Sanctioned Play: A PTQ Report

As of March 1st I became unsuspended from the DCI and started playing some sanctioned Magic at the local store here in Pittsburgh. This past weekend also was the first Pro Tour Qualifier I’d be allowed to play in, for Pro Tour Prague. The tournament was in Charleston, WV and was unfortunately a three and a half hour drive for those of us from CMU that decided to go. The good news was that StarCityGames ran the PTQ, which meant it would go smoothly. Dr. Martel, Silent Steve, Andres, and myself made the trip down in the morning, and made it with plenty of time to spare. This would normally be awesome, but I had failed to get any sleep the entire night before and was ready to start registering a deck while I was still awake, rather than sit around for a half hour.

Anyway, I figured it was pretty much mandatory that I do a tournament report on my first PTQ back… so here goes.

Building the Deck

The card pool I registered was terrible and I was really hoping I wouldn’t get it back.

While the deck I did get back wasn’t that tough overall to build, I might as well go the whole way here and list it so that you guys can see if you agree with all of my choices. I felt like I built the deck correctly except for one possible change in the manabase, but build it yourself and then compare with my list below.

PTQ Card Pool

Nick Eisel

Test deck on 03-12-2006

Ravnica Limited

Creatures (44)

Lands (4)

…

As I was flipping through this card pool to make sure everything was there and there were no deck registration errors, I was already pretty sure that I’d be playing some form of B/G/W since that’s where most of the strong cards were. The colors were deep and had good men and removal, as well as bombs in the form of Blazing Archon and Chorus of the Conclave. While both of these guys lose a lot of value in the quicker Draft format, they are simply amazing in Sealed where your opponent will often just lose to them. Almost everyone plays Green in this format too, so Chorus is getting in for three every turn almost guaranteed.

After I laid out all of the cards, I confirmed that I was in fact playing B/W/G and had to start making some cuts. Here’s what I ended up with:

PTQ Deck

Nick Eisel

Test deck on 03-12-2006

Ravnica Limited

Creatures (17)

Lands (17)

Spells (6)

When Saprolings Attack!!!

Normally in this format I want to run sixteen lands and a couple of Signets, as long as I have at least two bounce lands. This deck, however, is more mana hungry, with both the Chorus and Archon at the top of the curve, and I also find it hard to count City-Tree as only a land since it will also be a “spell” in the late game. I also didn’t feel like getting manascrewed and felt that my deck was above average on the power scale, and I wanted to just get smooth draws and power out my stuff. The last cut I made from the deck was the Courier Hawk, which was simply worse than the rest of the cards and unnecessary since I had better two drops or a bounce land/Signet to play on that turn. It’s worth nothing that I think Seed Spark is an automatic maindeck in this Sealed format, and most people don’t end up doing that. There are so many targets for it, and in the worst cast scenario you can kill your own Signet in the late game for an instant speed Fists of the Ironwood.

The cards that were almost in the deck were Gaze of the Gorgon, Courier Hawk, and Withstand, with some other viable sideboard options in Leave No Trace, Sundering Vitae, and Glass Golem.

The one mistake I felt I made in building here is that I probably didn’t need to run Mountain to support the Char. With Gruul Tuft and Spectral Searchlight, and the fact that my deck is controlling overall, I probably didn’t need the extra source. I instead should’ve run another Plains, but during deck building it seemed like the manabase was good enough that I could also have Mountain to fetch with Civic Wayfinder. There’s also no way that I don’t splash Char into this deck since I’m playing Gruul Turf no matter what, even if it can only produce Green mana for me, and I also have Searchlight. This is without mentioning that Char is good removal and I don’t have enough of that. The one argument you could have for playing the Mountain is that it also helps Boros Guildmage, but the First Strike ability is far more relevant and I never used the Haste one in my deck (though I could see it being potentially good).

Overall, I was happy with this deck and felt like it should be good enough for top 8.

There were only 68 players in attendance for this PTQ which meant seven rounds of Swiss, and at least one person with a 5-2 record would sneak into the top 8 since the last round was barely necessary.

Round 1 against Clark Chris
Clark is playing an aggro GRW build that is centered around his two copies of Ghor-Clan Savage.

In game 1, I get a solid draw and start with Mourning Thrull and Shambling Shell. He plays out some guys, but I trade with Shell and pump the Thrull and then just Dredge it back. Soon I have City-Tree online, and just Dredge Shell to speed up the clock on the Thrull. He was never really in this game, as I also had Fetters and Char backup in hand.

I board in Gaze of the Gorgon for Seed Spark, since I didn’t see any targets for the enchantment/artifact removal spell.

Game 2 is quite different, as he gets the tempo advantage this game and when I’m about to stabilize with Fetters on Ghor-Clan Savage, he Absolver Thrulls me out and then casts another Ghor-Clan the next turn.

For game 3, I board in Glass Golem for Gruul Scrapper so that I can trade it for his Savages. Turns out that this was a good move – better than I could’ve anticipated – as I get a fast draw, and am able to negate his Savage with my Glass Golem and Boros Guildmage giving First Strike.

1-0

Kiss my Aura, Dora... mmm... it's real angora.

Round 2 against Travis Tomblin
Travis has an insane deck featuring Hour of Reckoning and Three Dreams for Galvanic Arc, Moldervine Cloak, and Pollenbright Wings.

Game 1, and his draw isn’t so good. We trade guys for a couple of turns until I play Drooling Groodion, which takes over the board. A few turns later, my Blazing Archon comes down. I actually tell him that I hope he doesn’t have Hour of Reckoning in his deck, as it would’ve been his only out since he didn’t have enough mana to Savage Twister effectively around my Groodion. He doesn’t draw it this game, and my Archon goes all the way. At this point I still don’t know he actually has the Hour in his deck.

Game 2 he completely wrecks me with the Hour of Reckoning. I smelled something fishy when he wasn’t casting much, so I held back on my Groodion. Unfortunately, he then untaps and casts Three Dreams for the aforementioned trio of Auras, and uses the Arc to finish off my Groodion. I actually think I made a mistake somewhere in here by letting my Shambling Shell die, thus not being able to pump the Groodion… but I hadn’t seen Arc in game 1 either. I Dredge back the Shell and play House Guard on my turn, and luckily for me he doesn’t cast a guy over the next couple of turns to put Wings or Cloak on. Finally he draws something, but it’s too late as I drew Pillory the turn before and my guys go all the way.

2-0

Round 3 against Sal Tomazzolli
I know Sal from playing against him in the 10/20 and 20/40 limit holdem games at the Borgata in Atlantic City, but I didn’t know that he also played Magic. We started talking a bit about poker and he said that he is now playing 80/160 so he is obviously doing very well. I figured he must be at least decent at Magic….

His deck is featuring Grave-Shell Scarab, Ghost Council of Orzhova, Blazing Archon, and Rumbling Slum (which is on the splash off of two Gruul Signet). I had seen some of his deck while he was finishing round 2, so I knew I was going to be in for a tough match this round.

I really wish I could have a taped replay of game one for you guys to watch, as it was a long, complicated, and extremely close game. What eventually happened was that I got Chorus of the Conclave out, but he played Harrier Griffin and was racing me in the air and building up the Griffin with Shambling Shell every turn. One turn I had to trade my 8/8 Mourning Thrull for his Stinkweed Imp, just because I needed to gain the life to stay in the race and he was tapping it with Harrier anyway. Essentially, it boiled down to a race between his two fliers and my Chorus, and the turn I drew Char he had just used the Shell to make his Harrier up to 5/5 and out of range. Looking at the board situation, I had two turns to draw some way to stop the Harrier Griffin (removal, Ostiary Thrull, etc) or I was going to come up short and lose. On my next turn I untapped and ripped Pillory, removed both of his ground blockers with that and Char, and attacked him with my 9/9 Civic Wayfinder and Chorus for the win. Phew.

Game 2, I open with a mulligan and keep a mediocre hand that contains only a Golgari Signet and Green mana along with Gruul Turf and some spells that I can cast. He decides to play for some reason, and it ends up winning him the game as he casts Castigate on turn two and takes my Signet. I cast no spells this game and get destroyed rather quickly.

Game 3 is the opposite, as I Fetters his turn 3 Rumbling Slum and then bash with Dimir House Guard, Transluminant, and other assorted dorks.

3-0

Round 4 against Shaun Mack
Here’s where it all went downhill.

Shaun is playing the same colors as me and from what I’ve seen/heard, he’s a very solid player.

Game 1 he gets out some early men, including an Elvish Skysweeper that looks like it is going to be a big problem for me… I have Archon in hand and should be able to cast it on time. Since I didn’t draw Fetters or Char, I decide that in order to win this game I have to be attacking with stuff that really should be holding back on defense, since the tempo of the game is on his side. I start attacking with guys instead of holding back and he takes it for a turn or two. I guess he started to get scared that I had some kind of finisher like Overwhelm or Predatory Focus in hand, and he is finally convinced to trade his Skysweeper for my Shambling Shell when he still could just take it and outrace me. Of course, in his defense, I hadn’t played any fliers and the Skysweeper looked like it probably wasn’t going to impact the game. With the Elf gone, I untapped, dropped Blazing Archon, and rode it to victory.

Game 2 is where the bad news begins. First, I mulligan to five on the play, and I get a spectacular draw for a double mulligan. I can’t really remember all of the details – I was on no sleep – but I do remember thinking that this was one of the better five card draws I’ve had in a while. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t enough as he had Fetters and a better draw, and beat me pretty handily.

Game 3 was just stupid, as I keep the following hand on the draw:

Plains
Plains
Swamp
Mourning Thrull
Faith’s Fetters
Blind Hunter
Dimir House-Guard

Pretty strong huh?

Well, I played my Thrull and he played two guys and then Convoked into a turn three Conclave Equenaut with the help of a Signet. As I drew for my fourth turn, I still hadn’t drawn a fourth land, and had drawn something like Drooling Groodion and another random spell. This turns out to be the key point of the game, as I don’t draw a land and therefore cannot Fetters his Equenaut, so I am reduced to saying go. On his turn things only get worse, as he plays Privileged Position and I am furious that I couldn’t cast Fetters last turn and be in fine shape. I untap, draw Swamp, and search for Seed Spark with Dimir House Guard since his fliers are beating on me. On the next turn I Spark the Position, but he plays Elvish Skysweeper on his turn, preventing me from playing Fetters and gaining life since he can just sacrifice his guy in response. I try casting it anyway but he doesn’t mess it up, and I die the next turn.

3-1

Round 5 against Don Huang
Don is a nice guy, and a strong player to boot. He was playing a G/R/U build, but I didn’t see too much of his deck as you’ll soon find out.

Game 1 we both mulligan, but I am on the play and forced to keep a marginal hand containing no White mana. The game goes on for a while, and I cast a few spells, but I never draw a Plains and he beats me pretty easily – his draw is much better, and he has Golgari Guildmage. This is the one game where possibly having Mountain in my deck instead of Plains could have cost me a match.

Game 2 he mulligans, and gets stuck on one mana for a few turns. Fun match eh?

Game 3 I keep the stone cold nuts on the draw:

Forest
Plains
Swamp
Mourning Thrull
Pillory of the Sleepless
Faith’s Fetters
Blind Hunter

So I won this game, right? Nope.

He dealt with my Mourning Thrull with Sparkmage Apprentice, and then cast a guy that I Pilloried. I didn’t play a land on my fourth turn (again), and he played Ghor-Clan Savage with Bloodthirst on his turn. I again failed to draw land, and he attacked and didn’t have anything else left to cast. For the remaining few turns of the game, I never drew another land and couldn’t Fetters to just win the game if his Savage was out of the picture. Sick. He was definitely nice about it though, and agreed that he couldn’t win if I had drawn another land at any point, as he was really flooded. Oh well.

I now had to win out to have any chance of top 8 and it wasn’t even a guarantee at that.

3-2

Round 6 against Jonathon Johnson
I didn’t take too many notes on this match, but I remember John saying that his deck was rather mediocre, and it played out that way in the games. The only strong cards he cast against me were Selesnya Guildmage and two Pillorys, but I dealt with those and had a pretty easy time beating his deck since his filler wasn’t the best.

4-2

Round 7 against Ben Angel
Ben is an old friend, and when we check the standings to see if either of us can make it, I have higher tiebreakers by a mile and he agrees to concede to me. He has no chance of making top 8 with such low breakers among a large pool of X-2s.

We played it out anyway, just for fun, and his deck bashed me pretty handily. My draws were just as bad as the earlier two rounds where I picked up both of my losses.

5-2

When they announce the top 8 I get the bad news that I finished ninth on tiebreakers, which sucked. One person with 5-2 did make top 8, so at least I had a shot, but I was a bit annoyed to say the least. Andres was the only one from our CMU group to make the top 8 and eventually went on to win the whole thing… congrats, dude!

This weekend I’ll be making the trip to the Columbus PTQ, to again attempt to get a ticket to Prague, but I will only write a report on that event if I happen to win it. Otherwise, expect some more detailed Draft strategy from me next week.

Nick Eisel
[email protected]
Soooooo & ThatsGameBoys on MODO

Creatures (44)

Lands (4)

Spells (27)

Creatures (17)

Lands (17)

Spells (6)