Subject: PTQ Philly Date: 26 Jan 98 15:58:36 -0500 From: Tom Santarelli To: "fkusumot@ix.netcom.com" If you're looking for a detailed PTQ report, I apologize. Instead, I thougt I'd skim over the matches I had and humbly offer some ramblings. The PTQ Philly, run by Gray Matter, probably saw approx 200-250 people and started a bit after the 10 o'clock start time. No surprise. Couldn't help but laugh my ass off when I showed up and saw "The big man" Tony from Gray Matter with three cards pinned to his shirt: Stasis, Wall of Roots, and Magma Mine, each with a different word: Not - A - Combo!!! Up until Friday night, I'd decided on playing a U/R/w deck, NOT Tongo, but some similar cards: Frenetics, Firewalker, Bolts (mandatory), W. Em. It's significantly different enough. I hate cloned decks. After reading enough Dojo reports to make my head spin, I figured I'd go sideboard ape-shit against the following: Sligh, WW/red/Tax blah blah, Prison, Necro. So, I sideborded HEAVILY against these suckers, and turns out, it was my undoing. More on ugly sideboard later. Round 1 - John Shuler TurboKitty U/W Extremely nice guy, good player. First duel, he gets moving with some 2-land Tithes, I get some pain on the table and start hitting him 2 here, 2 there….He finally gets out a propaganda and a Worb, so I try my darndest to finish him, but I'm low on cards, he's casting multiple Wisdoms and he has the upper hand so I concede….I wanted to try and get three games in. I figure I'll take my chances with my sideboard in games 2 and 3. In: go 2 Auras, 2 pillage, disenchant, disk. Out: Fireball, swords, ? Games 2 ends up very close, but I manage to pull it off. Game 3 was extremely interesting. My opening hand saw my TWO Auras (Nice) and a disk. He plays an early howling mine. I consider offing the mine, but decide not to. While not glaringly apparent at the time, it turned out to be a good move, as I drew the control cards I need when I needed them. I lay a turn three Aura. Turn four, drop some critterage. He then disenchants the disk. I don't pop it. Some time late, lay another aura. Not very nice. At one point, he had a CoP Red out that I was about to pop with a disenchant. I think I fnished him with a cheesy bolt when he was at three. 1-0 Round 2 - Sean Mcelhinney G/R/W Critter-geddon Sat next to Sean at begging of the tourney. Karma, man. Turns out we BOTH will end up making a mistake with our respective earthquakes over the three duels we ended up playing!! Mine was first: I had a Wildfire E on the board and could pretty much attack with immunity, he had a lion. What do I do? Beat him down with a pumped Wolfie?? No, no no…. I earthquake for 2 to kill that lion…..He bolts the wolfie. Man I'm a frickin' Einstein!! Luckily, I managed to get control of the game again with some coutner-spells…No armageddon for you!! In: Hammer, Wrath Out: ??? Game two was friggin twisted. Me: land, done. Him: Land, Land Tax Me: Force of Will Me land done Him: Land tax, Me: Counterspell. Rude. Needless to say, I end up getting hosed even though Sean make HIS boo-boo with an Earthqake. I had a Wolfie out which blocked his attacking S. Lion. He then earthquakes for 2. I pointed out that the Wolfie has prot white, so the lion's damage is red to 0. He had no bolt, so the wolfie lives. I typcially let people take back moves, but this one could prove to be huge an I figured, it washed out with my bone-head earthquake move. Turns out, he pulled out a victory second game. Don't remember much of game 3, but I managed to pull it off. 2-0 Round 3 - Dan Popkaynye U/W "control" I've seen Dan around before, but never played against him. Good guy. Amazing. Three extremely pleasant, solid players in a row. Did all the whiney, stalling cry-babies forget the tourney was today??? His deck turned out to have solid stuff: 'phids, firewalkers, 'spouts, removal, counters (more than me, at least 8500??). I knew that I'd loose a counter war and I was right. His disrupts were H-U-G-E when they needed to be, but somehow I pulled off game one. Hmmm….It'd be nice if I had some stinkin' red blasts in the sideboard…..Maybe he will concede game two if I side in some Mangara's blesssing… ..Ahhhhhh..no… In: Hammer, Arrows Out: Who knows….. Game 2 saw his firewalkers and ophidians are bending me over the kitchen sink. He countered my only two earthquakes.. Bummer. Killer Combo: My frenetics and his firewalkers!! Strong!!! Look Ma……useless critters!! I die an ugly death to a pissed-off 'spout. Game three looked pretty much the same. I die. I have to give Dan some props here, he's a strong player and a great guy. He forgot to pay his spout upkeep at a critical juncture. I reminded him about the spout. Again, if it wasn't such a critical play, I would have let him take it back, but he acknowledged the error, tossed the spout, and we went on from there. 2-1 At this point, I'm not too shaken by this loss because I KNEW I'd have trouble with heavy blue. Again, his disrupts were HUGE. Big. Ugly. I want my Pyroblasts!! Round 4 - Denver Christopher Fruity Pebbles I've played Denver before at a MirV PTQ before. Game 1 was awesome. He kept getting pieces of the combo and had a little mana problem early. I got out some critters and pounded until I was a turn from pulling off game one when he, after letting an Ancestral Knowledge go during upkeep and shuffling, he topdecked his ONLY remaining Enuring Renewal after my cutting!! Nice!! I cut him to victory!! In: go 2 Auras, 2 pillage, disenchant, disk Out: ??? Games two and three, after siding in the goods, both went in my favor. In the words of Frankstein: "Aura good. Shield sphere for 4 mana bad….Grr…." Afterwards, we laugh at how his Shimmer/firewalker duo kicked my ass in the MirV PTQ - He resolves to include it in his board for our next meeting. 3-1 Round 5 - Rob Hahn U/R/w similar to mine I'd never met Rob before, but like most, had read his stuff previously so I knew OF him. Very friendly. Unfortunately, the mana Gods were seeming pissed at Rob today. The round went three games, each more bizarre than the last. Game 1 was twisted. I laid the first land, done. He plopped a land down, done. I threw a second land down, priest, done. He Tithes for two lands on my discard phase. He then Tithes for TWO MORE land on his upkeep. I'm thinking - turn three Lands Edge, hit me for 300 damage! Turns out, he used ALL FOUR TITHES by turn 6 or so while my priest was beat'n him each turn. He continued to draw NOTHING BUT LAND for the rest of the game. Turns out the inverse of mana screw is just as shitty. Game one to me. But, again, I KNOW that against a similar deck with counters, AND ME WITH NO ELEMENTAL BLASTS, I have a shitty chance. Game 2 was all about his outposts, Hydroblasts, and Disrupts. See a trend??? At this point, I worry a little since he's now got the goods on me from his sideboard, and it turns out his creatures are a little different than mine: his are better!!! Game three, the mana Gods show their ugly heads and his deck just doesn't want to "show him 'da mana!" A shitty way to get bumped, I know, but Rob took it in stride. I felt bad, because I recalled one of Rob's 'slops' from PTQ in Harrisburg was: "To mana screw, that decider of every Magic game ever played". Maybe it's something about the Pennsylvania air - it pisses off the mana Gods… 4-1 Round 6 - Didn't Record name SLIGH Ugly. Need I say more?? Had him down to one turn from victory when he throws a handful of hate at me, including saccing 4 mountains to two fireblasts. BUH-ROKEN. In: 3 Hon Passage, 2 Blessings.. Out: ?? Game 2 was more of the same. Creative use of Ironclaw Orc, Lightning bolts, and Fireblasts. Truly a unique, thought-provoking deck. Oh….Ankh of Mishra hurts, too. And Blood Moon. 4-2 and I drop. Surprise. I love Sligh. With still some shot at qualifying in NJ during month of Feb, I thought it wise to jot down some observations, mostly for my own sanity, use at your own risk. Aura of Silence is golden. Huge, man. While I didn't stick around for the finals, I did get a wiff of the decks their that day. LOTS of prison, followed by near equal amounts of R/W/u, Sligh, Blue/x. What the F@%K was I thinking with my lame-ass sideboard???!?? I STUPIDLY left out ANY blue or red blasts from my sideboard and I KNEW that if I'd met any counter-happy decks I'd be in trouble. I was right. Bone-head Sideboard: Hammer, Arrows, 3 Passage, 2 Pillage, 2 Aura, 1 Disenchant, Searing Touch (what the hell was I thinking???), 2 Mangara's Blessing, 1 disk, 1 wrath I'd probably take the following sideboard next time: 5 Blue blasts, 4 Red blasts, 3 Aura, 2 Pillage, Arrows, 1 Disenchant, The other bone-head move I made was to throw in three Knights of the Mists into the main deck. I figured, against common extended decks, it can take out opposing White Knights, Lancers, Pump knights, and they can block and kill a centaur…Smooth move, Ex-lax. Killer combo with Knights of the mist: Knights + Force of will!! Strong!! Should have been spouts, in hindsight…. Knights of the mist blow. Shocking, no? Maybe in two-fingered, blind, underwater booster-draft. But it has no business in an extended deck. Disrupts were killer against Tithes. MY Tithes!!! Should've and kept them in my deck. Mistake. Props: Gray Matter for beating the crowd into cooperative submission. How the fuck can you not understand the concept of shutting the hell up while they pair us up??? EACH and every opponent I played that day! You guys were ALL class acts. A welcome change of pace from getting paired up with the smarmy little whining MtG players of the world. My main-deck Knights of the Mists. You guys are AWESOME with Force of Will. Slops: The smarmy little shit that got caught writing on the tables!! You stupid shit!!!! It's little worms like you that ruin things for the rest of us. Remember, nothing I've said makes sense…. See you in Jersey…. Tom Santarelli flames to: tom_santarelli@chiinc.com