"Must not all things at the last be swallowed up in death?"
---Plato
















I ventured to Ancient Wonders for the usual Standard tournament last Tuesday, hoping to break the losing streak I was currently entertaining. Only 10 players attended this week; far less than last week. I saw a lot of familiar faces, and had a good time testing my Modern decks over the course of the evening.

 

In round 1, I was paired against Jordan running G/W Aggro. Jordan got mana-screwed both games and had to mulligan to 5 cards accordingly, so there isn’t much of a match to report. He seemed to be trying out his own home brew, utilizing cards like Elspeth Tirel and Ring of Kalonia.

 

In round 2 I faced Steve Empey running U/B Tezzeret Control. Steve’s deck had cards like Ichor Wellspring, Mycosynth Wellspring, and of course, the new addition to this achetype, TradingPost. Personally, I feel like Steve's version of this deck is weaker than others I’ve seen recently, most notably, the versions utiling Grand Architechts and Myr Superion. Still, Steve's version has a strong late game if left alone for too long.

 

I won the first game with an unchecked Primeval Titan, but not without some interesting play along the way. There’s one decision which I’d like to describe: On turn fifteen-ish, Steve tapped out to cast a Wurmcoil Engine. I was at 20 life; he was at like 29, so on the following turn, I attacked him with Inkmoth Nexus, tapped out for Kessig Wolf Run, and delivered 8 poison counters. On Steve’s next turn, he attacked me with the Wurmcoil; my life went to 14; he went to 35. My next turn, Steve had 1 card in hand, and he had conspicuously left mana open for something (or so I thought). I refrained from attacking with the Inkmoth, instead attacking with the Titan and using Wolf Run. I thought Steve might have an answer to the Inkmoth, and that by not attacking, I was forcing him to leave mana open every turn for a Doom Blade or a Tragic Slip, or whatever it was in his hand. Was this decision correct?

 

Well, in hindsight, it wasn’t. I learned after the game, the card in Steve’s hand at the time was a Mycosynth Wellspring, and by not attacking for lethal poison, I gave him time to eventually draw a Ghost Quarter. Effectively what this means is: Steve bluffed me.

 

Poker players lose to bluffs all the time, and the question you always have to ask yourself afterwards is, given the information I had at the time, was my decision correct? In this particular case, that means asking, should I have attacked with my Inkmoth Nexus?

 

The following pieces of information are perhaps pertinent to answering this question: (1) as I currently run the deck, I have only 1 Inkmoth Nexus, and no other way of dealing poison damage. If my Inkmoth dies, my chance for a victory by poison disappears---and the previous 8 poison I delieverd would end up meaningless; Being unable to kill your opponent by poison seems especially pertinent when they are playing Wurmcoil Engine; (2) Earlier in the game, Steve used a Go for the Throat to kill a Titan. For obvious reasons, Go for the Throats can't kill Inkmoth Nexus.


In chess, we have a saying: “the threat is stronger than the execution.” In the words of an article I found online:

"A threat can be stronger than it's execution because once you have executed the threat the opponent no longer has the threat to worry about and can defend. In a way, if you  cause your opponent to have to always worry and calculate a threat after every move it can be psychologically difficult and frustrating, and lead to mistakes. If you hold a hostage for ransom, once you kill the hostage, your power has gone."

 

 

I am unsure if this concept described above applies to Magic like it does to Chess. After all, there are many rules of thumb that do not apply to both games. In chess, it is often wisest to play your strongest threat first. In Magic, the opposite seems true.

 

 

Regardless of the merit of my decision, I eventually won the match, 2-0.

 

In round 3, I played against PTQ winner Dillon Winter, running U/W Delver. Dillon was playing the version of the deck that basically transforms into U/W Midrange after sideboarding. As we were both undefeated, Dillon and I agreed to draw.


In round 4, I played against B/R Zombies, but a less consistent version than usual. I don't remember much from the match except that my opponent was running Sorin's Vengeance and I mana flooded in game 1. Nevertheless, I won the match 2-1.


At the end of the tournament, I was 3-0-1 and received first place after tiebreakers. George awarded me $20 of store credit, which I used to purchase a foil Unhinged Plains. Good times.


P.S.: Since drafting this post, I played in 2 additional tournaments, with terrible results in both. Zombies has been crushing my face recently....going to have to make changes to the deck with the SCG Open coming this weekend.

Time for a brief update. I played in a couple of Standard tournaments this week, first at Ancient Wonders on Tuesday, and then at Guardian Games on Friday. I ran my usual Jund Wolf Run deck in both events, but didn’t score particularly well in either tournament. I made some minor changes to the deck, replacing the Slagstorms with Bonfire of the Damned, but I never drew them.


As some of you know, I have been feeling a little burnt out on Magic lately, partly due to overplay and partly due to the current metagame. I think the negative feeling affected my play, as I made several mistakes in both tournaments that cost me potential wins.

AW

Tuesday was a hot day in Portland. George had the air conditioner blasting upstairs, so we were all relatively comfortable, but the power kept going out as a result. At times we were basically playing in the dark. The good news is that the attendance at AW was up last Tuesday—I think over 20 people showed up, which was nice, and probably made the prize pool quite juicy.



I lost my second round to MonoGreen Aggro, played by a player who I beat at the PTQ a few weeks before. I think I could have won this match if I had not made a couple of crucial play mistakes along the way, but as I said before, I was not fully concentrating. I drew against G/R Elves in the subsequent round and thereafter dropped from the tournament. My record of 1-1-1 at the time seemed insufficient to earn a prize, and I really didn’t feel like playing the rest of the rounds.

GG

The FNM at Guardian Games similarly went poorly.


In round 2 I faced Henry Freedman who was running U/B Zombies—a version highly similar to the one piloted by Henry Romero last Friday. Freedman and I split the first two games, so the match needed a third game to decide it. I thought I had things under control; at one point resolving an Inferno Titan and killing two Gravecrawlers. However, Henry cloned my Inferno Titan twice, killing it, and creating a difficult board state for me. I had a ton of outs, i.e. Bonfire of the Damned, Sever the Bloodline, and Blasphemous Act, but I drew a Sphere of the Suns, and lost the following turn. It hurt a little.


In round 3 I faced MonoGreen Infect, and lost on turn three to an excellent hand: First turn, Forest, Glistener Elf, go; Second turn, Cathedral of War, Rancor, attack with the Elf for 4 poison. Third turn, Rancor, attack, kill you. As I’ve said before, I hate this deck.


I sideboarded in all the hate I had, mulliganned to 5 to try and draw, but lost when I failed to draw additional land. Sometimes Magic just sucks like that.


With a record of 1-2, I was basically out of the running for prizes, and so dropped from the tournament.



I definitely think I am in some kind of slump, which sucks. Going to see if I can dig myself out of it next week. Thanks for reading!

I hate you Silvergill Adept, and the decks you belong to.













It was another long week in Magic. I played in 3 events: Standard at Guardian Games on Friday, Legacy at Portal on Saturday, and Standard again at Guardian Games on Sunday. I played a lot of Magic, and I'm definitely feeling a little burnt out.

FNM

I ran my usual Jund Wolf Run deck on Friday, despite recent suggestions that I should try something different. I scored 3-1-1, placing 4th after losing to Henry Romero in the finals.


The draw came from Zach Ledesma running U/W Delver in Round 2. Zach seemed to be running the usual goodies, but my deck performed subpar. Our match went to time control and we were unable to finish. However, I think I would have won the match if we had had more time; my board position was dominant when the last of the five turns expired.


This was my first “non-win” against Delver in seven matches.


Zach beat me at last week’s FNM with RUG Ramp, so this draw was particularly painful because I really wanted to get revenge.

"I'll have my revenge if I have to call on every force from above and below."


You tell 'em, Kaalia.


Anyway,



I continued winning until I met Henry Romero in the finals. This particular tournament, Henry was undefeated with his BUG Zombie Pod list. I was 3-0-1, and thus, declined Henry’s draw offer when he presented it.


I won the first game of the match, but simply could not get past the speed and strength of Henry's deck in Games 2 and 3, and thus, I lost the match 1-2. Henry went undefeated, and I claimed fourth place.

Not terrible, but not great either.  I picked up a Chrome Mox.

Legacy

What a fucked up format. This was my first Legacy tournament ever, and my first time visiting Portal Games in downtown Portland. I had played a bunch of Legacy online, but OTB (“over the board”) play is always more intense.


I chose to play Legacy because I want to start testing for the SCG Open. The SCG Open prize pool is simply too high to miss out on—$2,400 for first place. Need to practice.


I played Merfolk because I had no idea what else to play, and I should probably try everything at least once. So me and the fishies tried our luck at Portal.


In Legacy, some decks are just unbeatable in Game 1.


Case in point: Dredge. On the play, turn 1, my opponent casts Lion's EyeDiamond, sacrifices it, and flashes back Faithless Looting, dredging a ton. I was just too far behind and conceded soon thereafter. I don’t know if there was really anything I could have done.


Game 2 was hilarious because (after removing my opponent's graveyard from the game with a Relic of Progenitus and with three cards left in my opponent's deck) I cast a Standstill, then a Coralhelm Commander. My opponent was forced to draw the remaining cards in his deck, and therefore, lost the game on the following turn. Death by milling is always fun.


Game 3 was more straightforward, as I drew enough Relics of Progenitus and Tormod’s Crypts to keep my opponent from gaining any traction. I won the match 2-0.


I played 2 additional opponents in this tournament, losing to RUG Delver and B/W Stoneblade before dropping. I made several mistakes along the way, but learned a lot about this format and the various card interactions involved.

Sunday Funday

Sunday came and it was time for another Standard tournament at Guardian Games. After brewing the night before I concluded that Jund Ramp was still the deck I wanted to play. However, having been soundly beaten by Romero on Friday, I made some adjustments to the sideboard to deal with the anticipated prevalence of Zombies. Specifically, I added 2 copies of Grafdigger’s Cage.


Unfortunately, I didn’t really play against Zombies the entire tournament. Instead, I played against three U/W Delver decks and a U/B Heartless Summoning deck. My path to the top was especially difficult in this tournament—I played against Adam Brown, Glesty Waters, Henry Freedman, and David Stroud; all veteran opponents. I drew with Ryan Engbrecht in the finals to take a share of first place.


I don’t really feel like describing the Delver matchups because I’ve done so in past entries and it should be obvious by now that I just prey on those decks. Once I play a Cavern of Souls (naming “Giant”) and resolve a PrimevalTitan fetching Glimmerpost, I feel like the game is just over for U/W Delver. Vapor Snag doesn’t really help as I just resolve the same Titan on the following turn, gaining even more life. Honestly, if I were playing Delver right now, I’d seriously consider going back to the Esper version for removal.


I played against David Stroud in the semi-finals. His deck was insanely fast and I’m honestly not sure how I survived game 1. David played a Heartless Summoning and a Myr Superion on turn 2, and another Heartless Summoning and 2 Solemn Simulacrums on turn 3. All the card draw meant that David was able to cast a Wurmcoil Engine and 2 Phyrexian Metamorphs on turn 4. I could do nothing but throw blockers in front of his Wurmcoils until I had enough mana to kill him with an Inkmoth Nexus and Kessig Wolf Run. A timely Beast Within destroyed the Staff of Nin and cleared the path to victory. The game was kind of epic.


Game 2 was basically won with a Blasphemous Act. David said that I should have sideboarded the Blasphemous Act out, but I think that was just emotion talking. Being able to kill all your opponent’s creatures for almost no mana, and then casting an Inferno Titan to kill three little Wurm tokens is pretty damn good. We ended up in a position where neither one of us had cards in our hand, and we were just topdecking for the win. I drew the first threat, a Solemn, and then a Green Sun’s Zenith on the next turn sealed the win.


I drew with Ryan in the finals, saving the Zombie rematch for another time.


I received two Goblin Piledrivers as a prize. More legacy tasties.


There you have it. Another weekend of MTG in the books. Until next time….

Before there was Angelic Destiny there was Divine Transformation.

According to Wikipedia:
"Power creep is the gradual unbalancing of a game due to successive releases of new content. The phenomenon may be caused by a number of different factors and, in extreme cases, can be damaging to the longevity of the game in which it takes place."

Just something to think about....



Another Tuesday has come and gone, which means, another MTG tournament to report. I packed up my cards for the usual forray to Ancient Wonders, hoping to bring home another first place in Standard. Although I brought a couple brew decks to mess around with, I decided once again to run with Jund Wolf Run. The deck only has a few months left; I still think it is incredibly powerful, and perhaps most importantly, I wanted to win and forget about my result the preceding Tuesday.

There were some potent players in attendance: Ryan Engbrecht, (ranked 11th this season), Dillon Winter (recent PTQ winner, and ranked 35th), Filipp Abildayev (ranked 36th), Steve Empey (ranked 49th) and of course, yours truly (ranked 69th). Brian Weller-Gordon (recent PTQ winner, and ranked 36th) also showed up, but he didn't play.

Despite the high number of good players, it also felt like at least half the players were new players running home brew type decks. For example, in round 1, I played against a mono-black deck running Exquisite Blood and Sorin's Vengeance. The coolest part of the deck was remembering the relationship between damage and loss of life: See Rule 119.3a ("Damage dealt to a player by a source without infect causes that player to lost that much life"). Other than that, the deck was kind of bad.

In round 2 I played against a mono green infect deck with no Dismembers or removal of any kind in the sideboard. I fetched Melira, Sylvok Outcast with Green Sun Zenith on turn 3 and the game was basically over.

The tournament didn't actually start until round 3. I was paired against Filipp Abildayev running U/W Delver. As I've mentioned before, my record against U/W Delver is becoming ridiculous---I've now won something like 7 straight matches. U/W Delver just seems to have a terrible matchup against this version of Wolf Run, as the 4 Whipflares and 4 Cavern of Souls just go to town. I would like to say two things about this matchup however:

First, I find the Delver deck that uses Runechanter's Pike far more threatening that versions without it. Very often, I will be in situations where I must constantly be on the lookout for a possible end of turn Restoration Angel followed by a Runechanter's Pike equip and an attack for umpteen damage. I have been sideboarding in two copies of Ancient Grudge whenever I see Delver just because of this threat. Knowing this, perhaps the wise Delver player would just board the Pike's out...

Second, I would like to reiterate how unfair and powerful I think the card Gitaxian Probe is. It basically allows you to see what your opponent is up to for free, and in a match vs. a strong competitor I think it can offer an enormous strategic advantage. Honestly, in chess it would be like having a device that lets you listen to the opposing player's thoughts. If there's one reason to play U/W Delver, it's because Delver is so good, but if there's a second reason, it's Gitaxian Probe. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little here, but I just hate the card that much.

I won both games against Filipp in standard fashion. I took some early damage until I could safely cast Whipflare to kill his creatures. I eventually played a Cavern of Souls and a Primeval Titan, fetching two Glimmerposts and gaining back the life I had just lost. The game was basically over after that, since Vapor Snag is little help when the Titan is just recastable each turn.

In the final round I was paired against Ryan Engbrecht running Bant Pod. We decided to draw the match and split the prize. We played the games for funsies and I won, 2-0. This leads me to believe that maybe my deck has a better matchup against Bant Pod than I initially imagined, and that maybe my poor performance against the deck at the PTQ was merely a fluke. More testing is necessary to reach a solid conclusion.

I took home $22 for my trouble, roughly quadrupling my entry fee. Woot! As usual, Ancient Wonders allows you to compile your store credit, so I merely added it to the bank in hopes of eventually acquiring some Sneak Attacks for the Legacy tournament in September.

All in all, a successful tournament! Thanks for reading.

There is so much Magic to report. This weekend I attended no less than three magic tournaments—FNM on Friday, the Portland Pro Tour Qualifier on Saturday, and Game Day at Guardian Games on Sunday. I ran Jund Wolf Run in all three events, scoring a total of 10 wins, 6 losses, and 2 draws.



Now I realize this record isn't very impressive, but I did manage to tie for first place at the Game Day event and reach the prize pool at FNM, so the weekend was not without its high points. I can't possibly describe the matches in detail, as there were far too many games, but I can try to hit the highlights. First, for my decklist:

Creatures

4 Primeval Titan
3 Inferno Titan
1 Thragtusk
1 Huntmaster of the Fells
4 Solemn Simulacrum

Spells

4 Rampant Growth
4 Sphere of the Suns
4 Whipflare
3 Slagstorm
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Doom Blade
2 Beast Within

Lands

4 Copperline Gorge
4 Rootbound Crag
1 Woodland Cemetery
4 Glimmerpost
1 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Kessig Wolf Run
3 Mountain
3 Forest
1 Swamp
4 Cavern of Souls

Sideboard

3 Ancient Grudge
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
2 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Blasphemous Act
2 Grave Titan
1 Doom Blade
1 Karn Liberated
1 Beast Within
2 Sever the Bloodline
1 Curse of Death's Hold

FNM

Although I scored only 3-2 at FNM, several of those victories were against top Portland players. In round two, I beat Henry Romero running U/R Talrand Delver, 2-0. Henry used cards like Talrand, the Sky Summoner, Grim Lavamancer, and of course, Delver of Secrets. G/R Wolf Run has always had a good matchup against U/R Delver, as the Whipflares often impede U/R Delver's ability to gain any traction. Nevertheless, Henry won the 193-player PTQ the next day by using this same deck, qualifying for the Pro Tour, so apparently his deck has its merits. I didn’t feel like his deck was that strong, but I am often wrong. Anyways, congrats to Henry on his qualification!



In round 3 I played against Mono Red Goblins and lost 0-2. The MonoRed deck eventually won the FNM, 5-0...don't ask me how. Apparently, penny sleeves and Goblin Grenades are all you need to win an FNM at Guardian Games. Go figure.



In round 4 I played against Henry Freedman running Bant Pod, and I won the match 2-1. Henry is definitely one of the top Portland players I mentioned above, as he is consistently ranked at the top of the Planeswalker Points charts (we will leave the discussion of whether placing at the top of the Plansewalker charts makes you a “top player” for another time—but Henry is definitely legit). Bant Pod has surged onto the Standard scene recently, using cards like Phantasmal Image, Deadeye Navigator, Mist Raven, Frost Titan, and of course, Restoration Angel. I played against the Bant Pod deck at least three times this weekend (scoring 2-1). All I can say is that I find Bant Pod far more threatening than its Naya Pod cousin, since the Phantasmal Image—Sun Titan combination often gives Wolf Run a lot of headaches (a theme I have mentioned before), but that I find the matchup is still winnable, especially after sideboard. Ancient Grudge is just so good against all these pod decks.



I lost the final round of the FNM to a Mono Black control deck. I ramped into a Primeval Titan, but he ramped into a Griselbrand, and it wasn't pretty after that. I lost the match, 1-2.



So that was it for FNM. I think I got like $10 in prizes which I used to obtain two more copies of Cabal Therapy. Legacy Dredge is nearing completion.

PTQ

The PTQ went kind of terribly. I had never played in a PTQ before this weekend, so I didn't quite know what to expect. In general I found the tournament well-organized, competitive, and most importantly, air conditioned! (It’s been really hot here).



After waking early in the morning, I drove down to the convention center, stood in line, registered, and awaited the first round pairings. I saw all the usual players around the tournament hall.



The first round pairings went up and I learned that I was playing Nick Rennard. I had heard of Nick before, but I wasn’t sure where from. It turns out, Nick is an accomplished Oregon player; He was 2010 Oregon State Champion and has several top 8 finishes. We made small chat, shuffled, and the match began.



Nick was running R/G Aggro, so he wanted to get a first turn Bird of Paradise equipped with a second turn Sword of War and Peace. He also ran the usual goodies like Green Sun’s Zenith, Strangleroot Geist, and Bonfire of theDamned. The first game was close. At one point Nick got me down to one life before I was able to resolve a Primeval Titan, fetching Glimmerposts and gaining enough life to keep me in the game. Eventually I stabilized and won the first game.



Games two and three did not go as planned. I think not sideboarding in any Ancient Grudges in game 2 was a mistake on my part, as Nick drew the nuts—turn 1 Bird, turn 2 Sword. On turn three he attacked me for something like 8 damage. The Bird had protection from red and was immune to Slagstorm. I think I lost this game by the fifth turn or something ridiculous like that.



I added 3 copies of Ancient Grudge in game 3, but I never drew them, and Nick once again drew the nuts—a turn 1 Bird followed by a turn 2 Sword of War and Peace. I tried to dump my hand as fast as possible to reduce the damage, but I was already too far behind, and I eventually lost the game and the match, 1-2.



Thus, the PTQ started terribly and didn’t get much better from there on out. I won rounds 2 and 4 against U/W Delver, but lost rounds 3 and 5 against Bant Pod and U/W/R Miracles. After my third loss I knew I could not get a prize, so I dropped from the tournament. I went home and reflected on how bullshit Magic is sometimes. There’s seemingly too much luck in this game, but then, how do the pro players consistently place well at these top events?

Game Day

Game Day turned out to be my most successful tournament of the weekend. I scored 5-1-2, thereby tying for first place. This record may appear strange, but Guardian did a strange tournament format, cutting to top 8 after 5 rounds. I intentionally drew the fifth round to make it into the Top 8, and then I intentionally drew in the finals to get the prize store credit, so thats where the two draws came from.



This tournament started off poorly with a loss to B/G Pod. I was afraid I’d have a repeat of the PTQ the day before. My opponent was using cards like Sheoldred, the Whispering One, Rune-Scarred Demon, Massacre Wurm, and other huge black creatures. I don’t think the deck was necessarily good (as any Pod deck without Restoration Angel seems suboptimal), but I thought B/G had a viable matchup against me. I lost the match, 1-2.



After losing this match I won the next three, and so drew into the top 8.



Probably the highlight of this tournament was beating Ryan Engbrecht in the semi-finals. I respect Ryan as a player and definitely consider him a strong opponent, so it was nice to put a dent in his Bant Pod list, which he was undefeated with up to this point.



I drew with David (who was running Esper Midrange) in the finals, thereby taking the 10 pack prize. I converted the packs into store credit and acquired the last two copies of Bridge from Below I needed. Now all I need to complete the Legacy Dredge deck are Cities of Brass.



See you at Ancient Wonders on Tuesday!

Seriously, red players, stop stealing my shit.

I guess that sort of went as planned. I sleeved up R/B/W Reanimator for the Tuesday tournament at Ancient Wonders, scoring 2 wins and 2 losses and placing 4th. I didn't expect to win or anything; I just wanted to try something different. My decklist was similar to the decklist I used a few months ago, with some minor alterations:

Main Deck:

3 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

4 Griselbrand

1 Sun Titan

4 Lingering Souls

4 Faithless Looting

4 Liliana of the Veil

2 Doom Blade

2 Oblivion Ring

3 Day of Judgment

3 Timely Reinforcements

4 Unburial Rites

1 Elixir of Immortality

Land

7 Plains

4 Blackcleave Cliffs

4 Isolated Chapel

3 Dragonskull Summit

1 Mountain

4 Swamp

3 Evolving Wilds

I realize now that this list is just terrible for the following reasons: First, I hate Faithless Looting. Although it is generally a useful card in the deck, allowing you to put your fatties in the graveyard, it slowly leads to card disadvantage. Whenever you cast Faithless Looting, you are basically spending a card to draw two cards and discard two cards, which means your hand size will have shrunk by one. I don't like being in a situation where I have only 2 cards in hand and my opponent has 6, regardless of what I have in the graveyard.

Second, Liliana of the Veil is kind of bad in the metagame right now. There are too many Blade Splicers floating around making her second ability almost useless.

Third and most importantly, there is no dominant fatty in Standard at the moment. Yes, I can reanimate a Griselbrand or an Elesh on turn 4, but sometimes I've already taken too much damage to safely use Griselbrand's ability. Both creatures are just soft and die to spot removal, or to clone effects. I go through all this trouble to cheat Griselbrand into play only to watch him die to a Phantasmal Image.

Fourth, the inclusion of the Elixir of Immortality was pointless. I realize now that without the Shriekhorns, I'm not going to be in danger of running out of cards.

After I goth back from this tournament, I toyed around with the Green version of reanimator, utilzing Mulch and Tracker's Instincts. I think it generally displays the same weaknesses mentioned above. (note: Craterhoof Behemoth is a decent attempt to get an instant kill, but it requires you to commit a lot of mana dorks to the board, which I think makes the deck inconsistent).

Without further adieu, here are the games.

I lost the first round to Nathan Doyle running Goblins. I don't feel like I should have lost this match, so thats a little frustrating. I mean, I had three Timely Reinforcements and three Day of Judgments mainboard; I added additional copies in games 2 and 3.....so.....wtf. Anyway, I won game 1 by resolving a Sun Titan and thinning my deck of land with an Evolving Wilds. I lost game 2 when I reanimated a Griselbrand and had it stolen from me with Traitorous Blood. I probably should have included several copies of Apostle's Blessing in the sideboard to anticipate these types of plays. Anyway, after stealing my demon, Nathan hit me with it, gained seven life, then drew 14 cards and double Goblin Grenaded for the win. Lame. I hate being killed with my own shit. Game three was similarly disappointing and I lost the match, 1-2.

I received the bye in round 2.

In round 3 I played against G/W aggro. His Swords of War and Peace were useful, but he seemed to get somewhat mana flooded. Surprisingly, Liliana did most of the damage, destroying his hand and clearing the way for a reanimated Griselbrand. I won the match 2-1.

In round 4 I was paired against Steve Empey, running NayaPod. These games were incredibly lopsided and Steve just basically wiped the floor with me without resistance. I lost the match 0-2.

I suspected the deck was bad before I played it, but now I definitely know its bad. I just wanted to have some fun and play something different, and so I did. Now I can return to Wolf Run Ramp until it retires in the fall.

Thanks for reading.