Played another small local tournament with the deck and made it to the finals again after going 3-1-1 in the swiss. I lost the final after we played it out for the odd booster after splitting.
Round 1: Storm 2-1
This was an interesting match-up. Zero interaction pre-board and I won game 1 after I fizzled on turn 3 but my opponent fizzled on turn 4 and I killed him comfortably on my turn 4. I sided in 2 Nihil Spellbomb and 2 Erase for 3 Thirst for Knowledge and an Ancient Stirrings. Game 2 was absurd as I got beat down by 3 Goblin Electromancers with neither of us managing to do much of anything for 6 or 7 turns. Game 3 my opponent made 8 goblins on turn 2 but that gave me enough time to get a comfortable turn 4 kill.
Round 2: R/G Tron 2-0
This match-up is heavily favoured for us any time they don't have a turn 1 relic, which was the case in both games. Even with a turn 1 Relic of Progenitus the match-up is still close unless it is paired with a turn 3 or 4 Karn Liberated. Side board plan was to bring in Suspension Field and Spine of Ish Sah.
Round 3: Temur Delver 0-2
This match-up is rough. A turn one delver backed up with permission is difficult to beat. Game 1 I didn't find a KCI until turn 5 and a single remand was enough to tempo me out. For this match-up I boarded in the Pyroclasms, Ghirapur AEther Grid and Defense Grids (not 100% sure about the grids), taking out the Thirsts and 2 Ancient Stirrings. Game 2 followed a similar pattern to the first, and not finding any sideboard cards meant that a negate on my KCI was enough to win the match.
Round 4: Zoo (Knight of the Reliquary + Retreat to Coralhelm
combo version) 2-1
Game 1 our combo is fast enough to race their damage plan and they have little interaction outside of a couple of Qasali Pridemages, which aren't very effective. I made a big mistake in sideboarding for game 2, bringing in Timely Reinforcements and Spellskite (these seemed fine) and 2 Erases, expecting white enchantment hate. Instead I got wrecked by a turn 2 Thalia, Guradian of Thraben backed by a Negate. Game 3 I took out Erases for 2 Pyroclasms and was able to combo quickly enough with neither of us seeing sideboard cards.
Round 5: ID
Quarter Final: Temur Delver 2-1
This was the same opponent I lost to in the swiss. This time round my opponent's turn 1 Delver of Secrets
Flip didn't flip for multiple turns in game 1 and with tron was able to get enough mana to play through the soft permission. Game 2 I got run over by a Delver and a Young Pyromancer but game 3 I was lucky to win thanks to a delver not flipping for a couple of turns, coupled with my opponent making a big mistake in tapping out for a Blood Moon instead of holding up the Remand he had revealed to flip the delver.
Semi Final: Lantern Control 2-1
This is a painful match-up to play and after being put through it I also think it is a bad match-up. Game 1 we have no outs to the combination of a needle on Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and ensnaring bridge. Fortunately my opponent failed to find a bridge in the top 20 or so cards of his library and after I won a fight to draw an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn I was able to combo off. The key to this match-up is that unless you are going off before they have the lock in place you need to have as many ways to draw a card at instant speed as possible.
For game 2 I hadn't worked this out completely and my sideboard plan wasn't great. I brought in Repeal, Suppression Field, Spine of Ish Sah, Ghirapur AEther Grid and Spellskite (not sure why I thought the Spellskite was necessary). The mistake was in the cards I took out, which were the Ugins (I think this was fine) and 3 ancient stirrings (this is a big mistake). I ended up getting locked out after getting my KCIs hit by Surgical Extraction, my Aether Grid (and Ugin) named with Pithing Needles, an Ensnaring Bridge and a Tormod's Crypt exiling my Spine. After which he was able to recur the Crypt in order to exile my Emrakuls so he could eventually mill me out.
By game 3 I had a better idea of what is important in the match-up, which meant I brought the Ancient Stirrings back in (getting to draw a card without the possibility of it being milled is vital) and also brought in the Nihil Spellbombs, this time taking out the Mox Opals (leaving one might be correct but I took out all 4). This time I kept a hand that included a KCI and an Emrakul and was able to win a fight and draw my Spine of Ish Sah. By this point my opponent had a bridge and a spellskite with close to a hard lock (lantern plus 5 or 6 mill effects) in play with 1 card in hand. I was able to play the Emrakul and on the extra turn play the Spine to kill the spellskite, sacrificing it with the hope of getting it back to kill the bridge. The one card in hand was not the surgical (and neither were the next 4 or 5 cards he was able to look at and potentially draw with a Pyrite Spellbomb) so the plan worked and I was able to finish the game with the Emrakul.
Final: B/W Eldrazi 1-2
This is a terrible match-up thanks to the large amount of main deck graveyard hate. Game 1 my opponent kept a bad hand that didn't have any interaction beyond a turn 1 Duress and I was able to combo off comfortably. There is very little in the sideboard for this match-up but I brought in the Spine and Repeal. Game 2 I lost to a turn 2 Stony Silence, which caused me to board in a couple of Erases and game 3 I lost to turn 1 and turn 2 relics, followed by turn 3 and turn 4 Thought-Knot Seer.
Overall I felt that the deck was reasonably well positioned but with some very bad matchups. With such a diverse metagame in modern at the moment there are still a lot of decks that I need to test against, most notably burn, infect and affinity, and until the new format beings to take a more clear shape it will be hard to know just how viable the deck really is. As far as pure combo decks go though I think this is one of the better decks left in the format - Grishoalbrand is certainly faster but loses to itself more frequently and storm is very equivalent in terms of speed and consistency but is more vulnerable to game 1 interaction (bolt on an electromancer).
