Subject: 5cg TX Semi-Pro Report Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 11:38:35 -0600 (CST) From: Daniel Algood To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com This is a report on the TX Semi-Pro, a T2 tourney held in Lubbock on February 8. There were 63 people in attendance at this tourney which featured many of TX best players. Unfortunately, I had to play 3 of them. Anyway, on with the report. format: T2 w/ 6 rounds of Swiss, top 8 in finals I was playing my 5cg in its latest incarnation. Decklist and comments following. Match 1 vs. Aaron Rzepha Result: W, 2-1 Aaron was playing 3cg. I managed to defeat him despite 2 of the worst draws I have ever seen. He had some nice ideas, but his three colors were blue/white/green. No red or black means no creature removal. He managed to get out a wOrb in the first game while I was holding centaurs and a Tradewind. He pummels me mercilessly with his own centaurs and memory lapses my pathetic attempts at making it back. Geddon ends it all. Game 2 was the reverse, I leap out with a bird and a centaur or a boa (can't remember which). I kill off his mana creatures and get off a geddon and win. Game three I want to cry. He jumps out to a huge mana advantage but doesn't play any fat. His weenies poke me for a while and I can't find a solution to his centaur until late. I manage to burn away a boa and a manowar and centaur his centaur. My maro makes it through courtesy of pyroblast but I can't kill him just yet due to a boa. I end up getting out a tradewind and with a quirion down manage to bounce 2 permanents a turn. I win. he was still playing with worb which hurt him more than me. Anyway, his lack of creature removal lost him the match. Match 2 vs. Ted Dickerson Result: L, 2-1 Ted played ProsBloom. I should have won. More on that later. Game 1 I play my ranger and wonder what's going on. I plink him a few times, and then he taps out for a meditate. his hand must have sucked; I doubt he would have made this bad of a mistake otherwise. Anyway, I geddon and squish him with the suddenly FAT ranger. All I saw was the meditate and feel stupid when it still takes me a couple of minutes to realize what he's playing. Anyway, here's where I lost the match. you see, I have never played prosbloom before. I told him I had, but that was just so I wouldn't seem too scrubbish. Anyway, I side in the right cards and face him with 3 tranquil domains, 4 disenchants, and 4 pyroblasts in my deck. I draw a pyroblast and 2 disenchants but like i said, I've never played prosbloom. I show this to him by disenchanting his Squandered R., and then blasting his sink. he casts natural balance anyway and I die. If I has waited for the prosperity and then disenchanted the bloom or blasted the prosperity, I would have won. But I didn't, so I lost. game three more of the same. I only draw a pyroblast and on turn 2 play the Worb. He sinks it, I blast it, and he kills me on his turn third. Again, had I held the blast and blasted the prosperity I would have won, because he dumped his whoile hand except for a drain life to cast it. Oh well, you live and you learn. BTW, Ted is ranked #5 in TX, and I think he came in second in the tournament. Match 3 vs. Paul taylor Result: W, 2-0 Paul is playing blue/white rainbow/hoor guard beatdown with the whole complement. This is the deck I live for. I'm sorry for not remembering how, but I beat him mercilessly the first game. Game 2 was a little closer with me taking some falcon beatdown (this puzzled me as well, wtf is he doing with a falcon?) Anyway, he tries to maro armor it, I burn it, it dies. He says he made a scrub mistake and if he'd played his land correctly could have backed it up with a counter. Me and my pyroblast in hand really didn't care if he backed it up with a counter or not, though. So now I'm feeling good. I should have beaten prosbloom but inexperience and a little scrubbiness lost it. But I still have a shot. Until... Match 4 vs. Mason Peatross Result: L, 2-0 >From a dream match to a nightmare. Black red. 5cg cannot beat black red, for it is written so. I won't go into details, but he kills me horribly. I want to cry. He even used foresaken wastes! Match 5 vs. Shannon hill Result: W, 2-0 Dream match again. Basically the same blue/white deck I played earlier. game one isn't close. Game 2 I have some problems, taking major spirit linked rainbow beatdown. with a worb out, though, I take mana advantage and get too many creatures down. Tradewind finally hits the table and I pull ahead, torching him to end it. he says he normally beats 5cg which I don't understand. Not many people play 5cg very well, although many people do try. BTW, Shannon is ranked #3 in TX. I'm playing for money here. I'm only ranked 24 so I can't get in the top16 very easily, so I am hoping to draw and take $150 home. Unfortunately, my next opponent is ranked 31 and has to play to get the extra cash. Damn. Match 6 vs. Roy Baran Result: L, 2-0 another nightmare. Roy is playing necro. Unlike Red/Black, I can beat necro. but Roy is a very good player, and I make a couple of mistakes while feeling sorry for myself. I honestly didn't care anymore. he made me desleeve, which is annoying. I think he does that just to annoy an opponent and affect his game. Kind of sad, but it doesn't bother me. I should have had his deck checked just to annoy him. He had some buddies at hand watching who after the match tried to tell me I tapped a ranger for mana to play a worb and a bird or some crap like that. Roy didn't see it, and I'm a better player than that so I assume they were just messing with my mind. If you play Roy, make sure that you send his cronies away. Anyway, I lose horribly to card advantage. he kills me in the end with a perish in hand. BTW, Roy is ranked #10 in TX. all in all, not a bad day. I squeak into the top32 at #31. With better luck in the decks I had to play and more experience, my deck could have made higher. Say what you want about 5cg, it can go toe-to-toe with the top decks. prosbloom, the trap, and any sort of control will usually fall to a well-made, well-played 5cg. It's weakness is black which simply murders it. As for the field, I have heard so many things and seen little. 5cg may have been present in force, but the 3 that I saw other than mine were substandard (one being 3 colors, the other just bad, and the third relying on too much fat IMHO). There was more Necro than I expected and not as much cousin gerry (I admit that I stacked my deck against the latter). Not much was heard from sligh as far as I could tell. Blue and Blue/Whie control were also present in force. Zie Deck Land: 8 Forest 4 Gemstone Mine 3 Undiscovered Paradise 2 City of Brass Creatures: 4 Quirion Ranger 4 Birds of Paradise 4 Granger Guildmage 4 River Boa 4 Jolrael's Centaur 3 Tradewind Rider 2 Uktabi Orangutan 2 Maro Spells: 4 Incinerate 4 Disenchant 3 Armageddon 3 Winter Orb 2 Diabolic Edict Sideboard: 4 Pyroblast 4 Honorable Passage 3 Tranquil Domain 2 Sleight of Mind 2 Crumble Things I would change: Main deck is fine. 4 disenchants might be one too many, but I plan on leaving it that way. 6 rock-breakers is enough, so I would lose the crumbles. As you can see, I gambled by not including any black hosers. This was because I felt my chances vs. black were so bad even after sideboarding, that I would be better off pumping up my other hosers. Well, a bad gamble. I haven't tried karma, but I think it would simply rock Necro's ass. So, I would drop the 2 crumbles and the two sleight's and replace them with 3 or 4 karmas. If three, i would toss in either another tranquil domain or an extra edict or terror. I think 4 Karmas would be best though. Props to anyone playing green as their main color. Keep the faith, we shall overcome. No slops, I have to go to class. EE sucks. -Daniel Algood "It is not easy to cut through E. Daniel Algood... a human head with a hacksaw." ealgood@post.cis.smu.edu -Michael Crichton algood@seas.smu.edu