Tournament Report & Sealed Deck Exercise - PTQ Chesham - 3rd

By Wagz

Hi all, sorry for the lack of recent content. Jim is still in a job that doesn't allow him much (if any) time to play Magic and I've been busy with things - if anyone wants to write guest accounts then they're more than welcome :D. In any event, we're a week or so into the start of the new PTQ season and the set seems very exciting. And more importantly, it seems very difficult. I lost in the quarters of last week's PTQ in Altrincham and this weekend I lost in the semis of the 112-person PTQ in Chesham. This tells me I need to learn how to draft the set properly, but I think I know what I'm doing in sealed. I'll give you my sealed pool below and then my decklist and explanation. I went 6-1 in matches, losing round 3 and getting paired against a 5-1 with terrible breakers in the last round, squeaking a win with tight play, unfortunate mistakes from my opponent and good topdecks. What would you do with the following: (copy the cardname into http://deckbox.org/mtg/cardnamehere for a picture)

White:
1 Auriok Edgewright
1 Auriok Sunchaser
1 Fulgent Disraction
2 Ghalma's Warden
1 Loxodon Wayfarer
1 Revoke Existence
1 Salvage Scout
1 Soul Parry
1 Sunblast Angel
1 Tempered Steel
1 True Conviction
1 Whitesun's Passage

Blue:
1 Bonds of Quicksilver
2 Darkslick Drake
1 Grand Architect
1 Neurok Invisimancer
2 Plated Seastrider
1 Screeching Silcaw
1 Stoic Rebuttal
1 Turn Aside
1 Twisted Image
1 Vault Skyward
1 Vedalken Certarch

Black:
1 Blackcleave Goblin
1 Bleak Coven Vampires
1 Blistergrub
1 Dross Hopper
1 Grasp of Darkness
1 Instill Infection
1 Moriok Reaver
1 Necrogen Scudder
1 Psychic Miasma

Red:
1 Bloodshot Trainee
1 Melt Terrain
1 Ogre Geargrabber
1 Oxidda Daredevil
2 Scoria Elemental
1 Turn to Slag
2 Vulshok Heartstoker

Green:
1 Acid Web Spider
1 Alpha Tyrranax
1 Bellowing Tanglewurm
2 Blunt the Assault
1 Carapace Forger
1 Cystbearer
1 Tangle Angler
1 Tel-Jilad Fallen
1 Withstand Death

Artifact:
1 Accorder's Shield
1 Bladed Pinions
1 Chrome Steed
1 Darksteel Myr
1 Echo Circlet
1 Flight Spellbomb
1 Gold Myr
1 Golden Urn
2 Golem Foundry
1 Grafted Exoskeleton
1 Iron Myr
1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
1 Liquimetal Coating
1 Moriok Replica
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Origin Spellbomb
2 Palladium Myr
1 Perilous Myr
1 Prototype Portal
1 Snapsail Glider
1 Strider Harness
1 Trigon of Corruption
2 Trigon of Infestation
2 Tumble Magnet
1 Vulshok Replica



Decklist:

1 Vedalken Certarch
2 Origin Spellbomb
1 Iron Myr
1 Gold Myr
1 Perilous Myr
1 Revoke Existence
1 Grand Architect
2 Palladium Myr
1 Snapsail Glider
2 Tumble Magnet
1 Tempered Steel
1 Stoic Rebuttal
1 Chrome Steed
2 Darkslick Drake
1 Grafted Exoskeleton
1 Prototype Portal
1 Bonds of Quicksilver
1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
1 Sunblast Angel
1 True Conviction
9 Island
8 Plains

Discussion:

I noticed that White and Blue were the only playable colours, so that was as good a place as any to start off with. I collected all the playables in those two colours but it seemed to add up to 84. I decided to just lay down the cards I would definitely be playing and this summed to 22 - a great start!

I deliberated over the last couple of cards, which were essentially the Bonds of Quicksilver and the Prototype Portal. I was also considering Trigon of Corruption and Flight Spellbomb. I went with the Bonds due to my lack of removal and it being a lot `faster' than the Trigon but I wasn't sure about the Prototype Portal due to lack of experience with the card. I had 2 Origin Spellbomb and 2 Tumble Magnet as really good combos but at worst I could stick guys under it. It turned out to be really good or really bad so the jury's still out but I might pass on it next time - I mostly played
mine because Ben Scoones (sat opposite me) was playing his.

I lost round 3 to Eduardo Saggygarlic's UW deck with infi Ghalma's Wardens. I didn't have the greatest draws but I was definitely playing a game, just losing. I found it easier to beat the massive bombs really - and the thing about this sealed format is that everybody has them. You _will_ play against Koth, Elspeth, Sunblast Angel etc EVERY ROUND (unless you're losing) so you MUST build your deck with these cards in mind. I sided in Bladed Pinions against Planeswalker decks, for example.

The top 8 draft didn't go so well for me, I began by attempting to force Infect but ended up in a kind of Green Black Rock deck with a bunch of card advantage but nothing really powerful. I'll write on draft when I actually figure out what I'm doing. I did 4 drafts on Modo since it came out on Wednesday and went 9-3 between them but real life is different, and PTQ drafts always require a 3-0.

See you in the top 8 of the next one - don't beat me!