Round 4 vs Dayne Maust
Dayne and I had an extremely close championship game at Nationals last year, so I knew this would be another tough match. It started out very slow for both of us as neither of our decks produced much early offense. I didn't have the greatest draw ever, but because Dayne's offense didn't show early, I was able to be patient with my attacks. Eventually my deck started rolling, and once it did, I was able to put a lot of pressure on his hand and defense. He grabbed two with SoG/NJ and for a moment the game looked as if it could turn, but I managed to stay one step ahead thanks to some timely draws and would eventually walk in for the 7-4 win. It was somewhat concerning however, that for the third straight game, I had not played SoG/NJ--only drawing it in the game against Jordan where it got underdecked. I wondered if that continued if it would cost me at some point...
Round 5 vs Noah Wagenknecht
Noah's brother Jonathan had beaten me at North Central Regionals so again I expected a very tough match. It was a very well played match as he carefully avoided my defense with some nice choose the blocker plays. Meanwhile, his defense seemed to do more damage to me on his turns than on my turns, which really limited my options when it was my turn and I wanted to attack. Both of us were playing some elements of hand control, and there were many occasions where neither of us had more than 3 or 4 cards in hand. Unfortunately for me, I could not draw my Wall of Protection and he was able to use my defense against me on several occasions, which caused me to become very selective of when I attacked. In the end it came down to me not drawing SoG (would have been in next draw) and him having one final block to stop me on my last turn for a 5-5 tie.
Round 6 vs John Michaliszyn
I had not gotten the opportunity to play John at last year's Nationals, but I knew he is one of the winningest tournament players of all time. As we began shuffling, he began to lament that he had spent months working on a deck, only to doubt himself after playing MP on Thursday night and built an entirely new deck with a concept he had only thought about trying previously without actually attempting it. Unfortunately it had not worked as well as he had hoped leading to a 2-3 record going into the final round. I got off to a quick start with my Judges drawing and over the first few turns built a sizeable card advantage. A few turns in, I decided to use Mayhem after he drew to knock his hand down even further. He ended up passing as his offense wasn't showing up much at all. The key moment for this game came next as he no defense showing on the table, (which made me think I should definitely attack), but fortunately I had drawn an early Urim and Thummim plus a High Priest to check his hand. I took a look and he had drawn 6 evil cards off Mayhem, including a character who could band to my well-set up defense. I realized that with such a big card advantage already there was no point in letting him use my defense to catch up on drawing and I elected to simply use I am Holy for several turns to try and get the evil out of his hand. My patience paid off as eventually his hand went from all evil to all good as he drew offense and I continued the pressure with I am Holy. I walked in for several freebie LS until drawing into SoG during a rescue attempt for a 7-1 win.
Final record: 4-1-1, ironically the same record as last year, but this time I would have to settle for second place as Jordan only had one time out loss and took the title.
I will post my deck in the tournament winners section if you wish to see how it evolved from last year.
