Atlanta Report
Mario Robaina
Seeing Tom's report gave me the inspiration to actually put one together
myself, so here it goes....
Thursday, 11 pm - I board the redeye with Mark Chalice, who also couldn't
get an extra day off work. We get 3 hrs of sleep before landing in
Atlanta at 6am on Friday just 3hrs before the tourny.
Friday, 8 am - After checking in at the hotel and having breakfast at the
hotel we wander over to the event sight. I get my cards and Henry Stern
interviews me as I open my packs. I think I have an extremely strong
deck. I build a R/G/B deck that gives me 6 flyers, 6 Tor Giant Type
creatures, and 4 good anti creature spells. I feel very confident, and
am excited to get going. However, I quickly realize that there are a lot
of people floating around out there with Savage Twisters, multiple
X-spells and tons of flyers. I quickly reevaluate my deck and I think
I'm in trouble.
I quickly jump out to a 2-0 start, but I've squeeked through both of my
matches, and I'm paired against my teammate Mark Chalice in round 3. We
play to a draw as we run out of time in game 3. I had the edge and
looked like I was going to win until he dropped an Unseen Walker and hit
me for 8 with a Crash of Rinos. I know time is running out, and I will
lose on the next turn, so I attack with everything... I figure it'll take
a minute or two for Mark to sort out the blocking so he doesn't lose.
I'm right and time runs out preserving the draw. I lose in the next
round to Matt Vienneau who whould make the final 8. His Ray of Command
was the difference in both game 1 and 3. I'm bummed because I'm 2-1-1
and need to win 5 straight to make the final 8.
the next 2 rounds go well, beating two good opponents. I then face a guy
who I happen to know has a savage twister. I hope to use that to my
advantage, but it doesn't matter. He draws the twister in games one and
three to win both of them. In game 3 I never draw a swamp that would
have won me the game at any point. I had all 5 Black spells in my hand
at the time including a Dark Banishing and Bone Harvest. At 4-2-1, I'm
out of contention for the final 8. I've dropped to #43 so I've still got
a shot at the top 32.
Round 8 puts me against Dennis Bentley, the US National Champ. I beat
him easily 2-0 as he makes several mistakes. I'm wondering if he'd just
given up after been eliminated, because the mistakes were pretty big. I
move up to #28, but my tiebreaker within my grouping is not very good.
I'm paired against Hammer who is at #24. He wants a draw, because he's
pretty sure that a draw will keep him in the top 32, while I think it'll
drop me out. I really need to make the top 32 to qualify for Dallas.
Fortunately, the decision is taken out of my hands as the judges say that
players at 11 to 13 pts can't willingly draw this round. We start
playing and I win game 1 fairly easily as Hammer is tight on mana. Game
2 is the reverse, as I have 5 Green spells in my hand and none of my 7
Forests show up. Game 3 is huge, and I win with Hammer not drawing a
Swamp until it was too late.
I now waited to find out if I had sqeezed into the top 16... Before the
official postings go up a judge who I know comes over to give me the bad
news... I've finished 17th... Oh well, at least I'm set for Dallas. Now
the team is wondering if Mark Justice made the final 8. He also didn't
quite make it finishing at #10. As a whole, PCL did pretty well in the
singles, but didn't place anyone in the top 8. We did all finish in the
top 64, which is always our goal.
Report on the team competition to come....
Later,
Mario Robaina
Team PCL