Oh man what a crazy and fun weekend! I didn't perform as well as I would have liked to at Nationals, but I am the only one to blame for that - I should've drafted more. I arrived in Minneapolis on Thursday with five other good friends. After dropping our bags off we headed straight to the convention center. Four of us signed up for Nationals and two others did the last chance qualifier. I was later informed that Justin Parnell a friend of mine had lost in the finals of the LCQ with his Jund deck – what a bad beat.

After signing up for Nats we went to Fogo de Chao for dinner; if you ever want the best service and meat in your life; I suggest you go there. The food is so scrumptious and it's all you can eat. So after having dinner served to us on swords we all went back to the hotel to register our decks and head to bed.

The next morning we arrive at the tournament and get ready for the player meeting. I decided to play R/G Valakut Ramp with summoning Traps main for the standard portion. Even though it felt awkward not playing Jace, the Mind Sculptor – I knew this deck was really good and proved to do well in testing against everything except red deck wins – which I was not expecting much off and Ascension which I had a lot of sideboard hate for. Here's the deck:

"R/G Valakut"

• Creatures (19)
• 4 Primeval Titan
• 4 Siege Gang Commander
• 4 Inferno Titan
• 4 Bloodbraid Elf
• 2 Avenger of Zendikar
• 1 Terastodon

• Spells (15)
• 4 Rampant Growth
• 3 Explore
• 3 Cultivate
• 2 Harrow
• 3 Summoning Trap

• Lands (26)
• 2 Raging Ravine
• 2 Evolving Wilds
• 3 Terramorphic Expanse
• 4 Forest
• 4 Valakut, the Molteb Pinnacle
• 11 Mountain

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Obstinate Baloth
• 4 Nature's Claim
• 3 Pyroclasm
• 2 Gaea's Revenge
• 2 Back to Nature

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I originally had 2 Slave of Bolas and 1 Swamp instead of 2 Gaea's Revenge and 1 Nature's Claim, but I opted to play Gaea's Revenge and another claim because I expected a lot of Ascension and U/W.

Round one (James W. Seelhoff playing R/G Valakut)

He wins the die roll and is on the play. He starts things off with a Rampant Growth and I mirror his play. He has Cultivate to ramp even further while I just have a Harrow. He has the Primeval Titan next turn and all I have is a Bloodbraid Elf that hits an Explore. I then die to his Primeval Titan getting Valakut and some lands, what a skill intensive game one!

I'm now wishing I played the Slave of Bolas sideboard.

-4 Bloodbraid Elf

+4 Obstinate Baloth

Game two I am on the play, and end up mulling to four. I ramp a little with Rampant Growth but start missing land drops he has the turn four Primeval Titan and I just scoop'em up!

0-1

Round two (Peter J. Klinstiver playing U/W Control)

I win the die roll and surprisingly chose to play first. I Cultivate on turn three after he plays a Wall of Omens. On my turn four I attempt a Siege-Gang Commander which gets Deprived, the following turn I just double Cultivate and hopes he counters one and if he doesn't I should be out of Mana Leak range. He doesn't counter anything and plays a Jace, the Mind Sculptor on his turn and Brainstorms. I cast an Inferno Titan killing his Jace which he doesn't answer and ships the turn back. The following turn I cast an Avenger of Zendikar knowing that he brainstormed and put 2 cards he didn't need on top. I assumed since he didn't have an answer for Inferno Titan that he wouldn't have one for the Avenger either. He didn't and scooped when the Avenger hit play.

-3 Explore -2 Harrow

+2 Back to Nature +1 Nature's Claim +2 Gaea's Revenge

I don't want to get blown out by casting Harrow and him countering it so I take them out.

Game two I start things off with Rampant Growth on turn two. On turn three I have no lands in hand, but I do have a Cultivate. I just cast the Cultivate calmly hoping he doesn't counter it - he tanks for a bit than counters it. I do not have another land and my hand and regretfully ship the turn back. I eventually start drawing some land a couple turns later and luckily rip another Cultivate which he doesn't counter. He ends up having Gideon Jura, Elspeth, and Jace all on the field and has my Primeval Titan Oblivion Ring'ed along with my Siege-Gang Commander with Journey to Nowhere. I have Valakut online and at the end one of his turn after he attacks me to 11 (thanks to Elspeth and Gideon) I try to Nature's Claim his Oblivion Ring which he promptly counters. I then cast Back to Nature which he has no answer to and I am able to kill him with Valakut triggers and Siege-Gang Tokens.

1-1

Round three (Andrew D. Vick playing Mythic)

I'm on the play again this match, but don't have anything to exciting where as Andrew busts out the gates with turn one Noble Hierarch and turn two Lotus Cobra followed by a tap land which allows him to play a Birds of Paradise. He casts a turn three Jace TMS and Brainstorms. I am able to cast a Bloodbraid Elf which hits a Rampant Growth and attack his Jace. He doesn't block with his Cobra and Jace dies. The following turn he has a fetch land and drops a Linvala, Keeper of Silence along with a Night of the Reliquary. I cast an Inferno Titan promptly killing his Birds, Noble, and Cobra. He is out of gas at this point and I am able to cast a Primeval Titan to kill his Knight and seal game one.

-3 Summoning Traps – 1 Terrastodon -1 Explore

+3 Pyroclasm +2 Back to Nature

Again Andrew has a lighting fast start with turn one Noble Hierarch followed by turn two double Lotus Cobras, turn three Dauntless Escort and turn four Knight of the Reliquary. I have a turn four Inferno Titan and try to kill his Cobra's and Hierarch – Andrew will have none of that and sacs his Dauntless Escort and on his turn he hard casts an Eldrazi Conscription and swings. I draw for my turn and don't have a Back to Nature so I concede.

Game three I have a turn two Explore followed by a turn three Rampant Growth and Pyroclasm to kill his turn two Lotus Cobra. He casts a Fauna Shaman and I just ramp some more. He discards a Sovereigns of Lost Alara to get a Knight of the Reliquary and plays it. I play a Primeval Titan and kill his Knight. Andrew uses the shaman's ability again discarding a Fauna Shaman to get another Knight and casts it. The next turn I am able to cast Avenger of Zendikar and have three mountains hit the field clearing his board all the while growing my deadly salad tokens.

2-1

Round Four (Brandon M. Nelson playing U/W Control)

I am on a roll and win another die roll. I try and start things off with a Cultivate but Brandon swiftly Mana Leaks it. I later try for a Siege-Gang Commander which he Cancels and then misses his land drop. I attempt an Inferno Titan all the while holding Primeval Titan in my hand trying to drain him of his counter spells and saving the best titan for last - which ends up working because my Inferno Titan gets countered. The next turn Brandon is still missing land drops and I try for an Avenger of Zendikar which gets Essence Scattered. I finally cast the last threat in my hand which is the Primeval Titan and it resolves I quickly tutor up a Raging Ravine and one Valakut. Brandon is able to keep my Primeval Titan in check with Path to Exile, but Raging Ravine is able to end the game while Brandon is stuck on four lands.

-2 Explore -2 Harrow

+2 Gaea's Revenge +2 Back to Nature

Things start off a little slow this game with me ramping a little and him just playing lands. I cast a turn three Bloodbraid Elf which hits a Rampant Growth, he leaks the Bloodbraid Elf and lets the Rampant Growth resolve. Next turn I play a Siege-Gang Commandeer which he counters I then cast a summoning trap which he also counters. He is stuck on four lands again, but has an Elspeth to get things going on his side. By this time I have Valakut online so I cast an Inferno Titan which resolves and does three to his Elspeth, I follow this up with a mountain to get rid of the pesky planeswalker. On his turn he wipes the board with a Day of Judgment. I have a Bloodbraid Elf which hits a Cultivate putting him at seven after combat. He taps out for another Day of Judgement and on my turn I cast a Gaea's Revenge that domes him for lethal. Now it's time to draft!

3-1

I regretfully didn't take many notes on the drafts but I know I drafted a really bad green/white deck with three Palace Guards, couple of fliers, two Pacifisms, and some 2/2 bears. The best thing I had in my deck was my pack one pick one - Platinium Angel. Everything else was supposed to stall until I could cast her which happened to work a lot of the games. People couldn't do anything about her when she resolved. I ended up going 2-1 this draft putting me at 6-2 for the day which was a decent day one.

Day two I end up drafting another bad deck, this time it's U/B fliers with two sign in bloods and no removal spells, because I never opened any Doom Blades and never saw Quag Sickness.

My first opponent was Peter Ingram. We get deck checked so I hand my deck to the judge and then take out my sideboard, which was in a big card sleeve that was also holding some extra sleeves for my deck incase one ripped. After the Judge walks away this hipster reaches over without asking and squeezes the sleeve. He replies with, "Some Judges don't do their job well enough, you could've been cheating. Sometimes I have to do their job." I'm a nice guy and just refrain from saying anything. The Judge comes back and I end up getting a game loss for misregistering my deck. Apparently I marked as having Serra Angel in my sideboard when I meant to mark Serra's Ascendant. I then have to play a game without sideboarding and lose; I just sign the slip and quickly walk away.

My next round I play against Alexander West a really awesome guy that totally steam rolls me with his mono white aggro deck. I chat with Alex for a bit after the match then mark the drop box, Alex tries to convince me to keep playing that I shouldn't drop just yet. I thank him, but didn't listen and now regret it. Thanks anyway for trying Alex!

Even though I didn't do so hot in the big event I still had a blast that weekend. I played against Brian Kibler in a two-headed giant event. His team had a Serra Ascendant which is really broken in two-headed giant since your starting life total is thirty. I ended up cubing a ton this weekend, and I highly suggest trying to cube if you've never done it. It's really fun! Now I am off to test for Amsterdam and try and get more drafts in to up my draft skills. Hopefully I will be well prepared for Amsterdam, thanks for reading everyone!