Round 1: vs Homebrew Innistrad Block Vampires. Won both games on turn 4, he played a total of three spells in the match. My deck did what it does and thanks to a boros charm in game one and a turn two Burning-Tree into Lightning Mauler in game two it killed on turn 4. W 2-0 (1-0)
Round 2: vs Homebrew, mill + aggro. Wait what? I was confused. In each game I got milled for about 10-15 cards. The only damage I ever took in the match was from the shocklands I played. Won game one on turn 4, but game two was nuts. It took 25% longer. I had a kind of awkward start so I didn't kill him till turn 5. Gross. W 2-0 (2-0)
Round 3: vs mutilate.dec. Which is to say, tragic slip, liliana, mutilate, thragtusk, etc. Got him down to 1 in game one while on the play, and his hand was empty all I needed was any card in my deck but a land. I drew a land, he swung and i went down from 16-14. He dropped a dude, but still I had all my outs. I drew a land. He swung and I went to 4. Held his card (which I later learned was a land). I drew a land. He killed me. Ugg. I really liked my game plan. It was to not finish the match with land, land, land. Didn't quite get there.
Game two he dropped mutilate on turn 4 killing two creatures. I dropped two creatures on turn 5, he mutilated again. I couldn't recover from that. I got him down to three but he had my board and trampling damage through wasn't going to be an option. I needed a Boros Charm or Searing Spear (from the board) to his face for the win. I drew a land. He swung me down to 16. I drew a land. He swung me down to 8. I drew a land. He swung me down to 1. I drew a card. But this time did so in a windmill slam fashion, as I pulled my hand back we all saw A LAND. Straight deck betrayal to end both games. They were totally winnable but I bricked. Hard. L 0-2 (2-1)
Round 4: vs THE MIRROR. Or at least as close as anyone gets to my deck (paladins->searing spear, selesnya charm->Hellrider) . I played an 8 year old girl named Seraph. It's always tough when you play a kid. You really don't enjoy winning, but what are you going to do. In this case my opponent was very good with the rules and the math. She played cleanly, and made fewer arithmetic errors then I did. However she hadn't learned the importance of timing your instants to reveal the information as late as possible. As a result in game one I was able to race freely. And when she tapped out on turn 4 I was able to reply on my turn by bloodrushing my 3/3 stromkirk noble up to 7/7, and then Boros Charming for double strike for the kill. If only she hadn't searing speared my face during her second main phase.
Living the dream! Game two was a disaster. My opening hand was as follows:
How do you mulligan that? Hit any red source and it is an auto win. I did not draw a land. Her aggressive deck killed me on turn 4.
Game three was sweet. We just free raced right at each other and I set up a devastating, Selesnya Charm surprise blocker, which happened to soulbond with a Silverblade Paladin. It was all over from that point. The next turn a Ghor-Clan Bloodrush onto the double striker ended the match and the tournament. W 2-1 (3-1)
RECAP: I went 3-1 on the tournament with a loss in round 3. Good for 9th place out of 72. Needed a little help from my breakers to make top 8. No dice. I felt like I played well. The only competitive match was round 3 which I lost. But both losses ended with me bricking hard. I think I put myself in solid position to win both of them and drawing land to finish the game just didn't cut it (my plan was to not draw land). But that's magic. That opponent did have the deck I am worst against.
Liliana is brutal, she usually makes me sac a creature, and then discard a card, and then sac a creature. At least if my opponent plays her well. The Thragusk is just a brutal speed bump. With my pump all of my creatures crush it in combat, but it eats up a full 11 points of life. Getting to 20 ish is easy, breaking 30 is near impossible. I for one will be very happy when she rotates out, I just hope the same happens to Thragtusk. Of course the Silverblades and Lightning Maulers also rotate.
Fortunately not all was wasted, in my prize packs I cracked a ...
PS: This is my fifth tournament in a row going 3-1. I seem to have hit a wall. I just can't break 4-0. In the past year I only have one 4-0 to my name. Going to have to figure something out to improve. Probably right now the best thing is to just play more. But I refuse to play online b/c onetime like 5 years ago the program was shitty and I couldn't even make an account. So I'm not sure what to do.
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