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Hello everyone, when I last left you I was playing in a block Daily Event. Having lost first round I now have to win three straight matches to earn prizes. It's hard but far from impossible, so I keep my cool down and get ready for round two.

Round 2 - Gix1313

Game one

By watching the replays of round one I know that my opponent is playing Vampires. I the win die roll, choose to play first and this is my opening hand:

High risk of flooding and a card that I cannot cast, easy mulligan into this:

Much better, with a creature that allows me to ignore my opponent Gatekeepers, one of my own, and a Malakir that I should be able to cast soon. The opponent has no luck with his opening hands too and mulls to five.

I lead with Swamp and pass the turn while my opponent has a Quest for the Gravelord for his turn one. I also draw a Quest on my second turn and decide to play it instead of the Bloodghast. Kalastria Highborn is the follow up play from Gix1313 and, having drawn a Swamp, I'm happy to get rid of it on my turn with the Gatekeeper of Malakir. The opponent is stuck on two lands and can only play a Bloodghast on his third turn. I draw another Swamp and play a Bloodghast of my own, then swing with the Gatekeeper. Again, no land for him and he decides to drop an unckicked Gatekeeper. I draw a Vampire Hexmage for the turn, lay my fifth land and cast the Malakir Bloodwitch I'm holding. I swing with both the Gatekeeper and the Bloodghast and he declines to block. A Feast of Blood gets rid of the Bloodwitch and charges the Quests to two counters. I draw a sweet Smother on my turn and play the Vampire Hexmage. My opponent finally has his third land and uses it to play a Vampire Nighthawk. I draw my card for the turn and think about my plays.

I could get rid of the Nighthawk with the Smother but that would leave us in a stalemate. Instead, since he is low on life I decide to attack with my team. He's probably going to block the Hexmage with the Nighthawk and I can sacrifice the Hexmage after blockers are declared to avoid the life gain. On his turn he is probably going to attack with the Nighthawk and then I can use the Smother to get rid of his quest token and deal a leave him defenseless against my own token. If he blocks differently I can still Smother after blockers are declared.

I attack and he decides to only trade the Gatekeepers, suspecting something on my side. I replace the Gatekeeper with a fresh one sitting in my hand and pass the turn. On his turn he lays another land and decides to get rid of my Vampire Hexmage with a Feast of Blood. Of course, I sacrifice the Hexmage in response, forcing him to get his Zombie token now, and the Feast fizzles gaining him no life. He swings with the Nighthawk and gets back to 8 life. I simply Smother his token on my end step, pop my own Quest and swing with my whole team for the win.

In this game I was lucky, but my opponent also committed a mistake that in the end mattered, when he tried to kill my Hexmage with the Feast the lifegain was crucial and he should have pointed the Feast at my Gatekeeper.

I board in the Blade of the Bloodchief, you can see my sideboarding plans in part one.

Game two

For the first time in this tournament I'm able to keep a seven card hand:

One land off the top of my deck and I can play anything in my hand. The hand is also quite good in the mirror, since I have a Nighthawk that is a solid threat, turn two fodder for his eventual Gatekeeper, removal and discard.

Gix1313 has the first play of the game with a Quest for the Gravelord that could spell trouble later in the game. I draw Dread Statuary off the top and thus I will be able to play the third turn Nighthawk. A second turn Vampire Hexmage from my opponent is mirrored by one of my own. A second Quest comes down on my opponent side and I'm attacked by the Hexmage, but I refuse the trade to protect my Nighthawk from an eventual Gatekeeper. At this point I really want my Nighthawk to stick to the board and I decide to play it a turn later to cast Hexmage and Mire's Toll revealing three Swamps! Gix1313 can't find help on the top of his deck, and has only a land drop for his turn, while finally the Vampire Nighthawk it's the board on my side but a Malakir Bloodwitch on the opponent turn is an unexpected roadblock. Nothing happens on the opponent turn and I use my own turn to play a third Vampire Hexmage and Bloodghast. Nothing again for the opponent while I draw a sweet Gatekeeper of Malakir to deal with his Hexmage. Here I fail to realize that I should attack  with the Nighthawk since he really can't counterattack and the triple Hexmage should keep the Quest tokens away from my life total if he decides to trade. Instead, I simply pass the turn and none other than Mr. Sorin Markov hits the board on the opponent side. It's not a problem, I can just sacrifice one of the Hexmages to deal with it and it is even better when he tries to kill one of the Hexmage with the +2 ability of Sorin. Of course, I sack the Hexmage in response, targeting Sorin, and the ability fizzles since it has no target. Honestly I think that if you're playing Sorin Markov in your vampires deck, you're doing it wrong. It's expensive, the +2 ability won't kill the good creatures in the format and Vampire Hexmages and Devout Lightcasters are everywhere so it's often going to be a six mana Vicious Hunger.

I hit a Malakir Bloodwitch on my draw step that drains him for 6 life and provides more flying defense, so I attack with Vampire Nighthawk. Gix chooses to trade and his quest's ramp up to four counters. The reason for his trade his clear when he retrieves the Malakir from his graveyard with a Grim Discovery and immediately casts it again but, luckily, I draw a Feast of Blood to deal with it again and swing with the team. For an unknown reason, he fails to pop his quests on the attackers step and use the tokens to trade, and falls to a precarious 2 life. He finds no help for my Bloodwitch and scoops on my next attack.

Round 3 - mryu

Game one

Thanks to the replays I know that my opponent is playing the Eldrazi Green deck. Speaking if replays, MTGO lost the replay for the first game so this game will lack details. I have yet again to mull my sevec card hand since it is a one lander. Luckily  have a screenshot of my six card hand, and by screenshot I totally mean recreating the hand on photoshop.

This hand is interesting, it is definitely risky but I decided to keep it since I knew what my opponent was playing. In fact, both the Nighthawk and the Toll are among the best cards you can have in this matchup: he has only a few outs to flying creatures, the lifelink is going to help in the race and the Toll will strip him of scary cards like Eldrazi Monument .

In the end this hand worked out fine, I didn't flood and I was able to hit a couple of cheap creatures to go along the Nighthawk, while he stumbled a bit, giving me enough time to lower his life total and then finish him with the Nighthawk.

Time to board in the Hideous Ends.

Game two

Here's the seven card hand for game two:

The hand is very strong if I hit my third land drop with two copies of my best creature in this matchup and plenty of removal. I'm also on the draw so I have an extra draw step to hit my third land,  missing a land in three draws is very unlikely.

My opponent only has a Forest for his third turn, while the top of my deck gives me a Gatekeeper of Malakir. I need that third land even more now. Land-go is the only action I can muster fro my turn and the same is true for my opponent. My second draw step gives me a Smother, not a land but at least I can play it. I play the Bloodghast and pass the turn. My opponent cracks his fetchland on my endstep, but has no action for his turn, not even the third land drop! 

I don't understand why he used his fetchland on my end step, by searching for a land he decreased the probability of hitting his third one on the draw step. Sure, fetching one land only alters the probability a little bit, almost unnoticeable on a single draw, but it's going to catch you on the long run. As a rule of thumb if you need to draw lands off the top don't crack fetchlands on the end step while and crack them after your draw step. Instead, do the opposite if you already have all the lands you need in hand (Fun Fact: during the top8 of PT San Diego, Simon Görtzen says "Oh, you need lands" after Vargas doesn't crack a fetchland on the end step). 

Back to the game, I draw a Mire's Toll on my turn and so I miss my third land drop too. Not a good news, but not terrible either since I'm actually the only one with pressure on the board. I swing with Bloodghast and pass the turn. mryu hits his third land but it's only an Oran-rief, the Vastwood so he has no action again for his third turn. I draw Bloodghast, so no land again for me, but I'm able to add some more pressure. Leatherback Baloth enters the battlefield on the opposite side but no fourth land drop for him. I also get a land on my draw step. I want to finish this game quickly, before he can come back from his unlucky draws, so I'm definitely going to get rid of the Baloth. I choose to hit the Baloth with the Smother instead of the Gatekeeper since the latter can deal with a Wolfbriar Elemental that could came down on the next turn. I also have Mire's Toll for a Nissa Revane that could cause troubles. A second Baloth enters play on his side, and this time I get rid of it thanks to the Gatekeeper and attack to knock him down to 7. He tries to defend with a Lotus Cobra but the Hideous End in my hand denies him the opportunity.

Round 4 - Zizka 

Game One

He's playing Boros Landfall. MTGO once again lost the replay for this game. We both had a good hand, with him mounting an offense with double Goblin Guide and Plated Geopede. Luckily I have two (Vampire Hexmages) and while the first gets burned the second one manages to stop the the Guides. A Gatekeeper takes out one and allows me to play Feast of Blood on the Geopede. We keep going back and forth for a while, but in the end I'm able to survive thanks to the card advantage provided by the Gatekeepers and the lifegain from Feast. After a while he draws a few blanks off the top of his deck and I'm able to take the game home with a few swings. 

I board in the Hideous Ends again and the Marsh Casualties.

Game two

 

No way I'm keeping this, too many lands expose me to the risk of flooding and in this matchup if you stumble, you're dead.

Way better. This hand can lose against a sick draw from him but it should be fine otherwise. If he misses his one drop or his two drop I should dominate this game.

Zizka plays first and leads with Teetering Peaks, not the best start for him. I draw a Vampire Hexmage, one of the best cards I have in this situation. I lay a Swamp and pass the turn. Zizka starts to apply some pressure, with a second turn Plated Geopede while I get a second Marsh Flats off the top of my deck and play the Hexmage. He fully pumps his Geopede on turn two with a fecthland and I take the full five. On my next turn I draw Dread Statuary and get rid of the Geopede with my first Gatekeeper. He only lays a land for his fourth turn and I decide to get some value out of the (Bloodhisk Ritualist) forcing him to discard a card after playing the Dread Statuary. In this matchup mana is at premium and I fully expected to  use the Ritualist as a (Gray Ogre), I'm fine with taking just one card out of him. I'm completely blown out when he clears the board away with Day of Judgment. I draw Bloodghast and plan for the turn.

Of course I'm not playing the Gatekeeper unckicked, I could play the Bloodghast but I'd rather hit him now with the Statuary while he's tapped out. I don't want to lose my Statuary to a burn spell and if I attack now the Bloodghast is gong to have haste next turn, so I can swing with it anyway. I drop him to nine and pass the turn. Again his turn his rather unexciting, with only a Arid Mesa. This time he has plenty of red mana open so I simply bash with the Bloodghast. My draw step yelded me a sweet (Marsh Casualities). The next turn is weird, he cracks his fetchland and goes down to six, then plays Kor Skyfisher and (Goblin Bushwacker) and then swings with both! He left only a single white mana open, so I don't fear any instant speed trick he might have and attack with both the Statuary and the Bloodghast. This is constructed so I do not get blown out by Shieldmate's Blessing  and take the game home.

In the end I'm happy that I managed to win packs after losing round one. I was demoralized after round one but this tournament helped me to remember that you can get back from a bad start if you keep your cool down. 

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it.