Subject: PtQ Report--Columbus, Oh--10/17--L. Richardson(Finals) Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 15:59:28 -0400 From: "Leonard Richardson" To: Greetings again! This is the last week for PtQ Rome and I knew that there would be lots of good players there. Furhtermore, all the decks would be as tuned as they were going to get. I left my dorm room at 5:30 am, hopped in the car and proceeded to take a nap until we stopped at McDonald's for some yummy brain food. I get back in the car rattle some about some magic concepts and then fall asleep again. Andy wakes me up right outside of Columbus so I can buy a quart of chocolate milk because it is just too expensive in the convention center. We arrive to the convention center and there are all these people there. Tons of them, I figure out most of them are not magic players, but free masons; however, there are quite a few good magic players there. I do not team names but I will just say there were some really good players. DECK LISTING -------------- As always I give a deck listing at the bottom, but if you scroll down there, you will miss all of my super neat text that doesn't really say any thing useful, so I am sure you will read on because I have such great grammar and never use run-on sentences. Tourney Begins Rd 1: Bedford Crenshaw (G/R Vineyard?) He shows me his deck before the tourney starts, I nod in approvement. It looks pretty wierd, but he says it will do well. Now that I am playing him, I will get to see how/if it works. Game one, I understand his deck better than he does. He does not pay attention to the inter- action of his cards and makes a very costly mistake with his Thopter. Game 2: I get a slow start and his Goblin Bombardment from SB(I think) really slow down my legacy. He makes a play error and says "I will never make ProTour playing like this". He ends up winning with about 26 minutes left in the round. Game 3: I play first with island, he gets turn 1 vinyard and I "shift in to turbo" (*Mental note: Does any one like the 'Shift into Turbo' as much as the 'Go Go Power Rangers'? The first slogan was clearly superior) With 12 minutes Bedford has 2 1/1 token in play. Each turn he plays forest vinyard. I ask the head judge to observe tempo and he believes bedford is stalling. I mean he was completely locked. I get 3 extra untimed turns and I only need 2 to do 18 pts of dmg to finish him off. (Match 1-0) Rd 2: Guy from Dayton (WW) He seems rather confident, and when I see he is playing WW, I ask him if he has every tried Coat of Arms. He laughs at me, and says no. I took this to mean he had not done much reading from midwest PtQ reports as several people had them in SB. I infered that he would neither have humility and sideboarded with that in mind. This match was uneventful. They are close games, but TA has the advantage in the matchup and I win. Very boring story (Match 2-0) Rd 3: Del (CounterPhoenix) Oh No! I am supposed to lose this matchup and she really knows how to play it. My usual tactic is to put some early pressure and hope they go off to early. I know Del will not fall for this, so I play her with a differnt approach. I know I will lose if I use my general technique as I will certainly not outplay her, because I know CP better than she does. Our first 4 turns consist of playing land and saying 'Go'. On 4th turn, I play a legacy so that I always have counter mana. Things are quite non-eventful this game until late when I develop to 6 mana first because of my walls. This allows me to play a weaver and do pressure. She takes the bait, uses the turn to intuition and get stuff. This allows me to counter her spell(which I want her to counter) and then play a trade backed with forbid. I now have a blocker and lotsa cards with my wall. She conceeds when I get two active tradewinds out. Game 2. Not very eventful. I have a average draw and hers is slightly less than average. She first three land all rhyme with 'Fountain', which gives me time to set up. I just counter her intution when she does draw the island. I felt bad winning this way. The game does develop more; however, since she was behind on mana development, I just had to not make stupid mistakes and I would win. (Match:3-0) Match 4: Mike Yoman (Looter) He is a very good player. I have known him since he qualified in Lexington for Paris. Oh my that has been a while. Amazingly enough we were discussing a top 8 draft we were in around 2 years ago. I was astounded he remembered so many details. We sit down, he knows I am playing "Nice Awakening" and I know his deck quite well. His team mate, Trey Van Cleave lives about 5 minutes away and I play tested with him to prepare for GP. We both know this matchup cold and I do not like my chances. I lose first game since he has his interdicts standard. Games 2-3 he gets to mulligan 5 times and both games I draw an interdict. I had not realized why this card is so good until Trey showed me over and over. (Match:4-0) Match 5: Pat Chapin (LD) We check the results, realize all 4-0-2 get in and say the magic words. Draw. We talk some throughout that round about Legends block construct. I did not know the drawback on firestorm phoenix. He did get me think- ing about what would be good in that format. I still have not come up with a deck that is better than his. I also go and get some food this round with Chris Faesi. It is nice to have him back in Midwest. (Match:4-0-1) Match 6: Sauni ??? (Counterphoenix) I do the math. I know that I get in no matter what. I am number one seed going into last round. If I lose I get in, if I win, I get in, if I draw, I get in. It is not the same for my oppt. He has never made top 8 before and does not know how to check it. I do not bother explaining the math to him and he decides to draw. This was turns out to be the correct decision because EVERY 4-1 played. If even one group had taken the draw, he was out (Match:4-0-2) Top 8 1. Dayton guy(with a cool pet, I will mention later) {LD} 2. Mike Yoman{looter} 3. Jess Means {LD} 4. Leonard Richardson {Nice Awakening} 5. Worth {Beta Awakening} 6. Pat Chapin {LD} 7. A guy whose name I forgot(perhaps chris) {WW} 8. Sauni {CP} Quarters 1. LD > 8. CP 2. Looter > 7. WW 3. LD > 6.LD Me against Worth. Oh my! He is like a good player. He is a member of dead guy. He is like famous and I am just little scrubby Leonard. I make an observation the first game, while many of my cards are foreign and a great amount are signed. I only saw one english non- beta card in his entire deck. The dominating licid, I must admit I was quite intimidated and jealous that his deck was prettier than mine. First game he wrecks me. I conceed in 2 min 36 sec. I joke him about beating B. Schneider's record for beating me a whole match in LA in < 12 minutes. He laughs. The second game is a very good duel. I go first which gives me the ability to play an uncountered legacy. He does the same on his turn and I play another legacy. I am holding an interdict so I know I really have advantage right now. We jockey around for position and dominance, but I just have too much card advantage from allure + interdicting his. Our last game say him draw a single island and double whispers. He burns both just to draw land and also uses a capsize to remove some of my early board control. While he is only down 1 card at this point, I have board control and time advantage. I go on to win this game. I do not feel good about my victories when my oppt draws less than adequate, but I will take them when I am clearly out matched. (Match 5-0-2) Semi 3. LD > 2. Looter (I honestly thought looter is supposed to crush LD) I am playing against this guy playing LD. He made top 8 last time I was in columbus with LD so I am guessing he can play it well. He gets to win the first game because of my lack of concentration skills. The second game I use the Trey Van Cleave secret against LD. Yep, you guessed it. Interdict. I think I should have ran 3 of these standard or something. Second game I interdict a turn 2 thrull and procede to counter obtain lock quickly with cap+awake. 3rd game, my draw is less than acceptable so I go to paris. When I get back with one less card, I have double whisper, and island. Yuck! I keep it because going to paris twice really hurts. He plays turn 2 oath followed by a turn 3 survival. Amazingly enough he has ZERO critters. I get to 4 mana and stabalize before he can get a critter. The game ends up being quite close and he has a chance to win as he has 8-10 critters in his grave, a LD in hand and I got a capsize and an island. I have been holding this island for quite sometime, and thinking about countering his spells(with my island). He does not cast LD and I top deck awaken. He goes from 9 mana to 5 mana in one turn and from 6-1 mana by the next turn. All I have to do is remember to bring Ms. Weaver home every second turn for a recharge and I win. He conceded when he is left with 2 scrags in play as his only permanents. Finals against Chapin This is so uneventful it is ridiculous. He want to go to Rome. I still cannot afford to go. We decide to draw in finals, he gets slots, I get the money and we both go home happy. On the way home Andy is a super nice guy and drives the whole way. I was not feeling well, because playing blue gives me a headache. On the way home I get some cupcakes and more chocolate milk which puts me right back to sleep until I wake up in my dorm parking lot. What a great tourney. As always I do not do Props and Slops but I would like to mention a few things at the end of my report for people who did good jobs. Mike Guptil ran another great PtQ. He is a real asset to Andon and magic. Denise is always smiling and in a good mood. Mark Globus, I did not know you could judge. Good work. Ed "HC" Porter for being the only person all season to make t8 with HC. Andy for driving me to tourneys Zvi and Mike for teaching me TA And most importantly -My Hat- Decklisting: Oh Yeah, I forgot to include this part in my tourney report. Guess I am just forgetful. See you next season. Leonard Richardson