Magic Online PTQ - 6/17

I went 6-2 in the PTQ this past Thursday evening. Here are the replays:

R1 W vs. Turboland


R2 W vs. Jund


R3 W vs. Mythic


R4 W vs. UB Hedron Crab/Vengevine


R5 L vs. Jund


R6 L vs. Boros Bushwacker


R7 W vs. Next Level Bant


R8 W vs. Turboland

My Jund list

And if your curious what I'm running:

4 Putrid Leech
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Sprouting Thrinax
2 Borderland Ranger
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Vengevine
2 Siege-Gang Commander

4 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Bituminous Blast
2 Eldrazi Monument

4 Savage Lands
4 Raging Ravine
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Terramorphic Expanse
3 Forest
3 Swamp
2 Mountain

Sideboard:
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Doom Blade
4 Blightning
3 Royal Assassin

Things I'm consdering:
* I'm bringing Blightning in a lot, but I cut different things for it. Against Blue control decks, it's Thrinax, in the mirror it's Maelstrom Pulse, and I certainly don't really want it main deck against dedicated Vengevine decks.
* Royal Assassin may not be correct against Mythic, they may become some other removal spell. It's also kind of difficult to cast.
* Lightning Bolt is for Mythic, but it's not Forked Bolt because I'd rather have Bolt against Red Deck Wins, which is very much a deck online.
* Eldrazi Monument > Sarkhan the Mad in a fight, and it isn't even close. I could see running both, but definitely not the planeswalker over the artifact.

Summary of Standard season

My Standard PTQ season has been extremely mediocre after Extended season:

Portland: 5-3, knocked out in 4th round of 8
Indy Regionals: 3-2 drop (8 rounds)
Seattle: 3-2 drop (8 rounds)
MODO PTQ 6/6: 4-4, knocked out in 6th round of 8
SCG 5K Seattle: 5-3 drop, knocked out of T8 in 7th round of 9, knocked out of money in 8th

All of these I played Jund, and for monetary reasons, I'd probably continue playing Jund. Plus I think the deck's still the most powerful deck in the format. And I'm more or less +EV in 2-man queues with the deck. Since putting the deck together, my online rating has gone from 1590 to swinging between 1650 and 1730, mostly in the 1690-1700 range. I guess at the height of my Magical powers, I was 1750-1800 in Limited, but still not even close to infinite, but I don't know what the gamut of ratings in Constructed is.

Anyway, I'm very comfortable with Jund and think I can keep tuning it to the metagame and put up good numbers and keep getting better with the deck. I'm not convinced it's super draw/cascade dependent because I know I'm playing very loosely. Will continue on with the PTQ schedule, and should probably get my Limited chops going too: I've drafted maybe 5 times since Standard season started, and all of the drafts have gone terribly!

This summer is the summer I actively get better at Magic, because although I think people regard me as a decent/not bad player, I'm really tired of losing to good players late in tournaments and would like to put up some damn finishes!