Greetings again! Stephen here with a pretty nice tournament report and some stories to tell. I will admit, I may not remember everything, but I do remember the important stuff, such as my matchups and what not. All in all, this was a great tournament experience for this deck. I took it much farther than anyone ever expected, garnered a great deal of funny looks, and had a blast.
Before we go into all the matches, let's go over the deck and some thoughts. Without further ado:
4 Kite Shield
4 Accorder's Shield
1 Sigil of Distinction
4 Bone Saw
4 Paradise Mantle
4 Spidersilk Net
4 Mox Opal
4 Retract
3 Noxious Revival
4 Muddle the Mixture
4 Puresteel Paladin
1 Grapeshot
1 Echoing Truth
3 Monsastery Mentor
2 Plains
1 Island
2 Mystic Gate
3 Hallowed Fountain
3 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
2 Glimmervoid
1 Godless Shrine
Sideboard:
3 Cavern of Souls
3 Silence
3 Angel's Grace
3 Batwing Brume
3 Gut Shot
21 Cheerios is spot on, and you can cut down to 20 during sideboarding if necessary, which I will do from time to time when space is required. Monastery Mentor is the truth, and its the win condition that, while it doesn't cost 2, it does allow us to go wide when the deck was originally decided to go straight up with a Grapeshot. Mana base has changed a little bit again, this time to cast Batwing Brume from the board. Our Twin matchup is so bad that we had to dig deep to find this little gem. (Props to my buddy Chris for pointing this one out to me.) Also, Cavern of Souls to replace Salvage Titan. Titan was good, but with Mentor, we no longer need the additional win condition in the board... And against control decks, all our guys are Human. Yay.
Also, I know we've read it a million times, stay hydrated, eat well, blah blah blah. From experience, you may not need sleep, but drink your water. I was hydrated so well, drinking almost 2 bottles per round it felt like, and I never lost focus or tired. Your results may vary, but I definitely recommend it.
Match time!
Round 1: Affinity
To be fair, I forgot who won the die roll. I saw the robots begin to populate the field on turn one, and I simply played a fetch. He attacks, and I crack the fetch, then follow it up with another land. He attacks one more time, and proceeds to die to a Grapeshot on my third turn. I sideboard Silence and Gut Shot to fight back a bit and be aggressive against Galvanic Blast and the like. Much like game 1, on my third turn my library finds its way into my hand and we sign the slip 2-0 me.
Round 2: Affinity
Game one was awesome here. And by awesome I mean that I mulliganed into an awkward hand and die having only played 1-2 lands. I know he's on robots, and as such I don't sideboard much as his list looked quite standard with no funny stuff going on. I keep my six game two, which consists of 2 shields 3 lands and retract. I start with a shock land and he Thoughtseizes me turn one, and he has no idea what is going on. He takes a shield (lol) and when I draw for my turn my prayers are answered: Monastery Mentor. I play another land and pass and he drops Ravager. I drop Mentor and 2 shields (yay draw steps giving me cards) and have 2 monks. He plays Etched Champion, and at this point his board is 3 lands Ravager Champion Ornithopter and Springleaf Drum. On my turn I cast Retract, Shield Shield and crash in for 13 damage. He opts to sac enough stuff to bring the Champion to a 5/5 and trade with the Mentor, as he lost metalcraft in the process, and my 5 monks get there. (YES) Game three I keep a strong 7, jamming 2 Paladins and ending the game rather fast.
Round 3: Burn
This is such a silly matchup for me, haha. I go for the turn 2 win and he tapped out turn one for a Swiftspear. While I do fizzle, I have a Paladin that also happens to be a 3/12. He can't kill the paladin, so he jams Eidolon of the Great Revel, which is basically puttting a gun to my head. On my turn I take the two to cast Accorder's Shield, giving my paladin Vigilance, and I begin to attack and attack and attack until my opponent is sitting at 4 life. He goes to two casting a Lightning Helix, which eats a Muddle the Mixture, and at 2 life, he really can't cast spells to do anything, and dies shortly after. Game two he starts with double Leyline of Sanctity, and I draw nothing of value and die. Sad times. Game three he starts with Leyline again, and I start with a Godless Shrine tapped. He fetches a basic mountain and suspends Rift Bolt. He tapped out on turn one, so OBVIOUSLY I'm gonna go for it. He dies turn 2 as I draw the vast majority of my deck, Echoing Truth the Leyline, and Grapeshot for the kill.
Round 4: Scapeshift
We had quite the number of people from Augusta come up with us, and I got paired down against one of our number. I am grateful that he scooped to me here to put me at 4-0, as it put me straight through to top 8 and allowed us to get some much needed food.
Rounds 5-6: ID to top 8
At this point, I've gotten a lot of funny looks and the turn 2 kill through Leyline has gotten a good deal of attention, so I needlessly stress myself out for a bit before top 8 starts.
Quarterfinals: Little Abzan
I start us off as I am the higher seed and I keep my hand. I play land and he follows with Noble Heirarch. I play another land and pass, and he jams Loxodon Smiter (that's big). I end up playing a Paladin and fizzle, so he jams another beef stick. He dies to Grapeshot the following turn.
Game 2 he starts with Leyline, and I keep a hand without Paladin, but everything else needed to go off. Long story short, he plays creatures and attacks me, and I die. Game three was epic though. Of all the top 8 matches, no one really seemed to care what was happening at the other tables, but basically stood behind me the entire time. We start off just like we did game one, save the fact that he has a Leyline, haha. I end up with 3 Paladins in play and proceed to draw all but 2 cards, and with my lands and Paradise Mantle and bounce the Leyline and Grapeshot, to which HE RESPONDS WITH FRACTURING GUST. I lose an Opal and a bunch of cereal, and he goes to a whopping 50 health, before the Grapeshot brings him down to 26. I tank for a minute, and everyone is like, 'wow' because, well, I've seemingly lost the game. I go through the three separate piles of my hand, considering I have so many cards (props to the guy behind me who said 'needs moar Reliquary Tower'), I drop the last 4 equipment, drawing my last 2 cards, then use my 3 remaining Retracts and Noxious Revivals to double the storm count, return the Grapeshot to my deck, draw it, and kill him anyway. This brought cheers from the crowd, hugs and high-fives from friends and people I don't know alike. Best game of magic all day, hands down.
Semis: Perfect Burn
I call this deck perfect burn, as every game of magic this kid played he drew spot of perfect the entire time. Turns two and three Eidolon against me and my friends almost every game (always had one on turn two), perfect draws... it was crazy. I did not have hands that could go off fast enough to get past the Eidolon, and my adventure ends there.
Throughout the day, I became more comfortable with my matchups, as every matchup seems winnable, barring perfect draws from my opponents lol. This deck is reliable and fast enough to compete, and goes to win the game when most people are trying to set up their game plan, and even then, you can still be patient and go for it later on. I love this deck, and I have to also give props to my boy Anthony for telling me I should surely play this deck after all the work I've put into it. Also, I have to thank the folks I've been borrowing cards from and all that jazz. You all are awesome.
Funny enough, I let another friend borrow the 5 color Blink Deck that I wrote about earlier. He finished 9th on breakers, haha. Deck building for the win.
Thank you all for reading. Best of luck to all of you, whether it be Magic or not.
-Stephen, now with an official Top 8 under his belt.
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