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Results

3-2 (7-6). Felt strong as usual. A couple very frustrating games where I got unlucky, but most games I lost are, as usual, due to bad decisions.

OO Jund (T4, T12) (7-4 Lifetime vs Jund)

OXO Elves (T3, T4) (3-1 Lifetime vs Elves)

OXO Emry JAC (T4, T3) (1-1 lifetime vs Paradoxical Outcome)

XX Prowess (1-2 Lifetime vs Prowess)

OXX Jund (T7) (7-5 Lifetime vs Jund)

List

Last league we didn't tutor for a Hushbringer even in its best matchup, so it was replaced with a Path.

Last league there was no Ranger-Captain, with the logic being that sometimes your Once Upon a Time would be your infinite mana payoff. That's not that important, and having *something* productive to Finale for at X=3 is pretty good, and Hushbringer is out, so I went +1 Ranger-Captain -1 Ballista.

The cards closest to being cut are Chameleon Colossus, Dryad Arbor, 3rd Evolution, and Ranger-Captain.

The cards that just barely didn't make the cut are Hushbringer, 3rd Thrun, 2nd Ballista, and 4th Horizon Canopy.

Round 1 on the draw vs Jenara19 on Jund

This matchup and Veil of Summer are the main reason I switched to Devoted Druid in the first place. Let's see it.

Win Game 1

This is acceptable; Once Upon a Time might be a Vizier, and if it's a Noble or Giver, that's fine too.

T1 Thoughtseize takes my Druid, and it turned out Once Upon a Time was indeed a Vizier. I draw a second Vizier, so I play a bait Vizier T2 and hope it trades for a card somehow. I used to do this all the time with Birds of Paradise -- play something that is not worth a card, in the hopes that the interactive deck follows their instinct to answer every single card in your deck.

It works -- my 2/1 earns a Trophy for some reason! Then opponent taps out for Liliana T4 against my empty board, so they are super dead to the Lunge. Win T4.

+4 Veil +3 Path -3 Evolution -2 Vizier -2 Lunge

Win Game 2

This hand is good if Once Upon a Time is a Druid, but terrible otherwise, so I'm tossing this back.

Now we're talking. I bottom the Path here:

T1 Inquisition takes Druid (?!). That seems insane to me; they have to take Veil, right? So I'm not playing Noble T1 into what I assume is a Collective Brutality. They go T2 Goyf, T3 Plague Engineer on Human. I guess I needed that Path after all.

In hindsight, bottoming the Noble is actually great in this situation. It's probably dying to all manner of things anyway, and the Path makes up for the fact that we obviously aren't comboing soon. Excellent thing to learn.

On T4, a Thoughtseize (Veil in Response) + Trophy kills my Druid but I cantrip and the Thoughtseize fizzles, so it's a 2 for 0 even if you don't count the land I got. Sure they follow up with Ashiok, but the game is essentially over after that exchange.

I cannot stress enough the degree to which the card Veil of Summer completely nullifies the strategy of the Jund deck. If the Thoughtseize had resolved, I would have been out of spells. Instead, I had 2 spells. The whole reason Jund is viable at all is that a Tarmogoyf easily beats any ONE card from the opponent; in this case my one card would have been Shalai. However, Tarmogoyf is kind of horseshit against any TWO cards from the opponent, and if your Thoughtseize gets Veiled, Tarmogoyf has to face down THREE cards.

Then THIS KIND OF SHIT HAPPENS where your opponents combine cards together to make them greater than the sum of their parts, and your deck crumbles in your hands:

After that, opponent draws a lot of planeswalkers, which is probably their best shot, but they need to kill the Shalai and Liliana doesn't do that.

Arbor + Shalai go on to kill a Wrenn, then a Liliana, then another Wrenn, then the Ashiok.

Gavony Township Leyline takes over the game, as she does, and when Givers of Runes join in, the game is locked up. But the Veil won it.

Round 2 on the draw vs SebastianStueckl on Elves

My shortcut for thinking about Elves is that they interact occasionally, but mostly you should assume that their deck ALWAYS kills you on T4 and NEVER kills you on T3, and play accordingly. I treat the deck like a literal clock, that counts down from 4. This means all you have to do is either win the die roll or break serve in one game to win the match.

Lost the die roll, so let's break serve.

Win Game 1

This is a nothing hand that does nothing.

Yup! Bottom Twice Upon a Time:

Opponent has the T1 Heritage Druid, so we really really need a land here. Hit the land and also draw a Vizier. So now we just need to not die T3.

Opponent doesn't have the T3; they only put 31 power on the table and put me to 10. Win T3.

-1 Shalai -2 Lunge +3 Veil; the race is on but Veil is important; they always play either Dismember or Trophy or Thoughtseize and they at least play Shaman of the Pack.

Lose Game 2

Noooooo; this hand is not what this is about. Remember that Dryad Arbor is not a land; it's a mana dork. This is a 0-lander.

This is a T4 on the draw with minimal protection. I kept it, but it's pretty unlikely to work. Bottom the Forest.

Opponent T3 Cocos for double Dwynen's Elite, putting an Archdruid into play too. They reveal a Dismember to their Winding Way.

They have the T4 Ezuri, so we're dead T4. That's what you should expect from Elves; T4s on the draw are essentially 0% to win, but with protection and already down to 6 I don't regret my decision.

Win Game 3

This is just a nothing hand.

Probably-a-T4 on the play with protection is probably-good enough.

Bottomed the Vines because Veil is better, probably, and we don't need triple protection vs Elves really.

I T2 Call and T3 Druid, with Giver up but not Veil. Good enough; they do the standard elves thing and I win T4.

Round 3 on the play vs ConnorM426 on Emry JAC

I run the JAC Discord; if you are curious you should come check it out. I played JAC competitively for about a year before switching because I was sick of Lava Dart.

Win Game 1

Nooooooooo don't keep "lands and spells" hands.

Hm; keep this and bottom a Heath: it's a T4 that wins even through one piece of disruption.

I Call for Druid, and opponent plays EE on 2 as their first spell. I just run the Druid into it T3 because of Lunge, hoping to hit land 3 and win T4.

I hit the Razorverge and win T4.

Opponent only cast one spell, so it's a little tough to sideboard, but a UR deck with maindeck EE seems like it probably has a lot of artifacts?

So +2 Ouphe +1 Caterpillar -3 Evolution

And -1 Once -1 Noble +2 Veil because blue deck.

Lose Game 2

Yes please.

Welp, opponent plays T1 Bauble EE Emry. So I am afraid.

Then opponent plays T2 Bauble ... second Emry? Which is a little less scary. I rip the Druid off the top T2, but this basic Forest sucks a lot.

Then opponent T3 Ascendancies for infinite loots and draws and a Pithing Needle on Druid and an EE for every number and also infinite Sai thopters.

ANYWAY this is a race after all, so back to the maindeck. Then: we still want 2 Ouphe and 1 Caterpillar, but also -2 Lunge -1 Noble. I would cut some protection but we saw Galv Blast and Path, too.

Win Game 3

Sure!

T1 Noble, and opponent goes T1 Opal EE Emry. I go T2 Ouphe, and hope that draws their 1 removal.

It looks like they have 0 removal except T3 EE on 2, which is not fast enough.

Win T4.

♪♫ These are a few of my favorite things ♫♪

Round 4 on the play vs _Shatun_ on Prowess

These Bolt Bolt Bolt decks are about even matchups for us; they can't race us and have to play as a control deck with 3-4 answers, but they often actually have it. Then every so often they actually do race us while answering 1-2 things, like a bad Shadow deck. Postboard after you realize what is up, you are a Giver + Shalai deck. Preboard you try to sneak through.

Lose Game 1

This Once Upon a Time is fabulous.

It turns out to be a Vizier of Remedies, which is pretty decent here.

I play T2 Druid which gets Burst Lightninged. T3 I play a Giver because I don't think my T3 backup Druid would live. Turns out I am right.

No third land though, so I don't have a Lunge attempt ready.

Opponent plays T3 Manamorphose into Runaway Steam-Kin into Crash Through, so I really really want a land now. No dice. So I run out backup Druid which demands an answer and I will still have a win if I can draw land 3.

Opponent's desperation Bedlam Reveler T4 hits a Dart to kill the Druid.

I miss the land AGAIN which now feels quite unlucky, and die. Opponent probably thought they did very well though, not knowing how dead they were to any land drop at any point in the game.

I refuse to get my mana dork Darted; I just refuse. So, remember not to keep sketchy 1-landers, and: +2 Forgetender +3 Path -4 Noble -1 Vizier

Lose Game 2

No. Garbage hand is very trap.

Technically a T4 but like, obviously it isn't actually going to win T4:

We found spells that we can cast!

Bottom both Once Upon a Times; this is simply the 5 cards we want since Ranger-Captain gets Forgetender in a long game or Ballista in a combo game.

I Path their T1 Swiftspear, then they play T2 Kozilek's Return of all things. I draw a Once Upon a Time and use it to hit Land 3.

T4 Ranger-Captain plus Forge-Tender. The Captain eats an Abrade, and I play T5 Forgetender considering Shalai instead. The problem is Shalai isn't very sturdy vs a Soul-Scar Mage.

Here is the situation I set up.

I'm not sure if I am overreacting to Soul-Scar Mage here but I do think the plan is to Giver + Shalai to win in this matchup, so I used everything assembling protect-y one-drops.

The problem is my opponent draws literally 4 cards T6, 4 cards T7, and then plays a second K return to blow everything away.

I guess it was actually kind of close, and the problem was, you know, mulliganing to 5 and missing a land drop to cast my 3/3 value creature. So I was behind on both tempo and cards. Ah well. It's good to know that the position at left is not actually good enough, at all.

Round 5 on the play vs Treese91 on Jund

Veil veil veil veil veil veil

Win Game 1

Hmm; I kind of hate these hands. Like technically this is infinite mana on turn 4, but if I draw even one more land in the rest of the game I am dead. There is a reason I only play 23 mana sources in the deck; I don't need 5 of them. I kept it. I feel bad about it.

T1 Inquisition made me consider conceding in response.

Since I'm basically in desperation mode, I play T2 Vizier and attack for 1.

T2 Thoughtseize takes my Ballista and a Bolt kills my Vizier. I play a Giver of Runes which gives a little hope as opponent misses their 3rd land drop. They play T4 Goyf which is pretty anemic, and I T5 Finale for X=3 Ranger-Captain, which feels great because that is literally the reason I put it back in the deck.

Opponent sits there on 2 lands forever and runs into a flurry of Givers of Runes.

No blocks.

Vines wins as a lethal burn spell sometimes.

+4 Veil +3 Path -3 Evolution -2 Vizier (Tons of Interaction) -2 Lunge (Ooze)

Lose Game 2

Hands that do nothing with no veils are sad. That said, this one is a lot like the last one. Maybe it's ok to keep this against discard decks so we can play all our cards off the top? But wait, we probably die if we draw a land.

T1 Inquisition takes Lunge. T2 Wrenn eats the Noble.

Naturally I draw a Dryad Arbor. Yikes. Yea, I don't think we are supposed to keep this.

Anyway we die and it isn't close; nothing we do matters when so few of our cards have any impact. Bad mulligan decisions lose games.

Lose Game 3

This is acceptable but actually not great; no Veil is really bad news. It's the main card that does anything at all and is extremely good on the play.

T1 Giver to put the pressure on and demand a discard spell. Noble is really bad in this matchup.

Giver dies to a Bolt and I draw a Veil, so T2 Noble is excellent. Right?

Opponent has only a Spellbomb. That makes this Lunge awful but also means they forfeited a lot of tempo for nothing. I play T3 Druid with Veil up.

My next draw is a land, which is pretty sad. Then Plague Engineer on Human.

Noble is horrible.

I draw a second Veil and put an Arbor into play, which dies to Wrenn and Six. Yikes.

I draw a Razorverge Thicket off of my first Veil. See here's the problem. I need either Shalai or a Path. And I only play about 20 of those in total. So it's really hard to draw one.

I literally draw running lands after the second Veil until T9.

So tilting.

The bitter end. T9 Shalai means that I have to draw exactly Path to win here, 3/39.

I don't hit it. 3-2.

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