Sending Post Cards from the Plane Crash (Wish you we’re here) PTQ Austin *Last Loser*

Intros are for suckers.

My Weapon of Choice,

AKA the deck I decided was easiest to put together at 3AM (I must be lonely) the day of the PTQ.

Adapted to my whimsy from this deck:

By Eric Theiss

5th Place – Nashville PTQ – 5/23

4  Anathemancer

4  Boggart Ram-Gang

4  Demigod of Revenge

4  Figure of Destiny

4  Hellspark Elemental

4  Mogg Fanatic

2  Banefire

4  Flame Javelin

3  Magma Spray

3  Volcanic Fallout

4  Auntie’s Hovel

3  Ghitu Encampment

4  Graven Cairns

9  Mountain

4  Sulfurous Springs

Sideboard:

4  Blightning

3  Chaotic Backlash

2  Everlasting Torment

3  Terminate

3  Terror

I made sweeping changes:

-3 Magma Spray

+3 Japanese Ice Age art Incinerates (from Coldsnap PreCon)

Thus arriving at this plane crash:

4 Figure of Destiny

4 Mogg Fanatic

4 Hellspark Elemental

4 Boggart Ram-Gang

4 Anthemancer

4 Demigod of Revenge

3 Incinerate

4 Flame Javelin

3 Volcanic Fallout

2 Banefire

4 Auntie’s Hovel

4 Sulfurous Springs

4 Graven Cairns

3 Ghitu Encampment

9 Mountains

My sideboard was also wildly different:

4 Terminate

1 Terror

3 Thought Hemorrhage

3 Magma Spray

1 Volcanic Fallout

1 Banefire

2 Pithing Needle

Round 1 “Slander”

Guy from Toledo – BW Tokens

We started talking about his home town and retards.  I asked him who rode the short bus in Toledo.  He told me the biggest idiot in Toledo was Ryan Dilgart.  Dilgart is so dumb that he once blew Sidney Crosby just to taste greatness.  He once had an awkward moment just to see how it felt.  He doesn’t always drink beer, but when he does, he drinks dos equis.  Stay thirsty Toledo.

1-0

Round 2 “Who watches the watchmen?”

??? – ???

I won this round.  I don’t know who I played against. I don’t know what he played.  I do know that I smashed.  For you enjoyment I present:

2-0

Round 3 “Lose the Clash.  Win the Game.”

Kenta – Faeries

Game one he counters one of my spells with Broken Ambitions.  He wins the Clash.  I mill two Anthemancer and a Hellspark Elemental.  Kenta proves his masterfullnessingness by beating me on his play on the double Paris trip.  This matchup is supposed to be my best.  In game three Kenta had to run out the Bitterblossom on turn 2.  I whittle him down with it.  We end up in turns.  On my last turn I draw Anthemancer and he doesn’t have the counter magic for it.

3-0

Round 4 “SSSSSSSS-Snake”

Stuart Parnes – Elves

My memory is so good that this match could actually have happened one round later.

Stu is a very good player, who deserves respect as a deck builder and player.  I really like what his deck had going on.  My oral fixation with Putrid Leech has been well documented on the forums at PlayOrDrawGames.com.  Stu’s deck has both Leech and Wren’s Run Vanquisher, the only way the two drops could get better is with Tarmogoyf.  After throwing Chameleon Colossus and Imperious Perfect in, there are quite a few creatures that demand my attention.  The terminates, post board, we’re very important in this matchup so I could save Flame Javelins and Banefires for the Camel-lions.

He also had an interesting wrinkle in his deck, when I was expecting him to Eye-blights Ending my attacking man he ran out the Snakeform instead.  I knew I was going to lose my guy, but having him draw a card was just unfair.  This was very good for him in game two.

In the deciding game, he got a slower start, some kitchen Finks delayed the inevitable.  Which is all they can do.  More on Finks as fail boat later on.  I eventually started shipping with Demigod of Revenge.  Demigod is a substantially sized man with evasion.

4-0

Round 5 “Mirror Match.  Ready.  Fight.”

BenSW – Rb Deck Wins

As previously noted this could have happened one round earlier.

Ben is a former teammate of mine from team unknown stars.  I got booted from the team/message boards because I stopped visiting the forums and Gavin had a post or die thread.  I died.

***Begin Strategy***

Drawing first is correct.  The extra card is important, because the winner is usually the guy with the last creature to stick or the one with the last burn spell.  Missing land drops on the way to flashing back Anthemancer or ramping to Demigod is www.Sadhorns.com

Also you should slow roll your Figure of Destiny until you can evolve him at least twice.  You’ll either have a sad Mogg Fanatic in your opponents graveyard and a Figure in you battlefield… ::shivers:: or two Mogg Fanatics in your opponents graveyard and a Figure in yours.  That telekinesis Kyle!  Or card advantage! Or something!  Ben brought in Thought Hemorrhages from his board.  I’m a little verklempt.  Talk amongst yourselves (or in the forums).  I’ll give you a topic: is bringing in Thought Hemorrhages for the mirror correct or incorrect?

Also the mana base of this deck should definitely be -1 Sulfurous Springs +1 Ghitu Encampment.  More on this later.

***End Strategy***

5-0

Round 6 “I’m not even supposed to be here today”

Aaron Brieder – Jund Beats

In game one, I ship to six cards and keep a one lander on the draw.  I scoop it up on turn five with one land in play.  In the next game, I make a bad play when he Primals gaining 7 life and putting my Ghitu Encampment on the top of my deck.  Do you see the problem with this?  I did before I redrew the Encampment.  I proceed to announce how bad I am just so I can beat everyone else to it.  Then Aaron makes the same play again.  Thinking that I thought I could fizzle the whole spell (which had two targets) by activating my Encampment and sacrificing my Mogg Fanatic.  In reality I just needed to activate my man land so it wouldn’t get plowed.  So Aaron gained 14 life this game.  When I lost he was at 14 life.

4 Anathemancer

3 Bituminous Blast

4 Putrid Leech

3 Sygg, River Cutthroat

3 Jund Charm

4 Kitchen Finks

4 Bloodbraid Elf

4 Thoughtseize

1 Loxodon Warhammer

4 Maelstrom Pulse

5 Swamp

1 Mountain

1 Forest

4 Savage Lands

4 Treetop Village

1 Graven Cairns

2 Sulfurous Springs

2 Karplusan Forest

2 Fire-Lit Thicket

4 Twilight Mire

Sideboard:

3 Thought Hemorrhage

3 Primal Command

1 Jund Charm

2 Garruk Wildspeaker

2 Chameleon Colossus

2 Lavalanche

2 Terminate

5-1

Round 7 “Small price to pay for the smiting ones enemies”

Michael Monroe Stephens – Rafiq

Monroe kicked things of by shipping his hand back twice.  Got to be good for me, right?  Wrong!

He crushes me with his Rhino.  Monroe’s unlucky number is seven. He decides that his five card hand was so good that he’s going to give six a try in games two and three.  I smash him in the second game.  In game three I get demoralizing victory with peeled Mogg Fanatic to kill his turn one Noble Hierarch.  Monroe cries about justice while not playing much.  I ask him if he is a god and he says no.  “Ray, when someone asks you if you’re a (demi)GOD, you say “YES”!”

6-1

Round 8 “Dinner Time”

Nathan Bramlett – Jund Aggro

I started off with a mulligan, to remove the tomatoes from my sandwich.  Had curly fries on turn one.  I run out the Turkey Ranch and Bacon on two.  On three I played donate, giving the tomatoes to Kyle Boggames.  I washed it all down with a tasty beverage.  KING KONG AIN’T GOT SHIT ON ME!

4 Figure of Destiny

4 Demigod of Revenge

4 Mogg Fanatic

4 Boggart Ram-Gang

4 Bloodbraid Elf

4 Bituminous Blast

4 Flame Javelin

4 Anathemancer

4 Goblin Outlander

8 Mountain

4 Savage Lands

4 Auntie’s Hovel

2 Karplusan Forest

4 Graven Cairns

2 Fire-Lit Thicket

Sideboard:

4 Volcanic Fallout

2 Broodmate Dragon

1 Jund Charm

4 Pithing Needle

4 Terminate

6-1-1

Quarterfinals “4x Finks 3x Cryptic Command”

Brock Estell –  5 Color Lark

I don’t recall much about this match except for the last game.  He stalled on two lands.  I get to mana for Thought Hemorrhage before he gets to three lands.  I decide that I don’t care about the Kitchen Finks, of which I am sure he has at least one in his hand.  I get some damage in with my man land instead of Cranial Extractioning the Finks after deciding  that I want to get Cryptic or Lark on a later turn.  Mostly just to prove something I have been screaming about for weeks:

Kitchen Finks Suck

They are fucking clown shoes.  Kitchen Finks are one note jokes that only stoners laugh at.

When I did Extract him on a following turn, he showed a second Finks and a Mannequin.  But get this, his deck revealed only TWO Cryptic Commands.  I must have looked between his deck and the peanut gallery at least three times with the most bewildered look on my face.

So three Finks and a Reanimated Finks later, I win.  The supposed best cards against red lost the red deck, in quantities of four.  I would also like to state for the record that none of the Finks were Magma Sprayed and the Makeshifted Finks got to persist.

After the match I asked him about the Cryptic Command and he said he boarded one out.  Let me repeat he boarded ONE out.  I asked him why he only had three Cryptic Commands, the reason that one plays Blue.  He said that he didn’t have enough room.  Cheeks overheard this and stated, “If you show me your deck, I will show you 57 worse cards.”

I couldn’t have put it better.  Oh and Finks are garbage.

2 Makeshift Mannequin

2 Glen Elendra Archmage

2 Maelstrom Pulse

3 Cryptic Command

3 Path to Exile

3 Reveillark

4 Mulldrifter

4 Broken Ambitions

4 Kitchen Finks

4 Anathemancer

4 Wrath of God

1 Exotic Orchard

1 Plains

1 Swamp

2 Island

4 Vivid Meadow

1 Vivid Marsh

4 Vivid Creek

3 Sunken Ruins

4 Reflecting Pool

4 Mystic Gate

Sideboard:

2 Austere Command

3 Celestial Purge

3 Runed Halo

3 Zealous Persecution

4 Meddling Mage

Semifinals “This train is carrying jobs out of Cleveland”

Aaron Wyant – Kithkin from Cleveland

Aaron was from Cleveland, I don’t know how we got to it but needless to say we are both fans of this:

I impressed him by singing the whole first half while applying beats and burns.  I mulled to five on the play in game one and he got me.  He however didn’t play any Burrenton Forge-Tenders in the second two games, and well placed burn spells and hasty creatures gave me more decision and choices.  Also, Volcanic Fallout happens to be good times for red decks.  At least we’re not Detroit.

WE’RE NOT DETROIT!

4 Path to Exile

3 Ajani Goldmane

4 Glorious Anthem

4 Spectral Procession

4 Figure of Destiny

4 Goldmeadow Stalwart

4 Wizened Cenn

4 Knight of Meadowgrain

4 Cloudgoat Ranger

17 Plains

2 Rustic Clachan

2 Mutavault

4 Windbrisk Heights

Sideboard:

4 Stillmoon Cavalier

4 Pithing Needle

3 Militia’s Pride

3 Unmake

1 Burrenton Forge-Tender

Finals “If you’re not first, You’re last”

Kurtis Droge – UW Lark

There really isn’t much to say about this match.  I wasn’t in game one at all.  In game two he one dropped a Burrenton Forge-Tender, which I would later learn was a one of.  I was close to a big Banefire, but did not get there in time.  Good luck at the PT Kurtis, after googling you it seems you deserved this win far more than I did.  It still doesn’t make me any less bitter about losing in the finals.  It’s a very unfulfilled feeling.

4 Mulldrifter

3 Glen Elendra Archmage

4 Reveillark

4 Knight of the White Orchid

4 Figure of Destiny

2 Ranger of Eos

4 Cryptic Command

4 Path to Exile

3 Wrath of God

7 Plains

5 Island

4 Mystic Gate

4 Adarkar Wastes

4 Mind Stone

4 Fieldmist Borderpost

Sideboard:

2 Wispmare

2 Remove Soul

1 Burrenton Forge-Tender

1 Heap Doll

4 Meddling Mage

2 Martial Coup

1 Wrath of God

2 Celestial Purge

Decklist courtesy of the great folks at Professional Event Services and the whole top 8 can be found here: http://professional-events.com/Magic/PTQAustin09/Gar061309.php4

If you would like to play this deck, here are the suggested changes:

Land

-1 Sulfurous Springs

+1 Ghitu Encampment

This deck plays a lot of land for a red deck.  It needs to so it can get to Anthemancer rebuys and Demigod of Revenge quickly.  With all the red needed for this deck I found myself taking pain frequently from the springs.  In fact one of the mirror match games I played with BenSW, I was helped out by his spring damaging him.  Effectively giving me two free burn spells.  The deck can also flood easier than traditional red decks, the fourth Ghitu Encampment gives the deck something to do when it draws a few many land.  I really want more man-lands but Mutavault would mess with the core spells need for colored mana too much.

Spells

I think the deck wants all of the Volcanic Fallouts main.  I think you would either cut one Incinerate or one Mogg Fanatic.  There are just a lot of decks that the fallout is good against right now.

Sideboard:

The only cards I would keep with out a doubt would be:

4x Terminate

3x Magma Spray

(1x Volcanic Fallout if you don’t main board all four)

The Thought Hemorrhages are probably fine as well, but I will note that it never did much of anything when I played it.  I am not a fan of this card in general.  It does have its applications, Its quite good against cards like Revilark, and combo decks (this deck is particularly vulnerable to combo.)

I wanted to run some Chaotic Backlashes in the board, however I couldn’t get ahold of them before the tourney.  I like them in theory, however I didn’t have much problem with the token based decks I played against.

Pithing needle is always a fine choice to fill out a sideboard, and there are many applications for the card in the current standard.  Treetop Villages, Planeswalkers, a random story circle.  I don’t think you would ever side more than two in, for fear of bringing your threat density too low.

I would be looking for ways to shore up the Revilark matchup.  Maybe the terrors in the original decks sideboard were for killing Forge-tenders.  Blightnings seem that they could be okay against Lark, however I am not sure if they are a home run.  Not sure what to do here.  I think I would need more data before making an official suggestion.

Until then Good luck.  Now play me off keyboard cat.

Always remember – Keep yourself in check,

Dan Cato

Email me at:  Cato AT Play or Draw Games dot Com