At this point she exclaims, “You’re just exploding all over my face!”

On the night before the PTQ, I find out that Hans had decided to switch to playing Dark Depths, which naturally prevents me from borrowing his playset of the deck’s namesake. I piece together the Thopter control deck with which LSV recently 4-0′d a recent MTGO daily, mostly due to a lack of having any other options. While I don’t have as many reps in with the deck as I typically would like going into a tournament, I figure I’ve played it and similar decks in other formats enough to be able to do fine.

1  Academy Ruins
1  Ancient Den
1  Ghost Quarter
2  Hallowed Fountain
3  Island
3  Marsh Flats
2  Misty Rainforest
2  Mystic Gate
1  Plains
1  Scalding Tarn
1  Seat of the Synod
2  Snow-Covered Island
1  Snow-Covered Plains
1  Tolaria West
1  Watery Grave

2  Trinket Mage

3  Chrome Mox
2  Cryptic Command
1  Day of Judgment
2  Engineered Explosives
2  Gifts Ungiven
3  Mana Leak
1  Muddle the Mixture
3  Path to Exile
1  Pithing Needle
4  Spell Snare
2  Sword of the Meek
1  Tezzeret the Seeker
4  Thirst for Knowledge
3  Thopter Foundry
1  Tormod’s Crypt
1  Vedalken Shackles
1  Wrath of God

SB:
1  Chalice of the Void
3  Cranial Extraction
1  Engineered Explosives
3  Kitchen Finks
2  Negate
2  Pulse of the Fields
1  Tormod’s Crypt
2  Vendilion Clique

Given what happened last week, I am not happy to be facing Hypergenesis early in the tournament again for the second consecutive PTQ. I once again keep a hand that doesn’t stand a chance against it game one; he casts a turn two Hypergenesis as I feel stupid holding two Spell Snares while his two Angels of Despair blow up both of my lands. Game two is more of the same; despite boarding in a lot, I can’t find anything more than a Mana Leak to stop him. He plays around it by building up a storage land and puts two Sundering Titans into play. 0-1, 0-2.

For round two I sit across from a young lady playing Hive Mind; it turns out that this is her first tournament. When she tries to cast a Seething Song with two mana untapped, I cast Mana Leak on it; she responds with a Remand targeting my Mana Leak, which I Spell Snare. At this point she exclaims, “You’re just exploding all over my face!” There was a moment of silence among all those in earshot; one guy proves unable to contain his laughter, and I refrain from making a comment that would probably have gotten me ejected. I soon find Cryptic Command and Muddle the Mixture to stay safe, and then assemble the Thopter combo for the kill. A Vendilion Clique early in game two gets rid of her Hive Mind and kills her before she can find another. 1-1, 2-2.

I’m paired against the regionally-trendy new Martyr deck the following round. I make some silly mistakes in game two, but win anyway because it seems like my deck is just better at pretty much everything than his. 2-1, 4-2.

Next up is a midrange Zoo deck packing Punishing Fire and Reveillark. He wins game one as I draw far too many counters and not enough business, but getting the Thopter combo going and protecting it proves pretty easy in the following games. I don’t think I spend very much time in either postboard game below fifteen life. 3-1, 6-3.

I play the 75-card mirror in round five. I win a rather lengthy game one mostly on the back of patience; he would go for something, and I’d win the ensuing counter war, untap, and have a field day. Game two I keep an awkward six with a land and two Chrome Moxen for mana, with the third Chrome Mox on top of my library. I manage to actually get Thopter-Sword going, but he just has too much more business than me. I ship two one-landers to start game three, but it’s irrelevant as we start the game with only five minutes remaining in the round anyway. 3-1-1, 7-4-1.

Unfortunately, Carlos and I get paired in round six. This is doubly unfortunate as he’s playing the Scapeshift build with Tarmogoyf, Finks, and Jitte, which is reportedly a pretty miserable matchup. I get Thopter-Sword going somewhat early in game one, and thanks to it barely manage to stay stable above his active Umezawa’s Jitte. Unfortunately, I don’t manage to get above thirty-six life or find a Cryptic Command before he gets to eight lands and a Scapeshift. Game two goes pretty much the same way. I have an untapped Ghost Quarter that scares him into thinking I actually have an out to him going off for a while, but after going into the tank he decides to go for it anyway and I die. 3-2-1, 7-6-1, drop.

I hang out for a while, mostly conversing with Hans and several judges concerning various issues of judging principles and ethics. (Supposedly some of these are going to be discussed on JUDGE-L and/or amongst the L3s in the near future.) Joe Timson invites me to head over to his place along with Zach Gray, Lampert, Gleicher, and Marc Pozsgay to have dinner, watch the second half of the football game and draft.

Misadventures in Madison, Starring Russell Block (+PTQ Report)

(The Magic-related stuff is actually the least interesting part of the story this time; it’ll just be tacked onto the end, so skip to the bottom if that’s all you’re looking for)

The morning starts with Russell and me chilling for a bit waiting for Nick Larsen to arrive. As we leave, my mom decides to show up and marvel at how Russell is approximately twice as tall as she is. Awkward.

On the way up, the onboard GPS on Nick’s fancy-pants Prius hybrid refuses to take I-90, instead suggesting taking a much longer route on I-94 going through Milwaukee. We obviously know better, but being told we’re going the wrong way every thirty seconds grows increasingly obnoxious. Eventually we fiddle around and figure out that it was being told to avoid toll roads, and once we tell it to stop doing that, our ears are saved.

Around halfway there, Nick’s car tells us to add gas. We drive through some rural village and it takes forever to find one. Eventually we locate one; we believe it is at this location Russell’s deodorant bottle falls out of the car, as he spends the rest of the trip wondering where it is. (I’m still not entirely sure why he brought it along anyway instead of just using it at home.)

Throughout the trip, Russell throws all of his garbage out the window. Nick’s response is “It’s OK, I drive a Prius.”

As we approach the venue (Monona Terrace, a nice Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building), we spot a sign saying “MISTY MOUNTAIN COMPETITION.” We’re highly amused by this choice of words.

Early in the afternoon, Nick and I wander around the building for a bit looking for refreshments– it’s a convention center, there has to be something, right? We eventually find a cafe menu on a random wall, but he cafe itself was nowhere in sight. A nearby staff member points us around a couple corners to a hole in the wall in a room full of tables. After paying too much and waiting too long for our refreshments, we head back.

After round one of the tournament, Russell comes and asks Nick and me whether we know of another bathroom. Confused, we ask what’s wrong with the one thirty feet away. Russell complains that it’s dirty, and Nick responds along the lines of “sorry, I don’t know where to find your pristine marble and gold toilet.”

Fast forward to the evening, after Russell and I pick up the pieces of our 5-3 mediocrity and are ready to head home. Russell stresses that he is extremely hungry, and I likewise wouldn’t mind dinner; Russell convinces Nick, who would strongly prefer to burn straight home, to stop somewhere in order to pick something up to eat.

Russell’s preference is some sort of non-chain burger place. We drive around “downtown” Madison a bit, and find what first appears to be what we’re looking for. It turns out to be a cafe. We turn around to leave, but first, Russell goes and asks the girl behind the counter: “Hey, do you know where we can find some SICK burger joint?” *facepalm*

The embarrassment does not end there. We next head into some pizza place, hoping it’s one of those to-go/delivery places that prepares stuff pretty quickly. When it turns out to instead be one of those fancier sit-down restaurants, we once again prepare to leave. Before I can tell the girl behind the counter something sane, Russell blurts out, “Sorry, out of our price range!” *facepalm*

We give up and decide to just stop at something in an oasis on I-90. We see a sign for a Culver’s and decide to go for it. Russell asks for fish & chips, and the girl behind the counter responds, “Sorry, we don’t have chips.”

Nick and I listen to the Dallas-NO game for the rest of the way home as Russell dozes off. We marvel at Russell’s absurdly large house.

—-

PTQ Stuff!

Deck:

8 Swamp
7 Mountain
1 Soaring Seacliff
1 Teetering Peaks

Magma Rift
Hideous End
Grim Discovery
Crypt Ripper
Mark of Mutiny
Punishing Fire
Stonework Puma
Vampire’s Bite
Trusty Machete
Vampire Nighthawk
Ruinous Minotaur
Zektar Shrine Expedition
Disfigure
Vampire Lacerator
Hagra Crocodile
Slaughter Cry
Tuktuk Grunts
Highland Berserker
Inferno Trap
Marsh Casualties
Spire Barrage
Gatekeeper of Malakir
Heartstabber Mosquito

Rest of pool:

White: Devout Lightcaster, Kor Aeronaut, 3 Kor Outfitter, 2 Kor Sanctifiers, Kor Skyfisher, Makindi Shieldmate, Nimbus Wings, Ondu Cleric, 2 Pillarfield Ox, Sunspring Expedition, Windborne Charge

Blue: Sphinx of Jwar Isle, Hedron Crab, Welkin Tern, Kraken Hatchling, Shoal Serpent, 2 Paralyzing Grasp, Sky Ruin Drake, Archmage Ascension, Caller of Gales, Merfolk Wayfinder, 3 Trapfinder’s Trick

Black: Ravenous Trap, Vampire’s Bite, 2 Blood Seeker

Red: Goblin Ruinblaster, Ruinous Minotaur, Goblin War Paint, Goblin Guide

Green: Summoning Trap, Beast Hunt, Scute Mob, Grazing Gladehart, Greenweaver Druid, Joraga Bard, Nissa’s Chosen, Oran-Rief Survivalist, 2 Scythe Tiger, Taruju Archer, Territorial Baloth, Vines of Vastwood, Zendikar Farguide

Artifacts: Stonework Puma, Carnage Altar, Spidersilk Net

Lands: Kabira Crossroads, Kazandu Refuge, Pirahna Marsh, Sejiri Refuge, Soaring Seacliff

I had a difficult time with this pool; I really wanted to play the Sphinx of Jwar Isle, but the blue was a good four or five cards short of playables. I finally decide to go just go with the red and black, which in retrospect should probably have been obvious. I almost certainly should have played the Goblin Ruinblaster over the Stonework Puma, and Goblin War Paint might have been better than Slaughter Cry.

I start the day 5-1, with a loss to Russell packing a very strong deck in round four. I then proceed to lose rounds seven and eight, after having to mulligan many times and/or getting stuck on lands after very reasonable keeps. Oh well, it happens. I’m pretty sure this is my strongest performance in a large limited event to date, so I suppose knowing that I am, in fact, capable of winning limited matches is something to be happy about.

Sometime towards the end of the event – I believe round seven or eight – I was sitting next to Patrick Chapin, and he interestingly chooses to draw, claiming to have the read on his opponent. He later explains that he actually did it to potentially gain a psychological advantage over his opponent, which is likely to be more beneficial than playing first. I don’t know whether or not I agree, but it’s an interesting suggestion.

The event was extremely well-run. It started on time, and the eight rounds of Swiss were done by 6PM. I can’t pinpoint exactly what the causes of the tournament going so smoothly were, but I suspect that it was an accumulation of small factors: the scrolling projected pairings shaved a good three to five minutes from each round, and each round was paired and posted pretty quickly.

Overall, the tournament and trip were a lot of fun. ZEN Sealed might be too dependent on how good your pool’s red and black cards are, but on the other hand it feels much more dynamic and skill-based than the previous few limited formats have been– there seems to be a lot more room for error in both deck construction and game play, and rare bombs aren’t as dominating as they have been in previous limited formats. Even the best uncommons like Vampire Nighthawk aren’t as randomly swingy as cards like Overrun and Fireball.

States weekend.

The action starts Friday afternoon, when this happens.

After sitting through another boring edition of art history, I go home and check IRC.

[17:29] [RoXaS]: hi PV please build my states deck
[17:30] PV-:  :[
[17:30] PV-: 4 putrid leech
[17:30] PV-: 4 blightning
[17:30] PV-: 4 bbe
[17:30] PV-: 4 bolt
[17:30] PV-: 4 bituminous blast
[17:30] PV-: you are welcome

Who am I to argue?

I peruse the usual channels to find a Jund list I like. I decide to start with Max McCall’s list, as the logic behind most of his choices is sound.

4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Broodmate Dragon
4 Sprouting Thrinax
2 Borderland Ranger
3 Garruk Wildspeaker

3 Bituminous Blast
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Terminate
2 Chandra Nalaar

4 Blightning

4 Savage Lands
3 Dragonskull Summit
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Mountain
3 Swamp
2 Forest
2 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood

// Sideboard

SB: 1 Maelstrom Pulse
SB: 2 Terminate
SB: 4 Jund Charm
SB: 2 Borderland Ranger
SB: 2 Mind Rot
SB: 2 Slave of Bolas
SB: 2 Duress

For States, I replace the sideboard Pyroclasms with Jund Charms mostly as a result of caving to peer pressure. I replace Unstable Footing with Slave of Bolas. Since TurboFog is an awful deck that nobody should ever play, it’s unnecessary. I see Hans running Slave of Bolas in his sideboard, and decide it’s good idea given the possibility of playing against GW decks.

But before that, there’s FNM, in which I play Max’s list card for card. Rounds one and two are against non-competitive players playing non-competitive decks. During round two, some douchebag several seats down starts rules-lawyering his opponent before game one even starts. He soon concedes rather than going through the displeasure of playing with such an asshole.

As luck would have it, we are paired in round three. He’s playing the unearth deck and narrowly wins game one because I couldn’t draw a threat to save my life. I out-goldfish him game two. He opens on double Hedron Crab game three; I Pyroclasm those away and kill him before he can really get anything going. GG’s, dirtbag.

I lose the Jund mirror in round four after a large number of mulligans and sick hands on his part both games. Round five pits me against monored. I get curbstomped game one, then cut Maelstrom Pulse, Chandra Nalaar, and a Broodmate Dragon for the discard spells and Terminates. I win games two and three by the margin of a single burn spell, with Duress being the difference.

Now we roll around to States. I make the changes discussed previously: Pyroclasms become Jund Charms, and Unstable Footings become Slaves of Bolas.

Round one: GW. I kill three Baneslayer Angels in game one, but he draws endless gas and I get narrowly beaten. He gets mana screwed in game two. I kill his first couple plays in game three, drop a Bloodbraid Elf, and Slave of Bolas his turn five Baneslayer Angel. 1-0, 2-1.

I walk around talking to people I know after the round. Seven in a row say “I lost to Jund.”

Round two: Jund. This mirror match sucks, but is pretty much guaranteed to happen. I lose the die roll, and proceed to lose game one after having to ship two one-landers and eating a Blightning. I win game two when, with both of us in topdeck mode, I Bituminous Blast into Bloodbraid Elf into Maelstrom Pulse. ALL SKILL, BABY. I lose game three to a horrible misplay. Both of our boards are empty; I have in play four lands, and have in my hand two more lands and a Broodmate Dragon. He casts Blightning, the last card in his hand, and I foolishly decide to discard the lands. He draws some guys, while I draw a series of expensive spells, and I die. 1-1, 3-3.

Round three: TurboFog. Seriously, people are dumb enough to play this deck? I do manage to lose game one because I keep drawing Terminates and Bituminous Blasts. Those all leave my deck for discard and the extra Pulse, and I win both postboard games. 2-1, 5-4.

Round four: TurboFog. Same thing, except this guy is a much worse player who uses his counters on every single bait spell. 3-1, 7-4.

Round five: Boros. After the usual fast Boros start, I manage to stabilize at nine life with an utterly dominant board position against naught but a Plated Geopede and uncracked fetchland. He untaps, plays another fetchland, cracks both, casts Elspeth, and attacks me in the air for ten. I smash him game two. I once again stabilize at ten life with a dominant board position; he goes EOT Lightning Bolt, Lightning Bolt, untap, Earthquake for four. Shrug. 3-2, 8-6, drop.

I drop and hop into a draft. My deck is SICK. The guy to my right is in the same colors, so I have no idea how I ended up with all of this stuff.

1 Quest for the Gravelord
1 Hedron Crab
1 Disfigure
1 Vampire Hexmage
2 Umara Raptor
2 Gomazoa
2 Mindless Null
1 Hideous End
1 Windrider Eel
1 Nimana Sell-Sword
1 Hagra Crocodile
2 Living Tsunami
1 Heartstabber Mosquito
1 Sorin Markov (foil!)
2 Whiplash Trap
1 Sky Ruin Drake
1 Sphinx of Lost Truths

I pretty much just cruise through the draft. In the second round, I play against the previously-mentioned gentleman who was passing to me. While his deck does contain Sphinx of Jwar Isle and two Vampire Nighthawks, the rest is utter garbage and I am able to win in three.

Random anecdotes time!

—

Much to our collective surprise, Susan “Blinking Spirit” Zell goes into round six undefeated. We cheer her on; some sincerely, others for the hilarity of the thought of Susan Zell being the Illinois state chammpion. Honestly, I think she’s fine as a player who will get better with experience, practice, and learning how to play at a pace faster than frozen molasses being squeezed out of a tube by a snail. Unlike us egocentric males, she openly accepts advice and criticism, adjusting her decks and play accordingly.

That blinking thing she does is still quite creepy, though.

—

Congratulations to Hans for being the only one of us to top8. Too bad you didn’t bring the whole thing home.

—

Cube drafting is awesome, in case you haven’t gotten the memo.

—

Jund is awesome, in case you haven’t gotten the memo. Probably too awesome, though, and it seems to be the case that one’s cascade luck is inversely proportional to one’s play skill.

—

Judge-in-training Zack was on staff. He is much-improved from previously. Nice job!

—

Props:
- The TO community for continuing to hold States.
- Max McCall for his nice article and list.

Slops:
- TurboFog players. That deck is awful (I know from experience, ashamed as I am to admit it). All you accomplished was increasing the number of players that go to time each round.
- FNM rules-lawyering guy, whose name I will not waste mental energy trying to remember. Seriously, it’s FNM. You made someone not even want to play. This is unacceptable.

I Beat Girls, But Not Small Children: Weekend Anecdotes.

This weekend was the Chicago Toy and Game Fair at Navy Pier, at which Pastimes hosted a PTQ in which I judged. Not enough went on to tell a single narrative this time, so this will just be a series of anecdotes.

—

The PTQ attendance exceeded two hundred players for the second Chicago PTQ in a row. This is huge, and it’s great to see Magic prospering despite the sputtering economy. This limited format also seems more skill-intensive, or at least more exciting, than the past couple have been.

—

This tournament featured the largest number of deck registration penalties of any tournament I’ve judged – thirteen. Of particular note are a player who somehow decides to only register the basic lands he’s playing and nothing else, and another who thinks it a good idea to mark his “played” column with the letter X (including the cards of which there were two copies). It took almost the entirety of round one to count up all of the decklists.

At one point while counting the decklists, I count a list that’s running sixteen lands in forty-eight cards. Confused, I look at the name and remark, “Oh, a Heather.”

There was a 76-card deck out there too.

—

Throughout the morning, the entire tournament is the victim of ear rape at the hands of the some fledgling harpies, whose screeching voices pierced the room. When their show ends Tinsley comments that it will likely be the high point of the day.

—

One player carried around a Buddha statue and had it sitting on the sidelines of each of his matches, clearly intending to challenge Adrian Sullivan for the “strangest pieces of tournament paraphernalia” title. He has a long way to go before he matches the history of Adrian’s Giant Penny, though.

—

Last year’s Chicago Toy and Game Fair was my first time judging. This year, a man from Dekalb has his judging debut. I am charged with shadowing him and giving him advice. I don’t do nearly as good a job at this as I could have, so that’s something on which I definitely need to work.

—

This PTQ also saw the first disqualification of my judging career, and it was unfortunately a friend.

EDIT: Not supposed to write the details of DQs, it seems. Oh well. He’s going to write about it himself sometime later this week. I’ll just take this opportunity to toss this reminder out there: Don’t cheat, and when in doubt, call a judge.

—

Navy Pier security was a giant pain in the ass throughout the morning. For some reason, they had a problem with letting players into the event room individually, insisting that they enter in large groups.

—

The morning ends up becoming a sort of interesting social experiment. I’m wearing the rather spiffy Pastimes staff uniform. Random people constantly walk up to me ask me questions about the Toy and Game Fair. I have nothing to do with that event outside of Pastimes, so all I really do is point people to security or the information desk. This involves doing lots of pointing, which just increases my visibility, causing even more people to come running to me with their problems. Seems like solid empirical evidence to back up claims that wearing a uniform and acting like you know what you’re talking about make people more likely to listen to you or come to you for help.

—

While roaming the tournament floor, I walk by a man who’s saying “Wizards of the Coast, who is now owned by…” followed by a pause. I immediately interject with “Hasbro” and keep walking, all with perfect smoothness and elegance. It was awesome.

—

One of my favorite parts of judging is having discussions concerning judge philosophy with the other judges, and there was no shortage of such conversations throughout the day. The question of to what extent player questions could be answered before crossing the line into coaching was the major one this time around.

Let’s take the following situation: Player A controls two 2/2 creatures and attacks with them. Player B casts Arrow Volley Trap, targeting each of them. With Arrow Volley Trap on the stack, Player A has Vines of Vastwood in hand and has the mana to cast it without the kicker. He calls the judge and asks, “if I cast Vines of Vastwood on one of my guys, will it still die?” How does the judge answer?

On one hand, the judge could only go as far as “Your creature now has shroud.” This has the problem of not really answering the player’s question. On the other hand, saying “no, it wouldn’t die” arguably borders on coaching. We end up agreeing that an answer along the lines of “The creature on which you cast Vines of Vastwood would no longer be a legal target for Arrow Volley Trap” would be the optimal answer.

This issue comes into question again later in the day. Player A controls Welkin Tern equipped with Blade of the Bloodchief and some other guys; player B has Marsh Casualties in hand. Player B calls a judge and asks, “if I cast Marsh Casualties with kicker, will Blade of the Bloodchief trigger?” I know he’s *really* asking “will his Welkin Tern die?” But, given the question he asks, I simply answer “Yes, Blade of the Bloodchief will trigger.” The player seems confused. He then tries to walk through the scenario with me and correctly deduces that Welkin Tern would die. The players then wonder why I didn’t just say that in the first place, and nearby Kevin Drake explains that the question was whether Blade of the Bloodchief would trigger, and that is the question I answered.

—

I’m sure you’re still wondering about the title.

At FNM the night before, I run the Cruel Ascension deck again. I know it won’t beat Jund in a million years, but it’s a great FNM deck. In round one, I actually manage to beat Susan Zell before time is called. I play against the other girl (I don’t remember her name; I have this bad habit of forgetting girls’ names after the first time) in round five, barely squeaking game three out by casting Cruel Ultimatum with two Pyromancer Ascension on the board while she’s at fifteen the turn before I would have died.

Pastimes Daycare member Ryan Edelson, who is somewhere south of ten years old, administers my only defeat of the night in round two. He’s playing Bushwhacker aggro; in game one I keep a hand with two Islands, Ponder, Worldly Counsel, and Divination, but I don’t find a red source before I am very dead. I manage to stabilize for a bit in game two, but proceed to draw lands as he draws business. It probably didn’t help that I was constantly amused by his trash talk and the fact that he had to sit on the chair on his knees to reach the table.

—

Props:
- Pastimes staff, as usual. That went as smoothly as a 200-man tournament could be expected to. The logistics were handled very well.
- Whatever restaurant it was from where we got our lunch. That stuff was great.

Slops:
- Navy Pier security, especially that short and fat wanna-be cowboy door guard.
- Whoever the fuck was singing after Ronald McDonald and before the Cha Cha Slide. That girl should not be put in front of a microphone ever again.

Pyromancer Ascension: It’s got to be a sign.

One of the common criticisms of these notes of mine has been their length. The obvious solution, of course, is to make it even longer. So long, in fact, that it now merits a table of contents. You can now ctrl+f the three-letter codes in brackets (for best results, include the brackets in your ctrl+f, then scroll down a little bit more) to skip right to the sections you actually care about! I still encourage you to read all of it, though.

[PRE] – Prelude
[FNM] – Friday Night Magic (Standard)
[PTQ] – PTQ Report for Saturday, 10-11 (ZEN Sealed)
[DR1] – ZEN Booster Draft #1
[DR2] – ZEN Booster Draft #2
[FIN] – Aftermath, Props/Slops, and Quotes

[PRE] – Prelude

Unfortunately, this PTQ forces me to skip going to an awesome-sounding party at an abandoned church with some classmates. I entertain the thought of skipping the PTQ instead. It turns out I am too huge a nerd for that.

I’m not a particularly good limited player; I don’t even really know how to prepare for these events, especially Sealed, for which I can’t just read someone’s draft pick orders and do some flowchart drafting. I decide to read over LSV’s set evaluations on CF to reduce my chances of grossly over/underestimating anything.

[FNM] – Friday Night Magic (Standard)

Sometime in the middle of the week, I hear from the grapevine of a certain Standard deck. I am pretty much sold at “invented by the Japanese,” but it also turns out to be an awesome combo-control deck capable of quickly going from a few lands on the board to a shock-and-awe campaign that leaves the opponent in despair. This makes it an easy choice for FNM this week, despite the fact that I have no testing save for roughly two hours of the MWS glorified goldfishing experience.

Even getting to FNM that night is a bit of a disaster. I leave from school downtown a bit after 4PM. It just so happens that there had been a fire in a subway earlier that day, causing the trains to more slowly than one of Coach’s turns for a good chunk of the ride. I end up getting home slightly past 6PM; I scrape up all of the cards I think I’m going to need, scarf down a slice of pizza, and then begin an uncharacteristically unsafe hasty drive to Pastimes.

Upon my arrival, I start assembling the deck. Here it is the portion of the deck that I am able to remember, along with a sideboard I cobble together based on what I happened to bring along.

3 Island
3 Swamp
2 Mountain
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Crumbling Necropolis
4 Scalding Tarn

4 Ponder
4 Worldly Counsel
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Pyromancer Ascension
3 Pyroclasm
4 Grixis Charm
3 Double Negative
4 Time Warp
3 Cruel Ultimatum
3 ???????????????

SB:
4 Duress
4 Negate
3 Countersquall
4 Terminate

I agonizingly try to remember what the hell those last three cards are supposed to be. This proves highly unsuccessful, so I ask around for opinions. Zachary Gray suggests running Burst Lightning. That sounds like a fine idea, so I run with it.

Given my lack of real testing, the sideboard is based on a combination of what I have handy and some theorycrafting. As a combo-control deck, I assume that stalling for a while until I could go broken would be an adequate plan against aggro decks; I just pack Terminates to swap in for Pyroclasms against decks using mostly creatures with big butts. Then I pack eleven spells that help me resolve stuff against decks with counterspells and prevent me from eating Thought Hemorrhages or Identity Crises.

I play against a red aggro deck in round one. It turns out that instant-speed removal is pretty good against Ball Lightning clones. Game two gets a little scary; he taps out and casts his last two cards to get me to two life. Unfortunately for him, I untap and play a Cruel Ultimatum with two active Pyromancer Ascensions. I think I boarded out Pyroclasms and Double Negatives for Terminates and Countersqualls.

Vampires come to challenge me in round two. A Pyroclasm and a Lightning Bolt kill some guys early. Turn five Time Warp, turn six Time Warp, turn seven Cruel Ultimatum puts game one away. The story of game two is double Pyromancer Ascension turning all of my spells into three-for-ones. It would seem that vampires has a hard time beating “at the end of declare attackers, Wrath of God you for BR.”

More vampires show up for round three. Same story, though he administers my only game loss of the day. I keep a questionable hand game one, consisting of five lands, a Lightning Bolt, and a Cruel Ultimatum. I draw nothing but more lands and both remaining Cruel Ultimati, and still almost win the game – had he but one fewer creature when I cast Cruel Ultimatum, I would have been able to untap alive and seal the deal with the second. I cut Double Negatives for Terminates and demolish him.

I’m a bit nervous going into round four. This guy had beaten Michael Lampert – no slouch – and is playing a control deck of generally unknown constitution. He misses a few land drops early on and I burn his Noble Hierarchs and Birds of Paradise, but lack any real business of my own to capitalize on his stumbling. Eventually he gets to five mana and starts chaining Time Warps and Twincasts, but in the end all he accomplishes is equalizing the land count and putting a Garruk Wildspeaker onto the table. I find and turn on a Pyromancer Ascension, take multiple consecutive turns of my own, and put the game away in short order. Game two goes more or less the same way. I do discover that I don’t actually have eleven cards I want to board out against other control decks.

No pairdown and my opponent agrees to draw. Yay.

It turns out the three missing slots are supposed to be Jace Beleren. I want to test a variant of the deck with -3 Pyroclasm, -3 Double Negative, -3 Jace +4 Burst Lightning, +4 Divination, +1 Diabolic Tutor, intending to be more combo-tastic. That’s possibly just being greedy, though.

The sideboard also obviously needs tweaking. Seven or eight anti-control slots are more than adequate, and the Terminates are fine. This leaves three or four slots, and I have no idea what to put there. I’m thinking these will be an alternate win condition, such as Sphinx of Jwar Isle or Sphinx of Lost Truths, in order to provide resistance to Jester’s Cap effects.

I skip drafting that night at Joe Timson’s in order to get enough sleep for the PTQ the following day. (I’ll go to one of these one day, I promise.)

[PTQ] PTQ Report for Saturday, 10-11 (ZEN Sealed)

222 players crammed into the Pastimes store does not make for a comfortable experience. I am glad the weather is very cold outside, making the utterly miserable conditions less so.

it would seem that I’m good at opening U/W fliers sealed pools in ZEN.

2 Kor Skyfisher
2 Welkin Tern
2 Into the Roil
2 Living Tsunami
2 Kor Outfitter
2 Reckless Scholar
1 Shoal Serpent
1 Merfolk Seastalkers
1 Arrow Volley Trap
1 Whiplash Trap
1 Gomazoa
1 Kor Hookmaster
1 Kor Sanctifiers
1 Pitfall Trap
1 Cancel
1 Cliff Threader
1 Spreading Seas

9 Plains
8 Island

Rest of the pool, sorted by coloir:

Lands: Kabria Crossroads, Oran-Rief, the Vastwood, Piranha Marsh, Teetering Peaks x2, Turntimber Grove, Akoum Refuge, Jwar Isle Refuge

Artifacts: Carnage Altar, Expedition Map, Spidersilk Net, Trailblazer’s Boots, Stonework Puma

White: Devout Lightcaster, Narrow Escape x2, Kor Duelist, Kabira Evangel, Shieldmate’s Blessing

Blue: Archmage Ascension, Seascape Aerialist, Spell Pierce, Trapfinder’s Trick

Black: Mind Sludge, Surrakar Marauder, Vampire Lacerator, Blood Seeker, Gatekeeper of Malakir, Disfigure, Hideous End, Bog Tatters, Grim Discovery x3, Hagra Crocodile, Vampire’s Bite

Red: Pyromancer Ascension, Plated Geopede, Inferno Trap, Demolish x2, Goblin Shortcutter x2, Molten Ravager x2, Unstable Footing x2

Green: Beast Hunt x3, Grazing Gladeheart, Scute Mob, Timbermaw Larva, Savage Silhouette, Primal Bellow, Oran-Rief Survivalist, Mold Shambler, Harrow, Greenweaver Druid, Relic Crush, Scythe Tiger

I feel that the deck is solid and is likely to win some games, but might be soft to powerful bombs. I am unsure whether I built the deck correctly, as I had to stretch for playables; I figure it perhaps would be better to splash some of those solid black removal spells. Throughout the day, I consult with Tommy Kolowith, Owen Turtenwald, and others. They generally agree that I built the deck correctly, save for the omission of Kabira Crossroads. I had failed to consider the synergy between it and double Living Tsunami, and omitted it fearing a comes-into-play-tapped land would interfere with the plan of curving out with fliers every game.

Round one is kind of awkward. It’s the UW tempo deck mirror. We exchange the first two games as each has one of us getting stuck on two lands for an extended period of time. In game three I cast a creature with flying on turns two, three, four, five, and six.

My round two opponent is packing WUG allies. I get a reasonably aggressive start game one, but my creatures are outclassed by Umara Raptor followed by a bunch of other allies. I manage to use my bounce spells to get him in game two. In game three I take some damage early, but eventually build up a superior board position and use Merfolk Seastalkers to control his board and chip away at his life total, being joined by Shoal Serpent whenever landfall permitted. He rips Eldrazi Monument and blows me out.

In round three, my opponent smashes me with accelerants into Hellkite Charger. I drop.

[DR1] – ZEN Booster Draft #1

Determined to redeem my poor performance, I sign up for a draft.

3 Slaughter Cry
3 Spire Barrage
2 Inferno Trap
2 Scatterskull Giant
2 Highland Berserker
1 Plated Geopede
1 Warren Instigator
1 Burst Lightning
1 Punishing Fire
1 Murasa Pyromancer
1 Geyser Glider
1 Tuktuk Grunts
1 Torch Slinger
2 Windrider Eel
1 Stonework Puma

1 Soaring Seacliff
2 Teetering Peaks
2 Island
12 Mountain

SB: Pyromancer Ascension, Hedron Scrabbler, Lethargy Trap,Turntimber Grove, Jwar Isle Refuge, River Boa, Heartstabber Mosquito, Trailblazer’s Boots, Khalni Gem, Beast Hunt, Narrow Escape, Ondu Cleric x2, Mire Blight, Merfolk Wayfinder, Whiplash Trap

The biggest drafting error I can recall was taking the Khalni Gem somewhere in pack two instead of something else red and playable. I only had one Spire Barrage and Plated Geopede at that point and was still open to going heavy-blue to play the Eels and Whiplash Trap, so I figured it was correct. Tommy suggests that I should probably have played monored, cutting the Eels and all of the nonbasics and instead playing eighteen Mountains and the Hedron Scrabbler. That might have been better, though the Eels did get some beats in over the course of the draft.

My first opponent doesn’t do very much either game other than cast Journey to Nowhere on my guys. It was mostly an effort to get him to twelve life, then throw burn at his face. I then play against Michael Lampert. We exchange mulligans to five, and then he gets color screwed game three. It’s a shame, both of our decks are pretty good and it could have been a sweet match.

The prize structure is 6+freedraft, 4, 1, 1. I try to negotiate with my finals opponent a prize split of all the product versus the free draft, but that ended at an impasse as we both wanted the free draft. I 2-0 his blue-black deck. He plays a turn one Hedron Crab in game two that mills me pretty much every turn, but I disregard it, burn his blockers, and crush his face. To his credit, he says he likes my playmat a lot, and will e-mail me to commission one in the near future.

[DR2] – ZEN Booster Draft #2

I immediately utilize the free draft I just won.

4 Bladetusk Boar
2 Shatterskull Giant
2 Torch Slinger
2 Kazandu Blademaster
1 Highland Berserker
1 Kor Hookmaster
1 Shepherd of the Lost
1 Burst Lightning
1 Blazing Torch
1 Windborne Charge
1 Kor Outfitter
1 Kor Sanctifiers
1 Goblin Shortcutter
1 Nimbus Wings
1 Makindi Shieldmate
1 Adventuring Gear

1 Teetering Peaks
2 Kabira Crossroads
8 Plains
7 Mountain

SB: Pyromancer Ascension, Scalding Tarn, Slaughter Cry, Ondu Cleric, Shoal Serpent, Paralyzing Grasp, Pillarfield Ox, Narrow Escape, Seismic Shudder, Molten Ravager, Bold Defense, Caller of Gales, Kor Duelist, Welkin Tern, Shieldmate’s Blessing, Sky Ruin Drake, Hedron Scrabbler

Yes, yes, I know. “You should’ve played Scalding Tarn, you idiot.”

I lose in the first round to Jason Finn. He opens both games with Kraken Hatchlings on turns one and two, soon followed by multiples of Gomazoa and the uncommon red allies. All he has to do is save his burn, Into the Roils, and Whiplash Traps for my evasive creatures, and there’s pretty much no way he can lose.

[FIN] – Aftermath, Props/Slops, and Quotes

I wait for the draft to finish, as Jason, Lampert, and Nick Larsen are all still in the draft, and we along with Jerrett, Russell, and Bernat plan to go to Portilllo’s for dinner. I watch Nick somehow bumble into victory against Jason, then Lampert. His deck features such hits as Scythe Tiger and Ruinous Minotaur in the same deck as Spire Barrage and Timbermaw Larva.

In the end, I end up 4-3 in matches on the day. Not the worst, I suppose, but I expect better from myself.

Props:
- Pastimes. While having the PTQ in the store was obviously a mistake, they handled that logistical nightmare as best as could be expected. Providing brown paper bags containing the product, pens, and lifepads was a great idea, allowing for efficient distribution of materials and randomization of sealed pools.
- WOTC R&D for making a great limited set. ZEN limited so far has been a huge step up from “lol I got Plains, Forest, Mountain, Woolly Thoctar” or “lol I have two Fireballs and an Earthquake.”

Slops:
- My messy deck registration sheet, for which Tinsley, Drake, and Zimm took turns reprimanding me throughout the day. Sorry guys!
- Anyone who showed up and didn’t shower and/or brush their teeth recently. Fuck you.

Random comments that don’t fit anywhere else:
- It’s pretty awesome how Pyromancer Ascension was in my decklist in every match I played all weekend. I was even slightly tempted to play it in that first draft.
- Rite of Replication with kicker results in some of the most hilarious (or frustrating, if you’re on the wrong side of the table) blowouts.
- Archmage Ascension really, really sucks, even in EDH.

Quotes:
“If I’m about to lose a match, I’m calling the fire department and reporting a fire hazard.” -John Knapp

enter Russell Block, with a $4 bottle of water
Jesus: “Who pays for water?” holds up his free foam cup filled with ice and water
Russell: “I DON’T DRINK YOUR, UH, PEASANT TAP WATER”

Nick Larsen attacks with Ruinous Minotaur. Jason Finn controls a Kraken Hatchling equipped with Spiderslik Net.
Jason: “No blocks.”

Looking for Treasure; Lists; Losing to a Girl

I leave home for FNM on Friday night just after arriving home from school. On nothing but a whim, I leave my house a half-hour earlier than I normally would. This turns out to be a good decision, as the main street I use to get to Pastimes is closed off and I am forced to take a crowded and painfully slow detour. I barely arrive on time.

With the only cardboard I had touched all week having been photo paper, I decide to run a similar Baneslayer/Reveillark list to the one in the last note.

I do pretty miserably. I melt a Sanguine Bond deck in round one (seriously, why do people keep trying this?) and a new player with monowhite soldiers in round two. The latter player asks for help with his deck, so I spend some time helping him tweak his deck and explain various basic deckbuilding and card evaluation principles to him, hoping to foster another FNM regular.

In the almost-mirror in round three, I die to maindeck Sowers of Temptation in game one, followed by fast beats on his end with a mull to five and missed land drops on mine. Meddling Mage typically isn’t great in this matchup, but in both games, opening on turn two with a bear followed by countering stuff more or less keeps me out of both games. I then proceed to die horribly to Kithkin in round four, though I steal game one by curving out  Knight of the White Orchid -> Finks -> Archmage, punishing his getting stuck on two lands.

I drop and play a four-man EDH game with Mike Jures, Russell Block, and Zachary Gray. Lots of minor skirmishing happens as I slowly take damage from a Mana Crypt. Eventually I cast Insurrection and bash Zachary low; he retaliates when his turn rolls around and, despite a long last-ditch turn involving Future Sight, Top, and Tidespout Tyrant, I die.

Since I’m on staff to judge the following day, I opt not to stay for the midnight prerelease event at Pastimes. As I leave, I think to myself, “is it just me or are there far more people here than when FNM began?” It turns out that over eighty people showed up for the midnight prerelease. Impressive.

Judging the following day goes pretty well. Until late into the day, there’s plenty to do all the time, preventing any dull moments. I end up giving out the only penalty administered on the day, to a player who took roughly seven minutes sideboarding. Technical diffuclties prevent the use of a projector for helping everyone keep track of round time, but the combination of Tinsley’s organization and the ubiquity of cellular phones keeps this from being a problem for either the players or the judges. Zim also keeps things lively by jabbing people in the abdomen with pointy objects.

As the day goes on, our hope that someone in the room will open a “hidden treasure” began to waver, as a couple thousand packs or so had been opened without such an occurrence. Eventually, someone opens a Mana Crypt in some of his prize product.

Aside – in the unlikely event that the right people end up reading this: prerelease judge shirts (and judge shirts in general) need to be more like the Conflux and Alara Reborn shirts, rather than the invisible outfits such as the current “standard” judge attire and the Zendikar prerelease shirt. Scanning the room for judges wearing those is simply impossible.

On Sunday, I’m rumbling. I sign up for the first Sealed flight. I open up a pool from which I build a reasonably strong W/U deck with a healthy balance of bears, bombs, fliers, and removal. My first-round opponent has Sorin Markov and Chandra Ablaze. Guess who wins that fight.

After dropping out of that disaster, I redeem a free draft voucher. I open a Day of Judgment and fetchland, but my deck – at least at first impression – doesn’t turn out too well.

3 Crypt Ripper
2 Marsh Casualties (These all come quite late. wtf?)
2 Heartstabber Mosquito
2 Baloth Cage Trap
2 Bog Tatters (barf)
2 Vampire Lascerator
Nimana Sell-Sword (I pass at least three more of these for cards I end up not playing. FML.)
Guul Draz Vampire
Surrakar Marauder
Harrow
Cobra Trap
Hagra Diabolist
Vines of Vastwood
Mold Shambler
Mindless Null
Quest for the Gravelord

Pirahna Marsh
Crypt of Agadeem
6 Forest
11 Swamp

In the first round I play against a blue fliers deck with some questionable card choices. He forgets Living Tsunami’s trigger in game one, and soon just drops in order to sign up with his friend to play 2HG. Mark Pozsgay, also packing a black/green deck is my second-round opponent. I blow him out games one and three with full-value Baloth Cage Traps, dropping game two to turn two and three Oran-Rief Survivalists. The final opponent is playing another blue fliers.dec. My pair of Marsh Casualties do some not nice things to his creatures.

Winning that draft earns me a second free draft. Since I feel like I possibly passed up a solid Ally-based deck in the previous draft, I am ecstatic when I get a p1p1 Kazuul Warlord. I try to run with the theme but get kind of get pushed into being the blue fliers deck with red for burn. I don’t feel bad about this at all, since that’s my favorite limited archetype.

3 Stonework Puma (these were all late picks, I swear)
3 Welkin Tern (Seriously?)
2 Merfolk Seastalkers (Both of these were sometime after fifth or sixth pick in pack one, lol)
2 Burst Lightning
Shoal Serpent
Umara Raptor
Murasa Pyromancer
Sky Ruin Drake
Highland Berserker
Summoner’s Bane
Windrider Eel
Blazing Torch
Trusty Machete
Living Tsunami
Torch Slinger
Kazuul Warlord

11 Island
7 Mountain

I don’t really remember what I played against in the first round. I win game one despite mulling to five, and game two also ends pretty quickly.

For round two I am paired against Susan Zell, another Pastimes regular.

(Unfortunately, this is not before having to wait a gargantuan amount of time for her to finish her previous match. She was paired against Isaac, another notoriously slow player, and the two were in turn five of game one when I finished my first match. Trainee judge Michael Lampert loudly laments not having timed this draft.)

In game one, I eagerly keep a hand consisting of three Islands, Umara Raptor, two Stonework Puma, and Shoal Serpent, giddy because I finally drew a nuts Ally hand. She has a Journey to Nowhere for Umara Raptor and I don’t draw a fourth land for quite some time, so things go south pretty quickly.

I don’t even know what really happened on turn two. I mean, I do, but it’s just so insane. I’m bashing with a Welkin Tern carrying a Trusty Machete in its talons from turn three onward, but I don’t think she ever drops below twelve life. A Grazing Gladeheart enters the battlefield on her side on her third turn, and over the next few turns absurd numbers of lands hit the table thanks to the green quest, a fetchland, and a never-missing Explorer’s Scope. I prove unable to outpace this absurd lifegain before she plays some big green and white guys. What a blowout.

I go home and turn on the television just in time to catch Jay Cutler deliver the game-winning touchdown to Hester. Awesome.

Overall, I’m pretty sure I like Zendikar limited more than M10. It’s not as randomly bombtastic despite the relative scarcity of strong removal spells. It also seems generally faster, which I generally prefer in a limited format as it forces players to pay stronger attention to both their mana curves and mana consistency. The biggest issue I see right now is that Sorin and Chandra seem nearly impossible to actually beat; upward-ramping abilities that are also creature removal make these planeswalkers and their controllers exceedingly difficult to kill in limited. Otherwise, format seems great. Play it while you can, before product runs dry.

As far as relevance to constructed, many have already discussed the relevance of specific cards from the expansion. In general, though, I do like the trend away from the “big spell”-centric game that seems to have been the driving force of design throughout Alara block. Traps, good instants, and generally moving the costs downward (both in quantity and color density) again are all definitely good moves in my book. Traps also add a very interesting gameplay dynamic. Hopefully this results in viable decks that aren’t centered around cascade and Cruel Ultimatum.

Props:
- Pastimes, for awesome events as always.
- The other judges, same reason.

Slops:
- Slowness, both on the road and at the Magic table.
- Under-supplied product
- Clinton Portis. You suck.

Bonus section: Quotes!

“Man, it’s been so long since I’ve played Zendikar!”
- Tabak, of R&D, gunslinger at this event

“…guys, he said ‘reg slips,’ not ‘red slips.’”
- Me, to a handful of guys struggling to locate the registration slips for the prerelease flight Sunday morning.

“I’ll just eat at the restaurant, there’s nowhere here to sit.”
“You can sit over by the YuGiOh players!”
“…I’d rather just not eat.”
- Conversation between Kevin Drake and myself, as I tell him where I’m going to be in case the draft queue fills up while I’m having lunch.

PTQ Chicago 11-22-08: My first time judging.

This PTQ was my first time judging. I shadowed Kevin Tinsley all day, with much additional guidance provided by Nick and Scott.

Since it was a PTQ with a population mostly consisting of seasoned tournament players, things generally went smoothly and there weren’t many major issues or setbacks. The only exception was a certain individual who had some… “strange” ideas about how Magic works. Otherwise, the tournament mostly ran well enough that I was able to handle many of the tasks pretty well (though I still had to bug Kevin and Nick asking what to do fairly often).

The event took place in the midst of the Toy & Game show at Navy Pier, so various other people were wandering around. Pastimes had me do some demos with the Elves vs. Goblins package, and I had the pleasure of teaching two kids how to play. The second seemed especially interested in the game; a couple hours after playing a bunch of games with me, he was already jumping into a booster draft!

Even though I had volunteered to, well, volunteer (since I was in it for the learning experience), Alan awesomely paid for my day’s meals and gave me half of a box at the end of the day.

I thoroughly enjoyed the day, and judging is something I definitely would like to do again.

Props:
- Pastimes and the rest of the judging staff. Everyone.
- All but one of the PTQ players for generally being understanding and cooperative.
- Dennis for providing me with a ride there.

Slops:
- That one guy.
- The concession stand and its ABSURDLY overpriced beverages. $3.00 for a 12oz apple juice? Seriously?

Hahahahahahaha, best slowroll story ever

[22:11] <Leecifer> so I was talking with a player
[22:11] <Leecifer> who shall remain anonymous
[22:11] <Leecifer> he told me was in the semifinals of a tournament
[22:11] <Leecifer> and his friends brought him a cheeseburger
[22:11] <Leecifer> his opponent sees it and goes
[22:11] <Leecifer> “oh man, I’m starving, haven’t eaten all day”
[22:11] <Leecifer> so the guy SLOW ROLLS EATING THE BURGER
[22:11] <Leecifer> so his opponent keeps thinking about how hungry he is the whole match

States: 16th.

Zachary Grey filling out his deck registration sheet before the tournament, with Rashad Miller and others socializing in the background.

16th. A solid performance considering the large attendance (well over 150), I suppose, but at the same time disappointing considering how close I was. Here’s a rough report.

First, decklist. Everyone loves decklists.

// Lands
4 [LRW] Secluded Glen
4 [MOR] Mutavault
4 [UNH] Island
4 [SHM] Sunken Ruins
2 [UNH] Swamp
4 [IA] Underground River
3 [UL] Faerie Conclave

// Creatures
4 [LRW] Mistbind Clique
4 [LRW] Spellstutter Sprite
4 [LRW] Scion of Oona
2 [MOR] Vendilion Clique
2 [LRW] Sower of Temptation

// Spells
4 [MOR] Bitterblossom
4 [LRW] Cryptic Command
4 [ALA] Agony Warp
3 [LRW] Thoughtseize
4 [LRW] Broken Ambitions

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [MOR] Vendilion Clique
SB: 1 [LRW] Thoughtseize
SB: 3 [CS] Flashfreeze
SB: 4 [ALA] Infest
SB: 2 [LRW] Jace Beleren
SB: 4 [SHM] Plumeveil

Round one: He’s playing Kithkin. I lose the die roll and mulligan to a one-lander with Thoughtseize and two Bitterblossoms. I don’t get that second land until my third turn, though, and he blows me out since he’s Kithkin. Game two is bad luck the other way: he gets stuck on two lands; I Infest away his two guys and blow him out. Game three he has a pretty nutty draw, but I barely manage to hang on as a result of seeing all four Infests (three were in the opening hand).

Round two: Red deck. Ugh. I somehow manage to win game one, but postboard the match goes pretty much as expected. I didn’t see a Bitterblossom the entire match, but I’m not sure it would’ve won me game two or three.

Round three: B/W Aggro. Guy’s the owner of a shop I regularly attend, so I knew how his deck worked pretty well. That, along with his mana woes, made this a rather one-sided affair.

Round four: 5c. I mana flood HARD game one (something like four nonland cards against ten lands), but Jace soundly wins both postboard games.

Round five: He’s playing some kind of Bant midrange deck. Game one has both of us drawing a million lands; on turn twenty or so I finally manage to draw business in the form of two consecutive Bitterblossoms and they go the distance. Game two has me mostly countering and Mistbind Clique-ing him out of the game.

Round six: It’s a scary Naya aggro deck and he easily takes game one with a bunch of cheap gargantuan guys. Game two I get the “turn two Bitterblossom, counter all of your spells” draw. Plumeveil stalls his assault game three as I slowly assemble a force with which to kill him.

Round seven: Elves. He comes blasting out of the gates game one, getting me to one life on turn six or so. I narrowly manage to stablize and come back to win. The key point of the game was after I used Sower of Temptation to take his Chameleon Colossus. I attack with Sower and Colossus, with Agony Warp and Spellstuter Sprite in hand to deal with his Mutavault. He animates Mutavault and attacks; I attempt to Agony Warp it, and he in response tries to cast Eyeblight’s Ending on my Sower. Spellstutter Sprite comes in and counters it, with Chameleon Colossus hilariously being the third faerie. I untap and kill him. Game two I should have won, but I got greedy and went for an endstep Vendilion Clique which ate an evoked Cloudthresher in response costing me a bunch of Bitterblossom tokens and I die to my own Bitterblossom shortly afterwards. Game three has him mulling to four, and so I keep a hand of five lands (including two manlands) and Bitterblossom. He rips the Thoughtseize, but I draw Vendilion, Mistbind, Mistbind and he dies.

After frustratingly not being able to draw into the top8 at 6-1-1, I am forced to play out round eight against a rogue deck consisting of good white creatures protected by Negate, Hindering Light, and Cryptic Command. I narrowly win game one. In game two, I see three Infests but never find a second black mana with which to cast them. Game three is pretty much the worst game of Magic I’ve played in my life; I don’t know if it was the cold I soldiered through all day, exhaustion from having played so many games, frustration at not having been able to draw in, frustration at my draws the previous game, or some combination of the above, but it was terrible. I Vendilion Clique him on turn three, see two Unmakes and a Hindering Light, and yet proceed to absolutely stupidly play into each and every one of them despite all of those cards being clearly written in my customary huge capital letters in my notebook. I must say that this guy’s deck seems intriguing, if not promisingly good, though; he even told me after the match that I  had administered him only his third game loss on the day.

In between rounds, we played around with the newly-released Jace vs. Chandra set. It’s a blast, and we all highly recommend it.

So I go home with half a box, for which I get a decent amount of cash. The day was a fun experience as a whole, and it’s my first solid performance in a major constructed event in a long time (miserable performances of 0-3 at Regionals, 0-4 over the last two Extended PTQs, 2-2 at a block PTQ).

Top8 at Vintage tournament last Saturday.

A bunch of people more or less collectively wrote my report for me here. Basically I lost to Jamison playing RGW Beatz twice. He being the eventual winner makes me feel a little better

If I could do the tournament over again, I’d have run more anti-aggro cards in the sideboard instead of the anti-Oath and anti-Stax stuff.