M15 Midnight Pre-release sealed 1st place of 70 people! 8-1-1 B/G Demons

So I won my first pre-release. I came pretty close in gatecrash but this is the first time I was able to take it all the way thanks to honestly an amazing sealed pool and a little luck. In my defense though I did have to slog through 7 rounds and a top 8. The funny thing is I haven't played MTG in a month. I just got kind of bored and frustrated with the format. Not top 8'ing the GP trial last month while on the same day with the same deck a guy won the SCG Open pretty much put a bullet in my heart for the game.

 I'd had a long day of work, I didn't get any sleep the night before and had been pretty set on playing CS:GO until I crashed. Then around 11 just as I was settling in I got a text from my friend Kris Brester who owns KAB sportscards saying "Pre-release centennial club!". Not even gonna explain what the C club game is but to say I replied HELL NO. No more boozing for little nate :D I'm getting a little too embarrassing. Anyway I said whelp screw it, it's friday night, I need to be social. With any luck I can join team 0-2 drop and go get some sleep. Little did I know I'd be playing magic for the next 11 friggin hours!

When I showed up I was confused. I couldn't find a damn parking spot.

Omg the place is packed to the gills with more people showing up every minute! The final tally was just at 70 people. I'm in this picture. I'll let you "where's waldo" it :P

* it may appear small, but it's not. the store is 2000sq and there's 3 more tables to the left of this picture. Traditionally on normal nights those are used for x-wing and warhammer/40k

B/G Demons Sealed

I picked black before jason could finish saying "It's the demon that lets you draw ca..." GIMME!

I remember my sealed pulls being ok. Nothing amazing, but I did pull an Avacyn and a

  Soul of New Phyrexia

I remember thinking to myself as I'm sorting my cards and making my deck - "Ok I guess I'm playing B/W", but when I finished making my deck I looked down at my pool I realized I had 3 Elvish Mystics and 3 Charging Rhino's. Well avacyn you're cool and all but I gotta be high not to play green and so I tore it apart and started over. This is what I came up with.

"Man Nate, you are intense.." - Tyler South

After the first 2 rounds I was pretty beat.

• Round 1 I defeated someone I didn't know  I don't recall what they played :(

• Round 2 I defeated Aaron Benner playing Jund. I won 2-1. His deck was doing the same thing mine was but splashing red. This was by far my hardest match up mostly because Aaron is a talented player and can read limited combat tricks like leaving b,g, elvish mystic up for a block using necrobite. Sealed is 90% combat tricks which is what allows janky decks an advantage you don't see in other formats. Being able to read your opponent is a huge part of MTG. After playing Aaron I developed ways of separating my mana and "almost" tapping it to represent things I may or may not have. I hope to take these skills to other formats.

• Round 3 I was defeated Handily by Steve Mcgarrah 0-2 playing a B/R burn deck that essentially takes your board apart and then burns you out with shocks. My deck is built for a slower game. If you can suit up a turn 1 or 2 dork with pants you can beat me up long before I can build my board. Most of my creatures are 5 and 6 drop.

At this point in the night you most likely would find me balled up in the corner trying to sleep or drinking a cup of coffee with an ice cream sandwich bar in it trying to keep my shit together. It's blurry on who I played at this point.

• Round 4 My next opponent was a young gun named Justin Ortiz age 13. Despite the stigma Justin is mostly the only younger player at our meta. Justin's favored guild is boro's or R/W. He's one of those kids you have to respect. He's not a casual player, his cards have sleeves. It's generally agreed if he keeps at this he will be a notable competitive player later on in life. Unfortunately Boro's is one of the weaker limited decks. Boro's is an early game aggro deck which needs a tight consistency to function. It's nearly impossible to obtain that in limited and even if you do Boros doesn't play cards that can affect a late game board state. Let me use an example. About the biggest Boro card you could play in M15 limited is Soul of theros or Soul of Shandalar keep in mind the rest of your deck is tiny guys or 1/1 tokens. At best you can give them an edge. Now look at Soul of innistrad. 1 turn later you're refilling your hand. That's what's called "affecting the board state". There's many other examples of this and it's important to recognize how each format and deck functions. Due to the awkwardness of removal and creatures most limited games last 10+ turns and it's important to be able to turn things around late game. 1/1 dudes just do not do that. I defeated justin 2-0.

• Round 5 Next I played a guy named Zane. I don't know much about him other than he watched the board state like a hawk and his top decks were insane. We spent the games goofing around and trying to recall who we'd even played. My vision was even started to blur at this point. I won 2-1 

"Omg is it light out?"

• Round 6 I believe my final game was against Jordan Miller. Probably the most feared limited player having won several pre-releases. Jordan is not forgiving. He will hold you accountable and it's your job to know what your deck does not his even if it's friendly limited. This tournament Jordan had gotten a weaker pool but again a lot of it comes down to how tightly you play. I ended up winning because I had a Charging Rhino with Eternal Thirst on it after he'd played Goblin Rabblemaster. Each turn he had to run a 1/1 goblin into my rhino trigging lifegain and +1/+1 counters. He held out several turns. I was honestly kinda out of it and so I was unable to formulate a plan to alpha strike him and risk losing my board so I just sat back and waited for him to give in. I won 2-0

• Round 7 I tied with Tyler to enter top 8. Too tired just want my packs.

For some reason I was the second highest seed player standing @2nd/8. I wish I'd kept the sheet. I believe it was because nearly all my opponents I'd played got in top 8 or vied for it.

• T8 Round 1 My opponent was my only loss of the night Steve M again. This time I knew what I was facing and and knew I had to get and maintain board state. regardless he beat my face in game one. Game 2 and 3 he flooded out on land just long enough for me to get my board online and put him under. 2-1

• T8 Round 2 I was up against Aaron again. This time we understood perfectly this would be a match revolving around elvish mystic coming out swinging. I decimated him game 1. However game 2 he got his deathtouch combo online Paragon+Black creatures like Typhoid Rats before I could get any damage in. He swung all in and I made the mistake of double blocking a small non deathtouch guy thinking he had a combat trick. He gave it deathtouch :(. game 3 was exceptionally close but I believe I won by getting soul of phyrexia online and pushed him out a window.

• T8 Round 3 final match was against Clay Hathaway playing R/G pants. The idea was to put mean red guys on the table and enchant the crap out of them. In my defense it was 10:30 in the morning and I begged him to figure out a way we could split. unfortunately due to the massive number of attendees the prize pool split between 1st and 2nd didn't justify it and there was a little prestige on the line for both of us in limited. While this is mostly a fog I know I basically crushed him 2 games to 1. his draws were not perfect, mine were and anything he put on the table I murdered. Good games though.

Not really sure what to do with this box. Open it? Ebay? Put it on the mantle? can't decide. I once won $200 at an SIQ and tried to hold onto it but Matt Fucking Cooper accidentally used it for gas money. I mean I clearly left it wadded up in the center console as a momento!

I celebrated by going and getting some CatFish from alberstons(I miss kentucky.) for later and crawling into bed for the day. At this point I'm ready to say regardless of standard M15 is a ton of fun in limited. More fun than I've had since Return to Ravnica and I'm gonna try and play another one tomorrow. 

I hope you enjoyed the blog. Thank you everyone who came out and made the night memorable! ....Fuck you Greg. I hate your face.

I'm out.