Subject: Tournament (I was #3) Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1998 23:24:31 -0600 From: jbeckmon To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com This tournament report is for PTQ Rome in Utah being run by Bill Graham on Oct 10th, 1998. Format is Rath Cycle Constructed ; 6 Rounds of Swiss; Top 8 Single Elimination; Approximately 65 People. We went to Salt Lake City on 10-10-98 (about a 3 hour drive) for the PTQ Rome. We had been playtesting for Rath Cycle Constructed for about 3 months now and consequently we had almost all of the decks built already that appeared at the World Championships. So much for any surprise Value for most of our decks. Mine however had not yet appeared at any major tournaments that I had seen a report on. I had been working on it and tech'ing it out for quite a while now. Since I no longer care about keeping it a secret here it is for all to see: TradeClysm: 14 Plains 8 Islands 4 Cataclysm 4 Bottle Gnomes 4 Nomads en-Kor 4 Soltari Monk 4 Soltari Priest 4 Soul Warden 3 Paladin En-Vec 1 Disenchant 4 Tradewind Rider 3 Mana Leak 3 Propaganda Sideboard 1 Propaganda 2 Rootwater Hunter 3 Soltari Visionary 3 Disenchant 2 Flickering Ward (Should have been 2 More Rootwater Hunters) 1 Portcullis (Should have been 2 of them) 3 Light of Day We went down with 5 people and we jokingly call ourselves Team Scrub. Our team did fairly good. 4 out of 5 made top 16 (1-15th, 1-12th) and 2 of those were 3rd and 4th Team "Scrub" breakdown: Jon Beckmon (Playing TradeClysm) #3 Gabe Garcia (Playing Death) #4 Jesse Pitz (Playing Trade/Awake) #12 Sam Corona (Playing White Weenie) #15 Steve Canty (Playing Counter Phoenix) Now on to the Matches: Round 1 vs Tim Hendley playing a White/Blue/Black Tradewind Rider/Life Gain/Hatred Deck Interesting Deck he basically was using Staunch Defenders an venerable monk with Recurring Nightmare to gain mass life while attacking with Dauthi Horrors. I think his idea was to cast Hatred when he got enough life. Unfortunately for him I got out 2 Soul Wardens first duel and ended at 45 life. I did have to Cataclysm at one time to stop the Recurring Nightmare action but not before I got a Tradewind Rider and Bottle Gnomes to lock it. (Play a 1 casting cost creature after clysm). Duel 2: Was the fast beatdown. He got 2 Dauthi Horrors on me and stomped me into dust. Duel 3: Got an Early Tradewind Lock. Matches 1-0 Duels 2-1 Round 2 vs Phil Ray playing Red/Black Beatdown This was a very bad matchup for him. Unfortunately he found he has only 59 cards in his deck and has to take a first duel loss and find a replacement card in 10 minutes or suffer a match loss. He found 1 and I beat him down quick in our only duel. Afterwards he asked if we could play for fun so I did. He lost every single duel by a wide margin. Matches 2-0 Duels 4-1 Round 3 vs Aaron Muranaka playing Sligh Now I've played against Aaron before and I know he is an extremely good player (Namely because I've never beat him before). But today he was playing Sligh and this is supposed to be my best matchup. Duel 1: He gets quick beatdown action and I draw Propaganda's with no Blue Mana and en-Kors with no Pro-Red creatures the whole game. Huh? My deck failed in the good matchup. Duel 2: I got the Pro-Red and Propaganda's. Easy Win. Duel 3: I got 2 Pro-Red out but once again failed to draw Blue Mana for Propaganda's so he beat me before I could establish myself. This is the decks first ever loss to Sligh. Afterwards Aaron did say he got lucky against me (happens). He also went on to be the only undefeated player and won the tournament as well. Way to Go Aaron. I hope you can make it to Rome and do well. (He also was glad he didn't have to reface me in the final match) Matches 2-1 Duels 5-3 Round 4 vs Spencer Hopper playing White Weenie My deck is teched against Mono White so I'm pretty confident in these matchups (Rootwater Hunters are amazing). Duel 1: We both had some life gaining going on so took a while but I pulled it out. Duel 2: My sideboard is amazing good against white weenie and Rootwater comes out to play. Enough said. Matches 3-1 Duels 7-3 Round 5 vs Eric Fausett playing Sligh Well here it is again my "easy" matchup. Duel 1: I didn't know what he was playing so I kept a opening draw containing 2 Tradewind Riders and 4 Land. He does the quick beatdown on me. So much for "easy". Duel 2: It's a fight but 2 Bottle Gnomes, 2 Paladin En-Vec and 2 Priests come out to play. I also disenchanted his torture chamber. Duel 3: I had I think 2 plains, 1 island, 1 paladin en-vec, 1 Soltari Priest, 1 En-Kor and 1 Propaganda in opening draw. So much for Sligh. He did get out a helm of Possession and take the Paladin but it was too late as I had established control early and he died in 3 more turns. About time this happened against Sligh. Matches 4-1 Duels 9-3 Round 6 vs Thad Wind playing White Weenie Well there are 14 people at 4-1 and it turns out only the best 2 tiebreak people out of all of us can draw and make it. I'm not one of them so we play. Our other teammate Gabe Garcia who also is 4-1 also plays. Win and in, Lose and out. This is a good matchup for me anyways. Duel 1: I get massive life gain and Tradewind does his deed. Duel 2: I get beatdown quickly and can't draw what I need. Duel 3: We both get the life gain Wardens out but Rootwater comes out to play (with Tradewind Rider popping his hero's resolved guys back in his hand) and solves all my problems. Matches 5-1 Duels 11-4 Top 8 vs Daniel Ward playing White Weenie Duel 1: Soul Wardens on both sides. Looks like a long game. I am stuck at 3 mana and he gets out 2 Helm of Possessions on me. I get the 4th Mana and am holding 3 Tradewind Riders hoping to draw cataclysm so start holding the land. For some reason he is leaving Both Helms tapped while he only has 1 of my guys but I still don't want to play Tradewinds in case he figures it out. Well go figure he saves my day and casts Cataclysm when he has total control of the board (I only have 1 disenchant main deck). He keeps for his Artifact Mox Diamond and buries both Helms (How'd I get so lucky). Ahhh..The mistakes of a beginner. I draw a land next turn (I'm holding 1) and play it. I draw another land the next turn and play it. Top deck skills baby. Anyways 3 Tradewind Riders arrive to save the day. He concedes. Duel 2: Now I get to sideboard in the Brave Hunters. He gets quick shadow beatdown on me and I can't draw my Shadows or Hunters. Duel 3: This is a long one but I sideboard in more Shadow (Visonary's) to stop the shadow beatdown. Rootwater Hunter never comes out to play but I eventually get 3 Active Tradewind Riders. Just hoping no Clysm as I am low on life and have to bounce creatures for a while. He helps me by recasting them though so my warden gives me some life. He's not allowed to concede 'cause last duel. So I eventually return all his permanents and attack for 16 a turn (He didn't bother playing any more because he was locked and wanted to get it over) till he was dead. He was at 37 Life at one time due to wardens. Matches 6-1 Duels 13-5 Top 4 vs Joe Ellis playing Living Death This is tough matchup for me and he is a top notch player as well. He says it is also a tough matchup for him and that he likes my deck design. Duel 1: I draw 6 land and an en-kor opening draw and mulligan to 6 (not a good start). I keep a draw containing only 1 Island and 1 Plains and various stuff. I didn't draw my second plains until his graveyard is full of the Fatties from Hermit Druid action. He deaths- I ask head judge (who was watching our match) if I can concede as he has Verdant Force out and even a Clysm can't help. He agrees. Duel 2: I get out Tradewind, Rootwater Hunter action to stop Hermit Boy. He plays Dread of Night at one time that kills a Monk. I disenchant it. He is slowly getting pinged to death and beat on by 2 Visionary's. And then it comes! I topdeck------> Portcullis..YEAH! I play it and next turn he asks Head Judge if he can concede as he has no creatures on table, I have 1 in Graveyard and can Ping Rootwater in response to Death. Judge Agrees. He did lobotomize Cataclysm this duel. Duel 3: He has some early problems and I beat him down fast but eventually he stabilizes. Then I make the critical mistake of the game by tapping 2 blue mana to mana leak a dread of night not realizing he had 3 mana untapped. I quickly decide not to leak it but he tells head judge I tapped mana and Judge Agrees (Of course he is right so I have no qualms at all with it. You can play stict and still be friendly and he was). He then announces his attack phase so I take mana burn and then he plays his own Rootwater Hunter now that I'm tapped out. I needed to counter THAT! Ouch. My next draw is Rootwater Hunter - Oh no what a critical mistake that was now as I could have gained the advantage by having the first Hunter out had I not done that. I eventually play 2 Rootwater Hunters in 1 turn when he tapped his own on his turn but he moves a counter from his feeder to hunter (it was my only hope anyways). I can't top deck the Cataclysm and he pulls is off. He then goes onto face Aaron Muranaka Playing Sligh in the top 2 (the only person he lost to in Swiss). Aaron then proceeds to crush him in 2 straight duels. So overall it was a great tournament. I did well, the judging staff is just awesome and its a well run and organized tournament. Way to go guys! Plus the only 2 guys I lost to ended up #1 and #2. Funny thing is the top 8 ended up being in the same positions as the top 8 ended in Swiss Rounds. Also White Weenie showed up in Force at this tournament..So much for Black..It got eaten alive. About half of the 4-1 people seemed to be white Weenie. I had though White Weenie was the most versatile deck in the format having cards to elimate every threat in the game..Only blue came close but Scraggy stopped it from being able to elimate all threats via counterspell. Swiss top 8 and Single Elim Top 8 as well. 1. Aaron Muranaka (Sligh) 2. Joe Ellis (Death) 3. Jon Beckmon (me- Tradeclysm) 4. Gabe Garcia (Death) 5. Don't Know (Mono Blue Control)? 6. Daniel Ward (White Weenie) 7. Aaron Stein? (Death) 8. Jack Lewis Stanton (Trade/Awake) People said the number 7 guy was a cheater. I don't know but he got caught with only 14 cards in sideboard in first round of top 8 apparantely so recieved match loss (or was disqualified). He was playing against Joe Ellis when it happened. Props: Bill Graham (T.O.), Karl, Ken, and the entire judging staff (Can't remeber all your names even though I know I've asked all of you except for the new guy. Need to start writing them down and getting them memorized I guess for these reports). You guys run great tournaments. Very fair and unbiased. Go to tournaments run by these guys. You'll love it (unless you cheat of course). Everybody I played against. What a great Field and a great bunch of guys. All cool (No cheaters and no ass##### among them at all). Team "Scrub" for doing so well...Join the Scrubs everywhere. Slops: None. Everything was really cool. Later Daze. Jon Beckmon jbeckmon@micron.net http://www.webpak.net/~jbeckmon http://www.webpak.net/~jbeckmon/magic/magic.htm Also props to Frank for running this site...Keep up the good work Frank.