Originally Posted by
Stryfo
So, recently I've been unable to play much paper magic because I've moved for grad school and there isn't really a good scene close by, in addition, I'm much more busy than I have been in quite some time. But a friend who also moved down to the area notified me that there would be a GPT near me, and I decided, since I already have my plane tickets to GP Seatac, that I would go and try to win some byes. This is the list I sleeved up, and I gotta say, it felt very powerful.
3 Griselbrand
1 Tidespout Tyrant
1 Elesh Norn
1 Jin-Gitaxias
1 Archetype of Endurance
4 Hapless Researcher
1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
4 Brainstorm
4 Careful Study
4 Entomb
4 Reanimate
4 Exhume
2 Animate Dead
2 Misdirection
3 Izzet Charm
4 Force of Will
1 Swamp
2 Tropical Island
2 Badlands
4 Underground Sea
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Polluted Delta
SB:
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Thoughtseize
2 Duress
2 Echoing Truth
1 Keranos
1 Iona
1 Darkblast
2 Pithing Needle
1 Snapcaster
Round 1 I played against a BUG Delver player, he won the die roll and led off with a DRS. I just played out a land. on his turn, he hymned me, and I misdirected it back at him, he passed and I played land #2. He played a tarmogoyf and passed back with no mana for DRS. I had entomb, exhume, and izzet charm in hand at this point, but no third land. I could either go for the combo and essentially lose to a counterspell, or zap his DRS and conceal my identity a bit longer. I decided to izzet charm the DRS, and I end up drawing the land to go off on my turn anyway. Griselbrand seals it for my opponent. G2 was a bit longer, he kept a slow hand with DRS, a waste, and a surgical, but no blue source. I end up winning a fairly long game by putting griselbrand into play against a large number of goyfs. Hapless researcher chumping goyfs allowed me to win the race.
1-0
Round 2 I played against Sneak and Show, I end up going for the turn two or three with an exhume and his intuition plus two counterspells was enough to get around my 2 counterspells and we each end up with a griselbrand in play. He won shortly after with a sneak attacked emrakul. I win game 2 on the back of Jace and a moderately awkward hand from my opponent. G3 was weird, I mulled and kept a hand with trop as my only mana source, a needle and some forces and blue cards. I start the plan of just attacking with the researchers I drew early, getting him down to ~12, then fearing his hand I went digging for a black source for my duress and missing. my opponent tried to resolve two fast moons in this time and luckily I had the forces. I eventually drew two more hapless researchers and killed him by attacking with 1/1s through his relic, cage, and blood moon.
2-0
Round 3 I had to play against the friend that told me about the event. He was on DnT. g1 he mulled to five and I was able to beat his hand with griselbrand into archetype into elesh. G2 I had to 15 myself to reanimate grielbrand and draw cards, his beatdown from there was just a bit too strong. The same thing happened in game 3, but it was a slightly more drawn out affair.
2-1
Round4 I played against RUG delver, he won the roll and got game one because of the awkwardness of my draw combined with a fast clock from delver. G2 I mulled to 5, fun.
2-2
now I thought I was out of contention, but since the event only had ~20 players, I was still live for top 8, I just had to win round 5!
Round 5, I played against infect. Game one was a pretty one sided afair, I had the choice between griselbrand and elesh, I chose GB to reload in case he had karakas. He told me I made a mistake (which I don't believe is true) and scooped to me, which was nice, though I thought it was a bit strange. Game 2 he had an early cage that I couldn't conter and had to spend the game trying to darkblast all his guys away. I was unable to do it correctly due to his hierarchs, which was quite unfortunate. Game 3 I get a fast griselbrand into play, he attacks with glistener elf. I block it and he invigorates, I misdirect it to my GB, he invigorates again and berserks. I draw cards to reload and we trade, I take 1 infect and gain 11 life, seems fun. Then I got tidespout and darkblast online and the game was over.
Sweet into the Top 8 at 7th Seed!
Round 1: RUG Delver Rematch. He once again got to be on the play and basically tempoed me out of game 1. Game 2 I had a hand that put Jin into play with force backup and daze immunity. When he led on ponder the game was over. Game 3 we stared at eachother for a while and eventually he got a cage and goyf into play. I killed the cage and got Iona out, using misdirection on his surgical. Iona named blue and we continued a staring contest, he put an additional goyf and a goose on the table, and I was fairly low on life. I drew a few hapless to keep the stalemate alive. I eventually was able to get elesh into play to seal the deal.
Round 2: Elves. These games were not especially interesting, they involved getting elesh into play and the opponent scooping, or me durdling and him NO-ing me on his turn 4. I guess I got to play around with Jace in game 3, which was cool.
Round 3: My opponent graciously offers a split in which we take equal credit and I get the byes. I accept, but later end up giving him some credit because I don't really need more magic cards at this point in my life.
So, sweet! I got to spend a day playing this sweet deck and ended up with a copy of Legendary, some new sleeves, and most importantly, 2 byes at GP Seatac!