So Close Yet So Far - TCGQ *5-2 13th*

Hello everyone!

Last week I started from behind at the SCGIQ before winning my way to 9th. Today's story is the complete opposite. For starters, I didn't even know that there was going to be any big events until part way through the week when someone in our facebook group was looking for rides. I figured I would go for the trading if nothing else, so I made plans and headed town to TJ's Collectables for some standard action! I played the same exact list as last week except I changed the 2 Black Sun's Zeniths in the sideboard for 2 Sever the Bloodlines.

Round 1: Drogskol Spirits

I have been playing in more events recently and in turn I have been meeting more people. I never realized this until I sat down for round 1 and realized I recognized my opponent and the pairs of people on either side of my match. After all the hellos going around, I was completely unsurprised by the turn 1 island, delver. I was surprised though when he tapped his Seachrome, Darkslick, island and didn't play Geist of Saint Traft, but instead Drogskol Captain. I was a little taken aback, and immediately tried to remember as many cards from the Jon Finkel list from the Pro Tour. However, I was brought back to a very inspiring video I watched once: Just go kill him! As it turns out, that was my plan most of the day: present lethal every turn and make them play defensively.

2-0
1-0

Round 2: Delver

I don't even remember this round.... Delver isn't actually a very interesting deck to play against, and doesn't lend itself to memorable matches.

2-1
2-0

Round 3: RG Wolf Run

I saw this guy playing into turns the previous round and he missed lethal on board multiple times before finally going "whatever, I guess I have to go for it" and sent the opponent to negative 10. I have never had success in my life against Slagstorm-Primeval Titan decks ever in my career, so I really wasn't looking forward to this one. Game 1 I got him onto his back foot with a Phyrexian Obliterator. I then proceeded to get a free win when he decided his best out was to double slagstorm and leave himself at just 3 lands for permanents and 0 cards in hand. Game 2, he got me, but then the same situation came up again with Obliterator, and once again he decided I could basically get a free Liliana ultimate against him.

2-1
3-0

Round 4: 4c Heartless

I sat down against my opponent, and we started shuffling, I saw him flash a mana leak. That doesn't say much, but it is worth noting. He was on the play and mulliganed down to 5 while I kept my opening 7. He played a Sulfur falls tapped turn 1 before passing to me, so I had no idea what to expect between the falls and the Mana Leak. I won very quickly as he missed his second land drop, and his third land drop was a Drowned Catacomb that came into play tapped. I put him on Grixis Control, like what Patrick Chapin always tries to make work, and boarded appropriately. As it turns out he was on Heartless, and I was on all blanks game 2. I made all the appropriate changes game 3 and got the game into a complete board stall position where we were all going off the top. We were both flooding out though, so it was really up to the luck of the draw. I got a Geralf's Messenger though, and was able to recur some Gravecrawlers, and he drew too many blanks - he had 2 Heartless Summonings in play which severely weakened some of his topdecks like Solemn Simulacrum.

2-1
4-0

Round 5: Delver

I was starting to get intimidated by this point. Not because of my opponent - I had never seen him before - but simply because I was 4-0. I knew the people I would be playing against at this point would be incredibly good. I took out his Delver with a Tragic Slip, and was able to ride the tempo he lost to victory. (Sidenote: I don't like delver because it is so threat-light, and doesn't play very well through any real disruption). Game 2 was very interesting though because I had to race against his Geist of Saint Traft that was suited up with a Sword of Feast and Famine. He was able to get me down to 10 life before I was swinging in for 3 short of lethal with all my mana up. I made a spirit token and chumped to keep himself out of burn range. As it turns out the last card in his hand was Vapor Snag, and he very loudly expressed his frustration when he realized he was only going to be able to bring me to 1 life and he extended the hand.

2-0
5-0

Round 6: RG Aggro

Wow! 5-0 for the first time in my life! For the first time ever, I had to do the math out to see if I could draw into the top 8. There were 4 5-0s, and there were 18 people who had 12 or 13 points. So if I went draw-draw, I would end with 17 points. 9 players would win, giving themselves 15 or 16 points. Then 4 or 5 would win again and have 18 or 19 points. If only 4 players won their last round, I would make the top 8. If 5 did, then I would end in 9th place because I had the worst tie breakers of the X-0s. Therefor, I had to play it out.

I was against one of the local guys who is incredibly good. In my testing, I felt RG aggro was 50/50, and our games were very grindy. In the end though, he was able to win a tough one.

1-2
5-1

Round 7: UB Control

UB Control is absolutely a good matchup for me, but I lost. Why? I was so tired that I was not thinking very clearly any more. I played absolutely perfectly game 1 except in the turn I was planning on killing him. He was at 8 life, and my board was 2 Diregraf Ghouls and a Fume Spitter. In hand I had 2 Brimstone Volleys, Incinerate, and a Phyrexian Obliterator. I had 4 swamps and 2 Blackcleave Cliffs all untapped for mana. He had all lands and a Pristine Talisman. He completely tapped out at the end of my turn for a Think Twice, so I responded with 2 Brimstone Volleys bringing him to 2. The problem? I could have sacrificed my Spitter to make them both Morbid and bring him to -2. That's fine though because I was planning on sticking an Incinerate to kill him assuming my creatures couldn't get there. Black Sun X=2. I topdeck a swamp, so I play it and cast Phyrexian Obliterator with 3 mana up into his Swamp, Drowned Catacombs, Ghost Quarter, Pristine Talisman. He tapped Swamp, Catacombs and then sacrificed his Ghost Quarter to destroy his own swamp. Very clear that he has a Dissipate here. In response to the sacrificing of the Ghost Quarter I Incinerate him. He uses the 2 floating mana to mana leak the Incinerate. He gets an island, and then Mana Leaks my Obliterator. Why did I do it then? I'm an idiot. There is really no other way to say it. I just got too hasty and excited about winning and top 8ing that I forgot to actually guarantee victory. Insert Batterskull here, etc.

I was annoyed (because he pointed out my missed potential morbid after he went to 2), but this is a good matchup, so I should be fine. I was way too tired and slightly mentally tilted to play properly and I took a heartbreaking loss. After all that work to start 5-0 I had to settle for a 13th place finish.

0-2

5-2
13th place

The event was fantastic, and I really began to acknowledge my development as a player since this time last year. I felt I have been getting much better at simply playing tournaments - proper sleep, eating, hydration, mental state - and my technical play has been improving too. There are a couple players I really look up to and aspire to play as well as in my store. In the wild turn of events that was the weekend, they were the ones quietly railbirding me going into the later rounds! Whether it was the occasional pat on the back or just a simple smile at a win or good play, I really felt like I have finally joined that upper level group. Now the only thing left to do is get a real top 8!

The trades over the weekend were smaller than normal, as I was focusing more on the event, but I have been turning alot of cards into dual lands recently, so my binders are starting to get very thin. After one nutty trade with a guy that frankly was a complete asshole, I gained 6 dual lands and 2 Vendilion Clique, but I lost the majority of my trade stock. I haven't gone through it all yet, but I may just compress everything back to 1 binder, and my Pack to Moat is probably more desirable than my normal binders!

Overall I had a fantastic day that was capped off by my car having to get towed all the way home :(. But that aside, I had a fantastic day, and I can't wait to chew on some BRains again! That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack