Subject: PTQ Report (UT 12/14) Date: 14 Dec 1997 22:05:57 GMT From: "Lord Daroki" Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy Extended. I just haven't played long enough to be completely prepared for this style of tournament. I figure at first I might try to make a Tongo without the dual lands and find it pointless. I throw together a 'geddon deck, which I just hate. I try the mono blue which was posted here and don't even bother trying to work on it from the mail and the realization that it's just weak. I pull out the Necros and think black summer, then remember I wasn't around during black summer and put them back. I think about ducking the tournament again but I don't know when Wizards is going to sponsor another one in this area due to Karl making this his last tournament *sigh*. Then I figure, if I'm going to go down, I better make it amusing. And it was although I didn't do all that well. "Decaying Flesh" Lands 18 Swamps 4 Mishra's Factory Artifacts 1 Cursed Scroll ( I *needed* 3 more to make this deck work ) 3 The Rack (Give me my scrolls damnit. I ran all across Salt Lake to try to find them and had to substitute the Rack to give another source of damage. Very weak choice in this deck, especially with all the f***ing land tax around. Damnit.) 2 Chimeric Sphere (Would have gone with 3 if I had them... another one of those that I couldn't find "What would you want those for?") 3 Steel Golem (Would have gone with four, see above for why I didn't.) Ok, at this point you're probably going, "You didn't, did you?" Damn right I did. I was *pissed* about not being able to pick up the cards I wanted from either Comics Utah or the card shop by my work, and I should have went to Mind Games but after pulling 50 hours this week, I didn't have time in my schedule to go there to pick up cards or do some MUCH needed playtesting on Friday night, which I found out about from Michael Callahan through email at about 6:30 on Friday. And Damien Willett will agree with me, the UTA sucks, right Damien? *grin* Ok, so what did I do? Black 4 POX (That's right, it's a pox deck. Couldn't even get my hands on more 5th edition Poxes, or as my girlfriend calls them, "Sammies" after her deceased cat from a few years ago. *moment of silence*) 3 Abyssal Gatekeepers (Folks, these guys were STRONG, I mean STRONG) 4 Hymn to Tourach (With four in the deck, you would think I would have drew them more often.) 4 Diabolic Edict (I will never doubt the Edict again, the card is INCREDIBLE) 4 Funeral Charms (It's discard, it kills boas, and it kills my Gatekeepers) 3 Spinning Darkness (Loved them, they worked great and were usable just about every time I drew them.) 3 Drain Life (Weenie kill, and more life when I was getting low, with the amount of land you usually have though, you're not going to power up huge drains) 4 Choking Sands (Another surprise card. They were like Icequakes that always did 2 damage.) Sideboard 3 Stench of Evil (It's like Jamie Wakefield and his Shield Spheres, I'm not smart enough not to play them as well. Figured with all the duals though it would be pretty good at killing lots of land.) 3 Nevinyrall's Disk (Should have found room to maindeck them.) 3 Agonizing Memories (Slow down... you move too fast... oh and take rack damage) 3 Dingus Staff (Atomic Bomberman, TAKE THIS! Of course, I never saw one of those annoying combo decks so... what did it matter? Should have had some Touchstones instead) 3 Deathgrip (Or have them here instead. Winter Orb kills Pox dead.) 60 card deck, 15 card sideboard. I figure if I'm going to lose, then I shouldn't sweat the big stuff or the small stuff, but I try to get my hands on some Cursed Scrolls of which the one person dealing them there are sold out of. Great, I register my deck. And then it's time to get it on... Round 1 vs. Brett Hayes (W/B) D1 : I get worried when he drops a secound round Order of Leitbur. I drop a gatekeeper. He doesn't attack and drops another Order. I attack. He blocks and kills it. I ask him which Order he'd like to sacrifice. "They have protection from black." "You're sacrificing the creature, not the Gatekeeper." Edict finishes the other Order. I feel happy, Protection from Black can bite me. He drops a Carrion Ant, but he's tapped out so I charm it. I drop a Steel Golem, he Vampiric Tutors for a Serra Angel (I warn him after the match that he doesn't have to show the card with Serra, but I felt better about knowing...) I attack, he blocks, I Spin. Serra dies. Mishras then come in and crush him. D2 : I'm popping Mishra's off the top, and then charms and edicts to clear their path. I pox away his last creature and card then hit him with a Mishra. It was Brett's first tournaments, and I'm not sure if it was nerves or not having the cards or not being used to the environment. The deck had a lot of interesting things in it, but they didn't work together very well. My deck, on the other hand, covered it's weaknesses quite well. Very happy. D : 2-0 R : 1-0 The computer gets sick so we break for lunch, I travel down with Michael Callahan and his girlfriend, Jack Stanton, and a few players from Las Vegas. Char Shu & Pot Stickers make my stomach much happier than Arby's did last tournament, although the fried rice really didn't agree with me all that much. Would have rather gone to Scoops by Mind Games which I think will be the place frequented when I find time to play over there... Round 2 vs. Tim Hendley (Living Death recursion) D1 : I can't figure out what he's playing, it looks like ProsBloom since he has a City of Solitude showing on his upturned sideboard (I keep my sideboard in the box so people can't look at it.) and the lotus pedals on the board. I start choking his land and going after him before he can set everything up. D2 : I hymn away a BuriedAlive and an Arcane, he Buries 3 Spirits of the Night, with a Polar Kraken already in the graveyard (WTF?) I just have a Gatekeeper on the board and I'm content to plink away at him with it. Then he casts Living Death. *SMACK* Attacking with 3 Spirits of the Night, Kraken getting ready to finish me off. Now I'm freaking out, something doesn't seem right here, oh yeah, I have 3 pro-black, 6/5, flying celerity creatures coming in with me, and to make matters worse... [Interruption by Judge warning Tim that the Spirits are legends, ruling that two are buried when they come into play.] Oh yeah... they're legends... now I remember why I was slowing down to a near standstill to try to figure out a way out of that mess. I start edicting (counter) I continue edicting (I'll lose the Kraken) and just get hit by 6. I drop a Gatekeeper, Funeral Charm it, make him sac the other Spirit and then finish him with my friend Mishra. Had control and never even needed to pox. I figure if you have control of the game, just ride it out, and it worked. D : 4-0 R : 2-0 I make the mistake here of getting confidence in this deck, it just might win even without the Cursed Scrolls! Round 3 vs. Kenny Atwood. (G Stompy?) I'll start off this part by giving out props to Kenny. He *WON* with a mono-green deck. Not a 5 color green, a straight, MONO GREEN. Amazing it was... D1 : Pox can not cope with WOrb. Kenny's deck can, he has rogue Elephant beatdown ensuing, I drop racks and start damaging him due to low hand size, but the racks are no match for Rogue nastiness. I can never get the mana open to drop the Steel Golem which could stop them (for a time, unless he had a GGrowth.) That hurt. D2 : Again, the Orb comes down, great, now I topdeck the Deathgrip when I won't have BB available consistantly. I never even get to cast it as he pounds me to shredsd. He even crumbled the Steel Golem I put out to try to stop the violence. Very sad... Touchstones would have been GREAT, it was the Orbs that killed me, and shut me down very effectively. He deserved to win... the match and the tournament. *bow* D : 4-2 R : 2-1 Round 4 vs Steve Deathmetal (R Sligh) Ahhh, another player who made it to the top 8. It's called Sligh, and it was time to see if Pox could beat Sligh. I've heard it can, but I wasn't too sure. D1 : I drew a ton of Charms but no offense or disruption. He drew tons of offense. I get burned to a crisp. D2 : I get out a gatekeeper, he attacks with his Mogg Fanatic and Artillery. All I can say is this... FEAR MY GATEKEEPER. I then pox his hand out and start pounding him with Mishras for the kill. D3 : I pox, I'm bouncing, I have control of the game... he shows me the tactics which drops me to 4. I start pounding on him when he looks at me, look at his hand, then looks at me again. Fireblast. Of course... D : 5-4 R : 2-2 It only gets worse... I figure I'm out, and I just don't care... Round 5 vs. Damien Willett (Tongo Varient it seems) The smack gets run right from the start, but as it was the last time I faced Damien (Pre-release, I think Tempest?) it was *all* in good humor. Definately one of the more intense yet fun matches of the day. D1 : Racks come down, discard gets dealt, Mishra goes to town. He can't believe what's happening to him He sideboards like a demon possessed and I wonder if he thinks I'm playing something different than I really am. D2 : It's all about the coin flips. He wins a lot of them and keeps the damn Frenetic on the board. I can't get rid of the damn thing, and he ends up getting rid of me with it. D3 : We're warring back and forth and I decide to let the Pox fly. He's at 4 lands, 4 cards, 1 creature... timing couldn't be better... he then disenchants my Rack (3 cards), Activates his Mishra and sacs it as his creature (3 lands left) and then sacs another land which he would have had to anyway. Great move on his part, as he drops a Dude ranch and pumps out tokens that kill me. Where was my choke for that? I left him at 1 and wondered if it would have been different if I could have just gotton a Cursed Scroll out. :( D : 6-6 R : 2-3 Damien is celebrating, and I congradulate him. He stops for a second and congradulates me on giving him the toughest match of the day, I thank him and congradulate him on the win and let him continue the celebration. U/R is a tough matchup for Pox. Something seems to be missing though... it's a constructed tournament, it's a PTQ... oh! That's what's missing. Round 6 vs. Jack Stanton (Tongo Varient) Of course, I have to run against Jack again, you know that if he was at 5-0 and I was at 1-4, he'd still get paired against me. *laugh* Here we go again. Another BAD matchup for me with a skilled opponent. D1 : A very slow match, I drop Jack down but he still keeps coming, he's plowing the golems and gatekeepers (to stop their effect from going off and stop the spinning darkness from getting cast, which by the way I have two of.) I can't seem to put cards in the graveyard like I used to... *sigh* He eventually finishes me off... His books are evil, and he's using counters to show me how many extra cards he's drawn by them. Racks suck against his deck since my scroll can't get rid of it or his Wildfire. D2 : Ever watch paint dry? How about watching paint dry and crack jokes at you while it's doing so. The Mishra ALMOST made it but it got bolted. The Steel Golem ALMOST made it but it got disenchanted. This happens to 2 Mishras, 2 Golems and a Sphere. I drop him to 1 but he's already gotton rid of most of my offense, I make the mistake, with Jack at 2 of Poxing, with a Pox in hand. Unfortunately it's the ONLY OTHER CARD IN MY HAND... DUH! I should have waited one more round to double pox him to death, but mistakes will be made... this one cost me the dual. In the end he burns me out with a Force of Will in hand that he's all too ready to pull a draw to use. Unfortunately, I don't have a spinning darkness handy to keep me alive. Jack grins, stands up and proclaims that I am, and will always be his PTQ bitch. I can't wait for the day when this bitch gets a divorce and takes half. *grin* D : 6-8 R : 2-4 This drops me out of the top 16, and pushes Jack in at 15th. He even gets prizes for that... I'm saddened. I stick around for a side tournament and get whacked by Sammy Batarasch (sp?) who gets some revenge for the beating at states with a killer deck. Icy and a Pyroclasm, and he Icyclasmed me the first game and then took control... I overextended myself FAR too much. I beat him the second game, but he got the match. I ended up winning the next two matches though and helped bolster my sealed ranking (the one that matters) a bit. Props : Karl for all of his hard work, it's going to be horrible to see him go away but he's done an incredible job. A new era starts in Utah when a new director takes over in March. I have faith that he's going to do well, he'll have a few months to prepare. Michael Callahan for making it to the finals AGAIN with a W/r weenie deck which seems to be in vogue. Incredible job for someone who doesn't play that much... it just shows skill... Damien Willett for again being one of the most difficult and fun opponents to tackle. The skill level I think is dead even and it makes for tough tight matches. Kenny Atwood for taking mono green ALL THE WAY and beating a tough opponent with Bounty of the Hunts, Hearts of Yavamaya and Giant Growths. Steve Deathmetal for making the top 8, at least my Opp Match Record was nice. Brett Hayes for braving a PTQ for his first tournament with a deck that although it wasn't up to speed with the rest, was still original and his own. Everyone else there who made for a fun day Jack Stanton for keeping his streak of beating me alive at 3 PTQs. Slops : Jack Stanton for calling me a bitch. *laugh* Just kidding Jack. *grin* The Plaza Hotel for turning the TV on to CNN after the stupid Giants-Redskins game and not allowing me to see my Patriots choke away a sure win against the Steelers. Everywhere I went to try to get Cursed Scrolls and finding that they didn't have Tempest singles so I could use them for the tournament. Slop exception to Hastur Hobbies (Cthulhu Bob) since I only saw him the morning of the tournament and should have checked with him earlier to pick up some duals for the LauerNecro that I would have ended up playing. Myself for not playtesting the deck more thoroughly and not going to Hastur or Mind Games to try to pick up the Cursed Scrolls and not getting out there to playtest the deck a bit. Not to mention that my Limited rating (1690) was approaching my Standard rating (1645) I need that limited above 1700 at least, and the standard I might have to work on a bit as well, although I rarely play Standard tournaments. - Lord Daroki the Itchogunsa -