Game 1: The early Cursed Scroll and two Jackal Pups wrecked me. He did way too much damage with it before I was able to get off a Disk, and I died to, what else, burn.
Game 2: In go the Hydros, the Rebounds, and the Shatters. Had to Paris with only a Quicksand for land in the opening hand. Managed to Shatter a scroll and Rebound a Fireblast, and I got a couple of Gnomes this time and actually made a game out of it. Ultimately, though, he drew more burn than I drew counters.
Matches 0-1, games 0-2.
Game 1: Yet another quick beatdown from the Pups. Pretty ugly.
Game 2: Bottle Gnomes don't help quite as much against Canyon Wildcats, and he got one of those out and more Pups and some Ball Lightning, and I died horribly.
Matches 0-2, games 0-4.
Game 1: He doesn't put enough early pressure on me, which usually means I win. Pump Knights and Guildmages just don't quite do it. Gnomes and disks keep me ahead in the life race, and I Hammer and Quake for the win.
Game 2: I'm not sure what to do with this one, so I don't sideboard. He sides in Furnaces, which become a real pain, especially since I got the Hammer in the opening draw. Fun play of the game: He Lobotomies me, and I Rebound it. Harsh. He gets a Scroll down, too, which hurt. He scrolls me several times for Disenchant and grinds anything that hits with the Furnace. I know he has two Disenchants, so I patiently wait until I have two Counters and a Disk. In the meantime, I get Lobotomied for my Hammer. Oops. Anyway, I drop the Disk, counter both Disenchants, and blow it for big card advantage. I eventually burn him out for the win.
Matches 1-2, games 2-4.
Game 1: His Necro is a little too slow for me. Some early Gnomes and Quicksands take the pressure off, and I keep the board mostly clear, finish with a big Fireball after he Necros down.
Game 2: I side out all the Disks, and side in both Rebounds, a Pyroblast, and a Capsize. Perfect sideboarding, as it turned out. I Pyroblast a Lobotomy, counter another, keep a Tradewind at bay with Capsize. Key card advantage gotten with Rebound, as I Rebound a Stupor (3-for-1 advantage; however, I think this doesn't actually fly because Stupor hits "target opponent," not "target player"). He has to spend way too much life with the Necro for cards, and I beat him down with two Gnomes and finish with fire.
Matches 2-2, games 4-4.
Game 1: Horrible matchup for him--his Fanatics never get past my Gnomes, and I counter all the big X spells, and gradually beat him up with Hammer recursion.
Game 2: I side in the two Rebounds, hoping to Rebound a big X spell, but it never happens. Oh, well. I do manage a 3-for-1 card Earthquake, though, and get a Disk out and untapped. Whisper recursion keeps my hand full of counters, and eventually I get Hammer recursion and beat him to death with it.
Matches 3-2, games 6-4.
Game 1: He gets a fast start (not a big surprise), and I get an OK one but not quite good enough. Early Wastelands hose me, and I die to assorted Kindles and Ball Lightnings.
Game 2: I get a decent draw with early Gnomes and he gets only a mildly OK draw. I play it smart and counter the Ball Lightnings, then Dismiss several things to keep my hand full. I Rebound a Fireblast (pretty cool) and get the Shard Phoenix out and start pummeling with it. I eventually win with Incinerate and Shock, which is scary.
Game 3: I get three Gnomes on the draw, but only one land and it's a Quicksand. I Paris to six, and get only a Lake for land. I know he has Wastelands so I brave it and Paris to five. One Quicksand. Well, I know I can't win on four cards so I keep it. I actually manage to hang in for a while(drew an Island early and Whispered without buyback to get up to three land) via a couple Gnomes, but I just can't hang with the Ball Lightnings and Fireblasts.
Matches 3-3, games 7-6.
Land (26) --------- 4 Quicksand 2 Undiscovered Paradise 6 Mountain 2 Reflecting Pools 1 Svyelunite Temple 1 Caldera Lake 10 Islands Creatures (5) ------------- 1 Shard Phoenix 4 Bottle Gnomes Spells (30) ----------- 2 Shock 2 Incinerate 2 Earthquake 1 Fireball 1 Hammer of Bogardan 1 Fireball 4 Disks 3 Whispers of the Muse 4 Impulse 1 Mana Leak 4 Counterspell 2 Dissipate 4 Dismiss Sideboard (15) -------------- 2 Capsize 2 Rebound 3 Shatter 3 Hydroblast 3 Pyroblast 1 Wasteland (for Volrath's Stronghold) 1 Ruination (for Donais U5C)
On the other hand, its been pretty good in playtest vs. everything else (except Erik Lauer playing Bloom). Mass removal of Quakes and Disks, plus Impulse, Whispers, and Dismiss tends to result in good card economy, and card advantage wins games.
Interestingly, the two decks that made the finals, despite the fact that four SRB Sligh decks made the cut, were decks with a lot of Green that ran many walls--like 4 Wall of Blossoms and 4 Wall of Roots. SRB hates walls. The one that won was Green/Blue, running Counters, Leaks, Impulse, Tradewinds, Firewalkers, and Awakening. Tradewind-Firewalker-Awakening was impressively good.