Today the last tournament of the Highlander Series took place. I was second in the series till the last tournament when everything simply went wrong and I moved to fourth place from which I could hardly reach the top. I wasn't even sure if I would want to go to the last tournament. In the end I decided to go...
Few days before the tournament I realized that it is in just few days! I wasn't even at home nor did I have a deck ready. At the last tournament I played with Izzet Control which is a very good deck, but it wasn't my day. My very bad mood did not help things much. I also tried few games with a Combo-Control deck. It worked against the players I played but I did not find the deck competitive enough (it was though).
So the day before the tournament I put a deck together. It was once again the crazy Necrotic Ooze combo (+ Phyrexian Devourer and Triskelion). I tried few games with it but lost every one of them. (Actually 3-0 against one deck and 0-3 against another one). After the 0-3 I decided to try a different deck...I decided to play good stuff once again but this time with blue.
After a very long talk with my flatmate I went to sleep early in the morning. At 8:45 I woke up for some reason and headed for the tournament.
Round 1
I wasn't entirely sure what I play against. At first I thought and hoped it would be some kind of GW aggro because against that I have a good match up but when Selesnya Signet showed up I was caught offguard. From this moment on I knew that I should be expecting anything and Sigarda was one of the cards I did not expect. Soon I was facing Advent of the Wurm token and some other creatures, Master of the Wild Hunt among them. There wasn't much I could do with it. In game three I tried as I could to gain tempo but I did not really manage it and it came down to a moment in which I should decide either I would be killed by Sigarda or Silverblade Paladin. I decided that getting rid of Paladin is easier but in the end it was vice versa because my next draw was Enlightened Tutor which could fetch Phyrexian Metamorph and thus get me rid of Sigarda. Timely Reinforcements and Snapcaster Mage were trying to keep me alive but in the end I was facing both paired Paladin with Eternal Witness and Sigarda. I lost 2 games (and obviously won one...) but at least I was forced to use my brain and think. This helped me quite a lot because I decided to win the remaining games. (it came true^^)
Round 2
In this round I played against Lukas. He usually plays a burn deck or mono green but today he decided to play mono blue artifact deck. This deck can be pretty annoying but without the right mana acceleration it cannot keep up with the competitive highlander meta (Bitterblossom backed up by a counterspell and Sword of Fire and Ice did the job). I won the first game quite quickly and in the second game my opponent was stuck at 3 lands. We played a third game in which I let him live for 3 more turns then was necessary and he managed to beat me. I have to admit that what he showed me was pretty impressive. Creeping Tar Pit is still the number 1 card against mono blue (along with Bitterblossom that won me the first game).
Round 3
I played against some Dark Bant deck. It was surely less aggressive than my build. I don't really remember what was going on in the games. In game two I took a mulligan several times because I couldn't manage to draw some lands. I still couldn't draw lands after my mullingans, in the meantime Putrid Leech was dealing me 4 damage each turn. I still had a chance to possibly win (if my opponent would not have more counterspells than me) but I did not draw a card that would help me. When my opponent played Restoration Angel I decided to play Remand and deal with it later. That was most probably a mistake because at that time I could still play Snuff Out and don't die from it (I was at like 7 life). A turn later I lost the game.
In game two I had relatively ideal hand (that means it had 4 lands, 2 creatures and a counterspell). It was my turn to be aggressive and it worked and Evasive Action worked wonders. I attacked as I could and countered what I could and won. In game three it wasn't clear who would win till the very end in which it was either me being faster or my opponent. In this game it was it was my turn to attack with Putrid Leech. It took my opponent down to 7 life but then he played Kitchen Finks and my poor Putrid Leech attacked twice and killed the Finks. I took 4 damage and had to counter Stifle in order to kill the annoying creature^_^. After this my opponent couldn't do much and lost the game few turns later.
Round 4
Next I faced a control deck. In game 1 I kept a hand with one land and it wasn't a good one either. I played my Treetop Village which was immediately hit by Wasteland. Five turns later I still had no lands and Baneslayer Angel showed up. I had Dismember to deal with it but no land to kill to play it. I played Creeping Tar Pit. Ajani Vengeant took care of that land. I drew another land - Island. I tried to play Dismember but it was Daze'd or something.
Game two was pretty quick. I started with a mana dork, followed by a 3 drop. I simply attacked and that sufficed (more or less). In game three it was quite tense but I kept my opponent under pressure from the beginning. He was facing two threats - from my creatures and from my manlands (fetched by Primeval Titan). He played Consecrated Sphinx, Jace TMS and Brainstorm but was unable to find a response to both of these. He managed to play Swords to Plowshares on my Tarmogoyf (I did not attack with Creeping Tar Pit to avoid the Sword or Path) and deal with the last creature. But still the unblockable manland was a problem. In the meantime I played Dark Confidant and hoped to draw some counterspells. I had Force of Will and Evasive Action so I felt quite safe even if my opponent would produce some answer. Wasteland would be a problem but still I was hardly dead. I won soon after that.
Round 5
Adam Koska and Zoo. Kird Ape was the first creature he played. Then he added Goblin Guide and attacked. I did not hit a land and was incapable of dealing with those creatures...it was a question of time till I would lose. In game 2 I slowed my opponent by playing Timely Reinforcements. He couldn't attack till he played River Boa that simply went past my soldiers, Baleful Strix and Shadowmage Infiltrator. I was attacking with Jon Finkel drawing an extra card each turn. Later I played Lingering Souls and flashbacked them. I did not expect Maelstrom Pulse but I still could easily win. I just totally messed the game up^_^. I also had Maelstrom Pulse and with that I could deal with lonely blocker taking my opponent down to 1 and I could deal the last damage by alpha striking if I would have played Arbor Elf. But instead I did not play anything... Few turns later in which I managed to mess what I could and played yet another Timely Reinforcements, I won.
The last game was pretty quick. I played Geist of Saint Traft on turn 3 and Dismember'ed Lotus Cobra standing in the way. I dealt 6 damage to me (I shocked myself with a land + 2 black Phyrexian) but it did not matter. In three turns my opponent was down to 0 as he couldn't deal with the spirit.
So it was time to redeem my credit. The total being 950CZK for which I could afford Thoughtseize. Along the way I got Urborg, Watery Grave (these were expensive at that time) and some other less expensive cards. Not bad at all and I thank the organizer(s) of the series and Najada for hosting the tournaments.
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