Subject: FW: Tournament Report - 12/6/97 - Type II Texas Semi-Professional Qualifier - Games Galore, Arlington, TX Date: Wed, 10 Dec 1997 00:24:17 -0600 From: Eric Knipp To: "'fkusumot@ix.netcom.com'" On Saturday, December 6, there was a Semi-Pro qualifier tournament for the upcoming Semi-Pro tournament to be held at Mad Hatter's in Lubbock, TX on February 8, 1998. 64 seats for Lubbock are being made available from 11/22 until the day prior to the tournament through local Type II qualifier tournaments. The tournament was designed to allow players from Texas the ability to compete at a higher level without having to lay out a huge time/money investment to cruise around to all sorts of PTQ's (though I still plan to attend some of them!). The total purse for the February tournament is $13k, with $3k going for first prize. The cool thing is that if you qualify you get at least $100 .. none of the 64 competitors will receive less than that. The cost for stores in Texas to participate (buy a seat basically) is $300 .. as a result the tournaments at the shops are usually more expensive than your $5/weekly tournament. Anyway, on with the report .. Black/Red Removal Type II 4 Black Knight 4 Fallen Askari 4 Nekrataal 4 Diabolic Edict 1 Vampiric Tutor 4 Mogg Fanatic 3 Fireslinger 2 Goblin Vandal 4 Incinerate 4 Kindle 3 Nevinyrral's Disk 1 Cursed Scroll 2 Sulferous Springs 2 Cinder Marsh 2 Undiscovered Paradise 2 Rocky Tar Pit 4 Mountain 10 Swamp SB 4 Drain Life 4 Pyroblast 2 Boil 2 Goblin Vandal 1 Nevinyrral's Disk 1 Wand of Denial 1 Anvil of Bogarda I get to the tournament and find out to my happy surprise that rather than the $15 told me over the phone it will only be $6 to play .. apparently some players were mistakenly told $6 and so they had to charge everybody the same thing. Unfortunately I also found out that it was going to be single-elim rather than swiss .. I did not like that too much but oh well that's life. Round 1 - vs. Phong whom I've played before but I don't remember his last name. He played at PT Dallas some time ago and is a good player but doesn't seem to play that much magic these days. Phong was playing .. a SLIVER DECK! I kind of wanted to laugh but hey you never know. Phong is no idiot so I will not underestimate his deck. Game 1 Phong administered early beatdown with some slivers, getting me down to 15 or so before I took control with Kindles, Incinerates, Edicts, finally tutoring for a 2nd Nekrataal to take out his Muscle Sliver. I just had too much removal as Phong played out his hand and I destroyed every creature that hit the table. I didn't even sideboard as his deck was built for my deck to beat. Second game was even quicker as I drew a lot of burn .. I knocked Phong down fast with knights, he rolling thundered some away but I was able to burn him out. I was unhappy to knock my friend out but they were both well-played games and very enjoyable so I didn't feel too bad. Wasn't like either of us lost due to bad draws. Round 2 - vs. a kid who's name I don't remember. I think it might have been David? I dunno. Anyway David's deck was a 3 color thing using Red, White, and Green. Unfortunatley I never got to see that much of his deck as he claimed 'mana screw' both games .. in my mind if you get 4 mana and that's mana screw you need a new deck. He did pack a few Earthquakes as I got hit by those a couple of times and had to rebuild, but really he had very little chance. I saw the Cursed Scroll in both games, and it netted like 6 damage for me this match. Both matches I killed him with a double-kindle when there was already one in the grave. Painful! Round 3 - vs. Tie something or other playing .. sligh! I have played Tie before .. he's kind of a punk .. apparently he won the T2 at Games Galore the previous week with this deck. The deck was your basic pre-Tempest sligh with the addition of Mogg Fanatic .. he didn't even swap the Thunderbolts for the superior Kindle. Oh well .. his loss is my gain. Game 1 I won easily with all my removal and finished him off with a double-kindle. Game 2 I sideboarded in my 4 drain lifes in place of the 3 fireslingers and a vandal. Tie was holding several cards in his hand for a good bit of the game and I think these must have been Fireblasts or something. I hit him hard with Weenies, used my removal to keep him pinned down and cast Drain Life 3 times, for 3, 4, and 5 points respectively. Even those little drains make a huge difference against burn. A 3 point drain negates a bolt, a 4 pointer negates a fireblast, and 5 points is just burn insurance .. Round 4 - vs. Joey something or other .. playing another Sliver deck! What is it with these sliver decks. Anyway by this time I am undefeated .. haven't lost a single game and I'm wondering when my luck is going to run out. Turns out its this round .. Game 1 Joey slaps down slivers left and right, and I remove them. He's also using Fireslingers, Mogg Fanatics, Incinerates, and Kindles .. first game I beat him down some but he also hurts me with some slivers before I kill them off .. I have a kindle and an incinerate in my hand .. he's at 12 life and there are already 2 kindles in the grave. I also happen to have a tutor in my hand. At the end of his turn, I tutor for the other kindle, kindle him, then in my turn after I draw I kindle/incinerate him and that's the end of it. I also had a land and a cursed scroll in my hand so I could have laid it down as a finisher as well. Game 2 I get a poor removal draw with only one edict and a mogg. Joey comes out on fire with loads of slivers .. I keep drawing land, land, land and he just hammers me. Note that I still haven't sideboarded against him .. Game 3 I still don't sideboard. I get a good start with Nekrataals, Black Knights, and Fallen Askari as well as plenty of removal and I go to work. The game is close but my removal is too much for him and ultimately he dies to the mighty Flanker. These were close games but I have determined that what I originally thought about slivers is still true. Because of their nature they tend to peter out in the late game. You have to win very very fast with slivers and against a deck with heavy countermagic or removal you will have a tough time. They are probably pretty fun to play with though. Round 5 - the finals vs Steve McMillan (I think that's his last name anyway) .. Steve was playing Sligh, a well-constructed sligh. After not being mana-screwed all day, game one I draw one mountain and that's all I see the whole game. Needless to say Steve smacks me with several Ball Lightnings, Orcs, Fireblasts, etc etc .. I get cheesed basically. Game 2 I side in my 4 drain lifes but never see a single one. I just draw enough removal to deal with his creatures, and then Steve goes and makes the stupid mistake of wasting fireblasts on my Knights. Pretty dumb but oh well, I'll take the win. I wind up torching him out with a double kindle. Game 3 is a very tight game early on as I smash all of his creatures until a Ball Lightning hits me for 6. That hurts. Anyway, the next 3 Ball Lightnings (he drew like 10 Ball Lightnings over the course of the 3 games which makes me wonder if he was cheating) all get edicted and that's that. At one point during the game there was a controversial play. I had out a Mogg Fanatic, and he had out a Canyon Wildcat. I could have killed the wildcat when I played the fanatic, but I was afraid of a Ball Lightning (this was before had played all 4 of them) so I wanted to keep the Mogg until he attacked. Well, he attacked and I sacked the Mogg to kill the Wildcat. In response, he incinerated the Mogg, but I had already sacked it, so I told him the spell fizzles. A guy watching said the same thing, and Steve agreed and buried the card. I will return to this in a moment. Anyway, at one point in the game I cast a 7 point drain life and tapped out to do so .. then Steve goes and plays a Winter Orb. Thank GOD for the Undiscovered Paradise which I already had in play .. it saved my ass as this was when I had to take care of those Ball Lightnings with the 2-mana edict. Phew. Ultimately I killed Steve with a Drain Life that I held in my hand until I had enough mana untapped to drain him for 5 and end the game. After the match was over and I had qualified for Lubbock, and in fact was about to leave, Steve started whining about the Mogg Fanatic/Incinerate play. He said that it wasn't a legal target so the spell couldn't have been cast. I said no, it fizzles so we went and talked to the judge. The judge informed us that in fact there was no target so the spell could not be cast. Steve then said we should replay the game .. I said no way as it was (a) an honest mistake by BOTH of us and (b) I was not going to take the chance on getting mana hosed like in the first game and never even being in the game. Sure he'd be more than willing to replay it as he (a) has nothing to lose and (b) sligh can win on a good draw no matter what your opponent has in hand. He proceeded to act like he thought I was in cahoots with the guy watching us play, insinuated that we were cheating, that I was exhibiting bad sportsmanship, etc, that I 'made' him put the incinerate in the graveyard (that's exactly what he told the judge.. that I forced him to bury the card) .. the fact is that if he was uncomfortable with the way I was playing, he SHOULD HAVE CALLED THE JUDGE TO OUR TABLE.. he was so upset because he supposedly had a torch and a fireblast in hand that he would have killed me with .. I think he's lying about that because I never saw a single torch up until that point and we had played 3 games. Besides if he had done any more burn to me I would just have popped the second drain life off earlier and taken myself out of burn range .. who knows what would have happened if the play didn't end up the way it did, but I'm not going to take a chance on losing to bad draws because another guy made a mistake on a play and I didn't catch it. The first mistake was his, in that he cast a spell without a legal target. The second mistake was mine in telling him that the spell fizzled, but the final mistake was again Steve's as he should have called the Judge if he felt uncomfortable with the way the turn was played. The moral of this story .. IF YOU DONT LIKE A MOVE CALL THE JUDGE!! Your opponent isn't an asshole if he doesn't go back and replay you after the match .. he's just taking advantage of the fact that you made a dumb mistake. In a small tournament where you're playing for 10 packs of Tempest its a different story. But anytime you are playing for something serious, you shouldn't let your opponent take back serious mistakes, etc .. I mean its one thing to let them lay a different land than what they put down, like if they accidentally pulled the wrong card from their hand .. but stuff like this is inexcusable. We both made a mistake and that was that .. shit happens basically. Anyway now I am qualified for Lubbock which is good because it means that at the other qualifiers I can try to help get my friends qualified. I sure hope I win in Lubbock because $3k is always a nice bonus .. Anyway hopefully this report was informative. If I were to play this deck again I might consider subbing out the 'slingers for something else, but they really are attractive burn targets so maybe they are a good choice. I think I was adequately prepared for all other decks EXCEPT bloom and to a lesser extent white weenie. Bloom will DESTROY this deck. Even the Wand of Denial is probably not enough unless they have a draw where they are tutoring for 2+ elements of their combo. I was lucky nobody was playing bloom .. but you won't always be that lucky. Thanks .. Eric Knipp