Subject: Grand Prix San Franscisco Tournament report Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 13:16:04 -0800 From: "Chris" To: "'fkusumot@ix.netcom.com'" GP San Francisco (San Jose) Tournament Report The Grand Prix Tournament was held on December 6 at the San Jose Convention Center, Parkside Hall A. Attendance was roughly around 300 people. The food prices were outrageous within the hall (just imagine theatre food prices but worse) but the atmosphere was pretty good. The Matchplay staff ran the tournament pretty smoothly. The Southern California staff of Scott Larabee, Rick Takanaga, Dan Gray, and Andrea Kunst assisted them. Chris Galvin from Wizards of the Coast was in attendance. The Head judge was Dan Gray. Many "name" players were noticably absent because of Pro Tour Mainz. The Field of decks was very varied with no one deck truly dominent. The decks mostly broke down into these categories. Black speed - Black Weenies backed up with hymns bolts wildfire White speed - White Weenies backed up with bolts. Zila Good thingy - White Weenie with Frenetics, Wildfire, Counters and bolts Tongo Nation- Card Advantage deck with Frenetics and burn Enduring Bombardment - Bombardment, Enduring Renewal, and 0 casting cost creatures backed up with counters. Texaco t2k- Sligh burn with Ernhams Sligh- red burn Prison- land tax scroll rack varients. Propaorb- Propaganda orb backed counter and large creatures for kill Results: Final 8 Rob Swarowski (Sligh) Ryan Fuller (B/R speed beatdown) Breet Quorn (Zila Good thingy) Steve Shears (U/G Counter Vineyard) Steve Aldric (R/U counter beatdown) Ernest Alexander (W/g Prison) Daniel Clegg (W/R weenie) Casey McCarrell (W/u weenie) Quarters: Ryan Fuller beat Ernest Alexander, 2-1 Brett Quorn beat Steve Aldric 2-1-1 Steve Shears beat Casey McCarrel 2-0 Rob Swarowski beat Daniel Clegg 2-1 Semis: Ryan Fuller beat Steve Shears 2-1 Rob Swarowksi beat Brett Quorn 2-1 Finals: Rob Swarowksi beat Ryan Fuller 2-0 Champion: Robert Swarowksi Robert was playing a straight sligh deck. Very straightforward and direct, the object is to kill the opponent quickly. Most notable was his use of Death Spark as it offered him free damage when used with his Mogg Fanatic and Ball Lightning. A Goblin Bombardment also allowed him to get double use out of all his creatures as well as making them untouchable. Plateaus and Badlands were there for sideboard cards. 2 Cursed Scroll 2 Death Spark 4 Fireblast 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Incinerate 2 Dwarven Miner 4 Ironclaw Orcs 4 Jackal Pup 4 Ball Lightning 4 Mogg Fanatic 1 Fireslinger 1 Goblin Bombardment 4 Plateau 4 Badlands 4 Wasteland 3 Mishra's Factory 9 Mountain SB: 2 Perish 2 Forsaken Wastes 3 Pyroblast 2 Anarchy 4 Disenchant 2 Dwarven Miner Finalist: Ryan Fuller Ryan was playing a b/r beatdown deck utilizing the full advantage of necropotence. Noticable in Ryan's deck were the presence of contagion and nekrataal in the main deck. These 3 cards allowed him to not only gain card advantage over the opponent, but was a good metagame choice as many people ran Soltari Priests, which evade burn. 4 Hymn to Tourach 4 Dark Ritual 4 Drain Life 4 Necropotence 3 Demonic Consultation 4 Black Knight 2 Order of the Ebon Hand 2 Wildfire Emissary 4 Lightning Bolt 1 Fireball 2 Contagion 1 Serrated Arrows 1 Nekrataal 2 Mishra's Factory 2 Gemstone Mine 4 Badlands 3 Wasteland 2 Lake of the Dead 2 Bad River 10 Swamp SB: 4 Dystopia 2 Nevinyrral's Disk 2 Pyroblast 2 Shatter 1 Soul Burn 1 Serrated Arrows 1 Contagion 1 Nekrataal 1 Mind Warp Seminfinalist: Brett Quorn Brett was running a w/r/u deck with an assorted amount of creatures coupled with burn and counters. He had a total of 18 creatures to apply the beatdown. Brett's deck contained disrupts which were huge in allowing him to defend his creatures in the very start of the game. 2 Suq'Ata Lancer 4 Soltari Priest 2 Fireball 4 White Knight 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Tithe 1 Swords to Plowshares 2 Disenchant 2 Counterspell 2 Control Magic 4 Frenetic Efreet 2 Disrupt 4 Ophidian 1 Undiscovered Paradise 1 City of Brass 3 Mishra's Factory 4 Plateau 3 Wasteland 2 Volcanic Island 2 Flood Plain 4 Tundra 3 Plains SB: 2 Serrated Arrows 2 Hydroblast 2 Disrupt 3 Red Elemental Blast 2 Swords to Plowshares 2 Disenchant 2 Honorable Passage Semifinalist: Steven Shears Steve's deck was very unorthadox. He has been working on this particular deck for months now which utilizes the full power of the Vineyard. Steve utilizes orangutan's and man o wars in the beginning and dumps the vineyard mana later by casting capsizes, triskelions, and dumping the mana into the factory if all else fails. 4 Force of Will 4 Control Magic 4 Counterspell 3 Man-O'-War 2 Capsize 4 Erhnam Djinn 4 Jolrael's Centaur 4 Eladamri's Vineyard 3 Uktabi Orangutan 2 Elvish Archer 2 Triskelion 4 Tropical Island 4 Mishra's Factory 3 Wasteland 8 Island 5 Forest SB: 3 Chill 3 Hydroblast 3 Disrupt 2 Mind Harness 2 Serrated Arrows 2 Emerald Charm Quarterfinalist: Steve Aldrich Steve was using a simple U/R deck. Beat them down with the assorted 14 creatures. Clear the ground creatures with earthquakes. Counter whatever is dangerous. Control whatever you can't counter at the moment and serrate the little boys. Noticable in Steve's sideboard was blood moon and havoc which wreaked multicolor decks and white weenies respectively. 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Counterspell 4 Force of Will 4 Frenetic Efreet 4 Wildfire Emissary 4 Suq'Ata Firewalker 4 Impulse 2 Earthquake 2 Control Magic 2 Serrated Arrows 2 Waterspout Djinn 4 Volcanic Island 4 Wasteland 9 Island 7 Mountain SB: 4 Hydroblast 4 Havoc 3 Blood Moon 1 Control Magic 1 Earthquake 2 Pyroblast Quarterfinalist: Ernest Alexander Ernest's Deck was based on Finkel's Prison deck minus the counters. Ernest deck fully used the power of the land tax/scroll rack combination to get the cards he needs. The kill mechanism lies within the 2 gaea's Blessing and Deadly insect. Ernest remarked that he was so afraid of knights he actually put in 1 aeolipile coupled with his arrows, swords and wraths. 1 Enlightened Tutor 4 Land Tax 4 Scroll Rack 1 Aeolipile 2 Winter Orb 2 Serrated Arrows 4 Icy Manipulator 2 Swords to Plowshares 3 Wrath of God 1 Disenchant 3 Aura of Silence 2 Gerrard's Wisdom 3 Armageddon 1 Deadly Insect 2 Gaea's Blessing 3 Mind Stone 3 Marble Diamond 3 Quicksand 4 Wasteland 1 Savannah 2 Undiscovered Paradise 1 Forest 8 Plains SB: 1 Serrated Arrows 1 Jester's Cap 1 Emerald Charm 1 Choke 2 Swords to Plowshares 2 Disenchant 1 Aura of Silence 2 Abeyance 2 Circle of Protection: Black 2 Gerrard's Wisdom Quarterfinalist: Daniel Clegg Daniel's deck was an atypical white weenie deck. He also used the land tax scroll rack trick but also used land's edge for extra damage. The card to note here was his use of 4 empyrical armor, which was mostly slapped onto his soltari Priest. Unboltable, Unblockable and pretty huge from tithes and land tax, it usually spelled the end for his opponent. 3 Savannah Lions 4 Land Tax 4 Suq'Ata Lancer 2 Phyrexian War Beast 2 Land's Edge 2 Scroll Rack 4 Soltari Priest 2 Aura of Silence 3 Swords to Plowshares 3 Lightning Bolt 3 Soltari Monk 4 Empyrial Armor 3 White Knight 3 Tithe 1 Disenchant 4 Plateau 2 Tundra 2 Wasteland 2 Mountain 8 Plains SB: 2 Pyroclasm 2 Hydroblast 1 Red Elemental Blast 1 Aura of Silence 1 Disenchant 2 Blood Moon 2 Suleiman's Legacy 3 Sleight of Mind 1 Island Quarterfinalist: Casey McCarrel Casey's deck was a slighesh white weenie deck using infantry veterans and savannah lions in the one casting cost slot. His use of Freewind Falcons was very unorthadox, but as one person pointed out "they block frenetics!" His sideboard was geared to beating red and artifact/enchatment decks. 4 Crusade 4 Order of Leitbur 4 White Knight 4 Savannah Lions 4 Soltari Priest 3 Freewind Falcon 2 Soltari Monk 2 Cursed Scroll 1 Aeolipile 4 Swords to Plowshares 4 Infantry Veteran 2 Disenchant 1 Order of the White Shield 1 Binding Grasp 3 Kjeldoran Outpost 3 Adarkar Wastes 4 Tundra 10 Snow-Covered Plains 1 Plains SB: 3 Aura of Silence 3 Sleight of Mind 2 Helm of Possession 1 Serrated Arrows 2 Warmth 2 Conversion 2 Hydroblast Christopher Wong Computer Specialist UCI Health Systems chrisw@uci.edu http://members.tripod.com/~Obiah