Subject: Orlando PTQ Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 14:49:47 EST From: Shadoweee@aol.com To: fkusumot@IX.NETCOM.COM The Return of a Champion Before I get to the tournament report proper, I feel the need to explain my mindset in Orlando. Ever since the Nationals, people have questioned my skill, my luck, and my integrity. This being my first taste of fame, I tried to take it all in stride. I did my best to prove to the world that my win was not a fluke and that I really had what it took to be a pro tour player. With a 23rd place finish at the World Championships and a 28th place at PT Chicago, I felt that I was at least proving to be good enough to remain on the tour. All this was to change with PT Germany. At this point in my life, money is scarce (note to any sponsors out there looking for a national champion: I’m waiting!). I am a senior in high school and college applications have provided quite a drain on my funds. It cost me $130 just to apply for financial aid! Anyway, for those of you that don’t know, WotC instituted a new policy of payment for minors on the Pro Tour, effectively delaying payment for a year. This being the case, there was no way I could swing paying for a solo trip to Germany. So, with two top 32 finishes in the Pro Tour, I no longer had an invite to PT LA. For those of you who feel that winning the U.S. Nationals should count for something, I agree. I got no money and no Pro Tour points for that win. So, needless to say, I had a lot invested in winning a qualifier. I worked for months trying to find the perfect deck. I practically lived at the dojo and read ALL of the PTQ tournament reports there. Early January I learned to my dismay that I had a major debate tournament on the same day as the Miami qualifier. Debate is very important to me and is a major part of my appeal to colleges so I went to the debate. This left me with only one chance at qualifying: Orlando. It was at this point that I called up my good friend Andrew Nishioka. For those of you that don’t know him, he is a great guy on team acd who finished 9th in Germany. Andrew and I have known each other since World’s when we tested till like 4:00 am every night for the next day of competition. Though acd doesn’t know about it, Andrew and I are part of an unstoppable team known only as Pygmy Hippo (see my worlds tourney report for an explanation of that one). Anyway, Andrew tells me about a deck (now often referred to as PT Jank) that is dominating in the midwest. I was all set to play it, when suddenly it was dojoized. By this I mean that in the 1/17 reports (the same day as the Miami qualifier, sadly enough), everybody and their mother wrote about the deck and how good it was. Now I personally abhor playing net decks so at the last minute I had to find a new deck. I still had no clue what I was playing when I drove up with my friend David Baumgartner and his wife Leanne (yes she’s a good looking female and she plays magic. Dave is a lucky guy) . Dave and I tested constantly all night to no conclusion. We woke up early to do more testing and I still couldn’t find a deck I was happy with. The problem was that every deck we built was tested against the jank deck and lost. This greatly irritated me until I caved and decided to play Jank (at this point I had so much practice with it and I was confident it was the best version out there so I figured it would be OK). Dave decided to play a white blue prison that worked really well in the first game of most match ups. We arrive at the tourney at about 9:50 and I began my frantic search for a fourth cursed scroll (more on this card later). I found it and registered my deck. Here it is: 4 Savannah Lions (so fast, but vulnerable) 4 White Knight (great against sligh) 4 Soltari Priest (best creature in extended) 2 Suq’ata lancer(these were usually sideboarded out) 3 Frenetic Efreet( Heads, I win. Tails you lose J 4 Lightning Bolt (required by law in any winning deck) 2 Incinerate 3 plows (Very underestimated in this format) 2 disenchant 2 aura of silence (great card!!!) 4 tithe (the engine) 4 CURSED SCROLL (BA-ROKEN in to little itty-bitty pieces) 4 mishra (Belong in every deck) 4 wasteland (who says you can’t have four of each!!) 2 flood plains 4 plateau (only source of red: PROTECT THEM!!!) 4 tundra 4 plains 22 lands (+ 4 tithe) This deck plays like butter. It runs on a sligh mana curve with 16 1CC spells, 12 2CC spells and 7 3CC spells. This served to empty my hand quickly in a massive offensive strike and begin CURSED SCROLLING!!!!!!!! ON TO THE TOURNEY Round 1 vs. White Red Jank Game 1: Great, another Jank deck. I get out an early lion and frenetic. He has a white knight and a lancer. We trade blows all match often exchanging creatures. I come out on top Game 2: For some reason he sided in blood moons against me which ended up helping me (I didn’t have a plateau in play). My honorable passages saves my creatures and give me the edge in the damage race. Games 2-0 Matches 1-0 Round 2 vs. Sligh Game 1: MANA SCREW!!! Against sligh this is a bad thing folks. Game 2: Hydro and Honorables come in from the board but I see none of them. It became a damage race and my well timed bolt of a ball lightning let me beat him. Game 3: MANA SCREW AGAIN!! I fight hard under a cursed scroll dropping what I can until finally I tithe and get back into the game. He tried to cheat me for the win but I beat him anyway. The scenario is this: He has a goblin bombardment in play, he plays a ball lightning and attacks. I am at one life he is at five. I declare zero blockers and ask if he has any fast effects. He says: you take six? I say no, in damage prevention I tap two and. Him: Wait, I have a fast effect, I want to sac my ball lightning to the bombardment. BULL SHIT! Since I realize that he will never agree to what he said and we would both just get reality warnings, I let it go and passage the 1 point!!. I have a soltari priest and a cursed scroll on the board and after drawing I have 2 tundras, a plains and a plow in my hand. I drop the plains, attack with the priest, plow the priest and scroll him for the win. Games: 4-1 Matches: 2-0 Round 3 vs. Fruity pebbles Game1: He sees no parts of the combo and dies quickly Game 2: See game one minus one goblin bombardment. Sorry. Games: 6-1 Matches: 3-0 Round 4 vs. Sligh again Game1: He is playing with keeper of kookus in his deck. Two of them deal like ten damage to me. Unfortunately for him two soltari priests deal more damage then two keepers. Game 2: I get a god hand and am attacking with three creatures on turn three and finish him with a scroll. Games 8-1 Matches: 4-0 Round 5 vs. Sligh (noticing a theme?) Game1: I am playing vs, Lee Stent who is a friend of mine. He is the only guy to beat me down with 5 ophidians in one game (MirvLight qualifier: He desertioned one of my ophidians). I get vengeance now drawing 4 tithes and improving my draw quality a lot. He does hit me with two ball lightnings (ouch) but that’s it. Game 2: I wasteland color screw him early and beat him down until he gets to four mana and flashfires away 7 land (and his own plateau). I was ready for this with four land in hand and procede with the beat down. Games 10-1 Matches: 5-0 Round 6 vs. Tongo varient Game 1: I start out with good damage but get stopped by a serrated arrows, wildfire, and outpost till he beats me down with frenetics. Game2: Wai double mulligans and then force of wills my first turn cursed scroll. Him: 3 cards. Me: 6 cards. Nuff’ said Game 3: Damage race starts and ends with me. White Knight, Priest, and Frenetic are too many fronts for him to deal with. Two wastelands are enough to slow down his big 4CC stuff. Games 12-2 Matches: 6-0 Rd. 7 vs. Prison Game 1: I play against Aziz Al-Doorey who is 5-0-1 and so wont draw with me. O.K. fine. First game I draw 1 land for five turns and end with 3 land and 20 other cards when I get beaten down with mishras..grrrr… Game 2: Aziz gets one land and I stomp him. Great games here Game 3: I mulligan once and get a decent hand. I starts out ok until Aziz gerrard’s for 12 life and gets out a worb. I disenchant the worb and procede with cursed scroll beat down. He gets out a propaganda and two icys effectively shutting down my creature offense. Too bad two cursed scrolls where beating the snot out of him. He gerrards again for 16 life and again later for 8 more. CURSED SCROLL deals over 40 points of damage in this game!!!! I love that card. Games: 14-3 Matches: 7-0 Round 8 vs. Pillow Potence (stormbind/cursed scroll goodness) Game 1: YEAH! I’m in top 8. We play it out anyway beacause it doesn’t matter. I waste-screw him first game and crush him Game 2: He drops 3 mishras and gets me to fifteen before I know what happened. Unfortunately, three mishras was all he drew… oh well, better lucky then good. Games: 16-3 Matches: 8-0 (UNDEFEATED TOP CEDE) The top eight decks were 3 prison, 2 mono-blue, 1 Tongo, 1 jank (me), 1 pillowpotence Quarter Finals vs. Prison Game 1: I get two factories an aura and a disenchant which serve it up quickly Game 2: two factories again. This game is over before it began. I get to wait for like 45 minutes for the blue decks to finish playing Games 18-3 Matches 9-0 Semi-Finals vs. Tongo (Wai who I played in round 6) Game 1: I play this one beautifully. I start out with a lion and a priest. I wasteland him twice to keep him below four mana (he has a lot of hosers against me at four mana). Then I drop a mishra and an aura. The crowd groans and I learn later that he had a serrated arrows in his hand the whole time. Game 2: This one is much closer as we trade blows for a while him with two frenetics and me with a priest and a white knight. The game comes down to this. My knight is dead, Im at 6, he’s at 4. He attacks with two frenetics. I have a pyroblast and an incinerate in my hand. I can take the damage and use the pyro to force through an incinerate for the win next turn or blast a frenetic to stay out of bolt range. I blast the frenetic and go to 4. I attack next turn and bolt him. He shows me the lightning bolt in his hand… close one. I QUALIFIED FOR LA!!!!!!!!! I was so happy at this point it made some people nauseous. Finals vs. Mono-blue Game 1: an early scroll and white knight do some damage until the knight is controlled and I kill it with the scroll. He counters a lot of things and eventually drops an air elemental. He stops all of my answers (plow + frenetic + 2nd cursed scroll) with counters as I play out 7 land with one more plateau in my hand. He finally plays out his last card in hand and brings me to 6 with the air elemental. I top deck: My third cursed scroll!! I play it and kill the air elemental with a plateau J. I then procede to beat him down with a mock alladins ring for several more turns CURSED SCROLL IS BROKEN!!! Game 2: He never gets above three land and is swarmed in about 6-7 turns. Not only did I qualify, but I won 250 bucks to boot. Not too bad for my only qualifier. Props: Dave and Leanne: For a ride and a room and some great playtesting. They both went 0-2 in the tourney and dropped but I think they still enjoyed themselves back at the hotel. David Doust: For a well run tourney and for being Dave. To My White Fuzzy Bear: My girlfriend gave this to me before I left and it served to scare my opponents into submission every game staring them down without ever blinking. Slops: To the word Slops. It may rhyme but it is stupid. Thanks for reading, c u all in LA!! Justin Gary Still ‘da Champ. "Never underestimate the power of the white fuzzy bear"