Subject: Hitting a Hot Streak - LAPTQ from SoCal, 1/24/98 Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 10:34:23 -0800 From: Ed Grubaugh To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Be forewarned. If you aren't qualified, or if you have a degree in English, reading this report will most likely be an excersize in masochism. Typical PTQ in the beautiful city of Costa Mesa, CA. I'm already qualified, so I don't care. I came to have fun and relax and see cool people. I don't have a deck built, so I ask the question, "What goes in a buried alive deck?" Dudes around me say such things as "I played pox in mine," and "Play living death," so I did both. Gah. After a few takes from the crack pipe, I finish the list (see below, but I don't recommend this deck). Tourney starts, and I play green land destruction Alan Comer style (not Comer playing it). I have 19 land in my deck, so the result is obvious. I win, doing the last point of damage one game with a pox (rah!). Next round, my day goes as planned. I get run over by Jeff Broido 2-0. He was playing an interesting tradewind deck, and woundup 10th. 3rd round is PT Jank, against a very nice and cool guy from NoCal whose name I think is Murray. I'm bad with names, so if I'm wrong, I apologize. I win game 1. He takes 2. Game 3 I intuition for some nekrataals, putting them in my 'yard, then I triple ritual out a living death (nek's axe his previously dead critters) and play a ghoul. Sad game. Too much luck. Next 5 rounds go win, win, win, win, intentional draw. I play against sligh, 2 tongo, and one tradewind geddon (I'm sorry if I was obnoxious to you). I'm in the top 8. Quarters: Colin Mayfield, u/g vineyard. Game one he has bad mana and I do all the right things. Game two he plays first turn vineyard. I go turn one buried alive; turn 2 ashen ghoul (cast naturally); turn 3 cursed scroll and activate (he pulls the card I name since I have 2 nek's in my hand). Ugly. Semis: Brett Shears. I don't want to play Brett. His older brother qualified at GPSF, and it'd be cool if they could both go, but I don't want to be the one to beat him. So, he gets 2 moderate to bad draws (he shouldda mulliganed game 1 with the 1 wasteland draw), and I go to the finals. I try to split in the finals, but the dude is bored and wants to play. I lose. No money for me, but, a good day on the whole. Brett Shears wound up winning the 2nd Chance Lottery (I was already qualified), so I didn't feel too bad. Congrats to Shears and the dude who beat me down in the finals, and here is the deck list. This deck is god awful. It worked because cursed scroll lets you play like a scrub and throw stuff away to make it work, and then the stuff came back. It also worked because I'm the luckiest man alive. Continued props to Scott Larabe for continuing to run great tournies, and to "Lucious" Dan Gray, who guarentees that no rulings will be wrong, even if we don't understand how humility works. Deck: 4 Cursed Scroll (if it's broke, play it) 4 Ashen Ghoul 4 Black Knight 2 Buried Alive 4 Hymn to Tourach 2 Krovikan Horror 1 Living Death 3 Nekrataal 3 Nethershadow 3 Pox 3 Intuition 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Dark Ritual 3 Bad River 2 City of Brass 1 Undiscovered Paradise 4 Badlands 4 Underground Sea 5 Swamp Sideboard: 2 Contagion 4 Dread of Night (hate is so bad) 1 Perish 1 Pox 2 Energy Flux 3 Hydroblast 2 Pyroblast