Living in the great city of Portland, Oregon, I don't like to PTQ in Seattle all that much. This is mostly because it tacks over six hours of driving round trip on top of an all-day Magic tourney. Partly for this reason, and partly because I am broke and unemployed, I never intended to go to this qualifier in the first place. This would have been the first PTQ season in a while where I didn't attend a single qualifier, not counting last year's team PTQs.

I was minding my own business the day before the tourney, getting smashed left and right in Constructed eight-mans on Magic Online, when some friends asked me if I wanted to come open Sealed decks to help them practice for next day's tournament in Seattle. It sounded better than continuing to lose all my event tickets, and when I went over there, Chris Freeman volunteered to cover my entry fee if I wanted to ride up with them. Even though my only experience with Legions Sealed is from prereleases, both online and with the full nasal assault of real life, I decided it would be fun and I might even get to crush people if I'm lucky.

Come Saturday morning and deck registration, and I was some lucky. If you are like me, looking at sealed deck card pools is a good prelude to a nap - but I suppose a report would be incomplete if I don't at least list the cards I played. Try not to fall asleep while I bore you with the obligatory decklist. I threw away my deck, so I might be off by a Patron of the Wild or a Nantuko Vigilante but I think this is what I ran:

Vitality Charm
Crown of Fury
Commando Raid
Patron of the Wild (I might be making this one up; I'm not sure)
Wirewood Elf
Sparksmith
Flamewave Invoker
Blade Sliver
Wirewood Savage
Leery Fogbeast
Wirewood Channeler
Symbiotic Elf
Nantuko Vigilante (also possibly a fabrication)
Battering Craghorn
Snarling Undorak
Krosan Vorine
Crested Craghorn
Berserk Murlodont
Glowering Rogon
Rorix Bladewing
Goblin Dynamo
Macetail Hystrodon
9 Mountain
9 Forest

Sideboard:
Lay Waste
Tons of cards that don't matter

The event had something like 78 people, so it was seven rounds, then cut to the top 8 as you would expect. I didn't take notes and I didn't keep my scoresheets, so I'm relying on my very selective memory of events.

Round 1 Vs. Some Unfortunate Guy With 3 Colors
I remember one of his main colors was green, and he switched a third color from something else to white after the first game. None of that really matters anyway, because when we sat down my opponent confided to me that he was going to lose.

I had no problem agreeing with him silently. That kind of statement is always self-fulfilling, so it doesn't get any easier than having an opponent who dooms himself to defeat.

The one notable thing that happened this match was my fourth-turn Goblin Dynamo in game 1. It was preceded by a Wirewood Elf and a Wirewood Channeler. My mana guys ended up being key for me all day, since I could get Rorix in play with less than six land and easily cast all the big dumb guys they give you to play with in this format. 2-0.

1-0 matches

Round 2 Vs. Former Judge James Lee With G/b/r
I'm used to seeing James head judge these things, but he's recently decided to try his hand at competing in them again. He is a friendly guy, so I was looking forward to a fun match. I got what I expected when in the second game he got out his Seedborn Muse/Dragon Roost combo. Lay Waste came in out of the board in place of Leery Fogbeast for game 3, to keep James from having RR ever again. Rorix took that one somehow. 2-1.

2-0 matches

Round 3 Vs. Ricky Boyes With U/b/r
Both games were similar. We cast guys. They swung. Neither of us had an interest in blocking except when we had to. He had a plethora of kill, so my utility guys like Sparksmith and Wirewood Savage got nuked on sight. I lost the race in game 1 to blue tempo cards like Choking Tethers and Echo Tracer, and lost game 2 to a Frenetic Raptor who decided my whole team would no longer be playing any defense. Ricky has made top 8 at every qualifier in the region this season, so I wasn't too concerned by the loss. After the match, I told him we'd be seeing each other in the top 8. This would be prophetic. 0-2.

2-1 matches

Round 4 Vs. Sean Rohan With R/G/b Rift
Sean was playing a lot of colorless cycling - but it was obvious why since he had turn 2 Lightning Rift in game 1. He shot my two-drop with it and I made a Leery Fogbeast to lure out any more cycling he might be holding. He took the bait, so I thought the world would be safe for my fourth-turn Snarling Undorak, since he would need two more cheap cyclers to kill it before I untap. Undorak lived, so I Crown of Furied it, came in for four, and made the Sparksmith I just drew. 'Smith also lived at least long enough to untap once, and I kept casting more guys to keep up with his men and the Rift. The first-striking Undorak went all the way in 5 hits.

I never saw Swamps, so I didn't think to bring in Lay Waste. It didn't matter cause he ended the game having not drawn one - and with his only two black cards in his hand! He cycled a lot in game 2, but never found his Lightning Rift, and a Crown of Fury-enhanced Krosan Vorine did a lot of damage to his side of the board early. 2-0.

3-1 matches

Round 5 Vs. Matt Goldman With W/B/r
The first game had us trading off 2/2s or something with me at a slight advantage, until he gummed up the ground with a Starlight Invoker and cast a Gustcloak Harrier. He was just getting to his eight mana for the Invoker, when finally got the third red to cast it Rorix Bladewing. Unsurprisingly, he couldn't deal with Rorix, so that was game.

I don't understand why they printed this card; I'm just glad I had one in my Sealed deck.

As I would end up doing in over half my matches, I boarded out Leery Fogbeast once again for Lay Waste. The second game went according to plan. His fifth mana was a Mountain, which I'd been waiting to kill with the Lay Waste in my hand. I had Crested Craghorn when he tapped out for Gustcloak Savior, and he was forced to Cruel Revival something annoying that wasn't a dragon legend. When I got the opportunity I played Rorix again. The game ended with seven lands in play on Matt's side of the board, none of them producing red. He showed me Shock, Commando Raid, and Akroma, Angel of Wrath in his hand at the end of the game. Mise. 2-0.

4-1 matches

Round 6 Vs. A Friend Of Justin Rider With G/W/r
I have to apologize to my opponent this round - and not just because I can't remember his name. Both games saw me play a turn 4 Krosan Vorine and turn 5 Berserk Murlodont, so the Vorine was picking off face-down Spitting Gournas and Daru Lancers like it was a party. I also cast Rorix in at least the first game. He boarded out red for some black to try and kill my guys in game 2, but it wasn't happening for him. 2-0.

5-1 matches

Round 7 Vs. The Kid With Double Jareth
I had heard about this deck. It was heavy black removal and a Foil Jareth to go with the regular one. Sounds bad for anyone he played against - but thankfully, both our tiebreakers were good enough that I didn't have to. We intentionally drew

5-1-1 matches

My sponsor, Chris Freeman, also made the cut after having to play the last round due to bad tiebreakers. Top 8 was booster draft and I got seated with Ricky Boyes passing to me on my right and double Jareth downstream on my left.

Lately, in online OOL drafting I have been doing okay with a strategy of taking green cards early. It's deep in all three packs, and the other green mages want to make their removal picks early so you get lots of shots at the best creatures this way. This also has the advantage of flexibility, cause you can often wait to see what you open in pack 2 to decide what your other color is going to be. I opened a Centaur Glade in the first pack, so it was an easy decision to stick with the above plan. The cards of note that I passed were Cruel Revival, another good black card, and a Commando Raid. The Raid would not be worth mentioning, except that it came back around and I eventually took it for lack of anything better, when I didn't really know if I would be playing red at all at that point. I wasn't all that tempted by the Revival because of the presence of the other black card in the pack, and because I knew the Glade was the direction I wanted to go in. As luck would have it, Revival was the first pick of both players to my right and black was heavily cut off.

The second pick was between Gustcloak Harrier and Tribal Unity and not much else. I didn't want to be stuck with white at all so I took the Unity, even though I've never really cast it before and wasn't sure if it was a solid pick. The rest of the first pack I picked up decent green men, but nothing really exciting.

In the second pack I opened another big green guy and got passed a Shock on pick 2. That's enough to go red, but besides a Skirk Commando I saw no other removal that pack. There was solid green coming my way, so I figured I'd be ok if Legions was good to me. On opening my Legions pack, I was looking at Timberwatch Elf and Goblin Goon. Goon is a very big boy, but the elf seems somehow bigger so I took it. I didn't see a whole lot of green, to my surprise, but I got a shot at more red spells that I had in both Onslaught packs combined. My deck would have been significantly weaker without the Skirk Outrider and Warbreak Trumpeter that tabled before I got them.

It turns out that Ricky, to my right, was a green mage himself, which accounts for why it dried up in Legions. I never quite figured it out in pack one, because as I mentioned will often happen, he was following the pattern of picking up black spells first for his removal color. His deck was weakened by the fact that the guy feeding him was also in black. In addition, I handed the guy to the left of me a great white deck, but apparently he didn't notice until after he'd shipped enough of it to get the guy he was feeding into white already. What this has to do with my draft in particular is to explain the reason behind my opponent's decks being weaker than mine in the later rounds of top 8. I didn't like my deck very much at first but I kept winning, so maybe it wasn't as bad as I thought. Here's what I ended up with:

Shock
Vitality Charm
2 Gempalm Incinerator
Commando Raid
Tribal Unity
Centaur Glade
Warbreak Trumpeter
Birchlore Rangers
Patron of the Wild
Wirewood Herald
Timberwatch Elf
Wirewood Savage
Skirk Commando
Skirk Outrider
Clickslither
Symbiotic Elf
Crested Craghorn
Barkhide Mauler
Bloodstoke Howler
Treespring Lorian
Needleshot Gourna
Krosan Tusker
Tranquil Thicket
8 Forest
8 Mountain

Quarterfinals, Vs. Justin Aubertin With U/B/r
We got things started in the usual fashion, and I think at some point he wrecked me with an Infest that relieved me of my Timberwatch Elf, among other things. He had fliers and was monkeying around with a Mistform Ultimus. Near the end, he got a second flier and got the Ultimus and another zombie out of his yard with Infernal Caretaker, to keep me from racing on the ground.

I had two turns to live against flying beats, so I attacked with everything to bring him to seven, and tapped out to flip Warbreak Trumpeter and make four guys once damage was on the stack. On his turn he swung in the air and had enough blockers to be safe from my goblins. I got Patron of the Wild off the top to break through for eight damage and win the turn before I would fall to his flyers.

In the second game, I was behind again until I was able to drop Centaur Glade and stabilize. Before getting out the Glade I held off some flyers early on by getting a Skirk Commando through and flipping it, and also using Raid. Once I had 5 centaurs I swung and Tribal Unitied for the win. In both games, it looked like I was in danger of losing, so I was relieved to have escaped the round 2-0.

Chris won his round, so he would be facing Ricky in the other semifinal match.

Semifinals Vs. Christian Robertson With W/B/r
I've seen Christian place high in a number of qualifiers in the past, so I know he is very good. Unfortunately for him, he is the benefactor of bad signaling from the guy sitting to my left. I heard later he started with good white that later got cut off and couldn't tell if he was supposed to be in red or black. Regardless, the cards he was playing in the first game seemed pretty good. I was able to get him to ten with a board position involving a Doomed Necromancer, Celestial Gatekeeper, and Doubtless One, along with another creature or two on his side and some birds, clerics and a Skittish Valesk in his yard. I had Barkhide Mauler, Clickslither, Skirk Outrider and both my one-drop elves in play turned face up. Because of the Gatekeeper and Necromancer, any attack I mounted that wasn't lethal was going to create problems. I decided the best play would be to actually cast Gempalm Incinerator to either let the Clickslither trample over blockers or allow me an extra attacker for the Tribal Unity in my hand. I summoned the Gempalm guy, Christian did something on his turn, and when I untapped again I didn't see any way for him to survive an all-out attack if I Tribal Unity after blockers. He thought for a long time, and must have figured me for having the pump in my hand, but in the end his blocks didn't prevent lethal damage.

Game 2, he had a hand full of white spells and Swamps. Bad combination.

2-0.

Finals Vs. Ricky Boyes With G/b/u
He didn't really want the slot - but I did. Naturally, we both wanted the money. We gave him the three boxes of product, me the slot, and played out the match for $500 bucks. Ricky wanted to give $100 to the loser, but my friend GCB assured me I had the better deck and that I should just play. GCB has been giving me crap about making deals since I beat him in the semis of an Odyssey Block qualifier, then sold out the slot in the finals for the cash. I haven't been in a position to qualify since then, and he's gone to several Pro Tours, so maybe he has a point. Partly to appease him and partly cause I had been lucky all day, I decided to let it ride.

The first game was a good one. Both of us were developing our boards and coming through for a few points of damage a turn. I had a Needleshot Gourna and a Treespring Lorian that I had recently flipped, along with another morph in play. Ricky had two elves, including a Wirewood Savage that he had drawn several cards off of, and some beasts of his own that were tapped from attacking. Earlier when I played my Needleshot, he had forgotten to draw a card, and at that point I became very confident in my chances of winning the game. I had my seven land in play and Tribal Unity in hand when I decided to attack Ricky with all my creatures, with him at eleven life. His only blockers were a Birchlore Ranger and Wirewood Savage.

When he tapped all his remaining mana and both his elves to Cruel Revival the Lorian without declaring any blocks, I flipped my morph revealing Bloodstoke Howler. The Gourna and the Howler hit for six apiece, and that's game. It was my twenty-third card.

Right here, I have to apologize to Ricky for some unsportsmanlike behavior: A friend of mine watching the match shouted loudly the moment I flipped Howler for the win, breaking what was a tense and quiet moment, and I think it upset Ricky. I would have been annoyed if it was the other way around. The next two games were not very exciting, since they both basically concluded in mana flood. First me, then him in game three. 2-1.

Now I just have to find a ride to Japan.

Props
R. Chris Freeman for getting me to go in the first place and knowing a good $25 investment when he sees one.

Cam Herzog for driving me up and down the coast in your comfy Benz.

Gabe Carleton Barnes, for repeatedly telling me to smash people's faces and sticking around to see it happen despite dropping early.

All my opponents, who displayed class and a good attitude throughout the day. Especially Ricky, who I wanted to revenge myself upon after losing 0-2 to him in the Swiss.

Cardhaus Games in Seattle for running the event and getting it done in a timely fashion. These guys are running Magic tournaments literally all the time; it's impressive.

Slops
Traffic on I-5 in Washington.

WA State troopers who couldn't catch me speeding this time cause I was sleeping in the back seat.

Eric Olson