Subject: Tournament Report- PTQ Rome in Lincoln Date: Sun, 06 Sep 1998 11:45:37 CDT From: Michael C Reinking To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com This is a report on the ptq for Rome held in Lincoln, Nebraska on September 5th. Attending were Mike Reinking (that's me), fellow team members Scott Sheehy, Troy Gould, and Fred Lloyd, evryone's favorite magic celebrity Eddie Woods, and about 60 or so misc. people, which made for 6 rounds of swiss. Our testing had been haphazard at best, and nothing really seemed amazing to me, but I still had not tested tradewind/awakening, which was of course stupid. I threw it together at about 6pm the day before the tournament. I liked it a lot, but it seemed to lose to sligh. Then I had the bright idea to test the sideboard, and what can I say, probelm solved. It makes me a little nervous having to rely on the board to win, but it is some_ board, and the bounce action is an elegant solution to nearly every odd problem that will come up in an untested format. I played the straight decklist of 'rude awakening', with 1 skyshroud forest added, going to 61 cards since I did it 30 sec before the tourn started and couldn't decide what to cut :) Sideboard was a little different: 4 propaganda \ 4 chill / the sligh beating 2 mana leak -last-ditch answer to the lack of the last item :) 2 portcullis -some good when drawn 2 scragnoth - wanted something for a mirror match 1 tranquility -sure is hard to find commons with 2 minutes to decklist turn-in :) The tournament starts in reasonable time, and my 1st round opponent is: Round1: Jason Holtz, Tradewind/awakening Oh, great. Where is the sligh? Jason is a friend of a friend I tested with, so that explains this deck in lincoln, land of sligh, I guess, but I don't have to like it :) Game 1 is all about allure superiority, for some reason, and game 2 scragnoth says hi while I tie up his walls with various allures and capsizes 1-0, 2-0 Round 2 Eddie Woods, Finkeldeath with more basics No, not the celebrity! This should be an okay matchup, although this is the hardest of the death decks. Eddie shows me why in game 1 as he top-decks 2x lobotomy, scragnoth and surgeon of a mediocre opening 7. Guess I lose to that :/ Game 2 I don't get a second green until way_ too late, but I kinda figured I'd lose to that sometime today, it's one of the biggest problems with the deck 1-1, 2-2, man this sucks Round 3 Craig Barnes, Hatred This guy is pretty nice, but he seemed to be confused by a lot of my permanents. This is completely irrelevant game 1, as he plays turn 1 ritual, 2 zombies, culling, 2 horrors. I play 3 land this game. Game 2 I get propaganda, which he apparently doesn't read, as he taps out to hatred crovax.. Game 3 is all about proaganda + awakening lock, for the 1st time the deck actually casts some capsizes 2-1, 4-3 Round 4 Aaron Simpson, Multi-color death, probably Finkelized Game 1 he takes a paris, and can't establish mana before I get awakening on the board. Game 2, I don't get awakening, and volrath's + surgeon slowly wreck me. Game 3 he again parises, but recovers and gets a scragnoth and a wall. I allure the wall and cast portcullis, which basicly shuts down the game until I remove his mana (forbid with buyback your mox diamond!) I then capsize the portcullis, and win just before time with a hugely spiked tradewind. 3-1, 6-4 Round 5 Troy Gould, Sligh At this point I'm a little annoyed, as this is the 3rd Iowan in 5 rounds, but I guess that could_ happen.. Game 1 I die, as I do every game 1 vs. red. Game 2 is an insane 3 chill 2 prop beating. Game 3 was probably the best of the day, as I am forced to capsize a spellshock(!) going to 2 life. I then get awakening, so I can beat for 1 with a tradewind every turn, and he was at 12 from spellshock. About 8 turns later, he still has no burn (other than a countered sonic burst), and a capsize/chill lock cements things. 4-1, 8-5 Round 6 Scott Sheehy, Humility/Prayer okay, 4/6 sounds like a conspiracy :( For some reason he doesn't play any whispers, so I'm very_ confident. Game 1 I follow my plan of allowing humility and just beat him down with 1/1s, fighting a counter war over the prayer in the last turn, which I lose, untap, capsize, game. Game 2 is much worse for him, as I have awakening and he runs out of counters for the buyback. 5-1, 10-6, in the top 8! Top 8 was, from memory: 1 Brian Loyahan, 6-0, sligh 2 Eddie Woods, 5-1, Death 3 guy from Colorado , 5-1, death 4 Mike Reinking, 5-1, Awakened Bounce 5 Chris McMahon, 4-1-1, sligh 6 guy from kc?, 4-1-1 wweenie 7 Cory Jensen, 4-1-1, sligh 8 someone sutton, 4-1-1, something blue Looking at the brackets, I see the potential for all sligh, which I think is very good for me. Quarterfinals Chris McMahon, Sligh Game 1 is the usual total beating, and games 2-3 are decided by capsize and propaganda. 6-1, 12-7 Semis Brian Loyahan, Sligh For once I almost win game 1, but he is able to use my awakening to sonic burst me off the 1 land he still had :( Game 2 is the mad sideboard beating, as 3 props and 2 chill show up in the single-diget turns :) Game 3 I get no walls, props, or chills, so I paris. I get the stuff I need, but 1 land, and luckily draw into an island which lets my walls and whispers get me the 3rd land for propagandas. In both games 2&3, his early maniacal rages to stop my tradewinds blocking allowed me to kill him before the time limit, which was pretty funny.. Finals Cory Jensen, sligh He has some idea how this will go, so he concedes in exchange for a money split, which is fine with me 'cause I want to go home. I think that the deck is pretty good for the field, I didn't have any matches where I thought I was at a dis-advantage. I didn't face any wweenie, though, which might be a problem enchantment-wise, but then they can't stop the tradewinds.. anyways, the mandatory props and slops.. Props: Fred Lloyd, for deciding to drive at the last minute, that was key Eddie Woods, for being funny and finally making a top 8 Propaganda, for beating soo many people Lincoln, for mad prize support Everyone who helped me playtest, esp. Jeremy Wichamn and Eddie Woods Slops: Lincoln, for randomly_ paring me with iowans 4/6 rounds The head judge, for not knowing his awakening rulings and turning a blind eye to fairly obvious stalling I guess that's it, hopefully I will see some of you in De Moines this weekend for Mayhem's 2-slot qualifer! Later, all