Cab Comics

Round 1: vs. Jank Omen Machine -- 2/0
This guy's deck was certainly different, but I suppose in a good way. Omen Machine and (interestingly) Crystal Ball are a terrific combo, if you think about it. Essentially any creature with more than 8 CMC in Standard was in his deck, regardless of color. Iona, Shield of Emeria , the Eldrazi trio, most of the Praetors, Platinum Angel , Platinum Emperion , etc. Combining all of those with Omen Machine would've worked (and did, to a degree) but my main-boarded Artifact-hate kept him at bay for a good part of both games we played.
Game 1: WIN. He got completely land-screwed. Although he was using Pristine Talisman and Sphere of the Suns to ramp a bit, both of my main-board Naturalize s were in my first hand. That shut him down pretty early.
Game 2: WIN. After side-boarding in all of my Artifact hate in an attempt to not get overwhelmed, he actually got out Omen Machine and, with it, played both Platinum Emperion and Platinum Angel in successive turns. Thank God for Creeping Corrosion .
Match: 2/0

Round 2: vs. Big Red -- 2/1
This deck was actually well-built. It had just the right amount of mana-acceleration (through Artifacts) and some real late-game staying power.
Game 1: LOSS. He used Sphere of the Suns to ramp into a turn-3 Koth of the Hammer . Tough stuff. I had to either 4 damage from his animated Mountains or block (and lose) my ramping defenders. I took 2 hits before I started blocking and drew nothing but cards that were 1 or 2 mana out of my reach.
Game 2: WIN. I took out my Joraga Treespeaker s (since they're 2-for-1 Lightning Bolt magnets when they level-up) and put in my third Naturalize and my two Glissa's Scorn s. Those really helped me out. I broke his Artifacts and got out a Terra Stomper that he had nothing for. "I should've known you'd take out the Treespeakers. I side-board in Slagstorm and now all you have are 0/4 Walls," he said. The turn after, Terra Stomper and his fattiness took him out.
Game 3: WIN. My first hand (I can remember) was Beast Within , Beast Within , Naturalize , Wall of Omens , Overgrown Battlement , Razorverge Thicket , and Forest , and the card I drew was Myr Superion . One could call this a god-hand against Big Red. By turn 5, Myr Superion hit him for 10, I turned his Koth into a 3/3 Beast, and wiped out his Sphere of the Suns with Naturalize . Wasn't too long after that. He drew 2 lands in a row and managed to get out Inferno Titan , but Beast Within took care of that.
Match: 2/1

Round 3: vs. W/U Puresteel Paladin -- 2/0
I'm not quite sure what this guy was trying to do. He was using Puresteel Paladin without Stoneforge Mystic and had a good chunk of his deck devoted to counters (hence, the Blue). I think he may have stretched his deck too thin by trying to be Aggro and Control at the same time.
Game 1: WIN. He started off with a Memnite , Ornithopter , and Accorder's Shield , followed by a turn-2 Puresteel Paladin . Not too shabby. However, 2/5 Vigilance only goes so far against three 0/4 Walls. It's a shame that Terra Stomper can't be countered and that I also main-board 3 of them. I played 2 by turn 6 and bombed Overwhelming Stampede on turn 7.
Game 2: WIN. I side-boarded in Creeping Corrosion because I bet that he was packing more than just Accorder's Shield in that deck. Sure enough, out came Argentum Armor on turn-6 (with Mox Opal untapped). He swung and blew up one of my two Overgrown Battlement s (ouch!). I tried to retaliate next turn with Creeping Corrosion , but he countered it with Spell Pierce as I only had 1 mana left after the death of my Wall. I was down to 5 life and only 1 creature (under the pressure of Argentum Armor ) and top-decked Wurmcoil Engine . WHAT A SAVE! He targeted Wurmcoil Engine with the Armor, but I blocked with my Deathtouch 3/3 token (since it came out during the 'Delcare Attackers' step) and it took out his only Puresteel Paladin on the field. I managed to hold him off on the next turn (Memnite with Argentum Armor - OHNOES!) and drew Acidic Slime . From that point, I slowly took back the game right up to the win.

Round 4: vs. PyroTwin -- 2/1
This guy took me out pretty easily in the New Phyrexia Game Day tournament. Knowing what I was up against today, however, played a big role in taking advantage of opportunities and saving my spells for when I'd really need them.
Game 1: LOSS. For some reason, I thought I could just use Naturalize when he played Splinter Twin on his Deceiver Exarch . I should've known that he could just make a ba-jillion copies in response to Naturalize . Oops.
Game 2: WIN. This game, I drew a hand that's epic against his deck: 2x Overgrown Battlement , 2x Beast Within , 1x Terra Stomper , and 2x Razorverge Thicket . I drew out another Terra Stomper and a Myr Superion in the next turns. Ramping is fun, especially when you drop fatties that can't be countered by your opponent's $80 playset of Arena Foil Mana Leak s. He was gone by turn-5.
Game 3: WIN. This time, instead of waiting for Deceiver Exarch to come up and then deal to it, I decided to go after his lands. Through Acidic Slime and Beast Within , he only got up to 4. If he had the combo at that time, he could've won. But playing Overwhelming Stampede with Acidic Slime and 3 Joraga Treespeaker s and winning is one of the reasons why I love this deck so much.
Chained Throatseaker is bad. I don't care who you are.Game 1: LOSS. This game was a disaster. I had to mulligan down to 5, I was on the draw (against Infect, mind you), and my only creature was a Wall. On his third turn, he pumped a Blighted Agent up to 7/7 and hit me pretty hard. The next turn, he animated two Inkmoth Nexus and finished it.
Game 2: WIN. After slightly freaking out and fearing I wouldn't make it into the money (this was a 14-person tournament, after all), I pumped up my artifact-hate (for Inkmoth Nexus ) and added in Melira, Sylvok Outcast for the first time ever. He got me to 6 Poison counters fairly quickly, but a top-decked Green Sun's Zenith led into Melira. At that point, he had no spot removal and was left with an unblockable 1/1 (Blighted Agent ) and a 1/1 Elf Glistener Elf , both minus infect. Chancellor of the Tangle saved me from overhead battle damage by his Inkmoth Nexus that he was trying to animate and deal 20 damage with over a few turns. A few turns down the road, Overwhelming Stampede came out and finished the game.
Game 3: WIN. He let me play first (strangely), but then had to mulligan down to 5 cards. I don't think that was part of his plan. Melira, Sylvok Outcast once again saved the day. After using Naturalize on his animated Inkmoth Nexus es and Acidic Slime /Beast Within on his remaining lands, he only had a max of 2 the entire game. My Wurmcoil Engine finished him up.

Top 8, Round 2 (four players): vs. Big Red -- 1/2
Damnit. Same guy as before, but I didn't have the element of surprise on my side this time.
Game 1: LOSS. He achieved a turn-3 Koth of the Hammer and used his ultimate on turn-4 (after Volt Charge ). I had no chance for the rest of the game. I thought I could contain his ping-Mountains, but Inferno Titan landed on the field and I was annihilated.
Game 2: WIN. Koth's ultimate again, but I had a much better board position this time around. Wurmcoil Engine kept my life up while dealing some serious damage, as his deck probably only has about 8 creatures total. Wurmcoil attacked 4 times and that was it.
Game 3: LOSS. I thought I had him. I was so confident that I'd win this one. He side-boarded in 1 Moltensteel Dragon and 1 Phyrexina Metamorph. He Metamorphed my Wurmcoil Engine with Koth primed to -5 on his next play. I was sitting with a Naturalize , Glissa's Scorn , and Beast Within in my hand with exactly 7 mana. After some quick thinking, I turned Koth into a 3/3 Beast, hit Phyrexian Metamorph with Glissa's Scorn , and neutralized the his new Deathtouch wurm token with Naturalize . I thought I was saved until he played his 1-of Moltensteel Dragon on the next turn. I managed to chump one of its attacks with Birds of Paradise , but he eventually just broke through with 6 Mountains to pump and 10 life paid, for a 15/15 flyer. Game over. After the game, I realized my top card was my third Naturalize . THAT would've helped some. hrmpf.

Final standing: Third place (after tie-breakers)

Final record: 11-5-0

4-1, overall. Took 8th place, sadly. Got knocked out in the first round of Top 8 by your stereotypical, deck-in-a-can version of Caw-Blade.

First round: Played a B/R that used Phyrexian Obliterators and Inferno Titans. My Acidic Slimes kept him without red mana for the entire first game. After he Memoricided the Acidic Slimes next game, I couldn't draw any creatures to save my life. Loss. Third game, I steamrolled him with an Overwhelming Stampede and 2 Terra Stompers on turn 5. 2-1.

Second round: Played a G/W/B Glissa deck that didn't seem to have much synergy with itself. He was using Glissa AND Puresteel Paladin in the same deck (lol) and never seemed to have the right mana when he needed it. How he won the first round, I'll never know. 2-0.

Third round: Played a mono-W Puresteel deck. He got out his Memnites and Puresteel Paladins early both games, but I got awesome draws and managed to kill him on turn 4 both times with exact damage after Overwhelming Stampede. 2-0.

Fourth round: Played a mono-R Kiln Fiend deck. I had just watched this $10 deck beat a $300 Tezzeret-Control deck in the prior round, so I didn't know how this was going to go. I managed to stop his Chandra's Spitfires from dealing too much damage with my reachy Chancellors. Aside from breaking through and dealing 5 here and there, he didn't have much of a chance against me after I sideboarded in Bellowing Tanglewurm and he couldn't block anything. 2-0.

Top 8, first round: Jace 2.0, Karn, and Venser out at the same time. Stupid Caw-Blade. Go make a deck with your own ideas and win, if you want to impress me. 0-2.

Pretty awful tonight. Got no draws, played against non-stop hate, and the synergy was off in every game I played. I don't know what exactly it was, but I don't like the Red. It's coming out for more Green support.

First match: Esper Control - 2/1 -- I got off to a bad start between his Mana Leak s and Day of Judgment and then my lack of Green Sun's Zenith , Explore , and Beast Within . But a quick sideboard of Creeping Corrosion , Glissa's Scorn (which I'm slowly falling in love with), and Summoning Trap , I used Terra Stomper 's first ability to my advantage. Game two was close, but Creeping Corrosion rules. Game 3 only took me 6 turns to get out a Terra Stomper , 2 Overgrown Battlement , and 2 Birds of Paradise for a double-Overwhelming Stampede for +24/+24 on everything. lol

Second match: Esper Control (w/ more Proliferation) - 2/0 -- In game 1, he kept holding me off with a 5/5 Darksteel Relic , thanks to Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and a Tumble Magnet he keep proliferating on. Finally got out Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger and kept him tapped out for the next turn, allowing me to punch through for a crap-load of backed-up damage. For game 2, he sideboarded in a ton of infect and hoped to proliferate me to death. Got me to 6 counters, but Overwhelming Stampede is just too good for a deck that slow.

Third match: G/W Bird-Blade - 0/2 -- I got plenty of ramping and big creatures, but I never saw Beast Within , Acidic Slime , or Green Sun's Zenith . With no other artifact hate, a Birds of Paradise with 2 Sword of Body and Mind on it quickly finished the job. Even with artifact hate sideboarded in for game 2, Mirran Crusader shuts down mono-Green. That's the only card in Standard that I don't have an answer to. Lost pretty quickly once he hit the battlefield.

Fourth match: Esper Control (seriously?) - 2/1 -- 3 different people I played were using Esper control out of the 12 players there, and another I didn't play was using it, as well. It's a shame mono-Green is too fast/aggressive for it. Game 1 was pretty slow, but I always had board control. Tezzeret came out and was promptly turned into a 3/3 Beast token and the only other thing he really accomplished was a couple of Tumble Magnet s that kept me down until I drew out a Green Sun's Zenith , which gave me Acidic Slime to let my Chancellor of the Tangle through for lethal damage. Game 2 was rough; 2 Day of Judgment that were 2 turns apart really threw me off. I misplayed a few things that lead to me tapping out when I shouldn't have, preventing me from dropping Naturalize on a well-aimed Phyrexian Metamorph . Game 3 was slow, but I kept board control once again. He was down to 1 life for 4 turns as I drew nothing but land with a Joraga Treespeaker (at max level) while he had a Trinket Mage . Finally killed him with Glissa's Scorn (of all things) on a Darksteel Relic for damage-by-default. Epic win!

Round 1: Mono-Black Creature-Control -- 2/1 - Interestingly, this is the same guy I've played against in every first round for the past four Fridays.

• Game 1: He now uses Nantuko Shade and Vampire Nighthawk , apparently. I should've used a mulligan considering one should never keep a hand if your very next card needs to be a land in order for it to be successful. I didn't do much of anything in that game. LOSS.

• Game 2: In the second game, he got mana-screwed after only getting 2 lands in his first hand and I steamrolled him around the fifth or sixth turn. WIN.

• Game 3: He managed to get out a pair of Nantuko Shade s and was thoroughly enjoying the mana-flood his deck was giving him. When an instant-speed Beast Within killed off one of his pumped Nantuko Shade s and left him tapped out, I made my move. WIN.2/1

Round 2: Red/White Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer / Rage Extractor -- 2/0 - This guy admitted that he recently opened a box of New Phyrexia and just made a deck out of what he got. For only being composed of 1 set, I have to applaud him for his deck-building skills.

• Game 1: He used a bunch of Porcelain Legionnaire and a few Moltensteel Dragon s and even hit me with Artillerize for a close call, leaving me at 2 life in the first game. He was down to 3 with only 1 Red mana and I cast Chancellor of the Tangle (for Reach) and a Green Sun's Zenith for Acidic Slime (with plenty of mana left over; Overgrown Battlement + Wall of Omens is my new favorite combo). He couldn't use his dragon's Phyrexian fire-breathing (enough to kill my Chancellor) and I targeted Rage Extractor with the Slime. I slowly got board-control over the next 2 turns and Chancellor of the Tangle beat him down. WIN.

• Game 2: He got out 3 Porcelain Legionnaire s and a Metalcrafty Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer . He tapped everything to attack on about turn 6 or 7, but apparently forgot I had my full playset of Wall of Omens out. One of my Terra Stomper s, in the next turn, kindly showed him that I did have Walls and wasn't about to lose. WIN.2/0

Round 3: White Phyrexian Metamorph /Infinite Life -- 0-1-1 - What a horrible match-up. Read on.- Game 1: I kept a hand that I knew at the time I should've dumped. He played a bunch of 1-or-2-cost creatures and just barnstormed me. By the time I got my creatures rolling, there were too many creatures to block. LOSS.

• Game 2: He fired off the infinite life loop with Soul's Attendant , Leonin Relic-Warder , and Phyrexian Metamorph about 5 turns in. Interestingly, this game took the rest of the 40-minute time period. About 5 turns after he pulled off the combo, I had out 2 Chancellor of the Tangle , 3 Terra Stomper , 2 Acidic Slime , 4 Walls, and a Wurmcoil Engine . He couldn't break through and attacking him was pointless. Waiting until he ran out of cards would've worked (as I can just keep casting Green Sun's Zenith and target nothing to put it back into my library), but this kid just stalled and stalled and took 2 minutes for every turn where he just wound up not doing anything and passed. I called over a judge and he got warned on two separate occasions, but he never got the game-loss. Bullshit. Anyways, we went to turns (of course) and he swung with everything. Having 3 Beast Within s just sitting in my hand and over 20 mana on the field definitely had a helping hand in fending him off. TIE, although he got the combo when there were 41 minutes left in the round and his library was still at least 20-cards-thick at the end of turns with no graveyard recovery. No wonder everyone hates that kid.0-1-1

/rant

Round 4: G/W Thrun-Blade -- Split (1-1-1) - This is the same guy I've played against (and got knocked out by) in the last three Top 8's. Since we were both guaranteed to make it to the Top 8 and the last round took so long (see the game above), we just decided to split so we could take a break. So that leads us into...

Top 8, Round 1 (8 players): G/W Thrun-Blade -- 2/0 - Well, we couldn't split this time. It made sense that if we both had the same record in the prior round and tied, then we'd play each other again in the first round of the Top 8. Oops. Anyways, I've played this guy either in the Top 8 or right before each week for the past month and I've never been able to defeat him. I won a game last week, but it was out of luck. The additions of Wurmcoil Engine and Mystifying Maze to my deck were huge advantages that he didn't really see coming.

• Game 1: I get the feeling that he kept a sub-par hand and didn't really do much. He could've swung for lethal damage with an equipped Mirran Crusader (as I had no Artifact Creatures to block it), but Mystifying Maze would've brought him back in tapped, allowing me to kill him. Eventually, he drew 2 lands in a row and I dropped an Overwhelming Stampede for exact damage, after a few seconds of quick mental math. WIN.

• Game 2: It's a good thing this guy and I enjoy each others' company. This game went past time (but we didn't go to turns since someone shut off the computer with the Wizards Official Timer on it). Each move one of us played was firmly met by almost the same play. We stalemated each other until we each only had about 4 cards left in our libraries, until realizing that each of those 4 cards were our playsets of Green Sun's Zenith . Now with milling made impossible, we swapped turns for about 3 more minutes with no progress until I realized that I could swing with everything and have enough life (after my Lifelink Wurm token dealt its damage) to survive the next onslaught. With no Swords left in his deck (thanks to Naturalize and Glissa's Scorn ), he realized it at about the same time I declared my attackers. Game 2 wound up being almost an hour, but it was fun as hell. WIN. Memorable quote: "Great Wall of China has pro-Mongol."2/0

Top 8, Round 2 (4 players): Jor Kadeen / Rage Extractor -- 2/1 - Rematch!- Game 1: I was on the draw and he played 2 Suture Priest before I even played a creature. It was all downhill from there. I later learned that my Wurmcoil Engine (with lifelink) and my Beast Within s were all buried in the bottom 10 cards. I never had a chance. LOSS.

• Game 2: Quite a bit better, this time. I almost didn't kill him, though. He had 1 Suture Priest from the beginning and it probably dealt me 8 damage over the game. But the 2 Chancellors I started with (allowing me to use Green Sun's Zenith for Overgrown Battlement on turn 1 with one already in my hand) definitely played off. Both made an appearance by turn 6 despite the fact that he was doing a relatively good job at keeping them at bay. Around turn 8 or 9, I drew a Wurmcoil Engine and he couldn't contain it. I gained 18 life in 3 turns and I finally broke through with Deathtouch. WIN.

• Game 3: I got out 2 Overgrown Battlement and 3 Wall of Omens by the fourth turn. Those allowed me to drop a Terra Stomper and 2 Joraga Treespeaker on turn 5. On turn 6, I melted his face off with double-Overwhelming Stampede for 82 trample damage with a Beast and 2 Elves. I <3 Green. WIN.2/1

Top 8, Round 3 (top 2 players): Caw-Blade -- Split - I took the split at the beginning of the round. You have to understand that it was already 12:30am before the round even started and we all just wanted to go home. I knew I'd get my face smashed by this guy (whose deck is worth well over $800 since nearly everything is foil) and he agreed to split the prize money down the middle, so long as I gave him the win for his DCI record. I'm totally fine with that. I'll probably never go to a Grand Prix or Invitational Qualifier, so all I wanted was the prize money ($20 in store credit is a free month of FNM!).

Final standing: Second place.

Final record: 8-3-1, not counting splits.

Can't remember exactly what I played each round. I was lazy and didn't get around to writing this until the Sunday after.

Round 1: I did play against a U/R Artifact Proliferation thing, but it pretty much sucked and didn't even threat me once. Letting mono-Green just sit and mutate for 5 undisturbed turns is a death sentence. 2-0

Round 2: I also against a guy play B/G Aggro, with the help of Zombie Infestation and cards like Vengevine and Bloodghast . It looked good on paper, but he had no real removal beyond Dismember and I kept getting the upper hand in creatures. 2-1

Round 3: Then I played a U/G Birthing Pod /Mimic Vat deck. It was deadly-effective. Acidic Slime into Frost Titan with Slime on the Vat almost means certain death. Killing the Frost Titan didn't help because he Imprinted that and locked me down. Even Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre hard-casted in the third game couldn't save me. Rough stuff. 1-2

Round 4: I can't remember who or what I played in the fourth round, but I remember it going exceedingly well (and fast). 2-0

Top 8: Played the same U/R Artifact deck from Round 1. How he made it into Top 8, I'll never know. 2-0

Top 4: Up against Goblins. I got hit by double Goblin Grenade s in the first game and he whittled me down in the second game after he sideboarded in Flame Slash es for my 0/4 Walls. Having to mulligan to 5 and play first didn't help my cause. 0-2

Game for 3rd/4th: Vampires. But this guy doesn't use the good ones, for some reason. He also only uses 19 lands (with big things like Anowon, the Ruin Sage and Bloodlord of Vaasgoth ) and claims that "any deck that has more than 20 lands is just wasting space". I lol'd. Then I won 2-0.

Did great in the Swiss rounds and wound up getting knocked out in the Top 4 by a disappointing loss. Read on!

Round 1: vs. RW Aggro - 2/0 Well, I feel bad for winning this 2/0. This kid doesn't really know how to play Magic but doesn't seem to pick up on the suggestions and tips that people (myself included) give to him. For instance, he hit me with Lightning Bolt at the end of my first turn when I had a Joraga Treespeaker just chillin' on the board. facepalm Well, whatever. His loss. Literally. 2/0, 3 Points total

Round 2: vs. Esper Control - 2/0 Now this guy actually knows how to play Magic. He just has horrible luck and draws all the wrong cards at the wrong times. I felt worse for beating him so quickly when compared to the kid from the first round because I know this guy's deck has real potential. Hell, I've been beaten to a pulp by it before. But not tonight. 2/0, 6 Points total

Round 3: vs. U/W Artifact/Proliferation - 1/0/1 Good God. He got out 3 Tumble Magnet s and 2 Surge Node s by the third turn with the help of Everflowing Chalice . He kept my Joraga Treespeaker tapped down while I sat with 2 Myr Superion s in my hand for the entire game. Nothing I played could do anything with Tumble Magnet s, Vedalken Certarch , and some other random-ass "Pay something: Tap something" creatures. Zoom ahead 45 minutes and I win with a clutch top-deck of Overwhelming Stampede when I had 2 untapped Joraga Treespeaker s and a Terra Stomper under a Pacifism . Game 2 went to turns as we started with 4 minutes left in the round and not even all the Creeping Corrosion s in the world could save me that quickly. But for winning the first game and tying the second, I was given the match-win. Technically, 1/0/1, but given the win for the match. 9 Points total.

Round 4: vs. Esper-ish Aggro (I think) - 2/0 This guy's deck seemed pretty interesting. Lord of the Unreal made its inevitable appearance at my FNM and kept his Aggro-y Phantasmal Bear s safe. I saw this guy play Hero of Bladehold in a game I watched prior to the third round, so I knew keeping him without White mana was crucial. Through Beast Within and Acidic Slime , I managed to keep his White lands off the board long enough to get out Garruk, Primal Hunter and get up to -6 for crazy-ass Wurm action! Game 2 was shockingly similar. A lot of the same plays, a lot of the same creatures, and even winning with Garruk's -6 again. 2/0, 12 Points Total

Round 5: vs. RUG Twin - 0/2 At this point, I was guaranteed to make Top 8 and play someone who was a 5-8 seed. So I didn't care much in knowing I was going to get face-smashed. This guy pretty much dominates every FNM, so I just buckled up and held on. Lotus Cobra s led into Deceiver Exarch s and inevitably led into Splinter Twin s on the following turns. He did manage to top-deck Splinter Twin in the second game. Had his Twin been 2 turns away, I would've had it. Oh well. Top 8 anyways, right? 0/2, 12 Points total**

Top 8: vs. Esper Tezzeret - 2/0** This guy and I are pretty good friends by now, but I always feel bad when I play against him. I know his deck is great and has terrific synergy and control aspects, but he just can't contain my deck and stop it from doing what it wants. The first game went exactly like this:

HIM: Turn 1: Creeping Tar Pit

ME: Turn 1: Razorverge Thicket , Joraga Treespeaker

HIM Turn 2: Crack a Marsh Flats s, play Sphere of the Suns , down to 19

ME Turn 2: Forest , Level-up Treespeaker, tap for Birds of Paradise

HIM Turn 3: Land, Spellskite

ME Turn 3: Sunpetal Grove , tap lands and creatures for 6, Terra Stomper

HIM Turn 4: Land, Solemn Simulacrum

ME Turn 4: Land, tap 4 lands and Birds for Overwhelming Stampede for exactly 19 damage after blockers.

Fearing Flashfreeze and Mental Misstep in the second game, I boarded in my 3 Summoning Trap s. I think he foresaw that, though, and left them out. Oh well. Summoning Trap works great if I cast it at the end of his turn, especially when I get Steel Hellkite out of it. He did manage to top-deck a life-saving Day of Judgment , but after another Summoning Trap 'hard-cast', it was only a few turns to victory. 2/0, advance to top 4

Top 4: vs. the motherfucking Artifact guy from Round 3 - 0/2 Game 1, I fucked up with a Beast Within on his Vedalken Certarch when I thought it could tap my Joraga Treespeaker when I leveled up, even though the Certarch had Summoning Sickness. Had I leveled up, I could've played Myr Superion and snuck through for enough damage to have won me the game later. Whatever. In game 2, as he was leaning forward to cockily count the mana he could waste with his Everflowing Chalice s, I saw a Flashfreeze . I knew I was fucked. I duped him into casting it on Overwhelming Stampede when he just could've tapped my only creature with Tumble Magnet instead. Idiot. This is how I knew I shouldn't have been beaten by him in the first place. But he, of course, had a second Flashfreeze for my Creeping Corrosion . By the time I drew a second one, he had Gideon Jura rocking the 6/6 Solider look.

Should be noted that this cocky bastard was talking smack about his Top 2 opponent's Pyro/Twin deck to his face, only to get absolutely shit on in a total of 4 turns until conceding after the first game.

/rant

Anyways, my final record was:

9-4-1, if you count the epic game-stall in the third round. Otherwise, that shit would've been 10-4 in games. Not too shabby for some jank Overwhelming Stampede deck, right?

Anyways, my opponent for 3rd/4th place (who was the Esper Control guy from Round 2) offered to split. I know I could've won it, but the difference in pay-out was $2 and I figured I'd just let him have it.

First tournament win with this deck, EVAR. Following last night's Top 4 prize-split (since the four of us just wanted to go play Halo instead of play for another hour), I'm so excited for next week's FNM.

First round: vs. R/G Beatdown - 2/0

This guy's deck was pumped full of Titans, Chandra, the Firebrand , and other big threats. However, Beast Within and Wurmcoil Engine kept him at bay for the first game with no real issues. In the second game, he had me on the ropes after copying Arc Trail with Chandra, the Firebrand and playing a second one. He successfully nuked an unleveled Joraga Treespeaker , an Overgrown Battlement , and a Wall of Omens . But a top-decked Wolfbriar Elemental saved the days, bringing me a 4/4 body and 3 Wolf tokens. Not bad. 2/0, WIN

Second round: vs. Valakut - 2/1

Same guy I kept getting beat by in the first round of the Top 8 for the last two weeks. I had to mulligan down to 5 before seeing ANY land in the first game and I still only had Sunpetal Grove and my one Stirring Wildwood . It was rough. He hit his Lotus Cobra on turn 2 and there was no mercy to be had. In the second game, however, I kept 2 Joraga Treespeaker s, 1 Myr Superion , 1 Overwhelming Stampede , and 3 lands. Turn 1, Treespeaker. Turn 2, level up, cast Superion. Turn 3, attack with Superion and get through (since no one wants to block early with Lotus Cobra ), play second Treespeaker and level it up. Turn 4, Overwhelm for the win. The third game was mostly similar, save for the addition of Wurmcoil Engine in my hand on the draw. 2/1, WIN

Third round: vs. Valakut - 2/0

Instead of using Lotus Cobra and Joraga Treespeaker like the last guy, this guy takes a more traditional approach with things like Khalni Heart Expedition . Although he got out Avenger of Zendikar and pumped his 7 Plants to 4/5 in both games, I had enough creatures (once I realize I should animate Stirring Wildwood before using Overwhelming Stampede ...) to break through. The reason being is that Wurmcoil Engine with Trample can just hit a blocking creature with just 1 damage and assign the rest to the defending player. Rules knowledge for the win! 2/0, WIN

Fourth round: vs. Goblins - 2/0

I'm slowly learning that using Overwhelming Stampede when I need to clear out my opponent's board is better than just waiting until I have the win regardless of board position. It forces people to block (or lose) and that can really clear up some threats that I may not particularly have answers to at that moment. In the first game, he got out Spikeshot Elder , Golbin Bushwhacker (kicked), and Goblin Chieftain by the third turn. Pretty standard Goblin move. Too bad I had a third-turn Wurmcoil Engine to firmly assert its presence for me. After playing Goblin Arsonist and sacrificing it to Goblin Grenade , I got dangerously low in life, so I pulled out the stops and Overwhelmed my Wurmcoil and gained back 12. I won by dealing enough miscellaneous damage over the next 3 turns. The game after, he got mana-screwed and only had 2 Mountains, preventing him from playing Goblin Chieftain and fuckin' me up. Terra Stomper made its first appearance of the day and rofl-stomped all over those littled 1/1 and 2/2 creatures. In the end, I wound up never seeing Celestial Purge nor Timely Reinforcements s that I sided in. Didn't matter. Great guy, though. I accidentally placed my Wurmcoil in the graveyard after being blocked in the first game, even though it wasn't lethally blocked. And then he told me I discarded it for no reason, to which I replied "Thank you for being honest. You rule." 2/0

No Top 8, and I was (technically) undefeated. 1st place, bitches!