I went to Nationals this weekend with a few local Michigan players in a big van. Two were qualified from Regionals, and the rest of us tagged along to play in grinders and side events, everyone expecting to have a great time. 

The van was like a bus, and couldn't fit in the hotel's 6'6 clearance parking lot. So we got dropped off while Jeremy went to park elsewhere. The hotel lobby was pretty fancy, and after settling into the room we got to brewing for grinders since only Joe and Jeremy were qualified. Kurtis had done some testing with Matt and I the previous evening and had decided to play Boros with maindeck Kor Hookmaster over Cunning Sparkmage. Matt was set on Jund, which he's been playing for months. And I was in between several decks.

In the weeks leading up to the event, I had worked with Matt Mccullough to create a list of the ten most powerful cards in standard. The theory behind it was to play as many of these cards as feasible in the same deck, and see what happens. Matt and I did actually end up brewing a Naya Destructive Force deck that ended up eerily similar to the Australian Nats 2nd place decklist.  However, during testing it was a huge dog to the U/W/r Destructive Force deck I'd already created so that idea was put on hold. I had played Naya Shaman at a local event the week previous, and concluded the deck needed a Sovereigns kill to enable a fast endgame as sometimes simply grinding with Vengevines wasn't enough. Also the deck just sputtered and did nothing without a Fauna Shaman and made me want to vomit.

In the end I decided to play a straightforward Mythic Conscription deck for the grinder. I had played the deck for two months online previous to M11 and had good results with it. It had favorable match-ups against the decks that wanted to goldfish you like Titan Ramp or Temple Bell. In addition it was strongly favored against U/W and passable against  Naya, which I expected to be big in the grinders. My plan was to just play in one, and win or lose go back to the hotel and sleep since I was pretty tired.

Mythic

 

Creatures 4 Birds of Paradise 2 Dauntless Escort 4 Knight of the Reliquary 4 Lotus Cobra 4 Noble Hierarch 3 Rhox War Monk 4 Sovereigns of Lost Alara 2 Sun Titan 27 cards Other Spells 2 Eldrazi Conscription 2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant 1 Jace Beleren 3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 8 cards

Lands 2 Arid Mesa 3 Celestial Colonnade 5 Forest 2 Island 4 Misty Rainforest 2 Plains 1 Sejiri Steppe 1 Stirring Wildwood 2 Sunpetal Grove 1 Terramorphic Expanse 2 Verdant Catacombs 25 cards Sideboard 1 Deprive 2 Flashfreeze 1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence 2 Mind Spring 2 Negate 2 Oblivion Ring 2 Oust 2 Qasali Pridemage 1 Sphinx of Jwar Isle 15 cards

The maindeck Escort plus Sun Titan package was to hedge towards Day of Judgment decks as well as to better protect against Jund and Valakut's removal suite. The War Monks were a good call for grinders as there tends to be an abundance of aggressive decks in grinders. The Fauna Shaman plan worked out very awkwardly in testing, as even with 25+ creatures the card investment and mana spent on the Shaman activations cluttered up with the game plan of casting Sovereigns and ending the game.

Round 1: O. Beasly with Valakut Ramp

I lose the die roll

Game 1: He ramps with Rampant Growth into a Comet Storm for my Cobra and Hierarch. I still had a Bird in play and managed to kill him on turn 6 since he was stuck on 4 lands.

Sideboard: -3 Jace TMS -1 Jace Beleren +2 Flashfreeze +2 Negate

Jace is miserable in this matchup since it is too slow and the matchup isn't about card advantage. Also you don't want to bounce any of their creatures anyway.

Game 2: I have turn 5 Sovereigns for a 14 point War Monk attack into Avenger and 7 tokens. He chumps with a token and goes to 1. His next turn brings in 5 landfall triggers as well as some Valakut triggers at my face and I die. This marks the only game where I've untapped with Knight of the Reliquary and lost.

Sideboard:  +2 Oblivion Ring -2 Sun Titan
He was playing the Khalni Heart Expedition version of Valakut, so Oblivion Ring is useful early as well as providing an out to an unlandfallen Avenger or any Titan.

Game 3: My turn 2 Knight of the Reliquary lives again and he dies to Sovereigns powered attack on turn 5 since I am on the play this game.

Round 2: J. Day with Naya

I lose the die roll

Game 1: I have an active Knight for a while and it brickwall his team of 4/3's and 3/2's with haste. He concedes to a 20 point trample attack when he could have blocked with multiple creatures including a Vengevine.

Sideboard: +1 Linvala +2 Oblivion Ring +2 Flashfreeze +2 Oust +1 Sphinx of Jwar Isle -2 Dauntless Escort -3 Jace TMS -1 Jace Beleren -2 Sun Titan
Oust and Oblivion Ring deal with Knight of Reliquary and mana creatures as well as Cunning Sparkmage. The Jaces are all very weak against haste creatures and Titan is not needed as this matchup isn't about grinding out your opponent. I didn't board in Pridemage since its only target is Basilisk Collar and I would rather just address the Sparkmage directly.

 
Game 2:  He runs me over with a bunch of guys while I twiddle my thumbs and can't find removal for Sparkmage + Collar.

Game 3: I'm behind to multiple Elves, Lotus Cobras, and Vengevines, having a solo War Monk for defense. I rip the untapped 6th mana off the top and play Sovereigns to swing the life race dramatically. Opponent draws his card and concedes.

Round 3: K. Hunt with Vampires

I lose the die Roll

Game 1: He plays back to back Hexmages, so I don't play my Jace or Elspeth and instead play a Dauntless Escort which he kills and a War Monk which he doesn't. Sovereigns lands when he's tapped out for Team Edward (read: Vampire Nocturnus) and he concedes next turn as he didn't have two removal spells.

Sideboard: +1 Linvala +2 Negate +2 Oblivion Ring +1 Sphinx of Jwar Isle +2 Mind Spring -4 Sovereigns -2 Conscription -1 Jace Beleren -1 Lotus Cobra

Conscription is weak in this matchup as you can't really afford the dead draw and it's difficult to hard cast with your mana creatures being under heavy removal. It is much more feasible to just grind out his removal with Mind Spring and Sun Titan using Oblivion Ring to keep the few dangerous creatures like Nocturnus off your back.

Game 2: My Bird is Disfigured, and Cobra follows suit.  Kevin plays a Viscera Seer and Kalastria Highborn to bring the heat, and I Jace Highborn back to his hand. Jace is attacked for one and Highborn is replayed. I brainstorm and play Linvala and Birds. Linvala is Deathmarked, and Jace falls. I Sun Titan for Cobra, and play fetch into Knight of Reliquary. Both Titan and Knight die. My next Sun Titan for Knight meets Deathmark, but the Knight lives to protect the rest of my draws from his creatures and removal and he is run over in short order.

Round 4: T. Maggio with Temple Bell

I lose the die roll.

Game 1: He plays a Howling Mine and a Jace Beleren. My Cobra eats his Jace and Dauntless + Knight show up to protect my board and clock him. He dies to assorted beats while Escort protects my guys from various types of lightning and he can't bounce my Stirring Wildwood with Into the Roil.

Sideboard: +2 Pridemage +2 Oblivion Ring +2 Negate +1 Deprive +1 Sphinx of Jwar Isle -2 Sovereigns -2 Sun Titan -4 Jace

In contrast to the Vampires matchup, this is most definitely not a grinder match. Thus Titans and Jace are removed since I will be getting plenty of extra cards from his Howling Mine effects. 2 Sovereigns and the Sphinx are left in as threats that will win the game if my opponent ever taps out. 

Game 2: I play a Cobra on 2 and he Into the Roils it on my End Step. His turn 3 Temple Bell is exiled by my Cobra + fetch + Oblivion Ring, and we both draw a card in response. He never gets another Howling Mine effect and dies to my Cobra + War Monk after Escort protects my team from a Twincast Pyroclasm. It was important in this matchup to not play additional creatures into open mana as it was a waste of mana to play into Mana Leak and Flashfreeze. Rather it was much better to simply attack with manlands since both Wildwood and Colonnade cannot be killed by Lightning Bolt or unkicked Burst Lightning.

Finals: J. Vang with Naya

I lose the die roll.

Game 1: He mulls to 5 and does nothing but play a Basilisk Collar.

Sideboard: same as before.

Game 2: He gets Sparkmage and Collar active around turn 5, and I have one turn to draw Sovereigns to kill him with Birds of Paradise while his Sparkmage is tapped from killing my Knight. I miss and am locked out. I would've won this game if my deck had contained two Sejiri Steppes since I could only Steppe once before being locked by the deathtouch pinger.

Game 3: I play Bird into Knight into War Monk into Elspeth, lift Warmonk. His plays are Basilisk Collar on turn two, Path my Knight on 3, and Linvala on turn 4. His Path was telegraphed on turn 2, but he waited until I activated my Knight on his endstep to use it. I presume this is because he didn't want to Path me and accelerate my mana immediately, but that logic is flawed since an active Knight will do that for me anyway. I'm pretty sure on my read that he had the Path on turn 2, though it is possible that he was just bluffing and drew it on turn 3. I find a Plains with the Path and my Knight activation resolves to find a Stirring Wildwood, leaving me with Wildwood and Colonnade in play. Linvala shuts off my my Bird and Hierarch, and I can't activate my man land since I found the second Plains with Path and drew an Arid Mesa, which had no targets left in the deck. I play a second War <onk and his Linvala is forced to chump an attack next turn when I draw a land to activate my Colonnade. His Bloodbraid cascades into a Fauna Shaman and he dies.

It felt pretty good to have lost every die roll and still win the grinder. The matchups were pretty much as I expected, though Vampires was a surprise. The deck performed admirably and I was quite satisfied with it.

James and Jeremy had headed back to the hotel room after James won his grinder with Valakut Ramp, and I had no idea how to go back by myself. So I stayed around and watched Kurtis and Matt play more grinders, though to no success.

Game 3 of James's final round was hilarious. Opponent was playing Naya and had played turn 4 Ajani, lock down an untapped land. Turn 5 Manabarbs with no creatures or manlands in play, after activating Ajani targetting an untapped land. James Lightning Bolts Ajani EOT, then topdecks his 4th land for Bloodbraid Elf into Cultivate. At this point I move to the other side of the table and leave the match as the Naya player's hand is 2 Manabarbs and nothing else, and James had another Bloodbraid in hand along with Green and Red Titans.

That night I switched up some slots as the Nats metagame will probably be more control and combo heavy compared to the grinders. As a result War Monks were removed in favor of the 3rd Dauntless Escort and maindeck Pridemage. The Beleren went to the Sideboard, and I got a second Linvala as well. This left me with 59 maindeck cards, and I ran one Time Warp for spice. In addition the manabase was altered to include another Sejiri Steppe over the 2nd Arid Mesa, as those were key points in the day that lost a game and almost lost another game for me.

Kurtis asked if anyone knew when the Legacy side events were, and the room in unison replied, no, we're all Q'd. Probably gave the guy too rough a time for not winning a grinder, but I'm sure he didn't mind too much. After all, he had Top 4'd the Midwest Masters Championships less than two weeks previous.

James and Joe both sleeved up Jeremy's 75, which was what James won his grinder with. I would've been on board for the full 300, but we lacked the cards to build the fourth copy. When discussing sideboard options, Joe asked James if he'd considered boarding in Manabarbs for the Naya matchup.

After a few more jabs at Kurtis for not saying "Gearing Up for a Big Turn" or "Getting into Top Gear" whenever he cast Stoneforge Mystic for Adventuring Gear during his grinders, everyone went to sleep.

Join me for part two later in the week. More games, more stories, and more laughs to come!