Tornament report – Extended PTQ
By Jack Clarke, on May 21st at 3:35 pmTournament Report
[cardlist title=”4 Colour Zoo”]
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Kird Ape
3 Loam Lion
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Qasali Pridemage
3 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Ranger of Eos
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Path to exile
2 Bant Charm
1 Umezawas Jitte
4 Arid Mesa
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
6 Rav Duals
3 Basics
1 Stirring Wildwood[/cardlist]
Round One
Hypergenesis
Game one I came out strong with Creatures while he just stocked up on his lands. I soon won the game. I had not played against Hypergenesis before and so even though I knew it played stock up lands I didn’t assume he was playing it. I only partially sideboarded for it.
I wasn’t punished for my mistake though as he combo’d on his turn two before I could use any of my hate.
I then sideboarded fully for game three and my hate was pretty good. Negates, Meddling Mages and Ethersworn canonist. I played a turn two ethersworn canonist to which he said “oh yeah, I forgot about that guyâ€. I bashed away and eventually played a tarmogoyf as a 1/2. He suspended a Hypergenesis. After Bashing again I played another tarmagoyf, and on his turn he topdecked Firespout wiping out my board.
I had been playing a land a turn so far and so I played a 7/7 Knight of the reliquary. He just passed turn and on my turn I cracked another fetch land and swung for eight putting him on three. His hypergenesis finished it’s suspendedness and he put down an Iona, Shield of Emeria set to red, A progenitus and an Angel of despair taking out my knight. At the end of his turn I pathed the Iona thinking, “if I topdeck burn here I winâ€.
I topdecked a lightning helix and cast it. He had a ricochet trap in hand and redirected it back to me. Ouch
0-1
Round Two
Elves
I had actually tested this matchup and felt I was fovoured. Both games I just bashed whenever possible and killed off his combo pieces. My sideboard hate for this was also really good.
1-1
Round Three
Zoo
Both games were real grindy. I had not tested the zoo mirror so did not really know how to play it. In the end I think the fact the creatures he was playing were bigger on the whole won him the games (he was playing Baneslayer Angels and a full set of knights).
The games were good all the same and a great learning experience.
1-2
Round Four
Bant
Looking at his deck made me want to play it. I played the agro role for our games and did ok, but his trinket mages finding engineered explosives and chalice of the void blew me out both games. I did not have answers to the when I needed them.
1-3
Round Five
Boros deck wins
I had tested this matchup and won both games easily. The first game he got three Zektar shrine expeditions online and cracked them all. I helixed one token and pathed another taking a total of four. After that he ran out of steam.
Game two he cracked a whole bunch of fetches, ghost quarters and flagstones of trokair (I forget the actual sequence) to pump up a massive Plated Geopede. I pathed it leaving him with basically nothing left and he lost.
The important part of this match for me was that I forgot to crack fetches at the end of his turns and forgot to play spells in the right sequence. I decided I really needed to refocus. I decided to try and finish in the top half of the field.
2-3
Round Six
Affinity
I had tested this matchup also and thought it was favorable. The games were fairly standard, every time he played a master of etherium or cranial plating I had an answer.
There was a surprising play error which I wasn’t expecting him to make. He had two artifact lands, an ornithopter, a frogmite and an arcbound ravager. I played Lightning Helix on his ravager expecting him to let it die and put the counter on the thopter, perhaps sacrificing the frogmite to put two on it. He sacrificed his frogmite and ornithopter to try and save it. I told him it was three damage so he would need to sacrifice one more thing to save it. He sacked a land not wanting to waste all of his resources in one hit. I path to exiled his ravager the next turn.
3-3
Round Seven
Dark Depths Goyf? Some B/G thing
Game one I don’t remember.
Game two he spent the time getting two copies of his Dark Depths combo in his hand. He played out one which I bant charmed away and then played his second and I had no answer.
3-4
Reflections
I won every match I had tested for (none of which are ‘favoured’ decks mind). This I think is pretty significant and next time I will test against the field more thoroughly.
When I was not the aggressive deck I did much better than when I wasn’t. Against the decks that were faster than me I did much better than against the ones that weren’t. I also felt more comfortable in the controlling role. My aggressive game needs some work I think.
It was a really great learning experience and all but one of my opponents were very likeable (which I found surprising). I am looking forward to playing more extended in the future (and doing more than a weeks preparation for it). Thanks Michael for the deck..
