So, PTQ this past weekend in my home state of Iowa. Big names in attendance included the illustrious Bill Stark, rocking some kind of mono black concoction that he started 0-2 with. Gerry Thompson was also there, and sadly didn't get back on the train. Adrian Sullivan was there, as were Madisonians Brian Kowal and Jeremy Shapiro. My master, the great emperor and Pope of Modo, username: SICKSICKSICKSICKSICKSICKSICK was in attendence, though he pulled up some tables in the corner and decided he would rather top 4 a singleton PE than waste his time in the realm of idiots he has to actually look at.

Players already qualified who were in attendance included Brandon Scheel, just coming back off an 11th place finish at Kuala Lumpur and a top 32 at GP Vancouver, and Steve Locke, who top 32'd KL for his own invite. Dredge Master Nick Crumpton came later, and I ribbed him after hearing that he tried explained to Mike Krumb how to play Dredge at the PTQ he won in STL (man that is awk).

I had showed up to Ames, which is north of Des Moines, planning to play Affinity because I had it built on modo and I felt very comfortable playing the deck in a PTQ. The night before, I was testing with my friend Matt, the infamous Mr. Cheeks, who had decided to rock destructive flow. I ended up audibling to TEPS, which was probably a mistake because the most experience I had with the deck was the fifteen minutes of goldfishing I did with a stack of proxies.

I didn't expect to do well, and of course i didn't. If i had wanted to win the PTQ, I would have played affinity, because I know it and would have had confidence in my skills as a player, which I don't have when I don't have any confidence in my deck.

Dropping at 1-2, I vowed to play teps again because I felt previously that it was out of my range of decks that I could play; TEPS is a deck of mathematics. I am terrible at math. Therefore, it's only natural that I should try to shy away from the deck. However, I was wrong. TEPS is not a hard deck to play at all; it does, however, require you to be in a certain state of mind. I'll probably get into that later in the week. Moving on.

***

The tournament has ended, Adrian Sullivan is the winner! Congratulations.

***

Yepskies, Adrian won playing the Destructive Flow deck he's written about. He played Ben Rassmussen (GWB Rock doran i think, there were living wishes in his deck) in the finals, who, as I recall, lost to Iowan Gabe Stoffa in the finals of a Minneapolis PTQ for Valencia. I would say rough beats, but Ben was never in these games. He punted a long and drawn out game one in which he could have beaten Adrian if he had started Fireballing with Profane Command at basically anytime before the last three turns. Instead, he just sandbagged the awesome X spell and died.

So, gj Adrian. He is pretty well known in these parts as a cheater, ranging from somewhat shady to utterly savage. Scheel put this into perspective for me later, but he had this to say:

"I wouldn't be quick to outright call him a cheater, but I also don't think he's above slowplaying." (as is evident by his willingness to play Blessing in any and all decks possible)

I have to agree with this, because for a while Adrian was a very frustrating character to watch. Firstly, he may be one of the few to wrangle his way out of dying to a pact he openly agreed that he did not pay for. Yes, judges were called. Second, his shuffling method is questionable. I see nothing that might gain him an advantage, but maybe that's the point. Other than that, however, I think he's actually fine. His personality is engaging and despite his eccentricity, he's overall pleasant to be around. I'm still not sure what to think of him, so until then, I will probably be unwilling to give him the benefit of the doubt if I play him.

Onward! The breakout deck for this tournament was GW Tallowisp, which propelled Chicago players Rusty Kubis and Rashad Miller into the top eight. When the decklists go up later this week, I'll probably do a rightup on this interesting archetype. Basically, it's an aggressive green deck with the 'Wisp engine, fetching Armadillo Cloak, Griffin Guide, and Temporal Isolation. Rashad fell in the quarterfinals and I didn't get to see his match, but I followed Rusty's semifinal match against Adrian very closely. Rusty made some playes that I felt were questionable (Griffin Guiding his wisp when I felt that Adrian was very loudly broadcasting Putrefy), and ended up getting flooded at key points in game three when threats or spells would have been much more helpfull for him. Thems the breaks I guess.

The deck I took most interest in from this event was PT Philly top eighter Jeff Novekoff's Previous Level Blue build, which eschewed Threads of Disloyalty for Smother, and cut the repeals and singleton Rude Awakening for Dark Confidant. He also had Dwarven Blastminer in his sideboard, which seemed quite excellent for the metagame. I believe he started out 5-0, then UD'd two rounds in a row, then lost to Adrian playing for contention. I didn't get the exact decklist, though I now regret not asking him if I could have it. Blue decks seem to be on the decline, and a counterspell deck with Dark Confidant gets my attention because the burgle effects are starting to decrease in place of hate for a broader range of matchups. It's definitely something to consider as the season starts to wind down in the final month.

I'm contemplating going to Witchita this weekend. Iowa took a blue envelope from Kansas last extended season when Scheel left his backpack and all cards in STL the night before (it was a double PTQ weekend with STL on saturday and KC on sunday), and had to borrow teps from the very person who had qualified in St. Louis, learning to play the combo the night before. Matt, still being unqualified, wants to get every available chance at doing so. I don't think he has to worry, as he's easily among the 10 best PTQ players in the central midwest, and has only missed qualifying for the PT once since Los Angeles. I know he'll get there.

I'll probably do some writing about TEPS coming up, as I've come to learn the deck since the PTQ, and feel much more confidence in my ability to play it since then.

Till nextime.