My name is Christopher and I'm a control player. I play control in every format I stumble into, regardless of how well it's positioned in the metagame. I wanted to go to the biggest Legacy event in the land and use all of my favorite cards and try to stop my opponents from using any of his. I wanted to cycle Decree of Justices and call the judge over for when I played Humility. I wanted to pull out my big twenty-sided die to put on Elsepth or Jace to show my opponent how close they were to losing the game. I wanted to play with a Cunning Wish package with all the right answers, play Swords to Plowshares and Counterspell and trick people into sitting under a Standstill for far too long. I got to do all of these things, have a lot of fun, deny most of my opponent's from having any fun and win a bit of cash along the way, and I'd like to tell you all about it.

I've played Landstill for most of the last year, it's by far my favorite Legacy deck for all of the reasons mentioned above. The deck is a real beating against any Bant or Rock deck, has a solid game against any combo deck and Zoo. I've been X-0 in matches since Ravenous Trap was printed and there are tons of tools to give this deck the advantage in the control mirror. This build is metagamed against Zoo a bit, and I thought the configuration would work well against Merfolk, (the decks worst mach-up) but I'm still having trouble with Merfolk so it may be time to reevaluate how that is being approached.

Landstill is really a control player's control deck. Rather than accumulate slow gains over the course of the game, Landstill wants to make one or two grabs at huge card advantage and then apply pressure through the one-for-ones it exercises with Swords to Plowshares and Counterspell. I think like Landstill so much because it is about the closest thing to Keeper that Legacy is going to get to and I play it much in the same fashion. Like the properly metagamed builds of the Vintage deck Keeper, my Landstill deck has select silver bullets to keep the game under control until I can enter the endgame with one of my finishers. While Demonic Tutor doesn't really exist in Legacy, Cunning Wish into Enlightened Tutor allows me access to the cards in a pretty effective manner and by playing greater redundancy than a Vintage control deck, I always just have the chances of seeing a card that I would want to tutor for.. But, you're right, we should take a look at the list.

[cardlist]

[Lands]

4 Flooded Strand

4 Tundra

3 Plains

3 Mishra's Factory

2 Island

1 Wasteland

1 Academy Ruins

1 Tolaria West

1 Karakas

1 Volcanic Island

1 Plateau

1 Scrubland

[/Lands]

[Creatures]

1 Eternal Dragon

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

4 Force of Will

4 Counterspell

4 Swords to Plowshares

3 Engineered Explosives

3 Decree of Justice

3 Cunning Wish

3 Brainstorm

3 Standstill

2 Path to Exile

2 Fact or Fiction

1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

1 Moat

1 Humility

1 Wrath of God

1 Crucible of Worlds

1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

[/Spells]

[Sideboard]

2 Path to Exile

1 Ravenous Trap

1 Enlightened Tutor

1 Extirpate

1 Pulse of the Fields

1 Return to Dust

1 Red Elemental Blast

1 Mindbreak Trap

1 Negate

1 Tormod's Crypt

2 Firespout

2 Relic of Progenitus

[/Sideboard]

[/cardlist]

The first thing that needs to be addressed is the number of Brainstorms I'm playing. I believe the first cardinal sin of Legacy is something along the lines of playing fewer than four Brainstorm in your deck that has blue in it. I also play 61 cards in my maindeck, these are things that will drive people crazy and it doesn't matter to what level I attempt to rationalize it, some people will understand and some will fight me tooth and nail on the point. For the record, I am very conservative with my use of Brainstorm, which is something I learned from Vintage Champs in 2005 (I've looked for this coverage for a couple of months now but I'll sum it up: You hold your Brainstorms until the last possible moment when playing a control deck.) As for 61 cards, I'm greedy and I just don't want to cut any.

Now that the lack of Brainstorm number four and the 61st card have been addressed, I like this build because Swords to Plowshares is still the single most efficient piece of removal ever printed, Path to Exile is up there too, even if it is a lot easier to misplay with. I like the access to Humility and Moat which are both excellent in the proper situations and together are amazing. Most decks have removal that is blanked by the fact that I have no creatures and the number of creatures that really bother me is quite low, so it works out for everyone. But, let's move on this with report.

Pregame

On Thursday night I pick up a friend named Joel, and he sleeps while I write sideboarding strategies for the three of us that will be piloting this deck in the Grand Prix. Seriously, I seldom sleep.

Friday morning comes, we get breakfast and leave here around noon with Patrick, we make a ton more stops than we planned for but hit the convention center around 4:45 P.M. Joel starts grinding, I have three byes so Patrick and I look to meet up the with local guys and do some trading. We go out for pizza, and I get to sleep around 2 A.M.

7 A.M. - Wake up for player meeting, get in the seat, think about trying to talk to Wafo-Tapa but instead listen to some people talk about how many byes they have and which versions of Rock they were playing. Instantly regret not talking with Wafo-Tapa.

As the byes are happening I aimlessly walk around for four-and-a-half hours and then just before round four begins I decide that I should trade my Jace, the Mind Sculptor up to a foil Jace, The Mind Sculptor. A few cards I don't care about later, Landstill has been upgraded, and that was the best possible decision I could have made.

Round 4 – Josh Milliken – Zoo

I sit down to the first round and start shuffling. I anticipate that I am going to be playing against Zoo a lot today, and I've really worked to make the Zoo match as favorable as reasonably possible. I'm reasonably comfortable given the circumstances and we go to roll. I will be on the draw this game, as I will for literally every game one on day one, thanks dice. My opponent examines his hand and decides to mulligan, I'm happy about this turn of events and I open up my first hand of this tournament:

Flooded Strand, Brainstorm, Fact or Fiction, Path to Exile, Humility, Standstill, Cunning Wish

Really deck? This is how you want to start this off? You see, my deck and I are generally pretty good friends; it gives me good hands and in return I keep playing it. But this was absurd. This hand is really tempting to keep, but it only has this one land. Of course I'll draw more eventually, but I wanted more now, I think about it for a minute and vocally declare, "So this is how we're going to do it today? I'll call your bluff." And I keep the hand.

My opponent opens with Wooded Foothills into Taiga and taps it for (I seize up because this hand probably cannot handle a fierce onslaught from Zoo) for Grim Lavamancer. Well... That wasn't very scary. I drew another Flooded Strand played my fetchland and passed the turn. He attacked with the Lavamancer, I took the damage and he passed the turn.

Wait a second, no two-drop!? I break my fetchland for Tundra and Path the Lavamancer. I untap and land my Standstill. He breaks it the next turn with Knight of the Reliquary and Sensei's Divining Top. Untap, Path to Exile the Knight of the Reliquary, Standstill. This time my Standstill is broken by Qasali Pridemage and a couple of one cost guys, which are answered by Force of Will and Engineered Explosives. My opponent then starts flinging burn spells at me and when I'm at seven I Cunning Wish for Pulse of the Fields and go back up to 19.

The first misplay of the tournament comes as I have this game basically sealed up. I have landed Humility and my opponent is at 22 and he is staying in this game for way too long, which I am content with. He attacks me for a couple or burns me now and then and I Pulse of the Fields myself back up to 19. However, one turn I plow a guy to get his life total to 23 and I blank when I do math. 19 + 4 = 22, right? Nope. I waste my Pulse of the Fields and now I have to actually win this game, rather than let him burn time off the clock for me. I eventually get a Decree of Justice cycled and kill all of his guys and then in a few turns him as well. What a waste, it felt like he would have stuck in this game much longer than that.

Sideboarding: -1 Standstill -1 Force of Will -1 Jace, the Mindsculptor +2 Firespout +1 Path to Exile

I'm generally able to stabilize against Zoo, but the problem is generating card advantage after the board is devoid of threats. I've experimented with a lot of board plans, but something like this works the best.

Game 2: I get a much better hand this time around, lands and everything. My opponent has a better one as well, and keeps his seven. He opens up with a Wild Nacatl and passes. I land a Tundra and pass He grows his cat and I plow it, he plays Chain Lightning at me and Kird Ape. I get a Mishra's Factory down and pass. He comes in with his Ape and attempts a Knight of the Reliquary, which is Force of Willed. I get another Factory, but no other counter magic happening, but my freshly drawn Tundra will go nicely with the sandbagged Wrath of God that I'm waiting to at least two-for-one with. Ape comes in again and I activate my old Mishra's Factory and attempt to block, he Lightning Helixs it before blockers and before blockers it becomes a 4/4, but I don't get to block, sadly. He unloads his hand: Qasali Pridemage + Tarmogoyf. I Wrath all of these guys away and all he has is Wild Nacatl on his turn.

We enter a bit of a stalemate until he draws a Top which finds him a couple of removal spells for my factories, some get countered, some are allowed to fly as I've landed a Crucible of Worlds which is eventually eaten by a Pridemage. I'm just waiting for a Cunning Wish. He finally finds another Tarmogoyf and after thinking, sends in both creatures.

This is my second misplay of the tournament. I have a Soldier token from a previously cycled Decree of Justice and two Mishra's Factory. My opponent is incoming with Wild Nacatl and a 5/6 Tarmogoyf. There is no way he is attacking without a removal spell or else he stands to lose his Tarmogoyf and then be way behind. I know this but I plan my blocks as this: Soldier Token blocking Tarmogoyf, Activate both Factories and have them both block Wild Nacatl. He passes priority after declaring the order of blockers and I make one factory a 4/4 which is just entirely greedy. My greed is punished by the Krosan Grip he has been holding. Instead of losing a factory and a token and untappying and being able to buy time to deal with his lone Tarmogoyf, he is now able to kill Both factories, not lose his Wild Nacatl or Tarmogoyf. I'm able to answer one the next turn but the Nacatl gets paired with a Fireblast that I'm not able to answer and that is exactly lethal.

Sideboarding: -1 Fact or Fiction +1 Standstill

It's going to be a lot easier for me to be able to land a Standstill here than it is on the draw.

Game 3: My opening hand is Elspeth, Knight Errant; Eternal Dragon, two lands, Two plows and an Engineered Explosives. This looks like some pretty good business. His turn one Kird ape is allowed to untap, it is paired with a Wild Nactal the next turn, I take two and then a burn spell. I plainscycle my Eternal Dragon on the end step and find my third land. Draw my fourth land for the turn, play the third and Explode his side of the table. He lands a Knight of the Reliquary on his turn, I plow it on my turn and have mana open for a Counterspell which hits another guy. He is left without a threat so Elspeth comes down and produces a token. My opponent sighs as he double bolts my Elspeth. I cycle a Decree for another token and he still doesn't have any creatures. I begin aggressively countering his creatures to try to get damage in as time in the round is getting short. I finally hit land six, which means that its time to return my Eternal Dragon and try to play him next turn. Racing becomes much easier with a 5/5 in the mix. I end the game at a comfortable 14 life, ignoring my opponent's swarm of late game guys.

4-0-0 (12 points)

Round 5 – Noah Walker – UGw Natural Order Counter-Top

Game 1: We were sitting pretty close to each other during the player meeting, Noah is pretty young looking but explains how he came in with two byes, so despite his age, he apparently knows what he is doing. I keep a hand that looks comfortable for Zoo but when he opens up with a Misty Rainforest into Tundra, things feel much better, as Landstill is highly favored against any Bant deck. His turn 2 is for a Noble Hirearch and while I play Land-Go with a hand of Plow, Plow, Path, Counterspell, Force. He gets in with his Hirearch and goes for an end of draw step Vendillion Clique. Erk! This is the guy that I don't like to see from these decks, at least, not when I'm lacking a good way to find my Karakas. I attempt to Counterspell it, he Forces removing Daze. I allow it to resolve, he takes away my Force and I draw a Wrath of God. I plow the Clique on his turn, after the Exalted trigger resolves. [I want him gaining as much life as possible to open up the ability to play Pulse of the Fields.] He hits me with a Noble Hierarch a few more times before I Wrath away it and a Goyf, and then EE away a Goyf and Counterbalance. Plow a Goyf, Plow a Pridemage, play Jace get him to 13 counters, Noah concedes.

No sideboarding

The deck is very strong against any Bant deck as it is, so I don't really need to make any changes. He boards in fifteen and spends a ton of time trying to figure out which 60 will beat me the best. I end up calling the judge on this tactic, although it really favors me, being up a game. He presents with 22 minutes to go, our game one ended with a little more than 27 minutes on the clock.

Game 2: I open up a hand with a couple Plows, Tundra, Karakas, Counterspell, Eternal Dragon and a Brainstorm. This looks pretty good. He opens up with a Pithing needle on Engineered Explosives. I don't have one in my hand, but whatever. I immediately draw one, but it isn't an issue because I'll be able to dispatch it to Brainstorm and shuffle it again. He gets a Noble Hirearch and top down on 2 along with another on three to swing in for two damage and plays a Tarmogoyf. These guys all get Wrathed away, another Tarmogoyf gets plowed and I set up a Standstill. He breaks it with Counterbalance and yet another Tarmogoyf. This time, I Cunning Wish for Return to Dust on the End Step, untap and hit both the Counterbalance and Pithing Needle, The counterbalance misses and I drop to 9 off the Goyf and then land Jace, the Mindculptor, bouncing Goyf. Being strapped for lands, he tops and replays Goyf, tapping out. Jace bounces it again and Goyf gets Force of Willed the next time around. Jace starts sculpting and I allow him a Counterbalance, Krosan Grip then a Natural Order, then I have to put away something and he is able to get a Pridemage + Natural Order, which I allow. He gets his Progenitus, tapping out. I untap, look at his top card to make sure it isn't another Natural Order, play Humility and send Progenitus back to his hand with Karakas. He concedes. I see Noah throughout the weekend, he is a really cool kid, and it was great playing with him.

5-0-0 (15 points)

Round 3 – Rafael Coqueiro – Counter-Top Thopters

Game 1: When I read the parings I cringe, in Chicago last year I finished out my awful day against him; it was a bitter experience. But this time was going to be much different, this time I was going to win. The last time we played he was on Aggro-Loam, which is very popular in Europe; I didn't anticipate it this time, but it was possible. He wins the die roll and leads out with a Volcanic Island. Could it be Dreadstill? I play a fetchland and pass. He lays his own, I get an Island, he plays a Tropical Island. Now... what kind of deck plays Volcanic and Tropical but doesn't have a play by turn three? I wait on my draw step but there is no Clique. I play a land, go, he plays a Tundra, go. Now it makes sense, this is a Thopter deck. After a few more turns of draw-go He pulls the trigger and goes for his Jace, the Mindsculptor. I allow it as my hand is Counterspell, Force, with seven lands open. He takes the opportunity to Brainstorm, seeing that he is in the control mirror. I go for an End of Turn Cycle of Decree of Justice, producing three tokens. Jace dies to all four tokens to get around StP.

Jace is dead! Long live the soldier tokens. Actually he plays another Jace on his next turn along with an Engineered Explosives at zero. I attempt to counter the EE this time around, he forces removing a Thopter Foundry. He gets another Brainstorm in and kills my tokens, I build up to nine lands. He +2's Jace on his turn to dodge my two Mishra's Factories, but it's far too late for this Jace to be saved, I cycle for another six tokens on his End step. Jace dies again, and he Enlightened Tutors for his Sword of the Meek after taking a barrage from my small army, leaving him at 2. He attempts Sword of the Meek on his turn, I Counterspell, he Force of Wills dropping to 1, I Force of Will, myself and drop to 16. At this point it becomes very obvious that he has another Force of Will, but can't do anything with it. He passes the turn and sacrifices all of his artifacts to live through the turn, draws another card and packs it in.

Sideboarding: -1 Moat, -1 Humility, -1 Swords to Plowshares -2 Path to Exile +1 Negate +1 Mindbreak Trap +2 Relic of Progenitus, +1 Tormod's Crypt

Here, the creature control obviously isn't going to be amazing. Wrath of God is still able to clear the table so it's fine, but the one-for-one cards are just not going to cut it. The Relics mostly just cycle, but they could keep him off a Crucible of Worlds or maybe even slow down his combo. Cunning Wish is able to grab Red Blast, Return to Dust and Extirpate from the board.

Game 2: He opens up with Plains into Top and I have some basics and fetchlands to work around any Back to Basics that may creep up. I draw into a Standstill on my first turn and when my opponent just lays a fetchland after topping in the upkeep, I'm pretty sure it's safe to drop this. We sit under it for close to ten turns each, at one point I cycle a Decree of Justice for a few guys, they get in there. He EEs away a couple of tokens, I produce some more. He lands his Academy Ruins, I topdeck mine so now he loses his. He starts plowing soldier tokens to preserve his life total, which works fine until Elspeth comes down. On his last turns he struggles to assemble the Thopter Foundry combo, but I don't allow any miracles to happen on my watch and show him my hand of Force of Will, Negate, Counterspell.

6-0-0 (18 points)

Round 7 – Josh Howe – Merfolk

Game 1: Josh is actually the player with the tightest technical skill that I played with all day, he opens up with a turn one Cursecatcher and I grimace. I thought all the Merfolk players would have met up with a Zoo or Goblins player by now. Well, sometimes you play a deck with a bad match-up, and this is my nightmare match. I lead out a plains, he plays a Silvergirl Adept in the pre-combat main, revealing another Cursecatcher. I plow the Adept after Declare Attackers but before damage to see if I can get him to swap it out, he allows the Plow to happen. He rains down with his Cursecather and I start taking the slow beats. On his next turn he finds his third land and comes down with a Merrow Reejery, I attempt a plow on it before damage and it is countered. I try for a Wrath of God to get a few guys and this too is countered. Things are looking mighty grim and I prepare to pack it in as he will be putting lethal on the table next turn and has a Reejery to tap my Factory. The next turn comes and I drop to 8 and he does put lethal damage down in the form of Coralhelm Commander. On my turn I don't have many outs, but I manage to draw Humility, I cast it and it sticks. Suddenly things are looking up. We wait for nearly 10 minutes for the oracle text on Humility and I don't say anything about the clock because I am hoping to lock him in game one and leave him with no time in game two to mount a comeback. We pick play back up again and I find myself drawing bomb after bomb. At one point my hand is Decree of Justice, Decree of Justice, Jace the Mindsculptor, Fact or Fiction. I know I can't do anything with any of these cards because he will simply concede if it becomes obvious that he cannot win this game. I let him take me down to 3 before I cycle a Decree of Justice for a few guys, killing all of his attackers, sadly he isn't happy about this and packs it in.

Sideboarding: -3 Cunning Wish -2 Standstill -1 Jace, the Mindsculptor +2 Firespout +2 Path to Exile +1 Red Elemental Blast +1 Enlightened Tutor

The idea here is to speed up and get my more expensive cards out so Cunning Wish goes for the Paths that I'm going to be wishing for anyway. Standstill is a huge liability when I'm on the draw as they are just too likely to land a Vial, Jace is just too expensive and doesn't do much against these guys.

Game 2: This game is short, but we only have a small amount of time left so all I need to do is not lose. My hand is triple Brainstorm, plow, Island, Fetchland Force, FoF. He opens up with Vial, I Force, he Forces (at least it wasn't Daze.) His hand was apparently Island, Vial, Force Guys. An Endless stream of Merfolk flow from this vial and I just don't see the answers.

Game 3: The short of this is that I just had a hand with three plows and a Plains. He lands a turn three back to basics which turns off my Factory and his Mutavault. I only had two lands at the time and then proceed to draw basics like a true champion. I plow all of his guys and then start looking for how I can win this, A brainstorm reveals that Moat and Humility are both right on top of my library, and I have enough lands to cast them. He has countered a lot of things so early in this game so I just try to stick Elspeth, he counters it. Next turn I try for Moat, resolves! Next turn, Humility, resolves! He asks me if I can win in turns because he cannot. I can't. Had I remembered at this point that we had a long judge call and no time extension I wouldn't have been so eager to accept his offer for a draw but as it stood I was just ecstatic to get a point out of a bad match.

6-0-1 (19 points)

Round 8 – Michael Bernat – Landstill (UWr) (Knappstill)

Game 1: I lied when I said that I didn't win any rolls on day one. But, when I see the parings and I see that I'm paired against Michael Bernat I know that this is a Landstill mirror. When I sit down I roll the die and the result is low. I think to myself that this is great because I won't have to be on the play, he will just beat my roll and choose to play first. He rolls a one and I'm forced to say "I will draw first." which sends off all kinds of alarms for him. I'll try to make this short, I play a Standstill on two and we play draw-go for many, many turns, mostly with him discarding. Eventually, I decide I've had enough and pull the trigger on my Decree of Justice. Mike looked really shocked to see this and I plop down five guys. They get in once and he is forced to break my Standstill on his turn with Engineered Explosives and then Elspeth. We get into a counter war over Elspeth and he wins, but that's all right because I have four colors of mana and my own Engineered Explosives ready to go, but after that my hand is pretty weak. I try for my Explosives after he blows up my tokens and he has yet another counterspell. Things are looking pretty bad. Elspeth goes up to six when he produces another token and my turn comes up. I draw another Decree and think that things are going to be fine. He produces another token and I cycle my Decree to kill this Elspeth, which it does. He gets another explosives and kills my guys. I make a big breakthrough when I land Crucible of Worlds and take out a Jace of his before landing my own Jace which eventually wins the game. I breath a sigh of relief when this one is over, he tells me to chill out, this isn't the super bowl. Some people like control mirrors, can't help it.

Sideboarding: -1 Moat, -1 Humility, -1 Wrath of God, -2 Swords to Plowshares +1 Negate +1 Mindbreak Trap +1 Extirpate +2 Relic of Progenitus

Once again, Relic can just cycle, but may be able to take some of the mileage out of his Crucibles, Negate and Mindbreak Trap are fine counters and Extirpate can be a fine card to eliminate opposing threats. I expect him to bring in Meddling Mages and assume the role of the aggro deck in this match up because... well, I have better control cards. Swords come out over Path to avoid Mage on Swords.

Game 2: We talk before the game and he isn't sure about it but it worked out for me so he decides to play second this game. I have to take my first mulligan of the event and find a six that I can be happy with. I land a turn two Standstill and we sit under it for several turns. He is eventually is forced to break it with Brainstorm when I'm at 6 cards in hand, before I discard I extirpate his Brainstorms and see his hand: Elspeth, Elspeth, Spell Snare, Spell Snare, Force of Will, Plains, Wasteland. The two cards that he put back for the Brainstorm were Fire/Ice and Swords to Plowshares. It sucked to give me a free shuffle effect, but it happens. He attempts his Elspeth on his turn, which results in a battle with counters, He wins it as I'm holding EE and have {w}{u}{b}{r} available. My EE comes down and takes Elspeth out. His next Elspeth is met with the same fate and The soldiers are killed by a cycled Decree. Things are looking pretty good, both our hands are empty and I have board position. That is until he hits a Crucible of Worlds. I can't do anything about it, but I imagine that I'll find an answer, I have nine lands on the table. In eleven turns I have two lands on the table and he has Factories going crazy, I burn all of my plows trying to get them but Mike has decided to draw literally every Counterspell and Force of Will in his deck. He rallies back for the win. Ugh, I was so far ahead and now... we're going to game three with six minutes on the clock.

Game 3: Before we even shuffle up for this he offers me the draw, stating that it isn't reasonable that either of us is going to be able to win before time. I think about it but I tell him that it's probably just better to see if one of us can blow the other out. He finally does board in guys, I don't have any guys to board in so I wait. I get a hand with Elspeth, which is basically the key to winning. It has two lands and Double Brainstorm. Mike keeps a hand of double Descendant of Kiyomaro. Neither of us are able to deal damage to the other because neither of us see double white. We shake hands and accept the draw.

6-0-2 (20 points)

All I need to do at this point is to draw or win to get into day two. I'm nervous as I had better tiebreakers than Micheal last round, but I get paired against the other 20 point person.

Round 9 – Chris Bergeson – Cat Sligh

I get the word from a friend that I'm paired against Cat Sligh, a faster Zoo variant. The deck is very draw dependent against Landstill and I'm not looking forward to it. When I arrived at the tournament I had decided that I was playing to win and that meant no Ids. However, I was now faced with a "Win, Draw, or go home" scenario, and the answer seemed to be, "Take the sure thing." When I get to the table he is shaking and begins explaining to me how if we draw we will both have 21 points. I cut him off with a , "Yes, I would like to ID" going to 21 points not only gets me a seat tomorrow, but gets me out of the draw bracket.

6-0-3 (21 points)

I make day two and we go out to eat at this really expensive place because we have a coupon. Coupon doesn't come close to making up for how expensive this is. I order a hamburger and thankfully they cooked it as raw as possible despite me ordering it well done. By the time we can flag the waitress down again the cooks have gone and she doesn't charge me for it. I don't eat it still and just decide to go without food the way I normally go without sleep. As a present to myself I decide to sleep for a few hours, it may not be the best plan, but it is still a solid one. I manage to get to bed around midnight and wake up at 7 A.M. again.

Day 2

I manage to get to my seat for the player meeting at the zero hour. I think about talking to Wafo-Tapa who is sitting next to me again, but instead I think about how I'm going to misdirect my opponents while thinking of funny jokes and laughing while some people tried not to stare at me. Talking with Wafo-Tapa was still the better idea.

Round 10 – Gus Schade – ANT

Game 1: Day 2 starts out in fine form, where I win the die roll and I finally get to play first in a game one. I keep a hand that is pretty well rounded and said hand is quickly attacked by his opening Thoughtseize. Once it is fairly obvious that he is playing storm I drop an EE at zero in hopes that I'll be able to somehow curb mana development or turn off any Empty the Warrens plan. I'm left with a Counterspell he knows about and he attempts to go off via Ad Nauseum on turn five. I should have realized that this one was bait, but it must be countered anyway, so Counterspell is cast. I tap four (with Counterspell mana open) to play Jace, the Mindsculptor and take a look at his top card: City of Traitors. He has plenty of lands open so I figure that giving him one more can't hurt that much. This is my third Misplay of the day, I 100% should have Brainstormed to fix my hand, or at least give it a shot.

The City of Traitors pairs with the Cabal Ritual in his hand so that he is able to play another Ad Nauseum with a few mana floating. and hits Ill-Gotten Gains, Tendrils of Agony, a lot of cantrips, two Chrome Mox. He thinks hard before revealing cards once he is at five life – apparently he plays three Ad Nauseum. He picks them up once he is at two life.

Generally a player will pick his cards up here, but it seldom hurts to allow your opponent the ability to misplay the combo. There are numerous stories from competitive events where a player simply doesn't know how the combo works. In this case, Gus has the win in hand, but the storm count is very low and I'm wondering if he is going to be able to make it work. He leads with Chrome Mox resolves, imprints Ponder, play Brainstorm. Chrome Mox resolves, imprints Ill-Gotten Gains. This is actually my second play error. I should have activated me Engineered Explosives at zero right here, to deny him a mana, but I blanked on it because I figured that it wasn't all that important. Gus plays his lone Dark Ritual and attempts to cantrip some more, once the storm count is at nine he is left with but three mana available. He laments that he fizzled and I breathe a sigh of relief. He talks about the line of play that would have won the game as I prepare to board out most of my dead cards. His play was rather tight, but sometimes you make an oversight that costs the game. I do the same thing in our next game.

Sideboarding: -1 Moat, -1 Humility, -1 Wrath of God -1 Path to Exile -1 Engineered Explosives +1 Negate +1 Red Elemental Blast +2 Relic of Progenitus +1 Extirpate

Most storm decks are going to board in some kind of a guy against you, either Xantid Swarm or Dark Confidant, leaving Swords to Plowshares in means that you'll have an out to them as soon as they are played. As always Relic cycles and this time can keep Cabal Rituals out of Threshold range, but he probably isn't going to try for an Ill-Gotten Gains, so keeping that at bay isn't a big deal. Negate is a pretty good Counterspell and Red Blast can hit a cantrip where Path can only hit a guy and I have other cards for that. Extirpate can take away an Infernal Tutor or cantrip, which is slightly better than another EE.

Game 2: I keep a really loose seven with a hand of double Mishra's Factory, Tundra, Volcanic Island, Engineered Explosives, Force of Will, Island. The hope is that he will be looking to play a much slower game and my Factories will be able to get in there for enough to make Ad Nauseum quite bad. He leads off with Preordain and passes. I draw Force number two, play an Island and pass. He plays a Dark Confidant, I wish I had a Plow. I draw another Force of Will and play Factory, he reveals something and plays another Dark Confidant. I play a second blue source and he reveals a couple of cards for his turn and moves to combat. I'm at a comfortable 20. If I block then I'm left without mana to feign Counterspell, but he loses a Confidant and I stay at 18. I look at my hand and rationalize that I can play EE for 2 next turn, kill both confidants and have Force of Will up to stop him next turn. I drop to 16. He plays Lotus Petal, Infernal Tutor for Cabal Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Lions Eye Diamond, Lion's Eye Diamond, Lion's Eye Diamond Tendrils, Storm is seven. Ouch! I Force of Will one copy, drop to 1 and am left with Force of Will in my hand. I untap, draw yet another Force of Will play EE at two and kill his Confidants and hope that I can get back in this game. He plays Internal Tutor into Tendrils and I am done.

Game 3: This hand is looking much better, Elspeth, Mishra's Factory, Swords to Plowshares, Force of Will, Tundra, Flooded Strand, Standstill. I lead my Tundra out and he plays Dark Confidant off a Dark Ritual, who is sent to the farm. I lead out Standstill because the chances of him being able to kill me on this next turn after that are pretty low. He breaks it with a Ponder, I draw the cards without looking at them as a tell that I don't care about this spell at all; he shuffles because he is looking for something. He passes back to me. I play land number three and examine my hand, Cunning Wish, Force of Will, Counterspell, Counterspell. Pretty good, I pass the turn. He casts a Duress and takes Counterspell. With Force as backup I feel that I can apply a clock right now. He takes a turn filled with cantripping but gets no business happening. I start sending over some damage and he spends another turn with some combination of Preordain, Brainstorm and/or Ponder, which ends in a Thoughtseize, which I allow to resolve, he takes Counterspell. I draw Brainstorm and send some damage over, animating Mishra's factory so that he isn't able to Echoing Truth or Chain of Vapor my soldier token to avoid massive damage.

Gus has another discard effect which takes Force of Will and then starts producing mana, He gets to Infernal Tutor and goes hellbent with Lion's Eye Diamond, I allow it and Cunning Wish for Mindbreak Trap once he attempts Ad Nauseum. He extends the hand and we talk for a bit. I compliment his play skill, which was rather tight from my observation. When I ask him if he posts on the source I learn this is actually Yawg07, the famous guy you know. I knew his name at one point but apparently forgot. We talk about The Source for a while and the WW deck he has played locally. I blank on thinking of telling him that I really like his work but instead talk about how insane Sandreline's work is, I didn't even think to compliment him on his work, which is super-duper.

7-0-3

Round 11 – Kurtis Droge - U/b Faeries

Game 1: The best thing about playing in a big event four hours from your home is playing against someone from the local shop. He knows exactly what I'm playing and I have no idea how Faeries made day two (he has the only copy in the day two field.) Kurtis gets a game loss for a registered deck and is very sour about it, which is understandable. My game plan skews from winning two games into just stopping him from winning game one.

I open up with a slow, controlling hand and we play draw-go for quite some time, he makes some Wasteland plays that are not on Factories and then I play out my factories to block his Mutavaults. I build up to five lands and go for a Fact or Fiction which gets me a Moat and a few other cards. I play the Moat and now just need to dig for Humility and I will have this match. We start to battle over a Clique and he manages to get a swarm of over-cost fliers happening and I try to curb them with Academy Ruins + Engineered Explosives. He hits Sower of Temptation and manages to push through a lot of damage with it while I deal with his other cards. Finally I EE at four to kill the Sower and my Moat. He is able to produce lethal with two Mutavaults with access to double Smother for my Factories.

Sideboarding: -1 Moat +1 Path to Exile

Moat + Humility isn't going to win me the game, but everything else is pretty good. It's painfully grim that he is playing Bitterblossom in the board and that this game is going to be a train wreck because he plays against this exact build of Landstill so frequently.

Game 2: I see Engineered Explosives in my opening hand, which is essential. I open with Island, he with Mutavault. I can either lay down a Tundra and set up EE @ 2 preemptively without worry of Daze or I can play my Factory to discourage his Mutavault. I side with the Factory and he plays a turn two Bitterblossom. I am then on the back-step for the rest of the game. He gets Clique after I handle EE and Jace, the Mindsculptor; which is a total beating from this deck.

The short of this story is that he ultimates Jace at me and my hand of lands + Force of Will gets shuffled in, but my graveyard is Crucible of Worlds, two Mishra's Factories, Wasteland, Engineered Explosives and Eternal Dragon, which should be enough to win the game. I try to get back in by using Academy Ruins to get back my Crucible of Worlds and then replay Mishra's Factories and EE away his guys. This plan depends on him doing nothing for roughly six of eight turns. I make another misplay and play an Engineered Explosives with X equal to five [Sunburst will be two] when there is Bitterblossom, Sower of Temptation and two Faerie tokens on the table and I have the lands to pay six mana and detonate it. He plays a Spellstutter Sprite and I'm a full turn behind at that point, which costs me the game. He finds Force of will off a Jacestorm the turn I attempt to cast EE with sunburst of four to kill both Jace and Sower of Temptation while I am at one.

Had I not made the misplay I would have been able to return Eternal Dragon, get back my EE again and set it to two, play the Eternal Dragon and leave him back on defense while I try to push through lethal with my factories. If he found another Sower of Temptation I could use the second EE in my yard to clear it out. Sadly, none of this came to pass and I've lost my first match of the tournament.

7-1-3

Round 12 - Gaudenis Vidugiris – Merfolk

Game 1: This guy is quiet, which is fine; we sit down and I hope he's playing Zoo but I can't get that lucky. He wins the roll and opens with turn one Island, go. I play my own, go. He plays Silvergil Adept revealing Merrow Reejery *gulp*. It resolves. I play a Plains to go with my Island but don't really have anything to say about this. He misses his land drop and thinks before playing Standstill. I think about it for a moment, I have the option of Forcing, but I decide that we're totally doing this. I land a Factory, he Wastelands me. I draw another Factory, he draws another Wasteland. I keep taking two damage every turn just waiting to draw a Decree of Justice or another Factory, if I do I will win the game and if I don't... I'm going to need to break this Standstill.

I fall to three life and consider breaking the Standstill, but it isn't any good, I still don't have a single Plow. I wait another turn, he attacks me down to one and I attempt Fact or Fiction at the end of his turn. He forces removing a Daze, I Counterspell, he Forces again removing Merrow Reejery. On my main my hand is Elspeth, Wrath of God, Engineered Explosives, Standstill, cards that don't matter. If I can land EE at two, blow it and then Standstill, that gives me a pretty good chance of coming back, so I start off with Explosives at two, he plays another Force of Will removing another Merrow Reejery. Well, that sucks. My options are rather limited now, I can't play Standstill and Wrath is my only removal spell. I decide that I lose to creatures anyway, so if he has a Lord, let's see it. Elspeth resolves and I produce a Soldier token and pass. He plays Coralhelm Commander and bashes in with his adept after sinking four mana into the Commander, leaving no mana available.

That's right, sometimes Merfolk doesn't get the Lord of Atlantis. I cast Wrath of God on my turn, produce another Soldier token and play Standstill. Gaudenis breaks Standstill with a Jitte and plays Mutavault. Elspeth produces another Soldier token and I wait to kill this Mutavault. He animates, equips attacks. I trade my guys for his and he goes for a Cursecatcher, that gets Counterspelled and he passes the turn. Elspeth produces another token and I play a freshly drawn Humility. He gets the oracle text from a judge and we keep playing. I manage to find a Crucible of Worlds and am able to replay all three copies of Mishra's Factory that have died through the game. I wish there was a way for him to stay in this game but Elspeth produces a problem of inevitability so he packs it in.

Sideboarding: -3 Cunning Wish -2 Standstill -1 Jace, the Mindsculptor +2 Firespout +2 Path to Exile +1 Red Elemental Blast +1 Enlightened Tutor

Game 2: He opens up with turn one AEther Vial. I try to one-for-one him over the course of the game but it just isn't any good, his Vial gets out of hand and there are so many lords that I can't deal with. I die on his 5th turn.

Game 3: My hand is triple Brainstorm, Island, Plains, Tundra, Enlightened Tutor. This is good, because I want to lock him out of the game with Moat + Humility and this hand can probably find the tools to do it. I play land, Go. He leads with Cursecatcher. Draw Path to Exile, play Plains, pass. He plays Silvergil Adept revealing Cursecatcher, attack. I attempt a Brainstorm to see if he'll sacrifice the Cursecatcher – no dice. I draw into Mishras Factory, Moat, Humility ad put back Factory, Enlightened Tutor. I then try to Path the Silvergil Adept, he still doesn't bite and I take one as he gets his basic.

I untap and play my land, he gets another Adept and Wastelands me, adding Cursecatcher to the mix. I untap, Brainstorm into no lands, and make a huge mistake by Brainstorming again immediately. This seals me out of the ability to get my 5th land. In a timely fashion. He plays Mutavault and then a Lord, I have to play into Daze, he Spell Pierces my Humility. I drop to 5. I attempt a Moat and he Dazes I Force, he Forces. Had I not misplayed, chaining Brainstorms I would have been able to see two additional cards and only one of them needed to be a land to get me out of this mess. As it is I take 13 damage and die.

7-2-3

Round 13 – Benjamin Coursey – Rev614 (Doomsday/Show and Tell)

Game 1: This is exactly the same build that made top 8. Game one starts off with him winning the roll and Brainstorming off an Underground Sea. He gets a top active and we go slow sculpting our hands. He Thoughtseizes me a couple of times and takes Cunning Wish both times. I am able to get up to five lands and have a hand of Moat, Force of Will, Counterspell, Swords to Plowshares, Lands. I've been pinging him with a Decree of Justice token but it doesn't make a lot of difference. He has a few lands and top and he finally decides to pull the trigger. Dark Ritual into Doomsday, I figure that this one is bait since he knows my hand has at least Counterspell + Force of Will, so I tap out to Force of Will it. Wrong call. He Spell Pierces my Force of Will and makes his Doomsday stack. My notes read that his exiled pile was 3 Stifle, 2 Emrakul, 3 Show and Tell, 2 Shelldock Isle, a Sunken Ruins and a bunch of Cantrips.

From this information I've deduced that he probably built a storm stack, I couldn't do anything about it anyway. He passes and this baffles me, with top in play he just passed the turn. I draw into Fact or Fiction and start counting permanents just in case. There doesn't seem to be a good way for me to survive an Emrakul without playing Moat, but Fact or Fiction gives me a better chance to hit Karakas, I pass the turn. He plays Shelldock Isle and does his thing with it and then attempts a Cloud of Faeries. I quickly Counterspell this and it resolves. It seemed cute to just win that turn, but he did give me a bonus turn by not tapping the top to play Shelldock on that previous turn anyway, so now I've just gotten another bonus turn. I play Fact or Fiction at his end step and it doesn't really give me anything. I untap and attack with my Soldier and Factory, play a land and Moat and hope to draw Karakas on my next turn. He makes an Emrakul and I take 15 and lose everything but two lands. I draw into Tolaria West but don't have a way to both Transmute it and play Karakas so the game ends.

Sideboarding: -1 Moat -2 Path to Exile -3 Swords to Plowshares +2 Relic of Progenitus +1 Extirpate +1 Red Elemental Blast +1 Negate +1 Mindbreak Trap

Against a control deck, Doomsday decks really want a slower, non-storm win. Mindbreak Trap can hit Emrakul coming off an Isle. All of the other cards are just like the match against ANT, except that Humility can randomly come down off a Show and Tell to stop Emrakul and unlike ANT, this deck isn't likely to bring in creatures.

Game 2: I mulligan into a hand of Volcanic, Negate, Counterspell,Wasteland, Brainstorm, Cunning Wish. This is fine, but I'm sure he is about to dismantle my hand. I play my land and go, dreading how this game is going to go. He plays Island and passes. I draw a Plateau and play it. He plays a Sea and passes. I play my Wasteland and pass it to him. He misses his land drop and I cast Cunning Wish for Enlightened Tutor. Ideally, I want to draw another land and play Crucible and Wasteland every non-basic he plays, but instead I draw a blank. But I notice that he missed his land drop so this is probably important to try to Waste him here. I forget that he plays Stifle and just go for it, He briefly curses as I target his Sea and plays Brainstorm. He plays a Shelldock Isle on his turn and I draw a Flooded Strand but don't feel comfortable enough to tap out to play my Crucible, and pass. He misses another land drop. He misses something like six land drops and discards a lot of cards to his end step. I'm able to build up to six lands and play Elspeth and start getting in for some real damage. He finally draws a Sensei's Divining Top and casts it. I Counterspell, he Force of Wills, I Negate.

He looks around frantically and says, "Top in response" tapping his other mana source and grabs some cards from his library, hastily

I say, "There is a reason you're casting Force of Will, Top isn't in play" trying to get it in before he looks

"Noooooooooooooooooo!"

He packs the whole thing up and we talk about his deck.

Speaking of that, lets take a look at this list:

[cardlist]

[Lands]

1 Island

3 Marsh Flats

4 Polluted Delta

1 Scrubland

3 Shelldock Isle

2 Sunken Ruins

1 Swamp

1 Tundra

4 Underground Sea

[/Lands]

[Creatures]

1 Cloud of Faeries

3 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

4 Brainstorm

2 Dark Ritual

4 Doomsday

1 Engineered Explosives

4 Force of Will

3 Lim-Dul's Vault

1 Lotus Petal

3 Sensei's Divining Top

1 Shared Fate

3 Show and Tell

1 Solitary Confinement

3 Spell Pierce

3 Stifle

3 Thoughtseize

[/Spells]

[Sideboard]

1 Armageddon

1 Dark Ritual

2 Extirpate

1 Form of the Dragon

3 Hydroblast

3 Leyline of the Void

1 Show and Tell

1 Snap

2 Solitary Confinement

[/Sideboard]

[/cardlist]

His interview about the deck can be found here but we can still talk about the deck. Apparently common stacks involve Shared Fate, Shelldock Isle, Emrakul, Cloud of Faeries and Engineered Explosives/Stifle to hit a Pithing Needle or Wasteland. For my taste the deck crams too many catch-alls in and doesn't play enough card filtering, I'd like to see it be at four Brainstorm, four Top, and at least thee Ponder. But this deck did put two players into day two and one of them into the top 8, so there is obviously room for all types.

8-2-3

Round 14 – Ryan McKinnley – Lands

Game 1: Ryan tries to say as little as possible to me during this game, which is fine, I don't talk much with him either, except any time I do something or he casts a spell or activates an ability. He wins the roll and starts off with turn one Manabond, Go. Signaling that he has the Intuition. My very well-rounded hand of Cunning Wish, Crucible, Island, Fetchland, Wasteland, Plow, Fact or Fiction may just get there after all. I lead out my Flooded Strand. He plays Exploration, Fetchland, Rishadan Port. He fetches and ports my Freshly played Island on my end step. He Intuitions on his main for Loam, Port, Waste. I give him the Wasteland and he plays a pair of Wastelands for turn. I get to play my Crucible and he gets me under a savage Wastelock from there out. Eventually I get three basics on the table thanks to Crucible plus Flooded Strand and on the turn that he Ports my three basics I float two blue and a white and cast Cunning Wish at the end of my upkeep. I fetch into Scrubland and Extirpate his Loams. Over the next few turns I wasteland all of his ports, then all of his Wastelands, then all of his other lands. He draws a Mindslaver eventually and I cast my first counter of the game. He really looks like he will stick in the game for as long as possible, and I'm hoping he will, as I'm sandbagging both Jace and Elspeth as well. He gets an Intuition and because I've written down the relevant cards in his library I know that this can't actually do anything, so I let it resolve. Big mistake, he see's that he can't do anything with it as well and concedes the game.

Sideboarding: -1 Humility, -1 Wrath of God, -1 Swords to Plowshares -2 Path to Exile, -2 Engineered Explosives +2 Relic of Progenitus +1 Tormod's Crypt +1 Negate +1 Mindbreak Trap, +1 Enlightened Tutor +1 Extirpate

I got lucky being able to Cunning Wish for Extirpate game one, and you can't count on that, but leaving a Flooded Strand back in case you happen upon the Extirpate is fine, Relic and Crypt are obviously going to be pretty good here and Enlightened Tutor is an auxiliary copy of those and Crucible of Worlds. Negate and Trap are just more cards that can either pitch to Force of Will or counter something themselves. This plan actually deviates from my standard plan a bit because I saw that his deck was using Bayou and Volrath's Stronghold, which is an indicator that he intends to board in Dark Confidants, so keeping more Plows in should really go the distance.

Game 2: I feel really good about my hand of Flooded Strand, Plains, Swords to Plowshares, Force of Will, Brainstorm, Enlightened Tutor, Elspeth. Ryan mulligans once and keeps an aggressive hand of turn one Mox Diamond, Tropical Island, Dark Confidant. I draw a second Flooded Strand I play my Plains and plow the dark Confidant. He plays a Manabond, Exploration, Factory, Port. I untap and he Ports me. I play my next Flooded Strand and he takes his turn of Manabond, go. Clearly these cards aren't doing anything for him so I don't worry about countering them. He doesn't port me on my turn, which is pretty much a clear indication of his intention to Intuition. I get a fourth land and Counterspell said Intuition. He untaps, attacks me and plays another land. He ports a Tundra on my upkeep which is tapped to cast Enlightened Tutor for Crucible of Worlds. I play the Crucible and pass. He draws and attacks, I untap, play a land and play Elspeth, produce a token and pass.

He attacks Elspeth, I let the damage through and he cycles and passes. Elspeth produces another token and I sit back with Counterspell. He cannot attack into Elspeth again or my soldiers will trade in for his Factory so he passes it back. I get up to seven lands and I start sending a blessed soldier in to do combat. He plays a fresh Barbarian Ring and aims it at my untapped Soldier token blows it up sends his Factory back over to Elspeth, I cycle Decree of Justice leaving two mana open, producing two tokens, killing his factory. Elspeth produces another token, I Counterspell an Ensnaring Bridge. He drops to 14 now and draws and transmutes a Tolaria West for Engineered Explosives but can't get it to four, and doesn't have enough untapped to get my Crucible anyway. He says the first complete sentence of the match to me when he asks, "You have the Force anyway, right?"

I show him my hand of Force of Will, Negate, Counterspell and say "Yes, I do." and he extends the hand.

9-2-3

Round 15 – Greg Quick - Rock

Game 1: I don't know how close this list is to the list that made top 8, but it is twelve threats, and a ton of discard. I'm on the play this time around and he mulligans to five and finds a hand of turn one Thoughtseize choosing Cunning Wish, turn two Dark Confidant, Turn three Hymn to Tourach, Sensei's Divining Top; turn four Knight of the Reliquary. My non-Land plays were Swords to Plowshares Dark Confidant, Counterspell Hymn to Tourach. Standstill, Path to Exile targeting Knight of the Reliquary. The game goes on a few more turns, he gets on a good roll of topping into disruption or a threat but concedes once he finally draws a blank after I've gone through most of his creatures and have Jace on the table.

Sideboarding: -1 Engineered Explosives +1 Path to Exile

Against a deck like this, he is going to try to attack my mana and none of his threats cost one so EE at its cheapest is going to be four mana. Decks like this will almost never let you two-for-one them on creatures anyway.

Game 2: Greg finds a much better hand this time around and leads with Mox Diamond and Bayou into Tarmogoyf. As my hand is stacked with three Plow effects and lands, I'm fine with this turn of events. He plays Dark Confidant, I plow them both. I untap and he plays Thoughtseize taking Moat and another Goyf, I take four off this one, and wait to see if he has another play, he doesn't. I Path to Exile the Goyf on his end step and stabilize with a Standstill. He breaks it with Inquisition of Kozilek, which can only take a Path to Exile or Counterspell, he plays a Knight that is dealt with and then a top.

We enter a game state when he has Top to filter card quality but I draw into cards that generate card advantage. So I'm able to handle his Hymn to Tourachs and Gerrard's Verdicts because if I draw a piece of removal, counter magic or a draw spell, I'm going to be really far ahead because his threat density is so low. He eventually Thoughtseizes me and sees a hand of Force of Will, Counterspell and he is forced to play around the Force of Will for many, many turns, he finally gets two threats before tapping his top and I Engineered Explosives the other. Now he stands to lose his Top if he casts it, so this cuts out his card filtering. By the time he finds two cards I care about this time I have a hand full of answers and Jace waiting to come down in the aftermath, which ends the game.

10-2-3

Round 16 – Noah Swartz – R/b Goblins

We sit down and Gerry Thompson and Kurtis Droge are next to us with exactly the same number of points and Gerry says that neither of them can make top 32, which is the break point for the next tier of prizes. It has been a long weekend and I was hoping to just draw anyway, doubly so now that I had this information. I wanted to take a closer look at standings, but the judge informed us that they were strictly enforcing tardiness so, no dice on that. The round has started and we have limited options. He accepts the draw after a bit of thought, noting that he is a few places behind me in parings and we talk for a while about the match-up and how he normally plays control.

I was actually in a position to make top 32; I had excellent tiebreakers because everyone I lost to and all the people I drew with were in day two. At this time I was in 46th place I believe and, looking at the end results my tiebreakers were good enough to get me into 29th - 27th place had I won this round, and were still good enough to keep me in the top 64 if I lost. I am accustomed to having greater access to numbers and time to work them out, but that wasn't the case this time around and I have to be happy with the finish that the draw gave me. All things considered I'm content with this draw as he was playing a build with Wastes + Ports.

10-2-4

Because I drew I went and watch Wafo-Tapa get smashed by Patrick Sullivan playing burn. Patrick seems to be under the impression that Guillaume doesn't speak English, [which I heard him speaking earlier each time I saw him over the weekend] so he makes large, non-verbal gestures and basically acts out how dead Wafo-Tapa's hand of infinite blue spells is to Vexing Shusher, two Goblin Guides and burn. This was the proper time not to talk to Wafo-Tapa, even though it meant that I wasn't going to talk to him at all.

I do pretty well, and we pack up and head back home rather than wait for the top eight non-sense to pan out. I drive my friend back home, get back to my house at 3:15 A.M, and then wait until people wake up to see what is going on.

I feel I had only underestimated combo in this metagame, but it should have been expected that pros were going to bring the most non-interactive decks possible as a way to dodge the bullet of learning how to play the gauntlet. For the future I may try to find a slot for an Ethersworn Canonist in the board but, I haven't fully decided where just yet.

Anyway, the report is over now, and I'm glad that you read it.

~Christopher Walton

im00pi at gmail for Electronic Mail

Master Shake on The Source