The new bracket is up! I’ve moved to Seattle, so I’ve lost the ability to play in person with my East Coast friends, but we’re keeping the tradition going playing online. If you’d like to get involved, email “shouldconfusion” at gmail.

Also, the rankings have been adjusted based on my latest scoring algorithm and the results from last year. Mythic Conscription is now the top seed. The newer decks, which are clearly strong due to power creep, will need to make it to at least the quarterfinals to break into the top 16 rankings, and due to the legacy effect of old decks having done well in many tournaments already, new, stronger decks (like Simic Food) will need several tournaments to prove their strength.

Don’t forget to check out all the results from past tournaments!

We’re retiring Spiral Blue, so the obvious question is… does it land at 4th best deck (all time) or knock Delver to 4th and take the 3rd spot? Here’s a highly unfair idea: one best-of-5 match to settle the decision.

G1

Spiral goes first. T1 Vault. T1 Delver. Delver flips right away. T4 float mana with existing vault, cast Vault #2, then cast Mind Over Matter (playing around Mana Leak). T5 Spiral has to pay to untap a Vault, and ends up at 7 life from all the Delver attacks and a Mana Vault damage. Turn 6 Time Spiral begins the chain that wins the game. Spiral Blue 1-0.

G2

T1 Delver, T1 Vault. Delver flips right away. On turn 3 Spiral has 3 islands, casts a 2nd Vault, and casts Time Spiral. A T4 Gitaxian Probe reveals 7 lands! WHIFF! But Delver has no additional threats, just an Abomination and an Invisible Stalker, and 3 Ponders. It comes down to top decks, as Spiral Blue will be dead in 2 turn. Nope. Nope. Delver steals a win! Delver 1-1. MVP: A Time Spiral whiff.

G3

Spiral goes first. Gitaxian Probe reveals Mind Over Matter, Time Spiral, Stroke of Genius, and Force Spike. Delver waits to play Delver of Secrets until turn 2. T2 Spiral finds a Vault, Delver comes down. T3 Delver flips right away. Delver hopes Spiral won’t find Island #4 and casts Runechanter’s Pike (playing around Force Spike) then Ponder (which resolves and finds Mana Leak, although now Delver is tapped out. Pretty please, no 4th island? T4 Spiral plays a 4th Island. Womp womp. Mind Over Matter comes down turn 4. Since shields are down, Spiral goes for it. Spiral untaps everything by discarding and casts Time Spiral. Intuition gets a Stroke. Stroke for 12. Vault #2. Meditate. Time Spiral floating 20 mana. Vault #3. Brainstorm. Brainstorm again. Meditate #2. Intuition for Stroke. Stroke to mill opponent for 50 cards. Bit of a risky line, but Spiral wins on Turn 4! Spiral 2-1.

G4

T1 Delver. T1 Vault. T3 Delver flips, Gitaxian Probe reveals Island #3, Force Spike, Mana Vault, Mind Over Matter, and 2 Stroke of Genius. Yikes. T3 Spiral plays the 2nd Vault, endstep Snapcaster. T4 Geist of St. Traft gets countered. Spiral doesn’t draw a 4th island. T5 A 2nd Geist gets counterspelled, but this prevents Spiral from casting Stroke. T6, Spiral is hoping to endstep a Stroke to draw more cards, but Sword, which would be lethal, needs to get countered, and does. Spiral goes down to 2 life, untaps, and… no 4th land! A desperation Stroke doesn’t help. Delver wins. Delver 2-2.

G5

Delver gets a hand with 3 Delver of Secrets. Spiral mulligans to 6. One Delver gets countered but the other 2 get cast. Still… they don’t flip for several turns. Meanwhile, Spiral has Mind Over Matter and Time Spiral in hand, but no mana vault. The Delvers finally flip on turn 5. Turn 6 Spiral tries a desperation Stroke to draw extra cards but Mana Leak counters it. On turn 7 the 2 abominations win the game. Delver 3-2. Delver defends its place at the 3rd best deck in the hall of fame.

G1

Bant Company keeps a 2 land hand with 3 Spell Quellers, casts a Selfless Spirit and doesn’t find a third land until turn 6. Spiral Blue, on the other hand, casts intuition on turn 3, a Mana vault on turn 4 and Mind Over Matter on turn 5. In response to an endstep Spell Queller, Spiral Blue casts another Intuition – for Stroke of Genius, which is a bit risky since it only leaves one left in the main deck. A Turn 7 Brainstorm meets another Spell Queller, so instead Spiral Blue casts the Stroke of Genius to draw 11 cards. Then, a Time Spiral finds 2 more Strokes for the win. Spiral Blue 1-0.

G2

T1 Mana Vault from Spiral Blue. T2 Duskwatch Recruiter from Bant. T3, Spiral Blue plays around Spell Queller by tapping the Mana Vault to help cast Intuition, leaving 2 islands untapped. Spell Queller in response gets countered by Counterspell. Then Spiral Blue casts a 2nd Mana Vault with the floating colorless mana. T4 Mind Over Matter leads to a Turn 5 Time Spiral, a Brainstorm with counterspell backup to overcome another Spell Queller, a 2nd Time Spiral, Meditate, Stroke of Genius drawing 27 cards, then Stroke of Genius the opponent for a turn 5 win. Spiral Blue 2-0.

G3

Bant mulligans to 6. Spiral Blue has T1 Mana Vault again, into a turn 4 Mind Over Matter. Immediately after the Mind Over Matter resolves, Spiral Blue starts to discard cards to make mana so Bant casts Dromoka’s Command to destroy the Mind Over Matter, which surprisingly works! So Spiral Blue just discards most of his hand for mana and casts Time Spiral, then Brainstorm, then Intuition naming Mind Over Matter. Turn 5, the Mind Over Matter is back, but since Spiral Blue is at 9 life, he decides to go for it. Strokes himself for 10 cards, Casts a Mana Vault and a Meditate, and finds another Stroke for another turn 5 win. Spiral Blue takes first place. 3-0.

Our normal rule is that a deck has to take 1st place twice to get retired to the Hall of Fame, but the prospect of running a whole tournament again with Spiral Blue seemed too obnoxious, so we’re retiring it to the Hall of Fame now. The only question is whether it should bump Delver to become the “3rd best ever,” or go onto the list after Delver and become the 4th best? To determine that, we’ll have to stage a special match of Spiral Blue versus UW Delver. Stay tuned.

G1

Jund went first. A turn 2 Scavening Ooze (“Scooze”) presented quite a worry for Rally’s gameplan of returning cards from the graveyard. Rally had tiny Jace. A T3 Rabblemaster was bounced by a T3 Reflector Mage, which also held off the ooze. T4 Polukranos was bounced when Rally cast an elf, then Sidisi’s Faithful exploited it (poor elf). T5 Scavenging Ooze devours some graveyard to become a 4/4, and attacks Rally down to 13 life. Rabblemaster returns. Rally does the exact same play, cast an elf, then exploit it with a new Sidisi’s Familiar. Also, tiny Jace, transforms and adds a -2/-0 condition to a goblin. Turn 6 Scooze returns and immediately becomes a 4/4 again. Rally adds Grim Haruspex and gives a -2 to the Scooze. T7 Jund casts Domri and kills off the Haruspex who was forced to fight the Scooze. Reflector Mage and Rabblemaster kill each other, but Jace stays alive. Then Rally casts Nantuko Husk and a Catacomb Sifter. Jace is at 8 loyalty and there are 2 Sidisi’s Familiars. T8 Scooze become a 6/6. A mana elf and a sylvan caryatid join the team. But the Husk keeps the Scooze from attacking. On Rally’s turn, Collected Company from Rally kind of whiffs, only finding an elf. But using Jace’s ability, and sac’ing a scion for mana, Rally gets to cast Collected Company a 2nd time, this time finding an elf and a reflector mage, which bounces the Scooze. T9 Jund isn’t allows to play Scooze yet, so instead plays Mizzium Mortars with Overload to kill all creatures except the Husk, but this allows Rally to sacrifice creatures in response and get lots of scry triggers, finding a Rally the Ancestors. Rally wins on its turn, by cast Zulaport, then attacking with Husk and casting Rally the Ancestors (thanks to Scooze being stuck in Jund’s hand) to crash in for lots of damage. Zulaport Cutthroat triggers take care of the rest.

G2

A turn 3 Polukranos from Jund. A Catacomb Sifter from Rally. T4 Xenagos. A Scion blocks Polukranos. T5 attacks bring Rally to 14. Endstep Collected Company into tiny Jace and Reflector Mage which bounces the Polukranos, but not before it goes monstrous to kill Jace. Then Rally plays Jace #2. T6 Polukranos returns and goes monstrous to kill the 2nd Jace. Rally casts Husk and Zulaport. T7 attacks from Jund take out a blocking Mage. T8 attacks bring Rally to 5 life, Jund at 17. During endstep, the Rally player knows he can play back to back Rally the Ancestors, but it won’t be enough to do 17 damage. An endstep Rally the Ancestors, sac’ing creatures brings Jund to 10 life. Rally untaps, draws Rally #2 (which he knew was there) and casts it, and with an elf draw card trigger on the stack, sacs some more creatures to get more scry triggers – and finds the crucial Zulaport #2. Zulaport #2 and more sacrifices helps finish off Jund. Rally 2-0.

G3

T1 Despise discards a Scavenging Ooze. T3 Rabblemaster from Jund. Rally plays tiny Jace. T4 Domri kills Jace and goblins crash in bringing Rally to 12. Ayli buys some time for Rally, but Rally can’t keep up and dies on Turn 7.

G4

Rally goes first this game. A Turn 4 Reflector Mage bounces a Rabblemaster. Jund plays Polukranos. A Turn 5 attack meets Collected Company which finds Ayli and an Arashin Cleric from the sideboard. Ayli blocks to kill Polukranos, who goes monstrous to kill and elf. T6 STormbreath Dragon puts Rally to 14 life. It turns into a race, but an endstep Rally on Turn 8 into another Rally on Turn 9 finished off Jund.

Rally takes 3rd place!

The other semifinal for the 2019 tournament looked like an easy win for Spiral Blue, although there were some troublesome cards in the Monsters sideboard. In reality it was a little trickier than expected for Spiral Blue…

G1

A turn 2 Domri resolves. A T3 Rabblemaster gets countered, but a T4 Xenagos resolves. T5 there is a mana elf and 2 Satyrs attacking, and Domri has ticked up to Ultimate loyalty. Spiral Blue fires off 2 Time Spirals in desperation, but can’t find Mind Over Matter. T6 Domri ultimates and gives everyone doublestrike. Monsters wins. Monsters 1-0.

G2

Spiral Blue gets Mind Over Matter out on turn 4, with 2 Mana Vaults already in play. T5 Blue starts digging for Stroke of Genius with brainstorms, to no avail. T6 Blue plays 2 Meditates, has to cast intuition for Stroke, which means there’s only one stroke left in the library, but the Stroke draws lots of cards and finds the last remaining Stroke, which then wins the game. Spiral Blue 1-1.

G3

Blue has to mulligan to 6. Monsters gets a T3 Rabblemaster countered, but a T4 Rabblemaster resolves. A T5 bloodrushed Ghor-Clan puts Blue to 9, and a T6 bloodrushed Ghor-Clan #2 wins the game. Spiral Blue 1-2.

G4

An elf gets countered. Wasteland from Spiral Blue destroys a Stomping Ground, Monsters’ only green source. Monsters adds Mutavault. Blue adds Mana vault. T3 Monsters topdecks an Overgrown Tomb to stay in the game, and casts an elf. T4 Polukranos gets countered. T5 Blue casts Mind Over Matter and says go. A T6 Mistcutter Hydra from Monsters is too little too late, as a T6 Time Spiral finds Stroke the Genius for 25 cards, and Spiral Blue has everything it needs to win. Spiral Blue 2-2.

G5

Blue has a T1 Mana Vault. Monsters has T2 Scavenging Ooze. The scooze gets bigger when subsequent creatures get countered. But Blue has intuition end step of Turn 4, and casts Mind Over Matter on turn 5. Says go. During upkeep, Blue taps down the Monsters only black source, just in case Monsters topdecks a sideboard card, and Monsters can only attack Blue down to 5. Blue goes off on Turn 6 with Time Spiral into Stroke for 19 cards, then a second Stroke for a zillion. Spiral Blue wins. 3-2.

Rally is capable of explosive wins out of nowhere, but Bant Company has better threats, and it has fliers which Rally can’t block. Who will win?

M1

Bant wins the die roll while Rally has to mulligan to 5. Bant casts Tireless Tracker T3. On T4 Rally tries to play Reflector Mage, but Spell Queller interferes. T5 Tracker and Queller attack Rally down to 10 (Thanks to some fetch land damage). Rally plays Catacomb Sifter, and Bant sacs two clues. T6 an attacking Tracker is now a 5/4. A scion blocks it. Rally takes a turn, stuck on 3 lands, plays baby Jace and a Sidisi’s Faithful which sacs itself and bounces the Tracker to try and buy some time, but end step Collected Company from Bant brings out a Spell Queller #2 and a Sylvan Advocate… AND Bant also gets to sac another clue. T7 Bant attacks with 2 Quellers and a giant Advocate. The advocate is blocked by a Catacomb Sifter. On Rally’s turn Jace flips and gives one Queller -2/-0 for next turn, and Rally finally finds a 4th land, but passes the turn with no creatures. Bant attacks with 2 creatures, and Rally can only muster an extremely disappointing Rally the Ancestors for X=2 that only gets back one creature. It’s not enough. Bant 1-0.

M2

Rally has to mulligan again, this time to 6. Rally is already at 18 life from fetch lands when Bant plays a T2 selfless spirit. T3 Bant adds a Sylvan Advocate and on T4 Nissa. Meanwhile Rally plays an Elf, then a Catacomb Sifter T4, then another Sifter T5. Bant plays a 2nd Advocate and a 2nd Selfless Spirit. T6 Rally bounces a Spirit with a Mage. Bant, now on 6 lands, attacks with 2 Advocates and a Selfless Spirit. A Triple block on an Advocate results in an Advocate and a Sifter dying, and the other Advocate is chumped by a Scion. Bant casts a Duskwatch. But Rally is at 8 life and Bant is at 20. T7 Ayli enters the battlefield, offering both deathtouch and the ability to sacrifice creatures to gain life. Sidisi’s Faithful bounces a Selfless Spirit. On Bant’s turn 7, a 7th land flips Nissa who starts drawing extra cards. 2 Selfless Spirits return, and a baby Jace also arrives. T8 Rally finds a Husk, finally, but Bant has Ref Mage for the Husk and attacks Rally down to 3 with the Selfless Spirits (and help from fetch lands). Rally jumps back up to 7 life by sacrificing a creature to Ayli. On T9 all Rally can do is play an elf and say go. An end step activation from Duskwatch finds a Ref Mage. On Bant’s turn, the Mage bounces Ayli. Rally sacs a creature to go to 10. Bant’s Jace flips, gives a Sifter -2/-0, and Bant attacks with 5 creatures. Rally chump blocks a bunch and goes down to 4. Bant adds even more gas: a Tracker, and another Duckwatch. Tapped out, says go. Rally plays a Husk, and has to pass. When Bant attacks next, Rally the Ancestors adds 8 blockers to the Battlefield, and bounces both Selfless Spirits (although one sacrifices itself to give indestructible.) Rally has no way to gain life, but he does block all incoming damage and gets lots of scry triggers from all the creatures that get sacrificed to the Husk before damage. He puts his best card on top. Rally gets a turn and can only play 2 Zulaport Cutthroats (too late! They got drawn from the Elves that returned to play) and Ayli. During endstep Bant flashes in Avacyn. Then on Bant’s turn Nissa goes ultimate and even though all six 6/6 attackers are blocked, there’s 19 more damage from other attackers. So many creatures on Bant’s side. Bant Company 2-0.

M3

Rally keeps 7 this time, and starts playing fetch lands. Bant gets another turn 2 Selfless Spirit. Rally plays an elf on T3. Bant has nothing on T3 and cannot find a blue source. Rally can actually attack with the elf on T4, and casts baby Jace and a 4th fetch land. On Bant’s turn 4, since Dispel might be in from the sideboard and Rally has no untapped blue, Bant casts CoCo during the main step and finds 2 Spell Quellers. The triggers get wasted but it is great that they are fliers and they would’ve cost blue mana if drawn, which Bant does not have. T5 Rally’s baby Jace flips and starts doing -2 on a Selfless Spirit. But on Bant’s T5 Gideon briefly appears, then leaves (makes an emblem) and the three flying creatures take Rally down to 5 life. T6 2 Reflector Mages buy some time, bouncing creatures, and Jace -2’s the other one. Bant can only attack for 1. T7 Rally brings Bant down to 11 life, but an end-step Spell Queller means the next turn is attack for 4, and Rally, never having found CoCo, has nothing. Bant Company 3-0.

Weird hands for Rally. Rally was drawing really good this entire tournament, with incredibly lucky come from behind wins, but this match lady luck turned sour. Bant Company advances to the final to take on Spiral Blue and Rally will fight Jund Monsters for 3rd place.

I’ll call this Blood vs Blue. Thinking about this match beforehand, Blood has lots of dead cards in the main deck. Bloodbraid Elf could be great at getting around counterspells, but only if it digs up another creature. However, post-sideboard Blood brings in lots of good stuff, including thoughtseize and x1 thought hemorrhage which seems really good. Blue has wasteland in sideboard though, which also is pretty good. I think Blood is probably favored post-sideboard, and Blue is favored pre-sideboard.

G1:

Though Blue mulligans to 6, Blood has to mulligan to 4 cards and is not feeling optimistic until Blue fails to play a third land. Blood tries to play threats, which keep getting countered, but Blue gets stuck on 2 lands for several turns. On turn 6 Blood is able to cast 2 Putrid leeches in the same turn, and the 2nd one sticks. Blue finally starts finding lands. But the manascrew is key here, because Blood is able to start attacking and just leave behind mana for Cryptic Command. A turn 9 Mind Over Matter gets countered by Cryptic Command and that’s game over on turn 10. Thrilled to win on a mulligan to 4, Blood now feeling quite optimistic! MVP: mana screw + Cryptic Command. Bloodbraid 1-0.

G2:

3 early threats from Blood get countered by three consecutive Counterspells. Blue uses intuition to get a Mana Vault. Blood has lots of mana and no threats, tries a Broodmate Dragon, which also gets countered. Time Spiral on the next turn resolves with Blood tapped out, and Blue finds the Mind Over Matter to combo off and win. MVP: Lots of islands. Bloodbraid 1-1.

G3: (post-sideboard)

Turn 1 Thoughtseize grabs an intuition. Blood plays 5 lands in a row then casts a Bloodbraid Elf. Although the elf gets countered, a wimpy Anathemancer makes it onto the battlefield. It takes a long time, but the Anathemancer keeps attacking, and eventually Blue has to try for Mind Over Matter without counterspell backup. Cryptic Command stops the spell and secures the victory. MVP: Thoughtseize + Cryptic Command. Bloodbraid 2-1.

G4:

Turn 3 and Turn 4 intuition find the combo pieces. A turn 5 Mind Over Matter leads to a turn 6 combo win. MVP: Intuition. Bloodbraid 2-2.

G5:

Blood goes first and risks a turn 2 Leech, but force spike counters it. Turn 3 and 4 gets Sygg and an Anathemancer onto the battlefield, while Blue finds a Mana Vault. Blood resolves a Leech and a Blightning (Blue let this resolve, even though Blue had a counterspell) and Blue has to discard two cards but then during end step casts intuition to find Mind Over Matter. Plays M.o.M. (turn 5.) On turn 6, Blood has Cryptic Command but Mind Over Matter is already in play, Blue is tapped out, with a tapped Mana Crypt, and 3 cards. Blood casts Cryptic Command to bounce the Mind Over Matter before Blue can untap, and Blue considers discarding 2 cards to untap lands for counterspell, but that would leave him hellbent and needing a perfect topdeck. So instead, the MoM gets bounced, and Blue goes to 6 life, with lethal next turn. Blue discards a card to untap Mana Vault instead. On Blue’s turn 6, Blue plays MoM again, discards 2 cards to untap an island and untap the Crypt, and with 1 colorless floating casts Mediate, last card in hand. Blue draws 4 cards, one of which is Stroke of Genius!!! He casts that Stroke to draw 6 and finds another Stroke! He draws 10 more cards. He gets the combo and wins. MVP: Meditate. Spiral Blue 3-2.

This was not a very skill-intensive matchup. 4 of the 5 games ended on turn 6. The decks piloted themselves, it was just a question of who got good hands. Although both decks play Sylvan Caryatid, a Mana Elf, Temple of Abandon, and Polukranos, the similarities end there. Green Devotion is more of a ramp deck, trying to cast backbreaking 6 and 7 mana spells. Jund Monsters is more of a midrange goodstuff deck and a little faster. I’ll call the decks Jund and Devotion. Here’s how it went down:

G1

Jund, on the play, gets a turn 3 Polukranos out. On turn 4 it goes monstrous to kill one of Devotion’s two mana dorks only to get surprised by Boon Satyr in response! The Polukranos (and the mana dork) die. On turn 5 Jund plays Stormbreath Dragon, but Devotion casts See the Unwritten and finds Dragonlord Atarka and Surrak (which gives it haste). The Stormbreath dies, Jund takes 12 damage from attacks, and loses on turn 6. MVPs: Boon Satyr & See the Unwritten. Devotion 1-0.

G2

Jund gets a Rabblemaster out, and Devotion plays turn 3 Polukranos, but attacks in with Courser of Kruphix which turns out to be a regretful decision when Jund, on turn 4, casts Dreadbore to kill the Polukranos, casts a 2nd Rabblemaster, and comes crashing in for 6 damage. On turn 5, Xenagos joins the field, and Jund attacks with 2 rabblemasters, four goblin tokens, 1 satyr token, and an elf. Devotion is able to block and kill one Rabblemaster, but on Turn 6 Stormbreath joins the fray and it’s just too much go-wide damage. MVP: Dreadbore & Ghor-Clan. Jund Monsters 1-1.

G3

Devotion gets a turn 3 Polukranos but Jund has Dreadbore. An attacking goblin token gets pumped by the Ghor-Clan and takes out a Courser. A sad turn 4 “land, go” is answered by a Stormbreath Dragon, and devotion takes 10 damage. See the Unwritten finds Dragonlord Atarka and it looks like a comeback is in the works, but Jund has Dreadbore #2 for the Atarka. 2 more attacks from the Stormbreath and that’s game, again on turn 6. MVP: Dreadbore. Jund 2-1.

G4:

Both decks mulligan to 6. This game is the only game that goes long, although it wasn’t close. Jund gets a Scavenging Ooze, and Devotion gets Arbor Colossus on turn 4, and Atarka on Turn 5. Vraska kills Atarka, and the game slows down as Devotion has to kill Vraska, and then a Xenagos. But along the way Devotion also finds another Arbor Colossus, a Rattleclaw, and a Courser. It’s too much. Nykthos is making tons of mana with two Arbor Colossus out, and the Arbor Colossuses become monstrous 9/9 creatures. It takes a while to get through chump blockers but the board state is hilariously unbalanced. The win comes on turn 10. MVP: Arbor Colossus. Devotion 2-2.

G5

The decider is quick and dirty as Jund get turn 2 Bow of Nylea then turn 3 Polukranos. The monstrous Polukranos on turn 4 is bigger than Devotion’s Polukranos, and it continues to threaten to get larger thanks to the bow. Devotion will be able to play Atarka on turn 6, but only if he doesn’t lose any creatures (he needs the mana symbols for Nykthos) so he takes 3 attacks from the Polukranos without blocking, but on the third attack Ghor-Clan pumps up the hydra even more for the win, predictably on turn 6. Jund Monsters 3-2.

This was one of the most thrilling matches I’ve played. There were several decisions that were tough calls, and whenever Demonic Consultation got cast, it was uncertain whether it would be joy or tears. Necro had Nevinyrral’s Disk versus a deck of mostly creatures, but cards like Selfless Spirit and Avacyn could completely void the powerful sweeper. Necro also had insanely disruptive cards like Strip Mine and Hymn to Tourach, but sometimes couldn’t close out a game fast enough before green creatures accumulated on the battlefield. Collected Company was a constant threat that added uncertainty to every decision. Here’s how it went down:

I’ll call the decks Bant vs Black.

M1: (Black mulligan to 6)

Right off the bat, during the end step for turn 1, Black casts Demonic Consultation naming Dark Ritual. This is a card that exiles cards from your library until you find the named card. Although there are 4 in the decklist, there are none in the top HALF of the deck. Once a Dark Ritual is finally located, there are only 24 cards left in the deck. Yikes!
Bant plays Duskwatch Recruiter, Black plays a turn 2 Nevinyrral’s Disk (thanks to Dark Ritual). The Duskwatch starts attacking. Black plays a Strip Mine and destroys a dual land but has no other plays, so the Duskwatch flips. Black finds a Mishra’s Factory but doesn’t want to trade, being stuck at 3 lands. Finally, at 7 life, Black is able to block with the Factory and cast Contagion to make the Duskwatch smaller. Black is now at 6 life. Bant just casts Ojutai’s Command and returns the Duskwatch to play. Bant’s returned Duskwatch dies again, then is replaced by a Selfless Spirit, but Drain Life takes care of the spirit. Lumbering Falls enters tapped and presents a possible threat, although the Disk is still on the battlefield. Several turns pass with no action. Eventually there are 2 Sylvan Advocates in play and Bant finds a 6th land, which forces the Disk to get used to clear the board. 2nd main, Bant plays the cards he’s been holding back: a Duskwatch, a Sylvan Advocate, and Tiny Jace. On Black’s turn (still at 6 life) Dark Ritual facilitates the casting of a new tapped Nev Disk and a pro-white Knight that can block for a turn, although the factory gets tapped. Tiny Jace flips on Bant’s turn, gives the Knight -2/-0. Bant sends in two attackers and Black blocks and is at 4. On Black’s turn, the Duskwatch flips to a 3/3, and Black plays Hymn to Tourach. Collected Company in response finds 2 Reflector Mages with no valid targets. Hymn discards another Collected Company and an Avacyn. Nev Disk kills everything except the flipped Jace planeswalker. On Bant’s next turn, Bant casts Tireless Tracker and plays a land, and is finally hellbent. Black casts a knight. Next turn, Jace gives the knight -2/-0 (and goes to 8 loyalty) but can’t attack yet. Black attacks Jace with a Dark Ritual in hand for surprise pump-ups to change combat math in case he blocks. Collected Company in response finds a Spell Queller and another green creature. Bant lets Jace take the hit and swings back with 3 attackers to win game one. Long game. Bant Company 1-0.

M2:

Necro keeps a 1 land hand with Dark Ritual and Hypnotic Specter. Will it work? T1 Hypnotic Specter. T2 Hyppie attacks and Collected Company gets discarded. Bant plays a Sylvan Advocate. Black finds a Mishras’s Factory for land #2, and the Hyppie forces a Reflector Mage to get discarded. The Sylvan Advocate attacks into a larger Mishra’s Factory, which is suspicious, and since black has only 2 land, Black lets it through. After that though, a different Reflector Mage shows up and bounces the Hypnotic Specter. Dark Ritual makes it possible to play Nev Disk (tapped). The Sylvan Advocate and and Reflector Mage attack and now both players are at 14 (Bant has a painland). Black Strip Mines one of Bant’s plains. Bant’s creatures attack again and Black decides to take 4 damage although he could’ve popped the disk. Bant passes the turn with no play and then Black pops the Disk at end of turn… this was the key decision in the game and meant Black took 4 extra damage that potentially could’ve been prevented. Black strip mines another plains, and attacks with Factory. Bant plays a tapped land. Black finally finds a 2nd swamp and plays Hypnotic Specter. Bant bounces it again with yet another Reflector Mage. Black finds Factory #2 (a 4th land) and casts a new Disk. The Reflector Mage attacks Black down to 8, then Bant adds Lumbering Falls, the scary man-land, tapped. Black recasts Hypnotic Specter, but Dromoka’s Command kills it by giving the Mage a counter and making them fight. The 3/4 Reflector Mage attacks in to get black to 5. Selfless Spirit joins the team. Drain Life kills the Spirit. The 3/4 Mage attacks black down to 2. Bant is at 10. Hymn to Tourach steals Dromoka’s Command and Tireless Tracker, and there is finally enough land that 1 factory can play defense with the threat of getting boosted to a 4/4 by another factory. Bant plays a different Tireless Tracker but the Mage can’t attack. Black adds a Knight. Bant can’t attack. Strip Mine destroys a Lumbering Falls. Tireless Tracker dies to a Drain Life and black goes up to 4 life. Black attacks with a pro-white knight, Collected Company in response finds a Selfless Spirit and a Spell Queller, but neither can block the knight. That leads to this scenario:

I don’t know if this was the best choice, but here’s what I chose. Knight pumps once and Bant goes to 6 life. Black plays Zuran Orb post combat, planning to not use the Disk. Bant attacks for lethal in the air but Black sacrifices lands to gain life and stabilizes at 2. Bant adds a Duskwatch. Knight attacks into the Duskwatch and uses first strike to kill it. Bant attacks again with 2 fliers and forces more land sacrifice to the Zuran Orb. Bant is at 5 and Black is at 2. Bant plays a tapped land, number 5. Knight attacks Bant down to 3 life but is down to only 4 lands: 2 swamps and 2 factories. He casts a 2nd knight. Bant begins his turn with 5 lands for the first time – attacks with everyone and Black is forced to block with 1 factory, then sacrifice 2 lands – he chooses to sacrifice the factories. (There is still a Nev Disk on the battlefield all this time, but Black is not using it because of Selfless Spirit.) After combat, Bant plays a Lumbering Falls tapped, then casts Avacyn, then sacrifices the Selfless Spirit. Black is tapped out. During Black’s upkeep, Black is forced to use Disk to kill Avacyn (and everything else) with Avacyn’s flip trigger on the stack threatening lethal. Everything dies, and there are no Factories anymore either. Black draws for turn worried about the Lumbering Falls on the other side of the board. He draws a Demonic Consultation, and searches for a Strip Mine to destroy it. The game goes into topdeck mode, Bant at 3, Black at 2. But Bant finds an Ojutai’s Command and returns a creature from the graveyard to attack for the win. Bant Company 2-0. Close game.

Game 3 is when we allow sideboarding in the best of 5, so Black brings in Terrors and Dystopias and more Contagions. Bant brings in counterspells and a bigger werewolf, Lambholt Pacifist.

G3: Time for a comeback…

Necro uses Dark Ritual to play Nev Disk turn 2. Bant casts Selfless Spirit. Terror kills the Spirit. Strip Mine destroys a Yavimaya Coast and Bant is stuck on 1 land for a bit. Hypnotic Specter appears. 2 attacks from the Hyppie discard 2 Spell Quellers. Black casts a Disk, while Bant finally finds land and casts a Sylvan Advocate. Dromoka’s Command (fight mode) kills the Hyppie, so Black uses the disk to kill the Sylvan, then casts another Disk. Now for the big decision, Black is at 19 life and has Demonic Consultation, but has only one Necropotence in his library. He decides to risk it, and names Necropotence. Necropotence was card #7. (If it had been card #6 he would have lost the match to self-mill.) Ridiculous! (Also, bad decision to leave only 1 copy in the deck!) He plays Necro, and gets 6 cards. Sylvan Advocate attacks, and Black is now at 11 with a full hand. Black plays Hymn to force discard of a Spell Queller and a Summary Dismissal (which can counter the Disk ability). Black draws 3 more from Necro, then uses the Disk. Bant has nothing, and few lands. Black plays 2 knights. Bant finds a land and eventually has 2 Sylvan Advocates, but terror takes care of one, Strip Mine destroys more blue sources, Dystopia destroys the other Advocate, and 2 knights and a factory finish off the opponent. (After which Black adds back a Necropotence for match 4) Bant Company 2-1.

G4: Black mulligans to 6.

Bant plays Duskwatch. Black plays Hymn to Tourach and gets a Spell Queller and a Sylvan Advocate. Duskwatch attacks. Black Strip Mines an Island. Bant uses the Duskwatch ability before losing the land and finds tiny Jace. Black plays Dystopia. Duskwatch gets sacrificed. Black keeps Dystopia in play and starts paying cumulative upkeep loss of life. Black casts Hypnotic Specter. Bant says go. Black pays 2 life to Dystopia, then attacks with the Hyppie and a Factory, and plays a knight. Bant plays Selfless Spirit. Black pays 3 life, goes to 12, and only attacks with the pro-white knight. Bant goes to 14. The Spirit gets sacrificed to Dystopia. Bant says go. Black lets the Dystopia go away and attacks Bant down to 6. Bant plays blockers but they get killed by spells and Black wins on turn 8. Bant Company 2-2.

G5:

Bant plays a plains and it gets Strip Mined. Bant has lots of land though and gets a Lambholt Pacifist out on turn 3. Hymn to Tourach gets Selfless Spirit and Sylvan Advocate. Bant plays a different Selfless Spirit. Black plays Dark Ritual into Nev Disk, and also Strip Mines a dual land. Bant attacks Black down to 18 and casts Nissa. Since Selfless Spirit is messing up the power of the Disk, Black casts Hypnotic Specter to keep the spirit from attacking, but is now tapped out and the worst case scenario occurs: Bant plays Dromoka’s command to kill the Hypnotic Specter (fight mode) and attacks in for 8 damage… Black is at 10 life. Black casts a knight and then has to double block the enormous Lambholt and take 2 more damage from Selfless Spirit. Bant decides to let it die. At 8 life, Black makes a risky decision… casts Necropotence, and draws 6 times, going to 2 life. But it works! He finds Demonic Consultation, which searches for Contagion, brings him to 1 life, and then he uses the Disk to kill Nissa with the Spirit trigger on the stack. Bant has no play. Black plays a new Disk. Black plays a knight. Then Bant finally finds action and plays a Sylvan Advocate. Dystopia kills it. The knight attacks but Collected Company in response finds a Selfless Spirit and a green creature. But Black has terror for the spirit, and then uses the disk to clear the board and plays a new knight. Staying alive… at 1 life. After another Collected Company, and another terror that kills a Spell Queller, the situation arises where Bant has Sylvan Advocate and 6 lands, Black has a knight, an unused Strip Mine, and no more threats left in the library (because of Demonic Consultation). With the only out being killing the Sylvan Advocate and hoping Bant draws nothing for 4 turns, Black names Demonic Consultation for the last terror in the library… and it’s the last card on the bottom. Black has no cards left. Necro loses!!! Bant Company advances 3-2.