My First Pro Tour (Richmond) Recap

Thursday, November 7, 2019

When I drove past Reptiland, I knew I was in trouble.  The place has a way of putting me in a certain mood.  Usually, the result is a big, fat seed of fascination, intensified by the possibility of one day sharing my first experience in this otherworldly attraction with my two-year-old son.  It speaks to me in a way the nearby Little League World Series does not.  Perhaps my sports-loving son will disagree when he is old enough to stratify his interests, maybe before then.  The slimy monsters plastered to the inauspicious building mark a third of my progress to my oft-traveled Washington, DC destination.  But not today.  The bug-eyed creatures leered with darker energy, hissing through sharp teeth as if to say you’re only two hours into this drive, you have so much farther to go.

And so began the first of many mistakes during my first Pro Tour weekend, driving the entirety of Rochester to Richmond by my lonesome.  The nine-hour drive was mitigated by my two friends and weekend bunkmates welcoming me with weary arms themselves when I eventually crawled into the downtown district.  The reprieve was short-lived, as I had to clamor over to the convention hall to pick up my PT swag.  I redeemed myself, however, when, lost and confused as to where and how to register, I encountered the inimitable Alexander Hayne, my pick for most intelligent and witty Magic player.  Rather than gushing over my love for his Table for Two podcast, a modern masterpiece, I simply asked him where to register, to great success.

The win was short-lived when I was unable to secure a promotional Oko shirt that fit.  Offered a small or extra-large, I considered the pros and cons of gifting the small to my wife or trying to shrink the extra-large.  My matrimonial loyalties persevered, as well as my expectation that seeing my wife wandering around the house with the Thief of Crowns glaring back would be an acceptable, albeit minimal, way for her to support my hobby.  More letdowns ensued regarding the playmat – no, the playmats are not part of the swag, the joke’s on anyone assuming Wizards would be so generous, you have to buy them, and no, they aren’t of Oko.  Bloody Embercleave somehow got the call for this one.

Upon returning to the hotel, I discovered my marriage priority was well-placed.  Waiting for me at the front desk were flowers and a mistaken birthday balloon (my wife would later insist she ordered Congratulations) signed by my wife and son wishing me good luck at my first Pro Tour.  The balloon put in some good work, as multiple Holiday Inn patrons offered warm wishes as well as suggestions on how I might best appreciate my night.

My bunkmates were too tired to jam any games of Standard, so I resigned myself to the reality of having put in a grand total of 0 tabletop games with my Standard deck.

Friday, November 8, 2019

I arrived at the convention hall exactly as planned, ten minutes before, soon enough to be early, not long enough to ruminate and lose my mind.  Also, the perfect amount of time to ask some rando to take my picture while I smiled as if it were the first day of school, all with the intention of offering folks around me the opportunity to snicker at the noob.  I’ve been told I often put other people first.

This time I did gush, having spotted Autumn Burchett seated alone, most likely deep in a mindfulness exercise as part of their pre-game sequence.  I remarked that I missed hearing them on the Proven Combatants podcast, a true gem.  Autumn’s humility and insights were incredibly valuable to me, and Sarah Zyla’s determination to make her first PT and anecdotes along the way had for the past year or so motivated me to get to this very spot.  Autumn was gracious and polite and I appreciated them not telling me to get lost, noob, can’t you see I’m getting in my zone?

We got called to our draft pods and I soon found my butt plastered between Seth Manfield and Luis Salvatto.  No big deal.  Announcements commenced.  I waited on pins and needles for the opportunity to stand up, as I’d been told first-timers are asked to identify themselves so everyone can welcome us and applaud our outstanding accomplishment.  Read: allow the veterans to identify noobs.  Regardless of the intentionality or impact, I was excited for this rite of passage and was disappointed when it never came.  Someone either wizened up to said impact or just plain forgot.

One of my biggest worries with the timed draft was the mechanics behind counting out the 14 cards in front of me without wildly exposing the top card, which is the only card facing the opposite direction (so no front sides stick out).  Several folks reassured me peeking was inevitable, just turn it over in a calm, natural-sort of way.  Well, when the announcer asked us to count out our cards, I proceeded with said flip and Oko, Thief of Crowns (no, not altered art) glared back at me.  I was immediately exuberant and also a bit miffed.  I’d opened one of the three best mythics in the set, yet I’d had very little experience in my 42 prior drafts with the BlueGreen archetype.  In addition, I was primed to draft the hard way in this format, as that was the advice I’d absorbed the past several weeks, and opening Oko meant that went right out the window – I was 100% forcing BlueGreen.  Seth Manfield complicated matters by passing me red, I mean, he directed crystal-clear, take red you noob, signals no one could miss.  Luis Salvatto ended up with an insane red-white agro deck. 

Pack 1 Pick 2 was between the Red 5-drop Syr and Charmed Sleep.  Now, I’d done a bunch of drafts and never liked having a third color, not even a splash.  Looking back at this pick, I definitely should have taken the Syr and looked to suck it up and splash green or blue.  To be fair, my decision was based on some intentionality.  I’d drafted Oko twice prior and had little success with the resulting three color monstrosities.  I really wanted to stick with two colors, and there were tons of games, admittedly most with BlueRed, where I really wanted as many Charmed Sleeps as I could get.  I took Charmed Sleep.  And so, my mistakes continued.  I was, however, rewarded with a Maraleaf Pixie pick 3.

Around this time one of my contacts started bothering me.  A lot.  Either my eye became dry or something got into it, and I began tearing up and wished I could just call a judge and go to the bathroom to straighten things out.  I’d peer at packs with one-eye, blink forty times in a row, and try to stare at dark spots on the table for prolonged periods of time to no avail.  I can’t remember this happening to me ever before, at least not in the past year, yet here I was, a few picks and an Oko deep into a Pro Tour draft, and I was struggling with all my might to keep my contact in.  It must not have been terrible, because I didn’t remove it and play the disoriented when I look anywhere game, but it was frustrating.  Naturally, all the commotion ceased the moment the draft ended.

Somehow I messed up the mechanics of the top-card flip in pack two.  I spotted an uncommon during this process, so the rare was foreign to me until I examined the entire pack.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered Garruk staring back.  So I just opened the two best planeswalkers in the set and I was playing Sultai.  Sure.  The draft ended with me settling into BlueGreen with a Black splash.  Overall, I had two Trail of Crumbs, the two planeswalkers, 2 Fierce Witchstalkers, and generally pretty good stuff, but I was nervous about the three color business and my curve, which was unexciting. I had too many three-drops and little removal, notably not one Outmuscle.  I’d had limited success with midrange food decks in practice, and with the third color, even though I had two bombs, I wasn’t confident with how this deck would play out.  My splits were 8 Forest, 7 Island, and 3 Swamp.  I included a maindeck Reave Soul as my second black mana requirement.

Draft Deck:

Before the first round began, they announced this Pro Tour had 495 players, but for some reason only 494 were listed on the final standings sheet.

Round 1 – UR – Brett

Well, here it began, my first Pro Tour match, and I found myself on the draw.  Brett mulled to 6 game 1 and we both kept 7 game 2.  To my complete surprise, both games went like clockwork.  My Fierce Witchstalkers worked wonders and Run Away Together rescued one from Charmed Sleep.  Trail of Crumbs went bonkers game two and I gained more life than I would need all tournament.  Brett lamented a problem somewhat similar to mine.  He opened a Royal Scions Pack 1 Pick 1 and noted he’d gotten some tunnel vision, which was really also the story of my draft.  Pro players like Seth and Luis might be able to deftly navigate constraints imposed on opening multi-color cards, but my hope for any future high-level draft would be to open a mono-color bomb, read signals well, be lucky enough to stay in that color, and enter into a comfortable  and familiar archetype.  However, the silver lining was I’d just achieved my only goal for the day: winning a Pro Tour match, and it was my first one!

Round 2 – UW – Sergio

My round 2 opponent was baller.  Later, these suspicions were confirmed as he had the highest Elo of all my opponents (which, considering my final record, really shouldn’t come as a surprise).  What was a surprise was his deck, which in my opinion, was a very weak BlueWhite aggro build, with no fliers and no Flutterfox.  As a reminder, this guy was baller, and I remembered many times hearing from fellow players they’d been smashed by incredible players wielding a mash of average commons and uncommons.  Game 1 was the harbinger of the bad times to come.  We both mulled to 6 and I was stuck on one color, having only drawn Forests.  The 3-color problem reared its ugly head.  It literally took him forever to kill me with a  Gingerbrute and the 3-mana artifact, but after not drawing my colors, I just died.  Game 2 went much better for me, and I understood right away that if I landed a planeswalker early enough, he had no way to handle it. However, while Garruk won me this game, he had a solid board presence and my life total was low enough that it took me many turns before I could safely attack.  After the match, I asked Sergio about this and he insisted I may have been safe to attack one turn before I actually did, but not any before then.  We hustled on to game 3 with about six or seven minutes of time left.  Sergio did not slow play at all, far from it, but he was clearly playing for the draw.  Again, we both mulled to 6 and I kept a hand with Garruk.  If I had ever drawn a Swamp, I would have undoubtedly won, but it was not to be, and the 3-color problem manifested itself here.

Round 3 – BW Knights – Ryan

This guy knew what he was doing.  He drafted a solid BlackWhite Knights deck and game 1 he played turn 3 Oathsworn Knight and I didn’t have Charmed Sleep. Then I missed several land drops.  My curve and midrange plan were exposed – not only was his deck fast with a great curve, but also he had strong cards to handle going to a late game.  Game 2 his curve went exactly like this – turn 2 Charming Prince, turn 3 Oathsworn Knight, and turn 4 Rankle.  Unlike game 1, where I needed my 6th land and never drew it, I flooded out, though I did manage to cast both planeswalkers and survive for an exceptionally long time, but his board presence and my low life total were just too much to overcome.  Also, fun fact, his Charming Prince returned his stolen-by-Oko Rankle, so that didn’t help matters much, either.

Overall, it was disappointing to go 1-1-1 with Oko and Garruk powering my deck.  I was embarrassed to cop to my record and confess that I’d had these two bombs.  I felt like a noob who couldn’t get the job done.  However, I didn’t beat myself up too much for a few reasons.  I had real mana problems both Round 2 and Round 3 (though I think my Round 3 opponent’s deck was more streamlined than mine). Losing Round 2 was the killer.  My lack of a solid curve and the three-color nature of my deck were too big an inconvenience for those two planeswalkers.  I’m not sure how I could have engineered a more efficient deck, as anyone opening Oko and Garruk would have played them, but with my deck built the way it was, mana problems got me into trouble.

Round 4 – Sultai Oko – Joseph

As the Standard portion of the tournament began, I discovered this was truly the Oko Pro Tour.  We had open decklists, which generally led to the anticlimax of discovering which two or three card choices were different between my opponents’ and my decks.  Joseph had Liliana to my Ugin.  He top decked Oko and then Noxious Grasp to break parity game 1.  Game 2 I made a bad decision not to mulligan and it cost me.

Here’s a link to my decklist: Michael Siembor’s standard decklist.

Round 5 – Sultai Oko – Ally

I got in my head a little bit here, as I knew Ally had just finished highly at an SCG event with this deck.  My insecurity with my lack of practice compounded when I saw her two maindeck Elderspells on her decklist.  True to form, she drew one Game 1 when I was ahead and it was a nose-dive from there.  Game 2 she double Noxious Grasped my Oko and Vraska when she had nothing on her board and she turned Nissa into Krasis into victory rather quickly.

Round 6 – Temur Reclamation – Adrian

Game 2 I almost got there, but as this deck is apt to do, he barely turned the corner and the game was decided on that turn.

Round 7 – Oko something – Parker  

Parker brought back the smile to my face as he commiserated that we’d both missed day 2 and boy these Oko mirrors were just not making this event a good time for him.  In fact, he thought he’d have a better time jamming side events at the Grand Prix in the hall next to ours and conceded to me.  So, while our tablemates to the left and right mashed their eyebrows together debating keeping marginal hands with Once Upon a Time, we sat back and unburdened ourselves from the complication of said Oko problems and waited for our match slip.

Round 8 – Sultai Oko – Kyle

Let me tell you, finally winning a game felt great.  After getting stuck on 3 lands and losing game 1, I won a long, drawn-out slugfest, the kind that my last round opponent described so fondly.  Game 3 my opponent’s Veil of Summer wrecked me and my hopes to win my last match.

Overall, my opponents were better players and better prepared with the deck. I jammed about thirty games with the deck online before the Pro Tour, way down from my 42 Draft leagues. The banned and restricted status of Standard precluded me from having much time to get comfortable with the format, as there were only 2 ½ weeks between the Golos banning and the PT. I had held off playing Standard, anticipating the ban, and then moved into Sultai Oko too late.

That said, I believe I picked the best Standard deck for me at this tournament.  Sure, Sultai Sacrifice was the deck to beat at this Pro Tour, but without a testing group, playing the Sacrifice deck seemed to go against advice I’d gotten, “don’t be fancy, just play the best deck.”  I’m proud of registering 4 Okos as I think anyone who didn’t was just wrong. 

Later that night, my win column finally materialized, as we drove to Mellow Mushroom. I highly recommend the vegan pepperoni pizza and any calzone, to be accompanied by a variety of beverages, a panacea to wash down the misery of a tough Pro Tour finish.

Saturday, November 9, 2019

On Saturday, I decided to play in the Grand Prix, and confronted the harsh reality of how difficult it is to win at Magic.  After starting 5-0 (I had 2 byes) with my PT Sultai Oko deck, I got smashed (understandably) by Corey Burkhart on Sultai Sacrifice.  Needing to win one of my last two rounds to advance to day 2, I got in my head again.  I’d missed Day 2 of my last two Grand Prix, losing game 3 of Round 8 both times.  Safe to say, I knew what was coming.

One thing I dislike about both this Standard and Draft format is that the games take too long.  Sultai Food does not win or lose quickly.  I’d gone to time unintentionally the prior Grand Prix (Throne Sealed), and I cannot remember another Grand Prix match where I unintentionally drew.  During Round 7 I experienced a tiny meltdown.  At the end of game 3, before turns, I had an entire army of a board state against an opponent who had nothing except about twenty or so food tokens.  After attacking every turn and using Ugin to wipe away a top-deck threat, I was one turn away from putting him to negative twenty or so when we finished turn 5.  He agreed with my assessment, but declined to concede.  Instead of accepting the reality that winning at Magic is hard, there is no shame to going to time in this format, and reminding myself I just was at the Pro Tour yesterday, my one goal playing Magic, I got frustrated that my opponent wouldn’t give me what wasn’t mine.  I’d succeeded at making the Pro Tour by putting these frustrating emotions in their place, tolerating the distress that invariably comes in situations like this, and staying focused.  I reminded myself that not only did my opponent not owe me the win, but also if my need to prove myself devolved into this type of anger and frustration, it’d be much harder for me to be successful as well as to have any fun.   

So…it was with renewed focus, recharge, and resolve that I vaulted into Round 8, faced Sultai Oko yet again, went to time, and conceded to my opponent after a turn 5 draw due his accrual of a superior board state.

Magic is a tough game.  I began as a noob and remain just that, making all kinds of mistakes and getting frustrated I can’t day 2 a GP consistently.  It’s at these times my mind and heart can be dark to my success.  Sure, I’ll lose almost as many games as I win, lose horrifically to opponents who aren’t as good as I am, as well as to tons of great people and better players than I am, but I’ll win my fair share, too.  Magic mirrors life – it presents a series of problems, distributed unequally and often unfairly, to solve, both during the game and systemically around it.  My life is what happens while I’m busy solving these problems. 

Moving forward, I’ll be working on enhancing my patience, accepting my shortcomings, tolerating my mind getting off track toward what doesn’t really matter and coaxing it back.  Gently, warmly, but convincingly. Perhaps hard work and an incredible stroke of good fortune will one day enable me to return to Magic’s biggest stage.