From: Sean McKeown To: Frank Kusumoto Subject: PTQ Edison, NJ 082398 Well, long time no tourney report; finally I decided to get off of my lazy butt and do another report now that we've got another PTQ season upon us. MmMmMm, Chicago, how I would kill for the invite... a rochester-draft 'Tour! As the member of Team Pooh (and Friends) hated by the Sensei, since I didn't go to Nationals like everyone else, I got to be card-bitch for the tourney and just got my cards back Saturday.. to find that I now own excessive amounts of the recent hot cards like Tradewind, etc. No complaints, but as I head off to meet up with Seth in the middle of the night I'm hoping to add a bit to my collection when I get my Sealed Deck. As is everyone else, I assure you... After a lot of dancing around NYC and Westchester, Seth and I manage to get ourselves down to the Edison site for the Grey Matter PTQ this Sunday, him deciding he's going to go through the day on antihistamines and chocolate, me most likely contracting some horrid disease in the middle of all this. I'll stop pretending you care now and just tell you what I registered... When I opened the Tempest starter, I started laughing. What power Sealed Deck rares, a Field of Souls, Whim of Volrath, and Maddening Imp (OK so the Imp is kinda cool). It features a small host of Black shadows, a bit of White control, and little else of note.. Green fat and Red removal are lacking, and the only Buyback is Disturbed Burial (not like I was complaining). I open the Stronghold booster and stop laughing at the Imp, because I have a Bridge to make him Mr. Wrath of God. Combos well with a small host of little Shadows, neh? I thought so too. Exodus offers little at all, some silly small creatures, Dauthi Cutthroat, and the oh-so-power Monstrous Hounds. Yaaaay. But I get back the deck I register, and I know I can make something of it, so it's time to put my money where my mouth is... I played: 6x Islands 4x Plains 7x Swamps Dauthi Cutthroat Dauthi Marauder Dauthi Horror Dauthi Slayer Maddening Imp Grollub Leeching Licid Mounted Archers Master Decoy Calming Licid Thalakos Scout Thalakos Mistfolk Giant Crab Wind Drake Wayward Soul Cloud Spirit Coiled Tinviper Counterspell Pacifism Cannibalize Brush with Death Disturbed Burial Ensnaring Bridge It's an obvious evasion-speed deck with the tools it needs to stop sucessful counterattacks and to move blockers out of the way, but it's also a pretty nice Bridge deck.. if I can Bridge-lock us early, I can most likely kill you before you can kill me... the Shadows with Burial, Brush with Death, and Leeching Licid are all paths to victory if I've locked the board. The Counterspell is out of place, really, but since I was lacking actual permanent removal I wanted to prevent my opponent from abusing Buybacks or doing anything nasty to me. As if the Imp + Bridge isn't pretty damned nasty... though more often when I got it to work, it was Imp + Pacifism or Imp + Master Decoy. I was taking names and DCI #'s during the tourney, but lost my sheet sometime around the fourth round so I don't have them. Here's how I did... Round One: I get paired against an obviously unexperienced opponent, and beat the hell out of him with four Shadows played once per turn on turns 2-5. Smack. I barely saw what colors he was playing, though he insisted he would have won if he drew a second White mana. The Disturbed Burial in my hand seemed to tell me otherwise, whatever he had planned. Second game I get my nasty little Imp, the Grollub, and Master Decoy on the board. I've Pacified a Shadow creature, and Master Decoy the second. Activate the Imp, his Opportunist takes the opportunity to run into Mr. Grollub, putting him back at twenty life, when I'm around fifteen or so. I Decoy and Imp any creatures he plays, saving the Imp's autokill ability for in case he tries to play two creatures in a turn without declaring his attack phase first.. which of course he didn't know enough to do. Games: 2-0 Matches: 1-0 I ask the judges for their official ruling on the Imp combos I have running, and Brian rules that yes, if I Master Decoy-Maddening Imp my opponent for the entirety of the game, it does count as a Bye. Heh heh heh. Round Two: Mmmm, an actual opponent now. I've forgotten his name, since I've lost my sheet, but he tries to intimidate me by telling me his DCI sealed ranking should be about 100 points higher since he went 6-0-2 at the last PTQ. I ask him what his DCI ranking _was_, and decide not to gloat over the fact that I'm up in the mid-1800's. Game one I do my customary Shadow-rush, Flier-rush using Master Decoy, Pacifism, and/or Cannibalism to speed through. I believe he was running a R/G/W deck and as such had little to no Shadow of his own... so I sided the Cutthroat out for my Mana Leak, since he's probably got a few tricks up his sleeve. Game two was similar, with my Shadows busting out and me getting just enough non-Shadow and removalish things like Master Decoy to speed through his defenses. I think.. my memory sucks royally at the moment. Games: 4-0 Matches: 2-0 Round Three: I lose the first game to an extremely well-timed Rolling Thunder, killing the Imp, Decoy, and a 2/1 Shadower.. I assume that was game, as I don't get enough stuff to block his R/G/W deck's creatures before I can get the Bridge, or Burial the stuff back into play. Ouch..one turn later and I so had him. Among other things, I had the Counterspell in my hands, but had tapped out to play the Imp... I drew the second Blue next turn of course. My Littlest Sensei cringes. I don't SB the Cutthroat out for the Mana Leak, deciding to see whether he has any white Shadows first. Game two was the classic Holy Pikula I seem to pull at least once per PTQ, and it just goes to show you that big balls are all you _really_ need to hammer the game home.. forget card advantage! I develop nicely, hitting with a Horror, Cloud Spirit, and Thalakos Scouts. He has a Muscle Sliver I match with my Grollub, and I have 2 Swamps, 2 Islands to live with, and three White cards in hand: Decoy, Archers, Licid. He plays the oh-so-bad-for-me- right-now Scalding Salamander, apparently for mucho card advantage by wiping my side of the board clean. So you lost, right? No, you see... I topdeck the Ensnaring Bridge, and get annoyed at the fact that I have three White cards in hand that I can't cast. But I cast the Bridge and attack with the Shadows, seeing as I have little better to do. Hit him down to twelve. His turn. He smiles, since his Salamander is still here and can still attack me to beat the hell out of my evasion critters. He declares his attack phase... and here's where big balls took place over common card-advantage theory. "I discard a card to return Thalakos Scouts to my hand. In response, I discard a card to return Thalakos Scouts to my hand. In response, I discard a card to return Thalakos Scouts to my hand. I now have one card in hand. Do you wish to attack with your Skyshroud Falcon or your Elves?" I draw up to two cards, attack with the Horror, then play my Plains (of course!) and cast the Scout. Two turns later, I have two cards in hand again and attack for 4. Yadda yadda yadda. He gets down to about five, then Fanatics my Horror and starts using Invulnerability on the Scout. I draw the Horror, and he draws up to ten Lands. I draw the Cutthroat, and the Cutthroat starts delivering the beats for a point a turn. Two turns later I draw the Counterspell and end the game by countering the Invulnerability the first time. I lose game three to a first-turn Raging Goblin with second-turn Maniacal Rage on it, when he Shocks my Calming Licid and Kindles my Wayward Soul. I'm out of cards big enough to kill it, and I don't draw my Pacifism. I chumpblock hoping to get an answer, and he plays a Pincher Beetles, so even the Cannibalism is a weak answer unless I Cannibalize a creature onto another of mine to get a bigger blocker ;). I hope for Bridge, Pacifism, Decoy, or Burial to clinch it, but I draw Lands. Mounted Archers acts as a bad-player detector, buying me time, as he forgot I could use it to block more than one creature... so I chump the Goblin and the Beetles, killing the Beetles. I made a _minor_ misplay that might have cost me the game, I played a Plains instead of a Swamp turn 2 (I wasn't looking, I pulled a Land from my hand and played it...) so I failed to play a 2nd-turn Horror, which might have been potential Shock-bait if he thought I would develop more Shadows to outrace him... not unlikely, since he does know how many Shadows I have... Games: 5-2 Matches: 2-1 Round Four: I barely remember this, though I do recall I did several speed-Shadow beatings, and one game I let him overuse his Avenging Druid, piling Lands into play and creatures into his graveyard. Unfortunately, it didn't mill his Burial, or he had it in play... he busts out a serious halt to my assault, which is mixed shadows and nonshadows; I counter a Carnassid, Cannibalize a Spike Colony when he's tapped out, and tap the creature I Cannibalized onto with my Master Decoy. The rest of my creatures bust through his one remaining defender for the kill. Games: 7-2 Matches: 3-1 Round Five: I lose the first game in a fairly close race of shadows vs. nonshadows due to my inability to go over 4 mana, casting some parity-shifters like the Giant Crab, or playing 2 creatures in one turn. I lose the second horribly to a Fireslinger, Seeker of Skybreak, Reckless Ogre assault, stopping my blockers so he can come smack me for six a turn. I draw the Bridge and play it at five life, but fail to draw a means to kill the Slinger (or remain alive) within the next few turns it takes the Slinger to go all the way. Cannibalism or Brush with Death would have been game for ME, but instead I topdeck like a Pro... Lands. Games: 7-4 Matches: 3-2 (Drop). Well, that was the deck's ONE weakness {besides possibly too MANY Shadows, which is _generally_ a Good Thing (TM)}, and I lost to it. D'oh. If I'd pulled through game one I'm sure I'd have won the match, because my deck looked basically superior, but when 2nd turn Fireslinger, 3rd turn Seeker comes a-knockin', you better have a Hill Giant on the board. The Reckless Ogre was also VERY key there, as he beat me down so fast I had no time to recover under my own Bridge. But I didn't, so instead of having a shot at the 8, I get to whine about it instead. The ever-random... "PROPS" and "SLOPS" "Props": Toby Wachter, for getting a God deck, playing 18 Lands, losing his first four games to manascrew, dropping out of the tournament... and not being bitter about it. Seth "my ride to New Jersey" Burn, for, um, leading our team? Thanks for the ride ;) Zvi Mowshowitz, just because. Shep: for NOT COMING. Thank you! Mary Van Tyne: Do you really need to ask?? :) "Slops": Toby Wachter, for getting a deck with Living Death, Bombardment, Roll, Spitting Hydra, black Shadows and a decent assortment of creatures and other removal, and going 0-2. Cool as you are, we're just not going to let you forget it. And for losing to me twice in Mental Magic because you weren't creative enough to think of the Necratog... Junun Efreet my ass! Come ON, at LEAST call Hypnotic Specter... The Littlest Sensei, for being weak. (The One And Only) Sensei Pooh, for hating me since I didn't go to Nationals with the team. See you all around... --Sean McKeown --Gandalf@BDominia.com Mennenite on IRC "Who am I to need you now, To ask you why, to tell you no To deserve your love, and sympathy... You were never meant to belong to me..." --Smashing Pumpkins, "Crestfallen"