Round 1: Shiels with G/W/x
R1G1: I cast Growth Spasm into Mind Control for Oracle of Mul Daya, earning a free land off the top. Jace + Rampant Growth is my next turn, and I'm only facing down Mob and Dauntless Escort. Jace dies to an attack as I would rather preserve the Oracle as it is actually stronger in this deck than Jace is, at least in the early game. my next turn is Garruk into Time Warp, along with 2 more land drops. Mold Shambler kicks his Colonnade off the field and Into the Roil for Scute Mob causes the concession.
SB: - Ulamog - Kozilek - Mnemonic Wall - Cancel -Deprive - Mysteries of the Deep + Flashfreeze + Master + Domestication + Vapor Snare + Roil Elemental + Narcolepsy
The Eldrazi are boarded out as they are too slow. Some of the card advantage providers are also taken out as the control magics provide you with card advantage as well as tempo.
R1G2: I play turn 3 Awakening Zone. He stalls on lands with Lotus Cobra and Mul-Daya Channelers showing a creature, I main phase Into the Roil Lotus Cobra, knowing he will play Oracle of Mul Daya next turn instead of recasting the Cobra. Vapor Snare on Oracle gets the concession.
Round 2: wanpeople13 with Grixis.
R2G1: I chose to be on the play which was a poor decision. The match against Grixis postboard will take very long and the extra card is more useful than the tempo advantage of going first. I get into a board position of my Jace 2.0 against his Liliana after I bounced Sedraxis Specter. I lose from here as Jace's Brainstorms hit Garruk, Cancel, lands, Overgrown Battlement, and Explore. I discarded a fetch to the first +1 from Vess, keeping Tectonic Edge, which was wrong as the fetch would've optimized Jace. My walkers die to the recast Specter and I die shortly after.
SB: -r - Mind Control - Noble Hierarch - Overgrown Battlements - Rite of Replication + Sphinx of Magosi + Negate + Acidic Slime + Nature's Claim + Recurring Insight
Ulamog's Vindicate isn't that strong, and I don't want to deal with having it Mind Controlled. Nature's Claim and Acidic Slime work to control his mana, and thus his threats.
R2G2 The only important play this game is my Ponder. I'd Mind Spring'd for 4 and hit and Island + Ponder. I stacked the Ponder as Recurring Insight on top, followed by Mysteries of the Deep and a land. This is how I would stack a Halimar Depths, but is obviously wrong for Ponder. I got Mind Shatter'd and lost most of my hand including the Insight, and the Avenger I played afterwards wasn't enough to win from such a card deficit.
I needed to seriously tighten up after this round so I took a short break and got some watermelon. :)
Round 3: eddie112 with G/W/x
R3G1. I play Rampant Growth on 2 over Lotus Cobra to guarantee the acceleration since the Cobra could die to Journey or O Ring as I am on the draw. I play Cobra + Jace 2.0 on 3. I still lose as Mind Spring for 6 bricks on ways to deal with Scute Mob, Ponder misses the next turn as well and I lose to Mob with Behemoth Sledge.
SB: Same as round 1.
R3G2 I am on the play and have Cobra on 2 into Rampant Growth + Domestication for Steward of Valeron on 3. Explore + Master of the Wild Hunt on 4. Ramapagin Baloths + lands get him.
SB: - Dreamstone Hedron +Nature's Claim. Slow cards get out on the draw. Claim deals with Journey, O Ring, and Sledge.
R3G3 Explore on 2. Cobra + Ponder + Growth Spasm + Chalice for 1 on 3. Cobra is removed by Oblivion Ring. Master is removed with Bant Charm. Then this happens.
Round 4: CitrusD AKA Tom "the Boss" Ross with G/W/x
R4G1 My Cryptologist on 1 on draw meets his Lotus Cobra. Big loots is too slow against team random dudes. He Negates my Divination for no reason but dude assault gets there as I draw no Time Warp or All is Dust and the Avenger of Zendikar is too slow to win it against Emeria Angel and friends.
SB: Same as last round but - Hedron + Nature's Claim. Hedron is way too slow and the draw 3 for 9 effect is unnecessary.
R4G2 On play keep Ponder, Jace the Mindsculptor, and 5 lands. Ponder into Everflowing Chalice for turn 3 Jace bouncing Birds of Paradise. I do this instead of Brainstorming as the Brainstorm is still vulnerable to Vengevine and I want to be slowed down as much as possible. Turn 3 Jace vs turn 3 Elspeth is not a fight I want to get into while the only real out to Jace for him would be Oblivion Ring at that point. Jace is indeed O Ringed. I play Master of the Wild Hunt off the top. Master of wolves handles Elspeth and all the dudes he plays afterwards like Lotus Cobra and Oracle of Mul Daya. Kicked Sphinx into Time Warp is enough to cause the concession.
SB: Nothing
R4G3: I have Treespeaker on the draw into Divination and attack Jace Beleren for 1 on turn 3. I have the All is Dust but don't want to use it when I still have this Master of the Wild Hunt and Roil Elemental in hand. Also he played Oracle of Mul Daya so he was ahead on lands post sweep, which is very bad for me. Master is O Ringed, but Roil sticks and now I have his Oracle. His Jace dies shortly while I enjoy the advantage provided by his creatures fighting for me. I misplay at the end by bouncing Oblivion Ring with Into the Roil to let him remove my Elemental the next turn, which he does, but that leaves him without outs to my Avenger as nothing in the format could've gotten through my Deprive with the mana he had available. Still wrong plays, but was too far ahead to lose.
Round 5: SaradinDR with G/W/x
R5G1: I keep Chalice, Awakening Zone, Baloths, Mind Spring and lands. Opp doesn't immediately use Pridemage to kill Zone after I play Chalice for 1 on turn 2 into Zone on turn 3. My turn 4 Baloths is Journey'd with no 4/4 friends. Garruk into Mind Spring doesn't get there as I mess up later and discard a land I needed for Kozilek.
SB: Same as last round.
R5G2: I keep Forest Island Temple Divination Snare Avenger Jace 1.0 on play. Have the Jace on 3 into Rite on his Lorescale Coatl to set up a defense with the Divination next turn. His coatl bashes in and kills my Jace. I follow up with Divination + Ponder and trades with my Coatl with his after he uses his Relic of Progenitus. I cast All is Dust for his Jenara, Asura of War and Emeria Angel. Next turn I play Rampaging Baloths + Terrmaorphic to stare down his Level 5 Transcendant Master. His Master goes to 12 and is Sejiri Steppe'd past blockers to put me to 7. I activate Terramorphic EOT, which baits the Path to Exile. As scripted. Roil Elemental + land.Fun things happen after, which the screenshot should serve to show you.
SB: No changes
R5G3: I have Overgrown Battlements into Divination + Treespeaker. Mana advantage allows kicked Into the Roil on his Oracle of Mul Daya + level up 4. I Vapor Snare his Oracle and Flashfreeze the his Acidic Slime . Jace + Oracle ramps fast and I Armageddon him on turn 7 part 2 due to Time warp.
Round 6: sebastianpozzo with Grixis. He is the only undefeated player so he could scoop me in but he "likes to play" so we sit down to battle.
R6G1: I get hellbent to discard spells against 4 cards but his cards are all reactive. A lot of nothing happens until I spring for 10 off my Awakening Zone spawns and cast Kozilek in the same turn. Kozilek is Consumed by Vapors, which was probably due to a misplay on my part. Mind Shatter takes out most of my hand, but I still have Jace and Oracle so Ulamog gets him.
SB: Same as round 2.
R6G2. I Negate Jace 1.0 . He Brainbite my Mind Spring. I Deprive Blightning and follow up with Mold Shambler and Acidic Slime. Assorted beats isn't enough as he has the Flashfreeze for Slime. If I had just let him Blightning me I would've won. I also played Sphinx of Magosi incorrectly and just missed drawing 2 cards over the course of the game, which resulted in a loss.
SB: + Surrakar Spellblade - Lotus Cobra
R6G3. I have active Sphinx of Magosi drawing all lands while he rips perfectly to control magic it twice. I die to the second control magic + Earthquake as I fail to come up with an answer.
After the Swiss I'm in 4th place. I've only lost to Grixis twice, confirming that it is quite strong. However I lost to my own misplays rather than any discrepancy in deck strength so I was confident under better play I would be able to win.
Top8
Round 1: KittH with G/W/x
G1. I mulligan into Treespeaker on 1, level + Everflowing Chalice for 1. Divination plus Rampant Growth enables turn 4 Avenger, though sadly only for 4 plants and I have no land drop. His Bloodbraid misses on removal spell. I Ponder into Time Warp and Explore. I should've Rite'd avenger and played land, but cast Mysteries of the Deep and See Beyond instead on my extra turn. Avenger is remoed by Bant Charm, but 2/3 plants hold the ground. That Rite I didn't use proves to be useful after all.
SB: The same anti creature plan. I messed up and left in Mysteries of the Deep for a card I don't remember.
G2: I keep Island, Rampant Growth, Divination, Mind Spring, Time Warp, Mysteries of the Deep, All is Dust on draw. I'm on the draw so I have to hit any green source untapped on 2 or any of Terramorphic, Wilds, or Seaside Citadel on 1. If that happens my hand has so much gas I can Divination and Time Warp into All is Dust can solve everything. I hit the Misty Rainforest on 2. Then rip land for Oracle of Mul Daya on 3. His Garruk + Luminarch Acension is no match for Oracle + Jace. Jace dies to a Stirring Wildwood attack since once again Oracle is more important. All he has is a 1/1 Scute Mob and a beast token for pressure. I brick on drawing any lands off spring for 4, and there wasn't one on top either for oracle. It's all fine as Divination finally sees a land on top for Oracle and some chump blocks next turn followed up by All is Dust cleans up all the mess. I play Baloths, and he answers with Martial Coup. I play Sphinx + Rite to make 2 3/5's and block. He has nothing to follow up with so I get to get max value from my Mind Control by taking a soldier token. Still had the Vapor Snare in hand :)
Round 2: CitrusD again. They call him the Boss for a reason.
G1. I keep Growth Spasm, Oracle, Hedron and lands on the draw. The keep was bad but I was drawing to lots of accelerants that would enable a turn 3 Oracle into Hedron for pure gas. I get the Rampant Growth on 2. Is very nice. I play 4 baloths + land. Turn 5 Hedron + Jace 2.0. Turn 6 Kozilek + activate Tectonic Edge. Turn 7 Ulamog his land instead of the Journey which is exiling Kozilek because i just don't care. And I have mana for Deprive up still.
SB: The usual.
G2. I keep Cobra, Ponder, Oracle, Nature's Claim, Forest, Verdant Catacombs, Tectonic Edge on draw. Cobra is Bant Charm'd. I hit the island on 3 for Ponder into Explore. He plays Sea Gate Oracle but my Oracle is better asI play an Island off the top and have Deprive up. Oracle turbo ramps me and I sit on a hand of Nature's Claim, Deprive, All is Dust, and Time Warp while he provides no additional threats other than the 1/3. He attacks with Colonnade and Journey's my Oracle. I decline to Dust for the Journey and to free my Edge from Spreading Seas since i have the Deprive to bounce that back later. He plays his own Oracle of Mul Daya and I ignore it as I have drawn Master of the Wild Hunt. Time Warp gets me an extra wolf and Avenger is backed up by Deprive for his Martial Coup, which conveniently resets my Edge for landfall :)
Finals: ceobry01 with Grixis
He wanted to split to go get dinner. There's a reason I can appreciate.
I ended up +25 packs for 6 tix, which is a very good deal. The Singleton Challenge isn't as popular as it should be given the good prize support and the fact you only need to get a hold of one of any expensive card for your deck. Currently each tournament is only slightly over 32 players so it's extremely good value if you have a good decklist.
I lost to Grixis twice, proving my old deck is a contender in any matchup. Though I lost more to my own misplays than to the U/G deck being in anyway an underdog. I encountered far more G/W/x decks than I had anticipated, but I beat them all so I would presume it is a good matchup. I lost almost all game 1's with the deck in the swiss, but that is a result of unfamiliarity with keepable hands as well as the correct sequencing of plays. I did not lose a game in the top 8 as I became more familiar with how the matchups would play out.
Moving forward I would replace Noble Hierarch with Birds of Paradise, or perhaps add Birds and cut something else. The Hierarch's exalted ability was never relevant and its vulnerability to Earthquake and inability to block fliers makes it worse than Birds. Having access to other colors via Birds can sometimes be helpful when Mind Controlling your opponent's creatures with level up or activated abilities like Brimstone Mage or Guul Draz Assassin.
I will occasionally be out of town or otherwise unable to play in the Challenge, so if anyone wants to take the deck for a spin feel free to message me. Kmaster on MTGO.
Thanks for Playing.
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