*Warning*: reader, if you have clicked on this report to see what the winning
decks in extended are, you are at the wrong place: I did neither play nor meet
them.
Everything had started well, though: I'd met Michael Sochon at my
stop inParis, and our playtesting in the plane had resulted in a 50/50 split. I
had 3 decks with me: 2 of them were netclones and one was "my own". Against
Michael, "my own" had made the best results. The morning of the tournament, I
still had 2 decklists ready - one clone and "my own".
I was
confident.
I handed in "my own".
Here's the deck I played:
Sideboard:
1st round - Jason McHale W/R/u weenies up to Emissary + Bolts
(gun-like)
Jason looked around 14 years old and is 14th in the
world in Limited (1961). He also is a friend of Mike Long. In the 1st game I
killed myself with my own Primal Order because he was able to Armageddon 1 turn
before he would have died of it (he had 4 dual lands on the table to my 1) with
a Suk'ata Lancer on the table. I had been saving lands, of course - but only
duals. Combo! I won the 2nd game with 2 Maros, and 3rd game with a Maro and a
Primal
Order. 2-1. With walls and regenerators and Maros and Earthquakes and
Stormbind and Dark Heart, non-flying weenie decks belonged in the category of
decks I should beat.
2nd round - Tim Rivera
R/U
Did you notice how many cards my deck had against flyers? 2
Stormbind and perhaps a Guildmage? Anyway, while I am busy Creeping Molding
Control Magics and leaving lands untapped to save my River Boas from his
Firewalker, 2 Frenetics happily dance over my head for 4 per turn. Both games.
Tim didn't even need to flip a coin once. 0-2.
3rd round - Luis
Barros Figuera G/W/R/B Erhnie/Serra-geddon with black for Hymn which he was able
to play with the Bird/Ranger combo.
16,12,8,4,0... Ah yes,
that's the time he got out a Serra. I still can't understand why I didn't draw
one of my *2* Stormbind to get rid of it. I must have been really unlucky. He
got a Serra in the 2nd game too. 0-2.
4th round - Chris Faesi U/W
Prisonpost
The problem with a deck which is low on lands (18)
and which relies on creatures for mana is that it is very sensitive to mass
creature removal. With Chris' 1st Wrath of God, I lost a Bird, a Wall and a
Maro. I'd have liked to play 1 threat at a time; unfortunately, Birds and Walls
are no threats.
In the 2nd game, he got the 2 Icy/1 Orb combo with me having
no creature mana. I gave up. 0-2 again.
At this point I could have
retired, but as I had never retired before in a PT (I simply don't see what's
the point: with 3 losses, there's no more money, no more fame, but there's still
the game) I decided to go on.
5th round - Josh Rauschenbach (12th
in standard with 1982) playing... "his own"!
That's when I got
the definite proof that my deck was crap. He was playing with Maros, Erhnams,
Birds, Stormbind, Dark Heart of the Wood... The same stuff as I had, and we were
playing each other in the 1-3 bracket! After splitting the first 2, I managed to
win the 3rd by topdecking an Earthquake with 1 life left and 1 Bird, 1 Wall,
Dark Heart of the Wood and 1 land (I had been sacking the other ones to stay
alive), while he had 2 life left. 2-1.
6th round - Matt Linde
R/U
After winning the 1st, I got a Hall of Gemstone through in
the 2nd - an Erhnam did the main work, an Earthquake the last points.
2-0.
7th round - Antoni Puig 5cg
He was playing
with 4 Guildmages - bad for me. Earthquake and River Boa (he was playing with
Tropical Islands for Arcane Denial) were key for winning
this match (in spite
of a 16/17 Lhurgoyf). 2-1.
Thus I ended 133rd with a 4-3 record, and I
even believe I got lucky. I think my deck deserved even less. Michael Sochon
finished 134th, and Giovanni Gentile, the only other Swiss player at PT Chicago,
190th with a 3-4 record (he played counterpost).
In the side events on
the following days, I played in the Merchant Team Challenge with Henning Rimkus
and Peer Kroeger (great team members). We went 4-2, not good enough for top 8. I
then participated in a booster draft which I won after... 5 hours of play (which
gave Mark Justice one more occasion to make fun of my slow playing style - can't
blame him)!
In the Mainz PTQ next day I went 5-2 (13th) - and that was
it.
I have to add a PS though: with Peer and his girlfriend we
visited Field Museum on Monday, and the reproduction of different sorts of
beaches at the "Traveling the Pacific" expo was so close to reality that had to
refrain from passing through the barriers and walking on the sand. If ever a PT
or even a GP is organized at a place like that, I think I'll take a longer
vacation there (may I even suggest the Tonga islands - longitude 176.5 West,
latitude 19.9 South?)...
Alexander Blumke ([email protected])