From: "Jamie" Subject: Boston PTQ for the NY sealed Pro Tour Keith, Louise, Ira, Josh, and I went down to Salem to spend the night only 30 minutes from the qualifyer, and get some sleep. Well, Keith snores, and Ira wiggles so much in the bed he and I shared, I think I ended up with about 4 hours of sleep. Not feeling great when we wake up, but at least we don't have to drive the three and a half hours to Boston at 4:30 in the morning. We arrive and as usual, the entire east coast Magic famous players league is there. Mike Loconto Hammer Nate Clark Hashim Bello (sp?) Adam Green Fritz The Mighty, Mighty Michelle Bush Darwin Kastle Dan Lewis (Danl on IRC) Etc, etc, etc…. As usual, this pro tour qualifyer is looking more like a Pro Tour than anything else. Also here is Team Quarterstaff from Burlington – Alan and Don Webster and the hilarious Fritz. They take up a seat with us, and we chew the fat waiting for the rounds to start. Don has a new squandered stasis deck that everyone is talking about, and wants to try his hand at Ira's counterpost. No offense intended to Don, but Ira smokes him three games in a row, proving that counters are the bane of these be-all-end-all squandered resources decks. Ira has thirty counters in his deck. Nothing happens of interest, and we all fall asleep watching these immencly boring games. (Not a slam on either Don or Ira, just the facts. Control vs control lock is like watching paint dry.) Hammer is here because (obviously) he hasn't qualified for NY yet, and a lot of people are rooting for him to get in. Us included. So we get our packs, I register mine very carefully, and then we get the packs we are going to play with, and I look over my sheet, and I know that my luck is not good today. I have none of the traditional good cards that make up a sealed deck, and I'm not good enough at this to realize what I do have. I have no big flyers, I don't have a torch or an incinerate, nor any counterspells at all, no red charms, no black charms, and no huge green fatties. No rock slide. I do have some pretty good stuff in green like the queer ranger, and a warthog, but that's about it for green.I have an ovinomancer in blue, but that's it for blue as well. No counters, no ray, no control magic for red and green. Very bad. My black is o.k. as far as a stupor, a coercion, a knight, an askari and a feral shadow, but there is no removal. My red direct damage consist of a fireblast. That's it. These are the things I look for in a sealed deck. I don't have the stuff I traditionally like to see. These are my first impressions. My first impressions tell me that I have nothing that someone like me who sucks at sealed deck, can use. Initial three second exploration of the packs over – I announce to my friends that I am ready to go home. I have lost. (lets see if I can drag – you the reader – to the same discoveries, highs and lows of the day without revealing too much until the end. Like a fine novel. No giving away the ending before we reach the end. Tell me how it works, comments always appreciated.) Keith is deep, deep in thought at his end of the table. Questions about his deck are met with silence, and a quick nod. He's not ignoring people, he's just very focused this morning, and thinks he has the good stuff. He does have the good stuff, and we tell him he has a top eight deck made, and this is it buddy, this is your day. The deck is amazing, and just the type of deck that keith plays normaly anyway. Keith's deck listed in order of like cards and combo's. 1 Sandstalker (we call them Driveby's, as in a driveby shooting) 2 suq ata lancers mini drivebys, and flanking, and very mean 2 river boa yes, two river boa 1 warthog yes that's right – he got three landwalkers, and three drivebys. Combo cards – Dwarven nomad Dwarven vigalantes Zebra unicorn Wildfire emmisary The damage Reflect damage Incinerate Heres the deal – anyone playing black and blue together lost to keith because of the land walkers, and in the sideboard – he had roots of life too!!!!!! Reflect damage was just the killer. Many times he finished an opponent off when they torched him for a ton, rockslided all his critters, or rat bombed themselves to death. Games were decided early if they were land screwed as Keith's deck can kill someone on about turn 5 with all his drivebys and weenies. If they didn't succumb early, he kept attacking with his dwarven nomad – wildfire emmisary or zebra unicorn combo. If they had any swamps he walked over for three. If they had any islands, forget it. The boas alone are enough, and the sideboard of the roots made sure he wasn't going to lose. A sick sick deck in the hands of a guy who knows how to play it. Keith's Significan't other Louise, has a deck like mine – no elimination, no fat fliers, and slim to none big green fatties. So back to mine. I have a few really cool things that I overlooked in my initial inspection of my deck, and start to decide what I am going to play. Heres the deck I played – in no order, because I don't want to give away what is so strong about the deck until latter. This is my deck, as it sits on my desk in no particular order. Card for card – 41 cards Mountain Femeref knight Gossamer chains Iron tusk elephant Goblin elite infantry Karoo Goblin tinkerer Plains Divine offering Plains Igneous golem Marble diamond Matopi golem Plains Spitting earth Plains Keeper of kookus Mtenda griffen Ekundu griffen Healing salve Talruum champion Hope charm Mountain Longbow archer Plains Mountain Plains Freewind falcon Mountain Mountain Flame elemental Mountain Burning sheild askari Longbow archer Archangle Fireblast Sun clasp Searing spear askari Plains Infantry veteran Mountain So take a look at these cards, and think for a few minutes, and decide if I have a strong deck or not. The point is, how many games do you think I won and lost? Fix a number in your head, for a record, and lets see how close you come. Lets test people's skill at their deck building. Do not finish reading this post. Hit the reply to newsgroup and post button on your newsreader right now, and quote the entire message. When you get to this part of the message – make your comments on why what I had was strong or weak, and why. Predict a record for the day. I played all seven rounds of swiss, because there were no side tournaments that interested me, and there were only seven juniors – so Josh and Ira were in the top eight just for showing up. Put your comments right here and take all the space you need----- ________________________________________________________________________ So, I start and I get a nice opponent. A junior who beats me up. He has a waterspout and a breezekeeper, and he has a damn wall of roots. The wll of roots turns out to be my bane all day long, and I come to hate that card. Much like my beloved sheild spheres, they allow my opponent protection from my flankers while they beat me down with flyers. In the third game, just as I think I can make a comeback, I draw the land I need to cast my archangel, and the round before he casts his ovinomancer. ARGGG!!!! So I start off the day with a loss. 0-1. No offense to anyone else on the team, but josh and Ira are already qualified, louise has crap, and team quarterstaff leaves early, so I'm going to focus on keith and I, who have the most interesting stories to tell. Most everyone has won except louise and I. All the burlington boys have won as well. Hammer wins as well, and so does a friend of mine, George Wilkinson, who plays at Hammer's comics. Hopes are high excpet for mine. I think my deck sucks, and that its going to be a long day. (Hey, I like to think I have a moderate amount of skill as a player, but I suck at sealed deck. What do I know?) I break one of my cardinal rules, and I decide to play my deck between rounds with Ira, josh, team quarterstaff, and keith. Louise and I never get a chance to play. I start to get a feel for my deck, and notice a few things about how it wins when they call the buzzer to start the second round. I play a nice guy, quiet, says has been playing since just about the beginning of the game. He gets into Magic for a while, and then gets out of it, then it peaks his interest again. He gets color screwed in the first game, and in the second, I just have better draws than him. I win a round. 1-1. Most of team quartstaff from burington has won, and louise has lost, and ira and keith have won. I think Josh lost. Keith loves his deck, and is cautiously optimistic. Both of his matches have only gone to two game. I play some more with the deck I have, and Alan really helps me out a lot, by watching my games and commenting on combos that I have missed, and points out a lot of mistakes that I have made. Louise looks at the game that I'm playing and is amazed at all the first strikers I have. You know, I never noticed how many of my creatures have first strike. I mean, I noticed, but I never looked at it like – Wow – in a creature stalemate – I can kill anything that comes over and not lose a single creature. I do have a ton of first strike. I start to take things a little bit more seriously, and think. Shit! I really do have a pretty good deck here. Heres why the deck is so good – 18 creatures in two colors!!!!! Karoo and marble diamond!!! 2 fat artifact creatures!! Lots of first strikers!!!! 16 mana sources in two colors with the five lands I get!!!!! Archangle!!!???– which I got out twice – once it was terrored. Never did me a point of damage. In the third round, I take on an older guy, who is quite pleasant to play, but he's very quiet. We both concentrate intensly on the game, but he has a ton of fatties, topped off with a hulking cyclops. Instead of losing faith in my deck, this time I know to start the beatdown early with my flankers and weenies, and then when a creature stalemate starts, I can win it with all the first striking I have. No one crosses over to my side of the table on the ground and lives. Not only that, they don't gain any advantage from a mass attack. If I'm carefull., I can take out their biggest stuff, and not lose anything but a few life points. After a stalemate develops my griffens start to show up, and I pink him to death, two points a round. When he tries to kill one, I salve it, saving my flyer and the relentless beatdown continues. I am 2-1. Keith has won again against (David or Brian Weise???) Who is a really, really good player, and In think his sealed ranking is right up there. Keith just draws everything he needs, one after another, and Weise is playing black and/or blue I think keith said. Keith finishes the second game with a reflected damage of a crypt rat. Keith is very, very hopeful now. But caustious. You can see the gleam in his face, but he wants to reamin calm. He knows overconfidence is a killer, but his deck is just THE BOMB!!!!! I play some more, and I realize why I suck at sealed deck. Because I've never played between rounds before. My skill at Magic comes from playing a deck over, and over, and over again. I'll tune my decks for weeks before bringing them to a tournament, and I know how to win with them against any deck that I might face. I have to understand how my deck works. I have to understand how I'm going to finish someone, and how to morph the play STYLE in the middle of the game to compensate for the different decks I'm playing. I've never done this in a sealed deck tourney before, and this why I suck at it. Now – I play the deck between rounds, and I know it inside and out. I know why it wins, I know how it wins, and I know what I've got left in the deck in the middle of the game, and can adapt, survive and overcome. This feels a lot better, and the weekend was worth it just for this knowledge. Christ! What an idiot I've been!!!! Now I learn this at the last qualifier that I have for the closest pro tournament all year. I increase my sealed deck skill two hundred percent today, and no longer dread sealed deck pro tour qualifiers. Now – don't smirk when you read this and think I have changed my tune one iota. I still think that the top eight is made up of the top eight players that were lucky enough all day not to get color or land screwed, and also, the top eight players that got god packs. Now, I just have the ability to be one of those players if I get the cards. Before, I really had no chance at all. And now I know why. My skill at magic has nothing to do with playing a deck cold, and winning with it with no idea what is left in the deck.. Let me play the damn thing 10-30 times and I'll happily play anyone and think I have a chance. You can tell, I am just thrilled with this knowledge. Hammer and George end up playing in the third or the fourth round, and they take a draw. I think this is a bad idea – because hammer really needs to qualify for NY, and I can just feel that he NEEDS to go. He hasn't had much luck lately, and let me tell you, luck is a good portion of this game. I've been working harder on this game now, than I ever have before in my life, and I still can't get to paris or NY, and I really don't feel that my lack of skill has anything to do with it. Sorry, but at a number of Pro Tour qualifyers, right when it was really, really important – I start with either six lands in hand, or 1 lake of the dead. Sorry, but no one can win with that. Mike Flores is another person who I feel easily has the skill to be in every pro tour, but has gotten Raped by Fate in the last few qualifyers he's gone to. Hammer seems to be in the same rut that Mike and I are. (No, I don't think I am the player Hammer is, I just think we have gotten a string of bad luck that won't end. In that we are similar.) I don't know who I face in the fourth round – I'm drawing a blank. I win, Keith wins again – to be 4-0 for the day. He has lost one game. Hammer wins, and George wins. Keith gets encouragement from us all, and we all know he has to win one more match, and then he can draw twice to get in. If he loses, he has to win his next one, and then draw to get in. ONE MORE MATCH!!!! And Keith will be in his first ptq top eight, after being so close three times. So, heading in to the fifth round, I am 3-1. My opponent is Mark Balabon. Mark is becoming a good friend over the net, and we were happy to get a chance to play. We have a terrific friendly game, and again, the knowledge of my deck comes in so handy, and makes all the difference in the world. In the second game, he has more land on the table, and more cards in hand when he casts forbidden ritual. I quickly look through my graveyard, and see that almost none of my flank knights have come up this game. We sacc permanents one after another, and I am planing on getting down to my Karoo, and a mountain, and then, when the flank knights come up, I can still cast them. Before we get there, he stops. I have 4 mana on the board, and two five casting cost artifact creatures. Mark stops the ritual, and then undo's my two artifact creatures, that I don't have enough land to cast again. I draw a plains, and cast them both in the following turns. They were great games, and a lot of fun, but I just got such better draws than Mark. He showed me his deck afterwards, and all the stuff I didn't see – like the dragon mask, necraatall, man o war and two undo's he has. He hasn't had trouble with creatures all day, and now he doesn't see the elimination in both our games. YES! I am 4-1. So close again. Must be just about time for my deck to crap out on me and crush my dreams like a bug. Keith has lost, but Hammer has won, and so has George. Keith and I are both at 4-1. George and Hammer are at 4-0-1. Hopes are high for all of us to get into final eight. We start the fifth round, and my opponent stomps me first game. I get a great draw, but he has the answer to everything that I do in his hand, and I never have a chance. He's a older guy, with a great attitude, and a boistourous laugh. Heavy set, with a beard and a pink shirt on. Can't remember what his name is. I mention he's a blast to play, and has a great attitude, and he says – "That's my one claim to fame." We start the second game, and I have one plains in my hand, and all the best cards in my deck. I look at my hand, and I know, I just know that I am so fucked, that I could just about scream or cry. One land. You know where this is going don't you? Don't you? It all sounds so familiar doesn't it? WELL THIS TIME – YOU ARE WRONG!!!!! I say a quick prayer in my head – "God, please don't let it end like this again." I play my plains and a infantry veteran. I draw a mountain next round, and play my goblin tinkerer. I draw another plains and play a flank knight. I draw another mounatain and play the first striking griffen. It is a symphony of destruction and beatdown. My heart soars and I feel so great. At least both games were good and I didn't get land screwed either game. In the third game. I get a good draw, but the point is I get land, and creatures in an even mix. We spare for a bit, and he has a super high flyer that is dinking me for two points a turn until I get out a couple of griffens to hold it off. Then the deck starts to come together – because I KNOW IT WILL!!!!!! This deck is so cool, I want to play it at every sealed deck. I get out my double first striking minotaur, and I have an infantry veteran on the board. This makes him a potential 4/4 first striker on attacking. I also have a sun clasped longbow archer on the board, and he is potentially a 4/6 attacker, depending on who gets the bonus. I also have out a flame elemental. My opponent has out a giant catapillar, a lichenthrop (5/5 for five that gets negative counters when it takes damage) and a couple of other things. I keep attacking, and he can't block with anything. The flame elemental is ready to sacrifice himself for the good of the cause so that no matter who blocks my first strikers, they are going to die. With the infantry veteran throwing in words of advice from the side, my first strikers are just huge. At one point, he realizes that he must do something, and plans on throwing a whole bunch of blockers in the way and asks me – "These guys will still die, if I throw them in front of him, cause he can do so much first strking damage right?" And I mention that yes, they will die, cause I'll just use the flame elemental to knock one of them off before he can do damage. (this is kind of dumb on my part – but my opponent was so cool, and I was so much in control, that I knew the game was mine, no matter what he did. I was also holding a healing salve, and if did anything to hurt the longbow, I'd just return him to my hand via the sun clasp. But, as I knew, there was nothing he could do. He even cast a futile sandstorm that I let him take back, because it had no effect. Everything just came together for me that game, and he laughed about it and shook hands. YEAHSSSS!!!! 5-1!!!! Rob Dougherty comes up to record our match and I say "Rob – Tell me I can draw to get into the final eight." He smiles and says – "O.k. – you can draw to get into the final eight!!" And he laughs. "Jamie – I'd love to tell you that, but since the computer is down, I really have no idea. There are over a hundred people here , and I have had a lot of people here ask me exactly the same thing as you did, so I am not sure. Damnit I think to myself, my friggin opponent better draw with me, but I know he won't. I'll have to play it out and I'll lose. Lose due to mana screw and not be able to go to New York. You know where this is going right?? Well, I can't tell you that yet, cause that would ruin the flavor of the report. I've done so well so far – I just have to keep you in suspense. Sadly – Keith has lost. He is now 4-2, and out of it. So, The fifth round starts, and Hammer takes a draw. He makes it to the top eight with a five and O and two record. I sit down, and my opponent is Richard Bachmann. He would like to draw, but is afraid that too many people are at 5-1, and that we will not make it in. I plead, I beg, I offer him bribes (not really folks) but he won't draw. He just wants to play. Dan Lewis is next to me and tells us that we cannpt draw – that too many people are at 5-1, and that we will not make it in. Dan is also 5-1 and wants badly to make top eight as well. Know why I want a draw? Because all day long I have had LUCKY games. If I started with one land in hand, I drew land for five rounds. If I started with six lands in hand, I drew creatures one after another. Its been an amazingly lucky day. I know, and I mean, I just know, deep, deeeeeeep in my bones that that luck is about to run out. And it won't run out slowly. It is gone. I can feel it. I am done for the day,. Unless I can get to the rochester draft, and a new format. I have used up all my sealed deck luck, and I am going to lose. I just know it. Also, for some reason, I get the feeling that Bachmann doesn't like me. I don't know why, but I get this feeling. He is perfectly pleasant to play, and never curses or swears, or acts like a tool. But I get this feeling that he really wants to play and take me out of it. Maybe I'm mistaken, because nothing he does indicates this, its just a feeling I get. Bachmann does not want to draw 4 We start the seventh and last round, and I get thirteen land on the board, and am holding three more when I die. He runs right over me with an army of creatures. In the second game, I get two land on the board, and draw my third the round before he kills me. He crushes me. Blah I am really, really disappointed and depressed. He says – "Nice game." And like a tool, I say – "Yeah right!" I wanna scream. I get up, start to walk off – out of it again - and think – Jamie – that's just not right. I go back, and shake his hand, and say – "Nice game david – good luck" or something to that effect. I know I said – nice game and shook his hand, and I know I said something else pleasant after that too, but I don't remember exactly what it was. He had a great deck, and played it well, and he was pleasant the whole game. So, I shouldn't be bitter he wouldn't draw with me. He might have been right. Maybe we both wouldn't have made it in. Everyone was telling us that. Damn. I'm pretty sure that Mike Flores and I are under a magic curse that was cast in Dallas. When we were standing together talking, someone must have hurled an ancient curse in our general direction. Mike's last report was pretty depressing, negative and hilarious. I wonder how mine turned out. Time to wrap this up folks. The draft took forever – and we had to wait for Josh and Ira to draft, and then play. Top eight was – Hammer George Wilkinson (hope I got your last name right George) Hashim Bello Mark Lepine David Bachman And 2 I don't know and 1 I should know. He took me out in Boston when we should have drawn to get into top eight. Really nice guy that ends up losing to hammer. Can't remember his name. Ken? I think? Hammer has to face off against his teammate George in the first round, and plays a technically flawless game to beat George in 2. Hashim has to play Mark lepine in the first round and wins. Hashim is right – he is king of the trash tralkers in New York. Not in New England, but yes in NY. His banter was hilarious, and it seemed all in good fun. He even offered to let lepine take back moves a couple of times, and I belive they are friends, so it was cool. Hammer wins his next match to make it to finals. Once again- Hammer plays an excellent match, and really belongs on the tour. You can think I'm sucking up all you want, but the fact is this. I have watched a lot of people play, and I have watched a lot of people that really are not that great – that keep winning. Then there are the people that you watch play and you think – these people really are level above me. People who I have played or seen to be technically flawless players – Hammer Adam Green Tom Guervin And Bertrand Lestree. Not to say that I haven't played and watched other people that were excellent players and really impressed me with their skill, but none gave me the feeling of Zen understanding of the game that these players have. Man – I'm rambling now. Hashim has to face off against david bachman to get to the finals as well, and takes him in two with his POWER HERDER!!! Herder is strong!!! I just about cried I laughed so hard at this match. Again, Hashim was hilarious, and I believe he and Bachman are friends, so again it was cool. Hashim drafted a flanker deck, with four mtenda herders, that alone won him the games. POWER HERDER!!! He kept shouting as he would attack again and again with the mtenda herders. It was amazing Josh drafts a completely odd black and white deck, that no one thinks has a chance. (card of the day for Josh – Blighted shaman that rocked his opponents.) Josh was hilarious in all his matches, and I laughed my ass off over his trash too. His banter with his opponents had me in stiches, and his opponents enjoyed the trash as long as they were winning and then didn't think it was so funny after he won. Heres a side not about trash talking – Trash talking is fine as long as you and your opponent are into it, both doing it, and its in the spriit of making the game more interesting. The second its just to piss someone off and make them feel like a loser it gets old. Josh was talking up a storm with his opponents, and they with him, and it was hilarous. In the last round, when he had an opponent that was exhausted and was not into talking, Josh pretty much shut up, and just played the game. That's the way it should be. And what really sucks is when two competitors trash talk in fun, then to guy who loses changes his mind and decides its not all in fun anymore. Talk about weak. Hashim, Hammer and Josh go on to win thier matches and make it to the finals and A SLOT ON THE PRO TOUR BABY!!! Don't know who the other junior was. All in all, a great day for some and a NIGHTMARE FOR OTHERS!!!! Later all comments always welcome. Jamie C. Wakefield Bard of the Five Colors of Death 18th at Pro Tour 1 Just About Dead Last Pro Tour Dallas