Journey Into Nyx PTQ Report from a Newb Perspective

This weekend, I went to a Pro Tour Qualifier instead of my normal FNM. These larger events come every couple months, and I was excited to see what a Rules Enforcement Level (REL) tournament was like. With the mono-red deck I posted last week, I went to Seattle Center to test my might against some of the best Seattle has to offer. (Spoiler alert, I only lasted four rounds, but I had a great time and met my personal goal.)

Before the event, I ran onto a couple guys from the shop where I normally play. It helped to have some folks to chat with between rounds. Also, one of the judges was the judge from my shop and he was pretty supportive as well. Going into the actual event, my goal was to win one (maybe two) matches and drop after three or four losses.

Round 1 vs. BG something (2-0)

I am going to warn you, I have a hard time remembering details of games, so my descriptions will be mostly about the overall 'feel' of the match. My first match was against "A." who had a Black/Green?maybe something else deck. Each game, he had a hard time finding black mana which crippled him. In contrast, my draws were pretty much perfect. In game two, I was able to get the turn one Foundry Street Denizen, turn two Akroan Cursader with a Dragon Mantle to make a Soldier token and get in for four damage. After the match, A. was friendly and we chatted for a bit. I was pretty happy that I had met my goal in round one. One more match win would have me ecstatic.

Round 2 vs BR? (1-2)
I don't remember much about this match except that I was stuck on one land in game one and mulliganed down to four cards on the play in game three. I couldn't recover from either position. "D." was another friendly opponent, and I was starting to wonder about the stereotype of PTQ "grinders" being a-holes.

Round 3 vs UGr (0-2)
I found "J."s deck to be the most interesting, and hardest to beat deck in all my rounds. It seemed to be mostly Blue/Green with a splash of Red. I mulliganed again down to four cards on the play in game one, which is never good, but I got him down to 12 before he won. In game two, I made one of two major mistakes in the tournament, of which I should have known better. I sent a Lightning Strike to his face on turn three when he had an empty board. I just wanted to get his life down as quick as possible, which in general I think is a good idea. The problem is that sending Lightning Strike to the opponent does nothing to the board, and just gives the opponent more information. The next turn he played a Kiora's Follower, which would have been a much better target for the damage. After that, he was able to get Kiora herself out, and use her ultimate, sending another 9/9 Kraken at me every turn. What I should have done is hold on to the Lightning Strike, and use it against something in the way of my creatures, or use it to finish him off and end the game. Oh well. At least he was friendly. At this point, I decided I would drop after one more match loss.

Round 4 vs Mono-Blue Devotion (1-2)

"B." was the only opponent to call a judge during any of my matches. Usually, my deck is pretty straight-forward and doesn't do anything weird, but playing against a control deck sometimes brings up strange corner cases. One of the calls was because he used something to take control of my Satyr Firedancer, and I then used Searing Blood to kill it. Since it is technically my creature, who takes the damage? The answer is that he does. The second judge call was because he wasn't paying close enough attention when I tapped some lands and thought I was cheating. (I wasn't.) As for actual games, I was able to overwhelm B. in game one, but game two he got me with Nightveil Spector and Thassa in game two. The meta at my usual shop doesn't have any Mono-Blue Devotion, which is so popular everywhere else, so I didn;t know how to deal with it. In game three, I made the second big mistake which I should have known better. He had Thassa online as a creature and sent her and another creature in for combat. I double blocked Thassa to get up to the 5 damage to kill her. When B. didn't pick her up after combat I remembered the gods all have Indestructable. I'm still kicking myself for that one. The next turn he cast Master of Waves, and I was done.

I dropped at this point, which was good because I was pretty tired and I had some errands to run. Now that is it the next day, I kind of regret dropping when I did. I might have been able to squeak out a couple more match wins and place in the top 64 or so. Oh well. I went in hoping to have a fun time, get a feel for REL tournaments, play some Magic, learn some stuff, and win a match. I did all of that, so I'm overall pleased with the experience and can't wait for PTQ M15.