Subject: ptq atlanta
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 20:09:49 EST
From: Doitformom@aol.com
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

This last weekend I attended the PTQ:LA in Atlanta.  I traveled down with a
group of friends, all of us from Montgomery.  The night before I had to work
till 2:30A closing the store at Papa John's.  When I finaly got off and I was
told that we would be leaving town at 5:15, I decided to just stay up.  Till
then I had been planning to play jank, but I came to the decision that the
best deck to play on no sleep is always burn.  I spent about an hour building
and fine tuning a deck to play.  I finally finished the sideboard up just as
Radford showed up to pick me up.  This is what it looked like:
4 Mogg
4 Lancer
2 Ball Lightning
2 Passage
8 bolts
4 tactics
4 fireblasts
4 savanah kittys
4 canyon kittys
3 scrolls
1 soltari guerrillas
12 mountains
4 cities
4 plateaus

We headed up to Atlanta.  Radford Ellenberg (The Rat), Craig Woosley (The
Woo), Mike Peterson, Gene Herr, and myself.  The Rat and Gene both played very
similar decks to mine, but with a touch of black.  The Woo played a b/g/r
metagame deck that was very anti-burn (main deck Dark Heart of the Woods), but
he didn't play enough burn decks for it to pay off.  Anyway on to the
tournament.

I start off the first round on a table with eight people.  The Woo on my left
on on the right, diagnally to myself, were 2 members of Team Orgg.  I had seen
them around PTQs before, but had never met any of them.  I start hearing them
bs around and I like them immediately.

1st round - scrub with a 20 ld deck

I sit across from my opponent I offer my hand.  As he was shaking it I said
"Hi, My name is Josh and I'm playing burn.  It doesn't matter, but now you
know."  I procceded to burn his eyes out of his head.  The two members of Team
Orgg that were at my table were also done quickly so we all spend about an
hour shooting the breeze and talking about how hot it is going to be after we
get through burning our way through the tourny.
1-0

2nd round - Alex McConnell - fruity

game 1 was standard "at the end of your turn I burn you, you die"

games 2 and 3 were annoying.  I sided in 4 disenchants and 3 blasts.  over 2
games i needed 1 disenchant.  EVER. and i would have won.  Oh well.
1-1

3rd round - Dale Layne - proporb

what can I say?  he never drew a winter orb against me (not that i gave him
too many turns to do it in) and the only time he cast a chill I had a
disenchant in my hand.
2-1

4th round - Bin Chen - WW

THIS GUY IS COOL!!!!  There are so many stuck up PT players, but this man is
definately not one of them.  He was never condecending and he didn't whine at
all when he lost.  A real class act and I wish there were more players out
there like him.

game 1 - by turn 3 he had out a priest and a falcon and i'm thinking to myself
"great, a protection from josh deck," with my ball lightning in my hand
looking stupid because of his damn bird.  I was able to pull it out thanks to
the luck of 3rd and 4th turn lancers.

game 2 he drew prot. black creatures and no sideboard cards.
3-1

5th round - Adam from Team Orgg - burn

We had been talking all day, so we knew what we were both playing.  To make a
short story shorter, in games 1,2 and 3 we burned each other a lot with game 3
being a draw thanks to passage
3-1-1

6th round - Trevor from Team Orgg - randall

The Rat played a similar deck as mine in SC and lost in the semis to Trevor.
He even forgot to side in his passages!  I immediately discovered why Rat was
so off his game.  Trevor never shuts up!  I love that.  He was constantly wild
and talked nonstop trash (another reason to like him).  Unfortunately for him,
I play on a regular basis against some of the best trash talkers around. Rat,
Woo, and Russ Pippen.  So I was not taken off of my game.  in both games i
burned him and he died.
4-1-1

7th round - Summer somethingorother - burn

It is so cool to see females at magic tournaments!  I have been going to
tournys since Necro regionals and I had never played against a female opponent
in a tournament.
The main differance in game one was main deck passage.  Game two it was that I
was much more experienced with the deck than she was.  She made some mistakes
that cost her the game because she wasn't familiar with some tricks, most of
them having to do with mogg fanatic.
5-1-1

8th round - John somebody - burn

I had played him before a long while back in the ptq for paris so i was
confident going in.  I don't remember the details because after i won i was on
top of the world "Im headed to the top eight".  Or so I thought.
6-1-1

You see, someone made an error in pairing up the last round so Andy Wolf and
I, both 5-1-1 were both paired against 6-2s and we both won.  That meant that
one 6-1-1 was not going to make the top 8.  It was me.  At least I got a vip
pass to the grand prix and the person who edged me out for 8th was the rat so
at least somebody from montgomery made it.  The Rat ended up loosing in the
semis (just like SC) to a gun deck.
We all went home dissappointed at coming so close, but missing out on LA.  Oh
well, there is always NY.  See ya in B'Ham.

Joshua Coats