I hadn't planned on writing blog post about this event, so some details are fuzzy.
I don't have much experience with the 7 point singleton format. It's a bit too casual for tournament play, but also still a bit too spikey for the casual meetups. The Sisters of the Flame have their own Singleton format thats 100 cards with almost all the best stuff banned. It's ideal for casual games and seeing cards you never see before. 7 point is close to that, but still the margins matter.
The Deck
Most of my experience in 7Pt is playing games against Simon when I was still in Texas. He usually has four or five decks put together so I'll play whatever he has. I played a few games in between rounds of the Sunday Vintage when I was in town for Hurricane Event. We discussed what we thought would be good for the NEOS. I really liked the way Stone Rain and Ice Storm were playing out, so I decided to be on RG. The black splash for Howl from Beyond is mostly free, and something I took from my Sisters singleton deck. Spending four points on the two mox was a mistake. I think the Mox Emerald was fine since there are a lot of one green mana plays, but the Ruby was never good. It's probably better to play Wheel, Sylvan Library, Earthquake, and something else instead of the Mox.
The Games
Match 1 - Craig Winzer - Mono G
Game one he chooses to draw, so by the time he stabilized I had detonate for his Tetravus. Game two he had turn one Library (that explains drawing first) and I couldn't compete. Game three he had turn one Library but we both mulligan and I had three creatures in play turn two. He only got two extra cards before he had to come off Library and then killed him with his own Ifh-Biff.
1-0
Match 2 - Joseph Freshwater - Green Black
I don't remember much about this one except game two he was stuck on lands and used Berserk to kill my creature. Unfortunately for him, I had Giant Growth and he died.
2-0
Match 3 - Mark Evaldi - Mono Black
Game one had turn two Ifh-Biff but he had Ashes to Ashes into Mind Twist my hand. I did not recover. Game two he had Pestilence but had to use it up and then I have land destruction to put him back to one mana and win from there. Game three I Strip Mine him and he never hit 4th land.
3-0
Match 4 - Jon Tschida - GWb
Game one I mulligan to six and keep Sprites Trike four land. I draw only land for the game and die to Grizzly Bears, White Knight, and Derelor before I can play Triskelion. Game two I keep Mountain Forest Untamed Wilds Chaos Orb Giant Growth Erhnam Brassclaw and never draw 3rd land.
3-1
Match 5 - Cameron Eaton
He dropped :(
4-1
Match 6 - Tim Moran
I don't remember which of the first two I won. I lost a game where I got aggressive with an Ice Storm to cut him off of red mana, but he then had Maze of Ith which wrecked my hand of Giant Growth and Howl From Beyond. Game three I keep hand of Elves of Deep Shadow, Scryb Sprites, Fellwar Stone, one land with some more one and two mana plays. His first land is Factory and then he uses Strip Mine on my only land before I can deploy the Fellwar. I still manage to play spells with a drawn Forest and the Deep Shadow. Eventually I get enough land to play more than one spell a turn and he's flooding out. I'm doing my best to kill him before he draws out of it. I'm down to 6 life from City of Brass and Elves of Deep Shadow. He can draw Triskelion or a bunch of other cards to just win, but he keeps drawing land and I win.
5-1
Group Winner
8th seed after group play.
Top 16 - Joe Singer on Mono Black
Game one I mulligan to five cards and he had turn one Underworld Dreams and then The Rack. I do my best to race but it is tough because I also take damage from City of Brass. The game ends up at a spot where I'm at 4 he at 6, I have Taiga Mountain City of brass, Brassclaw Orcs in play. My hand is Forest Trike Bolt. He has Dreams Rack Scepter and five lands. His turn he plays Fallen Angel and passes. I had to do the math on if I should Bolt the angel or him. Plenty of cards win either way, but Giant Growth and Howl win if I Bolt the Angle, while only Chaos Orb wins if I Bolt face. I bolt the Angel and draw Detonate for the Scepter and win. Game two I had turn 5 Trike and he only had Jayemdae Tome and no interaction and died.
6-1
Top 8 - Lucas Glavin on 5 Color Control
Game one he has turn one Factory but my attacker is Scryb Sprites. I do about 6 with it while slowly building mana. He has City in a Bottle for my Erhnam Djinn. I play out Thorn Thallid and Pixies to attack past the Factory. He has Coffin to take care of the Thallid. I have Bolt for the Factory and then follow up with Tracker. He's at 6 facing 5 damage but has drawn nothing but lands. I win as he draws more lands. Game two he keeps a two lander and I have Strip Mine for his Savannah. He only has Plains but then has Underground Sea. I play Chaos Orb and flip it on the Sea. Then I draw Ice Storm and he has no lands for several turns. I only have a Scavenger Folk as an attacker so he's still at 10 but I find Howl From Beyond to close the game out.
7-1
Top 4 - Erik Ostman on 5 Color Combo Control
Game one I have very fast start. This is my turn 2:
My next turn I have Scarwood Goblins which I decide to play into his Island plus Volcanic. I get punished as he has Mana Drain into Underground Sea plus The Abyss. I do manage to get him down to 2 life over the next several turns, but don't draw any way to push more damage until I draw Howl from Beyond and Regrowth after all my creatures die. He resolves Mirror Universe and I don't have an answer. A few turns later he uses Ring of Mar'uf to get Lightning Bolt to kill me.
Game two I mulligan two hands with no lands into this on five cards:
I think long about it but ultimately decide to send it back and go to four cards. My four card hand is Llanowar Elves, Ice Storm, Thorn Thallid, Grizzly Bears, Erhnam Djinn, Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning. I decide I can't go to three cards, and put the two burn spells and Erhnam on the bottom. I don't draw land for the first five turns of the game, eventually discarding to hand size. Meanwhile he has an Ivory Tower and a Rocket Launcher out. The first land I draw is Swamp to further rub salt in the wound. I finally draw a Forest to play some creatures. I have Thallid, Thorn Thallid, and Llanowar Elves out when he plays Drop of Honey. I decide to continue to play creatures since otherwise I'd likely end up discarding. He has Counterspell for my Chaos Orb and Mana Drain for my Detonate on Ivory Tower. I finally Shatter it but he has Regrowth. At this point I'm too far behind. I do manage to resolve a Triskelion after the Drop of Honey is gone, but never get him below 19 life thanks to his Tower.
7-2
Thoughts on 7pt
I probably got a bit unlucky in the top four, but got plenty lucky along the way to get there. To make top four while effectively playing just 3 pointed cards does say something for the power of the strategy or how well I was running.
Optimizing a deck for 7pt is really tough. I think ideally the RG deck would play one or two more lands to hopefully prevent what happen to me in game two of the semi-finals, but then you would flood out a lot more. Flooding seems to be the way most games were decided when both people could cast spells. There aren't many great options to fix this, and it does mean every deck kind of moves towards midrange.
I think sideboards would help this format a lot, but, I love sideboarding more than most.
Thanks for reading,
Ty
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