Subject: Last PTQ for LA [report]: LLL in Prague Date: Tue, 17 Feb 98 16:57:42 +0100 From: Claudia Loroff To: This is a tournament report from the PTQ in Prag (cze)from 14th february. Team Highway to Hell attended with the following lineup: Daniel Brickwell (Slugyard) Boris Buschardt (mono-white Prison) Sven Grottke (PT-Jank) Andreas Pischner (Slugyard) Martin Langfeld (5CG) Claudia Loroff (me with Legion Land Loss) This time, we took the train to go to the PTQ so we had enough time to change the last cards in our decks or change the whole deck during the traintrip. We arrived in Prag a day before the Qualifier and we had a nice evening with discussions about decks and drinking Pina Coladas. Next day we find the venue without any problems (!) because we met some players in the metro. The place was the Mensa of the technical university in Prag (but the mensa was closed and there was no possibility to buy something to eat or to drink). We saw that the field of players would be very hard because all good players of Czech. were there. I decided to play legion land loss because I knew that this deck had the possibility to win against all decks. But I knew also the problems of Landdestructors: When you do not draw the landdestruction you will have a big problem. It was the third time I played this deck at a PTQ (I played it in Braunschweig, 4:1:2, in Nnrnberg 4:3). This was my latest version: 13 Forests 4 Mishras Factories 4 Wastelands 4 Llanowar Elves 2 Fyndhorn Elves 2 Quirion Ranger (against other LLL's) 4 Wall of Roots 4 Thermokarst 4 Winters Grasp 4 Creeping Mold 4 Icy Manipulators 2 Cursed Scrolls (it's a pity that there was no place for more) 2 Stunted Growth (first I found this card not realy good but now I do !) 2 Triskelion 3 Ernham Djinn 2 Serrated Arrows 1 Overrun ----- 61 cards. Sideboard: 1 Serrated Arrow 4 Uktabi Orangutans 1 Seeds of Innocence 1 Tranquil Domain 4 Emerald Charm 2 Barbed Foliage 2 Natural Spring I knew that 61 cards are not the best but I wanted to have the Overrun in my deck. I had many problems in testgames again green wheenis like Stompy to make the last necessary points of damage before the Lhurgoyf would kill me. So I thought, Overrun would be a good surprise. But I met no green wheeni, so most of the time the Overrun was useless. 1. Round: 2:1 against Sven Grottke, from our team with PT-Jank I knew, games against PT-Jank are very hard. They have Tithe (I hate them because you need only 1 mana and they are Instants and they are very usefull against Landdestruction), very cheap creatures and most times they bolt my first Llanow. So it was in the first game, he was to fast for me and I lost. The second game I sideboarded Serrated Arrows and the Barbed Foliages. I got one Foliage out and stopped his Priests to kill them with a sadistic smile on my face with the Serrated Arrows. I killed a Frenetic, too, with the first try ! (Sven hated me for this). I drew enough landdestruction to destroy all red manasources. The Elvenbeatdown and a late Ernham killed him. The third game was like the second one. This time, his blocking frenetic survived but it was to late and he died. 2. Round: 2:0 against Sligh First game I was manascrewed and he beated me down to 3 points of life. Than I seized the control. I destroyed all his Lands and he had only a Jackal Pup on his side but still 18 points of life. But I had a great Ernham and some killing Elves and beated him down. He drew no more land, good for me because he had bolts and other bad stuff in his hand. I Sideboarded 2 Natural Springs and 2 Barbed Foliages. The second game my landdestruction worked like a machine, he made 2 Points of damage, and he needed his two little creatures to block. I had a Barbed Foliage on my hand (very usefull against Ball lightenings), but he never got enough Mana to play something dangerous. 3. Round: 1:2 against Alatar First game my opponent started with a mulligan. He started the game with six cards but he laid no land. So I thought, what that for a strategy will be. Does he know that I play LLL ? Does he want to play a Tithe for 2 Lands ? So I played carefully with one land and two elves. He discarded some cards and I got an idea what kind of deck he played. And I knew: Alatar plays normaly with Land Tax ! My Llannows and later an Ernham killed him, he never drew a land. But later he told me, he hat two Landtaxes on his hand that was the reason that he played with his six cards. I sideboarded the Serrated Arrows, 3 Uktabis, 2 Emerals Charms, 2 Barbed Foliages. The next two games he always got his Land Tax in round 1 or 2 and armored his Priests, so I died very fast. 4. Round: 2:0 against Necro It was a black Necro with a little bit of red and I'm not shure but I think he had a little bit white in his deck, too. First game I destroyed some of his Lands so he consultated for a Badland. It was a realy bad Consult because most of his creatures, 2 bolts and 3 drainlifes where removed from the game. I won this game, it was easy. I sideboarded 2 Barbed Foliages and 1 Serrated and 2 Uktabi. Second game he got out his Necro, I drew no landdestruction and so he had no mana-problems. I Serrated some creatures, later came the Barbed Foliage. I drew two Icy's and a little bit Landdestruction to destroy his red mana with the result that he played two bolts on me. Now I had a Triskelion, he was on 6 and I was on 9 points of life. His upkeep I tapped 2 Lands with my Icy's because I knew that he could kill me with a drain when he plays a lake of the dead now. But he had do something to stop my triskelion or he would die next round. He realy played his lake and drained me for 8. So I was on 1 and he on 14. He drew 6 cards with his Necro but he got nothing against my Triskelion and he died two rounds later. 5. Round: 2:1 Prison First game I made a big mistake. My opponent started and played a Mishra, than a Plateau to sword my first Llannow (in all Matches my First-turn Llanows dyes on bolts or swords. Are they so dangerous ????). Than he played a Tundra and I thought he played PT Jank so I started to destroy all his coloured Mana. He started his Mishra-beatdown. As he played his first diamond I saw my mistakes but I drew no more landdestruction to kill his two mishras. So I died. What an irony of fate! I sideboarded 2 Emerald Charms (I was shure he played with propaganda), 4 Uktabi and 1 Seeds of Innocence. I won the second game very clear with landdestruction and the third one too. He had a propaganda out but I had enough mana for attacking and he never got the chance to get his 4th mana to play a Armageddon or a Wrath. 6. Round: Intentional Draw, against Daniel Brickwell with Slugyard I knew that Slugyard would be a hard matchup against my deck because Slugyard was a follow from bloodyard, a Deck-Idea from Sven and me and I knew the deck realy good. But we thought 4:1:1 will be enough for final 8 and drawed. After 6 round swiss was this our result: Boris: 4:0:2 Daniel: 4:0:2 Martin: 4:1:1 Claudia: 4:1:1 Sven: 3:3 Andreas: 2:4 So Boris, Daniel, Martin and me went into the final 8. Daniel played against Lukus Ladra (Anti-PT-Jank with Wildfire Emissary and Ernham) and lost Martin played against a czech (sorry, I do not know his name) with Tongo, a Tongoversion with perish ! Ondrej Baudys with wheeni-necro against an other czech with a red-white-blue-deck with Frenetics but i'm not shure Boris played against me. That was horrible because we knew from testgames that the chances to win are 50 /50 and he hated my LLL and I hated his white Prison. In Braunschweig we had played against each other and I destroyed his chance for final 8. Now he got his revenge. Or not ? The first game he won, his Winterorb lock came to fast for me and he killed all my elves and Walls. I sideboarded all Emerald Charms (I knew he played with Land Taxes)and 4 Uktabis. I got many landdestruction, he got his Tax but I had a Charm, he played Scroll Rack but I waited with my Uktabi for something like this. I had two Icy's and taped his Mana and I won the game very fast. Third game he played in round 1 and 2 Land Taxes so I played with only one Land, two elves and 1 Wall of roots. I managed to destroy every second land or, later, to tap it with my Icy ( so I could play a second land too). Later he managed it to waste one of his own lands so he could Tax for 6 (!) but I counted the turns and knew that he will be dead before he gets enough Mana for a Wrath or Wisdom. I won 2:1 and Boris was not happy because it was the second time I kicked him out. Halffinals I played against Ondrey Baudis with his wheeni-Necro. I drew realy bad and he played in turn 2 Cumbaji Witches, very deadly for my deck ! I had no chance. But there was an interesting moment: He attaked with his Witch, I had a Mishra with summuningsickness. Will I block ? He had one black mana. If he plays a Funeral Charm, my Mishra will die but I took the risk and blocked. Now he needed some time and decided to do nothing. Than in response of my draw he played the Charm and an Ernham went into my graveyard (the only card in my hand). :( Second game I lost too. No wall, only elves for Cumbaji Witches... No chance. In the other semifinal the Anti-PT-Jank beat the Tongoversion. But Ondrej was already qualified for LA and now it was necessary to play for place 3 and for the second PT-slot. Now I had to play against the Tongo-Version and I knew my opponent and his deck because I played in Nuernberg against him and beat him. First game, my Landdestruction came very late. Once he played a Hammer of Bogardan and for one turn he had the possibility for Hammer-recursion ! He playaed a Frenetic and a Wildfire Emissary but I killed them with Serrateds and one time Cursedscroll (he killed it immediately with his Aura of Silence) and I showed him my Overrun. But than he put out another Wildfire. I got some landdestruction and destroyed his red mana so the Wildfire could attack only for two. I reattacked with one Llanow knowing that I will lose the damage-race and the Overrun will not be enough. I got an Ernham, he sworded it but I got a little bit more time, destroyed some lands and drew a Triskelion. I stopped his attacks. Now I played my Overrun. He made big eyes, my LLanow was 4/4 Trample, the Triskelion 7/7 Trample ! He bolted my Llanow in response and had to throw the Wildfire in to block the Triskelion not to die. So the Wildfire died and he was on 6. He drew nothing helpful and I attacked and shot him down with the Trisk-counters. Second game was easy, the Landdestruction came good, a Stunted Growth (he knew it very well from Nuernberg :) ) gave me some turns more and he died. So I got a place for PT-LA ! Thanks to my team and the store Highway to Hell, Zossener Strasse 36, Berlin. Claudia Loroff Team Highway to Hell.