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New York PTQ, New York

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Michael J Flores

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Apr 20, 1997, 3:00:00 AM4/20/97
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THE ART OF FINISHING FIVE-AND-TWO BY MANASCREW

or

ONE MATCH SHY, OH WATCH ME FRY

So feeling horrible and possibly nursing a fever, I decided to stick to
my guns and play in the New York PTQ. Come on already, I have *got* to
be due at this point, right?

I decide on a u/R/W deck that is nothing spectacular. I have some good
blue, including a Breezekeeper, Sandbar Crocodile, and Ray of Command; a
couple of red flankers and flyers and a Fireblast, and some decent white
including the almighty Parapet. Even though I had strong green
(including two of my favorite cards, Granger Guildmage and Rampant
Growth) and very strong black (3 removal and a Catacomb Dragon) I skipped
them because my green guys weren't that big, and black is a 5th-choice
color unless you have mad 2/1 flyers, Nekrataal, etc.

The highlight of my deck construction process was getting a warning
because the idiot who registered my deck didn't mark Kukemsa Serpent, a
great sealed deck card, but Kukemsa Pirates, a joke sealed deck card. I
got a plains that had Kukemsa Pirates written across the top. Hooray.

On to the matches...

ROUND ONE

I am paired with another guy named Mike, who informs me that he is a
Rochester player who works with our current US Champion. La la la.

Game 1:

I am manascrewed to begin with and take a pounding, but I get out a few
little guys of my own. The game goes for several minutes, and neither of
us has yet declared a block. Mike is at 8 and I am at 6. He has an
untapped Shadow Guildmage to block, and I have 2 power-2 creatures so I
will likely lose. I draw Talruum Minotaur. Sweet. I attack for 7, and
he of course blocks the Minotaur, bringing him to 4. I Fireblast.
Cool. (Hot, actually!)

Game 2:

I get a perfect mana distribution, tapping out on each turn, always
laying a land. I Pacify his first creature, and do damage with a slew of
dangerous weenies. I Fireblast his Minotaur, etc. He never has a chance.

Match 1-0.

Wandering around, I am always second-guessing my deck, and I really don't
like it that much. To anyone who asks me how it is I say "It's no 'Pile
of Bitches..."

ROUND TWO

I am matched with Andrew, who has big creatures.

Game 1:

Andrew opens up with a Sewer Rats and hits me for a motherload. The only
problem with that is that he does half my work for me. I eventually get
out Parapet and a bunch of first strike flyers so he sits there doing
nothing while I take control of the board. Ah black. Why do people play
black?

Game 2:

I draw a zillion land and do nothing. Andrew gets out a Panther
Warriors. I get out my Teferi's Honor Guard. I block and phase. I
attack and play a Sandbar Crocodile. Andrew Kaervek's Purges it! Argh!
He hits for 6 more! I am at 8 from one turn's attack. I attack again
and lay my Talruum Champion. He Cinder Clouds it! I take another 6. I
leave a guy up to block and get a Talruum Minotaur up and attack. He
goes down to like 11. I Ray of Command his Panthers and do 11 to him the
next turn. Whew. Andrew's deck was a classic case of good cards and not
enough creatures. Ta-ta.

Match 2-0.

ROUND THREE

I am put at (lucky) table 13. I am matched with Al. He seems a nice
enough guy at first, but flashes a huge and horrible attitude when I
table-shuffle his deck. I mean he really gets up-in-arms. I start
yelling at him that I am *allowed* to

a. shuffle his deck, and
b. count his library.

Whatever.

Game 1:

I beat him down because my deck is better than his.

I table-shuffle his deck again and he gets *so* pissed. I don't do it to
piss him off, but he is really getting on my nerves at this point.

Game 2:

He makes some awful mistakes, and just doesn't deserve to win. He
sacrifices 2 Mountains to Fireblast my Wildfire, but I have Parapet up.
Come on. He had previously Mind Harnessed my Viashino Warrior, so I had
to block it nonetheless. I just drew no creatures this game, and I knew
I had the better deck, he wasn't that strong, etc.

I seriously consider sideboarding out my red for my black, which is also
pretty good. I decide against it, though. Al *implores* me not to
table-shuffle, so I let it go. Blah.

Game 3:

Explain to me how I lost. Al has 3 life, and only has 3 life because he
Shadowbaned some damage from the previous turn. To supplement his 3
life, he has a Wall of Resistance with my Pacifism on it.

I have 2 Flyers, a Talruum Minotaur, and some flank knights. I have 14 life.
Al draws, plays a land, Incinerates me, Torches me for 7, and Fireblasts
me. Wow. He is such a good player.

Obviously I am livid. I hate outplaying an opponent only losing to a
mediocre player with great cards. Mind Harness too. Crap.

Match 2-1.

There is *such* a big difference between 2-1 and 3-0. At 3-0, you are
already looking forward to your intentional draws. At 2-1, you know you
have to play all day.

So I am stuck in the losers' bracket. I suck.

ROUND FOUR

I am paired with Pedro, a junior who appears new to the game.

Game 1:

I am manascrewed and have to discard. I can analyze Pedro's game,
though. He isn't playing with enough land. He has dropped enough to
play 3 flankers, but he isn't getting any more. Newbies. I get out a
flanker of my own and a Noble Elephant. That is is for Pedro. My
Parapet and Darts finish him off.

Game 2:

The Parapet does it again. Pedro keeps forgetting it is there, and loses
a ton of guys to mine for free. Oh well, free win.

Match 3-1.

ROUND FIVE

I am paired with Andy, whose deck is like 49 cards. The weird thing is,
it is all great stuff. Two Undos, more power blue, huge green creatures.

Game 1:

Andy's deck is a bit too slow, and I beat him down.

Game 2:

I get Undone more than once, my hand keeps filling while my mana doesn't,
and he picks away at me with some good creatures. I don't think I
touched him this game.

Game 3:

Andy never sees a second blue mana for the two Undos he is holding...
That's what you get for 49 cards, I guess. I get a decent draw and
control the whole game with flyers. He says he could have attacked with
his Pygmy Hippo, used my mana for the Undos, and taken like 2 burn. I
show him the Fireblast that would have killed him if he had done that.

Match 4-1.

ROUND SIX

I am again put at table 13, and Al, my vanquisher at that table is
sitting across from me. Although I am pretty sure I can beat him in the
return match, we of course call a judge for new enemies. Brian Schneider
has the bad luck of facing me. This was stupid for both of us. Brian
had already used the intentional draw, and was 5-0, or 5-0-1 with the
draw that was removed. He didn't want to play me, I would obviously have
rather played a fellow scrub 4-1 than another stong player. Blah.

Anyway, my hardcore manascrews hit me for the first real times of the
tournament. Games one *and* two. I just discard stuff while
Breezekeepers and Waterspout Djinns and Parapets get shoved down my throat.

Over the course of the match, Brian takes 2 total damage -- from his Wand
of Denial! Whatever.

I don't mind losing to another good player, but I never had a chance.
Since he will now automatically make the finals at 6-0, Brian decides to
play the last round. I decide to play as well, because I have nothing
else to do.

ROUND SEVEN

I am paired with Casey, a junior. Another junior sitting next to him
tells Casey that he will lose, because I am so good. At that point, I am
just annoyed by the false flattery. Casey starts in on me that I can't
be a good player because I have 2 losses, etc. Stupid juniors.

Anyway, Casey has yet to master the art of shuffling his deck, and he
shows me his Torch, Firestorm Hellkite, and whatnot. He has awesome
cards. I say "You have a pretty good deck." He threatens to get me
thrown out because I am cheating. I inform him that if he shuffles with
his cards directly in my face, I have very little option as whether or
not to see them. He says "Oh."

Game 1:

This match apparently means something to Casey, in terms of winning,
because he "forgets" to mark some damage from my Darts. I call the
judge, because he should be dead to my Sandbar. Big Tony instead gives
both of us a warning and sides with Casey! Whatever. I kill him two
turns later anyway.

Game 2:

Casey has fantastic cards, Torch, Incinerate, Firestorm Hellkite,
Ovinomancer... I make the cool play of the day and Ray of Command his
Ovinomancer and force it to commit suicide. I get a sheep token.
Hooray! Card economy! I give him the firm beatdown.

Anyway, after the match, I tell him he shouldn't be playing black. He
has a Drain Life, Death Watch, and two Tar Pit Warriors as his
rationale. Come on... He could have been playing 2 Panther Warriors, a
Jungle Wurm, a Granger Guildmage, a Stalking Tiger, and a (da bomb) Giant
Mantis. You decide.

So I, the master of finishing 1 shy of the cutoff miss the round of 8 yet
again. I get 2 warnings on the day for things that weren't even my
fault, and both hurt me. All-in-all a good day. Ha!

Anyway, I am almost ready to buy Wakefield's theory about sealed deck. I
lost to a mediocre player with a million burn spells, and a comparable
player because I was manascrewed. If even one of those things didn't
occur... The bottom line is that luck plays a key factor in sealed even
more than in constructed deck. How can we deny that?

I didn't wait around for the finals, so don't ask. My picks though, are
Brian Schneider, a very nice kid, albeit my vanquisher, who was 7-0
through the Swiss, and Dave Price, a king of qualifiers. Both players
are pretty due.

In case anyone is interested in the specifics of "Not Quite the 'Pile of
Bitches," here they are...

(wow, Mike Flores actually posting a deck listing!)

1 Telim 'Tor's Darts

1 Breezekeeper
1 Man-o-War
1 Ray of Command
1 Sandbar Crocodile

1 Crimson Roc
1 Dwarven Vigilantes
1 Fireblast
1 Flare
1 Searing Spear Askari
1 Spitting Drake
1 Suq'Ata Lancer
1 Talruum Champion
1 Talruum Minotaur
1 Viashino Warrior
1 Wildfire Emissary

1 Ekundu Griffin
1 Gossamer Chains
1 Knight of Valor
1 Noble Elephant
1 Pacifism
1 Parapet
1 Sun Clasp
1 Teferi's Honor Guard

5 Island
7 Mountain
6 Plains

I had a Femeref Knights, an Impulse, an Inspiration, a Dream Cache, a
Dissipate, and a Leering Gargoyle too... I didn't think any of them
justified being switched in for what I *was* playing with though...

anyway,

Mike Flores

Charles C Hwa

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Apr 20, 1997, 3:00:00 AM4/20/97
to

The good news is mike that fling hasn't been incredible (though I'm
hardly in a position to say anything. Sorry about your day, but mine has
been pretty bad too. At least you got to play some sealed. I jsut sat
around all day watching my ever expanding collection of dust settle on my
computer. (Very interesting at the outset, by minute .00014 I began to
tire of the exercise)

Anyways, here are some thoughts:

At Philly PTQ, I had an ass deck passed to me, with nothing in it like
the 5 flankers, a torch and 2 clouds I registered. Instead, I get the
(dragon) masked vigilante, which while good, is no torch. I end up losing
matches 1 AND 5 to burn, siply because I didn't have any. I played pretty
darned well only to get blasted or geysered to death in the end game.
Whoopie! They're such good players.

On the other hand, it is this luck of the draw that makes sealed so
exciting. Yeah, Yeah, luck shouldn't be a large part of a sealed game,
but let's face it, cracking packs and making decks is a lot of what
magic is about. Part of the fun is finding that extra something your
cards have to offer than might defeat your good opponents, and those that
will stop those that are simply lucky enough to draw the fire.

So I guess this is actually a post about why sealed deck is good. I find
sealed so enjoyable, because while it's great to qualify, it's great to
show you are the best on even turf, in actuality that is what type II is
for. Sealed deck is about making the best outta what you got. Sometimes
you get screwed, sometimes to get the god pack, most of the time you are
on even ground. Most people will exclaim, "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING WHEN
YOU DID THIS? I would have chosen...," but let's face it: the heat of the
moment, when these decks get made, is some of the best moments magic has
to offer. You sit there, analyzing what others might have, what you have
to stop, and what you have to get to win. You shuffle your 40 or so
cards, and you play. You usually don't make the best deck in those fourty
minutes. But you sure think up wierd combos from hell.

In sealed, you play cards that would otherwise never make the 60 card
roster of any constructed deck. It makes you think. Where else can you
find people yelling "Cloud Elementals are BROKEN!"? Just the other day, I
locked someone under the black hammer (nekratall dragon mask). It is
another way to play magic, and one that is superior to almost all of the
alternative formats.

In short, the luck of the draw is what allows to to bitch and moan, or to
scream in triumph. If everyone was offered the same deck, with the same
cards, and luck was removed, what would be left would be nothing more
than glorified constructed deck.

Sealed deck is one of the last EXCITING formats of magic left, simply
because in sealed, there are SITUATIONAL broken cards (pacifism/gaseous
form broken Vs. Evil Eye, Crimson Hellkite, nekrataal dragon mask,
guildmages...). You never have fun relating how you slowly icied all you
opponents lands. You just rave about the time your necro consulted for a
mishra's to win the game. Balanced decks are great. They are also not
incredibly fun. The rush of new packs, new cards, new strategies, and new
card mixes are what makes sealed so fun. Balanced and skill based? Maybe.
Fun? Most definitely. Type II if you want to play on even ground. Sealed
for the rush of true magic. :)

--
"Till shade is gone, till water in gone,
into the Shadow with teeth bared,
to spit in SightBlinder's Eye on the LAST DAY!"
-R. Jordan, The Great Hunt

Unranked and Unrepentant, Creator of Kryptonite

Thomas Roddenberry

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Apr 20, 1997, 3:00:00 AM4/20/97
to

Michael J Flores wrote:

Great report, I always enjoy your Tournament reports.

> Game 2:
>
> Casey has fantastic cards, Torch, Incinerate, Firestorm Hellkite,
> Ovinomancer... I make the cool play of the day and Ray of Command his
> Ovinomancer and force it to commit suicide. I get a sheep token.
> Hooray! Card economy! I give him the firm beatdown.
>

How does this work? If Ovinomancer is Untapped and not summoning sick,
your opponant simply uses it on one of your creatures in response to the
Ray. If it is summoning sick, and you use it to target itself, It'll be
in his hand long before it's effect goes off (because that's part of the
cost). Lacking a valid target, the "sheep token" effect will fizzle.
If it is your opponant's side, not summoning sick, but you have no
creatures on your side, your opponant should activate the Ovinomancer on
itself, causing the Ovinomancer effect (and the Ray) to fizzle.

Add me to the List of subscribers in Wakefield's Theory on sealed deck.
At first, I was a big supporter of Mirage based sealed (because can play
beatdown and everything doesn't got to an IA stalemate). However, a
conversation with Rudy Edwards (who is very anti Mirgae and anti booster
Draft) in December, altered my opinion. The 'play balance' of Mirage is
such that a few cards are just That much more powerful than the rest of
the set (Torch), and their presence unbalances play. So now when I play
sealed or booster Draft, I have to engage in what is almost a metagame,
and I include a few cards in my deck (even if Sub-Optimal), for the
express purpose of countering or Delaying Direct Damage (ie. Elixir of
Vitality). These cards can be sideboarded out against opponants without
such capabilities, but the winning decks almost always seem to have some
Direct Damage Capibilities.

Tom Roddenberry

David Price

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Apr 20, 1997, 3:00:00 AM4/20/97
to

Thomas Roddenberry wrote:
> Add me to the List of subscribers in Wakefield's Theory on sealed deck.
> At first, I was a big supporter of Mirage based sealed (because can play
> beatdown and everything doesn't got to an IA stalemate). However, a
> conversation with Rudy Edwards (who is very anti Mirgae and anti booster
> Draft) in December, altered my opinion. The 'play balance' of Mirage is
> such that a few cards are just That much more powerful than the rest of
> the set (Torch), and their presence unbalances play. So now when I play
> sealed or booster Draft, I have to engage in what is almost a metagame,
> and I include a few cards in my deck (even if Sub-Optimal), for the
> express purpose of countering or Delaying Direct Damage (ie. Elixir of
> Vitality). These cards can be sideboarded out against opponants without
> such capabilities, but the winning decks almost always seem to have some
> Direct Damage Capibilities.
>
>
> Tom Roddenberry

I'm afraid that I have to disagree with any theory that involves the
name, "Wakefield." (such as the "Wakefield My Mono-black Deck with
Drain Lives is Better Without Necro Theory") Seriously, though, I have
to disagree with you on this. Certainly, red X spells are good, but I
think they are worse in Mirage sealed than they are in IA/AL or 4th or
5th Edition sealed. Simply because those other sealed formats lend
themselves to creature stalemates more than Mirage sealed, red X spells
are much more abusive in them. Whereas in Mirage sealed, torches are
most often used to kill a 3/3 creature that is serving the beatdown...

And as to your last statement, that "the winning decks almost always
seem to have some Direct Damage," I've made it to the final 8 in a
Mirage/Visions sealed deck qualifier for the second PTQ in a row, with
no red X spells in my deck. At the Albany PTQ, the only thing even
vaguely resembling direct damage in my deck was a Reflect Damage, and I
went undefeated with it, and at the New York PTQ, my only burn was an
Incinerate, and I went 6-1.

In my opinion, a good solid creature base is 10 times more important
than red X spells in Mirage/whatever sealed deck.

David Price
Team Deadguy
"King of the Qualifiers"
de...@cornell.edu

P.S. There are much better cards to deal with Torch than Elixer of
Vitality: Power Sink and other countermagic, Remedy, Shadowbane,
Honorable Passage, Reflect Damage, etc. Also, I would much rather have
a good creature that my opponent might be forced to Torch early on,
rather than have an Elixer of Vitality in my deck.

David Price

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Apr 20, 1997, 3:00:00 AM4/20/97
to

You're just jealous because in the first two of our three sanctioned
matches vs. one another, I administered the Ironclaw Orc-beatdown, and
in our third sanctioned match in Pro Tour-Paris, I served with the big
fatty of all big fatties, Uktabi Orangutan. Yeah, Snake Basket that.

David Price
Team Deadguy
3-0 vs. Worth Wollpert
de...@cornell.edu

Worth Wollpert wrote:
>
> Once again Dave Price finds a way to use two of the most annoying words in the
> enitre English language, and use them both in the same sentence.
> Congratulations, server of beatdown.
>
> Worth Wollpert
> Team Deadguy
>
> >most often used to kill a 3/3 creature that is **serving the beatdown...**

Aziz

unread,
Apr 20, 1997, 3:00:00 AM4/20/97
to David Price

>
> In my opinion, a good solid creature base is 10 times more important
> than red X spells in Mirage/whatever sealed deck.

Creatures suck! My dream Mirage/Visions sealed deck is 20 land, and 20
Elixirs of Vitality. I mean come on! The card is so powerful it comes
into play tapped!

Seriously though, I've seen many, many people make the final 8 without an
X spell, including myself. A good player can usually deal with a torch.
Certain cards are even harder to deal with, in my opinion, such as Dragon
Mask or enormous flyers like Mist Dragon or Catacomb Dragon. People would
probably complain about those cards more if they weren't rare/uncommon.

Aziz
Team 5 Guys With a Peter

Chris Pikula

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Apr 20, 1997, 3:00:00 AM4/20/97
to

Fatty. Fatty. Beatdown. Serve. Fatty. Strong. Beatdown. Fatty.
Meerkat. Meerkat.
MUNDUNGU!

Michael Falkner

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Apr 20, 1997, 3:00:00 AM4/20/97
to

In article <3359CA...@acpub.duke.edu>, Thomas says...

>How does this work? If Ovinomancer is Untapped and not summoning sick,
>your opponant simply uses it on one of your creatures in response to the
>Ray. If it is summoning sick, and you use it to target itself, It'll be
>in his hand long before it's effect goes off (because that's part of the
>cost). Lacking a valid target, the "sheep token" effect will fizzle.

That's right. Oops.

>If it is your opponant's side, not summoning sick, but you have no
>creatures on your side, your opponant should activate the Ovinomancer on
>itself, causing the Ovinomancer effect (and the Ray) to fizzle.

True. But I don't know if that would've been a wise play for the Ray at that
point.

>Add me to the List of subscribers in Wakefield's Theory on sealed deck.
>At first, I was a big supporter of Mirage based sealed (because can play
>beatdown and everything doesn't got to an IA stalemate). However, a
>conversation with Rudy Edwards (who is very anti Mirgae and anti booster
>Draft) in December, altered my opinion. The 'play balance' of Mirage is
>such that a few cards are just That much more powerful than the rest of
>the set (Torch), and their presence unbalances play. So now when I play
>sealed or booster Draft, I have to engage in what is almost a metagame,
>and I include a few cards in my deck (even if Sub-Optimal), for the
>express purpose of countering or Delaying Direct Damage (ie. Elixir of
>Vitality). These cards can be sideboarded out against opponants without
>such capabilities, but the winning decks almost always seem to have some
>Direct Damage Capibilities.

DUH!

Mike

Worth Wollpert

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Apr 21, 1997, 3:00:00 AM4/21/97
to

John M Shuler

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Apr 21, 1997, 3:00:00 AM4/21/97
to

David Price (de...@cornell.edu) wrote:
: Thomas Roddenberry wrote:
: no red X spells in my deck. At the Albany PTQ, the only thing even


: vaguely resembling direct damage in my deck was a Reflect Damage, and I
: went undefeated with it, and at the New York PTQ, my only burn was an
: Incinerate, and I went 6-1.

A Reflect Damage *is* an X spell, for the most part. It's
the perfect anti-twister, and anti-direct damage that there is,
since more often than not, your opponent usually dies when
you cast it (assuming you survive the early game)


: In my opinion, a good solid creature base is 10 times more important


: than red X spells in Mirage/whatever sealed deck.

You are right, of course. If only because you are far more likely to
see those creatures than your x spell, and if you are using your
x spell to toast your opponent, you don't want to draw it too
early in the first place anyway, and you don't want to draw
it too late, so it can be a liability at points, almost.


john

--
John M. Shuler

-/|\-/|\-/|\-/|\-/|\-/|\-/|\-/|\-/|\-/|\-/|\-/|\-/|\-/|\-/|\-/|\-/|\-
The contraction "You're" does not indicate possessive. It indicates a
state of being, or, more commonly, a description of the person being
addressed.
The word "Your" does indicate possesive. It does NOT indicate a state
of being, or a description.
-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-\|/-


Brian Hacker

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Apr 21, 1997, 3:00:00 AM4/21/97
to

Chris,
Might I suggest a diet higher in fiber and lower in saturated fat? ;)

Hacker
Team Dickhead

Chris Pikula <cp...@cornell.edu> wrote in article
<335AC2...@cornell.edu>...

ka...@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca

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Apr 22, 1997, 3:00:00 AM4/22/97
to

Aziz (aaa...@garnet.acns.fsu.edu) wrote:
: >
: > In my opinion, a good solid creature base is 10 times more important
: > than red X spells in Mirage/whatever sealed deck.

: Creatures suck! My dream Mirage/Visions sealed deck is 20 land, and 20


: Elixirs of Vitality. I mean come on! The card is so powerful it comes
: into play tapped!

: Seriously though, I've seen many, many people make the final 8 without an
: X spell, including myself. A good player can usually deal with a torch.
: Certain cards are even harder to deal with, in my opinion, such as Dragon
: Mask or enormous flyers like Mist Dragon or Catacomb Dragon. People would
: probably complain about those cards more if they weren't rare/uncommon.

Seems to me that if they weren't rare/uncommon, they'd be a little easier
to defend against (seeing as you'd have a better chance of getting
something similar yourself.) I'd probably complain less (hard to do,
actually, since I don't complain much at tournaments anyway.)

: Aziz


: Team 5 Guys With a Peter

--
In chaos all things are possible.
You don't know me. No one knows me.

I can be reached at ka...@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca

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