A while ago, a gentleman by the name of Jim Grimmett did a column where he set out on his quest to get his rating up to 1800 as his own personal measuring rod. Or as he put it,"The title of the column comes from my goal to get a combined ranking of 1800 over the next year. I'm starting at 1712, so it should be a reasonable goal". As of now, his rating is a respectable 1766 and his much bemoaned Limited rating is only 20 points under his Constructed.

Why do I want to reach 1800? Why does this matter at all? Why not 1799 or 2000? Why ask why? Try Bud Dry?

Basically, 1800 is this mythical plateau that makes you"good". In the DCI, an 1800 rating will get you a first round bye at a Grand Prix. On Magic Online, it used to get you into a special room where no one else was. Ever. When you say you have an 1800 rating, it shows that you're one of a few things:

The first is some guy who plays in nowheresville at FNM and beats up on the little kids who don't know how to play. You've done this often enough (hell, I do it once or twice a month), but you've never played against a high-level opponent with any success.

Another option is the guy who lucksacked out a PTQ top 8 with some ridiculous sealed deck or some bizarre matchups and got a hundred and change point boost in his rating. This is a little harder, and at least you had to fight through a bunch of other moderately competent people to achieve this.

The third is the above average person in a fairly remote part of the world who has access to the tools, but rarely gets to use them. (S)he plays locally and isn't bad and probably made day 2 of a Grand Prix or qualified to the Tour once or twice.

The fourth is where I believe I lay. I'm not that great. I'm pretty above average, but I've never won anything major. No States, no Regionals, no PTQ's. To quote Kush Patel when asked what his greatest achievement in Magic was,"winning FNM." I play some stiff competition mainly due to where I live, which is to say my regular haunt is at Neutral Ground, NY. I've been in eight-man drafts where the average person there had half a dozen Pro Tour points. It can be janky, but on occasion, the quality of player there is head and shoulders above any store in the world. I'm probably not too far from Q'ing, if I set my mind to it and hunker down, but focusing entirely on magic isn't my goal at the moment. Enjoying my hobby, making enough money via my job and selling cards to pay rent and bills take a much higher precedent than gaming all the time.

Before I get flames in the forums on my pro-Neutral Ground stance, please tell me what stores (aside from possibly YMG and maybe TOGIT on a good night), can compete with (and I name people who are either current regulars or previous ones) Jon Finkel, Zvi Moshowitz, Chris Pikula, and Alex Shvartsman? They are just the immediately recognizable names, while very close behind are Tony Tsai, Gerard Fabiano, Seth Burn, Scott McCord, Tim McKenna, Zev Gurwitz, Jeremy Cash and some other people I'm forgetting.

That is obviously not your typical night, and as many of those people don't attend anymore (Pikula and Finkel are semi-retired, Alex owns King's Games in Brooklyn, and Zvi is starting a new CCG out in Colorado) it might never be that way again, but come on - there is far too much hotness over there to say that this place is even remotely like where most people play.

Having said all this, why do I want to chronicle my matches for however long it will take me to reach 1800? I want to get better. Reaching 1800 will not get me better. Taking notes and looking for play errors for my next thirty to forty matches and having them on public display for critique and criticism will.

I need to also stress another thing. I hate Constructed. With a passion. You folks may have to endure my Grim-like writings for months to come as I rarely play it. Hell, in the PTQ for which you'll see later, I'm playing a bit of a joke deck - Sneak Attack. Don't get me wrong, I can kill on turn 2 with a nut draw, but its really not at the consistency of the other broken Extended decks.

Why am I throwing my money away, do you ask? Simple - I'm not! I"won" the Neutral Ground summer challenge back in August, which got me free entry into all Grey Matter tournaments for a year. So I'm taking the time to enjoy PTQ's I would not normally play in, by having a bit of fun and playing something goofy. To those uncertain about the quotation marks on the winning part, I lost in the finals to U/G Madness, which was somehow maindecking four Engineered Plagues versus my Goblins. What a shyster. However, he gave me the entry fees in exchange for the rest of the prize (2 boxes), so hey, whatever.

This is also going to be a two part Quest for 1800. See, my Limited rating has already surpassed this barrier and has been there for some time. My Composite is also currently only twenty-three points from the mark, so this wouldn't be interesting at all if it ended in a week or two (although it might if I become 1800 player number two and lucksack into a solid record). Therefore you get to see me write about my DCI Constructed rating and...

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dot dot dot

Magic Online

Dum dum dum... My Limited rating on there is currently at 1712 - down about a hundred and twenty points in the past month due to some obligatory bad beats (and a few misplays). So you, the kind reader, get to follow my tales of gaining 88 Magic Online Limited points and 79 DCI Constructed points. I would do my Magic Online Constructed, but I don't have a deck, so I don't play on it. If that changes, perhaps I'll include it.

Without further ado, I kick it off with a 4-3-2-2 OLS draft on Magic Online.

I'm not going to bother with draft orders, as I can't remember them all. I'll list the maindeck and notable sideboard cards.

Deck:
Barkhide Mauler
Brontotherium
Caller of the Claw
Chartooth Cougar
Echo Tracer
Krosan Vorine
Shoreline Ranger
Skirk Commando
Skirk Volcanist
Snarling Undorak
Spitting Gourna
Stonewood Invoker
Timberwatch Elf
Wirewood Channeler
2 Wirewood Guardian
Zombie Cutthroat
Centaur Glade
Rush of Knowledge
Solar Blast
Wave of Indifference
9 Forest
7 Mountain
2 Island

SB:
Accelerated Mutation
Berserk Murlodont

Glowering Rogon
Goblin Taskmaster
Goblin Warchief
Lay Waste
Skirk Outrider
Spark Spray
Sprouting Vines
Treespring Lorain

nnnnnnnngassy!

Making cuts for this deck was one of the hardest things I've had to wrestle with in a long while. Fortunately, I enlisted the denizens of #mtgwacky on IRC for assistance and we were able to get it down to twenty-two after much hemming and hawing. Skirk Outrider was initially in there, and Taskmaster was the last cut over a second Guardian.

Rd 1: Jogurt, 1711 with W/U
I win the roll and lead off with a turn 2 Stonewood Invoker, which is matched by a Stoic Champion. He takes two while I play a morphed Echo Tracer. I suck up two as well and am mirrored by another morph. My turn 4 gets me four to his face by swinging and playing a solid Snarling Undorak. His turn was pretty tight actually, as he Dragon Scales'd his morph and beat me for 5.

The tempo swung heavily, however, when I Tracer'd his Scales into the yard while sending a Gravel Slinger back to his hand. The attack brought him down to a precarious seven life. Neither of us were missing any land drops, so while his board was five lands, a morph and the Champ, I had Invoker, a face up Tracer, and Undorak. Fearing some vicious cycling action which would kill my Beast, I opted to Rush of Knowledge for four and pass the turn. All he did before passing it back to me was make another morph.

Things were starting to get interesting now, as I made to improve my board. Wirewood Channeler and a morphed Skirk Commando joined my side while he flipped over the Slinger, attacked with Champion (which I did not block) and played another morph. I had little action other than playing Centaur Glade and saying go (P.S. Wirewood Channeler + Centaur Glade = New Hotness. Grey Ogres = Old and Busted). He had nothing other than a land and I made a token during his end step. I sent in Invoker to attempt to kill some men, but he, too, had an Echo Tracer, and I was forced to simply recast it and pass the turn, tapped out.

Here's where I think he made what may have been a mistake or it might have simply been him conceding that he had no chance at winning. Stoic Champ was swinging for two again unblocked when he spent two Piety Charms to just do six to my dome. For those without a program at home, this put me at a low, but stable five life without a serious threat on the board.

This... oh man this was where it got fun. I attacked with the Token, Tracer, morphed Commando, and Invoker. He blocked with his morph and Gravel Slinger on my morph and Tracer.

8:20 Turn 10: Lackey. (<--- This is me if you don't know me or haven't guess it yet.)
8:22 Lackey plays Mountain
8:22 Lackey: hi frontline strategist :/
8:22 jogurt: nonsense
8:22 jogurt turns Frontline Strategist (Face down creature #3) face up.
8:22 jogurt plays triggered ability from Frontline Strategist.
8:22 jogurt plays activated ability from Gravel Slinger targeting Echo Tracer
8:22 2 damage caused by Echo Tracer to Gravel Slinger is prevented.
8:22 3 damage caused by Snarling Undorak to jogurt is prevented.
8:22 2 damage caused by Face down creature #5 to Frontline Strategist is prevented.
8:22 3 damage caused by Centaur token to jogurt is prevented.
8:22 2 damage caused by Stonewood Invoker to jogurt is prevented.
8:22 Lackey plays Caller of the Claw
8:22 Lackey plays triggered ability from Caller of the Claw
8:22 Creating 2 tokens.
8:22 Lackey plays Wirewood Symbiote
8:22 Lackey plays activated ability from Wirewood Symbiote targeting Snarling Undorak
8:22 Lackey plays Caller of the Claw
8:22 Lackey plays triggered ability from Caller of the Claw
8:22 Creating 2 tokens.
8:22 Turn 10: jogurt.

Ssssssssssssssssssssmokin!

Add 5 random bears on my side of the table and he had little choice but to scoop when his draw gave him nothing.

Game two saw him having the first action with a morph while I landcycled Chartooth Cougar and then played a morphed Zombie Cutthroat. His man swung and I took five to attempt to kill it. He saved his Gravel Slinger with a Piety Charm, but I swung in for three and played Echo Tracer in disguise. A face-up Wingbeat Warrior joined the team and did nothing while Cuts beat for three and a Spitting Gourna made his presence felt. My pair of 3/4's went to dance and every guy on his side wanted to have a little chat with my beast. I bounced it back with damage on the stack, but his morph was Foooooooooooooooooog Guuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuy Strategist, so I lost a turn while I played Skirk Commando as a morph. Noble Templar shored up his defense and Warrior smacked me. All I could answer back with was a morphed Spitter and a Stonewood Invoker.

However, things became interesting when he decided to send the Templar in to Tango. The problem is, it takes two for that dance, and I just turned it into a mosh pit when everyone without Invoker in their name wanted some of that hot 3/6 action. A Piety Charm and a ping from some pebbles on a sling took out my 2/2s, but I removed a huge roadblock to attacking and got rid of another combat trick.

I failed to miss a land drop again on turn 8, so with an Invoker ready to rumble, I headed to the red zone to pay a call. The Strategist had other thoughts and took one for the team, but I emptied out my grip by playing Skirk Volcanist and Timberwatch Elf. He had yet to draw an Island this game, but still had only two cards in hand after his turn of morph, beat for flying two, go. Invoker took down Slinger and Cuts got in for three while I held back Timberwatch as I was at nine.

He had nothing on his turn aside from another two-point peck, so I decided that this should end soon. Face-down Volcanist, Invoker and Cuts went in and were met by one of his morphs. I made Invoker big with his ability and T'watched the face down Volcanist. Damage went on the stack and after a long pause, Karona's Zealot flipped up and killed my Invoker. While he only had a plains untapped, I took the opportunity to flip Volcanist and take out his other morph (Mistform Seaswift) and the Warrior.

Dragon Scales on the Zealot and a morph put me to four, but I ripped a Brontotherium and passed the turn. Snarling Undorak came down in just enough time to pump the Bronto and kill him with an all out attack. Mind you, he didn't draw an Island all game (how lucky).

8:49 jogurt: i needed an island so badly
8:49 Lackey: seems like it
8:49 jogurt: that's an echo tracer
8:49 jogurt: gg
8:49 Lackey: hl

Rd 2 vs ElfManDingo, 1760 with W/R
I'm not going to do a huge play by play again. You got a feel for the deck the first time, and I'll just give some highlights. Game 1 became a very protracted stall for the longest time. by the end of our fifth turns, the board was as follows:

Him 18 life - 5 land, Glory Seeker, Daru Warchief, Aven Redeemer
Me 20 life - 5 lands, Wirewood Symbiote, Stonewood Invoker, Skirk Commando (down), Echo Tracer (down), Barkhide Mauler.

Clearly there was not to be much action. In fact, all we did for the next few turns was make more men! By the end of turn 8, we both had empty hands, and he'd added two more lands, Whipgrass Entangler and Flamewave Invoker (he'd mulliganed once) while I had three more mana, Chartooth Cougar, Wirewood Guardian and a face down Cutthroat. Finally, I decided to go on the offensive, and while most of my guys got Entangled, Guardian got in there for an Aven Redeemed four points of damage to him. His morph became Skirk Marauder and took out Symbiote to prevent any silliness with unkillable Guardians. A huge swing came in where I took out most of his team, losing only morphed Tracer while Aven Redeemer, Warchief and Marauder bit the bullet. Basically he bleeped up by not using Entangler that turn.

Game 2 was a bit more interesting as a turn 3 Goblin Sharpshooter on his side made things a lot closer. It ended in him getting mad at the shuffler and scooping for what I thought to be no apparent reason. He was at eleven life and the board was a face up Cutthroat, Undorak, Caller of the Claw and a Bear token vs a Crown of Awe'd Shooter and a Battlefield Medic.

9:01 ElfManDingo: Yeah
9:01 ElfManDingo: I got 3 more land in the grip
9:01 ElfManDingo: ggs
9:01 ElfManDingo has conceded from the game.

Beats me, but I'll take the three wins.

Rd 3 vs pikachu0827, 1730 with B/R
I went turn 2 Stonewood Invoker, Turn 3 Timberwatch, turn 4 Wirewood Channeler and he had no removal. Gee Gee on turn 6.

Game two he got stuck on two Mountains until turn 6 when he played a Barren Moor. Oof.

Draft won. Time to move onto some Mirrodin.

Cathodion
Goblin Dirigible
Hematite Golem
Iron Myr
Leaden Myr
Pewter Golem
Rustspore Ram
Wizard Replica
Flayed Nim
Moriok Scavenger
Nim Shrieker
2 Spikeshot Goblin
Vulshok Battlemaster
2 Consume Spirit
Fireshrieker
Irradiate
Mind's Eye
2 Shatter
Skeleton Shard
Terror
Vulshok Gauntlets
9 Swamp
5 Mountain
2 Great Furnace

Not too shabby. I had to leave out another Irradiate, and some Welding Jars would have been nice with the Shrieker, but whatever - they aren't that big of a deal. The lack of serious Equipment bugged me more, but I would have to make do.

Rd 1 vs reve1, 1500 (Yaus!) with U/W
Let me just say that he played three Neurok Familiars in two games and hit Island, Somber Hoverguard, Island. I get all warm just thinking about it. My Cathodion was equaling the 3 I was taking from a Neurok Spy and Tooth of Chiss-Goria. Then Spikeshot Goblin hit the board. Vs Blue/White. Yeah, that's really bad for them. Eventually I Terrored and Shattered and shot my way to a win. A hasty Battlemaster ended up sealing the deal.

The next was also fairly uneventful as neither of us drew anything really useful. I was taking flying beats, but Spikeshot took out his Familiars and Flayed Nim ate at his life. The end game was fairly saucy though. This is me on IRC in a chat with Brainburst writer Jarrod Bright.

[06:18:56] [+KrmtDfrog] what a f***ing tight play that was
[06:19:04] [+KrmtDfrog] as a last resort
[06:19:09] [+KrmtDfrog] he domineered my cathodion
[06:19:19] [+KrmtDfrog] i have 3 swamps and 2 mountains in play
[06:19:26] [@Vesuvan] his life total..?
[06:19:30] [+KrmtDfrog] 7
[06:19:37] [+KrmtDfrog] consume spirit cathodion for 2
[06:19:40] [+KrmtDfrog] spikeshot it
[06:19:42] [+KrmtDfrog] take 3
[06:19:50] [+KrmtDfrog] attack with flayed nim and 2/1 nim shrieker
[06:19:51] [+KrmtDfrog] gg
[06:19:59] [@Vesuvan] not bad...
[06:20:36] [@Vesuvan] Worst reaming I've seen with Cathodian is Domineering it on 6 life, then having it Detonated
[06:20:46] [@Vesuvan] (yeah... I was the blue player)
[06:20:51] [+KrmtDfrog] pwned

Rd 2 vs Kanaoti, 1635 with W/R/g
In games one and two, I turn 2 Shattered his Leonin Sun Standard. Fair. I actually thought I was about to win the first with a Fireshrieking Goblin Dirigible, but he got Arrested, my team of Hematite Golem and Cathodion got Blinding Beam'd, Rustspore Ram got Deconstructed and Megatog fueled by a Nuisance Engine did twenty-one to me. Bleah.

Game 2 was one I thought I was going to lose, as Forge Armor ate a Dross Scorpion and made Krark-Clan Grunt a 6/6. [Wow, it's amazing what bad cards do in the right situation. - Knut] Fortunately, Flayed Nim with Fireshrieker put a halt to that party long enough for Hematite Golem to take him down to nine life. Nim Shrieker finished the party as he had nothing to stop it in the air. Megaman showed up that game, too, but he had no artifacts to eat and wasn't a factor.

The decider was swift and brutal. While he Deconstructed my Gauntlets and got a Serum Tank to draw into a Myr Enforcer, I had out a Fireshrieker and a Flayed Nim. I Shattered the Enforcer and Equipped my Nim up to do four to him. He played Megatog (again)and took four more from Nim as I played Dirigible. His seventh turn was to be his last, as all he had was a Goblin War Wagon. Looking at the three Swamps in play to go with the three Mountains, I equipped the Fireshrieker onto the Blimp, attacked with both guys taking him to two and cast Consume Strength for the win.

Rd 3 vs kajikaji, 1835 with W/U/r
This was another one where I was under the belief that I was going to win. I was at ten and had out the Blimp, Spikeshot, Flayed Nim and Cathodion. He had a Leonin Scimitar'd Skyhunter Patrol, a Lumengrid Warden and Elf Replica. Then Blimp got Regressed. Then Blimp got Shattered and Banshee's Blade went to town. Grrrr....

Game 2, I kept a two land hand and didn't play a third until turn 5. Skyhunter Patrol, Detonate, and Bonesplitter did me in before I could get a fourth land.

Second place and three packs. Not how I wanted to end with a really good deck, but you have to suck it up like that sometimes. Current rating: 1732.

Next time: Extended PTQ's and more drafts.