This article is about my efforts at a Pro Tour Qualifier for Pro Tour Geneva this past weekend, so hopefully you can learn something from my play - the things I did correctly, and probably from my mistakes, too. The format was sealed deck.

Drafting
All the boring rules announcements happened and we finally got our decks. Mine was clearly very strong, but something about it made me unhappy. That something was the color green. Green was my strongest color by far, meaning I had to play it. I hate green in this format. I think it is by far the weakest color in Time Spiral for limited play, and when I'm drafting I try my very very best to avoid going into green. As a result of this, I’ve played green maybe 10 times out of my 75 or more Time Spiral drafts. So I wasn't especially comfortable playing with all the green cards.

All that aside, you have to play your pool, so I was going green, period. Red and black were both poor in my pool and were removed immediately, so the hardest part for me was deciding if blue or white should be my second color. Most people I know - several of them, pros - would tell me to play both. 90% of the properly built sealed decks in this format are three colors, two main and one splash. My green was so deep that my pool allowed me to stick to only two colors, making my mana base that much better, and I had no need to play a third.

It was clear that the white fit my curve better, but in the end I went with the blue for several reasons, including that I believe it had the overall more powerful cards, the cards that I played with seemed to synergize better with my deck, and of course, the trump card, which is that blue is simply my color preference in this (and most other) limited format.

Highlights of my deck included a Thelonite Hermit, a Verdant Embrace, two Durkwood Baloths, two Errant Ephemeron, and a Riftwing Cloudskate, along with some really solid thalids to back up the embrace and the hermit. Sporeswallower Thalid and Thalid Germinator would be the two I was most excited about, but I also had random ones like the 0/5 wall and a Savage Thalid.

Round 1
Round one wasn’t much of a challenge to me, and I won 2-0. The only noteworthy thing about the match was my opponent, who wasn’t much fun to play against and was – by far – my least favorite opponent of the day.
Ryan’s Record 1-0

Round 2
I was unhappy to be paired against Dave Shiels. Not only is Dave an active pro and a friend, but he also had an insane deck packed with multiple bombs, including Stormbind. In my opinion, Stormbind is the best card you can possibly open in this format. I won the roll and chose to play first instead of drawing, which is a topic of lots of disagreements for this format.

Game one was pretty stupid. I curved out turns two through six and he was in chump block mode almost from the start. At the end of the game he showed me his four card hand, all of which were basic land, so we both just shrugged with the friend to friend "magic happens" look and started shuffling for game two.

Game two he chose to draw, which was what I wanted, and I suspended some guys early on. The first play he made, baiting me, was a turn four Penumbra Spider, which I said was fine. Being the pro he is, I think he sensed that something was fishy, but between my board advantage and my multiple suspend guys, he didn't have much of a choice but to make his next play. That play was the Stormbind, and before I said a word he said to me "Alright, you got me." He was correct on his instinct, as I'd been holding back my Mystic Snake. Once Stormbind was countered, the game was essentially over. I won this match 2-0.
Ryan’s Record 2-0

Round 3
Well looky here, round three saw me paired against Ben Chapman, the only player who beat me all of regionals. While I respect Ben as a solid player, I believe he luck on his side in our previous match I was very happy to have an oppurtunity for a little magical revenge. He won the roll and chose to play.

Game one went very well for me. Ben only kept his hand because it had a Crier and a Firemaw Kavu, but he drew a lot of land and I didn't have much trouble pushing through more than enough damage.

Game two he played first again, played turn one suspended Durkwood Baloth, and made no plays besides land drops and one random removal spell before the Baloth actually came into play, which was sketchy to me. Next turn I saw why, as he dropped a Verdant Embrace of his own on the Baloth, and followed it up with Firemaw Kavu and loads of removal to clear a path for the ridiculous beast. My outs to this situation were Snapback and Riftwing Cloudskate. I stalled for three turns hoping to draw what I needed. It didn't happen, so we were off to game three.

Game three I was on the play, and more importantly got an unbeatable draw. Turn one suspend Durkwood Baloth, turn two suspend Errant Ephemeron, turn three Prismatic Lens, suspend another Ephemeron, turn four Riftwing Cloudskate. That is the absolutely perfect curve and there's nothing a pro, Superman, or Ben Chapman could do about it. So I took a satisfying 2-1 victory over my friendly regionals rival.
Ryan’s Record 3-0

Round 4
I was paired against my buddy Carl from Cape Cod who recently finished second in a GP Trial and has played on tour a few times in the past. Carl is an extremely tight player who doesn't often make mistakes in game. He mentioned to me before we even started "I heard your deck is ridiculous." While I’d normally mess with my opponent and try to get in their head, I know and respect Carl enough to be straightforward. I told him, "Yes, I got lucky and opened a very strong pool.".

Both games went essentially the same way. He won the roll, choosing to draw, and I won game one with a bunch of suspend guys followed by thalid synergy. Game two he drew first again. I had suspend guys again, and although this game went slightly longer, the saprolings I'd been making did the job out of nowhere.

By out of nowhere, I mean that I cast Snapback on one of his guys at the end of his turn, and then on my turn a previously suspended Riftwing Cloudskate came in and bounced another. Then I hardcast Thelonite Hermit and went all in. I won this match 2-0. After our match, he said to me, "I don't feel bad about what happened. There was no way I could have beaten that deck."
Ryan’s Record 4-0

Round 5
At this point the top 8 was just over the hill. If i managed to win one of my next two matches I could intentionally draw into the top 8. I was hoping for an easy opponent (for a change!) but the pairings god said no once again. My opponent was none other than Yakov Shapiro. Yakov is highly rated and a frequent top 16 finisher at PTQs.

We discussed not playing it out and intentionally drawing with each other. This would have put us both in fairly good shape for top 8 contention. After some time, we both admitted we were confident in our decks, and would rather play it out. So that's exactly what happened.

I won the roll and played first. We both had draws a bit on the slow end, but it favored my deck more than his. Eventually, our long stalemate was broken as Verdant Embrace and Thalid Germinator let me break through.

He played first game two and it became a back and fourth slug fest. We were both in single digits when we clogged up, making it impossible for either of us to attack. The game ended with me drawing fliers and pecking away at him. He'd used most of his removal earlier in the game. He had three turns or so to draw an answer, but he didn't, so I took the match 2-0.
Ryan’s Record 5-0

Round 6 & 7
The next two rounds I intentionally drew with my opponents, securing us a top 8 spot. Of course I was excited to cruise to the top 8. Losing only one game in five rounds is great, but I was also pretty nervous. The other top 8 players were very good and it would not be a free ride to win this one. Fast forward a couple hours and you've got a top 8 draft about to start, so this, as best as I remember, what happened.

Drafting, Take Two
I opened a fairly weak pack and my internal debate was between picking Temporal Isolation and, well, really nothing else. I grabbed the white common and shipped the janky pack to the left. The second pack offered me five or six white cards that I wanted, including both Pulmonic and Quilled Sliver. Pulmonic is a complete bomb, and it's in the same color as my first pick, so I took it very quickly. Third pick offered me Amrou Seekers.

Fourth pick I almost fainted when I saw Telekenetic Sliver. That card, besides being an utter bomb, fit perfectly with the bomb sliver I already had. More importantly, it still being in the pack was a clear signal that blue was wide open. It also helps that it's my favorite card for limited in the entire set. It took less time to get that card in my pile that took you to read this paragraph.

My late picks were solid, but the most important thing is the Quilled Sliver somehow tabled to me, and I picked up a Venser Sliver along the way, too. So at the end of pack one I had ten solid playables and was very happy.

Pack two I opened more junk, first picking a common again, this time Spiketail Drakeling. I had the sliver game plan in mind at this point, so I grabbed a Watcher Sliver second, then a Riftwing Cloudskate third. Fourth pick I was ready to jump out of my seat and I thought very seriously for a minute that I was the only one of all eight of us drafting blue. Another Telekenetic Sliver somehow was in the pack, and I had to contain myself not to windmill slam it.

Just writing about it makes me excited. That card is soooo good. Another Venser Sliver came sometime later and I also grabbed cards like Think Twice and Snapback, then it was time for the final pack.

Looking down at my deck at the end of pack two I was feeling really good about my chances and figured it was very likely that I had the best deck at the table. I already had twenty really good playables and ten slivers. I planned to grab three or four really good cards out of the last fifteen, then draft defensively for the remaining picks.

I opened another bad pack and made it three times of three that I first picked a common. In this case, another Temporal Isolation. I grabbed another Sliver pick two, pick three grabbed a solid guy that fit my curve, then decided my deck was done and started hate drafting the best off-color cards out of every pack. Pick five had a Sengir 4/4 guy in the pack, and I immediately grabbed it for my pile. Obviously, black was underdrafted at this table, and as it turns out the only two black drafters were both directly to my left, so taking it made me very happy. That's not a card I want to play against. It's a bomb, I assure you.

When the draft was finally done and I sat down in the assigned area to build my deck. I felt good about my chances, but not extremely sure. This particular top 8 was loaded with talented players who all knew what they were doing. I had a final sliver count of 11, including the two Telekenetic and the one Pulmonic, of course, and bought some new sleeves before my round.

The Top 8

Quarterfinals
I was paired against Brendan O'Donell, the number one ranked player in New Hampshire, past PTQ winner and pro tour competitor. I'm very familiar with Brendan from trading and chatting, but this was the first time we'd actually played. I have a lot of respect for his play, drafting ability, and judgement in magic, but he was inexperienced with this format and hadn't drafted it much. His deck was almost mono red, splashing for three green cards. My deck got average draws and did what it was supposed to do. That was more than enough to roll over his deck. He was a very good sport, shook my hand, wished me luck, and asked to see my deck, which I gladly showed to him.

Semifinals
I wasn't thrilled about a rematch with Yakov, but that's how the story played out. He had drafted a very aggressive black/green deck with a couple of bombs and an awesome late game presence. He won the roll and played first. Game one he had an aggressive draw and I didn't draw either of my Telekenetic Slivers. I couldn't contain his attack. I went through the motions, but he managed to kill me pretty easily.

Never say die. Being down a game means just means you have to win two in a row. I gambled and kept a hand of five lands, a Watcher Sliver, and a Telekenetic Sliver. Showing real skill, my first draw was Quilled Sliver, my second was Amarou Seekers, and all of a sudden my hand was ridiculous. I curved out and evened the match at 1-1 within 10 minutes of the last game ending.

The third game went back and forth. At the crucial moment of the game, we’re in the following position. He has a Corpulent Corpse in play which he just enchanted the previous turn with Verdant Embrace. He has a saproling from my upkeep, and will be making one via embrace every upkeep from that point on. My board has a Watcher Sliver and an Amrou Seekers and 4 mana, and most importantly his Pthisis has only one suspend counter on it and will go off next turn.

I'm in my turn, he's already made a saproling with Embrace, and the life totals are 4 to 14 in my favor. My hand contained all cards costing 5 or more, none of which could remove the Corpse or the Embrace.

Think about it for a minute and tell me what you'd do.

Unless I draw something really really good to get me out of this (which I think is only the one Snapback in my deck) I lose, and am eliminated from the tournament. So I maintain my cool, show no weakness and draw my card. Telekenetic Sliver.

It's great and all, and I guess it buys me a turn, but I'm still in deep trouble in this game. He can still just Pthisis my only attacker, the Amrou Seekers, then quickly overrun me with his army of saprolings. This is where I made my very best play of the entire PTQ.

I attacked with the Amrou Seekers, putting him at 2, then quickly and happily played the Telekenetic Sliver with a relieved "Wow, I'm so lucky to have just top decked that card" type of smile on my face.

On his upkeep he thinks for a very long time, and I sit there with a grin, and he eventually decides he needs to use the Pthisis to kill the Sliver to prevent me from tapping him down and winning the game. In response, my Watcher Sliver taps his Corpse, putting me in no danger of losing the game via damage, and suddenly he has no answer to the Seekers.

He draws his card, looks at the board, and realizes he'd just made a game, match, and PTQ losing mistake, and just passed the turn. I draw something completely useless that I can't even cast and tell him straight out "I'm attacking with Seekers, and if you have removal or a trick, you've got the match. I'm holding absolutely nothing". Instead, he lays his hand down on the table, knowing that he threw the match away, and extends his hand.

How lucky to say the least. I credit myself in a lot of ways for doing my very best acting job to misrepresent the importance of the Telekenetic Sliver, but plain and simple, I didn't win that game, Yakov lost it.

Finals
My final match of the day was against Geoffrey Kirsch, who not only is the nicest opponent you'll ever play against, but he absolutely had the best resume of anyone in the room that day. Double digit lifetime pro points, great rating, and an extremely consistant well respected player with double digit PTQ top 8s. To be honest, he was the player I feared the most going into the draft. I knew if I made it to the finals that this would be my matchup, and well, I was in the finals, so you know the rest.

Geoffrey also drafted blue/white, but was splashing green just for Tromp the Domains, which is in fact splashable Overrun. I lost the roll and he chose to play. I had to mulligan and kept my six card hand that had two Islands and nothing else for land. All the other cards in my hand were white and I never drew a Plains. The game was over within 5 minutes.

We sideboarded quickly and got back to business. I chose to play first and we both kept our hands. I was on one of my nasty sliver draws and an army of flying slivers via Pulmonic with Telekenetic backup allowed me to kill him before his slower three color deck could really set up.

Game three he chose to play and hesitated for a little while but kept his opening seven. My hand was just fine, and I kept it without issue. He dropped two Plains on the first two turns without a play, and my turn two was Quilled Sliver. He missed his third drop and I played Spiketail Drakeling and I suddenly had a vision of me winning the PTQ.

He hit an Island next turn and played a morph, which I let resolve, on my turn I played Shadow Sliver before passing. He missed his drop again and I countered his 3 drop creature. I played Telekenetic Sliver and began tapping his lands with my slivers on upkeep. Since he was having land issues anyway, that seemed like a pretty good idea.

He missed his drop again, and with all tapped lands had no play. I played Pulmonic Sliver, attack in the air with my Telekenetic, and passed the turn. He hit his drop and passed. My next turn saw an attack for five in the air then a Venser Sliver. The pattern of me tapping lands on upkeep continued until I was one swing away from killing him.

I swung in for lethal damage on my turn, and with damage on the stack, he played Momentary Blink on his morph, which turned out to be Fortune Thief, in from the board. Suddenly my heart sank and I felt a PTQ that was absolutely unloseable a turn ago start to slip away.

My only outs were my own blink to use in combination with my on board Riftwing Cloudskate, a Wipe Away, and a Snapback. But he could still flash back own blink to avoid some of those tricks. An interesting alternative out I also had was drawing Screeching Sliver and simply milling him out. Lots of possibilities, but what happened was this: I drew Momentary Blink two or three turns later, bounced the Thief, and swung for lethal damage, winning the PTQ.

And there you have it. Somehow I'm going to Geneva, Switzerland, and I'm really excited to once again be Qed for the pro tour. I feel proud of myself and like I played well. My pairings were far from easy.

I'd like to take this oppurtunity to thank head judge Ian Taylor for a well-run and organized event. Thanks to my friends as always for being supportive when I'm successful at a magic event.

Until next time, thank you for reading.

Ryan Spring