In Scorcese's classic film, The Color of Money, Paul Newman says to Tom Cruise, "Money won is twice as sweet as money earned." As I drove home from another FNM tournament last night, I realized that although I only won $15 in prizes, the fact I won it made it seem so sweet.

As usual, I played in Guardian Games's usual Standard tournament , once again running R/G Wolf Run. As I mentioned in my previous article, I'm not buying cards right now, so if I want to expand my collection, I need to win tournaments. Before I entered the tournament, I contemplated perhaps playing U/W Delver, since the deck is pretty much the best deck in the format, but such a decision really shouldn't be made moments before the tournament. Anyways, I ended up scoring 4-1 and placing second with Wolf Run, so no change is necessary as yet. Now on to the games.

I received a bye in the first round and so didn't play anyone. This probably helped my tiebreakers at the end.

In round 2 I played against Zach Ledesma running U/W Delver. I have played Zach before, but never with Delver. Zach is a good player with a strong sense for the game and what decks are playable. He admitted his list was pretty much a card-for-card copy of someone's tournament winning U/W Delver list, but I don't remember the original creator's name. We had some very strange games that seemed to take longer than my usual matches with Delver take. Both of us appeared to land flood in Game 2. I ended up winning the match on the back of Inkmoth Nexii, 2-0.

In Round 3 I played against Thomas Overton running Mono Blue Architect. I faced this deck twice before, both times in the last tournament, winning once and losing once. I thereafter adjusted my sideboard by adding another copy of Ancient Grudge. Thus, I felt well prepared to face this new deck. I won Game 1 by resolving a Primeval Titan, fetching Inkmoth Nexus and Kessig Wolf Run. Thomas resolved a Phantasmal Image, copying the Primeval Titan, but the two Ghost Quarters he fetched came into play tapped and were thus unable to stop the Inkmoths from dealing lethal poison damage the next turn. Game 2 was even more exciting. I resolved a Garruk, Primal Hunter and eventually used his ultimate ability to place 12 6/6 Wurms into play. Thomas and I joked about how only a Devastation Tide could have saved him. He obviously didn't run Devastation Tide in the deck, but it was still funny. I won the match, 2-0.

Round 4 proved to be the critical round of the tournament. I played against David Stroud running U/W Delver. I swear, it feels impossible to win Magic tournaments at Guardian Games without encountering David Stroud. The guy is always at the top of the pairings, and I can see why the players at Guardian respect his play so much. I won the first game in our match by resolving a Inferno Titan that David seemed unable to Vapor Snag. Unfortunately, the subsequent games did not go as well for me. In Game 2, David resolved two Consecrated Sphinxes. Since I had just sideboarded out all my copies of Beast Within, the Sphinxes both bashed me for 8 damage a turn and allowed David to replenish his hand. Game 3 I had to mulligan to six cards and lost because I got stuck on 5 lands. I tried to cast Slagstorm only to have it countered via Mana Leak. If I had had one more land, things might have been different, but that's MTG. I lost the match, 1-2.

In Round 5 I played against Matt Scott who was running a W/G Midrange deck similar to the one Adam Brown beat me with a few months ago. Matt got color screwed in the first game, not drawing a green mana source, and mana screwed in the second game, not drawing a fourth land. I won the match, 2-0.

For my efforts I was awarded 2nd place, $21 in store credit, which I used to purchase a Snapcaster Mage. Hopefully they don't ban him. I was also given the promo card of the night, Acidic Slime.

My sideboard is now being adjusted to deal with the prevalence of Delver decks. Out of the 25 attendees at this tournament, I saw at least 7 U/W Delver decks. If you aren't going to join them, you better have a good plan to beat them.

Until next time readers.