First at BlueBell Gameday 13

My story starts Friday afternoon after Villanova's loss in the tournament when, depressed that I had to write a paper tried to motivate myself to get my work done. I told myself that if I finished my paper early enough I would try to go hang out with John Jones that night and possibly go to BBGD Saturday just to hang out and get cards.

Two and a half hours later I was finished my paper and John was on his way to pick me up at school to go to his house so I could help him test and tweak his deck. When we got to his house we played a few games and then were enticed by his brothers who wanted to play "Cee-lo" outside.

I walked outside with him and watched a few rounds to get the hang of it and then joined in on some recreational gambling. I had $6 in ones which I quickly lost and then cashed in my $10 for ones as well. A few minutes later I was down $8 and figured I might want to quit when I hit a hot streak. I proceeded to win round after round eventually finding myself up $24 at the end of the night.

With this new money and streak of good luck I decided that I would play in the tournament because quite honestly, when you are up that much in dice you have to go for that ultimate nut-up.

Once the gambling came to a close and I had decided to play in the tournament, John and I played a few games so that he could hammer out some of his deck choices and I could get myself mentally ready to play.

Fast forward to 10:30 Saturday morning: John and I are on our way to the tournament and the action is finally underway (I know I had a long introduction).

Round 1: Joe Brown - Noble Fish
Game1: I Mulled to 5 and Joe went to 6, I think he knew what I was playing.
Joe opened up with Misty Rainforest, Forest, Noble Hierarch. I had a hand of Lodestone, Chalice of the Void, Workshop, Ancient Tomb, Mox which soon became irrelevant as he played a Kataki and I could no longer get there.
Game2: I was on the play this game but it really didn't matter at all. I opened with Workshop, Crucible but Joe went Wasteland, Lotus, Kataki, Null Rod and during the game had 2 Nature's Claims, 2 Qasali Pridemage, Force of Will pitching Ancestral Recall and I couldn't keep up. I kept putting out threats but was constantly trying to catch up and just couldn't keep my head above the water.

Round 2: Corey Mann- Noble Fish
Game1: I forget what happened specifically but I know I won this game. I won the die roll and just got out to too fast of a start for him. I built up spheres and eventually beat him down with Lodestone.
Game2: He mulliganned to 6 and I locked him out big time. I eventually won this with Duplicant and he didn't get any board presence for the second time in two games.

Round3: Brad Granberry- Kuldotha Combo
Game 1: I was on the play and opened with Workshop Mox Crucible as I knew Brad was playing a deck with Workshops. He opened up with Workshop Metalworker and I took it out with Ancient Tomb into Duplicant. He got a Kuldotha Forgemaster after this as well as a Time Vault and Key but at this point I had Smokestack on 1 and a freshly cast Tangle Wire so he could not take infinite turns. Instead, he sacrificed his Mana Vault, Time Vault, and Voltaic Key for Myr Battlesphere and stalled me for a while but eventually succumbed to Smokestack Tangle Wire with Crucible in play.
Game 2: Brad was on the play and got an early Metalworker which I could not answer. Brad also had Staff of Domination in hand and proceeded to win the game.
Game3: I was on the play and blew Brad out. I went Mox, Wasteland, Chalice on 0, Sphere of Resistance. He played something irrelevant and I kept Wasting/ Ghost Quartering his lands as well as laying more and more spheres. Eventually I got there with Lodestone as he never got to play anything that could hurt me.

Round4: Gil Riviera- GG Oath
Game1: I won the die roll and got out to a fast start I believe with a relatively strong hand. I think I had a Chalice on 0 and eventually beat him down with Duplicant after having him locked out under Smokestack which he kept feeding with 1 land a turn.
Game2: I mulled to 6 and Gil was on the play. I hadn't seen anything really except Time Vault/Key in his deck so when he dropped an Oath after I had Lodestone in play I was surprised. He got an Emrakul and I was in a bad situation. The turn he attacked with Emrakul he was on 5 from Lodestone and I had Tangle Wire on 2 counters, Lodestone, 2 Spheres, Workshop, Ancient Tomb, 2 Moxen, and a Chalice on 1. I sacced all but 2 Spheres and a Mox hoping to flip into Duplicant to hit his Emrakul but alas it was not to be. If I had hit Duplicant I still wouldn't have win as I'm almost certain he had Blightsteel in his deck but it was off to Game 3.
Game3: I went first and opened with Workshop, Mana Crypt and Ratchet Bomb as well as Chalice on 0 and Thorn I think. Anyways Gil didn't get much out except for a Forbidden Orchard which gave me 2 tokens that helped me win the game. Also, I won around 9 straight Mana Crypt rolls to take 0 damage from it while Gil just drew blanks turn after turn. At the end of the match Gil said that if I was going to win like that then it was destiny and I was going to win the tournament since I had won so many die rolls in a row.

Round5: Paul Mastriano- Metalworker MUD
Game1: I won the die roll and Mulled to 6. I knew he was playing Shops but I don't remember what happened this game except for the fact that I was getting beat down by a Phyrexian Revoker and then got a Karn on the field. Revoker was naming Karn and I then got a Duplicant to eat Revoker and proceeded to kill him with Karn beats.
Game2: Paul played first and I forget what exactly happened but he locked me out with Smokestack and Tangle Wire which eventually took me out as I could never get a board presence.
Game3: Paul mulled to 5 I want to say and I punished him. I opened on Workshop, Crucible, Chalice on 0. After that I got Karn and took him out with it as he was just too far behind from the combination of my strong hand and his mulligan.

At this point in my journey I was 4-1 and still unsure whether or not I could draw into top8 because I lost round 1. As standings went up before Round 6 I saw that I was shown as having 9 points and told the head judge who updated them after fixing the problem. It turned out that there were exactly 8 of us on 12 points and the next highest person had 9 points so we could all draw into Top8.
Round 6: Justin Kohler- Stax
I went and got Chinese food next door with the time I had which was a great decision as it let me relax and take a bit of a break before starting into the Top8. With my food I got one of the most eerily prophetic fortunes I have ever received, "One joy will scatter a hundred sorrows"...

Top8: Jimmy Hangley- Gush Combo
Game1: I forget what happened except for the end but Jimmy won the die roll and got a Tinker for Blightsteel while I had Karn and a Sphere of Resistance. He attacked with his BSC and I animated Sphere to block it so I could take nonlethal poison. I then drew Duplicant and took out his BSC to win the game, but I believe that I had the game whether or not I drew the Dupe as I could put a Lodestone out so I wouldn't take lethal poison from Blightsteel and Smokestack would be able to clean up. Nonetheless, it was an epic draw.
Game2: I mulled to 5 and got a hand with Ancient Tomb, Mana Vault, and some other good cards of which I forget. The theme of this game was that I sat behind a Mana Vault and Ancient Tomb which slowly bled me to death while I had three spheres in play stopping Jimmy from doing anything relevant despite the fact that he had Fastbond in play and 7 mana or so. The turning point in this one was that I was on 6 life with Mana Vault tapped and Jimmy played Mana Crypt and a Tendrils for 4 life to put me on 2 so that I couldn't use Ancient Tomb anymore and Mana Vault would kill me which is in fact what happened.
Game3: This one is very vague for me but I know from my notes that Jimmy mulliganned to 6 and I was on the play. I remember playing Spheres etc. and then resolving a Lodestone which Jimmy said after the game that he possibly should have Forced but chose not to. The Lodestone combined with the Sphere or two that I had in play got there while I was holding a Karn which would have done the job had Jimmy played Force on Lodestone.

Top4: John Jones- Grim Vault/Turbo Tezz
Before we started playing John and I agreed to do a prize split with the winner of our games moving on to the finals to try and get us more value out of the tournament.
Game1: John won the die roll and I'm assuming he didn't do much this game. I don't remember it vividly but I believe I won on the back of Karn and probably Smokestack.
Game2: John again was on the play and got there, though I'm not entirely sure how as I again don't remember much of this game. I know that this game I dealt 16 points of damage to myself with Ancient Tombs so I'm assuming that played a part in my defeat although John's deck usually doesn't play off my life total as his only creature is his TInker target, Myr Battlesphere.
Game3: I was on the play and John mulliganned to 6 which is always a good sign especially when you are playing Espresso Stax. Again I'm not sure what specifically happened but I'm assuming John scooped before I took him down so Smokestack is a likely part of the equation.

Finals: Jake Gans- Minus 6
Game1: I was on the play and Jake mulliganned to 4. My solid opener combined with him being on a mulligan to 4 made all the difference. He got a Bob in play but I dealt with it one way or another I believe and he scooped pretty early into it.
Game2: For this one Jake was on the play and it really didn't matter what I did because Bob did all of the heavy lifting for me. I applied some pressure but Jake's Bob revealed Force of Will and Blightsteel Collossus which was all it took to take it down.