Written by Volrath89 on February 26, 2007
A Desired Victory: A PTQ Report
by Volrath89Introduction
Hello! I’m Felipe Suarez (known here as Volrath89), and for a long time I wanted to write an article for magic-league. I must admit m-l gave me the preparation I needed for Worlds 2006. I played like two weeks (Standard, Extended and Draft), 8 hours per day on ml training for Worlds and I won 1500 dollars on Paris.
So, after Worlds (and vacations), I played many extended tourneys here, and that taught me how to play against almost every deck in the format. After a deep analysis of the local metagame I thought the best deck to play was TEPS, and I played it.
I have a local testing group of six people (one of them is Felipe Trujillo known here as shadowknight) and we played the following Decks:
1 Gifts Rock
1 Aggro Flow Rock
1 BW Control
1 Tenacious Tron (shadowknight)
2 Teps
Deck and Card Choices:
| TEPS | ||
|---|---|---|
| Main Deck | Sideboard | |
|
4 Sulfur Vent 3 Geothermal Crevice 3 Ancient Spring 2 Tinder Farm 3 Gemstone Mine 4 Burning Wish 4 Chrome Mox 4 Lotus Bloom 4 Chromatic Star 4 Chromatic Sphere |
4 Rite of Flame 4 Seething Song 4 Cabal Ritual 3 Sensei’s Divining Top 3 Sins of the Past 3 Mind’s Desire 2 infernal Tutor 1 Tendrils of Agony 1 Empty the Warrens |
3 Duress 3 Chain of Vapor 2 Orim’s Chant 1 Defense Grid 1 Hull Breach 1 Channel the Suns 1 Empty the Warrens 1 Tendrils of Agony 1 Mind’s Desire 1 Sins of the Past |
As I said above I chose TEPS, because I didn’t expect to face against decks like Tog, Tenacious Tron, Solution, NoStick or something that has a good match against me, and I must say it was a very good choice.
Main Deck: I chose to play Sensei's Divining Top because I expected many decks with discard and because two Tops in a game = higher storm. I did a change in the main deck, adding an Empty the Warrens so I could win 1st game even against two meddling mages naming wish and tendrils and because it gave me an extra slot in the sideboard. The rest of the deck is what every TEPS must play.
Sideboard: Also a very common sideboard with Chain of Vapor against Pyrostatic Pillar, Meddling Mage, Destructive Flow and Scepters. Although I played two Orim’s Chant and one Defense Grid, I knew a Tog or a Tenacious Tron would be a loss for me.
My friend from the group played the same list I played. I taught him how to play TEPS around three weeks ago, and we practiced a lot.
The Tournament
Round 1
Opponent: Julian Bueno / Aggro Flow
This match is not easy for TEPS, but with top in the deck the chance of winning increases. I won the die roll, choose to play and my opening hand is: Lotus, Star, Star, Sphere, Wish, Desire, Seething Song. I knew he was playing Aggro Flow (because he is from the test group) and knew even if I keep I wouldn’t win in four turn for sure. So I mulligan, and my six cards are: Lotus, Mox, Star, Sphere, Rite of Flame, Top. I couldn't do mull for five while playing first against a deck with discard, so I keep. I didn’t find any land in the rest of the game, and he putrefied my lotus.
For game two I kept with Lotus, two saclands, Rite of Flame, Seething Song, Wish and Cabal Ritual. I played land lotus. His first turn was fetchland for mountain. I drew another Rite of Flame and played land. His second turn was forest, mox (imprinting confidant) and destructive flow. This time he had krosan grip for my lotus… and I didn't draw gemstone mines or moxes so he won.
Matches 0-1 (Games 0-2)
Round 2
Opponent: Leonardo Ramirez / RG Ponza
This was the easiest match of the day. My opponent couldn’t do nothing but watch me beat him both games in turn four.
Matches 1-1 (Games 2-2)
Round 3
Opponent: ??? / Mono Red Burn
I saw this deck on m-l, and I knew it wasn’t as fast as TEPS, and he didn’t draw any Pyrostatic Pillars during game two, so I won with no problem in either game.
Matches 2-1 (Games 4-2)
Round 4
Opponent: Diego Cruz / Goblins Fecundity (with black!)
I won the first game with a Tendrils storm eight with him at fifteen life because of a fetchland and two duals. I didn't expect a Goblin-Fecundity with Cabal Therapy AND extirpates in the sideboard, so I sideboarded +3 Chain of Vapor, - 3 Sensei’s Divining Top. Second game he played cabal therapy naming Burning Wish, and I had two in my hand. He then flasbacked it by sacrificing a 1/1 goblin token and named Infernal Tutor, leaving me only with rituals on hand. Next turn I drew a land, and he beat me with his goblins.
For the third game I sideboarded +3 Tops, -1 Sins of the Past, -1 Chain of Vapor, -1 Chromatic Sphere. This game took some time because he didn’t start too quickly and played a cabal therapy with flashback in turn three. I started with no lotus bloom, and after he therapied me I drew one and suspended it. Then he played Empty the Warrens for six Goblins, which would kill me in three turns (if he didn't play more goblins…). When my lotus had 1 counter and next turn would give the U mana for my topdecked Desire, my opponent topdecked another Therapy, naming first Wish, and then flasbacking for Desire. I didn’t draw Wish, Desire, Sins or Tutor, so I lost next turn.
At this point I thought I couldn’t make top 8, but then looked at the standings and realized that many people had drawn and that maybe with a 4-2 I could do it.
Matches 2-2 (Games 5-4)
Round 5
Opponent: ?? / Mono Red Burn!
Now I knew what deck has beat all of the controls decks. Although my opponent started land, mox, slith, second turn land zo-zu, I won before him. Mono Red usually wins on turn five or later, so I am faster and I won this match with no problems.
Matches 3-2 (Games 7-4)
Round 6
Opponent: Julian Gomez / BW Aggro
I’ve always though that in a six-round tournament you couldn't top8 with twelve points, but this one was different because the top tables didn't intentionally draw, and many people had drawn all the day, so I was in table four for this match.
Game 1:
He wins the die roll, plays land (dual) and Savannah Lions. I didn’t have Lotus, so I played a sacland. Second turn he plays land (plains) and silver knight. I play another sacland and a sensei’s Divining Top on my turn two. Third turn he plays Gerrard’s Verdict and no more. He didn’t have more lands!, that was good for me. My hand really sucked, but with the top in play I still had chance of winning that game. In my turn three upkeep I look the top three with my top and they were: land, rite of flame, empty the warrens. I took the land, play it and pass. He didn’t draw land attacked and played duress. I have one storm fewer than needed but enough mana and with the board as it was I though some goblins could finish the work. That turn I played empty the warrens for 14 goblins and pass. He drew the land, and played a descendant of kiyomaro, I obviously didn’t have any cards in hand, so that was really bad for me. I attacked with all goblins and he blocked with the knight and with his descendant, my attack was for nine damage (after his three life-gain from kiyomaro). I still though I was winning that game, but he drew the fourth land and played and equipped umezawa’s jitte on his lion. That was game for me because he killed my goblins and killed me later.
Game 2:
My opening hand was one sacland, two loti, a top, a cabal ritual, sins of the past, and a wish. I kept. I played both lotuses suspended land and pass. He kept and played dual and isamaru. I drew another land, and played land top (loti: two counters). Then he attacked and played land, duress for the wish and a lion. In my upk I looked at the top three finding mind’s desire, rite of flam
e, and mox. I took the mox and pass (lotuses: 1 counter). He played land and gerrard’s verdict leaving me with no hand. I looked at the end of his turn with the top finding desire, rite, and sins. I could only draw two of these cards, so I had to choose either a desire x4 leaving me with no hand or a desire x3 leaving me with a sins in my hand and four mana in pool. I chose desire x3, so lotuses came into play (storm two) I drew my card of turn, I sac everything making ten mana, with one I looked again at the top three (sins, rite and land). I drew sins with the top and played a desire x3 spending all but three black mana. Everybody who was near went to my table to see who would win this game (and because we were playing for top 8), and nobody though I could win with a desire x3… so I shuffled my deck, and revealed: first card chromatic sphere, second card gemstone mine, and the last card: sins of the past! Nobody could believe it. I played sphere, drew a land and played the revealed sins for desire. That would be second desire with storm of six. This time I reveal cabal ritual, lotus bloom, seething song, mox, and two lands. The public though I was lost, but do you remember the wish he made me discard with duress? I played the sins on my hand for it, finding tendrils of agony for the win.
Game 3:
This time he kept with no discard at all, and I started with lotus. When the lotus was coming into play he played disenchant on it, and that only gave me more storm. I played many rituals, and a wish for tendrils winning this match and making top 8!
Matches 4-2 (Games 9-5)
TOP EIGHT:
The top eight decks are as follows:
1. 15 pts. Gifts Rock
2. 15 pts. TEPS (the guy from my testing group)
3. 13 pts. Gruul (a guy who traveled from Ecuador)
4. 13 pts. Aggro Flow (from my group, and my round 1 opponent)
5. 13 pts BW Control (from my group)
6. 12 pts. GB Rock
7. 12 pts. TEPS (me)
8. 12 pts. Tenacious Tron (shadowknight, from my testing group)
Five out of six people from my testing group made top eight! That was really good, and we knew we had done a great job for this tournament.
Top 8:
Gifts Rock vs. Tenacious Tron. Tron won 2-1
TEPS vs.TEPS
This is the same as throwing a coin to choose who wins: it's all about luck. I had the bad luck, so I lost, but my friend (and my decklist) passed to top 4. I lost 0-2
Gruul vs GB Rock. Rock won 2-1
Aggro Flow vs. WB Control. Flow won 2-0
Top 4:
Tenacious Tron (shadowknight) vs. Aggro Flow (Julian Bueno). Flow won 2-1
TEPS (Daniel Moreno) vs. GB Rock
I am friend of the judges, so I was the only person allowed to see at the matches. This match was 1-1, and in the third game the Rock player had a confidant, and had revealed five lands with it, but he had taken six damage from duals. The TEPS had been heavily discarded (it had no hand) but had a top on play. When a lotus bloom came into play, it was putrefied, but again, it only increased the storm count, and my friend playing TEPS could make tendrils with a storm of six. That left the Rock player with two life and with a confidant in play, so he untapped and revealed: eternal witness! That was the first time that confidant had hurt him in the game, and it was also the last time because he lost the match.
Finals:
TEPS (Daniel Moreno) vs Aggro Flow (Julian Bueno)
Games 1 and 2:
We are looking again at my first round match (same decklists). First and second games Aggro Flow started with second turn destructive flow. In both games TEPS started with Lotus Bloom. In one TEPS could win but in the other one it lost.
Game 3:
This was the final game of the day. Daniel kept his hand with two loti, lands, top and cards that would be discarded later. Julian didn’t play Flow on the second turn this time. TEPS was again discarded but it managed to produce 18 goblin tokens when the loti came into play. The TEPS player said to Flow player: “Show me your pernicious deed and I concede”. Then the flow player showed his sideboard and said: “… I concede. You win. I have no way of winning this game against 18 goblin tokens, because I have the deeds on sideboard."
Conclusion
First, congratulations to Daniel for winning this PTQ, and for sure he’ll be playing block constructed on m-l to practice for PT Yokohama. His decklist was the same as the one I played and posted here, so this article has a PTQ winner decklist with a record of 8-1.
The main conclusion I'd take from this tourney is that you have to think a lot about your local metagame. Obviously you won’t be 100% sure of it, but you have to expect something and with that in mind choose your deck for a PTQ. I’m sure TEPS would not be so good in other places where its bad matchups are played by many people.
See you, and hope you enjoyed reading.
-Volrath89
ShiK_ri on 2007-02-26 16:42 MST 1st!
by
jheezy on 2007-02-26 16:48 MST good report and congratz on the top 8
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C-Board on 2007-02-26 17:24 MST lol @ 3 4-2's in the t8
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sandoiche on 2007-02-26 17:31 MST by C-Board on 2007-02-26 19:24 EST
lol @ 3 4-2's in the t8
----------------------------
yeah
here we had a 6-0-2 out on ptq geneva -.-"
by
SkaTista on 2007-02-26 17:33 MST astekas >>> all.
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Eldariel on 2007-02-26 18:05 MST Round 6=lesson why you should play BW Smallpox, not BW Crapgo.
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fuertecito on 2007-02-26 18:47 MST congrats to all of you guys
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tato- on 2007-02-26 19:09 MST gratz for t8 felipe..I wanted to go but I didnt have time to test the decks..:/
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IanRobbins on 2007-02-26 19:41 MST Man, how did you get in 7th place with a 4-2 record? Where i go almost everytime a 6-1-1 dosnt make it into top8.
by
nasa on 2007-02-26 20:39 MST how many people were there?
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sandoiche on 2007-02-26 20:50 MST OMG, 4-2 top 8? I made 7-2 in ptq yokohama and i got 11th place.
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SOAD on 2007-02-26 22:48 MST Even here in Mexico to T8 4-2 its impossible!!!!!
at least you must have luck to get (number of rounds-2)-1-1 to be at top 9, I say by experience so many top 9 cant be wrong XD.
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Ironicus on 2007-02-27 00:41 MST The fact is, it loose vs flow. So not that good in magic-league
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RuSheR on 2007-02-27 02:37 MST the fact is, it looses to every deck that has therapy/duress main deck .
oh and ofc tron/psychatog beats it -,-
teps > aggro decks without black
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Shagrath on 2007-02-27 03:08 MST roflol 4-2 top 8 . I needed 6-1 to reach top8 in a 126 ppl ptq here in Portugal.
That really sucks man.
And btw.... u played against 2 monored burn roflol.
One more thing, atm TEPS is crap! Even boros run orims chant... and teps is a walk in the park for any deck that runs counterbalance..
But congrats for top8 anyway
by
Ro on 2007-02-27 03:42 MST You shouldn't be that surprised to see Dirty kitty splashing black. Because,.. wel in fact.. everyone does it.
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Vlada on 2007-02-27 06:09 MST LOLOL i thougt that only in my retarded place, you can top8 with 4-2 score lolol, glad to see there is some1 else who sucks XD
In normal PTQ you shoud top8 with score X-1-1
And sandoiche, if by this(6-0-2) you mean on 6 wins and two draws, then you didn't played good number of rounds...
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RuSheR on 2007-02-27 07:09 MST sorry to disapoint you Mr.Vladimir ;> but here in portugal in PTQ 8th had 17 points.
ps : 7 rounds
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ringman on 2007-02-27 08:04 MST lol how can a 4-2 make it?at the ext ptq here in pt i got 9th by doing 6-1-1 and u w/ 4-2 pass ridiculous.btw wtf of environment is that?Playing against monored all the time rofl that way its easy
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Volrath89 on 2007-02-27 09:01 MST by Ironicus on 2007-02-27 02:41 EST
The fact is, it loose vs flow. So not that good in magic-league
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Actually, the match against flow is like 50/50… if you see the final match, it was TEPS vs Aggro Flow, and TEPS was the winner.
by RuSheR on 2007-02-27 04:37 EST
the fact is, it looses to every deck that has therapy/duress main deck .
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Not true. If you ever have played with or against the deck, you should know it can play desirex3 or more, even with no cards in hand. And tops are there, so it’s not as difficult as it sounds.
by Korbac on 2007-02-27 05:08 EST
One more thing, atm TEPS is crap! Even boros run orims chant... and teps is a walk in the park for any deck that runs counterbalance..
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As I said in the conclusion of the article… it depends on the metagame. Maybe TEPS is crap on Portugal, but here where many people play aggro (like affinity, goblins, gruul, monored, etc) is a very good choice, and it won the PTQ :)
by
Volrath89 on 2007-02-27 09:19 MST
To everyone who is surprised a 4-2 could make top8:
I was also surprised. But now you know it can happen, maybe never in your country, but in my country it can and this time just happened… I just wanted to show with the article a DECK, that won and made 8-1 (don’t tell me 8-1 is not a nice record) not a person who made top8 with a 4-2 record… (that really sucks, actually I’ll lose many points from my constructed rating :( )
Also this has been the PTQ in my country with the lowest number of players I remember (40)… normally (as in PTQ Geneva) you are 9th with a 4-1-1…
And if you think winning a PTQ in your country is too hard, then come here and try to win (as the guy from Ecuador did) :)
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Vlada on 2007-02-27 09:38 MST Quit mtg, go sell drugs
obvobvobvobvobvobv
by RuSheR on 2007-02-27 15:09 CET
sorry to disapoint you Mr.Vladimir ;> but here in portugal in PTQ 8th had 17 points.
ps : 7 rounds
Well, there in Portugal even noobs as you are can win PTQ :)))) jk <3333
by
sandoiche on 2007-02-27 09:40 MST And sandoiche, if by this(6-0-2) you mean on 6 wins and two draws, then you didn't played good number of rounds...
-------------------
Yeah Vlada, the organizer of magic here is a joke. We played like 258 players with 8 rounds.
But, the PTQ yokohama we had to play 9 rounds (what still a joke, playing magic for about 9 hours + travel + lates :/)
Well, maybe next time I can go to Colombia/Peru to play some pro tours... rofl
PS.: hey, I lost to mono red on ext ptq haha :p
by
_SeBaS_ on 2007-02-27 10:08 MST jajajaja 4-2 t8 jajajajajajajajajaajajaj lol where?? i want have 1 slot free pls
by
_SeBaS_ on 2007-02-27 10:08 MST jajajaja 4-2 t8 jajajajajajajajajaajajaj lol where?? i want have 1 slot free pls
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Volrath89 on 2007-02-27 10:33 MST by Vlada on 2007-02-27 11:38 EST
Quit mtg, go sell drugs
obvobvobvobvobvobv
---------------------------------
lol lol lol … just if you didn’t know it’s really difficult for me to deal with drugs… just think: if you are from Colombia, and u say in the airport u are going to X country to play a card game the police will stop you and tell you wtf is mtg?… ask you a lot of questions… open your bag (and I say it for experience), etc.
If it would be easier, no one would play mtg in Colombia lol lol lol
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Vlada on 2007-02-27 11:08 MST hehe, i belive volrath, funny thing, on worlds, few rounds, when some1 asked me where am i from, i said from columbia, and that my dad-drug lord, buy me place in top4 in nationals!(one of my friends done that to) lmao, you shoud see reactions of people...
Yeah Vlada, the organizer of magic here is a joke. We played like 258 players with 8 rounds.
LOL @ 258 people, we didnt heve in serbia 258 players in all PTQs together :)))
mtg is really popular in brasil, at least it looks like that.
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Linkman on 2007-02-27 11:31 MST OMG, winning a 40 pplayer PTQ is easy. Try playing here for a change. They must all be pathetic players.
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Vlada on 2007-02-27 11:42 MST No need to sound so rush, chill out tekno, just because you play in bigger PTQs doesn't tell a shit about your playing skillz, for all we know volrath89>you...
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Spyx on 2007-02-27 11:47 MST How did you win easy against RG ponza? Teps is a bye for RG ponza....
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Shiva on 2007-02-27 15:28 MST by Vlada on 2007-02-27 13:08 EST
hehe, i belive volrath, funny thing, on worlds, few rounds, when some1 asked me where am i from, i said from columbia, and that my dad-drug lord, buy me place in top4 in nationals!(one of my friends done that to) lmao, you shoud see reactions of people...
Yeah Vlada, the organizer of magic here is a joke. We played like 258 players with 8 rounds.
LOL @ 258 people, we didnt heve in serbia 258 players in all PTQs together :)))
mtg is really popular in brasil, at least it looks like that.
how many people live in Serbia? I dunno why, but i think that, only in Sao Paulo DC, there are more people than in serbia =[
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Volrath89 on 2007-02-27 15:37 MST by Vlada on 2007-02-27 13:08 EST
hehe, i belive volrath, funny thing, on worlds, few rounds, when some1 asked me where am i from, i said from columbia...
---------------------------------
lol, man I think I'll say the same in NY this year (at least the part I'm from Colombia would be truth) ... very funny :)
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Vlada on 2007-02-27 19:49 MST @ shiva almost 10,000,000 i think, i am to lazy to check:)
@ volrath89, you are so certain you will qual. again..don't be over confidant dude :)
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Columbus on 2007-02-27 21:25 MST you shouldn't have made top 8 with a record like that. And honestly you didn't deserve to, considering you're playing a run-of-the-mill netdeck.
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Linkman on 2007-02-28 00:49 MST Vlada: Don't talk shit if you can't beat me.
415798 Standard (T2) MWS Trial 3 02/25 20:34 Vlada 24 W
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Sandro on 2007-02-28 01:37 MST Lmao... Tekno... omg you beat Vlada once but at the end of the day he is still at your mom's house... anyways he was just trying to tell you to not be so harsh...
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Vlada on 2007-02-28 06:15 MST Yeah tekno, its not like i said, i am better then you, and you need to defend now, idk for you but arguing with people online, who is better player, is litlle childish and imature....
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minime on 2007-03-02 20:22 MST lol tod el mundo aqui habla mucha mierda
Anyway I'm the guy that won the "ridiculous" PTQ where you could made top with 4-2.
The fact here is that MTG is not that old nor popular here at Colombia.
In places such as Brasil the game is pretty wellknown and very popular so a bunch of people play PTQ's but just like in any place more than the half of the people are just noobs or recreational players.
The ability of a constructed player consists basicly in doing good and exact analysis of the local metagame, thats why Mike Florez' articles are so good. In places such as brasil or the US there are very well defined metagames so you can easily choose the correct deck. But here, where there are not that many players, there's not a well defined meta, and with too many decks, choose the right is pretty hard cause you aren't able to do an exact analysis.
You may choose a deck that can easily win at portugal or at any place but then you bring it here and you'll be matched against something you didn't even spected to see and then you'll loose.
It's not that easy cause the number of players may result to you insignificant. The proportion of bad players and noobs it's almost the same anywhere at the world. (obviously taking apart Pro tournaments)
If it seems so easy, ok then come here and beat us all, just like the Ecuatorian guy did, I'm sure you'll be surprised.
Por otra parte dejen de ser tan idiotas, que seamos reconocidos en el mundo como el pais de las drogas no significa que todos aqui son negociantes, si fuera facil todos tendriamos plata en colombia y no jugaariamos carticas. Por lo menos nosotros aca no nos podrimos con esa mierda los que consumen son el resto del mundo y que ojala se pudra con nuestras drogas.
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Vimes on 2007-03-03 16:26 MST Actually, the rank-and-file drug sellers don't make much money at all. Some of them have to get legit jobs to make ends meet :P You don't start making much money until you're higher up in the organization.
