Steven Cantrell
T&T Toys in Duluth, Georgia
Saturday, February 12, 2005
Ten Dollar Entry Fee
16 Duelists in the 15up Division
5 Rounds Swiss; Then top 4
This weekend is the Tournament of the Five Civilizations, a special tournament held at a different location than my usual dueling grounds. Massive prize support was up for grabs and I wanted to get myself a share of it. Today would also have major DCI implications.
Team Galactic Quest started showing up around 11:30 and we all warmed up in practice duels. I was using my usual Murky Riptide of course (deck list to follow). I checked out what other people were playing and saw enough blockers to make a small modification.
Darkness [20]
4x Bloody Squito
4x Horrid Worm
4x Locomotiver
4x Death Smoke
4x Terror Pit
Water [20]
4x Aqua Guard
4x Aqua Hulcus
4x Corile
2x Crystal Paladin
2x Crystal Lancer
4x Brain Serum
There you have my creation. The goal is to control their field and hand to limit my opponent’s options. Ideally the blockers provide protection while my creatures slowly chip away at the shields. Two Paladins were subbed in for extra blocker control. Enough with the talk, now the tournament begins!
This guy was maybe in his mid-twenties. I wasn’t sure what to expect but his Diamond Cutter deck turned out to be no problem.
Paladin was kind enough to show up twice in the first round and clear his blockers. Chris ran out of a hand so quickly that he was topdecking while he only had four mana! The only wrench thrown into my plans was a Holy Awe shield triggered. Next duel an early Cutter took about three shields to boost my hand. From there the control (mainly Corile) kicked in and there wasn’t even a Holy Awe to save him.
That was a good start that I wanted. Winning 2-0 in the first round gave me a cushion incase I lost the next round. Later on Chris bought ten Base Set packs looking for an Urth and didn’t get one, poor guy.
Record: 2-0/2 Points
Round Two: Vs Ramsey (Blue/Green with Awes)
Ramsey is a regular at Galactic Quest and he’s one of our better duelists. I had dueled him beforehand and won both times, but these would count for real…
He took the first game easily, mainly due to Bronze-Arm followed by a turn four Corile. I eventually had eight cards in hand and not a single blocker to impede his progressing attacks. That duel took my by surprise and I knew a match victory was now unlikely. In the next game I got Ramsay topdecking while Corile made him draw the same card a few times. That duel went to me, but the third was not as favorable. I got into a sticky situation and tried to sweep his shields all at once…so of course I hit a Holy Awe.
Oh well, you can’t win every match. Ramsey is a good guy so losing to him wasn’t that bad. From now on I would have to do better to make the cut. In another duel of importance, Lee took his revenge on Austin by winning two intense games.
Record: 3-2/3 Points
Round Three: Vs Joshua (Mono Water)
This was another guy in his mid-twenties that I didn’t know. His weapon of choice was a well-built blue deck.
Joshua started off good and even pulled of the Merfolk combo. I managed to get his hand size down to a comfortable level, but this duel was close on both sides. Eventually I swept his remaining 2 or 3 shields at once and he didn’t trigger any Spiral Gates to stop me. The next duel, my personal savior showed up multiple times in the form of Corile. Towards the end Joshua had a few blockers out and Paladin earned his place in this deck by letting my bust through a formidable defense.
Through the first three matches I did pretty well, but so did some of my best competition. Lee, Stephan, Justin, and Ramsey all had at least four points. Everyone though that this next round would be the last before the cutoff, but the owner had to add a fifth round because of ties.
Record: 5-2/5 Points
Round Four: Vs Adam (Yellow/Red/Green Survivor)
I saw this guy before with what I assumed to be his son. Adam looked somewhere in his thirties, just like your average comic store bum. He used a strange deck for such a serious tournament.
Both duels went along the same lines. He rushed with Blazosaur, Smash Horn, and/or Rikabu to quickly destroy a handful of my shields. While I was gaining hand advantage, he was rapidly losing it. Locomotiver and Horrid Worm had a field day destroying his cards. The highlight of the match was when he had no cards in hand and only Smash Horn on the field…I corile’d it three times in a row, and no deck can comeback after THAT.
I kind of felt sorry for the guy because, er, he didn’t respond to losing well. Adam threw a bit of a temper tantrum and stormed out. Then after that slightly disturbing match the owner of T&T makes us play a fifth round, just waiting to screw everything up.
Record: 7-2/7 Points
Round Five: Vs Austin (Red/Black, the Incinerator)
If you read any of the other reports from Galactic Quest you should know that Austin is both friend and rival of Lee Sandow. He struggled so far today after trying out a new design and then ditching it for his old deck right before the tournament.
Duel one dragged on and on because Austin killed just about everything I summoned. It wasn’t until I had about ten cards left that I realized he was trying to deck me out. In desperation I somehow got Austin down to zero shields but I had no way of pulling off the final blow. Then with three cards left I drew Crystal Paladin, but there were no liquid people to evolve from! The next turn I topdecked my last hulcus, evolved, and delivered the last shot to win. Duel two wasn’t nearly as exciting and I don’t remember much. I’ll just say that I won.
So after a brief scare having to play an additional round, it actually benefited me. The final standing were announced and I placed third, good enough for the semifinals. My opponent: none other than Lee Sandow.
Top Four Semifinals: Vs Lee (Black/Blue, Dark Tide)
Lee and myself are about evenly matched cardwise and skillwise. We have had some close duels lately, so I was prepared for a fight…until I saw my opening hand.
Either I shuffled my deck too well or not well enough, but I drew about the crappiest hands possible BOTH DUELS. The first duel wasn’t as bad, so I almost managed a comeback but Lee dueled well enough to not give me a realistic shot. Next round my hand consisted of NONE of my sixteen cards that cost three or less. Lee simply Stompatron’d me into the ground before I had a chance.
The Aftermath:
For a great day of dueling to come to an end like this was a bit of a shame, but there’s always next week. Lee is a very tough opponent but I expected better of myself. My prize for placing third was six survivor packs. All considered today turned out well.
Props:
Getting 4 Corile promos (my favorite card is now even sweeter)
Decent stuff in my prize packs
Making the top 4 cutoff
Good day for my DCI ranking
Team Galactic Quest was strongly represented in the top 4 of both divisions
Slak beating Lee in the finals
Slops:
Justin almost got kicked out for giving people GQ business cards
Losing after I made it so far, but at least it was to Mr. Sandow
Lee losing to Slak in the finals
There you have my third tournament report, with many more to come. Anyone looking for some good competition, come to Galactic Quest in Lawrenceville, Georgia every Saturday at noon. Until next week, I’m Steven Cantrell and you can reach me at Smcman7@aol.com.