I have a lot of bad habits. I start things and I don't finish them. You'll notice that there's two PTQs and a GPT gone bye that I haven't written up about (other than posting my carpool from the San Diego PTQ in Seattle). I also don't keep notes well enough to revisit them days later to write a PTQ report. This has got to change starting this weekend at World of Collections in Edmonds, where I'll be attempting to garner three byes for GP Oakland. Until then, here's a somewhat brief recap of the three events in question:

  • PTQ San Diego, Seattle - I played the best cards in my pool, making a black/white deck splashing red for Punishing Fire. I cruised through the first three rounds on the back of Day of Judgment and Malakir Bloodwitch. In round four, I finally saw Sorin Markov. Unfortunately, so did my opponent, eventual top 8 competitor Jiachen Tao. In game one, I popped off Sorin's Ultimate, taking over his turn, wiping his board, and making him hold on to the Sorin he drew a turn extra to get one more Douse in Gloom. Games two and three went his way, though as he saw Sorin and I didn't. In round five, I crushed Doogle with a timely Day of Judgment wiping his team. Round six saw me face off against Sorin Markov one more time, and he was able to get more use out of his Sorin than I was out of mine and that was that. I lost again in round seven to finish the day at 4-3.
  • PTQ San Juan, Seattle - Piloting The Living End, I won round one vs. U/W Reveillark control. In game two, he played Meddling Mage naming Violent Outburst. I felt like Neo in the Matrix, dodging bullets (the exact opposite of the feeling I had the night before at The Rock). Round two, I played against Jason Fleurant running burn, and both games one and two my draw was a turn too slow to really do much of anything. I made a mistake in game two getting greedy when I could have gone off to recycle a Kitchen Finks and gain a couple more life. Burn isn't a particularly great matchup for the deck anyways. In round three, I faced off against a Doran deck (not Cedric's 5CD list, but an actual green/black/white deck). This felt like an extremely strong matchup for me, but in three games, I saw one cascade spell (I won the game I saw that spell). My list at the time did not have Shriekmaw, though, and that guy's some good against creature decks. At 1-2, I dropped to play in the GPT.
  • GPT Oakland, Seattle - This tournament started out auspiciously as well, with a loss to noted former Pokemon World Champion Stuart Benson playing Scapeshift. In game one, I brought four guys into play with a Violent Outburst in response to a end step Harrow and he couldn't race. Games two and three, he played a lot more carefully, not leaving me openings to cascade off, and was able to get to his combo before I could kill him with far too fair 5-drops. Round two, I beat mono-blue Faeries in three games, killing him in response to Vendillion Clique one game and in response to a Mistbind Clique another game. I played a lot tighter against a burn deck in round three to get to 2-1, and got the bye I was looking for in round four playing against Zoo. I drew into the top 8, where I was matched up with the eventual winner of the tournament, Nathan Sallee, playing Affinity. Seems bad for me when he can sacrifice all his guys to Molten Ravager in response to a Living End. Game one he gets one of those Affinity draws with Ornithopter, Cranial Plating, Blinkmoth Nexus, and Ravager. I don't see the goods to cascade into a winning reset. I board in Kitchen Finks and the rest of the Ingot Chewers as well as the Faerie Macabres, taking out the full LD suite and the Shriekmaws. Game two he doesn't get one of those Affinity draws, seeing a useless Springdrum Leaf. He puts a couple meaningless guys into play and I wrath them away, getting an army in the process, and we're off to game three. Another nuts Affinity draw with Arcbound Worker on top of the other stuff from game one, and my tournament was done.

I've also been playing a budget version of Living End online (a budget version of a budget deck!) which has been performing alright. What I've learned is that creature based aggro decks (your Zoos, Bants, Dorans, and some Faeries draws) are pretty much byes. Slower control decks like Tezzeret, Reveillark, and U/W control decks that don't really have specific plans are somewhat draw dependent, but you have a distinct edge. Burn and Ranger Zoo are races because so much of their creature damage comes before you can even Living End and they have reach post-Wrath with burn spells. Hypergenesis is really all about Violent Outburst. You have it, you win, you don't have it, you lose. Scapeshift depends on your ability to stick land-destruction spells - Faerie Macabres are also right to board in in this matchup to get rid of their Sakura-Tribe Elders and Wood Elves, otherwise your Living End will accelerate them to the mana they need to Scapeshift. The storm decks (Pyromancers Swath, Hive Mind, and All-In Red) are really a crapshoot. You can win with a good draw, they can win with a good draw. Hive Mind is the worst for you because their plan has "I win" as part of it with a Pact of Negation or an Intervention Pact. Pact of the Titan is often not good enough against you, though.

Coming soon to StillHadAllThese - video draft walkthroughs with Dwayne St. Arnauld and The Cleanup Step podcast!