Thirteen Rounds with Mutavault at the Regional Championship in Atlanta

Back in September, I won an RCQ in my only attempt. I figured I may as well attend the Regional Championship, mostly to see if I was at all interested in the higher levels of competitive play available in these times. This report is a bit late. The tournament was the weekend before Thanksgiving so I spent the week after travelling for the holiday.

Regional Championship Recap

The testing process did not go as well as I would have liked. I had access to a solid group for collaboration, but I just could not get myself to play that many games. Much of this was due to how much I disliked the Pioneer format. The games did not make me want to keep playing, whether I won or I lost.

After a few weeks of testing and observing results from teammates, I knew a few things. Green was the deck to beat, but that was where I started. Phoenix was very good against all aggressive decks I wanted to play and was the deck I was most afraid of. Spirits was not quite good enough to compete with Rakdos, Phoenix and Humans. This left me deciding between Humans and Gruul Vehicles, since I knew I wanted to play Mutavault. I decided to play Vehicles since it also had eight mana Elves. This is what I played:

4 Llanowar Elves

4 Elvish Mystic

4 Bonecrusher Giant // Stomp

4 Reckless Stormseeker // Storm-Charged Slasher

4 Lovestruck Beast // Heart's Desire

2 Scavenging Ooze

4 Esika's Chariot

3 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship

3 The Akroan War

4 Obliterating Bolt

4 Mutavault

4 Stomping Ground

4 Karplusan Forest

4 Cragcrown Pathway // Timbercrown Pathway

2 Boseiju, Who Endures

2 Lair of the Hydra

2 Mountain

1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance

1 Den of the Bugbear

Sideboard

1 Jegantha, the Wellspring

3 Rending Volley

3 Embercleave

2 Outland Liberator // Frenzied Trapbreaker

1 The Akroan War

1 Fry

1 Scavenging Ooze

1 Klothys, God of Destiny

1 Unlicensed Hearse

1 Hazoret the Fervent

I don't have a lot to say about this deck. It's fairly stock. I wanted to beat Green and Rakdos while having decent shot against Humans and Phoenix. It did not work out that way for me.

R1 vs UW Control

I stole a game by using Outland Liberator on my Skysovereign when he blocked with Baneslayer Angel, but the other two games were not close.

0-1

R2 vs Angels

I was surprised to win game one with triple Esika's Chariot and Reckless Stormseeker for exact damage on the turn before he started gaining tons of life. Game two I mulligan to five and lose to Collected Company after killing the first three threats. Game three I kept a hand with two Elves and all red spells with no red mana and never found the red mana. It was probably a mulligan, but I think I need to get lucky to win so I kept. It didn't work out regardless.

0-2

R3 vs Yorion Enigmatic Incarnation Fires

I win game one with Akroan War. Game two I'm too far behind on tempo against Chain to the Rocks and Leyline Binding followed by Siege Rhino and Yorion. Game three I have Outland Liberator in play but tap out for Akroan War on Siege Rhino to push damage through with Lovestruck Beast. I immediately lose to Leyline Binding on the Rhino plus Incarnation the Binding into Titan of Industry. Maybe I should leave up mana but I had no other play that turn. I'm still not sure about this one.

0-3

R4 vs Phoenix

I win game one with multiple Chariot. Game two I lose to second Young Pyromancer after using Stomp on the first one. Game three I get the opponent down to one life and then draw nothing but lands while he returns three Phoenix with a Pyromancer in play to kill me.

0-4

I decide to drop.

Pioneer 10K Recap

I registered Humans for the 10K the next day:

4 Hopeful Initiate

4 Dauntless Bodyguard

4 Recruitment Officer

4 Thalia's Lieutenant

4 Luminarch Aspirant

4 Adeline, Resplendent Cathar

4 Brutal Cathar // Moonrage Brute

1 Tomik, Distinguished Advokist

1 Kytheon, Hero of Akros // Gideon, Battle-Forged

4 Rally the Ranks

4 Brave the Elements

15 Plains

4 Mutavault

1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire

1 Castle Ardenvale

1 Shefet Dunes

Sideboard

4 Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity

3 Portable Hole

2 Rest in Peace

2 Declaration in Stone

2 Destroy Evil

1 Loran of the Third Path

1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar

I did not play Thalia, Guardian of Thraben in my Humans list. In the matchups where it is good, it's only good in game one as after board they are more prepared to deal with it or use sweepers to neutralize it and other threats. It has good value against combo decks, but I didn't expect them much. I wanted to play Rally the Ranks to maximize the clock to make up for loss of disruption without Thalia. Rally also helped support the Wedding Announcement sideboard plan.

R1 vs UW Control

He wins game one easily, but game two is a slog. He draws all of his removal and sweepers, but I'm able to rebuild with Recruitment Officer and Wedding Announcement each time. He never finds a Teferi or other source of repeatable card advantage and I manage to win the game with three minutes left in the round. We only get the five turns in of game three before settling for a draw.

0-0-1

R2 vs Mono Green Devotion

I keep an iffy one-land hand on the play game one with three one-drops and three Thalia's Lieutenant but never draw a second land. Game two and three, the deck does what it does in the matchup and kills him before he gets much of a chance to do anything. He's a bit salty after the match, but he probably wasn't expected to face WW in the draw bracket.

1-0-1

R3 vs RB Sacrifice

This matchup Rally the Ranks really proved its worth. Game one I have two Rally which lets me do a bunch of damage to get him to 4 life before he stabilizes with two Mayhem Devil and kills my board. I then topdeck Tomik and he doesn't have an answer and I steal the game. Game two I use Portable Hole on Oven instead of turn one Cat. He draws two more Ovens and I lose. Game three I'm able to grind out with Rally the Ranks, Wedding Announcement, and Castle Ardenvale to keep him on the back foot. I then find Rest in Peace right when he's about to stabilize and win the match.

2-0-1

R4 vs UW Control

Game one I'm on the play and he foretells on turn two so I hold back incase of Doomskar. He doesn't have it and I'm presenting lethal with Brave the Elements on turn four when he doesn't have Supreme Verdict either. I swing with everything since Brave beats The Wandering Emperor, but he has Settle the Wreckage. I can't redeploy fast enough to get back in the game and lose to subsequent Emperors and Teferi. Game two I win with multiple Wedding Announcement. Game three I'm stuck on two land with multiple three-drops in hand. He has Starnheim Unleashed and Lyra, Dawnbreaker to beat me before I can recover.

2-1-1

R5 vs UW Control

Game one he has two Settle the Wreckage but that just enables my Recruitment Officers to keep the pressure on and I win. Game two he's stuck on four land but has multiple Settle and Verdict as well. I'm finally attacking for lethal when he has fifth land for Baneslayer Angel, but I use Eiganjo on my own creature to make sure I kill him.

3-1-1

R6 vs WW

Game one is very close but neither player has Brave so I'm able to get there with two Thalia's Lieutenant. Game two I'm on the draw and never really in it. Game three I keep one land and it takes a few turns before drawing second. I still have a chance if I draw Brave the Elements, but he has Declaration in Stone for my two Lieutenant and I die.

3-2-1

R7 vs Phoenix

Game one he makes a tough choice to play Spikefield Hazard as a land instead of killing my Luminarch Aspirant so he can play Pieces of the Puzzle the following turn. This lets me build up a smallish attack force and his Pieces only finds more Pieces. That means I can do exactly lethal with Shefet Dunes the turn before he brings back multiple Phoenix. Game two he has Brotherhood's End and wins easily. Game three I use Eiganjo on his Ledger Shredder so even if he brings back three Phoenix it doesn't kill me and he can't block enough of my creatures to live.

4-2-1

R8 vs UW Control

Game one I'm very far ahead and kind of slow roll him playing around Settle the Wreckage, but to be fair I'd played against it quite a bit previously. He didn't have it nor Verdict and I won easily. Game two he has Lockdown into Baneslayer into Lyra and I lose. Game three he floods out while I hold up Destroy Evil for Lockdown and Brave the Elements for Wandering Emperor. He has neither and dies.

5-2-1

R9 vs Keruga Fires

I don't remember this too much. One game I use Bodyguard to save Adeline from Supreme Verdict. One game I draw two Rally to change the clock and kill him with Mutavault when he wasn't expecting it.

6-2-1

35th place (prize to top 32)

Lessons Learned

I wish I had played WW in the main event. I didn't because the games I had played and watched did not look favorable vs Rakdos or Phoenix, but they were probably closer than I realized. Recruitment Officer was even better than I thought it would be. Gruul Vehicles was the deck for a Pro Tour metagame that consolidates around 4-5 different decks, but the Regional Championship was more like a Grand Prix. With that knowledge, WW is better against the various other decks you run into in a GP like event. 

I still don't like Pioneer. As much as I like WW being a top deck, it seems kind of embarrassing when its in a format as deep as Pioneer. It really seems like all the good cards are banned, and the ones that are left like Karn, Collected Company, and Fable of the Mirror Breaker don't really lead to exciting games in my opinion. I wonder what Modern would have looked like after two years if they had the same approach to banning the top cards as they do in Pioneer.

On Organized Play

The Regional Championship overall felt like a success. It is a bit weird its so different between Europe and USA and Canada and all the other places. The US event needed more rounds or more prizes or both. The draw to events like these for me is being able to play for something once you've been eliminated from top 8 contention. Old Pro Tours would have substantial prizes for 11-5 records and those late rounds playing for Pro Points, invitations, or cash were in a way more appealing to me than playing for top 8. Its those rounds where the idea of a Professional Player exist, someone doing this consistently needs those solid finishes to sustain the career. 

I was not a fan of having the event be the week of the set release. One more week to pickup cards would have relieved a lot of stress. 

One of the stated reasons for not having the extra three rounds like Europe was that the Dreamhack event space closed at 7pm on Sunday. If this continues to be an issue, Magic needs to divorce itself from Dreamhack as soon as possible. 

The Dreamhack experience was not a pleasant one for me. The event was sequestered in a separate room away from the main hall without enough space for the players to play. The tables were so narrow you could not fit two playmats on them without overlap. The room was crowded and smelly in a way I hadn't experienced at a GP or PT or SCG Open / Invitation in over a decade. The few tables in the main hall were mostly side events and a spectator trying to find the feature match area for Magic would easily get lost. I don't think the finals was broadcast on any of the major viewing stages. I was in the 0-4 bracket and relegated to playing in the main hall. This provided plenty of space, but the lighting was off and I could not hear announcements at all. Having to get badge access to the hall may be the new standard, but I still don't like it.

But there were a few good things about Dreamhack: there was way better than normal food (if you walked across the entire hall to go get it), and you could buy alcohol. I think those were the only pluses I could come up with after the weekend. 

Conclusion

My testing process - bad

My deck choice - bad

Pioneer - probably bad

Gruul vehicles - not good

WW/Humans - very good

Organized Play - remains to be seen, but not a disaster

Dreamhack - bad

Props

Collin Rountree and Allen Wu for winning LCQs

Atlanta for having great food and being great every time

My wife for letting me leave her for a week

Slops

Trying to find the Uber pickup in a state that doesn't have front license plates

Dreamhack - stop being embarrassed about the Magic event

Two-Headed Giant Old School at Jawncon 2022

This past weekend I participated in the first Jawncon in Philadelphia. The format was Two-Headed Giant Old School using Atlantic restricted list with a few modifications: Shahrazad was banned and Ankh of Mishra, The Abyss, Time Vault, and Underworld Dreams were restricted. Additionally, each player was allowed to play a Chaos Orb.

I've always enjoyed Two-Headed Giant (2HG) as a Magic format ever since it was formally introduced in 2006 or so. I like the deeper gameplay and longer games, especially in limited. I like being on a team and having more people in the game without the political shenanigans of other multiplayer formats. I also like how certain cards function much differently than they do in normal 1v1. I also had some success with the format, winning the 2HG State Championship in two different states. 

I was able to convince Simon Christie from the Houston Falling Stars to once again travel to Philadelphia and be my teammate. 

The Brewing Process

My first instinct was to play a control deck and a combo deck. One of the first times I remember playing 2HG was in 2006 Standard with a Mono-Blue Counterspell deck protecting the UG Early Harvest deck. For Old School, I thought the best combo would be Power Artifact / Basalt Monolith combo. I expected Fireball to be a good card in general and wanted to try to play mostly creatureless to turn off any anti-creature cards our opponents had. 

Next, I started looking at cards that are increased power level in 2HG. These cards include Copper Tablet/Syphon Soul, Earthquake/Hurricane/Inferno, the restricted Underworld Dreams, and most importantly Pestilence. We looked at trying to make a WWr aggro deck with eight protection from black creatures to pair with a UB Workshop deck that would play four Pestilence along with some Cylcopean Tomb. I was worried that pro-black creatures were underpowered though and wouldn't be good against all the Moats I expected to face. Also, when you don't draw Pestilence you just had two mediocre creature decks. Our round three opponents did this best though by still playing mostly creatureless with their Pestilence and just had Mishra's Factory to keep it around at the end of the turn. We never quite got to that part in the development.

The next thing I looked at was ways to help out my partner. I envisioned a kind of artifact prison deck with Howling Mine, Relic Barrier, and Winter Orb to go with a deck with four Copy Artifact and Titania's Song for the kill. I think this configuration has more promise that I gave it credit for, as it is still mostly creatureless. Paul and Emily played some variation of this combination.

The final thing I looked at but probably not enough was the extreme control configuration. Simon wanted to play two decks where the only win condition was Timetwister and Tormod's Crypt. I think this combination of decks would have been great for the event, but the turns take so long in 2HG I was worried about running out of time before actually killing the opponent, even when it is just best-of-one.

In the end we decided to play the Control / Power Artifact configuration as nothing else seemed as strong, though we maybe came up with the actual best decks to play when we were just joking around the morning of the event (see bonus section).

Our Decks

Team Falling Stars

(sorry for the poor picture of the Power Artifact deck, I forgot to take a better one before taking it apart)

With the nature of the combo deck and the restricted cards, you quickly realize that you want all the power cards in the deck with Demonic Tutor. Besides the two restricted lands, there were just two Moxen and Balance in the UW deck, and I'm not sure that it should have had that many. We played too much anti-creature stuff and could have played fewer STP and not had the Moat or the Factories at all. Jayemdae Tome was far too slow for the format and should have been some Jalum Tome to work with the Land Tax. I don't think we got the Copy Artifact and Fellwar Stone split correct and probably should have played the maximum of each between the two. Additional countermagic like Flash Counter and Avoid Fate were some of the last cards cut. 

Mirror Universe was in as a Transmute target until being cut for Earthquake at the last minute. Without Balance to tutor for we wanted access to a cheap-ish sweeper. Transmuting for Triskelion also seemed strong enough and the bad synergry with Ivory Tower and Mirror Universe was a slight concern. I really want to play Sylvan Library and Channel in the combo deck but the green mana sources were tough. Overall I'm happy with about 105 of the 120 cards we submitted, though we did miss a big card that should have been more of a factor. Given what we knew, we were about 90% of the way there.

The Event

After some bagels and coffee, Simon and I drove to the site passing by the Home Depot with the giant abandoned smokestack along the way. This also took me through the craziest signalized intersection I've ever encountered at Roosevelt Blvd and Adams St. As a traffic engineer, it was fascinating but as a driver it was terrifying. In general, the boulevard traffic situation was something new to me.

In particular, this left turn on the way back crossing four travelways is mind-melting.

The event location was nice and spacious on the inside, but not much to look at from the outside. The food was solid all day and the special cocktail for the day, the "Healing Salve", was top notch. 

After a brief introduction and review of the 2HG rules including explanation of the penalty kick orb flip tiebreaker procedure, we began the tournament.

Round One - Wardens of Alcatraz

Their configuration was UW Tax Tower and Armageddon with Power Artifact and the Monoliths were  in the RB deck that also had Hymn to Tourach and Sinkhole I think? We won the game on turn three or four with Counterspell backup. We played again for fun and they almost locked us out of the game with Cyclopean Tomb but Chaos Orb undid that and Time Walk let me combo.

1-0

Round Two - The Birb Maidens

We were under the gun facing an early Blood Moon and Scryb Sprites plus Zephyr Falcon. We used Orb to destroy the Moon but this turned on Pendelhaven and Mishra's Factory to do more damage. We had two Ivory Towers and they were forced to use their Chaos Orb on a Land Tax. They got us down to 8 life before Simon got back up to seven cards for Library and a Copy for a third Tower. A Wrath of God the next turn bought us plenty of time, but I drew Braingeyser for seven cards and won the next turn.

2-0

Round Three - Fee Fi Fo Fuck Outta Here

This team identified one card that was probably key for deckbuilding that we just missed: Fork. They had a mostly Black deck for Pestilence and Syphon Soul and a mostly Red deck for Fork and additional burn. They used Fork to stop our first combo attempt. I believe they cast Wheel of Fortune at some point after which I attempted a Braingeyser for nine cards. They had Fork which we should have let resolve since they would only have four mana left for counter interaction. Instead, we tried to counter the Fork and after a Counterspell and Red Elemental Blast, no one drew any cards. I took a gamble with Timetwister after this. Simon failed to draw a counter off of it and my great seven card hand was Mind Twisted away. They did play the ninth land that would tie with Simon for Land Tax, so I went for Orb flip on Simon's land but missed. We should have just used Swords to Plowshares instead of the Orb and then forgot to do that. Not getting to tax meant we only gained two life from Tower and the next turn they had Pestilence plus Syphon Soul plus Fork to burn us out exactly.

2-1

Round Four - Two Dinguses

Their configuration was a mostly Green fatty deck with Elves, Birds, Erhnam, and Iff-Biff along with a Dingus Egg Armageddon deck. We were never really in trouble as the Swords to Plowshares finally did something. Eventually I combo when they were tapped out.

3-1

Round Five - Bald Bearded and Beautiful

They were 4-0 at this point and there were three teams at 3-1. A win here could at least get us in the tiebreak conversation for first. They were also on Power Artifact deck, but their support deck was less anti-creature and more anti-spell. They had Flash Counter and Glasses of Urza(!) to further support the combo. I play a turn one Wheel of Fortune and draw six lands and Demonic Tutor. Simon's hand is mostly anti-creature, so I used Tutor to find Timetwister on turn three. Turn four we decide to tap Simon's white source to play Land Tax instead of leaving up Disenchant since I had REB and Simon had Counterspell up. This backfired and we immediately lost since they had Power Artifact plus Fireball and Flash Counter plus Mana Drain for our answers.

3-2

So in the end, one of the other Power Artifact configurations won the event at 5-0. The team with four Fork ended up at 4-1 for second place. Simon and I had the best breakers of the 3-2 so we got third place. Here is a photo of us in the same pose as the trophy card Clone:

Overall Impressions

Two-Headed Giant was a fun format to build decks for, but the gameplay was a bit lacking. I don't think that can really be fixed by banning or restricting any of the combo cards as the control cards that did nothing all day in Simon's deck would still be oppressing other strategies. I think the best way to do some 2HG in the future would be to do some kind of Singleton. There are enough ways to synergize with your partner in deckbuilding while still probably requiring normal Magic play patterns. 

The event was run extremely well and props to the Philly Old School group for putting it on. I will continue to attend events they run as long as I'm in the area. 

Props:

2HG just for being a cool thing

Simon for travelling all the way from Houston to be my other head

Philly Old School for running the event

the "Healings Salve" 

the team with all the Forks - this card is so good in 2HG

Simon and Will for completing this three-way Demonic Tutor trade

Slops:

Me for making some questionable plays and questionable deck building decisions

Weird Philly intersections

Me for missing my sister-in-laws 40th birthday party to play silly card game

Bonus Section

We came up with this Saturday morning trying to decide what Dom and Andy would be playing. It might actually be good:

Deck A:

4 Bazaar of Baghdad

4 Sword of the Ages

52 Giant Creatures

Deck B:

4 Eureka

4 All Hallow's Eve

4 Animate Dead

4 Concordant Crossroads

4 Llanowar Elves

4 Elves of Deep Shadow

4 Birds of Paradise

1 Mind Twist

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Time Walk

1 Timetwister

1 Wheel of Fortune

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Chaos Orb

1 Regrowth

5 Moxen

1 Black Lotus

1 Sol Ring

4 Bayou

4 Tropical Island

4 Underground Sea

4 City of Brass

1 Forest

BottleAtog at Buffalo Stampede

 

This past Sunday I played in the Buffalo Stampede event in, you guessed it, Buffalo. I had a wonderful time both playing Magic and not playing Magic.

Saturday Night

Buffalo is a six-hour drive for me which is a bit too much to do in one day. I drove up Saturday morning and arrived around 4pm. I checked into my room and then met up with DFB, Chris Mason, and DFB's brother John at Nine-Eleven Tavern (no relation to the national tragedy) for chicken wings:

We sat at the bar and got our order in shortly after they opened so avoided having to wait the hour for seating or hour plus for food. We had some beers and some french fries while we waited but our wings came out in less than thirty minutes:

I'm not entirely sure how to explain these wings. I don't normally enjoy Buffalo sauce, but these were  the best wings I've ever had in my life. We ordered the medium heat sauce. The sauce was more complex with hints of vinegar and brown sugar (maybe?) but still the familiar heat and tang of Frank's. 

After Nine-Eleven Tavern, we went to Anchor Bar, which claims to be the originator of the Buffalo chicken wing. 

Driving past the beautiful City Hall at sunset

These wings were much more like what I've experienced before. The quality was still better than your average Hooters or other chain, but the sauce not nearly as interesting to me as Nine-Eleven. We met up with Jeff Menges here. This place was very busy since it was near the Sabres stadium and people were eating here before the game. Dave happened to "know a guy" and we got seated almost right away. We had just got our beers from the bar when the table was ready. I wanted to have some ice cream after eating all these wings but they didn't have any. I settled for a cannoli which was below average.

After Anchor Bar, we went to Colter Bay in the Allentown area of Buffalo for some more drinks. This was a chill spot and a good way to end the night. I got back to my room which was above another bar. I watched the end of the World Series game (go Astros!) at the bar with another drink (or three, the locals bought me a few shots) before going to bed.

Sunday

I was a bit hungover when I got to Resurgence Brewing Company, so the first order of business was getting some food. I had the biscuits and gravy. It was good.

The beer at Resurgence was fine? It wasn't bad but nothing special. About your average micro-brewery beer. It may have been better if I wasn't as hungover. I had two different IPAs and their Blond ale. No photos of that.

Later during the day I ordered the poutine that caught my eye from the menu. I wanted to get it with short rib, but they had ran out. The waiter told me that "the pulled pork is even better". I don't believe him. This was just fine:

The other highlight of the brewery was this dog who was so short and yet had the longest ears. He kept stepping on them. I loved it: 

The Magic

It was refreshing to play some 4 Strip Old School again. I don't think I prefer it, but it is the format I've played the most. I played the following deck:

4 Atog

4 Savannah Lions

4 Black Vice

2 Relic Barrier

2 City in a Bottle

4 Lightning Bolt

2 Chain Lightning

2 Psionic Blast

2 Disenchant

1 Wheel of Fortune

1 Timetwister

1 Time Walk

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Chaos Orb

1 Balance

1 Sol Ring

1 Mox Sapphire

1 Mox Ruby

1 Mox Jet

1 Mox Emerald

1 Mox Pearl

1 Black Lotus

4 Strip Mine

4 Mishra's Factory

4 Volcanic Island

4 Plateau

4 Tundra

1 City of Brass

Sideboard

2 Swords to Plowshares

1 Library of Alexandria

2 Disenchant

1 Divine Offering

1 City in a Bottle

3 Copper Tablet

2 Aeolipile

2 Icatian Javaleneers

1 Plains

I decided to try this version with the logic that City in a Bottle can add to the mana denial of Strip Mine against decks with lots of City of Brass. This would in turn make Black Vise better. Lion over Serendib is already pretty close. The real sacrifice is in number of colored sources in the deck. I was conservative with Psionic Blast and Chain Lightning, opting for more generic spells like Relic Barrier and Aeolipile that I can cast with any color lands. This also meant not playing Demonic Tutor and Mind Twist. I skewed all my sideboard to white cards to make mulligans easier and to have access to the basic Plains. This was probably too clever and not needed. I also wanted more proactive cards in the sideboard and didn't want to play BEB or REB, two cards I'm not really a fan of.

City in a Bottle worked extremely well in two matches, was not relevant in three matches, and then probably hurt me in one match where I drew it game one when it did nothing and needed to have anything else to be in the game. I don't think its worth it to give up on Tutor and Twist, so I don't think I'll play this version again. There may be a way to build with City and black cards but no white spells if you find a replacement for Savannah Lions. I may try that in the future.

I still think Atog is the strongest deck because of the free wins you get and being the best at leveraging the draw sevens. It's certainly not unbeatable but I'm still a believer.

Round 1 - Jason Shaw on White Workshop Archeologist

Game one I'm explosive from the start with Lion Tog and Vise. I think I have a Twister and win easily. Game two I get him low but he has two Triskelion and Coffin and Diamond Valley. I have Relic Barrier to tap a Trike on his turn and attack with a lethal Atog. He makes some plays and I sacrifice some artifacts to keep it alive but it was all a setup to get him to activate the Valley. When he does, I respond with two Lightning Bolts to kill him.

1-0

Round 2 - Pete Lankering on Workshops

Game one I have Vise into Lion Vise. He only has two Mox so my Relic Barrier in his upkeep on his Sapphire forces him to Ancestral. The Vises do enough damage from there to win. Game two I don't remember very well. I think I had Divine Offering for a Su-Chi and STP for a Triskelion and then eventually found enough burn to win.

2-0

Round 3 - Nick Cummings on CounterBurn

Game one he sticks a Serendib that I never find an answer to. He only sees red and white cards though and sideboards thinking I'm Pink Weenie. Game two I manage to win with two Atogs. He adjusts his sideboard for game three but my City in a Bottle plus Relic Barrier plus Strip Mines keep him below three mana for too long and by the time he recovers he's facing lethal Atog and I win.

3-0

Round 4 - Raymond Mitchell on Shaharazad Burn

Game one I have City in a Bottle turning off a lot of his deck. He has to kill it with Shatter and finally casts Shaharazad. I think about scooping immediately since I'm at 20 and he's at 12 but I have two Bolts in hand and Lion plus Atog in play. I play the subgame just to see more of the deck but I end up losing. I take 10 but he's now tapped out in the main game and I draw the artifact I need to do lethal. Game two is a fight over City in a Bottle. I have one in play but am forced to sacrifice it to save my Atog. I play a second one and he has Energy Flux. The game then draws out extremely long with me paying for two  Flux every turn while he has spells that he can't cast. I'm not drawing much gas but he also has CoP: Red in play so it is going to be a struggle. Eventually he finds Timetwister which lets him Disenchant the City and plays some spells. Unfortunately he tapped out in the process leaving him open to my burn spells that kill him.

4-0

Round 5 - Tino Galizio on Deadguy

Game one I have Vise plus two Lions. He takes a lot of damage before recovering with Balance at 1 life. I've got Psionic Blast in hand but only one land left after a Sinkhole. He Hymns and hits a Mox and a Disenchant so I'm still live to Psionic Blast. I draw Strip Mine and leave it in play for mana and then find the blue source the next turn to win as he's starting to get a threating board. Game two I'm not quite as aggressive start but I do manage to Strip his Scrubland and win with Atog when he can't cast Balance or STP.

5-0

I'm the only 5-0 going into the final round, but my tiebreakers aren't that strong compared to the three people on 4-1. I need to win to lock up first place.

Round 6 - Rich Borque on Workshops

Game on I have turn one Savannah Lion plus City in a Bottle. This draw is not good against Shops and he finds two Triskelion to easily win as I draw mostly nothing. Game two he has Abyss plus CoP:Red and the game goes really long. I manage to deal with all his threats and win with more Mishra's Factories than he has Relic Barriers. Game three is similar as he has Abyss and CoP: Red again. I draw a lot of lands but this time they aren't factories. He gets two Icy Manipulator in play and I decide to destroy one instead of his Factory thinking its going to be harder to beat the Icy. He then has a second Factory and a Jayemdae Tome. I draw two Factories but they don't do anything against his Icy and he draws too many cards with Tome and I can't comeback.

5-1

I end up in third place on tiebreakers. I did manage to get the Strip Mine from the prize pool though. You can't ever have enough Strip Mines.

Also received the nice Divine Offering for participation and had these Merfolk of the Pearl Trident altered by Jeff:

Props / Slops

Props:

DFB for putting on the event and the chicken wing tour

Nine-Eleven Tavern chicken wings

Buffalo for being a great place to visit

Slops:

Me for not playing Demonic Tutor

Me for not playing Mind Twist

-Ty