Hello everyone! 😊
This Sunday, I played the Secrets of Strixhaven RCQ Sealed event at F2F. There were 33 of us ready for action at 10 AM 🫡
When I opened my pool, I quickly realized I had quite a few good white and black decks, as well as some good red ones. Since I didn't have much experience with this set before, it was difficult to assess whether going into three colors was worthwhile. As I found the white and black deck strong and consistent enough to perform well, I decided to leave the red out. I should also mention that I had some powerful cards like Emeritus of Woe, Emeritus of Peace, Scheming Silvertongue, and an Informed Inkwright.
Having chosen stability in exchange for a possible bit of power, I was ready to start the six rounds ahead... and possibly a Draft if things went well.
In the first round, I lost the dice roll against a white-black-red deck, but I still managed to win the match 2-1 with some pretty close games. The set is full of really powerful cards.
For the second round, I had a bit of a carbon copy of the first: I went second against a white-black-red deck and won in three. Maybe I'd have a similar third round?
Nope, the third round was against a really strong black-green deck. It had a very formidable "engine" and lots of bombs. I got blown out in two games. Spoiler alert: It didn't lose a single round with its deck.
In the fourth round, I was playing against a white-red deck where I went second for the fourth time in a row 😇. I won the first game despite a 5-man mulligan. Then, during the second game, I kept a hand with a land of each color but never saw the third. No big deal, there's still one left. Unfortunately for me, I had a four-man mulligan for the third game and once again got stuck with only two lands. Things weren't going well. 😅
However, even at 2-2, I had excellent tiebreakers, so I thought I could still make the Top 8 if I won the next two games.
So I had to win my fifth game against another red-white deck, going second of course. I won the first game and was pretty confident in my deck. Unfortunately, I ran out of black in the second game and lost. Then, for the third game, to make matters worse, I drew 11 lands from the top 16 cards in my deck and lost miserably.
At 2-3, I knew it was over, but I wanted to play the last game to get the top 16 promotion. And I won! ...against the person who didn't show up for their match. It just goes to show you can't be a "mana screw" against an empty chair. 😜
All in all, I had a great day playing the new edition of Strixhaven and I was able to enjoy the sun a bit between rounds. It was also nice to socialize with the people there. A Magic day just the way we like them! 😁
With that, I wish you all a wonderful day and enjoy the warm weather!
Thanks again to Cartes Léo for the support, see you in Gatineau for the Regional Championship in three weeks! 💪