So I will be adding more to this when I get that chance. I wanted to give a light version of my game day which I won Undefeated.
Round 1: 2-0 vs Mono Black Control
Game 1: He came off pretty well all things considering but in mono black control it won't hold against creatures like kefnet.
Game 2: He got mana screwed which made the game much simpler. (Didn't really sideboard much in against this as i didn't feel it was necessary.)
Round 2: 2-0 vs Bant Panharmonicon
Game 1: This was a matchup I wasn't too concerned about since it doesn't really hold well against field wipes and counter magic. However he got severely mana screwed which made the game easy. He scooped once I was near to ult'ing Dovin since he only had 3 lands on the field and I had countered everything else.
Game 2: My opponent got a better start but still it didn't hold well against the multiple field wipes. (Sideboard went very untouched.)
Round 3: 2-1 vs U/G Ramp
Game 1: This one I was worried about a bit since prior to me he had played my buddy who built my deck and won against him. I lost this one but it took a while. His deck was ramping into eldrazi so I found it hard to deal with countering them and dealing with the cast triggers. I learned from my mistakes though. (Sideboarded in the extra oketra and kefnet plus essence scatters, took out the cast out's and 1 dec in stone)
Game 2: I slammed Kefnet on turn 3 and just started hammering in on him as quickly as possible. My guess was right and he didn't have any good early game removal or defenses. Countered certain problem cards that could accelerate into eldrazi and won fairly quick.
Game 3: Same thing as before except this time with gideon. Little more tricky since I didn't have the flying but still got the same results with very little issues.
Round 4: 2-0 vs B/W Midrange
Game 1: Was actually pretty good for me. Mid range has never been a big issue since it's slow enough that once the first wipe hits it's pretty much over. (sided in
essence scatter's, took out two censor's)
Game 2: This was a bit more hairy but still I managed to get there eventually. thanks to an eventual field wipe. Getting both gideon and dovin down to lock down two creatures really helped.
Round 5: 2-1 vs Ramanup Red Aggro (I hate this deck, I hate this deck, I hate this deck, I hate this deck, I hate this deck, I hate this deck)
Game 1: This was against quite literally PT Ramanup Red Aggro. I was certain I was going to lose here and be out since we cut to top 8 and this was my semi final match. Luckily my opponent made a misplay that slowed their tempo dramatically and allowed me to get down a wipe and then kefnet followed by another wipe and then pull from tomorrow. (Sided in 3 failure's, 2 essense scatter, 2 oketra's last mercy, and 3 blessed alliance. Sided out 4 disallow, 3 cast out, 2 dec in stone, and a pull from tomorrow)
Game 2: The aggro was on point this game. There was no forgiving misplay. I went a turn with a missed land drop which slowed me and I exhausted my few counterspells early on leaving me hard pressed to find a land to drop fumigate or last mercy. (no sideboard changes)
Game 3: This was a tight game. Aggro came out in full force and being on play REALLY helped. Failure got its time to shine really slowing down the tempo of the aggro until I could land a wipe. However the pressure didn't stop and I ended up having to use last mercy to put me back in the game. After that things went more my way despite my opponent getting me to 12 before I stabilized. After then the game pretty much done. There were some attempts with glorybringer, hazoret, and chandra but they were for naught thanks to my massive card advantage.
Round 6: 3-2 vs B/G Constrictor
Game 1: I came out on top after a fairly well fought game. I dropped 3 fumigates and 1 hour of revelation that game. (we didn't sideboard till game 3 because of being best of 5)
Game 2: This time he gained the upper hand and managed to stick out some great early damage and me getting a wipe WAY too late. (Sideboarded in 2 essence scatters, and 3 blessed alliance, 3 failure. Took out 3 cast out, 2 dec in stone, 1 supreme will and 2 rebuff's)
Game 3: He made a bad misplayed that cost hm the advantage which directly led to my win. He admitted he misplayed a card that really hurt him.
Game 4: I got stuck on 3 lands and in no way could stop him from just killing me with double constrictor and quagmire.
Game 5: This was just a slug fest. Him dropping threat after threat and countering what I could, blessed alliance whatever I could. It felt like for turns it could go either way. After a while he ran out of gas and I was sticking too many hard to remove creatures like oketra and kefnet. Before the last swing I was at 26 life and him at 2. I comply'd a spell so I could get the free swing and win.
Overall thoughts. I LOVE the deck and how it play's. It's very skill intensive but rewarding when piloted well. Winning against Ramanup red was huge as it helped me understand where it stood against mono red aggro. I cannot guarantee i would win again against it but I know I at least have a shot and it can't afford to make mistakes against control any more than I can make against it.
Cards that stood out - Fumigate, Failure//comply, Dovin Baan, Kefnet, Gideon of the Trials
I'll have details later. I will say I was almost certain Ramanup was going to run me over but managed to pull it out. It was a hard fought game as was the last.
