Bet you all didn't expect to hear from me again.

Why?

Well, has anybody seen my PTQ record lately? 2-2, 0-2.

Impressive, no?

A quick recap of this last season is basically me not testing enough. At the first qualifier, I played a 5c Blue deck that resembled what you would consider Dark Domain. The only problem is, it wasn't that good. During the next few weeks, I won a Grand Prix Trial for Minneapolis (my third GPT win in a row) with a R/W/U aggro deck. Here's the listing.

4 Galina's Knight
4 Meddling Mage
4 Goblin Legionnaire
4 Skizzik
4 Lightning Angel
2 Rakavolver
4 Fire/Ice
3 Urza's Rage
3 Repulse
3 Prophetic Bolt
4 Coastal Tower
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Shivan Reef
4 Island
5 Plains
4 Mountain

Sideboard:
2 Gainsay
2 Jilt
4 Disrupt
3 Flametongue Kavu
3 Aura Blast
1 Goblin Trenches

The deck was aggresive, with the ability to counteract almost any strategy. The only deck that gave me the slightest trouble was Domain - however, I managed to get around it with random bears and obscene amounts of burn the first game, and Disrupt usually helped out in the second/third games by thwarting my opponent's ability to Harrow.

I had two weeks to work up enough money to go to the Grand Prix. I ended up $103 short. However, with the money I made, I decided to take a trip to San Antonio and play in the final PTQ of the season.

I went 0-2!

0-2! Zero and two! This is every player's worst nightmare, and it happens to me. That never happens to me! For the first time in my life, I'm out of contention after the second round. The bad part is that only one game was lost due to a mental error. Only one. That was just because I mistapped my mana and couldn't Ghitu Fire my opponent with Undermine backup. The rest of the games saw me digging deep into my deck, looking for cards I had four copies of, and not being able to find a single one.

That's depressing. Here's the list I used for that tournament:

4 Mystic Snake
3 Plague Spitter
3 Spiritmonger
3 Pernicious Deed
4 Evasive Action
3 Undermine
3 Lobotomy
2 Repulse
3 Fact or Fiction
2 Worldly Counsel
2 Ghitu Fire
3 Lay of the Land
2 Harrow
4 Salt Marsh
3 Yavimaya Coast
2 Mountain
6 Island
5 Forest
4 Swamp

Sideboard:
1 Lobotomy
1 Pernicious Deed
2 Gainsay
3 Wandering Stream
4 Dodecapod
4 Jungle Barrier

Believe me, this deck isn't as bad as it looks. It has one PTQ win and three T8s to its name in only two qualifiers of existence in the Texas area. (Albeit the other versions used Blurred Mongoose instead of Plague Spitter, one less Lobotomy, and a different land count.) But I still built the deck near perfectly. I hardly lost in playtesting, and the games I did lose were to bad matchups (B/U/W discard/control), but I was able to fix that problem with the Dodecapods in the sideboard. I'm still in disbelief of what happened at that tournament. Something went wrong, and I'm not sure if it was just me.

During the rest of the tournament, I got to talk to other players. Even having a wonderful conversation with Fletcher Peatross and his twin brother, Mason. Mason was able to drop some advice on me that I cannot even begin to forget."You suck at Magic, seriously."

Mason, I don't know what I did to offend you in some great manner, but there is no reason for such a rude comment. I'm not a professional-caliber player, but I have a solid game. You had no right or reason to drop this allegation upon me...

Or did you?

2-2, 0-2.

Maybe he does have a reason to say that. Maybe I do suck at Magic. Maybe all of my readers (both of you) are wasting their time just by reading my pathetic articles.

Maybe, but I doubt it.

I won't take the time to bash Mason; it's not worth the time. I have no reason to take what he said and turn it against him. I'm not that blunt, nor rude. I will say this; nobody has the right to tell another player that they suck at Magic. Nobody! I don't care if you're Jon Finkel talking to some guy who has a 100 rating. Nobody has the right. Everybody has to start somewhere, and not everybody has access to the information that some top-level pros do. After all, the key to the game is to be one step ahead of everybody. As a writer, it is my duty to provide this information to people who can't find it. It is my duty to show everybody what the top decks are, and how to beat them. It is my job...

However, after going 2-2 and 0-2 in my favorite format in a long time, something has to be wrong. I must be doing something wrong if I'm not achieving anything close to my goals. Maybe I really do suck at Magic, and I should quit. I would still have a few hundred dollars in my pocket if I didn't take a four-hour road trip to San Antonio to let other people lean on me because they have an opinion that I don't.

Maybe I should just pack up all my cards and leave.

Maybe I should.

I missed a lot this year in Magic. I haven't been living up to what I want to be. So this year, I am making it my goal to either qualify for the Pro Tour, or make at least two Top Eights trying. Where will I start? That's very simple. I'm starting with States. Compared to other tournaments, where thousands of dollars are on the line, this tournament is low-profile - but it means a lot to me to make a strong showing. This is the same tournament where two years ago I made T4, only to lose to David Williams (the only person I lost to the entire day). I started my streak there, and I want to make it again. So expect to hear a lot more from me from playtest sessions and odd deck ideas. Because nobody, not even Mason (freakin') Peatross can break my spirit.

But what if I don't make it on the tour? What if I don't make two Top 8s?

Then I will quit.

Until then, let's see what kind of Godawful jank I can come up with.

Until next time,

Jeff Wrobleski
First Idiot of Magic
jwrob@n2mail.com