Tournament Report - Game Day *top 8*

By Wagz

Hi all! This weekend I attended a Game Day, the descendent of County Champs. Going into it I didn't realise how casual the event has become so brought a decent deck (RUG Control) and even did a bit of testing - this turned out to be overkill. We saw on Manascrew that the event started at 11 but the shop's own website claimed it began at midday. We erred on the side of caution and arrived at 10:30ish. Unfortunately for us the person running their FNM had told everyone it began at 1 so we cubed to kill some time. Here is the deck I played, given to me by Rob Catton:


4 Copperline Gorge
4 Raging Ravine
2 Halimar Depths
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Forest
4 Island
2 Mountain
4 Preordain
4 Explore
4 Lotus Cobra
3 Oracle of Mul Daya
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Frost Titan
2 Avenger of Zendikar
4 Mana Leak
1 Deprive
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Flame Slash
Sideboard:
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
2 Spell Pierce
2 Flashfreeze
1 Wurmcoil Engine
3 Pyroclasm
3 Obstinate Baloth

Round 1 I faced a serious-looking player with a poker shirt on. He was playing UB Control but I started off with t1 Preordain, t2 Explore, t3 Oracle of Mul Daya, t4 Jace the Mind Sculptor with 3 mana open. He had a Negate instead of the Mana Leak but I soon landed a Frost Titan. Game 2 I got heavily mana screwed (27 lands, 4 Preordain, 4 Explore....) but Game 3 played out in normal fashion and I took the win. We had to play quickly to get the round done before time was called and this was unusual for me because I'm a very fast player.

Round 2 was against a Black splash Red Vampires deck. I made the critical play of not laying out turn 2 Cobra having lost the dice roll so when he tried to turn 4 Gatekeeper it I was able to crack my fetch land and Mana Leak his removal spell. I ground out something big and took the game. Game 2 was less good for me and his quick aggression allowed him to bring my life total all the way down. Time was called as we were shuffling and I began to get suspicious. We intentionally drew but I went over to the store owner to ask how long the rounds were. I got told they were 50 minutes but I checked my time-keeping device and it had been 1hr25mins since the 1st round had begun. We were thus granted an official time keeper for the rest of the day.

Round 3 I faced a mirror-match of sorts. He had a couple of Garruks, Primeval Titans and Cultivates but lacked the Cobras and Oracles to really go nuts. I later found out he had Destructive Forces but I think his more-fair version of the deck caused him problems in the mirror and I controlled the tempo of the games to win 2-1.

In round 4 I faced someone who looked at my deck during shuffling. I asked him not to and he apologised but there was no judge to call over. I told the store keeper afterwards in case there was a history but I'm not keen on being cheated, even at a casual event. He was playing a janky mono-black control deck, some kind of midrange Vampires thing. He sided in Duresses against me which are pretty bad for him but I had no answer to a Liliana Vess which kept me discarding the cards I couldn't cast off my 3 lands, very annoying.

The win-and-in round was against a GB Infect deck which was quite innovative. His previous loss was to Elliot Coen who was playing the same 75 as me and Catton and it might just be a bad match-up for him as I was able to control the games, soaking up 9 poison game 1 before making Avenger of Zendikar and his many massive minions and Jace-ing him out game 2.

I received my foil Tempered Steel for top 8-ing and began my quarter finals match against a very nervous-looking UW player. We had three closely-fought games but he out-Jaced me and countered the threats I could muster up. I think this might be a slightly rough match-up for me and he played it well so I wasn't too annoyed to lose it. The rest of Team Leeds had buggered off before this match so I got a magazine and took the train home.

Overall it was a slightly disappointing day due to the casual nature of the organisation but it was probably my own high expectations that were to blame. I think the deck needs a bit of tweaking in the sideboard as it needs some better threats against control decks (or better ways of landing them) and it has a problem with Elves but it seemed to make a good showing at the Star City Games Open mere hours later.

How was your Game Day?