Ok, so I wasn’t able to get around to it earlier due to getting home late and work, but I attended FNM at Larry’s Comics on Friday and I attended the PTQ at TJ’s on Saturday.
10/7: FNM
I drafted a red/white deck again, with some differences. I had four Ironsmith and a Dearly Departed, as well as my awesome first pick, Devil’s Play. My first opponent gave me the toughest match. His name was Juan and he was playing a blue/black deck. I felt really secure in my first game, but he ended up playing out Undead Alchemist, which I couldn’t get rid of. Soon after, he played cellar door. I got him down pretty low, but ultimately, his zombies were too much for me. Game two, it was time for him to fear the wrath of Village Ironsmith, as I quickly had multiple out, followed by Tormented Pariah. He was low on creatures, and I took the second game fairly easily. Game three, I had a pretty good hand, except that I was short one mana. If I didn’t draw the land I needed, I would be destroyed. I was on the draw and luckily I did. He quickly played out cellar door and kept trying to mill me, but it ended up being one land after another. Soon we had a standoff of creatures (he had one zombie token), and he had his Alchemist once again. In the end I was able to overpower him and take the game, but the whole result would have changed if he’d gotten more than one creature. On a side note, every time he used cellar door’s effect, I felt terrified. This was good, as I’m not usually on my game, immediately.
Round two, I was up against a guy named Kevin who played a deck that was red/white and had quite a few humans in it. This was a problem as Spare from Evil was not very useful against him, but I was still able to take him down quite low, before I found one of my creatures bound and my Dearly Departed exiled by Fiend Hunter. I played Devil’s Play to get back Dearly Departed, but soon realized that I could have just killed him. Good thing it had flashback. Game two, I kept a bad hand and ended up losing without much fight from my end. Game three, I quickly played out my wolves and swung at him, using my Crossway Vampires to prevent his creatures from blocking (he was slower at getting out creatures and mine were better). I won pretty easily.
I went upstairs and asked who the other 2-0 was, and found out that it was someone named Adam G. So I found him, and saw that he was playing a girl whose name I cannot remember, but I remember that she was pretty good from watching her play a game last time. It ended up being a draw due to time, but I was scared that I might have to face one of them. Anyways, she was up against an onslaught of creatures, including a Thraban Militia with two Skeletal Grimaces on it. He grinned and showed me that he had a grimace in hand. The girl, whose name I can’t check, as I haven’t played her, blocked with everything to stay alive, but had nothing left to survive the next turn. Round three, I was up against Humans. I have two Bonds of Faith and two Spare from Evil, and not enough humans to make the bonds worth it. I had both Spare from Evils in hand and he had a creature with two skeletal grimaces. I lost. Game two, I sided out the Spares and the Bonds, and added some burn spells. However, this time, I was faster as I had two Village Ironsmith in hand and was ready with a Tormented Pariah. My creatures were just too fast and strong. I knew four Ironsmith would come in handy. They become 3/1s with first strike, when flipped. I won easily and my Ironsmiths were ready for me once again in game three, which went basically the same way. I won the tournament and got eight packs.
10/8: PTQ
My dad opened my door and said “it’s time to go,” and I got up quickly. I brushed my teeth and ran downstairs to get my clothes out of the dryer. Unfortunately, I forgot to switch them and they were still soaking wet, so I went to my room to scrounge around, when I saw the purple dress shirt that I had needed for a play a year back. I put that on, along with some black dress pants, and then realized that I probably looked kind of silly, so I threw on my black trench coat and headed off to PTQ. My dad went with, since my parents didn’t want me to drive that far on my own yet. Once down, I registered and then went with my dad to a Brazilian bakery across the street, where I got something that I refer to as a “chicken thing.” It has a name, but I never really learned it, as “chicken thing” was easier to remember. Anyways, I went back over to TJ’s Collectables (the venue and runners of the tournament) and browsed their store, seeing things that brought back memories, like the Southern Islands collection that I had wanted for a while when I was little. I had some of the Japanese cards from it, but the only English one I ended up getting was a Slowking that I traded for with another kid on a plane ride to Florida.
The tournament started and I ended up with a rather interesting pool. It had a ton of black, but sadly a lot of it was cards that seemed like they would be useless. Considering I didn’t have much good in red, my three bump in the night didn’t seem likely to be a wise choice, and Maw of the Mires didn’t seem very helpful either. Despite about half the pile seeming unhelpful, I did still have some good creatures, including two bats and a Bloodgift demon. The other color that seemed to be strong was white, which had a Dearly Departed and an Angelic Overseer. Sadly, I was very short when it came to humans, but nonetheless, strong fliers were good in sealed. I also had two Voiceless spirit and ended up playing black/white. When I think about it more, it might have been good to try running green as well, since I had two pilgrims and a couple other humans/werewolves, but I didn’t want to take any more chances with mana screw. Sealed is slower, however, so I will try not to be afraid of splashing a color should the opportunity present itself.
My first opponent was playing a white/blue spirit deck. The problem with this was that almost all of his creatures had flying, and I had too much mana, and was unable to draw enough creatures to hold off him off. He kept returning my Bloodgift Demon to my hand and had Alabster, getting him back any dead spirits. Eventually, I didn’t have enough to block with and fell to Rally the Peasants. On a side note, I noticed something interesting. Not that this is some sort of incredible feat or anything, but it is a step up for me. When calculating my turns and how much damage I could do, I accounted for Moment of Heroism, which I suspected that he had due to leaving his mana open, and Rally the Peasants, which I was expecting as he had a mountain. I noticed this throughout the tournament as well, I’m finally getting the hang of reading people. The only problem was that I didn’t really avoid these and sort of just fell into them as if I hadn’t expected them. Game two, we both got out a lot of creatures, however, he had lantern spirit and the ability to return cards to my hand. Once he played out a couple of stronger fliers, I was forced to block, leaving me with a creature shortage. I lost, 2-0. His name was Carl, by the way, and he was a pretty nice guy. Still, this put me at a disadvantage.
Round two was sort of the opposite of this. My opponent was named Matt, and was a pretty nice guy, but the games went fairly quickly. He was playing black/green, and had Screaming Banshee, which hit me a couple of times, before I killed it with Victim of Night and started using my fliers to kill him. This won me game one, and game two started out the same way, except he got out a bat and we both got out Falkenrath Vampires (funny how that works ^ ^). I ended up killing the bat in combat, and he played Somberwald Spider. I played Victim of Night, and game two was secured. He dropped after this, and told his friend (boyfriend? I’m not sure to be honest, but it seemed like it) that there was someone who was tormenting him and that they needed to go set him straight. Shame bullying happens at Magic tournaments, and I was kind of wondering what the deal was, but at the same time, it wasn’t really my business, so I walked around for a little bit, arousing suspicion in my black trench coat.
My third opponent was named Jesse and was playing red/black/blue if I remember correctly. He quickly played out Village Ironsmith, which I did my best to stop from transforming before finally Dead Weighting it, he also had the 1/5 defender that becomes a 5/5 that must attack. He got me down quite far before I could block and, at that point, he started using his Stensia Bloodhall in order to kill me a couple turns later. Game two went similarly, with me falling once again to the Bloodhall. No chance at top eight anymore, but I’m not dropping as I want Planeswalker Points, and there is prize support for top eighty.
Round four, I was up against a guy named Sean who showed up late and got a game loss. He was playing red and I forget the other color, but I believe it was white. Anyways, he had his fair share of wolves as well, and I couldn’t stop his onslaught of creatures, causing me to lose game two. Game three, he was mana screwed and found himself up against a Stalking Vampire and a Bloodgift Demon. But he went out with a bang and played Curse of the Nightly Hunt on my Vampire. Match set. He left and I still have the Curse of the Nightly Hunt…
People were dropping and I was winning, so I moving up the tables. My next opponent was named Josh and he gave me a rather tough time. I regret not taking small notes after each game, so as to remember what happened, but I’ll do my best. He asked how many rares I was using and I said, “two,” I think. I can’t remember his deck too well, except that I believe that it was black. He took game one, as I couldn’t get the mana to play my big creatures before I had obviously lost. I gave up and didn’t play my Bloodgift Demon. Game two, I was able to play out my creatures fast enough, and while he had bats, they weren’t enough to take Voiceless Spirit. Game three, he was manaflooded, while I only had three mana along with two of my bombs. I hit him slowly with my spirits until I finally drew the mana to play Bloodgift. He didn’t have enough options and lost fairly easily.
Opponent number six was a tough one. He was red and white and had a deadly combo going with his spirit tokens and Rage Thrower. Game one, I wasn’t so scared of this, but I underestimated red’s burn ability, forgetting about volley’s morbid form. I blocked when at five life and that was game. Game two, he got out Rage Thrower, and despite my attempts to survive, it ended with me either taking four points of damage by letting his attacks through or taking more by blocking. Damn, this was going a lot worse than I had hoped for.
My seventh opponent was a different Juan from Larry’s and was playing red yet again. Red seems to be a common theme with my opponents. I didn’t really get to see the extent of his deck as he ended up getting manascrewed twice and losing within 10 minutes. Speaking of red, my eighth opponent was a girl with a red/white deck focused around humans. She had Reckless Waif, Village Ironsmith, and the defender for werewolves, but she kept forgetting to transform them. While I technically should have, I didn’t remind her, as I was having enough trouble dealing with her other humans that would create spirit tokens if I killed them. She finally realized that her werewolves transformed, and I held out a while longer before getting overwhelmed. Game two was similar, except that this time I was able to hold her off a while longer thanks to my Village Bellringer and my Ghostly Possession. Unfortunately, these just prolonged my defeat and I died more slowly. I was now 4-4.
My last opponent was named Sean. I felt like I was going to fall asleep right then and there. I didn’t though, but that was not a fun match. I don’t know how I would have survived if I had made it to the top eight. Sean was playing a blue/green deck that had a lot of spirits. It seemed similar to the first guy I faced, and it went similar. I couldn’t handle his fliers, which were strong compared to mine, and he took the first game fairly easily. I was able to make a comeback game two, as I was able to play out my creatures fairly quickly, and had the removal I needed to handle his, as he was sort of manascrewed, he didn’t have many cards to play. I forced my way through as fast as possible and took game two. Game three, I also had a good enough hand, except I may have kept a hand with too many lands. Regardless, I was able to get good board presence and killed his Garruk shortly after he played it, by attacking. Unfortunately, like game one, I was unable to handle his fliers and other creatures, especially since he was able to return my creatures with blue. I ended up losing and getting 77th place. I got my three packs, waited for my ride and left. That could have gone better.
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