Maybe scrubbing is too strong a word.

I ended up dropping after a 3-3 performance at the 5k last weekend. As promised, I stuck with the Greedy Grixis deck I have been posting the past few weeks. I still really like the deck but it ended up being a bad choice for the tournament. I was expecting to see a lot of 5C Control, Faeries and Kithkin (aka the Metagame). I don’t have official numbers, but from looking around the most popular deck in the room appeared to be Red Deck Wins. I didn’t think that RDW would be that bad of a matchup, but the lists I played against had two cards that were very difficult for me to beat: Stigma Lasher and Magma Spray. Stigma Lasher made Ajani awful and Magma Spray made my Shriekmaws and Sowers much worse. I never ever got to play a Makeshift Mannequin the two times I played against Red.

Here is a quick rundown of my tournament by round.

Round 1 v Tom with Faeries
I beat Tom 2-1 this round. Essentially, I won the two games where I got my Bitterblossom (games 1 and 3) and he won game 2 when he got his Bitterblossom and I didn’t draw a Wispmare for it.
1-0

Round 2 v Dave with RDW
Dave was a really nice guy and he crushed me 2-0 with Turn 2 Stigma Lasher (with me having Ajani in hand) both games. I got a couple of good Firespouts against him but it wasn’t enough since I could not gain my life back and he would eventually burn me out. Dave and I got lunch after this round, it was delicious! Dave went on to top 8 the tournament, unfortunately I did not stick around to see how he finished.
1-1

Round 3 v Kenny with BW Tokens
When I realized what Kenny was playing I got very worried because I had not tested the matchup and BDM had been telling me how good the BW tokens deck was for several days before the tournament. I managed to win this one 2-1, winning game 1 where Kenny was short on lands, losing game 2 to multiple Spectral Processions + Ajani (Goldmane) and winning game three with Thoughtseize into multiple Siege-Gang Commanders.
2-1

Round 4 v Gil with Faeries
Faeries again. I figured I had blown all my luck beating Faeries the first round but I somehow managed to beat Gil in three games. I mulliganed to 5 game 1 but it was still very close; I ended up dying to my Bitterblossom the turn I would kill him. Game 2 I found an opening to resolve a Siege-Gang and was able to win off of that. Game 3 I think Gil could have won if he had used his Thoughtseize to get rid of my Wispmare instead of my Thoughtseize. I am not sure if he realized that all of my lands came into play tapped and that I would not be able to Seize away his Bitterblossom before he could play it. Anyways, he made a turn 2 Blossom, which i disenchanted with an evoked Wispmare. A few turns later I found my own Bitterblossom and that was game.

Round 5 v Gerard Fabiano with GR Elves
It was unfortunate to get paired with Gerard as one of us would be eliminated from top 8 contention with a loss this round. Gerard is a really fun guy to play against and even though I lost I enjoyed our match. Since we both knew each others decks we were sideboarding face up and Gerard gave me advice on plays. This behavior was confusing to the people playing on either side of us. Gerard’s deck can get some very explosive draws and he blew me out completely game 1. Game 2 his draw was slower but he had triple Treetop Village which made it difficult for me to stabilize after Firespouting. I sided out Grixis charm here, which in retrospect was bad because it is my only real answer to the Treetop. Oh well.
3-2

Round 6 v Avery with RDW
I decided to keep playing to shoot for top 16, which paid out $100. Unfortunately I got paired against RDW again with all the same cards I can’t beat. Avery 2-0′d me and I dropped.

Despite my mediocre-to-poor performance I still think the experiment with Greedy Grixis was a success. After rounds my opponents usually asked to see my deck and told me that they were sideboarding all wrong because they couldn’t figure out what I was playing. This deck probably would have been much better positioned a few weeks ago when the metagame was less RDW heavy. If I could do it all over again I would probably pick a deck better suited for the field, probably something very similar to an elf list a friend of mine piloted to 7-2 or Merfolk. I will be posting the elf list soon for anyone who is still interested in T2.

WillPoP