[PTQ] Indianapolis - Baron Harkonnen in Indy [long, late]
The Corrupter
How I Didn't Win the Indianapolis PTQ for LA
--- a Sexecution Society PTQ Report ---
Well, I may have ruined the suspense, but at least it gives you an idea
that this is not the winner's report. Summation and analysis of the
final 8 at the end.
Prologue
--------
This week, the esteemed members of the Sexecution Society were in dire
straits: one member had to work, one member had a wedding, one was sick,
one was dealing with finals, and the final one did not have a car. Alas,
I alone braved the trip from Madison to Indianapolis.
After getting a ride to Chicago-land, I hooked up with a sordid crew of
people, ACD members Derek Rank (formerly of VA) and ACD Junior Mark
Slapac (whom you may remember from my Chicago LA-PTQ report), former ACD
member/co-founder Aaron Sounders (who, each week is proudly introduced at
tourneys by organizer like so "And we have with us today some great
players. Over there is the Atlanta PT Junior Champion...", much to his
chagrin), and Team Austiknight member Bill Macey. We do the standard
"we're in a car going to a tourney" talk: metagame, previous games,
PT-stories, gossip about players, making fun of Wylie, etc... On the way
down we all are trying to decide on decks, and we finally come up with
the following possibilities:
PT-Jank, Macey's Br Attack, The Baron (aka Baron Harkonnen), Senor
Gonzalez (a stompy variant), and Souder's rechristened "Slug-o-Geddon" (I
convinced him to replace some creatures with Spitting Slugs).
We get a cheap hotel room and try to sleep. In the wee hours of the
morning I finally decide on The Baron (for those of you who haven't heard
me ramble about it vaguely, it is a UG-Control/Manipulator Deck).
In the end, I run into a friend at the tournament, and he plays
Gonzalez... so from our car, we have:
Adrian Sullivan - Sexecution Society - The Baron
Derek Rank - ACD - PT Jank
Bill Macey - Team Austiknight - PT Jank
Mark "Slappy" Slapac - ACD Junior - PT Jank
Aaron Sounders - independent - Slug-o-Geddon
The Scene
---------
From previous experience in Indy, I expected two things: White Weenie
Variants and Swarm. In addition, because of Tobey Tamber's (from
Indiana) success with Fruity Pebbles in St. Louis, I expected that some
Indiana people would try to copy him. Both expectations turned out true,
though there was more Green-swarm (a la Battleford and Stompy) then there
was White Weenie, it seemed. This could have been effected by the
tournament organizers additional prize of $250 for a winning mono-green deck.
209 People showed up for the qualifier at the RCA Dome, held by Great
Lakes Games. Once again Ken Roth was there as Head Judge, this time
breathing fire on the unruly crowd. The following teams showed up:
Team Spectacular (of Kentucky?)
Team Anonymous (of Indiana)
Team Austiknight (of Texas)
Team ACD (of Illinois/Wisconsin)
Team Gathering Ground (of Missouri)
Team Indy (of Indiana)
CSP Strike Team (of Kentucky?)
Sexecution Society (of Wisconsin)
2 slots... 8 rounds... Here we go.
-----
(ratings are given for Standard)
ROUND 1 - Ed Klutcharch - Team Anonymous - Hammond IN - 1691 - Blitz
I've seen Ed around before, and he seems like a nice enough fellow.
His deck was fairly standard Burn, though it didn't look like it touched
into off-colors at all, AFAIK. It looks like he is playing heavy
Anti-Frenetic, with Slingers and Cursed Scrolls.
Game 1 - I drop an early Arrows, and then sweep his side of the board,
leaving the Arrows with counters on it. I drop an early Baron Harkonnen
and finish him off fairly quickly.
Game 2 - I am glumly land light, so I squander my hand. I redraw, and
it isn't as bad, but it is still bad. He kills me with a swarm of 1/1s.
I drop a disk, but it won't save me in time...
Game 3 - He swarms and I sweep. He drops a cursed scroll, so I try to
force _his_ disk with my Baron Harkonnen. He takes the bait, killing a
Sylvan in the process as well. I establish control with Whispers, and
_eventually_ beat him down.
GAME/MATCH: 2-1/1-0
ROUND 2 - Ricky Giles - independent - Louisville - 1600 - Blitz
Ricky is a newer player (this is his first PTQ), and he is playing a more
balanced Blitz (less heavily anti-Frenetic).
Game 1 - Force of Will + Baron Harkonnen = Good. He overextends (double
fireblast) to kill, and the Baron takes it from there.
Game 2 - as game 1, without an early Baron. I'm at 6 life. I gain
life, and he _responds_ by hitting me for 8 (fireblast, fireblast). I
don't bother to counter. He says, "So you're dead, right?" Well, he
didn't know any better...
GAME/MATCH: 4-1/2-0
ROUND 3 - Rob Taylor - independent - Greenwood IN - 1684 - Rade 3CWW
Rob plays a tight game, and has a light sense of humor. His deck caught
me by surprise, as I expected something more heavy in meat and less in
control.
Game 1 - I squander my hand to 6 cards. He is swarming over me with a
Dog, White Knight, and a Priest. In my hand, I have an Arrows, a Disrupt
and a Wall of Roots. I mull things over... I can cast the Wall, and take
4 next turn (probably losing the Wall to a bolt) or I can cast the
arrows, and take 4 next turn, followed by a wall, and 0 after that. I
cast the arrows, tapping out. He counters it, tapping out! The counter,
which I didn't expect at all, ruined me.
Game 2 - I get early slow down, with sweep, some walls, and appropriate
counters. I quickly establish Late Game Control, and beat him down with
the Baron.
Game 3 - I again slow him down early, but I don't have much control of
the board. We're both working on our top-decking, but I have a sylvan,
and he disenchants it (I counter, he blasts, I blast, he blasts). He
wins the top-deck footrace.
He deserved that match from his game 1 play. A good deck, and he played
it well.
GAME/MATCH : 5-3/2-1
[Side: Slappy (ACD Junior) comes around to show me, Derek Rank, Bill
Macey, and Aaron Souders his new business card he made around the corner
from the tournament. "I'm giving it to people I beat!" he tells us.
I'll share it with you:
Mark "Slappy" Slapak
------------------------------
Master of Beatdown
For Faster Service, Concide[sic] NOW
Thank You For
Being a Scrub
Have a Nice Day.
---
We all laugh.
ROUND 4 - Matt Tucker - independent - Indianapolis? - 1601 - Ehrnam-Burnem
A fairly traditional deck, Matt became very annoyed by lost advantage,
though afterwords, he said he was pleased to play against such an
original deck. Matt had eliminated me in a MVW tournament where I was
metagaming heavily as a blocker for teammates, and he said it was fair
turnabout for me to hit him here.
Game 1 - He brings out swarming G and R creatures, including his own
Green Ball Lightning. I sweep the table and drop some walls, no longer
needing to counter much. Eventually, I beat him down with his own wildfire.
Game 2 - As game 1, but the Baron commences the Beatdown.
GAME/MATCH: 7-3/3-1
ROUND 5 - Mike Wisner - Team Spectacular - Lou KY - 1600 - Frenetic
CounterBurn
His deck ran a little more aggressively than ACD Frenetic Control (see my
post re: Chicago LA PTQ), with a bit less control.
Game 1 - He squanders his hand to 6 cards. I drop a Baron Harkonnen.
He ends up blocking with a Frenetic until it dies, and then 4 turns
later, he does.
Game 2 - Turn 8 is the interesting one. We're playing outside the main
room (it was too full in there), and some people are walking by looking
at the table. Then the interesting thing happens. From turn 9 and on,
everyone looking at our table scratched there head. "How the hell are
you beating him down with a Control Magicked Frenetic?" asked Chapin. I
shrug. He dies to his own Frenetic 10 turns later.
GAME/MATCH: 9-3/4-1
ROUND 6 - Kevin Gray - independent - Louisville - 1635 - Tongo Control
Almost straight Tongo-Frenetic, with a few meta-game choices.... I look
forward to this matchup.
Game 1 - Chapin sees it again... After about 30 or so turns, Kevin has
been playing a slow deliberate way, and I've been answering his threats
fairly easily. Eventually, I beat down my opponent with his own Frenetic
in 7 turns with help from his SuqAtta Firewalker.
Game 2 - Game 1 actually took forever. He quickly establish board
control, and go for Late Game Control, with Buyback on my Whispers. We
run out of time with me in firm control of the game and another of his
Frenetic Efreets.
GAME/MATCH: 10-3-1/5-1
ROUND 7 - Sam King - independent - South Bend IN - 1687 - PT-Jank
Sam is playing PT-Jank, which I beat in all playtesting that we've done
(excepting amazing top-deck skills, DeGuzman, you dog! :)
Game 1 - He supplies a fast beatdown, and I am looking at two wastelands
as my only mana-sources on the table. I draw an island. I draw another
island, and he wastes my waste. He castes tithe. I disrupt, looking for
a real card, and not getting one. He casts a real spell, and I Force of
Will it, Tossing the Baron out of the game. I disrupt my own FOW and pay
for it, getting a Tropical Island. Smiling, on my next turn, I cast a
Wall, use the mana from it to cast a Sylvan, and get to an Arrows (2
cards down) on the next turn. I grab some life gain, and he concedes
when I wipe out his offense and am at over 30 life.
Game 2 - We're both a little mana-screwed, but my Psycho deck
manipulation engine gets me to land. I sweep away 2 cursed scrolls and
roll him with his own creatures.
GAME/MATCH: 12-3-1/6-1
ROUND 8 - Gary Kranse - Independent - Crystal Lake - 1600 - Fruity Pebbles
I've never really seen Gary play, but knowing he was playing Pebbles was
a relief. The Baron digs eating Fruity Pebbles.
Game 1 - He tries for the Combo fast. He has all of the pieces on the
table (yes, all 3), with an argivian find and counterspell in his hand,
as well as 3 U/W mana available. I counter his recast of the Shield
Sphere (ouch, I take 1 from Bombardment). He Finds it. I Counter, he
counters, I Force of Will. He plays on, hoping for a Find or something
else (I'm not sure what), but concedes when I start discarding Counters.
Game 2 - Again, he tries for the fast combo. He has all of his
finishers out, and I tear them off the table after he shows me a hand
free of counters.
[Side: Chapin just won a Type I Draft... His deck was funny, Tutor,
Necro, Hymn, Agonize, Library of Alexandria, etc... A fun concept...]
I'm In!
----
FINAL 8 Seeds
1 - Justin Hadlock - ACD Junior - Chicago - - PT-Jank
2 - Brian Kellenberger - independent - South Bend IN - 1680 -
Cantrip-Blessing
3 - Eric Plus - independent? - Michigan - 1885 - Counterpost
4 - Jeff Cosgrove - Team Gathering Groun - Colinsville IL - 1844 - Gun
5 - Adrian Sullivan - Sexecution Society - Madison - 1794 - Baron Harkonnen
6 - Derek Rank - ACD - Chicago (formerly VA) - 1952 - PT-Jank
7 - Walter Scott - independent - ?? - N/A - WW-burn
8 - Allyn Fitzherbert - independent - Indianapolis - 1600 - Battleford
ROUND of 8 - Jeff Cosgrove
Jeff and I played once before at the Gathering Ground in St. Louis. I
think he finds me a bit amusing, if eccentric, while he is fairly
reserved. He played his deck well...
Game 1 - We start off with a pair of crazy hands. After roughly 10
turns, there are SIX Wastelands in our respective graves. A LONG game
ensures, but eventually, he concedes due to my vast board control and my
huge recursion.
Game 2 - It's a rough game. We tumble back and forth, at relative
parity. I have on the table 5 land, a Glacers, a Sylvan, and have 2
Force of Will (my only blue spells) in my hand (though I'm tapped out).
He casts cursed scroll. I think and think and think. I let it resolve,
not wanting to lose both Force of Will. My thoughts were that with the
Machine on the table and a Gaea's Blessing in my hand, I could get to one
of the 6 cards in my deck that deal with cursed scroll. He wastes my
glacier. I bless back in a Disk, a glacier and an impulse. What do I
see? A land. Hmmm. I counter his next few threats and get no good
cards off of the sylvan, as well as no shuffles, acceleraters, life
gainers or ways to dea with the Cursed Scroll. I could probably have
stalled out the game to win the match, but I've never really been able to
purposely bring myself to do it.
As Theron said (http://thedojo.com/t981/ptq.980111tma.txt), It looked
like I would have won it.
We have 1 minute remaining for game three, so the judge has us play it out...
Game 3 - Wow. I stall out. The second time it happens today. And both
times in the quarterfinals. My deck decides to give me counters before I
can cast them, minimal responses to his sideboard, and none of my own
sideboard cards. Pretty good for a deck with so much library manipulation.
I'm still hanging on when he goes for it. He lays a cursed scroll, and
2 ehrnams. I have one turn to respond. Unfortunately, it would have
required a good card in my hand to do so. I draw (ironically) a disk,
but it doesn't matter.
C'est la vi.
Other Quarterfinal results:
Justin Hadlock (PT-Jank) wins (2-1) vs Allyn Fitzherbert (Battlefordish)
Derek Rank (PT-Jank) wins (2-1) vs. Eric Plus (Counterpost)
Brian Kellenberger (Cantrip Blessing) wins (1-0-1) vs. Walter Scott
Amusing note, had the round been 2 minutes shorter, Derek and I would
have won without finishing game 2, leaving 3 1-0-1 advances to semis.
Semi-finals
Justin (PT-Jank) wins 2-0 vs Jeff Cosgrove (Gun)
Derek (PT-Jank) wins 2-0 vs. Brian (Cantrip Blessing)
Finals
Derek sweeps Justin.
----
The Field and Analysis
I think the field that was in Indianapolis (Green Swarm, WW-variants,
Pebbles at the top) was fairly influenced by three things:
1) The Tourney Organizer offering a prize of $250 additional dollars
if a mono-green deck won.
2) The slant of Indy towards WW
3) The success of Indy's Tobey Tamber in St. Louis with Pebbles.
As these decks were more prevalent, I think that some of the following
things were evident... Green Swarm has some huge problems with Knights.
Knights alone seemed to be ruining Green's day, and Knights + Cursed
Scroll was _far_ too much over the edge. Green also had problems with
some of the better Pebbles decks. Both of these (prevalent) decks made
it difficult for Green to perform.
White Weenie seemed _very_ good all around, with Pebbles having very
little to deal with it well. It dealt quite well with burn and Necro,
mostly due to strong sideboarding possibilities, especially when
off-color WW sideboarded.
Pebbles was lacking (note the final 8). If Pebbles has a stronger side
against White, it would be very good for it.
Burn. While consistently competitive, it never seems to pull through
against the newer decks. For red to be consistent, it needs to deal with
Pebbles and the race against aggressive white playing Honorable Passage.
----
As all of this is going on (the remaining of the final 8), I'm playing a
little bit of my other decks versus Chapin just to cool down. My
frustrations were many:
My deck stalls out in the quarterfinals... and there only!
My semi- opponent was playing a deck that Baron destroys!
I should have/could have qualified.
Argh!
I'd really like to go to another ProTour, but I guess I'll go to another
qualifier first. See you all there... Look for the guy with the big mug.
---
Adrian Sullivan <http://upl.cs.wisc.edu/~adrian/jyhad>
@#$ The Corrupter $#@ GAT/CS/WS C(+++)$ N++ PS++@ b++ R+++* r+ z++**?
Game Theorist, Coffee Addict, Opinionated Gynophile Hedonist MHTHTS
But who needs labels? - Comments always welcome...