Subject: PTQ Rome: White Torture Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 20:41:32 -0700 From: solna <100722.2762@compuserve.com> To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Here is a report of a PTQ in Zurich, Switzerland, where we (2 players)finished 1st and 2nd in the swiss, and I lost in quarter-finals and a friend playing the same deck qualified. Sorry for the mistakes in english, I speak much better french :-) Rémy Solna. -------------------------------------------------------------------- After a lot of playtesting, we decided to play a white weenie, but a defensive one. We were (nearly) sure to beat sligh, hatred, and we thought white weenie was a good matchup. Awakening and Living Death was more annoying, but they don't like disenchant, soltari visionnary, cataclysm,... One of the key cards of our deck was torture chamber, which is amazing but under-rated. So here is the deck: "White Torture" 4 Soul Warden 4 Soltari Priest 4 Soltari Monk 4 Warrior En-Kor 4 Master Decoy 4 Soltari Visionnary 4 Paladin en-Vec 3 Pacifism 1 Repentance 2 Cataclysm 2 Disenchant 4 Torture Chamber 20 Plains Sideboard: 4 Warmth 4 Light of Day 3 Porticullis 2 Disenchant 2 Cataclysm I don't think I need to make a lot of comments on the main deck, exept that Repetance is very good (against spikes, fireslinger, and nearly all other creatures), and that Torture Chamber just kills Weenies, and is useful against Awakening and Living Death too. 2 things on the side: 4 light of day were too much, it was a mistake about the metagame (Zurich is far from Geneva!), there was only a few black decks. 2 of them should have been Allays. We didn't want to play 4 cataclysm main deck, because it's not very good against weenies, which we expected to see a lot, but we need 2 more against control decks. I (R‚my Solna) played this, as do Raphael Gennari (exactly the same main deck, but one repetance in the side). Alexandre Blumke choosed to play something else, an Awakening deck with 4 hermit druids (strong with Forbid!!) and 4 Oath of Druid. Note: We had to play a 3rd game even if we win the first 2!! 1st Round: Thommas Wallmer, playing WW with red for direct damage. First game I play some creatures that he kills, and kill him with priests, En-kor and Paladin. Torture Chamber killed his critters. He told me he did a lot of playtesting, and he was sure WW was better with red. Games 2 and 3 are the same game, he often has mana problems, that's why I think this deck is better mono white. 3-0, he says he doesn't understand why he lost, we play 2 other games for the fun, I win both 1-0-0 3-0 2nd round: Peter Hauck, from Stuttgart, playing Jakub Slemr's Rude Awakening deck I win first game easy, lose the second as he had his lock very fast and the third is maybe the more interesting I played. I play some creatures, make some damages, then he had a lock, I manage to play a cataclysm, but he had kept some lands, so he recover fast and is again in control, but I can play a cataclysm again, he keep a spike weaver (3/3), and I have a priest. I'm low in life, but 1, then 2 decoys stop the spike beatdown.I kill him with shadows. 2-0-0 5-1 3rd round: Thanh quan Tran, from Stuttgart too, playing counterphoenix The 3 games are nearly the same, I play some creatures, he counter the nastiest, but I keep my protected from red ones if I've some, he plays phoenix (he always kept 7 mana when he did it), and after I make a beatdown with paladin, priest and en-kor. 3-0 again, one more win and I'm in the top 8 3-0-0 8-1 4th round: Michael Willer, playing red weenie I have to say I'm very happy to play a red deck!! First game he plays 1st turn Chacal, I play Fanatic, he kills it, I play a priest, he put maniacal rage on the pup, I play en-kor, I'm confident, but he has a maniacal rage for it and attack with 2 pups. I play another En-Kor, but I'm at 7, he has 3 creatures. He plays choc (5), attack with all (4), and kill me with a sonic burst. It was close, so I'm a little angry, because I had 2 Paladin En-vec in hand, but only 2 lands. I win first game easy with 2 priest, 1 warrior en-kor and a paladin. I finish at 21!. Third game: my hand: 5 lands, soltari visionnary and a pacifism, so I mulligan. Bad idea, no lands with 6 cards, no lands with 5. I begin with 4 cards (no warmth). I have a very good start (for 4 cards), and I took control of the game with torture chamber. I'm sure to win with 2 priests, 2 warrior en kor and 1 paladin. But I forget 1 card in the red deck: Apocalypse!! I'm at 10, he's at 5 when he do it, but I recover fast and I win. It was harder then I thought, but I was mana screwed in all games. 4-0-0 10-2 5th round (and last, we were only 73): Thibaud Guillaume-Something, playing tradewind without awakening and spikes. I know his deck, I think I can beat it easy (only 4 counters, and nearly nothing to kill, no capsize!), but we've nothing to gain if we play, so we draw 4-0-1 10-2 I'm in the top 8, and 1st or 2nd seed: good. now, that's what Raphael did with the white weenie. 1st round: humility-orim's prayer: 2-1 2nd: sliver (no counters): 3-0 3rd: same WW-red as my first opponent, but another player: 2-1 4th: WW with blue: 3-0 5th: White weenie: 2-1 He's in top 8 too, but 1st and I'm 2nd, both 4-0-1 Torture Chamber was the key, we played against 4 WW, and win because they don't play it. First 4 seeds are french-spoken players, it's so good!! Alexandre Blumke is not in the top 8; Maybe some of you know it, but he always plays very slowly, and didn't finish the first games of the 2 last rounds!! He ends with 3 draws, 2 of them would have been wins if he had 5 more minutes. Quarter-Finals: Marc Probst His deck went very well in the first game, but I can slow him with torture chamber. He can have a tradewind lock, and slowly took control of the game. He wins with verdant force. 2nd game: I'm again mana screwed, start with only 5 cards....and only 3 mana for a long time, 3 cataclysm in hand. I have to play one, but he had time to keep some lands, and he win because of feeders-blossom recursion. 2-0, it's over for me. Raphael beat the same white weenie that in 5th round (2-1), then the same sligh I beat round 4 (2-0), and an awakening in the final, because Patrice Choffat, his opponent, made a lot of mistakes in the third game, which he had in control. He goes to the Pro-Tour again! So the Geneva's version of white weenie rules, and it's too bad I played the only Living Death in the top 16 (not a lot played, and the other ones lost a lot) in quarter-finals! R‚my Solna.