Killing time……only that is left to kill

NPH gameday started a bit oddly, because i was there to judge not to play. However i brought a deck with me in case there were not enough players to have a Top8 cut.

Regardless of that, we had far few players, and i joined the ranks on the players thus getting us to 16. The organizers announced that a Top8 cut will be made so it was ok even after 4 round of swiss.
The first part of the day started with me and my fellow L0 annoucning to players that we will keep this tourney wit the rules of Competitive play (even if the tourney is Regular) so to promote good play, sportmanship, and learning.

The tourney started and we paired the players, and collected the decklists.

After 4 rounds i had given 2 GL’s for decklists problems/invalid decks and a few warnings. From the judge point of view the tourney went smooth.
Also the top8 looked good with enough variance :
Place/deck/Record(W-L-D)

1st. Valakut (3-0-1)

2nd. BR Vamps (3-0-1)

3rd. UB Control (2-1-1)

4th. Valakut (2-1-1)

5th. MonoRed (2-1-1)

6th. Splinter RUG (2-1-1)

7th. Valakut (2-1-1)

8th. UB Control (2-1-1)

As a player i opted to play UB control (it was also the single deck that i had that was already sleeved).
This is the list :

UB Control

My deck used a little odd card choices, as i opted to some more variance in the maindeck and had more 1-offs, and also modified the sideboard to include Thada Adel, Acquisitor and Act of aggression. I was also running 2 Batterskull‘s.
The deck was almost the same i was running earlier at a fnm and it performed very well (no losses at that fnm) and i believed is a good list.

The matches:

Swiss:

Round 1: Valakut

I was playing against valakut, and i knew i had a good match agaisnt it because my mainboard spreading seas, and 6 discard spells.
G1 went well, i establish an early control/dominance and he died to grave titan and friends.
G2 i fail to draw disruption, and he kills me ….
G3 i keep a hand with 3 spreading seas, and he never has a green source, or land after i land a Jace on t4.

Round 2: BR Vamps

It was the same player that i defeated in the semis at the MBS Gameday, but this time the tide war reversed.
G1: was a good keeping hand, but he draws well and kills me. Death by bloodghast.
G2: i was land screwed and he curves so well that kills me in t4 or t5.

Round 3: Splinter RUG

Good player, nice deck and i knew he is packing a lot of responses so i have to be carefull.
G1: we trade resources back and forth, but i break the stall with a Grave Titan, and even if i make a mistake, he concedes in the face of titan and several zombies. I should have played better.
G2: he plays multiple threats, i kill inferno’s and other, but he lands precursor golem and i’m shortly dead.
G3: i bring in Thada Adel. Mull to 6 with 1 land, preordain and Thada adel. I manage to play her on 3rd turn, and steal a spellskite on 4th. He makes a quite big game error, playing twin with exarch, i redirect to thada. He should of played acidic slime on my land, cause i failed to find the sixth.
I attack again and steal a precursor golem. Next turn i do the same, and even if he has some beast within‘s, i overrun him with his golem friends.

Round 4: MonoRED

ID. We choose to ID so i can proceed with judge issues and we were both in t8.

I was finally on 3rd and the playoff started :

Quarters: Splinter RUG (from 3rd round)

I knew that this time he will be prepared with bolts (i have never seen one in the 2nd or 3rd game in the previous match).
However, my luck shines as i curve out really we first game, and drew a lot of discard and counters.
G2 however was a little quite the same, i kept a hand with 3 discard spells and he ran out o threats. i landed enough to kill him. Liliana was an all star.

Semifinals: Valakut (from 1st round)

Before the cut to top8, he told me that i’m the only player he did not want to face. Tough luck as he was paired again against me.
The match went as in swiss, spreading seas, liliana and jaces sealing of his mana or threats. No hassle.

Finals: UB Control

It was a little odd to find me against an UB control, because i knew that his opponent was leading 1-0 when i left the tables, but it turned that his opponent had to go..so he conceded.
I believed i had the upper hand in this match up, and we agreed to split. However we still had to play.
G1: we exchange resources, him having a lot of discard but nothing else, and finally i have Liliana and jace on table and he scoops. it was impossible to keep up with the card advantage.
G2: almost the same but in reverse order. He outruns me, and i cannot recover.
G3: we both start wee, but he has again a lot of discard, and finally he sees a batterskull in my hand (he cannot deal with it) and calls up memoricide on it. Next turn i play Liliana Vess, he plays Jace2.0, but Liliana trumps him over. Unable to use its fateseal ability, he needs to draw to keep up with my threats. Lastly he concedes when the game was highly in my favor.