Standard Event Recap - Swiss Rounds

On the weekend following the largest constructed event in over two years, nobody really knew what to expect next. Would as many people come this week? Would poison finally have its breakthrough weekend? Would justice be dispensed? Would we have to call security again because nobody unlocked the second floor of the SUB? Would Brett Favre unretire and sign with the Dolphins? Many of these questions were about to be answered as the Standard event began to unfold.

Following a 25-player turnout for Extended, I was thrilled to see just one fewer player arrive for Standard, giving us a second consecutive event requiring 5 rounds of Swiss. We were nearly two players fewer than the previous event, but at the last second newly elected FITSSFF President and one of the top players from last semester, Haren Lalchand, decided to enter his first event of the spring just to give us an even number. However, as seems to routinely happen to people that enter at the last second, Haren started the event hot with two 2-0 wins, including a second round event over yours truly, handing my RUG deck its first loss in its last three tournaments.

A couple other players were making some noise. After spending the week testing a blue/black control deck, Michael Smith returned from his previous weekend's absence with a deck that caught many people off guard - Grixis Vampires, featuring the best black Vampires and utility cards from blue and red, including Mana Leak, Lightning Bolt, and the boogey-man himself, Jace the Mind Sculptor. Not to be forgotten, the previous week's winner, Jason D'Mellow, was still wielding Elves with success, and also was high on the leaderboard early.

Some new faces found their way up the ranks in the third round, including one player who made a 180 degree turnaround from the previous week. Kevin Hoover finished dead last among the 25 players in last week's event, but with his re-worked his poison/proliferate deck, he became the first person in 11 rounds of Magic to solve Jason's Elf deck. Joining him and Michael Smith at 3-0 was Noah Senzel, piloting a green/white deck featuring a variety of token generators including Garruk, Elspeth Tirel, and Kazandu Tuskcaller. Just behind them at 2-0-1 was Hannah Sharp, who was playing in her first FITSSFF event with a derivative of the prolific Quest White Weenie deck that splashed red for Cunning Sparkmage, a creature that combos extremely well with the Basilisk Collar already played in the deck.

Going into round four, a variety of players were left jockeying for position to try to crack the elusive top 8. Still within striking distance entering the fourth round of play were eight other players, including Roy Mustang, with a mono-black version of Vampires; Scott Record, with green/white landfall; and Kevin Crowley, playing proliferate control. Several other players sat at 1-2, still mathematically alive, but in need of some draws and other help from the group above them.

However, that help was not to be found. Some tight fourth round matches vaulted several players from the middle of the pack to a group at 9 points, including John Kreinbring's mono-white Aura deck, employing some unloved rares (such as Umbra Mystic and Kor Spiritdancer) and the often-forgotten Totem Armor mechanic from Rise of the Eldrazi, and Michael Carney's blue/white token control deck featuring Emeria Angel and Elspeth Tirel. I also managed to pull out a fourth round win to move to 3-1.

Following the fourth round, exactly eight players were sitting on 9 points or more, meaning that they could all intentionally draw in round five to make the top 8. However, the remaining players showed their Magic pride and duked out a fifth round for pride and the extra League Points that they might be able to earn with an extra win. Two players stood out from this group in the final standings - Dane Newton ended up 3-2 and in ninth place with his Shape Anew combo deck, which promises to become even better with the upcoming release of Blightsteel Colossus. Also having a pretty good day was Michael Cambata, whose blue/white control deck was very resilient on the day, but unfortunately was routinely battling the time limit, finishing 2-1-2 on the day.

With that, the top 8 was set, and food plans were set shortly afterwards. The top 8 players in the Swiss were Hannah, Michael Smith, Kevin Hoover, Noah, John, Jason, Michael Carney, and myself, and we prepared to do single elimination battle after completing the quest for foods...