1 Win out of money at the SCG Invitational

I was nowhere near as prepared for this even as I should have been. I rarely ever play Standard, but played just enough events to know that my beloved Br Control deck would wreck everything except Caw Blade, which is obviously a bad thing for this event. I borrowed a bunch of Vampires from some friends before leaving NC for some leave over Memorial Day and didn't play any magic until the event.

My Standard list, which nobody should care about because the format blows, can be found here almost at the bottom of the page: http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/s...ard_Decks.html

I decided to play about the same thing that put me into the T8 in Charlotte, despite having access to all the cool blue cards or anything else I wanted, because I was familiar with all the intricacies of the deck and thought it would do pretty well. I didn't expect to see so many similar decks, despite running different colors. I guess that's what I get for being out of the loop for a couple weeks. I made a lot of changes to my at about 12:30 the morning of the tournament and didn't get to test any of them. They all sounded good on paper and most seemed pretty decent. I'm not sure that 3 Mirran Crusader is the right number, a lot of the time I just wanted Serra Avenger. I went up to 22 lands and decided to forego Chrome Mox and Aether Vial and pretty much just start at 2 mana anyway. Bitterblossom and Batterskull are amazing when they hit the table. I didn't have really have much in the board for the UWx SFM decks and wish I would have just picked up a Manriki Gusari or whatever the hell they're called before hand. I went with War and Peace over Body and Mind in the main because of the massive amounts of damage I was doing to myself. Turned out to be pretty ok.

Here;s my Legacy list that I didn't do anywhere near as well I had hoped with, but almost all the matches went to a close game 3. I also made 2 match losing misplays with it which would have put me in the money. Such is life.

4 SFM
4 Dark Confidant
4 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Mirran Crusader
2 Serra Avenger
3 Bitterblossom
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
4 Vindicate
4 StP
1 Batterskull
1 SoFI
1 Jitte
1 Sword of War and Peace
4 Plains
3 Swamp
4 Scrubland
4 Wasteland
4 Marsh Flats
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Volrath's Stronghold

SB:
3 Enlightened Tutor
1 Runed Halo
1 Null Rod
2 Chalice of the Void
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Meekstone
2 Ghostly Prison
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Body and Mind

I didn't really take any notes and I threw out my pad with everyone's name on it after the tournament.

Standard R1: Paul Lake with Fanau Shaman/Birthing Pod
G1. I don't remember much other than I won and Paul put off pretty big creeper vibe.
G2: T2 Lotus Cobra sticks and he ramps into a T4 Frost Titan followed by a T5 Metamorph Titan. I lose
G3: It's pretty close and I have a Highborn, Bloodghast and Viscera Seer but don't have the land drops to abuse the combo. He lands Obstinate Baloth and has the ground pretty clogged up when he Fauna Shamans up a Wurmcoil. EoT I sac Ghast to scry and drain him for 2 showing Act of Aggression! I take his Wurmcoil and swing with it putting me back to around 10, then sac it to reveal a second Act of Aggression! I take his Baloth and swing with it and a token I think, then sac the Baloth. He plays another Baloth and blocks my deathtouch token with it. Eventually I get there.
After the match I go over to Hannah Murray's booth to see if she's gotten a chance to start on my Mishra's Factories yet when Paul walks up and starts bitching about how his opponent was so lucky and a complete retard for not abusing the Highborn/Seer/Bloodghast combo. I inform I didn't have the land drops to abuse it or I would've. Paul makes it into the category of MTG playing tools as well as being a creeper.

1-0

R2: David Thomas with Caw Blade. He was a decent fellow and we talked several times between rounds over the next 2 days.
I don't really remember anything except I ended up fighting through 2 Gideon's and Day of Judgment, or maybe it was the other way around, in G3.

2-0

R3: Jacob Baugh, Fauna Shaman and Vengevinges, paired down against a 1-0-1
G1 He mulls to 5 for the third time on the day. I win.
G2 He mulls to 6 and wins.
G3 He mulls to 6 again and I win

3-0

R4: Jon Agley with UR Splinter Twin
G1: I keep a pretty aggressive hand with a Lacerator and another one drop as well as a Ghast and Highborn and a Dark Tutelage. It gets there.
G2: 2 Lacerators in my opener with a Highborn and another 3rd Lacerator on the third turn does the trick.

4-0. Woot! For not playing standard I think I'm pretty good at this game.

Legacy R5: Corbin Hosler with Fish
G1: He's on the play and gets the nuts 3(ish) Lord draw and swarms me pretty fast.
G2: I win. Don't really remember anything about it.
G3 He my StP on his LoA gets misstepped. I misplay by not playing SFM ASAP and I think it ends up getting forced. In the end I die to my own BB.

4-1,

R6: Pat Sullivan with Zoo
G1: I flip 2 Mirran Crusaders and a Vindicate to Bob and take a bunch from my BB. He pushes through.
G2: I get a Jitte on Faerie tokens and eventually transfer it to an Avenger. I'm somewhere around 2 when he plays his own Jitte and I gain 4-6 life in response. I get a Sword of War and Peace and equip it to the Avenger to get there.
G3: We both go to 6 and I keep a greedy 1 fetch, StP, Inquisition, SFM, Bob, and BB. He plays Nacatl. I gamble, knowing he's playing Wasteland, and grab a Scrub to StP the Nacatl. He plays another land I think a Goyf. I don't draw a land and play Inquisition seeing both Jitte and Null Rod as well as a Kird Ape and Wasteland :( I take the Jitte and get Wastelanded. I don't draw another land and die very quickly. Lesson learned.

Pat was a real nice guy and we talked a couple times throughout the rest of the tourney. Shortly after the match I walked up on him, AJ Sacher (who crushed me in the T8 of Charlotte), and someone else talking about guy who was real cool. AJ said the guy had written a report and then lost his train of thought when he saw me and headed for the pisser. I asked if they were talking about me and Pat said they were. I told him AJw was probably gonna tell them that I had written a report and said that he wasn't a total douche bag like I had expected. He laughed and said that I must have been familiar with AJ's work.

4-2,

R7: UWr Stoneblade, Ken Adams
G1: I keep a hand with 3 StP and I think a SFM. He's on the play and drops a Grim. Not what I want to see at all but it's ok for now. I fetch a plains off Flooded strand to StP the Mancer and he puts me on Uw Fish. The plan is working! He drops another Lavamancer and I StP it again. Believe it or not T3 goes exactly the same as one and two. He checks my yard to see both other StPs and Lavamancer #3 gets added to the exiled pile! Eventually I get there.
G2: We go back and forth for a while. Thoughtseize him seeing 2 Vendilion Cliques and some other stuff. I take something else. He doesn't play the Clique at the end of my draw step and I draw and play Avenger. He curses himself and I waste a land to put us both at two despite having SoFI in my hand. I wanted to keep him off Jace and figured I would draw another land before he hit 2. I didn't another land... ever. He Firespouts the ground, killing Bob and something else, maybe a revoker and we race until I have to block the Clique. I lose with him at 3.
G3: He's gets a pretty solid hold with a Lavamancer and Manriki to kill all my equipment.

4-3

R8: Some tool playing Fish
He offers to draw so we both make day 2. I think about it but decide that I need every win I can get if I want to make some money and decline the offer.
G1: He wins the roll and wrecks me.
G2: I return the favor. He offers to draw again and I decline the offer despite the temptation. He drops a LoA and a leveled CC. I respond with SFM for Batterskull and we're off to the races. Eventually he has to block with his LoA but draws another Commander. I Vindicate the first one and drop a SoFI for the game. He extend my hand, without a comment because he's distraught, and he refuses to shake it with a "Naah man, whatever." Oh well.

5-3. I make day 2 in 25th place and bit deflated but with high hopes for the next day.

Day 2

R1 Legacy: Anthony Avitolla RWU CounterTop
G1: I win the roll and drop a SFM on T2 for a Batterskull. He plays Pithing Needle on his second turn. Eventually I'm able to get there anyway.
G2: I again play a T2 Mystic for Batterskull and it dies. I can't get a third land for the life of me and he drops Vedalken Shackles while I have 2 SFM, Bob, Vindicate, Mirran Crusader, SoWaP, and something else. I don't draw a land decide that it's much better to chuck the sword than give him Bob or a Mystic. He's digging pretty hard with his top the whole, after countering a Revoker earlier. I draw a land Vindicate the Shackles giving me the ability to actually play this game again. He assembles Counter top after Bob resolves. He spins the top to draw something and I'm able to land a Revoker, to which he tries to respond by topping and I remind him it's not in play right now. His blind CB flips don't get anything the rest of the game and I pull it out.

6-3

R2: Pat Cox with Zoo (he won the whole thing)
G1 Zoo does it's thing and I board in all my good hate for it.
G2 We both mull to 5, which is obviously better for him, and I keep with a Fetch and a Wasteland and a Mirran Crusader. I fetch up Scrub hoping to not get blown out by Wasteland again, turns out he doesn't play them. He plays a Loam Lion. I inquisition and take the only non-land card in his hand: Pridemage. I play a Mystic for Batterskull and he has the removal. I drop a Meekstone, which he has to read, and take another hit from the Lion before sending it to the fields. I play Revoker naming Pridemage! Hooray now his only out to Meekstone is K Grip, which I don't even know if he's playing, or burn and another Pridemage. He plays a 3/3 Nacatl and swings with it. At the end of my turn I find out he is indeed playing K Grip, as a 1 of... how lucky, and his guy untaps. I send it farming with the lion and he drops a Goyf. this whole time I'm sitting on 2 Crusaders and an Avenger just waiting on a second white source while my lands are Scrub, Volrath's Stronghold, 2 Wasteland, 2 Swamp. Very frustrating. He Lightning Helixes my Revoker, hits me with Goyf, and Helixes me for the game.

6-4

R3: Ari Lax with ANT
G1: He asks me if I know what he's playing and I say either ANT or High Tide and he goes on to tell me how miserable of a deck High Tide is while I'm mulliganing. I don't have any discard or hate but keep it anyway mostly out of stupidity. I have no pressure and he goes off.
G2 I board in a ton of hate and he notices that I'm prepared while asking if I'm playing TS. I tell him that I probably should have had some in the board and he deduces that they're main. I mull to 4, I think, and keep 2 lands, Revoker and Canonist. I drop Canonist on T2 followed by Revoker on LED, Bob, Revoker on Petal. He's at 6 with lethal on the board, I'm at 18 due to Bob flipping Revoker, he bounces Canonist at EoT and plays his entire hand, not able to use the LED he plays, to Infernal for the Tendrils at 18. We both comment that despite hating Standard we're looking forward to the tournament returning to the stupid format.

6-5

R4 Standard: Micheal Rooks, GR Eldrazi Tokens and enchantment to sac for 2 damage.
G1 He does a good job of muddying up the ground pretty quick with tokens but I'm able to get him to 12 before I can't swing through for anything. The situation looks pretty grim with my little Bloodghast and Highborn against 3 GR manlands when I rip a Seer and combo out on him in two or three turns.
G2: He gets 2 Lifestaff a Mortarpod and the enchantment that lets him pay 2 to hit something for 2 when he sacs a creature and I'm just not able to push through the life gain.
G3: I bring back the Manic Vandal I sided out as well as the 4th and beat him after he has sac 5 permanents, plus tokens, to kill my Obliterator.

7-5

R5: Eric Williams with UWR Splinter Twin/ Caw SB
G1: I win by always killing the Twin before he untaps.
G2: He lands a Sun Titan and swings with it once to bring back 2 Cunning Sparkmage. It's enough.
G3: He gets a Batterskull early and I can't draw a red source for the Manic Vandal in my opening hand. I get 5 Swamps before finally getting a Lavaclaw reaches which gets Tech edged before I can use it. I set up the drain combo to keep myself alive and gets a Sword of Feast and Famine on his skull then drops another Batterskull. Needless to say it doesn't end well for the bad guys.

7-6

R8: Kenny Mayer with Dark Blade. Playing for a shot at T32 and $500
G1: I keep an aggressive hand and get Inquisitioned turn one taking my Dismember, my only removal. I drop a Pulse Seeker instead of Lacerator and he plays SFM for Batterskull...FML.
G2: I sideboard wrong but at this point I'm kind of on tilt and Kenny seems like a good guy. I just really want to hit him with Obliterator a couple times and hope he doesn't draw a Jace. I get Inquisitioned again and eventually he gets a Jace and kills all my dudes. Jace gets up to ultimate, eats a Lightning Bolt and he plays a Mirran Crusader. I attempt to scoop but Kenny says let's just play it. Sure. He equips Crusader with SoFaF and I beat Jace for 2 with a Manic Vandal. He wins.
I tell him congratulations and he comments that he'll probably be 33rd anyway, to which I respond with "You could've scooped to me if that's the case." I wish him luck and bounce so I can get out of the garage in under 8 hours.

7-7

I didn't make any money but I had a good time and met a bunch of cool guys. It made me smile when AJ told me he didn't win a match day one and dropped. I also laughed pretty hard when I found out Kenny Mayer actually did make 33rd, though I was really hoping he would make some money on the weekend. I'm disappointed with my Legacy showing, but tow of my losses were to the winner and a T8 competitor so I guess it's not that bad. Maybe I'll make it into the Charlotte Invitational and redeem myself.