Wednesday evening. Brain still lagging after work. 

Time to rumble.

First opponent: Rob Lark. Kess aficionado, Adelaide player.

South Australia v Victoria.

State pride on the line.

My deck? Slush puppy.

His deck? Kess control.

Unsurprising.

Blue mirror. Decision intensive. Experience counts.

Advantage Rob. Uphill climb for me.

Game 1.

First hand: one land, cantrip, discard spells. Good.

Wooded Foothills doesn’t find Underground Sea. Not good.

Ship it.

On six: one land, Probe, DRS, Dack. Good.

Land: Island. Not good. 

Going to five: also not good.

Keep it, hope to rip.

Turn 1 Probe. Rob has discard, counterspell, Dack.

Rip a land. Slam DRS.

Better lucky than good.

Rob takes my Dack.

Rip Sevinne’s Reclamation on turn 2.

Better lucky than good.

Collective Brutality kills DRS. I slam Dreadhorde Arcanist.

Arcanist casts Pyro on Rob’s Dack.

Dack advantage regained.

Turn 4 rip LED, flashback Reclamation, put Teferi and JVP in play.

Rob has seen enough.

Better lucky than good.

Sideboard time.

In: cheap interaction.

Out: Vulnerable combo cards.

First hand: all threats, no interaction. Good way to lose quickly.

On six: interaction, lands, let’s go.

Trade discard spells.

Swords for Hullbreacher.

Rob finds Sedgemoor Witch. Wish I had my Swords back.

Young Pyromancer joins the party.

Drown in pests and elementals.

Pyroclasm in.

Game 3. For all the marbles.

Keep Probe, Pyro, Breach, Narset, Teferi, lands.

Slow but powerful.

Rob has REB, Clique, Bonecrusher, lands.

Draw uncastable Thoughtseize. Pass.

Draw black land. Cast Thoughtseize.

Rob has added Witch, Tasigur and some lands.

Tank.

I take Witch.

Two turns later, Rob plays Tasigur with REB up.

Pretty good against my hand of expensive blue spells.

End step Gifts meets Opposition Agent from Rob.

Agent is bugged, so I could search normally, but I’m far enough behind that I scoop them up.

0-1.

Not how I hoped to start. 

I watch the replay. Think through the pivotal Thoughtseize turn.

Still unsure what the best line was.

Experience won this match.

Onto the next.

***

Round 2.

11:30pm, Friday night.

Pretty wiped out after a full week of work.

MODO lagging even harder than my brain.

Opponent’s deck: 4C Thoracle.

No sideboard. Just maindeck Pyro, REB and Veil.

Keep LED and Echo of Eons.

Discard spell shows many ways to break up that combo.

Unsurprising. Bad keep.

Hand does nothing. Die to beatdown from Quandrix Apprentice and Hullbreacher.

MODO flirting with 1 FPS.

Lag stops me from sideboarding.

Just leveling the playing field.

Game 2.

Cantrip, Entomb, Pyro, Clique, Snap, lands.

Good spells, no interaction.

Ship it.

Cantrip, Arcanist, LED, Reclamation, Brain Freeze, lands.

Still no interaction, but Arcanist + cantrip is powerful. Going to five seems worse.

Keep, bottom Freeze.

Ready for a swift loss and sleep.

No Hydrobasts in opponent’s deck, so I jam Arcanist.

Draw into Breach. Wish I’d kept Freeze.

Reclamation on Dack meets Fluster. DRS threatens to eat my graveyard.

Opponent taps low for Wrenn Six.

Taps out to eat my Arcanist target.

Topdecked Entomb finds Freeze. Cast Breach, cast LED, start the clown music.

Better lucky than good.

MODO is a slideshow. Have to restart.

Good thing we have 40 minute chess clocks.

Game 3.

Inquisition, Dig, Breach, lands.

Too slow. Send it back.

Nearly time out waiting for MODO to resolve my mulligan.

Second hand is much worse. Opponent keeps six.

I go to five.

Snap off Bolt, Misstep, lands.

Just have to draw spells.

Misstep for Portent.

Bolt for Apprentice.

Draw Teferi to slow down Bob.

Opponent slams Oko.

Desperation Brainstorm. Pyroblast.

Better lucky than good.

Still have to beat Bob.

Ponder sees Kroxa and lands. 

No removal.

All-in on Kroxa and escape next turn.

Front side strips Lab Man Jace. Would’ve buried me.

Opponent has Wrenn and Six.

Kroxa escapes. Opponent has no removal in their deck.

Opponent slams Baleful Strix. Damn.

I play Pyromancer into Wrenn and Six. 

Time? 12:08am. Brain? Long gone.

Wrenn and Six ticks down to take out Pyromancer.

My Clique gets Veil’ed.

Wrenn at four means Clique threatens to trade. 

Thanks YP.

I rip Dig.

Better lucky than good.

Think about mainphasing, decide to wait.

Bob flips Pyroblast.

Oops.

Opponent wants to keep Wrenn, burns Pyro on Clique.

End step, jam Dig. 

Four cards for my opponent, but Dig resolves.

Astounded.

Post match, I discover opponent had Opposition Agent and Hullbreacher in hand.

Dig doesn’t care.

Finds Drown and Snapcaster. 

Drown Strix, attack with Kroxa. 

Hullbreacher is on chump duty

Contemplate Snap-Bolt on Bob. Decide to hold.

Bob reveals Stifle. Basically Counterspell against Snapcaster.

DRS hits play. Another Counterspell for Snapcaster.

Stifle counters a Kroxa trigger. Interesting.

Opposition Agent chumps.

Kroxa’s beatdown is unwavering.

Snapcaster seals the deal.

1-1

Time for sleep.