Game day report

[lotrwk]

Goodness it was a long day. We played five rounds of swiss before cutting to top eight. There were 62 players attending. I was playing my R/W stax list, which I had tweaked for a meta of jeskai wins and rabble red, as those were the two decks I anticipated seeing the most.

List:

Land (24)
4x {Battlefield Forge}
7x {Mountain}
5x {Plains}
4x {Temple of Triumph}
4x {Wind-Scarred Crag}

Instant (7)
3x {Lightning Strike}
4x {Stoke the Flames}

Creature (3)
3x {Nyx-Fleece Ram}

Enchantment (11)
4x {Banishing Light}
4x {Chained to the Rocks}
3x {Suspension Field}

Planeswalker (7)
1x {Chandra, Pyromaster}
3x {Elspeth, Sun's Champion}
3x {Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker}

Sorcery (
4x {Anger of the Gods}
4x {End Hostilities}


Sideboard (15)
2x {Brimaz, King of Oreskos}
1x {Suspension Field}
2x {Glare of Heresy}
3x {Goblin Rabblemaster}
2x {Last Breath}
1x {Nyx-Fleece Ram}
4x {Reprisal}

Round 1: vs Jeskai wins
This is one of the best matchups for the deck. Game one I resolved a turn 2 ram, he had turn three rider, but it got striked. It turned out to be his only threat. Game two he got stuck on 2 lands.
Sideboard: -2 {End hostilities} -3 {Suspension Field}, + 1 {Nyx-fleece ram} +2 {Last breath} +2 {Glare of heresy}
1-0

Round 2: vs G/b devotion
Tougher matchup, really need an end hostilities or an Elspeth to win. Game one after turn thre his board was 3 Mystics 2 satyrs, 1 caryatid. I angered. Game 2 he got a turn 4 hornet queen, I wrathed. He then cast polukranos. I striked and stoked it. He had nothing after that and I rode sarkhan to victory
Sideboard: -4 {Anger of the gods} -3 {Nyx-fleece ram} -2 {Lightning strike}, +1 {Suspension Field} +4 {Reprisal} +2 {Brimaz King of Oreskos} +2 {Last breath}
2-0

Round 3: vs Rabble Red
Easy matchup. Game one 2 rams and 2 angers won it for me. Game 2 he had 2 rabbles, I had nothing. I topdecked end hostilities on turn 5, which was back-breaking for him. He was on tilt as I stabilized at 3, and was gaining 3 a turn.
Sideboard: -1 {Banishing light}, -3 {Suspension field}, -1 {End hostilities}, +2 {Brimaz king of oreskos}, +2 {Last breath}, +1 {Nyx-fleece ram}
3-0

Round 4: vs Abzan midrange
Tougher matchup. Game one he chained 3 siege rhinos and I didn't have Elly or end hostilities. Game 2 he stumbled on mana, and I capitalized on it by landing 2 rabbles and a Brimaz. Game three we traded removal spell for creature, and eventually I had a sarkhan emblem and he had a courser, which two turns later got chained.
Sideboard: -4 {End hostilities}, -3 {Lightning strike}, -2 {Anger of the gods}, +2 {Brimaz king of oreskos}, +3 {Goblin rabblemaster}, +2 {Glare of heresy}, +1 {Reprisal}, +1 {Suspension field}
4-0

Round 5: Draw
4-0-1

Went into top eight being top seed

Quarterfinals: vs Abzan midrange
Game one went like game three last time we played, but it was an Elspeth emblem and 4 soldiers, and he had no courser. Game two he slowed down after board, which highly favours me. Sarkhan followed by Elspeth followed by chandra tends to kill you
Sideboard: -4 {End hostilities}, -3 {Lightning strike}, -2 {Anger of the gods}, +2 {Brimaz king of oreskos}, +3 {Goblin rabblemaster}, +2 {Glare of heresy}, +1 {Reprisal}, +1 {Suspension field}

Semis: vs Ascendancy Combo. Guy I drew with.
Easiest matchup. Game one he had rattle claw, strike. Caryatid, anger. Easy win. Game two he had 2 caryatids, I had 1 anger and a banishing light for ascendancy.
Sideboard: -3 {Nyx-fleece ram}, -4 {End hostilities}, -2 {Suspension Field}, +2 {Brimaz king of oreskos}, +3 {Goblin Rabblemaster}, +2 {Glare of heresy}, +2 {Last breath}. We were provided decklists. This guy didn't have the transformational sideboard, or else I would have boarded differently.

Finals: vs G/b devotion.
Game 1 he had a great start that I just couldn't beat with a mediocre draw. Game two I stoked him 3 times and beat him down with Brimaz while he durdled with elvish mystic. Game three was another game where we traded removal for creature until about turn 15, when he was at 14 and me 10. He then landed polukranos and beat me down.
Sideboard: -4 {Anger of the gods} -3 {Nyx-fleece ram} -2 {Lightning strike}, +1 {Suspension Field} +4 {Reprisal} +2 {Brimaz King of Oreskos} +2 {Last breath}


Overall nice tournament, played well, deck performed very well. Much better than expected. There were more Abzan decks than I guessed, and I'm going to tweak the sideboard and numbers of the mainboard to more easily take it on. The green based midrange decks weren't too popular, however there were 3 in the top sixteen, one of which won. There isn't much I can do against them without drawing {End hostilities} or elspeth. Every card performed well, nothing was really all that bad.

[Hunteroffire9]

Green black devotion is an amazing matchup for you... 8 mainboard wipes and removal is the death of devotion;)

[lotrwk]

4 of the main board wipes hit their dorks only after they've played a giant or polukranos, and the other four are nice. Stoke doesn't hit giant or polly k, nor does strike. They hit the utility creatures, but not the things that are going to kill me. End is nice, as is Elspeth. If you draw those, you're in business. They're just a deck that's loaded with threats, and is I don't draw an answer I'm dead in a few turns. It's a better matchup than I originally thought, but it still isn't too optimal.