Subject: I: Muncie PTQ, Sept 19 Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 14:55:27 -0500 From: ken.roth.hoy4@statefarm.com To: drped@aol.com, fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Here ya go Frank, another report from the Muncie PTQ this past Saturday... Well, well, well? For starters, I would like to report that ?Yes, I am playing today? was quite possibly the most common words out of my mouth at this last weekends Mega PTQ in Muncie, Indiana. This is something of a rarity for me, as usually my most common phrase while at a PTQ is ?Herbie, shut the hell up? OR the ever popular ?and a warning for failure to check a deck correctly? in the many Sealed PTQs I have run. Or, of course, as a player my usual phrase is ?I got mana borked AGAIN? (read: either too much or too little). Right now there are three active members of the incredibly randomly named Team Island of Wak Wak Walk. A whopping group of two managed to make it to the Muncie PTQ. The other had some lame excuse about putting shingles on his roof or something useless like that. That left Dr. Ped Bunsongsikul and myself to represent our little known (and strikingly feared) team. For those who are wondering who Dr. Ped Bunsongsikul it, go back and read Finkle?s tourney report for PTNY last year and look at his first round opponent. Then read another report from that same PT about a certain fellow drafting an infinite sliver deck in a side booster draft. Yes, he is Ped ?Infinite Sliver? Bun?.betcha didn?t know he was a Doctor (something of a hobby for our entire team?real jobs that is?all of us are ?professionals? in a way that makes significantly more money than playing Magic?we play it for FUN and Competition?We have regular jobs to make that thing called money 8-). So I kiss my wife goodbye and jump into our Plymouth P.O.S. (I was going to assume that that described our specific make of car, then I realized that most Plymouths fit that description?it is a Horizon) to make the Friday night drive from the Pit of Des?er, Bloomington Illinois to Ped?s home in Champaign. Arriving at his place at 10:45 (the wife and I had to enjoy a meal at Olive Garden first?amazing the fun you can have with a Laser pointer when you know the people who work at a joint) we immediately set to finishing up our respective decks. For those that don?t know our team?s procedure, it is usually me asking Ped if he has the 2-3 cards I need to finish the deck (in this case Null Brooches) and Ped trying to figure out what to play, asking me if I have ?4 Soltari Emmisarys?4 Sacred Guides?.how about 4 Portcullis?? (And I usually do?I just haven?t played in enough Exodus sealed to get lots of those rares). I muse over my sideboard and decide that after Ped had single-handedly wrecked me with Legacy?s Allure many times that I needed Steal Enchantments in my side. Care to ask what single sideboard card never ONCE got used during the tourney? You betcha? I decide that to handle WW and Red I needed Nausea instead of Light of Day. I kept 2 Dreads and added 4 Nausea to the side. WOW did that card help a lot??Kill your 2 Jackal Pups?better than chill baby!!! After a little more playtesting I made a fateful comment ?Well, this deck should be able to whip up on combo decks, but I have absolutely NO defense against Hatred?and I am not going to put any in either, it would dilute the deck too much?. Never EVER make a comment like that before a tourney? I head to sleep around 1AM on the Futon from Hell (they are all from hell) while Ped stays up working on his deck (or still deciding which to play). I am a designer, Ped is an adapter. Which means I do all my work ahead of time while he has to work before the tourney deciding the meta-game, which deck to play and how he needs to modify it to the local needs. I find out that Ped finally gets to sleep around 3AM ?. And wakes up at 5:15 when the alarm goes off. We pack up our stuff and rush out the door to make the 2nd leg of our three-hour trip to exciting Muncie, Indiana?home of Ball State and the creator of Garfield? Along the way I confide in Ped that I really like Nausea in the side. He continues to muse on what deck to play. We get some gas for the vehicle. Driving?driving?driving? Ok, we make it there plenty early and the room is already stocked with a large amount of players. Pretty much a who?s who of the Midwest Magic scene (cept those cool folks from Ann Arbor?well, at least some of them weren?t there). The location, while being dragged down by being IN Muncie, is actually quite nice and I think that it was a pretty prime spot. AND hot dogs could be had from the nice lady for only $1.50 (cheap by convention center standards?more on this later). Barratt Moy (Level III judge) is the man who is running the show (and head judge), with George Pratt using his tasty good software for the main tourney and Mitch Smithson is also along for the ride as ?back-up level III in residence?. Registration is running well, and like every tourney that advertises a 9:30 starting time this one starts promptly at 10AM. Which, of course, is the plan (if you don?t understand this, try running a large tourney on time and tell people that it starts at 10AM?best of luck to ya?). They do a great job of running things smoothly and on time (from what I saw) and except for a few rulings issues I was VERY happy with the tourney. (yes, as a level III that people tend to respect, you get a LOT of questions about things and people asking you about a ruling that was made one their match or whatever. This CAN get a bit wearing at times and I apologize to the people I blew up at 2 weeks ago in Chicago. You had no idea that I was tired and you had seen me answer a ton of questions already so didn?t see a problem with asking. I should be humbled and amazed that you respect my opinion enough to ask me.) Theron Martin, tourney reporter extraordinaire, has already written an article about the meta game that existed at the tourney, and I was playing one of the B/U ultra-heavy discard pit decks with Tradewinds. The best part is that someone else from Chicago was playing a VERY similar deck that he had developed separately. For those that had seen my deck in Chicago 2 weeks ago (a b/w affair, amazingly heavy artifacts with white for Hanna?s Custody and protection) this deck is a morph of that deck into something that can better deal with combo decks?it was designed to crush weenie decks (which it did) but I got creamed by combo decks. The new version was designed to hold its own against weenies and crush combo decks. A random, from memory deck list follows: 4 Ensnaring Bridge 4 Lobotomy 4 Coercion 4 Thrull Surgeons (or, Sturgeons if you prefer??Peer into your MIND!?) 4 Bottomless Pits 3 Null Brooch 4 Dark Rituals (ever see first turn pit against combo decks? Lovely baby) 3 Tradewind Riders 2 Capsize (NEED a way to deal with Humility) 2 Wall of Tears 2 Scalding Tongs (warning will robinson, poor choice) 1 Bottle Gnome (always came up at the best time too!) 2 Volrath?s Stronghold 2 Rootwater depths (ok, how in the world do I always draw them in pairs?) swamps and islands to fill it out 61 cards Side: 4 Nausea 2 Dread of Nights 1 Ertai (I suck so much, even my familiar kicks my a**) 2 Steal Enchantments (grrrr) 2 Maddening Imps (Wrath of God your side) 1 Coffin Queen 2 Cannibalize 1 Bottle Gnome And, of course, much of the deck is Oriental and it has one Portal II coercion? Ok, changes to be made now ? take out the tongs, add land, change out 4 cards total (some discard, perhaps one ritual) into searching cards ? either Looters, Intuitions or Oath of Scholars (I NEVER intend to have a hand during my opponent?s turn, so they never get to use it). Ok, mega thanks to Brian Kowal for lending me 2 Steal Enchantments (tho if he didn?t have them I would have had to find something MORE useful in my side?) 2 signed Null Brooches and 4 Nauseas (I don?t carry my commons around). Ped decides to play WW..;-) Adrian Sullivan (the Corrupter) takes a look and, after paying him the appropriate homage, decides it at least doesn?t suck. Now for the play-by-play?pithy commentary mixed in and at the end? Round one ? Russell Wilson ? u/b Crystal Ok, ever walk into a tourney and find your first round is something that you did NOT anticipate ever seeing? This would qualify as one of those instances. Ok, his deck as a really heavy counter element, memory crystals for bounce, whispers and, of course, lab rats. Yup?lab rat beatdown. And he almost got control of game one do to mad counters and card drawing. He gets me down to 16 (bridge is good?even though it IS hard to keep your hand empty) and my bouncy Tradewind with the bottomless pit undo him while my null brooch sits in the background waiting for something interesting to counter and falls asleep. He concedes at 17 (Ken stands up, says ?Hey Barratt, I have my opponent completely locked and he wants to concede, you got a problem with that?? Barratt ? ?Completely locked you say?? Ken ? ?Almost as hard as it gets? Barratt ? ?Ok with me??). Onto game two ? I sideboard in?uh?Maddening Imp (in case I cannot always dump my hand I need to do some rat control?). He sides in something like 9 cards. In come his critters and MORE Bounce. Freakin? Thalakos Deceiver ruins my day. He takes game two by drawing no less than 7 cards a turn with a 2 casting cost whispers? Game three ? Swamp, Dark Ritual, Bottomless Pit. Pardon me as I yank the ONLY island out of your hand and you proceed to draw 1 more swamp (getting you up to 2) and many, many blue spells). I felt really bad about him getting mana screwed until he pointed out that I had done it to him with the Pit. Oh yeah, I said, random discard is geed? Match : 1-0 games: 2-1 Round 2 ? Ryan Nuny/Nunn (sorry, not sure about the spelling) ? Traitorous Hatred Game 1 ? 2 turns into the game, I yell to Ped (who won last round) ?Hey Ped, what?s the one deck I said this deck couldn?t beat?? He sez ?That would be Hatred Bob??. Game one comes down to Ken getting the crap beat outta him by black hordes. He also has my bane Scalding Tongs in his deck. Game 2 ? Quick lobotomy takes care of the Hatred menace. Bridge comes out, Ken locks the game except for that little tongs on the other side. My lock is completely in place, but I am taking one a turn?12.11..10..9..8? FINALLY, a Tradewind to go with my other 2 critters and He-man Ken bounces the evil tongs back to the hand and it falls into the pit ? Concession number 3 (Hey Barratt?). On to game three. The best part of my deck is that I actually don?t MIND mulliganing if I have to. One less card to dump to get to bridge coverage. I go down to 5 cards, but that?s ok, I have a lobotomy and dark ritual. My opponent plays weenie turn one, City of Traitors turn 2, Dauthi Marauder, Our Hero throws lobotomy and actually SNAGS THE TONGS. Opponent now can only kill me with critters, which means I merely need a bridge to lock it up?and?pth?no top deck for me? Match: 1-1 Games 3-3 Ped wins again? Round 3?Michael Esau ? Something similar to Erratic LD Ok, having much experience with LD in my life (one of my three main ?always working on it deck? archetypes) I know how this deck works out of the blocks. A speedy Land kill or two, play a sphere of resistance or two, use Starke and Erratic Portal, etc. shouldn?t be hard for a mega discard deck to hurt. Assuming, of course, I draw any discard (Gee, I only have 16!!). Game 1 ? he dies to the tongs (only kill of the day for them) Game 2 ? He gets some quick LD, I am already mana screwed and I concede when the sphere hits the table Game 3 ? I AGAIN mulligan down to 5. And have 2 land. And die, but this time it takes longer. Match: 1-2 Games 4-5 It has been a mightily long time since Mana screw hasn?t been what knocked me out of contention. This is another of those times?sigh (nothing like playing 2 games in a row after that and slapping him around then? Nice timing oh deck of mine..) Nevertheless, I continue.. Round 4 ? Derek Billadeau ? Hatred (old school ? Culling the weak instead of City) Sigh?another Hatred deck. But WAIT. He has no Tongs. What does this mean for our intrepid hero? Survive the rush, win the game. Game 1 ? See ?Game plan? for this match Game 2 ? See ?Game 1? More painful lobotomy practice?you don?t need that Hatred? Match 2-2 Games 6-5 I think Ped won this round also. 4-0 Round 5 Aaron Huntsman ? Living Death Ok, the deck type I am supposed to cream. Lobotomy, Coercion, Surgeon. Game 1 ? I see one of the above, concede in the face of double working Tradewinds Game 2 ? again see one of the above cards, at least he gets down to 18 this match?I go through all the trouble of removing one Tradewind from the game (cannibalize) and he top decks another one..grrr) Ok, that was disheartening (losing to your best match-up sucks). Match 2-3 Games 6-7 Ped loses 4-1 Round 6 ? Gary King ? B/W critter Refreshingly random deck, always throwing a few surprises, but he best chance against me was the fact that he packed many disenchant and allays. It doesn?t matter though, his creature rush is too slow to affect me. I only take 11 during both games and my hard lock sets in (add Ertai to counter possible Cloudchasers, game over). And, of course, my side of Dread of Night and Nausea guts his critters? Match 3-3 Games 8-7 Ped wins 5-1 Round 7 The SPECTACULAR Dennis Brown ? WW OK, WW remains one of my good match-ups, unless they pack stupid amounts of enchantment/artifact destruction standard. Dennis doesn?t have enough. The side does him in in game 2. Match 4-3 Games 10-7 Ped loses again (that sucks) 5-2 Final painful round ? Richard van Cleave (I think I spelled that wrong) ? WW He and I are now both 4-3 and we almost decide to draw to keep our +.500 ratings intact..;-) I tell Ped that my goal is to tie him? Note: Richard, while being really civil all day to me, was under the impression that I had, somewhere, called him a ?cheater? after a PTQ that I ran down in St Louis long before PT Mainz. I pointed out to him in Muncie that I hadn?t called him a cheater, I had merely accused him of ?Rules Sleaze? (i.e. trying to cheese the tourney rules to gain an advantage). I didn?t think that he had actively done anything blatant that would be ?cheating? in most people?s minds (drawing extra cards, underpaying, etc) but was trying to manipulate his opponent into technical rules violations. That kind of thing is seen different by different people. I consider it bad, some people consider it gamesmanship. I just want to make sure that people don?t think I was calling him a ?cheater?. It is a very different thing in my mind. Regardless, we had played many games before the tourney started and his deck was the only WW that had pounded me senseless during the pre-tourney playing. He had a lot of destruction and it carried him in 2 games against me. Match 4-4 Games 10-9 Ped walks over and informs me that he lost. I regretfully inform him that he still won our race to the best record as I had lost too? I wasn?t around to see the top 8, but I do know that Hatred deck #1 I played against (Ryan Nuny/Nunn) made it into the top 8. Ped and I start the long drive home. Well, first we go to McD?s and grab some food. Ok, what kind of crap is this. There were NO cheap food deals, just some stupid contest based on ?food prices 25 years ago? or something stupid like that. So if this had been my second trip and I had one of the coupons I would have scored cheap food, but no?. Ped struggles to remain awake during the whole trip as he drives? somewhere near the Indiana/Illinois border we stop at a gas station to wake ourselves up and I purchase a $1.97 cassette by Men Without Hats containing the youth rebellion anthem ?Safety Dance??while we boogie down to this blast from the past we think up a new evil deck that is borrowed from T2 but we haven?t seen in Rath (and it works too). I finally get home around 2AM and collapse into bed?quickly falling asleep and dreaming of 2nd turn kills without dark rituals..;-) You know, I am going to follow the crowd on this one and do some props and slops?they are kinda fun to read even if they are usually stupid (like these): Props ? Ped Bun ? you managed to do all the driving (I DID offer to help) and had a better day, even if you DID decide you should have played red during round 5..;-) Adrian Sullivan ? people out there, you need to meet this guy. Someone needs to set up a ?Make sure the Corrupter can get to every PTQ so everyone can meet him? fund. I didn?t see the mug, but he DID have his ?honorary lesbian? button on (but no Lesbian Avengers t-shirt). Brian Kowal ? thanks for the cards?needed them big time?and I was supposed to make some comment about something you said, but I forgot it? Theron Martin ? where do you write your reports, in the car on the way home? Dude you write fast..;-) Ray deGuzman ? Ok, I playtested my deck against red and except for killing off Fireslingers, my deck usually beats them. Not against this guy. He pounded me into the sand like 8 games in a row. He has the red ability, I tell you. Barratt Moy and the Legion ? great event, stunningly sharp prizes and an all-around great time. (with one caveat, see below). Oh yeah, and for letting me in free. There has to be SOME perk to being a Level III, even if it comes from another Level III instead of WotC. Ryan Nuny ? I like players who ask me later how I am doing and keep me informed. He was a really cool guy. Everyone I played ? You were all cool, quality players. I hope you all win against everyone but my teammates and me? Myself ? for only swearing about mana screw once?the St. John?s Wort works..;-) The lady at the food stand ? cheap food and she sold me a hot dog after she was supposed to stop selling them (makes me wonder, is there a time where it becomes illegal or something?) If we could have just gotten her to crack a smile or sell us the old pizzas cheaper? People who build their own decks ? keep up the good work and don?t let it get ya down, you may just hit upon something. Dr. Garfield and crew ? keep up the good work. But remember one thing?you develop many card games that are based on other card games (like Dalmuti). With Dalmuti you admitted that you didn?t design the game originally, but some of your newer games are obviously adaptations?make sure you admit that and give credit where credit is due? Slops ? Barratt Moy ? ok, I don?t know about this week, but 2 weeks ago you didn?t have the rulings with you and it would have cleared up a couple questions. BRING THEM! It would also help answer questions about Coffin Queen and Shard Phoenix... People who drop stuff all over the floor ? wastebaskets?learn to use them? McD?s - for having NO 2 for $2 deals. Mana ? for hating me personally Politics ? no, not the politics of government, but the politics involved in the industry that we play in. There are far too many choices being made for the wrong reasons and it is hurting the game in general. Those who know me will understand this, the rest, well, I dunno?guess I suppose? Myself for not being in a cynical enough mood to think of more slops..;-) Take care all and see everyone at Pro Tour Chicago?where I may even be WORKING assuming WotC decides to pay for a room for me (so no, if I were you I wouldn?t bet on me working at it). Ken Roth Level III Tree-Slug Director of Chiropitists, Great Lakes Gums Head of Lame Deck Development, Team Island of Wak Wak Walk Gryfalia@tesser.com