CA Nat Qualifier 5/15/2010

The air was thick with the stench of burning corpses. I stood alone in front of the massive dragon who held my princess captive, the beautiful Ellen Page. I glared at the dragon waiting for him to make his move. A thousand warriors met a cruel fate standing in this very same spot, but I would not meet the same fate. No sword, no shield I was prepared for nothing but ready for anything.
The dragon lifted his head high into the air and took a deep breath. I bent my knees and prepared for his fiery breath. He lunged forward opening his massive jaws spewing fire everywhere. As the dragons head extend towards me I leaped into the air landing on the top of the beasts head. I slid down the creatures back launching off of its tail into the air towards the princes!
I landed in front of her and released her from her prison. The dragon turned and took another deep breath. I held the princess in my arms as I ran from the beast. She put her arms around my neck and begged me to keep her safe. I looked into her eyes and grinned, "of course I will" *WINK. I ran as fast as my legs would carry me. I looked over my shoulder to see the dragon flying into the air letting loose a burst of flames that nearly engulfed the princess and I. The fire dissipated and the dragon was gone! "My hero!' princess Ellen cried as she pulled my head down to give me my reward.

Suddenly the sound of reality came screaming into my ears just before I attained my glorious, and well deserved reward. It was the sound of my alarm clock attempting to drag me out of my perfect world at 5:30 in the damn morning on a Saturday morning. I was laying in bed wearing my boxers half covered by the sheets. Starring straight through the ceiling. My gaze peirced the heavens cursing the gods for their cruel and malicious sense of humor. I rolled out of bed got ready for Nat qualifiers 2010 and met up with the rest of the crew. We made our way to the Radisson hotel in southern California.

There was around 250+ people attending the event. Our group from the antelope valley consisted of about 10 people. I was playing Mono red Devastating Summons. It went a little something like this.

Main Deck 60 cards:

Creatures
4 Goblin Guide
4 Plated Geopede
4 Kargan Dragonlord
4 Goblin Bushwhacker

Spells
4 Lightning bolt
4 Searing Blaze
4 Burst Lightning
4 Devastating Summons
2 Forked Bolt
2 Stagger Shock

Lands
12 Mountain
4 Teetering Peaks
4 Arid Mesa
4 Scalding Tarn

Side Board 15 Cards
3 Dragon's Claw
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
4 Earthquake
4 Unstable Footing

I was familiar with most of my match ups, but my testing period with this deck was short. I literally picked the deck up less then 6 days prior to the tournament. The deck was not only consistent it was fast, like every red deck should be. I was happy with the deck, but I wasn't expecting to do anything phenomenal today since I had been out of the big tournament seen for quite some time.

Round 1: Mirror Match
Game1: It happens every time I play mono red. I run face first into the mirror match every time! I normally get face rolled by the mirror as well. This guy was running almost the same build minus 3 dragon lords. He ran 1 plains and 4 path to exile side for bane slayer. I liked his sideboard, but his main deck choice for replacing the dragon lords was not acceptable at all. Some 2 casting cost red creature that got +3/+0 every time you played a sorcery or an instant. Its not even worth remembering, because the dragon lord is just better in every way. First game he was mana flooded, and I burned him out by the 5th turn. Nothing special.

Game2: I side in dragons claw and take out the forked bolts and a stagger shock. I got mana flooded and he burned me out by turn 6.

Game 3: I open with goblin guide swing for 2 he reveals a land and draws it. He plays a land says go. I rip another guide off the top and swing for 4 like a boss. He bolts a guide after revealing a stagger shock. He untaps draws and drops a land then passes the turn to me. I untap drop my land float 3 red cast D.S. sack 3 lands and cast a bushwhacker kicked and proceed to swing for 13. To my surprise he takes all of it and drops to 5. He draws and scoops up his cards.

In the red mirror match you can expect the person who wins the die roll to win the game most of the time.

AFTER ROUND 1 WE TOOK A LUNCH BREAK WTF MATE!

Round 2: Poly morph
Game 1: I burned every little token that hit the field. and he swallowed 2 damage from goblin guide until he was at 6. I cast double bolt and we went to game two.

Game 2: I took out forked bolts(because they are sorcery speed) and stagger shock. I put in 4 earthquakes. The plan was to wipe his field if he had multiple 0/1 tokens coming into play. I shuffled up and mulligan to 5. The keep able hand was 2 mountain 1 goblin guide 1 kargan dragonlord and 1 bushwhacker. I did not draw one burn spell and he poly morphed into a 15/15 fatty turn 5.

Game 3: I shuffle up and keep a hand that has a potential turn 3 bushwhacker D.S. combo and some burn spells for those little tokens of his. I play a land and say go. He does the same. I rip a goblin guide and drop him followed by a teetering peaks. Picking tempo back up and swinging for 4 turn two. I passed turn he dropped a land played explore and played another land after drawing a card. Turn three I draw a searing blaze and drop an Arid Mesa. I swing for 2 put the poly player at 14 and pass the turn. He draws a card drops a land that puts a 0/1 token into play and attempts to cast poly morph. I simply laugh and crack the mesa get a mountain cast searing blaze followed by a lightning bolt like a boss. He goes to 9 and passes the turn. I draw my card. It is a mountain! I burst lightning him to 7 float 3 red cast D.S. for 2 4/4 elemental tokens kick a bushwhacker and swing for 15. It was overkill, but I owed it to this guy to make up for our pitiful game 2.

Round 3: Mythic Conscription.
Game 1: I knew what this guy was playing before I even took my seat in front of him, because he played a good friend of mine round two. They had been sitting next to me, and I took a peak at their game. I'm sure he knew what i was playing as well, but that didn't bother me at all. I win the die roll and play first. Mountain goblin guide swing pass. He plays a forest followed by a Bird of Paradise. I untap slam another goblin guide down followed by a teetering peaks swing for 6. He chumps the 4/2 guide with his bird. He is sitting at 16 with another bird on the top of the deck. He draws plays an island and a Bird. I untap drop a mountain float three cast D.S. sacking 3 lands and kicking a bushwhacker (I do this all day) I swing at him for 16. He points at my bored and looks at me kinda funny. I just smile and say its 16 would you like to chump something? He picks his cards up and begins to sideboard.

Game 2: He plays a forest and a noble hierarch. I keep a hand that looks decent enough. Turn one goblin guide again. I swing and he picks up a land and I pass turn. He drops an island and a Rhox war monk. "Oh joy." I said in a very depressed voice. He passes and I draw and drop a land. I don't have an answer for the war monk yet. I cast Geopede and say go. He plays a land and yet ANOTHER war monk. I wanted to cry. he attacks gains some life and I go to 16(monk had +1/+1 from exalted). I draw a fetch land put it into play and sac it going to 15. I searing blaze and burst lightning the untapped monk and swing for 7 total. He goes to 15. He draws a card and plays a fetch land going to 14 searching for a plains. He drops bane slayer angel and proceeded to tear me apart with life linkers.

Game 3: Turn one goblin guide swing. He plays a man land tapped and passes. I play a second goblin guide and come in for 4. He reveals a land, draws it and reveals a noble hierarch. He untaps plays a forest and a lotus cobra. I untap, burst lightning the cobra and swing for 4. He reveals 2 lands and draws them. He plays a fetch land land and the hierarch. He ends his turn, and I respond casting burst lightning on the little fart. I draw and drop a land. I play a bushwhacker kicked and swing for 8. He reveals a cobra for the first guide, and cracks his fetch to shuffle it away. Reveals a hierarch for guide #2. I end my turn. He is at 6 I have a bolt in my hand and a D.S. He draws and picks up his cards.

Something very interesting happened in game 3. When I swung for 8 he revealed a lotus cobra with 3 land in play, one of which being a fetch land. His friend pointed out that if he had left the cobra on top of his library and drawn it he would have been able to cast bane slayer that turn. This is how. He untaps and draws cobra. Plays the cobra followed by a fetch land adding 1 white manna to his pool. Then he cracks both fetch lands gets 2 more white mana and two basic lands. At this point he will have 3 white floating and 2 untapped lands. He could tap and cast bane slayer, which I would have been unable to deal with in the current game state. Sucks for him, but awesome for me.

Game 4: vampires
Game 1: Game one I didn't know what I was playing exactly because I killed him so fast. I saw a couple vamps and assumed it was vamps. /shrug? I didn't test against vamps and I am pretty new to the current meta game so I was completely unfamiliar with this match up. I sided in Quakes and sided out fork bolts and stagger shocks. He duresses me turn one and turn two after I mulligan to 6. I am left with 2 land in play and 2 searing blaze in my hand with my opponent at 16. he slow rolls the game for a long time. Eventually I have him to 8 life with a bolt and a quake in my hand. He has 2 bloodwitches in play one that was tapped after attacking and one untapped, because it had just been cast last turn. I drew a 5th land and cast quake for 4. Dropping my opponent to 4 and me to 14. He untaps and swings for 8 I go to 6. I need to draw anything to kill him, anything but a land. I drew a land. My mistake was casting the quake for 4 instead of bolting him first. That would put him at 5 when I drew my 6th land and I would have the quake in my hand. I would have won. I lost the third game on sheer principal and swallowed my first lost in round 4.

Round 5: Some blue white allies deck.
Game 1,2. I crushed him. I still don't know what his deck was supposed to do.

Round 6 : Blue White control
Game 1: I explode on him taking him to 1 life by turn 4. he untaps drops a bane slayer and I don't draw a burn spell. I proceed to loose game one.

Game 2: He gets a triple bane slayer draw I deal with 2 of them but run out of steam before the third bane slayer can be dealt with. I loose 0-2

Round 7: Grixis Control
Game 1: I pulled off double goblin guide bushwhacker D.S. by turn three and he scooped. It seems that most people scoop to this.

Game 2: I don't side in anything because I don't know this match up at all, and I don't know what would be of any use. He had an answer for every creature I played and I simply couldn't draw enough burn to ride to victory on spells alone.

Game 3: I mulligan to 5 and keep a 2 land 3 creature hand. I knew what was coming.
He had a kill spell for all the creatures and he countered most of my burn. He tried to take a Jace2.0 to ultimate but I decided to throw all my burn at Jace2.0 and not allow him that pleasure. He ended up casting earthquake for 9 to kill me.

Round 8: Vamps
Game 1: I take him to 12 with goblin guides and finish him with burn.

Game 2: I mulligan to 5 and keep a no land hand. I draw lands off the top like a boss, but to my dismay he draws every removal spell in the book and consuming vapors was enough life gain to keep him out of the red zone an kill me with bloodwitch.

Game 3: nothing special happens... I beat on the poor guy with 2 goblin bushwhackers for a good 8 turns while he draws nothing but land. I eventually kill him with a few burn spells after he draws land for 10 turns in a row. Sometimes that's how the cookie crumbles, and sometimes cookies are delicious when they crumble like that!

Round 9: Mirror match
Game 1: This is not exactly a mirror. Hes playing red black only splashing black for blightning.
He had ball lightnings hells thunder and hell spark elemental. I did not approve of this non devastating summons build. I was saddened by its simplicity. It got him this far but he stood no chance in this match up. Mono red D.S. has to much power in comparison. I ran through him both games by casting bushwhacker/summons no later then turn 4 both games.

I finished 29th with a 6-3 record. A personal best! I ended up doing the best out of the AV group we came with and I was pretty happy with myself. I feel I could have taken a top eight spot had it not been for my round 4 play mistake that cost me the round. I plan to hit the PTQ's with this deck and I will keep you all posted on the future event results.

Until next time folks!

~Nick