Subject: PTQ Rome Tournament Report in Washington D.C. Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1998 22:32:51 EDT From: Eric3232@aol.com To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Let me first start off by saying that this was the worst tournament showing I have ever had since I have been playing Magic. If this interests you, read on. I had been testing the Mawcor Blue deck for weeks prior to this tournament, and it was ok, but I tested against a lot of Hatred and it loses a lot when I tap out to play creatures. The night before the tourney, Ken Russell convinces me that Donnie Gallitz Living Death is the way to go. Death beats everything! Don't get me wrong, Donnie's deck is great and I have played it before and done extremely well. I guess this wasn't my day. Here is Gallitz Death with a few minor changes: 4 death 3 nightmaric cards 3 survivals 4 hermits 4 walls 2 weaver 4 peaches 1 godzilla 1 scraggy 1 thrull 2 assassins 1 flying lhurgoyf, sort of 1 taskmaster 2 eagles 2 harrow 2 scrolls 1 altar 1 wasteland 1 township 1 stronghold 10 forest 8 swamp 1 plain I changed around the sideboard some. I think the only main deck difference was adding scraggy, and it was extremely effective, although the rest of the deck was not. Round 1 Skip Potter Mono Blue Game 1: Skip plays in my area and he is a pretty good player. He is playing the same deck that everyone was playing, mono blue. There were about 80 people there, and about 30-40 had Mawcor blue. I didn't play the deck because I didn't think it was tested enough, but since the deck listing was posted, there were about 40 identical blue decks. He was not playing the Mawcor version though. He drops a couple tradewinds. 2 wall of tears, and 2 tims. i stall at a plains, swamp, and v.stronghold for 2 turns. Not good!. He ends up dropping a memory crystal, and capsizing with buyback twice a turn. I drop a Scraggy, but he has Stones, which he can bounce if he wants to. He turns it to a creature, and taps everything to bounce it. SUMMON LIVING DEATH!! Some good ends the game. Game 2:Turn 5 Scraggy is a beating, and when his brother comes out to play on turn 7, massive beatings occur. Matches 1-0 Games 2-0 Good Start Round 2 Robert Sullivan Living Death (Oh, this should be fun) Game 1: I get a Revenant into play, and I can probably kill him, but I think I messed up and left him at 2. I don't think I could have killed him, but i might have been able to. He drops a Weaver. So we are stalled for 3 turns.The game drags on and on, with three deaths going off, and him casting the same lobotomy 4 times thnks to an anarchist coming back and forth. There goes my altar, deaths, nightmares, and taskmasters. I am at 56 life from 4 feeders, but I concede because he has double tradewind action, and I would eventually run out of cards first. I wanted to save time for the next games too cause my sb is amazing vs. death. Game 2: I forgot to mention that my sb is amazing if I can cast the cards. I stall at a swamp and a plains, while holding a hermit and 2 harrows. I get to 4 lands, but no forest, we both have portcullis in play, but he has 2 hermits as the only creatures. I have 10 turns to draw land to death and win the game before hermits kill me. I lose the game, without drawing lands for 12 turns! Matches 1-1 Games 2-2 (We are getting worse) Round 3: Denny Grizzle Jr. Mono Blue Game 1: Another mono blue. I survival out Scraggy and win easy. Game 2: He taps out and a turn 5 death gets me a scraggy. His brother would join him again a few turns later. My biggest fear was blue with this deck and I have just wrecked two of them! Matches 2-1 Games 4-2 ( Yes!) Round 4: Ed Traywick Sligh Game 1: Ah, finally I get to sit back and play an easy match. Everyone knows Death crushes Sligh. Of course it does. My turn 2 Hermit gets shocked. I guess that means I get to sit on two lands and watch a sligh deck out mana me. So much for that easy match. 2 straight is easy vs sligh though. Game 2: What did I tell you? A huge death and I end the game at 19. Death crushes sligh! Game 3: Whoops, I forgot to draw swamps. I finally pull a harrow at 9 life while he has a spellshock, cast death to go to 5, and have him next turn when I start survivaling for feeders. A mogg fanastic and sonic burst don't let me do that. I should have mentioned death doesn't beat anything without lands. How many times can I go mana screwed today? Answer: a lot! Matches 2-2 Games 5-4 (still over .500) Round 5: Sam Fog White Weenie Game 1: Finally, the dream match up. I can probably even win this one with a mana screw. My worst big tourney finish is 4-2, so I would need to win this one, and next one to avoid a new low. Atleast I get to start my winning streak with a dream match up. I drop a weaver, he has no way to remove it right? Of course, it is white weenie. It runs out of counters and I grab it witha Recurring Nightmare. Since he has no way to remove the weaver I win this game, but then he casts repentance on it. I drop a recur to go get t...FORBIDWITHTHEBUYBACK!?!?!?!?!?!?!? IN WHITE WENNIE!?!?!?!?!? Holy hell! Game 2 time. Oh yeah, I didn't draw four mana until turn 8 to drop the weaver and was at 2 when he came out. Game 2: I forgot to draw swamps again. Whoops, I really need to get better at this game. I finally get it turn 8. I end up making a run, but 2 dread of nights and a living death fall victim to that FORBIDWITHTHEBUYBACK!?!?!?!?!?! Some bad! Matches 2-3 Games 5-6 I have really had enough of this deck now, so I try to preserve what's left of rating and drop to play in a booster draft. I end up drafting a really good red/black deck, but lost to Matt Gustafson in the semi finals with his red/green deck, with a splash of symbiosis times four. That can win you a few games. He shows me that symbiosis is some good and beats me in three. Just to add to those mana screws, I drew 2 no land hands in the quarterfinals match and had to paris twice! My worst magical card playing day is finally over. Props - Matt Gustafson for beating the crap out of me in the draft and not making it suck to lose again - All those pro tour guys for coming in and kicking ass in all of the booster drafts (Cuneo, Katz, Becker, Linde, etc.) - Donny Gallitz and Ken Russell for the good deck - anyone I am not mentioning cause I don't want to Slops - the deck for not giving me mana - the mana god for not giving me mana - me for not getting mana - no mana cards for not producing mana so I could cast stuff - mana for not coming up - basically mana - mana, mana, mana - and more mana - me for really sucking today and having my worst day! - why not mana again, to keep it consistent - me for complaining about the mana That's enough. Questions, comments, whatever, I don't care, you don't seem to care all that much so why should I? Just in case a brave soul would like to speak up, Eric3232@aol.com Eric Froehlich Team Lucky Frog