From: "Jamie & Mare" To: Subject: hi frank Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 20:13:42 -0400 Type Two in Middlebury Finally got my book done. Its in the mail, on its way to Texas and Wordware. What a relief to have that done. Can't wait to get started on the next one. Only problem is, I gotta qualify for another pro tour to make the book worth reading. No one wants to read a book that ends with - "…and I scrub out again." That's a pretty lame book. Better clear something up – I just read a report on the newsgroups today, that was really great. I think it was the one by TJPitts. TJ had the best one, but I read a number of reports today – TJ – Great, Great report. But there is one glaring error. A few people are giving me too much credit. I am not a multiple top eight finisher at PTQ's, I'm the guy that has taken ninth at more PTQ's than I would care to count. I'm still looking to break into the top eight repeatedly and then lose. So, I'm thinking about heading out to Toronto this weekend. Doing well in a Grand Prix would lift my spirits, make for a good chapter in the next book, and if I qualify, I'll have better leveraging power for another book deal. Hey, if I do well in Chicago – (i.e. WIN!) then I could write a really good book off of that. Looks good on the byline too. Oh, better put a shameless plug in here too. I have a book being released in October called "Tournament Reports." I would have prefered a name with a little more zip – like – The continuing adventures of Team Quarterstaff – or maybe – Quest for the Pro Tour – a scrubs journey. But, the contact was sent to me with the name already on it, and since all I wanted was a real book on the shelves with my name on it – I left it that way. So anyway – the book is a collection of tourney reports with more of a back story added in, and, not available anywhere else – The report of Pro tour 1, and the most disasterous match of my career, and the match that will haunt me to my grave – the match against Andre Redi. God that sucked. But – It was the golden age of Magic – and me and my friends – we were playing with Serrated Arrows, when few else had discovered them. What a great, wonderful, magical weekend that was. So, its 211 pages, and a good portion of it is never before seen stuff. Tell your friends, ask for it for your birthday or christmas, and make sure to ask your local store if they carry it. Shameless plug mode off. Back to Going to Toronto. I'm not looking forward to the eight hour ride, a weekend away from the lovely Mare and little or no sleep. Much like Team Dinosoar, I'm getting on in years, and it takes me a week to recover from these trips. But everyone tells me how much fun Toronto is going to be, and it if I do make the top eight – it'll make a great story, so I guess I will be going. I'm a little depressed about the miviwe format however. After the fifth round at the last PTQ, I was watching a game from the sidelines and commenting about how this format is all about pairings. Next to me – also dropped out, is the guy who made top eight at regionals, handed me my only loss in the first seven rounds of the swiss, and whose name I can't remember. He says – "this format is all about just throwing the cards at your opponent. No strategy what so ever." Yeah – we sound like the bitter bystanders we are. Solid red beats solid blue. Blue white beats red, solid black beats solid red but loses to falcon armor and blue white. I love my solid blue deck, and in Boston two weeks ago I went – 2-0, 2-0, 2-0, and then forgot to pay my upkeep on my spout that was going to end the game for me against John Sorrentino, and got excited and drew my card, picked up the spout and tossed it in the graveyard, and then proceeded to lose control of the game. John was very cool to play. Very laid back, and would have let me take back the upkeep of the spout if I had asked, but I didn't ask. We are both surprised in the third game when we find out that a serrated biskellion gets infite –1 –1 counters if you phase it out in response to putting a counter on something. Neither of us can believe it, and I appeal the judges ruling, and am told again that the biskellion does not get a counter if you phase it out. YOW! John and I both say – that's a little broken! John was tres cool here as well, apologizing to me about the biskellion ruling as if he had any control over it, and even after it was ruled in his favor, he seemed reluctant to abuse it. Truly a class act. But, John had the game at the point anyway, but the infinite counter thing didn't hurt his game any either. He was well on his way to victory in the third game when we found this out, so it had little impact. Having lost to John, I fell into what we called the "Pit of Lava" which was all the red burn players with one loss. I get torched out in two very, very quick games, cause my solid blue is great versus the rest of the field and sucks vs solid red. I thought I set up my sideboard enough to handle red burn, but a fifth turn kill is not really something blue can handle. I get home, cruise the magic dojo, and look at Francis Keys and Tom Guevins reports to find out how to beat solid red, and lo and behohd! They haven't played ONE mono red celerity deck between them. Hmm, no help there. Its all about the pairings. Looks to me the way to qualify for the chicago pro tour is to go to the tourney with the deck you feel most comfortable with, and pray you don't face the deck that beats yours, no matter what you do. Francis and Tom are obviously excellent players, but if I'm going to qualify with my mono blue – then I think the only way to do it is to not be paired against a mono red. Period. Like I said – its all about pairings. Mono blue is the strongest deck out there, unless it faces a solid red burn deck. Then the burn deck wins, but then goes on to lose to the anti-red deck. I was also depressed to see a field of ertais- necratog decks. I mean - They were EVERYWHERE!!! They were most prominent in the losers bracket though, so that made me feel good. Good god did I see these decks all over the place. I mean, have some originality people. I can't say it enough – you will rarely make top eight with a net deck – cause there is someone better than you playing the exact same deck, and everyone and their brother has a sideboard all set up just for that deck. Let me use this analogy again – Would you ever lay your deck out for your opponent to inspect for ten minutes before the game started? Do you like going to a tourney and everyone there knows exactly how to beat your deck? Against the tog decks – you kill the ertais immediately. You counter the songs of blood. You dissipate a few creatures. Now it's a worthless deck. You side in your furnaces, you take the next two games. Whatever. I know its not that simple – but the deck was fantastic when it had surprise value. Its not anymore. Whoever invented the deck – did an outstanding job. But everyone knows how to beat it now. Rant mode off. Where the hell am I going with this? Oh yeah, this is supposed to be a tourney report about the Type Two in Middlebury this weekend. I keep going off on side tangents. Don't bother to look for the ptq report on Boston, cause I didn't write one. I did play some excellent mental magic right up until the point when I forgot the upkeep on the spout, and I had a great day. But no report. Middlebury. I break my own rules and I bring a deck to the tourney that I haven't playtested. Side note again – I keep rambling – sorry. I have played some excllent mental Magic in the past two months, and, man, I hate to say this. But I owe it all to John Shuler and to Robert S. Hahn. I love Magic. I have such a blast playing it. I love to compete. I love sitting down with someone at a PTQ and having them tell me they like my reports. I love all the friends I have made, and all the cool people I shake hands with with when I go down to Boston. What a blast. I'm better ar Magic, than I ever was a wrestling, and more people know me because of my reports. I have a ton of friends who have come out of these reports, and I have finally started to enjoy that. Before John Shuler cursed me out for whining so much – it was all about WINNING! If I wasn't in the winners circle – I didn't care how the day went – whats the matter with you – I lost damnit! Robert Hahn was the guy that wrote the article, and gave me some good advice through e-mail, but john shuler was the guy that hammered it home in a not too delicate manner. But the point stuck, and I learned from it. Have wisdom people. I was reading a steven King book and he used this analogy – A really fat guy goes into a pharmacy and sits down at one of those blood pressure machines that cost a quarter. He can barely fit his arm into the strap. Feeds the machine his quarter and the machine tells him – you're a really fat bastard, your blood pressure is through the roof, and I expect you'll die soon. The fat guy withdraws his arm, looks around and says – huh, this thing must be busted. Wisdom is learning from your mistakes. Seeing the world for the way that it really is, and knowing who you are and what you stand for with no hypocrisy. Christ, I can't tell you how much I hate people with no wisdom. They make the same mistake, over and over and over, and blame all their sorrows on the world, and not themselves. I just wanna shake them and say – "DUH! Have you looked in the mirror lately? All your problems are the result of you refusing to accept reality! WHO ARE YOU? WHERE ARE YOU GOING WITH YOUR LIFE!!!!! Is it really the rest of the worlds fault or is it your own?" John was right. I was whining like a bastard, and I wasn't having fun anymore. Now, I just enjoy being at the competition. I have a blast whether I win or lose. I'm beating a dead horse here, but what the hell, I feel like writing it. I finally learned my lesson. I find myself at PTQ's now, and I'm just having fun being there. I'm enjoying the competition, the tension, and the test. Again – What a blast! Some people know me, some people fear me, and most people just wanna crush me and get on with the tourney. I just wanna play good magic. So, I show up at the Tourney with a Maro- geddon deck that I get a lot of ideas from Alan Webster. I'm watching his brother in Boston – who is 5-0, and playing a green white deck designed by Alan. I'm looking at all the cool things in this deck, and I'm having an epiphany. Centaurs can't be the target of those quicksands that everyone plays with. Blue hates Centaurs. Red blast hates centaurs. Geddons and walls of roots beats red blast. Scalebanes elite and Centaurs can't be the taget of those damn necraatalls everyone loves so much. Plowshares are legal right now. Serra's blessing doubles all Phat creatures. I get to use primal order if I play with all basic land. I love Primal Order. Here's the deck. 4 Scalebanes Elite 4 Wall of Roots 4 Jorlreals Centaur 3 Quirion Rangers 3 Llanowar elves 3 Maro – All I owned 3 Geddon 4 Swords 2 Spirit link 2 Scars of the veteran 1 Wrath of god 1 Tariff 2 Serra's Blessing (I love when people at the losers table hollor over that cards I put in my deck suck. Hi Ira!) 2 afterlifes or something. 14 forests and 10 plains. Sideboard 2 honorable passage 1 gerrards wisdom 1 reverse damage 2 elephant grass 2 karma 4 ghazban ogre 3 primal orders About the only deck I've ever made that didn't have nine sets of 4 of each card I liked. I can't find the extra wrath of god I want to put in. I went for ghazbans over ankhs for control decks, and that was HUGE mistake. A number times I would get the ghazbans really late in the game, and I'm dwindling on life, and everyone, and I do mean EVERYONE plays with thawing glaciers. Red burn, red green land destruction, white weenie, black discard, etc etc etc. I friggin hate that card, and it should have been banned over a year ago! Isn't that one of the requirements for getting on the banned list? When you can't play competitive magic if you don't have 4 of these cards in your deck. Feel free to tell me that they don't belong in every deck. I'll ignore you because I see them, in every deck, and they never seem to be a liability. Like the rebel that I am. I don't own a single one. Abeyance? Yeah, I just got one in a pack. I'm trading it today for 4 gemstone mines. Hil, Michelle and Doug all come down early Saturday for our annual lobster fest that happens just about every year on my birthday – I just turned 32. They get us all 2 lobsters apiece, and they get one two and a half pound lobster for me that I devour, soaked in butter. I'm the b-day boy, so I get the biggest one. Better friends, not be found anywhere else on the planet. MMMMMM Lobster! We playtest when we get done eating, and Hil is running solid red land dest, with all the creatures that destroy land, 24 mountains, and 4 thawing glaciers. Doug is running the deck I used in states and went undefeated in the swiss with, and just loves it. Doug has been out of magic for a bit, cause he loves the sun, and during the summer, magic falls by the wayside so he can play golf, para-glide and go to the beach. What a loser. Everyone knows if you don't show up to the tourney with a huge "magic- gut" carefully cultivated by hours on end sitting sedately at a table playing magic, that no one will fear you. He loves my deck and I lend it to him, and hope I don't have to face him in the swiss. We arrive at the tourney, and it's a good tournout as always with the standard 26 people that we always seem to get no matter who shows up. The barre boys aren't here and Josh is working, but somehow, as usual, we end up with 26 people. Tucker Levy is here playing a mono red burn deck. He's the bosses son, a really, really, well mannered nice kid. I think he's eleven. He wasn't sure if he was gonna play this week or not cause he didn't have a deck ready. I told him – "Tucker – red is really strong right now – make a deck with all creatures that attack the first turn, and a ton of direct damage." He says o.k., and shows up with a deck full of burn and celerity. The highlights of the deck include two thundermares, two maraxus of keld, two scorched ruins (which just pounded his opponent playing winter orbs! – I shit you not – I watched him tap one land and play a disk. I just about busted a gut laughing.) And ala Dave Price – Three lava hounds. Tucker ends up going 4-1 for the day – his best showing by far for any tourney he has ever been in, loses one match to the eventual winner of the tourney, and loses out on tie breakers to not make the top 4 in the playoff. Oh, he didn't have time to make a sideboard either. So, we show up. I start off playing the immensley enjoyable Fritz from burlington. Fritz is playing Five color green and beats me down early in the first game, then I get out a maro, geddon, and beat him up. In the second game, I side in 3 primal orders. Fritz draws one undiscovered paradise in his opening hand. By the sixth turn I have all three primal orders on the board, and fritz has two undiscovereds. I am just great at this game! : - ) I win my first round. Second round, I face off against a pretty new player, and I crush him. Sadly, I don't see much of his deck. Nice guy though. Young. Third round I face off against a Tucker clone. A young kid is playing a solid red burn deck, and burns me a new hole. I start the first game with 1 forest, two elves and a ranger on the board. I don't draw any more land for 4 draws. I cast all three one/ one's and then he earthquakes for one. Killing all my mana producers. I die shortly thereafter. I side in all my white healing and damage prevention. He almost burns me a new hole again, getting me down to six before the forest spirit makes an appearance and then God erases all land in play. In the third, it is much more my game. I win. In the fourth round I face off against one of the Myers twins. Its either John or Mark, I have no idea which. He is playing a red/blue control deck with only six creatures. 4 wildfire emissaries and 2 air elementals. A billion and a half counters and half that in burn. I start the first game with two plains in my hand, and I announce to the small crowd watching that I need to top deck a forest or I have lost. I draw a forest. The crowd golf claps. Late in the game, we are pretty even. He gets out an air elemental, and I have nothing in hand to stop it. I announce that I need to top deck a plowshares. I draw one the next draw. Will bows to me – I'm not worthy he says – I'm not worthy. I get perfcet draws in this game and the next, and ekke out a victory by the skin of my teeth. I'm 4-0. In the fifth round I face off against Steve from Burlington. He is also playing Maro-Geddon. We invented this deck you know. Another pet peeve of mine. The only thing I hate more than net decks is people who think they invented the damn thing. When people ask me what I'm playing, I don't say – "Oh, this really original green white deck I invented. It rocks." No. I say – "Marogeddon. I'm Playing Maro-geddon." So, Steve beats me up pretty bad in two. Top four play off for the money. Steve is seeded first, I'm seeded third, and we play off against the Myers twins. They both are playing counter heavy, really solid decks. They play excellent magic and beat down steve and I. They deserve it. 1. They play a lot of magic and really work hard at it. 2. They get great draws 3. It's their birthday Good god I had a good day. Surrounded by friends. Lobster for Lunch. The birthday boys win the tourney. And, I got an Abeyance in one of my birthday packs. (which I hate, but makes GREAT trade stock.) The Myers deserve the win – hey, its their birthday. Write to me. Convince me that the 7 hour drive to Toronto will be worth it. If not – well, I'll probably see you there anyway. Later all Enjoy the game. Jamie C. Wakefield Patron Saint of Sheild Spheres Bard of the Five Colors of Death 18th at Pro Tour 1 Just About Dead Last Pro Tour Dallas 9th at New England Regionals '97