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Grats England on winning via penalty shootouts

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Somebody in our group only had time to play in this one, so he made it count: Bolas, Crucible, Liliana in his pool, Sarkhan in prize packs.

My B and R were unplayable overall, with my only good B cards having BB costs, and shock/lightning strike to splash with the UR and GW lands. I was looking at UW splashing R removal and the UG uncommon at first, but looking again I only really had that uncommon, a couple of flyers, Rebuilding and Dwindle in U. No artifacts for the 3/2 replacing itself, no instant/sorceries for Salvager of Secrets... on the other hand G was extra bland, a couple auras, rabid bite... still, contrary to UW it had a plan, so I went with that. Didn't particularly expect to make Vinemare strong or anything, and I even ran Rustwing Falcon.
Pool was bad, and I didn't even have Divinations to try and pair Rebuilding with Psychic Corrosion for funsies.

Round 1 was against a better UW pool with a bunch of flyers, some bounce/counters (so bad match-up for me) and Cleansing Nova. I kept 2 lands on the draw game 1 as I had an elf in hand and never drew another.
Game 2 I kept 5 lands with Druid again and the UG uncommon to play on turn 3. I expected him to have bounce but since I was likely to flood I'd be fine to exchange tempo for CA. I won that quickly still.
Game 3 he just flooded super hard (11 lands 7-8 spells?) and Ajani's Last Stand didn't let him get full value out of the Nova, but he had Invoke the Divine in Hand and simply didn't think about using it beforehand. I kept hitting with the avatar to check for bounce/counters before playing more creatures and shoving an aura on the token, so after he countered a thing I killed him.
1-0

Round 2 vs another better pool, UGw this time. He's choke-full of flyers and some defenses but simply never drew many of them. Games were still somewhat close as he had a good clock and he copied my creatures with that U aura a couple times after getting value out of ETBs. Vivian's Invocation allowed me to clear a deathtouch creature once, but with so many 1/3s or 2/2s in my deck I wasn't confident. Stag also allowed me to tap his own UG uncommon (tho I lost it to blocks) so I could Take Vegeance on it before he could drop counters.
Thorn dude elf came in clutch when I started getting a lot of mana.
2-0

Round 3 on table #1 vs yet another better pool, BW grind. Some removal, that BB rare, Gravedigger, Reassembling Skeleton, Macabre Waltz... game 1 went t1 Falcon, t2 Talons on it, t5 Knightly Valor or something. 4/5 vigilance trample flyer got there while I could hold off his 2/2s and 2/3s on the ground. He showed me 2 Take Vengeance in his hand, without vigilance I'd prob have lost.
Game 2 he just ground me out, no auras to use and he had the Hieromancer thing to exile my stuff. So we trade, he shows me some recursion, we trade again, etc.
Game 3 came to the wire after I kept aura, take vengeance, that 3/3 gargoyle, and 4 lands; then proceeded to draw Daybreak Chaplain and 5 lands.
I had him low after it was made clear he didn't have removal and Blanchwood Armor turned Skyscanner into a 5/5. But my opponent had me super low because he went somewhat wide and I even had to use Inspired Charge defensively to kill a 1/4 and reassembling skeleton without losing my creatures, letting the bears through. He didn't know what I was splashing U for and played more cautious than he needed: after playing Ajani he had me dead on board because 1/1, 2/2 and 2/2 became 2/2, 2/2 and 3/3, and I was at 4 or 5 with a single blocker. He didn't attack. Next turn I was 1 mana short of giving Talons + innate pump to Thorn Lieutenant and playing a blocker, which would let me live after forcing him to throw a big creature under the big trampler. I flooded just too much in the end (or would have needed 1 more forest for Blanchwood).
Then he had Mightly Leap and I died to the flyer.
2-1 against better decks because I got lucky.

Deck wasn't fun to play, decisions were mostly "when do I commit this" and sometimes how I block, and I was entirely contingent on them not having or not holding their removal to avoid offering 2-for-1s.

The pool (sort by custom for my build).

It's the single worst pool I've ever opened, I think. Only bombs can't be splashed, bunch of shit rares, you'd think with B and W so low on cards I'd have plenty of choice amongst the rest. Instead it had ramp and draw and nothing decent to dig for, going from 1/3s for 2 to 4/5s or 4/2s for 5, with 1/1s and 2/2s in-between. No removal, but some kind of ghetto fxing to splash Electrify (didn't dare going for Bone Dragon, prob should have).

It was a steaming hot pile of shit, no good cards, no fun cards, no expensive cards.
Round 1 vs UGw my opponent started both games with his splash source, Hieromancer's removal and Departed Deckhand (unblockable pirate illusion, basically) in hand, so I took damage and then my defense got exiled. My "wincons" are 2x Thornhide Wolves and my opponent drops 5/5s. Or I keep the board entirely clean to drop Vivien, so my opponent calmy untaps and exile it. Stuff like that. Goreclaw and Bristling Boar isn't fair.
0-1

Round 2 vs GW Super slow opponent. He's playing multiples of Dryad Greenseekers, Bristling Boars and Thornhide Wolves.
Game 1 I get wrecked because my 1/3s can't triple block the boars, and when I finally stabilise he topdecks Mighty Leap to finish me. Game 2 he doesn't get a 5th land (Dryads help combat flood, not screw) till Vivien is in there with Essence Scatter up. Couple more turns to hit the emblem then sweep him.
Game 3 we go to time, I think I'm ahead 'cause he uses all his removal and I still have my counters for his big creatures, and Vivien somewhere in there.
0-1-1

Round 3 vs GWu with a pretty stupid pool, he matches my record 'cause he had to face aggro when he didn't have enough low drops in to defend himself.
Runic Armasaur, Mentor of the Meek with a bunch of targets, Pelakka Wurm, he played a 4th rare which I forgot too. And Vigilant Baloth, and other stuff like that. I discovered that 3/7 Vigilance is something I can't beat, even Electrify would just punish me hard with a double-block. I flooded drawing more than half lands until I managed to chain Omenspeakers thanks to the scry. Of course that's when he dropped Wurm and I topdecked Essence Scatter right after.
Took him ~30 minutes to kill me so I went fast with game 2. Armasaur t4 so my suited up creature can't attack, then take vengeance when I have to suit it further. Whatever he also had t7 Wurm I was dead.
0-2-1

People were appalled at the sight of a planeswalker.
I got to show them that when your creature suite is bad, Vivien is bad. You can't even cut creatures too much because you want her to hit.