Subject: JSS Report Date: Wed, 10 Jun 1998 17:27:03 -0400 From: Toby Wachter To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Ok, I have never done a tournament report before believe it or not, even with all the stuff I've done for The Dojo. This past weekend I went to the Junior Super Series in Florida. I couldn't think of a title, so pick one of these: How to put off studying for finals by playtesting, therefore winning scholarship money you need to wait an extra year to use after getting left back. Bullshit, bullshit, and yet more bullshit. $7.50 for a hamburger, chips and coke Disney secretly runs the government. Wednesday ------------ After a typical day at school of not paying attention and sleeping during classes (and lots of ideas for decks running through my mind), I get home, grab the three decks I was to choose from for Florida, and go to Neutral Ground NYC for some night before playtesting. My three decks were Suicide Black, Sligh, and 5cKastle with Ertai's Familiar and Hermit Druid. Unfortunately, I picked the absolute worst day to playtest, as it was draft tournaments and assorted random CCG tournaments. So I played a few games against fun decks, and tried to trade for the few cards I needed. Otherwise it was pretty uneventful. I got home, and went to sleep. Thursday --------- This was also pretty uneventful. Why am I putting this crap in here? Like you give half a shit about what I do in my spare time? Anyways, I fly into Florida and go to my mom's friend's house where I was supposed to stay during the weekend. I play a few games of Sligh vs Living Death and Suicide Black vs Living death. With the Death deck just not doing well enough, I decided to go with Sligh Day 1 since it is consistent, aggressive, and doesn't get bad hands frequently. Friday, Day 1- Junior World Open ----------------------------------- Looking at the field it seemed that this wouldn't be as hard as I had feared. I approximated 80+ people in the 15 and under, so 3-3 should make it...an easy task for Sligh to accomplish. They then announced that it would be 5 rounds, which prompted mutterings of "....what bullshit" from the crowd. But this happens, so I personally shut up and played. Most people like a decklisting before a report to make following it easier, so here is your useless generic sligh deck: 17 Mountain 4 Wasteland 4 Fireblast 3 Fireslinger 4 Cursed Scroll 4 Ball Lightning 4 Shock 4 Incinerate 2 Viashino Sandstalker 4 Ironclaw Orcs 2 Goblin Digging Team 4 Mogg Fanatic 4 Jackal Pup Sideboard: 4 Ankh of Mishra 4 Pyroblast 3 Bottle Gnomes 1 Boil 3 Shatter Round 1- Quinton Collins playing U/w control Well, here's my mentality as far as Sligh goes. Sligh can be metagamed against as much as you want...get a bad hand and you lose...this is where the deck has its main strength. So when playing vs permission I am a lot more positive about the outcome than many other players would be. Game 1 This went by really fast. I wasteland his only Adarkar Wastes and beat his head in (not an egotistical term mind you..I frequently use this when I get beaten) Game 2 I apply early pressure, he taps out for a Rainbow Efreet. I throw the Fanatic Skydiver at it, and the Ironclaw/Jackal Pup crew comes through for the win Round 2- Ben Valentine playing G5C This guy gave me the toughest match of the day. Much props to this dude....a good player who gave me a run for my money. Game 1 I heard 3 Jackal Pups in your opening hand is good. This wasn't too hard, as Fireslinger just pokes down Birds and Grangers down, and Wastelands rape multi-color sources. As usual, Fireblast deals the fatal blow. Game 2 He gets out a Warmth about turn 4-7, and I manage to bring his life to 7....then the second warmth hits the table, and I only have an Orc out staring at his walls. As the Orc just sits there and whines at me for a while, I wait for burn to accumulate. Then the 3rd Warmth hits the table...scoop. Game 3 This was extremely close. Warmth hits really early, but I get out enough pressure to bring him to a small enough life total. He starts building up creatures, and I need to bolt a few things, which gets his life up to stay alive a bit longer. Eventually I throw a Mogg at his head and Fireblast for 2 to win. Round 3- Jesse Scheff playing Vineyard/Scroll/Bridge This matchup can definitely be tough until Game 2 where I can actually bring in shatters for the Brigdes and Scrolls. Game 1 Opening hand has 3 Ball Lightnings and 2 mountains and I'm just thinking it's game no matter what he's playing. Unfortunately I draw no more mountains, and even a 4th Ball Lightning. He gets out a quick enough Ensnaring Bridge and by the time I get my 3rd Mountain it's too late. My Ball Lightnings become more useless than a Great Wall. Game 2 In go Shatters and Ankhs, which make a much easier game for me. He dumps out his hand and casts a scroll which gets Shattered, and I continue the assault. Then Bridge hits the table, he Monkeys my scrolls, and gets out a Vineyard. He's sinking the mana into the scroll, and even puts out a second vineyard. I Shatter his Scroll, and we both start burning. I topdeck Scroll, hit him a few times, and he monkeys it. He's about to mana burn to enough for me to fry him, but he draws a Bottle Gnomes and stays alive just enough. Round 4- Forgot his name, playing White Weenie Game 1 First game he gets a bit mana screwed, and is staring down at 2 Jackal Pups. I shock his White Knight, and just keep running the dogs over. Eventually he Earthquakes for 1, which would have hurt a lot more if he had more mana. Keyword is "if". Burn finishes the job as always. Game 2 This guy gets screwed this game as well, with only an undiscovered after he didn't take a second mulligan. I wouldn't say this guy had bad luck..I'd say he didn't run enough land. My hand isn't much better as I only have a mountain and Wasteland. With a Mogg and Orc out I decide to Wasteland the Paradise and hope to draw another Mountain, which I do next draw. Eventually he gets out another land and casts Warmth, but the critters come through for enough beatings. Round 5- Don't remember his name, we drew to ensure Top 40 Final Record- 3-1-1, 6-3-2 in Games One the shuttle back some people bring up Joseph Crosby, who won the New York JSS. I mention that his reports are a bit egotistical, and some of us joke around about how funny it would be to knock him out of the tournament, or to just drag him out and beat him up for being an egomaniac. Later the irony would sink into this. So I place Top 40...unfortunately Ryan (fubarduck from IRC) doesn't. I take the shuttle back to the Hyatt Lobby to find Steve Hirsch and Zach Weintraub from our loosely based Team Digital Boy to playtest with. I find Steve pretty easily and we talk about decks while he eats dinner. He says to me "I have this 4 Color Blue deck..it's all proxied, but I think it can work". My reply is "Listen, I tried that a while back and it didn't work...I don't like permission in the current metagame because you can't recover from a bad draw. Besides, this loses to Suicide Black". Of course he disagrees with me, so I beat him 4-1 with Black. then I look at his White Weenie which was given to him by the Demonic Attorneys that has Tradewinds and Man-o'-War. I tell him that I will probably wind up playing the Living Death deck, but we should wait for Zach to show up so we can see what tech he has. After some searching, we eventually catch up with him and go to Steve's room, where I find out that Zach only brought the Living Death deck. Before we start playtesting I ask him to sign the Uktabi Orangutans which he topdecked against me in JSS NY and eventually gave to me. He says sure, and when I go to put them back in my deck he has written "Bend Over" on them. I tell him that I'll probably get DQ'ed for that, but he shows me that his are signed the same way so I just figure I shouldn't worry about it. After he beats the Sligh deck pretty consistently with Living Death, I feel it might be the way to go. Steve in the meanwhile is winning lots of games vs. Ron Schubert's Peaches deck with the 4cU, then beats down on Sligh with it, but I'm still not convinced at all. We order in some pizza, and as soon as it comes Steve's father is telling us we should all sleep..as if us obsessive types go for that. Zach and I go down to the lobby and test some more. At this point Living Death is losing to everything. At about 2 AM I say "Listen..today all that was being played was g5c and White Weenie...this deck should beat those...it can beat most of the field. Do you have any Impulses?". I slap together the deck, and Steve comes down to the lobby. Steve: So can I have those Reflecting Pools? Me: Sorry dude, I'm playing it. Steve: I can't believe you. At all. You hate this deck. Me: Nah, not anymore Note to Steve: This was never "your" deck =) I test a few games with Zach and we go up to his room where I sleep on the floor for 5 hours. Saturday ------- Wake up, shower, go down to the Sports place. On the shuttle there, we saw people from Operation Rescue protesting the fact that it was Gay Day at Disney. Of course I'm reminded of the Bad Religion song Operation Rescue.."the rectifying troop is here, the ones we've needed all these years to stop the heinous wrong doings and verify our moral benevolence as a people". My liberal middle finger gets pointed straight at them. This is one of the times religion truly makes me nauseous. Anyways, we arrive and walk around a bit observing the Exodus Prerelease while waiting for the tournament to start. I find Steve, and he's playing White Weenie. We fill out our deck registration sheets and soon the pairings are posted. Here's the deck I played: 5 Color Please Concede by Team Digital Boy (based off a deck by some guy named Donais) 4 Impulse 3 Gerrard's Wisdom 4 Wrath of God 4 Wall of Blossoms (Fagpole) 3 Dismiss 4 Counterspell (Betas I got signed by Garfield at the tournament) 4 Whispers of the Muse 3 Gaea's Blessing 3 Dissipate 2 Uktabi Orangutan (Bend Over) 1 Disenchant 1 Warrior Angel 1 Fireball 4 Reflecting Pool 3 Gemstone Mine 3 Island 3 City of Brass 2 Adarkar Wastes 2 Thalakos Lowlands 2 Undiscovered Paradise 1 Plains 1 Vec Townships 1 Wasteland Sideboard 2 Light of Day 2 Lobotomy 1 Dwarven Miner 1 Ebony Charm (tech of the day) 1 Disenchant 2 Hydroblast 2 Teferi's Realm 2 Cop:Red 2 Pyroblast We named our deck in the tradition of Pacifico and Crosby's decks..we put in 2-3 original cards, gave them a nickname, and called it our own. Round One- Ken Moser playing Green 5 Color This is probably the easiest matchup I can get. Unless he gets out an early Winter Orb, the only thing I really need to counter is Armageddon. However, like many other players, Ken didn't even run Winter Orb in his deck. I can't remember the exact way the outcome came about, but he was beaten pretty easily. Matches- 1-0 Games- 2-0-0 Zack didn't play this round..he misregistered his deck...this guy either has the worst or best luck in the world, depending on what day it is. Round Two- Ron Schubert playing U5C Well, this was going to be quite a pain. When you play both these decks vs each other, I think it becomes more about play skill than anything else, as well as not drawing your Wraths ;) Game 1 I get thoroughly mana screwed, but am able to recover as he is playing a slow deck like I am. I Impulse a few times and now the game is all about Whispering, Countering your opponent's Whispers, and Countering your opponent's Blessings. The key in permission vs permission as always is not to do anything..often the one who makes the first move loses. He makes the first move, and after I counter his whispers I am able to force through mine. He concedes when I have 7 cards in hand and he has 3. Game 2 In this game the sideboard tech did it for me. I wait for his turn to be over, and whisper, which he counters..i then draw another counter by countering his counter (confused yet?). With him all tapped out, I bring out Dwarven Miner. I kill a few lands while he digs through his library for a Hydroblast, which he eventually forces through. But that was enough distraction and I am able to Whisper more than him, and Ebony Charm out 2 Dismisses and a Blessing. Eventually he concedes with 3 cards left in his library, and all his blessings gone. Matches- 2-0-0 Games- 4-0-0 Round 3- Feature Match against Joe Farkas- Playing U/R Counter Shard This, as the last match, is all about getting through your Whispers. I think my deck has the upper hand, because as long as my Blessings get through, he will run out of counters and I won't. Game 1 This was easily the hardest game for me all weekend long. He forces through his Whispers and I am at 7 to a Shard Phoenix. With him not having many counters left in his library of 7 cards, I see my opening. I Wrath of God, and send the turn over to him. He brings back Phoenix and casts it, and now he has 5 mana open. On my turn I blessing back 3 counters, and draw one of them. I cast a 14 point Fireball to kill him. He counters, I counter, he counters, I counter. Game, and I had just enough mana to do it. Game 2 In this game I get much easier control than last time, as I Ebony Charmed one of his Phoenixes away. I'm trying not to cast my Blessing yet as I already have one in graveyard. He can't get through a Shard Phoenix, and when he finally gains control of the game there are 3 cards lef tin his library, but time runs out anyway. Matches- 3-0-0 Games- 3-0-1 Round 4- Jeff Magid playing U/W Humility/Prayer This guy I have tons of respect for. Not only a good player, but a polite one as well. This match we were both pretty pissed at, because had we both played against anything but another control deck, we could have won much more easily. Game 1 He has much more dead cards than I do with Orim's Prayers, Humilities, etc. He can't force through a Geddon, but does get through a Winter Orb. He eventually concedes seeing that he won't have the time to win second game. Game 2 Pretty much goes the same as the first game...he goes "Scragnoth, go". I sit there in disbelief for a while, and go about my turn. All I needed to do was draw a Wall of Blossoms, but unfortunately they decided to hide. Scragnoth beats me in the head like an unwanted stepchild. Game 3 This one's looking much better for me, as I am playing Whispers and he isn't because of his mana control. I force through a couple gaining some card advantage. I manage to force through a Lobotomy, and I get his Geddons outta there. Things are looking pretty good for me with 40 minutes left and I have total control. He's able to force through a Winter Orb however which slows it down enough for time to run out. Matches- 3-0-1 Games- 5-1-2 Round 5- Feature Match- Julian Fane Playing Comerzilla This seems like the god matchup for my deck...oh man was I wrong. Game 1 He gets out a first turn Ritual, Hidden Horror. I hear this isn't a good thing. I Wisdom a few times, eventually draw a Wrath which he counters. Hidden Horror pisses on my walls and beats my head in like a freak show midget. Game 2 He casts an early Merfolk Traders which is plinking away at me. I draw some Pyroblasts with Whispers and get a Lobotomy through, taking his Animate Deads outta there. He taps out for a Sliver Queen, and counters my counter. At this point I feel like the dog in the Taco Bell commercials. "Hey Godzilla....want something to drink? How about the blood dripping from my head? Sure, just beat me senseless...and give me a Gordita." Matches- 3-1-1 Games- 5-3-2 Inbetween these rounds Zack tells me he got a caution for writing "Bend Over' on his Uktabis...talk about irony. Oh, yeah irony is a bitch...for instance, look at my last match. Round 6- Joseph Crosby playing 5cKastle Ok, so this is pretty much it. Winner makes Top 8. I also get to see if this guy is as much of a dick as everyone says he is. All of his cronies watch, as well as my friends, and I joke around about how this should be a feature match. Game 1 He gets out a few Birds and "Flagpoles". I build up lands, but can't seem to draw any counters. He gets through 2 Fallen Angels, and a few Impulses and Whispers later I just can't draw a Wrath. As a side note, his friends were accusing my friend Zack Weintraub of signaling to me with hand gestures, and were generally acting pretty nasty to all my friends that were watching. Game 2 I Lobotomize out his Living Deaths, and get out a Dwarven Miner. At this point there is hardly any way he can win, as I am Whispering every turn and he can't get more than one multi-color source at a time. I politely ask him to concede, as there are 40 minutes left in the match. Were I to take the time needed to win, there would not be enough time left in the third game for either of us to win and advance. He declines, even with me having a hand full of Counterspells. He even takes 5 minutes for each of his Intuitions....whatever. Game 3 Well, with 13 minutes left my only way to win is to race through my library for Warrior Angel and get her out. I finally find her, but I am one mana short of being able to cast her and counter any Living Deaths which I know he'll cast. All this time he is taking quite a while on his turns, and the head judge watching says absolutely nothing. I have to put her out, he Living Deaths as I stare at my 2 open lands and Dissipate. Game over, no one wins, no one advances. Matches- 3-1-2 Games- 6-3-3 So I suppose I should make a statement on what happened in this since it was highly talked about by those observing it, and quickly spread around. My opinion is that he should have taken the second game loss and allowed either of us enough time to advance. However, I'm not going to sit here and bitch about him not conceding because that's not right. I CAN say that there was a good chance he was stalling. When he was taking 5-8 minutes per turn, he swore to me that he had a Pyroblast, among other things. All those watching as well as Zack assured me that all he had were a couple of lands and a Wall of Roots. The only people who said he did have something were his friends. In any case, I trust my friends and random people whom I've never met over his friends. All and all of course this is going to happen when you play a slow deck, I just wish he had been more sportsmanlike, or at least smart enough to concede game 2...who knows, if he did, he might have beaten me Game 3 and placed top 8. Obviously this made me a very angry person, and many of the people who were watching (including Jay who would eventually win the whole thing) told me that I was definitely screwed out of the Top 8. When people asked me how I did that night I would say "...well, I played Joseph Crosby last round and..". At that point if the person was a Florida resident they would tell me "You don't have to say anything else...I feel bad for you...he screws over a lot of people". His friends saying "Hey dude, just shut up and get over it" made me even more pissed off. So I take my 19th place showing, and $2,000. Not too bad, but I would have and should have done better. I also had the toughest matchups possible, but the hardest things in life to accept are those which you have no control over. So a very pissed off me goes down to the Exodus pre-release with Zack. This was probably the one thing I needed to make me not pissed for a while. WotC was holding foreign TE-SH and EX drafts for $10, so I did lots of those and won a few. It was all in good fun, and I got to raredraft a little ;) Soon Ryan and Steve showed up, and we had a great time...the best time I had playing Magic in ages. We leave the tournament center at about 5 AM, and wander around the hotel trying to find food, but can't find it anywhere. Sunday we go down to the tournament center where I draft the sickest 4th Edition deck possible and win a Natural Selection (yay). Afterwards, I go home and that's about that. Props- Zack Weintraub for lending me cards, letting me sleep on his floor, and being an all around cool guy Steve Hirsch for showing me that the metagame means shit, and brining me back to old school magic. Tons more props for beating bouncy blue with a deck that never should. Jay for winning the whole thing with a damn good deck. Jeff Magid for being an intelligent player, and a good sportsman. Ryan for taking a 2-3 in the open really well, and walking around with us trying to find food at 5 AM. Jake Browne- For getting 2 IRC guys into Top 8 (Next year three) Jack Stanton for lending me cards, and trading me an Arabian Nights Island Fish. Alex Shvarstman, for lending me cards and putting up with my obsessive magic tendencies all year. The Levels Crew: Asaf Peleg, Jon Sorkowitz, Sam Stein, Dave Wilcox and anyone else I missed for helping me playtest through the year and showing me just how well younger players can play (I better see some of you guys in Florida next year). Other assorted people who helped me playtest and shared ideas: Adam Schepp, Shawn McKeown, Matt Calhoun, Andrew Schwimmer, Kevin Wu, John Chinnock (for the Steel Necro deck that won me a challenge), Casey, and anyone else I'm sure I missed. WotC for a well run tournament, $10 Foreign Drafts, and for giving me $2,000 :) Slops- Disney for charging $7.50 for a crappy lunch Joseph Crosby's friends for accusing everyone...people I know and don't know, of signaling, and for telling me to "just get over it" Joseph Crosby- I don't know if you stalled or not, but your reputation hints at the former. I can't be 100% sure of what happened...but I do know it doesn't take 6 minutes to Intuition, or 5 minutes to decide whether or not to cast a Wall of Roots. Operation Rescue- Let people do what they want, and stop hating people for finding god in a slightly different way than you do. Until next time, Toby Wachter- Touretts on IRC Touretts@ix.netcom.com