Subject: Grand Rapids PTQ report Date: Sun, 18 Jan 1998 18:48:12 -0500 (EST) From: Kevin Denelsbeck To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Grand Rapids PTQ Report -- Scrub's-Eye View, With Final Results This is Wakefieldian in length and discursiveness. Skip to the bottom if you want to see the final results. HOW IT WENT FOR ME Since I live only ~30 miles from Grand Rapids, there was no way I was going to miss this. I had attended the High Point PTQ in December, playing R/W Armored Priest, and had scrubbed out at 1-2. I liked a lot of the deck but something wasn't quite right with it. Holland, Michigan (where I live now) is not exactly a vibrant Magic community so I was left looking over decks on the Dojo and playtesting with a friend. I was impressed with Kris Lohman's PTQ-winning deck and decided to use a few ideas from it. Understand that I *hate* to copy decks; I always have to change them somehow, or just lift one or two key ideas from them. I think that looking over decklists (and reports) is very valuable, but not for merely lightfingered purposes. I decided to invest some time and money in this PTQ, since it was so close and because it was a 2-slotter with good prizes (meaning: some Big Names would show up). I reserved a room at the President's Inn (site of the PTQ) for the whole weekend; I figured this would give me some stability for the tournament, since I could sleep in a bit and retreat to my room between rounds. I get there Friday night and, while checking in, ask about the location in the hotel for the Magic tournament. The front desk personnel look baffled for a moment, then one brightly says, "Oh, the magic show? That's being held in the Stars and Stripes Room." I think to myself, "Close enough, and probably not worth correcting", and go find the room. There are signs for Wizards of the Coast there so I know I'm at the right place. I go to my room and break out what cards I've brought with me, including maybe 10 full or partial decks. I've been trying to get better at metagame analysis, and I've seen a fair amount of reports that mention that they wrecked their opponents with, or were wrecked by, a sideboarded Blood Moon. Obviously, this happens because of the amazing proliferation of dual lands in Extended, and in High Point a Blood Moon would've helped my deck out against a few of my opponents. Why not build a deck around a (main-deck) Blood Moon? Put in mountainwalkers for free damage, and Pyrokinesis to pitch with the Blood Moon if it's not useful (especially against monocolored weenie decks). So, I put together a Slighish Blood Moon deck with Mountain Wildcats in it, and tested it against a friend earlier in the week. It was very uneven, splitting games against my High Point deck and against a Stompy deck that I had made for another friend. To my mind, it had to do better against Stompy since Stompy was very likely to show up at Grand Rapids. So after playing my Blood Moon deck, I'm just not impressed with its consistency, and I don't know how to improve it. (There's an easy way, which we'll discover as I go through the actual tourney report.) I do some organizing of my cards on one of the beds in my room and consider another possibility: Squandered Resources-Winter Orb deck. The idea would be to toss down both a Squandered and a Worb, locking the game up for both sides, then bust it open by saccing all the land for some big effect like Jokulhaups/Orcish Squatters or Armageddon/Wrath/Fattie. However, the more I thought about the deck, the more uneasy I grew about the mana requirements, since it would need Black, Green, and probably at least one other color. I think this deck can be made, and I intend to make it :->, but I didn't have time the night before the PTQ to figure it all out. Maybe BRG Squandered Orb Vineyard Haups? I decide that a sojourn to a nearby Denny's is in order. While chowing down on dinner, I ponder two other possibilities: Mono-Red Land Destruction with weenie-control, and Rack/Tax with Maro -- the Lohman deck. I decide to ditch the Land Destruction deck because it will probably be too slow (can't start the festivities until Turn 3) and Soltari Priests will eat it up. Shame, too, because I found in my Blood Moon deck that Aftershock is a really strong card. But all these ruminations about deck possibilities have got me thinking about some issues: how will I respond to Blood Moon? Winter Orb? Land Destruction? I didn't want to get hosed by any of them, and they all seemed likely. So I wanted a deck that could handle all of them. In other words, I wanted a deck that wasn't likely to have mana problems. Enter Rack/Tax. A 1st-turn Tax against Land Destruction is usually enough to avoid problems, and Scroll Rack/Land Tax is too good a combo to leave half-fulfilled. This doesn't solve the problem of Winter Orb, however, and Stompy and 5cG handle this by using Elves, Birds, and Rangers. Sounds good to me. As a matter of fact, sounds so good that main-deck Armageddons seem indicated, and with Tax and 'geddon one naturally thinks of Mr. Maro. All of these elements can be found in Kris Lohman's Rack/Tax deck that won the Hawaii PTQ. I had printed out this report from the Dojo and looked it over carefully, noting where Kris said he had problems and also noting what kind of sideboard choices he made. I make my own version of the deck: LAND: 3 Taiga 3 Plateau 4 Undiscovered Paradise 2 Gemstone Mine 2 Wasteland 7 Forest 3 Plains Notes: No Mountains because of plenty of red mana sources. May be a good idea anyway since it allows more useful Taxing. WHITE: 2 Disenchant 3 Swords to Plowshares 2 Honorable Passage (metagame choice, and a good one) 3 Armageddon 3 Land Tax 2 Empyrial Armor (for green weenies) Notes: In this environment, more Disenchants would've been awesome. GREEN: 4 Quirion Ranger 3 Granger Guildmage (metagame choice; can handle Priests) 3 Llanowar Elves 4 Birds of Paradise 3 Jolrael's Centaur 4 Maro 1 Overrun Notes: That's right, Overrun. I had so many little critters that it seemed like it might really help at some point, and also be unexpected. But it was a pretty bad choice. Replace with a Centaur. I chose no Ernhams because I've been burned by forestwalk before and because I think Maro will be sufficient. As Kris says in his tourney report, a Controlled Ernham can be a problem. ARTIFACT: 2 Scroll Rack Notes: All I have. SIDEBOARD: 3 Pyroblast 2 Blood Moon 2 Angelic Protector 2 Aura of Silence 1 Disenchant 2 Honorable Passage 2 Abeyance 1 Swords to Plowshares Notes: Most of these are obvious. The Angelic Protectors were for Mono-Red decks, and Abeyance was for Fruity Pebbles. I get the deck together about 1am, having set up a wakeup call for 7:15am so I can get up, showered, fed, and make 8am (!) deck registration. So what happens in my cushy hotel room, 100 freaking feet from the very room that the PTQ will be held in? I can't fall asleep, of course. I toss and turn for at least a couple of hours and probably closer to three. So when the alarm goes off, I'm not exactly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. But at least I'm not confused about which exit to take or whatever :->. I get my deck registered and am impressed with the roominess of the site. Believe me, when you're used to playing PTQs at Daddy Jim's, a *real* convention room is deeply appreciated :->. The tournament staff also seems to have its act together, and Mike Donais is putting up signs around the room to help chart out 1st-round pairings. The tourney starts right around the 10am advertised time. ROUND 1 - Luke Bruce, mostly UR CounterBurn Luke was a heck of a nice guy and he's got his act together. Game 1: Slow start for both of us; I found out later that he was drawing land after land. I did some early damage with a Granger, but he eventually Fireballed away the Rangers and Grangers I trotted out. I could tell that an Armageddon would crush him but I couldn't draw one. I finally draw a Maro, on the turn after Luke has put out a Disk. I have both my Disenchants in my hand so I try Disenchanting the Disk. Countered. Disenchant again. Okay. With the Disk out of the way, it's time for Maro. Control Magic. Crap; I'm out of Disenchants. I draw and play another Maro (mine's bigger) but he finds himself Disintegrated in short order. I get beatdown by my own Maro. Game 2: Quick game for me, I get out a Ranger and Centaur, then 'geddon. He can't deal with the Centaur, and it beats him down. Game 3: Another quick game for me; I used a Centaur to draw a Counterspell, then slap down a Blood Moon. He was playing nearly all duals and it hosed him. Then Maro came to visit. Record: 1-0/2-1 ROUND 2 - Paul Carmouche, Cursed Sligh Paul's a really cool guy, and already qualified. Game 1: This was tight race, with my Centaur nicking him every turn while he did roughly the same. His Orcish Librarian (!; talk about back-in-the-day) is netting him lots of useful cards and I am starting to see why Cursed Scroll is the Next Big Thing. However, he can't get rid of the Centaur and it looks like I'll win the race -- I also have an Honorable Passage waiting in case he tries to burn me out. I wait and wait and wait with the H.P. but eventually I have to stop attacking with the Centaur and keep it home as a blocker. The life race is so tight that I eventually Passage a Fireslinger ping to save one of my blockers, and then Paul Incinerates me, which put me in range for a ping for the win. Paul finished with 1 life, to my 0. Game 2: He starts out quickly on me, but I Armageddon before all his weenies drop from his hand, then slowly regain control. I bring out an Angelic Protector as a blocker, and it's another card he can't deal with. Then Mr. Maro comes out and beats him down. Game 3: Not good draws for either of us, but extensive use of his Orcish Librarian eventually get him the cards he needs. As in game 2, I sense the weenie rush coming and decide I'd better 'geddon; I do, but recover much more slowly from it. (Part of the problem was that I put the wrong land back down after using the Ranger-bounce trick to get enough mana to 'geddon; I should've put down a Plains, but I put down my only Forest and didn't draw another one until too late.) He recovers much quicker this time and runs me over. Record: 1-1/3-3 ROUND 3 - Brandon Rutter, Cursed Sligh First guy I've played whose name I've recognized. Pretty cool. Already qualified. Game 1: Got out a Centaur, which he couldn't get rid of, but eventually I had to block an Ironclaw with it and he Bolt-Incinerate-Bolts me to win. Game 2: A better start for me, but he keeps my mana off-balance and I never quite get a 'geddon off. Two Ball Lightnings in a row, both times when I'm tapped out with an Honorable Passage in my hand, hurt even more than the 12 points I lost on my scoresheet. I finally draw a Scroll Rack (first time in the tourney) but it's of no use and he Cursed Scrolls me to death. I'm discovering that I can't cast Maro right away against Red decks because my hand size isn't big enough for Maro to survive a bolt. Record: 1-2/3-5 At this point, I could drop out, but I might as well get the experience. ROUND 4 - Joshua Ward - Mono-Red Nice guy; not your standard red deck. This match was over very quickly. Game 1: He beats me down pretty far with burn and Thundermare (!), but I get rid of the horsey and get a big freaking Maro out. When Maro is big, your opponent has roughly 3 turns to solve the Maro problem, and Josh nearly did, playing Final Fortune (!!) in a desperate search for a Fireball. He drew an Incinerate, and I finished with 1 life. Game 2: Even quicker than game 1. Two of Josh's sideboard cards show up: Blood Moon (not a problem :->) and Glacial Crevasses (!). I get out Maro quickly and 'geddon, which solves the Crevasses dilemma. Josh couldn't deal with the 'geddon. Record: 2-2/5-5 ROUND 5 - Thomas Botts - BR LD Really nice guy. Very quiet, but he had an exhausting drive from Muncie, Indiana. ("Hudsucker Proxy" memories float to mind...) Game 1: He gets out a Wildfire Emissary which abuses me some, but he gives me time to build up my hand and finally out pops Maro. Then out pops another one, both hulking. He tries to block and kill one with a pumped-up Emissary, but I Passage the damage and then 'geddon on the next turn. It was pretty rude. Game 2: I didn't sideboard in any cards; none looked viable except for maybe the Passages. Again, the Maro/'geddon combo comes together very quickly and he can't recover. I learn later that his sideboard cards (Pyroclasm and Perish), which most definitely would've rocked my world, didn't show up in time. In both games, Land Tax was crucial for me. Record: 3-2/7-5 ROUND 6 - Jayson Gardner - UR CounterBurn Nice guy, interesting hat. Knew his stuff. Game 1: He has an answer for everything but a Centaur. I beat him down a little but he beat me down much faster and stole a Maro I had labored very hard to get out. That Maro went farming, but I couldn't handle his other threats (Mishras, and I think Frenetic). Game 2: I side out the Maros and decide that my goal is to beat him down with Centaurs. I succeed, getting one past his counters and pushing it through every turn. It still is a very close game, since he gets some Frenetics out (and I think a Suq'Ata Lancer) but I have too much of a lead and he needs to keep his critters back on defense. I finally win after all of his Frenetics have bravely thrown themselves in front of the relentless Centaur. At this point, it's worth noting that both games took a long time, Game 1 because I finally got the Rack/Tax combo working, and Game 2 because he was Thawing like mad. Game 3: Very tight game, in both score and time remaining. I get another Centaur out and start pushing it through, but he's been putting out Frenetics and they mean the difference. He wins with 1 minute left in the round and 6 life remaining. Record: 3-3/8-7 At this point, I drop out of the tourney, since I'm totally exhausted from the Round 6 match-up, have no chance of making it to the Final 8, am getting really hungry, and am still above .500 in game score. (A small victory, but I'll take it. :->) Out to Denny's for dinner, and I come back to check how things are going. The number of participants has thinned out considerably, and Final 8 calculations are underway. While waiting for those to be announced, I look over some of the dealer stuff and buy a few things: some singles, an Italian Legends pack (highlight: Sylvan Library), and some 5E starters merely because I want 5E land and Giant Growths. I also play for fun against Andy (visiting from Detroit) and his compatriot Ian (who is definitely *not* from Detroit :->; he's English, I believe). Final 8 are announced (* = already qualified; ~ = 4 Cursed Scrolls standard): *~1 Patrick Chapin - RW Rack/Tax *~2 Paul Carmouche - Cursed Sligh 3 Bill Fleming - RW Rack/Tax ~4 Matt Barnett - PT Jank ~5 Mark Slapik - PT Jank *~6 Andy Nishioka - Black Jank ~7 Eric McGlohan - Cursed Vineyard 8 Ed Ito - Steel Golem/Control In other words, if you weren't running 4 Cursed Scrolls in your deck, you were kind of missing the point of attending the Grand Rapids PTQ :->. As the matches began, I talked and played a little bit with Eric Plus, who beat down my deck easily with his Counterpost and showed me the true utility of the PT Jank deck. He said that at least 16 people at Grand Rapids had played PT Jank, card for card, and that his Counterpost just couldn't beat it. (Neither could my deck, even in the one game where I got a huge lead with a Centaur out.) In the first round of Final 8, Pat Chapin, rather boisterously, beatdown Ed Ito. I didn't see much of Ed's deck but I think it was a Steel Curtain variant (corrections solicited, please). In a matchup of PT Jank, Mark beat Matt; I didn't see the match. I also didn't see Bill Fleming beat Andy Nishioka. I watched a fair amount of the Carmouche-McGlohan match and that Vineyard deck was very impressive! It ended up winning that round. In the semifinals, Chapin defeated Slapik, meaning that (because of already-qualifiedness among the Final 8 participants) Mark would get one of the two slots only if Eric McGlohan lost to Bill Fleming in the other semi. That was the match I watched, and it was a great one. When I say that the Vineyard deck is a good one, I mean it, and Bill had has hands full dealing with both Vineyard mana and Eric's Cursed Scrolls. (Not to mention the occasional Ernham :->) Aura of Silence helped a *lot*, and in three very carefully- and well-played games, Bill beat Eric. This meant that the invitees from Grand Rapids are BILL FLEMING and MARK SLAPIK. It's worth spending a few more words discussing the McGlohan-Fleming match. First, I have to say it was really instructive for me to watch Bill Fleming play his deck, since it basically (from my scrubby perspective :->) combines elements of both decks I've played at PTQs. Bill was much more patient than I am, and he Racked and Tithed as often as possible, and never gave up on a situation. I have never seen anyone topdeck as well as he did in the Final 8 matches, and much of that has to be attributed to his perseverance with his Scroll Rack. SCRUBS TAKE NOTE! Also, Eric had some really interesting cards in his sideboard, including a Hail Storm (which nearly took out a whole cadre of marauding Shadow clergy) and Splintering Wind. It just goes to show that you need to pull out *all* of your old cards whenever a new tourney-format or set-expansion comes out. (Worth mentioning: Aaron Souders was killing me with some whispered kibitzing as we watched this match. At one point, Eric waited for Bill to tap out so that he could, as he said, bolt a White Knight without having it Passaged. Aaron whispers to me, "Scars of the Veteran!", which would've been a stupefying play :->.) Okay, the finals. It was getting quite late and the match was moved upstairs to a small lounge so that hotel personnel could get the convention room cleaned up. It turned out that Chapin had already beat Fleming earlier in the day, so there was an odd feeling of exhausted revenge in the air. Chapin's deck had rolled over everyone so far. The decks were pretty similar. Both had Priests and Lions; Fleming had Monks to Chapin's Lancers, and Chapin also had the 4 Cursed Scrolls. Both had 4 Scroll Racks, I believe. In game 1, Chapin puts down a Plateau and says done. Fleming begins with Land Tax. Next turn, Chapin also puts down Land Tax, then Wastelands his own Plateau; he has no land in play. Fleming then overlooks the Disenchant in his hand and puts down a critter, and he and Chapin get in a critter race. Fleming wins by a nose. In game 2, Chapin is minorly land-screwed and gets out 2 Cursed Scrolls but doesn't have enough mana to power them both on one turn. Fleming overruns him with critters, draws out an Honorable Passage from Chapin (to prevent critter damage), and bolts for a quick win. BILL FLEMING wins the Grand Rapids PTQ, and *without* Cursed Scrolls! It was quite a lot of fun to watch the final matches. For all of my fellow scrubs out there, if time permits I highly recommend the practice. It's quite instructive to pick up on some of the little tricks done by people who know what their decks and cards do, and the mind-games are amusing as well. PROPS Andon ran a really smooth tournament, with no appreciable delays that I noticed. Mike Donais was a calming influence in there. All the PT regulars who took some time to chat with me, a mere scrub All my opponents were really cool; I just wish I had met you all at the table on the stage! (I did play Paul Carmouche there, but my stay was shortlived :->) Hope you enjoyed, Kevin Denelsbeck