Subject: Re: [Tournament] GP Texas Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 21:49:47 -0000 From: "Wakko Djinn" To: Grand Prix Texas Tourney Report or Rath Cycle Constructed is Like a Poke in the Eye With A Sharp Stick, Only Less Entertaining. This is a mix of a report about my results at GP Texas and the general experience...hopefully it'll be a bit enjoyable. First I need to say this...I hate Rath Cycle Construced. Despise it. Going into the tournament there's about 3 viable decks in a 600-plus card pool, which annoys me to no end. Yes, I know, some say there are more decks than that, but that's really what it looked like going in. I have been working on a deck using the Reconaissance/Angelic Protector/Worthy Cause combo and think I may finally have one that works, so my plan is to hit the local store, grab some Recons cause I can't find them in my collection (only to find out later it would have helped had I looked in my Exodus cards and not my Stronghold cards). At the game store I by chance pick up Daniel Benitez to go down with me to Austin, a 2 1/2 hour drive from Dallas. I have the Combo deck together and a Living Death deck together to play, and plan to play in the GP Trial Friday night at 6 to test it out. Daniel and I head down, only to end up showing up about 15 minutes late for the Trial thanks to having to drive around in HORRIBLE Austin traffic trying to find this rinky-dink hotel the tournament is being held at. So I grab some games with friends who are waiting for side events. I play the Combo deck against Living Death and get WAXED. I don't even come close to winning any games and am now officially depressed. I go play in a T2 side tourney with my CadBloom deck, and go 1-1. By this time several of my teammates have arrived. Jeff Zandi (and the lovely Mrs. Zandi), Rob Lawing, and James Stroud are running around, so I hook up with them. Stroud, king of control, has a mono-blue deck together he's trumpeting as the end-all, so I'm up for checking it out. Turns out several others had the same basic idea, except Stroud is running four main deck Portcullis in his. I like the deck, but proceed to see it get beat down multiple times by CounterChicken (Phoenix), and can't stand it. By this time We've been joined by Jonathon Pechon, Scott Gerhardt, Zeth D Bass, and several guys from Waco, including Dequan Watson and Ryan Harvey are running around, too. At this point it is about 1:30 am Saturday morning. I want sleep, and I'm pissed at Rath Cycle. I really don't want to play now...paying $35 to torture myself playing that damn Living Death deck sounds like about as much fun as sticking my hand in a blender. Then I get talking to Dequan, he has a deck together that a friend of ours in the IRC channel, #mtgwacky, put together. (The friend's nick is Soalo, btw). It is a Green/White deck with Oath of Druids and Rootbreaker Wurms and a Minion of the Wastes. It is silly. I knew about the deck, but didn't have it together. I tell Dequan if he doesn't give me that deck to play, then I will not play in the GP. Eventually he caves in and gives it to me to play, so I go to bed about 2:30 am, ready to play a silly-ass deck and love it. I figure I'll go 2-2, maybe 3-2 and then go Urza's Saga draft the rest of the weekend and get my 215 card Auratog colleciton signed by Jeff Miracola. Bright and early Saturday morning I go downstairs to register the following deck: (commentary follows) 4 Oath of Druids 3 Rootbreaker Wurm 1 Minion of the Wastes 4 Spike Feeder 2 Bottle Gnomes 1 Scragnoth 4 Cataclysm 2 Verdant Touch 2 Null Brooch 4 Disenchant 2 Scroll Rack 4 Reclaim 3 Mox Diamond 12 Plains 12 Forest SIDEBOARD: 2 Null Brooch 3 Constant Mists 3 Scragnoth 2 Paladin en-Vec 2 COP Black 1 Light of Day 2 Verdant Touch Surprisingly effective, as it turned out, especially in a creature-based field. 4 Disenchants give it versatility, and Scroll Racks allow for getting out of bad draws and putting fatties back on top of the deck. The biggest weakness is the sideboard. I would have paid good money for 4 Torture Chambers and some Portcullis in my SB. Paladin is weak as a fairly small creature that sticks on the board, and I never saw a black deck, tho there was a weirdo black deck running around that did ok. Scragnoth proved to be quite good. So we sit down to play the first round...we sit for about 5 minutes when it is announced that several people were paired who thought they were getting byes, so we sit through the reposting of the bye list, only now they really mean it when they tell people to check the list, and then a re-pairing of the round. Finally, the tourney begins... Round 1 Vs Tyler Johnson, a young kid from Arkansas playing Tradewind/Awakening. This is the deck that my deck beats everytime without fail, according to DeQuan. In game 1 I find out why quickly when he plays a 2nd turn Wall of Blossoms, which I follow with an Oath which leads next turn to a Rootbreaker who proceeds with the beatings. He drops an Awakeing which is promptly Disenchanted, and a Cataclysm after he taps out to cast a Tradewind wraps it up. Game 2 he does something very curious by playing a 2nd turn Wall of Blossoms, and 3rd turn Oath of Druids! Great, I don't have to get MY Oath! I flip over a Rootbreaker and the game ends quickly. Match Score 1-0 At this point Jeff Miracola is in the house and I decend on him with my 215 Auratogs and a playmat on which I want "a huge Auratog". I buy a bunch of prints and proofs and leave my 'Togs in Jeff's capable hands to sign. As I walk away he mumbles something about "freak", but I just keep going. Round 2 Vs Mitchell Moore, a decent guy playing WW This match I find out quickly what beats my deck: 1st turn Plains, 2nd turn Plains and some shadow guy, 3rd turn shadow guy, 4th turn shadow guy. He does this both games. Between that and my sub-optimal draws against his deck (2 Disenchants and 2 Reclaims in hand when 5 Shadow guys are beating on your head is bad), I quickly lose this match. I no longer feel good about my deck. Match 1-1 I go check on my Auratogs, Jeff is about 1/4th through the stack. I run to my room to watch some MTV since my cable system in BFE, Texas doesn't have MTV and catch some Rammstein before heading back for the next round... Round 3 Vs Eric Silva, from Corpus Christi, also playing WW Eric is playing a unique WW, with Reaping the Rewards and Oath of Leiges. First game I put up a fight with my Oath of Druids, but eventually lose to 3 shadow guys whipping on me. Second game I see my ultimate nightmare 3rd turn: Soltari Visionary. I start casting Bottle Gnomes and Feeders like mad to stay up on life, hoping for an answer. Eventually I cast a Rootbreaker, then Cataclysm next turn as I will win the life race at that point. I end up doing just that. Third game I see a 3rd AND 4th turn Visionary. Poop. I've got an Oath, but I'm gonna get beatdown when I draw....Constant Mists. Oh, baby. I drop the Oath with 4 land out. Eric attacks and points right away at my Oath. I tell him to hang on juuuust a second. I tap 2 land, put a plains in my graveyard, and save my Oath. Next turn out comes the Rootbreaker. Turn later comes a Spike Feeder. I beat down for a couple turns, Constant Misting his Visionaries till I get a Scragnoth. He drops a Paladin en-Vec and plops Flickering Ward set to Green on it. When he blocks my Rootbreaker with it next turn, the nice head judge, Mike Guptil, informs him of the new trample rules which make him take 4 damage anyway. I get the match. Match Score 2-1 Not too bad, and Jeff has finished with my Auratogs at this point, and I'm feeling a bit better about my deck now. I run across the street to grab some Cracker Jacks with Rob Lawing and find out the Padres went up 3-0 on the Braves. WOOO!!! Go Pads!! Cracker Jacks are some good, but the toys suck. Rob and I discuss getting pinball games an compasses when we were kids, now we pull out a perforated piece of paper that is supposed to be a magic trick...whatever. Round 4 vs J.P. Sohi (hope I spelled the name right), a very pleasant guy who drove down from Edmonton. Unfortunately, I don't see much of JP's deck. First game I see a Tradewind, which brings out a Rootbreaker in short order. I also see a Vineyard which is promptly Disenchanted, cause it just can't be good. I get the first game when my 4/5 Scragnoth with a Feeder counter on it overcomes his Wall of Blossoms. I bring in Scraggy cause I see blue, but it ends up being irrelelvant as JP gets mana screwed and I kill him before he even gets a 4th land by casting 2 Scragnoth. Match 3-1 Miracola is still working on my mat, but it is starting to look keen.Stroud is now at 3-0-1 after a 3 round bye and a draw with his blue deck, Zandi...well, Zandi is having a rough day :). Round 5 Vs Chad Wilkinson, a guy I know from Waco, playing a beatdown Sliver deck. Game 1 Chad gives me a scare when he goes Metallic, Muscle, Muscle, but Oathing out a Rootbreaker and Cataclysm turn things in my favor quickly. Game 2 my first turn Oath with Moxes allows me to get a 7/7 Minion of the Wastes 3rd turn...7/7 trampler is some good. Game ends quickly. Match 4-1 Round 6 Vs Robert Moore, a good friend and Magic player from Dallas. It sucks we have to play, but the winner is pretty much assured a shot at day 2, so it's cool that the winner wins either way. He is playing a 3 color Sliver/control deck. Game 1 He plays smart against my deck, he doesn't play a sliver until he has mana to counter my Oath. I am unable to work around him and eventually lose. Game 2 goes quite slowly as well, but I get out 2 Scragnoths to his Flying Winged and Crystalline Slivers. We are both at 6 going into his turn. If he draws a Victual or a Muscle Sliver, he wins. He draws and gets Wall of Blossoms. My teammate, James Murphy is watching the match, and I reach over and grab onto his arm, pleading for some luck. Robert plays the Wall. He draws.....a Reflecting Pool. WOOO!!! I attack and win next turn. Game 3 I drop 5th and 6th turn Scragnoth, while his Slivers are nowhere to be found. I run him over in short order Match Score 5-1 Round 7, final round of Day 1. I get paired against Tim Danzinger, a good old school player from Oklahoma whom I've never played before today. Tim discusses drawing into the top 64, but I don't want to. It's a 13 round tournament, not 7. Drawing is not good, in my opinion. Tim is playing CounterChicken. I quickly find out how bad his deck sucks for me. Game one an early Oath is no good. He counters Cataclysms, Rootbreakers, makes me pick up the Oath then counters it via Capsize, and kills my Scraggy with a Shard and Shock. Eventually I die to Chicken beatings. Game 2 I get down a Null Brooch. Tim tries to Shattering Pulse it, but I counter that, throwing away two Oath of Druids. The Brooch procceeds to protect me from Tim's Capsize and stuff, allowing me to beat him down with a Rootbreaker. Game 3 I throw the kitchen sink at Tim. He counters an early Brooch. I get to 7 land and play a Rootbreaker, he counters it, I play another one and it is countered. I draw my last Rootbreaker only to see it get countered, too. I draw and drop a Scragnoth. Next turn I Cataclysm, Tim counters it. Tim drops a Shard Phoenix and Capsizes something, I forget what, but it was important since it left him at 1 open mana. I play the second Cataclysm with him at 2 and my Scraggy in play, which ends up costing me the game, I realize, as he uses his one open mana to Shock my Scragnoth then Chicken it away. He draws land (small shock, considering he is playing 90), and proceeds to get out Chickens and beat me down before I can really get anything going to do the final 2 points to him. Match Score: 5-2. Interesting note, a few tables down from me, Stroud is playing David Bachmann, who is playing Living Death. Stroud plays 2nd turn Merfolk Looter, 3rd turn Looter, and all David has is a Hermit Druid when Stroud drops a 4th turn Portcullis. David looks at it, looks at Stroud and says "Who plays Portcullis main deck?". Bachmann promptly conceedes when Stroud snags the Hermit Druid with a Legacy's Allure. I end up the first day with a 5-2 record and wait around to find out that I have made the second day ranked 55th. James Stroud has made Day 2 with me as well. Stroud, Lawing, Bill Macey, and I pile into my car and head to an italian place down the street to grab dinner and trade war stories on the day. By the time we get back around Midnight, the main room is closed and side events are being run in a side room. I want to Urza's Saga draft, but the place is packed with way too many people. A guy happens to have my finished Auratog mat for me, it looks AWESOME. Apparently Miracola was feeling ill so he left, but left the mat for me and it is great, I can't wait to use it the next day. Sunday morning I get up and realize today why I didn't have any hot water the day before....the knobs on the shower were switched so if I turned the one marked "C" on, out came all the hot water I could want. I go grab some breakfast, and the italian food from the night before is not agreeing with me, I feel awful. After a brief break to my room, I run across the street to a quick-mart and grab some Peptol-Bismol and take a few gulps before heading into the room to play in the top 64. Pairings go up for the first round, and we're off for Day 2..... Round 8 Vs Jason Olpaka, playing Mono-Blue. Jason is really pleasant to play against, in spite of everything I hear about him :). He pile shuffles my deck, so I take the time to do his so I have something to do besides watch him. Game 1 he plays a first turn Island. I play a Plains. He plays an Island, Hammerhead Shark. I play Forest, Oath of Druids. Jason is a bit surprised. He plays a land and says go. I flip over a Rootbreaker and his eyes get a bit bigger. The Rootbreaker gets Jason to around 6 before he finally Capsizes it. By that time I have gotten my main deck Scragnoth and he finishes the job. Game 2 Jason gets off to a much better start, playing a Legacy's Allure 2nd turn, and I can't get at an Oath and Cataclysm gets countered when I try to reset the board to put things back in my favor. I get out a Scragnoth, but one is too slow when Thalakos Drifters are beating you down. Game 3, Jason gets mana screwed. He only ever sees 2 Islands and a Manakin, while a lone Scragnoth goes the distance. Match Score: 6-2 That match almost went to the time limit, so there isn't much time to take a break and hit the Peptol again before the second round starts.. Round 9 Vs Ted Dickerson, a guy I know from Texas. Not sure if he is from Houston or Austin. He's playing CouunterChicken. Wonderful. Game 1 I have figured out is pretty much a loss against this deck. I just don't have enough firepower to keep the heat on, and this proves true again as I lose to Chicken Beatings. Game 2 features the wackiest sequence of play for the weekend. After sideboarding, I have 4 Null Brooches in my deck. My opening hand has 2 Reclaims, 2 Brooches, 3 land, so I keep it. I draw a land before turn 4, so I drop a turn 4 Brooch. Ted reads it, Ted Forbids it. Next turn I lay a land, and play a Brooch, Ted Forbids it. I Reclaim a Brooch, play it, it is countered with a Forbid as well. I Reclaim again, this time it meets an old fashioned Counterspell. I draw...another Brooch, it gets Mana Leaked. I draw a Reclaim, get a Brooch, and it meets Counterspell! 6 Null Brooches countered in 7 turns without a single Forbid bought back!!! At this point, Ted is out of counters, as he shifts his deck into Aggro-mode. He throws down chickens and has a lone Capsize in his hand which he uses to make me repeatedly pick up the Oath of Druids in my hand. I start casting a Rootbreaker, too, but Ted has enough land to Capsize both spells with buyback and I die eventually. Match Score: 6-3 That match ends fairly quickly, and I'm feeling better physically now, so I head down to the main room to thank Miracola for the amazing Auratog mat, and I get John Matson to sign and doodle on my Tradewind Riders. I now have Viking Tradewind, Satan Tradewind, Godzilla Tradewind, and Punk Tradewind. Neato :). Quick side story: While I was playing, a guy from Dallas who is in the Top 64, Doug Cowsert, stops to watch the featured match after finishing his match, and is in position to see 7 or 8 other matches in the Top 64. Doug can be a total jerk, and I don't like him sitting there, so I mention it to the judge. Doug gets pissed when the judge chases him off. I mention my history with Doug to Jason Opalka during our match, which includes a vocal argument with Doug at Regionals this year which ended in Doug threatening me physically. Well, Doug gets paired against Jason in Rd 9 not too far away from me. They sit down to play, and Jason pile shuffles Doug's deck, so Doug does the same to Jason's. While doing so, Doug flips over two cards (a Manakin and an Island), but Jason lets it go. When Doug gives Jason's deck back to him, Jason cuts it. Doug says he can't do that. Jason says he can. To make it quick for you, dear reader, they call Mike Guptil over. Mike informs Doug of Jason's right to cut his deck once after it is shuffled. Jason decides to mention the flipped over cards. Mike asks Doug if this is true, Doug says it is. Mike gives Doug a game loss which sends Doug through the roof. After promptly losing the second game a few minutes later, Doug bitches out Mike and marches off. Good one, Opalka. :) Round 10 Vs Daniel Parker from Austin, playing a Red/Green beatdown deck. This deck reminds me of the mono-red Type 1 metagame hoser decks. This deck has several cards in it that are strong against the field like Skyshroud Elite, Fireslinger, a good chunk of burn and Goblin Bombardment. Game 1 he opens up on me quickly as I don't have an early Oath. Eventually I get an Oath down and pull out a Scragnoth and a Rootbreaker. When I'm at 8, Daniel has 4 cards in hand, so he Sonic Bursts me. Of the remaining 3 cards, I pick a...Sonic Burst! After seeing my life briefly flash before my eyes, I start working out Spike Feeders and Gnomes to get back up around 10 and eventually Rootbreaker finishes things off. Game 2 Daniel drops Fireslinger, Flunkies, Elite, and a Bombardment. He beats me down with critters then burns me out before I can get anything going. Game 3 a 2nd turn Bombardment counters my 2nd turn Oath. Daniel plays a critter, I Oath and get a Scragnoth. This causes him to Oath a critter every turn which gets thrown at me after blocking Scraggy every turn. Eventually my Scroll Rack gets me at a Disenchant to get rid of the dang Brombardment. He plays a Muscle Sliver. I cast a Rootbreaker. He Oaths out another Muscle Sliver. I then cast Cataclysm. It ends shortly after that. Match Score: 7-3 I go out to discuss my latest exploits with the other Guildmages in the hotel bar, when i realize the my Peptol, which I'm keeping as a kind of good luck thing at this point, has leaked on my Auratog playmat! Now there's a couple nice pink blotches on the mat. Stroud mentions I oughta get Miracola to do a scribble on it, and I remember Jeff does the little pink guys on Equilibrium and Nausea, so I run over there quick to see if he is busy. Jeff looks at me like I'm a TOTAL freak now, but agrees to do it. Sure enough, before the next round I have a couple little pink guys boppin' along on my playmat :). Round 11 Vs Chris Herdeman from Austin, playing Sligh. Yay! I like this matchup a lot, and Chris know what I'm playing, so he knows he is in for a rough time. First game I mulligan away a hand of 4 land, 2 Rootbreakers and a Scragnoth. I get 2 Spike Feeders in my next hand and keep it. I never see an Oath this game, but Feeders and Gnomes keep me up on life long enough to cast Rootbreakers and a Cataclysm to take game 1. Game 2 Chris plays a first turn Mogg. I play a Mox, Land, Oath. Chris says poop. He plays a Mogg Flunkie. I Oath a Feeder and play a Scroll Rack. Chris attacks with both critters. I block the big Mogg and take 1, but sac my Feeder. Chris plays a Mogg Raider. I Oath out a Gnome. Chris then attacks. I block the big Mogg again, and sac my Gnomes. Chris drops Portcullis. Oh, poop. I Scroll Rack for a Disenchant, but get Constant Mists. I use the Oath and Scroll Rack to put crap on top of my deck and mill it away to I can dig for a Disenchant. In the process I get a Gnome and a Rootbreaker stuck under the Portcullis. Chris has 2 Mountains and 2 Wasteland. He drops a Rathi Dragon after Sacing his Mogg Flunkie to give the Mogg Raider +1/+1. End of that turn I Disenchant the 'Cullis. Chris kills his Raider so I can't Oath some more. I follow the next turn with Cataclysm and a Land so I can keep Misting his Rathi. Rootbreaker finishes it. Round 12 Vs Jonathon Pechon, a friend from Dallas playing WW. This damn matchup again. I play all this time and haven't seen a single Living Death deck, only one Sligh deck, no black decks, but I've seen 2 Sliver and 3 White Weenie decks. Yeesh. Jonathon beats me down in quick order following the traditional WW way of beating my skull with lots of Shadow. Well, at least Jonathon is in the money and has a good shot a Qualifying (he ended up making Top 8, btw) Match Score: 8-4 So I'm pretty much out of contention and playing for pride at this point. Round 13 Vs Ryan Carpenter, a guy I know from Dallas as well, playing Living Death. Living Death?! I double check with Mike Guptil to make sure the pairings are right, that I'm supposed to be playing a Living Death deck in this tournament, he says the pairings are correct. Ryan knows what I am playing as well. This match is kind of silly and I don't have many details. I know I lost the first one, but the second game a Verdant Force gets me to drop 2 Oath of Druids at once for the first time the entire Tournament. After going through several Feeders and Bottle Gnomes, I finally hit the Minion and make him 20/20. Weee!! I then proceed to tell Ryan while putting my finger on the the Minion, "Ya know, I think I will choose this guy as my creature when I cast this Cataclysm in my hand." Next turn I attack for 20. Ryan was at 12 or 13 due to some earlier attacks, so that ends it. Game 3 my deck doesn't do much, and Ryan ends up beating me down with a Cloudchaser Eagle with 9 Spike Weaver counters on it (damn Coffin Queen) as time is called. Final Match Score: 8-5. I understand my final ranking was around 30, which is decent, but still out of the money. I didn't stick around to see the final rankings and still haven't seen them on The Dojo as I write this. Stroud gets top 16, but he's already qualified, so the money pays for the trip, basically. I leave shortly thereafter so I can get home at a decent hour and get sleep for the next day at work at home. Time for my favorite part of this report........Props and Slops! Bad stuff first: Slops: To Doug Cowsert. Sportsmanship. Go pick up a dictionary and read the definition. Magic is not football. We do not define ourselves by our physical powress. Take a hint. To the Hotel. Is it that hard to put hot and cold water knobs on the right ones? And what is up with that so-called breakfast buffet? Most people like their egss fully cooked. To White Weenie decks. Ok, this is kind of a joke, but damn all that shadow was annoying. To the stomach thing going around. I know Miracola had to take off early Saturday cause he was feeling sick, I was bummin early Sunday, and Pechon looked like he was about to die most of Sunday. Props, and there's a bunch: To New Wave and Gulf Coast for bringing a Grand Prix to Texas. Let's do it again! To all the Texas players. Nothing more satisfying than hearing PT Players gripe about losing to "random Texans" on Day 1. Now we know the real reason there hasn't been a PT event in Dallas again....all the other players fear us. One day we'll get the good sponsorship deals and be kicking butt on the PT. To my teammates on The Texas Guildmages, Jeff Zandi, Rob Lawing, James Stroud, James Murphy, David Williams, James Jenkins, Scot Martin, and Bryan Sammon. You guys all rock. To all of my opponents. For all of the griping and complaining I hear about how players act in big events, I was very impressed by everyone I played. Most were more than happy to joke around and have a good time while competing and none were overly rude at any point. Props to Jason Olpaka in particular for being really cool and for letting it go when, while shuffling his deck to go into the second game, I accidentally flipped his deck face up towards me, seeing the bottom 2 or 3 cards of his deck. You're awesome, man. To Dequan Watson, for having this deck together, letting me use it, and hopefully for not getting mad at me when I forgot to give him his deck back before leaving. (E-mail me your address man, I'll mail it to ya) To Soalo from #mtgwacky, for coming up with this silly ass deck to begin with. To Jeff Miracola for being exceedingly gracious and cool to the wierd guy with 200 Auratogs. To Dave Goodnuff, Robin & Sam Bowley, and the rest of the crew at Rama Llama Comics for pulling for me during the tournament. To Daniel Benitez, for keeping me awake on the ride back and introducing me to Rammstien in the process. Tim "Wakko Djinn" Stoltzfus wakko_djinn@airmail.net Member of the Texas Guildmages DCI Certified Level II Judge