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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/brandonpatton.com\/magic\/ultimatestandard\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/brandonpatton.com\/magic\/ultimatestandard\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/brandonpatton.com\/magic\/ultimatestandard\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/brandonpatton.com\/magic\/ultimatestandard\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/brandonpatton.com\/magic\/ultimatestandard\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/brandonpatton.com\/magic\/ultimatestandard\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":507,"href":"http:\/\/brandonpatton.com\/magic\/ultimatestandard\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions\/507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/brandonpatton.com\/magic\/ultimatestandard\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/brandonpatton.com\/magic\/ultimatestandard\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/brandonpatton.com\/magic\/ultimatestandard\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}