Win-a-box Tournament Report (Br Zombies)

Managed to borrow the missing cards for the list right on time for the tournament.

The venue was great, being right next to a Tesco, meaning I managed to get lunch in between rounds since my deck finished games incredibly quickly.

Everyone got a free random promo card for entering. I managed to get a Pre-release Consuming Aberration, so pretty much the promo with the least value ever.

I can also say this is the first tournament ever I haven't gone to time in.

Deck:

Round 1: Br Zombies vs Esper Tempo/Geist

Playing against a guy I've seen a few times at FNM (member of the local team) but never seen him play or played against him. Game 1 was a pretty grindy one for me, since I just kept drawing Butcher Ghouls and no great synergies. He never found a threat though and I managed to wittle him down fast enough to win game 1. Game 2 is when I actually found out his deck was more tempo and not Esper control which is what I thought it was. Turn 3 Geist into a turn 5 Blood Baron just kinda got me. Game 3 I managed to get in a little early on, but nothing amazingly aggressive. Eventually got him on the ropes with a Burning Earth and finished him off with Artist shenanigans.

Round 2: Br Zombies vs Bant Hexproof

Another guy I'm used to seeing, and every time we play one of us mulligans into oblivion. Well, game 1 was surprisingly good considering he only mull'd to six. Should be noted I won the die roll so I managed to outrace him by being really fast out of the gates. Game 2 he mulled to 4 but seeing as it was Stalker, Spectral Flight, land land it wasn't awful. He drew Rancor and Etherial Armor and my hand wasn't fast enough to do enough and I lost. Game 3 neither of us actually mulled, and Zombie beatdown got him fast enough. Will say, Duress is an all-star in this matchup, as is Lifebane Zombie for racing.

Round 3: Br Zombies vs Rg Aggro

Again won the die roll so this is incredibly important for race maths. Game 1 I found it rather easy to play around his BTE -> Flinthoof then BTE -> Flinthoof draw. Some blocks with Bloodthrone really helped to keep my life high enough and then Falkenrath got in for most of the game's damage. Fortunately he was very aggressive with his Hellrider, which got it killed and helped me win the race. Game 2 he didn't have as nutty a draw and he had a serious lead, putting me to 1 with him at 12. He died next turn, but y'know, he was close. Falkenrath Aristocrat + Blood Artist is f****** brutal.

Round 4: Br Zombies vs Junk Aristocrats

First matchup where I know I'm just wholely unfavoured. He has Artists as well and just overall a much more dedicated sacrifice theme. It's really hard for me to get aggressive against his deck, at least in game 1. In game 1 it was a slow grind with me just getting slow-rolled by a Cartel Aristocrat until he killed my Artist and fireballed me with his. Game 2 I mulled to 4 with a hand of Summit, Summit, Bloodthrone, Blood Artist. I didn't die for a while but never stood a chance. We did play a third game since we had ages left on the round and after some clever plays around his Varolz then killing his Artist I completely dominated the game, so eh.

Round 5: Br Zombies vs Jund (Bad Jund)

Game 1 the only things I saw were a Blood Scrivener and a Sire of Insanity. We had a dispute over how the end step and Sire works, him saying the game no longer sees Sire when it's killed which is just wrong but I just said f*** it, untapped and killed him. Game 2 he actually played some stuff. Some stuff being a Scavenging Ooze and then with Lifebane Zombie I saw Vraska and Gaze of Granite and a bunch of lands. it took a while but this was really easy to win.

Round 6: Br Zombies vs 5 Colour Obzedat's Aid Omniscience Combo

His deck looked sweet and I was paired up having the best tie-breaks at 12 points. He was at 13 points, and was doing brilliantly with his deck. However, I have no fun story here since we ID'd since everyone on 12 points could ID to make top 8, and the whole would-be top 8 did ID. This left me at 4th after swiss.

Top 8 was:

2 Jund
1 Grixis Control
1 Obzedat's Aid Omniscience Combo
1 Esper Tempo
1 Gr Aggro
1 Junk Aristocrats
1 Br Zombies

So a fantastically varied top 8 if you ask me.

Quarterfinals: Br Zombies vs Jund

Playing against pretty much the best player at my local FNM, never beaten him prior. Game 1 I kept a bad 6 card hand and we both agreed I should have just mull'd to 5. Slow start with 1 land and didn't hit another for a few turns. Got him very low, but Bonfires got me badly and I couldn't find an Artist. Game 2 was very grindy. I got very, very lucky in topdecking Mark of Mutiny when he landed a Thragtusk with both Bloodthrone and Aristocrat in play. He did proceed to topdeck Bonfire of the Damned but the damage was done leaving him at 5. An Ooze got him back up to 8 but because he tapped out with the Ooze I was able to swing with Aristocrat and land a Messenger and sac it for game. Game 3 he succumbed to early aggression, so he was very low very fast. He had enough spot removal to just almost stabilise, then I landed Burning Earth with him on 4... Yeah.

Semifinals: Br Zombies vs Esper Tempo

Not the same guy as earlier, but a friend from my FNM who generally plays Esper colours, usually more controlling though. We also eliminated both Jund decks in the top 8 between us. We both pretty much knew eachothers' list prior to game 1 and we both knew I was heavily favoured. Being 4th and him being 5th meant I could go first regardless. His first opener included 2 Doom Blades so that was an immediate mulligan, and I opened the stone cold nuts and he scopped on my turn 3. Game 2 didn't have too much to it. I got a very early active High Priest and he had no way to deal with it. Eventually a Demon every turn just trumped him, helped by some serious Blood Artisting. Yeah, Lingering Souls isn't good against that card.


Finals: Br Zombies vs Gr Aggro

Same guy from round 3. We decided that even with me going first the matchup was too dicey and we both wanted our time's worth, so we split the prize, resulting in 21 packs each.

I pulled a very small number of good cards (Foil Pyromancer, Foil Encroaching Wastes, Foil Galerider Sliver, Sanguine Bond, Ratchet Bomb, Fiendslayer Paladin, Burning Earth.)

Oh well, the day was great and my deck performed perfectly to a T. Well, except vs Aristocrats but close enough.

Nice tournament. I wish my local playing site had as many boosters to give as prizes as you guys have.

Your deck looked sweet and you apparently didn't misplay which is always cool.

Well, my keep in the top 8 was a missplay, but other than that it's very hard to evaluate a lot of my plays. A lot of the time, you're literally trying to just find a way to count to 20 with the deck, even if some of the methods are relatively abstract. If I did make any missplays, it would have been some kind of combat, but I'm honestly shattered and if there were any really bad ones I'd have remembered them. Either way, didn't punt any games so that's a plus.