"He knows he has a short span of life, that the day will come when he must pass through the wall of oblivion...."

---William Faulkner










Epic. Insane.

Those are the only words I can use to describe the recent tournament experience I had on Friday. As many of you may know, Knightfall Games closed a couple weeks ago, which meant that Ryan, Abi, and I had to find another place to play Magic on Fridays. We decided to play at Guardian Games, and it did not disappoint.

Now, I've mentioned before, Guardian hosts some of the more difficult tournaments around. The venue attracts some of the top rated players in Portland, including David Stroud, Ryan Bemrose, Henry Romero, and others. Some of these players were top rated players (back when Wizards still used the rating system), and even now, they have a gazillion planeswalker points. Although most of these tough players weren't at the tournament on Friday, David Stroud still showed up; so the tournament was fixing to be difficult.

I decided before the tournament to try R/G Wolf Run again, with minor alterations to the main deck and sideboard based on my perception of the metagame. As far as the main deck changes, I removed 2 Green Sun's Zenith, 1 Bird of Paradise, and 1 Inferno Titan from the main deck to add 3 Huntmaster of the Fells and 1 Whipflare. I thought R/W Humans and other aggro strategies would be popular at the moment and the added cards were meant to give my deck more ways to cope. Despite playing five rounds however, I never drew a Huntmaster.

That is not to say the tournament went poorly. I scored clear first! Five wins and zero losses was my final record, beating several strong players on my way to the finish. Now for the matches:
In round 1 I played against a noob running B/R Vampires. My opponent's deck was basically all commons; the games were fairly easy and I won 2-0.

In round 2 I was once again paired against Ryan Engbrecht, who was running RUG Control. Ryan has made a few alterations to the deck he played on Tuesday, abandoning the Birds of Paradise and Llanowar Elves for a more solid ramp strategy involving Rampant Growth and Sphere of the Suns. He also added board sweepers like Whipflare and Blasphemous Act, to go alongside Tamiyo, the Moon Sage. He also considered cards like Strangleroot Geist and Wolfir Avenger, but for the moment those cards were left in the sideboard.

The match with Ryan was extremely close. Every single game seemed to dangle on whether I would have enough threats to overcome the Tamiyo lock. I won game 1, but in game 2 Ryan came back with a vengance, casting Zealous Conscripts on my titan and killing me with it before I could kill him on the subsequent turn. As I've mentioned before, I absolutely love (and hate) Zealous Conscripts. I find it to be the perfect anti-Wolf Run card because it takes whatever fatty titan you cast and beats you with it. Zealous Conscripts and Sigarda, Host of Herons are the reasons why Wolf Run Ramp may no longer be a particularly viable strategy.

Anyway, the match needed a third game to decide it, and Game 3 did not disappoint. I don't remember any specifics about the game except to say that Inkmoth Nexus and Karn Liberated were crucial to my success. About half-way through the game the tournament director announced that time for the round had expired, and that players have five turns to finish their matches. I killed Ryan on the fifth turn :-P    2-1.

In round 3 I was paired against another ramp deck. My opponent played W/G/R and included cards like Terminus, Solemn Simulacrum, and Gideon Jura. I never saw much of my of my opponent's deck because he was land flooded in both games. One hilarious event did occur in this match: My opponent played Gideon Jura and ticked him up 2, causing all my creatures to attack Gideon next turn. All I had out was an Inkmoth Nexus and a Kessig Wolf Run, and a bunch of lands in my hand. Fortunately, my opponent had nothing but sorcery speed removal and I was able to slowly kill Gideon while trying to draw out of the land flood. After several turns I finally killed the Gideon and my opponent just played another! Nevertheless, by this time I had drawn a Beast Within and I killed my opponent with poison damage soon thereafter.

In round 4 I played David Stroud, one of the higher ranked Portland players mentioned above. David was playing a home brew dredge deck, combining cards like Sun Titan, Unburial Rites, Faithless Looting, and Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded. Although David is an excellent player the games felt a little one-sided, as he seemed to have little creature removal and his Phantasmal Images could be quickly disposed of with Kessig Wolf Run. I won the match, 2-0.

Round 5 was by far the most epic round of the tournament. My opponent was playing NayaPod, which I usually have a great matchup against.  This time however, my opponent had made excellent changes to the deck, adding cards like Sigarda, Host of Herons and Slayers' Stronghold, which gave him a much better game against Wolf Run. At the beginning of the round I offered my opponent a draw. Since I was in clear first a draw would have guaranteed I receive first place, but it would also have ensured that my opponent placed like 6th. He rightly refused the draw, but hey, it was worth a shot.

Game 1 I again mana flooded and I lost the game quickly to a couple Strangleroot Geists backed by Slayers' Stronghold. In game 2, I boarded in two copies of Ancient Grudge to try and kill the Birthing Pod and Blade Splicer tokens. The game was very back and forth. I resolved an Inferno Titan, and placed myself in a situation where I either won or lost the match (and probably the tournament) based on whether my opponent could draw a creature. With over 30 creatures in the deck, my opponent top decked a land, and I won game 2.

Little did I realize, game 3 would be even more intense. I failed to stabalize the board until I was at 7 life and then, as if right on cue, my opponent played a Manabarbs. I looked down at my hand---three titans---wonderful. As I've said before, Manabarbs is so damn good against me. I was lucky I had a Sphere of the Suns out. I cast the Inferno Titan, went down to 2 life, and killed a Strangleroot Geist. The crazy thing was, my opponent wasnt able to play another creature on the next turn, and after drawing Ancient Grudge on my turn, I attacked him for 9 damage, placing him at 9 life. On my opponent's next turn, he played a Huntmaster of the Fells (placing him at 7 life--he took 4 damage from Manabarbs), but before he could use Birthing Pod on it (to fetch a Zealous Conscripts for the win) I cast Ancient Grudge on the Birthing Pod (tapping the Sphere of the Suns and going to 1 life). The next turn, I attacked with the Inferno Titan, killing the Huntmaster and dealing 1 to my opponent (placing him at 6 life and forcing him to block with the Huntmaster's wolf token. I said "done." If my opponent drew a Strangleroot Geist, I was dead. He failed to draw a Geist or any other creature that could survive as a blocker, and I won the match 2-1.

So there it is. I won the tournament with five straight match victories, earning 17 Planeswalker points, a foil promo Ancient Grudge, and $24 of store credit for my trouble, which I used to purchase a Vexing Devil and a Sigarda, Host of Herons. Quite a fun Friday evening!