PTQ Tourney Report - Phoenix, AZ
Ray Powers
(forewarning, I do NOT know who took first, so if you are reading it
just for that, read no further. I am posting this to show how I did,
and let people see what was prevalent at the Phx PTQ.)
I'll say it at the very beginning, and echo it all post long. I failed
the MetaGame test. I walked in with a deck prepared to
kill necro/necrobolt and didn't face one swamp all day, go figure.
This was my , uhhhh, deck, nicked MonkFire by some of the funnier folk
on #mtg.
4 Wildfire Emissary
2 Blinking Spirit
3 Icy Manipulator
1 Land Tax
1 Black Vise
1 Balance
1 Zuran Orb
3 Swords To PlowShares
2 Wrath of God
2 Earthquake
1 Enlightened Tutor
2 Fireball
3 Incinerate
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Disenchant
1 Strip Mine
2 Kjeldoran Outpost
2 Thawing Glaciers
4 Mishras Factories
7 Mountains
8 Plains
2 City of Brass
SideBoard:
1 Primitive Justice
1 Karma
1 Conversion
1 Helm of obedience (so underrated as a side board card its not even
funny)
2 Pyroblast
3 Pillage
3 Cop: Red
3 Cop: Black
Standard red/white control. I knew how to play it, I was most
comfortable with it, so I stuck with what I knew best.
I showed up nice and Early to see who would be there I knew, and do
some early trading. I talked to the judge and told him I would be
making anyone with black backs desleeve, just out of paranoia of all
the cheating I've heard about with them. He laughed, and said "Well,
I'm at least forewarned as to who the trouble maker will be."
Traded, talked to a few friends about how I was ready to torture the
first necrobolt that came my way, and it was time to start....
Match 1:
Player: Jon Abrami
Deck : R/U Counter Burn with Frenetics, Emissaries, and the usual
counterburn.
Hey! This isn't Necro! Doh! Must....win....somehow.....
Game 1: Lost to direct damage. I could icy any creature he brought
out, but the bolts and x spells did their due. This was not the kind
of start I had hoped for. My one shining moment was that I killed FOUR
Frenetics in that game. How many people can say they killed four
frenetics. :)
Game 2: In goes the Cop:Reds. I never see them, I get slain by more dd
and an Emissary, while he counters everything I cast. In short, I was
tortured. I am amazed at how badly my deck handles Emissaries, and
very unhappy now. This is not the way to make it to the top 8. I need
to win the rest.
Matches: 0 -1
Games: 0-2
Match 2:
Player: Gabe Lindstrom
Deck: Willow/Ernie Geddon
Hurmm, where's the swamps? I expect to see swamps damn it! I want to
kill a necro!!!! Hhehehe. Gabe is a good guy, and he had to play his
brother, who made his deck for him pretty much, in the first round.
Game 1: Poor guy did not draw one plains the entire game, I pounded
him with an emissary, He played a Willow. Uck, I attacked with only
one mountain open, he blocked, woop. I let my emissary die, cast
balance, than play another emissary, which went on to finish the game.
Game 2: I doubted he was playing mono green, but didn't have much to
sub out against him anyways, I removed the tutor for a helm on the off
chance a Willow would join my forces, and started playing.... He
geddoned early, with me having two emissaries out, and he had out
feremef archers, kaysa, and Birds of paradise. I was baffled, but was
happy, I had three land in hand. I attack, he blocks with kaysa and
taps the birds to giant growth, urk. I attack next round, same deal.
Now he has 3 creature I have none. but I have the land. I plow, and
bolt my heart out, and end up winning with a blinky.
Matches: 1-1
Games: 2-2
Match 3:
Player: Ryan Noreen
Deck: Mono Red, Goblin/Burn
Game 1: My opening hand, mishra, plains, all red spells. Uck. I play
the mishras, I play the plains. I draw a glaciers, thank god, mean
while he is beating on me with little gobbies. He casts Blood Moon.
Uhhh, cool, I now have two red mana. I draw another land and play an
Emissary (the first time in my life I have tapped my Thawing Glaciers
for red mana). He looks unhappy. I earthquake for one next round, and
the emissary baps him for a lot before he fireballs it. Then I
fireball him to win.
Game 2: In goes 3 cop:red and the conversion. He had no dwarven ruins
or cob in his deck that I saw. I figured one conversion would be game
over. Instead I draw a cop: red round two. I tap out once to play an
emissary and he hits me for 10 with a bloodlusted goblin he then
grenades, but he never finds an anarchy, and I go on to win with two
Emissary.
Matches: 2-1
Games: 4-2
Match 4:
Player: Tom Riker
Deck: R/G erham and Burn'em, with lots of no summoning sickness
creatures.
Where are the swamps?!?!? I want to beat on necro dang it?!?!?!?
GARRR!! I failed the metagame test big time.
Game 1: Twice I was dumb enough to tap out to find ants coming over
and stomping on me. I was Direct damaged to death after that.
Game 2: In goes the conversion and cop:red. We stalemate a long time,
he plays a creature, I bolt/plow, over and over. Mean while I keep
glaciering. He has me down to 6 through direct damage. I finally pull
a cop red and a zuran orb. I bolt him a few times, get out enough
land, and earthquake for 13, then sack land to the orb to keep me
alive.
Game 3: He gets all green, I mishra him down to nothing, killing every
creature he plays, then bolt him to finish him off. A lousy game no
fun game when your opponent is mana hosed. :(
Matches: 3-1
Games: 6-3
Match 5:
Player: Daniel Brodie
Deck: R/G Erham and Burn'em, again....
Daniel is an exceptional junior player. He used to pay at the same old
spot I did, and beat me consistently when I was first starting.
Phx masters may be rather lame sometimes, but our juniors rule, and to
prove it, two of the top 8 were juniors, not a bad ratio. I am
considering burning my karma and cop:blacks by this point, but figure
I'll get deck checked and disqualified if I do. :P
Game 1: Black Sleeve Alert! Black Sleeve Alert! I ask him to desleeve,
he has no problems with it. In fact I help him. I know his deck
anyways, I had talked to him earlier. He was a great sport about it.
We both feel bad because one of us is going to knock the other out
this round. :( Its a slug fest back and forth. We both have out zorbs,
and we both probably went through 50 life by the end of the game. This
game was a perfect example of why the zorb should be gone. I finally
kill him with an emissary with four cards left in my library.
Game 2: In go the cop:reds and conversion. I never see them. I die to
a big fireball. At least my creature kill was working. :P
Game 3: I conversion early, he pays an orb. I play an outpost. I kill
every creature he puts out, or tap it with the icies, and the little
outpost guys go on to win the day. I kiss my conversion, but feel bad
since I just knocked out a friend, and am not sure which of us would
have had a better shot in the top 8.
Matches: 4-1
Games: 8-4
Match 6:
Player: Jay Voelz
Deck: Mono Blue, kill you with Mahomati djinns (I guess, I never saw
his deck really)
Game 1: Another black sleeved player. I ask him to desleeve, he gets
unhappy and a judge gets involved. He makes me turn all my cards the
same direction and the judge checks my cards to make sure I am not
running any marked cards. I tried to explain to him that I am not
doing it to be a dick, but he definetely does not believe me. He
takes 15 minutes to desleeve. :/ I go first. Mishra, Vise, done.
Against Mono blue you can guess it from there. I refused to cast
anything, and hit him with the mishra every round. I play an outpost,
he political trickeries it. At one very weird point he casts a
mystical tutor during his upkeep ( a great way to get around vise
damage), but then glaciers BEFORE his draw, thus not getting the card
he tutored for. The judge and I look at each other confusedly, but,
hey, whatever. I get him down to 1, he kills the vise. I play an icy,
he plays a Mahomati djinn, I play an emissary. I tap his djinn, and
the emissary goes on to win.
Game 2: In goes the pyroblasts and the Helm. This is what the helm is
built for. He starts out mana hosed, I hit with a mishra three times,
then play the helm, he does not counter (maybe he did not have one).
Next turn I helm him for 5 and get, surprise, a Mahomati Djinn, he is
dead 3 rounds later as he cant stop his own djinn.
Matches: 5-1
Games: 10-4
I'm in the top 8. Woop. I still haven't seen a swamp, and decide (once
again) that I failed the metagame test with a passion. Two of the Team
jester people are in the top 8, there are two juniors (one from
jesters) and the rest I didn't know.
Round one of the finals:
Player: Riad (AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!)
Deck: U/W Prison
Riad is the best junior I have ever seen, and normally a pleasure to
play (he was sick sunday, the poor guy). He makes me turn all my cards
the same direction. He is a friend of Jay's and word traveled fast of
my desleeving evil. *Shrug*, no biggie.
Game 1: Early vise, and lots of direct damage won the game. It was a
boring game not worth discussing. I lay no claim to brilliance for
drawing six out of seven bolts.
Game 2: In goes the pyroblasts, primitive justice, pillage, and Helm.
He gets an early outpost, counters everything I have, and wins. He
geddoned once while I had out an outpost. It was a much better game
than game 1, and was a fun challenge to play.
Game 3: I make no excuses, but I was a moron this game. First, I get
my mystical tutor and tutor for the vise instead of the orb, dumb move
one. Then, he geddons once, I have a glaciers, and glacier 4 lands out
no problem. Now is my big bonehead move number two that easily cost me
the match. I replay the glaciers, a totally unnecessary move. He (of
course), geddons and I am screwed beyond belief, he plays a vise. My
one land in hand is a strip mine. He plays a plains. I look at his
library, hurmm, 11 plains. I play the strip, and strip his plains. If
I counted right, and it turns out I did I think, I just killed his
last plains and he can not lay out an outpost. Sure enough, no
outposts come out, but I die to the vise. Dying in the first round of
the top 8, ouch. :(
I had to leave after that, but overall a pleasant tourney, and when I
left, Riad was playing the other team jester player, which had to
suck.
Hope this was fun to read. Sorry I don't know who won it.
Monkster@IRC
Robert Osborne
Ray Powers <ra...@primenet.com> wrote:
>Game 1: Another black sleeved player. I ask him to desleeve, he gets
>unhappy and a judge gets involved. He makes me turn all my cards the
>same direction and the judge checks my cards to make sure I am not
>running any marked cards. I tried to explain to him that I am not
>doing it to be a dick, but he definetely does not believe me.
Umm, ok. Why did you do it then?
Thanx for the report!
Rob.
--
Robert A. Osborne, rob...@visgen.com
"It's now safe to turn off your computer."
Ray Powers
rob...@visgen.com (Robert Osborne) wrote:
>Ray Powers <ra...@primenet.com> wrote:
>>Game 1: Another black sleeved player. I ask him to desleeve, he gets
>>unhappy and a judge gets involved. He makes me turn all my cards the
>>same direction and the judge checks my cards to make sure I am not
>>running any marked cards. I tried to explain to him that I am not
>>doing it to be a dick, but he definetely does not believe me.
>Umm, ok. Why did you do it then?
Paranoia. I heard too many black sleeve cheating stories the day
before the tourney. *shrug* :/
>Thanx for the report!
You are more than welcome. :)
Frederick Scott
ra...@primenet.com (Ray Powers) writes:
>I showed up nice and Early to see who would be there I knew, and do
>some early trading. I talked to the judge and told him I would be
>making anyone with black backs desleeve, just out of paranoia of all
>the cheating I've heard about with them. He laughed, and said "Well,
>I'm at least forewarned as to who the trouble maker will be."
...
>Match 5:
>Player: Daniel Brodie
>Deck: R/G Erham and Burn'em, again....
>
>Daniel is an exceptional junior player. He used to pay at the same old
>spot I did, and beat me consistently when I was first starting.
>Phx masters may be rather lame sometimes, but our juniors rule, and to
>prove it, two of the top 8 were juniors, not a bad ratio. I am
>considering burning my karma and cop:blacks by this point, but figure
>I'll get deck checked and disqualified if I do. :P
>
>Game 1: Black Sleeve Alert! Black Sleeve Alert! I ask him to desleeve,
>he has no problems with it. In fact I help him. I know his deck
>anyways, I had talked to him earlier. He was a great sport about it.
>We both feel bad because one of us is going to knock the other out
>this round. :(
Umm...if you feel this way about the guy, why are you getting all paranoid
and asking him to desleeve? That makes no sense. Save it for the guys you
don't know. Or the guys you do know and don't trust.
(from a differenct match)
>Game 1: Another black sleeved player. I ask him to desleeve, he gets
>unhappy and a judge gets involved. He makes me turn all my cards the
>same direction and the judge checks my cards to make sure I am not
>running any marked cards. I tried to explain to him that I am not
>doing it to be a dick, but he definetely does not believe me. He
>takes 15 minutes to desleeve. :/
...
(and yet another different match)
>Riad is the best junior I have ever seen, and normally a pleasure to
>play (he was sick sunday, the poor guy). He makes me turn all my cards
>the same direction. He is a friend of Jay's and word traveled fast of
>my desleeving evil. *Shrug*, no biggie.
Oh, THAT makes sense! (Sarcasm alert for humor-impaired. What you read
next is not meant to be take literally.)
"I am a cheater. I like to pull to stunts with the direction of my cards
by turning significant ones 180 degrees. In order to make SURE it works,
I'll piss people off and call attention to myself by insisting my oppontents
desleeve before the match."
Oh cripes, I gather there's a few lousy sports in Phoenix, it sounds like.
Calling a judge over to get their petty little revenge for made to desleeve.
This is one thing that really ruins tournaments for me.
Fred
Jaglom
actually Jacob Stirler won....
MIke
Ray Powers
fre...@netcom.com (Frederick Scott) wrote:
>ra...@primenet.com (Ray Powers) writes:
>Umm...if you feel this way about the guy, why are you getting all paranoid
>and asking him to desleeve? That makes no sense. Save it for the guys you
>don't know. Or the guys you do know and don't trust.
That's easy. Because if I differentiate, I *AM* accusing the other
guys of cheating. Think about it, if the match before I had played a
black sleeved player and not asked him to desleeve, then next round I
played you and you have black sleeves and I DID ask you to desleeve,
that's calling you a cheater. I thought it less hypocritical to just
ask every black backed person I played to desleeve. Luckily, Daniel
took no offense.
>Oh, THAT makes sense! (Sarcasm alert for humor-impaired. What you read
>next is not meant to be take literally.)
>"I am a cheater. I like to pull to stunts with the direction of my cards
>by turning significant ones 180 degrees. In order to make SURE it works,
>I'll piss people off and call attention to myself by insisting my oppontents
>desleeve before the match."
Actually, the person who called the judge over said about the exact
thing to me, stating something to the effect of "I've noticed that the
people most paranoid about cheaters are cheaters themselves." So its
rather funny you say that. :P
(btw, I play sleeveless, which made the whole incident rather funny
anyways. The judge looked at my cards and said "They're all similarly
beat on." and handed them back to me.)
>Oh cripes, I gather there's a few lousy sports in Phoenix, it sounds like.
>Calling a judge over to get their petty little revenge for made to desleeve.
>This is one thing that really ruins tournaments for me.
Nah, to behonest, I love the phx scene. On the average tourney I run
into a lot of different neat decks and everyone is good sports. I
think the shock of me playing seriously (I normally don't) put them on
the defensive. Riad is a great kid and a great player, and I can't
think of one bad thing to say about him.
I expected some guff for making people desleeve and just rolled with
it. Its the price you pay for making someone else do something they
don't want to do.
*shrug* The only thing that ruins a tourney for me is bad judging. :P
Ray Powers
jag...@aol.com (Jaglom) wrote:
>actually Jacob Stirler won....
Cool, what was he playing. I wish I could have watched the rest, but
missed it.
Frederick Scott
ra...@primenet.com (Ray Powers) writes:
>fre...@netcom.com (Frederick Scott) wrote:
(He described playing against a guy he knew well and seemed to respect but
whom he made desleeve anyway.)
>>Umm...if you feel this way about the guy, why are you getting all paranoid
>>and asking him to desleeve? That makes no sense. Save it for the guys you
>>don't know. Or the guys you do know and don't trust.
>
>That's easy. Because if I differentiate, I *AM* accusing the other
>guys of cheating.
No, you're not. You're simply saying that you have no particular reason to
trust someone you don't know. Don't try to write something into to an action
that's just not there.
The rule gives you the right to excersize discretion about who you apply it
to. It's very reasonable to require some opponents who you're not familiar
with desleeve even if you let others slide. As for ones you know but don't
trust, that's your business. Maybe there's hint in there somewhere that they
need to be taking.
>Luckily, Daniel took no offense.
That's well enough. It sounds like a waste of time to me, though.
>>Oh, THAT makes sense! (Sarcasm alert for humor-impaired. What you read
>>next is not meant to be take literally.)
>
>>"I am a cheater. I like to pull to stunts with the direction of my cards
>>by turning significant ones 180 degrees. In order to make SURE it works,
>>I'll piss people off and call attention to myself by insisting my oppontents
>>desleeve before the match."
>
>Actually, the person who called the judge over said about the exact
>thing to me, stating something to the effect of "I've noticed that the
>people most paranoid about cheaters are cheaters themselves." So its
>rather funny you say that. :P
Yea, it is. In other words, he was fully concious of the pettiness in his
little act and was casting about for some mature justification. Either that or
he has the all the common sense of a lump of chalk.
>>Oh cripes, I gather there's a few lousy sports in Phoenix, it sounds like.
>>Calling a judge over to get their petty little revenge for made to desleeve.
>>This is one thing that really ruins tournaments for me.
>
>Nah, to behonest, I love the phx scene. On the average tourney I run
>into a lot of different neat decks and everyone is good sports. I
>think the shock of me playing seriously (I normally don't) put them on
>the defensive. Riad is a great kid and a great player, and I can't
>think of one bad thing to say about him.
There's probably some good and some bad, like everywhere else. I'm not even
saying the pettiness about having your opponent excersize the desleeving rule
is the worst thing in the world. It's actually pretty human. It still tends
to turn me off tournaments, though.
Fred
Ray Powers
fre...@netcom.com (Frederick Scott) wrote:
>ra...@primenet.com (Ray Powers) writes:
>>That's easy. Because if I differentiate, I *AM* accusing the other
>>guys of cheating.
>No, you're not. You're simply saying that you have no particular reason to
>trust someone you don't know. Don't try to write something into to an action
>that's just not there.
I guess I just look at it differently. *shrug* It didn't bother him,
it didn't bother me, no harm done. :)
>>Actually, the person who called the judge over said about the exact
>>thing to me, stating something to the effect of "I've noticed that the
>>people most paranoid about cheaters are cheaters themselves." So its
>>rather funny you say that. :P
>Yea, it is. In other words, he was fully concious of the pettiness in his
>little act and was casting about for some mature justification. Either that or
>he has the all the common sense of a lump of chalk.
I don't know Jay well enough to say either way, so I'll reserve
opinion. Having a judge check your cards is part of the tourney life,
as dumb as it may be. I never get mad at a deck check, its stress I
can live without. :)
>>Nah, to behonest, I love the phx scene. On the average tourney I run
>>into a lot of different neat decks and everyone is good sports. I
>>think the shock of me playing seriously (I normally don't) put them on
>>the defensive. Riad is a great kid and a great player, and I can't
>>think of one bad thing to say about him.
>There's probably some good and some bad, like everywhere else. I'm not even
>saying the pettiness about having your opponent excersize the desleeving rule
>is the worst thing in the world. It's actually pretty human. It still tends
>to turn me off tournaments, though.
To each their own. I just started playing fun nights at a friends
house, which is great. I have been playing too much serious play,
lately, I wanna make a few wall/guantlet of chaos/creature bond/terror
decks :P
GRAY OGRE
I know what you ar etalking about ray. Alot of the top ranked players
cheat like mad. I 'm not going to name names over the net. If you e mail
me , I will tell you what I have personally saw,not just rumors
C. Douglas Hershberger
In article <5esjnm$t...@nnrp1.news.primenet.com>, ra...@primenet.com (Ray
Powers) wrote:
> Game 1: Another black sleeved player. I ask him to desleeve, he gets
> unhappy and a judge gets involved. He makes me turn all my cards the
> same direction and the judge checks my cards to make sure I am not
> running any marked cards. I tried to explain to him that I am not
> doing it to be a dick, but he definetely does not believe me.
Well I don't want to be a dick :-) but I don't believe you either. You
seem to have a policy of making black backed sleeve players desleeve even
though you have no reason to suspect them of cheating. If you are not
doing it to be a dick then why are you doing it? I think that it is a bad
policy which is harming your reputation among the better players in your
area.
Jeremy Brower
Jacob Stirler (From team Hardcastle!) was playing a G/W Titania
Song deck with Icys, Ernhams, Geddons?, and other cool stuff (like sol
grail). The Song was the suprise that useally won the game. The last
game was really cool, after a slow start Jacob got out an Icy and Grail
and his opponent played a disk. Jacob then played the Song and attacked
for 7. He won by overwelming multiple badmoons and knights/hypnos with an
outpost.
-Jeremy Brower (Team Hardcastle)
Ray Powers
Jeremy Brower <jbr...@bigdog.engr.arizona.edu> wrote:
> Jacob Stirler (From team Hardcastle!) was playing a G/W Titania
>Song deck with Icys, Ernhams, Geddons?, and other cool stuff (like sol
>grail). The Song was the suprise that useally won the game. The last
>game was really cool, after a slow start Jacob got out an Icy and Grail
>and his opponent played a disk. Jacob then played the Song and attacked
>for 7. He won by overwelming multiple badmoons and knights/hypnos with an
>outpost.
> -Jeremy Brower (Team Hardcastle)
Oh Fine! *HE* gets to play against the necro decks. hehehehehehehe.
One of my friends was going to play a song deck, but didn't end up
going. I'm glad to see necro didn't win. Hurmmm, that means riad lost
in the semifinals, poor guy. He was playing u/w prison.
Thanks for the update there! :) :) :)
Ray Powers - Team uhhhh, uhhhh, there's teams out there? :P
Ray Powers
Like I said, and I guess I'm the only one who thinks this way, I'd
rather make everyone desleeve than picking and choosing because, to me
, at least, it makes it seem less hypocritical when I get to someone I
DON'T know and ask them to desleeve. Daniel didn't mind, and I didn't
mind when Jay and Riad both asked me to put my cards all in the same
direction. If the better players in my area are going to think less
of me for making a player desleeve, then my ego can handle that. If
someone is going to not like me just for that, I think that reflects
more on them than me. *shrug*
Eric Taylor
C. Douglas Hershberger (c...@uic.edu) wrote:
: Well I don't want to be a dick :-) but I don't believe you either. You
: seem to have a policy of making black backed sleeve players desleeve even
: doing it to be a dick then why are you doing it? I think that it is a bad
That's just the point. If you ask one person you should ask everyone.
It's like shuffling your opponent's deck.
If you shuffle every single one of your opponents' decks, then people
don't think too much about it, they think you're just being very
careful.
However, if you pick and choose certain people to shuffle their decks
or try to use it as a tactical weapon, *then* you're a dick. It is
like you are telling the only person in the tournament that you want to
desleeve "The other people I played are ok, but *you* I think are a
cheater." If you do it to everyone, so what? This just means you are
paranoid.
I nearly always shuffle my opponents' decks (even my friends') before
the first game, and never ask anyone to unsleeve.
Plus, remember this: If it really bothers you when people ask you to
desleeve this means that when some people learn this, they may be
tempted to ask you to desleeve to throw you off your game.
Even if desleeving bothers you, in public it is a good idea to confess
eqanimity about the subject so some bonehead doesn't key on your
weakness and start making you desleeve all the time.
Personally, I confess that desleeving doesn't bother me in the least.
:-)
--- edt
Ray Powers
e...@admin.lsa.umich.edu (Eric Taylor) wrote:
>That's just the point. If you ask one person you should ask everyone.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks like this. I thought I was
going insane for a minute there.
>Personally, I confess that desleeving doesn't bother me in the least.
>:-)
Me needer. Its one of those "Goes along with playing in a tourney"
kind of things.