Alan Ke

Back home from RC Portland. Started off strong at 8-1 but the wheels fell off and finished in top 128 at 9-5-1. Happy with my deck choice this time given the prep time. Excited to see if the PT players break the format this weekend.

Won a Spiderman Draft RCQ to get my second invite on the last day of the season. Managed to dodge playing the set until this weekend. Just took the good cards. 🤷‍♂️

Made finals of a 1–slot RCQ today on Cauldron
R1 Temur Battlecrier ✅✅
R2 Otters ✅✅
R3 Dimir ✅✅
R4 Draw
R5 Draw
QF Mirror ❌✅✅
SF Dimir ✅✅
Finals Dimir (rematch from swiss) ❌❌

BAT SIGNAL: Does anyone in NYC have a set of Nurturing Pixies for trade or for sale for the Brooklyn Strategist RCQ tomorrow (8/17)? Asking for a friend (I would never play bad decks).

Draft deck from Top 32. Congratulations to @ccalcano.bsky.social who knocked me out playing the Boros mirror. Looking forward to playing again soon!

6-1-1 to lock Top 32 of the Saturday Vegas PTQ. Didn’t play yesterday but didn’t need the bullet either way. Pool was incredibly medium, lucky to have gotten there. Started siding into UGr to invalidate sideboard plans and also to make cards suck less.

3 RCQs this past weekend, 3 Top 8s, and at long last 1 invite secured. Played Boros in Modern on Friday then two sealed RCQs for sealed PTQ reps. First two pics are sealed and last two are drafts, with the final deck getting there in the end.

Sage of the Skies 👀

FF7, just because it’s the only one I own.

Heard Cutter was good in Legacy so I gave it a spin at locals and picked up a 4-0. Felt good to sleeve up Volcs again.

MUs were:
Moon Stompy ✅✅
Rakdos Stompy/Waste Not ✅✅
BW Taxes ✅❌✅
Burn ❌✅✅

Made it to the semifinals of a Sealed RCQ today. First deck is sealed and second deck was draft.

The worse the pool, the more it would favor the pro’s build. The better the pool, the more forgiving to both sides. Over Day 1, I believe player skill tends to outweigh the variance of opening well. Even when I’ve had “good” pools, I find myself down games or in tight scenarios esp. facing bombs.

While I do think most edges to be gained in sealed is the ability to maximize one’s pool, which includes effective SBing, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where the pro doesn’t come out on top. Most people are capable of building decks that cohere, assuming reasonable mana and curve.

Here’s my crack at the 4c build.
sealeddeck.tech/gvkl0zAhht

Couldn't make it to SCG Denver so I joined the Limited Prelim and picked up a 4-0 with a 5c pile. Boarded in 2nd Leopard every match, was probably correct to have played it main over Devotee.

Moon stompy

Hallo Utrecht

iron btw

I'd say Starting Column.

100% agree constructed discourse is populated by blanket statements and truisms that aren't always challenged. One way of thinking (from limited) that has worked for me is picturing end states of games, like envisioning a trajectory for the game that leads to a win and taking the steps to set it up.

What would you say are the ways you translate limited skills to success in constructed? For me, limited has built up most of my fundamentals and intuition but gaining edges in constructed has always felt way more opaque.

Love when Universes Beyond and Secret Lair arts tilt my Magic Purist TM opponents at RCQs. People love to blame their misplays on the art of a basic land.

Be more on this app and less on the other one.

It’s great to see SCGCons come back and also for them to serve the West Coast.

Snuck into top 8 of an RCQ with Golgari today. No reps but ran hot.
R1 ❌❌ Red
R2 Bye
R3 ✅✅ Red
R4 ✅❌❌ Mirror
R5 ✅✅ Convoke
QF ✅❌❌ UB

Can't attend but would register UB Tempo if I were to play.