Round 4: Brett McGarry

Brett was running hot coming into the final round of the tournament and was thrilled to have done as well as he had to this point. His deck was terrific and he played pretty well despite being very nervous about playing me — which was flattering but not warranted. His Dawnray Archer worked me over real good in game one — I have never seen that card be as effective as it was in this game — but eventually a combination of fatties and Hissing Iguanar left him choosing between the lesser of two evils every attack step.

The more I mulligan, the more games of Magic I win. Mike has been talking up mulligans quite a bit over on 5WFlores and it is really the easiest way to measurably improve your game. Don’t keep hands that don’t or can’t do anything. I kept a hand with a two drop, 4 lands, and two land cyclers despite knowing I should pitch it back. The deck had been performing seamlessly for throughout and I just told myself that good cards would come — a classic indicator that I am about to lose a game.

I did play the Spearbreaker on turn 6 but I also drew few other action cards. Brett had O-Ring for the fattie and tore me apart with his Bant guys and a difficult-to-kill Elspeth.

In game three I felt like I was always one turn away from taking control but Brett’s deck kept exalting his fliers and I could not squeeze through enough damage to kill Elspeth. My sideboarded Naturalize took out an O-Ring midcombat but the creature under it was not exactly a game changer — I think it was Aven Trailblazer — and Brett took the first pack from the bounty that was on my head. He also won the first flight of the day despite being incredibly nervous during the final turns of the game when it looked like he would win with his friends peering over his shoulder.

Good games Brett and congrats on your first tournament win!