A nerfed version of the most degenerate deck ever vs. a very scary red deck that has taken 1st place once in the past? Our prediction was that too much needs to go right for Spiral Blue, and Atarka Red will just put too much pressure on the life total.

Well, once again, we were wrong! The difficulty in predicting which deck will win is one of the things I find fun about these tournaments. Atarka Red had some pretty bad luck with starting hands, and Spiral Blue had Force Spike and, after sideboarding, the nightmare anti-red card: Chill. It did go to game five though. Here’s how it played out.

Game one: Swiftspear? No, force spike. Dragon Fodder? No – counterspell. Swiftspear #2? It resolves. Spiral Blue plays intuition to get a copy of Mind Over Matter. Hordeling Outburst resolves. A resolved Atarka’s Command finishes the game. Postgame discussion: might have been incorrect to counter Dragon Fodder, cards like Atarka’s Command are way worse. 1-0 Atarka Red.

Game two: Atarka Red saw a one land hand with Zurgo and lots of two mana spells. Fearing a force spike then no land draws, decides to mulligan to 6 and is horribly, horribly punished with no land after no land hands, usually with 3 mana spells to boot. Eventually stops at 2 cards, that’s how bad it was. Drew lands, actually! But no creatures. Yeah, lost that game. Which was key because after sideboarding the matchup gets a lot harder. 1-1.

Game three: Post sideboard. Atarka Red gets Zurgo out, but then has no follow up, really slow hand. Wild Slash to the face, then Dragon Fodder which gets countered, then Dragon fodder #2 which resolves, threatening lethal next turn but… Spiral blue goes off and wins on turn 6. 2-1 Spiral Blue.

Game four. Swiftspear and Dragon Fodder get on board before Spiral Blue plays the dreaded CHILL. But it doesn’t matter, Atarka Red gets to 4 lands. Spiral blue struggles to assemble the combo pieces. An end step Atarka’s Command for three damage (necessary because of chill and potential counterspells) sets up a turn 6 lethal attack thanks to another prowess trigger. A win DESPITE chill getting played. This is huge! Although next game Spiral blue goes first. Uh-oh. 2-2.

Game five: The most feared scenario happens. Turn 1 force spike. Turn 2 Chill. Then a couple turns later, chill #2. Then a couple turns later, chill #3. The red deck never resolves a spell. 3-2 Spiral Blue.