It’s my first time playing at BCI Greenhills. During deck registration, I open a Damnation and a Graven Cairns. If I got up then, I’d have gotten my money’s worth. But I didn’t come here to buy a Damnation, I came here to play.
My sealed deck:
I’m pretty sure I misbuilt this, you can see the complete pool here. Obviously, the black was too strong to be just a small splash as I wanted. Maybe green should have been the splash? I often ended up boarding +2 swamp +1 sudden death +1 dark withering -2 forest -1 citanul woodreaders -1 thallid germinator. I really like that sliver linear I had going.
First round was against a guy playing UGR, he had Call of the Herd which was annoying. He had in both games one and three, and I practically lost to it. Game two I won the back of turn two Gemhide, turn three Bonesplitter and he missed the third land drop.
Round 1: 1-2 loss vs UGR Call of the Herd
Second round was against a famous local player who won a very big tourney recently (yeah, I try to avoid mentioning names). We were playing the same colors, but I had more removal (obviously). I even had to kill a clockwork hydra twice in two turns. I won in two. This guy eventually made top eight though.
Round 2: 2-0 win vs BGR
Third round was against a teachings deck. He had a lot of fun instants to teach for – Dead / Gone, Piracy Charm, Cancel. And Mystic Speculation gave him a way to find the cards he really needed. He stabilized early in game one and won. In game two, I was at 5, he had three creatures (Bogardan Rager, the blue Harrow spellshaper and Firefright Mage) on the board, and had cast Mystic Speculation three times during his turn, so there was a good chance he had what he needed to take me down. He was at 15, I took something like 5-10 minutes with two-headed sliver, sedge sliver, a morph (Gathan Raiders, I have 1 card in hand) and 4 kobolds, computing if I had enough to kill him with Tromp. I knew he had a dead/gone in hand (he tutored for it) and had 3 mana open. I cast Tromp. It resolves. He’ll probably bounce the Sedge, that leaves me with a total of 22 damage versus 7 toughness on the board – just enough to kill. I swing. He blocks. I unmorph the raiders. He counts, then counts again, then shuffles up for game 3. Game three was a heartbreaker – I had aggro’d him down to 2 before he stabilized, and I had around three turns to draw the Orcish Cannonade that would end the game, but I didn’t. I tried playing the Scourge to finish him, but he had the Cancel.
Round 3: 1-2 loss vs RU Teachings
Not a good start in a six-round tournament. :/
Round four was against a guy I was sitting with during deck construction. I knew his deck had a ton of removal, but I also knew he had a vulnerable land mix. So I just had to aggro early to win. I don’t remember the details, but I lost game 1 and my game 2 notes show I took him down from seventeen in one swing O_o
Round 4: 2-1 win vs RB control
Round five against green/red. Game one I’m about to win so I try to Death Rattle a Baloth. I realize it won’t work though, and hold off. But my opponent calls a judge on me. The judge rules that I need to choose another legal target, the only one being my own Sedge Sliver. I believe that this is an incorrect ruling and to avoid it, I will always declare my targets first before paying costs next time. I shrug and set it aside, and he stabilizes and I lose the game. I’m a bit ticked off of course, and he loses the next two games to my merciless aggro.
Round 5: 2-1 win vs RG
I’m number ten! A win brings me into the top eight.
Round six vs an old-time Magic player. He’s always around at tournaments and generally a nice guy. His deck is black/red and chock-full of removal, creatures basically don’t stay long on our board. I lose game one, no obvious misplays. Game two, I’m ahead on racing, but then he drops a Kaervek the Merciless! All I have in hand is a Dark Withering… but that can’t touch Kaervek. I draw a Dustwasp and take the five damage, going down to four, hoping the flyer will be enough to raise him. Next turn he Dread Returns an Emberwilde Augur and plays another creature. I can’t race those guys, so I just pass the turn. During his upkeep, he tosses the Goblin at me and shows the Ghostfire. GG.
I shake his hand and wish him luck.
Round 6: 2-0 loss vs BR
I finish 16th, winning 3 PLC packs, of course with nothing spectacular in them. That was my last chance to win Tarmogoyfs :/
Oh well, next: Lorwyn.
See Also