DAY TWO

Here we are again. I thought alot more people would be turning up, but perhaps some of them were attending Armageddon instead With only 7 people rocked were competing, and odd numbers made the pairings pretty wonky. After arriving, I drop the 3rd Triton Tactics for a 4th Negate. Crackling Dooms were on my mind. I chug a can of Mother to start the day.

Swiss Rounds
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Round One
2-1 vs Abzan Aggro (Marcus)
Hey, I remember this type of deck. Bit lower curve to fit in Soldiers of the Pantheon however, but still looked pretty nasty. Remembering that I always got rolled by Abzan Aggro, I wasn't that confident on this variant.

Game One: Manage to get the play. I get throughtseized which reveals an Ordeal of Thassa and Heliod, some heroic creatures, and a Brimaz. After the Ordeal of Thassa gets binned, I manage to fire off the Ordeal of Heliod. Even with a Rakhasa Deathdealer and Rhino in play, I put on some pressure with buffed Battlewise Hoplite (blocked by Soldier of the Pantheon) and Brimaz + Eidolon of Countless Battles till he lands a Sorin. I manage to chip away 1 life at a time, but soon we end up both on 25. Chump blocking with Deathdealer, and staring down a Spear of Heliod, Sorin Emblem (still with Sorin), and I scoop after a suicidal attack.

Game Two: Board in some Glares of Heresy, a Spear (I think) and a couple of Fabled Heroes. He plays a despise to take out a Hero of Iroas (I think). I start rolling out the remaining creatures without any enchantments commited to play around removal. Then I started buffing evasion and ordeals. Since he saw a Glare of Heresy or two, he reveals a hand full of gas (but white) like Siege Rhino and Sorin which he knew would get answered after I put the game away.

Game Three: On the draw, I get Despised to bin a Seeker of the Way. With two Brimaz's in hand, I soon land one and start attacking. He lands a Heir of the Wilds, to which I keep throwing against before he decides to eventually trade with it (he opted to kill the token instead). Lands another Heir, and I run my second Brimaz into him (I drew a third Brimaz by this time). I give Brimaz evasion, and keep my God's Willing mana open (which he saw in my initial hand). Aqueous Form allowed me to scry dead cards away, as I continued to dig for additional protection. With my opponent stuck on two lands until very late, I manage to swing in Brimaz and another guy with evasion to seal the deal.

Record: 1-0

Round Two
2-0 vs Temur (Daniel)
This didn't look fun. Remembering the finals yesterday, I thought I would be scraping in to even get to Top 4.

Game One: On the draw this time, I manage to cantrip pretty nicely into some evasion + big creatures. I land a double Ordeal (Thassa+Heliod) on to a Seeker of the Way and start some early beats. My opponent reminds me on the next turn that I can only sacrifice one of the ordeals at that time, and I am faced with a choice. I decide to take the life, which brought me to 35. Afterwards, some and firing off the other Ordeal to get some gas made me theaten lethal on the next swing, however I was pretty open after that attack. He was disappointed to find that he could only swing for 26.

Game Two: Mostly uneventful, I unusually decide to board in a Spear of Heliod and a singleton Triton Tactics. I manage to suit up a Battlewise Hoplite as a 5/5 after firing off an Ordeal of Thassa to get some gas. A Temur Ascendency (I think that game) manages to get my opponent cantripping quite a bit, and swings in with a Surrak. I do some quick maths based on a deployed Spear of Heliod and the Triton Tactics from my opening hand, I manage make the Hoplite a 7/10 to untap and kill the Surrak. Some other pumps manage to get me the game.

Record: 2-0

Round Three
Draw vs Jeskai (Scott)
Since he was the only other player with the same record as me, and locked in for Top 4, we agree to draw. Food Time.

Record: 2-0-1

Top 4 Play-offs
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Semi-Finals
2-0 vs 5 Color Superfriends (Aidan)
I heard about the deck and saw a few games played, but never played against it. Looked interesting, and bound to be powerful, but if it had a lot of control elements my deck was going to get rolled.

Game One: As top in the standings, I decide to play. A buffed Battlewise Hoplite manages to get a ram thrown under the bus. I recall some early disruption being attempted, but I manage to ride it to the win.

Game Two: Opening hand with a Negate, God's Willing, at least one creature, and some land to play em. Keep. Manage to draw a second Negate, and get some early pressure + gas. I get in for lethal before he intended to land an Elspeth the next turn (and blow my stuff up), but I reveal the two Negates that would've contested it.

Finals
'Win' vs Temur (Daniel)
Well this looks familiar...
Luckily for me, we agree to an re-allocation of prizes where he would get the majority of prize boosters and I end up with the playmat. Pretty uneventful conclusion, but after a year's worth of Game Days I got what I came for.

I hung around afterwards to chill, trade and help some of the guys practice some Legacy matchups for Eternal Masters next weekend.