I also brought Pyro Red to States, but with a bit less success than Helios. I won't have very detailed notes, since they gave us a small life pad for the event and I used that instead of my English notebook, which has much more room. In my last (and only previous) event, a Star City Games Open, I took extremely detailed notes of almost everything that happened-creatures, attacks, blocks, the whole nine yards. I felt like this was actually the cause of my poor performance then, just like when you try to write down everything a teacher says and everything on his PowerPoint, and actually gain less from the lecture as a result. Anyway, here's an overview of my first States experience.
The event was held in a place called The Encounter, a comic book store located in the middle-to-low-income part of a town about 75 minutes from my house. It wasn't the fanciest place in the world, but they had a HUGE inventory of Magic
singles and comic books. They had a 2-inch binder for every set released (with some of the older sets sharing a binder), as well as one for foils that would make some EDH players go into cardiac arrest if they were to look through it. Many of the cards were priced much lower than they are on TCGPlayer, but I only got 2 Buy-A-Box Promo Chandra's Phoenixes-one for $2 and the other for $3 (don't know why)-because I just didn't feel like spending money on cards I don't really need. Now, on to the actual games.
My List:
[deck]Pyro Red[/deck]
Round 1: Brian with Red Devotion
He won the die roll, and proceeded to roll over me with a pair of BTE into Firefist Striker, Chandra's
Phoenix, Mogis and Reckoner. I got a Chandra and Phoenix out, but I was on the defensive the whole game and he was just too fast. I side out my 1 drops for Reckoner and Mortars, while he keeps 1 drops in. I keep a 1 land hand with Shock, Ash Zealot, Mortars and Reckoner and some other stuff. He lands double BTE turn two, I shock one, and that was the only spell I got to cast all game.
0-2
Afterwards, we played a few games where my deck worked perfectly. It sucks that this couldn't happen earlier, but it boosted my confidence in my deck, which really helps after a round 1 loss.
0-1 in matches
Round 2: Jake with Dega Mid
He's on the play. Game 1 I get off to a pretty fast start with Cackler. He plays Reckoner turn 3, and I spear it. I play Phoenix to keep up the pressure. He follows with a Demon the next turn. I play Chandra to let my Phoenix get through, and that's were I start to lose. He drops another Demon, and I just can't handle that. I board out Shocks and Annihilating Fire for 3
Mortars and 3 Traitorous. I (very very very stupidly) keep a hand of Cackler, Magma Jet and 5 Mountains, because I was stuck in this "never mulligan" mindset after mulliganing over 40% of my hands the last few FNMs and losing many games as a result. Turns out Magma Jet can't solve all of life's problems. I use it turn 2 to find another Mountain and a Mortars. I keep the Mortars, and use it on the Reckoner he plays. He directs the damage to me, and I bring him down to 10 with Cackler and Phoenix. My notes aren't so good, so I'll put down what I remember and try to fill in the missing pieces with what makes sense from the life total changes. I remember drawing Chandra and +1ing her to get back Phoenix, and him hitting me with Desecration Demon. His Demon is at 7 after I sac Phoenix to it to save my Chandra. I then draw another Chandra, +1 the one on the board to get back Phoenix, play the second Chandra, +0 to reveal the third Chandra, cast Phoenix and pass. I'm at 9, and he's at 7. I
sac Phoenix to Demon and he swings with the Reckoner he played the turn before, putting me at 6. He then casts Read the Bones, putting him to 5. He passes, and I draw Traitorous Instinct, the perfect card. If this was Act of Treason, I wouldn't be able to kill him with a stolen Reckoner (since I can't steal Demon when he has another creature), but the +2/+0 makes it exactsies. Unfortunately, he is able to prevent my epic finish by Helixing his Reckoner
.
0-2
0-2 in matches
Round 3: David with Naya (Slivers?) Midrange
The round starts with the guy saying how he feels like there's one problem with his deck that he realized after the last two rounds: he's playing the wrong color. Sounds like a pretty big problem, bro. Anyway, the dude didn't put up much resistance. I'm pretty sure I just aggro'd him out both games. He starts with that mana tree on turn two, but all that piece of shit does is slow down my clock
a little. He also drops Predatory Sliver, Nylea, and that Hellrider-like sliver. I learned that the Hellrider Sliver (it feels blasphemous to call it that, but I don't care to look up the name of the PoS) can also ping creatures, and I lost YP$ that way. Whatever, it doesn't do much, and I win next turn. After the game, he says that he has a lot of trouble with fast decks, and hoped he wouldn't have to face red aggro. I tell him he has unrealistic expectations given RDW's multiple showings at the top of the last few Opens, and then ask what color he wanted to change in his deck. He says that red should be blue so he can play the flying sliver, since he can get out a lot of big slivers but they're walled by opposing creatures. I told him that red is kinda necessary for removal, and he says that he doesn't run much, since you have to run a lot of slivers if you play slivers. Okay, I don't have to worry about removal. Good to know. I bring in Boros Reckoner, since he also mentioned big
creatures. It seemed like this guy was just asking to lose. Anyway, Reckdaddy kicked ass game 2, and that's the end of that.
Kinda sucks that I can only curve out against the scrubs.
2-0
1-2 in matches
Round 4: Peiter with Rakdos Mid/Control
I can't read my notes too well, and I didn't take many, but I remember this being one of the better rounds of the day. Game 1 I feel pretty good and I'm able to get off to a pretty fast start off of a good hand, but then it all goes to shit when I flood out and he lands a Demon that I can't answer. Game 2 starts off the same way and it looks like I'm actually going to curve out for a turn 5-6 win, but he just has a shitload of 1-1 removal. The game ends when he plays Desecration Demon and only gets to swing with it once before I steal it for lethal damage. In game three, I have a relatively fast hand with a few Phoenixes, but he's able to kill them with Ratchet Bomb and I don't draw the right cards to get them back. He plays Trading Post, and I
get fucked over by a couple of goats. He drops a Demon, and I have a hand of 2 Mortars, a Magma Jet and 2 Traitorous Instinct. He's at 13 life with a 7 power Demon while I'm at 21 with jack shit. When I realized that stealing the Demon would do no good since he could just make a goat in response, my expression probably became a mix of
,
,
and
. I decided to Mortars and Magma Jet it, although in hindsight it may have been better to double Mortars it since I could use the Magma Jet to get back 2 Phoenixes. He wins by swinging for 4 with his Mutavaults for a few turns while he removes any blockers I try to lay down. I could try to dismiss
this loss to a bad case of mana flood and not drawing enough instants, but I'm sure that there was something I could have done to win this match, since the games didn't feel as one-sided as the ones in the first two rounds.
1-2
1-3 in rounds
I decided not to enter any side events, since I paid to play 6 rounds of Magic and I didn't feel like spending any more money.
Round 5: Kurt with U/w Control
Game 1 I had an alright start and a pretty good mid game, despite reaching Hamfactorial levels of mana flood. I can work with 6 lands on turn 7. I can't work with 12 lands by ~turn 15. I remember Phoenix and Chandra doing fucking WORK. I also remember 3 Jaces before the first Revelation, and Aetherling and another Jace afterwards. Games 2 and three feel very similar, and my deck works just the way I want it both times. Game 2 ends a bit faster (around turn 7), while game 3 is longer (turn 9-12). Both are characterized by me laying down some early 1 drops (I remember droppin some Suga turn 1 all
three games), followed by a Phoenix, and then a Supreme Verdict. From there, I prove to him the power of Chandra and also show just how sweet Phoenix is in this deck. I recall one point where I Magma Jet to get back 2 Phoenixes and then find a third when I scry. I also remember having him DSphere Phoenix, Pyro and Chandra with little hesitation.
2-1
2-3 in matches
Round 6: Dakota with Junk Aggro/Mid
I get the pair down. I was last place in the tournament going into round 5 with awful tiebreakers. He's on the play game 1 and leads with Soldier of the Pantheon. I drop some Suga, he neglects to swing with Soldier, and when I attack, he blocks. I drop YP$ and pass. He plays Smiter, I burn it the next turn and swing. He plays Centaur Healer, and I think I remember seeing Selesnya Charm, but it's really no contest. I get three one drops game 2 and when he plays a Smiter, I mortars it. He really doesn't put up much resistance. He says he needed to find Obzedat, and he never did, so he lost.
It is very possible that his only win was against David (the slivers guy), since his deck had issues.
Reflections:
I wish I could have gotten better opponents than David and Dakota. I feel like this would have happened if I wasn't so stupid and kept awful hands in the first two rounds. I really wanted to win this, and felt like was a good enough player with a very good deck that I knew well to do so.
While the deck produces a very high percentage of keepable hands and is able to fight through some less-than-perfect draws, does not allow you to win with every opener with at least 1 land and and at least 2 spells. You can keep a no-creature hand against aggro if you have enough removal, but if you see 5 lands in your opening 7, chances are that you'll be better off with 6. Don't take your chances when it comes to mana.
I'd like to thank Wendy's for letting me get 20 chicken nuggets for only $5.
I'd also like to thank Z for writing the guides for competitive events and for how to play
against the different decks in the meta. If you haven't read "Preparing for and Playing in Competitive Events," I highly recommend that you do. A lot of the stuff in there seems like common sense, but then you realize that you haven't actually been practicing it.
Any chance of a quick SB insight for the slow ones at the back? I'm looking particularly at Boros Charm and ATL here 
