Guest Blogger:  Steve Sobon

Sat, April 16th.

7am, time to grind! 

The days I wake up in the morning AND feel like P. Ditty are few and far between, this not being one either. However, I got a good night's sleep, and had tested my standard deck for the regionals ahead of time, so I was feeling pretty good. "My wonderful wife also brought home breakfast, which was a huge bonus!" When Belts and Blake arrived to roll on down to glory after a quick deck, I felt prepared, and that helps a lot for your confidence going in to a tourney like this. for those that care, here's what I played:

CAW BLADE, by someone better then me, tweaked by Steve Sobon

Maindeck                        Sideboard
1 sword feast and famine        1 sword of feast and famine
1 sword of body and mind        1 stoic rebuttal
2 tumble magnet                 3 kor fireewalker
1 sun titan                     3 mirran crusader
4 preordain                     3 flashfreese
2 day of judgement              1 day  of judgement
4 jace, the mind sculptor       2 divine offering
4 mana leak                     1 sylvok lifestaff
4  stoneforge mystic
1 into the roil
3 gideon jura
2 spell pierce
1 motorpod
4 squadron hawk
5 islan
4 plains
4 tech edge
4 glacial fortress
4 celestial colonnade
4 seachrome coast
1 inkmoth nexus

Most of the list is pretty dang stock, with the few exceptions being an Inkmoth nexus, an into the roil maindeck, a u/g sword main, and mirrian crusaders out of the board. crusaders were houses when they came in, and if I had space, I would maindeck them. I chose a split sword option for the pro blue (jace) ability, and into the roil was just a good catch all. Inkmoth was just another dude to hold a sword. I chose Caw Blade over Dark Blade for the ability to run 4 tech edges, since there seems to be plenty of lands that matter running around at the moment. Ok, enough about the deck, on with the matches!

Round 1, RBG 2-0, 1-0 so far:
Let me be truly honest, I won this despite myself. I played like I had 15 drinks into me. "Ah, I miss you magic cruise," I missed triggers, failed twice to use stoneforge's ability at the end of turn to barf out a equipment, and still ran the guy over. I haven't had to apologize to a guy for winning since I tripple goblin guided Jordan on the play six months ago. What can I say, Caw blade's a good deck. Birds and blades ran him down game one, crusaders and swords wrap it up game 2.

Round 2, Darkblade, 2-1, 2-0 and the days looking good:
My opponent saunters up to the table and informs me that he hasn't been playing lately, to protect his rating. Look folks, unless your rated over 2000, I don't even want to hear about it. Hell, 1800 just means you play at FNM's. This guy goes on to "first place" overall at 7-1, only because the top 2 tables get to draw in in the finals. 
My opponent is running a three color deck with at least 3 tech edges, blows them early on my colonnades, then is complaining when I use my own on the activation stack. He wins the dice roll, but it's sword/bird game one for me, with him on the play, Inquisition/mystic/inquisition/jace for him game 2, then the lovely game three state I described above. 

Round 3, RUG 1-2, 2-1 and missing triggers again:
This was my true derp match, all was well until game three, where he had a magnet with two counters, a red titan, and I'm at ten. However, I have two equipped firewalkers on board. I had missed two triggers costing me a total of 4 life, and also, could have blown up one of his 4 red sources to prevent his fire-breathing titan for going in for exacts. Live and learn, I guess....

Round 4, Mono Red, 2-1, 3-1 and getting back in it.
Game one for me is a dog. It's not un-winnable, but it's pretty rough. Games two and three though, I find firewalkers, and a kicked into the roil keept a koth going infinite. Once you drop birds for firewalkers, and trade out some of your spell pierce for anything else, your fine in this match. keep in motorpod though, as a spikeshot elder or a sparkmage can be hell for you.

Round 5, Goblins, 2-1, 4-1 and getting closer.
I had a wonderful opponent who was rocking a deck close to my heart, Goblins! I love me a tribal deck, to see this deck going late sure makes me happy. On top of that, the pilot was a smiling fellow who was just happy to be there. Game 1 was a loss to me, but 2 and 3 firewalkers come out again, and Gideon seals the deal. I hated to send this guy home early, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

Round 6, Green/White stuff??? 2-0, 5-1 and almost there.
I originally put this guy on eldrazi green, as when he was shuffling, he kept flashing his bottom card, and I had seen all is dust, eldrazi temple, and such. A little note here, it's not cheating by me if you want to show the world your cards while your shuffling. I've noticed that people are pretty loose with their hands too, flashing their cards around. Why show your opponent what you are up too? But I'll take the free info. As I said, I put him on aliens, but he drops a couple walls of omens right off the bat. no matter, birds/sword go! Game two I should haven't tapped out for a Gideon, enabling him to all is dust. no matter, colonnade/sword finishes the job.

Round 7, U/W control 0-2, 5-2 and the wheels fall off.
This still stings to think about. Win and in. Just get there. Sadly, not a chance. My opponent was a good guy who was rocking a U/W list featuring Venser the Sojourner and Spine of Ish Sah. He simply had more counters, more plainswalkers, and I just wasn't prepared for the match. what, like you have this list in your gauntlet? Sigh....

Round 8, Valakut, 2-1, 6-2 on the day.
Here I was paired up against my friend Jordan, who was rocking a valakut list. All that was on the line at this point is packs,and we agreed to split them either way the game goes. Game one was pretty handily in my favor, with a stoneforge mystic equipped with a blade took him down with a magnet clearing the way. In Jordan's defence, he did have to mulligan. Game two, he bombed out 3, count 'em 3, mana walls, to grenade out every spell in the book,and I scoop quickly. Game three was a combo of crusaders and firewalkers with pointy objects in their hands aimed at Jordan. He had no outs to my late counters. We had a few laughs, and turned in the last slip of the day. end of the day postings come out, with me at 11th.  

I was disappointed with not top 8'ing regional's, but a day with friends playing my favorite game is not one wasted. And there's yet another last chance qualifier for nats in two weeks! See you there!