So how did we get here? Last time I wrote about my test drive of Goblins and my relative success with Talrand Delver at a SCG IQ last weekend. Since then, I played in a warmup at the local store and the PTQ mentioned in the above tweet. There's a theme running through both events: The Danger Of Cool Things.
Rounds one and two I beat an Esper deck with Trading Post and a UB Delver deck featuring the Killing Wave/Blood Artist combo. Both are 2-0 and nothing much of interest happens.
Round three I am paired against Andrew. Andrew, Dave, and myself constitute the group of guys that's been hitting up PTQs and the like together over the past few months. Andrew has been playing an Esper control deck for months, and on Saturday it paid off for him with a Top 8 performance. He had good matchups against the entire Top 8 except for Infect, and got paired against Infect and mulliganned to 5 both games.
Andrew beats me 2-0. I made one mistake worth remarking on in these games. I have a choice of countering Day of Judgment with Mana Leak or Negate, and I choose Leak. He is on five lands, and I figure that there's a good chance that he's sandbagging Cavern of Souls for a Titan. This was a poor assumption because he probably would have played the Cavern on a turn when he missed a land drop earlier. In any case, he has the Titan next turn and I lose.
That sets up round 4, where I am paired up against a GW aggro deck. He takes it 2-1. The pivotal mistake I made was a classic "Danger of Cool Things" blunder. I have a Mana Leak in hand that is holding off his Wolfir Silverheart. He has a Birds of Paradise, a Strangleroot Giest and a 3/3 Beast Token and is at 8. I have an Augur of Bolas, a Flipped Delver, and a Sword of Feast and Famine. I am at 4. My draw for the turn is Phantasmal Image. I calculate that if I copy his SRG with my Image, I can force him to block with his Birds of Paradise. I can then target my Image with Swords to have it come back as an untapped 2/4 Augur of Bolas. I run this plan, dropping him to 3 and finding some irrelevant spell with the Undying Image. He uses Cloudshift (which I knew he had) to keep his Birds alive.
On his turn, he draws his 6th land to resolve Oblivion Ring through my Mana Leak and I die. The correct play for me was, of course, to just play the Image as a Strangleroot and attack with only the eqipped Delver. He's dead just as fast, and I'm dead to way fewer things.
For the PTQ, I changed the Sword of Feast and Famine for the second Runechanter's Pike. I probably should have made this switch even sooner. It just fits the curve better. I didn't sleep especially well the night before since my biological clock is sort of off these days. I had a 5 hour energy about an hour before round 1. If the lack of sleep was going to affect me, it was going to be in round 7 and 8, not round 1 and 2.
Because there's nothing the Fates love more than delicious irony, round one I get paired up against a young woman piloting--wait for it--Goblins. It turns out I just can't beat active Krenko. In retrospect, I probably sideboarded wrong here. I swapped Mutagenic Growth for Negates and brought in one of my Steel Sabotage because she showed me Shrine of Burning Rage. I should have taken out my Talrands and my Pikes for 4 Angel 1 Cavern of Souls. I sort of wanted Dismembers to deal with Krenko and Hellrider (She had Hellrider where I had Brimstone Volley, I'm pretty sure), but I feel like then I just die to Goblin Grenade. She kills me in three games.
I tracked down the woman later to find out how she was doing. She was 3-3, which she felt pretty good about, because her goal was to win two matches. I told her I was glad I could help get her halfway to her goal.
Round 2 I get paired against Naya Pod. Game 1 is not close. I bring in Steel Sabotage but not Negate because the only noncreature spell he has shown me is Pod. I think about whether he has Bonfire, and decide that based on what I've seen he probably doesn't. Do most Naya Pod lists play Bonfire to the point where I need to assume he has it even if I haven't seen it? My thought process was that Pod lists have to be heavy on the dudes and light on the spells. I guess if you're going to play one spell though, it would be Bonfire. Spoiler alert: I lose to Bonfire.
But not before punting twice. And I didn't punt twice before making the following awesome play. My board is Talrand and Pike and his board is 2 Restoration Angel and Strangleroot Geist. I am at 9, he is at 12. I have been sandbagging a Steel Sabotage for Pod (or to bounce a Golem token from Blade Splicer). The turn before I am dead (he attacks me to six with the one angel that can attack). On my turn, I bounce my Pike with Steel Sabotage to make a drake, replay Pike, equip it to my token. He passes and says "go." He hits a land run to the point where he can activate 2 Gavony Township each turn. I then make the following 2 punts:
First, I vapor snag his Restoration Angel rather than his Geist, and attack him with a sworded up Talrand. At the time I thought it would have been better, probably, to Snag his Geist and get him to block with Angel, although in retrospect it's possible that I then just die to the fact that he can play Geist and activate Township on his turn. I feel like I have to defer to my judgement on the spot though and assume that wasn't a possibility.
Here's where things get ugly. I finally start hitting spells and making Drakes to the point that I'm now on the offensive. Here's the critical sequence. I draw Phantasmal Image, Copy his Angel, flicker my Snapcaster Mage. SCM rebuys Ponder. I forget exactly how, but one of his angels has died and the other is tapped (probably he swung with both and I blocked one). So the way is clear for me to get in for 10 dropping him to 2. Of course, if I had attacked with Talrand and another drake token, he's just dead. My opponent untaps and plays Bonfire of the Damned for 3. GG.
My opponent also points out that I could have targeted Gut Shot with SCM, attacked for 11, and finished him with Gut Shot after combat. Thinking about it later, I'm pretty sure I could have used the Ponder to set up a lethal thought scour, but I'd need to see the exact board state. So I had him dead on board at least two ways and potentially three, and decided to not kill him instead. And then I died to Bonfire.
This isn't strictly a "danger of cool things" mistake, but there's something deeply similar going on, I think, where I'm able to see the cool, puzzle-like play to not die, but them miss the easy kill later. It certainly felt a lot like the round 4 loss from earlier in the week.
I think what happened was that I had become so focused on the subgame of getting through his defenses with an equipped drake twice that I neglected to consider "just killing him" an option. Also I wasn't even thinking about Bonfire, and not attacking with everything seemed safer when he was basically on what was in my head 2 hits away from death regardless of how things went.
So I dropped out and proceeded to win a side draft, getting 10 packs. I parlayed my winnings into another draft where I lost round 1. Brief aside on M13 limited: I have yet to win a match with any Green cards in my deck. Still trying to figure out whether this is just variance or something deeper is going on.
That brings the current PTQ season to a close for me. It was wholly disappointing. I'm looking forward to Return to Ravnica sealed, though. There's an SCG Open next weekend here but I don't think I'll go. I don't really care about prizes or whatever, except to the extent that they subsidize my gathering of magics. I just want to play on the Pro Tour at least once. If I do end up going, I will probably just play Legacy on Sunday. I haven't busted out the Goblins in a while and I'm excited to play with Krenko and Cavern of Souls.
So this is probably my last post for a while. I would appreciate any comments you all have to offer, either here or on Facebook, about this post or about Magic generally.
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