Pro Tour San Diego Report *17th*

[Graygod]

Pro Tour San Diego Report *17th* (Warning: kind of long)

I had an awesome time in San Diego. The temperature was perfect the whole time we were there, and aside from the 20 minutes of rain (which we got drenched by), it was sunny and beautiful. The plane trip was pleasant, Jeff and I watched “The Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths”, and it was good. I was somewhat concerned about getting “Kevin Smith’d” off the airplane, but luckily I was underweight and our flight was uneventful. Once we arrived in San Diego, I went to find a cab, while Jeff waited (3 hours) for another of his friends to fly in. The Taxi to the convention center cost me $20, and I got there extremely early.

I called Tobey mid taxi-ride, and found out that he was at Michael Ferri’s apartment, several blocks away from the convention center. Tobey said they’d be there in about 3 hours, and I went inside the site to look around. WOTC had just arrived onsite and they were busy setting up the room. Nobody was allowed in for several hours. I took this as an excuse to begin exploring the area (plus I was really hungry), so I headed down 5th street with my luggage in tow. I walked about 1.5 miles and never managed to find a restaurant that looked good and wasn’t crowded. About this time Tobey called me and said they were headed to the convention center, so I backtracked the 1.5 miles and we got there about the same time.

We headed for our hotel, but took a very roundabout way, and instead of the .9 miles it was supposed to be, it was closer to another 1.5. Luckily there was a Wendy’s about 3 blocks from our hotel so I finally got to NOM some food. Our hotel was awesome, despite the distance from the site. Some pics of it can be found below.


Tobey, Ferri, and I headed back to the site around 4pm, so that Ferri could play in the LCQ. Upon arrival there was a sign with an arrow indicating the player’s party was underway. Tobey and I went up 4 flights of stairs and walked around most of the upstairs in our first attempt to locate the party. We eventually concluded that it hadn’t started yet, and went downstairs to register for the Magic Online draft challenge. I was one of the last people chosen, and unfortunately, Tobey didn’t get picked. I drafted a pretty good G/W ally deck, and won my first two rounds without much trouble. I scooped to my last round opponent so that I could get to the player party before it closed, but I was qualified for the Saturday semi’s, and I was guaranteed 12 packs of WW even if I didn’t show up. I also got two awesome alternate art Prodigal Sorcerer avatars.

So I went upstairs looking for the player party, walked around the entire upstairs twice, before I called Tobey and found out the party was supposed to be at the top of the escalator, and outside. Nobody was up there. I asked a judge, and apparently the party was closed early because they ran out of food (according to Tobey, they only brought two platters, and there was a feeding frenzy). So I missed out on my SWAG. Tobey and I talked to Ferri about his pool, then caught Hunter as he was entering the building. The three of us went to eat at a hole-in-the-wall pizza place on Fifth Street. It was very good, though expensive. We said goodbye to Hunter and headed back to the hotel to get some sleep. My feet were so incredibly sore.

I had to be at the convention center by 7:30 to register, because I had missed the player party. They were still giving out SWAG, but the guy in front of me got the last “Magic” bag, and they only had Small or X-L shirts left (neither of which will fit me ). Hunter was already onsite and had snagged the last 3X shirt. He gave it to me since I would actually wear it. Thanks again Hunter. Anyhow, he and I played a few test games of Valakut vs WW and were about 50/50 when Tobey showed up, and round one started shortly after.

Here is the deck I played:

Deck
Creatures 4 Goblin Ruinblaster 4 Bloodbraid Elf 4 Siege-Gang Commander   Spells 4 Lightning Bolt 3 Burst Lightning 4 Expedition Map 4 Rampant Growth 4 Khalni Heart Expedition 4 Harrow	Lands 4 Valakut, The Molten Pinnacle 4 Terramorphic Expanse 2 Naya Panorama 12 Mountain 3 Forest	Sideboard 3 Avenger of Zendikar 3 Chandra Nalaar 3 Chain Reaction 4 Grazing Gladeheart 2 Bogardan Hellkite

If I was going to play the deck again, I would cut the Hellkites from the board and run the 4th Avenger and probably the 4th chain reaction. Avenger was very good every time I cast him, and Hellkite never saw play.



Rd 1: Alexander Hunt - Jund

We had noticed the night before that Jund seemed to be everywhere. I was really hoping that people were just testing against it, but as the results show, it was by far the most played deck. I won the dice roll, and went turn two rampant growth, turn 3 Ruinblaster on his only black source. I raced his Putrid Leech and won. Game two he had multiple Blightnings. Game three, I played a turn 4 Siege-Gang Commander. He pulsed the tokens and I played a turn 5 Avenger of Zendikar for 7 more tokens. I won on the next turn.

1-0 2-1

Rd 2: Theodoros Romanos - U/W/R Control
Game one he cast a turn two Spreading Seas on my Mountain, and then lost because of it. I got three Valakuts active and sac’d an expedition for 18 damage. Game two he saved the spreading seas for my Valakut, but I harrowed it away in response. I then used two maps to find two more Valakuts, and killed him when he attacked me with his Celestial Colonade.

2-0 4-1

Rd 3: Lawrence Creech – Ranger of Crabs
This was certainly not a deck I expected to face. It’s more or less a nightmare matchup for Valakut. Game one I wasted a bolt on a Noble Hierarch, then he dropped Crab and started milling me. He managed to mill me down to 25ish cards, and had only hit 2 Mountains. Valakut killed him. I brought in Chain Reactions because he usually had 3-4 creatures on board, and it seemed good. He milled away all my mountains with double archive trap on turn 1, and I couldn’t win. Game three, he got me to 25 cards left in my library, 4 lands in play, 3 siege-gang commanders in hand, and 2 mountains left in my deck. I cast Chain Reaction to kill 6 of his creatures, leaving him with no board, and no cards in hand. I drew a Naya Panorama and dropped a Siege-Gang. I was pretty sure I was going to win the match now, but the lucky SOB topdecked two archive traps in a row to win the game and match.

2-1 5-3

Rd 4: Thomas Shacket – Jund
Here’s where the 50/50 matchup gets the other half of the coin. I got rolled. He had multiple Blightnings both games and I had to mulligan and keep mediocre hands.

2-2 5-5

Rd 5: Andreas Rois – Black/Red Vampires
I like my Vampires matchup, Valakut is usually favored, but I got rolled by this guy because he had Blightnings, Bloodghasts, and Lavaclaw reaches. The deck had a ton more reach than traditional vamps, and I was forced to use Valakut on creatures, which is never good. The games took a long time, but I was never able to stabilize against him.
2-3 5-7

At this point I was feeling pretty disheartened. I still believe Valakut to be the best deck in the format, and I think I was pretty on-tilt from hitting/losing to the Crabs deck. I took a step back, calmed down, and resolved to 3-0 my draft pod.

Here is the Deck I drafted:

Deck
Creatures 1 Plated Geopede 1 Cliff Threader 1 Marsh Threader 1 Goblin Shortcutter 1 Fledgeling Griffin 1 Hedron Scrabbler 1 Apex Hawks 1 Stonework Puma 1 Ruinous Minataur 1 Cosi’s Ravager 2 Tuktuk Grunts 2 Battle Hurda 1 Admonition Angel 1 Mordant Dragon	Spells 1 Trusty Machete 1 Blazing Torch 1 Magma Rift 1 Inferno Trap 1 Windborne Charge 1 Spire Barrage   Lands 1 Quicksand 9 Mountains 8 Plains

Rd 6: Yubin Tao
He was playing black/blue, and I had turn two Marsh Threader both games. His deck was really slow and didn’t have much removal. He cast Vapor Snare on my Admonition Angel, but forgot to return his land in game two. I won the game due to his misplay.

3-3 7-7

Rd 7: Michael Maurici
He was also playing black/blue, but mulligans kept him out of both games. He showed me his deck afterwards and it was very good. 4 Umara Raptor, 5 other allies kinda good. I think I got pretty lucky to beat him.

4-3 9-7

Rd 8: Corey Mann
He had the weakest deck at the table. He was white/green and had no idea how he had won two rounds. Game one wasn’t memorable. Game two he played a Turntimber Basilisk and enchanted it with Savage Sillouhette, leaving only a forest open. I tried to EOT inferno Trap it, but he had a Vines of the Vastwood to save it. On my turn I dropped a Battle Hurda, and then was able to safely drop my bombs. Turns out his deck had no actual removal, and I made it to day 2!

5-3 11-7

I was excited to hear that Jeff had made day two as well, but he didn’t stick around to celebrate with us that night. Instead, Tobey, Hunter and I met up with Jeff Zandi and went to Mary Jane’s Diner at the Hard Rock Hotel for dinner. I had the “Cardioburger”, a double meat, double cheese, double bacon burger with a large plate of fries. It was supposed to be a 1lb burger, but it didn’t seem that big to me. Even so, it was pretty good, and afterwards we went upstairs to Hunter/Zandi’s hotel room for a 2v2. Hunter opened a Jace, and my deck had Ob Nixilis, Jace, Khalitas, Butcher of Malakir, and 7 removal spells. I lost to Hunter’s infinite two drops + Strength of Taijiruu, but beat Zandi. Tobey lost, and we headed back to our hotel.

I got to sleep a little later on Saturday, and it was nice to not have to be onsite until 9. I stopped at Wendy’s for breakfast, and then caught a cab right outside. My left foot was so swollen that I was walking at an angle to avoid putting pressure on it. I’m glad the taxi’s drive by so often, though I have to admit, I felt a bit Phulish paying to be driven everywhere.

Draft 2

Deck
Creatures 2 Hedron Scrabbler 1 Khalestria Highborn 1 Gatekeeper of Malakir 1 Vampire Nighthawk 1 Kor Sanctifiers 1 Kor Cartographer 2 Crypt Ripper 1 Heartstabbler Mosquito 1 Battle Hurda 2 Halo Hunter 1 Felidar Sovereign	Spells 2 Corrupted Zendikon 1 Grim Discovery 2 Hideous End 1 Dead Reckoning 1 Tomb Hex 1 Arrow Volley Trap   Lands 12 Swamp 6 Plains	Sideboard 1 Dead Reckoning 1 Vampire’s Bite 2 Bog Tatters 1 Battle Hurda

My second draft was insane. My first 5 picks were Hideous End, Halo Hunter, Halo Hunter, Heartstabber Mosquito, Gatekeeper of Malakir. I was doing a dance inside my head, hoping I’d get to play mono-black and 3-0, but I was very satisfied with the deck I ended up with(though I ended up cutting AV trap every game).

Rd 9: John Kolos
Both of my Halo Hunter packs also had Shepherds in them, and he had both. These games were amusing, though I did lose the second one to a mull to 5.

6-3 13-8

Rd 10: Shouta Yasooka
He was abusing landfall like I’ve never seen before. He had Ruin Ghost, multiple Grazing Gladehearts, Narrow Escapes, Territorial Baloths, Woodcrasher Baloths, etc. I won game one because I drew all of my removal. In game two he tricked me into using my Hideous End that I had been sandbagging, to save one of my creatures that he double blocked. On the next turn, he dropped a Novablast Wurm. I didn’t draw an answer and the Wurm finished me off. Game three, he got stuck on 4 lands and my two Halo Hunters walked past his blockers.

7-3 15-9

Rd 11: Simon Gortzen
This is the eventual winner of the PT, and also my only loss on day two. His deck was very interesting. He had Plated Geopedes, Windrider Eeels, Tideforce Elemental, Roil Elemental, etc. He was using multiple Walking Atlas’ to power his guys at instant speed. He had a lot of card drawing, and a decent amount of removal. That said, I think my deck was much better. I lost game three because I kept a hand of Nighthawk, Sanctifiers, Highborn, Hideous End, Halo Hunter, Swamp, Plains. I didn’t get the third land(swamp), until I was at 8 life. I cast Nighthawk and he countered it. I cast Dead Reckoning to kill his Geopede, and then replayed Nighthawk, which held back his Windrider Eel. I cast Hideous End on his Eel and attacked with Nighthawk, leaving him with only a Walking Atlas. He cast Paralyzing Grasp on my Nighthawk and dropped another flier, which finished me off.

7-4 16-11

Rd 12: Dmitry Nikitin – Elves
As I sat down against my Mullet haired, sleeveless shirted competitor, he said “you have green sleeves… are you playing a green deck?”, to which I replied, “maybe… you have black sleeves, are you playing a black deck?”. He laughed and said “Yes, Vampires is very good.” He wins the dice roll and plays an Oran Rief, then looks and me and goes “Ha Ha Ha…. I tricked you, I am playing a Greeeeeeen deck”. Lol, weird guy.
Game one I kicked Goblin Ruinblaster on two of his Oran Riefs, and I bolted all of his mana elves. I kept him at 3 mana for long enough to combo and win. He sighed and said “I can’t believe I have to play this deck… it’s such a bad matchup for me”. I was sitting on the other side of the table, thinking the same thing. Game two he came out way too fast, and I was dead before I could do anything. Game three, he mulligans to 6, and I cast Chain Reaction to kill 5 creatures, then played a Siege-Gang Commander. I won shortly afterwards. I extended my hand for the handshake, and he looked at it, then at me disgustedly. I started to pull my hand away and then he grabbed it out of nowhere and shook it all crazily.

8-4 18-12

Rd 13: Stephen Murray – Jund
Game one I have the turn 4 kill if he doesn’t have the Blightning. He does have it, but I drew the lands I needed to make it happen anyways. Game two I kick Ruinblaster on his only black source, then ramp out an Avenger. He doesn’t draw the black and I win the next turn. He shows me the three Maelstrom Pulses in his hand. Dicking Theory = Goblin Ruinblaster .

9-4 20-12

Rd 14: Jonas Wallendorf – WW
This guy was from Scotland and was really fun to play against. He had a very unorthodox WW deck, running Dread Statuary’s, and Tectonic Edge’s. Game one I combo’d and killed him. Game two my hand was abysmal and I couldn’t draw anything. His hand was equally bad, and he basically just played an Ajani and gained 14 life off of it. Every three draws I would get a bolt, and would shrink Ajani. Eventually he drew Conquerer’s Pledge and killed me. Game 3, he mulled to 5, and I had the turn 5 kill, despite double Kor Firewalker.

10-4 22-13

Rd 15: Shuuhei Nakamura – Jund
I had the turn 4 kill against him game 1, and game two I had double Ruinblaster for the total blowout. My round 16 opponent was sitting next to us and was amazed at how fast Valakut can kill.

11-4 24-13

Rd 16: Francis Cormier – Jund
Francis and I were in 22nd and 23rd place with 33 points. Patrick Chapin was in 24th with 31, and everyone below him had 30. With a draw, we would be guaranteed to at least keep 22nd and 23rd, but would likely move up 6-8 spots due to people playing it out for t8 slots. We agreed to draw and finished the tournament in 17th and 18th. Francis was a really cool guy, I had sat next to him in the MODO event Thursday night, and I’m pretty sure I sat next to him at PT Austin as well. We exchanged info and will be testing for San Juan together.

11-4-1 24-13-1

After day two, Jeff, Tobey, Hunter, Zandi, and myself all went back to Mary Jane’s and celebrated. We declined to team draft that night due to being really tired.

Tobey and I debated getting up early for the 128 man draft-a-thon, and I considered playing in the 10am “Plane ticket and hotel for San Juan” tournament, but in the end we decided to sleep in. We woke up about 10, and went to Wendy’s for the final time, before heading to the site for some free MODO drafting and money drafts. I had a mediocre deck in my free MODO draft, and lost the first round… I did get two mythics I needed and 2 more fetches though. After that, Tobey and I found this guy named Tony(who had randomly drafted with Hunter and Ferri on Saturday), and asked him to team draft with us. We challenged Shouta Yasooka’s team to a 20$ money draft and won 5-1. Hunter has a theory, and it’s that Texas can never lose to Japan. He might be right (as his team won their money draft vs the Japanese as well). After that draft, Tobey and I found Francis and he challenged us to a 20$ 2v2, which we lost. Francis had the best deck at the table, and everyone else’s was mediocre. I lost to him in the tiebreaker. After that we went to have dinner at “Fred’s Mexican Restaurant”, which was okay…. It wasn’t Mexican food like we’re used to, but it was a nice change from Wendy’s. Tobey and I went to watch Jeff play the first 3 rounds of Legacy, then decided to go back to the Hotel and crash.

Aside from all the walking, the whole weekend was a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to doing it again… I’m also looking forward to Hunter’s picture journal of his search for the “Biggest Douche in the Universe”. It’s a pretty amusing story, but I’ll let him post it once it’s all put together. Hope you enjoyed the read! (Random San Diego pictures below!)

[arsenalpow]

congrats again (unless you're tired of hearing it lolz)

[DSqUaReD]

dude ive been testing for okc. hopeing i can win it this weekedn

[Tobey]

The douche safari was a lot of fun. I spotted in the wild...

John "Captain Irony" Colos, wearing Ironic Giant 80s glasses, Ironic 80s T shirt and tight (probably in some way ironic) pants

Mullet and tank top guy

guy with "JUGGALO" tattoed in big letters on one forearm and a big hand giving the middle finger on the other arm, with a "JUGGALO" baseball jersey and a "JUGGALO" T shirt under it (same clothing both days.)

Brett Favre vikings jersey both days

Lots of hoodies and sunglasses indoors

Emo haircut, Beanie, lip ring and way-too-tight clothes.

and of course

Dave Williams going as a jersey shore cast member for halloween.

Unfortunately my SD card appears to be fried so all these memories will be lost, like teardrops in the rain, time to die.

[arsenalpow]

Originally Posted by DSqUaReD

dude ive been testing for okc. hopeing i can win it this weekedn

The testing would be alot more helpful if you weren't constantly multi tabling while we test.

[HavoKDarK]

You always meet the most interesting characters at tournaments.

Good shit Justin, except for the massive amounts of walking

[Graygod]

Originally Posted by HavoKDarK

You always meet the most interesting characters at tournaments.

Good shit Justin, except for the massive amounts of walking

There were many I didn't even talk about... like Mike Fromconnecticut. When Hunter posts his thread, it'll be pretty epic.

[seanw22]

you going to the coheed show on like..april 27th i think corbett?

[grimlock]

Fro gave you a shout out in his article today.

[HavoKDarK]

Black Magic – Pro Tour: San Diego *24th*
by Sam Black

Feel good you placed above this guy =)