Places to play Magic in the Seattle area

I'll be back Saturday night, vegging out on football Sunday, doing real life Monday and Tuesday, then be gone for business the rest of the week, although business may include a playtesting session with the boys at UPitt...

If you happened to stumble across this page looking for Magical information about Seattle, Zaiem made a great post over on Northwest Magic (another site you should bookmark) about everywhere you can play Magic. Honestly, I was overwhelmed when I did this research in August before I moved, I don't think any other city has so much support for Magic.

In memory - Dante Duterte, 1/11/1950 - 1/23/2009

I had to fly to the Philippines yesterday. My father, Dante Ibanez Duterte, passed away early this morning after a hard-fought battle with a brain lymphoma. He busted his ass my entire life so I could get where I am today, and I only hope I can do the same at some point.

Reconsidering the process

So now that the ridiculous first three weeks of the Extended season are gone, I now have four and a half weeks to learn the format. I nearly did what I said I would do: pick a deck I know I'd like (Zoo), test it, and ride it out for these first three weeks. I did manage to win a Trial (an 11 person trial with two scoops...), but I chickened out at the Grand Prix and played a deck I didn't know very well and picked up three draws as a result.

So now these next five weeks, I'm actually going to learn the format, and play the best deck. Maybe right now it's Faeries or TEPS, but maybe in five weeks something else will emerge. Here's the remainder of my schedule:

2/21 - Vancouver
2/28 - Standard for a Mox
3/14 - Portland
3/21 - Seattle

Right now the best decks are Faeries, GB, TEPS, Affinity, with Elves, Zoo, and Mono Red Burn lurking. Maybe a deck like Zoo will transform and get ridiculous with Gaea's Alara's Might. But right now I'm not committing to a deck for a while and when it's time to buy cards I can choose the best deck and spend the rest of my time testing the tar out of the mirror. (Btw, I'm like 2-6 in the Zoo mirror. Vomit on myself.)

Damage report

So Gavin Verhey made me chicken out of playing Zoo, so I run his GB Loam deck. Here's what happens if you weren't following:

Round 4 vs. Doran - D
Round 5 vs. Faeries - D
Round 6 vs. GB Loam - D
Round 7 vs. Swans - W
Round 8 vs. GB Rock - L, drop.

I don't know too many that have been satisfied with a record of 1-1-3. Maybe I was playing too slow, or maybe the deck needs to be jiggered with some aggro elements to win more matches in the Swiss.

Upset, I decide to go back to running Zoo, and adjust for what I perceived the metagame would be like in the PTQ based on the 2-0 bracket of Round 3 that I scouted out: tons of Faeries and GB decks. I throw 3 Dark Confidant back in the main, and I get to try out Proclamation of Rebirth (AWESOME) but decline to run Kitchen Finks in the sideboard thinking I can dodge aggro decks. Hmm, how did that one go?

Round 1 vs. Mono Red - L
Round 2 vs. UB Tron - W
Round 3 vs. Faeries - L (against a friend from NC, Game 3 he topdecks Explosives on my team, then after I Proclamation of Rebirth them back, he topdecks ANOTHER)
Round 4 vs. Mono Red - L

Grrrr that stupid burn deck.

So that was my Magic weekend.

Off to LA

I'll be leaving Seattle around 3, getting into LA around 6. I might play in a trial just to get my feet wet. (By the way, I'm going to play Gavin's Loam deck.) Expect Twitter updates during the day Saturday and Sunday, and maybe posts after each day of play. By the way, no Twitter = don't wanna talk about it generally, if you're waiting for updates.

Cactus Aggro?

Testing at First Pick with Peter, Joe, and Zaiem plus some help from Dwayne, Chris Lawson, and Charles Wong when they were not drafting, I decided to try the Blue Zoo deck. Here's what I tried:

22 aforementioned lands

4 Wild Nacatl
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Kird Ape
2 Figure of Destiny
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Kitchen Finks

4 Tribal Flames
4 Lightning Helix
3 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Bant Charm
2 Flame Jab

Sideboard:
3 Proclamation of Rebirth
3 Duergar Hedge-Mage
3 Kataki, War's Wage
3 Stifle
3 Gaddock Teeg

I thought about sideboarding on the bus to First Pick, and I identified the decks where you are the beatdown and where you are not, and sideboarded accordingly. I.e. if you are the beatdown, avoid taking out one-drops. Mogg Fanatic can still be good for 2-3 damage on turn 1. Adding Proclamation in those matchups makes it okay (those are generally the matchups where they have Wrath effects.)

So I'll try to run-down what I played against:
A couple against Dwayne playing Zoo - Played only a couple preboard and I drew excellently. Sideboard is where I get an edge because their Hedge-Mages are really bad. I can bring in Hedge-Mages, one or two Procs, and the Stifles. I have not tested this matchup thoroughly enough at all.

A set against Pete playing Faeries - Yuck, I have no idea where the edges are in this matchup at all. I got wiped 0-2 preboard, but we split 5-5 postboard. Combine this with a set we played before where I think I was up, and you have a pretty even matchup. The Stifles come in and shouldn't hit lands generally, only Engineered Explosives or counters. Proc is pretty saucy too. Teeg's a little worse against just Explosives, but I guess you have to fight Chalice. Bant Charm is great. Shackles is Bad News Bears for us. Couldn't tell you how to beat this deck. Just draw well. Flame Jab is not as good as I thought it would be in this matchup.

A set of preboard of Chris playing GB Loam - I tested this last night and got beaten pretty badly 0-2 pre then 3-5 post. I think this actually came out even, and the Flame Jabs were actually great against Tribe-Elders and then sitting there waiting to do more damage. I need to play around Death Cloud better. This is still a poor matchup, especially losing Jund Charm. Kitchen Finks is surprisingly good as they have to two for one to get rid of it, whereas you can trump their Finks with Bant Charm.

A few against Charles playing Mono Burn - About the same as I thought. Two Nacatls will win you the game. Otherwise, don't take damage from lands and just look to soak up damage. Bant Charm saves you from Magma Jets that set them up and Shrapnel Blasts for the win, but doesn't save you from Sulfuric Vortex like Oblivion Ring does. Maindeck Finks are really good too.

A few preboard against Charles playing Affinity - I think I won once. Bant Charm helps, but still slow. This matchup is still atrocious.

Those are my thoughts. I will probably play this deck, but GB is a back pocket deck if I chicken out still.

I am such a coward

Spent the past thirty minutes at work thinking about Zoo... I independently thought up that Bant Charm is better than Oblivion Ring in the mirror by a mile because it can't be Duergar Hedge-Maged.

Bored at work, I went to Brainburst hoping to see a tournament report by Alex but instead happened on a little guide to Zoo with some ideas that may be worth trying.

Here's what I want to try:

4 Wild Nacatl
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Kird Ape
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Figure of Destiny

4 Tribal Flames
4 Lightning Helix
3 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Bant Charm
2 Flame Jab

4 Flooded Strand
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
1 Steam Vents
1 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Stomping Ground
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Overgrown Tomb (I think you play this instead of Blood Crypt because it makes Bant Charm colors)
1 Plains
1 Forest

SB:
2 Proclamation of Rebirth (Probably better than Ranger, because you can bring it in against decks with board sweepers like Faeries, where you'd like to run out 3 one-drops but you know you will get wasted by Engineered Explosives.)
3 Duergar Hedge-Mage
4 Kataki, War's Wage (maybe three of this and one more Hedge-Mage...)
3 Stifle
3 Gaddock Teeg

I'm about to chicken out of playing GB Loam because I think Engineered Explosives will cost me an arm and a leg at the event site (neither of the main shops that sell singles in Seattle has them, and Star City doesn't have them either). It will be easier for me to borrow or buy Flooded Strands, too.

No live testing tonight, but maybe some MWS, so I'll be giving this a spin to see if I like it or not. One thing I am considering is the difference in metagame between Day 1 of the Grand Prix with three byes and a PTQ. Less Mono-Red burn starting 3-0?

Can't stop The Rock

So I tested last night with Zaiem and Dave Derrickson. I wasn't expecting to test because my apartment was (and still is) a mess and needed to be cleaned, and I was on-call (luckily I was not called), but who am I to turn down testing?

So of course I didn't bring any decks with me to the office as I left straight from work to U-District, but Zaiem luckily had Gavin's GB Rock deck that I was considering, so I try it.

This was all pre-board, I played some games against TEPS and won maybe once (Gavin said that matchup was indeed very bad), I played against Faeries and I seemed like a favorite, I played against some of the fringe decks from the PTQ Top 8 (GW Haterator... only took one game off of that, what a beating, and GWU control which seemed similar to the Faeries matchup).

I like the deck. It does powerful things. I think I will play it some more.

What to play at Grand Prix Los Angeles

If you came here looking for what deck you should play next weekend at the Grand Prix, you came to the wrong place because I have no idea.

I went a very frustrating 3-3-2 at the PTQ with Zoo. I was mulliganing infinitely. Maybe I'm being too greedy with my sevens, is it wrong to send back hands with no one drops? What about clunky hands involving Steam Vents and a Blood Crypt, stranding a Wild Nacatl or leaving you with a bad Kird Ape? Here's what I played against:

Round 1: Zoo W
Round 2: Zoo L. Frustrating Game 2 when he peels Duergar Hedge-Mage for my Jitte and my Ring that was hiding a Tarmogoyf), then Game 3 a little rushed I pitch a controlling 7 and keep what may have been a bad 6.
Round 3: Faeries D. G2 I get a gift and he Cliques me after knowning the contents of my hand (double Jitte) from a Clique.... that was still on the board.
Round 4: Zoo L. Mull to 4 game 2. He kept a bad hand too but it took me too long to get there.
Round 5: Slide L. I blame myself for this not being a draw because I had called a judge twice on him for forgetting to draw and drawing off a cycle that he did not have the mana for, and in extra turns with a judge sitting at the table I miss my chance to nail him for forgetting to draw off a cycle but him remembering at end step. I knew I could probably nail him because I watched him play Round 1 and he was very slow and not as sharp with his operations.
Round 6: Martyr (Cactus Control) D. He was a slow player copying Zaiem and Jon's deck from BDM's article, but I wasn't going to push a slow play warning in the champions' bracket. That being said, this match is very bad and I managed to steal a game.
Round 7: Scrub, W. Bottom table.
Round 8: Dredge, W. Second to last table.

I went to time four times which I can pin on myself. In Limited I was speeding up too much then slowed it down and played better, but now I'm getting too slow presumably because I haven't tested as much Extended as I had Shards Limited with MODO and three paper drafts a week.

I tried running a modified Zoo (with Mana Tithe in the main) in the Magic-League master and was out of contention after round 4 and didn't win a single match in the following two rounds either. I'm not sure if I want to try Mana Tithe for more, (Think about it: how often does someone tap out against you for Firespout or Damnation or Thirst or Vendilion Clique or for pretty much anything? And what deck would you hate to be on the back foot against because you have to play an additional land to cast your spells?) but I still feel like I'm getting outclassed in power level:

Round 1 vs. Zoo L (I played G3 poorly, all my fault)
Round 2 vs. GB Loam W
Round 3 vs. Dredge W
Round 4 vs. All In L (terrible matchup)
Round 5 vs. Bubble Hulk L (pretty bad too if you can't stop Footsteps)
Round 6 vs. GB Death Cloud L (close but Krosan Grip gets me)

I played the deck in a couple of minis too. In one I beat Faeries then beat TEPS, and in the other I beat the same TEPS and I lose to the Burn Deck.

I hate blaming things on luck or mulligans or stuff like that, because I feel like I'm not good enough or flawless enough to complain about luck. Maybe the deck really isn't powerful enough to win a PTQ. Maybe I haven't put in enough hours.

Our Top 8 was 3 Faeries decks, 2 Affinity decks, TEPS, WG Haterator, and Uwg Chase Rare-ish kind of thing. (Call it Gifts Ungiven without Gifts Ungiven? That's what it looked kind of like.) Affinity beat Faeries in the final. A Pokemon World Champion won the spot over a man who has to date lost three matches in three events this season.

At the other PTQ this weekend in Louisville, Zaiem and Jon's Cactus Control creation took down a Blue Envelope beating Faeries. The rest of the top 8 was Burn, Affinity, GB Loam, Zoo, another Faeries deck, and TEPS.

So looking back.... maybe Zoo can still get there? I thought about Gavin's GB Loam deck. Even though Faeries is the best deck, that mirror would be mindnumbing and I don't think I could have it down pat in less than a week. I toyed with Affinity last week, but I'm also not comfortable running that deck, especially since you randomly scoop it to Turn 2 Kataki. GB is pretty good I hear against Faeries (better than Zoo is), so it made it tempting.

Twitter

I set up a Twitter feed and widget for this blog. This way if you want to know how I'm doing in a tournament, I only have to text Twitter and not everyone who would conceivably want to know. I think this will be especially cool in Los Angeles, especially if I manage to make a run.

I think you can even it up to have Twitter text you with friend updates, so for right now, my user name is fourouttheforty.

Cactus Control

Sooooo... the deck is out, but I don't like the name. Get A Life? I didn't think I'd say it, but I like Gavin's name: Cactus Control.

"Because when has a cactus ever betrayed you?"

What I have been learning

So since the weekend I have tested at least a little bit every day this week. At the beginning of the week I was thinking about switching to Affinity, and I started with Ben Wienberg's list and modified it to put Thoughtcast for the Ethersworn Canonists, conceding a little to Elves, and then trying a few other things:

4 Tree of Tails
2 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Great Furnace
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers

4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Arcbound Worker
3 Atog
4 Frogmite
4 Master of Etherium
4 Ornithopter
4 Chromatic Star
4 Cranial Plating

2 Fatal Frenzy
1 Soul's Fire
4 Springleaf Drum
4 Thoughtcast

The lack of Myr Enforcer is weird, and I did get smacked in a set against Mono Blue Faeries. Atog seemed underwhemling in that matchup, as it doesn't give you the explosiveness that a Myr Enforcer for 1 would give you, so I think if I were to run Affinity I'd swap the Atogs for Myr Enforcer. Maybe Atog goes into the sideboard, I haven't thought enough about the sideboard to run the deck this weekend. Oh, and Jitte is especially bad for you in this matchup because it's more difficult to resolve a sac outlet, much less have a blocker for their Jitte-wielding Faerie. This is different than Jitte from Zoo because you can resolve an Atog and Arcbound Ravager and you can block with any Artifact man, sacrifice it and they do not get counters.

Some people think Master of Etherium is too slow for this deck, and I disagree with them. It gets past Spellstutter Sprite and Spell Snare and often will get around Vedalken Shackles. The card is a house. I could justify cutting 1 because it is a little expensive, but it is definitely good enough.

Also what scares me is this decks bad game against Mono Red Burn, especially since Smash to Smithereens main deck is apparently the new coolest thing.

So of course I'm coming back to Zoo. Here are the changes I've made so far:
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Plains
1 Stomping Ground
1 Blood Crypt
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Steam Vents
1 Godless Shrine
1 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry

4 Wild Nacatl
4 Kird Ape
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Tidehollow Sculler
3 Gaddock Teeg
2 Shadow Guildmage

4 Tribal Flames
4 Lightning Helix
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Seal of Fire
2 Umezawa's Jitte

Sideboard:
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Kataki, War's Wage
3 Duergar Hedge-Mage
2 Ranger of Eos
2 Jund Charm

First off, getting flooded in the late game blows, so I caved in and cut a land. Seems okay so far...

Gaddock Teeg has been pretty darn good every time I cast him. Faeries' only ways to deal with it are Vedalken Shackles, in which case you might be able to burn them out, and Threads of Disloyalty, in which case you could try running out Tarmogoyf and comment them on their nice play. It turns off Repeal and Engineered Explosives in that deck, and he does beat down. He is also relevant against UB Tron, Elves, Affinity (turning off Thoughtcast), Death Cloud (turns off Damnation or draws out a kill spell which is not directed to your huge face-beating Tarmogoyf), TEPS and Swans.

That extra Teeg could also become a third Umezawa's Jitte. The way you lose often against Faeries is they stick an Umezawa's Jitte and connect with it, taking them out of range of a burn overload. I don't know if I'll have time to try both. What the extra slot is not going to become is a third Shadow Guildmage. It's good... but not great. It's good against Faeries and Elves, but against other decks it is very underwhelming and is often the first thing look to I take out after Game 1. I think I'm fine with 2 and would rather have a Jitte or Gaddock Teeg.

I need to reevaluate what comes in and what comes out from the sideboard, but I replaced the Ancient Grudges for Katakis again because Affinity is a large enough portion of the field and poor enough a matchup that I would be willing to run 4 slots just against it. Plus Ancient Grudge actually doesn't come in against a lot of other things. I brought it in for UB Tron and I think I overreacted to it, it's actually a pretty good matchup, especially if you stick Gaddock Teeg and especially now that I run three of those guys. I kind of want a fourth Duergar Hedge-Mage and a Kitchen Finks or Ranger of Eos may be getting cut. It will probably be a Ranger.

So those are the format-specific things I have been learning about the format... but am I getting better at Magic? After all, this is what this blog is supposed to be about.

- I'm not planning ahead and executing well-enough. When the game is seemingly lost, I'm not taking risks or giving my opponent chances to blow the game.
- I feel differently when I'm in pressure situations against good players. I felt this way in the T4 of the Saturday GPT and in the T2 against Alex of the Sunday GPT. Maybe that's just how I'm going to feel and I need to get used to it.
- Deck-specific... I'm forgetting to play land and then leaving myself open to Mana Leak, or being forced to Lightning Bolt myself because I didn't play a sac land the previous turn. Again, planning.

In chess there's a concept of strategy (or setting up for the late game) and tactics (making immediate plays to gain an advantage right now). I feel like Limited focuses on tactics: attacking and blocking, setting up two-for-ones with your tricks, setting up a clock. In a word, execution. And Constructed values strategy: what is my path to victory, what cards are worth fighting for, what do I need the board to look like in four turns, and even before you sit down, what do I want this deck I'm building to do. Planning.

At least that's what I have in my head, we actually had a discussion about the parallels of chess and Magic (I think chess is closer to Magic than poker is, but I'm a math-guy when I play poker, and I think I could write an entire post about chess, poker, and Magic). I think that's why you've got Limited specialists and Constructed specialists. I definitely feel a shift in the way I have to think about the game this season as opposed to last season, and the change is welcome (or else I'd get pretty bored with the game).

That's all I've got right now.

The Extended metagame according to Portland

So I walked around the room Round 3 of the PTQ (since I was not playing anymore) and wrote down what decks I saw.

Top Tables (2-0 at the time)
6 Mono Red Burn
5 Zoo
3 Affinity
2 Faeries (I lump Mono Blue as Faeries even if you might call it Wizards... most Faeries decks were of this variety)
2 Tezzerator
1 Swans
1 Proclamation
1 GB
1 UB Tron

All Tables (presumably all decks not 0-2 drop)
12 Mono Red Burn
10 Zoo
10 Faeries
9 Affinity
7 UB Tron
6 GB
4 Swans
3 TEPS
3 Tezzerator
And then the fringe decks...
2 Proclamation
2 Bant
1 All In
1 Dredge
1 UW Cloudpost
1 Beach House
1 Mono Red Beats (think Arc-Slogger)

The top 8 ended up being
3 Mono Red Burn
1 Tezzerator
1 Proclamation
1 Zoo
1 GB Death Cloud
1 Faeries

In the quarters, Burn beat Burn, Faeries beat Zoo, GB beat Proclamation (in 108 minutes), and Burn beat Tezzerator. In the semis, Burn beat Burn and GB beat Proclamation. Burn beat GB in the Finals. (Congratulations Eric Shaller!)

PTQ Portland damage report

We left Salem pretty late, decided to stop for dinner (Indian food twice in three nights... but doesn't beat Red Robin three times in one night), thought we wouldn't be able to make the trip up that night, but then ventured out anyway when it stopped snowing and started raining.

More tonight, as I am very late for work, but here are my results:
PTQ (97 players) - 0-2 drop
Sat. GPT (14 players) - 3-1 (received a scoop), lost in T4
Sun. GPT (11 players) - 3-1 (received a scoop in last round), received a scoop in T4, beat carmate Alex West in the final

Saturday the scoop was from Zaiem who likely could not make T4 (he maaaaaybe could have because there was an ill-advised ID at the top)

One of the scoops I actually lost but he scooped me in when his friend who was trying to get in lost (a little shady, more later), I received a scoop going into Game 3 in the T4 from someone who was not sure he was going.

I played Zoo all weekend, with a minor tweak to the sideboard to adjust for the metagame. (Since I was not playing Round 3, I took the opportunity to scout the room. That straw poll also comes later.)

This weekend I might be switching decks to a more positioned deck. In LA we may be playing something even more different. More on that... later. Real life beckons.