2001)

Saturday, June ninth, was Team Card-Shark’s first opportunity to take a crack at the team limited format in an actual tournament. The team, consisting of Travis Cullum, Troy Skinner, and myself, has been practicing the format pretty hard for the past couple of months, and we were eager to put our skills to the test at this Pro-Tour Qualifier in Detroit, MI, which was being run by the amazing folks from Professional Events Services. There were forty-one teams at the tournament, which made for eight rounds of Swiss before a cut to the top two teams, which would compete in a team Rochester draft for the Pro-Tour invitation.

The card pool we received to build from looked pretty solid. Here is what we had to work with:

Gold:
Samite Archer / Gerrard’s Verdict / Gerrard’s Command / Squee’s Embrace
2x Yavimaya Barbarian / Goblin Legionnaire / Fleetfoot Panther / Horned Kavu
Pernicious Deed / Plague Spores / Yavimaya Kavu / Captain Sisay (Foil. Yippidee doodah day.)
Shivan Zombie / Cinder Shade / Lava Zombie / Terminate
Recoil / Cavern Harpy / Rith’s Charm / Natural Emergence
Horned Cheetah / Consume Strength / Coalition Victory

Artifact:
Troll-horn Cameo / Phyrexian Lens / Mana Cylix / Dragon Arch
Bloodstone Cameo / Emblazoned Golem

Black:
Quagmire Druid / Maggot Carrier / Sinister Strength / Bog Initiate
Mourning / Firescreamer / Andradite Leech / Hypnotic Cloud
Phyrexian Rager / 2x Soul Burn / Bog Down / Nightscape Apprentice
Phyrexian Slayer / Reckless Spite / Phyrexian Arena / Addle
Phyrexian Battleflies / Cursed Flesh / Volcano Imp

Blue:
Reef Shaman / Worldly Counsel / 2x Jaded Response / Sea Snidd
Index / Tidal Visionary / Prohibit / Faerie Squadron
Tower Drake / Exclude / Sky Weaver / Phantasmal Terrain
Opt / Escape Routes / Disrupt / Vodalian Merchant
Vodalian Serpent / Stormscape Apprentice / Coastal Drake

Red:
2x Keldon Mantle / Savage Offensive / 2x Scarred Puma / Dwarven Landslide
Ancient Kavu / 2x Halam Djinn / Viashino Grappler / Pouncing Kavu
Maniacal Rage / Tribal Flames / Bloodfire Dwarf / Thunderscape Apprentice
Singe / Rogue Kavu / Shivan Harvest / Kavu Recluse
Kavu Glider / Kavu Scout / Smash

White:
2x Dismantling Blow / Pollen Remedy / Capashen Unicorn / Orim’s Touch
Shield of Duty and Reason / Liberate / Ardent Soldier / Dega Disciple
Rewards of Diversity / Restrain / Disciple of Kangee / Helionaut
Protective Sphere / Crimson Acolyte / Obisidian Acolyte / 2x Benalish Trapper
Coalition Honor Guard / Aurora Griffin / Sunscape Battlemage / Shackles

Green:
Quirion Elves / Urborg Elf / 2x Savage Gorilla / Verdeloth, the Ancient
Lay of the Land / Fertile Ground / Harrow / Aggressive Urge
Nomadic Elf / 2x Explosive Growth / Rooting Kavu / Might Weaver
Thornscape Apprentice / Restock / Amphibious Kavu / Planeswalker’s Favor
Wallop / Sylvan Messenger / Tranquility / Llanowar Cavalry
Gaea’s Balance / Primal Growth / Skyshroud Blessing / 2x Wandering Stream
Pygmy Kavu

Split:
Order/Chaos / Assault/Battery / Stand/Deliver

Land:
Geothermal Crevice / Ancient Spring / Tinder Farm / Crosis’s Catacombs

From that card pool, we built the following three decks:

Dave (that’s me!):
Quirion Elves
Urborg Elf
2x Savage Gorilla
Verdeloth, the Ancient
Lay of the Land
Fertile Ground
Harrow
Restock
2x Benalish Trapper
Coalition Honor Guard
Aurora Griffin
Sunscape Battlemage
Shackles
Stormscape Apprentice
Coastal Drake
Death Bomb
Volcano Imp
Emblazoned Golem
Samite Archer
Gerard’s Verdict
Pernicious Deed
Plague Spores
7x Forest
5x Plains
2x Swamp
Island
Mountain

Travis:
Ancient Kavu
Halam Djinn
Viashino Grappler
Pouncing Kavu
Maniacal Rage
Tribal Flames
Bloodfire Dwarf
Aggressive Urge
Nomadic Elf
2x Explosive Growth
Rooting Kavu
Might Weaver
Thornscape Apprentice
Gerrard’s Command
Squee’s Embrace
2x Yavimaya Barbarian
Goblin Legionnaire
Fleetfoot Panther
Horned Kavu
Order/Chaos
Assault/Battery
Tinder Farm
4x Plains
5x Forest
7x Mountain

Troy:
Halam Djinn
Andradite Leech
Hypnotic Cloud
Phyrexian Rager
2x Soul Burn
Bog Down
Nightscape Apprentice
Phyrexian Slayer
Reckless Spite
Phyrexian Arena
Tidal Visionary
Prohibit
Faerie Squadron
Tower Drake
Exclude
Sky Weaver
Shivan Zombie
Cinder Shade
Lava Zombie
Terminate
Recoil
Cavern Harpy
Crosis’s Catacombs
7x Swamp
6x Island
3x Mountain

With three strong decks in hand, Team Card-Shark was ready for battle. Before I go into the matches, I would just like to mention that I am terrible with names, so if I forgot your name or team name, or I misspelled something, I apologize. On with the matches.

Round 1 vs. John Kenny of Team Egghead Something

For my first game of the tournament, I started out with a very strange hand. I had every color of mana except for green, and non-green spells. There were more forests in my deck than anything, and I would be able to cast the spells in my hand, so I chose not to mulligan. John Kenny’s Red/Black deck came out quickly with Shivan Zombie, Hate Weaver, and Smoldering Tar knocking away at my life total, while I drew green spell after green spell but no forest. I did eventually find a forest, but far too late to save myself in game one.

In game two my deck behaved much better mana-wise. He again started the beatdown early with Shivan Zombie and friends, but I used an early Acolyte from my sideboard (I can’t remember whether it was Obsidian or Crimson) and a tapper to hold off, letting him commit more resources on the board and get a little damage in on me while I held Pernicious Deed in my hand. Once he had enough committed to the board for my satisfaction, I swept the board with the Deed, and followed it up with Coalition Honor Guard, who was soon joined by another Acolyte and Verdeloth, the Ancient. At one point in the game he cast a Reckless Assault, and I considered leaving it on the table as we were at approximately equal life, but I didn’t want him to find a way to put it to use so I destroyed it with Dismantling Blow. The card advantage from the Deed and the Blow were too much for him to recover from.

In game 3 my mana came together quite well again, while John was mana-screwed for this game. By the time he recovered I was already leaning on him pretty hard, and the Emblazoned Golem and an Acolyte did him in.

In this round, Troy lost to Nick Novak, but Travis managed to bring the beatdown to Jason Means, giving Team Card-Shark a 2-1 win for the first round.

Oh, and their team name really was Egghead Something – I didn’t forget their team name, like I did for our next opponent. 

Dave: 1-0
Travis: 1-0
Troy: 0-1
Team: 1-0

Round 2 vs. Scott Herzberg of (Oops, Dave forgot to get the team name)

In round 2 I pitted my 5-color deck versus Scott’s Blue-White with Black deck. Scott’s team had received a card pool with tons of burn and a good load of countermagic to boot. Scott’s deck featured multiple Dromar’s Charm, Confound, and Exclude, which I got to see all of in the first game, which was quite frustrating. However, Scott failed to draw much else this game, so I eventually ran him over with a crew of uninteresting critters.

In game 2 Scott got a better draw, but I skillfully win by using Restock to get Lay of the Land so I could fetch an Island for my Sunscape Battlemage. Yes, I’m sure it was Restocking Lay of the Land that won me the game, and not the fact that the other card I Restocked was the Pernicious Deed that had just swept his side of the table to great advantage. Certainly casting Pernicious Deed twice in a game can’t be that good, can it? 

I suppose it was a good thing that I was having fun with my broken draws, because Travis and Troy were not. Remember that I mentioned Scott’s team had a lot of burn? Travis and Troy each got to feel the burn, with Troy even feeling it twice thanks to his opponent’s Yawgmoth’s Agenda. The good guys went down in flames, 1-2.

Dave: 2-0
Travis: 1-1
Troy: 0-2
Team: 1-1

Round 3 vs. Max McGuffin of Disgustipated

For round 3 I played against Max’s Red-Green beatdown deck. His deck came out at a decent clip with Weavers and a variety of Kavu, but I held them off with a Benalish Trapper, Coalition Honor Guard, and something else. Eventually he committed a good number of critters to the board, and I dropped a Pernicious Deed, although without having enough mana on the table to activate it right away. As I had hoped he would, he decided he might as well send in his creatures, as they would be dead soon anyway. Some careful blocking and sacrificing a few life points whittled down his forces, so that I did not need to actually activate the Deed. Without any way to remove the Deed, his choices were between being whittled away and committing more resources to the board. When the advantage gained was great enough, I swept the board with Deed and followed with a fatty parade, including Emblazoned Golem and Verdeloth.

Game 2 went precisely the way game 1 did, but with a little Acolyte help as well. This whole match went well for the team, with Troy and Travis taking out Nick Dodic and Josh Casper, giving the team a 3-0 sweep this round.

Dave: 3-0
Travis: 2-1
Troy: 1-2
Team: 2-1

Round 4 vs. Lona Smith of The Egghead Mafia

Lona played a Green, White, and Black deck that was pretty strong, and game 1 was a nail-biter until the very end. She whittled away at my life total, I pecked at hers, and both totals were getting down pretty low, but with mine lower because I was holding back due to the Pernicious Deed in my hand. At one point, she had two Swamps in play, and returned one of them to her hand for a dragon lair, and she did not replay that Swamp from her hand for several turns. Eventually, I played and activated the Deed, swept the board, and dropped a well-kicked Emblazoned Golem. Lona, with one card in hand, drew her card, thought, shuffled cards around, thought some more, and played a Thornscape Battlemage with both kickers, taking out my Golem and hitting me for two, putting me down to three life – a very big swing in her favor.

“Nice topdeck,” I said.

“Actually, I had it in my hand,” she replied.

I double-checked the board, and there was still only one Swamp on her side, and one card in her hand.

“Really? What happened to that other Swamp?”

Now, I don’t know what psychological advantage she thought she had to gain by claiming that the Battlemage wasn’t a topdeck, but this really put a sour tone on the match, not to mention that it was poorly executed. If you’re going to use deception to try to gain some sort of psychological advantage over an opponent, at least use one that isn’t so easy to catch, or you’ll be giving the psychological advantage to the wrong person.

So, our game continues on, with me barely squeaking out a win, thanks to having reserve power in my hand to deploy after the Deed. Next to us, Travis took game one from Randy Wright with Yavimaya Barbarian beatdown, which Randy’s mostly blue deck had no answer for. Randy had some comments for Travis at the end of their first game, ridiculing him for playing an additional hasted red creature that was not necessary for lethal damage on the last turn. Of course it was not a bad play – there’s no need to give your opponent an extra turn to live if he might have Repulse or Rushing River, right? He was just trying to rattle Travis, but Big Trav has been playing this game too long, and has seen these tricks before.

Travis had two Barbarians in his deck, and plenty of critter-enhancers – he was bound to draw one at some point in each game. Nevertheless, the fact that a Barbarian pumped up with Squee’s Embrace was beating down in the second game seemed impossible to Lona. “Did you shuffle his deck?” Lona asked Randy.

That’s right, Lona, your team is so amazing, the only way you can be beaten is if your opponents cheat.

Lona and I moved on to game two, and her deck didn’t get as good a draw as the first game. I was leaning on her pretty hard, and it didn’t look like she’d be coming out of it. Travis finished his second win over Randy, meaning that if some bizarre occurrence didn’t change the outcome of this game, that’d be the match for Lona’s team. At one point, I activated my Savage Gorilla’s ability to remove one of her critters, and before that ability resolved, she asked how many cards were in my hand. I spread them out, held them up, and said “three amazing cards,” just as I always do. The Gorilla’s ability resolved, and I picked a card up from the top of my deck, held it face down an inch above my deck, and said, “draw for the gorilla?” I always double-check that my opponent knows what’s going on when I pick up extra cards, as sneaking extra cards is one of the most common ways to cheat, and I want everything to be very clear. This was all during her turn, so I untapped for my turn, drew a card, and targeted her last remaining creature with Plague Spores. “How many cards in your hand?” she asked.

I showed her four. “Four amazing cards.”

“I just asked you at the start of your turn, and you had three. Now you have four, and the Plague Spores?”

“No, you asked me during your turn, when I activated the Gorilla. Then I drew for the Gorilla, and drew for my draw step.”

She turned to her teammate Randy, who was already watching the match for lack of anything better to do. “Watch him.” Yeah, Randy, watch me. Watch my creatures smash her face in. And he did watch, and my creatures did smash face.

During the final turns of our game, Lona enchanted my Coalition Honor Guard with Manacles of Decay, and when she finally drew a fourth black mana, she shrunk it to death, and then finally scooped. “I just had to kill that Honor Guard first, now I can scoop,” she joked. Ah, so finally, with the match over, she was jokes and friendliness and fun. As if I would forget that she had insinuated foul play during our match, or that that insinuation would not offend me. Well, no thanks, I’m not interested in chatting. Just please sign that result slip. Oh, and you put an X in the drop column as well? Oh, well that’s nice. Enjoy your Drop.

Dave: 4-0
Travis: 3-1
Troy: 2-2
Team: 3-1

Round 5 vs. Man Tsoi of Crouching Tiger

In this round I faced the toughest deck I had to face during this tournament. Man’s deck featured an aggressive black and red creature base topping off with a Crypt Angel, backed up with some solid removal, Suffocating Blast, Undermine, and two Recovers. The best deck doesn’t always win however, as Man got hit with mana-screw during game one, and was unable to recover. I wasn’t so lucky during the second game, and his deck did what it should do – it smashed my face in.

Now, before I go any further, I would like to mention one thing. A team event differs from an individual event slightly in that you are responsible for doing what is best for your team, which is not always what you would prefer to do. There are at least two other people who are counting on you to come through for them, and you should feel obligated to do whatever is necessary not to let them down, short of cheating or doing anything dishonest.

Just such a conflict of interest came up in the third game of my match vs. Man. My opponent and I are both very careful players, and while neither of us plays particularly slowly, neither of us rushes into plays we are unsure of, either. Even though I spent the majority of game two behind and my opponent began game one mana-screwed, both had been hard-fought battles, leaving little time for the third game. Both myself and my opponent really wanted that third win, and we were both playing hard to get it – there was no stalling on either side of the table. As time was winding down in the round, our game was very tight. The advantage had been in Man’s favor, but I followed a Deed-sweep with a mid-sized Emblazoned Golem. He recovered quickly from the Deed as well, using Recover and Crypt Angel effectively, and leaving me with a difficult decision during my turn. I can’t remember specifically what was in play, but it was approximately my Emblazoned Golem, Aurora Griffin, and Benalish Trapper versus his Crypt Angel, Shivan Zombie, and I think something else. We were both at approximately seven life. Now, in an individual tournament, I don’t like to play for draws – I want to win, as every competitive person does. I would rather lose the game while attempting to win than play for a draw. Not only is playing for a draw kind of cheesy, but it isn’t the way to win tournaments. However, at this point, Travis had already won his match versus Denver Liston, and Troy was still locked in game three in his match with Beth Liston. If Troy played to a draw and I played to a draw, that would be a 1-0-2 win for our team. If I were going to win game three, I knew I would have to use the Benalish Trapper aggressively and attack with the Golem, even though playing aggressively would more likely get me killed than bring a victory, depending on exactly what he had in his hand. So, in a situation where in an individual tournament I would have sent my Golem into battle, I held back on defense, looking out for the team’s best interest.

Note that I did not stall, or anything of that sort. My pace of play had been faster than my average pace of play during this entire third game due to the time constraints, and I did not change that, even after deciding to play for the draw. I just made a decision to play defense instead of offense – to play for the draw instead of the win.

As it turned out, Man’s hand was full of gas, and even though I did hang back on defense, he very nearly did finish me off. When the last of the five overtime turns was over with, I was left at one life, in an unwinnable position had my opponent had only one more turn. I felt pretty bad about cheesing him like this, particularly since he was so polite and had been such a good sport, even during game one when he had experienced mana-screw. Even at this point, he had no complaints. I’m sure as a competitive player he understood my position, and he seemed not to hold it against me that I was doing my best as a player to support my team – he truly was a classy fellow. As it turned out, Troy played flawlessly in his match versus Beth Liston, and was able to squeak out the win during the five overtime turns, making my match versus Man moot.

Dave: 4-0-1
Travis: 4-1
Troy: 3-2
Team: 4-1

Round 6 vs. Jason Marks of Just Concede

In round six we got paired up against the only undefeated team remaining in the tournament, consisting of John Marks, Jason Marks, and Aaron Brieder. Not only were these guys three solid players, but if Aaron’s bragging throughout the day was to be believed, they had amazing decks as well. I also had nightmare memories of Jason Marks, as in our previous meeting he had taken me out in the finals of an extended PTQ in Detroit 3-1, raping me with four consecutive opening hands containing either Necropotence or Demonic Consultation without ever needing a mulligan -- bad times indeed.

This match, however, was to be different. I got out to an early lead in game one, and while always just on the edge of losing the advantage, I always managed to keep ahead just slightly by playing very carefully, being sure to make no mistakes. Slowly, carefully, I whittled his very defensive Blue-White with Black-splash deck to 0, making sure to get every ounce of mileage out of every card I drew, such as holding my Sunscape Battlemage until I could utilize BOTH kickers instead of just the card-drawing kicker.

By the time my first game ended, Travis had already been defeated by Aaron, which I guess is what happens when your opponent casts Allied Strategies on you for five cards twice during each game. Troy was also well on his way to defeating John Marks, meaning my match versus Jason would decide which team got the win. Actually, Just Concede needed only a draw at this point, where we felt we needed that win to stay in the running.

Game two was hard fought. He looked to be in a good position early, as he enchanted a Razorfoot Griffin with Sleeper’s Robe to begin acquiring card advantage. I could sense the aggravation in the small crowd that was starting to gather around our match (including my teammates), as I held Shackles in my hand but did not cast it on his Griffin after it first attacked me with the Robe on it. However, I knew for certain that he had Confound in hand, based on the manner in which he was playing and when he chose to cast his troops, so I held the Shackles, playing around the Confound and waiting for my opportunity. It came shortly, as he seemed to assume the fact that I didn’t cast anything to stop his Griffin meant I didn’t have anything to stop it, so he tapped all but one mana during his turn to cast an Urborg Emissary. Shortly after that, his Emissary was dead thanks to my Samite Archer, and the Griffin was Shackled after allowing him to only draw a few extra cards (two or three). At this point, the board position was slightly in my favor, and I held tightly on to that edge, being very careful not to let it go.

I sensed disapproval from the crowd of onlookers once again at my choice of piles for John’s Fact or Fiction, as I gave him three “business” cards in one pile as opposed to one in the other when I put Coalition Honor Guard, Wash Out, and Pollen Remedy in one pile and an Island and a Silver Drake in the other, but I made that play because Wash Out and Pollen Remedy could only delay the current action, and the Honor Guard was unimportant to the air battle, which was where I was able to slide in a few points here and there in addition to the continual pecking from my Samite Archer. The Silver Drake would have been a much bigger detriment to my current position. Besides, the only color reasonable to choose for Wash Out at that point was white, and I would have been more than happy to kick up my Sunscape Battlemage a second time for this match.

As his life total dwindled lower, I continued to lay pressure. Then, with about three minutes left, there was some controversy. I announced, “I’d like to have an attack phase.” He responded by tapping a flying critter of mine, backing me up to my main phase. Even though I figured he probably had a counter, it was time to put pressure on, so I replayed my Sunscape Battlemage that had been Washed Out to take out one of his pair of 2/2 flyers. First he announced Confound, and was pretty ticked when I explained that Confound wouldn’t work for that, but he just tapped two more lands and played Prohibit instead. Then I tapped one of his two flyers, and attempted to enter my attack phase again, to bring my Savage Gorilla to battle. Jason and his teammate Aaron immediately argued, saying I had already had my attack phase and cast my Sunscape Battlemage during my second main phase. A judge was called, and we explained what had happened, and that Jason had responded to me attempting to enter my attack phase, and hadn’t specified that he wanted to tap my creature during my attack phase before attackers were declared, thus never allowing my to exit my first main phase. Jason is an experienced player, and I think he did know that he had made a mistake and actually kept me in my first main phase, but was putting the judges to the test, as this would mean either losing a creature chump-blocking, or taking three damage, bringing him down to three. When the judges backed away from the table to confer, I must admit I was a little worried. Judges are human, and often are biased, usually in favor of the players that are better known locally, and I knew that if there were any bias in this situation, it would be for the Pro Tour-experienced Jason Marks. I shouldn’t have been worried, however. The P in P.E.S. really does stand for professional. The judges made the correct call, and I was able to attack with my Savage Gorilla, bringing him to three life.

Truthfully, it didn’t matter whether I attacked that turn or not. Time was running down, and there was no way with the current board position for Jason to beat me down from the fourteen life I was at. After winning the first game, a draw in the second would mean a 1-0-1 victory for me, and a 2-1 victory for Team Card-Shark. However, as a competitive player, I wanted to win. It was very important to me not only to win that match, but also to reduce my opponent’s life total to zero. That is what I did, using my Samite Archer to reduce Jason to zero on the fourth of the five overtime turns, securing the 2-1 victory for my team.

Dave: 5-0-1
Travis: 4-2
Troy: 4-2
Team: 5-1

Round 7 vs. Alex Borteh of Team Egghead

This was a very important round, as no team was left undefeated, and most of the top teams had already played each other. The winner would likely be paired down in the final round versus a team with two losses, which they would then have to defeat in order to make the top two. The loser of this match would be out of the running for the top two. Team Card-Shark sat down to play hard-fought games of Magic versus Team Egghead, but what we really played was “Who Can Get His Ass Kicked the Fastest” among ourselves. I played against Alex Borteh’s beating of a deck, while Travis played against Scott McMullen’s strong defensive deck. Had the matchups been switched, I think my deck would have performed much better against McMullen’s defensive deck, although while Travis’s deck may have stood up against Borteh’s deck a little better than mine did, he still would have been facing a tough match, as Borteh’s creatures were real beasts, such as Ebony Treefolk.

To compound the bad matchup I was in, my deck drew really coldly this match. It wasn’t a total mana-screw or anything, but it wasn’t running smoothly either, as little things happened like getting stuck at two mana for a turn, and having to wait a few turns too many to draw the correct color of mana for some of the spells in my hand. It was at this point in the tournament that I wished I had been playing with sleeves, as by this time my cards had been slid around on the tables quite a bit, and were starting to get a little dirty and began sticking together in clumps. One thing I like about limited is that I am not playing with cards from my collection, so I get to shuffle naked cards again, but from now on I’m sleeving for any tournament longer than four rounds.

Anyways, bad draws weren’t why we lost this round – both Travis and I were stuck in horrible matchups, and Troy lost this round to Kenny Hsiung, too, just to pour a little salt in the wound. Disappointing as it was, that’s just the way it is sometimes.

Dave: 5-1-1
Travis: 4-3
Troy: 4-3
Team: 5-2

Round 8 vs. John Hula of Shaolin Sword

We tried to get ourselves psyched up for this round, as 6-2 sounds so much better than 5-3, and we were still in competition for bringing home prizes, but after being knocked out of contention for the top 2 and playing a long day of Magic, we just couldn’t get psyched up. I sat down against John Hula’s flying army, which featured some sub-optimal cards such as Heroic Defiance, but which he managed to put to good use. Despite still getting cold draws from my deck, I managed to win game one, although I truthfully don’t remember many details, and I didn’t take good notes in my disappointed state. In game two, my deck still wasn’t producing, and I got beat up by a Heroically Defiant Dream Thrush. Halfway through the second game, Travis and Troy had already lost to Jason Kiernan and his teammate Wade, respectively, so our match no longer mattered. I was ready just to pick up and go home, but at about that time, John said “I’ll call a judge to monitor for slow play if I have to.” There’s nothing like pushing buttons on an already unhappy fellow, and I thought to myself “I’m gonna whip this guy’s ass next game!” That lasted for all of about three seconds, when I thought more along the lines of “Man, I’m tired.” Besides, I understood his need to be competitive – I had been determined to win that last game versus Jason Marks despite the fact that a draw would have been sufficient. So, I hung in there, putting cards on the table and letting that Dream Thrush whack at me. John beat me in game three as well. I played very poorly and paid little attention in my tired state of mind, making mistakes like trying to cast Plague Spores on his critter when he had an active Tidal Visionary on the table. I don’t know if I could have won this game if I had been playing full power, as my amazing deck was still drawing in a very unamazing fashion (where the heck did that Pernicious Deed go for the last *seven* games of the tournament, anyway?), but I’m sure John was happy to come away with the full win, and his team was happy with the sweep as well.

Dave: 5-2-1
Travis: 4-4
Troy: 4-4
Team: 5-3

A final record of 5-3 was good enough for ninth place out of the forty-one teams present at the tournament. That’s respectable, but not quite the result we were hoping for. I do feel that we built our decks correctly, and that we played well – taking on most of the better teams in the tournament and doing well against them. My confidence is high after our performance in this tournament, and I feel that we are as capable as any team of earning an invitation to PT: New York with just a few more breaks going our way in any upcoming PTQ. Keep your eyes on us – Team Card-Shark is eager to get that invite!

Before I end this report, I would like to make one final observation. I’m going to pretend that some important official over at the DCI reads every article I post religiously, and whenever confronted with a difficult decision, asks himself, “What would Dave Andrews do?”

Casey McCarrel definitely cast a shadow over this team sealed event. Rumors and suspicions of cheating in Magic tournaments are always floating around in varying degrees, but cheating certainly seemed high on everyone’s list of concerns at this PTQ, more so than at any PTQ I’ve been at for quite some time. I’m not just talking about the various discussions going on around the room regarding how many of Magic’s top players cheat or what should happen to Casey McCarrel, which naturally will follow such an event, but there was a thicker than usual air of suspicion surrounding this entire tournament. Not only did our fourth round opponent insinuate that our team may be cheating (the first time that has ever happened to any of us), but many comments were overheard during the tournament, like “Check with [Team X]’s previous opponent to make sure they don’t switch their decks around on us for better matchups,” and, “Yeah, they got really good decks, assuming those were the decks they really got!” If the DCI thinks that a high-profile player cheating at high-profile events only has an effect on the other players within that event, they are far from correct. Every time a high-profile player is caught cheating it deals a blow to the confidence of every tournament Magic player in every event there is to be played. It reinforces the idea that the most consistent players are most likely cheaters, and destroys the legitimacy of Magic as a mental sport. Cheating at professional events MUST be eliminated, and the only way to eliminate cheating is to enforce punishments that guarantee that cheating will not be worth it.

Consider this: many Magic players believe that luck is as important or even more important than skill in top-level events. Imagine that Pro-Player Billybob feels that at any given professional event, there are about one hundred players who have the skill level required to make the top eight, including himself, and that luck will decide which of those eight players make the cut. That gives Billybob a 8/100 chance of making the top eight at any given Pro-Tour. If there are five Pro-Tour events per year, that means that statistically, Billybob should make top eight once every 2 ½ years. If the punishment for cheating is a suspension for, say, two years, then it becomes worth the risk for Billybob to cheat, as the potential time lost if caught is less than the potential time gained if his cheating method is good enough to earn him a top eight slot!

Casey McCarrel has been suspended for cheating before, and has come back, cheating again. This time around, it wasn’t incorrectly filling out a match slip, which I suppose you could argue was a bad judgment call made during an emotionally charged moment in a high-pressure event. This time it was deck manipulation, which requires hours upon hours of practice with a specific intent to cheat. If the DCI wishes to legitimize Magic as a mental sport, if they want to end the perception that high-profile players are immune to serious levels of punishment that non-name players are potentially subjected to, if they want to make the Pro-Tour a true shining example of the highest level of Magic competition rather than an easy target for quick-handed thieves, there is only one choice that can be made: Casey McCarrel must receive a lifetime ban.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

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