Roy Tang

I actually initially thought that there would be a PTQ this weekend. When I found out there would just be a normal Standard tournament the night before, I assembled a deck quickly. I went with Blightning Beatdown:

Unfortunately, things did not go well for our hero. Tournament report follows.

Since I usually arrive at Galleria early, I spent a couple of hours waiting for the round to start and watch the people playtesting. I saw a lot of green decks which worried me – particularly Wilt-Leaf Liege. I haven’t played Standard since before the Grand Prix – I had no idea what was the local metagame coming in.

I lost round one to a mirror match in two games. It was close, as I lost both games with him at 1 life. I almost won game two when he played two Incinerates during his turn to finish me from six life. I had the Wild Ricochet for the second Incinerate, bringing him down to two. He has one card left in hand and is tapped out and I have four lands and Hell’s Thunder in the yard. Any burn spell or land I draw wins me the match. I draw a land and play it and announce “Unearth Hell’s Thunder.” He wants to call a judge because he’s not sure of what he’s about to do. He shows me the Faerie Macabre in hand and even though the judge is still coming I already know I’ve lost.

After the match I asked him for tips on how to play the deck and he told me he just plays out Blightning as soon as possible, whereas I was sandbagging it and playing creatures first.

Round two I face Shorecrasher/Bant, an early Rhox War Monk sticks around in game one long enough to make it hard for me to win. In game two I get a nice draw with turn two Blossom and 2 Javelins. He’s stuck on two lands, missing two land drops before finally playing a Birds of Paradise. My only removal in hand consists of the two Javelins… I decide to overkill the BoP and hope he doesn’t draw any more lands. Of course he draws a Flooded Grove next turn and then he plays out his hand and I’m finished off by a growing Shorecrasher.

Starting out at 0-2. Why do I play Magic again? Seriously, I’ve been playing badly for a while now.

I watch the match on the adjacent table while waiting for the next round. I see turn 5 Violent Ultimatim into turn 7 Violent Ultimatum into turn 9 Violent Ultimatum. Geez.

I play another mirror match in round three, and he hits me with early burn but I stabilize at 2 life and he draws no gas afterwards. I win game two as well.

Round four I was playing some sort of bant-colored control, and I finally managed to go on the offensive after stripping his hand an stabilizing at four lands. He would Wrath or Condemn away every creature I play, trading one for one, until he draws a card which he was apparently waiting for all this time. He shows me Idyllic Tutor and I have no idea what he’s doing. He searches an reveals Enchanted Evening. Crap. He then plays Spring Cleaning on my Goblin Deathraiders and I flip mountain, and suddenly I have no permanents on board. I lose shortly thereafter.

He mulligans to five in game two and is at four life before having any suitable defense, and I end it quickly. Next game it’s my turn as I mulligan to five, sending back one-land hands each time. I lost the third game to Spring Cleaning again. Awesome!

I drop obviously. I should have stayed at home >.