u/Garvi064

Sometimes it’s just correct to play all your rares and mythics. Never had mana problems. Did have to cycle visionary’s on turn 2 once to find a third land but 18 lands helped so I never missed.

Long time lurker, first time poster...

I decided to go to the Vegas Magic Con this year primarily to pick up some cards for my vintage cube but also wanted to have some fun playing a good limited set. Signed up for both the PTQ on Friday and Limited Championship qualifier on Saturday.

On Friday (512 entrants, 7 rounds) I opened a very middling pool and had mostly silverquill rares but none of the good two drops and aggressive components I would want. I ended up building a Black/White value deck and managed to 4-3 and place something like 154th... no prizing.

On Saturday (517 entrants, 8 rounds), I opened a much more powerful pool with lots of good interaction and DOUBLE Sanar as well as a Mathemagics to tutor up as a win con. On top of that strategy, I also had a Berta that would gunk up the board unanswered until I could get my drawyourdeck wincon assembled. Essentially my strategy was similar to LSVs prismari control decks with the goal to play minimal creatures, just fixing, control elements and a x spell at the top of my curve that wins the game. I did open an arcane omens that I cast all of once throughout the tournament and often found myself side boarding out, but it was good when it was good. Notably, I did play 18 lands and a 41 card special. Im sure this was incorrect, but I wanted more mana sources and didn't want to cut a card. I dont remember all my matchups but ended up going 6-1 through the first seven rounds which allowed everyone at that to ID into the top 32 for a day 2 draft. This was just my second day 2 draft ever and was excited just to prize out this time around. Overall, i placed 10th out of the 517 people which boded well for the draft as the higher seed plays first in game 1 of each match.

On Sunday morning, I decided to do a traditional draft on arena just to get one more round of practice in before the real thing. In the practice draft, I drafted prismari (again) and had the opportunity to pick up a wisdom of the ages about half way through pack 1 and passed it for the red mana rock that mills a card (blanking on the name). I found in my matches that I ended up lacking a big top end card that would help me close out the game... this knowledge ended up helping me in my draft later (see second deck above).

When I got to the convention hall, I found my pod and was honestly fairly intimidated. I've never played on the pro tour or at anything as high stakes as this. My pod contained Nicole Tipple, Dana Fischer, a couple players who'd played on the PT before and a couple newer folks. When the draft started, I p1p1'd a traumatic critique and honestly was going to just hard force prismari as it was what I was most experienced with. Nicole was passing to me and ended up feeding me rather nicely in pack 1. I believe i got passed the stress dream and abrade in pack 1. I also ended up picking up the wisdom of the ages in pack 1. In pack 2, Dana passed me Tidecaller which gave me the wincon I was going to need and the rest was just picking up some fixing and more card draw/removal as well as some potential side board tech for lorehold decks (graveyard and artifact hate).

Round 1 of the draft I'm paired against one of the two other players at my table with a higher seed so I am on the draw. He's on a Mardu deck that played moment of reckoning and antiquities on the loose. Game 1 he stumbled on mana and I just did my game plan perfectly. Game 2, the opposite, he curved out and my removal didnt line up well against his creatures and fliers. Game 3 was relatively close but I ended up being able to land a tidecaller and mill him out before he could present lethal, 7-1-1.

Round 2 was against one of the newer players to the high level competition and was on a witherbloom deck. This was a fairly bad matchup for him since he was on a more midrange game plan with removal and no good way to interact with my gameplan. I ended up winning both games by milling him out, 8-1-1. Just one more match.

Round 3, I was against someone who had played on a few PTs in the past and I know he beat Nicole and Dana to get to the finals. He was on a lorehold (splash blue) deck with Ark of Hunger. Thankfully I knew my deck had an abrade and i had some more sideboard artifact removal. Game 1, we 1:1'd a bit and then i cast wisdom of the ages picking up 5 or 6 cards. He landed his Ark and was able to get one trigger off of it but I was able to dig for my abrade and remove his ark before it took over the game. I end up landing a tidecaller and winning the game shortly after. Game 2, I'm on the draw, we both keep but he keeps a relatively sketchy hand that doesnt have white mana. I dont remember too much about the game as nerves were definitely high at this point but i remember gaining about 26 life with a potioners trove. He landed a prismari but i bounced it with a prismari charm then tutored for my essence scatter with sanar as I dont really have a great answer to it. He never recast it and we traded off cards until he ultimately milled out to Tidecaller, 9-1-1, I was qualified for the Limited championship!

TLDR: Went 9-1-1 at the LTQ and got to play against some really strong competitors. Definitely excited to see what the format of the big tournament will be and would love to sit at a draft table with some of the icons of the game.