longer.blue

Day 2: Round 10: It is now open deck list (thank god) and I am against Izzet Lessons. Game 1 I open a hand with creature and Kaito, something something 1,2,3 Kaito something, something I win. Game 2 I draw only answers but no good payoff and Gran-Gran stick for multiple turn and finally my opponent drew Riddler and beat me with it. In game 3 it is once again a Kaito beatdown with good answers to stop him from doing what he wants. Win 2-1 I am at 7-3 Round 11: I am against Izzet looting which I thought to be my worst match up. In game 1 he beat me down and even if I am doing my best to defend, Frostcliff Siege is just to hard to stop. In game 2 He doesn't play turn 1 I Floodpits his Fomo and ninjutsu Kaito. I then protect Kaito and Crush him under card advantage and tempo. Game 3 I answer early threats then play bat to clear the way for my Unagi. His hand is full of lands so I slam Unagi and win with it. Win 2-1 I am at 8-3 Round 12: I play against Dimir Midrange, my first mirror of the tournament. In game 1 I keep 3 spells 3 lands and drew 6 lands in a row. In game 2 I am stuck at 2 lands, my opponent ninjutsu Kaito and I kill it on my turn with Bitter Triumph. He then take his turn and play another one. I quickly loose after this. A bit sad that I didn't play Magic this match but it is what it is. Loose 0-2 I am at 8-4 Round 13: I play against Simic Ouroboroid. I win game one because he has a lot of mana but no payoff and don't draw any until I have like 2 Tishana and 2 removals in hand. Game 2 he has a fast hand I have no early game removals. I try to answer his payoff but he has to many. Game 3 I answers his early game but I don't have a payoff or clock. He top deck better that me and beat me. Loose 1-2 I am at 8-5 Round 14: I play against Izzet Blink. In the first game I am super behind, he has a blue room opened and a lvl 3 Talent. I have a Kaito in hand that he know because he bounced it earlier in the game, an emblem, a Curiosity, a Soulstone on board and I know his hand because I played a bat this turn. At the end of his turn after leveling up his talent lvl 3 he has 2 mana left. In response to his room trigger I flash Curio because I don't want him to draw Get Out and counter it. He Torch the Tower it by bargaining his Frostcliff Siege, then scry 1 then draw from his Room. I take my turn and draw then he tell my I have an Otter. I tell him he missed his trigger and he call judge. The judge obviously rule it as miss trigger. I play Kaito and +1. Next turn a +1 against and animate my land attacking for 12. After that he is forced to chomp a lot and can't answers my Kaito and Soulstone. I manage to squeeze the last points of damage with 2 Kaito -2. In game 2 I answer his play, counter his talent, remove his Riddler in response to Splash Portal. I hard cast a Kaito with a Unagi in hand and pass. He Play a Blue room for 5. I take my turn and choose to play bat and stay up to defend Kaito in case he draw Siege + Riddler. Worst case I can Tishana his Room trigger end of turn. I think for 2-3 turns in a row I counter his room trigger with Tishana and win with Kaito. Win 2-0 I am at 9-5 Round 15: Last Round of the tournament. I don't know if I am playing for anything since I am 98th. I don't think I can make top 64 but I also don't think I can get out of top 128. Anyway I am probably play just for fun and the thrill of victory and it is ok. I play against Selesnya Landfall for this round and it is the only meta deck that I didn't manage to beat this weekend. In game 1 he kept a very slow hand and I manage to out tempo him on the draw with Kaito and removals into Curiosity crushing him with card advantage. In game 2 he resolve Earthbender Ascension but I manage to stabilize the board and stick a Kaito. Then he play an Icetill and make big creatures. I know he has a Snakeskin Veil in hand so I -2 Kaito his biggest blocker he plays it in response and I play a 2 mana removal in response. I attack and put him dead on board next turn. He untap with Icetill and mill an Esper Origin making him not dead on board and putting a Felidar Retreat in hand. I take my turn and understand that I can't kill him this turn but I can kill him in 2 turns. He is at 8 and I have 4 in the air and a big Kaito and a Cecil on the ground forcing him to block. I know that I have to kill him next turn which mean surviving 1 more turn. I also know that Felidar Retreat is probably lethal since he can make a super big land with trample. Lucky for me I drew a Bat. I attack all and put him to 4 and eat 2 blockers. Play a bat in main 2, take his Felidar Retreat and I have a Bat and a Stab to hold 1 turn (please dont mill you last Esper Origin, Speed I need this). He try to kill me but his land isn't even lethal on his own and I win the game. Win 2-0 I am at 10-5 Final Thoughts: I am happy finishing 10-5 even though I would have loved making at least top 64. I am not super happy with my deck choice but I am not sure that if I played another deck I would have a better score so I am not too sad about it. I also didn't feel like I was playing my deck the best way possible. I a lot of spot I was sure if my plays was the correct one. I don’t recommend Dimir Midrange right now. The deck isn’t very strong and has a bad matchup against Simic. For this tournament I didn’t want to play Lessons because I was afraid of the hate and I didn’t want to play Simic because Cub mirrors are a nightmare. I probably should have played one of those two decks. I should have bitten the bullet on Simic and accepted playing horrible mirrors because the deck is just too overpowered in other matchups. As for Lessons I think the deck is super strong and I’m very comfortable with it so even if it was highly anticipated it could have gone well. I don’t think Dimir was a terrible choice but I definitely left some win rate on the table with my deck choice. At least I’ll know for next time “just play the best deck” (even if it’s not that simple ofc).