Highlander Series - Fourth tournament

After the third tournament in which I played with EDH deck I decided to play with a regular Highlander deck and see what I could manage. Soon after the tournament I tried building few decks - Reanimator (that would be BUG running some dredge stuff and Hermit Druid but Life From the Loam being on the banlist) or Bant deck but not playing combo. In the end I was mixing black, green and blue but I wanted to add white as well. I ended up in 4c.

I did not have a chance to play with the deck before the next tournament so I was surprised that it actually worked.

In the first round I played against the youngest Czech player who qualified for Pro Tour. His father was here as well.

My deck was rather aggro and my opponent wasn't capable of doing much. In the second game he played Lorescale Coatl when he could and the creature grew a lot. First damage andBrainstorm dealt me quite a lot of damage but I had enough creatures to chump this creature each turn. Resolved Primeval Titan found Creeping Tar Pir and Celestial Colonnade. Both cards able to go through. I let one opponent resolve (facepalm) Chord of Calling that foundRiftwing Cloudskate bouncing my Colonnade. Anyway Creeping Tar Pit was still there and won me the game.

After that I scouted the remaining games and Tar Pit won all of them (2).

In the second round I played a really long game against Josef Sedivy. Both of us weren't drawing lands for quite some time. In the meantime my opponent played Jace TMS as he had 4 sources when I got 3. Jace was fatesealing all the time. I did not want to concede and continued playing. I tutored Jace Beleren and waited. I had to play some cards to get the counterspells out of my opponent. I managed that in the end. But after both Jaces died, I still had to deal with creatures.In the end what killed me was Wurmcoil Engine and Phyrexian Metamorph copying it.Damnation helped but I needed Maelstrom Pulse to get me rid of those tokens. In the second game I was trying hard to kill my opponent with my little creatures. Skinshifter proved to be good attacker. But to be honest my last two top decks (Counterspell and Aven Mindcensor) was what won me the game resulting in a draw.

Round 3 against combo deck with Academy Rector. I found out that my deck lacks few cards^^.Nihil Spellbomb is one and Stifle is the card I wished to have as well. I can deal with Hulk but not when there's a lot of creatures with 'Sacrifice a creature: blabla ability'

Next round I played against Jan Sedivy - first player playing partly red in his deck. Dark Confidant showed how good he is. The most expensive card that he drew was Phyrexian Metamorph^_~. In combination with Aven Mindcensor I pulled off a win.

In the fifth round my opponent seemed to play quite a lot of colorless lands - Kor Haven,Volrath's Stronghold, Mutavault and mmaybe few more. In the first game I got him to 7 life pretty fast but than the game became stall. I was capable of dealing 6 more damage, but I was unable to deal the one damage.

In the second game my opponent's mana base killed him. Of course I helped him with that. I used Wasteland on his only source of green - Temple Garden and hoped that this would be enough. He was quite desperate when he played Phyrexian Metamorph copying my Avacyn's Pilgrim. I played Damnation a turn later and continued attacking. He wasn't able to draw green source and lost. In the last game we both tried to win as one of us would get some prizes. Trygon Predator on my opponent's side + Oracle of Mul Daya did not seem good to me. Sylvan Library and Sword of Feast and Famine seemed as something I shouldn't play. I was mana screwed so playing the Sword and equipping was impossible, not to mention that it could be countered. So I slowly waited and was tutoring responses to anything that could kill me. I tutored Acidic Slime and Phyrexian Metamoprh so I could deal with Rafiq and Birthing Pod. We were running out of time. None of us could win even the game started pretty aggressively.

I ended up sixth in the tournament and learned what my deck lacks. At least I need a removal in the form of a creature (bone shedder, shriekmaw) and graveyard removal ( Nihil Spellbomb). My mana base also needs reviewing (at least including Watery Grave would help).

Dark Bant

Main Deck:
1 Acidic Slime
1 Arbor Elf
1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Dark Confidant
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Eternal Witness
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Gideon Jura
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Jace Beleren
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Loxodon Hierarch
1 Mulldrifter
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Primeval Titan
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Rhox War Monk
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Shriekmaw
1 Skinshifter
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Trinket Mage
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Wall of Blossoms
1 Wall of Roots
1 Wurmcoil Engine

1 Ancestral Vision
1 Batterskull
1 Birthing Pod
1 Brainstorm
1 Counterspell
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Cryptic Command
1 Damnation
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Duress
1 Eladamri's Call
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Force of Will
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Mana Leak
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Path to Exile
1 Putrefy
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Sylvan Library
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Wrath of God

1 Arid Mesa
1 Bayou
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Breeding Pool
1 Celestial Colonnade
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Flooded Grove
1 Flooded Strand
3 Forest
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Island
1 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Swamp
1 Temple Garden
1 Treetop Village
1 Tropical Island
1 Underground Sea
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wasteland
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Bastion
1 Wooded Foothills