Subject: OH "Tradewind Octane" 0117 (PTQLA Tourney Report)
Date: Sun, 18 Jan 1998 17:47:09 -0500
From: brett@columbus.rr.com
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com
Tourney reports are usually lame self-serving documents devoid of any valid strategic insight or general literary worth. In that tradition, this one goes out to Bobby Ghaheri and Jason Opalka, both of which couldn't find an end to their praises for the originality of the deck and my overall deck construction genius.
Nobody wants to know that I stayed up till 4:30am playing 10-player Quake II, slept for three hours, then decided to go with a deck I had built a couple days ago and only playtested once over Apprentice vs. counter/burn, so I wish all the authors out there would try to keep this kind of thing to a minimum (although I must say that, with Jeff Donais as head judge, Andon again ran a very smooth tournament that was over around 8:00pm, despite about 200 people attending).
For your convenience, you can either read the report or go straight to the jank.
Columbus OH PTQLA 17 Jan 98
Round 1 vs. 5CG w/ Tradewind Riders
Game 1: As I recall, he Terrors a Tradewind and Armageddons at a rather inconvenient time. That's no good at all.
Game 2: He Armageddons and leaves me with a Tradewind and a Monkey in play. That's dumb.
Game 3: He doesn't Armageddon. I Nekrataal his Tradewind and win.
Record 1-0
Round 2 vs. White Weenie w/ Armor
Game 1: He Armageddons when I have just a Tradewind out, and he's got 2 knights and a Crusade. Eventually, I get a Monkey and a Man-o'-War, though, and take over.
Game 2: I get out Tradewind and a couple other creatures fairly early and take over.
Record 2-0
Round 3 vs. Red/Green beatdown
Game 1: 3 Hymns do the job, although I take 8 from Tactics.
Game 2: 3 Hymns don't do the job. I take 12 from Tactics and bring out the 4/4 Sand Golem. All he did all game was play an Erhnam.
Game 3: He's playing Boas and Pit Traps. I actually side out the Hymns for Blue Blasts and Arrows. Tradewind/Nekrataal action takes effect and kills everything he puts down. I sided out a couple Orangutans for Sea Sprites, but eventually I get all Pit Traps in his hand and Lobotomize, then Erhnam can kill him.
Record 3-0
Round 4 vs. Eric Lauer playing Prison
Eric is the best player I went up against. He seemed a little too tired to be playing a slow deck like Prison, though.
Game 1: He goes through all 4 Wraths, even Recall'd one... Every Icy eventually met a monkey, and he conceded when I Blessing'd the 4th time, having put all the Hymns and Orangutans back in my deck (he had about 5 cards left in his library).
Game 2: Out comes the Energy Flux. Eric forgets to upkeep his Arrows, then concedes.
Record 4-0
Round 5 vs. John Marks playing CounterPost
Game 1: I need to take the mulligan. My new hand is consists of a Tradewind, a Manowar, and 4 land. I get the Tradewind plowed, he Interdicts a Wasteland, plays Humility, and all I'm drawing is land.
Game 2: I sideboarded in Sea Sprites just for more creatures. As luck would have it, my Dissipated Tradewind and a Sea Sprite are the only creatures I see. He gets a real kick out of me trying to cast Lobotomy. I'm holding a Tranquil Domain all game, which does me a lot of good. I never see the Erhnams / Counters / Wastelands, and a turn 14 Hymn doesn't help much.
Record 4-1
Round 6 vs. David Harris (winner 12/13 Columbus PTQLA) playing Sligh
Game 1: Erhnams do their job and I win.
Game 2: He burns me pretty badly, but eventually I get out 2 Tradewinds, a Man-o'-War, and an Erhnam to block. Finally I play the 2nd Erhnam and can attack. He's got a Quicksand and tries to Block / Quicksand / Fireslinger / Fireslinger one of them, which I return to my hand and play again to block. I Force of Will his Fireblast when I'm at 4 and finish him off.
Record 5-1
Round 7 vs. CounterBurn w/ splash white
Game 1: I get out a Tradewind and some other creatures pretty early and he concedes.
Game 2: We both Wasteland each other a couple times and have to discard for awhile. I get the mana I need first, though. He starts laying mad Ophidians. He has three Ophidians and an Orgg out, and I manage to put two Ophidians back in his hand then Hymn them away. I had to take Orgg once, but then he was basically locked down.
Record 6-1
There were a ton of 5-1's. A couple of them decided to draw, which was real intelligent, since there was no chance of a 5-1-1 making it to final 8. But 6-1 gets me in.
Quarterfinals vs. Vineyard
Game 1: No land, it's Paris mulligan, so I'm down to 6 and get a Bayou and a Wasteland this time. I manage to get out a Tradewind and a Nekrataal, but those both die. He has a Centaur, Factory, and two Cursed Scrolls, and I never see an Orangutan.
Game 2: I only see one blue mana the whole game, and sitting with a bunch of counters. I play a Tradewind which gets killed. He gets the Cursed Scroll out, and again I never see an Orangutan.
That certainly sucked. Semis was:
White Weenie + Red w/ Firestorms (made finals in the 12/13 Columbus PTQLA)
vs.
Sligh
and:
John Marks undefeated CounterPost
vs.
A real prick playing Sligh w/ Orcish Artillery
I don't know his name, but this guy is an ass. He's always giving people shit then coming back with a "who? me?" attitude when he gets called on it. He mana stacks his deck every game, evenly distributing his land, sideboard cards, and the rest of his deck, and for some reason the judges let him get away with it since he riffles several times afterwards. Unfortunately, I've never played him, because I'd shuffle the hell out of his deck. Both games Sligh got 1st and 2nd turn Fanatics then 2 Fireblasts to end the game. I know John has 3 Gerrards in his main deck, and several blue blasts in the side (I'm assuming a 4th Gerrard's and possibly Warmth, also). John didn't get any Gerrards either game, and had to try to hold off Sligh with Outposts and Thawing Glaciers. He's a good guy, though, and took it pretty well.
Finals was Firestorm White Weenie vs. Prick Sligh... The guy playing White Weenie somehow manages to shuffle his deck in hard plastic top loader protectors, and the other guy stacks his deck every game... I'm sure it was something to see, but I went home.
Tradewind Octane by Brett Foster
4 Counterspell
4 Tradewind Rider
4 Man-o'-War
3 Suq'Ata Firewalker
2 Force of Will
2 Lobotomy
4 Hymn to Tourach
3 Nekrataal
4 Uktabi Orangutan
3 Erhnam Djinn
3 Gaea's Blessing
3 Wasteland
4 Underground Sea
4 Tropical Island
4 Bayou
4 Island
2 Underground River
2 Swamp
1 Forest
Sideboard
3 Sea Sprite
2 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Energy Flux
2 Tranquil Domain
2 Dystopia
2 Storm Seeker
2 Serrated Arrows
Brett Foster brett@columbus.rr.com http://home.columbus.rr.com/luna