Subject: [Tournament] PTQ ROME / Berlin 06.09.98 Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1998 12:41:21 +0200 From: "Patrick Mello" To: Pro Tour Rome Qualifier report from Berlin If you're interested in some magic chat from germany - read on, otherwise scroll down to the top 8 decklistings and copy the decks marked with an "x" ;-) Playtesting Rath (I) and Team NMA: First of all - let me tell you that we've finally been able to form a team in Hamburg! It was during playtesting rath constructed when we had the initial idea to join forces in a team. Hamburg has always been a loose collection of magic individuals - but that's why we never had such things as team rivalry... (Hello Berlin ;-). But nowadays it's just much easier to prepare for tournaments with team members instead of potential opponents - and you come to better results when finetuning a deck with a group of people than when you do it all on your own! Then there is just one little problem: how shall we call our team?! It's easy when you already have a sponsor (take the sponsors name..) but what if you haven't? In the end we decided on Team NMA which stands for Northern Magic Association... that's not a really spectacular name - I'll admit that ;-) But it's a nice abbreviation I think. Michael's statement on that: "N.ie M.ehr A.rbeiten" (no more work) .........enough rambling - Team NMA consists of: Marco Blume Björn Falenski Christian Lührs Patrick Mello Michael Nessler Gunnar Refsdal Hey that's five pro tour players and a scrub! It's up to you to find the scrub ;-) - but hopefully it will one day be an all pro player team... (hope the magic gods have heard this). Btw: Team White Wine has been fully assimilated by the NMA! Playtesting Rath (II): The metagame for this constructed format was pretty much defined by this year's worlds. Everybody knew Daniel Brickwell had gone all the way with his hatred deck and two sligh decks and another black one were in the rath top 8. So you had to beat the fast decks regardless what you decided on playing. On the other hand - Recurring Nightmare decks in all variations were quite popular too (3 made top8). The third popular deck type was HumilityPrayer (the only lock-deck in the format) - ok there is CMU's "Horsecraft", but who dares to play that? ;-)) When I began preparing decks for rath, Björn and Marco already had a blue deck which they were quite enthusiastic about. I didn't believe that blue could beat red and black speed but it did! Wall of Tears and Propaganda proved to be keycards in these matchups. If you drew a Propaganda against black it was like an automatic win... almost the same is true for Wall of Tears against red, their attack is stopped for a while or they have to waste burn on the walls - then they loose to flying fat in the endgame. The only deck which troubled us was Weissman's Nightmare deck (we thought it to be the best of all variations). So we tested a lot against this one - which is the reason for the makeup of our sideboard (artifact madness!). Portcullis seemed to be the "tech" at worlds against the 'death decks and we placed it in our side- boards too - but it appeared that the card's usefulness is situation dependent and sometimes it just doesn't do anything. So we chose the Helms over Portcullis - it's always nice to have a helm against Nightmare decks - especially because artifacts are hard to get rid off in rath. Hey - after all it's a constructed format without these stupid monkeys!! ;-) The Drifters are the tech against black and especially against white shadow decks - they are also fairly hard to kill for a red deck. These qualities are enough to play 2 Drifters main deck (Björn and me even chose to play 3). The deck: NMA Blue 4 Counterspell 3 Mana Leak 3 Forbid 4 Propaganda 4 Legacy's Allure 2 Torture Chamber 2 Capsize 4 Wall of Tears 3 Tradewind Rider 3 Silver Wyvern 3 Thalakos Drifter 1 Ertai, Wizard Adept 1 Dominating Licid 4 Reflecting Pool 4 Maze of Shadows 16 Island That's 61 cards (we were worried about the mana-configuration and put in a 24th land - this decision won me a match in the 6th round). Usually one should play 4 Tradewinds and just 2 Drifters, it depends on what you expect to face. The Pools are just to have a backup against Boil and Choke - and to keep people guessing what the second color might be. ;-) Sideboard: 4 Helm of Possession 3 Transmogrifying Licid 3 Bottle Gnomes 2 Jinxed Idol 1 Ertai, Wizard Adept 1 Capsize 1 Forbid Marco gambled and dropped the Idols before the tourney for an additional Drifter (he played only 2 mainboard) and a 2nd capsize. He knew that he'd loose if he had to play Humility but just hoped to avoid that matchup. Björn and me went for the solid version anyway. Michael chose to play his own version of a white weenie although he usually is the "blue-est" player of us all. ;-) The tournament: Berlin 06.09.98 Sure: the night before the tourney noone slept more than 3 hours, everybody was unsure what to play, we had breakfast at McDonald's and we couldn't find the location... No. Everything went smoothly except that the location had a little "toilet problem" - that's all. Surprisingly there were only about 50-60 people attending the PTQ. Among them most top players from Berlin including the german champion Dirk Hein and his team member Andreas Pischner. (It turned out that both were playing Humility decks - the only ones in the field... ). The tournament was run by head judge Torsten John and the local crew who once again did a good job at this! We played 6 rounds of swiss, top 8 competing for 2 slots for the Pro Tour in Rome which will be held in November. 6 rounds of swiss: 1st round: Jaques Punt playing Finkel's Living Death I hoped for some weenie decks in the first couple of rounds but it was not be! Jaques played the Living Death deck with Hermit Druids and Mox Diamonds. During the first game I stalled at two and later at four mana - I somehow managed to defend myself and counter some spells but the outcome was clear. He used his Survival almost each turn and when he had accumulated lots of mana the mana leaks in my hand became useless... - finally he "living deathed" me for the win. I sided in the complete "Anti-Weissmann-tech" but left the Chambers in the deck because they were useful against the druids and his other small critters. My starting hand was pretty good and I gained control quite early. In the end I had him in a lock with an active Tradewind and Capsize with buyback but there were only ten minutes left for me to beat him. I became a little worried because he made good use of his Survival by now (his only permanent except two forests). His tactic was clear: using his survival - searching and shuffling as long as possible to get me into timeout before I could kill him. I called the judge just to watch the match during the last minutes... meanwhile I had drawn a Wyvern but he was still at around 24 life... I played as quick as possible and somehow managed to kill him before the end of the round was announced. One point is better than nothing! 1-1 1 point 2nd round: Jens Loddeke playing Tradewind Awakening What happens when you start a tourney with a draw? Yes, that's it - you get paired against another slow deck! (Ask Michael about the BlueRoad at Nationals '97 ;-). This time it was a Tradewind Awakening deck based on the dtb in the dojo. I wasn't amused when I saw him laying down Forests and Islands ...our deck can certainly win against Awakening but it depends absolutely on three cards: Capsize, Tradewind and Legacy's Allure (for the opponents Riders). He drew the Tradewind first... Next duel I felt comfortable because of the Ertai Twin Brothers and the additional Capsize. I won it after gaining control over the board and killing him with drifting Drifters - what is card advantage if you can have evasion? ;-) By now there were maybe 15 or 20 minutes left - not enough to finish such a matchup. I would have won the game when time was called but I needed at least 6 turns... - I had Ertai active and two drifters but he had a feeder and a Tradewind but no third creature. Another draw. Hmm. Quite dissapointing. 1-1 2 points By now Marco and Michael were at 2-0, Björn played 1-1. Marco had the fortunate matchups of two White Weenies in a row... 3rd round: Thomas Bartels playing WW with burn Finally my deck got an opponent which it is best against. The first duel was decided by a Torture Chamber killing 12 creatures or so ...the only problem is that he sac' ed the creatures to a Goblin Bombardment bringing me down to 5 life points in the end while a Drifter went the distance. In the second duel I have the support of 3 Gnomes - the rest is pretty much like a repetition of the first duel. 2-0 5 points 4th round: Felix Hoppe playing Tradewind Awakening Felix chose to play Awakening - to my dismay! Comments on this matchup see round two. Anyway I had a real good start with allure second turn and managed to play a Wyvern when he tapped out later. But he takes his last chance to get rid of it and bounced the Wyvern with buyback on his turn. After that I stalled at five mana while he had six and had a capsize or whispers running depending on the situation - outcome clear! While he build up an army with a Tradewind and some random critters I decided to concede the duel right there to have a little chance to win the next two duels - he seemed a bit surprised by my decision. But it was not to be: the second duel was even worse. He won real quick. The surprise came when Felix told me that he would drop after the match because he had to leave regardless of his chances for top 8. Hey - couldn't you concede and let me take my chances? ;-) 0-2 5 points So now I just played on to defend some dci-points and the honor of the team... Marco had to play Dirk Hein this round and it was the expected beating because he had dropped the Idols from the SB and was without a real defense against Dirk's 1st turn Grindstone... 5th round: Christo von Wehren playing a 4C "goodstuff" deck At first I thought that he played a Weissman type of deck but it turned out that he played a 4C deck based on blue and green. We split the first two duels. In the deciding duel I stole a Scrivener with my Helm (I had to sac a Tradewind in lack of creatures) and beat him down with it!! He drew no creatures and died to his own scrivener. Oops. 2-1 8 points Now Michael had to play Dirk ...and it must have been a little revenge for the beating that Marco received from him ;-) 6th round: Nico van Heteren-Frese playing Berlin Blue with black for disco / lobotomy I don't know why - but Nico looked like Sligh! At least I hoped for a sligh deck, (after 4 control decks) instead it was the "dream-matchup" of blue vs. blue. Argh. I want a sligh deck - just once! And I thought Berlin to be sligh-country... The first match was one of the most memorable matches since I started playing: both of us did absolutely NOTHING for 30 turns! Nico played a blue deck with more counterspells than me and he added black for Corpse Dance and Lobotomy. He played in a way - it seemed to me that he knew he had some 'tech against me in the mainboard... it was like "I just have to draw my mainboard Grindstone, then I'll finish you off" - so we did nothing than wait... it was just: draw - play a land or discard some non-counterspell card. The only thing I did was playing Allures while he was discarding them for reasons I don't know... I stopped placing counters on them when each had between 4-8 counters! When I had 17 lands out and four counterspells a forbid an Ertai and a dominating licid in my hand I chose to break the stalemate: Ertai(me)? Counter(him) - Counter(me) - Forbid(him) - Counter(me)-Forbid(him) - Counter(me) - Counter(him) - Counter(me) - Forbid(him) - Forbid(me) - Counter(him) - no Ertai! Licid(me) ? Okay(him). Yes - I had a Licid on the board!!! Btw: He had only 19 cards left in his library so the licid could never kill him in time ;-) I won the duel because I played 61 cards... The second duel was decided by a miscalculation on his side. He played an Ephemeron when I had two allures with 4 counters each - but I also had a helm and a Thalakos Drifter on the board! He had only 2 cards in hand so he lost the "I want the Ephemeron" war and it joined my forces .......from nothing came teeth! Anyway - it was a really interesting match! Btw: both of us didn't realise that the Ephemeron would have gone to Nico's hand anyway... I was happy to have the fat flyer - he thought he had overlooked my helm... - I think there was even a judge standing by... ;-)) maybe we were both just bored to death by the first duel. 2-0 11 points So I finished with 3 wins / 1 loss / 2 draws - one win away from top 8. Björn finished 4-2 and Marco made top 8 with 4-1-1. Michael finished 1st place with 5-0-1 (intentional drawing with Sven Grottke in the last round). The top 8: 1. Michael Nessler 2. Sven Grottke 3. Marko Brombacher 4. Sven Heuter 5. Dirk Hein 6. Marco Blume 7. Sebastian Mottschall 8. Andreas Pischner Quarterfinals: Nessler - Pischner 2:0 This match was a relatively easy affair for Michael due to his heavy arsenal against enchantments. Truly a bad matchup for Andreas. Grottke - Mottschall - The match was decided by an error in Sven's decklist: he forgot to list a Thalakos Lowland and wrote down only 59 cards... Brombacher - Blume 1:2 Marco pulled out the win in the end because his opponent made some bad decisions... still the game had some pretty exciting situations! At one point the match pretty much decided for Brombacher and I went to watch Michael's game ...when I came back Marco had him in a Tradewind lock and had a Silver Wyvern on the board - strange world! ;-) Heuter - Hein 0:2 I only watched once in a while - so I can't say much about this game except that Dirk defended himself on one life point for quite while during the second duel... but he had double Chill on the board: it surely helps! Semifinals: Nessler - Hein 2:0 Once again "WW vs. Humility: outcome obvious". Nessler had already won against Dirk in the 5th round of swiss - so Dirk wasn't amused to play him again... Blume - Mottschall 2:0 Sebastian Mottschall played an interesting "lock-deck" with lots of artifacts - anyway he just had no answer to allure/helm/tradewind. Wow - what a team performance! Team NMA did it - and took both slots! BIG congrats to both Michael and Marco on finally qualifying for the tour after all these dissapointing top 8's.... (for example Wathlingen). And congrats to everybody who made top 8 and didn't quite made it in the end. Dirk Hein seems to be on a roll regarding his performance during the last tourneys.. Here are the decklistings of the top 8: - and forget about the "x" thing ...stupid idea ;-) 1. Michael Nessler (Swiss: 1.) 4 Cataclysm 4 Disenchant 2 Kor Chant 4 Paladin en-Vec 2 Serene Offering 4 Soltari Monk 4 Soltari Priest 2 Soltari Trooper 4 Soltari Visionary 4 Wall of Essence 4 Warrior en-Kor 18 Plains 4 Wasteland SB: 2 Altar of Dementia 3 Torture Chamber 2 Allay 3 Gerard´s Battle Cry 3 Humility 2 Kor Chant 2. Marco Blume (Swiss: 6.) 2 Torture Chamber 2 Capsize 4 Counterspell 1 Dominating Licid 1 Ertai, Wizard Adept 3 Forbid 4 Legacy´s Allure 3 Mana Leak 4 Propaganda 3 Silver Wyvern 2 Thalakos Drifter 4 Tradewind Riders 4 Wall of Tears 16 Island 4 Maze of Shadows 4 Reflecting Pool SB: 4 Helm of Possession 3 Transmogrifying Licid 3 Bottle Gnomes 2 Capsize 1 Thalakos Drifter 1 Forbid 1 Ertai, Wizard Adept 3. Dirk Hein (Swiss: 5.) 2 Grindstone 3 Mox Diamond 2 Scroll Rack 1 Capsize 4 Counterspell 3 Forbid 4 Intuition 2 Mana Leak 3 Propaganda 3 Whispers of the Muse 2 Reclaim 2 Disenchant 3 Humility 3 Orim´s Prayer 9 Island 5 Plains 2 Reflecting Pool 4 Thalakos Lowlands 3 Vec Township 1 Wasteland SB: 2 Grindstone 1 Capsize 4 Chill 2 Dismiss 1 Reclaim 2 Disenchant 1 Humility 1 Light of Day 1 Winds of Rath 4. Sebastian Mottschall (Swiss: 7.) 4 Ensnaring Bridge 2 Erratic Portal 2 Mindless Automaton 4 Null Brooch 3 Scalding Tongs 2 Oath of Scholars 4 Tradewind Rider 4 Eladamri´s Vineyard 2 Mirri´s Guile 4 Spike Feeder 2 Spike Weaver 4 Wall of Blossoms 14 Forest 6 Island 3 Skyshroud Forest SB: 4 Chill 3 Dominating Licid 4 Needle Storm 2 Scragnoth 2 Wasteland 5. Sven Grottke (Swiss: 2.) 2 Mox Diamond 2 Scroll Rack 1 Coffin Queen 3 Living Death 3 Recurring Nightmare 1 Thrull Surgeon 2 Tradewind Rider 4 Hermit Druid 4 Spike Feeder 2 Spike Weaver 4 Survival of the Fittest 1 Verdant Force 4 Wall of Blossoms 1 Anarchist 1 Cloudchaser Eagle 2 Lobotomy 10 Forest 1 Island 2 Pine Barrens 1 Reflecting Pool 3 Rootwater Depths 4 Swamp 1 Volrath´s Stronghold (1 Thalakos Lowlands) SB: 2 Portcullis 1 Coffin Queen 3 Oath of Ghouls 1 Reckless Spite 1 Capsize 3 Mana Leak 1 Spike Weaver 1 Verdigris 1 Cloudchaser Eagle 1 Lobotomy 6. Marko Brombacher (Swiss: 3.) 2 Bottle Gnomes 2 Mox Diamond 4 Eladamri´s Vineyard 3 Heartwood Dryad 4 Rootwalla 3 Skyshroud Elf 4 Spike Feeder 3 Spike Soldier 2 Spike Weaver 4 Kindle 1 Rolling Thunder 2 Shard Phoenix 1 Shattering Pulse 4 Shock 1 Allay 11 Forest 2 Mogg Hollows 5 Mountain 1 Scabland 2 Wasteland SB: 2 Bottle Gnomes 2 Portcullis 2 Scragnoth 1 Boil 2 Lightning Blast 2 Shadowstorm 1 Shattering Pulse 1 Allay 2 Maze of Shadows 7. Sven Heuter (Swiss: 4.) 4 Canyon Wildcats 4 Fireslinger 2 Goblin Bombardement 4 Jackal Pups 4 Maniacal Rage 4 Mogg Conscripts 4 Mogg Fanatic 2 Mogg Flunkies 4 Mogg Raider 4 Ragign Goblin 4 Shock 4 Sonic Burst 16 Mountain SB: 3 Scalding Tongs 3 Price of Progress 2 Rathi Dragon 2 Seismic Assault 3 Mountain 2 Stalking Stones 8. Andreas Pischner (Swiss: 8.) 2 Grindstone 3 Mox Diamond 2 Scroll Rack 1 Capsize 4 Counterspell 3 Forbid 4 Intuition 2 Mana Leak 3 Propaganda 3 Whispers of the Muse 2 Reclaim 2 Disenchant 3 Humility 3 Orim´s Prayer 9 Island 5 Plains 2 Reflecting Pool 4 Thalakos Lowlands 3 Vec Township 1 Wasteland SB: 2 Grindstone 1 Capsize 4 Chill 2 Dismiss 1 Reclaim 2 Disenchant 1 Humility 1 Light of Day 1 Winds of Rath Props: - Marco & Michael for finally going all the way - with original decks btw ! - Marco for qualifying with our blue deck - Ertai is in the house! - Michael for his belief in the powers of white when it comes to constr. - hey, it works for you! - Torsten John and the local staff for a well run tournament - That they solved the "toilet problem" in time... ;-) - Dirk Hein for making top 8 - germany's finkeltron? dirktron.. heintron... anyway.. ;-} - Moises for finishing 4-2 with the no-brainer... Slops: - Jaques Punt for telling me to "use something different then my duelist counter..." What's that? Trash talk for beginners?! - Dirk Hein for refusing to draw with Marco... it all came back to you! ;-) - The local organisation for the "toilet problem" when we arrived... ;-( - Sebastian Moises for knowing nothing of Rath - and choosing to play Hatred - in Berlin?! That's it for now! There are still some more qualifiers for Rome - maybe we can get the rest of Team NMA qualified... we'll try - that's for sure. ;-)) Friendly greetings - I hope you enjoyed the report! Patrick email: Patrick_Mello@public.uni-hamburg.de ICQ # 1785 3287