SCG Dallas March 16 2015 - Legacy Premier IQ 10th Place Report Simon Christie

Standard

I was at a birthday party drinking beer all day Saturday so I couldn't play Standard (terrible right?) but one of my SCG Houston opponents ended up playing a variation of mono-red after I crushed him in Houston. He said the deck worked out great all weekend and he ended up making top 8 with it. He was particularly enamored with the sideboard Prophetic Flamespeakers. :) Good Job JB!

His List:

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=81024

Saturday night we got up to Dallas and grabbed a burger at the now semi-regular stop of Rodeo Goat (no fish and chips this time). Some burgers and beer were consumed and I hit the hay around Midnight. I was out like a light until ~7am. Sleeping all the way through the night with no baby crying, that is pretty crazy stuff for me these days. I woke up feeling sluggish, maybe I slept for too long and had too much uninterrupted sleep? Some people are just never happy...Sigh. A cup of tea later and things were at least looking a little better.

Legacy - RUG Delver (Get out of here Temur Delver)

I am not entirely sure how many people played in the Legacy PIQ but we played 8 rounds so ~200ish+ people.

Round 1 - Burn (Barnett, Keifer)

Red hat, red shirt and red deck box. I knew exactly what I was in for this round. Oh yeah and no playmat.

G1 - I lose game 1 because I choose to keep up spell pierce  instead of deploying a nimble mongoose when I am at 11 life. My mana was quite constrained this game (1 Trop and 1 Wasteland). Eventually he gets down an Eidolon and it is too much for me to break through.

G2 - He gets me down to 12 before I just start smacking him with a giant Tarmogoyf.

G3 - I manage to leverage my dazes and spell pierces to force him to overcommit with a fireblast which I counter.

Phew. Burn is a bad matchup and it always sucks to lose to it in round 1 so i feel pretty good that i dodged the bullet.

Round 2 - Burn (Ullom, Brock)

I heard this guy playing while I was playing my round 1 opponent. What I heard as he screamed his actions at his opponent. "Sac two mountains, Fireblast you!" Ugh...

G1 - I am never in this game...his start is perfect with double goblin guide into my death. He ends the game at 20...Do the wheels start to fall off now?

G2 - This game is odd as I have enough pressure to race him with my turn 1 flipped Delver which he doesn't kill. I end that game at 4 life and he was at 3 before I deal him lethal. I think I likely lose this game if he is a little more patient.

G3 - I land a huge goyf and smack him with it.


Round 3 - RG Lands (Pierce, Stephen)

I recognize this guy so I ask him if he recognizes me. He does but doesn't want to say...I am racking my brain to try and figure out where I recognize him from. Finally I realize that it is from SCG Dallas last year (Here). I remember why our game was so funny and I ask him - "Forest?" I tell him how Forests always fail you and we proceed to play. He tells me he can play his deck better now. Good news for me to know what I am playing or just a super bluff?

G1 - We both mulligan to 6 and he is on the play. He take a long time to think about his hand. I snap keep my terrible hand of - X2 Fetch, Goose, x2 Goyf, Forked Bolt. He leads with mana bond but doesn't dump his hand (which I thought was likely after him thinking about his mulligan). I proceed to play dudes every turn and the forked bolt him to grow goose.

G2 - I counter Life From the Loam 5 or 6 times in this game and win.  



Round 4 -BUG Delver (Williams, Keith H)

G1 -  This is a really weird game and I am on 6 cards and on the draw. I manage to stabilize to the mid-game but I have to use a Force of Will on a Tarmogoyf putting me way behind. He lands a True-Name Nemesis and we are racing each other. He eventually draws removal for my Delver and I lose to the True Name.

G2 - I tempo him out.

G3 - This game was very interesting and I had a tough decision on turn 2/3 of the game. We have both wastelanded each other and he looks to be short of land but has a tropical island in play and a deathrite. Then he taps out to play a tarmogoyf. My board is Volcanic and Grim Lavamancer. Goyf is a 1/2 (just lands in yard). I untap and have the option to kill the Deathrite or the goyf. My instinct is to kill the Goyf and I remove the lands with the intention to do that but as I am point at which creature to kill I change my mind and select Deathrite. Honestly I think there is a good argument either way. It is also relevant that I have a Submerge in hand. So I am not too worried about getting rid of Goyf at some point. I end up losing because he manages to super charge his Goyf on the next turn and start smacking me for a lot of damage. Oh yeah and at some point in the game I get another Grim Lavamancer active and almost try to double ping his Tarmogoyf that is a 4/5. That would have been awkward.

This was a pretty frustrating game to lose.

Round 5 - RW Painter (Williams, Harold)

G1 - I have played against this deck a lot and drawing my Gitaxian probe gives me a lot of info to help navigate the game even more smoothly.

G2 - Again I slow the game down then land a Goyf. He lands a Blood Moon which I let him resolve even though I have a Force of Will in hand since I figure I can just counter his next spell.

This version is so much worse again RUG Delver since they care about their fetches a lot  more than other version and also get hit by Wasteland.

Round 6 - Storm (Stanley, Kevin)

G1 - We both mull and my hand is a little mediocre but I do land a delver and attack him down to 17! My opponent goes off on turn 3 with Ad Nauseam and Cabal Rituals. He goes all the way down to 3 and stops. He then thinks for a while plays a polluted delta and fetches. He picks up his library  and starts to look through it. I quickly stop him and play a stifle...he looks at me and his hand and goes in the tank. Two minutes later I am the winner.

G2 - I have quite a few cards to bring in from my sideboard and I counter his spells.


Round 7 - UWR Delver (Palmer, Austin)

G1 - This was an odd game. My opponent played 3 Swords to Plowshares making me gain 11 life this gain (killing 2 Tarmogoyfs and a Delver of Secrets). Eventually I land a Delver and start going to town. He lands a True Name and starts swinging back but I have 11 extra life...so I win.

G2 - I probe him early and proceed to play around his hand.

This is the type of Delver match that I love to play. I am physically and mentally exhausted (not to mention hungry). Oh yeah and I was paired down this round


Round 8 - Burn (Avera, Trent)

We look at standings and I know I have to play to make it to Top 8. I really just wanted to go eat and go home...My opponent says "we can draw," I tell him that I don't think we can but he just keeps saying it over and over again. I saw my opponent playing earlier that day and I know he is playing Burn. I am tired, exhausted and really don't want to play vs burn so I take the draw. Not the smarted thing in the world I know but there you go. It is worth noting that I likely would have made top 8 if the other two table that we cared about drew. One of the tables went to time and the guy did manage to kill his opponent on turn 3 of turns...

List on SCG:

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=81094

Note - SCG missed the 2nd Destructive Revelry from the sideboard.

Main Deck

 

Creatures (12)

4 Delver of Secrets

4 Nimble Mongoose

4 Tarmogoyf

Lands (18)

4 Flooded Strand

4 Polluted Delta

3 Tropical Island

3 Volcanic Island

4 Wasteland

 

Spells (30)

4 Brainstorm

4 Daze

4 Force of Will

4 Lightning Bolt

3 Spell Pierce

1 Spell Snare

4 Stifle

1 Forked Bolt

1 Gitaxian Probe

4 Ponder

 

The Main Deck is pretty Standard with the following being the final 6 flex slots -

 

3 Spell Pierce - I think 2 of these are mandatory in the deck but most people don't play a third. I like spell pierce in almost every matchup and when it is good it is very, very good. I thought there was going to be a lot of miracles and a lot of burn so more spell pierces seemed good.

 

1 Forked Bolt - I usually run between 5 & 7 burn spells main deck. I decided to go a little lower on my main deck burn and have the extra burn/red spells in my board for this weekend.

 

1 Gitaxian Probe - I like the 9th cantrip for helping find lands/burn spells and the information is great.

 

1 Spell Snare - To name just a few things I countered this weekend - Tarmogoyf, Painter's Servant and Price of Progress. Almost every deck has a good target for spell snare and sometimes you just need a hard counter (even if it is situational).   

Sideboard

1 Grafdigger's Cage

2 Grim Lavamancer

1 Scavenging Ooze

1 Sulfuric Vortex

2 Destructive Revelry

1 Envelop

1 Izzet Charm

1 Pyroblast

2 Submerge

1 Vendilion Clique

2 Sudden Demise

The Sideboard is where the real work came into play.

1 Grafdigger's Cage - This should probably be 2 Grafdiggers Cage but I hate graveyard hate and I changed the second Cage for a Scavenging Ooze because I like ooze in the Delver matchups as well as against burn. The second cage also helps against Elves but I felt like I had that covered with Grim Lavamancer and Sudden Demise.

 

2 Grim Lavamancer - This was the best card in my sideboard by far. I side boarded it in 5/8 rounds and if I had played the last round it would have been 6/8). Little lavaman did everything, he controlled the board, he shot my opponent for two and he sometimes even attacked for one.

 

1 Scavenging Ooze - A loose graveyard hate card that can also come in versus the delver matches as well as vs. burn.

 

1 Sulfuric Vortex - My favorite way to beat miracles and Batterskull that is not named Destructive Revelry.

 

2 Destructive Revelry - My favorite Artifact/Enchantment Hate. Sure it isn't as good as Ancient Grudge at blowing up artifacts BUT it blows up enchantments and domes your opponent for two...Also nobody play affinity...

 

1 Envelop - Envelop was good versus Burn and Storm but I also like it versus Miracles, Show and Tell as well as versus Elves.

 

1 Izzet Charm - I had a flex spot left in my list that was a miser Divert (which is prettyspicy). I felt like I needed to not be so cute though. My options were a Forked Bolt or the 4th Spell Pierce/Flusterstorm. I decided to split the difference and run the multi functional swiss army knife. I sideboarded Izzet Charm in several times and I was pretty impressed with its functionality and I countered several spells and killed a Delver of Secrets.

 

1 Pyroblast - I could handle having another Pyroblast in the Sideboard but space is super tight. Thankfully the main deck has a bunch of good cards versus Miracles which is the matchup where you want more Pyroblasts.

 

2 Submerge - This is for BUG, the mirror match and Dark Depths, as well as versus anybody with Forests. I am unsure of how good this is versus elves since you want to keep all your burn and also your counters against them...slightly awkward.

 

1 Vendilion Clique - This for the Combo and Control matchups.

 

2 Sudden Demise - I love Grim Lavamancer and I love Rough//Tumble but they don't work well together. So my solution was to run Sudden Demise. The theory is sound but I didn't get the matchups (Tribal (Merfolk, Goblins, Elves) and Death & Taxes) to see how well it would have worked. It is also worth noting that with Death and taxes going to the Skies and to Brimaz, Rough//Tumble is pretty bad versus them these days. Sudden demise can at least kill their dudes if you can get to enough mana which admittedly can be a big task in the face of Rishadan Port and Wasteland.  

So yeah another 10th place finish. I should probably start making top 8 finishes instead. I only have myself to blame for this one though. On the plus side I did play pretty well all day despite how tired I was with the exception of trying to Grim Lavamancer a Goyf).

Cheers,
Simon

Preview - SCG Dallas March 14-15

I guess this is what it is like living on the East-Coast around Virginia area, two SCGs in two months...must be nice (or exhausting). This weekend marks my annual/bi-annual pilgrimage to Dallas (or really Fort Worth but enough e-ink has been slung in regards to that). It is my time to go eat fish and chips (feel free to ask me where) and sling some cardboard. Due to a birthday party, spring break and baby/family time; I will be giving Saturdays Standard tournament a miss. I am a little sad to be unable to battle with mountains on Saturday but I do get to play Legacy so I cannot be too unhappy.

For anyone interested here is my updated version of Red:

Mono Red

Creatures (20)

4 Firedrinker Satyr

4 Foundry Street Denizen

3 Frenzied Goblin

1 Goblin Heelcutter

2 Mardu Scout

4 Monastery Swiftspear

2 Goblin Rabblemaster

 

Lands (19)

 

19 Mountain

Spells (21)

4 Wild Slash

4 Searing Blood

4 Stoke the Flames

4 Lightning Strike

3 Titan's Strength

2 Hordeling Outburt

Sideboard [15]

3 Eidolon of the Great Revel

3 Prophetic Flamespeaker

3 Peak Eruption

2 Scouring Sands

2 Arc Lightning

1 Harness by Force

1 Mountain

For legacy I am 99% on the usual.

RUG

Creature [12]

4 Delver of Secrets

4 Nimble Mongoose

4 Tarmogoyf
 

Instant [24]
 

1 Spellsnare

3 Spell Pierce

4 Brainstorm

4 Daze

4 Force of Will

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Stifle

 

Sorcery [6]
 

1 Forked Bolt

1 Gitaxian Probe

4 Ponder

Land [18]

3 Tropical Island

3 Volcanic Island

4 Flooded Strand

4 Polluted Delta

4 Wasteland

Sideboard [15]

1 Flusterstorm / Divert

1 Envelop

2 Destructive Revelry

1 Grafdigger’s Cage

1 Scavenging Ooze  

1 Sulfuric Vortex

2 Submerge

1 Vendilion Clique

2 Sudden Demise

2 Grim Lavamancer

1 Pyroblast

The main deck is pretty set except for whether I want the 3rd Spell Pierce or a 6th burn spell (forked bolt). Running a 2nd Gitaxian Probe or 1st Thoughtscour is also an option in that flex spot. It has been a while since I have played instand speed 3/3 on turn 2 with nimble mongoose. Eating your opponents creatures is fun...even if they are snakes.
There is also a small part of me that is thinking about bringing a modern deck so that I can audible over to modern if the modern tournament looks smaller/easier but I have a new miscut Forked Bolt which I have yet to play with so that is probably the clincher.

Good Luck to everyone in Dallas this weekend!

Cheers,
Simon

Mono Red in Standard (Feb 2015)

Some nice things being said about my version of Mono Red:

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/30314_CEDTalks-Patrick-Sullivan.html

http://www.starcitygames.com/events/coverage/deck_tech_monored_aggro_with_j.html

Cheers,
Simon

Magic Online Infect in Modern Update

While I decided to play legacy instead of modern at SCG Houston (although I ultimately couldn't play legacy due to playing in the Standard Open), I did ship my list to a friend:

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=80084
Since I last wrote about infect it has come back onto everyone's mind due to CFB Pantheon playing it at the last Pro Tour (Washington DC).

The nice thing about a big team playing the deck is that it has led to several high quality articles being written about the deck.

The best of these:

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/30279_The-Pro-Tour-Infect-Primer.html

http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/the-pantheon-deck-tech-infect/

http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/keep-or-mull-infect/

http://www.patsgames.com/ *(Article by Orry Swift)

I don't agree with everything in the above articles but they are mostly on the right track.

Despite seeing these new lists, I am pretty sure my 60 is pretty close to correct but would be willing to accept my sideboard could still use some more work. The big variation between my list is that I am not playing the full 4 Become Immense. As good as the cards is, I just don't think you can afford to be playing x4 Become Immense. This is something I could see myself being wrong about in time but I think a middle ground is stronger than going to the full 4 as advocated by CFB or playing 0 as advocated by Orry.  

Creature [13]

1 Ichorclaw Myr

4 Blighted Agent

4 Glistener Elf

4 Noble Hierarch

Instant [19]

2 Become Immense

2 Apostle's Blessing

3/4 Groundswell

4 Might of Old Krosa

4 Mutagenic Growth

4 Vines of Vastwood
0/1 Twisted Image

Sorcery [6]

4 Gitaxian Probe

2 Distortion Strike
 

Enchantment [2]

2 Wild Defiance

Land [19]

2 Forest

2 Pendelhaven

2 Breeding Pool

4 Inkmoth Nexus

4 Windswept Heath

4 Wooded Foothills

1 Misty Rainforest

Sideboard [15]

1 Carrion Call

1 Sylvan Scrying

1 Wild Defiance

1 Dryad Arbor

2 Dispel

3/4 Nature's Claim

2/3 Spellskite

1 Twisted Image
2 Spell Pierce

The only card that I am on the fence about from the main deck is Twisted Image vs. Groundswell. I have been playing the main deck Twisted Image lately to save on a sideboard slot as well as being pre-boarded against Spellskite. You also sometimes win because you get to Twisted Image your Pendelhavened creature or trigger Wild Defiance. :)

Sideboarding Guide (in progress)

Abzan

Splinter Twin

Amulet Bloom

Affinity

Mirror

The biggest thing to remember is that you can easily sideboard out Gitaxian Probe and/or Mutagenic Growth depending on the match.

-Cheers-

 

SCG Houston February 14/15 2014 - Standard Open 26th Place Report Ty Thomason

Play the deck with the best mana.

That has been rule #1 in my playgroup, ever since the first time I heard it. I think it was Zvi Mowshovitz who described it in the creation of the Mythic deck. You can usually tell a Zvi creation by the mana base. Sometimes the best mana is shared by many decks, so you need other tools. In a small format like standard, that is rarely the case. Spell lands are also a factor in evaluating the best mana. Kessig Wolf Run, Gavony Township, Celestial Colonnade are huge bonuses.

The best mana in standard is Caryatid and Courser. There are only two relevant spell lands in standard: Radiant Fountain and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. I value proactive over reactive, so I’ve been playing Nykthos. After PT KTK, Robert Berni was excited about a green devotion deck that killed with Villainous Wealth. Will Lowry was a fan of the RG Monsters deck with 4 Crater’s Claws. We combined the Constellation engine of the first with the consistency and flexibility of the second to create Dr. Claw, our GP San Antonio deck:

 

Dr Claw

4 Elvish Mystic

4 Sylvan Caryatid

4 Voyaging Satyr

4 Courser of Kruphix

4 Polukranos, Eater of Worlds

4 Eidolon of Blossoms

2 Arbor Colossus

2 Hornet Queen

2 Genesis Hydra

3 Boon Satyr

4 Crater’s Claws

4 Wooded Foothills

4 Temple of Abandon

4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

10 Forest

1 Mountain

Sideboard

2 Genesis Hydra

3 Nissa Worldwaker

2 Xenagos, God of Revels

2 Reclamation Sage

4 Nylea’s Disciple

2 Setessan Tactics

This put six players into day 2, and I had the highest finish at 25^th place after conceding to David Ochoa in the last round when we were playing for 9^th. The deck was a machine in game 1, almost always killing with lethal Crater’s Claws with X routinely greater than 20. There were some issues in post board games against sweepers and Elspeth. The rest of standard season I played GB Whip, but most of our crew stayed with the Claw.

With Fate Reforged added to standard, I went back to green devotion. Whisperwood Elemental helped vs sweepers, and Ugin helped vs Heroic, a previously bad matchup. At the same time, the deck I liked previously, GP Whip, seemed to be negated by the new speed of the format and bigger over the top threats. Recurring Hornet Queens isn’t very effective against decks with Ugin. Will Lowry won a PTQ with a list similar to this. Dr Claw was becoming more and more known and popular, especially in the Texas area.

Trying to come up with ways to beat the mirror lead me to Garruk, Apex Predator as an answer for Ugin. Doomwake Giant plus more enchantments could keep them off devotion to avoid lethal Claws. Black spells also could help against control decks, as well as giving Merciless Executioner for Heroic matchups. I looked at the GB Ramp decks and decided to cut Hornet Queens for Genesis Hydras and a more explosive Nykthos game. The list I registered for SCG Houston incorporated these ideas:

GB Ramp
 

4 Elvish Mystic

2 Genesis Hydra

4 Sylvan Caryatid

3 Voyaging Satyr

4 Courser of Kruphix

3 Doomwake Giant

4 Eidolon of Blossoms

4 Polukranos, World Eater

3 Frontier Siege

2 Garruk, Apex Predator

3 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

6 Forest

1 Swamp

4 Llanowar Wastes

4 Temple of Malady

4 Windswept Heath

4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Sideboard

2 Arbor Colossus

2 Genesis Hydra

2 Merciless Executioner

4 Nylea's Disciple

2 Reclamation Sage

3 Nissa, Worldwaker

I wasn’t too concerned with control matchups since in my testing Genesis Hydra was usually enough by itself to get around counters and the threats were diverse enough to beat any specific removal. Thoughtsieze and Read the Bones were in the sideboard at various points, but got cut to make room for higher impact cards. If I wanted something for control going forward, I would play Whisperwood Elemental, but I’m not sure you need it. The third Nissa may have been excessive with fewer forests overall.

I started the tournament off fairly well. The small field meant every player with three losses would make day 2, and I finished day 1 at 7-2 so I was ahead of the curve. I played against RW Aggro twice and went 1-1, Abzan Aggro once 1-0, Abzan Control five times 4-1, and RG Beats 1-0. The deck did what I hoped it would do, but my losses came to mana issues. I kept four land, caryatid, courser, siege on the play against RW game one, but drew nothing but lands the entire game and died. Losing the first game on the play was frustrating, a wasted opportunity. Sure enough I won game two but lost game 3 on the back foot the whole time because of course he has Seeker of the Way. The loss to Abzan Control I kept a mana-light hand on six cards and couldn’t deploy a large enough threat to interact with his Tasigur. After this matchup, I decided to stop bringing in all the Nissas and consider Merciless Executioner for the Abzan Control matchup (I was already bringing it it versus Abzan Aggro).

Day two started out with wins against Mono Red twice, but then I lost three matches in a row. Twice I lost to Abzan Aggro, one match where I flooded in two games, the other where I mulliganed to five twice. The other loss was to Jeskai Tokens, which might be a bad matchup. The final round I defeated Abzan Control to finish at 10-5. My tiebreakers were good enough to get me $200.

I can’t say the tournament wasn’t a success, but I was hoping for a better finish, especially at the start of day 2. I was really happy with the way the deck performed and wouldn’t be upset about playing it again. I was very excited to see Robert Berni win the tournament with the other deck I had helped work on. I’m feeling better and better each new set about my deck building skills.

The tournament was a lot of fun and I really hope Star City Games comes back to Houston soon.

 

Thanks,

Ty

 

 

SCG Houston February 14/15 2014 - Standard Open 10th Place Report Simon Christie

I posted here previously with the decks I was going to play this past weekend.

Friday

Friday night was spent contacting people to make sure that I had all the cards I would need for Standard (thank you Rudy and Mark!). Not playing standard consistently means that I have some gaps in my collection when it comes to standard only format staples. Thankfully a couple of friends came through for me and on Saturday morning I made the final tweaks to my decklist. I did make a couple of changes from the list that I had said I was going to play. That was mostly based on the fact that I didn't know how good magma jet was going to be, so I trimmed down to just 2 Magma Jets and played 2 Hordeling Outburst instead. I debated using 2 more Goblin Rabblemaster's but I wanted to make my Monastery Swiftspears and Foundry Street Denizen's more powerful.

SCGs website stated that the event would start at 10:00am...but the pre-registration email said the event would start at 10:00am EST. So yeah, that was annoying. I decided to aim to be there as close to 9:00am as possible, so that I would be good either way. I generally take the baby shift from 9:00pm-1:00am then pass the baby off to my wife. So I got into bed around 1:00am.

Saturday

3:00am - my slumber is disturbed by the noises of an unhappy baby. I get up and manage to get him to calm down and go to sleep after a while. He floats in and out of sleep for the next couple of hours (as do I). I get up at around 5/6:00am and make a cup of tea and start to wake up. I take the dog out for a walk and walk over to the bakery near my house to grab some breakfast. After some food and helping out with the little one as much as possible I head to the site.

Round 1 - Andrade, Abel (RW Tokens)

Game 1 - My opponent plays a couple of Hordeling Outbursts, then a Stormbreath Dragon and I lose before I can draw 1 more burn spell with my opponent at 2 life (I had two draw steps to draw a burn spell).  

Game 2 - I get my opponent to 1 life and then lose...

The day is looking ominous.

0-1
Round Loss.

Round 2 - Kibodeaux, Clark (Abzan Aggro)

Game 1 - I lead with 1 drop into removal spell and just tempo out his little guys that die to almost all of my removal. Abzan Aggro is the deck that I want to play all day. The deck durdles around with its mana too much and searing blood really does a number on it.

Game 2 - He keeps jamming 3/3's and I draw the wrong removal suite in order to deal with them. I still get him down to 8 but he has too much control over the board.

Game 3 - My opponent tries to race and almost gets there since he has double Siege Rhino but I manage to burn him out.

1-1
Round Win.

Round 3 - Brady, Hal (Abzan Aggro)

Game 1 - I play dudes and spells and end the game at 17 life.

Game 2 - He plays an early 3/3 and then a sweeper. Then he plays a Siege Rhino. I get him down to 7 but he then plays another Siege Rhino and is able to race me back. A big draw to me this weekend was playing Prophetic Flamespeaker since it survives through Drown in Sorrow and helps rebuild your board post sweeper. It was in these sorts of matches that I want exactly that effect.

Game 3 - My opponent mulligans and I just smash with little red guys.

2-1

Round Win.

Round 4 - Keulemans, Tony (Red Tokens Splash Black?)

Game 1 - We trade back and forth while he plays Hordeling Outburst. I have Goblin Rabblemaster though and can create my own goblins while whittling his down.

Game 2 - I try a new sideboard plan of taking out 15 cards from my main deck and bringing in 15 cards from the sideboard...I take out - Foundry Street Denizen, Mardu Scout, Frenzied Goblin, Firedrinker Satyr and Magma Jet. I manage to save my Goblin Rabblemaster in this game from an Arc Lightning with a Titan's Strength. That gives me enough tempo to take control. Oh yeah and my opponent sighs when he sees prophetic flamespeaker.

3-1

Round Win.

Round 5 - Skelton, Kyle (Abzan Mid-Range)

Game 1 - I kill some of his dudes and play my own guys to race. Searing Blood is MVP again. Trading a random guy + a Searing Blood for one of his blockers is the same thing as Lightning Strike to the face. Sure your opponent got a 2 for 1 but by that time you should have already got 2+ points of damage in from that creature so you shouldn't mind too much. Card advantage doesn't matter when your opponent is dead.

Game 2 - He manages to sweep the board and wrestle control with a Courser gaining a bunch of life.

Game 3 - I go full on aggro and my opponent has a Courser that cannot block. All weekend I was very impressed with Frenzied Goblin and Goblin Heelcutter. When I would curve into turn 3/4 Heelcutter it was almost impossible to lose. The dash mechanic is also particularly good against sweepers since it stops you getting X for 1'd every time.

4-1

Round Win.

Round 6 - Miles, Adam (RW Tokens)

Game 1 - I lose game one when we are racing since he drew double Stormbreath Dragon.

Game 2 - I side into my bad mono red control deck and patiently kill his stuff and eventually land a Prophetic Flamespeaker which gets chained to the Rocks. When it gets unchained from the rocks I go crazy.

Game 3 - We get into a race again, only this time I have scouring sands to help me out.

5-1

Round Win.

Round 7 - Hinojosa, Rolaund D (Abzan Aggro)

Game 1 - I fail to read that Heir of the Wilds has deathtouch but I win anyway...awkward.

Game 2 - I get Wingmate Roc'd. I make an obviously bad attack this game and my opponent calls me on it (I was dead anyway) but it gave me info for G3. I like to do this if I am going to lose a game anyway because it makes my opponent think about what tricks I may or may not have in my deck (Titan's Strength, etc.).

Game 3 - My opponent mulls hard and it lets me run him over pretty quickly.

6-1

Round Win.

Round 8 - Blanchard, Mac (Mono Red)

Game 1 - I have more burn spells than him, so I just burn out his guys. I also use a Titan's Strength to "counter" a burn spell. :)

Game 2 - In game 2 I side in Prophetic Flamespeaker. The end up shutting down his whole game plan (Hordeling Outburst) and then I play Scouring Sands.

7-1

Round Win.

Round 9 - Jessup, Danny (Abzan Mid-Range)

A non-feature, feature match.

Game 1 - Frenzied Goblin go. He is on Abzan mid-range and he is busy durdling around while I just keep playing threats. Eventually he plays Tasigur and dies because he killed some other random guy not called Frenzied Goblin.

Game 2 - My opponent plays turn 4 Siege Rhino, Turn 5 Siege Rhino, Turn 6 Tasigur and then died. He is a little unhappy after the match to say the least...oh well.

8-1

Round Win.

Wow that was a long day of Magic, especially after losing round 1...

Sunday

A pretty close repeat from the day/night before except this time when I leave the house I forgot to shut the garage door and I forgot my pen so I had to come back home to get it...lack of sleep is so rough.  

Round 10 - Blackmor, Jason R (RW Tokens)

Game 1 - We trade aggression back and forth and I get him down to 2 life and brick for 2 turns in drawing a burn spell to finish him off.

Game 2 - He manages to wrestle control of the game quite quickly as he plays all 4 Hordeling Outbursts...I do have the scouring sands part way through to disrupt him but he is dealing me big chunks of damage and burning out the guys I do play.

While I am sitting down for my off camera feature match they call my name for legacy and I put my hand up, they say that they have me down. After I lose in standard I head over to legacy and I have a game loss already since I am 5 minutes late (I am fine with that). I am paired against Jonathon, Job and we start to shuffle up. The judges then come over to tell me that I am not allowed to play in both events...I begrudgingly drop from legacy since the EV should be higher in Standard (unfortunately). The judges couldn't give me a good reason as to why I was not allowed to play in both events but promised I would get a refund so I didn't make too much of a fuss.

9-2

Round Loss.

Round 11 - Walker, Avery (RG Aggro)

This is a feature match so I need to find the video and i'll link it.

G1/G2 - The same thing happens both games. I keep a 7 card hand of 1 threat, 3 burn spells and 3 mountains. This is not an ideal hand but it is about as good as a 6 card hand and it has a lot of interaction at least. In both games I don't draw any more creatures and just get flooded on more mountains. There was no play to either of these games from my side. Afterwards, I lament with Avery a little saying that this is a good matchup for me. He thinks it is a good matchup for him...so who knows. I think my 17/18 burn spells that kill all of his guys gives me the edge but who knows.
After having to drop out of legacy, it is a little rough to start the day 0-2...

9-3

Round Loss.

It is at this point that I begin to wonder if yesterday was a fluke and maybe I should have dropped to play legacy...

Round 12 - David, Christian (RG Aggro)

Well I guess I get to find out if I was correct or not in this being a good matchup.

Game 1 - I play 1 drop into searing blood and just tempo him out using my burn spells to clear the way.

Game 2 - I use burn spells to clear the way again and finish him off with a lightning strike while I am still at 16 life.

10-3

Round Win.

This was a big win for me since I don't know how this can be a bad matchup unless I only draw 1 threat...

Round 13 - Milo, Jb (Abzan Control)

I have played against JB at several events now and I have a 100% win percentage against him. From my recollection, he likes to play grindy and/or control decks, so I assumed he would be playing Abzan or UB Control.

Game 1 - I win game one despite him playing 2 Courser or Kruphix and gaining 1 life off of each and also playing a Siege Rhino and gaining 3 life. Stoke the Flames and Frenzied Goblin are a thing...:)  

Game 2- I get killed quite quickly by Courser into, Siege Rhino into removal spell + removal spell.

Game 3 - I make good use of the dash mechanic to apply lots of pressure to JB while also protecting myself against drown in sorrow. Foundry Street Denizen + Mardu Scout is 5 damage a turn...that is no joke.

At some point during the match our neighbors next to us let me know I messed up a Goblin Rabblemaster trigger (not attacking with a Foundry Street Denizen). We call a  judge and rewind the situation so that I do it correctly...oops.

11-3

Round Win.

Round 14 - Grace, Tannon (RG Devotion)

Game 1 - I lose because I Titan's strength a searing blood to the bottom of my library on turn 2 when I am looking for land number 3, so that I can curve out properly. If I keep the Searing Blood I just crush him since he plays Xenegos and it bricks my team long enough for him to gain control.

Game 2 - I am on the play and he cannot do anything as I fully aggro/tempo him out of the game.

Game 3 - Tannon mulls to 5. I keep a reasonable 7 cards hand. He is at 6 life and he plays an Elvish Mystic and says go (we are playing quickly since I think I have won and he thinks he has lost) when I have an Eidolon in play and a stoke the flames in hand. I say ok and touch my lands. I look at my Eidolon and Tannon says "come on you missed it." This is when I should have stopped and called a judge. The judge may or may not have ruled in my favor but I really needed to slow this game down and take charge of what is happening. Instead I go on mini tilt. I don't know if I have lost yet but I know I am not winning next turn like I should have. It is worth mentioning that I am stuck on 2 lands and that is really constraining me on being able to win this game.  I  keep committing to the board but keep taking 2 damage in order to do that. I take 10 damage this game from my own lands and eventually Tannon untaps and casts Whisperwood Elemental and his manifest is a Polukranos (I don't know this yet of course). I end up using my stoke on the Whisperwood Elemental instead of him (which is a mistake since I should just all out attack then burn him out the next turn the only time the stoke him plan might be bad is if he draws Nylea's Disciple). Eventually I get him down to 2 life and I am at 10 life. He has 1 turn to kill me. He has a Polukranos but not enough mana to make it lethal. He counts up his on board damage (I have no blockers and I am tapped out) then he flashes me the Arc Lightning...I concede the game...the only problem...he is at 2 life and I have an Eidolon in play. So yeah, that happened.

I came to game and I got gamed.

11-4

Round Loss.
Round 15 - Geeo, Jacob D (Abzan)

I am tilted. I know that this last round is hugely important for my final standings and if something really weird happens (DQ or something) I could even sneak into the top 8 (not likely but still). More important is that I really want to top 16 after I threw away my chance to Top 8.

Game 1 - My curve for this game is insane...I drop a turn 1 Monastery Swiftspear. He goes land go. I Dash a Mardu Scout to hit him for 4 life and say go. On his turn he plays a Sylvan Caryatid. I play Goblin Rabblemaster and attack. He plays a turn 3 Siege Rhino going to 15 life. I untap play goblin heel cutter and attack for 14 damage. He untaps and plays another Siege Rhino but I just heelcutter attack him dead despite his two big blockers.  

Game 2 - My opponent sticks a turn 3 Courser and it gains him a ton of life. Then he also sticks a Siege Rhino and smashes me with it.  

Game 3 - My opponent mulligans and Frenzied goblin shows up to do some work alongside his other little red pals.

12-4

Round Win.

My final list is here.

Props -

My self built/ untested list for being good (that rarely happens)
Baked Goods
Jeff Chen for Winning Legacy!
Wild Slash for being the best card in Standard. People who are playing red and not playing x4 of these are doing it wrong.
Propetic Flamespeaker for surviving through all the Drown in Sorrows
Getting the 8 points I needed to make the Columbus Invitational
My awesome wife for looking after the baby for 2 days

Slops -  

My misplay(s).
The tournament being on Valentines Day
The tournament being at NRG Stadium instead of George R. Brown
$10 parking
SCG for not letting me double queue

The deck was a good choice and it really put people to the sword. Game 1 I think you are favored in a lot of matchups and then G2/3 you get to make the most of your sideboard and really stick it to your opponent when you get to be on the play. I had a lot of players mulligan aggressively against me because their hands were just too slow and then they lost because they mulliganed. I also had a few players not mulligan solid hands (4 lands, 2 siege rhino, Tasigur for example) and then just get run over.

All in all, I exactly met my goals (no overachieving here!) but I am left feeling disappointed and that I left a huge opportunity on the table. 

Cheers,
Simon