Subject: HOTT!!! JEFF DONAIS WINS $1,000 NON-SANCTIONED TOURNEY Date: Mon, 22 Jun 98 08:47:00 PDT From: John Thomas To: Frank Kusumoto [[ REPORT.DOC : 2049 in REPORT.DOC ]] HOTT!!!! JEFF DONAIS WINS $1,000 NON-SANCTIONED TOURNEY by John Thomas CW TOP 8 Competitor On Saturday, June 20th, 1998 the mountains trembled, the earth shook, the sun turned black like ash in Garden City, Michigan, and Jeff Donais came out of retirement for a non-sanctioned tournament at the MGC Gaming Center. When I arrived at the MGC Gaming Center (Middlebelt Rd. Just south of Ford Rd.) I was impressed by the size of the tournament area. It was spacious with an area for Warhammer and other gaming but still leaving plenty of room for the tournament center. Evidently this is just the beginning. They are still working on their actual tournament site and will be hosting PTQ s starting in July. This Center is definitely the place to play for the Detroit Metro Area s serious Magic players. The tournament was for $500 1st Place, $250 for 2nd Place, $125 for 3/4th place. The main thing that I would like to thank the MGC Gaming Center for is for keeping their word. How many times have you gone to a tourney which stated prizes and because they had low turnout decided to change them? Well, MGC did NOT do this. The field was small because of many factors including the newness of the center and the 1.5 Format. With 24 brave competitors, including the Living Legend - Jeff Donais, they put out the prize money as stated without grumbling or complaint. Anyway - on to the report: The best way to describe what I was playing is, Jank. My fellow nWo Teammate, Jeff Sluzinski, was quoted before the tournament as stating, What? I can t believe that you re going to play this trash. The deck was UBR with Mana Drains, Force of Wills, Hymn to Tourach. Kills were Juzaams, Solkanar the Swamp King, Fireball, and Earthquake. The sideboard was a morph. 3 Abyss, 2 Blood Moon, and 2 Hammers (and other utility sb cards.) My goal was to show them fat creatures in game one and hopefully overrun them. Game 2 after they sideboarded in their best anti-creature I would sideboard in Abyss, Blood Moon (if dual heavy), and use Hammer recursion and fireballs for the kill. Round 1 vs SRB (1-0/2-0) Game 1 - Opponent land screw - when he finally wound up casting like an Ironclaw Orc I used one of my Mana drains and pumped out the Juzaam. Having a Mana Drain and a Force of Will in hand, the Juice (OJ, he s big, he s black, and if you re married to him he ll kill you during upkeep) goes all the way. Game 2 - Opponent burns a bit but eventually Solkanar hits the table backed by hydros and coutner magic. I manage to outrace him. Round 2 vs Different SRB (2-0/4-1) Game 1 - Bolt a creature, edict a creature, drop the King. Protected King goes most of the way but Mana Drained a Fireblast so that I could Fireball for the win. Game 2 - Down to 4 Life in a big way and he s got a Dwarven miner on the table harassing my Mana production. I have an Ophidian on the table and elect to Hydro the miner. He uses Burnout. Argh. Well, next turn he drops a Suq Ata Lancer which goes all the way. Game 3 - See Game 1 - except a turn 5 Aether Flash ended his day. I found a creature to kill with at leisure. Round 3 vs the Living Legend (2-1, 5-3) Game 1 - Jeff gets Sylvan out early and seeing only Blue and Black decides to go for it paying life aggressively. I manage to Mana Drain his Gerrard s and Fireball him for Some Damage putting him at 4. 4 turns later I draw an Earthquake but wait about 15 turns until I have a Mana Drain and 2 Force of Wills in hand. I manage to snake the damage through for the kill. Game 2 - Saw an abyss from Jeff game 1. Side in Earthquake, 2 Hammers, 2 Blood Moon. (Worried about duals, Thawing Glaciers, and Outpost.) Not much to say. No Hymns, No Counter Magic = No win. I concede after he starts Gaea s Recursion because I hear the time is like 20 minutes left in the round. I don t want a stalling situation in game 3. Game 3 - Jeff thaws, I thaw, we all thaw and that s about it. I see no counters, no hymns again and Jeff winds puts down the furnace, the Cop Red, Sylvan Library, starts to recurs, I m toast. Outpost finishes me off. Round 4 Suicide Black (3-1, 7-4) Game 1 He puts down Vampire Bats turn 1. Turn 2 Attacks for 2, I bolt them down. Turn 3 he Rituals out a Pump Knight and Bad Moon, edict him, my turn nothing. His turn, puts out Erg Raiders, and tries to cast another Bad Moon, which I Mana Drain. My turn, drop OJ. (My but he s rather beefy.) He attacks with the Erg on his turn I block. He drains the OJ the rest of the way. My turn. I drop Solkanar (6/6 w/bad moon.) His turn, drops some chump creatures. My turn. I attack for 6. Drop another OJ (gain one life from SSK.) Attack, attack, attack (multitudes die before the wrath of my creatures.) Game Over. Game 2 Side in: Aether Flash, Abyss, 2 Hammers. He runs me into the dirt. I am smarting from about a 3 minute game. Game 3 Bolt a creature, edict a creature, Mana Drain a Bad Moon, the Abyss. I drop an Ophidians as chump blockers to stall until the Abyss can get to work. I Mana Drain another Bad Moon, and drop Aether Flash. That s all she wrote. Get the Hammer 3 turns later and start with every other turn Hammer recursion until I can get the Hammer back and Hammer him each turn. Game Over. Round 5 (3-1-1/9-5) Jeff Sluzinski - Sligh ( I knew my tiebreaks would be good - Donais was5-0) We ID to get into the final 8. Final Rounds I m seeded 5th and Jeff (nWo teammate) Sluzinski is 4th. >Bummer< Jeff Slighs me two games straight. Goes on to play Jeff Donais. 3 tight games and we go home. Jeff and I split Some Prize Money. Jeff Donais goes all the way as far as I know. I had to go off to Judge another local tournament that night. The Living Legend will have his own report up shortly including pictures. That s all for now. Sorry for it s length. CW signing off. (See Jeff s report for full details.) The following binary file has been uuencoded to ensure successful transmission. Use UUDECODE to extract. Name: REPORT.DOC Part 1.2 Type: unspecified type (application/octet-stream) Encoding: x-uuencode