Subject: PTQ Rome, (Ljubljana, Slovenia), 5th of Saturday Date: Mon, 07 Sep 1998 00:26:57 +0200 From: Ivan Solaja To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Heyas Frank/anyone reading this... I should start "Here's the report, deck, blargh blargh...", but circumstances which led me towards this PTQ were really funny. If u ppl wanna see the deck etc, scroll down. Short Story: I won, decklist is below, all roads lead to Rome... THE STORY: 7 of us from Zagreb, Croatia planned to go to Ljubljana, Slovenia on 5th of Sep to first Slovenian PTQ. Four of us were supposed to go with car (Its Alen's car, which is, umm, kinda old and screwed), and the rest with train. Plan was to go to Ljubljana (Its about, 150 Kms away from Zagreb) at 7:30 am and to arrive there at 10, 10:30 am, have cup of coffee etc. However, it didnt go that way - Alen called at 7:30, saying "Man...I'm ill...I spent last 1/2 hours on the toilet...I puked 3 times...We cant go...Sorry...". I went back to bed thinking "@#%*253@...Oh well, there'll be more PTQs..!@*&#&@!#^", and continued sleeping. At 10:30 am the phone ringed, and it was Alen again, saying: "Cmon, I'm feelin better, wanna go? We might arrive in Ljubljana on time if I drive fast enuff". I instantly said I'll go, and he was at my place in like 10 mins, and off we go, towards Ljubljana.......... The tournament was supposed to start at noon, Alan is mad-speed-freakoidz-driver, and we started our journey in that manner. We passed the customs control, (border/customs is like 20 km away from Zagreb), and trouble started. It was gloomy day, with rain pouring down, and suddenly, windshield wipers stopped working. We were staring amazed, with Alen screaming all kinds of curses, saying "What friggin loser I am...I'm the only one who is going sumwhere in hurry, and whose windsheild wipers stops working on a rainy day!!". But, as we're all freakoidz, we continued our journey. Thing is, if u drive fast enuff, water will pour away from windshield (if its not rainign TOO hard). So, part of the trip Alen was driving 130 Km/h, with kinda blurred sight, but still seeing sumthing. After like 20 mins of such way of traveling, weather started to be REAL bad, and we couldnt see anything but blurred red lights of car infront of us. (We tried with faster and slower speed, but it didnt help). Luckily I found a spot on the windshield thru which I could see sumthing, so I was kinda navigating, saying if he is too close or too far away from car infront of us, while he opened his window from time to time, wiping windshield with windshield-cleaner (He was cursing and saying that he'll get arthitis and such deseases). But we managed to be at the outskirts of Ljubljana at 12:15, and we arrived at the tournament spot at 12:30. At that time, after such trip (Read navigation), I was already half dead with fatigue. And ofcoz, rounds alreay started, we were 15 mins late, and we got match losses. (We were preregistered, and we kept in touch with organizers via mobile phone all the time, so they knew we're comming, but they couldnt delay the start - if we're on time, we jump in, if not, we get match losses in the 1st round). Nice way to start a PTQ...Sigh... REPORT: About 50-55 ppl playing (Not really sure tho), in nice night-club called "Metro". 6 rounds of Swiss, top 8 towards 1 PT slot... One comment: I played mono-red, simply because its the cheapest deck to build, and as its still summer, I didnt have time to get all exodus I needed.... Deck: TSE Mono Red Cry (Wolf) (No, not sligh, its cry, snicker....) 4 Mogg Raider 4 Mogg Fanatic 4 Mogg Flunkies 3 Jackal Pup 3 Raging Goblin 3 Canyon Wildcat 3 Fireslinger 2 Mogg Conscrpits 2 Starke Of Rath (Yah, I know...But read on...) 2 Spellshock (tsk, tsk) 2 Goblin Bombardment 4 Manical Rage 2 Sonic Burst 4 Shock 18 Mountains Sideboard: 4 Wastelands 3 Apocalypse 2 Helm Of Possesion 2 Torture Chamber 3 Scalding Tongs 1 Jinxed Idol Basically questionable cards in the main deck are Starke Of Rath and Spellshock Starke flied in the deck at Saturday at 1 am, after Alen commenting Starke like "What the heck, he's 3 mana alright, but which use can opponet have with it when u have only 4 flunkies which hit harder than Starke...All the big friggups can be killed with it, and Oath will can be disrupted with it if u use him on yer own kritters..." - that was a good point actually. Opponent wont have big advantage with it, while all the bad bad bad tradewinds and such friggups can be easilly removed. Spellshock looked like nice lock-down card, so I said what the heck, in it goes. 28 Creatures were enuff, 2 instead of 4 Bursts were also enuff (Dont u hate it when 2 appear in yer hand, and opponent discards one...blargh). Sideboard: Apocalypse is great :). It friggs up all combo decks, and playing with 16 1cc creatures should give u enuff advantage to topdeck 1 mountain and start rolling again. It has big cc, but it goes in with Wastelands, so there should be enuff mana in time to pull the trigger (This was based on Fittest /vyard/oath decks meta game). Torture Chambers and Helms Of Possession I wont comment, but paladins and priests with cop red could be annoying...grumble... Also, tongs and idol u know what are fer...Boil sux :P Report will be real short: After initial round loss due to our 1-mintute-late appearance, the deck went 8-0, finally beating ww 3-0 in the finals, total record of 8-1. I didnt think mono red could actually do that (Espec cause I played against 4 mono or dual white decks (blarghhhh), 1 fittest, 1 blue), but sboard did really well. (Paladins are coooool!) I wont speak about returning, but I'll say just this: windshield wipers didnt work, it was raining, and it was dark...I'm STILL alive! Thx to Alen (Buy a new car darn u!), guys from Zagreb (Gasho, Rubelj and Laci), guys from Rijeka, and all other ppl I played against (Hey, its yer fault I'm writing this :P) See ya in Rome! Ivan Solaja