Subject: Louisville PTQ, 7/18/98 Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 15:15:58 EDT From: MJDGLD@aol.com To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Frank and Steve, Due to my poor performance in the last 3 rounds of Swiss in the aforementioned PTQ, I wasn't too excited about writing a report, but I think this report will be useful to show how this particular kind of deck CAN do well, but can also shoot craps for you. Before the main body of the report, I'll mention the attedence, etc.: The only really well-known player at the event was Randy Buehler, who couldn't play because he's already qualified, but he was there because his wife and other teammates were trying to qualify. Several Team CMU people were in attendence. While I'm to lazy to ask what teams are in attendence, like some other well- known DOJO report writer does, I'll now the individuals and teams who are less well-known, but who were also in attendence: Team Spectacular (whether they are still an official team or not) of Louisville. The three members present were: Leonard Richardson, who was wearing about the coolest hat I've ever seen him wear at a PTQ. What did everyone else think? Trey (Richard) Van Cleave, who had been in France for quite some time, but was back in Louisville this past weekend. I didn't get to talk to him enough to find out if he's back for good or not. Andy Hicks, who complains because no one ever puts him in one of their DOJO reports. Since he's relatively new to the PTQ scene (this is his 2nd or 3rd PTQ season), that's probably why he hasn't been mentioned yet, but he's getting his wish in this report. Theoren Martin, from the Indianapolis area, who is an avid DOJO writer, who mainly writes reports for constructed PTQs, and he usually mentions Leonard's hat. Since he probably won't write a report for this PTQ, I thought I'd mention Leornard's AWESOME hat, instead. Pat (father) and Mike (son) Heffern, who were the only fellow St. Louisans to make the trip. Mike is one of the best young players in the St. Louis area, and he won one of the PTQs here in St. Louis for PT NY '98, which was his first Pro Tour. Of course, the excellent Legion staff was there. Of them, I only know Steve and Marcy Port (the TO and his wife) and Darrell Wyatt (the Level III and head judge) so far. A couple of other people were there who weren't at the PTQ in Madison when I went there a couple of weeks before. Also in attendence were several acquaintences of mine, and the balance of the competitors, which numbered right at 100. The players who attended the Louisville PTQ were a very diverse group from several states, including Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee, as well as Kentucky and us 3 Missourians who were there, plus maybe a few other people here and there. The vast majority of the players were nice people, as are most of the players from the Midwest and the "northern Mid-South states," and none of my 7 opponents were unpleasant to play against. Which is also fairly normal in this region. Now on to the "REAL REPORT," which will be short. This report is entitled "How I Went 4-3 and Missed the Top 8 by One Game." Overall, I think my construction of this deck was good, but maybe not quite optimal, and one HUGE play error cost me from making top 8. I'll entitle the deck I built from my cards "BRUTE FORCE," and you'll see why. The theme of the deck was to take some early hits until I get out 4 mana and then cast a fat creature every turn. Because of the amount of fat creatures I had, playing 18 land was critical in this deck. I also had a Rolling Thunder AND a Fanning the Flames as the "late game control/finisher" cards. Below is a listing of the deck I played (several of the "questionable" cards I played I categorize as "personal preference choices"): BRUTE FORCE Lands: 7 Forests (3 Asian ones as my extras) 7 Mountains (2 were extras) 4 Plains Green (fat like you wouldn't believe): 1 Heartwood Dryad (the only creature I had that could even BLOCK a shadow creature) 1 Heartwood Treefolk (for some reason whenever I played against green, they targeted this guy with their removal in their other colors) 1 Muscle Sliver (speed! LOL) 1 Pincer Beetles (speed/removal) 1 Skyshroud Troll (awesome, as always) 1 Trained Armodon (not bad) 1 Spined Wurm (fat) 1 Jackalope Herd (fat) 1 Plated Rootwalla (fat) Red (fat + burn): 1 Chaotic Goo (with my luck w/ coin flips, it was just another 3/3) 1 Flowstone Giant (pumpable fat) 1 Lightning Elemental (surprise fat) 1 Rolling Thunder (late game control) 1 Fanning the Flames (late game control) 1 Mogg Flunkies (fast fat) 1 Furnace Brood (regen-killer) 1 Mage Il-Vec ("Suboptimal Tim," but you play w/ the cards you get) White (marginal, personal preference color, since I considered black about equal): 1 Angelic Protector (token flier) 1 Disenchant (VERY useful in this format) 1 Elite Javelineer (not bad) 1 Repentance ("quick" removal) 1 Shackles ("quick" control) The AWESOME Sideboard: Land: 9 Basic Islands and Swamps, total Multi: 1 Sky Spirit (not the right 2 colors) Artifacts: 1 Grindstone (I only consider it to be playable in a defensive deck) 1 Watchdog (decent sideboard vs. shadow, but I had enough other stuff, and I much prefer them in a defensive deck) Black (a tie for white as the splash, but there are a couple of reasons why I chose white): 1 Darkling Stalker (possibly splashable, but best with heavy black) 1 Enfeeblement (NOT splashable) 1 Evincar's Justice (NOT splashable) 1 Gravedigger (excellent, but not required with all the fat I had in the deck) 1 Rain of Tears (marginal, but not splashable) 1 Servant of Volrath (OK, and splashable) 1 Cannibalize (good, splashable removal, but in a deck full of fat, I preferred Repentence and Shackles) 1 Dungeon Shade (see Darkling Stalker) 1 Torment (not bad, and splashable) 1 Wall of Souls (good, and splashable) 1 Cat Burglar (good, and splashable) 1 Death's Duet (good, and splashable, but not necessary w/ all the fat I had) 1 Thrull Surgeon (good, and splashable) The MAIN reasons I played white over black was that I only had room for 5 cards other than red or green (because I wanted to run only 4 of the splash land), and I felt my 5 white cards were marginally better than the 5 best black cards in this type of deck. My white sideboard was INCREDIBLE, too, and it won me several games. Blue (the color I never even considered): 1 Cunning (hmmm, a Giant Growth ENCHANTMENT. It will rarely ever make my cut) 1 Dream Cache (an OK card, that rarely makes my cut, but would if it were an instant) 1 Insight (a playable SB card) 1 Leap (a decent cantrip) 1 Rootwater Matriarch (good, but not splashable) 1 Shimmering Wings (an OK enchantment) 1 Time Ebb (normally marginal, but good in some decks) 1 Volrath's Curse (good as an irritation but little more) 1 Contempt (a better irritation than Volrath's Curse) 1 Tidal Warrior (a 1CC 1/1 with a fairly decent ability) 1 Wall of Tears (excellent blocker) 1 Dominating Licid (good, but not splashable) 1 Robe of Mirrors (an OK creature enchantment) Green: 1 Burgeoning (a card that's only good early in a game) 1 Canopy Spider (an excellent defensive creature I didn't quite have room for) 1 Choke (a sideboard card that won me one game) 1 Keeper of the Beasts (a decent card with a good special ability, a late cut) 1 Lowland Basilisk (another good defensive creature, but I couldn't quite find room for it) 1 Spike Drone (not bad for a 1CC 1/1, but I had enough quality cards to put in) Red: 1 Giant Strength (a good enchantment I didn't have room for) 1 Stone Rain (playable sometimes, when you need to fill a slot) 1 Flowstone Flood (see Stone Rain above) White (the BROKEN sideboard): 1 Circle of Protection: Black (great, but only fit it in vs. about 1/2 of the decks that played black, because I always sided in Light of Day) 1 Circle of Protection: Blue (usually used Choke as anti-blue SB card) 1 Circle of Protection: Red (one of the broken SB cards, helped win a couple of games) 1 Light of Day (Awesome in the SB. Won me 2 games) 1 Bandage (a good cantrip I didn't have room for) 1 Change of Heart (a good card that would have made the cut had I been playing heavier white) 1 Charging Paladin (my very last cut, because I wanted to cut white to a splash) 1 Treasure Hunter (another late cut) Anyway, the deck was built around casting fatty after fatty starting on turn 4, and attacking all out every turn most of the time, because my creatures were much bigger than my opponent's, and I'd cast a new fatty to be the "blocker" of the turn. When the deck worked as built, it was medieval, but it needed a solid land draw. Brief round-by-round explanation (names omitted, so I don't offend anyone for forgetting only them. LOL): Round 1: I played against one of Randy Buehler's teammates who had an excellent deck, which featured Fevered Convulsions, Cursed Scroll, Disturbed Burial, and Fanning the Flames. He beat me in game #1, but I came back to win 2-1, thanks to Light of Day AND COP Red in game #2 and a "Sligh" draw in game #3. Round 2: Another close match vs. an excellent opponent, who had a fairly weak deck, which I won 2-1. Round 3: I managed to sweep another strong opponent who had a strong deck. Round 4: I "played down" in round 4, but I swept a person who also had a good deck. After round 4, I was the #1 seed, and all I really had to do was win round 5 to be able to draw into the top. Even a loss in round 5, a win in round 6, and a draw in round 7 (if my opponent were willing to draw) would get me into the top 8. Round 5: My deck performed very well in game #1, winning handily. Then things went south. I drew 2 land off the draw in games 2 and 3, with little additional land soon thereafter. As a result, I lost the match 1-2. Ugh, I had come within ONE GAME of being able to draw into the top 8. I hate it when that happens. Round 6: I played against the deck that I had registered, which was a deck with EXCELLENT non-creature spells, including Fanning the Flames and Disturbed Burial, and it had lots of small, fast creatures, but few large creatures. The person who had received the deck had constructed it perfectly, having the guts to play with Jackal Pup, Sarcomancy, and Carnophage, which many people don't have the guts to play with (especially Sarcomancy and to a lesser extent, Pup). My opponent deserves many props for constructing the deck so well, and he played it well, too. In game #1, my fat creatures prevailed. In game #2, I had a poor mana draw, and his speed prevailed. In game #3, he got a perfect Sligh draw, which included Mogg Fanatic, Carnophage, Sarcomancy, and Mogg Raider all early, while he went first and I had a decent, but slow draw. He hit me so hard so fast, that it broke my concentration a bit, and I ended up making a game-losing mistake on turn #5, because it enabled him to get me down to 2 and finish me off w/ Evincar's Justice. That one play mistake I made all day knocked me out of contention. That pretty well typifies Sealed Deck PTQs. Your deck will often fail on you in one round, so you have to play perfectly from there on out. Round 7: I decided to play it out, because Legion gives everyone who plays all the Swiss Rounds and finishes with 2 or fewer losses 2 booster packs, and I only had a 4 hour drive, so "what the heck?" I play against a person who I've played before, and he has a strong b/w/u deck with lots of evasion, so I really need my removal to be able to beat him down fast enough. Game #1: I mulligan, but I get a decent draw. His evasion wins the race, with him Power Sinking my Fanning the Flames being the game-winning play. Game #2: My large creatures maul him. Game #3: I get totally color screwed, drawing 4 Mountains and no other land, and he handily beats me down. This PTQ showed me that a deck full of fat creatures and a couple of X-spells can be very tempermental. Even with 18 land, and choosing to draw first whenever I had the option. I lost 4 games between the last 3 matches due to mana-screw or color screw, I lost 2 games due to my decks slowness vs. fast decks and decks with evasion, and I lost 1 game because I made a major mistake. Overall, the deck went 11-8, which isn't bad, but not quite good enough. Last Saturday was another excellent example of how fickle decks can be in this environment and how critical a single mistake can be. This upcoming week, I'll see whoever goes to the PTQ in the Kansas City area, so I'll see some people I haven't seen for a while, since I've been going east most of the time this season. Good luck to all good and courteous players, Mike Donovan "Magnet" for the toughest possible opponent in my bracket at every PTQ. LOL "Super Scrub," who might finally be figuring out how to play TE/ST/EX Limited.