STL PTQ 2/13/11

This was the 2nd PTQ of the Ext season and I was fresh off my first 0-2 exit from a PTQ in a long, long time. For the next PTQ I knew I wanted to play Scapeshift that could win without Omen. That meant either straight RG with Titans and such or a deck that tried to cast spells needing GG and UUU in a deck with 4 Valakut and 8 Mountains. I started with a deck that Gerry posted on his blog that did well in a premier event on MODO.

4 Prismatic Omen
4 Scapeshift
1 Spell Pierce
2 Mana Leak
4 Cryptic Command
2 Khalni Heart Expedition
2 Rampant Growth
4 Explore
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Preordain
1 See Beyond
8 Mountain
4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
4 Flooded Grove
1 Cascade Bluffs
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Forest
4 Island
SB:
2 Primal Command
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Wurmcoil Engine
4 Tunnel Ignus
2 Volcanic Fallout
1 Firespout
2 Spell Pierce

First changes I made were to change the 1 Spell Pierce in the main into a Ponder, switch the Khalni Heart Expeditions for the 3rd and 4th Rampant Growth and scrap the SB.

After playing some games with it I was able to tell this deck just wasn't going the way I wanted it to. It couldn't cast Cryptic consistently enough and even when I could it was hardly more than a Fog and hope I draw Scapeshift next turn. I also realized I wanted it to be pure combo and didn't want the Bolts (at least in the main). This realization gave me room to fit in the Manamorphose's I had been wanting to play.

While at the store on Friday getting the cards ready Josh asked me if there was a tutor in the format and I couldn't think of one. Then I stumbled upon Beseech the Queen in the case. I knew it sounded crazy but I couldn't stop brewing. If I played this I'd have to cut the Leaks and Cryptic and Preordains but I'd only really miss the Preordains. But then I could play Thoughtseize and Inquisition to Kozelik! Oh man I could have Memoricide in the board of the mirrors!

As soon as I got home I made the switches and came up with this.

4 Prismatic Omen
4 Scapeshift
4 Beseech the Queen
4 Rampant Growth
4 Explore
4 Manamorphose
4 Thougtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozelik
2 Volcanic Fallout
8 Mountain
4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
4 Twilight Mire
1 Graven Cairns
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Forest
4 Swamp

The changes didn't hurt the mana at all because I just switched U costing cards for B costing cards and 1UUU costing cards for BBB (or 2BB) costing cards. It was perfect. My disruption/protection cards were now proactive discard spells instead of reactive counter spells. Losing Cryptic meant I didn't have an our to something like a maindeck Leyline of Sanctity or Runed Halo but I was willing to make that gambit.

The next day I switched out my blue cards for black ones and tested against Fae. I think I lost the first 5 games to eventually PTQ champion Landon Doty but then started to get the hang of the matchup and brought it back to maybe 30%. Then we started testing different SB cards. First was maxing out on Inquisitions and Fallouts and 2 Combust. That didn't work so then I tried Stags while still maxing out on Fallouts from the board, which worked better and got it to about 50/50. I was happy enough with that.

On Sunday I registered the above 60 with this SB.

2 Back to Nature
2 Volcanic Fallout
3 Memoricide
4 Great Sable Stag
4 Obstinate Baloth

Round 1: Tim Lyons - Fae
He shuffled towards me before we started so I knew what I was getting in to. He leads off with Thoughtseize and sees a few lands a few ramp spells and Omen and Scapeshift. He takes the Scapeshift. I draw a second Omen and pass. He plays another Thoughtseize and before I lay my hand down he says, "Take the Omen". So I put it in the graveyard and show him the other. He says, "Oh". I draw Thoughtseize and play it seeing:

Scion of Oona
Mistbind Clique
Sunken Ruins
Creeping Tar Pit

I take the Mistbind. A few turns pass of me drawing some Scapeshifts and playing some ramp and him attacking with Mutavault and Scion. The turn I'm going to kill him he plays Vendilion Clique. He picks one of the Scapeshifts and the other one kills him.

-4 Prismatic Omen
-2 Beseech the Queen
+4 Great Sable Stag
+2 Volcanic Fallout

In the first two turns he Thoughtseizes me twice and I Thoughtsieze him once. He had taken a mulligan and I took a Leak leaving him with Mistbind, Scion and Cryptic with 2 lands in play.

Game state came down to where he had Scion and Spellstutter in play and 4 lands and I had 6 lands with Fallout and Scapeshift in my hand with some land. He attacks me and I play Fallout trying to get him to play Mistbind so I can kill him. He does and I do.

1-0

Round 2: Josh McClain - Fae
The night before this I got a text from an drunk ex at 2am............ I wasn't able to get back to sleep and it was starting to catch up with me since I hadn't had a Monster yet. So while shuffling I accidentally flipped up a Mountain and Manamorphose. Great. So he takes a mulligan and we swap Thoughtseizes in the early turns. I take a Vendilion Clique leaving him with Spellstutter and Cryptic. I don't remember exactly but some turn he tapped down low and I was able to Scapeshift with Omen in play for lethal. "I'm assuming you have some Valakuts in there."

I boarded the same way and again we trade Thoughtseizes. I take another Vendilion and leave him with a grip of Leak, Spellstutter and Mistbind. He has Bitterblossom this time but I Fallout once and it gives me enough time to resolve a Scapeshift while he is still stalling on mana.

It was some tough beats but he is seasoned PTQ player and took it well. After the match he told me that he thought the Manamorphse was a Ram-Gang and kept a removal heavy hand. Mise.

2-0

Round 3: Caleb - RUW Pestermite Combo
I have Swamp into Twilight Mire and he seems at least a little confused when I play Prismatic Omen instead of Putrid Leech. On turn 3 I play Explore, it resolves. I play two lands and another Explore, that one gets Mana Leaked. He plays a Wall of Omens and I play a 3rd Explore, another 2 lands and a Scapeshift. But he wants me to show him the 4 Valakuts and 2 Verdant Catacombs.

While I was looking for the lands he writes down my name from the result slip onto his life total pad and asks me if my deck is a MODO deck or my own brew. I said it was mine and he asked if he could write an article about it for ChannelFireball. I said I'd think about it.

At this point I think he is some sort of UWr Control deck. Not sure what the red was for, I was thinking Bolt maybe Ajani. I boarded -2 Fallout +2 Back to Nature for Leyline/Halo.

This game he plays Pestermite (oh yeah!) on 3 and 4. I'm not able to find what I need and turn 4 he plays Spliter Twin. In response to the ability I tap Forest and Twilight Mire for Manamorphose with a Forest left up. I already have the Back to Nature in hand but I wanted to make him think I have Fallout so he will play cautiously next game when I board them back in. I make RR and draw a card then kinda chuckle to myself and play the Back to Nature. So he just beats me down for 4 until I die.

I resideboard -2 Prismatic Omen +2 Volcanic Fallout.

Game three while I'm ramping he has Runed Halo. I Thoughtseize away a Jace (I think) then he plays a Mindlock Orb and I'm pretty much dead to his next Jace that starts fatesealing me. I wait until he goes ultimate then scoop.

2-1

Round 4: Bryan - Naya
Game one he gets a pretty fast draw with multiple Bloodbraids and I die pretty quick.

-4 Thoughtseize
-2 Inquisition
+4 Obstinate Baloth
+2 Volcanic Fallout

Game two he is much slower and I have a chance to Scapeshift for lethal if he doesn't use his Knight to get a Edge in response. I go for it since I have another Scapeshift and he lets it resolve so I kill him. While we are shuffling for game 3 he says "shit, I punted" under his breath so now I know he does have it in his deck and should play around it because he won't miss it again. In the last game I slow him down with double Fallout then Baloth and clean up with a Scapeshift for 54.

3-1

Round 5: Matt - Jund
We get deck checked and it takes for-ev-ver because he had one of those boxes from GP Nashville and had extra cards in the other side of the box and spent at least 10 minutes arguing with the judges about it. When the judge came over to explain the situation I already knew what was going on because Chris Miller clued me in on what was happening but when she said what the game loss was for I said, "ahh, right, the old 45 card sideboard trick" and wrote a big GL and circled it on my life total paper. The slip said +22 minutes but we didn't even play for 5. He shuffles towards me so I know he is on Jund and see some of the cards in his deck like Jund Charm. He played Fauna Shaman and I played ramp and Fallout. He was setting up a Demigod chain. Another Fauna Shaman resolved and I play a Beseech for Omen and play it. He uses Fauna at eot to get the last Demigod he needs. He says, "cut me to a land that comes into play untapped". I say, "alright, how about a Forest?" Then he tells me that won't due but he doesn't play any anyways. Then I told him I saw Forests while he was shuffling towards me but he persists. Whatever, who cares. He draws a Leech, plays Bloodbraid needing a Pulse but only gets a Finks and dies.

4-1

Round 6: Harlan - RG Scapeshift
I'm paired up against a 4-0-1. He thinks for a second about offering a draw but then I explained that a draw is a loss for him. He just needs to win one of the next two rounds. So both games I hit him with hand disruption to take his ramp and then ramp and kill him. I boarded in 3 Memoricide for 2 Fallout and a Omen. The only interesting thing happened in game 2 where I Inquisition him and see:

Primal Command
Harrow
Khalni Heart Expedition
Reverberate
Mountain
Mountain

He kept his 7 on the play and has a Valakut in play. My hand is 4 lands, Omen and a Thoughtseize. I took the Khalni Heart Expedition thinking that the Reverb wasn't going to be able to kill me if he didn't have any ramp and I could wait to play the Thoughtseize until I had nothing for him to take in my hand. He drew a Terramorphic and played that so I could Thoughtseize away the Harrow. He drew another Expedition but when I played the Scapeshift he had 3 Mountains up, 5 lands in play and an Expedition with 0 counters on it. So he can Reverb for 3 Mountain 2 Valakut then use Expedition for 2 more Mountains but that only does 12 and doesn't kill me.

5-1

Round 7: Fae player
We draw.

Top 8: Harlan - RG Scapeshift
Yay, the matchup I wanted to play. But this is where things get REAL awkward.

My 7 card hand has 3 land, 3 Omen and a Manamorphose. Auto-mull

My 6 card hand is this:

Mountain
Rampant Growth
Explore
Thoughtseize
Thoughtseize
Inquisition

So I can draw:
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Forest
4 Swamp
4 Manamorphose
1 Graven Cairns

I keep it and draw 2 more Mountains before I get to what I need. But at that point he has 3 lands, an Omen and a Expedition on 1. So I can't play Inquisition because Scapeshift kills me. So I Thougtseize and see:

Forest
Mountain
Bolt
Rampant
Titan

I take the Rampant planing on Thougtseizing away the Titan the next turn.

He draws, plays a land, passes.

I play the other Thoughtseize and see he draw a Scapeshift and decided that he didn't want to use it to kill me. Sure, Harlan, I'll take the Scapeshift.

Two turns and he kills me with the Titan I would have been able to take if I had been able to safely cast the Inquisition, which I guess I could since he didn't realize Scapeshift was the win. Hawkward.

I board the same way I did against him in the swiss.

I play Rampant Growth into Memoricide. I name Omen because I can kill him in two turns with Thoughtseize backup so I thought the only way he kills me faster is with an Omen. He shows me a hand of:

Evolving Wilds
Mountain
Mountain
Shift
Natures Claim
Harrow

I knew I should have written this sooner because I'm forgetting what happened over the next few turns but I get to 6 land and play and play Omen into Beseech for Shift into Thoughtseize. Then he shows me he had drawn a second Scapeshift and he is able to Harrow and Explore into 7 lands and kill me a turn before I kill him. I think he had a 2-3 turn window to draw a second one and a Harrow/Explore and he got there.

At least Landon beat him in the finals where a Primal Command got Cryptic Commanded when it was cast choosing to put Tar Pit on top and search for a creature. Nice.

Don't know what I'm going to play but my next tournament is the Nebraska PTQ next week.