Jund was on my mind.
Sam helped me test. He was on UWR or UR Delver for something like 100 games. We more or less split. We sideboarded. I tested with BG for a bit, too.
This is the deck I went with on day one of the two PTQ weekend:
Modern Courser Jund
| Creatures (13) 3 Courser of Kruphix 4 Dark Confidant 2 Scavenging Ooze 4 Tarmogoyf Land (24) 4 Blackcleave Cliffs 1 Blood Crypt 2 Forest 1 Grove of the Burnwillows 2 Marsh Flats 1 Misty Rainforest 2 Overgrown Tomb 4 Raging Ravine 1 Stomping Ground 2 Swamp 4 Verdant Catacombs Planeswalkers (3) 3 Liliana of the Veil Spells (20) 3 Abrupt Decay 2 Anger of the Gods 1 Chandra, Pyromaster 3 Inquisition of Kozilek 4 Lightning Bolt 1 Maelstrom Pulse 1 Slaughter Pact 2 Terminate 3 Thoughtseize | Sideboard (15) 2 Ancient Grudge 1 Anger of the Gods 1 Batterskull 1 Courser of Kruphix 4 Fulminator Mage 2 Grafdigger’s Cage 1 Slaughter Games 1 Thoughtseize 2 Thrun, the Last Troll |
After hours of testing against two decks repeatedly I went home and to bed.
I woke up, showered, and met Bert at the parking lot to try and get a new Zipcard (I’d lost mine). We broke into several Zipcars (with the help of Zipcar operator) and no cards were to be found so we switched the reservation to Bert’s account.
This car was very dusty and someone drew Superman on it.
And Batman.
It seems like a cat walked over it, too.
Round one I played the smelliest opponent in memory. The player reeked of cigarette smoke and improper dental hygiene. After sleeving his deck during the player meeting, my opponent made a judge wait a few minutes as he filled out his deck registration sheet. He then played Ad Nauseum. I had no experience playing that deck because I didn’t think it was a real thing. He beat me in two games and I wanted to go home.
To renew my attitude I bought two packs of Conspiracy and pack warred with Dave. It was awesome.
Round two I played Morgan and we achieved the following board state in the Jund mirror match.
He hit five lands with his Bob trigger. In a row.
He then beat me.
I bought a cute evil Garruk to cheer myself up again.
It worked.
Next I played infect and won.
Then I played infect and lost.
In round five I smashed a mulligan screwed and mana screwed UWR player.
Round six I lost a close one to Affinity, I punted the final turn of the match because I didn’t have my winner’s hat on. Li told me of my mistake and I put my winner’s hat back on and smashed an Affinity player the following round. My opponent went all in with Ravager on a creature I could kill easily. Oops.
I lost to Tron to close out the day.
Most of us went to this sweet birthday girls party at the hotel bar and got several ladies’ numbers for dating later*.
I tried to take a horrible picture of Dave. It’s only about 50% there (that hair tho!).
Zac made the finals.
Anders, the guy who beat Zac in the final round to put Zac on the bubble for Top 8, was Zac’s Top 8 round one opponent.
We left the venue.
And went mini golfing.
It was a very modern establishment.
Li found a friend.
And it was awesome.
Teeming with wild life.
We closed out our day mini golfing on top of a giant cock and balls.
Dave beat me by two strokes. Li made a charge on the back nine, including a hole in one, and didn’t get last place. Bert, distracted by the majesty of the savannah, lost miserably.
Zac texted me saying he’d been scraped by Anders. Someday I hope get to avenge Zac against Anders. Would I ever get the chance?
We got some more swamp ice cream, picked up Zac, and went to a diner to eat 300lbs of food.
Our ride home was hilarious. Bert is an expert driver.
Everyone decided I would play Affinity the next day because it smashes. I agreed. How would I do? Tune in next week to find out.
Thanks for reading!
Much love,
Matt
Matt Jones (born 1980, Rochester, New York) is an artist living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Matt works between a variety of inter-related genres that explore mythology, archeology, ancient history, theoretical physics, comedy, and the paranormal—all developed and inspired by research and personal experience. Together his bodies of work form a way for Matt to evaluate, negotiate, and play with the world around him. You can check out his art at www.mattjonesrules.com.
Matt’s played Magic since early 1995, took a break for a decade or so, and came back to the game the weekend after the Scars of Mirrodin release. With Hugh Kramer he formed New York’s Team Draft League and is one of the original writers for Hipsters of the Coast. Matt’s been sober for seven years.