I've played two tourneys with this deck since last time. One was yesterday where I added 4 fetches to go along with Sensei's Divining Top:
Round 1, Merfolk: Quick 2-0 victory.
Round 2, Elves: First game I lost to a combo kill with no outs. Second game I went through 3 Engineered Plagues and locked the game down completely with no threat. I eventually won the game, but with little time left on the clock, I had the third game firmy in my hand from the get go, but with no time left it ended in a draw.
Round 3, RUG: This was a really round. First game, I got a good firm Liliana lock, while my opponent managed to burn me down to 1 hp. 1 hp means no fetches for me, as well as 1 live Lightning Bolt and 2 Forked Bolts to draw. The game ended with an eventual the former, with my opponent at 6 lives. Second game was quick: I locked it down with Liliana almost immediatly, and Extirpating his Tropical Islands took it down for real. My opponent scooped on this one, and we went to game 3. At the beginning of the round, we were joking that we might draw to time from having to reroll the die so many times to decide who were on play. It did with, and with a single swing from Tombstalker left, no turns were left and we drew.
Round 4, mono blue tempo: This was a home brew with Intuition for Accumulated knowledge, Vedalken Shackles, Jace, and a lot of juicy X/1 wizards. Having played this guy before, I felt quite comfortable. This time, he had brought some super secret tech (I think after our last session,) and all through game 2 and 3, Back to Basics sat there. I lost to a 4/4 angel, and then to Wurmcoil+Jace ultimate.
Round 5, ANT: First game, he looked entirely like Sneak and Show (which made me quite comfortable I could bring it down,) until finally, he comboed off. Game 2, I had the potential for a turn 2 Tombstalker. First turn, I took a Ponder (though I should probably have taken say, a ritual or LED.) I top decked Hymn, and he Ad Naeseum to 3 life. I slam Tombstalker and strike him down to 1 with Mishra's Factory, and he proceeds to win the game with Tendrils - Past in Flames - Tendrils.
Last tournament I felt like I really had to win 2-0, or maybe 2-1 if two of the games were really quick. This tourney, with the fetches, every draw felt like just out of reach victories. Last tournament, I ended up siding out Top a lot (because all I had was Dakmor Salvage). This game, with the fetches, it felt incredibly detrimental and I sided it out every single round. Even still, fetching took time off the clock, and at one point I actually couldn't fetch from being at 1 life.
I want to be careful not to make too many rash decisions, but Top and fetches are definitely going. From the game against RUG, I've taken it upon myself to try a misers Zuran Orb in the board. The Abyss really didn't feel like an all-star last tournament, so I traded it for stuff for another deck. I've added a Toxic Deluge in place of Top, but I'm thinking it would do very well as a second Nether Void -- I never got to cast this 1-of this time.
I never found the time to write up a report on the first one, but here's a quick sketch -- went 3-2, my best result yet:
First round, lost the first match I ever played against Merfolk. A huge piloting error made me unable to lock the game down: apparently phantasmal image dies to being targeted...
Second round went pretty well: Won both games against Goblins pretty quickly.
Third round, Reanimator: Won both games with hand destruction, 2/2 beatdown and a little luck.
Fourth round, BUG Delver: Won both games with land and hand destruction, 2/2/ beat down, and mass removal.
Fifth round, Merfolk: At this point I was in a position to draw into top 8, but got paired down to someone who had to win. The pressure (we were for some reason pressured to hurry the game up -- on both sides-- so as not to draw, which at some point became my only positive outcome) was a bit much, and with a little bit bad luck I finally lost 2-1.
