PTQ: Kobe in Indy

This was the first PTQ of the new extended season, and it would be a proving point for almost every deck. After the recent banning of many combo cards, including Tinker and Oath of Druids, the field was full of fresh new decks and ideas. Old classics where there, including as Tog, U/G Madness, and Red Deck Wins, as well as many new innovative decks, including Enchantress, Infinite Life, and even Affinity. To say the least, the field was very diverse.

The night before, I did a lot of testing against my friend Jimmy. We tested Tog vs. The Rock. We played about 20 games, and I won maybe 10% of them with tog. It is a very hard match up. The big creatures are very hard to deal with. I seemed pretty prepared though, I just hoped to not have to face The Rock.

I went to the tournament with three people, Adam, Jimmy, and my Dad. Registration started at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time, so we had to leave at 5:00 a.m. to get there. The car ride there most of us slept.

Once there we wrote out deck lists, and bout last minute cards. Adam was able to get for Chills for $6 at the last minute. Adam played U/G Madness, Jimmy played The Rock, my Dad played his janky U/W Orb deck, and I played Scepter Tog. We did a little testing before it started, then around 10:30 the first round started.

Round One. My first round opponent was Jason Green, playing GW Enchantress. It was an interesting deck, but with almost all combo deck, control was easy to get a lock. Game one, I drew three Scepters, the first with Counterspell, another with Fire/Ice, and the third with a wished out Terminate. I had the lock, and he just scooped because there was nothing that he could do. Game two I got out an early tog. I attacked a few times, before I was able to pump it up to 16 for the kill. He was a good sport, but game two he got really mana screwed.

After I won, I found out that Adam got a round one match loss, for illegal main deck. It turns out that he never registered the basic land in it. At least now he will always make sure to read his list before he hands it in.

1-0 2-0

Round Two. I played against Carl “Throwing Goblins” Pacel, playing U/G Madness. Games one was no fun. He got out a lot of creatures early on that I had no way to deal with. Game two was very close. I had a Scepter, with Fire/Ice, and a Tog. I was able to hold off his creatures until I got him down to 9. It came down to me top decking another Fire/Ice to tap his last creature, so that I was then able to swing for the win. Game three, I keep a really risky hand. All the cards in my hand were three casting cost, and I only had two lands. I was able to top deck another land on my third turn. I got out both togs very early on. Then was able to Intuition for three Accumulated Knowledge, which made it so I had enough cards to deal exactly 15 damage to him. He wasn’t too happy about losing, but it was a close game.

2-0 4-1

Round Three. I played against Louis Stephan, who was playing “Red Deck Wins.” He was really nice. Game one I wasn’t able to deal with his fast burn and attacking. I barely won the game, because he forgot to attack me when I was at three. Then he had no more instant burn to finish me off, when I was at 2 life. I got out a huge tog to swing for the win. Game two and three both went very much in his favor He got Tangle Wires and Slith Firewalker out. The Tangle Wire really hurt, because it denied me off all my mana. Without mana I couldn’t do anything about his attacking creatures. He was quickly able to finish me off, while I sat there helpless.

2-1 5-3

Round Four. John Rink played a very interesting affinity deck against me in round four. It was a lot like most type two builds, the only huge distinction was the addition of Tangle Wire. Affinity, I found out, is a hard match up for me. They have Frogmites, which are hard to deal with without using a lot of cards. They also play Tangle Wire which ties up my mana production, thus, disabling my ability to counter their spells. Game one, he got out a turn two Frogmite, which was very hard to take care of. He also was able to get out a Tangle wire. I was quickly killed by a Frogmite and Myr Enforcer. Game two was more of the same.

2-2 5-5

Round Five. My 5th round opponent was Gary, playing U/G Madness. Gary was really nice, and a fun opponent to play against. Game one was close, I was able to get out triple Scepter, two had Fire/Ice, and the other had Counterspell. I had a good control on the game, and then was able to get out a big Tog for the win. Game two, he got triple Rootwalla very early. I have hard times dealing with early beaters. I quickly died from the Rootwalla-beat-down. Game three, he got mana flooded pretty bad. He was able to deal some early damage, though, before I was able to stabilize and get out a Tog. Once I got the tog out, there was not much he could do. I tapped down his guys, and then swung in with my Tog. After a few small hits, I finished him off with a massive dump of cards. Gary was really nice, and I wouldn’t mind playing against him again.

3-2 7-6