{"id":925,"date":"2016-02-25T00:53:26","date_gmt":"2016-02-25T05:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/bearz\/?p=925"},"modified":"2016-02-25T16:32:31","modified_gmt":"2016-02-25T21:32:31","slug":"pptq-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/bearz\/pptq-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"PPTQ Stories: Slow Play and Tilt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Saturday, I played in an Oath of the Gatewatch<\/em> Sealed PPTQ at The Geekery in Queens. I don’t play Competitve events all that often, so this experience allowed me to think about and see Magic tournaments from a new perspective, and I wanted to share some of those observations with you!<\/p>\n

The Geekery opened just a few months ago, and although I’d heard a lot of great things about it, I hadn’t yet had time to actually visit. Happily, the venue was as good as everyone said it was: clean, organized, and well-lit. It would have been nice to have more space, but the same could be said for most stores in New York City. The central pathway was wide enough, and the pairing locations convenient enough, that traffic at the beginning of each round wasn’t too bad. Chase Culpon<\/a><\/span><\/span> and Chad Horton<\/a><\/span><\/span> did a great job as our two judges.<\/p>\n

\"Geekery\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This was the first Competitive event I’ve played in about a year, and my first Sealed PPTQ ever. As such, it was also the first time I experienced our new deck registration method<\/a> from a player’s perspective. Unsurprisingly, this event confirmed for me that the new method is a vast improvement over the old. The person across from me actually opened an Expedition Horizon Canopy<\/a>, and it was great that he simply knew it was his, rather than feeling bad about passing it to someone else (or having to drop to keep it).<\/p>\n

<\/p>That being said, there was a lot more chatter than I had expected during the process — especially when each player opened their own boosters. While most of the comments were harmless, I definitely heard players making random comments about the power level of cards in the pool they were opening or registering. I’m curious if the new method predisposes players to make comments like this, or if it was simply a function of the size\/nature of the event.<\/p>\n

As for the tournament itself, I ended up playing a bunch of good cards with mediocre mana and went 3-3, which was disappointing but perhaps expected. I wanted to stick to two colors, but ended up red-green splashing black for Oblivion Strike<\/a> and Complete Disregard<\/a>. Although my rares weren’t great, I did have some powerful and efficient creatures like Mina and Denn, Wildborn<\/a>, Grove Rumbler<\/a>, and Embodiment of Fury<\/a> — as well as Nissa’s Judgment<\/a>, which is just an insane card.<\/p>\n

Because I had only one very deep color (green), I made a conscious decision to maximize power rather than consistency. Everyone I talked with at the event agreed that splashing black for the two removal spells was quite correct. Unfortunately, since I was also playing Mirrorpool<\/a>, Sea Gate Wreckage<\/a>, and 1-2 Wastes<\/a>, I was effectively four colors. To make matters worse I had no fixing apart from two red\/black dual lands.<\/p>\n

Round-by-Round Commentary<\/h2>\n