Subject: St. Louis PTQ Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 08:53:47 -0500 From: hof108s To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Hey everybody! What a weekend it was! Friday night, three friends (Jason, Shane, and Mike) and I decide to make the three-hour drive to St. Louis to gamble in casinos. We left our hometown (Mtn. Grove, MO) at about 1:30am, and arrive around 5am. I had some extra cash, so I decide to go and try my luck. I sit down at a video poker machine for about two hours, and maintain even money for that time. Feeling confident, I proceed to try my hand at blackjack. Much to my surprise, I was down to $20 (tourney entry fee) in about 15 minutes (I only started out with about $100). By this time, I am so disgusted with myself that I want to go home and forget about this tournament, but Shane talks me out of it. After all the gambling was done, I think all four of us combined had $100, from which $80 was to be used to get into the tournament. That sucked! Anyway, to the tournament itself: it was held in St. Charles, MO at the Fantasy Shop. Barrat Moy was the Head Judge/tournament organizer (he usually does an exceptional job), and I believe there were 54 participants (6 rounds of Swiss). We arrive with about 30 minutes to register our decks, and Mike didn't even have a deck to play. I help him throw together a red speed/burn deck in about 15 minutes (with a semi-effective sideboard) and then get down to registering my own deck. Here is the deck I played: 4 Soul Warden 4 Soltari Priest 4 Soltari Monk 4 Soltari Visionary 4 Warrior en-Kor 4 Paladin en-Vec 4 Master Decoy 4 Cataclysm 4 Disenchant 2 Helm of Possession 19 Plains 3 City of Traitors Sideboard: 3 COP: Red 2 COP: Black 1 Light of Day 2 Torture Chamber 2 Repentence 2 Portcullis 1 Allay 2 Wall of Essence Notes about the deck/sideboard: the Decoys are AWESOME. They gave everyone fits. Also, the last minute change to put 4 Disenchants maindeck was the right choice. Now, to the matches: Round 1 vs. Shane (NO!--I rode up with him, and help him with this deck)--B/R Game 1: He doesn't get anything going this game, and I have too many critters for him to deal with. I win easily. Game 2: He is mana screwed, but has two Dauthi Horrors (!) and a Mogg Flunkies out. I Cataclysm, keeping a Monk, and he keeps a Horror. His next turn, he edicts, and after that, he drops two more Horrors (!!). He beats me to a pulp that game. Game 3: I get a God-draw. I eventually get 3 Monks and Light of Day out against him, and he concedes. That was cool, but since it was Shane, it also sucked. 1-0, 2-1 Round 2 vs. Dave Fishman (I know this guy from Springfield, MO)--WW Game 1: We mirror each other for a little while. Eventually I stop drawing creatures and he kills me (I think I had to double mulligan this game). Game 2: Starts out like the first game, until I drop Torture Chamber. He doesn't draw anything to get rid of it, and I win. Game 3: My opening hand only has a Plains and a City, with two Repentences. This would be to my advantage as I kill his first two (and his only two for a little while), then start beating him down. I also lure him into disenchanting a Helm, and then slipping in a Torture Chamber. This was key for my win. 2-0, 4-2 Round 3 vs. one of the Slattery boys--WW Game 1: It's another mirror match. He does an all-out attack, and then Cataclysms. He doesn't recover fast enough as I beat him down easily. Game 2: He plays first turn Mox, Mox, Plains, Knight of Dawn (YUCK!). He does something else second turn, and I do second turn Repentence. That was huge, I think. Anyway, I maintained advantage with a Torture Chamber and eventually beat him. 3-0, 6-2 Round 4 vs. Kyle Kloeckner--mono Blue with some nice twists Game 1: He plays Island, Mox, Keeper of the Mind. That is really nice. He ends up drawing more cards than me and gets a small swarm and beats me. Game 2: He has a weak draw, I have a strong draw, and I win easily. Game 3: He comes out strong again, but I have a Soul Warden giving me lots 'o life. We have a Torture Chamber battle for about 20 minutes, and the turn after he plays a Tradewind Rider, I Cataclysm. He doesn't counter (!?!). I was on the verge of concession, but now I know I can win. We have some exchanges, but after a close battle, I win with about 20 seconds left. 4-0, 8-3 Rounds 5 and 6--Intentional Draws with David Haggar and Charlie Hanford, respectively. Final 8 standings: 1--Rich ?--blue bounce with black for V. Strongholds/sideboard--15pts 2--David Haggar--WW--14 pts 3--Mike Heffern--TradeAwake--14pts 4--Me--WW--14 pts 5--Charlie Hanford--CounterPheonix--13pts 6--Kyle Kloeckner--neato monoblue--13pts 7--??--blue-green(?)--13pts 8--??--blue-green(?)--13pts Round 7 vs. Charlie Hanford--CounterPheonix U/R Game 1: I get an amazing draw. He Intuitions for Capsize, and can only use it once before I swarm him. Game 2: I get another amazing draw. I predict that he sides in Thalakos Drifters, so I side in Repentence. Well, he Intuitions for Drifters, and after he casts it, I Repentence (that was HUGE). I end up killing him shortly after that. 5-0-2, 10-3 Note: This match took less than 10 minutes. I ended up waiting over an hour and a half until the next match..... Round 8 vs. Rich--blue bounce with black for V. Strongholds/sideboard Game 1: He gets an amazing start with two Merfolk Looters. I get a slighly below average draw. He gets two Tradewind Riders, four other creatures, and enough mana to double Capsize, and I ask Barrat if I can concede. Barrat allows me to, so I concede. Game 2: He almost gets to the same point that he was at in the first life, but I get him too low on life that he has to start on my creatures now. Somehow, I slip in a Cataclysm, and a little later I had won. This game probably lasted an hour easily! Game 3: I get a great draw with two Priests and two or three Visionaries out. He slows me momentarily, but then I Cataclysm twice within three turns, and that was too much for him. 6-0-2, 12-4 Round 9 vs. Kyle Kloeckner--neato blue Round 1: I Mulligan once, and the next draw was not that great. He beats me easily, as I am noticably flustered and may have played too quickly. Round 2: I Mulligan again, but this time I get a great draw. He doesn't get anything major out and I swarm him. Round 3: I have a decent draw, but so does he. We play back and forth, and then he plays PORTCULLIS(!). I attempt to disenchant twice, and he counters both of them. That seals my doom, as he is now on his way to Rome. So there you have it. I ended up making the money back that I lost at the casino, plus I got a bunch of cards (lots of Urza's Saga, which is good.). Congratulations to Kyle for qualifying, and good luck. Homero Flores