This time the attendance has grown by 25% .. as we have now a record 5 players ! We still use the everybody plays everybody system then, even though it may end up not providing a clear winner because whatever. I played the same deck as last time, that little monstrosity that I think is quite hard to beat, so as to provide a sort of benchmark for the players with “beating Hymn to Tourach” probably being a landmark for such a format (feasible, unless someone comes up with a significantly better HtT deck). I changed the sideboard a bit though, out of principle more than correct metagaming, removing three terrors in total which ended up being not a great idea.

Match 1 vs. Park (Fish)

Park is a newcomer to the format and though he played back then, he hasn’t been playing for a while, and is playing a Merfolk deck.

While he’s a bit rusty and his deck isn’t performing much competitively Vodalian Knights were a nice surprise as a quite annoying “wall” with both flying and first strike, which can become quite annoying if a Lord of Atlantis stays on board at which point they’d not only stop Specters from attacking but can hold off a Troll too. Also he surprises me with Blue Blast maindeck. Is red the new blue ? 2-0

Match 2 vs. Seth Roncoroni (ruB Flying&Discard)

Another newcomer, Seth plays a quite incredible array of older formats, including many old block constructed ones.

He comes with a red blue black deck that almost seems unfair to me as he seems to get it all : the discard from the black, the burn from the red, and he even manage to get the two blue mana for a third turn counterspell game 1 ! How could you have mana for both counterspells AND hymn to touraches ? Well, turns out he only plays two counterspell. I quite like his list, opting for Earthquake instead of Disks can be interesting, and beside the trolls he plays only flying creatures. His list looks quite solidly constructed to me so I’m not too surprised to hear he had a hand in the design of the Imperial Painter deck in Legacy. Anyways not only he does play his counterspell game 1, he also annihilates my hand two times. All I was left was 3 mountains and a swamp. He played a Serendib Efreet and I drew a Derelor. Well that was my turn to get lucky, as he didn’t have any answer to that, and was obviously losing that race ! Derelor drove me there on his lonesome back, attaboy ! (and me incredulous to have win it, but I guess the deck is very resistant) Game two I’m the one singing the hymns, but yet he still plays his Serendib Efreet, which is directly followed by my Derelor. The battlefield got a bit more crowded than game 1 but the same principle still applied, I was the beatdown and overran him. 2-0

Match 3 vs. Dave Firth Bard (watered down Dead Guy Pilsner)

Dave plays Deadguy Ale, adapted to the format.

Well he plays Black Vise and The Rack maindeck, so let’s see.. (!) I don’t remember the games that well and I forgot to record before starting the games so I’ve missed a large chunk of game 1. I remember him playing a Black Vise turn 1, which made me feel good as that card isn’t that big of a deal, and this game is an example of why (yes, even without Moxes, we’re fine with unrestricted BV) : it does deal a significant amount of damage -and an awful lot for 1 mana- but then it’s dead, and, perhaps more importantly, so are all the other Black Vises in the opponent’s deck (well in his case that’s just the one, but still, dead cards). Game 2 we play a fair game of creatures and removals until The Rack makes an apparition and does deal me a lot of damage while making me not play, whereas the Vise encouraged me to play. Anyways, when I drew a really good card (Demonic Tutor) it was too late. Game 3 he started with a BV turn 1 and things went well for me despite not drawing any discard. 2-1

Match 4 vs. Bjørn Einar Bjarnes (Shivan Indulge)

Bjorn is indulging himself with an entire playset of Shivan Dragons !

I know it beforehand as he puts the list on our facebook event and thinks to myself that this will be an easy matchup facing such sub-par slow as fuck big ass creatures (he knows what I’m playing too). Game 1 I crush him drawing hymn into unchecked hyppies, and that’s not even counting that he made several mistakes. We use the old rules, which means you can only mulligan when you either have all lands or no lands in your opening 7. As it happens, game 2 I have all lands.. and 2 Dark Rituals : serves me right for including the option to play with the old rules in the format ! Game 3 is a much longer affair. Turn 4 he plays a Demonic Tutor and forks it 🙂 -though he doesn’t seem to be sure what to look for. I expect him to have a Mind Twist so next turn I feel obliged to play the one I tutor for on the spot as I imagine I can’t afford to wait. He has a Maze of Ith in play that completely ruins my every efforts as he always seem to have a solution to anything I can add on top of my Derelor. This is frustrating. I play a Nevinyrral’s Disk with my Derelor in play to keep me busy and he adds a Sedge Troll on top of the aggravation ! He plays a Wheel of Fortune that gives me a HtT which will discard two now-worthless lands. Finally I’ve to use the Disk to get rid of a Dragon Whelp as I definitely absolutely can’t seem to find some burn to get rid of it (that’s when moving some terrors off of the sideboard comes to bite me, too), only to see him play another one right after that. Game set and match. 1-2

For the first time ever, I lose to an old school deck featuring a creature of casting cost 6+. The humiliation is absolute. What has happened to me ? Even 5-mana creatures decks were easy targets back in the days. We can’t let that fly. That kind of behavior must and will be punished. I mean seriously, what’s next ? Force of Nature, Lord of the Pit ? (sore loser, spike mode on, if you hadn’t noticed)

I think it’s all over and Shivan Dragons have won the whole thing, to my despair. That’s because at 3-0 and having beaten Seth I had ruled him out. Not so fast. There’s still some hope for justice (or spike-justice if you will), Seth is currently 1-1, but if he beats Bjørn and Dave, then we’d be three tied at 3-1 (as our losses to one another would be evenly distributed). Still an unacceptable result, but a much more palatable one. Seth my man, you saved the day ! And with style, I hear, as you stole his Shivan to seal the deal ! Bjørn you almost unseat the order of things and I will come back to make people pay for playing fatties. Next time, it’s my turn to indulge myself ! (evil spike mode off) 🙂