Top 4 at Myriad in January

So after a weaker performance at last months event I retooled my Bomberman list expecting a fair number of GAT, Shops and some assorted aggro decks. Here's the list I ran.

3 Auriok Salvagers
4 Trinket Mage
3 Aven Mindcensor

4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
2 Misdirection

4 Brainstorm
3 Thirst for Knowledge
3 Repeal
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk

1 Aether Spellbomb
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Sensei's Divining Top

4 Flooded Strand
4 Island
3 Tundra
2 Ancient Tomb
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Plains
1 Black Lotus
5 Moxen
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt

Sideboard

4 Samurai of the Pale Curtain
3 Meddling Mage
3 Energy Flux
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Pithing Needle

On to the report. There were 43 players, so 6 rounds of Swiss for the event.

Round 1 - Chad playing Mono Red Shop Aggro.

Game 1 - I win the die roll and lead with a fetch, mox and sol ring and ancestral. As I am playing against a team mate I know what he is playing so can run my recall out without protection. I drop another mox and pass the turn. He starts with 2 moxes and a mana vault and a solemn for a mountain. I brainstorm into another land as Chad plays a thorn and then gets stuck on three mana with a vault slowly dwindling his life total. I get a salvagers down and drain a welder and a solemn. Eventually I get a few more creatures and kill him.

Game 2 - Chad mulls to 6 and I keep a hand with no land and just sol ring for mana. I do have double force and energy flux in hand, so I risk that I will draw a land before Chad can get anything to stick. He leads with a jugg and i force it. I don't draw a land and pass. He plays a welder which I also force, especially with juggs in the graveyard. I draw a land on my second turn and drop land and sol ring. I run out my energy flux, but Chad has the pyroblast to counter it. I get lucky next turn and draw my lotus, putting out a samurai of the pale curtain and an explosives on 1. Chad plays a welder which i kill with explosives and I ride the samurai to victory.

Round 2 - Craig playing GAT.

Game 1 - I get to play against a second team mate - I begin to think it is going to be one of those days. I win the die roll again and drop two moxes and a spellbomb. Craig gets a goyf early but I explosives it. He uses some card filtering with ponder and brainstorm and duresses me. He gets a fastbond done, which I choose not to counter as I think he is bluffing. He scrolls and I drop mindcensor and win the counter war. Craig wiffs completely on his search, and does so again with a second merchant scroll and a fetch. He gets a dryad done but makes a critical mistake when he forgets that I have both spellbomb and lotus in the graveyard and I am able to go off.

Game 2 - He gets an early dryad and rides it to victory, countering all of my valid threats.

Game 3 - I have him locked up with chalice at 1 and 2 and two creatures out, but I make a huge mistake, when I forget that storm copies go directly on the stack, and start to go off when I didn't need to. Craig is able to cunning wish into brain freeze me down to three cards. He gets rid of all my creatures and I can only get him to 2 life before I die.

Round 3 - Travis playing RG beats (not a team mate - hooray!)

Game 1 - I win the die roll again - almost unheralded as I am usually guaranteed to lose most of my die rolls. Travis gets an early vial and gets 2 skyshroud elites and a kird ape. Thes take me down to 4 life but I am able to stabilise with a well timed engineered explosives and suddenly I ca attack with my trinket mage and aven mindcensor. I am then able to draw into enough counters to survive even though Travis ends with a seal of fire on the board so any burn kills me. I feel very lucky to have won that game, but know that my board gives me some answers and extra creatures.

Game 2 - I counter his first turn aether vial and drop two early samurai of the pale curtain. He drops a pyrostatic pillar and a goyf. He runs his 2/3 goyf into my samurai, forgetting about bushido and after that I have creature superiority and thanks to pillar am able to slowly lock him out of the game with combat damage.

Round 4 - Ryan Marek playing GAT

Game 1 - I win the die roll yet again and lead with three moxes and a salvagers. Luckily he does not have the force and it resolves. He digs for answers with brainstorms and I thirst and drain his scroll. I fianlly draw a trinket mage and use it to get the combo with a repeal to bounce the mage back and get the spellbomb.

Game 2 - He leads with two moxes and a ponder and I lead with time walk off island and pearl. I recall with force back up and counter his misdirection. I slowly get some creatures down and finally kill him.

Round 5 - Demonic Attorney playing GATr

Game 1 - I finally lose a die roll! Unfortuantely DA has two unintentional draws and must win out to make top 8, I only need to win this round and should be able to draw in. We lead with a bunch of land without either of us doing much. I get a mindcensor down, but he immediately fires it, not a card I was expecting main deck, but it seems useful right now. I thirst and drain a gush into both salvagers and trinket mage. As I have no more gas I fetch spellbomb and have to sweat it out for a few turns as he has fastbond which I repeal and finally can bounce the trinket mage and replay it for the win.

Game 2 - DA has a first turn duress, where he takes ltus as I have salvagers in my hand as well. I only had one land, but brainstorm into 2 moxes. He draws cards with gush and brainstorm, and finally we fight over mincensor which I get to resolve. I get a trinket mage down and chalice for 1, which he had not expected. He gets tog down but never has lethal with it, so I let it through whilst attacking with mindcensor. I drain a will to ensure he cannot go nuts and finally when tog gets to be lethal I chump with trinket mage and am able to get some more creatures down and finally kill him.

Both these games were very enjoyable and tense. Exactly the kind of games you hope to have when you are at a tournament.

Round 6 - ID

So I made top 8. I round 6 I play Liar's Dice and win both my pods ensuring me some japanese 10th packs - a nice bonus for the day. Unfortunately after hearing the standing I realize I have to replay a team mate, Craig, from earlier.

Top 8 - Craig playing GAT.

Game 1 - We both mull to 6 and I go first. I lead with tomb and a pearl and get a spellbomb out followed by a trinket mage. Craig duresses me three times early thanks to lotus as well as fastbond, but only one land stops any gush tricks. I finally get a salvagers with the trinket mage and kill him after he is stuck on one land for a while.

Game 2 - He leads with a duress and I try to drop a meddling mage, which he forces. He plays a pithing needle and names senseis diving top, which surprised me as he knows I have an engineered explosives in hand. I then draw salvagers and he kicks himself for not naming that with needle. I get chalice at 1 and get mindcensor down to help with the aggro strategy and finally get the win.

Top 4 - Jeremiah playing Tyrrant Oath

Game 1 - I go first and lead with ancestral that we fight over, with him countering twice with forces. He then drops first turn Oath, but with with no Orchard. I have a hand with three creatures and must hold them in hand with Oath on the board. He finally finds orchard and has a third force to counter my repeal on oath. I am still able to almost pull it out by dropping trinket mage and salvagers but he is able to flashback krosan reclamation to shuffle away my lotus and salvagers and he wins.

Game 2 - I feel like I have a great opening hand with mox, sol ring academy chalice at 2. He leads with land mox, and mystical tutors for misdirection, letting me know that he must have tinker in hand, his out to chalice at 2. He tinkers in titan and I can't find any creatures in time. He told me after the match that his game 2 he had first turn oath again.

All in all I had a great time and was happy with how the deck performed. I'm still not sure if the thirst for knowledges shouldn't maybe be ponders to give me more early plays. Ancient Tomb was as good as I had hoped, and the damaged rarley had a big effect. The ability to get a second turn mindcensor or trinket mage without artifact help was very useful.

Thanks to everyone I played and to Dan for running yet another awesome tournament.