This was my first time piloting the deck in a tournament setting, so I made tons of mistakes, some which I caught, and probably a lot more that I didn’t. I’ll write about the mistakes that were obvious, and hopefully you guys don’t laugh at me.
Deck: Tony's UWR Miracles
Result: 3-1 (3rdish)

4 Sensei's Divining Top

3 Counterbalance
2 Counterspell
3 Spell Pierce
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
2 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Terminus
2 Entreat the Angels
1 Council’s Judgement

1 Supreme Verdict

3 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
1 Arid Mesa
3 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
2 Plains
4 Island
1 Karakas

SB:
1 Batterskull
3 Rest in Peace
3 Red Elemental Blast
1 Sulfur Elemental
2 Blood Moon
3 Flusterstorm
2 Wear // Tear


The singleton Council’s Judgement used to be a Terminus,I quickly drew over the back of the proxy image before rounds started. It was a last minute thing just to test it out, since I was mostly worried about True-Name Nemesis, and both Council’s Judgement and Terminus mostly had the same end result vs that. Council’s Judgement can exile noncreatures, too, so that was a plus that I saw had real effects in my games.



Match 1: vs. GRW Aggro-Loam (Max) (1-2 Loss)

Game 1 (loss) took a long time since we’re both grindy. I was on the play and landed a turn 1 Top, which should have allowed me to sculpt my hand super well. Somehow I messed up, I guess. My opponent had a slow start with a t2 Scavenging Ooze and no starting Chalice, so I thought I was doing well. I let him hit me twice even though I had a STP in my hand, since he wasn’t doing anything else on the board, and my control instinct told me to hold onto it for something more important.

I had an incredibly bad misplay in the midgame: I Topped and saw a Supreme Verdict, which I auto-pilot valued lowly since he wasn’t playing any other threats and assumed he was drawing into interaction and not creatures. I didn’t want to waste 4 mana on a 1-for-1, so I prioritized a 5th land over it.

Still on auto-pilot, when he dropped a 4/4 Night of the Reliquary after the third Ooze attack, I auto-STP’ed it, completely missing that I could top on his end step and draw Verdict. I instantly went “wtf did I just do” and internally kicked myself for making such a bad auto-pilot play. He then drops a Gaddock Teeg, which renders my Verdict still on the top of my deck super useless, so I opt to shuffle it away hoping for answers to 2 hatebears. They both get in once before I find another STP for the Teeg. Meanwhile, Max lands a Chalice on 1 and is sitting there going “I guess I’ll pay 4 life to draw from Sylvan Library” to out-card me, and hope is fading away.

We were grinding it out when I draw the singleton Council’s Judgement. I play it, and look up. It’s really silly to ask “what are you voting for” when I’ve already voted for his Chalice, so we have a giggle m8. This opens his 2nd Knight to an STP. He finds another one, which I try to answer with miracling a measly 2 Angels that trade with it and a Dismember. Some more grindy stuff happen. I land a Jace, and I try to gain back an advantage, but he Burning Wishes for a Council’s Judgement of his own and exiles Jace. Council’s Judgement. What a great card, man.

I’m down to 4 life from fetches and beats, which makes me super dead to a Punishing Fire if my opponent draws one (he had a Grove of the Burnwillows on the field). He eventually does, and has the inevitable kill  in three turns, but misplays into Vendilion Clique by tapping out on my end step to burn me + retrieve it. It was safer in the grave, and it only increased the kill clock by one turn to tap out to retrieve Punishing Fire. It doesn’t matter because Loaming 3 cycle lands per turn finds him another Punishing Fire fairly quickly and I die.


+1 Batterskull
+2 Blood Moon
+2 Wear // Tear

-3 Counterbalance
-2 Counterspell

Looking back, I sided like an idiot. I chose not to play Rest in Peace because Max’s deck is Goyfless and runs other 2-drops instead, so I didn’t want to die to aggro while having a hand full of checks to his deck, but not complete counters (See the pokemon equivalent at https://www.smogon.com/smog/issue32/checks-and-counters). Anyway, every card is situationally good, so I don’t think there’s an exact list of cards that you absolutely must put in vs. this matchup.


Game 2 (win) was pretty quick. Max has a slow start again, I answer his cards efficiently, and I beat him to death with a Clique while he’s Blood Mooned. I did my mana poorly pre-Blood Moon and only had 1 white source, so I couldn’t play the Entreat I was keeping under with Top post-Blood Moon, which was pretty bad, but it didn’t end up mattering. Mana matters, but only if you need something to be salty about when you lose. jk it’s serious business don’t mess up like me

Game 3 (loss) was a beating but the other way around. He lands a t1 Thalia through a Mox Diamond on the play, so I can’t do anything but sit there and cry that I can’t land my t1 Top. He follows up with a Chalice on 1 the next turn, so now I have to topdeck a red source to Wear his Chalice. Meanwhile he drops a Teeg on t3 and half my hand is uncastable between mana problems and his hate cards. In my panic I do a bunch of cantripping and manage to eventually kill his Chalice and Teeg. I pass the turn, and Max sees that I’m tapped out, looks up, and goes “Um, ok, Thespian’s my Dark Depths?” I felt incredibly dumb that I didn’t pay attention to his land drops. I know as a tilting countermeasure you’re not supposed to look at your top cards after a loss, but I did anyway, and I saw that I had no answer to Marit Lage even if I had held 3 mana to chump with Clique that turn. So it didn’t matter how I played that last turn, right?

right?



Match 2: vs. TES (Nick) (2-1 win)

Game 1 (win): He mulligans and I keep Top+Counterbalance.

+3 Flusterstorm
+3 Red Elemental Blast
-????

I don’t remember my exact sideboard choices, but I keep some boardwipes and 1 or 2 STP just in just in case of goblins and Xantid Swarm, respectively. I didn’t do my research so I don’t know if TES runs swarm, but Nick was running a deck Allen lent him after all, and you never know with Allen.

Game 2 (loss) I make a really bad mistake. This isn’t even like, a misplay that you can learn off of. Ok, you can. It’s “Don’t Flusterstorm rituals if they have huge storm and a lot of mana already floating”. That’s like saying “don’t stick forks into electric sockets”. So yeah, I did that. I was tired, I don’t know. He then casts LED LED Infernal Tutor while I take a good long look at myself and consider switching hobbies.

Game 3 (win) Nick already wrote about this so I don’t have to yay



Match 3: vs. Blightsteel-less MUD (2-1 win)

Game 1 (loss): He’s on the play and I Force his t1 Chalice off of an Ancient Tomb. Next turn, he plays Chalice on 1 again. It resolves. He plays a Lodestone Golem. I die very quickly while holding a bunch of 1 drops.

+2 Wear // Tear
+1 Batterskull
-1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
-1 Counterbalance
-1 Something

I figured since my Opponent isn’t playing blue, I felt I could out-quality him in cards naturally through Top and cantrips, which is why I side out some slower stuff. Batterskull is in because I just lost to a Golem. It may not have been the correct choice

Game 2 (win): I don’t remember much. I think I Entreated him to death.


After seeing a Crucible of Worlds, Goblin Welder, and Buried Ruin game 2, I side in 1 Rest in Peace for game 3. I think I took out Batterskull, but I’m not so sure.

Game 3 (win): I Force his t1 Goblin Welder, which I regret after topdecking that singleton Rest in Peace. It still does amazing work, shutting off his Buried Ruin. I land a Jace very soon after and +2 him to death. What’s crazy is I kept 5 out of the 6 Fate Sealed cards on top. He naturally flooded out. Nonblue decks, amirite



Match 4: vs. Elves (2-0 win)

Game 1 (win): This was a crazy game with a few mistakes that ended up sort of turning out ok. I keep Karakas + Fetch + Top, so I lead with Karakas to retain fetchland + Top value. This was a mistake because on t3 I have the option of playing Counterbalance and keep up Karakas for Top or just hold all the mana till next turn and holding Counterspell. I also had a spell pierce in hand, so I could have played Counterbalance with Spell Pierce backup had they all been blue sources. He has a bunch of dorks on board, so I’m worried about more weenies bringing on beats, and I go for the Counterbalance leaving a 1-drop on top. Of course this is the turn he casts Natural Order as a now-or-never kind of thing, but with only 3 creatures on board, Craterhoof does 8+4+4 damage and I’m down to 4 life instead of just dead. With only 4 available mana, my only out is a Terminus on his turn. Only in this situation in the entire tournament did I ever feel I wanted a 4th Terminus, which means I probably should take something else out for Council’s Judgement, but it’ll require some testing. Either way, I find the Terminus after cracking a fetchland and going down to 3. He attacks with a 1/1 and his 5/5 Craterhoof, leaving Deathrite up to burn me to lethal if I have a STP for his Behemoth or something. It’s actually a Terminus, so he brings me down to 1 life with his Deathrite, and then his board is wiped. He plays a fetchland and passes.

On my turn I’m cantripping like crazy to see if there was any way I could get out of this  Just in case of any funny business, I leave 2 mana open for a Snapcaster, and lo and behold, he cracks his fetchland for a Dryad Arbor on my end step.

I flash in Snappy to block on his attacks step, hoping he doesn’t have an Abrupt Decay. He doesn’t, so he plays another fetchland and passes. I’m worried about another Dryad Arbor, so I hardcast an Entreat for 1 measly token and pass the turn. I had Brainstormed a couple turns back, so I don’t even know why it was in my hand. I was super vulnerable to Abrupt ---> Dryad Arbor because of that misplay. Either way, I landed a Counterblanace and beat my opponent to death with a 4/4 while countering everything else.

SB: nothing lol

Game 2 (win): Another fun game. T1 he casts Green Sun's Zenith for 0 to fetch a Dryad Arbor. T2 he plays Gaea's Cradle before casting a Heritage Druid. I try punishing the extra information reveal by STPing the Dryad Arbor in response. He still has two mana to work with, so he plays two one drops and passes. I land a Top and see a Verdict coming up, so I'm hoping I don't die before I hit 4 mana. Lucky for me he only has weenie beats, so I only take some damage before wiping his board. End step he uses a fetch land to get another Dryad Arbor and tries to get even more beats in. At this point he's out of gas and I've disrupted him enough after assembling the Clique + Karakas combo that I'm comfortable with my board state and life total. Countertop seals the deal as I beat to death with Clique.



I ended up as one of the 2-3 people with 3-1. We were too lazy to do tie breaks on paper so that was anything from 2nd-4th. It’s ok because the three of us all wanted different prizes. Max walked home with a Planechase Baleful Strix and I took the Japanese Jace v. Chandra Ancestral Vision.