Never Fan The Grip

Last weekend Ben Costrell took down his first PTQ victory in Oklahoma City.  If you’d like to get the inside dish on going animal on Extended, Ben has what you’re looking for!

For those who don’t know me (which is probably a fair amount of people), my name is Ben Costrell. I’ve never really accomplished anything of note; a handful of PTQ top 8’s, a couple States top 8’s, a Regionals top 8, but I’ve yet to do anything on the pro level. This past weekend, I managed to win my first PTQ, in Oklahoma City. I didn’t take notes or anything since I wasn’t planning on writing a tournament report, and I’ve also never written one before, so forgive me if my account is a bit fuzzy.

My testing for the event basically amounted to nothing.  I decided about a week before that I would play Zoo with Blue, since it seemed like it wouldn’t require as much intimate knowledge about the deck to play competently as other decks in the format.  I also knew it was one of the best decks.  On top of that, Zoo seemed like it had a gameplan against most of the other decks in the format, which I think is good for a PTQ deck since there is often more random stuff than at higher level events.

I scoured PTQ top 8 lists and MODO daily event lists (an underutilized tool, I think) until I found some lists I liked. I decided on Gavin Verhey’s Top 8 list from the San Diego PTQ.  I liked that it was able to use both Bant Charm and Tribal Flames, since I think often the Blue lists tend to be a bit slower than the Domain ones, and sometimes you just randomly win when you draw multiple Tribal Flames. I played about four games with it against Affinity at my local card store on Friday night, and that was the extent of my testing. I guess that was better than nothing.

On the ride up there, I talked with some friends and decided I wanted some more high end in the deck, since the 4 Noble Hierarchs seemed a bit odd with only the 4 Knights of the Reliquary and 4 Bant Charms as cards costing more than two in the deck. I cut one Qasali Pridemage for one Ranger of Eos maindeck to give the deck a little more late game and ways to fight attrition. In hindsight, I’m not sure if this change is necessary or even correct, as I learned throughout the day that Noble Hierarch works just fine even if you aren’t really ramping into anything.

Upon arriving at the site, I did a little bit of scouting and saw a pretty significant amount of Zoo (surprise, surprise). I had been thinking about cutting the second Ghost Quarter in the sideboard for two reasons.  First, although Gavin’s original list had a Damping Matrix in that slot, I had read him recommending a second Ghost Quarter in its place.  Second, I had been talking with my friend George Blankenship, and he informed me that most Thopter-Depths lists were siding out some amount of Hexmages and Depths against Zoo, so the additional hate card against that combo seemed unnecessary. Based on that, and my small amount of scouting, I decided to go with a one-of Kitchen Finks in that slot. Here is the list I registered:

4 Scalding Tarn 4 Arid Mesa 4 Misty Rainforest 1 Temple Garden 1 Stomping Ground 1 Breeding Pool 1 Hallowed Fountain 1 Sacred Foundry 1 Blood Crypt 1 Forest 1 Plains

4 Wild Nacatl 4 Loam Lion 4 Noble Hierarch 3 Qasali Pridemage 4 Tarmogoyf 4 Knight of the Reliquary 1 Ranger of Eos 4 Bant Charm 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Path to Exile 4 Tribal Flames

Sideboard: 4 Meddling Mage 4 Negate 2 Ranger of Eos 1 Kitchen Finks 1 Bojuka Bog 2 Umezawa’s Jitte 1 Ghost Quarter

Like I mentioned before, I didn’t take any notes or plan on remembering everything for a tournament report, so this is all from memory. I might have mixed up some games in my head, or forgotten certain parts of them, but here’s my account of the rounds:

Round 1: Zoo
He informed me that it was his first PTQ, and he flashed me some cards while shuffling, so I knew he was Zoo before we started playing.
I knew my gameplan in this matchup was just to save all non-Bolt removal for Knights and Goyfs, and to try not to expose my own Knights and Goyfs to getting Bolted or Helixed.

Game one I can’t remember too well, but I recall him spending some removal spells on some of my irrelevant early drops, and me eventually killing him with some combination of Knights and Goyfs.

I sided in the Rangers, the Finks, and the Jittes, taking out some combination of Hierarchs and Bolts.

Game two I kept a sketchy hand with Plains, Breeding Pool, Wild Nacatl, a Ranger, and some amount of Knight of the Reliquary. I didn’t draw any more lands, and he beat me down.

I’m not sure if I would’ve mulliganned this hand if given the chance now, as there aren’t that many spells I can draw that I can’t cast, and if I hit ant land then I can play my Knight.  Assuming the Knight lives until the next turn, even if I haven’t drawn another land, I can play the Ranger, which is the other major plan in the mirror. From my limited experience, it seems like the mirror essentially tends to come down to who can stick more Knights and Goyfs.  If neither player sticks any, it’s whoever lands a Ranger or, to a lesser extent, a Jitte, because Jitte can be answered more easily with Bant Charm or Pridemage.

For game three, I keep a pretty controlling hand with no early plays until a Knight of the Reliquary, which is actually kind of what I want in the mirror. I kill his Nacatl, Goyf, and Knight (I even got the Knight with a Tribal Flames for 4, pretty good usage!), and proceed to play a couple Knights of my own. He answers with a Ranger of Eos, but my Knights are just too big for a bunch of 3-power guys to stop them and I eventually beat him down with them.

Win 2-1 (1-0)

Round 2: Living End
My next opponent also informs me it’s his first PTQ (man!), and he’s playing with clear sleeves, so I immediately assume he’s bad (false) and that he’s playing Zoo (also false). When he starts cycling Deadshot Minotaurs, I know I’m in trouble.

Game one, I start off pretty decently, and he spends his turns cycling and playing Fulminator Mages, blocking, and killing my lands. I’m able to thwart his Fulminating to some extent by holding a Knight back to sacrifice the target. At some point he plays a Night of Soul’s Betrayal. I have never played with this card in play, so I proceed to make a fool out of myself. I play a Noble Hierarch, and he informs me “That’s dead.” At least he didn’t make fun of me for it, but I feel like an idiot. I think I eventually killed it with a Pridemage, but it’s not long before he Living Ends and brings back some beaters and Fulminators and kills my remaining creatures and lands.

I side in the Mages, Negates, and the Bojuka Bog, taking out Bolts, Tribal Flames, and the Ranger, since he kills enough lands such that it’s difficult to get to four mana. Taking out Tribal Flames might have been a mistake, and I side differently later on in the tournament (foreshadowing I suppose, though it never really ends up being relevant).

Game two I land a pair of Mages, and he doesn’t really do a whole lot. I wasn’t sure what to name on the second Mage, because I didn’t know if he was playing Shriekmaw, Spitebellows, Firespout, Damnation, or whatever, so I just named Living End again. In any case, it was good enough.

Game three, I manage to embarrass myself further. I start off with a Nacatl, but when I go to cast Meddling Mage on turn two, I am informed “you can’t cast that”. Looking at my lands, I see that I fetched Stomping Ground + Hallowed Fountain, a combination that is good for game ones, but obviously can’t cast Meddling Mage. Probably a symptom of never really playing the deck before that day, but still a pretty bad mistake. I think I probably could’ve pulled it out had I fetched Breeding Pool + Sacred Foundry, but as it was, he eventually landed a Night of Soul’s Betrayal and destroyed a bunch of my lands (he was pretty good at drawing multiple Fulminators apparently) and at some point Living Ended a few men into play. I naturally drew my one-of Bojuka Bog at some point before then, which slowed my death, but I basically didn’t cast a spell after turn 4 or 5-ish, so it only delayed the inevitable.

Lose 1-2 (1-1)

Round 3: RG Scapeshift
I recognize my opponent’s name, Drew Dumanski, from somewhere, but I can’t quite place it. I figure he’s probably good, but I hear him say to someone that he basically just played a deck that was available to him, so I thought at least his deck choice might not be optimal (not that mine was either).

Game one I start off with the beats, while he plays some Bloodbraids and Finks and Goyfs and such. I remove most of them, and the game gets to a point where he has a Finks out and six lands, holding a card in his hand, which I assume is a Scapeshift. I’ve got a couple Nacatls out, and he’s at a life total where I can kill him in two turns. I can:

A.) Path his Finks to put him on dead next turn, but then die if he has or topdecks a Scapeshift

B.) Attack into his Finks and potentially not kill him for much longer, and still probably die if he draws a land or search and has Scapeshift

C.) Not attack at all and hope to draw a different removal spell for his Finks, but then still die to a lot of his topdecks

I decide to go for the quick clock and Path his Finks, fully expecting to get Scapeshifted out the next turn, but he just draws and scoops. Mise, I guess.

I side in Negates, Finks, Rangers, and Jittes to help fight attrition and not be kold to Scapeshift. I think about bringing in Mages, but they don’t really seem that great since he has Punishing Fire and dudes to win with. It’s possible that I could bring them in just to name Punishing Fire, but I decide against it. I take out burn spells and a Pridemage.

Game two I play some guys, while he plays some Bloodbraids and Finks and burn spells. I don’t remember too much about this game, but I think I eventually get Scapeshifted and don’t have the Negate.

At this point I realize that Finks is pretty awkward against Punishing Fire even though I luckily didn’t draw it game two. I bring it back out for, I think, the Pridemage since I was reminded that he had Jittes when he played one in game two.

Game three is really close. The early game involves a bunch of trading, with me keeping up with a Ranger and him with his natural card advantage in Bloodbraids and Finks. He eventually gets me down pretty low, but I manage to come back on the back of a Jitte. I think I Negated a Scapeshift at some point, but the Jitte managed to kill all his dudes and eventually end the game in two or three hits after that.

Win 2-1 (2-1)

Round 4: Doran Rock
I recognize my opponent’s name again, Matt Wainwright, but this time I really have no idea where I had heard it before, so I don’t really make any assumptions before the match (for once!).

Game one I played some men while he Thoughtseized me twice, taking Tribal Flames the first time, and another Tribal Flames that I topdecked the next turn (still leaving one in my hand). I was fine with him playing Healing Salves with reverse Dark Rituals attached (I don’t even have to play the Tribal Flames!).  Although it was probably correct for him to take them, Thoughtseizes are just not that great against Zoo. He plays some combination of Goyfs, a Doran, and a Baneslayer, but I have an answer to them all and I beat him down with the help of a Ranger of Eos.

I side in Rangers, Finks, and Jittes, taking out Bolts and something else I can’t remember to fight attrition wars better.

Game two was not a very good game. As far as I could tell, it seemed like he drew a land almost every turn of the game. He played a Goyf that I was able to Bolt after attacking into it with my own Goyf, and I think he played a Doran, and he definitely played a Baneslayer, but I was able to kill all of them and eventually him due to his severe flood. It certainly would have been a closer game if he had drawn fewer lands, but I feel like I still would’ve been advantaged.

Win 2-0 (3-1)

Round 5: RWb Stax
Game one he starts off with Boros lands, so I think he might be Boros, but when he has no turn one play and his turn two play is Helixing my guy, I am definitely suspicious. When he plays a Boros Signet, the jig is up and I start thinking about what cards he might be playing in what I assumed was some sort of weird RW control deck. He played some irrelevant cards like more Signets and an Aven Mindcensor while I brought the beats. I was holding back some guys since he seemed like the kind of deck with Wrath effects, but he never played one. At some point he played a Magus of the Tabernacle or a Ghostly Prison and I finally got the idea that he was playing some sort of mana denial control Stax-ish strategy. I think he also played a Chandra Nalaar at some point, although that might have been game two. In any case, he wasn’t able to stop the beatdown.

I side in Negates, Rangers, and Finks to fight attrition and counter whatever weird spells he might be playing.

He starts game two with a Leyline of the Void in play, which I guess was interesting. It kind of made the two Knights of the Reliquary I had in my hand by the end of the game a little awkward, but it didn’t really do I whole lot. I was prepared to Pridemage it at one point, but he played a Ghostly Prison that seemed like a much more worthy target. Eventually he was doing very weak things, like playing the Raze half of Boom//Bust because he was too behind on the board to afford to play the ‘Geddon half. I killed him with very large Goyfs due to the abundance of weird card types in his graveyard, despite his Leyline of the Void. He had enchantments, planeswalkers, artifacts, sorceries, and lands.

Win 2-0 (4-1)

Round 6: Thopter-Depths
Game one he has sort of shaky mana, with a Tolaria West, a Dark Depths, and Chrome Mox with a black card. He misses his third land drop, so I destroy his Chrome Mox with a Pridemage. He proceeds to topdeck an Urborg, and play a Thoughtseize to take my one nonland card (a Ranger) and then play a Hexmage. I topdeck a Bant Charm (mise!) and go to combat, but when he sacs his Hexmage to make a token and block, and I Bant Charm, a nearby judge points out that my lands are Forest, Stomping Ground, Hallowed Fountain (curse you Stomping Ground!), so he gets to block one of my guys as I sheepishly play my Scalding Tarn post combat and kill his Marit Lage then. He draws his card and concedes to my remaining guys.

I side in Negates, Finks, Rangers, and the Ghost Quarter for Bolts and Tribal Flames. This plan might seem a little odd, but from what I understand, most Thopter-Depths players are bringing in a bunch of removal and taking out some Hexmages/Depths, so I want to be able to grind them out, and Meddling Mages didn’t really seem that great.

Game two I don’t remember particularly well.  I think he maybe just played a bunch of draw spells and never really did anything, but I’m not really sure. In any case, I won.

Win 2-0 (5-1)

At this point I’m hoping I can draw in since the PTQ was only seven rounds, although I’m a bit nervous since my loss was in round two. As I wait for the round to finish and standings to go up, I watch some friends who are out of contention play DC10 with Anthony Avitollo’s cube. I may be getting the timing of some of their games mixed up, but the highlights included someone going turn one Memory Jar, playing a bunch of spells, only to get the board wiped by someone’s Jaya Ballard’s Inferno, and in another game, a dominating board position getting destroyed by a Mindslaver that brought back a Wickerbough Elder with a Debtor’s Knell to kill the Knell, then spending all of a Chandra’s loyalty to kill the Elder. Fun times.

Standings are posted, and I see that I’m in 7th, but there are three 13 pointers, so I think I may have to play it out. Ben Jackson is in 8th, so I tell him that we will probably be paired and there’s a good chance we’ll have to play.

Round 7: Thopter Depths (Ben Jackson)
We end up getting paired, and to the pleasure of the people drawing next to us, we start to play it out as we have the two worst breakers of the 15’s.

Game one I can’t remember that well, but uh, I win, somehow. Maybe Ben can chime in on this one. (I drew half of both combos, a bunch of draw spells and Muddles, and not much action while he turned men sideways -Ben)

I side like I did in the previous round, in Negates, Finks, Rangers, Ghost Quarter, out Bolts and Tribal Flames.

Game two I manage to make another embarrassing play (number four maybe? But who’s counting!), when I Path his Confidant on upkeep. I could’ve sworn it was a draw step trigger! Anyway, at some point I counter his Smother on my Goyf with a Bant Charm because I still had a Pridemage for the Thopter Combo. I played the Pridemage post combat, and he proceeded to rip a Damnation. Oops. Didn’t know he had that. I scoop to the Thopter combo a couple turns later.

Game three I put him under some pressure, and he doesn’t play a third land after making a Chrome Mox and playing Bob.  The next turn he plays a land and Damnations, facing lethal damage, but I have the Negate. At some point later in the day he informs me that apparently he just didn’t play a land on turn three, even though he had one in hand. He thus could’ve Thoughtseized before playing the Damnation to protect against Negate. I still had gas in my hand, as I had just cast a Ranger of Eos, so I had two Nacatls and a Knight, but it definitely would’ve been a closer game had he been able to resolve the Damnation.

Win 2-1 (6-1)

I went into the top 8 as the top seed, and I was paired against an interesting UR control deck with Blood Moon, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, a Trinket Mage package with Explosives and Chalice, and typical blue control stuff like Spell Snares, Mana Leaks, and Thirsts. It seemed like a pretty bad matchup, so I was kind of worried.

Quarterfinals: UR Blood Moon/Jace, the Mind Sculptor control
I can’t quite remember what happened in game one. He played a Jace at some point and Brainstormed a couple times before I killed it, but I guess he didn’t draw much relevant. It seemed like the deck might have had some trouble closing out the game, but in any case, I won somehow.

I sided in Negates for Paths.

Game two I remember a little better. The game went kind of long, with him countering and Exploding some guys away.  It got to a point where I had a Noble Hierarch and a Goyf and he had a Blood Moon. He played Threads of Disloyalty on my Goyf, so I played another one.  The next turn my Goyf attacked with exalted, and “his” was forced to chump. I played another Goyf to get through his Jace bouncing my guys. He Brainstormed once or twice, but I guess all he could find were counters and another Blood Moon, as he played a second copy. It’s possible he should’ve Threadsed the Hierarch so I couldn’t recast Goyfs or play more if he bounced them with Jace, but I guess he drew the Jace after he played the threads, and I ended up drawing my one-of Forest anyhow, so I don’t know that it would’ve mattered. He eventually succumbed to the Goyf beatdown.

Win 2-0 (7-1)

I see that my second round opponent has beaten his Elves opponent with Living End, but we are opposite sides of the bracket, so we just walk to the other table to watch the other matches, Living end vs. Thopter-Depths and Faeries vs. All-in red. I’m facing the winner of the Faeries vs. All-In Red matchup, so I watch the tail end of that match. Luckily for me, the Faeries player pulled it out so I was not forced to play against Blood Moon again.

Semifinals: Faeries
I saw from his match that he had some, uh, subpar cards in his deck. Apparently he couldn’t get a third Jitte, so he was playing one Sigil of Distinction.  He claimed had been very good for him that day, but I found it hard to believe that it won him games that Jitte would not have. He was also playing Underground Rivers in his manabase, which seemed a bit odd, at least from what I’ve seen from Extended Faeries decks. Anyway, this turned out to be an interesting match despite one of us mulliganning to five in each game.

Game one he mulliganned to five, but still made a game out of it with a Spell Snare for my Pridemage plus a Bitterblossom and Jitte.  But he was short on lands and couldn’t really keep up with my multitude of guys after I killed his Jitte with a Bant Charm.  At least that’s what I remember happening, since this game is less clear in my mind than the others.

I sided in Meddling Mages and Jittes for Tribal Flames, the Ranger, and something else I can’t remember.

Game two was my turn to mulligan to five, and although I made it look like it was kind of a game, it was never really close. I had a Noble Hierarch and a bunch of Paths, but any guys I drew were killed, and Path to Exiles aren’t really enough to keep up with Bitterblossom and Ancestral visions.

Game three, the mulligan to five bug hit him again, but this game was actually very close. Although I had thought about it a couple other times this tournament, this was the first game where I really wanted a Steam Vents in my deck. I only had two lands, and after he killed my Nacatl and countered my Meddling Mage, I had a hand full of Bolts, Paths, and uncastable Knights. Unfortunately, in order to cast my Meddling Mage on turn two, I had to fetch Breeding Pool + Sacred Foundry, meaning I could only cast one spell per turn. I did make a mistake in not Pathing my Nacatl in response to the Deathmark that killed it, but in any case, I was only able to play one spell per turn as he beat me down with some Spellstutter Sprites and a Mutavault. I got down pretty low before I was able to finish off the last of his pressure. I eventually drew a land and he was unable to answer my Knights of the Reliquary and other guys.

Win 2-1 (8-1)

There was a Living End mirror going on in the other semifinal match next to us as we were playing, so we knew that the winner would play one. The winner of that match ended up being my round two opponent, my only loss in the tournament, and he was happy to see me again in the finals as opposed to the Faeries player. It was not an ideal matchup for me certainly, but I felt like I knew how to play it a bit better and I was determined not to make a total fool out of myself at least.

Finals: Living End

Game one I got a pretty fast start of Loam Lion into Nacatl + Loam lion, but I soon managed to make yet another embarassing play, by playing a Plains precombat as the third land to my Stomping Ground and Hallowed fountain instead of a fetchland, so when he blocked my Nacatl with a Fulminator and destroyed my Stomping Ground to only take two damage, things got a bit awkward. I soon realized that things were about to get much more awkward, as he began tapping four mana on his next turn. I was binning my Loam Lions before his Night of Soul’s Betrayal even hit the board. So much for not making a fool out of myself. I still managed to win this game on the back of my surviving Nacatl and a Pridemage to kill his Night. He had yet to draw a cascade spell, and when he played another Fulminator to block my Nacatl, I drew my card and flashed him the two Bolts that were lethal in my hand.

I sided basically the same way as in round two.  In Negates, in Mages, in Bojuka Bog, out Bolts, out Ranger.  Only, this time I realized that Bant Charm didn’t really do much, so I took those out instead of the Tribal Flames that I pulled out in round two.  I left Path in so that I at least have something to do if he starts just hardcasting Deadshot Minotaurs and Monstrous Carabids and such.

For game two, I started off with a Forest into a Noble Hierarch, so I was pretty safe against his Fulminator Mage. I played a fetch and a Nacatl on turn two, so when he played a Fulminator, and I cracked the fetch at the end of his turn, he said “and I guess you’ll be getting a basic off that too…” Well, actually, I was planning on getting a Hallowed Fountain, but his idea seemed better. I got a Plains, and the next turn I just attacked with my Nacatl for 3 and played a second one, and passed without playing a land, despite having a Blood crypt in hand, leaving Negate mana up. He played another Fulminator, and the next turn I attacked with both Nacatls and he was forced to trade his two Mages for my Kitties, and so I was free to play another land and cast a Qasali Pridemage, still leaving Negate up. He went for the cascade spell, but I was holding triple Negate. The next turn I attacked, played a land and a Knight, still leaving Negate up, and when he went for another cascade spell, asking if I had another counter, I flashed him the two I had left and he extended his hand.

Win 2-0 (9-1)

And so that’s how I won my first PTQ. I definitely caught a few lucky breaks, but I think I overall played reasonably well, apart from the several errors that I noted in this report.

San Juan will be my first real pro-level event. I’ve played in one Grand Prix before, but I’ve never day 2′d, never qualified for the Pro Tour, and never even qualified for Nationals despite being one match away on two separate occasions last year. To be fair, I’ve only really been playing competitively for about two years, with my first real PTQ being Lorwyn Block Constructed right before Eventide, where I lost in the finals to Ben Jackson.  I guess technically I played in a Time Spiral one, but I was really bad then and my deck was stolen after round 4, so I don’t think that counts.

Now I’m just hoping that some other people I know qualify, because I’m only 17 (although I’ll turn 18 the day before the Pro Tour starts), so my parents want my dad to go with me to San Juan, which I think would be a little bit awkward.

As far as the deck goes, I might reverse the change I made to the maindeck and turn the Ranger back into a Pridemage, and I think the deck needs a Steam Vents somewhere, though I’m bad at manabases so I’m not sure where. The sideboard seems pretty good, although the one Kitchen Finks could probably something else; just something against whatever decks you think will be popular, I guess. Other than that, it was a pretty tight list (props to Alex West for making it) and it won me a PTQ despite my lack of testing and making several significant errors.

Anyway, thanks for reading, hopefully I’ll be in a position to write more of these tournament reports soon!

- Ben Costrell

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