Twenty-five combatants made their pilgrimage from afar to Selden for the chance to battle it out among their peers and win a full box at Brothers Grim on Saturday, and after the smoke cleared there could only be one champion. I have been called many things in my life; my given name, jobless, Ahab, the rattlesnake, the Marlboro Man, high school dropout, Mike “Seven Cliches In the First Sentence of His Article” Evans, etc. But on saturday I could call myself champ!

Now that I’ve completely been self-congratulating I can get down to business. Anyone who has played me since December knows I play decks with Spectral Procession and Windbrisk Heights. The combination of those two cards has been on the top-tier of Standard for as long as they’ve both been legal, and to me there is no better two card synergy in the format right now. For the longest time I’ve played Black/White Tokens (as opposed to “Tokin’” which is what Omar does) and the deck has been good to me. For this tournament I was told to expect red decks, and while Black/White Tokens isn’t terrible at all against red, playing a deck with Bitterblossom in it leads to me to be sweating in many a match against red. This led me to pay Green/White tokens which is not only a great deck that has my favorite two-card combo in Standard, but also coasts against red. I believe it also has even or better odds against most of the other decks in the format right now, with the exception being Blue/White Reveillark based decks and Swans. It also contains Overrun, a card that I believe is the best thing you can do off a Windbrisk Heights. Overrun can make games a complete blowout, break stalemates, or win games you are far behind. This is what I sleeved up:

Ethersworn Canonist in the board is for decks that rely on cascade for their card advantage. It makes Swans winnable, although still a really hard matchup. It also makes Bloodbraid Elf and Bituminous Blast bad versions of Boggart Ram-Gang and Lightning Blast respectively. Cloudthresher was for Faeries, Paladin En-Vec for 5-color Bloodbraid, Wrath Of God for Black/White Tokens, Pollen Lullaby for Black/White Tokens and the mirror, and Dauntless Escort for Black/Green Elves and anything I think indestructibility would help me for.

Round 1 vs Jund Aggro

In game one I kept a hand I probably shouldn’t have, two Treetop Villages, a Brushland, Two spectral procession, a Cloudgoat Ranger, and a Path to Exile. I never drew a second or third source of white mana despite getting to 5 lands, and he overran me with Anathemancer, Boggart Ram Gang, and Bloodbraid Elf. I sideboard in three Paladin En-Vec and an Ethersworn Canonist and out came four Qasali Pridemage. In games two and three I simply drew Paladin En-Vec and let my deck do what it normally does in the mean time, which is enough to win in this matchup.

1-0(2-1)

Round 2 vs Pat Albergo with Faeries

I’m pretty confident in my matchup against Faeries. If they don’t have Bitterblossom for the entirety of the game it’s hard for them to win. In game one he didn’t have a turn two Bitterblossom so I was feeling good at that point. He never did play one, and I simply played guys and Pathed any Mistbind Cliques I saw and won. I sideboarded 3 Cloudthresher for 2 Overrun and a Dauntless Escort. Overrun is really bad against decks with Cryptic Command in them. In game two he kept a hand with one land and a bunch of one-cost spells(I saw Peppersmoke and two Death Mark), and while he was able to stop me for a bit with those cards he drew his second land far too late.

2-0(4-1)

Round 3 vs John Madonia with 5-color Bloodbraid

I don’t like how my deck compares to this one in game one, but I’m really confident after sideboard. Game one I led off with a Treetop on turn one, a Treetop and Hierarch on turn two, a Forest and Hierarch on turn 3 activating treetop and attacking for five, and attacking for five with a treetop again on turn 4. I had him at ten life early without playing any of my big spells, and he had yet to play a spell, so I was feeling good. Then he started cascading and playing Cryptic Commands and I just lost miserably. I sided in 3 Ethersworn Canonist and 3 Paladin En-Vec, and sided out 4 Qasali Pridemage and 2 Overrun. Much like the first round simply playing one or more Paladin En-Vecs wins me the game unless they have an answer. Unfortunately he never drew his sideboarded Wraths and I won the next two games.

3-0(6-2)

Round 4 against Ralph Navarra with Putrid Elves

Another matchup in which I’m confident. To be honest I don’t remember what happened in game one, but I won. I sided out a Pridemage for a Dauntless Escort. In game two I dealt him about 80 damage over the course of the entire game, but his double Loxodon Warhammers and endless draws into men kept him alive. I kept playing 1/1′s and trading with his men in hopes he would run out and I could start dwindling his life. That didn’t happen and when he attacked with a 13/7 Cloudthresher with trample and Double Lifelink I lost. I put the 4th Pridemage back in for his Warhammers and took out the Escort I had sided in. I also don’t remember what happened in game 3, I was very tired, but I know I lost. I’m pretty sure it had something to do with Profane Command.

3-1(6-4)

I drew the last round to get into the top 8.

3-1-1(6-4)

Top 8 against Pat Albergo playing Faeries

It was much like round 2. He either didn’t play Bitterblossom or had it destroyed by a Pridemage when he did, and I won.

4-1-1(8-4)

Top 4 against Robert Grippa playing BG Non-Elves

In game one I started off with a Windbrisk Heights and saw the wonderful Overrun in the top 4 cards, and was happy to put it under. I played a Hierarch on turn two, and a Spectral Procession on turn 3. He played a Kitchen Finks, and when I untapped and drew I Pathed the Finks, attacked, and flipped Overrun over for 15 big damage. He couldn’t recover from that and we went on to game two. I sideboarded the same way as I did against Ralph, -1 Pridemage +1 Escort, as Escort is good in this matchup and he could possibly not have the Warhammers that Ralph did. Game two involved him getting me down to twelve early with two big Putrid Leech attacks, but I had some token attacks of my own, and was also able to kill off the Leech. The deciding moment of the game saw me at 5 life, he was at 11, and I had him dead next turn. He had to win this turn or do something that wiped my board. He couldn’t, and I won. He showed me that he had a Profane Command, but he was exactly one mana short of Profaning me for 5 and winning.

5-1-1(10-4)

Top 2 against Ralph Navarra with Putrid Elves

We split the prize and decided to play for rating and the win. I once again don’t remember much about these games, I guess Ralph has that effect on me, but I won. I’m pretty sure he didn’t care much about playing and wanted to get the hell out of there.

Being the first time I played this deck I was pretty happy with how it performed and I’ll probably continue to play it. We chaos drafted afterward and George Newell opened a Dark Confidant and a Tarmogoyf in the packs that I gave him to draft with, while I opened such great cards as Breath of Fury and Scarblade Elite. I was tired and my draft deck was really bad, so after going 0-2 and losing to milling I called it a night.

I will leave you all with the most fun card from M10:

Hive Mind
5U
Enchantment
Whenever a player casts an instant or sorcery spell, each other player copies that spell. Each of those players may choose new targets for his or her copy.