Subject: PTQ report: San Francisco / Bay Area, California - Saturday, January 17, 1998 Date: Sun, 18 Jan 1998 13:03:18 -0800 From: Dave Stripinis Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy Well, first a little about me. I’m a professional artist and writer living in Marin County, just north of San Francisco. Even though this is supposed to be the “center of the Magic universe”, I can’t seem to find much of it since I moved here. If you live in the area ( North Bay ), drop me a note. I’ve been playing since Legends, and took the period from just after Ice Age to Weatherlight off to concentrate on school. Now I’m back in, and was happy to find the wonderful Extended format being used as the qualifying format for Pro Tour LA. Extended brings many of the more interesting cards in the set into the playing fold, without relying on the Power Nine. The banned list still needs some tweaking, but it’s a very fair format. Since the PTQ was only 40 minutes away in Mountain View, I went to sleep in my own cozy bed, and with the aid of Unisom™ got a cherry eight hours of sleep. I got up at 7:30, showered and headed off, hittin’ the Golden Arches for some morning grub. I was a tad nervous, as I had re-tooled my deck heavily since the Grand Prix ( a good thing since I did damn lousy at it ). I had wanted to run my Deck Die-Sector Deck, but it was a little slow, and I knew I was going to see a LOT of red burn, which it has a hard time with. I decided to go with my ol’ boy, White Whored. It’s a very anti-red variation on SlightKnight. Basically, Protection from Red and Black creatures, plus Armageddons and such. Throw in Slight of Mind, and we got stuff working proper like. I’d just like to say, Warmth is pretty damn strong. Underrated too. The drive was amazingly slow , traffic was very slow through The City ( San Francisco for those not in the Bay ). I arrived, and waited outside the store along with the gathering crowd for MatchPlay to open. Soon, that was the case and the line filed in. I paid my 20 bucks and prepped to play. I had brought a decklist so I could fill out all that stuff quickly, and not make any mistakes (Quick anecdote here: I suggest everyone do this, even if you “throw something together” the morning of the tourney. At a previous PTQ, I made a clerical error, putting 61 cards in the deck, and 14 in the sideboard. When I went and asked to see my list cause I couldn’t figure out what my 15th sideboard card was, we found the mistake and I dropped out. I wasn’t in the running for the finals ( or even the Magic Eight ) so it wasn’t worth playing without a sideboard. But one person who had gone 6-0-0 forgot to write down four Force of Wills, and got a DQ ) 119 people turned out. Not bad. Better than the January 3rd, PTQ, but not like the near 200 figures I had heard about back east. The judges were: Don Barlsauskas, Jason Molek, and Peter Costantinidis. The were highly competent, fair and consistent. Basically, everything you could ask of a judge. Peter Costantinidis served as Head Judge. It was announced that there would be 7 70 minute rounds of Swiss play to thin it down to the Magic Eight. The Paris Mulligan rule was in effect. Play began at around 10:15, only a half hour late than the planned 9:45 start. From then on, all rounds started precisely on time. Match 1 Opponent: Robert Soriano - Control Game 1: Things started off well, getting out 2 lions, one of them Empyrial Armored. The beatdown began. I got him down to nine, when they were both plowed. An Outpost hit the table ( CounterPost??? With all the Wastelands and Blood Moons? ) and everything I cast was swords or countered from then on. The beatdown on me began. Game 2: Sideboarded in Wrath’s and Propaganda. Took out Crusades. I also didn’t like how he was shuffling, so I made him de-sleeve. Some people around me asked later why. No, it wasn't ’o be a jerk. I just didn't like how he was shuffling. He was the only one I asked to desleeve all day. Got out a turn 2 Warmth. Turn three, with a Tundra now in play, I played a White Knight, and had the Slight ready for the Bolt of Plow. Instead, it got Dissipated, and I took the opportunity to Slight the Warmth to blue. He argued that I couldn’t do that. Why, I don’t know. I could have easily done it in RESPONSE to his counter and gained life. I had lost all patience with this jerk, and just wanted the match over. From that point on, every single spell of mine was countered, except the Disenchant of his Sacred Mesa, before he could use it. Every single creature that wasn’t countered was plowed. He used Arcane Denials early, and I took the extra cards to gain advantage ( wouldn’t you? ). During the course of the game he cast 8 Gaea’s Blessing. I wound up getting decked, at 48 life. Record: Games: 0-2 / Matches: 0-1 Match 2 Opponent: Preston Poulter – CounterPost variant w/ burn Preston was the aforementioned player that forgot the Force of Wills on the Decklist. I felt a little awkward, because I had seen him in between rounds and asked him if he was playing Big Blue again. Game 1: Second turn Priest, third turn Armor. Game. He got out an Emissary, but that’s it. Yea! My deck was FINALLY working like it had in playtest. Game 2: Turn two Warmth, turn three Chill. No red for you. We were both amused when we realized he was both Chilly, yet Warmed. I was less amused with the turn four Outpost and Disk he put out. I had been holding a Disenchant, and used it. I then put out a Freewind Falcon, he started making ‘post dudes. I got the Falcon Armored, he Control Magic’ed it. Here’s where I made a mistake, I was holding a slight and a swords. I swords it. I should have made it Pro. Blue. Stupid STUPID mistake. Dudes over whelmed me. Game 3: This one is spooky. Card for card, this game was identical, except I had to topdeck the Disenchant for the disk, and the falcon got plowed before the armor. Dudes again. Record: Games: 1-4 / Matches: 0-2 Match 3 Opponent: Derek Liemforth WW/shadow/armor I was frazzled by this point. Where was the Burn? I had talked to people who had been against Sligh. Why not me? Argh. Game 1: Derek double mulliganed. He still didn’t seem happy with his hand, so I was confident. He started laying down Shadow creatures left and right, and I was forced to pro-white a few to get rid of Armor. Oh joy, another loss. I was considering conceding game two and dropping, but I was committed to this report, and played. I came to play, not be a playa. Game 2: Close game. He just got a little ahead of me. I was one turn from the kill, when he got me with an Armored Falcon. Record: Games: 1-6 / Matches: 0-3 Match 4 Opponent: Mark Rodriguez B/R Fatties I won 2-1. There is a reason I’m not going into details. Record: Games: 3-7 / Matches: 1-3 I continued on, just for fun. Match 5 Opponent: Jonathan Bruyn ProsBloom Game 1: Turn two Priest. Turn three Armor. Game. Game 2: Jonathan was about to die on my next turn when the combo went off. I believe I drew around 45 cards this turn. Unfortunately, I had been hit with an Abeyance, and couldn’t use the Interdicts, Disenchants, and Honorable Passages in my hand. 2 Stormseeker's later, I was dead. Game 3: Again, he was one turn away from certain death, when it went off. I drew all but three cards in my deck. 1 Stormseeker this time. Passage. Forced. Passage. Forced. Passage. Forced. Passage. Forced. 4 Honorable Passages, 4 Force of Wills. I die a lot. Record: Games: 4-8 / Matches: 1-4 I dropped after this and went to watch the #1 table. In the Finals were: 1. Trevor Blackwell -Fruity Pebbles 2. Moses Liskov -Pox/Necro 3. Damon Johnston -WW w/R and Cursed Scroll 4. Brendan Delaney -WW w/ a U/R splash and Cursed Scroll 5. Ben Rubin -G/U w/ Vineyard and Cursed Scroll 6. Terry Don -R/W Rack Tax w/ Land’s Edge 7. Eddie Grubaugh -U/W Card Advantage Outpost w/ Whispers and a stunning use of Thawing Glaciers 8. Joe Lorenz -Sligh Ben, Terry, Eddie, and Joe had gone 5-0-0 and double-drew into the finals. There was a deckcheck, and Moses got knocked out because of a deck list error. Ed was his scheduled opponent, and went on to the Semi’s. Joe beat Trevor Terry beat Damon I watched the match between Ben and Brendan. Ben’s deck was majority Green. He would feed the Vineyard mana into the Cursed Scroll, with Centaurs applying groundpounding. In the end, the Cursed Scrolls did the job, as he held only a Forest. In the second game, Ben Wastelanded Brendan’s Tundra, his only land. Brendan Tithed, Ben Countered. Ouch. Ben’s Centaur’s introduced themselves to Brendan. He got out a Factory, but a mistake on his part ( can’t tap a Mishra’s to pump itself after blocking until it starts play on your side ) left him with only a Wasteland for mana. He got out a Plateau and Tundra, and put a Frenetic into play. He was also holding a Wrath in his hand. Ben targeted the Frenetic with a Scroll, and the Frenetic died on the coin toss. No blockers. Brendan offered his hand. Semi’s: Ben, Terry, Eddie, and Joe. The same four that had double drawn. Ben and Joe squared off while Ed and Terry dueled. Ed had Terry on the defensive, taking out creatures with plows and counters, and kept on top of things Thawing out land and using Gerrard’s Wisdom over and over. Terry conceded Game 1. Terry got a Land’s Edge out and the Gerrard’s and a timely Disenchant saved him. ‘Post dudes applied pressure. Terry died. I only got to see Game 3 of Ben and Joe’s match. Ben got out a Ernie, and Joe had to use a Fireblast ( sacking two mountains ) and an Incinerate on it. Monkeys, Centaurs and Slugs were out and Joe died. Ed and Ben split the cash and both had spots on the LA Pro Tour. Congrats guys. You all played fairly and competitively. I was disappointed with my performance. I hadn’t seen Red all day. Of course, if I play my slow deck next time, it’ll be all burn… -Dave Stripinis...still Scrubbing