2001)

PTQ IBC, Gen Con 8/3 – 6th Place

Well, I didn’t qualify but I did manage to make my first-ever PTQ Top 8, so I thought I’d write my first-ever tournament report (of course Marcus Anderson provided just a little pressure).

Anyway, on to the meat of what I’m sure you all want to see. I’ll present the deck commentary first, then summaries of my matches, followed by the overall results of the PTQ.

Main Deck:
4:Blurred Mongoose
4:Thornscape Familiar
3:Yavimaya Barbarian
1:Kavu Titan

4:Raging Kavu
3:Thornscape Battlemage
1:Flametongue Kavu
4:Skizzik

3:Fire/Ice
2:Scorching Lava
4:Urza’s Rage
2:Prophetic Bolt
1:Ghitu Fire

6:Forest
6:Mountain
4:Shivan Oasis
4:Yavimaya Coast
4:Shivan Reef
1:Keldon Necropolis

Sideboard:
2:Kavu Titan
3:Flametongue Kavu
1:Fire/Ice
2:Scorching Lava
3:Thunderscape Battlemage
4:Overabundance

Comments on the deck and some of the main choices made:

1) Why did I choose this deck?

Well, originally I was playing Go-Mar and although I was comfortable with that deck, I was sick of having all of my matches last until the end of the round and always having to watch the clock. It was just too much stress. I wanted a deck that could beat down the opponent more quickly.

2) Why the splash of blue in a RG deck?

The original idea for a RGu deck similar to this one was given to me by my friend Jason and then playtested and tweaked by myself and other friends, in particular my friend Johnny Lai. One of the reasons I liked it so much is that there is no real disadvantage from going into blue except for the likelihood of taking more damage from the painlands – the blue doesn’t slow the deck down at all. This deck cares much more about speed than about pain, so blue seemed the best splash color. Also, splashing blue gives the deck more options than a straight RG build.

3) Two-drops:

I think 12 2-drops are essential for enough speed. The mix of Barbarians and Titans was chosen based on seeing a LOT of blue, and bounce in particular, at the IBC tournament the day before.

4) Only 1 Flametongue Kavu?

I just think these sit in your hand too often in too many matchups. Besides, Meddling Mage ALWAYS seems to name Flametongue, so having only one puts me at much less risk for having dead cards.

5) 4 vs. 3 Skizzik:

I was NEVER unhappy to see these.

6) 3 Fire/Ice:

These were one of the main reasons to play blue. I thought at first I might use the Ice part only 20% of the time, but I ended up using it more like 30-40% of the time. It was used to tap land to avoid counters, to tap big fatties such as Spiritmongers, etc. I would have main-decked the fourth as well but I had to make room for…

7) 2 Scorching Lava:

For the dreaded Spectral Lynx, which was expected (and rightly so) everywhere. Also helped against Nightscape Familiars and Pyre Zombies and even Plague Spitters (to avoid all my creatures taking 1 when it hit the graveyard). Not to mention that even without the kicker it still kills most bears just fine.

8) 2 Prophetic Bolt:

The is another main reason to play blue. These are just AMAZING. They come in useful when the deck is in boot-to-the-head mode, especially as they can be cast at the end of the control-player’s turn to either make it through or draw the counter so I can play something else during my turn. Plus, they provide more fuel to keep on burning! I played with the number a lot, but finally decided on just 2 due to their expensive casting cost.

9) Only 1 Ghitu Fire?

Well, basically I found that usually the Bolts are just better, so they replaced the Ghitu Fires that are usually found in RG decks.

10) Land:

Well, I decided I didn’t want to slow the deck down AT ALL from standard RG, so it was painlands-only for the blue. Also note that the blue is pretty much all on-theme for a standard RG deck, so my version stayed pretty true to the basic archetype. One thing I did do was run 25 land out of 61 cards. I just felt 24 out of 60 was too little while 25 out of 60 was too much. So 25 out of 61 it was! Even though this might sound a little high, I still felt I had too little land a tad more often than I felt I had too much land.

11) Sideboard cards:

Kavu Titan – for the mirror or anytime I felt I needed more trample damage; also replaced Barbarians when not playing against blue Flametongue Kavu – for creature-heavy opponents without too much pro-red Fire/Ice – for RG (Fire) or BWG (Fire for the little guys and Ice for the Spiritmonger); also replaced Scorching Lava if kicker wasn’t needed

Scorching Lava – whenever I needed something REALLY dead

Thunderscape Battlemage – mainly for Domain, though I didn’t see any
all day long

Overabundance – for control, particularly Go-Mar

MATCHES:

OK, now on to the matches. Unfortunately I have almost no names since I didn’t know I’d be writing this until afterwards, but I played a lot of very good players. I’ll talk about what decks I faced as well as the interesting highlights.

There were 149 players. This meant 8 rounds of swiss followed by a cut to the top 8.

Match 1 vs. BR:

I won 2-1. The only really notable thing I remember here was in game 3 we were both drawing LOTS of land. Near the end, I was at 15 and he was at 10. He had 12 land, including a tapped Urborg Volcano he had just played that turn. I was pretty sure he had to have Rage and some other burn in his hand to finish me off next turn. I only had 10 land, but I drew Scorching Lava to go with the Fire/Ice and 2 Rages I had in my hand to do exactly 10 points to him with 4 burn spells! It turns out I would have been dead next turn, too.

Match Record: 1-0

Match 2 vs. Go-Mar:

I won 2-1. I lost game 1 and in game 2, I had to mulligan and my 6-card hand consisted of 2 lands, Fire/Ice, and THREE Overabundance! I kept it (though I was unsure as to how it would play out) and played two of the Overabundances. I also drew and played a Blurred Mongoose to start beating on him. Soon thereafter during his turn, he taps 3 land for nine mana to vindicate one of the Overabundances. In response, with just 4 land on the board, I cast Rage with kicker on him! He goes to 1, casts Dromar, but I top-deck Skizzik and push
through for the win.

Match Record: 2-0

Match 3 vs. BRW:

I won 2-0. Finally, one that didn’t have to go to game 3! Sorry, I don’t remember much from that game…

Match Record: 3-0

Match 4 vs. BWg:

I won 2-1. All I remember about this match was seeing Spiritmonger SEVERAL times. Luckily, my opponent was short on mana at least one of those times so I was able to kill the Spiritmonger with burn. One time I think I attacked with a kicked Kavu Titan and then when he blocked used Fire to finish off the Monger (he was tapped out). I believe I also Iced the Monger once or twice.

Match Record: 4-0

Match 5 vs. RGb:

I won 2-0. Almost the mirror, but he added black instead of blue for cards like Addle, Slay, Tsabo’s Decree, Terminate, Pyre Zombie, etc. I think he was pretty mana-screwed both games.

Match Record: 5-0

Match 6 vs. Tim Gruneich, playing RG:

I won 2-0 but shouldn’t have. While my deck was metagamed against blue and was definitely NOT metagamed against the mirror match, his deck was VERY metagamed against the mirror. He had 4 Titans, 4 Flametongues, and 1 Shivan Wurm main to my 1 Titan and 1 Flametongue main. After sideboarding he had 4 Wurms going up to 12 of these cards whereas I could only go up to 7. However, he had to double-mulligan game 1 and got mana-screwed game 2 so I lucked out and won. As a side note, I also have to say that this was one of the most fun match-up of the day, with Tim being a very funny and nice guy and us joking throughout the whole match.

Match Record: 6-0

Whoopee! I should be able to draw my last two matches to make it into the top 8.

Match 7 vs. Tuli Jakobsen playing RGU turbo-rage-obliterate:

We chose to ID, as he was also at 6-0. We played it out for fun, though, and he beat me 2-0, even though I think this match-up SHOULD be slightly in my favor. It was rather notable though as I had not seen a deck similar to his previously. It had lots of the sac-lands, Blurred Mongoose, Mystic Snake, Exclude, Fact or Fiction, Fire/Ice, Ghitu Fire, Urza’s Rage, Obliterate, and maybe some other stuff as well. Both games he didn’t even cast the Obliterate – just raged me to death after burning away my creatures.

Match Record: 6-0-1

After this match there was some mix-up with the pairings. I first got paired against down someone who needed to play and was a bit worried (though I would still likely make it in to the top 8 even with a loss) but then the pairings were changed.

Match 8 vs. Aaron Breider playing RG:

We chose to ID, as he was at 6-1 with good tiebreakers and was almost certain to make it in to the top 8. I remembered Aaron from GP Detroit a few months back where he smashed me in sealed deck format. We play one game for fun and I win.

Match Record: 6-0-2

The final standings are posted and I’m 3rd so it’s on to the Top 8.

Quarterfinals vs. Aaron Breider playing RG:

I think my chances are almost even for this matchup, but the first game I can’t get past 3 mana and die quickly. The second game I mulligan into a hand light on 2-drops but heavy on burn and think I’ll be OK but then Aaron drops a Blurred Mongoose followed by a second Blurred Mongoose and I quickly die. I’d like to point out though that this match was much more fun and good-natured than I thought my first PTQ top 8 match would be.

So I’m number 6 after all that and at least get a box and a pin for my troubles. I guess I’ll have to try again Saturday in the next PTQ...

As for the overall results of the PTQ, here they are as best as I could tell:

Quarterfinals:

Aaron (RG) beat me (RGu)

Sam Black (GWU) beat Tim Gruneich (RG). Sam was playing an interesting deck with Pheldagriff, Noble Panther, Armadillo Cloak, and lots of pro-red and pro-green creatures. I had played against him the day before and his deck was a NIGHTMARE for RG.

Joshua Woodworth (Go-Mar?) beat Ryan Strand (No-Mar?)

Tuli Jakobsen (Turbo-Rage-Obliterate) beat Mike Fitzpatrick (RGb)

Semfinals:
Aaron beat Sam
Tuli beat Joshua

Finals:
Aaron beats Tuli in 3 games to qualify for PT New Orleans. Congrats Aaron!

RECAP:

Basically, I did as well as I could have hoped. Although the event seemed like it was rather RG-heavy, the IBC tournament the day before was
extremely blue heavy and I peaked over at the Top 8 of the GP Denver trial that was going on and ALL of the 5-6 decks that I saw were playing lots of blue. So I guess the metagame is still anyone’s call.

Thanks to everyone that helped out, especially Jason for the initial idea, the folks in Columbus, particularly Olwen, for the playtesting and tweaking, and Johnny for the final tuning. Oh yeah, and Marcus for cheering me on and getting me to write this report.

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