I've been a little slow with my articles over the last few weeks because in that time I have been on holiday in the fantastically beautiful, if cold, city of Prague in the Czech Republic and, unfortunately, despite my best intentions, I barely managed to play any Magic at all while I was over there (you can blame that on the cheap price of drinks, so at least the trip wasn't a total washout). But like I said, it's been a while and now I'm left playing catchup with my other feature writers, so let's begin with how I did when I finally got to play my Hatred deck in an Extended PTQ...

In the UK there has recently been a bit of concern voiced by the regular tournament players that attendances have been steadily dropping, to the stage where Doncaster, once the premier tournament in the north of England with a regular hundred-plus competitors, has been reduced to forty of the most hardcore players. To that end, it was decided to attempt to encourage people to travel in to Doncaster from further afield for it's Extended PTQs by holding two consecutive PTQs on the Saturday and Sunday, and I was fortunate enough to be able to attend both events.

I'll skip the Saturday because I had an absolute nightmare time - aside from a first round bye I didn't win a single game and dropped out in the fourth round to go and draft. But I felt that I had been slightly unlucky in achieving that record, both in matchups and in individual occurrences, and so I was committed to playing the same deck on the second day, although with a few minor tweaks because the metagame was carrying far more creatures than I had been expecting. I had previously decided to play with a core Infernal Darkness because I expected to meet Stasis and Trix, but after observing a creature-heavy field on the Saturday I decided to find space for a couple of maindeck Cursed Scrolls, and that I needed the evasion of Dauthi Horror more than the un-Quicksandability of Erg Raiders. Also a discussion with Craig "Prof" Jones, who had won the Saturday PTQ with Trix, had brought the Nemesis card TangleWire to my attention and I decided that I would give them a try in my sideboard for against the non-creature decks.

CAND!MAN Hatred
(Sunday Version)
4 Sewer Rats
4 Carnophage
4 Sarcomancy
4 Dauthi Horror
4 Phyrexian Negator

4 Duress
4 Dark Ritual
4 Demonic Consultation
3 Unmask
3 Hatred

2 Cursed Scroll

4 City Of Traitors
16 Swamp

SB
3 Perish
3 Contagion
2 Null Rod
3 Tangle Wire
4 Masticore

The format will be 7 rounds of Swiss to a Top-8 cutoff, and the double-PTQ idea seems to have worked - bringing in around 80 players including a number of the London group - Ollie Schneider, Ben Ronaldson etc - and a large contingent of the Scottish players had traveled down and were loitering with intent by the bar.

Round One - Stompy
1.1 - He plays a Skyshroud Elite and Mtenda Lion on the first turn but then goes on to draw six of his ten land and I hold off his creatures with Zombies whilst my Dauthi Horrors go to work on his life total. I win comfortably.

1.2 - He comes out faster this time, with a Rancor and Bounty Of The Hunt to force his early creatures through my Zombies, and I don't really have an attractive option to cast my Contagion so I have to take the damage. On the third turn I Consult out a Perish, he plays Wild Dogs but I Contagion when he attempts to Rancor them up, and then the next card of my library is the Masticore, which is game over.

Yes, I finally won one! After yesterday's debacle I am glad to get any sort of result under my belt.

2-0 WIN
3pts SWISS

Round Two - Richard Bryce, Pox
I was on a drafting table with Richard the night before and we were discussing that a Pox deck would be a good choice for the field. It turns out that both of us went away to design the deck overnight, but whilst I chose to play the Hatred deck because I didn't trust any deck that had only twelve hours of tech behind it, Richard and his teammates had all opted to play their new deck today. This could be a very tough matchup for me if he has decided to play with Contagions and Ensaring Bridges, or a very easy matchup if he has Spinning Darkness and Null Brooch.

2.1 - He makes a total mockery of me with a second turn Pox, then a third turn Negator with an active Cursed Scroll and I concede before he can see what deck I'm playing.

2.2 - I make a couple of early Zombies and start to drop his life total then he stalls on two land and Rituals out a Negator. This is bad because he could very easily race me so I consult for a City Of Traitors to cast a Tangle Wire, this pins him down long enough for me to cast my own Negator and then a second Tangle Wire pushes the damage through to win the game for me without him ever being able to fight back.

2.3 - He casts a first turn Stupor and I pray he doesn't hit a Dark Ritual - he doesn't and I make first turn Horror and Negator! Sometimes I just love Suicide Black decks...

Unfortunately, he makes his own Negator to block with and I so I am left to nibble away with the Horror rather than bounce our Negators into each other. A turn passes before Richard topdecks a Cursed Scroll to kill my Horror and I have no option but to hurl the Negators at one another, Richard accepts the challenge and we both go down to no permanents. Technically the Suicide Black deck should be able to recover faster than Pox, but it will be close and I am fortunate enough to have a series of Zombies fall off the top of my library so I go on to win.

2-1 WIN
6pts SWISS

Round Three - Craig Scott, Blue Beatdown
3.1 - We both draw huge amounts of land, but I saw two Sewer Rats to his one Air Elemental and that was enough to win a game where we drew something like five spells and ten land each. Sewer Rats are incredible in the mono-blue matchup.

3.2 - I get a first turn Negator and he concedes straight away.

2-0 WIN
9pts SWISS

Round Four - Joules Haigh, 5cGreen
I played Joules yesterday so I know that I am meant to lose this matchup but I have a better deck and sideboard for him today.

4.1 - Yep, this is what happened yesterday. I make Zombies, he holds them off with Mother Of Runes then as soon as he gets his Survival working I lose really quickly.

4.2 - He Firestorms away my opening rush (curses!) but then I get a run of creatures whilst he draws nothing but land and when the Cursed Scroll arrives he is left to face a diverse array of threats he cannot hope to fight off in time.

4.3 - My opening hand is fantastic! I have a Masticore, a Contagion, and two Duress to protect my Masticore from his Firestorms and Survival Of The Fittest (he is playing a Gilded Drake to steal my Masticore so if I pull the SotF with Duress I should be able to safely cast Masticore). I play Zombie then on the second turn cast my Duress...

He is holding the Gilded Drake!

He is actually holding the only card in his deck that I have no answer to! It takes a few turns for me to concede but the spells I am seeing are not creatures so I have no real secondary strategy to the Masticore, and that isn't a viable option when he has Drake so I concede.

2-1 LOSS
9ts SWISS

Round Five - Mahboob Khan, Forbidian
5.1 - It's all about the Sewer Rats, which he cannot realistically block with the Ophidians, and so he simply cannot handle them in time. In truth I think my deck is extremely strong in the Forbidian matchup purely because I have the Sewer Rats- they are cheap enough to come in under his countermagic and then deal damage almost as fast as a Negator.

5.2 - My first turn sees me cast three Duress, then I consult for an Unmask to pull the remaining Masticore. From that point it's a topdeck race between my deck of 20 creatures and his deck of 12 removal cards which I am happy about. His Thawing Glaciers give him the edge but I just manage to pull enough creatures to win in a long long game. Had the game lasted one turn more he would have drawn into his second Masticore!

Phew!

2-0 WIN
12pts SWISS

Round Six - Stewart Walker, Trix
6.1 - He has to mulligan down to six cards...five cards...four cards! He might have gotten away with it by Consulting for a Necropotence had I not then Duressed him twice, so in fairness he really didn't have much chance in this game.

6.2 - I get a nice fast start and my Phyrexian Negator is going great guns against him when Stewart draws some official bona-fide anti-Negator technology. I'm feeling confident that my Negator will be enough to win when Stewart draws a card and starts shaking and frothing - he seems to be getting quite upset about something... he seems to be quite angry in fact... he seems to have something he wants to say to my Negator... he taps two land, taps his Gemstone Mine for white mana... casts a spell...

Repentance!
Repentance??
REPENTANCE!!!!!!

My Negator explodes all over my side of the table in a fit of self-inflicted punishment and I am laughing too hard at the superb tech to really care that it's cost me the game.

Marvelous - that'll teach me to play with monsters that have acid for blood!

6.3 - This is the game where I made the mistake that cost me a place in the Top-8.

I have been delivering some quick damage from two Zombies and a Sewer Rats, but I only have two Swamps in play so the Rats are not overly strong. Stewart is on 9 life with two duals and a City Of Brass in play, I know he is holding Ritual, Donate and Illusions because I Duressed his Necropotence on the first turn.

It is my turn, I am holding Sewer Rats, Dauthi Horror, and Demonic Consultation, and I basically decide I do not want to go to New York by choosing to attack with my creatures for just five points of damage then Consult for a Duress. Stewart goes to 4 life, then Force Of Wills my Consultation (puts him on 3 life). I am left with a swamp untapped that I could have used to deal an extra point of damage to Stewart to put him on 2 life, not three, but then that would only matter if the fourth land he plays to cast the Illusions is another City Of Brass...

Stewart plays a City Of Brass and goes to 1 life to cast Illusions of Grandeur.

Pants.
Pants, Pants, Pants, Pants, Pants.
And Arse too.

There was no conceivable reason why I should have attacked before I cast the Consult - it was just bad play and as soon as I announced that I was only putting five damage on the stack I groaned inwardly at my screw-up. Moreover there was no reason why I should have left two mana to Consult for Duress, because I could have Consulted for an Unmask instead, basically I made a scrubby error and deserved to get bumped out of the Top-8 for it (although everybody else didn't seem to think it was a particularly obvious mistake). Besides my best plan in retrospect would have been to Consulted for a Dark Ritual to pump the Rats to 4/1 and put even more pressure on Stewart. Never mind, it's only a game after all.

(sound of Dave putting his fist through concrete wall)

1-2 LOSS
12pts SWISS

Round Seven - Forbidian
Apparently I can still possibly scrape into the last Top-8 slot on countback if I win this round, so no pressure then...

7.1 - I show him Sewer Rats. I win. Gotta love those Rats.

7.2 - I show him a first turn Unmask (taking FoWill leaving him with Forbid and Treachery), then make Dark Ritual, Carnophage, Carnophage, Sewer Rats. I attack for seven then he topdecks a Powder Keg and plays it. I attack for seven again but that's the last damage I deal as he Kegs my attack force away then he makes an Ophidian and I concede.

7.3 - I make the same sort of start as in the second game, but this time he draws a number of the few defensive spells he is playing with. I have two Carnophage, a Rats, and Horror. He casts an Ophidian that nullifies one of my Zombies, next turn he plays a Propaganda that nullifies my Sewer Rats but I play a second Dauthi Horror. He then Treacherises a Horror then follows that up with a Morphling. This game was close but he got really lucky to hold me off as the Forbiddian deck has very few defensive cards and he had to draw a number of them on consecutive turns to beat me. But then I had already beaten two mono-blue decks so far today so I suppose I had just run out of anti-Forbiddian luck.

1-2 LOSS
12pts SWISS

The PT slot was eventually won by the Forbidian deck that I met in the last round when he managed a miraculous victory in a mirrormatch final against my teammate Neil Rigby, who was questing to qualify for his third consecutive PT-NY. Everybody was amazed that Neil lost this match because he is widely held to be one of the best blue players, period, and that sort of advantage is most evident in the mirrormatch. Unfortunately for Neil, a moment of forgetfulness lost the first game after he had put in the finest blue performance I have ever seen to get into a winning position (what does Masticore do in your upkeep Neil? Hmm, you sacrifice it - is that new errata?), and then his opponent topdecked endless counterspells in the second game and Neil simply could not compete with the quality on top of his opponent's library. The Forbidian topdecked to beat me as well, so I guess he must have just been having that sort of day.

Well this tournament weekend had a few weird moments, the first being that I managed to go 0-3 on the first day, then was on 3-0 with exactly the same deck on the second day - gotta love Constructed's dependence on matchups. On the whole I 'm happy with the deck and it turns out I will be making a long trek to a final PTQ this coming weekend and I see no reason not to simply play the same deck again. On the first day I felt unlucky to be on 0-3, and although my final finish on the second was 4-3, and out of the Top-16 even, the matches I lost were all REALLY close so I cannot really complain as I could very easily have found myself 7-0.

With two PTQs down I am left with one last chance, but it means travelling to the lion's den of High Wycombe, which is near enough to London to attract all the named players like Gordon Benson and Ollie Schneider (although Tony Dobson and John Ormerod have already qualified) so this will be by far the hardest route I could possibly have to qualification.

Oh well, no time like the present to find out I'm actually good at this game...

David Sutcliffe
d_sutcliffe@hotmail.com
TEAM CAND!MAN
http://members.tripod.co.uk/candiman/index.htm