Today I played in another Standard tournament at Guardian Games. I've said it a million times, but for any new readers I will say it again: Guardian runs some of the toughest tournaments around. The best players in Portland arrive frequently and today was no different. Henry Romero (ranked 1st), Ryan Bemrose (ranked 2nd), Aaron Henner (ranked 4th, but who acted as judge), and Henry Freedman (ranked 20th), all showed up today. So needless to say, the tournament was going to be tough. It wasn't until I arrived that I learned that today's tournament was a GPT qualifier, requiring a $10 entry (as opposed to the usual $5), and thus that this would be a 5 round swiss tournament with a top 8 single elimination tournament at the end. The only deck I had with me was Wolf Run, and I decided to run it yet again. This turned out to be a decent decision, as I ended the tournament 4-1, and took third place.
The tournament started off well for me. I went 2-0 against an Esper control deck and a 2-0 against a U/R illusions deck. Neither of those decks impress me much; the first one's mana base seems too jacked to ever work effectively, and the second one is just weak against Wolf Run. I mean, when I can kill all your creatures by just paying one red and one green and tapping a Kessig Wolf Run, there's not much that can be done.
The worst round of the tournament was round 3, where I lost to a Solar Flare deck which eventually took second place. Despite my expressed lack of respect for the Esper mana base (see above), this Solar Flare deck functioned perfectly against me. In the first game, my opponent played a Liliana of the Veil on turn 3, discarded a Sun Titan and an Unburial Rites on turns 3 and 4, and then cast the Unburial Rites from his graveyard on turn 4 to basically win the game. It was the "nut" draw, so to speak, and any creature I could have cast to block the Sun Titan would have been instantly killed by Liliana of the Veil. In the second game I got mana screwed and my opponent once again cast a turn 3 Liliana of the Veil. There was nothing I could do and the match ended quickly 0-2.
In the fourth round I faced off against Mono-Red. I lost the first game to double Stromkirk Noble, but the second and third game Thrun, the Last Troll came down on turn 3 and just went all the way. I've mentioned before how much I love Thrun, the Last Troll in Standard right now. He is simply one of the best creatures around and will just win games on his own.
In the fifth and final round I faced off against Zach Ledesma running his own version of U/B Infect. This was effectively a rematch from our meeting a week ago, where I beat him in three games to take 1st place in another Guadian Games Standard tournament. Once again, his deck's heavy reliance on artifacts, including Inkmoth Nexus, Runechanter's Pike, and Sword of Feast and Famine, meant that I would often get 2-for-1 situations after Ancient Grudge came in from the sideboard. Furthermore, he failed to run any sacrifice effects in his deck, such as Liliana of the Veil or Geth's Verdict, which meant that once Thrun, the Last Troll came down, he was there to stay. I won the match 2-1 to take clear third place in the tourney.
Overall I think this was a decent tournament for me because it helped me get the bad flavor of the previous tournament out of my mouth. Ryan Bemrose ended up winning the tournament with a B/R/G Wolf Run variant, which I thought was his own brew, but which I was informed after the tournament may have been created by someone else. Anyways, thanks for reading, and see you next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment