Indianapolis PTQ Report

Indianapolis PTQ Logo At my second PTQ ever (the first one was in Chicago), I decided to play monowhite Kithkin. I have always liked white. White got me into the game, and almost every deck I have played since, has had some white in it. At Regionals I played Boat Brew and got my face smashed off. I like red/white, especially now that Lightning Bolt will soon be out there, but it just couldn't cut it in the contemporary meta. Then I decided to play Elfball at Regionals. I just didn't have enough practice or luck to get the combo off consistently, but it felt righteous when it worked out. My favorite part of the day was when an onlooker hollered "REGAL FORCE!" just as I popped it off and drew half my deck. It was fun but inconsistent, and I wanted something that could smash face every time.

I figured I started with white weenie and back to white weenie I would go. I have also always liked lifegain, so any excuse to play Knight of Meadowgrain is a good one in my book. I was used to playing with Figure of Destiny from Boat Brew, and I was eager to start playing with him again. Just an all around good card--I like to have my lands doing something for me after I get my weenies on the board. My win condition? Turning my guys sideways until my opponent scoops. This seemed like a pretty good win condition to me.

Without really reading a lot of articles about the current meta, I sort of figured I would see a lot of cascade Jund (because it is fun to play Bloodbraid Elf and Bituminous Blast) and black/white tokens. I decided I needed to sideboard heavy for black and red hate. Stillmoon Cavaliers get the job done, especially because you can make them jump up in the air to block Bitterblossom tokens. First strike rarely goes wrong (especially with three Glorious Anthems out, heh heh) and pro-black pro-white? Yes please! Paladin En-Vecs, then, were an absolute must. I had been running Wrath of God, but leading up to the tournament I thought: Wait. Wrath of God is the opposite of what my deck wants to do. So I put in some extra spot removal: two Unmakes and two Celestial Purges (to deal with big guys, and also to deal with planeswalkers. Someone actually played a Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker versus me at the last PTQ I was at. Obviously, Burrenton Forge-Tender is a must for red hate and she gets me the Kithkins for Rustic Clachan and Goldmeadow Stalwart, plus something to fill the one mana slot. I don't have a lot of ways to get around Bant, since I'm so heavy on the red and black hate, so I was just hoping I wouldn't come up against it. The best I could figure was I could Runed Halo their big guy. I don't need Rhox War Monk gaining ten thousand life a turn with a Loxodon Warhammer and a Rafiq of the Many or Treetop Villages and try to win the race with first strikers and Spectral Procession tokens in the air. Two Runed Halos. I used to play Story Circles here, but when you have a card to fill every spot in your mana curve (1: Goldmeadow Stalwart, 2: Wizened Cenn, 3: Spectral Procession, 4: swing with everything, Mirrorweave a Wizened Cenn and win the game), then really all it does is slow you down.

I will now show you the decklist I played in the PTQ and then give you a round by round report of the tournament.

Kithkin at the Indianapolis PTQ

Deck by kithkin on Sat, 06/27/2009 - 09:01

This is my version of the Kithkin deck. The decklist forms part of my latest article "PTQ Indianapolis Report".

Article by kithkin on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 09:58

Average:

"Kithkin" brings you her Indianapolis PTQ report. She talks about her deckchoice and gives a round by round report of the tournament. If you are looking for the latest information about the current Standard format and want to get a grasp of the metagame, this is the article for you!

Main Deck (60 cards)		Sideboard (15 cards)
4	Cloudgoat Ranger	4	Burrenton Forge-Tender
4	Knight of Meadowgrain	3	Stillmoon Cavalier
4	Goldmeadow Stalwart	2	Paladin en-Vec
4	Wizened Cenn	2	Unmake
4	Figure of Destiny	2	Celestial Purge
4	Spectral Procession	2	Runed Halo
4	Glorious Anthem
4	Path to Exile
3	Ajani Goldmane
2	Mirrorweave
4	Windbrisk Heights
2	Rustic Clachan
17	Plains

Colors
Hybrid	10
Land	23
White	27

Converted Mana Cost
1	12
2	8
3	8
4	5
5	4

Type
	3
Basic Land	17
Creature	20
Enchantment	4
Instant	6
Land	6
Sorcery	4

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On to the tournament itself:

Round 1: UW Reveillark
(Click on the title for a sample decklist)

Versions:
Morningtide (Foil)

I wound up drawing versus U/W Reveillark in the first round of the tournament.

0-0-1

Round 2: Jund Cascade
(Click on the title for a sample decklist)

Unfortunately I drew again versus Jund cascade. Yes, I know it is weird that two aggressive decks draw a match...

0-0-2

Round 3: Jund Cascade
(Click on the title for a sample decklist)

I was obvisouly at the table with all the 0-0-2 people and none of us were exactly pleased. The guy who had drawn versus my original opponent with U/W Reveillark was up against me, and he also had Jund cascade. I lost in 3 games, and it was horrible. I mulliganed badly and so wound up with mana flood, then lost focus and sideboarded badly

0-1-2

Round 4: Random deck
(Editor's note: No sample decklists available ;-)

I played a deck I couldn't really understand. There were Jungle Shrines and then also Seaside citadels? And then a Qasali Pridemage? With no other creatures? And no other spells? Seriously, it looked like someone drafted the most recent block, threw in another 20 cards, and went with it. My opponent had only been playing Magic for a month and came to a PTQ anyway. So, since not knowing the rules is sort of a big handicap, I easily swept. I felt a little better after winning a match, but seriously it was like playing a 10 year old with Grizzly Bear.dec, so I also felt kind of bad.

1-1-2

Round 5: Doran
(Click on the title for a sample decklist)

I smashed Doran's face off, and my opponent had underestimated me (I'm a lady!) so it was extra satisfying. I am 2-1-2 now and even though it is not a good record, at least I won two in a row. My husband (gregtron) was doing awesome so I was not going to drop anyway.

2-1-2

Round 6: Faeries
(Click on the title for a sample decklist)

This is my worst matchup and I hate it. There is nothing I know how to do versus Fairies other than play decoy spells and hope they counter those instead of the ones I actually want to get out. I made it to game 3, not sure how, but then lost.

2-2-2

There wasn't anything else to do if I dropped, so I just hung in there.

Versions:
Shadowmoor (Foil)

Round 7: Swans
(Click on the title for a sample decklist)

I see the first Swans of the day. We were in like a swans ghetto. There were swans to my left and to my right, and my opponent had swans. Obviously, swans did not do so great--either that or there were a lot of people playing swans.
Unfortunately I lost to swans. Game one, I mulliganed badly (i.e., I should have but didn't) and got mana screwed. This is hard to do with Kithkin. It means that I only had one land for four turns. He actually killed me with the swan, not the seismic assault. At this point I am mortified and, man, I am angry! I board in extra spot removal (I was running unmakes SB in addition to my four main Paths) and celestial purges, plus Burrenton Forge-Tenders. (Editor's note: I would not recommend boarding in Unmake and Burrenton Forge-Tender because they will not accomplish what you want them to. Creature removal and Burrenton Forge-Tender are subpar versus any Swans player who knows what he is doing.)

Versions:
Shadowmoor (Foil)

I took out the Cloudgoat Rangers for Burrenton Forge-Tenders and I think I went down to two Goldmeadow Stalwarts in order to get the Unmakes in. Game 2, my deck does exactly what it is supposed to do and I do lethal damage before turn 5. On to game 3: I lose game 3 when he manages to play 3 Seismic Assault and I draw only one copy of Celestial Purge.

2-3-2

Comments on the deck
Windbrisk Heights only slows me down. I want to pop into a Mirrorweave, but half the time I looked at the top 4 cards of my deck, it would be 3 plains and a Goldmeadow Stalwart. Fantastic. Also, it costs 2 mana to play whatever spell I have under there. Almost all of my spells cost fewer than 2 mana, and if I have the 3 attacking creatures out I have probably already played a Spectral Procession. This means, if I can manage a land drop, I can Mirrorweave or pop out a Glorious Anthem anyway. With such a low-cost deck, Windbrisk Heights is not a bargain and it is actually a hindrance.

I also wound up boarding out my Cloudgoat Rangers every single time. They were doing me absolutely no good. By the time I have 5 mana, if I haven't won already, I probably need to be leaving mana open for spot removal. Either that, or I would much rather put down a Glorious Anthem and a Wizened Cenn, or leave the mana open for a Mirrorweave and win the game. No matter what, I was never happy to see a Cloudgoat Ranger in my hand. You know what you do when that happens? You take it out of your deck. I know Cloudgoat Ranger is a center piece in Kithkin decks, but it just wasn't helping me. I wanted to play Kithkin so I could play super fast and win right away, not so I could play Cloudgoat Ranger only to be met with a Wrath of God next turn. So I swapped out all my Cloudgoat Rangers for Knight of the White Orchid, took out a land, and put in a single Burrenton Forge-Tender main. Now I have a little extra space in my sideboard and I think it runs a lot better, and it was certainly a lot more fun to play.

This is my updated version of the deck:

Kithkin Redux

Deck by kithkin on Sat, 06/27/2009 - 09:53

This is my updated version of the Kithkin deck after seeing what did and did not work for me in the PTQ. The decklist forms part of my latest article "PTQ Indianapolis Report".