Subject: Top 8 Nationals and Brief Indy Report Date: Thu, 9 Jul 1998 02:56:13 EDT From: DrPacifico@aol.com To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com The Pacifico Experience : ) Hello again everyone... This is Andrew Pacifico again here to pass along some information, some educating, some hilarious, some sad, and some that you probably just don't want to hear. The beginning of this tournament report is not going to be for everyone, so if you are just here to read the report, scroll down. Anyways, on to the " PreReport Bulljazz " as it were previously refereed to by... It was a Thursday a while back, I was working at Little Caesar's, like always, and I begged my way out of work to go pick up Dave Bryant, of Five Color Bryant Fame, and Josepi Helsinki, a.k.a.. Joseph Crosby, of Helsinki Bomb Fame. I drove those bums back to my house because Jose Cintra, a.k.a.. our ride ; ) , was late, and was gonna pick us up tomorrow morning. Me, Elizabeth (my girlfriend, for those who don't know), Joseph, and Dave Bryant of 5cBryant Fame went to sleep awaiting the morning for our ride to Indy to arrive. We went to the Orange Park Mall to meet Jose, but that took 5 more hours then we had agreed upon, so we did a little shopping, and for those of you who saw us Jacksonvillians during this GP Indy/Origins trip, this is when we bought our pants with 50 inch legs, a.k.a. Hero's Resolve, a.k.a.. Fat Pants, thanks to Rudy (Ru-Tang Edwards)... Anyways, we finally arrived in Indy, after a 90 MPH speeding spree that I supplied thinking that we were late, when in fact, we had crossed a time zone =/ ... We were all sporting the Fat Pants, even my girlfriend ; ) ... GP INDY REPORT!!! I finished with some record that barely didn't let me make second day, like usual in Grand Prix Tournaments... Sealed Deck = =*( Pacifico Joseph Crosby made second day with a 6-1 record, and came out with a 16th place finish... Congratz SlackJaw McGee. Elizabeth came in second in a side booster draft! : ) ... Congratz Sweetie : ) Quick Props and Slops Props: Team Sped -- for not visibly being upset for losing to Team TKO (us JVille crew) in a money draft. Slops: Me -- for drafting a Green/Blue/White deck in the money draft, even though I went 3-0... it was still three colors... with GREEN =/ On to the Ohio Report We woke up at 8:30 when we had to be there at, OH SHIT! 8:30!!! ... we got in the car and "sped" like mad men to try to get to the convention center before they dq'ed us... John Tatum had gotten poor directions which had delayed our arrival... We finally got there at around 9:30... ran in the door and into the gaming room where the nationals were held two years ago... we got in the door and heard "Competitors... you have 10 more minutes to complete deck construction..." I was like, oh shit =*( ... We found out that was for a different tournament and we ran down the hall and found out that they were just starting the draft. I ran to sit at my table as I just heard, "Competitors, open your first pack... " WOOSHEWW!!!! We just made it... Joseph had to bullshit his way into the tournament considering he hadn't signed up yesterday, or this morning... they let him in anyway... The reason the tournament started so late was because of the lazy bums that hadn't signed in the previous day... Thanks lazy bums : ) First Draft... Table with Mark Justice and other random dudes First draft, I got kinda screwed... I tried to force red, when the guy to my right forced me on red... this gave me rather crappy red stronghald cards, but my deck turned out ok... here it is creatures... Red Black Multi 2 mogg fanatics 2 morgue thrull 1 acidic sliver 2 mage il-vec 1 dauthi horror 1 craven giant 1 grollub 1 reckless ogre 1 serpent warrior 1 anarchist 1 mind maggots 1 wall of diffusion 1 wall of souls other... Red Black Artifact 1 flowstone blade 1 evincar's justice 1 bullwhip 1 kindle 1 slaughter 1 rolling thunder 1 cannibalize 1 reanimate First Round... not Mark Justice... playing White/Black/Red I'm not gonna go too in depth with the draft portion of the event, but I will sum it up... First game he went down to a pure utter beating, and the second game he lost to an 8/8 mind maggots and his reanimated Angelic Protector... Beatings!!! Second Round... not Mark Justice... playing Blue/Green Hmmm... ok, first game he was in control, but then the shadow action started the beatings... I love playing against Blue/Green with Black/Red... Second game he got first turn Spindrift Drake, third turn School of Piranhas, I blocked the school with a grollub, and then he cast a Thalakos Tap-and-Stay-Tapped Dude, and I rolled them for 1 a piece... later in the game, my sideboard kicked when I cast fugue when he had 3 cards in hand... see ya... Third round... playing White/Red who beat Mark Justice... Well, he trashed me the first game, and I won the second two... third game, he was at 9, and I had a roll for 8 in my hand and a reanimate... I reanimated my mogg fanatic, and said done... I untapped rolled for 8, sacced my mogg, I win : ) ... cool... 3-0 Second Draft.... Let's see... Mike Long, Joseph Crosby, John Chinnock, Sean Fleishman (sp), Matt Linde, Eric Lauer, and some other dude :) Well, ended up with an all around crappy deck, but it stood up with the rest of the field... no real game breakers like the last drafted deck, but I was confident that the deck would have a 2-1 record... Never drew the Necrologia or the Brooch, so I couldn't tell you how good they were... : ( Creatures Red Black Multi 1 furnace brood 1 pit imp 1 acidic sliver 1 wild wurm 1 mind maggots 1 craven giant 1 dauthi jackal 1 gravedigger Spells 1 morgue thrull 1 dark banishing Artifact 1 vampire hounds 2 death stroke 1 Null Brooch 1 serpent warrior 1 torment 1 dungeon shade 1 necrologia 1 leeching licid 1 enfeeblement 1 cannibalize 1 deaths duet 1 fling That... and something else that I can't find in my pile of bull... anyways... Round 4 -- Joseph Crosby, a.k.a.. I'm luckier than Andrew Pacifico only when I'm playing against Andrew Pacifico. I don't really want to get into it, but it all came down to game three when he top decked the mountain that he needed to seething anger, and angelic +3/+3 in the same turn... oh well... White/Red Trash is the best deck to draft in the current draft environment, and he got it =( .... 3-1 Round 5 -- John Chinnock, a.k.a.. I'm the nicest player that you will ever play against, so be cool. =) ... Red/White I got to give some pre-props to John for being an all around cool guy... First game he shut me down with a static orb... yes, a static orb... but I eventually won the game with a pimpy shadow dude... Second game was all about the beatdown... Good Games Round 6 -- Eric Lauer, Black/Red Eric is a very good player that drafted a very good Black/Red deck... First and second games were a race, but the second game was cool, because I stalled for a land one turn, and came back to beat him because of the damage he took from carnophage. Last play of the game, I took back my licid that was enchanting one of his creatures, and cannibalized myself and made my shadow 4/3 and busted him for the last needed damage... Good games also... OK... What Everyone Has Been Waiting For... Type 2!!! = ) I played a red pile to guarantee that I would go 4-2 and make the final 8 for a chance at some cash... here's the deck. My Red Pile 17 mountains 4 wastelands ( SHEEEEEEEIT in the new environment... Pile-lishous) 4 Jackal Pups (Absolute, 100% beatings!) 4 Mogg Fanatics 1 Goblin Vandal (Wow... drew a hydroblast against Matt Place = good) 4 Mogg Flunkies ( Pure Pile against sligh, but good against bloom... hmm ) 4 Ball Lightening 2 Viashino Sandstalker 3 SuqAta Lancer 4 Shock (As Crosby would say... anything that can't kill ophidian, don't play with... I should have listened... =*( ... ) 4 Incinerate 4 Fireblast 2 Sonic Burst (WOW!!! Gets the Pacifico Two Thumbs Up! = ) ) 3 Cursed Scroll (Amazing as usual... should have had 4) :( Sideboard 3 Pyroblast (HUGE) 3 Price of Progress (PILE) 3 Nevinyrral's Disk ( HUGE! ) 3 Spell Shock (PILE-ISH) 3 Mogg Maniac (What a Fuc$#n Pile!!! ... Bottle gnomes would have been much better...) Keep in mind that I made this sideboard LITERALLY one minute before the tournament started... after completion, I ran to my feature match table, and as I sat down, they told us that we could begin... Joseph Crosby, who was building his deck at the same time, received a game loss for being late, for being to lazy to run to his table... I however practically jumped over tables to get to my seat... Round 1 -- Pete Leihar... ProsBloom Game 1 -- I go first... first turn mountain Jackal Pup... second turn, no mountain, jackal pup... Jackal Pups and shocks went all the way... no combo to stomp me... Jackal Pupilishous beatings in the house : ) Game 2 -- I got first turn pup, second turn flunkie... he was at 8 on the fourth turn... I could have killed him, but I waited because I thought he had a counter... he went and he abeyanced me, and I threw at him a shock, fireblast, and a sonic burst... he was at -2 or something like that, and couldn't come through with the combo. 6-1 Round 2 -- David Price... The ProTour Sligh King... playing... You guessed it... Sligh : ) Game 1 -- Beatings... due to my Flunkies Game 2 -- Beatings... due to my Flunkies 6-2 ... Flunkies suck Sligh on Sligh... I lose horribly... Should have sided them out second game... but I went first and thought they wouldn't be that bad if I went first. Round 3 -- Matt Linde, a.k.a.. US Champion... WW/Cataclysm PreGame Bull -- I didn't want to play him, because we were hangin out before the tournament and I hate to play people that I know personally... I already had to play Joseph and he beat my ass, so I was going into this match kinda not confident... Game 1 -- first game wasn't really a game as I go cut like a ho, and he dropped 3 Soul Wardens (Sally, as Mike Long defined) and some other miscellaneous ho-pies... I begin to come back at the end when I'm at a rather low life total... he cataclysmed twice during the match while the Jackal Pup gave the beatdown... I believe that I got him to 6 or something and he pulled it out with a soltari visionary =(... damn soul wardens pulled the game out for him... : ( ... good game though : ) Game 2 -- a second turn soltari priest doesn't phase a first turn pup, second turn flunkie, third turn lancer... his paladin eventually came out, but it didn't phase me either, as I continued to attack, losing creatures, but dealing damage... I may be wrong, but I think a Fireblast, and a Sonic Burst was in order... Game 3 -- I don't really remember =( ... I should have taken notes... sorry everyone =( ... I win though : ) yeaaaaa 7-2 Round 4 -- Matt Place playing a Medallion Blue Incarnation PreGame Bull -- my memory is failing me =*( ... I can't remember anything... keep in mind that I have had practically no sleep up to this point so that could be some of the reason... Game 1 -- Clipped from WotC website... In yet another spectacular matchup, Junior World Champion Andrew Pacifico matched wits against '95 US team-member and 1997 Pro Tour Germany winner Matt Place. Lighting up the board quickly, Pacifico (Sligh Deck) summoned two Jackal Pups and a Mogg Flunkie by turn three. Matt's only recourse was to Man-O-War the Flunkie on the following turn, as well as a chump-blocking Ophidian turn four. On turn six, Matt was at 4 life, needing desperately to draw a counter or other form of defense. Tapping out to cast an Impulse at the end of Andrew's turn, Place was Fireblasted out of existence. Having drawn his cards for game two, Pacifico was faced with a dilemma. With no lands in his opening hand, he had to decide whether or not lady luck was with him. Keeping the hand, he drew a Mountain on his first attempt, allowing him to play any one of the six one-casting cost cards in his opening hand. However, he drew very few lands thereafter and his horde of Jackal Pups was slowly bounced, Quicksanded, and blocked out of existence. Meanwhile, Place was gaining the time necessary for a mono-blue deck to gain control. The end was in sight after Place established an Ophidian and managed to keep it alive. The extra cards he was able to draw allowed him to fill his hand and after showing several counterspells at Pacifico's request, Pacifico conceded the game. In the third and deciding game, Matt survived an early Ball Lightning/Mogg Flunkies attack (bringing him to 11 life) and never looked back. An early Ophidian lived to draw Matt a total of 11 extra cards during the match while Andrew drew land after land in an effort to find some offense. After his Man-O-War had taken Pacifico down to four life, Place showed his hand consisting of six counters and Pacifico resigned the match. ~~~~ Ok, I'm back... Great... I didn't know that he drew 11 cards on my ass... DAMN! =./ ... My first official Ophidian Raping, and he drew 11 cards on me =*( ... oh well... I do now remember the second game, when I had no land on the draw, and kept my hand =) ... who's Psycho? Pacifico is Psycho! ... no one keeps a no land draw against one of the best players in the country. Oh well... I did, and drew a land at the first opportunity =) ... he won... 7-3 Round 5 -- Casey McCarrel playing Blue/Green Tradewind Prison Game 1 -- after he drops a flagpole on my ass, I feel like utter ass seeing that a flagpole type deck made it this far, and I wasn't playing a version of one =( ... don't remember much... He stomped me with third turn Propaganda =( ... Tradewind lock eventually revealed itself. Game 2 -- 4TK??? 4TK!!! Game 3 -- third game was a good one... I dropped cards quick, but couldn't attack because of props and walls... I started scrolling, then he geddoned... KEY PLAY... I sonic bursted his wall of roots... I win because he didn't draw sufficient land after the geddon, and I did... if he had the wall, he could have pulled it out... I pyro'ed the prop, and began beatings... he dropped a man of war, I pyroed, cast suqata, and finished him off... 8-3 Round 6 -- Fredric Foure playing X color white Game 1 -- An early paladin slowed me down, but I kept attacking to get in the key damage... after the bored was cleared from battles, I TD'ed a Ball Lightening, and then a fireblast, sonic burst was all it took. Game 2 -- He tried to pull a Pacifico and keep a hand with no land... I think that It was obvious that the Goblin Vandal scared him so much that he forgot to lay land... I pull off a no brainer. 9-3 ... Top 8 =) After that game, I jumped up with an outburst of " YEEEESSSSS!!! "... I get a big kiss from Elizabeth, and we went to the food court to munch down on some hamburger and chili-cheese fries action. I wake up and get to the convention center Early as hell just to make sure I don't miss anything =) ... I meet with Finkel, Price, Leihar, Linde, Long, Kelly, and Currence... damn, that's a hell of a top 8 if you ask me... As I am confident for my first round loss... I'm pretty much just playing for attention... I'm almost certain that there is no National Team for me =( ... Round 1.. Day 3 -- David Price... Again =( Game 1 -- had em on the ropes, but he kept top decking land to use his cursed scroll =/ ... eventually he got to use two of them at one, and almost the third... he TD'ed like a mad fiend on this game, as he admitted... Game 2 -- probably the closest game... I had him on the ropes.. he was at 3 and I had a cursed scroll and one card ( Nevinyrral's Disk ) he attacked with a fireslinger... Instead of killing him, I choose to kill his slinger (after 5 minutes of looking through his graveyard, and counting his library... I thought that he had a good chance of having a fireblast in his hand) I TD'ed a ball lightening, and balled his ass... he fireblasted it =) ... damn, I'm good... If I had taken the slinger, I would have lost... I'm at 5, he's at three after a scroll during upkeep... he TD's a fireblast followed by a scroll drops scroll... " Scroll you... ... ... call fireblast... " ... " Whatever!!! Scoop " =( Game 3 -- don't want to get into it... scoop lost 0-3 matches total 9-4 Round 2.. Day 3 ... Pete Leihar Again =( Game 1 -- I get a traditional quick sligh draw, and he just can't seem to get good draws against me... can't go into the combo. Game 2 -- I get yet another great draw against Leihar... Pup, Flunkie, Lancer... get him down and show him the damage and ask for the counter... he doesn't show... I win... Game 3 -- He paris-ed but got a great draw after that... turn two and three chill... I was like I'm not casting any spells this game... except... FLOP ... disk dropped on the table... I blew it, and began to damage... I eventually pulled it out... Great Player... Great Games, except the third... 10-4 Round 3.. Day 3... Jon Finkel of all people playing Medallian Blue I think I have selectively removed this from my permenent memory considering it charged me 8,000 much needed dollars... Anyone out there generous enough to hook up a broke Little Caesar's Employee with some consolation action... please feel free to email me ; ) ... hehe I'm going to once again... cut and paste from WotC... Game 1 -- I get a shitty draw with no creatures except one mogg flunkie... Ophidian comes out and gives me the rapin for the second time in my magic career. Game 2 -- Beatings! I state as I get a flawless draw and quickly apply the damage. Game 3 -- Yeaaaa... Beatings again!!! ... yet another amazing draw as sligh can present... one more game and I'm on the team with some cash to save my ass in my time of need. Game 4 and 5 -- I don't really remember as that damn snake must have posioned my ass so bad I started hallucinating... I do remember in the final game, I must have come back to my senses, but he had two snakes then, with a man o' war, and a wyvern... I wish I hadn't come to my senses. I lose to the great Finkel... One of these days you will get Finked too... I just wish that I hadn't gotten Finked then, maybe in the swiss, maybe in a side tournament... Why did I have to get Finked in the last round of the Nationals =( .... darn... ohh well, I will Anti-Fink Finkel next time I play him =) ... Nice games although a rough player... make sure you don't make a move without letting him know exactly what you are doing... He attacked one time in game 1 with a flunkie and an ophidian, I had a suqata in play and I pushed my suqata in the direction of the ophidian, and said, " I take three..." he called the head judge over to say that I hadn't declared a block... whatever man... that was uncalled for, even if we are playing an $8,000 anti match... Now on to the props and slops... Props: Matt Linde -- Can't believe that I was hanging out with the future US National Champion practically the whole tournament... You're a cool guy, a great drafter, and a great player... best of luck to you in the Worlds, and the rest of your magic career. Dave Bryant of 5c Bryant Fame -- Droppin the Helsinki Bomb on Ohio Jamie Duguid -- Droppin the Helsinki Bomb in the Red/White/Blue tournament and winning a box of Exodus... Nice job winning the tourney! Elizabeth -- For winning the first 4 rounds in a national qualifier... You only had to win like 2 more rounds or something to be in the US Nationals... good job for only playing for a month or so. Rudy Ru-Tang Edwards -- For such ideas as Fat Pants, Hero's Resolve, and the tech Sonic Burst. Worth Wolpert (sp) -- For writing on a magic card, " To the best piano player on tour... play on playa... Worth " ... That was cool. Also thanks for contributing to the 8 dollars in tips that I got for playing when I only wanted to play for fun. =) Slops: Jon Finkel -- Calling the head judge on me... Were you that desperate? Joseph Crosby -- I about beat his ass 700 different times over the duration of this trip... Chris Johns -- Listen here fatty... Your mule faced, donkey lip, snagle toothed ass better make it to the next big tournament that we go to... I don't care if you are hangin out with the cool little taco bell dog. Jose Cintra -- Guess What.... YUP!!! YOU GUESSED IT!!! ... he left once again without tradin with my ass... Goldburg McGee better fork out the trade stock next time we get together damnit =) The Drunk Fag -- You probably crushed a family's future with your foolish acts... I hope you get some serious jail time for drinking and driving... I will forever have a picture stained in my mind of that poor woman in the other car, blood all over her face asking me for help as I neared her window telling me that her jaw was broken, and the rest of her family lying there to die as all I could do was call the police and have my feet get chopped up from all the glass on the ground... yes... I am man enough to admit that I cried afterwards... you don't experience that everyday... : ( Well, that's enough props and slops, and enough tournament report for that matter... Thanks for reading... Email me at DrPacifico@aol.com if you want to chat, but gimmy time to answer, because I don't get around to be on-line alot... Thanks again... later Andrew Pacifico 1998 Junior World Champion 1996 U.S. Open Champion Top 8 in 1998 U.S. Nationals #17 in DCI type 2 all around cool guy =)