Saturday, 8:13 AM
Hello new journal…
Today, there is a Standard PTQ! I thought about what I was going to play last night, and I was flopping between Jund, U/W, and Michael Pozsgay’s Naya Planeswalkers. Right now I’m leaning toward the latter.
Saturday, 8:49 AM
Just asked for the cards for the Naya deck and built it on our kitchen table. Leaving for the venue now.
Saturday, 9:31 AM
This deck looks great! Going to play some games against U/W before the event begins to get warmed up.
Saturday, 9:53 AM
This deck sucks versus UW. It felt like it was way behind, despite running a ton of planeswalkers. Scrambling to build Kyle Boggemes U/W list in seven minutes.
Saturday, 10:04 AM
And Calosso for the save with the last few cards I need! Perfect. Deck complete. Off to round one.
Saturday, 11:18 AM
Urg. Lost a frustrating first round against James Pirkey with Vengevine Jund. I crushed him in the first game, then in the second game I ran out of gas going long when he had two removal spells left for my two Baneslayer Angels. In the third game, I kept a hand which looked great of three lands, double Spreading Seas, Wall of Omens, Essence Scatter. Unfortunately, I didn’t find a single white source until he drew out of his poor mana and begin to apply pressure. Jason Terry, who was watching, said I should have cracked the fetchland I was sitting on to shuffle my deck and try and unclump my mana, but other than that debatable call I felt like there wasn’t much more I could do. Oh well. Going to keep grinding this event out.
Saturday, 12:51 PM
So much for that PTQ. Played against Jund again. Won the first game, again. Game two, I kept a hand of Glacial Fortress, Spreading Seas, Spreading Seas, Wall of Omens, Path to Exile, Elspeth, Everflowing on the draw. I’ve asked a bunch of people and the opinions seem to be pretty split on if that’s a keep or a mulligan. Regardless, I didn’t see any lands and lost. Then, I kept another three lander with a Chalice in the third game and got manascrewed out of the game. For a control deck, it certainly doesn’t feel like I make many decisions unless I have a planeswalker in play. There’s a Standard event for an iPad starting in an hour, so I guess I’ll try that and see if it’s just variance. In the meantime, I’m going to eat one of these delicious, fairly-priced concession stand muffins and try and win some judge foils at the judge booth game, which is based around answering rules questions.
Saturday, 3:03 PM
Finally picked up a match with this U/W deck! I faced the same Jund pilot which booted me out of the PTQ and picked up a quick victory when my deck provided me with lands in games one and three. Hopefully this can continue.
Saturday, 4:16 PM
I lost — but at least I know why. It’s nice to lose in Standard and be able to pinpoint your mistake. In game three against UWr planeswalkers, I tried to cast a turn three Jace for absolutely no reason, had it countered, then he cast Ajani. Game two he tried to be the aggressor by casting planeswalkers whenever possible, and I suspect if I had just passed he would have played his Ajani anyway and I could have Negated it, then I could have untapped and landed Jace. Oh well. I can blame myself for this one — a nice change from the past few rounds.
Saturday, 5:28 PM
I just lost against Billy Moreno with Next Level Bant. The matchup is pretty bad for U/W, though I managed to pick up the first game with quad Spreading Seas and a couple topdecks. The other games I was just crushed on matchup advantage. Oh well. I can’t really blame anybody but myself; I might have not been here if I had played better in the match before.
I’m probably to probably play out the next round while waiting for dinner plans to materialize.
Saturday, 6:10 PM
Holy moly, Ben Hayes is still undefeated in the Pro Tour with my U/G deck at 9-0! Go Ben!
Saturday, 6:48 PM
The players have sat down and Ben is on the other side of the room. I’m standing on the tips of my toes but can’t quite make out what his opponent is playing.
Saturday, 6:51 PM
I think I saw an Eldrazi Temple. Here’s hoping to 10-0.
Saturday, 7:14 PM
Ben just walked out of the area grinning and delivered a huge high-five. He earned the full ten wins on the weekend! Great work. It sounds like he had more reasonable matchups than I did. It’s time for a celebratory dinner!
Saturday, 9:46 PM
The charismatic and charismatic Ben Swartz managed to finagle us our own room in Dragonfly! They had everyone but me put on dress-like slips to cover our legs and make us look classier. I would take this as an ego boost, but I’m pretty sure they just ran out of slips for me.
Saturday, 10:18 PM
This place is pretty nice. We walked down a flight of stairs and through some winding rooms to get to our table. It has exotic art and mood lighting. Hopefully the wait on the food is better than last night.
Saturday, 10:24 PM
The origins of the Puerto Rico game, AKA people randomly yelling “Puerto Rico” around the tournament site, are finally explained. Throughout the weekend players have just been yelling Puerto Rico back and forth across the tournament hall, with little explanation or context as to why. While arguably no more distracting than the sound on the video of the barbershop quartet which looped every hour, a lot of people have complained about this particular “game” throughout the weekend, while also curious as to its origins.
Some of these details may be stretched as is the case with most stories with Gerard Fabiano, but here goes. It all started when Gerard Fabiano and some friends were bored and started playing a talking restriction game called the 1400’s, where everyone has to talk like they’re living in the 13th century. Gerard, however, decided to just talk in a pirate voice instead. He yelled out Puerto Rico at one point, someone elsewhere yelled it back, and so the game was founded.
Weird.
Saturday, 10:36 PM
Food is starting to come out! It’s a tapas bar, so we are all just going to share.
Saturday, 10:43 PM
Everyone says the duck dish is delicious. Ew. I’m not a big duck person.
Saturday, 10:46 PM
Hm, this halibut dish is pickled. I’m going to have to look for alternatives. Hungry, but still dead-set on not trying the duck.
Saturday, 10:51 PM
Okay, so the duck was actually pretty good.
Saturday, 10:52 PM
Poor duckie.
Saturday, 11:06 PM
Dinner was solid. We’re going to look over the dessert menu. I’m going to push to order one of everything.
Saturday, 11:09 PM
Brian Kowal counter-offered my suggestion with one of everything, but double up on the cake dishes. Can’t argue with that.
Saturday, 11:41 PM
Double the cake was definitely the right call.
Sunday, 2:53 AM
I have spent the last three hours figuring out what to play in the WPN tournament with the winner receiving hotel and airfare to Amsterdam. It’s either going to be Next Level Bant or Jund. The internet died sometime during the day, so I can’t really look over lists right now. I’ll figure it out in the morning.
Sunday, 8:48 AM
Okay, I just spent the last hour playing games of Jund versus Bant and I am not happy with Bant’s Jund matchup. Jund it is!
Sunday, 9:39 AM
Here is the Jund list I am submitting:
Lands
3 Forest
3 Mountain
3 Swamp
2 Dragonskull Summit
1 Rootbound Crag
4 Savage Lands
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Raging Ravine
2 Terramorphic Expanse
Creatures
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Putrid Leech
4 Sprouting Thrinax
2 Lotus Cobra
3 Siege-Gang Commander
Spells
2 Bituminous Blast
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Blightning
4 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Terminate
2 Sarkhan the Mad
Sideboard
1 Bituminous Blast
1 Sarkhan the Mad
2 Prophetic Prism
2 Grim Discovery
1 Master of the Wild Hunt
4 Doom Blade
1 Malakir Bloodwitch
3 Duress
Sunday, 10:14 AM
Tournament is delayed because they’re checking players to qualifications. This could be a while.
Sunday, 10:56 AM
Tournament is finally beginning! Six rounds, cut to top eight.
Sunday, 11:40 AM
I lost again. This sucks.
Sunday, 11:41 AM
Haha, no. Just kidding. I won. I played against Naya. Game one I double Siege-Ganged him alongside Sarkhan El Loco. Game two he played Baneslayer and I didn’t have an answer. Game three, I drew my one Master of the Wild Hunt and used it to control the rest of the game.
Sunday, 12:28 PM
Played against Boros Bushwhacker this round. He kept pretty bad hands and I beat him in two fast games. Not much more to say than that.
Sunday, 1:44 PM
This round I faced a really talented up-and-coming kid named Donnie Peck. He might be young, but just from the way he played and handled his cards I could tell he knew what he was doing. Anyway, this was a match of haymaker topdecks. In game one I thought he probably couldn’t win, until he ripped Day, Path, Baneslayer. Game two the same thing happened — except after he ripped all of those, I Bituminous Ultimatumed him with Blast on Colonnade, into Elf, into Pulse. Game three I just had a really strong Jund draw and picked apart his hand with Duress and Blightning while smashing with Leech, Bloodbraid, and Bloodwitch.
Sunday, 1:59 PM
I faced housemate Raine playing Grixis this round. We decided to draw, since we only have to win of our next two to make top eight. And, to be honest, I’m pretty sure he’s a good matchup for me to have in the top eight.
Sunday, 2:06 PM
As a side note, I’ve been impressed with how many decisions you actually get to make with Jund. I think almost everyone passes it off as a hurdle burdle durdle deck that anybody can play. And while anybody can play it to a certain capacity, there are actually a lot of interesting decisions you get to make during games. Which spell to play on which turn, when to cascade, if playing a tapped land and a weaker card this turn with a great card next turn is better than playing your untapped land and being forced to cast a weaker card if you don’t draw an upright land next turn, and so on. So far, I’ve felt like I have more control over my games than I did most of the time with U/W control. That conclusion is probably just results-oriented, but it’s still saying something.
Sunday, 3:46 PM
Won the Jund mirror this round! Game one I had turn three Sarkhan, though to be fair my hand was stocked enough I probably would have won even without the Cobra. Game two I found a Sarkhan and he didn’t. Excellent. I am now a lock for top eight!
Sunday, 4:18 PM
I just intentionally drew. Raine and I looked over the standings to try and see if we could set up the pairings to be favorable for us, but it’s really too hard to tell. There were a lot of weird draws and close tiebreakers. I think it would have ultimately been better pairings-wise if Raine had played against Ben Stark, but he made the fair point that Ben didn’t know what Raine was playing. Since we weren’t swapping decklists in top 8, it was more advantageous for him to just draw.
Sunday, 5:44 PM
I played against the same Jund player as in the swiss. This time, he had his revenge. Games one and two, he had the perfect Leech-Thrinax-Elf into Blightning opening. Game one he was on the play and demolished me with that draw. Game two, I fell down to one life but stabilized, did some careful math on my attackers, and managed to kill him before he drew his third Blightning or one of his remaining Bolts. Game three, he had Leech and Thrinax again except with a Ruinblaster on four and a Vengevine on five. I managed to start stabilizing with double Sprouting Thrinax, and he was down to no cards. I have six tokens to buy some me time. Then he rips Bloodbraid Elf, cascades into Thrinax, rebuys his Vengevine. His next draw is Vengevine to kill me. Sigh.
Sunday, 8:29 PM
I spent the last three or so hours taking some zen time for myself. I walked outside in the pouring rain and into the local town, across wet blankets of grass, and sidewalks stained with freckles. I was mad about that last match for a number of reasons, and I needed some time away. I let the rain droplets form wrinkled, ethereal hands which tore off my ragged emotions and dipped their wet fingernails into my afflicted mind.
It felt good.
Sunday, 9:15 PM
I came back to the tournament hall in time to see Ben Stark win the event. Currently, I am making like a Mike Jacob and playing DS in the back of the hall. I think I’m ready to go eat dinner, at least.
Sunday, 11:48 PM
Went out to a decent Chinese place. As great as the past two nights were, it was kind of nice to eat something which tasted like something I would eat back home: mediocre chicken soaked in spices. I also had some cheesecake, which was delicious.
On the way back, I ran into an Australian player who recognized me. It has been great throughout the weekend to have so many people from around the world just want to say hi, or otherwise chat with me. What an amazing, far-reaching game.
Monday, 8:02 AM
The lady who owns the house just barged in. I think we lost our deposit. And we all have to leave. Now. Turbopack time! I hope I don’t forget anything.
Monday, 9:43 AM
At the airport, but my flight doesn’t leave for another three hours. Going to get my boarding pass and eat at Cinnabon.
Monday, 9:59 AM
That’s weird. It isn’t giving me my ticket. Maybe I tried the wrong airline?
Monday, 10:21 AM
Just tried all of the airlines. None of them are correct. What is going on??
Monday, 10:26 AM
I just had my Mom log into my e-mail account so she could tell me my confirmation number. Hopefully this works.
Monday, 10:43 AM
Crap.
Monday, 10:47 AM
There was a mistake somewhere along the line and my flight is scheduled for tomorrow. I’d be fine waiting around the extra day… Except I have an un-rescheduable final for 50% of my grade the next day. I asked my teacher before leaving if I could go, and his only condition is that I was back for this test. If I don’t take this test, I auto-fail the class.
There has to be some kind of alternative…
Monday, 11:03 AM
There is no alternative. This is the only flight out to DC all day on United. And it’s overbooked by almost 20 people. All of the flights on their partner airlines are similarly overbooked. There are some open seats on other airlines… for the low, low cost of 700+ dollars.
She offered me a Standby ticket for $50, but that’ll never work.
Monday, 11:06 AM
I thought about it some more and, well, you can’t mise if you don’t try. This is my chance. I have to take it.
Monday, 11:36 AM
Ran into Bill Stark past security. He seems knowledgeable about this kind of thing. If anybody I know in this airport can help me, it’s going to be him.
Monday, 11:50 AM
Bill and I just talked to the people at the gate to do whatever we could. I have a few options, mostly pleading to other airlines. It’s worth a try.
Monday, 12:14 PM
Bill has been relentlessly talking with the people at the desk, and he just informed me that I might actually have a chance at being on this flight. If four more people don’t show up in the next ten or fifteen minutes, I’ll make it on.
Monday, 12:34 PM
I made it! I made it! I am sitting in the last open seat on the plane — first class, no less! I’ve never flown first class before. The seats are comfortable.
They rearranged our seats to be next to each other for some reason. I think they thought Bill was my dad, because he was fighting for me so hard. Hey, if having Bill Stark as your Dad is what gets you a first class ticket on a plane back home, Bill can be my Magic Dad any day.
Monday, 1:20 PM
They give you a full free meal too? Man. First class is pretty awesome.
Monday, 4:36 PM
Okay, I’m in DC. Now it’s a matter of me getting on my flight from DC back to Seattle, too. Let’s see if this works out too.
Monday, 4:58 PM
The lady at the desk told my dad — err, Bill —and I that she would have to “get back to us.” Doesn’t sound good. Looking into other options.
Monday, 5:07 PM
Looks like there’s a connection I can make in Chicago which would get me back home. I can try and transfer my flight there…
Monday, 5:18 PM
I made it on! I am now Seattle bound.
Monday, 5:51 PM
Well, I guess I’ll start writing my article for next week now. I have the time.
Monday, 7:26 PM
Laptop just ran out of batteries. Good news is my article is mostly done!
Monday, 11:41 EST / 8:41 PM PST
I just got home. Now to send it in!
Monday, 9:03 PM
I can’t find my charger anywhere. Hmm…
Monday, 9:14 PM
Someone else must have grabbed it from the house or it must have been left there in the race to leave. Sigh. I’ll have to order a new one. Hopefully it doesn’t take too long to get here.
Tuesday, 11:40 AM
Aced my test! Bill Stark efforts were not in vain.
Thursday, 6:19 PM
My charger arrived!
And with that, I think that ties up all the loose ends that started in San Juan. It’s time to close out the second journal. I’ll never forget the memories, highs, and lows, of my crazy week in San Juan.
Hopefully, I’ll qualify for and be in Amsterdam. I wonder what crazy events that will bring?
Gavin Verhey
Team Unknown Stars
Rabon on Magic Online, Lesurgo everywhere else