Slidin’ under the radar – A Promise to Gerrardfo (PTQ-T16)

Written by KaleGozer on March 12, 2008

Slidin’ under the radar – A Promise to Gerrardfo (PTQ-T16)

by KaleGozer

Gerrardfo is a man of many talents. Not only does he run the league smoothly, eluding an aura and experience unusual for somebody his age, but he also has the memory of an elephant. The past few months I’ve been playing poker a lot, and fortunately for me I’m cashing pretty big. With also those infamous “real life things” needing my attention, I didn’t have the time and devotion to play MTG. The fact that I really disliked Lorwyn and the PT changes didn’t help much either. However, Extended season looked promising to me. After six months of non-activity I picked up a deck, played a few cards and crap.., I got hooked again. So, I logged on to mIRC, walked into #magic-league and talked to Gerrardfo. And do you know what he said? NOTHING! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!! He told Nico: “If you talk to KaleGozer, tell him he owes me an article.” I guess I have to comment the man on his vast and astonishing knowledge. So Gerrardfo, my dear elephant man, I guess this one is for you.

Gerrardfo making sure Magic-League.com runs smoothly

[Editor's note: I've lost some weight since this picture was taken.]

After flunking out with Affinity at the first PTQ, I decided to give Balancing Tings a spin. My good friend DjD won a PTQ with that deck, then lend it to SirBongo who lost the next PTQ in the semifinals to a certain Kamiel Cornelissen. I tested the deck a bit on Modo (props to automaton for lending me the deck) and although it isn’t really my cup of tea, I couldn’t deny the raw power of it. I basically never play combo, but I couldn’t pass up on this gem. I think Tings is a vastly underplayed deck this season as it completely demolishes aggro while still having a solid chance against combo and control.

I wouldn’t recommend this deck to an inexperienced player. Both DjD and Bongo are way better players than I am, and even though I tested the deck quite a bit I still made a lot of errors. Unlike Affinity, where Ravager will forgive you your errors (I don’t care which artifact you sac son, I’m still big), making errors with Tings can be devastating (yes, foreshadowing ;). Anyway, without further ado I present to you, my dear reader:

Balancing Swongs
Main Deck		Sideboard
4 Archaeological Dig 4 Geothermal Crevice 4 Tinder Farm 3 Irrigation Ditch 3 Ancient Spring 3 Timberland Ruins 4 Terravore 4 Tarmogoyf 4 Anurid Brushhopper	4 Lotus Bloom 3 Condescend 3 Fire//Ice 4 Chromatic Star 3 Terrarion 4 Burning Wish 3 Balancing Act 3 Devastating Dreams	4 Leyline of the Void 4 Orim’s Chant 1 Balancing Act 1 Devastating Dreams 1 Obliterate 1 Duress 1 Pyroclasm 1 Vindicate 1 Morningtide

In hindsight, I would rather play a fourth Terrarion over the fourth Hopper. I also think the deck could use a fourth Condescend and maybe an additional land, but I’m not sure if you can really cut anything. As for the Wish-targets, I never wished for Duress ever, neither in testing. I think that card could become an Overmaster or a good wish-target I haven’t thought of yet (suggestions in forum are welcome). Maybe the deck could cut all the Hoppers to add fourth Terrarion, Condescend, Fire//Ice and a 22nd land, making it a bit more controllish. I’m not really sure about that though, as the Hopper was a good card for me throughout the day.

So, on to the tournament itself:

Round 1 – Sjoerd Willems – Dredge

Sjoerd is arguably the hottest magic player on the planet and a nice guy to boot. The pleasure to play him dropped a bit when he played a Watery Grave into Careful Study. Ugh, Dredge, not the matc

h-up I wanted to face. His inexperience with Dredge however allowed me to get back halfway into game 1, and after he Dread Returns his Cephalid Sage I point out to the missing Threshold, courtesy of Morningtide. Now I actually have a shot at winning. The turn before I would win I decided to swing with not only my Terravore, but also my Tarmogoyf. He had three chumpblockers, I was at 5 and he was at 9. I thought “well, he has to take 7 trample damage and he has to block Tarmogoyf, so it doesn’t matter if Goyf attacks or not”. As you might have guessed, I totally missed the Ichorid he dredged last turn, so he’s like “return ichorid lol?” and I’m like “lol gg” and he’s like “lol.” Great start, throwing a locked up game 1 after thirty minutes :P. In game 2, he gave me a window to Pyroclasm his board and then Morningtide him out of the game. However, the second I was ready to do that, time was called in the round. Damn, even though I had the game wrapped up, I needed more than 3 turns to actually win. I decided to gamble it up with my Terravore, hoping he would fumble his Dredges which would make me go lethal in two turns. Apparently the MTG Gods allowed me to compensate for my screw-up game 1, as Sjoerd managed to have three Bridge from Below in the last twelve cards he couldn’t dredge, which meant he couldn’t create enough chumpblockers for my humongous Vore.

0-0-1

Round 2 – “Papa” Sven Dijt – RG with LD

The draw bracket is not really where I want to be, as I prefer to face aggressive decks. I’m quite surprised to find Papa Sven in the draw bracket with his RG build, featuring seven land destruction after boarding. Sven is a longtime player from the Netherlands who runs the online webshop Manamaze.com. I totally blow him out game 1 with the nut draw. Game 2 I kept a questionable holding, but since I had Lotus Bloom I figured I could Act when I had to. The game drags on for a while and swings both ways. After I manage to Dreams his board and get two Hoppers out, it looks like the game is sealed. Unfortunately, he finally drew his green lands to get Tarmogoyf online. With me at 4 and he at 6, both of us couldn’t do much. I drew my Fire//Ice, but that would only get him to one. After he drew another Goyf, it sealed him the game. I did manage to draw three Fire//Ice in a row, so just one more turn would’ve sealed me the match. Game 3 I manascrew at two lands, and an aggressive draw with LD backup is enough for him to win the match.

0-1-1

Living the dream :P

Round 3 – Melchior – Desire

Melchior looked very tired and after chatting it turns out he spent the entire night partying :P I obviously screwed up game 1 by sacking my lands for the wrong color (not the first time this will happen). He managed to get a Desire for six and immediately flips over the first card. I point out to him that he has to shuffle first. Unfortunately for him, he already received a warning for that during the previous rounds, which got upgraded to a gameloss. I manage to screw up and still win. Not really the way I like it, but I guess it counts. In game 2 I drew three Orim’s Chant and he never really stood a chance.

1-1-1

Round 4 – German dude – Beasts

I’m still limping through the field when I have to face a German neighbor in round 4. After my opponent mulligans and proceeds with Contested Cliffs, go, I’m pretty positive about a good result. I suspended

my Lotus Bloom and played my only land, as I had a lot of gas on hand. Just needed one more land to win. Seven turns later I still needed one more land to win. Frown. In game 2, I blew him out after ripping topdeck after topdeck like the true champ I am ;). In game 3, a Condescend allowed me to set up an Act without having to fear hand disruption as the Act was safely tucked away on the top of my deck. I tricked him into playing one more threat and then brought out the Act. With Terravore and Tarmogoyf following up shortly, it looked like I had sealed the deal. He had a Putrefy for my Vore and Living Wished for Genesis with his last card. I had a Condescend ready but only one blue mana available. The play of course is to untap, swing with Goyf, counter his Genesis and win. The problem is, when I’ve got a gameplan in my head, it’s hard for me to get out of that. After he Putrefied my Vore and wished for Genesis, I’m thinking “I need two threats to get past that, better scry to get one” so I Condescend for 0 to find a second threat. Awkward, I know, but it reminds me when Gary Wise had his opponent on 2, drew Shock, and was contemplating how to kill an onboard creature to get damage through. Being such a lucksack, I scryed two Blooms away, drew into Brushhopper and won two turns later. Yep guys, I’m that good ;).

2-1-1

Round 5 – Nick Bresser – Previous Blue

Nick is a friend of SirBongo and lent me the deck beforehand. It was only fair that I smashed him as a way of saying “thank you” ;). This was the only match I was actually happy about the way I played it. During shuffling, my eye barely catches a sight of something blue when he’s taking a mulligan. This is crucial people: always keep an eye on your opponent. Doing this, I noticed this tiny bit of blue which led me to keep a Bloom, four land, Brushhopper, fixer hand, as the gameplan usually is to go long and then win on Obliterate. Since I wasn’t doing anything and his Shackles were dead, by the time he played a Goyf it was a lousy 1/2. I had plenty of time to set up my Obliterate. After I while I decided I had enough to go for it, so I Iced two of his lands, untapped and played my Burning Wish, countered his counter, played Obliterate floating 6 mana and played Terravore and Brushhopper to win. Game two he had the double Vision draw, but he was stuck on one mana. He does find a second, but when Vision resolves, he frowns and passes. After Topping, it turns out there weren’t any lands in the next three cards as well. Nick can’t get over this and I seal the match with ease.

3-1-1

Round 6 – Ron Cadier – Death Cloud

After not making any glaring mistakes in round 5, I obviously had to do it again in round 6 ;) I don’t really remember much of game 1 and game 2, but I vividly remember game 3. I had the combo ready, but Ron kept Smother-mana open throughout the game. I didn’t draw any additional lands, so I wasn’t really fond of going all-in there. As I also had a Condescend, I figured I could wait to either force him to tap out and/or make a move first, and then follow it up with the combo. A timely Thoughtseize however costs me my Condescend, forcing me to combo and pray. The turn I was going for it I drew Brushhopper. Whew, I can now Act and play Brushhopper, which has the build-in Smother/Putrefy protection. I sacced my Timberland Ruins for green and the rest for their normal colors, played Act and took a look at my mana left. GGR. Crap. Ron floats three mana and I’m like “well Kale, that’s what you deserve for screwing up”. I play Terravore, he goes *shrug* “burn for three?” He was bluffing the whole way.

I’m glad he was.

4-1-1

Round 7 – Adriaan Schipper – Homebrew Tarmo-Gro

I’m paired dow

n against Adriaan, who’s at 4-2. I’m hoping he’s willing to concede, but with 68 players in the tournament, one 5-2 player will make it into top 8. Since Adriaan has the highest tiebreakers, he’s obviously playing. Not really what I was hoping for, as his homebrew Tarmogoyf special is quite a bad matchup for me, plus Adriaan is a brilliant player. He’s also the fastest player I’ve ever played against, which must have been a nice sight for spectators as I’m probably one of the slowest players :P His homebrew Goyf deck is basically a blue/black deck which plays hand disruption and creature destruction in black, counters and Gro-effects (Serum Visions, Ponder) in blue and Mishra’s Bauble for the obligatory 56-card.dec (and +1/+1 for Goyf). In game 1 I’m not standing a chance against his fast Goyfs and lose pretty fast. In game 2, I have to go all-in on Terravore midway with just a Condescend on hand, but luckily I draw a second copy. I figured he was going Thoughtseize, Goyf, so the second Condescend was a godsend. After I topdecked the Condescend I topdecked an Orim’s Chant and won the game. Hey, it doesn’t have to be pretty ;). In hindsight, I think Orim’s Chant was a sideboarding mistake, because Fire//Ice is probably better against him. Game 3 he completely demolishes my hand and once again I’m done in by a pair of big Goyfs.

4-2-1

I finish in thirteenth place, which is quite an achievement given my level of play. Adriaan didn’t make it either, he got edged out by Job Meertens (Storm_Jethro) and finished in ninth place. Unfortunately, after seeing the top 8, I thought I had a good chance of taking it down. Affinity, Zoo, Goblins and two Red/Green decks were all present, all very good match-ups for me. Ohw well, it didn’t really bother me that much, the only thing that bothered me was a German stealing the slot . I’m sure I could have stopped him ;).

Anyway, while playing this tournament I realized I was a bit rusty around the edges. Six months of non-activity can’t be just compensated by playing one tournament. Even though I practiced on Modo, it’s a little different than the real deal, especially when it comes to keeping track of your colors. The deck is also very unforgiving, but with the added experience of this PTQ I’m having good hopes for GP Vienna, where I will have two byes due to my old school rating. I’m looking forward to that, also because I’m going to meet Vlada where all the cool guys are always talking about ;).

Dear Gerrardfo, I hope I paid my outstanding debts with this article. As for the rest, I hope you enjoyed this article. I know a lot of you are wondering right now: what about the PV end-of-article pic?

Very well, there it is.

Obligatory PV End-of-article picture:

Till next time!

Your friendly neighborhood
-KaleGozer

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by AnnulVapore on 2008-03-12 13:06 MDT

Who the hell laced my drink with LSD?

by nico on 2008-03-12 13:28 MDT

As always, a good read KG and next time you might be better of trying affinity again, it brought you to america before, remember?
:)

Greetz Nico

by Epic on 2008-03-12 13:49 MDT

The baldman returns :>
Great article as usual, but it was a little disappointing to see Tings, not Slide :/

by DaveK on 2008-03-12 13:55 MDT

Pretty good

by Husapi on 2008-03-12 14:15 MDT

aaaaa

by gypsy on 2008-03-12 15:26 MDT

i dont see how u can possibly get away with running that few lands in tings u always want to hit ur land drops with ur double sac lands to do broken things, i would recomend shuhei nakumuras list from gp vancouver as that list is pretty solid in testing

by slade_ on 2008-03-12 16:02 MDT

aaaaaaaaaaaa #husapi

by MistyFatDog on 2008-03-12 17:49 MDT

wtf?

i went 6-2 at my ptq not loosing r1 and finish 18th and payout was to 16 :(

by PV on 2008-03-12 18:07 MDT

whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat do you mean NO SLIDE???

STILL, it was very enjoyable to read as always ;)

by nasa on 2008-03-12 20:16 MDT

PV says 'I AM A BANANA!"

by gypsy on 2008-03-12 20:17 MDT

by MistyFatDog on 2008-03-12 19:49 EDT

wtf?

i went 6-2 at my ptq not loosing r1 and finish 18th and payout was to 16 :(

thats probably because there was more people and less people dropped

by SUPER_X on 2008-03-13 03:50 MDT

That GL on round 3 is wrong in so many ways, I don't even believe it happened like that.
Also, peeking at your opponents deck while you or him are shuffling is cheating. Nice that you're not only proud of it, but you advice it.

by gypsy on 2008-03-13 04:33 MDT

its cheating if u shuffle in a way that u can see the cards while looking right at the deck, its not cheating if ur looking at ur opp and u see a flash of a card, and that gameloss was rly dumb, a warning is not upgraded to a gl if its dont in a different round. if you continously do it then yes its a gl and maybe a dq for cheating but that should not be a gameloss

by TugaChampion on 2008-03-13 05:33 MDT

gypsy it's a gameloss because although it was in another round the reason for the warning was the same so it gets upgraded.

by KaleGozer on 2008-03-13 06:06 MDT

He flashed the card on his first shuffle after he was putting his cards back to mulligan game 1. He was the one shuffling as well, I wasn't peeking or anything. Wouldn't really consider that cheating, but I guess clarification doesn't hurt. ;)

by gypsy on 2008-03-13 06:20 MDT

ive gotten warnings for the same thing in different rounds and it wasnt a gameloss

by TugaChampion on 2008-03-13 06:51 MDT

gypsy, that's because the judges did a poor job. It's correct to upgrade from warning to gameloss if it's the second time you get a warning for the same reason in the same tourney.

by Eldar on 2008-03-13 07:49 MDT

You guys need to stop mocking slide I have seen my list place 4th, 9th, and 14th in 3 respective PTQs. And I shall be playing it at the GP in Philly just u wait and see it will finish higher than you would expect.

by Quarion on 2008-03-13 10:07 MDT

In the second round, why didn't you use the ice part on the goyf.

Tap Goyf swing him to 0 (he was on 6 right?)

by D4rk3z on 2008-03-13 12:32 MDT

pv is a pollo and u fail a lot

by Husapi on 2008-03-14 03:31 MDT

by PV on 2008-03-14 11:29 MDT

"You guys need to stop mocking slide I have seen my list place 4th, 9th, and 14th in 3 respective PTQs. And I shall be playing it at the GP in Philly just u wait and see it will finish higher than you would expect"

I guess that's no very hard, if you have Bye 2 you got me already :P

by gypsy on 2008-03-16 14:25 MDT

who was mocking slide? the article is titled slidin under the radar bc he played slide a few years back when it wasnt on anyones decks to beat and did well with it thats why its called this not because hes mocking slide

by Juantissimo on 2008-03-17 22:11 MDT

LOL, report because of top16...... on PTQ!!

sugoi omoshiroi