Subject: [PTQ Report] 12/27 Harrisburg - cheesesteaks! Date: 30 Dec 1997 12:00:40 GMT From: jshuler@osf1.gmu.edu (John M Shuler) Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy Hello, and welcome to "John's Harrisburg PTQ Tournament Report", also known as "How to get George Dolgy a written warning that will be sent in to the DCI and put on his permanent record". Ok, first I'll let you know what you're about to read, then I'll let you read it. I didn't do so well. 3-2-1 was my final record. I'll be going into brief match descriptions, and commenting a lot on individual cards and metagame relevance. A good portion of this report will be human interest stuff, as well. So let's get to it. 12/26/97 7pm- By some stroke of luck, I am able to get out of work earlier than 11pm. I call up Eric Turnquist, and we agree to meet at the Game Parlor a little later. 9:30pm- Eric has shown up at Parlor, and although Gary Fortenberry has chickened out of going with us, because his only Extended deck is a green weenie deck that consists solely of 1 and 2 casting cost green creatures, 4 Overruns, 2 Vampiric tutors, and 13 land (6 of which produce black, as well) and he doesn't think it will work well. Ignore the fact that he is currently 23-2 in match win/losses with this deck in the extended format. It is *fast*. so anyway, he chickens out. His deck, Greengary Greenberry, has yet to enter a PTQ, other than the one he went 5-0 then had to drop out of to get home in time for work the next day (was in TN, far from him). Eric & I debate playing Greengary Greenberry for a little while, but Gary pleads with us not to play it, as then people will know about it before the D.C. PTQ, and so we agree to not play it. We hop in my Corolla, and head on up 95. 10:30- We pass by Baltimore, and Eric is telling me why being a vegetarian is good, if only for health reasons. On sunday I eat a 10oz Prime Rib that is still mooing, and think of Eric. Tori Amos is asking us why we crucify ourselves, but neither Eric nor I have an answer. 11:30- We slide into Harrisburg proper, after enjoying a bootleg of the late Mr. Cobain's band, and, of course, the obligatory Wu-Tang Clan. We find a hotel, check in, stroll across the street to a Denny's (during which a ghost car attempts to run me over, and gets within about 5 feet, at roughly 15-20 miles over the speed limit), where I lament that I don't have a deck that I want to play, and Eric is confident in his Gallitz-approved choice. I get the Charleston Chicken, Eric gets a huge-ass Belgian waffle. 12/27 1:30- We re-enter the hotel, give a nod to Regina at the counter, and check out. Yes, 2 hours after we checked in. You see, upon calling the 1800 number to find out where the tournament was, then calling the hotel where the tournament was, we discover it's not too far away. The lady I get directions from, Dorothy, just happens to be the mother of the night clerk in our current hotel, so a mention of that and a bit of the ole' charm has Regina giving us a "get out of hotel free" card, no charges at all. tres cool. 2ish- We find the hotel that the tournament is going to be at, and check in. Dorothy is nowhere to be seen, but someone else cool helps us. I hate living in (near) D.C., as everyone around this area is fucking rude. Pennsylvania kicks ass. 4am- after about 10 playtest games, we determine that we both have decent decks (eric is with green, and I am with an Extended version of Turbo Kitty), and eric crashes. I try to make a sideboard. 5am- I'm still trying to make a sideboard 6am- Damn, making a sideboard is tough when you've yet to play in an actual Extended PTQ 6:30am- One janky-ass sideboard, ready to go 8:45am- Ouch, two hours of sleep sucks. 9:15am- Eric and I make our way in, all of about 30 yards from our room, to the PTQ area, after checking out. We find some Super Secret Sideboard cards for Bombardment, I then realize they won't work for me, as they don't do much for control decks, but Eric gets his. Neither or (of) us see a bombardment deck all day long. Not paired against us, at least. No, I'm not going to tell you what the card is, for three reasons. One, you'll laugh at me and call me an idiot, which, though it's been done more than enough before, I don't feel like listening to now. Two, I like the fact that the bombardment deck squashes so many other decks, and I'l like it to continue doing so, so I can crush it after it crushes everything else for me. and Three, because I didn't think of it, and the person who did asked me to stay quiet. I'll respect that person's wishes. As will Eric, I'm certain. Anyway, we register and all that jazz, go sit down, write down decklists, and sooner than you can say "Bolt you for three", the tournament begins. Round 1- Dave Winn Game 1- Dave wins the toss. He opens with a u/x multi. I open with a gemstone, my only land. Dave gets a look on his face, and I sigh, realizing that I'm up against a decent player. He lays another u/x multi and says done. I tithe, and he counters it. I sigh again, realizing I'm up against a good player. I top-deck the tundra, though, and drop a diamond. He lays a plateau on his turn and here comes Mr. Frenetic. No problem, I've got multiple plows, wraths, icys, wisdoms, et cetra. I drop a howler on my turn, and a diamond. Frenetic hits me to 18. 16. 14. 12. Here comes another Frenetic. I counter, he counters, I force, he forces. Uh oh. Draw nothing on my turn. 8. Wrath. Countered. 4. Wisdom. Countered. Damn. He had a *really* good draw against me, very counter-heavy. I know I'm in for a tough match. Game 2- I play a diamond, then a howler, then decide to be a bad player, and tap out to play two more diamonds, instead of just playing one and keeping u1 open to arcane. He hurkylls me at the end of my turn, and I have no force, but I do have all of 3 land in play as my only permanents. His turn he lays an Aura. I need one land to start dropping my goods again. I'm at 20. I draw, not a land. Discard. He plays a frenetic. I draw, not a land. Nor a tithe. Discard. He attacks. This pattern goes on until I die. No 4th land for me. Record: 0-1. Damn. I *am* a bad player. Well, Dave was a good player, can't deny him that. I can handle losing like that, even if I don't like it. At this point, Andrew Cuneo found me, and we played for a while, no sideboards. Upset at losing in round 1, I pummeled him. He took 2 games off of me with his necro deck, and I took like 8 off him. Behold the howling mine, Tourach, you weenie! Round 2- Mike Footer, with a green weenie varient. Game 1, I go from 20 to 17 to 13. I lay an island sanc to compliment my howling mine. I go to 9. My life total stays at 9 for the rest of the game, including when I wrath away 15 of his creatures. No tokens, all creature cards. Game 2- I go to 17 from a rouge, top deck the plow, go to 16 from a ranger, drop a howler & sanc, zap ranger. My life stays at 16 for a while until I get gerrard to boost me up to 34, then cast geddon, and leave enough mana in my pool to wrath away ** 20 ** creatures. No tokens, all creature cards. I zap his sylvan with an aura so he has 0 permanents in play. yes, I was still a little ticked from a round 1 loss. Record: 1-1 Round 3: Justin Kotula, with w/u/g prison. Game 1- I lay a diamond, justin lays a diamond. That sort of thing goes on for a while, and I don't let him have any icys, disenchanting & silencing them when I can't just counter them. Then he gets off two blessings when I can't counter them. I realize I'm going to lose, and concede. Game 2- I drop a silence, counter his attempt to disenchant it. I drop another silence. I geddon, and disenchant his lone diamond. Justin tries for a while, since he did get a turn 1 land tax and it's still out there, along with a sylvan, but I just keep geddoning. He eventually concedes when my howlers make his blessing recursion useless. Game 3- He uses his sylvan VERY aggresively, as we only have 5 minutes left. He's looking for his deadly insect, because I'm mana-hosed. When he's at 8, and there are two minutes left (we were both playing fast, cool of both of us), I drop an outpost. He is clearly shocked and surprised, as this is the first he's seen it. He doesn't stall, but I don't have the time to kill him. 2 more minutes would have been a win, as he had *no* way to deal with it. Record: 1-1-1 Round 4- "Uncle" Adam Bonanno, with creature-light burn Game 1- Main deck cop:red comes out on turn 2. Thanks, enlightened tutor. Adam still gets me down to 2, thanks to a phenomenal draw on his part, but red can't beat cop:red in game one. I wisdom back up to 16, and then lock him up. He plays for a bit, then gives up. Game 2- Nathan the Spy reveals himself. He's a little kid sitting next to me. Adam is his uncle. I make Nathan give Adam the voodoo cut. It doesn't work, as I am cooked quite nicely. I could have won, but I screwed up. I am at 8, have cop:red out, two land untapped. Adam has 2 cards in hand. I think "there is no *way* he'll do 8 to me next turn, he only has 2 land out", and tap out to cast a diamond. He draws, fireblasts me, and forks it. boom boom boom. Game 3- I go down to 6. I don't go any lower. Record: 2-1-1 Round 5- ******** GEORGE DOLGY ********* with necro if you don't know who this guy is, then go to dejanews and find out. He's mentioned in a few reports by at least myself and Mike Flores Game 1- Oh joy. I get to play against George. He draws an extra card one turn, I make him put it back, and don't call a judge. However, a few turns later when I ask him how many cards he has, and he says 8, I point out that it is his upkeep, and he isn't playing with undiscovereds. I call a judge, and Mr. Dolgy is now the proud owner of a written warning, thanks to Tony Parodi. Tony let Dolgy discard regularly, then continue, though. Alas. I end up dropping 2 howlers, 2 propagandas, and an island sanc, along with an aura of silence. I geddon, and he drops a lake, and starts bolting me and sacing land to drain me for like 3. No shit. :) Anyway, he takes hours on each of his turns, and complains when I take more than 15 seconds in mine. My turns took significantly less time than his. I call over Tony, and ask him to watch a few turns, so that he can get a feel for the tempo of the game, and if anyone should complain about stalling in the next game, that it will be clear that the same speed is being maintained. Tony knows what I am doing, and George doesn't. Pity. Tony is a good sport and hangs around for a few turns, then leaves. George finally figures out that he can't win, and concedes. Game 2- He gives me a first turn 7 point lightning bolt, adjusting my life from 20 to 13. I start to laugh, then start to argue with him about how much damage a lightning bolt does. He modifies his 13 to a 17. Much like in game one, when I wisdomed for 16, from 3 to 19, and he wrote down my life as 16 until I spent 3 minutes explaining basic math to him. He bolts and such, drops creatures, but island sanc/howler is too much for him, and he eventually firestorms me for 4, zapping his own critters. I of course grin. He gets me down to 2 before Gerrard lifts my spirit, and time runs out. Match to me. Good guys 1, assholes 0. Record: 3-1-1 Round 6- Jeremiah Hupka with u/r/w creature based. No counters. games 1 & 2: maybe it was the draining match against dolgy in which I had to explain every move and every mana tap. Maybe it was 2 hours sleep. I play some of the worst magic ever, and I beat myself. jeremiah doesn't even have to try. I do it for him. I give up at this point, at 3-2-1. I find out that I'm paired with Steve Wannal for next round, though, and we are friends, so we play for the hell of it, both of us doing a *LOT* of silly stuff, since we are both eliminated, and don't care about rankings. I end up losing, but we have fun. quick thoughts on misc. extended stuff- aura of silence is so good, it's silly. Beats up on prison, beats up on bombardment, definately worth the extra W over disenchants. Soltari priest was everywhere. I certainly plowed him a few times. Deal with him or die. That simple. Tithe is even better than you thought. If you can't afford them, or aren't playing white, fetchlands are a half-decent attempt at the power that tithe gives. notice the above are all white? 'magine that. Duals were more prevalent than I expected. The blood moons in my sideboard were huge, even if I never played them properly. Force of will is back. Boy is it back. Frenetic suck just as much in Extended as they do in Standard. I hate those things. I need to sleep now. I'll write up the Goblin Skydiver Side Event Report within the next few days, though. It was *really* fun, and we got some really good entries. Worth Wollpert's "Mike Long casting Impulse" had about a dozen people close to tears, it was so funny. yes, a couple extra categories were added. And yes, I'm going to continue running this FREE side event at all the PTQs I attend for now. More info later, gotta jet. -- John M. Shuler jshuler@gmu.edu -------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike Loconto is not a scrub. - Rudy Edwards --------------------------------------------------------------------