Hi all! I hope you all enjoyed the southern invitational! I'll leave it to Zuran management to make a broader article about the event. Here's how last night played out from my perspective.

I decided to take this list to the southern invitational.

Main Deck:
4 Steppe Lynx 4 Hellspark Elemental
4 Goblin Guide 2 Goblin Bushwacker
4 Plated Geopede 3 Hell's Thunder
3 Ranger of Eos

4 Lightning Bolt 2 Burst Lightning
3 Path to Exile 3 Earthquake

4 Arid Mesa 3 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Saclding Tarn 4 Plains
4 Marsh Flats 5 Mountain

Sideboard:

2 Day of Judgment 3 Safe Passage
2 Harm's Way 1 Path to Exile
4 Celestial Purge 2 Oblivion Ring
1 Elspeth Knight Errant


Round 1 vs Jund

Game 1: What a way to start. I mulligan and keep a one land hand (Plains) and 2 steppe lynx. Long story short, I fail to draw any more lands for the next 5 turns. I manage to get 3 steppe lynx on the board though with my singleton Plains. aheheh...blah.

Game 2: I keep a semi-decent hand and trade blows with a sprouting thrinax, which ends up sprouting it's tokens. I misplay here, playing Harm's way on a sprout and redirecting it to one of it's brothers. Apparently, I still take two damage before the Harm's way target dies. I continue to misplay from there on, I had an earthquake in hand and decided to keep it as a final blow, and then I wasted a Ligtning bolt on another sprout pumped up by 2 Jund charms, which I already knew was going to happen. I didn't draw any Celestial Purges despite having sided in four copies. My frustration from my first game got the better of me and led me to make mistakes. I'll have to read my last article and take my own advice. >_<

Standing: 0-1-0

Round 2 vs Mono Black Vampire Control

Game 1: I was beginning to curse my luck now. I had to get paired with a deck that had a ton of life gain spells and removal. I bring him down to critical life, only for him to regain it back with Tendrils of Corruption and Consume Spirit. Sorin Markov comes down and nets him even more life, while at the same time absorbing my attacks. Consume slaps me across the face and I lose.

Game 2: I go in quickly for the kill here, as I draw an almost god hand. I win.

Game 3: This was close. I was bringing the beatdown but he had a lot of life gain. 2 Sorin markovs eat Celestial purges. He maintains a decent life total with Tendrils. I go into topdeck mode and manage to draw enough hasty guys to send in beats without exposing a target to Tendrils on his turn. I win.

Standing: 1-1-0

Round 3 vs Turbo Fog

Game 1: After the last game I thought my unlucky streak was over. Not. I get paired up against a very efficient Turbo Fog deck. The game ends with him at 31 life and me with no library.

Game 2: I manage to bring the beats this time, with him just barely behind in fog effects. I was short one burn spell, and he stabilizes at 1 life. He proceeds to locking me down with fogs and counters, until he drops Baneslayer angel. I sided out my path to exiles for game 2, and with no answer to the flyer it was death from above. There goes my chances of making it into top 8.

Standing: 1-2-0

Round 4 vs. Mono white aggro

Game 1: Finally an even matchup. We both mulligan to 6. I aggro out with a bunch of Goblin guides, lynx and geopede and proceed to take this match the way Boros does it best: Ranger of Eos searching up steppe lynx and bushwacker.

Game 2: I side in my Day of Judgments and hope I curve out well enough to make chump blockers out of my opponents creatures. Being on the draw I have a slower start, but I'm in good shape as I have enough removal to deal with first strike blockers. A kor skyfisher from her side nips away at my life total until I find a lightning bolt. Two consecutive earthquakes deal enough damage for me to take this game.

Standing 2-2-0

Round 5 vs. GW tokens

Game 1: I finally win the die roll and go first. I open with steppe lynx, burst lightning on his creature, and then another steppe lynx. My cats go unmolested the entire game and all my opponent's creatures end up as blockers. I take this game with a lot of burn in my hand.

Game 2: Again I open with steppe lynx for 4 damage on turn two, then curving into geopede and hellspark elemental, swinging for 12 on turn 3. A continuous stream of fetch lands keep my guys big. Journey to Nowhere connects with the geopede, but I have a full grip of haste creatures and burn to finish him off.

Standing 3-2-0

Rouond 6 vs Jund

Game 1: The top tables draw into the finals and we're just playing for prize packs now so there's less pressure. I mulligan to 6 and end up with a red heavy hand. We exchange blows until blightning gets my last card and double dragon hits the table. With no removal in sight I scoop.

Game 2: I draw no lands and mulligan. I still draw no lands and mulligan again. Now down to 5 cards and I have 2 marsh flats and all red spells on the play. Apparently my bad luck had not run out. In fact I radiated so much bad luck my opponent failed to get any green sources. After drawing another flats and finally a scalding tarn I crack 4 fetches and play Ranger of Eos. I misplay this again, as I search up steppe lynx and a goblin bushwacker that I couldn't even kick with my one mountain in play. Still no green from his deck, and he plays out his removal heavy grip on my then growing board. He runs out of burn, and then runs out of life soon after. What a comeback from a double mulligan!

Game 3: This plays out like game 1, only no blightnings mean I kept my hand intact and get to race him. I see no celestial purges and have to lightning bolt a sprouting thrinax. He drops putrid leech to join his saprolings. I cast day of judgement to clear his board, and he follows up with Bloodbraid into Bolt. Our life totals are pretty even until I am able to Ranger into lynx and bushwacker. A final swing gets him down to 2 life, and Harm's way deals the final damage for the win.

Final standing 4-2-0

I think the deck performed decently despite a number of errors on my part. I did mulligan a lot of times, but in the matches where I had decent draws I was able to win, so I must attribute my mediocre standing to rotten luck. My brothers made 4-2 and 3-3 standings respectively. Our anti-jund list also had a streak of bad luck, as it only went up against 1 Jund deck and it even lost to a vampire deck by not drawing any celestial purge, white knight, or devout lightcaster. I placed 19th, 3 places short of winning anything at all, but the experience was good and our team was able to make nice trades.

Congratulations to Zuran Gaming Center management for a job well done, and kudos to the top 8! I hope we're able to organize another big event soon, and i'll make sure I bring my lucky tarantula's foot to that one!