Subject: LAPTQ in Atlanta (20Dec97) Date: Mon, 22 Dec 1997 15:30:11 -0800 From: gordon.howes@worldspan.com (Howes, Gordon) To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com This is my first tourney report so please bear with... Attended the LA PTQ in Atlanta on Dec. 20th. There were 100 people at the tourney for a 7 round swiss. Won't bore you with the details but didn't know I was going until a couple of days before when my wife said she would cover a Boy Scout function on the same day. Had been experimenting with a 4CB with pretty good results until that damn cheesy-poofs combo deck (they call it Fruity Pebbles here) came on the scene so thought I needed something with a little more control in it. My friend Jeff Stuart suggested I play a modified version of my Blue/Red Frenetic Efreet deck, changing only a couple of cards to go more toward the control than burn side and to make it Extended. Didn't have the Volcanic Islands that I needed so was just going to chance it without until I was loaned 4 the day of the tourney (thanks Eric, Kim, and Rick!). BTW, although it looks kinda like Tongo and a lot of others you see on the Dojo I DID NOT COPY IT. I've been running a similar deck since shortly after Frenetics were available. I will give the nod to Steve Aldrich for the Blood Moon in sideboard since it made so much sense vs. all the duals (and Fruity especially)....too bad I only had one and didn't have time to buy/borrow more as it was VERY useful (see round 3). Anyways, here's the report: Name: I'm terrible with naming so just call it Extended Efreet Creatures: 4 x Frenetic Efreet 3 x Ophidian 3 x Wildfire Emissary 3 x Suq'Ata Firewalker 2 x Waterspout Djinn Control: 4 x Counterspell 4 x Force of Will 2 x Capsize 1 x Control Magic Burn: 4 x Lightning Bolt 2 x Incinerate 2 x Earthquake 1 x Hammer of Bogardan Utility: 3 x Impulse Land: 4 x Volcanic Island 2 x Reflecting Pool 2 x Thawing Glaciers 2 x Wasteland 7 x Island 6 x Mountain Sideboard: 3 x Hydroblast 1 x Blood Moon (NEEDS MORE for Pebbles) 2 x Pyroblast 2 x Serrated Arrows 2 x Pyroclasm 2 x Havoc 1 x Anarchy 2 x Mind Harness +====================================================================+ ¦ Tournament rounds ¦ +====================================================================+ Didn't expect to do very well so did not take notes...sorry to those who's names / games I forgot Round 1 vs. Red/Blue: Don't remember except that I won the 2nd duel by cycling my one and only hammer. Match: 1-0 Duels: 2-0 Round 2 vs. Red/Blue: Looks like my deck staring back at me (down to the lands!) There are a few differences but I got a better draw than him and in the 2nd duel ping him out with two Firewalkers. Match: 2-0 Duels: 4-0 Round 3 vs. Fruity Pebbles (Aziz Al-Dory): 1st duel Aziz gets out...a ton of land. I think he's playing Pebbles and is just waiting for the entire combo to lay in 1 turn but can't be sure (maybe he got a bad draw?). I have more creatures than he can counter and apply the beat-down. Side in 2 x Pyroblast, 1 x Blood Moon 2nd duel I get Blood Moon in opening draw but since Aziz is running heavy counter I know it's going to be hard getting it down. I have a couple of counters (Force, Counter) but want to draw some from him so cast 4th turn Wildfire, 5th turn spout which he counters. Lay the Blood moon..he counters, I counter, he Forces, I force, no response (there may have been one more counter exchange but I don't remember). Aziz plays a couple of more turns and then conseeds since his 2nd avenue of win (Outpost) is also useless and I don't think he had any non-basic white land for the Enduring. Match: 3-0 Duels: 6-0 Round 4 vs. B/G/r Buried Alive varient (Jeff Butz): 1st duel he's kinda mana screwed and starts discarding his BA stuff but that's too slow and I win before he can start fishing them out. 2nd duel he gets 2 BA's off (where are my counters!) plus Dark Heart of the Wood and Goblin Bombardment. Cool combo since I can't burn the Ghouls or he sacs them to me, sacs other creatures to bury the Ghoul, then brings it back out. He wins without having to sac a single G/x dual to the Dark Heart. 3rd dual was really TIGHT! He tries to draw counter with Bombardment and Dense Foliage but I didn't bite...he casts Dark Heart and I counter. He does get out Ernham Djinn and an Elf...I have Frenetic. I burn him down to 5 (I'm at 10) and have an earthquake in hand. I only have 5 lands in play and a tapped Thaw so I need to draw a land to quake him out for the win. Untap, draw...another thaw (next time I'll be more specific when I pray for land, eh??). Attack with frenetic for 2. He sacs elf to target frenetic. Lose the flip and he goes bye-bye. I'm done. On his turn he gets out an Ashen Ghoul from graveyard and attacks with it and Ernie...when he's done I'm at 3 and he has 2 creatures in play. All he has to do is cast a creature and sac all three to the Bombardment for the win...he doesn't have any creatures to cast!!! I thaw for the 6th land so if I draw a burn I win, else I quake and draw. Draw Serrated Arrows (where were you when I needed you?)... Cast the quake for a draw. Match: 3-0-1 Duels: 7-1-1 Round 5 vs. Fruity Pebbles (Alex McConnel): 1st duel I burn/attack before he gets the combo 2nd duel he gets the combo early...game. 3rd duel I can't draw counters and no blood moon either (well I only have one so it's not very likely). The counters I have I waste on an early Priest and when he gets the combo I have no answers. Match: 3-1-1 Duels: 8-3-1 Round 6 vs. Wisdom / Blessing / Howling / Glacial Chasm thing: 1st duel I don't remember much of except I squeeked it out by countering only the wisdoms and there was one counter war which involved 4 counters. Don't remember the specifics but it went kinda like...Wisdom, Counterspell, Force, Force, Force (he won, but only had 4 cards left for the Wisdom). 2nd duel goes long and he seems to be playing pretty loose (i.e. impulsing too far and getting a peek at the next card, not discarding down to 7 until I've already started, trying to return cards out of game from Force during a Blessing) Looks like honest mistakes and the guy is pretty trustworthy so I don't think much of it until the end when I waste his Chasm during his discard (Interdicted). I upkeep my 'Spout, draw, and start to re-lay the Island as I have done for the last 5 turns. With my hand still on the card I say "Wait", return it to my hand and lay a Wasteland instead. He doesn't want to let me since in his opinion I played the Island. We talk about it for a minute and I give in (since I kinda agree with him since I announced the Island as I started to play it). He's at 3 life and I think he has a Wisdom or he wouldn't have made such a fuss so I have to beat him this turn or the game goes into overtime (and I'm running out of cards!). In desperation I Capsize the Chasm without buy-back, expecting a counter war which I would lose (I don't think I had any!). He just says...."looks like Game". Whew!!!! (he then shows me his hand which did have the Wisdom!!) Match: 4-1-1 Duels: 10-3-1 Round 7 vs. Sligh Feel bad for the guy as he was 5-0 and was matched with a 4-0-1 player in round 6 so was forced to play. Now he was 5-1 and was the only 5-1 matched up with a lower record and forced to play. In normal circumstances he would have drawn into the final 8. Nice guy though and he seemed to take it in stride. 1st duel he plays Mountain and Factory as his only lands for the entire duel! I waste the Factory and although he does pretty good with only the mountain I overrun him with creatures. 2nd duel I side out some control and side in PyroClasm and couple of Arrows. Everything comes up when I need it and he seems to be having a bad draw (or won't cast his creatures since I had Firewalker(s?) on the table). Match: 5-1-1 Duels: 12-3-1 They announce the final 8 and I'm seeded 6th! YEAH! My first final 8!!! Round 8 vs. Fruity Pebbles (Alex McConnel): 1st duel I get some early burn and have counters when I need it. I get a 'Phid and Wildfire on the table, attacking with both (he blocks 'Phid with Walker) and doing 4 damage per turn. He out-counters me to get the Enduring on the table. He shows his hand and there is a Tutor so I have one last turn (he's at 2). I attack and this time he blocks the Wildfire or dies so I draw...get an impulse and cast it...4th card is Bolt so I cast for the win (he's out of counterspells). 2nd duel he gets the combo pretty early. I saw one Force and counter which I used during a counter-war over an early Priest but I drew no counters over the next 5 or so turns before the combo gets laid. 3rd duel I played like a scrub...losing a counter war over his priest, Hydroblasting an Arcane Denial, not drawing the cards off the denial, bolting his walker and attacking with Ophidian to try and draw more counters, etc.. He gets everything out but the Bombardment and I see in his hand is THREE Force of Wills, a Power Sink, and another Enduring. I can't draw any counters nor my Arrows to kill that darn Priest! As it turns out, the Priest kills me before he sees the Bombardment. I'm not saying he wouldn't have won anyway, but if I would have played my game instead of trying to get the 'Phid through to draw a counterspell he would have had to use his Force's to counter the Bolts (at him) and I may have been able to draw enough to out-counter him when he finally got the bombardment. As it turns out the Arrows would have been more useful, but who knew Red would lose a damage race with a Pebbles deck!! (good side Alex!). Match: 5-2-1 Duels: 13-5-1 Alex went on to defeat a Pox deck and a Sligh deck to win the tourney but I was too busy kicking myself to get the details on it (sorry!). So, I snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Alex went on to win the entire thing so I guess I shouldn't be too pissed at myself. But to play that badly in the final 8 sucks! I was on my game all day til that point and I guess I just got nervous. Maybe next time. Props: To Eric Howell (#1 in the world for Arena last season... congrats!!) for lending me the 4 Volcanics. To Rick & Kim Saunooke for the encouragement and the Volcanics for the final 8 (well the 1 match of it) since Eric had to leave. To my wife, Peggy, for covering a Scout function so I could go to the thing in the first place...and for not griping when I couldn't find a ride home and had to drag her back out. To David Doust who ran a rocking tournament AND gave away a paid entry to the ATL Grand Prix for 9th place finisher (so it doesn't suck so hard to finish just out of running) To Jeff Butz (round 4) for not following the pack and coming up with a VERY cool deck...and for being one of the few top names who actually took playing me seriously. To Jeff Stuart who suggested I go Blue/Red AND for talking me out of using Teferi's Veil (what was I thinking??) AND for being an all-around good friend. Slops: To Bryan Engel for shouting "GORDON?????" when my name was anounced for the final 8. Just kidding, I didn't expect it either! To myself for playing like a scrub the final duel. That's it...thanks for listening. Gordon.Howes@Worldspan.com