one million words's picture
By: one million words, Pete Jahn
Sep 02 2016 12:00pm
0
Login to post comments
2437 views


SotP Summer Reruns: GO PACK!

It’s summer crunch time here. Typical SotP articles take 8-10 hours to compile. I can’t get them done. Instead, I am going into reruns for the next couple weeks. These are significant articles from my past. I am reprinting the text, but updating the appearance. Some of these articles first appeared in ASCII or Courier text, long enough ago that bold and italics were cutting edge text formatting, and you had to hard code those. I am also adding an introduction and comment.

This is a classic tournament report. They were very popular back in the days before streaming, or video coverage, or even text coverage. Tournament reports were the best source for information on decks, the metagame and strategy. The best is overstating it – tournament reports were pretty much the only source, outside of the very occasional analysis piece appearing on email listserves. 

I wrote this tournament report for a now defunct website which was holding a contest. It was one of the first actual articles I wrote – before this article I was mainly posting Magic content to listserves and electronic bulletin boards.  I had written some professional economic articles, and some things for roleplaying games including an article in Dragon Magazine.  

Classic tournament reports always started with some story of the journey there, followed by an overview of the deck, then round by round recaps of the matches. Decent reports included recaps of the interesting cards involved, and sideboarding strategy. This report was written several months into a block format PTQ season, so the reader base knew most of the cards and archetypes. I’ll add a few explanatory notes throughout, but one thing you should know up front: Masques block constructed was a terrible format. It was slow. The previous block was Urza’s Saga, which was filled with busted cards. The period shortly after Urza’s Saga came out is called Combo Winter, and resulted in a bunch of bannings. When the second set arrived, it got worse, and two weeks after release Wizards had to issue the only emergency ban in Magic history. A number of cards were banned in Urza’s block constructed. It was so bad that Wizard’s president called the entire R&D team into a meeting and stated that if anything like Urza’s Block ever happened again, they would all be fired. 

The following set/block was Mercadian Masques. The one solid mechanic was Rebels, and Rebels was a super slow but very powerful card advantage engine. Beyond that, the block was full of 3/3s for five mana and lots of really bad stuff. As you will see. My deck will look terrible by modern standards, but it was actually pretty solid by the standards of Masques block constructed.  Now on to the report.    

T8 Report: Green Bay PTQ   7/30/00
GO PACK!
Pete Jahn
 
Green Bay is about 3 hours from Madison, so we got up way too early. Ingrid and I picked up Jason and Tyler and headed off.   We talked some tech, especially about exactly what should go in G/B decks. I was arguing for Lumbering Satyr in the sideboard. Jason was opposed, but I ranted on. Pretty soon, everyone but me was asleep. 
 
We got to Green Bay about 9am. Seven members of Team C&C made it, including Graham -- who drove all the way from Colorado. Way to support the team! (The fact that his girlfriend lives near Green Bay had nothing to do with it.) 
 
I considered playing my version of Torquemiser (Chris’ G/B machine). I had added Lumbering Satyr & some big beats, but recent playtesting suggests my version’s a pile. Second choice was a tweaked G/W Rubin deck. I have a lot of playtest experience with it, but it is not MY deck. So I pulled out the constantly tweaked U/W control deck I have been playing and tweaking since the Prophecy spoilers appeared.   
 
U/W Control, a/k/a “Muddy Waters”
Pete Jahn, Top 8, Mercadian Masques Block Constructed PTQ
Creatures
4 Drake Hatchling
4 Stinging Barrier
2 Blinding Angel
2 Jeweled Spirit
12 cards

Other Spells
2 Tooth of Ramos
4 Counterspell
3 Thwart
2 Foil
2 Bribery
2 Dominate
2 Wave of Reckoning
1 Disenchant
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Aura Fracture
4 Accumulated Knowledge
1 Gush
25 cards
Lands
10 Plains
2 Kor Haven
12 Island
  24 cards

Stinging Barrier

 

So what is this pile? The main decks in the format were weenie decks built around rebels and GB decks built around the few cheap 3/3s and some random fatties. Wave of Reckoning causes all creatures to deal damage to themselves equal to their power. It kills most of Rebels and nearly everything in GB, but most of my creatures survive. One of the stranger inclusions (by modern standard) is probably Stinging Barrier, but an 0/4 wall blocks most of the beaters in the formant. It also kills the most feared creature in the format – Ramosian Sergeant. Beyond that, the deck has a bunch of counters and several ways to steal my opponent’s creatures. Plus Accumulated Knowledge as instant speed card draw. Accumulated Knowledge is basically Take Inventory, but as an instant. Instant speed makes AK much, much better. 

I had about 90 cards in the deckbox, and had about half an hour to cull it to 75 and fill out the decklist. I got it submitted with minutes (2) to spare. About 90 people, which is very small for a Midwest qualifier, but there were several competing PTQ in nearby states. Seven rounds; down from last weekend.
 
Rd 1: Ryan Strand: Rebels
Quick explanation of the opponent’s deck: the most feared play in Masques block constructed was a turn one Ramosian Sergeant. A couple lands, and the Sergeant can recruit a Lieutenant and march on up the chain, or just keep producing endless 2/2s. The Rebel mechanic puts the rebels into play, so they cannot be countered. The chain could also include special, toolbox rebels: a flier, a pro red or pro black rebel, a rebel that could kill artifacts or enchantments, a first striker, a lifelinker – whatever you need. If a rebel deck got the chain started and just drew lands, it would bury pretty much any other deck in card advantage. The Rebel deck was so good that the best Rebel - Lin Sivvi - had been banned in Masques block constructed.  
 
I lost the roll. I mulliganed, and mulliganed some more. He goes Plains, Sergeant. Things are looking real good – but for him, not for me. My life total starts going down. I get beat with the Sarge, then a Steady, then 2 Steadies and then a (Fresh Volunteer). I had a Stinging Barrier blocking, but he kept drawing more Rebels. He cast (Cho-Manno Blessing) on one Steady, but I Dominated the other and traded. I was at one life when I got him locked under Blinding Angel. He couldn’t remove it, and a Jeweled Spirit and the Angel beat him down.
 
Blinding Angel was nasty in Masques block. It was a 2/4 flier, which was hard to kill with the removal available in the block. If it connected, the opponent could not attack on the following turn. Rebels could recruit fliers, but the most commonly played ones were 2/1 pro red and pro black dudes, and my Stinging Barriers could kill them before they could block.
 
Game 2: Another mulligan for me, another turn 1 Plains, Sergeant for him. This time the Blinding Angel stayed out on break too long. Turn 5 I had a choice of playing a second Stinging Barrier or Wave of Reckoning. He had a Defender en-Vec with a few counters left, (the Defender en-Vec is a 2/4, so it is immune to Wave of Reckoning, and the counters could save other creatures because, back in those days, damage used the stack and oculd be responded to.) so I played the Barrier. He topdecked a Parallax Wave; I had no counter, so he removed my blockers, then my life total, from the game. 
 
Game 3: I drew badly and got beat up early by Chimeric Idol and Steadfast Guard. I got a Wall out, got in 2 hits in with a Drake, then topdecked a Disenchant for the Idol. Unfortunately, he had been searching out Rebels and had a hoard of them. I Briberied out a Mageta the Lion and was ready to Wrath next turn. Unfortunately, I had to block 2 Steadies with my Drake and the Mageta. He Rallied. (Rally pumps all his creatures enough that my creatures died.) I checked the Foil in my hand 4 times – but it still wasn’t a Thwart, so my creatures died. I was at one life, he had 4 creatures, including a Defender with counters, in play. I drew my card, but it wasn’t Wrath of God or a swamp and 2 Massacres, so I lost. 
 
0-1. On the plus side: I could stop taking extensive notes, since I wasn’t going to do a tourney report. And decks at the lower tables are often more interesting. And playing at the less competitive tables can be more fun. etc. On the down side: I @#^$%@ LOST! I hate that! DCI Should have banned that @&#^% Sergeant! etc.
 
Rd 2: Steve Jergen, big green beats with Spore Frog
Game 1: I lost the roll. He played a turn 1 Stampede Driver and a turn 2 Spore Frog. I played an early Drake. He dropped a Blastoderm, which I countered. He dropped another, which I couldn’t. I took a couple Blastoderm hits, then borrow one of his to block. (Bribery is so good. All blue decks should run Blastoderms.) He got a Squallmonger through, which did in my Drake and beat me to 5 before I killed it with Wave. We both topdecked nothing special, but he had a (Rath’s Edge). I was holding a hand with 2 Dominate, Counterspell, Foil, Wave of Reckoning, etc., and kept thinking “play something so I can kill you with it, dammit!” but he kept on playing lands. I died to the Edge 5 turns later. 
 
I really did not want to tell Jason I lost to a deck running maindeck Spore Frogs.  
 
Spore Frog is basically a Fog on legs – dinky little 1/1 legs. It was not then, and is not now, a useful creature. I guess it was an answer to the Overrun effects in the format, but we had found it useless in testing. I do remember one turbo Fog variant that recurred them, but not in this format. Having seen the Spore Frog, I assumed that the deck was bad, and I expected my team to think the same thing.  
 
Game 2:   He played a turn 1 Stampede Driver. I countered the first Blastoderm, but took 5 from the second. However, I played a fast Blinding Angel and quickly had him locked down. On the other hand, I could not draw counters, and he soon had the Stampede Driver, a Squallmonger, a big Rushwood Elemental and a pair of Silt Crawlers staring at me. He was stalled at 7 land for about 5 turns, while my Angel was all that kept him from killing me.  (Squallmonger has the ability 2: deal one damage to each flier and player. He needed 8 mana to deal the four damage needed to kill my Blinding Angel.) However, I drew land first and Dominated the Rushwood Elemental when he was at 6 life. He topdecked the 8th land a turn later, but it was too late. Most memorable part of the match: I tried a Wave of Reckoning, but he knew how to use the Stampede Driver to save his creatures. I then spent several turns playing blue discard: I would ping the Driver with my Stinging Barrier and he would discard a card to save it. Magic at its finest.   
 
Game 3: My hand was Island, Island, Plains, Island, Plains, Story Circle, Bribery. Good enough. He played another turn 1 Stampede Driver. I took some hits from the Driver and an Idol, but got the Story Circle down. I bribed out a Rushwood Elemental and his life total went 20, 15, 9, 6 (chumping), dead.  
 
Rd 3: Chris Dube, G/W Rebels 
Game 1: I lost the roll and mulliganed, again. He played a turn 1 Sergeant. I probably groaned. He played a turn 2 Ridgeback. I played a blocker, but he sent it on to the Afterlife. I put out another blocker and beat with the Afterlife token until he shot it with Rath’s Edge, but he had searched for some other rebels by then. He did not search as often as he should have, but in the end it didn’t matter. I died to the Rebel hoard, many turns later. SB: I swapped out 1 Seal for the real Disenchant because he had disenchanted my Seal. I also swapped out the Aura Fracture and something else for the two SB Briberies.  
 
Game 2: Ridgebacks and Sergeant appeared, but he couldn’t search effectively before my Stinging Barrier killed the Sergeant. I took 2 from a Ridgeback, dropped 3 Drakes and countered some stuff (I don’t remember what.) The Drakes beat him down quickly. I may have killed a hoard with Wave of Reckoning, or just had it ready. Can’t remember, and my notes don’t say. 
 
Game 3: Ridgebacks and Silt Crawlers beat me down. A fast Drake and a paid-off Voice of Truth checked the Steadfast Guards and Fresh Volunteers for a while. Then I checked my watch and realized the round ended in 2 minutes. Fortunately, I topdecked Blinding Angel. He could not remove the Angel. Once he was locked, I started beating with everything. I topdecked a second Angel and won in overtime.
 
Rd 4: John Galli, G/W Rebels  
Game 1:    He started with plains, go. No Sergeant. Nice change. I thought he might be playing something non-Rebel, but he cast a turn 2 Fresh Volunteers and turn 3 Silt Crawler. I took some hits, then decide to play with one of his Blastoderms for a while. He beat me down to 4, but his Blastoderm, plus a Dominated Silt Crawler, a Jeweled Spirit and another Blastoderm, killed him. No question: Blastoderm is the best creature in the game. I try to borrow one or two every match, so I sideboarded out the Aura Fracture and a Ramos chunk and brought in the Briberies. 
 
Game 2: I could not counter all the Blastoderms, and one knocked me to 5. Parallax Wave took my blockers momentarily, but I had a Disenchant. I bribed one of his Blastoderms and beat him to 10 before he chumped. By then, Accumulated Knowledge had resolved 3 times, so I dropped blockers, countered everything I need to, killed his guys with Wave of Reckoning and borrowed another Blastoderm for the win.  
 
The team: At this point, as I remember, Jason was undefeated. Tyler and Torque had 1 loss each. Ingrid and Graham had 2. Ingrid had suffered through a match where she drew 1 forest in 37 cards. Oh, does that hurt! Pete had been summoned to side events – after getting paired with Graham in the second round.
 
Round 5: Jacob Welch, G/B 
He played a fast Crawler or Idol, and Haunted Crossroads. I bribed his Blastoderm turn 5 and did 10 before he chumped it, but I would have been much happier with the Blastoderm if I could have countered the Crossroads. I finally drew a Disenchant for the Crossroads, but not before he got the Blastoderm back in hand. I took a hit from Blastie, then cleared the board with Wave of Reckoning. He summoned an Idol or something, I dropped a Barrier. I pinged him to 7. He dropped a Thrashing Wumpus. I dropped a Drake and he Wumped for 3, clearing the board. I dropped another Drake and it did the last few points.   Despite that, I sided out some of the Drakes for Briberies because I saw some Spitting Spiders, and because Drakes cannot block anything in his deck without dying. Briberies are better. 
 
Game 2: I kept a hand with 2 Counterspells, Kor Haven, 2 Accumulated Knowledge, Island, Bribery.   I didn’t draw a land, and cast the AK at the end of his third turn. I didn’t draw land. I cast the second AK during my third turn’s main phase, but still didn’t get land. Discard time. The he (Extort)ed me, to find a hand with 4 Counterspell, 2 Bribery and something random. He took the Briberies. I drew the second Island, but he built up land and waited until he could play 2 spells a turn. He cast an idol. I had to drop a Barrier to block with, and he used Snuff Out the wall. (only damage I did that game.) Then he cast Jolrael about turn 10. I was up to 6 land or so, and had Kor Haven working, but had no more counters. He did the Joreal / Forced March two-step (this combo turns all the opponent’s lands into creatures, then Forced March destroys them). I tried to scoop, but I had nothing left in play to scoop. Still, Jake is cool: he let me scoop anyway. 
 
Game 3:   This game went a little better. He played an Idol, I countered it. He tried again and I hardcast Foil. He tried a third time – this time he was casting a shiny Idol – so I let it through. And Disenchanted it. Then I bribed one of his shiny Blastoderms. (Note: Spitting Spider might have been better, since it could go all the way, but I saw only 3 Snuff Outs in his deck, so it had to be Blastoderm.)  (These decks ran four copies, meaning he had one in hand. I had to take the untargettable Blastoderm.) I beat him to 10, then Bribed out another Blastoderm. He drew a land and tapped out to cast Forced March for 4, but I had a Thwart
 
Wow, despite the round 1 loss, I was still in contention. Jason was undefeated, Tyler and Torque were on the bubble. 
 
 
Round 6: Waiken Soo, G/B 
Game 1: He won the roll and got an early Silt Crawler through. It beat me down to 11. I cleared his board with Wave of Reckoning, then got in some beats with Drake and pings with a Barrier. He played Saproling Burst, but I Disenchanted it. But he Snuffed some stuff and got a Thrashing Wumpus into play. The Wumpus and Crawler chewed through my Barrier, and I died in short order. SB: I pulled 3 Drakes for 2 Briberies and a Disenchant. I thought about Misdirection for the Snuffs, but there were rarely any legal targets besides my stuff, so no.   
 
Game 2: I took a bunch of beats from a fast Silt Crawler, then an Idol. I Dominated the Crawler and chumped the Idol. I countered stuff.   I managed a few pings. Another Silt Crawler beat me to 4, but I Dominated it, I think. I also remember casting a Wave of Reckoning and Bribing out Blastoderms, but I’m not entirely sure they were in this game. (That sequence happened a lot in G/B games, and my memory is starting to blur them together.) What I do remember was that Waiken displayed nearly his entire collection of APAC Swamps and foil Saga Forests. That part was ridiculous: he went turn after turn drawing lands instead of a threat. Eventually, I bribed what he could not draw and beat him down. 
 
Game 3: This game went a little faster. I countered some early stuff (Crawler, etc.) and Disenchanted an Idol. I Bribed out a Blastoderm out and beat him to 5. He got a Primeval Shambler through, and my life total went 20, 14, 9, 4.   But then I Dominated the Shambler and beat him to 2. He dropped a Thrashing Wumpus and Wumped for 1. I attacked, and he thought long and hard about blocking, but decided I was bluffing and let it through. I wasn’t bluffing: I had a Jeweled Spirit and a Counterspell in hand, 7 lands in play, and the win.   
 
Round 7: Chris Schafer, U/W Control, ID 
We IDed.   Then we played a few games for fun: I pretty much kicked my mind into neutral and relaxed and he kicked my teeth in. He was playing my deck! Well, except that he had added some Magetas and Last Breaths, and had cut some other stuff.   Once I saw what he was playing, I was very happy about the ID. I haven’t practiced the mirror anywhere near enough. 
 
So, despite the first round loss, I made top 8, ranked sixth. Jason was first. Torque was eighth. Frown. (Jason had much stronger comments about playing a teammate.) Still, three out of 7 Team C&C folks are in the top eight. Acceptable.  
 
The rest of the top eight was Andy Belant, Craig Guile, Matt Severa (another Madisonian), Mike Heinrich and Chris Schaefer. Four different G/B decks, R/W, 2 U/W, blue beats with Jolting merfolk deck. Yeah, a stale format all right.   Steve Port has most of the decklists on the Legion Events website.
 
Matt Severa is still playing. He has been at several of the recent Pro Tours, playing with Team UltraPro. I still meet a few of the others mentioned in this article at events – even 17 years later, at least half of use still sling spells.  We just don't play Drake Hatchlings and Silt Idols nowadays. 
 
Top Eight, Quarterfinals, Craig Guile playing G/B  
Game 1: I cannot remember much of this game. I had a Wave of Reckoning in hand early. I countered a Woodripper and Spitting Spider, since they survive Waves. I killed off a Blastoderm and maybe a Crawler with the Wave. I bribed a Blastoderm and did 15 points with it.   The second Woodripper resolved and got in 4 points. Then a Blastoderm joined in and I took 9 in one attack, and a Woodripper beat me to three next turn. He Snuffed some of my stuff, and I could not topdeck a threat or enough Accumulated Knowledges. I lost. I sideboarded out 2 Drakes and the Aura Fracture for 2 Briberies and a Rethink. 
 
Game 2:   I drew some lands. And more lands. I Dominated a Silt Crawler and got in some beats before it traded with an Idol.   And another Silt Crawler resolved and got in some beats, but I had Kor Haven working and prevented lots of damage. At one point, I looked at my board. I had no creatures, 8 land and a Tooth of Ramos in play, 2-3 land in my hand pretending, unsuccessfully, to be Counterspells, and exactly 5 spells in my graveyard. Damn, can Craig cut a deck! Eventually I topdecked Bribery and looked through his deck. I found a Lumbering Satyr! However, he was somewhat mana screwed, and I got in exactly one hit before he sacrificed his last Forest to Rath’s Edge. Two Silt Crawlers blocked the Lumbering Satyr next turn, I pinged the survivor with a Stinging Barrier, and we were back to top decking.   Unfortunately, I was top decking nothing, and he was top decking land. I took Rath’s Edge damage down to 2 before I drew another Bribery. It was hopeless, though, since he had 5 or 6 Swamps, a Trellis or 2 and a Forest in play, and 11 life. He did delay killing me one turn to cast a Blastoderm (I think that was a mistake, since I had a Stinging Barrier to block) but then he went back to using the Edge and killed me.  
 
Oh well. I know I made several mistakes, including forgetting to ping him at the end of his turn twice. Still, when I died he had 11 life. We talked afterward, and he said he had sideboarded in the Satyrs for extra beats but had completely forgotten about Bribery.   They would not have been there for game 3, had we gotten that far. 
 

So I was out. Jason conceded to Torque, but Torque then lost – very quickly – to Matt Severa in the Quarterfinals. (Bad draws verses good decks will do that.) The other semi-final match was still in game one by the time we had split the winnings 7 ways and decided to head for Perkins and dinner. Halfway through dinner, Steve and Marci, the TO’s, arrived at Perkins with Craig Guile – Craig was looking pretty happy – and told us how Craig beat Matt in the finals. Matt had 2 Blastoderms in the graveyard and played Haunted Crossroads, but Craig dropped Lumbering Satyr and forestwalked in for the win. Lumbering Satyr tech!    Bet the team won’t sleep through my tech rants next time. 

 

Props:

My opponents: except for Craig, they were all good opponents and good sports, even when losing. Craig was a fun opponent, too – he just didn’t lose. 

Team C&C: only reason I made top 8. Tks all.
 
The Legion, Steve & Marci: they run great events. 7 rounds of Swiss, and top eight was done by about 10pm. Nice job. 
 
Lumbering Satyr: Never has a “bad” tech suggestion been so good.
 
The Green Bay Packers: Go Pack!
 
Ingrid: wife & friend. And still a better player than I am.
 
The format: I never played the same deck twice. The two G/W rebel decks were very different. The six G/B decks I looked through (3 I played against, plus those played by team members) were all unique, with different focuses.   I played hours and hours of really fun magic. Much preferable to the LSD block PTQs, or even Extended. Those people saying the format is stale, repetitive and all Water/Rebels should come to the Midwest. 
 
Magic has changed a lot since Masque Block Constructed.   Back in those days, creatures were nowhere near what they are today. At that point in time, the most broken creatures in Magic history were Morphling and Masticore.   A couple years before, Kird Ape and Juggernaut had been so good they got hit wiht the ban hammer.  In this event, the main creatures were a couple 1/1s, (Steadfast Guards) (a Vigilant 2/2 for WW), a couple 3/3s for three mana with serious drawbacks, and Blastoderm. I was playing a 1/3 flier for 3 that could become a 2/3, and a 0/4 pinging wall, because these were good creatures for the time.  On the other hand, I was playing Counterspell – counter any spell for UU, no drawbacks. I was also playing instant speed card drawing (Accumulated Knowledge) and an instant speed Control Magic (Dominate) that could not be disenchanted.   My creatures were the kind of thing that might not see play in today’s limited, but the spells were amazing. 
 
Other interesting notes on the format: The lands were almost entirely basics. Both Masques and Saga had basically zero playable multicolored lands. Decks were strictly one or two colors.   Decks were also far cheaper: I was only playing a handful of rares. Most of the important cards were commons. That’s no longer true.    
 
I mentioned I wrote this for a contest. I won – this was voted best tournament report of the season. It was one of the reasons I got a paying gigs at The Dojo, and later at a number of other websites, including this one. The downside – first prize was a box of Prophecy booster packs: 36 packs of what had to be the most boring and least valuable cards since Homelands. Ingrid and I busted all the packs: by the time the box arrived Invasion was out and no one wanted to draft the set or buy the box. We opened nothing worth remembering.
 
Hope you enjoyed this flashback. Normal State of the Program articles will return when the new set comes out. 

 

PRJ

"one million words" on MTGO