Randolph brings ANT to the table, looking to storm past his opponent, but Jimmy and Sultai Delver has other plans. Which player gets the chance to battle Dredge in the finals?
Game 1:
Jimmy picks up his cards after getting Probed.
Randolph kicked things off with a Gitaxian+Probe and a Ponder and Jimmy followed suit with a Ponder of his own. Randolph opted for a Brainstorm on his next turn and passed leading Jimmy to play a Tarmogoyf off a Wasteland and his Tropical+Island. Randolph drew a card for the turn and cracked his Delta for a Swamp, falling to 16, and Pondered. Randolph considered his plays and added an Underground+Sea to his board to play an Infernal+Tutor, getting him another Dark+Ritual.
Jimmy started his third turn with a Brainstorm, used his Wasteland on Randolph’s Underground+Sea, attacked Randolph down to 13, and passed the turn. Randolph started Turn 4 with a Lotus+Petal then played a Cabal+Therapy. Jimmy opted to counter the discard spell with a Force+of+Will, pitching Treasure+Cruise. Randolph cracked his Petal for a Dark+Ritual into another Dark+Ritual into Lion’s Eye Diamond into Ad+Nauseam and Jimmy used another Force+of+Will on it, pitching Stifle. After his Ad+Nauseam got countered, Randolph passed the turn.
Jimmy attacked Randolph to 9 and used an Abrupt+Decay on the Lion’s Eye Diamond and passed back. Randolph Brainstormed and added a Polluted+Delta to his board before passing. Jimmy attacked again, dropping Randolph to 5 and shipped the turn. Randolph fell to 4 to fetch up a Volcanic+Island at the end step, untapped and played Brainstorm. After looking at his options, Randolph picked up his cards.
Jimmy 1, Randolph 0
Game 2
Randolph Ponders his options.
Randolph, on a mulligan to five, kept his opener and passed without a play. Jimmy made the first play a Ponder. Randolph found a Polluted+Delta off the top and cracked it for a Swamp and played Dark+Ritual. Randolph used a mana to play Cabal+Therapy and named Force+of+Will, hitting on it and seeing a hand with a Daze, Stifle, two copies of Brainstorm, and two copies of Wasteland.
Randolph then played a Lion’s Eye Diamond and played another after the first resolved. Randolph played Infernal+Tutor and held priority to crack his Diamonds, generating six more black mana. When the Tutor resolved, Randolph found Ad+Nauseam and played, floating one black mana with a storm of six. Jimmy Dazed and Randolph paid it, upping the storm to seven.
Randolph went to 2, getting 17 cards. “Would you like me to sequence this?” Randolph asked after revealing Cabal+Ritual as his last card.
Jimmy did, so Randolph used the Petal to play the Ritual and played Tendrils+of+Agony for the win
Jimmy 1, Randolph 1
Game 3
.Jimmy led off the final game with a Ponder while Randolph started with an Island, Lotus+Petal, and Carpet+of+Flowers off the Petal, but Jimmy countered it with Force+of+Will, pitching a Daze. Jimmy played Grafdigger’s Cage and passed. Randolph started Turn 2 with a Preordain and shipped the turn back.
Jimmy found a threat in the form of Deathrite+Shaman and passed after playing a Scalding+Tarn. Randolph simply played a Tropical+Island and passed back as Jimmy fetched up a Tropical+Island. Jimmy drew and passed so Randolph started off with a Brainstorm then played a Duress after adding an Underground+Sea to his board. He took a Spell+Pierce, leaving Jimmy with a Misty+Rainforest and a Stifle.
Randolph played Dark+Ritual into Cabal+Ritual into another Cabal+Ritual with threshold on a storm of five and played Ad+Nauseam with two mana floating. He stopped at 6 life and continued his turn with Carpet+of+Flowers and proceeded to his next main phase and paid two life to Gitaxian+Probe and played the Lotus+Petal he drew, upping the storm to nine. He cracked the Petal for blue to play Ponder, opting to shuffle for a fresh top card. Needing a Ritual, Randolph asked Jimmy to flip the top card. When he did, it was a Past+in+Flames and Randolph extended the hand.
Jimmy 2, Randolph 1
