Gifts Ungiven

I just finished sleeving up the main sixty of the deck I'll be running at the last PTQ I'll be attending for the Austin PTQ season. If you're within range, you should come, too - it's this Saturday, August 22nd, at Superstars in San Jose, being run as always by our faithful TO, Conan Blackwell of Matchplay.

I mention the main sixty as I'm still not sure exactly what I want to do with a good third of my sideboard. This is atypical for me, but I'm giving serious thought to actually scoping the decks I see on the morning of the event and making my decision then. As Brad Nelson reminds us in his latest article, the metagame changes weekly, and recent results in PTQs and online suggest a possible upswing in Merfolk and Lark.

In that vein, I'd recommend being ready for both Faeries and Kithkin, as neither one ever really goes away, regardless of what people say or how disillusioned their pro champions have become from time to time. I, for one, have decided to tailor my deck so I'm not playing something that auto-folds to hobbits.

As a final bit of pimping for someone else's work, I'll point toward the latest from Conley Woods, where he discusses the percentage that can be gained from playing a well-designed unfamiliar deck. Although that's not why I play decks of my own design when I compete - I do it because for me, deck design is one of the great joys of this game - I certainly notice that when you aren't playing a familiar template, your opponents can be thrown seriously off their game.

Also, it's just kind of fun when they have to read your cards.

I'll have more to say following the PTQ. For now, I'm going to idly ponder potential matchups and try and pin down those final five cards.