Subject: PTQ Rome: Salt Lake City, UT tourney report Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 15:04:15 -0600 From: "Ramses" Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy PTQ Rome - Salt Lake City, UT Tourney Report by Jesse Pitz (12th) playing TradeAwake Format: Rath Cycle Constructed 6 rounds of swiss, cut to 8, single elimination # of people: 64 This is my first major tourney report for the newly formed Team Scrub. Self-named because we have attended 3 PTQs so far and have yet to get anyone in top 8. Maybe that will all change today. I am playing TradeAwake, which, believe it or not, I actually came up with myself about a week after Stronghold came out. I “borrowed” some ideas from the worlds decks after I saw that the deck I was using was already kicking butt at the pro level. Here’s the deck I ended up with: 4 Tradewinds 4 Spike Feeder 4 Spike Weaver 4 Wall of Blossoms (I like to run more creatures than normal tradeawake) 4 Awakening 4 Capsize 2 Counterspell 2 Forbid 4 Whispers of the Muse 3 Propaganda 3 Legacy’s Allure 3 Skyshroud Forest 3 Reflecting Pool 8 Forest 8 Island SB: 3 Oath of Druids 3 Portcullis 2 Chill 3 Heartwood Dryad (hatred, WW) 2 Ertai, Wizard Adept (Mirror matches, anything with a lot of blue) 2 Helm of Possession (Mirror matches, anything with lots of shadow) Around where I live, creature-heavy decks dominate, so my main deck uses 3 legacy’s and 3 props. The Ertais were a last-minute thing because my deck runs so few counters that I need the extra kick in there to beat any heavy counter decks. I ended up sideboarding them in almost every match. Here’s the rest of Team Scrub that showed up: Jon Beckmon playing a WW/Tradewind/Cataclysm lock deck. A deck we affectionately call “Blues Clues” (sorry Jon, had to throw that in) Steve Canty playing CounterPheonix Gabe Guerrera playing Gabe living death Sam Corona playing WW Cataclysm The tourney didn’t start off well, as Steve and I had forgotten to bring new sleeves, and with the event being 40k, our sleeves weren’t going to stand up to a deck inspection. And to make matters worse, none of the people selling cards that day had any good sleeves. So we ended up buying a pack of crappy clear sleeves for a buck each. I had to take out some of my cards that were a little marred on the back and get some that were good enough looking not to stand out. Then I did a little bit of trading and ended up getting a NM UL Timewalk. So I figured no matter how bad the day went, I was happy. Round 1 vs. 3 color Living Death Game 1: This guy’s death deck seemed incredibly slow. First duel I stare at an opening hand of 3 land, a Whispers, and 3 Awakenings (!) I figure I’ ll be ok once I start whispering like a madman. Only trouble is, he gets off a 4th turn lobotomy and snags all my Awakenings. I start to get my lock set up, but he deaths, I counter, he leaks and that’s game. Game 2: Not a bad hand to start with, but I never play more than 2 land the whole game. This is not a good start. Matches 0-1 Duels 0-2 Round 2 vs. mirror match Game 1: I hate mirror matches. He gets screwed at 2 land for about 10 turns which is way more than enough time for me to set up the lock. Game 2: I’m stuck at 4 land but have the early Weaver/Feeder rush going. That’s when things get hairy. I drop Ertai, he drops Tradewind, I save mana to bounce/counter tradewind, he drops Dominating. I cap no buyback tradewind, he steals Ertai with Dominating. I cap no buyback on dominating. After that he’s sitting with a couple creatures on the board and I have Weaver, Feeder and an active Ertai on the board. I end up getting 4 (!) active Tradewinds, one of which I stole from him. But the judges won’t let him concede because it would mean the match. So the duel lasts another 10 minutes while I move counters onto the tradewinds because I can’t draw any more land. Matches 1-1 Duels 2-2 Round 3 Vs. WW splash blue Game 1: Usually my deck is strong against WW, but not with 2 land on the board. Game 2: I have total control and am about to lock the game when he draws 3 (!) disenchants in a row and gets my 2 props and my Awakening. Then he grabs my tradewind with a Helm of Possession and its game over for me. I’d just like to say for the record that the first 3 matches have been a collection of the crappiest draws my deck has ever gotten. Matches 1-2 Duels 2-4 I probably don’t have a shot at top 8, but I play on. Round 4 vs. R/G land destruction Game 1: Thought it was sligh at first, so I started to worry until he dropped a Starke of Rath and an Anarchist. I attack with a Weaver, hoping he’ll group block so I can get the Starke out of the way before it gets too hairy. He does. Got Tradewind lock by 10th turn because his deck had almost no offense. He Rolling Thundered a tradewind (!). Which I thought was interesting, but I had too many threats for him to deal with. Game 2: He draws 2 land for 10 turns and somewhere along the line heends up showing me the 3 stone rains he had in his opening hand. Weaver/Feeder beatdown galore Matches 2-2 Duels 4-4 Round 5 vs. the chair This guy never shows up, so I sit and watch Sam play his WW against burning bridge which he won easily in 2 duels. The other people around me congratulate me for a valiant victory against the chair, which fought bravely, but was no match for my superior play. Round 6 vs. WW Game 1: I almost felt sorry for this guy. This is how the duel went starting from the 3rd turn. Feeder, Tradewind, Weaver, Awakening, drew a capsize, game. Game 2: Dryad, Tradewind, Weaver, drew capsize, game. Matches 4-2 Duels 8-4 I though it interesting that I either swept or got swept all day. Never had to play a 3rd duel. Here are the rest of Team Scrubs standings: Jon: 5-1 3rd place Gabe: 5-1 4th place Me: 4-2 12th place Sam: 4-2 15th place Steve: 3-3 23rd place We finally got not 1, but 2 guys in top 8! Woohoo! Anyway, we’re all pretty happy with the way we placed. I’ll go ahead and post the top 8 matches from Team Scrub. Quarterfinals: Gabe living death vs. Mono-blue Grindstone This one wasn’t even really a match. Grindstones can’t stand up against living death. It only helped Gabe win more quickly. He took it in 2. Jon ww/cataclysm/tradewind vs. WW I don’t know how the WW guy got into top 8, ‘cause he was making some very, very serious mistakes. It was still a tough fight, though, Jon took it in 3 duels. Semifinals: Gabe living death vs. Sligh Gabe was able to hold off early creature rush, then deathed after filling his graveyard with Survival. Game over. 2nd and 3rd game creature rush was too much for death and Gabe couldn’t draw the engine (survival). Gabe gets 3rd place. Jon ww/cataclysm/tradewind vs. Joe Ellis playing Living Death Joe got a bye in the quarters because the guy he was playing against only had a 14 card sideboard. First game Jon had advantage but couldn’t draw the 2nd plains to cataclysm and got run over by the creature rush after a death got past counters. 2nd duel, Jon sides in Rootwaters and takes Joe out with the rootwaters after Joe makes a mistake and moves counters the wrong way when Jon blocks with a tradewind. 3rd duel, Jon again never draws the 2nd plains to cataclysm and dies to Joe’s rootwater hunter. Jon gets 4th place. Finals: Joe Ellis playing Living Death vs. Aaron ? plaing Sligh Sligh is just too darn fast for death. Aaron wins in 2 duels. So the top 8 contained 3 Living Deaths variants, 1 Sligh, 1 WW, 1 WW/Cataclysm/Tradewind, 1 Mono-blue Grindstone, and 1 TradeAwake. A very interesting finish. Props: -Aaron for his super-fast sligh deck which ran raging goblins, 4 maniacal rages AND 4 giant strengths. And for his super cool Furnace of Rath tech. -All of Team Scrub for finally doing well at a semi-major tourney -Jon and Gabe for making top 8. -The lady who was cool enough to trade me the Timewalk -The tourney staff in Salt Lake for FINALLY getting a tourney to run on schedule. -The dude playing red/green land destruction, for being the coolest guy I played all day. -The prize people, for letting me pull an Oath of Druids out of the one pack of Exodus I won for getting 12th place. Slops: -The Aaron guy playing Living Death. It is widely known you’re a cheater, and we all though you deserved to get ejected in the Quarterfinals seeing as how you got tons of warnings all day long. -Joe Ellis, for making jon feel like a heel because you weren’t paying attention when he said “block the FEEDER with the tradewind”, not the weaver. -Steve, for making a really, really bonehead play that cost you a top 8 spot. -All the people selling cards at the tourney, for not bringing any good sleeves to sell and making us use crap sleeves the whole day. -The 3 morons who all tried to disenchant Gabe’s Recurring Nightmares. That’s all for Team Scrub for today. Hopefully this will be the first of many tourney reports for the Scrubs. Jesse Pitz Member Team Scrub Twin Falls, Idaho email: pitzfam@cyberhighway.net