Sticking to Your Guns

Zanman Goes to Amsterdam

by Jeff Zandi
1.23.04

 

 

People say that traveling to Europe is fun. They’re wrong. Sort of. Last week I traveled to Europe for only the second time in my life. The first time was ALSO for Magic, Mainz, Germany back in the fall of 1997, my FIRST pro tour appearance. I relearned last week what I first learned six years ago in Germany; Europe is worth the trouble. If I end up with nothing else to show from all the years devoted to the game of Magic, it will be that I learned that Europe is worth all the trouble it takes to get there. Before that Germany trip back in 1997, I seriously thought that a trip to Epcot Center at Disney World was probably preferable to visiting Europe or any place else in the world that required ten or more hours in an airplane.

 

I also believe Pro Tour Magic is worth the trouble. I know lots of guys that have tried and tried to qualify for the pro tour, and when they finally did qualify, it was for an event outside the US. One after another, these potential pro tour players end up not making the trip. This just in, it costs a lot of money to travel overseas for a Magic pro tour. One such player is Brent Kaskel, a fellow Texas Guildmage who, after a few years of menacing every Junior Super Series tournament within range, claimed a seat at the US Nationals in 2003. He played very well there against excellent competition, and incredibly, came very close to finishing in the top eight there. A few months ago, he gave up his amateur Magic status by barely missing the top eight at Grand Prix Kansas City. Having qualified in Kansas City, Brent Kaskel was ready to make Amsterdam his first assault on the professional tour. Kaskel is a draft genius and there is no doubt in my mind that he would have finished in the money in Amsterdam. Unfortunately, a thousand miles of ocean and the high cost of flying over it kept Brent from getting to Amsterdam. In San Antonio last Saturday, while I was already in tourist mode in Amsterdam, Brent reached the finals of an Extended qualifier for Pro Tour Kobe. The other guy got the seat, but things might have been different if the goal had been a stateside pro tour event.

 

Before I left for Amsterdam, I received some good draft advice from Brent Kaskel, as well as from one of the best limited players in the world, teammate (and now fellow Texan) Neil Reeves. A lot of Magic players could get a lot better at this game a lot faster if they could learn from the better players among them. At the same time, you have to be ready to stick to your guns.

 

When the table assignments were posted for the first Rochester draft, I was relieved to learn that I was not at a table full of top pros. My hope was to get over my pro tour nervousness (it has been two years since I played on this level) with a 2-1 or 3-0 record at the first draft table. In my fifth trip to the pro tour, I can assure you that I was not happy simply to be here. On the other hand, the top eight was not my primary goal either. I hoped to dominate my first table and then just try to get by against better competition at the second table. Aaron Rzepka, one of Austin’s finest Magic players, told me not to overthink this thing. He told me to concentrate on getting a good deck at the first table, take it one draft at a time. Good advice.

 

ROCHESTER DRAFT NUMBER ONE

 

At the first draft table, I was player number one and would be opening the first pack. This is not the favored spot to be in for Rochester. Along with position number eight, position one is widely considered to be the worst spot to draft from. But you have to be ready to deal with these things, seating is a matter of random chance. I set the pace (badly) from the first pack. I opened the first pack and spread its contents out on the middle of the round draft table. Tel-Jilad Archers, Tel-Jilad Exile, Goblin War Wagon, Terror, Auriok Transfixer, Frogmite and some less memorable other cards. When you pick first, you go a long time after the first pack before you get the premium of having first, second or third pick in a pack, therefore it’s a particularly difficult position to draft colored cards in early in a draft. When you open pack number one in Mirrodin Rochester draft, what you are looking for is a really good artifact. There wasn’t one. The really good pro players that allow me to bask in their radiance told me later that the pick HAD to be Terror, and all things considered, I’m sure they’re right. I took the War Wagon, a card that makes my deck a lot of the time, but is of average quality at best. (lately, I have to say that being able to untap Goblin War Wagon after having been targeted by Blinding Beam is a good trick, thanks Online Magic, I might not have known you could untap this guy otherwise!) My gut told me to take the Terror, I’m a pretty big fan of black/blue and red/black in Mirrodin draft. The problem is, I wanted to be SMART, I wanted to play “like a pro”, I wanted to follow the draft advice that I was collecting from lots of different very skilled players. What I should have done was stick to my guns.

 

I ended up with a red/black deck that had the removal with double Bolt, double Terror and Consume Spirit, but the creature base made this deck below average for the red/black archetype. I did a “great job” cooperating with the players on either side of me. Both took their first color before I did and both settled on their second colors before I did. I did a great job of cooperating when what I should have been focusing on was my own deck.

 

DRAFT DECK #1

Swamp x10

Mountain x6

Iron Myr x2

Silver Myr

Gold Myr

Altar of Shadows

Banshee’s Blade

Goblin War Wagon

Scale of Chiss Goria

Clockwork Condor

Viridian Longbow x2

Rustspore Ram

Nuisance Engine

Rustmouth Ogre

Electrostatic Bolt x2

Consume Spirit

Terror x2

Nim Lasher x3

Nim Devourer

Nim Shrieker

 

In round one I played against player number five at my table, Marcus Kolb from Germany. A very confident player with pro tour experience, I had watched Marcus draft a much superior red/black deck that started with, you guessed it, the Terror that I failed to draft in my first pack. Game one can be very easily characterized by his turn three and turn four creature plays, they were both the same, matching Spikeshot Goblins. Marcus is also splashing green for one card, a Viridian Shaman. I get him down to fourteen life in game one SOMEHOW and twelve life in game two, but the match is his in a sweep.

 

Round two places me against American Nicholas Lynn and, strangely enough, another red/black deck. Lynn never touches me in game one. In game two, he gets out Megatog and his one Spikeshot Goblin, but loses after his ‘Tog gets Terrored. Mana was a problem for him in both games. He said the same problem plagued him in his first round loss. Our table opened four Spikeshot Goblins, and I’ve already seen three of them in play against me.

 

In round three I get paired with the only player from my first table that managed to get to day two, Mikko Mikander from Finland and his red/white deck. Soon, I get to see the fourth and last Spikeshot Goblin from our draft in play on his side, salivating in that disgusting Goblin way at the prospect of shooting down my many one toughness creatures. He wins 2-0. In game one, he didn’t even lose a life point. The MVP for his deck, against me, was Lightning Greaves.

 

So I learned the hard lesson that you can’t let nervousness and overeagerness spoil your draft. You have to stick to your guns and do what you do best. This table was absolutely no better than the tables I have been Rochester drafting on Magic Online for the past month.

 

ROCHESTER DRAFT NUMBER TWO

 

I approached the second draft very differently from the first. The big difference was confidence. I was very embarrassed and disappointed with my drafting at the first table. Mostly, I was mad at me for being so weak and indecisive in the early part of the draft. I was mad at myself for not playing my own game. Now I was 1-2, and while that put me and every player at the second table on the edge of day two elimination, I was ready to draft with renewed confidence. As I found my draft table assignment, I was not entirely happy to learn that I was drafting in position number two, better than in the first draft but still kind of stinky. I tried to joke with the other guys at the table, a bunch of English speakers happily enough. I explained that since only one player from our table would be going on to day two, we should just save some time and have a vote on who we wanted to send to day two. A Euro folded his arms and said that we should just let the cards decide. Good enough. An early favorite emerged when the last player was seated, pro tour champ Michael Pustilnik, at position three.

 

Pack number one was laid out by player one, immediately to my right. The platinum hits include Grab the Reins, Shatter and Bonesplitter. After ALMOST reaching for the Bonesplitter (which would have been really sweet), player one grabs the Reins. Now I can take Shatter and start the Red War on pick number two of pack number one, or I can take the Bonesplitter and sit in between the red drafters. I draft the Bonesplitter and Michael Pustilnik quickly takes the Shatter. Now it’s time for me to open pack number two. The pack was a big bag of nothing with a single exception: Spikeshot Goblin. I decided to do what I should have been doing all along, and that’s playing MY game and making the other players deal with me. I sucked up the Spikeshot Goblin and let the Red Wars begin. Ultimately, most of the good red cards were taken by either me or Pustilnik. Player one ended up splashing just a few red cards into his deck. While I ended up with another red/black deck with worse-than-average creatures, Pustilnik drafted a red/blue Affinity deck of about average quality (although I believe he did have TWO Myr Enforcers).

 

DRAFT DECK #2

Swamp x9

Mountain x7

Leaden Myr x2

Talisman of Impulse (R/G)

Loxodon Warhammer

Bonesplitter

Mask of Memory

Nim Replica x2

Ogre Leadfoot

Forge Armor

Goblin Replica

Nuisance Engine

Alpha Myr

Yotian Soldier

Mesmeric Orb

Terror x2

Consume Spirit

Irradiate

Nim Lasher

Spikeshot Goblin

Shrapnel Blast

Detonate

Krark Clan Shaman

 

A million years ago, the first big pro player from Texas, George Baxter, told me that to win a Magic tournament you needed three things to happen. You had to have a good deck, you had to play without mistakes, and you needed to get a little lucky. The luck of the draw placed me against Michael Pustilnik and his red/blue Affinity deck in round four. Michael drafted and played two Vulshok Gauntlets, equipment that is generally considered not very good. They were good enough in his deck, provided early game Affinity and late game beatings. Game one was fairly close, with a timely Electrostatic Bolt winning it for him. I was ahead most of the way in game two before Michael played Rustmouth Ogre and then made the big man fly with Hoversail. The end. Even though I think I ended the draft with more and better red cards than Pustilnik did, the fact is that he beat me with exactly the red cards that we were forced to fight over. There is no question that my decision to start a three-way fight over red cards (with me in the worst position in such a fight, the middle!) was a dangerous choice. However, I stand behind it because I made the decision to worry about my deck first and worry about what the other players were going to take away from me second. Ideally, I would never want to be in between two players drafting the same color that I want. In a tournament, you can’t always have things the way you want. Now my fifth pro tour was functionally over, there would be no day two for me. I was sad about that, but I was happy that I had asserted myself and drafted competitively at the second table.

 

In round five,  I had American Tim Rivera, from Las Vegas, down to two life with a hundred Nuisance Engine tokens and a Spikeshot on my side of the board. Tim top decked Predator’s Strike on the last turn to get the win. In game two, Tim simply wrecks me with his white/green deck while I squirm around on the floor, failing to draw land turn after turn.

 

In the last round of MY Pro Tour Amsterdam, I met Hannes Sholz from Germany. Hannes explains to me how he has the best deck from the second draft, despite the fact that he is not winning with it. Playing red/white, Hannes only deals one point of damage to me and ends up doing himself in with the desperate play of Mesmeric Orb. After the game, he mutters something about taking the Orb out of his deck. What he doesn’t know is that I’m playing Mesmeric Orb also. In game two, I get Mesmeric Orb in play with ten of his permanents tapped, pushing a full quarter of his deck into the graveyard during his next turn. He has the cards to come back and win if only he could get around the Orb. He fails to get artifact removal (it all got milled by the Orb) and he loses. Actually, on his last turn, I almost blow it. He taps my only creature, Goblin Replica, with Blinding Beam in order to attack for exactly enough damage to kill me. He has NO cards left in his library so this will certainly be his last turn. I have eight cards left in my library and no tapped permanents until he taps my Replica. I tap four mana and sac the Replica to destroy his Banshee’s Blade, lowering the damage he will deal to a non-lethal amount. I ALMOST play Irradiate from my hand first in order to destroy another attacker. If I had, I would have milled away the remainder of my library at the beginning of my next turn and then promptly lost the game during my draw step. Mesmeric Orb is a very interesting card in limited!

 

After cheering on Kevin Benefield to his first pro tour day two (he’s an Arkansas player that played a lot with Neil Reeves in Little Rock back when Neil lived near there), I trudge the mile back to the Holiday Inn Amsterdam to lick my wounds and pay five dollars for a coke.

 

On Saturday, I did my tourist thing. I discovered how to get around Amsterdam very economically with the three day mass transit pass for the way-cheaper-than-a-cab cost of thirteen Euros. Soon I’m trolleying all over this massively historic city like a native. I saw a Rembrandt painting called The Night Watch, it looks like it could have inspired the Three Musketeers or something. It’s the kind of Realism (don’t gang up on me, art historians) that I used to think represented the only kind of painting that was worth anything. I love going to the movies, and I wanted to see if I really could “drink a glass of beer” in an Amsterdam movie theater like Travolta says in Pulp Fiction, so I went to a great movie complex in the city’s historic center and watched Return of the King in English with fun to look at Dutch subtitles.

 

“I’m going! I’m going!” exclaims Jules.

“You’ll dig it the most!” says Vincent.

 

French fries from a street stand are definitely a must, even if it means blowing up your commitment to the Atkins diet for the day. The Frites are fabulous, and yes, these people really do eat them with mayonnaise instead of ketchup.

 

On Sunday, I was wide awake at 4:00am Amsterdam time. I showered and dressed and got ready for the day. The problem was the Day wasn’t quite ready to get started. There isn’t much to do that early in Amsterdam (or anywhere else, I guess). Dutch television just wasn’t doing it for me, so I fell back to sleep. The next times my eyes popped open, it was noon. Just as surprising, the sun was out. The sun had not appeared in the sky since I got here on Thursday. I hurried out the door hoping I hadn’t missed too much of the pro tour top eight. I get to the event (three days after I get here, the part of the RAI Exhibition Center where the pro tour is being held is STILL a little more than a mile’s walk from my hotel, MUCH work for the big man!) in time to watch Fujita get a little lucky in his semi-final defeat of the favored Anton Jonnson 3-1. In the other semi final match, Nicolai Herzog and his red/green deck trounces Francophile Olivier Ruel in three straight games. Waiting for the final match, I hang for a bit with Wizards luminaries/working stiffs Laura Kilgore and Scott Larabee, along with judge extraordinaire Sheldon Menery from Alaska. Sheldon declines my offer to buy him an outrageously priced hot dog (3.5 Euros I believe) as he grades some judge tests and grills Brian Kibler on some hypothetical rulings. The finals find me and the Sideboard’s Brian David Marshall perched up on the raised catwalk surrounding the finals match between Nicolai Herzog and Japan’s career bridesmaid Osamu (NOT the guy living in the cave in Afghanistan) Fujita. Incredibly, Herzog defeats Fujita’s very well conceived blue/black Affinity deck with surprising ease. Herzog raises the trophy and the giant check. I head back to the center of town to enjoy the remainder of my time in Amsterdam before starting the long trip back to Texas the next day.

 

Stick to your guns. The pro tour is worth it, and Europe really IS worth the trouble. BEING in Europe can be fantastic. TRAVELING there can be a beating.

 

Jeff Zandi

Texas Guildmages

Level II DCI Judge

jeffzandi@thoughtcastle.com 

Zanman on Magic Online