more pptq information frustration

I mentioned in my last post about the struggles to find out when that PPTQ was happening, how much it cost, and other key details. Now, one week later, I'm running into similar issues with a completely different store. My experience with the PPTQ system is this kind of stuff every single week from as many different stores as you can think of. Surely there is one competent store out there somewhere? I wish Wizards would turn over PPTQs to one TO like they did with GPs.

if i had more time i'd start a blog publicly shaming #mtg stores for shitty event information online.

— Ty Thomason (@ceciliajupe) August 22, 2017

I guess I had time today. Here are the issues this week:

First, I go to their website.

 

The events section gives an error. OK, it's probably on Facebook, most businesses in this MTG market use FB instead of having a real website anyway.



The official store Facebook has two events for PPTQ. One starts at 10am Saturday, the other is inexplicably a two-day event without a given start time. Maybe more info is in the description.



OK this looks promising. Except... still no start time. Also one lists a player cap of 48, but both list prizes down to 64 people. Hmm still confused, maybe I'll click on the link to buy tickets.


Well this looks like the same info just copy and pasted! In fact, it says the link to buy tickets is coming soon, despite this being that exact page. Also, the cap is listed as 64 people here!

As a consumer, I can't have confidence in what I'm purchasing at this point. So I'm forced to call the store (the horror!)(actually not that big of a deal but if you want me to call just say "call for details" instead of all the non-information).

For those that care, the information you need is Saturday, 10am, 64 player cap.

PPTQ report

I always say I should write more, but I never do. I think I'll start posting more game recaps just for future reference for myself. Starting with just IRL events but might expand to online events, sometimes they are more important to document (the replay feature is there but not great).

So to start for real, I played a PPTQ in Conroe today. Despite the standard PPTQ grind struggles, I made it to the tournament and registered without issue. The advertised cap of 50 was bumped to 64, and they sold out.

I played Todd Steven's GW Ghost Quarter Company list, with some modifications I had been testing:

4 Noble Hierarch
3 Birds of Paradise
4 Voice of Resurgence
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Azusa, Lost But Seeking
2 Ramunap Excavator
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Eternal Witness
1 Tireless Tracker

4 Collected Company
4 Path to Exile

4 Ghost Quarter
4 Windswept Heath
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Gavony Township
4 Forest
2 Plains

Sideboard:
4 Unified Will
3 Stony Silence
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Reclamation Sage
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Dromoka's Command

I really like the Blue in the sideboard. Deck feels real solid vs lots of matchups, only a few I'm actively afraid of. Wanted to play 2nd Tracker and 3rd Excavator in the main over the Kitchen Finks but couldn't find the cards and hedged to be able to have the Surgicals in the SB by putting Finks in the main.

Round 1 - Counters Company
This is probably the worst matchup IMO (at least of commonly played decks). Your mana denial isn't really effective at stopping them from going off. G1 he turn 4 kills me and I had nothing to stop. G2 I get out Revoker on both Viscera Seer and Duskwatch Recruiter, but he draws Chord for Qasali Pridemage eventually to kill me through a Surgical by having multiple Finks in play already. I don't really know what more I can do here that doesn't also hurt me.
0-1

Round 2 - GB Midrange The Rock
G1 was tight race between his 2x Goyf and Flayer vs my Courser/Excavator/Azusa loop. I chumped the Goyfs for 3 turns while gaining a bunch of life to negate the Flayer damage. Eventually he had no mana in play and I drew a Company for KotR and Voice to swing the races. G2 was also close because I chose not to Path his Goyf on turn 2. I think it worked out because I was able to use the Path on his Tireless Tracker, but there was a turn I was dead to a removal spell when I blocked Treetop Village without GQ up. He didn't have it that turn, and when he tried to kill me next turn I had GQ at the ready.
1-1

Round 3 - Grixis Shadow
G1 I mull to 5 and keep a hand without green mana (GQ and Township). I draw Plains and Path in that order, but then foolishly let him untap with Angler before Pathing, so I lose to Stubborn Denial. I couldn't recover. G2 he kept a 1 land hand and never got to play a second before I had 6 guys in play. G3 I keep an iffy hand with Forest, GQ, Bog, Finks, KotR, Courser on the draw. He Thoughtsieze to take Finks. I draw Voice so decide not to lead with Bog (plus he only had 2 cards in yard), but then he cycles Street Wraith EOT and untaps for Tasigur. I draw Excavator and play the Knight. He doesn't have removal for it so I'm still in it. Excavator and Voice are played over next few turns, he can't get value from his Fatal Push or his Kolaghan's Command and his only other threat is a second Tasigur so he loses to much tempo and eventually I flood the board with dudes while stabilized at 6 life.
2-1

Round 4 - Esper Gifts
G1 was odd, he didn't have much other than Esper Charm (giving me a Voice token) into Jace, Architect of Thought. I think he casts a Supreme Verdict but I have Voice and Finks to keep attacking. He plays Baneslayer Angel giving me a target for one of the dead Paths in my hand and I win the game on next attack. G2 he has turn 5 Blood Baron of Vizkopa, but I get out Scavenging Ooze with some counters so it is bigger than the Baron. He tries an Elesh Norn on seven mana, but I have Unified Will which forces him to Verdict the board the next turn. He floods out after this and I was prepared with secondary army and another Unified Will.
3-1

Round 5 - Mirror Match
Probably 70 card mirror or so. We both really don't know how to play it. I have a good start winning the die roll and getting Excavator Azusa Courser online. He has a Courser as well and knows his top card is Company. I GQ him, but he doesn't search. So I GQ him two more times, leaving him with 1 card in hand and 3 lands in play. He draws the CoCo, plays a land from his hand, and hits Eternal Witness and Excavator, so all the work I did is undone. Game goes on many many many more turns, he has more Paths than I do so I lose both my Excavators, but I get Scooze to stop his own loop. Eventually I draw some KotR and they are much bigger than his team and I can start attack. His army slowy gets whittled down and now my Voice tokens big enough to attack, but he draws Scooze and I don't get aggressive to find a Path for it. I attack with everyone on turn 4 of extra turns, leaving him at 5 life with no creatures in play, but we take a draw, having not finished a game.
3-1-1

Round 6 - UW control
G1 I mulligan to 5 cards but quickly get Excavator and Azusa with a fetch and Canopy to draw enough cards to get back even. He can never find Supreme Verdict until I have 7 cards in hand again, so when he finally does after a few Cryptic Commands I'm able to rebuild enough to kill him. G2 I take a few damage from my own lands maybe unnecessarily and he tries to race with Vendilion Clique and Gideon Jura, but I draw Courser and gain enough life to offset the Clique. There was a turn I was dead to Cryptic Command with his Gideon but he didn't have it so I was able to attack it away. Eventually he has to Verdict and I gain some life with Scooze. He can't ever find any more pressure and we run out of time when I think I probably should have killed him.
4-1-1

Finished 10th on breakers, I was expecting 9th after drawing round 5 and the round 1 loss, but some people unintentionally drew last round to actually give me a chance but I was still 10 points back on tiebreakers.

Deck seems good vs decks that don't have a trump play and give you time to set up land destruction plan. Not particularly solid vs other Company deck, but the blue in the SB gives you game vs most unfair decks. Compared to Eldritch Evolution its lower to the ground but struggles going over the top. I'm probably too slow these days to play this deck IRL anymore.

just a thought experiment with obvious allegory

Let's say you are a Doomsayer. (Shout out to Errant Doomsayer, probably my 2nd favorite tapper in MtG). Not everyone agrees with you that the world is about to end, so you decide you want to get the word out. You pick your street corner, and you hold up your sign - "The End Is Nigh".

Then let's say someone joins you on this corner. They have similar beliefs that the world will end quite soon. But their sign is different. Their sign says "The End Is Nigh Because of Jews and Blacks". They see you as an ally in their cause to bring awareness about the pending doom.

At this point, you have several options.

Option 1: Hey you know what, maybe they are right. You never thought about it that way before, but Jews and Blacks are definitely the reason the end of the world is coming. Better update your sign.

Option 2: Well, they have 1st amendment rights, they are free to say whatever they want. But you don't like them hijacking your corner to spread their message, you disagree strongly with their premise. If you let them stay, your message looks to outsiders to be the same thing as you are standing side by side on the street corner. You decide to move street corners. Now you are on a less busy intersection, but your message is no longer tainted. Except, everyone that drove by the old corner expecting you there only saw your sign, never the face behind the sign, so they assume that is you there standing on the same corner as always, just with a more extreme message. You try to correct them, but no one can hear you from your distant intersection.

Option 3: You decide it doesn't matter why they think the world is ending, its more important to you to have people on your side that to have shared values and underlying beliefs. You continue to stand side by side with your signs. When asked by passers-by if you think Jews and Blacks are the problem, you say "No I'm not a racist, though I know some racists support what I support."You would have to be very blind or very dumb to not see them standing right there next to you.

Hopefully I don't have to explain in detail how, to an outside observer, you appear the same in all three situations whether you want to or not. If it is important for your voice to be heard, it should be important for you to communicate clearly. Your original message has been corrupted, lost, or distorted. But you aren't blameless in this, there is always option 4.

Option 4: You ask the racist doomsayer to leave. You point them in the direction of the distant, less busy street corners to spread their message. They might leave, but they might not. You know from the other options that you must do everything in your power to ensure your message is true and clear for all to hear. So you have to physically remove them from your corner. It might get violent, they don't want to leave. You have a corner with great visibility and lots of people that support your message, corrupted or not. They have their own supporters that think they should stay on the corner. Some eggs get broken, some blood is spilled, but you drive them away. Now you are free to speak your message to the street corner and know that it's getting through unmolested to your audience, exactly what you've always wanted.

And what other option did you really have?

San Antonio 1K Team Event (Unfinished Report)

This past weekend, I played in the Gamerzpairadice Team Constructed 1k with Haibing Hu and Aryeh Wiznitzer as my teammates. The format was Legacy/Modern/Standard. Aryeh had recently won a PPTQ with mono black zombies, so he played that in Standard. For Modern, I always try to just give Haibing the best deck and let him figure it out, whether for individual events or for team events. This time, that meant giving him Grixis Death's Shadow as played by Brad Nelson at the latest SCG Open. I was the designated Legacy expert of the team, and despite all the brews I've been trying to prepare for GP Las Vegas and the post-Top banning environment, I ended up playing a list very close to the list I had been playing a few months ago. This is what I played:

Esper Strixblade

4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Baleful Strix
2 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique

4 Thoughtseize
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Ponder
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Feast and Famine

1 Academy Ruins
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Plains
3 Tundra
3 Underground Sea
1 Scrubland
1 Marsh Flats
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta

Sideboard
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Containment Priest
1 Flusterstorm
1 Invasive Surgery
1 Arcane Laboratory
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Engineered Plague
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Council's Judgment
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Sword of Fire and Ice

I like this list a lot. I will play some version of it at GP Vegas. I think I will cut all the cards that cost WW in the SB for something else, but I'm not certain of what the something else is yet.

Since Aryeh had access to 4 Transgress the Mind, we decided we were Team Thoughtseize. Thoughtseize is a very good Magic card. There were 22 teams at the event, which was the capacity of the store. Some people had to be turned away at the door. People love team events! Gamerzpairadice was a pretty nice store. The bathroom worked, the air conditioning worked, and there was plenty of parking. The tournament was 5 rounds of swiss with a cut to top 4. I'm not sure this is the right way to run it, but it worked out in the end.

Round 1
I'm playing against 4 color Deathblade. I win game 1 despite him resolving Jace and Stoneforge first. I was able to kill his Jace with an attack from Snapcaster Mage after I STP both his guys end of turn. Then my Jace took over the game. Game 2 he started Noble Hierarch into Leovold into Jace, and I had no effective answers and I lost. By this time, Aryeh had defeated his Marvel opponent, and Bing had defeated his Green Devotion opponent, so we didn't finish our match.
Highlight of the round: Bing's opponent cast Summoner's Pact and searched for a Whisperwood Elemental that was in Russian. He asked Bing if he knew what it did. Bing (who has won two separate tournaments with Whisperwood in his deck!) said no. Then his opponent went back into his library to find the English version and put that into play instead of the Russian one!
1-0

Round 2
I'm paired against Burn. I make short work of him with turn 2 Stoneforge for Batterskull with Force of Will backup, followed by Sword of Feast and Famine and equipping. Game 2 was exactly the same. Bing lost to burn, probably making some questionable plays along the way. He was still learning to play the deck. With 30 minutes left in the round, I put my trust in Aryeh to play his match and I went to get some lunch. He ended up losing a close game 3 to UR Control.
Highlight of the round: My opponent, facing a Germ with Batterskull and SoFF on it, "Hey teammates, what is my plan against Batterskull with Sword of Whatever Whatever on it?"
Teammate: "Go to the next game."
1-1

Round 3
I have an interesting match against Dragon Stompy (with actual dragons!). His turn 2 Trinsiphere resolved, and then I couldn't Force of Will his turn 3 Blood Moon. Mostly locked out of casting spells due to only having a Island as a basic in play. I flashed a Snapcaster to trade with a Rabblemaster. I cast Force of Will the hardest way (exiling a blue card and paying 3 mana) to counter both Avaricious Dragon and Thunderbreak Reagent. But then I drew Batterskull! I played it, and started to stabilize against his board of 2 goblins and Magus of the Moon. Eventually he drew Fiery Confluence, but I had gained too much life so even with two turns off to replay the equipment he couldn't kill me. He ended up scooping a few turns later, unable to beat the 4/4 lifelinker. I lost the next game to turn 1 Chalice on 1, turn 2 chalice on 2. Game 3 I used two Thoughtseize to take his Chandra and Sin Prodder, clearing the way for my Stoneforge for Sword of Fire and Ice, but he topdeck another Chandra and I lost. Aryeh defeated his opponent (no idea what the matchup was), and Bing was able to stop the Ally deck from going off with Return from the Ranks thanks to Stubborn Denial, and we won the match.
Highlight of the round: winning game 1 with just Batterskull.
2-1

Round 4

Grand Prix San Antonio Report

I seem to do pretty well at San Antonio Grand Prixs. I hoped this year would be no different. Team Unified Constructed was a format I never got to play previously and I was hoping they would bring it back. I wasn't thrilled that it was Modern, but I still looked forward to the deck building challenge.

My teammates for this event were Will Lowry and Robert Berni. Early on, we decided I would play Merfolk since it didn't conflict with most decks, and I had a ton of experience with it. As the tournament approached, we decided someone should probably play Affinity since that deck is so broken and only loses to hate. As for the last deck, we were looking for options. Then GP Vancouver happened.

Immediately we knew we had to have a Death's Shadow player. The difficulty of that deck to pilot meant we would give it to our most experience Thoughtseize player Berni. This severely restricted the other decks you could play, but we knew we could find a way. The easiest deck to pair was Affinity which we already were working on. Once Will started playtesting it and after playing at the SCG Open in DFW, we had another issue: Merfolk wasn't good. We expected a lot of Affinity at the team GP because it doesn't take anything from other decks, and Merfolk has a very bad matchup vs the robots. But one good thing came from the testing and that was the inclusion of 4x Glint-Nest Crane in the Affinity deck.

So with Will on Robots and Berni on Death's Shadow, I had to go back to the drawing board and figure out what I would play. I wanted a deck that was reasonable against Death's Shadow (nothing is great vs it) and Affinity while still being abstractly powerful enough to deal with the randomness that is the Modern format. I ended up playing this:

3 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Saffi Eriksdotter
4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Renegade Rallier
3 Kitchen Finks
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Eternal Witness
4 Restoration Angel
3 Huntmaster of the Fells
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Thragtusk
1 Kiki-Jiki Mirror Breaker

4 Path to Exile
4 Eldritch Evolution

1 Arid Mesa
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
1 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Stomping Ground
3 Forest
2 Plains
1 Breeding Pool
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Gavony Towhship

Sideboard
3 Stony Silence
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Linvala Keeper of Silence
2 Reclamation Sage
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Reveillark
1 Archangel of Tithes
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Magus of the Moon

I started with Todd Stevens Rallier Company deck from SCG DFW. I liked how Rallier and Voice of Resurgence could gum up the ground vs Death's Shadow, but I didn't like how Tarmogoyf and Knight of the Reliquary just got killed. I also didn't like the land destruction element, nor the sometimes awkward way Company into Rallier didn't do anything. One card that did always have value with Rallier was Restoration Angel, and I soon began looking at Eldritch Evolution as an engine of sorts. Evolution sacrificing Voice to go get Rallier and getting Voice back was very good. Using the second evolution to sac Voice again to get Restoration Angel blinking Rallier getting back Voice and now you have a real army. I also added Saffi Eriksdotter as a great syngergy card since sacrificing it to protect Rallier gives you two blockers indefinitely. Strangleroot Geist also made an appearance as a 5th Voice for a while.

I ran into the issue that there weren't any good 4 drops you want to evolve into on an empty board (nothing to blink with angel). The best ones were either Huntmaster of the Fells or Glen Elendra Archmage. Huntmaster was great at grinding through removal, so it furthered that plan even more. Once I added red mana, the singleton Kiki-Jiki gave the deck a way to kill vs the faster decks of the format and a solid endgame. My past experience with trying to make Kiki Chord work is that Chording for 4+ casting cost creatures is not a reliable plan because it requires way too much mana or playing Wall of Roots, which isn't a very good card. Not playing Chord or Company definitely was an edge at the GP since I know a few people boarded into Dispels thinking I had them in my deck.The blue for Archmage was added to help vs Ad Nauseam and other combo decks. Once it made it to the main deck, it never left. Being able to steal game 1 when otherwise you'd never be able to win really adds up.

I worked on this with Zach Krizan (an expert on GW lists) and we quickly learned it was actually just great. I was even surprised at how well it was doing, but that could be because I was used to playing Merfolk, a deck that is admittedly not great. I even went 5-0 in a Modern league for the first time on MTGO as documented here.

The tournament venue was much nicer than I remember. Props to the City of San Antonio for the beautiful transformation of the formerly ugly convention center. I really enjoyed the area and wish I had stayed closer to the site.

Our seat configuration was myself in seat A with Naya Evolution, Berni in seat B with Death's Shadow, and Will in seat C on Affinity. Will has to be on one of the edges to minimize the distractions and hopefully keep him focused and playing at a reasonable pace. Berni is in the middle because he's great at observing all of the opponents, plays the fastest, and his large frame gave a barrier behind which Will and I could confer. I'm on the end because I'm not the super observant and quick player I used to be.

Round 1
Our round 1 opponents didn't show up. Berni runs so hot.
1-0

Round 2
I'm playing vs elves. I lose game 1 when I can't block because of his Elvish Champion. Game 2 I have Linvala and Archangel of Tithes in play, but he has 3 Essence Wardens preventing me from going for the combo. I was using Kiki-Jiki on Rallier to thin my deck with fetchlands. I was finally out of fetchable sources just waiting to draw Explosives or Huntmaster when my teammates won. Berni beat their Affinity player, and Will beat their Death's Shadow player, leading to the awkward situation where the teammates can't exactly blame a bad matchup.
2-0

Round 3
I'm playing vs Jeskai Burn (snapcaster mage, serum visions, jeskai charms). I combo off game 1 at 4 life after gaining 4 from Kitchen Finks, my opponent says "well at least I did 20". Game 2 I misplay and sacrifice Forge Tender when he casts Boros Charm while I'm at 5 life. He responds will Skullcrack. Game 3 his draw doesn't have many cheap spells or creatures and I'm at a comfortable 12 life when I win. Berni loses to Abzan Company featuring a Saffi-Rallier-Viscera Seer combo, then Blood Artist for the kill. Will pulls out his match against the mirror and we win the round.
3-0

Round 4
I'm playing against TitanBreach. Game 1 he has turn 4 Through the Breach and I can't recover. Game 2 I win with Magus of the Moon and Forge Tender to stop his Anger of the Gods. Game 3 I Evolution into Magus and he can't ever kill it and I kill him with just a Finks and Voice token. Berni loses to Abzan Midrange,and Will loses the Affinity mirror because his opponent has Ancient Grudge and he doesn't (they are in Berni's sideboard).
3-1

Round 5
Berni's opponent is late (how lucky). He wins a quick game against Swans / Treasure Cruise combo and takes his match. I'm playing against Elves where I win game 1 with maindeck Gaddock Teeg stranding his Companies and Chords in his hand. Game 2 he has turn 1 Mystic, turn 2 2x Heritage Druid into Elvish Archdruid, and turn 3 Elvish Archdruid attack for 12. All I have in play is Voice and a Birds of Paradise so I take it down to 6 life, but Evolution the following turn for Archangel of Tithes to slow him down. A follow up Huntmaster of the Fells starts clearing the board, and he scoops after drawing nothing but lands for a few turns telling me he sided out all his Companies and Chords after seeing Teeg game 1. Will was playing vs Standard BR Madness Vampires with Robots, but somehow was the last one done with his match.
4-1

Round 6
I play against Eldrazi Tron. Game 1 I have the turn 4 kill while he's mana screwed. Game 2 he is manascrewed again and my Stony Silence stops his Ballista and Collar from wrecking me. Eventually he resolves Thought-Knot Seer but by then I had a few Voice tokens big enough to attack into it and I could Evolution for Reclamation Sage for his Batterskull and attack for lethal. Berni lost to burn, but Will topdecked multiple Etched Champions against Death's Shadow to come back after losing game 1 to win us the match.
5-1

Round 7
I play against Affinity. Game 1 I get destroyed on the draw, but game 2 and 3 I have early Stony Silence and I'm the first one done. Berni is in a grindy Death's Shadow mirror, and looks like he's about to lose game 3 due to being stuck on only 1 mana for too many turns when Will beats the Jeskai Control player with multiple Etched Champions.
6-1

Round 8
I play against Esper Control. I almost get game 1 with the maindeck Gaddock Teeg, but end up flooding out and he finally deals with it a 3rd time and puts the game away with Sphinx's Revelation. Game 2 is more of the same, I don't have enough action to pressure him before he can safely set up Revelation. Will beats a flooded Burn player, and Berni is down a game against Ad Nauseam when they get deck checked mid-round. The check takes almost 20 minutes, and they finally come back to tell Berni's opponent that he has presented 59 and 16 for game 2, so he gets a game loss. Game 3 he keeps a 1 land hand with Leyline of Sanctity, but that didn't stop Surgical Extraction on Serum Visions. With the knowledge of his hand, Berni aggressively used Fulminator Mage and Kologhans Command in a mana denial strategy before setting up two Death's Shadow and Battlerage that can win through Phryexian Unlife. It didn't matter though as the opponent only drew Gemstone Mine for lands and ended up mana denial on himself letting Berni take the match.
7-1

Round 9
Backup feature match vs Sam Black, Justin Cohen, and Corey Burkhart. On the time shifted match, Berni gets to see the 0 land hand Sam keeps with Thoughtseize. Titian, Titan, Amulet, Amulet, Pact, Stirrings on the draw didn't hold up when the Stirrings was discarded. Game 2 he grinded through an Engineered Explosives and a Tireless Tracker to kill Sam just before he could deploy Hornet Queen. I lost the first game to Corey's UW Control, but win the second one in a grind fest that involved 4 castings of Supreme Verdict and still me getting him to 2 life. Then I cast Huntmaster of the Fells five turns in a row as he only had Cryptic Command to bounce/tap during my upkeep with the flip trigger on the stack. He finally drew an answer with Path to Exile, and my Restoration Angel in response was exiled by Spell Queller. I drew a Voice and a Township that let me attack into his Queller with the Wolf token and he couldn't draw another wrath to stabilize. Getting ready for game 3 we hear Will has defeated Justin Cohen on Death's Shadow, so we don't get to finish our epic match.
8-1

Finishing day 1 at 8-1 is great, but all of us have been here before and we know there is still lots of work to do. We get some solid Mexican food for dinner and get some sleep before coming back the next day ready to continue our run.

Round 10
I'm paired vs Gerard Fabiano and his UR Madcap Moon deck. I see neither Moon nor Madcap in our two games so I was kind of lost as to what to play around. Game 1 I show some signs of not being fully awake when I cast Restoration Angel in response to his Cryptic Command bounce-draw on my Voice token but I fail to blink the token to counter the draw (I was just casting because he was tapped out.) Then two turns later he taps out for Goblin Dark Dwellers flashing back Ancestral Vision and my board is 5 lands, Voice, Angel and my hand is 2 Evolution and Path to Exile. I bemoan the fact I don't have 6th land to kill him so I just attack with Angel then post combat Evolution into Rallier on Voice. While searching I realize I could have used Evolution for Rallier on a Fetchland to cast the 2nd Evolution and combo him, but since I am in my 2nd mainphase I can no longer attack. I pass with Path up, and he plays Jace Architect of Thought but I end of turn path his Goblin and can attack for lethal with Township through the Jace trigger. Game 2 he plays Threads of Disloyalty on my Voice which I decline to Path in response because he also has Thing in the Ice in play. I think its the correct play, but eventually I get buried by multiple Ancestrals and he attacks with Cryptic Command and has multiple Bolts to finish me off. We only have 6 minutes left for game 3, but by this point Berni has lost to Eli Kassis Bant Knightfall, and Will has lost to Ben Lundquist on Death's Shadow, so our match no longer matters.
8-2

Round 11
I'm playing vs Carlos Ramao. I know he is on Ad Nauseam so I keep Birds Fetch Evolution Evolution Finks Angel Rallier on the draw. I peal Breeding Pool and easily get out Archmage before he can go off. Game 2 I get out Archmage but he has Boseiju. I decline to counter his Lotus Bloom which may have been a mistake. He casts Ad Nauseam and draws the deck, casts Slaughter Pact on Archmage. I attempt to save it with Restoration Angel, but he has Echoing Truth and I die to Lightning Storm. Game 3 I lead with Stony Silence turn 2 and Magus of the Moon on turn 3. He can only cast Simian Spirit Guide and hope to buy time, but my Voice and Finks kill him before he can draw Lightning Storm or Slaughter Pact. Will defeats Abzan Midrange so we win despite Berni losing to Dredge. Berni attempted to call a judge because his opponent attacked with a Bloodghast that just entered the battlefield when he didn't realize that it has haste but I quickly told him he was being dumb.
9-2

Round 12
I'm playing against Affinity. I lose the die roll and get destroyed game 1. I win game 2 with 3x Path, EE, and then finally Stony Silence. Things get complicated game 3 when I have Stony Silence but I'm stuck on land without any real plays. I make a misplay and Path his Ravager giving him the 3rd land he needs to play Aether Grid. I use Reclamation Sage to kill it, but in the mean time I take a large hit from some man-lands and Signal Pest. I draw a second Sage to kill the Pest, and then try to develop mana with a Birds and Hierarch, but he has the second Aether Grid and wrecks my team and I'm low enough I can't play Archangel of Tithes and still be in the game. If I had just held the Path for the Signal Pest I would have been able to destroy both Aether Grids with the Reclamation Sages and not take nearly as much damage. Berni defeated Bant Eldrazi, but Will lost to Death Shadow and we drop a match that we should have won.
9-3

Round 13
I'm playing Matthias Hunt who is on Scrapheap Trawler combo. I win game 1 when I Evolution for Archmage on turn 3. While I'm tapped out, he attempts to go off, but only has 1 card draw artifact. After a few minutes of comboing, he passes the turn back. I have Path to Exile for his Trawler, then I can hold up Archmage for his Ichor Wellspring I know he has and he never draws another Trawler. I think he may have been better off just playing KCI on the turn I was tapped out and then attempting to combo through the Archmage the following turn. Game 2 I have turn 2 Stony Silence and he has neither green mana or the Nature's Claim to beat it. Will defeats Infect thanks to Hope of Ghirapur, and therefore Berni doesn't need to finish his mirror match after winning game one when both players had 7+ creature in play.
10-3

Round 14
We are paired against Chris Pikula team who are coming off 3 losses on the day after being undefeated day 1. They have an outside shot at top 8, but we are most likely playing for 5th place due to tiebreakers. I'm playing against Jarvis Yu who is on Abzan Company. I've know him from MTGO for a while, so he's the only guy I play that not only knows what my deck is since he reads on the MTGO results, he also knows I'm on it before we play. Game 1 he's on the play and starts with Viscera Seer and Melira. My turn 2 I can hold up Path or play Voice of Resurgence. With nothing else in play, I decide I need to develop my board and hope he doesn't have Finks or the 3rd land. He has both and while I do break up the kill combo several times with Path, Witness, and Restoration Angel, he gets to stack his deck each time and keep replaying it before he gets both Melira and Anafenza to combo me. Game two I play Linvala and then have to try to get through his board of dudes with my weaker creatures. He gets Fiend Hunter for Linvala, but I use Explosives on 3 to get it back. Eventually I have enough fliers to kill him before his Township takes over. Game 3 I mulligan to 6 and keep a slow hand with only Explosives, Linvala, Restoration Angel, and 3 lands. I play Explosives on 2 to set up the long game protection and then play Linvala on turn 4 but he has the Path. I try to use two Restoration Angel to stay alive against his beatdown with Orzhov Pontiff, but he has Maeltrom Pulse to kill them both. I'm at one life when I play Voice, Saffi, and Hierarch to try to stabilize but he topdecks his own Hierarch to kill me with Birds of Paradise. This happened after Will had won and Berni had lost, so it was an exciting moment... for our opponents.
10-4

We finish in 20th place, good enough for $1200 dollars and one pro point. I liked the decks we chose and I think we played mostly great except round 12. We did have a very tough day two gauntlet of opponents but that is to be expected.

I loved the deck and going forward I wouldn't change much. I actually think it is better outside of team modern since I didn't play against Death's Shadow all weekend and that is one of the better matchups for you. The only change I would make is possibly cutting a Rallier for another Eternal Witness.

Team Unified Modern was a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be, and I thought it was going to be pretty fun. I hope they continue to run Unified Constructed tournaments in the future, though I would also like to play a Split Format team event sometime too.

Edit: Posting my teammates decks here as well:

Robert Berni - Seat B - Death's Shadow
4 Death's Shadow
4 Street Wraith
4 Tarmogoyf

1 Liliana of the Veil
2 Liliana, the Last Hope
4 Mishra's Bauble
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Dismember
4 Fatal Push
2 Kolaghan's Command
2 Temur Battle Rage
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
1 Tarfire

1 Forest
1 Swamp
2 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Overgrown Tomb
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Marsh Flats

Sideboard
2 Nihil Spellbomb
3 Fulminator Mage
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Kozilek's Return
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Liliana of the Veil
2 Collective Brutality
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Painful Truths


Will Lowry - Seat C - Robots
4 Arcbound Ravager
3 Etched Champion
4 Steel Overseer
4 Ornithopter
1 Hope of Ghirapur
4 Signal Pest
4 Vault Skirge
1 Memnite
4 Glint Nest Crane
2 Master of Etherium

4 Cranial Plating
4 Springleaf Drum
4 Mox Opal

4 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Darksteel Citadel
1 Island
2 Spire of Industry
2 Glimmervoid

Sideboard
2 Spell Pierce
2 Dispatch
2 Ghirapur Aether Grid
2 Wear Tear
2 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Whipflare
1 Etched Champion
1 Hurkyl's Recall