Ten Years and a Day

On December 27th, 2002, I walked into Millennium Games and Hobbies in Rochester, New York and signed up for my first sanctioned Magic tournament. The format was triple-Onslaught booster draft. We opened our packs, and all of them had two rares. As I was deciding what to take, the guy next to me suggested I should pick the foil Gravespawn Sovereign.

I (correctly) objected that the card was bad, asking "Do you know what the chances of getting five zombies into play are?" He countered "sure, but how often do you open a foil rare." I didn't have a good counterargument to that, and took the six-mana 3/3. With the parting advice from my neighbor "Good, now take zombies," I was off.

I went 2-2 in that first tournament, with one of my victories coming against my archnemesis Eric Duerr. We've battled many times since then, with Eric having emerged victorious in our most memorable game. I landed an early, large Burning-Tree Bloodscale and systematically eliminated every creature he played--except for Daggerclaw Imp, which attacked seven times for 21 damage and the win. "Can't block" is supposed to be a drawback!

It's been a long road for me since then. I've graduated from undergrad and then got my master's. I've moved to Pittsburgh and then to Arlington. I've got my driver's license, voted for the first time, had my first drink. I fell in love for the first time, and had my heart broken for the first time, too. I've owned two cars, and buried my childhood cat. I've seen my parents divorce. I've been to my grandmother's funeral and my mother's wedding.

Ten years and a day after that first tournament, on December 28th, 2012, I went to Friday Night Magic at Victory Comics in Falls Church, Virginia. The format was triple-Return-to-Ravnica booster draft. I decided that I was going to have some fun with the occasion, so I took out a bounty on my own head. How it worked was this. I had six packs. There were three rounds of play. If you beat me in a game, you got a pack. If you beat me a second time to win the match, you got a second pack plus all the unclaimed packs from the previous rounds. Here's what I drafted:

1 Centaur's Herald
1 Brushstrider
1 Azorius Arrester
1 Concordia Pegasus (?)
1 Call of the Conclave
1 Security Blockade
2 Selesnya Sentry
1 Sunspire Griffin
1 Loxodon Smiter
1 Phantom General
1 Eyes in the Skies
2 Coursers' Accord
1 Ethereal Armor
2 Druid's Deliverance
1 Selesnya Charm
2 Common Bond
1 Avenging Arrow
1 Growing Ranks
1 Knightly Valor
1 Selesnya Guildgate
7 Forest
9 Plains

Heck if I can remember what the 40th card was...I apparently left it out when I desleeved the deck to take the photo. I want to say it was Concordia Pegasus, because I have "CP" dealing 1 damage in my game notes, but it might have started in the board, since the "CP" only shows up in round 3, game 2. It seems likely that it's some 2-mana creature, though, given the rest of the deck.

The deck was good enough that I won my first two matches 2-0, setting up a final round for all the packs in the prize pool. I played against a gentleman named Quill, and he was piloting a pretty good Azorius deck. Game 1, I took my first loss of the day and gave away my first pack as Lyev Sky Knight and Sunspire Griffin came over the top to take large chunks out of my life total. Game 2, I was the one with air superiority, as my notes suggest I followed up a Concordia Pegasus with Eyes in the Skies and Phantom General. This set up an exciting game 3, where Security Blockade mitigated his Soulsworn Spirit's attacks enough for me to build up an army and bring him from 16 to 9 to dead while I fell to a precarious 4. 3-0, 6-1 in games. Happy Anniversary to me!

Since then, I went to GP: Atlantic City and a PTQ in Rockville. Not much to report. I had 2 byes for the GP and finished a mediocre 5-4. I battled with Chronic Reanimator which was a fun choice if not, in retrospect, the best option--though I feel like a PV or a Finkel could have won the matches I lost. I narrowly missed winning free entry to GP Pittsburgh and a box in a Sealed side event on Sunday, despite the universe doing everything in its power to get me there.

I brought Spirit Jund to the PTQ, and felt good enough about my deck choice that I'm planning to stick with it the rest of the season. I went 4-3, losing to UWR, Affinity, and a Jund mirror. It's not a terrible result considering this was my first match experience with the deck and I didn't know the format that well. PTQ schedule is now quiet until March.

So what about the next decade? Ten years from now, I imagine I'll still be playing Magic, assuming it's still around, though probably not with the frequency and seriousness that I am now. I imagine I'll be married with kids by then. I'll have held down my first permanent full-time job, and will have just turned 36. It's likely I will be living in my first house. If I manage to achieve my Magic-related goals, I will have played at least once on the Pro Tour and passed the level 1 judge exam. If I've met my career goals, I'll be well on my way to running my own think tank.

In a decade of constant and rapid change for me, Magic has been the one constant, with the exception of a break I took during Mirrodin Besieged and New Phyrexia. Cities, people, jobs, and family members have come and gone, but the game has been there throughout. I don't think I understood before now just how much a part of my life Magic has been since I walked through the doors of Millennium Games a decade ago. But thinking about it now, the surest bet you could make about my life over the past ten years was that if it's after 6 PM on a Friday, the likeliest place to look for me is at the local game store, slinging cardboard. That's the kind of steady continuity that one associates with churches, family dinners, and support groups, and I reflect now that Magic has been much the same for me during the early years of my adult life--a safe haven from a chaotic world. I play because I love the game, because it challenges me, because it rewards strategic thinking, because it's dramatic and elegant and deep--but I also play because from the moment I shake my opponent's hand and sit down for round one to the time I get in my car to go home, nothing matters but the next match, the next game, the next turn.

Finishing Strong

Friday the 16th I gathered my friends Jeff and Brent and we started up I-95 toward Philly. We left early enough in the afternoon that we would be able to make an FNM at 6 PM barring any major delays. The plan was to meet my friend Jordan at the FNM, crash on his couch that night, and then drive into town for the PTQ the next day. The ride up was a mixed bag.

At every toll booth, Jeff and I put on shades, cranked Gangnam Style up to 11, and horse-danced up to the window. Brent mostly observed bemusedly. Results varied from indifference to smiles, to barely being able to keep a straight face. The bad news was that traffic was congested the entire way, and we ended up missing FNM and having to drive straight to Jordan's. We were able, however, to grab a case of PREMIUM Yuengling to split just before the state-run beer distributor closed. At 9 PM. On a Friday. Hooraaaaaaaay government. At least after a three-and-a-half hour drive turned into a six+ hour drive, we had some beer, I guess.

Got to the event site a little later than I had hoped, but that's why you have wiggle room. Just had time to get some breakfast at Wawa and get in line with five minutes or so to spare. Unpleasant surprise: the entry fee was $35, most I have ever paid for a PTQ easily. I'm pretty sure the website had listed $30, as well. In fairness, the prize support was decidedly above average. Pleasant surprise: entry to the tournament hall was wristband-restricted in an effort to fight theft (later on in the day I had to vouch that Jordan wasn't a thief before he could get in when he showed up to hang out). They were doing rolling deck registration, which I guess is a good idea? Gives the judges a head start on reviewing decklists before round 1, I suppose, but it doesn't make round 1 happen any faster. Anyway, I was able to sit down and start registering as soon as I had entered the room.

Here's the pool:

WHITE 2 Armory Guard 1 Arrest 1 Avenging Arrow 1 Ethereal Armor 1 Fencing Ace 1 Keening Apparition 1 Knightly Valor 1 Selesnya Sentry 1 Seller of Songbirds 1 Sphere of Safety 1 Swift Justice	BLUE 1 Cancel 1 Crosstown Courier 2 Doorkeeper 1 Jace, Architect of Thought 1 Paralyzing Grasp 1 Skyline Predator 1 Stealer of Secrets 1 Voidwielder	BLACK 1 Catacomb Slug 1 Dark Revenant 1 Dead Reveler 1 Deviant Glee 1 Drainpipe Vermin 1 Grave Betrayal 2 Grim Roustabout 1 Launch Party 1 Mind Rot 1 Ogre Jailbreaker 1 Sewer Shambler 1 Slum Reaper 1 Terrus Wurm
RED Ash Zealot 1 Batterhorn 1 Bellows Lizard 1 Electrickery 1 Lobber Crew 1 Pursuit of Flight 2 Splatter Thug 1 Viashino Racketeer	GREEN 1 Axebane Stag 1 Brushstrider 3 Drudge Beetle 1 Druid's Deliverance 1 Horncaller's Chant 1 Savage Surge 1 Seek the Horizon 1 Urban Burgeoning	HYBRID 1 Frostburn Weird 2 Golgari Longlegs 1 Sundering Growth
AZORIUS 1 Dramatic Rescue 1 New Prahv Guildmage 1 Skymark Roc	IZZET 2 Chemister's Trick 1 Goblin Electromancer 1 Nivix Guildmage	RAKDOS 1 Augur Spree 1 Carnival Hellsteed 1 Hellhole Flailer 1 Rakdos Charm 1 Rakdos Ringleader 1 Rix Maadi Guldmage 1 Skull Rend
GOLGARI 1 Tresured Find 1 Trestle Troll	SELESNYA (none)	ARTIFACTS 1 Azorius Keyrune 1 Civic Saber 1 Street Sweeper LANDS 1 Blood Crypt 1 Hallowed Fountain 1 Rakdos Guildgate 3 Selesnya Guildgate 1 Transguild Promenade

This isn't a bad pool really, but it certainly isn't busted and the quality is pretty spread out. But hey, Jace, how lucky. I was drawn to my Blue and White. I noted my Red and Black had some strong cards and potentially enough filler to make a deck, but I didn't want to be Rakdos if I could help it. I felt like going 6-1-1 or more likely 7-1 would be potentially a bridge to far with a pretty much entirely "fair" Rakdos build. My experience with the archetype is that sometimes you would roll over people who stumbled early, but it would be difficult to win long grindy games where playskill tends to matter more. After determining the Azorius deck was playable, I didn't think much more about it. I ended up building the following:

2 Doorkeeper
1 Keening Apparition
1 Fencing Ace
1 New Prahv Guildmage
1 Seller of Songbirds
1 Selesnya Sentry
1 Stealer of Secrets
2 Armory Guard
1 Skymark Roc
1 Voidwielder
1 Street Sweeper
1 Skyline Predator
1 Swift Justice
1 Divine Rescue
1 Arrest
1 Cancel
1 Paralyzing Grasp
1 Avenging Arrow
1 Jace Ventura, Pet Detective
1 Knightly Valor
1 Azorius Keyrune
9 Island
1 Hallowed Fountain
5 Plains
2 Selesnya Guildgate

The plan here is pretty straightforward--hide behind 0/4s and 2/5s until I can take over the game with one of Jace, Skymark Roc, New Prahv Guildmage, or possibly Skyline Predator. With three Selesnya Guildgates in the pool, I looked hard for splashable Green but came up empty. I almost put in the Scavenge bears to make my Fencing Ace less embarrassing, but that seemed like a poor plan.

Later in the day (I think it was between rounds 3 and 4) I sat down with my friend Steve (follow him on Twitter at @RubinZoo) to see if I could have done better with my pool. In the Azorius Deck, he talked me into swapping a Doorkeeper for a Frostburn Weird. I had been worried about casting it reliably on turn 2, but really its enough of a better card that its worth the risk. I mentioned that I was curious about my Red-Black, and we worked out the following:

1 Rix Maadi Guildmage
2 Grim Roustabout
1 Ash Zealot
1 Frostburn Weird
1 Hellhole Flailer
1 Lobber Crew
1 Sewer Shambler
2 Splatter Thug
1 Dead Reveler
1 Slum Reaper
2 Golgari Longlegs
1 Carnival Hellsteed
1 Civic Saber
1 Deviant Glee
1 Electrickery
1 Pursuit of Flight
1 Mind Rot
1 Augur Spree
1 Launch Party
1 Skull Rend
7 Mountain
8 Swamp
1 Blood Crypt
1 Rakdos Guildgate

I have three gold creatures in Rakdos that are various degrees of bomby (in order: Hellhole Flailer, Bad Horse, Guildmage), as well as an Augur Spree. Some of the support cards aren't very exciting however--Grim Roustabout isn't really where you want to be, the Civic Saber is Shuko more than it's Bonesplitter, and the Launch Party doesn't really have any profitable dudes to sacrifice (something like Gatecreeper Vine, for example). Outside the Spree the removal is decidedly lackluster, and indeed the same is true of the spells in general. Steve thought Rakdos had a better chance of running the table than did Azorius. While the UW would not get run over, it wasn't going to run anyone else over, either. Honestly, that's what I wanted out of a deck after writing "did nothing and died" so many times this PTQ season, so Steve's advice may have backfired a bit, haha. Nevertheless, I resolved to side into RB if my opponent seemed better equipped to win a long game than I did; this ended up never coming up.

We had 224 players in attendance and would play 8 rounds. I believe that's right at the cutoff for 9, but I'm not sure.

In round 1 we played three lopsided games and I emerged the victor. My nots for the match indicate that I had missed a couple attacks with Voidwielder since I wanted to leave a guy back, but forgot that my Armory Guard had Vigilance. Round 2 was exciting--I won game 1 and then lost to Pack Rat game 2, although it was reasonably close. Game 3 I managed to beat an active Pack Rat, and it's wasn't even from an overwhelming board position, although my early pressure managed to keep the Rats on D the entire game.

Round 3 I picked up my first loss in three games. Game 1 we both double mulliganned, and I drew better, eventually landing Jace. I think I may have taken the wrong pile once--I was offered Knightly Valor or Stealer of Secrets, land. His board was a 2/2 and mine was Doorkeeper. I took the Stealer and the land, but this was very greedy. Valor protects my Jace and I should have been on that plan rather than the kill him quickly plan. He ended up stabilizing on 4 with me on 16. I put him to 1 the turn before I died, although my notes don't indicate how.

Game 2, he doulbe mulliganned and I steamrolled him. Game 3 I double mulliganned and had to try and fight my way back. I didn't.

That brings us to the fourth round, where I was paired against my friend Brent. I got stomped game 1, (I'm guessing it was flood looking at how the game went). I then came back to force a game 3. During game 2, things in the match next to mine got a bit heated. The player next to me untapped, waited a beat, drew, waited a beat, and then asked to go to declare attackers. His opponent then attempted to put a Stab Wound trigger on the stack. Judges were called, tempers flared. It was decided that the player next to me would take 2. After their game (and match) ended and people seemed to have calmed down, I mentioned that maybe playing a precombat land would have helped turn the call against the guy next to Brent, which set off the player next to me on a tirade, the gist of which was "yeah, sure, whatever, the important thing is that this guy forgot and then didn't own up to forgetting when asked by the judge." All of which was true, I grant you, but at this point I was more interested in the argument ending so Brent and I could finish our match in peace, and after a couple minutes of trying to wait it out, I said as much.

I mention all this because after the match my friend Bill told me that the player next to me was Pro Tour Champion Osyp Lebedowicz, and I find it super amusing that I told him (1) how to play and (2) to be quiet.

I won the third game against Brent, ending his run. Jeff also picked up his second loss, leaving me alone to defend the carpool's honor. Round five was a 2-0 cakewalk, and for the fourth time this PTQ season I started out 4-1.

Round six was exciting. I recognized my opponent's name--Jeff Folinus--from previous PTQs. Game 1 I landed an early Stealer of Secrets and New Prahv Guildmage, he had an early Rix Maadi Guildmage. Blocking wasn't going to be very profitable for me with the Rix Maadi guildmage active, and attacking with the Stealer looked like an ok plan--I could even jump it if necessary. I was hoping to draw into my Voidweilder, my Skymark Roc, and similar tempo cards. The critical turn game when I had 4 mana available, and had two choices of target. I could hit his Guildmage, which was the correct long-term play if I have to start blocking. As the board looked, I didn't look like I'd be doing a lot of that. Alternatively, I could hit his 2/3 Dead Reveler, attack for 4, and draw a card. Well, I went with the second one, and the card I drew was Jace, Architect of Thought. All of a sudden it looked like blocking might be in my future. I didn't draw cards that would let me keep attacking, and his Rix Maadi Guildmage took over the game as I had feared it might. I feel like I might have just failed the "Who's the Beatdown" test in this game; my deck gave me an aggressive opener, but it was probably a trap to play aggressively with it given that it was fairly likely I'd be drawing some 2/5s and 0/4s pretty soon and that his draw would stay aggressive.

He stabilized at 8 and pulled ahead, dealing the last few points with Lobber Crew. Game 2 I mulligan on the play and die to Necropolis Regent. I'm 4-2 and dead, and I need to win out to be assured of prizes (I guess maybe 5-3 might sneak in but eeeeeeeeh).

The staff neglected to drop my nominal round 7 opponent, and I ended up being paired up against a different fellow. I didn't need any of the 7 minute time extension as I won two quick and decisive matches, with Skymark Roc repeatedly time walking him game 1; game 2 looked close for a while but I don't think the result was ever in doubt. Game 1 of round 8 was similarly academic. Game two my opponent mulliganned on the play. I "stabilized" at 12, although Stab Wound put me down to 8 on the turn I won. So, 6-2.

Apologies for the blurry photo. You may notice my round 6 opponent made top 8, as did my friend Steve. Steve ended up taking down the whole thing. Go Steve!

I had thought this was my best PTQ performance since going 5-2 at a PTQ in Columbus (for PT Berlin) in August 2008 and finishing 10th (I lost my win-and-in in round 6 and won the final round), but research reveals I went 5-2 twice in 2010 at Qualifiers in Pittsburgh and Columbus for PT Amsterdam, dying in rounds 5 and 6 respectively (the Columbus PTQ being associated with the Legacy GP). So I've done as well record-wise, but not in terms of reaching a win-and-in round. Regardless, top 16 is something to build on, I guess?

Really, thought, what makes me most satisfied (well, as satisfied as I can be with not winning the whole enchilada) with this event is that with the exception of the one Jace split and a couple missed attacks, I feel like I played exceptionally well this tournament. I didn't implement the "figure out attacks in the end step" plan (next season remind me to do this) but I did feel very good about my technical play in general from round 1 to round 8. I felt like I had made measured progress since the beginning of the season, and I'll try to carry that forward.

6-2 was good for 115 Planeswalker Points; I needed 109 to lock up 2 byes to GP Atlantic City and GP Pittsburgh. Good for me! With two byes I'll likely only need to go 5-2 to make my first GP Day 2. The next PTQ season is Modern and the first drivable event for me is December 29th back in Philly. Before then I have to get a feel for the format, select a deck, and gather the pieces.

Opposite Day

The narrative for the first three PTQs this season has been for me to start out 4-1 and falter down the stretch, missing top 16 and coming home empty-handed. This Saturday I started the day with prizes and sputtered out of the gate in the first three rounds. If I'm going to fail, at least it's now with variety.

The two highlights of the day came early. I awoke Saturday morning to find that a mutual friend of one of my roommates and myself had left this gem on the white board in the kitchen:

Green Eyes White Giraffe

I picked up Jeff and we made the drive to Comic Kings in Virginia Beach. I think I definitely made the right decision regarding whether to attend this event or the one in Fairless Hills as the drive was fairly relaxing the whole way and the venue was pretty good.

Before round 1, the store gave out some fairly generous door prizes. A box's worth of packs was given out in groups of six, and I was one of the lucky winners. Then all the names were put back in the hat and someone was given a Commander's Arsenal. The prize support for the event was excellent with everyone in top 8 getting at least a box and prizes going down to 16th place. There's fast food, a grocery store, and Chinese take-out all walkable from the store. My only real complaint is that the venue's a bit on the small side.

It was all downhill from there.

I finished the day with only three match wins, and in two of those my opponents technical play was exceedingly poor. One opponent chump blocked over multiple turns, but not with the creature with Stab Wound on it. Another walked into the pump ability of Korozda Guildmage on back-to-back turns. I pretty much just had to show up to win those.

A lot of my losses felt like they were beyond my control as well. In the first game of round one, I kept a two-lander and by the time I started playing lands again my opponent was on seven mana and overloading Cyclonic Rift. Game 2 I kept two lands, Gatecreeper Vine and the game was well out of reach by the time I hit four lands. My opponent had the overloaded rift again, just for giggles.

My second-to-last round I mulliganned into three lands, three removal spells and my opponent went Underworld Connections (nice one-for-ones you've got there) and followed up with Rubbleback Rhino (interactive!). He put himself low enough with the Connections that winning with double Stab Wound was a possibility, but I never saw targets. Game three of the final round I again kept a two-lander only for the game was out of reach before I started hitting land drops.

I guess what I'm getting at is that this PTQ felt a lot like Murphy's Law incarnate.

Here's the pool:

WHITE 1 Arrest 1 Avenging Arrow 1 Azorius Arrester 1 Ethereal Armor 1 Knightly Valor 1 Rest in Peace 2 Rootborn Defenses 2 Selesnya Sentry 1 Soul Tithe 1 Swift Justice	BLUE 1 Chronic Flooding 1 Dispel 2 Downsize 1 Hover Barrier 1 Faerie Impostor 2 Mizzium Skin 1 Psychic Spiral 1 Runewing 1 Soulsworn Spirit 1 Stealer of Secrets 1 Syncopate 1 Tower Drake 1 Search the City	BLACK 1 Assassin's Strike 1 Catacomb Slug 1 Cremate 1 Daggerdrome Imp 1 Dead Reveler 2 Deviant Glee 1 Drainpipe Vermin 2 Launch Party 1 Sewer Shambler 2 Stab Wound 1 Ultimate Price
RED 1 Annihilating Fire 1 Cobblebrute 1 Dynacharge 2 Explosive Impact 1 Goblin Rally 1 Gore-House Chainwalker 1 Utrava Hellkite 1 Viashino Racketeer	GREEN 1 Archweaver 1 Centaur's Herald 1 Gatecreeper Vine 1 Horncaller's Chant 1 Oak Street Innkeeper 1 Seek the Horizon 1 Stonefare Crocodile 2 Towering Indrik 2 Urban Burgeoning	HYBRID 1 Deathrite Shaman 1 Frostburn Weird 1 Nivmagus Elemental 1 Sundering Growth
AZORIUS 1 Azorius Charm 1 Lyev Skyknight	IZZET 1 Chemister's Trick 1 Goblin Electromancer 1 Essence Backlash	RAKDOS 1 Augur Spree 1 Rix Maadi Guldmage 1 Slaughter Games
GOLGARI 1 Korozda Guildmage 1 Rites of Reaping 1 Sluiceway Scorpion	SELESNYA 1 Common Bond 1 Coursers' Accord 1 Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage	ARTIFACTS 1 Azorius Keyrune LANDS 1 Azorius Guildgate 1 Golgari Guildgate 1 Izzet Guildgate 1 Transguild Promenade

I'll be honest, I was none too happy with what I opened. The deck wants to be either WBG or Jund. Red has Utrava Hellkite, Annihilating Fire, and double Explosive Impact, but White has just as good removal and is deeper overall. I decided the Hellkite was a trap given how good my Selesnya Gold cards were. Unfortunately, I wasn't going to be getting any "free" wins no matter what I chose.

I built this:

1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Centaur's Herald
1 Azorius Arrester
1 Gatecreeper Vine
1 Korozda Guildmage
1 Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage
2 Selesnya Sentry
1 Dead Reveler
1 Sewer Shambler
2 Towering Inkrik
1 Sluiceway Scorpion
1 Knightly Valor
1 Coursers' Accord
1 Ultimate Price
2 Stab Wound
1 Arrest
1 Avenging Arrow
1 Rootborn Defenses
1 Common Bond
1 Assassin's Strike
1 Golgari Guildgate
1 Transguild Promenade
5 Forest
5 Plains
5 Swamp

I'm pretty sure this is within a couple cards of correct. Soul Tithe is situational--basically it's good when you're the control deck in a matchup--and Rites of Reaping is expensive. In any case, the deck has plenty of removal already. I have Stab Wound and Korozda Guildmage to break stalemates. Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage can take over a game by itself. My plan is essentially to gum up the ground, remove or block his flyers, and either take over with Populate or punch through with my stalemate breakers. It didn't end up going well but I still don't think the Red offers more than the White.

I'm now up to 641 points for the season, the updated point total reflecting the points from the PTQ as well as the participation points from the grinder I did before GP Philly which hadn't been previously posted. This weekend I'm doing an FNM and a PTQ. I'd like to knock out the last few points I need then, but if I'm 20 points short or so that's not the end of the world. The goal is to win the PTQ; barring that, five match wins would put me in excellent shape to get my two byes for next season's GPs.

I got my hands on a copy of Chapin's latest article (about bluff attacks) and as a result of that I'm going to try to figure out my attacks on my opponent's end step rather than my first main phase during this weekend's events. Hopefully it will open up some opportunities for me to steal some points of damage here and there.

I'll be back next time with a review of this weekend's PTQ adventure and a retrospective on the season as a whole. See you then!

Roan-choke

This Saturday I woke up at 4:45, picked up my new carpool buddy Jeff, and drove to the Star City Game Center in Roanoke, VA on about three hours sleep. Google estimated it as a four hour trip, making it the longest I've ever driven for a PTQ. Thankfully the drive ended up about 25 minutes shorter than that. It was a rare joy that I knew upon spotting the "Speed Limit 70" sign.

My pool:

WHITE 1 Avenging Arrow 2 Azorius Arrester 1 Concordia Pegasus 1 Ethereal Armor 2 Keening Apparition 1 Knightly Valor 1 Precinct Captain 1 Security Blockade 1 Sphere of Safety	BLUE 2 Crosstown Courier 1 Cyclonic Rift 1 Dispel 1 Downsize 1 Hover Barrier 1 Isperia's Skywatch 2 Paralyzing Grasp 1 Runewing 1 Stealer of Secrets	BLACK 1 Cremate 1 Daggerdrome Imp 1 Dead Reveler 1 Drainpipe Vermin 1 Grave Betrayal 1 Grim Roustabout 1 Launch Party 1 Mind Rot 1 Sewer Shambler 1 Shrieking Affliction 1 Terrus Wurm 1 Thrill-Kill Assassin
RED 2 Bellows Lizard 2 Cobblebrute 1 Electrickery 1 Explosive Impact 1 Goblin Rally 1 Pursuit of Flight 1 Tenement Crasher 1 Viashino Racketeer	GREEN 1 Archweaver 3 Axebane Guardian 1 Centaur's Herald 1 Chorus of Might 2 Drudge Beetle 1 Gatecreeper Vine 1 Giant Growth 2 Horncaller's Chant 1 Oak Street Innkeeper 1 Rubbleback Rhino 1 Slime Molding	HYBRID 2 Frostburn Weird 1 Rakdos Cackler 1 Sundering Growth
AZORIUS 1 New Prahv Guildmage	IZZET 1 Chemister's Trick 1 Goblin Electromancer	RAKDOS 1 Augur Spree 1 Hellhole Flailer 1 Rakdos Charm 1 Rix Maadi Guldmage 1 Skull Rend
GOLGARI 1 Korozda Guildmage 1 Golgari Charm	SELESNYA 1 Armada Wurm 1 Common Bond 1 Coursers' Accord 1 Risen Sanctuary	ARTIFACTS 1 Street Sweeper LANDS 1 Azorius Guildgate 1 Blood Crypt 1 Izzet Guildgate 1 Rakdos Guildgate 1 Temple Garden 1 Transguild Promenade

This is a pretty good pool. We have two good rares in Armada Wurm and Cyclonic Rift. We have plenty of fixing.The Red cards are a bit shallow, which means our three good Rakdos cards are probably going to be on the splash, and then only if we end up Black, which would normally seem unlikely if we're base green and trying to hit 2GGWW. This isn't a normal deck, though, as I have 3 Axebane Guardian, Gatecreeper Vine, and Transguild Promenade which can make any color of mana. The Green is also super deep. I ended up splashing Blue for the Cyclonic Rift and the New Prahv Guildmage and Red for the Explosive Impact. It's possible I should have also splashed Black for the Korozda Guildmage and the Launch Party.

I ended up building this:

1 Centaur's Herald
2 Drudge Beetle
1 Gatecreeper Vine
1 Keening Apparition
1 Pegasus Charger
1 New Prahv Guildmage
3 Axebane Guardian
1 Rubbleback Rhino
1 Coursers' Accord
1 Armada Wurm
1 Archweaver
1 Risen Sanctuary
1 Slime Molding
1 Giant Growth
1 Common Bond
1 Avenging Arrow
1 Chorus of Might
1 Knightly Valor
1 Explosive Impact
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Azorius Guidgate
1 Izzet Guildgate
1 Transguild Promenade
1 Temple Garden
4 Plains
9 Forest

Last inclusions were Chorus of Might, 2 Drudge Beetle, and Risen Sanctuary. Last cuts were Precinct Captain, Sundering Growth, 2 Azorius Arrester, and Keening Apparition.

The strength of the deck is the ability to present powerful threats ahead of the curve. There were a lot of games where I laid Axebane Guardians on turns three and four and blew out my opponent with some large man the following turn. There are a couple weaknesses, however. Playing all three Guardians, the Gatecreeper Vine, and 17 lands means 21/40 cards in the deck are mana; this makes me prone to flood. I'm also a little light on removal, with basically just Avenging Arrow and Explosive Impact, with New Prahv Guildmage and Cyclonic Rift helping out (not that I'm complaining about either card!). This means I'm leaning pretty hard on Archweaver and Concordia Pegasus to block my opponent's flyers.The last thing is that I have a lot of good token producers, and basically no proliferate. A Rootborn Defenses, a Druid's Deliverance, and/or a Trostani's Judgement would make this deck much stronger. It's possible I should have started Sundering Growth as it has a lot of upside in my deck. I found myself siding it in a lot, but that doesn't necessarily mean starting it is correct.

I was worried about going a bit too top-heavy during deck construction so I never really considered putting the either of the two Horncaller's Chants in my deck. I found myself with 9-11 mana and nothing terribly powerful to do more often than I would have liked.

I didn't drop a game in the first three rounds. For the first time this PTQ season, I felt like I was doing more powerful things than my opponent at pretty much all points. Sometimes I was making 10 power for 6 mana and blowing them out, sometimes I was playing fair, sometimes my opponents were making costly mistakes. My round 2 opponent let himself fall to 4 when he's swinging in for lethal next turn (Righteous Authority on a Sunspire Griffin) and he has (so he claimed afterwards) a Trostani's Judgement he could have cast to stay on 6. Explosive Impact to the face closes the game. Round 3, game 1, my opponent casts two spells all game--a Annihilating Fire on my Axebane Guardian, and a Street Spasm for six on my Knightly-Valor'd New Prahv Guildmage. I had UW up.

Round four I made my first noticeable play mistakes. I pumped my guy before declaring blockers and took some extra damage when he had the removal spell, although it didn't end up mattering that game. That was the last time I made that mistake all day, and I think I've shaken the habit for good. Game two I play some bodies and reset his board with Cyclonic Rift. At this point I realize that Todd Anderson has been watching the match, as he comments that I hadn't mentioned opening that card during deckbuilding (we were seated adjacently). Game three goes poorly for me. My opponent gets off to a quick start on the play, culminating in an unleashed Chaos Imps. If you look over my decklist, you'll see that's very difficult for me to deal with. Luckily, I have a Pegasus in play and an Explosive Impact in hand. Thinking I want to avoid taking the trample damage, I try to bait him into blocking. Let's ignore for a second that there's no way in a million years he would block my 1/3 with his 7/6 trample, making this the greediest bluff ever, and focus on the fact that he can't possibly fall into my trap even if he wants to, as it is indeed an unleashed Chaos Imps I am attacking into. The next turn I trade the Pegasus and the Explosive Impact for the Imps, but the extra 7 damage he's gotten in proves to be too much to overcome. The extra breathing space would have allowed me to block and make a token with Centaur's Herald, rather than just chumping with it to stay alive the on turn when I kill the Imps. Don't know if it would have been enough, but it would have been something.

Round 5 things are back on track and I handily dispatch my opponent. I ended these games on 20 and 17 life. This sets up a round six match that could very well be win-and-in depending on my breakers. It ends up not mattering as I get steamrolled by my opponents quick Jund deck. He ends the two games on 16 and 24 life, respectively. I don't think there was anything I could have done about this one, other than winning round 4 where I probably had some wiggle room to eek out a win. My round six opponent ended up making top 8. Good for him.

In the final round, my carpool buddy Jeff has a win-and-in. I am playing for a likely top 16. I get paired against Todd Anderson, who greets me with a friendly "Hey, Cyclonic Rift!" He graciously offers to split. I decline as I like my deck and am trying to get more experience playing under pressure. I get off to a great start game 1, Attacking him down to 14 with Keening Apparition and accelerating into an Archweaver and a 9/9 ooze token. I attack him down to 9 and then 4 with the Archweaver before he can stabilize by playing Vraska and killing my 9/9. On my turn the board is as follows: he has two 3/3s (Dreg Mangler and a centaur token), and a Vraska on 2 counters. I have a Keening Apparition, a Archweaver, two Axebane Guardians, and a Drudge Beetle in hand, maybe two. I decide to send both the Apparition and the Archweaver at him, dropping him to 2 and trading my 5/5 for one of his 3/3s. I lay the second bear, making him dead on board unless he has something. He has something for the next several turns and I have nothing terribly relevant, especially when he lands an Archweaver of his own. The second game isn't close.

I talked with Todd about the game 1 attack, and he thought I should have sent the Archweaver at him and the Apparition at Vraska. Depending on how he blocks, he can either go to 2 and trade a 3/3 (probably the Mangler) for my 2/2, keeping his Vraska, or maybe (and this seems less likely) trade Vraska and a 3/3 for my Archweaver. Things can still go wrong for me with this play, but I probably should have been able to predict that he'd have either a removal spell or a guy on his turn given the number of cards in his hand, which makes it likely better. I think I was put off of Todd's line because I thought he'd probably just go to 2 and keep his Vraska, although it leaves me with an Archweaver left over instead of a Keening Apparition which is a better spot to be in. I was worried that he can then Scavenge the Mangler onto his surviving token to outclass my Archweaver, although if he does that I can just attack him with the Drudge Beetle and the Archweaver anyway and he still has to have a kill spell or a second guy to stay alive, and its likely that if he has a guy or a kill spell he can't cast it and also scavenge the Mangler.

Jeff lost his win-and-in and finished 19th on breakers. I finished 26th with about 60% OMW. Todd missed top 16 on breakers. I think the lack of sleep combined with the long drive may have kept me out of top 8. Have to be better about that next time.

I'm now up to 567 Planeswalker Points on the season, leaving me 183 short of 2 byes. I'm in pretty good shape with 2 PTQs to go. This coming weekend I'll be journeying to the far-off land of "Virginia Beach." The weekend after there's a PTQ in Philadelphia which should be a good time; if things work out I'll do FNM with Jordan the night before. Hopefully I'll be back with better news from Virginia Beach.

Philadelphia Failings

I did a booster draft in Pittsburgh two weeks back. In round 2 I sit down for the match and we roll for choice. My opponent has a 4 on a d6. "That's pretty high," I remark. I roll a 5 and choose to play. My opponent then observed, "I'm still more high than you." And so he was. I proceeded to drop 2 straight games to his RUG Defenders/Mill deck. So that happened.

I had a lovely visit to Philadelphia this weekend. I didn't win a whole lot of matches. I was up early Friday, having managed to get myself on a GP-appropriate sleep schedule just in time. Around noon I learned that my carpool mates would be bailing on me and I'd be making the trip to Philly solo. I was at the event site and registered for the main event by 4 PM or so, just in time to get one of the awesome playmats.

I entered a grinder and opened a pool that would have been average with 2 more average or better rares. As it was, I had Wild Beastmaster, and that was on the splash in my UW deck. The best part of the event was when a judge arrived at the table next to mine and determined that "Ahj Sah-chur" was the missing party. In the judge's defence, the first name had a lowercase 'j' as printed. I recently corrected my name in the DCI's records because my last name wasn't capitalized for some reason. It occurs to me now that I could change it to anything I wanted, although I imagine it would be difficult to prove that I was the real "Reginald J. Pumpernickel" if someone had cause to doubt.

I pounced on my opponent's slow start game 1, defeating a late Jace that only delayed his death by a turn. Game 2 I put him on having Rakdos's Return--he kept looking carefully at his lands and asking how many cards I had in hand--and dumped my hand into the Mizzium Mortars he had instead. Game 3 I double mulliganned and died. It was a tough match to lose because my opponent didn't know what his cards did, at one point overloading a Street Spasm for 1 in an attempt to kill my Tower Drake along with my 2/1 ground guy.

I grabbed CMU Dan, who also died in the first round of the same grinder, and we headed back to Jordan's place. We were all asleep around midnight, which was awesome. I felt great in the morning--rested and awake. We got to the event site with time to spare, which allowed us a brief misadventure getting to the hall from the parking garage. Breakfast was hummus and pita from Wawa. I confirmed my round 1 bye and sat down for deck registration.

My pool:

WHITE 1 Armory Guard 1 Arrest 2 Azorius Arrester 1 Bazaar Krovod 1 Eyes in the Skies 1 Keening Apparition 1 Ethereal Armor 1 Phantom General 1 Security Blockade 1 Seller of Songbirds 1 Trostani's Judgment	BLUE 1 Dispel 1 Doorkeeper 2 Paralyzing Grasp 1 Psychic Spiral 1 Runewing 1 Skyline Predator 1 Tower Drake	BLACK 2 Catacomb Slug 1 Daggerdrome Imp 1 Dead Reveler 1 Destroy the Evidence 1 Deviant Glee 1 Launch Party 1 Mind Rot 2 Perilous Shadow 1 Sewer Shambler 1 Shrieking Affliction
RED 1 Bellows Lizard 1 Dynacharge 2 Explosive Impact 1 Goblin Rally 1 Gore-House Chainwalker 1 Guild Feud 1 Lobber Crew 1 Pursuit of Flight 1 Racecourse Fury 1 Splatter Thug 1 Survey the Wreckage 1 Tenement Crasher	GREEN 2 Axebane Guardian 2 Axebane Stag 2 Centaur's Herald 1 Chorus of Might 1 Gatecreeper Vine 1 Gobbling Ooze 1 Horncaller's Chant 1 Oak Street Innkeeper 1 Rubbleback Rhino 1 Stonefare Crocodile	HYBRID 1 Dryad Militant 1 Golgari Longlegs 1 Rakdos Cackler 1 Sundering Growth 1 Vassal Soul 1 Deathrite Shaman 1 Cryptborn Horror
AZORIUS 1 Fall of the Gavel 2 Search Warrant	IZZET 1 Goblin Electromancer 1 Teleportal 1 Firemind's Foresight	RAKDOS 1 Augur Spree 1 Rakdos's Return 1 Rakdos Ringleader 1 Skull Rend
GOLGARI 1 Dreg Mangler 1 Grisly Salvage 1 Korozda Guildmage 1 Treasured Find	SELESNYA 1 Centaur Healer	ARTIFACTS (None) LANDS 1 Azorius Guildgate 1 Hallowed Fountain 1 Rakdos Guildgate 1 Transguild Promenade

My initial impression of the pool was that my White and Green were pretty deep, offering some tokens to go with Phantom General but not much in the way of Populate tricks. The second thing I noticed was that blue was shallow. Given my UW lands I looked for splashable blue cards and didn't find anything too exciting. I laid out the Green/White build to see how it looked, and it was okay but seemed to have a pretty low ceiling in terms of the help it would be able to give me. I had played against Rakdos's Return in Sealed before and given the experience really wanted it in my deck. Noticing the 2 Axebane Guardians, the Rakdos Guildgate, and the splashability of my red removal and bombs, I decided to see what Golgari splash Red looked like. After doing that, I debated whether with two Guardians and a Gatecreeper Vine I should jam a Plains in my deck and play the Arrest and the Trostani's Judgment. I decided I really wanted the additional Black source to support my Perilous Shadows instead, although in retrospect maybe I should have been greedier.

I built it this way:

2 Axebane Guardian
1 Axebane Stag
1 Centaur's Herald
1 Gatecreeper Vine
1 Rubbleback Rhino
1 Stonefare Crocodile
1 Dead Reveler
2 Perilous Shadow
1 Dreg Mangler
1 Korozda Guildmage
1 Rakdos Cackler
1 Dryad Militant
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Golgari Longlegs
1 Launch Party
1 Deviant Glee
1 Mind Rot
2 Explosive Impact
1 Augur Spree
1 Rakdos's Return
1 Rakdos Guildgate
1 Transguild Promenade
7 Forest
6 Swamp
2 Mountain

My last few cuts were the second Centaur's Herald, the Sewer Shambler, the Chorus of Might, and the Grisly Salvage. Daggerdrome Imp was never in as I didn't think I had enough Scavenge/pump effects to support him, but also merits consideration. I was busy at both 1 and 3, so the Herald was cut for curve reasons. I think I have been undervaluing Sewer Shambler, treating him as a sideboard option against Black decks. After registering, I met up with Dan and we played a game that went well for him and poorly for me. Then the two of us met Dan's friend at a suboptimal noodle place (luckily for me I packed my lunch) and they took a look at my build. They wanted to cut Rakdos Cackler, Deviant Glee, and Dryad Militant for the second Centaur's Herald, the Imp, and the Shambler, reasoning that the three one-drops weren't working toward the same plan as the rest of my deck, which wanted to be a bit grindier.

At this point it was time to head back for round 2. My opponent opened with Thrill-Kill Assassin into Rakdos Cackler and second two-drop. I was able to get down an Axebane Guardian to stem the bleeding, but after landing a Rakdos Ragemutt he was able to attack me down to 4 when a judge arrived. The judge told us to pick up our cards, and for my opponent to come with him. One deck registration error later, I was up a game. It was the last game win I would manage until round 5.

The round was over quickly enough that I had time to stand in line for rk post. One of my sub-hobbies is collecting custom tokens. This time I asked for a Halloween-themed spirit token. I would be waiting for several more hours to see how it came out, but I'd hate to hold you all in suspense.

Awesome, am I right? Anyway, just as I dropped off the blank spirit token, pairings for round 3 went up. About all I can reconstruct from this game is that I lost a close game 1 and game 2 ended with Collective Blessing. Back against the wall.

I had a quick opening in game 1, getting Deviant Glee on a turn 1 Rakdos Cackler. I was able to get him down to eight before he stabilized. Importantly, I couldn't stick a second creature, and ended up having the Launch Party sacrificing my Cackler to avoid dying. I kept a dicey hand game two--probably should have mulliganned to five--but ended up drawing the land I needed. It didn't end up mattering and I was dead at 1-3.

It's like they knew I was in town and set up shop just for me.

I won round five 2-0. My opponent wasn't very good. He kept chump blocking on high life totals and missing on-board tricks.

In round six I had a quick start of Korozda Guildmage into Dreg Mangler. My opponent killed me on two life. It's possible trying to race his Rakdos deck got me in trouble, but honestly I don't think so. There was a turn where I could have either attacked him from 10 to 5 or left back my guys to block. At the time putting him a swing away from dead seemed best, in retrospect that was the turn to stop trying to race if that was indeed the correct plan for the matchup. Game 2 he steamrolls me.

I win round seven. The guy's girlfriend arrives late in the match. I've put him to 2-5, she's 5-2. I really appreciate symmetry in relationships. My round 8 opponent decides to not show up, and given the way the his day's ostensibly been going, I can't say I blame him..

Round nine is interesting as I'm paired against what seems to be a competent player with a poor deck. I lose in 3 games, none of which are particularly close. His friend arrives after the match and the three of us start talking about my deck. They lay out the GW build I had looked at, conclude GBr is better, and end up saying that Rakdos Cackler and Deviant Glee should have been cut for Sewer Shambler and Centaur's Herald.

Having played seven matches with the deck (9 rounds, 1 bye, 1 no-show) I'm pretty sure that this is the correct build. Dryad Militant is fine as it blocks early. There's a little bit of anti-synergy with my Deathrite Shaman but nothing so bad as to put me off playing the Militant.

Dan ends up losing his round 9 win-and-in. Dan, Jordan, myself, and a fellow I don't remember (sorry!) head over to Barcade for some food, drink, and retro arcade awesomeness. Highlights include Digdug, Crystal Castles, Joust, and my mac-and-cheese and pulled pork sandwich.

Sunday morning I woke up early-ish, drove Dan to the train station, and went back to Jordan's place. We had an awesome morning involving waffles, Ouran High School Host Club, and drafting on MODO. Shortly after noon I picked up a fellow from the DC area who plays at my store sometimes and drove home to Arlington. It rained a little bit along the way but nothing too crazy.

I came away from the weekend sitting on 487 Planeswalker Points for the season. The participation points from the side event aren't up yet but I can't imagine that being more than 5 more. I've now officially wrapped up one bye for next season's GPs and am within striking distance of 2. I need 263 more points by December 16th.

Most of those points probably need to come in November. Next weekend there's a PTQ in Roanoke. The weekend after that I have the choice of either a 3h 35m drive to Virginia Beach or a 3h 18m drive to Fairless Hills, PA (near Trenton, NJ). The drive to Virginia Beach might actually be shorter because I'm less likely to hit traffic. THe drive to Fairless Hills goes through DC, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, whereas the Virgiania Beach drive is more rural. The last PTQ of the season that's drivable for me is the November 17th tournament in Philadelphia. That means I'd need about 14 match wins over 2 of the tournaments or about 12 match wins over 3 of them, assuming those are the only events I go to before the end of the season. If I attend two of the PTQs and do poorly (say 4-3 or 4-4), I'll end up about 100 points short. If I attend two and do well (say 5 or 6 match wins), I'll be about 50 points short. I can grind that out of FNMs and weekday Standard and Legacy events at my local shop in about 2 weeks.

I'm planning to hit up Roanoke for sure. I'll be back with a tournament report on that.

Congrats to Harry on his second GP Top 8. It makes me happy to see people from the old CMU crowd doing well.

I have two questions for you all:
1.) Have you read Zvi's My Files or Chapin's Next Level Magic? Would reading either help me?
2.) How do you like the blog so far? What would you like me to do more of, what less?

Countdown to Philly

We're coming up on the halfway point of the current PTQ season. I've been to two PTQs and a GPT, up next is GP Philly, and after that there are three more PTQs.

I've started each of the two PTQs this season 4-1. In the first PTQ in Pittsburgh I then lost the last two rounds, and in the second PTQ in Rockville I lost two out of the last three. I've gotten better at not letting my first loss tilt me, although the second loss still sometimes does. I really want to break the top 8 bubble. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get there this season with how I'm playing right now if I open a good enough pool, but I don't think I'm quite playing well enough to take an average or good-but-not-great pool and squeeze an X-1-1 out of it.

And then today I went to a 16 man GPT and managed to not top 8 with a reasonable pool, losing my first two matches.

Part of me wants to chalk up the GPT fiasco to my first two opponents having magical "had-it" fairies hidden in their shirt pockets sprinkling mise dust on their decks at all points. That's not really productive, though, and I know it's not. Still, part of me wants to leave it at that to shield my ego--I feel like I have been pretty darn well prepared for RTR sealed. In the spirit of "observe, don't criticize," now that I have a bit of distance from the emotions from earlier today, here's a mistake I remember making. This happened round 1, game 3.

My opponent attacks with Desecration Demon  into my Trestle Troll, leaving his Dreg Mangler back. I put him on not knowing Troll has reach. I have mana to regenerate once but not twice. The plan is to block the Demon with the Troll for a turn or two and hit my sixth land so I can solve the problem permanently by casting Chaos Imps.

I've gotten into the habit of playing my combat tricks before I declare blockers. This is sometimes correct, like when knowing whether they will kill the guy you pump affects your other decisions, but it sometimes isn't. This wasn't one of the correct times. What I should have done was said "can I declare blockers?" and blocked the demon. What happened was I said "regenerate my guy, block the Demon." My opponent is surprised that Trestle Troll has reach, and upon confirming that it does Street Spasms the troll for 4. I ask "When?" and he says in response to the regeneration ability being activated.

Now, looking back, it's possible I should have pressed to allow my block to stand because it seems like he's not willing to kill the troll unless it's blocking the demon, and he clearly didn't know that it could block the demon.

I could have spared myself the trouble, however, by saying "Go do declare blockers?" to make sure my Troll gets to block on that turn. There's a chance that's enough of a prompt for him to figure out my guy has reach, but who knows.

I almost certainly would have won the game with six extra life points. I stabilized on 2 with both of us in topdeck mode, me with Street spasms and a 5/5 and him empty with a 3/4 hexproof. Being able to take even a single hit probably would have been enough, as I had to blow the Street Spasm to kill a Guttersnipe and an 0/2 defender when I was 1 mana short of being able to deal 4 to his team, killing the hexproof guy. Maybe it's right to try to topdeck a land before he topdecks an instant or sorcery that doesn't just kill me outright without Guttersnipe, but I didn't think it was worth the risk given that I would be ahead on board, albeit slightly, if I pulled the trigger then. Lending evidence to my "had-it" fairies theory, my opponent revealed that he was going to topdeck a not-otherwise-immediately-lethal Rites of Reaping the turn after I killed Guttersnipe.

My primary goal for this PTQ season is to qualify; this means either a PTQ win or a GP top 4. My secondary goal is to hit the Planeswalker Points threshold for 2 byes for next season, which is relevant because GP Atlantic City is drivable. I'm currently sitting on 316 points and need 750. Assuming I average 5 match wins at each of the remaining PTQs (for about 100 points each) and go X-3 at GP Philly (missing day 2, good for about 185 points), and further assuming I pick up 50 points through FNMs and side events, I'm looking at another 525 points or so, which puts me comfortably at 841. 90 points of wiggle room is nice. I'd rather not have to go chasing those 50 FNM/side event points if I can help it. 1500 Planeswalker Points and three byes seem to be substantially out of reach. If I somehow manage to go deep into day two at the GP, I'll revisit whether it's possible.

Unless I win a grinder--and that's not entirely unlikely--I'll be heading to Philly with one bye. I'm thinking day 1 will be eight rounds, making my target record in actual matches 5-2. I'll be back in two weeks to recount my GP: Philly experience.

Opening Day

I had the pleasure of attending my first PTQ for the Pro Tour Gatecrash qualifier season today in West Mifflin, PA. Saw lots of familiar faces. Not sure who won yet, but I do know both of the guys in the finals and another who made top 8, which was nice. The venue, New Dimensions Comics, was spacious and convenient to food. However, they seriously need some better air conditioning. This was a small event, only 89 people, and it was uncomfortably warm inside the store. Also, the store's website had the wrong directions to find it once you got to the Century III Mall (they moved to a different storefront in the same mall), so I had to wander a bit to find the place.

My pool:

WHITE 2 Angel's Mercy 1 Aven Squire 1 Battleflight Eagle 1 Captain of the Watch 1 Crusader of Odric 1 Divine Favor 1 Divine Verdict 1 Griffin Protector 2 Pillarfield Ox 1 Rain of Blades 2 Safe Passage 1 Serra Avenger 1 War Falcon 1 Warclamp Mastiff	BLUE 1 Courtly Provocateur 2 Downpour 1 Encrust 2 Faerie Invaders 1 Hydrosurge 1 Master of the Pearl Trident 1 Mind Sculpt 1 Negate 1 Scroll Thief 1 Sleep 1 Stormtide Leviathan 1 Talrand's Invocation 1 Tricks of the Trade 1 Omniscience	BLACK Bloodthrone Vampire Cower in Fear 3 Crippling Blight 1 Disentomb 3 Mind Rot 1 Public Execution 1 Ravenous Rats 1 Sign in Blood 1 Vile Rebirth 1 Zombie Goliath
RED 1 Chandra's Fury 1 Fire Elemental 1 Firewing Phoenix 2 Goblin Arsonist 1 Goblin Battle Jester 1 Krenko's Command 1 Searing Spear 1 Torch Fiend 2 Turn to Slag 1 Volcanic Geyser 1 Volcanic Strength 1 Wild Guess	GREEN 1 Acidic Slime 2 Bond Beetle 1 Bountiful Harvest 2 Deadly Recluse 1 Farseek 1 Flinthoof Boar 2 Naturalize 1 Prey Upon 1 Rancor 1 Roaring Primadox 1 Sentinel Spider 2 Timberpack Wolf 1 Yeva's Forcemage	ARTIFACTS 1 Clock of Omens 1 Elixir of Immortality 1 Phyrexian Hulk 2 Ring of Evos Isle LANDS None. Well, a shiny Swamp, but whatever.

Not a bad pool, but scattered. White and Blue are each strong but shallow, with 8-9 playables each. Red is deepest, followed by Green. Green's Farseek also lets me splash my only good Black card, Public Execution. The first thing I tried was mashing my Blue and White together, but this only got me to about 20 cards, even with some marginal inclusions. If I wanted to play Blue or White, I would have to pair them with Red or Green. I contemplated Red/Green but that left most of the best cards in my pool on the sideline. The White matched better with Red than Green, filling in the gap at 4 mana in my Red. I should probably have looked more at the Blue paired with the Green, but I'm pretty sure that would have left me with just Prey Upon and Public Execution for removal, which was not where I wanted to be in sealed.

I played:

1 Aven Squire
1 Battleflight Eagle
1 Captain of the Watch
1 Crusader of Odric
1 Divine Verdict
1 Griffin Protector
1 Pillarfield Ox
1 Safe Passage
1 Serra Avenger
1 Chandra's Fury
1 Fire Elemental
1 Firewing Phoenix
2 Goblin Arsonist
1 Krenko's Command
1 Searing Spear
1 Torch Fiend
2 Turn to Slag
1 Volcanic Geyser
1 Volcanic Strength
1 Wild Guess
1 Phyrexian Hulk
10 Mountain
7 Plains

I was fairly happy with the build. Rain of Blades came in a lot, but only because lots of 1-toughness guys kept showing up on the other side of the table.

Nothing very exciting happened in my matches. I felt a little nervous in the first two rounds but at no point during the day did I feel like my state of mind was causing me to play poorly. No tilting, managed my nerves well, and I was able to shake off my streak of picking up my second loss in the first half of the tournament.

I started out 4-1, with my loss coming in round 2 to my friend from Pittsburgh BJB. My only real blunder of the day came in round 5 against my friend Silent Steve, where I miscalculated the size of his attacker because of forgetting to add a toughness for Exalted. This meant Rain of Blades + Chandra's Fury + Block with goblin token did nothing, when in my head it killed his Zombie Goliath leaving 1 damage from Fury on his now 1/1 Crusader of Odric. I ended up winning the match, but that misplay very likely cost me that game.

Round six I got absolutely blown out of the water by a nutty UW deck with multiple Unsummons, Talrand's Invocation, and Arctic Aven. I lost 2-0 and never really got a foothold in either game, with my opponent finishing game 1 on 14 life and game 2 on 24. There was one time when I attacked with a 3/3 Griffin Protector into his Talrand's tokens when it is possible I should have attacked only with my 4/3 flyer (2/1 + Battleflight Eagle) and used the Protector to hold back his 2 tokens and 1 Welkin Tern. As it played out, I attacked with the 3/4 and the 4/3; he flashed in Faerie Invaders to block the 4/3 and traded a token for my Protector. If I don't attack with Protector, he probably takes 4 and flashes in Faerie Invaders in the End Step, and is then able to start attacking through Griffin Protector anyway. I think I needed to be a little aggressive there to get his life total down to a more manageable range, but it's possible I should be settling in for a grindy long game at that point.

The last round didn't go very well for me either. I lost a close game 1 when my opponent has Talrand's Invocation, Archeomancer, recast Invocation on the last three turns before I died with him on 4 life. Game 2 I get out to a big lead, 16-8, but then my deck stops doing anything while my opponent chains together Archeomancers (2 real, one Clone) and Essence Scatter. His clock was sped up a bit by Cathedral of War, but I end up dying to Archeomancer beats. The third rebuy of Scatter was backbreaking as I had been sandbagging Captain of the Watch, which would have probably won me the game if he had anything but another Archeomancer on his last turn before he killed me. In retrospect it's possible I could have stabilized by just running it into his second or third casting of Essence Scatter, because there was a turn where I said go with the Captain and nothing else in hand, but there was no way for me to know that at the time. Ah well.

4-1 with two rounds to go is a good position to be in, and on another day it's possible I might have been able to sneak into top 8. I don't know if round six was a win-and-in for me because my breakers weren't super good having lost in round 2, but X-1 with two rounds to go is a fine place to be. As it happened I lost the last two, but I feel better about it than if I had been dead early and rallied to 4-3. I probably won't be at a PTQ that small again for a long time, so it's kind of disappointing to miss top 8, but it was nice to see everyone.

I have a  box of Return to Ravnica preordered and I'm preregistered for 4 prerelease events. That should give me plenty of packs to practice sealed before the next PTQ on my schedule (I believe October 13th and Dream Wizards, not sure).

My goal for today was to be at the peak of my mental game. I don't know if I did that, but I do feel like I made some small progress. After my last blog post I was recommended a sports psychology book called The Inner Game of Tennis, and I think reading it helped a bit (thanks Dan!). The biggest things I took from it were (1) how to approach criticism/improvement in a nonjudgmental way that doesn't lead to self-doubt and discouragement, (2) techniques for quieting the mind when it starts to race due to nerves/worry, and (3) how to be in a frame of mind where you care about winning and have a "will to win" but maintain enough emotional detachment from the peaks and valleys of actual wins and losses that you don't tilt yourself after a bad beat or an exhilarating win. The only shortcoming I can think of in terms of application to Magic is that the book focuses on being in a good state of mind to perform procedural memory tasks (free throws, Magic on "autopilot") under pressure and not on being in a good state of mind to perform working memory tasks (doing a math problem that you don't have memorized, "tanking" in Magic) under pressure.

Using the stuff I wrote about last week as well as some of the stuff I read about in the book, I was able to mostly head off any emergent tilt and quiet the early butterflies.

Next weekend is prerelease weekend, and I am super excited, especially because I managed to trick one of my roommates into learning Magic and then into coming with me on Saturday. I'm sure I'll have more to write about then.

Until next time!