Grand Prix Trial | Joy Stuck In The Past

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14
Apr 14

MtG -Warsaw Grand Prix Trial

This Sunday saw the Grand Prix Trial take place for Warsaw. I was mostly interested in points to grind to try and get a bye for Grand Prix Manchester. At constructed on Thursday, my Mono Black Devotion deck was pretty poor. This was not helped by three of the four match ups being against Green which has recently been a bit tougher due to hexproof and the card advantage they get. I had a look round and switched to a Mono Black Devotion deck more able to compete against green, closer to one I ran at the start of Theros.

On Sunday there were only 14 players so I knew 3-1 would get me into top 8, 2-2 might scrape in on tiebreakers but I was still hopeful to top 8.

Round 1 vs Jamie Lessels (Esper)

I had played Jamie before but couldn’t remember how the match up went. After mulling to 6 I got a T1 Thoughtseize taking a Supreme Verdict. He still had one and a Detention Sphere which I later stripped too. I managed to grind away winning game 1. For game two I sided in the 4 Duress and dropped a chunk of removal.

Excellent sideboard card

We shuffle up and I feel pretty dirty. Turn 1 Duress removes a counter spell. Turn 2 I topdeck a Thoughseize so use that and the other Duress in hand to remove an Elspeth and Verdict. His hand was all land and mine was an Underworld Connections, third land and 3 drop. It was pretty tense though and he wavered between 1-5 life for a few turns slowly removing things until I managed to win through.

Round 2 vs Neil Cuthbertson (Rakdos Aggro), 1-0 (2-0)

A thoughtseize made sure to leave him with a Doom Blade but there was nothing I could do about the number of threats he made. Neil made a number of good plays and decisions on what to play stopping me getting any 2for1s beating me 2-0.

Round 3 vs John Lynch (Red-Green Aggro), 1-1 (2-2)

I guessed he would be playing green and was worried as it gets a lot of extra draw through Planeswalkers and Courser. My opening hand was 3 * Hero’s Downfall an Underworld Connections and 3 swamp so I was pretty confident I could stabilise. I did and managed to slowly eat away his board presence whilst dropping Demons etc. He scooped on 15 life when he had nothing on board, no hand and with me having 3 Mutavaults and 2 Demons on the field whilst being on 6 life.

Game 2 went similar with a scoop on 15 life with no board. He just got flooded out both games.

Round 4 vs Sion Bayliss (Green), 2-1 (4-2)

Winning this match would make me top 8, losing meant I relied on my tiebreakers which I assumed would be quite poor based on results I had heard from previous opponents.

I think over 2 games I saw 3 Polukranos and 4 Courser of Kruphix. Game 1 at one point ended with me having no board, him with 1 of each of them and two planeswalkers. Welcome to scoopsville, population Alan.

Lifegain, sometimes free cards, great blocker. Bah

Ho-hum looks like it’s down to tiebreakers.

Results are announced and someone had a durdle deck which resulted in a silly amount of draws pushing me into about 5th place. Bizarre.

Round 5 (quarter) vs Sion Bayliss (Green), 2-2 (4-4)

Hmm when the prize packs are put down for the loser I just move them to my side of the table and say we’ll get on with the formality of you wrecking me again then. Having lost every dice roll all day I was facing an opponent higher in the standings than me who had just smashed me.

I somehow manage to curve out perfectly and get the right removal at the right time winning 2-0.

A bit confused I move on to the semis.

Round 6 (semi) vs Neil Cuthbertson (Rakdos Aggro), 3-2 (6-4)

In some cruel jest I now face the other player who beat me in the Swiss.

Game 1 I manage to strip his hand of removal and drop Demons on curve winning the race and forcing him to sac his board.

Game 2 I rip out both his Hero’s Downfall and manage to beat down with a Demon and Nightveil Specter after he turn 4 Slaughter Games for Gary.

Round 7 (final) vs Colin Lawrie (Dimir control), 4-2 (8-4)

Having won an FNM and been in the final of a couple this was my first proper tournament final.

I catch the end of the other semi and see a mainly creature based deck. I keep a removal heavy hand and am punished for it, removal gets countered and a Master of Waves and Mutavault assault leaves me dead with him on 22 life.

1-0 down against a control deck. Baws.

Game 2 I side in about 9 including the Duress and Bile Blight, Whip etc removing some creatures including some Pack Rats and Demons. I think Lifebane, Nightveil and Mutavault might be a better route. I make a horrible mistake early, dropping an Underworld Connections to bring Erebos live. This is to bait Colin into saccing his Ratchet Bomb on 3 so I can start dropping more Connections and a Demon. He does and I have to buy cards to 1 life to dig out of it. I get a Gary and swing up to 7. Buy again to 1 and then get up to 9. The incremental card advantage ekes me out a victory bringing it to 1-1.

Game 3 and there’s fowk in the shop cheering for each of us. No pressure like. I play an Underworld Connections on Turn 3 which isn’t countered. Colin responds by naming Swamp. For this reason alone I run different temples. By turn 5 I have two Underworld Connections on board. He gradually gets rid of a lot of my creatures and uses Jace to take removal and counter spells. At one point I have the choice between a Syncopate and two Thoughtseize. I know he has a removal spell in hand so I let him get the two Thoughtseize. He takes two cards from me leaving himself with no black open. Next turn I swing with Nightveil Specter getting an Opportunity. That goes well with my two blue sources. I end up buying a lot of cards and end the game with 12 mana and two usable Underworld Connections to his 5 mana. There was not a lot he could do really in the circumstance, bad draws on his end and no extra mana from Jaces left him static for a while whilst I was drawing 3 cards per turn.

I somehow managed to win the Grand Prix trial.

I really felt I was punished for every mistake I made in this match up – getting two for one’d every chance he could. Pretty tough going.

So should I want to go I get two Byes in Warsaw. Let’s hope I can do decently at the next few tourneys to earn a bye for Manchester 107 points down, 293 to go.

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21
Jan 14

This week in gaming

Unfortunately the upcoming PTQ for Magic has dominated this week. then there’s a pre-release weekend and release weekend. I see much cardboard crack in next few weeks.

Wednesday 15th January

Games night in the pub. We got a few games of Jackpot! in followed by about 6 of Resistance. I really liked it but the strategy was foiled by some mistakes on the part of players leading you to get wrong information. And Ewan being completely unable to bluff. L2B n00b.

Thursday 16th January

Played constructed Magic at Highlander going a poor 1-3 winning a bye. Pre-Christmas my deck was regularly posting positive but since then I have done awful with it.

First game against Campbell I make a hilarious mistake in the second match. I sided in Illness in the Ranks for Assemble the Legion in case I didn’t Thoughtseize them all away.

He drops it Turn 5. I top deck Illness and play it. Much laughs.

I have a Nightveil Specter chained to the Rocks and he swings with a Cackler. I stupidly crack a Ratchet Bomb on 1 blowing up my own Illness in the Ranks meaning he can drop his legion of dorks every turn.

Hilarious sideboard card if you aren’t stupid enough to ratchet bomb on 1

Ferg sitting next to me rightfully mocks me. Then he plays Campbell next and cracks his on 5 to blow up the Assemble the Legion losing his two Gray Merchants at the same time.

Friday 17th January

The only gaming on Friday was of the awesome new games in the Balcony. Elvis pinball machine for the fun.

Saturday 18th January

I did some minor tweaks and playtesting of deck in preparation for Sundays GPT and raided someones traded in collection for cool stuff. Later at night Dek and I played some pinball with me scoring 37.7 million (yay) and then some Centipede on the old Arcade machine too.

Sunday 19th January

Turned up to the GPT in expectation to maybe finish middle of the table. Last time I top-8’d when there were less than 20 but this one had 34 players. Given the way my deck was running I didn’t expect much.

Round 1 vs Jonathan Isaacs

I had never played Jonathon before so didn’t know what to expect. He said he was running a new deck and hadn’t tested it much so I thought I might be ok.

Game 1 I manage to Thoughtseize away two Elspeths through an Elixir of Immortality and win.

Game 2 he’s on 7 life. I have a whip on board and a Nightveil Specter with lots of goodies in the yard. He has an Elixir in play. I whip in an Erebos. He nods. I declare attacks and swing with 7 power on board. I go to mark lifelink and he says he’s cracking the Elixir. Ray behind me says Erebos and I shrug. If he had cracked it in response to the Whip activation it was fine. So I won due to a misplay by opponent (would probably have won next turn doing similar, I had another Erebos, 2 Gray Merchants and at least one Demon in the yard). Won 2-0

Round 2 vs Ferg

A match I have not played to death repeatedly over last few weeks. Ferg won 2-0 as I predicted before we play. Game 1 I was mana screwed, stuck on 3 then eventually 4 mana with a hand of 4/5 drops. I’ve already burned through my removal whilst he drops rat after rat with 9 mana and an Underworld Connections. 1-1 with 2-2 matches.

Round 3 vs Marc McNaughton

I expect this one to be a poor match up, he’s playing GW goodstuff. I win through game 1. Game 2 he smashes through me in about 5 turns.

Game 3 the Judge is standing behind us as not many games are going on.

He has something bestowed with a Booooooooon Satyr (tapped) and a Voice. I have a Nightveil Specter, Erebos and an Underworld Connectiosn out. He’s sitting on 7 life. I kill the Voice and he says It’s my turn. I correct him that it’s my turn and he puts Voice in the graveyard not replacing with a token. I shrug and declare attackers swinging for lethal. He smiles and stretches hand to shake. Then afterwards goes crap I get a token but had already missed the trigger, went through attack step and shook hand in front of a judge. Oops. Another victory due to player error. Normally it’s my opponents who get them!

Round 4 vs Gabor Kovacs

Gabor is a good player and had been sitting next to me in a previous match. He’s playing BG and I expect to get smashed. Game 1 I get mana screwed he is top decking like a boss so I lose fast.

Game 2 I keep in the Doom Blades as he had tons of Green. Bring in Dark Betrayals and some other changes. My opening hand is 5 land, a Devour Flesh and a Doom Blade. Figuring I at least had two removal I keep a hand I would never had kept in first game but due to mana screw keep. he Thoughtseizes and takes the Devour Flesh. After the match he shows me he sided out all his Green creatures.

Round 5 vs Colin

I keep a hand of removal not knowing what I am up against and then my opponent and I start to play. He is Blue White and we both flood out completely. Any time I manage to get a threat he counters etc giving me at most one attack. I Hero’s Downfalled 3 planeswalkers. Eventually he wins through after I didn’t manage to resolve a single threat whilst having about 13 mana on board I had been at 25 life, and he 2 before he got his Aetherling and enough mana to flicker forever.

After the tournament I got a game of DC Deckbuilder. Stabby raced ahead early and was scoring 13-16 points of power a turn. Smashing both Joe (on his birthday!) and I, at least Ferg dropped to play Lords of Waterdeep so I wasn’t last…

Then some Pack Wars when Ewan turned up later, even with ramping I managed to have 11 land on the table and 2 creatures at one point. Ridiculous.

Monday 20th January

Just Wallabee to take a break from proper gaming.

Joy Stuck In The Past

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