23 January 2014

Houston PTQ Report


I remember a phone call I had with fellow SCG Open Series Winner Nathan Zamora back in 2008. We had both just won our respective Regionals tournament (him in Texas, me in Hawaii), and we were sharing the stories of the day. We laughed at our opponents misplays, patted ourselves on the back for our clever plays, and just shared a feeling that you don't usually get to share with others in the moment (there is only one winner after all). Nathan put it best when, in the middle of the conversation, he said "Winning tournaments is awesome." I agreed then, and I still agree today.

I won the PTQ for Journey into Nyx that Asgard Games held in Houston this past Saturday. I played Mono Black Devotion. There isn't any new tech in this report, just some stories from the day. I like writing about tournaments I play in, especially the good stories, but lately I haven't had the time. 

After Owen Turtenwald won the StarCityGames Open with Mono Black at the start of 2014, I finally was convinced it was the deck to play. I didn’t have much experience with the deck, only experience against it. I played the San Antonio PTQ and went 6-2, and learned quite a bit about the deck. With the knowledge I gained, I registered this list for the Houston PTQ:

18 Swamp
4 Temple of Deceit
4 Mutavault

4 Pack Rat
4 Nightveil Specter
4 Desecration Demon
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel

4 Underworld Connections
4 Thoughtsieze
4 Hero’s Downfall
4 Devour Flesh
2 Pharika’s Cure

Sideboard
4 Duress
2 Erebos, God of the Dead
2 Lifebane Zombie
2 Dark Betrayal
2 Shrivel
1 Pharika’s Cure
1 Doom Blade
1 Pithing Needle

The main deck removal spells could be anything really, as long as it kills something. The rest of the deck is that good.

I added a Shrivel after the one I played in San Antonio was better than I thought. This meant cutting a Lifebane Zombie since that is a nonbo and you bring zombie in for the shrivel matchups usually. I also put the Needle in so to have the same amount of tools vs UW as well as for the RG planeswalkers. The Doom Blade went in instead of 4th Pharika’s Cure because it was easier to cast and killed Stormbreath Dragon. I still think I might want the 3rd Erebos, and I’m not sure Dark Betrayal is that necessary (it doesn’t really make the mirror any easier, but it is good to have).

Playing the deck reminds me a lot of playing Caw Blade. It’s clearly the best deck, the mirror match is skill intensive, and the game situations are different than normal games of Magic. This is why I think I had success – playing well in new situations. However, the deck isn’t nearly as fun as CawBlade – you don’t get to bounce their blocker with Jace and hit them with Sword of Feast and Famine untapping all your lands and casting Gideon Jura in the second main phase. All you get to do is make more rats.

Round 1 – Henry Vi, Mono Black
Second week in a row I start against the mirror. Game 1 he misses land drops and I pull ahead with Underworld Connections. Game 2 he has Erebos and answers for my first two Pack Rats, but I draw a third Rat and it goes the distance.
1-0   (2-0)

I don’t side out Demon in the mirror as seems to be popular. I want to do lots of damage to minimize the effectiveness of Connections and Erebos, plus overload on threats to make their removal not as great. I’m still not sure it’s right, but that is my thinking.

Round 2 – Christopher Boehm, UW Control
Game 1 I start attacking with Mutavault on turn 2, and do enough damage over the course of the game that he’s at 4 life after he cast his 3rd Sphinx’s Revelation. On his turn, he casts Aetherling and Detention Sphere on my Gray Merchant, leaving one blue mana untapped. On my turn, I Devour Flesh targeting him, he phases out Aetherling, so I activate and kill him with two Mutavaults. Game 2 I Duress and Thoughtsieze a few times, and control the pace of the game with which spells I let him keep. He makes a questionable play of leaving up Dissolve instead of tapping out for Elspeth, which gives me more free attacks with Mutavault. Eventually I resolve Gray Merchant for the last 7 life points.
2-0   (4-0)

I think UW Control is a good matchup, mostly because the post board games are way in the favor of the Mono Black deck. I beat Sidd Rao easily in the last round of the PTQ in San Antonio, afterwards he told me how it changed his perspective of the matchup that he had previously thought was a good one. I know when I was playing UW I would have been scared of a good player with Mono Black.

Round 3 – Johnathan Hiett, Black White Blood Baron
Game 1 he Thoughtsiezed my Pack Rat, leaving me with Connections that he never caught up with. Game 2 was more of the same, but I Devour Flesh a couple of Blood Baron on the way to victory.
3-0   (6-0)

Round 4 – Jared LaCombe, Esper Humans
This deck was one of my two losses the previous weekend, so I was worried. Game 1 was one of the more interesting games I’ve played. I kept three Pack Rats and four lands on the play. I lead off with Temple, which he did the same. I then played a Rat, and he made a BW Temple. I attacked on turn 3 and discarded Pharika’s Cure to make a second rat. He played a Mutavault and Detention Sphere on my rats. I made a Desecration Demon, and he made two Daring Skyjeks. I attacked for 6 putting him to 10 (he payed 2 life earlier for a shockland). I played a second Demon, he detained it with Skyknight and swung for 8 with the creatures and Mutavualt. I was at 12. I attacked him to 4 after much deliberation, then cast Thoughtseize and took his only spell, a Soldier of the Pantheon. He drew Imposing Sovereign, played a scry land, kept the card on top, and then attacked with the team, sacking the Sovereign to tap my other Demon. I had Hero’s Downfall to stay alive, leaving me at 2 life. He sacked both his Skyjeks to keep from dying, but the Skyknight on top of his library wasn’t enough to get his Mutavault through the two Pack Rats I cast with my four lands. Game 2 he kept a two land hand, but never drew a third and I killed him with some Demons.
4-0   (8-0)

Round 5 – Jason Herren, Esper Humans
I’m out for revenge, as Jason was the one that knocked me out of top 8 contention in round 7 the weekend before. Game 1 he mulligans so I keep a very sketchy hand of 5 lands, Connections, Gray Merchant, but he doesn’t have white mana. His Dimir Aggro wasn’t good enough once I drew into a couple of removal spells. Game 2 I don’t remember what happened, I think I grinded him out through his Whip with my multiple Connections and Gray Merchants.
5-0   (10-0)

Round 6 – Johnathan Unknown (that’s what the PWP site says), Wr Aggro
Game 1 I kill a couple of guys, use Gray Merchant to stabilize, and kill him with Demon. Game 2 is closer, I hold off on Shrivel for several turns, trying to make a Rat Token first, but he had Banisher Priest and Precinct Captain to cause trouble. Eventually I chump with my Rat, use Shrivel on his tokens, and leave back the Pack Rat and Mutavault after I kill the Priest. I’m at 4 life, but he has no red mana. I have a Gray Merchant to get out of charm range, and keep my multiple Mutavaults back on defense to play around Brave the Elements. I kill him with Demon the turn before he untaps his red source.
6-0   (12-0)

Round 7 – Karthik Manohar, MonoBlack
I have to explain the top 8 math to Karthik and Matt Oakley before this round, we were the only undefeateds. Matt was paired down and couldn’t draw, but it was safe for Karthik and I to ID twice, knowing that we’d end up in bottom half of the standings. I’d been winning games on the draw all day, so I didn’t think it would be a big deal to not have the play in the top 8, so I agreed to a draw.
6-0-1 (12-0)

Round 8 – Austin Bursavich, UW Control
We ID, locking me for 5th/6th, and Austin as 7th or 8th, depending on tiebreakers. Derrek Steele convinced his opponent to concede instead of drawing in extra turns this round, thinking he would be 8th place, but he ended up in 9th.

Standings for top 8:

1 Tom Ross – Mono Black
2 Matt Oakley – Burn
3 Allan Sjue – Boros Aggro
4 Chris Trevino – BW Blood Baron
5 Karthik Manohar – Mono Black
6 Timothy Thomason – Mono Black
7 Austin Bursavich – UW Control
8 Randall Gay – GR Monsters

The bracket couldn’t have been more perfect for me. I’m on the other side from Tom “The Boss” Ross, I get a good matchup in quarterfinals, and winning would let me play either Burn or UW, both of which I felt good about. I was kind of worried about GR Monsters, but mostly because I hadn’t played against it at all. I felt confidant, I hadn’t lost a game all day.

Quarterfinals – Allan Sjue, Boros Aggro
He’s on the play, but mulligans to 6. He starts with Boros Elite, but I Thoughtsieze his Ajani and Cure his Captain, then kill him with Demons. Game 2 I mulligan to 6, and keep 5 lands and Shrivel. I use the Shrivel on turn 2 to kill a Skyjek and a Dryad Militant, but he has a backup army of additional X/1s that I could have killed had I waited. I didn’t draw much of anything, and died a few turns later. Game 3 showed the problem with over sideboarding. I Thoughtsieze turn 1 and see Boros Charm, Last Breath, Mizzium Mortars, Skyjek, and 3 lands. I take the creature, and kill him with Demons. I think he was worried about Pack Rat, but I actually sided some out since I don’t think they are very good in the matchup.
7-0-2 (14-1)

Semifinals – Austin Bursavich, UW Control
Game 1 I mulligan, keep a playable hand, but it goes nowhere fast. He’s firmly in control, I’m just playing it out to make him spend the effort. He’s talking quite a bit (we know each other and are friendly towards each other), but the judge watching wasn’t comfortable with the language Austin was using. Austin apologized, but a few turns later another F bomb got him a Warning for Unsporting Conduct. Just one more and he’d receive a game loss! He stopped talking as much after that, and killed me after the 3rd Sphinx’s Revelation easily.

Game 2 was most epic. I stripped his hand with discard and set up Connections, but he had Sphere off the top before it got out of hand. He then ripped Elspeth, which I killed with Downfall, but not before it made three soliders. I killed one with Mutavault, but had to trade with his Mutavault on the next attack. I was at low life from multiple Thoughtsieze, and we both kept drawing lands while I took two damage a turn from soldiers. I drew Erebos, which I played, but held off on activating it. He attacked me down to 5 and passed the turn. I drew an Underworld Connections, which I immediately activated. Now at 4 life, I had three lands in hand and eight lands untapped. I could pay 2 life to draw a card, hoping to hit any permanent to immediately win the game, since he was at 5 life with no blockers. Or I could wait a turn and draw two cards next turn, one from my draw step and one from my Connections. This would give my opponent an extra draw step as well. I started doing the math. 3 Desecration Demon, 3 Gray Merchant, 1 Underworld Connection, 1 Pack Rat, 4 Nightveil Specter all were left in my 36 card library. That was only 33% chance I win. Waiting lets me see two more cards (55.555% to turn on Erebos), but gave him another draw step that could ruin my plans. After thinking for quite some time, even discussing the odds with my opponent, the judge finally prompted me to make a play. I passed the turn. Now it was Austin’s turn to think .His draw was a blank, and he needed to decide to attack with both soliders (a two turn clock) or just one and have a blocker for a possible Erebos attack on the next turn. He initially sent in both, but immediately changed his mind and held one back. I went to 3 life. My draw step yielded nothing, so I activated Connections. I drew Mutavault. Now I could block his attack and not die since he didn’t attack with both soldiers. Looking back, this was probably a mistake, as most of the cards I draw to win probably win eventually through the chump blocker. His turn was nothing, as he left both soldiers back. My turn had Nightveil Specter, and attack with Erebos. He blocked. His turn was attack with solider, which I blocked with Specter and then he cast Supreme Verdict. My draw was nothing, but I attacked him to 3 with Mutavault. He went draw go again. I drew Underworld Connections, and he slammed Negate to the delight of the watching crowd. I still attacked him down to 1. He passed again. I drew Nightveil Specter, which he had Dissolve for, but the Mutavault attacked him for the last point.

The spectators were dismayed to find we still had another game to play before the finals. While shuffling for Game 3, we found out that Chris Trevino had defeated Randall Gay to make it to the finals. We both were happy to not be facing the GR Monsters deck, as well as avoiding Tom Ross. I made the comment that the winner of this game would most likely win the PTQ, since I respect Austin as a player and didn’t know who Chris was. Then I mulliganed to 5. I felt dismayed, but knew that a quick Underworld Connections could get me out of it, as long as I didn’t get to far behind. We played land-go for two turns before I started with Thoughtsieze on turn 3. He revealed Jace, Jace, Elspeth, Revelation, Verdict, Verdict. His lands were Plains, Hallowed Fountain, and Mutavault. I realized I had a chance to win if he misses land drops, but I couldn’t take Jace to keep him off of additional lands since he had a backup. I couldn’t really decide on a good card to take, so I took Elspeth in case the game went long. His turn 3 he had no land drop. I played Underworld Connections and drew a card. He had Detention Sphere, but no land. I played Nightveil Specter. He had another Sphere, but still no land. I had Desecration Demon. He had no land. I attacked him to 12 with Mutavault, and played a second demon. When he missed his fourth land drop again, I had advanced to the finals!
8-0-2 (16-2)

Finals – Chris Trevino, BW Blood Baron
I offer everything I can (both boxes of Theros), but he wants to play. I’m beginning to think all those times I conceded in the finals of PTQs I was getting ripped off. Oh well, I never expect it to actually happen. I try to get into his head by asking “Have you ever been in the finals of a PTQ before?” He hasn’t, but doesn’t seem fazed. Game 1 I have a solid hand with two Pack Rats and Underworld Connections, but he Thoughtsiezes the enchantment and has Ratchet Bomb on turn two. I start attacking with a pair of Mutavaults and my lone Rat, getting him to 6 life before he resolves back to back Blood Barons, followed up by Elspeth. I die shortly after. I think I might have done better if I had forced him to use Ratchet Bomb and then played the second Rat, but he would have had more life and a Connections in play so I’m not sure it would have been a different result. I offer the product again after game 1, mostly as a joke, but it never hurts to ask. Game 2 he keeps a one lander with a scry land, but manages to draw out of it. My draw was very good, and he died to Demon before he could completely recover. Once again I offered the boxes for a concession and got nowhere.
Game 3 was the hardest game I played all day. I had an okay start with Thoughtsieze Erebos followed by Nightveil Specter., but he drew Elspeth off the top and I had a tough decision. I had taken a bunch of damage from Mutavault early, so my life was low and he was still at 20. My hand was two Underworld Connections and a Gray Merchant. Eventually, I decided to attack him with the Specter, which revealed a Duress. I saw his hand was just lands, and played Gray Merchant to stabilize at 12 life. He continued to make soldiers, and I tried to get ahead with Specter attacks and Erebos activations. Once he was low enough and I had the board clogged with Pack Rats, I started attacking with a couple of rats and Erebos as well to keep the soldier count down while Gray Merchant and a couple of Mutavaults held back on defense. Specter kept Elspeth from ultimating, and he keep blanking on draw steps. I made a mistake one turn by going down to 5 life and making a 4th rat token. Neither one was a misplay by itself, but doing both together left me vunerable to a removal spell and -3 from Elspeth to kill my blockers and get exactly 5 damage through. His draw step was Dark Betrayal, which he used on my Gray Merchant, but he failed to attack with everyone. I traded my two Mutavaults for his two Mutavaults, then he wrathed my Rats with Elspeth. I had a backup pack rat in hand, and kept getting damage in with Nightveil Specter. Eventually the Specter went all the way, doing 12 damage over 8 attacks and he never drew an answer. I won!

So I’m qualified for the next two Pro Tours. This is the second time I’ve been in this situation, hopefully I can take better advantage of it this time. And after my streak of making top 8 of at least one PTQ a year since 2003 came to an end after last year, I can start a new streak with an exclamation mark.

Punt of the day:
I’d like to put my punt in game 3 of the finals, followed by the punt of my opponent to not kill me, but it was pretty hard to see and I think most spectators missed it too. So punt of the day is my Round 2 opponent tapping out at 4 life to blink his Aetherling in response to my Devour Flesh, letting me attack him for lethal with my two Mutavaults.