Everybody has a favorite format. Some people live for draft, while others are strictly into Vintage. Whereas some people can go on for hours about the ever-changing Standard metagame, others are not happy unless they are cracking packs for Sealed Deck.

Me? I love Extended. In fact, the only modicum of success I've ever had playing Magic has been when I'm shuffling up for Extended.

The only local tournament I've won was an Extended event held over two Extended rotations ago – ancient history in terms of the game. My only two Top 8s in premier events have also happened during the Extended season, when I made a Grand Prix Trial Top 8 two years ago, and a PTQ Top 8 during the last Extended Season.

It's not like I play the best deck in this format. I rarely do. In Standard, I normally play crap, and that just doesn't work there; there are a handful of viable decks, and everything else gets to warm the bench. But, in Extended, random losers like me will sometimes stumble across a deck that works for us, and, well, we ruin perfect testing for the Spikes out there.

Of course, Extended also has Pyrostatic Pillar. I love this card. I love this card in the same way the Rizzo loves his Ichorid and Wakefield loves his Verdant Force, but only with a little less man juice. If there was ever a card that could own a format, it was that little two-mana enchantment.

This year, the Extended season is hitting a little earlier than last year. And as everyone knows, this is also one of the post-rotation seasons for the format. That normally causes a rather large upheaval in the playable decks.

When trying to evaluate what to play for the season, the first thing I did was to check the top decks from the Pro Tour. Was I surprised by what I saw? Not one bit. But I did take note of many of the decklists. Guess what? Pyrostatic Pillar still owns.

So I pulled up my list from last year. I knew there would be changes that needed to be made, but it was at least a start. Last Extended, I took the following deck to the Top 8:

Land
12 Forest
8 Mountain
4 Karplusan Forest

Creatures
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Blastoderm
4 Flametongue Kavu
4 Deranged Hermit
4 Shivan Wurm
2 Lightning Dragon

Spells
4 Pyrostatic Pillar
4 Fire / Ice
2 Earthquake

Sideboard
2 Whirlwind
3 Cursed Totem
3 Meltdown
3 Price of Progress
4 Sulfuric Vortex

That was my starting point; now, it was time to make it legal for the current format. This was a lot tougher than I thought it would be originally. I lost a majority of my sideboard and ten maindeck cards for which I don't think I really found acceptable replacements.

I went with Siege-Gang Commander as an alternative to the rotated Deranged Hermit. I do get one less token, and they aren't pumped like they are with the Hermit – but the goblin doesn't have echo, and can fling dudes straight to the dome. It seems like a fair enough trade.

The dragon was a little different. By adding the Commander to the deck, I made an obvious change in the balance of mana that I needed. By tilting it more to the red side, some of my options were no longer viable. For instance, I have always loved Rathi Dragon. I wanted to play him last year. Unfortunately, that “Sacrifice two mountains” when he comes into play really hurts an already mana-hungry deck. Because of this, he is also an impossible target for the Shivan Wurm. Fledgling Dragon was also a four-mana option… But until threshold, he's simply an over-costed 2/2. And, quite honestly, with the proliferation of Tog and Dredge decks around, graveyard removal is not necessarily relegated to the board anymore.

My primary goal with the dragon was always to have another finisher. The deck doesn't revolve around it, and I only ever really want to see it in the late game. As such, I decided my best option was the Hunted Dragon. He only costs five, is a 6/6 with haste, and the “drawback” is negligible when you're swinging for the game and flying over the horde of knights.

That just left the Blastoderm to be replaced… And that, my friends, was a royal kick in the groin. What made Blastoderm so good was not only the “5/5 for four mana” deal, but also the “Can't be the target of Spells or Abilities” thing. There are a finite number of creatures with that ability. Additionally, there even fewer with that line of text that fit my power/toughness requirements and my casting cost requirements. It came down to Gigapede or Kodama of the North Tree.

I chose to go with the North Tree… But due to his Legendary status, I could not run four. So, I chose to go with two, and needed another creature to fill the other two slots. I really, desperately, wanted to get a 5/5 for four, but again, there aren't a lot of options. Emperor Crocodile does not cut the mustard, if for no other reason than that he needs a buddy or he gets lonely and dies. So I could go with Iwamori of the Open Fist or Jade Leech.

I really kinda like the Leech – but in the end, his drawback was too severe, especially when coupled with the fact that I already had a dude that required three green to cast. Adding another green onto that would be tough. I went with the other Legend.

I wasn't completely happy with these changes. But, given the time I put into it, and the lack of testing time I would have, it would have to hold down the fort.

The biggest challenge was replacing pretty much the entire sideboard. Other that the Sulfuric Vortex from the original sideboard, I lost everything usable due to the rotation. I did immediately decide that with the life gain available in the format due to recurring Baloths and such, plus the possibility that someone could actually play an infinite Life deck (which is still possible, although less consistent than it was previously, that I had to keep the four Vortexes where they were). So, I only had eleven slots to fill.

Does anyone else here think Price of Progress would be absolutely busted in the current Extended? Only what, 70% of the lands in any given PTQ are non-basic? A two-mana instant that can deal eight or ten damage seems really fair to me.

Maybe they'll reprint it in this block somewhere. We can only hope.

There were really only two playable replacements to attempt to hurt folks who are going overboard with the nonbasic lands… Well, there are two if you're me. Most people would not count Lava Blister as a viable alternative. I would, but it's only good early game. Fortunately for me, there is a second option. Blood Moon is probably about it. I put four in my board, figuring I would definitely need it.

There is not an exact reprint of Cursed Totem, or even that specific ability. We do have a close facsimile, though, in Damping Matrix. While not as strong, it does stop those annoying Tog activations until they get rid of it. I do wonder if Pithing Needle would be better, though.

Why?

The Needle can shut off Pernicious Deed, one of the cards that this deck truly hates. The Matrix will happily sit there and allow itself to be blown up by the Deed with nary a care. On the other hand, the Matrix is a lot more flexible. It stops random regeneration effects, Grim Lavamancers, and things like Baloth. It's a tough call overall. In the end, I chose to go with the Matrix.

One of the least flexible cards that I had in the original deck was Whirlwind. See, the goal was to have an answer for fliers, which I otherwise did not have… But this deck was a poor result. It was not uncommon for U/G Madness to pitch the Wonder and alpha strike you to death before you even got the opportunity to cast that Whirlwind at sorcery speed. It was a weakness in the deck, and an obvious upgrade was needed.

Auspiciously, the good folks at Wizards fixed this for me. Arashi was the missing piece that I needed. Being able to wipe out fliers at instant speed, as opposed to the typical sorcery speed, was something I was not used to having. I debated back and forth whether I wanted three or four of them, though. In the end, I just had a gut feeling that three was the right number, and I used the extra spot to add another Earthquake to the board.

In the end, this was the deck I played:

R/G Aggro An Extended deck, by Carl Wilt 18th place at a Pro Tour Qualifier tournament in Omaha, Nebraska, United States on 2005-12-11 Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 4 Birds of Paradise 4 Flametongue Kavu 2 Hunted Dragon 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Shivan Wurm 4 Siege-Gang Commander Enchantments 4 Pyrostatic Pillar Instants 4 Fire / Ice	Legendary Creatures 2 Iwamori of the Open Fist 2 Kodama of the North Tree Sorceries 2 Earthquake Basic Lands 11 Forest 9 Mountain Lands 4 Karplusan Forest	Sideboard: 3 Damping Matrix 4 Blood Moon 4 Sulfuric Vortex 3 Arashi, the Sky Asunder 1 Earthquake
Download this deck in Apprentice format!		Download this deck in Magic Online Text format!

After rounding out my deck, and knowing what I'm going to play, I was tasked with building two other decks. One of my regulars, Austin Scarborough, told me that I was to build him something for Extended. He didn't care what I built, as long as I built him something fun. Additionally, I mentioned the tournament to my lovely wife, Jeanie. Now, keep in mind that Jeanie hasn't played in a tournament in about two years. Still, she lifted the ban that she placed on me, which prevented me from being allowed to build her decks or even give advice on decks, and asked me to build her something fun to play.

I built Austin a simple little R/G deck with mongooses, both the blurry and the nimble varieties, Kird Apes, Trolls, Phantom Centaurs and other dudes, as well as a decent supply of burn. He liked the deck, and he did play it.

For my wife, I built a little G/W beatdown deck with Watchwolves, Loxodon Hierarchs, Anurid Brushhoppers, Exalted Angels, Savannah Lions and such. She looked at the deck and I explained about some of the abilities, and reminded her of others, and she was happy.

The night before the tournament, I ran my typical event at The Game Shoppe. As per usual, I schedule the event to match what the PTQ was the next day. I do this to allow players a chance to get in a little last second testing under fire. The usual group shows up, I get a list of cards people want to borrow the next day and I manage to get hone at a decent time for once before a tournament. I cuddle with the wife for a bit and fall quickly asleep.

Jeanie and I wake up and get ready in the morning. We make sure that Kelle, our sixteen-year-old has the cell phone number, give hugs and kisses to Angel and Veronica, and we were off.

En route, I got one of those horrible questions that I know I'll screw up. Jeanie asks me what sort of things she has to look out for, and what new abilities I should tell her about. Jeanie has always been a more casual player, and she doesn't get to tournaments that often. I rack my brain trying to think of anything and everything that she could possibly need to know. To say that I was not a good instructor at the time would be somewhat of an understatement.

At this point, I would just like to say that I love it when Thom at Hobbytown USA runs the events in Omaha. There's nothing quite like getting to the tournament site in ten minutes, as opposed to the hour it usually takes.

I know, I know; cry me a frickin' river. Many of you have to travel two or more hours to get to your tournaments. Who am I to complain about a mere hour?

Anyway, we get to the site and mingle with a few of the folks we know while waiting for the announcement of pairings. The call finally comes, and the mass of humanity that is Magic players moves to find their seats. The tournament was announced to be seven rounds, with a lunch break between the second and third round.

Round 1 – Jessi Dennis (76th), Playing Rock
I sit down for the first round and make a little small talk with Jessi. He has tattoos up and down both arms. During the course of our conversation, I discover that he is from St. Louis, and that he drove the seven-and-a-half hours the previous night to get to the tournament.

We shuffle and start, with me on the draw after losing the die roll, and I keep a hand of bird, Pyrostatic Pillar, double Siege-Gang Commander, and land. He drops a turn 1 Bird, and I follow on my turn with the same thing. On turn 2, he casts Cabal Therapy naming Pernicious Deed, and, obviously, misses. He flashes back the Therapy to nab my goblins, and passes the turn.

Right away, I think, “Score!” I drop a turn 2 Pillar, and let things play out. I would drop a threat costing greater than three, and he would answer with something costing three or less. He loses life in two-point chunks. Eventually, he pokes himself with a Llanowar Wastes, taking two damage to drop and pop a Deed of his own. I follow with the second Pillar that was waiting in my hand, and he enters the scoop phase.

I board in nothing and shuffle up for the second game.

I get the early Pillar again, but he answers with a Deed to clear the board. I continue dropping dudes, and eventually follow up with another Pillar. He starts wishing for dudes out of the board, and casting them. I drop a North Tree, and he answers with the Spiritmonger he Living Wished for the previous turn, leaving nothing untapped. We trade guys and I drop another North Tree. He gets out a Genesis to chump. He drops another Deed, and clears the board. He follows that move up by Wishing for a Duplicant out of the board.

I'm holding nothing but an Earthquake and a bird, and I draw land. At this point, he's fairly low on life, sitting at ten, while I was still hanging at nineteen. I start counting land, and am short of killing him with Quake, so I play my land and pass the turn. He then drops another Spiritmonger, and passes to me, again completely tapped. I Quake for six the following turn after ripping a Commander off the top, killing his dude, play my bird, and pass. He does nothing and passes. I drop the goblin and his buddies into play, and follow up with another Pillar.

He's at four life, and there is only one thing he can do….cast the Duplicant. He doesn't, though. Instead, he Wishes and drops another guy to block. Afterward, he looks at the board for a couple minutes, and scoops.

What a way to start, eh? I am playing arguably my worst matchup in Rock, and I manage to pull the win. At this point, I'm thinking I could make a run. I trust my deck, I know it well, and with a modicum of luck, I don't think I can lose.

1-0, 2-0

I stop by to see how the wife is doing (she loses 2-1), and get “the glare.” You married men know what that is: Words do not need to be spoken. “The Glare” says it all. If you've ever gotten it, you know one thing for sure: You've screwed up, whether intentionally or not. And you're in trouble.

If you were to ask my wife about Double strike, she would define it as, “That thing my husband never mentioned to me when I asked what things I probably don't know about that have come out since I last played.”

I apologize, and run outside for a quick smoke before the second round begins.

Round 2 – AJ Anton (38th), Playing Wildfire
This round, I get paired against AJ. I've known AJ for years, as he was one of the guys who played in the first tournament I ever ran as a tournament organizer, and he has been a regular ever since, even following me when I quit running events at one place and started working at The Game Shoppe. I already know what he's playing, having seen him play it the previous night at the Extended tournament I ran, in which he took third.

I'm playing first after winning the roll, and start with a mana-dude. I get a turn 2 Pillar, and things are off and running. I drop dudes, and he has answers with burn, Wrath of God and his own dudes. He casts a Wildfire and resets the board, with the exception of my Pillar. We both take some Pillar damage as we rebuild.

Eventually, I get lethal damage on board while at two life, and him at three. He has five lands on board, including a fetch land. He fetches a Sacred Foundry, going to two, and needs to topdeck a land to cast the Wildfire he's holding. He doesn't get the draw, and enters his scoop phase.

I again bring nothing in from the board, as I have nothing that will make much of a difference in this match. We shuffle and get started. This turns out to be a rather anticlimactic game, as AJ gets mana screwed, and the only damage I take are the two points my own Pillar does to me. Once I drop a North Tree, he goes the distance in short order.

2-0, 4-0

We break for lunch after the round, and Jeanie and I head across the street to Jimbo's. I subdue my hunger with a bacon double-cheeseburger, while my better half has the French dip. If you're a smoker, like me, Jimbo's is one of the best places you can choose to get a bite between rounds. Whereas most restaurants force smokers to sit and eat in a terrarium, Jimbo's makes the non-smokers sit behind the glass, while those of us who enjoy that rich, thick, quality tobacco taste get the run of the place. What a deal. It almost is enough to make us smokers not feel like pariahs any more.

We finish lunch and make it back just in time for the third round pairings.

Round 3 – Drew Habener (22nd), Playing Mono-Black Control
I'm playing against Drew. Although I've never actually played against him previously, I have frequently seen Drew at various tournaments.

After losing the die roll, I know I'm going second. I mulligan in game one, and keep a hand with land, bird, elf, and Iwamori. I am able to draw into some bigger threats, but Drew has all the answers. Eventually, I stall and run into a mana glut, while he goes to town. My guys keep turning sideways, though, and I manage to get him down to four… But a six-point Consume Spirit does me in, raising him back to double digits. He flashes the second Consume Spirit at me, and that's all she wrote.

I board in Sulfuric Vortex for the second game, and we get started.

I'm on the play this game, and I open up with Hunted Dragon, North Tree, North Tree, forest, Earthquake, Shivan Wurm, and Shivan Wurm. I throw that back, and end up getting almost the exact same hand, except I have two Hunted Dragons and only a single Shivan Wurm this time, and all the land was hiding somewhere. I ship them back again and keep a three-land hand with Pillar and elf. Needless to say, this is not the way you want to start game two on the play and down a game already.

Fortunately for me, the karma gods must have really liked me, or really been pissed at Drew. I rip so much sweetness of the top of my deck, I damn near go into a hyperglycemic diabetic coma. His life ticks away like clockwork as one threat after another goes unanswered, and I pull victory out of the double-mulligan.

Games like our third happen to everyone. We both keep our opening hands - but where I have the goods, he has nothing but mana screw. I take some damage from my own Pillar this game, and he manages to hang in about as best he could with Edicts for my creatures, but I finally get him down to ten, with me at thirteen. I was holding a Hunted Dragon, and I ripped a Quake. I Quaked him down to six, putting myself down to nine, and pass the turn.

I only had the Dragon in hand to go with land and a Pillar on the table. He thought about what he could do. His board was a Cabal Coffers and three swamps. According to some of my buddies who were standing behind him, he could have tapped out and cast Consume Spirit for two, giving him eight, allowing him to live another turn. Instead, he casts Duress, hoping that all I have is a burn spell.

Now a 6/6 Hasted flier for five might feel like an unfair burn spell – but unfortunately, the dragon is Duress-proof. He throws up his hands and scoops.

Drew was not pleased about losing, and hastily scooped up his stuff. He did at least shake my hand afterward, and when I spoke to him later, he had calmed down.

3-0, 6-1

Sorry to say, though, but things went downhill for me at this point. I don't blame my deck, though. I blame none other than the affable Rick Poehling.

Let me start by saying that Rick is one of the nicest Magic guys I know. My first memory of Rick was at the Exodus prerelease years ago. I remember sitting there waiting to draft, and there was Rick, trying to talk to one of the judges at the event about how cool Necrologia was. The judge was doing his best to ignore Rick, who kept right on talking. I remember thinking at the time, “Man, that kid can't take a hint.”

(I also remember thinking that that judge was being somewhat of a rooster. I'm sure had the judge actually acknowledged Rick and said a couple words, Rick would have moved on to someone else. Regardless, Rick's a good guy with a penchant for ill fortune.)

After the third round, I was sitting around with my wife and a few of my buddies and we were chatting about the tournament, and how things were going. Rick stopped over and joined our conversation. During this discourse, Rick wanted to see my deck, which I had been talking about. I handed it over, and he checked it out.

<flip> <flip> <flip>

“Man, this is so cool.”

<flip> <flip> <flip>

“I love this deck!!”

<flip> <flip> <flip>

“You need to take this one all the way. I'm rooting for you the rest of the tournament.”

<flip> <flip> <flip>

(Soon, that fateful line will occur. The phrase that will live in infamy. The uttered words that cursed me and my innocent deck. If only I could go back in time, and stop those cursed words from ever being muttered…)

<flip> <flip> <flip>

“Man, this deck gives me a woody just looking at it!!!”

Did all of you catch that? Those words. Those horrible, cursed words. Things could have been so much different if not for those words.

Alas, I can not escape them. They haunt my dreams. They echo in my ears during the few brief moments of silence I get in my life. Much like in the Tell-Tale Heart, the sounds just don't go away. Mad, I tell you….those fateful words are driving me mad.

Round 4 – Russell Cowan (10th), Playing Mono-Black Control (splash green)
I get paired against none other than Russell Cowan in this round. Although I really like Russ, I think he's had it out for me ever since I was implicated in the story of his missing goat. Russ was playing basically a Mono-Black Control deck that splashed green for Deed and Putrefy. Overall, a really cool deck.

Normally, when Russ and I have had the opportunity to square off against each other, we're down in the higher double-digit tables. Hell, we were at the triple-digit tables when we played at Grand Prix: Kansas City a few years back. The odds of he and I meeting at the single-digit tables later than round one of a PTQ have to be about the same as someone flopping a queen of diamonds on the river to complete their royal straight flush.

Apparently, we pulled it out on the river.

We shuffled up for game one and got started. I got what appeared to be a decent hand with some dude acceleration and a few big guys, only to have my hopes dashed. Every guy I got down met an ugly fate between Edicts, Putrefies or Deeds. I did manage to get a Pillar on the board, and Russ wound up getting whittled down to six at one point, but a Consume Spirit quickly changed that. After a board-clearing Deed, Nantuko Shade came to town, and I died in quick order, holding a fist full of Shivan Wurms.

We go to sideboard, and I bring in Sulfuric Vortex, Blood Moon, the extra Earthquake, and Arashi, while pulling out Shivan Wurm, FTK, and Fire/Ice. My reasoning for this was that the only sources he had for green were non-basics; plus he was running Cabal Coffers. Also, while Consume Spirit did damage, the life-gain involved was more harmful. I knew I would have to bring in creatures since I was going to be pulling so many out.

Against this matchup, I don't often have a guy to return for the Wurm - and since he was mostly creatureless, FTK was less than stellar as well.

I mulligan my opening grip in game two, but keep a hand with double Pillar, lands, and a dude to start. Unfortunately, all those cool cards I brought in from the board are useless if they don't show up. They didn't. Once again, he had answers for my dudes, and they all die a tragic death. Once my board was clear, he drops a Maga and drops me to two. He was at six, and I had three Pillars on deck. I find myself praying that I'll topdeck a Quake, which would allow me to at least draw this game and go on to another.

I pull a Bird.

I immediately think back to Rick. Dammit! My deck, which loves me like no deck has ever loved its owner before, definitely would have spit out the needed card if not for The Curse.

3-1, 6-3

I see Rick after the match, and tell him he cursed me. I warn him that he will make my report. He laughs.

I cannot reiterate enough: Do not let Rick fondle your deck. He'll say something inappropriate and curse it. I am living proof.

I go outside to smoke, and try to figure my odds at a Top 8. If I can manage to go 2-0-1 in the next three rounds, I'm in. Slam dunk. I finish my cigarette, and head in for pairings.

Round 5 – Bill Stark (11th), Playing Red Rock Variant
I recognize Bill. He seems to recognize me as well, and mentions that he is somehow familiar with me. I was positive that we have never played before, and, after getting home and checking my match history, can say with absolute certainty that this was the first sanctioned match we've ever played against each other. But still, he seemed oddly familiar, if a real nice guy. He had some buddies watching our match near the end, and I think they perturbed him a touch.

I lost the die roll, going second. I mulligan down to six that look good, and keep. He plays a Bird on turn 1, and I play an Elf. He follows up with a Therapy, naming Caller of the Claw. Apparently, he thought I was playing an Elf deck.

I was fortunate enough to get a couple of my beaters out, and started to eat away at his life. I dropped a Pillar, and he immediately calls a judge. He asks that my maindeck decklist be checked, since I am playing an obvious sideboard card in game one. He argues with the judge for a couple of minutes, and finally, the judge verifies my name to check. I get him down to a mere two, but an unable to finish the task, as he gets recurring Baloth going, keeping him out of lethal range. I eventually succumb to his other creatures, and we prepare for boarding.

While boarding, he makes several comments about how he has no idea what to do against my deck. Apparently, although I actually put thought and testing into my deck, he considered it random. I brought in Blood Moon (since I noticed that a majority of his land was non-basic), and Sulfuric Vortex (to shut down the Baloth recursion lifegain).

I started out with an early Pillar in game one, and then played out my big dudes. I managed to get a Vortex on the board, and we were both taking damage every turn from it. With both of us at ten, I played the Hunted Dragon, swinging for six. At the end of my turn, he sacrificed a fetch land, and then took his turn. He swung with the three knights – but that's all he had. With no answer for the flier, he passed the turn and waited for me to declare attackers… And then scooped.

His friends laughed heartily at his fate. He laughed… Not so much.

We go on to the third game. I get perhaps the best hand that anyone could ask for: early Pillar, Blood Moon, and Vortex, and all three are on the board. I managed to drop some dudes and started to swing. He took one hit from Iwamori before he finds an answer, and then is stuck playing “draw, go” while taking two a turn. His life drops in two-point chunks until his last turn, and the Vortex does him in.

Again, his friends laugh rather boisterously, and he seems a bit frustrated at losing to a random like me.

Me? Hell, I'm pretty happy. I'm now 4-1, and I can sniff Top 8.

4-1, 8-4

Round 6 – John Ritchison (5th), Playing Boros Deck
I sat down for round six feeling pretty good. I talked to John for a moment and introduced myself. Just as I was ready to present my deck, I look up.

Standing right behind John is Rick.

“Let's go, Carl. You can do this.”

My deck heard Rick. I swear to God, it shook in fear.

I drew my opening seven, and had to send it back. I drew my six, seeing five lands and an elf. After a no-land in seven, I figured I could keep.

That was a bad move on my part.

I didn't miss a land drop all game, but I only saw three red sources the entire game. Two of those were in my grip of six, and both of those got sent to the yard via Stone Rain. The only damage he actually took this game was from his own land, as I could draw no gas at all. He ends the game at, technically, twenty-one, after several Lightning Helixes make up for his pain land damage, and Grim Lavamancer (and efficient 2/2 beaters) doom me.

I didn't sideboard anything. You may ask why… And that's because I should beat this deck. Really, his deck has no answer for fat, and my deck has a significant amount of it. Couple that with the ability to get an early Pillar, which hits every card he will cast in the game, and the advantage really should be mine.

Game two proves my point. I got the early Pillar. He got rid of it, and I got another. Meanwhile, I started dropping fat. When the Shivan Wurm hit the table, John said, “I can't answer that!” He didn't, and after a few turns where chumps took some of the damage, he finally scooped with lethal on the stack.

We were shuffling for game three, and Rick walked by again. “Where you guys at?”

“Third game,” we said, and shuffled.

Now, if I had it to do over again, I would have done something different. I would have looked at my opponent and said, “Look, we both need to go 1-0-1 at this point to Top 8. We are playing a 50/50 match right now. You can't handle fat. Let's draw now. Next round, we'll both probably get paired down, probably into better matchups. What do you think?”

That's what I should have done. I could have headed off The Curse at the pass.

But no, I presented my deck.

Game three turned out to be one of the most disappointing games of Magic I have ever played. I mulliganed my opening grip, and kept a three-lander with some dorks. I really should have visited mulligan land again to try to pull the Pillar… But I didn't. He got some quick beaters out, and I had a Fire/Ice to handle the first batch, but subsequent pairs of beaters remained unimpeded. I got a turn 6 Pillar, but that's about five turns too late against this deck.

I was now off to the 4-2 bracket.

4-2, 9-6

Before pairings were announced, they put up standings. There is not a chance that an X-2 can make the Top 8. It will take sixteen points to make it, and everyone currently at fifteen or above will make it with draws in the last round.

I considered dropping before pairings were put up, but I decided to stick it out and play the last round.

Round 7 – Luke Shieh (9th), Playing Mono-Black Braids
I chatted with Luke for a bit. Anyone who watched our match could have seen that neither of us was really into it. This was probably one of the worst-played Magic matches in the history of mankind. My six-year old daughter could have outplayed either of us in this round.

We got ready for Game one, and things were going back and forth. He was playing a Mono-Black Clerics deck with Braids. He got a few clerics and a Rotlung Reanimator in play, and was about to take complete control of the game – something about getting two dudes for every one he casts is pretty good – and dropped a Braids on the board. I sacrificed a bird to her during my turn, dropped a land, and pass the turn. He proceeded to untap and draw his card, missing the Braids effect.

We called a judge, and he gets a game loss.

We went to game two, and, again, things were pretty even. We cleared the board, and eventually I had about ten land in play, a land in hand, and nothing else. He had about six land, a couple Chrome Mox, and a 2/2 Zombie. He dropped a Braids and passed the turn. I untapped, saying, “Don't forget to put a land in the yard” – and promptly draw my card, easily skipping over actually sacrificing my land.

So we went on to game three. As we were getting started, Rick came by again to ask how things were going.

Curses. Curses. Curses.

We told him how poorly this match was going for all involved, and continued onto game three. Again, the Rick mojo has me. I mulligan a one-land hand into a two-land hand with no acceleration. Luke got the Rotlung thing going again, and eventually had more than enough dudes to swarm me. My only hope was to draw a Quake after I killed the Rotlung with Fire / Ice, which would allow me to clear the board – and even though I would have been at a life disadvantage at the time, I would have at least had a chance.

I drew a land on my last draw, and scooped when he attacked.

For giggles, I decided to check what my next few draws were. Who doesn't like to play “What if?”

Land, Land, Bird, Land, Land, Land, Pillar, Land, Land, Quake.

Hey, only ten turns until I would have drawn something that actually mattered.

4-3, 10-8

Overall, I took the proud and prestigious 18th place at the tournament.

Austin won his last round to finish the same record that I had. Jeanie also proved that I was not the only married man she could beat when she handed one of my regulars, Stephen Perigo, a rather nasty defeat in the last round.

Would I play this same deck again? Not exactly. There are several changes I will need to make in the deck in order to play it at the next PTQ.

Believe it or not, Flametongue Kavu was not a bomb in this deck. In fact, he was rarely useful at all. I also noticed another problem with him: I played very few decks that had enough creatures on the day. As a result, many times I had to hold it in hand and not cast it, unless I wanted to nuke one of my own creatures. I may regret taking him out of the main, but I think I need to find a replacement.

That kind of leads to the second point: I had too many creatures that came into play at a disadvantage. I needed a target for FTK. I needed to bounce someone for Shivan Wurm. The Legend rule got me a couple times.

Also, I really hated the legends. It almost never failed that if I drew one, his partner was right there in my hand as well. Also, by playing three two-of creatures, it made the deck perform more randomly at times than I would have liked. The big question is what to replace them with. Gigapede has the advantage of not being targetable, and I can return him from the grave if need be. Then, of course, there is always Ravenous Baloth; he's not really a bad choice. One option that I am also considering, mainly because of other changes I am thinking about in the deck, would be Gurzigost.

What can I say? I like fat.

One other change that I am considering would be running Kodama's Reach and/or Sakura-Tribe Elder in the deck, as opposed to the eight mana dudes. My little guys took a horrible beating during the tournament. I never wanted to really see them in the late game, and they usually weren't around to get bounced by the Wurm.

That's really a lot of dislikes for a deck that I love. But I can fix it, make it better, and take it to the next PTQ in December.

After the tournament, Jeanie and I went home. The kids were still up, and more than happy to see us. Angel asked me if I won.

Boy, a daughter's love for her Daddy, eh? She's still young enough to think Daddy can do it all.

I give her a hug and kiss her forehead.

“I won just now, sweetheart,” I say. She smiles and runs off to play and Veronica has finally gotten done tackling Mom, and it is now my turn. I give Veronica a hug and a kiss as well, and head back to my office to put my stuff away.

“Yup,” I think to myself, “I'm always a winner in their Pro Tours. Who needs Hawaii?”

Till next time…

Peace…
Carl Wilt
Brownsfan56@hotmail.com