2001)

Title: Great Expectations, or how I Went 3-4 and Had a Great Time
By: the Wookie

It's me, it's me, the wookie, and its time once again for everybody to come
with me on a little trip through the twisted halls and back alleys of my
mind. This time around, I offer up some insights on IBC, how not to
register your deck, how to win without a sideboard in a PTQ, and how I beat
up Santa Claus.

To start, I will give some info that leads up to the qualifier in question.
Friday I am sitting in my dorm room waiting on my buddy (who from henceforth
shall be known as Howland) to come and pick me up. First off, Howland is
late leaving Birmingham, so he arrives here in Troy a little later than
expected, no worries, all is well. After about a hour and forty-five
minutes of speeding, we find ourselves back in Birmingham and at the
apartment of Howland and his lovely wife.

WARNING: RANT COMMENCING

Allow me to be the first to warn everyone out there about the evil cesspool
that is Troy, Alabama. After spending a little over a week here I can
safely say that this is the worst place in the world, well, maybe second to
France (just a joke). There is absolutely nothing to do here, and forget
about finding someone to playtest with, that is just wishful thinking.
Furthermore, smoking a cigarette is damn near impossible with all of the
bugs around here. Standing outside for more that 30 seconds is something
like inviting the bugs to congregate around your immediate person. Finally,
I would like to say here and now, that the dining hall on campus here is by
far and away the nastiest, greasiest, and overall least healthy food on the
planet. So, I guess what I am trying to say in a roundabout way is, I HATE
MANASCREW.

END RANT

Ahh, thats better. Now, on to the festivities.

The Scene: New Orleans PTQ in Atlanta
The Heroes: Yours Truly and Howland the Conqueror
The Villains: the 178 other people in attendance
The Skinny: 180 people, 8 rounds of swiss, and top 8 drama

Now, usually this is where the tournament report would begin, however, my
farce of a day doesn't warrant a report, however, I did stumble upon several
insights about IBC that I shall now enlighten you with.

First of all, IBC is not a format that is dominated by one deck, or even a
combination of decks. One of the largest factors in this format is
consistent mana. The person who can maintain a consistent mana base over
the course of 8 rounds will ultimately end up the victor, while a weaker
mana base will leave one vanquished.

Contrary to popular belief, this format is not all about playing a turn 2
bear and protecting it while it goes the distance. Granted, there is a fair
share of decks that aim to do just that, it is far from the only viable
option. Almost any deck can be brought to the table and have a shot a
winning the whole thing. Case in point, my traveling companion, and ride
for the weekend, Howland, went 6-2 with the oft maligned Apocalypse rare deck (Spiritmonger, Pernicious Deed, Spectral Lynx). This deck had been getting the shaft from many a player, however, Howland did not care. He felt comfortable with the deck, knew exactly how to play it, and did very well with it. Not to mention the fact that the last 2 rounds that he won he did so without the use of a sideboard.

BEGIN RANT

Here is a little piece of advice to anyone who thinks that lying, cheating,
and being a shady character will gain you an advantage. Howland had played
about 5 out of the 8 rounds when it occurred to him that he may not have
registered his sideboard properly. Rather than do what I would consider to
be the normal course of action and forget about it, he went to the judges,
told them about the problem, and sure enough, he had only registered 13
cards. Now, in my opinion, a normal player would have just blown their
concern off and played the last few rounds hoping not to be deck checked.
However, what happens if said shady character makes top 8 and gets deck
checked, MATCH LOSS. This is where Howland benefitted from doing the right
thing. Instead of the usual match loss penalty, he was only awarded a game
loss. When I asked him what the judge said to him he said ´´thank you for
being honest.´´ Now, this statement could be taken one of two ways, it could
be a judge just thanking a player for doing the right thing, or it could be
the result of a judge who is tired of dealing with cheaters, rules lawyers,
and just plain bad people. All that aside, Howland did the right thing, and
I am proud to be his friend and to have him in my game.

END RANT

Well, now where does that leave us, oh yeah, how I beat up Santa Claus.
After I dropped from the tournament I decided that a little drafting would
be fun, so I signed up, payed my 12 bucks, and sat down. Just after we had
opened the Invasion pack, I noticed that the man to my left looked awfully
familiar. After pondering this between picking such goodies as Repulse,
Exclude, and Stalking Assassin, I realized that the man directly to my left
looked exactly like Santa Claus.

Now you ask yourself, ´´how did the wookie beat up Santa Claus?´´ Well, I
will tell you, in my report about my side event drafting, how's that for
drama.

Ahh, the draft tables, here we gooooooooo.

Since I already gave the location, scene, and hero, I will skip right to the
villain.

The Villain: Santa Claus

The Deck:
2:Terminate
1:Razorfin Hunter
1:Bloodfire Dwarf
1:Tribal Flames
1:Strafe
1:Magma Burst
1:Mire Kavu
1:Pouncing Kavu
2:Jilt
1:Vodalian Serpent
1:Rainbow Crow
1:Repulse
1:Exclude
1:Nightscape Familiar
1:Duskwalker
1:Phyrexian Gargantua
1:Morgue Toad
1:Volcano Imp
1:Exotic Curse
1:Uborg Uprising (silly card advantage0
1:Stalking Assassin
5:Mountain
5:Island
8:Swamp

Round 1
Random Guy (I was tired of taking names at this point): Playing G/R beats

Game 1: He comes out fast and furious as I expected, however, I soon
stabilize behind a Vodalian Serpent, Jilt, and a pair of Terminates.

Game 2: He has mana problems which are not helped by me pointing Terminate
at his first 2 creatures and Strafing another. Vodalian Serpent showed up
as a 6/6 again, and this time on turn 6. As soon as I played a sided in
Dream Thrush to allow the Wall of Fish to attack, my opponent scooped.

Round 2
Random Guy: Playing 5cG complete with Cromat

Game 1: He gets a good start to my mana heavy draw and things are looking
bad for our hero when Fleetfoot Panther and Steel Leaf Paladin are coming my
way, but thanks to a timely Exotic Curse and Terminate backed by a Wall of
Fish (kicked Vodalian Serpent) I was able to stabilize and pull it out with
a Rainbow Crow and a Razorfin Hunter.

Game 2: My opponent gets a horrid draw, all gating creatures and nothing to
gate. I play my sided in Planeswalker's Fury, hit him with his own Cromat a
few times, and win.

Finals
Santa Claus: playing with like 9 acolytes and other protection creatures
(bad times for wookie).

By this time it was fairly late so Santa and I agree to a split with him
getting the points. He asks if we could play one for bragging rights, so I
agreed, and then proceeded to smash him in about 7 turns. Damn you fate, I
knew I should have played with Santa :)~

Well, that is the story of how I went 3-4 and loved every moment of it. Any
comments are welcome, and If you are interested in the deck list for the
deck I played in the Qualifier just e-mail me at bigwukmike@hotmail.com

Till next time

Peace,
wookie

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