Subject: Another lame-ass PTQ report Date: Tue, 30 Sep 1997 14:26:42 -0700 From: Lance Conrad To quote my friend Lawrence Chatfield (who won the Seattle PTQ by the way); "when you're a good player and you get a mediocre deck, you blame yourself more than you should." Nice, but didn't make me feel better. The Los Bastardos posse arrived in Seattle hoping for the God deck that would take us to the top 8. None of us really got a decent deck. Mine had some good stuff like a fireball, fireblast, rock slide, and inferno, but I only had a few power creatures which were a lichtenthrope, a bog wraith, and a talruum champion. I had to fill the space with 1/1 stuff like scrib sprites and shanodin dryads. Everyone said me deck was good, but I didn't like the feel of it because I only had 14 creatures, most of which sucked. I'm the kind of guy who likes to cram in 20 decent creatures, 18 land, and a couple spells, but alas, I didn't have that option. Anyways, here is what I remember about it. Round 1 Shannon Bilby His deck is worse than mine and that's about all there is to it. He might have had a chance one of the games if I didn't fireball his wake of vultures and time elemental when he tapped out. I get my good stuff out, roll over him, and my inferno and fireblast does the rest. 1-0 Round 2 Don't remember the name. This is a close one, but he makes a critical error in forgetting to pay the upkeep on his hungry mist third game. I get my Jalum tome out and start searching for creatures. He can't keep as the game wears on and I run him over. 2-0 Round 3 Byron Baily Three good games which were really fun, but Byron's a good player with a better deck. Even though I win game 2 with 3 land for about the first six turns, he goes apeshit on me third game and kills me in nothing flat. Byron is a super-cool guy, so I almost don't mind losing. 2-1 Round 4 Some kid I beat in the last PTQ who wanted to kick my ass an succeeded. I'm sorry, my deck cannot handle a first turn death speaker, second turn longbow archer, third turn something, fourth turn keldon warlord, creature, creature, etc... It goes like this both games and he kicks my ass into next week. 2-2 I want to drop, but a couple teammates are doing good. What else am I going to do anyways? Round 5 Ever go to a tournament, know you are a better player than the person sitting in front of you, but he kicks your ass anyways? I get nothing going the first game and he fireballs me for 10 to finish me. Second game, I get a decent start, but he gets out a ashnod's transmogranted vampirismed wake of vultures and starts kicking my ass. I just know by the look on his face he has the fireball and when he starts asking me how much life I have and counting his mana out loud every turn for the next three turns, my suspicions are confirmed. The only question is; can I do anything about it? Noooo.... 2-3 and wondering why I did't drop Round 6 Lo and behold, I'm playing my teammate Justin Rider. We have three pretty good games, although he was pissed that I coercioned him all three games and he sort of forgot that I had an inferno, which killed him game three. 3-3 Round 7 Tomas Girard (what the hell is he doing down here?) I win the first game via inferno (God I love this card). the second two games I draw all my creature removal and none of my creatures. I swear I killed all of his initial six creature, but can't draw dick out of my deck. His second wave of creatures runs me over. 3-4 what kind of record is that? My ass is still sore from getting kicked all over the place. The qualifier was won by Lawrence Chatfield, who defeated Ryan Fuller in the finals. Way to go, guys. I haven't seen Larry for three months and he just decides to show up and win a qualifier. Welcome back. In my humbled opinion, 5th edition SUCKS FOR SEALED DECK!!!! There are so many crap cards in the set and I seemed to get all of them. In Mirage, at least good creatures and creature removal cards were more accessible. I'm still pissed, so maybe it's the anger talking. See you at Tempest. Lance