Life Outside PLT1

North Island Champs

Well, for a first tournament it was pretty fun. If long, and a bit expensive ($15 Armageddon, $15 entry - 2 TS boosters reward).

PLT1 members present (to our knowledge): Balinor, Lord_Riff_Raff, and myself. Also lots of other people there we knew, with a turnout of 98 players registered.

I entered mono-red burn (a slightly modified version of the deck posted here), which I’d previously been assured is absolutely terrible. It was. I went 3:4 over the 7 rounds, dying to pro-red a lot and winning with Hunted Dragon, Rakdos Pit-Dragon, Blood Moon, Browbeat (the first time i’ve seen someone take 5 damage when on 7 life, vs. a burn deck with a 1-counter Wheel of Fate on the table) and Wheel of Fate as the most important. Skred was great, lack of Desert or Mouth of Ronom annoying (last match vs. UW weenie and got killed twice with a Soltari Priest with Unstable Mutation). Blood Moon netted me one win straight off, and the sideboard was the best thing about this deck. Managed to change my SB often enough beforehand that I completely forgot what was in it :S.

First match was LWL vs. UR Dragonstorm. (Nice to have seen DS played a lot today).
Second LWW vs. GW Selesnya. (Lost to lots of tokens and a very timely Wrath first game, then next games Pyroclasm the tokens, and remove the big stuff)
Third LD vs. stupid UW control (first game conceded to Sacred Mesa, second game saw Circle of Protection Red vs. burn control and Blood Moon - opponent stalled and game drew when he had 6 cards in library).
Fourth WW vs. a weird BRW Reanimate deck. (Opponent Wrath’d 2 of my Giant Solifuges then brought them back with Debtors’ Knell then died to Browbeat + Wheel of Fate + burn, second game was Blood Moon “Oh fuck”, burn, burn, Rakdos Pit-Dragon + hellbent = opponent concedes and drops).
Fifth WLL vs. UW Control. (counter, Wrath, counter, counter, akroma…, and very timely lifegain won him close games).
Sixth WW vs. UG Slivers. (first game weak slivers died horribly to a first drop Martyr of Ashes, second game opponent mana screwed and I removed everything he played).
Seventh LL vs. UW Agrro. (only total loss today, completely owned by Unstable Mutation and Soltari Priest, and the guy was an arsehole about it - obviously he’d fully planned on top 16 finish, and was pissed at playing a loser like me, fair enough).
Overall, it was fun (if long), and lots of trading was done (LRR pulled Psionic Blast from his entry booster, after I paid for both of us).

For a report from serious players: http://forums.gameplayer.co.nz/Default.aspx?g=posts&t=7869