Round 1: My round one opponent in this tournament was someone I faced last week in the draft (round 3). His name is Ed and he's a pretty cool dude. As is everyone who wears flannel when they duel. But on to the magic. My first 7 were 5 lands and 2 creatures. I had a couple dudes and figured it would be ok. Boy was i wrong. I drew lands for the first 5 turns and just had no gas. Still I put up a good fight and didn't give an inch. It took about 10 turns but I just couldn't stabilize once I drew some gas.
My inner monologue went as follows. Well I lost. Why? Because I drew too many lands? What could I have done to change that? Mulligan. Honestly I don't think I could have played differently so the problem really was too many lands. But I didn't know that I would draw 5 more. If I was a better gamer I would run the math and then have a better idea what the correct call was. On a side note whenever the pros are interviewed after a good tournament they often cite drawing well. They do not as often sight, good mulling.
Game two was a different story. I had 3 lands and a 1/2/4/5 curve out. All I needed to do was hit my 4th and 5th land drop on time. Oh an all the cards were black. The four drop was a disciple of Phenax and the five was a Gray Merchant.
spicy!
My opponent had no early pressure and no removal. I hit the Phenax on and the Merchant on 5. Oh and then I Merchanted again a turn later. onto game 3!
Game three started out with my opponent on the play and he took a mulligan. My starting hand was good with a Gray Merchant in hand. I kept and we moved on. Both of us got solid mana out of the gate and no one stumbled. Fortuately I drew into a Disciple and a Instatiable Harpy to set up a Gray Merchant for 7 on turn 6. At that point my opponent had a couple dudes and decided to turn the game into a race. He swung and I was down to 19. But after that Merchant for 7 and my swing he was at 8. I ripped a Merchant off the top and that was all she wrote. W 2-1 (1-0)
Round 2: I lost this round. My opponent was playing RB Minotaurs. It was brutal. Check out his curve from game one.
filthy
Game two I'm on the play and have a poor 7, especially given what I'm up against. My six were ok with an early 3/3 and a Merchant. I just needed to draw well. My opponent got off to a strong start with the Tymaret and the Rageblood yet again. However he stalled out on 3 mana for a couple turns (RBR//BR/). The board ground to halt and I was able to start the Gray Merchant train. My first one was for 2, that was awful, but then I got one for 5 and then one for 7. That got my opponent to 6. But all the meanwhile my opponent was laying minotaur after minotaur. All of them were lame but they were picking up some nice bonuses from their friends.
I suppose I should mention that my opponent was not familiar with the first ability on Tymaret.
Before I got my merchants online I was down to 8 and he had six dudes on the board. He could have picked me off in a couple turns but chose not to.
Anyways we now had a huge board with like 8 dudes on his side and 4 on my side. But he was at 6 and couldn't alpha strike me (or so he believed). However eventually my opponent got up the courage to attack. It was pretty complicated and lords were passing buffs around like mad. It took me about 5 minutes to figure out blocks and I deserved at least 2 warnings. Anyways he had about 25 trample damage and I had 18 toughness. It was game over for me. L 0-2 (1-1)
Another loss for me. I really didn't feel like there was much that I could do. Game one he just curved out on me. In game two I was able to hand on and had some outs. But I was dead to rights and my opponent just didn't see it. I'm really not sure what I could have done different. It felt like I was just out classed.
But I had stabilized via some combat tricks and gang blocks on his big dudes. The I fired a Merchant for 6 putting us at 19 - 10. Man that card is just unfair. We were more or less tied on board and when I drew and revealed a Merchant two turns later that was enough for my opponent.
Game two I'm on the draw and we both keep our starting seven. The early turns played out with a few dudes for each of us but no ramp for my opponent. He then stalled out on 4 lands hard (GRGR////R). While he was stalling I managed to Merchant for 4, and then 4, and then 6. That brought my opponent down to 7, but he found a way to gain some life and the score was 24-12. He now had his big beasties online
I was in some trouble. He attacked and got through for 8 with the Asp, I gang blocked the Colossus 16-12. I started the race and brought him to 5. The next turn he got in again with the asp 8-5. But dropped some blockers. However I drew another Merchant and that was lethal. GG W 2-0 (2-1)
Round 4: Ok it's round 4. Lose and go a very disappointing 2-2, win and I go to 3-1 and can live with myself, after all that Minotaur deck was ridiculous (and a 4x Gray Merchant deck isn't, apparently). My opponent was in the same pod as me at for the draft and was gobbling up all the good White Black cards he could find. I have to admit I don't really remember the details vividly. I really should start writing these writeup immediately after the match.
Well in game one we both got solid lands but I played 4 Gray Merchants.
Game two I mulled and my opponent got a fantastic curve out. Sadly I had little early game and my score pad shows the following.
20-20
18-20
14-20
11-20
dead.
Game 3 was the most epic game of the night. I was on the play and we had no mulligans. I manage a turn 5 Merchant for 5, and then a turn 6 merchant for 7. I was sitting pretty at 32-8. But then it was my opponents turn to claw back. He dropped a Sentry of the Underworld and the following turn suited it up with the lifelink bestow guy
However he was tapped out and I had one turn to find my Shredding Winds. Sadly I did not find it in time. Oh, I forgot to mention that he was tapped out because it was turn 6, he had six lands and also dropped an
as well. Gross. That dude was huge and it regenerates. I had zero ways to stop it. How does one handle a 7/7 flying vigilance lifelinker, regenerator?
Easy, drop more Gray Merchants. The first one was for 10 and then one for 12. The score was now 36-6. But I couldn't attack my opponent because that would give him the ability to block with his Griffin Skeleton and gain more life. At this point I was out of gas. And 6 turns later I fell to the huge flyer. L 1-2 (2-2)
Boooooooooooooooooooo! I really thought I was gonna rock it. I need someone better than me to watch me play and give critique.
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