A PTQ with Chad

As the Lorwyn Sealed PTQ comes to a close, I must say, I'm disappointed. Not with the format, but with myself. I was hoping to follow up my States win with a bang, traveling to a total of four PTQs and one GP with the hopes of qualifying for my first Pro Tour. After hitting up Grand Prix Daytona and PTQs in Madison, Daytona Beach, Indianapolis, and Chicago, a record of 17-12-1 is all I have to show for the season.

Whether or not I like to admit it, I'm a Constructed player. For every sanctioned Limited event I've played in, I have played in three Constructed events. I played Magic for about three years before I even tried Sealed for the first time, four before my first Draft.

I still have so much to learn!

I loved Lorwyn Limited, but my overall record was not much better than a coin flip. Out of five tournaments, I think I had two awful pools, one decent pool, and two good pools. Correspondingly, I went a combined 4-5 on my awful pools, 3-2 with my mediocre pool, and 10-5-1 with my good pools. I felt like I legitimately had a shot at qualifying with both pools, and I have nothing to blame but my deck construction skills and my poor combat skills. However, I simply can't help but feel that way too much of Sealed, particularly Lorwyn Sealed, is luck. Card values fluctuate so much in a tribal-based format. Judge of Currents, Elvish Promenade, or Blind-Spot Giant all go from unplayable chaff to auto-includes, depending on the random breakdown of playable creatures you have. This, however, is the precise reason why I like Draft in this format so much, because you have some level of control over the number of great Elves or whatever in your pool. This in turn favors prepared drafters who can reliably expect something like Elvish Promenade to table. However, as far as Sealed goes, I've seen players with pools where Smokebraider casts every creature in the deck, or a pool with Summon the School, Drowner of Secrets, and three Judge of Currents. If the uncommons were missing, then the only non-Judge Merfolk the deck would have would be a Paperfin Rascal and a Merrow Harbinger. If that were the case, the pool would not only be down two uncommons, but down three playable commons.

Other players I've talked to maintain more optimism about the format. Bill Stark is convinced that the better you are at Constructed deck construction, the better you are at Sealed; but more crucially, the key skills for Constructed are developed during Sealed Deck season. Chad Casarotto, the second best performing player in our group this season this side of David Gleicher, finished tenth at the Chicago PTQ. His optimism is much more interesting than my general bafflement at the Sealed season. Since no one likes to read a bad beat story, my final article before we dive head-first into Extended season will be guest author'd by Chad Casarotto. Enjoy!

The morning of the 1st, Matthias, Peter, Mike and I all get in Mike's car and drive from Hyde Park to Pastimes. Little traffic and a new route allow us to get there around 9:15 with plenty of time to kill before the start of the tournament. We go and sit with David Gleicher and the rest of the crew from the north side Evil Squirrel Comics. There, David is looking over a “sealed pool” he made out of 5 boosters. After building a deck, what to do with it? Play it against Mike's new extended Affinity build of course! Well, a straight up match wouldn't be fair, so we discuss alternatives. The first match was played Invitational-style with David on the play with 8 cards and 25 life and Mike with 6 cards and 15 life. That difference wasn't nearly enough, so the next game was played with both players at 7/20 but David got to play two turns for every one turn Mike got with Affinity. To some people's surprise, the sealed deck won both games played (one with Mike on the play). It was a nice lesson of how mana and card advantage can trump card quality. Also Brigid, Hero of Kinsbaile is quite effective against Affinity.

The Chicago PTQ itself was a bit smaller than most in the area (156 people/8 rounds) probably because of the weather forecast for the day. It ended up snowing and then raining and freezing later. It was basically a disgusting day overall. Inside the venue we sat down registered our pools and then after the swap I ended up with the following pool:

White (13)
Goldmeadow Harrier
Wizened Cenn
Cenn's Heir
Kinsbaile Skirmisher
Springjack Knight
Kinsbaile Balloonist
Hillcomber Giant
Oaken Brawler
Sentry Oak
Cloudgoat Ranger
Shields of Velis Vel
Battle Mastery
Neck Snap

Blue (12)
Amoeboid Changeling
Deeptread Marrow
Ringskipper
Merrow Reejerey
2x Pestermite
Glen Elendra Pranksters
Whirlpool Whelm
2x Ponder
Whirlpool Whelm
Glimmerdust Nap
Captivating Glance

Black (18)
Squeaking Pie Sneak
2x Exiled Boggart
Nectar Faerie
Scarred Vinebreeder
2x Lys Alana Scarblade
2x Boggart Loggers
Black Poplar Shaman
Theiving Sprite
Dreamspoiler Witches
Hornet Harasser
Bog Hoodlums
Shriekmaw
Mournwhelk
Peppersmoke
Eyeblight's Ending

Red (11)
Soulbright Flamekin
Adder-Staff Boggart
Inner-Flame Igniter
Inner-Flame Acolyte
Ceaseless Searblades
Chandra Nalaar
Needle Drop
Lash Out
Blades of Velis Vel
Hurly-Burly
Rebellion of the Flamekin

Green (13)
Treefolk Harbinger
Elvish Eulogist
Warren-Scourge Elf
Battlewand Oak
Lys Alana Huntmaster
Timber Protector
Oakgnarl Warrior
Fertile Ground
Fistful of Force
Spring Cleaning
2 Lace with Moonglove
Heal the Scars

Artifacts (3)
Runed Stalactite
Dolmen Gate
Moonglove Extract

Land (5)
Shimmering Grotto
Spinerock Knoll
Vivid Creek
Vivid Grove
Wanderwine Hub

Okay, so this is the point where you look it over and make your own builds.

(Don't be distracted by that Merrow Reejerey; there are only 2 other Merfolk creatures in the pool, including changelings.)

(Also that Huntmaster is about as good as the Hillcomber Giant in this pool.)

So here's what I registered:

White (10)
Goldmeadow Harrier
Wizened Cenn
Cenn's Heir
Kinsbaile Skirmisher
Springjack Knight
Kinsbaile Balloonist
Hillcomber Giant
Oaken Brawler
Cloudgoat Ranger
Neck Snap

Red (8)
Soulbright Flamekin
Adder-Staff Boggart
Inner-Flame Igniter
Inner-Flame Acolyte
Ceaseless Searblades
Chandra Nalaar
Lash Out
Blades of Velis Vel

Black (2)
Shriekmaw
Eyeblight's Ending

Artifacts (3)
Runed Stalactite
Dolmen Gate
Moonglove Extract

Land (17)
1 Spinerock Knoll
1 Shimmering Grotto
2 Swamp
6 Mountain
8 Plains

When I first looked at the pool, I initially dismissed white because the powerful cards I saw were Cloudgoat Ranger, Harrier and Balloonist and the only removal was Neck Snap (which I'm not a big fan of). Once I did that, I was pretty depressed about my pool. I knew that I was going to at least splash black because Shriekmaw was the second best card in my pool after Chandra (and he's barely worse at that). After that I was having trouble finding decks with enough creatures. In the end, I pretty much decided that either White or Black was going to need to be a main color because of the number of playable creatures there.

In the end, I decided on a build that suits my play style. I'm a naturally aggressive player so building around Domen Gate suits that style better than any other card. My natural inclination is to turn my men sideways, unless I see a very good reason against doing so. Dolmen Gate makes turning men sideways almost always the correct play. Once I committed to this strategy, most of the deck was pretty easy to put together.

The only build mistakes I'm sure of involve the mana base. I never activated the Spinerock Knoll all day. It felt like a total win more card, but I can see a few times when it would be good. The problem with it compared to the other Hideaway lands is that you are very restricted to when you can use it. The only time you can use it is after combat damage has been dealt on your turn. All of the other lands can be used during all phases of the game and can also directly affect combat by providing a trick or a surprise blocker. Also, by the time you are dealing 7 damage, most of the time you have the game won or you have enough mana out where you aren't really gaining tempo through the Knoll. This basically reduces it to a possible draw a card effect. In addition to all of those reasons why the Knoll isn't so great is that it comes into play tapped, something I wanted to reduce in my deck. That is why I didn't play either of the Vivids. Speaking of the Vivids, I was wishing I had more colored sources, especially black, all day, so I think the correct mana base was: - 1 Knoll, - 1 Plains, + 1 Mountain, + 1 Vivid Creek/Grove. I could see playing both Vivids instead of that Mountain, but it's tough.

One of the things I wish I could have fit into my deck was Timber Protector. He's obviously solid as a 4/6 for 5 that can occasionally pump some dudes, but the real reason I wanted to fit him in was his interaction with Blades of Velis Vel. The blowout possibilities from throwing some of your dorks into the red zone and then giving two of them +3/+1 and indestructible seem immense. Also, Rebellion of the Flamekin along with Sentry Oak were also quite interesting. If I would have had another Rebellion or an Entangling Trap, I would have probably fit those in to go with all of the clashing I have in my deck.

I'll mention my thoughts on some other cards as we go through the tournament, but while we are discussing builds, I want to mention a totally different build of my pool. After round 6, my buddy Matthias and I were looking over my pool and Sam Black, one of Midwest's low-level pros, comes over and hijacks my pool and comes up with the following build:

Black (10)
Squeaking Pie Sneak
2x Boggart Loggers
Black Poplar Shaman
Dreamspoiler Witches
Hornet Harasser
Shriekmaw
Mournwhelk
Peppersmoke
Eyeblight's Ending

Green (7)
Treefolk Harbinger
Battlewand Oak
Lys Alana Huntmaster
Timber Protector
Oakgnarl Warrior
Fertile Ground
Fistful of Force

Blue (5)
Amoeboid Changeling
2x Pestermite
Glen Elendra Pranksters
Whirlpool Whelm

Artifacts (1)
Moonglove Extract

Land (17)
6 Swamp
5 Forest
3 Island
1 Vivid Grove
1 Vivid Creek
1 Shimmering Grotto

The first thing to say about this deck is that I think that the overall card quality involved in this pool is higher, but there isn't as much focus as far as a game plan goes. It's basically just play some good cards with some tricks and card advantage and hope that gets you there. Maybe that's okay when you are a good player, but as far as play skill goes, I think I'm probably pretty average. Also, this deck doesn't suit my play style as well. I don't think I play some cards here well, specifically Pestermite. Nearly every time I've played it, it feels like I tapped the wrong thing or played it at the wrong time. I love throwing it out there turn 3 on the play to disrupt their mana, but it's probably not right as much as I want it to be. Anyway, I think this is an acceptable build, but I don't think it's quite the right one, and I know it definitely wasn't the right build for me to play.

So much for that; let's get on to the tournament.

Round 1:
Opponent – Mike (?)
I'm sorry if I got your name wrong, I forgot to write it down. My opponent is one of the regulars at Evil Squirrel Comics, and he's basically playing BG Elves and other stuff.

Game 1
I win the die roll and play first. This week it seemed like everyone was choosing to play first even though a lot of people in Madison and most people in Daytona chose to draw. Personally, I think that drawing is correct most of the time except when you have or are facing a very dedicated beatdown deck (like the one I was playing).
I lead with a Stalactite and Cenn's Heir and then Dolmen Gate and Springjack Knight, while he plays a Branchbender and Huntmaster. I get in for a couple damage and then play Kinsbaile Balloonist. He was clearly going to be my route to victory so the key play of the game was when I equipped my Ballooinst and then swung with the team. He tries to Eyeblight's the now-elfin Balloonist. Whoops. He follows with a couple of more dudes, including Changeling Titan, but when I dropped Cloudgoat Ranger, he couldn't contain the flying beats backed up by Springjack Knight.

Game 2:
We both mull to 6 cards and I keep a really slow but powerful hand of Chandra, Dolmen Gate, Searblades and 3 land. We both start slow and he gets a team of Grey Ogres while I get the chain of elementals (Soulbright, Igniter, Searblades). I then drop Chandra and ping him for 1. He doesn't have any removal so he has to start getting aggressive or his guys are just going to get super-Flame Waved. We trade some dudes, I get Chandra to 9 counters before I get the next two guys he played. He plays a Branchbender against my Searblades. I swing and he chooses not to block so I Blades my guy to get in for 4 and Chandra him for the last point.

I want to mention how much I love 4 toughness guys in this format. Most guys are 3 power or less, and 3 of the common removal spells (Tarfire, Nameless Inversion, Lash Out) don't deal with them. I've been consistently happy with Oaken Brawler and Ceaseless Searblades when they have been nothing more than reachless Giant Spiders (there needs to be a good name for the generic 2/4 for 3C; I guess Foot Soldiers is the only real option).
1-0 (2-0)

Round 2:
Opponent – Matthias Dean-Carpenter
Apparently DCI Reporter thinks I've got a penchant for playing against my close friends. This is the 3rd time in 7 big tournaments that I've played one of the 3 other guys I came with. I guess it's bound to happen more and more the better we get. We decide that I have a noticeably better deck, so he'll scoop to me, but we decide to play until Mike and Peter finish their rounds so we can all get some lunch.

Game 1
My notes aren't great, but he was playing UWb fliers and removal. I think I just get too many guys out and possibly Ballooinst while his Changeling Hero and Pestermite are not enough to stop my army.

Game 2
I mull to a 2 land 6 card hand and then get stuck at 3 lands for a while and he flies over me and I get to my 4 drops too late to save myself.

Game 3
We start this game and I get some dudes down and get him down to 6 before Mike and Peter are done with their matches. I'm still at 20, so he scoops and we go to lunch.

2-0 (4-1)

Round 3:
Opponent – Tyler
Game 1
I get Dolmen Gate down and start beating face, but then he comes up with a pretty good answer for my ground team: Thoughtweft Trio. With no removal in sight, I am able to get him down to 4, but then I make a misplay when I allow a hit to get me down to 3 when think I can swarm him and win with Blades, only to forget that Thoughtweft Trio can block any number of creatures. I thought it could block 3, like a three-headed giant or something. Anyway, I don't attack when I realize this, but then he has the Wings of Velis Vel for the win.

Lessons learned here: 1) RTFC and 2) probably don't want to get below 4 life if at all possible in this format. You never know when someone will throw Giant's Ire or Wings of Velis Vel at you.

Game 2
We are both fairly slow, getting guys down and then I play Chandra and kill his flier and attack with my Balloonist, leaving my other guys back to block. Then he drops Ajani on me. Instead of pumping his couple dudes and attacking, taking out at least one of my blockers and keeping his guys alive, he decides to gain 2 life to try and save Ajani from my Balloonist and passenger. Luckily for me he did that. Next turn I was able to drop 2 more blockers and then attack Ajani for 2 in the air and ping him with Chandra. He then gains 2 more life and I am able to kill it next turn with fliers and kill his Harrier that he just played with Chandra. Then he plays Jace and draws a card. I attack it again with my Balloonist and hit him for 1. Finally he is out of cards and I start killing more of his guys with Chandra while attacking him through the air. He finally succumbs.

Game 3
He mulligans to 6 and then gets stuck on 2 lands. This is one of the main reasons I think playing aggro in sealed is good if your pool can support it. Sealed decks often have tough mana requirements so if you have a deck that can punish opponents for bad draws, you will win some games where your opponent may have better cards than you. The life totals for this game went: 20 – 18 – 11 – 2.

3-0 (6-2)

I don't remember too much about this match or the next one.

Round 4
Opponent – Jasper

Game 1
He never really gets his green mana and has to ship Lignify to the bottom during a clash. He ORings my Shriekmaw, but he's already done his job. My team is big enough to Overwhelm him.

Game 2
This game is going along swimmingly attacking him down to 14 before dropping Shriekmaw to kill his Ballooinist that was getting me in the air. I have a Harrier and a Cloudgoat Ranger as well. He drops a Pilferers as well to slow my Shriekmaw. I'm basically in a situation where I have to tap down his Pilferers to get in with Shriekmaw because his Ethereal Whiskergill is holding off my Cloudgoat Ranger, and I can't tap out everyone to get in for 5 because he'll get in too much on the counterattack. I do this and then he ORings my Cloudgoat and starts to beat with fliers. I am unable to race him as I draw at least 6 consecutive lands. Final land/spell count: 13/6.

Game 3
I'm stupid enough to keep a 5 land hand and then end up getting rolled over by his fast start. I get a Soulbright (which gets killed) and an Igniter. But then I draw some more land and both of my black cards with no black mana. So I lose that one to a bit of flood, a bit of color screw and a bad mulligan decision.

3-1 (7-4)

Round 5:
Opponent – Raymond

Game 1:
Raymond has your typical UW deck. I've got guys and he's got Judge of Currents, Douser, Changeling Hero and Glen Elandra Pranksters. He is unable to stop a couple double-strike hits from Springjack and then has no blockers for Shriekmaw that takes out Changeling Hero while I keep his Douser occupied with other guys.

Game 2:
Dolmen Gate is still good even though he has non-blocking ways of stopping damage. He has Judge and Douser again, but the Attrition war finally does him in. I have Cloudgoat Ranger and Wizened Cenn with other guys on the board and it's too much when he can't destroy them.

4-1 (9-4)

Round 6:
Opponent – Adrian Sullivan
Matthias played him earlier, so I knew he was mostly green Elves with some Black removal and some harbingers.

Game 1:
I win the giant coin flip and choose to go first. I lay Dolmen Gate and a Springjack Knight and he counters with a 1/1 Jagged-Scar Archers. I attack him for 4 after Cloudgoat Ranger shows himself on the top of my deck. He plays Treefolk Harbinger getting Changling Titan. He ends up with Titan and a 2/2 Archers in play. I have Cloudgoat Ranger and keep attacking. He removes my Ranger on his turn. Then I get my second red source and play Chandra. He's at 7 life so I know that he can't afford to attack back at Chandra, so I deal 4 damage to the 2/2 Archers in case he has a Fistful of Force and then must win the clash to save the Archers. He then only has the Titan and can't block enough guys.

Game 2:
Adrian boards into UBw later saying that he needed ways of dealing with Chandra and Dolmen Gate so he needed counterspells. When I notice that he is making a transformational sideboard I stop boarding out Eyeblight's Ending that is clearly bad against Elves. He starts our slow and then I play a couple of Grizzly Bears and Moonglove Extract. He baits my Moonglove Extract with Mirror Entity, which is fine with me. He then plays Pilferers to get it back, but while he taps out for this, I drop Cloudgoat Ranger which goes the distance.

5-1 (11-4)

Round 7
Opponent – Michael Dove

Game 1
My deck is totally outmatched in this round. In Game 1, he compiles Angler, Reejerey and Galepowder Mage by turn 4 and then Nameless Inversions whatever big guy I played. He also has Veteran of the Depths, which allows him to kill me without taking a point of damage.

Game 2
On the play, I am able to get some early pressure and with Dolmen Gate, I am able to get him down to 4 before he drops Wydwen. Luckily for me, his life was too low for her to be particularly effective. He was able to save his guys a few times with Glen Elandra Pranksters, but died a couple turns later from the swarm.

Game 3
I don't have any real notes about this game, but as far as I remember, it was similar to the first game. This time I was able to get some early beats before his superior card quality did me in.

5-2 (12-6)

If I had won that round I could have almost surely drawn in, but I could still win and get the measly 6 packs that Pastimes gave for 9th-16th place.

Round 8
Opponent – Conrad
I get to play a third guy I know. I've played him a couple times before and he's come to the University of Chicago to draft before.

Game 1
He has a slow but bomby BG deck. I'm able to get some guys down and deal some damage before we have some guys trade with him at 8 and I drop Cloudgoat Ranger on a board where I have a 2 power guy and he has Masked Admirers. He then Weed Strangles it and wins the clash to bring him to 11. I then drop Wizened Cenn and swing for 6 with my 2/2 Kithkin tokens. He then casts Final Revels wiping the board. Then I drop a 3/2 Adder-Staff and he plays Woodland Guidance getting back Final Revels but doesn't get the clash and I end up winning.

Game 2
We both start slow and I have Dolmen Gate out and play a couple guys. He drops Dauntless Dourbark and Weed Strangles my 3/2 Adder-Staff. I then Lash Out his 3/3 Dourbark; we clash and he reveals Vigor and I reveal Eyeblight's Ending, the perfect answer. Later I drop Cloudgoat Ranger and equip my Stalactite to it and get through for 6 in the air. He then plays Hornet Harrasser. I attack again bringing him to 9. He then casts Profane Command for 4 getting my Ranger and returning his Dourbark. I use Eyeblight's Ending on his Dourbark, then use Extract on my turn to take out his Harasser and then equipping and swinging for 3. Next turn he plays Vigor and I have Chandra to do 6 Vigor. Then I attack bringing him to 3 and he can't Recover.

6-2 (14-6)

No 6-2 player made top 8, and I ended up in 10th place and 6 packs. I'm fairly happy with how the day went. I got to play a fun deck to a higher finish than the deck probably deserves. I got to play against (and beat) a famous magic player and writer. All in all, a good day.

So now I'm going to talk about a few of the cards I played with and my impressions of them in the format.

Cenn's Heir – I think one of the reasons I did well was because I probably only drew this guy in probably 3 or 4 games I played. But I also was able to use all of the clash cards to put cards like this on the bottom of my library. I used to think that clash was better for the defending player, but it can also help the aggro player get to his bombs to finish off the other player in sealed.

Hillcomber Giant – I doubt anyone noticed, but I didn't play against a deck playing mountains all day. This was unfortunate because as an unblockable 3/3, this guy is amazing, but for me he was pretty bad.

Cloudgoat Ranger – I knew this guy was good, but I think he's now pretty close to a bomb. Even if they have the removal for him, you've gotten rid of a removal card and 3 1/1s for 5 mana. Barring something like Plover Knights or Ethereal Whiskergill, this guy ends the game pretty quickly.

Inner-Flame Acolyte – I thought this guy would just be a 4/2 haste guy, but I actually pumped other guys with his ability much more often. When the ground was gummed up I was able to pump a flier to get in more damage. So basically he was much more versatile than I expect.

Chandra Nalaar – I think that she is totally amazing in limited. At worst she is 6 to a creature or a slow Cone of Flame; at best, she totally warps the way the game is being played. If you can just kill their evasion guys, then they must make unfavorable attacks just so she doesn't wrath their board, but in doing so you gain a bunch of card advantage. If you are behind she can stabilize and buy you time; if the game is even, your opponent needs an immediate answer in order to survive and if you are ahead, she puts the game out of reach. There aren't too many cards you can say that about. Also, since she has such high loyalty, you don't need to coddle her by leaving all of your guys back either. All in all, I think she's the card I most want to open in the future.

Other people keep saying that in order to win you must want it, or even think you deserve it, but my best two finishes (10th here and top 8 at the Block PTQ in Louisville) have been when I didn't put any pressure on myself to do well because I didn't expect to. Some people just respond to pressure in different ways.

by Mike Wawszczak