TFoAS Gesper mk6
This deck went 2-2 at CFB and was a blast to pilot.
Game 1
Bogles. Gross matchup for a deck filled with killspells, but maindeck Gatekeeper of Malakir is pretty good. Guess what? Never drew any copies until game 3, when he had a Leyline of Sanctity out. Never had the T1 discard either, which was a major downside. Game 2 Engineered Explosives ate a Gladecover Scout with a Rancor on the stack, fizzling it. He followed with a Bogle, but it fell to Drown in Sorrow. He played another Bogle, suited it up with Rancor and attacked for a few turns before he attempted to cast Unflinching Courage, which was countered by Spell Pierce. Snap-Drown took out the Bogle the following turn, and the turn after Spellskite came down and he conceded. Game 3 was slow, he seemed to have taken a hand with no enchantments, so an early Bogle came down and started hitting. A Rancor joined the party and got even more damage in. Spider Umbra popped in to join. I realized this one turn late - a flashed-in Snapcaster could kick the Umbra off of the Bogle, and the on-field Engineered Explosives could fry the creature. I had two Snapcasters, and the first was met with Path to Exile, which gave him an extra punch of 4 damage to my face. The second kicked the Umbra off, and EE finished the job. I was at 1 life, and topdecked a Spellskite with only 2 blue sources. He played 2 Kor Spiritdancers and casted two enchantments, both of which was taken by the Skite, but he drew 4 cards. He Pathed the Skite, then landed several more enchantments for the final point of damage.
Game 2
Knightfall, Zoo version. Game 1 was slow and grindy, with him nearly comboing and having enough power on the field to kill me on the same turn. Cryptic Command *list* for counter/tap saved my butt, but I was slapped to death by an Exalted Goyf over the following turns. Game 2 was pretty terrible for him, with him stuck on two lands. He played a total of 3 dorks over the course of the game but they died to Bolt, Terminate, and Gatekeeper. When he finally found the third land, it was too late. He was staring down a lethal field. Game 3 I bolted the T1 dork, but his T2 play was Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. Without any removal aside from Kolaghan's Command, I was stuck with no plays for several turns. By the time I had the chance to kill Thalia, Goyf and Knight had already done the damage.
Game 3
Affinity. Game 1, he had Ravager and Plating in hand, but my T1 Inquisition took the Plating, and his Ravager fell to a Spell Snare. He was left with a pair of sad Ornithopters for a turn before topdecking Etched Champion, which was met with a Remand. The following turn, he attempted to recast his Champion, but was met with Remand again, courtesy of Snapcaster Mage. The third attempt finally resolved his Champion, but he had no way to boost it, so it sat on the field as an unkillable wall against Snapcaster and Bob. I consumed an Ornithopter with Gatekeeper, and he landed a pair of Ravagers after that. I bolted one, which he followed up by putting the counter onto the second one. I casted Kolaghan's Command shocking the Thopter and destroying the Ravager, intending to edict the Champion away the following turn with a second Gatekeeper in hand. He did exactly as I had expected, which was feed an artifact to the Ravager, then plop the counters onto the Ornithopter, which was now 3/5 to save it from the shock. The follow up play was the Gatekeeper, and he chose to sacrifice the Champion, which I personally would have advised against. He attacked with the Ornithopter (I was at 17 life at this point, so taking 3 was not of any concern), then I swung back for 10 with a Snapcaster, 2 Gatekeepers, Delver, and a Creeping Tar Pit. He left the Ornithopter untapped for blocks the following turn while sitting at 6 life, but the Tar Pit and a Lightning Bolt took him down. Game 2, I boarded out the Terminates (major misplay) and got beaten to death by Inkmoth Nexus and Signal Pest. Game 3, he had triple Inkmoth, and one of them had 3 counters on it. I killed that one with a Terminate, then proceeded to clock him with a Snapcaster and Delver before his other Inkmoths was able to take me down.
Game 4
Lantern control. This was by far one of the most fun games that I'd ever played. He got the lock early Game 1 and stabilized at 4 life after Surgical Extractioning my Lightning Bolts. I ended up with 4 copies of Bob on the field and slowly slapped myself to 2 life with them unable to attack due to Ensnaring Bridge, then Thoughtseized myself to end the game. Game 2, I managed to take him out by bouncing the Bridge with Cryptic Command *list* and turning a lethal army of creatures sideways. Game 3 was the closest, grindiest match. I had gotten him down to 3 life, and he only had 2 mill rocks, which meant that he couldn't control all three of my draws. He flooded badly, with perhaps 9 lands on the field. Both of my Kolaghan's Command were in the yard. I played Jace Beleren and used the +2 in an attempt to force his Ensnaring Bridge to turn off for my 2 power creatures, but he had the Abrupt Decay. The only thing keeping him alive was an Ensnaring Bridge, backed by a Welding Jar. I had randomly boarded a singleton Spellskite in for no apparent reason, and I constantly attacked with the 0 power guy as a joke. On the first Bob trigger, he saw a Snapcaster Mage on top. Mill it, he went. The second one was a Lightning Bolt. Mill it, he went. The normal draw was Cryptic Command *list*. He Ghost Quartered one of my lands. I nearly picked up my deck to search up an Island, but I realized he was trying to get me away from the Cryptic Command *list*. So I declined to search. He cracked Lantern of Insight to shuffle it away, and we went draw-go for several turns. I topdecked that Snapcaster Mage 3 turns later, flashing back one of the Kolaghan's Command for destroy and shock. He Welding Jared he Bridge, but I redirected it to Spellskite and swung for the win.
Spellskite does win games. And not just against Bogle decks.
