Pro Tour Austin Coverage

Congratulations Spitfire_moe, winner of event # 629087

By: hamtastic, Erik Friborg
Oct 16 2009 6:57pm
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Spitfire's B/W allies and Kor deck holds the ground agains DrWho's R/G Aggro deck. Spitfire used Ondu Cleric and Kariba Crossroads to keep his total high enough to regain control. The huge difference of lifegain turned what would have been a two life life total into an eight point life total which kept him out of the danger zone against the aggressive G/R deck.

Congratulations Strong Sad, winner of MTGO Event #629083

By: hamtastic, Erik Friborg
Oct 16 2009 6:35pm
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PureMTGO player Todd Anderson won his pod with his Hedron Crab + Archive trap deck. Even though he finished the day swinging with flyers for the win, his deck was absolutely crazy to watch in action. Good work Todd and best of luck tomorrow!

It's a crab trap!

By: hamtastic, Erik Friborg
Oct 16 2009 6:04pm
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My fellow PureMTGO shirt wearing player (Todd Anderson) gets through round two with some amazing Hedron action finishing off the match with, you guessed it, Archive Trap. Watching this deck punch through the first two rounds has been awesome, the race of mill versus the race of damamge is actually well kept in Zendikar draft, with the former being workable with enough cards and the latter being a very familiar feeling deck for anyone who's played Zendikar.

Above is the last game of the match. On the left is Todd with an Archive trap on the stack for the match win. His opponent is two seats to the right and has just watched his dreams of reaching the finals milled away. Well done Todd and way to represent PureMTGO!!!

The little Crabs that could!

By: hamtastic, Erik Friborg
Oct 16 2009 5:14pm
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Fellow PureMTGO'er Todd Anderson wins his first round on back (thorax?) of the 2x Hedron Crab's and a rediculous Archive Trap for the win! Mill is certainly playable in Zen when you get the cards!

MTGO Live Events #2

By: hamtastic, Erik Friborg
Oct 16 2009 4:35pm
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Tons more people attempted to join the second draft, after some minor confusion the drafts were created and players started to take a look at their cards. A quick run around the tables showed that white was being fought over by about 6 players thanks to the depth of the commons. Few players on the day have intentionally started with Blue or Black cards unless they open a bomb. I'm interested in seeing the way this works out at the end of the draft!

Event 628738 complete, Congrats suari!

By: hamtastic, Erik Friborg
Oct 16 2009 3:45pm
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Congratulations suari!, winner of the second event of the first MTGO Live Qualifiers!

His Green/black deck with Nissa Revaine and Eternity trumped the R/W deck of Spike614. Both decks looked and played like constructed decks with great synergy, fast draws and amazing plays on both sides!

Event 628736 complete, Congrats DraconisUK!

By: hamtastic, Erik Friborg
Oct 16 2009 3:14pm
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Draconis overtook Kire in the last round of the draft. Draconis' U/R deck gave him the goods over three games against Kire's W/B/u ally based decks. Even though Kire's deck had a lot of synergy and strength the consistency of Draconis' draws proved to be just strong enough to make it through!

Draconis, working through his sideboard:

Between round three and four... there are MTGO Drafts to watch!

By: hamtastic, Erik Friborg
Oct 16 2009 2:16pm
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As round three wraps up of the Pro Tour, quite a bit of people swing by the running MTGO drafts to see what's happening.

Onto the drafts:

There's a lot of red decks, but Athos' U/B deck has been holding steady. Unfortunately in game three has has to mulligan down to five to have enough land to do anything of interest. He keeps a hand of Paralyzing Grasp and 3x Islands and a swamp. He doesn't see a fifth mana until turn 9 while he draws double black, and 5 mana spells. He puts up a noble defense with what he can cast but both blockers eat a Disfigure before combat damage which keeps them from being able to trade with the incoming hookmaster and Ally which go the distance.

Round one,

By: hamtastic, Erik Friborg
Oct 16 2009 1:22pm
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FatguyPoolshark3 vs Spike614:

Spike614 takes game one, and game two kicks off with a huge aggro swing from Spike614. The speed of Spike's deck quickly dispatches Fatguy's U/B deck to advance Spike to the next round.

AthosTheMusketeer vs backspace:

Athos takes barely takes a close game one which was decided on a very small margin. He goes into round 2 and fights a very close battle in game two winning with just four life against an Adventuring Gear'd attacker. Well done Athos!

Familiar names and scents in MTGO Live Pod #1

By: hamtastic, Erik Friborg
Oct 16 2009 12:50pm
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Amongst the names I've found a few that I immediately recognize, such as FatguyPoolshark3, Ace of Drafts, and AthostheMusketeer.

I've seen a lot of Fetchlands and Day of Judgment's opened already... should be fun to see what happens in the marketplace after these drafts!

But even more interestingly, there was a "vente" coffee incident in pack 1, where a full coffee tankard tipped over right next to one of the draft tables. No injuries, and no problems so far from this besides the overwhelming smell of Starbucks on one half of the draft pods!

More news as it breaks, from MTGO Live Events!

Pro Tour: Austin PureMTGO Coverage