Chicago Top 8 PTQ Report
After playing Slide for most of the PTQ season I was sick of loosing to TEPS and then a random match to something else and my day being done. I talked with the traveling team(Sam, Gaudenis and BK) when they returned from Hanover/Singapore and decided on playing Blue cards. After talking it over with them I decided to play a deck similar to Gau’s Top 2 deck from Hanover. We hashed over some changes, mainly pulling red out and playing white instead for Path to Exile as we expected a zoo heavy metagame. I did some play testing with Gau Monday, then a couple hours of testing with John Treviranus later in the week to help solidify my sideboard. Then on Thursday a bunch of “dead” magic player decided they wanted to go, so Friday night I ended up testing and getting decks together for Bob Albright, and Box Klein, then drive down with those guys and Severa. Here’s the eventual deck I took to battle.
4x Cryptic Command
4x Mana Leak
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Spell Snare
4x Path to Exile
3x Engineered Explosives
1x Condesend
1x Meloku
4x Vendillion Clique
4x Ancestral Visions
2x Vedelkan Shackles
8x Island
4x Delta
4x Strand
3x Breeding Pool
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Plains
1x Miren, The moaning well
1x Minamo
2x Mutavault
Sideboard
2x Future Sight
4x Rule of law
3x Trickbind
3x Threads of disloyalty
3x Relic of Progentis
If I was going to play again next weekend (which I can’t cause I’m going to Vegas), I’d change the Miren to another Island or Hallowed Fountain, as it ended up costing me a game for not being blue, and only really let me have a little breathing room once in a match. I would also think about changing the Threads into something like Cop: red or even Cop: Green, as Cop: green would have been good vs Bant as well, and good Zoo players all take out their goyfs anyway, so threads is less good when stealing apes/nacatals, and can’t even target Thochtar and Rangers. Also would be ok with trying to see about a couple condescends for more counterspell options in the blue matchups.
Quick Round by Round:
Round one - Karl from Madison playing TEPS
Karl is a guy I’ve seen at some events and is from the Madison area, but I don’t really know him that well.
Game 1 - He keeps a one lander, and never gets more, not even after like 7 turns…I win with a clique and goyf.
Side in 3x trickbind and 4x rule, -4x path 2x shackles 1x explosives (I can see the argument for -2 explosives and +2 future sight but getting their blooms can be good and sight really doesn’t do that much against them)
Game 2 - I play a clique on turn three and grab a Mind’s desire, and smash him. He tries to go off the last turn but I have 3 counters for his mana excel and beat him.
Round two - Nick from Southern Illinois playing Zoo
Game 1 - He gets some early beats, I explosives some one drops eventually drop a shackles and a goyf and take control of the game at a healthy 7 life. I resolve 2 visions by the end of this game with another about to go off the turn after I kill him.
Sideboard +3 Threads -2 Shackles -1 meloku
Game 2 - He get a good draw and I don’t do much of anything and get beat to death by the animals, I don’t see a hedge mage or goyf, so think about bringing the shackles back in.
Sideboard +2 Shackles -2 Threads
Game 3
He gets some early beats in then I play a couple Commands as fogs and draw into two goyfs and 2 path’s. Take control of the game and eventually start attacking with a clique and a goyf while holding the rest of his team back with a goyf, finish the game off when I draw a explosives to clear 2 of his remaining three dudes, and have a spell snare to save his last shot of incinerate, then helix to my head while I’m at 5. I resolve 3 visions this game…card is some good.
Round Three - Bryan from Gary Indiana playing TEPS
Game one - I pump the fist again that I chose not to play slide. Game one, he sits around while I smash him with double goyf, and counter his attempt to go off on turn 4.
Sideboard - same as round 1
Game two - I take a couple points from lands and clique him the end of his turn 4, get one attack in then he tries to go off. I have a trickbind in hand so I’m not all that worried, he casts a bunch of spells gets to like 10 mana, tries to gigadrowse me, I float the 2 mana. He casts desire for 8, I trickbind it….his one spell resolves and flips…another desire…I loose.
Game three - I flash a clique in the end of his turn, he remands it. I untap and put a rule of law into play, he doesn’t have the truth for it that turn so he looses eventually as I have counterspell backup and never tap out.
At this point I get to watch a couple games of Box playing the B/G Spellweaver helix/loam deck with primal command to lock out the opponent it’s fun, and actually looks semi viable. Also 6 ppl from Madison are 3-0 right now, feeling pretty good about our overall chances.
Round Four - Nick playing TEPS…god am I glad I didn’t play slide
Game one - I don’t remember much and my life pad shows the game ending with both of us at 14….that means he wins.
Sideboard - Same as previous TEPS rounds
Game two - Resolve an early rule of law. Stay untapped for the possible blowout, eventually get a goyf smashing.
Game three - Clique away a desire, then resolve an ancestral to get double trickbind. Sit behind that for a few turns, then drop a goyf to finish the job.
4-0…one more win and I can draw into top 8, as there are only 118 ppl at this ptq so 7 rounds…sadly there are 4 madison players(Bob Albright(elves), Shaprio(Teps), Jasper(zoo..what else?) and me) of 7 that are 4-0, maybe we can get lucky and doge.
Round five - Luckas from wait Madison? He’s a student at the UW and apparently doesn’t come around to the stores, and plays on MWS, told him to get his butt down to Wednesday nights as it’s nice to have new players. He’s playing Bant. Look down the table and notice that only Jasper and Shapiro of the other Madison guys are playing each other. He wins the die roll.
Game one - He plays turn one hierarch, then turn two clique, gets a command, and eventually is attacking for 5 in the air thanks to two exalted dudes…I can’t compete
Game two - I go first, he doesn’t have a hierarch and I play a turn 2 goyf, then protect it with c-spells to win.
Game three - Turn one hierach into a war monk and a clique a couple turns later…I loose.
Having not playtested vs Bant I decide to talk to GerryT about it and we decide that winning the die roll is pretty big in the matchup. Cross my fingers that I don’t have to play Luckas in the top 8 should I get there.
Round six - Adrian Sullivan playing his g/w stompy/beatdown deck
Game one - He wins the die roll and plays first, with a treetop. Turn two he plays crome mox imprinting a steelshaper gift, drops a land and plays a knight of the reliquary…not good. I don’t have a mana leak, so I suspend a visons and play a mutavault. He untaps plays a lighting greaves and starts to smash me. I have a meloku in hand and draw a path to exile which is usless as he has the greaves. I drop a clique and block the tree top, he forgets to trample over I go to 12. I go to my turn four and things are grim, he has a 6/6 knight that I’m just going to have to chump with meloku. I pass the turn, he gets greedy, plays a nactal, and equips the greaves to give it haste. I take the opportunity to path the knight, and untap play meloku that blocks a 3/3 with no issues. He doesn’t draw anything on his turn, and I take over the game with the meloku and a shakles.
Game two - I play defense and get an explosives off to take out a nacatal the turn before it’s going to hit me with a sword of fire/ice. Then get a clique in play. Resolve a visions, and then drop a goyf three turns in a row and am able to hold back his team which getting to attack with the clique and then a goyf, playing around him getting a guy into play with haste greaves. I use the miren in this game on a goyf that dies in combat, to go from 4 to 10. This is the only time I use that land on the day, and it didn’t end up mattering.
Because it’s so close to the cut for 8 rounds, there is no way to draw in as there are 12 people x-1 or better.
Round seven - Chris from Madison playing Affinity, Chris is newish to the magic scene in Madison and I’m happy to see him doing well for the first time at a PTQ…but I know that if there is any chance to outplay an opponent today this will be it.
Game one - He gets some small beats going with a 2/2, but I control the board and draw double path, double mana leak to clear the way for two goyfs that eventually are huge men to kill him in two turns.
No side board for me…although trickbind might be ok as he was playing atog.
Game two - He keeps a draw that allows both spell snares to be live as I get ravenger, ravenger two turns in a row. He then gets two workers down with a thopter and a blinky, I explosives for one, then Command the blinky and let the thopter hit be for one several times. I play some goyfs, and he concedes to his board of nothing.
Top 8 - Playing against Luckas playing Bant.
Game one - I win the die roll but have to mulligan hand one, hand two is keepable but only has one blue source, a miren, and a mutavault. I end up not being able to cast clique till turn four and command till turn 5 because of it and he just overruns me.
Game two - He plays a double hierarch then a clique while I have a goyf going. He chumps with a hierach at one point, then attacks me for 4 from 14 to 10, I write down 11, forgetting the hierach. The next turn I attack and he chumps again, with him at 7, or so I think. He untaps and equips a sword of Fire/Ice I think for a bit as he attacks with one card in hand. I choose to just bounce the sword so he doesn’t get to draw a card, and I’ll go to 8 still alive even if I don’t draw anything…but I’m actually at 10 so it’s really bad. I take 3 to go to 7 and dead to the clique plus sword next turn. I fail to draw a way to either pump the goyf one or deal with the sword or clique and die. My own fault.
Luckas goes on to beat bob the next round playing elves, and then beats Tron in the finals. Congrats to Luckas
I certainly recommend the deck to anyone trying to q this last weekend.