First of all, I should introduce myself. My name is Nassim Ketita, and I recently placed 12th at GP: Philly with IGGy Pop. I hail from London, Ontario, am a regular fixture on the Southern Ontario PTQ circuit, and have been playing competitive Magic since Mirrodin block. Now that that's out of the way, let get on to the report.
Friday, November 11
Though there were three groups of Toronto-area players heading down to Philly for the weekend, my group consisted of Duncan McGregor (Level 3 Judge, 23rd place GP: Boston) and J. Evan Dean (12th Place GP: Detroit, 2nd Place Canadian Nationals). Since London isn't exactly on the way to Philly from Toronto, I had crashed at Evan's place the night before. As we went to pick up our rental car, we saw the following quote on the bulletin board in the back:
"Follow your dreams. You can achieve anything; I'm living proof - BEEFCAKE!!!"
Eric Cartman
This quote would set the tone for the whole weekend.
We largely passed the time during the seven-hour drive telling stories and playing Magic trivia. What is Magic trivia you ask? It's just about the nerdiest thing you can do on a long road trip.
Actually, the trip wasn't that bad as Evan is very talkative and kept our conversations going. [I've just started this report and yet I am positive I just read the greatest understatement possible in its fifteen pages. - Knut, who thinks describing Mr. Dean as "talkative" is like describing the ocean as "moist."]
We finally get to the tournament site with lots of time to spare, so I register for the last chance trial, as I had no byes. Since I don't have much of a playtesting group, I did most of my testing by just goldfishing my deck (with the exception of my buddy Dan MacDonald who showed me my Goblins matchup is a total farce), so if nothing else the trial would give me some good experience against live opponents.
I guess I should talk about the deck. Iggy Pop was designed by Mike Bomholt, who posts as bomholmm on TMD. I made a few adjustments to his list such as cutting Lim-Dul's Vault and Night's Whisper for Impulse and Telling Time. Here is what I played in the trial:
3 Island
2 Swamp
2 Underground Sea (not 4 as was indicated in the coverage)
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
3 Tendrils of Agony
2 Chromatic Sphere
1 Chain of Vapor
4 Ill-Gotten Gains
4 Impulse
3 Telling Time
4 Dark Ritual
4 Intuition
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Brainstorm
4 Mystical Tutor
Sideboard:
4 Phyrexian Negator
3 Echoing Truth
4 Engineered Plague
4 Defense Grid
You'll notice that the sideboard is different from what I played in the GP. I wanted to try out Negators, as I was worried about my matchup against Rabid Wombat. Turns out that Wombat was fairly underrepresented and I never actually boarded them in. The basic idea of this deck is to Intuition for three Ill-Gotten Gains, make a ton of mana with Ritual effects and/or Lion's Eye Diamonds by recurring Ill-Gotten Gains, then kill your opponent with Tendrils of Agony. Now I'll go over some of the card choices.
Mana Base:
Having the maximum number of fetchlands is key because they help you get threshold. Also, the mana base is very resilient to Wasteland, and the Underground Seas are only there so you can get a black source with Flooded Strand.
Tendrils of Agony
Quite possibly one of the best win conditions ever printed. You need a minimum of three maindeck so that you can Intuition for it. If I was to play this deck again, I would increase it to four, especially if your metagame has a lot of control.
Chain of Vapor
You need a maindeck bounce card to tutor up in case of random nonsense like Meddling Mage or True Believer. At one mana, Chain is the most efficient bounce available.
Intuition
This is the most important card in the deck. Not only does it allow you to tutor up your win condition, it also stocks your graveyard for the combo.
Impulse / Telling Time
This deck doesn't care about card advantage, it only cares about card quality. Often you will have a lot of mana, but nothing to do with it; or all your combo pieces, but no accelerants. Impulse helps you find the missing piece you need to win. Telling Time was included to provide additional Impulse effects, but it has since been pointed out to me that Strategic Planning from Portal Three Kingdoms would be strictly better. Honestly, just about any cantrip can be used in the Telling Time slot. Other options are Mental Note and Night's Whisper.
Mystical Tutor
This is basically a Vampiric Tutor in the deck. With the ability to grab just about anything you could want (except LED of course), it's an auto-include.
Now for a quick report on the trial:
Round 1 vs. Tom Smart (R/W Goblins)
If the name sounds familiar, it because he Top 8'd the GP. As I said before, my matchup against Goblins is a complete farce. Something would have to go horribly wrong in order for me to lose. I win in short order.
Matches 1-0 Games 2-0
Round 2 vs. Matt Tziritas (R/W Rift)
Matt designed the deck that Pasquale Ruggiero Top 8'd with. Game 1 I go for the throat and hope he doesn't have Abeyance. He didn't and I proceed to combo him out. Game 2 Matt mulliganed and couldn't do much other than gain a bunch of life with Renewed Faith. This only meant that I had to double Tendrils him.
Matches 2-0 Games 4-0
Round 3 vs. Tom (Kobolds Combo)
Don't' remember much about this match other than he went to work on my hand with Cabal Therapy, however I was able to recover and combo out.
Matches 3-0 Games 6-0
Round 4 vs. unknown (White Weenie splash Blue)
I forgot to write down his name.
First game I rolled him as he didn't know what I was playing and therefore didn't know what to name with Meddling Mage. Second game he managed to gain a lot of life with Exalted Angel and I was unfortunately one spell short of killing him. Game 3 I was simply too fast for him.
Matches 4-0 Games 8-1
Round 5 vs. Andy Stokinger (Dredgatog)
I knew what Andy was playing and I knew it was going to be tough. Unlike Landstill, Dredgatog kills you pretty fast, so I didn't have much time to setup. Andy took me down convincingly in two.
Matches 4-1 Games 8-3
At this point, Evan and Duncan come by to tell me that they are going back to the hotel since it is getting pretty late. We were unable to book a room on site and our hotel was a few miles away, so I would have to take a cab back after the trial. They wish me luck and go off to rest.
Round 6 vs. Carl McCormick (Flame Vault)
This match made my highly regret not putting Pithing Needles in my board. This particular Flame Vault was the counter version, so I couldn't go off blindly. Unfortunately, Carl got the better of me and took me down in three.
Matches 4-2 Games 9-5
Round 7 vs. George Baboussis (White Weenie)
I had pretty insane tie-breakers and I decide to play out the last round in case a 5-2 can make it in knowing that I will have better tiebreaks than anyone else at 15 points. I won Game 1 on turn 2 or 3. George brought in Rule of Law for the second game and played one turn 3.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa.....in response: Impulse, then Mystical Tutor for Chain of Vapor"
I untap, Chain his enchantment, then kill him.
Matches 5-2 Games 11-5
I eagerly await the final standings and find myself in... 9th place. No 5-2 made it in, *frowns*. I also found out the prize support extended only to the Top 8. So it's 3:30am and I have nothing to show for seven rounds of Magic. No byes, no prize.
Time to go upstairs and call a cab. I go up to the lady working at the lobby, a rather large black woman, and we had the following conversation:
Me: Excuse me, can you call me a cab please?
LBW: No.
Me: ?
LBW: Ain't no cab that's gonna come here at this time of night.
Me: .....what?
LBW: There's a $50 surcharge for a cab to come in from the city.
Me: !
Me: ummm... nevermind then.
I think I'd rather sleep in the lobby than spend over 50 American Dollars for a 5 mile cab ride. I start heading towards the tourney site and see a group of Magic players about to leave. I get their attention and they were nice enough to give me a lift to my hotel. Random New Jerseyians for the win!
After what seemed like forever, the day was finally over. Time to sleep for three hours and do it all over again. Except this time with more winning.
Saturday, November 12 - Day 1 of the GP
We head down to the site with plenty of time to spare, and I immediately start to feel the effects of the previous night's lack of sleep. Having pre-registered on the internet and filled out a decklist in the hotel room like a good Johnny, I calmly awaited the player meeting table assignments. I decided to stick with my original sideboard plan of 4 Plague, 3 Defense Grid, 2 Duress, 3 Pithing Needle, 3 Echoing Truth, abandoning the Negator plan. When they do finally get posted, I'm a little surprised to find my name isn't on them. I made a point of confirming my prereg the night before, so I know I'm definitely in the tournament. I go check under 'N', thinking they might have reversed my first and last name, but no dice. After speaking to the TO, I was informed that despite the fact that I pre-registered online, I still had to fill in another form.
Dubya Tee Eff? Doesn't that defeat the entire purpose of preregistering? So I *don't* have to wait in line filling out some form?
I fill out their form and am banished to the end table, where I'm joined by some other losers that made the same mistake as me, including one Josh Ravitz. I make small chat with some of my tablemates until the pairings get posted. Here we go!
Round 1 vs. Mike Bomholt (Iggy Pop)
I didn't recognize the name at the time, but I knew what he was playing as soon as he Mystical Tutored for Intuition during his upkeep. His draw was much better than mine and he combo'd me out. He didn't see anything from my deck other than a couple lands and an Impulse, so he doesn't know what he's playing against. Game 2, he drops a first turn Xantid Swarm. I pretend to think about countering it, and let it resolve (I did this all weekend and tricked a *lot* of people). When I Intuition, both our faces light up as he realizes he's playing the mirror. Unfortunately for me, his draw was just better than mine and he takes me down in two. We talked for a bit after the match and compared builds. Even though I lost, it was an honor to meet and play the creator of my deck.
Matches 0-1 Games 0-2
Not a very strong start to be sure, but I refused to give up.
Round 2 vs. Rob Zimmerman (Goblins)
I don't remember much about this match, other than feeling very relieved when my opponent played a first turn Mountain. As I've said before, Goblins. Can't. Beat. Me.
Matches 1-1 Games 2-2
Round 3 vs. Michael Shikany (Landstill)
No personal offense meant to Michael, but he's probably the worst Landstill player I've ever played against. He made a series of sloppy plays that allowed me to win a game I shouldn't have been able to. At one point he randomly decides he's going to look through his sideboard. I call a judge right away. Now, at 40k, this should really be a game loss, but the judge felt like being lenient, so he let him get away with a warning. Turns out that worked out pretty well for me as I won game 1 in about 45 minutes. I convince Michael to concede the second game to save us both the trouble of waiting until the round ends as we both know he's not beating me in two minutes.
Matches 2-1 Games 4-2
Round 4 vs. Bennett Toms (RDW)
My opponent wins the die roll and leads with Mountain, Jackal Pup. I win next turn.
What? Come again?
My hand after drawing was Swamp, Lotus Petal, double Dark Ritual, double Lion's Eye Diamond, Intuition, and Tendrils of Agony.
Swamp, Petal, LED, LED, sac Petal for U, Ritual, Ritual, Intuition for three Ill-Gotten Gains sacing both LEDs in response, go though Iggy Loop 3 times, Tendrils for a lot.
We shuffled up for Game 2 as people next to us were still in the first couple turns of game 1.
Game 2, Bennett got in some quick damage with some burn to the face and a Ball Lightning, putting me to 5. I had a fetchland in play and I had to weigh my options. If he has Fireblast, I lose, but if he doesn't I lose anyway if I don't win next turn. I go for it and when he doesn't Fireblast in response to me sacing my fetchland, I win on my turn.
Matches 3-1 Games 6-2
Round 5 vs. Harry Ryttenberg (Sui)
We split the first two games, me going broken one game, him ripping up my hand another. Game 3 Harry had to mulligan and he had to offer was a turn 1 Negator followed by a turn 2 Skittering Skirge. His deck didn't give him any disruption though, so I was able to seal the deal without any trouble.
Matches 4-1 Games 8-3
Round 6 vs. Daniel Marcus (Goblins)
See previous comments regarding Goblins. They can't stop me, I win.
Matches 5-1 Games 10-3
Round 7 vs. Adam Yurchick (Goblins)
Adam actually made it a game with his multiple Rishadan Ports, but it only delayed the inevitable. Game 2 he brought in some crazy goblin from Portal that destroys a land when it comes into play. I didn't care much as I had two Engineered Plagues in play. He managed to tie up my mana for several turns, but couldn't find an answer to my Plagues before I was able to Brainstorm into some lands to win the game.
Matches 6-1 Games 12-3
Round 8 vs. Mikey P. (Secret Force)
I offered a draw right away as I did not want to risk not making Day 2. I had pretty awful tiebreakers due to having no byes and losing first round, so I knew I wasn't making it in at 6-2. Mike thought about it for a little while, but insisted on playing it out. His first play was Forest, Elf.
Yaus!
I actually lost the first game due to a fairly slow draw on my part and a turn 3 Verdant Force from Mike. Game 2 I won quickly. Game 3 he did get a Verdant Force out, and out of desperation, he Tsunami'd me for one Island. That wasn't enough to stop me and I killed him a turn before he could roll me with Green fat.
Matches 7-1 Games 14-4
A wave of relief washed over me as I knew I had made it to Day 2. It had been the first significant accomplishment of my short Magic career and I was glad I had something to say other than "FNM Champion" when asked about my Magic resume. Another wave washed over me as well. The wave of "OMGIHAVENTSLEPTIN4EVARIMGONNADIE".
Evan didn't do so well and went off to play in the Two-Headed Giant sealed tournament with another Toronto player, Elliott Tzaneteas. While waiting for them to finish, I pretty much wandered the tournament site like a zombie, randomly bumping into chairs and mumbling gibberish at people. Then I had a delicious funnel cake and felt a hell of a lot better. For like half an hour anyway.
Evan and Elliott ended up winning the 2HG due to a pretty busted cardpool and also due to most of their opponents being idiots. I ixnayed the notion of any late night money drafts as I was about to keel over right there. As we were leaving, we did have an amusing exchange with Adam Chambers.
AC: You guys want to draft?
Me: ummm...not really, I haven't slept in forever and such.
ED: He probably doesn't even know who we are.
AC: I know you...your name is Evan, right? Evan Dean!
ED: Yup.
Me: I bet he doesn't remember me, even though I beat him in a Grand Prix.
AC: What GP was that?
Me: Chicago.
AC: Oh. OOOOH! Now I remember you! I'm not even going to talk about that, it's just going to embarrass both of us.
ED: What the hell happened?
Me: Well, our team made a ton of really bad play errors and still beat them.
AC: I wouldn't say they were play errors. It was more like you kept trying to throw away the game, but your decks wouldn't let you. You'd keep trying to lose your bombs, but your deck just kept giving you good cards.
AC: I want revenge on you.
Me: Nope, sorry. I'm 1-0 against Adam Chambers, I retire all-time champ. *walks away*
Evan and I laugh about it for a bit, then head back to the hotel. As expected, I pass out like a dead man on sleeping pills. I slept like Star Jones eats. For 8 hours, I was deader than disco. To say I slept...well, you get the idea.
Sunday, November 13th
Round 9 vs. Marty Rose (Rabid Wombat)
Game 1 I go for the throat right away and combo out hoping he doesn't have an Abeyance. Turns out he had a hand full of Swords, so I took it easily. Game 2 Marty kept a very good hand against me except it only had one land. He did have two Bandages he could cantrip away to find land though. Lucky for me, he didn't find a second land for a couple turns and I was able to win behind a Defense Grid.
Matches 8-1 Games 16-4
Round 10 vs. Antonino De Rosa (Landstill)
Okay, now I'm against a bone fide Good Player™ so I should lose right? I came into this match fully expecting to lose, but I was determined to make him earn his win. As I was waiting for him to show up, I joked around with people next to me that I was going to ask him to sign his Pro Player card. Speaking of which, I did chat with Antonino about the cards and apparently Wizards took like 50 pictures of him and chose the goofy one to use for his card.
I did some scouting on Day 1, so I knew what Antonino was playing, so I went right into my "anti-control" strategy. Game 1, my plan works and due to Antonino having a *lot* of dead cards against me, I was able to get a critical mass of cards in hand and Tendrils him out. Game 2, he got a Rule of Law down with plenty of counter backup.
Ant: How many counters do I have to show you for you to scoop?
Me: I won't scoop to counters, you'll have to put pressure on the board.
Ant: Don't worry, the pressure's coming.
I was already up a game, so there was no reason to scoop there. He eventually got a big Decree in and that's when I conceded.
Game 3, Antonino kept a one-lander with triple Force of Will and failed to see another land for several turns (this seems to happen to my opponents a lot for some reason). I think that was a mistake on his part. Force of Will isn't *that* good against me when all I'm doing is casting a bunch of spells then Tendrils. Sure, he slowed me down for the first few turns, but eventually I got a Defense Grid to stick and he was helpless to stop me from setting up. He did eventually find some lands, but with the Defense Grid in play, he's only going to be able to counter one spell a turn at most.
Eventually, I see him tap down to three lands and I see an opportunity. I do some math and see that I can Tendrils him down to one life and there's nothing he can do about it. Even if he has Force of Will, it won't do him any good and he doesn't have enough mana to play any other counter. I decide to go for it, confident that I can find another Tendrils before he can kill me. He goes to 1, I gain a bunch of life. The next three cards I draw are Duress, Dark Ritual, then Impulse. Now, had I waited a turn, I would have had Duress back up and would have won that turn, but I still think I made the right play. I Impulse into Intuition, Intuition for three Mystical Tutor, Tutor up a Tendrils, leave it face up on my library and pass the turn. Antonino knows that this is his last turn and needs to do something drastic. He casts a Fact or Fiction revealing two lands, an Enlightened Tutor, a Fire/Ice, and some irrelevant card. I know that his only chance is to Tutor for Rule of Law, then draw it with Fire/Ice, so I split up the Fire/Ice and the Tutor. He thinks about it for a bit, then concedes.
Matches 9-1 Games 18-5
Holy crap, did I just beat the U.S. National Champion? In a matchup that everyone had dismissed as unwinnable for me?
I had barely noticed that a rather large crowd had accumulated behind me and were all congratulating me on my win. Then Evan, who had been lurking near me, reaching into his bag and pulls out an Antonino De Rosa Pro Player card and slaps it down on the table amidst laughter from the crowd. I couldn't help but laugh a bit, but Antonino graciously signed it anyway. I can think of a few people that would have told me to eff off there, but he was pretty cool about it.
Round 11 vs. Steven Utter (U/W/R Fish)
Game 1, I figure out pretty quickly what Steven is playing. Fish is a pretty tough matchup for me as they have Force of Will and a quick clock. I can't afford to spend much time setting up as I can with Landstill. When I'm nearly out of life, I decide to make a try for it. I start of by casting some artifact mana, then sacrifice a Lotus Petal. He then tries to Stifle it and says "there's not much else I can Stifle in your deck." This immediately sets off bells in my head, and then I realize that he doesn't know he can Stifle a Storm trigger. I keep this tidbit of information to myself and use my best poker face to hide the giant grin I want to make. I tell him "OK, you Stifle it. I still get the mana, since you can't counter mana abilities. It says right on the card." He calls a judge who rules that it wasn't even a legal play because it doesn't use the stack. He also ruled that the land gets untapped and the spell goes back to his hand. I actually tried to appeal this because the one extra spell was highly relevant, but the head judge upheld the ruling. I manage to get out a decently-sized Tendrils which would have been lethal, but he Sworded his own creature and Forced one of the copies to stay alive. I still bought myself some time with all the life I had just gained. My next turn I ripped Ill-Gotten Gains and was able to Tendrils him out despite the Stifle sitting in his graveyard.
How Lucky.
I lose Game 2, and our Game 3 goes to time, and I unfortunately couldn't kill him so we drew. As soon as the last turn was done, I tell him I had no business even drawing with him and point out his horrible mistake in the first game. His reaction was priceless. It was like shock, horror, disgust, and shame all rolled into one.
Matches 9-1-1 Games 19-6-1
As I'm desideboarding, BDM asks me for an interview, which you can read on the official coverage.
Round 12 vs. Sean Colgan (U/B/R Aggro)
I had seen some of Sean's deck as I caught a bit of his match against Chris Pikula. I expected his deck to be similar to other Fish decks I've seen.
Game 1, I play aggressively and after I resolve an Ill-Gotten Gains and see he has no counters, I kill him without any trouble. Game 2, I bring in Defense Grids because, again, I'm expecting his deck to similar to other Fish decks, i.e. it has Force of Will. I played a Defense Grid turn 2 and he had an odd reaction, like he wasn't worried about it at all. It's when he played Dark Confidant that it tipped me off he wasn't running any counters and that's when I realized I had approached Game 2 completely wrong. I conceded after he played two consecutive Arcane Labs as I had no outs against that. Game 3, I made a change to my sideboarding, taking out the Defense Grids and bringing in Echoing Truths. Sean kept a hand with Arcane Lab thinking that a turn 3 Lab would be very good. It is actually very good, however he never got to that turn as I combo'd him out on my turn 3.
Matches 10-1-1 Games 21-7-1
Round 13 vs. Chris Pikula (Deadguy Ale) ID
Chris was very nice to offer a draw. I thought about playing it out, but I remembered that he played Withered Wretch, which combined with his hand disruption and land destruction, meant that it was a very bad matchup for me. I took him up on his offer and got some food. Like Chris said in his article, the draw worked perfectly for both of us as it locked him in for Top 8, and locked me in for Top 16.
Matches 10-1-2 Games 21-7-1
R14 vs. Paul Serignese (Salvager Game)
This match was featured in the coverage. The only thing I have to add is that I was one Blue mana short of killing him the first game. Things might have turned out differently if I had drawn a Lotus Petal or Lion's Eye Diamond.
Final Record: Matches 10-2-2 Games 21-9-1
Final standings come out and I see that I finished 12th place overall, as well as the 6th highest amateur, which worked out to $900 prize, 2 Pro Points, and an invite to PT: Honolulu.
I was a little disappointed that I had come so close to Top 8 and just barely missed it, but overall I'm extremely happy with how I did. I fully admit that it was the deck that carried me into Day 2, and some fortunate luck in Day 2 that carried me into Top 16. The deck played like a dream all weekend and the only thing I would change is cutting the 3 Telling Time for a fourth maindeck Tendrils and two Strategic Planning (from Portal 3K).
So in closing, all I want to say is:
Follow your dreams, you can achieve anything; I'm living proof - BEEFCAKE!!!
Thanks for reading,
Nassim Ketita
arcticninja at rogers dot com
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