PTQ: San Juan - Extended @ Misty North

136 players braved the negative MN temps today to battle for their shot at the Magic: the gathering Pro Tour. All it takes is a dream & a little motivation and random dude just might find himself on a paid flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico in May battling for his share of the $230,000 prize purse. Well - he'll need that dream, the motivation, $25 cash, an extended deck, and a bunch of practice & research no doubt. 136 players is a quite a bit to wade through on your way to M:TG glory.

Today's event was packing the competition. A few globally recognized players (Brad Nelson, Adrian Sullivan, Gerry Thompson) and many top locals:
Pat McGregor - 1st in the StarCity Games Legacy $5k Dec. 13th
James Beltz - 2009 MN States Champion
Troy Thompson - lost to James @ States
and more, including yours truly! .. I joke!

Extended is a seasonal beast that lurks in the mist of competitive Magic. Eventually the Wizards spotlight rolls over to it and players scramble to prep for an obscure format that will be completely off the grid again in a matter of months. Top players had a jump on this from Pro Tour Austin and Worlds last year, but most of the masses have minimal opportunities or the need to brush up on this. I don't know of any local shops firing off Extended events and even Magic Online's Extended scene was dismal until the last few weeks or so.

I'd read a few articles and looked at several decklists but my prep was mediocre at best. Like many others the best I could do was pick a deck and hope to be able to round up the cards in time. I came across an awesome blog for comparing several of the top decks and chose to go with Manuel Bucher's 6-0 Bant Aggro deck from Worlds - a highly expensive deck, but I already had several of the cards.

Bant Aggro
Creatures (22)
4 Meddling Mage
4 Noble Hierarch
3 Qasali Pridemage
4 Rhox War Monk
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Vendilion Clique

Spells (16)
2 Bant Charm
4 Mana Leak
4 Path to Exile
3 Spell Snare
3 Umezawa's Jitte

Land (22)
2 Breeding Pool
2 Forest
3 Hallowed Fountain
2 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Temple Garden
3 Treetop Village
2 Verdant Catacombs

Sideboard
2 Kitchen Finks
3 Threads of Disloyalty
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Glen Elandra Archmage (swapped for 2 Relics from Bucher's list)
4 Tormod's Crypt

I was wholly unprepared for the event but for $25 I was willing to give it a shot. My only practice with the deck was a few games with my buddy Tim Krehl last night and this morning. Good thing too as I learned the hard way during our practice that Vendilion Clique is Legendary. (Yeah, I'm a great player.) :-)

Round 1 vs Affinity (Leif Torgerson)
I'd actually built Affinity on Magic Online since it's the least expensive option out there. I don't expect it to do terribly well this season, but it can pack a punch and with it being a chore to round up Extended cards I expect to see a bit of it from players that have it in Legacy or from Standard's past.

Game 1 I play and mull to 5. Leif plops triple Myr Enforcer onto the table while I jest about drawing a 4th land to Wrath of God him into oblivion.

I'm of course running no Wraths and we're quickly onto game 2.

+2 Kitchen Finks | -2 Vendilion Clique

I'm on the play and mulligan once more but things work out much better. I start with only a single land and two Noble Hierarchs, stick a Rhox War Monk, and repeatedly swing in for 6 life due to multiple Exalted triggers. He eventually gets an Arcbound Ravager and with several artifacts I hold things back. Not much is happening, but after checking the round clock he decides my Monk is too much to deal with and scoops it up. As we head to game 3 I note his seemingly early scoop in my notebook.

Fortunately it's his turn to wear the mulligan hat and it turns out to be devastating to his land-light setup. He starts with Ancient Den and two Ornithopters. I go with T1 Noble Hierarch followed by T2 Pridemage blowing up his land. From there I setup two Meddling Mages barring Springleaf Drum & Arcbound Worker (an odd choice maybe but he was still without land.) He never gets anything going. 2-1

Games: 2-1
Matches: 1-0

Round 2 vs Domain Zoo (Alex Johnson)
I really don't know the correct names for the Zoo lists. Alex's had the usual GRW beats & removal with what looked like a small blue splash. It included all 5 land types for Tribal Flames. I was expecting to see Punishing Fire, but adding Grove of the Burnwillows to the domain-base probably doesn't happen.

Game 1 he plays, mulls, and keeps a hand with only a plains not wanting to go down further. He "lucks" into a land draw but unfortunately it's a Godless Shrine, the 1 land that won't help him. I Clique and see he's holding 2 Goyf, Helix, Meddling Mage, Path, Nacatl, & Kird Ape. Not much happens and we move to game 2.

+2 Kitchen Finks, +3 Threads of Disloyalty | -2 Qasali Pridemage, -3 Vendilion Clique

I start well in game 2 nabbing his Goyf with Threads, but it quickly meets a K-Grip. He gets Knight of the Reliquary online and I learn that an unanswered knight is terrible for me. I don't remember much else but he takes it.

Game 3 I threads a goyf again and put Meddling Mage on K-Grip. I'm thinking things look ok again but massive amounts of spot removal make things rough. He sticks another Knight to boot and I'm again lacking the answer and he gets me. 1-2

Games : 3-3
Matches: 1-1

Round 3 vs Scapeshift (Chris Clark)
I first met Chris in late November at Dreamers when I got him with my double Nighthawk sealed pool. Last month he got me at the Den's big 1.5 with his Goblins on my Merfolk.

Game 1 he suspends Search for Tomorrow. I nix it with a turn 2 Meddling Mage. I follow with another Mage on Firespout and Chris never gets enough land to do much. He did have the spout in hand but my Mages get in there and when he sees that things are looking slim he scoops it up.

+2 Glen Elandra Archmage, +1 Kitchen Finks | -3 Umezawa's Jitte

Game two Chris has a fairly clunky draw lacking lands. I Meddling Mage on Firespout again and I Clique away a Repeal and observe a Spout in his hand. He manages to play some Coiling Oracles but I play Glen Elandra and my 5 power in flyers gets there before he can really get off the ground. 2-0

Games: 5-3
Matches: 2-1

Chris later agreed to a picture - I usually don't ask since players think it's odd that you want a picture of them, but Chris is a good sport!


Round 4 vs Domain Zoo (Stephan Hink)
I faced Stephan at States where I ran Mono White Tokens against his jund ramp featuring Caldera Hellion and Jund Charms in the mainboard. Yeah, that was not so great for me and this wasn't either.

One thing that was pretty cool is Stephan's buds at Lotus Vault surprised him with a new playmat that was waiting for him when he sat down for our match today. It featured a Nosey Goblin in the center with top Legacy goblins surrounding it (Goblin Warchief & Lackey.) Stephan explained that he's been coined as the Nosey Goblin due to his big sniffer and Goblins is his Legacy deck of choice. The playmat was a sweet gift!

Battle ensues and I get him down to 3 game 1, but he gets Knight of the Reliquary online and wrecks me.

+3 Threads of Disloyalty, +2 Kitchen Finks | -2 Qasali Pridemage, -3 Vendillion Clique

I'm not really sure of the specifics on game 2 but it's worse than the first and I'm wrecked. 0-2

Games: 5-5
Matches: 2-2

I'm out of the top 8 at this point and 4 more rounds of play to vie for a few packs is unappealing. I drop to get lunch with my buddy Tim.

We hit a Vietnamese restaurant and I try Pho for the first time, pictured in this Pho-tograph. :-) I'm a big fan of soup and this is good stuff.

I don't have the details yet on who won or T8'd or any lists. I plan to stick with Extended and get more practice in before the next PTQ.