Part 1: Preparation
I left Washington D.C. on Monday and headed for San Juan with Jason Terry. I was expecting some nice weather in Puerto Rico, but it was humid and rainy pretty much the entire weekend, which summed up my performance in the tournament.
I had a beach house that was pretty close to the convention center, rooming with some other good players. Let’s go through a list of people in the house…
Conley Woods
Craig “one Heini” Wescoe
Kenny Mayer
Vidi “Ace Hardware” Wijaya
Justin Larose
Jason Terry
Brett “pizza man” Piazza
Raine Laurie
Christian “the ‘stache”
Ari Lax
Matt Marr
Gavin “Banana Bear” Verhey
I am sure I am forgetting someone, since there were so many people in the house. The beach house itself was very nice, and it was awesome that Jason was able to orchestrate all of it. The house was booby trapped with various decorations that could easily be broken, as well as loose doors. We lost our security deposit pretty early, which I am pretty sure has happened to previous groups in the house. The internet in Puerto Rico was also pretty sketchy, but I did not plan on sitting around doing nothing, so it was not that bad.
There was a lot of talent in the house, so I expected to have an awesome Block Constructed deck and a handful of great results for my friends. I had not played much Block Constructed before the tournament, but I had a week to figure out the format. I had great success with Blue/White Tap Out at Grand Prix: Washington D.C., so I naturally started with the Block Constructed version. It translated very nicely, especially since I could play four copies of Jace, the Mind Sculptor, which was by far the most powerful card in the format.
When I started to test the deck against the gauntlet, I realized just how bad the matchup is against Green Eldrazi Ramp. I was not comfortable playing a deck with such a terrible matchup versus another popular deck. The deck did not have such good matchups against the rest of the field for me to justify playing it again.
The house ran a mock tournament, which included all of the usual suspects as well as some homebrews. I was not set on a deck, so I volunteered myself to play a stock Vampires build. I found the first list I saw on the Magic Online daily event pages, and jammed the exact 75. After playing a few games of the tournament, I found there were many cards that I would change. The deck seemed poorly built, but I still went 4-0. I learned a lot about the archetype after the mock tournament, so we decided to run another. I fixed up Vampires, and won that one too. I added some spicy cards to the maindeck, including three Abyssal Persecutors and three Consuming Vapors.
Needless to say, I was pretty confident about playing Vampires. I continued my testing by beating Mono Green Eldrazi Ramp eight games to zero. Everyone in the house had the deck in their list of top decks to play. Other decks included a Green/White Eldrazi Ramp deck, a Blue/Green tempo deck designed by Gavin, and a Blue/Red Control deck designed by Conley.
The mock tournaments were a great way to learn the format, and I would encourage you all to try them in the future. It does not require many people, and you can proxy decks. The second tournament involved the brews that were successful in the first, as well as multiple copies of the gauntlet decks. It is important to remember to take very standard lists for the gauntlet decks, and not what you think is the hottest new tech. The point of these events is to figure out which decks of your own design can handle the most popular versions of the most popular archetypes.
We also ran a couple of drafts to get ready for the Pro Tour. My first deck was a rancid Red Green ramp strategy, an archetype from which I cannot seem to get away. I went 2-2 and began to realize that my decks need to have an actual strategy instead of good cards. In the past, I could get good results by taking the most powerful cards in the packs rather than the best cards for my deck.
For the next, I learned my lesson from the first, and ended up with a very powerful Blue/White Level Up deck. I had to get into the habit of taking cards like Venerated Teacher very highly, since they do not hang out in the packs for long. I went 3-1, losing to land screw in the third game of the final, but the point of the draft was to become comfortable with the format, and I thought I had accomplished that.
I learned more about the Limited format by watching draft walkthroughs as well as MTGO drafts. Ari Lax was good at most of the archetypes that can be drafted, and he knew how to force them, so I learned a thing or two from him.
Although we tested for many hours, we also had a lot of fun at various restaurants and bars. I am glad to have been with a great group of people who are good at Magic and know how to have fun. We went to Che’s, a great Argentinean restaurant that was within walking distance from the house that had great Tortellini and sangria. There were also a handful of great bars in the area to watch the Lakers versus Suns games. We had fans on both sides, so it was a lot of fun.
Part 2: The Tournament
I am sure by now that you have figured out that although I did a lot of testing, my tournament went pretty badly. I stuck with the deck that tested the best for me: Vampires. Here is the list I played.
Creatures (25)
- 3 Bloodghast
- 4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
- 4 Malakir Bloodwitch
- 4 Vampire Hexmage
- 4 Vampire Nighthawk
- 3 Abyssal Persecutor
- 3 Kalastria Highborn
Lands (24)
Spells (11)
I know this is not a PTQ format, but there are still Block Constructed tournaments online, so I will go over how I sideboard against the big decks.
U/W Control:
+1 Tectonic Edge
+1 Perish the Thought
+1 Trusty Machete
+1 Grim Discovery
+2 Hideous End
+3 Mind Sludge
-1 Smother
-2 Urge to Feed
-3 Consuming Vapors
-3 Abyssal Persecutor
Mono Red:
+1 Vendetta
+1 Smother
+1 Urge to Feed
+2 Disfigure
+2 Hideous End
-1 Mire’s Toll
-3 Bloodghast
-3 Abyssal Persecutor
Mono Green Eldrazi Ramp:
+3 Mind Sludge
+2 Hideous End
+1 Perish to Thought
+1 Trusty Machete
+1 Blade of the Bloodchief
+1 Tectonic Edge
+1 Grim Discovery
-1 Kalastria Highborn
-1 Smother
-2 Urge to Feed
-4 Vampire Nighthawk
-2 Consuming Vapors
The maindeck and sideboard are a little unconventional. The Consuming Vapors and Abyssal Persecutor “combo” was pretty good for me. Most of the lists had Arrogant Bloodlord, but I was not a fan. Just about every deck in the format had a way to embarrass you when it is on the battlefield, so I wanted no part of that.
It is also a common theme with me that I play a lot of one-ofs in my sideboard, and I certainly did not disappoint here. There was no best removal spell, which is why I have so many options in my board. Some decks I get them all, but Vampires limits me to what cards I can bring in. It is important to remember that it is okay to play a random combination of cards, as long as you have an actual plan for them.
My Constructed matches went pretty badly. Many of my games came down to me either starting with six or five cards, or missing early land drops. I felt that my deck was good and the matchups were close; it was just not my day.
In the first round, I played against Mono Green Eldrazi Ramp, so it was a good start to the day. I won game 1, but it was very close. It involved me having a Kalastria Highborn and some Vampires slowly grinding away his life total against a Kozilek, Butcher of Truth.
The second game I brought in the equipment, since they survive All is Dust, and Blade of the Bloodchief was a lot better than I expected. I just ran Bloodghasts into the ground so Vampire Nighthawk could get bigger. The second game was so close in the end that I had to Hideous End his indestructible Eldrazi for the two damage. I won the match 2-0, and was feeling pretty confident since my opponent had some pretty good draws to stay in the game for as long as he did.
The second round was against a guy playing Mono Red with Devastating Summons. The wheels started to fall off as I took a mulligan and missed my third land drop for the entire game. The second game went almost as badly, but I made the land drops later in the game. I almost stabilized with a Malakir Bloodwitch, but I was at six; he used his last card, which was Burst Lightning, on me… then topdecked the next one for the match.
The next match was against Raine, who was in my beach house. He was playing the Green/White Eldrazi Ramp brew that Conley created. I never like playing against friends, and this occasion was no different. The first two games were pretty epic. We traded card for card, and each one was very close. The third game I got stuck on lands and was unable to cast Mind Sludge for many turns, which pretty much decided the match. It still ended up being a very close game, but him not having a hand would have tipped the scale in my favor.
The fourth round I played against Monument Green. I was crushed in the first game, as he curved out very well. The second game saw us both land screwed, but it was okay since I had a lot of removal. The Abyssal Persecutor was a giant wall that he could not attack into. He conceded before I could actually kill the Persecutor. In the third game I had a slow start, but my hand was all Consuming Vapors and Abyssal Persecutors. If I could live that long, the game was mine. The two Vapors ended up killing three Leatherback Baloths and a Nissa’s Chosen.
The last round of swiss was against another Mono Red deck. Both games went pretty badly for me. I thought it was a decent matchup for me coming into the tournament, but I guess I should have tested it more. I had a game where I missed my second land drop after a mulligan, and in the other game Red just did its thing.
I ended the Constructed portion at 2-3, which was a very disappointing performance for me, since I felt that I prepared and put in effort to do well. I was still in contention for Day 2, so I did not want to begin to feel sorry for myself. I had a mission, and it was still within reach.
My draft pod contained Sam Black as the only recognizable big name. My main goal was to draft another Blue/White Level Up deck, but it was not to be. I opened a Consume the Meek, so I was pretty sold on Black. I ended up playing Black/White Control, since I opened Deathless Angel and Narkana Revenant to win the late game.
I won the first two rounds against control decks. I boarded out some tappers for some Perish the Thoughts and Survival Caches. It is important to have a plan against control decks because you are boarding for specific matchups.
I was playing against Sam Black in the final round for Day 2, but it was not to be. He had the best Level Up deck I have seen so far. Both games he began with Conclave Cryptologist, and my deck did not have many ways to stop it, so the card advantage was just too great. I was close to making Day 2, but yet so far. I figured that I would have gotten the extra pro point for going 4-4, but ended up in 210th place.
The important thing to take away from this is that I am sure you realized I had a lot of bad beats from the above matches. The lesson you and I need to learn is that NOBODY CARES. I got unlucky, yet the world still turns, and I’ve also had many great tournament finishes before this one. Everyone has a bad tournament from time to time. Don’t ever let yourself get into the mindset that anyone else will ever care about how unlucky you are, because it is simply not true.
On a lighter note, Gerard Fabiano created a new game called “Puerto Rico” that is simple and fun. The rules of the game are easy: just yelling “Puerto Rico” as loud as you can, with different accents. [I believe there’a another game called Puerto Rico… – Craig, amused.]
I also did a team draft with Conley Woods and Patrick Chapin. We battled Gabe Walls, David Williams, and Gabriel Nassif. I ended up with another good Blue/White Level Up deck that ended up going 2-1. I lost to Nassif due to not counting correctly at the end. Conley ended up with a weird Green/Red Eldrazi Ramp deck. It had a Kozilek that he put out on turn 5 on more than one occasion. It is not the first time he drafted that type of deck, since he also played double Emrakul earlier in the week too.
As I am writing this, I am still in San Juan, but cannot wait to get back to reality. It was great, and I encourage you all to go on Magic trips, as they are so much fun.
Props:
RIW Hobbies (Pam, you are awesome)
Ari, for loaning me a deck
PVDDR, for being the nuts (we can all learn a thing or two about being 0-2 then winning the whole thing)
Gavin, for cooking pancakes and Thai
Puerto Rico, for being invented
Slops:
The beach house, for being booby trapped
Vampires
Driving in San Juan
Thanks for reading…
Kyle
Lilbogg675 AT aol DOT com