If anyone interested here is a short report of how I managed to screw up at the Modern PPTQ in which I went 3:3 in the end. I really felt like crap but I managed to follow the game a bit...not much as I had to ask stupid questions like...'whose turn it is? and what step/phase are we in?' And believe me playing Magic in such a state is very difficult especially when you run counterspells^_^ in your deck.
I came 30 minutes early which is quite early for me usually. Many players were there already and where asking other players for copies of Blood Moon and Kolaghan's Command and were then scribbling their decklists. I joined those players and started looking for Thoughtseizes (because I couldn't find them at home and few other cards, Kolaghan's Command etc..). The deck I played is the one I play on MODO - Grixis Control. But I think that I should have played Zoo that day (even though I would certainly screw up fetching my lands^_^).
As a bonus since the judges and TO did the job I would like to share the decks that were present that day. The most played deck was Jund Midrange followed by Merfolk. I honestly expected Merfolk to be the most played deck along with some combination of Twin decks. Grixis colors were heavily present but most of them were in my vicinity (thus not doing that well). The decks that managed to top 8 were Smallpox, Goryo's Vengeance, Junk Midrange, BW Tokens, Affinity, Merfolk, RG Tron and Jund.
Here is the full list:
- 6x Jund
- 5x Merfolk
- 4x Grixis Delver
- 3x Grixis Control
- 3x Grixis Twin
- 3x Izzet Twin
- 3x RG Tron
- 3x Affinity
- 2x Abzan Company
- 2x Naya
- Jund Smallpox (winner)
- Living End
- UR Tron (Through the Breach)
- UW Gifts Tron
- Grixis Gifts
- Amulet Bloom
- Boros Burn
- Mono Red Burn
- Goblins (poor guys they did not stand a chance)
- Jund Goryo's Vengeance
- Storm
- RUG Twin
- Naya Kiki
- RUG Scapeshift
- Esper Mentor
- Esper Tasigur
- Orzhov Tokens
- Collected Melira (This is probably a mistake or something, I played against one Melira Company and provided this deck to someone else. There was one Junk Midrange present though which was not on the list of decks)
Round 1
I played against Jund. I kept a fairly ok hand but it was soon disrupted with two Inquisition of Kozileks. One discarded Snapcaster Mage and the other one Remand. I was left with Lightning Bolt and Terminate. Soon two Tarmogoyfs followed. I managed to kill them both but what followed was even worse. It was Scavenging Ooze. I could kill it but that would also mean that I would not be able to get rid of Raging Ravine that would hit me for 4 the next turn. My opponent also top decked a bolt so my attempt at staying alive failed. In game 2 I managed to draw only lands and died soon after I played those nonland cards I had in my opener.
Round 2
Next it was Living End. After I played Thoughtseize and seeing my opponents hand I wanted to concede. He seemed not wanting to kill me so killed all my land first and then played Demonic Dread. In the second game I could stall but there was no way for me to deal much damage. That's when I first regretted not playing Delver. After this loss I expected to lose the upcoming round and go home to play on MODO.
Round 3
UR Tron. I played against my own deck and knew that my chances are actually bigger than in the previous matchups. But still in game 1 my draw was rather bleak and what followed were mostly lands (how does that happen with 22 lands in the deck?). In game two I fell asleep or what because I managed not to even think about countering Through the Breach with Cryptic Command and that meant that Emrakul went to tell me hi so I conceded. I facepalmed myself because I expected to lose the game even though I could actually DO something and decided to win some games from this point on so I wouldn't end up last. Since this match I got my own spot at the very last table till the end of the tournament (which came handy actually because I did not need to move somewhere else, that was kinda difficult).
Round 4
My first win was against Merfolk. I wasn't really looking forward to it but after my opponent managed not to counter one of the bolts targeting his Lord of Atlantis with Cursecatcher I realized that I can probably win even if the deck decides to provide me with bad draws. I somehow managed to counter all Spreading Seas (because all day I was playing with one red source...) and kill majority of the merfolk by chumping with Snapcaster Mage and playing occasional Bolt or Terminate. Then I managed to race a lonely 2/2 with my Tar Pit and Snapcaster Mage. In game two I kept a hand that did not seem promising but I was drawing only removal spells from the top which gave me a lot of time to find something I could deal enough damage to my opponent to kill him.
Round 5
5 minutes in and I started feeling very sick. I trembled and could hardly concentrate due to pain but since I decided to play through all the rounds I tried to survive. I played against a friend of mine Jakub Jandak and his Esper Tokens (now more like Esper control deck). In game one we both had very strange hands and we were trading one card for another. When Jakub finally played Gurmag Angler I thought I'm dead. But anyway I tried killing it with Snapcaster Mage -> Terminate (any dispel, spell pierce, spell snare etc would be enough - we were discussing Dispels main deck last time we saw each other). Terminate resolved though and that gave me some hope. I needed something to beat him though and that took ages as that 'something' was Creeping Tar Pit and I just couldn't activate it so it would die to PTE or Murderous Cut. After I won the first game I wasn't even sure if I would be able to finish the second game no matter what. I felt terrible and I knew it would take ages till one of us would win. I got lost somewhere in the middle of the game and couldn't keep up with my plan which was burn my opponent in the face (and still stay alive). When seeing his hand and seeing two copies of Timely Reinforcements I wasn't really happy, but I was glad I did not need to face Kor Firewalker. When it came to the crucial moment in which I could kill him -> play Thoughtseize, discard Murderous Cut, deal 3 damage with Creeping Tar Pit, play Snapcaster Mage -> Lightning Bolt I managed to screw up and not to kill Jakub. It was already end of round (some time before that). Jakub did not procede to his last additional turn in which he would have killed me and conceded. (well ok I could still kill one Lingering Soul and stay at 1 life, meaning I would win the match as I was leading 1:0 but who would have thought about that after actually managing to screw up in such a major way I did a turn ago?)
Round 6
In the last round I played against Abzan Company and in the first game the opponent just showed me the combo from his hand. I was like WTH? Is there a way I can win before he plays the 'scried' Redcap? No. In the second game he did not draw a third land and I killed all of his mana dorks. So it was the third game to decide. There was actually a lot going on but I sided in more removal and Anger of the Gods which helped considerably. Burrenton though was a card I did not really like seeing on the table because if more combo pieces would show up in one turn I wouldn't be able to kill them with my two bolts. But fortunately this creature died when it decided to attack. Snapcaster Mage is not a red card fortunately...
After the tournament my feelings about the deck were mixed. I encountered decks against which I had troubles siding in and I'm not even sure if there is a deck I have a good matchup against. It seems that Twin is actually the best match up for me but anyway all those games are usually grindy and not very easy to win. This deck is nice and I really like it but I'm not really sure if it is the deck for me if I would want to actually try to win (or well...place well that is). I had problems with double red all day and was seriously missing a non-red removal spell. One would most probably do, so I might actually add it. With Junk Midrange decks gone I might actually cut Electrolyze and add Shadow of Doubt to the deck.
Next weekend there is another Modern PPTQ so I might actually look more into this deck and try to figure out if I really want to play it or if I'm capable of playing it. Otherwise I can try that special Junk I play on MODO now.^_^. Sometimes playing good creature after another simply works...
No matter what the tournament was nice and everyone was nice (except those comments that actually made me write the previous post). Being welcomed by a smiling judge was a really nice experience. ^_^ Wish I felt better though...so I could have actually enjoyed the tournament more (and win games I should win^_^)
Thanks goes to those who managed to keep me alive during the whole tournament...
No comments:
Post a Comment