Qualifying for the first Regional PTQ’s became a goal of mine, and anyone else looking to make it onto the Pro Tour, as soon as the new PTQ system was announced. But I chose to put Preliminary PTQ’s on the backburner in January, instead spending my weekends playing in three SCG Opens and a regular PTQ.

This past weekend was my first chance to double PPTQ. Sealed on Saturday, and Standard on Sunday.

Three other friends and I carpooled to the 40-person Sealed event on Saturday, and I ended up with a straightforward pool that was guided by my removal spells and dual lands. I registered this Red-Green splash Black deck:

Sealed Deck

[deck]
[Lands]
1 Frontier Bivouac
1 Rugged Highlands
2 Bloodfell Caves
1 Bloodstained Mire
7 Forest
4 Mountain
1 Swamp
[/Lands]
[Spells]
1 Tormenting Voice
1 Awaken the Bear
1 Bathe in Dragonfire
1 Scout the Borders
1 Bring Low
1 Hunt the Weak
2 Reach of Shadows
1 Dead Drop
1 Wildcall
[/Spells]
[Creatures]
1 Archer’s Parapet
1 Highland Game
1 Jeering Instigator
1 Leaping Master
1 Rattleclaw Mystic
1 Whisperer of the Wilds
1 Tuskguard Captain
1 Bloodfire Enforcers
1 Goblin Heelcutter
1 Feral Krushok
1 Ambush Krotiq
1 Hooting Mandrills
1 Shockmaw Dragon
[/Creatures]
[Sideboard]
1 Debilitating Injury
1 Arashin War Beast
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

I had a glaring lack of multicolored cards, which made my deck feel slightly underpowered. I also misbuilt by playing [card]Ambush Krotiq[/card] over [card]Arashin War Beast[/card], and I swapped the two after every game one. But I had plenty of solid removal and mana acceleration, with some nice top-end haymakers in [card]Shockmaw Dragon[/card], [card]Wildcall[/card], and [card]Dead Drop[/card]. It was good enough for a 5-1 record through the Swiss rounds, putting me in first seed for the Top 8 draft.

The draft began with me opening and taking a [card]Silumgar, the Drifting Death[/card] from the Fate Reforged pack, passing a [card]Mistfire Adept[/card]. I decided to try to make Blue my splash color to position myself better for pack two. I was happy to grab a [card]Noxious Dragon[/card], two [card]Whisperer of the Wilds[/card], and two [card]Abzan Kin-Guard[/card]s out of the first pack, setting up to be base Green-Black.

I got passed a [card]Trail of Mystery[/card] in pack two, which I took, leading me to prioritize morph creatures. I ended up with three [card]Abzan Guide[/card]s, a [card]Death Frenzy[/card], and a [card]High Sentinels of Arashin[/card] that I opened in pack three.

Draft Deck

[deck]
[Lands]
1 Opulent Palace
1 Jungle Hollow
2 Blossoming Sands
1 Tranquil Cove
6 Swamp
5 Forest
1 Plains
1 Island
[/Lands]
[Spells]
1 Trail of Mystery
1 Roar of Challenge
1 Death Frenzy
1 Enhanced Awareness
1 Rite of the Serpent
[/Spells]
[Creatures]
1 Ruthless Ripper
2 Whisperer of the Wilds
1 Monastery Flock
2 Abzan Kin-Guard
1 High Sentinels of Arashin
1 Sidisi’s Pet
1 Dazzling Ramparts
1 Feral Krushok
3 Abzan Guide
1 Noxious Dragon
1 Silumgar, the Drifting Death
1 Woolly Loxodon
1 Shambling Attendants
[/Creatures]
[Sideboard]
1 Highland Game
1 Return to the Earth
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

This deck was lacking removal, but had a ton of lifelink, and the combo of [card]Roar of Challenge[/card] plus deathtouch creatures. It was kind of slow and clunky, and I probably needed to draw [card]Death Frenzy[/card] a lot in order to win. I ended up losing to a Blue-Red aggro deck with a lot of fliers and four [card]Singing Bell Strike[/card]s. Three out of four members of our car made the Top 8, but we were all eliminated in the quarterfinals. It was a major letdown – we expected for one of us to have won the tournament since we were spread out among the Top 8 bracket, being the first, second, and third seeds.

We all got back on the horse for Sunday’s Standard PPTQ. 31 players, five rounds this time. Red-White Aggro has been winning a lot lately, so I decided to get in while it’s hot:

Red-White Aggro

[deck]
[Lands]
4 Temple of Triumph
4 Battlefield Forge
1 Evolving Wilds
10 Mountain
5 Plains
[/Lands]
[Spells]
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
4 Chained to the Rocks
1 Wild Slash
4 Lightning Strike
1 Valorous Stance
4 Hordeling Outburst
1 Outpost Siege
4 Stoke the Flames
[/Spells]
[Creatures]
4 Seeker of the Way
1 Soulfire Grand Master
1 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
2 Ashcloud Phoenix
4 Stormbreath Dragon
[/Creatures]
[Sideboard]
1 Abzan Advantage
2 Glare of Heresy
1 Valorous Stance
3 Arc Lightning
1 Hammer of Purphoros
3 Hushwing Gryff
2 Outpost Siege
1 End Hostilities
1 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

As you can see, I like to build my decks using a “four copies of the good cards, one copy of the situational cards” strategy. The one-of’s are usually legendary or have diminishing returns, but also give me more options and keep my opponents guessing. I also love [card]Outpost Siege[/card] a lot, and it was the key card for my post-sideboard gameplan. My tournament went as follows:

Round 1: Win vs. U/W Heroic
Round 2: Draw vs. Esper Control
Round 3: Win vs. Abzan Aggro
Round 4: Win vs. U/B Control
Round 5: Intentional Draw
Quarterfinals: Win vs. R/W Aggro
Semifinals: Win vs. U/W Heroic
Finals: Win vs. R/W Aggro

In round two, I faced my roommate Matt on Esper Control. Since we started game three with only a minute left on the clock, it wasn’t clear who was winning the match. We both ended up making the Top 8, so the unintentional draw ended up working out for both of us.

Round four, I got my revenge against the guy who eliminated me the previous day in the quarterfinals of the draft. As with most of my games that day, I stuck an [card]Outpost Siege[/card] on “Khans” and rode it to victory. Many Blue-Black Control players seem to have [card]Jorubai Murk Lurker[/card]s post-board, but [card]Valorous Stance[/card] and [card]Stoke the Flames[/card] are efficient at thwarting that plan.

The Top 8 pitted friends against friends. Like it or not, we would have to knock each other out – but that’s just how local tournaments go. The last person standing would be, as we like to call it, the “Friendslayer Paladin.”

In game three of the quarterfinals, versus one of my carmates from the day before, we each had a monstrous’ed [card]Stormbreath Dragon[/card] in play. I made an awful mistake of missing one of my [card]Outpost Siege[/card] upkeep triggers, concealing the fact that I had drawn my single copy of [card]Abzan Advantage[/card] for the turn. On a later turn, I attacked, he blocked, and I bolstered my Dragon to an 8/8. Classic example of “play bad, get rewarded.”

In the semifinals, I found myself again in a deciding game three against a friend, this time facing White-Blue Heroic. I kept the following five-card hand on the play: Plains, Chain to the Rocks, Chain to the Rocks, [card]Goblin Rabblemaster[/card], [card]Hordeling Outburst[/card]. After missing land drops for two turns, I topdecked a Mountain and was able to Chain to the Rocks a [card]Lagonna-Band Trailblazer[/card] and [card]Wild Slash[/card] a [card]Hero of Iroas[/card]. Then, another topdecked land allowed me to play the Rabblemaster, who went the distance. I felt incredibly fortunate to win that one.

Another mirror match awaited me in the finals. This particular opponent had just eliminated my roommate on the other half of the bracket. Game one, I found my one [card]Outpost Siege[/card], chose “Khans”, and bunkered down into a defensive role while drawing two cards per turn. I had to fade several of my opponent’s draw steps, and luckily for me, he missed lethal on one turn. I closed out the game, and then the next game, and had managed to end the day without dropping a match. Victory, and immense relief.

Red-White Aggro feels like the strongest deck to be playing in Standard, and can have a flexible sideboard plan. [card]Outpost Siege[/card] is such a powerful and interesting card to me, and though both of its modes are great in this deck, I’ve found that you generally want to be choosing “Khans” with your first one, and “Dragons” with your second. Of course, there may be situations when you can force lethal damage by playing a Siege on “Dragons” on a developed board, and alpha striking.

To end with some quick thoughts on the Standard format: it feels like it’s gotten much smaller. The top-tier decks have been reduced down to something like Red-White Aggro, Abzan Midrange, and Blue-Black Control. Abzan Aggro, Jeskai, and Whip decks have mostly fallen out of favor. The big question is – how long will this last? The way Standard has been changing since Khans of Tarkir; probably not very long.