Last Saturday, the 22nd of August, was the last PTQ in my area (Detroit) for Austin. I believe the only other PTQ left is in Cincinnati, OH on the 29th. And since I can’t make it to that one, this one was the last.
I didn’t make it to the site until a little after 9am thanks to road construction shutting down one of the major freeways leading to the site. I had to reroute down backstreets to make it with any kind of time leftover to finish out my deck. The tournament began at 10am so I had just under an hour to find something like 15 cards for the deck. I was planning on playing the “Naya Solution” deck, otherwise known as “Kowal Zoo.” My backup was the Ivan Drago deck that Adrian Sullivan had talked up a few weeks ago. I was much closer to building the Naya deck, but the cards were much more expensive than those for the Drago deck.
So I needed to trade with the store, Pandemonium, to fill out the deck and let’s just say it wasn’t in my favor. Now I know it’s a store and they have to make money, but by my estimation the cards I was trying to get were slightly overpriced (understandable). The trade value on my stuff, however, was around something like 40% or so. Not to mention that almost every card I was trading was something they had zero copies of. So I was expecting like 60% or so at least, given the high demand (people walking in and requesting cards I was trading, over and over). I don’t fault them for raking me over the coals, however, because I needed the cards that they had and technically they don’t *have* to trade at all. And the dude working the store was cool, as always. I didn’t have a bunch of my own money to spend so after some finageling and returning a few cards (not to mention a long wait due to people paying for the tourney with credit cards), I had all but four cards for the deck. Sure I had to alter the sideboard heavily to makeup for the bunches of cards I couldn’t afford, but it wasn’t so bad as I had decent alternatives with me.
Luckily I found a guy to trade for 2 of the 4 cards I needed and I was down to like 2 lands I still needed. I was able to borrow one, but was still down a Wooded Bastion (which I subbed in an Exotic Orchard for). After all this trading and borrowing nonsense, though, it was time for the player’s meeting and I still had to fill out the decklist. So I flew to my seat and feverishly wrote down the list. Here’s what I finally ended up playing:
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Woolly Thoctar
4 Great Sable Stag
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Ranger of Eos
4 Volcanic Fallout
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Wooded Bastion
1 Exotic Orchard
5 Mountain
5 Plains
Sideboard:
3 Gaddock Teeg
3 Harm’s Way
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
4 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Naya Charm
1 Banefire
I originally had a 4th Teeg in the board as well as 3 Stillmoon Cavaliers and another Forge-Tender, but switched those to the Naya Charms & Banefire at the last minute. Here we go!
Round 1: Grixis Control
Game 1 – I had a good draw and beat down with a Woolly Thoctar and Stag. He stumbled on land and when I dropped a Bloodbraid Elf, he packed it up. I only saw a Sygg from him that game.
Boarding: +2 Burrenton Forge-Tender, +1 Banefire
-2 Path to Exile, -1 Lightning Bolt
Game 2 – Since I wasn’t really sure what he was playing, perhaps 5c Blood or 5c Control, I boarded kinda funky. This game I had a slower draw and he was definitely in the game. He kept trying to topdeck Cruel Ultimatum throughout the game though, and afterwards I asked if he was 5cc and he was just Grixis control. My Nacatls and Thoctars were easy fodder for his Bituminous Blasts, Lightning bolts, and Doom Blades, but the Stag only fears the Bolt and he only drew one Bolt. 2x Stag FTW!
2-0 Games
1-0 Matches (8 rounds of lovely swiss for this PES event)
Round 2: Kithkin
Game 1 – This was the matchup I was afraid of. I thnk Van Lunen said it was nigh-unwinnable. First game he had an amazing draw with 2x Figure of Destiny, 2x Wisened Cenn, 2x Honor of the Pure. His 5/5 & 6/6 dudes ran me over quickly.
Boarding: +2 Naya Charm, +3 Harm’s Way, +1 Banefire
-4 Great Sable Stag, -2 Wooly Thoctar
I had a hard time figuring out the boarding for ‘kin but I figured Woollys were easily pathed.
Game 2 – A much better game for me. He played little dudes which I removed and got in there with my remaining Thoctars when Naya Charm tapped down his 6 Spirit Token army.
Game 3 – Not even close. Total blowout in my favor. Fallouts, Bolts, and Paths followed up by BB Elf, Ranger, and Naya Charm to tap his remaining team.
4-1 Games
2-0 Matches
Round 3: Jund Blood
Game 1 – What a crazy game. I’d ding him, he’d ding me, and we’d rinse & repeat until I finally got to an ultimate Figure of Destiny and got there with team Thoctar!
Boarding: +3 Gaddock Teeg, +3 Harm’s Way, +2 Burrenton Forge-Tender, +4 Ethersworn Canonist
-4 Woolly Thoctar, -4 Volcanic Fallout, -2 Wild Nacatl, -2 Lightning Bolt
I really wasn’t sure what to board in this matchup and I think I overdid it with the Canonists.
Game 2 – In this game I made things complicated with my boarding. He tried to Bit Blast a Thoctar which drew a finger-wag as Gaddock Teeg stared him down. The game came down to his Doom Blade on my Teeg when he only had 4 mana up and thusly couldn’t Bit Blast my FoD in response to ultimate pump. The Figure went the distance. The FoD was obviously the better target for Doom Blade, but he just counted his mana wrong. It happens.
6-1 Games
3-0 Matches
Round 4: 5-color Reveillark
Darn you Steve Boggemes and your roguish creations!
Game 1 – My opponent was very cordialthis round despite having the only deck in the room that should completely dominate mine. And dominate he did! Any number of Reveillarks greater than one are just bad news for me. The two he drew this game were just too good getting back dudes to trade with my dudes, blah. It ended badly.
Game 2 – I don’t remember what I boarded here, it was so wild. I got a great draw though and he only drew one Reveillark.
Game 3 – He drew two Reveillarks again and they did their dirty work. That card really is unfair when you’ve got the creatures in your graveyard already. The only effective way to stop it would be Pacifism! His Larks + 3/4 Pancakes were too much for Thoctar & team.
7-3 Games
3-1 Matches
Round 5: Kithkin
Game 1 – This round I was playing Holly, who I met at GenCon last week. She didn’t have enough gas this game and my critters made it through.
Game 2 – She had out a lethal Stillmoon for what seemed like an eternity but was probably like three turns. She just seemed to refuse to swing with it and almost punted the match. I should have packed it up as soon as it came down so we could have time for a third game, but I figured she would punt and wasted about 3 minutes that I could have used to win game three.
Game 3 – Ran out of time. Life totals at the end were Me: 19, Her: 7. SIGH.
8-4-1 Games
3-1-1 Matches
Round 6: Reveillark
Game 1 – Wild Nacatls came down in force when he always seemed to name wrong with Meddling Mage. He’d name Bolt and I’d Fallout. He’d name Fallout and I’d Bolt. *shrug*
Game 2 – I resolved a Ranger for two Nacatls after he showed me Celestial Purge on my Thoctar. Several Fallouts, Sowers, and Hallowed Burials later, my TD’d Ranger of Eos gets in there with his Cat friends.
10-4-1 Games
4-1-1 Matches
Round 7: Combo Elves
Game 1 – Despite me Pathing his Archdruid, he’s one land short of Primal Command and my creatures got in there.
Game 2 – He claimed once again to be “so close” to killing me this game. But I had out an Ethersworn Canonist and I had some removal in hand. He later showed me Mark of Asylum which I hadn’t thought of and would’ve been really good against my fallouts and bolts. Ranger for 2 Nacatls is really really really good. 9 power for 6 mana. ouch!
12-4-1 Games
5-1-1 Matches
Round 8: Jund Mannequin
Game 1 – We both had good draws but I had 2x Bloodbraid Elf that both paid off. When he tapped out for Chameleon Colossus, I swung and got in just enough to Bolt him out.
Game 2 – I kinda felt bad for this one. He mulled to five after sideboarding, during which time I explained that the reason I hated Jund was it’s inconsistency and bad mana draws…. yeah… I promptly smashed him with something like Bloodbraid into Stag followed by Bloodbraid into Thoctar. It wasn’t pretty. I remember the final attack being for 13. Sorry man.
14-4-1 Games
6-1-1 Matches
At this point I’m really worried about the tiebreaks and whether or not I’ll actually make it into the top 8. After a brief review a couple people assured me I was in, but I had my doubts. I kept running numbers and theorizing with the match results I knew for sure and even I thought I was a lock. Then when they announced final standings, I was 9th. 9th. Ninth. @*#%*Y@%!!! I don’t want to type all the expletives that were going through my head because my blog would probably get removed or something. But I was livid. I’ve been waiting a long time to get back to “the show” and the last chance I had with G/B Elves I basically punted to Kurtis Droge playing Lark. So instead of just fuming the whole way home I took the time to analyze where I went wrong.
Round 5. Holly. I spent too long in this match consumed with the idea that I was the stronger player and that I could simply pull out a hopeless game. Not gonna happen again. I’m planning on going into every match with a clean slate. No matter who the opponent is I’m going to be prepared for anything. I guess you have to know when to hold em and know when to fold em. My bias toward not conceding until the last point of damage is dealt got the better of me. I’ve won quite a few matches where my opponent had me all but shutdown and for some reason I’d get back in the game. Earlier in the day I had an opponent concede at 13 life when I swung for 9. So he had another turn to topdeck say, a Cruel Ultimatum, but he packed it in and we went to game 2. So I guess in this tournament the same thing that helped me win helped me lose. /frown.
What I took away from this PTQ experience was that Woolly Thoctar is REALLY fun. A 5/4 for three mana is as silly-good as you’d think it would be. Especially if they can’t deal with him right away or plan on blocking and you remove the roadblock… It’s just plain sweet. I for one will be looking for an excuse to play him in whatever deck is good after Zendikar comes in. Also, I need to work on my “game mode.” It’s like Jet Lee said in Fist of Legend, “Eventually you develop a fighting mode and it becomes natural.” I need to get into that fighting mode so I can smash people and do so within the 50-minute time limit each round.
Oh, and I would highly recommend the deck for any remaining PTQs. It’s so fun to play and while it doesn’t look like much, it really has great card advantage and raw power. My MVP on the day would probably have to be Ranger of Eos, as the CA and damage he generates are just silly. Firespout is, of course, a beating, but avoid overextending and you should be fine. And besides, the deck is Woolly enough to get you there.
I’ve been working on getting draft recaps up, but the formatting of this lovely WordPress blog doesn’t allow me to easily cut & paste the code, so I have to heavily manipulate the HTML to get it to display correctly. It’s possible that I’ll get my own site soon that will allow enough space for that, but we shall see in the coming weeks. For now I’ll try to keep up the blog posts as Zendikar info comes to light and we enter a new season of sealed deck!
Force of Nature 