phazonmutant
06-23-2014, 05:50 AM
Hi guys, I did ok last weekend at SCG Columbus so thought I would try to infotain you with another tournament report. As usual, I'm going to share the flavor of travelling and the location in addition to some boring stories about man-children playing fantasy card games. Feel free to ctrl+f for #winning to skip ahead to the battles.
A non-magical prelude:
Flying East sucks, and Seattle is in the middle of goddamn nowhere as far as magic tournaments are concerned. Of all the things I miss about Atlanta, ease of access to tournaments is a big one. That being said, being able to take it easy and hang out with friends in Columbus on Thursday and Monday was pretty great.
At midnight before I left for Columbus on a 6 AM flight, I picked up my standard deck (Bg Devotion) from a couple friends. Obviously I was well-prepared for that portion of the tournament.
My flight to DFW arrived late because of a monstrous hail storm in Texas (?!) - we circled for so long we had to set down in a nearby town to refuel - but I was lucky enough to nab a standby seat on the next flight to Columbus. Arrived around 7, and decided that I would just take the bus instead of paying for a taxi. When I realized 30 minutes later that I had gone the wrong direction and was now surrounded by cars with spinners and dudes in wifebeaters that busing may have been a bad idea. I got off and didn't have to wait too long for a bus headed the right direction, and even got some good practice in avoiding eye contact with the dude waiting next to me.
So once me and my thousands of dollars of unmarked liquid assets made it to the convention center, I was blown away by how big and crowded it was! Definitely a departure from the typical SCG venue, and very much for the better. It was awesome taking a breather between rounds to stroll amongst nerds posing in costume or playing life-size board games. Also, North Market had BBQ and ice cream and was a 5 minute walk. 10/10 would go back.
I sleeved up my standard deck, jammed a few games, but it was getting pretty late so took a taxi to my friend's place who was generous enough to share his home while he was away for work. Big shout-outs to Elliot for being an awesome dude and having a very comfortable couch. He was right next to a divey-looking joint called Bob's Bar, so had to poke my head in and get a taste of the local brews. Turns out I accidentally stumbled into a microbrew bar. Yaaaaaaaas. If you're ever in the area, the Brew Kettle Old 21 Imperial IPA is very tasty. Alcoholism sated, I headed to bed.
I have to say, the best part about invitationals is starting at noon. Standard sucks, so it's kind of them to throw us a bone. I had a leisurely morning and took a nice bus ride downtown past OSU. Cool campus. Finally it was time!
Magical wizard battles:
Standard I went 2-2. I got savagely outplayed round 1 in the mirror, then beat Feline on burn (supposedly a bad matchup), then played 2 more black decks. Fun.
In Legacy I was paired up first against Jared Boettcher and his Painter brew. Man fighting that deck is a puzzle! He got a lot of equity from being a rogue deck in that match. The thing that impressed me the most was his mental game. He kept up some casual banter during the match which both made me let down my guard and goaded me into some crappy attacks like Goyf and unflipped Delver into his Strix + Academy Ruins with him at like 10. The worst part is I didn't even realize I was being manipulated until after the match! Very slick. Round 6 I played against D&T. The guy went basic plains into Dryad Militant, so I thought I was a lock for the match. Turns out he actually knew how to play D&T and game 2 I mulliganed to 4 without seeing a colored mana source. Lost that one. Next round my opponent conceded to me because he forgot to drop, then I beat a very demoralized Sneak and Show player. Not the most outstanding performance, 3-4 and a concession.
Brief muggle interlude:
For me, the best part about magic tournaments other than winning is eating degenerate dinners with old friends. In this case I met up with another college friend and we went to a knock-off Brazilian steakhouse, Rodizio grill. It was a bit cheaper and bit worse than Fogo de Chao (especially the salad bar, but who eats salad at a Brazilian steakhouse), but many animals were devoured regardless. One server told us that he had mad respect that we kept going as long as we did. GET ON OUR LEVEL, BITCHES. Esper3k and his friend Simon joined us for dinner (with Dragonslayer_90 arriving right as they closed) and we had a great time shooting the shit.
The next day, I very easily no-sirred the standard tournament in favor of buying power. There were mad vendors a couple of halls down from SCG, with plenty of mom-and-pop stores ready to worship the green stacks. I was able to snag some decent deals on a Jet and Sapphire and started lining up a deal to ship my alpha Underground Sea for a Lotus. That occupied me until the challenge.
Legacy challenge:
I loaned TinFins (best deck in the format), so unfortunately couldn't repeat my 4-0 experience in L.A. Played BUG Delver to a 3-1 finish, losing to a sweet Burning Reanimator deck (Anthony Lowry's copy I believe). That deck looks awesomely awful. LED + Exhume was pretty sick against Deathrite.
More prattle about food:
Simon is apparently a yelp master and informed us we were going to dinner at Wolf’s Ridge Brewing. He had even already picked out his meal - a lamb burger. I got a delicious duck breast and had some acceptable beer with the ambiance set by a view over the stainless steel brewing aparati. A good choice overall, would recommend.
Finally, time to talk about #winning.
Round 1 - Lauren Nolen - Miracles
One hell of a person to start the tournament against! Invitational winner Mr. Nolen was very polite and courteous, and we had a friendly conversation during boarding and afterwards. Game 1 I ground out with random beaters and Deathrite. He wasn’t able to find a Terminus, but my hand was loaded with more threats. Game 2 he landed an early Rest in Peace, but my air force of Clique and Delver took him down with the help of the green necro, the VIP Sylvan Library.
1-0, 2-0
Round 2 - Devin Koepke - ANT
I’ve known Devin for a while from the SCG circuit on the east coast, so it’s good to run into him again so far from home for both of us. He’s usually on ANT, so I mulliganned with that in mind. This match had some very interesting decision points with some percentage plays that I would be curious to hear your thoughts about.
Game 1 - My seven on the play was Ponder, Hymn, Lili, and 4 lands (1 Waste). I kept although it’s not great, and he mulled to 6. I Ponder, saw Goyf, Deathrite, Decay, shuffled. Drew Goyf. He Duressed my Hymn off basic Swamp, so I played Goyf. He Preordained off Underground Sea, topped both, and passed. I drew air, Wasted his Sea, battled. He played Island and Brainstorm, hit the nut and killed me. ANT has the best Brainstorms in the format I think.
Game 2 - I mulliganned a no-lander and saw a 6 of fetch, Waste, Hymn, Force, Delver, Ponder. A solid keep. I played land and Ponder, saw 3 lands, shuffled, and drew Daze. He sniped my Hymn with a blind therapy. I drew Waste, played Delver, and Wasted his land. He played Island and cantripped. I drew Tombstalker, and he decided to go for it. He played Swamp into Therapy with Island up, I chose not to let it resolve (Tombstalker, FoW, Daze in hand). He took Daze, then played Petal into CRit into a lethal Past in Flames.
So as I see it, the key decision points in that game were whether or not to play Delver or hold up FoW + Daze, and then to Daze the Therapy. Against ANT, a clock is crucial and Daze usually isn’t, so I thought that’s why playing Delver was correct. If I Daze, then maybe he pays and waits a turn, or maybe he doesn’t and gambles that I didn’t draw a blue non-spell card. Anyway, interesting games.
1-1, 2-2
I took the quick loss as an opportunity to finish the deal for the Lotus. Traded my MP Alpha Sea and some cash for a really, really clean UNL Lotus. Almost there!
Round 3 - Steve Wise - BUG Control
This guy had an interesting Shardless-less BUG Control build. I could tell by his fetching Trop but not holding up U that he wasn’t on Delver, so I assumed Shardless until I saw Pierce game 2. Pretty much small advantages and grinding reigned supreme. Creeping Tar Pit did work for both of us, almost killing me game 3 until I Wasted then drew a Tar Pit of my own that he couldn’t kill.
2-1, 4-3
Round 4 - Ozzie - Sneak and Show
This was one of the more dour players that I’ve played against in an SCG. He didn’t really talk much and wasn’t emotional. I demolished him in 2 games thanks to timely discard and generally good draws. Game 2 I even had double Hymn + Waste into Lili. Hymn is so metal.
3-1, 6-3
Round 5 - Kevin Huang - ANT
Kevin’s deck was all foil or Japanese or both. Not how I would choose to pimp, but very sweet nonetheless. Game 1 I had the ol’ counterspells plus discard and he couldn’t break through. Game 2 I revealed Golgari Charm to my turn 2 Delver, foiling his in-hand Empty. I actually Brainstormed and shipped it the turn before he started storming into my known hand of Pierce, Force, Clique, and 3 mana up. I let the Rituals resolve, so he just jammed his second-to-last card, Empty, for 8 goblins. My air force won the race. He mentioned afterwards that he was pretty demoralized that I knew to bring in Charm and showed me he boarded in Empty and some Xantid Swarms. Protip: tempo pilots often lose to Empty. Don’t be one of them.
4-1, 8-3
Round 6 - Ryan Overturf - UR Delver
His deck is similar to mine, except that it’s worse and less expensive. Lose-lose. I baited a Daze with Hymn on the play, then followed with Lili. He conceded after a couple turns of discarding Spell Pierce with me having only taken damage from my fetches and half a Forked Bolt. Game 2 I kill his early Pyromancer, and my Tombstalker races the token left behind very easily.
5-1, 10-3
Between rounds, I teach my home slices from ATL (shoutouts to Adrian and Schneider) how to play Open-Face Chinese Poker. That game has so many rules, but it’s pretty fun. The one rule I emphasized for 4-player OFCP is to not bust, so of course I immediately bust my Flush back, Q high middle with a forced king up top. #scumbagking
Round 7 - Harry Corvese - Deathblade
We had a very tight, grindy series of games.
Game 1 was a real back-and-forth show. I was way ahead with Deathrite and Goyf, but he drew Deathrite into True-Name to stabilize at 4. I drew Goyf and was ahead, then he drew another True Name! Rude. He won the race.
Game 2 I decided to #yolo and not play around sweepers. Deathrite into Delver into Deathrite + Delver with Hymn in hand into his 2 mana. My Hymn next turn hit his Verdict, so I won. I commented to him, “I was worried about the Verdict” and he snap-calls with “No you weren’t!” Fair.
Game 3 we got moved to the backup camera. He had an early True-Name that chipped away at my life total, but I mounted an attack on his resources with Hymn and Waste. Once it was safe, I dropped Lili and took total control.
6-1, 12-4
Round 8 - Paolo - BUG Delver (Stifle + TNN)
I knew that there were a couple of Stifle BUG players floating around the top tables, so when he fetched Trop into Deathrite, I knew what I was up against. Game 1 I Hymned him then followed up with Tombstalker. He has no outs to Tombstalker. That was easy.
Game 2 I dropped an early Tombstalker and managed to Pierce the Submerge on it. Won that one too.
7-1, 14-4
Round 9 - Jeff Hoogland - Junk Depths
This was a real heartbreaker because it’s the first time I’ve knocked a friend out of top-8. Didn’t feel good. What’s worse is that pretty much all match he was losing (except for the turn where he won in game 2).
Game 1 I had the absolutely brutal Deathrite into Delver + Waste opener. Hard to recover from that.
Game 2 I again had a sick Deathrite hand with Force backup. Forced a Chalice on the draw, then was taking over with Lili and Deathrite. I didn’t play to his outs though, and he top-decked running Stage, Depths.
Game 3 my Goyf had no fear of an active Knight and was able to go the distance.
8-1, 16-5
Round 10 - ID with Jacob Wilson. Food break! Also hooray, my third SCG top 8! That’s 2-1 with BUG Delver, and the non-top-8 I went 8-2 and punted a match I lost very badly. This deck is ok.
8-1-1, 16-5
Quaterfinals - Mark Rankin - Canadian Threshold
Text coverage here (http://www.starcitygames.com/events/coverage/quarterfinals_mark_rankin_vs_g.html). The key thing in both games is Forcing the removal on Deathrite. He’s the most important card in the matchup where mana-denial is king. My opponent got unlucky on land drops both games, but having the Force for the removal both times is what won me the games.
9-1-1, 18-5
Semifinals - Jason Smith - Death & Taxes
Jason was a nice guy and played very tightly. I was impressed by his play throughout the top-8. Video coverage here (http://www.twitch.tv/scglive/b/538117034?t=58h44m)
My Ponders were pretty dry all match, and double Avenger messed me up, but both games came down to the wire with lethal attacks on both sides of the board. He played well, especially now that I’ve been able to look back over his hand. Holding non-basics frustrated the Wastelands I drew every game, and he made very conservative attacks and blocks. The one big question mark in my mind is the Decay on the Vial. I had another Decay and a pile of cantrips in hand, so I thought it was fine, but in retrospect I may have been too afraid of Spirit. Also, I didn’t intend to have Force in post-board, but shuffled in the sideboard and missed it and a Pierce when I was taking out 15.
9-2-1, 16-7
So overall, a good tournament and a fun time! Simon, Jeff, and I grabbed a drink after with Elliot who had just arrived that day from his work trip - a fun end to the weekend. The flight west was smooth sailing. As I write this, Portland is a week off, and I’m ready to do some more battling with the actual best deck in the format, Team America!
Props:
- Mad power
- Nerds at Origins being awesome
- Seeing friends and eating great dinners
Slops:
- Standard
A non-magical prelude:
Flying East sucks, and Seattle is in the middle of goddamn nowhere as far as magic tournaments are concerned. Of all the things I miss about Atlanta, ease of access to tournaments is a big one. That being said, being able to take it easy and hang out with friends in Columbus on Thursday and Monday was pretty great.
At midnight before I left for Columbus on a 6 AM flight, I picked up my standard deck (Bg Devotion) from a couple friends. Obviously I was well-prepared for that portion of the tournament.
My flight to DFW arrived late because of a monstrous hail storm in Texas (?!) - we circled for so long we had to set down in a nearby town to refuel - but I was lucky enough to nab a standby seat on the next flight to Columbus. Arrived around 7, and decided that I would just take the bus instead of paying for a taxi. When I realized 30 minutes later that I had gone the wrong direction and was now surrounded by cars with spinners and dudes in wifebeaters that busing may have been a bad idea. I got off and didn't have to wait too long for a bus headed the right direction, and even got some good practice in avoiding eye contact with the dude waiting next to me.
So once me and my thousands of dollars of unmarked liquid assets made it to the convention center, I was blown away by how big and crowded it was! Definitely a departure from the typical SCG venue, and very much for the better. It was awesome taking a breather between rounds to stroll amongst nerds posing in costume or playing life-size board games. Also, North Market had BBQ and ice cream and was a 5 minute walk. 10/10 would go back.
I sleeved up my standard deck, jammed a few games, but it was getting pretty late so took a taxi to my friend's place who was generous enough to share his home while he was away for work. Big shout-outs to Elliot for being an awesome dude and having a very comfortable couch. He was right next to a divey-looking joint called Bob's Bar, so had to poke my head in and get a taste of the local brews. Turns out I accidentally stumbled into a microbrew bar. Yaaaaaaaas. If you're ever in the area, the Brew Kettle Old 21 Imperial IPA is very tasty. Alcoholism sated, I headed to bed.
I have to say, the best part about invitationals is starting at noon. Standard sucks, so it's kind of them to throw us a bone. I had a leisurely morning and took a nice bus ride downtown past OSU. Cool campus. Finally it was time!
Magical wizard battles:
Standard I went 2-2. I got savagely outplayed round 1 in the mirror, then beat Feline on burn (supposedly a bad matchup), then played 2 more black decks. Fun.
In Legacy I was paired up first against Jared Boettcher and his Painter brew. Man fighting that deck is a puzzle! He got a lot of equity from being a rogue deck in that match. The thing that impressed me the most was his mental game. He kept up some casual banter during the match which both made me let down my guard and goaded me into some crappy attacks like Goyf and unflipped Delver into his Strix + Academy Ruins with him at like 10. The worst part is I didn't even realize I was being manipulated until after the match! Very slick. Round 6 I played against D&T. The guy went basic plains into Dryad Militant, so I thought I was a lock for the match. Turns out he actually knew how to play D&T and game 2 I mulliganed to 4 without seeing a colored mana source. Lost that one. Next round my opponent conceded to me because he forgot to drop, then I beat a very demoralized Sneak and Show player. Not the most outstanding performance, 3-4 and a concession.
Brief muggle interlude:
For me, the best part about magic tournaments other than winning is eating degenerate dinners with old friends. In this case I met up with another college friend and we went to a knock-off Brazilian steakhouse, Rodizio grill. It was a bit cheaper and bit worse than Fogo de Chao (especially the salad bar, but who eats salad at a Brazilian steakhouse), but many animals were devoured regardless. One server told us that he had mad respect that we kept going as long as we did. GET ON OUR LEVEL, BITCHES. Esper3k and his friend Simon joined us for dinner (with Dragonslayer_90 arriving right as they closed) and we had a great time shooting the shit.
The next day, I very easily no-sirred the standard tournament in favor of buying power. There were mad vendors a couple of halls down from SCG, with plenty of mom-and-pop stores ready to worship the green stacks. I was able to snag some decent deals on a Jet and Sapphire and started lining up a deal to ship my alpha Underground Sea for a Lotus. That occupied me until the challenge.
Legacy challenge:
I loaned TinFins (best deck in the format), so unfortunately couldn't repeat my 4-0 experience in L.A. Played BUG Delver to a 3-1 finish, losing to a sweet Burning Reanimator deck (Anthony Lowry's copy I believe). That deck looks awesomely awful. LED + Exhume was pretty sick against Deathrite.
More prattle about food:
Simon is apparently a yelp master and informed us we were going to dinner at Wolf’s Ridge Brewing. He had even already picked out his meal - a lamb burger. I got a delicious duck breast and had some acceptable beer with the ambiance set by a view over the stainless steel brewing aparati. A good choice overall, would recommend.
Finally, time to talk about #winning.
Round 1 - Lauren Nolen - Miracles
One hell of a person to start the tournament against! Invitational winner Mr. Nolen was very polite and courteous, and we had a friendly conversation during boarding and afterwards. Game 1 I ground out with random beaters and Deathrite. He wasn’t able to find a Terminus, but my hand was loaded with more threats. Game 2 he landed an early Rest in Peace, but my air force of Clique and Delver took him down with the help of the green necro, the VIP Sylvan Library.
1-0, 2-0
Round 2 - Devin Koepke - ANT
I’ve known Devin for a while from the SCG circuit on the east coast, so it’s good to run into him again so far from home for both of us. He’s usually on ANT, so I mulliganned with that in mind. This match had some very interesting decision points with some percentage plays that I would be curious to hear your thoughts about.
Game 1 - My seven on the play was Ponder, Hymn, Lili, and 4 lands (1 Waste). I kept although it’s not great, and he mulled to 6. I Ponder, saw Goyf, Deathrite, Decay, shuffled. Drew Goyf. He Duressed my Hymn off basic Swamp, so I played Goyf. He Preordained off Underground Sea, topped both, and passed. I drew air, Wasted his Sea, battled. He played Island and Brainstorm, hit the nut and killed me. ANT has the best Brainstorms in the format I think.
Game 2 - I mulliganned a no-lander and saw a 6 of fetch, Waste, Hymn, Force, Delver, Ponder. A solid keep. I played land and Ponder, saw 3 lands, shuffled, and drew Daze. He sniped my Hymn with a blind therapy. I drew Waste, played Delver, and Wasted his land. He played Island and cantripped. I drew Tombstalker, and he decided to go for it. He played Swamp into Therapy with Island up, I chose not to let it resolve (Tombstalker, FoW, Daze in hand). He took Daze, then played Petal into CRit into a lethal Past in Flames.
So as I see it, the key decision points in that game were whether or not to play Delver or hold up FoW + Daze, and then to Daze the Therapy. Against ANT, a clock is crucial and Daze usually isn’t, so I thought that’s why playing Delver was correct. If I Daze, then maybe he pays and waits a turn, or maybe he doesn’t and gambles that I didn’t draw a blue non-spell card. Anyway, interesting games.
1-1, 2-2
I took the quick loss as an opportunity to finish the deal for the Lotus. Traded my MP Alpha Sea and some cash for a really, really clean UNL Lotus. Almost there!
Round 3 - Steve Wise - BUG Control
This guy had an interesting Shardless-less BUG Control build. I could tell by his fetching Trop but not holding up U that he wasn’t on Delver, so I assumed Shardless until I saw Pierce game 2. Pretty much small advantages and grinding reigned supreme. Creeping Tar Pit did work for both of us, almost killing me game 3 until I Wasted then drew a Tar Pit of my own that he couldn’t kill.
2-1, 4-3
Round 4 - Ozzie - Sneak and Show
This was one of the more dour players that I’ve played against in an SCG. He didn’t really talk much and wasn’t emotional. I demolished him in 2 games thanks to timely discard and generally good draws. Game 2 I even had double Hymn + Waste into Lili. Hymn is so metal.
3-1, 6-3
Round 5 - Kevin Huang - ANT
Kevin’s deck was all foil or Japanese or both. Not how I would choose to pimp, but very sweet nonetheless. Game 1 I had the ol’ counterspells plus discard and he couldn’t break through. Game 2 I revealed Golgari Charm to my turn 2 Delver, foiling his in-hand Empty. I actually Brainstormed and shipped it the turn before he started storming into my known hand of Pierce, Force, Clique, and 3 mana up. I let the Rituals resolve, so he just jammed his second-to-last card, Empty, for 8 goblins. My air force won the race. He mentioned afterwards that he was pretty demoralized that I knew to bring in Charm and showed me he boarded in Empty and some Xantid Swarms. Protip: tempo pilots often lose to Empty. Don’t be one of them.
4-1, 8-3
Round 6 - Ryan Overturf - UR Delver
His deck is similar to mine, except that it’s worse and less expensive. Lose-lose. I baited a Daze with Hymn on the play, then followed with Lili. He conceded after a couple turns of discarding Spell Pierce with me having only taken damage from my fetches and half a Forked Bolt. Game 2 I kill his early Pyromancer, and my Tombstalker races the token left behind very easily.
5-1, 10-3
Between rounds, I teach my home slices from ATL (shoutouts to Adrian and Schneider) how to play Open-Face Chinese Poker. That game has so many rules, but it’s pretty fun. The one rule I emphasized for 4-player OFCP is to not bust, so of course I immediately bust my Flush back, Q high middle with a forced king up top. #scumbagking
Round 7 - Harry Corvese - Deathblade
We had a very tight, grindy series of games.
Game 1 was a real back-and-forth show. I was way ahead with Deathrite and Goyf, but he drew Deathrite into True-Name to stabilize at 4. I drew Goyf and was ahead, then he drew another True Name! Rude. He won the race.
Game 2 I decided to #yolo and not play around sweepers. Deathrite into Delver into Deathrite + Delver with Hymn in hand into his 2 mana. My Hymn next turn hit his Verdict, so I won. I commented to him, “I was worried about the Verdict” and he snap-calls with “No you weren’t!” Fair.
Game 3 we got moved to the backup camera. He had an early True-Name that chipped away at my life total, but I mounted an attack on his resources with Hymn and Waste. Once it was safe, I dropped Lili and took total control.
6-1, 12-4
Round 8 - Paolo - BUG Delver (Stifle + TNN)
I knew that there were a couple of Stifle BUG players floating around the top tables, so when he fetched Trop into Deathrite, I knew what I was up against. Game 1 I Hymned him then followed up with Tombstalker. He has no outs to Tombstalker. That was easy.
Game 2 I dropped an early Tombstalker and managed to Pierce the Submerge on it. Won that one too.
7-1, 14-4
Round 9 - Jeff Hoogland - Junk Depths
This was a real heartbreaker because it’s the first time I’ve knocked a friend out of top-8. Didn’t feel good. What’s worse is that pretty much all match he was losing (except for the turn where he won in game 2).
Game 1 I had the absolutely brutal Deathrite into Delver + Waste opener. Hard to recover from that.
Game 2 I again had a sick Deathrite hand with Force backup. Forced a Chalice on the draw, then was taking over with Lili and Deathrite. I didn’t play to his outs though, and he top-decked running Stage, Depths.
Game 3 my Goyf had no fear of an active Knight and was able to go the distance.
8-1, 16-5
Round 10 - ID with Jacob Wilson. Food break! Also hooray, my third SCG top 8! That’s 2-1 with BUG Delver, and the non-top-8 I went 8-2 and punted a match I lost very badly. This deck is ok.
8-1-1, 16-5
Quaterfinals - Mark Rankin - Canadian Threshold
Text coverage here (http://www.starcitygames.com/events/coverage/quarterfinals_mark_rankin_vs_g.html). The key thing in both games is Forcing the removal on Deathrite. He’s the most important card in the matchup where mana-denial is king. My opponent got unlucky on land drops both games, but having the Force for the removal both times is what won me the games.
9-1-1, 18-5
Semifinals - Jason Smith - Death & Taxes
Jason was a nice guy and played very tightly. I was impressed by his play throughout the top-8. Video coverage here (http://www.twitch.tv/scglive/b/538117034?t=58h44m)
My Ponders were pretty dry all match, and double Avenger messed me up, but both games came down to the wire with lethal attacks on both sides of the board. He played well, especially now that I’ve been able to look back over his hand. Holding non-basics frustrated the Wastelands I drew every game, and he made very conservative attacks and blocks. The one big question mark in my mind is the Decay on the Vial. I had another Decay and a pile of cantrips in hand, so I thought it was fine, but in retrospect I may have been too afraid of Spirit. Also, I didn’t intend to have Force in post-board, but shuffled in the sideboard and missed it and a Pierce when I was taking out 15.
9-2-1, 16-7
So overall, a good tournament and a fun time! Simon, Jeff, and I grabbed a drink after with Elliot who had just arrived that day from his work trip - a fun end to the weekend. The flight west was smooth sailing. As I write this, Portland is a week off, and I’m ready to do some more battling with the actual best deck in the format, Team America!
Props:
- Mad power
- Nerds at Origins being awesome
- Seeing friends and eating great dinners
Slops:
- Standard