Shoebox recently called me hardcore, something about playing 4 major tournaments in 3 weekends. Regionals on June 7th, PTQ in Burlington on June 14th, Grand Prix Indy on June 21st, and PTQ in Indy on June 22nd. Maybe its hardcore. Maybe its good planning and a love to play the game.
My last article I posted my decklist for Kithkinweave. From that decklist to this week I made some changes. To view the original decklist click here. There were only 3 cards changed out from the original. I took out the Militia’s Pride, as most of the time, the card just sat there in my hand, being revealed for Goldmeadow Stalwarts. I also dropped a Goldmeadow Harrier count from 4 to 3. I added in 3 Ballynock Cohorts, because they are a fairly strong creature and it’s a turn 3 drop if I don’t have a Spectral Procession in hand or if my mana is 2 Plains and a Mutavault and I can’t cast the Spectral Procession. When you figure there is a Wizened Cenn on the board already too, the Cohort hits the board at 4/4 and hopefully when he swings next turn, he has the potential to be a 5/5 (thanks liege or 2nd Cenn). So without further ado, here is my round by round report from PTQ-Berlin that took place in Indianapolis on June 22nd.
ROUND ONE
Round one was faeries. I don’t know why but so far I have owned this match up, and today is no different. I got a bit worried in the first game, as he swung with a Mistbind Clique repeatedly and managed to get me down to 2 life. He was still at 8, but with a Cloudgoat Ranger, Goldmeadow Harrier, and 6 1/1 Kithkin tokens I swung in. Even tho he had 2 blockers, I threw a Surge of Thoughtweft for the win.
Game 2 was a little easier for me. Admittedly he was very mana screwed. I had a Cloudgoat Ranger, 6 Kithkin tokens, and a Wizened Cenn (sick) on the board, and swung. He said 15, and started to write down 5 when I said before damage, and tapped to throw my Surge of Thoughtweft again. WIN
MVP is the Surge!
ROUND TWO enter 1-0
Round two is a deck I have played against before, but obviously by someone who wasn’t sure of how to pilot it. Matt, my opponent, was very good with his 5 color elemental deck. I got abused after getting him down to 8. He wiped my board with a Firespout, after he evoked a Shriekmaw on my liege. He swung for 14 to put me at 2, and that was pretty much the game.
Game 2 I came storming back. Turn 1 Heights, Turn 2 Stalwart, Turn 3 Cohort, swing for 2, turn 4, swing 5, turn 5 swing 5 and he scooped.
Game 3 was the big fun game. I got him down to 14, and then we entered a stall. For seven turns it was draw, go, draw go. He could block me, I could block him, all creatures die. So neither of us did anything. Then time is called. Its called as he says go. JUDGE! It is determined that since time was called as he said go, that it was his end step, so my turn is turn 1. The judge sits there and watches us. On turn 3, I have a plan. I got him down to 8 on my first turn. I forget exactly what happened, but I know I Mirrorweaved, he Nameless Inversion'ed, and it was all during attack stage, and in response to the inversion, I played Surge of Thoughtweft. There were 2 judges watching us. We broke the judges. Seriously. We broke the judges. It took 5 of them to sort out the layers. In the end, Matt only wound up taking 2 damage and that was game. DRAW
ROUND THREE enter 1-0-1
Round three was Quick n Toast. I got him down to 5 in game 1, and down to 6 in game two. Both games saw me die at the hands of a Cloudthresher. Stupid Cloudthresher.
Swept 2-0, LOSE
ROUND FOUR enter 1-1-1
Round four pitted me against faeries again. Yay! I love the faeries! Except I get beat to hell by them in game 1 as I keep a 2 land hand, lost both of my creatures to nameless inversion, and never drew another land. This makes it difficult to play the 3 drops and 5 drop in my hand. Game 2 saw me rebound and roast him in five turns. Game 3 when I swung for the win I was at 33. I had a Wizened Cenn and 2 Knight of Meadowgrain in play. WIN
ROUND FIVE enter 2-1-1
Game one was over before it really got started, I had an opening hand with creatures and he just couldn’t recover. Game 2 he said he was land screwed but he didn’t miss a drop so I'm not sure what he meant. I swung for 72 on turn 5 or 6. I determined this was Ten Commandments. Or at least a variant of it. WIN
ROUND SIX enter 3-1-1
Round six introduced me to an EVIL black green deck that was designed SPECIFICALLY to destroy Kithkin and Faeries. He said it was basically a Rock deck, modified for block, with Fire-Lit Thickets splashed in for Firespout, It did its job well. Game 2 he got his key combo out, Grim Poppett and Blowfly Infestation. I didn’t side in Wispmare, because I didn’t see any enchantments in game one. Never drew the Oblivion Rings I boarded in. when he finished with me, there was still 35 minutes left in the round. LOSE
ROUND SEVEN enter 3-2-1
Round seven I went up against a black green elves deck. I destroyed it in game one, but made several play mistakes in game 2, and wound up punting that game. Game 3 I couldn’t draw anything but land after he wiped my board with Scarblade Elite and Shriekmaw, and Nameless Inversion. LOSE
ROUND EIGHT enter 3-3-1
Round eight introduced me to some weird sort of red green ramp deck, with Deus of Calamity. He had 2 of them out in game one. I boarded in my Oblivion Rings to take care of the Deus and that did the trick and I took game 2. Game 3 his deck hosed him, as he mulliganed down to 5 and kept a hand with 2 Mutavaults. It didn’t take long to seal his fate. WIN
ROUND NINE enter 4-3-1
Essentially in PTQs this is round 17. This is my first actual mirror match. His deck hates him tho, and I beat him, although I manage to forget that I can Mirrorweave my opponents Thistledown Liege, although at the time, I’m not sure I actually had creature advantage. WIN
Final Result, I finished 5-3-1 in 42nd place out of 347 people. WOW! And it was a GREAT TIME
Till next time!
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