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:
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| 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 built this:
1 Deathrite ShamanI'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.
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 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!
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