Oops...I did it again!

so i went to a constructed tourney today in shanghai. i wasnt too sure what the meta was, but i knew that generally, the meta was the same all around the world...thanks to the internet.

I went with my B/W tokens deck and hoped for the best. I'm going to spare you all the suspense and just say...i won...kind of. in the finals, my opponent offered me the first place prize for the 2 byes at the City championships at the end of the month. i wasnt planning on going to the City Champs anyway, so after a while of thinking and consulting my friend Dennis, i decided to take his offer and accept 2nd place. i dont mind. i told him (Eric) that he better win the City Champs because i gave him the 2 byes! all in all, for $5.50, i won 20 packs of Morningtide and a fatpack of Eventide. i know not the best of prizes but worth it for me. especially because i popped open a bitterblossom, reveillark, stillmoon and bloomtender! More than making up the expense.

here is the tourney match by match

Round 1 vs. BoatBrew
game one: his FOD goes all the way...lame ( in my opinion, FOD going all the way is boring.) Game 2 and 3: my tokens kick it into gear and he cant handle ajani+glorious anthem. at one point in both games he over extended playing both a siege gang and spectral procession right into my....Zealous Persecution. too bad. never overextend. 1-0 (2-1)

Round 2 vs. Mirror Match
Game one: he kicks it into high gear and punches out an army of knight of meadowgrain, KofWhite Orchid and spectral procession. my board is spectral procession, tidehollow sculler and knight of white orchid. he attacks with all of his creatures to activate his Windbrisk Heights playing another Flower Knight. i block all and then BOOM hit him with the Zealous persecution. his board is nearly empty, and my whole army is still there.

Game Two: Spectral Procession and Hideaway land smash face. my main deck Zealous Persecutions seem to be doing wonders! 2-0 (4-1)

Round 3 vs g/b elves
game one: he cant overcome the Bitterblossoms constant stream of tokens. he maelstrom pulses my glorious anthem instead of my BB. little did he know i had one tucked under my Windbrisk Heights. i won with a 3 land hand and not drawing another until turn 6! i'm glad the curve of this deck is so low.

game two: two kitchen finks wittle him down because he is transfixed on my ajanis (and rightly so). whenever he would kill my ajani, i would have one in backup. in that game i played 3 ajanis. the deciding play was on turn 4 i realized he missed his landdrop so i Zealous persecutioned his 2 llanowar elves at the end of my turn. it slowed him down enough for my dual finks+ajani synergy to take over. he used so much removal that game on just those two finks. 3-0 (6-1)

Round 4 vs. Boatbrew and my chinese friend Zhang. i told him i didnt want to play him and wished we saw each other in the finals instead of the semis.

game one: reveillark, reveillark! and figure goes all the way! i lose.
game two: i realized that all of the matches with boatbrew that no one was using volcanic fallout, so i decide to go super aggro and side in all finks and tons of spot removal...the Rock style. two knights and two scullers behind tons of spot removal and yet another ZP.
game three: t1-heights, t2- sculler, t3- knight of white orchid+sculler. his board position consists of two knights, spectral tokens and a figure level 2. my hand is 3 land and Zealous P. i act like i'm in big trouble giving him signs to all out attack b/c of his firststrikers and figure. i make the right blocks and then Zealous Persecution. he slumps down in his chair then nods at me that that was a good bluff. a few turns later, he fails to draw the wrath and i take 2 of 3 from my friend. 4-0 (8-2)

round 5 (explained above)
yay!

deck list:
4 fetid heath
4 windbrisk heights
2 caves of koilos
1 reflecting pool
2 exotic orchard
4 arcane sanctum
3 swamps
5 plains

3 kitchen finks
4 cloudgoat
4 knight of the white orchid
4 tidehollow sculler
4 bitterblossom
4 spectral procession
3 zealous persecution
3 path to exile
3 ajani goldmane
3 glorious anthem

SB:
3 mark of asylum
2 martial coup
1 Kitchen finks
2 celestial purge
1 elspeth
3 wispmare
2 identity crisis
1 zealous persecution

allstars for this tourney:

1. zealous Persecution: this card is the reason BW tokens is the deck to beat right now. it gave BW tokens the edge against rival token decks - GW and Boatbrew. if used correctly it more often than not is a complete blowout.

2. Knight of White Orchid: lets you keep 2 land hands. more importantly though on the draw, he ramps your mana up so that it seems as if you played. first strike came in handy too.

3. Ajani Goldmane+ Finks: your opponent cringes every time they see their hardwork trying to kill the finks go to waste. do they block and see the finks go Super Mario again or do they take the damage? i love giving my opponent difficult decisions to make.

4. WIndbrisk heights: the best land in standard.

i love this deck. it is super fun to play and mega dangerous. wow. its still shocking to see i did this well. basically, i'm just shocked that our group of friends that play magic at home are really this good? between Xay, Johan, Vern and I we have 8 victories. coolness. when i get home from china for good, we should start up a team and really tuned each others decks up for some serious tournaments.

josh out.