I went into top 8 undefeated this time around, and that felt really awesome. Unfortunately, my deck decided that was the time to go haywire, and I lost the first round of it. Here's the rundown:
Round 1: Mono Black Control- This is typically my worst match up, and this was against one of the more successful players in our Venue, so I was worried coming into this one. Fortunately, his deck was sputtering and mine came out screaming, and I swept this one easily.
Round 2: RWG Kessig Wolfrun with a Sword of Feast and Famine. This one could have gotten uglier, but I out paced him and his forced discarding was benefiting me. I wrapped this one up cleanly with a 2-0 finish, although game 2 came right down to the edge.
Round 3: A RG Keesig Wolfrun with the more traditional build. Game one was a breeze, and I clobbered the guy out on life using an invisible stalker. Game two I had a bit of a limping start and his went well and he got me. Game three, I quickly dumped my fuel into the graveyard, stacked a pike onto a Blighted agent and I sank him in one hit. 2-1
Round 4: ANOTHER Kessig Wolfrun- seriously, you really start to wonder if anyone is playing anything else tonight @_@. This guy was doing another RGW, using a similar build to the one from round two- utilizing Angel of Jubilation and Blade Splicer among others. I came out fast on this round and smashed him twice without too much trouble. Game two I had a moment where I was thankful for sideboarding in control aspects, because it save my arse on a couple of those turns. 2-0
Round 5: This time, it was NOT a Kessig deck. It was a Delver ala Geist of St Traft deck, and this one was a fun match up. I came through on round one and got the surprise infect in- always fun to do to people. On game two, I got mana screwed while he got a geist out nice and early. That did not go well. Game three, I gutted those geists with a surgical (he milled himself with Thought scour and lost it) and then I quickly cleaned up thereafter. 2-1
5-0 going into Top 8, in 2nd place due to tiebreakers.
Top 8 Round 1: Playing against a BR zombies deck, going the usual zombie route- dropping zombies in a hurry, while running a splash of burn to get rid of creatures. Game one I knocked him out with 10 infect in a hurry, and it gave me confidence that I was going to be alright. That was when my deck decided to go its usual way, and everything went downhill. I had a massive mana flood (on turn 6, I had 8 lands. I mulled down to 6 and kept a 2 land hand, and then drew almost nothing but lands- via cantrip, I added a couple extra cards to hand, but I was at 8 out of 14 cards being land). Lost that one. Game three, I had one creature, some stall cards, but nothing to get me to a win. My mana was light, but manageable (3 mana about turn 5), but the lack of draws I needed to push my one little guy to the win never came up, and I ended up not getting to where I needed to be at the end. I got the guy to 8 poison counters when he got me to 0 life. If I had one more turn, I would have had it, but that's how it goes.
I hate losing due to my deck going on the fritz, for whatever reason it does, but all in all, my first 5-0 run at an FNM felt really damn good. :)
Looked up my final placement, looks like the 1st place guy must have stumbled as well- I ended up in 6th.
