Top 4 split with Bant survival

[Waikiki]

Eindhoven ~25 players.

6 rounds followed by T8



Round one vs Jip (teammate) with dredge.
We didn't travel this far to play familiar people. We draw and go scout some. This tournament was mostly to test for us.

0-0-1

Round two vs Leander (aggro loam)
G1 Leander goes pretty quickly with some goyf action. I Have my turn 2 survival. He burning wishes for reverent silence, which I force. I go play some survival tricks and get iona on red. He manages to kick me down to 7 with crusher and terravore but I untap and search for rafiq which makes iona swing for lethal.
G2 I keep a very aggresive hand with goyfs/pridemages and some cantrips. He gets down an early Seismic assault. But no loam to abuse. My war monk gains me alot of life and I topdeck rafiq which when Leander almost start to recover he is just one turn too short.

1-0-1

Round three vs ? (merfolk UG)

G1 I keep an aggresive hand with beaters. I get an early war monk online which is greater then his Goyf. He gets some beatsticks online And I have some removal and goyfs of my own. He makes a fatal mistake of attacking with his LoA which I block to death. I eventuall side in iona which seals the. deal.

G2 He gets a very aggresive start with alot of lord action and I just can't keep up.

G3 I get an aggresive start and he just can't keep up with me this time.

2-0-1

Match 4 vs Sebastiaan (landstill wish version)

I have to mull down to 5 :(. He keeps his opening 7. I manage to get some aggro on the board and he did not expect me to play blue since I didn't fetch anything blue yet. So he falls EE @2 against me which I spell snare. I get him down to 4 and he finally recovers and sweep my board. He drops standstill and I respond with spellstutter sprite (he is at 4 and im at 18). Our hands are both empty now. He does have an active jace tho. But then again he has to break his own standstill and I draw into survival. He resolves elspeth and I draw into spell snare. I resolve survival but no creatures I kick his jace -1 and I pass. He then activates his jace for +2. I draw a creature and tutor up the iona / loyal combo. He tries to counter but I had the snare.

No time for G2

3-0-1

Match 5 vs Kevin with Merfolk

Kevin keeps a hand with some cantrip merfolks and beat me a little. I try to avoid daze and land survival which gives me iona on blue. With no vial this pretty much shuts him off and I get war monks to recove my life and start swinging with the angel.

G2 I keep an aggresive hand and Kevin gets stuck on 2 land with 1 being a waste. I go all the way. He showwed me a hand with crypt and alot of spell pierces. He feared survival alot after seeing how painfully the iona was for him.

4-0-1

Match 6 vs Johan with merfolk (ID)

I end up first and the top 4 goes to the playoff (kevin, johan and Wander)

We decide to split it's late and we want to grab something to eat.


My list can be found at the last page of the bant survival thread.

[Wargoos]

Gratz on the finish.

This convinces me even more to pick up the deck.
If you find some time, could you please post your
thoughts on the Iona+retainers snyergie because it seems that it won you the game many times.

[Waikiki]

Yes at first I was rather unimpressed because it gives me another dead slot in the opening hand but When I tested it today when it gets online it really says to your opponent: Deal with me or next turn or maybe one after that you're dead.

I will be keeping it in for now.

[NQN]

"Deal with me or next turn or maybe one after that you're dead."

Doesn´t SotF says that on it´s own?
Good report `though.

[Waikiki]

Survival is afcorse the key element but with iona you can shut down his answers for that survival. So yes in fact survival is mr badass here.

Iona just makes it alot harder/impossible for the opponent to get rid of it or its creatures it gets and is a 1 swing(with rafiq) 2 swing clock.