Subject: PTQ-Braunschweig (Germany), Pebbles
Date: Sun, 21 Jan 1996 22:01:28 -0800
From: budde2@reichenau.gmd.de (Budde)
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

Hi!

The PTQ in Braunschweig was my second EX-Qualifier. Only two members of the
Cologne Conjurer Circle attended: Dirk Baberowski and me (Kai Budde). The
last time I went with Wr-Scroll/Tax-Weenie and finished 5-2 (first round
loss because we came too late, that's life ...). This time we spent a lot
more time testing and Dirk and I decided that Atomic Bomberman was the way
to go. We thought of going Wrb, but in the end the WUr-variation came out
on top. Looking back our decision was absolutely right. I don't think that
the deck is really competitive without FoW! This card is unbelievable
strong in general and esspecially in decks like this one. Furthermore we
don't think that mana vaults are worth the slot. In testing they were
generally useless. More spells to find the Kombo (and the FoWs!!!) are IMHO
better. In the end this was our deck:

'Nuke them!', V. 1.0

4 Plateau/4 Volcanic/4 Tundra
3 Plains/2 City of Brass/2 Flood Plain
4 Tithe
-23 (looks like too few, but there are 13 0-2CC Cantrips)

3 Renewal (in this variation absolutely enough!)/4 Bombardement/4 Spheres+1
Walker
-12

3 Brainstorm (GREAT! There are many ways to shuffle and brainstorm-tithe is
really cool ...)
2 Portent
3 Impulse (We didn't like these. They didn't always fetch the missing part
and they are 2 to cast ...)
3 Enlightened
3 Intuition
2 Argivian Find
2 Urzas Bauble (to recycle the finds when they are useless)
-18

4 FoW
3 Denial
-7

Sideboard:
2 Cop: Red (useless)/4 Auras (great)/3 Pyroclasm/2 Peacekeeper (fast
weenies usually board most/all of their DD/Removal for anti-Kombo-spells.
And if they cannot get rid of this one .....)/2 Disrupt/2 Sleights (Gloom,
blasts)

The deck worked really great. With all those cheap spells you can browse
through your deck in no time. The combo usually hits the table on turn
five, maybe 30% of the time on turn 4. And thanks to denials and FoW even
the fastest decks should not be able to kill you on turn 4 .... If you are
matched up against a counter-heavy deck just sit back and use the
search-engine to get your counters. After some time you should be able to
out-counter him (at least in the first duel, when he draws all those
swords, bolts, wrathes etc.).

The field was by far stronger as we expected. There were many german
top-players from Berlin and Hamburg and even the current world-champion
Slemr showed up with some other guys.

1. round, a variation of frenetic control
The player is not very experienced and plays with lightning elemental and
volcanic geyser. He couldn't stop the engine in two fast duels.
1-0-0, 2-0

2. Martin Langfeld, Berlin, 5CG
Martin is a very good player and plays a strong deck. He already went 5-0-2
with it at a qualifier during PT-Mainz (didn't make the cut because in the
last round they paired two guys with 15 points against some guys with 12
points and both with 15 points won ....). He is slightly screwed in the
first duel and when he has only two mana-left I start the kombo, backed up
with a force. Then he proceeds to board 12 cards!!! He brings in blasts in
both directions, charms, tranquil domains and the 4th geddon (already 4
orbs main). I board the disrupts and the pyroclasms. We both have good
starts. He has a boa and an orb in play when I drop the kombo (I'm tapped
out now.). He plays tranquil domain, I force but he has the blast. Game. In
the third duel he goes centaur second turn (bird + ranger). I play clasm.
He plays three more lands and casts geddon. I tithe and we both build up
mana (he has no creature in play). He casts something in his turn which I
denial (probably a second geddon). He has two mana left. I untap slowly and
announce a enlightened in my upkeep. We both forgot the denial but then he
reminds me of it. But there is an errata out that he has to draw the
optional cards before my untap-phase and it's too late. I get to draw the
card and it's a denial. I drop the combo, he plays a charm and I denial.
Game. The next two cards in his library are two pyroblasts! Better Lucky
Then Good, as Daniel Brickwell (Berlin) always says (later he prooves me
that he is absolutely right about this one ....).
2-0-0, 4-1

3. mono-green, overrun and creatures
Again a newbie. The only card he boards is a crumble.
3-0-0, 6-1

4. a friend of slemr, finkel-prison
We both stall in the first duell and then he plays a geddon with 2 mana
left. I denial, he counters and I force. Next turn I deal about 2 million
damage to him. I board 4 auras and the disrupts. On his fifth turn he plays
a lobotomy and I have no countermagic and a renewal in my hand. I
immediatly concede because I don't want him to look through my deck. I
didn't expect that. I board again. I remove 1 renewal, 1 bombardement and a
sphere (to be make the lobotomy less dangerous) and put some of the
cantrips back I boarded out before. I tutor for a aura and put it into play
on my third turn. I then proceed to put all renewals I draw back into my
library with my brainstorms. We both build up mana. Then he taps 6 lands
(only an undiscovered left) to play a song (4 diamonds and 2 icies in
play). I don't counter, he attacks for ten. I tutor for the renewal and
kill him with a denial and a force in hand. Later he shows me the two cards
left in his hand: Arrows and a aura of silence. I think that playing the
song instead of the aura was definitely a mistake. He should have played
the aura because the song was not really dangerous for me (Yes, I do know
that I have to destroy the song during my turn because it lasts until his
next untap phase...).
4-0-0, 8-2

Up to now Dirk is also without a loss. He played against Slemr (5CG, with
tradewinds) and won 2-1, while I beat the 5CG and the finkel-prison, which
are quite strong against pebbles (at least through massive sideboarding).

5. Dirk
We don't like games that are decided with a coin toss and draw.
4-0-1, 8-2

6. Frenetic Control with Dismiss
This is the only guy without a loss except Dirk and me. Generally
Frenetic-Control is a deck pebbles should beat easily. But in the first
duel I draw only lands and tithe. He kills me one turn before I would have
had the combo with two bolts .... I board the disupts and win the second
easily. He goes first in the third duel. He plays a tundra. I play a
volcanic. He taps the tundra for blue and plays an outpost. Then he wants
to play an impulse (he is obviously screwed). I disrupt. He forces and I
force back. The disupts resolves and he never gets two islands on the
table. An easy victory.
5-0-1, 10-3

Dirk also won against Wr-tax-rack and we are both in the final 8.

7. against an aggressive version of frenetic control
He isn't sure whether he wants to draw because there are 9 player who can
reach 16+ points. I do not really care because I'm already in (my opponent
percentage is very good). But Dirk and I decide that I should draw because
our deck should beat his and so we want him in the finals. Finally he
agrees, esspecially when I beat him up in friendly games (3-0).
5-0-2, 10-3

 For the same reason Dirk doesn't draw against the finkel-prison I played
against in the 4th round. He wins 2-0 and the finkel-prison doesn't make
the cut. Whew, one problem less.

The final 8 are as follows:
1. Dirk Baberowski, 6-0-1
2. Kai Budde (me), 5-0-2 (we were the only players of our team!)
3. the frenetic-control, I beat in round 6
4. Daniel Brickwell (mono-black necro)
5. Sebastian (Hamburg, playing Bru-hymn, trolls, disks, phantasmal fiends)
6. Wr-tax/edge/rack, one of Dirk's opponents
7. Martin Valkyser, Wgru, weenies, ernies, geddons, bolts etc., a good deck
8. Michael Nessler (Hamburg, mono-WW, scrolls, geddons, shadow-weenies,
also a good deck)

- Dirk beats Michael 2-0 straight, despite 4 Disenchants, 4 Auras and 4
Geddons after boarding
- the frenetic-control beats the Wr-tax/edge
- Daniel beats Sebastian

Quarterfinals against Martin Valkyser
In the first duel he plays three early priests and deals some damage with
them. I play a renewal and a sphere. I draw a tutor. He attacks and brings
me down to 4. He does have a bolt, but nothing else. I drop the kombo and
win.
In the second duel I denial a disenchant during my discard phase. While he
untaps he asks me when he does have to draw the denial-cards. I answer
something like '2 seconds ago' and he isn't allowed to draw them. I win on
my next turn when I start the engine backed up with 2 forces (and 2 cards
to pitch them of course).
2-0

My next opponent is the mono-black necro, played by daniel. Dirk plays
against the frenetic-control.

In the first duel Daniel consults for a disk on his first turn and plays it
on turn two . I have no force and proceed to draw so many lands and tithe
that I can't drop the kombo to get rid of the disk. He serves the beatdown
with a steel golem, a gnome and a mishra.
I board a slight, the disrupts and 3 auras.
He goes second turn hymn. I disrupt. He have nothing but lands and a
slight. He plays a mishra and a gloom. I slight it to black immediatly
because I do want to tithe during my upkeep (Maybe I should have waited
until the necro hit the table, but I was not sure.). I draw an intuition.
He plays a second factory and plays a disk. I use the intuition to grab an
aura and I destroy the disk. He plays a THIRD factory and a second disk
(only three in the deck). I have no answer and die to the mishras. I was
really disappointed because I tested against a similar necro with 4
necros/4 disks (Daniel played 3/3) and went 5-2, but the way Daniel drew I
had no chance (as he says, Better Lucky Then Good ...). Dirk wins his first
duel easily. The headjudge gives him a gameloss for the second duel (it was
so ridiculous that I don't want to write more about this.). In the third
duel he has a quite good draw. He drops the kombo early but his opponent
wins the counterbattle and he has no renewal. But his opponent also has
nothing left. He taps out for wildfires and something like that. Dirk just
has to topdeck a utility spell to get the renewal. He draws land, land,
land, denial, tithe. He denials his tithe and draws land, land, shield
sphere. Then he dies to frenetics and bolts .....

In the end we both had no loss until the very end (both finalist got a
flight). We both screwed up because our opponents had god-like draws or we
just couldn't draw something else as land. That's the way it goes, I
suppose ...

CU,

Kai