Subject: Philadelphia Ptq ( or how to be a scrub and come in 3rd ) Date: Thu, 29 Jan 1998 16:46:13 -0500 From: Joe Cain To: "'fkusumot@ix.netcom.com'" In keeping with the tradition of the generic tournament report my team mate Roger Sorino and myself finished our decks the night before and got about 4 hours worth of sleep. Having just decided to give LA one or two tries I spent the week before the tourney looking through the Dojo for extended decks. I finally settle on a "tongoish" U/R/W deck. I was happy with the changes I made to it and thought that it fit my style. The deck was good and I thought that it would stand up against the rest of the field. I played a couple of times against Roger while he was playing his ( really bad ) control deck. I beat him every time. I liked the feel of the deck and the way it flowed even more. After getting beat up on Roger made a R/W/U deck that was more aggressive then mine and then beat me 3 out of 5 times. When we got there I saw many faces that I recognized. In attendance was John Chinnok, Chris Pikula, Dave Price, and the whole Neutral Ground crew. I figured then that the tourney would be a tough one. Well on with the tourney: ( sorry but I get many names ) 1st rd: R/W Land Tax/ Lands Edge 1st game: He plays first turn land tax doesn't play a land second turn. I play a second land and disenchant the tax. I put out and emissary and he goes all the way. 2 nd game: He plays a land tax late after being mana screwed I let it go. I have 2 emissaries out he bolts one then kindles it I counter the kindle he then sacs 2 mountains and fireblast the other emissary. You go to love when your opp loses 5 cards and you lose 2. Air elemental finishes him off. Me: 2-0 1-0 Roger: 2-0 1-0 2nd round: Buried Alive 1st game: Firewalkers take care of all the come back creatures and frenetic gives him fits. 2nd: He gets the early black weeine rush and I can't recover. 3rd: He gets creature screwed and I get control really early and win with a elemental. Me: 4-1 2-0 Roger: ? 2-0 3rd: Texaco 1st game: I get out and early main deck cop red and slow the game down. He puts down a cursed scroll and goes all the way with it ( where the hell were my disenchants ). 2nd: I get another early cop red and control the game countering scrolls. 3rd: Weird game where he is kicking the crap out of me and I pull it out of my ass ( gota love those top decking skill ) Me 6-2 3-0 Roger ? 3-0 4th round: Red Sligh Mike Luccello ( sp? ) 1st game: He's beating me down like red will do. I try to hang on and am told that I top deck 6 cards in a row the last being a cop: red and I win with a wildfire that he can not block with his iron claws. 2nd: early cop: red I knock him down a bit then he anarchy's and I have no counter. There it goes I thought but he had no heat in his hand. Next turn I tap almost out the cast and elemental to go alongside my emissary and firewalker. Next turn he cast 2 ball lightning's and attacks with 2 iron claws and a bolt-me pup. I look at my life 8 life is not good right now. I poke 1 ball and swords the other. I block the pup with the elemental and 1 iron claw with the emissary. I take 2 go to six and he takes four but gains 6 I expect fire blast but they never come he dies 2 turns later. Me 8-2 4-0 Roger ? 4-0 5th round kibler like prison 1st game: I have no idea what he is playing and having only an outpost in my hand I go postal. Well after the diamonds and icies start to come I get worried and then the orb then the geddon. Guess who won that one 2nd game: If the guy I played is reading this then I apologize for retelling this story but I must. First turn he plays an undiscovered then about 2 turns later a mishra and a diamond. I waste both and dis the diamond. Now he got nothing out and I have nothing but counters in hand. He finally draws another undiscovered and tries to tithe 3 times I counter every time. He tells me that if I get anything out he will concede. Frenetic comes out and he is a man of his word. 3rd game: Long game many times I think that he has me but in the end I find out that all he drew all game was land and diamonds. Me: 10-3 5-0 Roger 5-0 6th round: Cory Weiser ( friend ) playing weeine geddon. 1st: game he plays weeines all over the place but firewalkers hurt him. 2nd: I side in earthquakes and he forgets to draw creatures and all he draws is land and other useless stuff. Me: 12-3 6-0 Roger 6-0 At this point we figure out the 6-0-2 will get in and hope to draw our way in 7th round: Mike P ( sorry) We draw I am glad as he has not even lost a game all day Me 6-0-1 Roger 7-0 8th round: Roger Sorino ( my teammate ) We draw and get in. Me 6-0-2 Roger 7-0-1 Here's the final eight 1: Roger Sorino r\w\b 2: Mike P g\worb 3: Me b\w\r 4: a guy playing b/u control with walker ophids and waterspout 5: g/r vineyard scroll ernhams 6: Adam Banno ( sp? ) fish deck 7: Feming Chan - Temple of sped 8: Mike Flores b/r Of note in the last round Mike had to play Dorian Anders to get in and since it was the only game going on that counted about 35 people stood around and watched the game. In the end we yelled at Mike for beating up on Dorian and her sinbads. 1st round of final 8 Adam Banno-fish 1st game: He never has a creature that makes it past his discard phase as I draw an obscene amount of creature removal. 2nd game: He plays 2&4 turn chills. I hope a disenchant or 2 will come around as I don't want to waste red blast on the chill as they do not hurt that much. I draw allot of mana and don't mind paying 5 to pyroblast fish. This game is even more fun as fish just keep popping up dead. 2nd round: Feming Chan temple of sped 1st game: He play white knights for 4 consecutive turns I draw no removal they beat me down fast. 2nd game: He later tells me that he sides out allot of creatures and puts in all kinds of blast. He kill me with his frenetics. Game over for me. A long day for a couple of pack of foreign stuff. Roger and Feming split the prize and call it a night as it was snowing pretty hard. Thanks goes to Tony and the Gray Matter crew for a well run tourney. I going to DC this weekend and hope to do better than 3rd. Joe Cain