Subject: PT: LA Qualifier Tourney Report from Jan 3 (3 weeks late) Olathe, KS Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 22:01:31 -0600 From: "MATT EWING" To: Tournament Report: Pro Tour LA Qualifier (Extended format) Olathe, Kansas, January 3, 1998 by Austin Vaughan (finalist) POSTED January XX (3 weeks late..) Summary The tournament started at about 10:30, with 140 players. This is a good showing for Olathe. The tournament was run very efficiently during 8 rounds. We were finished with the finals by 1:30am. There were players from Team Cache (Kansas City) and Team Gathering Ground (St. Louis) as well as one noteworthy player Randy Buheler (Pro Tour: Chicago champion) who was in town visiting family. Note: The majority was not playing wastelands. Saw few Cursed Scrolls. Not much Necro, only my crew and Randy Buhler. Only 2 sligh decks (neither were quality). There was a variety of Tongo Nation decks, Stompy, Permission, Fruity Pebbles, etc.. nothing was obviously dominant. Final Standings: 1. Andrew Corley (Mono Blue) 2. Austin Vaughan (B/R/W Necro) 3. Randy Buheler (Mono Black Big Necro) I was playing a "Laurpotence" mutation that I had ripped out of some magazine. It had done me well at the last PTQ I played at in East St. Louis a coupla weeks ago getting me to the finals there (of course there was only 1 spot being given away..). It's a good, solid Necro deck with it's biggest weakness being Wastelands, Tongo Nation, and big black fatties. Thanks goes to Matt Ewing for lending me all the cards (I own no Magic). The deck: 4 Demonic Consultation 4 Hymn to Tourach 4 Bolt 4 Black Knight 4 Pimp Knights 4 Drain Life 3 Necro 3 Disenchant 2 Nektraal 2 Incinerate 2 Firestorm Mana: 8 Swamp 4 Badlands 4 Scrubland 3 Gemstone Mine 3 Bad River 2 Lake of the Dead Sideboard: 3 Pyroblast 3 Honorable Passage 2 Nevy's Disk 2 Serrated Arrows 2 Perish (Used once, should have been Contagion) 1 Disenchant 1 Terror (went unused) 1 COP: Red (went unused) On to the tournament.. ROUND 1 vs. Thomas Grobe Tom is playing a W/R/U deck he borrowed from the Internet, containing Suquata Firewalker, Counters, Force of Will, Fireballs, Emissary, Impulse. Funny but during 3 games I did not see any cursed scroll, knights, or tithe. Game 1: Lose Bad way to start this tourney. I get the beat down with bolts and a fireball, after casting Necro and getting an unimpressive draw. Game 2: Win Won by a tight margin. Had 2 bad consultates that went past all but 10 cards in my deck. Consultated past 4 drains and 4 bolts. He is at 5 lives. I have Nektrall in play and Incinerate and Pyroblast in hand. I figure I have game next turn. He plays Outpost. I Necro myself down to 4 lives and 1 card in deck. I get an Honorable passage and a Pimp Knight. Still can't do anything as he is making a token each turn to block Nektraal. Next turn he plays a Firewalker.. Then I get a chance to play Pimp Knight. His turn again he tries to ping the Knight. I Passage the damage to the Knight and on my turn the Knight walks past the Outpost token and I bring him down to 3. Finish him with Incinerate backed by that Pyroblast. Game 3: Win Decisive win in my favor. Black knight and Lake-Drain for the kill. ROUND 2 vs. Jeff Cosgrove DCI#777158 Jeff is playing a B/R Necroburn with W/U flavoring. I believe Jeff is on Team Gathering Ground from St. Louis. Considering how my buddies on Team Cache always school the St. Louis boys I figure this to be a favorable matchup. Game 1: Win I own this game with early Necro. Game 2: Win Close game at the end. I consultate through all the red sources left in my deck and I'm holding 2 bolts & an Incinerate. Meanwhile I'm getting the Sol-Kanar beatdown. Yup.. Sol-Kanar.. To win I Drain with 1 Lake and Necro the last 4 cards in my deck. Next turn it's win or die so let's Drain with 2 Lakes for just enough to kill him, plus 1 extra B for Sol Kanar.. ROUND 3 vs. Christopher Meier DCI#579256 Chris is playing a B/R deck including Counterspell, Icy, Stones, Fat Moti, Ophidian, Firewalker, Earthquake, Bolt, Quicksand, Force of Will, Arcane, Capsize, Whispers, Propaganda.. you get it. Game 1: WIN The Necro beat down. I own this game. Game 2: WIN Early Necro. Disk away 2 stones & Icy. Hymn twice. Knight and Pimpknight plus Lake give me the win. *** At this point me and my buddies on Team Cache (Kansas City) look at the field of players at 3-0 to see what we're up against. Looks pretty good in our favor except for Randy Buehler playing a Fatty Necro deck. *** Of course after sitting down with my opponent he looks profoundly similiar to the individual we had just been discussing. ROUND 4 vs. Randy Buheler DCI#118617 Randy is playing the Fatty Necro deck with 4 vampires, 1 Nightmare, 3 contagion, 4 Necro, 4 Consulate, 4 Hymn, 3 Stupor, 2 Funeral Charm, 4 Drain, 3 Disk, 4 Dark Ritual.. and his sideboard had extra Land Destruct against me as he pretty much knew exactley what was in my deck after the first game. Randy seemed fairly familiar with Laurpotence.... Game 1: Win Randy gets the first turn Ritual-Necro while I'm looking at a handfull of land. This is Bad. He keeps Necroing fairly aggressively and destroying my hand turn after turn, while I.. play lands. He Necros down to 4 so I tap into my Jedi topdecking skills for the Drain. Yoda has taught me well. I tap all 6 swamps and.... Game 2: Lose I play first and 2nd turn I Hymn to Tourach, getting a Hymn and something else noncosequential from hand. On his 2nd turn he Hymns me! There's more: Randy gets 3rd turn Necro. I feel hurt that my deck won't put out. Seen 0 Necro/consultate so far. Randy starts the Vampiric assault. I stall killing the first 2 with arrows/bolt. You may have noticed after looking at my deck/ sideboard I was not expecting fatty black creatures (read: Control Magic??). The 3rd Sengir and his friend the Nightmare finish the game decisively. Game 3: Lose This was a long & close game that took nearly 40 minutes. Like the Pro he is Randy gets the early Necro again and I can't find shit. I swear I have Necros in my Necrodeck.. I lay early Knights one at a time and Randy takes them out with a Contagion for each. Randy gets out 2 Vampires. I have 1 Swamp, Scrubland, Badland, and Lake. Finally I get a consultate. I need Necro and Firestorm. Tap Swamp and consultate for Necro. Tap Lake sac Swamp for 4 B and play Necro taking a burn. I wanted to make sure I had the Scrubland open after Necroing in case I got a consultate and no Firestorm. I Necro for 10 down to 5 lives. He is at 7 lives with 4 swamp and Necro in play. I go to my discard phase.. hell yeah it's all about Firestorm for 4 taking out both Vampires, my Knight, and Randy for 4. He's at 3 lives now and the game is mine in two turns.... except FUCK. I got ahead of myself and went to my turn, and DREW. This is something you really should not do with a Necro in play. Randy invokes the right which is his and calls game forfiture. I lower my head in a scrub-like manor and admit the error to the judge. Randy was kind enough to finish the game with me for kicks and sure enough 2 turns later it was in the pocket. I spend the remaining time looking for someplace high from which to throw myself. I don't mind losing when I give it my best but that was just sick.. My friend Seth escorts to me to his car where a frosty alcoholic beverage awaits. We decide that play mistakes are a generally a bad thing and so we decide not to make any more of them in the future. ROUND 5 vs. Kevin Williams DCI#602506 Kevin is playing a fairly standard version of Fruity Pebbles. Game 1: Win Early consultate for and play of Necro is successful. I take the game with 2 Nektraals (ha!) and 2 bolts. Game 2: Win Kevin gets mana-jacked and again a successfull consultate/Necro. Knights, bolts, and a pyroblast-backed drain finish the game. ROUND 6 vs. Julian Rosielle DCI#727206 Julian is playing a W/R deck with blue in the SB for sleight. His deck includes Aura of Silence, Scroll Rack, Land Tax, Land's Edge, Lancers, White Knights, Solteri Priest, Savana Lions.. This is not a serious threat. Game 1: Win I turn 2 Hymn. Next turn he puts Imperial Armor on Knight. I consulate and disenchant the Armor. A Pimp Knight gives me a decisive win. I had Necro in hand and did not play it this game. Game 2: Win I Firestorm 2 White Knights while my 2 Black Knights continue to march vs. 2 Solteri Monk. ROUND 7 vs. Shane Houston DCI#117742 Another Fruity Pebble deck. How do these things get so far?? Game 1: Lose That answered that question. Got it turn 5. Game 2: Win Got out Disk and Necro. Game. Game 3: Win Got out Disk and Necro. Game. ROUND 8 vs. Andrew Corley DCI#121498 We decide on intentional draw, figuring 6-1-1 will be good enough to secure a place in the top 8. Good thing for me as I will see Andrew next in the Finals where he destroys me. At this point I am getting pretty damn tired. Me and Team Cache only fit in 4 hours of sleep the night before. We never seem to learn that sleep is a good thing before 15 hours of game play. Slamming beers between rounds with Seth is starting to take it's toll.... I didn't take notes after this point so details are sketchy after 3 weeks.. TOP 8************************************************************************ The Top 8 is announced and none of friends managed to make it. Even one of the 6-1-1's did not squeeze in. QUARTERFINALS vs. Chris Bowling Chris was playing some G/W deck. Small green weenies, armageddon.. Game 1: Win Game 2: Win Got a 4 point necro-firestorm to finish this game. I did not get to see much of this deck. The Necro beat down both games. SEMIFINALS 2 vs. Randy Buhler Was not looking forward to playing Mr. Buhler again. At least, If I lose, I get a playoff for 3rd as Randy is allready qualified for the next 10 Pro Tours or so after winning Chicago recently. Game 1: Win Game 2: Lose Game 3: Win. This was a close game in the end. A Knight does a good amount of damage this game before being nuetralized. We both have Necro. I have Drain and two demonic consultation. I consultate for another drain and next turn tap out to drain him. He then plays Nightmare and I'm dead next turn. I do not have enough mana to kill a 7/7 flyer with my last drain in hand. My deck is looking pretty thin. I consultate for a Lake, play it, and have exactley enuogh to drain for an amount equal to Mr. Bueler's total life points. Game. Randy Buhler asked, "You're draining my Nightmare for how much?" That's funny. BITCH. To be fair at this point I am just happy to get my invitation to PT:LA and I don't really care if I win. This is my 2nd tournament since Nationals 97 and I expected to make Top 8 but probably lose out for lack of practice. FINALS vs. Andrew Corley My friend Kevin informs me Andrew is playing a mono-blue Orb deck and that he, playing a deck almost identical to mine, had played against Andrew earlier in the day and got the shit beat out of him. Bad news for me. Kevin is a good, solid player but we did not playtest against this. Andrew's deck consists of 4 Propaganda, 4 Icy, 3 Winter Orb, Counterspell, Force of Will, 2 Disrupt, Control Magic, Air Elemental, Waterspout, Firewalker.... Game 1: Lose. He owns me. Game 2: Win. I own him. Game 3: Lose. He owns me. Our games were both quick and decisive. Andrew had *EXCELLENT* countermagic coverage on that first game. It's cold and we're tired. We grab our loot (Thanks to Steve) and head home. It still mystifies me how 140 people can pay 20 bucks a peice to play, but we only get $250 back, and that only to first place.... I'll see you all in Los Angeles. END Team Cache is: Kevin Hunt (Nationals 97/Pro Tour x 2) Playing Necro (almost identicle to mine) finished 5-2. Kevin is a tall, quiet, nice guy with a big knife. He's played magic and schooled the locals for a long time. Known to favor Erhnams and more offensive-style decks. Alex Smith (Nationals 96) Playing Stompy (Alex usually plays blue.. should stick with it) fin 3-3-1. Alex is a big, loud, mean guy who likes to wrestle unsuspecting victims. Known as team bodygaurd. He's played magic and schooled the locals for a long time. Favors anything blue and highly defensive. Seth Enselmen Playing Fruity Pebbles.. let's just say he did badly. Seth is the newest player to our crew. Seth is tall and.. tall. He's a good guy. Seth favors anything rogue that he knows his teammates will scorn him for playing and that will probably not win anyway. Likes beer. Scott "Spanky" Lipp (Pro Tour x 1) Playing Necro (Same deck) finished 5-2. Spanky is a short, stocky kid with a big mouth. People generally do not like Spanky, including his freinds. Known to play whatever Kevin and Austin are playing. Good move. Spanky will talk shit to anyone and everyone and feel free to take a good kick at him if you please. Matt Ewing Playing Stompy did badly. Stompy sucks. Matt is the team Old Guy. He's Old. Known to yell at people who try to beat him in magic. Loves the use of colorfull language and meangingful gestures. Matt prefers any deck with Birds of Paradise. Behman Zacheri (Owner of Collector's Cache and Team Cache) Played Stompy (WHY??) went 4-0 before losing very match afterwords. Behman is the founding father of Team Cache. Known to play horribly and still do pretty damn well in tournaments. Buy cards from him! And me.... Austin Vaughan, Team Cache Sidekick & Roommate. (I am *NOT* on that team!) Played Firestorm-Necro and finished 8-2-1. Austin is a short, freaky guy. Has played Magic for as long as his limited memory can remember. Schools the locals including his friends Team Cache. (ha!) Known to play WHATEVER IT TAKES TO WIN. Prefers Necro and Hymns always. Likes beer, money, and easy women. Team Cache Say: BETTER LUCKY THAN GOOD!