5:17AM – I am supposed to meet Chris O and Alan at I-10 and 45 at 5:45 so we can drive to Lafayette for the PTQ. Girlfriend drops me off so I don’t have to leave my car randomly somewhere all day. There was a bit of a kerfuffle the night before about PTQ Austin v. PTQ Lafayette. I was on the Lafayette side so I guess that was a victory (or something) in that regard. Google maps said 4 hours (which is blatantly false) to Lafayette and 3 hours to Austin (which I also think is wrong since it always takes me longer to get there. Anway.
~9:20:AM – We
get to the site for the PTQ. The store isn’t even open yet. Chris O had said
registration was from 9-10 so we went to Albertson’s (I know I didn’t know they
still existed either but don’t forget that Louisiana is in a time warp). We head back to the store only to find that
registration is 10-11 and we are there way fucking early. Great.
I give cards to Chris and Alan that they need for their
decks and sideboards. Then they start jamming games against one another. I last
minute finalize my sideboard, wander round the room some and also piss about 3
times.
R1 – Mono Red Burn
G1 – He starts attacking from turn 1 with ye olde goblin
guide. I start by laying a land saying go, I let goblin guide trigger then bolt
his goblin guide (I may or may not have drawn a land). He gets me down as low
as 7 life but then I just start snapping back Lightning Helixes. He also reads
forked bolt when I play it at some point in the game. He comments that he
should probably be playing it.
SB –
In
+3 Leyline of Sanctity
+3 Deft Duelist
Out
-4 S. Lynx
-2 Remand
G2 –I have deft duelist in my opener + lands and some burn.
I play duelist on turn 2 and he goes wtf (common theme all day). Then on turn 4
I hardcast leyline. From there I play Geist and beat down in a couple of turns.
Bonus – Chris O
won against his tron opponent on the last turn of the game with a top decked
Fetch land to turn on Steppe Lynx in order to swing for exactly lethal.
R2 – Melira Pod
G1 – He plays wall of roots on turn 2 to block my steppe
lynx. I untap play a fetch and send it in. He must be scared of bolt or need
the mana since he doesn’t block. I then play another Lynx and pass. He plays
another wall of roots (but no land). I play another fetch and smash in with
double lynx he places one wall or roots in front of each. Post combat I play
forked bolt dealing 1 damage to each wall or roots putting them both in the
bin. He shakes his head after reading the card and commenting that it seems
good. I play a delver of secrets and say
go. He untaps attemps to cast a Kitchen Finks which I remand (drawing another
remand). I have a land but no fetch and no flip for delver but I still crash in
for 5. Then I say go and remand his Kitchen Finks again and win the game. I
assume he is on pod but I never saw a pod the whole game.
SB-
In
+3 Smash to Smithereens
Out
-3 Steppe Lynx
G2 – More of the same except he has a few more Birthing pod
cards but I just burn him and his dudes that matter while smashing face with
Delver and friends. Note to all – this decks is terribad.
Bonus- This guy
said he liked Russian cards too I asked if he had any. He pulled out a Russian
GSZ and Russian Thrun as well as a Foil Russian Sword of Feast and Famine. I
traded both the GSZ and Thrun. The GSZ was the last 1 I needed to complete my
Russian playset. J I
was unable to get the Russian Sword of Feast and Famine off of him but no
matter I got what I needed.
R3 – Aggro Loam
G1 – I play turn 1 Delver and naturally flip. I get some
attacks in with delver before he gets loam and flame jab going but then I just
start lightning helixing his head and snapping them back.
SB –
In
+3 Leyline
+3 Deft DuelistOut
-4 Steppe Lynx
-2 Forked Bolt
G2 - He hard casts 2 Obstinate Baloths while I have to
lightning Bolt myself (with my shock lands). I meanwhile draw no path to exiles
and lose handily. I do show him Leyline because at some point in the game I
think I may be able to race him (I was wrong).
G3 – Same sb as G2 for me while he sideboards in what I
guess is natures claim. I open the game with 2 Leylines and 5 other cards. I
think 3 Land 1 Bolt and 1 Other card. He goes shit I can deal with 1 of those
but not 2. Leyline turns off his – Flame Jab (to me), Inquisition,
Thoughtseize, and Lilliana’s -2 ability. Then about turn 3 I play deft duelist
and he goes wtf. Deft duelist keeps his goyf at bay for the whole game since he
can never attack profitably if I have a burn spell (4/5 goyf). J I play a Geist so that
I can win any race if he ever does start attacking with goyf. I make a misplay
in the game when he plays countryside crusher and ravens crimes himself. I
could have bolted the crusher in response to the trigger but I over thought the
situation and didn’t. So next turn I have to double bolt it (with help from snappy).
Once I get his life down low enough I simply attack all in with Duelist and
Geist and bolt for the win. I do have to use some burn on Lilliana at some
point in the game since her +1 and -6 both still both work. Several people took
some interest in this game and my Deft Duelists.
Bonus – I started
delving into my snack cooler this round and got myself a banana. This is very
important as I am currently training for the MS-150 and cycled 30 miles the day
before. Got to balance those electrolytes.
Round 4 – Storm (w/
sb Splinter Twin)
G1 – He storms my face off after doing an early grape shot
to kill delver and steppe lynx to stop my clock. I think I could have played
slightly differently since I had a remand in hand but I missed my opportunity
to and I die a grape death. I also had lightning Helix in hand so I felt like
this game should have gone differently. Oh well.
SB –
In
+3 Leyline
+3 Deft Duelist (my thought is he cannot grape shot or bolt
this guy he still probs shouldn’t have come in)
Out
-2 Forked Bolt
-4 Path to Exile
G2- I sideboard in Leyline (since he is on storm…. My opener
is double S. Lynx, L. Bolt and 4 Fetches. I decide to keep and just try and
race him. His life total goes: - 19, 15, 14, 6, 5 Dead. Somewhere in there I
remand a pestermite or Dec. Exarch. Shit damn transformational sideboards…
SB –
In
+2 Forked Bolt
+1 Path to Exile
Out
-3 Deft Duelist
G3 – I out tempo him the whole game. By remanding his card
draw when he doesn’t have double blue up to replay a sleight of hand. Then I
just burn him out.
Bonus- At some
point in the game he Gitaxian Probes me when I have leyline out but we both
forget about it. I managed to win that game regardless. I also complain after
the match that I didn’t draw any of my other counter spells other than
remand…Almonds were also consumed at this point in time.
Round 5 – Chris O
Playing UWR but he is playing +3 Molten Rain and +1 Grim Lavamancer instead of my
x4 Remand. I also have Moorland Haunt and he doesn’t.
G1 – He wins the die roll and molten rains me on turn 3.
After that winning for him is pretty academic. SB-
In
+3 Leyline
+3 Deft Duelist
+ 3 Combust
Out
-4 Steppe Lynx
- 2 Remand
-3 PTE
G2 – I keep a good hand with no sideboard cards and he plays
turn 2 Kor Firewalker which is rough beats for me. Eventually though I play a
deft duelist and then another which pretty much shuts his firewalker plan down.
I play several lightning helixes throughout the game to keep me in it and also
manage to kill an Ajani Vengeant that was tapping down my Moorland Haunt.
G3 – I get an early leyline and play Deft Duelist I win
easily from there.
Bonus – Deft
Duelist is one of the best cards against Geist of Saint Traft. Moorland Haunt
also did some work in G2 allowing me enough time to survive until I drew my
sideboard cards.
R6 –ID with Melira Combo.
Bonus – Chris
loses to Living End after getting blown out by Ricochet Trap one turn before he
can win.
R7 – ID with Jund.
Bonus – Lara bars
are consumed by me. J
Top 8
Quarters – UWR
Mirrorish but I have 2 Forked Bolt and he has 2 Spell Pierce (Joe Bass who
knocked me out of the Quarters at the PTQ in Katy a couple weeks ago)
G1 – Joe is resigned to losing because he has seen my deft
duelist secret tech earlier in the day. He thinks I am on the same build as
Chris though, so doesn’t know I have remand (something I reinforced earlier
when he asked if we were playing the same deck to which I replied yes). He wins the die roll and plays Delver. I can
match his delver with my own or I can Forked Bolt his delver and ping him for
1. I Forked Bolt unflipped delver and ping for 1. Chris O and Alan thought I should
wait and try to live the Forked Bolt dream by pinging his delver and steppe
lynx if he played it next turn or anything else with a 1 butt. He did play a
steppe lynx the next turn but I don’t know if his delver would flip or not.
Chris, Alan and I had all decided on leading with Steppe Lynx if you have both
in your opener since it has more of an immediate effect on the game and you
have to play your lands out anyway so you may as well get those landfall
bonuses so I assumed as well he would do the same thing. Also I knew he has
spell pierce in his deck to potentially protect delver and blow me out. In
addition if his delver flips I lose 3 life and he doesn’t take the 1 damage
when Forked Bolt has to go all in on a Delver. I also have Snapcaster in hand, so
I figure I will get value out of the Forked Bolt later in the game and there is
no point being greedy now. I run a bunch of dudes out there that he has to kill
and then on one turn I play Geist and a Grim Lavamancer. He has the choice
between playing his own Geist to legend kill or dealing with Grim Lavamancer.
He deals with Geist and my Grim Lavamancer is online and takes over the game.
G2 – Open on Leyline and then play Deft Duelist on turn 2 or
3. GG. He has 12 points of burn in his hand at
the end of the game and I have 12 life. J
Semi-Finals – Storm
(Player from Round 4)
G1 – I play super aggressive and burn him out. Lightning
helix does a lot of work in making sure my life total stayed high enough that
grape shot would have to be pretty big. He comments that he didn’t want to have
to play against me because of all my disruption plus all my aggro…
SB-
In
+ 3 Leyline
+ 3 Deft Duelist (doesn’t die to bolt of grapeshot and beats
down)
G2 –
-4 PTE
-2 Forked Bolt
G2- It is very hard to sb against transformational
sideboards but I gave it a go anyway. I open on leyline but he is on the twin
plan and he manages to twin when I tap out for geist 1 turn before he is dead.
SB-
In
+3 Molten Rain
+3 PTE
Out
-3 Deft Duelist
-3 Leyline
G3 – He is probs still on twin or maybe went back to storm I
decide that I will board in PTE since if he is on twin they are good and I can
always use them to pump steppe lynx if need be. There is some argument between
Alan and I afterwards as to whether I should just board in combust instead of
PTE. I think that gives me too many dead cards so I am against it. Molten rain
was my trump idea since he has not seen it any of the games that we have played
so he may not keep a land heavy hand. I can also live the dream of turn 1
threat, turn 2 threats, turn 3 remand turn 4 molten rain. I messed up fetching the wrong land one turn
and was going to be unable to play the molten rain that was in my hand but my
deck gave me a fetch off the top which allowed me to molten rain him and dome
him for 2 which kept him off the all important 4 mana. This gave me have
another turn to get some burn to win the game. J
Finals – Living
End (for which I have exactly 0 sideboard cards)
G1 – I play super aggressive and he doesn’t have anything in
time. I actually play way too aggressively since I overcommitted to the board
(by at least 1 Geist). He cycles through a bunch (and I mean a bunch) of cards
so I am somewhat surprised he couldn’t find what he needed. I probably kept up
remand a little too defensively the whole game. One turn he plays EOT Beast
within on one of my lands and I remand it because I will be unable to play
remand if he combos on his own turn anyway so I may as well have the extra card
in hand. This doesn’t end up mattering though as he was unable to draw his
combo anway.
G2 – I keep a somewhat loose 7 (Grim, Bolt, Bolt, 3 Land,
Serum Visions) with the intent of just trying to race him with my lavamacer +
burn in hand. He helps me out by mulling to 4…
Barca…Barca…Barca
Edit -
Link and decklist.
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=1001473
Decklist!
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Grim Lavamancer
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Path to Exile
4 Remand
4 Serum Visions
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Marsh Flats
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Moorland Haunt
2 Sacred Foundry
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Snow-Covered Mountain
1 Snow-Covered Plains
2 Steam Vents
SIDEBOARD
3 Combust
3 Deft Duelist
3 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Molten Rain
3 Smash to Smithereens
Edit -
Link and decklist.
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=1001473
Decklist!
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Grim Lavamancer
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Steppe Lynx
Creatures [16]
2 Forked Bolt4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Path to Exile
4 Remand
4 Serum Visions
Spells [22]
4 Arid Mesa2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Marsh Flats
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Moorland Haunt
2 Sacred Foundry
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Snow-Covered Mountain
1 Snow-Covered Plains
2 Steam Vents
Lands [22]
3 Deft Duelist
3 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Molten Rain
3 Smash to Smithereens
-Cheers-
