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 4^th Pharika’s Cure because it was easier to cast and killed Stormbreath Dragon. I still think I might want the 3^rd 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 3^rd 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 5^th/6^th, and Austin as 7^th or 8^th, depending on tiebreakers. Derrek Steele convinced his opponent to concede instead of drawing in extra turns this round, thinking he would be 8^th place, but he ended up in 9^th.

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 3^rd 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 4^th 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. 

True-Name Nemsis at SCG DFW

note: this was submitted to Star City Games website after winning the event where they normally publish the winner's reports. Cedric told me that he was unable to publish it at the time because they already had enough Legacy content for the week. - Ty (3/10/21)




Regarding My Stoneblade List

My name is Ty Thomason and I won the Legacy Open in Fort Worth. I intended on writing an article about my deck in detail, but the team at StarCityGames.com has already produced several great pieces of analysis of the deck. If you think a professional Magic writer is a real job, just look at the quality that Patrick Chapin, Todd Anderson, and Chris VanMeter have put out in such a short time since my tournament success. I'm definitely out of my league in both writing skill and time to spend on thinking about Magic.

It means a lot to me to have my deck so universally praised by those writers. I think it justifies my win as more than a fluke, but a reflection of conscious decisions I made during the deck building process and during the matches. I want to give a recap of my experience with the deck, as well as address some of the comments that have come up in the articles already written about the deck.

The inspiration for the deck came to me by way of Darin Minard. His two-color Stoneforge deck with four Mishra's Factory is what got me to switch to Stoneblade from Miracles. While I might not agree with all of his card choices, especially when it comes to the right number of Jace, the Mind Sculptor, the major framework for the deck came from him. All I really did was add True-Name Nemesis and update some of the surrounding cards for the resulting environment from that card seeing print.

Playing 24 lands with no Wasteland and four Jace, the Mind Sculptor is a personal preference of mine, but I think more people should do it. I don't like losing to Stifle+Wasteland+Daze, so I make sure I can survive the early game attacks on my mana. I also like playing Jace, and I've never heard a good reason why I shouldn't play four. Having Jace as a major threat in the deck makes it hard for your opponents to completely shut you down. I defeated Joe Bass in the top 8 of the tournament because he drew a bunch of cards like Swords to Plowshares while I was slowly putting the game out of reach with Jace. I would tell anyone thinking about playing less than four Jace to really ask themselves why. Just because it isn't good in every matchup doesn't mean you shouldn't play four. No one is debating the presence of four Swords to Plowshares. And if you are losing because you have too many Jaces stuck in your hand, it's not because you drew the extra Jaces, but because you didn't draw enough land.

The Vendilion Cliques and the Sword of Fire and Ice are actually very relevant versus other True-Name Nemesis because they enable your non-TNN creatures to race, especially Batterskull tokens. The Supreme Verdict is a nice catch all that also kills TNN. I've received many questions about the Celestial Flare however. It's on the short list of cards in these two colors that can deal with opposing True-Names while not also destroying your own. It also can kill a surprisingly relevant number of creatures in Legacy, from Nimble Mongoose to Delver of Secrets to Griselbrand. I only cast it once during my tournament, despite rarely siding it out, and it killed a Goblin Guide after the attack trigger resolved. Shane Remelt, who played the same list to a 14th place finish, actually killed the big black demon in a match! I had Haibing Hu run a list similar to this at a GPT the weekend before the Legacy Open, and I put one Celestial Flare in his sideboard just to see. After witnessing him kill an Etched Champion, and later on a True-Name Nemesis that dared to block, I was sold on at least one. I swapped the Path to Exile that was previously in the main deck with the Celestial Flare, but I'm not entirely sure it was necessary. It probably will be necessary going forward.


The biggest criticism of the deck by others is that it appears to be weak against the unfair decks of the format. This might be true, especially game one, but I think the sideboard does a good enough job. One quick note about Detention Sphere: it is only there for the Show and Tell matchup. Do not bring it in if it is at all possible that it could get Abrupt Decayed or Pyroblasted or Qasali Pridemaged, unless you like getting completely blown out. I brought it in versus the UB Death's Shadow deck because I was fairly certain he couldn't kill it, but against most decks it is too slow or too risky.

The last two cards I cut from the sideboard were Disenchant and Sword of Feast and Famine. I really like the black and green sword in general in legacy since many of the creatures people play are those two colors. I've used it to success at holding back a Griselbrand, or attacking through it to win. It was good in the mirror to win Batterskull mirrors, but with the rise in popularity of True-Name Nemesis it wouldn't be as good, so I left it at home. Disenchant is a reasonable effect that I almost always want one of, but I couldn't make room for it. I thought Manriki Gusari would have a bigger impact in the matchups where I wanted it.

I played the trial on Saturday afternoon after I dropped from the Standard Open. In the trial I defeated Belcher, Goblins, and Painter Servant, and lost an incredibly close and complex match to Joe Lossett playing Miracles that involved some of the best games of Legacy I've been a part of in a long time. I did get fairly lucky in matchups during the Open. My pairings by round were UWr Miracles (win 2-0), UWr Delver (win 2-1), Burn (win 2-1), UWr Delver (win 2-0), Welder/Metalwork.dec (win 2-0), UWr Miracles (win 2-0 vs Joe Bass), UB Death's Shadow (win 2-0), Merfolk (ID), Storm (ID), UWr Miracles (win 2-1 vs Joe Bass), UB Death's Shadow (win 2-0), and Storm (win 2-1). The hardest matches were against Burn and the finals against Storm. Who knows, maybe if I had played against more Show and Tell and Reanimator I might not be writing this article right now!

If I was going to play in Grand Prix DC, I would definitely be playing this list or a variation of it. I probably should go to the GP anyway, maybe I'll make it on a last minute flight. I'm in an awkward position where I need PWPs to have byes for next season, but I can't play in PTQs because I've already qualified and since I qualified at a GP, I don't get the nice 1000 point bonus that PTQ winners get.

There are too many people to thank individually for my success, but I would like to give special props to the Asgard Games Legacy crew, especially Simon Christie, and to my usual partners in crime for deck construction Will Lowry and Casual Chad.

Thanks for reading.

Ty Thomason

Hall of Fame thoughts

It's that time of year for Pro Tour Hall Of Fame balloting. I don't have a vote. I don't think I deserve a vote. And if I had a vote, I'm not sure that I would vote.

Why?

I don't think I like what the Hall of Fame is at the moment.

The theoretical concept of the HoF is one I really like. I love following sports and having debates about which player was better, which player deserves to be in, which players deserve to be out. I've spent much of the last week internet debating (the best kind) about how good a player Dennis Rodman actually was (my opinion: he was awesome.)  Every year when they vote on the Baseball Hall of Fame I spend two weeks reading all I can about the new players on the ballot, and all the new opinions on the returning players. I hope this year is the year for my childhood heroes Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio.

It's the specifics about the Pro Tour Hall of Fame that I don't like. One being the name. The sports halls aren't "National Football League Hall of Fame" or "Major League Baseball Hall of Fame". They are halls for the entire sport, allowing them to exist as a museum to the game, not just a collection of some of the great players in the past. Managers, owners, executives, umpires, and in some instances broadcasters and writers, all who played an integral part of the history of the game are there. Why should Magic be different? Another criticism of the name is how it leads voters to ignore or discount Grand Prix success. "It's not the Grand Prix Hall of Fame" they'll say. But Grands Prix give out Pro Points, which determine the Pro Tour Player of the Year, so why shouldn't they matter? Calling it the "Professional Magic Hall of Fame" doesn't help, since the definition of professional seems laughable for a game that pays as little as Magic does. So let's just call it a Magic Hall of Fame, and include all of the great history of the game in it.

One thing the name is not: Pro Tour Hall of Honor. I'm very much against cheating in all forms, but all these "allegations" about the "suspicious behavior" in the past keeping otherwise deserving candidates out of the hall is hurting our history. Especially when many people will say that several players already in the hall have suspect track records! I agree with the decision about currently suspended players not being allowed in, but unless we're going to ban these cheaters for life, they should be allowed in.

As a historical entity, the Hall needs to have both the good and the bad. It needs to be separate from the marketing arm of Hasbro and WotC. It needs to be an actual physical place, with actual physical displays. Maybe there will be on display Craig Jones's Lightning Helix, next to Mike Long's Cadaverous Bloom. An exhibit about the best decks in history, the best cards in history, the best articles in history. The players inducted could still get lifetime invites to the Pro Tour, but the other people would not get that benefit.

Not enough players get in. This is because the standard is artificially constrained by number of votes, and the percentage you must earn. Increase the amount of players a voter can pick. Raise the percentage needed. You don't have to fill out every spot on your ballot. I applaud Jon Finkel for just voting for three players this year, even though his and my idea of the ideal hall are completely different.

The Hall of Fame has a ton of potential, and each year we dig the hole deeper that we must climb out of to reach it.

Postscript: List of people I would put in my Magic Hall of Fame that aren't already in.

WotC:
Richard Garfield
Mark Rosewater
Aaron Forsythe
Bill Rose
Mike Donais
Skaff Elias

Community:
Mike Flores
Jaime Wakefield
The Ferret
Frank Kusumoto
Omeed Dariani
Pete Hoefling

Players:
Mike Long
Alex Shvartsam
Scott Johns
Bertrand Lestree
Mark Justice
Michael Pustilnik
Itaru Ishida
Tsuyoshi Ikeda
Justin Gary
Willy Edel
Louis Scott Vargas
William Jensen
Mark Herberholtz
Willy Edel
Tomoharu Saito
(I guess just about anyone with 4 PT Top 8s)

hopefully that does a good job illustrating what I think the Hall of Fame should be like.

if i had a ballot this year and was forced to vote for 5 players:

LSV
Justin Gary
William Jensen
Tomoharu Saito
Tsuyoshi Ikeda

Waco PTQ Report + the Greatest Game Ever Played

Before the PTQ, I was deciding between two decks. I had played a bunch of RG aggro on MTGO and I really liked the sideboard plan of 4 Domri Rade. The other option was Junk Aristocrats, which I was impressed with after watching Brad Nelson's updated list during GP Miami. I had played it some before, but didn't like the high land count. The addition of Garruk Relentless and Obzedat to the main deck helped it have more staying power, but I wasn't completely convinced. I also hadn't practiced all of the matchups, so I wasn't as confident in my matchup predictions. In the end I went back to RG Aggro and played the following 75:

4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Stromkirk Noble
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Flinthoof Boar
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
4 Hellrider

4 Searing Spear
4 Pillar of Flame
3 Madcap Skills

11 Mountain
4 Stomping Ground
4 Rootbound Crag
2 Temple Garden

Sideboard:
4 Domri Rade
4 Mizzium Mortars
2 Volcanic Strength
1 Electrickery
1 Glaring Spotlight
1 Skullcrack
1 Gruul War Chant
1 Legion Loyalist

Going forward, I'm not sure about the 21st land, the madcap skills, or some of the sideboard cards. Gruul War Chant and Glaring Spotlight were great, but the rest of the board besides Domri and Mortars were shaky.

A quick recap:

R1 Brockette, Jacob  - Junk Reanimator
I lost a game 1 I would normally win when he had maindeck Trostani and Obzedat. I got him game 2, but lost to the same combination of cards game 3 as I drew 7 lands and 5 spells.
0-1

R2 MCNEELY, AARON - Jund
Not what you expect in the 0-1 bracket, we both lament our bad luck at losing and at the unfortunate pairings. Game 1 I cruise with 2x emissary and skills and 2x boar, while he just farseeks 3 times. Game 2 i draw 8 lands and lose to some thragtusks. Game 3 looks shaky, I only have red mana. I save my emissary for a possible turn four Rampager, but draw Domri on turn 3 and cast the planeswalker instead. He plays Olivia, and I draw the green source to be able to rampager and fight. He has thragtusk and i have war chant. his bonfire looks like he might get back in there, but I topdeck hellrider and avoid his liliana for the win.
1-1

R3  JOHNSON, ASHTON  - Jund
I have a solid draw game 1 and win easily, but lose game 2 to the mana flood again. Game 3 I have spotlight and keep 3 mana up to make his decisions harder. Eventually he bonfires my team and my domri, but i've gained enough advantage in the meantime so my followup rampager and unblockable from spotlight is enough.
2-1

4 Riecks, Matthew  - Naya
mulled to 6, kept 4 lands, drew 5 more. game 2 i mull to 6, kept 2, didn't cast any relevant spells.
dead
2-2

i felt like the mana issues were worse than usual. i kept playing to see if i was right.

R5 Reed, Colin  - Junk Reanimator
Win
3-2

R6 Hernandez, Andres  - I forget
Win
4-2

R7 Klopchic, Luke - Jund
Win
5-2

R8 Hebert, Daniel - UWR
Win
6-2

So the last 4 rounds my deck did what I think its capable of doing. I easily 4-0, I'm not sure I even dropped a game. I guess my deck was good, but i'm still considering other options.

Story: The Greatest Game of Magic Ever Played*
*at least, greatest game on saturday july 6th 2013

Will "The Thrill" Lowry was up a game against  Eric "Perfect Gamer" Jones in the last round of the swiss, playing with top 8 on the line. Jones was battling with an interesting RWB Control list, with Olivia, Blood Baron, Liliana, and Warleader's Helix. Lowry brought a standard UWR list, close to the Matt Costa list from Grand Prix Miami.

Game two began with Rest In Peace from Eric, followed by Augur of Bolas by Lowry. A Boros Reckoner came out, and Will had no immediate play. Jones then cast his sideboard trump card: Slaughter Games. In response, Lowry announced Renounce the Guilds, but when he went to play the card, he accidently put Restoration Angel into play! After the confusion and the proper spell was resolved, the Perfect Gamer had to go into deep thought to name a card on Slaughter Games. Normally, he would choose Sphinx's Revelation, but with the knowledge of the angel in Lowry's hand, he had to reconsider. Eventually he settled on Restoration Angel.

The next few turns saw EJones draw two more Slaughter Games, and he decided to restrict Will's win conditions, choosing Thundermaw Hellkite and Snapcaster Mage. With all of his burn spells sided out, Lowry was only left with 2 Augur of Bolas and a Clone in his deck with which to kill Jones. His Moorland Haunt wouldn't be useful with Rest in Peace out, but he did have access to a Slayer's Stronghold in his deck. Meanwhile, Jones couldn't resolve a real threat. The board was empty for a few turns, then Lowry Revelation for several cards. The first Augur he played revealed another Revelations and another Augur! With the knowledge that the other Augur was two from the bottom, he Cloned his Augur and took an Azorius Charm. With only so much damage he could do, and Jones with plenty of removal, he was on a tight window to win. Jones resolved a Warleader's Helix, killing one of the Augurs, after liliana took out the other.

Will main phase cast a Sphinx's Revelation for 6 and passed the turn with two mana up. The Perfect Game then topdecked Rakdos's Return, for 5 cards. After it resolved, it turns out Lowry still had three cards in hand, meaning he had forgot to discard for his turn! A judge was called, the situation was explained, and he left to go look up the correct ruling. With only 13 minutes left in the round, time started to weigh on the minds of the players. When the judge returned with a ruling, it was a GRV warning for Lowry and a Failure to Maintain Gamestate warning for Jones. It was decided that they could not back up the game to force the discard, so Lowry continued with 3 cards in his hand.

He then played the Slayer's Stronghold, and started using think twice to get to the last augur in his deck. In the mean time, each threat Jones attempted was met with the perfect answer by lowry. Rewind your Assemble the Legion. Dissipate your Liliana. Renounce the Guilds your Blood Baron. Finally the Augur was found, with only 3 cards left in the library. Jones was at 15. It didn't look like it would be enough, but Lowry valiantly kept charging.

Activate Slayers Stronghold, attack for 3. Jones is at 12, Lowry has 3 cards left.

Jones draws and plays a land.

Activate Slayers Stronghold, attack for 3. Jones is at 9, Lowry has 2 cards left.

Jones draws and plays a land.

Activate Slayers Stronghold, attack for 3. Jones is at 6, Lowry has 1 card left.

Jones draws and plays a land.

Lowry draws his last card. It was a land. It didn't seem like there was anything he could do... except:

Activate Slayers Stronghold, attack for 3. Jones is at 3, Lowry has 0 cards left.

After combat damage, Will had one last Thrill for everyone: Azorius Charm my Augur of Bolas!

Down to his last turn, with almost any spell in his deck being enough to win, Jones drew his card, played a land, and extended his hand in concession.

Lowry had done it! The crowd was stunned at the improbable sequence of events. Only brilliant play, a lot of luck, and a favorable judge call could let Will win that game, and he pulled it off.

Truly the greatest game of the day.

Grand Prix Houston Report

 My preparation for the GP was solid. Since Dragon's Maze came out as school was ending, I've been able to do 10-15 drafts in real life. I never got around to drafting on MTGO like I did several times during RTR season (and then won a limited PTQ), but it wasn't like I was going in cold having not played the format at all like I did before PT Montreal. I didn't do any sealed practice, but I still felt comfortable because my experience with the original RGD sealed, as well as sealed in general. 

I didn't think I had any byes, since the amount of sanctioned Magic I've played since January was pretty low. Turns out I was confused about when the planeswalker point season ended, and I still had two byes. This is great. I signed up for the sleep in special, since I live 5 minutes from downtown. When I got to the site on Saturday at the required time (noon), the non-sleep in people were still building decks. I went ahead and built my deck anyway. I have the list somewhere, maybe I'll add it here when I get it. Highlights were Aetherling, Firemane Avenger, and Warleader's Helix. I built WRu at first, but by the end of the day I was boarding into UWr as most of the red cards I was playing were pretty bad in sealed, and the blue fliers I had in my sideboard won me most of the games that didn't involve Aetherling.

An aside of Aetherling: I was skeptical that it was the best card you wanted in sealed. I would have preferred Angel of Serenity, or Mizzium Mortars / Cyclonic Rift before the tournament, but now I will say that Aetherling is the best. Also, Pack Rat isn't even close to this discussion, so don't bring it up.

 

Eventually I get to play Magic.

 

R1-2 Bye

2-0

R3 Harris, Christopher  

Game 1 I'm on the back foot, but manage to regain tempo with Voidweilder and attack back with some fliers. Things are looking good when he Arms and Dangerous  his Leyline Phantom to get most of my team, but I have a few guys in hand to restabilize. I have Warleader's Helix in hand that I plan on using to win the race, but he overloads Dragonshift and I die when I'm tapped out. Game 2 I have a good start, racing his wind drake, but on turn 6 while I'm at 16 and tapped out he Dragonshifts, Arms, and Giant Growths to kill me dead. This is a very disappointing way to start a tournament.

2-1

 

 

R4 Jung, Bernardo  

He was European I think. Both games involved a slow build up of forces on both sides, but he would then play Luminarch Primordial, Foundry Champion, and Boros Battleshaper and I would be completely dead. It wasn't very interesting.

2-2

 

Now my back is against the wall, and my deck seemed to be much worse than I thought.  Maybe my prediction about not making day 2 was true. Maybe I don't have the fire or edge anymore to compete at these things. Maybe I'm not good at sealed. All of these doubts running through my head, but none so big that a trip through the loser's bracket couldn't cure...

 

R5 Hochman, Will   

This kid was about 13 or 14. I think he belonged to one of the dealers, since he had a shirt on that said something to that affect. I mentioned being upset about my record and not wanting to play anymore, and he suggested I concede. I appreciate the effort. Game 1 I win when he floods out terribly. Game 2 it looks like I'm going to win easy after he bloodrushes his Rubblebet Maaka onto his Daggerdrome Imp on turn 3 just to gain some more life. He then attacks the next turn into my Vassal Soul and I block, and he just bins his Imp. Along with the Firemane Avenger I have in play, things are looking good. Then he Grisly Spectacles my Avenger, milling Aetherling, Inaction Injuction, and Debter's Puplit. He follows this up with his own Atherling (that Pulpit in the yard mocking me even more!), and the game has gone from unloseable to dead on board in two turns. I still have Vassal Soul and Boros Mastiff, and a Maze Sentinel lets me try to race, but all this life he gained from the Imp is going to be too much to beat, even with the Warleader's Helix in my hand. He attacks me down to 2 with the Aetherling, leaving his Truefire Paladin back on defense. I Pursuit of Flight my Mastiff and attack with the team, going to 6 in the process. On his turn he attacks with Paladin and Aetherling, then makes Aetherling unblockable. I think for a while then block Paladin with Sentinel. He pumps Paladin two times, and also Aetherling two times to threaten lethal damage, with one mana still untapped. I debate Helixing him and trading Sentinel for Paladin, or using it on the Paladin to save my Sentinel, either play keeps me alive. After a minute in the tank on this, I look over and realize he only has a Mountain untapped. Stunned, I decide to Helix the Aetherling. He taps the mountain and says "blink it". I tell him it takes blue mana to do that. he says "yea I have it right here" pointing to his previously tapped island, and I say "no you had red untapped kid" and then he binned his guy. With no creatures left in play on his side, my Vassal Soul and Mastiff finished him off rather quickly after this. I was stunned at the sequence of events, and hoped it could be a turning point for the rest of the day.

3-2

 

R6 Treiber, Andre  

I drew Aetherling in two games.

4-2

 

R7 Bordelon, Zack   

I drew Aetherling in two of the games.

5-2

 

R8 Smith, Matthew   

I lost game 1, then he had mana issues game 2. Game 3 was close. I had a large flying army and he had 2/4 reach, 3/3 reach, and Guardian of the Gateless. Things looked real bad when he cast Collective Blessing, but I used Azorius Justicar and Voidweilder on the Justicar to get two turns to alpha strike, doing just enough damage to win.

6-2

R9 Kaufmann, Loran

For the first time of the tournament, I'm playing someone I know, and Day 2 is on the line. Game one he has enough removal to keep up the pressure when he plays first. I draw first game two, and my fliers slowly whittle him down until I can finish him off with Warleader's Helix. Game three, he mulligans to 4 and I kept 4 lands and Aetherling on six, so it was an easy win. I felt bad that it had to be against someone I knew, but I was very relieved to have made day 2.

7-2

 

Got some food and went home to get some rest. I like to conserve energy during multi-day Magic events, and save the partying for the end.

 

My first draft on Sunday went ok. I wasn't thrilled about my deck immediately after, because I could have had an even better Rakdos deck, but the Orzov I ended up with was fine. I could have picked 5 Kruul Warriors to start the draft if I was so inclined, but ended up choosing Turn/Burn, Tithe Drinker, Rakdos Drake, Sin Collector, and Carnage Gladiator over each of them. I picked up another Rakdos Drake and some other split cards (Toil/Trouble and Breaking/Entering) as well as some cluestones to maybe go Grixis. Pack 2 I pick Cartel Aristocrat, then High Priest of Penance over Kingpin's Pet, a pick I'm still not sure about. I get another Aristocrat and some Deathcult Rogues, so my deck has a solid evasion game plan, but not much removal. Pack 3 I get Trostani's Judgement, Underworld Connections, and Pallisade Giant, as well as some more creatures like Keening Appirition and Azorius Justicar.. 8 bears total, along with 5 evasion 3 drops to finish the job.

 

10 J, Joe   

This guy was from the same game store as Sam Friedman, they had the same shirt on. His deck wasn't great, and I Sin Collector on his Rootborn Defenses before overrunning him with bears. Game 2 was same.

8-2

11 Tobey, Aaron   

Inevitable since we were in same pod, but I wish it would have been after both 2-0 so we could guarantee  one of us 3-0. Game 1 he is slow and I get early damage, despite having to pay mana for Soul Tithe on Deathcult Rogue. When he plays Scab Clan Giant, it is randomly determined to kill the already enchanted Rogue, so I don't end up down a card. With the free mana, I can start to use Underworld Connections, and Deviant Glee on Daggerdrome Imp was enough of a clock that I didn't die before he did. Game 2 he flooded and my evasion guys easily killed him.

9-2

 

12 Bruno, David  

The closest match of the weekend, and he ended up making top 8. Game 1 is a race, my Justicar buys me enough time, and hit Tithe Drinker and Deviant Glee on last turn of Underworld Connections to do just enough damage before I die.  Game 2 I maybe punt by not eating his guy with my Aerial Maneuver in the mid game, taking 6 damage I could maybe have avoided, but we were racing 4 to 2 and it seemed like it might be useful later. Then he plays Trostani's Summoner, and I'm facing lethal. I attack him down to 6 with two Deathcult Rogues, and leave back Balustrade Spy and Cartel Aristocrat. I Maneuver the Aristocrat to first strike the Centaur, and the Spy chumps the Rhino, and I go to 1 and he has only the vigilant Knight token to block. I need to draw any creature to get through for lethal, but I blank. Maybe it was an aggressive attack, I haven't confirmed my choice. Game 3 I mulligan to six, miss my fourth land drop one too many times, and can't beat his Golgari Longlegs. It was another close game.

9-3

Draft 2 was very interesting. I took Bronzebeak Moa pick one, then Carnage Gladiator, then Renegade Krasis over Kruul Warrior (probably wrong), and another Carnage Gladiator. Despite this, I never saw a red card I could take, and ended up with more green and white cards. I tried to force Selesnya pack 2, but there wasn't much of anything there, and my deck's curve started at 3. Pack 3 I opened Pack Rat and already have two Orzov Guildgates and one Cluestone, so I decided to splash. I picked up a couple of mediocre two drops, and a Transguild Promenade to help the splash. Rix-Maadi Guildmage tabled, so Rakdos was open, just nothing good in the first two packs. The deck ended up worse than the first one, but I had Pack Rat so I hoped I could get at least two wins to get into the money.

 

13 Garber, Matthew   

I lose game 1  to Rogue's Passage after I can't get through his 3/1 first strike flier. Game 2 he plays 3 plains but no other lands and I kill him. Game 3 he seems flooded, and I find a turn where I can attack with the team twice to put him dead unless he topdecks, and he doesn't. 

10-3

14 Seck, Benjamin   

Game 1 he Codex Shredder's himself into Psychic Spiral after stalling the board. I drew Pack Rat too late to race. Game 2 is more of the same, but I could have won if I drew second black to double activate Vizkopa Guildmage since he had taken enough early damage.

10-4

 

15 Hua, Ming   

His deck didn't seem very good, and I drew enough early game to pressure him before he could do whatever it was his deck did. Game 2 was especially fast, with Dryad Militant and Burst of Strength to kill his Frilled Oculus, then Renegade Krasis and two 4-toughness creatures made my army huge. He died shortly after.

11-4

41st place

$200

 

I was a little disappointed by the result, but happy after the way day 1 started. I'm beginning to remember why I used to play limited almost exclusively. Part of it is that standard has been pretty miserable lately, but also I'm enjoying the games during drafts more. I'm looking forward to GP Vegas to play more sealed.