Tournament Reports (11/21, 11/23)

I played in two events at Hareruya during the long weekend.
I don’t know which is better, the green sideboard or the white sideboard.
I decided that I would play White for the first event, then I would play Green for the next one.

The first event was 41 players. 6 rounds, no single elimination.

Round 1 - Bye
"Bye-san" is not very strong. (W)(W)

Round 2 - TES (Storm)
My opponent was a man from the Phillipines I remember from GP Kyoto.
I thought he was playing Merfolk.
I was super wrong!

Game 1, I have a Turn 2 combo.
Sadly, my opponent plays first, casts Gitaxian Probe, sees I’m not on Miracles, and wins on Turn 1.
(L)

-Chromatic Sphere, 1 Gitaxian Probe, Rain of Filth
+Plains, 2 Silence

Game 2, my opponent mulligans to 4.
My hand has a lot of discard.
This is not a game.
(W)

Game 3, my hand is Lotus Petal, Lotus Petal, Lion’s Eye Diamond, Gitaxian Probe, Dark Ritual, Doomsday, Silence.
This is a Turn 1 combo.
I even have a Silence if he makes me discard Doomsday.
He casts Gitaxian Probe, and Brainstorms into a Turn 1 combo...
Live by the sword, die by the sword.
(剣で生きれば剣で死ぬ)
(L)

Round 2 - 4c Delver

Game 1, I keep a hand with Flooded Strand, Top, and Ponder, but no other lands.
I play Flooded Strand -> Island, Top. He Forces Top.
If I can find a black land, I will win.
I use Ponder to look for land;
I only find Tundra and it gets Wasted.
He counters another Top.
I concede to a Thoughtseize on the stack.
My opponent only saw Miracles cards.
(L)

I want to side in Mentors.
However, my opponent believes I’m Miracles.
I think he’ll keep his creature answers in.
-1 Gitaxian Probe
+Cruel Bargain

Game 2, my opponent keeps a good hand against Miracles.
He has no counters.
He is very surprised to lose on Turn 3.
(W)

Now the Mentors come in.
-1 Lion’s Eye Diamond, Rain of Filth, 1 Burning Wish, Cruel Bargain, 2 Doomsday
+Plains, 1 Gitaxian Probe, 4 Mentor

Game 3, I win this game with Burning Wish, Top, and 2 LED.
I played the LEDs on an earlier turn to protect them from discard.
I plan to Duress my opponent, and win with Maniac.
He responds to Duress with Surgical Extraction on Ponder;
then he Forces my Duress exiling Force.
He has 0 cards, and added Storm.
I win with Tendrils.
(W)

Round 4 - Sneak Show

Game 1, I use Gitaxian Probe.
My opponent has Sneak Attack, Show and Tell, Izzet Charm, and Griselbrand.
I Cabal Therapy to discard Griselbrand, so he has no creature.
Then I combo with extra mana to pay for Izzet Charm.
(W)

-1 Lion’s Eye Diamond, 1 Gitaxian Probe, 1 Dark Ritual, 1 Burning Wish, 2 Doomsday
+Plains, 4 Mentor, Cruel Bargain

Game 2, I mulligan to a hand that has a lot of discard.
I discard all of his cards.
He only has Griselbrand, but he topdecks a Sneak Attack.
(L)

Game 3, I keep a hand that can cast Turn 2 Dark Ritual, Mentor, Top.
He Forces Dark Ritual, so I play the Top with my Tundra.
He untaps and casts Blood Moon.
Luckily, I have an Island in hand.
My next turn I Brainstorm, and find Lion’s Eye Diamond, Lion’s Eye Diamond, Cabal Therapy.
I put Mentor and LED on top of my deck, play LED, use it for white mana (discard Cabal Therapy), draw with Top to cast Mentor.
Next turn I draw and cast my Top, make a Monk Token, then I flashback the Therapy I discarded.
I blind name Sneak Attack and he discards one.
He can’t win before Monks destroy him.
(W)

Round 5 - ANT

Game 1, my first play is Flooded Strand-> Island, Top.
He casts Cabal Therapy naming Counterbalance.
I love this deck.
We both discard many cards.
He casts Tendrils to gain 6 life, because he thinks it will be hard for me to make 13 Storm.
Instead, I win with Laboratory Maniac.
(W)

-Chromatic Sphere, 1 Gitaxian Probe, Rain of Filth
+Plains, 2 Silence

Game 2, Silence is on top of my library, and I keep it there with a Top.
My opponent knows about the Silence.
I think I made big mistakes this game.
He has cast 3 Probes, and he has Past in Flames and Tendrils of Agony.
He casts Past in Flames, and I let him cast all of his Probes.
I cast Silence him when he reaches four mana for Tendrils.
However...he has many cards in his hand now;
I have no cards because I focused on hiding Silence than looking for good cards.
I lose when he flashbacks Past in Flames.
(L)

Game 3, my opponent has to mulligan.
Instead of mulliganing to five cards, he keeps ano land hand.
I make him discard all of the cards, then I cast an Empty the Warrens for 8 Goblins.
I made a mistake here.
I knew my opponent had two Infernal Tutor in his hand, but I didn’t flashback Cabal Therapy to discard them;
I was too focused on 16 life meaning 8 Goblins wins in two turns;
However, I don’t need to win in two turns if I take his win cards.
He Brainstorms the next turn, and I he hid at least one Tutor (he didn’t),
so when I finally do flashback Cabal Therapy I name Dark Ritual instead to prevent his combo.
(W)

Round 6 - Burn

This is my friend.
He’s borrowing my deck, and he concedes to me because I have the better tiebreakers.

Let me tell you how my friend won his Round 5!

My friend’s opponent was playing Reanimator;

Game 1, My friend lost to Turn 2 Griselbrand.
(L)

Game 2, the opponent made a sideboarding mistake.
He thought my friend was playing Goblins! Why?
Because I have Mt. Fuji Promo Mountains.
The opponent said: "Burn players don’t play expensive cards."
(W)

Game 3, the opponent lost to Faerie Macabre’s ability because it is not a spell.
(W)

I finish in second place!
www.hareruyamtg.com/jp/k/kD02186S/
(The deck name was a joke because I have 40 tokens in my deck box)

Mentor and Silence were very important in that event, so I decided to play the same 75 cards.
The second event was 33 players, 5 rounds, then standings.

Round 1 - Shardless

Game 1, I mulligan, and my hand is weak.
My opponent plays Liliana.
I find Doomsday, but I can’t win with Storm...
And my opponent has Abrupt Decay which I know about.
I cast Doomsday to test him.
He doesn’t discard his Decay to Liliana, and he uses it to destroy my Chromatic Sphere with Laboratory Maniac on the stack.
(L)

-1 Lion’s Eye Diamond, 1 Gitaxian Probe, Rain of Filth, 2 Doomsday
+Plains, 4 Mentor

Game 2, I cast Duress for Hymn to Tourach, and I see Disfigure too.
He also casts Meddling Mage for Doomsday this game.
I cast Mentor, and I use Dark Ritual to counter Disfigure.
I have two Tops in play, and I make many Monk tokens.
(W)

He has sided in many creature answers, so I side out the Mentors.

-Plains, 4 Mentor
+1 Lion’s Eye Diamond, 1 Gitaxian Probe, Rain of Filth, 2 Doomsday

Game 3, we both mulligan.
I have a Turn 2 win, plus a Gitaxian Probe to see that it is safe to win. (W)

Round 2 - Elves

Game 1, I make 10 Goblins on Turn 1.
My opponent plays Bayou, Deathrite Shaman.
I’m surprised that he would show me his deck...
He casts Natural Order when he has 1 life.
I didn’t win because Deathrite Shaman is a 1/2.
(L)

-Chromatic Sphere, 2 Duress, Rain of Filth
+Plains, 2 Silence, 1 Massacre

Game 2, I cast Burning Wish for Massacre.
I Silence my opponent on his next turn so I can Massacre when I untap.
I cast Doomsday from 2 life and Silence my opponent again when I pass the turn so I can Maniac him when I get my turn.
(W)

Game 3, I keep LED, LED, Probe, Dark Ritual, Wish, Fetch, Plains.
My first draw step is Top. I win on Turn 2.
Burning Wish, LED, LED, with Top in play is a win.
(W)

Round 3 - Maverick

Game 1, he discards all of my cards.
I never see a Doomsday this game.
(L)

-1 Gitaxian Probe
+Cruel Bargain

Game 2, he casts Gaddock Teeg.
This is the same situation I had against Shardless.
I can’t win with Storm.
I know he has the Abrupt Decay...I test him.
He thinks about casting Abrupt Decay on Chromatic Sphere with Laboratory Maniac on the stack...
He concedes instead!
(W)

I side in Mentors because I saw Choke in Game 2 (Plains untaps) and I want to avoid the storm answers.

-1 Lion’s Eye Diamond, 1 Burning Wish, Cruel Bargain, 2 Doomsday
(I normally side out Rain of Filth, but it seems strong against Choke)
+Plains, 4 Mentor

Game 3, we both discard many cards.
My opponent ends this game with Gaddock Teeg, Umezawa’s Jitte, and Choke in play;
I have many lands, Rain of Filth, and Doomsday nor Burning Wish because sided them out.
(L)

Round 4 - Death and Taxes

Game 1, I know my opponent’s deck.
I was sitting next to her Round 3.
I cast Burning Wish for Massacre early this game.
I cast Massacre after my opponent has played 3 creatures (including Vryn Wingmare).
After Massacre, she still has pressure, and I can’t find a draw spell to win the game.
(L)

-1 Lion’s Eye Diamond, Chromatic Sphere, 4 Duress, Rain of Filth, Laboratory Maniac
+Plains, Void Snare, Cabal Therapy, 4 Mentor, 1 Massacre

Game 2, I play Mentor and I cast Massacre (my opponent has no Plains in play).
I’m too slow this game.
I lose to a Batterskull with Protection from White from a Mother of Runes post-Massacre.
I am inexperienced with combat:
My Monks didn’t attack because I wanted to block...even though I was at 4 and my opponent had Batterskull and Mother of Runes in play.
(L)

I’m not in the prizes, so I drop.

Everything was okay.
I still have no real sideboard plans for the white board,
but I still haven’t played against any of the decks I am afraid of.
Silence out of the board was important;
Mentor was great--it’d be greater if I knew how to attack...
And finally, Flooded Strand was the MVP...
Pretending to be Miracles is very fun.