Tournament Report: PMPMPMPM #7
I always seem to have three decks in the running before I play a tournament. This week I knew in my heart on tournament day I'd play burn after Caustek won with burn last time. I was sure I wouldn't run into another burn deck because I knew he wasn't coming this month and I'd basically never seen anyone else play burn in our group (I'll come back to this later). I had information/guesses for several matchups -- at least one each of elves, terrageddon, storm, pit rack, and mono black aggro.
I initially wanted to play furnace/bauble for the elves and terrageddon matchups, but I chickened out when I realized that I'd rather play flame rift than bauble, counting on not seeing another sligh player. I played 21 lands and a stock list with:
4 ball lightning
2 cursed scroll
2 sulfuric vortex
1 lava dart
3 flame rift
3 shocksideboard:
4 overload
2 lava dart
2 price of progress
2 phyrexian furnace
2 pyroblast
1 flaring pain
1 anarchy
1 reb
As I was wrapping up the sideboard choices, we had a family emergency which very nearly caused me to miss the tournament altogether (everyone's OK). I ended up arriving five minutes late; major shout out to Ryan for stepping up to collect registration and handle pairings in the companion app!
Round 1 vs. Curran: 2-1 OtD
Mirror
Curran's known for being good at magic and we're stoked to have him playing premodern. He hosts a weekly paper legacy twitch stream. We've played I believe two matches of premodern and one of legacy before tonight. Curran wiped the floor with me in legacy. Both pm matches prior to this, he rolled a deck from my gauntlet and got burn both times; I think we were 1-1 in those matches. He's who told me he was gonna play elves.
G1: I win this game from dumb luck -- just drew better than he did. I thankfully didn't draw sulfuric vortex or flame rift.
+2 phyrexian furnace
+2 overload
+2 lava dart
-2 flame rift
-2 sulfuric vortex
-2 jackal pup
G2: I don't remember much about this game except I got outclassed. Made an obvious sideboarding mistake not taking all pups out -- one sits in my hand all game.
-2 pup
+1 overload
+1 flame rift
G3: flame rift is better than pup, e.g. in case I want to force a draw. I saw cursed scroll in both g1 and g2 so I figured even a third overload would be better than a jackal pup. Near the end of the game, I get in with two mogg fanatic to put Curren to 10. I resolve grim lavamancer and pass with 12 life. he untaps his own mogg fanatic, also controls cursed scroll and 3 mountains. he draws up to three cards, plays a bloodstained mire and attacks into my lavamancer with two cards in hand. I have bolt and fireblast up. If he cracks bloodstained mire, I can win in response. I knew the only way he could win this turn was if he had exactly double fireblast in hand. if I let the fanatic through and he goes for the win, I'll win in response. If I block and we trade, I win on my next turn only if I draw direct damage. I let the fanatic through and he goes for the win. If he had passed the turn hoping to win in response himself, I still might have suspected double fireblast, but I'm not sure if I'd have been cautious enough to turn it into the game of chicken it deserved to be...I was lucky to learn my lesson the easy way.
Round 2 vs. John: 2-1 OtD
Mono U Storm
John and I know each other's decks pretty well. I had a correct read that he was on mono blue storm.
G1: My hand isn't terrible but he goes off on his turn 5 and casts a single brain freeze for exactsies.
+4 overload
+2 pyroblast
+1 reb
-2 cursed scroll
-2 sulfuric vortex
-3 mogg fanatic
G2: He starts to go off while I have pyroblast up. He casts lotus petal, then taps his three islands to frantic search, and I run my pyroblast into a hydroblast cast off the lotus petal. I learn my lesson but he draws poorly and I win anyway.
-1 mogg fanatic
+1 lava dart
G3: John can go off reliably on turn 4 if he's got a medallion/helm. Sure enough, he mills me out at 1 life and I have two mountains, so I lava dart him in my upkeep for the win. he had discarded two hydroblasts while going off so I got very lucky. if he had kept both hydroblast and had two mana up (I think he did) he would have taken it. Considering this was his only loss of the night I'd say his performance with storm was pretty excellent. Next time I'll bring in all the lava darts.
Round 3 vs. Chris (View on YouTube)
GB oath
This was my first time meeting Chris and his first time playing a premodern tournament! normally he plays legacy and pauper. He was playing a GB oath deck with pernicious deed, mox diamond, and terravore, with nishoba in the SB. He observed early on in the tournament that off-color fetches are sorely missed in premodern by enemy-colored decks. I assured him that indeed, we have the worst mana in premodern, as he essentially lost to his own painful mana base. I won't spoil the VOD any further.
+2 price of progress
-2 jackal pup
Round 4 vs. Sol (View on YouTube)
Rack (no pit)
This is a rough matchup for the rack player. I think Sol killed 3 lavamancers one game. Sandbagging lands helped a lot to bait out discard spells. One game he kind of lost to his own cabal pit(s). Check out the VOD!
+4 overload
-2 sulfuric vortex
-1 lava dart
-1 flame rift