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sneakyhomunculous · 5 years ago

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RPT Phoenix Report: Back to Back!

Part 2: The Tournament

My flight is an early Thursday Morning (7AM) and arrives around 9:45 AM Phoenix Time. I was upgraded to First Class and the flight was smooth sailing.

I uber over to The Breakfast Club next to the Convention Center to eat, and then wander over to try and complete my deck.

I ordered most of the cards I needed ahead of time, but the few last-minute changes left me scrambling for a few cards. Luckily between a couple of the vendors I completed my deck no problem.

Unfortunately, registration is not until like 4PM and not a lot of my friends are in town yet.

Luckily, Tom Ross and Jarvis Yu show up and are looking for food. 2nd brunch it is.

We eat across the street at Majerle’s and when we walk back we realize people already have the signature PT PHOENIX Bags, so registration must be open earlier than we thought.

We go register and get our bags and I get in the que!

We quickly fire an 8 man with a nice group. I know I was feeding Hunter and my 2 Opponent’s were Kevin Jones and Ben Weinburg.

I drafted a Ru Deck that was wide open and 2-0 in some great games.

While they finish up the draft, I begin looking to book a massage.

I find a bunch of places around the Convention Center, but they are mostly like out-booking to your home/hotel type places.

I finally get an answer from this girl Katie, she can take me but not until 6:30 which is like almost 2 hours away. But I really want to get the massage and she had great reviews; booked!

I just wander around the site clowning for a few hours before leaving for the massage.

Katy was wonderful; one of the best massages I’ve had, and it was only 85$ (I’ve paid like 2-3x as much at nice hotel/spas etc. for much weaker massages).

This is another big thing for me.

At any big event, especially Pro Tours, I try to be fully relaxed and rested to clear my mind and then once it starts,

I am thinking ONLY about the tournament.

I always try to see a movie/get a massage the day before and I like to eat nice filling dinner’s of exactly what I feel like.

When I walk out of the massage, I am looking for food and there is a spot called Dust Cutter in the building adjacent to me that looks like it has good reviews.

I notice Tom in the group saying he is just leaving the site, so he and Kevin end up meeting me at the restaurant.

I get this Arizona Cheese Crisp barbeque chicken pineapple thing, and it’s basically like in between a quesadilla and a flatbread/thin crust pizza and it was gassssy.

We Uber to our BNB and Tom loses the first game of the weekend lets goooooo.

We somehow find our place in a maze of similar looking complexes, and the rest of our group is already here. It’s Allen Wu, Hunter Cochran, Jarvis Yu, Nate Knox, Me Tom Ross and Kevin Jones. ‘

Sickass squad IMO.

The rest of the group tells us that the cleaning team hasn’t yet arrived to pickup from the previous guests…. And it’s like almost 10 PM.

But they end up showing up shortly after and clean it up quickly as Allen and Hunter jam Breach mirrors while Kevin 6-0’s me in G1’s of his Bant Spirits vs my UW control.

Nice Confidence booster going into the PT!

Losing every single game to drunk Kevin Jones playing one of the most popular decks.

We have 3 bedrooms with a total of 2 large beds, and 2 smaller beds. So basically with 7 people 2 people get shafted into having to share a smaller bed.

I shotgun one of the bigger beds with Tom and go pass out while people are still up bustling around.

I wake up fresh right before my alarm, and I realize most people are already up.

I woke up to Allen bustling around me and Tom’s room seemingly finishing up getting ready to go, and think nothing of it.

After showering and getting in my 50 Jumping Jacks I quickly get ready to catch the uber with the first group headed to Breakfast Club.

In the Uber I learn Allen swapped with Tom and was now my roommate, so indeed it was he sharing the bed with me.

I can’t help but think his superpowers may have rubbed off on me.

Also, 4700 ELO in one Queen bed is A LOT of ELO in one Queen bed!

We are extremely late.

I let the group know it should be ok, as the Breakfast club was quick for me yesterday, and it’s only a 5min walk to the convention center.

But the problem is Friday traffic has us arriving around 8:30.

We go to the bar and order to go, but at 8:52 we still don’t have our food lol. The draft fires at 9. I ask the bartender to please go check and he quickly returns with our food.

We scamper over to the site, Jarvis and Allen hitting somewhere between a jog and a full sprint during the last stretch of convention center floor.

Pods are just going up and I sit right around 9am ready to go. I open my French toast and bacon and begin casually eating my food. My tablemates are both jealous and surprised.

I have an overall nice-looking pod, the only players I recognize are my teammate and friend Ty on my direct left, and then David Pargh 3 to my left.

At around 9:02 pargh calls a judge and asks if he has time to run to the restroom, the judge tells him we should be starting within like 2 minutes so he should wait. I snap off the “ I will take the over on 2 minutes”. My table laughs but then I reassure Pargh; No really… You can go to the restroom. We have at least 5 minutes and if they are about to start without you I will stop them.

He gets up and starts running!!!!

As he arrives back at his seat out of breath; they announce that they are dealing with some registration issues and should have them all resolved very soon.

2 minutes looooool; too bad the WOTC lawyers are such nits and we can’t wager on these things.

At 9:14 or whatever it is I finally crack open that first pack

Protean Thamaturge 1/1 Copy 1U copy rare vs Mire’s Grasp

I believe thamaturge is slightly better, but my draft pod looks weak to me so I just take a safe pick of Mire’s Grasp that I ultimately regret a bit.

I’m passed a really bad pack with omen of the forge and 2/4 dryad rare as only options.

I take the Ilysian Grove Nymph (Not a Dryad)

3rd pick I take Heliod’s Pilgrim out of another weak pack. I have a Grasp already and there is just no card on a close level anyway.

4th and 6th I take Daybreak Chimera’s and I assume I am going to setup to be some sort of white aggro deck. I fill out with like a 7th pick favored of Iroas and an indomitable will, I also have a mogis favor I guess I 5th picked.

I open Mire’s Grasp and Daxos, and I take Daxos due to having no cheap plays and 2 chimera’s

I am passed Reverant Hoplite and another mire’s grasp; take hoplite

3rd I get a final Death over nothing, and I fill out this pack with a lagona band ¾ return an enchantment to the top, 2 white omens and a blackomen, and maybe like a flicker and a unicorn.

Going into P3 I am dying for cheap plays and white pips, and also an apathy to get with my pilgrim.

I open apathy and quickly check that box, but the cheap plays are a struggle. I end up taking like a nyxborn courser 2nd or 3rd pick, and a soulreaper of mogis like 4th. Not ideal and I am really worried, but I find a 6th pick hero of the pride, 7th pick pious wayfarer 8th pick hateful eidelon to at least end with a playable curve.

My deck looks like a 4/10 to me but I am still confident in my chances.

I end up registering 16 lands 9/7 when I should really be playing 17 bc I just decide I don’t want to lose to flooding and I will live if I get stuck on lands for a bit with this deck.

R1 vs Andrew Matthews:

This player was feeding me, and I hate how the R1 Matchup is random. I don’t understand why we can’t just play R1 Across, but alas.

My opponent starts off with a mulligan to 5.

You don’t go 50-10 in your last 60 high level matches without a lot of luck!

He still almost beats me because my draw is awkward, and my deck is not great.

But once again some luck for me; he makes a game losing mistake.

I say go with dreadful apathy on his 7/7 typhon, and he has a 6/7 as well, end of turn I activate apathy. In response he return to nature’s my apathy…….

I say ok and bin my apathy, then let him know the trigger can resolve now. And he says well it isn’t enchanted anymore.

So we get a judge and he confirms that it obviously is still getting exiled, and I untap lagonna band the apathy back to my deck and use it on his 6/7 the following turn and barely win.

He is GB with a bunch of mire’s grasps and multiple 6/7 colossus’

Game 2 I die horribly

G3 is somewhat interesting after thinking I was wayyy ahead and going to win, my opponent plays a klothys design. He had a 5/3 forerunners giving trample that I had apathied, and he had a hateful eidelon and a nyxborn colossus, so he is attacking me for 15 trample.

Luckily I had daxos and like 26 life, but I take 15 and now have to play extremely carefully around another designs. I draw flicker of fate for my turn to make it trivial as I just activate and move the apathy to the 6/7 and kill him over the next couple turns. Turns out he did have second designs :0

1-0

R2: Teammate Ty Thomason

Ty was on my left in the draft and is RG. I don’t really know much of his deck except that I passed him R omen and furious rise along with an assortment of green creatures and incendiary oracles.

In G1 I think I mulligan and have to keep a land heavy hand, and I draw my 5th land early and by turn 4 think I am a huge underdog in the game, but I draw like 5 or 6 spells in a row 2 of which are daybreak chimera and I fade his furious rise hitting removal for them over 3-4 turns as I tear away his life total from the sky.

In G2 I think I am doing ok, and I let him untap with renatta hoping he plays just one big thing, but he has 2 2 drops, and also has like warbriars blessing at a bad time for kill my unicorn. My removal is awkard and expensive making it hard for my little shitters to get thru his multiple renata beefed 2 drops.

I still think I am even and have good chances, but the storm’s wrath I forgot I passed him kills any hopes I had fast.

G3 is an epic one that I don’t believe I can do justice from memory. I keep a 2 lander on the play with a t2 daxos and some assortment of expensive cards one of which is hoplite.

I miss my land for a turn but I hit my 3rd plains on t4 and then nail a swamp on t5 which keeps my right in the game.

Unfortunately, he sort of stabilizes the board and despite hoplite for 6 or whatever and having 30+ life, I don’t have great attacks just yet. To make matter’s worse he has an oread rummager in play to go a fresh renatta, and his deck contains a storm’s wrath that should end the game on the spot at any point, and wings of hubris that will be really problematic at any point on renatta.

I finally have an ok window to attack and also have no choice because he just drew wings an attacked me with renatta for double digits.

My life total is now somewhere around 20 and I make a huge attack but making sure to leave back a couple tokens to not die to a counterattack if Ty blocks optimally.

He blocks perfectly this turn and I chipped him down to like 11 or so while gaining a few life in the process and lowering his green pips some small amount, then he untaps and hits me again down to like 9.

I untap and peel an omen by the sun and decide I can attack with everything as I have omen plus another blocker and also gaining 5 life. I play my blocker to gain 1 from daxos and then my omen to get a tap with unicorn and send the squad. He blocks perfectly again I only gain 2-3 life from tokens dying and he goes to 1 putting me at like 13 + 4 from the omen so 17 I think but I can’t remember exactly.

So I have 3 blockers my 3/3 chimera and two tokens facing down renata a 5/5 typhon and 6 other small creatures. But his hand is a nylea forerunners that he casts and after quick math my stomach drops because I am dead on board. I try to feign a bit of confidence as he counts the total number of creatures…

By the grace of God almighty, or maybe from the Allen Wu aura that I acquired from sharing the bed with him, Ty and I have exactly the same number of creatures.

So despite being at 1 Life Ty can say go because he has a chance to survive if I don’t draw an enchantment.

In his head his carytids were staying back to pump his 4/5 menace thing, but really carytids were 2/2 from renata and would’ve pushed him 1-2 damage past lethal if they just attacked.

In my upkeep I scry with my white omen sac and see plains then flicker. Flicker is easily lethal as I flicker my black omen with 1 mana left tapping a blocker for lethal, but I also have hateful eideilon to get back and play with my last mana to tap another blocker and play around any removal which he very clearly doesen’t have anyway.

2-0

At this point I am feeling on top of the world. 2-0 with a medium deck beating the best player in my pod, knowing my constructed deck is as bladed as ever.

While using the restroom after this round a guy from my pod asks how I did, and tells me he lost to the busted deck. It is Pargh who will be my opponent. He is UB and got the thaumaturge 4th and also all of the late U omens and things to go with pharikas spawn and thirsts and shimmering chimera etc. I just accept that it will be a tough match and I won’t be dissapointed if I lose.

R3 vs David Pargh:

G1 I keep a hand of like Daybreak Chimera Daybreak Chimera Dreadful Apathy 2 plains swamp lagona band trailblazer.

Unfortunately my first 2 draws are swamps and i feel obligated to play dreadful apathy t3 on his eidelon of philosphy just to be able to t4 chimera.

I do t4 chimera but t5 i draw yet another swamp leaving me with all white cards and no way to double spell. T6 is another single spell turn for me, and despite him flooding and me landing a hoplite for 6, i can only chip him down to 1 life before he has seen so many cards with omens and thirst that he finds gray merchant to stabilize and virtually lock the game.

I am frustrated going to SB bc it was a game i could easily have stolen If i just drew plains or spells instead of swamps. But i realize it’s part of why my deck sucks and I need to get over myself.

G2 is another drawn out affair where i think I have some chances early, but I begin to flood and it slips away fast. I die to the combination of pharika’s spawn shimmerwing chimera tymaret and some counterspells plus a final death.

2-1 and still feeling great.

We find out over the loudspeaker during this round that there will be no lunchbreak. I am suprinsingly happy with this. I am not hungry and ready to play some constructed to shake this loss off.

R4 vs Mark Lepine on UW Spirits

I don’t know Mark, but I do know he is an old school pro who got DQed recently for peeking in drafts. I will just say now that in our match he was extremely pleasant and did not seem even remotely sketchy at any point. That being said, I was aware of the DQ and on edge to make sure and watch close for anything fishy. We exchange decklists and i quickly see he is UW spirits, except he has 2 essence flux? and 1 Bygone Bishop???

I get the oracle on those and we get into a game 1 where everything goes right. He floods a bit and my first wrath comes down when he only has 2 mana open and no selfless spirit, and then my 2nd is cleaning up most of his resources with my life total still high. After azorious charming something to the top with t5eferi in play I know it’s over and after a dig he soon quits.

G2 is a bit odd, in that he floods and attacks me with mutavault a bunch, i at some point seal away it and he doesn’t have rattle chains and i know it’s over. We play a few more turns, and i have a spot to slam trawler, but instead go for dig EOT bc it’s so likely he has a dispute/stroke for how little he has done in the game.

Except as i cast dig he immediately says ok. And i say it resolves?? And he shakes his head and says yeah, you wouldn’t expect it to huh?

He has been friendly all match, and it just seems like more of that.

I am not sure if he’s leveling and holding a counter for trawler, but anyway i untap and have even better plays to not even have to sweat it. Then the following turn when i play trawler he was just actually being geniune and had no counter and dies to it lol

3-1

R5 vs Johnathan Lum on Sultai Delerium

G1 goes quite smoothly. I think i Censor a courser and then clean up a courser and wayfinder with a wrath, i censor a Nissa at some point, and i draw lantern to exile an URO and then later his graveyard preventing myself from ever getting Emrakuled before i can just close the game with elspeth.

G2 is another smooth sailing game early, except he eventually does build up to emrakul and i can sense it happening, but can’t really stop it anyway. The turn before he emrakuls I play trawler with a sabatoge up, so i sabatoge the emrakul and have a hand of opt only. I untap and he is taking my turn. He says draw.

My one detention sphere. He immediately spheres trawler (Bad sequencing there of course) then he opts, revealing a land. He keeps it and doesn’t play it saying go back to me again. So i have 9 mana and a glacial fortress facing down no hand but an uro that can come back next turn my life is like 17 so I’m not that worried but def a close game.

I draw dig thru time and hit 2 teferi’s and a sabatoge lol I take little teferi bounce my detention sphere freeing dream trawler with counter backup.

I managed to win a few turns later.

4-1

R6 vs Charles Wong on Sultai Invertor

Charles seemed to be a good player to me, but I didn’t know him before this match.

In G1 he had multiple carytids and a wayfinder, but i countered his URO on the way back down and I feel like he had 6-7 lands in play at a point where i had cycled 2 farmlands 2 charms a censor and 2 opts, and i have literally only lands than don’t do anything still. At any point if i draw a dig teferi narset or whatever I just win easily I assume, but instead he just resolves a topdecked jace, then untaps and resolves invertor and kills me.

Frustrating to lose to flooding in a deck that is so good at preventing that, but it happens.

G2 is just not close. My opp TS me and then t3 tracker resolves and he disputes my next 2 spells as i fall behind even further to a resolved Jace. He untaps after disputing my t5eferi or whatever and says oh u are dead, dig invertor.

30+ min in the round is not bad tho. Thats a jimmy johns run lets goooooo.

4-2

I clear my head during this walk and grab my sandwich and head back to the site ready to crush the last two rounds.

I’m just finishing my sandwich as pairings go up, Paul Reitzl is my opponent.

I am a bit annoyed at 4-2 to be playing someone so good, but that’s how the PT goes sometimes.

R7 vs Paul Rietzl on MonoB Vampires

His list looks mostly pretty standard.

In g1 he thoughtseizes me on either t1 or 2 I can’t remember exactly but my hand is just like 2 opts a farmland an elspeth and some other lands. I say this hand is gasssss against TS as i reveal it. He says it definitely is. And then i mention that I think my deck just may be really good against thoughtsieze as he’s thinking.

I tell him that elspeth is insanely good when he asks if he should take an opt. he says you are just going to see so many new cards. I say yeah but you can’t stop me anyway, he must agree as he does take elspeth. In this game i play those few opts and am flooding a bit but have 1 key spells t4-5 maybe a counterspell I don’t recall exactly.

He now has black castle and just uses it mainphase to draw a card up to 6 cards lol, down to like 13 life or whatever.

I untap and just have all lands and wrath so i escape elspeth make tokens. Then he goes like play knight of ebon into champion draw 3 or something bc he had a dusk legion zealot. Then i wrath and make 2 more tokens say go. He untaps and plays 2 dusk legion zealots down to like 8. I pump my tokens and attack and he double blocks one down to 5. i still have all lands but i drew a lantern and have that ready to cycle and say go, he untaps and murderous riders my elspeth down to 3 playing rider.

I cycle lantern as the third card in my yard besides elspeth and hit a land. So on my turn I need to draw a banger and censor does qualify as it is just an elspeth plus a card. I cycle into nothing and play elspeth for the 3rd time and pump my tokens forcing him to block both with rider + his last zealot.

He untaps and scoops showing me like 3 more swamps in his hand (he drew like 10+ lands, but apparently that happens often to this deck according to Tom Ross who played a lot of it).

G2 is another slow paced game where he hits me with mutavault a few times but I’m able to seal away it and then land teferi. He had the end of turn grasp but i have trawler and know If he has no TS it will be over. He untaps and draws a card with either castle or champion then plays a swamp and says i know you have what just the wrath?? Hmmmm and taps the black mana; i hold my breathe as the duress hits the table. lets goooooooooooo

He can’t take dream trawler so who cares what he took. I have exactly 6 lands and a teferi time raveler on 1. I put my hand on the table for duress and it was like trawler wrath censor. He took wrath and says go.

Without even picking up my trawler or untapping my lands I just pickup my censor draw a card without looking at it instantly tick my teferi to 2 and say go leaving the trawler in play and my lands tapped lol.

He untaps and does some irrelevant things like sorin pump champion attack for 5 i take it untap cycle something kill sorin gain 6.

He untaps again and says he has outs. He has to hit that one or that one. And I say woah having multiple things is a lot more than i expected. He says well it has to be right now, and plays dusk legion zealot. Then he says we did it! And slams Rankle and attacks making me sac and discard. But he now has no hand and I have wrath + field of ruin for his castle so it’s me at a high life total and 8 lands vs his 6 swamps and me getting the first draw step.

I’ll take the teferi/dig/trawler tribal side of this game. I untap and draw t5eferi so i wrath and say go, he just draws sorin with no board or muta so it does nothing. I draw t5eferi again, play one and plus hitting dig so gg yo untap 2 go.

He untaps and plays mutavault he drew and starts tanking and tanking. I grab sorin to see what the deal is if maybe it gives deathtouch somehow when sacking a vamp? But no he is just considering sacking mutavault putting tef to 2 and then drawing a vamp next turn to kill it from 3.

But i tell him I have dig thru time and another T5feri so it doesn’t matter at all, but just put a counter. When i say this he laughs and immediately throws mutavault at my teferi. I laugh and say I told you not to do that. He says I have to hope you’re lying as I am casting my dig.

I hit spells like counter spell charm and then draw another trawler and yeah, i win from there.

5-2

R8 Vs Justin Porchas on UB Invertor

I recognize Justin but don’t remember from what, and it was that we IDed into T8 of the GP Dallas I won. So we’ve never played, but we have shaken hands!

He has a pretty stock list that I think I’m favored against, but he plays very well and seems to know his deck + the matchup well.

G1 goes really long which really favors me, but I cast multiple digs and am just not finding hard counters so there are plenty turns I am in big danger of getting combo’d. He eventually does invertor with 2 jace in his yard and i think 2 other cards? And then he plays oracle keeping one of them on top.

He untaps and plays a jace with 3 cards in the deck and I believe I succesfully counter it, but when i cycle my charm and untap and draw a land I am dead if his next card is jace and he goes for it. It’s basically 33%, but it feels like 50% bc when he played oracle he seemed to snap throw 1 to the bottom as if it was Jace+ another, not just 2 jaces who cares. That was my read anyway. We’ll he untaps and says go so i have one more chance. I draw an Opt I believe. At this point I’ve run sort of poorly with seeing the bottom 15+ and knowing my deck still has 3-4 hard counters another dig and teferi in only like 15-20 cards. Justice prevails as I cycle into I believe the absorb or veto I can’t remember. He untaps and goes for Jace and when I counter he concedes.

G2 is somewhat interesting but he resolves jace, and i do deal with it with t5eferi, but he kills my teferi and also lands the new 5 mana ashiok. That cards is actually busted and it runs away with the game as I am disctracted trying to deal with it while he sets up invertor jace to kill me.

Going to G3 we have a little under 20min I believe and as I am presenting Justin notices one of his sleeves is different for some reason. He has black Matte sleeves but this one is just solid black. He asks if I want him to just flip the card over. I said no you don’t need to do that, just look at it and see what it is yourself and if you can tell what happened?

He just flips it anyway and it’s a Jace Wielder of Mysteries. OK? That is a bit weird but before I can start questioning he calls a judge on himself. The judge comes over and Justin hands him the card and says “This is Matt Costa’s” LOLOLOL

He Thief of Sanity it from Matt in a previous round and didn’t realize it until now. So the judge rules that bc it’s between games and he never got caught presenting an illegal deck basically, the fix is just to return the card to Matt and carry on. This rule sounds right to me in limited, like say you have a dreadful apathy that was actually your previous opponents, and you find it during sideboarding. You call a judge and this is the fix, just give it back move on. But this is a bizzare circumstance.

I just played two games in a constructed match where my opponent happened to have an extra copy of the single best card in the matchup?????

Is the fix really just “I know you fought hard both of those games against the onslaught of jace’s, but for now we just move on?”

And to be fair the head judge said, it’s on you to count if he has 60 and if you do so and it’s 61 he would’ve gotten a gameloss for this.

So idk, i remember back in 2008 it was cool and normal to pile count your opponents deck, but i thought these days everyone was off that. I certainly haven’t done it in years, but maybe I should start again?

Anyway, I feel a bit bad for Costa who may get a gameloss midgame here. Snook is sitting next to me Costa’s good friend and he looks sick. And i look at him and say let’s just hope Matt is done with his match. And snook nods and said that is the only thing I am thinking.

Turns out Matt was done so mise.

But anyway Justin and I are now going to a G3 with a fair number of jaces in his deck.

I hate that I can’t remember much about this game, but I know I had a good hand and ended up winning a super super tight one at the end.

He went for invertor when i was short counterspells and i was worried he was holding an oracle to go with the one in his yard. But whenever he does go for the oracle i dispute it, and he pays going down to 1 mana which lets me use my last piece of interaction, another dispute, and he concedes. If he just had another oracle/jace for next turn I had nothing and would’ve died, so that was a nailbiter to finish it off.

6-2

This one is getting really long and not much interesting happened this night anyway. We did go to a really nice Thai restaurant, but I will pick back up here on the final part 3.

There we will go over day 2, and then my

spoilers:

Top 8 match against Huey!

Thanks for reading, see you back tomorrow for the rest.

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