Subject: Tournament report, the Bergen PTQ Mainz Date: Sun, 16 Nov 1997 14:33:32 +0100 From: Kim Eikefet To: Frank Kusumoto The value of a good Tsunami - tournament report from the PTQ Mainz in Bergen, Norway The Mainz qualifier was held in Bergen the 15th of November, and the format was, as usual, 5th Edition-Visions Sealed deck with draft in the top eight. Normally, I am not a very strong limited player, that is, till this qualifier I had never had any exeptionally good results. Anyway, I went at this tournament with my spirits high, and they increased even more when I learned we were to play with match points instead of swiss points (in Bergen, we have never really stopped playing swiss points, to my frustration.) I had also prepared by reading lots of reports from the Dojo, and really had a good feeling about everything, as i did in the PTQ Paris in Tromsø (I lost in the quarterfinal.) We got decks as soon as we arrived at Bjørgvin School, and, I don't know why, I opened the boosters first. Normally I would do it the other way around, but today... Anyway, I was thrilled to find a Viashivan Dragon. My packs also held a Man-O'-War, a Sucky Drake, two (!) Quirion Rangers and a good variety of medium-sized creatures, most of them green and red. I must admit that I hoped to see an X-spell as I ripped open the starter, but okay, I was quite satisfied anyway. The starter held an Air Elemental, a Clockwork Beast and a Flare (:)) that I discovered was my one and only creature removal. My rares were not the best; Underground River, Breeding Pit and Stampede. The starter also contained some ok creatures. I ruled out black pretty quickly. There were some good cards, but too few to make it worth it. As I already had many good red and green critters, I soon, well, guess it was in the cards, chose to play red and green to be able to use the Viashivan Dragon. I didn't have enough to make the deck two-coloured though, so I had to splash for another colour. The choice was between blue and white. Blue held the Air Elemental, Man-O'-War and some useful spells. White held some good creatures too; Daraja Griffin, Jamuraan Lion, White Knight and Kjeldoran Skycaptain (expensive!) I also had a Tsunami. Wouldn't be too smart, though, if i went for blue... As a bit of a blue person, I chose blue for the beatdown and the big flier, but decided to sideboard out the blue for white against black and blue decks in order to have better defense against them (Daraja Griffin, Tsunami, Black Knight.) My deck was therefore red, green and blue, and I had a lot of good creatures to choose from. Creature removal, on the other hand, was somehow missing. How unfortunately. Well, I had but one chance - to make a quick deck that could overwhelm my opponent early and get them on the defense, then summon a big flier and get it over with. If not - I would definitely die. My deck: 1 Llanowar Elves 2 Quirion Ranger 1 Scryb Sprites 1 Warthog 1 Kyscu Drake 1 Giant Caterpillar 1 Bull Elephant 1 Durkwood Boars 1 Stampede 1 Mountain Goat 1 Goblin Hero 1 Suq'Ata Lancer 1 Raging Gorilla 1 Talruum Piper 1 Flare 1 Viashivan Dragon 1 Clockwork Beast 1 Air Elemental 1 Man-O'-War 1 Unsummon 1 Inspiration 1 Portent 7 Forest 6 Mountain 4 Island Sideboard (cards that I used during the tournament): 1 Tsunami 1 Daraja Griffin 1 Kjeldoran Skycaptain 1 White Knight 1 Jamuraan Lion 1 Parapet 4 Plains 1 Tremor Making the deck, I tried to include as many creatures as possible. In order to beat down my opponent, I would have to get creatures out early to deal early damage. Therefore, I included both a Scryb Sprites and a Mountain Goat as one mana casting cost critters. Both are hard to block and get out early in the match. Then I had creatures in most every casting cost from three to six mana, topped by the Viashivan Dragon. I thought about including Song of Blood, but decided Stampede was a much better choice as the creatures would gain trample. Tawnos's Weaponry was also ruled out as it costs mana to use. Hopefully, I would use all my mana every turn, at least the first rounds. Well. It worked, basically. I went 4-1-1 in the Swiss, drawing into the finals. As I didn't take notes, I can only remember some of the key spells that gave me some victories: Viashivan Dragon was very important. In the first duel I had a terrific mana curve; round one Ranger, round two Mountain Goat, round three Suq'Ata Lancer, round four Kyscu Drake, round five Talruum Piper and round six Viashivan Dragon. My opponent fouled when he saw it. :) The dragon was very powerful, especially since it can be pumped both ways. More than once, I finished off my opponent by pumping the Dragon to 7/4. And when it once was Gaseous Formed - what a blocker! Quirion Rangers helped me get enough mana if I came out a bit short. Mostly, I didn't, but the untap effect was terrific against an Ice Floe, and my big creatures could both attack _and_ block. Air Elemental along with the Dragon and the Drake gave air superiority, and if they managed to get rid of one, hey, here's another one! Although it costs two blue mana and I had only four in my deck, I managed to get her out a lot of times as i had both Inspiration and Portent to look for the second one. I also drew her pretty late in the games, and by that time, I normally had two blue mana in play. Man-O'-War was crucial as I had nearly no creature removal. Several times I bounced up a creature and hit my opponent hard, once that one card gained me a victory. In that case, the Unsummon would do great, too. Inspiration took home one victory for me, too. I was nearly out of steam, but an Inspiration removed one land card from the top of my library and gave me a good card as well. Thus I got down to the card I needed, and won. Talruum Piper was an ok card as I had a lot of fliers. In most cases, ok, it was an expensive 3/3 creature, but in one case I summoned it and used it as decoy for a Fallen Angel. In order to save it, my opponent had to feed it a creature, and some of my big hitters went through. Great. Stampede was very strong in this deck. It won me a victory in a stalemate when all my big hitters suddenly couldn't be blocked so well by those Diamond Kaleidoscope tokens... Sideboard. I didn't sideboard much, because in the first four rounds I didn't meet one single deck that used black. In round five, I met a Blue/Black/Green deck with fast creatures, a vicious Prodigal Sorcerer and a horrible Snake Basket. In the first duel I was screwed, and face to face with eight snake tokens, I couldn't win. I chose to make some heavy sideboarding. Lose all blue cards plus a Scryb Sprites, in Daraja Griffin, parapet, Tsunami etc. In the next duel he got a bit screwed, I got out a round two 1/2 Ranger (Parapet) and followed up hitting him hard with my Raging Gorilla and Suq'Ata Lancer. He died. In the last round, he got out a Fallen Angel and a Crypt Rat - I was in trouble having had the board control and the edge with a Warthog hitting him for three every round. Okay, I draw - and I topdeck a Daraja Griffin! It took out the Rat, I hit him with the Warthog and he is dead. I was then at 4-1, and drew my way into the finals. Yes, perhaps I am a lousy drafter, at least I ended up with a sucky B/U deck and got crushed by a G/W deck with both Warthog, River Boa and Death Speakers. I was a bit unlucky, as my teammate Peter Evans and I sat next to each other and drafted the same colour. My quarterfinal opponent, Øyvind Ødegaard, qualified along with Bjørn Petter Jocumsen, both from Oslo. But at least I got that far, and it probably boosted my ranking a bit, sucky as it is from my early days of play. The swiss result though, was uplifting and so far the best I have ever had in a limited tournament. I finished as number four after the swiss, and had the best tie-breakers of those who drawed at 4-1. Sorry I won't be seeing you in Mainz, but perhaps it was the best for me, as I spent tons of money going to the Pro Tour Chicago. ;) (I will fight to qualify for the Pro Tour Los Angeles, though...) My conclusion is that I was successful in my deck strategy, much thanks to the articles I had read. I only got screwed once, and my deck worked the way I wanted it to work, it had the right focus. In addition, the result boosted my self-confidence and proved that I can do well if I get the right deck and not too much screw. I also learned the value of a good Tsunami. My last opponent and I drawed, but we played a match for fun. I hit him hard the first round, and decided to go for the sideboard as he played heavy blue. I got him on the defense also in the second duel, he had one Tim and I had three big critters. He was tapped out, I top-decked the Tsunami and blasted away all his land but one single plains. That was really, really neat. Good luck to all of those going to PT Mainz! Kim Eikefet, Team Bergen - The cards I did not play with (for those who wants to know): Tawnos's Weaponry Tremor Mons's Goblin Raiders Wall of Fire Song of Blood Unstable Mutation Zephyr Falcon Merfolk of the Pearl Trident Psychic Venom Betrayal Vision Charm Boomerang Fog Tarpan Fyndhorn Elder Mortal Wound Mesa Pegasus Infantry Veteran Disenchant Heal Urza's Mine Underground River Everglades Fear Krovikan Fetish Mind Ravel Touch of Death Cloak of Confusion Breeding Pit Evil Presence Desolation Infernal Harvest Fallen Askari Python Wake of Vultures Necrite Phyrexian Walker Iron-Heart Chimera Guiding Spirit