10th Place finish in Modern Premier IQ

Just like most players I started out the kitchen table way + Show Spoiler + this was around 8th edition and I played with a few friends at school but I was mainly playing Yu-Gi-Oh competitively at the time. A few people I knew only played magic and explained the different colors and styles + Show Spoiler + so after a brief explanation I went out and picked up my first deck + Show Spoiler +

Since I was traveling around to Regional and Shonen Jump events for Yu-Gi-Oh I didn't spend much time on magic outside of school. Sadly magic just fell to the wayside until my sophomore year of college when my youngest brother who was just starting up high school started playing Magic with his friends. This was during the Zendikar block and at that time I had stopped playing TCG competitively. Looking over the newer cards and new sets I immediately became obsessed with deck building. Not really paying much attention to when new sets came out like we did in Yu-Gi-Oh my brothers and our friends would just play that kitchen table style with any card you own you want to use go ahead. So the Scars of Mirrodin Block came and gone with little impact on our play group except one of my decks being banned... the Infect deck.

2011 Rolls around with a new block Innistrad, the set based on Gothic horror featuring werewolves, vampires, and zombies. This is when I started watching the competitive scene of magic and when my group started playing standard(only the most recent sets are allowed in decks). The innistrad block really revamped my love of tribal decks focusing on an all zombie or all vampire deck. My other friends started focusing on the competitive side of things with the more cookie cutter/net deck style. Eventually Return to Ravinica block came out and I started going to my local game shop Comic Kung Fu. During this period my group would play decks like Bant Hexproof or Jund while I played decks like Maze's End. I loved looking for other win conditions in magic plus getting to build off the wall decks.

2013 the end of Standard and the start of Modern. As a new block is released in magic an all block rotates out of standard. Theroes was released in the fall of 2013 and around that time I started looking into other decks and other formats. I became fixated on the modern format when I saw people were making infect decks. Of course that had to be m first modern deck and saw there was an upcoming modern Grand Prix in Richmond only a few hours from my house in March of 2014. With my enjoyment of standard dwindling and desire to compete again burning I poured my attention into the modern format to learn the decks and prepare my own. For those that missed it GP Richmond was the largest constructed TCG event of all time with 4,300 people playing in the event. + Show Spoiler +

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The first round of any tournament can always be a stressful one. I remember that round 1 and round 7 were my most stressful matches but every other one I felt calm. There are 212 participants signed up for Modern today and round 1 pairings get called and I head over to my seat. My opponent is already sitting down waiting for me so I unpack my stuff and start to shuffle up. Turns out my first opponent is playing an old school Red Black burn deck with Bump in the night. Burn is a really tough match up for me because it is easy to throw spells at my creatures and I can never get any traction in the game. Sadly that is what happened game 1, and often times game 1 is a huge race before I'm able to bring in my extra protection. Game 2 I bring in 5 cards from my sideboard, Wild Defiance, 2 spellskites, and 2 Dispels. Game 2 he keeps a greedy hand and I get an early advantage with a turn 2 spellskite. So we are tied up 1-1 this is when my nerves are really kicking it up a notch. Luckily I have such a stressful job and have been practicing deep breathing to calm myself down. I remember actively thinking to myself to breath and game 3 starts with some hyper aggression from my opponent. He floods the board quickly with his creatures, Goblin Guide and Monastery Swiftspear. Luckily I also drew a decent amount of creatures and with a pendalhaven I was able to continually knock down his creatures while swinging in for 1-2 poison damage a turn. Even though it was a stressful round 1 I'm able to take the match 2-1~! + Show Spoiler + Standings after Round 1: 93rd.

Ok round 1 done and over with sitting at 93rd not too bad. I head over to my table for round 2 and found out that I'm playing an affinity player. I personal really enjoy the infect vs affinity much up because it's very similar to a base race in Sc2. Both of you are very committed to your attack and really don't have much time to sit and worry about defending what your opponent is throwing your way. If you guys read the leading up to the event I talked about TJ doing very well at GP Charlotte just missing day 2 and getting 2nd place in the Sunday super series. Well as you might have guess TJ is our best affinity player in the shop.So I've gotten some good experience playing against him to really know how to handle this match up. This series was super quick with me taking the match 2-0 and heading over and thanking TJ for all the practice his given me playing at the shop. This match up can be much tougher if you aren't able to land an apostles blessing or have a Glistener elf to do all your work. + Show Spoiler + Standings after Round 2: 45th.

Now sitting 2-0 going into round 3 that's a great start to the day. One of my big goals for the event was to get 4 wins. After 3 loses most people drop out of the tournaments since there is no way they will make top spots with 3 loses. So round 3 is a very important round for a lot of people. I head over to my table and found out that I am playing against the Boggles(Hexproof). This deck is very similar to the infect deck you lay down 1-2 creatures and go just go HAM with those guys. You throw everything you have onto them and hope that enough damage has gotten to your opponent when the dust settles. Again this is a match up where and early Inkmoth can help out if you are able to fly over your opponents creatures before they get reach. Luckily in my series I had Glisterner Elf do all my work for me again. This time some very well timed gitaxian probes to check out her hand allowed me to plan ahead and save my pump spells for the right time. I've played against this deck both at the shop and other major tournaments and my win rate is usually about 3:1 in my favor. Every so often the spellskite wars become too much but luckily that wasn't the case and I take the series 2-0! + Show Spoiler + Standings after Round 3: 7th.

Sitting 3-0 right now and feeling very comfortable with how my games have played out so far. I know there are a few people that are also sitting 3-0 so this is where a lot of people have started to drop and a lot of the tougher opponents are still in. I sit down to play, the usually Good Lucks are exchanged and a turn 1 gitaxian probe from me finds my opponent on the Twin plan. Now Splitter twin is an interesting deck that you can straight up win on turn 4 with a combo that copies 1 of your creatures 10, 20, or even 100 times really whatever you want and swing in for that much damage.There are a few versions running around but my opponent was rocking out this... + Show Spoiler + Not only does this deck have a combo in it but it is full of burn spells to kill all my creatures and counter magic to stop all my pump spells. Sadly game 1 I wasn't able to get there but I have some solid sideboard cards against twin. Not to mention quite a few people have played the deck at the shop so I'm familiar with the match up. Game 2 Wild defiance saves my creatures and I'm able to sneak in for 10. Game 3 we see some more sideboard changes from my opponent and is able to send a wave a burn spells at my face while beating me down with a snapcaster. Any board presence I manage to assemble is quickly taken care of. Sadly I fall 1-2. + Show Spoiler + Standings after Round 4: 33rd.

Knocked down to 33rd place sitting at 3-1 now. My goal is still to get 4 wins and I'm still feeling very confident with my deck. I haven't played a match that I wasn't prepared for and I'm ready to take my time and think out my plays more this round. I sit down and found my self starring down the same lands I was last game but no delver or young pyromancer. I start setting things up for the slower game to deal with it when my opponent throws me for a loop and cracks a fetch land into a breeding pool only to tap that to play tarmagoyf... Great i'm playing TarmaTwin not only does this deck have one of the strongest creatures in modern(Tarmagoyf) it can also win with the combo. Some very lucky top decks and well timed become immense allows me to take that series 2-0. Putting me at a 4-1 record! + Show Spoiler + Standings after Round 5: 21st.

I've done it I've completed my goal that I set out to do. One of the things that has I remember playing each round was staying focused on the person in front of me and the match at hand not really planning for the next round or thinking about what would happen if I won. Going into round 6 I'm still feeling good but when I found out I'm playing Jund my heart sinks. You remember how I mentioned that Twin and burn are hard since they play all these spells that kill my creatures and I never get any traction? Well that's what Jund does PLUS it plays creatures like Goyf, Huntmaster, Scavenging Ooze oh and the hardest planeswalker to deal with for my deck... Lillian of the veil. She makes me sacrifice my creatures and she makes me discard cards from my hand. Talk about not getting any traction. Now I know a lot of magic players are different some like to joke and laugh in a match. Some are more serious only announcing when they play something. My opponent this round was the silent type. It was tough getting him to say 1-2 words during his turn let alone mine. I view magic as a social game so players that are super serious and don't even talk when they play their cards kind of rub me the wrong way. Game 1 was a tough grinder match with me struggling to keep anything alive. Both of us throwing punches but in the end I manage to steal it away with distortion strike making one of my creatures unblockable. Game 2 I manage to catch a super lucky break where he taps out to attempt to kill off my Glistener elf, I have 1 mana available and cast apostle's blessing to save my creature. Now I'm left with 1 creature and no cards in hand. He is sitting with no board presence but 3 cards in hand with 4 points of infect on him. An amazing top deck of become immense allows me to pump my creature +6 +6 and swing in for game. Another hard fought game but I felt great beating the silent Jund player + Show Spoiler + Standings after Round 6: 17th.

Sitting 5-1 and rank 17th right now I have a serious chance of being able to make the top 8 cut right now. Now I'm not sure if any of you guys have been watching recent modern events and seen this fringe deck rise up lately... It's called Goryo's Vengeance + Show Spoiler + The deck is designed to dump giant creatures from your hand into the graveyard and cheat them into play super early. You can also cheat creatures directly from your hand if you have the right pieces/mana. I have faced this deck at previous events and seeing its rise in popularity was one of the reasons why I'm running Relic of Progenitus in my sideboard. I knew the deck was fast but game 1 on turn 2 I play a Glistener Elf and pass. He untaps for turn 3 plays his land and cheats out Griselbrand using Goryo's vengeance. Pays 14 life draws 14 cards. Moves to combat deals 7 damage gains 7 life and so he could pay and draw seven more cards. He removes 2 simian spirit guide to cast desperate ritual into a second desperate ritual allowing him to have 5 red mana to use through the breach to cheat out Borborygmos Enraged and discard a bunch of lands to kill me. Needless to say I was shocked i'm supposed to be the deck that can kill super quick not die on turn 3. At that point my nerves kick in again my adrenaline is going and I know this is going to be tough. Game 2 he has to mulligan down and isn't able to make much happen so I get that victory. Game 3 I've been able to sneak in for 4 infect again with Glistener Elf and pass turn. He again is able to cheat out a Griselbrand and as he goes through the motions all I'm thinking in my head is whiff whiff whiff. With a combo deck that he plays it is a glass cannon if it goes off awesome but it is very fragile and if you can't manage to gather the pieces in time you can die outright. In my hand I was sitting on the become immense i needed to win. All I needed him to do was miss his next cheat out spell and I can end it. He digs down to about 6 life and is forced to move to discard. I know I have it at that point and when it comes to my turn I immediately move to combat delve away 5 cards and swing for game! Even after the match my nerves are shot I'm sitting 6-1 and just played one of the most stressful matches of my entire magic history. Needless to say I need a breather but there isn't much time before the 8th and final round starts. + Show Spoiler + Standings after Round 7: 8th.

Round 8 the final round before they cut to top 8... At this point a lot of people break down their matches won and how things are going for their tie breakers. I felt pretty good going into the match but I knew that there were people right below me that had the same number of points as I did. So if my opponent and I took a draw meaning we would both get 1 point for the match and put as at 19 points did not guarantee either of us a top 8 spot. With that in mind and knowing that I've come this far on my deck and my skills I wouldn't want to take a draw and miss out just because I didn't play. I would rather play out my final match win or lose and be happy that I tried.Sitting down to play I sadly lose focus... something that I did so well leading up to this point of not thinking about what came next but I could feel my mind wondering to the what if I won and made top 8... I have to mulligan down to 6 in game 1 which puts me in a tough spot but even worse when I found out what my opponent is playing. + Show Spoiler + I'm playing the mirror match up. Infect vs Infect how fitting that one of us will move on to the top 8. Sadly his deck was designed to be more controlling and I got punished a lot more easily. He takes game 1 with relative ease but I fell comfortable with my sideboard and move into game two. I'm able to place down an early spellskite but my opponent does the same. This locks down on pump spells from being very effective. That makes the game more reliant on having a lot of creatures out or having pendalhaven to pump or smaller guys. It came down to 1 turn if I could survive I win next turn unless he had some tricks up his sleeve. Sadly he pulled something I didn't think of using 2 pendalhavens in one turn. Pendalhaven is a legendary land that means you can only have 1 on the battle field under your control at a time. He top decks a second pendalhaven and uses his first to pump up his unbloackable Glistener Elf in his main phase. He actives his inkmoth and plays the second pendalhaven, choosing to sacrifice the tapped one. This way he can pump up his inkmoth and swing for 4 infect. + Show Spoiler + Standings after Round 8: 10th. A tough fought match but it had been a long day with the event starting at 10am and it was 6:15 when my match finished.