From: Eric Knipp[SMTP:eric.knipp@charterins.com] Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 1998 11:31 AM To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Subject: Texas Semi-Pro Tournament - Round II - Mirvlight - May 3, 1998 The first round of the TSPT being a great success in February with type II as the format, Hatter saw fit to continue his experiment by offering another $13,000 'Semi-Professional' tournament in Lubbock last Sunday. The format was Mirvlight, which has by now been thoroughly explored, and I chose to play a version of the straight blue deck that did so well in the Chicago qualifiers last year. Of 120 seats offered, I assume that 120 people qualified at the qualifier tournaments for the Lubbock tournament. The way it worked was that stores around Texas had an opportunity to purchase a seat for $150, and then held a qualifier tournament, usually at a cost of $10 a head, to make money and get a local player qualified. Hatter hoped this would encourage the growth of the tournament scene in Texas, and also to make a couple dollars or at least break even (which I don't think he did). There were several qualifiers in the D/FW area, and I qualified by winning the qualifier in March at Games Unique. I took the same deck I qualified with to Lubbock. Blue was definately the flavor of the day in Lubbock, accounting for at least half of all decks present. Only 67 people showed up for the tournament, which was unfortunate. For the first tournament, the type II, Hatter only offered 64 seats, and I believe only 1 person did not show up. This time, I guess with finals coming up for College students, the format being Mirvlight, and just the fact that the tournament is in Lubbock, we missed out on a lot more people. Hatter was a little upset by this I think because he felt like it was a big money tournament, and there is no reason to skip out on something like that. I agree, except for the fact that many players probably felt like they could not compete against a top field, or maybe could not afford the time or money to travel all the way to Lubbock. I met players from all over the state, which was neat. There was a bonus to only having 67 players show up - it meant that almost everybody was guaranteed to get at least $100 dollars. 64th place and up all get at least that much. That was nice, knowing that even if I totally scrubbed out like I did in the last Semi-Pro (I finished very poorly indeed), that I would probably get a few dollars to help cover my expenses. Anyway, on with the report. I played the straight blue illusionist deck, as follows - 4 Impulse 4 Dissipate 4 Power Sink 2 Memory Lapse 3 Abduction 4 Man-o-War 4 Ophidian 4 Vodalian Illusionist 4 Serrated Biskelion 4 Waterspout Djinn 4 Quicksand 2 Winding Canyons 17 Island Sideboard 4 Manta Ray 2 Disrupt 2 Floodgate 2 Shimmer 1 Abduction 3 Boomerang 1 Desertion Round 1 - I played against a guy from Lubbock who usually judges tournaments up at Hatter's. I don't remember his name, but as he was a judge he obviously had strong knowledge of the rules and seemed to be a pretty good player. He was playing heavy blue with a touch of white, supporting 3 afterlifes (1 more in the side), several disenchants and at least 2 Harbor Guardians (!) Both games went about the same, he didn't have enough counters and the afterlifes were not a major problem. In fact I beat him down with an afterlife token until he finally drew something to block it with. The second game, I got beaten down early by a spout until I abducted it and he afterlifed it . anyway I started winding out buttloads of creatures and infinity got rolling, after that it was pretty much over for him .. I really think the harbor guardian was a bad choice, though .. a very weak card even though it can block fliers. If I am going to pay 4 mana for a creature, I don't just want a blocker .. I want an instrument of beatdown once I have bounced him a path. Highlight of the match - When he drops a second turn cursed totem in game two, shutting down all the phids and biskelions in our decks, plus my illusionists. Seemed a real weird play, afterwards he told me he sided in 3 of them. I think they would have been better had he been playing some red/green anti-blue monster .. as it was he hurt himself almost as much as he hurt me. Sideboarding - Dropped 2 Spout, 4 Sink, 1 Ophidian - Added 4 Manta Ray, 2 Disrupt (for his boomerangs, impulses, afterlifes, counters), 1 Abduction Matches 1-0, Games 2-0 Round 2 - Played against Bob Coonce. Bob was playing straight blue also, but his version ran 4 lapses, plus I think he had standard Suq'ata Firewalkers, if I rememeber correctly. First game was funny, we both sat there discarding, waiting for the other person to crack. After about 10-15 turns, he drops Winding Canyons and that's game as I get raped by his winded-out creatures .. Second game was similar to the first, except he got the Canyons even earlier. I sided a lot like in the first match, because I didn't want to get into a mana race with a blue deck and have useless sinks in hand. Didn't matter .. this match made me wish I had an extra Canyons in the board, because that was the deciding factor both games. Matches 1-1, Games 2-2 Round 3 - Played against Colin Powell, playing a red/blue counter/burn deck. First game I wasn't sure what he was playing because he kept dropping lancers, incinerates, and the occasional Man-o-War. I thought it was just some funny burn deck with Man-o-Wars. I sideboarded as such, adding 2 Shimmer, 2 Floodgate, and that was it. Second game I get manashy and he does 3rd turn lancer, 4th turn Frenetic & mind stone, 5th turn SPOUT! Wow! I did not expect that! I get worked over by his Man-o-Wars bouncing my Spout back over and over and finally die to fat spoutness. I drop my floodgates because I think all he had that they would be good against were the 4 lancers. I also dump both shimmers. At this point the only sideboard cards I have in are 4 Manta Rays. I get third turn Manta Ray, he bounces, I drop it again, he attacks with Lancer, I quicksand, we go back and forth a little while and finally get into something of a stalemate until I drop spout and start beatdown. Then he lays out a huge 6/6 flying trample monster of doom. I forget the name of that card but my eyes popped out of my head. I let him hit me with it once, then I stole it and phased it with illusionist every turn so that I wouldn't have to pay the up- keep and proceeded with Spout beatdown. Matches 2-1, Games 4-3 Round 4 - Played against a big fat guy playing black/red/white 187-ish. This guy was a penis. He talked trash through the whole match, and complained about how people had been trying to 'psyche him out' all day long. Whatever. I beat him in two incredibly easy matches, the highlight of which was getting 2 shimmers on the board in game 2 to phase out both his mountains and his swamps. Matches 3-1, Games 6-3 Round 5 - Played against a friendly guy from Beaumont playing White/Blue with Armor. He wins the roll and lets me go first. I lay an island, he lays undiscovered, I lay a quicksand, he goes 'tithe' and starts to reach for his deck .. I think for a minute and say 'You're soooooo smart' as he places his tithe back on top of his library. That was it for him, as he had to start discarding and could never recover from my 3 ophidian opening draw. Second game, he chooses to go first and we have a good game in which he finally kills me with redirected damage off a Zhalfirin Crusader. I never got enough mana to really get rolling, but he had a great draw and I probably had no chance. Third game, two early Ophidians net me massive card advantage and he dies by Waterspout beatdown. Matches 4-1, Games 8-4 Round 6 - Played against Joel Mann, playing straight white with Griffins and Armor. I have seen Joel around before and I gather he's a pretty good player, which makes me wonder why he didn't play blue? Anyway, Joel's deck features all the silly white creatures you could shake a stick at, including Volunteer Reserves, Griffins, and chickens. Highlight of the match was when he dropped a second turn chicken and slapped pro blue on it .. I topdeck Biskelion, he has no disenchant so the chicken goes the way of the dodo and I bum rush him with about 8 creatures. A nice easy match, I was feeling very confident at this point. Matches 5-1, Games 10-4 Round 7 - Played against Angie from Austin, playing Red/Green beatdown. Angie was real nice and it was a nice change to play against a girl, we had good conversation throughout the match. Angie and her boyfriend were apparently playing identical R/G decks and both were still playing in the 7th round, which came as a surprise to me. In any case, first game was no real contest as a fat spout goes all the way, highlight of that game was the savage twister that greased two of my biskelions. Second game, she gets manahosed early but manages to get a roots of life on the board along with a centaur and a granger, 2 forests and a gemstone with 1 counter on it. I bounce the granger at one point, while continuing to lay land. When she attempts to recast it, I sink it for 3 and pop the last counter on the mine, and from that point on I had total control, lapsing her lame guildmages to prevent her from getting out of mana screw. 5 points a turn from a phid, manowar, and biskelion do her in, life gain from Roots of Life notwithstanding. Angie was a good sport and I hope to play her again sometime. Matches 6-1, Games 12-4 Round 8 - Played against Brian Ogilbee Brian, like Bob Coonce earlier was one of the more noteworthy people I played against. He was playing straight blue also. By this time, the top 8 in the double elim had been set, and only 1 out of 8 decks wasn't straight blue. That meant whoever was going to win the tournament had a hard road ahead. In any case, in both games my deck pukes on me. First game, Brian lays a land every turn for 12 turns and can afford to cast stuff while I sit at 5 mana and discard card after card. He also drew 3 abductions. Second game I pull no countermagic, and he gets Winding Canyons and tons of mana long before I get past 6 mana, and that's it, even though it was a long game and I almost came back from certain defeat. Unfortunately Brian is a very good player, and I think his deck was better tuned for blue-on-blue than mine. I made a few mistakes, but nothing that changed the course of the game until the very end, and it would not have mattered at that point anyway. Matches 6-2, Games 12-6 So, I leave with probably a lot of DCI points and $250 to cover my expenses. I enjoyed the tournament immensely, even though double elimination was scary at first. Hatter will not be doing any more semi-pro tourneys because he thinks it is bad for magic. So be it .. in any case I want to give Hatter a hand for trying to do a good thing, and hopefully he will see fit to run more good tourneys in the future. Eric Knipp chemist@computek.net