Round 1: 4c Dragons mirror. 1-1(-1)
This was HILARIOUS, was NOT expecting to face the mirror at all, let alone in round one. He won game one, and almost managed to take game two, but he made the incorrect decision of killing Atarka instead of Dromoka, who proved to be the MVP in that match-up. Sadly, we were already in turns when game 2 ended in my favor, leaving us both with a draw on our record. His version of the deck was much heavier in blue running Jace, Vyrn's Prodigy and lots more spells compared to my creature-heavy R/G-based build, but it was close enough to call a mirror.
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Round 2 (or 3, I might've gotten the order wrong here, been a long day): Mardu midrange
Was a fairly decent game one, he got land troubles for a bit but played out some seekers of the way, crackling dooms, thunderbreak, the kind of stuff you'd expect from Mardu. I actually took six points of damage targeting Thunderbreak with a pair of Draconic Roars to kill it (wtf? I'm the one dishing out damage with TBR triggers) with my own on the field to make him take 6 and clear out the blocker to finish him off.
Game two got very, very, VERY grindy. I stuttered out on gas after he managed to kill my Dragonlord Atarka, he had Outpost Siege churning through his library in Khans unchecked, and he complained about how many lands he hit, but the simple fact was he was also drawing ~two cards/turn to my own (minus instants he couldn't use due to timing that stayed in exile). I eventually managed to squeak it out though when we both flooded hard on lands, manlands doing work on both sides of the field.
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Round 3: Abzan...something, 2-0
He showed up a few mins late, would've gotten a game loss but he'd already cleared it with a judge, though he kept a one-land hand on the play on six (or maybe seven), and I didn't see anything from his deck besides a forest and a couple den protectors he discarded.
I sideboarded incorrectly guessing he was G/W Megamorph (the match-up I really did NOT want to play), and as soon as I saw the shambling vents on T1 I knew I had sideboarded wrong. Despite my incorrect sideboarding though, Kiora and Sarkhan managed to power me through.
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Round 4: U/W Tokens, 2-1
Wasn't expecting this match-up, very controlling deck using Secure the Wastes and Gideons for token-making, probably some retreats to Emeria too, but didn't see those come up. I took game one after getting a few things countered while beating him down with a dork for a bit, then played DL Atarka and cleaned up his soldiers.
Game two he just managed to get going and created like six tokens, answered everything I played, and ran me over.
Game three a rattleclaw got through the counters and a deathmist raptor took the removal attention, he countered my first Sarkhan but then had to let the second one resolve, and he basically had no way shy of attacking (he ended up one mana short of casting Planar Outburst with Awaken) to deal with Unbroken being well...broken. Almost had the chance to go Ultimate with him, but I -2'd him twice after getting him to 6 drawing both my Surrak, the Hunt Callers on empty boards besides Sarkhan. Created the token to give Surrak formidable and trigger the haste effect.
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Round 5: G/W Megamorph, 2-1
Did I mention I didn't want to face this match-up? Not because I feel it's terrible for me, it just takes too damn LONG. He won game one after like...twenty minutes or something where I was fighting a game where I only drew half a dozen spells.
Knowing I would have to wins games 2 and 3 in a timely fashion, and this just being the stance I opt to take in this match-up anyway, I sideboarded out my Den Protectors and Deathmist raptors to get all the aggression I could into my deck. Game two came down to me top decking the 8th land I needed to play Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and wiped the entire board away when he was completely out of gas. Two +2s later, we were on to game three.
Game three came down to a very grueling game, that was only a couple minutes from going to time (I was preparing myself to go to turns) when I top decked Dragonlord Atarka to wipe away his Wingmate Roc and Thopter token, leaving only the bird token in the air...Surrak THC on the field gave Atarka haste who swung in alongside Thunderbreak for the game.
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Round 6: Jund Ramp, 2-1
I got off to an incredibly aggressive start here, Rattleclaw into Hasted Knuckleblade, some Draconic Roaring, and quickly going to game two.
I was expecting huge Eldrazi in game two, he played woodland wanderers after I had swapped out my deathmist raptors ;; They went unchecked while I kept a hand full of dorks that promised me any dragonlord I drew...that never came.
Game three was very close at some points, and I honestly felt I could have gotten a run for my money if he had the top decks in his deck (I don't know if he did), but he was hoping I would use my 4/4 dragon token to block his 4/4 Ashaya token...I said no, used it to block a 2/3 instead and blocked Ashaya with a raptor, then cracked back for lethal after disdainful stroking his Sarkhan Dragonspeaker.
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Round 7: Abzan, 0-2
Slow hands are slow hands. I feel overall good about my Abzan match-up, but I couldn't even make much of a game out of these. At least it gave me a much-needed break period to rest after all the near-time rounds I had been playing (I sneaked food in about 10 mins after the previous round and nearly choked eating too fast. :/ )
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Round 8: Simic Eldraazi, 2-0
This was barely a blip on my radar, but it was actually a very interesting deck. He started off game one with a pair of Jaddi Offshoots (G, 0/3 Landfall - gain 1 life) that were undoubtedly meant as roadblocks for dealing with Atarka Aggro...that don't do SHIT against me. He did gain a surprising amount of life off the two of them, but there was no way I was letting him start casting Ugin and Ulamog (which from a flavor perspective, should NEVER be in the same deck)
Game two...for a deck I hadn't even thought about going in, I pulled basically a transformational sideboard swapping out TWELVE cards from the deck. I took out all the den protectors, raptors, roars, etc. I cast a turn four Dromoka off a pair of Rattleclaws, then had to start countering Ulamogs a couple turns later...he cast a total of three, all of which ate Disdainful Strokes, but took six permanents in total along with them. This was a very long, long grueling match that looked like it could go either way...there were some key moments like when I topdecked the land I needed to cast Atarka, which he encased in ice a turn later but then I started untapping her with Kiora and taking off huge chunks of his life total. He finally found an Ugin and had to sacrifice it taking my encased Atarka off the field. I had to mentally review my decklist to make sure there were still things left in the deck I could draw into and fetch. This ultimately came down to me finding Knuckleblade (He had only gotten rid of one of the four earlier), Surrak THC, and turning on one of my Lumbering Falls to swing at him for lethal. He literally drew out all the basic lands in his deck...and probably most of the nonbasics too. I joked that he was running more basics than the rest of the top table combined.
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Overall record: 6-1-1, 5th place
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Lessons learned:
Dragonlord Dromoka does a lot more work than even I anticipated, she's really the MVP in the mirror match.
Kiora, Master of the Depths was a performing all-star all weekend long. People know she's powerful but they haven't seen the home for her...this is her home, alongside Sarkhan Unbroken and a deck full of powerful dragons to ramp into.
Surrak, the Hunt Caller was a last-minute addition to the deck's sideboard that I wasn't using in the main event on Saturday, but I decided to bring him back to help with basically any match-up where I have to take on a more aggressive role...he's very good at doing that, especially when I'm throwing around huge beat stick dragons to threaten giving haste. He will definitely be staying somewhere in the 75, though I honestly want to find room for him in the main again (he was there last season).
