Round 1: 2-1 vs. Bogles
I sat down to this match moments after taking Spellskite out of my sideboard and I was more than a little concerned. I won the die roll and opened with champion of the parish, I quickly started pumping out humans and gained more life than he could handle. He had a very poor hand only playing a
Slippery Bogle
with a Hyena Umbra all game. This was a quick win for me with little resistance.
Game two was not so pretty for me. I started off gaining a little life, but he quickly overwhelmed me with a giant 13/13 lifelinking bogle. This is the kind of scary hand that is hard to beat with this deck. Bogles can be very scary as it's about a 50/50 match up with whoever manages to get off the ground first being the winner. This time the game snowballed in his direction.
Game 3 I started off with 2 sisters and 3
Ajani's Pridemate
s. Needless to say this game went pretty well. He was able to start pumping up a bogle, but could not handle the mass of 8/8-12/12 creatures I had on the board. It took a few turns of blocking and swinging with the team for him to scoop up his cards for a round 1 victory.
Round 2: 2-0 vs U/W Eldrazi
This match-up is surprisingly good. He makes a lot of dudes, I gain a lot of life. He doesn't get much interaction with my creatures and has no way to get rid of Norin the Wary. Game one took a while. I sat around unable to find a good win condition gaining tons of life while he had a great supply of myr tokens from me and a Drowner of Hope stopping me from swinging in. He ran no Ulamog in his list so he eventually just scooped once I was up around 80 life.
Game two wasn't pretty. Turn 3 Blood Moon stopped him from casting spells for the rest of the game. I was able to play off the fact he only had a couple creatures on the board and just swing in with large pridemates very quickly. If you ever have to face eldrazi with this deck, this is the version you want to see.
Round 3: 2-0 vs Naya Burn
This is very simple. I gain more life than he can burn. Auriok Champion and Norin the Wary make this match-up almost unwinnable for burn unless you play very poorly. Game 1 & 2 I simply sat around gaining life and putting big dumb creatures into play, swinging for game. Nothing of significance to say here. This is the match up you wish you got every round.
Round 4: 2-1 vs Naya Burn
This is where things got hairy. I offered to draw at the start of this round because I was tired after 3 days of magic and ready to head home. Sure I might not win a box, but at least my girlfriend and I can go home with some much-needed magic supplies. New decks need new deck boxes ya know. My opponent refused to draw, probably gambling that he could just snag a quick win with burn and run home with a box. Well he picked the wrong person to gamble on let me tell you.
Game one I was really hoping he was on burn and much to my pleasure he played a mountain turn 1 and cast a vexing devil. I smiled and wrote 16 down on my life pad knowing I was gonna go home with a box tonight. Turns out this guy was running 4 Skullcrack and 4
Atarka's Command
main board, and boy did that make this match scary. Every time I would gain a big chunk of life he was ready with the "You can't gain life this turn". After a very grindy match of going down as low as 9 and as high as 30 without finding a win condition he scooped up his cards for game two.
Game two marks my first ever game loss to a burn deck and it was a close one. He probably played 7/8 of his "You can't gain life this turn" spells and we had one hell of a grind. I was able to put a Genesis Chamber on the board as well as Purphoros, God of the Forge and Norin the Wary of course hitting him down to two life with the inevitable loss on the end of his turn. At the end of my turn he Lightning Bolted me down to three, untapped, and proceeded to Boros Charm me for game. I got so low because of a huge misplay on my end here. I failed to think through a
Vexing Devil
earlier in the game and took four instead of simply casting
Lightning Helix
to kill it. If I made the right play I would have won this game since he cast his last two cards to kill me and I was easily set up to finish him fast and gain more life.
Game three I'm a little worried. I just lost my first game ever to burn and I really don't wanna have my spirits crushed moments before I leave to head back home. I drew 7 and saw what was probably the most amazing hand I could have seen. 2 Auriok Champion, 1 Norin the Wary, 2 Wear / Tear, 1 Cavern of Souls, and 1
Arid Mesa
. The Wear//tears ended up being dead cards, but it didn't matter. I brought them in just in case he had
topor orb
or Leyline of Punishment in his sideboard. These cards would have lost me the game. I'd rather sit on a couple of dead cards than not side them in only to lose to something I could have prevented. Turn one I took three to fetch for Sacred Foundry and cast Norin. Turn two, three, and four all resulted in me casting an Auriok Champion. I was set. I was gaining six life every turn and could turtle forever with my unkillable creatures. I patiently waited, playing around Skullcrack as if my life depended on it, it did. Eventually I drew into an
Ajani's Pridemate
. He was tapped out and I saw my chance to take home the win. I cast pridemate with four sisters on the board putting it immediately out of bolt range. I passed the turn and watching the counters on pridemate climb and climb. My opponent was getting desperate and attempted to cast two Monastery Swiftspears and swinging with the team. I watched as my pridemate got bigger and bigger and gladly accepted all 5 of his creatures with my face. He passed the turn and I watched as pridemate grew one more time. I untapped, drew, turned pridemate sideways for 22 damage and extended my hand. My body went from heart racing from the amount of stress the match had put on me, to racing with joy. I took my box, waited for my girlfriend to finish her match, and headed home 4-0, happy as can be.
