Subject: JSS 5c Flagpole Control *FINALIST* Date: Wed, 10 Jun 1998 18:34:07 EDT From: Ziggie2000@aol.com To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Hey, I just got back from the Junior Super Series in Orlando. The set-up that Wizards had there was amazing, it was kind of like a mini-pro tour. If you just want the decklist and/or report, scroll down to -Tourney Report-. -Before- I’m a freshman in high school, and the week before the JSS was finals for my school. As I had to study, my playtesting for the tournament was really limited. In fact, I only got one day to playtest against real people. I tried to figure out the field as best I could by looking at tourney reports on the dojo, and while there I saw a report for a 5c tradewind deck. It looked like with a few changes, it could beat what I needed it to. I built it and just started drawing 7 (goldfishing?) and it looked good. So I typed it out on aprentice and played it against my friends. It got rocked by decks that I thought I could beat! Hmmm.…Now in desperation for a good deck, I started emailing people, including Andrew Pacifico, the guy that made the original 5c tradewind. Now this is all like 2 days before I leave to Florida, so I didn’t expect anything much, if any, feedback. Instead everyone got back to me with advice and Andrew, this guy….We’ve never even met and he’s giving me advice on changes, what he’s going to play, and what the field should be like. So the night before I leave, I make some more changes, pack my stuff, and study for my History Final. Friday morning I take my final and finsh at 11:30. My dad picks me up from school and we’re on a plane at 12:45. It then takes us like 13 hours (with the time change) to get from my school in L.A. to the hotel in Orlando, thanx to a lay-over in Dallas. Anyway, when we check into the Hyatt I see Mario, a former Cali playa and we chat for a minute or two. Then we go to the room and I try to get like 4 hours of sleep. -Tourney- I get up in the morning around 6:45 to catch the free shuttle going to "the field-house" (tourney site) at 7:20. As I get off I spot Adam and Justin (other south Cali players) and we hang around untill we can get our passes and go inside. Once inside I get informed that there was a lot of sligh in our division (15 and under), so I tweak the sideboard just a little more for a fourth chill. I also got to play the deck against a live person for the very first time! Here’s the decklist: 5c Flagpole Control 4 mana leak 3 counter spell 1 disrupt 3 legacy’s allure 4 impulse 4 tradewind 3 man o war 3 bird of paradise 4 wall of blossom 3 sex monkeys 2 firestorm 1 earthquake 3 armageddon 5 forests 5 islands 2 gemstone mine 2 city of brass 2 undiscovered paradise 2 reflecting pool 4 quicksand Side 3 light of day 4 chill 2 earthquake 1 lobotomy 3 phyrexian furnace 2 disenchant Somehow everything that I thought was questionable for the deck was perfectly tuned toward the field that I played against. The firestorms wrecked mono- white. The legacy’s wrecked 5cg and put Godzilla on a time-clock or made it use a pyro. The disrupt won me a game against 5cw and scared more people than it should have. The only thing that wasn’t awesome was the 3 monkeys. I should have taken 1 out because there was no decks I played against that it was good. Every card in the board was sided in at least 1 match. Match 1: mono-white (guy from North-Carolina) game1: 2 wastelands stop all my sources for red early on. Monks take it home with me having firestorm in hand. game2: quake stalls him early on giving my legacy’s time to build up. Firestorm clears his board again and monkeys, man o war, and priest beat him up game3: once again he’s amazed by my mucho red removal and tradewind-geddon locks him down 1-0 Match 2: 5cg (kewl guy who knew what’s up) game1: flagpole is amazing stopping centaurs non-stop. Legacy’s keep his tradewinds in his hand while mine run free and wild, returning walls to my hand. game2: he gets a gemstone and undiscovered as his land which gives me enough time to lock-down. 2-0 Match 3 : 5cb (Jonathan Gary) nice guy and good playa game1: he comes out fast with 2/2’s then puts me into his time machine with man o war’s and neckrataal’s. game’s decided with me having no red for firestorm. game2: he takes me down to 10 before I throw down with light of day. He putzes around with man o wars and neckrataals for a few turns and then outdraws me with 3 incinerates and a firestorm to my 4 land. 2-1 Match 4 : sligh game1 : I get a tradewind out and start bouncing a scroll. I draw a counter to get rid of it, he draws another. I bounce it once and he never plays it again(?) I finally draw into a geddon at 4 life. game2 : chill slows him down enough for me to lock-down 3-1 Match 5 : Xcw game1: not sure how I won game2: lock-down 4-1 Match 6 : Some version of LD (guy from Missouri?) I wanted to draw in with this guy but he was convinced that he couldn’t make it in with 4-1-1. By the way, his tie-breakers were better than mine. game1: games decided when he taps out for a fallen angel, using the last counter on a gemstone and an undiscovered. I look at my hand of nothing much except a geddon. I draw a man o war… game2: much like the first one except I counter the angel instead of man o war’ing it. Also throw in a tradewind after the geddon. I felt kinda bad for this guy as he was 4-0 going into the last 2 rounds and then losing both. I guess sometimes you gotta play though. 5-1 I come into the final 8 as #4 seed. We also find out everyone else’s seeding, so I know I’m playing Wyatt Agard tomorrow for the quarters. Adam, Justin, and I go back to the hotel and I head over to the convention center at the hotel to play in a draft. I get to bed around 2 o’clock. -Day2- I get up at 6:45 again because we have to be there at 8:00 sharp. I catch a taxi to the place and then realize that I read the free shuttle schedule wrong and could have taken the shuttle and still made it there I time….Great:( Quaterfinals: sligh (Wyatt Agard) game1: he beats me down as I don’t get the red for a firestorm. game2: he has to deal with single chills throughout the game which really slows down his game. Lock-down game3: he goes first and goes land fanatic; attack and plays another fanatic. No second land. I go chill game4: I have to mulligan once or twice but the draw I have to keep only has one land. He kills me in 4 turns game5: I go first with a second turn chill. Over the next 10 turns I get 2 more chills and a geddon. Impulsing for chill is amazing. game count: 3-2 Semifinals: gOdZiLLa (Julian Fane) game1: he goes first and a first turn hidden horror is too much for me without a man o war. game2: furnace is so good. Legacy’s was good too as he didn’t try anything until he got rid of it, which gave me time to work his graveyard. game3: I lobotomy his necromancies, and after a little battling over some stuff, I pull a furnace. And then another. Tradewind-lock-down. game4: he goes first witha second turn merfolk trader, pitch godzilla. I follow up with a furnace. Hehe. The game’s really decided when he goes hidden horror. I counter, he pyroblasts. I say its kewl and then he attacks. "Uhhhh, hey, that horror’s dead. I take 1?" game count: 3-1 Finals: 3cw (Jay) game1: it’s a creature race and he wins with a propoganda and then orb. game2: he seemed pissed off at only getting 1 multiland when I didn’t have any. Anyway, the game goes on long enough and I get out the tradewind-lock. game3: I think about the same thing happened as the second. game4: he puts on the beating and after messing up numurous times (such as man o waring the wrong creature) gets locked up with trade-wind-geddon. However I am at 1, and the one turn I can’t counter (all I have is a bird right after the geddon) he topdecks a firestorm. game5: the game stalls out and I want to put some sort of pressure so I man o war his warrior, with plans to counter next turn. He pyros, and I didn’t want to over commit so I let it be countered. Next turn he armours up the warrior, I counter, he LAPSES. WTF?!?!? After a beating for 2 turns I draw the multiland needed to disinchant. I stabalize again at 1 and when he has no cards in hand he topdecks: a man o war to return my flagpole and attacks with the warrior. game count: 2-3 So I lose to a kewl guy who is a topdecking pro by day, Canadien by night. It’s all right though cause I get $7500 and had a good time. In the end I money draft with Adam against two other guys from Cali and we give’em a good beating, even though it was Adam’s first team draft:) Before I got to some props and slops I would like to give some facts about Orlando: 1. It’s way to hot and humid. 2. The food at the concession stand was way to expensive, considering it was 7/11 food. $6.50 for a hamburger combo is NOT strong. 3. The food at the concession stand was so horrible, it made me almost puke. 4. For some reason, there were some hot girls that go to magic tourneys in Florida (must be the heat). 5. Andrew Pacifico is the man. Props: -WOTC for giving away mucho free money -WOTC for putting us up in really nice hotel rooms -WOTC for giving us free airplane tickets -All the really good judges who ran the JSS (Donais, Charlie Cantino, Rosewater, and others) -Andrew Pacifico for hooking me up -My dad for flying out with me, even though it was a free vacation for him:) -Everyone there for not being a dick like at usual money tourneys Slops: -Concession food -Orlando for being way to hot -Me for not bringing enough clothes:( Charles Kornblith Ziggie2000@aol.com ( \/\/estsider Rider ) on irc