Subject: [Tournament] GP Boston (15th) Date: Wed, 09 Sep 1998 14:56:10 -0500 From: Dennis Leventhal To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Tournament Report for Grand Prix: Andover I don't care if the official name is Grand Prix: Boston. I refuse to call it that. Deal with it. Well, I got nothing better to do. We all know that nothing says random New Jersey scrub like a tournament report, so we'll try it again. Anyhow, you know how these things go. Graymatter was running this, for some reason, so I didn't really expect anything normal to happen. I guess even I can be wrong. Anyhow, our little threesome (Tom Cupo, Eric Zeigler, and Me) get into the car and head to Boston... err, Andover. Why it's called Grand Prix Boston is beyond me. Oh, well. Anyhow, getting stuck in New York traffic isn't the best thing on Labor Day weekend. When we reach Massachusetts, I ask Tom why there are Pilgrim hats on the Mass. Turnpike signs. He looks up and we end up going the wrong way on the Turnpike. West is not good--especially when there are no exits for another 30 miles. We couldn't turn around, either, because traffic was backed up for 10 miles going the other way. We finally find an exit, take a weird backroad, and only lost 40 minutes time. I guess going 85 on the turnpike puts a significant dent in lost time. Anyhow, we reach the hotel at 11:30. Check in, check around, go romp around the tennis court/tourney hall. I walk in and see the usual Graymatter people. I'm still being bombarded with questions as to my complains about Graymatter in my last tourney report. I guess some things never end. Elaine and Kieran, two people who go out of their way to ignore and despise me, start asking me questions even though I have no idea what they're babbling about. Welcome to my world. Well, I do some playtesting, Rath-tech scouting, etc. Saying that I went back to my room with NO idea as to what to play is an understatement. I built my deck at 8:30 a.m. Here, I'd like to flash forward to a conversation I had the unfortunate experience of overhearing on day two from two people I sort of know. This info might have been useful if it were decipherable. To summarize, here's what was said. The metagame is the worst place to be. I don't know what I was thinking playing sligh. I forgot the basic principles to magic. Either be in the meta-meta-game or the anti-metagame. Only scrubs follow the metagame. I continue along with no idea what they're talking about. The more I think about that, the less sense it makes. Isn't the meta-metagame the same as the normal game? Is there a normal game? Anyhow, back to the tourney report, sorta. Well, I wake up at 7:00 am and realize I still have no deck. Not like it really mattered, as I expected to go 2-2 drop. Anyhow, I figure that most of the people there are playing death or tradeawake, so I try my hand at suicide black-hatred. Bah, what do I know. I TOTALLY underestimated the amount of sligh there. Well, the amount of sligh that the OTHER hatred decks had to play against. Onto the tourney report. I know almost no names, so deal with it. Round 1: Bye (My one and only... I'm such a scrub.) Round 2: Some guy. I play first. Swamp, Sarco. Nothing big. He looks at it and gets a bit scared. And he should be. I think his entire deck was black shadow creatures, except for Dauthi Trapper. Beatdown commences, I win 2 straight. Games: 4-0. Matches: 2-0. Round 3: Another guy playing White Weenie. Game 1: I don't think WW can stop a Spinal-Grafted Dauthi Horror. If It can, he didn't do it. Game 2: I draw Dauthi Horror again and we trade shots. He holds 2 lights of day and can't draw land #4. I'm such a good player. I win due to his land screw. Games: 6-0. Matches: 3-0. Round 4: Some Your Move Games guy, playing Tradeawake, I believe. Game 1: Nothing says fun like calling a judge on bad rulings and sloppy play. I get two shadows out, he plays a Wall of Blossoms or something. I say attack for 4, and he tried to skip right to damage dealing. Definitely sloppy play on my fault by my horrible wording, but Elaine rules that I can still culling/hatred for the game, since I DID tell him to stop after he declared blockers, since I had fast effects. Games 2/3?: I think He won game 2, I won game 3... I know I won the match, but that's about all I remember. Games: 8-1. Matches: 4-0 Round 5: Living Death by some guy. Game 1: Spinal Graft is strong, I hear. Game 2: Him: Turn 1: Forest, Mox Diamond, Discard land, Survival o/tF. Me: Swamp, Sarco. Him: Land, Done. Me: (I'm holding no other land, which makes this much more fun): Ritual, Carnophage, Culling, Hatred for 18, attack. He had 3 cards, and apparently neither were the Constant Mists. I win. Next card in his library: Respite. Games: 10-1. Matches: 5-0. Round 6: Living Death, some other guy. I beatdown game 1, he beatsdown game 2. Game 3, I play 3 creatures, he's stuck at 4 land and can't death. I win. Games: 12-2. Matches: 6-0. Round 7: John Scarth. Some weird B/U tech Living Death deck. We knew what each other was playing, since we had sat next to each other two rounds before. We both knew that I would win game 1, and his sideboarding would rape me. Anyhow, Game 1: Stuck at 1 swamp, holding 3 shadows, culling, and hatred. I lose. Game 2: He practically taps out turn 4 to play bottle gnomes. I have 2 Carnos in play. He's at 16, I'm at 18. I Attack with both. He blocks 1. I TOPDECK the hatred to culling/hatred for 17. He takes 19, I'm at 1. I win. Game 3: He figures the same thing won't happen twice. He intuitions for Bottle Gnomes, plays one. Again, I TOPDECK the Hatred to Culling/hatred and I win. Next turn: He living deaths his 3 Bottle Gnomes back. Strong. Games: 16-3. Matches: 7-0 Anyhow, day 1 is over. The Standings are Jon Finkel, SteveOMS, Matt Calhoun, Nick Chen, and then me. We're the 5 undefeateds. I hear Nick Chen is playing sligh, so I pray I don't have to play against him... Actually, this was probably the only time EVER in history that anyone would rather play against Finkel. Well, pairings are up. Who do I play? Nick Chen, of course. Anyhow, him: turn 1: Skyshround forest. Me: Wasteland. Then he plays 2 islands, 2 reflecting pools, and shows me the two Spike Weavers in his hand when he dies. Ouch. Game 2: I think I beat him down, but it might have been 2-1 in games... I win either way. Games: 18-3. Matches: 8-0. Me, Finkel, and SteveOMS are left as the undefeateds. I figure I'll have to play one of them, and Living Death is a great matchup for me. Well, they play each other, of course. I look at my pairings: Darwin Kastle. This could be good. Round 9: Darwin Kastle. Game 1: Getting 3 Spike Weavers out can't be good for anyone playing hatred. Game 2: I have the turn 3 combo if I draw a second land. I don't get my second land until turn 8. That's usually considered a loss. Games: 18-5. Matches: 8-1. Round 10: David Humphreys... Similar deck to Jon Scarth, I believe... I never saw much of it. Game 1: He gets a turn 3 Bottle Gnomes, I have 2 Carnos. He's at 18, I'm at 19. I attack with both, Culling, Hatred for 19. Draws are good. Game 2: I get beatdown. 'nuff said. Game 3: The tables be a'turning... I get quick beatdown. We go 1-1-1 for the match. I guess that's a draw. Games: 19-6-1. Matches: 8-1-1. Round 11: Zvi Moshowhatsis. Sorry, Zvi, but I forgot how to spell your name:) Game 1: Spinal Grafted Shadow is hard to stop w/o a capsize or spike. I get a quick win. Game 2: Accidentally drawing 7 off a Paris mulligan is NOT a good thing. Especially not when there's Level 5 rules enforcement. A game loss really hurts against Tradeawake. Game 3: I get beatdown quickly... 'nuff said. Games: 20-8-1. Matches: 8-2-1. Round 12: Matt Calhoun, another Tradeawake. We had been playtesting against each other for at least 20 games throughout the day, so I didn't think I had much of a chance. Game 1: I beatdown quick, as expected. Game 2: He gets a Quick Spike Weaver and rapes me. Game 3: I have 2 Shadow creatures out on turn 2 and he has an Oath of Druids. He druids for a Spike Weaver. Then another spike Weaver. Then ANOTHER Spike Weaver. I can't win against that. Games: 21-10-1. Matches: 8-3-1 Round 13: Tony Tsai, playing Tradeawake. We both know that the winner gets $500 and the loser gets nothing. I never thought I'd be playing a game of MtG for $500... Firstly, I would like to say that I did NOT deserve to win this match. I made an uncountable number of errors. It was pitiful... Anyhow, game 1: quick beatdown/hatred. Can't stop that. Game 2: He gets a quick bottle gnomes. I've beaten him down to 7... I attack for 4, and hatred for 3. See how smart I am? Oh, yeah. Bottle gnomes gain him 3 life. That can't be good. My VERY quick bottomless pit hurt him, though, and he lost, like, 6 land. I guess that means he drew 10 over the course of the match. 10 land against my deck can't be too good without a capsize. I win. Games: 23-10-1. Matches: 9-3-1. I make it in at 15th seed, just missing the invite. Alex Shvartzman got the last invite at 13th seed, for which I'm happy. He'd make better use of it than me, anyway. At this point, I go home. We don't feel like hanging around for the top 8, so we head back to Jersey. Stereotypical props/slops: Props: Tom Cupo: my ride to Boston:) Mark from Graymatter: That prize rock will always be a treasured part of my life. Glen from Graymatter: Never matching me up against one sligh deck over 13 rounds helped me more than significantly. Overall, the whole tournament was run pretty much on time... The judging was pretty decent. Harsh, but decent. Then again, that should be expected from a Grand Prix. Alcohol, my one true savior:) Slops: There weren't many, or any, for that matter... A few that I won't mention here, but you all know what you are. Anyhow, it was a decently-run tournament (and from me, that's like a super-compliment). Here's my deck. Deck: 4 Carnophage 3 Culling the Weak 4 Dark Ritual 4 Dauthi Horror 4 Dauthi Slayer 4 Dauthi Warlord 4 Hatred 2 Reckless Spite (Should have been 3). 4 Sarcomancy 3 Spinal Graft 1 Stronghold Assassin 18 Swamp 3 Thrull Surgeon 2 Wasteland Sideboard: 2 Bottle Gnomes (Used, but never drawn) 2 Coffin Queens (Strong) 3 Stronghold Taskmasters (useless) 3 Diabolic Edict (Helpful) 3 Bottomless Pit (Random discards never work well for me:( 2 Jinxed Idol (Never needed) Well, 15th Seed and $500 isn't too bad for my first pro-type tourney... I guess it's back to trying to qualify at Edison, NJ Graymatter PTQs... Have a nice day, all. Regards, --Dennis Leventhal Kefka/Kefka0116 on IRC. Please note that if I said something offensive to you, deal with it. If I said something complimentary about you, make sure you print and frame it because it'll never happen again.