This is what I played at Provincials going 4-2, I really liked the deck and it had some great draws. I chose to use the Scion build as it did well in testing, and I found the populate plus the flyer always useful. It actually won me two important matches, one again RG Monsters and the other against Esper control.
I had ran the following build at the super series session, going 3-3.
I had terrible draws all tournament long, so the deck definitely underperformed. I found that Soldier of the Patheon was very good in the mirror as a beater. Call of the Conclave was usually underwhelming for me, but did good things at times. I'm thinking of putting a Trostani main and removing the soldiers for the extra Boon Satyr, Rootbound Defenses and a Trostani, which would free up two slots in the sideboard. I think devoting a good number of cards to Blue Devotion is a good idea.
Mind sharing your sideboarding plans? This is a similar direction I'm about to playtest.
I've played two different tweakings of this deck, which I'll post once I get home from work. I've gone 4-2 (11/48) at Provincials and 3-3 (21/58) at a series event with this deck. The 3-3 was aggravating due to extremely terrible draws all day, adding to my frustration playing this deck, as much as I like it.
I think it would be beneficial on this thread to discuss sideboarding plans vs the main oppositions and update the first post much like the primer threads do. Because there are so many different card choices people are going with, maybe discussing and labelling "against deck X, these are the cards in priority order to take out, and priority order to board in". In my experience solid sideboard plans can make or break a deck and consistent tournament placements.
As for playing 3 Ajani, I've really liked playing just two copies of him, but I've never had a situation except against control where I drew him and was displeased. I"ll have to playtest running him as a 3-of and see how that goes.
For the first question, I think it's a variance in education. People in the younger generation are more educated in logical thinking I believe, so they understand faster the logical flow of electricity (and other things of course0.
Older generation might not have been educated as well in a younger age, so they think longer on things, and they are used to physical work, so it's easier for them.
I don't find electrical runs that difficult to understand, I love the theory of it, and it's always delightful to see it work. Tracking down problems with logical thinking is also fun.
Summary: Older generation used to physical, not educated as well generally. Todays generation, educated really well, taught to use brain, not used to physical work.
I think FF has been going downhill since 6 to be honest. I didn't like 7 a whole lot, but it was still good. 8 and 9 were ok, 10 and after were pretty bad.
I would rather playing 1, 4 and 6 over any of the others.
It's been a trend in many games that they go for high graphics now, and the stories lack. Every once in a while you find a gem.
Is there any way you can get an even higher resolution and better quality from a different scanner?
It's about impossible to fully tell one way or the other from the low quality one. It looks blurry, but the text looks smoother as it should on real cards to me.
I do a lot of inspecting when buying power and dual lands, and use a 10x jewelers loupe for detection of fakes.
It's hard to tell as this scan is very low resolution and the scan itself may look more blurry than it really is.
That being said, to tell authentic printing, MTG cards are printed in two layers. The color is a series of dots, and then the black text is printed ontop of the color dots. This means that the color you can tell distinct little circles (pentagons?), and the black is crystal smooth.
On your scanned image, it does appear that all the black is much clearer than the color areas, which leads me to believe this is real. This is a very hard printing process to duplicate. And this can't be a reback, as it's white bordered.
If you have a magnification device, the second test is the "blue line" that you can see on the very thin edges of the card. Real MTG cards have a very fine thin blue line (glue I believe).
Hard to tell without higher detailed scans, but the printing looks authentic as best I can tell. Color damage makes sense it'd only effect the lighter areas of the cards.
1. Once Oblivion Ring resolves, that is when you choose the target. Once the target is chosen, it's chosen and can't be changed. If you sacrifice your dauntless escort in response to that ability, then your opponent does not get to choose a new target, the ability simply fizzles.
However, if you chose to sacrifice your dauntless escort in response to him casting Oblivion Ring (notice how since it's cast, not resolves, your opponent does NOT choose a target yet), then once it resolves he must choose a legal target if able, meaning his Jace would be targetted. If your opponent casts the spell and names a target, let him know he doesn't choose a target until it resolves, and in response to him casting your sacrifice your dauntless escort.
2. A creature is deemed to have "summoning sickness" if it has not been under your control since the beginning of the turn. Since Baneslayer was not under his control since the beginning of his turn, he may not attack with it.
3. Yes your knight will be a 6/6 (it starts off as a 4/4, then your play). The only way to describe this to your opponents is this with this kind of chart:
Start of Attack:
Active Player Priority
Non-Active Player Priority
Attackers are Declared
Active Player Priority
Non-Active Player Priority
Blockers are Declared
Active Player Priority
Non-Active Player Priority
Combat Damage is Dealt
And show step by step how each resolves, no easier way to explain it unfortunately.
4. You are correct, you may ONLY activiate Jace's ability as a sorcery, which means "it must be that players turn, and the stack must be empty". Since Ponder is on the stack, clearly he cannot cast a sorcery, and cannot respond to the lightning bolt. Jace will die.
Guy 1 attacks with leech (Guy 2 has an open red)
Guy 2: Are you pumping the leech?
Guy 1: I am not pumping the leech
Guy 2: Ok (2 second pause), I bolt the leech
Guy 1: Uh, ok in response I pump, take 4
Guy 2: (Silence)
Game 1, kept a pretty normal hand of 6 after mulliganing on the play containing savage lands, raging ravine, verdant catacombs, putrid leech, bloodbraid elf, broodmate dragon.
Unfortunately in this game by the end I had only 6 total non-land cards, and around 9 land. I managed to hold him off for a while, but it was inevitable. He was playing Great Sable Stag maindeck, and I hadn't seen any pulse. One interesting thing I believe may be a misplay, I had only broodmate dragon in my hand, and one on the field doing some flying damage. Fearing a pulse I kept it in my hand so I can rebound after his pulse (he has 3 cards in hand).
Unfortunately the following turn it got blightning'd away, and my single broodmate wasn't enough to get through as I was just drawing land after land. Saw no bolts, no terminates, no pulses, so let's hope game 2 is better!
Game 2, 7 cards 1 land... mull! 6 cards no land? Mull! Hmm, 1 land, 4 non-land... sure I guess so. Once again by the end of the game 6 non-land total, and 9 lands drawn, so I spent around 7 turns drawing lands. With my original
4 being Leech, Thrinax, Terminate, Bloodbraid. I managed to keep ahead in board position, especially after two misplays by my opponent, after I swung with leech and chose NOT to pump he decided to bolt my leech at end of turn. I pump and save. While attacking with Raging Ravine he let the trigger resolve, then blocked with a saproling and bolted the ravine, instead of just bolting it with the trigger on the stack, this really kept me in the game.
With a siege-gang and 3 goblins on the board, and 8 mana in play, with my opponent at 9, all I needed was a blightning or a bolt to actually win this game. Unfortunately it was not to be, and my opponent played a broodmate to finish the game flying over my head.
Should be noted that despite the misplays, he actually played most over things very well and his build was interesting with maindeck Stags, good meta call. He eventually ended up in 10th.
0 - 1
Round 2: UWR Planeswalkers
Game 1, kept a standard hand of 7. I started off with a few tapped lands and a thrinax, while he played double wall of omens by this turn. On my turn I pulse the walls and swing with Thrinax getting 3 in. On his turn he plays a chalice for 1 and passes with one white mana open. I swing with Thrinax, it gets a Path to Exile finding me a mountain and I follow up with Blightning. I eventually run out of steam with my opponent at 7 and him resolving the board position with Gideon and Elspeth combination. He swings with collonade and Gideon for 10, and I don't have an answer for the 10 next turn.
Game 2, I start with a very fast hand, leech on turn 2, blightning and swing for 4 on turn 3. turn 4 bloodbraid into blightning. I had the pulse ready for his planeswalkers so we were very quickly onto game 3. A very fast hand vs my opponent having to mulligan to 5 was very good.
Game 3, I keep a slower hand of 7 on the draw with 4 land a malakir bloodwitch, bloodbraid, and a leech. I get leech in for 4 a few times before it's dealt with. Once I landed malakir bloodwitch he had no reasonable answer. I took out a bunch of his planeswalkers with the malakir, kept the board position in check with another leech and manlands, and his hand in check with a blightning. When all was said and done, he had two cards in hand, I had only a bolt and a siege-gang with no red mana due to spreading seas. He swings with collonade I go to 17, I swing with witch and he goes to 14, then he swings with me to 13 etc. I am winning this first, and I have a bolt in hand to end it quicker. He paths my leech and gives me a red and I draw into a savage lands before all is said and done. With me at 4 and my opponent at 6, I draw a second bolt, and with 2 red up I swing with witch bringing him to 2. I bolt him, he casts flash freeze, in response I bolt and he has no answer, so I win.
1 - 1
Round 3: UW Tapout
Game 1, I keep a pretty standard hand, he casts a spreading seas getting rid of a man land and he answers my Thrinax. I bloodbraid into blightning and bash him to 11 until he cracks a fetch (10) and answers bloodbraid. I swing with another raging ravine, he casts Sphinx of the Jwar Isle but I'm able to attack around him with goblin tokens and finish him off with a bolt.
Game 2, He has the nuts hand and spreading seas 3 of my lands by turn 4, and I can't cast anything. I quickly lose to double collonade at my face.
Game 3, I keep the nuts hand, turn 2 leech, turn 3 leech, turn 4 bloodbraid into blightning, turn 5 bloodbraid into ruinblaster, turn 6 siege-gang. He has no answers in time, and I win the game with pure aggression.
2 - 1
Round 4: White Weenie
Game 1, My opponents deck appears very slow, he accelerates his lands into play using an artifact creature I do not remember, and plays big 3/4 angel creatures. I have terminates and pulses for the angels and blightning his
hand away, then swing with manlands and leeches for the win. He is playing Journey to Nowhere and Oblivion Ring.
Game 2, Same as first game, I keep a double blightning hand with a terminate and pulse knowing it will be destroy his hand. I procede to win with a bloodbraid once I've dealt with all his threats.
3 - 1
Round 5: Jund
Game 1, this is a friend I've played a few times and he's running the lotus cobra version. I start off with turn 2 leech, he goes turn 2 cobra turn 3 leech, I go turn 4 bloodbraid into blightning and swing. After a while our board position is crazy, I have 6 goblin tokens, a siege-gang, a leech, a thrinax and a bloodbraid, he 3 goblin tokens, a siege-gang, 2 leeches, a cobra, and and a thrinax. I sac tokens to bring him down to 5, he then kills my siege so I can't untap and kill him. I draw a bloodbraid into pulse, touch decision, but I pulse his cobra so he doesn't have enough blockers for everything so I swing and bring him to 1, and cripples his board position. He draws an answer to my remaining creatures but I draw blightning and win with the damage.
Game 2, I keep a fast hand with double ruinblaster. He gets stuck on two raging ravines for most of the game and there isn't much to say. He did eventually draw a few land and put up a fight but it was too late by this time.
Even casting my ruinblasters just for the hasted 2 damage around his blockers was enough to end this game.
4 - 1
Round 6: RDW
Before the round we had done the math that if we decided to draw I would be 9th and he would be 8th. I didn't want to just miss out on top 8 by drawing, so we decided to play it out. Unfortunately he was RDW and had some pretty gross draws.
Game 1, I kept a hand of three thrinax a bloodbraid and some good lands. I guess now that I know he was playing RDW that this was prolly a bad hand with no removal. He goes first, Turn 1 Goblin Guide, Turn 2 Plated Geopede, Turn 3 Scalding Tarn into mountain into Ball Lightning... wow, I'm fried.
Game 2, I keep a fast hand with leech, thrinax, bloodbraid, bolt, lands. He guides me into a land, and then I bolt his guide. I play enough threats but he eventually burns them enough. He uses devastating summons as a last resort for two 3/3's with his geopede. I have a leech on the board and my opponent is at 8. I play broodmate dragon, and that ends game 2 in my favor.
Game 3, I keep a pretty decent hand with some removal, but he has only a mediocre hand. I blightning a lot of his hand away, but he holds back two additional lands for blightning. In the end my opponent is at 14 and I'm 3, he
has 3 cards in hand (two of which are land). I play a fetch land and go to 2 in order to play broodmate. And he has the staggershock for the win.
4 - 2
11th Place (61 entered)
So overall not too bad, not the result I wanted but after a very unlucky round 1 I bounced back and still almost made top 8.
I placed 11th at my regionals... I will post a full tournament report tomorrow I imagine, the deck did well for me.
In quick summary though, I lost round 1 in a very ☺☺☺☺ty way, Jund Mirror in game one I drew 6 nonland cards, and around around 9 land. In game 2 I had to mull down to 5, I kept 5 with ONE land and FOUR nonland cards... by the end of the game I had only 6 total nonland cards and 10 lands... that sucked.
After that I won the next 4 rounds and my deck was working as usual. at 4-1 (6 rounds) we did the math that if we accepted a draw I would be 9th, so we had to play it out for winner guaranteed Top8, I played against RDW and lost in a close 3 game match. So overall it did alright, not the Top8 I wanted but still well.
I just remembered I had some scans from a pretty reliable online shop of their lotus's and I compared. It appears on unlimited lotus's... at least when compared to unlimited moxes, the black border line on the top and the left are much thinner in comparison to the one on the left. On moxes they appear much more equal. Maybe it's a centering issue.
The casting cost "0" looks a bit off on them as well, I guess I just attribute this to the way they used to be printed in the past, they were not all perfect and equal.
I guess my question was answered and we can lock the thread. Thanks again for the fast replies.
Thanks very much for the quick reply, your post brings a bit of piece to my mind. I just couldn't help but post it for another opinion on the mana cost "0" symbol, I think it was just the printing back then wasn't as precise as today so it was a bit off.
4x Boon Satyr
4x Elvish Mystic
4x Fleecemane Lion
4x Loxodon Smiter
4x Scion of Vitu-Ghazi
4x Voice of Resurgence
2x Ajani, Caller of the Pride
4x Advent of the Wurm
4x Selesnya Charm
2x Spear of Heliod
8x Forest
8x Plains
4x Selesnya Guildgate
4x Temple Garden
4x Druid's Deliverance
3x Glare of Heresy
2x Pithing Needle
2x Rootborn Defenses
2x Unflinching Courage
2x Centaur Healer
This is what I played at Provincials going 4-2, I really liked the deck and it had some great draws. I chose to use the Scion build as it did well in testing, and I found the populate plus the flyer always useful. It actually won me two important matches, one again RG Monsters and the other against Esper control.
I had ran the following build at the super series session, going 3-3.
3x Boon Satyr
4x Experiment One
4x Fleecemane Lion
4x Loxodon Smiter
3x Soldier of the Pantheon
4x Voice of Resurgence
2x Ajani, Caller of the Pride
4x Advent of the Wurm
3x Call of the Conclave
2x Rootborn Defenses
4x Selesnya Charm
9x Forest
8x Plains
2x Selesnya Guildgate
4x Temple Garden
2x Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
3x Glare of Heresy
2x Pithing Needle
1x Rootborn Defenses
3x Unflinching Courage
2x Plummet
2x Banisher Priest
I had terrible draws all tournament long, so the deck definitely underperformed. I found that Soldier of the Patheon was very good in the mirror as a beater. Call of the Conclave was usually underwhelming for me, but did good things at times. I'm thinking of putting a Trostani main and removing the soldiers for the extra Boon Satyr, Rootbound Defenses and a Trostani, which would free up two slots in the sideboard. I think devoting a good number of cards to Blue Devotion is a good idea.
Mind sharing your sideboarding plans? This is a similar direction I'm about to playtest.
I've played two different tweakings of this deck, which I'll post once I get home from work. I've gone 4-2 (11/48) at Provincials and 3-3 (21/58) at a series event with this deck. The 3-3 was aggravating due to extremely terrible draws all day, adding to my frustration playing this deck, as much as I like it.
I think it would be beneficial on this thread to discuss sideboarding plans vs the main oppositions and update the first post much like the primer threads do. Because there are so many different card choices people are going with, maybe discussing and labelling "against deck X, these are the cards in priority order to take out, and priority order to board in". In my experience solid sideboard plans can make or break a deck and consistent tournament placements.
As for playing 3 Ajani, I've really liked playing just two copies of him, but I've never had a situation except against control where I drew him and was displeased. I"ll have to playtest running him as a 3-of and see how that goes.
Older generation might not have been educated as well in a younger age, so they think longer on things, and they are used to physical work, so it's easier for them.
I don't find electrical runs that difficult to understand, I love the theory of it, and it's always delightful to see it work. Tracking down problems with logical thinking is also fun.
Summary: Older generation used to physical, not educated as well generally. Todays generation, educated really well, taught to use brain, not used to physical work.
I would rather playing 1, 4 and 6 over any of the others.
It's been a trend in many games that they go for high graphics now, and the stories lack. Every once in a while you find a gem.
Card just wasn't as fun once I realized the spelling and how it was pronounced
Or did they just handle the card, look at it, and give you a quick answer?
It's about impossible to fully tell one way or the other from the low quality one. It looks blurry, but the text looks smoother as it should on real cards to me.
It's hard to tell as this scan is very low resolution and the scan itself may look more blurry than it really is.
That being said, to tell authentic printing, MTG cards are printed in two layers. The color is a series of dots, and then the black text is printed ontop of the color dots. This means that the color you can tell distinct little circles (pentagons?), and the black is crystal smooth.
On your scanned image, it does appear that all the black is much clearer than the color areas, which leads me to believe this is real. This is a very hard printing process to duplicate. And this can't be a reback, as it's white bordered.
If you have a magnification device, the second test is the "blue line" that you can see on the very thin edges of the card. Real MTG cards have a very fine thin blue line (glue I believe).
Hard to tell without higher detailed scans, but the printing looks authentic as best I can tell. Color damage makes sense it'd only effect the lighter areas of the cards.
1. Once Oblivion Ring resolves, that is when you choose the target. Once the target is chosen, it's chosen and can't be changed. If you sacrifice your dauntless escort in response to that ability, then your opponent does not get to choose a new target, the ability simply fizzles.
However, if you chose to sacrifice your dauntless escort in response to him casting Oblivion Ring (notice how since it's cast, not resolves, your opponent does NOT choose a target yet), then once it resolves he must choose a legal target if able, meaning his Jace would be targetted. If your opponent casts the spell and names a target, let him know he doesn't choose a target until it resolves, and in response to him casting your sacrifice your dauntless escort.
2. A creature is deemed to have "summoning sickness" if it has not been under your control since the beginning of the turn. Since Baneslayer was not under his control since the beginning of his turn, he may not attack with it.
3. Yes your knight will be a 6/6 (it starts off as a 4/4, then your play). The only way to describe this to your opponents is this with this kind of chart:
Start of Attack:
Active Player Priority
Non-Active Player Priority
Attackers are Declared
Active Player Priority
Non-Active Player Priority
Blockers are Declared
Active Player Priority
Non-Active Player Priority
Combat Damage is Dealt
And show step by step how each resolves, no easier way to explain it unfortunately.
4. You are correct, you may ONLY activiate Jace's ability as a sorcery, which means "it must be that players turn, and the stack must be empty". Since Ponder is on the stack, clearly he cannot cast a sorcery, and cannot respond to the lightning bolt. Jace will die.
Hope this helps!
I've actually been buying from kidicarus2000 a lot as well, and he's an excellent seller. I'd recommend high power sellers on ebay if you do use ebay.
Guy 1 attacks with leech (Guy 2 has an open red)
Guy 2: Are you pumping the leech?
Guy 1: I am not pumping the leech
Guy 2: Ok (2 second pause), I bolt the leech
Guy 1: Uh, ok in response I pump, take 4
Guy 2: (Silence)
4 Putrid Leech
4 Sprouting Thrinax
4 Bloodbraid Elf
2 Broodmate Dragon
3 Siege-Gang Commander
Spells (14)
1 Bituminous Blast
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Terminate
3 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Blightning
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
Land (27)
4 Savage Lands
4 Raging Ravine
2 Dragonskull Summit
2 Lavaclaw Reaches
1 Rootbound Crag
3 Forest
4 Swamp
3 Mountain
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Goblin Ruinblaster
3 Great Sable Stag
4 Doom Blade
2 Consuming Vapors
2 Malakir Bloodwitch
1 Maelstrom Pulse
Round 1: Jund
Game 1, kept a pretty normal hand of 6 after mulliganing on the play containing savage lands, raging ravine, verdant catacombs, putrid leech, bloodbraid elf, broodmate dragon.
Unfortunately in this game by the end I had only 6 total non-land cards, and around 9 land. I managed to hold him off for a while, but it was inevitable. He was playing Great Sable Stag maindeck, and I hadn't seen any pulse. One interesting thing I believe may be a misplay, I had only broodmate dragon in my hand, and one on the field doing some flying damage. Fearing a pulse I kept it in my hand so I can rebound after his pulse (he has 3 cards in hand).
Unfortunately the following turn it got blightning'd away, and my single broodmate wasn't enough to get through as I was just drawing land after land. Saw no bolts, no terminates, no pulses, so let's hope game 2 is better!
Sideboard:
-3 Pulse -2 Garruk -1 Leech
+3 Ruinblaster +3 Great Sable Stag
Game 2, 7 cards 1 land... mull! 6 cards no land? Mull! Hmm, 1 land, 4 non-land... sure I guess so. Once again by the end of the game 6 non-land total, and 9 lands drawn, so I spent around 7 turns drawing lands. With my original
4 being Leech, Thrinax, Terminate, Bloodbraid. I managed to keep ahead in board position, especially after two misplays by my opponent, after I swung with leech and chose NOT to pump he decided to bolt my leech at end of turn. I pump and save. While attacking with Raging Ravine he let the trigger resolve, then blocked with a saproling and bolted the ravine, instead of just bolting it with the trigger on the stack, this really kept me in the game.
With a siege-gang and 3 goblins on the board, and 8 mana in play, with my opponent at 9, all I needed was a blightning or a bolt to actually win this game. Unfortunately it was not to be, and my opponent played a broodmate to finish the game flying over my head.
Should be noted that despite the misplays, he actually played most over things very well and his build was interesting with maindeck Stags, good meta call. He eventually ended up in 10th.
0 - 1
Round 2: UWR Planeswalkers
Game 1, kept a standard hand of 7. I started off with a few tapped lands and a thrinax, while he played double wall of omens by this turn. On my turn I pulse the walls and swing with Thrinax getting 3 in. On his turn he plays a chalice for 1 and passes with one white mana open. I swing with Thrinax, it gets a Path to Exile finding me a mountain and I follow up with Blightning. I eventually run out of steam with my opponent at 7 and him resolving the board position with Gideon and Elspeth combination. He swings with collonade and Gideon for 10, and I don't have an answer for the 10 next turn.
Sideboard:
-1 Bit Blast -2 Terminate -1 Lightning Bolt -2 Broodmate
+1 Pulse +2 Malakir Bloodwitch +3 Stag
Game 2, I start with a very fast hand, leech on turn 2, blightning and swing for 4 on turn 3. turn 4 bloodbraid into blightning. I had the pulse ready for his planeswalkers so we were very quickly onto game 3. A very fast hand vs my opponent having to mulligan to 5 was very good.
Game 3, I keep a slower hand of 7 on the draw with 4 land a malakir bloodwitch, bloodbraid, and a leech. I get leech in for 4 a few times before it's dealt with. Once I landed malakir bloodwitch he had no reasonable answer. I took out a bunch of his planeswalkers with the malakir, kept the board position in check with another leech and manlands, and his hand in check with a blightning. When all was said and done, he had two cards in hand, I had only a bolt and a siege-gang with no red mana due to spreading seas. He swings with collonade I go to 17, I swing with witch and he goes to 14, then he swings with me to 13 etc. I am winning this first, and I have a bolt in hand to end it quicker. He paths my leech and gives me a red and I draw into a savage lands before all is said and done. With me at 4 and my opponent at 6, I draw a second bolt, and with 2 red up I swing with witch bringing him to 2. I bolt him, he casts flash freeze, in response I bolt and he has no answer, so I win.
1 - 1
Round 3: UW Tapout
Game 1, I keep a pretty standard hand, he casts a spreading seas getting rid of a man land and he answers my Thrinax. I bloodbraid into blightning and bash him to 11 until he cracks a fetch (10) and answers bloodbraid. I swing with another raging ravine, he casts Sphinx of the Jwar Isle but I'm able to attack around him with goblin tokens and finish him off with a bolt.
Sideboard:
-1 Bit Blast -4 Thrinax -1 Lightning Bolt -2 Broodmate Dragon
+2 Consuming Vapors +2 Malakir Bloodwitch +1 Pulse +3 Ruinblasters
Game 2, He has the nuts hand and spreading seas 3 of my lands by turn 4, and I can't cast anything. I quickly lose to double collonade at my face.
Game 3, I keep the nuts hand, turn 2 leech, turn 3 leech, turn 4 bloodbraid into blightning, turn 5 bloodbraid into ruinblaster, turn 6 siege-gang. He has no answers in time, and I win the game with pure aggression.
2 - 1
Round 4: White Weenie
Game 1, My opponents deck appears very slow, he accelerates his lands into play using an artifact creature I do not remember, and plays big 3/4 angel creatures. I have terminates and pulses for the angels and blightning his
hand away, then swing with manlands and leeches for the win. He is playing Journey to Nowhere and Oblivion Ring.
Sideboard:
-4 Thrinax -2 Broodmate Dragon -1 Bit Blast
+4 Doom Blade +2 Bloodwitch +1 Maelstrom Pulse
Game 2, Same as first game, I keep a double blightning hand with a terminate and pulse knowing it will be destroy his hand. I procede to win with a bloodbraid once I've dealt with all his threats.
3 - 1
Round 5: Jund
Game 1, this is a friend I've played a few times and he's running the lotus cobra version. I start off with turn 2 leech, he goes turn 2 cobra turn 3 leech, I go turn 4 bloodbraid into blightning and swing. After a while our board position is crazy, I have 6 goblin tokens, a siege-gang, a leech, a thrinax and a bloodbraid, he 3 goblin tokens, a siege-gang, 2 leeches, a cobra, and and a thrinax. I sac tokens to bring him down to 5, he then kills my siege so I can't untap and kill him. I draw a bloodbraid into pulse, touch decision, but I pulse his cobra so he doesn't have enough blockers for everything so I swing and bring him to 1, and cripples his board position. He draws an answer to my remaining creatures but I draw blightning and win with the damage.
Sideboard:
-3 Pulse -2 Garruk -1 Leech
+3 Ruinblaster +3 Great Sable Stag
Game 2, I keep a fast hand with double ruinblaster. He gets stuck on two raging ravines for most of the game and there isn't much to say. He did eventually draw a few land and put up a fight but it was too late by this time.
Even casting my ruinblasters just for the hasted 2 damage around his blockers was enough to end this game.
4 - 1
Round 6: RDW
Before the round we had done the math that if we decided to draw I would be 9th and he would be 8th. I didn't want to just miss out on top 8 by drawing, so we decided to play it out. Unfortunately he was RDW and had some pretty gross draws.
Game 1, I kept a hand of three thrinax a bloodbraid and some good lands. I guess now that I know he was playing RDW that this was prolly a bad hand with no removal. He goes first, Turn 1 Goblin Guide, Turn 2 Plated Geopede, Turn 3 Scalding Tarn into mountain into Ball Lightning... wow, I'm fried.
Sideboard:
-3 Pulse -3 Siege-Gang Commander
+4 Doom Blade +2 Ruinblasters
Game 2, I keep a fast hand with leech, thrinax, bloodbraid, bolt, lands. He guides me into a land, and then I bolt his guide. I play enough threats but he eventually burns them enough. He uses devastating summons as a last resort for two 3/3's with his geopede. I have a leech on the board and my opponent is at 8. I play broodmate dragon, and that ends game 2 in my favor.
Game 3, I keep a pretty decent hand with some removal, but he has only a mediocre hand. I blightning a lot of his hand away, but he holds back two additional lands for blightning. In the end my opponent is at 14 and I'm 3, he
has 3 cards in hand (two of which are land). I play a fetch land and go to 2 in order to play broodmate. And he has the staggershock for the win.
4 - 2
11th Place (61 entered)
So overall not too bad, not the result I wanted but after a very unlucky round 1 I bounced back and still almost made top 8.
In quick summary though, I lost round 1 in a very ☺☺☺☺ty way, Jund Mirror in game one I drew 6 nonland cards, and around around 9 land. In game 2 I had to mull down to 5, I kept 5 with ONE land and FOUR nonland cards... by the end of the game I had only 6 total nonland cards and 10 lands... that sucked.
After that I won the next 4 rounds and my deck was working as usual. at 4-1 (6 rounds) we did the math that if we accepted a draw I would be 9th, so we had to play it out for winner guaranteed Top8, I played against RDW and lost in a close 3 game match. So overall it did alright, not the Top8 I wanted but still well.
The casting cost "0" looks a bit off on them as well, I guess I just attribute this to the way they used to be printed in the past, they were not all perfect and equal.
I guess my question was answered and we can lock the thread. Thanks again for the fast replies.