This looked like a pretty unbalanced matchup. Forbidian had lots of counterspells and controlling elements but was otherwise pretty slow, a control deck meant for a different era when threats were less pushed. Next Level Bant, aside from having cards like Jace, the Mind Sculptor, was just a deck with a constant stream of must-counter threats. Legacy’s allure was one card that might have an impact in Forbidian’s favor, and if the game went long, there were buyback spells. But if Next Level bant resolved any planeswalker, it was probably game over.

G1: NLB managed to resolve a Jace, a Ranger of Eos, Elspeth, and Scute Mob. Total blowout. NLB 1-0.

G2: more interesting game. NLB’s first noble hierarch was countered, which slowed things down, and Forbidian got Sapphire Medallion into play. But since there was no rush, eventually NLB was at eight lands and playing two must-counter threats per turn. Eventually NLB got a Jace and a Vengevine into play, plus there were two man-lands. Jace started fatesealing and attacking, and even though Forbidian had capsize with buyback mana, Forbidian was forced to keep capsizing a Vengevine to stay alive, and the fatesealing “sealed” the deal, haha. NLB 2-0.

G3: Turn 1 meekstone made things interesting. But NLB got Elspeth into play and started sttacking with a pumped up Sea Gate Oracle. Multiple Legacy’s Allure from Forbidian also made things interesting – in fact, NLB really wanted to play the 3/5 flyer in hand, but it seemed correct to NOT play it so it couldn’t get stolen by Forbidian and turned into a blocker. Forbidian was forced to steal Sea Gate Oracles to stay alive and so NLB could just keep sending in pumped up flyers, eventually adding man-lands to the attack. NLB 3-0.