Hey guys, it's Marco Panganiban, and I'm here to give you a short and sweet tournament report from Contemporary Nook EDH League Week 3 Day 1.
After four rounds of spell-slinging action, my Tatyova, Benthic Druid deck managed to pull through and take the win! This week's Wildcard was "Deal damage with 1/1 creature," which meant an additional point when accomplished.
Going into this week's league, I honestly didn't expect to win a game or get any points using the Wildcard point. Since my deck is heavily based on the landfall mechanic, I didn't think I would find myself in a situation where I would need to attack with a 1/1 creature. My game plan was to advance my board state while my opponents were all trying to attack each other for that 1 point. I used that to my advantage, noticing the tempo loss from taking a turn to attack their opponents.
In Round 1, my opponent Lawrence Du Alo almost won the round himself by turn 3 using his graveyard shenanigans combo, but I managed to top deck a Sol Ring and combo off using that one mana through an infinite Time Warp loop, using Mystic Sanctuary, Tatyova, and Ghostly Flicker. It was pure luck at the time.
Round 2 was a tough one. The pod was fully loaded and stacked with powerful and fast decks, including two Elf decks: Sir Gerard's Ezuri Renegade Leader deck and Sir Jose's Marwyn, the Nurterer. Sir Jose did a powerful yet risky play that would win him the game by turn 3, capitalizing on the turn order mechanics of EDH as Sir Gerard was just a turn behind. But in the end, he managed to win the game with a Staff of Domination Loop by Turn 3.
Round 3 was a high-pressure game with Sir Chris Fang's Goro-Goro and Satoru's crazy opening keeping the pod's life total in constant pressure. With the constant pressure, Sir Gerard was forced to strike back and put Chris Fang's life total to 1. Luckily, with the heat of their board pressure, I managed to sneak in a turn to do some crazy things with Crucible of Worlds, Tatyova, Summer Bloom, and Tatyova, ending the game with another infinite turn combo with Solve the Equation into Walk the Eons Combo.
Round 4 was a wild game where everyone had the opportunity to win. Sir Lawrence almost managed to combo off by turn 3 again, but made a crucial mistake of taking a riskier line to win the game, opening up his Mikaeus to getting exiled by Sir Kelvin's Swords to Plowshares. I found myself in a bad spot when I top decked a Fierce Guardianship, but managed to overuse my luck for the day as Sir Kelvin's Scion was moving to combat. Sir Jose responded with a Beast Within, Kelvin responded with Not of this World, and I was able to use my Fierce Guardianship and respond back, destroying the Ur-Dragon. Then it was my turn top decking a Rhystic Study and managing to refill my way back into the game, countering Sir Jose's win and drawing myself into a win!
Overall, it was a challenging and intense tournament, but I'm proud of my deck and my performance. Thanks for reading, and see you all at the next league!
Extra Note: Crazy play that I saw in the tournament was this:
A black player casting Dark Ritual and playing Toxic Deluge for 1 on the 2nd turn just to avoid giving up the Wildcard point to his opponents.
