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'Twas the night before Christmas when I realized I had gone
a week without playing Magic. This was very odd, and it didn't look like i
would be able to play until the Friday night draft. What to my wondering eye
should appear? An email from my buddy Justin Hohenstein. It seems that some of
the crew were going to make the trip to Louisiana and play in the last PTQ
where all the brokeness was legal. I sent a reply saying I would go if I was
back from the family trip to Dallas.
I returned Thursday evening, so then on Friday I had to find
a deck to play. I toyed with the idea of playing the mono-blue Nether-Go deck
like we played last year, but I was soon persuaded to play Red Deck Wins.
Unfortunately, Michael Musser was out of town and I couldn't borrow cards. I
made a few calls and soon had the cards for this list:
4 Jackal Pup
4 Slith Firewalker
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Blistering Firecat
4 Volcanic Hammer
4 Firebolt
4 Seal of Fire
4 Pillage
4 Tangle Wire
4 Chrome Mox
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Bloodstained Mire
6 Mountain
4 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
Sideboard:
1 Forest
4 Naturalize
4 Lava Dart
3 Sulfuric Vortex
2 Psychogenic Probe
1 Rack and Ruin
The maindeck is pretty standard, and probably perfect given
the expected metagame. The sideboard is pretty janky because I had a limited
card pool. Naturalize is to bring in against decks that want you to Chill out,
Lava Dart is my favorite burn spell so I had to play 4, though 2 or 3 is
probably right. I played Vortex because I didn't have access to Cursed Scrolls,
but it gave me something to bring in against the rock or dump truck decks, as
well as when scroll would normally come in. The probes were there for
Twiddle-Desire, so they were pretty useless.
The metagame was really odd considering that this was the
last time people could play decks with Tinker, Monolith, and such. (As an aside
about the bannings, I feel most everything was covered, though I still think
Chrome Mox, Mind's Desire, and Mana Severance should have been on the list as
well. See my last article.) There were maybe 4 Tinker decks, 2 of those the
Welder version, and 1 a crazy white version with Enlightened Tutor and Leonin
Abunas played by Taylor Williams, who was in my car on the ride over. There was
no Twiddle-Desire, Angry Hermit, or Oath at all. The rest of the field was RDW,
Psychatog, and the Rock, as well as the above average amount of rogue decks,
because this was Baton Rouge. There was also 5 or 6 people playing Dump Truck.
Round 1 - Jackson Price - Psychatog
Game 1 he gets a turn 1 scepter on fire/ice, and then has
the mana leak for both of my pillages even though he was stuck on 1 land and a
mox. My continuous drawing of the mana sources did not help. Game 2 I force
through a vortex, and when he is at 11 I cast a morph. He has scepter on
counterspell, but only 3 land open. He brainstorms in response, then says that
it resolves. He had no red mana open, so he could be trying to ice or edict my
firecat. I think about it and call his bluff (he may have just forgot to
counter it) and he had nothing and took 7. 2 turns later vortex did him in.
Game three my early beats don't look to be enough when he gets 2 togs out, but
he can't get lethal damage fast enough, and is one point short when I attack
for the win. He double blocks my jackal pup, and pumps his tog so that i will
die. I explain that my firecat kills him first before the ability triggers, and
I start my day with a match win.
2-1
1-0
Round 2 - Teddy Morrow - The Rock
This guy stayed in our room at regionals this past year, so
i wasn't completely unfamiliar with him. Game 1 I play a turn 1 slith with 2
moxes because i had no red lands. All that i had left in hand was a wasteland
and a port, but after I topdeck tangle wire, he dies while only casting 2
spells. Game 2 was much the same, as a few wastelands and ports keep him from
casting anything more than 3cc stuff. There wasn't much he could do either
game. When I turn in the result slip, I see that I am the first one done. I
like this deck!
2-0
2-0
Round 3 - Ronnie Jones - Psychatog
Ronnie is from Dallas, and I know from playing him at states
he's a pretty good player. Game 1 wasn't that interesting, as I get him to 2
before he kills me. Game 2 is only interesting because I forced through a turn
3 vortex, but he wishes for boomerang right before he dies and kills me. I am
not sure who is favored in this matchup.
0-2
2-1
Round 4 - Carlos Moreno - Tinker Stax
At the beginning of the match he complains when I pile
shuffle his deck, and asks a judge to shuffle my deck. I feel this is kind of
insulting, especially considering he was using transparent sleaves and had
several cards that were beat up and easily distinguishable in his deck, so I
tell the judge and get him to change sleaves. Game 1 he draws 4 Welders, and I
draw 3 Tangle Wires to keep them from doing anything. Game 2 I lose to Platinum
Angel - Lightning Greaves, and I realize I need to board in my lava darts to
kill his welders. Game 3 I destroy his first 3 or so artifacts and we both end
up in topdeck mode. He gets a Masticore out, but then I draw Naturalize and am
able to use it when he attempts to untap his monolith end of my turn, leaving
only 1 mana open to regenerate. Then he draws Bosh, but I top deck once again
with Pillage. Soon a couple of Lavamancers take him down. After the match we
both apologize about the pre-match shenanigans, and return to friendly terms !
later on in the day when we play a few games for fun. So the lesson is when you
make someone spend ten dollars on new sleaves, try to at least act like you are
sorry. Or something like that.
2-1
3-1
Round 5 - Devin Manuel - The Rock
He cast a total of 2 spells the entire match. Game 1 he
didn't draw a green source until really late, and I had drawn all 4 of my
ports. Game 2 is fairly similar as he is discarding cards from his hand due to
lack of mana on turn 5. This lets my creatures do whatever they want, and they
want to kill him.
2-0
4-1
Round 6 - Joseph Falcon - The Rock
I check the standings because my travel buddies want me to
play so they could have a chance at 4-2, but I don't think either of them will
make it, and I would much rather have the Rock be one of my opponents in the
top 8 than either of their decks, so we ID.
ID
4-1-1
Quarter Finals - Adam Case - Monogreen Beatdown
I am the 6th seed in the top 8, so I get to play the Mono
Green beatdown deck. I am worried about this matchup because he has Nimble
Mongoose and Troll Ascetics. Game 1 I kill his early mongrel with a hammer, and
then get a Tangle Wire to resolve. This clears ths way for my Slith Firewalker
who gets to be a 4/4 by the time he can cast his troll. He doesn't have
regeneration mana so he has to chump. Game 2 i draw all 4 Jackal Pups, but his
2 Trolls let him stabalize. He can never attack though without me killing him
on my turn. At some point he looks to plow under 2 of my 4 mountains to buy
some time. I use the 2 lava darts in my hand and then flash them both back to
keep from getting time walk twice. 2 turns later i draw the 2nd seal of fire i
need to kill him.
Semifinals - Jason Tate - Dump Truck
I played against Jason last time I was in Baton Rouge for a
qualifier when he beat me in the Astral Slide mirror. This time we are playing
decks that aren't boring to play. Playing first game 1 I mulligan to a 6 card
hand with 2 pups, Slith, but only 1 mountain. The other 2 cards were firecats.
I keep hoping to draw some land, but all i get is a wasteland before he
vindicates my only red source and i die. Game 2 he draws 3 chills, but I had
the naturalize for 2 of them, and then I can cast what I want fairly easily.
Game 3 he gets turn 1, 2, and 3 chill, and then follows it up with triple
vindicate. I only drew 1 naturalize, and soon my only green source was gone.
So I lost in the semifinals of a constructed PTQ again. This
time it wasn't due to a huge play mistake on my part, though it may have been
because of a mulliganing mistake Game 1. I did have a good time which always
seems to happen when you do fairly well. Maybe I can win the next one in
Houston. Maybe not.
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