Guess I'll post my tournament report to keep things kinda going. This was my first time ever playing the deck. I'm not a semipro or a grinder, the highest MtG achievement I have to my name is top-8ing a PTQ. So with that context, here is the report:
I played the cardknock life list with 2 changes:
1 Snow covered-plains -> plains because I couldn't find the snow land in time. The difference never came up.
1 Ceremonious rejection -> Timely reinforcements because I was more afraid of burn. This was relevant in 1 matchup.
Round 1 - Ponza. Weirdly I won really easily even though he kept blowing up my lands. The first threat he played was inferno titan and by that time I had Elspeth on board. Game 2 he probably sided out removal and I just killed him with thought-knot seer. (1-0)
Round 2 - Bant spirits. I won game 1 by wrathing his board away and attacking with colonnade and champion of wits. Game 2 I keep a 1 lander on the draw and die. Game 3 I keep a hand with supreme verdict but no colored mana and come close to stabilizing. Close (1-1)
Round 3 - Infect. Game 1 I died so fast I don't even remember what my hand was. Game 2 I mulled to 5 looking for white mana + path and die a slightly slower death. I will probably make room in the board for 1 more spatial distortion with this matchup in mind. Also good against humans and etched champion. (1-2)
Round 4 - Titanshift. Game 1 I reanimate Iona turn 5 naming Green and he can't do anything. Game 2 I tap out for... something... and die to scapeshift. Game 3 I learn my lesson and just don't tap out until I counter his titan on turn 6. The next turn he has 1 card in hand which I know is garbage from TKS. On my next turn I reanimate Iona and lock him out. He said afterwards he had paths in the board but never drew them. TKS was stellar here. (2-2)
Round 5 - Janky green tron. He had the green tron engine but he was playing old Ulamog an old Kozilek. The ones that destroy 1 permanent and draw 4 cards. Game 1 I won with Iona + Colonnade attacks after he cheated a giant eldrazi into play with Quicksilver Amulet. Yeah. Game 2 I died to turn 3 tron online pass, turn 4 giant eldrazi with annihilator. I should have mulliganed my noninteractive hand. Game 3 I won with TKS beatdown. Fat Vendilion Clique was MVP again. (3-2)
Round 6 - UW control. Here is where my inexperience really showed. I now think that we should just be playing for the Batterskull + Academy ruins recursion strategy in the early/mid game and Emrakul in the late game, forgetting about Iona or our PWs because they are too easily answered. I also think that in this matchup we should board into a counterspell deck to absolutely try and keep Jace & Teferi from resolving without opposition. If we don't tap out and they somehow force PWs through our counters, they should be low enough on mana that we can kill the PW with Colonnade or Dsphere/Obring postboard. As it was, I kept tapping out and he just planeswalkered me to death. Also, keep 4 paths in postboard for their 4 colonnades. Just 2 paths + 2 Field of Ruin is not enough. Don't fetch for basics because they run 4 paths and 4 field or ruins. Crucible of worlds is amazing in this matchup. (3-3)
Overall, I liked the deck. I made some truly awful decisions, one trying to cast Timely Reinforcements as an instant, and twice thinking Champion of Wits eternalize had haste (I had only ever eternalized Earthshaker Khenra on MtG Arena prior to this tourney). A small percent of the time Iona will just lock your opponent out of the game.
Changes I would make to the cardknocklife list:
1 Champion of wits -> 1 Thirst for knowledge for gifts purposes. I drew Unburial/resurrect target more than once on the day
1 Haven of the Spirit Dragon out - irrelevant all day in every matchup
1 Field of ruin from the side into main replacing haven
1 Spatial distortion into sideboard
Guess I'm "Just Getting Started" again... the last time I posted on mtgsalvation was probably around 2010 and it looks like they deleted my account lol.
One last thing, I have read through some of the recent posts here and I disagree with cutting Colonnade. In fact I think Colonnade the most consistent way we win the game. I would not go below 3.
I played the cardknock life list with 2 changes:
1 Snow covered-plains -> plains because I couldn't find the snow land in time. The difference never came up.
1 Ceremonious rejection -> Timely reinforcements because I was more afraid of burn. This was relevant in 1 matchup.
Round 1 - Ponza. Weirdly I won really easily even though he kept blowing up my lands. The first threat he played was inferno titan and by that time I had Elspeth on board. Game 2 he probably sided out removal and I just killed him with thought-knot seer. (1-0)
Round 2 - Bant spirits. I won game 1 by wrathing his board away and attacking with colonnade and champion of wits. Game 2 I keep a 1 lander on the draw and die. Game 3 I keep a hand with supreme verdict but no colored mana and come close to stabilizing. Close (1-1)
Round 3 - Infect. Game 1 I died so fast I don't even remember what my hand was. Game 2 I mulled to 5 looking for white mana + path and die a slightly slower death. I will probably make room in the board for 1 more spatial distortion with this matchup in mind. Also good against humans and etched champion. (1-2)
Round 4 - Titanshift. Game 1 I reanimate Iona turn 5 naming Green and he can't do anything. Game 2 I tap out for... something... and die to scapeshift. Game 3 I learn my lesson and just don't tap out until I counter his titan on turn 6. The next turn he has 1 card in hand which I know is garbage from TKS. On my next turn I reanimate Iona and lock him out. He said afterwards he had paths in the board but never drew them. TKS was stellar here. (2-2)
Round 5 - Janky green tron. He had the green tron engine but he was playing old Ulamog an old Kozilek. The ones that destroy 1 permanent and draw 4 cards. Game 1 I won with Iona + Colonnade attacks after he cheated a giant eldrazi into play with Quicksilver Amulet. Yeah. Game 2 I died to turn 3 tron online pass, turn 4 giant eldrazi with annihilator. I should have mulliganed my noninteractive hand. Game 3 I won with TKS beatdown. Fat Vendilion Clique was MVP again. (3-2)
Round 6 - UW control. Here is where my inexperience really showed. I now think that we should just be playing for the Batterskull + Academy ruins recursion strategy in the early/mid game and Emrakul in the late game, forgetting about Iona or our PWs because they are too easily answered. I also think that in this matchup we should board into a counterspell deck to absolutely try and keep Jace & Teferi from resolving without opposition. If we don't tap out and they somehow force PWs through our counters, they should be low enough on mana that we can kill the PW with Colonnade or Dsphere/Obring postboard. As it was, I kept tapping out and he just planeswalkered me to death. Also, keep 4 paths in postboard for their 4 colonnades. Just 2 paths + 2 Field of Ruin is not enough. Don't fetch for basics because they run 4 paths and 4 field or ruins. Crucible of worlds is amazing in this matchup. (3-3)
Overall, I liked the deck. I made some truly awful decisions, one trying to cast Timely Reinforcements as an instant, and twice thinking Champion of Wits eternalize had haste (I had only ever eternalized Earthshaker Khenra on MtG Arena prior to this tourney). A small percent of the time Iona will just lock your opponent out of the game.
Changes I would make to the cardknocklife list:
1 Champion of wits -> 1 Thirst for knowledge for gifts purposes. I drew Unburial/resurrect target more than once on the day
1 Haven of the Spirit Dragon out - irrelevant all day in every matchup
1 Field of ruin from the side into main replacing haven
1 Spatial distortion into sideboard
Guess I'm "Just Getting Started" again... the last time I posted on mtgsalvation was probably around 2010 and it looks like they deleted my account lol.
One last thing, I have read through some of the recent posts here and I disagree with cutting Colonnade. In fact I think Colonnade the most consistent way we win the game. I would not go below 3.