6 round 21 player Modern Tourney. 3rd Place finish.
Rd 1: Vs BR Burn. Win 2-1.
Lost the first game. Dark Confidant (Bob) gave him the extra reach he needed to burn me out. Sided Bob and some removal out (only creature I saw was Vexing Devil) and added in all the lifelinkers (4 Gifted Aetherborn and 2 Nighthawk). He still did a lot of damage but the life gain was clutch.
Rd 2: Vs Grixis Control. Win 2-0.
Hand attack was crucial in these games. Not only the discard effects but the information on what cards he had in hand. That helped me play around counters or hold up mana for removal for Tasigur. He let my Bob live too long, thinking it would give him reach by watching it hurt me. The life loss was worth keeping up with his card draw.
Rd 3: Vs Abzan Company. Win 2-0.
He was playing all the unfair stuff this deck is capable of... Infinite life, infinite mana, all that. But, he mulled to 5 both games and I had good hand attack opening hands and shredded what was left in his hand. Combine that with turn 4 Abyssal Persecutor (Percy) and both games games didn't last too long. This is one of my most disliked decks, and I'm always glad to take one down, even if this is how it goes. It's really important to take your time deciding what to make them discard, look at what mana they have available and in hand and compare that to their possible upcoming plays to hold them back if possible.
Rd 4: Vs Esper Control. Win 2-1.
One of the most fun matches I've had in a while. He got game one through grinding me out long game and casting a large secure the wastes. Sided in duress, flaying tendrils for the tokens, and Aetherborns, taking out verdicts and some other things I can't recall. Won game 2 riding a turn 4 Percy to victory. Last game was a grind fest. It went to time and I won through infect poison damage with Phyrexian Crusader equipped with Grafted Wargear. He was at 26 life and was getting close to killing me with Celestial Colonade. This was another game that the hand attack was really important, letting me know what was in his hand.
Rd 5. Vs Abzan Company. Loss 0-2.
This guy won the tourney. His deck also played all the unfair things like infinite life and mana... Did my best to disrupt his hand but it didn't pan out. Very powerful deck, which is acceptable I guess (still hate Abzan Company), but he also was flawless at piloting the damn thing. No mistakes for me to capitalize on at all. Almost took game 2 with infect damage but lost to infinite mana used to pump all his combo dorks infinite times for the win. I really needed a copy of Victim of Night to get there but it didn't show. I would have been happy to get 1 game win against this deck/player. Did I mention my dislike of infinite combos? The player was really nice, but had a really annoying girlfriend hanging around and being, well... Annoying, which made the hard match that much worse.
Rd 6. Vs Boggles. Win 2-1.
Like usual, I took game one, using Geth's Verdict and Gatekeeper of Malakir. Both forcing him to sac his Hexproof Aura-targets. Also like usual, he sided in Leyline of Sanctity, which is awful... so, so awful against my deck. I saw this coming and sided out all of my Victim of Nights (useless vs hexproofers), and much of my hand attack spells and Geth's Verdicts. Put in Flaying tendrils and Mutilate for the nontargeting removal and also put in Aetherborns to have some extra bodies. He played the Leyline at the start of both games. Suck. But the one I won was off a turn 5 mutilate with Percy on the field, killing his boggle and letting my 6/6 flampler survive the -5/-5 sweeper. Bob also helped, letting me dig deeper into my deck before becoming a meat-shield.
Conclusion.
This is my best showing at a modern tourney. I don't play very often and my deck is not part of the meta, so my opponents were all wondering wtf I was doing, which didn't hurt. The deck I played, "The Gate", is a strong Tier 3 deck that's always scrapping to say it's Tier 2. So, taking down Tier 1 decks like Abzan and Grixis, and Tier 2 decks like Burn and Boggles feels pretty good. Everyone likes an underdog. I have to say that knowing what my opponents had in their hand and using that info to my advantage was crucial to my success. But also just the random nature of the game seemed to roll in my favor, and that's great too.
