Montreal Revisited – Quagnoth in a Quandary

Blurb: Kyle continues his epic tale of Grand Prix: Montreal madness. This week he brings us a look at the tournament itself, and runs through his wins and losses in detail. He also brings us the latest build of his U/W Pickles deck, his weapon of choice for the upcoming PTQ season. And, as usual, there’s a sprinkling of the usual Sanchez insanity…

After a miserable $5 cab ride to the convention center, which was a stone’s throw away from the Amtrak station, I managed to split my jeans when exiting the cab.

I met up with Billy, Gadiel, StrWrs, Fabiano, Dirv, and Ant and enjoyed a quaint meal of a breast of chicken smothered in cheese accompanied by frenchie fries on the side, which were occasionally dipped in the melted cheese. I also ordered a Crown and Sprite without getting carded!

I crushed Billy’s Mono-Red deck (splashing Korlash) a few times before wandering off to find a hotel room, and eventually getting coaxed into putting the entire room on my card. This is a very bad idea, and you should never do this when attending a Magic tournament. It’s so much easier to just crash on someones floor for $20, and let them deal with the finding the money from everyone else in the room. The total was $602 for three nights, divided up between StrWrs, Billy, J Evan Dean, and myself. Quite the room, if I do say so myself.

They told me when I checked in that the final cost was going to be $580, so I only asked for $140 from everybody, which means I paid $40 more than everyone else. They also randomly doubled charged the room to my credit card, and since I only had about $900 on it at the time it completely locked it up, meaning I had to live off the money I got from everyone else in the room, as well as pay a hefty overdraw charge.

Basically, the thing to take away from here is that you should always wait until you get to the tournament to decide where you are going to stay, and never make a new room when you get there. It’s so much easier to just latch onto an existing room than bother with the trials of collecting money from the others in the room and having a large amount of money charged to your credit card.

During the bye period I picked up Cedric Phillups and took on Cheon and Luis Scott-Vargas. In the end, the Sanchez-Phillups connection was just too much for the Two-Headed Giant of Fobeon to take on, and they shipped appropriately. We even 4-0’d them. It was pretty embarrassing.

Round 3 – Robert Anderson playing U/G Pickles

Sadin was sitting next to me this round, and he joked about how we were destined to fly to San Diego to try and LCQ for the PT. I assured him that if I Top 8’d I would make the futile flight in an attempt to “chase pro points.”

Game 1 I had a double Cloudskate draw but I was unable to get in very much damage in early because of his multiple Penumbra Spiders that clogged up the board. After a few turns of using Careful Consideration and Mystical Teachings I was able to Pickles lock him, and eventually I swung through the Spiders with some Shapeshifters that were morphed into Brine Elementals.

I boarded in an Extripate here to deal with opposing Shapeshifters.

Game 2 went a lot like game 1, except he didn’t have any Penumbra Spiders and I was able to tempo him out with a healthy portion of Blinks, Cloudskates, and big daddy Venser.

It’s always fun to win the first round of any tournament, and it usually sets the pace for the matches to come. Of course, if you lose the first round of the tournament you play a much tighter game, and as such you tend to do better than if you win the first round. Another benefit of losing the first round is the advantage of being in the loser’s bracket, where you are much more likely to play bad decks and generally worse players. But I won my first round, so this really bears no relevance.

3-0

Round 4 – Benjamin R. Lundquist playing U/G Donkey Pong

Ben and I tested a lot for this event together, so we knew each others complete 75 when we sat down. This is one of U/W Pickles worst matchups, since they have all the tools to dissect this Pickles deck. Psionic Blast in response to a Blink, Delay to protect his Tarmogoyf, Riftsweeper to take care of Riftwing Cloudskate, and Looter il-Kor to piece all the disruption together.

Game 1 I had a mana light hand but still managed to suspend Cloudskate of turn 2, which met a Riftsweeper the turn after. From there I used my Venser in combination with Momentary Blink to stall off his Tarmogoyf for a few turns, but since I had no pressure all I was doing was trying to draw into the Pickles lock or a Cloudskate to start some kind of offense. It didn’t come, and I boarded in Aven Riftwatcher and an Extripate for the next game. Teferi’s Moat doesn’t do much against him since it doesn’t stop his Cloudskate, Looter, or Shapeshifter, and he has Delay to counter it.

Game 2 I had another turn 2 Cloudskate off a double mulligan, but since I only had two lands I was forced to play Prismatic Lens on my next turn with Delay in hand. He took the opportunity to Riftsweeper it and bash in with his turn 2 Looter, and I really had no shot from that point. I got a Teferi in play, but it didn’t do much, and I eventually died to a pair of Psionic Blasts.

3-1

Round 5 – Felix Tse playing UGr Walk the Aeons/Gaea’s Blessing Combo

This match was pretty insane. Game 1 he attempted a turn 3 Rites of Flourishing, which I let resolve happily. The next twenty turns was just both of us making land drops and drawing cards. He had the most insane draw suite I’ve ever seen, Forsee, Harmonize, Aeon Chronicler, Rites of Flourishing, Think Twice, and Careful Consideration. I tried to bounce his Rites with a Venser, main phase I believe, with seven mana up for Cancel, Delay, and Delay in hand… or end of turn Teferi with Delay backup. Either way, he countered it with a Delay, so I used my Delay on his Delay, at which point he Delayed my Delay again. The cute play would have been to Delay his Delay once more, but instead I let it resolve. That way I still have some answers to whatever craziness he could have coming up. He stopped making land drops and had to discard for his turn, and on my turn I was only able to play a land, so I tried another Venser. He used Cancel, I Delayed, he Delayed, I Canceled, and then I put a Teferi in play for some reason.

The Sanchez Gallery

I should note that around twenty minutes has gone by so far. He casts Walk the Aeons, which I Delay, but he has another one. From there I thought he was going to try and go infinite with Life from the Loam and buyback, but then I remembered Loam isn’t legal, so I had no clue what he was going for here. Eventually he casts a Gaea’s Blessing and I start to piece the deck together. Ten minutes later I ask him if he has me, he responds with “yes,” and I ask him how he is going to kill me.

“Disintegrate?” I asked.

“Something like that…”

“Well, if you show me I can concede…”

He uses some search effect and shows me Urza’s Factory, which is basically the same thing once you get a million lands out and are able to Gaea’s Blessing every turn to draw your deck with two Rites of Flourishing in play.

I sideboard in both Extirpate and Pull from Eternity.

There’s only about 15 minutes left in the round when we begin game 2, so I play pretty fast and get a turn 5 or 6 Pickles lock thanks to Mystical Teachings. I kill him via attacking shortly after. Intet showed his head this game, which explains the Red splash.

With five minutes left in the round he calls a judge over to watch for slow play, which is pretty standard. I board in Aven Riftwatchers in place of all the control cards, since there’s really no way he can kill me in five minutes, but I have a very good shot at killing him if I get a pretty aggressive draw.

And in game 3, I get a pretty heavy tempo draw with perfect mana. I blow him out of the water, killing him on turn 3 of extra time with double Aven Riftwatcher, Riftwing Cloudskate, and big V.

Ah-ding

4-1

Round 6 – Christopher r. Rue playing U/R/B Reanimator

His game 1 early plays were Looter il-Kor and Bonded Fetch, both of which I didn’t really care about as he discarded a few White Akroma and a Hellkite. I land a Teferi a few turns later with full counter backup to stop whatever Dread Return or Body Double shenanigans he might have. At the end of one of his turns I put a Shapeshifter coping his Bonded Fetch so I could start drawing cards. On his next turn he tapped out to use Dread Return on a Hellkite, so I played a Venser in response, bouncing his Bonded Fetch so he couldn’t flashback Dread Return again for Akroma, and he put four on Teferi and one on me. At the end of his turn, I flashed back Mystical Teachings for Momentary Blink… and Blinked my Shapeshifter three times, copying his Hellkite, dealing him fifteen damage.

During sideboarding he was moving frantically, sideboarding in and out cards. All I had to board in was Extirpate again, this time I boarded out a Mystical Teachings though, since he is probably boarding in Extirpate.

Game 2 was a lot slower than game 1. I used Mystical Teachings to get an Extirpate early, which was probably a mistake, but I really hate not using my mana each turn. I eventually got some pressure out with a Venser or Cloudskate, and sat on my counters as I used Blinks to bounce his Body Double that turned into an Akroma.

5-1

Round 7 – Tiago Chan playing U/B Teferi

We both mulliganed game 1, but I had a turns 2 and 3 Cloudskate suspension which did a number on his Dreadship Reef and Prismatic Lens, and went for rebuys thanks to Blink. He tried for a Damnation and Tendrils a couple of times, but I had Venser and Delays to stop him from recovering.

After sideboarding, our decks were picked up to be deck checked, so we put our decks in their boxes and handed them off to the judge. Neither of us were too worried, since we both pile-shuffled our decks and knew they were correct. After about 10 minutes a judge came back and asked to talk to Tiago in the back. A couple of minutes later both came rushing back and searching around the game area looking for a card. Apparently he only presented 59 cards, which would end up in a game loss, and thus the match.

When the card couldn’t be found anywhere, Tiago checked his deck box… and the card was sitting there, smiling back at him, as the judge had failed to take it out when he started the deck check.

Heh.

We both mulliganed again for game 2, though this time Tiago went to five on the play. I had a turn 4 Venser to bounce his Shadowmage Infiltrator, along with a turn 5 Riftwing Cloudskate to bounce it again. He was stuck on two Dreadship Reef, a Prismatic Lens, and an Island, so his manabase was already messed up when I started bouncing his mana sources via Blink to ensure a victory backed up with counters.

6-1

Round 8 – Jean Charles Salvin playing G/W Tarmogoyf

I believe this was an Italian or Portuguese player, and looking back at our games shows me that some shady dealings went on.

Game 1 I blow him out when he tries to put Griffin Guide on a Tarmogoyf, only to have it bounced by Venser at instant speed. From there I used my Cloudskates to stop his Call tokens, and Blink to hold off his Enforcer for awhile, until I got him Pickles locked. He was visually frustrated, and it looked like he was rushing each draw, so I slowed down a bit to make sure I don’t make any mistakes in a game I had won on posture alone. This made him a bit more anxious as he reached for his sideboard.

In game 2 I suspend a Cloudskate on turn 2, and manage a turn 4 Venser to slow down his Elephant assault. On turn 5 I put a Brine Elemental down with Blink mana up. He attacks into me with another Call token, and since I had a backup Brine Elemental in hand I blinked my morph and blocked, which drew out a Sunlance to finish him off. Next turn I morph down a Shapeshifter and play an Aven Riftwatcher, putting me over twenty while I crash in. He uses Sunlance on my morph, then a Temporal Isolation on my Riftwatcher, and cracks in with Tarmogoyf, putting me to seventeen or so. On my next turn I attack with Riftwatcher and Cloudskate, and with damage on the stack I flashback my Blink to give me a fresh Aven Riftwatcher.

On his next turn he uses yet another Sunlance to get rid of my Riftwatcher, and plays another dude before attacking in with Tarmo again. I use a Mystical Teachings to get a Teferi and pass the turn before attacking him down to ten or twelve. He has a few dudes out at this point, and after he declares attackers I play my Teferi to stop a possible Stonewood Invocation, and I end up blocking one of his Call tokens. He looks at his hand and starts to tap mana before catching himself and pulling back. It was quite obvious at this point that he did actually have the Stonewood, so after damage he makes another Call token. I play a morph end of turn and flip up Brine Elemental as I bash in with the team, forcing him to chump block the Brine. He goes down to two, draws, and offers the hand.

After we played we talked about the game, and he did in fact have the Stonewood, which would have forced me to chump block something since I was only at thirteen life. He also pulled my Riftwatcher out my graveyard and showed me the wording on Sunlance, almost bragging that he got away with it. It was definitely my fault that I let it resolve, but showing your opponent how you cheated him after the match is pretty low.

7-1

Round 9 – Douglas Pimm playing G/W/R Kavu Predator

My tiebreakers are pretty bad, and him being an amateur I offer him the draw. We shake on it and talk about our matches throughout the day so far. Andre Coimbra, sitting on my right playing, said that there was really no point in drawing since all of the X-2s would make it, especially since we are at table seven. Being the persuadable youth Douglas is, he started to question whether drawing or not would be good. He asked if I mind if we play, I say I can’t stop you from wanting to play, and we shuffled up.

Game 1… Blah, Blah, Blah mulligan to five, and Cloudskate dies to Riftsweeper. On my comeback, he also has DEAD / GONE for my Venser in response to a Blink.

Dead / Gone, maindeck, completely insane against me.

Game 2… Mulls to five again, he comforts me with a well timed “ouch,” and I proceed to draw every land in my deck to go along with my three-land starting hand.

Big obvs. Big tilts.

7-2

Day 1 was finished, and our room retired to some expensive restaurant a million blocks away. The group this time was Eugenious Harvey, Jon “Grampa” Sonne, J “Evan” Dean, Billz Moreno, Str “Wrs” Kid, and Analynn “OMG it’s a girl playing Magic” –insert last name here–.

On the lengthy walk up to the fine establishment, I really felt like I bonded with Eugene and Jon. They are both something like a million years older than myself, so I joked around and called Sonne “Grampa,” or “Gramps,” and Eugene “Uncle Harvey.” Despite StrWrs and myself at the table it was pretty quiet, so after I got my fruity girly drink with one of those cute little umbrellas I ventured to the Osyp / Sadin table with all the loud NJ and NY people. This table was far more entertaining, and much more obnoxious, than the previous. It seemed, when I’d look around the room, that many people were staring at us. This was probably because they recognized Osyp, but it also might be because we were being pretty loud.

I was already pretty tipsy from that lovely cocktail. I’m a lightweight. Suck it.

After eating yet another chicken breast smothered in hearty melted cheese, I returned to the NJ/NY table only to find empty plates scattered about the long table and chairs with no occupants. Big frowns. The long walk back to the grown-up table was interrupted by a strange smell coming from the French table sporting some Ruels, a Levy, and some kind of Wafo-Tapa. I didn’t feel like investigating, and it looks like the waitress just dropped the check off.

I got back half way through Sonne’s story about how, “back in his day,” there were no sleeves to protect cards! And you had to walk fifteen miles in the snow to see the pairings for the next round, and then you had to walk another fifteen to get back to your seat! Eugene butted in at this point and began to talk about foreign diplomacy issues, when Gramps back-handed him and went on about how you had to shuffle your deck for fifteen minutes before you would be able to play Magic, and back then there was no time limit or extra turns! So whoever signed the slip first would walk away victorious.

Round 10 – Paulo Vitor De La Damo Es Muy Picante De Rosa playing G/W Tarmogoyf

Paulo is a master.

7-3

Round 11 – Jon Sonne playing G/W/R Kavu Predator

Game 1 I blow him out with a quick tempo draw while he fumbles around with Call of the Herd tokens and Mystic Enforcer without threshold.

I really felt like I should have won game 2, as I just can’t see where I made a mistake. I had a triple Blink draw with Cloudskate, Venser, and Shapeshifter, and even Aven Riftwatcher, but I still lost. He even had some dead Temporal Isolations in the mix. Then, out of nowhere, he had a 17/17 Kavu Predator, and I just crumbled to it. I used all my early Blinks to deal with his Call of the Herd tokens and the occasional 4/4 or 5/5 Kavu Predator… I guess I could have waited a bit, but I would have taken even more damage. Truly bizarre. I can almost always identify my mistakes in any game, and compensate for them, but this one really left me spinning. I even asked Jon while we were sideboarding for game 3 if he noticed any visible mistakes, but he said he didn’t.

Time was running really low, which led to me punting game 3 completely. The board was developing, and I had Teferi in play with two Aven Riftwatchers and a Venser. I have a Delay, Prismatic Lens, Teferi’s Moat, and Brine Elemental in hand, with five or six lands, at nineteen life. He was at fourteen life, and had a pair of Call tokens, a non-threshold Mystic Enforcer, a 3/4 Tarmogoyf, a 2/2 Kavu Predator, and two cards in hand. Jon was playing slow as usual, and there were five minutes left on the clock. I sat there for awhile, trying to figure out what play I should make. I narrowed it down to either attacking with the Avens, who each had two time counters, in an attempt to actually win this game; or sitting back on the Riftwatchers and making a Brine Elemental at the end of turn, with high hopes to find either a Mystical Teachings or Shapeshifter to lock him down. I hadn’t seen any enchantment removal, and he hadn’t seen Teferi’s Moat so far, so I opted for playing Prismatic Lens and Teferi’s Moat and attacking with the Avens… so I have a shot at wining the game.

On his turn he thinks for a long time, then plays Cloudchaser Kestrel killing my Teferi’s Moat. He thinks some more, and eventually time gets called with him being active player. Then, out of nowhere, he cycles Edge from Autumn and Fiery Justice to obtain threshold, killing my Teferi in the process. I take nineteen to the dome after chump blocking Tarmogoyf, going down to four life.

Youtube Video of the Week

I draw Shapeshifter on my turn, which copies Cloudskate (bouncing Kavu Predator), and I pass the turn. He swings out on his next turn, but I make the right blocks, killing both my Riftwatchers putting me to seven life, and he ships it back to me after replaying Kavu Predator. On my turn I draw a Cloudskate, and the game is a draw since he can’t kill me on his next attack.

The frustrating part of this match is not only that he was playing absurdly slow, but also that I chose the wrong play. Fabiano was standing behind me and said he would have left the Riftwatchers back and tried to mize a win off the Pickles lock, since that was the only realistic way I could win. Playing Teferi’s Moat is kind of like going all-in on a semi-bluff. Sure, if he doesn’t have the Cloudchaser I’ll win, but if he does I’m totally blown out of the water.

Instead of both of us missing out on a chance at Top 8, I conceded to him as I was signing the slip. If I hadn’t conceded to him he actually would have finished 33rd on tiebreakers, rather than the 20th place he got, so at least I managed to help a friend out with some extra Pro Points and Top 20 prize payout during my miserable trip.

7-4

Round 12 – Jason Terry playing G/W Tarmogoyf

This round was pretty awful. I was already on a three-round losing streak, and when I sat down opposite a really nice guy, I knew I was done for. He offered a handshake, had a nice little warlock baguette of assorted dice, he had some prerelease shirt on, glasses, middle aged, strong firm handshake, thick cheeks that perked up every time he drew a card, as he sat perched like a infant caterpillar waiting for leaves to be provided to him. Truly the ideal opponent.

Foreshadowing much?

Game 1 took about ten minutes, and I completely crushed him. Blinks were flying out left and right as he kept trying to Griffin Guide Call tokens, only to have Blink flashed back on a Riftwing Cloudskate or Venser.

“Wow, this is such an awful matchup for me… Good luck!”

Blah, blah, more foreshadowing.

I get a slow draw in game 2, and the following board position arises around turn 15 or so. Use your imagination to get up to this point. He has three Heartwood Storyteller, three flying Mystic Enforcer, five elephants, a suspend Cloudchaser Kestrel with two time counters, two Serra Avenger, two 5/6 Tarmogoyf, and he’s sitting with seven cards in hand, at four life. I have a Venser, Cloudskate, and a pair of Aven Riftwatchers in play (one with one counter, one with two), a Delay in hand, and I have 31 life points to my name.

I also have both of my Teferi’s Moat in play, both on Green.

Twenty minutes later…

I’m at 25, he has more Call tokens, I have four or five Factory tokens, and I still have Delay in my hand, along with both Factories.

At this point there’s seven minutes left in the round, and his slow playing is getting pretty insane. I ask him to play faster and he responds quickly, making each play much quicker than before, but he is still thinking the same amount of time. How much thought does it take to realize you can attack in with your Enforcers and Avengers and still have enough to play around a Momentary Blink? He’s also missed five draws off Storytellers* so far this game. Man, I hate nice opponents. It would be so much easier to bash him if he were a scumbag.

A couple more minutes go by, and I just scoop. I couldn’t take it anymore. He was attacking with one Serra Avenger each turn, almost like he was playing for the draw.

Game 3. Mull to 5. Riftsweeper takes out my turn 2 Cloudskate. Only other nonland card I draw is Prismatic Lens.

Big obvs. Big tilts.

7-5

Just to clarify, I’m not really upset or anything. I never really lose control over my emotions during a match to the point that would actually swing the outcome of the game. I just kept seeing myself make mistakes and didn’t know how to fix it, which is a little frustrating, but if you lose your cool during any game you’ve already lost. I asked several people what they would do in my situation for round 12, and Karsten offered the following.

There’s a good chance that he didn’t see that his Enforcers could attack. Also, there’s really no point in conceding there since it’s very hard to win a game in five minutes with this type of deck. I would have just kept playing and hoped to draw into a runner-runner situation.

I also asked Cedric Phillups** about the situation.

You 100% have to scoop there, otherwise you have no chance at wining! When time is called, he will just swing out and kill you!

Karsten or Phillups! You decide! Rock the Vote 2007!

After going on tilt, I walked up to Noah Weil, who was doing coverage, and asked if I could do some feature matches. He said to show up for round 14 with a laptop and I’d be good to go. So after I ate an Italian BMT on Italian bread with Italian sauce, I contributed the following Italian coverage:

Ben Lundquist versus Kenji Tsumura

Paulo Vitor Damo De Rosa versus Andre Coimbra

Guillaume Wafo-Tapa versus Shouta Yasooka

Paul Cheon versus Guillaume Wafo-Tapa

Ate.

Drafted.

Did that badass draft format with funky*** packs until eight in the morning with SWK, Billz, n’ JED.

Hopped on a train with StarWarsKid en route to NY.

Met up with the same two kids from the train ride earlier.

Crushed them in a 2v2, nice 3-0 StrWrs.

Crushed them in another 2v2, nice 3-0 StrWrs.

Ate four extra-cheesy microwaved burgers that were hotter than Aten n’ Ant posing for a specialist magazine in yellow thongs with a delicate fringe along the outer rim, providing a look that is both cute but sexy, trashy yet inspiring.

Ten-hour train ride went by in no time.

Walked about the streets of downtown Manhattan with SWK trailing shortly behind, dragging his 30lb suitcase.

Traded suitcases with a whiny little SWK.

Traded suitcases again because my hand hurt.

Met up with Billy at 42nd and 6th.

Saw A Man From Another Planet at the park, there in black and white, as my toes dug deep into the rich lush grass.

Sadin showed up and escorted and entertained us on our walk to McDonalds.

Slept at Billy’s on the floor with the good pillow, because I lost Rock/Paper/Scissors with SWK for the bed and the bad pillow.

Woke up.

Showered.

Three-hour bus ride to Baltimore.

Three-hour plane ride to Houston.

Met up with Twebb and drafted.

Left Twebb’s at 3am.

Pulled into a random hotel parking lot at 5am to sleep for two hours.

Arrived home at 238 Buried Ghost.

Total trip = 50 hours to and from Montreal

Time spent in Montreal = 60 hours

Total cost = $1,600

Thx fer readin’,

chez

…

Top 5 Picks

1) Nightlife by Prefuse 73
2) Yellow Datsun by Neva Dinova
3) Ben Franklin’s Kite by Something Corporate
4) Gay Sons of Lesbian Mothers by Kaki King
5) 24 Hours by The Sounds

…

* Speaking of Storyteller, I may be up for the Storyteller ballot that is going up on Friday. So, uh, yah. VOTE FOR ME! Please!

** Wowza, when was the last article you could Ctrl+F “Cedric Phillups” and find three separate entries? Really I want to know. When?

*** Before I forget, here’s the revised U/W Pickles deck for all the PTQ’ers out there. I tried to find a place in the article to put this, but it would intrude on my artistic view of this piece.

The Dodecapods in the sideboard were really bad, and having the option to Mystical Teachings for multiple Temporal Isolation against the Tarmogoyf decks seems too good. I also took a Cancel out of the maindeck to have access to the 3rd Brine Elemental. Two really wasn’t enough for me, and I feel I got pretty lucky drawing him a lot of the time. The last change is the addition to Willbender to the board. I haven’t really tested him, but he seems awesome, and he’s really good in Mono-Blue Pickles. Being able to redirect an Extirpate or Haunting Hymn, or even being able to win a counter war or save your Brine Elemental from Sudden Death, can completely turn the game back in your favor.

It’s a really good deck that I will probably be playing in the upcoming PTQ season. It has good answers to all the most popular decks in the field, and it’s actually really fun and challenging to play.