Standard PPTQ Win @ Eudemonia (11/11/2017)

I won the Standard PPTQ at Eudemonia in Berkley, CA last weekend, my first ever PPTQ win. We had 63 people show up, so it was a pretty packed house with 6 rounds of Swiss (luckily we closely avoided having to do 7 rounds) followed by a cut to Top 8.

I started playing Magic again about a year ago (after a sixteen year hiatus), and have been slowly getting involved in a few of the competitive events in the Bay Area and upper Midwest (I split my time between the two). I’ve Top 8-ed a couple of PPTQs over the last six months, and I was finally able to get over the hump to get my first win! I’m pretty stoked and am looking forward to the RPTQ in April, although I really need to practice Sealed over the next few months or I have absolutely zero shot at doing well.

Going into the tournament, I had decided to play 4c Energy despite going 0–3 with the deck at Anime Imports’ (AI, in Pacifica, CA) Standard Win-A-Box event earlier in the week and 2–1 at FNM (Heretic Games in San Bruno, CA) the day before. I dropped matches at AI to a 4c Energy mirror and a spicy God-Pharaoh’s Gift list with Archfiend of Ifnir, and I was consistently losing to Approach decks of all varieties. I did do fairly well with the deck at a PPTQ in Manitowoc, WI the weekend before, so I didn’t think the deck was a *total* loss.

The Deck

The flex slots in the deck were making me really unhappy. I was running 2 Vraska, Relic Seekers and 2 Magma Sprays that were underperforming in pretty much every matchup I was seeing. Vraska was solid against Tokens and Magma Spray helped against Ramunap, but both decks seemed to be on the decline.

It was time to make some changes.

I moved a Vraska to the sideboard and replaced her with a main deck Supreme Will. Vraska is great against Tokens, so I didn’t want the second copy completely out of the 75, but she felt too slow and vulnerable in most other matchups to have two copies in the main. My Approach matchup was atrocious, and I wanted the Supreme Will in the main deck to give me a couple of percentage points there.

I also cut both Magma Sprays from the main deck, keeping one in the sideboard. I replaced one with a second copy of Abrade — it just felt more versatile, wasn’t dead in my hand as often, and helped out against God-Pharaoh’s Gift decks and Temur builds running multiple copies of Skysovereign, Consul Flagship.

The second copy of Magma Spray was replaced with a Blossoming Defense because…because it sounded fun. It swung some games throughout the tournament, so I didn’t regret it, even though I took it out in any post-sideboard games where the opponent had seen it in Game 1.

I had also been running 3 Glorybringers in the main deck, but decided to replace one copy with a main deck Confiscation Coup to help out in 4-color Energy mirrors and against any other decks with decent targets (Skysovereign, God-Pharaoh’s Gift, etc.).

Here is the final list:

Main Deck

4 Aether Hub
4 Botanical Sanctum
1 Dragonskull Summit
2 Forest
1 Island
1 Mountain
3 Rootbound Crag
2 Sheltered Thicket
3 Spirebluff Canal
1 Swamp

2 Bristling Hydra
2 Glorybringer
4 Longtusk Cub
4 Rogue Refiner
4 Servant of the Conduit
2 The Scarab God
4 Whirler Virtuoso

2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Vraska, Relic Seeker

2 Abrade
4 Attune with Aether
1 Blossoming Defense
1 Confiscation Coup
4 Harnessed Lightning
1 Supreme Will

Sideboard

2 Appetite for the Unnatural
1 Chandra’s Defeat
1 Confiscation Coup
1 Deathgorge Scavenger
1 Magma Spray
4 Negate
1 Nissa, Steward of Elements
1 Spell Pierce
2 Vizier of Many Faces
1 Vraska, Relic Seeker

Sideboarding

I usually wing it when it comes to sideboarding during a tournament, so I didn’t go into the day with written plans. The configurations below are what I used during the matchups I faced — I didn’t make any changes to this plan when on the play versus the draw.

Temur Energy

-1 Blossoming Defense
-4 Longtusk Cub
+1 Chandra’s Defeat
+1 Confiscation Coup
+1 Nissa, Steward of Elements
+2 Vizier of Many Faces

As mentioned, Blossoming Defense comes out whenever the opponent saw it in Game 1. Cubs come out because everyone tells me they should and /something/ has to be cut to make room for the sideboard cards. I’ve yet to see Nissa meaningfully impact a game, but I think that has more to do with me never drawing it when it matters than it being a bad card.

UW Approach

-2 Abrade
-1 Blossoming Defense
-3 Harnessed Lightning
-1 Vraska, Relic-Seeker
+2 Appetite for the Unnatural
+4 Negate
+1 Spell Pierce

Packing the full playset of Negates (to go along with the main deck Supreme Will and a Spell Pierce) gave me a decent shot at keeping opponents off of sweepers and Approach. The two Appetites came in as a clean answer to both Search for Azcanta and Torrential Gearhulk in a one card package.

BR Aggro

-1 The Scarab God
-1 Vraska, Relic-Seeker
+1 Deathgorge Scavenger
+1 Magma Spray

This matchup felt alright whenever my opponent didn’t curve out like a god. Sideboarding mainly involved taking out slow cards and boarding in removal and anything that could gain me some life.

Swiss Rounds

Round 1 — Temur Energy (1–0, 2–1)

This match was not very memorable, considering I can’t remember too many details. I do vaguely recall dropping a game to my own The Scarab God (courtesy of Confiscation Coup), so there’s always that to look out for.

Round 2 — Temur Energy (2–0, 2–0)

This match was another one that wasn’t very memorable — I felt like I won the games without having to overcome too many obstacles.

Round 3 — Temur Energy (2–1, 0–2)

I got completely wrecked in Game 1 by keeping a bad hand and my opponent curving out. Yay…

Game 2 involved me keeping another bad hand with a bunch of green cards, an Attune, a Spirebluff Canal, and a Swamp. Yeah…don’t keep hands like that. I ended up stuck on 2 lands for about 6 turns while my opponent crushed me. To add insult to injury, a 30 minute power outage during Game 2 prolonged my suffering.

Round 4 — UW Approach (3–1, 2–0)

I didn’t have the most aggressive start in Game 1, but I was able to trudge through a few removal spells and slowly work my opponents’ life total down. Luckily, he was not drawing into any Approaches after quite a bit of digging (thanks to a flipped Search for Azcanta), and a timely Supreme Will on the Approach (after he finally found it) with lethal on board won me the game.

In Game 2, I was able to curve into a more aggressive start (two Rogue Refiners and 2 Servants of the Conduit) and had my opponent down to 10 life by turn six. During my opponent’s end step, I cast Appetite for the Unnatural to remove an Aether Meltdown on one of my Rogue Refiners and swung for 10 the next turn. I had the Negate ready for his Settle the Wreckage (and a Supreme Will backing it up), giving me the match.

Round 5 — Temur Energy (4–1, 2–0)

I have zero recollection of this match, although I’m happy I won. :)

Round 6 — BR Aggro (5–1, 2–1)

I was sitting at 4–1 after 5 rounds and 8th in the standings. My opponent was somewhere in the neighborhood of 2nd to 4th in the standings. The cut to Top 8 was not clean, however, so I definitely needed to play and my opponent preferred to play the round out, as well.

In Game 1, I was able to work my way into a board stall by drawing every Whirler Virtuoso in my deck, a Bristling Hydra with enough energy up to keep Hazoret at bay, and casting The Scarab God for only the second time in the tournament. I was sitting pretty low on life, however (in the 6–8 range, if I remember correctly), so the Hazoret was threatening to burn me out over a few turns. Then I realized that his two Scrapheap Scroungers make terrible blockers, spit out a couple more Thopters off of the Virtuosos, and swung for a lethal 12 points of damage after his 3 blocks.

In Game 2, my opponent was on the play and curved out Dread Wanderer into Scrapheap Scrounger into a 3-drop while I had kept a relatively slow hand…so, yeah, I died.

In Game 3, my opponent didn’t see any of his impact cards and I was able to win fairly handily, if memory serves.

I entered the Top 8 as the #2 seed after playing out all of my rounds and having a few of the undefeated players draw into the Top 8 over the final two Swiss rounds. The #1 seed lost in the quarterfinals, so I ended up being on the play for every Top 8 match.

The *entire* Top 8 was on some version of Energy — it looked like there was one Sultai build, I was on my 4-color list, and the rest were on straight Temur.

Top 8

Quarterfinals — Temur Energy (6–1, 2–1)

My only recollection of Game 1 is that I lost fairly badly. :) I believe it involved Glorybringers and a Chandra ultimate or some such nonsense.

My only recollection of Game 2 is that I won and it involved Whirler Virtuoso, the real MVP.

Game 3 was slightly more interesting (for me, anyway). My opponent got stuck on 3 lands for most of the game, and the turning point occurred around Turn 5 when my opponent had just hit his third land drop and had a Servant of the Conduit ready to provide his 4th mana. During the prior turn, I had chosen to hold back on casting a Glorybringer, play out a Servant of the Conduit, and hold up three mana (two lands and another Servant) to keep a Supreme Will active. My assumption was that he had just hit 4 mana, had cast enough Chandra, Torch of Defiances in previous games to assume that he was packing 2–3 in his deck, and that he’d be powering it out as soon as he could cast it. I guessed right, countered his Chandra, and followed it up with Glorybringer the following turn to take out his Servant. He was fully choked on mana at that point and I was able to win over the next few turns.

Semifinals — Temur Energy (7–1, 2–1)

In Game 1, I discovered that my opponent was packing at least eight Glorybringers in his deck and lost fairly badly.

Game 2, my opponent played conservatively and passed on a lethal attack with a Glorybringer and 2 Rogue Refiners with me sitting on one card in hand (which would have left him dead on board if I was holding a removal spell…I happened to be holding a Botanical Sanctum). I top-decked a Whirler Virtuoso the next turn with 6 energy up (giving me potential for more damage and a a stream of chump blockers to preserve my life total), allowing me to kill him with three Thopters I already had on board before he was able to untap his exerted Glorybringer.

Game 3, I got ahead on board and was able to play the aggro role throughout. It was similar to Game 1 except it was me that had all of the answers and my opponent wasn’t able to muster too much of a defense.

Finals — Temur Energy (8–1, 2–0)

Game 1 involved me curving out fairly well and getting in some points of damage early in the game, dropping him into single digits with Thopters, a Whirler Virtuoso and a few 2–3 drops. He eventually dropped his own Whirler Virtuoso with energy up and was able to grind us into a board stall. In the late game, I dropped The Scarab God, which he was able to hold off for two turns with Harnessed Lightning on my end step. The following turn I cast a Whirler Virtuoso and held up removal to deal with a Glorybringer. Then I re-cast The Scarab God, it stuck, and I was able to untap with it (and 8 mana) on board to reanimate my opponent’s Whirler Virtuoso and a Bristling Hydra with the scry trigger on the stack. This brought my opponent to 2 life and, with no answer to The Scarab God at the ready and more life drain coming the following turn, he scooped.

In Game 2, I curved out well again and stayed aggressive, but my opponent was able to remove most of my threats (either with trades via blocking or removal) before dropping a Skysovereign to remove my last non-token creature. I had eked out a bit of card advantage with Rogue Refiner and Whirler Virtuoso by this point, however, and my opponent’s hand was pretty depleted. My hand was Abrade, Harnessed Lightning, and Negate. From there, I was able to top deck my way into a Bristling Hydra, Vizier of Many Faces, and another Vizier of Many Faces over the next 3 turns to close out the game. He cast a Glorybringer the turn after my first Hydra, but the Harnessed Lightning took it down before it was able to impact the board or chip in any damage.

WIN!

That’s that.

We finished at 1:30am and I was definitely ready to go home (despite being stoked about winning my first PPTQ).

Overall, I think I got lucky in a few spots, top-decked well when I needed to, played well in spots, and felt really good about my deck and sideboard choices. The flex spot changes I made before the tournament really helped with the Approach match and several of the Temur matches, with several cards I had recently swapped in doing work.

The #1 card in my deck during the tournament was Whirler Virtuoso. I drew it in almost every game and it did a ton of work. There were quite a few games that involved some sort of board stall on the ground, and Thopters were consistently chipping away at my opponents’ life totals turn after turn.

The other card that over-performed was the fun-of Supreme Will I had just slid into the main deck. I won at least 2 games directly because of the card, one when countering an Approach in Round 4 Game 1 then swinging for lethal and another when countering a key Chandra in the Quarterfinals. It did its job.

I got really lucky with my deck choice — a huge percentage of the room was on straight Temur lists, and my 4-color build has tools to compete well in the matchup. In nine rounds, I played Temur seven different times (with maybe 1 of those opponents being on a 4-color list), UW Approach once, and BR Aggro once. I was lucky to slip by the BR Aggro deck without having my list tuned for the matchup, and my configuration gave me an edge in the rest of the matches.

Hopefully my luck continues at the RPTQ in a few months, but, regardless, I’m pretty happy with how things went this past weekend.