Enchanted Realms

Round 1; 2:0 vs B/W/G, Sacrifice outlet deck, ran Varolz, the Scar-Striped /Voice of Resurgence , Lingering Souls as a sack outlet, etc.

First hand, I turn-1 Duress and saw a 3 voice/lingering souls in hand, and was pretty sure i was gonna lose. Chose souls for discard, A couple turns later, i forced him to discard 2 of his voices and won with Pack Rat and Shrieking Affliction .

Round 2; 1:2 vs U/B/R, Plains-walker heavy deck, was difficult to get past the heavy creature control and both losses were from Ral Zarek ultimate. On game 1, I was mana-flooded and he brought ral out turn 4. I didn't have any creatures to keep him down, so he used ultimate and got 4 extra turns. Similar situation in round 3.

Round 3; 0:2 vs Bant Control - I was hitting him pretty hard, but the Thragtusk lifegain was just too much. Ran the usuals of Restoration Angel , Supreme Verdict s, Snapcaster Mage s, etc. During match 2 I flashed in a Notion Thief when he Sphinx's Revelation for 5, but he still had enough mana open to counter the thief... Simply had too much card draw to make Shrieking Affliction useful.

Round 4; 2:1 vs Gruel Werewolves - Round 1; I had my standard non-sideboard deck ready to go, took a 1-land hand after mulligan to 5, and quickly regretted it. Didn't get any land for 3 turns, and by the time i got my second land, my opponent already had 4 creatures on the board. I was quickly beaten down, but I also realized that if i could get a quick defense out against the deck, Shrieking Affliction would be an easy kill. Sideboarded in Vampire Nighthawk , Undying Evil , Tragic Slip to deal with the creatures while also keeping the werewolves from transforming. Both of the next 2 hands were very close, but Nighthawks and Pack Rat s quickly overwhelmed the werewolves deck, along with Soul Ransom when no cards in opponent's hand.

Round 5; 2:1 vs R/G/W - Another thrag deck, this time much more focused on tokens with Parallel Lives , Assemble the Legion , Advent of the Wurm and Lingering Souls . All three hands were VERY close and very enjoyable since neither of us were mana-screwed any hand. What really saved me against this deck was my Far / Away s. Voice of Resurgence wasnt too much of a problem because when it died, I just used far to trash the token it left behind. In round 3, we had an aggro race, trying to kill each other with as few blocks as possible. I barely won this race due to topdecking two nighthawks and drawing a Pack Rats when i was mana flooded earlier in the match.

2nd place, undefeated 4:0, lost the final round making overall record 4:1.

Round 1; 2:0 vs Grixis Mill - As I find is the case with most mill decks, you cannot run a good mill deck without first being complete control to begin with. Otherwise, you mill half the opponent's deck and you run out of steam. My deck simply ran significantly more control than my opponent's deck, and he never really managed to get a board presence out.

Round 2; 2:1 vs Gruel Aggro - Lost my first round to 2x Burning-Tree Emissary into a Flinthoof Boar turn 2, but sideboarded in some more kill cards to better deal with those. The next two games were very close, but I gradually stabilized both games and won with significant help from Vampire Nighthawk .

Round 3; 2:1 vs Orzhov - Extort heavy deck, had a lot of extort lifegain going on, but had very little board control. The one Oblivion Ring he did use only slowed me down as it exiled my desecration demon while i already had a Hypersonic Dragon in play. In round 2, I lost mainly to a lack of kill-cards early on, and my opponent had a much more agressive first few turns, and was able to beat me down too quickly to stabilize with only nighthawks.

Round 4; 2:1 vs Mono-red - Ash Zealot , Boros Reckoner , Burning Earth , Thundermaw Hellkite and just burn spells in general... admittedly the deck performed poorly against me in the last game, my opponent was severely mana flooded, and it led me to an easy win. First round was a little too fast, second round I stabilized after a Burning Earth resolved due to a presence of 3-5 basic lands on the field.

Round 5; 1:2 vs Selensya aggro - Small creatures like Silverblade Paladin and Experiment One s with Rancor s, Unflinching Courage , and other buff cards. First round loss from lack of early control, Second game win, mainly from nighthawks and Desecration Demon s keeping him back, and game 3 was a loss from Gavony Township . He had a decent board presence and I was unable to stabilize with growing creatures swinging every turn. (no AEtherize s and Pithing Needle was 2 turns too late for gavony)