Month: March 2010

I had really no time at all to think about or test out a new deck for this week’s FNM at Montag’s, so I just grabbed a deck that I had together, which was Boss Naya. Here’s the listing:

Creatures (23)
1 Scute Mob
3 Bird of Paradise
4 Wild Nacatl
3 Noble Hierarch
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Ranger of Eos
3 Bloodbraid Elf
2 Baneslayer Angel
2 Stoneforge Mystic

Other spells (11)
3 Lightning Bolt
1 Path to Exile
2 Ajani Vengeant
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Behemoth Sledge
2 Oblivion Ring

Land (24)
5 Forest
2 Mountain
2 Plains
4 Arid Mesa
2 Raging Ravine
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Sejiri Steppe
1 Rootbound Crag

Sideboard
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Behemoth Sledge
4 Cunning Sparkmage
2 Dauntless Escort
1 Goblin Guide
2 Manabarbs
1 Celestial Purge
1 Bloodbraid Elf

I swapped a Celestial Purge in the board for an O Ring. Frankly, for a better Jund matchup I think if I play this again I’ll drop the sideboard Ranger for another Purge.

Round 1: Joey, playing WW/r
I actually didn’t see any red at all in the first game, and very little overall.

Game 1: This was short. He had the nuts opening, Lynx-Fetch-Fetch more little dudes, and I was just never able to stabilize.

Game 2: In went the Sparkmages with the extra Collar and Mystic. I got an early Nacatl, we traded some blows (he did get one Fetch-powered Lynx hit in before I got the Bolt). I ended up being land flooded, but I had a Raging Ravine and the 3/3 Nacatl and he could only manage bears, and the Ravine eventually was swinging for 8, and went the distance.

Game 3: Early Nacatl with both a Plains and a Mountain again for me, early Firewalker for him. He tapped out for a Sigil for 3. On the following turn, he pulled a counter to equip it on a Kor Duelist he had just cast; I bolted it in response. He then tried to equip it on the Firewalker, which I Pathed in response. Nice dead Sigil. I had a clear board and next turn dropped a Bloodbraid (I don’t remember what the cascade was), brought him to 9, and he didn’t draw answers.

Matches 1-0, games 2-1.

Round 2: Parker, playing WW
White Weenie hasn’t been particularly popular at this store, so I was surprised to see two in a row.

Game 1: I got a second-turn Nacatl and followed up with a Knight of the Reliquary, beat down his smaller dudes down to 10, then he ran Day, which I expected; I was holding a Ranger back. I cast the Ranger, got more Nacatls, and they carried the day.

Game 2: In went the usual anti-creature package: Sparkmages, extra Collar, This was a great drawn-out battle. I had an early BoP and a Knight, however, he had some early dudes as well and an O Ring for the Knight. I got double Sparkmage (but no collar), which kills everything I had seen from his deck except Firewalkers. I wasn’t drawing much else I could use at the time, but I got to double-ping him for two turns before he cleared things out with a Day, and I O Ringed a Firewalker. I knew it was coming, but the real problem with it was not that I lost threats, but I lost the BoP, which was my only source of white… and I had both Baneslayers in hand. He cast a White Knight and a Mystic, and had a Machete from earlier in the game, so now he also had a Collar. However, I drew a Plains and then a Mystic, so I had a Collar as well. Then then he cast a Baneslayer. I still had only one white, but got a Ranger and fetched a Nacatl and a Hierarch so I could get WW. His equipped Angel beat me down to 2, but then my comeback started with my own Angel and a Path for his. (He had a Path or an O Ring for my first Angel but I had the second.) I just had bigger and better dudes and was gaining obscene amounts of life, and won at like 35 life.

Matches 2-0, games 4-1.

Round 3: Tony, playing Open the Vaults
Tony is a strong player and we played a great match two weeks ago, with his Junk deck edging out my Grixis build. I thought he was playing Bant based on some cards he was getting prior to the match, but I was wrong. I actually really like this deck a lot, but I don’t have the cards for it.

Game 1: I realized I was wrong when he cycled a Glassdust Hulk right away. I had my turn 1 Nacatl beating away off the top and just drew gas so I killed him before he got to the 6 mana he needed to Open those vaults.

Game 2: I wasn’t sure exactly what to sideboard for this matchup. I assumed he was running Day and/or Coup, so I put in the extra Ranger and Bloodbraid as well as the Escorts, and also sided in Manabarbs. One of the Manabarbs slipped out while I was shuffling and Tony groaned. I again drew early gas (multiple fetches and a Terramorphic for my early Knight) and he missed his third-turn land drop, so I had no fear of Day for a couple turns, so I ran out more guys and rushed him, again killing him before he could get to six land.

Matches 3-0, games 6-1. These were both really fast games so I had some time to kill between rounds.

Round 4: Carlos, playing Eldrazi Green with Red for some burn and BBEs
We were only playing 4 rounds before top 8, and Carlos wanted to draw, which was fine with me.

Quarterfinals: Dave, playing… Jund
Well, I couldn’t avoid it all day, could I? Dave was new to the store, and his girlfriend was with him, and she didn’t make the top 8 and she was very clear about her desire to leave, but he wanted to play.

Game 1: I got a Nacatl on the second turn (my only green source was a Ravine, so I had to wait until turn 2) but no mountain, so it was only a 2/2, and just looked stupid on the third turn when he dropped a Thrinax. I eventually had to burn the Thrinax when he got a second one, and somewhere in there I got Blightning’d and a Bloodbraid and then he got a Siege-Gang Comander, and I died to tokens. An Ajani Vengeant made it take a smidge longer, but barely delayed the inevitable. Bleah. He got all 4 Maelstrom Pulses in this game, too.

Game 2: I know the standard thing to do is not bring in the Sparkmages/Mystic/Collar package, but I decided to buck conventional wisdom and tried bringing it in, along with the one Purge. I also brought in the extra Sledge. I opened with a Hierarch, but he Terminated that on his second turn. I managed to O Ring a Thrinax and later Pathed another, but that was after he had hit me with Blightning, to which I pitched a Bolt and a Collar, but kept the Baneslayer. The reason I pitched the Collar was that I had a Mystic, so I ran that for another Collar. We had kind of a stalemated board position (I couldn’t cast the Baneslayer, not enough land), and we had traded some hits, but then he cast a Broodmate. Grr. I took a whack from the dragons, but got a Sledge on a Nacatl (I also had a Ranger and Bloodbraid on the board), and had a Hierarch, so I could swing and get some good life points back, and then I got the last land for a Baneslayer, and that turned the tide.

Game 3: I had a 2/2 Nacatl on the board and on his turn 4 he dropped Garruk and made a token. I had no real answer to that—my Sparkmage was just not it—and the following turn he used Garruk to untap lands and cast I don’t remember what, because the memory of it was crushed by what happened on his turn 6. He cast… another Garruk. What? OK, I said, that’s great, they both die. He was confused, because he didn’t know the rule about that. He wanted to take it back. I felt kind of bad about it because he obviously really didn’t know, and if it had been in the Swiss I probably would have, but in the third game in the top 8 I was unwilling. He got really huffy when I wouldn’t let him, and next turn I Bloodbraided into a Hierarch and he just scooped in frustration. Now, I’m sure he thought I was a jerk for not letting him take it back, but that seems like a pretty basic rule to me. I think in the top 8 with actual money on the line that’s a rule players should be expected to know. Plus, his girlfriend seemed pleased that she wouldn’t have to wait any more, so I’m sure it wasn’t a total loss for him.

Matches 4-0-1, games 8-2.

Semifinals: Dustin, playing Vampires
Dustin is a regular and a very cool guy and I felt like this was a good matchup, so I figured it would be fun. Joe, playing Jund, had won the other semi and requested a draw in the finals and a split of the prizes. As we were shuffling up for game 2 I realized that the reason Joe was asking was that he wanted to leave, so Dustin and I agreed that whoever won would draw with him, so Joe took his half of the take and split.

Game 1: This was an awful game. Dustin got a turn 2 Bloodghast (that’s actually an annoyance for Naya) but got stuck on two land, and I had an early Nacatl and then a 4/4 Knight, so this was over in just a couple minutes.

Game 2: In went the usual Sparkmages/Collar/Mystic package, with a Purge for good measure. I also sided out all my planeswalkers, since they suck vs. Hexmages. This was another really long game. I took a hand with marginal land but with a BoP. He had no 2-drop but his 3-drop was a kicked Gatekeeper, killing whatever dude I had out, and he followed that with another kicked Gatekeeper that killed my Bird. He just kept drawing answers for every threat I drew. A Nacatl died to a Feast of Blood, a Knight died to a Smother (that’s pretty good), and I had to O Ring one of the Gatekeepers just to keep my life total from being super ugly. Something else died to another Feast, but I did get a Mystic for a Collar. I also got a Bloodbraid into an O Ring, which ended up on a Gatekeeper, but I couldn’t swing with the elf because I needed blockers. He dropped a Hexmage which made the elf even less useful. He tried to Smother the BBE, but then realized it couldn’t die to Smother—one of the few in Boss Naya that doesn’t. He dropped another Hexmage and I had to kill it, so I ran out a Sparkmage and pinged one, and of course he Smothered it. He got a Nighhawk and I got a Ranger into two Nacatls, though after one whack with a Nighthawk I was at 5 life and he was at 25 life. I got another Collar, though, and collared up both Nacatls and managed to keep my life total at a reasonable numbe, so then he cast a Persecutor. Hey, that’s no Vampire! But, I topdecked a Baneslayer, which was good because he had just put down a second Persecutor. That was pretty good, but I couldn’t really attack, because the swing back with the two Persecutors was not a race I could win down by 20 life. However, I ripped another Sparkmage, Collared it up, and that was the difference.

Obviously, no real match in the finals.

Matches 5-0-2, games 10-2. That’s a pretty good night! I converted my store credit into a couple Maelstrom Pulses (I have none, and I kind of want to try playing Junk) and some super-secret tech for Extended for GP Houston, which is coming up soon!

Boss Naya is both fun to play and a really good deck against most of the field… but it’s generally not a good matchup against Jund. You can’t expect to dodge Jund all day in a serious tournament, so I’m not surprised that it was only 10% of the field at the Open in Indy. I think the board needs a couple more Purges and then maybe it’ll be better in games 2 and 3, but that’ll make the deck weaker against the U/W control decks, which I was also very lucky to dodge at FNM because several people were playing that as well. Hard to know.

Another Standard FNM at Montag’s, and so another report. I played Boss Naya last week into the finals so this week I wanted to play something original. I had been tinkering with a Grixis build but in playtesting it just folded like a lawn chair to Jund. I tweaked it a little and it went a lot better, so I decided to give it a whirl. Here’s the listing:

Creatures (7)
3 Abyssal Persecutor
4 Sedraxis Specter

Other spells (32)
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Essence Scatter
3 Into the Roil
4 Terminate
4 Blightning
2 Treasure Hunt
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Earthquake
3 Cruel Ultimatum

Land (25)
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Dragonskull Summit
2 Lavaclaw Reaches
2 Drowned Catacomb
2 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Crumbling Necropolis
4 Swamp
3 Island
3 Mountain

Sideboard (15)
3 Double Negative
3 Countersquall
3 Flashfreeze
1 Earthquake
2 Smother
2 Mind Control
1 Relic of Progenitus

Such is the state of blue that I felt the need to start three counters and board nine more to be situational. Here’s how it played out:

Round 1: Ken, playing Esper Mill
This was completely out of left field. Creature-less with Tome Scour, Twincast, Mind Funeral, Howling Mine, Angelsong, Safe Passage, and numerous other mill cards. Thinking outside the metagame; I love it!

Game 1: His first turn was Island, Tome Scour, go. I certainly wasn’t ready for that. What was really, really bad was when a few turns later he hit me with a Mind Funeral and got like 30 cards off it—very bad luck. However, I got both a Persecutor and a Spectre out and just managed to kill him with a handful of cards in my library.

Game 2: I didn’t see any creatures so I took out the Essence Scatters and most of the Terminates for the Countersqualls and the Double Negatives. I got Jace out and started building him up, but he managed multiple Howling Mines, a Mind Funeral and a Twincast Tome Scour, and even though I got off a Cruel and had a Spectre active, and him down to 4, he hit me with a late Traumatize followed by a Tome Scour which left me with not enough cards to make it through my draw phase. He’s not the fastest player in the world so we only had a few minutes left and I was worried that we’d draw on time.

Game 3: I played as fast as I could, as I dropped a Spectre on turn 3 and another on turn 4. He had an early Howling Mine and, of course, a first-turn Tome Scour (all three games). Turn 5 I sent in both of the Spectres; he had an Angelsong but I had Countersquall, so he took 8 points down to 6. He had another Angelsong the next turn, but I had Bolts so I won just before time was called. Whew.

Round 2: Tony, playing GWb Junk
Despite me reading a couple pieces about this deck, I hadn’t really thought about it much and I didn’t have a plan in mind for it.

Game 1: I thought I had this game in the bag. I managed to keep the board mostly clear and got a Persecutor out fairly early. He tried a Baneslayer but I had the Scatter for it and beat him down to six with the big Demon. I think we both thought I had this one in the bag but he topdecked a Marshal’s Anthem which brought back his Baneslayer—not the best thing to see when you have a Demon out. I wasn’t too worried since I had a Terminate for it, but then he topdecked another Baneslayer and that I could not answer.

Game 2: In went the Mind Controls and the Smothers. He mulliganed down to 5 and as a result got a slow start. I got a Spectre out who got in one whack before being taken out, but the card advantage situation was positive, and then I got a Cruel and then another Cruel. That’s pretty much game right there; I ultimately ended it with a Persecutor.

Game 3: My opening hand looked great: Terminate, Blighting, Jace, Persecutor, Spectre… but only a single Catacombs for land. I sent it back and got another single-land hand. I sent that back and got yet another single-land hand, ugh. I decided I just couldn’t go down to four, so I played it. I actually drew land the first few turns and managed to make a game of it. I did make one savagely stupid mistake in the game. Tony cast a Stoneforge Mystic and Collar, and I put down Jace, and bounced the equipped Mystic. No, I have no idea WTF I was thinking. Anyway, next turn (turn 5), he got an Emeria Angel with a land. I bounced it, he re-cast it and then had a fetch on turn 6, so there was a table full of birds. He got in a six-point whack with the flying force but then I drew a Persecutor. He equipped one of the tokens with the Collar so I could only attack if I was willing to lose the fat flyer, but he couldn’t productively attack, either, for any more than 1. He played a Baneslayer and beat me down to 1 with it. I got off a Cruel to go back to 6, but it just wasn’t enough.

Grr. 1-1 is not the start I was hoping for.

Round 3: Kris, playing White Weenie with Blue
The blue splash seemed to be just for Deft Duelists. If there was any other blue, I didn’t see it.

Game 1: I won the die roll and Scattered his turn two Firewalker. Turn 3 he cast Honor of the Pure and followed that with Deft Duelist, and then a Skyfisher. I took 6 when they both came over. I played Jace and bounced the Skyfisher, but then of course lost Jace to the Duelist. I drew a Terminate for the Skyfisher but couldn’t get rid of the Duelist with a Roil and two Bolts in my hand. However, I Blightninged him and got another Jace out, so he was in topdeck mode and I was controlling the top of his deck. Jace kept him off other threats but the Duelist beat me down to 7. I used Jace to brainstorm into the last land I needed for a Cruel Ultimatum, which netted me another Cruel, and that was too much.

Game 2: In went the Smothers and the Mind Controls (in case he had Baneslayers). He cast an early Duelist and then got a Collared Mystic. He got a few whacks in before I killed the Mystic with a Bolt or a Smother (I don’t remember which), then got another Duelist. I got a Spectre that hit him once and then I cast another Spectre. I had six lands out but not enough to Cruel and I had no land in hand. I sent both Spectres and he Pathed both of them. Awesome, two free land, next turn Cruel Ultimatum. Next turn Blightning and a Persecutor, and that was it.

So, I was 2-1. We had four rounds of Swiss cutting to top 8, as has been common at Montag’s of late. Now, often 2-1-1 will make the top 8, but I assumed that my first-round opponent had gone 0-3 or something like it, and my second-round opponent lost in round 3, so I thought I had to play for it.

Round 4: Alan, playing GWb
Not strictly Junk, but Junk-like. I didn’t see Mystics, and he definitely had Steppe Lynxes, so

Game 1: This was one of the dumbest games I have ever seen. I took a two-land opener (both red-black duals), and didn’t see a third land for a really long time… 11 or 12 turns, at least. The only thing that made this game last even that long is that he was also stuck at two lands for several turns, but he broke out with a Lotus Cobra with a fetch into a Baneslayer and I was discarding Cruel Ultimatums. I never did a single point of damage in this game.

Game 2: He got a first-turn Lynx that I did not Terminate on turn 2 because I had a Quake in hand. Sure enough, after he swung once for two he put down a Lotus Cobra and passed the turn. So, my turn three play was a one-point Quake for two cards—pretty good. I Blightninged him and got a Jace out against his Noble Hierarch. I was scrying him (kept him off two Pulses) and Blightninged him again while he was poking me with the druid, and I managed to kill the Hierarch. He cast a Ranger of Eos which I felt I had to block with an animated Creeping Tar Pit. So he had some weenies out and started hitting Jace once he go to ten counters. I had the mana I needed and used Jace to brainstorm into a Cruel Ultimatum putting him at 3 and me at 16, and that put it out of reach.

Game 3: He got a first-turn Lynx with second-turn and third-turn fetches, so I was at an early 12. I got a Bolt for the Lynx and Blightninged him and I felt I had things stabilized, though I had a Roil and two Jaces, and a in my hand and no sources of blue. I finally drew an Island, but he got a 6/6 Knight of the Reliquary along with something else that I can’t remember. I Roiled the Knight once and did not draw a land off it. Next turn I drew a blue source, but it was a Catacomb so it didn’t help me right away. Knight’s friend had hit me down to two and I drew a Spectre, but I couldn’t play both Jace and a Spectre on the same turn, so I couldn’t stop both guys, and that was game.

So 2-2 and I missed the top 8. Turns out my round 1 opponent did make the top 8, so my tiebreakers were actually good, and if I had drawn I would have made it into the top 8 after all. Bummer.

I think the deck is close to being good. I don’t like versions that run things like Calcite Snapper because they have to sacrifice draw or disruption or removal. I really like the Persecutor in Grixis because while it dies to some spot removal, your opponent typically has only three turns to find such removal, because chumping it is generally ineffective. It crushes Bloodwitches and Sphinxes; the only real problem is Baneslayers—stupid protection from Demons. Nighthawk would be a problem except that it dies to both Bolt and Smother, so those are pretty easy to deal with. Maybe it needs Swerves or something… it’s close.

Anyway, I don’t always stay for the top 8 but this time I decided to because I wanted to see the mill deck in action against something else. His draw was bad, it was my buddy Paul playing U/W control, though not the Chapin version. The first match was close, Paul won with four cards left in his library and at least one Howling Mine in play. Game 2 was hilarious. Paul had exactly one copy of Telemin Performance in his sideboard, for the mirror. He drew it in his opening hand, and two Howling Mines and a Font of Mythos meant he wouldn’t miss a land drop, and on turn 5 the game ended when he cast it. Awesome sideboard tech!

The final four were three U/W control decks and one Jund, and the Jund lost to Paul in the semis. I was thinking of taking U/W control for a spin next week, but not after this; people will be packing all kinds of hate for it and it’d hardly be original. Maybe I’ll go back to Naya or I might try something really fast like Boros Bushwacker or something goofy like Valakut Ramp with Avenger of Zendikar…

Been a while since my last report. My local shop, Montag’s Games, alternates between draft and Standard, and last month was draft, and I don’t ever feel like writing reports on draft; hence the gap.

So, this was the first post-Worldwake Standard for me, and I’d been thinking about what to play for a while, and had been kicking around both a Grixis build and a Naya build for a while. (Prior to PT San Diego.) @dcampa93 and I had bounced some Naya around on Twitter and had both come to the conclusion that Stoneforge Mystic was the way to go, getting Sledge and the Collar… and then PT San Diego happened, and it turned out we weren’t the only people with that idea. Not to hard to come up with, right? Of course, the Boss Naya that was played to an undefeated record in the Swiss was without a doubt a better build than mine (I kept trying to work in Thoctar), but I wasn’t at all surprised that it did well.

So I played it. I made some microscopic changes and played this list:

Creatures (23)
1 Scute Mob
3 Bird of Paradise
4 Wild Nacatl
3 Noble Hierarch
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Ranger of Eos
3 Bloodbraid Elf
2 Baneslayer Angel
2 Stoneforge Mystic

Other spells (11)
3 Lightning Bolt
1 Path to Exile
2 Ajani Vengeant
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Behemoth Sledge
2 Oblivion Ring

Land (24)
5 Forest
2 Mountain
2 Plains
4 Arid Mesa
2 Raging Ravine
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Sejiri Steppe
1 Rootbound Crag

Sideboard
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Behemoth Sledge
4 Cunning Sparkmage
2 Dauntless Escort
1 Goblin Guide
2 Manabarbs
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Bloodbraid Elf

The minor changes are that I moved two Baneslayers into the main, trading out for a Ranger of Eos and a Bloodbraid, and I went with 3 Birds and 3 Hierarchs rather than 2 and 4 because sometimes the deck gets a little stuck for red mana, so I wanted the extra red source, but one I could still get with a Ranger. And, frankly, after playing it, I would most certainly keep only 3 Rangers in the main deck, because I never wanted to cast more than two in a game anyway, as most of the 1 drops will be exhausted by then. As LSV himself noted, an unanswered Baneslayer is game over a lot of the time, and that just seemed better in the main than either Ranger #4 or Bloodbraid #4.

Round 1: Jason, playing Mystic WW
Game 1: My deck did very little here, and he had the Journeys and O Rings for my threats, and I got beaten down with a Kor Skyfisher with a Sigil on it.

Game 2: All about the Baneslayer, baby. I got one on turn 4 thanks to a Hierarch, and the exalted monster provided the beats.

Game 3: I have to admit my memory for this game is a little shaky. What I do remember is getting hammered with Kor Firewalkers that I had trouble stopping. However, I did get down 3 Sparkmages (without any equipment) and managed to keep the board otherwise pretty clear, and I believe a Knight went all the way.

Round 2: Nathan playing Bant
This was a ramp-style Bant running Khalni Heart Expeditions, Summoning Trap, Avenger of Zendikar, Iona, and Empyrial Archangel. Prettyf interesting, actually.

Game 1: We clogged up the board with relatively modest dudes, then I got a Scute Mob and a Sledge, and he got Avenger of Zendikar. Monster Scute Mob applied and he threw the Avenger and many pumped up Plant tokens in front of it. I then put the Sledge on a 4/4 Knight of the Reliquary and applied beats with that for a couple turns. He got a Summoning Trap for Iona naming Green, but I had another Knight out and gave my Sledged Knight protection from White and finished with burn.

Game 2: Neither of us had anything particularly impressive in the first three or so turns, but I got a fairly early Baneslayer. He managed to get a Empyrial Archangel out with a Summoning Trap (hard cast), but I had a Bolt so I applied with the Angel (6/6 thanks to a Hierarch) and then Bolted. He ran off some more Summoning Traps but missed anything big and never found an answer to the angel of awesome.

Round 3: Jeff, playing Bant
This was a completely different take on Bant. Finest Hour, Rafiq, Pridemages, Hierarchs, Loam Lions, etc: guys made huge by Exalted and swinging twice.

Game 1: I kept a five-land draw and mostly got run over. He got Loam Lions early on and I got small Knights. He got Rafiq and a Battlegrace Angel and I just did not have answers.

Game 2: A similar deal, but very slowly unfolding. I had a Collar and a Sparkmage in my opener but when I went to equip the Sparkmage, he had the Bant Charm for it. He had Finest Hour and multiple Ranger-generated Hierarchs, so anything swinging for him would be large and was coming twice. I, however, had the Collar and Ajani, who was alternately tapping and Helixing things, so every time he attacked it cost him a creature and I maintained some life total. This stalemate was pretty drawn out and we had time called on us, so this worked out to be a match loss.

Round 4: Paul, playing mono-White Emeria
I love this deck. Knight of the White Orchid and Kor Cartographer, then a toolbox of white creatures including World Queller. Very hard to beat if you don’t kill it early. However, we both had really good tiebreaks and did the math and realized that we’d both get into the top 8 if we drew in, which we did.

Quarterfinals: Carlos, playing Eldrazi Green/Red
This is similar to Eldrazi Green, of course, but with Red for Bloodbraids and Bolts and such.

Game 1: I once again have to admit that I don’t remember this game very well. I had multiple early 3/3 Nacatls and he, uhh, didn’t.

Game 2: For the third match in a row I sided in the same seven-card package of 4 Sparkmage, 1 Mystic, 1 Collar, and 1 O Ring. I didn’t get the red machine-gunner, but I had early fetchlands and Knights, and either a Collar or a Sledge, and beat him down pretty quickly again.

Semifinals: Jeff from round 3
Game 1: This was a pretty good game, with some momentum swings. He got early Sejiri Merfolk and Loam Lions and I got a Mystic and had a Bolt for Rafiq. He managed a Finest Hour and beat me down to 5, but I got big a big Knight and with equipment and had many chumps for his big double-shots, so I was able to gain serious life and turn the tide. I got him down to 2 but he had chumps and I finally drew burn in the form of Ajani and roasted him out.

Game 2: In went the same 7-card package as before. Whee. This was a very dumb game because his deck just deserted him. He got stuck on two land, and while he managed a pretty solid board with that, it just wasn’t enough and I just pounded him with a big lifelinked Knight.

Finals: Ray, playing Jund
Ray actually wanted to play for it, which is rare in the finals at Montag’s . Not a problem, but a surprise. Fine with me, of course, I don’t mind playing for it—we came to play, right? Anyway, this was a lot like the semis in PT San Diego in terms of deck matchups, because his Jund was also running Rampant Growth and Siege-Gangs.

Game 1: Pretty even early, with us trading Bloodbraids and other 3/3s. I Bolted a Garruk after it made a token and he got a Siege-Gang which he used a couple tokens to kill a big Knight. I was getting through with Nacatls, though and we kind of traded down to 11 and had more or less a board stalemate. He then drew Bolts, and won with Bolt-Bolt-Bolt throw a Goblin. Ugh.

Game 2: I had Bloodbraids early, the second of which hit a Mystic. He Pulsed off both the Bloodbraids but he was at 10. I hit him with a Nacatl down to 7. Next turn I activated a Ravine and swung with something else, bringing him down to 1, and he was unable to topdeck an answer and that was it.

Game 3: Absolutely stupid game in much the same way as my second game in the previous round. However, unlike that game, in this game we both drew lots of land. As in out of the first 16 cards I saw, 9 were land. I had a Path for his turn 3 Thrinax and Bolted something else. I got a Mystic and therefore a Sledge, but he Pulsed off the Mystic. He got a Ruinblaster, which hit nothing (all I had in play were six basics at the time) and a few turns later I finally had to O Ring it—In the meantime, he was drawing all land as well. He got a second Ruinblaster, which hit a Rootbound Crag, and all I had on the board was a Sledge. I drew more land and he just killed me. Whee.

Overall a pretty good night, even if the last two matches were decided by mana issues. The forces of chance giveth, and they take away—I just would rather have had action both times.