Atlanta Pro Tourney Report
Thomas F. Guevin
Seeing the low volume of posts about the Atlanta pro tourney, here's my
tourney report of the Atlanta event:
Thursday Aug 12 8:30 am: Fly out of logan. I'm flying with Dave Humpherys
(winner of Ice Age premiere in Canada), and Darwin Kastle (3rd place at
long beach). On the plane we discuss mirage and play strategies, along
with the usual type 2, IA/AL and teams discussions. We play some IA/AL, and
I somehow manage to beat Dave (16th at PT3) with my IA/AL Haups deck.
Thursday 1 pm: Get to Hotel. The place is crazy - I believe it is at least
60 floors, with the center hollowed out so you can see the roof. If you are
scared of heights this place is a nightmare. We decide to go to lunch at
the hotel cafe, and after we get the check for $40 after tip, we decide
McDonald's or Wendy's may be a better choice for lunch. We check out the
downstairs play area and there are very few people, most of which are practicing
for the teams tourney. So we go to the room and play some type 2. I am able
to beat Darwin's red deck, but am unable to even win a game from Humpherys'
bauble-necro deck. Ironically Darwin beats Dave 2 straight illustrating the
rock-paper-scissors scheme of type 2. While once confident is my
white/red/black glaciers/creatures deck ability to beat necro, I am now a little
worried and don't think I'll be playing much ante with it.
Thursday 5 pm: Go back downstairs. Most everyone is there playing - a lot
of Type II and more IA/AL teams stuff. Darwin plays against some Type I LD
decks with his new Type I deck (no more Atogs!), and splits a few games.
Dave and I mostly watch.
Thursday 7 pm: Player meeting. To make a long story short, Tom Wylie and
? Finch are bombarded with tons of questions from rules to questions about
the new intentional draw rules. The meeting goes till about 10 pm. We grab
some quick food and turn it in. Our teammate Brad Mennell meets up with us,
but the fifth teamate Adam Green is no where to be seen.
The biggest news of the players meeting is that there will be 9 rounds of swiss.
We have a LONG day ahead.
Friday 6 am: We arise and head over to Mcdonalds. After some hearty breakfast
we head over to the convention center and finally meet up with Adam. He and
I are a little nervous before the tourney, but Dave and Darwin feel pretty
confident.
Friday 9 am: We are finally seated and get the decks. It is 9:30 before
we actually open the deck. My deck looks really good. I have 3 incinerates,
and a bunch of great critters - I have white flyers, big blue creatures,
red flyers, a black dragon, and several good blue trick cards. I make a
white/red/blue deck and at the last minute switch to white/red/green, thinking
people would have a harder time dealing with my big green critters.
Friday 10:30 am: First round starts and needless to say my impression that
Mirage would be a somewhat defensive set was wrong. I get crushed by a key
ray of command in the first game and get torched out in the second game
by Kaervech's Torch (the new fireball). I win my second round match and am 1-1.
Friday 1 pm: I have to play Mark Justice. The series between us is 1-0, but
that would be quickly erased, as I get ray of commanded and controlled magiced
(the new blue one that controlles red and green creatures) in the first game,
and Torched in the second game for 12. Even though I sideboarded well I couldn't
eek out a win. I would drop my next game, and then win one to go to 2-3.
Friday 5 pm: I play a Swedish player who has a sick deck - 2 Torches, a
Savage Twister (RGX, do X damage to all creatures) and other nice cards.
It's a crazy tight series, I win the second game with one card left, but lose
the third, bringing me to 2-4, and eliminating me from any chances at top 32.
Friday 6 pm: Play Brian Weisman. He has a shit deck, with no good red at all,
and only a couple counters and thirsts for defense. I win the first, he wins
the second, and I win the third, as I get out a first striker that slows his
flanker army down. I lose the next round to some idiot who has two of the new
Erhnam Djinns (called Meddletooth Djinn (4/4, 1 damage each upkeep)).
Friday 9 pm: I play Peter Radjonic (3/4 at PT3). I say to him before the game
that whoever doesn't make mistakes will win. He agrees, and this is part of his
strategy to force the other player into a mistake. I win a long first game, but
true to my opinion, he makes a mistake of draining my griffin with first strike
instead of the griffin that gets the other ones in the graveyard back.
It was a good series to end the day out.
Friday 10 pm: I see my teammates for tommorow and discuss how everyone did.
Darwin finished really strong, making the top 8, while Dave barely missed the
top sixteen going 6-2-1. Brad went 4-4-1, and Adam went 1-5 then dropped out.
We are feeling confident for tommorow as we have put in a lot of practice and
feel we have a good team.
Saturday 9 am: After McD's for breakfast we sit down to the team event and
register the decks. Since we do not get to keep our decks, we hope we get some
real crap cards. It's the reverse as we pull 2 Icies, 2 Pyroclasm, 4 dark
banishing, 2 feast of famine, 2 withering wisps, and 3 ray of command.
However there is only one red damage spell (a lava burst). I talk some serious
trash with the team sitting next to us. One real wiseguy calls me names and
I tell him he and his team sucks at magic. He responds by saying that he indeed
sucks at magic, but that he makes more money that me. Really I say? Really -
he claims he makes over $100,000. Hey I can't top that, so I'm busted.
Saturday 10 am: They post the new seats and we are at the same table! Somehow
we got the decks we registed. I am both excited and kind of worried - we have
good cards, but little end game red damage. We make our decks as we discussed.
I have a white/green bander/trampler deck (Aurochs!) and receive the two icies
as I lack any real creature removal. team SMK (out team) looks strong.
Saturday 11 am: We kick the shit out of Adam Maysonet's team. They have decent
cards but we have good matchups. My pale bears islandwalk Maysonet in the first
game, and my icy locks down his lands in the second game when he comes up
mana tight.
Saturday 12 pm: We kick the shit out of some team from New England area.
Listen up - there's one team from New England and that's Team SMK. I play
against another white/green deck, but between the icies, the nature's blessing
and the creatures I just rock my opponent.
Saturday 1 pm: We play a mixed team (2 people from Cornell, 3 from Colorado).
I joke around saying "I hope you guys are the ones that are ranked so high
in Type I. You guys must be really good to have those kind of rankings..."
Who would think Colorado would be the Mecca of type I play?
Either way we just annihilate them. Just when the guy I'm playing thinks
he has been I trample over with a blessed scaled wurn and get the victory.
Hey what can the guy say - he didn't draw his library of alexandria or his
ancestral recall in EITHER game!
Saturday 3 pm: We play Team Oasis. They look like real chumps at first, until
we start to see their cards. The guy I'm playing puts down an inheritance,
and then an OUTPOST, and then a Splintering Winds. Yet he is such a novice that
he never draws from inheritance. Oh well. I sweep my match, but my team is
in trouble. Darwin crushed his guy, but the other three games are looking
bleak. Adam get's Tim/Norrit/Zuran Enchantered right out, Humphery's gets
soul-kissed mountain walked, and Brad - well he just shit out. So we lose.
No big deal - win the next and we're in, seeing that we have the best
tiebreakers.
Saturday 4 pm: We play a no-name team who looks pretty solid. I play against
a red/green deck that I work with icies and green scarab, and I win my match
rapidly 2-0. Darwin gets mana fucked and gets swepped by Abyssal Specters.
So if Dave, Adam and Brad can win 2-1 we win. Alas they don't - Adam gets
Helmed/Diggered out in both games, and Brad looses to ray of command and
binding grasp. Dave wins for whatever that's worth. So we're out. After
being 3-0, we lose the next two round 2-3, and 2-3 and get knocked out.
Saturday 5-7 pm: I watch the finals. PCL schools team canada, and then
beats Team Oasis (the chumps we lost to), though Justice looses to the
outpost/splintering winds guy that I beat.
Saturday 8-12: Party at the hotel. Lots of people around - free food, but
not drinks. I talk to a lot of people, including Skaff. We have an interesting
discussion of cards and what's on the WotC "watched list" - according to him
it's just Necro right now. I watch Hammer beat a pure green IA/AL deck with
Baxter's browse deck, and I get to play against Scott Johns in type 2. He's
playing his post hymm/strip restriction deck, and I'm playing with 4 strips...
Anyway Hammer challenges Dave Humpherys to some IA/AL and Dave continues his
domination over Hammer going 4-0-1 (though Hammer had the 5th game under
control when the bouncer kicked us out to clean up the area - it was called a
tie.)
Sunday 1-2 am: I watch a beta draft, and see some cool stuff. Mark Rosewater
has a strong deck with 2 pestilences and lots of red fire. I never saw
who won though.
Sunday 10 am: Get up and go watch the finals. Mike Long gets a bad deck
and loosed to John Yoo in the quarters's. Darwin wins his first rounder on a
real technical rules call by Tom Wylie, and Frank Adler and a fellow from
Germany win (I can't recall his name). Frank beats John Yoo in the semis, and
Darwin beats the German guy.
Sunday 3 pm: The finals start. Darwin has a strong start all but wipped out
when Adler uses his savage twister for 4, while he merfolk is phased out.
Adler wins the first game, when I realize I have to catch my flight.
Oh well I don't get to watch the finals, but I would later hear that Darwin
lost 3-1. It would be the third pro-tourney with someone from SMK in the finals
but alas we've only been able to win one (PT1).
Sunday 6 pm: I fly back, thinking about the weekend. I got to play some
really fine players and had some memorable matches. But the teams loss
left a real sour taste, in that I went 5-0, but the team still didn't do it.
Mirage is awesome - irregardless of what you hear this set has some great cards.
Sure there are some sucker cards, but every set ever made has had shitty cards.
Anyone who says Mirage sucks because the new Lotus sucks is an idiot. Does
Arabians suck because Camel sucked? I don't think so. This set is really
good especially in the sealed deck environment. And the cards are the nicest
I've seen yet - the colors are rich and the art is superb.
Whew. That's all for now...
-Tom Guevin
Walter
tgu...@ctron.com (Thomas F. Guevin) wrote:
>good especially in the sealed deck environment. And the cards are the nicest
>I've seen yet - the colors are rich and the art is superb.
>Whew. That's all for now...
>-Tom Guevin
An *excellent* report, Tom!
Any other Atlanta PT attendees out there?
We want those reports!
--------------------------------------------------------
Walter Theseira | "We have signed away our freedom
| for the false comforts of
Steadfast Critic | slavery."
Intrepid Explorer |
Netscape User |
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alien
Good post Tom. Actually Humphries challenged me while I was using
Baxter's Browse deck. He did beat me 4 straight, but keep in mind
that Baxter only has 2 caps and 2 diggers to win with. Humphries had
4 caps with some permission so he often had the jump. Baxter's also
had only 22 lands with 4 Glaciers in a 62 card deck. When I changed
his deck in the 5th game to add my 2 Blinking Spirits that were in my
PT3 deck I had Humphries beat easily when we got kicked out. I did,
however make a totally lame mistake by letting his Lodestone Bauble
hit the board in the first game forgetting that he could use it on me.
He Baubled me on his turn when I had 1 card left in my library and a
Digger in my hand and then ran out of cards during my upkeep. I felt
foolish of course, but i'd rather learn that there than when it counts
in a tourney. Dave won games 2, 3, and 4 due to early mana screw
which actually was pretty popular in a lot of games this weekend!!
HAMMER
Jeff Sternal
In article <51mrrd$a...@lex.zippo.com>,
tgu...@ctron.com (Thomas F. Guevin) wrote:
I just have a few things to add, and a couple corrections.
>Seeing the low volume of posts about the Atlanta pro tourney, here's my
>tourney report of the Atlanta event:
>Thursday 7 pm: Player meeting. To make a long story short, Tom Wylie
>and ?[Andrew] Finch are bombarded with tons of questions from rules
>to questions about the new intentional draw rules.
Make a long story short? But why - this was a hilarious meeting.
Well, it was pretty annoying too. Here's a sample, from my corrupted
memory:
[Tom / Andrew] Under 5th edition rules, it is no longer possible
to counter or otherwise interrupt a Dark Ritual.
[Someone from the crowd] Does that mean that you can't counter a
Mox under 5th edition rules?
[Another lonely voice] Can I interrupt a Dark Ritual to offer my
opponent a draw?
[Yet another] What about Ley Druid?
[And finally] What if I cast a Dark Ritual, and my opponent
interrupts it by turning 19, therfore becoming eligible for the
Master's division?
>We are feeling confident for tommorow as we have put in a lot of
>practice and feel we have a good team.
>Saturday 9 am: After McD's for breakfast we sit down to the team
>event and register the decks. Since we do not get to keep our decks,
>we hope we get some real crap cards. It's the reverse as we pull 2
>Icies, 2 Pyroclasm, 4 dark banishing, 2 feast of famine, 2
>withering wisps, and 3 ray of command. However there is only one
>red damage spell (a lava burst). I talk some serious trash with
>the team sitting next to us.
>Saturday 3 pm: We play Team Oasis.
>They look like real chumps at first,
Yeah, we were thinking of calling ourselves "Team Chump."
>until we start to see their cards. The guy I'm playing puts
>down an inheritance, and then an OUTPOST, and then a Splintering
>Winds.
Unfortunately, except for Chris (Mr. Outpost and Splintering
Wind), we had very pedestrian cards - certainly nothing like
4 Dark Banishings, 2 Feast or Famine, and 2 Icies. But then,
With 3 Elvish Healers out, even Brown Ouphes look pretty
fearsome.
>Yet he is such a novice that he never draws from inheritance.
Ow. Didn't know about that. Chris isn't a novice, but he was
lazy with Splintering Wind.
>Oh well. I sweep my match, but my team is in trouble.
>Darwin crushed his guy, but the other three games are looking
>bleak. Adam get's Tim/Norrit/Zuran Enchantered right out,
>Humphery's gets soul-kissed mountain walked, and Brad - well
>he just shit out.
I must have played Brad, but I don't remember him.
>So we lose. No big deal - win the next and we're in, seeing
>that we have the best tiebreakers.
>Saturday 5-7 pm: I watch the finals. PCL schools team canada,
>and then beats Team Oasis (the chumps we lost to), though
>Justice loses to the outpost/splintering winds guy that I beat.
In all fairness to Justice, they didn't finish their game -but
it looked pretty bad.
>Sunday 10 am: Get up and go watch the finals. Mike Long gets a
>bad deck and loosed to John Yoo in the quarters's. Darwin wins
>his first rounder on a real technical rules call by Tom Wylie,
>and Frank Adler and a fellow from Germany win (I can't recall his
>name). Frank beats John Yoo in the semis, and Darwin beats the
>German guy.
I thought it was:
Frank (who was, in fact, the German guy) vs. John Yoo
Darwin vs. Terry Borer
>Mirage is awesome - irregardless of what you hear this set has
>some great cards. Sure there are some sucker cards, but every
>set ever made has had shitty cards. Anyone who says Mirage sucks
>because the new Lotus sucks is an idiot. Does Arabians suck
>because Camel sucked? I don't think so.
Amen.
>This set is really good especially in the sealed deck
>environment.
I'm not so sure about this. There are several deeply unbalancing
sealed-deck cards: the Hammer of Bogarden, Savage Twister,
Celestial Dawn (sealed is where this is really nasty, not type
II), Sealed Fate and others, I'm sure. It's an enjoyable Sealed
environment, though.
Jeff
y...@worf.netins.net
tgu...@ctron.com (Thomas F. Guevin) writes:
>Saturday 3 pm: We play Team Oasis. They look like real chumps at first, until
>we start to see their cards. The guy I'm playing puts down an inheritance,
>and then an OUTPOST, and then a Splintering Winds. Yet he is such a novice that
>he never draws from inheritance. Oh well. I sweep my match, but my team is
>in trouble. Darwin crushed his guy, but the other three games are looking
>bleak. Adam get's Tim/Norrit/Zuran Enchantered right out, Humphery's gets
>soul-kissed mountain walked, and Brad - well he just shit out. So we lose.
>No big deal - win the next and we're in, seeing that we have the best
>tiebreakers.
Hi. About our guy being a novice because he didn't use his inheritance, I
guess you are such a supergenius you knew every card in his hand. He
couldn't have been holding two heals (which were key in many games). I
guess he's such a novice that he didn't beat mark justice or eric tam, my
mistake - you're right.
>Saturday 5-7 pm: I watch the finals. PCL schools team canada, and then
>beats Team Oasis (the chumps we lost to), though Justice looses to the
^^^^^^
>outpost/splintering winds guy that I beat.
This part is pretty funny, while not very insulting to us it is somewhat
insulting to your own team, and the others that we did actually beat
(Weisman, Place, Immordino's team, Neutral Ground, Team Canada, etc).
They might not appreciate it. ;)
Kevin
Jeff Sternal
In article <51p7mg$m...@netsrv2.spss.com>,
jqst...@midway.uchicago.edu (Jeff Sternal) wrote:
>In article <51mrrd$a...@lex.zippo.com>,
> tgu...@ctron.com (Thomas F. Guevin) wrote:
>>Sunday 10 am: Get up and go watch the finals. Mike Long gets a
>>bad deck and loosed to John Yoo in the quarters's. Darwin wins
>>his first rounder on a real technical rules call by Tom Wylie,
>>and Frank Adler and a fellow from Germany win (I can't recall his
>>name). Frank beats John Yoo in the semis, and Darwin beats the
>>German guy.
> I thought it was:
>Frank (who was, in fact, the German guy) vs. John Yoo
>Darwin vs. Terry Borer
My bad - looks like the Semis were:
Frank v. John
Darwin v. Aaron Muranaka (of UT)
Jeff
Daniel Brickwell
Hi,
In article <51mrrd$a...@lex.zippo.com>, tgu...@ctron.com says...
>
>Seeing the low volume of posts about the Atlanta pro tourney, here's my
>tourney report of the Atlanta event:
thanks a lot for taking the time!
One little correction though:
>Sunday 10 am: Get up and go watch the finals. Mike Long gets a bad deck
>and loosed to John Yoo in the quarters's. Darwin wins his first rounder on
>a real technical rules call by Tom Wylie, and Frank Adler and a fellow from
>Germany win (I can't recall his name). Frank beats John Yoo in the semis,
>and Darwin beats the German guy.
>
Frank Adler is the german guy, Darwin must have beaten one of the canadians.
The first german to win a Pro Tour, in sealed deck even! Hiphip huray!
Friendly Greetings from Berlin, Germany,
Daniel
Frank Adler
Hello Thomas,
that was a very good report. I think i惻l just add my impressions to
yous (by the way, i惴 Frank Adler, the German who won).
Thursday, 06:00 am, driving with the Train to Bruessel, 11:30 Fly to
Atlanta (6 hours time leg) arrivel at 15:00 pm at Atlanta airport.
tgu...@ctron.com (Thomas F. Guevin) wrote:
>Thursday 1 pm: Get to Hotel. The place is crazy - I believe it is at least
>60 floors, with the center hollowed out so you can see the roof. If you are
>scared of heights this place is a nightmare.
Yeah, the hotel is realy crasy. nothing to add here. I was just to
tired to play.
>Thursday 7 pm: Player meeting. To make a long story short, Tom Wylie and
>? Finch are bombarded with tons of questions from rules to questions about
>the new intentional draw rules.
Yeah, and some question about mana source and nether void (who cares
anyway).
>The biggest news of the players meeting is that there will be 9 rounds of swiss.
>We have a LONG day ahead.
Thats true. expecialy if you have a fullday journey from Germany to
Atlanta behind you.
Friday, 9:30 am, starting to read new cards. i扉e a hard time reading
all cards, build a deck and write it all down. I got some good cards
(Sealed Fate, Vapours Djinn, Torch) and able to get 15 Pts. 7,5 : 1,5
and finisht as number 5.
During the Day i build the team Reservoir Dogs. On Saturday, we were
able to get the final four and ended on place 3-4.
Sunday, i惴 late for deck building. I tought they would start at 9:00
but deckbuilding started at 8:00. I was happy to get the savage
twister, a torch and some good creatures and finished deck building
just in time.
In the first game i played one of the two canadians in the final 8.
First game my savage twister removed 4 of his creature and he was not
able to recover from this blow. in the second duell he was mana
screwed. 2:0 for me.
The second game agains Jhon Yoo was very close. He had a lot of direct
damage and he had a bad draw in the fifth game. 3:2
>Sunday 3 pm: The finals start. Darwin has a strong start all but wipped out
>when Adler uses his savage twister for 4, while he merfolk is phased out.
>Adler wins the first game, when I realize I have to catch my flight.
In the second duell he beats me with a lot of big creatures that i
can愒 stop.
In the third duell darwin sideboards in his white cards. I think that
was not a good move. I win the third 2:1.
In the fourth ame i was able to get control, i think he draw to many
land and was able to kill two of his fliging creatures with a Tropical
Storm while my fliers phased out. 3:1
>Oh well I don't get to watch the finals, but I would later hear that Darwin
>lost 3-1.
I惴 very happy that the final was without losing a game to drawing no
land.
See you in Dallas!
Frank Adler
see you
Cwlvyn (alias Frank Adler)