Thursday, August 13
8:00am. I’m awake, and I’m not happy about it. Chrandersen (or Chris Andersen if you want to get technical) is on his way to pick me up so we can head down to GenCon. Now, he said he would be at my place at 8:30am, but he is late everywhere he goes. So, being the snarky jerk that I am, I grab my phone and call him with the sole intention of yelling at him for being late as usual.
“Five minutes away from your apartment. Can’t yell at me today, broseph!”
Man! I really wanted to berate him this morning too! Kids grow up so quick, don’t they?
Two Sausage and Egg McMuffins later (they forgot my hash brown, those f***s), and we arrive in Indianapolis to endure the self-proclaimed “best four days of gaming.”
Sorry GenCon. The best four days of gaming was Pro Tour: Kobe. Just. Saying.
The line to acquire a badge was out the door and around the corner, so while Chris bought my badge (sucks to lose a bet, doesn’t it?), I checked out everything GenCon had to offer. Well, I tried to at least.
See, the security at GenCon is completely ridiculous. You can’t get in anywhere without a badge. Not the exhibition hall. Not the TCG hall. Not even the LARP hall. I have never been a big fan of GenCon due to the fact that you have to pay $70 to grace it with your presence, but the freakshow security guards put me over the edge.
By the time Chrandersen acquires our badges, we have missed the Legacy prelim for Legacy Champs. With nothing to do until 5pm, we decided to check out the convention. Surely, with five hours to kill and being at a convention, I would not suffer from boredom, right? Wrong…
Maybe I’m just an old man now (23 years young, thank you very much), but I really hate going to multi-sport conventions:
Everyone is loud.
Everyone smells bad.
Everyone has a stupid costume.
Everything is overpriced.
It is just ridiculous.
But I digress…
5pm. Shards Block Constructed Championship. Now, it has already been said how much I hate Shards Block Constructed. However, the prize of this tournament was a foil playset of the whole Shards of Alara block for first place. That prize is completely ridiculous! Yes, I would rather kill myself than play Press Your Luck for nine rounds, but this $600 rent isn’t going to pay itself.
Jim Davis chose to draw first every round and went 9-1 at Pro Tour: Honolulu with the decklist below:
Creatures (14)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (19)
Spells (25)
Cedric Phillips chose to draw first every round and went 4-2 at the Shards Block Constructed Championship with the decklist above.
I lost to a Naya deck due to three Dauntless Escorts stopping my three Maelstrom Pulses. I then lost to the GW Rhox Meditant deck and took home my eight packs.
An aside about that GW deck. I think that deck is terrible. Mainly because it plays Rhox Meditant. Rhox Meditant is not a Constructed-worthy card. Every other card in that deck is perfectly acceptable, but every time someone summoned Rhox Meditant against me, I wanted to vomit. That card is just not good!
“But it blocks Bloodbraid Elf…”
Yeah, so does the rest of your deck. So, shut up.
Tired and tilted due to the 2/4 Rhino That Could, I head up to The Rainmaker’s room and call it a night.
Friday, August 14
There is a PTQ at 2pm.
Oh goodie! I love to play in PTQs!
However, this PTQ, Daddy wanted to have a little bit of fun. See, I am not terribly concerned with winning a PTQ this season since I have Level 3 status and can use it for Pro Tour: Austin. Now, a responsible Magic player would win a PTQ so that he/she could use his/her free invite at the Magic World Championships in Rome, Italy. But I am not responsible, nor am I careful. Fun trumps all.
Dear John Jackson.
You caused this. I blame you.
Love,
Cedric
Creatures (4)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (23)
Spells (29)
- 4 Time Warp
- 4 Howling Mine
- 4 Twincast
- 4 Broken Ambitions
- 4 Cryptic Command
- 1 Ponder
- 4 Dream Fracture
- 4 Sanity Grinding
Sideboard
This is not a joke. I played this deck in the PTQ. And you know what? It was actually pretty good!
Clone is there to trump Great Sable Stag. Try to keep up, people!
Round 1 versus Dramatic Entrance
Yeah… Dramatic Entrance is not a card, nor is it a deck.
1-0
Round 2 versus Faeries
As one would expect, game 1 went very long. The game got to the point where my opponent had three cards left in his deck, and on the last turn of the game I had to cast Cryptic Command, tapping his team down and bouncing his Mutavault. He asked a judge about the interaction with Scion of Oona, was correct, and made it untargetable. I attempt to Twincast the Cryptic Command, but Spellstutter Sprite ended that dream.
Game 2 is another long drawn-out affair, but a timely Time Warp plus Twincast is able to let me keep going off. I get to the point where I have to cast Sanity Grinding plus two Twincast and hope it is enough. It is, and I earn the draw in extra turns.
1-0-1
Round 3 versus Warp World
Well, this was embarrassing. Game 1, I had no idea what my opponent was playing. To be fair, I stopped paying attention after his Bloodbraid Elf hit a Bird of Paradise. I assumed I was playing against a poorly constructed mana ramp deck (and I was), but had no idea what I was in store for. On the one relevant turn of the game, I was being attacked down into Banefire range, so I opted to bounce a Bloodbraid Elf with Cryptic Command to save damage. When my opponent cast Warp World, I felt like a gigantic idiot and lost on the spot.
Game 2 was eventful, as this matchup seems relatively easy once I know what my opponent is trying to accomplish. That is, resolving an eight mana sorcery against a deck with Flashfreeze.
Game 3, three Bloodbraid Elves ruin me. Embarrassed.
1-1-1
I consider dropping, but we are sixty people under the cutoff, which means I actually have a shot if I win out. The draw bracket is a good place to be with this deck. since it is actually impossible to lose to a Five-Color Control deck.
Round 4 versus Five-Color Control
This round, I am playing against my friend Kyle Boggemes. We know we are in for the long haul, so we are both playing pretty quickly. Game 1, the writing is on the wall pretty early, as all of his removal is dead and all my cards are awesome against him. He concedes.
Game 2 is an epic. My Sanity Grindings are removed via Thought Hemorrhage, and Jace Beleren has a Runed Halo over its head. Winning through this is pretty difficult, but I was up for the challenge. I keep having us both draw with Jace Beleren, and Howling Mine was starting to add up. The crucial turn of the game is when I realize I have to start losing my Broken Ambitions clashes, and he wins one of his. With fewer cards in my deck now, I was going to deck first unless I was able to mill him for 20 cards. I decide to Time Warp plus Twincast to find a Cryptic Command, bounce his Runed Halo, mill him for twenty, and hope I can find something else to do.
And I did, in the form of Time Warp plus Twincast him. He had so few cards in his deck that if didn’t have any more win conditions I would win the game. However, Kyle, being the master that he is, played a Glen Elendra Archmage and Baneslayer Angel in the same turn. The next turn he attacked me to four, and then cast Cruel Ultimatum to draw the game.
Game 3 is over in literally four minutes. Kyle plays turn 3 and 3 Kitchen Finks, and I am dead before I even get started.
Game 4, I am on the play. If he doesn’t have a turn 3 threat, it is so difficult for him to win. When he plays a Vivid Creek on turn 3, I pump the fist and know this bad boy is wrapped up. We actually have enough time to finish this game, and I win via Sanity Grinding + Twincast.
2-1-1
Round 5 versus Five-Color Control
The dream pairing once again. My opponent manages to steal game 2 from me with two Great Sable Stags, and an Ajani Vengeant killing my Clone. However, the other two games go accordingly, and I win the matchup, I am supposed to do.
3-1-1
Round 6 versus UW Lark
These games were pretty odd. My opponent snap-kept both of his hands, and was mana screwed both games. Game 1, I Broken Ambitioned a spell and his top card was a U/W Borderpost. He kept it on top, and when he tried to play it, I politely informed him that he had to return a basic land to his hand. He could not, tilted, and lost.
4-1-1
Round 7 versus Five-Color Blood
Sitting next to this gentleman last round, I was pretty sure he was playing Five-Color Control. I say this because during his game, he asked how much time was left. I informed him there was 24 minutes left, and asked why he was curious. He said that he had no cards in his hand, his Five-Color opponent had seven, and the game was basically over. He also had out a Runed Halo on Identity Crisis. If only I could have seen his graveyard…
Game 1, I kept a hand that was only good against Five-Color Control (two Twincasts among others) and get run over by Rhox War Monk and Wilt-Leaf Liege.
Game 2 was even uglier. After sideboard, my opponent had access to Runed Halo, Meddling Mage, Pithing Needle, Maelstrom Pulse, and Thought Hemorrhage. Those things add up, and it was over before it even began.
As for me classifying this deck as Five-Color Blood, those were his words, not mine.
4-2-1
Sanity Grinding was an interesting experience. I felt like I was doing some powerful things (Time Warp plus Twincast with a Jace or Howling Mine in play is absurd) and I felt like I was doing some weak things (Twincast by itself is pretty bad). I am currently playing the deck on MTGO to see if it can be improved. One thing is for sure:
The deck cannot ever lose to Five-Color Control.
Next week, I will talk about the last two days of GenCon. They include such things as:
Losing to Rhox War Monk in Legacy.
Beating Swans plus Intimidation Bolt in Standard.
Sharking an iPod tournament and feeling bad about it.
Some sort of Sanity Grinding primer.
Naming Boil with Cursed Scroll against a Blue deck when Boil is not in your 75.
All that and more!