Finnish Highlander Championships *2nd*

[Nastaboi]

42 players. Deck lists can be found here. My deck:

Esper Control

Creature: 9

1 Augur of Bolas
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Baleful Strix
1 Trinket Mage
1 Restoration Angel

Instant: 23

1 Spell Snare
1 Brainstorm
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Path to Exile
1 Counterspell
1 Mana Drain
1 Mana Leak
1 Azorius Charm
1 Dismember
1 Cryptic Command
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Force of Will
1 Force Spike
1 Spell Pierce
1 Negate
1 Ghastly Demise
1 Condescend
1 Mystical Teachings
1 Mana Tithe
1 Mental Misstep
1 Remand
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Esper Charm

Sorcery: 17

1 Thoughtseize
1 Duress
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Ancestral Vision
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Lingering Souls
1 Vindicate
1 Wrath of God
1 Day of Judgment
1 Terminus
1 Entreat the Angels
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Compulsive Research
1 Oust

Artifact: 4

1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Vedalken Shackles

Enchantment: 4

1 Oblivion Ring
1 Moat
1 Humility
1 Detention Sphere

Land: 36

1 Mystic Gate
7 Island
4 Plains
1 Watery Grave
1 Godless Shrine
1 Karakas
1 Flooded Strand
1 Tundra
1 Windswept Heath
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Polluted Delta
1 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Arid Mesa
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Celestial Colonnade
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Wasteland
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Seachrome Coast
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Underground Sea
1 Scrubland
1 Swamp
1 Isolated Chapel

Planeswalker: 7

1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Gideon Jura
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Jace Beleren

The mana base is a compromise between getting all the colors early enough, surviving non-basic hate and maximizing islands for Shackles. You'll want UUUWWB with your first four lands, which doesn't make too many basics possible.

Sphinx: I wanted one finisher and run this. If there were similar card for just five mana, I'd play it instead.

Baneslayer: One less mana than Wurmcoil in matchups where it's really needed, and all white removal handles Wurmcoil as well as this.

Azorius Charm: Pitched it to Force at least once, versatile enough to make up its conditionality as removal.

Timely Reinforcements: Were always timely.

Compulsive Research: Late addition, wanted something to cycle away my soft counters late game.

Oust: Final addition. Wanted a cheap white removal spell, and this did the job mostly. Could run another counter in its place.

Gideon: Used to be cool, maybe his time is over. Never drawn him this tournament, so cannot say for sure.

Sorin: Is really good in this deck.

--

R1 RUG Ramp (my own deck) 2-0

He didn't draw that many relevant threats which I handled easily and rode some Planeswalker into Entreat win both games.

R2 High Tide (my own deck) 1-2

G1 I didn't draw much besides lands, had no pressure and was comboed over easily. G2 I got early Elspeth and enough counters to keep him going off. G3 I got him stuck on two lands after wasting his Sea, but got just Strix for beats and he sneaked in Back to Basics which prevented me playing more stuff as I had to keep counter mana open. He ended up going off on extra turns.

R3 Grixis Delver splash G 1-0

He got in some beats after I stabilized with Humility and Jace, Architect of Thought. He got Liliana to six counter when I removed it, then got Ral Zarek to six counters and threatened to shoot me down with it. Timely Cryptic Command countering another planeswalker bouncing Ral Zarek before he activated it in his turn ensured my survival, and I managed to eventually win the game after 50 minutes at one life on third extra turn.

R4 Monored 2-1

Wasteland srcewed my mana first game, but Sorin took the other two with an ease.

R5 UGr Ramp 2-0

G1 I drew perfectly and got basicly everything. G2 I made a mistake by fetching Mana Drain with Demonic while I could've got Teachings instead, but it didn't matter as my opponent drew his things in wrong order, which happens to ramp decks from time to time.

R6 ID

Top 8 WW (Tiggupiru) 2-0

G1 My opponent mulled to six on play but I went down to five. Once again, I stabilized with Humility and Jace, Architect, but this time he also had Honor of the Pure which made his things considerably bigger. I also made many mistakes that ensured it took forever for me to finally win. G2 I took control early with Shackles and won from there with no difficulties.

Top 4 RUG Midrange 2-0

G1 I just beat him with better and bigger creatures. G2 I had the Humility combo once again, and my opponent decided to lock himself totally out from the game with Blood Moon, which once again postponed my actual winning by half an hour.

Finals Pattern-Hulk 1-2

G1 I lost to Teeg and some timely removal spells from my opponent. G2 I Misstepped his mana dork and he was stuck in two lands long enough for me to take over. Last game he lead with Avacyn's Pilgrim. I had Duress and Spell Snare and decided to Duress his three-drop away. He would have played Lotus Cobra into Sword which I took, but holding into Snare would have enabled me to remove both cards. We both had just lands after that, but he had Stirring Wildwood and bashing for six three times was enough to take the title.

The deck was great but glacially slow. I can't recommend taking it to 50-minute round tournament, unless you can always win the first game, or can go through the moves really quickly every turn throughout the day.

[Doks]

Thanks for the report and congrats to the 2nd place.

From what I see when I compare your list to what we discussed via PM, you seem to be sold on Restoration Angel, too. Even if this thing doesn't blink anything, it's still an EoT threat and instant blocker. Have you thought about Notion Thief?

Then again, how does your ton of countermagic work without mana acceleration and that many tap-out spells? It doesn't seem like you're playing enough of a draw-go style, so didn't it bite you when you tapped out for a Walker / Finisher and the enemy used your defenseless position to drop another bomb?

[Nastaboi]

Unlike Notion Thief, Restoration Angel does things in combat. Notion Thief's main ability is not strong enough to make it worth.

When tapping out for planeswalker, at least one of these usually applies:

1) you have seen from discard that the coast is clear
2) you have already used all your soft counters to control their early aggression
3) they have two or less cards in hand and propably nothing
4) you have O. Ring or similar for whatever they might have
5) your planeswalker still triumphs everything they might have

From time to time they do have an answer, but even then you get some value from walker. Sometimes you want to wait and keep counter mana up, but that's generally not a problem. The only problematic match was High Tide, where I couldn't tap out after his fourth turn, but could not wait either as I had to get some pressure on the board.

[Payron]

Event added on MTGPulse.com (http://mtgpulse.com/event/13497#189552)
Thanks for the lists and congrats to your 2nd place.

[Tiggupiru]

Yeah, congrats on the second place finish. Facing you on the top8 was a tilting experience since I juggled between so many decks before the tournament and I felt I picked the absolutely correct one and then I just got paired against the only deck I have zero hope of beating. I wouldn't mind losing on finals, but losing to get the absolutely minimal prize after steamrolling everything else feels a bit annoying.

In other news, WW is a motherfucking beast, I played against my friend piloting the Tendrils-Oath that got in the top8 on the first round and that was the only MU I felt I could lose (we actually tested a bunch and I feel the MU is about 50-50). I won the third game where he started the game with Mox Diamond discarding Forchard and Noxious Revivaling it on his next upkeep with Wasteland. The rest of the swiss saw me just 2-0'ing what felt like very easy games against UW control (which lost win-and-in), URW aggro-control (also lost win-and-in) and High Tide (4th place finish). Testing also showed that Burn and most goodstuffs are really good MU's. I forgot Battlefield Medic totally, but rest of the list feels really solid. Jihad underperformed, but I did face three control decks and a High Tide to make the Jihad's drawback super-relevant.