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Greetings fellow Magic enthusists! A little late for me to be writing a
report about a tournament that took place almost a month ago. However, due
to work and trying to qualify for the New England Challenge, time has been
short.
So I'm going to get right down to it; none of that "night" or "week"
before mess that many feel is important to add to their reports. The only
backround information I'm going to ad is a little bit about my team mates,
both of which are, like myself, relative unknowns in the Magic community.
I met Brian Rodil when he stopped off at my former place of employment,
Video Connection, for a Saturday Extended tourney. I met him along with Ben
Caless. Brian and I talked through out the tourney and watched each other
play. From there, we met at PTQ's and became friends. I hadn't seen Brian
for a while, but he made an appearance at TJ Collectibles where I now work
for a Sealed Deck tourney and he offered to team with me for the upcomming
team PTQ. An up-and-coming player I think, he's a blast to play against and
just an all-round cool kid.
My other teammate, Fran Burke, is one of the early Team TJ members from
way back before Baby Huey was on the tour. Forced to take an extended
"vacation" from Magic due to responsabilities in work, Fran stopped playing
Magic for a while. Then, he came into TJ's on a Tuesday while I was working
and Tom Shea filled me in on who he was. The next two weekend, Fran
performed quite well in two seperate Saturday Sealed Deck tourney's, so I
expressed interest in teaming with him for the Team PTQ. A bit rusty at his
game, Fran has the talent I think to be very savage! Hence, Team B.A.R.
(Burke, Alexander, Rodil) is born!!!
So onto the meat. The tourney took place at Your Move Games in
Providence, RI on June 30th. 61 teams translating to 183 people showed up to
test their skills against the field. It was widely believed that this was
most likely the hardest Team PTQ to qualify at in the United States.
We get a fairly solid card pool. And after checking over the list to
make sure there were no mistakes (we actually found a few discrepancies and
called a judge), we began building. We appointed Brian as our deck builder.
He was so into building the decks as he saw it, he handed me all the white
and blue cards while he built a b/r/w deck for Fran and a b/r/g deck for
himself. I don't have a list of the entire card pool, but here's what I made:
9 Island
7 Plains
2 Swamp
1 Crimson Acolyte
1 Obsidian Acolyte
1 Benalish Trapper
1 Coastal Drake
1 Benalish Lancer
1 Tidal Visionary
1 Stormscape Apprentice
1 Sea Snidd
1 Vodalian Serpent
1 Coalition Honor Guard
1 Sunscape Apprentice
1 Spirit Weaver
1 Living Airship
1 Zanam Djinn
1 Opt
1 Ordered Migration
1 Recoil
1 Hobble
2 Rushing River
2 Exclude
2 Shackles
Relevant Sideboard:
1 Lobotomy
1 Riptide Crab (prolly should have been main)
1 Benalish Trapper
1 Barrin's Unmaking
1 Ertai's Trikery
1 Jaded Response
1 Vodalian Serpent
1 Dismantling Blow
1 Diversionary Tactics
1 Malicious Advice
1 Shimmering Mirage
1 Orim's Thunder
1 Wings of Hope
1 Death or Glory
1 Aura Blast
So, here goes:
Round 1; Table 33 (31, 32). Team Can't Sleep, Phyrexian's Will Eat Me
I elected to take seat C, believeing that most of the beatdown decks will
be here. Appearently, this team metagamed the same way. So I'm playing a
near card-for-card mirror match! We both found it funny that we had almost
identical decks.
Game 1: I come out of the gates with a few early one drops and begin the
beatings. However, after a well-timed Wash Out, the game is downhill from
there. Both Brian and Fran win their first games.
0-1 Me, 1-0 Brian, 1-0 Fran
Game 2: He gets a turn four Coalition Honor Guard that I have the Exclude
for, but he casts a SECOND ONE! which resolves. With all my removal being
targetted, I scoop. Brian and Fran both win.
0-2 Me, 2-0 Brian, 2-0 Fran. Both Brian and Fran's matches lasted no more
than 25 minutes combinded.
1-0; 4-2
Round 2, Table 9 (7, 8): Team Project Cheat
This time, our metagaming paid off as I am playing Vs. a beatdown deck.
Very cool kid; good player. I apologize for not taking down names.
Game 1: In short, I draw nothing and a Charing Troll goes all the way.
Both Brian and Fran lose. Not looking good.
Game 2: I draw double Rushing River, Shackles, and Exclude while beating
down with my Djinn. Some good. Brian loses, while Fran is still playing.
Game 3: I basically draw answers for all his threats and he scoops before
the game progresses very far. Fran eventually loses a close match.
1-1; 5-4
Round 3, Table 60 (58, 59): Team Random Outburst
Since he recorded my name, I returned the curtousy and wrote down his.
Ian played beats deck with answers and played it very well.
Game 1: I draw NOTHING while he slowly beats me down. Brian loses and
Fran wins.
Game 2: I bash him with my Djinn while Shackles, tappers, and Hobble
hold off his team. Brian loses while Fran takes his match. So its all on me
now. AH! THE PRESSURE!
Game 3: See game 1. ::sigh::
1-2; 6-6
We're feeling kinda discouraged and discuss some things we could/should
have done differently in regards to deck construction while trying to take in
some of the cool air outside. 183 sweaty, disgusting males in a space most
likely designed for no more than 150 while the air conditioning is broken is
some bad. In fact, I started to feel sick and didn't want to stick around
much longer. Fran's wife was also waiting for him. So we decided to stay
one more round, then drop. Also by this time, it was around 5:30pm and only
going into round 4! Some bad.
Round 4, Table 63 (61-62): Team Four Pairs of Pants
Uh oh; great. A fellow Team TJ group. I had been hoping to avoid his.
::sigh:: Its very interesting to see five black shirts with gold lettering
at one table (Brian doesn't have a shirt). Oh well. Life sucks.
I play local player Jon Lewis who is definitely a very solid player.
Fran plays local Matt "Stoney" Stone while Brian faces off against Will
Morgan.
Game 1: I draw and play my pro red and black guys as well as my lone
Flagbearer... Lewis admits that most if not all of his removal is useless.
So I slowly beat him down. Brian loses while Fran wins.
Game 2: See game one. However Jon was able to deal with one of my
protection guys, but along with the rest of my removal (including Excluding a
Blazing Spector!), my Djinn goes all the way. Brian loses while Fran goes
into game 3, evantually winning a close match.
2-2; 8-7
So we finish 2-2 and agree that, that's not bad for a team that only
practiced once and was put together only a week or two before the tourney.
:-) Of course, there's always next time!!! Thanks for reading!
Props:
-My team mates for doing the best they could despite the heat! Great job men!
-Team Foriegn Affairs (Benji, Kush & Hung) for winning the whole thing!!!
-All 183 people who stuck out the 2-million degree temperature inside the
room.
-All of my opponents for playing well.
-Matt Vilimeanu (did I spell that right?) for being a good guy and doing a
good job being Head Judge; it's not an easy job.
-To all the Team TJ shirts in the room... we're multiplying baby!!
Slops:
-The air conditioning being broken. Some bad.
-Rauseo for losing his cool. Its only a game man; you need to chill out. I
don't care who was at fault, but its not worth getting so upset over; Magic
is not life or death. While cheating is by no means cool, sh*t happens and
life goes on.
-The tournament as a whole for starting late.
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