I didn't really change the deck at all since the previous week's PTQ, other than tweaking the sideboard. There was a lot of WW at Columbus that time around (and surprisingly little Sligh), so I thought a third Fyl was in order. As it turned out, the field wasn't so WW heavy--there were a great deal of Rude Awakening decks and not a few other CounterPhoenix variants.
Game 1: I had a Capsize and only one counter in my hand when he cast an Awakening and I chose not to counter it. Bad call--Awakening is good for me in general, but it's much better for him and I just couldn't keep up with all the Whispering, and he eventually took control and was bouncing way too much of my stuff. On to game 2...
Game 2: Completely weird game. I got great land and drew tons of permission all game long. I countered three Awakenings and two Tradewinds, but finally let through a Spike Feeder, which I figured I could just kill off later. Unfortunately, I never drew a single Shard, a single Intuition, or a single Shock and it killed me ten turns later. Pretty harsh.
Matches 0-1, games 0-2. I think not countering the Awakening in Game 1 was probably a mistake, but I'd still play Game 2 the same way--I had a lot of ways to deal with a single Feeder and just couldn't draw any of them.
Game 1: Early Intuition gets me Phoenix recursion with an early Forbid and I lock it down and apply with two Shards.
Game 2: He sideboards a huge pile of cards against me, whereas I only side in a couple against him. Didn't matter, this one went pretty much like Game 1.
Matches 1-1, games 2-2. Not sure if I played this one quite right, but I got the sense Chris hadn't played his deck that much so I'm not sure how fair an evaluation that was.
Game 1: I got a good draw and pulled an early Intuition, countered anything looking fat, blew up Shards for the small stuff, and basically was in control for the entire game.
Game 2: He didn't sideboard and I wasn't really sure what to sideboard against him so I skipped it. I had an OK opening draw but got next to nothing to work with after that--I had to use Capsize to keep bouncing his fatties but had no good answers for the weenies. I *finally* drew an Intuition and got out a Shard but I had to blow it up immediately to kill the weenies because I was at 1. He kept coming up with things I had to kill and ways to kill the Shard, so I stayed at 1 for ages, but I was more or less in control because I had the Forbid/Phoenix soft lock--I just couldn't maintain board control and cast a Shard for a while so it dragged on for some time, but I did eventually pull it off.
Matches 2-1, games 4-2. I probably made some sloppy mistakes in game 2 but I don't think it made much difference either way.
Game 1: One of the two guys next to us didn't show up, so there were empty seats beside us. One of the judges came over and sat down and the three of us had some fun with the early part of the game. "Oooh. Land, done." "A hush falls over the crowd--who will actually attempt to cast a spell first.?" Silly. Anyway, I got ahead in the land race and got an Intuition through. This let me get ahead in the beatdown race and managed to stall his Shards with permission.
Game 2: I wasn't really sure what to side in for this matchup besides the two Wastelands (31 land, woo hoo). I again got a good lead and started to get the beatdown going as I had better early permission, and I pushed that lead as hard as I could. However, He got an Intuition through so he was up one Phoenix, and that was the beginning of the end. I had him down to 3 but just couldn't get through his 3 Shards and he had Whispers going, as he had all the permission late. I just couldn't finish him off. I did get a couple Intuitions late, which I used to grab Mountains so that I could keep up on Phoenix recursion (he had all 4 active and I had three). I think I should have grabbed Phoenix #4 in there somewhere.
Game 3: We were running low on time so we both tried to keep things moving quick. I realized that the card I should have brought in from the sideboard was Fyl, since Fyl can block a Shard and live--no recursing required. So I brought them in for the Shocks. Good strategy, but it didn't matter because I just didn't have the cards. He got early Intuition and more Red land sources, so I just couldn't hang with it.
Matches 2-2, games 5-4. Sideboarding mistake going into game 2 is probably what cost me this one--Fyl rather than Shock (cast early for time advantage) would have been awesome. I was going to drop at this point, but forgot to write it on my form. I decided not to drop because it was still pretty early in the day and I figured I should stay in for another round, just to get a little more practice with the deck.
Game 1: Unlike the Humble Prayer I played in the PTQ last week, this one had no Black in it so there was no chance of Lobotomy. He also had less permission. I got the Forbid soft lock after he got a Humility and a Grinder out on the table. I managed to keep the Prayers off the table and eventually killed him with 3 1/1 Shards before he managed to mill me to death.
Game 2: I boarded in the Shattering Pulses and managed to draw one so I could blow up the Grinds. He did get a Chill through, but I already had a Shard on the table. I applied with that, and got the Forbid soft lock set up. This one was over pretty quickly.
Matches 3-2, games 7-4. I think I played this one pretty much right. I was going to drop after this one, but forgot to write it on my form so I ended up playing it out.
Game 1: I get the God draw vs. Sligh: a couple Shocks, some 2-cc counters, two Islands, and a Mountain. I drew land and more permission and Intuition shortly thereafter and pretty much held control of this game most of the way through.
Game 2: All the Dismisses came out for the 3 touches. I got another good draw, with a couple Shocks, three Islands, and some permission. However, I just couldn't draw the Mountain so I could use the Shocks, and drew a Touch and a Shard that I couldn't use. He had a good draw and slaughtered me before I could recover.
Game 3: He got in some good early beatings but I got Searing Touch going and then managed to blow up a Shard to keep the board clear, but I was out of permission and he got down Scalding Tongs. Ugh. I didn't have any way to handle that unless I could draw a Capsize. I finally drew one, but he kept dropping threats that I had to spend mana to kill or counter and I just couldn't keep up with it. I could Capsize it, but not counter it so it was a slow process. Finally, I drew the counter, but I was at 1. I Capsized the Tongs and countered--but he had top-decked a second Tongs and I didn't have the second counter. Bleah.
Matches 3-3, games 8-6.
Land ---- 4 Reflecting Pool 2 Caldera Lake 9 Mountain 14 Island Creatures --------- 4 Shard Phoenix Spells ------ 1 Searing Touch 4 Shock 3 Capsize 4 Intuition 4 Counterspell 4 Mana Leak 4 Forbid 3 Dismiss Sideboard --------- 3 Searing Touch 3 Shattering Pulse 3 Fylamarid 2 Interdict 2 Rebound 2 Wasteland