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After the Pro Tour, the Magic-playing world has mini-holidays, Grand Prixs, States, Regionals, and what have you. Players flock from near and far to play in these above-average sized events, where money and fame can be had, and fortunes can be made or lost. These are the jewels of the Magic calendar, each one special to the town they come to.

And then you have the Sabbath of the Magic world: Every weekend, all over, Magic players congregate to play and rejoice in the wonder that is the Pro Tour Qualifier. Every weekend the games begin, the structure is always the same, and people know what needs to be done. Go X-1-1 and you make top 8. Trounce your opponents and you get a blue envelope and we'll see you next season. PTQs are fantastic, and there was one in Edison New Jersey, half and my from my home.

Time for me to qualify for Chicago is running very much out. I made the finals of the first PTQs of the season at Neutral Ground, but was convinced to sell the slot. This was a mistake, but I blamed mostly myself; I thought I would be able to qualify easily at the next opportunity, or my rating would be good enough after Grand Prix Philly. Well, this is not exactly the case. In fact, right now, before last week's PTQ updates, my rating is 1869. I am in trouble.

So I went to the PTQ in Edison with my game face on, ready to smash some poor schmuck standing in the way between my blue envelope and me. I had a lot of confidence going in, and it was seeping out of the corners of my mouth, it was glaring from behind my eyes; it was in the way I shuffled my deck, and in the way I sat and in the way I looked. I put a lot of work into my presentation for this tournament, trying to gain any advantage I could from outside the game itself. If I am going to win this tournament, I am going to try and stack the odds in my favor. A good way to do this, I found, is putting your opponents in the frame of mind that they can't win the match. A couple of examples?

In round 3, a good player and a great deck had handed me a loss; move on. Now I was in the position of eliminating my opponents from the tournament. When you're in single-elimination mode, the tension generally starts to build. I banked on the fact that I would be more confident than my opponent whoever that may be, and let my opponents stew in their own self-doubt did. I was calm when I shuffled, taking my time; not too much, but enough. My opponents always seemed in a rush, and would present their decks quickly. When they presented, I started another pile shuffle, leaving them sitting there, doing nothing. Stew, baby, stew.

With the game underway, I would watch my opponents intently. When a player is nervous, their tells come out in spades - and it isn't hard to read their hand strength, or even their morphs, in the way they attack, block, or fiddle with their hands. More than once I was able to outmaneuver my opponents based on info I had about their cards that they didn't have about mine. Me? I kept my demeanor cold.

In one instance, in round 5 of 7, my opponent pulled out game one with a Visara. I stayed cool, shuffled patiently, noting my opponent beginning to fidget, and looking a little nervous. I got in some early beats, but could only bring my opponent to ten, when he dropped Visara. My board was not looking good. He killed my last offensive creature, and brought me to fourteen. I drew my seventh land, and cast Aven Fateshaper, and passed the turn. He kills my Fateshaper, and then kills my last creature, a Mistform Wall, and swings with two Morph Guys - one with Crown of Vigor on it. I untap, and draw. I now have six cards in hand, and no creatures to play. I have to say go, then try and find some way to survive until my next turn. He untaps, asks how many cards in my hand, six, and declares his attack. I say no effects, but also add that I have a Blistering Firecat on top of my library. I try to put every ounce of truth I can into my voice, as I need this bluff to pan out. With six cards in my hand, I may have a way of dealing with one of his guys, and the Firecat could kill him if he has nothing and I have something. So he swings with everything but the Visara. I take five, going to four.

I then cast Solar Blast from my hand, untap, and windmill-slam the Searing Flesh from my hand. My opponent is absolutely dismantled by that turn of events, so I keep at him, lightly chuckling and saying can't believe I won that one." over and over. Needless to say, game three, my opponent's heart wasn't in it, and I won the match.

My sealed deck had been what I would call broken. I didn't really have any rare bombs, but I did have some interesting synergies. The main beatdown of the deck was my double-Charging Slateback and my splashed double Barkhide Mauler. With four four-powered attackers in the deck, the chance of getting one on turn 5 was pretty good, and two by turn 6 was the norm. So I had a mid-game that I wanted, desperately, to get to. With that in mind, I found that Annex was a good addition to the deck. Annex is a card I have used several times before, and am positive of its power in sealed deck. It is almost always amazing on turn 4, and between turn 4 and 10 can still be devastating. Latter it becomes less and less good, but is never really dead, as sometimes you can just steal a splash land, or a random special land, like a Contested Cliffs or a Daru Encampment. In Limited in general, most people don't play enough land, and the ability to speed your development up and disrupt your opponent's game at the same time is a very powerful effect. More than once, I stole my opponent's forest and started casting my splashed Maulers off of it.

Another card I was very surprised by was Searing Flesh. I think I won every game I drew it. The card makes the game impossible for the opponents - as instead of being at ten, they're really at three. I knew they were at three, but they were playing like they were at ten. One time, my opponent was playing like he was at seventeen but he was really dead, as I had Erratic Explosion on top of a Towering Baloth on my library, thanks to an Aven; with Solar Blast and Searing Flesh in hand, the game was over on turn 9. (I had attacked once before he played his Centaur Glade.)

On the subject of Choking Tethers: Tethers is a game-breaking card, and when it isn't it is just a very useful cantrip. If you have it, play it. If you have two, think about playing blue. They are one of the few reasons to play blue in this format.
Countermagic is always something surprising in this format. I had a Voidmage Prodigy win me a couple of games. My opponents were playing around the Disruptive Pitmage and would wait a couple of turns to play their bomb. This would give me the opening I needed to smash them with the Voidmage. Lots of people plan their entire games around one card, and leave themselves very vulnerable to a surprise Counterspell.

So I make top 8 of the PTQ, with a blue/red splash green deck, with no real bombs. I end up picking third in the Rochester. The first pack is always very important because it is what people remember the most. The first pack lets you make clear signals about what you want, and if people are awake, this will help the draft go smoothly and friendly. The first pick was Infest, followed by a Barkhide Mauler, leaving me with the white card: Pacifism. I figured that white would be a pretty safe bet for me, as I would get first choice of white out of the first three packs, and sitting behind a green mage would put me pretty much on safe ground.

Or so one would think.

As the first round of packs developed, another white mage popped up on the other side of the table and my picks were less-than-stellar... Which is fine. Panicking during a Rochester is a great way to get you nothing. When the other white mage opens up, he gets a Sparksmith, and I watch as the Sigil of the New Dawn gets passed by one, then another, then another, only to get drafted by the Green mage right in front of me. With a black/red player to my left, and another two to my right, I can't really go those colors, and now I have a cowboy right in front of me who has no idea what is going on. I pretty much panicked. The packs made a turn around, and my fears were subsided. No one for three seats to my left was white, or blue, which gave me a second color. When I got a third-pick Jareth followed by a second-pick Akroma's Vengeance, I figured I might be all right after all. This didn't stop me from having my revenge on the guy in front of me. His deck becomes elf.dec with a few white cards that have no business being there. Then he gets what he needs - a pack with Wellwisher in it - and he takes the Gustcloak Sentinel. I had to ask the head judge if I should register a Wellwisher, or two halves of a Wellwisher.

The draft ends, and I play the other white mage, who is also blue, and red. He wins game one. We are swinging at each other, and I have the kill next turn. To make sure, I get there I have Sunfire Balm. He brings me to three, lays his seventh land, and Searing Fleshes my face. Game two and three he was playing horribly, according to the judge who was watching the match; if my opponent had taken the initiative and thought offensively for one second, I was toast. I wish I could say I psyched him out, but I didn't do anything - he psyched himself out.

Round two, I play a black/red player, with Dragon Roost. Game one, he drops the Roost under pressure, but misses his next land drop and has to commit an extra spell to the board. I cast Akroma's Vengeance and clear the board. Game two, he wins off of his Shepherds of Rot and a burn spell. Game three, I get an aggressive draw, and am beating him down. He comes back with some Zombie Beats, and can draw the game if he has a burn spell. All I have is Akroma's Blessing in hand when he goes for the draw. I say, what the hell, and cycle into Renewed Faith.

THAT'S GAME!

In the finals, I play against the double Sparksmith Red Green deck. This is going to be a problem. Game one, he plays first, and I am never really in it. I only have plains and his game is just fine. I can't even draw into another land to cast Wrath because he has a Symbiotic Beast.

Game two is very interesting. I go first. On turn 3, I can either play a morphed Disruptive Pitmage, or I can cast a Mistform Dreamer. I decide to play the Morph guy and put a face-down card into play. On my next turn, I draw, look at my hand, see the Pitmage but no Dreamer, and call the judge. The Dreamer is face-down on the table... And that is also game. I do not disagree with the penalty and I fully agree with the game loss. If I was cheating, I don't see how I would benefit from getting myself a game loss. The consensus is that I was careless, and should have been more careful with the spells I was playing. I did call the judge on myself, and didn't try to rules lawyer my way out of it, you could say I was as calm as the passengers on the Flight Safety card, as they crash down to earth. (A Fight Club Reference.)

PTQ in Philly next weekend, I just hope I still have an ounce or two of confidence left after I kicked my own ass out of a win.

Zev Gurwitz