PTQ Nashville Style

PTQ report from Nashville, TN 3/21:

So, Saturday was our local PTQ in Nashville. Unlike Chicago where I thought untested Naya was the way to go I found myself sleeving up UGW Wizards. Here's the deck:

1 Meloku
3 Tarmogoyf
4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Vendelion Clique
2 Venser

3 Path to Exile
4 Spell Snare
2 Cryptic Command
4 Mana Leak

4 Ancestral Visions

2 Vedalken Shackles
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Engineered Explosives

4 Mutavault
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Breeding Pool
2 Riptide Laboratory
4 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
7 Island

SB:
2 Gilded Light
3 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Sower of Temptation
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Circle of Protection: Red
2 Relic of Progenitus
3 Stifle

I managed to finish a respectable 4-2-2. I don't remember enough to give a full tournament report but here are some highlights:

Round 2 against Mono-Black Control my hand is stripped to 3 cards and he drops a Nyxathid. The problem, I have an Ancestral Visions coming off suspend the next turn. Combined with my draw for turn puts me at 7 cards = dead Nyxathid.

Round 4 against Mono-Red Burn in game 2 I'm on the play. He suspends turn 1 rift bolt, on his upkeep I play gilded light forcing him to bolt himself. Later on after bashing with Tarmogoyf a lot, he's at 3 and forced to shrapnel blast my 'goyf then suspends rift bolt and passes. The result? Another gilded light to the face, for the win! Unfortunately, he wins the match but not before I make him sweat a lot!

I forced the draws against Reliquary loam and Astral Slide, 2 match-ups I'm not sure I should ever win so to not take the losses there is a small victory in itself.

My losses were to Fae and Mono-Red, and I managed to skip the zoo match-up completely. If were to play this deck again (which I would!) I would try to find room in the sideboard for targeted artifact removal, probably krosan grip. Since in the mirror you really need an answer for either Jitte or Vedalken Shackles.

Also, Congratulations to Ryan on his first PTQ top 8 and to our friend Brad on 10th place.

Until next time!

Steven

Theft. Big Problem or Biggest Problem?

If you speak to a magic player about things that upset them about other players you commonly get 2 answers. Intentionally cheating during a game and stealing. Over the weekend especially on Friday many people found their bags, cards and all, stolen. So what do you do? Well, neither the venue staff or the tournament organizers are responsible for your belongings the best you can hope for is to have misplaced it and some honest individual found it and turned it in to event staff. However, at such a high level event it seems to be getting harder to have such luck. Many people found their bags taken from right beside them, as happened to a close friend of STDs. So what can you do if you find that your belongings have been removed from your person?

Step one is obviously to check with event staff to see if it was turned in. Many times at smaller events this is the case and you will soon be reunited with your belongings.

But what happens when you aren't lucky enough to have a happy reunion with the countless dollars you have invested over the course of your playing career? Unfortunately, many times you just lose it. Unless they catch the person who took your stuff then you probably have no hope in seeing it returned and even if they do, depending on how long it's taken then to apprehend the fiend then they may have already sold your cards.

This weekend one such card thief was caught in the act during Grand Prix Chicago. He was caught Saturday afternoon during round 4 trying to grab another bag. Fortunately for the unknowing player a judge saw the whole thing and caught him. Early estimates indicate that upwards of 30 bags and collections were found inside the persons hotel room. In addition to the bags in Chicago he has also been suspected in similar incidents from Grand Prixs in Denver and Los Angeles. Sadly, stopping one person won't stop all of them, so when playing an event of any size remember to always keep your stuff with you and when you're playing keepyour bag under your chair and wrap the strap around leg.

Until next time,

Steven

Grand Prix Recap!

With over 1200 people in attendance, Grand Prix Chicago shattered the previous North America Grand Prix record. Did I mention it was Legacy? A format usually relegated to kitchen tables in the United States and often seen as unsupported by big events from Wizards and the DCI. However, every couple years there is a Grand Prix, the last of such was in Columbus, often cited as GP-Flash. So what does all this mean to you? Well, several members of STD made the 9 hour journey to the state of Illinois to play in this record breaking event. How'd we do? Not well, of the four of us who played and whopping 0 made day 2.

Even let downs have high points though, Carlos was featured in a match over at the mothership during round 3. His opponent, none other than Patrick Chapin. When the smoke cleared after two games against what some consider one of the best minds in the game an elated Carlos was the one with the victory. His prize, a one-way ticket to defending US Nationals champion Michael Jacobs. This time, however, Carlos wouldn't fare as well, losing the match, his first of the weekend. Carlos would go on to post a 4-3 record before dropping.

Dan was playing Dragon Stompy, a last minute audible from the more consistant, though arguably less explosive Dreadstill. On a roller coaster ride of a day he would go on to post a 3-3 record.

I decided to play the explosive deck, Ad Nauseam Tendrils. Ending the day at 3-2.

With some luck a full tournament report from each of us including decklists will happen this week.

Until then,

Steven