Subject: [report] PTQ Mainz Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 04:16:15 -0600 From: "Jason D. Moungey" I didn't want to go to this one (and waste $25), but I went with the team anyway up to Madison, WI. Adrian Sullivan opens the deck I finally get. He says if I have a 50/50 record at the end of the day: congrats. Great. I trust his opinion as a sealed player, so that's not good. Oh well. BTW, did anybody get the usenet report? I don't feel like listing everything, so i'll go just with the deck: 6 Forest, 4 Island, 7 Plains, Svyelunite Temple Bottle of Sulieman (he he) Shapeshifter Portent Unstable Mutatation Durkwood Boards Llanowar Elves Benalish Hero Caribou Range (he he) D'Avenenat Archer Ivory Guardians Mesa Pegaussu Brass-Talon Chmra Breezekeeper Gossamer Chains Kngit of the Mists MOW (no unsummon in this deck) Giant Caterpillar Jamuraan Lion Longbow Archer Quirion Ranger River Boa Parapet Uktabi Orangutan As you can see, I have a few fatso's. MOW is strong, and Gossamer is too. You'll see how the Djinn works out... The Ranger/Lion combo is great (with D'Avenant & Llanowar too). Note: don't put Knights of the Mist in the main if you just splash blue (my first error of the tourney). It turned out to be okay, though. Round 1 he get's out dwarven warrior/angry mob. whatever. i should beat him down. i pull the gossamer just in time (whew). this is where i realize those knights suck (1 island). he plays askari for me (thanks). I uktabi his tin-wing and the rest is history. The bottle flipped the wrong way... (i was down to 5 or so) Sideboard: red (damn it, I gotta list it now) for blue. flare, stone spirit, talruum champion, rock slide He was a poor player and the rockslide would be too cool. You'd be surprised how less strategic players screw up a more controllish deck. Makes ya think Game 2: solid win. Miss the bottle, again. Round 2: eric Game 1: very good game. all he needed was 3 damage (i was blue-screwed). I had knight, MOW, Breezekeeper, shapeshifter (each turn was taxing - okay, he'll phase out, I have this, blah blah blah). I attack parapet and take out all of his creatures except swamp pump guy. I ditch the tapped caterpillar to block and take him out next turn. BTW, I missed the flip. Game 2: SB in red. Same as above. Clean win (he had a whole 3 island out all game). He made some banding mistakes, too. In response to his conceding in response to my attack I flip bottle and lose it. Round 3. He's a newbie. 2 months or so. Game 1: He makes banding errors. I don't remember much becuase I had to really try. He should have won easily, and that's what was so hard. Each turn he could kill me, but he wouldn't (at least, from my point of view he could have). Round 4: guy from madison (plays at our shop). He's playing WOrb/Ranger/Infernal Harvest/Everglades. Come on! Game 1: He learns about parapet (it works great with shapeshifter because you can set it up so they block for sure how you want). I SB in my Shrieking Drake (flyer) and a foxfire (draw cards & slow his fatso's down). 2nd game: big lock. lots of walls, WOrb, etc. He gets out the river boa (time frame now). BTW, I had no blue for the first 20 turns. Breezekeeper would have totally schooled him. He's down to 1. I Manowar his only flyer. Attack with Breezekeeper. Spider Climb! Damn. I take 4 from river boa as my breezekeeper phases in (2 turns, that is). I pulled my second blue land. Shriek my MOW, and MOW his flyer! GAME! Whew. I was dead real quick there. I don't think I could have waited for 2 more turns. He had giant growth to kill my bkeeper with his bog imp. So I'm 4 - 0, with no games lost. We're playing 6 rounds. Hmmm. (there's 70 people, BTW). There were 4 of us at 4-0. (12 match points.) Skip to the next part if you don't like math, cause I'll explain why I drew this round. There was one guy at 10 match points, and lots at 9 points, with 2 rounds left. If the guy with 10 points wins, there will be 5 of us at 13 points, and lots of people at 12. In this case, one of the top 5 will have to play to make the cut. If the 10pt guy loses, We can draw again and finish 5-8, guaranteed. I took my chances. If 10pt guy wins, it would be 1 in 5 I had to play again. If I have 50% chance of winning my game (Adrians projection) and the 9pt guy who needs to win for us has a 20% chance of winning, it was a 7.5% chance that I didn't make top 8. I took the chance. The 10pt guy wins. Crap. One of the five of us has to play... NOT ME! Whew. The guy who has to play goes up against the 20th ranked sealed in the world. He he. Needless to say, 20th ranker wins. So I make top 8 at 4-0-2. I'll give you the just of the draft (sorry, i need sleep). Out of the 16 5th boosters, there were 4 Wraths. Hmmm. Lucky Darryl gets 2, but so do I!!! These people don't understand defensive draft. I was drafting white the whole time and got my 2nd wrath passed to me. Also got Gossamer chains (again!), the phase-flanker (ha ha ha, too good). BTW, I was drafting blue right from the start, too. I don't get much beatdown, but I manage a lot of black creature removal (New abyss, Drain, Rats, Infernal Harvest, Ashes to Ashes). Due to too much mana requirements, I go no black, with lots of white and blue to support 2 forgets (yeah), a dream tides in the main (and the phaser), the chains and a serra bestiary. In retro, I should have dropped all double blue, and gone with lots of black. My deck "should have" looked like this: Removal/Control: Crypt Rats Pillar Tombs of Aku Ashes to Ashes Infernal Harvest Drain Life 2 Wrath Gossamer Chains Serra Bestiary Spell Blast Creatures: Bog Imp Miraculous Recovery Pikemen Knight of the Mist Sea Serpent Sea Spirit Teferi's Honor Guard 2 Repentant Blacksmith Draw: Brainstorm Impulse Inspiration Mana: Fellwar Blue/Black Pain basic Quarterfinals Longs games. All about Phase-Wrath. He's not a great player (let a lock occur when he should have tried to break it). 2 and out Semis: Game 1: he was passed 2 counters & lapse. I beat him down anyway Game 2: He pulls out cop blue. locks down/counter my big stuff, and i die to a 2/2 no tap flyer. Game 3: I go for the run-you-out approach. Take out my big offense (leave in fish wall, wait, he COULD attack) and leave in small creatures for Aku upkeep. I draw my inspiration and tell the crowd "my road to victory!" They sigh. 40 minutes later and after lots of creature removal. We have a lock of about 2/3 creautres each. I do a crypt rat, but his glacial wall lives. I play 3 little creatures and the pillar tombs. He he. I beat him down with 3 cards left in his library (and inspiration in hand). I was just trying to get him to counter, i didn't know i'd kill him. oops. After 2 hours of Semis, I decide to use the potty. Finals: Darryl. He screws my mana. I have knights of mist & no blue (as he drops a flanker). Aarrgh. i die quickly. Game 2: no white with bestiary and gossamer in hand. Once again, apathetic magic. Oh, I had wrath too. Finally I start to even it out (i'm at 4 life). He top-decks hope charm for the bestiary and I die. I get $100 and lots o packs. No germany, though. Darryl deserved it, though. He's finished top 8 the last 7 times. I've only got top eight 3/8 or so times in my life. But i've been in the PT, so it didn't matter! This one counted to get me back in, and I blew it. Oh well. I'll never forget 4 Wraths, 3 JAndor's Bags, 3 of another rare card all in the draft. Weird box or something BTW, I was 0 - 4 with the bottle. Hmphf. -- ############################################### # jason d moungey # # check out *THE* best homepage (humor me) at # # http://www.mainquad.com/web/Flea/jason.html # # TTFN END OF LINE # ###############################################