Subject: Ladies and Gentlemen, It's Mike Flores in the final 8!
Date: 3 Feb 1998 08:27:28 GMT
From: jshuler@mason2.gmu.edu (John M Shuler)
Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy

Welcome back to the show, ladies and gentlemen! We're almost
out of time, but to close out tonight's segment, we'll
leave you with a play-by-play rendition of Mike Flores'
match in the first round of the Final 8 of the Philly
PTQ for PTScroll.

After a gruelling day of getting nearly beaten to death
by Sinbad decks, Mike Flores was able to just barely
squeak into the final 8 with a U/R control deck from
the Flores/Shuler school of magic[1].

After head judge Tony "As loud as I wanna be, baby!" Parodi
cleared space for the final 8 to play unmolested, the
buzzer went off, and play began. This being only the second
time that this reporter has recorded an entire match,
you, Gentle Reader, will have to accept that Mr. Flores'
opponent will remain anonymous, as this reporter neglected
to record his name.

To the match!

M = Mike "I like U/W millstone/wrath/gerrard BEATDOWN decks" Flores
O = His opponent

It is determined that Mike will play first, in this first game.

The competitors draw their hands, and begin:

M- Island, done
O- Volcanic Island, done
M- Island, done
O- Tundra, done
M- Volcanic Island, Suq'Ata Firewalker, done  (O- tithe for a
   plateau and a plains at the end of Mike's turn)
O- Plowshare the Firewalker, play Wasteland, waste M's Volcanic, done
M- (examine hand, sees no land) done
O- Volcanic Island, Savannah Lion, done
M- (examines hand, sees no land) done
O- Attack with lion (M-18), plateau, frenetic efreet (M-Impulse at
   the end of O's turn)
M- Mountain (didn't impulse for that, did we, Mike?), done
O- Attack with both (M-14), Plateau, frenetic efreet #2
M- Blood Moon
O- Attack with all (M-8), Plains, Disenchant Blood moon, Impulse
M- Island, Suq'Ata Firewalker, Lighting Bolt a Lion
O- Attack with Frenetics (M-4), Wildfire Emissary
M- Volcanic Island, Wildfire Emissary (O-Counterspell the Emissary)
O- Attack with all (M-block Emissary with Firewalker, and shoot
   at a frenetic [it dies]) (M-2)
M- Mountain, impulse (examines 3 land and a bolt as his next 4
   cards. Conceeds.

Game 2:

Mike looks at his opening hand, and cries

M- Mountain, done
O- Tundra, done
M- Mountain, done
O- Tundra, done
M- (sits wishing for blue mana, as he has 2 impulses in hand) done,
   (O-impulse at the end of your turn)
O- Wasteland
M- Bolt O (O-17), done  (O-tithe for plateau at end of turn)
O- Plateau, Wildfire Emissary
M- Discard a disrupt
O- Suqata Lancer, attack with both (M-16), Savannah Lion
M- Discard a Blood Moon
O- Attack with all 3 (M-10)
M- Discard an Impulse (O- Impulse at end of turn)
O- plains, attack with all 3 (M-Dead)

"It was pretty obvious that I wasn't going to win when I
said "Bolt you!" on like turn 2. Who am I, Sligh?!?"

          -Mike Flores, after the second game

tell me if you liked this, kids, and I may do it again. For
once, you can actually see an entire match going on. :)

Wow, is Mike a bad player or what, not drawing one of his 14
sources of blue mana the entire game?

[1] This school of magic advocates that the most important 
aspect of deck construction for any major tournament is to 
build something that is based on the meta-game. For example, 
at the time of the Philly PTQ, just a few weeks into the new 
year, everyone was playing PTJank variants. Hence, the school 
advocated an anti-white deck, and "cracka killa" (murders 
anything remotely white) was born. Cracka killa is the U/R 
deck talked about in this article.
 
--
John M. Shuler         jshuler@gmu.edu
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Oh yeah, LD decks suck...Every once in a while someone shows
up with one with the idea that since no one expects or
prepares for it, LD will be effective. They're wrong.
                        - alan webster
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