Subject: @@@ ORLANDO PTQ REPORT 1/24/98 @@@ Date: 28 Jan 1998 19:09:06 GMT From: efreet@mindspring.com (David Doust) Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.misc Once again, I got another excuse to go down to Florida, this time to Mouse Town USA - Orlando, one of my better cities. Attendance was excellent, 137 for the Pro-tour qualifier, 28 for Junior Super Series and another 15 for general admission, by far the best for this round thanks to the Dojo. Frank, you are the man! However,due to the lower numbers at the beginning of the round, we only expected about half the turn out, and we had to get more chairs and put the Junior Super Series in another room. But everything got started around 10:45 am. There were many good player at the event, including Justin Gary (National Champion), Adam Maysonet ( and the lovely Melody!), Karen Roche ( Florida State Champion), Chris "Net Deck" Honan (Q’ed last week in Miami), Kelsey Big Daddy McNair, Lee Steht, Koby CoCo Kennison, Team Stupid’s Patrick Van Beek and Richard Mayor, Team Tallahassee came in force; Aziz Al Doory, Josh Bradford, Kyle Bigos, Alex McConnell, Randy Ellis and Yuk Kong Liao, and many others. At that point I knew that the competition was going to be fierce! After explaining the usual Cursed Scroll, Mishra "house rules", we started the tournament. Everything went smoothly. After 8 rounds of Swiss, the top 8 looked like this: 1 Justin Gary Red /White/Blue Cursed Scroll 2 Chris Honan Pillow Potence 3 David Bryant Pillow Potence variant 4 Wai Cheng Red/Blue/White 5 Aziz Al Doory Prison variant 6 Al Sousa Mono Blue ( with a touch of white for disenchant this time!) 7 Andrew Corley Pro-orb Big Blue 8 Taerthrum Bluett Prison variant 9 Koby Kennison received the V.I.P. invitation to the Atlanta Grand Prix with Coco pebbles! 1st round elim Justin Gary (National Champion) vs. Taerthrum Bluett 1st Game: Taerthrum got no land, Justin took advantage of this and applied with the Mishra and the Lion, eventually Taer drew a tithe, but Justin Force of willed it away. Taer conceded! 2nd Game: Taer chose to let Justin play first and opened with a Land Tax. Justin then started to apply with a couple of Mishras. Taer tried to slow down the pain by playing an Icy, but Justin blew that up with an Aura of Silence. Taer played a book to try to find what he needed. Justin got Taer down to 4 life. Taer used the book, and top decked a Sword and a Disenchant. Gary had enough of Taer drawing extra cards, knowing that eventually it would be a problem, so he tried to disenchant it, but Taer protected it with a counter spell. After luring the Counter Spell out of Taer’s hand, Justin played the Cursed Scroll, with 4 plains and a Red Blast in his hand, Justin started the Scroll beatdown……..Justin Advanced! Semi-finals I chose to watch Justin Gary vs. Wai Cheng 1st Game: Justin had 3 tithes in his opening hand, started the early Lion beatdown, and although his first tithe was countered, he got the second one through. Justin tried to cast a Cursed Scroll, but Wai forced it away. So Justin cast the third tithe to thin out his deck, played a Solteri Priest and a Mishra, Wai answered with a Firewalker, but Justin Plowed it ( go farming, dude!!) then Justin started the attack with the Mishra, Priest and the Lion…….Wai fired off 2 bolts and took care of the 2 without the pro-red. Each of them then cast a Frenetic. At this point Wai was at 3 life. Justin plowed Wai’s Frenetic……atttack!!! Wai fired off the 3rd bolt and took care of the Frenetic. The Priest applied for 2, Wai at 1 life…….Bolt! Justin won Game 1. 2nd Game: Wai sided in 1 Arrow, 2 Hydroblast, 1 Control Magic, 1 Disenchant and 1 COP red. Justin sided in 3 Pyroblast, 1 Hydroblast and 1 Honorable Passage. They both tithe early, but Justin broke the rule and went for a Plateau instead of a TundraJ Justin got out a White Knight, but Wai Forced of Willed away the Priest, knowing that the Priest did most of the damage to him last game, and he had very few answers to it. Wai got 2 Frenentics on the table. Justin got out a second Priest…Wai now at 13 cast a 2 point earthquake to kill the Knight. Justin applied with the Priests and incinerated Wai. Life total was 6:6 with Wai having 2 Frenetics on the tableand Justin’s 2 Priests……But we all know that Justin is a total top decking fiend, so he top decked a blast, got rid of the frenetic and finished Wai off with a Bolt! 2 Sweeps in a row against some very good opponents in the top 8…. Impressive, Justin, but you are not a Jedi yet!!! I looked over to Andrew Corley vs. Al Sousa match, and Andrew was totally dominating the match, not so much with a better deck, but with continual distraction with jokes about Al’s beat-up Thaw, and Al was so distracted that he made a couple of mistakes, and we all know at this level of play what happens!! But Andrew qualified in Kansas City already, so Al and Wai got a second chance. Finals: Justin Gary vs. Andrew Corley 1st Game: Gary opened with the most talked about ……Cursed Scroll! Tithed twice. Andrew controlled his Knight. But with a handful of land, Justin had no problem scrolling the Knight. Justin played an Aura of Silence to prepare for the Orb. Andrew played the big bad and ugly Air Elemental and started the massive beatdown. Andrew played a Firewalker, Justin scrolled it. Andrew then attempted to lock down Justin with the Winter Orb. Justin blew it up with the Aura, and double scrolled the Air Elemental and proceeded to apply his own beatdown with the 2 Scrolls, a Frenetic and a Priest. Game 1 Justin. 2nd Game: Justin sided in Red blasts and Andrew sided in 2 dissipates and side out 2 disrupts. Justin opened with oh…..1st turn Cursed Scroll again! Why not, it is so good! 2nd turn tithe, played a Lion……Andrew dissipated it, and Justin played the PRIEST. Andrew cast the Winter Orb, and Justin answered with a White Knight. Andrew eventually got out the Waterspout, but with Justin’s Cursed Scroll on the table, he could not even block. Justin kept applying and won the match. Justin owed all his victories to his little white fluffy Gund bear - his good luck charm! But on a serious note, Justin has been questioned constantly about his playing abilities. I can tell you first hand that Justin used to play at my house in Florida on Tuesday nights the same way he plays now, only difference is that he is playing in bigger tournaments now! He has proven himself time and time again in major tournaments, winning Nationals, did well in L.A. and did well in Chicago, and now sweeping all his matches in the final 8 at this qualifier. I think he deserves a little more respect! As for the battle for third ( the 2nd slot, as Andrew already Q’ed) , Al Sousa won, a well deserved and a long awaiting win. Al has been trying for the Pro-tour since PT1, although his interest went on and off, his desire to play at the Pro-tour never subsided. Welcome to the Magic Pro-tour, Al! Here are the deck lists: Justin Gary’s deck: 4 Savannah Lion 4 White Knight 4 Solteri Priest 2 Lancers 3 Frenetic Efreet 4 Bolt 2 Incinerate 3 Plow 2 Disenchant 2 Aura of Silence 4 Tithe 4 Cursed Scroll 4 Mishra 4 Wasteland 4 Tundra 4 Plateau 4 Plains 2 Flood Plains and as usual, I will leave the sideboard to your imagination! Andrew Corley’s Deck: 2 Disrupt 4 Force of Will 4 Propaganda 3 Winter Orb 3 Air Elemental 3 Control Magic 2 Fire Walker 3 Waterspout 3 Mindstone 2 Sky Diamond 2 Impulse 4 Counter Spell 4 Icy 17 island 4 Wasteland Junior Super Series had 28 players, under 15 was won by Joseph Crosby (mono-blue) and under 18 was won by Andrew Pacifico (Tradewind geddon) It was a lot of fun at the tournament, we gave away a lot of prizes with Italian Legends with Rudy Edward’s trivia game. Look for it at our future events and brush up on the following categories: movie, T.V. and magic!! Congratulations to all, and hope to see you all in Atlanta this weekend at my phat B’day party!