Subject: fwd: [Report] Shuler: ShulerJank (NYC PTQ) Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 11:59:00 -0500 From: john shuler To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com I was #9 at the NYC PTQ. [An associate was 3rd at the Chicago PTQ with it...] sigh. I decided to play "hate", which is what Pat Johnson dubbed my U/b deck that Adrian monickered "ShulerJank". Hate consisted of: 4 Hammerhead Shark 4 Tradewind Rider 4 Wall of Tears 2 Dominating Licid 2 Wall of Souls 4 Counterspell 4 Forbid 4 Legacy's Allure 2 Capsize 3 Lobotomy 3 Porticullis 4 Rootwater Depths 2 Stalking Stones 1 Wasteland 3 Swamp 14 Island Sideboard: 4 Chill (Was 3, until Flores told me he had convinced all of the Philly guys to play Sligh - hate!) 2 Dominating Licid (nice to have 4 & 4 Allures against other blue - hate!) 1 Lobotomy (just plain - hate!) 1 Capsize (Twake - hate!) 2 Wall of Souls (Scragnoth? hate!) 2 Grindstone (Phoenix? Mono non-beatdown? hate!) 1 Bottle Gnome (Sligh? hate!) 1 Whisper (Twake - hate!) 1 Something I don't recall So there it is. The hate deck. Built to hammer Living Death, and wreck most of the top tier decks. Round 1 - Dan Bridy, Sligh Game 1 - Somehow he wins, has something to do with no Wall of Shark for me Games 2 & 3 - After sideboarding, I have 4 Sharks, 4 Wall of Feel the Pain!, 4 Wall of goes good with PCullis, 4 Chill, random Gnome, et cetra. He didn't win. (1-0) Round 2 - Someguy, White Weenie Game 1 - Hello White weenie, I didn't expect you. Lose Game 2 - Hello White weenie, these are my 4 dominating Licids. Now I can actually block your shadows by using my 8 2-for-1 cards. Game 3- Hello White weenie, this is wall of tears. That is your Soul Warden. This is my forbid with buyback which stops you from removing my Porticullis from the board. Uh-oh, I drew Legacy's allure! Here comes your Soul Warden for 1!!! Twenty times! (2-0) Round 3 - Jee, Heiss Blue (manakin, mawcor, twind, mox diamond) Game 1 - He is in complete control, but makes the worst plays ever, so I think I can pull it out, because he seems to not know how to play the deck at all. I don't pull it out. Game 2- I have 4 allures. So do you. I have 4 dominators. You only have 2. Believe it or not, these Hammerheads *are* in the main deck. Here is my double-tradewind lock, as well. Game 3 - I see I have Lobotomied out your Allures. I see I have Lobotomied out your Dominators. I see that I have 4 of each still, and you have no non-land permanents. I see that I have 2 Dominators of my own on the table right now. I see that time is running out. (2-0-1) Round 4 - Someguy #2, White Weenie #2 Games 1 & 2 - See the other match against Someguy #1. Dominators are just silly against White Weenie. He Cataclysmed twice, for 11 land one game, and I just didn't care. (3-0-1) Round 5 - David Williams, Rougish blue, main deck Wyvern, Looters Game 1 - We both start off slow, he draws into quality cards while I draw land after I take a calculated risk of him not having one of two capsizes in his deck around turn 7, and lose my licid because I take the risk. Game 2 - This is my Rootwater Depths. That is David's Wasteland. Goodbye, Rootwater Depths! This is my Island. It is the only Island I will see all game, though I do find a single other swamp. (3-1-1) Round 6 - Pat Johnson, Living Death *NOW* I get to play against Living Death? What the hell? Where have they all been? Game 1 - Put him in the bad place by Lobotomizing out Living Deaths and dropping a Cullis. Game 2 - Decide to not draw any islands, get Twind locked quickly. Game 3 - Welcome to the bad place again. This time, it is I who Twind lock him at 3 mana. (4-1-1) ---- David Williams ended up #1 or #2 seed. He was my only loss. I was still #9. The early draw hurt, as did being paired down in round 4, when I was 2-0-1, and my opponent was 2-1. There were 2 people with 4-1-1 above me who made it in, by 2% higher opponent match percentages. Brian David Marshall felt worse for me not making top 8 than I did, though, I think. I estimate my chances of qualifying, had I made top 8, at a conservative 70-75%. The only deck I was at all concerned about in the top 8 was Paul Ferker with CPheonix, but I do have 3 Lobo, 3 Port, 4 Shark, 4 Twind, & Counters for game 1, and then the good sideboard for game 2. Oh well, it's just a game. The top 8 had the following: White weenie - Some guy Sligh - Some guy who wasn't quite so random Mono blue rougish - David Williams CPheonix - Paul "Papa" Ferker SuperJankety Reins/Bombardment deck - some REALLY random guy 3 other decks which lost in the first round of the final 8. --- I did have a good time, though. Get my next Gray Matter PTQ entry for free, because I was in the "worst possible standing" after the swiss. Got to see Flores & the Philly crew, which is something I always enjoy, and I got to hang out with and crash at the place of fellow Bad Player, Patrick Johnson. Found a MEAN chicken quesadilla w/ monteray jack around the corner from Neutral Ground, and got to watch Hashim "The Dream" Bello in action, which is always fun. Also managed to lend cards to DOMS, DanO, or whatever the short term is for his very long name, and cool guy that he is, he gave me part of the prize he won! 3 packs, but it's the thought that counts. :) I'll neglect to go on an on about how I ate an entire chicken by myself, along with a half pound of ham, a salad, and some random food on the trip up. I'll also neglect the part about my travelling companions and I getting pulled over by New Jersey's finest on the turnpike, even though the guy cut like 2/3 off what we SHOULD have been ticketed. Also not relevant is the tale of me sleeping in the car on the streets of NYC at night by myself, nor stories of certain magic players who engage in federal felonies. Finally, the least relevant thing would have to be getting home at 6:30am when I needed to go to work at 9:30 am the same day. --- That's that, kids. Ready to talk extended? [Oh, yeah!] John _________________________________________________________