This Saturday I was prepared to go to next Highlander Series tournament. This time with Naya Zoo Highlander. My friend played with my 4c good stuff this time.
The day before the tournament I went to local FNM that I managed to win somehow even though I went 2-1. My GW aggro this time lacked creatures so I had to make up and I actually felt more like playing Delver. It was more about trying to keep one of my creatures alive and attacking with it rather than playing as much creatures as I could and overrun my opponent. I left home with Jace and Mutilate. When I got back it was around midnight and another player asked me if I could provide him with a deck. I said ok, but the deck would be GBW Pattern-Rector combo as I knew that the cards for the deck were in one of my albums.
I spent quite some time sleeving up the deck (twice) but it did not really matter as I couldn't sleep anyway. I got up early in the morning since I couldn't fall asleep.
Round 1
When on a tram to the game store I encountered a pokemon player obviously heading the same way as me. When I entered the store there were pokemon players all over the place. I was wondering if we could actually fit in there somewhere. The pokemon players are often loud and it is not really pleasant to play in a event when they are trying to participate in their event.
In the first round I played against my friend Zdenek piloting my Dark Bant with bit of red for Ajani Vengeant. My start was pretty aggressive and he conceded early. In the second game I wasn't so lucky. My hand was full of 4 mana cards and only one of them was a creature card. After not so successful mulligan I tried to play with it. Things got a bit worse when my opponent played Stoneforge Mystic fetching a Batterskull. I killed the mystic hoping that it would give me one more extra round without Batterskull in play. This came true so I managed to deal some more damage. Batterskull followed and also attacked. I killed the germ while double blocking it. I thought that my doom was sealed but it wasn't and I somehow won.
Round 2
Round two was against monoblack deck that really likes reanimating big creatures. In the first game I didn't really see too many creatures and those that hit the table were usually 2/x shadow ones. I managed to do 3 major misplays in this game which prolonged the game quite a lot. Letting Ajani Vengeant die wasn't a good idea. But in the end I got rid of all the creatures and won.
In game two Scion of Darkness ended up in the graveyard quite soon and I knew what would follow. My second land was 'edicted' (Dryad Arbor) and I couldn't do much. I wished for a tutor or Scavenging Ooze but none came so I decided to be the first to deal 20 damage. But the black Scion is a 4 turn clock that puts into play my own creatures. Due to having Mirran Crusader in the graveyard I lost since I couldn't do anything with that First Strike (I had Kessig Wolf Run that could get me through but all my creatures had toughness of 2 or less). A land producing either white or red mana would do the job as my Figure of Destiny would gain flying and win. I drew a R/W land, but it was Clifftop Retreat. Too bad that all of my 5 lands weren't basics nor real dual lands!! So I lost.
In the last game we were running out of time so I tried to deal as much damage as I could. Time was up and I still had two turns to win the game. Ajani Vengeant helped me keep cards in my hand (by keeping Hypnotic Specter tapped) so I could play Goblin Ruinblaster to deal two additional damage in the last attack and win.
Round 3
In the next round I played against Radek playing GW deck. There was quite a lot of creatures on the table and I was wondering what I can do with it. There were quite some mana dork and Gaea's Cradle so I was really afraid of what would hit the table. In the end it was just Avenger of Zendikar and a fetch land. Fortunately I had few creatures on my side as well and Garruk Wildspeaker with 4 counters on it. o I decided that if I'm to win this game I'll certainly have to use the OVERRUN ability and try to use that as my 'Wrath of God' effect. I did exactly that and tapped all my creatures and waited to see what would happen. All my creatures died except Tarmogoyf. Even though my Goyf wasn't the creature to deal the last damage I won a bit later.
Next game looked similar. Too many little creatures on the other side of the table and me with just a few attackers. Radek tutored for Thragtusk and playedi it. The card showed me how evil it is. Hopefully the beast blocked my Thoctar and all I needed was get rid of a 3/3 beast. Elspeth followed later. I also had my Natural Order and tutored Primeval Titan that was copied by Phyrexian Metamorph a turn later by my opponent. I did the same to my opponent and attacked. He had to deal with my two Primeval Titans and I had to deal with Elspeth. 9/9 Flyer with trample is not something I can deal with in my deck (except Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile, but I don't see those cards often). So I had to build up my board and find a creature that could actually fly. I played Ranger of Eos and tutored Figure of Destine (and Wild Nacatl). This meant that I wouldn't be able to kill Elspeth just yet and be hit at least once by the Titan. Next turn I had to destroy Elspeth and keep the Figure of Destiny and myself alive. I managed that and even managed to get rid of the Titan (my Titans died as well, blocked by squirrels and other tokens, eh). My opponent then played Wurmcoil Engine and was ready to attack. When trying to find out if I would kill him in counterattack he realized that my Figure of Destiny would kill him and conceded.
Round 4
In the finals I played against Tomas (being the winner of the last series and with whom I also played in the finals last time). In the first game I couldn't really keep up with the pressure and when Tangle Wire came I knew I was screwed. My only chance of winning was dealing damage with my Wild Nacatl. Tomas though had Knight of the Reliquary and a copy of the card. He blocked with the copy knowing both creatures would die but considered that less risky. He was right about that, my only chance was to deal those 3 damage and then play my two burn spells. Unfortunately the two burn spells alone weren't enough (I needed to deal ONE more additional damage). I lost both games rather quickly.
The tournament was nice. We had fun, we discovered some new things and we won some stuff. In my case I got yet another Swords to Plowshares (BB). I like the card, it's very nice but I got one last time as well^_^.
If anyone is interested in the decklist, here it is.
by Stsung
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