Subject: GP Boston report Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1998 22:44:08 -0400 (EDT) From: EDGE Collectibles To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com GRAND PRIX BOSTON TOURNAMENT REPORT By Alex Shvartsman It is Thursday night and I have no bloody clue as to what deck to play. I was unable to playtest much Rath Constructed at all, so all I had to go with was the information available on my team's mailing list and the deck lists from Worlds. I tested the black weenie Hatred deck first - who hasn't? - but it proved to be inconsistant. It could beat Awakening more often than not but it lost badly to Sligh and CounterPhoenix - both of which I expected to see a lot of. Sligh did not seem very strong either - I am not a big fan of the archetype to begin with and I did not see it as having a clear advantage over the rest of the field. The environment was looking more and more like a rock-paper-scissors. It seemed that CounterPhoenix beats Awakening, which beats Death, which beats Sligh, which beats Hatred, which beats anything it wants to on a really lucky draw but is inconsistant. The one "major" deck archetype I did not even consider was Humility-Prayer - it had a good surprise value at Worlds but I did not think it'd do well in Boston. With the staple decks beating the crap out of each other, it was time to improvise. I kept trying to make the recursive Anarchist work, and my best effort looked something like this: 3 Recurring Nightmare 4 Oath of Druids 3 Spike Weaver 1 Aftershock 1 Flowstone Flood 4 Rampant Growth 4 Wall of Blossoms 3 Shock 3 Spike Feeder 2 Anarchist 4 Stone Rain 4 Winter's Grasp 10 Forest 4 Wasteland 7 Mountain 3 Swamp The deck was a lot of fun to play but wasn't anywhere near the level it'd have to be to win a Grand Prix. I borrowed Matt Calhoun's copy of Zvi's Tradewind-Awakening deck to playtest that, and gave Rich Fyne my black weenie. He proceeded to kick my ass about 5 games straight because Matt's version had bad main-deck cards like Propaganda. Annoyed at losing so many games in a row, I spoke the phrase that helped two people make top 8 in Boston: "MY PROPAGANDAS ARE NOW OATH OF DRUIDS. Lets play another game." >From that point on I won EVERY game where I was able to play the Oath on turn two or three. I later told both Mike Pustilnik and Zvi Mowshowitz to play the Oath. They thought it was the jankiest idea in the world at first but Zvi slept on it and decided to give it a shot. Guess what - both Zvi and Matt Calhoun made top 8 winning a LOT of matches off the Oath. But I am getting ahead of myself. I then decided to build Living Death - it may be part of rock-paper-scissors system but at least it is a deck type I really enjoy playing. I consulted with my teammates who playtested the deck for Worlds and got a lot of good ideas from them. I also talked at length with Brian Schneider, who I believe to be among the very best deckbuilders out there, and he clued me in on some 'tech cards such as Rootwater Hunter and Cannibalize. His mana ratio was also better than mine, so I went with it. This is the version I ended up building: 1 Anarchist 3 Spike Feeders 4 Wall of Blossoms 1 Cannibalize 1 Cartographer 3 Living Death 3 Recurring Nightmare 1 Spike Weaver 1 Mirri's Guile 4 Hermit Druid 4 Survival of the Fittest 1 Verdant Force 1 Coffin Queen 1 Rootwater Hunter 2 Tradewind Rider 1 Lobotomy 1 Cloudchaser Eagle 1 Thrull Surgeon 3 Mox Diamond 1 Wasteland 3 Reflecting Pool 1 Island 7 Forest 4 Swamp 2 Volrath's Stronghold 2 Skyshroud Forest 1 Pine Barrens 2 Rootwater Depths On Wednsday night I go to Neutral Ground and playtest the deck. There was supposed to be a $25 Rath cycle tournament but only six people showed up so it ended up being a $10 two-round tournament which I won beating a mono-green deck (which cast Overrun twice in the same game and still lost) and a Sligh. Unfortunately, this wasn't exactly the high-level competition I hoped to test against. Ah well. So it is Thursday night and I still have no bloody clue as to what deck to play. Early Friday morning me, Zvi Mowshowitz and Marc Paschover gathered at Mike Pustilnik's house and got on our way to Boston. We kept getting stuck in traffic, chose a sub- optimal root etc so it ended up being a SEVEN HOUR drive. We discussed a lot of Rath strategy on the way. Zvi was definitely gonna play Awakening, Marc was definitely gonna play his Oath of Ghouls deck, me and Mike were undecided. When we finally got to the hotel I built a deck I thought can take the metagame - a white weenie heavy on enchantment removal: 4 Soul Warden - awesome vs Sligh and Hatred 2 1/1 en-Kor 4 Soltari Priest 4 Soltari Monk 4 Warrior En-Kor 3 Soltari Visionary 3 Paladin en-Vec 3 Conviction 4 Cataclysm 2 Disenchant 2 Winds of Rath 3 Mox Diamond 4 Wasteland 18 Plains We started testing and the deck went something like 13-7 vs Awakening and 3-3 vs Death - its toughest matchups. Still, Mike and Zvi both kept saying the deck is a major pile and I kept getting lucky draws. In the end they talked me out of playing the deck but I still think it is a viable choice at the moment. Anyway by about 1:30am I decide to definitely play Living Death. I build a sideboard. Since it took me about 5 minutes to decide what cards to use, it is possibly the weakest Death sideboard that ever lived: 1 Spike Weaver 1 Lobotomy 1 Cloudchaser Eagle 1 Cannibalize 2 Constant Mists 2 Stronghold Taskmaster 2 Tranquility 2 Dread of Night 2 Verdigris 1 Thrull Surgeon So, without further ado on to the report. I had two rounds of bye, so I get to hang out with Stan Hirsch and playtest my white weenie deck against his son Steve's Humility-Prayer deck, which has no Prayer against the mighty Soltari Visionary/Cataclysm/Disenchant machine. I show up early enough to buy a new box of sleeves and re-sleeve my deck - I saw WAY too many people get game losses at Worlds for slightly, unintentionally marked cards and decide that I do not want to be on the receiving end of that. Finally they begin round three and I get to play. Round 3 - Austin Dzienglewski - Sligh I thought my deck should crush Sligh 90% of the time. Boy was I wrong. While Death clearly DOES have an advantage against Sligh in the matchup, it is a much closer match than I'd expect. I am unable to find a Survival or Living Death in game one, but I manage to stop the beating and begin recurring my Spikes with Recurring Nightmare. Since I cannot put anything I did not cast into my graveyard, this is a long, long game. Eventually I manage to build up a Spike Weaver large enough to attack and win several turns later. Game two Sligh gets a ba-roken draw and overruns me before I realize we began to play. Game three I take some early damage from Austin's creatures. Than, all of a sudden, he casts.... Spellshock. Spellshock?@#$?#! Luckily I still have enough life and a Survival in play so I frantically search for Spike Feeders and cast them - they now only net gain two life per Feeder. I manage to live long enough to cast Living Death and bring all the spikage back into play. Austin has taken about 10 points of damage from his Spellshock at this point and my creatures finish him off on the next turn. Matches 3-0 Games 2-1 Round 4 - Tom Guevin - Mono-Blue Control Tom gets out multiple Legacy Allures in game one, but I am able to Survive for the Spikes, so when he is forced to try and steal a Spike to prevent taking more damage I sacrifice it. I manage to apply pressure - fast enough to keep Tom's hand low but not quickly enough to force him to use up his Forbid without buyback. Tom's draw is pretty bad as he is getting a buttload of land and Bottle Gnomes. Luckily for him, Forbid allows him to get a good use out of these cards. Eventually my two Spikes get into the race for the win against Tom's Silver Wyvern. I win the race - one of my Spikes is a Weaver so I can afford extra turns if I need them. I do not remember games two and three very well - Tom beat me down in game two but I was able to Lobotomize his Portcullis and win game three. Tom asks that I do not tell people what he is playing until the tournament is over, as his is somewhat of a surprise deck and I gladly comply. Matches 4-0 Games 4-2 Round 5 - Chris Manning - Living Death Before we have a chance to begin game one, judges take away our decks for a random deck-check. Seeing as how we both play Death the deck check takes over twenty minutes! :( We chat - Chris is a very nice guy and a pleasant opponent - and watch some of Steve OMS vs Hammer match being played next to us. Finally we get our decks back and Chris is informed that two of the card sleeves in his sideboard are marked and he will receive a game loss. ?!? Wow, that is strict. Chris takes it in stride and we proceed to play game two. Of course, karma has a way of balancing things out. I draw two Rootwater Depths as my only land for eight turns. Chris gets a second and third turn Hermit Druids out and mills most of his deck. He than casts Living Death and his two bazillion creatures beat me up. The only reason Chris even knows what I am playing is due to me discarding green cards from my hand :(. We both play a second turn Druid in game three. I went first and get to Lobotomize him on turn four. Chris shows me his four cards and - HOLY PIKULA - he is holding a Mox Diamond and THREE Living Deaths. I take out his Deaths turning the Lobotomy into a really good Fugue and proceed to fill up my own graveyard with creatures. Chris' Druid is very unlucky - it mills away his Portcullis, Recurring Nightmares, non-basic lands... - anything but creatures! I quickly establish control and win the game. Matches 5-0 Games 6-2 Round 6 - Matt Calhoun - Awakening Death can't really beat this deck - not without really good sideboard cards I did not know about prior to registering my deck. Matt makes me his bitch two games straight, putting me in a Capsize lock quickly game one. I manage to Lobotomize him game two and take out his Capsizes but he top-decks the Awakening and rapes me with Tradewind Riders. Matches 5-1 Games 6-4 Round 7 - Joel Frank - Sligh We intentionally draw to make sure that we both make day 2. We play a bunch of test games and Joel actually beats me with his Sligh deck more often than not, making me eat my boasts about being able to crush Sligh easily. At this point Zvi is also 5-1-1, Marc Paschover is 5-2 and Mike Pustilnik is 6-1. Three of us make day two while Marc, unfortunately, ends up being 66th. I feel that I have a snowball's chance in hell of making top 8. As per our estimation there are like twenty Awakening decks in the top 64 and I need to go 5-1 in order to make top 8. I whine to Mike and Zvi a little bit, than we wath "The Edge" on HBO and go to sleep. In the morning I contemplate wearing a sign that sats "Bye" to the tournament as people are telling me Awakening is everywhere. Round 8 - Tony Tsai - Awakening Well the bad news is that I have to face a good player in this round. The good news is that he is one of the Deadguys and will likely play Sligh - don't they always? Apparently not, as Tony lays down a turn one Island. I played first so I get out a Spike Feeder turn two (with a Mox), before he can counter. Tony taps out to play Legacy Allure, so I cast a Cloudchaser Eagle and kill it. We fight a few counterwars while his tradewind and a Wall block everything but eventually I manage to force a Coffin Queen through! I than put Tony in Coercion lock, recurring my Thrull Surgeon every turn. Things get even worse for him when I get an active Tradewind, returning his permanents back to his hand, than forcing him to discard them. After about ten minutes of such abuse, Tony calls a judge over and gets permission to concede the game in progress. Tony manastalls for a turn with two Forests and an Island in play. My draw is diesel and I forever lock him at three mana as I have an active trading turn four. It takes me a while to topdeck another creature but I've got time - Tony's deck can do very little with only one blue and three total mana. I slowly kill him with a Spike Feeder, eventually. The most amazing thing for me (but not for Tony) is that he was paired down - so beating him significantly increases my tiebreakers. Matches - 6-1-1 Games 8-4 Round 9 - Jamie Parke - CounterPhoenix He counters my stuff early but eventually I force a Living Death through, even though his Phoenix is gonna come back and kill everything except for the Weaver. I gamble that he does not have a direct damage spell as he already took out several of my creatures with Shocks and Kindles. The gamble pays off - we are now in a standoff. Every turn I put a Spike Feeder on top of my library with Volrath's Stronghold and attempt to cast it. Every turn Jamie returns a Phoenix to his hand and draws another card, thus being able to cast Forbid with buyback on my Feeder. Meanwhile, Jamie was taking three points of damage per turn. While at six life, Jamie was forced to finally tap out and cast the Phoenix, which allowed me to cast the Feeder. He did not draw a direct damage spell next turn either and I won the game. We drew our hands after some shuffling and Jamie asks "I am not mulliganing. Are you?" I say "No". He draws a card and proceeds to play. "Whoa," say I, "did you just draw a card?!" He is dumbfounded. When I said "No" it sounded like "Go" to him and he drew a card purely as a reflex. Now I am POSITIVE he did not do it on purpose, but I feel it is fair to call the judge. Jamie offered to just put the card back or reshuffle - if he was going second and seeing the 8th card would make no diffirence whatsoever (since he already said he wasn't gonna take a mulligan) I'd just let it go, but he was playing first... I was expecting that the judge will have Jamie take a mulligan as a penalty. Nat Fairbanks, the head judge of the event, informed Jamie that a penalty for drawing an extra card in such a situation is a game loss. He argues and I take his side, telling the judge that I fully believe it was an unintentional mistake, but Grand Prix Boston was being ran under a Level-5 Rules Enforcement policy to increase its K-value (the matches would be worth more DCI points this way) and under that level of rules enforcement Nat cannot give Jamie a lesser penalty. I feel REALLY bad about it, but I stand by my decision to call over a judge in such situation - if it was a local irrelevant tournament I probably would not, but Grand Prix is a lot more serious. Matches 7-1-1 Games 10-4 Round 10 - William Morgan - Sligh Wow - this kid is amazing. He had NO byes and he is here, at 7-1-1, playing with the best of 'em. The only unamazing thing is that the karma thing must really work - after getting two free game wins throughout the tournament, it is time to give someone a bye. My deck misfired. I drew a Reflecting Pool, Island and Swamp in my opening hand and played it. I never saw a forest and died about six turn later to a bunch of Moggs coming over. In game two I had a Swamp and a Skyshroud Forest. I play the Skyshroud and it gets immediately Wastelanded. I play a Swamp and never draw another land. William beats me down like a goldfish. Matches 7-2-1 Games 10-6 Round 11 - Joe Weber - Sligh Joe beats me down early on and proceeds to deal a lot of late-game damage with his main-deck Scalding Tongs when I stall his creatures, but I am able to go into recursion mode before dying and quickly get up to about 25 life. I pull off a giant Living Death eventually and win the game. Game two everything seems to be working out - I am at about 15 life, taking little damage per turn and filling my graveyard with Spikes. I can cast Living Death but I get greedy, wanting to wait an extra turn and get two more creatures into the grave. I pay dearly for my greed. Joe slaps down a Portcullis and I am not holding a Verdigris in my hand. I use Survival like a madman with Mirri's Guile in play but cannot find it before Joe kills me. Joe gets a turn three Survival in play using an Ancient Tomb in game three, but i have answers this time. I have a bit of time - he has three 1/1 Moggs in play and I am only taking two points per turn. I play a second Wall of Blossoms, draw a card and it goes under Portcullis. Than, during his discard phase I play Verdigris, the Wall comes into play and I draw ANOTHER card! I than untap and bring down some Spikage to make sure he won't play another Portcullis on his turn. I soon cast Living Death and start recurring Spike Feeders by sacrificing the Verdant Force saprolings. Phew - I win a close one there. Matches 8-2-1 Games 12-7 Round 12 - Dennis Coates - White Weenie My draw is really bad as I play nothing but land for a bunch of turns. Meanwhile, I have NO idea what this guy is doing! He plays a Plains and two Maze of Shadows and casts a Bottle Gnome. Next turn he casts Mindless Automaton and begins beatdown. He discards some land and a couple of white shadow creatures and a TREASURE HUNTER to the Automaton. Woah. I finally draw the non-land cards for a while and get an active tradewind out. I am at three life but I can deal with his threats for a little while. He casts Cataclysm and I respond by sending the Automaton back into his hand, so he only gets to keep a Gnome. I keep a land, Mox and some creature. On my turn I play a land, Recurribng Nightmare, bring Verdant Force into play. Dennis, who has nothing but Plains and a Gnome cannot deal with it and dies a few turns later. My coffin Queen wrecks his strategy in game two. He cannot attack with shadow creatures, else I will steal a dead one from his grave and block-kill one of them. Meanwhile I get a bunch of creatures, including a Verdant Force into play. He casts Cataclysm and I keep a Force with two +1/+1 counters moved onto it. Guess who wins that race. Matches 9-2-1 Games 14-7 Round 13 - Ben Farkas - CounterPhoenix At this point I am guaranteed top 16. I know that top 13 will qualify because there are 5 people who are already qualified in the top 13. I try to do the math and see whether I can draw into top 13 - this would mean I will miss top 8 but definitely qualify. I get paired up with Ben Farkas who wouldnt' draw anyway even if I asked - he is one of the five qualified people, so he might as well play for the money. Whoever wins this match is guaranteed top 8. Unfortunately, I lose. My draws were total junk. I get a first turn Survival of the Fittest into play in one of the games. A great play, right? Well, not if you draw the other three in the next eight cards! Ben seems to have all the answers and quickly locks me with Phoenix-Forbid combo both games. Matches 9-3-1 Games 14-9 I am not really upset even though I seem to have just blown my best chance to qualify. I win $500 anyway as I will finish somewhere in low top 16. John Shuler, who was watching the match proceeds to explain what I scrub I am for not sideboarding Oath of Ghouls and not top-decking well. He than tells me I am very likely going to finish 13th on tiebreakers. The round will take about 30 more minutes so me and Marc go out and get some drinks at a gas station across the street. The wait is painful - I spend most of it hanging out in the back of the room with Marc, Bob Wagner and Dennis Bentley. Dave Williams comes over and chats with us for a while. Then Lucarello comes over holding an invitation packet. Woah! They already know the results? I rush over to Glen Friedman, manning the computer. "Do you have good news for me Glen?" "Yes, I do" I am 13th, and in the last qualified spot! I am back on the Pro Tour! I get my information packet and go back to the back table where Bob is writing down my deck list. Dave Williams looks at me and goes "Oh yeah, now I remember why I came over.. I was gonna tell you that you qualified!" Well, better late than never :) Props: Mike Pustilnik for driving us there and back. Zvi and Matt for using my 'tech to help them make top 8. Marc Paschover for playing an original deck, come hell or high water. Finkel and Buehler for being the true pros and meeting in the finals. My opponents for playing well and making the GP a fun experience. Grey Matter Conventions for running a grest show. Glen Friedman for finding a sufficient replacement that could do the work Dave Doust did at GP Washington almost as well :) Slops: I qualified - what do *I* have to complain about? - Alex Shvartsman Team "The Legion" Master of the Oath of Druids :)