Subject: Madison PTQ Date: Mon, 2 Feb 1998 14:56:18 From: "Lindsay Nauen/Richard Weil/Noah Weil/Ben Weil" To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Back from the last qualifier for LA, held in Madison, WI by The Legion. After reading numerous tourney reports, and my own experience in the environment, I decided that untargettables and geddons were the way to go. I made this decision appx. 5 hours before the tournament began, so the deck was untested. I must thank Adrian Sullivan for his advice on 2 cards before the tournament began, cards that were extremely critical throughout the day. Here's the final version, which I call "Deck I Used in Madison", but my teamates have aptly named "Deck I Played in Madison" 4 Centaur 4 Ehrnam 4 Swords 2 Disenchant 2 Aura of Silence 3 Wall of Roots 2 Serrated Arrows 2 Icy Manipulator 2 Armgaeddon 2 Sylvan Library 3 Gerrard's 3 Pincher Beetles 3 Gaea's Blessing 2 Thawing Glaciers 4 Savannah 3 Wasteland 2 Mishra's Factory 7 Plains 5 Forest 2 Undiscovered paradise Total: 61 cards Sideboard: 2 Geddon 2 Wrath of God 1 Gerrard's 1 Passage 2 Abeyance 1 Disenchant 1 Aura 1 Serra Angel 1 Outpost 2 Phyrexian Furnace 1 Heartood Treefolk Notes: About the main deck, there's not a single thing I'd change. It worked perfectly, Gerry giving me life, drawing more with sylvan, recycling swords etc. In truth, most of the games I sided out the Beetles, but they won me when it mattered, so there were no problems. I know the sideboard is a little strange, but I've played Geddon before and most of it has worked well in the past. The Heartwood Treefolk was my nod to Stompy(foreshadow) and it worked astoundingly well. I might change a few things today, but that's hindsight. for the most part, no regrets. My teammate Sam Lewis (Team Soah/Team Dreamers) asked me for a deck that had to have Spitting Slugs. I threw a Vineyard/Scroll/Bind/Fatty deck together; he went 5-2 . He's an excellent player, and could have gone all the way. On to the report, 131 players, 7 rounds swiss (I didn't take notes, so the matches are from memory. Names, when I remember, I hope are right. Apologize for any errors) Round 1- ???? 70 card sligh Game 1: We are chatting beforehand, he mentions this is first qualifier, and plays very few tourneys. I notice the large size of his deck and we begin. He starts the action with a goblin, and blood lusts through. I take some pain, get a centaur to block the weenies, and Gerry up. Some swords and Gaea's later, I take it home. Game 2: Side out the beetles; too easy to block. Only time I put in the passage all day, never saw it. He starts it up early again, Ehrnam and Wall stop that. Gerry makes burn look stupid, although I do sylvan to 1 life like a man before I Gerry. (his hand was empty) Obviously I finish him off, but he was a nice enough guy. 1-0 Round 2 ???? R/G vineyard Game 1: A nice enough guy, we trade up back and forth. My arrows start shooting mana guys, and my Geddon totally wrecks him when it hits. game Game 2: This one lasts a little longer and was a lot of fun. I Wrath away 14 creatures (3 were mine). Recovery for him is hard, and when I'm above 50 life the gentleman gets a slightly detached look. Service :) 2-0 Round 3 Matt Sevra Stompy Game 1: I feared stompy coming into this tourney, thus the Treefolk in the side. Matt was playing an intersting variant, using Ankhs, which suck for Thaws and UP, and Overrun. First game I lay an early Ehrnam; Matt mutters "it's so damn big!" ok... Matt takes an insane amount of time on one turn, which I really don't care about, but he does keep screwing around with his elves, forests and rangers, which does irk me. After visually going through every scenario, he casts Overrun and smacks me around for 12. I'm a 2. I have no white mana on the board, and no gerry in my hand. "So you lost right?" "No, I won" "huh?" Ok, just kidding. I got my ass handed to me. Game 2: In go the Treefolk, Gerry, 2 Wrath, and Ms. Angel. Ditch 3 Beetles and 2 Geddons. This game goes much better for me, pop an early Aura out, and Wrath about7 creatures away. Administer the win shortly after. Game 3: Pretty interesting. Early Wall and Aura slow down the beating. He seems a little mana light when I Wrath, but does have a scroll out. He tries to cast a Blood Moon, (I saw a Taiga for the first time) but i remind him of the Aura. Attempts to get lucky with the Scroll, nope. Eventually I get my Treefolk and Centaurs running around, and we race. He makes a critical mistake with Bounty which almost sealed up the game for me. Eventually, I'm at 3 with my stuff coming for the kill next turn. He has one turn to draw the bolt to get me to zero, when I would promptly swords a creature. Regardless, he doesn't draw it and I win. We chat for a bit afterwords, and he bemoans his Bounty mistake. I wish him luck, etc, and proceed to register my win 3-0 Round 4 ???? Stompy Game 1: He was also playing Scroll Stompy instead od Winter Orbs. I administer early, and again a crucial mistake with Bounty wins me. Judge: "Yes, the arrows' -1-1 is applied before the +1+1, your creature is dead" Game 2: Same sideboard as before. He seems to be mana light, and my early Djinn doesn't help. A couple well timed Swords stop the Giant Growth threat, and I proceed to apply. A nice guy 4-0 Round 5 Chris Curley Stompy Game 1: I am somewhat bemused to play Stompy again, but feel confident. Centaurs hold off the elves and Ehrnams stop biggies. Some raped Sylvan and Gerry's later, I come in Game 2: Mr. Curley got an absolute piss draw, where i got a phenomenal one. Not much he can do, I avoid mercy. Curley was a very cool player, and took the screw with good grace. Definetely professional. woo hoo, 5-0! There are 2 other 5-0ers, so one will have to play down while the other two can draw in. Hmmm, do I get lucky or play down? Submerge! Round 6 Ben K playing Stompy! (qualified) Game 1: I've played Ben over the years, trading matches although he's been beating me pretty regularly lately. Good player, but he was dicking around a lot too. I offer him the draw, he declines. We get going. I get an insane draw, he Mulligans. Not much play, I administer quickly. Game 2: I offer the draw again, reasoning he might wish to try his luck with a different deck. He again declines. My opening hand is a Swords, Wall of roots, Sylvan, some stuff and 1 plains. I am drawing first, and ben has already mulliganed, and looks unhappy with his 6 card hand. I debate and decide not to mulligan. Turns out to be the wrong choice; I discard twice before getting ass rammed, Elephant style. Ouch Game 3: We both mulligan this game, wtf? Only thing I remember clearly is me drawing a lot of land and getting Scrolled into 9th circle of hell, appropiate because my deck betrayed me. Ah well, gotta win next round. 5-1 Round 7 Shane still don't know what he was playing Game 1: Shane seems like an amiable guy, but there is some tension this round. He starts laying all sorts of Duals, I have no idea what he's playing. He gets a Centaur down, then Geddons. I have a plains and savannah in my hand, am at 20, with nothing on table. Draw some goods, get my own Centaur down when I'm at 8. He stopps attacking. I regain absolute control, using my Thaw, tapping land with Icy and drawing 3 Wastelands. Sylvan doesn't stop being good. Anyway, I get Djinn down. Geddon, and that's game. I took 12 points of Centaur loving, and ended at 8. Game 2: I forget what I sided in, but it didn't matter. He draws and Mulligans. Looks at his new hand, sighs and says he'll keep it. I of course have the hand of god. He starts his turn with a Mishra, done. I lay a plains. He draws another Mishra, promptly lays it and attacks for 2. Assembly Worker goes rural, and I administer absolute pain. Game on his screw. Ah well, made final 8!!!! 6-1 Intermission: My mates are wishing me luck, I'm damn tired and hungry. After some food and a change of clothes, I feel better. After deck checks, I find I'm seeded second and play Bob Maher, who I assume is running Gaea's Trash. Now to be honest, I did make my deck with Gaea's Trash in mind. I had some degree of confidence, but Bob is a good player with an incredibly good deck. Insanely good. I make my pagan sacrifices and sit down to play. The judges let us know that although time limits aren't appropiate for the Final 8, the room is rented and we have x minutes, where it will be adjucated on life. Hmmmm. We get to it. Quaterfinals Bob Maher Pseudo-Prison (Qualified) Game 1: I get a Beetle, and start to apply. He Gerrard's. I continue to apply. He Wraths it away, and I pop down a Centaur. He takes some hits, then Wraths or Gerrard's again. I pair up with another Beetle, disenchant a second source of white after someone geddoned, and win. I've obviously condensed it; it took about 35 minutes. Game 2: I took out the useless stuff, and put in things that weren't as useless. He starts out Undiscovered, Land Tax. Ouch. Big time. Well I'm not going to Spirit Guide to victory, so he gets 2 Taxes, no more. Hurts though, and eventually he wins with Mirror. 16 minutes left. Game 3: This is where things get warped. I am totally white screwed, but I get an early Centaur and start action. I'm at 18 holding 2 disnchants and 3 Gerrard's when he's at 8. He Gerry's up to 18 and time is called on my turn. He has an Icy for my Ehrnam and a Reflection token for my Centaur. Hmmm, a problem. Time is called, same life totals. What to do? Judges confer for a bit, then announce the brilliant idea of First Blood. First player to damage the other wins, life doesn't matter. Ok..., if I knew that was even a possibility, I would have played a little differently. But ok, we continue with the game. Currently his token has forestwalk, but I still have until the end of my turn to get him below 18, so he has to block. Eventually I disenchant the Mirror, where he then draws a Wrath. Total stalemate. I'm hunting for my Furnaces and whatnot, he's looking for stuff too. Eventually, I'm getting true Prison locked, although I do have a Wall of Roots. He finally gets a Korean Titania's Song, and attacks for 6 damage and 10 poison counters. Game, set, match. We shook hands, etc. and I collect my packs. I get a quality amount of packs, and am sorting though them, when the tourney organizer takes them back and hands me a smaller bag, saying this is the one for top 8, sorry. Ouch again. I believe Wyatt gets the sole invite. This first blood thing was completely fucked up, changing the total environment in the middle of a game in the Final 8 is not right. Aside from that unpleasentness, I would like to stress how well ran the entire tourney was. Good location, everything on time = quality PTQ. I will be sending a letter to Wizards asking them to make a precedent for this situation, so at the very least the players know what to expect. Thanks for reading this lengthly report, here's the finale. Props: Actor's tools, used to simulate an object on stage. Slops: Farm slang for Pig feed Hoppes: A key ingredient in some alcholic drinks. Haups: Abbreviation for Jokulhaups, a card which I saw very little of in Madison. good luck in LA Noah Weil DCI #9377 [Snappy Quote]