National Qualifier

Hello again,

      Hutch is back and not better than ever. National Qualifiers did not go as planned and I am looking for ways to rebound. I went 3-5 with a deck that was completely revamped by my friend Chris Miller. I had no experience with some of the cards we decided to run in my Tezzeret deck. The main card that was added was Jace, the Mind Sculptor. This plus adding multiples of such cards as Tezzeret, Kuldotha Forgemaster and Wurmcoil Engine changed the complete integrity of the deck.

This is the deck list of what I ran:

Lands:
7 Islands
3 Swamps
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Creeping Tar Pit

Planeswalker:
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Creatures:
3 Wurmcoil Engine
3 Kuldotha Forgemaster
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Myr Battlesphere

Spells:
2 Preordain
4 Tumble Magnets
3 Sphere of the Suns
3 Everflowing Chalice
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Stoic Rebuttal
2 Mana Leak
2 Go for the Throat

With little to no experience with the Mind Sculptor I surely was laid out to dry.

Round 1 - Cawblade

With the changes in my deck and facing the most popular deck in standard first round out was not the best. I found out very quickly that my deck no longer was favored against Cawblade and I was chewed up. The first round ended in usual cawblade fashion with him getting a Stoneforge Mystic out on turn 2 and the Squadron Hawks soon followed. I boarded 2 more Go for the Throats and a steel sabotage. Game two ended in a different fashion as I never saw a Stoneforge but with the constant pestering of 4 hawks I succumbed.

0-1

Round 2 - Mono-Black Control

This rogue matchup didnt offer any spectacular plays. I ended up receiving a game loss due to me forgetting to mark the exact number of Tezzerets on my deck list. As I began the first match with the gentleman I found out rather quickly what he was running black control and the match-up was favorable. I only showed blue mana to the guy and he came out turn 2 everflowing chalice and turn 3 memorcided me and he guessed at me running Mind Sculptors and sure enough he dispatched them all. I wasn't too worried, but then he top decked a second memorcide and as he previously got to see my deck, he quickly cleansed Tezzeret from my deck and hand. I began to feel helpless until he top deck for the third play in a row, memorcide. He disbanded my kuldotha forgemasters quickly and it came down to me being able to top-deck any of my wurmcoils. He eventually got home though.

0-2

Round 3 - Mono-blue

After starting out very poorly I knew my day was done but I figured what did I have to lose. I came to gain experience and to increase my playing skill. I should have just scooped and ended the day at 0-2...the rest of the day offered nothing more than more bad luck. This matchup I found out very quickly was extremely favorable for me as I could constantly tutor threats with Tezzeret and Jace. I ended up losing the first game to some extremely poor luck. I started out mana low and never recovered. My opponent was not of the highest caliber and I had to instruct him on what all my cards did. I felt like I was playing against a kid who just mashed cards together and somehow try and make it work. Second game I drew a solid hand and ran the kid off the table. The third game I was mana drained again and we were staring down the barrel of full time. He ended up mind controlling my two wurmcoils and somehow I still lost by a life due to Tezzeret ultimate being dropped on him. I just barely lost and should not have. I made all the plays I could and just out of sheer bad luck I lost.

0-3

~After this match it was lunch and boy was I happy to leave that place for awhile. Chris and I, being on short time due to my match going the distance, drove to the closest place to eat and grabbed a few mcdoubles and drove right back to play almost immediately. I thought about dropping again but decided I would stick it out and see how the rest goes due to my poor luck I figured why not, my day was already ruined.

Round 4 - Mono-White 

Shortly after shoving food down my throat. I sit down to wait on my opponent. I keep on waiting for 10 minutes and finally he arrives. The judge catches him rushing in and realizes its past last call. He receives a round loss. In sympathy I offer to play him anyways as I was forced to take the win. We decide to play out a few games and all of them in lopsided fashion in my favor and he comments that he was glad to have just taken the loss early because he would have lost anyway. Unfortunately this isnt how i imagine my first tournament win going. A win nonetheless.

1-3

Round 5 - U/B Control

I faced a straight up Blue-Black control deck. As the mirror match is completely favorable my way due to my aggro part of my deck. For the first time all day my deck decided to play fair enough and gave me solid draws and not leaving me mana short or way too much. In quick fashion I dispatched the gentleman in two. Nothing serious got played, he tried to counter or remove all my creatures but was running Go for the Throats instead of Doomblades and It wasnt enough to keep all my wurms and Battlesphere at bay.

2-3

Round 6 - Cawblade

After scrapping back into a respectable record from my previously atrocious split, I get paired with my worst matchup. This round went surprisingly much better than the first round, he won the die roll and decided to play first but I end up overwhelming him after some early counters and removals thanks to my great top deck draws. Second game he pulled out in usual Cawblade fashion. The third game ended up going to the wire and He sneaked out of the matchup with a lucky Day of Judgement on my 3 wurmcoils.

2-4

Round 7 - G/W Allies

This rogue deck wrecked me. I just couldn't keep the masses back and by the time I drew some removal in the games he had 4-5 10/10 creatures just sitting around the field. I ended up not being able to contain all his monsters of humans. The second game provided my best play I have pulled in my magic career. We ended up getting quite a ways into the game, turn 13/14ish and he had 9-10 creatures with roughly 8-10 power/life each. As I was staring down the barrel I knew that he would shortly whittle my 47 life, that my wurmcoils provided me with, very quickly. I played a Kuldotha Forgemaster a few turns back and having no other outs I let him swing all out which came to a grand total of 46 life. 1 short. After declaring my blocks, I sacrificed my forgemaster and 2 wurmcoils to tutor up my Blightsteel Colossus. As the Colossus hit the table my opponent scooped seeing as the inevitable outcome of the match was displayed. The third game ended very similarly to the first game and I ended up scooping and congratulating him as he mentioned the impressive Blightsteel combo. He had never seen it before but I know it is quite the popular move to pull on people.

2-5

Round 8 - No opponent?

I ended up sitting at the match table for 15 minutes waiting and a judge said I could move on as he figured my opponent would never show. I filled out the slip and went and watched my buddies make the top 16.

3-5

Not the way to end a day in my book. As it was my first tournament I figured I would give it a rest on my brain as I was mentally taxed afterwards. I was exhausted after playing nearly 11 hours of magic. It was even more taxing due to the constant feeling of helplessness. All I could do was sit there and watch as my opponents crushed me over and over. From now on though I will stick with my decks, as is. I know my friends were trying to help but all that happened was the fact that I ended up playing a deck that had a completely separate demeanor from my original go around. I play tested my original deck list for two weeks and only losing twice to my friends I felt prepared and the outcome of the day did not feel like what I figured would happen. I was hoping for at least a split record 4-4 but to be honest I was handed two of my three wins, granted my luck kept me from winning about 3 matches. As most will come to find out, my luck is not the greatest.

The majority of my friends group ended up in the top 30 and two of my friends finished just outside the top eight unfortunately to breakers. A successful day for most of us nonetheless and we decided to go celebrate by eating at the world famous Gates Bar-be-Que. In all, it was a great learning experience which I will take a lot of hard learned lessons home with me. I have become a far better player by going to such an event and I cant wait to give another one a go around.

This coming week I might go back to my kuldotha goblins deck as I need a fresh week of something different. I might try mono-white as it is my favorite color. My next article will most likely be on the visual spoilers that were leaked out and I got a glimpse of them. It will include my top 10 cards I am looking forward to in New Phyrexia. Until next time.....

See you on the other side,
Hutch