Subject: Edison NJ Rome PTQ *Top 8* Date: Mon, 05 Oct 1998 11:22:37 -0400 From: Jerome Guardiano To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com The Place: Edison NJ The Date: 10/4/98 The Format: Rath Cycle The Chances of Winning: None The Obligatory Background It had been over 6 months since my last tourny. Left the Air Force and Arizona to move back to New Jersey and land a great job with Citicorp. The only problem is the job hasn’t given me enough time to stay proficient with the game. So the once fairly highly ranked player (top 200 at one time) has been reduced to scrubdom. All this, coupled with the fact that I own almost no Rath Cycle cards, is grounds for an early tourny dismissal. But I figure what the hell. One week before the qualifier I head to El Dojo to see whats cooking. I print out the TSE constructed “Decks to Beat” list. I also print out a couple of tourny reports. Now for those who have never read any of my articles or postings, I NEVER play a Dojo deck. I think the Dojo is great but I use it more to see what to be prepared for. I’m not belittling anyone who does the Dojo deck thing, I just get more out of it if I build my own (which is why I am a perennial 6 and 2 Mr. 9th seed). Anyway I decide to play something fairly simple given my current situation. So I build what I want known as the “Scrubdom” deck. Here it is… White 4 Priest 2 Monks 2 Paladins 4 Cataclysms 4 Disenchants 2 Warrior en-Kors 4 Soul Wardens Red 4 Shocks 4 Kindles 4 Fanatics 4 Flunkies 2 Fireslingers On the Side: 2 Apocolypse (Living Death), 2 Monks (Heavy black), 2 Wastelands (Multi Color crap), 1 Winds of Wrath (Who knows why?), 2 Serene Offerings (???), 2 Alter of Dementia (I thought a good anti Living Death card), 2 Cop: Red (Ummmm, anti-red), and 2 Humility (Trade Crap) Looks like a load of junk. But I playtested it via apprentice with some of my buds in AZ (by the way congrats to Jacob Stirler my former teammate who won the Phoenix Qualifier and is heading to his fourth(?) Pro tour event). Anyway, it worked consistently against all the main decks I though I would face. It killed sligh, it beat tradewind crap, it totally hosed any hatred nonsense, and it could go toe to toe with WW. Does anybody see the missing deck type? You will if you read on. Tourny starts late but it ran fairly smoothly after that (but what was up with round 3 which took about 2 hours?). Anyway on to the Rounds Section…. Round 1 (Names have been removed to protect the innocent) Nice guy playing something that…ok, I have no idea what he was trying to play. Probably something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. Say goodnight Gracie. When you have to counterspell shocks at the end of your turn the end is near. Matches: 1-0 Round 2 (A local guy who is pretty decent player but thinks he is a whole lot better than decent. Ever play in a pro tour buddy? I think not. Will you ever play in a pro-tour, yup maybe some side events when the big show comes to NY next year). He’s playing Trade Awakening. Tip to Frank Kusumoto: You should include an IQ index for the decks listed on the dojo. You know something like this: Tradewind Awakening Deck: Must have IQ of 75 or better to play. Anyway fairly close games. Comes down to final game where he draws a Allure a turn to late after a timely cataclysm by myself. After a jarring fist slammed into the table and childish tirade filled with expletives, our buddy slinks off to the land of side events. Matches: 2-0 Round 3 (A guy who I hear was a pretty good player but hasn’t played in a while. Can’t tell if he was nice or not. Stayed very quiet. Fine with me.) He’s playing sligh. Don’t remember much of this match. Pro-red creatures issue beatdown. Matches: 3-0 Round 4 (Another nice guy playing a cool sliver deck) First game a crystalline sliver makes his slivers untargettable. Survival of the Fittest helps him to get muscles and his slivers clobber me. Game Two: Side in my humilities (which I never see). Shadow dudes and direct damage beat him down. Game Three: A timely cataclysm and he never recovers in time. Priest beats him. Matches: 4-0 Round 5 (A very nice guy who has a job in the same field as mine). Since this is only a six rounder of swiss. I offer a draw. Judge offers no help in deciding if we can draw in. Tip to all players: If you are 4-0 in a six round swiss draws will definitely get you in. Anyway, we play. He’s playing WW with a splash of blue for mana leaks in the side. Pro red creatures crush me both games. I sided in humilities again so I could burn his creatures and it worked….until it got disenchanted next turn. Sadly I suffer my first defeat. Matches: 4-1 Round 6 (Sit, stare at pile of cards, pretend to shuffle, round starts, we intentional draw) The Wait: Many people tied with 4-1-1 records. Some people not make it. No computer to calculate tiebreakers. The Announcement: I’m in as the 5th seed. The gentlemen I drew with is the 4 seed so we will play anyway. Final 8 (I never scout to see what people are playing so at this point I didn’t know but he was playing Living Death) This is the deck I didn’t play test much against. I understood the concept and I had given it some consideration (see my sideboard) but I thought I could beat it to the punch. Game 1: Hand: 3 Mountains, 1 Shock, 1 Kindle, 1 Disenchant, 1 Mogg Fanatic. I keep the hand?!?!?!? I draw my first plain at about the tenth turn into the game. Did I come back you say. HELL NO!!! Tip to the Judge: At twenty life and 8 white cards in my hand, I ask to concede. I would have normally played until dead just to see his deck work. However, at this point I didn’t think he knew I was playing any white. I have to discard down to 7 cards. So I ask the judge to let me concede so I won't have to discard a white card. He ok’s it??? C’mon Mr Judge man I cheated you legally and got away with it. Game 2: Side in 11 cards?!?!?!? To be perfectly honest at this point I was a little flustered. I knew with a good hand I could beat this deck but people around me were saying stuff like (He made it to the final 8 with THAT deck). Truth be told I still believe it to be a viable deck. Some minor changes are necessary but I think it could work. Anyway, My hand sucks again. But I keep again. Knowing I have sided in what I think will be the end all be all of anti-LD, the apocalypse. I have 3 mountains and no plains. It takes him a while to get going due to mana problems on his side of the board as well. We play for a while. I let him build up. Then I apocalypse. Here’s where I made a biggggggg mistake. Apocalypse removes the permanents from the game. That’s why it was in the sideboard. But as I said, I was a little frazzled at this point. I allow his stuff to go to the graveyard. Five or six turns later recursion starts and I eventually concede. Just a small note to this guy if he happens to read this report. At some point he became a tad bit annoyed with me. I had been reading almost every card he played (including land, well not really but you get the point). I hope he understands that my adrenaline was pumping a mile a minute and I really wasn’t thinking straight. In order to stay in the game I had to make certain of what every card did. In the end the point was moot anyway. Props - To most of the players and judges for an enjoyable experience. - To the huge pancakes in the New York Deli at the Ramada - To the turnout. I was glad to see Dad’s bringing their kids and letting them play. - To all my buds for the playtesting Slops - To the Judge for allowing me to concede without even checking the situation - To my Round 2 opponent who is not so innocent so I’ll give his name…CASEY WHO FREQUENTS GAME MASTERS in Fairlawn. Grow up buddy. - To the cost of the tourny ($25) even though Inquest had it listed as $20 See ya all in New York with an improved version of Scrubdom