Monday 6 July 2009

Tournament Report - PTQ Austin at Fanboy3, Manchester

By Jim Marlow

Hey everyone,

This weekend saw a huge showing from Team Leeds at the PTQ in Austin, in particular it was great to see the likes of Wayne Cook, Sam Walsh and Ben Coltman making the trip to take on the ptq, and having a great deal more success than some of the more experianced tournament players. Hopefully you guys all had a great time and it gives you the confidence to come out to more events like these.

I had basically been pursuaded to play my last tournament of faeries by mick, as we agreed it would be a touching last sentiment as i am lending some of the cards for Rob to play fae at nationals for.

Also, my increased frustration with the jund deck was wearing pretty thin, cascade actually sucks balls.

Round 1 - Manveer playing b/w tokens

urggh, a coinflip at best i think.

Game 1 - I dont have a bitterblossom, so i manage to hold off a couple of threats, but as soon as he resolves something i get crushed.

Game 2 - I have a turn 1 thoughtseize, and i take his bitterblossom, leaving a thoughtseize which he can play on turn 2 when i have already played my bitterblossom. This is pretty risky, and almost certainly a misplay, as i can just as easily take the thoughtseize and broken ambitions his bitterblossom before resolving my own. Manver obv rips the swamp and my hand looks a hell of a lot worse, eventually leading to him developing a decent board. I managed to draw another bitterblossom and a cryptic off the top allows me to swing, tap then swing for just enough for his own bitterblossom to kill him, phew.

Game 3 - No bitterblossom turn 2 but i have triple scion, which is pretty awesome here as i think i need to put on a decent clock. I make a mistake here by mistbind clique'ing when i have spellstutter, scion and bitterblossom, and my opponant has 1 card. Obviously its the zealous persecution, which massively blows me out and the alpha he comes in for puts me to 5....ouch. I draw pretty well but even with double scion and 1 in hand plus an agony warp i can not stop his team of 2 tokens, cloudgoat ranger and tidehollow sculler from dealin the last points of damage.

Round 2 - Rob Catton - Faeries.

ARGGH!

I know im ok at playing the mirror, but i know it also depends at least to some extent on the number of thoughtseizes and bitterblossoms which you can resolve.

Game 1 - I dont have the bitterblossom, but rob on a mull to 5 does, which is a bit of a crapper. I get too far behind and the bitterblossom wins the game eventually. Rob played really tight too so there wasnt much i could have done.

Game 2 - I have to mull to 4, having secluded glen, mutavault, spellstutter and mistbind clique. Rob leads with thoughtseize on the stutter, bitterblossom then jace. Thats enough for me.

Obviously i was annoyed with doing pretty craply in the mirror, which i know i play better than a lot of people. Sadly, Rob is really good at playing faeries too, as he has been playing it as long as i remember, so my lack of decent draws cant be negated.


Yep, apparently i have TWO! 0-2 drops to my name this ptq season, which is pretty bloody awful for me. I was on a bit of a downer about this, but to be honest i wasnt really in the mood when i got there considering i had been up late watching a tramp set up camp outside my house in Leeds.

I think i need to make sure i go into events like these feeling good about the event, well slept, fed and confident of my ability to play my deck. I have wandered into too many events recently feeling ok or bad about it, then im surprised that i do badly (despite being an apparently half decent player).

After the main event i crushenated a draft with this heap o' crap

1 x druid of the anima
1 x jund hackblade
1 x ember weaver
1 x dragonsoul knight
1 x sprouting thrinax
1 x bloodbraid elf
1 x kathari bomber
1 x monstrous carabid
1 x wild leotau
1 x rhox meditant
1 x messenger falcons
1 x rakeclaw gargantuan
1 x court archers
1 x viscera dragger
2 x bloodbyre elemental

1 x dark temper
1 x firewild borderpost
1 x celestial purge
2 x exploding borders

1 x rupture spire
5 x forest
5 x mountain
3 x swamp
3 x plains

O well, this was probably my last constructed event untill nats, barring some wnms at bury, and i will almost certainly be entering the sealed grinder over the constructed, provided it is ala block and not M10, as i seem to be able to succeed in limited atm.

Anyway, as a final thought i was really happy with the showing of Team Leeds at manchester, sorry for not wearing my shirt in the end, i was going to put in on when i got there, then by the time i had time to change i had dropped, which i didnt think looked to good anyways. Team Leeds probably made up a quarter of the people at the PTQ, which is incredible, and the rowdiness when people get their prizes is probably my favourite part of the day, as Me and Beard get to confirm our status as 'the peoples champs'....at least untill the cheer for Mick Edwards brought down the freaking house!

Anyway, it was great seeing everyone, and i look forward to seeing you all at Nats/Gp


Until then,


Jim


As always,feel free to comment on anything about this article, or anything unrelated to magic whatsoever. If you would like to contribute to the TLM blog, please email any ideas, articles, pictures or anything else to ss07jm@leeds.ac.uk

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