You may remember from prior entries to this blog that it has been a bit of a struggle this season. I had an absolute heartbreaking finish at GP OKC. The last five PTQs, I essentially was never close to making top 8. These results did not discourage me though. I feel that there is a lot of variance when it comes to PTQs. I remember a twitter conversation amongst some of the top pros where they decided that the theoretical "best player in the world" would only have a ~10-15% chance at winning a given PTQ. Of course, I don't give myself those sort of odds, but it helped my mindset to think in these terms. To give yourself a real chance to win a PTQ, you have to play in as many tournaments as possible to try and hit those slim odds. I felt like my previous card pools were big dogs to make top 8. In fact the only one that may have had a chance was the pool from Augusta, Maine. As I said in my last blog post, I was just hoping to crack a solid pool and give myself a chance.
A solid pool I did crack! Here is what I built for the 210 player, 8 round PTQ, in Worcester:
The black cards are an absolute no brainer in this pool. It is pretty clear you must play them. Agent of Fates is one of the premier bombs in the set, provided you have enough things to target him with, which I did here. Double cure, marauder, emissary, harpy. gray merchant with double disciple are all also good reasons to get excited about black. I feel like the cures, in a heavy black deck, are just crucial to the format. Many games are decided by early ordealed creatures, and cure is great at busting those draws. They also are great at killing voyaging satyr and unicorns from green decks which can significantly slow them down.
As for the second color, arguments can be made for green. Bow is a sick one, and I have a hard time turning down an Asp. Ultimately, I went blue because Prognostic Sphinx is another premier bomb, and I have a harder time saying no to that and Sea God's Revenge/Voyages End/Nimbus Naiad. Another key is the blue ordeal, which was absolutely crucial in the games. With the Tormented Hero, having access to two ordeals allows for some nigh unbeatable draws.
As for the final few cards, I had a very hard time deciding between Scourgemark and Boon of Erebos. I ultimately went with the mark as it helped devotion and cycled. I did board in the Boon some against decks with noticeable removal.
Matches:
Round 1: Shawn Pate GW
I won a pretty comfortable game 1, where my opponent did not interact much. Game two I faced a fairly early Bow of Nylea followed by an Elspeth! I started to understand why my opponent played GW. I lost game 2 to those cards pretty badly. Game three I had a solid draw and while my opponent played a turn 5 or 6 Elspeth, I was able to kill it immediately with a Cavern Lampadded creature. I went on to win from there.
Round 2: Aaron Olsen RG
We had a longish game 1 where Aaron beat me down with a big Staunch Hearted Warrior, but I eventually stabilized and took the game. He did try and play a Hunt the Hunter to kill one of my creatures, but I had to inform him that he could not cast the card unless I had a green creature to target. Pretty odd.
I don't remember what happened Game 2, but I did win.
Round 3: Willliam Moore RG
William was sporting a top 8 playmat, and after some conversation I discovered he had made Top 8 a few weeks back but lost in the quarters.
Game 1 was very one sided in my favor, I believe an early ordeal was involved that went all the way.
Game 2 saw a turn 3 Nimbus Naiad getting a blue ordeal turn 4, and a black ordeal turn 5, triggering the blue one on Turn 5. The Naiad went the distance.
Round 4: Drew Lichtenstein GW
I won a comfortable game 1, lost a very close game 2 where I was forced to try and race him and he had a battlewise valor for exact damage the turn before I was to win. Game 3 I won, but I can't remember what happened.
Round 5 Jody Brint GW
Another GW Deck! This time I had the nut draw with Tormented hero into Blue, and then black ordeal. After a voyage's end on a Fleecemane Lion, this game ended quickly.
Game 2 wasn't quite as nutty, but I still was able to ordeal up a win.
Round 6: Bryan Haak BW
Bryan and I go way back! We first met/played back at UNH in 2006 or 2007. He is a very solid player, with a lot of experience and multiple PTQ top 8s. We had actually looked at each others decks in between rounds earlier in the day and had determined his pool was significantly weaker than mine. He did have a Whip of Erebos and a Spear of Heliod to go with two Wingsteed Riders and two black ordeals, but he had to play some mediocre cards to fill out the deck.
We had a somewhat close game 1 that I took down. We had a very close Game 2 where I did not draw an island and was sitting on Voyage's End all game. He ended up with a 6/6 wingsteed rider and we were racing. If I had been able to cast the Voyage's End, it would have been a fairly easy win, but I did not and lost that game. Game 3 was a pretty comfortable win.
Sitting at 6-0, in this 8 round tournament, meant I had a good shot to Intentional Draw the next two rounds to make top 8. This happened and I had a few hours to call friends and get ready for the biggest draft of my life thus far.
Awesomely, my friend Charlie also made top 8! He lost round 1, and then won the next 7 to get there. We actually carpooled to the event as well, so it was a pretty perfect ending for us. Aside from Charlie, I did not recognize any of the others in the top 8.
Charlie actually was randomly seated to my immediate right. I felt good about this because in past drafts with Charlie, I know he likes to go for more aggressive decks, which I prefer not draft unless forced upon. I started with a first pick Phalanx Leader over not much else. I was then passed a Keepsake Gorgon with what looked like a common missing! I quickly deduced that it had to be a foil rare that Charlie took. This of course is not really a signal because he easily could have taken a foil Aborrent Overlord, Whip, Agent of Fates...any of these cards I would take over a Gorgon.
Pick 3 was very tough. My options were Sip of Hemlock, Hopeful Eidolon, and Voyage's End. Two of my favorite, and most successful, archetypes are UB and UW heroic. Voyage's End is a key card to both decks, in UB to buy time to get to the long game, and in UW to tempo out with heroic creatures. I also figured to not see too many more of the effect as it should be highly drafted. However, Sip goes pretty well with Keepsake and makes it look like black is open. Hopeful Eidolon is one of the top cards in the white heroic deck. It goes amazing on a wingsteed rider and is great with Phalanx Leader as well. I don't particularly like BW as a combination in the format, but I felt the eidolon was just more powerful than the Sip so I took it.
The draft went pretty straightforwardly from here, and a late Triad of Fates solidified me into Black/White. I picked up a Wingsteed Rider, Observant Alsied, Divine Verdict, another Eidolon and a Sentry of the Underworld in pack 2, and was feeling great about how things were going.
Pack 3 I opened a Thassa, Blue Ordeal, and a Boon of Erebos. I strongly considered just taking the Thassa as I felt I could probably wheel the boon. In the end I took the trick as I needed a few more ways to trigger heroic and I don't really believe in hate drafting in 8 man draft.
I was then passed an Agent of Fates! Slam dunk pick obviously with two eidolons to trigger heroic as well as a few tricks.
I then was passed a Whip of Erebos! I feel Whip is one of the premier bombs in the set, and was ecstatic to see it sitting there for me pick 3.
I followed that up with a Gray Merchant and another Sentry of the Underworld.
The deck's power level was way above most of my magic online drafts. The mana was definitely a bit awkward but as long as I could draw my colors I felt like I had a great chance. Here is what I built:
Quarterfinals vs Whit Froehlich UG
Game 1 saw Whit get down an early Prophet of Kruphix, which terrified me. This is one of my favorite cards in the format, and is absolutely deadly with bestow. Luckily, he did not have much action to go with it, just a bunch of random pump spells as my Disciple of Phenax told me. The game dragged out, but I eventually got a Keepsake Gorgon down, enchanted it with the Alseid, and pecked away for 4 a turn until he conceded.
Game 2 he mulled to 4, and I won comfortably, and was loving life.
Semifinals vs Michael Dalton UW
Chatting with Michael, he had made top 4 at the PTQ in Providence a few weeks back, has top 8'ed multiple other PTQs, and won a PTQ in his past.
Game 1 was close early, but eventually I was able to get him into top-deck mode while I was sitting on lots of action. Sentry of the Underworld and Gray Merchant eventually took down the win.
Game 2 he did not play many spells and I won comfortably.
Finals vs Christopher Butcher RG with Xenagos
I was watching Chris play his semi-final vs an excellent UB deck. He went off with Xenagos in the final game ramping into a monstrous Stoneshock Giant. I was certainly a little scared by Xenagos, but I felt otherwise that I had a decent matchup with my removal and Whip.
Game 1 Chris beat me down a bit but eventually I landed an Agent of Fates which did considerable work. I eventually stuck a Keepsake which locked down the board and I finished the game with a Sentry and a Gray Merchant.
Game 2 saw Chris play turn 2 Leafcrown Dryad, turn 3 Ordeal of Purphoros. I was sitting on boon of erebos and wingsteed rider which would eventually allow me to block on Turn 4 and two for one him with my boon, provided he had no removal. Luckily, I drew Phalanx leader and was able to execute the same plan a turn sooner, and it worked. I then curved out a Wingsteed Rider, Sentry of Underworld, and Keepsake gorgon. He ramped out a 5/6 Titan of Eternal Fire and attacked with it the next turn offering a trade with the gorgon. I blocked with the gorgon, and played my second boon that I had boarded in on my Phalanx leader. This pumped my squad and allowed me to eat his 5/6. After a few turns of attacking with my enormous board of fliers and a Keepsake gorgon activation later, I had won the PTQ!!!
It is hard to come up with the words to describe the feeling of taking this tournament down and achieving what I have been working so hard for the last five months. All I can say is that I will be working hard again to show a good result at the PT. I didn't work this hard to just scrub out!
I am a little worried about the modern format for the pro tour, as I have played 1 modern tournament lifetime and basically have no experience with it aside from watching videos/streams of other tournaments. I will likely be putting together some sort of deck on Magic Online so that I can play a bunch of games and get a better feel for the format before choosing a deck. My initial leanings are to play with Dark Confidant though as it is one of my favorite cards. I also know I will not play URW control! Not my style of deck.
I will certainly continue to blog about my preparations for the PT and I may even go to GP Sacramento next month to play some more limited now that I have 3 byes!
Thanks for reading,
Ben
@bchap55
