Before this matchup, I really couldn’t tell who was the favorite. At first, I assumed any deck with “storm” as a mechanic had to crush something from 2002, one of the slowest eras of Standard. But I played out a few practice matches and Squirrel Opposition was crushing instead – turns out all the win cons in Gassy Knoll are sorcery speed, and Opposition taps down all the lands during upkeep. There’s one way around this: Spinerock Knoll, but that gets tapped down too. So after my practice matches it was clear to me that the match would be decided by whether or not the Opposition deck could get Opposition and Squirrel Nest into play. When it does, it wins.

G1 was as expected… Opposition and Squirrel Nest came out fairly quickly, and about 8 turns went by as squirrels propagated and held Gassy Knoll off mana, then finally the Opposition deck could start sending in attackers too. Opposition 1-0.

G2 the Gassy Knoll player decided to try out burning birds and merfolk looters. Although this definitely interfered with the Opposition deck gameplan, it also hurt the storm gameplan. The Opposition deck never even drew Opposition this game, but the Gassy Knoll player never found an Empty Warrens either, so the Opposition deck switched to attacking and surprisingly this eventually resulted in a win. Opposition 2-0.

Sideboarding brought in some huge players. The burn deck got Martyr of Ashes. Although it couldn’t hurt birds, it could wipe clean a board full of squirrels and open up a window of opportunity to storm off. The Opposition deck had two copies of Simoon that could wipe away a team of 1/1 goblins.

G3 and G4 went to Gassy Knoll, as Simoon never made an appearance, and Opposition and Squirrel Nest never teamed up. One game Opposition made it onto the board, but without Squirrel Nest, and with Gassy Knoll hitting lots of land drops, the red deck was able to burn away some weenies and make goblins. The key factor in the defeats were actually pain lands! 4 pain lands and no basics was not a good situation for the Opposition deck, against burn. That sideboarded Martyr of Ashes also had an impact.

It all came down to G5. The green-blue deck had to mulligan, then keep a hand with counterspells but neither Opposition nor Squirrel Nest. A well-timed counterspell stopped a Lotus Bloom, which really slowed down Gassy Knoll who had only two lands. Many, many turns passed with no clear threats. Martyr of Ashes had to blow herself up early on to keep things under control. Squirrel Nest entered the fray, but Gassy Knoll had already started finding some lands. It was tense. The opposition deck drew an opposition, but didn’t have a second blue source. A few turns later, the Yavimaya Coast appears, and Opposition is slammed onto the table. But… the Gassy Knoll player goes into the tank… “in response…” (thinking) … (do I have it?) … in response, cast some burn spells, deal 7 damage, and use Spinerock Knoll to play Empty Warrens, using the opponent’s Opposition as part of the storm count. 10 Goblins! It was victory in two attacks, unless the Opposition player could find Simoon. Nope.

Gassy Knoll took the match 3-2.

But I suspect that if this match was replayed, Squirrel Opposition might win instead. Such is the luck of the cards.