From sprmario@netcom.com (Mario Robaina) Date Mon, 9 Dec 1996 23:37:57 GMT _________________________________________________________________ RE: PTQ'S WHO DID WHAT DEC. 7 AND 8? In article <19961209171900.MAA16434@ladder01.news.aol.com gefr@aol.com writes: Will someone please post results of the qualifiers that were held for Los Angeles. I guess I will... I took a look at my cards and I instantly knew that I had a chance to make the final 8. There were 151 people and there would be 7 rounds of swiss (one less than we should have had, but we had to be out of the ballroom by 11pm). Some quick calculations showed that you needed a 6-1 record to make the final 8 (maybe one or two 5-1-1 guys would get in). I immedidately eliminated white from consideration, becuause I had almost no creatures in that color. My big card was the Savage Twister, so I knew I would play Green and Red. Green gave me some nice fat creatures like a Canopy Dragon, Jungle Worm, Stalking Tiger, and two Wild Elephants. Red had an Ekundu Cyclops and a Talrum Minotaur. That was a nice creature base. Black had a Dark Banishin, Grave Servitude and a few creatures like feral Shadow, Breathstealer and Cadaverous Knight. Blue had a Bay falcon, Thirst, the 1/3 pump drake, a cerulian Wyvern and a Wave Elemental. Trying to fit in the four colors was a problem, because I was hesitant to use the Talrum (the only RR spell) with only 4 mountains. In the end I decided to cut black so that I could be more comfortable using the Talrum and the Wave Elemental. I went with 7 forests, 5 mountains, and 5 Islands. The big weaknes of the deck was creature removal. I used an agility, lightning reflexes and an armor of thorns as creature removal to complement the Savage Twister. By pumping creatures on defense, and granting abilities like first strike and flanking these cards were key in killing other creatures and letting mine live. I knew my deck had some tools and a shot at the top 8. It wasnt' anything compared to the 3-5 X-spell decks, but I hadn't gotten a totally crappy deck either... Round One - I don't remember who I played, but he wasn't particularly good and I beat him easily 2-0. He made many mistakes. 1-0 match record Round Two - This guy was even worse than the guy in round one... another easy win at 2-0 2-0 match record Round Three - Shane Cargillo Shane is one of the best Magic players out there that isn't on the pro tour. I hope he makes it in. He made final 8 at the Type I Dallas Pro tourny, but wasn't qualified for the Type II (I beat him in the semis at one PTQ to knock him out). For some reason I totally have Shane's number when it comes to Magic. I think i'm like 5-0 against him. This was easily the tougest match so far and I barely beat Shne 2-1. The key was the Savage Twister in games 1 and 3. 3-0 match record Round 4 - Roger ? Roger is like 15 years old and is a really nice kid... I knew he had a great deck, because he had just beaten Preston the round before. Game 1 is mine in a really close game... I hold off his Catacomb Dragon with a Bay Falcon and Village Elder and beat him barely. Game 2 is pretty close too. I have take some early hits, but have control of the board at this point. We are both at 7 and I'm about 2 turns from winning when he draws a Torch... Game over. Game 3 is no contest... I only draw 3 Islands and hold a hand full of Red and Green spells. The few blue cards I cast are no match for Roger and I die horribly. It turns out that Roger had 2 Rays of Command and a ton of other great cards that he never saw... oh, well. 3-1 match record Round 5 - I slide down a bunch of seats and I win this match pretty easily. I don't know what was up with my oppenent's deck, but he never really did anything. 2-0 sweep. 4-1 match record 2 rounds left and I have a chance. There are a lot of big names at 4-1 and I'm I think most of the decks up at this level can outgun me, but I have high hopes. I see Frenchy (a good friend of mine) matched up against Roger. Frenchy loses badly. I laugh at him :) Roger just beat Preston, me and frenchy in consecutive rounds... :) Round 6 - Frenchy Ack! I have to play Frenchy. Oh, well. we move off to a corner table and start... Game one is ridiculous... I draw a single Island to start and then draw a mountain. I never cast anything and don't draw another land til i'm dead :(. Game 2 is much better. I get off to a great start and frenchy is stuck at 4 mana. I have more options with spells later in the game and I quickly overwhelm him. Game 3 is much the same except he is stuck at 3 mana for a while. It's almost impossible to come back in Mirage Sealed without 4 or 5 mana on the table. Turns 4 - 6 are crucial as this match demonstrated... -1 match record Chalice is also at 5-1. Hope I don't have to play him, or Hacker, or a slew of other 5-1's. Round 7 - This was by far the best match of the day. Game 1 is a tough game because we are both short on mana. I really need 4 mana to get going, and I'm stuck at 3... he is stuck at 2 mana. He draws one more land and here come the flankers. This guy had about 6 or 7 flanking knights. I couldn't keep up and I lost. Game 2 is quite the opposite... I get a good mana draw and my big creatures overwhelm him and his great anti creature spells... Banishings, Pacifism, Thirst, etc. Game 3 was incredible. I put out some big creatures early and he's tight on mana. I get out my canopy dragon and start flying over his defence. He hits me wtih a Feral Shadow. I'm at 13 he's at 7. I make a big mistake... I have an armor of thorns and he's got a single card in hand. I play the Armor on the Dragon and attack. He disenchants it and only takes 4... I should have used it as an instant. I knew he had a disenchant in his deck... Doh. He's at 3 and can't attack withthe shadow. He's got a cadaverous knight in play also and he draws a skulking ghost. doh, big draw. I can't fly or I lose my Dragon, so I come on over on the ground. He can only block with the knigh who can't regenerate due to the casting of the Ghost. he takes two to go to 1. I've got him on the next turn. I cast a Stalking Tiger too. He draws a dark banishing... wow. Now I make another big mistake. I don't remember the Stalking Tiger ability and don't attack when he has a Skulking Ghost and Feral Shadow out. He then gets out another creature and the Ghost starts attacking... 11... 9.. 7... I finally kill it. I then cast a Wild Elephant... yes. Trample will do him in... he draws a pacifism... :( Two turns later I play a Cerulian Wyvern yes Flying! He draws... a Grinning totem... casts it, uses it and plays my Thirst on it :(... with just enough mana (blue was the only color we had in common). so we go back and forth on playing creatures. He has just enough to block me and attack with his feral shadow. 5... 3... I draw a creature. yes.. I have a chance. He goes and attacks with his shadow... i'm at 1. He must have a creature, but he doesn't cast one... damn, he must have some creature kill. I'm dead. I draw nothing. I activate the ability on the searing spear askani and attack with everyone. He had forgotten about the ability of the Askani and my Village Elder gets through for 1... I win and am into the final 8 !!!! Just one more win. final 8 players... (can't remember many. maybe Dan Grey or Scott Larabee can help out here) I do remember that Eric Downing was the first seed at 6-0-1 with 13 points. All the other guys had 12 points with 6-1 or 5-0-2 records. The ones I remember are Brian Hacker (top four at Dallas PT), Mark Venhaus, MacKenzie Patterson III, Eric Takyama (sp?), and myself. Both Mark and Brian were already qualified, so there was a chance that you could lose the first round and still get in if they advanced. I was seeded 6th and played the 3rd seed, MacKenzie. My final 8 deck was strong, but not really awesome. No Twister this time, no x-spells, no big flyers. I did have some relatively nice 3/3 or larger creatures (I played with 20 creatures) and 4 desent creature removal spells (Krevorak's Purge, Spitting Earth, Incinerate, and Armor of Thorns). The colors were R/G/B and I felt I had a good chance at the final 4. BTW, for those of you that care, here is my sealed deck building philosophy... Creatures and Creature Removal ONLY (unless you get a Zuran Orb). I try and keep my decks as simple as possible. Creature enhancers are ok if they are instants, because then they usually qualify as creature removal. I love the Mirage Enchantments/Instants because they are really flexible. Bloodlust doesn't count as creature removal because it's usually a two for one trade. Enhancers must pump on defence and offence or give abilities like first strike or flanking. I usually try and play with 18-20 creatures and 4-6 removal spells. It's a formula that usually works for me. Quarterfinals- MacKenzie Patterson III Before the match I sleaved up my cards (which I always do when playing with US Mirage). I then showed my deck to a couple of people, one of which had really greasy hands. My sleaves got all sticky and I was going to resleave, but the match was about to start. I told MacKenzie this and I said I was going to stack shuffle a bunch of times after I had riffle shuffled rather than resleaving. He said ok... Then when I after I cut his deck and offered mine to cut, he slide shuffled the deck. I was really pissed off. He could have said something before hand and I would have desleaved the deck. I stack shuffled like 6 times with different numbers of stacks just to avoid doing that and he did it anyways. So, I draw my 7 cards and I have 5 lands... I then proceed to draw way more lands than spell. After the match I have 15 of my bottom 17 cards being spells. I was livid... so I desleaved. I was really pissed that he did that to me, after I told him the problem and he seemed to agree with what I was going to do. Game 2 - This was a totally epic game. He goes first and draws his Mtenda Lion again. This time I have nothing faster than a Nettletooth. I take 6 from the lion. On turn 4 I play the nettletooth and continue to play big creatures for several turns to come. I've got a crash of rhinos in my hand but no second forest. The nettletooth is wearing me down and he is getting a hit in here or there. THe big one comes when I attack with everything (he's only got a Terenko Griffin in play. He then casts a Talrum Minotaur and smacks me for 5 (ouch!). I drop to 6 and then 5 from the Nettletooth. I kill the Griffin and attack for 6 leaving a Lead Golem back to block the Talrum. I also have a Granger Guildmage untapped. He goes and draws Goblin Scouts. He's at 6 and doesn't attack. I go to 4 from the Djinn. I attack with my 3 big guys 3,3, and 4 power respectively, and he has to block 2 of them to stay at 3 life. I still have the guildmage back and I finally drew the second forest that turn to play the Crash. He attacks for 2 to drop me to two and the Djinn brings me to one. I attack and win. It's like the 3rd or 4th game I've won at 1 or two life in the tourny... phew. At this point Hacker and Venhaus have both lost, so we know that the winner of this game is in and the loser is out. I sideboard in a sandstorm and chaos charm (he's got the scouts, lion, and 2 guildmages) and pull a card to go to 40 cards. I need this win. He lets me go first and I have a decent hand. 2 forests and 2 mtns, but no swamp and I have a Skulking Ghost... I want that early damage. I draw the swamp on turn two to play the Ghost. The Ghost does 6 pts before a Griffin steps up to block. By that time I started playing my big creatures, and he has no Green mana on the table. He plays a Viashino Warrior to block my Cyclops, but I draw my Kraevoraks (sp?) Purge and purge the warrior.. He takes 4 and I attack for 7 more. He can block with the Griffin, but he loses it and is dead for sure the next turn (the Ghost is just sitting there :)) He takes it and drops to 2... damn, 11 pts on one turn is tough. he goes and draws nothing... I attack and win!!! It was certainly nice to requalify the hard way once again. I still don't think the qualifier system is fair, particularly with Mirage only sealed deck. There was a guy with 5 X-spells, another guy with 2 Dragons, 2 X-spells, 2 rays of command, and a Twister, another guy had 3 Torches, 3 Jungle Worms, and 2 Cyclopses.... ridiculous. Anyways... final 4 vs. Eric Downing Eric has been in Germany (with the US Army) for the past 2 years and he's back in the US. I just talked with Mark Rosewater today and apparently Eric played Magic in LA a couple of years ago in the early Type I only days... I never met him, but I talked with him quite a bit at the PTQ... really nice guy. He had tried to qualify for the PRo Tour several times in Europe, but he never really had any time to prepare and never made it. Well he's in and he played really well against me. Game 1 was the key game. He draws 6 land and a Cinder Cloud, and i have a great start with a Mtenda Lion, and a Feral Shadow. On turn 4 the big creatures start to hit the table. He keeps drawing anti creature stuff, but I have him on the run. Then, when I think I have him, he plays a torrent of lava wiping out everything. He plays several creatures in the ensuing turns and I just can't keep up... I lose. Game 2 is what Magic is all about. I go second to get the extra card and I get one swamp in 8 cards. I draw no more land and discard 5 times till i'm dead. YAY! I love it... :( Oh, well. I'm in and I'm happy. Eric ended up winning the tourny. Hope that was mildly interesting... Later, Mario. -- sprmario@netcom.com