Baltikon Modern Tounrament.

25.07.2015 was a Saturday in which I had an opportunity to visit a place I considered to be my local metagame for a last couple of years. I was really excited as I haven't been there for a while and I knew that only good things happened to the community because of a new store. I wanted to attend a modern tournament during the Fantasy Themed Event.

I had an access to following decks:
- Burn, which I managed to borrow from a friend of mine who was supposed to attend as well, but eventually he couldn't,
- Grixis Delver,
- UR Delver,
- Mono U Tron,
- UW Tron.

My choice was based on following rules:
- I've been very busy at work lately, so I don't want to abuse my mind totally. What is more, the tournament was supposed to be one of the attractions during a huge fantasy themed event called Baltikon which was organised in school. From my experience I'was convinced to notice that both oxygen and fresh air would be as scarce as hen's teeth. I was right.
- I wanted an easy and efficient deck, which I'm not new to. I don't like losing to missplays and wanted to punish my opponents for their's.
- I wanted a fast deck to have time for trades between rounds.

Thus, I chose Burn. Quick, fast, efficient and not demanding. I played it a lot online when Deathrite Shaman was legal and both Monastery Swiftspear and Eidolon of the Great Ravel haven't been released yet. Such change didn't make me feel I'm not familiar with the deck.

The tournament's place lacked fresh air as I expected. With a friend of mind we needed arround 15 minutes to find the right class. We passed a countless number of people dressed in either anime or fantasy themed clothes. Even some of them held huge melee weapons. I'm not used to such climate. It impressed me a lot. The tournament took place in gymnasium in which there was at least a hundred of different cardgames players.

My decklist was following:

Mainboard (60):
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Arid Mesa
2 Scalding Tarn
4 Mountain
2 Sacred Foundry
1 Stomping Ground
-19-

4 Goblin Guide
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Eidolon of the Great Ravel
-12-

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Skullcrack
4 Boros Charm
3 Searing Blaze
2 Shard Volley
-29-

Sideboard (15):
4 Destructive Revelry
4 Guerilla Tactics
4 Searing Blood
3 Dragon's Claw
-15-

The list was pretty much a boros burn. I wanted to have an access to Lightning Helixes and didn't want to have too many shocklands to have a better mirror matchup, which I expected to be present. I find Destructive Revelries to be the best sideboard card an aggro deck could ever have.

Round 1.
2-0 vs. Esper Midrange

My first opponent was a mate who accompanied my trip to the school and helped me face all of these strange people. I knew he played Esper Midrange based on Monastery Mentor, Tasigur and cheap attriction spells. I helped him with setting decklist, so I knew he wouldn't have a perfect sideboard against me.
I won a die roll, we both kept our first hands. I started both games with turn one Goblin Guide.
There isn't much to describe as I played burn. Who bothers whether I played more Lava Spikes or Lightning Bolts?

Sideboarding:
+4 Searing Blood
-4 Skullcrack

Round 2.
2-0 vs. RG Tron

I faced someone I didn't know at all. It shouldn't have happened as I thought I knew at least most of local players.
I won a die roll and started with turn one Goblin Guide followed by another Goblin Guide and Monastery Swiftspear. Seemed perfect for a turn two sweaper, didn't it? Hopefully it led me to another game right after.

Sideboarding:
+4 Destructive Revelry
-3 Searing Blaze
-1 Eidolon of the Great Ravel

Revelries were obvious and so were Searing Blazes. I decided to side out Eidolon because I didn't really want to draw creatures than these which occur in my first hand. Late creatures are sad when I want to deal last 3 damage right after casting Wurmcoil Engine. They also suffer to Pyroclasm and this one suffer's to Nature's Claim as well.

Game two was started with a Goblin Guide as well. So lucky of me. During the game I faced double Feed the Clan and a Nature's Claim. It wouldn't be scary if didn't know he has a Platinum Angel in hand. It also kept me away from playing Eidolons which I had in number of two. Despite gaining 14 life he didn't manage to draw the full tron. Unlucky guy! He didn't manage to get the full tron in neither game.

Round 3.
0-2 vs. GW Aura Hexproof

I won a dire roll again, but didn't manage to force:
t1 creature
t2 Rancor + Spirit Link
t3 Ethereal Armor

Sideboarding:
+4 Destructive Revelry
-3 Searing Blaze
-1 Eidolon of the Great Ravel

Game two was full of mulligans. I started with 4 cards (Goblin Guide, Lava Spike and two lands) when my opponent had 6. As soon as turn two I had no cards in hand as the Swiftspear was my first draw. After revealing his top card during the first attack my opponent noticed "Oh, the creature! I kept the creatureless hand and wanted to draw one!" During his turn two he had a creature with double Ethereal Armor. My prays were simple: Destructive Revelry as I really want to get rid of every Daybreak Coronet or Spirit Link he would draw. My prays didn't work and in turn three I was attacked by a 10/10 hexproof, lifelink, vigilance monster. If I had drawn the Revelry, I would have won a game against this awful matchup.

Round 4.
1-2 vs. Grixis Twin

Game one - no t1 creature, combo kill in turn 6. By the time my late creatures were either burnt or blocked.

Sideboarding:
+4 Destructive Revelry
-4 Skullcrack

Game two started with Monastery Swiftspear followed by a turn four kill. During game three I had to face a double Dragon's Claw and double Spellskite. This is quite a lot, even for a good burn player.

I have to add that I hate Splinter Twin almost so much as I hate Show and Tell.
I find S&T to be the most brainless strategy in the world. You need to play a 3 cmc sorcery which with a help of an Omniscience, Griselbrand or Emrakul gives you a game. I know it doesn't work this way every time and there is a ton of hate cards, but from the seat of the S&T opponent this is exactly what I feel. And such is the Splinter Twin. As a Twin opponent I always have to face Remand, Deceiver Exarch and Splinter Twin sticked together. There is a legend that these three cards stick together between 10 am and 10 pm to spend the night seperately! This is pretty much the time when every Magic Tournament seems to happen. Conspiracy?
What's more, the Exarch is 1/4 what keeps him out of Bolt's range and Pestermite is never drawn when you keep one. The same legend says that Exarchs change their positions with Pestermites as only you get rid of Twins, to help the player outplay you with 2/1 fliers.

Statistics:
50% matches won (2-2)
60% games won (5-4)
100% die rolls won! (4/4)
66% games started with a turn one creature (6/9)
83% games won after playing a turn one creature (5/6)
0% games won after not playing a turn one creature (0/3) - the conclusion is simple!

Pros:
-I played Magic!
-Event's atmosphere! Every person was totally absorbed by the hobby. No matter if it was anime or cardgames.
-The hero opened windows in the middle of round 3. Applaused by the crowd!
-I bought a Dragon Ball Themed mug for my wife what gave her a ton of happiness. It's one of animes she really likes.
-2 new cards for my EDH Maelstrom Wanderer deck - Boom / Bust and Bane of Progress.
-1 new card for my legacy storm - Dark Petition number 2. I'm pretty sure I won't need more than one but I don't want to bother myself looking for missing ones in a couple of months.
-1 new card to pimp my legacy storm - S-Chinese Ad Nauseam traded for English one. Now i Have 1 S-Ch and 1 Eng instead of 2 English ones.

Cons:
-Payout - 36-10-5 in event with no top 4/8. It was very much a single-elimination tournament.
-No air until the middle of round 3.

-The number of participants. There were only 16 playes whereas regular torunaments are attended by 23s and more.
-Didn't manage to do any real trades. I took three binders and a few boxes but didn't manage to get more cards than written above. My shoulders weren't happy at all.

-Endir