From: "Axion Internet" To: Subject: Grand Prix Tournament Report - Ryan Fuller Date: Wed, 10 Dec 1997 01:47:37 -0800 Grand Prix Tournament Report (the decklist is near the bottom, the reports loonnngg so I'm apologizing in advance) -- Post Chicago -- After finishing 24th in Chicago, and Pete Radonjic finishing 21st (not to mention eliminating me from a chance at top 8) we decided not to go to Germany (as did our other team mate, Terry Lau). It was too expensive, and was right in the midst of college finals (besides, who wants to go to Germany for just one weekend!? =). So we decide that going to the Grand Prix might be a better investment, considering most of the Cali pro players will be in Germany. Not to mention, we sorta suck ass at booster draft. Besides, I still needed to qualify for L.A. -- Pre Tourny Analysis -- Well, they chose to use Type II rankings for byes, so me and Pete both get 3 byes. My girlfriend, who planned on playing in the junior challenge, couldn't.. Right before we hand in the decklist, someone tells me the junior thing is Type II, so she can't play her extended buried alive deck. We go for breakfast with alota cool people, Brett Quorn (also from the NorthWest), Pantages, Colin Mayfield, Heath Jennings, and Poulter gives us a ride. The Cali players make us laugh our asses off, and keep us entertained. During round 3, Casey McCarrel was looking for somebody to play draft for money with, so I bite. I win, but fuck-up constantly, and get a smack in the head at the end of the match (from Pete I think). -- Round 4 vs. Alex Shvartsman (NY) -- He's playing Necro with Icequakes, Steel Golems, Disks and lake/ritual/drain (mono-black). I win game one in a close match and with a good hymm (followed by a good lake/drain =)). Game two, neither of us has got a necro out yet. But at the end of each turn he's pausing with one swamp untapped. I figure he's got a consult obviously, but then after doing that like 3 times, I figure he's bluffing, god only knows why he'd bluff it though.. I pull a hymm, use it, and hit two consults!? Wow. I win with one pump knight. After the match, he tells me it's because he's playing a different kind of necro than me, so I dunno. I figure he should have tried to go into lake/drain mode, but who knows what was in his deck. -- Round 5 vs. Squandered Stasis -- Another friendly opponent. He plays really casual, we have some fun. He had some weird shit in his deck, like Stormbind (anti-vineyard) and fireball (in case I necro too low). I win with turbo turbo-strip-hymm. Game two, he puts in Karma's and COP: Blacks, I put in Dystopia in case of COP: Black, and because of Squandered Resources. I win with stripping his last untapped land, lake draining him with a Pyro to blast his last Force of Will. -- Round 6 vs. Steve Aldrich (made top 8) -- He's playing fat red/blue. Earthquakes, frenetics, waterspouts, wildfires, countermagic, damage. He beats me game one, he wins four flips with Frenetics (went through 3 arrows and a contagion) and isn't playing many non-basic lands. I call tails all game, and it just wasn't happenin'. I took game two and three, Pyroblast is a good card.. I missed another 5 flips with frenetic efreet, calling tails every time. Insanity.. -- Day Ends -- Canada finished at 14-1 (sorta, the byes helped =)). Me and Pete are first and second in our pools. My girlfriend was 2-0 in a booster draft when she had to play the '94 world champion, Zak Dolan. Now, I don't really wanna piss the guy off, but I think it's gonna be necessary. He takes game one, and my girlfriend takes game two. He starts gettin' really pissed, and takin' shots at my girlfriend. Childish comments like 'So, you gonna go tell all the pro tour people that you beat me?' and so on. Of course everybody's gotta come watch the ex-world champ play a chick, and when she won game 2 people starting laughing and stuff. He turns to the audience and says 'Excuse me, we're in the championship finals here, can you be quiet?' Shannon's starting to get pissed, and starts watching him a little more closely. He 'mistaps' land a bunch of times, and misrecords his own life total. She loses that game with Zak at 2 life. Hmm..... Anyhow, not bad for her first limited sanctioned tournament. We all go for dinner with Poulter and his girlfriend. -- Day 2 / Round 7 vs. Goblin Bombardment - Necro doesn't like playing against this deck. Game one is almost an automatic win for him. The only chance is to get a necro in play, necro for like 8, then go on a hymm-stripping rampage. He fights through my onslaught effortlessly. Game two is extremely close, he's got nothing but land on the table, and next turn he's about to get mind warped (backed with 2 pyros), but necro'ing for a total of like 16 couldn't yield a second ritual (first was used to bust out a necro), or a lake or a consult. I get whacked. He goes on to beat Pete playing necro the next round. -- Round 8 vs. Goblin Bombardment, again -- Game one is his all the way. He's playing with force spike's and disrupts (and later shown that he was also playing with arcane's).. He's got two islands untapped (non-basic) I got 3 swamps and a wasteland. He's already used one force spike. I waste his land and get my necro spiked. Dammit, I'm a fool. Game two, don't remember, but I won quickily (probably turbo hymm-strip). Game three, I beleive this to be the make or break game for me. I ritual out a turn two disk and then get it untapped, and he's got bombardment and a shield sphere in play. I sit patiently (actually frantically digging for land), with just a necro and a knight in play. I lost alot of land in an early consult. I don't play anything until I can pay for the force spikes, disrupts and use my pyro's and still have a land left for the disk. I warp him for one, so I can pyro or pay for whatever. He's got an enduring renewal and a force of will, which later comes back to haunt me. He draws into 3 more shield spheres, and gets me down to one. I accounted for him drawing all four (I felt it was the only way I could lose). He then blocks my knights and factory's for awhile, rebuilding, then losing, his hand. It gets to the point where he tutors for his 1 phyrexian walker, I disk in response. He's now lost 3 bombardments, 2 enduring renewals, and 4 shield sphere's. When I go to drop my second disk, he force of will's it (I'm feeling like a chump again). He drops an enduring renewal, and now all he needs is bombardment. My factory and knight just ain't doing enough with his walker in play. He pulls, impulse. Takes a demonic consultation. Flips a casino token, asks me to call black or white. Having watched Passenger 57 the night before, my buddy Wesley informed me that when gambling, always bet on black. So I did. Buddy gave me an extra turn, and I couldn't pull a bolt or a drain. I attack and knock him down to one. On his turn, with like twenty five cards left, he consults for a bombardment and pow! It's the fourth card down. I win outta dumb-luck. I would like to thank the lord, and my opponent for rapping to me during each of my turns, and then asking me how many cards in my hand twelve times =) -- Round 9 vs. Peter Radonjic -- He's playing the same deck, except for a few minor changes. We draw because we both still have a good shot (we need a 3-2-1 record). -- Round 10 vs. Casey McCarrel (made top 8) -- He's playing white weenie, a complete swarm deck. He's using some weird shit, like Infantry Veterans and Freewind Falcons, but he made top 8 at US Nationals, so I gotta have some respect for the deck and his playing ability. Game one, I strip all his land (tundra's and adarkar's), hymm his hand, contagion, fireball and arrow all his creature and beat him with a knight. Game two, like 16 prot black creatures proved difficult for me to deal with. Game three, 2 dystopias save the day, getting rid of his crusade and last knight, I lake/drain him to death. A closer match then I would have expected. -- Round 11 vs. Klegg's buddy -- This deck is the story of the tournament, I cannot believe how well this Klegg kid metagamed. Anyhow, he rules me game one, I hymm him hard and beat him with knights game 2, and game 3 I like drain him. His deck looks something like this: 2 Scroll Rack 2 Land's Edge 4 Land Tax 3? Tithes 1 Enlightened Tutor 4 Empyrial Armour 4 Soltari Priest 3 Soltari Monk 3 Lightning Bolt 3? Suq'ata Lancers ? Knights ? Phyrexian War Beast -- Round 12 vs. Daniel Klegg -- I'm scared to hell of his deck, so I ask him (he's at 11-0) to draw, and he says ok! Cool, now I finish second and will end up in opposite brackets of him in the top 8. -- Top Eight Analysis -- There's only 2 decks I'm really scared of, Klegg's and the mono red. They play first round, and Klegg loses for the first time (I think he went 11-0-1 without ANY byes). Brett Quorn's deck is also potentially a problem, but I can work around disrupt. The other decks all look like fine match-ups. Pete finishes 18th, and I get 25% of his earnings, as he does mine. He lost to Bombardment, Counterpost! and mono-red Swarowski style. He had a rough day, and was a little pissed (considering he taught me how to play necro). -- Quarter-Finals vs. Ernest Alexander -- Game one he works me with the land tax/scroll rack combo. He locks me up with orb/icy instantly. Dammit, I didn't play well, I deserved to lose (I didn't realize he could just sack his wasteland and tax). Game two, I hymm him, and he allows my girlfriend to pick the cards (she hit's an icy and a winter orb =)). I shatter his icy, and end it all right there. Game three, I consult for a hymm and lose 2 disks, 1 shatter, 2 lakes, 4 rituals, 3 drains and a bunch more. There's around 15 cards left in my deck. However, I lost no hymm's in the top 6, hehe, yeah. I have necro in play, so I hymm him, I would have to say, rather often. It makes his scroll rack useless, and i kill him with my one Wildfire. -- Semi-Finals vs. Steve Shears -- A really strong deck, quite original. It's a green/blue vineyard deck, with TRISKILION (it's good!), Ernie, Man-O-Wars, centaurs, monkeys, factories and countermagic. I take game one (he's vineyard was uneffective against lake/drain), and besides the fact, he pulled it too late. Game two, I board in my disks and dystopias. He gets a draw sent to him directly from god, starting with force of willing my necro, charming my first two dystopias, and then using his monkey to spank my disk. Meanwhile, working me with an Ernham; because I was forced to Nekrataal my control magiced Wildfire! Game three was an even battle, and I do all of my damage with one black knight, and then fireball him for three (tapping myself out). He says, okay I'm at one. I say, nope, cuz I've been keeping track as well. The judge reassures me that he had his life total at four. Then, we do a little back-tracking and he forgot to take a point from a force of will. Whew. That woulda been one wasted fireball. Anyhow, he took it with pride, although he wasn't too happy (Steve was by far the youngest kid in the top 32). -- Finals vs. Rob Swarowski -- My first match-up against mono-red. I figure he's got some twists to it, because most of the mono red decks were ousted day one. Game one, I get a horrible draw. I drew 2 necro's, 2 bolts, 1 swamp, 1 gemstone mine and 1 dark ritual. I am forced to ritual out a necro and pote for four. Not what I'd like to do to mono-red (hymm him, cast some creatures that he's gotta kill, then drain him, and THEN cast a necro). I lost to 'bolt you at the end of the turn, untap, bolt you again, fireblast you' pretty quickily. I shrug it off, boarding in my contagion and my soul burn and maybe a disk or something, I don't remember. I mulligan, and then cast another necro on around turn five. I double ritual drain him, and then pote for a bunch, but couldn't dig up another drain, a soul burn or a consult. I die not too long after to bolts and fireblasts. The kid nicknamed Scrub-out-ski works me, and takes home the money (to Vegas). He's the king, baby. If ya wanna know what was in his deck, here's a list of the cards: ball lightning cursed scroll about 15 fireblasts bolts goblin bombardment some lil' creatures dwarven miners, I think.. -- Decklist -- 4 Necropotence 4 Hymm to Tourach 4 Dark Ritual 4 Black Knight 2 Order of the Ebon Hand 3 Demonic Consultation 4 Drain Life 2 Contagion 1 Nekrataal 2 Wildfire Emissary 4 Lightning Bolt 1 Fireball 1 Serrated Arrows 2 Lake of the Dead 2 Mishra's Factory 3 Wasteland 2 Bad River 2 Gemstone Mine 4 Badlands 10 Swamps 61 Cards Sideboard 1 Nekrataal 1 Contagion 1 Serrated Arrows 1 Soul Burn 4 Dystopia 2 Shatter 2 Nevinyrral's Disk 2 Pyroblast 1 Mind Warp Questionable: Only three wastelands? That may have saved me from mana-hose, however only having three hurt me against goblin bombardment. The mind warp was a ridiculous mistake, it was never effective enough. I should have had an Infernal Darkness in it's place, but I went with a half-baked idea the morning of registration. -- Deep Thoughts, by Ryan Fuller -- * I think it's a bitch that Preston Poulter got DQ'ed for a 56 card decklist, when he started off 6-0 with only like, 1 bye. He forgot to write down Force of Will x 4. * All of the Cali players are really cool, I've never had so much fun at a tournament. It's amazing how the environment was so non-competitive in the sense that there's alot of money at stake, and everybody's having fun anyhow. * Can WOTC please have a Pro Tour in Florida!? * The better the player is, the more friendly they seem to be. Although there are a few notable exceptions, most players like John Yoo, Mark Justice, Eric Tam and so forth are really approachable, nice guys. They don't win by jacking people on the rules (although I'm sure they don't let people take things back, heh) they win by being smarter, better players. I noticed this in Chicago when I did well at the PT for my first time. * My apologies for anything untrue, I reported everything as best as I could remember. * Uh, if anyone sees Zak Dolan beatin' my ass in L.A., call the police or something. * If you're at the pro tour, and Zak Dolan asks you who Ryan Fuller is, point to some other guy. * Sorry for the long report, I just got alot to say! * If you read Pete's tournament report, this was pretty boring, eh? * Shannon's coming to L.A. and if anybody wants to play for cash, and happens to be female, I got some bills riding on her =) * Thanks to all of the Bay Area players that posted extended tournament reports before the Grand Prix =) * Thanks to Terry Lau, Song Ly and everyone else at Mishra's that helped us playtest. * BTW: Pantages, I lost your e-mail address. Ryan Fuller sfuller@axionet.com e-mail me if you want