12.31.01  I'm in Missouri at my girlfriend's parents house. Its my birthday, I'm cold, and wishing that they would turn up the heat here. We had Christmas last night (second time around) because they had held up all of my girl's presents. She got a ton of stuff, and I got a new DVD player. Right now breakfast is cooking and I'm getting hungry.

When I wrote my last column, I thought there were not anymore PTQ's to be played in before this upcoming GP Houston. I was wrong, and there was one locally, only a 15 minute drive from my apartment. As I did not have the Sligh deck I intended on playing, I took Donate with me again. And went 2-2. I was fairly annoyed in that the two losses were both due to mana-screw. But that happens and the annoyance passed. I brought with me 10 packs to draft with so I was planning on doing that.

But.... there is a Grand Prix Houston trial going on. And a friend who played Mon's goblin deck had dropped out of the main tournament, and said I could borrow some cards (Rob Lawing's a good man, no matter what I say about him). Tim Weissman also loaned me a few cards, and so did Jonathan Job. I still could not come up with what I had planned on playing next weekend, but 
here's what I did play:

4 Goblin Lackey
4 Mogg Flunkies
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Jackal Pup
4 Goblin Patrol
4 Ball Lightning
4 Incinerate
4 Fireblast
4 Reckless Charge
2 Price of Progress
4 Wasteland
3 Barbarian Ring
1 Keldon Necropolis
14 Mountain

Sideboard
3 Anarchy
4 Pyroblast
4 Winter Orb
1 Burn Out
1 Obliterate
2 Phyrexian Furnace

The Keldon Necropolis should have been a Ring but no one had any. The tournament was single elimination, with 14 people. I was one of the unlucky ones to not get a first round bye. Btw, don't use this decklist as you'll most likely get your face smashed by Elephants.

Round 1 - Guy with Aluren deck (Soul Warden, Gating creature, infinite life) Game 1 he played turn 1 Soul Warden. I played Mogg fanatic and killed it. Turn 2 he did nothing, I played Goblin Lackey. Turn 3 he did nothing, I played Jackal Pup, Reckless Charged it, and attacked for 7. Turn 4 he 
played Aluren and said go. I untapped, drew, played Ball Lightning, Ball Lightning, Reckless Charged one, and he had nothing. Apparently if he had untapped he would have been able to Eldamri's Call for the creature he needed to win. Second game he was mana-screwed by Gemstone Mine problems. If you stumble against Sligh, you lose.

Round 2- Austin regular with WW
Game 1 he kept a 1 land hand. Second land he drew was an Outpost. As I said, you stumble against Sligh, you lose. Did I mention I already had a Wasteland on the table? Game 2, Anarchy is really unfair.

Round 3- Quillian w/UW aggro control
Quillian is a friend of mine from Austin that does NOT get out to Magic tournaments very much. He doesn't know his deck very well and I beat him up the first game because of it. The second game though he has C:OP Red on the board, along with 2x Serrated Arrows. Game 3 goes better as he stumbles on mana.

Round 4- Jonathan Job w/Donate Finals
We are each guaranteed a box of product, but as we both know we're playing for the byes, we split it so that its Byes + 9 packs and the rest to the loser. Game one he combos me at 7 life. Game two and three I draw mucho sideboard cards and he doesn't. It was still very close. Game 3 I drew 4 Pyros. This would be good most circumstances, but I had no creatures attacking. So I was playing Red Draw-go for a while.

So, I get 3 byes in Houston. This makes me very happy.

I won a tournament, and its been a long time since I've done that. This also makes me very happy.

I'm 28 years old today. This does not make me happy.

Happy New Year everyone.

The Biggest Ass in... Missouri?
Fletcher Peatross
Pojo Magic Editor