Sorry if I’m going over old ground, I looked back a few pages and didn’t see discussion of it.
I don’t understand the relevance of the 2/2 body in unfair matchups. What are Dredge or Hardened Scales or Amulet or Tron doing to disrupt us that cares about the toughness of our creatures?
So, I’ve been out of the Jeskai game for a while, but is there any particular reason we don’t play the Kiki/Resto combo? Having an instant-kill to handle the unfair decks and playing the snap/bolt tempo game against the fair decks always seemed to work well for twin. I know Kiki/Resto is 1 turn slower, but it still seems better than praying to draw your sideboard cards.
I've been toying with a more permission-heavy list and wanted to see if ya'll had any feedback. It's been playing pretty well so far in testing, but I haven't had a chance to bring it to a real event yet.
Recently thought about jumping back to this deck (you can see my PPTQ top 8 report way back on like page 7 or something) but not sure where people are with it right now. Here's what I've been toying with:
Report:
Note that sideboarding is from memory, and might be slightly off.
Round 1: Soul Sisters (2-0)
Game 1: He opened with two Soul Sisters. I opened with Lingering Souls. His turn 4 play was Ranger of Eos, finding two Serra Ascendants in his deck. I left up mana the following turn to Negate whatever was under his Windbrisk Heights, but when he attacked with all three of his creatures it turned out to be another Ranger of Eos, fetching a third Serra Ascendant and a Martyr of Sands. I traded my Souls tokens for his Soul Sisters, and he put one of his Ascendants in play. I Pathed it at the end of his turn, untapped, and Inquisitioned a second one out of his hand. The third one ran into a Murderous Cut. He landed a Spectral Procession and Honor of the Pure, but I flashbacked Lingering Souls and slammed a Tasigur and a Sorin. Once I landed a Mentor and Negated his Path to Exile, he scooped up his cards.
Game 2: He opened with Soul Sister turn 1, Ajani's Pridemate turn 2, Soul Sister and Serra Ascendant turn 3. I shrugged and cast Zealous Persecution pre-combat (card is nuts), then untapped and Pathed his Pridemate. He tried a Spectral Procession but when he tried to cast Honor of the Pure the following turn he ran into a second Zealous Persecution in response (card is nuts). When I stuck a Tasigur, he packed it in.
Round 2: Wannabe-Pod Abzan (2-0) - This guy top 8-ed
Game 1: I don't remember much about this game, it was quite long. Near the end the board state was something like: My Monastery Mentor, 4 or so Monks, and 6 or so Spirits versus his Thragtusk, Elemental Token (from Voice of Resurgence), Loxodon Smiter, and a few Spirit tokens. I swung out and cast several spells, pushing the unblocked creatures up to lethal damage (Prowess is powerful).
Game 2: I keep a 2-lander with 3 Think Twice, since I'm expecting a long grindy game. Opponent opens with Birds of Paradise, I open with Creeping Tar Pit. Opponent follows with Birds of Paradise, Scavenging Ooze, I play a fetch land. Turn 3 is weird, opponent plays a land, swings for 2 with Ooze, and passes. I crack a fetch end of turn, planning to Think Twice, but opponent uses Birds to cast a Chord of Calling for 2 in response, fetching Voice of Resurgence, so now Think Twice is off the table. I untap, draw, don't hit my third land, and elect to Path the Voice immediately rather than Think Twice hoping to hit a land, wincing at the ramp I am giving my opponent. My opponent untaps and casts Lingering Souls, which is fine with me because I untap and cast Zealous Persecution (card is nuts). I get down a Mentor when I hit three lands, he Paths me into my fourth land, which I use to cast another Mentor. He kills this one too, but I hit his Ooze with removal in response and now I have a Monk on an otherwise empty board. He untaps and plays KTK Sorin, minusing immediately for a Vampire. I get my fifth land, attack with my monk at Sorin. He is forced to block with the Vampire, and I cast and flashback a Think Twice to draw two cards and turn the block into a chump block (Prowess is powerful). He plays a Siege Rhino and pluses Sorin, I untap and kill the Rhino, then cast another Think Twice and kill his Sorin. This game goes on a while longer, but it ends with him at 12 and me attacking for 8 with Creeping Tar Pit, a Monk token, and Tasigur. He lets everything through, and Zealous Persecution does a Boros Charm impression to end it (card is nuts/Prowess is powerful).
Round 3: Tarmo Twin (2-0) - This guy also top 8-ed
Game 1: This game took a long time, and very little happened. I removed a lot of creatures and he bounced Tasigurs with Cryptic Commands. All around, it was a good time. I don't remember how I got there, but I eventually did.
Game 2: I played this game SUPER conservatively, largely because I wound up with two Tectonic Edges in play and was very limited on colored mana. There was a very long time where he was at 4 life and I was holding a Lingering Souls and a Tasigur and not casting anything. Why? The rest of my hand was Disenchant, Negate, Path to Exile, Snapcaster Mage. I had decided by that point that I would hold up 3 answers to the combo at all times, since it was basically the only way I could lose, and eventually we both drew enough lands that I could kill him with Creeping Tar Pit after he Cryptic Commanded my spirits pre-combat.
Round 4: U/R Twin (2-0) - This guy ALSO top 8-ed
Game 1: The last time I played this guy at a modern tournament, he was on Amulet Bloom and I was on Death and Taxes, so he had the short end of the stick and must have felt better when he sat down, since he was on U/R Twin this time. Unfortunately for him, I was also on a different deck, which again has a very favorable matchup against him. Game 1 went about as expected, I ripped apart his hand with discard spells, countered his Cryptic Command when he tried to bounce a Tasigur and draw, Tec Edged his Lighthouse, etc. Twin really struggles with this deck for the same reason it struggles against B/W tokens, our answers match up very well against their threats, and their answers match up very poorly against ours.
Game 2: I tend to play pretty conservatively against Twin post-board (see game 2 of round 3), but I actually somehow got a threat-heavy, disruption-light hand in the midgame and had to go for it. With Tasigur and 4 Spirits in play, as well as two Creeping Tar Pits and 5 other lands, and my opponent at 5 life, I announced my attack. My opponent flashes in Pestermite, which I allow, and taps Tasigur. I activate one of my Creeping Tar Pits, and announce my attack again. My opponent flashes in another Pestermite, his last card, and targets the Tar Pit I activated. I tap the Tar Pit he targeted for black mana and tap my remaining two lands (Island and Plains) to activate my second Tar Pit. My opponent scoops up his cards.
Round 5: Affinity (ID) - This guy also top 8-ed, obviously
I actually think I have a decent match against Affinity, especially with my sideboard plan:
However, the standings looked like I could double draw into top 8. Also, by this point I was at 24 straight hours without eating anything, so we fist bumped and went to a nearby deli and got sandwiches. Best round of the day.
Round 6: Tasigur Twin (ID) - This guy ALSO top 8-ed, clearly
I was the number two seed at this point and got paired against the number one seed, who was 5-0. At this point with tiebreakers I was basically locked for top 8 even with a loss, so perhaps I should've played it out and tried to claim top seed going into top 8, but I still wanted to rest up a little after the first four rounds, and also watch my friend play for top 8, so we shook hands and signed the slip and I got to rest for another round. Plus, I still wound up being third seed, so that was fine.
Quarterfinals: Sultai Delve (2-1)
Game 1: I got a weird draw that involved my mana base on turn 3 (and a few turns thereafter) being a Creeping Tar Pit and two Plains. He, on the other hand, Inquisitioned me on turn 1, taking a Path to Exile. I Thoughtseized him back and saw Goyf, Inquisition, Inquisition, Jace Architect of Thought, another land, and Spell Snare. Not having any good answers in my deck for Jace, I felt compelled to take it. He slammed the turn 2 Goyf and I shrugged, hoping to find a Path to Exile or Murderous Cut or Lingering Souls anywhere in the top several cards of my deck, since I was holding a Thought Scour and a Think Twice. That failed to happen until I was at 3 life, with that same awkward 3-land mana base. I topdecked another Thought Scour and cast it on myself with my sole black source, dumping a Lingering Souls into my graveyard. I crossed my fingers for the draw off Thought Scour and hit a Tectonic Edge. I played it and cast Monastery Mentor with my remaining 3 lands to chump block so I could untap and flashback Lingering Souls the following turn. He let Mentor resolve, but showed me Abrupt Decay and I lost a game for the first time in the tournament.
Game 2: This time I had the turn two beater, Thought Scouring into a turn two Tasigur into turn three disruption. He struggled to keep up for a while, but I Thoughtseized away his Damnation, leaving him with a removal suite that had no hope of matching up to Tasigur and Lingering Souls. He was also a little land light, and I used Tectonic Edge to destroy his fourth land twice, keeping him from ever really stabilizing.
Game 3: This one was a little longer. In the end, he drew about 12 lands and I drew about 6, but his deck didn't seem to have any of the cards that make you really want to get into that board state. Eventually, the fact that I had drawn about 6 more real cards than him got me there.
Semifinals: Wannabe-Pod Abzan (2-1) - Same opponent from round 2.
Game 1: This game was a nightmare. First of all, it went way long. Second, it involved a ton of back and forth which involved misplays all over the map from both of us as the game dragged on. He had quite a toolbox, including a weird interaction where he cast an Orzhov Pontiff, minusing my team. I responded with Zealous Persecution, killing the Pontiff and his Birds, and saving my tokens (card is nuts). Then he attacked with his Voice of Resurgence Elemental token, I blocked with a Spirit. When he pointed to his two creatures in play, I reminded him that Zealous Persecution was still giving all his creatures -1/-1 (card is nuts). I learned when he Chorded for Spike Feeder at the end of my turn that he runs the infinite life combo, he untapped and dropped Archangel of Thune but I Pathed it in response to the first Spike Feeder counter being removed. We just kept going, with me briefly seizing control after playing Sorin, but then misplaying and double blocking a creature with my only two blockers despite having Vault of the Archangel in play, letting another one get through and hit Sorin. Still, I had stabilized at a fairly high life total and we both had basically empty boards, but that's when things started to go sour. With his hand empty, I wound up drawing a couple of discard spells, a couple of useless fetch lands, and somehow no Creeping Tar Pits. My opponent, meanwhile got to Chord for Reivellark and also landed his Gavony Township, which I just completely forgot to kill with Tectonic Edge. I had a Murderous Cut in hand, but using it on a Reivellark is just a slow concession, so I waited to find another answer to Reivellark. When Lingering Souls came off the top of his deck I didn't really have a choice. Facing down his whole army, I topdecked a Think Twice, cast it and hit a Tar Pit, flashed it back and hit another Think Twice, and that one finally drew one of my two remaining Mentors. Oh well.
Game 2: My opponent had a fast opening, rushing straight into Birds into Lingering Souls into Gavony Township, and going the beatdown route by pumping his Spirits every turn. I, meanwhile, bought some time by using Timely Reinforcements for just the lifegain mode (I had a Monastery Mentor and my own Lingering Souls tokens in play), and cracking back to slowly lower his life total. He eventually swung out, I chump blocked with Spirit tokens. Noting that he was tapped out, I looked at my Mentor and two Monks, did some quick math, untapped, cast removal on his one blocker, cast a Think Twice, flashbacked Lingering Souls, and pointed out that my attackers, despite having a total base power of 4, were currently swinging for an exactly lethal 13 damage (Prowess is powerful).
Game 3: My opponent actually had a turn two Lingering Souls this game off of a Birds of Paradise. On my turn 3, with me at 17 life and him at 18, I cast Timely Reinforcements with my board empty. With it on the stack, I noticed that he had a fetchland in play, so I casually observed "This time I get both parts;" a reference to my casting it only for life in game 2. He shrugged glumly and I got my 6 life. When he cracked his fetch at the end of my turn I said "I was hoping you wouldn't notice that," and then explained the interaction with Timely Reinforcements. Normally I wouldn't try to put an opponent on tilt like that, but I could tell that we were both fading after the long day and the long match and I thought that a mental state advantage might wind up being far more important than a board state advantage. This all paid off a turn later, we traded swings, then I played a Monastery Mentor on my turn four and he Chorded end of turn, fetching Sin Collector. Glumly, I showed him my hand of Tasigur, Path to Exile, Zealous Persecution, Murderous Cut, and something else (Negate or Think Twice, I believe), and to my utter astonishment he picked Path. This made a little more sense when he untapped and killed the mentor, as I had no cards that I could cast to get a Monk token, but he nevertheless got totally blown out when I untapped and cast Zealous Persecution (card is nuts). Lacking a better option, he Pathed one of his own tokens trying to find a land. I let him have it, and immediately blew up his Gavony Township with Tectonic Edge when the land hit play. My tokens, still pumped with Zealous Persecution (card is nuts) hit him for 6, dropping him to 8, and post-combat I dropped Tasigur by delving all the cards I had just dumped into my yard. That was pretty much the turning point, the game dragged on for a few turns thereafter, but he never really got a foothold back into the game.
Finals - Split
My finals opponent was my round 3 opponent (I wound up beating my semifinals opponent and then my finals opponent in rounds 2 and 3 of the swiss, the fact that I had beaten 3 other people there already is one reason I felt really good heading into top 8). He was interested in the RPTQ invite and I certainly was not (since I don't have any time to really travel during the school year I am unlikely to be able to attend an RPTQ and I ABSOLUTELY couldn't attend a Pro Tour), so we rearranged the prizes for first and second and then I conceded. He got to walk away with an invite and a DTK fat pack, I walked away with a Revised Underground Sea and a DTK booster box.
Here's the mono-white list I've been testing with on Cockatrice. It's been doing pretty well, and has GREAT games against U/R Delver. (Also, first post!)
1) I'm not a huge fan of Crucible of Worlds. It seems like I only ever have time to play it in "win-more" situations.
2) As could probably be expected, Judge's Familiar is WAY less useful on the draw. I generally board it out against non-control match-ups when my opponent is on the play.
3) Sundering Growth allows for some truly hilarious mid-combat shenanigans when you have a Golem in play.
I don’t understand the relevance of the 2/2 body in unfair matchups. What are Dredge or Hardened Scales or Amulet or Tron doing to disrupt us that cares about the toughness of our creatures?
I've been toying with a more permission-heavy list and wanted to see if ya'll had any feedback. It's been playing pretty well so far in testing, but I haven't had a chance to bring it to a real event yet.
List:
4 Island
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Mystic Gate
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Path to Exile
4 Condemn
1 Secure the Wastes
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
4 Ancestral Vision
4 Negate
4 Deprive
1 Cryptic Command
2 Detention Sphere
2 Supreme Verdict
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Ceremonious Rejection
4 Dispel
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Supreme Verdict
2 Plains
1 Island
2 Swamp
2 Shambling Vent
4 Flooded Strand
3 Ghost Quarter
1 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
4 Polluted Delta
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Watery Grave
Creature (9)
3 Monastery Mentor
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
4 Path to Exile
4 Lingering Souls
4 Serum Visions
4 Thought Scour
2 Negate
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
2 Murderous Cut
1 Anguished Unmaking
3 Esper Charm
2 Fulminator Mage
1 Disenchant
2 Stony Silence
3 Timely Reinforcements
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2 Negate
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Esper Charm
Sideboard Plan
Vs. Jund:
-2 Thoughtseize
-3 Inquisition of Kozilek
-2 Negate
+1 Esper Charm
+1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
+3 Timely Reinforcements
+2 Fulminator Mage
Vs. Jeskai Harbinger:
-4 Path to Exile
-2 Thought Scour
-2 Murderous Cut
+1 Esper Charm
+2 Fulminator Mage
+1 Surgical Extraction
+2 Negate
+2 Fulminator Mage
Vs. Merfolk:
-2 Negate
-3 Inquisition of Kozilek
-2 Thoughtseize
+2 Fulminator Mage
+1 Disenchant
+3 Timely Reinforcements
+1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
Vs. Infect:
-3 Monastery Mentor
-3 Esper Charm
+2 Fulminator Mage
+2 Negate
+2 Zealous Persecution
Vs. Burn:
-2 Thoughtseize
-1 Anguished Unmaking
-2 Esper Charm
+3 Timely Reinforcements
+2 Negate
Vs. Affinity:
-2 Negate
-3 Inquisition of Kozilek
-2 Thoughtseize
-3 Esper Charm
+2 Fulminator Mage
+1 Disenchant
+2 Stony Silence
+3 Timely Reinforcements
+2 Zealous Persecution
Vs. Gx Tron:
-4 Lingering Souls
-2 Thought Scour
-2 Murderous Cut
+2 Fulminator Mage
+1 Disenchant
+2 Stony Silence
+2 Negate
+1 Surgical Extraction
+1 Esper Charm
Vs. Abzan Company:
-1 Thought Scour
-2 Negate
-3 Inquisition of Kozilek
-2 Thoughtseize
+3 Timely Reinforcements
+1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
+1 Surgical Extraction
+2 Zealous Persecution
+1 Esper Charm
Anyone tried anything like this recently? How does it look?
Played in a 50-ish person PPTQ over the weekend. Here's the list I brought:
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
3 Creeping Tar Pit
3 Tectonic Edge
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Godless Shrine
1 Watery Grave
2 Plains
1 Island
2 Swamp
Creatures:
4 Monastery Mentor
1 Snapcaster Mage
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
4 Path to Exile
4 Lingering Souls
4 Thought Scour
1 Mana Leak
2 Negate
4 Think Twice
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
3 Murderous Cut
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Tectonic Edge
2 Disenchant
2 Stony Silence
4 Timely Reinforcements
1 Negate
2 Thoughtseize
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Utter End
Report:
Note that sideboarding is from memory, and might be slightly off.
Round 1: Soul Sisters (2-0)
Game 1: He opened with two Soul Sisters. I opened with Lingering Souls. His turn 4 play was Ranger of Eos, finding two Serra Ascendants in his deck. I left up mana the following turn to Negate whatever was under his Windbrisk Heights, but when he attacked with all three of his creatures it turned out to be another Ranger of Eos, fetching a third Serra Ascendant and a Martyr of Sands. I traded my Souls tokens for his Soul Sisters, and he put one of his Ascendants in play. I Pathed it at the end of his turn, untapped, and Inquisitioned a second one out of his hand. The third one ran into a Murderous Cut. He landed a Spectral Procession and Honor of the Pure, but I flashbacked Lingering Souls and slammed a Tasigur and a Sorin. Once I landed a Mentor and Negated his Path to Exile, he scooped up his cards.
Sideboard:
In: 2 Zealous Persecution, 1 Utter End, 2 Disenchant, 1 Negate, 1 Tectonic Edge
Out: 4 Inquisition of Kozilek, 2 Thoughtseize, 1 Creeping Tar Pit
Game 2: He opened with Soul Sister turn 1, Ajani's Pridemate turn 2, Soul Sister and Serra Ascendant turn 3. I shrugged and cast Zealous Persecution pre-combat (card is nuts), then untapped and Pathed his Pridemate. He tried a Spectral Procession but when he tried to cast Honor of the Pure the following turn he ran into a second Zealous Persecution in response (card is nuts). When I stuck a Tasigur, he packed it in.
Round 2: Wannabe-Pod Abzan (2-0) - This guy top 8-ed
Game 1: I don't remember much about this game, it was quite long. Near the end the board state was something like: My Monastery Mentor, 4 or so Monks, and 6 or so Spirits versus his Thragtusk, Elemental Token (from Voice of Resurgence), Loxodon Smiter, and a few Spirit tokens. I swung out and cast several spells, pushing the unblocked creatures up to lethal damage (Prowess is powerful).
Sideboard:
In: 1 Utter End, 2 Zealous Persecution, 4 Timely Reinforcements, 1 Tectonic Edge
Out: 2 Thoughtseize, 4 Inquisition of Kozilek, 2 Thought Scour
Game 2: I keep a 2-lander with 3 Think Twice, since I'm expecting a long grindy game. Opponent opens with Birds of Paradise, I open with Creeping Tar Pit. Opponent follows with Birds of Paradise, Scavenging Ooze, I play a fetch land. Turn 3 is weird, opponent plays a land, swings for 2 with Ooze, and passes. I crack a fetch end of turn, planning to Think Twice, but opponent uses Birds to cast a Chord of Calling for 2 in response, fetching Voice of Resurgence, so now Think Twice is off the table. I untap, draw, don't hit my third land, and elect to Path the Voice immediately rather than Think Twice hoping to hit a land, wincing at the ramp I am giving my opponent. My opponent untaps and casts Lingering Souls, which is fine with me because I untap and cast Zealous Persecution (card is nuts). I get down a Mentor when I hit three lands, he Paths me into my fourth land, which I use to cast another Mentor. He kills this one too, but I hit his Ooze with removal in response and now I have a Monk on an otherwise empty board. He untaps and plays KTK Sorin, minusing immediately for a Vampire. I get my fifth land, attack with my monk at Sorin. He is forced to block with the Vampire, and I cast and flashback a Think Twice to draw two cards and turn the block into a chump block (Prowess is powerful). He plays a Siege Rhino and pluses Sorin, I untap and kill the Rhino, then cast another Think Twice and kill his Sorin. This game goes on a while longer, but it ends with him at 12 and me attacking for 8 with Creeping Tar Pit, a Monk token, and Tasigur. He lets everything through, and Zealous Persecution does a Boros Charm impression to end it (card is nuts/Prowess is powerful).
Round 3: Tarmo Twin (2-0) - This guy also top 8-ed
Game 1: This game took a long time, and very little happened. I removed a lot of creatures and he bounced Tasigurs with Cryptic Commands. All around, it was a good time. I don't remember how I got there, but I eventually did.
Sideboard:
In: 1 Utter End, 2 Disenchant, 1 Negate, 2 Thoughtseize
Out: 4 Thought Scour, 2 Lingering Souls
Game 2: I played this game SUPER conservatively, largely because I wound up with two Tectonic Edges in play and was very limited on colored mana. There was a very long time where he was at 4 life and I was holding a Lingering Souls and a Tasigur and not casting anything. Why? The rest of my hand was Disenchant, Negate, Path to Exile, Snapcaster Mage. I had decided by that point that I would hold up 3 answers to the combo at all times, since it was basically the only way I could lose, and eventually we both drew enough lands that I could kill him with Creeping Tar Pit after he Cryptic Commanded my spirits pre-combat.
Round 4: U/R Twin (2-0) - This guy ALSO top 8-ed
Game 1: The last time I played this guy at a modern tournament, he was on Amulet Bloom and I was on Death and Taxes, so he had the short end of the stick and must have felt better when he sat down, since he was on U/R Twin this time. Unfortunately for him, I was also on a different deck, which again has a very favorable matchup against him. Game 1 went about as expected, I ripped apart his hand with discard spells, countered his Cryptic Command when he tried to bounce a Tasigur and draw, Tec Edged his Lighthouse, etc. Twin really struggles with this deck for the same reason it struggles against B/W tokens, our answers match up very well against their threats, and their answers match up very poorly against ours.
Sideboard:
In: 1 Utter End, 2 Disenchant, 1 Negate, 2 Thoughtseize
Out: 4 Thought Scour, 2 Lingering Souls
Game 2: I tend to play pretty conservatively against Twin post-board (see game 2 of round 3), but I actually somehow got a threat-heavy, disruption-light hand in the midgame and had to go for it. With Tasigur and 4 Spirits in play, as well as two Creeping Tar Pits and 5 other lands, and my opponent at 5 life, I announced my attack. My opponent flashes in Pestermite, which I allow, and taps Tasigur. I activate one of my Creeping Tar Pits, and announce my attack again. My opponent flashes in another Pestermite, his last card, and targets the Tar Pit I activated. I tap the Tar Pit he targeted for black mana and tap my remaining two lands (Island and Plains) to activate my second Tar Pit. My opponent scoops up his cards.
Round 5: Affinity (ID) - This guy also top 8-ed, obviously
I actually think I have a decent match against Affinity, especially with my sideboard plan:
In: 4x Timely Reinforcements, 2x Zealous Persecution, 2x Disenchant, 2x Stony Silence, 1x Utter End, 1x Tectonic Edge
Out: 4x Think Twice, 2x Negate, 4x Inquisition of Kozilek, 2x Thoughtseize
However, the standings looked like I could double draw into top 8. Also, by this point I was at 24 straight hours without eating anything, so we fist bumped and went to a nearby deli and got sandwiches. Best round of the day.
Round 6: Tasigur Twin (ID) - This guy ALSO top 8-ed, clearly
I was the number two seed at this point and got paired against the number one seed, who was 5-0. At this point with tiebreakers I was basically locked for top 8 even with a loss, so perhaps I should've played it out and tried to claim top seed going into top 8, but I still wanted to rest up a little after the first four rounds, and also watch my friend play for top 8, so we shook hands and signed the slip and I got to rest for another round. Plus, I still wound up being third seed, so that was fine.
Quarterfinals: Sultai Delve (2-1)
Game 1: I got a weird draw that involved my mana base on turn 3 (and a few turns thereafter) being a Creeping Tar Pit and two Plains. He, on the other hand, Inquisitioned me on turn 1, taking a Path to Exile. I Thoughtseized him back and saw Goyf, Inquisition, Inquisition, Jace Architect of Thought, another land, and Spell Snare. Not having any good answers in my deck for Jace, I felt compelled to take it. He slammed the turn 2 Goyf and I shrugged, hoping to find a Path to Exile or Murderous Cut or Lingering Souls anywhere in the top several cards of my deck, since I was holding a Thought Scour and a Think Twice. That failed to happen until I was at 3 life, with that same awkward 3-land mana base. I topdecked another Thought Scour and cast it on myself with my sole black source, dumping a Lingering Souls into my graveyard. I crossed my fingers for the draw off Thought Scour and hit a Tectonic Edge. I played it and cast Monastery Mentor with my remaining 3 lands to chump block so I could untap and flashback Lingering Souls the following turn. He let Mentor resolve, but showed me Abrupt Decay and I lost a game for the first time in the tournament.
In: 2 Thoughtseize, 1 Negate
Out: 2 Thought Scour, 1 Zealous Persecution
Game 2: This time I had the turn two beater, Thought Scouring into a turn two Tasigur into turn three disruption. He struggled to keep up for a while, but I Thoughtseized away his Damnation, leaving him with a removal suite that had no hope of matching up to Tasigur and Lingering Souls. He was also a little land light, and I used Tectonic Edge to destroy his fourth land twice, keeping him from ever really stabilizing.
Game 3: This one was a little longer. In the end, he drew about 12 lands and I drew about 6, but his deck didn't seem to have any of the cards that make you really want to get into that board state. Eventually, the fact that I had drawn about 6 more real cards than him got me there.
Semifinals: Wannabe-Pod Abzan (2-1) - Same opponent from round 2.
Game 1: This game was a nightmare. First of all, it went way long. Second, it involved a ton of back and forth which involved misplays all over the map from both of us as the game dragged on. He had quite a toolbox, including a weird interaction where he cast an Orzhov Pontiff, minusing my team. I responded with Zealous Persecution, killing the Pontiff and his Birds, and saving my tokens (card is nuts). Then he attacked with his Voice of Resurgence Elemental token, I blocked with a Spirit. When he pointed to his two creatures in play, I reminded him that Zealous Persecution was still giving all his creatures -1/-1 (card is nuts). I learned when he Chorded for Spike Feeder at the end of my turn that he runs the infinite life combo, he untapped and dropped Archangel of Thune but I Pathed it in response to the first Spike Feeder counter being removed. We just kept going, with me briefly seizing control after playing Sorin, but then misplaying and double blocking a creature with my only two blockers despite having Vault of the Archangel in play, letting another one get through and hit Sorin. Still, I had stabilized at a fairly high life total and we both had basically empty boards, but that's when things started to go sour. With his hand empty, I wound up drawing a couple of discard spells, a couple of useless fetch lands, and somehow no Creeping Tar Pits. My opponent, meanwhile got to Chord for Reivellark and also landed his Gavony Township, which I just completely forgot to kill with Tectonic Edge. I had a Murderous Cut in hand, but using it on a Reivellark is just a slow concession, so I waited to find another answer to Reivellark. When Lingering Souls came off the top of his deck I didn't really have a choice. Facing down his whole army, I topdecked a Think Twice, cast it and hit a Tar Pit, flashed it back and hit another Think Twice, and that one finally drew one of my two remaining Mentors. Oh well.
Sideboard:
In: 1 Utter End, 2 Zealous Persecution, 4 Timely Reinforcements, 1 Tectonic Edge
Out: 2 Thoughtseize, 4 Inquisition of Kozilek, 2 Thought Scour
Game 2: My opponent had a fast opening, rushing straight into Birds into Lingering Souls into Gavony Township, and going the beatdown route by pumping his Spirits every turn. I, meanwhile, bought some time by using Timely Reinforcements for just the lifegain mode (I had a Monastery Mentor and my own Lingering Souls tokens in play), and cracking back to slowly lower his life total. He eventually swung out, I chump blocked with Spirit tokens. Noting that he was tapped out, I looked at my Mentor and two Monks, did some quick math, untapped, cast removal on his one blocker, cast a Think Twice, flashbacked Lingering Souls, and pointed out that my attackers, despite having a total base power of 4, were currently swinging for an exactly lethal 13 damage (Prowess is powerful).
Game 3: My opponent actually had a turn two Lingering Souls this game off of a Birds of Paradise. On my turn 3, with me at 17 life and him at 18, I cast Timely Reinforcements with my board empty. With it on the stack, I noticed that he had a fetchland in play, so I casually observed "This time I get both parts;" a reference to my casting it only for life in game 2. He shrugged glumly and I got my 6 life. When he cracked his fetch at the end of my turn I said "I was hoping you wouldn't notice that," and then explained the interaction with Timely Reinforcements. Normally I wouldn't try to put an opponent on tilt like that, but I could tell that we were both fading after the long day and the long match and I thought that a mental state advantage might wind up being far more important than a board state advantage. This all paid off a turn later, we traded swings, then I played a Monastery Mentor on my turn four and he Chorded end of turn, fetching Sin Collector. Glumly, I showed him my hand of Tasigur, Path to Exile, Zealous Persecution, Murderous Cut, and something else (Negate or Think Twice, I believe), and to my utter astonishment he picked Path. This made a little more sense when he untapped and killed the mentor, as I had no cards that I could cast to get a Monk token, but he nevertheless got totally blown out when I untapped and cast Zealous Persecution (card is nuts). Lacking a better option, he Pathed one of his own tokens trying to find a land. I let him have it, and immediately blew up his Gavony Township with Tectonic Edge when the land hit play. My tokens, still pumped with Zealous Persecution (card is nuts) hit him for 6, dropping him to 8, and post-combat I dropped Tasigur by delving all the cards I had just dumped into my yard. That was pretty much the turning point, the game dragged on for a few turns thereafter, but he never really got a foothold back into the game.
Finals - Split
My finals opponent was my round 3 opponent (I wound up beating my semifinals opponent and then my finals opponent in rounds 2 and 3 of the swiss, the fact that I had beaten 3 other people there already is one reason I felt really good heading into top 8). He was interested in the RPTQ invite and I certainly was not (since I don't have any time to really travel during the school year I am unlikely to be able to attend an RPTQ and I ABSOLUTELY couldn't attend a Pro Tour), so we rearranged the prizes for first and second and then I conceded. He got to walk away with an invite and a DTK fat pack, I walked away with a Revised Underground Sea and a DTK booster box.
3 Aven Mindcensor
4 Blade Splicer
1 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Flickerwisp
4 Judge's Familiar
4 Leonin Arbiter
3 Restoration Angel
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Aether Vial
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Dismember
4 Path to Exile
Lands
1 Eiganjo Castle
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Horizon Canopy
10 Plains
4 Tectonic Edge
2 Eidolon of Rhetoric
3 Kor Firewalker
2 Mangara of Corondor
2 Rest in Peace
3 Stony Silence
1 Dismember
2 Sundering Growth
Some observations after testing for a few days:
1) I'm not a huge fan of Crucible of Worlds. It seems like I only ever have time to play it in "win-more" situations.
2) As could probably be expected, Judge's Familiar is WAY less useful on the draw. I generally board it out against non-control match-ups when my opponent is on the play.
3) Sundering Growth allows for some truly hilarious mid-combat shenanigans when you have a Golem in play.