1-3

So here's the "tournament version" of a deck I thought up.

1 Batterskull
1 Kaldra Compleat
3 Nettlecyst
2 Colossus Hammer
1 Shadowspear
2 Sword of Fire and Ice

3 Cloudsteel Kirin
3 Lizard Blades
3 Sram, Senior Edificer
4 Puresteel Paladin
1 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Rabbit Battery
4 Esper Sentinel
1 Halvar, God of Battle
1 Lion Sash

4 Sigarda's Aid

3 Mountain
6 Plains
4 Rustvale Bridge
4 Plateau
4 Arid Mesa
2 Sacred Fountry

Sideboard

1 Sword of the Realms (here so I wouldn't have to flip my Halvar every time I wanted to play it(

2 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Unlicensed Hearse
4 Path to Exile
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Wear // Tear

The sideboard thinking went like this: Path to Exile for sudden big creatures, Unlicensed Hearse for graveyard stuff, Sword of Fire & Ice for the Delver match, Red Elemental Blast for blue nonsense, and Wear/Tear because artifacts are a thing.

And here's how the rounds went:

Match 1 vs David, Dark Depth Lands

1. I was doing OK until the he cast Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger twice in one turrn by generating 20 mana and using Karakas. 

2 Force of Vigor blew me out early and I couldn't recover. 

Match 2 vs Mike, Fireflux Squad mono R

1 Fury took out my creatures and I died to overwhelming Fireflux Squads.

2 I drew 6 land and 3 creatures: It did not work out.

Match 3 vs Kade on Yorion Stoneblade

1 Won-despite blocks with True-Name Nemesis because he couldn't draw into another creature.

2 Lost when he got True-Name and Jitte active. Can't get a creature to stick when that happens.

3 Won on Kirin attacks while Kade got a Tefri out but not much else.

Rd 4 Thomas on Omnath landfall

1 Lost because I couldn’t remove Omnath, Locus of Creation.

2 Also lost because I couldn’t remove Omnath and had double Force of Vigor cast at my permanents.

So, what did I learn?

First, I need to run four Colossus Hammer. I should be giving myself the most opportunities to have a turn one play, with a turn two Sigarda's Aid and Hammer, attack for 11 event. 

Second, I have trouble closing games. This adds to point one, where if I had been able to do more damage early, perhaps that would've changed the outcomes.

My final opponent, Thomas, thought my deck idea was neat and took a look at it. He suggested running fewer lands-down to 20-and that Cloudsteel Kirin was probably not strong enough for a turn three play. 

He's probably right about the Kirin; while flying is a relevant thing, it really needs to come with some more pressure. Cutting down to 20 lands though feels far too risky. 

Third, I need a way to deal with Force of Vigor. The card was rough on this deck and might be enough splash damage that the deck isn't a good one to run. I got hammered twice by it and couldn't find ways to get back into the game. 

I think it's worth taking the deck for another spin, honestly. But I think it needs some tune ups if I want to play in an event and improve on the record. 

However, I'll start by talking about the casual version of this, on Thursday.