There was a PTQ held at Games and Stuff (G&S) in Glen Burnie MD this past Saturday. *As an aside G&S has just moved to a new location that is bigger and easier to park at.
The format of the event was modern, which I am not a fan of. The ban list seems to hinge on what decks are doing well at the moment and the apparent desire for the game to last longer than 3 turns, while still allowing kiki-jiki and birthing pod to combo off on turn 4. Why the hell are Green Sun's Zenith and Golgari Grave-Troll banned?
I arrived at the end of round 4, to find that two of my friends were doing relatively well. Nick and I entered two Gatecrash draft side events.
In the first draft, I was thinking of Simic, which turned into Dimir after pack three or so. I did get some late round bombs in the form of Nightveil Specter (which I fucking love), Lazav, and Consuming Aberration.
I went 1-1 in that draft losing to RUG (with three copies of Madcap Skills) I only had two removal cards and one bounce effect and was run over by 3/1 Cloufin Raptors and a 3/4 Elusive Krasis.
In the second draft I forced Orzhov and got three fliers with a pair of Shadow Slices. I took round one (my previous RUG opponent Max from the first round) due to a shadow slice top deck and some missed triggers from my opponent. I lost to a Simic deck in the following round. I ended the game with three "Cipher" cards in my hand. I did not have enough idiots in my deck to be able to race with Simic after a "merciless Eviction".
My 2-2 showing is better than my draft showing in Charlotte (0-4), so I think I am getting better at limited.
SCGDC is next weekend. I definitely plan on attending, but am unsure what to bring to the party, or even what events to attend.
For Standard, I have the choice between Jund and Bant. Naya Humans just took the Standard portion of SCGIndy so I expect to see a good amount of that and Naya Blitz in the Meta. I do not think my Bant deck is fast enough to be able to compete with 10 power on the board on turn 2. I hope to test it out during either TNM or FNM later this week.
Jund, I think is semi positioned to be able to deal with Naya Blitz or Naya Humans. Jund also seems to be a very popular deck in Standard (as well as in Modern and Legacy) and from what Patrick Chapin wrote about in his latest article on SCG, we can expect to see a lot of it. People will be prepared to beat up on Jund, but it will likely be the Jund list that has been floating around the internet for a few weeks. I do not like the deck, specifically, a few of the cards.
Arbor Elf: I hate mana dorks. Top-decking one of these on turn 8 is NOT a way to win a game. (Exception: Gyre sage, who has Evolve)
Pillar of Flame: I think this card is too slow. The prime targets of this card (Gravecrawler and Geralf's Messenger) are not really seeing a lot of play right now.
In my Jund, my one-drops will consist of Removal (Tragic Slip, and Human Frailty in the side) and hand destruction (Appetite for Brains and/or Duress).
I will put something together later today and post it up on deckbox for comment.
Until next time.
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