Ergh, sorry for not posting in two weeks! I have been rather preoccupied, but that doesn't mean I haven't been playing Magic... last weekend I went 3-1 in the swiss rounds, but I had to leave before the 4th round was over to go see Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Excellent movie, by the way. Totally fuckin' awesome.
Anyway, that tourney wasn't worth reporting on since I didn't see it through to the end. This Friday's tourney was pretty good though.
Round 1 was against Daniel with a W/B deck with allegedly a lot of removal but he didn't draw all that much removal against me (or lands for that matter), but it didn't help matters that I got nearly god-tier draws. Game 2 my opening 7 was this: Forest, Plains, Mystic Rainforest, Noble Hierarch, Birds of Paradise, Lotus Cobra, Sovereigns of Lost Alara. Yeah, I couldn't have stacked my deck and done better!
Round 2 was Conlon playing my deck but with Vengevines. Ugh, I hate this matchup, but we both got sub-par draws. My deck won simply by virtue of the fact that everything I draw is either a mana source or a massive must-answer threat. I drew a tad too much mana, but his deck was preforming a tad slower than it should have been, so everything I drew was relevant. One game our decks seemed to be having a battle of who could draw the absolute worst! I ended up winning the match, again bases simply on threat density.
Round 3 was against Jeremy Bright playing B/R infinite turns. Game 1 was a fairly quick kill, despite him drawing 37 Lightning Bolts that game. Sheesh. Game 2 was brutally tough and ended with him taking infinite turns. Game 3 was one of the most epically tough games ever. It all game down to this:
He was at 12 life, with me at 10 life. He had two fully-leveled Coralhelm Commanders, tapped, so 10 power of Flying damage on the table. I have a Knight of the Reliquary and a single Bird Token and 6 lands. No mana dorks. Two cards in hand, a Jace and a Sovereigns. He had some # of tapped lands, but two lands open, a Mountain and an Island, with 4 cards in hand (I think).
I untapped after taking the merfolk beating to the face, blocking one with a Bird token (I had two at that point) and going to 10. I untapped and drew a second Jace (not helpful!). It's important to note two more details here: one is that among my lands on the board I had a Sejiri Steppe (most KotR decks only run 1), and two is that I already KNEW he had an Into the Roil in hand from a Treasure Hunt earlier in the game.
Now, he rightly knew he's dead if I had Sovereigns, so he left two up. Presumably he left those two mana up for the Roil, anticipating me swinging out of nowhere for 12 (his life total). However, he had two or three other unknown cards in hand as well. If one of them was a Mana Leak, I was screwed.
I spent a good long while agonizing over what to do: go for the win with Sovereigns or play it safe by casting Jace and bouncing a Merfolk. Now, the Sovereigns plan was solid, as I had a second Steppe to save me from Into the Roil. IF, and this was a big If, he ONLY had Into the Roil and nothing else (Lightning Bolt would have been just as bad as Mana Leak) I won. He didn't know I had a second Steppe, as most deck only play 1 of them. Jace might have been a bad play regardless, but if I attempted Sovereigns and he flashed Leak, I was dead. So I really thought about trying to be careful and play it safe. However, in the end I decided to just go for broke.
I tapped out for Sovereigns, and he just nodded at the inevitability of it all. I acted like I was trying to decide weather to swing with the bird or the Knight for a second and then seemed to settle on the bird. He went for the Into the Roil as I had hoped and, I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief. I tapped the KotR and went digging for Steppe #2. I was halfway through the deck and hadn't found it yet, when I started to remember thinking about taking the second one out! I began to get nervous and right then Jeremy asked if I was even running two of them (in a tone that suggested I shouldn't have two in the deck). I answered honestly: "I'm not sure, I may have taken it out". But... there it was after all. I show him the Steppe and he scoops 'em up offering a "good game". Indeed! Very intense.
Top 4: I play Trey, piloting Naya Shaman. It wasn't easy, but I got there with some luck and the uber-dense threat package my deck offers. During Game 1, Trey casts Bloodbraid Elf cascading into a Basilisk Colar - the ONLY non-creature card in his deck (other than land, obv) - when all he needed was a blocker for one turn. Finest Hour made a rare appearance and was critical in one game. I never seem to draw that card, but when I do, it wins like mad.
Top 2 was me and Jeremy again, but neither of us wanted to play that out so we split.
A fun tourney, some epic games. And I beat Conlon, so that was nice.
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