BELFAST EXTENDED PTQ. 9TH DECEMBER 2001
My favourite season of the year – Extended! But what to play? I liked the look of the Reanimator decks, but then again I always like graveyard recursion decks. Team 5FU member Mark Gordon played Junk at PT New Orleans, and he was convinced it was the deck to play. I tested it for a bit, and got to like it. It had a chance against everything, thanks to Pernicious Deed, and had no real bad match-ups. Or so I thought.
On the Friday night before the PTQ, I was playing Dustin Towry on Apprentice. He played Donate, with Magical Hack in the board against Choke. The Texas Connection showed me how bad Ruination is for Junk. Real bad, even with holding land. Hmm, what to do. I thought about Tsunami, Winter Orb and even Armageddon. But none seemed right. I was too tired to think properly, and went to bed.
Next morning I woke up, and went through my anti blue melee deck. I break it out every now and again, it has Scragnoth, Gaeas Herald and some such. And there it was – Carpet of Flowers. That was I’d still have 4 mana after Ruination, and I could empty my hand quickly.
The PTQ was on a Sunday in Belfast. Which is at the opposite end of Ireland from Cork, where I live. Of the Cork gang, only Cormac Smyth, Noel Peare and me were travelling.
Me
Cormac
Noel
Noels sport car only has room for 1 very squashed person in the back. So Cormac and me got the train to Dublin on Saturaday, and would meet Noel Sunday morning to drive to Belfast.
Cormac was playing Donate, of course. I got to test Carpet of Flowers against him on the train. It worked out very well. This mad guy sat next to us on the train. I travel on the train a lot, and knew better than to talk to strangers. However, I left Cormac alone for 5 minutes, and when I came back he was talking away with this guy. Or should I say, was being talked to. I’ll use his initials in case he decides to hunt me down – CPG. Well, ole CPG spoke non stop for about 2 hours. He does climbing, and told us all about it. Then he told us all about Magic. Even though Cormac and me are on the Irish Team, we obviously didn’t know anything. He even called WOTC by the name of Western Coast. All weekend, Corm and me would point at the rooftops and go “Look, its CPG!”
Anyway, we got to where we usually stay in Dublin. Brian Mulcahys house. Thanks guys!
Brian, with his new flatmate Niamh.
We drank a few cans, watched wrestling till around 2am, and went to sleep on the floor. Next morning we met Noel at 7.30am and began the journey to Belfast. Noel is playing Sligh.I took my turn first in the back, and even with a sleeping bag it was very uncomfortable. Just before the border, Cormac took his turn. Cormacs a big guy. It was some work getting him in there, and when we got to Bangor, it was even more work getting him out. I thought we were going to need a crane.
The hotel where the PTQ was on was lovely, and they had mints and jugs of water for us all day. Very pleasant. Mustn’t forget the deck list:
JUNKY
14 CREATURES
3 Spirit Monger
4 Spectral Lynx
4 River Boa
3 Call of the Herd
24 SPELLS
4 Pernicious Deed
4 Swords
3 Funeral Charm
3 Tithe
4 Duress
4 Gerrards Verdict
2 Seal of Cleansing
22 LAND
2 Grasslands
2 Wasteland
4 Treetop
4 Bayou
4 Savannah
4 Scrubland
1 Cave of Kolios
1 Brushland
SIDEBOARD:
3 Diabolic Edict
3 Spike Feeder
1 Aegis of Honor
1 COP Red
3 Carpet of Flowers
2 Wax/Wane
1 Reanimate (I’ll take that Crosis, thanks)
1 Phyrexian Furnace
ROUND 1 :
Thomas Monaghan – Oath
He mulligans, then plays a sac land. I Durees, find he has no land in hand, and take his Brainstorm. He untaps and blows the land during his upkeep. This is a mistake – if you want to draw land, you shouldn’t blow the sac land. By using the sac land, you’ve taken 1 land out of the deck, thereby reducing your chance of drawing a land. I cast Boa next turn. He takes a while to get mana, and its a quick end after that when I Deed away his Oath.
Bring in Wax/Wane, and commences savage beatings with Treetops and a Boa. He gets Oath off when hes on one life, but only gets a Morphling. Boa snakes on through to kill him.
ROUND 2:
Tony McHugh - ELVES with Coat of Arms and Masticore
Destroy him game 1 with 2 Deeds.
Game 2, bring in Feeder. The removal of the Charms, Swords and Deed is too much for him.
ROUND 3:
Paddy McDonagh - B/G Deed, Monger
No mana for him game 1, means Verdict is too much for him. Roll him over, hes done.
Game 2, bring in 2 Edicts for 2 Deed. See game 1.
Cormac is sitting next to me, and is smiling because hes playing a little fellow about 10 years old. However, his smile fades when his opponent casts a turn 2 Merfolk Thief. Hehe.
ROUND 4 :
Cormac, paying Donate
We usually are able to ID when we are paired up, must be some mistake!
Cormac, after he ate his round 4 opponent
We had close games in practice, but these were nothing like them. In game 1, hes gets awful draws, and I get great ones. I attack with Boa and Treetop, and use Charm +2/-1 on the Treetop to kill him.
Game 2:
IN: 3xCarpet, 3 Edict. Also, in case he gets sneaky with leaving Illusions in, 2xFeeder, and 2 Wax/Wane
OUT:
4 Swords, 3 Funeral Charm, 3 x Pernicious Deed cause Hibernation bounces it
Cormac plays Island. I play Savannah, then Carpet. He plays Island, Saphire. I play another white source, add 2 Black from the Carpet, and Verdict him twice! Duress next turn empties his hand, and the Carpet allows me to cast Call and play Treetop. And thats all she wrote! It was so quick that people thought we ID’ed.
ROUND 5 :
Owen Burke - Mr Cod ( Junk like with 4 Disks)
Owen wants to ID, but I’m feeling on form and both Noel and Cormac are on 9 points. His disks are no good, and Charm kills his regenerators. He drew very few creatures anyway, and its quickly over. Game 2 I remove 2 Deeds and 2 Seals for 2 Edict and 2 Wax/Wane. Critical play was Waxing my Treetop to kill his Treetop and deal 2 points of damage.
ROUND 6:
David Gray Re-animator
All 3 games I don’t draw a plains! He beats me quickly game 1, I win game 2 thanks to Cave of Kolios, and he destroys me game 3 with Crosis, with 2 Swords in hand but no way to cast them. For boarding, swapped Verdict and Charm for Edict, Furnace, Reanimate and Feeders. These were the only 2 games I lost all day.
QUARTER FINAL:
Tony McHugh - Elves
Quick and brutal first game in my favour. Game 2 is much more interesting. I have a Deed in hand, and he has Lyrist, Gaeas Cradle and Priest of Titania in play. I Duress him, and see 2 Deranged Hermits and 1 Spike Weaver. Ohoh. He casts Deranged Hermit. Now I have 3 mana in play, with 2 more in my hand. I know I can cast and blow the Deed for 1, but that will still leave him with the Hermit and the priest, so he can cast another Hermit on his turn. I untap draw Verdict, play it – making him lose the Weaver and the Hermit. I hope he doesn’t draw Overrun. He doesn’t, I go down to 7, then I cast Deed, and blow it for 2. The Hermit does some more damage, but I’m in control after that and win.
SEMI FINAL:
Rob McKweon - Donate
Rob tells me hes never lost a PTQ semi final, but his Jedi Mind Tricks do not work on me. Theres only one thing better than beating a Blue player – beating 2 Blue players!
Early Verdict gets me life to survive the first Illusions, then I kill him. Same boarding as for Cormac. He Forces my first turn Carpet, but between that and my turn 2 Duress, he takes a while to get going. I draw little land, just 2 Treetop and Savannah and Bayou. I keep a Treetop in hand fearing the Ruination. I have an Elephant in play, along with a Deed when he casts Ruination.
I play my treetop and attack. Still no second land, and he tries to Capsize with Buyback my Dumbo next turn. I blow the Deed, and get plenty of mana to cast flashback on the Dumbo. Then I get Boa out as well. Hes on 8 life when I attack with Treetop, 2 Dumbos and Boa. He Ices a Dumbo, which I swords. He looks a little puzzled at that, but I figured stopping him drawing cards was important, and I
have enough to kill him next turn. However, he also Ices the other Elephant, but it does not buy him enough time. Kill the evil Blue player!
FINAL : Owen Burke - Mr Cod, again
In these games, the early discard matters. After turn 10 or so, it don’t matter much. I double wasteland to slow him up, and my Verdict gets 2 Spirit Mongers! However, its still a standoff game 1, with loads of regenerators. We were both Duressing and Verdicting each other, and getting nothing! At one stage he Duressed, and I Tithe in response. Then he tithes – neither of us had any plains to get!
However, he casts Disk, and I blow Deed for 4, tapping him out when he regens his 4 guys. I play the Deed in my hand to wipe his side, and attack with my Boa and Lynx. Then nearly throw it all away by tapping out to cast another Boa. If he top decked Deed I would have cried. Thankfully he didn’t. I win soon after. Out with 3 Deeds and 2 Seals for 3 Edicts and 2 Wax/Wane.
Next game, he messes up by not gang blocking killing my Treetop sooner, and when he tries I Wax it. I have a 10/10 Monger that kept getting blocked. I was hoping to draw Funeral Charm to give the Monger swampwalk – tasty way to win! I the end I draw enough removal to keep getting guys through to kill him.
I’m delighted with the win. Makes it all worth while. Dave Coughlan gives Cormac a spin back, so it’s a nice comfortable drive back to Dublin. We both got Monday off work, so we stay up till 5am watching WWF. Can’t believe Jericho won all the titles.
PROPS
All the Cork gang – Noel, Cormac, Ian, Steve, Paddy, Franco and Crowley for the playtesting.
The Texas Connection for the Apprentice play.
Mark for the deck.
The Belfast lads for running a great tournament, and everyone who played was sound.
SLOPS
WOTC UK. I’m still waiting on my Nationals trophy. Guess it being “one of your priorities” don’t mean much when I’m waiting 6 months.