Tag: chifley

Hey there again kids, and welcome to another PTQ report.

This time we’re headed to Gravesend for the PTQ, with a similar cast of characters. The housemate Ray is again driving, so I’m again mising the lift and the best seat in the car. We arrive safe and sound despite typical GPS shenanigans, and immediately it is obvious that this PTQ is much smaller than the previous PTQ, in Chesham. While that PTQ was 112 players, this time around we’ve only managed to get 42. Yeah, that is an tiny number; the smallest PTQ I’ve had the pleasure of playing in. Couldn’t exactly say why it is so small, but running good starts early.

So we get down to business, and after playing pokemon through the player’s meeting, we end up with the following sealed pool:

[deck title=Sealed Pool]
[White]
1 Abuna Acolyte
1 Arrest
1 Auriok Edgewright
1 Dispense Justice
3 Ghalma’s Warden
1 Glimmerpoint Stag
1 Indomitable Archangel
2 Loxodon Wayfarer
1 Sunspear Shikari
[/White]
[Blue]
1 Darkslick Drake
1 Halt Order
1 Lumengrid Drake
3 Neurok Invisimancer
1 Screeching Silcaw
2 Steady Progress
1 Stoic Rebuttal
1 Twisted Image
[/Blue]
[Black]
1 Bleak Coven Vampires
1 Blistergrub
1 Dross Hopper
1 Fume Spitter
1 Grasp of Darkness
1 Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
[/Black]
[Red]
1 Arc Trail
1 Barrage Ogre
1 Embersmith
3 Ferrovore
1 Galvanic Blast
1 Goblin Gaveleer
1 Molten Psyche
1 Melt Terrain
1 Oxidda Daredevil
1 Oxidda Scrapmelter
1 Tunnel Ignus
1 Vulshok Heartstoker
[/Red]
[Green]
2 Blight Mamba
1 Carrion Call
1 Cystbearer
1 Ezuri’s Archers
2 Tel-Jilad Defiance
2 Wing Puncture
1 Withstand Death
[/Green]
[Artifact]
1 Auriok Replica
3 Chrome Steed
1 Clone Shell
1 Contagion Engine
1 Corpse Cur
1 Darksteel Axe
1 Echo Circlet
1 Flight Spellbomb
2 Gold Myr
2 Golden Urn
1 Golem Artisan
1 Golem Foundry
1 Grafted Exoskeleton
1 Horizon Spellbomb
1 Memnite
1 Mindslaver
1 Neurok Replica
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Razorfield Thresher
1 Silver Myr
2 Soliton
1 Sylvok Replica
1 Trigon of Infestation
1 Tumble Magnet
1 Vulshok Replica
[/Artifact]
[Land]
1 Glimmerpost
[/Land]
[/deck]

So, decent looking pool. Some things jump out at me, and after I sort into several piles (Colours + colour-specific artifacts, infect cards, metalcrafty-artifacts, regular artifacts) I can quickly eliminate the infect deck this time – all told, I have a mere 8 cards which say ‘infect,’ and I certainly don’t have a mass of black removal that would tempt me to try building infect anyway, or some kind of hybrid deck.

Beyond that, it is pretty clear that I am going to be playing red here, with multiple good removal spells, and I’m always going to run all of [card]Darksteel Axe[/card], [card]Tumble Magnet[/card], [card]Golem Artisan[/card] and the [card]Contagion Engine[/card] – as an aside, during the car trip the question was posed, what ‘card do you most want to see in your card pool?’ and my glib-but-serious response was ‘an engine.’ I don’t mind which, [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card] or [card]Contagion Engine[/card], but that’s the one card (out of two) I want to see most. And, well, here I am with a [card]Contagion Engine[/card]. Must be nice.

The other cards which are begging to be played are the trio of [card]Chrome Steed[/card]s, so I lay them out along with the three Myr I’ve got, and take a look at the handful of other possible artifacts I’ve got: the replicas (although the [card]Vulshok Replica[/card] is obviously already in the deck), the [card]Clone Shell[/card], the [card]Memnite[/card], the [card]Mindslaver[/card].

Then I look at my second colour, which is probably going to be white: I’ve got the [card]Arrest[/card], the [card]Glimmerpoint Stag[/card]
and the [card]Indomitable Archangel[/card] that are always going to make a white deck, as well as several other options. [card]Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon[/card] and [card]Grasp of Darkness[/card] is an option, but I feel like the white cards are just better – Skittles and the Angel are roughly comparable in that they’ll both probably kill in 3 hits; Skittles by himself and the Angel with help from my other monsters, and the two removal spells are also roughly equivalent. The dragon probably has the edge over the angel given it can regenerate, but the [card]Glimmerpoint Stag[/card] is enough to make up my mind.

I also toy with a blue/red deck, since in blue I’ve got 5 2-power evaders, but losing the removal spell and the big flyer don’t seem worth it, plus I end up playing an artifact or two less with the blue cards, which weakens the [card]Chrome Steed[/card]s. In the end, I register this deck:

[deck title=Sealed Deck]
[Creatures]
1 Abuna Acolyte
1 Embersmith
2 Gold Myr
1 Silver Myr
1 Auriok Replica
1 Neurok Replica
1 Vulshok Replica
1 Glimmerpoint Stag
1 Indomitable Archangel
1 Oxidda Scrapmelter
3 Chrome Steed
1 Barrage Ogre
1 Clone Shell
1 Golem Artisan
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Galvanic Blast
1 Darksteel Axe
1 Arc Trail
1 Arrest
1 Tumble Magnet
1 Contagion Engine
[/Spells]
[Lands]
9 Mountain
8 Plains
[/Lands][/deck]

The Grafted Exoskeleton is an option, but I’m not a fan of that card with no other source of infect. I understand the theory, since on nine of my creatures it is lethal in two attacks, but I don’t like the vulnerability to being blown out by a [card]Shatter[/card] effect, and I don’t like the potential for it to be dead if I’m trying to kill them with damage. I also considered splashing the [card]Sylvok Replica[/card] with a Forest and possibly the [card]Horizon Spellbomb[/card], but I wasn’t sure if it would ever be relevant, and I’m not a fan of the Spellbomb in non-green decks. [card]Dispense Justice[/card] is another decent option; I think this card gets a bad rap despite being completely servicable, and is harder to play around than it looks – however, I’ve got a good removal suite and I’m hoping to be doing the attacking. However, I do side the Dispense in a couple of times.

There are some questionable inclusions, too, and I’m completely willing to believe that I misbuilt here. I’m still not sure where I stand on [card]Abuna Acolyte[/card], it seems like it should be good, but it is a non-artifact that doesn’t attack and doesn’t kill anything, so I’m a bit wary of it, and I’m actually not a big fan of [card]Clone Shell[/card] despite playing it here. The [card]Neurok Replica[/card] might be a bit loose, too, but I wanted to play as many artifacts as I could justify, what with the three Steeds. I could also afford to shave a land, but I wanted to make sure I was able to cast the multiple 4-drops I’ve got.

So then, let’s play some magic.

Round 1 vs Andrew Kueh


I’m pretty sure I won the roll and choose to draw; either way he went first, and when he takes a mulligan things look pretty for the home team. He is playing infect, but he is mana-screwed somewhat, and is using a [card]Sylvok Lifestaff[/card] to avoid falling way behind. He isn’t able to mount any real offense, though, and I quickly punch him out with some dorks, aided ably by a [card]Contagion Engine[/card].
Game two and he again elects to play, and this time he has a better start, getting some poison on me, and rebuying an [card]Ichor Rats[/card] with a [card]Corpse Cur[/card]. However, I get good value out of an [card]Arc Trail[/card] and my creatures are good enough that I can beat him down all while playing around an [card]Untamed Might[/card] or [card]Virulent Strike[/card].

Round 2 Vs Jackie Ang


I lose the roll here, and Jackie puts me on the play. Jackie has a fast start with a [card]Lifesmith[/card], some random dorks and a [card]Darksteel Axe[/card], gaining a bunch of life along the way. I assemble my defense with the [card]Indomitable Archangel[/card], [card]Tumble Magnet[/card] and some dorks and begin attacking in the air, but Jackie has a [card]Contagion Engine[/card] of his own to kill my team and put me further behind – I’m on 7 while he is on over 24, but not to worry: I have an Engine of my own! I don’t have any counters on the [card]Tumble Magnet[/card] anymore, unfortunately, but I’ve got rid of his team, and a collection of assorted monsters, a spell or two, and when he misses with a last-ditch [card]Cerebral Eruption[/card], I get him down to dead.


The second game starts awkwardly when I pile shuffle my deck and realise I’ve only got 39 cards. Super scrub, that’s me. Somehow I missed it when I piled before the first game, but I call a judge on myself now and what could be a gameloss (or dq if we try to just say nothing) is downgraded to a warning since I called it on myself – the lost card was a mountain, by the way. After that embarassing detour, game two actually starts. His turn one [card]Spikeshot Elder[/card] is met with my [card]Galvanic Blast[/card], and he has to use [card]Cerebral Eruption[/card] early on because I’ve got a [card]Chrome Steed[/card] and friend menacing him. He mounts a decent offense with a pair of [card]Darksteel Axe[/card]s on a smattering of creatures, and he has a [card]Rust Tick[/card] so my [card]Contagion Engine[/card] and [card]Tumble Magnet[/card] don’t do completely nasty things. However, I bait out untapping the Rust Tick by using all the counters on the Magnet; he suits the Tick up and I gladly trade off some random creature – then I untap and blink the Magnet with a [card]Glimmerpoint Stag[/card]. In the end, I win because he is stuck on four lands with a bunch of fives in hand, and the Magnet plus Engine is tapping down his Myr each upkeep. Pretty lucky, since he apparently made a mistake on one turn by not using the Myr to cast a 5-drop pre-combat; I tapped the Myr in combat before going to the upkeep-tap plan and if he’d cast a 5 I’d have been tapping that instead, allowing him to cast the rest of his spells.

Round 3 vs Eduardo Sajgalik


Alright, confession time: I wasn’t super excited about playing in this PTQ, and it really hit me in this round. I’ve been in Europe since February and I was planning to go home early in January; if I win the PTQ I’m going to be in London for another month and then some, and the weather is really getting me down. On the other hand, I still want to play on the pro tour, so I should be playing in ptqs. Right here, though, I didn’t want to be playing magic.


Game one I’m on the play, and I keep a hand I probably shouldn’t, before nasty stuff is done to me with [card]Barrage Ogre[/card], [card]Neurok Replica[/card] and [card]Nim Deathmantle[/card].


Game two I choose to draw, and again keep a hand that is a bit sketchy, and get punished pretty quickly. It didn’t help that my opponent is quite good at magic, and had a good deck, but with my mindset I almost certainly wasn’t going to win this round. Stupid, isn’t it?

Round 4 vs Andrew Buchanan


Game one, and I’m still not feeling like playing magic, and I again make a poor keep and do a bunch of nothing while getting my face smashed in. If he’d had regular creatures instead of a hasty [card]Kuldotha Phoenix[/card], my [card]Contagion Engine[/card] might have got me back into it, but that’s no excuse. Three games in a row without dealing a single point of damage, and in hindsight I’m extremely embarrassed about my attitude.


Game two, and this time I have a hand which is a legitimate keep, and while I’m still not keen on playing magic, I’m not playing like a retard. Perhaps the key moment is when he [card]Trinket Mages[/card] for a [card]Chimeric Mass[/card] before making it with X = 4, but I’ve got the [card]Glimmerpoint Stag[/card] for the straight two-for-one, before assorted beasties take it home.


Game three, and I snap out of my funk and decide that, hey, I’m here to play magic, stop being a donk, and actually focus. I wanted to win two weeks ago, and I still want to win now. I’m on the draw in this game, but I’ve got a fast offense with [card]Chrome Steed[/card] and [card]Indomitable Archangel[/card], and while he has [card]Chimeric Mass[/card] and a pair of [card]Sylvok Lifestaffs[/card], his mana is tight and he can’t leverage them very well at all. I’ve put him on the [card]Kuldotha Phoenix[/card] based on his annoyance at not finding a sixth mana-source, and general disappointment with his [card]Chimeric Mass[/card], so I’m making sure not to just die to the hasty flier, but in the end I kill him from 12 by [card]Arrest[/card]ing his blocker, sending in a 4/4 with a [card]Darksteel Axe[/card], the [card]Vulshok Replica[/card], and throwing the Replica for the final three points.

Round 5 vs Mark Laily


So here we are, win this and we can ID again, and I’m actually focused on my magic now.


Game one he wins the roll and puts me on the play, but then proceeds to mulligan three times, while I’ve got the sick turn 3 [card]Indomitable Archangel[/card], turn 4 [card]Chrome Steed[/card], turn 5 [card]Tumble Magnet[/card], turn 6 [card]Contagion Engine[/card] – in other words, I continue to run really good.


Game two, and my recollection is pretty hazy, but I’ve again got some large creatures and he is stuck for mana – he has an Archangel of his own, but I still bash him down really quickly.

Round 6 vs Jack Ho


ID into top 8.

The top 8 seems okay for a tiny PTQ, Jack Ho and myself are both repeating in the top 8 from last time in Chesham, and joining us are two of my swiss opponents, Andrew Buchanan and Eduardo, as well as Stephen Murray (forums user Jecht Murray), all strong players – the other three aren’t known to me and could just be ringers, or could be secret masters.
The draft starts out very weirdly when after we’ve been seated and while the judge is getting the packs, one of the unknowns decides to make an announcement: “Hey guys, I’ve never drafted this before, so I want you all to know that I’m going to be forcing poison.” Um. Pretty sure you can’t do that there, but nothing much is said, and we get drafting.

Things begin well when I open a [card]Sword of Body and Mind[/card], and a second pick [card]Plague Stinger[/card] over [card]Glint Hawk[/card] and [card]Glint Hawk Idol[/card] is okay, possibly. I think ideally I want to be in poison, but pick three is mediocre and I grab an underwhelming [card]Kemba’s Skyguard[/card]. Fourth pick is a [card]Carrion Call[/card], and I round out the pack with, well, not much of consequence except for an [card]Untamed Might[/card], a [card]Revoke Existance[/card] and some random dorks. Going into pack two, and I’ve got a couple of infect cards, a couple of white cards, the mythic Sword, and not much else. I first pick a [card]Plague Stinger[/card], and take another pick two to make a trio, but the poison dries up and I realise that I’m not going to be draft poison, and that my deck isn’t looking so flash right now. A late-ish [card]Sylvok Replica[/card] tempts me into green, and an [card]Engulfing Slagwurm[/card] is exactly the kind of card that my mediocre deck is looking for: able to win games on its own, making up for my criminal lack of synergy. Pack three starts well with a [card]Chimeric Mass[/card], but mostly we fill out our deck with cards that are neither metalcraft nor infect.

In the end I’m battling with this collection of cards, which seems better than the last top 8, at least:

[deck title=Draft Deck]
[Creatures]
1 Abuna Acolyte
1 Sunspear Shikari
1 Carapace Forger
1 Copper Myr
1 Leaden Myr
1 Glint Hawk Idol
2 Kemba’s Skyguard
1 Auriok Replica
1 Neurok Replica
1 Snapsail Glider
1 Sylvok Replica
2 Molder Beast
1 Clone Shell
1 Golem Artisan
1 Engulfing Slagwurm
1 Chimeric Mass
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Seize the Initiative
1 Sylvok Lifestaff
1 Revoke Existance
1 Sword of Body and Mind
1 Untamed Might
[/Spells]
[Lands]
10 Plains
7 Forest
[/Lands][/deck]

There really aren’t many options available to me here, either. I want 17 lands because of the Wurm, the Mass and the Might, and the only other cards I could be maindecking are [card]Salvage Scout[/card], [card]Culling Dais[/card] or [card]Loxodon Wayfarer[/card], none of which seem better than what I’ve got in there.

Quarterfinal vs Sean McVally

He wins the die roll and elects to play, and plays a first turn [card]Accorder’s Shield[/card] – my immediate thought is that he is one of those bad players who plays the Shield (or Mox Opal) before it can do anything, but then he plays a [card]Glint Hawk[/card]. He has another Glint Hawk the next turn, and starts the beats, but I trade a [card]Glint Hawk Idol[/card] for one of them while developing my board with a [card]Carapace Forger[/card], [card]Sunspear Shikari[/card] and a [card]Sylvok Lifestaff[/card] – but he has the Shield on his remaining Glint Hawk and so I can’t actually attack with my lifelinking, first-striking Shikari, all the while taking two a turn.


I drop [card]Molder Beast[/card] and [card]Golem Artisan[/card], but he gets a [card]Grafted Exoskeleton[/card] onto a [card]Bloodshot Trainee[/card] and murders my Golem. [card]Revoke Existence[/card] deals with that, and the [card]Molder Beast[/card] swings in, but [card]Turn to Slag[/card] deals with it and the Lifestaff as well. I attack my two 2/2s into his 2/5 vigilance, and after he picks off the [card]Carapace Forger[/card], I cast and use [card]Sylvok Replica[/card] to kill the [card]Accorder’s Shield[/card], taking down the Hawk in the process.


He plays a [card]Kemba, Kha Regent[/card] and gets in for two, then a third [card]Glint Hawk[/card], bouncing an irrelevant [card]Golem Foundry[/card], but has to trade it for the [card]Sunspear Shikari[/card] since he’s only at five – and then I drop the [card]Engulfing Slagwurm[/card]. He plays and blocks with a [card]Vulshok Replica[/card], and domes me down to 5, before untapping, and attacking me down to 3 – then casting [card]Cerebral Eruption[/card]. I flip a [card]Clone Shell[/card] and he wins, but attacking me first is really bad on his part since it just means he auto-loses if the Eruption misses.

Game two starts of in a similar fashion to the first, as he again has [card]Glint Hawk[/card] x 2, bouncing the [card]Accorder’s Shield[/card], but this time I’ve got a sideboard [card]Wing Puncture[/card] in response to the equip, before equipping [card]Sword of Body and Mind[/card] and connecting. He attemps to [card]Turn to Slag[/card], but the creature carrrying the sword is conveniently an [card]Auriok Replica[/card], which I sacrifice choosing his remaining Hawk – he promptly attacks with the Hawk for zero damage.


I then put the sword on a wolf token, followed by a [card]Molder Beast[/card], and mill him out. I forget to take notes on his deck after milling him, though.

Game three is looking a lot better for me when he doesn’t have a turn one [card]Glint Hawk[/card], while I’ve got [card]Leonin Shikari[/card] with a [card]Sylvok Lifestaff[/card] – he has a [card]Shatter[/card] for the Lifestaff, but doesn’t have an answer for the [card]Sword of Body and Mind[/card] that comes next, as well as the [card]Molder Beast[/card]. He was also manascrewed, and did strange things like not tapping his Myr for mana before bouncing it with a [card]Glint Hawk[/card], which meant he couldn’t recast it that turn. I’m running really good, clearly.

Semifinals vs Stephen Murray

Game one and Stephen is on the play, opening with [card]Copper Myr[/card] into [card]Tangle Angler[/card], while I’m going to the skies with [card]Glint Hawk Idol[/card] and [card]Kemba’s Skyguard[/card] – although the Angler combines with [card]Trigon of Rage[/card] to eat the Skyguard – and a [card]Trigon of Corruption[/card] is going to stop the Idol from taking him out alone. Luckily, I draw my [card]Sword of Body and Mind[/card] and the Idol connects despite picking up a -1/-1 counter. I can’t attack with it again, though, so I just play and equip an [card]Abuna Acolyte[/card]. We’re in a bit of a stalemate here as I can’t attack through his creatures and the Trigon is keeping my Idol grounded, while Stephen can’t really damage me.


However, Stephen makes an ill-advised attack when my gang-block forces him to use the Trigon on his turn to keep his [card]Tangle Angler[/card] alive, and so I can get in another time with the Idol on my turn, leaving him with a miniscule library, and the difficult task of dealing me 22 damage in a short time, all the while making sure I don’t get third attack in with my Sword. Some large creatures on my side of the table and he can’t get through, and mills out – and this time I take advantage of the Sword’s mill to take note of his entire deck, bar 3 unknowns.

Game two, and Stephen again has the turn three Angler, while I’m again going to the skies, this time with [card]Glint Hawk Idol[/card] and [card]Snapsail Glider[/card] – a plan which doesn’t last long when he assembles a [card]Wall of Tanglecord[/card], followed by a… [card]Wall of Tanglecord[/card]. My [card]Molder Beast[/card] is matched by a [card]Trigon of Corruption[/card] and a [card]Perilous Myr[/card], and Stephen can start grinding me out – but I draw my seventh mana-source and summon the [card]Engulfing Slagwurm[/card], which bumps into him and his creatures a couple of times, before I put 9 mana into a [card]Chimeric Mass[/card]. I kill the Trigon pre-combat with a [card]Sylvok Replica[/card] so he can’t put a counter on the Mass; forcing him to trade both [card]Grasp of Darknes[/card] and [card]Alpha Tyrannax[/card] for the Mass rather than just the Grasp, and the Wurm combines with a [card]Golem Artisan[/card] to take me to the final.

Final vs Eduardo Sajgalik

Yup, that’s the guy who beat me in the swiss, and he had an easy quarterfinals since the fool who announced he was going to force infect got DQ’d for doing so, giving Eduardo the win. That said I don’t want to take anything away from Eduardo, since he’s drafted a very nice r/w metalcraft deck with multiple [card]Shatters[/card], [card]Rusted Relics[/card], smiths, along with a [card]Hoard-Smelter Dragon[/card] at the top of the curve. Me, though, I’m a miser.

Game one, and I get to play, while he takes a mulligan. He has a decent start with a pair of [card]Glint Hawk Idol[/card]s, but he is triggering them with [card]Sylvok Lifestaff[/card] and [card]Accorder’s Shield[/card], not the most efficient use of mana. Meanwhile, I get down a [card]Kemba’s Skyguard[/card] and [card]Sunspear Shikari[/card], pick off an Idol with [card]Sieze the Initiative[/card], before going big with a [card]Molder Beast[/card] and putting him down to 12. He taps out for the [card]Hoard-Smelter Dragon[/card], but I’ve got the [card]Untamed Might[/card] when he blocks, and he is too far behind to come back.

Game two, his early plays include a [card]Myrsmith[/card] and an [card]Embersmith[/card], but my offense is comprised of [card]Sunspear Shikari[/card], [card]Snaspsail Glider[/card] and [card]Sylvok Lifestaff[/card], so his smiths aren’t terribly effective. He [card]Shatters[/card] my [card]Sylvok Lifestaff[/card] instead of my Glider, which I’m not sure about, and I get him down to 8. He has a [card]Razor Hippogriff[/card], but I’ve got [card]Golem Artisan[/card] along with the Glider and a [card]Clone Shell[/card] (imprinting a blank), and, in an anticlimax, he just can’t beat the Golem.

Wow. I’ve won a PTQ.

And, frankly, I’m really not sure what to take away from this PTQ; I know that my attitude in a couple of rounds was very poor, but when I was focused I was playing good magic (although obviously not perfect) – and some number of my wins could have been losses if my opponents hadn’t made mistakes, even though I was undeniably lucky all tournament long. I’m also not sure what to take away from the draft; I’m fairly sure I was just wrong with my picks early on, but I think I did a decent job of recognizing that what I was doing wasn’t working, and drafting the only deck I could, really. I guess the biggest lesson I learned from this PTQ was that you’ve got to play in tournaments to win tournaments. Sounds stupid, but it is worth remembering.

Anway, thanks for reading, and see you in Paris, hopefully :)

Hi there, boys and girls!

Welcome to my tourny report, in which I recount the details of my ptq failure. Hooray! Unable to run modo on my netbook, my prep has been limited to physical drafts, reading articles and… watching other people play modo. Feels good.

Arrival at the ptq was courtesy of my housemate, Ray, who drove a car to Chesham, other occupants occupied the car. There were no memorable moments during an early morning car trip, obviously. Don’t expect any humour here.

Get to the venue, give Grover a hug as is my wont, settle down to get my sealed pool. 112 players, larger than I’m used to but not huge by any means. Here is the collection of cardboard that ended up in my hands.

[deck title=Sealed Pool]
[White]
1 Abuna Acolyte
1 Arrest
1 Auriok Edgewright
2 Glint Hawk
1 Myrsmith
1 Revoke Existence
2 Salvage Scout
2 Seize the Initiative
1 Vigil for the Lost
1 Whitesun’s Passage
[/White]
[Blue]
1 Argent Sphinx
1 Bonds of Quicksilver
1 Disperse
1 Halt Order
1 Inexorable Tide
1 Scrapdiver Serpent
1 Turn Aside
1 Volition Reins
[/Blue]
[Black]
1 Blackcleave Goblin
2 Bleak Coven Vampire
1 Blistergrub
2 Fume Spitter
1 Instill Infection
1 Moriok Reaver
1 Plague Stinger
2 Psychic Miasma
1 Relic Putrescence
[/Black]
[Red]
1 Assault Strobe
1 Scoria Elemental
1 Shatter
1 Tunnel Ignus
2 Vulshok Heartstoker
[/Red]
[Green]
1 Alpha Tyrranax
1 Blight Mamba
1 Carrion Call
1 Copperhorn Scout
2 Cystbearer
1 Ezuri’s Archers
1 Lifesmith
1 Slice in Twain
2 Tel-Jilad Fallen
[/Green]
[Artifact]
1 Accorder’s Shield
1 Auriok Replica
1 Barbed Battlegear
2 Bladed Pinions
1 Corpse Cur
1 Culling Dais
1 Darksteel Myr
1 Darksteel Sentinel
1 Glint Hawk Idol
1 Gold Myr
1 Grafted Exoskeleton
1 Horizon Spellbomb
1 Ichorclaw Myr
1 Leaden Myr
1 Livewire Lash
2 Necrogen Censer
2 Panic Spellbomb
2 Perilous Myr
1 Razorfield Thresher
2 Saberclaw Golem
1 Semblance Anvil
2 Sylvok Lifestaff
1 Throne of Geth
1 Trigon of Infestation
2 Trigon of Thought
1 Vector Asp
1 Wurmcoil Engine
[/Artifact][/deck]

So the first thing I notice about this pool is the [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card], that there is a spicy little card. Then I do what I do, which is split the pool into 9 piles: 5 colours with colour-dependent artifacts, artifacts-that-care-about-artifacts, generic artifacts, the infect cards, and lands. Expect, well, this pool as no lands, and no artifacts that care about how many other artifacts I have, with the exception of [card]Glint Hawk Idol[/card] – which I put in the white pile most of the time anyway. Oh I guess [card]Throne of Geth[/card] also counts, but that’s a silly technicality because it goes in the poison deck, not the metalcraft deck. Technicalities count O_O

So yeah, the metalcraft deck doesn’t seem to exist, as I have 4 cards with the word metalcraft on them, only one of which I want to play. The poison deck looks decent though, a reasonable number of infect guys, some strong equipment. Lacking a fraction in removal, but we can deal with that. This is the infect deck I lay out:

[deck title=Poison Deck]
[Men]
1 Fume Spitter
1 Plague Stinger
1 Blight Mamba
1 Ichorclaw Myr
1 Leaden Myr
2 Perilous Myr
2 Cystbearer
1 Blackcleave Goblin
1 Carrion Call
2 Tel-Jilad Fallen
1 Corpse Cur
1 Trigon of Infestation
1 Wurmcoil Engine
[/Men]
[Artifacts]
2 Sylvok Lifestaff
1 Livewire Lash
1 Throne of Geth
1 Instill Infection
1 Slice in Twain
1 Grafted Exoskeleton
[/Artifacts]
[Lands]
10 Forest
7 Swamp[/Lands]
[/deck]

Other cards that I considered in this build, but didn’t run:
[card]Accorder’s Shield[/card] and [card]Bladed Pinions[/card], which I dismissed because I didn’t want to run a 5th piece of equipment and the other options just seemed better because they boosted power. It might have been better to run the Shield over a Lifestaff or the Lash, though, I don’t know. I’m not a fan of the Pinions, though.
[card]Vector Asp[/card]: Even when I want more poison creatures, I’m not a playing this guy. I always seem like I have stuff to do with my mana, and a 1/1 infect isn’t even that exciting if I could afford to pay for his ability all the time.
[card]Horizon Spellbomb[/card]: I’m not a fan of this outside of deck’s with a splash – it seems like so much mana just to get a card + plus a land, and I don’t care about the artifact. Maybe I’m supposed to run it and a mountain to squeeze the Shatter in, but I still don’t like having a [card]Horizon Spellbomb[/card] in my deck.
[card]Fume spitter[/card] #2: Sometimes this guy seems really good, so maybe we want the second. I’m not convinced that the second one is better than any of the other cards though.

I also laid out this blue/white concoction, which had some more choices available to it:

[deck title=White/Blue]
[Men]
2 Glint Hawk
1 Myrsmith
1 Glint Hawk Idol
1 Gold Myr
1 Leaden Myr
2 Perilous Myr
1 Auriok Replica
1 Argent Sphinx
1 Darksteel Sentinel
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Scrapdiver Serpent
[/Men]
[Spells]
1 Revoke Existence
1 Disperse
1 Arrest
1 Halt Order
1 Bonds of Quicksilver
1 Volition Reins
[/Spells]
[Artifacts]
2 Sylvok Lifestaff
1 Livewire Lash
1 Trigon of Thought
[/Artifacts]
[Lands]
9 Island
8 Plains
[/Lands]
[/deck]

Here we could have been playing a few cards differently; the [card=barbed_battlegear]Battlegear[/card] can be run in this deck since it doesn’t just frag half my dudes, and the [card]Abuna Acolyte[/card] might be good enough – I actually haven’t had a chance to play with this guy yet, or against it much, so I don’t have a firm evaluation. It seems like it should be good, but I keep on passing it or letting it waste away on the pine. I think it is just the combination of not being an artifact and not being a good attacker that sours me to the Acolyte. [card]Auriok Edgewright[/card] is another option in this deck, but we don’t have a great deal of artifacts and he doesn’t even excite me that much when he does turn on. I’m also a fan of [card]Seize the Initiative[/card], but the same isn’t-an-artifact-can’t-attack makes me leave it out so often.

In the end, I registered the infect deck but kept the Blue/white deck sleeved to side into, since I wasn’t sure which deck was best. In hindsight I think the infect deck was the wrong choice, but at the time I was kind of uneasy about playing a non-infect non-poison deck, and I felt like being on the infect plan game 1 would be a bit stronger. I expected more opponents to choose draw, and I think their maindecks are going to be worse against poison than against non-poison. That and the lowish number of creatures in the blue/white deck swayed my mind.

Oh and obviously the poison deck had the awesome [card]Tel-Jilad Fallen[/card] + Equipment combo, so we wanted to play that :P

Now on to some actual matches, although bear with me as my memory is pretty bad and I don’t really have much incentive to remember these games, either.

Round 1 Vs Raymond Wat

aka My housemate who drove me here. The perfect start :headesk:

I win the roll and elect to play, obviously. Did you really need me to tell you that? I get down some early poison guys and get Ray up to 7 poison counters relatively quickly, but he assembles [card]Mimic Vat[/card] + [card]Sylvok Replica[/card] and starts eating my stuff. He’s only about to bash me down to 15, though, before I get him with an end of turn [card]Carrion Call[/card], untap [card=Blackcleave Goblin]Blackcleave[/card] and swing with the team for the game.

Game 2 I side into the blue/white deck since I’m already disenchanted with the poison list, plus I expect Ray to bring in some silly low-drops in an effort to increase his game against poison – while hopefully I’ll fly over for the win. Evidently something similar to that happens, as his life total appears to have dropped to zero. How lucky! I know I cast a [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card] at some point, but it was to earn the concession.

Round 2 Vs Ed Payne

I remember like, next to nothing about this round. First game he appears to have won the roll, elected to play (so much for my theory about opponents choosing to draw game one), and then he gets poisoned out while plinking me for one a turn.

Game 2 I again side into the other deck, and quickly munch him with some 2-power flyers while he is manascrewed. Mise well :-/

Round 3 Vs Richard Parker

I win the roll and get the [card]Sylvok Lifestaff[/card] -> [card]Plague Stinger[/card] draw, which gets him to six poison pretty quickly. However, he has a [card]Sky-Eel School[/card] so I decline to attack in the air in the hopes of forcing him to trade it for a ground-pounder, allowing me to get pack in there with the [card=Plague Stinger]stinger[/card]. A pair of surprise [card]Darksteel Sentinel[/card]s eat my ground force, a removal spell takes out the Stinger, and I die in short fashion. Would have been interesting if I had forced the trade with my Stinger and his Eel when I had the chance since he would have taken much longer to kill me if he hadn’t still had the flier.

Game 2 I elect not to side into the u/w deck, since I felt like the infect guys were better against the Sentinels, and the 2/2 fliers a tad unexciting against the 3/3 flier I saw. I do however take out the [card]Perilous Myr[/card]s for a [card]Lifesmith[/card] and the [card]Accorder’s Shield[/card], since I didn’t see anything worth killing with the Myrs, and they would be really hard to get killed anyway since he looked like he would be able to kill in the air. The game itself was an extremely protracted affair in which I got him up to 6 poison counters with early dudes, but he then gummed up the board with a [card]Grand Architect[/card] making his creatures pretty big. He had a scary [card=Neurok Invisimancer]Invisimancer[/card] and [card]Lumengrid Drake[/card] beatdown going, but I had Lifesmith and Lifestaff, and according to my lifepad I gained a total of 36 life via these two – which made the race really difficult for him. I had [card]Throne of Geth[/card] to get him up to nine poison, but he had the Volition Reins to kill it, so I was forced to get him with a bunch of 1/1s I made with [card]Trigon of Infestation[/card] (had three extra charge counters from the Throne) while gaining life by sending [card=Sylvok Lifestaff]Lifestaff[/card] carrying insects on suicide missions – before I went with the end of turn [card]Carrion Call[/card], untap [card]Grafted Exoskeleton[/card] + Equip to [card]Lifesmith[/card], swarm past for the last point of poison play.

Coming into game three, it looked like time was going to be tight, so I sided into the blue/white deck since it seemed like the only one that could win quickly, additionally dropping the [card]Trigon of Thought[/card] for the [card]Barbed Battlegear[/card]. I did indeed have a fast draw, and was beating down with a [card]Glint Hawk Idol[/card] that kept on picking up a Lifestaff and then dropping it, while conveniently stranding his [card]Skinrender[/card] in hand. I had a [card]disperse[/card] and [card]volition reins[/card], and I think I would have won a long game, but I went aggro with the reins, taking a 2/2 flier – which he skin-rendered. Fine by me, I guess, but he then had a [card]sky-eel school[/card] as time was called, and I couldn’t get past it + chump-blocker before time expired. Awkward.

Round 4 Vs Robert Bulton

We start things off with my opponent winning the roll and again choosing to play. Poop. I don’t have a great start and he is gumming up the boarding with [card]Wall of Tanglecord[/card], [card]Auriok Edgewright[/card], [card]Accorder’s Shield[/card]. I use my [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card] to kill some guys so that I can then get some poison going, and start to proliferate him with the [card]Throne of Geth[/card] from 5 counters – but he draws the [card]Revoke Existence[/card]. He then gets some evaders and I’m pretty clearly going to lose at some point since his defense is solid and I can’t ever block his guys, so I just scoop early-ish since I’m in the draw-bracket now. I know my opponent is slow, so I want as much time as possible.

This game also involved the Play Of The Day in which my opponent equipped his [card]Blistergrub[/card] with his [card]Infiltration Lens[/card]… I guess he was worried I’d sacrifice all my swamps then block his guy O_O Or maybe he was just terrible. (He was just terrible).

For the second game I switch into blue/white deck, since by now I’m convinced it is better, and I call a judge over to watch for slow-play. No more draws. He isn’t doing much, and I’ve got a [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card] and a [card]Argent Sphinx[/card] bashing his face in – I ‘play around’ [card]dispense justice[/card] by attacking with extra creatures, which I’ve now been told doesn’t work, obviously. He can just trade with the random extra creatures, then dispense my good guy(s) away at the end of combat. However, him being… not very good… my mistake doesn’t matter.

In game three, I’ve again got the Argent Sphinx and some friends, while he is suck on one land. We’re running good I guess.

Round 5 Vs Benjamin Twitchen

I again get an opponent who chooses to play, although this one is made immediately obvious when he runs out a turn one Vector Asp. Poison mirror it is! He has removal for my first poison guy, but I’ve got a [card]Perilous Myr[/card] gumming things up a bit and he can never afford to waste mana giving his guy poison in the first few turns. He has [card]Heavy Arbalest[/card] equipped and running, but I get a couple of [card]Tel-Jilad Fallen[/card], and he doesn’t have any non-artfacts, so it takes him a couple of turns to kill them with non-artifact creatures – they each get in for one hit, although the second one shouldn’t have connected in my opinion, and should have instead been traded for a [card]Contagious Nim[/card]. Then, with me at 5 poison and him at 6, he attacks for the ‘win’ instead of playing a bit more conservative with the arbalest, and loses to [card]Carrion Call[/card], chump block one creature, equip the left-over insect with Lifestaff and Lasher, get in. He definitely should have attacked for 2 poison less than the win and then equipped the Arbalest to an untapped infector. I’m starting to see the advantage of being in the draw bracket.

Game two, same old story – I sideboard into the u/w deck. I have Wurmcoil while he is mana-screwed, and I have the [card]Halt Order[/card] for his [card]Rust Tick[/card]. Must be nice? It is nice.

Round 6 Vs Aston Ramsden

I’m paired-up into a 5-0 now, since I’m the only 4-0-1 in the field. I now a little about this guy’s deck since he beat Grover in the previous round, and more importantly I know from Grover that he isn’t a very good player.

Game 1, another opponent who chooses to play. I get some early poison in, but I’m slowed down because I have to waste a turn [card]Slice in Twain[/card]ing his [card]Sword of Body and Mind[/card] – better than not having the Slice, though. I get him up to 6 poison, but he has [card]Contagion Clasp[/card] for the [card]Plague Stinger[/card], then has it proliferating onto a [card]Tumble Magnet[/card] to deal with the Plague Stinger again when I get it back with a [card]Corpse Cur[/card]. This is slowing him down a bit, but he has an [card]Auriok Edgewright[/card] with double-strike, which combined with the [card]Tumble Magnet[/card] and a [card]Barbed Battlegear[/card] means that I can’t attack with many guys without just losing on the attack back. The crucial moment of the game comes a bit later when he has a [card]Molder Beast[/card] and a [card]Sylvok Replica[/card] – he decided to put the Battlegear on the Beast, which is just wrong since I have a [card]Livewire Lash[/card] on my [card]Perilous Myr[/card]. Anyway, he attacks with his 9/2 trample, and I pretend to miscount how much damage I’ll take if he sacs the Replica, and block with just that Myr – thanks again to Charlie for letting me know that my opponent isn’t very good. Obviously he counts the damage himself, realizes it is lethal, and tries to kill me by sacrificing the Replica on the [card]Livewire Lash[/card] – so I target my own [card]Perilous Myr[/card] with [card]Instill Infection[/card], trigger the Lash killing the [card]Molder Beast[/card], Myr dies and kills the [card]Auriok Edgewright[/card], and I draw a card. I still don’t have much offense since I’d been forced to chump with some guys, but this buys me ample time to find a [card]Throne of Geth[/card] and kill him with Proliferate.

Game 2 and we again decide the blue/white deck is best – although my opponent doesn’t even touch his sideboard and I’m pretty sure the surprise value is completely meaningless. Either way, I have a mana-tight but really fast start with [card]Myrsmith[/card], [card]Glint Hawk Idol[/card], [card=Sylvok Lifestaff]Lifestaff[/card], and I’ve got [card]Disperse[/card] and [card]Auriok Replica[/card] in reserve so I’m not worried about much – although I forget to play around the [card]Sunblast Angel[/card] which Grover told me about. Being a miser has its advantages, though, and he doesn’t draw it.

Round 7 Vs Eugene Hwang

ID into top 8 :)

Top 8 Draft

I take [card]Embersmith[/card] pick 1 over [card]Glint Hawk[/card] and [card]Glint Hawk Idol[/card], which I guess is correct but I feel like red just doesn’t do much in this format. Don’t know. Pick 2 I take [card]Galvanic Blast[/card] over [card]Arrest[/card] and [card]Shatter[/card], and I basically round out the pack with a bunch of unexciting creatures. Pack two I first pick [card]Ezuri’s Brigade[/card] since I don’t really have a second colour and it is a nutty card, plus there wasn’t much me – but I get a gift [card]Carnifex Demon[/card] pick 3 and just decide black is the way to go. The rest of that pack and the entirety of pack 3 can be summarized as [card]Grasp of Darkness[/card], [card]Arc Trail[/card] and a bunch of mediocre creatures and a bit of equipment, mostly. Not a very exciting deck, but I don’t think anyone had an exciting deck.

Here is the deck I registered:

[deck title=R/B (Non-Exciting)]
[Men]
2 Fume Spitter
2 Dross Hopper
1 Painsmith
1 Embersmith
1 Iron Myr
2 Perilous Myr
2 Moriok Reaver
1 Ferrovore
2 Moriok Replica
1 Blade-Tribe Berserkers
1 Carnifex Demon
[/Men]
[Artifacts]
2 Sylvok Lifestaff
1 Livewire Lash
[/Artifacts]
[Spells]
1 Galvanic Blast
1 Grasp of Darkness
1 Arc Trail
1 Turn to Slag
[/Spells]
[Lands]
10 Swamp
7 Mountain
[/Lands]
[/deck]

Yeah that is a lot of unexciting creatures that I’m planning to turn sideways, but I have some power-boosting equipment, a smattering of removal and a nice bomb.

Cards in the sideboard which I didn’t play: [card]Furnace Celebration[/card]; because I didn’t think I had enough sacrifice effects and because I’ve had a couple of bad experiences with this card in draft before where I’ve found it really hard to actually use effectively.
[card]Flameborn Hellion[/card] and [card]Ogre Geargrabber[/card], as some bigger guys to finish them off – but I felt like I would be better off trying to swarm with little guys holding equipment than I would by playing another six.

Quarterfinals Vs Rob Wagner

I’m off to a good start when I 1-in-36 him, topping his 11 with my 12. On the play I keep a hand with [card]Sylvok Lifestaff[/card], [card]Perilous Myr[/card], [card]Iron Myr[/card], [card]Blade-Tribe Berserkers[/card], [card]Turn to Slag[/card], Swamp, Mountain. I have the three artifacts in play on turn three, and if I hit my third land I can get the Berserkers out there and start going to town – I miss, though, and he has an [card]instill infection[/card] for my Myr. I get my land after that, and run out a pair of [card]Moriok Reaver[/card]s in consecutive turns, but he has [card]Slice in Twain[/card], [card]Skinrender[/card], [card]Moriok Reaver[/card] and then [card]Asceticism[/card], and even if I’d found my [card]Carnifex Demon[/card] he had the [card]Flesh Allergy[/card] for it.

Game 2 and I board in a pair of [card]Blistergrub[/card]s for the [card]Turn to Slag[/card] and a [card]Moriok Reaver[/card] – he showed me that he drew a second [card]Asceticism[/card] as a joke in game 1, so I knew that the [card]Turn to Slag[/card] was going to be pretty unexciting – and I hadn’t seen any equipment either. I’m on the play, and I punt by keeping a hand I should always always mulligan – 5 lands, two unexciting spells, and when five of my top seven are lands I’m gone. A [card]carnifex demon[/card] at some point would have got there if he never drew [card]flesh allergy[/card], but I didn’t it and I’m out of the PTQ.

I put the horrible mulligan decision down to tiredness, since I didn’t even realize I should have taken the mull until I’d gotten home and had a cup of tea. The entire trip home I was just so bummed out about drawing so many lands and losing like that, it took a clear head to spot my mistake.

So yeah, 12 packs of Scars and some lessons are what I got out of that day, the most important lesson of which is, I think, make sure I can maintain focus in the top 8. The solution is more water during the day (had enough to eat) and probably a cup of coffee before the top 8 if I can manage it. So yeah, pretty disappointing PTQ on the whole; I’ll just have to win the next one :)