PTQ San Juan, Reading 20/2/2010

Hi all!

We had a record 103 players turn out to sling spells in Extended today, at Reading's Eclectic Games. The judge staff kept all the balls in the air, and the players brought bottomless enthusiasm, their best decks, and a lot of dual lands!

Let's kick off by looking at how the metagame looks:

Zoo 13

Faeries 11

Thopter Depths 9

Scapeshift 8

Elves 6

Affinity 5

Bant 5

Living End 5

Thopters 4

Hypergenesis 4

White Weenie 4

Boros 4

UW control 3

Dark Depths 2

RDW 2

AIR 2

Dredge 2

Rock 2

Smallpox 2

Storm 1

B/W aggro 1

Reveillark Combo 1

Bloodchief Burn 1

Fish 1

Jund 1

Pyro Ascension 1

4CC 1

Treasure 1

KCI 1

So there you have it. Using a very rough analysis, another way of looking at this is:

Control 23

Combo 38

Aggro 42

The Top 8 reflected that a little:

1 Doran

1 Scapeshift

1 Affinity

1 Thopter Depths

1 Elves

3 Zoo

Here's how it panned out.

First of all, our quarterfinalists:

Tim Hows

1 Plains

1 Forest

1 Swamp

4 Verdant Catacombs

4 Marsh Flats

4 Misty Rainforest

1 Horizon Canopy

1 Ghost Quarter

1 Treetop Village

1 Godless Shrine

2 Temple Garden

2 Overgrown Tomb

/23 lands

4 Tidehollow Sculler

4 Noble Hierarch

4 Doran, the Siege Tower

4 Knight of the Reliquary

4 Tarmogoyf

3 Birds of Paradise

2 Qasali Pridemage

2 Baneslayer Angel

/27 creatures

2 Umezawa’s Jitte

2 Smother

2 Putrefy

4 Path to Exile

/10 spells

//60 cards

SB:

3 Cranial Extraction

4 Thoughtseize

3 Extirpate

2 Loxodon Hierarch

3 Deathmark

Jake Wheatley’s “Bath Magic Loves Hungry Spriggan”

4 Grove of the Burnwillows

2 Treetop Village

4 Stomping Ground

1 Swamp

6 Mountain

2 Valakut , the Molten Pinnacle

1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood

5 Forest

/25 lands

4 Kitchen Finks

4 Sakura-Tribe Elder

4 Bloodbraid Elf

4 Tarmogoyf

/16 creatures

4 Search for Tomorrows

4 Scapeshift

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Punishing Fire

3 Umezawa’s Jitte

/19 spells

//60 cards

SB:

4 Volcanic Fallout

4 Blood Moon

4 Ancient Grudge

3 Thought Hemmorhage

Christian Bateman’s “Blood Zoo”

4 Misty Rainforest

4 Arid Mesa

2 Marsh Flats

1 Scalding Tarn

2 Stomping Ground

1 Temple Garden

1 Sacred Foundry

1 Ghost Quarter

1 Treetop Village

2 Forest

2 Plains

1 Mountain

/22 lands

4 Noble Hierarch

4 Wild Nacatl

4 Qasali Pridemage

4 Tarmogoyf

4 Knight of the Reliquary

4 Bloodbraid Elf

/24 creatures

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Path to Exile

2 Umezawa’s Jitte

4 Blood Moon

/14 spells

//60 cards

SB:

1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

2 Tormod’s Crypt

1 Bojuka Bog

1 Ghost Quarter

3 Baneslayer Angel

4 Chalice of the Void

3 Aven Mindcensor

QF

Nathaniel James’ “Bad Robot”

2 Great Furnace

4 Vault of Whispers

4 Seat of the Synod

1 Island

3 Blinkmoth Nexus

4 Ancient Den

/18 lands

4 Ornithopter

4 Arcbound Ravager

4 Frogmite

4 Master of Etherium

2 Ethersworn Canonist

4 Arcbound Worker

4 Myr Enforcer

/26 creatures

4 Springleaf Drum

4 Chromatic Star

4 Cranial Plating

4 Thoughtcast

/16 spells

//60 cards

SB:

4 Extirpate

4 Thoughtseize

1 Chalice of the Void

4 Path to Exile

2 Ethersworn Canonist

Next up, the semifinalists:

Jonathan Hagan’s “Zoo”

1 Treetop Village

1 Plains

1 Forest

1 Hallowed Fountain

1 Sacred Foundry

1 Steam Vents

1 Stomping Ground

2 Temple Garden

4 Scalding Tarn

4 Misty Rainforest

4 Arid Mesa

1 Mountain

/22 lands

4 Loam Lion

4 Kird Ape

4 Wild Nacatl

4 Tarmogoyf

3 Knight of the Reliquary

3 Qasali Pridemage

2 Ranger of Eos

/24 creatures

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Path to Exile

2 Lightning Helix

2 Bant Charm

1 Oblivion Ring

1 Umezawa’s Jitte

/14 spells

//60 cards

SB:

2 Bant Charm

3 Negate

1 Ranger of Eos

3 Damping Matrix

1 Umezawa’s Jitte

4 Ethersworn Canonist

1 Jötun Grunt

Dom Harvey’s “We Love Hungry Spriggan”

4 River of Tears

4 Sunken Ruins

5 Island

3 Tolaria West

1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

1 Ghost Quarter

1 Academy Ruins

1 Swamp

1 Dark Depths

/21 lands

4 Dark Confidant

1 Vampire Hexmage

/5 creatures

4 Thoughtseize

4 Chalice of the Void

4 Muddle the Mixture

4 Thirst for Knowledge

4 Thopter Foundry

3 Sword of the Meek

2 Repeal

2 Engineered Explosives

1 Into the Roil

1 Smother

1 Slaughter Pact

4 Chrome Mox

/34 spells

//60 cards

SB:

2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle

1 Vendilion Clique

4 Leyline of the Void

2 Duress

2 Darkblast

4 Deathmark

The runner-up:

Finalist

Yi Ming Lai’s “Domain Zoo”

4 Scalding Tarn

4 Arid Mesa

4 Misty Rainforest

1 Verdant Catacombs

1 Hallowed Fountain

1 Godless Shrine

1 Sacred Foundry

1 Temple Garden

1 Steam Vents

1 Breeding Pool

1 Stomping Ground

1 Forest

1 Plains

/22 lands

4 Kird Ape

4 Wild Nacatl

3 Loam Lion

4 Tarmogoyf

3 Qasali Pridemage

3 Knight of the Reliquary

1 Ranger of Eos

/22 creatures

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Path to Exile

4 Tribal Flames

4 Bant Charm

/16 spells

//60 cards

SB:

4 Meddling Mage

3 Negate

4 Ancient Grudge

2 Ranger of Eos

2 Umezawa’s Jitte

And last but certainly not least, congratulations to Richard Bland, the winner of PTQ San Juan in Reading!

Richard Bland’s “Elves”

4 Misty Rainforest

4 Verdant Catacombs

5 Forest

1 Pendelhaven

1 Temple Garden

2 Horizon Canopy

/17 lands

4 Nettle Sentinel

4 Heritage Druid

4 Elvish Archdruid

4 Elvish Visionary

4 Llanowar Elves

4 Arbor Elf

2 Boreal Druid

1 Regal Force

1 Eternal Witness

1 Ranger of Eos

1 Essence Warden

/30 creatures

4 Glimpse of Nature

4 Summoner’s Pact

4 Cloudstone Curio

1 Primal Command

/13 spells

//60 cards

SB:

4 Ghost Quarter

4 Umezawa’s Jitte

3 Ranger of Eos

1 Gaddock Teeg

1 Burrenton Forge-Tender

1 Loaming Shaman

1 Viridian Shaman