Subject: Tournament report - PTQ Trieste, Italy, 27/9, Living Death Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1998 12:36:13 +0200 From: Andrea Santin To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Hi Frank, here's a report of the PT-Rome qualifier held in Trieste, Italy, the 27th of September. I didn't expected a very strong playing field, since Trieste is on the Northeastern edge of our country and is very far from Rome (where Italy's best players are from), and so decided to play Living Death, not quite FinkelDeath, more like the deck played by Alex Shvartsman in Boston, but tuned for a more offensive metagame. I have been playing LDeath for a long time now, and I also feel that Living Death is the only Rath Cycle deck with no "holes" in it (there is almost no mathcup where it folds) and the most flexible - yeah, I like Living Death a lot. The tournout was about 50 people, a lot less than expected, and so the organizors decided to run only 5 rounds of swiss. The metagame was very diversified, with every single kind of archetype present and a prominance of WW and Monoblue (much like the one who took two spots at a PTQ in Germany). On to the match description. Round 1 - ??- playing Monoblue control This guy was very nice even though he was clearly unexperienced. The first game was a blur since I drew 22 lands (with the help of a druid) and only 7 spells; I tried to put up a fight with an Anarchist recurred via Volrath's Stronghold, but he Wasted my last Stronghold and I decked myself. Second game, I played a turn two survival, fetched my three surgeons, forced all the permission he had, recurred a Verdant Force and he was unable to deal with Godzilla. Third Game I played a second turn Oath of Ghouls (with another in hand to back it up) that he allowed. I promptly played Survival and took him to school with recurring surgeons. I then Deathed back a zillion creatures and he conceded. Props to him for not stalling. 1-0, 2-1 Round 2 - Vito Russo - Tradewind Awakening Tradewind Awakening is not a good matchup for Living Death, but when your opponent is blue screwed is not difficult for the LD player to quickly take advantage of that. I had to mulligan but then started with blazing speed - land mox druid. He was stuck at only one blue mana for a lot, and I had time to setup a huge Living Death that won me game 1. In game 2, I drew survival, Oath of Ghouls, and a Surgeon. It was enough to put him in the dreaded "Surgeon Lock". Even with the enormous advantage given me by the Oath, he managed to put up a very good fight but in the end it proved to be too much for him: I recurred a verdant, and when he was forced to tap all of his creatures and tradewinds to deal with my offense, I discarded the Force and a pair of tradewinds, and Living Deathed. He scooped. 2-0, 4-1 Round 3 - William Cavaglieri, WW White Weenie is a gift matchup when playing Death: unless they get a very offensive draw and back it up with both helm and cataclysm, it is very unlikely that a WW will ever beat Death. In game 1 he had a decent draw (Monk/Champion) but mine was better (Mox Druid soon followed by a weaver); he stalled at three lands for a while with THREE Cataclysm in hands (as a Surgeon told me) while i played a second weaver and then recurred a force, all the while keeping lands in hand for a Cataclysm. He finally managed to cast the Cataclysm: he was left with a Soltari Champion, while I had a 9/9 Verdant Force. Game Over. Second Game, I had to mulligan once, but he mulliganed too. He started offensively, but he only drew two lands; I also had only two lands, but a Druid helped me to build up a good mana base and a fat graveyard for the Living Death that sealed the match. After the match he showed me that he boarded in 4 Portcullis (I only boarded in two of my verdigris) but he never drew one. Good for me :-) . William was a good sport, though, and a very nice guy - we wished each other luck, shaked our hands and moved on. 3-0, 6-1 Round 4 - Ricky Sandroni, Monoblue Ricky is a team member of the Furlan Djinns (pobably the best guys you can meet playing Magic in Italy), IMHO he's the best player of them all, and was playing the monoblue designed by his team. Ricky kicked my ass in the top8 of a PTQ for Chicago so I wanted revenge. I was confident since LD, especially after boarding in Oath of Ghouls, can't lose to monoblue. Game 1, he stealed a pair of my creatures andstarted applying the beatdown. I was on the difensive with a pair of weavers and a feeder and I was waiting for a Living Death. I survivaled a lot of creatures out of my deck, drew 3 cards with wall of blossoms but just couldn't find it. I had a recurring going, though, while ha had a Wyvern, my Cloudchaser Eagle and an active Tradewind with a Gnome and a Wall. On the last possible turn, I recurred a wall twice and drew a LD with exactly 5 untapped mana. I tapped 5 and Deathed. He had no counters and scooped. Game two was bad for me - I had both Recurring and Survival, but he managed to cast SIX creatures (including two tradewinds) in the first six turns and kept me below five mana. When a Wyvern hit the board, I conceded. Game three, we both mulliganed. He was stuck at a single land for a while and I recovered a lot faster with an hermit druid and an Oath of Ghouls. I recurred a Force into play, and, despite his valiant efforts, I won two minutes before time was up. I won, but it was much closer than I expected. 4-0, 8-2 Round 5, Igor Furlani, Sligh We ID. Igor is just incredible. He usually doesn't make semis when we play our weekly 12/16 people tournament every friday. Today, I gave him the decklist of a Sligh deck that both he and Michele played and took it all the way to the semifinals, where he lost mainly due to bad luck. An heckuva job. MAJOR PROPS to Igor. 4-0-1, 8-2-1 After a while, top eight were announced and I was first seed. 1 - Me! (Death) 2 - Igor Furlani (Sligh) 3 - Alex Rizzato (Furlan Djinns Blue) 4 - Riccardo Sandroni ( F. Djinns Blue) 5 - Giorgio Bortolussi (WelkinHawk.dec) 6 - some guy playing a random sligh 7 - Yari Chinello (U/b control) 8 - William Cavaglieri (WW) I felt I had a really good chance of qualifying - with neither awakenings (9th/11th/12th !) nor counterphoenix (10th) in the top eight, I definitely had a deck advantage against everybody in the top8. Or at least I thought so. Quarterfinals, William Cavaglieri, WW First game was very easy for me: he went first and had to mulligan three times. He did't even put up a fight and conceded when Godzilla came out to play. Second game I only drew a Coffin Queen, a Dread of Night and a Living Death and a wall in a very long time. The first creature he played was a Visionary, which he followed with a Cataclysm. I was drawing land after land and had absolutely no problem to recover. He attacked for a while with the visionary and then played a Portcullis. I drew and played a Survival that I was able to use once before the shadow dude destroyed it. With two creatures in my graveyard and none in his, I deathed and portcullis locked HIM. I then recurred a pair of Spikes and applied. William was mad at himself for the mistake, but when playing against LD with WW you've got to take some risks - simply, he took a gambit and lost. 2-0, 10-2-1 Semifinals, Riccardo Sandroni, Furlan Djinns Monoblue I won with Riccardo in the Swiss and was confident I could beat him again. We agreed to play 3 out of 5 and started. First game, he forbid (with buyback) mi first survival, putting in the graveyard Mr.Ertai himself and a Thalakos Drifter. Bad for me. I managed to lobotomize his tradewinds but he slowly took control with two pingers, a wall and a Torture Chamber; I had very few creatures in my graveyard and had to death when a Wyvern hit the board. He had a Drifter, both pingers and Ertai after the Death, while I had a Force, a Tradewind and a Weaver. He killed the tradewind with pingers and chamber, played a wall of tears and then bounced the force with a Capsize. I lost. After sideboarding, with Oath of Ghouls, my deck just should not lose to Monoblue. I drew my hand - 6 lands and a Survival. If i can play a Survival before he can counter, I'll almost always win. (Since i can find my surgeons, then a druid and eventually the anarchist). I calculated my chances of drawing one of my 20+ creatures and decided to keep. Of course I drew land, then mox, surgeon, land. Guess who won? At this point, I was disheartened. I bashed my deck and proceded to play game three. I remember losing 3-1, but just can't remember a thing about game three - maybe it involved some mulligan affair. Game four, I started well with a Survival and two walls while he played two legacy's allure and a wall of bounce. I played my clodchaser eagle (Bad mistake - he should have stolen both walls, to protect him from Scragnoth - which I don't play, but he didn't knew that - and forced me to nuke my survival, but he didn't) and nuked a Legacy's Allure. He then stole my Eagle and Capsized buyback during his turn my survival. I surgeoned him during my turn and saw that he only had a Capsize. He drew, attacked, and passed. I drew a Recurring, played my survival, which he countered and recurred a force into play. At this point, I was preparing for game five, but he topdecked portcullis. No problem, I though, I boarded all three verdigris and have a scroll rack to find them. I survivaled for all my walls, drew a zillion cards, but never drew a verdigris while he drew some counters and killed me with my eagle (my force kept at bay by his wall). Riccardo then faced the Sligh guy but I left before they even started. Anyway, Riccardo has a good deck advantage and a much stronger sideboard, so he should have won and qualified for Rome. So i missed to qualify once again. Yet another top8 appearence, but I just can't break my curse. Here are a few props and slops. Props to - Alex Shvartsman for being an amazing person Giorgio Bortolussi for his second top8 appearence William Cavaglieri - a nice guy the Furlan Djinns - they're all amazing guys Igor Furlani - he almost went all the way at his first PTQ Slops to - Riccardo Sandroni - for killing my dream once again - no hard feelings, but I think that this deserve a slop nonetheless. My deck for giving me crap when it counted. Me for leaving my Mana Leaks out of my SB Lady luck - you don't like me that much, dontcha? I'll leave the Sideboard to your imagination. Bye, Andrea