Cash Tournament report, 5-2-1

[Jack Bauer]

There was a small cash tournament about a half hour away from where I live on the 21st of March, and I had been preparing with a Swans deck for quite a while. My version had a weird landbase- it had Reefs, Bluffs and Reflecting Pools to go along with 2 Mutavaults, but the rest were basic lands. I decided to do this to keep my lands coming into play untapped, to make it more consistent. Here is how I did.

Round 1: Wr Kithkin

Game 1 he stomps on the gas pedal and never lets up, playing Spectral Processions, an Ajani Vengeant, a Cloudgoat Ranger from under a Windbrisk Heights, and I fail to draw Pyroclasm.

Game 2 I get all three of my Pithing Needles on Ajani, Heights and Figure of Destiny while my Pyroclasms show up and I beat him to death with my Swans.

Game 3 was AN ABSOLUTE FREAKING EPIC. He busts out of the gates and gets me down to one life, where I stabilize (he's still on 20). I manage to get my Seismic Swan engine online, and after I run out of Cryptic Commands, I drew about 20 cards off of my Swans. I was dead on the board and had to win that turn. I swung in with my Swans (opp: 16). Then, I threw 3 land across the table at my opponent's face (10). Then I played my 11th land and BANEFIRE FTW (opp: dead).

1-0 (2-1)

Round 2: Faeries

This is a very interesting matchup. In game 1, he drew the nuts and managed to get control and hit me repeatedly with Bitterblossom tokens until I died.

Game 2 was awesome, a true back and forth brawl that I won. I resolved my Swans, but he counters the Seismic Assault and after a few turns of racing and Negating each others Cryptic Commands, I was able to stick a Seismic Assault and win the game.

Game 3 was less interesting. He kept a one lander after mulling to 6. The one land was a Sunken Ruins. He missed his second land drop. He got a second land third turn- Sunken Ruins. And his third land after that- another Sunken Ruins. By the time he ripped a Swamp to make some colored mana, my Swans were killing him and my hand was full of counters.

2-0 (4-2)

Round 3: B/W tokens (table 1!!!!)

I made it to table one at a big event! Holy shit!

I lost game 2 when he was able to resolve multiple Processions and Cloudgoat Rangers and two Bitterblossoms. I won games 1 and 3 when he wasn't. Simple as that.

3-0 (6-3)

By this time, the guys that play with me at FNM were starting to notice that I was doing better than all of them. It's good to be the king, even if just for a while.

Round 4: Five Color Control played by Brett Piazza (2nd place at GP: Los Angeles, considered to be the best player in the state of Colorado; he's certainly the most successful)

Before our match even started, he had me get new sleeves, because, in fairness, the ones I had were kinda worn and had bent corners. We got about a ten minute time extension. Our first game took FOR-FUCKING-EVER. Piazza seemed like a nice guy, but he plays slower than a paraplegic turtle. I played the first game to get a lethal Banefire, and made the critical mistake of overthinking. This lead to me not attacking into his Wall of Reverence with my Mutavault and Vendillion Clique. This would turn out to be key, because on the last turn of the game, had him down to 10 life. He tried to play something, and I played Broken Ambitions to clash. My top card was Banefire (I had 19 land, so next turn it would have been for 18 damage- lethal).

His was Cruel Ultimatum. He played it (opp: 15) and got a Broodmate Dragon, and passed the turn (opp: 19; fucking Wall!). I did not have any other cards in my hand after his Ultimatum, and lost.

Game 2 went to time, costing me the match.

3-1 (6-4-1)

Round 5: EsperLark

This guy was a huge asshole. After I defeated him in game three with Seismic Assault, he refused to shake my hand because he felt that he misplayed. Whatever, dick.

4-1 (8-5-1)

Round 6: Five Color Control

I hate Five Color Fucking Control. He got Cruel Ultimatums in both games, and I couldn't recover from them.

4-2 (8-7-1)

Round 7: Swans Mirror

This was surprisingly easy to play. My mana base was far more consistent than his, and I was able to end both games with big Banfires. I just drew better and played better.

5-2 (10-7-1)

Round 8: FIVE FUCKING COLOR against Nick "Djinn" Bonham, the de facto Denver Magic online community organizer

This guy was actually pretty cool. I won game 1 with more counters, and simply beating him to death with Swans. His draw must've sucked, because all I did was sit there and attack with my Swans the whole game. Weird.

Game 2 was even less interesting, as he was able to get his Wall of Reverence package online and hit me with Dragons while I got stuck on five lands.

Game 3 went to time. I was dead after the last turn, but the end result was a draw.

5-2-1 (11-8-2)

Now, I was out of the money at this point, and Mr. Bonham would've been if I had filled out the slip as a draw. I figured, since I can't win anything anyway, I might as well just let him have the win. Seeing as how he's relatively well-known, having him owe me a scoop could very well come in extremely handy.


I think I did very well, considering how I usually do at these events. I'm now very much looking forward to the April 4th PTQ. I am stuck between Merfolk and TEPS.

[Kaigo15]

Good job Kyle it's always good to hear when our members are kicking ass. Kind of sucks you lost to the famous dude but hey you fought the famous dude

[eternaldeath09]

Go with Fish. It's much easier to play. But if you think you got TEPS down, go for it if you've all the cards already.

Other than that, nicely done. You've come a long way, man. Can probably kick my ass any day, I'm sure. You got potential, kid.