URw value (cube) (Cube)

i started with serum visions into fabled passage and prismatic vista. as the draft went through, i kept getting solid role players, but few of the really big closers for a deck like this - no jace, or chandra, or keranos, or twin combo, or teferi...i ended up playing the emrakul stuff and stoneforge/batterskull because i felt like the deck needed a little punch, even if it was inconsistent.

i beat drew on UW midrange round 1. he had a nice deck with a mix of threats and counterspells. i spiked emrakul on the blind shelldock game 1, and despite some flying pressure, drew wasn't ready for it and i won that way. i lost g2 on a slow game where drew played a dream trawler, countered my counterspell, then cloned it twice. in g3 he had a slower start and i got a quick nahiri. drew had the disallow to counter my ultimate (!) but really wasn't putting on enough pressure, and my serum visions showed me both shelldock and emrakul. that finished the match.

i beat pete on BR sacrifice. he kept a one-lander g1, but i had no early pressure. still, i censored his signet when he found land 2, then mystic sanctuary'ed censor back to the top, and was able to win with assorted dorks while countering his stuff to keep him down. g2 was more a match - he started with carrion feeder into mogg war marshall, but i had stoneforge into batterskull. pete played a meathook massacre following that, end everything ended up trading off - i was happy to get a 4/4 feeder off the board and gain a few life. pete stalled on 4 mana with a mayhem devil and a yawgmoth, while i had a nimble obstructionist holding down the fort. from here, i was able to keep him off balance; an aether channeler (played off shelldock) bounced yawgmoth, which then got cryptic commanded, with a bounce of the mayhem devil. my channeler and obstructionist kept attacking, and a sublime epiphany countered the replay of mayhem devil while adding another body to the board. interesting and fun game (for me).

i beat eric on sultai in the final. we played two somewhat racing-style games. bonecrusher and fable of the mirror breaker figured in game 1, and i think eric just ran out of gas. game 2 had an early oko (which got hit with o-ring) followed by ashiok, which ate a lot of my deck. but subtlety stopped some of eric's progress, and a flipped fable allowed the fliers to take out ashiok. life totals were both under attack, and eric went for the kill with a hostage taker, but cryptic command countered it and tapped all his team to preserve my life and open the door for the ko.

deck played better than i expected, and as always, i find jeskai fun to play in the cube. lots of interaction and decisions (and a couple eldrazis).