PTQ New Orleans at Edison Report, 1st Place

It certainly has taken me long enough…

That is my major reaction to finally Qing. Very little emotional whatnot. Nothing like regionals, when I thought I was going to quit. No jumping or yelling. Just a feeling of relief. Major major relief.

I had been testing IBC for months now. Not very publicly, but just quietly trying to take in the format. I had played in a Q at Origins with Osyp’s extra special domain deck, but that was early in the season, before the development of numerous important decks and with a less then amazing competition base. The format seemed wide open and enjoyable, and so I set upon tuning some deck to carry me to a top 8 or beyond.

One of the first post-Origins decks that I saw was U/G tempo, in the hands of a one Mike Stein. He was really kicking the crap out of children with it, so I sat and watched. It looked terrible. It was only winning when it went first, and when your opponent did not play a lynx or flametounge kavu. In other words, not very often at all. I became one of the loudest opponents of the deck at the store. I mean, why bother to rushing river a creature when you can just as easily urza’s rage it?

My opinion changed slightly when playing in TOGIT’s first IBC tournament, as I was forced to play the deck in question due to it being the only free deck around (thanks Will.) I ended up randomly winning the tournament, and my opinion of it changed slightly. The deck was very cohesive and was quick to jump on slow starts from your opponent, which happens quite often in bad mana formats. It crushed domain as advertised. Lastly, the creature base proved to be very powerful. However, the deck still looked to be vastly weaker then good ol’ R/G beats, which I did not want to play anyway. The major problem, in my opinion, was that it was playing with terrible cards like rushing river and (especially) temporal springs, when excellent burn like urza’s rage was in the format.

It seems Dave Price came to a similar conclusion.

At GP Denver, Dave Price unleashed a U/G/r tempo deck that removed all the garbage from the U/G design in place of excellent burn. The only tradeoff was a slightly inconsistent mana base and a suddenly weak matchup with domain. These were not huge issues as far as I was concerned (I mean, who plays domain?) Also it removed the vastly overrated fact or fiction.

AN ASIDE ON WHY FACT OR FICTION IS GARBAGE IN AGGRO BLUE DECKS IN IBC!!!

It does not make much sense as to why fact or fiction is less then excellent in this format. I mean, the thing is broken, right? Well, yes and no. The critical turn in this format is 2, when the majority of two power creatures can be played under exclude mana. After that, most players simply wait until 5 or 6 mana to play a creature with absorb/undermine/mystic snake/gainsay/disrupt backup, since only an idiot will tap out for a threat on, lets say turn 4, when the opponent is holding up exclude mana. Since fact or fiction is cast (usually) on turn 4, when both players are not playing anything, most of the cards will end up being discarded anyway. Generally, pro-active creature decks are better off playing with a pro-active card advantage spell (lashknife barrier, prophetic bolt, etc) instead of a pure card drawing spell. In fact, most successful builds of the solution now run lashknife barrier in place of some, if not all, fact or fictions. The only time the lack of fact or fictions hurt is against discard heavy decks, but these make up a small part of the metagame as it currently stands.

RETURN TO TOURNAMENT REPORT

Anyway, I had found my deck for the format. In testing I felt the deck needed an extra land, and that exclude was generally the weakest card in the deck. As such, it was removed for a single mountain. Price’s sideboard was also way out of whack, but I was intending on working on that the day before tournament time, which is generally my policy anyway.

The night before the Q, I stayed at the house of a one Scott McIssac, with Eli, K-Brown and Will making up the rest of my playtest group. The testing was more for them then for me (obviously) since I had tested the hell out of my deck, I generally only played when someone else wanted to test against my deck. After about 3 hours of this, we just chilled and talked. Let me tell you something, kids these days know way more about sex then I do NOW. I was impressed. Talk to Eli over aim for some really wild stories. Will also insisted on playing jilt in my sideboard over flametounge kavu. His reasoning was solid, so in spite of my better instincts, I played 2 copies of the draft special. We drove to Edison, and I registered the following deck.

The Upper Decker by Patrick Sullivan

With 252 people, 8 rounds at 7-1 is looking like what it will take to top 8.

Round 1: Kastle U/R/B control

This is the one deck in the format I had not tested enough against prior to the Q. I also know my opponent, and know he isn’t prone to weak play, so I've gotta pick up the match on the fly. His version is also running nightscape familiar, which on one hand makes him more able to deal with blurred mongoose (normally a nightmare for that archetype) and on the other makes my repulse and exclude slightly less dead. Game one I miss some early land drops, and that is never good against other blue decks. My hand is filling up with mystic snakes, so I use them on some less than excellent spells just to get enough pressure on the board. I try to ice down lands at certain points so he can’t void with counter backup, but eventually he is able to push it through. I have a window of about 2 turns to draw an urza’s rage before he can kill me with what is in his graveyard via agenda, but it isn’t in the cards, and I die.

Game two is quite different, I get out of the gate with quick threats and enough gainsays, snakes and disrupts to keep his important spells off of the table, then burn him out. The deck has a very high burnout capacity, and his draw was not conducive to stopping it.

Game three is an odd one. Playing first, he has a turn two addle disrupted, and it clearly throws him off. On my fourth turn, I play down a titan and a shivan oasis, leaving blue open. He fact or fictions. I act as though I’m thinking about it (I don’t have the disrupt) and let it go. The pile he ends up taking contains a salt marsh and a shivan reef. If he drops the reef and voids for two, I will basically lose given my hand. If he drops the marsh I know I’m in the clear, because Ill have snake mana for the void on the next turn. He plays the marsh and passes. It seems that the rest of his hand is gas, and is able to deal with every threat I throw at him for the next 5 or 6 turns, and has two familiars holding off two mongooses. I need to get into some gas, or eventually his FOFs and agenda will simply kill me. My next several draws, thankfully, are nothing but. I prophetic bolt him multiple times, and draw a fire ice with him at 4, fire down his blockers, and swing in with the mongooses for the kill.

Matches: 1-0

Games: 2-1

Round Two: Aggro U/W/R

My opponent is Arthur from Staten Island, a hell of a good time and someone with a good attitude for the game. Games one and two are generally the same, he isn’t able to find blue/double blue mana quickly enough, and I am able to easily work around what he has with fire/ice and snakes. Numerous matches in the format go like that; cant find the right color of mana early, fall too far behind, then get wrecked by repulse and exclude as you try to catch up. This was just one of many matches like that.

Matches: 2-0

Games: 4-1

Round 3: Mirror

My opponent this round seems rather excited about being 2-0. I also don’t recognize him. Smashing sticks in the winners bracket is the tightest. This match is marked by both his mana flood and his weak play, including raging me at random points when my life total certainly didn’t call for it. A good, easy win

Matches: 3-0

Games: 6-1

Round Four: Wild Research

My opponent is Jon Rubin, from the same area/playtest group as Arthur. As such, when he starts of the game with the U/W/R non basic lands, I assume a similar deck. On turn four, he taps out, and I’m guessing it is for voice of all, which would not hurt me too terribly much. However, he drops powerstone minefield. Inside, my jaw drops, since there isn’t a clear path to victory with that out on the table and the amount of burn in his deck, but I continue to play. In a few turns he drops wild research, so my B plan (that of his 4 urza’s rages being on the bottom of his library) is also shot. At this point I’m just playing to see what’s in his deck., and I see reviving vapors, absorbs, routs, bolts and the like. Generally what you would expect out of such a deck, minus fact or fiction. There appears a small shot of hope when he has difficulty drawing lands 11 and 12, but he does, and goes to my dome twice.

Game two works a bit differently. When this deck goes first after boarding, it is generally very tough to stop. I am able to play down threats, slow down his development and counter his most important spells. He plays down a harsh judgement (out of the board) which might have been of concern had my draw been more burn heavy, but it was not, and I killed him with little fuss or fanfare.

Game three we both paris, my first one of the day. The hand I get is really quite strong, with threats, land and a tranquility. His draw is a bit awkward mana wise, and he is having a bit of difficulty developing. He plays down a harsh judgement and then a powerstone minefield, clearly willing to risk me having the tranquility. I have it, and he is running out of time. We both have 9 mana, and he draws a powerstone minefield. He has exclude backup. I have two snakes. He dies.

Matches 4-0

Games 8-3

Round 5: Trenches:

This round my opponent is one of the fellow wizards, a very quiet but friendly guy. Game one is one of the oddest I think I have ever played. He is unable to find blue mana early, so I am able to play threats without fearing exclude or evasive action. He gets out a trenches and is starting to use that to trade with my threats, and given how early it is in the game, I am feeling pretty confident about a win. Even when I start to draw a lot of lands, I am really not concerned, since he has used up three absorbs and is at 7, meaning he cant stop rage with kicker. And since I’ve bolted twice and haven’t shipped any rages to the bottom, its only a matter of time before I draw one, right? After 10 or so turns I’m starting to get concerned that maybe I sided out my rages against Rubin for some reason and forgot to put them back in. Or that I lost them. As it turns out, all 4 rages are in the 16 cards I didn’t see by the end of the game, and I am ignobly finished off by a couple goblin soldier tokens.

Game two I get wrecked. Just plain wrecked. He converted his deck into angel/other aggressive beatdown creatures.dec after boarding, while my excludes languish in my sideboard. The fact that I stalled on mana did not help matters, although it would not have mattered given the way we each boarded.

Matches: 4-1

Games: 8-5

Round 6 Guided Passage

My opponent this round is Justin Polin, a PT regular that looks like Zvi with a haircut and no glasses. I suppose all magic players, serious ones at least, have to resemble Zvi in some fashion. I think he is the physical result of gaming non-stop, and all gamers have to look like that. Note Osyp’s loudness or Adam’s generally unattractive nature. Moving right along…

Game one I have to paris going second. At first I think it’s the mirror and he has simply missed the important two drop. As it turns out, he is running mystic snake as his only creature. I never see a passage, but I’ve put together a general idea of his deck by the point the game ends, which involves him dying to numerous creatures and blurred mongooses.

Game two I paris again, and this time he crushes me. He breaths away my creatures, drops a barrier, and just crushes me. A savage, savage beating.

Game three I actually keep my hand going first, so I like my chances. His draw is filled with land and little else, and I am actually able to kick a titan for the first time all day. He has no repulse (or nothing at all, for that matter) and the titan goes all the way.

Matches: 5-1

Games: 10-6

Round 7: New Solution

This kid must have read Zvi’s article on the sideboard; its got all the metagame cards he suggested, with maindeck disrupts and lashknife barriers. Game one he has to show the disrupt to get it out of his hand, and it doesn’t do me any harm, so I’m able to play around it pretty easily after that. The Solution is a rather easy matchup game one, U/G/r is diverse and powerful enough not to be damaged too much by voice of all and lynx, both of which were bombs against the previous build. We both have pretty decent draws, but he is simply unable to keep up with the quality of my cards.

Game two is a brutal beating. I should have been arrested for assault. He has a black mana up and two lynxs and two tappers. I have two fire/ices. I’m thinking I can ice down his land at his eot, untap, and fire down his two lynxs, thus wrecking his board. My deck decides to provide me with another fire ice on my draw step. A plague wind later and the match was all but finished.

Matches: 6-1

Games: 12-6

Round 8: Machine Head splash white bears (?)

Ahhh…a well deserved bye. Otherwise known as a non-blue deck. This match should have been videotaped as a warning to anyone who would choose not to play blue in a tournament. When playing against another blue deck, excludes are tough to pull off, since your opponent can answer them or fight you somehow. For non-blue creature decks, they have to try to push through the excludes to get creatures to resolve, and then deal with mystic snake. Then repulsed mystic snakes. Then all of your burn. His draws were nothing to complain about, and I won both games with at least one prophetic bolt in hand and more then enough mana to cast it. This kid must have been an amazing player, because his deck did not seem capable of carrying him as far as it did. Not to sound rude, but I was never in a position to be concerned about losing at any point.

Matches: 7-1

Games: 14-6

Since my round was over in a matter of seconds, I was able to view the other matches that would decide who would be in top 8. One of these matches was Scott Kasliner vs. the trench deck I lost to earlier. They are in game three, which is tough enough to believe (since domain rails trenches so badly) and the other kid looks like he is about to win. This position is further helped by Scott cutting his deck after the resolution of prophetic bolt (consult your latest version of the oracle, then return to this article.) I stop watching at this point, and Anand comes dancing up to me discussing the situation, gleeful that Scott is about to be given a DQ. As it turns out, Scott is given only a warning, and is able to find the answers necessary to pull out a tight game three. Soon after, on Neutral Ground.com, Scott calls Anand a scumbag for his attitude regarding this whole event.

In my opinion, both parties handled themselves very poorly. Anand’s conduct during a tense last round of a PTQ was not acceptable, especially in light his poor performance. Scott, however, could have chosen a slightly less public forum in which to voice his displeasure, since calling Anand a scumbag was not necessary to telling an accurate tournament report. Kids, lets be more adult next time, shall we?

Moving right along, Scott and I are paired up in the top 8, he as the 7 seed and me as the second. There is certainly a feeling of tenseness surrounding this match, both with my feelings of a difficult matchup, and this being my first PTQ top 8. I settled in, surrounded by my peeps Vath, Osyp and Harry, and began the toughest match I have probably ever played.

Game one I get mauled. Scott went first, which means I have no way to stop a turn 4 restraint or lobotomy, both of which can easily cripple me. I miss early land drops, and when Scott drops the lobotomy, I quickly pick up my cards to spare time.

Game two Scott starts of a little slow, lacking green mana to drop any of his fixers until he was very far behind. He is not even able to harrow right away, as he doesn’t have enough mana to fight over disrupt/mystic snake. I am able to burn him out without much difficulty.

Game three is a very tight one. He is going first, and drops a restraint on turn 4 with 4 lands. I have a titan and three lands. I could gainsay it, but I might need the gainsay to fight over something else latter on, and I have a tranquility anyway. Since I don’t have any other two drops in hand, the restraint is not really stopping me from attacking at all. Hopefully, he will overextend into tranquility later. That is my logic, at least, so I let it resolve. Next turn, I simply drop my 4th land and swing in for 2. The next turn, he drops restraint number 2, and doesn’t play a land. I tranquility them away and swing in again. The next turn, he draws lobotomy and plays it. I have the disrupt, and things are falling apart quickly for him. He is still almost able to come back, but is probably a turn or two short from taking over, and dies to urza’s rage.

Scott was nothing short of gracious in defeat, especially since his overgrown estate was never to be found, which would have changed things dramatically in his favor. In any event, Scott wishes me luck and looks relieved to be able to go home.

Matches: 8-1

Games: 16-6

Top 4: Mirror

My opponent is Justin Leather. No typo there. If your store does not have a Justin Leather, they should get one. He is simply hilarious. Even in defeat. Even in a massacre.

Game one: I triple goose him while his hand rots with excludes and rages. I am able to easily remove his targetable threats, and the trifecta smashes face.

Game two: He sideboards way wrong, (skyfolks instead of excludes) and I am able to jump on his land light and blue mana light draw. Wish I could say more, but that’s really all there was.

Matches: 9-1

Games: 18-6

Top 2: I split like a coward, since his 8 wall domain deck would have just mugged me had he decided to play. I take my slot, he takes the rest.

The last part of all of this. I had talked to Jon Sonne months before, regarding his sudden PTQ success. I asked him how. He said, simply, “I had decided to stop losing.” At first I didn’t pay too much attention, until now. I think it is very possible to stop losing, in that your performance can be improved by leaps and bounds if you focus every second and test the hell out of your decks. Hopefully, Ill decide not to lose in New Orleans…

Props:

All my opponents: Gracious in defeat, even when it involved some improbable draws on my part

Adam, Osyp, Harry, and the children: For being a constant show of support during the tournament

Will: For all of the decktech

Dave Price: For building all of my constructed decks for me: sligh, Dave Price Red, Liquid Tempo, etc

Slops:

Sean McKeown: Get a damn haircut

See you in New Orleans

Patrick Sullivan