Subject: Chichago PTQ Mounrain Veiw 1st Place report Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1998 18:51:48 -0700 From: "Steve Aldrich" To: PTQ Mountain Veiw Report (1st place) by Steve Aldrich Here is my report: The whole affair started on friday evening when me and my friend david lewis went to pick up my 2 other unqualifed friends Eric Campusano (Campee) and Ed Grubaugh (Ed-) at nuteral ground. of course they are an hour late becuase of our cocky qualified friends (Derek Lundy(VonLuck), Mark Schick(Mark-), Ben Rubin(BRubin), and Daniel Clegg(Alaatar1) decided that we didnt need to sleep or anything. So they finaly get there around midnight and us unqualifed scrubs go back to my place to get some rest before the qualifer. We get home playtest some rath cycle for a bit and go to bed. Me and Ed dont get to sleep till around 4am so we very well rested... We wake up the next morning around 8 and quickly shower and get our stuff together. Get to Nuetreal Ground around 9 or so and fork over THIRTY DOLARS to play at there stupid qualifer. When they finaly decide to start the fucking tournment it is like 10 and they give us our decks to register. I open what i thought was a good deck but it would be difficult to construct correctly (it had 4 colors that could easily been the main color) it had some broken cards such as Rolling thunder, Fireslinger, reckless spite, combustion, Recycle and good creatures in Black red white and green.) anyway i dont get the deck back and we go outside and wait(smoke) until they let us back in. When i sit down ready to make my deck i pray for somthing playable (my last 2 decks have been utter crap) to my suprise i have recieived the mos broken deck i have ever seen. it was 3 colors with doulble colored in all 3 but i felt i did my mana right and played 18 land so it was al ok. Heres the deck i got: Black: Rats of Rath (worst card in the deck) Dauthi Mindripper (evasion) Dauthi Jackal (evasion) Gravedigger (brings back one of my many good creatures) Foul Imp (evasion) Death Stroke (kinda weak but its removal) Disturbed Burial (i ussally dont like this card in draft but in sealed is a much slower enviroment and late game card advantage wins games) Slaughter (this card is AMAZING) Red: Flowstone Giant (Beef) Flowstone Hellion (Beef) Mage il-vec (this was great vs the many Slingers/Hunters i saw all day) Ogre Shaman (the least usefull card in the deck, I used his abilty once to deal 2 dammage to an opponent and attacked once with it :( maybe almost never drawing him had somthing to do with it) Canyon Drake (should of been a Canyon Wildcat, which i would of prefered, Becuase of an error when my deck was registered But it turned out to be not that bad) Lightning elemntal (great in sealed) Kindle (Standard Removal) Searing Touch (Antother broken card that i didnt need) White: Staunch Defenders (great with Burial and Slaghter) Soltari Crusader (evasion) Spirit enKor (evasion and great blocker) Advance Scout ( the last card in the deck, was considering disenchant, Essence Bottle, quickining licid, Change of Heart, and welkin hawk, he turned out really good with all of my high power/low toughness creatures) Pacifism (not great but i was glad i had it) 7 Swamps 6 Mountains 5 Plains I was considering using green in stead of either black or white to make my mana run smother for Elvish Fury, Tempting Licid (my favorite card) and some decent creatures that were all Single colored mana. Then I woke up and said MISE WELL PLAY WITH ALL BROKEN CARDS AM I RIGHT?!?! As it turns out my friend DaveLewis had gotten my deck back and as i suspected he made it wrong in my opinion.(Dave is my best friend and Great fun to be around and play magic with but, hes not the "fastest Cart on the Track" when it comes to the game.) He used green instead of black wich o thought was a mistake, but who am i to judge... I check in with my friends and Ed thinks he has a great deck, Eric is compaining on how bad his was(and it was bad) and dave as you know got my deck and he is happy with it.I show my deck to my friends and they are all impressed. First Round: I played a very nice women Named Traci she seemed kinda new to the game so i felt bad when she would make bad plays and i would capitalize on them... she almost beat me the first game with a rolling thunder on my foul imp, and 2 shadows but luckily i had a korchant and saved one who came in for the kill next turn. Second game she made some mistakes with her spike colony and i managed to take out a 6/6 skyshroud troll with my Flowstone Giant(with first strike) and my advanced scout when she taped out to spike up the troll... 2-0 games 1-0 matches After this round i told my friend Casey McCarrel i had played a girl and he responded with the quote of the day "a girl is a decent match up for the Biggest beating ever." Second Round: I think i played Pete Formika this round. Pete is a friend of mine and we play at the local card shop (superstars runed by JON SASO) together. I felt bad knowing that i had to beat pete this round Becuase i knew he had no chance for my deck was unbeatable. I lost the first game becuase he topdecked a PowerSink for my 2 shadow killing korchant and a twich to tap my blocker and serve the 2 last points. second and third game i actually drew my good cards...Everytime i draw a good card pete shouts in disbelief in how broken my deck is. 4-1 games 2-0 matches Third Round: I played against Jason Murray, who is a great player and one of the funniest guys i know and defienatly deserves to be on the protour. I again lose game one becuase of a mistake on my part... I wasted a pacifism on an ADVANCE SCOUT!!!! I must of been momentarily high or somthing...he then drops Rathi dragon and beats me into soberness. second and third game i beat him becuase of my card advantage with slaughter/burial/touch/korchant and i thnk he was mana screwed last game anyway. Sorry Jason :( 6-2 games 3-0 matches I think it was inbetween these rounds that our qualified gang showed up for moral support and money drafing i show ben and derek my deck and they are fairly amazed. Fourth Round: I play against Doug, sorry Doug i dont remember your last name. We have played a few times before including when i beat him in the last round of a 1000 t2 tournment to make the final 8. he is defianltly looking for revenge. Game 1 starts out and he plays a few evasion creatures and things are looking bad for me. i think i mutual with a few shadow creatures and searingtouch/Slaughter his flyers till have stabalized his side of the board i then drop my beeef which comes in for the kill. i think the second game was fairly similar to the first. 8-2 games 4-0 matches Fith Round: I play against Vinced, im sure i spelled that wrong, anyway he has a really good deck too and i knew it would be a battle. we both start off slow playing lands and killing eachothers few creatures. he ends up with a renegade warlord, flowstone giant, manakin and Master decoy. while i have like a giant, canyon drake and a few other meaningless creatures. at the end of his turn i searing touch his manakin to prevent him from being able to capsize. he taps out to capsize the manakin and fizzle my touch. i am all fo that becuase he is now tapped out and i have a canyon drake on the board and like 7 cards in my hand. I mindtwist myaself and kill him next turn. Next game he plays second turn fireslinger but i dont really care becuase all me creatures are beefy anyway so i let it live a little while. besides the slinger his draw is pretty slow too and he plays like a 5th turn reckless ogre as his next spell i play an ogre shaman on my 5th turn as my first spell. he attacks with the ogre and i am down to 14. and he plays a wall of souls or somthing. next turn i draw and say go. he attacks with the ogre expecting it to be shamaned and he is suprised when i block with the shaman. I kor chant away the ogre and slinger and i killed the wall somehow and i drop my beef and go in for the kill. 10-2 games 5-0 matches Sixth Round: i am paried against Hui Saint Shwe he is a pro tour regular and were the both undefeated players so we draw. seventh round i draw with my friend James Tompson who had unentinially drew earlier and was 5-0-1 at the moment too. so i make top 8 as the 6th seed. during the long break between 5th round and top 8 i hang out mith my buddys and watch them draft and stuff. i am really hungry so i was looking for someone to come with me after Dan Clegg lost in the first round of the draft(for like the 100th time in a row) he offers to come eat with me and we talk about why he is doing so poorly latley. I give him a pep talk and he shares his drafing stratetgies with me for the top 8 while we eat mcdonalds. the Final Standings were: 1 Hui Saint Shwe ( had to play last round becuase he was paired down but still won to become top seed) 2 Grently Day or Dan Duboius Cant remember 3 Bennent cant remember your last name 4 David Weiss 5 James Tohmpson ( he has made top 4 at like every single chichago qualifer and keeps getting unlucky, i wanted to see him in the finals so we could both finaly qualify) 6 Steve Aldrich (me) 7 grently Day or Dan Dubouis 8 Charles sorry forgot your last name too :( well they took forever how to rochester draft becuase only a few of us had ever done it before (good sign) i was seated between Grently and James in the number 2 seat. the first pack sucked and i got a 2nd pick rootwalla trying to force green. in the next pack (my first pick) i open legaccys allure and kindle. i take the allure becuase i like blue green and i had already passed james a giant. james opens a fireslinger and is set in heavy red and the rest of tempest inclueds me chocking off like 4 seats to any green or blue cards. I am optimistic for stronghold becuase the people not drafting my colors will be passing to me. Well to make along story short the drafters to my left decided that it would be a good idea to ToTALY Screw me!!!! and start randomly defensivly drafting all my cards for no reason. in stronghold i mange to pull out with a coulple spike workers a spindrift tempting licid and an elven rite and some other crappy cards. I am not happy at all about going into exodus becuase all three people to my right are drafting blue now and charles (2 away is drafting UG too) so anyway i dont get much in exodus either and end up with a fairly medicre Blue green deck with no real fatties and very little evasion. heres the deck: Creatures: 2 spike workers trained armodon rootwalla thalakos scout merfolk looter gliding licid Scriviner spindrift drake manakin ROOTBREAKER WURM (no one agreed with my desicion to inclued this guy but i felt i was already low on fat so mise well use KING FATTY and i had a manakin and elf and an overgrowth) Flailing drake pygmy troll skyshroud elves tempting licid (my favorite card) Spells: Predetory Hunger (BEN RUBIN tech) Mana Leak Mindgames legacys allure Curiosity propaganda overgrowth (ben rubin tech) elvish fury elven rite 9 forests 7 islands I wasnt sure if the over growth would work out in this deck becase of my lack of fat but i thought scince i had so many 3 casting sost creatures that it would be good to play it on 4th turn with another 3 caster then on 5th turn i would have lots of mana for mindgames rootwalla fury etc. i was in what i thought was the eaiser bracket with me facing Bennet first round and either Dan Dubouis or Grently Day second.(i thoght we all had weaker decks than the other four players and i was just hoping for good draws in 2 matches. I was sure i would be facing james in the finals becuase he had a fiarly broken deck with fireslinger, fanning, ogre shaman, mauler, kindle, sonic burst and a ton of giants. Well anyway First round i play bennent who had screwed me in stgonghold by taking 2 spike colonies 2 wall of blossoms and some other good green cards when he had been drafting red/black before... So i was looking for some revenge and to hopfully break his dome in 2 quick games his deck was slower than mind and legacys allure and curiosty would crush him. Game 1 i play a first turn drake and second turn predetory hunger, he plays.....cursed flesh...:( oh well i manage to get our some ground creatures for defense while he plays 2 wall of blossoms and a wall of souls... hrm i hold out until i draw my scout and i cast elven rite on it and serve for 4 for a couple turns until its over. Game 2 i dont really remember but i think it was all about the curisityed rootewalla serving it up while my temptinglicid/pygmy troll wreked him. Next i play against grently day who was playing a blue/white deck with alot of small fliers and shadow cratures with pants shorts etc. game 1 i play a legacys allure and build up some counters while he plays a pantsed wayeard soul and starts to serve. i steal his thalakos seer and slap a curisoity on it and start looking for somthing to save me i draw enoguh creatures off the curiosity that i have enough to kill him the dect turn after he attakcs. he is forced to shackles my tapped tempting licid or die to it so i sereve the rest of the dammage up with the seer. The next game was very long and it was all about my mindgames and merfolk looteer and his lack of spell blast he got me down to around 3 before i could control the board with my mindgames and i eventyally got out my tempting licid and licid/pygmytrolled away all of his creatures and started to dish out some dome beatings. time was called before i could kill him becuase of his soul warden and i win the match anyway. This is when all my buddys congradulate me for qualifying and tell me they have to leave. i need to stay and play for the money becuase i am poor and cant afford to go to chichago if i dont win. so they wish me good luck and i get ready to apply some more beatings. I play david weiss in the finals who is a really nice guy(and has a very pretty fiance)i have known him for a while on irc but this is the first time we had met. he had beaten what i thought were the 2 best decks in the top 8 to get there so i knew he was going to be a tough match. he understood when i declined the split and he very graciously hoped that i won so we could both go to chichago( he said he didnt really need the money) but he wouldnt just give it to me(for good reason) so we started out and i double mulligan and draw just about the best 5 card hand my deck could draw...Spindrift drake, Curisoty, Mana Leak, Island, Island. so i win the game by eventually casting a rootbreaker wurm (AFTER A DOULBLE MULLIGAN) whiche beats him once down to 2 and then he draws a repentence next i draw elven rite and swarm him for the kill. Next game i mulligian again and get a bad draw and get run over by shadow. Last game goes back and forth for a while as we trade off with flyers and shadow. he plays a bellowing feind and i think i have lost. then i read the card... im like wow 3 free dammage to you. so i tempting licid my pygmy troll and attack with everything but like one creature when combat is over i lose no creatures he loses the feind im at 5 hes at 9 with a charging palladin and a soltari visionary and me with one untapped creature and a bunch of tapped ones. he draws... atacks with his visionary and sends me to 3 he then playes dauthi maurader. i am sorta depressed becuase i didnt think i could kill him. when he says done i sit there and think for about 5 minuites on how i am going to kill him before next turn. then it comes to me and i remove my licid from troll and attack with everything double elvish fury and send over with 11 power creatures he blocks the biggest one he could and i deal him 9 dammage exactly... as it turns out he had a vunerable monk in his hand and if he would of played it instead of attacking ( he had only one plains) he would have won. Sorry Dave but i really wanted to win this one. Props: David Weiss for being a great opponent Dan Clegg for teaching me how to draft, and coming with me to Micky D's Ben Rubin for his green mage tech Jason Murray for his "coming home from worlds story" Pete Formika for being a great guy (sorry I beat you dude) Derek Lundy for yelling "Go Steve Aldrich in the middle of the top 8 draft" Mark Schick for being so easy to make fun of Eric Campusano for making me laugh Casey McCarrel for the cigerettes and being cool David Lewis for Saying things like "Once I was cleaning the toilet and i had an Orgasm" James Thompson for making top 8 yet again. (im sorry you lost dude) Steve Valorey for being i nice guy and opening my sealed deck up Slops: The people that randomly decide to take my cards for no reason in the top 8 David Lewis for scrubbing out with a great deck Ed grubaugh for keeping me up so late friday j/k Steve Valory for not recording canyon wildcat :P j/k Me for making this thing so long... Steve Aldrich...