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.

G1

Both decks mulligan to 6. Red comes out fast, with a Satyr, then a Berserker. Rally answers with a Sidisi’s Faithful (zero power blocker) and an elvish visionary (which gets burned away) but a Reflector Mage bouncing the satyr slows things down. An Abbot and another Berserker are cast, and a burn spell to face, after which Rally is at 5 life.

Red attacks into open mana and Collected Company finds Zulaport and Nantuko Husk, wrecking red’s team. Red re-casts the Satyr.

With Rally at 5 life (and red at 18) red “goes for it.” Exquisite Firecraft brings Rally to 1 life. Stoke the Flames is cast for the potential win, but Rally has the namesake card, Rally the Ancestors, in response, and is able to do a massive tempo swing, after which Rally is back to 5 life. After Rally’s creatures attack on his turn, Red is at 9. Red re-casts a satyr (again), but another Reflector Mage from Collected Company sends it back, and red has no blockers when Nantuko Husk attacks for 10 damage. Rally 1-0.

G2

Red gets a good hand and Rally gets flooded. Rally is forced to play a Zulaport Cutthroat on turn 2, but it gets burned away on turn 3 and after attacks, Rally is already at 13. Turn 3 Catacomb Sifter arrives to try to slow things down, but a Swiftspear gets 2 prowess triggers, killing the Sifter and also leaving Rally at 6 life after turn 5. The next turn, 2 more burn spells win the game. Rally 1-1.

G3

Rally keeps a risky 1-land hand with lots of 2 drops and never sees land #2. Rally 1-2.

G4

A sideboard card, Satyr Firedancer, comes down on turn 2 which does damage to creatures whenever the opponent gets damage from a burn spell. Rally plays an Arashin Cleric, but it gets killed by Firedancer triggers. Reflector Mage bounces the Firedancer and that slows things down. Duress steals a burn spell, the firedancer returns. Rally is at 20 life. The husk attacks, and red doesn’t block it. There is an interesting turn when Arc Lightning is cast and Satyr Firedancer is in play that leads to multiple spells and sacrifice triggers in response. The net effect is that Rally is left with only a tapped Husk, Red has the Firedancer and an Abbot, and Rally is at 17 life. The husk attacks again (no blockers). The satyr gets bounced again by another Reflector Mage. Red deals with the Mage and attacks Rally down to 12 life. Red = 13. Rally = 12. But a Collected Company during upkeep finds another Zulaport, and more blockers, and stalls the board for a turn. On the next turn, sacrifices to Husk and then a Rally the Ancestors finishes off red – 13 damage in one turn. Rally 2-2.

G5

Red sees a one-land hand with a Swiftspear, an Eidolon, a cheap burn spell, and 3 expensive spells. Decides to send it back. Mulligans into a 4-land hand with no creatures. Keeps it and is soon rewarded by drawing an Eidolon, but after that just draws land. Red, with only 21 lands maindeck, plays a land every turn for 9 turns, and dies overwhelmed by 2/3 creatures and weenies “going wide:” 3 Catacomb Sifters, 3 Scions, and 2 Reflector Mages. Rally advances, 3-2.

G1

Infect has to mulligan to 4, can’t find any threats. Jund mulligans to 6.

Infect plays a Glistener Elf. Jund’s mana elf gets cancelled by mental misstep.
Elf attacks with mutagenic growth to deal 3 poison.
Blinkmoth Nexus attacks to deal another poison. Polukranos arrives.
Nexus brings poison count to 5. Stormbreath Dragon arrives, but doesn’t attack.
Polukranos and the Dragon stay back to defend, while Xenagos arrives and starts attacking with satyrs.
Infect is hoping to draw a Titanic Growth to combine with an Apostle’s Blessing in hand, but doesn’t find it and dies to attacking satyrs. Jund Monsters 1-0.

G2

A T1 Glistener Elf that attacks with titanic growth on turn 2 brings Jund to 5 poison.
T3 Nexus makes it 6. Then T4 Nexus with Titanic Growth FTW. Infect 1-1.

G3 (sideboarded)

Infect keeps a weird hand. T2: Caryatid. Spellskite for infect.
T3 Polukranos – but it gets dismembered.
T4 mana dork. A Nexus attacks with 2 Rancors. 5 poison!
T5 Stormbreath Dragon. Stays back to defend. But he is dismembered and the 2x Rancor Nexus returns FTW. Infect 2-1.

G4

T1 Glistener Elf. 
T2: A Caryatid. It blocks the elf and gets a little smaller. An Ichorclaw Myr.
T3: Goblin Rabblemaster. The Nexus and Myr attack after a Gitaxian Probe, and get through for 2 poison.
T4: Stormbreath Dragon. Hangs back. The Myr attacks, Rabblemaster blocks. A spellskite is cast.
T5: Jund adds a Mutavault and a new Rabblemaster. 3 Goblins attack, 1 is blocked by Spellskite. On Infect’s turn, the Myr attacks and the Caryatid chump blocks.
T6 4 goblins attack, 2 get blocked. The dragon gets dismembered, but that brings Infect to 5 life. Infect attacks, but Jund is only at 4 poison.
T7 Stormbreath Dragon #2 attacks with haste to bring Infect to 1. The infect player draws a land.
T8 win. Jund Monsters 2-2.

G5

The Infect player has everything he wants in hand for a quick win, except he has only 1 land (a Nexus) and no forest. (He has an elf, 2 Rancors, Apostle’s Blessing, Nexus, Green Sun’s Zenith and Gut Shot.) He decides to gamble… if he draws a forest, he figures he’s nigh unstoppable. But… he never draws a forest. 5 draws go by and he’s killed by 2 Scavenging Oozes and a Mutavault. The Infect player admits it was a bad keep decision. We figure the game one mulligan-to-4 was fresh in his memory and warped his judgment. Jund Monsters advances, 3-2. Mistakes were made!

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.