Nationals that issssssssssn't
Well, I have returned from Baltimore, which is where Nationals was held. Things did not go my way, but it was still a fun weekend all together.
The trip started out being picked up by Timothy J. Aten, and Cedric Q. Phillips. I settled in for the long 6 hour car trip. While on the road Tim and Ced kept looking for a Waffle House, as this was our immediate goal before arriving in Baltimore. Now I had never been to a Waffle House before, but I had heard stories. Tim and Ced were regaling me of tales of no teethed waitresses and other disgusting facts about the House. Now I always thought the Waffle House was just a terrible super cheap restaurant and I never expected to ever eat there. Well about an hour or so outside of Baltimore, we finally find a Waffle House. I open the door and immediately greeted by the scent of really strong Bleach. I think to myself, this is a real good start. The waitress of course was kind of gross, just fueling the predictions I had before even entering the restaurant. Long story short, I end up being pleasantly surprised by the House. It has the best waffles I've ever had in my entire life, something you'd expect from a place called the WAFFLE house. If you ever have the chance to go to a Waffle House, order the chocolate chip waffles, and thank me later.
We arrive in Baltimore and find our hotel, which is actually 15 minutes outside of Baltimore. Literally every hotel in Baltimore was sold out at least a week before the event, it was very annoying trying to find a hotel. We tuckered into our nice Comfort Suites hotel for half an hour, then proceeded to head to the site. Immediately as we get into town, I am not impressed with the city. Tim would later dub the city Balti-less, which at the time was very fitting. The construction was terrible, the part of the city that we were in currently was very boring, and I found myself wishing I was back in Cleveland. Took us a good 20 minutes to find an actual place to park that did not have an outrageous price. We settled on a parking lot that was right near the convention center, that was only 20 bucks. Keep in mind, 20 bucks was one of the cheaper parking lots we found.
I blame the Orioles.
The convention center where the tournament was held however, was very nice. It was enormous, and they put us in a nice huge room. I start saying hello to people, and then begin to barn some cards. I decided on the ride down to play Gerry Thompson's UWG blink deck, which ended up being a mistake. I never really felt comfortable playing it, but as we got closer to the end of the night I really didn't have any other options to audible to. So I had to suck it up and run with it. Here's the list for reference.
4 Aeon Chronicler
4 Loxodon Hierarch
2 Mystic Snake
4 Riftwing Cloudskate
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Venser, Shaper Savant
4 Wall of Roots
4 Edge of Autumn
3 Momentary Blink
4 Remand
4 Breeding Pool
4 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Forest
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Horizon Canopy
2 Island
1 Plains
2 Temple Garden
4 Treetop Village
4 Yavimaya Coast
4 Aven Riftwatcher
3 Faith's Fetters
1 Momentary Blink
1 Mystic Snake
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Viridian Shaman
2 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
Round 1: David Irvine playing URW blink riders
Game 1: I keep a nice little hand, with 2 lands, double edge of autumn. 10 turns later I have 5 lands in play, he has a grand arbiter in play with the game locked up. All of my lands came off of edge of autumns, didn't draw a single one. Had to tap out to get a land and he grand arbiter'd me, then I was dead.
Game 2: I ended up punting, but it turns out to not matter as I was dead anyways.
Round 2: Matt Rubin playing mono-red with tarmogoyf.
Game 1: He has a slow draw, with a turn 1 suspended gargadon. I cast a few loxodon hierarchs and save a cloudskate in my hand to bounce his gargadon. He concedes when his all out attack is no good.
Game 2: I board in 3 fetters, 4 riftwatcher, and another blink. Yeah this game is a reaaaaaal close one. In all reality, it actually is, I stall on land and take some beats for a while. I finally assemble an army of hierarchs and riftwatchers with blink back-up to make sure I don't die.
Woot, managed to survive going 0-2, that's always a good sign. Although I always hate losing first round, it puts a damper on the whole tournament.
Round 3: Gerrard Fabiano playing Rakdos10
Him, Antonino and a couple others are playing a super suicide rakdos deck. Running Dark confidant and greater gargadon, along with hit/run I believe. My draw game 1 is too slow to keep up, and his double threaten with gargadon to sac my guys to ends up killing me.
Game 2: I board in the lifegain package, and during sideboarding he asks me to vote for him for the storyteller ballot, even though he knows Cedric is one of my best friends, who also happens to be on the ballot.
I stall on lands this game, and a magus of the moon crushes the hell out of me. Didn't have a single chance to win this one.
I end constructed at 1-2, not something I was excited about. I didn't think I was very good at limited, and expected my run at Nationals to be all but over.
At least at 1-2, I expected to have an easy pod. I sit down at the table and notice the most recent limited pro tour winner, Mike Hron to my immediate right, and Zac Hill to my immediate left. Also at this table was Matt Rubin, who was probably still not very happy with his loss to me. I smell revenge in the air, I'm sure he was thinking it the entire time.
I will not spare you with my picks, and I'll just highlight the draft and give you the decklist I ran. I first picked call of the herd over serra avenger pack 1, even though I had an affinity to drafting white. I knew it was the most powerful color, and that it was also heavily underdrafted. I agonized over the pick for a long time, but ended up making the correct choice. Shortly thereafter I started getting shipped really nice white cards, rebels, a griffin guide etc. Firmly seating me into GW, a combination that I LOVE. I was kinda worried that I might get cut in pack 2, which is where alot of the good white comes from. I thought Zac Hill took the Serra Avenger and that I was dead in the water. To my surprise the GW kept flowing, and it was the green commons that ended up missing, which was odd. Future sight ended up delivering the goods, making my deck completely insane.
1 Pallid Mycoderm
1 Aven Riftwatcher
1 Griffin Guide
1 Ramosian Revivalist
1 Marshaling Cry
1 Blade of the Sixth Pride
1 Amrou Scout
1 Saltfield Recluse
1 Knight of Sursi
1 Cloudchaser Kestrel
1 Call of the Herd
1 Ashcoat Bear
1 Essence Warden
2 Sprout Swarm
1 Nacatl War Pride
1 Harmonize
1 Uktabi Drake
1 Gemhide Sliver
1 Primal Forcemage
1 Evolution Charm
1 Death Rattle
1 Teneb, the Harvester
8 Plains
8 Forest
1 Swamp
Round 4: Warren Eng
Game 1: Warren seems like a nice kid, but I can immediately tell he's probably not very good. His deck is really underpowered, and I crush him easily with war-pride.
Game 2: I get primal forcemage + essence warden + sprout swarm going, not much he can do this game.
Round 5: Zac Hill
Game 1: Zac was the blue drafter at the table, and his deck is really good from what I hear. I have a nice draw, but end up getting out tempo'd by his deck, and lose game 1 rather quickly.
Game 2: I have a real fast draw, and his deck cannot keep up whatsoever. During sideboarding he mentions how he thought my deck was real slow, and ended up sideboarding differently because of it.
Game 3: I end up getting landscrewed I believe, and am never in the game.
A rough beat, but I press on, knowing I can 2-0 the rest of this pod to get a 3-1.
Round 6: Matt Rubin.... again
While we're shuffling up, he proclaims how he can't possibly lose to someone twice in the same tournament. I mention to him my only limited losses last year were both to Craig Krempels, and he quickly shuts up and keeps shuffling.
Game 1: One of the most absurd games I've had in a long time, I get him down to 8 with aven riftwatcher + ramosian revivalist beats, all the while not having any green mana. He finally stabilizes with a stormfront riders. Then the insanity starts... He starts casting whitemane lions multiple times at the end of my turn, gaining a soldier each iteration. Just before he would begin to start attacking me with them, I get the forest for the sprout swarm I've been holding. We end up running out of tokens/cards/dice before the game is over. We play lots of draw-go, make tons of tokens etc. until I finally find one of my outs in pallid mycoderm. My 58 saproling tokens crash into his 48 soldiers and he dies a quick death.
Since game 1 took 40 minutes, I knew I'd have to mulligan aggressively to get a fast draw, or else this match might not end.
Luckily for me, my opening 7 was a great hand. Turn 1 suspend knight of sursi, turn 3 call of the herd, turn 4 griffin guide the herd, turn 5 marshaling cry, turn 6 flashback cry, and he is dead. At this point, Matt Rubin probably does not like me very much.
Last match of the day.
Round 7: Michael Bernat
I knew his name was familiar, but I had never seen him before. He's a Chicago guy, who's friends with all the good Chicagoan's, so I don't take him too lightly.
Game 1: I play perfectly, recover from manascrew and stabilize at 1 life vs his 2 unblockable creatures. I rip a death rattle for one, and my saltfield recluse takes care of the other. I start sprout swarming, and go for an immediate opening to kill him with marshaling cry when he casts a spectral force.
Game 2: I mulligan to 5, and would have still been in it, had I not made a terrible attack. I can't explain why I did what I did, and I don't even want to talk about it lol.
Game 3: I get a real nice draw from my deck, with pallid mycoderm on turn 4, and sprout swarming starting immediately after that, he concedes to save time.
I end the day at 4-3, which isn't bad, but I definitely expected better.
I go out to dinner at some restaurant in the Baltimore Harbor with Tim, Ced, star wars kid, Chambers, Ben Lundquist, Sam Stein, and Jesse Hawkins. The waitress was pretty much the worst ever, but the food was pretty good.
Tomorrow, we continue the adventure...
The trip started out being picked up by Timothy J. Aten, and Cedric Q. Phillips. I settled in for the long 6 hour car trip. While on the road Tim and Ced kept looking for a Waffle House, as this was our immediate goal before arriving in Baltimore. Now I had never been to a Waffle House before, but I had heard stories. Tim and Ced were regaling me of tales of no teethed waitresses and other disgusting facts about the House. Now I always thought the Waffle House was just a terrible super cheap restaurant and I never expected to ever eat there. Well about an hour or so outside of Baltimore, we finally find a Waffle House. I open the door and immediately greeted by the scent of really strong Bleach. I think to myself, this is a real good start. The waitress of course was kind of gross, just fueling the predictions I had before even entering the restaurant. Long story short, I end up being pleasantly surprised by the House. It has the best waffles I've ever had in my entire life, something you'd expect from a place called the WAFFLE house. If you ever have the chance to go to a Waffle House, order the chocolate chip waffles, and thank me later.
We arrive in Baltimore and find our hotel, which is actually 15 minutes outside of Baltimore. Literally every hotel in Baltimore was sold out at least a week before the event, it was very annoying trying to find a hotel. We tuckered into our nice Comfort Suites hotel for half an hour, then proceeded to head to the site. Immediately as we get into town, I am not impressed with the city. Tim would later dub the city Balti-less, which at the time was very fitting. The construction was terrible, the part of the city that we were in currently was very boring, and I found myself wishing I was back in Cleveland. Took us a good 20 minutes to find an actual place to park that did not have an outrageous price. We settled on a parking lot that was right near the convention center, that was only 20 bucks. Keep in mind, 20 bucks was one of the cheaper parking lots we found.
I blame the Orioles.
The convention center where the tournament was held however, was very nice. It was enormous, and they put us in a nice huge room. I start saying hello to people, and then begin to barn some cards. I decided on the ride down to play Gerry Thompson's UWG blink deck, which ended up being a mistake. I never really felt comfortable playing it, but as we got closer to the end of the night I really didn't have any other options to audible to. So I had to suck it up and run with it. Here's the list for reference.
4 Aeon Chronicler
4 Loxodon Hierarch
2 Mystic Snake
4 Riftwing Cloudskate
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Venser, Shaper Savant
4 Wall of Roots
4 Edge of Autumn
3 Momentary Blink
4 Remand
4 Breeding Pool
4 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Forest
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Horizon Canopy
2 Island
1 Plains
2 Temple Garden
4 Treetop Village
4 Yavimaya Coast
4 Aven Riftwatcher
3 Faith's Fetters
1 Momentary Blink
1 Mystic Snake
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Viridian Shaman
2 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
Round 1: David Irvine playing URW blink riders
Game 1: I keep a nice little hand, with 2 lands, double edge of autumn. 10 turns later I have 5 lands in play, he has a grand arbiter in play with the game locked up. All of my lands came off of edge of autumns, didn't draw a single one. Had to tap out to get a land and he grand arbiter'd me, then I was dead.
Game 2: I ended up punting, but it turns out to not matter as I was dead anyways.
Round 2: Matt Rubin playing mono-red with tarmogoyf.
Game 1: He has a slow draw, with a turn 1 suspended gargadon. I cast a few loxodon hierarchs and save a cloudskate in my hand to bounce his gargadon. He concedes when his all out attack is no good.
Game 2: I board in 3 fetters, 4 riftwatcher, and another blink. Yeah this game is a reaaaaaal close one. In all reality, it actually is, I stall on land and take some beats for a while. I finally assemble an army of hierarchs and riftwatchers with blink back-up to make sure I don't die.
Woot, managed to survive going 0-2, that's always a good sign. Although I always hate losing first round, it puts a damper on the whole tournament.
Round 3: Gerrard Fabiano playing Rakdos10
Him, Antonino and a couple others are playing a super suicide rakdos deck. Running Dark confidant and greater gargadon, along with hit/run I believe. My draw game 1 is too slow to keep up, and his double threaten with gargadon to sac my guys to ends up killing me.
Game 2: I board in the lifegain package, and during sideboarding he asks me to vote for him for the storyteller ballot, even though he knows Cedric is one of my best friends, who also happens to be on the ballot.
I stall on lands this game, and a magus of the moon crushes the hell out of me. Didn't have a single chance to win this one.
I end constructed at 1-2, not something I was excited about. I didn't think I was very good at limited, and expected my run at Nationals to be all but over.
At least at 1-2, I expected to have an easy pod. I sit down at the table and notice the most recent limited pro tour winner, Mike Hron to my immediate right, and Zac Hill to my immediate left. Also at this table was Matt Rubin, who was probably still not very happy with his loss to me. I smell revenge in the air, I'm sure he was thinking it the entire time.
I will not spare you with my picks, and I'll just highlight the draft and give you the decklist I ran. I first picked call of the herd over serra avenger pack 1, even though I had an affinity to drafting white. I knew it was the most powerful color, and that it was also heavily underdrafted. I agonized over the pick for a long time, but ended up making the correct choice. Shortly thereafter I started getting shipped really nice white cards, rebels, a griffin guide etc. Firmly seating me into GW, a combination that I LOVE. I was kinda worried that I might get cut in pack 2, which is where alot of the good white comes from. I thought Zac Hill took the Serra Avenger and that I was dead in the water. To my surprise the GW kept flowing, and it was the green commons that ended up missing, which was odd. Future sight ended up delivering the goods, making my deck completely insane.
1 Pallid Mycoderm
1 Aven Riftwatcher
1 Griffin Guide
1 Ramosian Revivalist
1 Marshaling Cry
1 Blade of the Sixth Pride
1 Amrou Scout
1 Saltfield Recluse
1 Knight of Sursi
1 Cloudchaser Kestrel
1 Call of the Herd
1 Ashcoat Bear
1 Essence Warden
2 Sprout Swarm
1 Nacatl War Pride
1 Harmonize
1 Uktabi Drake
1 Gemhide Sliver
1 Primal Forcemage
1 Evolution Charm
1 Death Rattle
1 Teneb, the Harvester
8 Plains
8 Forest
1 Swamp
Round 4: Warren Eng
Game 1: Warren seems like a nice kid, but I can immediately tell he's probably not very good. His deck is really underpowered, and I crush him easily with war-pride.
Game 2: I get primal forcemage + essence warden + sprout swarm going, not much he can do this game.
Round 5: Zac Hill
Game 1: Zac was the blue drafter at the table, and his deck is really good from what I hear. I have a nice draw, but end up getting out tempo'd by his deck, and lose game 1 rather quickly.
Game 2: I have a real fast draw, and his deck cannot keep up whatsoever. During sideboarding he mentions how he thought my deck was real slow, and ended up sideboarding differently because of it.
Game 3: I end up getting landscrewed I believe, and am never in the game.
A rough beat, but I press on, knowing I can 2-0 the rest of this pod to get a 3-1.
Round 6: Matt Rubin.... again
While we're shuffling up, he proclaims how he can't possibly lose to someone twice in the same tournament. I mention to him my only limited losses last year were both to Craig Krempels, and he quickly shuts up and keeps shuffling.
Game 1: One of the most absurd games I've had in a long time, I get him down to 8 with aven riftwatcher + ramosian revivalist beats, all the while not having any green mana. He finally stabilizes with a stormfront riders. Then the insanity starts... He starts casting whitemane lions multiple times at the end of my turn, gaining a soldier each iteration. Just before he would begin to start attacking me with them, I get the forest for the sprout swarm I've been holding. We end up running out of tokens/cards/dice before the game is over. We play lots of draw-go, make tons of tokens etc. until I finally find one of my outs in pallid mycoderm. My 58 saproling tokens crash into his 48 soldiers and he dies a quick death.
Since game 1 took 40 minutes, I knew I'd have to mulligan aggressively to get a fast draw, or else this match might not end.
Luckily for me, my opening 7 was a great hand. Turn 1 suspend knight of sursi, turn 3 call of the herd, turn 4 griffin guide the herd, turn 5 marshaling cry, turn 6 flashback cry, and he is dead. At this point, Matt Rubin probably does not like me very much.
Last match of the day.
Round 7: Michael Bernat
I knew his name was familiar, but I had never seen him before. He's a Chicago guy, who's friends with all the good Chicagoan's, so I don't take him too lightly.
Game 1: I play perfectly, recover from manascrew and stabilize at 1 life vs his 2 unblockable creatures. I rip a death rattle for one, and my saltfield recluse takes care of the other. I start sprout swarming, and go for an immediate opening to kill him with marshaling cry when he casts a spectral force.
Game 2: I mulligan to 5, and would have still been in it, had I not made a terrible attack. I can't explain why I did what I did, and I don't even want to talk about it lol.
Game 3: I get a real nice draw from my deck, with pallid mycoderm on turn 4, and sprout swarming starting immediately after that, he concedes to save time.
I end the day at 4-3, which isn't bad, but I definitely expected better.
I go out to dinner at some restaurant in the Baltimore Harbor with Tim, Ced, star wars kid, Chambers, Ben Lundquist, Sam Stein, and Jesse Hawkins. The waitress was pretty much the worst ever, but the food was pretty good.
Tomorrow, we continue the adventure...