Serious question here for everybody. Do you feel that this deck is Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3? Now I know when it comes down to it, it really is semantics and (most) any solidly built deck on any given day can take down a Modern tournament. But how do you feel it ranks with the likes of Grixis Shadow, E Tron, Titanshift, and Affinity? I realize that it probably matters less now that WotC is giving less info, but it irks me a little bit for us to be listed here on MTGS as "Tier 3."
Here's my opinion...
I feel that it's Tier 2, but close to Tier 1. I think it's a very strong deck that is underestimated in the meta. I know. I underestimated it for the longest time until I decided to finally try it 6 months ago. I'm pretty sure many are the same way.
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
Hey FoodChain- I agree with your opinion. For me, I think that even more than regular knightfall, vizier knightfall is WAY underrated and potentially could be like a tier 1.5 deck.
As an example from my experience, at my local LGS I just went 4-0 last night vs some tier one/two decks- Bant eldrazi, Affinity, Eldrazi tron and Jeskai geist/queller. Deck feels great, I've had years of knightfall experience learning the midrange game you can switch to with vizier but I also have that combo looming that scares the pants off some opponents who make overly conservative plays scared of me comboing, while I kill them with knights or otherwise. Or, just combing on turn 3 occasionally.
Now, titan shift makes our deck feel like a tierless deck sometimes IMHO, I'm still trying to up my odds vs that deck. Overall though, I think many experts agree Kngihtfall on the whole in a good players hands is always powerful. KoR especially is just a ridiculously good card.
I have no doubt that you're correct. I actually played the Druid/Vizier combo in an all-in GW version, a less all-in GW version, and Abzan (I haven't tried it in Elves yet) and it is indeed very strong. But right now, I'm enjoying regular Knightfall too much and it's also certainly a very strong deck.
And I know about Titanshift. I actually prefer playing Human Company against Titanshift if I have the choice because although they both are unfavored, Knightfall seems more unfavored (the combo quickly seeming to be the best route). I actually had a Judge allow my top 4 opponent at a PPTQ on UW Control to take back paying 2 life with a shock while I was on Titanshift. He outdrew me from that point on and I lost the right to play against Knightfall in the finals. Do you know how sad that made me feel? (Knightfall won that one, for what it's worth.) I did win 2 PPTQs later, but I would have loved to play against Knightfall in the finals, especially having tested it a lot myself. (and destroying a 4-0 player in round 5 of the next PPTQ, 2-0, still on Titanshift)
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
Serious question here for everybody. Do you feel that this deck is Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3? Now I know when it comes down to it, it really is semantics and (most) any solidly built deck on any given day can take down a Modern tournament. But how do you feel it ranks with the likes of Grixis Shadow, E Tron, Titanshift, and Affinity? I realize that it probably matters less now that WotC is giving less info, but it irks me a little bit for us to be listed here on MTGS as "Tier 3."
Here's my opinion...
I feel that it's Tier 2, but close to Tier 1. I think it's a very strong deck that is underestimated in the meta. I know. I underestimated it for the longest time until I decided to finally try it 6 months ago. I'm pretty sure many are the same way.
I Heartfully agree! I play traditional knightfall alongside two other modern builds (Bushwhacker Zoo and my own Abzan Humans). and it's definitely the most challenging and interesting deck to play. It is capable of beating every deck I have encountered so far. Sometimes it's all about drawing your hate cards post board, but often times the non-lineair tempo/contronling nature of the deck is sufficient. Comboing off feels great though!
Love the deck and love the variatious possible lines of play!
My guess is most bant players opt for an eldrazi build nowadays, which it's currently not tiered higher.
Serious question here for everybody. Do you feel that this deck is Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3? Now I know when it comes down to it, it really is semantics and (most) any solidly built deck on any given day can take down a Modern tournament. But how do you feel it ranks with the likes of Grixis Shadow, E Tron, Titanshift, and Affinity? I realize that it probably matters less now that WotC is giving less info, but it irks me a little bit for us to be listed here on MTGS as "Tier 3."
Here's my opinion...
I feel that it's Tier 2, but close to Tier 1. I think it's a very strong deck that is underestimated in the meta. I know. I underestimated it for the longest time until I decided to finally try it 6 months ago. I'm pretty sure many are the same way.
I think part of the difficulty comes from the huge variety of decks that get lumped together under the Green/White+Company banner. Take this forum thread for example, you have Bant Knightfall, Humans Knightfall, Vizier Knightfall etc etc, and that's before you start to muddy the waters further with Abzan or straight G/W 'valuetown' builds.
If there was a clearly more successful build than the others then I think consensus would start to solidify around it being a Tier 2 deck that has game against most other established decks (apart from Valakut based decks IMO), with a good creature base as a floor and a turn 3 combo to steal wins. As I currently see it, Knightfall lacks a clear identity due to Collected Company, which is such as powerful card that makes people think of Knightfall as "a CoCo deck that runs a combo", but not the new 'hotness combo' of the Vizier CoCo deck. The Knightfall combo is clearly powerful, but I don't think it's how people who don't run the deck would describe the lists, particularly the Humans versions.
As it is, I think it gets lumped in with as 'GW CoCo stuff', and with no clear identity, it won't get the focus it needs to solidify as a Tier deck. This isn't necessarily a bad thing - I quite like having a powerful Humans deck that is sort of under the radar/underestimated, and I think that it shows how varied the GW CoCo lists can be, so there is lots of variation and tech/spice to try, maybe it shows that the deck isn't quite ready for the spotlight, as the consensus isn't there from multiple people posting results with very similar decks.
Love the responses. This gives me some insight and the honesty was great. I know there are a lot of Collected Company variations. Some of them have different positives and negatives. Some are very similar in many ways. I just find it odd that there are many decks that I don't particularly feel are as good as Knightfall, Vizier or not, that are listed here as a higher tier. I do have to take into consideration that it isn't updated much here though.
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
I have yet to find a matchup where Spell Queller is not relevant. Maybe if we are in the awkward spot of being the aggressor and we have something more aggressive in the sideboard (which i don't).
I find myself trying to board it in in most matches and I run the Humans version! It just seems like a great piece of tempo and disruption, with a 2/3 flash flyer as a fail case. Even against very aggressive decks, being able to quell a lord or pump spell might buy you additional turns or make combat unfavourable , and Burn has to expend extra resources to get it off the board as the 3 toughness blocks their 2 power creatures.
I run 3 in my sideboard, and think that the lack of synergy is worth it to have a tempo catch-all for unknown decks.
Spell Queller rarely ends up as the worst card in any match. If you encounter Dredge anymore, they are fighting you on a different and unfair axis where Spell Queller can have difficulty finding good targets. Also decks with plenty of removal - like Jund, Abzan, UW control - Queller gets worse but still doesn't leave my deck before Birds and Retreat. I suppose if you have a lot of cards to bring in against Eldrazi Tron, you could trim on Queller. It's only middling against them in my experience.
Small question, is siding in Grafdigger's Cage against a deck like yours (4x Company but no real other 'targets') any good or should it be left in the board?
You side out the quellers against grindy deck and burn. Burn is obvious, it can be good but usually only if you get a Searing Blaze or something similar. You can keep them in against grindy decks like jund, but then you use them as a EoT flash creature, not a soft counter.
As convulted as I can make the explanation. You side them out when it doesn't cause your opponent to waste extra resources killing the queller. In burn, usually it doesn't present enough of a clock and doesn't stop enough damage. Jund, it's great when you stop a Lili from landing, but usually it'll just get pushed, bolted, or decayed. Keep them in against control, but only use them when you see a board wipe or Cryptic Command.
You side out the quellers against grindy deck and burn. Burn is obvious, it can be good but usually only if you get a Searing Blaze or something similar. You can keep them in against grindy decks like jund, but then you use them as a EoT flash creature, not a soft counter.
As convulted as I can make the explanation. You side them out when it doesn't cause your opponent to waste extra resources killing the queller. In burn, usually it doesn't present enough of a clock and doesn't stop enough damage. Jund, it's great when you stop a Lili from landing, but usually it'll just get pushed, bolted, or decayed. Keep them in against control, but only use them when you see a board wipe or Cryptic Command.
Spell Queller is one of your best card against Burn alongside scooze & finks...I would never side them out against Burn. Unless they have searing blaze to kill it, you basically hard countered one of their burn spell because you are forcing them to point a bolt at your queller instead of your face.
I side out the spell quellers against decks that play eldrazi displacer for obvious reasons but apart from that I rarely cut more than one queller post board...the card is just awesome and the main argument for playing Classic Knightfall over Humans.
@SLStyles It's pretty good if your deck is operating reasonably ALONG SIDE it. Otherwise, if you're looking to hose the deck, it's not really great because depending on what deck you're playing, just casting Knight of the Reliquary and Spell Quellers can just win the game without Company. All in all I think it's pretty good.
Rough evening for me - 19 people, 4 capped rounds.
Round 1 vs. Dredge. I punt the first game away. I had a Knight of the Reliquary, so my opponent wasn't attacking me with his creatures. I had drawn 2 Path to Exile and already had 1 in hand. But I use Kessig Wolf Run, burning 2 of my White sources. He had lethal in his graveyard already with Haunted Dead and Scourge Devils. Dumb play by me. I should have been more patient. He was at lethal next turn, but did it matter? No. In the next game, he has a somewhat rough hand and I Surgical Extraction Vengeful Pharaoh and Prized Amalgams. Then I draw some late creatures and win easily. In the last game, I have Scavenging Ooze and Knight. Easy game for me. 2-1.
Round 2 vs. Zoo. In the first game, he got stuck on 2 land and 1 land that I Pathed a Voice of Resurgence from. I play a bunch of Knights and get there. It is similar in the next game. I put out so much pressure, despite having 2 Knights exiled for basic lands with the new Ixalan card. 2-0.
Round 3 vs. RUG Scapeshift. I kept on 2 land and 1 mana dork. He Cryptic Commands my Noble Hierarch at EoT. Since it's my only Blue source, I Spell Queller. But he shows me his last 3 cards - Search for Tomorrow into Scapeshift and a land so it's 36. In the next game, I keep on 3 land and mana dork. I do Collected Company, getting Tireless Tracker and nothing else - 5 lands in there. I don't have enough pressure to kill him before he super ramps into Scapeshift. He does Anger of the Gods and I think, then Negate. Then he Scapeshifts me for 18. Didn't draw a single land in either of these games, but saw 5 lands on the only Company that I cast. Salt... 0-2.
Round 4 vs. Humans. This is the deck I loaned out to my friend. He believed that 4-0 and 2-2 splitting prizes would be nearly the same as two 3-1 players. I knew it wouldn't, but he insisted, so I scooped. It's only the difference of some $3 each for us anyway. 0-2.
So, I finish 2-2, my worst record with Knightfall so far. I think this drops my overall record now to 24-9 with Knightfall, not counting IDs.
Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
It’s really weird. If they can take control of the board and land a displacer its hard to get back control especially if you’re not getting land drops every turn Past like 4-5 lands. On the flip side, reflector Mage and spell Queller are such a beating that once you land a knight and they don’t kill it you win. If you can control the board you can just prevent them from ever getting EE or path off with spell Queller and selfless Spirit. At that point you’re just saving path for when they may have lethal or for displacer. If you have a reasonable start and they can’t win with their explosive start then you’re fine. It’s pretty even to be honest over a large sample size of games. Spellskite is ******* bomb in this MU lmao.
I went 3-1 with knightfall again at a 20 person fnm.
Round 1 vs. Mono White Enchantments. In the first game, I fail to attack with a Spell Queller that I left on his side of the field, so I don't have lethal. But then I Collected Company into Knight of the Reliquary and an obligatory 2/2. Now I have it, but big mistake. In the next game, a few botched attacks made this game go longer than it needed to be. I had 2 Knight of the Reliquary and Kessig Wolf Run, but 2 Angels via double Sigil of the Empty Throne came out each turn. Finally, I got lethal after double Phyrexian Unlife were out, but Solemnity was Negated. This guy always plays a different fun deck and I believe he finished 3-1, so 3-0 after this round. 2-0.
Round 2 vs. Grixis Control. He mulls to 6. I mull to 5. Ancestral Vision on turn 1. From this point on, he played 4 Lightning Bolt by turn 5, Fatal Push, Terminate, and Snapcaster Mage/Lightning Bolt. I do Collected Company into a single Birds of Paradise, with 5 lands that I needed in there. Yeah, not winning this one. I could have actually grinded this game out and waited until I drew a mana dork to play Knight of the Reliquary and Spell Queller, but I felt that this wasn't really my game to win and wanted to see how it would go after SB. After SB, it was nearly the same. All my creatures got killed, 2 Collected Company yielded a Birds of Paradise, Scavenging Ooze, and Selfless Spirit, and Knight was small early on, so he ate a Bolt. I got raced by a quick Tasigur, ScM, and Creeping Tar Pit. It sucks because this guy beat me on RUG Scapeshift last week and I wanted revenge, especially since I know I can beat him easily and have done so in the past, but alas, it was not meant to be and he's on a 2 match win streak against me. 0-2.
Round 3 vs. Jeskai Queller. This game is really painful for my opponent. I don't play anything until turn 4, Noble Hierarch that I just drew. But I'm sitting on CoCo, get Voice of Resurgence into play, and then sit on 3 Spell Queller. He draws ... 0 Bolt and it is really rough for him. He hadn't played in a tournament in quite a long time and it showed when he couldn't figure out how to get my Voice countered. I played Voice. He did Spell Snare. I did Spell Queller. He considered something, but I think he didn't realize that he could let my Queller resolve, then with the Voice still on the stack, remove the Queller and Snare the Voice. I was happy for him not figuring it out, although I nearly told him myself, because I needed those to stick. The next game is similar, with him not drawing much removal and me drawing 2 more Spell Queller to go with my opening 1. 2-0.
Round 4 vs. Elves. I basically win both games via Retreat to Coralhelm. I know, right? How else could I win? I keep a 1 land, BoP, Knight, Retreat, etc. hand. I don't draw land, but get another Noble Hierarch and go off 2 turns later. In the next game, I go unimpeded on turn 3. He does CoCo, getting Reclamation Sage, targeting the Retreat, but in response, I fetch and go off anyway. Lucky of me to have a fetch for my 3rd land. A turn 4 and a turn 3 win! Pretty lucky of me. 2-0.
I finish 3-1, for an overall 27-10 with the deck, not counting IDs. Not bad, although I will probably try a bit harder next time (when draws and CoCos didn't quite go my way in round 2).
Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
Here's my opinion...
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)As an example from my experience, at my local LGS I just went 4-0 last night vs some tier one/two decks- Bant eldrazi, Affinity, Eldrazi tron and Jeskai geist/queller. Deck feels great, I've had years of knightfall experience learning the midrange game you can switch to with vizier but I also have that combo looming that scares the pants off some opponents who make overly conservative plays scared of me comboing, while I kill them with knights or otherwise. Or, just combing on turn 3 occasionally.
Now, titan shift makes our deck feel like a tierless deck sometimes IMHO, I'm still trying to up my odds vs that deck. Overall though, I think many experts agree Kngihtfall on the whole in a good players hands is always powerful. KoR especially is just a ridiculously good card.
And I know about Titanshift. I actually prefer playing Human Company against Titanshift if I have the choice because although they both are unfavored, Knightfall seems more unfavored (the combo quickly seeming to be the best route). I actually had a Judge allow my top 4 opponent at a PPTQ on UW Control to take back paying 2 life with a shock while I was on Titanshift. He outdrew me from that point on and I lost the right to play against Knightfall in the finals. Do you know how sad that made me feel? (Knightfall won that one, for what it's worth.) I did win 2 PPTQs later, but I would have loved to play against Knightfall in the finals, especially having tested it a lot myself. (and destroying a 4-0 player in round 5 of the next PPTQ, 2-0, still on Titanshift)
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)I Heartfully agree! I play traditional knightfall alongside two other modern builds (Bushwhacker Zoo and my own Abzan Humans). and it's definitely the most challenging and interesting deck to play. It is capable of beating every deck I have encountered so far. Sometimes it's all about drawing your hate cards post board, but often times the non-lineair tempo/contronling nature of the deck is sufficient. Comboing off feels great though!
Love the deck and love the variatious possible lines of play!
My guess is most bant players opt for an eldrazi build nowadays, which it's currently not tiered higher.
Modern: WUBRG Humans - GBW Traverse - GWU Knightfall - GRW Bushwhacker Zoo -
I think part of the difficulty comes from the huge variety of decks that get lumped together under the Green/White+Company banner. Take this forum thread for example, you have Bant Knightfall, Humans Knightfall, Vizier Knightfall etc etc, and that's before you start to muddy the waters further with Abzan or straight G/W 'valuetown' builds.
If there was a clearly more successful build than the others then I think consensus would start to solidify around it being a Tier 2 deck that has game against most other established decks (apart from Valakut based decks IMO), with a good creature base as a floor and a turn 3 combo to steal wins. As I currently see it, Knightfall lacks a clear identity due to Collected Company, which is such as powerful card that makes people think of Knightfall as "a CoCo deck that runs a combo", but not the new 'hotness combo' of the Vizier CoCo deck. The Knightfall combo is clearly powerful, but I don't think it's how people who don't run the deck would describe the lists, particularly the Humans versions.
As it is, I think it gets lumped in with as 'GW CoCo stuff', and with no clear identity, it won't get the focus it needs to solidify as a Tier deck. This isn't necessarily a bad thing - I quite like having a powerful Humans deck that is sort of under the radar/underestimated, and I think that it shows how varied the GW CoCo lists can be, so there is lots of variation and tech/spice to try, maybe it shows that the deck isn't quite ready for the spotlight, as the consensus isn't there from multiple people posting results with very similar decks.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)Modern: WUBRG Humans - GBW Traverse - GWU Knightfall - GRW Bushwhacker Zoo -
I run 3 in my sideboard, and think that the lack of synergy is worth it to have a tempo catch-all for unknown decks.
As convulted as I can make the explanation. You side them out when it doesn't cause your opponent to waste extra resources killing the queller. In burn, usually it doesn't present enough of a clock and doesn't stop enough damage. Jund, it's great when you stop a Lili from landing, but usually it'll just get pushed, bolted, or decayed. Keep them in against control, but only use them when you see a board wipe or Cryptic Command.
Like 14 decks
Knightfall WURG
Spell Queller is one of your best card against Burn alongside scooze & finks...I would never side them out against Burn. Unless they have searing blaze to kill it, you basically hard countered one of their burn spell because you are forcing them to point a bolt at your queller instead of your face.
I side out the spell quellers against decks that play eldrazi displacer for obvious reasons but apart from that I rarely cut more than one queller post board...the card is just awesome and the main argument for playing Classic Knightfall over Humans.
Round 1 vs. Dredge. I punt the first game away. I had a Knight of the Reliquary, so my opponent wasn't attacking me with his creatures. I had drawn 2 Path to Exile and already had 1 in hand. But I use Kessig Wolf Run, burning 2 of my White sources. He had lethal in his graveyard already with Haunted Dead and Scourge Devils. Dumb play by me. I should have been more patient. He was at lethal next turn, but did it matter? No. In the next game, he has a somewhat rough hand and I Surgical Extraction Vengeful Pharaoh and Prized Amalgams. Then I draw some late creatures and win easily. In the last game, I have Scavenging Ooze and Knight. Easy game for me. 2-1.
Round 2 vs. Zoo. In the first game, he got stuck on 2 land and 1 land that I Pathed a Voice of Resurgence from. I play a bunch of Knights and get there. It is similar in the next game. I put out so much pressure, despite having 2 Knights exiled for basic lands with the new Ixalan card. 2-0.
Round 3 vs. RUG Scapeshift. I kept on 2 land and 1 mana dork. He Cryptic Commands my Noble Hierarch at EoT. Since it's my only Blue source, I Spell Queller. But he shows me his last 3 cards - Search for Tomorrow into Scapeshift and a land so it's 36. In the next game, I keep on 3 land and mana dork. I do Collected Company, getting Tireless Tracker and nothing else - 5 lands in there. I don't have enough pressure to kill him before he super ramps into Scapeshift. He does Anger of the Gods and I think, then Negate. Then he Scapeshifts me for 18. Didn't draw a single land in either of these games, but saw 5 lands on the only Company that I cast. Salt... 0-2.
Round 4 vs. Humans. This is the deck I loaned out to my friend. He believed that 4-0 and 2-2 splitting prizes would be nearly the same as two 3-1 players. I knew it wouldn't, but he insisted, so I scooped. It's only the difference of some $3 each for us anyway. 0-2.
So, I finish 2-2, my worst record with Knightfall so far. I think this drops my overall record now to 24-9 with Knightfall, not counting IDs.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)Round 1 vs. Mono White Enchantments. In the first game, I fail to attack with a Spell Queller that I left on his side of the field, so I don't have lethal. But then I Collected Company into Knight of the Reliquary and an obligatory 2/2. Now I have it, but big mistake. In the next game, a few botched attacks made this game go longer than it needed to be. I had 2 Knight of the Reliquary and Kessig Wolf Run, but 2 Angels via double Sigil of the Empty Throne came out each turn. Finally, I got lethal after double Phyrexian Unlife were out, but Solemnity was Negated. This guy always plays a different fun deck and I believe he finished 3-1, so 3-0 after this round. 2-0.
Round 2 vs. Grixis Control. He mulls to 6. I mull to 5. Ancestral Vision on turn 1. From this point on, he played 4 Lightning Bolt by turn 5, Fatal Push, Terminate, and Snapcaster Mage/Lightning Bolt. I do Collected Company into a single Birds of Paradise, with 5 lands that I needed in there. Yeah, not winning this one. I could have actually grinded this game out and waited until I drew a mana dork to play Knight of the Reliquary and Spell Queller, but I felt that this wasn't really my game to win and wanted to see how it would go after SB. After SB, it was nearly the same. All my creatures got killed, 2 Collected Company yielded a Birds of Paradise, Scavenging Ooze, and Selfless Spirit, and Knight was small early on, so he ate a Bolt. I got raced by a quick Tasigur, ScM, and Creeping Tar Pit. It sucks because this guy beat me on RUG Scapeshift last week and I wanted revenge, especially since I know I can beat him easily and have done so in the past, but alas, it was not meant to be and he's on a 2 match win streak against me. 0-2.
Round 3 vs. Jeskai Queller. This game is really painful for my opponent. I don't play anything until turn 4, Noble Hierarch that I just drew. But I'm sitting on CoCo, get Voice of Resurgence into play, and then sit on 3 Spell Queller. He draws ... 0 Bolt and it is really rough for him. He hadn't played in a tournament in quite a long time and it showed when he couldn't figure out how to get my Voice countered. I played Voice. He did Spell Snare. I did Spell Queller. He considered something, but I think he didn't realize that he could let my Queller resolve, then with the Voice still on the stack, remove the Queller and Snare the Voice. I was happy for him not figuring it out, although I nearly told him myself, because I needed those to stick. The next game is similar, with him not drawing much removal and me drawing 2 more Spell Queller to go with my opening 1. 2-0.
Round 4 vs. Elves. I basically win both games via Retreat to Coralhelm. I know, right? How else could I win? I keep a 1 land, BoP, Knight, Retreat, etc. hand. I don't draw land, but get another Noble Hierarch and go off 2 turns later. In the next game, I go unimpeded on turn 3. He does CoCo, getting Reclamation Sage, targeting the Retreat, but in response, I fetch and go off anyway. Lucky of me to have a fetch for my 3rd land. A turn 4 and a turn 3 win! Pretty lucky of me. 2-0.
I finish 3-1, for an overall 27-10 with the deck, not counting IDs. Not bad, although I will probably try a bit harder next time (when draws and CoCos didn't quite go my way in round 2).
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)