MTG Salvation

2-0 matches, 4-0 games. 3rd place (over 16 players, paired down in round 2.)
rounds capped at 2 for time constraints (6pm-9pm.)
draft coverage begins at 1 mintute below:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/370548054

unfortunately, neither of my matches were covered )':

decklist

r1 vs Fox (stream guy) w/Azorious, splashing black.
g1, out tempo him via bounce.
g2, was close but i managed to overrun him w/end-raze forerunners 1 turn before dying.

r2 vs Orhzov, splashing blue.
g1, out tempo him via bounce.
g2, adapt was very useful.

summary: i feel Simic is the strongest guild right now. the ability to hold mana open during the opponent's turn, then adapt at your leisure, is awesome for a control deck. came to this conclusion after losing to Simic 0-1 drop (running Azorious) at a prerelease then losing to Simic again 0-1 drop (running Orhzov) at yesterdays FNM. my plan today was to force blue (for Arrester's Admonition) and add green (plan A) or white (plan B.) Repulse (arresters admonition) is just as strong now as it was during Invasion block.

2/15/19 FNM - Sealed. 2-1, 4th place.

sealed deck building at 32 seconds below:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/381394478

decklist


r1 vs Mardu, 2-1.
notes: ill-gotten inheritance on both sides made us write down numerous life total changes. he played Ethereal Absolution all 3 games.

r2 vs Gruul, 2-0.
notes: opponent was new. he made us both lose life (via Spear Spewer) when i had more life. he also let me 2-for-1 him in creature combat when he double-blocked my menace guy (i used removal on one blocker - my menace guy lived.) we played a 3rd game for fun and i won at 18 life.

r3 vs Orhzov, 0-2.
notes: mulled to (6) game 1 and (5) game 2. i lost to a combination of my bad luck and my opponents skilled play.

coverage - 2 hours, 36 minutes below:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/381394478

summary: i was happy b/c i did better than expected (i predicted 1-1-drop.) being undefeated going into round 3 gave me hope and i did make the top4 cutoff into prizes.

3/15/19 FNM-Sealed.
1-1 matches, 3-2 games.
rounds capped at 2 for time constraints (6pm-9pm.)

sealed deckbuilding coverage:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/396223994
2 minute mark.

i'm "Byron" running Rakdos, W splash.

round 2 coverage:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/396223994
1 hour, 42 minutes in.

g1: stuck on 2 land. was pretty proud of my decision to attack thru his better bear, then spectacle Skewer the Critics his better bear. this caused him to drop an afterlife-2 Ministrant of Obligation, which suited my exile Scorchmark. i forgot to scrye 2 off my Undercity Scavenger )':

g2: kept looting and everything ran smoothly. sb Cry of the Carnarium got crazy value! Ill Gotten Inheritance on both sides was annoying for life tracking.

g3: i thought Skewer the Critics was an instant... the tempo loss cost me 4 life over the course of the game but idk if i would've won.

4/5/19 FNM-draft.
1-1 matches. 3-2 games.
6pm-9pm, 2 rounds, 4th place.

coverage begins at 2 min, 24 sec below:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/406865111
covers my draft and both matches.

Rakdos:


r1 vs temur. 1-0 matches, 2-0 games.
opponent noted i mulled to 6 both games. i replied, "it's not that big of a deal. i'm going 2nd to make up for the card loss. also, my 'looters' like me going 2nd."

r2 vs esper. 1-1 matches, 3-2 games.
games 1 & 3, i mulled and got pwned. his Sphinx of New Prahv was pretty clutch those games. game 2, i didn't mull & picked him apart.

4/19/19 FNM-Sealed.
3 rounds/3-0 match record/2nd place.
40 card Jund:

i had a low mana curve, good removal and quality splash cards. the only thing i was worried about were my puny creatures.

tonight's special guest was MTGNERDGIRL, from the last Mythic Invitational:
https://www.mtgesports.com/news/capturing-magic-at-the-mythic-invitational

MTGNERDGIRL's advertisement:
https://www.other-realms.com/home.html

MTGNERDGIRL's coverage:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/413707939

unfortunately, i got no coverage tonight )': mebbe next time!

r1 vs Orhzov, 2-0 games.
after our match, i pointed out to him how splashing a third color was relatively easy w/guildgates. he rebuilt his deck immediately.

r2 vs Selesnya, 2-0 games.
opponent complained about mana screw and was a downer. he comes from a competitive LGS and probably feels entitled to win here.

r3 vs Esper, 2-0 games.
his build was slow tempo'd. surprised he made it this far.

despite sweeping all 3 opponents 2-0, i got second on tiebreaks to... MTGNERDGIRL! arrgh, lol.
i got a chance to chat w/her and asked for advice on Fate/Fate/Khans draft (LGS FNM before midnight prerelease.) she apologized and said she didn't remember the sets. confirmed w/others that Mardu is the wedge to go for and to force white first, then splash red/black. i also asked her opinion of legacy pauper (LGS 4/20/19 format) but she doesn't play.

after FNM, i went to the bar and had a few beers. on a buzz, i saw a sign that read "island" and interpreted as "is land." kind of like that "therapist" and "the rapist" joke.

War of the Spark, 5/1/19 casual-sealed.
6 players/3 rounds/3-0 match record/1st place.

(40) Izzet-no rares

r1 vs Jund, 2-0.
he was too slow.

r2 vs Azorious, 2-1.
g1, he turn 4'd Jace, Wielder of Mysteries. took me several turns to kill it. he drew tons of cards and almost decked me. after i finally killed Jace, Weilder of Mysteries via Ashiok's Skulker, he dropped Teferi, Time Raveler. after killing Teferi, Time Raveler, i walked into the Single Combat he no doubt set up. turn after, he dropped 2 fatties and i just scooped to save time.
g2&3. i started fast while he stumbled on mana.

r3 vs Jund, 2-0.
like r1 Jund, too slow.

summary: surprised Izzet worked. fliers and unblockables are a great way to kill opposing planeswalkers w/out spending resources. surprised proliferate didn't make more of an impact. maybe as time goes on...

both my Jund opponents had mana issues. both missed early drops from Gateway Plaza. after pointing this out to my r1 Jund opponent, he took out his splash color. the loss of gates really hurts 3 color decks...

12/21/19 "Bulk Rare" Draft.
12 players, 2 tables of 6.
3 rounds, 3-0, 1st place.
"Boros"



*If you've ever played Hellrider in standard, it's insane how fast fliers end games.
**4 mana, haste for 5. Next turn drop a creature and 5 more. So easy!

round 1 vs Dimir, 2-0.
novice player didn't grasp his "deck wasn't working" b/c it was slow. helped him rebuild after our match.

round 2 vs MonoG, 2-1.
she had ramp and fatties. solid technical play from her.

round 3 vs Selesnya, 2-0.
both games he had early bear aggro but my efficient midrange creatures outraced him.

for $10 entry, i won 3 boosters and a Dreadhorde Arcanist promo!
aside: when you're a LGS regular and seated around drafters you don't know, it boosts your confidence

6/26/20 M21 Prerelease - Sealed - 3 rounds - 2nd place - Bant.

R1 vs Boros, 2-0.
R2 vs Mardu, 2-1.
R3 vs Orhzov, 2-1.

All my opponents made the mistake of trying to race vs card advantage.

7/3/20 M21 Release - Draft - 2 rounds - 3rd place - MonoRed.

-We had 2 pods - experienced (6 players) and novice (8 players.) I was seated in the experienced pod.
-I first pack/first picked a Barrin, Tolarian Archmage but then blue dried up.
-I read https://www.channelfireball.com/all-strategy/articles/alex-nikolic/an-in-depth-early-look-at-m21-draft/ and decided to move into Izzet, since it's said to be the strongest archetype.
-Red high picks kept coming my way so I settled into red. I didn't realize I was the only red drafter on my table until we all started deck building and an onlooker commented on my draft pool.
-Even tho I had a high mana curve, I was still mono-colored so no color screw for me. I went w/16 lands + 4 cantrips to smooth out my draws.

Round 1 vs Azorious, 2-0.
Opponent was my opposite seated player from the experienced pod. From what I recall, I mulliganed both games while he was too shy to take that risk.

Round 2 vs Simic, 2-1.
Opponent was from the novice pod.
Game 1, I got milled to death.
Game 2, I burned him out w/a Volcanic Geyser. Close game.
Game 3, Furious Rise was too much card advantage for him.

Awards were given out within pods. So I got the 3rd place prize in my 6 player pod. 2-0 record/6 ppl, I finish in the middle? Oh well *shrugs*

1/6/21 Casual Historic EDH Sealed. Two 3-man pods. Pod 2 Winner.
Casual = Unsanctioned. Historic = Legal Sets. EDH = 99 card singleton w/a commander. Sealed = Buy 1 sealed booster box and build sealed from it.
I chose War of the Spark for the uncommon planeswalkers.

Commander: Roalesk, Apex Hybrid

Both opponents discussed running 34 lands in their decks. I told them I ran 44. Here's why:
1. Normal sealed = 17 land/40 cards. +1 land (Commander = mana sink) so 18 land/40 cards = 44% land.
2. 44% of 100 cards = 44 lands.
3. 34 land/100 cards = 14 land/40 cards, in a top-heavy sealed deck...

As expected, both opponents stalled on 3 lands and couldn't cast their 5 mana commanders in time.
I say, "Planewide Celebration: Proliferate for 4, my 4 planeswalkers +4, x tokens +4..." Both concede.

1/27/21 UMA Draft. 8 players. Winner.



To prepare for the event, I read an article - https://article.hareruyamtg.com/article/18502/?lang=en

First pact/first pick, I drafted a mythic - Balefire Dragon. Since he costs 7, I was hoping to pick up some Kodama's Reach and splash red into a green ramp shell. Never saw ramp cards but quality red kept coming so I stayed in red. I started out red midrange but I drifted into red aggro. From the article - Mono-Red

Even though you will end up in white most of the time – there are occasions when being only Mono-Red is better – you want to play a low land count in these decks so having a good mana base is extremely valuable – if you think that red is extremely open and you don’t need a second color, you should definitely go for it!

Round 1 vs Sultai Ramp, 2-0.
From the article - The Best Archetype

Kodama's Reach
I think that if open or at least “reasonably” open best decks are the Kodama's Reach decks – it’s really difficult to call it some other way, because they can all look very different but there is always the same centerpiece – Kodama's Reach. Your deck is usually some sort of a rampish deck with all the best cards.

He had Kodama's Reach so maybe he read the same article? I was too fast though.

Round 2 vs Sultai Dredge, 2-0.
From the article - A lot of people I talked to (and frankly I agree) told me that they really don’t like BG as a strategy – the problem is that the Dredge cards in the set just aren’t a very good cards – 2 mana 1/1, 3 mana 2/3, Life from the Loam, etc. And the payoff usually isn’t good enough to make up for it.

I don't think he read the article...

Intermission vs Esper, 0-1.
He challenged me to pass time between rounds.
I couldn't burn out his 7/9 fatty. It also had lifelink so I couldn't race it either.

Round 3 vs Golgari, 2-1.
I had an unfortunate game 2 where I mulled down to 4 but games 1 and 3 went according to plan.

Enjoyed some drinks and good company!

2/3/21 Kaldheim Prerelease - Sealed. 0-1 Drop.

I built a decent GU deck. Most of my creature pool was puny so I just built around fatties, ground and air (3 Augury Raven.)

Round 1 vs Abzan, 0-2.
-We reached a stalemate w/me at 1 life and my opponent just casting 1 more flier than I could block. Luckily, In Search of Greatness scryed up my 7th land to activate my Elvish Warmaster. Since I was going to die next turn, I just alpha struck and hoped for the best...
-My opponent made very conservative blocks, not risking losing his best creatures to deathtouch. He said, "That's how I block." I asked, "Are you sure that's how you block?" He said, "Yes, I'm sure." I had no cards in hand so he knew I was going to activate Elvish Warmaster...
-What he forgot was I casted Maskwood Nexus my previous turn. So all my unblocked "non-elves" got +2/+2 for being elves! I told him, "I just dealt lethal." So what does he do? He says, "Wait! That's not how I block!" Then he takes back his blocking, blocks smarter and wins next turn.

-To be fair, I challenged him to a quick game 2 in the 6 remaining minutes in the round. We both play fast but I lose (fairly this time.)
-IMO we should've at least been 1-1 draw. But game 1 was so close and I suspect he would tilt off losing game 1 due to an on board play mistake (it takes grit to shake off a bad loss and only significant experience builds that.) So realistically, I could've swept him 2-0.

-Circumstances were, my opponent was the owner of the bar we played at. The event was unsanctioned and we had no qualified judges to officiate the event. There are no local tournament venues I know of to play mtg. If I had any hope of playing there again, I had to accept the bar owner's authority over me.
-Before my return to this venue, I had previously pissed off the owner by disagreeing w/him on a ruling. So I disappeared for a while...

-On a side note, I made an agreement w/said owner that I would leave my unopened bottle of tequila (Teremana - Dwane "The Rock" Johnson's tequila) at the bar for "MTG players" to finish. That was 3 weeks ago. Weeks 1 and 2, a few mtg players took shots but the bottle was still virtually full. Last week, we didn't touch the bottle at all. Today, I got my bottle back but it was almost empty... how did that happen? Did the same mtg players drink my tequila on non-magic nights?

-I felt throughly taken advantaged of tonight. In most occasions, I get along w/the bar owner just fine but tonight was the final straw. I cannot return. Doing so would send a message that I'm a doormat to be stepped on and I respect myself too much to allow that to happen any further. I unfriended him on his discord channel and voluntarily left his group.

-It's not all bad. I bought a soda and a beer and the waiter only charged me for the beer... Makes us "even-steven," right mate?

https://www.other-realms.com/mtg-mystery-convention-sealed.html

10/23/21, X Players, 4 Rounds.
4-0 Matches/7-0-1 Games, 1st Place.


Round 1, vs Grixis. 1-0 match, 2-0 games.
No SB.
He ran 60 cards. I helped him trim to 40 after our match. New land base was: 9 Island (Fathom Seer, Ghost Ship), 7 Swamp, 1 Mountain. He has a way to fetch the Mountain too...

Round 2, vs Gruul. 1-0 match, 1-0-1 games.
No SB.
Game 1, took a long time. Game 2, I survived the 5th extra turn.

Round 3, vs Boros. 1-0 match, 2-0 games.
No SB.
He had a clunky mana curve. I was all offense from the beginning.

Round 4, vs Abzan. 1-0 match, 2-0 games.
No SB.
The tide turned several times.

Conclusion: I only attended to test some Tribal (I didn't preregister.) Glad I stayed!

Innistrad: Crimson Vow prerelease.
11/13/21, 30-ish players, 3 rounds.
3-0 matches, 6-2 games, 2nd place.

Gruul

Notes: Deck tops out at *5 mana. No X spells or anything 6+. If I reach 5 lands in play, I'm usually happy. I'll discard excess lands to Blood Tokens.

Round 1 vs Golgari, 2-1.
Game 1, I mulled to 4 and lost. Games 2 and 3 went fine.

Round 2 vs Rakdos, 2-1.
Opponent played Ill-Tempered Loner all 3 games! Games 1 and 3, I had immediate removal. Game 2, I was low on life when Ill-Tempered Loner held off my army.

Round 3 vs Mardu, 2-0.
His cardinal sin was running an even split of 3 basic land types. Call me superstitious but I'd never run a 6/6/6 land base. I also will not run 13 copies of any basic land (either 12/14 - it's my burden.)