Subject: PTQ Rome, Akron OH tourney report
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1998 09:48:07 EDT
From: DrMeDC@aol.com
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

        Hello to everyone.  First, a little backround on myself. This is my first
tourney report. I've been playing MTG for a year now, and this was my first
sanctioned contructed tournament. Previously, I've only played in sealed deck
format.  My hopes at this tournament were to make final 8, but I fell one
match short. I do think, however, that the deck I played is a viable one and
hopefully more people will start to play with it. I don't know about the rest
of you, but I'm tired of reading tourney reports on the same decks over and
over.  Part of the fun in MTG is surprising your opponent with new ideas and
concepts, and it would be nice if people would put as much effort into new
deck construction as they do in playtesting the already proven decks. Well, on
to my decklist. I was the only one out of the 40 or so players that played
this deck.

PB&J deck  (Pits, Bridge, and jank)

8 Islands
7 Swamps
1 Rootwater Depths
1 Reflecting Pool
2 Volrath's Stronghold
3 Wasteland

4 Bottomless Pits
4 Dark Ritual
4 Ensnaring Bridges
4 Null Brooches
4 Tradewind Riders
4 Merfolk Looters
3 Bottle Gnomes
2 Wall of Tears
2 Thrull Surgeons
4 Lobotomy

Sideboard:
4 Chill
4 Dread of Night
3 Steal Enchantment
2 Grindstones
2 Perish

Other decks I saw at this tourney were Trade/Awake, CounterPhoenix, WW, Sligh,
Recurring Nightmare/Oath, Suicide Black, and assorted rogue decks. Tradewinds
were all over the place.  Aside from the banned Cursed Scroll, it seems Mr
Tradewind is the hero of the Rath Cycle.  There were 5 rounds of Swiss.

Match 1 vs. a W/U deck running a lot of counterspells, capsize, whispers,
along with fast white critters and some big blue fatties.  Oh, and dominating
licids.

Game 1:   A lousy start to the tournament. I have to paris twice. The only
spell I managed to cast was a third turn lobotomy, which gave me a chance to
look at his deck. I removed the dominating licids. He quickly overruns me with
white shadow dudes.  At least he didn't get to see much of my deck.

Game 2:   I lobotomize him on turn 2, again I get his licids.  I manage to get
out the pits early on, then lock the game down with Tradewinds.  A key play
was wasting his non-basic land on turn 2, with took away his only blue mana
source for 3 or 4 turns.

Game 3:   A really weird draw for me. I saw no Pits or Bridges the entire
game. I got some early beatdown(?) with a looter, but soon he was whispering
and keeping his hand full. Eventually he locked me up with capsize and
counterspells, and beat me down with monks and priests. Ugh.

Matches: 0-1     Games: 1-2

Match 2 vs Black/Blue with discard, a ton of creature removal, and small fast
creatures like dauthi horror, carnophage, and spindrift drakes.

Game 1:  I turn 2 lobotomize his edicts.  Early lobotomies are nice, because
you can check out your opponent's deck.  3rd turn Ensnaring Bridge, then lock
him down with the Tradewinds amd Pits. I win.

Game 2:  1st turn Ritual, Pits.  Then lock him out with bridge/null brooch
until I can get the tradewinds going.

Matches: 1-1      Games  3-2

Match 3 vs Suicide Black with Hatred/Culling the weak. This is a good match-up
for me, as they usually have no artifact removal.

Game 1:  1st turn Pit, 3rd turn Bridge.  He concedes when he realizes he can
no longer attack, since my hand his empty. Bummer for him.

Game 2:  1st turn Ritual, Bridge. 3rd turn Pits.  Bummer again.  I did get to
grind him 2 turns in a row, for 8 cards each time!  Grindstone is fun against
mono-color decks.

Matches 2-1     Games  5-2

Match 4  vs another Black/Blue deck, running Lobotomies, capsize and counters,
and Tradewinds. Plus assorted dauthi shadowfolk.

Game 1:  He has to paris 2 times.  I tell him I can relate to that...it sucks.
I Lobotomize him early, getting his capsizes, and looking at his deck.  Then I
play Pits, and lock him up with the Tradewinds.

Game 2:  He lobotomizes me turn 2 or 3.  I'm holding 2 Tradewinds!  Ugh.  I
lose.

Game 3:  I've got the game under control with the 2 Bridges, a gnome, a
looter,  and no cards in hand. All I need is a Tradewind.  He has several
creatures out, and is holding 3 cards.  I keep looting for a tradewind, or a
pit, or something besides all the land I keep drawing.  That's when he casts 2
capsizes, one for each bridge, during my discard phase.  On his turn, he
lobotomizes my bridges. Crap.  An excellent move on his part.  He has shadow
creatures, and gnomes can't see or block them.  I lose.

Matches 2-2     Games   6-4

That took me out of the final 8, but I decide to play the last round because
it's raining like hell outside.

Match 5 vs a monogreen spike deck!  He even played with Coat of Arms!  Neat
deck, but not much of a challenge for my deck-type.

Game 1:  I get out my Bridge early on, then lock him up with my brooch and
pits until I get the Tradewind bounce going.  Frustrating for him, because he
has tons of spike dudes on the board.  He eventually concedes when I bounce
all of his land into the pits.

Game 2:  Seems he has no Verdigris in his sideboard. See game 1.

Matches 3-2.   Games  8-4

All in all, not a bad day. Basically, I was one bad draw (Match 1) from the
final 8. Oh well.  Now, off to work on that land destruction deck.

Mark Engle