Wow, what a crazy weekend. StarCityGames.com was gracious enough to host the biggest, baddest, bestest event in Texas since Grand Prix: Dallas a couple years ago, which was followed by the rare and elusive Sunday PTQ. Two big tournaments meant I’d have to be on my A-Game to defend my home Texas from the traveling outsiders. Unfortunately, I only got 45 minutes of sleep, and I audibled into the homebrew Five-Color Orzhov deck detailed below.
Another misfortune this weekend was a PTQ scheduled on Saturday, drawing 110 players away from the StarCityGames.com $5000 Standard Open, which had 260 people in attendance. If those 110 had played at the $5K, it would have met the average turnout of 360+ per tournament, but the PTQ scheduling really hurt both tournaments.
Creatures (12)
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (24)
Spells (21)
I didn’t have much faith in my UW Baneslayer or Faeries matchup, which both looked to be very popular at the $5K, so I chose to play this deck over my Plans deck that has been proving itself as a serious contender.
The core of the deck is the best one-mana spells in Standard to ensure a two-drop when you have the double Vivid land draws. This is the same concept that I used in Plans, but this deck backed them up with the best three-drops in Standard: Stillmoon Cavalier and Kitchen Finks. Ajani Vengeant is the four-drop, and very easy to support given the defensive three-drops and eight one-mana removal spells. Bitterblossom may not seem too synergistic, but given the eleven life gain spells main deck it isn’t a hindrance, and it’s the best card versus Five-Color Control and Faeries. Those are really just road bump threats there to distract the opponent from the incoming Angel. I was playing with Tidehollow Scullers over Esper Charm for awhile, but I quickly noticed how much this deck needed a card draw option, and the discard ability enhanced my post board discard package and was a great way to protect Baneslayer. The miser’s Banefire is answer #5 to opposing Angels, burn spell #8 to make going to the dome realistic in times of trouble, and the way I can pull out a long game against an opponent prepared for my creatures if I don’t draw the discard to support them.
It’s a pretty efficient control deck that has better Baneslayers than any other Angel-based decks I’ve seen so far, since my supporting crew is full of A-Team spells. The UW Baneslayer deck is nice and all, but Glen Elendra is the only card in their deck that’s actually good outside of Baneslayer. Everything else is stupid little 2/2s and generic countermagic.
The sideboard is a hodge-podge of flexible good cards to fill in the holes and problems I might encounter. Thought Hemorrhage/Runed Halo for Anathemancer, Zealous Persecution for Elves and Faeries, Doran/Clique for the games where I sideboard Stillmoon out to keep threats in the deck, and a lean mean discard suite with Duress and Hemorrhage complementing the maindeck Esper Charm and Thoughtseize for the control games.
Overall, I felt like I had a good metagamed brew on my hands, so Benito and I sleeved it up on the ride there and crossed our fingers for the UW Baneslayer, Faeries, Five-Color Control, and Jund matchups.
Round 1 versus Robert Green playing Jund Aggro
Robert is a PTQ veteran who I’ve played several times. He recently won the San Antonio PTQ with his techy Red Faeries list. He’s a real up and coming Texas player who has been putting up high finishes the past couple years, and he’s a great deck tweaker and technical player. Not the guy I want to play round 1, but I enjoy these heady matchups much more than beating my opponents mercilessly with an unexpected Angel. Problem was, Robert was also one of the three people to whom I showed my decklist before the tournament! So much for surprise factor…
Game 1 has him aiming his pair of Flame Javelin and Lightning Bolts at my Finks, Ajani Vengeant, and Stillmoon Cavaliers. His Blightning was pretty brutal, but once I Esper Charmed his hand away and landed a Baneslayer, he didn’t top deck an answer.
I boarded out the bad Stillmoons since his Jund deck was packing Flame Javelin, and brought Doran, Runed Halo, and Puppeteer Clique in, and traded a Duress for a Thoughtseize.
Game 2 I got pretty lucky and drew four Kitchen Finks to offset his Blightnings and Putrid Leeches. Ajani Vengeant took over the board until he burned it, and I edged him out with a Puppeteer Clique after the Finks beats brought him low.
1-0
Round 2 versus Nathan with Five-Color Blood
Game 1 I landed turn 2 and 3 Bitterblossom. He had two Bloodbraid Elves, but my Kitchen Finks provided the defense needed to run him over with Faerie tokens.
Game 2 was pretty funny. He got stuck with a pair of Naturalize in his hand in preparation for Bitterblossom, boarding out his Terminates which enabled my Baneslayer to kill him in four turns.
2-0
Benito was also 2-0, and we were feeling very good about our deck choice and playing the best creatures with the best spells.
Round 3 versus Ben with Jund Cascade
This is one of those Bloodbraid Elf / Bituminous Blast / Enlisted Wurm decks which felt like it could cause some problems for me. Game 1 he got a pair of Boggart Ram-Gang which traded with a Lightning Bolt and a Kitchen Finks, a pair of Bloodbraid Elves which were shut down by my first striking Stillmoon Cavalier, and an Enlisted Wurm which did a whole lot of nothing. Esper Charm took a couple of Bituminous Blasts. Baneslayer got in a beat, dropping him to four, but he top decked a Maelstrom Pulse so I had to give my Cavalier flying to finish him off.
Game 2 saw Stillmoon continue to dominate him, holding off a Boggart Ram-Gang and Bloodbraid Elf while giving me time to Esper Charm a couple of times to refill my hand. I assumed he would board in Anathemancer, but instead he took out his Volcanic Fallouts. My double Stillmoon draw eventually went the distance, alongside a pair of Kitchen Finks.
3-0
Round 4 versus Hai Bing Hu with Faeries
Hai has consistently been in the top three or so Limited players in Texas since I started playing the game, and he’s a frequent draft/2HG teammate. We got a feature match underneath the cool cameras that produce a live internet feed.
Game 1 I get a really good start, with a pair of Thoughtseize and Bitterblossom to cripple the Faerie player, leaving him with useless Sowers in his hand with no countermagic. His Vendilion Cliques were useless opposite my horde of Faeries, but I didn’t draw any creatures or lifegain spell the entire game, and lost to my own Bitterblossoms.
The Zealous Persecutions came in, and I felt very confident going into game 2.
This one I mulliganed to five, but I had a decent three-land opener with a Baneslayer and Thoughtseize, which nabbed his Cryptic Command. I got stuck on four mana with three Baneslayers in my hand, knowing he had a Sower of Temptation so I was hoping to draw into a removal spell. He ran a Spellstutter Sprite out there to get damage in, and then played the Sower from his hand to increase his clock! This was my chance… draw a land and I land a Baneslayer, but unfortunately my next three draws were Zealous Persecutions! Nice timing! I took beats from his Faeries for a couple turns before going for double Persecution, but he had a counter to save his Sower. I never hit a fifth land and died to Mutavault beats.
Rough games… the mulligan sucked, but me not drawing Kitchen Finks or Stillmoon Cavalier either game was what really killed me.
3-1
Round 5 versus Five-Color Control
Mulligan to five with four lands. I ended the game with ten lands in play.
Mulligan to five with two lands. I ended the game with three lands in play.
3-2
Top 8 contention was now out the door, but with only three rounds left I could still easily make Top 16 with my techy metagame deck. Benito made a bunch of mistakes and picked up three losses in a row.
Round 6 versus Aaron Tobey with Merfolk
Tobey is another great player, and I grew up playing against him. He made Top 8 at his first five PTQs in 2004-05, and went to Pro Tour: Kobe with me in 2006.
This was my first foray opposite Merfolk, and I didn’t know it was foreshadowing my PTQ demise the next day. I mulliganed each game, and got overrun by Wake Thrasher becoming a 12/12 on turn 5 after tapping out for an Ajani Vengeant to kill his Merrow Reejerey. He then played two more Reejereys, a Banneret, a Sygg, and still had Cryptic Command mana up on the next turn!
Tobey had a pretty bad beat later in the tournament playing against Jund. He tapped out to play a Reveillark with two Silvergil Adepts in his graveyard, and his opponent used Slave of Bolas on it! He attacked Tobey, then got back two Anathemancers to do exactly enough damage to kill him! Game 1 Slave of Bolas… so good!
3-3 Drop!
After I dropped, I played an M10 draft. I drafted a GB deck with double Doom Blade, double Craw Wurm, double Stampeding Rhino, several three-power critters for three mana, Weakness, a couple of Assassinates, and Sign in Blood, but my game record at the end of the draft was 1-8-1, making it the absolute worst draft I’ve ever played. I got blown out every single game with what I thought was a “good” deck, but after dying to Serra Angel, Sleep, Wall of Frost, Ant Queen, Armored Ascension, Earthquake, and Prodigal Pyromancer with Gorgon Flail on it, I have a completely different view on the format: it sucks!
Seriously?! How does a solid GB deck with good beaters, lots of removal, and a nice curve make an underpowered deck in this format? There are too many freaking bombs and not enough answers. That’s my experience with it the one time I’ve ever played with the cards.
My good buddy James Wise and I made a bet: whoever did better with their version of Colfenor’s Plans at the $5k would be forced to play the other guy’s version at the PTQ the next day. I backed out of the bet by playing Baneslayer Beatings, but he succeeded with his horrible Figure of Destiny based version by making Top 8! Needless to say I didn’t want to play that trash list, but it’s a good testament to the power of Colfenor’s Plans. “2BB: Draw 7” will win games even when your deck isn’t built to perfection. I actually had to get on my knees to beg his forgiveness because he was so mad at me for not updating to his list.
The Top 8 split the cash for $550 apiece, but played it out to determine a winner and owner of the prestigious trophy. I wish I had given this tournament a better effort with a good deck, so I really wanted to play Colfenor’s Plans the following day for the PTQ. Just not James’s version!
After that, the Texasmagiczone.com crew of about thirty of us headed to Jake’s, a quaint sports bar in the center of Fort Worth with very attractive waitresses.
After we left Jake’s around midnight, Brian Hart and I hit up a couple bars before returning to William’s hotel, a buddy I’ve chatted with via email a few times and met up with him at the event. I tried to run my game on Melissa, the blonde late-night shift hotel clerk. I even got her to the basement where they keep all the towels and pillows, but unfortunately I couldn’t finish and returned back to the room around three to get four hours of sleep.
In the morning I laid out my Plans deck and decided I didn’t want to put my last PTQ in the hands of a random homebrew deck that hasn’t proven itself yet. There wasn’t as much UW Baneslayer or Faeries as I feared, and I felt like I had a good matchup versus Merfolk from my previous encounters, so I sleeved up this Ajani-free version.
Creatures (4)
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (25)
Spells (28)
I felt very confident with this list. I took Ajani out because his place in this field has fallen sharply, much like Kitchen Finks, since people are well equipped to handle the low loyalty Planeswalker. He is usually just a four-mana Lightning Helix that absorbs a small critter’s attack.
Pithing Needle is the most recent addition, solving Glen Elendra problems against UW Baneslayer; Sygg and Mutavault versus Merfolk; Anathemancer and Hellspark versus Red decks; and nullifying any Planeswalker decks that pop their head up. I really didn’t need a third Baneslayer in the sideboard, and would have been better off having another copy of Identity Crisis or a fourth Vendilion Clique.
Round 1 versus Eric with U/W Baneslayer
Eric is a buddy of mine from San Antonio, and was playing the highly anticipated Baneslayer deck with Glen Elendra that gives me fits.
Game 1 I Clique away his Archmage, then counter-bounce a land when he taps out for a Mulldrifter. I follow it up with Identity Crisis, to which he concedes.
Game 2 goes a touch longer. I land an early Pithing Needle on Glen Elendra Archmage to shut down the two he has in his hand. Vendilion Clique takes a Cryptic Command, and he gets a couple of Meddling Mages down that I have to Hallowed Burial. His Reveillark wasn’t too potent since I Pathed/Buried his creatures out of the graveyard. A couple of Plans later and I started racing his Reveillark with my own Baneslayer Angel, after clearing the path with another Clique.
1-0
This was when I heard about my buddy Benito’s cheating story. He was playing the same RWB deck minus the Ajani Vengeants, plus Terminates and another Banefire, against a UW Baneslayer player. Benito’s sleeves where black Dragonshields, and his opponent was playing with the black sleeves with the yellow Magic: the Gathering logo on the back.
A judge walked by, looked at both players’ lands, reached onto the table, and flipped over one of Benito’s Plains… and it had the Magic: the Gathering symbol on the back! Confused and perplexed, Benito had no clue how it got there, and neither did his opponent! He actually thought the judge was playing a trick on him! The judge counted Benito’s cards and deduced that he must have drawn the card from his opponent’s deck several turns before!
So, what was the ruling for this mayhem? The opponent puts the Plains back in his library, shuffles his deck, and both players received a warning. When I came up to watch the game, Benito had a Baneslayer Angel in play with only four lands out. I asked him how he managed that one, and he started cracking up! He accidentally ripped the needed Plains off his opponent’s deck to cast Baneslayer, then had the land put back into his opponents deck! What a beating… the opponent definitely should have appealed the warning, since I’m almost positive it should have been a game loss.
You judges out there get back to me in the forums over this debacle, because I’m honestly not certain how it should be resolved. I mean, what if Benito drew a creature like Kitchen Finks instead of “just” a land? Would he put the creature back in the library? And would the damage the creature dealt be taken back? If it stays in play and goes to the graveyard should the opponent get it? Should Benito get to draw another card? This is one of the craziest stories I’ve heard in awhile, and it had us cracking up the entire weekend. Now Benito can never complain about mana screw again without being told “just draw one off your opponent’s deck!”
Round 2 versus Jund Aggro
Game 1 I double Esper Charmed him to get rid of his burn spells, but he still drew into three Bloodbraid Elves that game, and a pair of Kitchen Finks that I used Fallout/Hallowed Burial to handle. I eventually chained a couple of Colfenor’s Plans and jumped to 12 (out of burn range) with a Cruel Ultimatum.
Game 2 I Bolt/Path his early plays and land turn 5 Plans with Bolt backup, and he didn’t have much going on.
2-0
Round 3 versus Casey Stewart
Casey is a good MTGO player who got a techy GerryT list for the PTQ. It’s an Ancient Ziggurat brew with Scullers, maindeck Teegs, Rafiq of the Many, Rhox War Monk, Birds of Paradise / Noble Hierarch, with Path to Exile as removal, and Chameleon Colossus and Nameless Inversion to support the mana with several tribal lands.
Game 1 he Sculler-and-Teegs me. but I use Fallout to sweep them and I land a Plans to his untapped Rafiq while I had Clique as a blocker. He Paths the Clique and swings in with Rafiq. I expected him to use the dead Nameless Inversion in his hand, but he forgets it will deal an extra six, and I stabilize with my Plans and a Cruel Ultimatum.
Game 2 I Bolt his first few creatures and Path his War Monk. I resolve a Plans, which leads to Esper Charm to take care of his hand and a Baneslayer for the kill.
His deck was surprisingly easy to beat, given it has so much hate for my deck, and he admitted that he actually tested against my Plans deck in anticipation of this matchup. He had several draws where if he drew a spell he would have been able to put me in a much tougher position, and both games he chained lands when he needed to draw spells.
3-0
Round 4 versus Spanish Inquisition
This was a surprise matchup! I never expected to play the Spanish Inquisition, although nobody ever expects it. I’m sure glad I have those Needles now to thwart his Planeswalker plots.
Game 1 he was land-light and I bounce/drew his fourth land several times before getting a concession to an Identity Crisis.
Game 2 I had my three Needles ready, but never drew any and was overwhelmed by Elspeth, Chandra, Ajani Vengeant, Scepter of Dominance, and the Goblin Assaults I had completely forgotten.
Game 3 I boarded my Fallouts back in and drew two of them to stop his Goblins and Mutavault beats, along with two Needles to keep his Planeswalkers offline. I finished him off with Vendilion Clique beats backed up by Cruel Ultimatum.
4-0
Round 5 versus UW Baneslayer
Damn, another UW Baneslayer matchup!
Game 1 I forced the discard of the majority of his hand with Esper Charm. He went all-in with Baneslayer, but I had a Hallowed Burial to take care of it (and his pair of Knights). I resolved a Plans to put me far ahead, eventually using Bolts and Obelisk to finish him off.
Game 2 I mulliganed and got stuck on two lands, and lost to turn 4 Baneslayer Angel after he used the neat Knight of the White Orchid plus Borderpost combo.
Game 3 I get a Needle down to cover Glen Elendra Archmage, cleared the way for Baneslayer with Clique, and then beat him down four turns in a row with the best creature in Standard.
5-0
Round 6 versus Flores Jund Ramp
This guy was playing an all basic lands Cascade deck which he claimed to have gotten from Flores.
This is the game when the wheels fell off. I was really tired from having only four hours of sleep in the last two days, and worn out from partying with the Texas boys the night before.
Game 1 I’m behind when he gets a pair of Finks out, and I make a huge mistake. I have a Vendilion Clique in play, and I know he has Jund Charm and Lightning Bolt to take care of it. His board is a pair of Kitchen Finks and Borderland Ranger (ding!), while I have Path, two Bolt, two Fallout, and Cruel Ultimatum in my hand. I Path my Clique at my end of turn when he goes for the Bolt, because I need to cast Cruel Ultimatum to win this game and I was stuck on four lands. This was a mistake, since Path is very good against his deck and would likely buy me the time to find more land. He attacks, I Fallout, and he blows me out with Jund Charm to save a Finks, making me take seven damage while having a 5/4 Finks that I can’t deal with.
If I had left another mana back, I would have been able to Bolt his Finks and win the game quite easily. I end up having to double Bolt the Finks at his next end of turn, which was another mistake and cost me another five damage that I shouldn’t have taken, then I used Fallout to take care of it and the third copy of Finks that he drew. I finally drew into a Plans and started hitting land drops to put me to Cruel Ultimatum mana, and even had a Path with Reflecting Pool open, but he top decks Bloodbraid Elf and chains into Maelstrom Pulse when I’m at 4 life. Not only can I not Path his creature, but I also only have six lands, a Cruel Ultimatum, Obelisk of Alara, and Identity Crisis in my hand.
I draw a Vivid land, and I’m packing it up for game 2. I started really beating myself up for such a stupid mistake, definitely the worst mistake of my year, and it started to eat my brain while I was sideboarding.
Game 2 I came back strong by stopping his Anathemancer with Runed Halo, resolving a couple of Plans, and always having Cryptic Command backup. I played my game plan to perfection, eventually beating him with a Baneslayer out of the board.
Game 3 I mulligan, resolve a Plans on turn 5 or 6 with Bolt mana up, and begin to stabilize from his Finks and Borderland Ranger beats (after using Hallowed Burial). I was at 8 life, and I wasn’t too worried, until he cast Cloudthresher when I didn’t have a Path and killed me.
I felt so bad after this match, due to the mistake I made. I’ve always been able to keep my emotions in check, but the long days and short nights must have been making me especially irritable that day. One loss is no big deal, and I had to concentrate on the next match, but I kept thinking how I didn’t deserve to win this tournament anymore. These kind of mistakes are extremely rare for me, especially multi-mistakes like that one, so I beat myself up pretty bad over it and really messed up my positive mindset on the whole tournament.
5-1
Round 7 versus Ty playing Merfolk
Ty is a buddy of mine who used to live in Texas, but he has been navigating the ocean floor in a submarine for the past few years. He’s a good player and I always look forward to playing people I know are good, since I can get away with many more bluffs.
Game 1 he got some Silvergil Adept hits in, along with a Reejerey. I used Fallout to level his board and resolved a Colfenor’s Plans, which gave me six lands and Path to answer his Wake Thrasher. I had to bounce my Plans and replay it next turn, which left me vulnerable to a Sygg that caused some problems. I chained into a couple of Plans and was far ahead, but I still didn’t have a good answer to Sygg. I don’t remember exactly how I lost, but I remember being frustrated and felt like I was playing badly. This could have just been a side effect of my loss the previous round, but I’ve never lost a game when I resolved three Colfenor’s Plans before.
I messed up when sideboarding here, and took my Needle out when I should have been boarding two in to handle Sygg and Mutavault.
Game 2 I got stuck on four lands, but had all four copies of Cryptic Command rise to the top of my deck. I set up a turn where I would cast Fallout and have Path backup on his Reejerey to kill it (and his two Bannerets). He used Harm’s Way to save Reejerey and Banneret. I used Path to kill both, but he had a two-mana Sage’s Dousing that I didn’t play around to blow me out. I used Hallowed Burial to clean the mess up, but he resolved a Sygg next turn and pecked away at me, with three activation protections available and Cryptic Commands in hand to which I had no answer.
5-2
Another frustrating loss since I know I could have probably forced a game 3 if I had played correctly game 1, and possibly even game 2 if I hadn’t walked into Harm’s Way plus Dousing. I dropped from the tournament, but soon re-entered since my tiebreakers were at a godly 78%, and I was the top X-2, with a box going to 9th place.
During this round I did some more math and figured out that I had a realistic shot at making Top 8. Scotty Barrentine, who won the $5K with Merfolk, was in the process of pulling off an 8-0-drop to qualify for Austin and Worlds on rating! Scotty went 19-1-1 this past weekend with Merfolk, and is a clear master on the subject, so be sure and play his list.
Creatures (24)
- 4 Merrow Reejerey
- 4 Silvergill Adept
- 4 Sygg, River Guide
- 2 Reveillark
- 4 Stonybrook Banneret
- 4 Wake Thrasher
- 2 Merfolk Sovereign
Lands (24)
Spells (12)
Sideboard
There were two undefeated players, and two players that had drawn already, followed by four tables of X-1s battling it out. Scotty gets the concession then drops from the tournament, table 2 draws, the four X-1s play it out, which leaves an open slot to the winner of my match. I got up-paired against an X-1 and had to hope that the other X-1s don’t figure out that they can draw.
Round 8 versus Five-Color Control
Game 1 I got a Jace into play and started drawing bunches of cards, using my Cryptic Commands to counter/bounce his lands twice when he went for Mulldrifter and Esper Charm. He tapped out again for another Mulldrifter, which gave me the opportunity to Identity Crisis him to win with Obelisk and Cruel Ultimatum.
Game 2 he Thought Hemorrhaged my Cruel Ultimatum, which I boarded out, and I got in there with a Baneslayer after using Vendilion Clique to clear the way and Glen Elendra to back it up.
6-2
I won.
Scotty got the concession from Derrick Steele, then dropped.
Table 2 drew in.
Tables 3-6, which were X-1, played it out, and none of them realized the last match playing could draw in.
That’s seven things that had to happen for an X-2 to make it, and my tiebreakers held up, putting me in 8th place!
Top 8 versus Derrick Steele and Merfolk
Game 1 I did everything I needed to do. I used my Paths and Bolts to contain his crowd while using Fallout and Hallowed Burial to take care of the larger crowds. I resolved a Plans, then another, then another, and once I was 21 cards up on him I got him in top deck mode with Esper Charm and finished him off with an Obelisk with Lightning Bolts.
He admitted that was the first game he lost the entire day, and was pretty nervous going into game 2. I spent my time after round 8 talking with Scotty on how exactly to board against Merfolk, since he was the master, and he reinforced my idea behind boarding the Needles in and mentioned how problematic they were for him in an earlier round. Hallowed Burial would also be my saving grace, but I needed to watch out for Derrick’s sideboard Archmages and four-of Sage’s Dousing main deck. He would probably have to lighten up on his removal package, so my Baneslayers were also golden if I could resolve them through a Clique. Overall, I think I have good enough tools and answers to perform against Merfolk on a consistent basis, but his game 2 draw was nutty.
Game 2 we made the customary early trades. I two-for-one him with Fallout, and tapped out for Plans on turn 5… but I failed to get a land that entered the battlefield untapped. He vomited a bunch of Merfolk into play, including a Wake Thrasher, two Reejerey, and a Merfolk Sovereign to put me out of Fallout range, and even managed to have Dousing backup in the event I had Burial. I didn’t, and the fishes dined on my corpse.
Game 3 saw the mistakes from the latter rounds, and fatigue, catch up with me. I resolved three Colfenor’s Plans that game and didn’t win out of pure inefficient play. There was one point when I could have just two-for-oned him with Fallout, killing a Reejerey and Banneret when he was tapped out, and I passed it up to play a Plans to find a Path/Bolt since I had a Pool in my hand. I didn’t find either, and he dumped dudes on his next turn. My Fallout met a Harm’s Way, and I had to use a Burial on the turn after, resulting in a lower life total but leaving him with two cards in hand (most likely a dead one like Path/Harm’s Way or Cryptic Command). The damage from that screw-up cost me precious life. I went through another Plan, but was still lacking a good kill condition.
He top decked a Sygg and had the counter for my Obelisk, so I had no way to deal with the incoming Sygg/Mutavault beats because he had three activations ready to protect.
I felt like I played really poorly this match, and it was definitely winnable, although the people surrounding me said I played “fine” and didn’t make any big errors.
Dejected, I collected my box, sold it, then made the trek back to San Antonio.
On our way out, the four of us in my car stopped at Buffalo Wild Wings to gorge our broken spirits in Spicy Garlic, Desert Heat, and Caribbean Jerk wings. Our waiter was absolutely horrible, and never looked or said anything to me other than “what would you like to drink/eat.” I wanted more than one beer, and he never gave me a chance to order because as soon as he darted to our table he’d dart off to refill Benito’s drink, bring it back, then dart away again without asking if everyone was okay. The crazy part was that it was two hours until closing, and we were his last table.
I left a 9 cent tip, Brian left 50 cents, Marshall left 20 cents, and Benito left a buck. But it was the horrible waiter who got his revenge by using a magnet to ruin Benito’s debit card, so when he tried to pay his way in gas for the weekend he came up short! Bastard BWW waiters!
This was still the worst Magic I’ve ever played in one tournament, and I’m still carrying that chip on my shoulder because this could very well have been my PTQ. My buddy Justin, the father of TMZ, won his first PTQ in his fourteen Top 8s, so I’m happy one of us could break our spell of misery and denial.
Most mistakes were pretty heady and had to do with inefficient plays, but there’s no excuse for the Jund Charm and Merfolk mistakes other than I was fatigued and not thinking correctly. I felt like I couldn’t wrap my head around a game and get in The Zone like I usually do, and I re-learned the important lesson: sleep is just as necessary to your success as having clean sleeves, a well-tuned sideboard, and Baneslayer Angel somewhere in your 75.
I’m not sure what the LCQ format is for Austin, but if it’s Standard I’ll look forward to giving Colfenor’s Plans one last heave. If not, I’m still gonna FNM with it until it rotates out, because it’s the best card draw we have available in Standard, and every game it resolves I feel like there’s no way I can lose.
Thanks for reading…
Kyle