If this guy gets a chance to post a play report, I'd be very interested in reading it.
This is entirely from memory, because my notes are scattered at best:
Round 1 TPS- Our state champ whose name I should remember.
He gets first/second turn necro games one and two, although I think I won the second with a quick magus null rod combination. Third game, my opponent mulled to five. Seems good. I then proceed to completely misplay by allowing a mystical tutor to resolve when I have SSS/REB in hand. I guess I was hoping to bluff not having anything in hopes that he would go for tinker, allowing me to blow him out. He of course goes for will and his double mull gets there.
0-1 bracket AKA exactly where this deck hates to be.
Round 2 Doran Aggro- Misty
This was against Misty, whose deck had grizzly bears to my grey ogres. Oh, and 5/5's for 3. I won the first game entirely on the fact that I drew one more tarmogoyf than she did and she never saw doran. Game two she draws doran and goyfs. Game 3 was really close, and probably hers had we both not been worn out after long games at this point. In turns, she vindicates a grey ogre, but she targeted the Simian Spirit Guide instead of the magus of the moon. As such, she doesn't have enough mana to cast another block and I manage to get in for the final two. These were long drawn out games and even with the additional pyrokinesis (which was Seek'd at least once) I was way behind. It's matchups like this that make a narrow meta-deck like this so risky to play.
Round 3 5c Stax- Marcus
Game one I have the first turn null rod, waste his workshop, and seal his crucible so. He gets down a few spheres, which are a huge problem because it means that neither of us can really play many spells. Except for my mogg fanatic. The Fanatic proceeds to beat him down to 5(!), until he finds a tolarian academy and manages to start casting spells. Game two/three one of these was tarmogoyf beatdown, and another was magus of the moon. Both were backed by appropriately set chalices and wastelands.
Round 4 TPS Steve
I remember virtually nothing about these games except they were pretty lopsided, involved mulligans on Steve's part, and I think I won in two. Steve might have better memory of this. I'm probably also mixing up the matches between Steve and Travis.
Round 5 Ichorid- Brett
Brett's an excellent player who has consistently played Ichorid to top finishes at these events. Because I know he's playing the deck, I already know that I'm practically planning to mulligan into wasteland. It's in my opening 7. How lucky, I believe that I first turn waste his bazaar every game this match. I don't remember too many of the specifics, except that we were both pretty sloppy here. I've been out of magic for a few months and my basics are really rusty, including attacking my mogg fanatic into a sac-land game 1 which promptly became a dryad arbor and wound up completely wasting any ability to remove a bridge. He proceeds to miss the play of making me discard Stingscourger when it winds up resulting in me bouncing his zombie, getting in with tarmogoyf, then killing two bridges when I don't pay the echo. It's sloppy play all around, and I end up winning it in 3. But feeling dirty about it.
Quarter finals "AntiStorm Bomberman" Jon Golden
There may be a better matchup for this deck, but I haven't seen it. It helps to draw null rods and tarmogoyfs like a fiend, too. Brutal. It's an unfortunate pairing for Jon, to say the least.
Semi-finals Ad-Nas vs Travis
I think game one I have the option of playing a turn one chalice for 1 or a null rod. I know Travis is playing Ad Nas so I assume it's the menendian list with 4x chain as a necessary combo piece and bounce spell like I'd been testing against. In testing, chalice for 1 was, as such, basically unbeatable. Travis proceeds to play moxen, lotii, will, gg. Game two was turn 1 magus, turn 2 null rod, +10 turns where he never saw a basic land. Game three I keep risky hand and proceed to lose to double confidants. Sloppyness and exhaustion really got the better of me here.
I pick up a pithing needle for my troubles. Thanks to Costisick and Menendian for a solid deck, I know that if I were more solid with it there is little doubt that it could get me there. Still, the ichorid/doran matches were extremely shaky, I really don't think I had much right winning. And I still managed to lose to storm combo 2x. Shrug. I love meta-aggro decks like this, and wind up playing them despite our ability to build powered decks. With 15 proxies, this was a metagame choice, not a budgetary one. I highly recommend the deck to anyone with a good grasp of the format and fairly good luck. The black lotus was excellent here, though I didn't see any great reason to run moxen despite having plenty of proxy slots left. The REBs in the board seemed like the weakest cards, but I didn't mind being able to bring in 13 cards against Ichorid.
