PTQ Provo, Utah Tourney Report and General Ramblings of a Madman
Jack Stanton
Hello All,
Here's the other report I should have done over a week ago, but due to
the con crud I picked up in Long Beach, I was too lazy, or too damned
sick. Anyway...........
Tony Lau and I drove down to Pocatello, Idaho to catch a ride with Chuck
Hemming and fellow Minions of Atog player, Robert Beason. Arriving in
Salt Lake City, Utah, we met up with Mike Callahan at the Oasis, a
trendy coffee house on 500 E. After indulging, we headed over to Mike's
house where the other guys came up with the decks they'd play:
Robert - Red with green for Erhnams and strong sideboard.
Chuck - I'm not really sure. Went to sleep before I could find out.
Tony - W/U Turbo/Balance I had described to him. Much like Jon Finkel's
deck.
Mike - R/B Necro thang he tweaked to his liking.
After passing out at midnight, I awoke at 4am and couldn't get back to
sleep (the dreaded creepy crud from Long Beach rears it's ugly head).
Unfortunately, I think all my coughing and wheezing kept the other guys
from getting a good night's sleep (I apologize). This was truely the
one tourney I shouldn't have gone to due to sickness. We all headed to
Provo, and upon getting there, went into a panic. The address from the
Wotc Web Site was wrong, so we called up the tourney director's wife.
She didn't know where it was and mentioned that many people were calling
trying to find it. It didn't look promising, but in the long run, after
driving all over the town, we found our spot with time to spare. Mark
Justice was suppose to show up, but his car exploded.
The deck I chose to play was very similar to the deck I played in the
Long Beach PTQ the week before, but with certain changes to make it
stronger against the various common deck types, namely Necro.
17 Swamps
3 Mishras
1 Strip Mine
4 Bad Moons
1 Forsaken Waste
2 Aeolopiles
4 Contagions
2 Terrors
4 Choking Sands
2 Dark Rituals
4 Erg Raiders
4 Black Knights
4 Hypies
4 Skulking Ghosts
4 Vampire Bats (these guys are better than the fatmoti!)
Sideboard
2 Forsaken Waste
2 Ebony Charms
3 Winter Orbs
4 Dystopias
3 Glooms
1 Black Vise
The main changes from the week before included the removal of the 2
Necros (the deck was finishing extremely fast and the Necros just ended
up going to feed Contagions) and the 3 Tombstone Stairwells (a strength
against R/G decks I had forgotten about. This move cost me. I took
them out due to my anti-creature defenses leaving my opponents with more
dead dudes than me). The sideboard saw the removal of the Cursed Totems
(a good card, but not in the Provo enviornment). Choking Sands and one
Forsaken Waste came into the main deck in order to stop the Dude Ranches
and Necro decks I expected to see. Two more Wastes lounged in the
sideboard for the control decks.
1st Match
Jacob Robertson
Jacob was playing a huge creature deck with fast mana buildup (land
fetch cards) and moucho critter removal (Earthquake and Savage Twister).
1st Game
I'm able to go about my business and get Jacob down to about 10 when
Orgg comes to play. The bastard's just sitting across the table staring
down at me and I'm afraid (Jacob had just Twistered away my creatures,
no Bad Moon in sight). I have to Contagion Orgg, but the bas still hits
me for 2. Then Orgg's twin brother Orgg comes out (their parents
weren't very original naming these guys). I pray to the Terror gods
and, yes, I pull the Terror and send the fat Orgg away. I'm able to
drop an Erg which kills the Orgg after I Contagion it for a second
time.;/ Then Jacob zots my Erg and drops a nasty looking Johtull Wurm.
I die to the mighty Johtull Wurm or the mighty Earthquake. Can't
remember which.
2nd Game
In comes the Winter Orbs and Dystopias. Jacob gets mana screwed in a
big way and my little army overruns him without him getting to see my
sideboard. This proves to be key in the last game.
3rd Game
I start off with a very fat hand in the opening few rounds. The
creatures come out to play as the Bad Moon rises. Jacob was able to
drop a Johtull Wurm (Terrored) and that gave me the opportunity to drop
the Winter Orb (with him tapped out). My 4/5 Erg Raider took over and
ended it. At the end of the game, I had in hand 3 Contagions, 1 Terror,
Winter Orb, and 2 Dystopias. Jacob, having seen none of these in the
second game due to his mana screw death, had sideboarded out all his
Tranquil Domains and Pillages.
Match 1-0
2nd Match
Alan Chandler
Alan's a good player from Rigby, Idaho and the last Idaho player I want
to see during the course of a tournament. Normally, I own Idaho, but
Alan's made it his personal quest to slap me down and make me his bitch
everytime I play against him. Today, he was playing a R/U
Counter/Hammer deck. I liked my chances.;)
1st Game
Alan be mana screwed and I don't help matters by drawing mega heaping of
Choking Sands which he has to Force of Will several times (3). I get
him down, but am unable to finish him off as he gets the machine
rolling.;P Hammer, hammer, hammer on my head. "OW!"
2nd Game
We both have moderate successes early on, but I have better due to
Alan's lack of countermagic. I think he fetched his Hammer, tapping
himself out. This forced the Winter Orb out (didn't want to show it to
him that game). By slowing him down, I was able to take the game with
critter overrun.
3rd Game
Alan is mana screwed again and has to Force of Will 2 Choking Sands and
a Hypie. A third Choking Sands gets through as well as a Strip Mine.
The only problem is that I'm not seeing my army of critters and Alan is
able to get the mana he needs to drop a Disk before he's dead (got him
down to three). So he disks away everything. That's okay. I drop
another critter. He drops another disk along with a Zuran Orb.;P On
his turn, he has to pop the disk and sac a couple of land. Then he
drops another disk.;P So then I'm forced to try and drop a critter here
and there (that doesn't get Hammered) and force the popping of the
disk. I never find another Bad Moon to make my Ergs fat (after he
disked a third time) and anything I put out from that moment on runs
into the Hammer that Alan can fetch and play on his turn.;P I die to
several blows to the head.;(
Match 1-1
3rd Match
Matt Thompson
U/W Counter/Sacred Mesa deck. The best I've seen played.
1st Game
Matt gets pooched on land early on, but almost makes a comeback with a
Mesa. My Contagion ends his Pegasus at the end of my turn. Mesa goes
away. I win.
2nd Game
Matt ends up taking one of my creatures that allows him the time to set
himself up with the Mesa. I got him down to 5-6 during this game, but
wasn't able to put him away.
3rd Game
This game was much like the first, but with the sideboard influencing
the outcome. Matt's first Mesa went away thanks to another well placed
Contagion. The second went away due to a Dystopia that got through.
Meanwhile, my one Black Knight hit ten times during the match to end
it. If Matt was able to pull one Tutor, he'd have won the match.
What's the old saying? "Better lucky?"
Match 2-1
4th Match
Phuong Chau
W/R/G Untargetables. Damn! I hate these decks! Phuong wanted to beat
me down due to my putting him out of the last qualifier for Long Beach.
1st Game
Phuong plays two Dervishes, I, two Bad Moons and a ton o'critters.
Phuong's actually forced to Wrath of God because he's losing life faster
than I am. It comes down to who can draw the creature faster. I have
more so you'd think........He gets a Deadly Insect first after 5-6
draws. I still don't see a creature and die a couple of turns later.;P
2nd Game
Out go my Contagions. This proves to be a very good pull, as I find out
after the match that Phuong is playing straight untargetables or
protection from black creatures. Anyway, Phuong annihilates me as I
draw only one mana the entire game. In the end, I'm sitting on six
cards that require 2 mana to cast. Life sucks. So do my chances.;P
Match 2-2
5th Match
Robert Morrison
Pretty much the same as what Phuong was playing, but without Red.
1st Game
Robert gets out a big fat Insect while I get out nothing. No creatures,
not a one. Then, after awhile, Robert Armegeddons. I die.;(
2nd Game
One mana for a very long time. I'm discarding something like five times
(Erg Raiders, Skulking Ghosts, etc) before I get another Swamp.
Meanwhile, Robert has a Lifeforce and COP Black out AND taps out four or
five times, but I can't draw the third mana each time for one of the
three Dystopias in my hand.;P I die again.
Match 2-3
Needless to say, the math majors out there can tell that I'm out of it
at this moment in time, but I elect to play on because I'm bored and the
booster draft side tourney has already started.;P
6th Match
Butch Istook
If there is a player in Provo that I'd suggest you ever play against, it
would be my good friend Butch. He's always willing to play, and he has
fun win or lose (unless he gets mana screwed, but he's not as bad as me
when it comes to that;) ). Butch was playing a R/G Winter Orb/Lock/Song
deck with Millstones and Howlers.
1st Game
Butch get lockdown. Butch kickee me ass bad.
2nd Game
Butch get mana screwed and it get worse when my Winter Orb shows up.
Butch die.
3rd Game
I personally feel that Butch was in the gray area of having a won game
and possibly being forced to play a card. He had the two Icys/Winter
Orb thing going, but I had several creatures on the board with which I
was attacking with. He laid down his Song so that he could kill me in
two turns. This turned out to be a mistake that he shouldn't be blamed
for. See, I had been waiting for this moment. I had sideboard my
Contagions back in (like an idiot, I had sideboarded them out after the
first game, feeling that I'd kill him quick or not at all and that the
Contagions wouldn't be useful) and had three in hand after the Song. I
pitched a Contagion onto one of the Icys after the attack was launched.
Then I pitched a Contagion onto the other Icy. Then I split a Contagion
between the two Howling Mines and blocked one of them to death with my
rabid Black Vise. He dropped another Winter Orb and Howler on his
turn. I dropped a Winter Orb and Aeolopile and attacked with my buff
Black critters. His artifacts were forced to block and die. I ended up
with the advantage and never looked back.
Final Record 3-3
As for the other players in my party, Chuck got slaughtered early, but
went on to win the Booster draft and probably boost his Sealed rating to
the highest in the state. Robert barely missed the top eight by
finishing 10th at 4-2. Tony Lau made it into the top eight after going
5-1 and Mike Callahan made it in as well at 5-1 (losing only to
Robert). Alan Chandler, my friend from Rigby Idaho was the only 4-2 to
make it thanks to my playing through and winning my last match. He
bought me a very large lemonade (collusion) for my efforts during the
dinner break. Another player of note to make it into the final eight
was Sammy Batarseh, a 16 year old kid who works for Mark Justice. I'm
sure in the future you'll here more about Sam. He started playing last
May after I told him he couldn't hang around Mark's store unless he took
up Magic. He agreed to and Mark and I proceeded to teach him quite a
bit. He's strong, and getting stronger all the time.
Anyway, Tony got knocked out of the quarters by a cookie cutter Necro
deck taken straight from The Sideboard. Alan managed to spank down
another cookie cutter Necro while Mike smacked down a Hackerpotence
deck. Sammy crushed a non-lock Armegeddon/Winter Orb. In the Semis,
Mike just blew threw Alan. Sam, on the other hand, had his hands full
with Necroboy. I thought it was all over at one point, but Sam somehow
managed to pull the victory off. Sidenote on Sam's match: Sam made
this kid pull off his black backed sleeves before the match. Kid was
pissed. I can only think it was because Tony had made him pull them off
the match before. Robert made the kid pull them off in the sixth
round. I found it quite hilarious.;)
In the finals, Sam just wasn't a match for Mike. Mike went hogwild on
the Necro thing, bringing out tons and tons of fat and burn. So Mike
won the spot, with Sam getting the second place PTQ shaft for living in
Utah. Can't wait till the NY PTQs so that we out here in the west get
our second spot back!!!
Here's Mike's deck for those of you who are interested:
10 Swamps
4 Mountains
4 Sulpherous Springs
3 Mishras
3 Thawing Glaciers
1 Strip Mine
1 Black Vise
1 Ivory Tower
1 Zuran Orb
1 Grinning Totem
3 Disk
3 Necro
3 Dark Rituals
1 Hymn
2 Contagions
2 Choking Sands
2 Knights of Strongald
2 Orders of the Ebon Hand
4 Hypies
2 Sengir Vampires
1 Ihsan Shade
1 Fireball
4 Lightning Bolts
2 Incinerates
Sideboard
2 REd Blast
2 Choking Sands
2 Wildfire Emisarry
2 Coumbajj Witches
2 Dystopias
2 Gloom
2 Builder's Bane
Hope you enjoyed this report. Next week I'll be going down to the New
York PTQ in Provo. Hope to see all of you there.
Special Challenge to Colorado Players: Why don't you come to Utah
anymore to play in qualifiers? I know you haven't done too well (I
don't think any CO player has come in the top eight) but that's no
reason not to come.;)
Special Thanks to Karl Battsdorf for running another excellent PTQ. For
those looking for an adventure, take a flight into Salt Lake and rent a
car to come to the qualifier. Make sure you have directions. You'll
have a good time and see some really incredible play.
As for me, I've decided not to go to Paris since they quit having the
airfare wars just when I could afford to go.;P Prices doubled
overnight, forcing this decision. Oh well. Guess I'll just have to
make the most of it when the PT goes to Germany.;)
Take care everyone,
Jack Stanton
Minions of Atog