Life, Bowling Green Ky Super Invitational Qualifier and Louisville Ky GP!

Oh Boy, This is gonna be a long one and I just can't think of a way to condense it. It's been too long since I've written anything and I had a busy two weeks. If you want a TLDR read I top8'd an inviational Qualifier and made day 2 with an old RDW at the Louisville GP. you can just skip down for pics and the decklist.

 So I live in Billings MT, it's the biggest city in Montana though only 120k people. It is however very dense like Boston it's 15 minutes from one part of the city to the other so its fairly crowded. With that in mind our FNM is surprisingly large with sometimes 30+ people because it's basically one shop for the whole city. This has been a boon to me because it's very competitive and flush with netdecks. So even though this is the first year I've ever played magic it's been kind of a crash course.

I was pretty apprehensive when I headed home to see my family and saw that weirdly enough there was an Invitational Qualifier In bowling Green Ky and a Grand Prix in Louisville Ky right near my house. Ultimately I convinced myself that it would be a learning experience and would be fun. You have to remind yourself in magic a lot that its about fun.

 I went to an FNM first at Something2Do in Louisville oxmoor. Man I won't even discuss it I got my head kicked in. Just bad shuffles and anxiety looking back on it.

 I ended up rolling down to Bowling green for a Super Invitational Qualifier .

There's me standing around like I forgot how to play Magic.

 This was my deck.

I went 3-1-1 and tied out top 8. 

The reason being was we got our mats and $125 a piece. For a quick road trip to bowling green it was nice. After the tie out we played for 3 months of SCG premium and an invitational pass. I was immediately beat out by a blue devotion deck I'd beaten easily in the swiss. Once again the pressure got to me. We had two judges sitting next to us and I just couldn't do it. My anxiety attacks got to me again I had him dead on board and completely misplayed.

After heading back to Louisville I had a long time to think about my deck and what changes had to be made.

I came up with this.

 

Friday night I signed up for the GP and got my playmat and All is dust promo 

I have to admit heading into the Louisville GP I was pretty nervous and starstruck. 1100 players in a tiny hall. barely room to breath. I remember standing there looking for my first pairing and Brad nelson bumped past me to get the pairings website(lucky sob had 3 byes :|). When my name came up it had no pairing. Just said 1B. WTF? I got a bye? I had to ask a judge cause I didn't believe it. I'd laid in bed the night before feeling dread over having to tough out 9 rounds with a deck that hadn't even made top 8 in weeks. I actually did an embarrassing little dance. So anyway here's how my rounds went.

• Round 1 Baby Bye bye bye 

• Round 2 Really nice guy from St. Louis playing R/G Monsters. I was scared ****less but I figured whatever I'll lose my matches say I showed up and go home happy. Match 1 - I just ran over him before he could stabilize and that was it. Match 2 he got big and my deck didn't show up. Match 3- he kept a 1 land hand and a bunch of 1 drop dorks......oh nooo. I felt so bad. he never saw another land. Nate 2-1. 

• Round 3 G/W aggro. This deck is seriously my goddamn nemesis. Oh you got a smiter out and I didn't draw mortars? Oh yeah that is an Unflinching Courage. Yeah its cool I'll just scoop now :(. Loss 1-2. 

• Round 4 B/W midrange. man the deck is unwieldy. So mana greedy. I'm too fast his removals too slow. Yeah thats an obzedat. Here's 2 Chandra's phoenix. Oh and a Reckoner. Win 2-1 

• Round 5 5 Color Control. That's a lot of shock lands. Poor guy killed himself trying to stabilize. Win 2-0. Was such a shut out I had to keep apologizing every time I played a card. 

• Round 6 Blue Devotion this is a tough match up for me. Nightveil Specter shut off all my aggro and just sits there like a stupid brick wall and Master of waves is a RDW inpregnable fortress. I don't remember anything but being surprised I actually won. There is some luck in magic. 2-0 nate. *Also I played sitting next to Chris Van Meter. My social anxiety disabled my ability to get a picture with him. 

• Round 7 White Weenies. Again purphoros smiled down on me. I was just too fast for him. Spear of heliod normally shuts off aggro but Boros reckoner is like the grumpy cat of magic. NO. Win 2-0 nate 

• Round 8 Esper control being played by Andrew Morrow...where do I know that name? Here's an actual quote from Andrew 

Why do you have to be playing the most aggressive deck in standard? :(.

Game 3 ended with me playing a Burning earth and him being at 4 life with 4 dual lands. Sorry Andrew :( 

• Round 9 Blue Devotion being played by a guy who knows exactly how to play against RDW. waaah waaaah Loss 0-2 nate **** you Nightveil Specter. 

DAY 2

• Round 10 White weenies. God I don't want to talk about this. Game one was a shut out I creamed him. So here's the thing. Game 2 A judge walks over and sits down watching my opponent. "excuse me you're gonna have to speed it up." couple minutes later "You need to make a play".. I check my watch " I'm issuing you a warning next is a game loss". He sits at 8 life with a Spear of heliod and 5 2/2's. I have 6 2/2's and a boros reckoner. At this point there's so much on the board and a Judge watching us. I blanch. Oh no I'm having a panic attack. I draw a lightning strike. I shoot...at his Opposing sovereign. WHYYY GOD WHYYYY? He plays Brave the elements. I forget brave the elements lasts until the end of turn. I swing all in. [B]A moment of Silence for the Worst Magic player ever. [/B] game 3 I'm on the play tilted and keep a 4 land terrible hand and draw 4 lands exactly like any idiotic RDW player who keeps that should. loss 1-2 nate. 

I played a couple more rounds but it didn't matter I was tilted but happy I made day two. Traded Firedrinker Satyrs all over the place like a day one magic player. and thats it. I went home happy I got to play in my first competitive event. I met BBD, Andrew tengen, Andrew Morrow, Pushed brad Nelson out of my way to see my pairings, Had Reid Duke stare at me for some reason and Stunk badly while playing next to Chris van Meter because I forgot my deodorant. Also a girl broke my heart and I hope she dies of Redbutt Monkey Aids.

This is Louisville From the Big 4 walking Bridge

Door prize for a deck check in Bowling Green SIQ 

  And this is the story of my Life ...