Subject: Pro Tour Qualifier report (some thoughts on london and Doncaster) Date: Mon, 24 Aug 1998 14:51:32 -0700 From: Mark Wraith Newsgroups: uk.games.trading-cards.misc This is pretty much my usual report, but I'll be taking a little longer to comment on some of the extraneous things that were happening on the day, and of course, the report on Doncaster will be from the perspective of a judge. Unlike Neil, whose report is tactful in avoiding naming the guilty, I will name them, to make the story more interesting, if anyone thinks that I've been a little (or a lot) unfair to them, don't hesitiate to e-mail me or post a reply! So, the report itself.... I'd decided this time around that I couldn't really be bothered travelling up to Scotland next weekend for a chance at the Tour, so that just left me with three opportunities, the one-slotter at London on Saturday, and the two-slotter at Doncaster the day after. I have to admit that it would have made more sense to me to have london as two slots and Doncaster as one slot, because more people were going to turn up to London, it's more central to the majority of players, and it didn't clash with anything, and also all the best players in the UK were going to be there. Didn't bother doing any practising for Sealed deck, because I always seem to get some abhorrent rubbish, but I felt that my draft skillz had been improving VERY significantly recently, and that I would be able to draft a fairly good deck if I made top 8. On Saturday, Team Skillz were, Mark Wraith, Warren Marsh, Ben Jacobson, and Neil Bond, we felt that we had a good chance of getting at least a couple of players into the top 8 The venue was incredibly easy to find, despite some people saying how they always got lost when they went there (and these people were from London?) Also, I don't know where Cahd parked, he said it cost him £25 but we got in for £8 all day, and it was only a ten minute walk. The venue was some good, there was a bar, there was plenty of room, pool tables, and to bring back memories of LA, the monoploly trivia machine that me and Gordon wasted like ten quid on at Heathrow, they had a copy of that too, cool! For those who don't know, the advertised format for the day was 7 rounds swiss, followed by a top 8 knockout, winner takes all. First uncool thing of the day, we are given places to sit for the deck logging, I take in a drink of orange juice with me to the play area, Richard Clyne says I'll be DQ'd if I put it on the table (WTF?) what sort of anal ruling is this, what am I going to do, hide cards in my drink? I felt sorry for the deck I logged, and joked with Chris Manners that I should have put some entry fee for the side events in as consolation for the guy who got it. There was some pointless rule about having to fill in loads of zeroes which meant that deck logging took twice as long as necessary :( The deck I received however, was some good, it had Rolling Thunder, Living Death, Flame Wave, loads of good cheap creatures, fairly good removal in abundance, decent sideboard cards in the form of Dread of Night and Perish, and a Mox Diamond for speed (and because I need to get double red and double black out of my deck). I ended up splashing green in my deck for a pair of Lizards (Plated Rootwalla and Rootwalla) and I ask Gordon Benson if he knows what the weather is like in Chicago at the end of September, he says I am arrogant (damn right). Chris Manners gets some abhorrent piece of shit, maybe they gave us out the wrong decks :) I manage to cause confusion by picking up Chris Manners basic land pile, comparing it with what was written on the sheet, and obviously finding the difference, the confusion is sorted out when Chris finds he has insufficient mana to build a competitive deck, and I get a slapped wrist for being an idiot :( I don't have the decklist for what I played as I threw the commons and uncommons away this morning (oops!) but believe me it was some good. Playtest a couple of games against Warren, he has an amazing two colour deck (Black/Red = house in sealed deck) and somehow beat him two nil. The rest of Team Skillz has decks that are average to good. They read out the pairings by player number and the table you are supposed to go to, this was an absolutely terrible arrangement, and Jason Howlett seemed to call out random numbers of people that he had already read out, and ignored other people completely, it meant that about ten minutes was wasted at the start of every round. I had hoped to get off to a nice gentle start against some randomite with a sixty card five colur deck, but instead I get matched up with Paul Hawkins, who is a very good player for those who don't know him. Unfortunately I have absolutely no idea whatever what happened in this round, other than I did him some lethal unprevented damage twice, and he only did the same to me once. Next to us, Tony Dobson, plays the randomest mexican ever, I glance over to see Tony administering the coup de grace after ten minutes, his opponent has only plains and swamps as permanents, and a bunch of double green castig cost things in his hand. Never mind. In round two, I get paired up against Chris Manners with his big bad deck of shit, he does have an equilibrium which is the only card in his deck that isn't rubbish. Somehow I only manage to beat him two-one, he colour screws me for red mana in game two, and I nearly kill myself in game three (tap two mountains and a manakin, summon Serpent Warrior = 3 mana burn I RULE), and he expects things to only get worse. Between rounds two and three rumours emerge about the top eight being that you continue with the same sealed decks that you registered, this is the dumbest most pathetic arrangement of all time, well done Warren, you opened a two colur red-black type 2 deck, good skill. Me and a few other name players compplain to the judges that it would be nice to have some sort of skill involved in seeing who gets to qualify for Chicago, the judge says there are time constraints, Wraith says wrong, more like we don't want to give out 24 boosters to do a top 8 constraints, whatever. Round 3 I square up against Simon Hawkins (no realtion to Paul Hawkins). I have no idea what this guy was doing on 2-0, we had a shit deck and little to no ability at Magical Cards. Also he didn't know that you couldn't cast a Sonic Burst when it was the only card in your hand, he even called over the head judge when Chris Warr told him not to be so silly, mise well take two mana burn, am I right? Round 4 and it's Guy Brews turn to face the deck of doom, I roll over him in two straight, even though he fevered convulsions me in both games. He didn't know I had a Living Death (most other people did) and kindly put all of my creature in the bin when I said I was dead next turn and I was attacking for the hell of it. His only creature in the 'yard was an Eagle, which diligently kicked in his Convulsions when I cast death and let me beat him next turn. We are informed that there will be a booster draft owing to popular acclaim after all, since they have gained some time back. Funny how they did that when both previous rounds went the distance and the guy calling out the numbers seemed to think player 44 was doing a simultaneous Magic display, which wasted another ten minutes In round 5 I play Fox who has an abhorrent deck, I've no idea how he got to 4-0, but unfortunately he makes me eat my words as he rolls over me in two straight with small bugs, he's got a three colur deck and everything is 1/2 or smaller, never mind. Round 6 I match up against Dan Paskins, I easily pick up the first game, and I am two shots away from killing him with my Mage-il-vec when he tricks me. He says, Wraith why don't you attack with all your creatures and I'm like yeah that'll work, so he says OK, block your pup with my Lowland Gaint, Flowstone Hellion, Renegade Warlord earning him a draw. WTF am I doing? He wins the third as I draw incredible amounts of land. Next to us Chris and Ollie were playing a friendly match, after having written ID on their sheet at the start of the round. On to the start of round 7. Ollie: Wraith, me and Chris both got a match loss last round. Me: WTF? Ollie: The judge said we had in fact waited for everyone else to finish before deciding to ID and we were colluding. Me: WTF? I was sat next to you, I saw you right ID on your sheet. [Exit Ollie, returning some minutes later] Ollie: Richard says you are a liar. I am SOME pissed off at this, if I wanted to lie surely I woyld say that Ollie and Chris were cheating scumbags so that the top 8 draft was easier. Let me make it clear to everyone - Ollie Schneider and Chris Manners were denied a chance at Chicago because the judge didn't like tem and didn't want to believe me either. Round 7 I crush Phil Pettifer because in duel 3 he draws like one creature, woohoo I get to draft. Neil was fairly close to top 8, I can't remember what happened to Ben, and Warren was number one seed. After receiving their match losses, Chris managed to win his last one but missed out on tie-breakers, his only losses were to me and the judge. The seating arrangements for the draft were completely random, there was no hint of doing it so you were opposite the guy you play in the Quarter Final. The draft is a bit disrupted by Brett Antill being drunk and not keeping quiet in the draft, it was all around a bit disorganised actually. The top 8 were, Me, Paul Hawkins, Fox, Brett Antill, Warren Marsh, Dan Paskins, Richard Edbury and Sam Waller, so there were only two scrubs in the top 8. I get to play an almost entirely mono-red deck (splash green for Rootwalla, Platyed Rootwalla, and Temptress Licid) and I get to play Fox in the quarter-finals. Both games I win he makes an Orim, Samite Healer, but I counter it with an Onslaught, and prevent him from using it. His deck is red/white, not so much jank as wank, though :( I can't remember what happened in the game I lost. Oh yeah, I got to fool him with a cool little trick involving Workorse. On the other quarter final, Brett Antill casts Necrologia, draws some cards, plays a land, and Death Strokes one of Sam's untapped creatures (almost legal but not quite Brett). Oh yeah, after the match Fox said I don't think you'll do very well with that deck, yep that's why it's one of the best draft decks I've ever seen Fox. The semi-finalists are Me against Warren (somebody from Team Skillz will be in the final) and Sam against Paul Hawkins. Warren has a Cursed Scroll. Unfortunately for him, the games were a bit of a none starter, he draws too much land and I get quick creatures and an Onslaught (cool). He never gets his scroll in either game. After a few turns in game 2 I glance over at what the judge (Julia Ball) has got written down as his life total. I point out that the number on her pad is in fact a random number obtained from rolling a twenty sided dice and does not bear any relation to what's going on in the game. I correct the situation by saying exactly what I cast and attacked with on every turn (good job I've got a good memory) In the other semi, Sam Waller beats Paul Hawkins On to the final. In game one, Sam overruns me with a horde of Cloud Spirits and Thalakos Scouts, the lad done good. In games 2 and 3, however, I get either Mage-il-Vec or Fireslinger out which massacre his one toughness horde, at the end of the third game he has like one Hammerhead shark out to my eight red creatures. He was a little unlucky not to draw the Fade Away though. woohoo, I qualify for Chicago, and also I got ten, yep count 'em ten Stronghlod Boosters and a couple of Tempest starters, I have to say this prize is SOME complete rubbish. I'll post the random thoughts from Doncaster a bit later, as I can't be bothered at the moment, also then this will just be a tournament report Props: Me and my friends for being the best casters of Magical cards in the country Slops: The organisers for not being able to organise a piss-up in a brewery, Fox for saying my deck was rubbish in the draft, the organisers for basically disqualifying Ollie and Chris, Brett for being too noisy whilst being drunk, and the organisers (PS not all the judges were hopeless, Chris Warr and Dave Fry were fine) mark wraith team skillz