G1

T2 Protection from White Knight.
T3 Dark Ritual into x2 Hymn of Tourach. Kithkin discards 4 good cards.
T4 Dark Ritual into 2 more Pro-white knights.
End of story. Necro 1-0.

G2

Figure of Destiny. Ivory Tower.
He makes a 2/2 Figure of Destiny and attacks. I gain life from the tower. Dark Ritual into Necro. Necro for 4 cards.
A 4/4 Figure of Destiny attacks. I gain life from the tower. Hypnotic Specter.
Figure of Destiny #2 cast. Unmake exiles the Hyppie. I gain life from the tower. Drain Life kills the new Figure. Cast Nev Disk.
He Attacks. I’m at 5. I gain 3 life from the tower. Necro for 2.
He makes an 8/8 figure. Necro for 2, then Nev disk destroys everything. No more life gain. But! Drawing cards again is nice. Play a new Nev disk. Attack with Mishra’s Factory.
Cloudgoat Ranger. Crack the new Nev disk to destroy everything again. Then attack with the Factory and play a new Hyppie.
He draws lands. I keep attacking and eventually drain life for the win.
Necro 2-0.

G3

T2 Pro-white knight
T3 Spectral Procession. I attack with knight and play Hyppie.
T4 he attacks into my Hyppie to get 2 damage through, then adds a Stillmoon Cavalier from sideboard. It’s Pro-black, but can’t block the pro-white knight.
T5 he attacks with the Stillmoon and casts a Stalwart. I attack with knight. 
T6 he attacks with Stillmoon and casts Ranger of Eos. I play Gloom. All his spells now cost 3 more. My knight stays back to stop the from Ranger.
T7 He has 4 lands. He taps out to play a Figure of Destiny. I play Serrated Arrows and kill it.
T8 He passes the turn. I play Gloom #2. He’s locked out. I kill the Stillmoon, and finish him off with more Hyppies and knights. Necro advances, 3-0.

Basically, necro beats white weenie. It’s just an unfair matchup.

(I played Shrine)
Before the match we were pretty sure that one of the scariest red decks of all time would wreck any 5-color deck with lands that enter tapped, and it wouldn’t be close. But this Bloodbraid deck had some surprises in store for us!
G1
Both decks mulligan to 6. Turn 2 Shrine. T3 Kargan Dragonlord, followed by Kitchen Finks. Kitchen Finks attacks, A Putrid Leech arrives. I level up the Dragonlord and attack in the air. He attacks me down to 10. He’s decided to race. I attack him down to 8, then try to play Lightning Bolt, but he counters the Lightning Bolt and bounces my Dragonlord. He attacks me down to 5. I sacrifice the Shrine (for 7 damage) to get him to 1, and finish him off with a burn spell. Shrine 1-0.

G2
He gets Putrid Leech on turn 2, I get the Dragonlord. He plays Sygg and attacks, drawing a card. On my turn I Searing Blaze Sygg. He keeps attacking with the leech. I play a 2nd Dragonlord. Many fetch lands are cracked. He has a nice turn where he pumps up the Leech, then uses Volcanic Fallout to kill both my Dragonlords, and attacks with the pumped leech, leaving me at 5 and him at 7. On my turn I bolt the leech, he pumps it, then I play forked bolt to finish it off and leave him at 4 life. I cast Shrine and another Dragonlord. He bounces the Shrine and draws a card. He plays Kitchen Finks which puts him just out of range of a leveled up Dragonlord. He also plays Anathemancer, the worst card in his deck (for this matchup) but the card that wins it for him. Silly. I don’t draw any burn. I level up but have to sit back. He attacks with 2 creatures, I kill the anathemancer. I still draw nothing, and he unearths the anathemancer to finish me off with 2 attackers. 5-color Bloodbraid 1-1.

G3 (sideboarded)
Finally, a turn 1 Goblin Guide! (Although it really helps him smooth out his mana.) T2 Dragonlord. T3 Chandra’s Phoenix, I attack him… he doom blades my dragonlord and I get him to 12. Blightning makes me discard the rest of my hand, and leaves me at 15 life (I played some fetch lands). I topdeck Shrine and attack him to 8, he plays Kitchen Finks and goes back to 10. I try to attack with Chandra’s Phoenix, but Path to Exile ends that. I cast Vulshok Refugee (a pro-red guy from the sideboard.) He plays Chameleon Colossus, ugh. I play Vulshok #2. Shrine is at 4 counters and he’s at 10. He attacks. He pumps up Colossus. I could kill the Colossus in response… but I sit and think for a bit, and I decide to just take 8 damage, and see what I draw. Now I’m at 8. Next turn he plays Cryptic Command during my upkeep to tapdown my creatures and bounce the Shrine. This time, I sac the shrine to kill the Colossus. Then I attack him with three creatures, he blocks one with Finks, gains some life and is now at 7. But then he casts Cruel Ultimatum and attacks with a 2/1 Finks. He goes back to 12 life, and brings me to 1. Next turn a Lightning Bolt finishes me off. Bloodbraid 2-1.

G4
I get turn 2 Shrine, he casts thoughtseize and after a lot of thought, chooses Chandra’s Phoenix, which is a surprise since it can come back from the graveyard. I play a Vulshok but doom blade gets that and Blightning rips apart my hand. I get a new Chandra’s Phoenix but he has a lightning bolt for that. All I need is a spell to get 2 phoenix’s back… (spoiler: I don’t draw any instants or sorceries this game.) He plays Colossus. Again, I consider killing the colossus, but that Shrine is really ticking up. I decide that the only way I win is by hitting him directly with the shrine, so I let him keep the colossus. I cast a grim lavamancer. Shrine has 9 counters (but he’s at 18 life). Colossus brings me to 4 life. I attack with Goblin Guide to get him to 16. He attacks with Colossus and I block with Grim Lavamancer, and ping him before it dies. On my next upkeep, he plays Cryptic Command to bounce the Shrine, so I sacrifice it… to his face, for 11 damage, bringing him to 3 life, and hope I draw a damage spell. Nope. I lose.
Could’ve been a very different game if I had killed the Chameleon right away, but I felt that the red deck wasn’t going to win a long game against a deck like 5 color Bloodbraid, so I needed to play to a lucky out instead. Decisions were made. Shrine loses! 5-color Bloodbraid advances, 3-1.

This matchup was all about flying. There were lots of creatures to gum up the ground, flying (or mana screw) was the way every game was decided.
(I played RB)
Note: a player on reddit suggested we change the Green Devotion decklist to a version with Genesis Hydra and Nissa. So we did. But we didn’t like this new version, See the Unwritten and Surrak would’ve been better, in this matchup at least.
G1
In the early game, Green ramped up mana and I tried to apply pressure. An early doomfall revealed a Whisperwood and Dragonlord Atarka. I chose to exile the Whisperwood, which was probably a mistake in retrospect, but I thought I could keep him off 7 mana. Sure enough, he gets to 7 mana and plays Atarka. But I have a Phoenix, and I attack into his Atarka. He’s low on life and knows he can’t race, so he blocks, and I use a Chainwhirler and an Abrade to finish off the Atarka. After that the path is clear, a Heart of Kiran and Phoenix kill him quickly after that. RB 1-0.

G2
Green ramps up with elves and rattleclaw mystics. I cast doomfall and this time I steal an Atarka from his hand. He plays Whisperwood. Chandra kills the Whisperwood. He gets Courser of Kruphix. He’s able to kill Chandra. I cast Kari and Scrapheap Scrounger. Later my Chainwhirler kills two rattleclaws. He plays Xenagos and starts making satyrs. He loses his courser and satyr protecting Xenagos from attacks. Courser #2 reveals Atarka on the top of the library, uh-oh. I get an exerted Glorybringer which kills his Xenagos and his Courser. Note that Glorybringer can’t hurt dragons when it exerts! Not that that’s relevant, though, because Atarka will just kill the Glorybringer when it ETB’s. Anyway, my Chainwhirler finally hit his life total directly (during the Glorybringer vs Xenagos attack) so he’s at 17 now. He draws the Atarka but can’t play it yet. Genesis Hydra comes in as a 4/4 and adds a Courser of Kruphix. I sit back and just ping him with Chandra for 2. Then he gets Atarka out, kills the Glorybringer. All I can do is ping him again. Atarka kills Chandra. I draw nothing. Atarka starts attacking me. I get Hazoret but it’s too late, I die to more Atarka attacks. Green Devotion 1-1.

G3 (bad mulligan decision?)
I keep a risky 2-land hand and never see a third. He gets a turn 3 Polukranos and I have useless spells that deal 4 damage, grrr. I can’t do anything. He runs me over with Polukranos. Devotion 2-1.

G4
Green mulligans to 6 cards. (we are still using the old scry mulligan for rest of tournament)
I keep another 2-land hand, but this time it works out. T2 Heart of Kiran follwed up by T3 Chainwhirler to kill a mana dork and crew the ship. He gets Courser. I use doomfall to make him sacrifice the Courser. Ship attacks again. He gets Polukranos. Spyglass from the sideboard naming Polukranos to stop any hydra-fighting allows me to then play Pia Nalaar. I sacrifice a thopter to prevent Polukranos from blocking and force mana dorks to block Chinwhirler, as the ship also attacks again. He buys time with Nylea from the sideboard, gaining 6 life, but he can’t find anyway to stop the flying ship and loses two turns later. All tied up, 2-2.

G5
He gets turn 3 Polukranos on the play, yikes. I kill a Caryatid, and use two spells to kill Polukranos. He has Courser. At 12 life, I find Chainwhirler and kill an elf with it, but he drops land #7 and plays Atarka. I get 2 phoenixes out which could’ve been great, but Courser reveals another Atarka in my future so I am screwed. Instead of double blocking with the phoenixes (which would kill Atarka #1 only to have Atarka #2 played post combat, killing the Phoenix’s “ashes”) I try to buy time with single blocks, taking trample damage and getting back phoenixes during my upkeep, but then he gets Arbor Colossus from the sideboard to kill a Phoenix “ash” and I am out of plays. G Devotion 3-2.

There was a recent question on reddit asking which red decks are the best on history. Well, last tournament I didn’t have much success with Ramunap Red and this time I didn’t with the black splash version of Chainwhirler either. But that Red Prowess deck from 2015 just keeps on crushing its matches. It’s probably the best red deck of all time, I think. One could make the case, in this context, at least.

I’m playing red aggro. I go first.
G1 (UW gets flooded.)
T1 Zurgo. T2 Swiftspear joins the Zurgo attack. Lightning Berserker post combat. Dec in Stone gets the Berserker. T3 Zurgo & Swiftspear attack again. Abbot gets cast. T4 I attack, Stasis Snare gets the abbot. Then Gideon arrives, makes a knight. But T5 I burn the knight, kill Gideon, and add a Firedrinker Satyr. He plays a Selfless Spirit. Next turn I keep Zurgo back and attack with Satyr & Swiftspear. Selfless Spirit trades with the Satyr, he goes to 10. I play Abbot #2. He adds another blocker. T7 I cast Abbot #3, which reveals a Lightning Strike. I burn the blocker, and with prowess triggers get him to 3 life. He loses on turn 8. He was flooded, had 7 lands.
Red Aggro 1-0.

G2
Another T1 Zurgo. Turn 2 Smuggler’s Copter. T2 Zurgo gets in for 2. I cast Abbot. T3 Reflector Mage bounces Zurgo. I play Abbot #2 and get a free Swiftspear. T4 Gideon. Makes a knight. I play Zurgo, and make a controversial choice: I attack him (not Gideon) with everyone. He crews the Copter, I burn the copter with Stoke the Flames before blocks, then he takes out an Abbot and I’ve got him to 13 life. He attacks me for 2. He makes a knight. Next turn I attack him again, with my Abbot and Swiftspear and Stoke #2 for prowess triggers but he plays Spell Queller to stop the Stoke damage. Next turn he makes an emblem, then plays Gideon #2, sacrificing old Gideon. On my turn I cast Stoke #3 to get his 3/4 Spell Queller, which gives me a free Stoke that was under the Queller. I use that on a knight and then attack Gideon #2 and kill him. Next turn he has nothing but an emblem, so I attack with Swiftspear and Zurgo, but he flashes in Rattlechains, which is now a 3/2, and gives other spirits flash, so he flashes in Selfless Spirit (3/2) too. He doubleblocks Swiftspear. I Lightning Strike him to 10, Swiftspear gets 1 of the blockers, and Zurgo gets through. He’s at 8 life. He attacks me to 15. I attack with Zurgo and trade with the Spirit. I play Zurgo #2, but another Spell Queller cancels it. I try to attack with Lightning Berserker, but Stasis Snare stops it. It’s starting to look like red will lose. Spell Queller attacks me to 12. I have nothing. Queller attacks me to 9. I manage to find a Lightning Berserker and get him to 4, but I need to hold up mana in case he flashes in a small creature during my endstep (I have a Wild Slash to protect me.) He attacks me to 3. I have one draw left. Exquisite Firecraft! 4 damage, FTW. Close one. Monored 2-0.

G3 (with sideboard)
Red Aggro mulligans to 6. Thraben Inspector. Firedrinker Satyr. Selfless Spirit. Spirit gets burned by a Lightning Strike. He taps out to crack a clue during my endstep, and I play Searing Blood. He plays Dec in Stone on the Satyr. I cast Abbot which finds me land #4. Swiftspear attacks for 1. He plays a 5th land, says go. I attack, he casts Blessed Alliance and I lose a swiftspear as he gains life. Now he’s at 18. Thraben Inspector #2. I have to say go, with an abbot but no spells. 2 more turns go by. He’s at 8 lands, I’m at 7. I use firecraft to kill one inspector and attack with Abbot but he has stasis snare. I play swiftspear #2 and don’t attack. He plays Reflector Mage on the swiftspear. Later I have Swiftspear back and I play a new abbot which finds me lightning strike. I attack, he blocks with mage, I think I’m pretty clever and cast 2 lightning strikes (had 1 in hand) targeting him, to get 2 prowess triggers and kill his Mage, but he has stasis snare so it doesn’t work. Then, he has Dec in Stone for the abbot. Well, I’m out of creatures now, but he’s at 12. Exquisite Firecraft and Stoke the Flames gets him to 4. Topdeck another Stoke FTW. 12 damage from 3 burn spells in 2 turns! Monored advances 3-0.

G1 (Bant Company goes first)
Turn 2 Duskwatch Recruiter, which flips and starts attacking for 3 on turn 3, after which a Selfless Spirit joins the field. A turn 4 Sylvan Advocate gets Remanded (just to draw a card) but is immediately replayed thx to 4 mana. On turn 5 there are 3 attackers that bring Dragonstorm to 5 life. Turn 6 is when gigadrowse gets played to buy some time. (I’m the one playing Dragonstorm.) I choose to tap only the Duskwatch and use the rest of the mana to tap down his lands so I won’t have to worry about Spell Queller next turn (if I can go off – although I still haven’t found Dragonstorm) but he has Dromoka’s Command to add a counter and do exactly 5 damage. A turn 6 win. (Next card (we looked) was, in fact, Dragonstorm. Rats. So close!) Bant Company 1-0.

G2
Another turn 2 Duskwatch, followed by a turn 3 Sylvan Advocate, followed by a turn 4 Tireless Tracker. On turn 6 and 7 an interesting situation arises where APNAP (active player / non-active player) has a huge impact. Turn 6 I gigadrowse 1 creature to try and stay alive. He plays Spell Queller but I remand it. Then on the upkeep for turn 7, I have a Lotus Bloom unsuspending, and the Bant Company player has 2 mana – enough to re-play Spell Queller (thanks to Duskwatch’s cost reduction) and counter the Lotus Bloom, BUT – because of APNAP, the Duskwatch flips back to its front face before the Lotus Bloom resolves, and Bant Company loses the cost reduction. Lotus Bloom resolves. On turn 7 I have another gigadrowse, and I have to sacrifice the Lotus Bloom to get enough blue mana (I have mostly red mana sources) to Gigadrowse 4 times, tapping down creatures again. He tries to cast the Spell Queller to keep one creature untapped and win, but I have Remand #2. I untap on turn 8. Coast is clear, I have Dragonstorm in hand, but not enough cards to get the storm count up. Fortunately I do have a new Lotus Bloom that just came online, so that’s storm count 1. I play Sleight of Hand, luck into a Rite of Flame, and I’m able to Dragonstorm for 4 hellkites – and the win. Bant Company 1-1.

G3
Yet again, turn 2 Duskwatch, which flips right away, followed by Selfless Spirit. Game 1 deja-vu. End of turn 4, Collected Company during end step? No, Remand. Turn 6 I stay alive by Repealing a creature, but I’m down to 2 life. Turn 7 I have no gigadrowse and have to go for it. I have the combo… but he plays Spell Queller to stop my Seething Song, and I lose. Bant Company 2-1.

G4
This game the Dragonstorm deck totally malfunctoned and I got flooded AND drew dragons. Shit happens. I lose having played a T1 Sleight of Hand and a T2 Telling Time, after which I get my T4 Lotus Bloom countered by Spell Queller and only draw dragons and lands. I had 2 Bogardan Hellkites and a Hunted Dragon in hand plus Dragonstorm and 7 lands. You don’t ever want that many dragons in hand. Not good. But Spell Queller getting my Lotus Bloom was the key moment. Dragonstorm, the previous champion, is knocked out! Bant Company 3-1.

This matchup particularly showcased how Bant Company is uniquely able to pressure a combo deck with efficient early drops, while keeping counter magic to interfere with a combo plan. But also, Dragonstorm can occasionally win on turn 3 or 4, and usually does on turn 5 when it’s running well, so the deck had some real struggles assembling the right pieces. Bit of bad luck, too.

This is the first tournament that 4-color Rally has entered, so we didn’t know how it would stack up against the great decks. Cawblade had some bad luck, but Rally took advantage and crushed it.

G1: I’m playing CawBlade and right off the bat my first hand has no Stoneforge Mystic and no equipment. It has 2 lands, Jace, 3 hawks and a spell pierce. I shouldn’t keep this hand, but I find it hard to be picky about my 7 card hand in the very first game of a new matchup… it’s hard to know how the matchup will play out! So I keep. I play hawks and struggle to get the lands I need for Jace. I tech-edge his only green source but he bounces back quickly. By turn 7 he is attacking with weenies (elves) and has Grim Haruspex. I bounce the Grim back to his hand and block with hawks to kill some elves, but I’m down to 9 life. I finally find my 2nd island, by which time I have 2 Jace in hand so I play a Jace #1 which he promptly kills. Buys me a turn. But Jace #2 doesn’t do anything for me either, I can’t find anything to turn the tide. The attacking Nantuko Husk and Catacomb Sifters beat me down since I really wasn’t doing anything other than playing hawks. Both decks kind of felt like they were malfunctioning, but his guys were bigger. Spell Pierce was useless against all his creature spells.

G2: A game I lost because of outrageous luck. I keep a weird hand with swords but no creatures. Turn 3 I hard cast a sword. Turn 4 I hard cast the other sword. Later he gets a cutthroat out and tries to play a 2nd one, but I have mana leak for the 2nd one. Turn 7 I finally draw a hawk and immediately equip it with protection from red and white. On his turn he untaps and plays Collected Company which finds 2x Reflector Mage, but the Hawk is safe with the sword. Later I get 2 swords on a hawk and I’m untapping lands after combat and gaining life and having a swell time, he has very few outs. I’m at 16 life after gaining 6. There are some scenarios where he can do 15 damage to me, and I ponder them but I’m pretty sure I’ll be fine with 3 other hawks left to block. Well, he draws a cutthroat, then plays it and collected company, and finds another cutthroat and the husk he needs to sac creatures with 3 cutthroats out! He found all 4 cutthroats in one game. The extraordinary luck of getting all 3 of those cards on the final turn astounds me, or at least it would’ve astounded me, if I hadn’t been on my back staring lifeless at the sky.

G3: I finally see my first Stoneforge Mystic, but it’s a 1 land hand. Still, I have preordain so I decide to keep. Things go well, I get the mystic out on turn 2 but reflector mage bounces it. T4 I play sword. T5 I can play Mystic again to get the other sword. (The reflector mages make Batterskull less reliable.) But when he plays CoCo, he finds a Husk and a Cutthroat. Ugh. I’m at 8 life and haven’t even equipped a sword yet. Stuck on 3 land. I finally equip the mystic but I can’t afford to attack with my only creature. He plays another Husk and another Cutthroat and I die to Zulaport triggers. Rally wins 3-0.

I probably would win this matchup every time I got to T3 with a Mystic in play. But that never happened. The bad mulligan decision game 1 really haunted me, but I certainly didn’t expect a 0-3 loss. I think the thing is, CawBlade can be a bit slow (when it doesn’t have T4 attacking Batterskull) and that just gives Rally time to find combo pieces. The namesake card, Rally the Ancestors, was never even cast.

I was playing elves. G1 I kept a slow hand, excited that it had my one-of copy of Cloudthresher, which I assumed would just wreck Bant Company. But When Reflector Mage bounced my Llanowar Elves and I topdecked another one, that set me back two turns and really put me on the back foot. By the time I was able to try and play the mana dorks again, Collected Company into Spell Queller and Tireless Tracker just added too much pressure (along with a Sylvan Advocate and Reflector Mage that had already been whittling down my life total.) A Primal Command bought me a turn, but with Avacyn flashed in endstep, the writing was on the wall. Turn 6, his one-of Declaration in Stone removed a blocker and I lost.

G2: We both mull to 6. On turn 3 I play Ranger of Eos to search for Heritage Druid and Nettle Sentinel. He leaves mana untapped and says go, and I sense Spell Queller, so I start playing everything other than Heritage Druid. On turn 5, I play Heritage Druid into his Spell Queller, but then I am able to play the Elvish Archdruid I just drew. The following turn when he attacks with big Sylvan Advocates, I flash in Cloudthresher and kill one. Cloudthresher buys me time, and I Primal Command to find Mirror Entity. I still have only 3 lands but this time I have mana elves. He finds a reflector mage to bounce my Archdruid, but when I replay it eventually, he has no Spell Queller. The following turn I play mirror entity and attack with 7 creatures that can all become at least 7/7 creatures, thanks to the 7 mana from Archdruid, and since he’s at 9 life he has to block all but one and loses his team, and I win next turn.

G3: After sideboarding, I add more Cloudthreshers, but he adds more fight spells and some counterspells. He gets turn 2 Sylvan Advocate. I play Devoted Druid. Turn three, when I try to untap Devoted Druid for extra mana, he uses Dromoka’s Command in response to kill it. Ok, so instead I play Elvish Archdruid. Turn 4 I play Nettle Sentinel which he grabs with Spell Queller, then I play 2 Elvish Visionaries. Turn 5 he attacks for 6 damage and kills off my Archdruid after combat with another Dromoka’s Command. I could have blocked with a visionary but I had a hideaway land with a Regal Force under it, so I really wanted to attack with 3 creatures next turn. After turn 6 I’m at 3 life, so I have to play Primal Command, but he has Clash of Wills from the sideboard. I lose with Cloudthresher in hand but I’m at 1 life and can’t play it.

G4: I decide to side in Great Sable Stag since I’m on the play and see if I can add some pressure to his life total. Probably a bad decision since Dromoka’s Command still kills it. I do get a Stag in my opening hand, but he soon has Sylvan Advocate, Tireless Tracker with 3 clues, and he never misses a land drop. Dromoka’s Command kills the stag, Reflector Mage bounces an Archdruid – soon I’m at 8 life with Heritage Druid and two other elves. I decide on a line where if Regal Force stays on the board I will just barely stay alive and then I can Primal Command after, but he has Dec in Stone for the Regal Force and I’m dead.

Bant Company wins 3-1. I never really got an explosive hand with the mana ramping. The one game that went long went to Elves, which makes sense, but all the interruption combined with average or slow hands just kept combo elves from doing degenerate things.

I’m playing the control deck. I feel I have a chance, but I’m worried about Gigadrowse.
G1: He goes first. He gets a T1 Lotus Bloom. T4 he goes for it and I have no counterspell, but he only gets 3 Dragons. I have Crux of Fate in hand but die before I can get to turn 5. Just needed one… more… turn.
G2: He gets a T2 Lotus Bloom. I wait to thoughtseize until the turn before the Lotus Bloom unsuspends, but I’m stuck on 2 lands. He remands my Thoughtseize. So I play it again. He remands it a 2nd time. During my following upkeep, Gigadrowse taps my lands so I still can’t thoughtseize (no swamp off the top). He endsteps with Telling Time, feeling a bit desperate to find something… and he does. Gets 3 Bogardan Hellkites on turn 6, avoiding my delayed thoughtseize and kills me the next turn. I’m still at 2 lands. Guess I should’ve thoughtseized a turn earlier but I didn’t imagine the double remand scenario!
G3: Time for the comeback. Lots of new sideboard cards in. He gets T2 Lotus. T4 I duress and take one of TWO gigadrowses. I counter his telling time. Around maybe turn 11, I play Icefall Regent and he still hasn’t found Dragonstorm. Eventually he has to start playing Gigadrowse just to tap the Icefall Regent and stay alive, but I finally finish him off. He checks: next card was Dragonstorm. He’s now at 2-1.
G4: He mulligans into a T1 Lotus. I miss a land drop then start drawing lots of lands. I play a Stratus Dancer (morph guy who counterspells when he morphs.) T5 he tries to kill the attacking dancer by flashing in Teferi (sideboard card) but I dissolve it. Mo’better – he had to pop his Lotus to play Teferi, he was low on lands. Then I play Icefall Regent, he has 5 lands now. T7 he plays Gigadrowse to stay alive, but because of the Stratus Dancer, he has to target my Icefall Regent twice to make sure it taps and doesn’t kill him, which leaves me just enough mana to counter his Seething Song when he has to try to go off the following turn. He fizzles out, I win. Dragonstorm 2-2.
G5: The big finale. He gets stuck on 2 land. I play Silumgar on turn 6, he’s still at 2 lands. Later I play the OTHER Silumgar. One of them has hexproof, which will matter a lot later on. It comes to a crucial moment where he has only 3 lands, a Lotus Bloom with 2 counters, and a bunch of cards in hand. He’s at 14. I have 8 lands and draw Ugin. This was the first game I sided it in, thinking of it as a possible finishing spell if I can’t get that last damage through. I also have tons of instant removal spells, and Crux of Fate, and I’m at 22 life. But in 3 turns – if he can gigadrowse me down to one mana so I can’t play instant speed removal, and then combo off on his turn, I’ll lose. But – to gigadrowse that much mana, he’d have to use the Lotus Bloom AND have drawn some more land AND I’d have to not draw more land myself (many of my lands enter tapped). Right now he only has 3 lands and a suspended Lotus Bloom. If he gigadrowses me and goes off but DOESN’T kill me I’m fine thanks to Crux of Fate. I get real focused on the Gigadrowse plus land draw scenarios and decide I need to speed up the clock, so I tap out to play Ugin. I attack him with both creatures (6 damage) and hit him with Ugin for 3 more. Now he’s at 5. I mean, he only has 3 lands, right? What can go wrong? On his turn, he topdecks land #4, which he needs, and is able to play Dragonstorm with a storm count of 4, get 2 Hunted Dragons and 2 hellkites, and kill me. But here’s the line I missed, and why I punted the match. Playing Ugin or not playing Ugin was a tough call (probably shouldn’t have) but given that I DID play Ugin, I should’ve left my Hexproof 3/6 Silumgar back as a blocker. I would’ve put him to 8 life instead, still threatening lethal next turn. The Silumgar would’ve blocked a Hunted Dragon and kept me alive. He would’ve needed a storm count of 5 to kill me, even less likely. But I didn’t see that line. And gave him exactsies. I punted! Dragonstorm wins 3-2.

An unusual match between 2 decks that coexisted at the same time. Kithkin was clearly superior, and was just way too fast for the storm deck, especially on draws with no Lotus Bloom.
G1: Gassy Knoll keeps a risky hand, Kithkin gets two Knights of Meadowgrain into Elspeth. Knoll draws too many storm spells and not enough ramp. Knoll plays only one spell all game – Tarfire – which was nullified by a Rusty Clachan +1 counter. T6 win for Kithkin.
G2: Kept a hand with no Lotus Bloom. Drew too many storm spells, and a Pyromancer’s Swath I dare not play, and not enough enablers. In desperation I had to make 8 goblins, but lost to fliers. Kithkin 2-0.
G3: Still no Lotus Bloom. Overrun by weenies before I can get enough mana to do anything. Kithkin 3-0, even without Burrenton Forge Tenders showing up.

G1: Two dismembers protect Jace the Mind Sculptor. CawBlade eventually gets Batterskull equipped with 2 swords. Not close. CawBlade 1-0.
G2: A T2 Stoneblade Mystic. A T3 Domri. A T3 Batterskull. A boar fights and kills the germ, but then Hawks start multiplying. Domri falls to hawks. CawBlade gets stuck for a while at 4 lands, but eventually finds the fifth land and equips a hawk with Batterskull. A few turns later that bird also has two swords. Game Over. CawBlade 2-0.
G3: CawBlade takes a Scry mulligan. T2 Voice of Resurgence is answered by a Stoneblade Mystic. T3 Domri enable the Voice to kill the Mystic before it can do its thing. Hawks start appearing. T5 Loxodon Smiter. T6 Batterskull is hardcast. But Unflinching Courage on a Smiter allows the Smiter to fight the Germ and kill it. Batterskull switches to a hawk of course, but on T8 O-ring removes the Batterskull. But then Batterskull #2 comes down. T9 O-ring #2 saves the day, and Domri takes a win. CawBlade 2-1.
G4: An Avacyn’s Pilgrm gets mana leaked, and DOmri can’t find a third land for a while. T5 Batterskull is hardcast, but finally land #3 comes off the top allowing O-ring to get the Batterskull. Batterskull # 2 arrives, but the germ gets killed. Domri is able to keep killing the germs after Batterskull bounces and gets recast, but eventually a mystic searches for a sword with protection, and the rest is elementary. Equipped protection from red/white and green/black is preeeeeetty good against most decks. CawBlade 3-1.