SEPTEMBER 2017: UR STORM (modern)

One of the goal of a modern planeswalker is to set foot on a modern Pro Tour. On 19 July 2017, wizards announced that they are bringing back the said event which will take place on February 2018 at Bilbao, Spain. This July announcement really made me happy because it gave all of us that chance to be at the Pro Tour.

The road to Pro Tour is not going to be that easy. For those individuals who are not that high tallying pro points, there are two ways on how to get there. First is by doing exceptionally good at the Grand Prix tournament; and second, by going through and winning two qualifiers: PPTQ and RPTQ. Since there's no eternal related GP near my whereabouts, I had to take the latter. The first step I need to do for that invite is to win a PPTQ. My first attempt was at The Habbit’s. I traveled for more than 50 kilometers but went home empty handed.  A week after I get another chance at MDP’s. I after going through five rounds and its play-offs, I finally get that elusive RPTQ invite.

I did not immediately start my preparation for the November modern RPTQ. I just wanted to relax a little while playing this epic card game. Thus for the month of August 2017, I brought Naya Revolt Zoo in every pocket tournament I went. A successful swing hitting for as high as 16 damages from my battalion in one turn really a gives that satisfactory dosage of dopamine. Then September 2017 came. Aside from our respective daily grind errands, we had the following mtg related events: Nationals, PPTQs, Ixalan, new rules regarding legendary cards, sudden spike from random whatever legendary-related card out there, dinosaurs and pirates.

My Preparation for the RPTQ began on 9 September 2017 at OHS' monthly modern tournament. I had a miserable 1-3 win-loss mark, bye wins not included. I faced the following decks.

Revolt Zoo (0-1) / (1-2)
Mono White DnT (0-2) / (0-2)
bye
Living End (1-2) / (2-1)
GW DnT (1-3) / (1-2)
Total: (1-3)(25%) / (4-7)(36%) 

Did I had misplays or errors? Yes I did.       


vs. Revolt Zoo
There was a point in time that our life point total were at (him) 12 and (me) 10. The board state was: he had two Burning Tree Emissary and a Reckless Bushwhacker while I had 12 goblin tokens. He attacked with everything he's got. I tank for a second trying to pick which among the questions is the best answer: A.) Will I block with one of each?; B.) Will I take it all?; or C.) Will I assign enough blockers to kill each of his attacking creatures? I elected C. "Atarka's Command, mode: three damage to you and plus plus to my creatures."At the moment, I knew I selected the wrong path. Picking A was the best option (I think) because it will buy me more time plus a chance to regroup my hand while chomp blocking.

vs. Mono White DnT
I had three misplays from this match. First, I should have board wiped his army with Grapeshot. Second, I miscalculated on the appropriation of red and blue floating mana. And lastly, I did not bring-in the Lightning Bolts.

vs. bye
I had one. Yes, I know it's hard to believe committing an error during the time you are bye. This was how I had it - I ate quail eggs. After an hour or two, I felt a little discomfort. And during my fifth round against GW DnT, that discomfort escalated to a slight dizziness. Moral lesson: While at a tournament, never take foods and/or fluids that you know will have a bad reaction to your body.

vs. Living End
I had no misplay during this round.

vs. GW DnT
I did not had any misplay in this round as well. Aside from nursing the effects of those damn quail eggs, his well timed Collective Company into a Scavenging Ooze really gave my last round an uphill battle. 

Weeks had passed before I get another opportunity to shuffle and play. I did not changed anything in it because I still believe in my seventy-five. I went to The Block 101 and played in its second pod modern. My match-ups were: BW Eldrazi (2-1), BG Elves (1-2), Dredge (1-2) and Tron (1-2).  Another miserable 1-3 performance. As I was driving myself home, I pondered a bit. Back to back outings with a losing 1-3 mark. What went wrong? I tried to look for an answer by looking back at the things I did.

Let me start with the positive points. First, I won all game ones. Second, there were line of plays that really stimulated my storm thinking capacity (I cannot find the proper term/s). Third, with regards to my four opponents, I have no clue who they are which really excites me because I have no idea about how they play and/ or what are their decks. And lastly, Faithless Looting was superb because of those situations wherein it gave the cards I needed to fuel my hand to victory.

Now let's go to the negative points. After winning all game ones, starting from the second round until the last, I lost all games two and threes.

vs. BG Elves
Game two, I had a window of opportunity of whether or not to kill his elven community with Grapeshot or just cast cantrip after cantrip until Pyromancer Ascension gets online. I opted with the latter and gambled that he'll not draw into a lord effect. Yes! My prayer was partially granted. He did not drew into a lord effect but drew this creature instead - BG shaman pack elf that has "comes into play öpponent lose life equal to the total number of elves in play." I lose life and he attacked me for lethal. Game three, two Relic of Progenitus kept me at bay. I also ran out of mana in my effort of saving this game into my favor. 

vs. Dredge
Game three, turn zero Leyline of the Void. Despite my frantic digging for my Echoing Truth, I failed to find one. I lose.

vs. Tron
Game two, I forgot to bring my Echoing Truths into my sixty. Game three, the turning point of the game was when after I brought down my big three: Pyromancer Ascension, Blood Moon and Baral, his O-stone single-handedly took care of them.  Karn, Ugin and Ulamog soon followed afterwards.

What a rough start. After a 9-14 (.391) win-loss card, I asked myself: "Can the deck still handles today's meta?" Well maybe, or maybe not. If there's any changes that I will implement anytime soon, it's the adding of Opt in the sixty. I am also thinking of putting maybe a couple of Leyline of Sanctity in the fifteen to help me fight not just those discard and burn to the face decks, but also those Baral storm gifts decks.  Nothing is final yet. Will let you know about it on my next posting. Until then folks, thanks for reading!

-Paeng 4983