Innistrad PTQ

There was a PTQ for Honolulu in town today using the new set. It isn't out on Magic Online yet and I avoided playing in the pre-release a couple weeks ago due to my extreme dislike of huge crowds. (401 continues to claim it will cut off entrants at 64 people but actually took money from 129 people... It's generous to say they have room for 64.)

I spent some of yesterday and I bit this morning actually reading the card list for the set and hoped that would be good enough. How good are werewolves? Who knows! How do they even work? I don't know! Realistically I shouldn't have expected to do very well but I think I'm pretty good so I expected to go in and win. Smash!

At any rate, I went to bed very early yesterday since I was tired (7:30ish) and ended up waking up at 3:40 this morning. Plenty of time! I finished reading the set list and headed out to Matt's house to snag a ride.

They ended up getting 84 people which meant 7 rounds of swiss with a likely record of 5-1-1 needed to make top 8. The deck I registered had two foil rares in it which meant the card pool actually had 8 rares compared to the usual 6. A couple were dual lands but it also had a couple bombs. Sadly I didn't get it back. Instead I got what seemed to me to be a pretty weak card pool. I had one card which seemed like it could be a bomb (skirsdag high priest) and not a lot else going on. The rest of my black seemed pretty weak but it looked like I had a lot of cheap white and green humans. I had a black/green dual and a land searcher so I decided to spash the priest and an unburial rites into an aggressive white/green deck with three pieces of equipment.

Round 1 I have 1 land in the opener and mulligan into a 1 lander and mulligan into 2 lands. I end up getting flooded after that and only cast 3 creatures which all met creature removal. Games 2 and 3 my opponent stalled on mana and I beat him up with a bunch of cheap dudes. (He was playing double coloured spells in 3 colours I think so I'm not too surprised he got colour screwed a bit.)

Rounds 2 and 3 are very similar. I curve out in both games and quickly kill my opponents. My deck doesn't feel very powerful but an aggressive deck will sometimes just beat the opponent up when they don't have a good way to deal with the pressure.

Round 4 I have 1 land in the opener. I have a 1-drop (though it is equipment) and 3 2-drops including my bomb which I have yet to play. It's pretty unlikely I'll draw a black source to play him (I have no green so the land searcher won't help) but I decide to go for it. I tell my opponent I feel like losing and keep. I don't draw a land for 6 turns and unsurprisingly die. Game 2 I draw land and spells and demolish him with a fast start. (Turn 1 mana elf, turn 2 2/3 flyer, turn 3 5/5.) Game 3 my draw isn't quite as fast but I do play out my high priest. I'd sided in some removal which kills spirits and was able to use those to proc the priest. (Tap the priest and two other creatures to put a 5/5 flying demon token into play. You can only play this ability if a creature died this turn.) I used the Death Star and the Ace of Spades as demon tokens and blew him up with demons.

So I've started 4-0 and likely just need one more win in order to draw into the top 8.

Round 5 my opponent plays an early mayor. This is a flip werewolf that makes a 3/3 wolf every turn. It's a real problem if it ever flips. So what do I do? Decide to not play a spell on my next turn so I can keep tapper mana up. His mayor flips and destroys me. In retrospect I might win if I just play out a spell on that turn but it isn't clear. Doh. Game 2 he plays a cagebreaker (3/4 dude with a trigger that goes off when he attacks which puts a 2/2 wolf into play attacking for each creature in your graveyard) and that alone is enough to kill me. I don't have cards nearly as good as the mayor or the cagebreaker and have little in terms of removal so I got blown up. He was also playing a green/white beatdown deck but he had bombs, in colour, and they were less situational than mine. Also he drew his and I didn't draw mine.

Round 6 is essentially another mirror. He is playing white/black/green. None of the colours seems to be a splash as he has double coloured spells all over the place. He has 2 tappers, 3 rootwallas, 3 black kill spells... Basically his deck is like mine but a lot better if he draws the perfect land mix. He does so in both games and we frequently end up trading a bunch with him playing double-regrowth to generate enough card advantage to win both games.

Round 7 probably shouldn't matter but it turns out there are nine people at 13 points or more. Two of them have 13 points and one got paired down. If he looses then a 5-2 makes it. My breakers aren't spectacular but they aren't terrible either so there is an outside chance. Especially since my opponent is one of the people with better breakers than I have. Like the last two rounds this is essentially another mirror. But while the last two opponents had better cards than I did this guy seemed more on par with what I had. Game 1 I stall on lands and he gets me down to 5 life. He has 2 creatures in play and a +3/+0 equipment so any creature he draws is a threat. I have a tapper. Each turn I play a dude, tap his bigger guy, and trade with his equipped dude. Then we both cast another dude. This happens over and over and over. He has an empty hand so if he ever draws a land I'm free and clear. If I ever draw a land I can start doing multiple things each turn and get free and clear. Neither of those things happens for about 8 turns. Eventually though he runs out of gas and I kill him with my juggernaut.

Game 2 featured my making a misplay right out of the gates. He equips a 1/1 deathtouch creature with an equipment that gives first strike (also +1/+1 if the creature is human). For some reason I think it gives +1/+1 (also first strike if human) and attack into it with my 3/3. He blocks and my guy dies and I'm behind as a result for a lot of the game. I do end up getting my high priest out though and he doesn't really have a way to kill it. I throw a creature away to get my Death Star online, and I equip it with silver inlaid-dagger and inquisitor's flail which makes it into a 7/5 flyer that both deals and receives double damage. I crack him for 14 the turn I equip this stuff and he's in real danger. Unfortunately he has his +3/+0 equipment and a 2/1 flyer which he holds back on defense. I have a 2/2 flyer so I figure I can throw away the Death Star, hit him for 2 (he's at 2) and win. Instead he has a spell which gives +2/+2 and lifelink which gains him 14 life when he kills the Death Star. (Stupid flail making him take double damage... I probably should have equipped something else just in case.) At any rate, I build a new Death Star because that one died. He has 14 life so I can't alpha strike him down anymore so we end up playing draw-go for a while. He gets a tapper online to shut down the Death Star and makes a couple 1/1 flyers. Then for some reason he attacks with them. I block one with my 2/2 flyer and he has another +2/+2 to kill it. Ok, fine... I replace it with The Ace Of Spades and he gains 3 life. Seems like an ok trade to me. A couple turns later he gets bored and attacks with his 5/1 first striker... So I kill it with a spell that only targets attackers and build an Acrobatic Ninjas because it died. Now I have a trio of 5/5s and he doesn't have a first striker to kill them so I start beating his face in and win.

The 13 pointer who was paired down won his game so it was all for naught. I got some planeswalker points out of it and had fun so it wasn't a waste of time by any stretch but it's a little disappointing to start 4-0 and not manage to make top 8. Oh well! There's a PTQ in Waterloo next month and I may try to head to that for a second shot...