Nationals Qualifier Report (3rd) 19/03/2011

Nationals Qualifier Report (3^rd) 19/03/2011

            By Andy Mather

            So it’s the first NQ of this year and its being held at our local Patriot Games in Sheffield. The format is Standard and we’re expecting a pretty big turnout and thus a fair amount of qualifying spaces available. Our group had been doing a fair amount of prep during the run up to this event, and we’re mostly running decks that had posted good results in previous tournaments i.e. PT Paris and SCG 5k.

            The top three of these are what most of us ended up running and also what I expected a large portion of the meta game to be. They are, in order of expected popularity; UW caw go and variants (either with red or black), Boros and Valakut  

             I had spent most of my time play testing with the UWr caw blade deck as I was planning on running it this weekend and spent the final week making adjustments to the Side Board, when I was looking at the board I currently had on Friday morning, it became clear the plan against over half the matchup’s was to try and side into a more classical UW version of the deck, taking out the removal and putting in cards like tectonic edge.

            This seemed a bit stupid to me and after talking it over with a friend, I decided at the last minute to change to a straight UW list. Now I know in general this is a really bad idea, because you’re supposed to play with a deck you’re experienced in using etc etc. But the UW list just seemed like a better 75 and I had managed to clock some game time with it after PT Paris before UWr had become popular, so I figured it’d be okay.

           

Here is the list I ended up running.

UW Caw Go  

Main Deck: 60

4 Preordain

4 Spell Pierce

1 Sylvok Lifestaff

4 Squadren Hawks

4 Stoneforge Mystic

3 Mana Leak

1 Motarpod

1 Sword of Feast and Famine

3 Tumble Magnet

4 Jace the Mind Sculptor

2 Day of Judgment

1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence

2 Gideon Jura

2 Glacial Fortress

4 Celestial Collonade

4 Seachrome Coast

4 Techtonic Edge

1 Arid Mesa

1 Scalding Tarn

5 Plains

5 Island

Side Board: 15

2 Day of Judgement

1 Divine Offering

4 Flashfreeze

3 Oust

1 Mystifying Maze

1 Sun Titan

1 Sword of Body and Mind

2 Baneslayer Angel

            I ended up building the deck on Friday day time because I was going out that evening, also meaning I was unable to attend that nights NQ practise at FNM. This meant that I would be playing these exact 75 for the first time in the qualifiers the next morning . . . fun.

            Wake up Saturday morning with a bit of a hang over, but being in Yorkshire I have no trouble finding someone to sell me a full English breakfast in a bread bun and then it’s off the store!

            Get to the shop pretty early but there are already a fair number of people already there, I meet up with people and we were able to register in good time, however for some people it was not so simple. Now I think the store has a rough capacity of around 64 people. That quota was quickly filled with people still queuing out the door still waiting to register. After a frantic 15 minuets running about by head judge Mark Hammond, he somehow manages to persuade a quaint little café just down the road into letting us rent half the place out for the day, Good Job! So with the crises averted we move on!

            The total body count for round 1 is 88 people- making it 7 rounds and giving a hefty 11 qualifying spaces. As well as store credit prizes for the top 8 so we are quickly able to calculate using rule a rule of thumb method that a 5-1-1 result should ensure your Top 8 position, while a 5-2-0. might get you into the Top 11 if you have good tie breakers. With that out the way we go to look at the pairings and find out seats for round 1.

            These are the rounds as far as I can remember them, I might not have got everything exactly right (especially SB choices) as I was concentrating on playing and didn’t take notes, also apologies to people who’s names a cant remember.

Round 1 Vs. UWB Control

Game 1

            So first game of the first NQ and there’s everything to play for, my opponent quickly gets U and W mana online closely followed by B, I get a mystic into play to grab a sword that looks awesome in my hand for a whole of 10 seconds before it gets inquisitioned away. Now at this point I’m thinking to myself, sure, he’s playing a UWb caw go deck with inquisition and the like. However that doesn’t seem to be the case. Next turn my mystic eats a doom blade before I make another one to get life staff. This one also dies, as does every other threat I play in the first 10 turns or so. This game goes very long due to him doing nothing other than killing my guys, but taking 5 minutes each turn in doing it, however I’m not too fussed at the time as I’m well ahead and if I’m a game up it makes no matter to me. I see him running Day of Judgment , Black sun’s Zenith, doom blade, condemn, Gideon and around 8 Jaces, to kill all my threats and walkers, but no counters or threats of his own in sight. Eventually I manage to beat him with a hawk carrying a lifestaff for a few turns before he decides to BSZ it leaving him on 8 (I’m on 40+ at this point but he seems to think he can pull it back. he has more doomblade for my celestial colonnade but I draw another and have techtonic edge for his. He finally runs out of removal and I close up the game, so far so good

SB; having seen 0 creatures from him G1 I side out removal in place of more threats and land.

Game 2 starts off much the same with him taking forever, but eventually answering my threats and jaceing my jace away, only this time he lands sun titan turn 6 with lil jace in the yard, making it impossible for me to resolve mine for longer than a turn, he starts attacking and drawing a ton of cards then manages to resolve a grave titan a couple of turns later, having sided out Doj I have no real answers to this and am low on time so scoop to game 3

Game 3 I come out the gates with mystic into sword, - Jace, Gideon, Baneslayer Angel, Sun titan, he throws all the removal in the world at me but jace and Gideon stick around with the sword, I also have more Gideon and baneslayer in hand, Time on the round is called with me having a massive hand and a ton of threats, he has around about 2 cards in hand, unfortunately he has a Gideon for my Gideon and a doom blade for BSA, I play my 2nd of both but there is not enough time for me to do lethal. We end at a 1-1 draw and he complains about bad luck and how he would have beaten me if the game had continued… Needless to say, I didn’t see it happening.

            I was slightly annoyed that his slow play cost me a round 1 win, but a draw is better than a loss so trying not to let it affect me I go to round 2.

0-0-1

Round 2 Vs. Boros (Chris Vincent)

Game 1

            I sit down opposite Chris, who has been playing at our local monthly steel city tournament pretty much since its been going, I know he’s a good player who has beaten me many times over the years, on top of that I have zero idea what he’s playing. However I know he also drew round 1 so surely it cant be anything that fast….? Right?

            Wrong! Turns out he’s playing boros it’s a bit of a blur, but I remember  keeping what is a average hand, he gets some dudes down and I get mystic lifestaff, equip and block, I got some hawks in hand and feel pretty safe on my 16 life, I’m tapped out when he taps for 4 and with an exuberant cry of “Falco…Punch!” slams hero of oxid ridge down on the table and swings for 14. I fail to draw Doj and die next turn.

SB; out; some counters and a lot of random stuff, In: removal, offerings, BSA Etc. It’s important to note I leave 2 mana leaks in against boros, especially after having my face torn off and eaten by hero powered geopedes.

Game 2, this game was a bit weird, he gets stuck on only white mana for the first few turns with what I can only assume is a ton of red cards in hand. I get stuck on 3 land. But its not too problematic as I draw and play all 3 tumble magnets, I draw more land for my walkers before he hits red and he scoops soon after.

Game 3. We both have pretty good starts but not the best ever. He attacks strongly but I have oust for his hero of oxid ridge the first time and know when its coming back, thinking I have no counters left in he casts it into my open mana and is shocked to see it promptly hit the bin! “who leaves mana leak in against boros!?!?” “apparently I do.” (smirk :p) I also have divine offering for his bone hoarder which stalls long enough for me to draw baneslayer angel and give her a sword. I was on 7 life at this point but she does what she’s supposed to and steals games I simply have no right in winning.

1-0-1

Round 3 Vs. Naya (Andrew) sorry I cant remember your last name Andrew L but he’s another strong player (I think based in Leeds?) who I’ve played several times over the past year or two.

            as far as I can remember Andrew always brings sweet decks to events that are awesome but not always on radar, today was no different as he had an awesome Naya deck complete with every little combo pack in those colours. Mystic + swords + collar for his sparkmage, with faurner shaman to sue vengvines and get whatever bullets he needed.

Game 1. we both see a lot of action but I’m on the play which basically seems to decide the game, I’m always one step ahead and have T2 mystic into sword, followed my all the answers I need.

SB; from what I’ve seen of the way his deck works, he doesn’t have much space in it for removal as he uses collar sparkmage for that. Which means that I can mostly play my threats without fear.

Game 2 goes much better for him and I take a hammering from his ridiculous vengvine attrition, but manage to land a BSA which promptly stops his attacks. and then I gave it a sword… apparently this is good against aggro decks. Who knew.

2-0-1

Round 4 Vs. Elves (Kieran?)

I think this guy was called Kieran? But not 100% on that, but talking too him while were shuffling up I learn he’s 3-0 and all 3 games he’s won have been against Caw Go variants… I have a baaad feeling about this.

Game 1

            He has T1 llanowar elves into arch druid… guess now I know what he’s playing, despite landing tumble magnet and using jace to bounce his guys he is too fast and I die soon after to a combination of arch druid, Ezuri and vengvines.

SB; all those tasty anti aggro cards, I knew I put them there for a reason.

Game 2, this game goes back and forth, we both get good draws and play well. He’s using green sun’s zenith and has acidic slimes for my equipment, I draw like a god and over the course of the game play all 4 of my Doj’s to keep him in check, he draws more gas and rebuilds, but eventually I stick a baneslayer which he cant answer and dies soon after.

Game 3. I manage to slow him down with oust into lifestaff, mortor pod into Doj, he rebuilds and I’m in dire straights with a sun titan in hand but only 2 land on board, lucky lucky me I rip plains followed by island off the top to land my titan bringing back stone forge mystic, which chumps and I go to 2. he cant stop a sun titan carrying a sword which keeps bringing back the stone forge mystic, but I now have enough mana to equip lifestaff and motorpod, block and sack to kill a guy before damage, netting me life. We go to time, but he’s dead on the board and offers me the hand.

            Afterwards he shows me the 2 plummets he had in hand, sided in because his deck can’t deal with BSA any other way- but unfortunately they were useless against sun titan. 

3-0-1

Round 5 Vs. Caw Go (UWr) (Owen Debenham)

            This round made me a bit sad, Owen is one of my friends who I play against often, and tested with for this event. I know exactly what he’s running, and think he wins over 50% of the time in testing, however, this time he got pretty unlucky and things turned out different.

Game 1. I’m still not sure which deck has the edge in this matchup but he draws land while I draw allll the planes walkers and kill him pretty dead.

Game 2 he starts off strong with mystic into sword against my puny squadron hawks, but he doesn’t see a 4^th land all game (literally, at least 10 turns!) and I am able to stabilise then finish him.

Needless to say he’s less than impressed by this and I don’t blame him. Things could easily have turned out differently.

4-0-1

Round 6 Vs. Caw Go (UWr) (Lin?)

Another unknown player playing an unknown deck. He’s on 4-1 at this point so if he wins he can ID to qualify, whereas I need to win one of my next 2 games to get that 5-1-1 result I’m looking for.

Game 1 sees me play lifestaff, squadron hawks and slowly kill him with tiny guys, I have tumble magnet and more counters than him to keep him in check.

Game 2 was a little awkward for me. I have a hand with counters including spell pierce but only ETB tapped blue sources, I keep anyway and he punishes me with a T2 lumiarch ascension into my tapped land L I have no answer and scoop soon after it turns active.

Game 3 I’m on the play and want to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen, I get a turn 2 mystic opting to get a motorpod over sword, thinking at least I can ping him to keep the counters off, he lands the T2 ascension but I draw another mystic to secure my sword, end up using the motorpod to get his hawks and am able to get in with my mystic to keep the counters off. eventually I play and equip swords and have tumble magnet and motorpod + hawks to keep his blockers low. He dies with zero counters on the ascension. And with that I breath a massive sigh of relief as I am now qualified for UK nationals 2011

Round 7 Vs. Boros  ID

            There’re only 3 of us on 5-0-1, as the two people on 5-0 ID’ed round 6 in the hopes that the people below them would also want to ID round 7 to get themselves into the top 8, and they would then be on 5-0-2 which would be above them. The other two people were my friend and co-tester John Roberts (boros):- who has a knack of casually crushing most events he plays in, and another strong local player:- Yin (you know. I don’t even know if that is right? But that’s what I’m going to call him anyway ^^) playing Valakut.

            I get paired against John, I could at this point play for the larger money as Yin is IDing, so if I win I would get first place. But we work out that if people below us also ID as predicted, we still get 1^st-3^rd between us anyway, this seems like a safer course of action and we agree to draw.

            The other players obediently ID, except one who is paired down so his opponent was forced to play. This is annoying as if he wins his record is 6-1 which puts him above us. We watch the game to see how it plays out but unfortunately for him, his tezzeret deck is no match for the UW caw go deck he’s facing and he gets dream crushed.

Final Record 5-0-2
Position: 3rd Place

            So, went the whole day undefeated in rounds. Me, John and Yin finished the day on 17 points and get our predicted places: 1^st John, 2^nd Yin 3^rd Me. this was due to the awful tiebreakers I received owing to my draw in round 1. But after a very adrenaline filled stress heavy day I can relax and am more than happy with the result.

            It’s nice to see the variation in the top three decks as it means multiple strategies are still viable in standard. My advice to anyone looking to qualify in the future NQ’s is to play whichever one of these three decks you feel most confidant playing, remember its not like a PTQ where you need to get 1^st  place. Hitting the Top 8 of most NQ’s will more than likely qualify you. For this reason you don’t need all the latest innovative tech in your deck to win, you just need a solid net deck that has a proven track record. Good Luck and I’ll see you all at nationals ^^