Hello everyone, and welcome to our match report for July 3.

An overcast, then rainy Saturday still pulled 10 Legacy players who were competing for table space with the increasingly popular EDH – err… Commander crowd. Several players getting back in to Magic were present, and a welcome addition to our Sunday Regulars. The field was mixed as usual – I went in with Napalm Smoke, and loaned my Spiral Tide to one of our new faces. TES, Elves, The Gate, Merfolk, Stompy, RDW, and another Burn deck were all vying for the win.

Round One, was a burn on burn matchup – always a tricky situation for the color of chaos. Game was a footrace, with both decks pushing hard for the win. Price of Progress sat dead in my hand, as my opponent was running nothing but basic mountains. Down to 2 life, my opponent didn’t top deck his win spell, and the best I could do was Flame Rift for the draw.

Game 2 was close again, as I pitched a Chain Lightning back at my opponent’s face, but fell 1 land short of the win with an active Grim Lavamancer, fuel in the graveyard, but no mana to hit him for the last 2 points. He takes the win. Faithful Flame Rift and Fireblast hand me game 3, and we go onto game 4 to settle the score. Fire raged back and forth in the closest of the four games, as we rolled into the final turn. With nothing left to spare, 1 land in play and both of us at 3 life, I topped a Goblin Guide and swung with a Lavamancer and Guide for the win. I take the match.

In Round 2, I squared off against Elf combo. Game one was an unsurprisingly easy win as two Lavamancers and a guide were out by turn 2. Fetches provided fuel and let me use my ‘mancers to fry elves and hold spell to burn face. In game two, the elves brought out an early Thorn of Amethyst, which slowed me down considerably. My efforts to stop him from setting up cost me precious fuel cooking elves until he dumped a trio of Vengevines in his graveyard, putting me on a very short clock.

Two elf drops latter and he was pounding me for 12 points of damage. With plenty of burn in hand, but just not enough mana to play around the Thorn, game to went to the little green hordes. Game three started out poorly for my opponent, as he was forced to mull to four cards. Another Lavamancer early, and piled on lots of early heat. The short draw allowed me to use just a little fuel to cook the green guys and blast my opponent to an easy victory. Match win for Burn.

Round Three was a draw into the top 4 cut. Around the room, TES and Stompy squared off for the top four cut, while Elves’ future hung in the balance as RDW scooped to give them a chance to move into the cut. Elves and RDW played for fun anyway, and sillyness abounded. Rock, Paper, Scissors decided who was on the play and the Easy Button got a workout as fetch after fetch chipped away at life totals. In game one an early Lavamancer was quickly followed by a turn 2 Plated Geopede and turn 3 Goblin Guide, hammering away for heavy damage. The heavy trio took game two as well, and a pair of Amethysts in game three were just much too late to turn the tide. RDW would have taken an easy win in round three, but still would not have made the cut. Elves’ hopes now rested on TES pulling down Stompy to push it in.

Stompy put on a brave face against the powerful storm deck, but struggled as turn two TES dropped a dirty dozen goblins on the battlefield, and scooped to the overwhelming stupidity in overwhelming numbers. Game two wasn’t much better for Stompy, despite a pair of Sylvan Libraries, it never drew into the beats and lost to Tendrils.

Round one of the cut round pitted me against Merfolk. Game one was an unsurprising win with plenty of fried fish on the menu. Game two was much closer, but a late game Umezawa’s Jitte tipped the tide just enough to cost me the win. Game three was a little more one sided, until a Kira the Great Glass-Spinner picked up the powerful equipment, and wiped away my pair of Confidants, leaving me with an empty hand and no way to stabilize. Match goes to Fish.

Congratulations to Jim and Nick, who split the first place prize and Dan and Krystian for taking third and fourth, respectively.

TempleCon 2012 is gearing up early this year! Our website should be live late Monday, so don’t forget to swing by and get a sneak peek! Pre-registration is very important, and will be available starting in August. Not only will pre-reg save you some scratch, but badges will be mailed out, so you’ll be free to walk right into the con and by-pass the reg deck completely!

TempleCon can always use foot soldiers; if you’re interested in volunteering, swing by the website and let us know!