Going into a tournament with a completely untested deck is a lot of fun, especially when you start undefeated.
Round 1: Simic vs. Esper Control
Game 1: I'm on the play, drop a Farseek turn-2, drop a Cavern of Souls for Deadbridge Goliath turn-3. I smack him in the face twice and drop him to 10 life. When he taps all but 1 mana for a Supreme Verdict, I flash in two Wolfir Avengers, untap, Scavenge, and kill him.
Game 2: I side in Negates, Memory Adepts, and Witchbane Orbs. I'm on the draw, drop a Farseek, get my Master Biomancer countered, and he drops an Obzedat, Ghost Council at some point. Now that he's tapped out, I cast Witchbane Orb which completely shuts down the Ghost Dad's first ability. I flash in a Wolfir Avenger at the end of his turn, Soulbond it to Wolfir Silverheart on my following main phase, and smack him for 7 twice. He gets to 8 mana and cast Griselbrand, though he's at 6 life, and ends his turn. At this point, I can just attack with my 7/7 Avenger and 8/8 Silverheart and he must block both to survive (or, I suppose, block with just Griselbrand and keep his useless Obzedat out, since Lifelink is static and he wouldn't die). I untap, draw Prime Speaker Zegana, and play my eighth land. I cast Zegana and draw 9 cards (my strongest creature's power + 1) to dig for Simic Charm to bounce the Griselbrand. I find it, cast it, and win.
Round 2: Simic vs. Gruul Aggro
Game 1: Wolfir Avenger on the play kicks ass. Pit Fight + Wolfir Avenger blocking + Regenerate = shitballs amazing. Thragtusks cleaned up this game for me.
Game 2: Got down to 1 life before top-decking the Prime Speaker Zegana to draw 9 cards and get the Rapid Hybridization I needed. He swung, I blocked with a lowly 3/3, and he used Bloodrush with Ghor-Clan Rampager, and I cast Hybridization in response. I untap and swing for a shit-load to win.
Round 3: Simic vs. American Pike
Game 1: Wolfir Avenger annihilates Geist of Saint Traft. I took four Boros Charms to the face this game (from his Snapcaster Mages), but then realized he wasn't playing any counterspells. So down came the Thragtusks and I stabilized around 12 life. Pit Fight and Simic Charm thwarted all of his attempts to gear up with Runechanter's Pike and my cows beat his face in.
Game 2: Yeva, Nature's Herald came down on my third turn (thanks for Farseek being a bawse) and he couldn't readily deal with her. Master Biomancer got Flashed in EoT and my shit got crazy. I had Silverhearts, Biomancers, and a Zegana, all around 10 power a piece, and I broke through his blockers to handily win the game.
Rounds 4-6
Played against players and decks I should have beaten and knew I would've. Literally 6 games in a row, I had to mulligan at least once and I don't think I drew a single land out of those 3 rounds. My deck completely shit itself for no reason and I was powerless to do anything about. Pile-shuffling had no effect and, honestly, I didn't have issues until I did it the first time. I got paired up in Round 6 against someone who had 12 points. The deck would've been a walk in the park, but starting with three lands and a Farseek, then not drawing any over 7 turns kinda screws you. Had I won, I still would've been in the Top 8. The guy who would've been ninth place snuck in under the wire. His win-condition was Primordial Hydra. lol THAT'S how frustrating last night was.
So I went 3-3 in rounds, 6-6 in games. But I'm not counting the land issues toward my losses since, with 24 lands and a curve that really just goes to 5, it's just shitty luck and nothing else. While I technically can't say my deck was undefeated, I'm definitely seeing the spark and I think I'm onto something here. I was never not in control of the games from the first 3 rounds. I've never played a smoother deck up until the land issues plagued me.
Awesome cards?
Pit Fight did work. Expect this card to see tier-1 play very soon. The things you can do with an Instant-speed Prey Upon are nearly unlimited. With a moderately sized creature out, it's spot removal and a combat trick at the same time for two mana. And you can use it in almost any deck. Pit Fight + Boros Reckoner in Boros/RDW? Now that's a deck I could get behind.
Yeva, Nature's Herald. As I predicted, she's the perfect split of rogue (meaning no one will expect her) and power (meaning everyone will fear her once she's out).
Prime Speaker Zegana is fantastic. With a Wolfir Silverheart out, you can stack your triggers and give her the Soulbond bonus before her power is checked to draw you cards. 9 cards and a 9/9 body for 6 mana? Who are we kidding, here?
Temporal Mastery was hilarious. Either I didn't see it and it didn't matter, I top-decked it for a free Explore, or I hard-cast it and won the game with fatties.
Potential deck changes?
-2 Deadbridge Goliath, -1 Yeva, Nature's Herald, -1 Cackling Counterpart. Deadbridge Goliath was more durdle-y than anything and I knew that going into the tournament. I mostly just stuck him in there to fill up space and be fat. He' a great creature (he's a turn-3 5/5 off a Farseek that I can get more value out of late-game), but he just doesn't do enough once he's out. He puts pressure on my opponent once I get to 6 mana (since they don't necessarily want me Scavenging), but... meh. He's vanilla 80% of the time.
Yeva, Nature's Herald is amazing in most scenarios, but seeing two at once is horrible and my hand really needs to be full of worthwhile creatures for her to have a ton of value.
Cackling Counterpart could come out for a lot of the same reasons as Yeva. You never want to have more than 1 unless you have one or more great creatures already out. I mean, it does have Flashback, so you get a good deal of value out of just a single copy.
In these spots, I'll probably add a land, another Pit Fight, and then... well, 2 of what? What do you think?
