Boston PTQ 6/6

I play magic on Wednesdays at a local store in Cambridge. I was pretty high on red deck from my success with it at the PTQ, but I also was looking pretty hard at the 5-color bloodbraid deck, it looked greedy and fun. The only thing holding me back was a lack of Maelstrom Pulses, which I was not willing to spend the 100 something on to pick up a set. After having my more streamlined version of my red deck go 0-2 drop on Wednesday, folding to the mirror and B/W; I asked around and my friend John said he'd lend me his Pulses for the weekend. Coolio. I threw together Chapins deck and fiddled with the sideboard to get this.

St. Blood

Land:

3 Twilight Mire

2 Cascade Bluffs

2 Flooded Grove

 1 Exotic Orchard

 4 Reflecting Pool

4 Crumbling Necropolis

4 Vivid Grove

3 Vivid Crag

 1 Mountain

 1 Swamp

 1 Forest

Creatures:

4 Putrid Leech

3 Sygg, River Cutthroat

4 Boggart Ram-Gang

4 Anathemancer

4 Bloodbraid Elf

Spells:

2 Jund Charm

2 Volcanic Fallout

4 Maelstrom Pulse

4 Cryptic Command

2 Bituminous Blast

1 Cruel Ultimatum

Sideboard:

4 Celestial Purge

3 Kitchen Finks

1 Loxodon Warhammer

3 Thought Hemorrhage

2 Puppeteer Clique

1 Bituminous Blast

1 Volcanic Fallout

That Friday I woke up at 5pm. Awkward. Spend the evening playing against my friends B/W list, and found that really Burrenton Forge-Tender was quite the pain, but otherwise I could generally pull it out. I crash on his couch around 1am and... don't sleep. I roll around, wander around, write out a sideboard plan. Wake up my friend at 7, we eat breakfast and head out. Get to the Brighton Knights of Columbus at 9:30 Doesn't look like there's too many players, maybe 150, turns out there's a downstairs, and the PTQ was over 200 players. We player meet, and then it's Off to the Races.

Round 1- Rylan playing the Mirror

 Game 1 I run out my Anathemancers too early and don't take advantage of his Mana Base, allowing him to burn me out later when he draws into his own Anathemancers.

Game 2 he Plays out Chameleon Colossus, for which I have no answer, and proceeds to crush me.

 0-1

Round 2- Elijah playing B/W tokens

 Elijah's B/W tokens list is sub optimal, and isn't helped when he doesn't draw any of his Windbrisk Heights in either of the two games, without Forge-Tender to protect him from my sweepers, I pull both games out on cascade card advantage.

 1-1

Round 3- Jurgis Playing Faeries

 Apparently today was the day that I played people with interesting names, I dunno. Game one I keep a slow hand and he shuts me out of the game as faeries does. Game 2 I mulligan down to 5, keep another slow hand, and and crushed without mercy.

 1-2

At this point, with both my friend and I out of contention, we decide to drop, get some lunch and go home. On the way back I'm falling asleep any time we sit down, clearly this PTQ wasn't going to work out, oh well. Sometimes, these things happen.

Wandering Off,

P.

GP Seattle

Grand Prix Seattle... Wow. What a blast. After the fiasco in Chicago, I spent a few days chilling out, enjoying Chicago, and headed out on Amtrak on Tuesday. The train was great; got to meet lots of interesting people, and the scenery going across the Great Plains, and through the Rockies is generally stunning. If you're willing to take some time traveling, it's definitely worth it. Got into Tacoma on Thursday with a motel room for the night but that's it. I was glad to get some time in a room on my own to shower and such; but that Friday, I headed out to the grinders needing a place to stay.

Grinders were pretty intense, and I can't say I did too well, running my straight up R/B Aggro. I do pick up an awesome altered Hellspark Elemental, from the cool cat over at Planeswalkers Paradise, where he luckily posted a picture before trading it off to me. On the room front I ran into one Yoni, a guy I had hung out with a bit when I had visited Japan for the Pro Tour. We had taken the Train from the Airport to Kyoto together, ended up getting dinner that first night when none of us were sure where to go. I asked if he'd be willing to have me crash on his floor, and after deliberating with his roommates, said yes. Score! Glad not to be sleeping on the streets, I Signed up for the GP, got my playmate and scrubbed out of another grinder. Overall a pretty good day.

The Event was being held at the Tacoma Convention Center, which was a very attractive building; and, as we were on the fifth floor, had a stunning view of Tacoma and Mount St. Helen. Unfortunately, the place might as well have been in the middle of a Desert. Surrounded by the business district of Tacoma, all the restaurants that might have been open, closed on the weekends. It was at least a two block hike to any open eatery, and most places closed around 6... Uhg. Luckily they had a burger stand in the venue, so I tried not to leave if ever possible. The view was better then the walk.

having failed pretty miserably to make any progress in the grinders, I decided I really just wanted to play a deck with Bloodbraid Elf, since it's just too good. Stretching my Anathemancer decks mana got me this.

Jund bleh

Land:

4 Auntie's Hovel

3 Savage Lands

4 Karplusan Forest

3 Graven Cairns

4 Reflecting Pool

2 Fire-lit Thicket

4 Mountain

Creatures:

4 Figure of Destiny

4 Hellspark Elemental

4 Boggart Ram-Gang

4 Anathemancer

4 Bloodbraid Elf

Spells:

2 Magma Spray

3 Terror

3 Volcanic Fallout

4 Blightning

4 Flame Javelin

Borrowing some cards from my newly acquainted roommates, I was set to play.

 I'm not going to spend too much time on the GP although considering, I probably should to improve. I went 0-4, playing against a very nice fellow running G/W with Knight of Meadowgrain, the match-ups bad enough without having my hellsparks blanked, but I did have some horrid misplays to lose the second game. then I lost to Bloomtender Lark, including a game where I stuck him on 2 lands for about 10 turns with a fulminator mage, but only had figures to attack when his only play was pithing needle on figure. Round three I lost to some awful by it's players admission elementals deck. Finally round 4 I ended my misery against elves combo, having them blow me out in 2.

I spent the rest of Saturday wandering the hall, talking to artists, and getting sketches and signatures on my playmat. By the end of the day I had a pretty awesome giant mousepad. Hopefully I can post pictures later, as soon as I find the wire from my computer to my camera... yeah.

I had a pretty good day all things considered, and Yoni even made day 2! That was pretty cool, but none of the other guys in our room did (: P), so a few of them went around building 5-color bloodbraid for the PTQ on Sunday. After having such an awful day with my deck, I was interested. Unfortunately there was no way 3 of us were going to be able to get the cards together, and as the man who had lended me my Karplusan Forests wanted them back, I ended up back at my old BR Anathemancer stand by.

Meatgrinder

Land:

4 Aunties Hovel

4 Sulfurous Springs

4 Graven Cairns

3 Ghitu Encampment

1 Reflecting Pool

8 Mountain

Creatures:

2 Mogg Fanatic

4 Figure of Destiny

3 Goblin Outlander

4 Hellspark Elemental

4 Boggart Ram-Gang

4 Anathemancer

2 Puppeteer Clique

Spells:

2 Magma Spray

3 Terror

4 Flame Javelin

3 Volcanic Fallout

1 Banefire

Because of the awkward timing of everything, this was the list I made. I wasn't sure with all the weird numbers, but it had all the tools probably kill you, so I named the deck Meatgrinder. Clunky but gets the job done, Meatgrinder.

Match 1- Will playing 5c Bloodbraid

 Game 1 I start of a bit slow goblin outlander, he drops a kitchen finks I can't deal with and soon overwelms me with cascaded card advantage. Game 2 I hellspark him down to 14 before he drops 2 kitchen finks and crushes me.

0-1

God I'm awful at magic, I must have won like, 4 games this entire weekend...

Match 2-Mike playing Rogue(not the creature type)

 Mike was playing an interesting cascade deck that seemed to have decided to replace about 18 of the land in the combo deck with other thinks that gain life. Game 1 He gains some life but doesn't put on any pressure, gets swans and seismic assault but can possibly draw enough lands to kill me. Game 2 I just run him over with a single figure of destiny and land.

1-1

Match 3- Joel playing Combo Elves

 I wouldn't figure this out until later but I got the pair up in this match; in a 350 person PTQ, total hacks. Game 1 Joel gets stuck on one land for like 4 turns after I kill his llanowar elf and I'm able to beat him down before he can get anything going. Game 2 I get him down to 8 and Thought Hemorrhage his primal command, but his mosswort bridges are total gas and he combos me out.

Game 3 I get him down to 10, but then he starts running out Primal Commands. He's at 26 when I drop a figure hitting him for 2. Next turn I draw a flame Javelin and hit him for 8 down to 16; He combos out finishing with an Imperious Perfect and pray for Volcanic Fallout. Untap, draw... Flame Javelin. Your at 16? 8 you with Figure, finish you off with Javelins. Savage. Rips.

2-1

Match 4- Mike playing Faeries

 These games aren't really fair. at one point he taps out for Mistbind Clique with double Scion in play and I volcanic fallout him to 3 for 1. Really it was rather brutal.

3-1

After this I go get some lunch, I was feeling pretty good, but you can never know when a bad matchup might end your day.

Match 5- Bob playing Faeries

 Well, guess it's not now. Hell, he even got a game off me with Loxodon Warhammer.

4-1

Match 6- Asher play B/G Elves

 This was an interesting match-up. I played against Asher Hecht, I've heard his name around the New York player area, and man was he a jerk. As far as I can tell, he wasn't playing Chameleon Colossus, so in general my dudes were just better then his. Without Kitchen Finks his biggest threat seemed to be treetop villages. And while I don't argue that Maelstrom Pulse isn't amazing, in this match-up Volcanic Fallout is really Just Better. Game 1 he dealt me a grand total of 5 damage, and while game 2 was closer, both were decided by the fact that I had reach and he didn't.

5-1

Getting a little excited now, might actually be able to live the dream...

Match 7- Jon playing Bant

 Jon was a friend of the guy who beat me first round of the GP, and both were great guys, but I feared that he too might be running the GW. Luckily such was not the case, and in both games he kept pretty gas light hands and I was able to remove his few real threats and just smash for the win, although in game 2 he did deal me a decent chunk with his birds+hierarch combo..

6-1

Wow, one more game and I might be able to draw into the top 8!

Match 8- ??? playing Swans

 I feel bad because I lost my notes for this game so I don't recall the name of this guy, but I will say he was quite cordial and luckily, these games weren't too complicated. Game 1 he plays turn one spinerock knoll, turn two vivid crag, turn three reflecting pool seismic assault. turn four he knocks me for 8, flips swans off of rock and combos out.

At this point I make a fatal misplay in sideboarding. I side in my Thought Hemorrhages and Fulminator Mages, not even giving my Everlasting Torments a thought, since he doesn't play lifegain! Uhg. Game two he goes turn one Spinerock Knoll, turn two Vivid Crag, Turn three Reflecting Pool seismic Assault. On turn 4 he domes me for 8, flips swans off of rock, draws two... and passes. I proceed to kill him with my figures and ram-gangs posthaste.

Game 3 I end up keeping a 1 lander don't draw another land until around turn 3 or 4 and without any hate or pressure he easily combos off for the match.

6-2

2 cards and a mulligan out of top 8. Well it was probably more difficult then that, but still.

Match 9-Dante playing GW tokens

 I battle valiantly, even taking game 2 off him, but really he wipes the floor with me.

6-3

In the end, with tie breakers of 57% I make 30th; the top of the 6-3s because the guy I lost to first round placed 9th, and I get 6 packs. Me and the guys in the room go out to an alright pizza place and celebrate Yoni getting 50th and 200 dollars. We spend the rest of the night drafting and I flew home the next day, where I was horridly sick. I personally, blame the mediocre pizza. Next time, I'll take the train.

Wandering Off,

P.

Chicago PTQ 5/23

Well folks, wish that I could tell you I got a lot out of this PTQ, but I can't. I was also hoping to post some pictures, but unfortunately I left my camera->computer wire in Boston, so I guess I'm just full of bad news.

The day started out just fine, walking up at 7 and wandering over to a local bakery from my sister's apartment, getting a tea and muffin for not nearly enough money. As I sat in the window I could see the bus stop across the street, and as I was finishing up, the bus drove right by. I sighed, but that was fine; I waited the twenty minute for the next bus and crossed my fingers that I was riding in the right direction, I was and jumped off the bus wandered towards Forest Glen, the rather decrepit Metra stop I was getting on at. As I climbed the stairs, the train I wanted pulled right up, Awesome right! Unfortunately, I was on the wrong side of the tracks, with the only path to the right side... Blocked by the Train. Damn.

Two hours later I get on the train at 11, Ride it the three stops to Golf and get off. I then trudge the about two miles, not quite sure where the venue is. In my sweaty, sun-burned state, I decide that I'm just going to get some lunch at a local Panera.

While standing by the drink fountain, I notice a pair sitting a few tables away, obviously magic players. I chat with them and they tell me the venue is, "right over there". I peek out and see the usual cigarette smoking crowd out by a back entrance. I'm not sure I would have ever found it.

They were in the middle of round two when I got to the venue. Pastimes was the name of the store, and they apparently only had table numbers going from 131 up. It made things a bit bewildering. The store could hold about 170 people, but nearly 200 people had shown up for the PTQ, so they were overflowing into the bakery/bubble-tea shop next door. A lot of bubble tea was drunk. There were so many players in the tournament, they posted pairings outside the store itself and told the players to leave between rounds. I hung out until about 9, watched a lot of magic, played a little. Got to meet the wonderful couple from Show us your noobs, both were quite worth chatting with and you (whoever you are) should check out their blog.

Overall it was not the worst day, but gotta say, could be close, : P. All the people were wonderful, just the public transportation was aweful. Well, hopefully GP Tacoma won't turn out the same way, but, if it does at least their will be side events. By the way, here's the list of what I was going to try out this weekend, but failed.

DreamCrusher

Lands:

5 Forest

4 Mountain

4 Plains

3 Fire-lit Thicket

2 Rugged Prairie

4 Terramorphic Expanse

1 Wooded Bastion

1 Treetop Village

Creatures:

4 Birds Of Paradise

4 Bloodbraid Elf

4 Countryside Crusher

4 Kitchen Finks

4 Knight Of The Reliquary

spells:

3 Path To Exile

4 Volcanic Fallout

4 Ajani Vengeant

1 Worm Harvest

2 Wrath Of God

2 Behemoth Sledge

Sideboard:

1 Path to Exile

1 Behemoth Sledge

2 Wall Of Reverence

2 Incendiary Command

3 Primal Command

3 Guttural Response

3 Fulminator Mage

I don't know if this list is good or not yet, because I 

haven't got to really play with it, hopefully I can get some

games in on thursday and friday before the GP.

Wandering Off,

P.

Maine PTQ 5/9

Drove up on Friday with a local Judge, we stayed in a hotel near the Venue, a place called Crossroad Games. They have a great event space, with a separate area for their product space; tons of play room, and with a store owner that seems like a totally chill guy that knew what he was doing, I'm pretty sure this was game store heaven.

I decided I wanted to play Blightning, since it was a deck that could really punish my opponents for stumbling on draws and had game against a lot of people who may not have adjusted to the rotation quite yet. Here's the list I was running;

Land:

4 Auntie's Hovel

4 Graven Cairns

4 Sulfurous Spring

3 Ghitu Encampment

8 Mountains

Creatures: 

4 Tattermunge Maniac

4 Figure of Destiny

1 Jund Hackblade

3 Goblin Outlander

4 Hellspark Elemental

4 Boggart Ram-gang

Spells:

3 Terror

4 Blightning

4 Flame Javelin

3 Puncture Blast

3 Volcanic Fallout

Sideboard:

4 Deathmark

3 Anathemancer

3 Everlasting Torment

2 Chaotic Backlash

2 Slave of Bolas

1 Banefire

I still like the actual card Blightning in this deck, unlike cards like Thoughtseize, BlightningDoesn't fault from the existance of card redundancy in the format; I find that the R/B deck can deal with a Spectral Procession and a Cloudgoat Ranger, but dealing with a Spectral, two Rangers and a Glorious Anthem is a lot harder. Blightning deals with those kinds of problems.

I haven't really been too impressed with Anathemancer, sure it's great against Faeries and 5-Color , but you're good in those matchups anyways. The matches I really need the help in its usually a shock that chump blocks one token out of they're swarm while you die anyways. Still, I went 3-5 at this PTQ so, take my comments for what you will.

Round 1

I start the day off with a Blightning Mirror Match, nothing like a good race to get your day started. Game 1 I start out a bit slow with a encampment into outlander while he drops ahellspark sending me to 17. he quickly runs out of gas though while I drop ram-gang and end up finishing him off with burn.

Game 2 I come up short with the hellsparks this time, and he overwhelms me with Figures and ram-gangs.

Game 3 I get him down to 9 quite quickly from a figure and ram-gang, while he has very little action. He gets the kill spells for my two dudes and I'm stuck on 3 lands then drops a ram-gang of his own, I have a ghitu encampment in play and 7 points of burn in my hand, so I don't burn out the ram-gang, planning to burn him out at EOT. Instead though, I decide to just take my turn when he passes, drawing my card like the Scrub that I am and loss the game when he drops his Demigod to kill me, not having the mana to deal him the damage to kill him.

0-1

Round 2

Face down an G/W tokens deck, I've lost my notes for this match, so I don't recall the first game, but in the second I got stuck on two red for the second game, and while I drew twohellsparks to get him down to 8, but I couldn't finish him off with my hand full of javelins andfallouts.

0-2

Round 3

When my opponent complained as the game started that he's had to face the mirror in every round, I feel pretty good about my chances. Game 1 he draws dead and I crush him.

Game 2 I mull to 5 and decide to draw dead this time, and just don't get

there.
Game 3 we have quite a tight race because I take maybe 7 or 8 damage from my sulfurous springs, but I win out with my burn in the end.
1-2
Round 4 Round 4 I face off against a Treefolk deck, and let me tell you, hellspark elementals andtattermunge maniacs just don't look as good when your opponent is running out turn onetreefolk harbingers and turn two Bosk Bannerets. Both games I get him down to 6, but the huge butts on his creatures, just make everything awkward, and the occasional free woodfall primushe got off his leaf-crown elders definitely didn't help. I would not be surprised though if Isideboarded wrong in the match-up.
1-3
Round 5 The Blightning mirror one more time. Game 1 he stumbles a bit keeping a land light hand, and I run him over finishing him off with burn.
Game 2 is a lot closer with him getting me down to 5 with assorted hellsparks and burn, but once again I get there in the end with a EOT flame javelin (remembered this time!) into fallout for the win.
Apparently I'm only able to beat other R/B decks...
2-3
Round 6
After waiting around for 10 minutes, I am victorious over the vicious opponent of No Show. Suppose that happens sometimes in the 2-3 Bracket.3-3
Round 7 This round I play against Ely, the one opponent who's name I recalled, for it's interesting spelling. Ely was playing G/B Elves; but the notes for this round were on the same paper as round 2, but from what I recall we tied it up 1 to 1 and in game 3 his draws 2 kitchen finks while I draw quite the number of terrors and fallouts instead of threats.
3-4
Round 8 I play against my friend Matt who I drove up with, we had both had pretty similar records the entire day, but had avoided each other because of the draw he had picked up in the first round. He was playing B/W tokens and I just don't end up drawing any of my breakers; not a single fallout game 1 or two, and never any of my sideboard cards. We play pretty casually and I don't take notes.
3-5
While my record may have been atrocious, I had a lot of fun and had to hang around for the top 8 since my ride was a judge anyways. In the top 8 if I recall correctly there were;

3 B/W Tokens2 Boat Brew1 G/W Tokens1 5-Color Bloodbraid1 B/R Aggro
The G/W Tokens deck ended up winning, beating out the B/R Aggro deck in the finals. the G/W Tokens guy was obviously on top of his game, but also had a touch of the unbeatable aura on him, not losing a game in the top 8, apparently only mulliganing twice in the swiss, and losing his only games to mana screw. On the other hand the B/R aggro deck beat out 2 B/W tokens decks to get to the finals, and had played what sounded like 6 spectral procession decks in the swiss (4 BW/2 GW if I recall correctly) Interested, I asked for his list;

Land:

4 Auntie's Hovel

4 Graven Cairns

4 Sulfurous Spring

4 Ghitu Encampment

7 Mountains

Creatures: 

4 Mogg Fanatic

4 Figure of Destiny

3 Goblin Outlander

4 Hellspark Elemental

4 Boggart Ram-gang

4 Anathemancer

Spells:

3 Terror

3 Volcanic Fallout

4 Flame Javelin

4 Magma Spray

Sideboard:

3 Deathmark

3 Infest

3 Guttural Response

2 Chaotic Backlash

2 Puppeteer Clique

2 Banefire

He didn't give me the lands, so this may not be exactly correct, but the only differences I could really see would be some slight fluctuation with the Ghitu Encampments.

I think that Magma Sprays are probably correct, doing what Puncture Blast does for less basically every time. While I may not love them, you can't deny that those Anathemancers did get him into the top 8. Sideboard Cliques seem fine, although can I see them as inter-changeable with the slave of Bolas's in that slot; clique certainly blocks better. The one card I would have no qualms changing would be the Guttural Response, they're fine, but at the moment counterspell decks are bad, and most of the matches you want them you can win without.

I'm not sure what I would cut the Responses for; maybe I would run sideboard Blightnings, since I do see them as one of the main reasons I won the red deck mirror matches; but I could also go for just upping the numbers on some of the other slots. Go up to 4 deathmarks and infests, or raise to 3 backlashes. We'll see how this all works out for Regionals.

Wandering Off,

P.

A Purpose

I Have a goal, a goal to attend a REL Competitive Event Every weekend for the rest of the summer of '09. Most will be PTQs, but There will be also be GPs, Regionals, Nats if I'm lucky. Right now the Schedule looks like this:

5/9 Maine PTQ

5/16 Regionals

5/23 Chicago PTQ

5/30 Seattle GP

6/6 Boston PTQ

6/13 Conneticut PTQ

6/20 Boston 5k

6/27 Columbus PTQ?

7/5 Toronto PTQ?

7/11 -

7/18 New Jersey PTQ

7/25 -

8/2 Boston GP

8/8 Columbus PTQ

8/14 Indianapolis PTQ x2 (Gencon)

8/22 Boston PTQ

8/30 New York PTQ

It's ambitious, but Exciting. In those none PTQ weeks, I'll work; but I'm ready to play 'til I Qualify.

Wandering off,

P.