Commanders vs. Cancer - Swiss Rounds Recap

It looked like a usual scene: students scattered about the rows of gray tables of Crawford 403, waiting for the professor to start the day's lesson. But, today's lesson was one of Legendary and sometimes Mythic creatures, a lesson of dragons, beasts, elementals, and, of course, one very tall treefolk. 18 students were eager to engage in the day's lecture on Commander, with the dual purpose of raising money for the FITSSFF Relay for Life team.

After the first couple Swiss rounds went into the books, it looked like it might be a big day for big creatures. John and Bryant both started out strong at 2-0 courtesy of Naya Commanders - Mayael, the Anima and Uril, the Miststalker. Hunter was also going for big green creatures, and he had picked up two wins as well courtesy of Om-Nom-Nom-Nath, Locus of Mana.

Uril took down Omnath in the third round, and two other players joined Bryant at 3-0. Jordan Arnold, a long-time proponent of Savra, Queen of the Golgari, arrived at the event with a mono-red deck with Ashling, the Pilgrim at the helm. With his commander that some of his opponents had to read, Jordan moved to 3-0 after a win over John's Mayael deck. Joining them at 3-0 was Mike Mooty, whose commander was the infamous Zur the Enchanter, who easily puts the opponent into a nearly unstoppable lockdown after just a couple of attacks.

Zur took Mike to 4-0 in the fourth round, leaving him alone in first with an easy draw into the top 8. Another slew of players emerged from the pack at 3-1, primed for a shot at the top 8. Among these were Scott, who was also playing Uril, and Michael Smith's land-destruction deck primed around artifact-based mana sources and the land-ravaging ability of his commander, Numot, the Devastator. Also pulling into 3-1 after a narrow fourth round win was your friendly tournament organizer, playing everyone's favorite treefolk - Doran, the Siege Tower.

Most of the top 8 was decided, but one last spot was up for grabs in a match that pitted Skye, playing Intet, the Dreamer, against Liz, who was playing Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund. Liz's commander prevented Skye from using his, since Karrthus takes control of all dragons when he enters the battlefield. After some additional mana problems from Skye, Liz took the match and became the first person to advance to the top 8 of an event despite not arriving at the tournament until after the first round. The top 8 was set - Mooty, Scott, Bryant, Smith, me, Hunter, Liz, and Jordan - and we were off to Chili's and then the top 8.