uw stoneforge (cube) (Cube)

p1p1 counterspell into p1p2 archangel avacyn from some mildly weak packs. i got phantasmal image and cryptic coat somewhat early, and i also took sword of fire and ice along with seasoned hallowblade in the first pack. i ended up getting a later stoneforge mystic (!), i opened a jitte p3, and i wheeled the nice UW cards (reflector mage and geist of saint traft).

i started this deck w fire/ice and Jace, vryn's prodigy in the main over day of judgment and sublime epiphany. but over the rounds, i adjusted to this build. without red, just ice is a little bit of a soft card to run. and jvp only had two spells that were great to flash back (hard evidence and chart a course).

in round 1 i played caleb on sultai graveyards. his deck was far too slow to compete. g1 i played elite spellbinder and took his 3; then i used phantasmal image and took his next play. avacyn showed up to end it all. g2 involved a cryptic coat holding sword of fire and ice, which was also too much pressure for him.

in round 2 i played greg on RGu; he had oko and ugin, and a mixture of mana ramp and hard hitting plays (primeval titan, rabblemaster, avenger of zendikar, tireless tracker). i had a strong start g1 with seasoned hallowblade and jitte, killing his treespeaker. but tireless tracker gave him some cards, and oko shut down my jitte, and things didn't feel great. reidane and avacyn chipped away some damage, but then avenger of zendikar showed up. i ended up using my sword trigger to kill my own phantasmal image of tireless tracker, which wiped away greg's plant tokens, buying me some time to continue the aerial assault. oko elked the sword, but reidane shut down ugin by requiring the extra two mana. seedshark into batterskull created an incubator that ugin couldn't kill, and that ended the game.

g2 had a t1 suspended crashing footfalls from greg along with an early radha, and my hallowblade+jitte again was not quite enough to blunt this quick assault. g3 he had an early rabblemaster, but reflector mage slowed him down some, and then batterskull trumped rabblemaster in a bad way. the equipped batterskull was followed by avacyn, and greg never got enough mana to go above those cards until he put ugin on the stack. sublime epiphany managed that. this was a really fun match.

pete in the finals, on big boros. t2 censor magda, t3 counterspell luminarch. hallowblade into jitte was met with thundermaw hellkinte from his side, but phantasmal image cloned it and was followed by a stoneforge that grabbed batterskull. racing the lifegain on jitte was not a real option. in g2 he played a more reactive game. an early hard evidence ate part of an electrolyze; chromehost seedshark ate a magda + a lightning helix; reidane and giver of runes were followed by avacyn. pete killed the giver, but avacyn flipped and the 6 power flier was enough to end the game (batterskull still in hand...).

a fun 3-0 that was pretty assertive with enough play to it. not exactly the most perfect build, but the good cards really did their part.