack-tax beatdown. The only thing i see is a bolt when I armageddon, then he discards fireballs, hammers, LAND (which I really don't understand. I mean, yeah, you don't want to give the other guy a chance to tax if possible, but what the hell are you going to do, sitting there and discarding your whole deck????). I rack him to death. Next game is much the same. He still hasn't learned not to discard land after I 'geddon. He hits me a couple of times with a miner, but I gerry up to fifty and smoke him again. I wish I could play against this deck EVERY round. it's all about facing FAT red with no fireblasts. Round Six: opponent: Aaron Lipczynski DCI#12893 He's playing white weenie, which I can beat pretty regularly. Turn three I play aura and he READS IT. I file this little tidbit away for sideboarding time. I draw swords, wrath, quicksand, and they have such a good time, they all decide to bring their friends. I smoke him game one, after gerrying up to 48. Game two I remove all enchantment removal, since I don;t have to fear the aura. I smoke him again, leaving him with no permanents, me with about 30 and at 59 life from a few PHAT gerrys. Round Seven: opponent: Joe Weber DCI#6929 Joe and I played each other years ago in a Cornell type I tourney, and he worked me down. I was looking for a little payback. Game one he lays down undiscovered. I wasteland it. He discards for ELEVEN TURNS, during which I get out diamonds, worb, and multiple icies. very ugly game, which he concedes afetr about fifteen minutes of EXTREME discomfort. Game two I play my WIN card: CHOKE. He wasn't prepared at all for it. I choke him, he disenchants. He taps out, I choke again. game. Joe was a very cool guy - I felt bad that he had to go out via landscrew, but let's face it: it's always nice to win. I made a dumb mistake and circled the wrong thing on our reports, and he just went up to the desk and said, "Yeah, he won." I realized later that he could have totally screwed me over, but he had a lot of class. Rock on, Joe. Round Eight: opponent: Eric Phillips DCI#133202 I sit down for the final round knowing that I can't draw into the final eight, because of my second round loss and subsequent poor tiebreaker. So, I pull a Pikula and play, because I CAME TO PLAY, and I PLAY TO WIN. Plus, I have just won five in a row, and feel extremely confident. My opponent, however, has other ideas. He plays a mean sligh (superficially similar to Phamily test deck "Back in the USSR", first built and used by Phamily icon Brian Weissman, but with no multilands). I curse to myself because Binh had convinced me weeks before that conversion was a bad sideboard card for the enviroment,, since who would play just MONO red and no duals? ARG. Game one he pummels me. I am forced to gerry prematurely TWICE, just to remain above eight life. I finally get out all of my control and have him locked, but I am at three life with no more gerrys or gaea's. He draws land, bolt and kills me. second game is a top-decking FEST. game goes like this: turn one: mountain - mogg. turn two: attack with mogg, mountain, two more moggs. turn three: mountain, ball lightning, attack. Ugly, ugly, ugly. I manage to get out of the worst of it, and chill at eleven life for a while with an armageddon allowing me a bit of a breather. I find COP red and lay it down. He casts Ironclaw orcs. A few turns pass. He plays anarchy, ball lighting, orc. ouch. I top-deck ANOTHER COP!!!!! I hear strains of Handel's Messiah in the background. He top-decks....ANARCHY. Suck. Next round he top-decks.... another ball lighting ! I take 18 from ball lightnings in one game, and fall in a crispy heap. So, My hopes at final eight and continuing the righteous reputation of the Phamily are dashed in the final round of swiss. I only lost three games all day, but it was enough to send me home early. although I didn't see who won, I did try to copy down the final 8: #1: the mono-red that beat me played #8: some random red-blue thing #2: red/white/blue (non-pebbles) played #7: red/white/blue "Temple of Sped" (according to Joe Weber, member of Team Sped) - also non-pebbles other four decks (sorry I didn't get their seedings) R/G/W vs. R/W/U - looked like a tongo deck R/W/U - non-pebbles vs. WW with warbeasts (geddomare) Overall I was quite pleased with the tourney - even though I didn't make final 8, I was in it to the very end. I learned quite a bit, like I shouldn't have taken out the gaea's blessing, and conversion can be a damn good sideboard card. I was a bit bummed, because it looked like I would have destroyed any other deck in the final 8 except for the one that put me out. oh, well. Dave was stoked, since he won a side sealed tourney and boosted his limited rating (and won $50) and sold a bunch of cards. overall, a sucessful trip. Some of my friends did complain about getting royally screwed by the jugdes (like blatant favoritism for one of their friends who was playing), but I wasn't present for any of it and urge those who were to post reports of their own, because what I did hear secondhand was utterly deplorable. Some Thoughts: 1 - LOOK AT RULES POSTINGS!!! The same judge had to come over to the table I was playing at FOUR different times to tell FOUR different opponents that yes, the scroll rack trick DOES work, and no, he won't deck himself if he racks for eight but only has two cards in his library. That ruling has been out for over a month, so WHY aren't more people aware of it? 2 - Pebbles is really just a crappy combo deck. There were some good players playing it, but if the combo doesn't come up, you're not really given much to work with. I was surprised and happy to see that no pebbles decks made it into the final eight. 3 - Prison is stronger than most people are expecting. many of my opponents didn't have adequate defense against me. If you don't prepare for me, be prepared to see the entirety of your library in your graveyard. 4 - Gaea's recursion = GOOD. Any questions? Comments? Ideas? Conspiracy Theories? Joseph Beck jjb11@cornell.edu