Subject: GPBoston Report T8 Date: Tue, 08 Sep 1998 20:48:03 -0400 From: Matt Calhoun To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com If the name Matt Calhoun means nothing to you, then you either 1) Haven't been to Matt Calhouns Magic Trivia page, convienently locatated at http://oceanus.carroll.com/p/stealth/magic/ 2) Dont go to Game Master(also convienently located in fairlawn, new jersey) 3) Don't know of just another random scrub from the NJ area So the story going into this event was me and my team(read: friends) were testing(read: playing for fun) rath cycle decks in hopes to do well in boston. We came up with a Tradewind Awakening deck with main deck propagandas, which may have been a mistake but i like them, and it makes suicide black and sligh a much less issue, becuase the first game is key, if i lose it to them that means they have 2 chances to draw an auto-win hand. So thats why we played them, anyway the sideboard was a peice of garbage i built in the room the night before. 4 Tradewind Rider 3 Spike Feeder 3 Spike Weaver(key) 4 Wall of Blossoms 4 Counterspell 4 Forbid 2 Mana Leak 3 Propaganda 4 Awakening 3 Whispers 3 Capsize 4 Skyshroud Forest 3 Reflecting Pool 9 Island 7 Forest SB 4 Oath of Druids 1 Propaganda 1 Spike Weaver 1 Spike Feeder 1 Dismiss 2 Mana Leak 3 Grindstone 1 Whisper 1 Capsize So the sideboard sucked the deck was AMAZING!!!! What i would change about the deck, nothing except take out the props if you dont expect sligh or black in the ptq's, i personally think allure sucks hard in this deck but a lot of people like it, they say its good vs black and sligh, and prop CLEARLY is better vs those decks, and vs other decks it kinda blows but whatever. Also id really like to thank Grey Matter conventions and esspecially brian and glen for an outstandingly run grand prix. Heres the report Round 1 Bye for my killer 1759 standard rating Round 2 Random guy playing living death This match built my confidence vs death decks a lot. Game 1 was like, turn 4 awakening, and turn 5 capsize. I locked him out fast and he wisely conceded. Game 2, i topdeck a 4th turn awakening, i was then able to play weavers and tradewinds without a worry. I drew capsize soon enough though and locked him out. Round 3 Random guy playing the worlds worst WW/u deck ever, no offense guy but your deck kinda blew His deck was a propaganda/cataclysm deck, someone needs to tell me if thats even a combo. He had blue for counters and a few leaks, and also tradewind, but curiously enough no curiosity, that i saw. I dont need to explain how i won, a key moment was when i countered his cataclysm, the turn before i was gonna kill him, not that key i guess. Round 4 Uh oh, there were all these guys there acting tough because they had your move game shirts on, i dont know if these guys are good or not, but they were at least decent i had to assume. Darwin Kastle had one of those shirts on and kastle is good, so i didnt know what to think. They were all seated together around table 1(where i was) trying to act good, so i was like whatever. But i got scared when we started and he played a lowlands, indicating he was playing humility, which he was, and in our testing we found that my deck lost to a version mike donais had given to me over the net. But that deck ran mad counters and the newer ones ran less like only 8, and ive never tested vs an 8 counter version, i did remember that someone said that its all about aggression vs these decks. So the first game i got tradewind down along with a feeder and a weaver, and a capsize in hand. i played perfectly using the tradewind on his lands and caping the humilty and all that, until i think he counter my capsize, but then i just started attacking and somehow managed to remove the prayer i think with the tradewind and he ran outta counters and it died, and he did too to 3 points a turn. Game 2 I sided in the 2 creatures and counters and took out the props and some awakenings. Well i dropped an early feeder and then protected him with counters, he just bit away until i also had a tradewind and mabye a wall too on him. Well then he somehow got the combo, i tapped him out on his turn capped the humilty and started on his lands with tradewind, droppen awakeing, got some more lands and did his prayer forcing him to tap out for the combo until a well placed counter sealed his fate, he could have intuitioned for a prayer at one point which would have helped for awhile but he only had 3 prayers in deck and i grinded one so blah on him he lost. Round 5 Sligh This guy was from team sped, i never heard of them but sligh sucks so i was pretty confident. Game 1 i take by capsize lock, wall of blossoms is a bomb vs sligh. I just played my tradewind + awakening + capsize + 6 lands combo on him and he fell. Game 2 i totally take control with oath of druids, im in a position to win about 15 turns down the line(you can just tell vs sligh) when he calls over the judge and has him check my lands because i have a mirage land. Then he goes through the deck( i only have 1 mirage land) and pulled out quite a few of my beta lands. So i guess they were marked i goto the booster draft box and begin game 3, he was sorta a dick for doing that but moneys on the line so its cool if he can win a game for that, anyways i once again take control with oath bounce it when it starts to suck and then rape him because sligh sucks and this deck is good. Round 6 Living Death vs alex shvartzman Alex is totally the man for telling me about oath of druids and i respect him all around for a lot of things, but something about how he plays gets to me, mabye its just that whenever we play and i win he alwas tells me he had a bad draw, im not saying hes not good or anything, he just plays very differently then me, and hes still the man too =). Awakeing beats death i think so i took him in 2. Round 7 White weenie vs Dennis bentley Game 1 i roll over him, he plays a visionary, which i blew a capsize at the end of his turn, then i play awakening, then i capsize lock him. Game 2, i lose to an army of welkin hawks and shadow. I coudnt draw a weaver and he just won. Game 3 i decide to put in oath of druids. I get a tradewind, a wall and a weaver before he starts using it himself. I awakening lock him and roll over him. I heard he was VERY upset that he lost to a scrub and he had never played vs oath of druids before. So i went 7-0 on day one and BARELY made day 2, ok just kidding i was 3rd seed Round 8 I was paired against no one else except for the mighty jon finkel. So game 1 i lose when i mulligen to 6 cards and a prop. Game 2 he just finkeled me out, hes an amazing player and i think he had enough main deck to beat me. Sux but hey i cant expect to beat everyone. Round 9 I found myself playing vs Ben Farkas, he was playing counter shard, game 1 i win with an awakening lock and i managed to out counter him because he has to counter so many of my normal cards, so thats how i won that game. Game 2 i put in my grindstones, he also had grindstones in, he won the race because he has more lands than me so i got hit for 4 more than he got hit did. Game 3 we both drew 2 grindstones, but he wasted my first land, and i only ever drew 1 more that whole game, he won of course. Round 10 I played vs another awakening deck, my opponent immediatly took control of the game with an early spike feeder backed up by a legacies allue which stopped my tradewinds. I also never drew a wall, i did have a prop, he was so (rightfully) afraid to tap out that he only was able to get me to 6. I played a weaver and a few turns later, i killed it to prevent him stealing it and played a tradewind. I started bouncing his things with tradewind and got awakening and capsize, i had used all 10 counters at this point, i started capsizing, and he drew a card i went, in response to my capsize he capsizes, so mine fizzeled but i had another one in hand. So i was using that one, and he drew, time was called on the match, when i FINIALLY had taken control, but he had draw his 4 capsize so it would have been much more drawn out, i think i would have won in the end though damnit a draw so now my record was 7-2-1 i needed 3 wins for top 8 Round 11 Another awakening, this time i out countered him and tradewind locked him andhe conceded. Game 2 i put in grindstones, i bounced his things with tradewind and got whisper recursion, he never had much of a chance. He gave up once i got all his lands and i just killed him, easy win. Round 12 I played vs dennis levinthal, hes cool, and was staying in my room, another of my friends who went 7-0 day 1. I know my deck wrecks his, game 1 i BARELY capsize lock him when im at 2, but i did have a feeder in play, i played the match flawlessly, game 2 i go turn 2 oath of druids, and i get in this order, weaver, tradewind, weaver, wall. Damn, he lost hard to an army of attacking weavers. Round 13 I needed this win, i pulled a scrub this round if you can believe it. Game 1 i draw 2 islands and a skyshroud forest and 2 walls of blossoms. i play turn 1 forest and it gets wastelanded, so i of course draw no land for like 7 turns, neither does he though, he is stuck at 1 land hitting me with a mogg raider, i do draw a forest though and play a few walls, draw some more land and i lock him up fast before any real damage gets done. Game 2 i almost let him oath to victory but i bounce it myself, and just kick him in the head with a 4/7 tradewind rider. So now me the random scrub from jersey was the only player in the top 8 with no PT points, alex managed to squeeze in 13th place as im sure you all know now, so now i am no longer ptq scrub matt calhoun but pro player matt calhoun and now i hope my web page(convienently locatated at http://oceanus.carroll.com/p/stealth/magic/) will be more popular, i of course lost to steve o becaus hes better than me and i was too happy to play for real. Game 1 was mine but when i put 6 mana in my pool and capsized steves land with an awakeining in play, i didnt say buy back so i had to take 3 burn, i still respect steve but believe me ill never make that mistake again =) later everyone, see ya in rome. Ive never done props/slops before here goes props Alex for being the man and telling me about oath Steve o and ben farkus for calling me on my deck and for not calling buyback, im sure ill be more carefull in rome and now i know i can do that to my opponent and how to call things, im actually not mad at either of em Eugine for getting the original awakening deck from zvi Dennis Bently for some mad t2 points Game Master in fairlawn for agreeing to sponser us on the pro tour Jessica for being the hottest girl in the universe Everyone who clapped when they called my name for top 8 Finkel for showering and barely getting to our match in round 8, someone told me he smelled bad My trivia page(convienently locatated at http://oceanus.carroll.com/p/stealth/magic/) for being really good Dennis Levinthal for not being pissed when i beat him in round 12, dennis is a really cool guy Brain Glen and Grey Matter for an awsome tourny slops Steve o for calling me Ben Farkas for calling me Jessica for being the hottest girl in the universe Nat the head judge for making EVERY ruling against me(including a few i didnt post) Finkel for not showering before we played Everyone who saw me in the finals and said that should be me and finially the really really dumb concesion rule, lataz all Matt Calhoun Team Game Master And thanks to our sponse matt calhouns magic trivia page(convienently locatated at http://oceanus.carroll.com/p/stealth/magic/)