Origins '97 (or Lessons in Sleep Deprivation and Malnutrition)

Hello all! I just got back today from 4 days of Magic at Origins and wanted to provide a report for everyone.
First of all, I didn't play in any of the so-called "meat grinders", the single elimination tourneys to qualify for Nationals. I tried to play in the first one at 1 am Thursday, but there was a problem with the first round pairings that resulted in a 2 hour delay at the beginning of the tourney. I had my Level III interview to do the next morning and decided sleep was a better choice.
However, I did play on Friday in the PTQ, which is the bulk of this report.
First of all, the deck:
4 Abeyance
4 Quicksand
4 Dissipate
4 Man O' War
4 Waterspout Djinn
4 Floodgate
3 Impulse
3 Cloud Elemental (Potato)
3 Boomerang
2 Desertion
1 Memory Lapse
3 Flood Plain
15 Islands
3 Plains

Sideboard:
3 Honorable Passage (for Burn)
2 Suq'ata Firewalkers (for other blue decks and Frentic Efreet decks)
3 Afterlife (for Necratog)
3 Disenchants (for whatever, I used it on everything from Amber Prisons to City of Solitude)
3 Dream Tides (for heavy creature decks, and green ones in particular)
1 Knight of The Mists (gave me one additional creature against decks that were kight-heavy)

The deck is fairly straight forward, using Abeyance, Man O' War, Boomerang, and Floodgate as delaying tactics to drop a Waterspout or Cloud Elemental to kill them. Abeyance and Impulse both allow for good library manipulation, allowing one to speed thru the deck. Floodgate was the key all day long. It stopped, and with a Man O War or Boomerang, killed all of the weenies. It acted as a Blue Wrath of God on my opponent on several occasions. I had a few flaws, the primary one being the lack of Hazerider Drakes anywhere in the deck. I completely forgot about them for some reason in putting the deck together on Thursday night. On to the report:

Round 1: Vs. Sergio Costanzo, from New York area. Playing mono-red.
ARGH! Where are those Hazeriders!? Anyway...First game I got 3 Abeyance in the opening hand, allowing me to delay him to put out a Floodgate to stop his weenies, and eventually kill him with Spout. Second game I simply got stuck with 3 Abeyance in my hand and no plains and died. 3rd game I slowed him down, got 3 Floodgates out, and had just dropped a Waterspout when he asked "What life are you at?" Oh no. Torch for 6, Fireblast, Fireblast. AGHHH!!!! Off into the Froot Loop Zone I go...........
Match Score: 0-1

Round 2:Vs. Steve Lindstrom. An older gentleman playing Red/Black
Game 1 he got mana screwed and I bowled him over. Game 2, however, ended up being all about the Volcanic Dragon. When he dropped it first, he hit me for 4, then I Man O War'd it back to his hand. Dropped it again, I Boomeranged it before it hit. Next I laid a Waterspout and blocked it to kill it. All over, right? Uhhh...no, Necromancy. I Memory Lapsed the Mancy, leaving me at zero cards in hand. My turn, I drew....Dissipate. Whew. Eventually, I killed him with the Man O War I had used on the Dragon.
Match Score:1-1

Round 3:Mark Schneider, Justin's dad. Played a very interesting red/white deck with Bosium Strip.
Game 1, He got mana screwed and I bowled again. Game 2, it was late in the game, and I had a Waterspout out with 3 Floodgates to handle his ground forces, ready to move in for the kill, when he bolts me then Firestorms me and my creatures for 4 to kill me. Game 3 went Spout, Thunderbolt, Spout, Thunderbolt, then 3 Honorable Passages later that kept me alive, I ended up killing him with 4 Man O' Wars.
Match Score: 2-1, slowly crawling out of the Froot Loop Zone now.....

Round 4:Jeff Zandi, a friend of mine from here in Texas, a member of the Guildmages of Arlington, playing Blue/Black Necratog.
Game 1, I draw 3 Man O Wars and 3 Boomerang and send stuff back to his hand forever, eventually killing with a Potato. Game 2, I held him off with Man O Wars for a while, but he Nekrataaled a Spout which allowed him to open up with a weenie horde. Game 3, a normal game for me, drawing some return to hand stuff, a Potato and a Spout kill him off.
Match Score:3-1

Round 5:Kevin Foy, playing a 5 color deck.
Game 1, he threw down 2 River Boas early, I responded by dropping quick Spout and Potato and then sending the Boas back to his hand long enough to kill him. Game 2, I took the term mana screw to a whole new level here. I went first this game. He puts down a Gemstone Mine + an Undiscovered Paradise, taps them for a Wall of Roots. To slow him down, I Boomerang the Wall. He then lays it again after putting out the UP, so I Man O War it. He puts it down again, killing the Gemstone Mine, so I Undo the Wall and my Man O War. A couple turns later he uses 2 UP's to lay the Wall one more time, and I Man O War it again. By this time I have 7 or 8 land in play, a Man O War, and he has NOTHING in play. So I drop a Potato and kill him while countering everything else he does.
Match Score: 4-1

Round 6:Chad Caudell, playing a Red/Green/White deck.
Game 1, he got a slight mana screw put put out a Centaur, which I promptly responded to with a Floodgate. A couple Abeyance later, I have a Spout out and kill him. Game 2 he lays a 3rd turn City of Solitude, and I have 1 Abeyance, 3 Honorable Passages, and a Boomerang in my hand. I die. Game 3, he gets totally mana screwed and I pound away with Spout and Potato.
Match Score 5-1

Round 7:Vs. Tony Tsai of Team Deadguy, the match of the day, by far. He is playing an insane, yet awesome mono black deck.
Game 1 goes according to plan. Slow him down, kill with Spout. Game 2 is where things get wacky. Both of our decks shift into high gear moving at amazing speeds. At one point, he drops a Gallowbraid, I drop a Floodgate to block so he has to pay life. Then I Boomerang Gallowbraid and drop another Floodgate. I got him down to 1 with a Potato and a earlier Spout which died blocking Gallowbraid. But I was too low, and died when he attacked with Gallowbraid and a 4/5 Necratog. Game 3, we both go insane, throwing down stuff as fast as we can. on turn 6 or 7, I have a Spout out, he has 2 Skulking Ghosts, 1 Fallen Askari. I decide that I have to go for it due to the nature of his deck, say "Either you have a Nekrataal, or you don't.", and drop a second Spout. He blocks one next turn with a Skulking Ghost, then drops Necratog. I draw an Afterlife for the 'Tog, so I attack, putting him at 2. He draws, attacks with Askari, 'Tog, and the Skulking Ghost. I Afterlife the Tog, but the other 2 get thru putting me at 1. I think I have him when he drops......Urborg Stalker. AAAHHH!!!!. What a match. Both of us sit and chat for awhile, and compliment each other on the wild match we just played, but I now have 2 losses. I decided to stick with it.
Match score:5-2

Round 8:Vs. James Murphy, ANOTHER friend of mine from here in Dallas, a member of the Guildmages of Arlington. He is playing a deck very similar to mine.
To be honest I don't remember much about this match. I do remember trading comments back and forth with him to the effect of "I'm gonna whip you like the dog you are!!" and causing nearby players to turn and ask if we were friends, as they thought they might see fists flying soon. Basically, I ended up getting out my fliers before he could and won the match in 3 games.
Match Score:6-2

Round 9:Vs. Kevin Lacker, playing Blue/Red with Frenetic Efreets.
Game 1 he beats on me with the Efreet and Lancers, then burns me. Game 2 is similar, only he manages to Man O War a Spout twice, then Memory Lapse it, delaying me long enough to die.
Final Match Score: 5-3

It was a loooong day, starting with registration at 8 am and the final match ending around midnight. The final 8 played until 4 am. I recall the Shawn "Hammer" Regnier qualified, but I do not recall who else did.

The Qualifier on Saturday ended up being a sea of Blue/White and Burn as a result of the people getting beat by my deck and ones similar to it, with a selling frenzy on Abeyance on Friday, with prices as high as $25 as people unaware of what the card did scrambled to have 4 for Saturday. I saw many interesting variations on my deck, including one that used Vodalian Illusionist instead of Potatoes. This deck was not created by me, just for the record :). A couple friends of mine, James Stroud and David Williams, both Guildmages as well, both claim credit, so I'll let them fight for it.

I would do a report on the Final 8, but Dan Gray was Head Judge for this event, and I expect one of his usal outstanding reports.

Overall, Origins was a blast. Magic all day and night, played sealed deck till I was ready to barf. A couple highlights:

---Playing 5th/Visions/Alliances, got Pirate Ship/Fallen Angel/Spiny Starfish combo...nifty :).
---Playing 5th/Visions, my opponent has Crypt Rats out and a 2/2 creature. I have a Fungusaur, a Griffin, and Knight of Valor. To reset the board, he blows his Rats for 2. I Remedy my creatures, saving them all and letting the Fungusaur grow.


Well, I'll get going now...see you all in my rules section! A new article should be up within a couple days.

Tim "Wakko Djinn" Stoltzfus