Friday, 5:15 A.M.: I’m awoken to the dulcet sounds of my phone’s alarm. Had to get dressed, eat, and get in the car in fifteen minutes or so so that Dad ould drive me to Fort Lauderdale airport in about twenty minutes. The goal is to give myself enough time to make it through security for my 7:20 A.M. flight to Orlando. It’s $9 dollars for the ticket, $19 for taxes, and $40 for my carry-on. Clever, Spirit Air—very clever. How did I convince myself that this was more convenient than just taking the bus? Oh well, at least a forty-six-minute plane ride is shorter than three or so hours on a bus.

Friday, 8:00 A.M.: I arrive in Orlando, wearing the scarf and hoodie that wouldn’t fit into my luggage. I expect that I’ll be removing them shortly. I am quickly proven wrong—the weather for the entire weekend would be remarkably un-Floridian.

Friday, 9:30 A.M.: After about fifty minutes on Orlando’s lovely bus system, I arrive at the Orlando Wyndham Resort. I meet up with James Searles and Melissa DeTora; at least I’m here early enough to nab some free breakfast, right? Nope, no free breakfast here. To Denny’s we go.

Tuesday, 3:30 P.M.: I decide the timestamp conceit has gotten old . . . Moving along.

James and Missy were initially on Kessig Wolf Run, while I was testing W/U Delver. James and I played some games in between bites of food, and our lovely waitress Lorraine was kind enough to keep my coffee mug full even after we’d finished and paid. After we’d played a few too many Game 1s, we decided to head over to the tournament site to practice the matchup post-sideboard. Missy and I played matches while James conspired with Raphael Levy to come up with a W/U control deck. Switching over to testing Delver against their Control deck, it seemed that the Control brew was just missing that special something, and by dinnertime, James and Raph were on W/U Humans instead.

For the record, this was my deck:

"W/U Delver"

• Creatures (16)
• 2 Merfolk Looter
• 3 Invisible Stalker
• 4 Delver of Secrets
• 4 Snapcaster Mage
• 3 Geist of Saint Traft

• Spells (23)
• 2 Gut Shot
• 2 Midnight Haunting
• 4 Mana Leak
• 4 Vapor Snag
• 3 Gitaxian Probe
• 4 Ponder
• 2 Runechanter's Pike
• 2 Sword of War and Peace

• Lands (21)
• 1 Plains
• 9 Island
• 3 Moorland Haunt
• 4 Glacial Fortress
• 4 Seachrome Coast

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Ratchet Bomb
• 2 Phantasmal Image
• 2 Oblivion Ring
• 1 Dissipate
• 2 Divine Offering
• 1 Gut Shot
• 2 Negate
• 3 Timely Reinforcements

Buy This Deck

It’s a seventy-four of seventy-five card copy of Charles Gindy’s list from the weekend before, with only the subtraction of Celestial Purge in the sideboard for an additional Timely Reinforcements. Yes, I’m a savage net-decker. I tried to update the deck for this tournament, but the only tech I could think of was Marrow Shards, and that just seemed too narrow and too cute.

Phoenix Games offered a sleep-in special, with which a player with byes could pay a fee and submit a decklist the night before, then skip the player meeting. The benefit seemed too marginal for the $10 cost, and besides, I didn’t have my final seventy-five pinned down until fifteen minutes before the player meeting.

Rounds 1 through 3: Bye-HOP. Missy, James, and I were joined by our fourth roommate Dan “Damn” Hartman, along with Raphael Levy’s crew of Frenchmen, and my friend from Boston, Jason Liu. Turns out the IHOP table for eight is actually two tables of four, so I got to struggle to remember high school French from twelve years ago while Dan spoke middling French to the boys from Toulouse. We were later joined by Patrick Chapin, while the French guys had to go, as they only had one bye. We left shortly afterward—Jason and Dan had only two byes.

Short aside: The previous week, Dan had sat next to Raph on the plane to Austin and had asked him to sign his lands. Forty-eight hours later, Raphael Levy was your GP: Austin 2012 champion. We made sure that Dan had at least one land signed by each of us prior to Round 3.

Round 4: Alex Blair with U/B Heartless Summoning

Game 1 was a short affair. I thought he was U/B control for a while—until his turn-three Palladium Myr came out to play. Thinking little of it other than, “I’ll counter the eventual Wurmcoil Engine,” I was caught flat-footed by Myr Superion instead. I took damage in chunks of 5, but a timely Runechanter's Pike allowed me to whittle his life total quickly, while chump-blockers prevented the mega-Myr from melting my face. A Steel Hellkite may have been Vapor Snagged once or twice.

Game 2 was as epic as Game 1 was short. I kept a hand with Snapcaster Mage and Divine Offering (Legends, natch) and was rewarded by drawing into a second of each. Nice, comma, must be. I gained 24 life this game, offing three Wurmcoil Engines and a Steel Hellkite. It was a constant battle to offset the life-gain from his tokens with beats from Insectile Aberration and Spirit tokens, but his Heartless Summoning actually helped out. Trading Snapcaster for the lifelink token is pretty good.

The score: 4–0; 2–0 in games

Round 5: Oscar Sardinas with Wolf Run Black

For Game 1, my notes are kind of sparse—my only life changes are a cryptic gain of 2 life, while his total goes: 17, 15, 11, 7, dead.

Game 2 was a more even-handed affair, with an early Gitaxian Probe revealing Slagstorm, Doom Blade, Sphere of the Suns, Swamp, Mountain, Inkmoth Nexus, and Inkmoth Nexus. I nibbled at his life total while he ramped up and kept me honest. Primeval Titan resolved to bring in the deck’s namesake and a third Nexus but remained on defense to keep my Geist of Saint Traft from swinging. He got me to 6 poison, and I had but a single turn to live. I managed to top-deck the Vapor Snag, and I could hardly believe my luck. He top-decked the land he needed to trample over my Spirits for lethal poison, and I took a little too long counting it all out after I’d baited his tap-out. Vapor Snag saved my butt, and Invisible Stalker finished the game. Oscar, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry about the slow-roll.

The score: 5–0; 4–0 in games

Round 6: Matt Costa with W/U Humans

Matt and I know one another from the New England PTQ scene, so we had a decent idea of what we were up against. I won the roll and kept as Matt took a mulligan. I nibbled at his life total with an Invisible Stalker while he landed Champion of the Parish into Grand Abolisher. Vapor Snag kept the Champion from ever becoming too large, and Matt had trouble finding the lands he needed to really overpower me. At some point, I drew the Runechanter's Pike, and his life total dropped to 0 quickly.

Game 2, Matt led off with another mulligan while I kept a sweet hand. Despite being stuck on two lands, he managed to put up a decent fight, but a Sword of War and Peace against his mono-white team spelled game over. I gained 11 life over two turns while knocking him from 19 to 13 to 7 to match.

The score: 6–0; 6–0 in games.

Round 7: Nick Ramsey with Wolf Run Ramp

Nick was an overall genial guy who politely informed me that he’d had too much to drink and didn’t expect to be undefeated at this point. Either he’s a hell of a drunken master or he likes to put on an act.

My notes for Game 1 have his life total change from 20 to 19 to 15, with no marked change in my life total. However, an early Whipflare from his side—combined with a lack of action in my draws—meant game over when he resolved Karn Liberated.

Game 2 was more like what I expected out of this matchup: early pressure and countermagic preventing him from ever gaining traction.

Game 3 was a bit more of the same, with an early transformed Delver of Secrets carrying a Runechanter's Pike to victory. I can’t emphasize enough how awesome Gitaxian Probe is—it gave me perfect information to know just how tight on mana Nick was. He had a tough time naturally drawing lands, tapping low each turn to cast Rampant Growths instead of real threats. Without the Probe, I might have had to play more conservatively, and I could have been punished when he finally landed the Acidic Slime and Garruk, Primal Hunter in his hand.

The score: 7–0; 8–1 in games.

Round 8: George Goanos with W/U Delver

Game 1, George had pretty close to the nuts with a controlling hand revealed by Probe: Gut Shot, two Midnight Hauntings, a Mana Leak, and a Moorland Haunt just to back it all up. My life total went from 17 to 8 to dead, which could only be the work of a Pike.

Game 2, he mulled to a hand with two Gut Shots, while I had a quick Probe into Timely Reinforcements to just make that hand embarrassing. Geist of Saint Traft continued the beats, and we were on to Game 3.

Game 3 saw a legitimate race situation in which it was my ability to create Moorland Haunt tokens against his Insectile Aberration with Pike. At 7, every swing at me was lethal, while I plinked him down a couple of points at a time. I landed a Ratchet Bomb, but I was forced to let him resolve Divine Offering—he had an untransformed Delver. If I sacced it in response, he’d gain no life, but if he transformed his Delver on upkeep, I’d lose.

The game continued with his The Abyss fighting my Haunt, and eventually, a Merfolk Looter joined my party. On my first available loot, I nearly punted the game. I drew, placed Glacial Fortress into my bin, and without letting go of the card, I snapped it back with a, “No, discard Looter instead.” George called a judge, who ruled that because the card had touched the graveyard, it was discarded. Snap appeal, leading to a hilarious slow-roll by Riccardo Tessitori. The short of it was that it took him a good thirty seconds of demonstrating and trolling us before explaining that unless I’d returned my hand (sans Glacial Fortress) back to my hand of cards, I hadn’t completed the action of discarding. I won the appeal, and two turns later, the game. It turned out the discard of the Looter wasn’t really necessary, though.

The score: 8–0; 10–2 in games

Round 9: Gerry Thompson with W/U Delver

Gerry and I sat down at Table 1, and we commiserated over our lack of a feature match. As it was pointed out to me later, the staff likes to find matches with pros on the bubble in Round 9. Oh well—I had made Day 2, and I was playing the best Magic of my life. Let’s do this.

Game 1 was a lopsided affair in which I strapped a Sword of War and Peace to Invisible Stalker. Gerry didn’t bother trying to race, but simply scooped it up and went straight to sideboard.

Game 2 was closer, and Gerry managed to earn the W. I was slightly surprised that he chose to play, given that he’d advocated choosing the draw in the mirror only weeks before, but the Hexproof Stalker build rewards racing over attrition.

Game 3 was never particularly close. Speaking of attrition, Gerry played Ponder and Probe into Snapcaster after Snapcaster, filtering and drawing while I struggled to ever manage a board presence. Attrition won the battle, and Gerry went into Day 2 undefeated.

The score: 8–1; 11–4 in games

Round 10: Craig Wescoe with W/U Humans

I won the roll and took the play, hoping to seal the win before his larger Humans took over the board. Delver of Secrets into turn-two, lucky transform was a great start, but his board consisted of Champion of the Parish, Elite Vanguard, Gideon's Lawkeeper, and Grand Abolisher all making appearances. Gut Shot whittled down his army and my life total, while Vapor Snag kept him busy recasting Abolisher, but it turned out that 3 damage per turn was one turn too late when he landed a Hero of Bladehold that I couldn’t counter, and he swung for a billion damage.

Game 2 was more of the same, except that his Hero did not stick, my Sword of War and Peace did, and that was all she wrote.

Game 3 was down to the wire, with every last point of damage counting. Craig had a Doomed Traveler amidst his army, which I steadfastly refused to block, as I was swinging for 6 per turn courtesy of two Insectile Aberrations. I was sitting on 1 life, while Craig had 5. Relevant attackers were the two flying 3/2s, and a Spirit token. Gideon's Lawkeeper would keep him alive at 1 life, and unless I drew Vapor Snag, I would lose. I drew . . . card]Sword of War and Peace[/card]! I was so focused on the Vapor Snag that I forgot that I had Equipment as outs. I geared up my Spirit token, and I accepted Craig’s handshake as he revealed a hand of Glacial Fortress.

The score: 9–1; 12–5 in games

Round 11: Joey Carey with W/U Delver

My notes are vague on this one, but it’s something like more of the same, similar to the Gerry T matchup: a definitive win Game 1, followed by a thrashing Game 2, and a close loss in Game 3. Perhaps my sideboarding in the mirror needs improvement.

The score: 9–2; 13–7 in games

Round 12: Josh Utter-Leyton with Tempered Steel

This was the matchup in which I thought my tournament was over. A friend tipped me off that Josh was playing Tempered Steel, and in testing, it seemed to be slanted against me. Obviously, Josh is no slouch either.

Game 1, we each mulled to six cards, which definitely pushed the advantage in my direction. A Gut Shot and a Snapcaster for the Gut Shot put it away—he stalled on lands, and I ran him over with equipped creatures.

Game 2 was quite a bit closer, with Glint Hawks and Idols thereof putting a ton of flying pressure on me. Invisible Stalker grabbed a Sword of War and Peace and went to town. My life total swung from 19 to 16, then 10, 18, 11, 16, 18, 10, 15, 8, and 13 by the game’s end. On the offensive, the Stalker was only hitting for 3, as Josh had wisely emptied his hand consistently. It’s not so often that you can take 6 to 8 damage a turn, but I breathed a huge sigh of relief when it was over.

The score: 10–2; 15–7 in games.

Round 13: Reid Duke with U/B control

Feature match! My first lifetime feature match had me hitting up Twitter and calling my wife to be sure people were watching. Win or lose, I was excited. Reid and I know each other from the New England PTQ scene; he went to college in New Hampshire. A bit of chatting, and we were off.

You can watch the feature match on YouTube here.

A few things to note: The scarf got some comments, but it really was quite chilly in that convention center. That and my wife knit it, so I like wearing it while on the road.

Best cheer: “Nice Gut Shot, bro.” – a friend from home

Weirdest criticism: “Sucks to see Reid Duke dispatched by a hipster barista, but what can you do?” – @feb31st

The score: 11-2, 17-7 in games

Round 14: Patrick Chapin with Grixis Control

Here it was: the win-and-in. I needed one more match win, and I just hoped I could dodge the pairing with Chapin, knowing since breakfast yesterday what he was on.

“Feature match, Steve Guillerm . . . ” Woohoo! “ . . . versus Patrick Chapin,” Ffffffuuuuu . . .

I won the die roll, and that was the last good thing that happened. I mulled a hand of Invisible Stalker, Geist of Saint Traft, Island, Plains, Sword of War and Peace, and two do-nothings under the assumption that it was too slow and would just die to Patrick’s hate without countermagic. Six cards revealed zero lands, and five was keepable only insofar that four would be worse.

Game 2, the only notable thing I have to add is that the commentators thought I had the second Oblivion Ring in hand; I did not. I did the math and did not draw the O-ring for his Liliana, and that meant that the Geist in my hand was just dead. I didn’t have enough turns left to draw O-ring, cast Geist the following turn, and start gaining life with the Sword in my hand. That prompted my scoop.

It was good to see that Patrick Chapin went all the way to the finals after winning our win-and-in match.

The score: 11–3; 17–9 in games

Round 15: Scott Molasky with W/U Delver

In the interest of remaining diplomatic, the lesser said about this match the better. Suffice to say that Scott was the only unpleasant opponent of my tournament.

I won both games in a definitive manner, aided by color screw for Scott in Game 1 and a bad keep on his part in Game 2.

The score: 12–3; 19–9 in games

In all, I have to say that this tournament was extremely satisfying. Not only because of my final standing, but simply because I was playing tight, technical Magic and seeing results because of my play. I’ve earned more money in tournaments before, but this was actually the first time I made Day 2 of a GP. I was beginning to think I was cursed . . . PTQs? “Sure.” Open tournaments? “No problem.” GPs? “Nice byes, here’re your match losses.” Between the side events in San Francisco and GP: Orlando, I’ve been playing the Magic of my life. I’m looking forward to playing in Honolulu and to seeing whether this deck can continue to put up the results post-Dark Ascension.

Steve Guillerm

@steveexplosion on Twitter and MTGO