A few weeks ago a Pro Tour Qualifier for Pro Tour Amsterdam was held at All About Games in Boise. There were about 50 competitors, which is pretty low, and the numbers for these kind of events just keep going down.

The deck I sleeved up for the event was Mythic Conscription. I picked the deck because it has a solid match up against most decks, it can be stupid fast, and I was comfortable playing it. I also like that in addition to the Sovereigns-Conscription aspect, it has a really solid creature base with a potential heavy hitter in Knight of the Reliquary and a true heavy hitter in Baneslayer Angel.

My build was pretty run of the mill, the only real difference between my build and the ones I see for other tournaments was that I was running 2 Oblivion Rings main. It was a tough decision between that and Path, but I felt that being able to remove Planeswalkers in addition to creatures was better than instant removal.

Round 1

My opponent started off with a couple of Birds. I thought I was playing the mirror match, but the only things I saw were the Birds. A turn 3 Baneslayer for me (thanks to a Bird and a Hierarch) and no removal for him lead to a quick win for me. It was a real nice confidence booster being able to win that fast without Sovereigns/Conscription. Sometimes Plan B works just as well.

Game 2 I finally saw something different, but something was definitely not expecting, when he dropped an Elvish Piper. I had a rather large Knight of the Reliquary swinging for 5 (and then 6, but he continued to chump it) until he Pipered in a Terastadon, which he used to blow up 3 of his lands to give him 3 3/3's. He took that game.

Game 3 I had a quick start with 2 Birds in the opening hand. That lead to a turn 3 Baneslayer, which in turn lead to a turn 4 Sovereigns, which had me crushing for 16 on turn 4. He scooped.

1-0

Round 2

Here was the first mirror match of the day. I won the die roll and chose to play first. I had the turn 3 Sovereigns, which he wasn't able to stop with just a Hierarch and Cobra on the board.

Game 2 he didn't have the best start, and when I dropped a fetch on turn 4 with a Cobra on the board he simply said "just show me the Sovereigns", which I did, and he scooped.

2-0

Round 3

Another Mirror match, but this time my deck wasn't going to cooperate with me. Mulled to 6 game 1, and he had a strong start. He played a card that I wasn't expecting to see in Jenara, Asura of War. I'm guessing that he used Jenara in the 2-4 slots the deck has open, depending on the person running the deck.

Game 2 also was poopy for me as he drew the removal cards he sideboarded in and I didn't. My first taste of defeat for the day.

2-1

Round 4

My opponent saw me play a turn 1 Hierarch and exclaimed "oh, this again". I heard he was playing Grixis, but I never saw him play any land that could produce Blue. Don't remember too much from the first game except that he used all of his removal on my small drops, but when I drew my big guns, he didn't have an answer.

Game 2 he had more removal, to the point that after turn 5, we both had empty hands, but I had a Baneslayer on the board and he had a Cunning Sparkmage. I noticed that he would agressively tap the Sparkmage at the end of my turn, almost like he was trying to race me. If he was trying to race me, he must have been out of his mind. It was like I was driving a Corvette and he was pulling a Rickshaw. It only took me a few swings with the Angel to get the win.

Afterwards he went on a tirade for a few minutes telling me how he designed his deck to beat mine and that there was no way I was supposed to win the match. He claimed that the only reason I won game 1 was because he terminated the wrong creature and that there was no way I would have beat him in a 3rd game. Well, there was no third game, so he had to deal with it.

3-1

Round 5

Was worried when I mulled to 6 Game 1 and saw my opponent running the Boros deck. He had a fairly quick start, but I was able to stabilize with 4 life left and my creatures were too much for him.

Game 2 his start was fine, but I drew some of the removal I brought in from the board. Again, as the problem with Boros usually is, once I got my bigger creatures out there wasn't much he could do without drawing a Path. He didn't draw one, but I drew a Sovereigns. That quickly ended the game

4-1

Round 6

When standings were posted before the fianl round of swiss, I was standing in 5th. There were some people who had gone to a time draw earlier in the tournament, and they were in a position where if they won they could make the top 8, so people weren't totally sure how this round would go down.

I was paired against Ethan, a local player I usually see every week, and I knew he was running Red Deck Wins, which can be a tough match for me. He offered a draw, and knowing what he was playing, I agreed.

4-1-1

After we drew, there was a player we were talking to who pointed out that even though I was in 5th and Ethan was in 7th with the standings after the previous round, but there were some people who had to play the final round rather than drawing, and it was possible they could leapfrog us in the standings.

As it turned out, we made the correct decision and both of us were in the top 8.

Quarterfinals.

This was only my second top 8 at a large tournament (I made the top 8 of last years States), and I'm not afraid to admit that I'm not completely comforatble with people watching me so intently.

I found out he was playing playing a version of Jund that doesn't run some of the usual creatures but runs Eldrazi Monument. In game 1 it seemed like he had an answer for every creature I played. He was running creatures like Nest Invader and Goblin Ruinblaster in the main deck. He eventually loaded his board with several creatures and then dropped a Monument, which sealed my fate.

Game 2 I had a solid starting hand, but I knew I had to play it safe. I was able to cast Sovereigns and noticed I had a Bant Charm in hand. I took a big risk by swinging with a Birds and finding a Conscription to put on it to intentionally draw a Terminate out of his hand. A friend of mine question me doing this after the game, and I told him that I believed that he had two removal spells in hand, and I could only counter 1, so I took the risk. It payed off as the next turn I swung with the Sovereigns themselves and put a conscription on it and as expected he tried to terminate it, but I countered it with a Bant charm (which I was so excited to cast that I tapped for mana incorrectly, which thankfully was only a warning) and swung for leathal with a superpowered Sovereigns.

Game 3 he was on the play and mulled to 6. My hand was skecthy, but I knew I had the card advantage, so I kept it. In the first 5 turns, the only thing I drew that wasn't a land was a Knight of the Reliquary, which ate a Doom Blade instantly. The rest of the cards I drew were lands, and despite his starting 6 card hand, he drew nothing but gas. His fast creatures in Ruinblaster and Bllodbraid Elf was enough to finish me off before I could find an answer.

:(

The person who beat me in the Quarterfinals eventually won the whole thing. The biggest mistake I made all day was not mulling in the last game. Chalk it up to nerves or just plain bad thinking, but I figured that having a 2 card advantage over my opponent was worth keeping a relatively weak hand.

Oh well, didn't quite get there, but it was a great learning experience.