Subject: [TOURNAMENT]: Rome PTQ in Atlanta, GA (9/5/98) Date: Mon, 07 Sep 1998 10:04:24 -0400 From: egm@ebytes.com (Ebytes) To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com My wife and I were attending Dragon*Con in Atlanta, GA this weekend, planning to take part in some Magic tournaments in addition to the other events going on. Our main goal, however, was to try and qualify for the Rome Pro Tour during the Pro Tour Qualifier there on Saturday. Neither of us had played much Magic since the LA PTQs back at the beginning of the year, so we were looking forward to having a chance to play. I'll start out by saying that this was the smallest and worst run Pro Tour Qualifier I have ever attended. The tournament was scheduled to start at 10am, but we didn't actually get started until 10:30am; apparently some of the announcements for the tournament had it taking place at the main convention hotel rather than in the gaming area, and they wanted to give everyone time to find their way over. There was much confusion, as they were starting a sealed deck tournament at the same time as the PTQ was beginning, and we were all cramped into an area of about forty to fifty tables. When things were ready to begin, there were sixty-one players competing in the two slot qualifier. Our judge announced that it would be six rounds of swiss pairings with a cut to the final eight for single elimination. We were also informed that because this was a PTQ, the rules would be enforced more stringently (but as we were to find out later, this was far from the case)... For now, I'll move on to the tournament itself... Round 1 - Charles Bouvette (DCI# 762623) G/U Alauren/Vinyard In the first game, I drew my initial hand of seven cards and found no lands. I chose to mulligan, drew six cards, and still had no land. I mulligan again and have a solid five card hand with two land, a Dauthi Horror, a Carnophage, and a Hatred. I start out playing a Swamp and the Carnophage. Charles plays a Forest and a Vineyard. He smiles and makes the comment that "Black seems to have problems with Green mana." On my next turn, I play a second Swamp, attack with the Carnophage, and use a Swamp and one green mana to cast the Dauthi Horror and the other Swamp to cast Sarcomancy (taking a point of mana burn). On his turn, he plays a second Forest, taps one to play a second Vineyard, and uses the two green from the first Vineyard to cast a Wall of Blossoms. He seems to feel certain that I won't be able to deal with the four green I'm going to be getting. On my turn, I untap and smile at Charles. I tap my two Swamps and use three of the green mana to cast a fourteen point Hatred on the Dauthi Horror. I then attack with all three. Charles just shakes his head in disbelief as I have myself a third turn kill... In the second game, Charles starts a little slowly; I cast a Sarcomancy and a Dauthi... Charles then casts Aluren. I drop another Dauthi, and then cast a third and a Carnophage on my next turn. Then came a key moment in the game. Charles had out a Spike Feeder and a Mindless Automaton, but was tapped out, so I cast Diabolic Edict. Charles tried to remove two counters to draw a card, and in response to that sac the Automaton to the Edict. A call of the Judge (after waiting a few minutes for him to respond) puts a stop to that. Charles calls the Judge back over and asks if he can sac the Automaton to the Edict and then remove two counters to draw a card in response to that. Again the answer is no (after he stops time on our match and goes to look up the rulings). Finally, Charles sacrifices the Automaton, but he can't stop the swarm of creatures and dies quickly thereafter. Games: 2-0 Matches: 1-0 Round 2 - Brian Glenn (DCI# 743385) U/W Propaganda/Shadow/En-Kor In the first game, Brian comes out with a Soltari Priest off a Plains and Mox Diamond. I follow up with a Carnophage. Brian quickly adds to his Priest with a few En-Kor and other white creatures. Then, Brian drops the bomb on me; he cast Propaganda. I was totally unprepared for this, and after failing to draw much mana, I was quickly overrun. In the second game, I had one of my Dread of Night off the initial draw, and drew a second a few turns later. I am able to use them both to kill of all his creatures, even though he manages to Allay them both. They both were enough, however, as I quickly finished him off with a rush of creatures. In the third game, Brian mulligans down to five cards and does not play a land until turn three; for some reason he refused to mulligan lower than five cards (personally, I think that if you don't have a land in your hand, you HAVE to mulligan). His delay cost him dearly, as my swarm of shadows quickly overwhelms him. Games: 4-1 Matches: 2-0 Round 3 - Paul Wilkens (DCI# 146048) Mono-red Blitz/Burn In the first game I come out quickly, but so does he. We race to zero life. On my turn, I untap and see he will kill me on his next turn. He has seven life and two mountains untapped, as well as an untapped Fireslinger; I am at six life. I attack with all three of my creatures (Dauthi Slayer, Dauthi Warlord, and Dauthi Marauder). He has no fast effect responses. When he declares no blockers, I respond as a fast effect by casting Hatred for four on my Dauthi Slayer. He does not have any direct damage, and I win. In the second game, I come out a little slowly after mulliganing to six cards. He comes out hard, and drops a Torture Chamber (not really healthy for me, since most of my critters are x/1)... I manage to get out a Portcullis to prevent him from getting out any more creatures, but I can't draw an answer for his Rage'd Jackal Pups. A few turns later, I am dead. In the third game, I come out VERY fast and pull off another third turn kill with Hatred after he taps out to play a Canyon Wildcat. Games: 6-2 Matches: 3-0 Round 4 - Kyle Bigos (DCI# 10717) Mono-black Hatred Ugh, a mirror match, and on top of that it's with Kyle Bigos (probably the most well known player I've ever faced off against). As I sat down, I kept telling myself "It doesn't matter who is sitting across from you, it's still the same game.", but it didn't really help. In the first game, I took a mulligan down to six cards... Kyle came out quickly with Swamp, Dark Ritual, Sarcomancy, Spinal Graft on the first turn. I dropped a few creatures over the next few turns and chump-blocked the Grafted Token twice, but the five damage per turn from that token was too much. In the meantime, Kyle dropped a few assorted Dauthi's. I conceded 7 turns into the game. In the second game, I got off to an excellent start. A first turn Swamp, Dark Ritual, Carnophage, Dauthi Slayer put the pressure on Kyle. He responded with a first turn Carnophage, which died on my next turn when the two of them butted heads. I continued playing various Dauthis as Kyle struggled to even the playing field. The tide started to turn after he cast an Evincar's Justice, and swung even more when our two Sarcomancy tokens killed one another. Even though I was still at sixteen life and Kyle was at nine, that was the turning point in the match. At that point, I had 3 Hatreds and a Culling of the Weak in my hand, and no creatures. Kyle cast a Dauthi Marauder followed by a Dauthi Warlord. He then cast Spinal Graft on one of his creatures, and cast a third Dauthi. When I didn't draw an answer, I conceded. Kyle was a very gracious winner, and made the comment that when playing Black on Black in this format, the winner is pretty much decided by the luck of the draw. We wished one another good luck, and I told him that I hoped to see him again in the Final 8. Looking back on this round, I don't see anything that I could have done differently to change the outcome. I knew that Kyle would play much "tighter" than any of my other opponents had, so I forced myself to play deliberately in order to avoid overlooking anything. During our match, Kyle was very quiet, and very focused. All in all, I really didn't mind losing to him, as it was a well played match all around. The one interesting thing I noted was that Kyle actually shuffled my deck after I presented it to him, rather than simply cutting it. Out of all the tournament matches I've played in, he has been my only opponent who did this. Games: 6-4 Matches 3-1 Round 5 - Chad Russell (DCI# 636161) R/w Burn-Blitz Deck In game one, I came out quickly... Chad and I traded creatures for a few turns, but he finally stalled. I cast several Dauthi creatures and brought him down to five life. I then cast and used a Thrull Surgeon to look at his hand. In response to this, he Incinerated on of my Dauthi Marauders; it turns out the only other cards in his hand were land. I attacked with my other Dauthi Marauder and a Dauthi Slayer to take game one. In game two, I came out quickly again with a first turn Carnophage. Chad laid a Scabland. I then attacked with the Carnophage and cast two Sarcomancy. Chad untapped, laid another land, and cast a Canyon Wildcat. On my next turn, his Wildcat canceled my Carnophage, but I replaced him with a Dauthi Slayer. Chad Kindled one of my Zombie Tokens, and then cast Sonic Burst on the other during his next turn. In the meantime, I added a pair of Dauthi Marauders and a Stronghold Assassin. Chad never did draw a third land, and he died quickly thereafter. Games: 8-4 Matches: 4-1 Round 6 - John Mahon (DCI# 725001) Tradewind/Awakening Before the game, everyone who was at 4-1 was trying to figure out if anyone could draw into the final 8. The answer was no, as there were eight of us at 4-1, and the four undefeated players after round four had Intentionally Drew in both rounds five and six; everyone needed to play, and the four winners would advance. That decided, my John and I began to shuffle and prepare to play. In game one, I mulliganed down to six cards to start things off. After doing this, I got off to a so-so start... I dropped a Dauthi Horror along with a Sarcomancy and Carnophage. John dropped an early Wall of Blossoms (more like "Wall of What Was R&D Thinking?") that slowed me until he dropped a Legacy's Allure. John snatched up my Dauthi at the first opportunity, and then beat me down with my own creature. In game two, I again had to mulligan down to six cards (All but one of my mulligans today were due to NO LAND!! What's with that?!?), but I ended up with a hand similar to one Kyle Bigos beat me down with in round four. I started out with Swamp, Dark Ritual, Sarcomancy, Spinal Graft. John was impressed, but most decidedly unhappy with this turn of events. On my next turn, I hit him for five. Unfortunately for me, John began casting Propaganda. I drew a second swamp and hit John again for five, but he played a second Propaganda on his next turn. Before I knew it, he had a third Propaganda on the board, followed soon by a Tradewind Rider and a pair of Wall of Blossoms... I managed to get two hits more hits in with a Dauthi Slayer by using Culling of the Weak to pay the Propagandas, but I couldn't draw enough land to finish him off. When John began bouncing my lands back, I conceded the second game and saw my run at the final eight end. Games: 8-6 Matches: 4-2 It was somewhat disappointing to be on the verge of breaking into the final eight and lose in the final round, but I still consider my showing to be a success. Having not played in any tournaments for six months prior to this weekend, and never having tested this deck, I feel I did very well. I also gained some valuable knowledge which may help me in my attempts to qualify for Rome later in the season. As for the tournament itself, however, I was sorely disappointed. Our judge (and there was only one), did not do much at all to enforce the rules. There were no deck checks at all during the swiss rounds, and only a minimal (if any) effort was made to keep the competitors out of the play area after they had finished their matches. During the rounds themselves, the judge was pretty much only seen in the play area if someone called for him; he made little or no effort to walk around the play area to keep an eye on things. I witnessed scouting, outside assistance, and other infractions being committed, but was never able to locate the judge in time to bring any of this to his attention. It was almost as if he was there just to announce the round's beginning and ending, set out the pairings, and answer questions whenever someone yelled out for him enough to get his attention. What surprised me the most about this treatment was the fact that there was one Level IV judge (Jeff Donais) and at least two Level III judges (David Doust and Scott Larabee) in attendance at the convention (David Doust being the head of New Wave, Inc., the organizers of the PTQ); at various times during the day they were seen in the Tournament Gaming area (by that I mean the second floor of the Atlanta Merchandise Mart), but at no time did any of them appear to have anything to do with the PTQ. Anyway, all ranting aside, here is my deck as I played it. I can think of at least a few changes I will definitely be making to the deck, but I will not be sharing those at this time (as I may want to use this deck again in later qualifiers)... // NAME: Suicide Black Hatred // Format: Rath Constructed // Updated: August 1998 // ----- // Lands 1 Volrath's Stronghold 19 Swamp // Black Spells 2 Diabolic Edict 2 Spinal Graft 3 Culling the Weak 4 Hatred 4 Dark Ritual // Black Creatures 1 Crovax the Cursed 1 Stronghold Assassin 3 Thrull Surgeon 3 Bottle Gnomes 2 Dauthi Warlord 2 Dauthi Marauder 4 Dauthi Horror 4 Dauthi Slayer 4 Carnophage 4 Sarcomancy // Sideboard 2 Spike Cannibal 3 Portcullis 1 Thrull Surgeon 3 Bottomless Pit 3 Dread of Night 3 Stronghold Taskmaster My next attempt to qualify will likely be in High Point, NC on September 19th. I look forward to seeing how well I can do there, and hopefully can improve on this performance. Edwin -- Edwin Million egm@ebytes.com Ebytes Institute of Magic http://www.ebytes.net/magic/