Dominaria Prerelease!

Kwende, Pride of Femeref (promo)
Muldrotha, the Gravetide (promo)
Verdant Force
Goblin Chainwhirler
Oath of Teferi
Sylvan Awakening
Daring Archaeologist
Dread Shade

SO this first round was REALLY interesting. Apparently the store had a bounty out on a couple of Pro players as a promotion: the idea was, if you go up against them and win, you get a bonus pack. TUrns out they were our first round opponents. Without naming names, these guys were not only pros, they WON the 2005 Team Limited Pro Tour!! (Also turns out I beat one of these guys in a Masters 25 draft a few weeks ago without knowing he was a pro haha) Now to be fair they were apparently just returning to the game and beginning the grind anew after something like 10 years off, they said, and neither of them had ever played 2HG before, but hey, pros are pros! The GB ramp player opened with one of the most disgusting hands I;ve ever seen. T1 Llanowar Elves into T2 ELves into T3 Grow from the Ashes. He had something like 7-8 mana on T4 so I figured we'd lost right there. Fortunately for us though, his hand was all ramp and barely any payoff aside from Saprolings to stall. The other player kept my buddy's meager board under control with Shocks and the like but nobody ended up doing a whole lot of anything for a while aside
from me, who was actually able to get a 3/2 on the board and alongside my buddy's Dub, smash in for some damage and eat some blockers. Things weren't looking great for either team really---my friend drew 6 nonland cards and something like 12 lands over the course of the game, and the UR guy was stuck on lands pretty early for a while. Then the UR player started in with some crazy stuff. Time of Ice to more or less reset our board, and then down comes Verdant Force....for our opponents. We had to two for one ourselves with the 1 drop Candle and a fight card to kill it, but we got it off the board immediately before our stuff got bounced. My friend recurred his Bloodtallow candle after they bounced his Archaeologist and killed an opponent's Sphinx and things were looking good...until they drew a SECOND Time of Ice. And Traxos. I traded Verdant Force and then top decked Broken Bond to get rid of Time of Ice. Over the next couple turns I was able to buy back Verdant force and smash in with 8 hasty 2/2 lands and eventually there was nothing they could do. We had beaten the pros!! I know it's not really that big of a deal, but the minor bragging rights are kinda nice, and the extra pack wasn't too shabby (spoiler: it kinda was). My friend summed up the match nicely later on that night: 'We got unlucky but they were unluckier.' They had a Karn and Belzenlok we never saw.

Record: 1-0

Another ramp deck...beginning to notice a theme here. I had a super sweet hand that let me ramp into Tatyova T3 but they killed it right away. We all played stuff but as far as bombs go, they began to drop all of theirs one after the other. First they played Danitha T3 at which point my friend played a random 3 drop instead of Deep Freezing it. I yelled at him but it turns out he made the right call (for the wrong reason). They dumped an enchanment on it (On Serra's Wings) and a Dauntless Bodyguard to prevent us from ever being able to kill it---well turns out when it's a big flying lifelinking Wall we don't really need to remove it. One threat down. Then, on the next turn, Multani AND Lyra Dawnbringer. That's a big damn problem. We had to choose which one was the bigger threat---and despite us having no way to permanently deal with Multani or his trampling ass, we used Deep Freeze on the angel, as a 10 point life swing every turn would make the game impossible to come back from, plus we'd never be able to get in in the air. I kick a Caligo Skin-Witch rather than play another Tatyova hoping to empty their hands of further threats. BW guy goes empty handed, but GR guy discards only lands which helps him grow Multani anyway! We eat 8 damage and fear we may be done for with just a few Saprolings and 2/2s on the board (double striking or not). Then my friend top decks Blessed Light. The absolute best and perfect top deck for that situation. There was no coming back for them after that as I dropped Verdant force again and he gave it flying over a few turns with his 1/3 pegasus. As a final ditch effort another Verdant Force hit the board for our opponents but my buddy Teferi'd it away for the win. These guys ended up having some hefty burn so it was great we killed them when we did. Jaya's Immolating Inferno and TWO Fight With Fires in the deck. Yeesh.
Record: 2-0

We got paired down here but even though we offered a slightly lopsided split, we all kind of agreed to play it out to alleviate any confusion. Once again, up against a ramp deck. I started with a decent hand but got my T1 Elves shocked and then literally did nothing for the entire rest of the game as I got screwed out of black, only drew black cards and no lands. Our opponents went off big time with this deck. Wizards and historic synergies like crazy
for one girl and Saprolings into Song of Freyalise letting him dump his entire hand super early. She removed what little board we were able to muster, casually dropped a Mishra's Self Replicator and multiplied it in the same turn, and then he swung in with a bunch of kicked Baloths and Saprolings with +1/+1 counters, indestructible, and trample. And me sitting there withBOTH Muldrothas in my damn hand. Sigh. Can't win 'em all I guess. Oh and guess what was in the ramp guy's deck we didn't get to see? You guessed it: ANOTHER Verdant Force.
Record: 2-1

Precognition Field
Kamahl's Druidic Vow
The Mending of Dominaria
Shalai, Voice of Plenty

Aryel, Knight of Windgrace (promo)
Evra, Halcyon Witness
Mishra's Self-Replicator
Tempest Djinn (Promo)
Tempest Djinn
Zahid, Djinn of the Lamp
Josu Vess, Lich Knight
Goblin Chainwhirler

This match was against one of the store mega-regulars. A little too silent and just bordering on unfriendly but nothing I can truly complain about. Game 1Goes T3 Tempest Djinn, T4 Tempest Djinn, T6 Zahid. He drops Valduk and throws a Dub on him so I'm forced to eat a hit or two plus deal with hasty elementals every turn. I'm too scared to swing out but eventually I build up my board enough that I can start swinging conservatively in the air. Ultimately I would have been able to win a turn earlier than I did, and maybe I should have gone for it since I was at 3 life, but whatever. Game 2 He boarded in fliers. T3 Djinn again so he Threw Dub on his vanilla 3/2 flier. Unfortunately for him I had Seal Away in hand. And a T6 Evra.
Record 1-0

At this point I walked around a little and watched one of the last matches to finish. There was a guy playing a Sultai value engine/mill deck featuring two Howling Golems and Diligent Excavator. I go to ask, 'Wow, is this a mill deck?' Dude answers: 'Self mill.' I double take: his opponent had a Shalai on the board, making him untargetable! Eventually he lost by forcefully and hilariously milling himself out.

Game 1 I played stuff but just got crushed by the value from the Eldest Reborn saga. Managed to remove his Aryel by countering it but of course he can bring it right back. Game 2 I had to mull to 6 and kept a pretty risky hand. Got some good value/tempo by Merfolk Trickstering in to block a 3/1 buffed by the first strike lance, then he top decks the Eldest Reborn again. We both build up the board with first strikers and double strikers (we both had a Kwende), I drop Zahid, he topdecks Eviscerate for it. Manage to get more blockers onto the board and trade with a couple double strikers, he topdecked the +2/+2 combat trick and throw it on the only unblocked double striker. GG. This one was particularly disheartening because every time I managed to barely claw myself back into stability I was just crushed down by another ruthless topdeck. Real nice guy though, and fun games. Looking through his deck was pretty nuts, not only does he have an inherent 3-for-1 in Eldest Reborn, he was also sporting Yawgmoth's Vile Bargain for more disgusting value! (This was also the guy who had Shalai.)
Record 1-1

Game 1 Lasts a really long time. He durdles around with a bunch of guys, drops History of Benalia, then bounces it with Guardians of Koilos to make a bunch more Knights. I'm building up my own board and attacking here and there with a Cloudreader Sphinx but I have to be careful because he has a Pegasus that can give anything on his board flying while attacking. I drop Evra to keep myself at a decent life total when he swings with the Saga bonus, then drops Traxos I was considering Seal Away-ing the Pegasus so I can chip in for flying damage without worry of repercussions but BOY was Traxos a better option. He plays Mishra's Self-Replicator (ugh) to untap it and I exile it in response. He makes a few more Self-replicators but I'm able to get through with enough flying damage for the win. Game 2 Game two went fairly similarly---he had no good way of dealing with my big fliers once I had dropped them, and even though he had dropped Traxos early, he finally ran out of ways to untap him and he could never get in for lethal with Evra on the board. I misplayed once early by playing a Plains instead of a second Island T2 in the hopes that I'd draw Djinn for the T3 value but the earliness of my big fliers didn't seem to matter this game. He showed me his final card which was Syncopate to deal with my final huge flier before I played it---with no blue mana on board. He was playing straight three color but he did have some ramp and fixing so he probably got a little unlucky in the second game.
Record: 2-1

Uh oh, it's the mill deck. I love that that's actually a threatening statement in this format. This dude's deck was a masterpiece, truly, and the mill plan was really only secondary to the huge amounts of value he got. I offered the split but the dude declined. I always get a little bit incensed at that, but he's well within his rights I suppose. Game 1I kept a weird hand in that I had no Islands or blue spells but both my white 2 drop Knights and a few other early plays. Considering how heavily my deck skews blue I though that was very strange, and certainly a lower power draw for me. Ultimately I hoped I'd be able to get through for a chunk of damage before his cards became relevant but he stone walled me with a lowly 2/3 on turn 3. From there the value game began. I played flier after flier but he had his Excavator out, then Tatyova, then Sphinxes of his own, plus Eviscerates, Time of Ice, and a Spider to deal with my fliers. On the ground he had it locked down with Saprolings and butts so I couldn't get through for enough damage even when I had enough fliers to get through---he just dropped historic card after historic card to mill me and gain life/draw more cards. I scooped a little early to move on to game 2 before I milled out. Game 2 This one was pretty hilarious. Knights early again, again they get stonewalled. I get my fliers out a little earlier than he can deal with them so I get some early damage in. He doesn't manage to get his engine online in its complete form and has to start putting up blockers to deal with my fliers. I play Evra after I baited out an eviscerate with an early Tempest Djinn, and then Dub her next turn. If I could get one good huge hit in with her then he'd never be able to pressure my life total all game, and I'd slowly be able to remove blockers one by one every attack step.With 5 mana up I risked the life total swap---and it connected! Up to 28 life with a 22/4 first strike/lifelinker in play. He threw Sphinxes and other creatures in front of Evra every turn until finally he drew another Eviscerate and killed it. By that point I was at 70 life so I was decently safe, I just needed to get him down. He was playing Fungal Plots as part of his disgusting value engine so I couldn't understand why he threw fliers in front of Evra...but more on that later. Then he drops Multani and I see now where his wincon is at. I look at my hand---Merfolk Trickster. The literal perfect counter to Multani. All I have to do is player it, Multani dies and I can swing in for lethal! I do it, then I double take---Multani's ability to come back from the graveyard to the hand can happen at instant speed so all removing him does is make my opponent waste his mana on my turn. I opt not to swing for fear of losing Zahid to Multani and not being able to muster enough damage to kill him on the following turn. When he doesn't replay Multani I realize what a moron I am---I have no idea why I thought he'd be able to replay Multani at instant speed! The game goes on a little longer but ultimately I manage to just squeeze in past the few blockers he had by swinging with everything I had every turn, forcing him to play smaller stuff to block rather than replaying Multani. By the time we finished game 2, there were only 6 minutes left. I said 'There's no way we're finishing game 3, want to split?' He asks his friend who was sitting next to him---his friend told him to do whatever he wanted. Then he explained why he didn't want to split---his friend gave him the money for entry so he felt he had to try to win his friend the most packs possible. I can definitely respect that. We ended up splitting and talking a little while after.
In talking after, I asked him why he killed Evra with Eviscerate rather than a flier since he could have chump blocked with Saprolings all day. His friend was similarly confused, he said. Dude goes: 'I had to block the flying lifelink first striker I would have just lost!' I was like....'Uhh.....flying?' We all kinda lost it at that point. None of us said anything because all three of us had kinda figured those were the blocks he wanted to make, why would I second guess him? Maybe he was worried about a trample trick or something and so wanted to put more toughness in front of Evra? I don't know. Anyway the punts and counter-punts were pretty strong across the match but overall a fun set of games.

We split the 4 packs we were given 2-2 and I took a couple and opened nothing of value. Other dude opens a Karn. I had a 50% chance of opening massive value and blew it. Blehhhhhhhhhhhh.
Final Record: 2-1-1

Verdant Force (again, sigh)
Naban, Dean of Iteration

1 singular mythic out of a potential what...18 ish? Variance really caught up with me value-wise this time unfortunately. Can't be too upset of course since I've been opening pretty well overall. That Karn near-miss will sting for a while though.