I am writing this report on behalf of my playtesting team, STFU (myself, Jon, and Sam).

We all had been playtesting three possible decklists for the bakeoff this last Saturday but Jon and Sam could not deal with all the burn flying around. Finally we decided they would stay out of the kitchen while I braved the Ovens of Rath. Our first idea was to run Oatmeal, but this proved too sloppy. Once it gets going, Peanut Butter is just nuts, but gets stuck to the roof of the midgame.

Given the poor showing of the other lists and the renewed interest in speed decks, I chose to run GingerSnaps this holiday. After heavy trading Friday, we finally had all the ingredients, and without further ado, I present the decklist:

GINGERSNAPS.DEC

SPELLS (12)
4x cups Unsifted Flour
1 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/2 sticks (1x cup) Butter
1/2 cup Whole Milk
1x cup Sweet Dairy Whey
1x tsp Baking Powder
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1x tsp Cloves
1x tsp Powdered Dried Ginger
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Ground Cardamom

UTILITY (4)
1x cup Crushed Almonds
1x cup Dried Currants
1x cup Sesame Seeds: Toasted
1x tablespoon Anise Seeds

MANA (3)
1x bottle Red, Blue, White Sprinkles

SIDEBOARD (15)
10x Fingers
2x Palms
1x Rolling Pin
1x Clean Flat Surface
1x Large Egg instead of Sweet Dairy Whey (for eggeaters)

I spent all morning sliding around in the snow looking for Red, Blue, White sprinkles and finally found some at Rainbow (where else?). I was almost late to the tournament center, but had pre-printed my decklist from last year with the right modifications, so deck reg was a Snap.

Round 1 vs. Ekco playing Large Stainless Steel Mixing Bowl

Game 1: I won the flip and applied heat early by preheating the oven to 350 degrees F. Ekco laid two large Teflon cookie sheets and these were very helpful late game, as I shall explain in a moment. Over the next 3 turns I put flour, sugar, salt, whey, and dry spices in the bowl, setting up for the moist ingredient smackdown. Ekco absorbed the damage from the beaters game 1.

Game 2 saw me side in the baking powder, which disappeared into Ekco's bowl, but he failed to notice that I had left the butter out on top of the range for several turns and it had gotten very soft. (Soft butter has haste.) As soon as he saw the butter slide into play, he scooped.

1-0, 2-0

Round 2: vs. Hamilton Beach playing Electric Mixer

Game 1: Butter, low power, go. He started to Fling things at me but I used a Lid. At one point I peeled a Fork and went around the inside of the bowl, much removal there.

Game 2: Water, vanilla extract, go. This time the board started to look thin and pebbly and he sped up a bit to blend the ingredients smoothly and well. It almost looked like I was finished at one point, but then he simply petered out and I licked him. At the end, the board was like thick putty in my hands.

2-0, 4-0

Round 3: Random playing Wooden Rolling Pin

This matchup was my downfall.

Game 1: I rolled out a palm-size wad of dough using liberal flour until it was about 1/8 inch thick. Cookie Cutter number one resolved, imprinting Star. I generated about 2 dozen Stars before he Shattered the Cookie Cutter. I cast another Cookie Cutter imprinting Bell but later sacrificed it to an Atog because the clapper cutouts were too thin to transfer to the cookie sheet and kept tearing off. I ran out of dough before finishing the whole sheet and scooped up the remnants.

Game 2: I sided in Sesame Seeds and made three or four full palm-size wads of dough with the Seeds. I cast three cookie cutters; the first imprinting Snowman, the second got countered after falling on the floor, and the third imprinting Heart. The Sesame Seeds miraculously prevented me from rolling the dough out too thin, and the Heart cookie cutter has the amazing ability "You may make six Heart Cookie tokens in a circle without wasting any dough scraps in between." I soon filled up the sheet and rammed it in the oven for 10-12 points of damage.

Game 3: I sided again, this time bringing in Dried Currants. Unfortunately, having to windmill slam the cookie cutter into the dough to cut cleanly through the currants slowed me down too much, and I overcooked the first tray of cookies. I made a Cookie Cutter imprinted to Snowflake for a wad of dough. Many of the Snowflake points came off during transfer to the now-hot cookie sheet. I tried switching to Star again, but there wasn't enough dough left in the wad to make stars, so I scooped up the remnants. Oh, snap!


2-1, 5-2

Round 4: Professor Oak playing Cutting Board

Game 1: I got off to an explosive start with some Red, White, and Blue Sprinkles. I had two Cookie Cutters in play, both imprinted to Christmas Tree, and if you know anything about tile geometry, you know what a combo Upside Down Christmas Tree + Upright Christmas Tree make. Two wads of dough later, Cutting Board got wiped.

Game 2: More of the same, except this time with Crushed Almonds. Early plays from this game still had the red and blue sprinkles from last game, but soon I was rolling pure nuts. I made two more wads of dough to finish off the batch and fill the cookie sheet.

3-1, 7-2

Fifth Round: I dropped for lunch.

Making 6 to 8 dozen cookies sure made me hungry! I won several aluminum tins full of gingersnaps and traded one to my neighbor for a booster pack of beer (for draft, of course!)

In retrospect, I would take out the Anise Seeds and replace with more Sprinkles. The Currant cookies tasted really good, but are just too slow in this environment. In the future, will have to use metal cookie cutters and a larger cutting board. I am replacing the Bell cookie cutter with Gingerbread Man cutters (why didn't I think of this before?) and trying FrostedGingerbreadMan.dec next PTQ season.

Props: Jon and Samantha, my cats, for staying out of the kitchen while I was busy.
Cold milk, for going with Gingersnaps so successfully.

Slops: Snowflake and Bell cookie cutters, for being absolutely useless against thinly rolled dough.

Discuss this article in the Magic: the Gathering Forums!

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I am writing this report on behalf of my playtesting team, STFU (myself, Jon, and Sam).

We all had been playtesting three possible decklists for the bakeoff this last Saturday but Jon and Sam could not deal with all the burn flying around. Finally we decided they would stay out of the kitchen while I braved the Ovens of Rath. Our first idea was to run Oatmeal, but this proved too sloppy. Once it gets going, Peanut Butter is just nuts, but gets stuck to the roof of the midgame.

Given the poor showing of the other lists and the renewed interest in speed decks, I chose to run GingerSnaps this holiday. After heavy trading Friday, we finally had all the ingredients, and without further ado, I present the decklist:

GINGERSNAPS.DEC

SPELLS (12)
4x cups Unsifted Flour
1 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/2 sticks (1x cup) Butter
1/2 cup Whole Milk
1x cup Sweet Dairy Whey
1x tsp Baking Powder
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1x tsp Cloves
1x tsp Powdered Dried Ginger
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Ground Cardamom

UTILITY (4)
1x cup Crushed Almonds
1x cup Dried Currants
1x cup Sesame Seeds: Toasted
1x tablespoon Anise Seeds

MANA (3)
1x bottle Red, Blue, White Sprinkles

SIDEBOARD (15)
10x Fingers
2x Palms
1x Rolling Pin
1x Clean Flat Surface
1x Large Egg instead of Sweet Dairy Whey (for eggeaters)

I spent all morning sliding around in the snow looking for Red, Blue, White sprinkles and finally found some at Rainbow (where else?). I was almost late to the tournament center, but had pre-printed my decklist from last year with the right modifications, so deck reg was a Snap.

Round 1 vs. Ekco playing Large Stainless Steel Mixing Bowl

Game 1: I won the flip and applied heat early by preheating the oven to 350 degrees F. Ekco laid two large Teflon cookie sheets and these were very helpful late game, as I shall explain in a moment. Over the next 3 turns I put flour, sugar, salt, whey, and dry spices in the bowl, setting up for the moist ingredient smackdown. Ekco absorbed the damage from the beaters game 1.

Game 2 saw me side in the baking powder, which disappeared into Ekco's bowl, but he failed to notice that I had left the butter out on top of the range for several turns and it had gotten very soft. (Soft butter has haste.) As soon as he saw the butter slide into play, he scooped.

1-0, 2-0

Round 2: vs. Hamilton Beach playing Electric Mixer

Game 1: Butter, low power, go. He started to Fling things at me but I used a Lid. At one point I peeled a Fork and went around the inside of the bowl, much removal there.

Game 2: Water, vanilla extract, go. This time the board started to look thin and pebbly and he sped up a bit to blend the ingredients smoothly and well. It almost looked like I was finished at one point, but then he simply petered out and I licked him. At the end, the board was like thick putty in my hands.

2-0, 4-0

Round 3: Random playing Wooden Rolling Pin

This matchup was my downfall.

Game 1: I rolled out a palm-size wad of dough using liberal flour until it was about 1/8 inch thick. Cookie Cutter number one resolved, imprinting Star. I generated about 2 dozen Stars before he Shattered the Cookie Cutter. I cast another Cookie Cutter imprinting Bell but later sacrificed it to an Atog because the clapper cutouts were too thin to transfer to the cookie sheet and kept tearing off. I ran out of dough before finishing the whole sheet and scooped up the remnants.

Game 2: I sided in Sesame Seeds and made three or four full palm-size wads of dough with the Seeds. I cast three cookie cutters; the first imprinting Snowman, the second got countered after falling on the floor, and the third imprinting Heart. The Sesame Seeds miraculously prevented me from rolling the dough out too thin, and the Heart cookie cutter has the amazing ability "You may make six Heart Cookie tokens in a circle without wasting any dough scraps in between." I soon filled up the sheet and rammed it in the oven for 10-12 points of damage.

Game 3: I sided again, this time bringing in Dried Currants. Unfortunately, having to windmill slam the cookie cutter into the dough to cut cleanly through the currants slowed me down too much, and I overcooked the first tray of cookies. I made a Cookie Cutter imprinted to Snowflake for a wad of dough. Many of the Snowflake points came off during transfer to the now-hot cookie sheet. I tried switching to Star again, but there wasn't enough dough left in the wad to make stars, so I scooped up the remnants. Oh, snap!


2-1, 5-2

Round 4: Professor Oak playing Cutting Board

Game 1: I got off to an explosive start with some Red, White, and Blue Sprinkles. I had two Cookie Cutters in play, both imprinted to Christmas Tree, and if you know anything about tile geometry, you know what a combo Upside Down Christmas Tree + Upright Christmas Tree make. Two wads of dough later, Cutting Board got wiped.

Game 2: More of the same, except this time with Crushed Almonds. Early plays from this game still had the red and blue sprinkles from last game, but soon I was rolling pure nuts. I made two more wads of dough to finish off the batch and fill the cookie sheet.

3-1, 7-2

Fifth Round: I dropped for lunch.

Making 6 to 8 dozen cookies sure made me hungry! I won several aluminum tins full of gingersnaps and traded one to my neighbor for a booster pack of beer (for draft, of course!)

In retrospect, I would take out the Anise Seeds and replace with more Sprinkles. The Currant cookies tasted really good, but are just too slow in this environment. In the future, will have to use metal cookie cutters and a larger cutting board. I am replacing the Bell cookie cutter with Gingerbread Man cutters (why didn't I think of this before?) and trying FrostedGingerbreadMan.dec next PTQ season.

Props: Jon and Samantha, my cats, for staying out of the kitchen while I was busy.
Cold milk, for going with Gingersnaps so successfully.

Slops: Snowflake and Bell cookie cutters, for being absolutely useless against thinly rolled dough.

Discuss this article in the Magic: the Gathering Forums!

Related Stories

• Fatties No Longer Popular: How to Adapt to the New T2
• Template For Creating an Interesting and Well-Read Tournament Report
• Internet Writer Revolutionizes Tournament Reports with New "Card-by-Card Anal