PTQ London report

PTQ London – Bath
Report by Daniel Godfrey

It’s probably best to forewarn anyone reading this: I’m an English Lit student (well, soon to be). This means that the following will most likely be excessively wordy and pretentious. On the plus side, though, I have lots of pretty pictures.

The Bath PTQ on April 2nd was probably the largest PTQ I’ve attended, with 105 players turning up on the day. Here’s the cards I opened:

White
Ethereal Haze
Day of Destiny
Scour
Myojin of Cleansing Fire
Bushi Tenderfoot
Kitsune Riftwalker
Lantern Kami
Kami of False Hope
Heart of Light
Quiet Purity
Kami of the Honored Dead
Mending Hands
Kabuto Moth
Cage of Hands
Split-Tail Miko
Indomitable Will
Terashi’s Verdict
Kami of Tattered Shoji
Hundred-Talon Strike

Blue
Veil of Secrecy
Eye of Nowhere
Field of Reality
Hinder
Reach Through Mists
Sift Through Sands
Thoughtbind
Wandering Ones
Soratami Rainshaper
Quillmane Baku
Kaijin of the Vanishing Touch
Floodbringer
Shimmering Glasskite

Black
Midnight Covenant
Blessing of Leeches
Ragged Veins
Dance of Shadows
Cruel Deceiver
Wicked Akuba
Nezumi Ronin
Nezumi Shadow-Watcher
Painwracker Oni
Gutwrencher Oni
Stir the Grave
Skullsnatcher
Yukora, the Prisoner
Kami of Lunacy
Nezumi Graverobber
Okiba-Gang Shinobi
Befoul

Red
Crack the Earth
Flames of the Blood Hand
Ire of Kaminari
Mana Seism
Lava Spike
Crushing Pain
Frostwielder
Brutal Deceiver
Shinka Gatekeeper
Yamabushi’s Flame
Hearth Kami
Torrent of Stone

Green
Dosan the Falling Leaf
Jukai Messenger
Kodama’s Reach
Orochi Ranger
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Soilshaper
Vine Kami
Petalmane Baku
Matsu-Tribe Sniper
Child of Thorns
Wear Away
Roar of Jukai
Seshiro the Anointed

Artifact
Jade Idol

The first thing that struck me was the distinct lack of Meloku, Jitte or Nagao. Of course, my worry kind of subsided when I looked over the black cards. Black was obviously my primary colour as it gave me playable creatures up the curve, a decent removal spell and a finisher in Dance of Shadows (one of a few “Oops, I win” cards from Champions). It may seem a no-brainer, but trying to decide between white and red as the second colour took me a fair bit. On paper, white is the obvious choice, but red gave me a less 2cc-intensive curve and put a few cards into the 4cc slot. As well as that, red provided real removal (Torrent, Flame, Frostwielder) over white’s pseudo-removal (Cage, Terashi’s Verdict). I built black/white anyway, if only because white had more depth to it than red (Kabuto Moth and Split-Tail Miko may have helped ease the decision).

The final deck I built was:

7 Plains
10 Swamp

1 Cruel Deceiver
1 Wicked Akuba
1 Nezumi Ronin
1 Nezumi Shadow-Watcher
1 Painwracker Oni
1 Gutwrencher Oni
1 Skullsnatcher
1 Yukora, the Prisoner
1 Kami of Lunacy
1 Nezumi Graverobber
1 Okiba-Gang Shinobi
1 Kami of the Honored Dead
1 Kabuto Moth
1 Split-Tail Miko
1 Kami of Tattered Shoji

1 Dance of Shadows
1 Stir the Grave
1 Befoul
1 Mending Hands
1 Indomitable Will
1 Terashi’s Verdict
1 Cage of Hands
1 Hundred-Talon Strike

I guess there are a few questionable cards that deserve some sort of explanation:

Kami of Tattered Shoji
I hate this card. With a passion. It’s a 2/5 that never flies when you want it to (on the defensive). The only reason I played it was because I felt I lacked creatures with converted mana cost 4 or more, and it could be used to stem the bleeding if my opponent played a lot of 3/3 or bigger guys. As it happened, he was useless anyway.

Stir the Grave
A lot of the time, this card provided back-up. I don’t think I cast it more than once, but the fact that I had it in hand provided a bit of comfort anyway.

Nezumi Shadow-Watcher
Just a personal thing really, but Mistblade Shinobi makes me want to hurt myself and everyone around me (it’s a Scrubs thing). Even if my opponent wasn’t playing Ninjas, having the insurance of this guy on the table made assigning blockers a lot easier.

Yukora, the Prisoner
Simple, really. If your opponent is playing black (Rend Spirit, Hero’s Demise, Pull Under, Swallowing Plague), then this guy is going to hurt you a lot. In saying that, his drawback can be quite easily played around by not committing him to the board until absolutely necessary. I only lost my board once in the tournament, and that was because of a mulligan to five on the play.

Kami of the Honored Dead
Slow format. Life gain when damaged. Soulshifts back my demons. Simple decision, really.

Overall, I figured that whilst my deck didn’t have one particular “My god, you have that card – please don’t hurt me, I have a small, deaf child at home and I need the prize-money for ear-surgery” bomb, it did have a lot of very above-average cards. I think I’d rather have that sort of deck than a one-trick-pony type deck. For one thing, I don’t get branded with a silly horse metaphor.

So, seven rounds of Swiss were announced.

Round 1 – Tony Edwards
He’s playing the same colour combination as I am, but I don’t see much of his deck due to turn two Nezumi Graverobber and turn three Kabuto Moth in both games. I wasn’t pressurised a lot and I remember recurring his Kami of False Hope at some point in the second match with Nighteyes. Wasn’t really fair.

Round 2 – Aaron Deacon
My notes have me going from 12 to 18 life whilst his life decreases in gaps of 5 and 4. I think he ran a Devouring Raged creature into my Kami of the Honored Dead. My deck tends to race or lose, so this obviously helped. I remember the second game very well: I kept a land-heavy hand with no early pressure, thinking that my removal and 3-cost guy would pull me out of a match that hadn’t seemed too difficult in game one. Then he played a mountain and Genju of the Spires on his first turn. Deer + headlights = me. Here’s my life total: 20, 19, 12, 5, 4, 1, DEATH. He also didn’t fail to damage me on any single turn of his. I love the Genju. Game three was slightly more intense. We were locked in a damage race, with both of us electing to attack rather than keep blockers back. I was happy to do this because I had the faster deck and was playing first. I was at 6 life when he eventually died.

Round 3 – Mike
Again, I remember a lot of this match fairly well. The first game was all about Nighteyes, as my opponent was playing a green/red deck and had just lost a Moss Kami in combat. By then, even a freshly made Kodama of the North Tree couldn’t help him deal with Nighteyes recurring a 5/5 trampler. Game two can be summed up quickly: play lots of small creatures, get his life total down to 15. Play Painwracker Oni and win in three turns if the opponent doesn’t find removal. He didn’t, and I had creatures to sacrifice to let the Oni go all the way.

Round 4 – Alastair
Another black/white match. At this point I was playing on the top table, and noticed that each deck there was b/w (with one running blue as well). Anyway, I mulliganed to five and led off with probably the most aggressive start I had all day. I figured that the card advantage would eventually cost me the game anyway, and so decided to go for the hyper-aggressive strategy. This unfortunately involved playing Yukora on turn five with the Moth, Skullsnatcher and some other low-casting-cost creature on the board already. He got Cage of Hands on Yukora initially and then later Pull Under. That was pretty much it, as I still hadn’t drawn anything worth mentioning. Games two and three hinged on the card advantage created by ninjutsu-ing the Okiba-Gang Shinobi in, which successfully hit removal spells from his hand on both occasions. The third game was close, with me ending the game on 7 life.

Round 5 – Mick
I finally managed to splice Hundred-Talon Strike on turn three! It basically involved having a Split-Tail Miko in play, announcing him as a blocker and casting Terashi’s Verdict, splicing the Strike to take out the other attacker. It made me happy. Of course, the Miko died next turn when he tried killing another attacker and Kodama’s Might stepped in to put the healer in his place. My own fault, really, for using the Miko to remove creatures rather than just prevent their damage. I still managed to win the match. I was at 1 life at some point before playing a Kami of the Honored Dead and jumping back up to 6 during the next combat. I ended the game the turn after. The second game, I had an aggressive start and Mick had land trouble. I’ve written that his few creatures were removed with Terashi’s Verdict and Befoul, with Cruel Deceiver and Graverobber taking the game for me.

At this point, I’m top of the Swiss and need to ID the next match to make the top 8. I do, and make it in, but play out the matches anyway out of interest and lack of anything better to do. (I suppose eating would have worked, but this would have involved walking to the nearest shop in far too sunny weather whilst wearing lots of black. Stupid sunlight-attracting colour.) So, anyway...

Round 6 – Ryan Hough (ID)
We talked a bit before the match and I found out that this was his first PTQ and he’d travelled up from Cormwall. I felt all out-southed. We realised after a few matches that my deck smashes his unless I get mana problems. He was playing blue/white, I think, but I didn’t think it was important enough to take many notes about it (being played for fun, as it was).

Round 7 – Stefano (ID)
I didn’t take any notes for this either, and for good reason: I didn’t need to. At this point, I was confident that I had one of the best decks in the room and that it was unlikely that any other deck could possibly dominate mine. Sure, I could lose the odd match, but I figured I had a fairly good chance of winning against everyone. Well...remember how I said I’d rather have a balanced deck than a bomb rare? I take it back. Meloku entered the building, taunted my black guys (racist that he is) and ran away with the match. In fairness, I don’t think I’d have taken quite a beating had he not made double Honden on turn five. White and blue Honden, to be exact. I had him down to 1 life at some point, but it didn’t matter as he just gained it back, drew three cards and showed me Meloku. He’d splashed black for something, but when you do something like lay double Honden or play Meloku, it’s really irrelevant. Stupid, non-countering blue cards. (Still, it was fairly entertaining. It’s just as well I ID’ed, really)

So I went into the top 8 draft hoping to get some decent first- or second-pick that would give me a clear direction as to what to build. I then proceeded to first pick Kodama’s Reach...

Yes, that bad.

I love the Reach in Sealed, especially when used to splash for a certain blue legend whilst trying to make triple green for a Kodama of the North Tree. I try to avoid it in draft, though. Sometimes, avoid as you might, the other cards won’t help you. It’s like a bad horror movie. Or London. So, yeah, the only other card worthy of mentioning in my opening pack was Soratami Rainshaper. I guess it came down to experience, and I’ve had more good experiences with the Reach than with the Rainshaper. My second pack wasn’t much better, and I picked a Mirror-Guard, hoping to ignore green and pick up some decent blue cards. Then blue dried up, a third pick Pain Kami came through, and I headed into red, seeing it as open if no-one had picked up the Kami yet. It also successfully cut off red, as the other packs I had passed had very little red in them. Then the onslaught of 4cc green creatures began. To cut a long story short: I built my draft deck with a heavy 4 slot and figured that I’d die horribly to anyone who had built a red/black Spirit-craft deck. My aim was to accelerate quickly and put out big creatures that’d dominate the board. Here’s the deck:

10 Forest
6 Mountain
1 Swamp

2 Traproot Kami
1 Frostling
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Scaled Hulk
2 Order of the Sacred Bell
1 Heartless Hidetsugu
1 Rootrunner
2 Burr Grafter
2 Feral Deceiver
1 Pain Kami
1 Shinka Gatekeeper

1 Kodama’s Reach
1 Torrent of Stone
1 Devouring Rage
1 Rend Flesh
1 Lure
1 Sosuke’s Summons
1 Commune with Nature

(Sideboarded card: Yamabushi’s Storm.)

Quarter-Final – Ryan Hough
As it turns out, he drafted a very similar deck to mine, but with a heavier black splash for more removal. His shaky mana-base meant that he was stuck with cards like Eradicate in hand. The first game involved (if we ignore the part where we got our decks mixed up and I found myself looking at a hand containing a Divining Top I didn’t own) accelerating, making a Scaled Hulk, playing some guys and getting rid of blockers; then casting Torrent of Stone on his only blocker, playing two more low-cost Spirits and attacking for a total of 16 to put him at 1 life. I won during the next turn. He got severely mana-screwed in his second match when he didn’t see any of his land-searching and Scaled Hulk won it again.

Semi-Final – David Grant
There’s a reason Yamabushi’s Storm was drafted, as well as Sosuke’s Summons and Traproot Kami. It’s for annoying Spirit-craft decks that tend to play far too many guys with a toughness of 1 and win very, very quickly. Still, I mulliganed to six in the first game without seeing any of the necessary cards beyond Sosuke’s Summons, which only slows things down slightly. I lost quite quickly.

The second match was slightly more interesting as I mulliganed to six again and kept a debateable hand on the strength of Yamabushi’s Storm. However, he only played out one 2/1 and the right moment never came to get more than a one-for-one trade. As it happened, mistakes by both myself and David made the match closer than it had any right to be. The important turn came when he played Glacial Ray splicing Hideous Laughter, only to have the judge point out that the cost of splicing Hideous Laughter was five when he only had six lands out. The game went back to before he had cast the spells with six mana floating, and he chose to just cast Hideous Laughter and mana burn for 2. I’m not entirely sure why he didn’t splice on Glacial Ray and I think this caused me to mis-record the life totals, as I could see no valid reason to mana burn for 2. He attacked me down to 4 and played a Scuttling Death to face down my Scaled Hulk. He’s at 5, but I have it recorded as 6. I have Frostling and Yamabushi’s Storm in hand. Thinking he’s on 6, I decide not to attack because the response to playing Frostling, casting the Storm and doing 1 damage to the Scuttling Death via Frostling with the Storm on the stack would have been to give the Scaled Hulk -1/-1, making him a 5/5. I pass the turn without attacking and he kills me next turn by splicing Glacial Ray onto Soulless Revival and then Raying me again for the win. Still, the better deck won and the dodgy plays cancelled each other out.

Overall, it was a very good tournament, both for the playing experiences and how it was run. With such an unexpected turnout, the judges handed it very well and it proceeded without much trouble.

To comment on this article, visit the Cardiff Games forum.

Shameless Plugging
Cardiff Games is the central Magic venue for events in Cardiff. The area is very competitive and has given rise to renewed interest and a host of new Welsh players attending more high-level tournaments. The forums are very active and not just for those based in Wales, but for anyone who’s interested in events going on in the South-West of Britain. (On Sunday 3rd of April, a Team Sealed event took place in which nine teams from Cardiff, Pembroke, Bridgend and Coventry played four rounds and a top four knock-out.) To visit the website, go to www.cardiffgames.co.uk.