Subject: [STRATEGY] [Report] PTQ Mainz, Osaka (Japan) Date: Wed, 26 Nov 1997 00:37:02 +0900 (JST) From: David Low To: strategy@magic.net.au (MAGAUS Strategy List) Hi all, The Osaka PTQ for Mainz was held at Juso on Saturday 97-11-22, the first day of a three-day MtG weekend in Osaka (see other reports for Standard on Sunday, and Extended on Monday). Format was 5E-VI sealed (add five basic land), and about 120 players turned up for seven rounds of Swiss - top-8 to go through to 5E-VI booster draft on the second day, but more about that later :-) As the only gaijin taking part, I got to register and keep my own deck - I was the only person using English edition, since Hobby Japan have to get rid of their Japanese stock somehow, and fleecing it off at full retail at the PTQs they run is a pretty good trick :-/ Ideally, a judge would have registered it for me, because I got about thirty minutes more "deck construction" time than anyone else the way it was actually done - not that it made much difference :-) Here's the cardset I received: LAND: Swamp(5), Island(4), Forest(4), Mountain(5), Plains(4), Quicksand ARTIFACT: Battering Ram, Wall of Spears, Iron Star, Feroz's Ban, Phyrexian Walker MULTICOLOUR: Scalebane's Elite BLACK: Pestilence, Fallen Angel, Howl from Beyond, Fallen Askari, Black Knight, Erg Raiders, Urborg Mindsucker, Dark Privilege, Forbidden Ritual, Pox, Pit Scorpion, Wicked Reward BLUE: Reef Pirates, Dandan, Krovikab Sorcerer, Shrieking Drake, Chronatog, Waterspout Djinn, Soul Barrier, Twiddle, Lifetap, Glacial Wall, Impulse, Mystic Veil(2) GREEN: King Cheetah, Emerald Charm, Giant Caterpillar, Pradesh Gypsies, Ghazban Ogre, Carapace, Stream of Life, Cat Warriors, Mortal Wound, Venom RED: Dwarven Catapult, Blood Lust, Fireblast, Brothers of Fire, Talruum Champion, Keeper of Kookus, Tremor, Shivan Dragon, Pyroblast, Giant Strength, Goblin Recruiter, Goblin Swine-Rider, Stone Rain WHITE: Righteous Aura, Sun Clasp, Mesa Pegasus, Jamuraan Lion, Miraculous Recovery, Benalish Hero, Honorable Passage, Prismatic Ward, CoP:Black, Shield Bearer, Karma, Hope Charm, Justice This set presents some interesting challenges (well, it did to me, at least!). Note that there are a number of "win" cards (Brothers, Shivan, Pestilence, Angel), but they all require CC. Blue has a couple of useful cards, but the absence of ways to deal with River Boa (barring Quicksand) pretty much eliminates it as an option; Green is more solid than powerful; White is strong with splash-stuff; Red is undeniably #1; and Black has half our "key cards" :-) I decided to go for spiky performance, and take RBw. On reflection, and after chatting with some good sealed players about it, it's quite possible that this was not the optimal play. Their suggestion, which I find myself agreeing more and more with, is that if one is trying to reach the top-8 rather than finish 1st, you play the solid option ahead of the spiky option. That would have been Rgw, smoothing the mana out, avoiding Warthogs, and giving the powerful Scalebane a chance. It was interesting to note that *all* the top players on the day had Green as either major or minor colour - their feeling was that it was *required* for a good 5E-VI sealed deck. Trouble was, I had the extra thirty minutes to think about Pestilence :-) The deck I played was: LAND: Swamp(6), Mountain(7), Plains(5), Quicksand ARTIFACT: Wall of Spears, Battering Ram; BLACK: Pestilence, Fallen Angel, Black Knight, Fallen Askari, Erg Raiders, Urborg Mindsucker, Howl from Beyond; RED: Shivan Dragon, Brothers of Fire, Dwarven Catapult, Tremor, Fireblast, Blood Lust, Talruum Champion, Keeper of Kookus; WHITE: Righteous Aura, Sun Clasp, Mesa Pegasus, Jamuraan Lion, Miraculous Recovery, Benalish Hero; I didn't play the CoP standard, even with Pestilence/Ergs, which might have been bad - haven't thought much about it since deciding against it. Miraculous Recovery is *amazingly* good in sealed. The alternate (Rgw) version would have been something like: LAND: Forest(5), Mountain(7), Plains(5), Quicksand; ARTIFACT: Battering Ram, Wall of Spears; MULTICOLOUR: Scalebane's Elite; GREEN: King Cheetah, Emerald Charm, Giant Caterpillar, Pradesh Gypsies, Ghazban Ogre, Carapace, Stream of Life; RED: Dwarven Catapult, Blood Lust, Fireblast, Brothers of Fire, Talruum Champion, Keeper of Kookus, Tremor, Shivan Dragon; WHITE: Righteous Aura, Sun Clasp, Mesa Pegasus, Jamuraan Lion, Miraculous Recovery, Benalish Hero; I still prefer the Pestilence version, but this one's probably stronger :-) The deck certainly was spiky - I defeated two 1800+ rated players, and lost to a 1600, over the course of the event :-) Made my way to 3-0-1 before running into the "good players with good decks" problem, and finished at 4-2-1 (one loss attributed to gambling: won the first game, lost the second in the face of an insane anti-Black sideboard, then sided out Black->Green for the third for fun :-) Needless to say, lack of Forests killed me, finding six out of seven Green cards but no Forests in the first fifteen or so draws :-( Ah well, you lose some, you lose some :-)). Then the fun began :-) Only two of the top-8 finishers (Kataoka Jun and national champion Komiya Tadayoshi) were actually prepared to play in the draft the next day - the others wanted to play T2 instead, because they didn't want to or couldn't go to Mainz! So, the organisers started working their way down the list...and by the time they finally had eight willing participants, they were down to the mid-20's or so. As it turned out, another few names and I'd have had the chance to turn down a PTQ final-8 spot (since even if I wanted to draft instead of T2, I certainly wasn't going to Mainz!), thanks to nice tiebreakers from the previously mentioned 1800+ blokes who ended up ahead of me :-) That, of course, would have been the end of MtG as we know it, since me in a PTQ final-8 presents a huge paradox for those who consider the game to be an "intellectual sport" :-) In the draft final, Komiya basically had too much experience for the others, most of whom were playing their first ever draft. On the first round, for example, Komiya was passed no less than three Brothers of Fire and a handful of counters by the Green-drafters - and there were reports of someone passing a Disintegrate in favour of a Dark Banishing :-) Regards, David. -- { David J. Low | dlow@kurasc.kyoto-u.ac.jp } { JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow | http://www.kurasc.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~dlow } { Radio Atmospheric Science Center | "The words of the Prophets are } { Kyoto University, Uji, Kyoto 611 | written on the subway walls...." } --------------------------------------------------------------------------- __ Sponsored by Games World - (02) 9241 3006 (_ _|_ ._ _._|_ _ _ @ T20 Westpac Plaza, 265 George St, Sydney City __) |_ | (_| |_(/_(_|\/ _|/ Magic: Australia on http://www.magic.net.au/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------