---Charles Colton
Another weekend comes to a close, and with it another tournament at Guardian Games. I was hoping to follow up my performance on Friday with another strong result, but alas, it wasn't to be. I finished with three wins and two losses, and failed to receive a prize. Sad me.
I felt like my Jund Wolf Run deck played a little weaker today, perhaps because of some poor mulliganing decisions on my part. Although the deck seems to prey upon the NayaPod and Delver decks which were once popular in Standard, those decks seems to be receding in favor of different strategies, including Infect and Elves.
In round 1 I played against Michael Hume running NayaPod. As I mentioned above, I have been preying upon these decks recently. NayaPod is enormously weak to Slagstorm. Their ideal play is turn 1 Birds of Paradise, turn 2 Blade Splicer, and turn 3 Huntmaster of the Fells, which means I can sometimes cast Slagstorm killing everybody and getting 3-for-1. Thalia is a relevant card in this matchup if it comes out before I am able to cast Rampant Growth, but on the draw I think the Pod player should just board it out. These games were fairly one-sided and I won the match 2-0.
In round 2 I played against MonoWhite Humans. I believe Wolf Run is slightly favored in this matchup due to the various board sweepers it runs, which nearly always generate 2-for-1 situations. Nevertheless, Mirran Crusader and Hero of Bladehold can sometimes cause problems(especially when combined with Sword of War and Peace, Honor of the Pure, or Angelic Destiny). This time I drew enough sweepers early and my opponent quickly ran out of steam. I won the match, 2-0.
In round 3 I faced Aaron Henner running G/W Ramp. In Game 1, I kept a hand I shouldn't have and Aaron ramped better than I did. He played an Acidic Slime to keep me behind and a Karn Liberated to seal the victory. Karn Liberated has always been especially strong against ramp, as he kills Titans with ease and can completely take over a game. Game 2 was a bit more even, but I definitely felt like I misplayed. I had the 2-4-6 Titan, but slow-played for fear of running into a Day of Judgment or Planar Cleansing. In other words, I passed the turn instead of casting the Titan, hoping Aaron would cast a Titan first and ensuring that if he happened to cast Day of Judgment, we'd both lose a Titan. I realize now this was probably timid play, and I should have just gone for it. Aaron eventually took control of the game with a couple of Inkmoth Nexii and a Gavony Township. I lost the match 0-2.
In round 4 I faced Zach Ledesma running RUG Ramp. It's strange that I faced two ramp decks this tournament when I hadn't faced one in so long. As some of you may remember, RUG has caused problems for my deck in the past, and Sunday was no different. Whereas the usual RUG deck to I run into is more control oriented, Zach used some unusual RUG goodies: Frost Titan, Rampant Growth, Mana Leak, Primeval Titan, etc. I think I saw him netdecking before the tournament, so maybe his list can be found here. Either way, his list was potent and made short work of my few threats. I finally resolved an Inferno Titan, which he just Zealous Conscripted and killed me with. I lost the match 0-2.
In round 5 I played against Natalie running Esper Control. Game 1 was relatively short. I resolved an Inferno Titan which pretty much went the distance. In Game 2, I sideboarded in two Grave Titans and that's when some hilarious stuff started to happen. I resolved the first Titan on turn 4, which Natalie quickly dealt with using Go for the Throat. Next turn, I resolved an Inferno Titan, which Natalie killed with a Terminus. The following turn, I resolved another Primeval Titan, which Natalie killed with an Oblivion Ring. I followed that up with a Grave Titan, which Natalie finally killed with another removal spell. In the end, I casted a Karn Liberated, killed the Oblivion Ring, brought back my Titan, and won the game. She seemed a little upset at the number of Titans I drew, and I admit, even though I ran 9 Titans, drawing 4 or 5 is a lot.
So there it is. I finished 3-2, and failed to win a prize. Boohoo. Still, got another chance tonight at Ancient Wonders. See you there!
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