So the other day I looked at the MTGO PTQ schedule and saw that there was one on Sunday at 6am. While I hate waking up early, I knew that my sprightly little daughter would wake me up at 6:15 anyway. So I made plans to slog my way out of my slumber pot and enter an online PTQ.
There was a real PTQ yesterday in Detroit that I would have liked to attend, but after sacrificing a lot of my Alara block power cards to the eBay gods, I didn’t have much to work with. My MTGO collection hasn’t been completely raped yet, so that will do just fine.
So what deck do I play? Well, I’ve been running my Darth Naya list to some moderate success but have only had a few chances to play in actual queues with it. Last night I’m playing it in an 8-man for practice and am bitching about losing to UGRamp.dec from Zen block. My wife starts going off about how I shouldn’t play something rogue and I should just netdeck. So, to placate her I pull up BDM’s list of Naya Vengevine (well, at least the one he used to qualify, but Gerry T’s list). She tells me to play that and I throw it together. When I wake up groggy in the morning, my wife is still ringing in my ears to play a proven deck. So I do.
Round 1 vs. Polymorph
He gets a turn 4 Emrakul and I top deck the cunning sparkmage! Thank god. Emrakul goes down and soon so does my opponent.
Game 2 he has the seas for my raging ravine. I have double O-Ring and double sparkmage
I realize I have no idea how to play this matchup. the only problem with MTGO is you don’t always get to test against good decks. I’ve played against mono-white and mono-red all week in the tourney practice room and the 2-man queues. even the 8-man I ran, I faced weird ramp decks.
Game 3 I get a good draw and he has a slower one w/ no khalni garden, zone on t3 while I’m beating for 6 with Nacatl and bb elf. I get sparkmage online and he spreading seas’s my raging ravine. luckily I get an arid mesa and that enables the sparkmage. the sparkmage guns down a token on his upkeep, keeping him off poly for a turn. he drops a 2nd zone and roils the sparkmage. next turn he taps low with 2 spawn tokens out and I have the o-ring to slip through just enough damage to win!!
Round 2 vs. Jund
He mulls to 6 but I get a forest-light hand and am forced to play KotR at a 3/3. he pulses it and swings in with his leech. He BBs into Blightning and I pitch 2 Vengevines! lolz! He’s got me at a low life total, though, so nothing is for certain. he’s got another Blightning to make things more fair as I had Nacatl 2x and noble hierarch. He concedes to something like 13 damage on the board vs. his 9 life. 🙂
Game 2 he mulls to 5. This is the reason I stopped playing Jund. I would, on average, mulligan to 6 or 5 every other match. He has good lands, though, with swamp, summit, ravine, forest. yowsa. He has officially curved out on a mull to 5. with Sarkhan the mad into dragon token (saccing Thrinax of course) wow. I am so bad. I swing in with a 7/6 trample lifelink Ranger of Eos thanks to sledge and double hierarch. but then I main phase ping a sap token, instead of waiting to see if he has another Sarkhan. ugh. mistake #2 so far. Luckily he only drops a Thrinax, and I draw a Bloodbraid. BB hits Stoneforge Mystic which hits basilisk collar for my sparkmage. he concedes justifiably.
Round 3 vs. UG Avenger Ramp
I keep an okay but somewhat slow 7 card hand. He opens with Halimar Depths… ugh. I hope this isn’t the ramp deck I faced the other day. Looks like it. Jace comes down after a Khalni Garden. He bounces my KotR but I drop a BB and cascade into another KotR. Whoop there it is! BB swings at Jace and he chumps with Mr. Plant token. I’m just sitting here dreading the eventual Avenger of Zendikar that I know is coming in like 2 turns. He re-bounces my KotR leaving me with just a BB. Vengevine makes an appearance for me and I knock out the Jace and take him to 14. I get in another swing and “overextend” a bit, taking him to 7. He casts All is Dust and I cast a BB to get back a Vengevine and swing for the win.
I’m not sure how to sideboard for this matchup, so I bring in a couple O-Rings and shrug.
Game 2 I get roflstomped by Avenger of Zendikar making 8 or 9 plant tokens. That’s pretty rough right after an All is Dust clears my board and I have no action in my hand… awkward.
I board back into a “speed” mode trying to come out fast. I get an okay draw, but don’t have anything for turn 2 after my turn 1 hierarch. Get in there for 1, little guy! Vengevine comes down and I path his oracle of Mul Daya to get in there with Vengevine #2. He plops down a…. Mold Shambler??!!? hmm. It’s actually pretty good on my only red source. I draw a ravine and he blocks a VV. Jace brainstorms and all I need is to get through 2 more points of damage for 3-0. Sejiri Steppe is in my hand if he plays a blocker. I think I’m good to go. Plant token comes down. FOG!!!!! OMG I totally did not see fog coming. Jace continues to Brainstorm… While this is getting rather interesting, I’m not too fond of it. I’d rather have the match be over with already. Roil Elemental steals my VV and all I’ve got is a path to exile in my hand. All I needed was to draw something that reactivates my graveyard VV or gives me a red mana to get my ravine online and I win this game. I draw a plains. F U lands!!! Plant token blocks my Vengevine, obviously. I am so bad. I draw a Ranger of Eos and all I have to do is get Noble Hierarch #2 and a Birds of paradise. Then I can swing into his Rampaging Baloths with one Vengevine and trade, and have the Birds lethal next turn. But instead I get a damn Scute mob. Question of the day. Does he have a Fog? I’m hoping he doesn’t. He does. I lose. 😦
Round 4 vs. Next Level Bant
He comes out with a BoP but no turn 2 play… awkward. My turn 3 has me playing (off a cobra) hierarch, hierarch, Nacatl. I ranger up a Nacatl/Scute next turn and await his response. he’s got 5 mana now with a borderland ranger and a bop out. Elspeth! hot! Especially good followed by Hierarch. My guys go after Elspeth and he blocks properly, putting her at 2 counters. All I need is a Behemoth Sledge to break this game wide open. His own Ranger is going to make things worse for me and I’m wishing I had drawn one of the four Cunning Sparkmages at this point. He pulls up a Scute Mob and a hierarch. Sadly, I draw a Sunpetal Grove. hrmf. I see how the Planeswalkers would make my deck better. Sadly I didn’t have the $200 or so it would require to get them. I get the Sledge I was hoping for and Elspeth is not long for this world… I hope… His Scute Mob is pretty dangerous, though, at 5/5 and growing to 9/9 next turn. Elspeth does indeed bite the dust and I go up to 24. This is about to get really interesting. He Plops down a Vengevine, leaving the Mob back on Defense. Ugh, Jace comes down, giving me a headache. Now I can’t attack, and he has Jace back to bounce my blockers. Not looking good for me. At this point he’s exhausted 10 minutes of his clock and I might be able to time him out if we go to 3 long games. I trade my Nacatl for his Vengevine, going back up to 24. 2 Sea Gate Oracles bring back the VV… and he misclicks! VV stays in the yard. phew. Sadly I can’t touch that 17/17 Scute Mob he’s got out there. Colonnade comes down and threatens my existence. I don’t think I have an answer to the Scute Mob aside from Sparkmage+Collar. His clock is down to 12 minutes so I’m looking good as long as I win the 2nd game or take it super long. This is dragging on, so I’ll skip to the end. He pulls Jace’s ultimate, eventually. 8 minutes left on his clock.
I win game 2 in a long, hard-fought battle involving Behemoth Sledge, Martial Coup, and an 11/11 trampling lifelinking Scute Mob.
Game 3 he times out. My hand was nuts and I had the sparkmage/collar combo, so I was likely going to win.
Round 5 vs. Mythic Conscription
At this point I’m really getting tired of seeing turn 1 forest, birds of paradise. He’s packing Baneslayer, which is bad for me unless I get the sparkmage going. He gets his god draw, which is like turn 2 KotR, turn 3 Baneslayer, turn 4 2nd KotR, turn 5 sovereigns. I lose this one.
He rolls into another turn 2 KotR and all I’ve got is a turn 3 KotR… not quite good enough. Hopefully I draw a sparkmage for my collar and I’ll be good to go. He paths my KotR and swings with his own 5/5 version. He plops out ye old Baneslayer and protects it with KotR. Yummy. I’ve got the Vapor Snare for his Baneslayer but he responds with a Path to Exile. Sadly I only have 4 lands, so my Scute Mob isn’t big enough to get in there. My mistake. Sovereigns comes down for him and this spells the end for me, most likely. oh, he gives his KotR pro green. good match.
Round 6 vs. Vengevine Naya
How weird. The first game involved him playing plains, mountains, and Arid Mesas… oh, and one Sejiri Steppe. So I figured he was Boros or something with a bad draw. Turns out, he’s playing Naya Vengevine and just drew terribly. So we go to game two.
In game 2 he has a much better start and is soon swinging for the game. I didn’t draw much gas and couldn’t get my Sledge online thanks to his Qasali Pridemage.
Game 3 I come out fast with Nacatl and KotR on turns 1 and 3, respectively. I get a Pridemage the turn after he O-Rings my KotR. Sweet. At EoT my KotR comes back to my side and next turn I fix mana into a Vengevine. All his follow-up Bloodbraid Elf gets is a Cunning Sparkmage. Phew. I untap, spark his spark and path his Bloodbraid to clear the way for my crew. Victory!
Round 7 vs. UWR Planeswalkers
Game 1 he rocks into a chalice and omens on turn 3, while I’ve got BB Elf, hierarch, and KotR. He plops out the standard Baneslayer, and chumps with his Wall when I bring the 6/6 KotR. His lands are very pretty. They’re Unhinged Plains/Island and Mountain. ooooooh. My lands are promo lands, but they just pale in comparison to his awesomeness. He takes game one on the back of double Baneslayer and Gideon.
Game 2 I get a decent start but all the action I have is a double-exalted Lotus Cobra until I get a Ranger of Eos. He Ajani’s my Vengevine and I’m left with hierarchs, cobra, and ranger staring down his wall and Jace. I’ve got pithers on Ajani and Gideon. I just keep drawing Rangers and filling my hand up with Nacatls/Hierarchs. I’ve only got 2 lands, haven’t drawn one since my opener. He has now Seas’d both my lands (forest, plains) and I need to get another land to get anything going at this point. He’s sitting at 8 life but we all know that can be quite comfortable with the UWR deck. I draw a Path to get my guys through but only take him to 3 when he paths my guy in return. It’s at this point I’m really getting pissed about not drawing lands because I’ve had a BB in hand since the beginning and I would definitely have won had I drawn any land (Cobra giving me the red mana). There’s the Day of Judgment I’ve been waiting for him to cast! Down comes Elspeth to ruin my fun. Hierarch/Nacatl bring back Vengevine who swings into a soldier token. Wall of Omens comes down and he generates another soldier… ugh. This is really getting silly. He bounces my Vengevine with Jace and refills his hand with Mind Spring. I don’t have much luck with Bloodbraid. I get a Qasali Pridemage, but I pass 2 other Bloodbraids on the way… super ugh! he drops his 3rd spreading seas, leaving me with just a forest and a Sunpetal Grove for green mana. He’s got like 10 lands in play with all the brainstorming and card drawing. DoJ clears the board again. wow.
Moment of truth… Vengevine with Sejiri Steppe to get past his Soldier token………. PATH TO M*THERF*CKING EXILE! AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH
I think that was justified. I’m not sure I would have played the match any different, but there has to be a mistake in there somewhere. The biggest thing I can think of is not waiting on what to name with the Pithing Needles. Of course he was running O-Rings, so that’s kind of moot. he might have a hand full of Gideons and Ajani’s for all I know. And indeed, he just played a Gideon for absolutely no reason. And an Ajani! lol. In the interest of my sanity, I concede.
So at this point I’m quite upset about the day. My biggest mistake was in my first loss and I guess I have only myself to blame. I’ve got one more round to go. I might as well stay in and see if I can mise some lower-tier prize support, which I doubt. But it would be a nice consolation prize for spending my entire morning (it’s now noon) playing in this thing.
My wife just got home and instead of spending another hour in agony over every play while she yells at me and my daughter climbs all over me, I drop. My time with this game has come to an end. I’m quitting forever and ever. I mean it! Quitting and never coming back. My IRL collection already occupies a nice space in a bedroom closet and it’s easy to let the MTGO stuff rot. So adios!
P.S. See you when M11 comes out. I’m doomed to play this damn game forever…
Force of Nature 