1) My green was absolutely garbage against most of the field: The only green in the deck was for Gaddock Teeg and Gavony Township, which proved near-useless in every major matchup.
2) Splinter Twin was a real problem: Some of this comes back to Green being no good, but I had no answers to a deck just holding back their counterspells to defend their win conditions. It ended up proving problematic, as I managed to escape with a win against a bad Twin player, but a good player in later rounds simply picked me apart.
With those two major points to think on, I packed up, took my two prize packs, and headed home to prepare for the next week. I ended up cutting green for black, and settling on this 75:
4 Plains
4 Isolated Chapel
4 Fetid Heath
3 Godless Shrine
3 Marsh Flats
2 Windbrisk Heights
2 Caves of Koilos
1 Swamp
4 Soul Warden
4 Intangible Virtue
2 Honor of the Pure
4 Spectral Procession
4 Lingering Souls
3 Raise the Alarm
3 Beckon Apparition
2 Midnight Haunting
4 Path to Exile
2 Thoughtsieze
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Smother
1 Disenchant
Sideboard:
2 Disenchant
2 Damping Matrix
2 Rule of Law
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Ghostly Prison
2 Sudden Death
2 Timely Reinforcements
1 Relic of Progenitus
I love the added hand disruption and removal that black gives me, and white still has all the combo stoppers. Sudden Death gave me a real combo stopper for Splinter Twin, and with that as the last sideboard addition, we were off.
Round 1 vs Gabe (Jund)
Jund was the exact matchup I wanted to face, and afterwards I found out that 10 of the 84 decks were this archetype. Game 1 I led with a thoughtsieze after his Land-Go, picking out a Maelstrom Pulse and seeing 2 Bloodbraids, a Tarmogoyf and Terminate to go with his second land. With a little bit of time before having to deal with a Tarmogoyf I had to care about, I spent the next two turns playing Intangible Virtue, Soul Warden, and Honor of the Pure.When he finally hit his third land on turn 5, I was able to Raise the Alarm in response to her second ability, gaining two life and sacrificing a token.With a decent board set up, I was able to start using my token generators to make 3/3s and gain life with Soul Warden, and even his Bloodbraid Elves were two little, too late
Sideboarding: -2 Thoughtsieze, -1 Disenchant, -1 Raise the Alarm... +2 Inquisition of Kozilek, +2 Timely Reinforcements
Gabe opens with 2 land and triple Goyf, but it takes a top-decked Maelstrom Pulse to save him from lethal damage.
Misplay #1
My turn deep in Game 3 facing down Dark Confidant, Tarmogoyf (4/5) Bloodbraid Elf, Grim Lavamancer, and a Raging Ravine at 17 life. I have 6 1/1 spirits, and can attack him down to 1, where any non-land revealed by Bob kills him. Instead I only swing 4, he activates Lavamancer to kill one, and goes down to 4.
On his upkeep, he reveals Jund Charm and goes to one, swings with everyone, and kills my team. I proceed to draw a blank and lose
0-1 (1-2)
Round 2 vs David (GB Rock)
It took me a game to figure out what he was playing, as it didn't seem to be working up to anything big. He would play Bob, take a bunch of damage, and lose game one without much fanfare.
Sideboarding: -1 Disennchant, -1 Raise the Alarm, +2 Inquisition of Kozilek.
Game 2 I don't do much other than kill his tarmogoyfs, and then (Finally) a Grave Titan comes down, and proceeds to ease through my zero blockers. He did show he had Extirpate, hitting some token generator.
Game 3 I catch a MASSIVE break, as he Inquisitions me with 2 paths, an inquisition, spectral and Lingering Souls, taking my Lingering Souls. I Inqisition him back and he Surgical Extractions in response, targeting my Lingering Souls... when he could have ripped two paths from my hand. He goes on to kill himself with double Bob a few turns later, and our hero is in the win column!
1-1 (3-3)
Round 3 vs Dane (Jund)
I'm eager to avenge my Round 1 punt against Jund, and come out blazing, gaining about fifteen life with two Soul Wardens, and crushing game 1, sadly against another San Diegan (which on some level always sucks)
Sideboarding -2 Thoughtsieze, -1 Disenchant, -1 Raise the Alarm... +2 Inquisition of Kozilek, +2 Timely Reinforcements
Game two he stumbles on lands, and I have six Spirits by turn four. An Honor and Intangible Virtue later and the game is out of reach. Dane extends the hand and proceeds to drop from the tournament.
2-1 (5-3)
Round 4 vs Danny (Merfolk)
While I can't really afford a loss, X-2 seems to be live, and I find myself playing a judge friend, who says he is playing a "watered-down Legacy deck" because he doesn't want to invest in Ravnica duals. I keep a decent opener with a Soul Warden, Honor, and a few token spells.
He wins the die roll and plays turn one Island...(Uh oh....) passing to me.
At this point, I'm trying to snap-judge my Merfolk matchup on the fly. I know my spells make more creatures than his, and I can make mine very large, so I figure I'm dead-even to a modest favorite, including my hand disruption and removal. I bait a few counterspells, rip a few lords from his hands, and end up bashing with several 4/4 flying spirits to take a nervy game 1
Misplay #2
Sideboarding: -3 Raise the Alarm, -1 Beckon Apparition, +2 Inquisition of Kozilek, +2 Disenchant
I flip right past the Sudden Deaths, you know, the uncounterable kill spell... Split Second... for Aether Vial hate...
I lose game 2 to about 6 merfolk of varying power starting at 4 and moving upwards.
Sideboarding: NO CHANGES
I lose to a merfolk sovereign and triple mutavault, and have a final hand of a Marsh Flats and all three Disenchant... clearly a sign.
2-2 (6-5)
Round 5 vs Juan-Pablo (Affinity)
Now needing to win out, I found myself just outside top 32 with 3 rounds to play. A few draws ahead of me and I was most certainly alive.
Game one I make a ton of spirits, he has very few answers, and two crusades move him from 20 to dead in quick fashion.
Sideboarding: -3 Beckon Apparition, -2 Midnight Haunting, -2 Thoughtsieze, -1 Raise the Alarm +2 Disenchant +2 Timely Reinforcements +2 Inquisition of Kozilek +2 Ghostly Prison
Game 2 he lands two Etched Champions with Metalcraft, and hits a whipflare before I can hit my first Crusade effect, and we go to game 3
Misplay #3
This is the nut-low of the entire tournament. He has a moderately slow start (Signal Pest/Memnite/Opal), and two inkmoth nexus... and he casts Blood Moon. I have 2 Plains in play and 2 new Mountains.
I draw a Disenchant... I know what you're thinking...I keep thinking it too now
Yep...I'm that bad at Magic... I decide he can have his two Inkmoth again, instead of casting the Spectral Procession in my hand for 4 mana (W,W,and 2 colorless). THE NEXT TURN he plays Cranial Plating... and grinds me out with it. I'm utterly speechless, which he infers as me being mad at him. I hastily explain that wasn't the case, and proceed to drop and drown my sorrows in an enormous bowl of Pho.
2-3 Dead (7-7)
A capable pilot, who had enough games under his belt, would have been AT THE WORST 4-1 after 5 rounds in an 84-man PTQ with 10 Jund, 10 Affinity, 8 Storm, at least 6 UW Tron and 5 Twin decks. I manage to make three (cripplingly) bad decisions, and pay the ultimate price for each of them. On a positive note, the deck is amazing, and in an aggro-heavy meta (Like SoCal tends to be), it should crush.
For me, there's one last chance at redemption. March 10th, back in Costa Mesa, after gas prices have jumped about 50 cents in a week. Maybe by then I'll know my deck well enough to stand a chance.
Until then, it looks like I'm still...
The Scrub Next Door
Nice article, good to see your recognition of your mistakes and hopefully you can learn from them before March 10th!
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