Last Saturday I had the day off and the choice between staying at home and grinding the last chance qualifier for the MOCS in a format that I have performed well in, or get some prep in for GP Denver by playing a Standard PTQQ.

There were some theories that I needed to put to the test, so I opted to try my hand at the PTQQ scene and see how it felt to play a deck with four of these:

It was great in the block constructed Jeskai deck, and curiosity got the best of me. This is the list that I registered for the event:

The Mantis Rider split is weird. I panicked. I don't think it's as good as Rabblemaster and I thought my mana curve was too high, but I wanted all four post-board.

I added the two Raise the Alarm to lower my mana curve and have more spells that triggered Ascendancy/fueled Treasure Cruise. Raise the Alarm was never very good for me and I brought Rider in against everybody. I also generally didn't mind starting on turn three in many games, so the concern with lowering the curve was probably foolish.

As for how to get Mantis Rider into the maindeck, I would cut two Defiant Strike. The card performed well, but I boarded it out frequently to streamline my strategy for post-board games. And seeing as Mantis Rider was always coming in, this swap just makes sense. I still like the two Strikes though, as it makes your Ascendancy engine much more efficient and is also a trick that nobody plays around.

This would also free up room for more answers to large creatures. One of my losses was to a Temur deck, which really made me want some Suspension Fields or Banishing Lights, as Savage Knuckleblade is a beating and those cards also just take care of Rhinos, Coursers and other problematic creatures. I would cut the Raise the Alarms from the deck and use the sideboard slots to add some mix of these cards to the maindeck/sideboard:

With a 4-2 record, I was reasonably happy with how the deck performed. And with the above changes, I believe the deck is a strong player. I definitely advocate Monastery Swiftspear and Mantis Rider over the token makers. It's much easier to attack profitably against Siege Rhino with these cards--with or without Ascendancy--and they also just generally speed the deck up.

Ryan Hipp ended up winning the event with a Boros build similar to Sam Black's token deck, and I'm curious to try my hand at this strategy.

I still maintain that Raise the Alarm and Hordeling Outburst are easily outclassed, particularly in Black's deck where there is no Jeskai Ascendancy to make them more relevant. Primarily, I'm interested in playing the most efficient removal spell in the format.

I'm very skeptical of Sam Black's Heliod's Pilgrims as well, and I don't see tremendous upside to Eidolon of Countless Battles. I was trying to think of how to build Boros with more respectable threats but wasn't sure where to go outside of the obvious inclusion of Goblin Rabblemaster.

Then I saw Erik Pei's second place list from the Seattle Open:

Again we see those Hordeling Outbursts lowering the decks average card quality, as well as 3 Chandras, a card that I'm not convinced I want any of. I looked at the sideboard and was reminded of a card that I had forgotten about.

Gryff is a card that is easily inferior to Mantis Rider in a slot that is already clogged in Jeskai decks, but it looks amazing for Boros decks. There are a ton of ETB abilities, most of which attach to creatures that are strong against this deck right now, making maindecking Gryff seem obvious to me. Additionally, I haven't had many people showing much ability to block my Mantis Riders in Standard, as flying is often very close to unblockability--another strong upside to Gryff.

Searing Blood performed great for me out of the sideboard of Jeskai, and it's a glaring omission from Pei's deck. Magma Jet is fine, but I would easily play Searing Blood over it. It's periodically blank or a little weak, but Magma Jet is always a little weak, while Searing Blood is often amazing.

This is the Boros list that I would be interested in testing for Denver:

I don't have any exciting plans for the sideboard, just some stock options like Erase, Glare of Heresy, Arc Lightning and something to board out the removal for against control decks.

And Now For Something Completely Different

Much more exciting than the PTQQ this weekend was the acquisition of my first piece of power.

Before I go over the trade that I made for it, I'm going to say that this wouldn't be possible for the effective cost that I paid if not for social media. I'm a member of several Facebook groups dedicated to Magic, and players periodically post cards they're looking for or looking to get rid of.

Now and again, they're looking to get rid of something of value. A few months ago, a member of one of these groups was looking to get into MTGO by selling off some of his paper collection. He wanted to sell three Tropical Islands, some Thoughtseizes, a Snapcaster Mage and some other goodies for 500 tickets.

It wasn't a crazy deal, but it was a pile of solid investments as well as a decent discount for cards I was actually going use. I figured it wouldn't hurt to have some extra Tropical Islands around, either.

Last week, a member of a different group posted that he was looking to trade off an extra Time Walk he had. He was looking for Volcanic Island specifically, but I posted telling him that I had extra Trops and was interested. He said he was on board with Trops and sent me a list of other cards of interest to him.

The final trade was my:

• 2x Revised Tropical Island
• 2x Revised Badlands
• Revised Taiga
• 4x Scourge Stifle
• 3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
• 3x Verdant Catacombs
• 3x Wooded Foothills
• Japanese Lorwyn Thoughtseize
• 2x Champions Gifts Ungiven
• 2x Darksteel Arcbound Ravager
• 2x Surgical Extraction
• 2x Hurkyl's Recall
• 2x Fifth Dawn Vedalken Shackles
• New Phyrexia Batterskull
• Foil Mirridon Thirst for Knowledge

For his:

This information shouldn't be anything new to most speculators. The story of this acquisition is just one of having some fetchlands from back when they were legal in Standard, picking up sought-after cards as they were available,, and finding somebody with something I wanted who was willing to part with it at a reasonable rate.

I just wanted to share that hording and the patience does ultimately pay off as you build up your collection from just Standard cards into Modern, Legacy, and--ultimately, if you do so desire--Vintage cards.

Thanks for reading.

-Ryan Overturf
@RyanOverdrive on Twitter