Subject: [LAPTQ Report] The Awful Green Thing Date: Sun, 07 Dec 1997 07:33:48 PST From: "Chris Warren" To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Hey folks, it's me again with another late-breaking muppet news flash. Ok, actually a tournament report from the first LA PTQ held in the Chicago area, this one in Westmont, IL, in the western suburbs. I'm going to break report tradition here in telling out I've had this deck, essentially intact, for a couple of months, and what's more I got a full night's sleep beforehand. That heresy aside, the location was somewhat suboptimal. Apparently, it was sort of a last minute arrangement, so the usual scoring computers weren't available and we were in a cramped position the first 2-3 rounds. Now, on to the decks. My wife Suzanne accompanied me, and she played a weenie control sligh deck with 3 blood moons standard and a fist full of bolts. Not too much to imagine there. I went with a deck that I made on a lark and did WAY too well, so I called it: The Awful Green Thing Land [18] 6 Forest 4 Taiga | I considered going 3-3 duals and 8 basic 4 Savannah | but I didn't have any problems this way 4 Mishra's Factory | with the exception of maybe one game. Creatures [38+4 Mishras = 42!] 4 Quirion Ranger | I laugh at land kill 3 Scryb Sprites | Fliers are important 3 Granger Guildmage | Super with the R/W mana available 3 Llanowar Elves 1 Fyndhorn Elves 4 River Boa 4 Whirling Dervish | Good vs Black and slow decks 2 Spectral Bears | Good vs Black and burn, nice blockers 4 Jolrael's Centaur 3 Leaping Lizard | Very good. Fliers are important 1 Phyrexian Warbeast | Looked solid, dunno about it, tho 4 Erhnam Djinn 2 Juggernaut | Great with tons of bolt-targets. Misc [4] 3 Cursed Scroll | Killer card in fast deck, good removal for G 1 Armageddon | Nice surprise hammer Sideboard 3 Winter Orb | vs Control, Hammer, Post 3 Giant Growth | vs Red, necro 3 Tranquility | Enchantment kill (Control Magic is BAD) 2 Uktabi Orangutan | if they have any decent artis, he's in 2 Dwarven Miners | Can be nasty if they get to stick for a turn 2 Swords to Plowshares| fast fatties give me trouble A couple notes on the deck... I decided to cut back a little on the colored mana requirements with all the Wastelands running around, so I dropped the geddons to 1, replaced with a cursed scroll, and dropped a guildmage for a warbeast. I also found the 2 hitters I was looking for to join my Ernies -- Juggernauts. I'd been through Behemoths, Wildebeests, and a few others, but I think they worked well. Nothing else was much of a surprise, really, and pretty much as designed about 3 months ago. Format was 7 rounds of swiss, top-8 knockout, 2 slots available. I'm really bad with names, so I'm not even going to try. Round 1: G/W Ernie/geddon Game one, I put on my usual swarm show while he has only green. A nice trick with a ranger allows me to surprise him and trade an elf to kill his Erhnam. He eventually sticks out a 6/7 Lhurgoyf with Sprit Link on it, but fortunately, I can just manage to attack with everything, untap a Granger and poke him for 1. Whew. I see only forests and a skyshroud elf, but I know he has white in there (I see Wraths when he shuffles). I don't bring in the miners, but in come ggs for the critter battles and swords for his fatties along with a token tranquility. Game 2, he's slow pulling creatures, so I try to swarm, but at about 6 life, he Wraths, and all i see are lands and an elf for the rest of the game. A Spirit Linked Erhnam takes me out. I see he's running Mishras and Duals as well as painlands. In come the miners. Game 3 is tons of fun. Me: Forest, scryb. Him: Forest, vineyard. (me: yay!) Me: taiga, Juggernaut. Him: savannah, erhnam me: attack (mutual kill), land, centaur, miner. him: (gurgling sounds of death as the miner eats his land). Bad moment of the day: in game 1, I have an Erhnam and 2/2 Dervish attacking. he has an elf and a mishra. he puts the elf in front of the erhnam, declares his block, moves the elf to the graveyard, then tries to activate his mishra to block. I don't allow it because he's passed the fast effects phase (technically, he's also passed the declare blockers phase too, but why push it?) He gets snippy with me, but by the end of the match, I think he'd cooled down some. If you're going to play in a qualifier, be prepared to be played tight. Suzanne gets manahosed against a 4-color good stuff deck and goes down in 3. 1-0/2-1 Round 2 vs R/W hammer-post Game 1, he has 1-1 removal, I have 42 creatures. a late outpost vs 2 centaurs doesn't do much good either. Funny play of the day: I have a lizard and a scryb out. he swords the lizard and fireballs the scryb. Next turn, I say "since you liked those so much, here" and lay 2 more scrybs. his next turn, he sacs his only two mountains and forks a fireblast to kill the scrybs. He's short red the rest of the game which probably helps. In go the WOrbs, GGs, and Miners. Game 2, I get a turn 2 Worb down and he's got trouble as he can remove some creatures but not all. I have a boa and a ranger out when he gets 3 mana up with a glaciers out, and decide that's enough, and geddon. he draws 2 more mana over the next two turns, but it's just too late by that point. Suzanne plays another burn and loses in 2 close games, and drops to go to the craft show across the hall, then play TE-TE-VI boosterdraft. 2-0/4-1 My fears about an early blowout are going away Round 3: R/b Burn. black for Consult, maybe Edict but I don't recall. (Bad news this round. Adrian Sullivan, Robert Castro, and a couple other folks go out for lunch to Wendy's, which is maybe 100 yards away, but traffic snarls in the half-block in between and they miss the start by about a minute and a half costing them a game loss, both losing the round.) A deck nearly identical to this made top 8. Game one, he pips and pops at me, but the swarm comes through with me at about 4 life. whew. In come the GGs. Game 2, he pulls turns 3, 4, and 6 ball lightnings, the third eating an erhnam to keep me at reasonable life. Finally, I get him down to 5, and have an Erhnam out. I'm at 6. He has a badlands and 3 mountains out, and really no other choice, and consults for his fourth Ball Lightning which is card #2. 3-0/6-1 Wow, I was supposed to have trouble with red. At this point, things are looking up. 84 entries, we figure that 5-0-2 is a definite in, and 5-1-1 is LIKELY, but not certain, with an outside shot to the best 5-2. I bemoan my choice to take Broken Fall out of my sideboard. Round 4: U/R/W Tongopost Ahh, a deck I recognize. Frenetics and whatnot. I don't remember the details too well, he wins game two thanks to a disk with a living frenetic, I think I was manashort as well. Games 1 and 3 see me jump over him with quick fatties. he tries to chumpblock an erhnam 3 turns running in game 3 with a Frenetic and loses all the flips. I think he lost 5 of 6 frenetic flips in the match. I win game 3 at like 31 life. 4-0/8-2 I need to win one of the next two and I'm in Round 5: U/W control/big flier (Serra/Air El) There were two decks like this at the tourney, both doing ok, which kind of surprised me. Game 1, He swordses my ranger, then wastes my only land. I pull land and try to recover, but an ophidian, followed by FOUR man-o-wars makes blocking impossible. My lizard is countered the fifth time I cast it and I go down. In go orb, swords, miners, and orangutans when I see him shuffling arrows. He counters or disenchants all three of my WOrbs in game 2, but it leaves his hand empty and I rush him to win. Game 3 is very tight. He pulls a shimmer on me and I make my idiot play of the day. I have 3 forest and 2 taiga which I use a ranger to split evenly on the phases. I have about 6 creatures out, and I'm using counters on the 4 stacks of land to keep track of what's phased out. When he's at nine, I look at my land, see the left side's phased in, and attack with the 4 creatures on the left (huh?) leaving 3 points of damage from the two creatures on the right behind, and leaving him at 2. Fortunately, he can't find the second white he needs to wrath and follow up with a serra, so I just rush again and win. 5-0/10-3 and I'm in the final 8! Round 6: Burn with two books and a disk We take the ID then play two for fun. Game one, I overrun him and win at 2 life. Game 2, I have nothing but x/1 creatures, and he has a trading post, so I hit him with a cursed scroll 9 times and he pops himself with the artillery once. He says he's glad he didn't play me. Remember this Trading Post. 5-0-1/10-3 Round 7: Ben Kellerstrass U/R(/w?) Frenetic Control Ben and I have played a few times, always going tooth and nail. Fortunately, today, we're both 5-0-1 as is one other person, so we ID. Suzanne loses in the third round of the booster draft with a strong deck. She misunderstood the deck construction rules, unfortunately, thinking she needed to play 40 drafted cards + land instead of 40 total, but did a heck of a job with a 56 card deck. We go to Denny's for dinner. I have a club, my wife has Moons Over My Hammy. 5-0-2/10-3. #2 seed When we get back, they're doing deck checks and rumour has it that someone registered a 59-card deck. All of the folks who drew at 5-1 are nervous, since, if true, it means that there'll be 8 for 8 spots, after round 7, 3 are at 5-0-2 and 6 at 5-1-1. Remember my round 6 opponent. That trading post? Well, he didn't when he registered his deck. At 5-0-2, he's ejected from the tournament before the final 8 begins. My deck clears the check, and they finish the others. One of the 5-1-1s ALSO fails the check, this one by SEVEN cards. How you manage that one, I don't know. So now they go down to the top-ranked 5-2, Greg Callahan. But Greg figured 5-2 was a no-go, so he'd LEFT. So had the next one. AND the next one. THEN they find a 5-2 who was still there. He successfully negotiates the tricky deck-check and withdraws from the side tourney and joins the final 8, after finishing 13th after swiss. wow. Quarterfinals: Bruce (???) Enduring-Bomb ("Fruity Pebbles") I was scared of this deck, as ... well, I don't really have much to stop it. I just have to swarm and hope I'm fast enough. Not a problem game 1. Game two runs pretty much the same way, tho a longer game, as he can't find an Enduring Renewal, or a tutor, or an impulse, to save his life (literally). I run him over in 2 straight. Semifinals: Brandon Rutter B/R Necro lake-drain bolt I can beat this deck. I should beat this deck. I've played Lauer himself with his deck, even with Firestorms standard, and I win consistently. I feel good, I feel strong. In four turns, I do 13 points of damage. I poke a couple more through and get a scryb in. he has a black knight. I get him to 4. He drops an Ihsan, I drop a granger and take him to 3. He attacks. I scryb him to 2. He draws and TOPDECKS a bolt. AUGH. Granger blocks ihsan and pokes him, but the scryb dies on the return flight, and a Centaur isn't enough to save me from a lake drain. Ok, look at my sideboard. What would YOU bring in? I settled on the orangutans, giant growths, and miners. it looked like all pro-w critters, so swords were out. Lakes do just fine under WOrb... soo... I DON'T bring in Tranquility. Nobody'd had any effective sideboards against me all day. Well, he did. three dystopias. and he draws ALL THREE in game 2. One he carries for 3 turns, then drops it, then casts another immediately, for 2 turns. I drop a miner, which gets drained. ow. I drop a couple critters and he bolts one and drops dystopia #3. That's game effectively, just slammed home when I'm double-lake drained for 11. AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH. I've said before, going to the final 8 is mostly skill, winning is mostly luck. I'm still with that. a couple different cards drawn, or a different semi matchup... well, hey, there's two more tries here. The people who didn't laugh at the Lizard suggested Spitting Slug instead, which is certainly good, but the Lizard's flying is so big, I don't think I want to lose that. Anyway, for my third-place efforts, I get 3 Tempest Starters, 4 Visions, and 4 Revised boosters (chock full o' land) and knowledge that TAGT is most certainly a viable extended deck. So hang in there folks, I shall return... --Chris Bugbind on Efnet #mtg ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com