PT MKM Game Reviews

03/03/2024

It turns out that part of doing pretty well at the Pro Tour (11-2 into 11-5 to just miss top 8!) is that I was on coverage quite a bit! Specifically, I was featured for a total of one limited matches and four constructed matches, all on day 2.

So, this article will be exactly what it says on the tin - I'm going to go through all of my featured matches and analyze my gameplay in detail, pointing out interesting spots and things I could have done better.

I'll link the Twitch VODs with timestamps for each match, but there's no guarantee that they will stay available forever (I have no idea how much the Magic Twitch channel curates its VODs). So I'll also break down important points through text, images, and videos. Where possible, I'll also try to reconstruct and display exactly what my hands were at various key moments in games.

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Day 2 Draft Deck

For reference, here's my day 2 draft deck.

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Round 9 (7-1): vs Jesse Hampton (RBu in Draft)

Here is the match on coverage.

There really isn't too much to say about this match, unfortunately. I kind of just steamrolled him. It turns out there isn't much he can do against my deck when his deck really struggles to impact the board before turn 4.

I thought my next match vs Adrián Iñigo Tastet was also featured, but sadly we were the backup backup feature so didn't actually make it on air. That match was actually quite interesting, and I would've loved to analyze it here, but sadly that will be all for limited today.

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Jeskai Creativity

For reference going forward, here's my Jeskai Creativity decklist.

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Round 12 (9-2): vs Miguel Simões (Izzet Phoenix)

Here is the match on coverage.

We join coverage at the start of game 2 - I won game 1, so I'm on the draw here. I believe the opening I keep is as follows:

The phoenix matchup, like many other matchups, is one where Jeskai Creativity plays as a control deck, just with better topend. I want to make sure they cannot setup a clock, spend

Dovin's Veto to counter Treasure Cruise, and eventually get Atraxa into play to close out the game.

So this hand is quite good - I have two Omens to develop land drops and dig for what I need, Helix and Verdict to help me stay alive, and a Deluge for card advantage. Helix in particular is very nice to make sure an early

Ledger Shredder or Young Pyromancer doesn't run away with the game.

The early turns are pretty straightforward - I Omen on turn 2, and Miguel plays a Young Pyromancer on turn 3 with Spell Pierce to back it up.

Even knowing that he likely has countermagic to protect his Pyromancer, I decide to go for the Helix main phase - if he doesn't have countermagic it's much better, and I'm very fine trading Helix for Pierce when I have two Verdicts in hand to clean things up as well (I drew a second one on turn 1, and have the fourth land in hand for it).

The next turn I simply untap and Verdict. He uses the opportunity of me being tapped out to Free the Fae, finding a phoenix for the bin, and also hardcast a Phoenix from hand to apply a bit of pressure. But then I topdeck a

Rest in Peace and the game is kind of over.

There's a few more interesting decisions but I'll let some video commentary take care of that, as there isn't anything too in-depth.

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Round 14 (11-2): vs Samuel Pardee (Rakdos Vampires)

Here is the match on coverage.

This match was quite interesting, and was also fully featured! Games 1 and 3 are pretty short, but both feature one very interesting decision point. Game 2 just has a lot of micro-decisions.

Game 1 - Keep or Mull?

Usually for keep or mull decisions, I'd have to dredge up my opening hand from piecing together brief glances at it from coverage and from memory. But this time, it's quite immediately apparent what I kept, as I get turn 1 Thoughtseized!

So, the hand I kept was a single

Prismari Command and 6 lands, including two triomes that I can cycle but also importantly provide the mana to hardcast Atraxa.

My reasoning for keeping this hand was that in a Thoughtseize game (and against Rakdos decks in general), mulliganing is pretty rough anyways. And if it isn't a Thoughtseize game, Prismari Command on the play can both help filter away lands to prevent flooding, and can represent a turn 4 Creativity (which I think is very good in this Vampires matchup).

That said, I do think it's somewhat close, because the hand is quite awkward if there is a Thoughtseize. And it's possible that the Vampires having a faster clock than regular Rakmid makes it so that a 6 land hand post-Thoughtseize is just almost never going to get there, so I should be adjusting away from keeping hands that don't have a plan against

Vein Ripper.

Again, my thinking was that 6 lands post-Thoughtseize is comparable to the worst 5 out of 6 cards (from a theoretical mull-to-6), and the upside of there not being a Thoughtsieze is good enough. But I could definitely see an argument either way, and would probably want to play the matchup more before I could say for sure.

Anyways, I end up dying pretty quickly - I draw nothing relevant and Sam has the nuts curveout of Bloodtithe into Sorin plus Vein Ripper.

Game 2 - Protecting Planeswalkers

Since game 2 has a lot of very small micro moments that don't need too much in-depth analysis but deserve mentioning, I'm going to again talk about it over video commentary.

Game 3 - Double Mana Screw

After me keeping a 6 lander in game 1, it was very funny to see how game 3 played out. Specifically, we both kept 7, but then both missed our third land drop and discarded to hand size with nothing to play on 2 mana.

And it's not like we kept unreasonable hands either! I think Sam's contains at least the Sorin+Vein Ripper combo, plus two Bloodtithes, and a Mutavault and Cavern of Souls for lands. And my opening hand is two lands, two early interaction spells, two planeswalkers, and a Supreme Verdict.

Honestly, discarding this second Supreme Verdict instead of the second Teferi may have cost me in hindsight. But it was hard to know how the game would develop - Verdict is generally pretty awkward into Vein Ripper and a Mutavault already on-board, and I'm not sure it would've saved me anyways.

Also, amusingly I think I was not unlikely to win this game if Sam had actually drawn his third land on time! Since I drew into the Veto, I had answers lined up for all of his threats, and would've benefitted greatly from being able to just 1-for-1 while we're both a bit stuck on mana without having to discard to hand size. But instead I felt pressured to limit his mana, and that opened up a window for him.

The next turn he draws a second Cavern, letting him cast a Bloodtithe. Of course, I need to Get Lost this, as I can't just let him hit me for 3 while I'm stumbling, and I don't want to risk discarding to hand size again.

I still brick on lands, and Sam uses a blood token to rummage away a Vein Ripper. So I can infer that he probably has a second one in hand - it's one of his best cards after all. He then untaps and plays another Bloodtithe, and I think this is where I make my second mistake - I should just 2-for-1 myself now with March to deny him the ability to use maps, instead of saving it for a possible third land. But instead I pass, doing nothing.

This is especially true since he also discarded a Sorin - he almost certainly has a second one in hand, so I need to hold up Veto for it and therefore should use my mana when I can. The fact that I could draw a third land to not have to exile to March is irrelevant - I have enough cards, I just need to not die early, and take advantage of him stumbling.

I draw a triome for turn, play it, and pass; and this is where I get extremely punished. Sam goes to map the Bloodtithe, and I March in response to try to deny the land. But then I'm tapped out of Veto, so he gets to slam Sorin for Vein Ripper and I just die from there. If I had instead just let the map token resolve so I could Veto the Sorin, and either used March last turn or waited on it until this turn's end step, I would've had a good chance of winning this game.

The funny thing is, all my decisions seem quite reasonable on a baseline level! You don't want to 2-for-1 yourself just to kill a 3/2 usually, and trying to deny colored mana seems like a reasonable way to win this game.

But the problem is that I should've known that he had the Sorin+Vein Ripper combo in hand, and I should've known that the most likely way for me to lose this game was to give him a window to resolve it.

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Round 15 (11-3): vs Jean-Emmanuel Depraz (Izzet Phoenix)

Here is the match on coverage.

This match was again another pretty interesting one, and again fully featured! So let's dive into it.

Game 1 - To Fable or Not To Fable

The pivotal decision this game comes turn 3 - I'm on the play, and on turn 2 I flash in Omen of the Sea on JED's end step, and he casts Free the Fae in response, taking

Lightning Axe. His graveyard now has 4 cards, and he has a Lightning Axe in hand.

I don't remember the exact contents of my hand at this moment, and can't quite make it out from the video - but I think it looks something like this:

I tank for a bit, as I think about whether to cast Fable. On one hand, I could just hold up No More Lies to prevent JED from developing. I would get to develop a bit by casting an Omen, but I would essentially be going for a slower game.

On the other hand, I could tap out for Fable here, as it's not that easy for JED to actually do too much on 3 mana. However, there is a line that would massively punish that: Lightning Axe discarding Phoenix to kill the goblin plus a Consider milling a card would give JED exactly enough cards in graveyard to then Treasure Cruise and get back the Phoenix - which would be a huge swing in cards and tempo, and might be difficult to recover from depending on what I draw.

This is the line that causes me to hesitate on playing Fable for a bit, but in the end I decide to go for it. I know JED has the Axe, but I don't know if he has a Consider. And he'd also have to have specifically a Phoenix too, otherwise just a Cruise isn't that scary without pressure. Plus, even if he does have it, Fable will often draw me into an answer for Phoenix. Wandering Emperor or Chained to the Rocks even exile it permanently, but a temporary answer like Prismari Command or Lightning Helix is very good too!

So I decide to play Fable. And of course, JED lines up exactly the sequence I was worried about, and I draw only lands from Fable and quickly lose to Phoenix beats plus

Temporal Trespass.

I still think my line was good, for the reasons I've given. My hand wasn't particularly good at playing a long game, especially since No More Lies would fall off in utility at some point - if it were a Veto I would've likely taken the slower line. But I can definitely see myself being wrong; this is one of the closer decisions.

Game 2 - Hardcast Atraxas

Again this game 2 doesn't really have any decision points that are worth talking in-depth about, so again let's go to some video commentary:

Game 3 - Upkeep Wandering Emperor

Game 3 involves what I think is one of the most interesting decision points of my whole PT run.

The early turns play out somewhat slow - I have a Memory Deluge, a Chained to the Rocks, and a Creativity, but no counterspells so JED gets to resolve two copies of Free the Fae and a Treasure Cruise.

Notably though, twice he decides to take

Sleight of Hand instead of Mystical Dispute off of Free the Fae. This will be important later - it implies to me that he has more countermagic in hand, and notably this means he has no copies of Dispute left in his deck.. However, he said at the end of the match that it was actually because he needed land drops.

The game really takes a turn though on turn 4: JED resolves Cruise into getting back Phoenix and discards a second Phoenix to handsize, but that lets me untap and resolve a Rest in Peace and Chained to the Rocks to remove the Phoenix.

So again, at this point with Rest in Peace in play, my goal is to just not die; I should win the lategame pretty easily. But JED puts the pressure back on pretty fast with a Crackling Drake to followup the next turn. He discards to hand size, and the Drake is now at 9 power.

My hand at this point contains Memory Deluge, Wandering Emperor, Creativity, and three lands.

I could choose to bring Yorion to hand with the intention of casting it the following turn to blink Chained to kill drake. It can't be countered, since both Disputes are gone! But I think this is way too risky, as it's not too hard for JED to swing with the Drake safely on his turn with something like 12-13 power, and then the Phoenix that he'll get back from the Chained will be quite threatening if I'm at 4-5 life.

So instead I pass with Deluge and Wandering Emperor up after playing a land, I think this is pretty reasonable, and he chooses not to attack into it, instead developing a Ledger Shredder and cantripping. I Deluge end of turn, and take Prismari Command and land over second land and Creativity. Drake is up to 11 power.

My draw for turn is a Wandering Emperor, so now I have two WEmps, a Creativity, a Prismari Command, and lands.

At this point, if JED decides to go for the attack and has a counterspell for my Wandering Emperor, I'm just dead. There's four cards that could counter WEmp - two Spell Pierces and two Negates - but the Spell Pierces can't counter it if I just pass with 6 mana, so the big worry is Negate. Plus, since I have two Emperors in hand, I decide to go for an interesting line.

I flash in Wandering Emperor on JED's upkeep, as I want to play around a possibly drawn Negate, and can use the second Wandering Emperor later - my thinking is I kind of just want to buy time until I can buy and play Yorion to kill the Drake, or draw into another removal spell.

Unfortunately, I think that this play, while rooted in some okay reasoning, is actually quite bad: I don't have a play next turn that plays around Negate, so it's somewhat hard for me to beat a Negate drawn this turn anyways. And flashing in Emperor now gives up the ability to Prismari Command on end step if JED doesn't go for it (perhaps if he doesn't have Negate, or does and is afraid of Veto in response). So in the end I think I kind of leveled myself here, and should've just held up mana.

Really the big sticking point is that Prismari Command on end step is super important - it lets me fix my hand, plus it gives me the mana to immediately Yorion next turn! So really I'm playing here to not lose to one topdeck, instead of playing to win if Negate doesn't exist.

JED simply develops a bit more - the Drake is now at 13 power - and on my next turn I draw nothing and realize the error of my ways. I feel pressured to Prismari to try to hit a better answer (Verdict would instantly win the game), but don't find anything, and die to Spell Pierce on my second Emperor.

I'm not sure whether it was correct to dig with Prismari or just go for holding up Emperor again, but my worry was that JED had seen a lot of cards and could easily find a Negate or a second Pierce - and in fact he found a Galvanic Iteration on my end step that would've been able to double Pierce my Emperor anyways.

I go for the upkeep Emperor again to hope that he doesn't have the counterspell in hand, but he has it and I die.

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Round 16 (11-4): vs Simon Nielsen (Boros Heroic)

Here is the match on coverage.

Sadly only game 3 was on coverage for this match, but also none of the games had particularly interesting decisions. So, one last video commentary segment to close things out:

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Conclusion

Overall, I am fairly happy with how I played at the PT. I think I've cemented myself as a strong player - though perhaps not quite as strong as well-established pros like Sam Pardee, Jean-Emmanuel Depraz, or Simon Nielsen.

But of course, I still have quite a lot to learn! You can see that from all of the mistakes I talk about here - I think at least two of my three win-and-ins (against Sam and against JED) were winnable with the same draws but a bit tighter play.

It's always good practice to go back and review games like this when you can. It's great for learning from your mistakes and continuing to improve. And hopefully, this review session was helpful for those reading along too!