Saturday 26th November 2011
4.55am - Alarm goes off. Time to win a PTQ.
5.08am - Showered, shaved, check. Pants?
5.10am - Pants, check.
5.30am - Out the door, into a taxi and off to the airport.
7.00am-ish - Onto the plane
8.00am-ish - Off the plane, onto a bus.
8.50am - Arrive at venue. See nothing is really happening. Go get food.
9.20am - Return to venue. See nothing is still really happening. Wait.
Wait.
Register for tournament.
Wait.
Wait.
…
Wait.
The Players meeting occurred at 11am. For a tournament that was advertised to start at 10am, this was rather annoying to say the least. I understand James (the TO) waited because there weren't as many tables as they’d been promised and they were trying to source more, but it still wasn’t a good look. This meant that our 83-person, 7-round PTQ was as cosy on the tables as our largest PTQs in Christchurch had been. Sigh.
Prior to opening our packs for registration there is a bit of discussion and joking about whether you want to open good cards (as you’ll be passing them very shortly) and be passed equally good cards or whether you’d rather open bad cards and get passed good ones. I figured I didn’t really mind what I opened, as long as I ended up with a playable deck. So, of course, after ripping into my 6 packs I find both Garruk and Tiago looking up at me. Not that Snapcaster is generally a particularly strong card in limited, but between the two of them that would have covered my tournament entry fee. Anyway, we wrote everything down, shuffled the pools around (Jason Hoe who was sitting opposite me ended up with the pool he’d registered, which is always amusing), and got down to the business of building a deck for the day.
Here’s my pool:
White:
1 Chapel Geist
1 Cloistered Youth
1 Elder Cathar
2 Feeling of Dread
1 Ghostly Possession
1 Midnight Haunting
1 Purify the Grave
1 Rally the Peasants
1 Selfless Cathar
1 Silverchase Fox
1 Slayer of the Wicked
2 Spare From Evil
1 Thraben Purebloods
3 Unruly Mob
1 Urgent Exorcism
2 Voiceless Spirit
2 Village Bell-ringer
Blue:
1 Armored Skaab
1 Back from the Brink
1 Delver of Secrets
1 Forbidden Alchemy
1 Invisible Stalker
3 Makeshift Mauler
1 Memory’s Journey
1 Murder of Crows
1 Rooftop Storm
1 Stitcher’s Apprentice
Black:
1 Corpse Lunge
1 Curse of Oblivion
1 Dead Weight
2 Ghoulcaller’s Chant
1 Manor Skeleton
2 Markov Patrician
2 Tribute to Hunger
1 Victim of Night
Red:
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Ashmouth Hound
1 Bloodcrazed Neonate
2 Furor of the Bitten
1 Hanweir Watchkeep
1 Rolling Temblor
1 Traitorous Blood
Green:
1 Bramblecrush
1 Full Moon’s Rise
1 Grizzled Outcasts
1 Kessig Cage-breakers
1 Make a Wish
1 Mayor of Avabruck
1 Moonmist
1 Somberwald Spider
2 Spider Spawning
1 Spidery Grasp
3 Travel Preparations
1 Villagers of Estwald
Artifact/Gold/Land:
1 Blazing Torch
1 Cobbled Wings
1 Creepy Doll
1 Galvanic Juggernaut
2 Ghoulcaller’s Bell
1 Mask of Avacyn
2 One-eyed Scarecrow
1 Trepanation Blade
1 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Kessig Wolf-run
1 Foil Plains
Immediately Green and White scream out as the two strongest colours, triple Travel Preparations, the Mayor and the Cagebreakers are all solid cards. Apparently mine wasn’t the only pool where this happened - every game I played against a deck which was base White, and five of my matches were G/W. Unfortunately the grand total of removal in these two colours is sweet-fuck-all. Blazing Torch is solid, but everything else is conditional: Slayer for monsters; Urgent Exorcism for Spirits; Bramblecrush for… nothing really. In hindsight, I possibly should have considered Ghostly Possession, at least as an answer to big threats. I nearly went with G/W splashing Blue for Geist and two Feeling of Dread, then came to my senses as I realized I had absolutely no fixing, the Geist was never going to be cast on turn 3, and I probably didn’t need the Feeling of Dreads. Next was toying with a Black splash for the Tributes and Dead Weight, and if I’d had some fixing I probably would have gone this route (I even considered boarding into it if I absolutely had to, but never did). I figured my best bet was to make my deck as consistent and aggressive as possible, and just try to turn guys sideways faster than my opponent. Here’s what I registered:
1 Chapel Geist
1 Cloistered Youth
1 Elder Cathar
1 Midnight Haunting
1 Rally the Peasants
1 Selfless Cathar
1 Silverchase Fox
1 Slayer of the Wicked
3 Unruly Mob
2 Voiceless Spirit
2 Village Bell-ringer
1 Kessig Cage-breakers
1 Mayor of Avabruck
1 Spidery Grasp
3 Travel Preparations
1 Villagers of Estwald
1 Blazing Torch
1 Galvanic Juggernaut
1 Foil Plains
8 Plains
7 Forests
This almost always became -1 Plains, +1 Make a Wish - I really liked this card all day, but wouldn’t have wanted to play more than one. I often boarded out the Rally the Peasants, as it was just there to allow me to win the occasional race/kill out of nowhere and lost its value once my opponent had seen it. The 2 Scarecrows came in against fliers and that’s about it.
On to the games!
Round 1: Jordan Schroder
Jordan spends what must’ve amounted to nearly 10 minutes trying to figure out what’s going on with his deck before presenting it to me. He counts it several times and comes up with 41, or 42 cards. This allows me to nip over to my bag and grab my dice, which was good. Jordan’s deck issues happened throughout the pre-game of our match, which I thought was weird.
Game 1: we both play Cloistered Youths (which flip very quickly) and Blazing Torches. Mine gets rebuked but I’ve got an Unruly Mob in play along with a Silverchase Fox wearing a torch. I cast Travel Preparations and in response Jordan tries to shoot my Mob. I respond by throwing the torch at his face and sac’ing my Fox, putting the Mob at 3 toughness. It was pointed out to me when I attempted to do a similar move in Round 2 (we’ll get to that…) that I can’t actually sac the Fox without a target. So, in the unlikely event you ever read this Jordan, my apologies, I should definitely know better. In the end I cruise on through this game and smash him good.
Game 2: I over-extend a tad more than was necessary and get blown out by Blasphemous Act. Jordan promptly drops 2x Thraben Sentry and there’s not a lot my deck can do about them.
Game 3: isn’t a real game, Jordan draws a million land and by the look of my notes I beat him down with Mayor. I decide to play around the Act by sandbagging my Kessig Cagebreakers - I figure they do a pretty good job of recovering from a board wipe. One card I saw a lot of all day was Moment of Heroism. It works great as a combat trick, and can swing a race in your favour.
1-0
Round 2: Andrew Plinston
I recognized Andrew from Nationals, and knew that he was on our National Team this year, so wasn’t expecting a match as easy as last round.
Game 1: we try to race each other with our G/W decks. Unfortunately, Midnight Haunting, Ambush Viper, Travel Preparations and a Gallows Warden are a damn sight better than anything I can muster.
Game 2: goes to my Silverchase Fox and Voiceless Spirit who prepare for traveling against his Festerhide Boar, Elder Cathar and Fiend Hunter.
Game 3: I start off in a commanding position whilst APL uses Silent Departure to try to regain some tempo. At this point I decide I no longer want to win the game and instead of flashing-back my Travel Preparations and comfortably cruising to a win with a large Voiceless Spirit and 2x Unruly Mobs on defense, I swing with my team into APL’s guys. Here is where I attempt to sacrifice my Fox to pump my Mobs and force trades around the board, but a Judge confirms that no, I can’t do that without a valid target. The game goes rapidly downhill from there.
1-1
Round 3: Aaron Sewell
Aaron’s name is one I recognized, but I’m not sure from where.
Game 1: we play the G/W mirror by dropping Villagers of Estwald with Aaron having the dual advantage of being on the play and an Avacyn’s Pilgrim. I try to stabilize but a Midnight Haunting, Abbey Griffon and a Silver Dagger all conspire to get me low enough for a Brimstone Volley to finish me off.
After the beatdown in the air I bring in both Scarecrows which show up in both of my next matches and reduce his spirits to really terrible flying Spawn.
Game 2: Aaron has a Priest, a Torch, a Fox, a Volley and a Midnight Haunting but has been on the back foot the whole game. He decides to finish it off with a Travller’s Amulet and a Caravan Vigil. Neither of these things can save him.
Game 3: Probably the most intense and one of the most fun games I’ve played in this Sealed format. I’m on the draw, but still get an early Mayor out. Aaron makes a big call and drops a Splinterfright, followed by a Tree of Redemption. So, all I need to do is kill him twice, before his giant trampling elemental smashes my face in? Ok then. One of the first cards that Aaron mills from his deck is Divine Reckoning, which makes things a whole lot trickier. Now I need to build up enough guys to kill him twice, and he can wrath the board and still be left with a giant trampling elemental of doom. Aaron drops down to 5 life before pulling the trigger on the Reckoning (thankfully after he has already milled 2x Volleys and a Harvest Pyre), but can’t attack as I’ve left 2W open and might have Rebuke. He quickly finds out that no; it isn’t rebuke; it’s just a couple of Spirits. The following turn the Spirits fly over and I drop my Kessig Cagebreakers that I’ve been holding forever. Aaron kills my Mayor and hits me for 9 with Splinterfright, but can’t stop the Cagebreakers bringing 6 Wolves with them (I think I also Travel Prep’d just to be sure).
2-1
Round 4: Matthew Griffin
Game 1: I’m on the play but quickly get smashed by the Boros monstrosity Matthew was running. I see Geistflame, a Reckless Waif, Bonds of Faith, a Priest, a Cultist, a Doomed Traveller and a Rakish Heir.
Game 2: I’m on the play again and Matthew’s double Geistflame and Chapel Geist can’t stem the bleeding long enough.
Game 3: Sees me sandbagging a Mayor all game, in the hope that he might tap out and I can cast it and Travel prep in the same turn. The only card I’ve got noted down here is Tormented Pariah and I remember smashing him with Cagebreakers again.
3-1
Round 5: Dan Bretherton
Dan’s another name I recognize but am not sure why. I really enjoyed my games with him as he was a nice guy to play against and talk to.
Game 1: I mull a 5-land, Cagebreakers & Unruly Mob hand on the draw, into a 1-lander then into a second 1-lander and decide I’d better keep it. Dan drops an Ambush Viper and transforms Vilalgers of Estwald before I make a play so decide to scoop before showing him any of my deck.
Game 2: I snap keep a 6-land Mayor hand and ride to victory on the back of my army-making machine.
Game 3: I’m on the draw, mull to 6 and am never in the game at all.
3-2
At this point standings go up and I think I might still have a slim shot at top 8. Matt Rogers helpfully points out that no I don’t, so these games are just for prizes/PWPs. I also manage to misplace my notebook prior to this match but thankfully Dan is sitting next to me and hands me a piece of paper from his.
Round 6: Marcel van de Steeg
Game 1: I’m out of the gates too fast for Marcel’s Chapel Geist and Instigator Gang to do anything at all. Rally the peasants pushes things over the edge I believe.
Game 2: I’m not really ever in this one, which is impressive as all I wrote down for Marcel’s plays was “Spectral” and “Moment”.
Game 3: I drop a t2 Mayor and am intentionally reckless with it - either trading or forcing a combat trick from Marcel to make him kill it. This is because I know I have Kessig Cagebreakers in hand and Marcel’s life total dropping from 14 to 3 to dead is probably a result of them.
4-2
Round 7: William Poor
Game 1: I have double Preparations in hand after a mull to 6 on the play and by the end of the game have a fistful of Green cards and never draw a single forest.
Game 2: William’s turn to be colour-screwed as he drops Ulvenwald Mystics, a Hamlet Captain, a Gatstaff Shepherd and somebody prepares for travel without ever getting White mana. I think the Mystics were slayed for being wicked and I took this game handily.
We joke about how it would be nice to get a real game this match, where we can both cast all our spells.
Game 3: His life total stays at 20. Mine doesn’t.
4-3
Final placing: 22nd and no plane-ticket to Honolulu.
In the end, Allan Barclay did the best out of all of the Christchurch players who traveled up (myself, Allan, John & Traci Seaton) with a record of 4-2-1. We all ended up going out for dinner together and I ate far too much but it was totally worth it after skipping out on lunch. They all tried to convince me to go to GP Melbourne and I think I probably will, just need to book some tickets!
It was a long and tiring day, and the top 8 didn’t finish till around 10.30pm at a coffee shop. I ended up heading out to Vagabonds Takapuna for a draft the next day (I 0-3’d triple MBS draft like a boss) but did manage to crush everyone in a game of EDH to make it all worthwhile. Also picked up some Verdant Catacombs (I now have a complete playset of Zen fetches) and a couple of cards for my Dragon Stompy legacy deck. All in all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable trip.
Peace, and please feel free to provide feedback/spread the word.
- PJ
Dooming Travelers since 2011
