From: "Jamie" Subject: Paris PTQ in Boston #1 You know, I don't have near enough time in my life for this tourney report, but I just have to tell everyone about the day I had yesterday. Went down to Boston with the Five Colors of Death, all of us hopeful that we could do well, get some into the top eight and get one or two qualified for Paris. We've been working our asses off, and we all have decks that I think will do well. Ira playing smashstone. Ira is a junior that is going to be a BIG name someday. Today he's playing a howling mine, island sanctuary, 4 millstones, 2 outposts, tons of counters and he plays it like it's a red blaster deck. Ira has such an understanding of the game, such a Zen oneness with the game that he knows just what to counter and what to leave alone, with no thought whatsoever. He plays this deck faster than anyone that has ever played blue white. Mill you, Start my turn, decline to draw one card, attack with the oupost token, done. Counter whatever you try to do that I see will hurt me, ignore what doesn't, mill you before I start, thaw before I draw, make a little token, cap you AGAIN, untap, start my turn, only draw one card, attack with the outpost tokens, think for a half millisecond about whether I'm forgetting anything, done. GO GO GO GO GO GO!!!! Smashstone. For anyone out they're trying to categorize this deck as anything that has ever been printed, forget it. Ira has an eclectic mixture of cards in here that provides him with about 4 roads to victory. Its not counter post, its not a standard millstone, and it's not like anything you have ever seen. I've been playing him all week with it, and he knows just what to counter and just what to leave alone. I threw out stuff that I think he will counter, trying to disguise the real threat I'm holding, and he knows. He is an absolutely brilliant player that can play mill or red blaster equally well, and is the number one ranked Arena player in VT right now. He's 15 years old. Keith is playing another unique deck with a ton of white weenies, some blue for recall, and good sideboard cards, and it's the exact opposite of what you would expect as well. It's the only white weenie horde deck on the planet that bores his opponent to death before killing them. Most of his matches are close to being called on time when he finally defeats his opponent. I'm playing a mono black deck. No knights, no Necropotence, no black vise, no tower, and light on a number of things that people think is essential. Deano (Keith's brother) is playing big creature Necro, but also with the knights, and infernal darkness. Louise is playing a deck similar to Keith's in color choices, blue white weenies but she has a lot more control than Keith does. More counters, control magic's and heavier blue than Keith. Mathew playing red blaster goblins. Josh playing Turbo Stasis. Brandon playing frenetic hammer, an amazing player that is right on the cusp of being unbeatable. In our last tournament Brandon went through five rounds of Swiss, swept all of his opponents 3-0, and won one match 2-1. He lost one game all day in the rounds of Swiss. Playing almost the same deck today. The Lovely Mare, along for the ride, encouragement, and just so we can spend the weekend together and I can make everyone in Boston gawk at my beautiful wife. Goddamn it I'm a lucky man to have her! The day starts off well. Everyone I come with wins the first round. The second round, half of us lose, including me. The third round, I play Walter who's playing a pox deck. He poxes us both down really low on life, the proceeds to draw seven swamps and die to my huge drain life. SSSSSSSSSSSUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKK I take him in the second with some god draws as well. Almost all of us win this round; almost the entire team is at 2-1 Fourth round, I play Andy, a really, really nice guy that I played in the final rounds of Swiss to qualify for Dallas. We chat, have a nice friendly first game where he stomps me with an Erhnam I can't kill. Second game I kill him with a forest walking Ihsan a lake of the dead puts out early, which he promptly pillages. He lays an Erhnam forgets I get forestwalk, and the Ihsan kills him when he can't draw the second bolt he needs. I win with no land on the board. The third game, a relentless wave of fliers that he can't stop fly over and strip him of any strategy. Andy will continue on and finish 5-2, just out of the top eight. Andy and I have a ten-minute round, and I'm one of the first ones done. I walk over to the team's table and Ira meets me there. He has milled his opponent to death twice in ten minutes. Smashstone wins again. I 'm not worthy. Keith has lost his first round, Louise loses again, Matt loses again, Dean wins again, and Brandon loses again – the draws are not with him. Me – 3-1 Ira 4-0 Keith 3-1 Dean ties 3 –0 –1 Louise 2-2 Brandon 2-2 Josh 2-2 Matt 2-2 In the fifth round I play black deck with no Necros, a lot of first striking, bad moons, and feast of the unicorn. I get GOD draws both games, I get a first turn hippy, and he gets one on the third. I draw the drain life to get rid of it, contagion anything he has on the board, and he never has a chance against the insane luck that I have. In the second game he gets one swamp for almost the entire game. It's over fast. After this round – Me – 4-1 Ira 4-0-1 Keith 4-1 Deano 3-1-1 Louise 3-2 Brandon 3-2 Josh 2-3 Matt 2-3 We start the sixth round, and I think – If I can just win this one, I'm in. I play a frenetic hammer deck (well, almost it was quite similar) It's a heavy disk environment as we go through six disks before the game is done. He thaws all the land out of his deck by the time we are done, and I win the first game in a half-hour battle. Second game, he gets out a late game Fat Moti, I'm holding a contagion, and no other black cards in hand. I have to sack a land to the lake in order to cast it, and if I do, that will put me down to three lands. He has two blues untapped. Very carefully he has them untapped when casting the Djinn…. Do I land screw myself, or do I sit and wait for him to draw counters, damage and controls. I curse repeatedly out loud. Damn it, damn it, and damn it. I want to be in the TOP EIGHT!!!!! I bite the bullet, decide to contagion the fat bastard before I attack, that way, if its countered, I won't lose the Sengir. I sac the land, say a little prayer, and say. I attempt to contagion the Moti? "Moti is Contagioned" – my opponent replies. Thank God. The Sengir relentless attacks until he dies. I'm 5-1 Draw the next round and be in the top eight. After this round Me – 5-1 Ira 4-1-1 Keith 4-2 Deano 4-1-1 Louise 3-3 Brandon 3-3 Josh left – side tournament Matt left – side tournament We have four people n contention for top eight. I knew I played in a good competitive environment, and this proves it. There are 97 people here. The seventh round starts, and everyone at my table wants to draw. Four of the six leave, and the judges tell my opponent and I – Your opponents have almost all dropped out. You have a low opponent win percent. If you draw, you might make it in, you might not. There are a ton of people at 4-1-1 Some of them will be 5-1-1 like you at the end of the round. You may not make it in if you draw. You may draw if you wish, but we make no guarantees. My opponent and I agree to draw. The judges come over with statistics to show us our chances. To allow us to make the best choice possible. We decide to draw, we talk some more, we are nervous. It is ten minutes into the round. We talk some more, look over the figures, and I'm thinking. If we play, and I win, I will be the top seed. I will have the weakest players to play against to get into the top two, and a trip to Paris. WHAT DO I DO!!!!!!!!!!!! I start to stand up and look around. I want the Hammer or Tom Guervin to be around so I can ask them their advice. They have been in this situation a lot more than me, and would know the best course to take. Tom has always been very helpful, and I'm getting to know the Hammer a little. They are both involved in side tournaments, and I can't interrupt. My opponent says he wants to play, but that he offered me the draw and that if I want, I can take it, and we will draw. It's my decision. We decide to play. In the first game, I draw three lands before I die. In the second – I draw thirty. I clear the board with a disk, late in the game (don't ask how I managed to survive so long, because its laughable) I blow a disk, kill everything on the board, he has about six land out, me about eight, I'm holding a lake of the dead, and a drain. I draw a swamp, lay it down, and tell him to go. I draw a swamp, lay it down, and tell him to go. I draw a ritual, tell him to go. I draw a swamp, lay it down, tell him to go. I draw a swamp, lay it down, tell him to go. I draw a ritual, and tell him to go. Andy, Louise, Josh, Brandon, the judges, and random humans groan in sympathetic agony with me. I draw a swamp, lay it down, and tell him to go. The crowd groans in sympathetic agony with me. I draw a swamp, lay it down, and tell him to go. The crowd groans in sympathetic agony with me. I draw a swamp, lay it down, and tell him to go. The crowd groans in sympathetic agony with me. I draw a swamp, lay it down, and tell him to go. I sack all my land to the Zorb before I die. I look at the next five cards – I have not drawn 1 of the four drain lives I carry in my deck, and half of my deck is gone. Swamp Mishra, swamp, contagion, and drain. I still had a long way to go. Sigh. I find out Ira got land screwed his first game, and then drew two thawing glaciers in his opening hand the second game, and never drew a basic land before he died. Ira plays twenty-eight lands in his deck, two of them glaciers, and a land tax. He is as crushed as I am. Deano gets land screwed as well, and Keith wins, but it doesn't matter, because Keith is 5-2 , like me, and we don't make it in. All but one of the 5-1-1's makes it in. I look over the figures. My opponent (the guy who just beat me) and I both were sandwiched between two guys that had insanely high opponent win percentages. If you look closer, we were doing just fine, and I would have been seated 4th or 5th and my opponent the same if we had taken the draw. My opponent goes on to qualify for Paris, and he deserves it. He was really a nice guy, quiet, thoughtful, and didn't gloat or scream when he won. I wish him the best. I blame this on no one but myself. The judges tried hard to help me make the right decision, but I think we all missed the fact that the two guys that we were between were just really high, making it look like we were worse off than we were. I heard and saw some amazing accounts of bad sportsmanship and possible cheating, but I was very lucky and played really, really cool people all day. Sixth round of Swiss – four of the five colors of death in contention,but after the seventh, no one makes it in. All who could have made it in suffer disgusting land screw, and Keith won, but none of the 5-2's made it in. Damn. The two best parts of the day – Watching the Hammer and ??Weisman?? play in the finals of a sealed deck, and make the game out to be something to be really proud of. Both were hilarious in their repertoire and banter, play was friendly, and some of the plays were stunning. The crowd laughed there ass's off and watched two really skilled combatants show how sealed deck is supposed to be played. Also, Watching Tom Guervin make it into the finals of the thousand-dollar tournament playing a type one deck with snake basket in it. Can't give away too much as he might not like me talking about his deck. Tom is also hilarious to watch play, and team five colors of death learned a lot this weekend. The best players in the world, all play agonizingly slow, sideboard with more care than anyone I have ever seen, count and look through graveyards constantly, and really show how the game is supposed to be played. Just Unreal. Goddamn it was good to get down to Boston, make some new friends, and meet up with some old ones. Really a great crowd of people this time. Also, Rob Dougherty ran a fantastic tournament as always in a really classy building that helped elevate the feeling of professionalism to this little sport, (and blow me all you people who pooh pooh over how much I like to call this little diversion a sport.) Later all, sorry it wasn't longer, but I have so much to do, it shouldn't even have been as long as it was. Later all Jamie C. Wakefield Bard of the Five Colors of Death 18th at Pro Tour 1 Just About Dead Last Pro Tour Dallas