The hall is filled with folks I know. A couple other Watchmen (my teammates), one Team CMU'er (Mike Turian), and Nathan Heiss (Mike's cousin) and Elliot Fung, who play with both us and Team CMU. Before the tourney, I borrowed a Sea Sprite from Nathan, and he showed me his deck. Mostly blue (Tradewinds, Ophidians, permission) with some green (Wall of Blossoms, Birds), some Red (Firestorm, Incinerate), and two White (Geddon). He asked what I thought he should board for Survival/Recur, and I told him Interdict. He liked the idea, but then decided that wasn't useful against enough stuff and so didn't.
Game 1: Blue on blue, the excitement never ends. Land, done. Land, done. Whee. Play of the game was when he successfully Geddoned when I had a Disk out, tapped. I topdecked land, blew the Disk. "Disk-a-Geddon!" he proclaimed. I proceed to topdeck more land, including a Stalk, and beat him up with it.
Game 2: I got out a Rainbow and started to apply with it. In desperation, he blocked with a Bird and Incinerated the Efreet. I tapped out to phase it (I had just laid a Disk). He Geddoned and managed to win it. I should have just countered the Incinerate so the Bird would have died and he wouldn't have been able to cast the Geddon. Oops.
Game 3: Long, grinding beginning with neither one of us getting anything going. I got the Rainbow out and next turn laid a disk. When I blew the Disk, I responded by phasing the Rainbow. He Incinerated in response. I phased again. He Incinerated it again. I phased again. He Firestormed it for 1. I only have one Island left, so the Efreet dies (four cards later)--but the Disk went off. Nathan Geddons (again). I have 29 land in the deck, though, and I pull land faster than he does and win with Stalking beatdown.
Matches 1-0, games 2-1. We finished
Game 1: I drew the Rainbow in my opening hand, and dropped land every turn so I figured I'd just try to drop the Rainbow early and protect. The Rainbow hit the table on turn 6 and he went all the way. Disks are pretty good against decks with lots of permanents.
Game 2: He dropped a River Boa on the second turn and I never really found an answer. I think my only answer would have been Quicksand, but I couldn't find any.
Game 3: I draw two Force Spikes in my opening, and I successfully Spiked a couple of Nick's early plays (turn 1 Bird, something else on turn 3). I got Quicksands as well, and between those and counters, I kept the Boas at bay, and gradually took control. I dropped a Disk and countered the Monkeys, served with Stones.
Matches 2-0, games 4-2.
Game 1: He got his Rainbow through and I had no way to kill it or get rid of it once it hit the table. It served, helped at the end by a Stalking Stone.
Game 2: He got big fat Derelor out, and pounded me down to 8 with it before I was able to blow a Disk. He then got a Sea Sprite (!) out on me, which beat me down to 5 before I could blow another Disk. (Seemed like a waste, blowing a Disk just to kill a Sea Sprite, but sometimes ya gotta.) After than I had things pretty much under control and managed to rally for the win.
Game 3: He was the first one to get a Stone active, but I Wasted it. I got a Stone, he Wasted it. He got another Stone, which I killed with double Quicksand. Not very good card economy, but sometimes that's the way you have to play it. I managed to keep all the rest of his stuff off the table, but he had killed two of my Stones and won the counter war over my Rainbow, so it looked like a decking race. I finally got a Stone and managed to kill him with it a few turns before being decked. Whew.
Matches 3-0, games 6-3.
Game 1: I hardly remember this one, he just rolled over me. That's sort of expected the first game.
Game 2: I did not get a good draw, but he didn't apply that much early pressure so it became a contest. I activated a Stalking Stones which got Shattering Pulsed. OK. I got a counter Blasted when I tried to keep a Fireslinger off the table. He started to do the Red damage thing, and I dropped a Disk with counter backup. He Pulsed the Disk, I countered, he Blasted. That was pretty much it right there.
Matches 3-1, games 6-5. I'm still the #2 in the standings because there's only one undefeated and my tiebreaks rule (all of my opponents in contention for final 8).
Matches 3-1-1, games 6-5.
Game 1: I overplayed a little and not only did I get my Rainbow countered but I lost three Stalking Stones to an Armageddon. Ugh. Of course, I say it in one sentence but it took ages...
Game 2: We're the only match going shortly into this one. I eventually got out the Efreet, and it became a Skittles commercial: "taste the Rainbow." The Rainbow went all the way--all kinds of things got countered and Disked along the way. In the course of this game, I somehow managed to Dismiss every time he tried to cast a Tradewind, and that became a joke amongst the spectators. "Tradewind, 3U, Sorcery, opponent pays 2UU and draws a card."
Game 3: We again get into prolonged counter wars over various things like Tradewinds and Disks, and once again play the Disk-a-Geddon game, except that this time I was holding back land, and had both a Wasteland and a Stone in my hand. I blew the Disk (killing his Birds and a Mox) and reset the game with several counters in my hand. I play the Wasteland and then topdecked an Island. One more Island and I could counter. I drew more permission and then another Stones, and more permission--but no second Island. Grr. Nathan got up to four mana sources and dropped a Tradewind. Bad. (Spectator comment: "What? You didn't get to draw?") Nope, and Nathan got out a couple more and started the bouncy game. By the time I drew the second Island, it really didn't matter. If I had just drawn one lousy Island before Nathan dropped the Tradewind, I'm sure I would have won. Ah, well, such is life.
Matches 3-2-1, games 7-7.
4 Force Spike 4 Counterspell 3 Mana Leak 4 Forbid 2 Dissipate 4 Dismiss 4 Impulse 4 Whispers of the Muse 1 Rainbow Efreet 4 Nevinyrral's Disk 4 Quicksands 4 Stalking Stones 18 Islands Sideboard --------- 3 Wasteland 3 Hydroblast 3 Sea Sprite 2 Propaganda 2 Undo 2 Capsize