Through my transition of deck choices for the changing standard meta, I came to the conclusion that as much fun as I had playing Haunted Humans or White Weenie…its time had passed. As soon as Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, Vault of the archangel and Lingering souls were spoiled…Terrance Shields and I decided that B/W Tokens could actually be a real deck. In its original form we put Tragic slip and 4 Sorins a couple Mirran Crusader and even some Hero of Bladehold all main deck. Honestly it was looking like WW splash black…not exactly what I had envisioned. Then Josh Harris came up with his list that moved theses bigger creatures to the sb and utilized Champion of the parish in combination with Gather the Townsfolk and Doomed traveler. However there was almost no removal here…which I really wanted against bigger creatures or just threatening ones. So I looked at both lists and from those made this:

4 Champion of the Parish

4 Doomed Traveler

4 Gather the Townsfolk

4 Midnight Haunting

4 Lingering souls

4 Intangible Virtue

2 Honor of the pure

3 Go for the Throat

2 Doom Blade

3 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

2 Sword of War and Peace

10 Plains

5 Swamps

3 Vault of the Archangel

4 Isolated Chapel

2 Evolving Wilds

SB

2 Hero of Bladehold

2 Revoke Existence

2 Nihil Spellbomb

2 Day of Judgement

2 Phyrexian Metamorph

2 Surgical Extraction

2 Divine Offering

1 Celestial Purge

As I finished writing these down , I had my usual doubts and anxious feelings and finally fell asleep.

7 AM wakeup and I looked down at my bed after getting up and almost convinced myself to lay back down and say to hell with the IQ.

7 :30 AM , I was already out the door and on my way. To spare further details 3 trains and a shuttle bus later I arrived at kings just before 10:30.

I prepped like I usually did but then realized some very peculiar things. There was no Jenn next to me like usual, or Terrance asking me to help unsleeve, resleeve or double sleeve, no one there like usual. Alone ….a good thing? Here goes nothing.

SCG IQ RD 1

I played against U/b zombies. It seems like his strategy involved dumping zombies in the grave, getting Rooftop Storm on the field , playing zombies with gravedigger effects and swarming. However, he had no early game. Champion did his thing in combination with gather to start off. then I proceeded to drop virtues and EOT midnight hauntings which he could not deal with.

Gm2 He basically tried to play a control role and counter some stuff, I just made sure it was lingering souls he countered. I waited for him to tap out , dropped Sorin for Emblem, Turn 5 vault open mana and wiped his board on his attack….he forgets vault provides deathtouch!!!

1-0

SCG IQ RD 2

I played against U/w control. I put a lot of pressure on him early game with spirits and multiple enchantments, which let him on a desperate search for sword of F&F and consecrated Sphinx. After getting to 31 life , and a near 40 min round….he widdles, me down to 9 with his winged beast. I mount another army and to my surprise…he days the field…..yea exactly! On top of that he main phases snapcaster to FLASHBACK THE SAME DAY…..why you ask….because he thought my champion was a doomed traveler and he didn’t want me to have a token…only he asks if I get a token AFTER he already flashes the day back, I tell him no and he tries to take it back….Yea like I would let that happen…..drop Sorin make guy…his turn no guy…I win.

Since this guy had ate up so much clock in the first game …he game himself no shot for this one…he never gets to enough mana to even begin to deal with 3 spirit tokens with an honor and virtue in play.

By the end of the match I tell him to think his moves through and clearly before acting on them ( oh yeah not to mention ..so many sphinx triggers missed).

2-0

SCGIQ RD 3

I played Against a R/G aggro list. No Wolf run here…he didn’t need it.This basically kicked me in the teeth with strangleroot geist, swords, mana creatures, huntmaster and burn. Not a lot I could do here. He had turn 2 swords , turn 3 huntmaster and even when I bladed or throated one …others followed. I took my beatings like a man in both games.

(****THIS PLAYER MADE IT TO THE FINALS)

2-1

SCGIQ RD 4

I played against Mono Red. Really??? I was a little scared at first knowing what the deck does after playing it in the past. However he went much slower than I thought. He basically had to one for one my guys as I kept making more tokens. Champion got to about 5/5 with no stromkirk to be seen that and vault did some damage.

Game 2 I shall his shrine on turn 4 and I already had sword out the turn b4….a champion grabs the sword and starts going to town…he has to use shrine on it. Hero of bladehold eats 2 burn spells and then hes out of gas. Enter more tokens of the flying nature with virtue in play..another one bites the dust.

3-1

SCGIQ RD 5

I played against Jon Finkel’s Delver Spirit. I fought my hardest against this guy with no personality, and it had nothing to do with whoever lost was out of contention….I think. Game 1 played like a god hand, champion, gather, virtue , midnight haunting, Sorin , vault…no spirit lord from him …just weaker tokens…winning.

Game 2 He assembled his pieces…got the value and boost from lord and dungeon geist even though I top deck 2 late doj…moorland haunt got me,

Game 3 A back and forth battle ensues as my 5/5 champion is held down by his dungeon geist. Enter the MVP Phyrexian metamorph…copy the geist…sit down (metamorph also made his geist of st traft disappear in game 2)..after that he loses steam as he seems to draw nothing useful even though he has 4 in hand. I assemble 3 flyers with virtue in play..little beatsticks take him to one and i stare him down…he doesn’t look at me. With multiple onlookers he rips a lingering souls plays it and flashes back. His blockers eat up my hit..kick it to him again…he draws…he looks..he riffles..he extends….deep breaths.

4-1

SCGIQ RD6

By this time in the tournament I saw I was 5th out of 58 and for the final round of Swiss, I was set to play #6….with a little calculating from a few of us, we figured if we draw we were in. Before that though there was a huge incident. Prior to standings being posted we had to wait for like 40 min because apparently the guy I played RD 3 was caught up  some foul play with another and they both received double match losses. Anyways, my opponent and I ID’ed and figured we were locks for Top 8.

4-1-1

Celebration ensues as our calculations were correct. We had placed 7th and 8th respectively and the elite 8 congratulated each other. This is my 3rd Top 8 for any competitive event and my first Top 8 of a SCG event. I had captured my very first Top 8 pin and playmat.

Top 8 {consisted of 2 W/B tokens(including me), 1 wolf run, 1 R/G aggro(the guy that beat me), 1 mono green aggro, 1 spirit delver, 1 B/R Zombies and 1 unknown}

Faced off against Wolf Run. The official wolf run deck is quite annoying to play against…especially when you start off with 2 white mana , never draw a black mana and you have a fist full of kill spells that involve black mana. In game 2 I start off ok with Champion, then gather…but as I play gather…galvanic blast…get some spirits..slagstorm, get some more guys try to use vault as a weapon…acidic slime. it was pretty nasty.

Overall I had an awesome experience….from not wanting to go to capturing my first Top 8 in nearly a year. The feelings were indescribable. I feel I played my best. I also feel that my SB needed to be tweaked to fight Wolf run. Mirran crusader and angelic destiny are definitely cards that could replace cards that did not end up getting used. New SB could look like:

3 Mirran crusader

2 Hero of bladehold

2 Nihil spellbomb

2 divine offering

2 Angelic destiny

2 phyrexian metamorph

2 day of judgement

Also for Main Board I want to try a Sword of F&F which combats Green decks and Wolf run….probably cutting a Sorin.

Thanks to my fellow teammates at Manashift as I am constantly learning and growing because of you guys (and girl). Thanks to Josh Harris and Terrance Sheilds  as we three brewed this thing together and continue to develop the monster known as B/w tokens. Most importantly thanks to my wife, Jennifer for her encouragement and for never letting me give up on myself or my dreams.

Thank you for reading.

Next Stop: Baltimore…