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A Wrong Turn in Albuquerque?By Andrew Hanson on December 12th, 2008 · Filed in Standard (Type 2) · 17 CommentsA Wrong Turn in Albuquerque?
This should be an auto-include in any red limited deck. C'est la vie. Onto the matches! We had 49 players register, so we would be doing six rounds of Swiss. Round 1 My opponent that round was a woman running a Naya deck. I won the die roll and chose to draw (my deck wasn't very aggressive, so I wanted as many cards in hand as possible). She got to keep her seven while I went down to six. My hand at six wasn't bad—I had stuff to play, including an Elvish Visionary—but it lacked any red sources. That would turn out to be my undoing, as all I seemed to draw that game were red cards, and never a single Mountain. She opened the game with a Savage Lands on one, then a Plains and Bloodthorn Taunter on two, pinging me for a point with the hasty creature. I got to open with a Wild Nacatl on one, and an Elvish Visionary on two, but the Nacatl stayed a 1/1 as my second land drop was a Swamp. Then she played a Hissing Iguanar, and things turned bad, especially when she attacked with it on her next turn, I blocked, and she played a Sigil's Blessing. Then she dropped a Rakeclaw Gargantuan, and forced me to spend my Resounding Silence on it the next turn. My hand had been filling up with a Resounding Thunder, both Blightnings, and a Rip-Clan Crasher, but still no sign of a Mountain. By the time I saw one, that Hissing Iguanar had kicked my butt too low to survive. No Mountains. Woe is me. Out came the Snapper, in came the Blister Beetle. Why that over the Magma Spray? Hissing Iguanar. That, and she started her run with a 1/1, so I was hoping to be able to turn the black bug into a two-for-one. Really, both should have gone in. I again chose to draw first, and she started slow, playing only land in the first two turns. I dropped a Seaside Citadel on one and a Druid of the Anima on two. She dug with a Gift of the Gargantuan, and I made her put some cards in the bin with a Blightning. She ended up discarding a three-drop creature and a Plains. She dropped a Rockslide Elemental next, but I trumped it with a Rhox Charger. She made one more creature drop—another 1/1—and couldn't keep up with the Charger as she was stuck at four lands with a hand full of five-drops. She sure lamented ditching the Plains to the discard. Game two: win. 1-1 This game was a bit hectic. Not so much because of the gameplay, but because we had about twelve minutes left at the start of the game. She played first and came out slow, dropping just land and a Gifts of the Gargantuan in the first four turns. My first four turns, though, I dropped an Elvish Visionary, a Blightning, and then an Executioner's Capsule and Naya Battlemage. Despite her Bloodpyre Elemental, she couldn't slow me down, and the game was over soon after. Game three: win. 2-1 Record: 1-0-0 Round 2 Not so great with a hand full of red and green cards. He opened with an Akrasan Squire on turn one, a second one on turn two, and a Guardians of Akrasa on turn three. Despite the thrashing he gave me, I drew into some land and gas, was able to kill off one of the Squires, and get a defender down that kept the other one back. Really, I was beginning to hope I could steal that game when he played Titanic Ultimatum. A Squire and a Druid of the Anima came in for lethal. Game one: loss. 0-1 As for boarding, I brought in both the Magma Spray and the Blister Beetle—it can kill those pesky Squires—taking out the Snapper and a Carrion Thrash. I figured I needed to move faster than the Thrash would allow me to (mostly because I am an idiot and didn't fully read the Thrash; I thought it said to pay  when it came into play). Awesome on turn one. Not so awesome on turn four. He made a Knight of the Skyward Eye on his next turn, and I responded with a Blightning. With practically no hand left, he kept his Knight back to defend and I dropped a Flameblast Dragon. The game ended shortly thereafter, despite an Angelsong played to buy him time. Game two: win. 1-1 Game three, and I had to mull to five again. That was four mulligans in six games. Frustrating... Thankfully, he opened slowly, not playing an Elvish Visionary until turn three. I dropped a Blightning on him on turn three. He jacked me for four with the Visionary pumped by a Sigil's Blessing, but I made a Druid of the Anima on the next turn, topdecking the Forest necessary to play it. He ran out of cards, playing out his land and swinging in for one a turn, while I fleshed out my land base, dropped a Rip-Clan Crasher, then a Flameblast Dragon. He had the Oblivion Ring for the dragon, and tried to hit me with a pumped up Visionary again. I killed the Visionary with a Magma Spray in response to the pump. Welcome back to the land of the living. Now grab a shovel and start digging! Game three: win. 2-1 A word on Necrogenesis: this card is good. If you have a fair amount of removal (not counting Magma Spray or Oblivion Ring), or if your game plan is to slow down quicker decks with a fair amount of trading, this card will be an absolute back-breaker. You'll see that again, soon. Record: 2-0-0 Two wins, sure, but they were close, and that hurt my confidence in my deck. Round 3 My next match was against another woman, this one running all five colors. She won the roll and chose to draw first, and we both got to keep our opening seven. I opened with a turn two Druid of the Anima, and she didn't make a drop until turn three, when she dropped an Obelisk. I dropped Necrogenesis on turn four, then she played a second Obelisk and Oblivion Ringed my enchantment. Sure, the enchantment can be a pain, but to spend an O-Ring on it that early, when there were no creatures in the bin? I think she regretted it when I dropped a Flameblast Dragon on the next turn. She Excommunicateed it, setting me back a turn, but it wouldn't buy her enough time to draw up a real answer. The dragon finished the game quickly. Easily the MVC of my deck. As I didn't really see much in the way of early drops from her, I replaced the Snapper with the Magma Spray. Nothing would be more embarrassing than having a Blister Beetle dead in my hand because it would kill my own critters. We both got to keep the opening seven again, and again I went first. I made a turn one Executioner's Capsule, cycled a Viscera Dragger on two, and dropped a Vithian Stinger on three. She made three Mountain plays (not so good for a five color deck), then an Obelisk. Then I made back-to-back Rhox Charger plays, and she didn't drop a fourth land. The game ended soon after, despite the Naya Charm she used like a Cryptic Command to buy herself a turn. Game two: win. 2-0 Notice a trend yet? Most of my opponent's losses seem to stem from land screw. Record: 3-0-0 Round 4 For this round, sadly, I got paired up with one of the guys I went to Albuquerque with—Johnny Bates. We briefly discussed intentionally drawing the match, but in the end agreed it was too risky, and with a 4-0 record, one of us would almost be guaranteed a top eight spot. I really hate playing against this card. I took out the bird with a Resounding Thunder, and he answered with a Gift of the Gargantuan, digging up a Forest and a Court Archers and playing them on the same turn. I made a Crasher play, as well as unearthing the Viscera Dragger to get in there for some damage, but when he dropped a Knight-Captain of Eos, I was so far behind on the board that it was hopeless. He had me dead in two more turns. Game one: loss. 0-1 In came both the Blister Beetle and the Magma Spray, as I really wanted something to kill that Iguanar with, and out came the Snapper and the Carrion Thrash. I chose to draw again, and we both got to keep the opening seven. He came out with a turn two Elvish Visionary, while I came out with Executioner's Capsule on one, Necrogenesis on two. He played the Gift on three to dig up a Cylian Elf, while I dropped a Crasher on three. In limited, this is a very playable card. Game two: win. 1-1 He chose to play for game three, and ended up mulling to five cards. He opened with just land, while I had a Wild Nacatl on turn one, and had him up to a 3/3 by turn three. Sadly, that's when my opponent blasted the kitty with a Branching Bolt. He missed his fourth land drop and I played a Rhox Charger, then a Naya Battlemage on turn five. He made a game out of it, putting down an Iguanar, O-Ringing the Charger, and Spraying down the Battlemage with liquid-hot magma, but a Blightning took the rest of the steam out of his already mulligan-diminished hand, and what weenies I had left finished him off. Game three: win. 2-1 Record: 4-0-0 With that record, my place in the top eight was pretty much assured. Woo-hoo! Round 5 For this match, I got paired up against another of the guys I rode with—Joe Lee. As we were both undefeated and could draw into the top eight, we did exactly that. Intentional Draw. Record: 4-0-1 And for the record, that was the first time I ever got to intentionally draw at a Competitive REL like that. It felt good. Round 6 I got paired down for this matchup, with a guy who was 4-1-0, and when I offered the draw, he declined. Really, 13 points ended up making top eight, and he could have drawn in, but he didn't like his tie breaks, I guess. He did ask if I'd be willing to concede to let him in (and I could have and still would have made top eight), but I had two friends at 12 points that just got paired up against one another, so I wanted to try and get them in. We played it out. He won the roll and chose to play, keeping his opening seven. I thought about my hand for a bit. I had only two lands: a Mountain and a Forest. But I had a Rip-Clan Crasher, and I had two Blightnings. If I drew into a Swamp... What the heck. I didn't really need to win, so I kept. Back to back Blightnings in limited? It's game over, man. Game over. Game one: win. 1-0 Boarding: same drill as always, this time I put the Magma Spray in. We both had to mull to six, and he dropped a fetch land on turn two, while I put out the Crasher again. He responded with his own Crasher, and we started the creature drop, kill spell war, jockeying for board position. I Resounding Thundered a Jund Battlemage. He Bloodpyre Elementaled a Carrion Thrash. We made trades with blocks. By the time we ground each other down to top-deck mode, he had a slight board advantage. But my second top-deck was a Flameblast Dragon, and he had no answers. Game two: win. 2-0 Record: 5-0-1 That was first place after the Swiss rounds were all over, which is awesome as it means I get paired up against the person who just squeaked into the top eight. And the dreamcrushing? It paid off. The friends at 12 points drew, and by knocking my opponent out of contention, both of them made it in. That meant that four out of Albuquerque's top eight showed up for the tournament in one car. Booyakasha. There was one drawback to all of us making top eight, though. I was in first, Joe was in fourth, Johnny was in fifth, and my friend, Chris, was in eighth. If you know what the seeding looks like of a top eight, you know that first place plays against eighth, fourth plays against fifth, and the winners of each of those matches play against one another. That can be cool as it means one of us was going to make it to the finals, but we were going to be knocking one another out to make it there. He pretty much chooses your colors for you. The whole day, it seemed like I was up against Naya decks, and everyone I watched seemed to be playing one. So I thought I'd try something else for the draft. I'd try and grab up as many Tidehollow Strixes, Sanctum Gargoyles, and Capsules as I could, using the bad-touch-birds as early defense and beating my opponents with overwhelming card advantage. I opened my first pack. Thumbing through the commons, I saw my first Strix, and thought I had my first pick. But I finished looking through the pack, just to be sure. My rare? Sarkhan Vol. Best laid plans and all that. Looks like I was going red/green again. I ended up pulling two Elvish Visionaries, two Magma Sprays, a Branching Bolt, three Druids of the Anima, a Hissing Iguanar, a Jund Charm, and all the fetch lands I would need. In the end, my deck was alright, but many of my games relied on having an early Sarkhan Vol.
It had decent removal and Sarkhan Vol, but the creatures were mostly weenie, which could cause problems. The rest of my cards were subpar, and I had nothing that would really be conditionally good, so I never did any boarding. Quarter-Finals I was up against Chris Trapani here, running a Naya colored deck, so we made nice and promised no hard feelings while shuffling up. He won the die roll and chose to draw first. I kept my opening seven, while he had to mull to five. I felt a little dirty for that. Perhaps the set's best card to draft. I swung in with the 5/3 that can gain trample and he took it. He didn't do much on his next turn, and the next turn I dropped a Hissing Iguanar and was holding a Jund Charm in hand. I swung in with the Mosstodon and a Druid, leaving one Druid back so I had enough land to play the Charm and activate the Mosstodon. He didn't block, took the six, and went down to 1 life. I tried for the win by playing the Charm and choosing the Pyroclasm effect, (letting the Iguanar's activated abilities finish him off), but he had the Magma Spray in hand and killed off the lizard before all the 1/1s died. Stupid me. I should have just held it. But, he didn't have anything on his next draw and scooped anyway. Still, that mistake could have cost me the game had he been holding a better hand. Game one: win. 1-0 Not great in limited, but not horrible. He is inconsistently swingy. He swung, I blocked, and then he played a Necrogenesis. Crap. No amount of trading with 1/1s would help me now. I had nothing on my next turn, and he dropped a Carrion Thrash on his next turn. The game was over soon after as I had nothing. Necrogenesis gets another win, though not for me, this time. Game two: loss. 1-1 I chose to draw first this time. My deck doesn't pack much for good creatures, and in this matchup, I felt the extra card was more important. We both got to keep our seven, and he opened with a turn two Cylian Elf, which I Magma Sprayed before my second turn. I played Goblin Deathraiders on turn two, and his turn three was just fetching a land with a Naya Panorama. Tricky move when in the lead: do you swing or breed? Game three: win. 2-1 Record (not that it's important anymore): 6-0-1 Semi-Finals This match was against Joe, as he beat Johnny, and he was running another Naya colored deck. He won the roll and chose to play first, and we both got to keep our opening seven. He came out with a turn two Dragon Fodder (which is a really good play), and I with a turn two Elvish Visionary. He came in for two, which I allowed as I had a Hissing Iguanar in my hand and wanted to wait until he was down to begin trading. He followed the attack up with a Jund Battlemage, and I dropped my Iguanar on my next turn. He Excommunicated my Iguanar and got in for only three as I decided, Iguanar or not, it was time to trade a Visionary for a token. How is this card like Sam Adam's? Always a good choice. Then I dropped a Cavern Thoctar, and he answered with a Mosstodon. I only laid a land and passed, and he did the same, which let me activate my Battlemage and Branching Bolt his Mosstodon. Then I swung with the Thoctar, and he took it. He attacked on his next turn, and I killed the Crasher with the second Magma Spray while chumping the cat with a saproling token. I came in with the Thoctar again, and after he drew his next card, he conceded, having no answers. Game one: win. 1-0 He chose to play again, and we both kept our seven again. He activated a Panorama on his second turn, while I dropped an Elvish Visionary. Then he dropped a Cylian Elf, and I responded with a Topan Ascetic, which got Excommunicated on his next turn. I played it again, and he dropped a Hissing Iguanar. My next turn, I made a pretty big mistake. I played a Sarkhan Vol and used his second ability to steal the Iguanar, getting in for three. I should have just activated his first ability, forcing my opponent to extend in order to keep five dragons from showing up. Him again, this time with a message: Unless you can Threaten for the win, just ramp this guy to six. I dropped my own Mosstodon, and activated Vol to give it haste. He blocked with his plant elephant (Plant elephant? Really?), and again he pinged me with the Iguanar (neither of us thought about him going after the planeswalker at that time). I chump blocked his Mycoloth on his next turn, then stole it with Vol on mine, playing a Welkin Guide to give it flying and got in there for eight, putting him down to 2 life. He dropped a Scourge Devil and swung out, which forced me to block with the Welkin Guide. The bird man was my hope for the win, but now it was dead. When the dust cleared from that attack, I was down to 1 life. My next draw was a Jund Charm. He had a swarm of saprolings and a Scourge Devil untapped. I had nothing but Sarkhan Vol at one loyalty. Had I remembered to activate him (and he still pinged me, not the planeswalker), I could have stolen the Devil, played the Charm like a Pyroclasm to clear any blockers out of the way, and swung in for the win. But that wasn't how it went down, so I couldn't do that. Game two: loss. 1-1 I chose to draw, and he had to mull down to five. He did a turn two Panorama activation, and I did a turn two Druid. He dropped a Rip-Clan Crasher next and hit me for two, while I dropped another Druid and my Goblin Deathraiders. He hit me for two again, but didn't do anything else on four. I dropped Sarkhan Vol, and started building him towards six loyalty, leaving all my guys back to chump, if I had to. He had nothing to stop Sarkhan Vol, and conceded when I popped him to make dragons. Game three: win. 2-1 Record: 7-0-1 I was nervous as hell at that point. I had a real shot at winning this thing and going to Kyoto. I've always wanted to visit Japan, and then it looked like I had a real chance at it. Finals I had seen this guy's deck earlier in the top eight. It was a five colored deck, but mostly blue and white from the looks of things. He made use of Sanctum Gargoyles and, as he made quite public, three Cancels. So when I won the roll, I chose to play, as I couldn't out-card-advantage Sanctum Gargoyles and Courier's Capsules, even with an extra card. He got to keep his seven while I had to mull to six. He dropped a turn one Relic of Progenitus (my guess, it could cycle, so it wouldn't ever hurt overly much), and I dropped a turn two Elvish Visionary and a turn three Druid. He made a turn three Sedraxis Specter, which I Magma Sprayed on my next turn. Then he dropped a Sanctum Gargoyle. No artifacts to resurrect, at least. I played a Goblin Death raiders next, and he hit me with a Blightning to kill my hand. But I topdecked the Sarkhan Vol to put him under pressure. He ended up blocking one of my guys and playing Call to Heel to bounce his Gargoyled before it died to combat damage, then played the guy again on his next turn. I played a Mosstodon and used Vol to give it haste. He blocked with his face, then on his turn played a Sigil of Distinction for seven, equiped it to the gargoyle, and killed my planeswalker. I came at him again, putting him to 5 life, but he jacked me for eight with the Sigil-adorned gargoyle and Excommunicated my Mosstodon. I replayed it, but it wasn't going to matter, as the white sorcery bought him the time he needed to finish me off with his equipped flier. Doesn't really seem fair... I still chose to play against him, and he mulled to six. However, while drawing his six-card hand, he accidentally saw his top card. The judge ruled it as an Improper Draw at Start of Game infraction, which took a random card out of his hand to get shuffled into his library. That put him down to five cards. I opened with a turn two Elvish Visionary and he had nothing but land. Sadly for me, I didn't have a play I could make on turn three, so I fetched a Mountain with a Panorama. He made a third land drop, putting him at two Islands and a Mountain—enough to Cancel something. I had Sarkhan Vol in hand, but I wasn't going to risk him to a counter, so I played a Druid of the Anima on turn four. It got Cancelled. On his turn, he dropped a Courier Capsule and activated it, so I played Sarkhan Vol. He dropped a Sanctum Gargoyle to get rid of it, but I dropped a Thorn-Thrash Elder on my next turn, devoured the Visionary, and then played Soul's Fire to kill the Gargoyle. He couldn't stop Vol from going off and just conceded when I made dragons. Game two: win. 1-1 ...but then, neither does he! I dropped a Blood Cultist. He still had nothing. I had to play Gift of the Gargantuan on my next turn, and it pulled out a Welkin Guide and the Plains to play it with. He still had nothing. He didn't make his third land drop until turn seven. By then, it was way too late—a Cavern Thoctar had come down. The game, and match, were mine. Game three: win. 2-1 Go go land screw. It's a dirty way to win, but at that point, I wasn't concerned about it. I had just won the PTQ. I had just won an invite and plane ticket to Kyoto. Holy crap... Record: 8-0-1 So the moral of this story is it's better to be lucky than good. Or maybe it's don't go to game three with me, because I will luck-sac you. Really, that's almost the same as the first moral... Like I said, though, I'm not too concerned about it. I'm going to Kyoto. I've always wanted to visit Japan, and now I have my chance. That, and I get to take Blue/White Merfolk with the Sygg and Thrasher combo up against the pros. I can't wait to get my butt handed to me. Of course, I've got all kinds of playtesting to do until then, so I'll keep you guys updated on my deck tech! Until next time... PS The PTQ-Kyoto in Phoenix came and went. The winner? My travel buddy that I played in the semi-finals, Joe Lee. Congrats, Joe! By Andrew Hanson on December 12th, 2008 · Filed in Standard (Type 2) · 17 Comments |
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