Extended PTQ Report 24-03: Quarterfinalist

[RiQuSP]

PTQ Report: Quarterfinalist
By Rikus Pilat

Intro
Finally! The PTQ which was planned for tomorrow was the only one I could actually play in this cycle and I was pretty excited for it. Bad thing was that at this point, I’m kinda in a party celebrating my girlfriends dad’s 50th birthday. Good thing is I’m not like Kev. I stayed sober, drank about 2-3 beers and actually tried not to show up completely wasted at a PTQ. And so I did...

My girlfriend (who’s name is Vera) was kind enough drive me to the train station where this journey would start. I wanted to leave early, but when I woke up about 30 minutes before my alarmclock would start beeping the streets were covered in a blanket of snow. So, no time to eat, shower or anything, we had to leave. Right now. While waking up Vera, I found out she suddenly wasn’t to eager to give me the lift. I pointed out the fact that she promised it to me the night before and within 5 minutes we were ready to leave. Arriving at the train station I meet up with 2 other dutchies who I would travel with to Utrecht. While waiting for the 4th person I tried to get some food but everything was still closed because it was still early and also a holiday.

In the train we talked a bit about the format, what decks we were about to play and cards that we needed to complete our decks. When I showed them my deck of choice they were amazed about the pile I brought and hoped for me to get lucky. The deck I chose to play was this:

I was about to post my list here, but actually, it might be a better story to show the list after my match reports to keep all of you curious readers, curious.. For the nosy goblins among you, the list is posted at the bottom of this report.


Round 1:
Vs. Joris Luns, GWB Tallowisp

Interlude 1: Since it’s cool to have interludes (well, Kev told me so), I decided to type one as well. In round 1, my opponent plays the Tallowisp deck. I really, really don’t know why people play this deck, since it’s worse then all the other aggro decks. No Tallowisp in play makes it some slow aggro pile which doesn’t do much at all. Seeing him flipping a Tallowisp while shuffling makes me a happy, happy man. End of interlude 1.

He wins the roll and chooses to start. Keeping his 7 I’m forced to take a mulligan because my hand contains 5 lands combined with 2 Chrome Mox. My 6 card hand isn’t that much better but it at least shows some action.. Or not. I’m hoping to draw a black source (which could be: Chrome Mox, a combination of 8 fetch lands + 3 shockduals and a Swamp) Game 1 results in me playing only lands, some of them are Mutavaults and a Lightning Helix. He starts hitting me badly with a Phantom Centaur suited with a Armadillo Cloak followed up by a Troll Ascetic hugged by a Griffin Guide. My life totals drop too fast, his raises too fast and we proceed to game 2.

I probably should’ve taken another mulligan to 5 since I was on the draw anyway, ah well. Better luck next game. A positive thing about game 1 is the fact he has no clue what I’m playing and only sides in 2 cards. I chose to cut 3 Dark Confidants and add 3 Vindicate from the sideboard. My deck shows me a big amount of love in game 2 as I start with: Chrome Mox imprinting Shrapnel Blast, Mutavault, Isochron Scepter imprinted with Lightning Helix. A big sigh from my opponent, who already mulled to 5, gives me a good confidence boost and I pass the turn. It seems he has some mana problems and I draw 2 Vindicates to kill his dual lands. Combined with the 3rd Vindicate on hand for his forest this game seems to be over for him. My life keeps going up till over 30 and when he’s at 7 we proceed to game 3.

Game 3 Almost gives me the same action, except without the Scepter. 2 Lightning Helix get rid of a Gaddock and Tallowisp and again he can’t succeed to get more then 3 lands. I got a Scepter in the meanwhile imprinted with a Helix my life goes up again rapidly while my manlands (Mutavault and Blinkmoth Nexus team) keep his lonely Spectral Lynx untapped I get enough time to go for the kill. My opponent draws the card for his last turn and slams a Vindicate on my Scepter! Pff fine, end of his turn I cast Insidious Dreams discarding 2 cards putting 2 mystery cards on top. He was a happy man, destroying the Scepter and being back in charge, but an Erratic Explosion targeting him revealing Draco on the top of my deck suddenly changes everything. Suddenly 9 life isn’t that much when receiving 16 to the dome.

1-0-0, (2-1-0)

It looks like the deck works! And it’s also a ‘blast’ to play, I love it already, even after a clunky first round.

Round 2:
Don v. Ravenzaaij, GWB Doran

Game 1 is pretty damn tight as I succeed to take his life total to 1 and being able to seal the deal with my manlands on the next turn. It would be so if the Jitte of Umezawa wouldn’t mess up my plans and taking him to a higher amount of life while I have to take damage from the equipped Doran. Again, he didn’t really get to see much card’s from my deck, maybe it’s a good strategy to lose game 1 without revealing too much info to your opponent.

I side in 3 Vindicates and 3 Thoughtseizes for my Mogg Fanatics and 2 Shrapnel Blast

The seconde game we trade cards for a while and at some point he has Doran, again equipped with the annoying Jitte. But this is were my deck shines. He attacks with Doran, removing 2 counter’s to pump it, leaving 2 counters on it. I take 9 and am not at a life total of 8. He plays a few more creatures and passes the turn outtapped. I got an opening for Insidious Dreams, again discarding 2. Quickly he looks at his life total which is 6 but could go up to 14 removing all the Jitte counters. When I show him an Erratic Explosion into Draco we start shuffling for game 3.

While shuffling he shows some signs of being mad at himself for not playing around the Explosion-Draco combo. He starts and has again the jitte, but no Doran this time. An activated Treetop Village equipped eats some life points. In this game my life didn’t drop below 10 or anything near it. It’s only too bad I drew the only Draco in my deck... All right, he’s at 9, but too many Jitte counters for an insidious dreams and a possibility to fake the Explosion-Draco on top. Still I cast the Dreams for only 1 card and play an Isochron Scepter imprinted with Orim’s Chant. Sadly enough I don’t get enough time to actually get his life total below 0 and the game ends in a draw.

1-0-1, (3-2-1)

Round 3:
Micha-el v. Luijtelaar, 5c PLB

The first game I see some lands which produce blue mana. This is not one of the best matchups I’m afraid.. Game 1 it seems that he is mana screwing but starts off with a nice turn 2 Tarmogoyf. I’ll trade it for a Helix before it gets out of hand but he has a second one and also more lands are appearing on his side. A shackles steals my confidant and I’m unable to burn the last 8 damage.

In go: 3 Thoughtseize, 3 Extirpate, 3 Vindicate
Out: 4 Mogg Fanatic, 4 Lightning Helix, 1 Shrapnel Blast

To be honest I didn’t really have a clue why I sideboarded the Vindicates in. I start and proceed to play only Mutavaults and Blinkmoth Nexuses. Let the beat down begin! Again it seems that he is having mana problems and is unable to stop my lands. He takes an extra turn due to a Cryptic Command but it’s already to late for him.

I took the Vindicates out and added 1 Shrapnel Blast and 2 Lightning Helix to keep some ‘eot-action’. He starts with a Steam Vents into Ancestral Vision. Nice, this gives me the chance to play a first turn Dark Confidant to give me some advantage. Also a first turn Blinkmoth Nexus let’s me put pressure on him for a while. My opponent is not really fortunate, for the third time this match he is unable to find land for 2-3 turns. The showdown is some turns later when he finds mana to cast a Vedalkan Shackles. Already down to 7 life, he passes the turn with 6 mana open. I draw, activate 1 Nexus and 1 Mutavault and declare attackers. He responds with his Shackles targeting the Nexus. Response I Orim’s Chant him, he Remands, I use my Isochron Scepter to Chant him again, he Counterspells.. But is also outtapped. I use the targeted Nexus to float 1 mana, add 1 red mana and sacrifice it for a Shrapnel Blast. Down to 2 and facing a 2/2 Mutavault he scoops it up.

2-0-1, (5-3-1)

Round 4
Niels v. Reijmersdal, BW Braids

I knew he played a deck running Braids, Cabal Minion. I walked by his match after the previous round. What my deck would do against this? I really had no clue, since Niels is probably the only one playing it right now. Game 1 is still kind of blurry, looking at the life totals I wrote down I see me being on 11 life and him on 16, the 16 is followed up by a 0 so I think you can take a wild guess to see what happened there. If I remember correctly, he was on beat down mode, played a Thoughtseize using Caves of Koilos dropping him to 16 (he used the Caves before). I respond to the thoughtseize with Insidious Dreams etc. etc. Not a hard guess was it?

I only sided in a few Dwarven Blastminer since I didn’t see a single basic land in game 1. He thoughtseize’s turn 1, taking away an Orim’s Chant. My hand is now 1 Mox combining forces with 5 lands. As he starts to play creatures I draw Helixes for his first Dark Confidant, then for a Braids, Cabal minion. The second Braids stays but I have a Blastminer in play to get rid of some lands and at some point he sacrifices her and plays a third. Sensei’s Divining Top only shows me Erratic Explosion, Scepter and a land. I decided I had to get rid of Braids by using the Explosion leaving Scepter on top for 2 damage. This worked for a while but he kept dropping little men like Kataki and Paladin En-Vec. Eventually I’m able to build up an army of manlands and a Dark Confidant. Slowly his life decreases and he sees no way of getting passed my guys. With a lot of mana I cast Dreams for 1 Shrapnel Blast and 1 Helix, playing them on my next turn and win.

3-0-1 (7-3-1)

Round 5
Raoul Putman, TEPS

Finally a round which doesn’t include me and typing a lot of details about this match. Game 1 is quickly over when I cast a Helix on him on turn 2, playing Chrome Mox, Scepter imprinting Orim’s Chant on turn 3, Chanting him every upkeep he has no outs and we go to game 2.

Sideboarding:
-4 Mogg Fanatic, -4 Lightning Helix, -4 Dark Confidant
+3 Extirpate, +3 Thoughtseize, +3 Vindicate, +3 Dwarven Blastminer

Indeed, I was surprised when I found out I could side in a huge amount of cards in this matchup. Game 2 it didn’t help me much since he killed me the turn before my Blastminer could start working on his lands. Also I think I made a mistake here by Vindicating his land instead of playing the Blastminer that turn.

You can’t win them all, well actually, you can, game 3 gives me turn 2 Scepter imprinting Orim’s Chant. He tries some shenanigans but without drawing a ritual he ends up with Burning Wish for Hull Breach. Upkeep Chant you for a few turns, drawing manlands and proceed to win. Not really the fastest way to win with only 1 Mutavault and 1 Nexus. But who cares, right?

4-0-1 (9-4-1)

Round 6
Julian (…?), Dredge

Game 1 takes only 7 seconds for him to win, dredge is really, really good. Oh wait, what actually happened is the following..

Interlude 2: Kev told me to do at least 2 so.. This interlude is not that long. It’s about the fact that I was watching some friends playing the GPT (Birmingham, block constructed) when I suddenly heard the headjudge of PTQ announcing that round 6 started… I run as fast as I can to the top tables and see one spot open, sadly enough the judge asks me why I was late and tells me what I thought what was going to happen. I knew this but tried to explain that it was really noisy and hard to hear any announcements. I appeal but the headjudge is not going to reverse the ruling so I’m 0-1 vs:
1: A german
2: A german
3: A dredge player
4: A german

So, winning now would give me the possibility of ID’ing the last round and secure my top 8 spot. Game 1 starts in a good way, he mulligans twice and is still not happy with his hand but decides to keep. I Helix his Putrid Imp, he discards his whole hand with only 1 dredger and a bunch of useless cards, nice! Both of us are not really doing anything for a while until I get an Isochron Scepter imprinted with.. Shrapnel Blast! He deals some damage to me with 2 zombie tokens and passes. EOT Shrapnel you, sacking a Chrome Mox. Still 11 damage to go… Draw, play Top, pass. He dredges, hits nothing good and attacks again, I’m down to 13. As soon as he passes the turn I know I’ll win this one. EOT I dig through the top 3 cards, put draw on stack, activate Scepter, Shrapnel you, sacking Top. 6 to go. An activation of my Blinkmoth Nexus, attacking him and with the damage resolved I use the Scepter again to blast us into game 3.

I take out 4 Dark Confidant and 2 Lightning Helix to add 3 Tormod’s Crypt and 3 Extirpate. I didn’t need any of them in game 2 as I resolve a turn 1 Scepter imprinting Orim’s Chant. He dredges a bit and passes. Since he already took some damage of his lands I decide not to chant him for a turn. He manages to play a Narcomoeba taking another 2 damage dropping him to 15.. EOT DREAMS, UNTAP, DRAW, ERRATIC EXPLOSION YOU, REVEAL DRACO, I WIN!? Sorry about the caps there, but as I type this, I still feel the adrenaline pumping through my whole body when that happened. It’s better then sex, really.. well no, But still it’s pretty damn close! A combination of: beating a german, beating dredge, making top 8, winning after a gameloss vs. the best deck in the format (well not the best, the deck I played is the best!) really gave me a nice rush.

5-0-1, (11-4-2, not counting the gameloss right there..)

I still got some time left and decide to Kev a call, he’s already Q’ed for Hollywood and it would be the hot sex if we travel together. He’s really excited about it and wishes me the best of luck. When I tell him what deck I run he starts laughing and we try a high five through the phone.. Maybe I should call this small piece of text an interlude but 3 is too much. Someone told me that.

Round 7
Rens Feenstra, TEPS

We decide to ID, somehow I think I could play him, but the idea of having some breakfast after I didn’t eat for about 12 hours seemed very nice to me.

5-0-2 (11-4-3)
The food tastes great, it takes me about 7 minutes to fill my stomach with 2 Sandwiches with some good ol’ dutch snack. I decided to chill out a bit and since I already watched a lot of games I had a pretty good idea what the top 8 players would run. I’m #6 after the 7 rounds of swiss and I see I’m facing one of the guys I travelled to Utrecht with.. how unlucky, it’s never fun to eliminate or be eliminated by friends so early in the Top 8.

Quarterfinals
André Pot, Goblins (without Patriarch’s Bidding)

Game 1 ends pretty fast, he wins the roll and we are off for a quick game of magic. I resolve a Isochron Scepter imprinting Orim’s Chant, he can’t win that same turn and scoops. Good times.

Out go 3 Confidants and in go… well err.. I didn’t really have anything vs. Goblins in my sideboard, so I decided to put in Vindicates only because the can randomly be good. Also Vindicate is better imprinted on a Chrome Mox then Confidant…(yes, best reason EVER)

But the good times ended, game 2 he wins the turn right before I can cast Insidious Dreams for the win, a horde of Goblin Warchiefs, Piledrivers and other ugly’s finish me off before I have a 4th turn.

Game 3 is pretty ridiculous. I start, forced to mull way my first, second and third hand leaving me with: 1 Blinkmoth Nexus, 1 Mutavault, 1 Orim’s Chant, 1 Insidious Dreams.. Bad times. Unless I draw a Isochron Scepter fast this game would be done in no-time. I get to trick him once, pumping my Mutavault with the Nexus but after that I don’t see any Scepter’s and he creates an overwhelming mass of Gobbo insanity. Something like: Ringleader into Fanatic, Piledriver, Ringleader. Repeat that x2 and you beat me..

So, the story of me and my deck end. André loses to Zoo in the semi’s so we both end up empty handed.

I really like this deck and to be honest I wouldn’t change a single card in the main deck. Sideboard I’d probably change quite a lot of cards but I’ll give that information later.

As I promised earlier, this is the list I used for this PTQ:

“Errotic Scepter Explosion.dec”

Lands
4x Blinkmoth Nexus
4x Mutavault
4x Wooded Foothills
4x Bloodstained Mire
3x Sacred Foundry
2x Blood Crypt
1x Godless Shrine
1x Mountain
1x Swamp

Creatures
4x Mogg Fanatic
4x Dark Confidant
1x Draco

Artifacts
4x Chrome Mox
4x Isochron Scepter
4x Sensei's Divining Top

Instants
4x Orim's Chant
4x Lightning Helix
4x Insidious Dreams
3x Shrapnel Blast

Sorcerys
1x Erratic Explosion


SB: 3x Dwarven Blastminer
SB: 3x Vindicate
SB: 3x Thoughtseize
SB: 3x Tormod's Crypt
SB: 3x Extirpate


So this is the abomination I played 8 rounds with yesterday. In my next article I will try to explain the deck, what changes I would make after this PTQ and the choices I made for the current list. Also I’ll talk about some matchups, game plans and a lot more! I have to admit that I didn’t make this deck by myself. André Coimbra played a similar version at Grand Prix Vienna, I took that base and changed it. More about why I did that will be explained in a soon to come article. (I really hate the word article, I prefer to call it writings or something)

For now I wish you all the best of luck in your next PTQ and I definitely recommend this deck to all of you, nobody expects it, that’s one of the major reasons why it can win… out of nowhere!

Good times:-The judges, the tourney ran very smooth (with a bit delay, ah well).
-The players who tried to help me getting rid of the gameloss I got (Matthijs v. Wageningen, Steffen v/d Veen).
-All my opponents (except the German). The games I played vs. you were really nice, skillfull and difficult. Also big thumbs up for the sportsmanship!
-My lucky scarf which finally worked.
-Peter Huisman for borrowing me half the deck
-Arjen v/d Gun, before the tourney started I only had 2 Shrapnel Blast, he got me the 3rd, which was German… (Schrapnellexplosion you JAJAJA!!!)
-The fans from my local store!

Bad times:
-Mulligan x4 in the quarterfinals.
-The weather forcing me to get up earlier.
-This article coming to an end…

Ciao!
Rikus Pilat

PS: I'm not exactly sure if I got my opponents names right, if not I apologize and I'll fix them.