Subject: Tournaments, "One Week and a Day" Date: Sat, 24 Oct 1998 03:50:26 -0400 From: David DeMichele To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com It started at 2 a.m. on Saturday morning of October 10, 1998. This was the approximate time we were going to leave Tallahassee for Birmingham, AL. It really started on the Monday prior to that when my firends Geoff, Dane and I decided to take the trip to Birmingham to try and qualify for Rome. Well, back to Friday night, really at about 10 pm I was at Econ's place playing in a small Urza's draft with Mark, Kyle, and Rei also I believe. After getting smacked around a little, Mark gave me the best way to Birmingham and I was off back to the dorm to meet Geoff and Dane. We left Tallhasse actually on time for once and manged our way to some small back road that went half way through Alabama to the interstate and into Birmingham. We got to Birmingham at about 7:30 a.m., well, we thought it was 7:30 am but I later found out that I think there was a time zone change so instead of only 1/2 hour to registration it was 1 1/2 hours, but we didnt know this then. After a lot of trouble trying to find a place with an open bathroom we ended up at The Mill just when it opened and chilled out eating some donuts and hanging in some comfy chair by a fireplace. After alot of willpower and a little bit effort to get out of those chairs, we walked over the where the tourney was supposed to be and some hotel employee came up and asked if we were here for Dr. Bob's Game Shop and we said yes so he unlocked the tourney room and the three of us and three other guys walked in to wait. For about a half hour no one showed up and it looked like it was going to be a 5 person qualifier as one of the other group wasn't playing. Eventually the judges, etc. showed up and so did some other people. We didn't know anyone else until Alex McConnell and Josh Bradford showed up. After a few games of playing around Geoff decided to switch from CounterPheonix to Nature's Humility and Dane switched from Living Death to Tradewind-Awakening which I advised against because Tradewind takes alot of time to really learn how to play well and he already knew what he was doing with Living Death. Josh as usual didn't bring a deck to use but he had the choice between playing my Hatred deck again or playing Jodi's CounterPheonix that had won at Atlanta previously. Since he had no experience with CounterPheonix he played my black deck with a few changes and Alex was playing Living Death and I was trying my hand with Tradewind-Awakening hoping for my second top 8 in a row(little did I know the judges would screw me out of this later). Also Kobi Kennison and Lee and I think Daniel were also there after what I assume was an even longer drive than ours(I believe they came from Gainesville). Before the tourney, Jeff Hale(i.e. the most incompetant level 3 judge in the world) announces that we would be playing 60 minute rounds which kinda worried me and I tried to say somthing to him about it supposed to being 70 minutes but he ignored me. Well it ended up being 6 rounds of swiss with 55 players: (I am a slacker and never take notes so this is all from memory) P.S. I finally found great ways to beat CounterPheonix without using the Hammerheads which I personally don't prefer, its all in the sideboard. Round 1 - White Weenie Game 1: He gets a shadow creature or 2 down and I lay an Awakening on turn 4 to bait the Disenchant, he bites and then the next 2 turns I lay Legacies and steal/block his shadow and get the lock a little after. Game 2: We get about the same start as before but I don't draw any counterspells and he gets a Cataclysm but stupid me forgets to fog with my Weaver before it resolves. I was at two with my tapped Weaver and he finishes me off with a Paladin. Game 3: He gets a second turn Priest and I get a second turn Legacy which takes the Priest and I only have to counter one more shadow guy before he dies to his Priest 10 turns later. 1-0, 2-1 Round 2 - MonoBlue Game 1: He gets a real quick start and stops me I think at a few lands with a Tradewind, I concede and do some sideboarding. Game 2: Draw, look at my hand, 2 Scragnoths, some other stuff, keep it. I go and put a 5th and 6th turn Scragnoth down and run over him. Game 3: Draw, look at my hand, 1 Scragnoth, 1 Grindstone, some other stuff, keep it. I can't get the Scragnoth down quickly because I end up on the defensive but I get it down eventually and the Grindstone also. He is at single didgits with me taking control of his Mawcor and him only having Tradewind and Stalking Stones out and then the judge calls time at 60 minute mark a few turns before he is going to die and I get a draw instead of a win. 1-0-1, 3-2-1 In between round stuff: I find out that Geoff had to drop out because the judges there conldn't understand that the three cards Humility-Nature's Revolt-Propaganda stops the opponent dead and that moron Jeff Hale said it didn't work. Round 3 - B/u Discard with Gravepact Game 1: I end up taking a triple mulligan and lose to some weird slivers beating me down. Game 2: I get a real quick lock and eventually kill him. Game 3: I have to take another damn triple mulligan and lose to some Rats of Rath when I can't draw any Legacies or counterspells. (This guy was surprised afterwards that I took the middle game from him because he says this was his best matchup for him but him. His team had been playing this deck at the last few PTQ's and none had yet made top 8, i.e. it wasn't a very good deck and I only lost due to six mulligans in 2 games where I was playing first) 1-1-1, 4-4-1 More in between round stuff: I find out now that Dane was disqualified becuase they said that he had marked cards in his deck and they didn't even let him explain or fix his deck. This was totally uncalled for as Dane is a person who always plays Magic for fun and was only in his second qualifier ever I think. He is a fair and fun guy and would never cheat. Round 4 - Kobi Kennison - CounterPheonix Game 1: We both play a lot of land and then I draw into 4 Capsizes and a bunch of counterspells and start using them on his land taking him from about 12 down to 4 and when he lost a counter war he conceded to get onto the next game. Game 2: Draw, look at my hand, 2 Scragnoths, 1 Grindstone, some other stuff, keep it. I play a 5th turn Scragnoth pretty sure he will find a way to kill it. He does as he goes double Shock on his turn. I play a 6th turn Scragnoth pretty sure he cannot kill it, but on his trun he taps out to play a Shard Pheonix and then sacks it and then Shocks(three!) my Scragnoth. Even though this is very surprising he is down to about 1 card and I then have my way with him and end up getting 2 Grinstone down(doesn't sound very good against recursion but it works awesome). Eventually I Grind him to death before his Pheonix's can get though my Weaver and Tradewind. I had to counter a Scroll Rack and then bounce and counter another Rack to eventually win. 2-1-1, 6-4-1 Round 5 - Tradewind-Awakening Game 1: We both play some creatures, he gets a Weaver and then casts Elven Rite making it 5/5, ow!. A Capsize takes care of those counters though. Eventually I get a Weaver down that gets big with help of a Feeder and it kills him. Game 2: Same as before we play a lot of creatures, but I get some Dominating Licids and take his stuff and end up killing with some creature or something after he screws up not realizing that it takes mana to activate the Weaver's power. (This guy's deck was o.k. but it was definitely not tuned and he barely seemed to know how to play it.) 3-1-1, 8-4-1 Round 6 - Some PRICK(yes, all capitals) from team Huntsville or something - CounterPheonix Before the match we both know that the winner makes top 8 and if we have a draw neither of us will. He proposes that if I have control of the match and time is about to end he will concede and I agree to the same thing except vice versa. Game 1: I have to do a double mulligan and he gets quick control and kills me with some Shard Pheonixes. Game 2: I get a normal draw and get some good creatures down a finish him off with a 4/5 Scragnoth. Game 3: We both get crappy draws and play a lot of land and eventually I get his life down to 4 when I have a 4/5 Scragnoth down and he has a few cards and a Scroll Rack but only 1 Pheonix in his graveyard and a Stalking Stones down. I had a played the Scragnoth a few turns earlier and he had asked the judge if he could use Ertai's Meddling on it and the judge said yes but since I had control I guess he decided not to use it and let me win. The judge had already called time(at the 60 minute mark instead of 70 minute mark) and said since he felt we were stalling(why the hell would that happen when we both needed a win?) he would give us a 3 turn extension. The guy held off the Scragnoth for two turns and then he was still at 4 and finally played the Stalking Stones I had bounced with a Tradwind before my Tradewind got killed. My last turn I had to attack with the Scragnoth and he sat there for at least a few minutes and then broke our prior agreement when he finally said if he couldn't go to the top 8 then neither of us will and activated his Stones and blocked my Scragnoth ending the third turn effectively. Jeff Hale then just grabbed the match cards off the table and walked off and called out the top 8 30 seconds later. All I could do was sit there and give the dirtiest look possible to my opponent and restrain myself from jumping across the table and beating the living crap out of him. All I really needed of the missing 10 minutes that Hale didn't give us was one more turn, but whatever. Some people in this world just don't know what it means to be honorable and to keep their word. I feel sorry for anyone that has become friends with him(unless they are like him) and feel sorry for him in general that he has to go through life like this. 3-1-2, 9-5-2 Well that was basically this tournament and I can't understand how it could be run by these people that didn't know what the fuck they were doing. They only had two judges there that didn't even know their rulings and the floor judge wasn't even a sanctioned judge. Jeff Hale was a moron that couldn't understand things such as how Portcullis or Corpse dance or Humility worked. The other judge didn't even know that Living Death was a popular deck type or that everyone sideboards Portcullis against it. I know of so many people that screwed by the judges and had problems. For a few more examples just read some of the other Birmingham reports. We headed back to Tallahassee after Geoff got kicked out of the tournament hall by the stupid judge and got back at about 1 am(Please read Geoff Hooper's comments on this). I went and played on Monday night with the usual guys and throughout the week playtested and I tweaked my deck a little more for Orlando the next week. Throughout the week I played in a some Urza's drafts with the guys and Friday at about 4:30 pm I finally left town for Tampa, I was going to spend the night at home and then head over to Orlando for the tourney. I got to the tourney a little later than I wanted to on Saturday the 17th so I had to skip breakfast and play magic hungry as usual. Before the tourney I hung out with some friends from Tampa and and the guys that also headed down from Tallahassee. Thankfully David Doust was running this tourney and I could look forward to smooth day. Ended up being 60 people with 6 rounds of swiss (70 minute rounds this time) Round 1 - Hatred Game 1: He got 2 first turn creatures and I had to mulligan once so he won this one without too much trouble. Game 2: I had to mulligan once but still got a 2nd turn Oath and locked him down to no lands or creatures quickly. Game 3: I had to mulligan again, and got 3rd turn Oath and finally got a recurring Weaver and then the lock a little later. Games: 1-0-0, Matches: 2-1-0 Round 2 - White Weenie Game 1: He didn't draw too much good stuff and was stuck at 2 lands for a while so I had my way with him. Game 2: He drew some more creatures this time but I came back and had no counters so he cast Cataclysm and I lost an Oath and kept a Legacy and used Tradewind to bounce an Island and kept my Weaver, he kept a Visionary. My Weaver held off the Visionary until I stole it then played two more Legacies and won easily. 2-0-0, 4-1-0 Round 3 - White Weenie Game 1: I got a draw with some good creatures and held off until he conceded when I had the lock. Game 2: I had to triple mulligan and just didn't have enough cards to put up a fight. Game 3: He got a buncha creatures down and I got a recurring Weaver although 2 of his creatures were Soul Wardens so he got up to the mid 50's in life and I was at 2 but eventually put all his land in his hand and was working on his creatures when time was called. Draw. 2-0-1, 5-2-1 Round 4 - White Weenie(deja vu) Game 1: I had a decent draw and got the lock down pretty quickly. Game 2: I had to do a double mulligan this time and got beat again after he got some good shadow. Game 3: He got a buncha creatures down and I got a recurring Weaver although 2 of his creatures were Soul Wardens so he got up to the mid 40's in life and I was at about 10 and put all his land in his hand and was working on his creatues when he told me to stop and conceded. He said he knew I had won and he didn't feel right drawing it out and his team would be unhappy if he played that way. This guy was really nice and cool and epitomizes to me how a true magic player should act. 3-0-1, 7-3-1 Round 5 - Living Death Game 1: He played some land, a Hermit Druid, a Rampant growth and a Survival and 4th turn I played the Awakening and proceded to put everything back in his hand. Game 2: He played some land and a Mox Diamond after I double mulliganed, but I played a 4th turn Awakening and won pretty easily. 4-0-1, 9-3-1 Round 6 - Dunno what this guy was playing. After counting up the number of people that were 4-1 who were all playing we took the Intentional Draw. Aziz messed everything up because he was there to play and didn't double draw in the 5th and 6th rounds after going 4-0, he ended up at 6-0 after this round though so he was 'the man'. 4-0-2, 9-3-2 The top 8 was called out and I don't really know all the names but these were the decks at least: 1. Aziz Al-Doorey - Tradewind-Awakening 2. ? - Living Death 3. ? - MonoBlue 4. ? - White Weenie? 5. Randy Ellis - Hatred 6. ? - Living Death 7. David De Michele(me) - Tradewind-Awakening 8. My Round 3 opponent - White Weenie Quartefinals - Fling Boy(I'll explain later) - Living Death Game 1: He got down a quick Survival and later Coffin Queen, Spike Feeder, Thrull Surgeon and a Volrath's Stronhold, but I got a 4th turn Awakening after he Surgeoned a Capsize but I had 1 more and another Awakening and 2 counterspells and I started doing Capsize stuff keeping his land at like 4 with only 1 black per turn. Eventually I got some more land after at least 10 turns of him only drawing his Surgeon with the Stronghold and then I drew another Awakening and he conceded. Game 2: I have to double mulligan and end up with 3 land a Feeder and a Weaver, then in the next few turns draw a land, a Capsize, an Awakening, and then counterspells(absolutley perfect draw), and then more land. All he drew was two Survivals, 3 Recurring Nightmares, a lot of land and 1 creature which was countered when he survivaled for a Surgeon. Ended up really being 4th turn lock again. 5-0-2, 11-3-2 Fling Boy Stuff: Me and my friend Travis nicknamed him this when in a qualifier for Chicago in the Quarterfinals he ended up doing a 14 point Fling off a Spined Wurm that was beefy to beat Travis the turn before he was going to die. Semifinals - Rany Ellis - Hatred Game 1: He gets first turn Carnophage, I play Island, he plays land attacks, I play a forest(had a Reflecting Pool in my hand and a Counterspell but I accidentally grabbed the wrong land out of my hand and played it on the table before realizing and it to make it worse I didn't even have a Wall to lay down and block.), He plays a third land, double Dark Ritual, Hatred, I die. Game 2: He plays a bunch of creatures but I get Oath down and get a Weaver and then a Tradewind out of it and get Infinite Weaver then later the lock. Game 3: I have to mulligan once, get a good draw, some islands, a forest, Feeder, Tradewind, Oath, and a Weaver. He gets a really fast start and by the second turn when I can play the Oath he already had 4 creatures so I played a Wall then 3rd turn play a Wall and burn a Whispers, 4th trun played a Tradewind he gets some more shadow. On the 6th or 7th turn I end up dying to a horde of black weenies(at least 7 creatures) when I never drew a second green to play the Awakening, Feeder, and Weaver that were sitting in my hand since the opening draw. 5-1-2, 12-5-2 Randy ends up playing the White Weenie that I had played in the 3rd round and draws the 1st game with Hatred and then gives away the next two by playing really stupid. It seems it all came down to one green mana for me which I couldn't get and I most likely would have won this tourney. Makes me kinda teed off that no matter what I do I always have mana problems. I even increased the mana ratio in the deck for this tourney and still had to mulligan I think a total of 11 or more times in 8 rounds of playing. As I've said before if anyone wants to get wins against somebody that gets mana-screwed in a clutch, just play me, I'm waiting. After this I went home to Tampa then went to the Bucs game on Sunday and whatched them pull it out against the Panthers 16-13 then went back to Tallahassee. Since the Rome qualifier season is over now, here's three incarnations of my Tradewind-Awakening decks I played in 3 PTQ's: Atlanta(4-2-1) 5th Place: 4 Capsize 4 Counterspell 4 Forbid 4 Legacy's Allure 4 Tradewind Rider 2 Wall of Tears 4 Whispers 4 Awakenings 2 Spike Feeder 2 Spike Weaver 4 Wall of Blossoms 7 Forest 10 Island 3 Reflecting Pool 3 Skyshroud Forest SBD 2 Portcullis 2 Chill 3 Dominating Licid 2 Mana Leak 2 Propaganda 4 Oath of Druids Birmingham(3-1-2) 10th Place: 4 Capsize 4 Counterspell 4 Forbid 4 Legacy's Allure 4 Tradewind Rider 2 Wall of Tears 4 Whisper of the Muse 4 Awakenings 2 Spike Feeder 2 Spike Weaver 4 Wall of Blossoms 7 Forest 10 Island 3 Reflecting Pool 3 Skyshroud Forest SBD 2 Grindstone 1 Portcullis 3 Dominating Licid 2 Mana Leak 4 Oath of Druids 2 Scragnoth 1 Spike Weaver Orlando(5-1-2) 4th Place: 4 Capsize 4 Counterspell 4 Forbid 4 Legacy's Allure 4 Tradwind Rider 4 Whispers of the Muse 4 Awakening 1 Scragnoth 2 Spike Feeder 2 Spike Weaver 4 Wall of Blossoms 7 Forest 11 Island 3 Reflecting Pool 2 Skyshroud Forest SBD 2 Grindstone 1 Portcullis 3 Dominating Licid 2 Mana Leak 4 Oath of Druids 2 Scragnoth 1 Sike Weaver Totals against other decks: Living Death: 4-0-0 White Weene: 3-0-1 Hatred: 2-1-1 CounterPheonix: 2-2-0 R'Awakening: 1-0-0 MonoBlue: 0-0-1 Rogue: 0-1-0 Well, I had a fun time and got some prizes and a bunch of DCI points so I'm just going to be sitting around doing schoolwork for now and getting ready for the state championships and doing some Urza's drafts. Until later... David De Michele djd9101@garnet.acns.fsu.edu