Before writing this article, I went back to read some of my old entries from mid-late 2012 and it's really interesting to see the difference in motivation between then and now. Towards the end of Summer 2012, I really wanted to go to the Pro Tour and was willing to work as hard as it would take. I had heard of a Standard PTQ in Tampa, Fl in August and was trying to get myself prepared for it, but I didn't know anything about the SoM-INN Standard format and couldn't afford to buy copies of Huntmaster of the Fells at the time to build an updated version of Kessig Titans, so I solemnly sat on the sidelines. I researched and saw that the next PTQ season was Sealed Deck. I didn't have to make any huge investments into building a Constructed deck, so I could actually participate. I began to research M13 Limited and made a promise to myself that I would work as hard as it took to qualify for Pro Tour Gatecrash in Montreal, QC.
After the season ended, I had come short of my goal. I tried to regather my thoughts and reflect on what I could have done better. Whether I wanted to acknowledge it or not, my run had ended.
I was broke after PTQ Gatecrash season those few months since I didn't have a job at the time and was still in the process of putting my life back together. The upcoming PTQ season was Modern Constructed and I remember that I was very far from being able to buy cards to build a deck. After some friends had tried to convince me to 'get into' the format, I reluctantly declined since I knew there was no financial way to keep my competitive train going. After my final exams had ended that semester and my friends were still working on their own exams, I dabbled in some Modern articles and several days later was consumed by the format's depth and the amount of strategies that were viable. The format looked incredibly fun and I wanted to get involved. I told my mom about the format and what I would need to compete in the next PTQ season. Although I knew she didn't understand any of it, she tried to. I told her about the deck that most interested me: Kiki Pod. She asked me: 'what do you need to make the deck?' I told her that I was missing a little more than half of the deck. She asked me how much everything would cost, so I put together a shopping cart online, so she could take a look at it...
At GP Orlando, our team focused on the use of the KtK refuge land cycle and cast whatever spells our mana could afford. The strategy was slow, but had the highest probability of casting whatever gold cards were available in our sealed pool, since they are arguably the most powerful cards available. The 'gain one life' clause on the refuges would buy time in the early to mid game to setup strictly better cards. We also saw that having the correct colored lands on time was difficult, so we increased our 40 card decks to 18 land to accommodate the change. Personally, I could not figure out whether being on the play or the draw was more correct, so I hoped that my opponent won their die rolls so that I didn't have to make the decision. I didn't really mind being on the play nor the draw in this format.
Ultimately, if my deck had a higher density of morphs, I wanted to be on the play so I could morph them earlier to race and outclass my opponent's morph creatures; however, if my deck had a higher amount of noncreature spells, I wanted to be on the draw so I could react to my opponents' small creatures and win in the late game with higher card quality and quantity.
Because of the 1,000 Planeswalker point boost from winning a Modern PTQ a few weeks earlier, I got boosted to 2 byes for the next year's worth of Grand Prixs, so I got to relax a bit while I watched Evan, Rob, and friends battle out the first couple rounds. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the deck I sleeved up, but I ended up in a 4-Color Temur splashing White for some multi-colored Jeskai cards.
Grand Prix: Orlando, Fl (Khans of Tarkir Sealed - 2014)
R1: Bye
R2: Bye
R3: (2-0) Jeskai Aggro
R4: (1-2) Mardu Aggro (super close match, well played on both sides)
R5: (1-2) Abzan Midrange
R6: (2-0)
R7: (2-1) Temur Midrange
R8: (0-2) Abzan Midrange (turn 3 Anafenza G1 and G2.. GROSS!)
R9: Bye
After sitting for Round 9 and waiting for my mystery opponent, I had a good amount of time to reflect on all my preparation thus far. I don't feel like I got in as many games or read as many articles as I could have, but I had to accept that trying to balance so many things in my life would lead to voluntary and involuntary sacrifices. Although it's disappointing to lose or do poorly in a tournament, I have to learn from them, accept them for what they are, and focus on doing better. Ironically, it took away some of the pressure that had building up in anticipation for the Pro Tour only several days later. I finally felt somewhat relaxed.
I ended my Day 1 at 6-3 with a 46.2% win percentage. It's my best Grand Prix performance next to a 5-4 performance at GP Miami ('13) and a 3-4 record at GP Atlanta ('14), but I was very hopeful to make Day 2 starting with 2 Byes this go around. GP Orlando reinforced that I need more discipline and better preparation before I can consistently make GP Day 2s. Win some and lose some.
My friend, Brandon was fortunate enough to make Day 2 and he ended up building a base G/B deck with a light splash of white for gold cards in his first draft, which he took to a 2-1 record. After looking at his deck, I really liked the approach since it allows you to prioritize lands less and prioritize cards on color more. An aggressive 2-color approach to the format might be able to race decks with greedy mana bases. Interesting.
A few days later, I finished up with my exams and started packing all my cards for the flight to Hawaii. I still hadn't officially chosen a deck to play, but I was beginning to settle on Jeskai Tempo that won the SCG Open in New Jersey, because it was similar to R/W Burn championed by Channel Fireball's Matt Sperling for Pro Tour M15 that I had been piloting for several weeks. In the initial weeks of testing, I also looked at Abzan Midrange and tried to brew some builds around the menace, Siege Rhino.
After testing and reviewing MTGO dailies, my prediction on the Khans Standard metagame initially lead me to a handful of conclusions:
1) The three pillars of the format would be G/x Devotion Decks, Jeskai Tempo, and Abzan Midrange.
2) A Sultai Planeswalker/Control deck could exist off the backbone of Drown in Sorrow.
3) The format was slow.
Since the format was slow, creatures or planeswalkers that could produce a fast clock would be the best place to start. I started looking at Goblin Rabblemaster builds, but the goblin tokens often fell short to Sylvan Caryatid and Courser of Kruphix-base decks. The quickest clocks available in the midgame were Mantis Rider and Siege Rhino, Honestly, I was torn since both decks fit my playstyle well since Abzan based midrange was very similar to Jund from INN-RtR Standard a few years ago. After an almost 10hr plane ride to Honolulu with Stephen, I finally decided on Jeskai Tempo since we could not figure out the correct numbers for Abzan Midrange and our version of Jeskai Tempo was theoretically favored against G/x devotion and the mirror.
This is the list I sleeved up for the Pro Tour:
Jeskai Tempo - Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir: Honolulu, HI
4x Mantis Rider
4x Goblin Rabblemaster
4x Seeker of the Way
Spells (24):
4x Lightning Strike
4x Magma Jet
4x Jeskai Charm
4x Stoke the Flames
2x Dig Through Time
2x Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
2x Chandra, Pyromaster
2x Banishing Light
Lands (24):
4x Temple of Epiphany
4x Temple of Triumph
3x Battlefield Forge
3x Shivan Reef
1x Mystic Monastery
2x Flooded Strand
3x Mountain2x Island
2x Plains
Sideboard (15):
3x Disdainful Stroke
2x Anger of the Gods
1x Magma Spray
1x Keranos, God of Storms
1x Stormbreath Dragon
1x Mindswipe
1x Gods Willing
1x Deflecting Palm
2x Harness by Force
1x Negate
1x Erase
Our maindeck was very similar to the Kevin Jones's list from the SCG Open in New Jersey, but we added a 4th copy of Seeker of the Way and two copies of Chandra, Pyromaster mainboard. We overhauled the sideboard and used Deflecting Palm tech by Jadine Komplarens as a way to punish large creatures in the midrange matchup. We brought in Stormbreath Dragon for the mirror that could only be answered by Stoke the Flames. Disdainful Stroke and Harness by Force were nods at any Green-based midrange strategy and the singleton Mindswipe was a shot in the dark in case there was a Sultai or Mardu Planeswalker-based control deck. that we had not found in testing.
On Day 1, I was super nervous. The tournament hall was incredibly lavish with a giant feature match stage and an unlimited buffet of food for all PT competitors. The atmosphere was very quiet and once pairings were posted, the room fell dead silent. While awaiting the first draft, I sat wondering if I'll remember to reveal all my Morphs or if I'll be in a feature match. Some thoughts of whether I could play with the best of the best crossed through my mind. I had never drafted at Professional REL before; would I be able to draft within the time limit? Once the Head Judge asked us to verify the number of cards in our first pack, I put those worries behind me; Draft 1 began.
Draft 1:
Pack 1, Pick 1: The pack was relatively weak with a few morph creatures, a poor rare and not much going on. I ended up taking Feat of Resistance because it was the most powerful card and has good synergy with the Abzan Outlast mechanic. It's also a cheap trick and White is a safe color to start with.
Pack 1, Pick 2: Had some decent black cards, a missing rare and a Frontier Bivouac. I think the Tri-lands are very good and I'm not unhappy to pick them up early. There was no polarizing White signal in this pack and felt the Tri-land would leave me with the most flexibility
Pack 1, Pick 3: Another weak pack, but I saw a Tuskguard Captain, which is a card I really like and has good synergy with the Feat of Resistance and playable with the Frontier Bivouac I just took.
Pack 1, Pick 4+: Saw some great Blue cards and a couple lands. Picked up a Pick 7 Polluted Delta because of greed and speculated on finding a delve card, which a Pick 8 Treasure Cruise helped out with that.
Pack 2, Pick 1+: Bountiful amount of Blue cards; early Master the Way and late Mystic of the Hidden Way.
Pack 3, Pick 1+: Rattleclaw Mystic. Jeez! Followed by early Master the Way, Mystic of the Hidden Way, and Incremental Growth. I started to prioritize some filler 2 drops because of the Incremental Growth and picked up a late Jeskai Elder and a filler Wetland Sambar later in the pack. Also picked up a Bliding Spray for the sideboard.
Overall, I really liked the deck. It had some great Blue cards and some green cards that I could use to tempo out my opponents. I was excited to get this one started.
In Round 1, I got a little land flooded and my opponent was land light and took a few turns before laying down his Savage Knuckleblade. The next turn, I cleverly played my Clever Impersonator and gave my own newly minted Savage Knuckleblade Haste and attacked and stole the game a few turns later. My opponent showed me an Awaken the Bear in G1, so I brought in Blinding Spray. In G2, I had a Whirlwind Adept and used my Awaken the Bear on it in combat to prompt my opponent's copy that I suspected he had been holding and then cast Blinding Spray to neutralize his creature and crash in for the win on the following turn.
In Round 8, I was 4-3 and incredibly happy because I was locked in for Day 2 at my first Pro Tour; I could not wipe the smile off my face. After hearing the announcement for the beginning of Round 8, I went over to the pairings list and Stephen was already there. 'Good luck. You're playing against Reid Duke.' Holy.. I sat down across from him and he was incredibly polite. We played our match and I made some pretty costly misplays to lose the match. Afterwards, I asked him how his friends were doing and curiously if my now 4-4 record was considered a 'good'. He smirked a little and turned away and said 'I can't really say, but it took me 7 Pro Tours before I made my first Day 2; you should be proud.' Those words still resonate with me today and I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to hear those words of encouragement from Reid.
After Day 1, we rushed back to the hotel and I slept as much as I could. The memory of all my matches was still resonating quite loudly (in addition to Stephen pointing out all my misplays), but I was so tired I knocked out quickly after. My Day 2 overall was much sloppier than the first day because I was hit with fatigue from the 12hrs of Magic the day before.
Draft 2:
Pack 1, Pick 1: Zurgo Helmsmasher and other cards. There was a Mardu Hordechief in the pack that I was unsure if it was a better pick. I had not drafted the Mardu archetype enough to know and decided that building around the Zurgo might yield higher results.
Pack 1, Pick 2+: I picked up some Red removal spells, Ponyback Brigade, and Mardu Hordechief, but no fixing, which led me to believe there was someone else in the archetype nearby.
Pack 2, Pick 1+: Picked up 3 fixing lands including a Nomad Outpost and a Bloodstained Mire, followed by more white removal spells. After reviewing Packs 1 and 2, I realized I was creature light.
Pack 3, Pick 1: Opened up a High Sentinels of Arashin, which is one of the best rares in the set, but doesn't have great synergy with the deck I was building. A nice gift, but not exactly what I was looking for.
Pack 3, Pick 2+: Picked up 8 more creatures, but didn't find any Wind-Scarred Crags that I really wanted.
I don't remember Day 2 well, but I was unhappy with this draft deck. I kept my fingers crossed for a 2-1 finish with this one. After some tough Standard rounds, here's the summary of my PT stats.
Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir: Honolulu, HI (Draft/Standard - 2014)
Day 1:
Draft:
R1: (2-0) 4-Color Midrange
R2: (2-1) Jeskai Aggro (extremely well played match)
R3: (0-2) Jeskai Aggro (against Toni Portolan, really friendly guy)
Constructed:
R4: (1-2) Abzan Midrange (super close match)
R5: (2-0) Jeskai Tempo
R6: (0-2) R/W Heroic (holy Monastery Swiftspear)
R7: (2-1) Jeskai Tempo
R8: (0-2) G/B Devotion (against Reid Duke!)
Day 2:
Draft:
R9: (0-2) Abzan Midrange (Same opponent from R1, Day 1. What are the odds?)
R10: (2-0) U/G Midrange
R11: (0-2) U/R Aggro
Constructed:
R12: (0-2) Abzan Midrange
R13: (1-2) U/B Control
R14: (2-1) Jeskai Combo (opponent top deck'd Treasure Cruise in G3 and drew 3 lands SUPER close)
R15: (2-1) G/B Devotion
R16: (0-2) Temur Monsters (misplay in G2)
I went 7-9 with a 42.1% win percentage and finished in 176th place of 358 players.
After R16, I was incredibly exhausted. My mental and physical state had been challenged like never before, but I had an amazing time doing it. After missing Top 25 by a VERY large amount on Day 2, we went back to the venue on Day 3 and did some Chaos drafting with Platinum level pros and I even defeated Jeremy Dezani with my silly B/R Goblin deck I built after a first pick Wort, Boggart Auntie.
After all is said and done, I think we chose the right Standard deck for the tournament, but we didn't have the right list and the Sideboard needed a lot of work. I would have tailored our Sideboard to fight off Abzan Midrange because it was the only deck I lost to consistently and I overestimated the amount of Green-based devotion decks I'd be playing against. I would have considered playing Abzan Midrange more and tried to find the right decklist for it before the tournament if there was more time. All in all, I really enjoyed the experience and I got to play against GP winners, other PTQ winners, and a myriad of pros spanning the past decade of Magic's past. I really hope that I can have the opportunity to play on the PT again.
Going back in time two years ago, when I didn't think I would be able to compete in the PTQ Modern season, my mother, without hesitation looked at the shopping cart of trading cards that she knew nothing about and bought them all. She bought the entirety of my Kiki Pod deck I used to compete with during PTQ Dragon's Maze's Modern Season. She allowed me to continue working towards my dream. I'm not sure if you will ever read this, but I want to thank you for everything you've done and being so supportive in all the endeavors I strive towards. I love you, mom and I dedicate the run to my next Pro Tour, whenever, if ever that may be, to you.
As this year comes to an end, I realize that I've accomplished so many incredible things outside of Magic, started to travel the world and experienced some pretty amazing and some difficult situations. I think this year was one of the most unbelievable and impacting years in my life. Back in 2012, I made a promise to myself to strive to be a better person and although I'm far from perfect, I actually feel that I'm moving closer towards that goal. Ironically, back in July I wrote an article saying how I was going to take a long break from Magic and that didn't work out as well as planned, but I'm happy it didn't. For now, I plan on attending some Grand Prixs throughout this winter and summer and hope to obtain some Pro Points to close in on Silver in the Pro Players Club for 2015-2016. I think the chances of getting that far are very low, but I'd like to give it a shot so the future me can't say I didn't try..
'Never underestimate the impact that a simple act of kindness can have.'
Until next time, Casual Net.
Now some photos!
Waikiki on the island of O'ahu, HI
Feature Match area for PT Khans of Tarkir
PT Khans of Tarkir Champion Trophy
Tournament Hall Schedule
Who's that kid?
Our walk to the venue on the Waikiki Canal
First Round of Standard (Round 4 of Day 1)
Swag from the PT
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-David J.
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