10/17/2009 – PTQ for San Diego in Rockville, MD
First, let’s start off with the sealed pool I received.
[deck title=Sealed Pool by llarack]
[Lands]
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Graypelt Refuge
1 Teetering Peaks
1 Turntimber Grove
1 Crypt of Agadeem
1 Magosi, the Waterveil
[/Lands]
[Artifacts]
1 Grappling Hook
1 Carnage Altar
1 Spidersilk Net
[/Artifacts]
[Black]
1 Grim Discovery
1 Hagra Diabolist
1 Crypt Ripper
1 Desecrated Earth
1 Mindless Null
2 Mire Blight
1 Ravenous Trap
1 Bog Tatters
2 Hideous End
1 Heartstabber Mosquito
1 Gatekeeper of Malakir
1 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Quest for the Gravelord
1 Marsh Casualties
1 Vampire Hexmage
1 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
[/Black]
[Blue]
1 Trapfinder’s Trick
2 Caller of Gales
2 Ior Ruin Expedition
1 Shoal Serpent
1 Merfolk Seastalkers
2 Windrider Eel
2 Whiplash Trap
2 Cancel
1 Into the Roil
1 Umara Raptor
1 Reckless Scholar
1 Welkin Tern
1 Gomazoa
[/Blue]
[Red]
2 Bladetusk Boar
2 Geyser Glider
1 Demolish
1 Goblin War Paint
2 Shatterskull Giant
2 Slaughter Cry
1 Hellfire Mongrel
1 Magma Rift
1 Mark of Mutiny
1 Punishing Fire
1 QUest for Pure Flame
1 Spire Barrage
1 Tuktuk Grunts
1 Zektar Shrine Expedition
[/Red]
[White]
1 Luminarch Ascension
1 Journey to Nowhere
2 Sunspring Expedition
1 Shieldmate’s Blessing
1 Noble Vestige
1 Narrow Escape
2 Kor Skyfisher
1 Kor Cartographer
1 Caravan Hurda
[/White]
[Green]
1 Vastwood Gorger
1 Grazing Gladehart
1 Predatory Urge
1 Savage Silhouette
2 Scythe Tiger
3 Joraga Bard
1 Frontier Guide
[/Green]
[/deck]
A few lines borrowed from the Chat Dump while you think about how to build this pool:
13:54 iConn how does your sweet pearl trident deck beat
a pyroclasm
13:54 Seeker_ counterspell
13:55 Seeker_ memory lapse
13:55 Seeker_ ...mana leak?
13:55 Seeker_ force spike!
13:55 iConn also
13:55 iConn more importantly
13:55 iConn how do you cast coral merfolk with a straight face
[19:09] [wcb] or encyclopedia brown
[19:09] [wcb]
[19:09] [RHat] encyclopedia brown was fucken badass
[19:36] [prolep] hey rhat
[19:36] [prolep] and whoever else is around
[19:36] [prolep] [RHat] [19:09] encyclopedia brown was
fucken badass
[19:36] [prolep] I have concrete proof of this fact
[19:37] [theStu] present it
[19:37] [RHat] i am around
[19:37] [prolep] what is encyclopedia brown's first name
[19:37] [RHat] i forget
[19:37] [prolep] you are allowed to wiki it
[19:37] [RHat] leroy!
[19:37] [prolep] BADDEST MAN IN THE WHOLE DAMN TOWN
[crickets]
[19:38] [prolep] god
[19:38] [prolep] i just realized you guys might too young
[Peebles1] man selling all these pokemon cards is going
to be ANNOYING
mary: i wrote a song
reuben: what is it
mary: it's called the people you work with
are stupid douchebags
reuben:
reuben: how does it go?
mary: "the people you work with are stupid douchebags.
the people you work with are stuuuuuupid douuuuuuuchebags"
A quick analysis shows that the correct build of this pool is probably blue and black, since they have removal, bombs and evasion.
The first runthrough gives the following cards for a deck:
[deck title=The Rise of the Seastalkers]
[Blue]
1 Gomazoa
1 Welkin Tern
1 Reckless Scholar
1 Umara Raptor
1 Into the Roil
2 Whiplash Trap
2 Windrider Eel
1 Merfolk Seastalkers
[/Blue]
[Black]
2 Hideous End
1 Heartstabber Mosquito
1 Gatekeeper of Malakir
1 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Quest for the Gravelord
1 Marsh Casualties
1 Vampire Hexmage
1 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
[/Black]
[/deck]
I would prefer to play 18 lands in this type of deck (with [card]Ob Nixilis, the Fallen[/card], double [card]Whiplash Trap[/card], [card]Merfolk Seastalkers[/card] and double [card]Windrider Eel[/card], getting flooded isn’t a huge issue).
I filled out the last three slots with [card]Ior Ruin Expedition[/card], [card]Shoal Serpent[/card] and [card]Bog Tatters[/card].
My reasoning on the Serpent was that I wanted a big fat wall to block while attacking with evasion guys, or building up Ob, Nixilis to lethal them.
Tatters seemed better than the alternatives ([card]Crypt Ripper[/card] and [card]Hagra Diabolist[/card]) since it will usually have evasion vs the best sealed decks (which tend to be black).
Ior Ruin Expedition was extremely sketchy, and probably should have been [card]Cancel[/card] in the maindeck.
As for the swiss rounds:
I went 6-1-1 (loss in round 4, drew in round 8). I believe it is correct to draw in this sealed format. The games themselves weren’t very interesting, since they all played out in the same sort of way: I would stabilize the board with my removal / bounce and kill them with a evasive guy or Ob Nixilis.
So I’ll fast forward to the deck I drafted in the top 8.
[deck title=Seastalker Delight]
[A Splash of Red]
1 Punishing Fire
[/A Splash of Red]
[Garnish with Green]
1 Lotus Cobra
2 Vastwood Gorger
2 Greenweaver Druid
2 Nissa’s Chosen
1 Baloth Cage Trap
1 Grazing Gladehart
1 Frontier Guide
1 Oran-Rief Recluse
[/Garnish with Green]
[Merfolk Cordon Bleu]
1 Aether Figment
1 Reckless Scholar
1 Merfolk Seastalkers
1 Umara Raptor
1 Welkin Tern
1 Gomazoa
1 Living Tsunami
2 Sky Ruin Drake
2 Whiplash Trap
[/Merfolk Cordon Bleu]
[Mana Providers]
7 Island
8 Forest
1 Kazandu Refuge
1 Soaring Seacliff
[/Mana Providers]
[Relevant Side-Dishes]
1 Spell Pierce
1 Hedron Crab
1 Lethargy Trap
[/Relevant Side-Dishes]
[/deck]
Round 1, I played vs the only other UG drafter at the table. Game 1, I set up a board state where Seastalkers locks down his guys and lethal him over the span of 2 turns. For the record, I almost died to quadrupule Scholar targetting me, but the Seastalkers let me kill him before this happened.
I board out Gomazoa and Gladeheart for Hedron Crab and 1 Mountain (since he had mold shamblered my only red source in game 1).
Game 2, his deck did nothing, and I took over quite easily.
Round 2, I played vs RW with bombs (such as Hellkite Charger and Felidar Sovereign). Game 1, he gets manascrewed and double Whiplash Trap + fatties finish him off.
I board in 1 Lethargy Trap for Frontier Guide, because his deck seemed to be a bunch of small guys + Teteering Peaks.
Game 2, I get him to 3 life, but his Sovereign arrives to stabilize him completely because I had already spent both Traps trying to kill him. Game 3, he smashes me easily with Hellkite Charger.
I am only slightly upset, because his deck was pretty good, and my deck didn’t have many ways to beat his.
However, I am more upset that he conceded to the other guy in the finals after losing game 1.
I will probably not be PTQing again this season, but here are a few notes:
I believe the best sealed decks are B/x, and that you should draw.
18 lands is correct for most of the sealed decks, but I can see a case for 19 if you have a TON of landfall guys.
This is a much more sane draft format than the previous two, so I recommend sticking to two colors with possibly a splash in draft.
Good luck in your sealed and drafts in the land of Zendikards! (couldn’t resist it).
–llarack